Blades of Glory

Saw this hilarious film with Aaron and Caitlin yesterday. It was better than expected. I love how Will Ferrell is tackling every 2nd rate sport in his movies. What will he do next? Before the movie they showed us a neat bar on 75th Street that has a great beer selection and a lot of candy, a surprisingly good combination.

Can't believe it is already Friday. Woohoo

Easter in Florida

Home again. Had a great time despite the rain at the beach. The trip had a fantastic start. When we first arrived at LGA our boarding passes didn't have seats and then we were assigned seats in the very back, the last two together. That was fine with us. Then, the very nice American Airlines guy said that a family wanted to sit together and that he could put us in first class...but not together. We were sold. Even better, when we got on the plane the guy sitting next to Erik offered to move so we could sit together. We ended up in the first row of first class and man was that the fanciest, best tasting bowl of Speical K I've ever had.
We spent Friday until Monday morning in Lake Panasoffkee, playing dominoes, eating all kinds of salads without lettuce, doing fun Easter stuff, and meeting some really nice 2nd (or 3rd?) cousins. Monday afternoon we drove to St.Pete Beach. it started to rain and poured until we checked into the hotel. The rain stopped for a few hours and we were able to walk on the beach and take a swim in the heated pool. At one point Mommoms sang a duet of "Proud Mary" in the bar with the hotel singer. The pack of ladies we dubbed "Moms Gone Wild" all screamed and applauded for her.
Arrived home late Tuesday night.

Long time, no post

Tomorrow we are off to sunny Florida to visit Mommoms and her sisters for Easter. I'm bringing the laptop, so hopefully I can find an internet spot and post a few photos,

Max meets some local birds

Meisje in the city

Meisje took advantage of early spring/global warming to take a little stroll in the city. While Max was making the most of his day.

Cedric

Our nephew was just born. His name is Cedric and he is the cutest! Congratulations Amke and Niels!

Almost Valentine's

Still no real snow in NYC. How is it that some funny named county upstate gets 144" and we get nada? Hopefully I'll wake up tomorrow and be proven wrong.
Some new pictures to post. Despite the cold weather we've managed to see two plays, eat at two fancy places during restaurant week, lose a super bowl pool (but enjoy a fun party), and do some work on the side. It's funny that we seem to be really busy, but when someone asks me what I've been up to lately I always go blank. Erik has been enjoying the new season of 24 on TV. There are so many twists and turns...now there are new family members involved too.
Last Sunday, we played a little scrabble at home (see photo of Max joining the game) and suddenly we see around 40 seagulls outside our kitchen window. Apparently the next door neighbors were on their roof feeding them...and the birds told all of their friends. It was really a beautiful sight. I know we aren't far from the water, but we usually only see pigeons flying around.

Lazy Weekend

Cleaned the house today and went through all of my clothes that are tucked away above the closet and in boxes. Managed to donate a whole 3 items! Wish it could be more, but I am much too sentimental. It's always nice to be home on a Saturday to do these sorts of things and to see just how lazy the cats really are. Meisje sitting next to me now and she just yawned. Amazing that she yawned after sleeping the entire day. Maybe she's actually just bored with what I am doing?
Caught up on some of my favorite TV shows on abc.com. The videos are a little low-res but if it allows my to not have to rush home on the weeknights, it's worth it. I guess it the poor girl's DVR!
Last night we went for dinner with Isabelle and Nick to one of our favorite places, Friend of a Farmer. We sat right by the fire place and enjoyed roasted chicken, mashed potatoes, corn bread and red wine. Ahhh, it was enough to put us all into a coma. Afterwards, we went back to their place and watched Rome on DVD. It looks like a good series, but I found it funny that all of the characters had british accents. Why not Latin accents? Or at least Italian. I guess a british accent says "historical" without needed subtitles?

A New Year, A New Green Card

Happy New Year! The day after we came back from Holland we were pleasantly surprised to find Erik's 10-year green card in the mail. We had applied for this one back in August to remove Erik's "conditional" resident status. He's now a permanent resident alien!

Chicago Pictures / part 1

Austin Thanksgiving

Finally, I'm posting pictures of this very fun trip. It was so nice that Mommoms and Mike came down at the same time too.

Happy Holidays!

We are now in Holland having a wonderful time. I've been meaning to post pictures from all of our recent trips: Austin, Chicago, and now Holland. Hopefully I'll have a chance soon.

Halloween and such

October

This has turned out to be a busy and exciting month. We went to Baltimore earlier this month for Nick and Isabelle's wedding...which was a blast, we had Louise visiting from Amsterdam, we worked a bunch, ate Polish food, celebrated Sara's birthday, went pumpkin and apple picking upstate, and settled into our winter coats. Erik even bought a new winter coat.

Even more exciting is certain baby news! Both Erik's sister Amke and her husband Niels and our friends Simone and David are expecting babies. Congratulations! We are so happy for everyone and can't wait to be Oom and Tante :)

New Pictures

Some kitties, some US Open, some construction next door. The much, much smaller orange kitty is my Grandmother's, aka "mini max". Try and spot Erik in the fourth photo.









The consturction next door seems to have stopped. They haven't worked for weeks and came in the middle of the night to take the digger machine away. Hopefully they ran out of money and will have to turn the space into a garden. Fingers crossed.