Thursday, March 20, 2008
Friday, November 16, 2007
A good week
I'm wrapping up a great week in Amsterdam. Took some pictures but have to wait to get home to get them off the camera. In the meantime.. I "borrowed" some imagery so you can get the jist. Here are a few things that I did:
Canal tour of the city- yes it's touristy... but you can't beat the view from a canal. We wound through the city looking at the beautiful Dutch row houses and houseboats. Really sweet. Highly reco to anyone coming here for the first time.
Dam Square - the palace is huge and the square is buzzing with street performers and tons of tourists taking pictures. Bought some Delft Christmas ornaments and some fun slippers for my nieces.
Leidenplein - watched the skaters on the tiniest skating rink I have ever seen, ate some chocolate dipped waffles and ate at a restaurant that was good, but experienced possibly the worst service ever to date, including turning the light on over our table to give us the hint that dinner was over. Real Dutch hospitality.
First let me start off by saying that if you are into art/art history and like to take your time to see EVERY piece on display... GO ALONE. There's nothing better than taking your time if you want to really get down and check out the textures, brush strokes, watch exhibit videos, etc and nothing ruins it quicker than someone saying "hurry up."
Anne Frank Museum- A must-see for anyone. Made me want to go read the book all over again. Got to the see the chestnut tree that Anne wrote about in her journal before it's felled next week. Very sobering.
Rijksmuseum - Saw The Masterpieces exhibit and took the audio tour. I've always loved Dutch painting so it was pretty sweet to see Rembrandt, Steen and Vermeer up close and personal. One bummer was that one particular painting that I wanted to see "The Kitchen Maid" by Vermeer was on loan to another museum in Tokyo. Saw one piece in particular that I really liked- Winter Landscape with ice Skaters by Hendrick Avercamp.
It's so detailed- you can sit and look at all of the little different scenarios going on in the painting. These types of paintings used to be my favorite in college...
Van Gogh museum - AMAZING. The one museum contains the largest collection of his work in the world. They've curated the pieces in a way that you can track his progression as an artist. Have been pronouncing it incorrectly apparently. So awesome. Took the audio tour. Had to navigate through a bunch of school kids, but it made me happy to see them there and most of the actually looked like they were enjoying it.
Cruised around the Museumplein and checked out the dog park. Really made me homesick for my furry babies. Happy to see that the ChuckIt is alive and well in AMS.
Did alot of walking in general, rode the tram around. One thing that I didn't do is go through the main Red Light District. We went out to dinner one night and walked by one of the small Red Light Districts. I found it to be a little depressing, even though they are choosing to do it. But just sitting there on display, trying to look sexy when the women that I saw just had a dead look in their eyes. Just thought it was sad.
The Euro headquarters for Nike are interesting. Very small in comparison to WHQ in Beavertron. Also people don't really walk around much in contrast. But everyone was very friendly and it was great to meet people in person - see the whites of their eyes - instead of always just having conference calls.
All in all - a good week. Looking forward to getting back to home, the dogs, but most of all Vin.
Canal tour of the city- yes it's touristy... but you can't beat the view from a canal. We wound through the city looking at the beautiful Dutch row houses and houseboats. Really sweet. Highly reco to anyone coming here for the first time.
Dam Square - the palace is huge and the square is buzzing with street performers and tons of tourists taking pictures. Bought some Delft Christmas ornaments and some fun slippers for my nieces.
Leidenplein - watched the skaters on the tiniest skating rink I have ever seen, ate some chocolate dipped waffles and ate at a restaurant that was good, but experienced possibly the worst service ever to date, including turning the light on over our table to give us the hint that dinner was over. Real Dutch hospitality.
First let me start off by saying that if you are into art/art history and like to take your time to see EVERY piece on display... GO ALONE. There's nothing better than taking your time if you want to really get down and check out the textures, brush strokes, watch exhibit videos, etc and nothing ruins it quicker than someone saying "hurry up."
Anne Frank Museum- A must-see for anyone. Made me want to go read the book all over again. Got to the see the chestnut tree that Anne wrote about in her journal before it's felled next week. Very sobering.
