May 2023 – Life Off Headset

(bi)Weekly Recap + what we ate: Opening Night and other Miscellaneous things

Another show opened. Woot! Some random thoughts from this month so far:

A few of my tech week MVPs:
– pre-planning my wardrobe and laying out a week’s worth of clothes on Sunday night. I had done this on my Fall show, but had fallen out of the habit the past two shows. I need to remember to do this more often – not having to spend time thinking about what I’m going to wear every morning makes getting dressed go much faster. For some reason, when I have to decide anew every morning what to wear, it takes more time to choose than when I do it on Sunday night.
– Yogurt. I’ve been trying to run or walk on my dinner breaks – I didn’t do as many runs as I usually do, but I did always get outside for at least 30 mins on my dinner break. Of course this meant less time to eat dinner, so I tried to pack things that would be easy and fast to eat. Yogurt was definitely on the “easy and fast” list. I filled a thermos with yogurt, frozen fruit, pecans, chia seeds, and a drizzle of maple syrup. It was a very easy yet filling thing to eat and the thermos kept it cold. At first I felt like yogurt really wasn’t a dinner food, but it actually was pretty filling and got me through the evening rehearsal.
– Amazing colleagues, who are so very good at their jobs that even the hard stuff is not so hard. It’s not always easy, but it’s not so hard that I want to quit.
-The Husband, as always, who holds down the fort, did the after school pick up, fed the kids, took them to basketball practice, and skating lessons, and read to them, and put them to bed. All on his own.

I snapped this picture onstage one day while we were setting lighting cues. It’s the most snow I’ve seen all year. One rehearsal, I found myself standing underneath the snow bags as the snow was coming down and it was the oddest sensation – of being covered in snowflakes but not cold at all.

The most snow I’ve seen all year. Also… it gets into everything.

Tech Week Step Count:
Piano Tech Friday : 22, 475
Piano Dress Saturday: 24, 263
Sitzprobe Sunday: 12, 100
Orchestra Tech Monday: 17, 819
Orchestra Tech Tuesday: 11, 936
Orchestra Tech Wednesday: 15, 948
Final Dress Thursday: 11, 654
(Average of 16, 599 steps/day)

The next weeks will be a little busy because I’ll be in performances for one show while prepping/ rehearsing another show in another part of town. It will be a lot of time in the car, and the commute can be terribly slow, but I’ve started a new audiobook that makes me look forward to getting in the car:

I was looking for an audiobook for my commute and found this on the list of finalists for the 2023 Audie Awards. I’ve never read any Terry Pratchett, and people seem to really love his work, so I thought I’d give it a try. It is proving very funny and layered so far.

Other random ordinary life happenings:

It was Spirit Week for the 5th Grader. I feel somewhat guilty that I’m not the best person at keeping up with the various spirit weeks/ teacher appreciation weeks/etc. at school. I’ll see the email come through and then promptly forget. It’s not that I don’t appreciate the teachers or school spirit, it’s just that these weeks with some specific requirement every. single. day. seems light another kettlebell of mental load that I can’t handle, especially during tech week. I’m glad the 11 year old kept track of Spirit week because I knew it would make her happy to participate but I just couldn’t do it for her. Maybe this is growth? I forget about things so that she can develop a sense of responsibility to remember them? One morning was moustache day and I drew a moustache on her with Sharpie. A few days later, she comes to me with a sock on her hand and says, “It’s sock puppet day today.”

No use getting annoyed at the last minute request for sock puppet help, since I wouldn’t have been home in the evening to help anyway. But we did our best and I think it was pretty cute:

Fun fact – that hat is the hat that the 11 year old came home from the hospital wearing. We didn’t realize that we had to bring clothes to the hospital for our new baby so the nurses had to raid the NICU closet for us.

One day I had the morning off, so I volunteered at Field Day at the six year old’s school. I was put in charge of a volleyball station. Though “volleyball” and “put in charge of” are used very loosely here. It was chaotic – 20-40 kids at a time at my station – and there was lots of yelling of instructions. Also – teachers are amazing. Because they have to do it all. the. time.

A new smoothie shop opened around the corner from the Husband’s work place and they have a papaya smoothie that was very delicious. I discovered this little shop the day that I had to take my car in for a new tire. I had imprudently run up the curb in front of our our house one midnight when I got home from a late rehearsal. Because that’s just what I needed at that hour. Anyhow, the next morning, the Husband helped me change the tire. Also.. I went to open my trunk to get the jack and the spare out, and MY JACK WAS MISSING. What the what?!? You have to dig kind of deep to get to my jack, so I’m completely confounded by this. Or maybe I removed it at some point and couldn’t remember? Anyhow it was a completely bizarre mystery. Spare Tire put on and I went to Firestone to get a new tire. The six year old came with me to Firestone (Thank goodness I had warranty on my tires) and on the way back to the Metro to get home, we saw this new smoothie shop had opened. So we ordered smoothies – berry for him, dragon fruit for me. It was so fresh and tasty that I went back later that week and ordered a papaya smoothie. It sort of reminded me of the Papaya Milk drink that I would get from the Taiwanese drink store back in California. I sat in the spring sunshine in the plaza next to the smoothie shop to drink my papaya smoothie and it was such a wonderful quiet few minutes to myself.

