My sister went on a mini vacation for a couple of days to a beach town that is about 45 min away (by car). Anyhow, while she's out i'll be safely guarding (hehe) her computer. I even gots it down in my room. Perhaps i'll thus be around xanga a bit more often and maybe i'll even finally get around to posting those other (yeah.. i gots more) pics.

Then again, i've also been neglecting to post all those silly mundane thoughts i've been having.
and the updates about where I'll be living when and what not.

But for now.. its nearly 2am and i'm getting up tomorrow at some point (read: not too late) to go have lunch with my sister and her friends in that little beach town that is 45 min away.

If my camera didn't have a big stupid black dot on the lens (its a small digital one so i'm not sure about opening it up but I think I have a sliver of tobacco in the lens or something) maybe i'd take a pic of said little town and lunch--but we'll have to see. tis doubtful.
See, mundane thought of the moment? Do I want a nice little but decent digital camera to replace this one? OR do I want a nice big(ger) digital camera that has a great zoom and takes really good pics instead? I think some of those slightly larger ones that aren't huge are pretty freakin' awesome, no?

Okay.. i'm surrounded by one mac book pro, one broken (?) scan disk card reader, two cameras that take a scan disk card, one mini usb cable, one camera that even takes that cable, one computer that can't read the camera, one blackberry that can take the cable but doesn't have the right size memory card, one camera that is read by the computer but doesn't have the right size memory card either and um.. a lot of want to post pictures and apparently no way to do so ?!? Also, i'm forced to use HTML when updating pics on this computer. I'm not sure why. I can. but it takes longer. its 3:15 am and I should go to sleep.

I met Ben Harper tonight. We hung out at a bar. Also, Tom Freund now knows who i am. It was a great night and I have amazing pictures.

I have cables.
I have will.
but unfortunately, I still don't have um.. pictures. on. xanga.

Tomorrow I'm using either my dad's or my sister's pc. Grr.

Where was I wih the pictures? Ah yes.. 

Well the day before John left Hannah had a final not-so-formal school dance type thing. She wore a dress that she'd bought for an actual prom last year but wasn't able to wear then, since she was sick. She got to wear the dress now and she looked cute!

 
The next day Hannah was a little bit sleepy but awake enough to meet us for lunch. Then after getting back home she received some graduation gifts.
     
 She really wanted an ipod for her b'day but didn't get it then. She was thrilled when she got one now. She also hadn't been expecting a gift so she was rather surprised. It was fun. That afternoon was her graduation ceremony.
  
These pics are from before we went in to the ceremony. I really like that middle family picture. The boy in the first pic is Hannah's best friend since they were babies and his mom (on the right) is my mom's best friend here in Amsterdam. They brought Hannah a lei that Donna, the mom, had made. Hannah looked great. I'll spare you all the pictures of her and her friends. Instead i'll just give you a couple more of yet another graduation celebration. We went to family friends garden house in the suburbs of Amsterdam for a BBQ. It was fun.
  
  
 
On the concert front.. yesterday I totally heard the Radiohead concert. It was really awesome! I have pictures to show you of that..(well I didn't see Radiohead but I have pictures of the crowds that could see them and also of the crowd we sat in) but this is enough for now. Tonight Hannah and I are going to the REM concert. I managed to find super cheap tickets on the dutch equivalent of Craigslist. Tomorrow Massive Attack is performing there and we may again go sit in the grass and picnic and listen to that concert as well. Radiohead was really really great..the acoustics were amazing and the show was gooood! Like I said.. pictures will follow. For now i'm gonna go do an anti-rain dance cause it is pouring and open-air REM shows are probably more fun when its not showering outside, right? hehe.

 I owe you guys lots and lots of pictures... lets see how far I get:

  
Here are some remainders from when John was visiting and we went to Marken and Edam...

Then back in Amsterdam, John, Loreto and I went to Nemo (the science museum)
  
we hoisted ourselves up
  
made a baby (see, we'd have a handsome kid together) 
made bubbles
   
 
Visited the teen section.. oy vey. Well, the first picture is of spider webs made by spiders on XTC, caffeine and sober... then we were in the teen section..yikes

There was a whole section on coming out of the closet and later on there was this huge freaky doll thing. Creepy. Loreto made a picture of a frog.

After the museum we went and had lunch at the top of the library. That big green boat like thing is the museum.

That evening Hannah, John and I went out for dinner

We made silly faces..
  
and then showed John the gay bars in Amsterdam (along with Hannah's goofball--uh, friend, Myra)
    
On Saturday it was soccer time again. Yes, this is where we lost against Russia. However, we had fun none the less. John was decked out in orange too. People thought he was Dutch. Oh, ready for a dutch lesson?
leeuw = lion
lederhosen = a german word for THIS
John was given Leeuwenhosen to wear:

and he was a great sport and wore them!
  
