Avontuur

I know it’s been a while. As usual things are busy here. Ted’s in Taiwan until Friday, and I’m moving at work – 8 floors straight up! I’m looking forward to it, because I’ll then only be sharing an office with two other people. ne of those guys doesn’t start until April 1 and the other isn’t even hired yet, so I have a week of solo bliss.

Meanwhile we’ve been busy with travel planning and related stuff. My birthday gift from Ted is a long weekend in Venice, so I’m figuring out what to see and how to get from the airport to the hotel. (I do miss having my uncle to ask for travel advice.) Then we’ll be going to our house in Oregon, and my parents will meet us there. They’ve never been further west than Phoenix, so we need to show them around a bit – Ted’s hometown, the Oregon coast, maybe Crater Lake. Definitely a vineyard or two. This will be the first time both sets of parents will be together since our wedding in 1993, so we’re taking advantage of that to get family photos made. (Too bad our respective brother and their wives won’t be there, especially since one set now has a toddler and a baby, and the other has one as a work in progress. It would have been nice to have them in the photos.) Our house needs a new heat pump, so we want to get that done before the visit – we’re so grateful for all the help we get from Ted’s parents on that. I’m also hoping to buy a washer and dryer for the house and get them delivered; for some reason it really bothered me not to have them there.

Lots to plan!! It’s kind of ironic that I never really did learn to juggle. Sure feels like that’s all I do.

Carnaval is officially on Tuesday, of course, but the party has already started – since I left work a bit early in a fit of TGIF, plus a touch of spring fever, I grabbed the camera and took it out while it was still daylight. EIndhoven is in its party clothes:

Some are subtle, some silly and some splendid:

The bars have built outer walls to contain the mayhem a little and all the food vendors come out:

and even the regulars join in (this carousel is a permanent fixture):

but of all of it, the strangest thing I saw was this:

(Translation: “Japanese bagel: crawfish, seaweed salad, and teriyaki sauce!”)