According to an article on the Daily Mail website... in London, they are padding the lightposts due to the number of injuries people endure while walking and texting and not paying attention to where they are going. This has to be a joke?!?!
Wednesday, March 5, 2008
This can't possibly be for real
According to an article on the Daily Mail website... in London, they are padding the lightposts due to the number of injuries people endure while walking and texting and not paying attention to where they are going. This has to be a joke?!?!
Tuesday, March 4, 2008
Hair cut --- check!
I'm continuing to cross off items on the list of "things I want to do when I get back to Chicago"... I left work Tuesday afternoon early to get my hair all spiffed up. My hair was getting way too long and I was turning into a brunette, so I went to see Duschan and he fixed me right up! : )
I opened the variety package of sprinkles I bought at the duty-free at the Amsterdam airport... no bread and butter, so I really couldn't do it up the proper Dutch way, but they are still good straight from the box. I still can't believe how many bread/butter/sprinkles people eat in Amsterdam... and I'm still trying to figure out how some of those people aren't overweight.
That was pretty much the excitement of my day... candy sprinkles and a haircut. Good times.
I opened the variety package of sprinkles I bought at the duty-free at the Amsterdam airport... no bread and butter, so I really couldn't do it up the proper Dutch way, but they are still good straight from the box. I still can't believe how many bread/butter/sprinkles people eat in Amsterdam... and I'm still trying to figure out how some of those people aren't overweight.
That was pretty much the excitement of my day... candy sprinkles and a haircut. Good times.
The Denver airport may be on to something
As a person who has made many flights in the past four months and spent countless time waiting in security lines, I was happy to hear this...
The Denver airport has made separate lanes for security based on your experience traveling or if you feel you need more time. There is a lane for families with children, a lane for expert travelers and a lane for the casual traveler.
I hope this system works out and they do something similar in other airports.
Monday, March 3, 2008
First day back at work
It definitely felt a little strange to be back at work today... but it was also kind of like I'd never left. Nothing much changes in four months... except maybe the person who sits next to me now... she's new.
I had gotten really used to the set up of the desks in the Amsterdam office with the higher table and the plastic holder for the computer so you were looking eye-level at the screen instead of down at it. Being taller, it was really nice to have those things. I totally felt like I was crouching today and my back was hurting from staring down at my computer. I am sure this was more in my head than anything else.
Around lunchtime, I received these beautiful flowers from my colleagues in the Amsterdam office as a "thank-you". It was very nice of them! The flowers smell awesome and brighten up my boring cubicle.
They had given me this cute (and huge!) card on Friday when I left the office... I forgot to mention that before.
I'm now starting on my "list of things to do when I get back"... besides the obvious stuff like unpacking and going through mail... more like things that I missed while I was away.
Monday night, I went for a mani/pedi at Diana's nails... had never been there before, but it's a few blocks from where I work and was open until 7pm. I have been totally going through withdrawal not being able to get a manicure over in Amsterdam for the past four months. I only saw one nail salon there and it was like 20 Euros for a manicure alone! I actually scheduled an appt there before I left, but the day of they called and canceled because the person was sick. Anyway, Diana's is decent... the woman who did my nails did not smile once and I believe the only words she said to me the whole time were "you pay now"... but she did a nice (and quick) job and the price for the mani/pedi was $35, which I think is really good.
Then, for dinner last night, Matt and I ordered Giordano's Chicago-style pizza. Yum! : )
I had gotten really used to the set up of the desks in the Amsterdam office with the higher table and the plastic holder for the computer so you were looking eye-level at the screen instead of down at it. Being taller, it was really nice to have those things. I totally felt like I was crouching today and my back was hurting from staring down at my computer. I am sure this was more in my head than anything else.
Around lunchtime, I received these beautiful flowers from my colleagues in the Amsterdam office as a "thank-you". It was very nice of them! The flowers smell awesome and brighten up my boring cubicle.
They had given me this cute (and huge!) card on Friday when I left the office... I forgot to mention that before.
I'm now starting on my "list of things to do when I get back"... besides the obvious stuff like unpacking and going through mail... more like things that I missed while I was away.
