Another busy week (will it ever be otherwise?)

I canceled my trip to Asia for various reasons. Glad to not be going, but this probably means I'll have to go in the summer. Hope I can miss my holiday.

We're all booked for Paris in the spring. I'm really looking forward to it. We'll take the train this time, instead of driving. It wasn't too expensive for the four of us, and it's much more pleasant (and not actually much longer.) It will mean we need to rely on the metro, but that doesn't seem to be a problem, really. I hope (but do suspect) that we can find enough fun thing for the kids to do for eight days. If push comes to shove, we can rent a car and go to Euro Disney, or whatever they're calling it these days. In any case, a trip to Versailles is probably in order, so we'll have to figure out the French train system at least.

I've been running this week (keeping up on the interval training), but I seem to have tweaked my knee at some point. I don't think it happened on a run. Ironically, I think it happened on a long train trip when I was sitting with my legs crossed for too long. I have some pain on the back of my leg, just below the knee, but it comes and goes. I'll stretch carefully today and try it out again, but I'm not taking too many chances of really hurting it. I suspect it's a pull of some sort (maybe even a tendon or ligament). Bending down is a no-no, that's for sure, but moving around doesn't seem to be too much trouble.

The boys won their football game again this weekend. This time, the Older was involved in two or three goals. Once, we though he'd even scored himself, but he said it was another kid standing next to him. Even the Younger got into the action with a couple of good stops and passes to his teammates. There's much less dancing and looking at the sky these days, as somehow winning has changed the entire team's focus. It's nice to see, and interesting to watch the kids mature. There's a lot of good feeling on the team as well, with everyone clapping each other on the back and cheering each other on with the penalty kicks at the end. (Every game ends with penalty kicks, but they are just for fun, and don't count.)

Another week with work to do on the weekend. We still need to try to lock up our Italian trip for the summer and there are groceries to buy (one store is open on Sunday now!!) and other things to finish up. Hopefully, we'll have more interesting things to say in future weeks, but for now, that's about it.

I've been reflecting a lot lately on our time here and how fast it has gone. At the end of March (in about one week) I will have been living and working in the Netherlands for 17 months. Given that we'll likely be headed back to the US at the end of the summer in 2010, this puts us right about half way through our little adventure.

I went back and re-read the posts from a year ago, and a lot has happened since then. We hadn't yet bought a car, we were in the depths of our darkest months, the Older was constantly angry with us and I was just starting to use GTD. A year in, we're all happier and healthier, but I'm not much more organized (or at least I don't feel like it.) Nevertheless, I'm really glad we decided to come here, and even though this country won't be home to us, there are plenty of things that I'll miss when we go back.

This was yet another week of crashing through work and not much else (for me at least.) The weekend was filled with soccer and Wii, M cut my hair and we watched some TV. I ended up working a few hours on Sunday again (that HAS to stop!) and we neglected to plan our summer holiday for another week. Not bad, overall. I've got a business trip to Asia coming up in mid-April, and I'd like to have both our spring holiday (at the end of April) and our summer vacation planned before I go. That means, ideally, this week. Amusingly enough, the post I read from a year ago was talking about how hard it had been for us to plan our Paris trip (where I'd like to go again for the Spring...), so that, at least, hasn't really changed.

In other news, I've 'started' interval training. Started in quotes because I've done it once. For those who don't know, interval training is an exercise program where you alternate working out at fast and slow paces. I decided that since I'd been off of running for so long, it might be a good way to get re-started. So far, I like it, but I'll need to make time to go again Monday. Not an easy task. Unfortunately, I won't be ready to run the 10k by the time the Hilversum Nike run happens in mid-April, but I think I'll be in Asia then anyway.

Not much else to tell, and now it's time to go to bed. Hope all is well with you out there reading along. We miss you all and hope the economy isn't affecting you too much. One of the families we were close to back in the States has had to move cities to find work. At least they haven't moved too far away (unlike us) but it can't be fun right now. We're feeling unnaturally insulated from it all right now, but as I start to think about finding a landing spot in a year and a half, it get's a little unsettling to wonder what we'll be dropping back into.

As the Dutch say, "Success."

This has been a downer of a week. Well, maybe that's unfair. I'm feeling pretty exhausted lately. I've found myself bouncing from one thing to the next, constantly thinking of the things that aren't getting done, but at least confident that what I am doing is the most important thing at that moment. Small comfort when I seem to have as much backlog as when we got back from FL.

