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The Good Life

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Good weekend 😀

Household stuff on Saturday while Nienke was away, dishes, litterbox, garbage, laundry and such. Watched Warm Bodies and ate popcorn.

Today I had breakfast outside and wanted to dry my laundry outside. But the shiny new laundry line turned out to be a crappy laundry line as it snapped and when I fixed that, it ended up being way too saggy to actually use. So had to put the drying racks out.

Read books: Chris Colfer’s The Land of Stories #1 The Wishing Spell (good book, fun treatment of fairy tales) and Justin Somper’s Vampirates #1 Demons of the Ocean (which is quite bad).

Watched movies on Netflix (Aladdin, Beauty and the Beast) and played random games.

Monkey fought with Terror from next door, hair ALL over the kitchen… Silly monster

Lord Erik and the Spartans in the Midwest

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march20-1Movie day with Gert yesterday. I had the whole day off, so I went to the city early in the morning to meet up with him. Did some shopping first at Xenos where I bought me two awesome tea boxes.

Afterwards we went to see 300: Rise of an Empire. It is exactly what you expect of it: lots of slaughter, lots of blood, lots of gore, lots of slow motion bits to emphasise the killing and blood, very little plot. There’s nothing in this movie that sticks with you, the characters are one dimensional made of cardboard, not even a flicker of personality to make you care even in the slightest if they might die or not.

The second movie of the day was August: Osage County. Now this is a movie I really loved. It’s a family drama themed movie where, after their father disappears and then dies, the three children come home to their family home in the midwest. This leads to secrets being unearthed, arguing and awkward moments.

march20-2Today I had a late shift so I went to the store in the morning. After getting to the register with my basket I realised I forgot my wallet at home :S Fortunately I could place my basket near the register while I biked back home to get it. So my quick shopping trip took a bit longer than expected 😀

Afterward I cleaned the litter boxes and put the dishes in the dishwasher to make room on the counter for me to cook. Then, on to work I went. Work itself was uneventful, but late in the afternoon one of my coworkers approached me with a picture. “Look!” he said. And when I did I spied a picture of him on the Iron Throne from Game of Thrones! As it turned out, HBO NL was visiting us again with the Throne (I think this was the third time total since I’ve worked there). The previous times I missed the opportunity.

This time around, I dropped everything and almost ran for it. I got lucky as the dude manning it was about to start cleaning up the shoot but he agreed to take my picture. So I grabbed the sword that was also present and sat on the Throne. For a prop used solely for this kind of photo shoot it’s remarkably solid and lifelike 😀 I was giddy with excitement, but managed to pull a serious face for the photo. The dude shot, the dude printed and I left with my shiny, shiny photo. After I left, a couple of my teammates showed up and also got lucky, but then he really left.

And of course I have to show you the picture 😀

Behold! Lord Erik of Westeros!

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Scooooooooones

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Spent last Sunday messing about with my bedroom and the craft room. Moved the sidetable I use as altar space to the craft room to serve as main table. It’s much better for that because it’s large and has drawers on the sides. I turned the shelf unit back on its short side so the other table that was there could be in the corner next to it. It’s gonna take me some days to get all the stuff back into all the cubbies and drawers.

While setting up the new, temporary, altar (I’ll be replacing it with a new chest of drawers soonish) I realised Athena’s been trying to get my attention the last few months. I’m noticing an abundance of owls in my consciousness and also in what I buy. While generally owls are not my thing. Late last year I bought a decorative hanger, owl. I also acquired a candle, shaped like an owl. And recently when I was in the city I bought a set of those can’t see, can’t hear, can’t speak statuettes in the form of owls. And normally I never would have bought that, but now it just spoke to me. So, you got me, lady, I’m here 🙂 Let’s see what this brings in the future. I gave her a space on my altar to begin with.

Later in the afternoon, Nienke and I did a High Tea. We made some brownies, muffins and scones, and added extra chocolate and fudge and cake and chocolate chip cookies. And tea, much tea. And jam and whipped cream. Nommmmmm. We ended up with so many left over that we brought my parents a box of tasty as well. Plus some of the soup I had made the day before.

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Monday I went to the gym, with Kim, sort of. We agreed to meet there at the same time, and then mainly did our own thing. Chatting whenever we ended up on machines next to each other. Fun thing to do, plus it gives just that extra bit of pressure and motivation while still doing your own thing.

I heard from Webcare, I’m through to the next round, which means I get to come in for an interview this Tuesday. Exciting!

Today I went over to Kim’s for tea and to check out her box of books destined for the thrift store. Had a great time chatting about everything and meeting her cats. And I came home with a rather large bag of new mind-food 😀

Everything is Awesome!

