Yesterday we received a belated Valentine's Day card in the mail, from my grandparents in North Dakota.  The handwriting on the envelope suggested that maybe one of their in-home care providers had assisted them in getting the card out in the mail -- as they're now in their late 80s -- but it was special to get a little tangible reminder of their love, in the form of that Valentine's Day card.

But even more than the card, I enjoyed the picture that they sent along with the card:  an image from a recent summer, in which my grandparents are sitting on a grassy lawn together, eating corn-dogs and drinking soft drinks bought from the midway of the county fair.  To me, it's such an iconic image of my grandparents, of the American Midwest, and of enduring love.  Every time I look at the picture, I can't help but smile.

So of course, I thought I would share it (see above).

There's been a continuous snow cover over Amsterdam ever since we got back from Ohio on New Year's Day.  I've never seen such snow in all my seven years here.  Last January we had one week of hard freeze, but there was no snow.  And while we have had snow before, the accumulation has previously lasted for 48 hours or less before getting swallowed up by the rains.  This snow cover, however, is for real.  Yesterday evening, we got another 3 or 4 inches on top of what was already there.

The snow makes the city so beautiful and so silent.  I love it.

The snow does come with its hassles, however.  Bicycling through slush is no fun -- though I can't figure out which is worse:  the soft squishy stuff and its messiness, or the rock hard frozen stuff and its slipperyness.  Of course, it's really cold outside -- and we feel the cold more in Amsterdam than in Ohio, simply because we're out in it more, not having a car.  A lot of people use public transportation during these times, naturally -- but that doesn't seem to be the best scenario either, because of cold waits at the tram stops and bus stops while you're waiting to get on and suffocating overcrowded warmth once you're on.

Marci and I also discovered, yesterday evening, that the city's transportation grid isn't able to handle the large amounts of snow very well.  We were trying to make it to dinner at the home of some friends' up in the northernmost section of the city (far enough away that we wouldn't even tend to do bikes in nice weather), and as our appointment happened to fall right during the heaviest part of the snow-storm, we had quite the adventure in trying to get up there.  First we waited for the bus.  It's usually supposed to come every 10 minutes, but we were there for maybe 20 or 25 minutes with no sign of any buses running.  Another girl waiting at the stop said she had been standing there for about an hour.  So a few of us decided to split a cab together.

The cab seemed to be working out all right; however, shortly after dropping off the first passenger at her desired location, the taxi driver threw up his hands and said that he couldn't go further -- evidently frustrated by the heavy traffic and extremely slow conditions (seeing how he gets paid by the kilometer, not by the hour).  After some arguing, we got put out on the curb next to a large shopping center -- approximately half-way between our point of origin and our destination.  We waited around for a bus, but after a little while we decided that it was pointless.  We had already been in transit for about two hours -- and we were set to relieve our babysitter in another two hours.  After some brief deliberation, Marci and I decided to surrender to the weather and its inevitabilities.

So we called our friends to cancel, grabbed some fast food for dinner, and then tried to catch a bus back to our neighborhood.  But once again, after a half-hour of shivering in the cold, our bus never came.

We ended up catching a different bus to Centraal Station and then taking a tram the rest of the way to our house.  But it was quite the adventure:  three-and-a-half hours and about 40 euros worth of going nowhere.

It was a little bit frustrating...

But hey -- at least we get a pretty city out of the deal. :-)

And in case you're interested, there are more pictures of snowy Amsterdam available in the Amsterdam Pictures section of the website.

I couldn't go to bed tonight without posting a few of the pictures from our recent family photo shoot with the incomparable Marco Pauws.

There are many more excellent photos (including more "standard" portraiture) where these ones came from -- and all of them can be viewed in the Family Pictures section of the website.  But these were a few of my favorites... and I figured that these three were a good tease to the rest of the collection!  We ended up having a beautiful evening for the shoot, just this past Tuesday, and we found some beautiful places to catch the light along the dijk out toward Waterland.

Marco was truly a joy to work with -- as both a friend and as a photographer.  He's currently in the process of developing his own photography business, and I couldn't recommend him highly enough.  He's an incredible artist, he's quick with the turn-around, and he's still very reasonably priced (considering that he's still kind of in the start-up phase).  If you're looking for a photographer for anything, I seriously advise you to get in touch with Marco.  His website is www.polopix.blogspot.com (where you can also see some of his other work).

Anyway, although I'm more than happy to plug my friend's business, I really just wanted to post these pictures for everyone's enjoyment.  Don't forget you can find more shots from this photo shoot in the Family Pictures section!

This weekend, our family had a fun time picking apples at the Olmenhorst Orchard (something of an annual family tradition) and visiting the Polder Licht interactive light-based art exhibition in our neighborhood.

In case you're interested, you can find more pictures from the Apple Orchard outing in the Family Pictures section of the website, and more pictures of the Polder Licht experience in the Amsterdam Pictures section.