Rijksmuseum - Saw The Masterpieces exhibit and took the audio tour. I've always loved Dutch painting so it was pretty sweet to see Rembrandt, Steen and Vermeer up close and personal. One bummer was that one particular painting that I wanted to see "The Kitchen Maid" by Vermeer was on loan to another museum in Tokyo. Saw one piece in particular that I really liked- Winter Landscape with ice Skaters by Hendrick Avercamp.
It's so detailed- you can sit and look at all of the little different scenarios going on in the painting. These types of paintings used to be my favorite in college...
Van Gogh museum - AMAZING. The one museum contains the largest collection of his work in the world. They've curated the pieces in a way that you can track his progression as an artist. Have been pronouncing it incorrectly apparently. So awesome. Took the audio tour. Had to navigate through a bunch of school kids, but it made me happy to see them there and most of the actually looked like they were enjoying it.
Cruised around the Museumplein and checked out the dog park. Really made me homesick for my furry babies. Happy to see that the ChuckIt is alive and well in AMS.
Did alot of walking in general, rode the tram around. One thing that I didn't do is go through the main Red Light District. We went out to dinner one night and walked by one of the small Red Light Districts. I found it to be a little depressing, even though they are choosing to do it. But just sitting there on display, trying to look sexy when the women that I saw just had a dead look in their eyes. Just thought it was sad.
The Euro headquarters for Nike are interesting. Very small in comparison to WHQ in Beavertron. Also people don't really walk around much in contrast. But everyone was very friendly and it was great to meet people in person - see the whites of their eyes - instead of always just having conference calls.
All in all - a good week. Looking forward to getting back to home, the dogs, but most of all Vin.
Sunday, November 11, 2007
A really long day.
Greetings from Amsterdam! I'm sitting in the hotel Barbizon business center, wasting away some time before I can check in. My journey started about 21 hours ago - left a rainy (surprise) Portland and hopped on a plane to Atlanta. Spent some time in the delta lounge, partaking in a few rum and cokes and free wifi for a couple hours. Then hopped another plane to Amsterdam. Where it was raining.
First time riding up in the front for a transatlantic flight. I must say... coach is really going to suck when we come back to EU for a vacay. I had some champs while the coach peeps were loading in and spent about 10 minutes exploring every possible position I could make the seat get into. I watched all of season 1 of Entourage and Big Love. Vin-- we need HBO. Speaking of Vin... I felt like I was right at home because the dude sitting next to me was sawing some major logs. I wanted to pelt my little ear plugs at him. Eight and a half hours of snoring. Rough.
Anyhoo- got into Amsterdam, went through customs, got my bag, bought a train ticket and rode into Central Amsterdam. (As I type the church bells are ringing away and it looks like the sun is starting to peep out!) One thing. The skies in Rembrandt's paintings are for real. That was the first thing I noticed as I was walking over the canal to the hotel. The light and the clouds together was really amazing.
I can't check into until 3.30pm (thank you travel department. that was real swell.) so I'm going to see if I can check my bags in and go for a walk/get some lunch or coffee.
Feeling back up to blogging - we'll see how long it lasts!
First time riding up in the front for a transatlantic flight. I must say... coach is really going to suck when we come back to EU for a vacay. I had some champs while the coach peeps were loading in and spent about 10 minutes exploring every possible position I could make the seat get into. I watched all of season 1 of Entourage and Big Love. Vin-- we need HBO. Speaking of Vin... I felt like I was right at home because the dude sitting next to me was sawing some major logs. I wanted to pelt my little ear plugs at him. Eight and a half hours of snoring. Rough.
Anyhoo- got into Amsterdam, went through customs, got my bag, bought a train ticket and rode into Central Amsterdam. (As I type the church bells are ringing away and it looks like the sun is starting to peep out!) One thing. The skies in Rembrandt's paintings are for real. That was the first thing I noticed as I was walking over the canal to the hotel. The light and the clouds together was really amazing.