 
Even though Holland lost we had a good time.

Here are some more pictures of Amsterdam (including a Dutch Heron and John's seductive pose?)

  
The last time John was in Amsterdam we took a before and after picture of him eating a pannenkoek, so we had to do that again:

  

Then we went to the Waterlooplein which is a flea market.

  
I bought this for 5 Euro. Its from 1983...

For John's final afternoon I took him to a spot with a great view. He also bought my parents a plant as a thank you for his stay. We toted it around.

  
John was sad to say goodbye to his rental bike. Maybe sadder for that than saying g'bye to me? Just kidding..

I have a ton more pictures to post but I think its an overload so I'll leave it at this for now. Happy Monday!

My sister's b'day was on May 17th. She had a surprise party thrown by her friends that day. We'll be celebrating it for real with gifts and parents and stuff again this week. Here are three random pics though from that party a month ago that I am not sure I posted and that I like:
The guy in that last picture is Hannah's friend Robert. I really like all of her friends.. Robert actually had a b'day party tonight that he invited me to, but I opted to stay home and post pics on xanga instead :-p

Lets see.. a week or so ago, the Dutch soccer team played against Italy and I went off to a cafe in a rather quiet part of town (the cafe is nothing special) to watch the game with a bunch of friends. We ended up winning 3-0!!! Italy won the last world cup (beating France by the way) so no one really expected us to win. We were amazed and so happy! We ended up watching the game outside.. it was nice out and although the tv was tiny it was a big happy surprise and it was fun.  Oh, and yes, orange is the dutch color. 
Basically everyone in the pics above are people I know (minus the lady with the short orange hair and the guy with the bald spot). Somehow I don't have pics of the girls from this night. Eventually it got sorta dark and I stopped taking pics.

Then, a couple of days later, my sister found out that she graduated. She took her final exams while both of my parents were in the hospital and so the fact that she did as well as she did is really good. I think she wasn't too happy about two of the grades but she passed with flying colors and since she's already been accepted to University College Utrecht no one will ever look at the grades anyways (eventhough they should since hers are good. ha!).
The day we got the call that she had made it, the four of us went out to dinner. Afterwards we came back home and had champagne. As you can see Hannah was happy.
Its a weird Dutch thing to hang your backback from a flagpole when you graduate in Holland. We didn't have a flagpole--or a flag.. but I got crafty and one old mop, some tape and ribbon later.. Hannah was a real Dutchie too.
Yes, the flag is missing.. but whatever.
Then there were some pics taken of my and my sister and my dad being silly...
A yes.. we made some really pretty music. hehe. Notice by the by how my hair is up--since by then I felt like a lion. It was soooo long!
SO...  a few days later I got a hair cut (and while the pic is absolutely horrid.. here's more or less The how it turned out):
The lions are on my head for some soccer spirit.. those weren't permanently placed or anything I just got creative with a head band. Here is a cute picture of my mom and me (well, my headband) too..
So, as you already can guess by the orange.. that night it was time for Holland to play France. Back to the same cafe I went.. this time we sat inside.
The screen was huge and the Dutch songs were playing even before the game started... we were all singing along. The blond girls are Dagmar and Rosa. I've known them for about 13 years now. That guy in the last pic (in the red with the hat) works at the bar. Basically he was our personal butler all game. Once in a while he'd try to start a chant about himself and he told us that he'd been working in restaurants and bars for 30 years now..more than say, 5 times... but otherwise he was nice and harmless and handy to have around!
I don't think it makes sense to try to explain who is who.. but there's me in that middle pic.
Oh, and the guy holding the cigarette in that first pic here, he's the one who ended up sticking his cigarette in my face. It was an accident and I was fine. Holland had scored yet another goal (wait, did I mention they beat France 4-1??!!). Anyhow, everyone jumped up to jump around and his cigarette and my forehead (temple?) met. Before I even knew what had really happened a lot of people jumped on me to put out all the sparks. I didn't really feel a thing (and boy oh boy did he feel bad).. now I do have a little red circle on my face from where it happened. Ah well..
Since the game was on a Friday we stayed up late and ended up dancing around.. first inside and then even outside. It was a lot of fun! On Tuesday Holland will play against Romania, however either way--they're on to the Semi Finals so it doesn't matter how they do.

Today we celebrated Fathers Day (a little bit at least).

My dad really likes Magners Irish Cider and its a bit hard to find here.. so Hannah and I went to a beer store and got him a whole supply.. we also got Magners glasses. He has a stash on the balcony now. I think he liked it
Today was a quiet day.. I drove my sister somewhere for an errand, I played scrabble with my parents, I made John's bed.. nothing too happening. It was nice though.. and now I better go sleep cause I'm getting up at 6am to pick up John from the airport.

EDIT:  I just found these online.. the first is from Queens Day (april 30th) and the 2nd is from the Bachelorette party...