Parents

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.

 

It’s Life, Jim, Just As We Know It

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When I got my iPhone last October, my old phone became my Mom’s new phone. However, I think I’ve dropped it a little too much over the two years I had it, since over the last week  the screen started shorting out. Mom figured this would be a nice time to get a new phone, so when I suggested we head to the phone shop together, she wanted to go the next day 😀

So, Saturday The Mom and I took the car to the transferium and from there the citybus to the centre. After a stroll across the market, I wanted to see if Jansen&Jansen had any new fun stuff, which they had. Before I’d left, Nienke asked me to see about finding her a new pair of slippers. I didn’t find any pretty ones at the market, but found awesome ones at Jansen&Jansen 😀 Fuzzy clog-shaped slippers, pink with red hearts on them 😀

Of course I had to bring these for Nienke. I also bought myself (and her) a duck for our collection. After this we headed for the T-Mobile shop to pick out a new phone for Mom. After discussing it with the sales guy, we decided on another Nokia, since she’s used to that in terms of control and looks.

Then we hit the main shopping street, bought some clothes (shirt, t-shirt, hat), shoes, had lunch at Hema and then made our way back up towards the market.

Some more looking around there was followed by a last stop at the craft store to get latex (to make a vampire forehead), some music-themed charms and a paper maché leaf for Florian the Flower Faerie to sit on. By then we were getting a bit tired so we decided to grab the next bus back to the Transferium and head home.

I hung around at the parents for the rest of the afternoon. When I got back home, Nienke was much pleased with her slippers 😀

After some hanging about and watching another episode of Stargate Atlantis, I decided to finally start sorting through my clothes, which I’d been wanting to do for a while now. Nienke took her laptop and accompanied me while I tried on everything to see what still fit, what I still liked and so on. Much fun was had, especially with all the typical female clothes (women tunics, dresses, female tops and so on). It felt like another step in my gender process from gender neutral towards masculine, as wearing these clothes made me feel like a drag queen. (It did give me an awesome idea for a dress-up though: dress up as a drag queen while wearing my binder, so sort of being a woman being a man being a woman again.)

After sorting, it was too late to fold everything, so I stuffed it all back in the closet just so my bed would be free and I could sleep. Nienke had sorted through her clothes a few weeks ago, but not yet put her stuff back either, so Sunday evening, after procrastinating all day we decided to fire up Skype, and both go about folding and putting our clothes back.  It was much fun, although the whole process took hours. Photo was about mid-sorting I think.

Monday I had a day off. I messed around in the house, did dishes and such. Made a cake, made a painting and painted the paper maché leaf I bought on Saturday.

Weekly Four: week 8

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I’m grateful for my parents, just because that should be said sometimes <3

I’m happy with all I’ve been doing last week, both creatively (puppets) as well as in my house (re-organizing the kitchen, sorting through my clothes)

I’m annoyed I’m falling of the blogging bandwagon again. Haven’t posted in almost two weeks, which on itself is okay, but a couple of the theme posts (like P365 and the Weekly Four) should still happen. Even if only because it’s too much work if I miss too many.  Managed to catch up with the P365, but will skip the WF for week 7.

I learned to cut things for the puppets slightly bigger than I was already doing. George’s boots are rather tight after sowing the parts together

That Was The Year That Was: 2010

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January

  • I started Working at KPN
  • We had a very severe winter, which resulted in public transport being down frequently, which is very! annoying
  • Had a tea party with friends at Mellien’s place, it was very fun

February

I’ve got nothing for this month. For some reason I only took 3 pictures in the whole of February… And I didn’t blog that month either. Sadness. Here, have all three February pics to cheer you up from this huge, huge let down 😀

March

  • Spring was on its way! Not that enthusiastically yet, but I saw the first real flowers peeking their heads above ground
  • Finally found a good design starting point for my future tattoo
  • Chocolate fondue with Eva & Ingrid, yum!
  • Bought new plants for my back yard
  • Found an awesome stick to turn into a staff. So far it’s still standing unused in my mudroom, but this year I strive to actually make something out of it 🙂
  • Went balfolking for the first time (no, it’s probably not a proper verb, and yes, I’ll tell you what it is; it’s dancing old ball and folk dances on medieval-and-slightly-later type music)

April

  • With Eva, Ingrid and Nienke to Lauwersoog, which was hilarious since we got stuck in the parking lot for two hours due to no traffic regulators being present
  • This was also the month mom turned 60, Happy Birthday!
  • Nienke and I added a garden door to our shared backyard to keep the neighbourhood kids from using our space as a shortcut path