Is there anything more lovely than a special cold beverages, sipped outdoors on a spring-almost-summer day?

There was also Mother’s Day in the mix. I did get to sleep in until 9am. Which was good because I had been up super late the night before at the opening night party. I don’t love going to work parties, because I’m just awkward socially and feel very uncool standing there clutching my Coke while people do suave things like chat with ambassadors and drink champagne. But, I did talk to some nice people – friends of a friend – and there was this amazing cheese spread:

And this was only one tiny corner of the cheese table.

Anyhow, the day after was Mother’s Day. I had a show to work in the afternoon so it didn’t feel very special. I don’t love Mother’s Day – again that whole feeling awkward about the attention thing. The one thing I did ask for Mother’s Day – getting a picture with all my kids – did not happen, so I was a little bummed about that. But the other thing I wanted – to eat dinner outside – that did happen. Granted, it was Chipotle because we had promised the 11 year old Chipotle for an excellent report card, but I still got to enjoy the warm evening. And the kids made a sign for me:

Grateful for:

-Wireless headsets. When I was first starting out in this business, there were no wireless headsets in the theatres where I worked. You got a headset and beltpack which was hard wired into a place in the wall so you either ran the show without a headset – which made it difficult to communicate with your stage manager – or you ran the show attached to this wall, with this really long tail or cable everywhere. Now when I started out I was working in small theatres, so having a wired headset was inconvenient but doable. If you were working in a big theatre, I guess you just ran the show without a headset and everyone just had to trust that things would happen and problems would get solved? It seems so inconceivable to me. Anyhow, we now have wireless headsets and we can roam the backstage and keep in touch with the rest of the stage management team, and I think that’s awesome.

-Our back patio. The weather has tipped into that between spring and summer time when there is longer days but the weather is not yet unbearably hot. My favorite time this time of year is the morning or early evening – when the sun is not at it’s zenith and the weather is slightly cooler – perfect for a light sweater, but okay if not. I love having a back patio and being able to sit back there with my tea in the morning, or a seltzer in the evening. Having a space to be able to enjoy the weather and the fresh air, a little table on which to put my beverage, and a chair to relax in and periodically a book to keep me company – that’s a good time right there.

– My car. And the mechanic who keeps it running. I drive a 2003 Subaru Legacy. It’s not the most fancy car these days, and it certainly has its chronic issues, but it gets me from point A to point B. I know its days are numbered, but I will drive it until it is no longer safe to do so. On my free day week, I took it in for an oil change and to have a belt tightened. My conversation to book the appointment with my mechanic went like this (Also note, we used to have three cars, but now only have two):
Me: I’d like to bring my car in for an oil change.
Mechanic: Yes of course. What is your phone number?
Me: [I tell him]
Mechanic: Oh yes. Which car of your fleet are you bringing in?
Me: The Subaru Legacy.
Mechanic: Oh Yes. The old one.

That made me laugh… I drive “the old one.”

But even still, it’s getting me from point A to point B. And these weeks when I’m working two jobs, I am doing a lot of getting from A to B.

Looking Forward To:
– Grilling with friends and colleagues. One of our traditions at work is to gather for a cookout once in a while and this year will be the first cook out since 2019. There are thirty+ people about to descend on the house. I’ve never hosted that many people before and honestly our yard is not that big. Also… I just realized that this will be more people than were at our wedding. Anyhow I’m hoping it will be pretty low key – grill, chairs, tables, people bring sides/apps/ beer, and we just hang out for an afternoon. Effortless. Easy. Plus, since a good number of them are stage managers, clean up is usually done before I can blink twice and accept the help.

– Summer. I have work booked until mid August this year, so I’ll have to be very purposeful to get some of our usual summer adventures in. It’s a balance, though… since we work six days a week, if I pack the day off with too many adventures, I might not have time to recharge and do the life maintenance things that I need to. But I am looking forward to the pool and outdoor music and hikes and camping and getting on my bike.

-I started watching The Gilded Age, a period drama that came out last year. It is by Julian Fellowes who wrote Downton Abbey and the cast is divine. It features some huge theatrical talents who, from what I understand, were all available for a mini series since COVID had shut down the theatres. I’m only one episode in, but it is proving that same blend of detailed and juicy yet proper that I loved about Downton Abbey. This is my new “while I wash the dishes” incentive.

