Wow, I've missed a lot!!
@HouCuseChickie Congrats on the weight loss so far. And have fun at the family weekend! I kind of dreaded that in college, but I don't think you are anything like my mother, so K should be absolutely fine with you being there. Wear what's comfortable!
@Sans Souci Safe travels!! It sounds less than fun having to rebook everything, but if it means you are safe, that's a good thing!!
@ajrwdwgirl How is it going with your niece living there? Is it a huge adjustment?
I like my new job, but everyone is leaving. 4 out of 6 of the people who already worked there are leaving. The first left for a new store opening up next week where she will basically be a manager, which is what she wanted. The 2nd is leaving for the same new store, because they ONLY sell clothing, not strollers, car seats, etc which are too heavy for her. She had a herniated disc not too long ago, and can't do the really heavy lifting, so the new store is better for her, AND she will still work with the other gal. Then the "boss" announced she was leaving. She's tired of the idiocy imposed by the head office. Like, a customer came in with a play mat thing that she's used for a year and it started to rip along a seam. Rather than try to get it fixed, she brought it back to get her money back....after a year. The boss told her sorry, that's normal wear and tear...we can't really give you your money back for that. She called the head office, and they told the woman we'd give her her money back if we couldn't replace the mat. But the boss had told the woman we couldn't give her money back because that's what the head office told her. So now SHE gets the blame from the customer for not being helpful even though it was their policy. And this week, we're having this big sale, that's really not that big....like they are making out like it's a HUGE deal. It's 20% on a lot of things that have also recently been on sale in the summer. So it's really not a great deal. Well, it's not going well. No one is meeting the goals. So they decided to extend the sale by another week AND increase opening hours...without notice. Just, by the way, tomorrow you have to be open later, and next Friday, you have to be open an extra couple of hours. So anyone working on those days now has to work later, which is actually illegal. They can't just change your schedule once it's been posted. And then once the "boss" said she was leaving (she's not really the boss, she's just the one who makes the shedule and she's been there the longest and knows all the ins and outs....she's kind of in charge, but doesn't really have the title.) the other gal decided it wasn't worth staying. So she is going back to her old job, leaving one other regular worker and one weekend worker who is a college student and only works Saturdays. My contract is only for 7 hours a week, and I've been working about 24 hours a week and only ONE of the people is already gone. They hired one new person, but there are still going to be huge gaps, so I'm guessing I'm going to be working a lot of hours. They offered me the 16 hour contract that the one woman had, and I said yes, but then the higher ups didn't approve it and want to wait.
I THINK it's because anything under 12 hours, you get paid for the hours you work. Anything over 12 hours is a flex contract, where you have an average you have to make. So if you work more than that, you have to balance it out by working fewer hours some other week. So right now, I get paid for all 25 hours I'm working in a week, but if I have a 16 hour contract, 9 of those 25 hours that I work have to be taken off at some other time. And since this is pretty much weekly, I'd end up with the same situation I had at Kik, where I had MONTHS worth of surplus hours, but I couldn't take time off because we didn't have the people to cover the hours. So I ended up having to have those paid out when I left, and then they tax those heavily so you only make half of what you earned. So keeping the 7 hour contract is better right now for both me and for the employer, because they won't have to figure out how to give me months of time off without anyone else to cover the hours. I'll just get paid for all of the hours until they can hire replacements for everyone leaving and then I can have a regular contract. I'm guessing that's why they didn't approve the new contract and said to hold off. But as long as I'm getting the hours, I don't really mind not having the bigger contract.
So that's what's been occupying my time. And Monday was our anniversary (24 years) and we went away for the weekend. It was a bit of a bust, but I enjoyed it anyway. We had booked an escape experience where you get clues and walk around the city to supposedly solve puzzels, and it lets you explore the highlights of the city. But it wasn't well designed. They weren't puzzels. It was like "Find this plaque. Take the 5th letter of the 17th word, then the 3rd letter of the 21st word, and.....bla bla bla, what word does it make?" And then you get the next "clue". After it asked which statement was true about this tower, we read the sign on the tower that said it used to be where taxes were paid to enter the city, and we answered that it was where taxes were paid and it said that was incorrect....the building had been shifted in whatever century, we gave up. It had also given black and white photos of some signs, and we had to find the signs and say what color they were....then it counted it wrong, but we found the same sign in several places in the city in several different colors. So the "puzzels" weren't accurate, it was pouring rain, I had started coming down with a bug, and we just weren't having fun. So we stopped. We went and sat at a cafe for a while, and then went to the shopping street and bought a bunch of books and sat and read until our reservation.
