The Last Fill-Up

I have an elderly cat (P) whose kidneys are failing him.  With my husband’s help, I give P fluids several times a week.  We’ve been doing this for almost a year.  It doesn’t seem to bother P in the least; he’s pretty laid back about it and spends the time nuzzling for extra attention.  We’re done in less than five minutes. 

Tonight I heard H talking to P as we were getting ready for the ritual:

     What’s that you say?  Yes, it’s the last fill-up for 2010.

Even the cat is celebrating.

Oh, No! Not the Dome!

Santa gave my husband a gift certificate to Yogli-Mogli, and it’s been burning a hole in his pocket. 

If you’ve never been, Yogli-Mogli features a wall of self-serve frozen yogurt stations with sixteen different flavors.  The yogurt cup comes in one size (HUGE) and you can fill it up with as much or as little as you’d like.  Past the machines you encounter a toppings station with 40 different candies, cookies, crunchies, nuts and fruits, plus a variety of syrups to delight the taste buds.  Since you pay by the ounce, the highlight is weighing the container to see just how much you are about to consume.  We typically come in around sixteen ounces between the two of us.  Except for tonight . . .

Our yogurts weighed in at 21.8 ounces -- over a pound of frozen yogurt and toppings.  The young cashier didn’t think twice about it until we asked for travel lids.  She reached for two lids, looked at H’s “bucket” and said, Hmmm… I think I’ll give you a dome lid.  H and I just looked at each other, but the man behind us started laughing.  Oh, wow, you’ve reached the dome threshold, he said.  Well, it’s the holidays. We could still  hear him laughing when the door closed behind us.

It’s becoming clear why my jeans wouldn’t button and zip yesterday.

What Happened?

I have had a very rude awakening today – actually two! 

Awakening #1

This morning I peeked at my last blogging date, and I have to say that I don’t know what happened or where the time went. 

Awakening #2

For the first time in ages, I “slipped” into a pair of jeans and was unable to button or zip them.  They weren’t just snug, I physically couldn’t pull the denim close enough together to get the button through the buttonhole, let alone get them zipped. They fit last week, I’m sure.

Conclusion

I haven’t had time to blog because I must have been eating. 

Hmm…..It’s a good thing that the New Year is right around the corner.  I think it’s time for some changes.



The Speelgoedmuseum



The stairwell was a bit steep!



During our recent visit to Amsterdam, we stopped at a very small toy museum in the seaside town of Hoorn.  The museum was located in a seventeenth-century home in a quiet neighborhood.  The owner lived on the main level while the toys were displayed on the upper floors.   So, up we climbed to the third floor and worked our way down.   Although it was much smaller than we had anticipated, it was quaint and diverse, and to my surprise, there wasn’t a speck of dust anywhere. 

A display board hung in the last room with pictures and comments from children who had visited the museum.  Among the sweet comments, the one that really made me smile read, “I found the toys old.  And the woman from the toy museum was old.”

The Three-Letter Word

My husband’s sister recently introduced him to Scrabble on the iPad and H absolutely loves it.  He usually plays a couple of games each night before going to bed, grumbling over words played by the computer that can’t be found in the Scrabble Dictionary and then cheering himself on when he outplays his invisible opponent.  It’s a good brain challenge for him.

H also works from home and I have discovered that at lunchtime he has been playing a game or two while sitting in my office with P the cat perched on his lap, observing.  I really didn’t think much about it, other than I was pleased that the cat had some additional human one-on-one time during the work day.  That is, until I heard H talking to the cat last night.

What’s that you say?  You found a triple-word score?  CAT?  That’s great!

Later H confided to me, The only problem is that P only knows three- and four-letter words, which doesn’t give us a very high score.

Hmmmmm…maybe I need to be concerned.

Full of Personality

While we’re on the subject of bicycles… just because they are a utilitarian necessity doesn’t mean they can’t be a vehicle of creative self-expression.

Have Bike? No Problem!



Killer Thighs

 

Delivering the Mail



Catching the Train



The more I visit Amsterdam, the more I’m fascinated by the bicycle. Here in the U.S. we enjoy leisurely rides with our families, we explore trails on mountain bikes, or we may even participate in racing sports, but none of these activities are really vital to our way of living. In Amsterdam, it’s just the opposite. Bicycles are essential as a means of mobility and transport.

Now, I’ll be the first to admit that I like riding a bicycle. For me, it’s a time to enjoy the outdoors, get a little exercise and just let my mind wander. However, I’m not sure that I’m cut out for the challenges that some of these snapshots present.



A Bookworm's Delight

I absolutely love books! I could spend all day in a library. There’s something magical about standing in the middle of all those books, knowing that knowledge is just waiting to be absorbed. Those darn books whisper my way, daring me to reach out to them for new ideas – I get goosebumps just thinking about them. However, the truth is that I don’t spend a great deal of time at libraries – in fact, I go months without visiting one. And certainly not when I’m on vacation. Now really, who goes to a library while on holiday?

Well, as it turns out we happened to visit one while in Amsterdam, so let me introduce you to Openbare Bibliotheek Amsterdam, one of the coolest libraries that I’ve ever been in. This library is shiny and new and sits next to the Central Train Station on the Ij River. Visitors must cross a bridge to reach it. There are seven floors with restrooms (and attendants) on the first floor; a restaurant and theater on the seventh floor; and books and multi-media in between. To top things off, there is a “public” piano in the lobby that begs to be played.

It was a treat to visit this library. I just wish I was a little better at reading Dutch.