Guus Bosman

Today is Ettie's first day on her new internship at Staatsbosbeheer. Staatsbosbeheer is a Dutch governmental organisation, managing the natural heritage in the Netherlands.

Ettie will do research in the Weerribben, a national park in the northern part of Overijssel. There's a lot of water in this park, and Ettie will do a big part of her data gathering from a boat.

The project I am working on is now in its development phase. We finished the requirements a while back and the design is as good as done. It's really nice to see the software getting shape, the first components and detailed designs have been created already.

As for my dear travelers, everything is well. Sasha is seeing a lot of the regio around Nice -- she visited Cannes last weekend, and Monaco before that. Yesterday afternoon, after her French classes she made a tour through the Provence. Jerry and Marjolein arrived in Louisiana a few days ago, and my parents are leaving Middenmeer tomorrow morning very early to take a plane to New York.

I came home late last night.

I couldn't get a plane ticket to Washington Dulles for Friday evening, to I took the flight to Baltimore instead. BWI, the airport there, is a lot further from Arlington and I was home around midnight.

When I left the office yesterday it was a chaos on the streets: everywhere there were huge lines in front of (empty) gas stations. There was some rumours that the ATMs would stop working in the weekend as well, so there were large lines in front of cash machines also. This morning I read that the strike ended and gas deliveries are getting back to normal. Good news for my colleagues who are there this weekend.

I've been several times at the airport in San Juan now, and I usually get a cup of coffee before we leave. One of the moving sidewalks to get to the terminal were Starbucks is has been out of service for over three months.

When I came home there were some really nice surprises. A Volksrant, caramel wafers (stroopwafels) and a large supply of Grimbergen Triple. Thanks a lot guys! Jerry and Marjolein left Arlington two days ago and are on their way to Lafayette in Indiana.

This morning I went out for breakfast, I had nothing at home to eat. Had a bagel and coffee at Cosi's. I felt tired, and it's great to get some real rest at home -- it's been a very busy week. Today there was the annual 99 tournament in Amsterdam. Zoltan won the cup again.

I'll leave to Virginia in about an hour. The battery of my cellphone is empty, and the charger is somewhere deep in my luggage, so no phone calls anymore.

The drivers of the gas-trucks are on strike in Puerto Rico, so all gasstations are closing... hope I'll be able to get out :)

Yesterday afternoon two close friends arrived in the U.S. -- Jerry and Marjolein are here for a long vacation. They'll make a journey through the U.S. in the next month.

Unfortunately I can't see them this week as I am in Puerto Rico, but we'll meet when they return in a few weeks.

Jerry and Marjolein have a website of their adventures in the United States.

This weekend we will be moving a part of our project's system into production. The customer finished their acceptance testing last week, and we went out yesterday to celebrate that.

We went to La Playita, an outdoor bar where we had hamburgers and beer. We were a group of 7, and it was great fun. We spent there several hours, and moved to the Blue Dolphin, where one of us recommended the "Coco Loco" drink. We followed that recommendation with pleasure -- it is a very nice drink that's served in a real coconut. Quite sweet, but very nice.

Today during the day we don't have much to do, but tonight we'll go to the office to move the application (tomorrow will be a day of testing). I'm now sitting at the pool, slowly recovering from last night.

Tomorrow morning I am traveling to Puerto Rico. A while ago we finished the requirements for the project I am working on, but now I will discuss the high-level design documents with the customer.

I booked my flight this morning -- quite close to departure time and I was happy that there seats left. When I went to get my seat on the website it turned out that I had the last seat (in my price category).

Sasha called me this morning and everything is going well in Nice; she's speaking French all the time. I have started to eat more healthy than in the weekend, and I've cooked macaroni twice. Tonight even with a salad.

Monday was the 4th of July, Independence Day in the United States. Sasha and I both had a day off so we enjoyed a nice long weekend that we spent very well.

I came back from Puerto Rico late Friday evening. On Saturday we went to Georgetown. It was a beautiful day, so we walked from Court House across the Key Bridge to D.C. We spent the day walking around, looking in shops and having a good time. Of course we payed a long visit to Barnes & Nobles. We had coffee and read a bit but we restrained ourselves and didn't buy anything. I now feel the need to visit the library soon. Books are so addictive!

Saturday night we saw a movie, Mr. and Mrs. Smith, in the big Loews theater in Georgetown.

On Sunday we went to the central part of downtown D.C. On the Mall was the annual Smitsonian Folk Life festival, an event with information about many different cultures. There was a large delegation of Oman, and we had an Oman snack, bread with humus. We visited the American History museum and stayed till late in the city. Everywhere were preparations for the big day, July 4th.

Monday morning we went downtown again to see the Independence Day Parade. It was a large parade that took almost two hours and although it was very hot there was a large crowd. The group of Hare Krishna was especially interesting -- a huge cart was being pulled by 30 or 40 people.

The weather today really reminds me of the weather in the Netherlands in the fall. It's very windy, with a little bit of rain, and it's not very warm (around 20 degrees Celcius). Quite a difference with the rest of the week, when it was very hot and humid.

Yesterday we went to Best Buy to see if we could find a new digital camera. Repairing the old one would be quite expensive, and buying a new one makes more sense. We found two models that we like, but unfortunately both were out of stock. They'll have a new supply today -- hopefully we can get it tonight.

It is a great feeling to have such a long weekend, and without any work as well. I came home from Puerto Rico late Friday night. I worked a little bit on the plane, but also spend time studying Spanish words. I am now at eight hundred out of the thousand words in my list.

The plane had a little bit of a delay when we left San Juan, but the arrival time was as usual. I was selected for a seat in an exit-row, which was very pleasant because it gave me more space for my legs. The plane was overbooked, just ahead of the 4th of July weekend, and some people were offered alternative flights in exchange for money.

I always buy my tickets online, so I can immediately select a seat when I get the ticket. However, last week when I bought the ticket it did not offer me that option... a sign that the plane was fully booked and I was glad when on Wednesday I did get a seat assigned.

Unfortunately, my camera is broken, which is why there are so few pictures on the website these days. I guess the intensive use was just to much. Not sure if I want to buy a new one or have it repaired.