Get out of the house and do something every weekend

So, I haven’t updated anything on here for quite a long time, but I figured I’d crawl out from under my rock and get myself doing things again.

Last weekend, the girlfriend and I went to see the Dallas Stars play the New Jersey Devils down at American Airlines Center. It was a good game, although it was a bit more crowded than it has been when we’ve gone before. Dallas gave up the first goal, but then came storming back to a 3-1 first period lead. They gave up the lead over the subsequent two periods, but then scored two to end the game for a 5-3 victory.

On Sunday, we drove over to Tyler to see her dad, who unfortunately has to spend this Thanksgiving in the hospital because of a persistent leg infection. He’s doing better now, thankfully, but it will still be a while before he gets to come home. We’re hoping he’ll be out by Christmas.

This weekend, we have more social events on the schedule than we’ve had for the past couple of months combined. On Thanksgiving, we went down and spent the afternoon with the other side of her family. That was all right. A lot of people who I don’t really know all that well at all, and a few that I’ve never met before. But in general, it was a good meal and nice company, so I can’t complain.

Yesterday, I had to work on my birthday for the first time in almost 20 years. It was a boring day of work, but afterward we went to a party with some of her friends down in Dallas. There were even less people who I knew there than at the Thanksgiving dinner, but we had a good time anyway.

Tonight, we’re going to go celebrate the birthday of one of the members of our book club. We’re going out to eat at a tepanyaki (sp.?) restaurant down in Lewisville, and then go back to their place to play some Wii and enjoy some adult beverages. A good time will hopefully be had by all. We’ll see a bit later, though…

I tend to hole up in my house because I can with the internet at my fingertips. I can explore the whole world in the comfort of home. But I am missing human inter something. Would love to be able to afford outtings with friends such as dining, camping, hiking, and traveling with family.

2/3 I went to Gronau, Germany with a friend of mine. It is a 15 km bike ride there. The village itself isn’t very interesting, but it is nice to go for a bike ride every now and then. The weather was truly nice and it was a great way to spend some time with a friend. this weekend I also had dinner at my dads place, as I often do in the weekend.
9/10 Saturday I didn’t do much. Sunday I met with a friend :). We had some drinks at a bar downtown. In the evening I went to my dad to barbeque.
16/17 Pfff, I haven’t updated this for a long time, so I don’t remember exactly what I did.
23/24 Went skydiving! That was amazing! I went shopping too and bought a nice fluorescent yellow skirt :D.
30/31/1 I met with a friend on sunday. We sat outside in the garden for a big part of the day, the weather was so good! Monday there were some old friends of my dad’s visiting, along with some family. Went home and chatted with them. It was nice to see them again.

4/5 Saturday I went to Germany to buy some hairdye and Vanilla coke. I love Vanilla coke, but it isn’t sold here anymore :(. It’s a real shame :(. Sunday I had a day out with my aunts and uncles and nieces and nephews in Amsterdam. We went for a boat tour there and had dinner at a Thai restaurant. After that it was back to Rotterdam again for me.
11/12 Saturday (today) I went to the zoo here in Rotterdam. I loved it. I always love zoo’s, because I like animals. Blijdorp is a really nice zoo, which also paid a lot of attention to the different kind of trees/plants they put in their zoo. The animals and the different kind of trees together gives a really nice atmosphere. Tomorrow (sunday) I’ll go to the beach, if the weather works wit me anyway. Otherwise it’ll be a trip downtown I think.
18/19 I didn’t do a lot this weekend. Had dinner with my dad and went for a walk.
25/26 Went to a themepark with 3 friends on saturday (see the photo). We had tons of fun! The weather was nice and there weren’t too many people in the park, so we only had to wait for 10 minutes at rollercoasters and such. Definately should do this again soon! Sunday was a lame day, but it is ok.

28/01 First week of my internship is done. Fell asleep on saturday, so didn’t do too much. Sunday I went downtown, to get a few things. Sundaynight I went to Rotterdam again.
7/8 Saturday was kind of a boring day. On sunday I went for a walk in the arboretum nearby again. Hadn’t been there for a long time, but it was nice again. The sun was actually shining for one of the first times this year. The plants and trees weren’t really green yet, but I think they’ll be in a couple of weeks.
14/15 Had my iceskating lesson again on saturday morning. In the afternoon I didn’t do anything. Sundays I had lunch with my dad and brother at my dad’s house. Was nice to see them again.
21/22 I lost my bag this weekend, and was pretty sad. Didn’t feel like doing anything, but still I managed to go to Bad Bentheim for a walk.
28/29 Went to the arboretum again and sunday I went to Ikea. Ooooh and guess who was there also! The strongest man of the country, Jarno Hams! First I thought Ikea had hired him to carry all your heavy stuff, but it turned out he was just shopping there. It was funny. I was hping to see him in action with some heavy stuff, but he only bought something small :(.

