Amsterdam, Holland: A cool car, a cool bar, a cool lady from afar

This car is a craze over here. We've seen two of them.

This bar had sawdust on the floor and a very jovial clientele. It was beginning to drizzle outside, and we sat to drink some coffee and beer while we wrote postcards. It's a little cool here - we noticed the fall air as soon as we stepped out of the airport - but still warm enough that people are keeping their doors open. The new university students sat in the square outside as it rained.

It seems strange, but I had almost forgotten about all of the canals. We read that there is an entire store devoted to mosquito nets - I imagine because of all the standing water.

Hi, Pop!

I saw this soup shop today and thought posting a pic of it would be the perfect way to offer a cyber shout-out to my father. Get Well Soon, Pop!

Putting together a kitchen

It’s tough to decide what to bring, what we’ll need, what seems necessary and what seems extravagant (but maybe necessary?). I don’t typically think of weight when I buy things for the kitchen. Now, though, I think about it a lot. Why am I bringing two very heavy pans instead of one lighter one?

(The Le Creuset pot works for searing things that I’d rather not put in the cast iron… my all clad skillet isn’t as versatile as the cast iron, and it takes up more space.)

The spices were culled down to a few that I can’t live without, and that travel well. The knives weren’t difficult – mine, Rebecca’s, a serrated one and a paring knife.

Rebecca made the roll-up case out of her old trench coat.

A grater, can opener, peeler, colander, measuring spoons, knife sharpener, spatulas, etc…

The nice thing about traveling by car is that you can bring a lot of stuff that you would never carry on your back. It’s tempting to bring too much.

There's a nice feeling that comes with simplicity and self-limitation. I was going to bring my immersion blender until Rebecca reminded me that there aren't usually power outlets at campground tables.

Moving Day

We moved out! Well, not entirely, but the big stuff is out of the apartment and into storage in Vermont: the couch, the chairs, the bookshelves, our books, all the martini glasses save two (we think ahead), etc. There's still a lot more to pack and move, which will most likely necessitate a second trip to Vermont and a few more runs to my father's place, but any day you parallel park a Uhaul truck in Manhattan and fill it with furniture carried down from your fourth floor walk-up has got to earn the title "Moving Day."

Merlin's brother Luke and his girlfriend Sarah were around to help, which was great.

Luke helped Merlin lift...

While Sarah guarded the Uhaul for hours...

And hours...

And hours...


It was a hot two days, and many Diet Dr. Peppers were had, but finally we were ready to get on the road up to the storage unit. Merlin and I were in the Uhaul with Sarah and Luke following in our Subaru.

By the time we arrived at the storage unit we were a little delirious from the heat and the magnitude of the job ahead of us.


Inspired by Luke's tanned shirtlessness (and heat stroke), Merlin began a storage unit photoshoot


which resulted in the best faux hipster rock band album cover ever:

(Again- it was hot. My dress was discarded. I'm not ashamed and, yes, I wear bloomers).

Amazingly, everything we brought fit , with some room to spare. It may have been tighter had we brought our bed, but when the boys couldn't figure out how to take it apart, they decided to just chop it to pieces and leave it behind. Of course, on around the third hammer whack, they saw exactly how it could have been dismantled... but, hey, one less thing to put in storage. We never liked that bed anyway...