but not packed yet. Today GG went to get 20 packs of gehakt (meatball) spices for Rupert and Meredith. They had sent a text with a photo of the empty package and wondered if we could bring them some more. Of course we can! Not to be outdone by GG, I went and collected an equivalent amount of Indonesian spices for them so they create some kitchen magic (and the resulting gas) in Chicago. Tomorrow I will pick up the bricks of cheese and go and get Meredith’s favorite stroopwafels fresh from the Albert Cuyp market.

It was really hot today. George had a seizure this afternoon. Not sure if it was due to the weather change or some kind of stress that he knows we are leaving tomorrow. As it is, we’ll pack the suitcases tomorrow morning while they are out with their dogpack friends so they won’t know. I mean, do they think the tortillas just arrive here by magic? 😉

Tomorrow it is supposed to storm and rain alot so the two days of summer heat we just had appear to have been summer. I don’t mind actually. I am rarely cold.

I needed to edit the instructions for the housesitter today. I wrote the instructions a year ago, when Moortje was still living. It was pretty hard to delete the parts about him. It’s nearly a year ago that he left us. I miss having a cat like him around. If we move to a bigger place, the first place I will go after everything is unpacked is to the animal shelter. Even though I think Lientje is doing pretty well on her own, I would like to provide her with a friend. George follows her around trying to get into her food so I think she might enjoy a well behaved feline companion. Henry says that he doesn’t mind sharing his baskets (they are in multiple places in the house) as long as no one expects that he will get up early and go running with the newcomer. 😉

We looked at a house today that had an amazing garden, right down to fish pond and outdoor fireplace. It was a really beautiful house. However, it’s not number one on the list. There were too many separate rooms and I am used to one big open space. I like that kind of freedom. With so many individual rooms, the house felt alot smaller than it was. GG and I have had many discussions about open vs closed rooms. I think I am convincing her slowly that rooms do not have to be separated. However, she still will not knock out the wall in her kitchen to make it part of the dining room 😉

We’re not going to look at anything else now until after we are back. The good thing about looking at all of these different places makes me realize what I really like about where I live now and what I would choose differently so that helps. I think we really will end up somewhere in South Holland (Amsterdam is in North Holland). For the record, even though it sounds like a major difference – it’s about 45 miles from Amsterdam to Rotterdam so you can easily do it without packing a lunch and survival backpack. Although many people think otherwise 😉