What a classic line. Yesterday I finally saw “Gone with the Wind”. It was in 4K which doesn’t mean much to me other than we didn’t get any special glasses like they have for 3-D. It is playing at the Eye which is a beautiful theater that sits across from Amsterdam Centraal. You take a little ferry across from the back of the station over the river IJ (pronounced eye). Even though it is a 5 minute ferry ride, it still feels like a holiday. I had never seen the film actually. I first read the book when I was 9 and then reread it every year afterwards until I was about 15. And now I am going to go back and read it again. It is definitely not for the weak of cheeks. At just shy of 4 hours of sitting time, you have to be determined. And here, when you go to the film, you don’t get up to leave to pee or refill your 64oz soda.

I have been getting good use out of my movie pass this week. Tuesday night, Marianne and I went to see “Aanmodderfakker” which roughly translates to “Slacker”. It won the Golden Calf prize this year. Of course the movie awards in this dairy crazy country are going to be cow themed! I couldn’t follow the half of the dialogue which was unfortunate because that was the best part but I did get the important points. I will try it again in another year and see if I can follow the dialogue any better. Marianne was not up for 4 hours of sitting for GWTW however!

New Year’s Eve was quiet for us. I closed all the doors and curtains. I started giving the boys the anti anxiety homeopathic drops around 6pm. Then we hunkered down into the big orange couch and I read about 500 pages of a library e-book that was due to expire at midnight. The fireworks were crazy. The boys did the best they could. We did end up with one accident in the house but all things considered, they did their best. Around 1215, I gave up trying to concentrate on watching “The Killing” season 2 because I couldn’t hear anything over the fireworks and we went to bed. I think fireworks were going off until well past 2am.

We started the New Year bright and surly and went to the park. It was lovely and still. The only people in it were other dog owners so we had a very long walk.

I wanted to start the New Year with making stuffing. I am not sure why, perhaps because I associate it with Christmas. However, I transposed the numbers and proceeded to fill the pan with 6 cups of water and 1 and 3/4 tablespoons of olive oil. Luckily, I caught myself before adding the stuffing. It was 1 3/4 cups of water and 6 tablespoons of olive oil. However since I had also put together all sorts of vegetables and spices in that 6 cups of water, I couldn’t bear to throw it out and instead made hutspot in the pan and then had a really good vegetable stock base for making pea soup or snert as it is called. My mom used to give me a hard time about my measurements when cooking. When I was 11 or so and making brownies for school, I refused to believe that 1 cup was not 16 oz. We argued about it and I was so stubborn and refused to admit I was wrong. Well, you can imagine how those brownies turned out… When my mom wanted to make her point, she would say “how many ounces are in a cup again?”

Kind of a grey day this morning. Actually it is raining, which puts a crimp in our outdoor plans. Oh darn, I guess that means I have an excuse to read and play banjo while I am doing the laundry and feeling super multi tasking.

Tomorrow is Mom’s birthday. I have agonized over the choices of Mexican restaurants here. And instead, I decided that I will go to a good vegetarian restaurant I know, the Golden Temple. They have two Mexican main courses. And I will eat there and find a margarita on the way back to toast mom. The taste of the food is more important than the décor.

Okay, I am going to make myself some breakfast now since no one else will do it if I don’t. The boys can’t be trusted with knives nor am I entirely sure that that we would have the same idea of what a good breakfast was! 🙂