what do you do with a visitor

My friend Carolynn is visiting. So, between naps, we have managed to wander through Den Bosch, visit the local windmill, and go to Uden.

So, I am sure we could have gone to Amsterdam. We could have gone to Eindhoven.

We could have taken a canal tour or seen museums.

Instead, we visit and drink tea.

I promise not to trap you in the baby centered world if you visit...but it is my lowest energy point.

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In other news, I see a lot of horses around here. I have been wondering what type of horse I am. I am not a Clydesdale,nor Belgian. I am clearly not a quarter horse, since my legs are not the right length. I guess, I am looking for suggestions as to what kind of horse I could be (please, I am not a pony).

The Joy of Sippy Cup

It was a drastic wake-up call today when I emptied Eileen's sippy cup of milk yet again. It tasted bad yet again. Turns out that it wasn't the milk; I have a dippy-sippy-cup. The liquid restraining device that keeps the upended cup from creating a Jackson Pollack of grape juice or other beverage on the floor is almost completely uncleanable. I boiled it was vinegar and will reserve that cup for only water from now on....Happily I have a different cup that had water in it, but is easier to clean. It has now graduated to being her milk cup.

Meanwhile, if the pickings get meager on this blog for a couple of weeks, I beg forgiveness. My friend Carolynn from White Rock NM is coming for a couple of days on Thursday. Following her visit, we will be packing for our own upcoming US adventure. Eileen and I leave a week from this coming Sunday for the US. We are getting to see the Balkin family, the Hirsch family (although I might be missing one or two cousins and of course my brother, his wife, and Eileen's cousin Isaac). Then we fly off to Boise to see Eileen's sister, Tia, Grandma Joanne, Aunt Sandy and Uncle Dax, and cousins Cortni, Carissa, and Camden. We will miss the rest of the Jacksons, but recognize how far flung they are.

Choices

My ex-husband, Anders, always talked about how many choices you had in American restaurants. Do you want a salad? What type of dressing? You get a choice of side... And, he is right, in Europe, you order your meal and it comes as it comes. Sometimes exactly as described, sometimes with a small salad or other side dish, but you certainly are not asked if you want it. He used to complain that there are really too many choices in America.

I have begun to believe that Europeans make up for those choices in their appliance options. I think our microwave has more than eight modes to it, for example, and that doesn't count just manually lowering the power output on it. Our washer dial makes roulette look simple. I think that there are about 16 choices there, different temperatures, etc. and again, that doesn't count an extra rinse or a pre-wash cycle or the ability to change the rate of the spin cycle. For reference, our top end washer that is in storage back home had about eight settings -- as I recall.

The funniest bit of all this, is that every European I have met swears by how wonderful their appliances are (our washer does get clothes really clean during its two hour cycles), but most of them talk about only using one setting. So, for most of my European friends, these are faux options anyway.

Ah well...just a strange observation!