Jindabyne among other things

Last weekend, Mike was in town for the ICFF fair. The Javits Center is such a crazy huge place. It's on the edge of Manhattan and seems to be a city in itself. Mike and Chris (his friend from Chicago) stayed out late most nights. Erik and I made it until 2 am twice...a record for this married old couple. On Friday we ended up at the Delancey where we saw Penelope Cruz being ushered through the crowd by a body guard. Of course this exciting news was lost on Erik and Mike who responded with "Who?" Luckily, we had the DVD "Volver" at home so I could point her out.

Louise is also in town for 6 weeks from Australia. We met up with her Saturday for dinner and then saw the movie Jindabyne. A quiet, haunting movie that I really recommend. It's scary without the usual Hollywood tricks that make you jump out of your seat.

Much has been happening on Huron Street. 3 of the 4 corner buildings have had some kind of renovation. The two laundramats seem to be competing for the flashiest sign. And the "Bagel on the Run" replaced it's flaming type sign with a new vinyl one. It turns out the same guy is opening a "Pets on the Run" store across the street. I guess he is really on a run! What will be next? "Chinese on the Run" "Liquor on the Run" We'll see.

We're relaxing this holiday weekend since we'll be out of town the two following weekends for weddings. Friday was my first half-day Friday at work. Awesome!

Yesterday, we heard from Marijke that she's just been offered a job in Rotterdam at a Children's Theater. This is really the area she was hoping to work in and we are so excited for her! Congratulations Marijke! Can't wait to visit you in Rotterdam.

Things we've been up to but haven't had a chance to write about...

I realized looking at the photos on my camera that we've been up to quite a lot these past few weekends. During our first weekend back from Holland, we did part of the New York Bike Tour, went to Josephine's Thesis opening for her Columbia MFA(congratulations!), and shopped til we dropped at a LeSports Sac sample sale (Erik did really well against all of the crazy women). Our jetlag got the most of us and by Sunday night we were falling over.
Last weekend we had Chinatown dim sum with Edwin and Kathy then went to Red Hook for the BWAC (Brooklyn Waterfront Artist Coalition) to see Nates's photos and eat some key lime pie near the pier. Red Hook is one of those neighborhoods I had always heard about but had never ventured to until a few months ago. The bus the runs through Greenpoint (the B61) ends in Red Hook so we took the bus all the way home...which felt like forever after all of the stops! On Sunday Aaron and Caitlin came over for brunch on the deck (complete with poffertjes) and a walk around Brooklyn.
Mike is in town from Chicago this weekend for the ICFF conference. More to post later.

Bokito

Yesterday morning Erik emailed me that the gorilla Bokito in the Blijdorp Zoo in Rotterdam had escaped and had hurt a woman. Crazy! We had just visited this zoo on our last trip with Jordy (Erik's cousin) and his girlfriend Rene and when we saw this gorilla we talked about how horrible it would be if it escaped. This was after Bokito pounded on the glass so hard that it echoed in the room. I took some pictures of Bokito as well as his lady gorilla and their baby. The fourth picture is of the cutest little monkey sleeping.

More NL pics

Family Photos

Cedric Photos

What a cutie! Amke and Niels seem like such natural parents. We are so happy we made it to Holland to see everyone.

Back from Holland

We flew back Friday night from our week long trip to Holland to see Erik's family. We had a wonderful time! We met our adorbale nephew Cedric (who looked very sporty in his New York Yankees onesie), saw some lovely spring tulips, celebrated Queen's Day and much more. Took a bazillion photos and hope to get them posted shortly. The weather was perfect the entire week, not a drop of rain.