Can never have too many Amsterdam Flower Pics, right?

More Flowers!

Amsterdam..flowers

More flowers--you can never have too many flowers! And the public gardens had more than enough! Since you can't bring bulbs into the country yourself (they have to be certified and inspected by the U.S), you can order certain bulbs there to be sent later. I bought some blue tulips and a couple other bulbs that I haven't been able to find here. They are supposed to come in October--I can't wait! They will be a wonderful rememberance of this trip.

The color combinations were absolutely stunning!! I could have spent an entire week there just looking at the tulips, but there was also an orchid exhibit going on in one of the show halls that totally captured my heart! I love orchids!!

Funny

My friend Christine sends me funny posters from time to time and this one got us all laughing.

Thanks Christine! I needed the giggles.

More Amsterdam

A bakery window. The stuff inside looked awesome. And yes, the guy with the orange hat was celebrating Queens Day as was the bakery clerk.. Holy Smokes the stuff inside looked so good! We had already eaten or I would have collapsed face first into the window display (from the inside, mind you, since glass with my pastry didn't seem as appealing.)

I loved the canals! The homes along the canals were so pretty. I would love to have a home like this. However, I'm told real estate in city central is pretty pricey. Look at all the tiny cars. They are all over Holland, but I did see some Ford vans and a couple American style (large) cars while there. However, they are not common. With gas prices at almost $3 a LITER (WOW!!), driving a gas guzzler is really not practical. On the first day we were there, my friend had a business meeting so the company sent a driver to pick us up at the airport and to drive us home after the meeting and lunch. The driver on the way back to the hotel was very friendly and we talked quite a bit about the differences in America and Amsterdam. At lunch I got quite a bit more insight into life in Amsterdam. Everyone pays a large percentage of taxes, but most don't complain since these taxes go into services like medical and housing. I ask one of the men how they felt about such high taxes and he said in Amsterdam, people look out for the common good , which is different than America where we tend to be more independent and think everyone needs to attend to themselves.

More of the intersecting canals. This is during Queens Day, which explains the packed boat. This canal was less crowded than the most of the other canals, which were packed with boats of celebrants. See all the boats tied up along the canal? I could soooo get used to living here! I loved being on the boats that we took around the city.

Did I mention that I really loved visiting there and can't wait to get back?

The only thing I didn't find in Amsterdam was a yarn shop. However, next time I will be more determined to find a shop and knit in public.I was unsure of how hard it would be to bring my knitting on the plane, so I left all my knitting at home. I regretted that. It would have been good to be able to knit both on the plane and while we were at the hotel. Being without something to knit was an odd feeling.

In Honor of George Tiller

Dr. George Tiller was murdered by a cowardly terrorist today while serving in his church.

He was a hero for women's choice and will be missed. I am sending a donation to a Pro Choice organization in honor of Dr. Tiller and encourage you to do the same.

I hope the President takes notice of this and takes action to keep these acts of terrorism from happening here in America. If this is not dealt with quickly and harshly, we are paving the way for Taliban-like groups that kill and intimidate others that don't believe as they do.

More Amsterdam Architecture.

Just look at the ornamentation on these buildings.

Amsterdam Photos..

The guy with the crazy wig had the best seat in the house to observe Queen's Day.

I was told that building at one time were taxed according to their footage on the street. This is a reason lots of the buildings are skinny but tall. This building really plays that to the hilt. It really is leaning inward a bit and angled oddly(but possibly less than it appears in the picture since the camera may be a little slanted too. But you get the idea). Hence less taxes..Clever, and eye catching solution to property taxation, don't you think?

All the orange hats were part of the Queen's Day celebration. Everyone got one as they entered the city.

I was a little dismayed at all the people who were throwing them on the ground, but I'm sure they realize they pay for them one way or another. Who do you think pays for the city to clean them up? I did see an awful lot of litter, broken bottles and trash around the city, but I'm hoping it was just because of Queen's Day and not a normal situation in the city.

All in all, the city is absolutely charming with unbelievable architecture and charm. It felt really odd to go past building with date of the mid 1600's on their gables.

I really fell in love with this place--absolutely and completely!! I can't wait to get back.

Most of the streets intersect with canals. Just look at the ornate footings on the bridge. Works of art!!!

These are just a couple of my pictures. Since I have a card reader, I'll start posting bit by bit and telling you more.

