Can we please chose something inbetween,
(mediocrity, chastity, puppetry…)
*Coughs* Anyway.
Pomegrape update! Hang out on the internet enough and you’ll learn all sorts of things; like my pomegrapes are really red currants. I prefer the name “pomegrapes,” but googling “currant” will get you more hits, like this one:
“Blackcurrants were once popular in the United States as well, but became extremely rare in the 20th century after currant farming was banned in the early 1900s when blackcurrants, as a vector of white pine blister rust, were considered a threat to the U.S. logging industry.[1] The federal ban on growing currants was shifted to individual states’ jurisdiction in 1966, and was lifted in New York State in 2003 through the efforts of horticulturist Greg Quinn. As a result, currant growing is making a comeback in New York, Vermont, Connecticut and Oregon.[2][3] However, several statewide bans still exist including Maine, Massachusetts and New Hampshire[4]. Since the federal ban ceased currant production anywhere in the U.S., the fruit is not well-known and has yet to reach the popularity that it had in 19th century United States or that it currently has in Europe. Since blackcurrants are a strong source of antioxidants and vitamins, awareness and popularity are once again growing, with a number of consumer products entering the market.”
From Wikipedia. Research shame, I know, but it was still entertaining, even if it’s not valid in a research paper 
Also explains why Laura and I didn’t know what currants were. They aren’t very popular. They are however, native to the Netherlands and other parts of Northern Europe (and tasty).
Speaking of new foods, Kees bought Laura and I croquettes and fries for lunch on Friday. For those of you not European (…most of you) the guys explained a croquette as “crusty, liquid meat”. Which sounds disgusting, but it’s not as bad as all that. It was like thick gravy meat stuff with a crunchy coating like chicken nuggets, served like a hotdog on a bun with mustard. Pretty good, but not something to do often. Didn’t think to take a picture, or I’d share.
On the work front, Darwin’s room is coming along. I’ve been updating the WIP series I linked in the last post fairly often. Today’s model has been frustrating, but hopefully I can get over it soon.
Tolerance for Angelica is reaching critical mass. She’s nearing causing me anxiety attacks when she comes into the room Laura and I hang out in. She’s also becoming more and more inconsiderate; she turns off laundry without a word, stands in front of the TV, sings along to music while I’m trying to sleep, unplugs the router and stalks us, apparently. Laura and I went and hung out at the office on Saturday, and she apparently found out and emailed Robin about it (who told us we could go there to get away from her, b-t-way). Neither of us told her where we were going, or know how she knew we were there. It’s kinda creepy.
On Sunday we went to Amsterdam again. Visited the Rijsk Museum, where Rembrant and Vermeer among other famous dutch painters have exhibits. It was awesome. Totally worth the line outside. Laura and I spent nearly 2 hours walking around seeing things. Made me want to oil paint (and furnish my non-existant house with awesome old arts) super bad. I’d never seen old masters’ works in person before. I knew it was different and better than pictures, but this was really mind blowing. Italy has just been upped on places-to-visit when I have touring monies.
Other than the museum, Laura and I ran into a guy playing two recorders with his NOSE. He was quite good, and we took pictures; I’ll upload them soonish, the internet here has been really crappy lately. There are of course a number of street preformers (a guy playing bagpipes near Central, a couple drumers and the occasional trumpet player), but nose-recorder was a first for sure! I’ll admit, I dropped a couple coins in his hat
We ran into nose-recorder guy (awesome name, isn’t it?) on the way to get a rain coat I saw last time we were there and I decided I wanted. It’s black and mid-tigh length trench-coat style. Super awesome. I’ll try to get a picture of that soon too. I know I’ve been slacking on pictures lately, besides the internet I’m just feeling lazy about it.
Finally, on our way back to the train station, Laura and I went into a shop to look around and came out with a bottle of Absinthe. Don’t worry we’ll be moderate with it, but I’ve always wanted to try the real stuff. We decided to not give it a go on a work-night though, so we’ve not indulged as of yet. I’ll let ya’ll know what it’s like when we do though, probably this coming weekend. Not like we can take the stuff home with us.
Today was another Monday, and a fairly crappy one. At lunch I had a spider on me, which I later learned was going to be the least dramatic of my experiences for the day. Although I did panic slightly and whack him into oblivion. He was looking up at me with his curious, blood-thirsty eyesssssssss. It was instinct. Don’t judge. About 15 minutes later, I was chatting with the guys at work and I felt a pinch on my chest, just below my sternum and so I kinda absent-mindedly rubbed it with my arm like maybe I pulled a bit of skin or something. Doing that only caused another more painful pinch so I looked down to find a wasp biting me. Again I instinctively whacked him off into oblivion, but very calmly said “I think I just got stung.” Preceding standing up and going inside. It swelled a little at first, like a mosquito bite, but after about an hour, the swelling went back down. I now have two little pink spots, they look like a vampire bite. They also don’t hurt, unless I’m laying on my stomach or back, which sucks for the lazing I was planning on doing all evening.
To make matters better, while riding my bike home a bird shit on me. I was not amused. I pulled over, because I could feel it soaking into my jeans, which was not ok, and there was a piece of trashed paper towel conveniently sitting on the sidewalk. So I picked it up, wiped most of the bird poop off and got home where I spot washed the rest out. I submitted today to FML haha something along the lines of:
Today, Mother Nature tried telling me about the birds and the bees. A wasp bit me a couple times at lunch, and then a bird pooped on me on the way home from work. FML
We’ll see if it gets accepted or not. Haha.
And it’s now just after midnight here, so I’m off to bed.
Cheers.
P.S Sorry about the silence, didn’t have anything to update with, and then I didn’t have to motivation to turn my notes into complete thoughts with grammar and such.
