Guus Bosman

We received a mysterious Christmas card this week -- no sender name on the envelop, and no message on the card either.

It's a beautiful card -- but whose is it?

Last Friday we went to the Christmas party of Sasha's work. When arrived around 7.30 pm there were already a lot of people. Like last year the food and decorations were excellent, and there was a real festive atmosphere.

We met a lot of Sasha's colleagues -- Sasha is working in a different department since last year so there were many new faces for me. We had dinner and talked a lot. A bit later we found Rosa and Jenny in a line for the buffet, a very pleasant surprise.

In the crowd I saw Paul Wolfowitz, the new president, surrounded by a lot of people.

After dinner we went to a bar downstairs where we had deserts and some drinks, and then to our favorite destination, a disco-style dancefloor. It was really crowded and dark, like a club, with a great mixture of Latin music, greatest hits and others. We danced for a long time, and had a realyblast.

Later we moved to the dancefloor upstairs, where there was a life band playing rock & roll music and we met a lot of Rosa's friends. We danced all night and were among the last ones to leave the party.

The pedestrian traffic signs use different colors than regular traffic lights.

Red means "don't walk", but instead of green for "walk" white is used.

A blinking red sign means what orange does for regular traffic lights. Some of the more advanced ones indicate the amount of seconds you have to safely cross the road.

Yesterday was my first day after a week in Puerto Rico, and the change in weather was dramatic: there was a nice layer of snow on the world when I walked to my work.

For the first time since a long time I was wearing my real winter shoes again. At worked I changed to work shoes, and of course in the evening I forgot my winter shoes at work.

Every time the weather is slightly different than average the news channels are covering the "snow storms" full time. This time CNN had a special reporter in Secaucus, to show how much it was snowing there.

Saturday we went to the National Mall.

We wanted to see a 3D movie in the Natural History Museum, Wild Safari but when we arrived all the tickets were sold out. It was extremely busy in the museum, a lot of out-of-towners visiting the musea. There was another movie we wanted to see instead, that was playing in the Air and Space museum, so we walked to there. We got tickets and spent some time in the museum.

They have acquired a great new addition since the last time I was there: SpaceShipOne. This was the first privately funded manned spaceship to fly into space -- a great achievement, and I liked it a lot to see it in real.

We went into the movie theater to see Magnificent Desolation, but unfortunately the lights went on again after the show had just started. One of the projects was broken, and the movie wouldn't be in 3D. We decided to wait for another opportunity to watch the movie in 3D, and went in line to get a refund. So, we were quite unlucky with the 3D movies, but it was a nice day out.

In the evening we went to Georgetown, where we had dinner in Pizzeria Paradiso -- the best pizza place in D.C. I know.

The trees are starting to loose their leaves, and in a few weeks they will be completely empty.

Some pictures from around our apartment.

Early in the morning I went to do some last-minute shopping for our Thanksgiving dinner. It was quite busy in the supermarket and it was good news for my fellow shoppers that there were still a lot of turkeys left.

We had breakfast the five of us and soon after breakfast we started preparing the turkey. We had never cooked a turkey before but with Irena's and Jonathan's help everything went smoothly. It's a 12 pound animal so it would take a couple of hours to roast.

In the afternoon we went for a walk to the Iwo Jima Memorial and the Netherlands Carrilon while the turkey was slowly getting ready.

After having a small bite for lunch we continued the dinner preparations. That was fun, and we made all the traditional dishes: mashed potatoes, preparing the stuffing and other sides. The stuffing is essentially pieces of bread with seasoning.

The turkey came out really well! We had a great dinner (I really like the cranberry sauce) and it was really cosy. We finished the dinner with a blueberry pie and chocolates... a Thanksgiving in the finest "stuff your face" tradition.

The weather in Puerto Rico this week was warm and rainy. There was a tropical depression in the Caribean. In the plane on the way back home I heard people saying there were in Aruba and it was raining all week.

Thursday night we had a bite in the hotel, where they serve an excellent hamburger, and we spent a pleasant evening outside. In the morning I checked out of the hotel and brought my luggage to work.

Friday afternoon we finished UAT for one of our projects, and we succesfully closed it, a good feeling. I left the office around 4 pm and Kevin, a colleague, gave me a ride to the airport. It wasn't very busy in the airport, but the flight I took to BWI was completely full. I arrived home around 23:00 o'clock.

This week Novi was in Washington, for a business trip to the World Bank. She and Sasha met a few times and she came to our apartment. It's been quite a while since we last met.

This Wednesday we went for dinner in a Western ranch restaurant on top of the El San Juan hotel. We were with eight colleagues; it was a fun dinner after a long day.

We had a drink in the Waterclub and I was back in my room around 11 pm. I decided to take some more night shots. They didn't come out as well as the one from Tuesday evening but it was nice to experiment with different settings and use my tripod.

The first two days in Puerto Rico have been very busy, and we're making long days. It's good to be here, we're getting a lot done and it's much nicer to be close to the customer.

Yesterday there was a cake for me in the office from the customer for my birthday. Tonight we got in the hotel very late, and I shot a picture: the first one with my new tripod.

Due to the one-hour time difference we're getting up at 6.00 o'clock Virginia time in the morning.