Marvie's Crochet Corner

I'm back =)

Wow! What a fun trip!! I ended up staying an extra day, which was way cool. Not the way it happened, but just that I had another day lol. We got to the airport a few minutes too late for K to make her flight back to Virginia, we'd left the house in plenty of time and would have made it, if not for some traffic hold-up (we have no idea what caused it but we were stuck there for about a half hour on the bus) so by the time K got to her terminal, they wouldn't let her board the plane. We ended up getting a room in a hotel for the night and went out to see the Red Light district, which was very entertaining lol. Then yesterday, K got on another flight and made it home, I changed my train ticket after she was safely off (I waited to make sure nothing else would happen lol) so I didn't leave Amsterdam till 8PM, got here at the house at 5 this morning. I took the Night Train from Amsterdam... it was 8 hours on the train, but the seats laid way back, the lights were dimmed and all you could hear was the train noise (which was quite soothing) so I napped most of the way back. Not enough to call it actual sleep though lol. I crashed pretty hard once I got home and soaked in a nice hot tub. Never even heard hubby and the kid get up and leave this morning, and I was on the couch!

So anyway, the trip was wonderful, other than that stressful missed flight. We spent most of our time in The Hauge (Den Haag in Dutch) and I have to say that is a lovely town. We walked, we shopped, we looked in awe at the buildings and architecture. We ate yummy foods, we drank loads of coffee. We met locals and hung out at a local pub at night.

We went to Rotterdam one day, well it was more late afternoon and into the night lol. I think that was Sunday. We got there a bit late, due to trains not going into the central station because of construction stuff going on, so we had to take connecting trains/busses. We neded up getting there too late to see the exibit we'd planned to see, but we walked around a while, went into a couple of shops before they closed, went to a local pub and had some drinks while we listened to a Dutch band play live (I think they were locals too) K got to meet another of her chat friends that night, someone M knows (M is the guy we stayed with in Holland) and we all just hung out at the pub, they drank beer but I don't really care for alcohol much (except the one wine I like from here) so I stuck with coffee mostly... oh and Fanta... all I can say about that stuff is it ROCKS! It's not like the Fanta at home, all bright orange and so sweet you can feel your teeth rotting out with every sip... nooooo this Fanta is delicious. It's pale orange, like orange juice... actually it tastes kinda like oj too, oj with fizz. Just enough sugar to give it a slightly sweet flavor, but not so much you are overwhelmed by it. Good stuff. Very good stuff.

We spent our last day (yeah, the one where we should have already been gone) getting K on her plane, then after that M and I wandered around the city killing time till my train left. He took me through the touristy parts, but we also wandered around some of the quiet housing areas. Gorgeous. The canals... the buildings... all of it =)

I have loads of pics, just haven't had a chance to get them to the computer just yet. I slept quite late this morning, then have just been quietly enjoying a quiet day, reading a few blogs (there's a lot to read after a week away rofl) and checked out the new Crochetville briefly, but haven't had a chance to dig around over there yet hehehe... oh, and I've unpacked, just need to actually put all my shit away lol.

I arrived home to find several packages which had arrived while I was away. One from my awesome Secret Pal, she'd hoped it would arrive before I left, but I was happy to open it this morning =) In it were four balls of pretty denim blue sock yarn, the extra ball of brown fun fur for the poncho, and some super yummy smelling herbal lotions, which she tells me are made by a woman one of her cco-workers knows. They smell divine! Red Currant and Thyme... yum! the other is Purely Herbal and is also quite yummy!They made my hands feel so soft! They're perfect for tossing in your purse or keeping by your desk etc.

The other packages were less fun, but still good ones. One was my free book from One Spirit.com, it was a thank you gift for referring Kari to them ;) Thanks Kari for joining hehehe I got a really great book! It's the Element Encyclopedia of 5,000 Spells. I've wanted this book for ages! I can't wait to sit doiwn with it later and flip through it (ok ok ok, I won't just flip, I'll read the thing lol, I just can't helpmyself with new books... they just have to be read! Even if it's a coookbook rofl)

The final package is our new phone system. We got a referral to Vonage... a new broadband phone service. We'll hook it all up and we will now have two phone numbers, one will be our local German number, but the new Vonage number is a Virginia number! I can now talk to all my friends back home for free woohoooooooooo! I get free long distance to the US and Canada, I can call any Vonage number (anywhere in the world) for free, and they can call me! I'll probably have to get an answering machine now rofl. So far I haven't needed one because our phone really never rings.... usually just hubby or on rare occasions the school will call. I've missed a few calls being outside or at the store, but it's not been a big deal. I think now though, an answering machine will become a necessity lol.

Well, that's the quick update. I need to run, the kiddo will be home soon ('m hoping he gets himself home, bc no way in hell am I walking up there to get him rofl!) and I still need to put my crap away. Hubby had the house all neat and tidy....... then I came home ;) I hope he enjoyed his nice clean house while it lasted *g* bc mommy is home now and my piles of clutter will return rofl. I'll try to do better about it.... but honesty compels me to admit I probably won't do to well at it ;)

K, gotta run, I'll post pics later on, *promise*!!

posted by Marvie at 7:38 AM