Beautiful place for a seminar Huis `t Velde in Warnsveld
For a cup of coffee and a short meet-up you are very welcome at my place in The Hague, ready accessible near Huis ten Bosch. If you prefer some Chinese or Indonesian food, The Hague has some excellent restaurants either in city center or the sea resort of Scheveningen.
Djawa
Sunday would be difficult to meet, except in the evening.
“Treason doth never prosper: what’s the reason?
For if it prosper, none dare call it treason.”
Just starting my second cup of coffee and trying to get my eyes opened. Hope everyone in the pond is doing fine today.
It has warmed up again in the Southeast and we’re expecting storms again. Back and forth, back and forth – it never stays cold or hot. I’m almost looking forward to a stifling summer just so it will quit jumping back and forth.
Actually, there’s supposed to be a an overnighter so the hosts don’t have to feel like they need to hurry and put up a new cafe first thing after they roll out of bed.
Froggybottom totally forgot that you’d be doing one! Bad froggybottom! You can start a new one any time you want to, now or later, and we’ll close this one.
Thanks, CG. His beloved Playstation 2 gave out at Christmastime, so I bought him a replacement last week. So now his birthday is rather anticlimactic. Maybe I’ll give him his allowance in a birthday card today.
My mother has 24 such riches, but, oddly given the fact that she’s got 8 children, she doesn’t like kids very much. She’s a nervous, glum chain-smoker who likes to stay in her condo by herself.
I am taking applications on my kids’ behalf for honorary grandparents.
They both would take on as many grandkids as they can get (my mom now has great-grandkids) — as long as I’m throwing around slut categoris — they are baby sluts. It’s too bad they are so far away (Cincy and Indy).
My kids drew the short straw when it comes to grandparents. My ex’s parents live in the UP of Michigan and feigned a cursory level of interest in our kids, and then dropped them like a hot potato when I divorced their son. Not. a. word.
That is really shocking. Both my sisters are divorced and it made not a bit of difference to the grandparents. I’m of the opinion that you are better off without people who would act like that.
“White Man” holidays….
And why the hell do we stil even celebrate “Columbus Day?” For his “discovering” America?? Idiot thought he had reached India, for Christ’s sake!
“And why the hell do we still even celebrate “Columbus Day?”
It isn’t the same since they made it into a three day holiday, but as a child it was exciting to see my birth-date in big red numerals on the calendar. I used to tell people that I arrived the same day as Columbus, just a few centuries later.
Because they need some holiday the stores can advertise between labor day and thanksgiving.
Or perhaps the government just admires the Spanish monarchs’ clever technique of funding the voyage with the confiscated property of the Jews they expelled from Spain.
I’m at work, but since most of the clients have the day off, it will probably be a quiet day. (My employer gives us four “floating” holidays we can use whenever, rather than the additional federal holidays like MLK and Columbus Day. The flexibility is worth it.) There was hardly any traffic this morning, made the drive to work much easier.
I have the BooBook on order from Powell’s — looking forward to actually getting to participate in the book club discussion this time! 🙂
I’ve been flipping back and forth between Howard Zinn’s People’s History and Lies My Teacher Told Me, because it fills in more of the details that way. Do you have both books?
BTW, I’m still pulling for a fluffier book like Bird by Bird or Jitterbug Perfume next time…
Now I’m off to work — a Monday morning at that. Oh how I wish I could stay in my warm bed. It’s very cold today … -5F/-21C … and w/ windchill they’re saying -31C. But at least the sun is out today! 🙂
Not to pick on you or anything (well, maybe a little) but I have noticed that you have a sort of “love the one you’re with” relationship with photos. Jim says that this is what is known as being a ‘photo slut’ (a term derived from my well-known tendency to be a puppy slut).
I must be a flower-photo slut too, because I immediately download the newest one for my wallpaper. This morning when I turned on my computer I noticed that my son had replaced the one of the inside of a tulip (yes, I admit it had blatant sexual overtones to it) with some tropical fish swimming around in a sea of blue.
This yellow one is just the right thing for the dead of winter.
Ha! I’ll have you know I remained loyal to a trail photo of yours for MONTHS. Until this very morning. Oh, I admired others, yes I freely admit I did, but I didn’t dump yours over for just any sweet young thing. I’ll admit though, this morning’s rose has turned my head.
I adore Bird by Bird and would be delighted to have written anything like it, but I’d have to say they’re different animals. Hers is more directly about writing, mine’s more about being a writer. The idea behind the book is, really, that you’re not crazy, you’re just a writer, so it feels that way. Or, okay, you are crazy–because you’re a writer–and here’s how to ride it. Also, if it’s any comfort, you are not alone.
