A week in Wageningen

I did a lot during my week in Wageningen.

Rode the European rail system (seriously, why don't we have this?!)

 Ran through the Netherlands countryside

 Spent some time in the old town (church lit up at night)

 Ate some delicious food (those are shrimp and cheese stuffed peppers)

 And some that I was a bit less sure about (that's a raw fish with onions)

Worked out, including a Hatha yoga class in Dutch (and how gorgeous is this gym?!)

 Visited the Restaurant of the Future, which is automated by my company

 Trained on our systems, including some new products

 And rode bikes through the countryside

All in all, I will take it! We were incredibly busy, but had a really great time. Here's hoping to do it again next year!

3 days in NYC

We're down a sales person in my company right now, which is making for a bit more work for me and the other sales manager as we find just the right person for the job (we do have two interviews this week, so wish us luck!). On the plus side, the region that I have added in this interim period is NYC and Long Island - not bad places to have to go! I went there in January (and dragged Evan along for our janniversary), but had more people to visit, a couple of trainings to do,and a conference to attend, so back I went earlier this month.

My work schedule was fairly full, especially as the trip was postponed one day due to bad weather, which led to last-minute rescheduling of almost everyone. I headed up Tuesday night; Wednesday was a half day training, Thursday was 6 hours at a neuromarketing conference (where an awardee presented his PhD work using my company's FaceReader software)
followed by two sales visits, and Friday was an early morning drive out to Stony Brook for a two hour visit there. There, that's the boring stuff out of the way. The fun part was what I got to do Wednesday late afternoon: see a taping of The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon! I was fortunate to happen to be on Facebook when they posted the link to tickets for shows in March, so I clicked through and reserved one for that evening. It was so much fun!!

There's quite a process to getting these tickets. You show up at Rockefeller Center and wait in line for about 45 minutes to get your ticket. Here was my view as I waited:

You then have to come back about 90 minutes later to wait in a second line to actually get into the show, which records in early evening. I was fortunate that I was by myself, so they used me to fill in a seat putting me only about 5 rows back from the stage/floor. Unfortunately, they are RIDICULOUSLY strict about phones/cameras in the studio, so I couldn't take any photos there. This is my only photo documenting my attendance, and I'm glad I took this selfie, as they took our tickets as we went in, too!

As I mentioned, I had some time to kill in the area in between getting my ticket and seeing the taping. Luckily, there's a lot to do at Rockefeller Center! I didn't have my DSLR with me, so made do with my cell phone as I walked around.

I went into the Lego store for a bit; this guy was hanging from the ceiling.

 I stopped to get a quick treat...so yummy!

Then went back for the show, which was as good as I'd hoped it would be. I saw Jimmy Fallon and Annette Benning play beer pong, an interview with Norman Reedus (from The Walking Dead), and a performance by The Avett Brothers (always great!). 

The other highlight of my trip was the run I was able to take Thursday, after my sales visits. I ran from my hotel in Times Square up through Central Park, and made my best time ever: less than 10min/mile, for about 3.1 miles! I think the energy in the city really appeals to me. It may have also been the most beautiful scenery I've ever run in. 

Later that evening I had a couple of drinks with an old friend from grad school, and then a later small meal with an even older friend from high school. I could not have asked for a better trip, both for work and personal reasons. Can't wait to go back!

A week in The Netherlands

As I'm sure most of you know from Facebook, or hearing from me directly, I'm not in the US currently! I left Friday night to take a red-eye to Europe. Along with 4 of my colleagues, I am spending this week at my corporate headquarters in Wageningen, NL. It's a little town, about an hour east of Amsterdam, and 3 hours northeast of Brussels.

We didn't come here immediately - instead, we flew on Friday night to Brussels, landing Saturday morning. We spent the night in Brussels, staying primarily in the city center, near the Grand Place. In the photo below, our hotel was on the Rue du Lombard, just north of the Manneke Pis, which is a famous statue (about two feet tall) of a little boy peeing in a fountain.

