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Yesterday was yet another seriously long day of traveling. Our alarm went off in Delft at 6 am (which is midnight Columbus time). Our cab picked us up at 7, and we were at the airport by 8, which was way earlier than we needed to be -- but better safe than sorry, right? When we finally got on the plane, I just looked at Paul and said, "You've got to be kidding me." I've never seen such cramped seats. Ever. When I sat down, without slouching, my knees hit the seat ahead of me. If I were claustrophobic, I would have been in serious trouble. To make matters worse, my defective seat wouldn't recline, and the plane didn't have the personal screens in the seat ahead of us (as international flights typically have now), and the screen was so far away that I didn't even get to watch a movie. I couldn't even drink away my pain because they'd gotten rid of the free-beer-and-wine-on-international-flights policy. Arg! So I spent our 8-hour flight scrunched up in a near-fetal position, eating airline food, listening to the same airline music over and over and over, and working on Birch. Here's where I am now:



And shall we see the close-up?



I got 14 rows finished yesterday. I also cranked out a couple of dishcloths while sitting in airports (like waiting in Amsterdam or waiting out our 4-hour layover in New York) and/or in the puddle-jumper that took us from New York to Columbus.

I'll be sharing a few pictures of the trip soon, but before I get everything organized, I'll share one more Delft story.

On Monday, I decided to make another stop at Delft's LYS.

As I mentioned earlier, I stopped earlier in the trip, but I planned to go back for my serious shopping. So I did that on Monday afternoon. When I first walked in, I greeted the woman working there and asked about the pattern for that super-cool pink sweater from the window, and she handed me a copy of Filati 30. Of course, it was in Dutch. So I asked her if she knew if I could get English translations for the patterns, and she didn't know. But as I wandered through the store, contemplating purchases, I thought, What the heck -- it's only 5 Euros, and it'll inspire me to work on my Dutch. So I carefully planned my purchases, since I only had a little bit of cash left on me, and I went up to the counter and told her I'd take the book, too.

She just shook her head and said, "That's our last copy." So after all that, I didn't even get my book. So I walked out of there with just this:



Pathetic.

It's gorgeous yarn, though, and the yardage is fabulous, so I intend to make myself a pretty fuzzy scarf out of it -- one that will make me look suave and stylish yet also a little bit Muppet-like.