Hiccups

I know I said I was going to post pictures from Amsterdam "the next day" --but then I discovered that the new computer does not have an SD chip slot. I guess we got so used to seeing them standard on even the low end computers that we assumed the Dell replacement we got would automatically have one.

It doesn't.

So Cute Man is going to get a portable SD card reader so I can get my pictures on this blog.

That said, I was really inspired by the gardens that I saw in Amsterdam and have decided that I am going to do more container gardening this summer. I'm sure I'll have to be a little more careful about the plants I pick since the weather here is much hotter than there, but there are plenty of flowers that take the heat well, so I am going to take a trip to the garden center today to start planning. I want to paint the pots in colorful designs, so that is what I will be doing this afternoon. I figure the pots will take about a week to completely dry, so I'll spend the rest of the week planning. I did buy some plastic pots for the deck though. I want to grow herbs right outside my kitchen so I will plant those this week. I am hoping little man (my grand nephew) cooperates and goes through the greenhouses with me on Monday. I am looking for peppermint to plant in my garden and around the yard where the soil is having problems washing away. Peppermint can be invasive, which is what I want in these areas. I considered bamboo, but that is REALLY invasive, which is what I don't want. Once you plant bamboo, you can't eradicate it. It's the cockroach of the plant world. Plus let's face it--putting bamboo in the grasps of males in inviting trouble. Can't you just imagine the fun they'll have cutting stalks off to cane each other....just the little things you have to consider when anything with testosterone resides in your home...LOL.

We have had my 2 1/2 year old nephew here for the past week, so not a lot has gotten done around the house. There is a possibility that he'll be with us for the summer, so I'm going to have to figure out how to work my schedule. Unfortunately it has meant that I've been unable to get to the yarn shops that I love so much--Twist in Wichita and The Newton Beadery in Newton--but I'm going to be figuring out how to work that out. Both are places that allow me to decompress and relieve stress.

Interesting....

Turn off the music player at the bottom of the page and listen to a pretty interesting discussion on schools and creativity...

Whiz kids...

While I was in Amsterdam, I took in all the sights, took pictures and compared things there to what I am accustomed to in the United States. There were many things I really loved, some were a bit surprising to me, such as the men's urinals on street corners.

While we were walking the streets, I kept seeing little partitioned structures on street corners with little basins on them. Not seeing anyone near at first, I reasoned that they must be some sort of hand washing structure. Thankfully I did not try that out since a couple minutes later a guy sauntered up, unzipped and relieved himself.

Yep.

It was a very public urinal right there on the street corner.

Since I was a wee bit shocked, I missed taking pictures of these structures -- nothing spotlights you as a tourist more than taking a picture of a public whiz spot. But the concept of whizzing in public was thankfully limited to men. Women had to go hunt down the very limited bathrooms---if you were lucky, the cafe let you use their bathrooms as in the case of the Esprit cafe near Spui. They were very gracious about it since I was probably sounding like a really desperate American.

As I said, I didn't get pictures, but this blog has a great example of one. See? IT IS NOT ENCLOSED!!

However, I guess it is better to have these since I'm sure that the men who have the gumption to whiz at these would just as easily relieve themselves in the canals, on buildings etc.... much like college bars on a Friday night in America, come to think of it.

When my husband was in college, he lived in a little apartment near the alley of a very popular bar. We were forever looking out the bathroom window and seeing some guy relieving himself on our wall. Ever so often I would chuck a pitcher of ice water out that window to defend the wall's honor. I'm sure some of those guys were so snockered they thought the wall whizzed back at them.

I'm Back!

Ok--so it has been a while since I've posted. A lot of things have happened and it will take more than one post to get everything caught up, so here is a brief rundown. I will post more detailed posts starting tomorrow.

1. Went to Amsterdam. LOVED IT! Can't wait to go back next year, but I think I'll plan it either before or after Queen's Day, not during. While it was interesting to see the huge crowds of people celebrating, the streets were so packed that in several areas, my friend and I felt like we were being squashed in the crowds. We did get to do quite a bit of walking, ride the canal taxi,visit the Van Gogh museum and the public tulip gardens, so the trip was really awe inspiring.

I'll post pictures tomorrow with a longer explanation.

