Snow View

I had to share this picture.

I took this late on Sunday evening, just before bed, when we noticed that the snow was really sticking. I didn't think that this picture would come out at all because looking out, the scene was practically pitch black. I'm amazed at the detail the camera still managed to pick up. When I looked at it yesterday afternoon, it wasn't that impressive because I was looking at it in a very bright room, and the sun made it hard to see my laptop screen. But when I looked again early this morning, when the surroundings were still dark, I could see the contrast much better. I love looking out at our little pond/canal and the path to the bus station. I thought it was great watching the leaves turn all shades of oranges and yellows, but the snow just made it even prettier. This is why the night setting and a gorillapod are an awesome combination.

Too bad for me, by the middle of the night, the rain came and melted all the pretty white snow. So, no snow picture day in Amsterdam yet. I may, however get to take pictures of a different city in snow. I am very excited that we've gotten in touch with our old friends Leonard and Lisa Brennan from Ireland, and we may get to see them, not here, and not there, but by joining them on their snowboarding trip to Austria this winter. Maybe January. I knew I should have brought our snow gear!!

Last night, Monday, Matt and I rushed home from the gym to meet the husband and wife from India who own our rental apartment, and the handyman who is supposed to be fixing our 3 unresponsive radiator panels, adding coat racks, etc. Seems he will also be refinishing the hard wood kitchen counter that the previous tenant scoured down removing all the water resistant varnish in places, enabling mold to take root. It's not that bad, yet. But the owner's want to deal with it sooner rather than later, so it looks like we have home renovation in our future. Just one more unexpected thing.

Maybe we can get them to schedule it while we are away on our 10th anniversary trip to Jamaica (that we had planned long before we knew anything about Holland happening). I feel so ridiculously spoiled sometimes. I know it's not an illusion.