I'm back

We have returned from our trip to Italy. We had a pretty good time, though I enjoyed the first part of the trip (Lake Como) more than the second part (Florence). Overall the weather was pretty up and down, we only had sun and warmth for about half of the week, which was a bit disappointing for Italy. But we enjoyed the sun when we had it, unlike the Italians who treat a lovely 20 degree (C) spring day like it's mid-winter and about to rain (always bundled up in coats and scarfs still).

I'll do a proper write-up of the trip when I can find the energy. We also have over 600 photos to sort through, edit, and get online at some point. There are some gorgeous ones though, especially from Lake Como, which was just too beautiful for words. I miss nature like that. Especially nature that actually has changes in elevation.

I expected the trees to be more green when we got back. We can still see through the skeleton limbs of the trees in the park across from our house. I guess spring is just really delayed this year, though Dutch trees do seem to take their time to get their leaves again. The weather report for the next few days looks very positive though: calm winds, 20 degrees, mostly sunny. I'm very pleased about that.

I'm also very pleased with the paycheck that was waiting for me when we got home. I mean, I knew I'd be getting paid of course, I just didn't expect I would get paid so much. April and May paychecks are always larger because my company gives their profit share in April (along with a little bonus for Queen's Day), and then in May you get your yearly vacation pay. I had checked what I got last April, and yeah, it was a bit more than normal. Then I open the paycheck I just got and found it to be a lot more than normal. I'm not quite sure what happened, but I was very happily surprised. And I really needed it since my finances are a bit bungled up due to my health insurance problems. I may treat myself to a couple of the CDs that have come out that I've been waiting to get.