– Working with a colleague whom I have known for over twenty years, but whom I haven’t seen since 2011. One thing about my work is many people come in and out of my life. Many of the colleagues from the early days when I was just starting out in opera are the most dear to me. We all started out as baby opera makers with big dreams and there is something really bonding about being in that stage of one’s career together. Some of these people are no longer in the industry, some of these people run their own opera companies now – funny the directions life takes you. Whenever we part ways at the end of a gig, I never say good-bye – it’s always, “See you later!” because I believe that our paths will cross again. When we finally do get to work together again, there is a sense of familiarity and growth that brings me so much joy and wonder.

What We Ate: It’s been a few weeks, but the Husband made all the dinners while I was in tech, so not quite so a very vague list…

Monday: Tortilla Soup. This recipe from the Two Sleevers website. Made a couple weeks ago and froze the leftovers. Present Me thanks Past Me for this foresight.

Tuesday: Eggplant Pasta. Vegan. Sautee eggplant with onions in InstantPot, add tomato sauce and pasta on top and cook on high pressure for 15 minutes. I made this to use up an eggplant we had in the fridge. The family was not a fan, but I thought it was perfectly fine. Vegan.

Wednesday: Eggs and leftovers.

Thursday: Take out Sandwiches. Again. This was the night we tried to go to an event at the local park where they had food trucks and live music. The place was swamped and the food trucks couldn’t keep up with the volume of people. Plus it was expensive. I think we paid $20 for 3 plain hotdogs. So we abandoned the park, went to our friends’ house, ordered sandwiches from our favorite deli and ate in the backyard while the kids bounced on their trampoline. I’d say it turned out to be a very nice evening.

Friday: Chana Masala in the Instant Pot. This recipe from the blog Feasting at Home. I thought this was really tasty and I ate it in wraps for lunch for the rest of the week. The family was lukewarm. It might have been because I forgot to turn the IP into “keep warm” and the food was cold by the time they got home.

Saturday: I had leftovers while at work. The family had pizza and movie night. I’m not sure what they watched.

Sunday: Dumplings and leftovers. I was at work and had yogurt for dinner.

Monday: all I have scribbled in my journal is “pasta”…. I think that means the Husband made tortellini and red sauce.

Tuesday: Wings. The Husband ordered wings from one of our favorite places. (Me: leftovers/yogurt at work)

Wednesday: Eggs and Toast. (Me: leftovers at work)

Thursday, Friday, Saturday: Complete Blank. I’m pretty sure the Husband cooked.

Sunday: Mother’s Day and Chipotle.

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Amsterdam Recaps: Day 4 Food Tour!

This day featured one of the things I was most looking forward to- a food tour!

We opted for the Hungry Birds food tours, based on recommendations on the internet. I like going on guided tours, and I thought that a tour where we got to eat periodically might be a good one for the kids.

The tour wasn’t until noon, so after breakfast (coldcuts, cheese, bread and leftover noodles) we decided to first walk down to the floating flower market. Along the way we passed this fun sculpture on the side of a building:

And more buildings with detailed architectural features, like these statues on the side of this building:

And these rows and rows of shutters:

On our canal tour, the guide said that the City of Amsterdam is asking people who have these shutters to put them back on their houses for the more historic look.

This alley of plants:

The floating market itself was quite crowded. The stalls in the market are on boats floating on the canal, though I didn’t realize that until I took a step back too look at them; when walking through the market, the stores just look like open stalls lining the street. We didn’t linger, but it made for a nice stroll to see the colourful flowers and bins of bulbs.

That was kind of the extent of the tulips that we saw. Everyone seems to be shocked that we didn’t go see the tulip fields, even though we were in Amsterdam at the start of tulip season. The fields are outside of Amsterdam and by all accounts very crowded. I don’t love going to super crowded places – I always feel like I can’t get a good view of the attractions, and that the lines move too slowly to be enjoyable while at the same time the crowds push one along so one can’t savor things at one’s own pace. Perhaps if we return to the Netherlands during tulip season, I might book a tour to see the tulips – something a little more controlled.

After we wandered through the floating flower market, we headed to the meeting spot for our food tour. The food tour was in the Pijp district of town, and area that has a more urban vibe than the flower market’s historic canals and leaning houses. When out tour guides arrived, they brought the first tasty bite of the food tour: cookies from Van Stepele.

The story behind these viral cookies is that the person who started the bakery wanted to create one perfect cookie, so people wouldn’t have to choose. The guide said the line is usually around the block for the cookies but since there is only one cookie, it moves really fast.

Next stop: Surinamese sandwiches and fried plantains from Tjin’s. This part of the food tour delved into the history of the Dutch and the different cultural influences to be found in Amsterdam. I wasn’t familiar with Suriname at all, save for a reference to it in the musical Candide. (It’s a little shameful how much of my knowledge of history comes primarily from opera and musicals.) Suriname is a small country in South America which was colonized by, among other nations, the Dutch. Slaves from Africa and Asia were brought there and it has a wide mix of cultural influences. When Suriname gained it independence from the Dutch in the 1970s, many Surinamese people came to the Netherlands to maintain their Dutch citizenship. The sandwiches we had from Tjin’s Toko were spicy and flavorful – they featured a curried mash of potatoes and chicken on a bun with some home made hot sauce. We also had some fried plantains on the side.