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1896772_10151991815823155_1701450211_n1897667_10151991838918155_1913042448_nWe have a new kitchen cabinet! It is awesome and glorious! Nienke’s parents had it in their hallway, where it stood in the way for years. So they offered it to us since we were looking for a better cabinet. We went to pick it up Tuesday. So thanks to Nienke’s Parents for parting with it, and Dad for driving us there to pick it up. We ended up putting it against the side wall (left of where it is in the picture) because that fit better, and also allowed us to rearrange some other cabinetry. Bottom is for large(r) tools and random crap, top for plates. And on top of it…

Wednesday Gert and I went to the movies, double feature time 😀 We started with an early afternoon Vampire Academy, which is a very uneven movie. Disjointed story, jumpy cuts, and it doesn’t know whether it wants to be a high school dramedy or a supernatural vampire movie. I did like the girl playing Rose and the dude playing Dimitri, though. In between we walked around the city and ate at La Place before going back to see The Lego Movie. I had low expectations of it, but it was definitely awesome!

Thursday I got the day off, which gives me a glorious four day weekend! Played lots of Warcraft these last few days. Also stopped at Bruna yesterday and picked up some comics. Today I got fresh bread stuff from the bakery for breakfast, made a giant pan of soup, stopped at the Blokker and got a lantern for the window sill and read my comics 😀

Also ordered tickets to two shows that are coming up at the Stadschouwburg. On April 8 there’s a play/music theater version of Gone With the Wind which seemed interesting so I got two tickets for that, we’ll see who wants to go with 😀 On June 2, Daniel Lohues is performing so I got two tickets for that as well to go there with Mom.

Grand Adventures

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Had a check-up at the hopsital this morning to test hormone levels and such. Check up was a breeze. Bit of small talk with the doctor about how I was (splendid!) and did I have any questions (nope). Then it was on to the Needle Folk to take a couple vials of blood. Results in two weeks.

Then went to the mall with mom. Bought a book about Groningen between 1780 and 1850. Then we picked up Nienke after her exam and headed for the Hema for breakfast. Then we went to Ikea to look for new sofas.

We sat on many and finally decided to go for Ektorp after all. I decided we should get two three-seaters, since our living room is so huge, as well as the comfy chair that goes with it. I also bought a night stand and a chest of drawers for my socks and stuff like that.

With that being done, we headed for the check out and made an appointment for delivery of all the stuff. We got lucky, they could come and deliver the next morning! Afterwards we headed back home. I took a little nap and then got ready for the team outing. We went for dinner at Pappa Joe, then bowling. I had a great time, and even managed a couple strikes and spares. After our time was up, we headed out to go drink some more. I tagged along, but since that is really not my thing, I left pretty soon after together with two other colleagues. Halfway to the station I realised… I had no key. Nienke had a key. I contemplated going back, but figured I could stop by the Parent’s place and get their key, it wasn’t that late. So I went on towards home, and stopped at the Parents. Where I spent 40 minutes ringing the bell and calling them before mom woke up… She hadn’t heard anything. It turned out Dad had, but thought it was the phone and doorbell of the neighbours……….

After all that time I was rather pissed and freezing so I took the key and went along home to go to bed. Only to get up fairly early the next day because…

Sofa delivery day!

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That is indeed ten packages. The  two big ones are the sofas, the smaller big one is the chair. The three on top are the sofa and chair covers. The long one on the floor is Nienke’s new Billy and the two flat ones below that, the doors for said Billy. Finally, the bigger flat one below the doors is my chest with drawers. Of course I know that Ikea is king of modular furniture and that this would also apply to sofas. But somehow I hadn’t actually thought of the fact that I would be getting lots of boxes instead of ready furniture 😀

Nienke hadn’t come home until the early morning and was still very hung over when the sofas came. So I just left her be and started building, while occasionally sending her a photo. I started with the chair, on the premise that it’s the smallest piece so probably the easiest. And that it was, indeed. The back and the seating are attached so they just folded open. Then it was only a matter of putting some screws in to attach the arms to the frame and the feet to the bottom. Then all it needed was its cover, and done. Monkey approved 😀

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The sofas had the same process, but it took a little longer because of size. Monkey approved of this, also.

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We stuffed the old sofas in the garage and then I spent the rest of the evening building the chest of drawers while re-watching Star Trek: Into Darkness. Then today I skipped Pilates, and built the night stand after which I hit relax mode for the rest of the day to finish Last of the Guardians.

Like a Baby

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The new bed? It sleeps fantastically! 😀

Yesterday in the morning, after sleeping in and doing some laundry I put the closet back. That left the bed, and the sidetable I use as altar space.

In the afternoon, we celebrated Uncle Tammo’s birthday. Had a great time, nice to catch up with the cousins as I don’t see them as often. As expected Uncle Louw was also there, so I asked him if he would come home with me for a sec to help with the bed. I tried with Nienke earlier in the week, but that didn’t go very well. With Uncle Louw, it went much better and we got the thing upstairs in one piece 😀

In the evening, I put the bed together, and returned the Altar and rest of the things.

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And! It started snowing! So this morning, I woke up gloriously on my new bed, and was greeted with a beautiful white world outside my window.

Was a bit tricky to get through to get to Pilates, but I made it. After coming home again, I dug a path from the front door to the road.

Spent most of the day playing WoW and watching stuff on Netflix, which I reactivated yesterday. Now with an iPad, and the improved offerings, the cost-benefit analysis was much more postive 😀

Houston, We Have a Floor

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Mailed the HandyFloor people about the missing planks. They were very nice about it and offered to send me the missing ones for just shipping, which I gladly accepted. And they sent it really fast as well, it arrived the next day!

