Dad

Queen’s Day 2011

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For my home town, Parentville, Queen’s Day is not only that, but also the day that the town playgrounds are officially opened again after the yearly maintenance. Since this is a prime opportunity to hang out with my family, I usually spend this day in Parentville. This year was a bit of a disappointment. There’s always a small parade trough town before the opening takes place. The parade consists of a wagon carrying the smaller kids while the older kids ride bikes after it and often followed by a contingent of adolescents and adults as well. Now, Parentville is quite a small town, but there were so very few kids this year (especially on the wagon) it was kinda sad to see. Partly this may have been the weather (even though there was sunshine, the wind was cold) but it seems participation in this town ritual is going down every year anyway. I didn’t even bother taking my proper camera with me, electing instead to just go with my phone. I video’d the arrival of the parade, the playing of the anthem and the opening so didn’t get a lot of pictures. I took some of my parents, and had my aunt shoot me and my parents together. Later in the afternoon Mom and I took a quick stroll around the flea market that followed the opening. This was well populated, both in kids selling their stuff as well as adults and other kids walking/running around and talking and occasionally buying stuff. I bought a couple books from the Famous Five series for 50 cents apiece, so good bargain.

 

Happiness is…

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Taking a cue from Eva here. I’m usually pretty good at seeing the small things, I can really enjoy the world so much just by seeing things. Lately that’s been overshadowed a bit, but I’m getting back to seeing the small things again, after the system shock that is Winter Time, and am feeling better suited in my own skin again. So I figure I publicly acknowledge some of those small things.

Like the sun over the horizon as dad and I drove to Parentville, or the colours of the fall leaves on the train tracks. And the new gloves mom knit for me. And getting a laugh out of Nienke, who’s arguably more girly than I am, and should thus (stereotypically speaking) be the one to arrange flowers. Except she sucks at it. And I don’t. 😀

The Saga of the Spot, part one

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Took Monkey to the vet today. He’s been having a, rather large, weird spot on the inside of his left hind leg which wouldn’t get better. I first noticed it about a month ago, and thought he’d been fighting. I figured I keep an eye on it and let it be for the moment. Monkey doesn’t like when I try anything even remotely related to his lower belly, so he’s not very keen on letting me look at the spot and check up on it. What I saw of it occasionally looked okay-ish, but it didn’t change much over time. So last week I decided to take him in for a check-up.

I had an appointment for end of the afternoon today so Dad, the driver, and I went on our way. Monkey doesn’t mind the carrier, but as soon as the door’s closed he knows he going somewhere and he starts scratching at the openings and yowling. It’s hilarious to hear a tough cat as he is whining like a little baby 😀

Once at the vet he was, as usual, so terrified he barely moved, making it easy for her to lift him up and look at the spot. She came to the conclusion he probably did it himself as a response to itching. He scratched, and when it would keep itching he probably kept going at it with tongue and teeth until this. She said he was probably allergic to fleas. I’d figured as much, since even though I treat him regularly, and he doesn’t have fleas as such, cats with an allergy can break out from even a single bite. And he does get bumps and little welts on the back end of his back on occasion that (as I’d already looked up before) fit the symptoms of flea allergy.

So the vet asked about the treatment I was using and when I told her I always use Frontline, she said that they’ve been noticing for a few years now that its effectiveness is going down. They sell a different brand there so I bought that to use now.

Back to the spot, it got a bit infected over time, so Monkey got a shot of antibiotics for that right there. In addition to that, I got pills to give him once a day to alleviate the itch and a salve to treat the spot with, also once a day. I have to come back next Wednesday to check up on how it’s going.

Dad drove me home then, and I took advantage of his presence for applying the salve. I first gave Monkey the first pill. Luckily he’s usually pretty easy about pills. The anti-flea treatment he runs from as if it is gonna eat him, but stuff pills in wet food and he gobbles them up. Then we tried the salve. First with Dad holding him, but that didn’t work 😀 Monkey was too wild and flexible, and Dad unsure how to hold him, and not holding tight enough. So we switched places. I grabbed the cat, and Dad applied the salve. This worked a bit, but not enough. So I grabbed a towel, wrapped the top end of the cat in it, and thus we managed to get enough salve on there. When I let go, the cat flew into the hallway to sit on his box. Aftermath for us? Me and Dad covered in fur, the floor covered in fur and a couple nice scratches on my hands.

I’m already dreading the other days until the next appointment…

Tonight, before bed, I’ll also give him the new flea treatment, since it’s about time for it again.

Poor kitty 🙂

Weekly Four: week 28

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I’m grateful for Dad, for he can do many-a-thing I can’t do myself because I don’t have either the tools or the skills.

I’m happy that the weight loss got to such a good start. Keep it up!

I’m angry at my hedge for it is the favourite hangout of the local gang of wasps.

I learned, diet or no diet, I need some more fibre so am adding some bread(like) things for breakfast.