The next stop was a FEBO automat. I’d never been to an automat before and at first I was a little dubious at the idea of a hot vending machine. The croquettes , however, turned out to be crunchy and tasty. I can absolutely see how they come to be a late night hot spot. The kids had fun putting the coins in an opening the door to retrieve their food.

After the automat came my favorite spot of the tour: herring! We stopped at a fish stand and had a very classic Dutch snack- brined herring – along with some fried cod. The options for herring was to have it cut up into little pieces, or to have it all in one piece which you would eat by holding it over your mouth by the tail. Of course we opted for the “hold the fish by the tail” option.

Classic serving with pickles and diced onions.

Here comes the fish….

His look is skeptical, but he ended up loving it.

I don’t seem to have pictures of the Husband with the herring, but he did also eat it, though he said he preferred the fried cod.

Continuing on, we had cookies and coffee from Brood, a bakery with a mission to bring their stores worldwide, particularly to developing nations, as a way to contribute jobs and money to their economies. Then we wandered through Sarphatipark, an expanse of green space in De Pijp area. This would become one of the kids’ favorite places in Amsterdam because they had this really cool adventure playground, with a zipline and more challenging play structures.

After the park, we wandered through Albert Cuyp Market, an outdoor market that started as an informal collection of vendors and carts selling their wares, but which soon became so popular and chaotic that in 1905, the city government made it an official market. They have all sorts of vendors; when we walked through, in addition to vegetables and fish and cheese and snacks, I saw booths selling clothing, fabric, and various house hold items.

The food tour wandered the market, and stopped at a couple stalls of classic Dutch treats. First Stop, Poffertijes, the little Dutch pancakes. We really enjoyed watching this machine squirt batter into the hot molds and then seeing the man at the counter flip the poffertijes over at lightning speed. The pancakes are then put on a plate, layered with butter and a sprinkled with powdered sugar. They were very tasty and mostly a vehicle for melted butter.

The silver machine squeezes batter into the heated molds and then the guy flips them when it is time.

Dutch Licorice, which comes in all sorts of flavors and shapes, including some shapes not suitable for children. I liked the salty licorice the best, but there was a peanut butter one that I also really enjoyed.

Just a small smattering of the licorice that was available at this stall.

Stroopwafel, that combination of cookie and caramel. This stall – Rudi’s – claims to use the “original” stroopwaffel recipe. Their stroopwaffels were delicate and gooey, very different from the store bought variation. The other claim to fame is that this stall is run by Benedict Cumberbatch.

Moonlighting, in case the acting thing doesn’t work out.

Our final stop was at a brown cafe, one of the casual cozy bars where people in Amsterdam go to have a drink, grab a bit of simple food, catch up with friends, and just hang out and wile away the time. The brown cafe we went to on our tour has been around since 1877, with the building being even older than that.

Our tour group huddled together at the bar and at a table near the bar and we chatted about what foods we liked and what we wanted to try again. The kids had Cokes, I had a mint tea, and the Husband had a koopstoje, which involved drinking an practically overflowing glass of Dutch juniper gin, with one’s hands behind one’s back, and then chasing it down with a beer.

Even though the tour was supposed to end at 4pm, we were at the bar chatting until 4:30pm. Afterwards, our guide walked us back to the Albert Cuyp market, since that was an easy landmark and we all went our separate ways. The kids wanted to go back to the playground at the Sarphatipark, so we headed there, though the 3 year old fell asleep on the way and we had to carry her for a bit. I settled onto a bench with her asleep on me while the two older kids plyaed at the playground. We had promised them ice cream, but they were so busy playing, that we ended up skipping that.

Baby was tired and missed the playground. Sad Panda.

For dinner we decided to get dinner at an Indonesian place that the food tour organizers had recommended. One of the things I really wanted to try while in Amsterdam was a rice table, or rijstaffel, which is a meal with many small dishes served with rice. We ordered both the regular and the vegetarian rijstaffel and were presented with many tiny dishes of a wide variety of food. There was chicken in coconut sauce, chicken in peanut sauce, tempeh in coconut sauce and tofu in peanut sauce, green beans cooked in coconut milk, stews, salads, fried rice… I’m sure there was even more. It was so much fun to try all the different varieties of flavors.

Also, I was really tickled by these vats of chili sauce in the back of the restaurants. Imagine going through that much chili sauce!

Once we were done dinner, we took the tram back to our Airbnb and had some tv time (for the kids) and reading time (for the grown ups) until we went to bed around 9pm, though the kids didn’t really sleep until closer to 10pm.

What a fun day it was. The kids loved the food tour and the day was relatively meltdown free until dinner then there was some whining and general tiredness. Step count for the day: 17, 634/ 6.6 miles. And I only had to carry the three year old for less than a mile of it!

Next up, an even bigger walking day!