I’m so behind on this goal too, well let’s see what I remember :).

31/1 I was still in Egypt :D. Saturday we visited the high dam, Philae temple and the unfinished obilisk in Aswan. In the afternoon I went for a camel ride :D. Sunday I went to Abu Simbel early in the morning and in the afternoon we visited a Nubian village. That was a great weekend, so much fun :D. I wish I could go back :(.
7/8 Saturday I went to the Hathor temple in Dendera and Abydos (mainly the Osiris temple). It was the last day in Egypt, so it made me a littl sad, I wish I could have stayed the much longer, what a beautiful country! Sunday the 8th we flew back home, where it was cold and no more sunshine :(.
14/15 I went to Germany with my dad, saturday we were in Quedlinburg and sunday in Leipzig. It was nice to get outside, but compared to Egypt it was a bit boring. Sorry Germany, but that is a match you just cannot win :).
21/22 Yesterday the 21st I moved all of my stuff from my room in Arnhem. Monday my internship starts in Rotterdam and I need to move, because it is too far away. Today I’m going to read some more to prepare for the internship. After that pack my stuff and go to Rotterdam!

3/4 End of the holiday :(. Didn’t do much this weekend, but I did skate outside on a frozen lake on friday. The weather was just beautiful, sunny, and the sun reflected on the ice. It gave me a nice feeling, just like I went back fifteen years in time (the last time we were able to skate outdoors (ok, not exactly true, maybe we were able to skate outdoors ten years ago too :P), I was little and always went skating with my dad on frozen lakes, meadows near rivers which were flooded etc.) Furthermore I had dinner at my dad’s place and the rest I don’t remember (come on brain, it was a week ago!)
10/11 Yes, the weekend has barely started, but I plan on going home today (saturday) and de-decorate the christmas tree and put it in his box. Tomorrow I might go ice skating with my dad, but I’m not quite sure about it yet. I’ll ask him today what his plans are.
17/18 Exams are next week. I’m going to study, so no fun this weekend :(.
24/25 Egypt!!!!!!!

6/7 Saturday the 6th I celebrated the ‘Sinterklaas’ holiday with my bf, dad, brother and uncle. It is a typical holiday here in the Netherlands and mainly for kids. It revolves around Sinterklaas (saint Nicholas) and he brings gifts to little children. His helpers slide down the chimneys and put gifts in your shoes (you should leave them by the chimney and leave a carrot, or hay, or something in it for his horse. He comes to collect it, and leaves presents in return.) I won’t elborate to much about it, because it can be a looooooong story :). I have very good memories of it, when I was a kid I loved the holiday. It should be celebrated on december 5th though. But, as adults, we don’t believe in Sinterklaas’ true existment anymore and we just give eachother presents, accompanied by poems which make suggestions about what’s inside the presents. So usualy we celebrate it in the weekend after (or before) december 5th.

What I got? I attached a photo of my presents. I got a book about Egypt. I hope to visit that country soon. Also I got pink hippo christmas ornaments for in a christmas tree (eventhough it is considered to be ‘not done’ to have anything to do with christmas before or on december 5th). My uncle Sinterklaas saw them in a store and just had to buy them for me as they are hippos and they are pink, who else would like it ;). Furthermore I got a DVD about 1984, my birthyear, a game ‘Bokken Schieten’ and an emergency chocolate kit. Which is actually for after a break-up, but the buyer didn’t notice it ‘till he was wrapping the present. There’s also a brush to dye my hair with, a chocolate fondue set, yummy :D, and last, but not least a chocolate letter. Very typical for the Sinterklaas holiday. You should get the first letter of your name in chocolate. No, my name doesn’t start with an O, but it was probably the only one left ;). I did get a M too (which is correct ;)), but I have already eaten it half, so I didn’t photograph it.

I’m really happy with my presents, as I like them very much :D. It was especially nice to celebrate Sinterklaas again. We hadn’t done it for a couple of years, because not everybody wanted it :(. It’s a cosy family thing, so yeah it was nice.

Sunday the 7th I went to my bf’s parents. His brothers were there too and we had dinner together. No presents, but it wasn’t any less fun. (ok, it was a little ;)). Had a great weekend!

13/14 Hmm, I can’t really remember what I did this weekend (was too lazy to update. Oh yeah, sunday I was ill. Wanted to go see the movies, but ended up staying in bed. Saturdays I had my ice skating lesson :).

20/21 Holiday! I had a Christmas celebration iceskating event fridayevening. had a blast, it was really great :D. Saturday I took my lessons again and in the evening I met a friend downtown. Hadn’t seen ehr for a while, so we drank something together and chatted. Sunday I had dinner with my dad. Nothing more, because I have a holiday now and I have plenty of days to fill with loads of fun ;).

