De Poezenboot, KattenKabinet, and “The Last Pet” at Tot Zover, Amsterdam

I’m in Amsterdam, up to my neck in Dutch vocabulary, learning the language. Although free time this trip isn’t plentiful, I did manage to slide in several engagements. SEE ALSO: ALL ABOARD THE POEZENBOOT Popped by KattenKabinet hoping there’d be a resident cat or two. There was indeed. SEE ALSO: PREVIOUS VISIT TO KATTENKABINET Went to a very interesting exhibit…

Books I Read – 2019

I’ve been accumulating books for years, waiting for retirement to finally hunker down and start reading them. In 2018, I made a good dent in them, reading 39 books. In 2019, I made the big breakthrough, I went nuts. With a book going simultaneously at the gym, on the subway, in parks, and by the side of the bed, and…

Kenya and Ethiopia – Part 1

Every December, Mark and I try to take a big trip somewhere. Mark works for a huge international pharmaceutical company, and his company closes down the week of Christmas, and the week after. He will usually tack on a few extra days of vacation at the beginning of this stretch, giving us a little over two weeks to take a…

Mittens

Two weeks before Mark and I were scheduled to leave for our trip to Africa, our cat Mittens developed some diarrhea and vomiting. She had been diagnosed with inflammatory bowel disease 8 years ago and has been receiving medicine for it ever since, and has done amazingly well. Her main symptom has always been vomiting; diarrhea was something new. I…

"We have two lives, and the second begins when we realize we only have one." - Confucius

For a business owner who worked fanatically five or six days a week and who absolutely relished the weekend, I’m suddenly now a leisure commando, raiding cities across the globe and indulging in whatever leisure activities are on offer there. I no longer live for the weekend; life is one continuous weekend. Join me on these escapades as I try to make sense out of the world.