Weekly recap + what we ate: Gearing up for Tech Week

I did a big Costco run last week. Tech week is coming up and I felt like I had to stock up on snacks. Some new finds:

I like a spicy snack, and these two treats are opposite end of spicy. The almonds are spicy/ savory – perfect for when I’m tired of the sweet MLK. They are salty, smoky and crunchy with a little bit of heat. The Tamarind bites had intrigued me for a while and I finally decided to try them. I like tamarind a lot and I’ve always like chili spiced dried mango, so I figured these might be similar. These have that distinctive sweet/sour tamarind flavor with a nice kick from the chili. Not for eating by the handful, but I find one or two at a time very satisfying.

I got these strawberry yogurt bites more for the kids:

The kids really like yogurt tubes, but I can’t keep those in the car, so I thought this might be a nice alternative. They are sort of like yogurt covered raisins but with strawberry instead. The jury is out. They are a nice snack, but not very filling.

These protein bars:

I go back and forth on protein bars. I like the idea of them, but are they really better than just having a Snickers? I grabbed these because a guy standing next to me in the aisle said that it’s the only protein bar his gluten free son will eat. I’m very easily swayed by random strangers recommending things to me in store aisles. Anyhow, these are fine. They are a little larger than I expected, so feel like a lot. They taste okay to me and the ingredient list is not unexpected. Overwhelming endorsement, I know. I probably wouldn’t buy them again because they are on the pricy side, but if I need a gluten free bar, this isn’t a terrible option.

Other fun things:

Sometimes my kids take my camera and take really inane and unflattering pictures. Sometimes, though, they capture things like this:

Ignore me in the background blissfully unaware that my phone is gone. Look instead at the unbridled joy that the 6 year old captured.

That picture is going in my file of “Things to look at when I feel down.”

We also had Take Your Child To Work Day. The Husband took the kids to his office, where they had all sorts of fun activities – a Fire Truck, build a solar car, pizza lunch! Then he brought the kids to my work, where we had some late afternoon activities – build a prop flower, listen to some singers sing, tour the building, try on costumes. I was a little disappointed that the kids couldn’t come to rehearsal, but we have a no guest policy right now because of COVID. All the same, it was fun to see the kids at work briefly.

Very satisfying: I labelled the prop tables. There are a lot of props in my current show. The situation on the prop table had gotten quite chaotic – they had become some kind of random dump area. So one afternoon I just took the time and organized them and labelled spots for all the props. I do usually do this at some point in the process, but usually when there aren’t so many props it doesn’t feel as urgent. Or as satisfying when it is done. Opera aficionados can probably guess what opera this is:

Sort of annoying: The 3.5 year old got sent home with pink eye one day. The Husband went to pick her up and took her to the pediatrician and got drops then stayed home with her. I’m glad that he has a job that allows him to do that. I mean certainly if I had an emergency, I could have taken the afternoon off, but the Husband officially gets to take time off work. Benefits and all that.

Anyhow, we got drops for her, which she refused to let us put in:

It took a bit of bribery and holding her down to maybe get a drop in her eyes twice a day. And really, after the first day, bribery didn’t work.

Domestic Adventures: I made muffins in anticipation of tech. This time I made Coconut Peanut Mochi Muffins from Hetty McKinnon’s To Asia with Love. The muffins use sweet rice flour so they are gluten free, and they came out chewy like mochi but dense like a muffin. The swirl of peanut butter helps give it a substantial taste so that the muffin doesn’t tip into desert territory. I really liked these muffins and will definitely make them again. The kids didn’t love them, but the Husband did. The kids said it would be better with chocolate chips. Of course.

I did some mending. My favorite yellow linen pants had a hole in them from last fall when I accidentally poked them with my pencil. I decided to patch them and then saw that there was an even bigger hole on the left knee, so I patched that too. I find mending very satisfying. I do worry, though, that it might be considered not really acceptable to wear patched clothes at work. I patch my kids clothes all the time, but maybe the standard of appearance is different from kids vs. working professionals? Anyhow, I figured one of the benefits of working in the arts is that wearing patched clothes is probably okay since our dress code tends to be more relaxed and whimsy is not frowned upon. So I’ve been wearing them to work. Thank goodness because I really only have two or three pairs of pants right now.

We did a big purge of the kids’ toy room. The toys were getting overwhelming and the room was constantly messy. So we sat down and had the kids choose their five favorite toys/ sets and everything else got put into purgatory in the attic. This is what we were left with:
– Doll House and Castle
-Barbie house and accessories (This is a lot and I’m thinking that may need to be whittled down even more.)
-Magnaformers
-Blocks
-Train Tracks
-Matchbox cars and Hot Wheels garage (One cookie tin full.)
-Trucks (we led the six year old keep six trucks)
– Nugget and Fort play cushions
– Kitchen and accessories
– Baby Dolls and Toy Shopping Cart
– stuffies. Each kid got to keep five
– dress up clothes
-Swedish Climbing Ladder (This is bolted to the wall so had to stay, but the kids do legitimately play on it.)
-Things that the kids didn’t specifically say to keep, but which don’t take up a lot of room so we kept: The Speak n spell, Learn to Code Robot

Things that got sent to purgatory: Crazy Fort fort kit (which took up one big box – the kids really loved playing with this set during the pandemic, but they don’t build forts as much anymore), lots of trucks, all the craft kits, Transformers (surprisingly), stuffies not chosen.