Organise, Organise, Organise

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Spent the day at the parents, and before I left again after dinner I headed up to use their scales (I don’t have one). While I’m keeping the magic numbers to myself for a while longer, I can say that I have now lost 5.2 kilos (11.4 lbs) since starting my no/low carb eating habits (which was roughly June 10). Not bad for a little over a month 🙂 Mom’s been saying she can see it for two weeks now, but I’m just now slowly noticing some of it. The pants I’m wearing now, for example, are looser than they were before. Yay!

Dad picked me up this morning. Before we left, he attached the holders for the strawberry planter so I now have a pretty planter on the wall! He also attached a wood peg thing I have, originally designed to hold mugs, to my bedroom wall. I’ve wanted it there for a while now so I can use it to hang my collection of bags on so they’re no longer strewn about the floor. In my house, there’s a place for everything. I’m not very good at always returning things to their particular place, but there is always a designated area or location where it is stored.

I also had Dad move a hook from the hallway to the bedroom to hang my clothes on when I get ready for bed. The chair I used for it is getting in the way so this should eliminate the problem. And since the hook offers less space than the chair did, it’ll force me to look more closely at what I choose to wear on a given day so as not to create a pile of barely-used clothes; too used to put back in the closet and too clean to wash; bigger than the hook can hold.

My house in general could also do with a good re-organise and clean. What with the warm weather of the last two weeks I barely got anything done. I take heat very badly. However, now the weather has turned and since Nienke is working tomorrow I have no-one to distract me. I’m hoping I can get myself to do at least some of the organising/cleaning. Definitely a vacuuming of the house, there’s cat hair and leafy bits everywhere (and sawdust in the bedroom :D).

To get myself in the right set of mind I’m currently re-organising my fonts. I’m a moderate fontaholic, with a collection of just around 1600 or so fonts, but I don’t use most of ’em. Therefore, I’m throwing away a lot of them, and am taking an especially good look to weed those that look too much like others.

And to close on a slightly more gross note: My toe is almost completely healed. Today the piece of old skin that was still attached let go to reveal gloriously pink new skin underneath. Just a few more bits right in the bendy part of the toe still need to let go, but then it’s all good. So, all in all, it’s taken two weeks to heal.

ZZzzz…

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Bought the two Billys I’ve been wanting for my bedroom 🙂 The space look much lighter now, especially with the old, black, bookcase banished to the attic. Put all the things back in the Billy too, so, save for getting a shoerack to sort my shoes, the bedroom is all good. Now to find time to finish the attic. This week was no good for it, way too much to do.

I spent Tuesday and Wednesday at the parents since Dad had to drive me to Ikea. Tuesday morning I first went swimming with Mom and managed 45 lanes. Which equals 1.125 km, yay me 😀 Usually I swim a few lanes and then call it quits and just float about. I could, quite literally, do that all day. Floating like that feels like home.

After we did a few quick groceries before heading home to eat. The afternoon Dad and I went to Ikea. But while I could find all the small stuff I wanted (plus some small stuff of which I didn’t know beforehand I wanted it 😛 ), they were out of Billys. And I’d even checked the online storage checker to see if they still had them in stock 🙁 No fair. It all meant we had to go back Wednesday. We couldn’t go first thing in the morning ’cause Mom needed the car first, so we left pretty close to noon and thus we got late in everything else too.

I built the first Billy that day and packed it. Unearthing yet another crapload of stuff that had to be moved upstairs. Thursday and Friday I had to work so not much time for anything else. Friday evening I did build the other Billy and packed it after which I also brought the crap upstairs as well as the old bookcase. Which took some muscle, the thing is heavier than it looks 😀

Today is Saturday and I’m at the parents again. Dog-sat today while the folks were off to my aunt’s birthday. Tomorrow the three of us are off to another uncle’s birthday for the whole day. It’ll be awesome (we go every year with a whole bunch), but it does mean I won’t get anything else done this weekend.

Next week has four days working, although Tuesday is short so might be able to squeeze some stuff in then. Wednesday, my weekly day off, is taken up in the morning by the followup LifeLines test and then fooooooooood (I can’t eat anything before the test since they want my blood). Afternoon, if not so ridiculously warm and humid as last week, should be good for either attic or garden work, we’ll see. If it is the same crappy weather as we had most of this week I doubt I’ll get around to much. I don’t really handle warm, humid and oppressive very well. Gives me headaches and makes me grumpy and grumpier. I left work early on Monday because of headache and had one most of Thursday during work as well. I wanted to leave early then too, but they wouldn’t let me 🙁
Fortunately the rain of yesterday cleared the air quite a bit. I’m hoping next week will be slightly warmer, but keep the humidity and pressure away *crosses fingers and glares at sky*

Played WoW today, managed to find (and kill) King Ping, the second Northrend rare I’ve done for the Frostbitten Achievement. I decided that after getting Loremaster a week or two ago, Bloody Rare and Frostbitten are next. I found a handful of the Outland rares and now two in Northrend so far.

