We're back

I am so jetlagged right now. My mind is a total fog. But we are back after a couple of weeks away to the US. We had a great time. Chicago in the end was hot like expected, but still not as hot as NY was, thankfully. Portland was great and we had good weather for most of the time there. Amazingly the weather today in Amsterdam turned out to be nice, though it was totally cloudy when we arrived this morning.

We found a big mess waiting for us in the living room. I had brought in my two plants from the balcony because I knew they'd die after not being watered for two weeks, and I thought it'd be a bit obvious if anyone saw them that no one was around watering them. Well, they didn't just turn brown and shrivel up; one of the two plants, in its death throes, apparently went through a last-minute effort to create progeny and had exploded seeds all over the place. It really must have sprayed the seeds out because, though the plants were on the floor, there were seeds up on desktops and on the top of a storage case thing we have. There were some on the couch which faces away a couple of feet from where the plants were. They really got everywhere in a 5 foot radius. Who knew you can't leave plants alone? Next time they're staying out on the balcony.

I've mostly unpacked and even managed to calculate how much I spent in the US. Not as much as I expected, which is good, though I did buy just about all I planned to, including books, CDs, games and food. There wasn't enough room in the suitcases for it all, so I sent some stuff in a box to myself. I sent it by surface mail though, so I won't get it til sometime in August. It'll be like a surprise by then cuz I'll have forgotten what I put in it.

Anyway, hopefully more stories to come and hopefully O will get his photos online relatively soon. He took at least 500. For now I just hope I can stay awake at work tomorrow.