In case you're wondering, I dropped the Radio. Just plain Bastet now. Actually, all the screen names I've considered sound phony and silly. I may just end up using my real name. But for now, we'll try Bastet on for size... 
Oh, and I just took the new profile pic in our living room a few minutes ago. Got my hair cut last week. It's not a very good picture, but will have to do for now.
OK, before it gets too hot to breathe up here (computer room's upstairs, and we're due for another record-breaking high-90's day, which is why I didn't write yesterday; it's been like this since Wed., and I'm a total wimp when it comes to temps over 80!), I'll try to lay down The Holland Report, Part 2:
Sunday, 5/25. We visited The KattenKabinet, a museum completely dedicated to cats! Artwork, sculpture, etc., complete with its own resident cats who roam freely about the place. Completely delightful; Marvin would have loved it... Also checked out The House with the Heads, but only from the outside. Legend has it that the heads of Roman Gods and Goddesses on the outside are actually the REAL heads of burglars who were decapitated by the crazy maid of the original owner... 
Then finally, the fabled Red Light District. We honestly didn't do too much exploring, but it's a mind-boggling place. This is where Amsterdam's official "XXX" insignia takes on a whole new meaning...
Lots more of the window prostitutes here, of course. We were both too shy to actually look them in the eye! I'd heard rumors that they've been know to practically drag potential customers through their doors, but we didn't see any of that. They all seemed like nice working girls, as far as we could tell. I think it's fabulous that prostitution is legal and regulated so well there. I strongly believe that it should be made legal everywhere; regulation can only help decrease incidents of disease and abuse. Let's face it - lots of men are willing to pay good money for sex. Let's make it legal and decrease the dangers for both the women and their clients!
Whoa, didn't mean to get on the soapbox there...
Anyway, we visited the Erotic Museum there, and it was pretty amazing. X-rated art, sculpture, books, cartoons, figurines, everything. Yep, I understand my friend Tiffany from the library, when she talked about she and her fiance suffering from "sex overload" after only a short time in Amsterdam...!
Monday, 5/26. Our last full day in Amsterdam. Had coffee - and coffee ONLY! - at Barney's, one of the better coffeeshops in town. Cool jazz on the sound system, a few folks having some breakfast with their early morning smoke. Very cool, very nice. We bought a tram ticket and headed over to the Van Gogh Museum. Another amazing, holy, sacred place. I remember the Sunflowers painting to be the very first "serious" artwork that seeped into my consciousness as a kid, my mom having a print of it hanging on the wall in our house. Well, I got to stand right in front of the original... All of his famous work was there, except of course for Starry Night, which Tiffany tells me is in New York now. What an incredible place! We bought some little demitasse cups and fridge magnets in the gift shop.
Before we left town, I was bound and determined to have a REAL "coffeeshop experience." (besides, I promised Voltaire I'd partake of a bit of the Ancient Substance just for her, and you don't expect me to let Voltaire down, now do ya??). The guidebook recommended Kadinsky Coffeeshop as having probably the best-tasting spacecake in town. I really didn't feel like smoking, so decided to go with that. Unfortunately they were doing some construction work outside, which made it rather difficult to navigate. But we got there, and Byron bought me a slice of the chocolate spacecake. It was very tasty indeed! By this time we were zonking out as usual, so we headed back to the hotel for our customary afternoon nap. The cake didn't kick in for 2 hours, and by that time of course I was already asleep!! I remember waking up, feeling really dizzy, and going back to sleep again. Then later I woke up again, and it sounded like there was a huge cacophony of noise going on outside our window (it was usually fairly noisy, but this sounded like WWIII). I looked at Byron sleeping soundly and thought, "You mean he can't hear that??!!" before promptly falling asleep again. So, that was the extent of my Amsterdam coffeeshop experience!! Oh well... I'd do it again in a heartbeat!!
Tuesday was the wedding, Wednesday we rented bikes but mine was too far from the ground (even with the seat lowered) so we spent most of the day watching Dutch cable TV. Thursday we went home. I'll leave it at that for now and elaborate later; it's getting kinda toasty up here!!
