home....finally

So as some of you know I've finally become a home owner. It's a great apartment looking out at Rembrandt Park and located about a 10 to 15 minute bike ride from the center. I love it. With all the moving around I haven't had a sense of home for a long time. For the first time I come home and really feel like I'm home, it's mine.

It's been a long road from looking for a place to buying to waiting to get the keys to renovations to moving in but for the last month I've been living there. I still have some work to do but it's far enough along for me to show you guys how far its come. I owe a lot to my parents. My father has been working for Westjet and could fly out for almost nothing so he came out to help with the renovations and my mother decided last minute to join and project manage...she ended up working her ass off.Nicole also made time to help out and I owe her a big thanks. Spending hours scraping off 40 years of wall paper sucks.

I took two weeks off from work to get as much done as I could. I was pretty naive as to how much work it was going to take to get the place to the level I wanted it at but it was all worth it. I think it's coming along great...ah my new hard wood floors. Here's some before and after shots to help give an idea of where it is now and how far it's come.

Living room and my fantastic park

....dinning room...

...kitchen...

...and my patio.

So this should keep me busy for awhile, fixing, improving, and finishing everything that need to be done. When its all finished I throw up some photos.

Ah, Italy

Back in September Nicole invited me to go to her parent's summer house in Umbria. The plan was, fly into Rome and take a train, then from the station take the family car to the house in the country side. Once there, we where going to spend one day in Rome, one day in Florence, and three days chilling out at the house. This became one night of adventure in Rome (the night we arrived), and five days of total relaxation at the house...did I mention the pool...I'll get to it.

The one night in Rome is a long story, but if you have time for it you can read all about it here.

After the Rome "fun" we really needed to just relax and that's exactly what we did. Five or so days of doing nothing but hanging out by the pool, swimming, listening to music, drinking wine and talking. In a seriously beautiful house where you could look out and just see little villages and houses on other hills in the distance. The nearest grocery store was a 30 to 40 minute ride away. I loved it.

On one night we went into Perugia for dinner, an absolutely incredible city built on top of one of the highest hills in the region and dripping down the sides into the valleys. From the center of the city, so the top of the hill, you can look out of a large amount of Umbria, where we watched the sun set. Feeling a bit too relaxed I left my camera at the house. Sorry kids, hope fully these photos will be enough.

Allow me to introduce...

I have to say the number one reason I've been incommunicado is because I have been spending a hell of a lot of time with this beautiful girl right here. Nicole & I have been having a great time chilling out in Amsterdam cafes having a few drinks and laughing our asses off. This has been going on for four months now and I can safely say I'm hooked.

We met at a picnic in Vondel park and ended up being the last people hanging out at 1 or 2 in the morning. Just drinking wine and talking about music. We took a 7 day trip to Italy back in September, (I'll post about that next) and it was truly an amazing time.

out of touch

So, I've kinda of been out of touch for the last...eh... couple... few...months...damn I feel bad. I promise that I will try to change this and but a bit more active in keeping you up to date. So that said, I'm taking a page out of Brad's book and using this internet thing to help me out. I'll do my best to keep it short and interesting, you let me know what you think.

...so let get started. The first big update is.....