What is left still feels like a lot. I guess since our kids are so far apart in age, there is going to be a wide range of toys. But we did put two big movie boxes of toys into the attic and just threw out a lot of the small or broken toys. (The 11 year old, who is a school bus patrol, apparently has been taking some of the small unmemorable figurines with her to the school bus and handing them out to younger kids as a reward for good behavior. I’m actually quite tickled that she is doing that. ) I think the ultimate goal is to whittle the toys down so they can go into another room, which will free up the toy room so that the 11 year old can have her own room. I think room sharing gets old once one is in the double digits. The toy room feels like a constant battle. I would love for it to be Pinterest organized and labelled, but the reality is if they can shove their toys easily to the side so that the cleaners can do the floors, I think I can begrudgingly live with that. So at least having fewer toys to shove into the perimeters will hopefully make said shoving go faster.

Something that made me smile: the six year old is starting to read, much to my surprise. during the Pandemic, I thought I might teach him using the How To Taech Your Child to Read in 100 Lessons, but it didn’t take. And then he got into a French Immersion program and we were told not to actively teach our kids to read because it sometimes confuses them as they are learning go read in French. So I just decided to let it go. We still read to him, but I didn’t try to ask him to sound out words or identify letters. Well the other day, I was driving him home and I heard … “ssssss- t- o…..p. Stop.” “can you read?” i asked him. “yeah.” “Who taught you?” “my brain.”

Grateful for:
– My Yeti Rambler with Hotshot lid. I had originally got this cup to keep my tea hot, but this week I also had the realization that it could also keep my drinks cold. Not sure why it took me so long to figure this out. Anyhow, it was perfect for making iced chai in the morning and sipping it all day long. One morning I even treated myself to a chai at my favorite coffee place near work and they put it in my Yeti and it was a nice pick me up all day long.
– Nice weather and longer hours of daylight. It had been raining all week which made the days kind of dreary. I had a happy hour scheduled with my mom’s group, and I thought it was going to have to be inside, but then the weather cleared up the afternoon of our happy hour. So we sat outside. And because we schedule our get togethers after bedtime, it was nice that the sun didn’t set until after 8pm so we still had some sunlight when we finally met up.
– This gratitude entry in my journal made me laugh: “Grateful for not moving the bar” There is a bar in our show. (As in there is a scene that takes place in a restaurant.) Of course we can’t have the real bar in the rehearsal room because it is part of the set. So have a substitute bar in rehearsal that is heavy as f*ck. Like it takes five people and six dollies to move it. We’ve been rehearsing in two rehearsal rooms so we had to move the bar one day from one room to the other, and it wasn’t fun. And then we thought we would have to move back to the first room again. But then the stage manager thought through the schedule and decided that we wouldn’t have to move it again, perhaps ever. So grateful.

Looking forward to:
-Tech week. Moving into the theatre! Prepping tech week food! I genuinely look forward to making sure I have food to get me though tech week. The week is long and stressful (I mean relatively – there are for sure more stressful jobs.), so I like to make sure I have food and snacks to get me through. In addition to the Costco snacks and mochi muffins, I’ll make a big batch of boiled eggs and bake muffins for a quick breakfast and have soup or curry that I can bring in a thermos for dinner.
– Meeting up with friends one evening at a park for food trucks and live music. It is starting to be live outdoor music season here, one of my favorite summer activities. I don’t know how many we’ll get to with my heavy work schedule this summer, but I’m trying to bookmark all my favorite events so I remember when they are happening. (we did this. It was kind of a bust – the park was over crowded and there weren’t enough food trucks for everyone and the food and beer wasn’t that good and it was expensive. So we bagged it and picked up sandwiches and went over to our friends’ house)
– Summer camp. This is still on the list because I still haven’t done it and I think if I make myself look forward to it being done, I will get it done. I thought I had an idea of what to do, but then the one camp I was thinking of only does ages 8-12, and I need something that both the 6 year old and 11 year old can do together. There are many advantages to having kids 5 years apart, but finding activities that both can do together is not one of them.

What we Ate:
Monday: Leftover Potatoe Leek Soup from the week before. Leftover soup has become one of our go to quick meal strategies.

Tuesday: Breakfast Sandwiches, made by the 11 year old.

Wednesday: Pasta and Meatballs in the Instant Pot.

Thursday: Sandwiches from Santucci’s, eaten in the park. Our first weekday park picnic of the season. Such an easy summer evening activity.

Friday: The Husband made stuffed zucchini. I ate leftovers at work.

