I can definitely say that 2018 was certainly the year of learning for me. I think I learned something new in just about every corner of my life. I made a deliberate choice to learn certain things, like how to build machine learning models or how make chili pepper infused dates. Other things I learned because relying on someone else’s knowledge didn’t work out so well, like running payroll and navigating the complexities of the Dutch business codes.

The past year was also full of learning moments related to people. With so many transitions this year, there was more than enough educational moments in this area.

I am standing here, 9 days into the new year, looking at the finally sleeping pets and asking myself what I will do differently? I am still answering that question. I like to think of it as an elastic question, one that I can come back to and update.

One of the things I have decided to do is write more offline. Since starting my own little company, I have used far more paper and pen. It gives me room to think. It also connects the idea with the strategy and the action required very completely if it makes it all the way through to the To Do list. This also has been helped by the amazing amount of available notebooks I found when I was unpacking the office. 😉

I’ve decided to go to more movies. Netflix makes it too easy to stop going. With an independent filmhouse 150 meters from our front door, it doesn’t get any easier. This part of my initiative to get better at leading a full life and not feeling guilty if I am not spending every hour of the day on the company.

However, Netflix also brought us two evenings of “I love to tidy” inspiration/intimidation and GG and I were both inspired to get rid of even more stuff. We have discovered that we have different Marie Kondo timezones. I am much better in the early morning with sorting through my batch and she is much better in the evening. Yesterday morning, I started at 630. Of course, by around 2 PM I was ready for a nap!

As much as I hate to disturb the hardwon peace around here, I think I am going to wake up the boys and take them for a drag. It’s sunny today and in sharp contrast to the high winds of yesterday, two little dogs should be able to keep all four feet on the ground today. 🙂

It’s Saturday afternoon and we are just back from our walk. Just in time before it gets dark since the days are so short! Technically it is 34F but the Real Feel is 22F. However, regardless of temperature, the walks must go on. Otherwise we all go a little crazy from the hijinks of Pickle and Olive. As I am typing this, they are running through the living room, practicing their ability to fly without wings and to tackle each other midair.

For those of us who are more mature (read: all the non kitten residents) , escaping for a walk is sometimes the only way to get a little peace and quiet to think. It’s been two weeks since they arrived and so far, peace and quiet is the only thing to have been impacted. 😉

For the most part, they are super cute and affectionate. But they both have a mighty streak of bad seed running through their DNA 😉 Last night, I was reading, the dogs were quietly snoring, Olive was napping and Pickle was bored. He had been lying up against Henry (his portable Dachshund heater) and rolled over and proceeded to smack Henry with his nails from both paws right in the face. Henry yelped and jumped. Pickle didn’t move at all, he had a very satisfied smirk on his face. Henry got comforted and Pickle got a big NO with two taps on his paws.

Things are really busy, with the end of the year coming up. Suddenly, it is not just the end of the year as a person but also for the company. Which means hoping that I have gotten all of the right forms turned in and have been collecting the right information. I think the next person I look for will be administratively strong – if you know what I mean!

Other than the administrative, there are some challenges that come with a startup. I am working through them. For me, the most difficult thing is finding the balance between doing it myself and explaining what I am looking for to give someone else the room to succeed! Everyone requires a different level of direction and I am trying to find the method that works best for each person.

We won’t have a Christmas tree this year. The city was kind enough to put one for us that is directly visible from our house and out of reach of the kittens! Thursday night was the treelighting ceremony, which we eagerly bundled up in our sweaters, dogs included and went out to the square to watch.

I think that Thursday will be my last day of heading up to Amsterdam for the year. We will have a two week break for our students which means I am not needed there either. After spending 2.5 hours in the car on Monday morning to make the journey of 45 miles, I have decided only to go with the train now. I was against it because during rush hour, it’s expensive and costs more than a tank of gas if I go three days. However, after Monday, I realized that time was more important than money in this case 😉

Tomorrow we are going up to Amsterdam, but that’s for a special surprise. GG doesn’t know what we are doing yet, I only told her not to plan anything for tomorrow about three months ago (her calendar is legendarily difficult). It’s going to be a challenge and hopefully fun!

My brother, Pickle, tends to create the most ruckus. He’s a bit of a sourpuss, hence his name. He’s also the runt so he feels the need to call attention to himself, ALOT. Me? I’m a little more subtle. I prefer to let the masses come to me.

For example, I’ve already figured it out. The white and brown one, he’s great as a pillow. He doesn’t care if you climb all over him or hang on him. He just lets out a big chuff and what do you know, it’s a heated Cat Observation Post! The other one, that’s taller, he runs after me all the time. I keep telling him, “I am here for the free snacks, not to network”. Doesn’t stop him from trying through.