I did take photos of this statue, but they're on my personal laptop (I'm typing this on my work laptop). It's pretty hilarious that the sign of Brussels is a little boy peeing....on pretty much everything! You see him in little souvenirs, on tshirts...everywhere, peeing. It's pretty hilarious. There's a statue that was created in "solidarity" of a little girl peeing - the "Jeanneke Pis". I do have a photo of that to share here:

Can you imagine trying to put a statue like that in the US somewhere? No way that would fly! What makes it even more hilarious is that it's designed to help promote medical research for cancer. Yet it's placed down a small alley, locked in an alcove, just up from the Delirium Cafe (which is on the map above) - a HUGE bar that we spent quite a bit of time in on Saturday night. Makes no sense, but is hilarious for us as visitors.

Both days I met up with my friend Rob for lunch. We were in the Pep Band together, and since he moved to Belgium in 2005 I haven't gotten to see him a whole lot! His wife is absolutely lovely (she's Belgian), and their kids are adorable. It was nice to get to see them for a bit, especially on Sunday when they walked around the city center with us! I found myself enjoying Brussels more than I thought I would: the food was amazing, the people were really nice, and the beer was great (I can get lambics for SO CHEAP!). What more could I ask for?

Sunday afternoon we took the train (ok, 3 trains and a taxi) up to Wageningen. It was interesting, wheeling all of our bags through tiny European trains, with only about 5 minutes to switch at each station, but we made it! Our hotel is the Hotel de Wageningsche Berg - newly renovated, just next to a tributary of the Rhine river, and really nice. I went for a run/walk this morning through the woods behind the hotel, then down next to the river - not bad at all! Breakfast is also delicious, and my room is quite large for a European hotel room, so I have no complaints.

They're keeping us busy here at the office - meetings every morning, followed by different hands-on trainings after lunch. We are getting some lovely dinners in the evenings with Dutch colleagues, and tonight I'm having a "ladies night" with 3 of the women in marketing here, who are a lot of fun. Thursday night we go to work out at the very fancy gym of our sales director (he took us there the last time), and Friday night is dinner at our owner's home. Saturday I take an early train with 2 colleagues back to Amsterdam, and then fly home for arrival Saturday afternoon. A full week, but a good one! I'll be posting some photos up here soon, hopefully - sadly, the WiFi at my hotel in the evenings is awful (the one negative of the place), so my ability to post from there is not great. We'll see what I can do as the week wears on!

San Francisco through my phone

Back at the end of September, I spent a few days in the San Francisco bay area with a colleague. I'd never been to the area before, so we made sure to get in some sight seeing both in San Francisco and in the surrounding towns where we visited clients). If you'd like to see some of the better photos I took with my DSLR camera of San Francisco, click here. Otherwise, let's see what I grabbed with my iPhone!

We had a LOT of good food on this trip. Chris did an excellent job finding yummy places that still fit within my food "restrictions" (I don't eat beef, pork, most cheeses...and I'm sure there's more). He wanted to take me to a Dim Sum restaurant he knew of near Chinatown in San Francisco, and it was amazing! We stuffed ourselves, literally - we committed the cardinal sin of not being able to finish everything we'd ordered. So good!!

I found this delicious crepe near our hotel in San Francisco.

Our first client visits were in Sacramento. I went running the first morning there, around the hospital area (where we were staying and seeing clients), and saw this beautiful pavilion. I grabbed this photo, as it made me think of my mom.

On the main UC Davis campus, there's a nature walk that runs around almost the entire school. We walked a short stretch of it while waiting between two appointments. So beautiful!

The afternoon light hitting the trees was really lovely. The photo on the left was taken at UC Berkeley's campus (love the giant sequoias!), while the photo on the right was taken at UC Davis.

Finally, we made a couple of stops in Silicon Valley. As we were driving around, we happened upon the main Facebook headquarters. I made Chris pull over so I could take a photo. How often do you get to see this sign, particularly when it's decorated for Halloween?!