Well, it’s nice to hear I’m not crazy. 🙂 Or, wait a minute, maybe I am…
Ordered it. Hoping for some Inspiration! I’ve been feeling at loose ends lately, this is the first time in about five years I haven’t had a writing committment hanging over my head, a deadline coming up, and I’m not sure what to do with myself!
I love woodcutting tools! (Probably from watching my grandad use them when I was very small.) Now, I have taken a zillion pics of my flowers, but you are giving me ideas.
The image is from the Garrett Wade catalog which is just full of gorgeous images of hand tools. We got the print version for years just for the pictures.
I laugh at the cover of the book “Waiting” by Ha Jin.
It’s an excellent book, but the whole point of the book is that a Chinese doctor, who had married a woman in his small village while very young, and is now in love with a fellow physician in his city hospital, has to wait until he is divorced from his “country wife” before he can be intimate with his “city wife,” so to speak.
I recommend the book, but you ain’t gonna get a lot of sex, folks…
Did anybody besides me get a shocker of a gas bill for this last month? Here’s the amazing thing–I cut my usage 50%. . .fifty percent!. . .from the same period last year. That’s pretty damned good, right? I did that by keeping the thermo between 59 and 63, mostly at 60. And I still had a huge gas bill! I have now added another layer of clothing and lowered the thermo to 50-53. And I’m somebody who doesn’t go to an office. I work here, when I’m not working at a library.
Today I’m going to cover some windows that need it.
I can pay the bill this month(there have been plenty of months when I couldn’t have), but what in the world will so many other people do??
My mom, who lives in a much smaller place, put in a new heat pump this winter. She said if she hadn’t done that her bill would have been $500-600!
No. But ours did double from the bill we got in Dec & the bill in Jan. mister has the house pretty sealed, so that might make a difference. Still, while it wasn’t enough to break us, I guess we haven’t ever had a gas bill this high.
I put in a new oil burner and programmable thermostat this past summer…My usage is down by 50% too, but I think it’s partly due to the mild weather we’ve had over the past few weeks.
The programmable thermostat is great…no more falling asleep and forgetting to turn the hea down for the night, plus I have it set it come on about 15 minutes before I get up in the morning so I don’t have to freeze getting out of bed.
My son in Cleveland put plastic on all his windows and keeps the thermostate at 62 degrees all the time. His gas bill for December was $325 for half a duplex. I sent him a down comforter and lots of sweaters and thermal underwear for Christmas.
Yet another reason to be happy we heat with wood. We call money we spend on things we don’t want to buy but have to “underwear money”; $400 of underwear money on something that is invisible would make me weep.
here is the water heater, so we’re not too bad — our electric has been high (electric heating plus having to use lights more); fortunately most of our lighting fixtures (where possible) are compact fluorescents.
In-laws got hit with a HUGE water bill; they’re not sure how, but are worried there might be a leak somewhere, possibly in the drip watering system. Their gardening guru is coming out this week to check it out. We’re having dinner with them next Sunday to discuss strategies; dad-in-law is having back surgery on February 1st (prayers, good thoughts, whatever appreciated), so much of what he does for mom-in-law will have to be done by someone else. I may be staying with them for a week or several, if they think they’ll need an extra set of hands, and the spouse can stay over on weekends. Their youngest son will be there though, and he already does quite a bit (he says his official title is “houseboy”), so we’ll see if I’m needed. I might at least spend a weekend making some casseroles and packaging them up for easy reheating, and I know both the Pastoral Care group at their church and the Healing Prayer team (that my dad-in-law is a very active member of) will pitch in as well.
Okay, computer backup completed so time for me to get to work around here…
Our bill was 230% higher than last year, but we used 24% less fuel. Lovely! As it has turned very cold since that bill, I’m expecting a bill in 4 figures next time.
Sun is barely peeking out here on the Left Coast…no day off here; spouse is getting ready for work, and I’m staring at a bunch of crap that needs to be done. Was hoping to go out and play with my new toy (digital video camera) today, but should probably be a good spud and stay in to clean. 🙁 Ah well…at least I can spend some time on the computer while I’m doing my folder backup. 🙂
I apologize again to the Bears and the Colts fans here for giving their teams the Kiss of Death by picking them to win…
Could you please pick Denver to win the AFC Championship game? I hate the Broncos, mainly because of some painful memories of AFC championship games past, involving my beloved, yet terminally cursed Cleveland Browns.