That day being Wednesday, I contemplated finishing the floor, but after working in the morning and then in the afternoon taking out the old paper and vacuuming I didn’t feel like it.

Thursday I took a couple hours leave so I was home early. I cut one of the floor pieces to size, the longest one I needed. But since this was all lengthwise, it took FOREVER! So I only cut that and didn’t finish laying it. Instead I finished my book 😀 I’m currently reading Warcraft books. So Tuesday I finished Day of the Dragon, and then yesterday Lord of the Clans. Last of the Guardians is next.

Today, or I should say tonight, I finally finished the floor. It looks awesome. Now to figure out how and when to get the bed up here.

Floored

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At work “they” took my beloved workflow away from me. I’ve been coordinating a particular flow for about two years now, together with someone else (am on my fourth ‘someone else’). I like it not because it lets me do more things and show more of what I can do, I also like it because it’s an every day from 9 to 11 thing. Therefore, I have to start at 9 as well. Which gives me a very nice, and predictable schedule. But now, they took the workflow away to another department to see if they can do it instead of us. This all as part of cost reduction and making sure we all have as little ‘unproductive’ hours as possible. It’ll be for four weeks at first, so we’ll see how that goes. I’m not convinced yet the other department can actually handle it.

Today I laid the new floor in my bedroom. It’s sooo pretty. It’s this one, Pure Pine, from HandyFloor although in reality it’s a bit more greyish than the image. Which only makes it prettier 😀

Pricy flooring, but since my bedroom is small (about 8,5 square meters) the cost is doable. It’s a pvc laminate floor, which just clicks to each other like regular laminate flooring. But you can just score it with a knife and then break it. No need for sawing when you reach a wall.

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In practice, it is indeed fairly easy to break, as long as you’re just breaking off the ends and not trying anything lengthwise, as that requires more work and armstrength. All in all, it went well. Except I ended up being about 2 pieces short, while having ordered enough. By that time it was already too late to do anything, so I called it a day.

The Cold Never Bothered Me Anyway

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Tuesday I went to the movies with Gert. We saw Frozen. It is one of the awesomest movies I’ve seen in a long time. I’m already a fan of Disney movies (particularly animated) but I love this one so much. I watched it again yesterday and am waiting for it to be released on bluray 😀

Yesterday, my bed also came. I bought it late december, but with the holidays and all my room wasn’t ready for it. So they stored it for a while longer until I made an appointment to have it delivered yesterday. It didn’t go quite as I expected. Turns out that, it being a boxspring, the bottom is one giant piece. The only separate things about it are the mattress and the headboard…

So now it stands in the hallway, shuffled in a corner fenced in by a cabinet and the coat rack 😀 I first need to finish upstairs, and then get some help to move it up the stairs.

Hnnnnngh…

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I am so completely dead. Went to the gym for the first time on Monday, and O. M. G… I was going for the half hour of Vario Sport, wherein you do something else every week. This first week of the new season it was mainly twenty thousand forms of hopping about. After doing that, I felt fairly good. And so I was easily convinced to stick around for the half hour of Tabata that follows on it directly. Tabata turned out to be a high intensity interval training where we did all kinds of exercises rapidly for about thirty seconds and then another and then another and another and a 30 second break and again a series of the same exercises. Combined this killed me sooooo dead.

I made it home afterward, fell down on the sofas and refused to get up until it was time for bed. Which was a bad idea in itself because…
The next day I could barely walk, my calves hurt sooooo bad 😀

After work I made a cheesecake for the team, from scratch, just like with Christmas dinner. Started a bit too late though, it was after midnight when I took the cake out of the oven… So late, that I didn’t get around to putting up the raspberry topping until the next morning before work.

After that it was quite the adventure to get the cake in the bike crate, it only just fit. It survived the bumps on the way to the train station as well as the ride to the city. Left the cake with the team leader for handing out during the daily meeting. At that point I was gone, though.

I had to grab the train back home right after finishing at one, to make it in time for the appointment for my second T shot. It went well, I tried to keep the leg even more relaxed than I did with the other for the first shot in the hope that this would be less painful and for a shorter time. I think it worked, as I only felt it for a day or two. The calves, though… Man, they’re still driving me nuts.

Also on Wednesday, my shiny, shiny iPad Air arrived. I went to check on my old iTunes account and all my old apps are still there. And, joy of all joys, all my progress in Magic Piano is still there as well as my more than 160 songs. I did spend some money on that back when I still had an iPhone, so nice to know it’s all still here.

During singing on Saturday I noticed some first subtle changes in my voice. It’s starting to get a bit scratchy a bit sooner. And then it didn’t help I was doing How You Remind Me 😀 Am very curious to see how this develops.

The rest of the day I dumped shit in the attic and I worked on the carpeting for the front hallway. Also had a nice evening with some friends coming over.

Today I did go to Pilates (I skipped body pump on Thursday) and that was great fun. I always liked Pilates back in Leicester, so I’m glad I went here, too. Spent the afternoon in relaxation watching Sherlock again as well as my new blu ray of Les Misérables. I love that movie <3