Things from the past week

Last Tuesday, a bit belatedly in my opinion, I finally received my pre-ordered copy of Hazards of Love, along with the t-shirt I ordered with it. To my surprise, I actually managed to nab one of the first 750 copies of the CD to come with a signed booklet. Yay! Now I have all 5 of the band member's signatures, unlike my copy of The Crane Wife, which only has 3. Sadly, I did not bag the signed baglama saz that went to one lucky fan, though I'm not quite sure what I would have done with it aside from have it as a conversation piece.

I actually had a 3-day weekend. Friday seems so long ago that I've nearly forgotten that. I didn't do much with my day off anyway except blissfully sleep in. From Wednesday through Saturday, I had a friend of E's from the US staying with me while she attended a conference in Leiden. Bit of tight quarters in my little apartment, but it was nice to have met her and I think she enjoyed what she saw of Leiden.

With the sun out today, M and I went for a walk in the Leidse Hout near my house. We stopped at the cafe in the park and ended up getting slices of this chocolate cake they had, which was really lovely. It may be a bit dangerous knowing that that place is so near to me...

As if that weren't enough sugar, I then baked the snickerdoodles I had planned to make. I've never made them before, but a (non-American) friend at work requested ages ago that I make them because she'd had them once and really liked them. I didn't make them back then because it was before I got my oven, but I'd been meaning to get around to it once certain people at work were all back from various holidays. So, a bit of a surprise for them tomorrow. I'm quite happy with how they turned out, they taste as they should, heh, and I guess M liked them since between the two of us there are probably about 10 less cookies for my co-workers. Which isn't as bad as it could have been, really...

It is pretty sad that I still have not started to ride my bike this year. I really need to take it out of its winter hibernation.

I've been watching so many movies lately I feel like I should start keeping track of them like I do with the books I've read. They include: Eagle vs Shark, Magnolia, Milk, La Vie en Rose, and Chopper.

I have 4 concerts planned, and frustratingly, the first one is still more than a month away. Still, it's nice to have what should be some great shows planned. I haven't been to a show since December and then I'll suddenly have 3 shows in one week:

May 3: Liam Finn, Tivoli, Utrecht
May 5: Beirut, Paradiso
May 7: Andrew Bird, Paradiso
June 30: Fleet Foxes, Paradiso

What would make me a very happy bunny though is the announcement of a European Decemberists tour...