deadmillion

Past Tuesday it was St. Maarten's day over here, which I love. Kids go door-to-door, singing a song in exchange for candy, so cute. It's a little like Halloween, but without the scary or dressing up parts. Though due to the proximity in dates and similairity to Halloween, Halloween decorations are more-and-more used the past few years. It was a bit of a disappointment this year though, as it was raining most of the night. So I only had 2 kids at my door that night, while there will usually be several dozen.
Now I have a bunch of candy left over. I don't care much for candy usually (when I don't have it, I don't miss it), but when it's around, I can't not eat it. I'm such a fatty. Anybody want to come over to help me get rid of this candy?

I let Tara check out upstair for the first time this week. Since her predecessor chewed on my laptop and phone's power chords, no kitties have been allowed upstairs anymore, other than for giving them a bath. But since she picked up a habit of crying at the livingroom door every time I stayed upstairs for more than 2 minutes, I caved, and let her snoop around for a bit while I changed. I thought she was crying so hard because she was looking for me, but a few hours after her little reconnaissance mission, she was frantically crying at the door again while I was with her watching TV, untill I let her upstairs again. Now she seems to be hooked.
She'll never be allowed upstairs while I'm not there, but I did let her stay the night one time, as a little experiment. Other than turning the bathroom light on sometime during the night (it has a pull string instead of a regular switch, she probably played with it), she didn't get in any trouble. Well, apart from playing with my shoe laces, but she does that when I leave them downstairs, too. The few times I woke up during the night, she was laying peacefully up against my legs. So who knows, maybe this experiment will be repeated some time in the near future. I just have to fit a door or something to the walk-in closet, because I don't want her in there furring all my sweaters .
She's also getting more and more interested in "outside", when I leave in the morning. She used to stay well back when I opened the door, but the past few days she's been moving closer and closer to sniff up all the impressions. So I'll have to start watching her a little more carefully when I leave, because I'm afraid she'll slip out at some point. It's cute that she's being adventureous, but I'd much rather keep her indoors.

My parents came back from London last week, and they casually reminded me I'm fat by bringing me back a shirt of Chunk doing the Truffle Shuffle. I love The Goonies though, so I'll wear it anyway. It promted me to watch the movie again on the weekend, and guess what? After over 20 years, the movie is still awesome. It's one of my favourite movies of all time.
What are your favourite (childhood) movies? And why do you love those particular movies so much?

I'm sending out Christmas cards soon (as it can take anywhere from 1 to 3 weeks to get mail to the States, if the US Postal service doesn't lose them...), so if you'd like one, make sure I have your address by the end of the month. I know a couple of you have moved the past year, and I didn't get everyone's new address yet, I don't think.
I'm thinking about making my own (photo) cards this year, since I have a photo printer laying around and all. I just don't know what kind of pictures I want to do. I'd like to shoot some pictures in the snow, especially of Amsterdam, but it doesn't snow here untill Januari usually, so that's probably out. Unless we get a freak snow storm within the next 2 weeks or something. I'm also thinking about some Christmass-y pictures of Tara, or some nice ornaments. We'll just have to see what I'm in the mood for. Whatever the subject, I need to get off my butt and actually shoot something. Some coaxing to get this lazy ass moving is always appreciated .

I have 2 weeks off around Christmas. I have a strong urge to go somewhere for a few days, but I don't know where yet, or if it's economically viable right now. So I'll be looking at my options sometime soon. I'm open to suggestions, if you have them . Or, if anyone happens to be in the area at the end of December or start of January, and would like to hang out, let me know (a guestroom is available).


Financial talk:

Sorry I haven't been too active on here lately. Though I do read everyone's blogs, I just don't have much to say.