2. Learned to knit lace. I have taken 3 lace knitting classes in the past couple weeks and am currently working on a triangular lace shawl for the last class in the series. Lace 1 was a very basic class that introduced us to the concepts by having the class work a scarf in the feather and fan pattern and a scarf in the horseshoe lace pattern. I am actually still working on the horseshoe lace scarf because I made it quite a bit longer than the class sample. The second class expanded on the concepts and taught us how to read the chart and knit the "Branching Out" scarf. I've started that one, but it is currently waiting it's turn in line. That said, I am working on the triangular lace shawl from lace 3 and will hopefully be able to get it completed by next month. It requires quite a bit of concentration, so needless to say I only knit it when the house is quiet. That is going to be a challenge very soon since.....

3. My grand nephew is coming to spend either part or all of the summer with us. He is a 2 1/2 year old bundle of pure energy. Yep, this is going to be an interesting summer to say the least.

As I said, this is just a brief catch up post--I'll take each category and beef up the details over the next couple days to catch up.

Busy, Busy, Busy!!

Above: The finished scarf from my rigid heddle weaving class. A little shorter than I'd hoped, but Hubby said it is a good length for him to tuck under his coat collar. This scarf was made for him in the colors of his alma mater (Oklahoma State University) which is also our hometown (Stillwater, Oklahoma). Since this is my first scarf EVER, I was experimenting with the striping. I do have to work a little more on weaving in the ends--the instructor taught us a trick, but I might have to go back to have her show me again. This weekend I'm going to do a longer scarf for him in the same colors but with different striping sequences. And here is a picture of the scarf pretty close to the beginning. I took a beginning rigid heddle weaving class at The Yarn Barn in Lawrence, Kansas this past Saturday. It was a wonderful class and the instructor was fantastic. To show what a small world it is, the instructor of my rigid heddle class grew up in the town next to mine, and her Dad teaches art at my kid's high school!

I love going to Lawrence to take classes at the Yarn Barn and to visit their wonderful shops and restaurants. It is a very vibrant and eclectic college town with a bustling downtown. Each time I've taken classes at The Yarn Barn hubby has driven the almost 3 hour drive with me and wandered around downtown while I'm in class. He's such a sweetheart! This time the class was from 10 a.m until 5:00, so he was definitely on his own for an extended period. We like to spend a little time sitting on one of the many benches and just watch people and their dogs. A lot of people walk their dogs downtown, so it is always a great place to just sit and look.

No trip to Lawrence would be complete without eating at my favorite Indian restaurant (India Palace)which is located right around the corner from the yarn shop. Convenient, huh?

Usually we head over to Half Price Books afterwards, but to tell you the truth, I was pretty darn tired. Since we had to travel to Stillwater the next day for Easter and we opted to just head home. It was a really good day though.

I was REALLY happy that I took the class. The instructor was great and I actually bought the 16" loom my scarf was on. This allowed me to take the scarf home on the loom and continue where I left off. I do have a 24" loom that I bought a month ago, but the 16" will be a good size for something thinner like scarves. I am going to warp both of them this week so I can do another scarf for Cute Man and a shawl for me. I love the look of woven shawls, which is why I took the class, but I don't think I'd have the patience to warp a large floor loom. The rigid heddle is perfect for me. Plus, it is portable. I really like that I can take it with me if I go to the lake. My 24" folds and has a carrying bag, which is great for travel also. The 16" doesn't fold, but I can sew a carrying bag myself if I decide to take it out a lot.

I'm not abandoning knitting, just learning a new fiber addiction!

And You Think YOUR job sucks?!

Exactly how do you get to be the guy who goes in to see if it's REALLY a bomb? Do they draw straws or is it decided by who makes the boss mad that day?

Notice the cop following him in, craning his neck...AND THEN HE'S GONE. Like totally nowhere in sight... Yeah, thanks for the backup there buddy..

I love the "too cool to run" walk they're doing in this video. Don't know about you, but if I see the bomb squad rollin' in, my happy arse is SOOO OUT OF THERE! None of this cool "Miami Strut" like in the video. I'd be running like...well, let's just say I'd be running and leave it at that, shall we?!

So, on days when things just suck at the office and your boss is really making you mad, remember: A day that sucks is still good, but a day in "the pretty suit" could really blow.

Another thing: Is it just me, or does that suit look like a costume mix from the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles? Like a mix of Shredder's face gear and a Turtle's body sans the shell.

Yep, one of us definitely has spent too much time watching cartoons with kids.


OK. I'm done.

I'll get back in my box now.

We knew this already, didn't we?

Watch CBS Videos Online

Hard to be a Gangsta' in Yo Mama's Ride

My teenage son, Mark and I were waiting outside the school this afternoon for his twin brother when a white mini van pulled up beside our car. Actually, we could hear it from half a block away because it was vibrating bass so loudly that our attention was captured quickly. In the front seat of the mini van was a kid wearing his baseball cap sideways and bobbing his head to the rhythm of the already overloaded speakers.

