S. and I are in Amsterdam. This morning we ate pancakes (lovely lovely dutch pancakes with bacon and mushrooms in them, and then another one with apples and cinnamon and ice cream, yum) and went to the Rijksmuseum. This afternoon we had a fight over whether or not we are imposing too much on our host, Bob, and now we are at an internet cafe looking for a hotel to stay in for a couple of days later this week. But we are pals again, and that is what matters.

The most interesting things at the Rijksmuseum were the paintings of flowers. I have always been a big fan of Dutch food still-lifes with all those dead rabbits and birds and oysters, fruit and silverware, but I never really cared for the flowers, because they look like boring stupid wallpaper designs. Little did I know that if you look real close, those pretty fruits and flowers are covered with ants. And beetles and wasps and worms. And spiders. And sometimes snails! Oh yeah. How much do I wish I had wallpaper like that?

Mainly, the still lives are mementi mori.