Number of days in Amsterdam – 76
Number of days without a bike theft – 72
Days since it last rained – 1
Today was a spectacular Sunday all around, because it began with a look at our baby girl!
This was our first ultrasound in the Dam, and it was amazing to see this baby that will be here in just two short months!
Just prior to the ultrasound, the technician asked if we knew the gender. I think he was asking to see if we were leaving it for a surprise, but when we told him that yes, it was a girl, his response was, “I’ll see if that’s really the case.”
I don’t know if it was a joke or not, but it was a little unsettling. But how could he have known? He didn’t know about Mina.
You see, many years ago, back during the days of grunge, we adopted Mina, a BIG stray cat. We had her for 17 years, and moved around the state with her. She was a big ball of furry attitude with a decent amount of love. She slept in a big purple bowl, ruled the house, kept out mice and terrified vets (we actually had one vet tell us she wasn’t welcome there anymore).
So, over the course of the 17 years we had this cat, she went through her share of vets (five to be exact), and went through a wide range of health issues, her last being a combination of diabetes and IBS that made her often uncomfortable. Her last vet, the wonderful Dr. Burke, asked to keep her for a day, in order to run a range of bloodwork on her.
She called me later that day, opening the conversation with, “well, I have some news about Mina. I was examining her abdomen for masses or lumps, and guess what I found?”
It sounded serious and expensive. “What?” I asked.
“A penis.”
It turned out that our cat that we’d had for 17 years had been through multiple vets, diagnosed for a variety of ailments, and yet none of them had ever got her gender right. In face, I remember three distinct verts that told us otherwise.
Her first vet after we took her in, that told us it was a girl.
The second, who told us that we were lucky that she was a girl when she got a urinary tract infection, as they could be fatal in boys.
Her fourth, that told us that Mina was the largest female cat he’d ever treated.
The third vet never got that far. That’s the one that banned us from his office.
In America, it would appear that we have very small toilets...
We continued to call her a her until the end, to show that we were comfortable with her lifestyle choice.
But, that’s why we didn’t want to think about the tech telling us it was instead a boy. That, and the fact that we have a lot of pink clothes here.
After all is done, though, the Kitten is still a girl, and she is very healthy. Her heart and digestive system look good and she has a nice-sized head that’s not too big (mom was happy to hear that) and a full head of hair! It looks like she has her mom’s curls already!
Look! It's Baby Skeletor!
Honestly, after the morning’s excitement, nothing could put us in a bad mood, so we decided to get out of town. We hopped the train to Zandvoort.
About 30 minutes outside of the ‘Dam, Zandvoort is the sort of place you picture when you hear the phrase “holiday by the sea.” It’s a resort-y town on the North Sea, with several miles of white sandy beaches.
The train pulled into the station, and before we got off, we asked someone getting on if we were at the Zandvoort station.
“Yes, you have arrived at the end of the world.”
In some ways it feels like it. It was a windy stretch of beach that looked off to the horizon.
This sign greeted us as we got to the top of the hill:
We went to the right.
We dropped our blanket down and sat for a few hours, eating and drinking. They even had a chip cart driving down the beach, pulled behind a tractor. So of course I had to get fries with Joppiesaus. They were there!
After a few hours at the beach, we got back on the train, ready to call it a night. In any other city, this would be enough excitement for a day.
Not in the ‘Dam.
After we rolled into Central Station, we decided to walk over to Neumarkt for a bite.
We wandered into a drag queen festival on the edge of Chinatown.
And that’s just how you cap off a weekend in the ‘Dam – sitting on a bench in Chinatown, eating awesome takeout, watching a drag queen parade.
And I wouldn’t have it any other way.
