(not so) exciting news!

Not much new to comment on today, but I thought I should say 'hey'. I had a pretty quiet weekend last weekend: ran errands, played volleyball on Saturday (we lost), accidentally skipped a work meeting on Sunday afternoon when I totally forgot about it and went on a bike ride instead (thank goodness for a very flexible boss!)

Followed by an insane two and a half days: running around trying to get things ready for my boss who was leaving for two weeks. Which was then followed by two slower days when I got a lot done and felt good about myself in general!

Today is a beautiful day and I'm going to bike to the garden center this afternoon to buy my new plants for the year. Yes, I actually do about a teaspoon of gardening! I have two balcony boxes that I fill with fresh herbs and different lettuces, plus a cherry tomato plant. There's a great garden center about 3 km away that I like to wander through and they have great stuff as well!

Also, I'm quite excited that I can get my summer clothes out and wear them now! I dug out half of them and washed them on the weekend; now I'm washing my big sweaters and putting them away for the summer. It makes it seem like I have a whole new wardrobe!

So that was all incredibly exciting news that I know you were all waiting with bated breath to hear!

no cyclone, but.....

Well, I can't say our weather compared to Rhonda's cyclone in Madagascar, but we did have a little excitement on the weekend. Saturday night was full moon and the water here is quite high for this time of year, so they had a "dike watch" on Sat. night. There were actually people sandbagging in certain places and I think they were on the dike all night in some areas. I walked to the sea on Sunday afternoon, when it was high tide again and I've certainly never seen it quite like that before! I could have sat there for hours and watched the waves crashing in, but it was a bit cold.

Not too much else to comment on, this was about the most exciting thing that happened all week. Oh and I got new shoes for cheap! They're black sneakers with small silver accents so they're dressy enough to wear to work. And they're so comfortable! Anyway, I'm sure that is vital information that you needed to know.

funny story

Okay, so I felt like a first-class idiot last night! I called a Chinese restaraunt to order Chinese for dinner. This was a big order for 13 people. They said it would be ready in 30 minutes so half an hour later I went to pick it up and they didn't have and couldn't find my order. So I ordered it again and had to wait for another 30 min. While I was sitting there, waiting, I was looking around and saw business cards of the restuarant with the name Crystal Palace written on them. I was thinking, 'Crystal Palace, Crystal Palace......wait a second, I ordered Chinese food from the Golden Palace!' Which is another Chinese restaurant in another town (but owned by the same family and the other town also starts with a 'K'). But my second order was already placed and it was too late to undoe it, so I just sat, waiting and praying for it to be ready as soon as possible so I could leave! I felt so bad for getting some poor person in trouble because I'm sure someone got yelled at for screwing up the order! And to top it all off, they gave us a free bottle of wine to aplogize for taking so long!

Anyway, I felt so guilty about it, I called both restaurants today to apologise! They were both very understanding, so it's all okay, but I will not make that mistake again!

Italy....and pasta!

So I got back from Italy last Wednesday. It was a very relaxing vacation and I had a great time! I flew to Venice Thursday a week ago and started my holiday with pasta (of course!) We stayed with relatives of a friend of mine and he is a good cook and made a lot of pasta for us! Friday and Saturday we went into Venice, did some shopping, walked around the Jewish quarter, saw the big cathedral, took a water-bus. We saw lots of gondolas, but they are definitely a touristic method of transportation and not the average citizen's method of travel.

One of my friend's who was with us had her birthday on Friday so we celebrated her birthday that evening. (after eating more pasta!)

Then we spent two days in the mountains, hiking, reading, walking around, eating more pasta, etc. Then one last day in Milan where we walked around, ate ice cream, saw the cathedral, palace and castle and then read some more (while eating more pasta!) (don't ask, 'cause I don't know and don't want to know, how much I gained on this trip!)

Anyway, I've just been living my normal life since then. (although I did have pasta yesterday and again tonight, so I understand. People keep cooking for me, I'm not doing this all myself, okay!)