6 Hours ???

That is the difference between the Netherlands and Dillsburg Pennsylvania.


But some times it looks years in stead of hours. Like last week, a windy day.
A very windy day and that means power outages...
At least two and both of them lasted for more than an hour.
Fall only just started, not really looking forward to real winterweather with icerain.
Reason is the American habit of having all wiring for electricity, phone and internet for example, above the ground. A drunken driver can cause a whole neighborhood to loose power for hours. Sigh, with bad weather you can at least predict a possible outage.
Now, mind you, we live in a pretty new development, all wiring under ground.
But...only in the development, the lines leading here are still above.

And that isn't the only thing I feel like I stepped back in time.
Looking for having one of my pictures printed on canvas turned out to be rather expensive and not yet widely available.

On the other hand,people seem to put an old fashioned effort into cooking and baking.
Which puts me into a bad spot, I am a horrible cook. But, in this case, I am willing to learn. So many good looking receipts are to be found everywhere, that I already had to try some.

For the last few weeks we have been looking at replacing some stuff that Jack has.
Like forks, spoons, that kind of stuff, some nice lamps were on the list and with our new laminate floor installed next week, we needed some carpets.
And don't tell Jack, but the kitchen is out of date and has some water damage.
So I had been keeping an eye open when at Lowes or Homedepot.
But man, that is scary stuff, so old fashioned.
Just like much of the furniture we saw or the tableware.
So I had to put my foot down on some stuff, we were gonna wait for our trip to ...


Ikea!!!


Ha, Jack thought we would be done in a morning.
Yeah, right. Anyway, last weekend we went to Baltimore, a drive, just over 1,5 hours.
Do-able, specially when you are in dear need of a Europe rush.
And that is what I got, honest, the meatballs are the same here as they are in Groningen.
Jack got a culture shock...but in a good way.

After 4 hours of shopping, we will combine the old fashioned, but sometimes charming American stuff with some real modern European style.
Jack is in awe over how cheap some of the stuff is, I am just very happy with the straight, simple lines and the fact I can pretend I am in Groningen when I am really desperate and go for a trip to Ikea.
Because Ikea is like Mac Donalds, they all are the same.