Saturday: Happy Hour out with my mom’s group. I had mussels and asparagus. Meanwhile back at home, the Husband made pizza and the family watched the second Boss Baby movie. (The kids had watched the first movie on the plane to/from Amsterdam. Yes, they watched it twice.)

Sunday: Mac and cheese from the blue box and salad. Made my the 11 year old. I just realized – she made dinner twice this week. That feels kind of cool.

Amsterdam Recap- Day 2 & 3 – Long walks, boats, and family time.

The distinctive rooftops of Amsterdam. Not even sure where this is, but I love the variety all next to each other.

Days 2 and 3 in Amsterdam were very much family days with my Sister in law and her family, so I’m combining them into one post.

Waking up on Saturday was tough because of the time change. I think everyone slept til about 10:30am or so. Except the Husband. He likes to go find coffee in the morning, when we travel so I think he was out of the house by 8:30 or 9am. We soon discovered that Amsterdam is not a city that wakes up early and he was hard-pressed to find coffee before 9am on a weekend unless it was at a Starbucks.

For breakfast, the Husband had gone to Jumbo, the grocery store around the corner, and came back with some cold cuts and cheese and fruit, which we ate with the sourdough bread that we had bought the day before from Levain et Le Vin. The bread was sooooo good! Tangy and with a texture that was soft yet chewy. One of the cold cuts that the Husband brought back was Ossenwort, a raw sausage… kind of like a tartare. I liked it, but I think the kids were a little leery. I think just buying food from the regular grocery store is one of my favorite things to do while on vacation – I love seeing what is on the shelves and what people eat.

No kitchen at the Airbnb, but there was a kettle for hot water, which is *very* important. And that bread was delicious.

Breakfast: Ossenwort, cheese (not sure what kind, though I did eventually learned that *belegen* means aged), sourdough bread and fruit.

After breakfast and some lazing around, we set off to meet my Sister in law and her family for lunch. We decided to walk to the restaurant since it was only 15 minutes away. Halfway there, my SIL came zooming by on her bike. She had dropped her kids at the restaurant (with my brother in law) and came back to see if our kids wanted a ride. The six year old and the three year old got into her bakfiets (Eurpoean cargo bike) and she rode off them. I was a little surprised that there were no seatbelts or anything in the bakfiets – the kids just sat in the front cargo box. But that might just be my overcautious American brain.

We met up at a pancake place shaped like a carousel. Pancakes are on all the lists of Dutch foods to try- to my mind Dutch pancakes lean more toward crepes than the big fluffy American pancakes I’m used to. The kids ordered pancakes, the Husband had poffertjes (tiny pancakes) and I had a waffle. I also had mint tea, which would turn out to be one of my favorite drinks in the Netherlands- so simple, just fresh mint in hot water, served with a cookie and a bit of honey on the side.

The 3.5 year old and her pancake. Let’s be honest – she mostly just ate the whipped cream directly out of the cup.

After lunch my SIL and her family headed back to their house, but I was eager to explore so we said we would walk/ take the tram to their place. It was a drizzly day, but I still liked walking and getting a sense of the city. We walked to Leidseplein, a very popular square that had these cute gecko sculptures and also a very ornate looking theatre:

Internationaal Theater Amsterdam. I love looking at theatres, even from the outside.

From Leidseplein we took the tram three stops up and got off next to the Vondelpark, and from there we walked across the park to m SIL’s place. On the way to the park, we passed this sculpture garden:

The Emmaplein. I looked it up later and these sculptures are by members of a post War Dutch sculpture collective called Group D’Adam. So cool to have a sculpture garden that one can randomly stumble upon.

Drizzly park landscapes:

Cranes in tall nests:

And then a random man with a dog offered to take our picture on this bridge. (Side note, I noticed in the park that almost all the dogs were off leash. This is certainly different from the parks around me at home. But my Brother In Law made a comment that the Dutch love to have order and rules, but they never think the rules apply to themselves – so it’s kind of ordered chaos in a way.) I thought the man with the dog was going to take our picture from one end of the bridge, but he actually went to stand somewhat precariously among the greenery of the banks of the stream down below the bridge.

not the *best* picture, but I will always remember the man who took it.

And of course a canal:

At my sister in law’s house, we ordered Indonesian food and the kids watched a movie. The food was … fine. I heard that Indonesian food was big in Amsterdam, because of the Dutch’s history in The East Indies. This food was a lot like Chinese food and a bit too saucy for my taste. Though the noodles were pretty good. Around 7pm, we headed back to our AirBnb where we watched some TV (I think it might have been RuPaul’s Drag Race or Friends – it seems that the grown up shows have subtitles and the kids shows were dubbed, so the kids watched a lot of Friends and reality tv while in Amsterdam. Along with some SpongeBob and The Thundermans which they didn’t mind watching in Dutch because they already had seen the episodes.) We tried to get the kids in bed around 10pm, but the kids mostly tossed and turned until finally falling asleep around midnight.

