The weather has changed to sunny! Around the city, the cafes are putting out their outdoor seating, people are wearing lighter weight scarves and the sound of industrious people doing their yard maintenance is everywhere. Tonight my neighbor to the left was busy trying to take down tree in his yard. I am not sure why.I know he had a lot of ropes attached to a tree that was probably only 7 feet tall. Perhaps he wants to put in something else.

 

This morning I got to the train station via Beatrix instead of the bus! Wow, what a wake up experience that was, almost better than Nespresso. It only took about 7 minutes to get from home to the station. Until the rains come again, I am definitely biking to the train station. My goal in the near term future is to be able to ride my bike to the office. I have to figure out the route first. I am quite sure it is possible. There tend to be bike paths everywhere. I got a very useful piece of advice about riding the bike today. It was RELAX. The more relaxed I am on the bike, the less wobbly I will be. I hadn’t thought about this until it was mentioned and then I realized I ride my bike all clenched muscles, as if I am holding the bike up by sheer force of will.

 

Tomorrow I am volunteering at a Games Jam 4 Diversity – the idea being that video games could use a lot more diversity in their content, characters and audiences. It should be an interesting event and I am, of course, getting there via Beatrix.

 

Wednesday, Joanne came down to the big city and took me to lunch at Sla (Dutch for Salad). As if that wasn’t tasty enough, then we wandered through Albert Cuyp street market looking at everything and buying nothing. There seems to be a tendency in my family of endless store browsing. Just ask people who knew my mom about her Fred Meyer browsing hourS. I’ve got it too, but I contain it relatively well. I passed it on to my kiddo by association if not blood and Joanne has definitely got it. Which makes her the perfect companion for these kind of moments. We did find a patch of sunlight with an empty bench to have a good coffee. I am looking forward to the next time, I think we will have to browse the flower market next time.

 

I have a new to me phone. One of my coworkers traded with me for my old school model. This means I now have a much better camera and one that can take pictures at night. And this means that when her partner breaks his phone – apparently he is phone dangerous, she has a super sturdy one to give him instead.

 

I got my library card today. It was exciting. Now I can check out books that are suited to my Dutch reading level. So, I have a children’s illustrated dictionary for 7 and up and two volumes of “Stoute Hendrik” which is the translation from the British series “Horrid Henry”. If you have never read these, they are great! I am supposed to be reading them to get a sense of sentence structure, etc. But truthfully, I read them more to see what that kid is going to do next. He’s impossible. You can only check out 8 items at a time though. And there’s a limit to request 10 items a year to be sent to your branch. So, for those of you Seattle Public Library patrons with the unlimited privileges, be grateful 🙂

 

I also went to the original Dr. Fish today. Those little fish do a great job but next time I will have to sit there longer than 20 minutes. It felt very strange at first but soon I was so soothed by the sounds of the water, I almost fell asleep in the chair. The only reason I stayed awake is I didn’t want to jostle or squish the fish by accidently letting my feet hit the bottom of the tub. It was cool to do it and I can definitely scratch it off my list of things to have done. But I don’t see myself going every week.

 

I found a new home for my banjo. It is going to a friend of a Renee’s cousin who runs a program for kids who want to make music and can’t afford instruments. It went today so that will be good. I feel good about it because I will be going to the music store to get a banjo that I can properly work with and practice on for years to come. You are looking forward to that, aren’t you? Don’t deny it.

 

Anyway, it has been a pretty busy week and will be a busy weekend. I have a lot of good things to be thankful for this week.