Newcomers & Lurkers Welcome!Come on in!
Who’s at work, who’s on vacation, who’s at home? Whose team won? Whose team lost?
The coffee’s hot in the pot!
Please recommend this cafe and unrecommend ye olde one.
Thank you.
Good morning, froggybottom. Got to have coffee before I commit any more typing.
.
Sven, that’s a quick organizer.
Beautiful place for a seminar Huis `t Velde in Warnsveld
For a cup of coffee and a short meet-up you are very welcome at my place in The Hague, ready accessible near Huis ten Bosch. If you prefer some Chinese or Indonesian food, The Hague has some excellent restaurants either in city center or the sea resort of Scheveningen.
DjawaSunday would be difficult to meet, except in the evening.
“Treason doth never prosper: what’s the reason?
For if it prosper, none dare call it treason.”
▼▼▼ READ MY DIARY ▼
What a beautiful place. Sigh. Nobody does Europe like the Europeans. 🙂
Good Morning
Just starting my second cup of coffee and trying to get my eyes opened. Hope everyone in the pond is doing fine today.
It has warmed up again in the Southeast and we’re expecting storms again. Back and forth, back and forth – it never stays cold or hot. I’m almost looking forward to a stifling summer just so it will quit jumping back and forth.
We’re having that kind of weather, too. We’ve had so many warm days that I’m getting yard work done that has never been done before.
Same with me on yard work. But I hate yard work. So the winter has always been a friend to me. I guess I should have been born Inuit.
Here in Rochester, NY it was in the 60’s on Thursday, and around 10 degrees on Saturday!
Thank you, froggybottom, for opening up the Monday cafe. I must have overslept! Either that or I have a horrible reputation for being unreliable. 🙂
Actually, there’s supposed to be a an overnighter so the hosts don’t have to feel like they need to hurry and put up a new cafe first thing after they roll out of bed.
Froggybottom totally forgot that you’d be doing one! Bad froggybottom! You can start a new one any time you want to, now or later, and we’ll close this one.
This one looks lovely. I’ll just hang around here for awhile and talk to you guys, and open another one when needed.
Today is my baby’s 16th birthday. How the f*ck did I get to be so old! :::ugly crying:::
Um, you’re supposed to say “How could he be 16 already when I’m only 30?” with a puzzled look on your face…
Happy Birthday to your son!
Thanks, CG. His beloved Playstation 2 gave out at Christmastime, so I bought him a replacement last week. So now his birthday is rather anticlimactic. Maybe I’ll give him his allowance in a birthday card today.
Sounds good. Take it easy this morning, courtesy of forgetful froggybottom.
l6th birthday! Funny, you don’t look like the mother of a 16 year old. A six-year-old, maybe.
That’s because I’ve smeared my monitor with Vaseline a la Barbara Walters. I’m also the mother of a 24 year old :::shudder:::
Vasoline, lol! I wonder if she walks around with somebody in front of her holding up a glass panel with vasoline smeared on it?
Notice how nice kansas and I are about not pointing out how much older we are than you — oh wait, notice how nice kansas is …
Happy birthday to you son, you decrepit ole thang.
Silence speaks volumes sometimes.
The cool thing about Ben’s birthday is that his cousin also turns 16 today. My sister and I had baby boys on the same day in 1990.
I break my silence to say. . .that must have been an amazing time.
What an embarrassment of riches for your mother (my mother has me trained — I see all kids as existing purely for the pleasure of their grandmother).
My mother has 24 such riches, but, oddly given the fact that she’s got 8 children, she doesn’t like kids very much. She’s a nervous, glum chain-smoker who likes to stay in her condo by herself.
I am taking applications on my kids’ behalf for honorary grandparents.
They both would take on as many grandkids as they can get (my mom now has great-grandkids) — as long as I’m throwing around slut categoris — they are baby sluts. It’s too bad they are so far away (Cincy and Indy).
My kids drew the short straw when it comes to grandparents. My ex’s parents live in the UP of Michigan and feigned a cursory level of interest in our kids, and then dropped them like a hot potato when I divorced their son. Not. a. word.
That is really shocking. Both my sisters are divorced and it made not a bit of difference to the grandparents. I’m of the opinion that you are better off without people who would act like that.
None for me (but I get President’s Day and Columbus Day off — go figure).
“White Man” holidays….
And why the hell do we stil even celebrate “Columbus Day?” For his “discovering” America?? Idiot thought he had reached India, for Christ’s sake!
“And why the hell do we still even celebrate “Columbus Day?”
