Design

Amsterdam = Bikes, Canals, and Oliebollen

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Did you have a good weekend? I hope so! Over the weekend I was going through files and photos on my computer and thought about Amsterdam.

Last November my husband and I took a trip to Amsterdam. What an experience! We were there for about 5 days and it was the perfect amount of time. It felt like a mix between Venice and a town in Germany and also a lot like Portland. When we got there it was foggy for the first few days, and rainy. It felt like being in Portland although 1000 of miles away. Maybe that is why I instantly felt comfortable, like I could so easily live there.

bike parking garage

Bikes rule in Amsterdam. They are everywhere. Cars come next and pedestrians last. So different from what I am used to in Portland, where a car tends to stop whenever someone crosses a street (even if it is not at a cross walk). The picture to the left shows a bike parking garage by the train station. Yes, that is really four levels of bikes parked. I was in awe.

I was also surprised by a few things. There was gum on the streets and sidewalks everywhere. There was also quite a bit of litter everywhere. The below picture shows the canals, with lots of trash, and on the left side of the canal the white thing is actually a refrigerator.

to the left down the canal is a refrigerator

We ate plenty of food. I found it interesting that most menus did not have many vegetable options. But, they like their cheese. We had the most amazing smoked goat cheese, and I had a salad with fried goat cheese, honey, and pears (I never would have thought to put all three together). We had traditional Dutch crepes, and my favorite of all: oliebollen.

Since we were there during Thanksgiving week, the holidays were in full swing. Between Thanksgiving and New Years they have outdoor holiday markets (which look beautiful at night with all the lights). There are an assortment of food trucks, and one had a specific holiday Dutch treat – Olibollen (or fried dough). This particular holiday market was quite a long ways from our hotel, but we make the trek each day for this amazing, warm, and sweet goodness. Who could resist!?

mmm…Oliebollen

I think I have the travel bug again. I am ready to go and explore someplace new. My heart is set on Copenhagen. I love the opportunity to try new food, explore local art, boutiques, architecture, etc. Thank you, Amsterdam for such a wonderful trip!

Working Out While Working

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What is the first thing you do when you come home from work? What do you do to decompress from the work day? I usually like to check in with my husband about his day and tell him things about my day. Then, I try to immediately go for my daily run. I can be completely exhausted mentally and physically and 99% of the time if I go for a run I get rejuvenated and can accomplish much more for the rest of my evening.

In my last job I worked from home and often felt like I needed to run double the amount because I was constantly on my laptop or on the phone and I wished I had the option to move around more during my day. I often felt tethered to my laptop. Fast forward to this article I read recently about a treadmill desk. If I had one of these when I was working from home, I could see myself working away, and run/walk at a slower than normal pace for a longer period of time to have the option to move while working. I think a lot of people (if you can handle the treadmill) would appreciate this type of multi-tasking. It would also mean that a lot of us are staying fit while juggling a lot of other responsibilities.

It is massive and not the most attractive of machines, but to me the ROI could be high. To think that maybe on those crazy days when you do not have time for a workout, but you are listening in on a conference call, or you need to read over proposals and the like that you could have stay fit in the process. It sounds like a win-win situation to me!

TGIF!! I am so very excited for the weekend and for time to rest and recoup from a full week. Have a wonderful weekend!

Scam Notification – US Airlines

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Just got this scam notification in the mail from US Airlines. I am so sick of junk mail that looks slightly legitimate only to find it is a scam. The front looks like they are tax/government documents. It is not in an envelope, but has those edges that you tear off on three sides. Here is what the front looks like, and below that is what it says on the inside:

front of US Airline notice

PLEASE READ ENTIRE DOCUMENT CAREFULLY–

“Dear XXXXXX,

Enclosed is your airline ticket voucher. This voucher is good for a certificate for 2 round trip airline tickets to anywhere in the continental US from any major international US airport.

This voucher must be certified to be valid.

We have been tasked with notifying you of this award. We have attempted contacting you several times. Note that this aware must be claimed by July 3rd, 2012.

If you do not claim your award, it will be transferred to the alternate. This is a limited time offer and can be withdrawn at any time. Flights fill quickly.

This will be your last chance to respond.

Please reference your claim number xx-xxxx.

Note: This is not a timeshare or land sales offer.

Sincerely,

Awards Department

As with the Mortgage Auditing Consumer Services letter we received, and that I wrote about a few months ago, this is just another way to scam people. I still fear that those that are most effected are the elderly. Plus I think what is additionally confusing is that in the top left it says “US Airlines” – which I think makes people think of “US Airways” or “United Airlines” which makes it seem more legitimate. US Airlines is not an airline, it does not exist.

Please companies, stop the junk mail, stop the scams. Can we just get back to honesty and integrity? Why do we have to work so hard these days to determine if what we receive (paper mail or email) is legitimate?

“I Just Want To Play Ball”

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Nike truly is amazing at marketing to their consumers. This past weekend Nike launched a new video that will air on NBC, ABC Family and ESPN through July 26. It is called “Voices” or I have also referred to it as: “I Just Want to Play Ball.” It features: Marlen Esparza – Olympic Boxer, Diana Taurasi – Professional Basketball Player, Joan Benoit Samuelson – Olympic Marathoner, and Lisa Leslie – Professional Basketball Player.

After my post last Friday on Title IX this video is so very appropriate and brought tears to my eyes. It is effective at hitting the emotion of a woman. My favorites lines are:

“People are not used to women being so passionate.”

“I’m a girl. It doesn’t mean that I have to wear a skirt.”

I also wanted to share this article about women in Saudi Arabia being allowed to compete in the Olympics. This is a long time coming, and I am so grateful it has come to fruition.

So, thank you again, Nike, for making us think differently about women and girls. I will leave you today with the words of Joan: “I am fifty-five years old, and I run close to 70 miles a week.” Even if I am not doing 70 miles a week, I hope to still be running.

Finding Your Center

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I have dabbled in ceramics and pottery over the years. One of the books that I love, still own, and look at every so often is called: “Centering: In Pottery, Poetry and the Person.” The author talks about the ideas behind centering your life, and living in a balanced place. The author juxtaposes centering in life with centering a pot on a potter’s wheel.

one of my pieces…

It is not easy, but with practice, skill, and persistence, a potter can throw a chunk of clay on a potter’s wheel and quickly center it. I remember in college my ceramics professor told us of a blind potter. The potter was amazing at centering because they were not looking at the clay to see if it was centered. They could tell just by feeling the way it spun around the wheel. We spent a few classes trying to center the clay while blind folded. That was an amazing experience to me. It taught me how to approach the wheel in a different way, and gave me almost a quiet, calm anytime I started out on the wheel on my way to centering.

If a potter begins to form the clay before it is centered then two things will happen: either his pot will come out lopsided or it will get so off-center that it will come off the wheel or fall over and the potter will have to start over. So it makes sense for the potter to spend more time in the beginning to make sure that the pot is centered, rather than go fast and have to start over again.

What a metaphor for life. If we just took the time at the beginning of a project, trip, plan, etc to find our center and be balanced we would not have to go back and start over again. If we go off course, we just have to go back to our center. Just as on a potter’s wheel, if we go off-center, we can bring it back to the middle and re-center if needed. This is only if we have not made it so off kilter that we have to start over completely, or if we have added too much water that the clay is too elastic and it is not possible to bring it back to its original form.

The potter teaches us to always go back to our center when we feel life has led us astray. Stop. Go back to center. Sometimes we have to change course. In the end, life falls into place when we start from our center.