Monday night, I went for a mani/pedi at Diana's nails... had never been there before, but it's a few blocks from where I work and was open until 7pm. I have been totally going through withdrawal not being able to get a manicure over in Amsterdam for the past four months. I only saw one nail salon there and it was like 20 Euros for a manicure alone! I actually scheduled an appt there before I left, but the day of they called and canceled because the person was sick. Anyway, Diana's is decent... the woman who did my nails did not smile once and I believe the only words she said to me the whole time were "you pay now"... but she did a nice (and quick) job and the price for the mani/pedi was $35, which I think is really good.
Then, for dinner last night, Matt and I ordered Giordano's Chicago-style pizza. Yum! : )
Sunday, March 2, 2008
My Sunday
So, I've not unpacked a thing yet... it seems my closets have shrunk and all the stuff I took with me overseas no longer has a place anymore. So, for now, it will all just stay in the suitcases on my bed and strewn around my bedroom. At least I can find things easily!
I went through the big stack of mail I had accumulated over the past 4 months. Even though I came home at Christmas time, I really didn't look through the mail. In hindsight, this was a bad idea for more than one reason. Apparently, I had an outstanding bill to my doctor's office that I was being sent invoices for... well, now that it's been so long, they sent me to a collection agency. Great... a strike against my credit. I was able to pay the bill over the phone this morning. The other reason was that I had received a rebate check for my contacts I had bought in September... the check was dated 11/28/2007 and is void after 90 days (for those of you that don't want to do the math, that would be 2/26/2008). The check is for $100! Ugh! Most of the mail I get is junk and I pay my bills online, so I wasn't too worried about not checking the mail. Lesson learned, I guess.
I managed to stay awake all day on Sunday, even went for a jog outside in the warm weather (it got over 50 degrees here!). Of course, the run was rough for a lot of reasons... the "lakes" on the sidewalks from all the melting snow, the remaining patches of ice, the fact that I had only been running on a treadmill up til now, that fact that I wore way too many clothes for the temperature and the fact that I was jet lag... my legs felt like they were 1,000 pounds each. I ran about 20 minutes and called it quits. I've got a lot of work to do before the Shamrock Shuffle!
Sunday night... we went bowling in our Sunday night league. I haven't been bowling in a really long time and it was fun to get back at it. My first game I bowled a 170, second 143 and last 130. By the end of the night, the ball felt like it was 20 pounds... and I was ready for some sleep. Our team (DeezNuts) is in second place in the league and we swept the other team. Awesome!
I went through the big stack of mail I had accumulated over the past 4 months. Even though I came home at Christmas time, I really didn't look through the mail. In hindsight, this was a bad idea for more than one reason. Apparently, I had an outstanding bill to my doctor's office that I was being sent invoices for... well, now that it's been so long, they sent me to a collection agency. Great... a strike against my credit. I was able to pay the bill over the phone this morning. The other reason was that I had received a rebate check for my contacts I had bought in September... the check was dated 11/28/2007 and is void after 90 days (for those of you that don't want to do the math, that would be 2/26/2008). The check is for $100! Ugh! Most of the mail I get is junk and I pay my bills online, so I wasn't too worried about not checking the mail. Lesson learned, I guess.
I managed to stay awake all day on Sunday, even went for a jog outside in the warm weather (it got over 50 degrees here!). Of course, the run was rough for a lot of reasons... the "lakes" on the sidewalks from all the melting snow, the remaining patches of ice, the fact that I had only been running on a treadmill up til now, that fact that I wore way too many clothes for the temperature and the fact that I was jet lag... my legs felt like they were 1,000 pounds each. I ran about 20 minutes and called it quits. I've got a lot of work to do before the Shamrock Shuffle!
Sunday night... we went bowling in our Sunday night league. I haven't been bowling in a really long time and it was fun to get back at it. My first game I bowled a 170, second 143 and last 130. By the end of the night, the ball felt like it was 20 pounds... and I was ready for some sleep. Our team (DeezNuts) is in second place in the league and we swept the other team. Awesome!
Saturday, March 1, 2008
Saturday night
Saturday night, Matt and I met up with Erin, Hany and Brett for dinner at Bar Louie down by Matt's place. Earlier in the day, I had fallen asleep on Matt's couch for a few hours, which definitely helped with the jet lag. But, by the end of dinner and two glasses of wine, I was feelin' it.
Matt is SO happy I'm home...
Matt is SO happy I'm home...