It isn’t the same since they made it into a three day holiday, but as a child it was exciting to see my birth-date in big red numerals on the calendar. I used to tell people that I arrived the same day as Columbus, just a few centuries later.
Several times my son has had his birthday off from school….for MLK day.
Because they need some holiday the stores can advertise between labor day and thanksgiving.
Or perhaps the government just admires the Spanish monarchs’ clever technique of funding the voyage with the confiscated property of the Jews they expelled from Spain.
season–Christmas Marketing.
Speaking of Columbus Day. . .have you had a chance to read/hear any of our BooBook yet? There’s lots of interesting stuff about Columbus.
Next BooBook book club selection: Lies My Teachers Told Me, by James W. Loewen. BooBook meeting date: Sat., Feb. 11, 2006. Everybody’s welcome.
I’m at work, but since most of the clients have the day off, it will probably be a quiet day. (My employer gives us four “floating” holidays we can use whenever, rather than the additional federal holidays like MLK and Columbus Day. The flexibility is worth it.) There was hardly any traffic this morning, made the drive to work much easier.
I have the BooBook on order from Powell’s — looking forward to actually getting to participate in the book club discussion this time! 🙂
I’ve been flipping back and forth between Howard Zinn’s People’s History and Lies My Teacher Told Me, because it fills in more of the details that way. Do you have both books?
BTW, I’m still pulling for a fluffier book like Bird by Bird or Jitterbug Perfume next time…
I’ve uploaded a couple new photos. This one is from the summer/fall,
Yellow rose, taken 10.16.2005 (view large)
Now I’m off to work — a Monday morning at that. Oh how I wish I could stay in my warm bed. It’s very cold today … -5F/-21C … and w/ windchill they’re saying -31C. But at least the sun is out today! 🙂
Gorgeous picture, olivia.
How are you doing lately. Any more papers, or all you finished w/ the course?
Wow. I feel warmer just looking at that. It may take over my Favorite spot from the pink one.
Not to pick on you or anything (well, maybe a little) but I have noticed that you have a sort of “love the one you’re with” relationship with photos. Jim says that this is what is known as being a ‘photo slut’ (a term derived from my well-known tendency to be a puppy slut).
I must be a flower-photo slut too, because I immediately download the newest one for my wallpaper. This morning when I turned on my computer I noticed that my son had replaced the one of the inside of a tulip (yes, I admit it had blatant sexual overtones to it) with some tropical fish swimming around in a sea of blue.
This yellow one is just the right thing for the dead of winter.
I just wallpapered it, too. WOW!
That’s what ‘Martin’ wrote on the flickr site … something like “shows the reproductive parts well.”
🙂
Georgia O’Keeffe would be very inspired by your photos. I think my sons were bothered by the large, um, pistil.
Ha! I’ll have you know I remained loyal to a trail photo of yours for MONTHS. Until this very morning. Oh, I admired others, yes I freely admit I did, but I didn’t dump yours over for just any sweet young thing. I’ll admit though, this morning’s rose has turned my head.
Speaking of loyalty, have you been over to Eat4Today this morning and seen the new addition on the sidebar?
I might have to read that one on writing. It sounds a little like Bird by Bird?
I adore Bird by Bird and would be delighted to have written anything like it, but I’d have to say they’re different animals. Hers is more directly about writing, mine’s more about being a writer. The idea behind the book is, really, that you’re not crazy, you’re just a writer, so it feels that way. Or, okay, you are crazy–because you’re a writer–and here’s how to ride it. Also, if it’s any comfort, you are not alone.
Sounds like I would enjoy it. Does katiebird get a share if you buy it through E4T?
Any site you buy it from gets a share.
Well, it’s nice to hear I’m not crazy. 🙂 Or, wait a minute, maybe I am…
Ordered it. Hoping for some Inspiration! I’ve been feeling at loose ends lately, this is the first time in about five years I haven’t had a writing committment hanging over my head, a deadline coming up, and I’m not sure what to do with myself!
I have. Is she a sweetie, or what?
I was only going to lurk, but “photo slut” captured me beyond staying away. I’ve got to remember that one!
I am a photo slut for hardware porn.
I love woodcutting tools! (Probably from watching my grandad use them when I was very small.) Now, I have taken a zillion pics of my flowers, but you are giving me ideas.
The image is from the Garrett Wade catalog which is just full of gorgeous images of hand tools. We got the print version for years just for the pictures.
Well, now ya got me salivating!!!
They’ve got some tools I’ve never even seen before, wow!
