Day to Day Life

After finishing my baby bobble blanket I felt a little lost.  I had gotten so used to plunking down in my chair and picking up the blanket to work on that when it was finished and I had nothing to do, I got grumpy.  I couldn’t figure out what I wanted to work on next and although I had a …

Remember a while back when we renovated our Kitchen?  One of my favorite things was my new oven.  It’s an Atag and we payed a somewhat ridiculous amount extra so that we could have one that opens sideways rather than downwards.  I’m short and in order to have our oven above the fridge it was essential that I would be …

A few years ago we noticed some of the buildings in our neighbourhood putting up protest signs that they didn’t want to move.  Having seen this in other areas of the city previously we knew that their days were numbered.  The city had decided to demolish their houses to make way for newer and better buildings.  It took years to …

Dear Mother Nature, What’s with the snow?  I woke up this morning and this is what I saw out my dining room window.  I must say, I was somewhat confused.  It would appear that there has been some sort of miscommunication here.  I SAID winter was over for the year, remember? Spring is coming, winter is over, there will be …

It appears that I am not the only one looking forward to spring!  The sun has finally started showing itself in the Netherlands again and Spencer took full advantage by finding this warm sweet spot on a shelf in our living room. Everything seems to be starting to come to life again.  I see flowers starting to poke up through …

On February 14, 2010 (Valentine’s Day) the Lock of Love art piece was placed in Rotterdam’s popular district of Delfshaven.  The Lock of Love ritual has been taking place all over the world, and is now here in Rotterdam as well.  Not just a rail on a bridge or a chain around a lamppost, this work of art has love …

Over the years I’ve had a lot of issues with seasonal depression.  Not something I’ve ever suffered from in Canada, but it hit me quick and hard here in the Netherlands.   I wasn’t expecting it but it happened, and it continued to happen for the past 10 years.  Granted, for the first half of that time I was often quite …

Money is tight in our household this year, after a big bad surprise from the belastingdienst (tax office) that I never got into here on my blog.  I don’t plan to, but basically they screwed up and now we owe them over 2000 euro. So we agreed that Valentine’s Day wasn’t going to be an expensive event this year.  Not …

There are a few cultural differences that become glaringly obvious when you move to a new country.  For me, one of of them has been the issue of taking off shoes when you enter someone’s home.  I would make a sweeping statement about how in Canada everyone takes off their shoes when they enter the house, but after the bagged …

This lady definitely made the best of the recent snow here in Rotterdam.   When we saw her coming we initially thought she had a kid in the sled, but when she got up close we realized it was her groceries.  We told her how clever we thought it was and she said she figured if she had to drag it …

Pixel loves the snow.  When we take her out in it she sniffs around, pushes it with her nose, digs in it and runs around like someone put a firecracker up her arse.  It’s a very exciting time for her! When we first got her she hated being outside if it was anything other than warm summer weather.  Taking her …