Thanks for those that asked, my trip went off well and with minimal stress. No details will be forthcoming, but I can say that it was an educational experience and that I should be able to share privately in a few months.

Work, otherwise, has conspired to eat my life this week, as it has the past two weeks as well. I made some effort to minimize it's impact on seeing M and the kids this weekend, but I spent more time on it today than I would have preferred. We did have time for a few fun things. The boys had a drama performance yesterday at noon, and it was fun to watch. Both did quite well, although the Younger gave one line a bit too soon, and was reluctant to give it again when the proper time came. They both had a great time in the class, and M signed them up for the next session, even though it means yet more conflicts with soccer.

Yesterday evening, M and I went out to the Parent's Social at our school. We got a baby sitter (who worked out well, was quite cheap and we'll use again!) and we had fun Scottish dancing with the other parents. I met a few nice couples that M has known for a while and we talked and generally hung out until about midnight. It was good to be out, but next time I'd prefer dinner and a movie. We do need to invite some of these folks over to our place for socializing though.

Today, the boys and I took a bike ride through the woods. The Younger complained bitterly about how hard it was until we got there, then he happily sped off on his bike with the rest of us in pursuit. He's gotten quite good, actually, but he lacks some confidence and he occasionally gets distracted. Twice, he ran into poles that were placed to mark the edge of the bike trail. He really does just need more practice, but I understand his concerns. It's no fun to fall down and get scraped up.

And that was the week that was. I spent some small time doing a few chores, like cleaning up our finances a bit and finding how to send M's PDA in for repairs. Otherwise, just another much too short weekend. We still need to finalize our summer plans, and we'd better be quick. I think Italy is filling up fast.

I have a business trip tomorrow, and while I'm not afraid of flying, I find traveling, especially without my family, somewhat stressful. I'm not quite sure why, but it's been this way ever since we've had kids. I think I don't like the idea of something happening and leaving M and the kids alone (or visa-versa, perhaps...) Then there's the fact that I don't do "hurry up and wait" very well. I'm usually fine once I'm "in the system," but until I'm at the airport on time and through security, I'm a bit of a basket case.

This was another really busy week. I'm getting into a mode where I'm reacting to whatever is most pressing at the moment, but with some priority thinking applied. So, for example, I'm currently ignoring a long set of requests to re-check and update this or that database while I tackle bigger picture problems. It's starting to feel ok, since I know I'm addressing the important things and that the smaller crap is only important to one or two people and that if I focus on those crappy things, they'll make me crazy anyway.

Unfortunately, some parts of my job seem to be coming apart at the seams, and I need to figure out what my involvement and reaction to that should be. I'm somehow feeling distant from it, but if I'm not careful, it will come back to haunt me.

We did not so much this weekend, but it was pretty good anyway. The boys won again at soccer and then had their final rehearsal for drama. They have a performance next week. We did a few things around the house today, and M spent some time working in the yard yesterday. I finally hung the family pictures today. Lot's of things still to be done, but we're making slow progress at least. Now we have to settle on our vacation.

Just take my word for it. I didn't see M very much, and the kids slightly less. I worked too hard, played too little, slept hardly at all and in the end I got the Younger's cold. So there.

Now I'm recovered just enough to go back to work for round 2. I can't really go into details of what's up here, but suffice it to say that there's crap and fans everywhere. Somehow, it's not stressing me out as much as it might have in the past, but that may just be the cold medication talking.

In the meantime, the boys have their drama wrapping up and with the days getting warmer and their soccer team shifted to a much easier league, they're reconsidering quitting. On top of that, they've added scouts to their list of activities and M is going to look into Dutch classes for them, so they should have plenty to do.

M and I are trying to start to try to consider planning our summer holiday. She's looked into a few places in Italy and I need to see if I can find some info on Austria, but we're hoping to rent a house in the mountains around or in Switzerland. The idea would be to find a cute little skiing town and then go there when there's no skiing. I'm not sure how it will work out, but I think we'll have to focus on it next weekend and get it set before all the Dutch people rent up everything in sight.

Otherwise, life grinds on. Or doesn't, as you can tell from the first paragraph. I need to go to bed now to see if I can manage to start the week off on the right foot at least.