Might even energize me to use the one’s I’ve got, ha!
opened my sleepy eyes right up.
I laugh at the cover of the book “Waiting” by Ha Jin.
It’s an excellent book, but the whole point of the book is that a Chinese doctor, who had married a woman in his small village while very young, and is now in love with a fellow physician in his city hospital, has to wait until he is divorced from his “country wife” before he can be intimate with his “city wife,” so to speak.
I recommend the book, but you ain’t gonna get a lot of sex, folks…
Did anybody besides me get a shocker of a gas bill for this last month? Here’s the amazing thing–I cut my usage 50%. . .fifty percent!. . .from the same period last year. That’s pretty damned good, right? I did that by keeping the thermo between 59 and 63, mostly at 60. And I still had a huge gas bill! I have now added another layer of clothing and lowered the thermo to 50-53. And I’m somebody who doesn’t go to an office. I work here, when I’m not working at a library.
Today I’m going to cover some windows that need it.
I can pay the bill this month(there have been plenty of months when I couldn’t have), but what in the world will so many other people do??
My mom, who lives in a much smaller place, put in a new heat pump this winter. She said if she hadn’t done that her bill would have been $500-600!
kansas! Maybe there’s something wrong, could you have a window open somewhere? I don’t think ours was that bad.
(ps email)
Do you have the steady payment plan?
No. But ours did double from the bill we got in Dec & the bill in Jan. mister has the house pretty sealed, so that might make a difference. Still, while it wasn’t enough to break us, I guess we haven’t ever had a gas bill this high.
I put in a new oil burner and programmable thermostat this past summer…My usage is down by 50% too, but I think it’s partly due to the mild weather we’ve had over the past few weeks.
The programmable thermostat is great…no more falling asleep and forgetting to turn the hea down for the night, plus I have it set it come on about 15 minutes before I get up in the morning so I don’t have to freeze getting out of bed.
The price of gas went up that much? Geez.
My son in Cleveland put plastic on all his windows and keeps the thermostate at 62 degrees all the time. His gas bill for December was $325 for half a duplex. I sent him a down comforter and lots of sweaters and thermal underwear for Christmas.
Wow, I thought I had it bad. My bill was over $400 for a tri-plex house. About $55 of that was for something called “Gas Delivery Charge.”
Yet another reason to be happy we heat with wood. We call money we spend on things we don’t want to buy but have to “underwear money”; $400 of underwear money on something that is invisible would make me weep.
On our electricity bill.
Much of our power is hydro, and water’s been getting scarce around here.
Oh, wait.
here is the water heater, so we’re not too bad — our electric has been high (electric heating plus having to use lights more); fortunately most of our lighting fixtures (where possible) are compact fluorescents.
In-laws got hit with a HUGE water bill; they’re not sure how, but are worried there might be a leak somewhere, possibly in the drip watering system. Their gardening guru is coming out this week to check it out. We’re having dinner with them next Sunday to discuss strategies; dad-in-law is having back surgery on February 1st (prayers, good thoughts, whatever appreciated), so much of what he does for mom-in-law will have to be done by someone else. I may be staying with them for a week or several, if they think they’ll need an extra set of hands, and the spouse can stay over on weekends. Their youngest son will be there though, and he already does quite a bit (he says his official title is “houseboy”), so we’ll see if I’m needed. I might at least spend a weekend making some casseroles and packaging them up for easy reheating, and I know both the Pastoral Care group at their church and the Healing Prayer team (that my dad-in-law is a very active member of) will pitch in as well.
Okay, computer backup completed so time for me to get to work around here…
Our bill was 230% higher than last year, but we used 24% less fuel. Lovely! As it has turned very cold since that bill, I’m expecting a bill in 4 figures next time.
Gulp!
Sun is barely peeking out here on the Left Coast…no day off here; spouse is getting ready for work, and I’m staring at a bunch of crap that needs to be done. Was hoping to go out and play with my new toy (digital video camera) today, but should probably be a good spud and stay in to clean. 🙁 Ah well…at least I can spend some time on the computer while I’m doing my folder backup. 🙂
I apologize again to the Bears and the Colts fans here for giving their teams the Kiss of Death by picking them to win…
Could you please pick Denver to win the AFC Championship game? I hate the Broncos, mainly because of some painful memories of AFC championship games past, involving my beloved, yet terminally cursed Cleveland Browns.
I hate the Broncos, too, so yes, please, pick them.
I’m going to take my daughter’s dog for a walk. I’m also looking ahead — where is all this activity leading?
What are you going to do today?
Diary whoring: Your health is your power