We ate at a Greek restaurant. It was really nice. It seemed like a really popular place. It was very busy, which meant also very loud. We were the only ones in the upstairs when we got there, but by the time we left it was full.
I wanted to order an appetizer with eggplant and tomato sauce, but DH doesn't really like eggplant, and I can't eat that much by myself, so I decided to try it some other time when E is with us.
We both ordered the Athena plate, which had Suvlaki, Suziki, and Gyros, with rice. We also ordered a side of Green beans, which DH didn't end up liking...they were in a tomato sauce and covered with cheese. I just ate the green beans out and left all the cheese on top, just to get my veggies.
DH ordered Baklava for dessert and I took a tiny bite, but didn't order my own, because I have to watch my sugar intake. Normally, I'd make an exception for a special occassion, but I have to get my blood drawn next week and need to make sure it's not too high.
We stayed overnight in a very cheap hotel DH found, which....you all know his history with finding cheap hotels. This was half the price of the next one up. I took no pictures, but we opened the door, and all it was was 2 single beds pushed together, and that gave you about a foot or foot and a half on either side of the bed to walk, and about 3 feet at the foot of the bed, which was where the door to the toilet and shower were. The toilet and shower were actually pretty nice...small, and there was no shelf in the shower to put your shampoo and soap, but it was clean. There was no TV, no closet, no drawers, no desk...nothing....nowhere to put the luggage. There were 2 hangers on a peg on which to hang a coat. And there was a small shelf on either side of the bed with an outlet to charge your phone....not much more fit on that shelf than a book. At least it was only for one night.
The next day we went to a different city and went to the 20th Century Museum. It was mainly a few kitchens and living rooms set up showing what it was like to live in each decade, starting with WWI. And then there were exhibits of appliances throughout the ages, like hair dryers, TVs, Radios, etc...and then toys, primarily legos. Lots of legos. It was fine for a rainy afternoon. We forgot that nothing is open on Sunday mornings and it was raining and we wanted to be inside, so we went into a cafe and sat until noon when the museum opened. As soon as we left the museum, we went and grabbed a lackluster lunch and got on the road. Restaurants here don't do breakfast or lunch. The hotel had advertised a "really good breakfast" for 15 Euros, but experience tells me that what the Dutch consider a really good breakfast does not include anything I want to eat. You will be given a few hard rolls, some cheese, some cold cuts, and maybe a boiled egg. If you're REALLY lucky, they will also have some yogurt and fruit. I refuse to pay 15 euros for something I can get in a grocery store for 5, and I won't eat cheese unless it's melted, I won't eat boiled eggs, I won't eat most cold cuts, and the fruit is usually a bunch of melon, which I also don't like. So we went to Bagels and Beans for breakfast, and I got a Vega Love wholegrain bagel with Chives "cream cheese" (it's vegan cheese). It has roasted eggplant, zucchini, red pepper, and onion. pesto, rocket, parmesean flakes, and pine nuts. I wanted to go back for lunch....it's a pretty healthy alternative, as far as restaurant options go. But DH didn't want another bagel, so we went to a lunch room. All the lunch rooms pretty much have the same menu. They will have "Uitsmijters" which is an open faced sandwich with egg and something on it like veggies. They will have "Tostis" which is like grilled cheese, but usually with fancier bread and cheeses....I had had one the day before and it was not great. I wanted something I would enjoy rather than just something to fill my stomach. Well...I settled for some not-very-good chicken nuggets and a few fries. I'm not a huge fan of fries in the first place, and a lot of fried foods tend to upset my stomach, but that's what they had on the menu that I would eat. And then we drove home.
The highlight of the weekend was the Greek food and the bagel for breakfast, and the English bookstore. I had packed a nice dress to wear out to dinner, but DH didn't want to drive back and forth to the hotel for me to change, since the hotel was in a town about 20 minutes away, and the car was parked pretty far away from the city center. Since it was pouring rain anyway, he asked if I would mind dressing up the next night instead. I was a little disappointed, but said as long as we could go out the next night to a nice place, so I could dress up then, it was ok.
I think I pretty much ordered this every round once I tasted it. It was SOOOOOO good. It's just goatcheese wrapped in bacon with honey and sesame seeds, but it was the best dish of the night. Both of us ordered it multiple times.
This is a better long term option for us as there is no food that we can't have. Just Less of it. 