It was a really great trip - I absolutely get why people love the bay area!

Puzzle time

Today, on our FOURTEENTH snow day of the winter, we were all stuck at home again. The kids were fantastic about entertaining themselves, and at one point Henry decided to join together two of his favorite things: music and puzzles. I grabbed this video without him realizing it. You can hear him humming along while finishing the puzzle.

Unfortunately I ended the video just too soon - right after this he looked straight at the camera and said "what are you doing?" Too cute! I'm happy I was able to grab him without him realizing it, just doing his normal thing.

Sunday Funday

After having a pretty great Saturday, the fun continued last Sunday! We were unexpectedly contacted by Kathy, as she and Eric were heading to Udvar-Hazy and wanted to know if we wanted to join them. Of course we did! We met up with them, and Beth, Jason and Ellie joined us a bit later. Sunday morning there is the best - very few people and no lines for anything, including the Cessna airplane which we didn't get to do last time. Check out my little pilots!

Did you notice Natalie's outfit in the photo above? At the consignment sale the weekend before I had found this costume, brand new, for only $8! She absolutely loves it, and wanted to wear it even before she knew we were going to the space museum. This just made it even more appropriate!

 

Katie was adorable, running around after Natalie. Look how cute these two are!

We then had lunch and wandered back around the museum more, this time with all of our friends. Kathy grabbed this shot of them all holding hands - too cute!

We even managed to get photos of all 4 of them together. Again, this photo is courtesy of Kathy; I was standing off to one side and mine didn't come out as well.

Beth snagged this photo of the 3 girls, as they were climbing on one another on the floor.

I'm really glad we did this impromptu trip - it was tons of fun! We headed home for a couple of hours, then went out again, this time for Maryland. My friend Kelly had invited us up to their house for dinner, as the last couple of times we saw each other was all for parties so we didn't really get to hang out that much. We were there for about 3.5 hours, and had a great time! All 5 kids played, the adults got to talk, and Kelly made a fantastic make-your-own taco/burrito station, followed by ice cream with toppings. What a great day of seeing friends - can't wait to do it again!

Saturday fun

On Saturday we took the kids to the mall for a few hours, as I had some coupons to spend and there were a few things to look for. I was good, and bought almost nothing for myself (although I did get this year's Foxfield dress!); instead, almost everything I bought was for the kids. Well, mostly Natalie - Henry was refusing to let me buy him anything, to the point where he would've had a meltdown if he'd actually seen me purchase it. So, I'll be going back to the mall soon to get him the great shorts that I saw, and hopefully the super cool Foxfield hat!

Natalie, however, has no problem with us buying her anything, and she walked away with some new shirts, a bathing suit, some skirts (clearance at under $4 each!), and a Foxfield hat! She put this whole outfit together - love my little fashionista! Even better, it turns out that we have a dress to match  the hat, so I don't have to buy anything else. Yay!

Later that afternoon we headed over to see our friends Deb and Ryan for their son Chase's 4th birthday. They only invited about 5 kids, so we were honored to make the list along with their other close friends and family! The original plan was to watch a movie and have pizza, but the beautiful weather meant the kids spending time outside instead, playing games. Natalie learned how to play ladder ball, and practiced a lot to get the balls on the ladder. Here she is being taught by Ryan, along with the birthday boy.

 I managed to get a good action shot of the balls in motion.

 Henry found this little shovel outside and spent the first bit shoveling snow, and then eating it. I stopped it as best as I could, as that was some OLD snow!

 However, he then discovered the t-ball set and we discovered he's got some power in his swing! I know his eyes are closed in this shot, but he was actually doing a good job of connecting with the ball. I think he needs a set like this for his birthday!

We then went inside for pizza, some playtime, and cake. Much fun was had by all! It was great to spend the day all together. It then turned out that we would spend all day Sunday with friends, which wasn't planned but was so much fun! Details on that to come next.

