The invite

Simone and I went to Alkmaar for some shopping. Instead of buying clothes we ended up buying sorbets...

We kindly invited ourselves over for dinner at Ilse and Cassie;s. How rude of us! But it was a very nice evening :-)

The kickdown (rod)

I went to my car to check on a few things again. One of them was to see if the kickdown rod still fits when I put the carb spacer in. Well, it doesn't so that's crap. I will need to fix me a new kickdown rod...
I did check out how it exactly works which was good.

Here's a little movie to see how the kickdown works.

The kickdown rod gets pushed in at WOT (Wide Open Throttle). With the adjusting screw you make sure the rod gets pushed nearly to the end of movement with about half a millimeter to spare.

The kickdown actually kicks the tranny down 1 gear so that you get a boost in speed.

We visited Ilse and Cassie in their new home this evening. I loved their new place and it was fun seeing them again :-)

The (almost) birthday girl

We visited Ilse and Cassie tonight because it's Ilse's birthday soon. It was a very nice evening and Cassie cooked lovely food for us. Thanks girls!

The rest of the day

Early afternoon I went to Simone's again. In front of Central Station it's starting to look like before all the construction again.

We drove to Alkmaar where we visited my folks before we went to Egmond aan zee. It was great seeing the beach again.

We were a bit early so we had time to play with the camera and make silly pictures.

Ilse and Cassandra joined us for dinner. It was a lovely evening with all these lovely ladies :-)

Dessert. One row for me and one for Simone.

Yes, it's chocolate mousse with a chocolate spoon ;-)

After dinner we walked through the village. This is the old light house.

Simone was trying very hard to spoil my photo. #fail ;-P

Mother's day

I visited my family today for mother's day. My mom made a very nice lunch. Here's my dad digging in.

Cassie was there and their Jack Russel called Pip. I'm still very impressed with Pip's behaviour. She's a doll :-)

Ilse and my mom. It was nice seeing everybody again and the food was lovely.

Meanwhile back at the ranch, Simone had called the water guys to come back and this time check the right bloody pipe. And sure enough they now found a crack on their turf instead of our's. This is good because now they can pay for it.

On my way back Simone and Milan came to pick me up in Zaandam. I saw this building for the first time when walking to the car. It's the Inntel Hotel in Zaandam. I love it :-)

When I got back, Milan and I filled up the hole that they left (they only fixed their own digging...). I'll put the bricks back in later this week.

After all the sewer crap I thought I'd take us all out to McDonalds so that we can start using our fixed sewer drain very soon! ;-)

Pip and then more Pip

Inspector Clouseau.

I visited Ilse and Cassie because it was Cassie's birthday a few weeks ago.

The weather was great so we went for a walk in the dunes.

Every dog and it's owner was out there.

Pip was having a great time.

(Click to enlarge)
She ran and ran...

... and rolled in the sand. Because, it's fun? ;-)

Some dogs are a bit bigger and scarier but you still wanna smell them so you better be very, very humble!

Digging a hole is fun, too!

And then at home we get fed.

Meanwhile in Russia 3 Dutch girls won medals at the Olympics.

But I got the jackpot! Cassie's homemade chicken and mushroom ragout!

I also quickly visited my folks and back in the Dam I took a bus to see my lovie.

The Christmas day

Christmas breakfast with my folks.

My dad was very interested in the new pope.

My mom's knee is healing very slow. She still can't do much.

I prepared some of the dinner in the morning. I like to work methodically ;-)

I made ragout. Quite nice it was!

Cassie was there as well. She looked very nice with her hair loose!

Ilse and Pip. I can see Pip thinking "WTF are you pointing that camera in my direction for?!"

Ilse made apple cakes. Very nice they were! Here's my mom showing how to eat one ;-)

I made out with Pip under the Christmas tree. She kept trying to kiss me. I like being kissed by girls, not by dogs really. Our relationship therefore didn't last very long ;-)

I cooked the dinner today. It had to be a buffet since my mom can't sit at the table for very long. I think I did pretty OK...

Visiting my family

I met my family at my sister's place for dinner today. This was some finger food that I brought along.

My mom and Cassie.

Dad.

Ilse.

And Pip. I did some after dinner exercise with her.

I had a very nice time and Cassie cooked really nice food :-)

And also early arvo Simone came over which was fun. No pics though ;-)

Happy birthday Ilse

This morning I dropped in to Nic's shop for the very last time as she's closing up and selling. Soon there will be a new girl working the shop. I picked up some things and handed in the spare key that I used to keep. It made me feel sad.

Then I couldn't do what I had planned to do which kinda sucked so I went to my family a bit sooner. Lovely Alkmaar noord.

I cuddled with Pip. She was very excited and playful. And stinky ;-)

Not sure about this photo. My family can never look normal. Especially never all at the same time!

This is Poema, one of Ilse's cats. She liked my lap.

And these birds hang on the fence outside. I like them.

In between dinner and dessert I went with Ilse to walk Pip. There is a whole "Dog walking subculture" I was totally unaware of. Kinda cool.

And there were horses too. This one had something on his nose.

This one didn't give a shit.

And this one came almost running towards me. Prolly thought I had food on me, tough luck ;-)