Your Wilde quote for the day:
Vulgarity is simply the conduct of other people, just as falsehoods are the truths of other people.
Oh, and I just took the new profile pic in our living room a few minutes ago. Got my hair cut last week. It's not a very good picture, but will have to do for now.
OK, before it gets too hot to breathe up here (computer room's upstairs, and we're due for another record-breaking high-90's day, which is why I didn't write yesterday; it's been like this since Wed., and I'm a total wimp when it comes to temps over 80!), I'll try to lay down The Holland Report, Part 2:
Sunday, 5/25. We visited The KattenKabinet, a museum completely dedicated to cats! Artwork, sculpture, etc., complete with its own resident cats who roam freely about the place. Completely delightful; Marvin would have loved it...
Also checked out The House with the Heads, but only from the outside. Legend has it that the heads of Roman Gods and Goddesses on the outside are actually the REAL heads of burglars who were decapitated by the crazy maid of the original owner...
Then finally, the fabled Red Light District. We honestly didn't do too much exploring, but it's a mind-boggling place. This is where Amsterdam's official "XXX" insignia takes on a whole new meaning...
Lots more of the window prostitutes here, of course. We were both too shy to actually look them in the eye! I'd heard rumors that they've been know to practically drag potential customers through their doors, but we didn't see any of that. They all seemed like nice working girls, as far as we could tell. I think it's fabulous that prostitution is legal and regulated so well there. I strongly believe that it should be made legal everywhere; regulation can only help decrease incidents of disease and abuse. Let's face it - lots of men are willing to pay good money for sex. Let's make it legal and decrease the dangers for both the women and their clients!
Whoa, didn't mean to get on the soapbox there...
Anyway, we visited the Erotic Museum there, and it was pretty amazing. X-rated art, sculpture, books, cartoons, figurines, everything. Yep, I understand my friend Tiffany from the library, when she talked about she and her fiance suffering from "sex overload" after only a short time in Amsterdam...!
Monday, 5/26. Our last full day in Amsterdam. Had coffee - and coffee ONLY! - at Barney's, one of the better coffeeshops in town. Cool jazz on the sound system, a few folks having some breakfast with their early morning smoke. Very cool, very nice. We bought a tram ticket and headed over to the Van Gogh Museum. Another amazing, holy, sacred place. I remember the Sunflowers painting to be the very first "serious" artwork that seeped into my consciousness as a kid, my mom having a print of it hanging on the wall in our house. Well, I got to stand right in front of the original... All of his famous work was there, except of course for Starry Night, which Tiffany tells me is in New York now. What an incredible place! We bought some little demitasse cups and fridge magnets in the gift shop.
Before we left town, I was bound and determined to have a REAL "coffeeshop experience." (besides, I promised Voltaire I'd partake of a bit of the Ancient Substance just for her, and you don't expect me to let Voltaire down, now do ya??). The guidebook recommended Kadinsky Coffeeshop as having probably the best-tasting spacecake in town. I really didn't feel like smoking, so decided to go with that. Unfortunately they were doing some construction work outside, which made it rather difficult to navigate. But we got there, and Byron bought me a slice of the chocolate spacecake. It was very tasty indeed! By this time we were zonking out as usual, so we headed back to the hotel for our customary afternoon nap. The cake didn't kick in for 2 hours, and by that time of course I was already asleep!! I remember waking up, feeling really dizzy, and going back to sleep again. Then later I woke up again, and it sounded like there was a huge cacophony of noise going on outside our window (it was usually fairly noisy, but this sounded like WWIII). I looked at Byron sleeping soundly and thought, "You mean he can't hear that??!!" before promptly falling asleep again. So, that was the extent of my Amsterdam coffeeshop experience!! Oh well... I'd do it again in a heartbeat!!
Tuesday was the wedding, Wednesday we rented bikes but mine was too far from the ground (even with the seat lowered) so we spent most of the day watching Dutch cable TV. Thursday we went home. I'll leave it at that for now and elaborate later; it's getting kinda toasty up here!!
Your Wilde quote for the day:
Vulgarity is simply the conduct of other people, just as falsehoods are the truths of other people.
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I actually am preferring to use this, my middle name, over a screen-name.