Trip home to Chicago
As worried as I was that the flight was going to be horrible... it was exactly the opposite. (Thank goodness!) My cab to the airport was actually a big van, which was being blown all over the highway. It was pretty freaky.
Checked in at the airport and learned that my bag was over the weight limit... yep, I figured that... the thing was a b*tch to get down my super steep stairs. I nearly fell a few times! I told the woman I would just pay the excess baggage fee, but she told me the bag was over the limit for that, too. You can only take 32 kg per bag (70.5 pds) and mine was 34 kg. I had to take 2 kg out of the bag or else I wouldn't be allowed to fly with it. Ugh... I had already packed my other bags to the total limit the zippers and seams would allow, so this was going to take some creativity. I took out a pair of boots and my curling iron, which luckily added up to exactly 2 kgs. My two bags together weighed in at 45.3 kgs (almost 100 pds!). I'm glad there isn't a total weight limit with carry-ons included because I would have been WAY over that.
Even though I had no room in my bags, I decided to hit the duty-free shops... bought some chocolates, sprinkles, cheese and a Sudoku book. I figured that I could take two carry-ons on the plane and a bag of stuff I would buy. Not the case. I had to smash all that stuff into my two carry-ons! Everything was a little smashed by the time I got home!
The flight was pretty smooth after we got out of the Amsterdam area. We originally were told we were going to be delayed two hours because they had closed down one runway due to the high winds, but once we were on the plane, the other runway opened and we got the ok to take-off. We ended up flying way north to avoid the bad weather and the flight seemed to take forever! I watched 3 movies: (1) Dan in Real Life w/Steve Carrell - I had already seen this and thought it was a nice movie. Nothing spectacular. (2) Lars and the Real Girl - Ryan Gosling is mentally challenged and falls in love with one of those "real dolls" you can buy off the internet. I thought it would be comedy, but it was actually more of a drama. Not terrible... held my attention for the couple hours it was on... but then again, there really wasn't much else to do. (3) Jane Austen Book Club - chick flick, but decent movie. I think I was falling in and out of sleep during this movie... so maybe it wasn't that great.
So, 9+ hours later, we landed in Chicago. Went through customs and picked up my bags and was out meeting Matt in 30 minutes! Nice!
It's so good to be back. : )
Checked in at the airport and learned that my bag was over the weight limit... yep, I figured that... the thing was a b*tch to get down my super steep stairs. I nearly fell a few times! I told the woman I would just pay the excess baggage fee, but she told me the bag was over the limit for that, too. You can only take 32 kg per bag (70.5 pds) and mine was 34 kg. I had to take 2 kg out of the bag or else I wouldn't be allowed to fly with it. Ugh... I had already packed my other bags to the total limit the zippers and seams would allow, so this was going to take some creativity. I took out a pair of boots and my curling iron, which luckily added up to exactly 2 kgs. My two bags together weighed in at 45.3 kgs (almost 100 pds!). I'm glad there isn't a total weight limit with carry-ons included because I would have been WAY over that.
Even though I had no room in my bags, I decided to hit the duty-free shops... bought some chocolates, sprinkles, cheese and a Sudoku book. I figured that I could take two carry-ons on the plane and a bag of stuff I would buy. Not the case. I had to smash all that stuff into my two carry-ons! Everything was a little smashed by the time I got home!
The flight was pretty smooth after we got out of the Amsterdam area. We originally were told we were going to be delayed two hours because they had closed down one runway due to the high winds, but once we were on the plane, the other runway opened and we got the ok to take-off. We ended up flying way north to avoid the bad weather and the flight seemed to take forever! I watched 3 movies: (1) Dan in Real Life w/Steve Carrell - I had already seen this and thought it was a nice movie. Nothing spectacular. (2) Lars and the Real Girl - Ryan Gosling is mentally challenged and falls in love with one of those "real dolls" you can buy off the internet. I thought it would be comedy, but it was actually more of a drama. Not terrible... held my attention for the couple hours it was on... but then again, there really wasn't much else to do. (3) Jane Austen Book Club - chick flick, but decent movie. I think I was falling in and out of sleep during this movie... so maybe it wasn't that great.
So, 9+ hours later, we landed in Chicago. Went through customs and picked up my bags and was out meeting Matt in 30 minutes! Nice!
It's so good to be back. : )
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