28/29 Still holiday! I had some friends over to play games. We gather every once in a while and play board- and cardgames. It was lots of fun, and I even won some times :). What did I do further? I don’t remember anymore haha. Probably not much!

1/2 I had a Halloween party saturday evening and I needed some time to work on my costume. Offcourse this took longer than I thought, so I ended up spending most of saturday on the costume. I went as a rainbow fairy, because I like rainbows and except for the wings I had everything that would make me a good fairy. It was a small party, not much people, so I was the only colourfull dressed person. All the others were in black, to look scary. I attached a photo of me as a fairy (I cut off the other people, because I don’t know if they want their faces here on 43T ;)). Sunday my uncle took my dad, brother, bf and I out to dinner, because his birthday was on monday. During the day I studied some, because I had tests this week and I didn’t really learn on saturday, so I was a bit stressed out about it on sunday.
8/9 Saturday I went downtown, because there had to come a new cooking pan. Bf gave me a beautiful scarf which I dreamt about for awhile, but I didn’t have money to buy it, so I’m intensely happy now :D. In the evening had dinner with my dad. Sundays I went to a mineral and fossil event. There were all kind of vendors there, with ‘raw’ pieces of beautiful rocks, but also jewelry vendors. I ended up not buying anthing (again no money :(), but I did grind and polish a little piece of jade. I love jade, because of its green colour. I doubted about buying this tiny piece of emerald. I love emerald because it is green (again ;)) and I’m named after it, so it makes it a bit special. Emerald is very expensive, so I didn’t buy it, because it was so tiny and I didn’t even know if it was real, so no emerald for me :(.
15/16 Saturday I went to holiday on ice :). Was a really cool show, eventhough it wasn’t the best iceskating I’ve ever seen. We sat front row, so really close to the skaters, which was nice. One of them even winked at me, which must have something to do with me being the only young woman there. All the other people were pretty old, or they were there with family and kids. If the guy wasn’t wearing such a weird costume, I would have taken him home with me ;). Sunday (today) I went iceskating myself. Did go for about an hour or two, which is pretty long. It wasn’t as crowded as it was a couple of weeks ago, which is a good thing. I’m pretty tired right now, so I’m off to bed in a bit.
22/23 I went to Utrecht to shop with a friend on saturday. It is a city 1,5 hours away from where I live. Good shopping place too. It was nice to see my friend again, because she lives ‘far’ away nowadays :(. We don’t see eachother that much. Sunday I went iceskating and had dinner with my dad.
29/30 I just realized this november has 5 weekends, pretty funny :). This weekend I went iceskating on saturday, managed to get lessons in figure skating as of next week. On sunday I went to the town of Amersfoort with bf, dad and brother. I was born in that town, but moved away when I was two years old. We took a look at the house we used to live in, the forest we went to and the city centre. We had dinner at a pizzeria downtown. On the way to Amersfoort the car started to misbehave. It is a car with boardcomputer and it kept turning the ‘long distance’ headlights on and off (you know, the really really bright ones). We had to take out the fuses for the lights, because you cannot turn off the computer :S. I never really got why they put those in anyway, because you can turn on the lights by hand as well. I guess I’m just oldfashioned ;).

4/5 Wanted to go to Sea Life, but when I got there, there was a waiting time of an hour before you could get in. Didn’t go and I went shopping instead in the big mall next to Sea Life. I bought a LEGO lunchbox from the LEGO store! I always loved LEGO as a kid, but it was a shock learning that there are so much more colours of LEGO nowadays ;). Today (sunday) I went ice skating and in a while I’ll leave to visit the parents in law. I’ll visit Sea Life in the fall holiday I think.
11/12 Start of my holiday! I went iceskating on saturday with a friend :D. On sunday I didn’t do much.
(13-17) Since it is my holiday I might as well add here what I’ve done and plan to do. Monday I had an appointment, so had to travel and spent most of the day in the train :(. Tuesday I went for a walk in the arboretum near my home. The leaves have such nice colours now (the picture is taken there). Wednesday I went downtown with a friend for an hour of shopping and I went iceskating in the evening. Thursday (today) I went to the sauna :D. Was very relaxing and my skin feels so smooth again. Tomorrow I’ll go check Sealife out again. No further plans for the weekend, but I’ll figure out something ;).
18/19 Saturday I went to the arboretum again and sundays I went to my dad and had dinner with him. Not too much this weekend, but I did a lot during the week, so it was ok.
25/26 I had dinner with ‘the guys’ (three of my male friends) and afterwards we played board games for a while. I enjoy playing games every once in a while, but somehow I only play it with them. It kind of is a custom (or watching movies, we do that too) now, but I like it! Reminds me to invite them more often. Sunday I didn’t do too much. Went back to my room in the evening.