Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Too Much Driving

I had to go to the EMEA DC today. For those who don't know it is 2 hours (3.5 in traffic) south of Amsterdam, in Belgium. Since we don't have a car, I rented a car yestarday and will drop it off tomorrow. I was going to be able to make it to the rental office until after it closed on Tuesday so Kevin graciously went and got it for me. My back was killing me by the time I got home (at 6pm) and the rental office was closed, so I decided to take the car back tomorrow. I will drive it to the airport, drop it off, get a REAL starbucks chai and catch the speedy "intercity" train to Hilversum.

I used our GPS for the trip to Laakdal (the DC). When I got in the car, I plugged it in and dialed up the Zuid (ours) train station as I needed to pick my boss up at 7am. Now I know how to get there on foot and on bike, I figured by car it would be a little more difficult. I had learned from the night before that you couldn't trust our GPS blindly as it sent us down a one way street, the wrong way. The GPS had also sent us down little streets between apartments, rather then main roads. We just thought that it was the GPS. The story gets better (longer but better). I made it to the train station, got my boss and dialed in the address for Laakdal. Well the GPS wouldn't stop "drawing" and then said we were "walking on the A10" when we were actually under it. I decided to circle the block to see if it would figure it out and start giving us directions to the on ramp of the highway. No luck. Starting to get frustrated, and slightly embarssed, I pull out my blackberry and look up the directions on Google Maps. Gotta love google! It gave us directions (which were only a little challenging to follow while driving, I tried to get my boss to be navigator but he didn't take the hint very well :). It took another 15 minutes but we finally makde it on to the highway, headed to Utreect > Antwerp and then Laakdal! For the entire drive the GPS continued to try to get me off of the highway, tell me to make u-turns (on the freeway, with out using the on/exit ramps) and take immediate lefts when in the left lane of the highway/freeway. I finally turned the sound off so I wouldn't have to listen to it. I was getting kind of mad at "kevin's" gps and already plotting how to tell him I was buying a TomTom.

Once at Laakdal (3.5 hours later due to a delayed start and traffic) I emailed kevin and complained about "kevin's" gps. He said it was probably still in Pedestrian mode. Pedeistrian Mode! No wonder its "Arrival Time" was so drastically off (it said I would arrive around 8:30 pm, right up until I was in the parking lot).

When I got ready to leave for the day I took the GPS off of pedestrian mode and it worked perfectly! Traffic was terrible, immediately out of Laakdal. It took me an hour to go 6 km. I had smooth sailing, once I made it through the first 6 km.

All in all, a long day!

Since we had the car, we made a trip to Ikea on Tuesday night to pick up a couple of rugs (for living room, hall and baby's room) and a storage structure for the baby's room. Kevin should have fun assembling things for the next couple of days.

Our baby stroller arrived yesterday as well. Thank you Barry! I think I have it figured out how to run it (collapse, reconfigure, etc). I will have to practice a couple more times before the little guy actually arrives :)

It is 8:40pm and I am going to bed!

One more thing, very dana.

Last night as Kevin was shuttling Ikea items inside I took the dogs out for "final pee" and proceeded to leave our keys in our apartmetn door and then shut (and lock) the outside door. It was 9:30pm and neither Kevin or I had keys. (we have 3 sets).

I proceeded to buzz our 2 upstairs neighbors. "Petra" (who I haven't met yet) finally answered (it was almost 10) and let me in. Man do i feel stupid. Somehow I dont' think this will be the last time I do this. Time to figure out how to hide a couple of "hide a keys" and make Petra "thank you cookies". Maybe this weekend.

Kevin met Petra this morning, she was more forgiving today then she had sounded yesterday.

Good Night!

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