I've been chronically exhausted every since I got back from the U.S. about two weeks ago (although that seems like a lifetime!), so I needed a lot of rest this weekend. Wilbert left for Cologne on his annual trip to the Handwork & Crafts Exposition early on Sunday morning, so I had the whole day to myself. Had no idea it would turn out like it did.
After getting most of our Dutch wedding invitations addressed and ready for mailing, I took four of them out to deliver to our neighbors, and found 3/4ths of them camped out in front of our townhomes in the sandpit where our parking spaces used to be (the city is rearranging, updating and fixing the whole street because of an initiative I started last year). A spontaneous block party! And it was a blast... we stayed there all afternoon; chatting, drinking, eating, everybody contributed something (see my tea set left). The weather was gorgeous... the first really springy day to fall in a weekend, so everyone was in the mood to chill and enjoy the outdoors. The street was closed off, so it was nice and quiet. We did a tour of the neighborhood and talked about ways we might redo our front gardens together as a team.
We talked about everything and nothing, caught up on each other's lives (Daren and Annette had just gotten back from a 9-month assignment to Aruba), enjoyed each other's company, and just had a good, simple time together. Very good for the spirit, and helped put life a bit more into perspective after I had been far too wrapped up in Work & Wedding for the last few months. The kids built forts and castles in the sand using the wooden scaffolding and bricks the road builders had left behind. They found an enormous mess this morning when they arrived.
After getting most of our Dutch wedding invitations addressed and ready for mailing, I took four of them out to deliver to our neighbors, and found 3/4ths of them camped out in front of our townhomes in the sandpit where our parking spaces used to be (the city is rearranging, updating and fixing the whole street because of an initiative I started last year). A spontaneous block party! And it was a blast... we stayed there all afternoon; chatting, drinking, eating, everybody contributed something (see my tea set left). The weather was gorgeous... the first really springy day to fall in a weekend, so everyone was in the mood to chill and enjoy the outdoors. The street was closed off, so it was nice and quiet. We did a tour of the neighborhood and talked about ways we might redo our front gardens together as a team.
We talked about everything and nothing, caught up on each other's lives (Daren and Annette had just gotten back from a 9-month assignment to Aruba), enjoyed each other's company, and just had a good, simple time together. Very good for the spirit, and helped put life a bit more into perspective after I had been far too wrapped up in Work & Wedding for the last few months. The kids built forts and castles in the sand using the wooden scaffolding and bricks the road builders had left behind. They found an enormous mess this morning when they arrived.
We're lucky to have such good neighbors. We all have pretty much nothing in common (well, besides two of them having young kids): we're businessmen, shopkeepers, military, heavy equipment repairmen, housewives, pre-school teachers and airline cargo workers, but none of that really seems to matter when you're just good people.
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