Stress...just stress

A much more competent and organized person than I would be able to handle a few writing deadlines while maintaining a tiny blog.  How I wish I were one of those people.  I promise that Potatoes and Yams will again fill your blog reader with all sorts of wonderful tidbits about food and life abroad in the near future, as soon as I can stop stressing so much and Regan is fully recovered from her malaria scare.  For right now, though, all my writing energy is going into a horribly overdue chapter and a paper I am presenting at a conference in June that a bunch of respected Dutch historians will also be attending--nothing like heaping a little pressure on top of that stress--oh and also a writing project Sea Legs Girl is working on (my chapter is coming, I promise!).  So until I get a grip on myself, you can go check out her blog.  :)
I will leave you with a few lovely pictures of Koninginnedag, Queen's Day.  Every April 30, the streets become awash in a sea of orange-clad, drunk, Dutch people celebrating the glory of the monarchy. 
I took these pictures last year during my first Queen's Day experience.  I could only handle the large crowd for a few hours before escaping to the countryside for a little bike ride.  The lambs in the field were much more entertaining than the masses strolling around Amsterdam.  This past Friday, Niek and I skipped it altogether and escaped to a deserted beach with the dog.  It was awesome.