Busy Week

Hello Everyone...Merry Christmas to all and Happy Festivus for the rest of us!! It's been a week of activity, but I also must admit I wasn't feeling the urge to put a post out. But I'm over it, so here we go. Radhika went running yesterday, trying to do her 20 mile run. She was successfull, and to boot it was 43 degrees. The day before I didn't see it get over 25!! For most of the day the temperature was in the teens!! As a matter-of-fact, I think I have been either converted or brainwashed. Last night, we walked about a mile and a half each way to a south Indian restaurant to have dosa's. I couldn't believe how warm and nice the evening was!! Turns out it was in the low 40's, but they've got my head all screwed up now that I'll probably be complaining about the heat when I return to Orlando on the 1st. It'll be pushing 70 and I'll be boiling!!! Today it turned back to the predominant winter weather pattern...cloudy, no sun, and chilly. It's 39 right now at 3:30pm. Two days ago it was 20 degrees lower!! Forecast calls for it to be about the same for the next 4-5 days. I can deal with that. Just throw us a little sun here and there.

We took the car (Ford Focus) on a little road trip Saturday, putting in half a tank of gas using the company card. It was about 50 euros. That's about $75 for all you currency and exchange rate challenged Gringo's!!!! And that's HALF a tank!!!!! So...quit your sniveling and crying over there about the cost at the pump. It's easy to see why most folks drive vehicles over here that have engines with less power than my MTG push lawn mower! Americans haven't even begun to make the adjustments required to ween ourselves off Middle Eastern oil. Let me not get started on that....back to blog business. So we drive out to Volendam, a small "cheese, wooden shoe, and windmill" tourist trap that's busy in the summer. We went there on a bus packed with other yayhoo's back in June on our first trip over. I figured it would be a safe first trip outside the secured parking lot where the "company" car that is at our disposal is parked. A couple of weekends ago, Radhika made 2 or 3 trips around the parking lot, just to get the feel of the car. After that harrowing, white-knuckle experience, I figured we were ready for the open road. We managed to run over only 4 bicyclists, 7 pedestrians, 2 scooters, and a duck with one foot. The duck shouldn't count as it should've been in the deeper end of the canal. Seriously, Radhika drove the roughly 30 minutes there and did a fine job. We walked around a bit, took some photos, ate the lunch she packed (Helen would be proud), and then I drove us back. It seems like a good enough car, small enough for European roads (we went over this super narrow bridge that I got chewed out for), but large enough to be comfortable for 4 and/or whatever luggage we take to Moscow, Athens, etc. Gotta add GPS navigation unit to "things we gotta buy" on our stay in Orlando next month!
I'm going to cut this off right here. It's almost 4. I'll write a little more later as there's some stories waiting.