Not so busy that last night I didn’t pay attention to the voice in my head that said “I think you better check in with the petsitter and make sure that she is still coming.” What do you know… she forgot to write it down in her agenda (or type it in as the young people do these days) and she can’t housesit because she has to housesit for her own family since they are on vacation. That’s a bummer for sure because there’s nobody the pets like quite as much as they do Nikah when it comes to housesitting.

I might have another option before starting the quest for a professional housesitter. It’s not an option not to go to the mountains of NC. GG can’t stay behind because let’s be honest, she’s hoping to add to her line dancing ensemble. It will work out. At the moment, one brother isn’t coming. Although we’re hoping to still convince Dylan to join for the weekend so we can have 100% attendance for even 2 days. Nope, we’re not goal motivated at all!

Things have been super busy with the team. I’m getting alot of opportunity to watch my interns deliver the solutions to problems they are presented with. It’s a great experience. One of the organizations we are partnering with said to me yesterday “You feel a little bit like a proud parent, don’t you?” Apparently, it was pretty visible on my face! We finished yesterday’s session with a walk through a kinderboerderij (literal translation childfarm, but actually a petting zoo) which was at my request. From there, they all piled into Astrid and I dropped them off at the nearest train station before heading back up to Amsterdam. Sounds like the start of a joke… how many interns can you fit into a Saab??

As for the rest of things, well, we are now back to starting over the housing search. New search criteria: monumental status, built before 1906, with a garden, on water and with at least 250 sq meters. And I am willing to look all over the Netherlands. Before I started narrowing it down to include that it had to be on water, I had 458 choices to look at. Too much! Requiring that it be on some kind of water brought it down to a more reasonable 52.  Of those 52, there’s not a single one in Amsterdam, which says alot about how picky we are being or how crazy the housing market is here. I could probably find it in Amsterdam but I would have to double to price range and that’s something I am not willing to do.

This morning the email came that the big house is officially sold under agreement. I knew it was coming but it still made me scowl. I will try to rework that reaction. Yesterday I came across a listing that was one street over and used pictures of the big house to illustrate what an amazing view the neighborhood had. It’s okay, we will find the right spot for us.

Who knows? It might even be North Carolina… ehhh, somehow I doubt it but maybe being there inspires us to apply for jobs with the National Park Service and live in the Great Smoky Mountains. It could happen *shrug*

I joined a bluegrass meetup group for jam sessions. Going to try to learn to play in front of other people. I think it might help me get better, especially if I know that I will need to keep up.