May

  • Went to see the Men’s Choir of Warffum (of which my uncle is a member) perform at the museum estate Verhildersum
  • Spent Liberation Day in Parentville, where the whole street came together to decorate it for the festivities, great sense of community then, it should be like that more often
  • Ingrid came by, time for scrabble in the sun. Eva & Mellien dropped by a little later, on horseback.
  • Saw a hedgehog in the yard, awesome little critters
  • Joined the LifeLines research project about long term health

June

  • Dad’s birthday, 67 for him. Happy Birthday!
  • With the summer in full swing, Nienke and I tried outdoor computing
  • It was also the time for the yearly full family visit to my aunt and uncle in Harderwijk
  • Went to visit Soestdijk Palace with Mom and a friend of hers, it was awesome! I’m very glad I got to see the place before they closed it down

July

  • Celtic Midsummer Fest! Need I say more? An awesome weekend in which I went re-enacting for the first time. Great friends, great environment, great things to see and do, in short, a great time!
  • Also, aforementioned festival will (for me) henceforth always be connected to ‘that time I banged my toes into oblivion on a tent peg’ 😀
  • It got so warm I regularly spent my free time lounging outside with my feet in water. At first in two buckets (one for each foot) and later in a giant tub-like thing. Monkey approved of this, always enough water to drink nearby
  • I bought my binder this month, which turned out to be a huge step on the road of self-discovery and gender identity

August

  • Castlefest! Again, need I say more! Another awesome weekend! I’d not been able to go to Castlefest for some years, so it felt great to be back here. I love the atmosphere at this particular fest, plus being able to see Omnia live again for the first time in a couple of years as well was great, too.
  • Nienke had a BBQ in honour of her birthday, it was tasty!
  • Mom started knitting socks, after a conversation about how the warm socks we had were not getting any better.
  • Went out for a sudden and unexpected pizza with Eva & Nienke
  • Dad, on request, cut off the hedge in my front yard
  • Monkey got weird spots on his back leg, he ended up with a salve treatment and antibiotics and return appointments at the vet three times in a row. Fortunately, they have cleared up completely
  • And finally, this was the month I decided to continue blogging here, instead of trying to maintain both this blog and a LifeJournal

September

  • I burned my arm a wee bit by splashing hot olive oil on it. Fortunately I washed it off right away, so it didn’t go much further than some light second degree burning one one spot and some intenser first degree burning on the others. The second degree spot left a scar, it’s pretty 🙂
  • Had Tessa over to dog-sit, and got both her and Monkey in the same room without Tessa trying to eat Monkey, and without Monkey trying his best to hide as far away as possible
  • Had my own birthday, turned 26. Happy Birthday me!
  • Got the flu right after the birthday parties, ended up having to stay home for about a week, and had noticeably less energy the weeks after that while I was recovering further, not fun 🙁

October

  • Became obsessed with Glee 😀
  • Got my iPhone
  • Mom started knitting gloves, nice and warm for the winter
  • Went out to wok with Eva & Ingrid, yum!
  • Attended Julius’ birthday, which was a sort of High Tea type thing with a whole bunch of cakes he and his mom made, it was awesome (and very, very tasty!)
  • Bought two awesome pumpkins for Halloween and carved them; one a face, the other a sort of cheese with holes kinda idea with mice in the holes

November

  • Was a bit down for a good part of this month, a combination of Daylight Savings Time ending, winter coming up and some other random shit. Took a while before I saw the colours of the world in full shine again, instead of dulled
  • Mom knit me a pretty hat to match the gloves she made, my mom rocks 🙂
  • Discovered the Instagram iPhone app (among many, many other apps; I <3 apps 😀 ) which is fun to play with

December

  • Had a St. Nicholasmas (a combination of St. Nicholas and Christmas) party with Nienke, Eva, Mellien and Ingrid. It was fun and very nice to have a group get together again.
  • CATACLYSM! W00t!
  • The snow really hit. It looks awesome, but just like last year, it’s wreaking havoc on the public transport system. Which is kinda ridiculous as they spent the whole year winterproofing their systems and all, and they were sure it would be better this year… And then the first few days we have heavy snowfall, everything falls apart, again.
  • December was good, even though in the beginning of the month I wasn’t sure about that (residual gloominess from November)

Onwards to the End! Wait, Stop! We Missed It!

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Oh my, I have way too many things to post about to all fit in one post. Not just because it would be a mega Too Long; Don’t Read kinda thing, but also because some things are intro-type posts that work best on their own. So I’m spreading them out a bit, posting some of it now, and the rest tomorrow.