Apparently he thought he was THE BIG MAN sitting there in THE MINI VAN.

Mark And I looked at each other and grinned.

Mark said "Yo,Yo, Dog-- don't make me hit you with my extra cupholders" with such a straight face that I busted out laughing. Then he said "Don't make me shank you with my soda can".

Both of us were laughing so hard at this point that people were looking at us. To which Mark adds "Yo, I'd fight ya, but I have to pick kids up from soccer practice"--again with a straight face. By the time Jeremy got to the car, I was laughing so hard that I couldn't drive.

So--word up to all you wanna be "GANGSTAS": Ya just can't be a pimp daddy in your mama's ride.

Holy Smokes! Great Pizza Dough!!

I have a copy of the book "Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day" and have seriously considered making a couple of the recipes from it for quite some time. As a matter of fact, I bought a couple 6 quart lidded containers to keep dough on hand in my fridge, but had not made it until a couple days ago. I had made the dough and put it in the fridge but hadn't used any of it until tonight.

What took me so long? This stuff is fabulous!! Tonight the boys wanted homemade pizza and I was getting ready to make dough from my regular recipe, then I remembered the dough in the fridge. Pizza dough is basically thin bread dough, so I thought, "What the heck, let's give it a try."

This dough is different from most dough in that you really need to use it from the fridge when it is cold, or it gets sticky. I worked it from the center, stretching it thin, then put it on parchment paper to thin the edges out. I stretched the second pizza dough until you could almost see through it and it turned out to be the one we liked the best. This dough does rise more during the baking process, which is great for bread rounds, but thinner is better for pizza. After I got it thinned out to the point I liked, I topped it with pizza sauce ( 1 can tomato sauce, 1 small can tomato paste, 1 or 2 cloves of garlic, 1 tablespoon Italian seasoning--brought to a simmer then allowed to cool..I also add a teaspoon of red pepper flakes, but you can dress it up the way you like...) and added toppings like drained canned mushrooms and chopped black olives, pepperoni and whatever else we feel like at the time.

Holy Smokes, this is good stuff. I think this is going to be my standard pizza dough recipe from here on out. I love that it is ready in the fridge whenever we get the hankering for pizza (and we can use the dough for boule bread loaves when we need it for dinner) and it save a ton of money, not to mention time.

Try it and let me know what you think. As I said, I bought the book, but the New York Times has one recipe from the book here. This is the one I used, although I did have a pizza stone in the oven, I spread my dough out on baking parchment paper and didn't do the broiler pan with water since I was doing pizza, not bread loaves. I'm going to try to find a pizza peel though so I can try the recipe the way it was written. I'll report back on that later this month.

Down time

Let's see...This week I finished the first scarf from my lace I class and started on the second one. The brown one is a feather and fan stitch pattern done in Rowan yarn and so is the Horseshoe lace pattern scarf below. I finally learned how to read a charted lace pattern. Luckily this pattern is pretty easy and doesn't require an insane amount of concentration. The week after I had this class, I took the lace II class and started on the Branching Out scarf. That one is going to take my full concentration, so I am working it slowly. The Lace III class actually makes a triangular piece so that will be interesting. While it calls for lace weight yarn, I can tell you already that I will be using fingerling weight yarn. I've already had a run in with lace weight yarn and really don't want to go back there again!

Neither of these have been blocked, so this is not their final look. Blocking will open up the pattern and give the stitches the proper definition. I'm hoping to get the horseshoe lace scarf completed this week so I can wear it. Since our weather has been pretty darn warm lately, I thought I would be working on the scarves for next season, but look what we got yesterday:

SNOW. A LOT OF SNOW...and ice.

This is not a good picture to show just how much, but I think more snow got dumped on us last night than we've had all season. It started out raining ice -- Karen described it on Twitter as raining snowcones...good description! And as it pelted you, it felt like little needles...ouch.

The bad thing was that I had gotten up yesterday with the intention of going to the grocery store before the storm hit. On the way to the store, I stopped in our old neighborhood to see if our old neighbor (that the kids adopted as "Grandma" when we moved in) needed anything. We ended up visiting long enough that the storm had moved in by the time I left. I ended up going to our local Homeland store, which I generally avoid because they are notorious for having frozen food that has been thawed and refrozen.. I didn't buy anything frozen, but I did join half of the town in trying to get provisions.