And now off to bed!

Happy Birthday, Dad!

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Wednesday was my Dad’s birthday. He turned 67. I got him a pretty birthday card and Wednesday morning Mom and I did a quick trip to the next town over to see about a present. Dad doesn’t have a lot of hobbies or something so finding him a present is usually tricky. It so often becomes the same thing over and over. Succeeded half this time. Mom bought him a shiny pair of pants, and I got him a very cute new coffee cup, together with some same-old-same-old puzzle books. He was pleased with the gifts though, and in the end that’s all that matters 🙂

My aunt who lives farther away was the first of the family to arrive. Mom and I picked her up from the train station after getting Dad’s presents. Rest of the family came in the afternoon and evening. It was a fun day. Nice weather so we could sit outside for a substantial portion of the afternoon. I took Tessa for a quick walk half way through, together with my 8 yo second cousin who wanted to come along. When we got back, the wind had picked up and everyone had moved inside.

Could tell it was a mid-week birthday though. We usually hold birthdays in the weekend, and then it’s often nearing midnight when the last ones leave, now we were with just the family again around eleven. Makes sense of course, there’s work and other such things the next day. Thursday was a work day for me too, but an easy one with just four hours from 15:15 to 19:15.

I’d just gotten there and settled in when I figured I ask if I could leave half an hour early so I could catch the 19:06 train and not have to wait until the 20:06 one. I got an e-mail back saying I could go right away if I wanted… And the weather was lovely and I wasn’t really in the mood to work anyway so I took it and left after having been working for all of 15 minutes 😀
So I was home fairly early, giving me time to sort various things on the laptop in its semi-regular maintenance/backup/update cycle.

Today another quiet work day, just 3 hours this time from 16:00 to 19:00, but followed immediately by the team outing. We’re going out to dinner so I’ll be home late after all. Tomorrow I’ll be spending most of my time working on pages for my uncle’s birthday. My cousin is making a book of sorts (he’s turning 75) and has asked all of us to create something with their memories of him. So mom wrote a big piece of text, and tomorrow we’re sorting some pictures to go with that and then I’ll be making scrapbook pages (I doubt I can fit it on one) of that to send of to my cousin. I’m thinking it will take me the whole afternoon at the very least, and probably a bit of the evening as well.

I’m hoping the weather will still be lovely on Sunday, I want to sit outside and read and do nothing then.

Now off to shower 😀

Tidbits

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I saw the most amazing earthshine Tuesday evening as I was walking from Bagpipe practice to the bus stop.

The attic is finally done. My dad and I went to get the carpet today and he laid it this afternoon. I moved my bed upstairs afterwards and put some other things in their place that were already stored in the attic awaiting the finishing touches to the room.

I’ll photograph and post when all my stuff is in there.

I also sent in my entry for the Unleash Award for Spring 2007, which is a Dutch story writing competition organised twice a year. Categories are fantasy/scifi and horror/suspense. This edition has a wordcount of 3000 maximum while the Autumn edition has a 6000 word maximum. I hope to finish another story before the deadline (March 30th) in the horror/suspense category but that is more difficult as I have not written in that genre before. The story I entered is a fantasy one and I really like it and am very satisfied with it. I hope I end high, obviously, but any place higher than the last ten or so will be good. So far, there have been 20 stories or so entered in each category but many send theirs in last minute so it’s a good harvest this year 🙂

I Get That Fuzzy Feeling

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Why is it that stuff is never there when you want it? Correction, to be fair, why is it that stuff often is never there when you want it.

I went to a furniture store last week to get carpeting for my attic which I’ve been remodeling. Or rather, which my dad mostly has been remodeling with a little help from me. It has been turned from a, comparatively, huge space (going over my entire house (which isn’t all that big to begin with)) used to store junk into a nicely walled off 3x4m space which will become my bedroom and another space roughly the same size used for junk. All it needs before I can start moving my stuff up there is carpeting, which is what I went to get last week. I had hardly been in the store for ten minutes when I saw the stuff I wanted. It was fuzzy and soft and highish and available in red, it said so on the colour chart.

But, as I should’ve figured, what’s on the colour chart is not necessarily in the store. They had almost all of the ten colours right there, including a few awful ones, but not red. No, that needed to be ordered.

As the employee walked us (me and my dad the driver) to a little desk to fill in an order form he said that I could pick it up next week. But then, as he walked us over to a nearby computer to copy the order form into the pc (talk about bureaucracy) and actually place the order, he discovered it wouldn’t be next week. And not even the week after that, no it would be almost three weeks later. Grumble.

In all seriousness, I understand deliveries take time and all that but I just want to get my attic done, please, I’ve been living in a general mess for too long now.

*sigh* Rant over.