I mentioned my Christmas Day shenanigans, which were few and low-key, and the second day of Christmas wasn’t much different. I spent the day with my parents, just hanging out. Played a lot of Warcraft, and had a lovely dinner.  Spent the night at theirs too, and went to work the next day from there.

On Old Year’s Day (as we Dutchies call it), I had to work till about six, and went over to the parents again after that. I’m not too fond of New Year’s Eve, I dislike fireworks and can’t stand the incessant noises they make. Plus, for me the new year, seasonally speaking, starts at Yule. I’d brought my laptop to Parentville so I spent the evening backing up my files (which was way overdue, thank Gods there were no crashes or whatnots in between), and installing the Humble Indie Bundle I bought the other day. At midnight there was the standard well wishing and then I went on to play Warcraft, while keeping the dog calm as the neighbours went nuts with fireworks.

Tessa behaved quite nicely. She was still terrified, but there was less of the hiding in corners and such as she did last year. I think some of the things I picked up from watching Cesar Milan, in staying calm and assertive and getting her out of her heightened state when it was nearing the overboard level, worked quite well.

Hit the sack not too late and slept in this morning, absolute heaven! I don’t get to sleep in a lot at home. During the week I usually have to get up early for work, and on my days off, or when I have a late shift, the cat tends to wake me up. After hanging around the house, stopping by at home to feed and check up on Monkey, and having lunch, I finally showered. Shortly after ‘t was time for the traditional New Year’s Day meet up of my mom’s side of the family at my uncle’s house. We were there for most of the day, and it was great fun 🙂

I don’t do resolutions, but I do have my big 101 list, so I’ll be posting an update on that in a bit, along with the things on that list that are planned for this year. (note to self: comma’s are your friends, but don’t ignore periods…)

Other posts to come along shortly: final booklist, book club intro post thingy (I might combine those, probably easier), a little 2010 overview thing, the weekly four tomorrow and an intro for my 2011 Picture-a-Day thing.

God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen Let Nothing You Dismay

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I’ve got a song stuck in my head since yesterday. Not that I care much for the lyrics, but the melody is quite catching. It started last night while Nienke and I were watching A Christmas Carol (1999 version with Patrick Stewart as Scrooge). Near the end of the movie, after Scrooge has had his change of heart, he goes to church, and they sing this hymn. I have this song in the version sung by the Glee Cast on my iPhone, so the moment I heard it in the movie it became an earworm, and I’ve not been able to get rid of it. Not that I mind terribly, but it gets tedious after a couple times, especially if you don’t know much more than half or two-thirds of a verse 😀

Other than that, Christmas was quite enjoyable yesterday. Slept in late, then finished the book I was reading. After that I decided it might be good to get out of bed. The rest of the afternoon I hung on the sofa, enjoying the winter sun peeking through the trees, brightening the snowy field in front of my house. Sent out my thanks to the Gods for the past year, looking forward to the next.

In the evening Nienke and I went fondueing at her place. The idea was some cheese fondue at first, and some chocolate to finish it off, however the cheese was rather mighty, and we didn’t like it the taste of it all that much. Different kind of cheese next time. We decided to forgo the chocolate, we were stuffed.

We watched A Christmas Carol during this, followed by other mushy Christmas time movies like Enchanted, and parts of  Ever After, Ella Enchanted and How the Grinch Stole Christmas (I really dislike that last one). We also exchanged a few fun gifts. I got two duck key chains, which I added to the duck key chain already attached to my WoW authenticator, and a cute pair of scissors. For Nienke I got her a new box for her tea and scented stuff to burn. The cats got a present as well, Murphy a toy, and Monkey cat candy.

Went home around 23:30 and ended up playing Warcraft in bed for an hour and a half or so. Had Asra drop by Greatfather Winter in Ironforge to open his presents. Mostly food stuffs, but also a Minizep Remote, and a Snowman Kit. Put that one up for auction since he already has all the Winter Veil pets, and at the moment I’d rather have the gold than give it to one of my alts; I’m stockpiling my gold.

It’s the second day of Christmas now, and I’m spending this day in Parentville. Don’t know yet what I’ll do, but there’s definitely some more WoW involved 😀

In the meantime:

Happy Yule!

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. 😀

Weekly Four: week 43

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I’m grateful for good health, a couple of my kin of my parent’s generation have had/still have some health scares going on recently, so I’m just really grateful that my parents are good.

I’m happy my Halloween pumpkins turned out good.

I’m sad/annoyed bordering on angry because daylight savings time is over again. I do NOT deal well with winter time.

I learned I really need more hours in a day 😀 Too many plans, not enough time. Let alone enough light.