I'm a Hasher, Thru & Thru...

Hard to believe that since January, I've been hashing for 15 years and have done over 600 runs (unlike some hashers, I haven't kept count). While it's not like the old days when we hashed 2-3 times a week, I think it'll always be an important part of our lives.

I was honored when my hash buddy Suzanne from Raleigh asked me if I'd talk to her brother Howard Unger, who's a freelance writer for The New York Times. I've always considered myself somewhat of a hash evangelist -- a true believer despite being a crappy runner -- so I was thrilled to share with him my hashing story. While the March 30th article's focus is on hashing in NYC, I made the cut:

“Wherever you hash, there’s an immediate connection,” said Melissa White, an American living in The Hague.

“Some folks find God; I found the hash,” said Ms. White, who also met her husband and found a home in North Carolina while hashing, the latter occurring while she was running with a real estate agent.

In The Netherlands, where she and her husband moved for his new job (a position he learned about through a Raleigh hasher), the couple now hashes with a NATO missile scientist, an investigator for the International Criminal Court and a medic for the Dutch Special Forces.

For the complete article, click here. On-On!

Humor on the Train...

After a quick jaunt through the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, it was time to take a train back to reality to meet up with the girls. The train was unusually full, so we walked from car to car in search of seats. When we hit the last car, we were surprised to see a TV camera and a photographer filming a local celebrity reading a book over a microphone for National Book Week to promote reading on the trains (which I do daily). We were especially surprised when we saw what he was reading: Holidays on Ice by David Sedaris, a comedian from Raleigh often heard on NPR (you might remember a link to his article about Sinterklaas a few months back). Of course, we couldn't understand anything beyond Macy's and a few references to Santa, so we weren't laughing. Sadly, neither was anyone else. Perhaps the humor was lost in translation. It must have been a slow news weekend, because a similar photo was on Monday's front page.

Eating & Drinking Our Way Around Amsterdam...

It was so liberating having an entire night in Amsterdam to celebrate Jimmy's b'day without having to worry about the girls or missing the last train out. Rather than stick with one restaurant for the evening, we were on a mission in search of unique eating and drinking experiences. Our evening started with appetizers at a roto-sushi bar (where the sushi comes by on a conveyor belt), and continued with cocktails at the Ice Bar, surprisingly delicious stuffed pumpkin and fish at a Mediterranean deli, a beer at this slanting bar built in 1695 with an amazing canal view, luscious chocolate cake at a trendy cafe appropriately named Envy, and finally champagne tasting at a wine bar. Luckily it was a long walk back to the hotel to burn off a few of those calories.

We're So Cool in Amsterdam...

OK...maybe not cool as in hip or trendy, but cool as in ice cold with the emphasis on ice. After failing to get into the Ice Bar when we visited Stockholm because we lacked a reservation, when we discovered that both our girls had sleepovers on the same night, we quickly booked a reservation at the Xtra Cold Ice Cafe in Amsterdam. As further proof that we're not cool, we went there at 7pm, which was early enough for a few other tourists but not the hip crowd. We didn't mind, however, because we got to take lots of pictures while drinking a cocktail in a cup made of ice. They provided us extra coats and gloves to survive about 30 minutes in the 18° cafe. Frankly, since there was no wind, it felt warmer than many days this winter. All the walls, chairs, sculptures and the bar itself were entirely made of ice blocks as shown above. It was a fun way to start off Jimmy's early b'day celebration and liberation from our children.

That Tricky Tooth Fairy...

Looks like the Tooth Fairy's up to new tricks. When Ashlynn lost her first tooth, she asked the Tooth Fairy for her signature and discovered it was written in invisible ink that magically appears over an open flame. When she lost her 2nd tooth recently, she wrote this note and was was very excited to receive a long invisible response. When she discovered that her school friends weren't receiving similar responses, she said, “It's because there's as many tooth fairies as there are stars in the sky.”

Look At Me, I Got My “C”...

Last weekend, Veronica completed her final diploma test within the beginner's series of swim lessons. Just 12 kids had progressed to this 3rd test, but there was still a large crowd there rooting them on. As before, the exam stressed survival skills. It started with her dressed in long pants, long-sleeved shirt and a windbreaker. While dressed, she swam for 4 laps with a short underwater swim below a pad and a climb over a pad as shown here. The remaining 10 laps were in just a swimsuit with a variety of skill stops (treading, floating, somersaulting, diving and a 9-meter underwater swim through a hoop). She's come a long way and is looking forward to swimming in the river this spring and in Grandma & Grandpa's pool this summer.

Our $0.28 Luggage Cart...

Check out our new cart. Well, it's not exactly ours, but we're sharing it. Rather than buy a car, we've joined a car co-op (which operate in over 600 cities around the world). If you've never heard of one, a car co-op is essentially a fleet of cars owned by a cooperative that are placed all over town (in this case usually at train stations) for members to rent. Like most car co-ops, Greenwheels encourages the use of public transit; since we have train discount cards, we get a discounted monthly fee of $16.25 (which also covers insurance and gas). Then we pay $3.25/hour plus $0.40/mile. Doing some quick math, you can tell it's not a great deal if we want to go on a day trip. However, it comes in mighty handy picking up bulky items from the store and transporting luggage to/from the train station. On our last trip to France, our train was so early in the morning that there was no hourly rate so we paid just $0.28 to get our packs to the station, a fraction of what it costs to rent a luggage cart at the airport. Of course, we'll remember next time not to be so cocky, since we almost missed our train because it took longer to drive than we expected.