First weekend in March

We were lucky enough to yet again have a "free" weekend to kick off March. I put the quotation marks there because it started out with nothing scheduled, but by the end of February I had 3 things on our schedule, and one that ended up getting added last minute. Evan was out of town Thurs-Friday for work, and of course his flight home Friday night was cancelled, and he was re-routed Saturday morning to National airport. So, we started Saturday by driving out to National to pick him up (leaving the house with the kids in pjs at 7:30am), then got home, spent a few hours, and headed back out to Silver Spring MD for Peter & Alison's daughter's 4th birthday party. Happy birthday Ann-Marie!

 

My family then got in on the birthday festivities with a purple party hat.

And I grabbed this shot of Henry lying on the ground, then had some fun with editing it.

We left the party to head to Quench, a restaurant in Rockville, MD. Our friend Ed is the new head chef there, and he invited any other Band alums to join him at the restaurant to watch the UVA-Syracuse basketball game, including free appetiers! How could we say no to that? Delicious free food (we did also buy drinks and dinner), an awesome basketball game, and some friends (Beth and her family also joined us, as did our friend Julia) - doesn't get better than that!

On Sunday I got to continue the friend fun by spending the day in Manassas/Woodbridge with Kathy. She and I went to a large kids consignment sale at the Prince William County fair grounds, where I found some amazing deals on clothes for the kids for spring/summer. Can't wait for them to wear them! That hardly seems possible right now, but I have faith that it will get warm again at some point. She and I then went to lunch, followed by a quick trip to Ikea so I could finally buy the media center we've been wanting for our living room, but had been out of stock for months.  Love that we're getting settled into the new house with some new furniture pieces. Next up, painting the front rooms/hall of the house. I just have to call painters first... but March is going to get busy with personal and work travel, so who knows when that will happen! Check out this upcoming month.

March 4-7: I'm in NYC for work (where I also have a ticket to see The Tonight Show, woohoo!)

March 13-16: We're heading to the OBX for a long weekend at my parents' house.

March 17-18: Philadelphia area for work.

March 21-29: In the Netherlands for work (with a quick trip to Brussels over the weekend before)

It'll be a busy month, but lots of good stuff going on! I've got photos coming up from my trip to NYC, some things we did this current weekend; I know there will be photos from the OBX, and of COURSE photos from The Netherlands!

Janniversary in NYC

I posted a little over a month ago about our fantastic Janniversary weekend - we celebrated 15 years together quite well, I think! Trip to NYC, a couple of nice gifts for each other, a new computer for me, new furniture for the basement, and time away together...what more could we ask for?!

I had wanted to get that summary posted right after we got home, but I hadn't yet gone through the photos that I took. For much of the trip I used my iPhone to capture photos that struck me.
Left: Our first view of Times Square area as we drove into NYC.

Right: Empire State Building at night, in black and white

 

Left: Art piece hanging in the lobby of our hotel

Right: Columbia University, main plaza

However, in the evenings I grabbed my DSLR to get some better photos. As we were staying in Times Square, that's mostly what I captured in the evenings. I was also hoping to find something good each day for the daily photo project I was working on last month, which resulted in some different photos for me, but it was fun to experiment, particularly in NYC!

 

I had no time during the week to do any real sight seeing, so I wanted to do a little on Saturday before we headed home. We'd had great weather during the week, and of course on our sight seeing day it was raining/snowing, cloudy, and gross! After doing our morning shopping, it at least stopped precipitating even if the clouds remained. We walked down to the High Line, which is an old elevated railroad track that was turned into a public park. It wasn't at its best on a cold, gray day in January, but it was still really nice to get to walk, and we could definitely see how beautiful it must be in the spring and summer.

 Love this artwork and skyline!

I'm about to head back to NYC tomorrow through the end of the week - I unfortunately will have almost no time to do any real sightseeing for photos, but I do have a few fun things planned (in between work appointments) that I look forward to sharing!