§ ¶Tuesday 31 August 2004
Someone Yahoo-searched to StarrySheep and I checked out the links because I am just too tired to do anything else right now. That's how I found Ramon of letmestayforaday.com. Apparently, he once linked to me for a little while (I never knew!) and now he's written a book. Not about linking to me, of course, but about his travels around the world. In his words:
From May 2001 to July 2003 I have travelled the world WITHOUT ANY MONEY, visiting people who invited me over through this website. I crossed distance with my thumb or with help of sponsors and supporters.
That's the (Dutch) spirit! I think I'm going to buy the book. 
§ ¶Monday 30 August 2004
Tum dee dum. Waiting for the postman to deliver Olivier's new clothes. Hope they'll get here soon so we can finally leave the house!
You know, they always say you forget how tiny your baby was at birth. I never believed them. But yesterday, friends visited us with their 7 week old daughter, and I realized it's true! I just couldn't believe Olivier had ever been that small. Funny. I suppose it's like forgetting the pain of giving birth. Not that I'll ever forget all of it, but it's mellowed over time. Nature definitely has an evil way of making sure we procreate... 
§ ¶Wednesday 25 August 2004
If you'd like to see where I live (and why I'm glad we'll be moving soon), take a look at the pictures here:
miliped - Amsterdam West (photos by Philip)
The fifth picture, titled 'Lelylaan', is almost right in front of our appartment.
I like the pictures, BTW. It's just the subject that makes me... sad. No, not sad exactly. It makes me feel cooped up. Like there's no way out. Because for most people living here, there *is* no way out. Like I said: I'm glad we'll be leaving soon.
§ ¶Tuesday 24 August 2004
There's a tiny rabbit sitting in our communal garden. The first in a long, long time. Eating the green and freshly rained on grass.
There's also Lodewijk, our resident stork.
Oh dear. Do storks...?
§ ¶Monday 23 August 2004
As you may or may not know, I'm a big fan of the Art Nouveau (also known as Jugendstil) period. I'm always on the lookout for items in that style. Especially since we'll be moving to a 30's house ourselves, soon!
Here's another mouth-watering site I found:
I know most of you don't speak Dutch, but the pictures will speak for themselves. Must pay a visit real soon...
§ ¶Thursday 19 August 2004
Another thing that's been bugging me: whenever I try to view a site that has dotted borders in its design, the content gets all screwed up - dotted lines all over the place, making it impossible for me to read a word (or view a picture, for that matter.)
I'm sure it's got something to do with IE 6, but does anyone know if there's a solution to the problem? (Apart from people not using dotted lines anymore, of course. *grins*) It sometimes helps to highlight the page, but not always. Very frustrating!
§ ¶Wednesday 18 August 2004
Just wondering. Does anyone recognize the red dots on Olivier's face? What could they be?
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I was just at the loo looking at the stretch marks on my belly and thought: 'Gee, Olivier was in there.' Funny how some things take so long to register sometimes.
(I'm just being a daft cow, I know, I know! )
§ ¶Tuesday 17 August 2004
Finally found something I like for my pictures: Coppermine.
(Thanks to Lulu!)
The result is here - but it still needs tweaking.
§ ¶Monday 16 August 2004
By the way - look what I found at the chemist's today!
It's Olivier's very own StarrySheep comforter! Must... buy... more... 
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Olivier's covered in red dots & I'm filled with snot. What a great pair we make! We had a lovely weekend.
I'm still continuing my quest for a good, easy to manage gallery script for my digital photos. So far I tried Gallery, Gallerythingie, the Stadtaus Gallery Script, the Quixotic Pixels Photoblog tutorial (which I never got to work, not even when I was still on MT, because my webhost doesn't have ImageMagick - they've got GD library) and a variety of other programmes which unfortunately I cannot remember the names of. So, anything else out there for me to use?
§ ¶Friday 13 August 2004
It's raining again, oh-ho it's raining again! Lovely. Nice & fresh. Improves my mood enormously!
Nothing new going on here, but I felt like dropping a little note. Olivier's asleep in his bed (just writing about that will probably wake him up, but I'll take the risk), I bought myself a new pair of jeans this morning because my B.O. pair still won't fit, and I'm thinking what we'll have for dinner tonight. Any ideas?
This weekend will be good - Pieter's sister and her husband (who live in Munich) will be visiting, and we'll get to see her pregnant belly for the first time! She's due at the exact same time that I was last year. She's the sister that we were having dinner at when my waters broke, remember? She's only seen Olivier on day 1, so seeing him again now must come somewhat as a shock to her! My big boy - who's almost crawling, but not quite. He's sticking his little behind up in the air and pushing himself backwards, much to his own chagrin.
Hope you'll have a wonderful weekend too!
§ ¶Wednesday 11 August 2004
Hey Fizz, was that you, googling to my site for 'pics of Fizz'? 
§ ¶Friday 06 August 2004
I was replying to Linda's question about names in the Netherlands (Is there a trend away from traditional Dutch names? And if so, is it mostly to English (and English-like) names?), but my answer got so long that I thought I'd better turn it into a separate post. So here goes!
I don't really know if there's a trend away from traditional Dutch names, but I do notice that names here tend to be a bit more exotic than they used to be.
The name Olivier, of course, is more French than Dutch, but we do pronounce it the Dutch way. The 'ier' at the end sounds like English 'eer' (as in 'beer'). According to all stats, it isn't a very frequent name here in the Netherlands.
I looked up the most popular given names in Amsterdam so far this year, and got this:
girls:
boys:
Again, most names are pronounced the Dutch way, which makes them sound a bit different from their English counterparts. But who knows - maybe there's a trend to give one's children universally recognizable names!
§ ¶Wednesday 04 August 2004
I think about food all the time. I dig through my backpack, in the hope of finding another one of those small chocolates I stored for later use when I was having coffee somewhere, even though I *know* I just ate the last one. I think to myself: 2 1/2 litres of water a day, remember, 2 1/2 litres and I fill up my water bottle once again.
Ugh! How I hate this! But what I hate more is that when I'm walking somewhere, the person that's walking behind me can see all sorts of blubby bits. Because I can feel them. Disgusting! It's the inside that counts, isn't it? Well, my inside just doesn't feel good at the moment.
§ ¶Tuesday 03 August 2004
Hot! Melting! Wish I was still here... (It's not the best picture, but still - wouldn't you rather be there than in your hot room? )
I had such a good weekend! Cycling, swimming, lazing about in the garden, Olivier shouting with pleasure at the dog... Then yesterday Olivier and me met one of my translators from work with her daughter (2 1/2 months younger than Olivier) at the Amsterdam zoo and spent a wonderful afternoon - chatting, watching Olivier & Zara play and fight and poke each other. Why can't all days be like that?