In eighteen or so hours, I'll be boarding a plane bound for Amsterdam. In about twenty-six hours I'll wend my way through a foreign airport (albeit one that conveniently has everything labeled in English as well as Dutch) and find a train to the central station. About an hour after that I'll get on a bus. And then about a half hour after I get on the bus, I'll walk a few blocks.

And I'll watch my sister give a beginning computer course to a bunch of expat neophytes and try not to get sucked in. I don't know if she's going to tell them that I work with computers for a living. I suspect she'll try to enlist me, as she could use my help, and I know if she asks I'll help.

Maybe I'll find my niece and give her the crayons and coloring book I'm taking, give her a Dum-Dum (evil, candy-bearing, bad influence uncle that I am) and keep her busy so her mom can't keep me busy instead.

Anyway, I'm gonna be in the Netherlands for a couple weeks, returning the Monday after Thanksgiving. I'm taking pumpkin pie filling. You know, I was distraught when I discovered it no longer says Libby Libby Libby on the label label label (only one Libby® logo on the label now) but what can you do.

The weather forecast for Haarlem cracks me up. As Truman Capote said of Southern California, that's not weather, it's climate. 'Cept in Holland the climate isn't as nice as the one in SoCal.

So if I don't update, you know why. They have to pay by the minute over there. The horror! The horror!

(15 nov)