Ready for a long weekend

I feel like a bit of a curmudgeon today: rain has been falling and the blog posts have been grumbly. The worst of it seems to have hit today: as the view out my window suggests, the rivers are rising as the skies are lowering. What it doesn't show is the cold and snow showers that blew through in bands all day.

Someone said that it was the coldest Easter in the Netherlands in 40 years: maybe the North Atlantic Conveyor was making its predicted flip? More likely that this is just the earliest Easter in many years. In any case, it was a good excuse to put the weather radar onto my page.

And, in fact, the tulips are up in the roadway medians, the buds on the trees are plump, so spring can't be too far away. I've got all the planning done for my daughter's visit, hotels and planes booked, reservations at Jamie Oliver's "Fifteen", and sent her instructions for navigating through Schiphol (my Dutch friends think I crossed a line at that).

A little sunshine by the first week in April would complete the picture.

Its been an uncertain week at work: HQ has suffered a tough year and the trickle-down onto our budget process turned into a cascade. Scenario-planning under those circumstances isn't much fun. My project is making great progress in the meantime: enthusiasm is high and results are good. It's a daily schism, alternating dark discussions with bright promise.

My Dutch friends tell me that Easter Monday is the day that Netherlanders traditionally shop for furniture. No sales, no particular reason: it's just the day that people go buy a couch. I think that it's more of a gardening season than a decorating one, but I'll go with the flow and pick up a bedframe if tradition demands. I'm also ready to invest in a bike, and suggestions are rolling in from cycling colleagues (in other words, all of my colleagues).

So, it should be a good weekend to catch up on sleep, emails, shopping, sanity. Put the week behind and spring ahead.

At least, once it stops snowing.