The sad thing is that I fully realized the storm was not going to be lasting more than a day or two, but I stocked up on canned goods like I was expecting Armageddon! What's with that?!

It was nice to be forced to shut down and stay home knitting all night though.

I had anticipated it snowing and icing all day today, but the sun is out and it is melting...there goes my excuse to putter all day..But I am still hanging out knitting and baking cookies. Hubby wanted peanut butter cookies, so I made a batch this morning. Tonight I will make homemade pizza and look at chicken coop plans. Next weekend we are going to build the enclosure for the chickens that we are going to get. I haven't decided on a chicken coop design, but I'll probably just show hubby what I want and let him do his magic. He's pretty good at that.

Back From Iowa

Not a very clear picture, but trust me, these were SOOO good. Probably not a single bit of nutrition in these but they contain the Southern trinity (FLOUR, SUGAR, FAT) so you know they've gotta be good!

I kept seeing these at various bakeries so I think they are a regional thing. They are basically fried doughnut crescent with an outrageous pastry icing inside and hit with a dusting of powdered sugar. One of these and you were done!! I only had one this trip since that seemed to be all I could handle without needing an insulin adjustment at the hospital--and I'm not even diabetic...

While in Iowa, the boys and I headed down the street to West Branch,Iowa-- birthplace of Herbert Hoover and the sight of his presidential library. It was really pretty interesting. There is a small section of the town that was preserved that contains his birth home. Above is a picture of his birth home. Probably no more than a couple hundred feet of living space at the most!!

There is a statue of Isis on the grounds of the presidential museum that was presented to President Hoover by the children of Belgium for his relief and humanitarian efforts. We toured the museum and came away with a whole new perspective of President Hoover. He is often the scapegoat of the Depression era. But in reality, he had been warning of the fall long before it happened and nobody listened. There was a short film of some of the European citizens that were children at the time of the war that detailed how thankful they were to get "Hoover Rolls" and food in general after starving for so long.

There was also a traveling exhibit about Abraham Linclon at the presidential library so we got to see it too. Very interesting..

We got back to Kansas on Wednesday, but after driving that many hours, I have been pretty much down for the count. Instead of driving straight from my son's house in Iowa back to Haysville, I did a little detour to pick up a rigid heddle loom from a wonderful lady in Lawrence, Kansas, so the trip back home was extended a bit. More on that detour in a future post.

We spent a lot of the time in Iowa running around Iowa City/Coralville and Cedar Rapids. Of course I had to hit the Half Price books in Cedar Rapids since they seem to always have the best stash of knitting books. I hit gold again. I found copies of "Creative Weaving" AND " Creative Spinning" for $7 each, 2 WONDERFUL Jo Sharp pattern books for $7 (they are normally $27 each according to the publishers price, so I was really happy) and a couple other goodies. While I didn't stop at the Half Price Books in Clive, Iowa and Overland Park, KS like I usually do, I did make a stop at the Penzy's Spice store in Clive to pick up a couple of their cooking magazines and some spices. It gave Jeremy and I an opportunity to get out of the car to stretch our legs and take a mental break from the road.

We also spent an hour walking around Bass Pro Shops. Next time we are going to sidetrack to Cabella's also since the boys love both places. Since Kansas City is only 3 hours from us, we might have to ride up there sometime to just check them out. I bought a Garmin GPS for this trip and it was a life saver. There were only a couple quirks to it, but these can be dealt with since overall it was a really accurate tool.

This season promises to have a lot of travel and learning opportunities for our family.

Giggles

Don't you just hate all those commercials for "male assistance" drugs that you get hammered with when trying to simply watch a little TV? Well tonight that's just what happened, but...

One of my teenage sons was watching TV with me when one of those commercials came on. The obligatory disclaimer that states "seek medical attention for an erection lasting longer that 36 hours"came on.. Teenage son got quiet then said "How do you break that one to your doctor?"

Of course I just about fell out of my chair laughing....kiddo got up and went to his room to watch TV.

I'm probably going to have to leave it up to his father to have "THE TALK". There aren't enough therapists in this town to cover him if it's left up to me!

LOL!

Later note to the above: Son has corrected my post information--apparently the ad says "for erections lasting longer than 4 hours..."That makes sense to me.

If anything is still "functioning" after 36 hours, that means the county medical examiner is examining you--for "rigomortus"..

I guess that's pretty important...