ZOMG Shoes!

My new Chanel shoes!!!! :) I got them on sale at Neimans (which only takes cash, Neimans card, and American Express btw.)

Mini S'mores

We had a fun little mini s'more adventure!.



First, we took a bunch of Golden Grahams and laid them out on a baking tray with a mini marshmallow cut in half and a chocolate chip. This is much harder than you might think because cereal isn't nice and flat like crackers. Then, under the broiler it went, and then when it was all melty, it was capped with another Golden Graham. It was pretty silly... but pretty fun to do :).

Miscellaneous Musings

When it's garbage day, after the trash pickup, our garbage can is usually upsidedown, on the side, or in the middle of the driveway, just thrown there. But on a day when it is raining or snowing, it is perfectly upright with the lid open. Do the garbage-pickup-people do it on purpose?

My most awesome deal of the last year... maybe 5 years? I bought 4 Chanel scarves at Filene's Basement! They were like 75% off or more of the price I would pay at a Chanel store. Yay! And, I did see this one Chanel scarf many years ago at a Filene's Basement that I didn't buy... and have regretted it ever since. I made sure this time, that I bought all of the ones that I like. So, if you're a fan of Chanel scarves--check out the FB in Newton! :)

Tis the season...

Hi, everyone! I'm excited to be participating in this year's Samaratin's Purse, Operation Christmas Child. Collection week is next week, so if any of you want to get involved--you should get in gear! I decided to do a girl's Christmas box for a girl aged 10-14. I think a lot of people tend to pick the younger children, so I decided to go for an older age group. It's a lot of fun picking out a bunch of stuff for my shoe box... necessities and fun toys or stationary. It's a really great idea and I hope it'll make a difference in some child's life this Christmas. When I was doing my shopping at Target, in front of a whole row of children's socks--a nice lady came up to ask me if I had any idea what size to get for a 2-4 yr old--and she was doing OCC too! It was pretty fun shopping, knowing that there were a lot of others shopping in the same store for the same cause.

Amsterdam 2007: Day 8, Last Day

Last full day in Amsterdam... :) and :(. I'm sad that my vacation is over and that I'll be leaving such a beautiful and fun city, but so excited to go back home to my own house, my own bed, my own kitchen, etc. :p

We started out the day just by having oatmeal in our room. And then we had a gevulde koek (almond filled cookie) with coffee :) yummm. Next... we went to our favorite store again, de Bijenkorf, but we didn't really buy anything. We had more coffee there and a sauzijebroodje (sausage croissant type thing) which was pretty good. We walked up and down the shopping street a bit--and actually tried on some clothes, which didn't really look quite right on us. Skirts are wayyyyy too long, for example--cuz we're not as tall as dutch ladies. More people getting in our way, but I was good and didn't push down anyone riding their bicycles or anything :p. Then, we met our friend for a late tosti. We then went to FEBO where they have the food in little doors, and got some kroketten and fries (with mayonnaise of course). I guess it was a day of eating a lot of typical dutch goodies. We then had an early dinner at the Chinese restaurant near our hotel again--Oriental City, and it was really nice and warm and filling.

Now, that's the end of all my Amsterdam 2007 entries... I'm signing out and packing. See you all when I get back!! :)

Amsterdam 2007: Day 7, Shopping

Hallo! This is Brandy, again, and still in Amsterdam :). Today was essentially a shopping day. :) After having a nice breakfast from the bakery, sis and I went to a souvenir shop and Chimera, which is this neat fantasy shop (coolest I have ever seen). Then, of course, we went to de Bijenkorf where I got a hat and we looked at lots of clothes (which we didn't buy). We had a couple of cappuccinos at de Bikenkorf cafe, La Ruche, and a slice of appel pie ... well, I think it is an apple cake or tart :).

