A special welcome to planet Earth for our new grand-niece! She is either Beatrice Maeven or Maeven Beatrice: TBD, named to honor the memory of my sister Bonnie and my bro-in-law extraordinaire Mitch. Her older sister Cordelia Anastasia seems accepting, at the moment.
Two of my sister’s gorgeous quilts have also snuck into the photo: Pretty devious, Bon.
We are out to sea, at present, due in at Kinderdijk in about two hours (1pm). Our afternoon excursion on foot should bring us to our first major glimpse of windmills: Nineteen well-preserved 18th-century mills. I don’t think the tulips will be on full display this early in the Spring. We’ll see.
I tried the smoked-salmon eggs benedict this morning — delish! Checked on some sports results over b’kfst too. Paige Buckets dropped 40 on Oklahoma and UCONN is down to the Elite Eight. The Yankees obliterated Milwaukee with 9 dingers in a 20-9 win, three by Judge. Maxie (Fried) only made it through 4.2 innings, though, and did not get the win. Boo. And the team made 5 errors. The Nats have hit the ground limping, dropping their first two to Philly. Good starting pitching, but dreadful relief has been their story. It’s early, of course — things will get much worse.
Here’s PB, at the top of her game when it counts the most, the hallmark of greatness.
Lost in the hubbub — yesterday’s post was Owl Chatter’s #750, proving the naysayers completely right — what a load of nonsense. There’s apparently no end to it. Special thanks to staff photographer Phil; administrator George “Isn’t He In Jail Yet?” Santos, whose sole responsibility is keeping the fridge stocked with diet soda; fashion and style consultant de Armas; and sports consultant the exquisite Sarah Fillier, who assures us she’s making great progress learning the basic rules of baseball — the pitcher for one team throws to the batters of the other team: there’s never an exception to that rule — without whose tiresome, I mean tireless, efforts Owl Chatter would probably be a lot better, let’s face it.
Here’s SF, wearing one of her sexy hockey outfits — Hey, take it easy on us fellas, girl!
The windmills at Kinderdijk this morning were a trip highlight. I probably know more about windmills now than 99% of the Jews currently living on Earth. There is something spectacular about the sight of them dotting the windswept too-early-for-tulips plain. One bad note — the wind blew my feckin’ hat off and into the water. Arggggh. I’ll live.
We sailed into Rotterdam in the afternoon and had about an hour to stroll around. That was about an hour too much, although it was good to get another walk in. You can skip R’dam. We’re crossing into Belgium tonight and will see Aunt Twerp tomorrow.
Dinner was excellent — a seafood stew — so fresh and tasty. Incredible apple thingie for dessert. Three of the desserts so far have been over the top delish. Food has met or exceeded expectations. Also enjoyed a German Kolsch beer our wonderful waiter recommended. It’s a light crisp beer — perfectly paired with the seafood. We love our waiter and waitress, and the young woman who makes up our room is so sweet and cute you could plotz.
We are halfway through the cruise.
Before signing off tonight, let’s have a short visit with our friends at the Dull Men’s Club, who, btw, are far less dull than whoever joins us at our meals here. But, don’t start me — we managed to dine in peace today.
Jane Sutherland posted the following:
So last night me and my hubby had a conversation about sand…..I mentioned a type of sand in a discussion about the dog’s paws being irritated by it and the hubster then deemed it necessary to list the different types of sand that there are: Apparently beach sand is different to play sand, there’s also building sand, sharp sand, dry sand, coarse sand, masonry sand (at this point I switched off but he carried on)
……the list is endless!! Even by his standards this was an exceptionally dull conversation!!
Here are some of the duller of the 30 comments:
John Scotland: Did you know that there are Fifty Grades of Shale?
Andrew Marshfield: Did he mention a sandwich?
Steve Craig: I thought everyone knew this??
Sterling Chamberlain: So the conversation was fine for a while, then a little coarse?
Iain Townsend: Mortarfied!
Nick Taylor: The sand is always sandier on the other side of the beach.
Shelyn Michelle Ponsford: at least you know that he checkin out the sand on the beach when he there with you.
See you tomorrow!
The Wellington Files 