Oh, and as for those really big scary monsters, I have them totally under my spell. I didn’t even get in trouble for running around inside this cabinet that has alot of breakable stuff in it.

Stay tuned to see what my brother and I get up to next! 😉

One of the things to get used to here has been that calendars start the week on Monday instead of Sunday. For the most part, I have adjusted to that. However, I have to say that today feels like I have slipped back into the US model. I feel like I have spent most of the day trying to finish up last week and get a head start for this week. Except there are so many things that I need to do that I still feel like I am behind!

We arrived back home last Friday morning with a tasklist of things to get done. Not the least of was assembling some 500 vials this week for a give away and getting ready for Thanksgiving dinner.

Last year, I had my interns over for dinner, Thanksgiving style and we decided that this would be a yearly tradition. Luckily, none of the packs of pumpkin pie filling or spices spilled in the suitcase. Only two of my former interns were able to make it this year due to circumstances. However, it was a really good evening and so nice to see them again. I also had enough back up supplies because I ended up throwing away the first batch of stuffing. Who knew that stale bread (the primary ingredient) could actually be too stale for stuffing? 😉

Last night we braved IKEA to go and find some supplies for the booth this week. My little company is attending it’s first conference as sponsor and we are decorating on a shoe string budget. I am not sure how it is going to turn out – we build up the stand on Tuesday afternoon. If it’s terrible, well, it will be a learning experience!

I am creative when it comes to ideas. I am not creative when it comes to decorating or making things look cool. I know my limits. 😉 However, needs must and that doesn’t stop me from trying to put something together. I’ve just spent the past three hours trying to make a Women’s History quiz based on the categories of Trivial Pursuit. The easy part is going to be putting it into a digital form – the technical plumbing I can do.

I just need to make it through this week and have all the things go in order. And then next weekend, I can breathe a bit and tackle the next project. Don’t get me wrong, I am still loving not working for anyone else!

After a walk to Whole Paycheck to get a few things, like pumpkin pie filling to bring home for dinner next week, it’s time to do nothing more challenging than catch up on American tv. First observation from GG is that there are far more ads here about cancer treatments and your choice as a patient, whereas in the Netherlands, people would rely on their doctor to inform them and make the choice.

Today was good. We spent the day with my dad, heading over the National Museum of the American Indian first. From there, we went to the National Archives, to see the exhibit on the Vietnam War and then to a special panel discussion in the basement on the topic of veterans and what comes after serving. Definitely an intense day for us all. I think the toughest for my dad. At the same time, the conversations we had were good and I got to hear some great stories about him that I didn’t know.

I don’t see my father that often. Each time it takes me a bit of time to adjust how much it seems that he has aged since the last time. We also have a bit of the awkward conversational dance for the first thirty minutes or so each time. I found myself talking about things I had tried to teach Raven about restorative principles in his relation with the people and the world around him. Raven was often focused on everything as an absolute. I think I see some of that same anxiety in my father. Of course, I couldn’t help think about Raven, especially since the first thing that I looked at the in the museum was the Tlingit story of how Raven stole the Sun.

Can’t wait to fly home tomorrow as it is supposed to start snowing here. It’s going to be a long flight but at the end of it, there will be small powerful coffees, two small dogs and non-chlorinated water. 🙂

As I might have mentioned, on our flight to Chicago, the young man sitting directly across the aisle from GG had a very deep sounding cold and he proceeded to blow his nose mightily during the entire flight. From the sounds of his nose trumpet, it was very productive in terms of a high muccus yield. That’s understandable – it has to go somewhere in order for one to get well. What is not understandable is piling your used tissue collection under your seat for the germs to circulate merrily for the entire flight.

So, yeah, now I am making some similar noises. Not exactly how you want to spend your vacation and kind of a hassle to be honest. I have spent today holed up in my hotel room in DC, making ridiculous amounts of mint tea through the in room coffee maker and working. Part of my reluctance to go outside the room unless absolutely necessary is due to the fact that this cold comes with unpredictable sneezes which are also not dry ones if you know what I mean.

We’re just outside of DC right now. I was just looking up things to do for tomorrow since tonight we are having dinner with my dad. The plus side of having a cold like this is that I don’t have any left over energy to be stressed and nauseous about this evening. 😉

Despite the sneezing and the wheezing, this has been a good trip. We’ve had a good time, I think. Can’t really say that we did anything more than hang out together – although we did go hiking one day. The best part was just being around each other.

Tomorrow is our sightseeing day and then Thursday we leave to go home. I can’t wait to hug the boys. I hear they have been having a good time. They have also been office dogs during part of the time when my employees have been working downstairs. Hahaha, that sounds so strange to say – like I am a grown up or something!

