just got home from a run and occasional walk of 1hour with annemette.  was so thirsty, and poured myself a big glass of bubbly water.  decided sweet was good, so dumped a bunch of blackberry syrup into it.  swirled it with a straw and then drank about half of it in one big slurp.  then stirred the straw around again, looked at it, and….

full of little ant bodies!

dead, of course… long time, too.  matt had some ant troubles while i was in amsterdam this summer.

ick ick ick.  i don’t know how many i must have drunk.

🙂 
natuurlijk, i poured out the rest of the bottle.  too bad.  i liked the blackberry.  it’s my favorite.  i’ve been drinking it in things for quite some time now.  …. imagine all the other ant bodies i’ve probably drunk already.  ewwww….

after my lesson yesterday, i went to see henk l. in den haag about my espresso business.  he was a wealth of information… definitely the man i should have talked to months ago.  on the other hand, would i have valued the information quite as much as i do now that i’ve had so much trouble finding it anywhere else?  back then, i might not have known just how helpful he is.  anyway, i have more of a direction now.  and a source for just about anything under the sun.

after seeing henk, i went to utrecht to have dinner and drinks with dick, and pick up the LETTER FROM zwier FROM TRIUMPH, telling the RDW (dutch DMV) what information to use to inspect my bike!  finally!!!!!  yay! 

so, this morning, after my student, i went to the RDW.  unfortunately, it was too late to get in for the inspection without an appointment (they schedule you on a first come- first serve basis at 7:45 in the morning).  i expected it might be the case, but had to try.  anyway, the woman at the desk made me an appointment for next friday (the 17th), and if i don’t have a student on monday morning, i may also go in then for the non-appointment time.  i’m only doing this because i think it won’t pass the first time, but i’m not sure what it will need to pass, so i need time for 2 appointments before my insurance runs out.  craziness.

anyway, all this has me feeling pretty positive.  now i’ve got some organizing and sorting to do, then i’m running with annemette at 2, then later one of the moving companies is coming over to take a look at the job.  🙂  heh heh… little do they know… 

yay!  dick just called… he got the requested letter from the triumph guy here in nederland.  i can now go to the rdw and they can actually DO the inspection!!! yay!!!
so, now i just have to PASS it!  yay!  i’m not as worried about that… even if i don’t pass it, it will just be a matter of fixing whatever doesn’t pass and trying again.  getting it inspected in the first place was the problem!

i am feeling better and better.  🙂

yay!  matt is on his way back from securing us our temporary apartment in amsterdam.  it is quite large, and mere minutes from amsterdam RAI train station.  it has a furnished guest bedroom, too!

basically, the idea was for us to have a furnished place we could live in while we hunt for a place to buy.  this place will be perfect.  the price was right, the size better than we could have hoped for, and the location fine.  i found it on the internet a couple of days ago, sent an email, and the owner got right back to me.  matt was going up for a dance party in amsterdam, so he also met with the owners.  yay!!!

so we’re set.  it’ll be ours from dec 1st to 25 march.  now there’s one less thing for me to stress about.  🙂