I can't check into until 3.30pm (thank you travel department. that was real swell.) so I'm going to see if I can check my bags in and go for a walk/get some lunch or coffee.
Feeling back up to blogging - we'll see how long it lasts!
Tuesday, October 16, 2007
It's coming.....
I'm brewing up a new post.
In the meantime... Katie just reminded me about this ad. I've forgotten how friggin' funny it is.
BABIES EVERYWHERE!!!!!!!!
No I'm not preggers.
In the meantime... Katie just reminded me about this ad. I've forgotten how friggin' funny it is.
BABIES EVERYWHERE!!!!!!!!
No I'm not preggers.
Thursday, June 21, 2007
Random post
While Vin was out catching bass fish, I was back in Oregon holding down the fort. Interestingly enough- I became increasingly aware of how much crap there is to do (well. crap we make for ourselves to do) when you are the only person doing it. So while I was taking out the garbage, mowing the lawn, picking up 2 dogs' worth of poop, pulling weeds, doing laundry, cleaning the house, etc (you get the point) I was thinking about NOW vs. THEN.
Some observations
NOW: two dogs equals twice as much poo.
THEN: one dog pooping in the snow made it not seem so bad. until the snow melted.
NOW: I don't know how to grow roses.
THEN: I didn't know about goldenrod.
NOW: Why do men always assume the role of the garbage taker-outer/recycler?
THEN: I had to do it myself.
NOW: Cleaning one bathroom is more fun than cleaning two.
THEN: I only had one bathroom.
NOW: Mowing the lawn takes forever when you have three times the amount of grass to cut.
THEN: Mowing took about 30 minutes.
Here are some pics as of late...
I also am putting up some cute pictures of the furry babies.
On a side note.. I've been thinking about choices a lot lately and how do we decide to make the decisions that we make, and how you deal with the consequences, good vs bad. And how do you determine if they are good vs bad. And really, for me, it seems to come down to the level of control you feel you have over your life and situation. It's made me really mull over some decisions. Getting married to Vin? Best decision ever. Moving out of the comfort zone in Vermont and coming to Portland? Good decision. Letting the dogs eat some mayonnaise? Not a good decision. Dying my hair dark red with magenta highlights? Probably not a good decision. I won't get into anything super deep- but you get the jist. It's really about taking ownership over the choices that you make- not playing the role of the victim. Something sucks? Then make a choice to make it better or make a different decision. Something kicks ass? Then keep making similar decisions. Own the choices you make. Keep making it a point to have/keep choices. Does more freedom = more choices made? Or does making less choices= feeling more in control?
Discuss.
Some observations
NOW: two dogs equals twice as much poo.
THEN: one dog pooping in the snow made it not seem so bad. until the snow melted.
NOW: I don't know how to grow roses.
THEN: I didn't know about goldenrod.
NOW: Why do men always assume the role of the garbage taker-outer/recycler?
THEN: I had to do it myself.
NOW: Cleaning one bathroom is more fun than cleaning two.
THEN: I only had one bathroom.
NOW: Mowing the lawn takes forever when you have three times the amount of grass to cut.
THEN: Mowing took about 30 minutes.
Here are some pics as of late...
I also am putting up some cute pictures of the furry babies.
On a side note.. I've been thinking about choices a lot lately and how do we decide to make the decisions that we make, and how you deal with the consequences, good vs bad. And how do you determine if they are good vs bad. And really, for me, it seems to come down to the level of control you feel you have over your life and situation. It's made me really mull over some decisions. Getting married to Vin? Best decision ever. Moving out of the comfort zone in Vermont and coming to Portland? Good decision. Letting the dogs eat some mayonnaise? Not a good decision. Dying my hair dark red with magenta highlights? Probably not a good decision. I won't get into anything super deep- but you get the jist. It's really about taking ownership over the choices that you make- not playing the role of the victim. Something sucks? Then make a choice to make it better or make a different decision. Something kicks ass? Then keep making similar decisions. Own the choices you make. Keep making it a point to have/keep choices. Does more freedom = more choices made? Or does making less choices= feeling more in control?
Discuss.
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