The only sound until just now was the click of Charlie’s nails going back and forth as he roamed between rooms here in the cottage. It’s time for the annual sibling retreat and this time we are in Franklin, TN. After 9 hours of flying in an airplane seat with a buttnumbing intensity of 10, we arrived in Chicago to spend the night with Rupert and Meredith (in their new house) before heading down to the outskirts of Nashville yesterday.

We made pretty good time. I drove from Chicago down to Paducah, KY. At that point, after a pit stop at the Marathon truck stop, Rupert and I switched. What makes these roadtrips different than when we were kids is that we are now allowed to buy our own snacks and as many of them as we want. 😉

Cedric and Charlie showed up about 30 minutes after we got here and as fitting, pizza was ordered and Charlie got the benefit of the crusts. It’s good to know that we uphold family traditions.

We haven’t left the house yet for the day. Mostly because Rupert is still working and at the moment everyone else is sitting in the living room, quietly doing their own thing. You would almost think this was some sort of flexwork environment except none of us have hipster beards and the coffee comes in big mugs and has little caffeine!

Cedric and Charlie leave again tomorrow morning. We will be here through Sunday. The midterm elections happened yesterday without any bizarre incidents (except perhaps the results in some races). I think our biggest goal for the time here is to catch up, tell jokes, drink beer and boxed wine and just be family.

It’s quarter after 11 and I decided to write a post. Partly because we spent a great deal of today going through all of the boxes and suitcases that had been piled up in the bedroom. After you move, there’s a certain amount of time that you can recycle the same clothing and make do with all the sample size toiletries that you have collected. Then there comes a point where you have to actually unpack the rest of your clothes. That was the task for today.

On a plus point, I can say that several boxes were emptied and others were filled for donations or textile recycling. I bravely sorted through my entire collection of bags, backpacks and purses and mercilessly put all the ones that weren’t quite perfect into the donate boxes. Of course, since we were unpacking boxes and we really only had one chest of drawers (which we lugged all the way up to the top of the house from the ground floor with a great deal of swearing – on my part) that means that there are still a ton of clothes piled up on the bed. Part of me is considering making the suggestion that we just sleep in one of the spare rooms. 😉

I know I need to go upstairs and move those things. However, I am putting it off just a little longer. I am in this weird phase, I don’t have trouble making decisions about what to keep and what to let go, but I do have trouble getting started with doing it. That’s not exactly helpful.

However, since we head to the US in week, the house has to be in a relative kind of order because we have a housesitter coming. We interviewed her last night and the boys took to her right away. That’s probably what sealed the decision, to be frank. The boys like people but with Lucia, they were stuck to her in within 2 minutes.

Yesterday, I went to the office for the last time and turned in everything. It was a surprisingly anti-climatic ending to nearly 11 years of being an employee. It felt a little strange but I had 2 hours in traffic to process it. 😉

The weather has switched to rain and wind, which I like. Tonight we also finally turn the clocks back.

I was in Amsterdam Thursday night to host the monthly meetup and since the 1st of October, most of my usual transit lines have changed. I felt like I was visiting from a one stoplight kind of town. Funny how quickly things can change.

Tomorrow promises to be rainy and cold, which means there is no excuse not to finish unpacking. 😉

Yesterday I was working hard on getting through all the boxes downstairs in the office. There’s alot of anticipation amongst the people who will be working with me to come and see the new digs. One of them was coming with her husband to bring us plants. And there was the belated birthday party for GG’s sister in the evening, so time was critical. It was so critical that when I woke up at 920, the first thing I said to GG was “We’ve got to hurry up, we only have six hours to work before we have to get ready to leave!” She was not impressed. 😉

So, yesterday the boys had to watch me work my way through another stack of boxes and they were pretty restless. Partly because they were bored and partly because all of the stuff I was going through was pretty intense. Poor little sponges. The lesson learned was that I needed to wear them out so that they nap on the sofa while the boxes get tackled.

This morning we took them to the beach at Monster. When we arrived, there was a sort of dachshund party happening with 20 or so dachshunds that were all descended from the same breeder. Henry was fascinating to them so we were invited to join their walk. We did that for a while until George decided he was finished with all their barking and he was going in the water. He did really well, even chasing after rocks and sticking his whole head in the cold salt water. Henry stayed out of the water as befits a dachshund of his short stature.

When we got home, it was bath time for them and vaccuum time for Astrid since she was covered in sand. And then off to tackle the boxes. There’s a lot of work still to go. However, we did get the furniture moved and all of the 27 tubs have been sorted along with all the boxes that came out of storage. Now I have to go through the boxes that came from Amsterdam – but that’s all current stuff so less to deal with emotionally.

I found an amazing framed photo of Raven, at the UW Spring Powwow. He’s in profile, surrounded by all the other dancers participating in Grand Entry.

George is finally snoring after keeping himself awake all afternoon. I feel like I could do that too!