Nienke
Lola & Oliver
Yesterday was Kim’s birthday, so Nienke and I went over for cake, the giving of pretty gifts, mutual merriment and cat-shaped entertainment.
Lola
Also, earlier this week, I bought a typewriter! It’s an Olivetti Lettera, so I named it Oliver 🙂
Oliver
Fun Day
Today I picked up my new ID card, it is very pretty 😀
In the evening I went to the city to meet up with Nienke and Ingrid at Subway for food, and then on to the cinema for the first of Ingrid’s presents. My bus was late, so I ended up being a bit late, too. Fortunately we had enough time, but they were already done eating. While I was eating my sub, Gert called. Nienke was so kind to answer, and the whole thing ended with Gert also coming along to come see the movie, Begin Again, also 😀
I really liked the movie, it’s an ucomplicated romcom with good actors and a fun story. Ruffalo and Knightlet play off each other well, the city and scenery is used well, and the other characters are well developed enough to round out the film. Plus, the music is pretty good.
Three Days Make a Post
I had a fun weird dream last night 😀
There was a war going on, and I was the general of one of the sides. I don’t know who we were fighting, or even why. I just knew, my side was the French Horde. I can understand where the Horde came from, as I have been playing a fair amount of Warcraft, but why they were French, I haven’t the slightest idea 😀
Anyway, we had to assault the enemy base, which was on the other end of a large pass. The pass was generally straight, but twisty because of rock outcroppings and other nature things sticking out. Added to that, there were many, many gates in the pass. For the WoW players among us, it was basically a version of the Dragonmaw pass leading to Grim Batol, except straight.
The gates were very, very tall; easily 8-10 meters high. And every gate was swarming with defenders. We couldn’t get too close, because they had archers and would throw all kinds of crap down on us. Boiling oil, pitch, rocks, etc… All the while yelling insults at us, Monty Python and the Holy Grail style.
Fortunately, we had trebuchets, and with the copious amounts of rocky outcroppings we had more than enough ammunition for them. And lucky for us, the gates were wood. So it took us a long time, but we managed to break down the various gates.
Unfortunately, I awoke before we reached the enemy stronghold 🙁
My companion yesterday morning
Friday I went to see Lucy with Gert and Nienke. It was an interesting film, exploring what might happen if we could use all of our brain at the same time. Even though it starts from the old, flawed, premise that we only use 10% of our brain, it is still entertaining to watch. It has some pacing issues where the first half goes fairly slow, and the second half fairly fast. I would have liked to see it the other way ’round as I found the first half, where Lucy delivers the drugs and ends up with it in her system, less interesting then the second half, where Lucy has figured out what the drugs do to her, and goes about trying to help herself before it kills her. The movie also has Morgan Freeman in it, which is always good.
After, we went to Starbucks and dropped Nienke off at the station.
Gert and I then went back to the cinema for Hercules. No deep thoughts necessary for this one, it was pure entertainment. I liked it a lot better than I had previously expected. It was a nice treatment where the myth really is larger than the man. Good to see how his friends help, and helped, him achieve the things he gets hired for, all the while using their tricks to bolster the myth.
Of Milestones and Merriment
Dear Ingrid turned 30 yesterday, so we had a celebration!
Nienke and I gave her a gift certificate to go to the movies with us to Step Up 5 and Begin Again with a cute candle holder and a giamt clothespin to hold notes and stuff. I’d also made an elaborate slideshow with photos from our history, back to early high school when we met all through the years, festuring her and our friend group. Nienke then put a lovely score behind it. Unfortunately the music wouldn’t play on the laptop when it was shown 🙁
There was also a pub quiz, expertly put together by Bas & Mellien. I was mighty pleased when my team won 🙂
Then there was talk and laughter and tasty food and a round of Guess Who? to top the evening off.
Lines II: Mother Earth
Been spending time expanding my genealogy some more. Trying to go back further than I already am. It is proving more and more difficult, though, as I’m firmly in the territory where names are repeated all over the place, there are very few reliable surnames and registration of events is sketchy at best.
I also started drawing again. I picked up another of my curved line sketches from 2012 or so to finish. This one is called Lines II: Mother Earth. It was coloured on the 18th and 19th, I think about 7 hours or so together.
Watched some movies on Friday with Kim and Nienke, Accepted and Not Another Happy Ending. They were fun.