After shopping, sis and I headed to get some Vlamise frites (Belgian style fries), and I had mine with fritesaus (mayonaisse essentially), while my sis had ketchup. Mmmmm. Later in the afternoon, we went to O'Reilly's Irish Pub to have a late lunch with our friend. Then, we did more shopping at the Magna Plaza, which is a nice shopping center right next to our hotel. We went to Albert Heijn again, mostly because we wanted to eat a little something healthy--so we brought fruit. I was just going to have fruit for dinner, but we ended up at Oriental City--our favorite Chinese restaurant in Amsterdam. My sister meant to order pipa tofu--which is fried tofu balls with diced shrimp in it... but we ended up with half a duck instead. It was still very yummy though... but I guess ordering in Cantonese in Holland isn't the same as Cantonese in the US :). After dinner, we ate the fruit that we got as well as some gevulde koek (filled cookie--with almonds). And then, we watched Hollow Man on TV... we're pretty good at picking out crappy movies to watch on tv.

Okay--side note about the whole Amsterdam trip... I swear people just walk into you here. In the department store today, sis was walking and then someone just walked into her from behind. I saw the whole thing... and it was very strange... how can you just walk into someone from behind while looking forward? This other time, I was between two small shoe display rows, and there was a wall at the end... so I was essentially standing in the middle of a U. So, this lady comes there and blocks my exit while looking at shoes, and I move towards her... and she doesn't move. I have to say "excuse me" to get her to move out of the way. Helllooo? Why would you just block someone's exit. Then, I was getting onto the escalator, and someone with a ladder wants to put it right in front of the escalator (and block half of the escalator entrance)... of course--I'm in the way and he almost hits me. But really, what's the deal with people getting in your way all the time. It is the strangest thing.. but on a sidewalk, if I am walking on the right, someone coming towards me will just walk right towards me and collide with me if I don't move (even though they could walk on the left). Argggggh. Hehe, time to go home before I start beating up tourists and crazy Dutch ladies.

Amsterdam 2007: Day 6, Vondelpark, Movie

Another day in Amsterdam filled with shopping and food. We started out searching for breakfast at McDonald's--but they only have egg McMuffin here and nothing else. So, we went to the bakery instead, where we got ham and cheese croissants and apple beignets.

Then, we went to do our massive shopping at the Albert Heijn supermarket--stroopwafels, chocolates, curry ketchup... even sauce for the boerenkool stampot that I make every Thanksgiving. My sister didn't let me get the typical sausage that you put on top, which is a pretty good idea since it probably wouldn't get through customs. Then, after we dropped off goodies at the hotel, we did some more shopping on Kalverstraat and de Bijenkorf. It is just SOOOO awesome being right across the street from the de Bijenkorf and across the square from Kalverstraat. :) I got mini-stroopwafels from the HEMA. I also got few accessories at this store, Bijou Brigette--which is completely overwhelming, but because there was no one that early int he morning, it was manageable and I was able to find a couple of things.

In the afternoon, we went to the Three Sisters, which is a typical Dutch Bruincafe--a brown cafe known for it's nice brown walls of wood. Then, we headed to Van Dobben, which is essentially this Dutch fast food place where I had Van Dobbin kroket (their specific brand of kroket) and pea soup. It was really good :). We then took a walk to Vondelpark (kind of like Amsterdam's mini Central Park) and watched a movie. This is funny... the movie in America is called "War", but here it is "Rogue Assassin", which I think is a much better name than "War". I thought the movie would just be an okay thing to kill some time, but it was actually an excellent movie where action films go. I highly recommend that everyone see it. It was kind of wierd with the Dutch subtitles on the bottom--but it was cool. Also, I was pretty confused when the movie began, since I'm used to seeing a screen, "Now, for your Feature Presentation...". But, it was my first movie in Amsterdam, and really nice.

After the movie, we had Indonesian rijstafel (rice table) at Sahid Jaya (I have to doublecheck on the name) which is rice and a lot of little dishes, salads, and sides. It was soooo yummy, and we had tis great "iced coffee", which was a scoop of cappucino and vanilla ice cream with coffee poured on top. Mmmmm. Another amazing day and a very full tummy.