Eight more sleeps!

Either that or it's seven more sleeps and a "wakie", depending on how you count it. Never having been in the Air Force, I'll just go with the eight sleeps program.

In case I haven't mentioned it, we'll be heading for the airport a week from tomorrow to catch a flight out of Schiphol at around 9:15 a.m. Pretty sure of the time, since it's at this point indelibly etched into my brain.

Funny how that works.

It's that time of the year when the company (that cannot be named) is willing to pony up the dough to send us on home for some R&R. So happens that we decided to use some of our air miles we have been collecting over the years with Continental (they do fly to Puerto Rico) which means we will be once again flying into Newark, and then on to Toronto. I don't actually mind Newark. It's Toronto that I'm never too thrilled about.
As a matter of fact, we've been known to fly into Buffalo and cab it home, just to avoid being at an airport where their motto is, "We're not happy, 'til you're not happy!"
(credit goes to my dear sister-in-law Ljuba for that one. Thanks Ljuba!)

If we didn't have to rent a car when we got there, Buffalo might have actually been a consideration.

Upon further reflection, I realise it really should be "seven sleeps and a wakie", since we'll need to haul ourselves out of bed a tad on the early side on the Saturday morning. We were originally going to take a leisurely train ride to the airport on the Friday night, since this time we figured we'd stick the car in the garage here at the house, like we did at Christmas, and trundle our luggage up the street to the station here in Delden. (hey, I figured out how to use the ticket dispensing machine, OK?)
Well, that was the "cunning plan" until we went to book a room at the Sheridan at the airport.
The rate for the hotel at the airport has gone a little nuts lately. Like, well over €400! Just so we can sleep a few hours and stagger down to the gate?

Don't think so.

I know I said the company is willing to pay, but let's get real.

So in the grand scheme of things it's actually a better deal to just drive to the airport and keep the car in long term parking for the two weeks. Works out to something like €120.

The train trip there and back alone is pretty close to €100, plus we can simply pay for the parking with a credit card.
I've driven back to Delden at least once before after coming off an overnight flight, so that shouldn't be a hardship.

Plus, the car doesn't mind carrying my luggage one bit.

Now I realise that if the Bush administration hadn't allowed the financial institutions to lend non-existent money to people with muscle shirts and non-existent credit ratings, we might have actually considered the hotel routine. But still, I think they'd need to carry me to my room for €400.

Meanwhile, we took up one of our regular Thursday night activities last night. It turns out this will be our second last Dutch lesson for June, due to being away for the two weeks. We'll see Nico again in July, but then he's away to Tershelling for three week on his vacation.
Should mention.....google maps is a little off on that one....you need to go a tad north.

Between that, and the expectation of more visitors in mid-July, the Dutch lessons are getting a little sketchy.
Really, I only ever go shopping, so I'm not too worried about learning the plus-perfect tense. Well I'm exaggerating slightly, but you know what I mean.

Besides, I'm not sure any amount of lessons is going to help me understand our landlord, since I still tend to find myself transfixed by his one wandering eye.




Gabe still seems pretty determined though, and even took her list of irregular verbs with her to work.
*snort!* Like she has time to look at verbs at work!

I don't have the savvy to put in a speech balloon in the photo below, but I'm pretty sure you can see her asking, "what does this mean?"



Normally when it's her turn after I've had my hour (she's always late getting home) I run and hide upstairs, 'cause I know poor Nico is going to get raked over the coals, and I can't bear to witness the carnage.
I've grumbled about the text books we're using on more than one occasion, since they don't make a whole lot of sense to me, but I don't want to slip off into a rant here.
You need vocabulary at the beginning of every chapter.
That's all I'm gonna say.