Today Ingrid came by. Ostensibly to borrow my tent, but also because it was an excellent idea to drink tea, chat and play games. So we played UWO, Settlers of Catan and Blue Moon.
After she had left, a storm came by, and along with it, a refugee in the house: a small from. It hipped across and around the kitchen before I managed to grab it and release it outside. Milo was quite intrigued with the hoppy little thing.
Ascension Day Market + Choppers
As per our tradition, Ingrid came today to go to the annual Ascension Day Market in Eenrum with me and Nienke. And this year, we added Kim to the mix. We had tea first, and then drove to Eenrum. And since my aunt and uncle still live there, we had the luxury of parking the car in their driveway which saved us walking all the way from the designated parking area.
I succeeded in my goal, which was to find a mat for the downstairs toilet. It is a lovely dark purple and goes well with the colour scheme I have going on in there 🙂
Other than that, we saw Mellien and Bas, bought candy and I indulged in buying sausages.
When we got back we played some games. Ingrid and I played a couple games of Fluxx, and then we did Therapy with the four of us.
In between, I cast my vote for the Horde bike in the Azeroth Choppers bike build. I am a dedicated Alliance player ( I have a few Horde characters, but no higher level than 20), but the Alliance bike is just too low in the back for me. The winning bike will be put in the game for free, but I have no doubt the other one will be made available in some way as well. There will be too much of a shitstorm if they don’t.
Horde Bike
Alliance Bike
Remembrance
Friday I worked from home again. This time I tried out the bedroom so I could watch more 7th Heaven in the background. I’ve made it to the seasons where I care less about the show because of all the added characters and less of the originals. And more repeats of themes. Not too weird considering many milestones are the same one kid after the other, but it does get old. Especially as the twins are kind of wooden and uninteresting. Ruthie and Simon were much more fun and alive at that age. Anyway, while that was fun for the background, the bedroom itself is not a handy work space, so that was once but never again 😀
When Nienke came home, she had brought Kim with her. So we had dinner together and then watched Frozen. I love Frozen <3
Yesterday was a busy, but good, day. Got a lot done while still feeling relaxed. Slept in, did some cleaning up, unpacked the dish washer. Then went for coffee at the Parents. I suggested we go to the cemetery to bring some flowers to grandma and grandpa. We’d been to the cemetery for my grandparents on Mom’s side recently, but it had been a while for the other side. And that grave gets a lot less visitors to begin with. They thought it was good idea, so we decided to go later that day.
First, however, I went with Mom to the store to assist her in buying an Actifry and getting a mini vac for myself. Then I went home for lunch after which I repacked the dish washer and then went grocery shopping with Mom. After getting the groceries home, we went to the florist for a nice little bouquet to place at the grave.
Then the three of us went to Mensingeweer where we cleaned the head stone and placed the flowers. We walked around for a bit, where, as usual, my parents point out the various relatives and tell anecdotes about all these people I never met but am connected to, through time. I dig cemeteries.
The rest of the day I spent downloading, filing and archiving. Sorting out computer stuff can be so relaxing 🙂
Today was mainly more of the same. Slept in, watched a movie (Now You See Me, good film), downloaded and filed and archived some more, watched more 7th Heaven, did the administration and played iPad games. Good day 😀
Loot
Went to see the Divergent movie on Friday with Kim. Good movie, good adaptation. I did miss a lot of details and some story parts, but as a movie, it was good. It works well separate from the book as well, as a general scifi movie.
This morning I went to a second hand book market with Nienke and her parents. I was fairly short on cash but managed to scrounge up enough loose change to be able to buy some. When we got there, there was a large selection and even a decent bit of English and non-fiction work. The one big gripe I had with it, no price tags. Some books had price post-its on it, but most had nothing. A lot had a price in the front so I went with those numbers. Which meant that after I had carefully selected five works, I was done. However, when we got to the entrance where the paying was to be done, it turned out the price in the front of the books wasn’t the sell price at all… They basically made it up on the spot, about a euro per book. Which meant I easily could’ve picked up five or so more books! But as the others were ready to leave, I had no time for that 🙁
Still I’m really happy with my loot 🙂
And tomorrow? Tomorrow it’s Rijksmuseum time! Woohoo!
Also, have some cats 🙂