Sunday morning we woke up around 9:30am, and had breakfast – more bread, cold cuts, and fruit. Then we headed out for the day’s adventures. We stopped at a coffee shop around the corner called Uncommon. The Husband said the coffee was very good, and actually got coffee there several times during the week. I had a matcha latte, which I sipped as we went to meet our boat for our canal tour- the one that we had rescheduled from Friday when we missed it. This time, we knew where we were going, and showed up right on time to the boat.

The first thing I liked about the canal tour was that they had snacks! Windmill cookies, little sausages, cheese, crackers, Dutch licorice and of course Heineken. Apparently licorice is a huge thing in the Netherlands, coming in all sorts of flavors. The licorice on the boat was salty licorice, and I rather liked it.

I highly recommend a canal tour in Amsterdam- it gives one a view of the cities and architecture that’s different from just walking around. I chose this tour group (Captain Jack’s) because it had an open top boat; a lot of the other tours had glass covered boats and I imagine the view is not as good. Our boat captain was a retired business professor from Utrecht. He told lots of funny stories and historical tidbits. He talked a lot about how much each building cost or who had the money to buy a building- an expected perspective from a business professor.

The architecture of Amsterdam is such a great way to learn about the city. We learned that one reason the houses are so narrow is that properties were taxed on their width. There are several super narrow houses in Amsterdam, including this one that we saw:

We also saw rows and rows of houseboats, which seems like it’s own fascinating subculture.

All different shapes and sizes and materials. Also interesting that some of them have top levels that come apart so they can fit under bridges.

And tug boats pulling houseboats.

I think this is actually the Houseboat Museum.

And the opera house, which is always fun for me to see.

We also floated passed the Anne Frank House. We did not visit the Anne Frank House on this trip; while I do think it’s an important museum to see, I wanted to wait until the kids could go through it with the patience and respect that the place deserves. Right now the two little are very eager to express their feeling loudly when they get bored and I didn’t think that would be appropriate or fair towards the other people who might have been at the Anne Frank House. So we will save it for next trip.

Many of the houses have distinctive features on the outside. My favorite, which I didn’t get a picture of was one house that had a statue of a stork above the door- it was (and I think still is) a midwife’s location. This one has a statue of St. George and the Dragon.

Just any old house with a knight and dragon hanging out in front… Like you do.

Another interesting aspect of the houses along the canals is some of them are leaning. They were originally built on wooden poles and over years, the poles sink, or rot, or weaken, causing one side of the house to sink. Fascinating. But also a little worrisome, I would imagine.

The boat tour took about two hours and afterwards we met up with my sister in law and her family. We picked up some sandwiches and headed to to Vondelpark for the rest of the afternoon There the kids chased pigeons (seems to be a universal pastime) and played on the playground. In addition to swings and climbing structures the park had a little wooded area where the kids could play with sticks and build wood forts. The weather was beautiful and it was nice to be outside after two days of drizzly wet weather.

Around 4pm, we headed to a bar for happy hour snacks, which also sort of passed for dinner. We had a variety of typical happy hour/bar food: French fries, cheese and meat plate, bitteballen (fried croquettes with meat filling.) After a while, my sister in law and her family headed home and we headed back to our Airbnb. It was only about 5:30p at the time, so we decided to stop for ice cream at a cute shop we had seen during our wanders. The shop had cones with various characters on them. The six year old went first and he, unsurprisingly, picked a Paw Patrol cone. The lady behind the counter started scooping ice cream.

All of a sudden, the lights went dim, disco lights started flashing, bubbles streamed through the air, and the Paw Patrol theme started playing. And at the end, there was a big burst of foam to cap it all off. It was an epic delightful surprise.

Of course after that display, we all had to get character cones. The 3.5 year old choose a unicorn, the 11 year old chose Darth Vadar, I chose Slimer from Ghostbusters and the Husband chose Ghostbusters too. We sat outside and enjoyed our ice cream while watching the lights and bubbles and foam display for each customer.

When we had finished our cones, we took a long meandering way home. We came across this snake-shaped play structure next to a garden and spent about half an hour playing there.

And on the way home we saw more canals, made even more beautiful in the light of the almost setting sun:

We arrived home around 6:30p, and put on the first Ice Age movie and snuggled down for a family movie night. Everyone was in bed by 9:30pm, but the six year old tossed and turned and stayed awake for another hour. Our Airbnb was one big room, so it wasn’t as if we could put the kids to bed and then stay up ourselves, so all week we actually went to bed the same time as the kids most nights. On day 3 we were still fighting jetlag, but we told the kids that even though they weren’t sleepy we were going to turn out the lights and stay in bed. And eventually they did fall asleep.

Well that was our first weekend in Amsterdam. It was a combination of family and touristy stuff, which was a nice pace for the first few days. The week to come, my sister in law’s family would be busy with school and life so we wouldn’t see them very much so I’m glad they made time for us on the weekend.

More adventures to come. Including, on Day 4… a food tour!