Nienke

All Over the Place

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It wasn’t very  busy at work on Friday, so when I got there a wee bit before twelve to start my shift at noon, I figured I’d ask for leave. I had some reporting stuff to do later on, so I just asked for leave until 16:00, which I got.

Then Nienke suggested we go to the movies. So she asked for leave, and then Thomas was game for movie as well. We harassed traffic for quick answers, which we got, and off we went to the cinema. We decided on Need for Speed which was actually a pretty good movie. There was a decent plot, nice actors and very pretty (and fast) cars.
Afterward we went back to work until the end of our shifts, it was hilarious seeing everyone’s faces when we showed up again after leaving earlier 😀

hemnesSaturday we went to Ikea, really early in the morning. I got the big Hemnes cabinet along with some fabric baskets to put inside it. When we got to the kitchen part, I fell for the dishes there. I’d been bored with my regular whites anyway so I got new plates and bowls in dark purple and faded green. Also two picture frames to display some of the Paul Kidby prints I got as a Kickstarter reward. After getting home I spent the rest of the day building the bloody cabinet. By nightfall it was ready so I could put stuff in it. It will probably take a little bit of getting used too, as it’s a wee bit deeper than I anticipated/remembered. But it does already look much better than before. It’s real nice to have a proper place to spread out the altar.

This morning in Pilates class we got a new series of excercises, ouch! After lunch I removed all the winter decorations still in place and put up the spring stuff. It looks nice 🙂

Murphy

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Sunday afternoon, Nienke called me downstairs. Murphy wasn’t acting normal, continuously going to the litter box but barely doing anything, being lethargic and meowing sadly. We had to go to the vet with him. The vet said it wasn’t a blockage, but a bladder infection. So he got shots and we got pills for him, and home we went. But it didn’t feel right.

The next day, he was still sick, and only seemed to be getting worse. So back to the vet they went (I was working). There they decided to keep him overnight, flush out the built up toxins and hydrate him and see what would happen. But it didn’t look good.

Today, Nienke went to see him this morning. She said he seemed to be slightly better and that she had to call around 16:00 for the blood work results. When she did, they had bad news. It wasn’t helping, his liver was failing and there wasn’t really anything they could do. The only question left was to end it today or take him home and do it tomorrow. With great pain, it was decided to not prolong the inevitable. Around 17:00 we drove over there to say goodbye and send him off. Rest in Peace dear Murphy 🙁

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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.

Packages

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Managed to find pretty bags (and within my price range) online. Ordered them, and they arrived the next day! I was much pleased. Got a Samsonite black backpack for the laptop and a grey Eastpak messenger bag to use for work. Now the red undivided messenger bag can be used for the gym.

Yesterday Nienke and I also exchanged the last of our St. Christnicholasmas presents. I’d gotten her a tenth Doctor screwdriver (and myself one, too :D), a magazine about the tenth Doctor and what was supposed to be a cardboard cutout of the tenth Doctor. However, the shop accidentally sent a Weeping Angel.

She got me this absolutely gorgeous, and delightfully tiny, Pagan/witchy tarot deck. It’s quite modern in theme, witches with computers and such, and really geared towards guidance along one’s personal Pagan path? I love it and am very curious to see if we click.

This morning I slept in, and then tore down the second Christmas tree. Oh, and Nienke’s bike was brought by the previous owner. It’s a pretty thing.

In the afternoon I went with the Parents to Zandeweer for Uncle Louw’s birthday. Spent most of the afternoon clearing out his computer 😀 He has the unfortunate habit of clicking on things he shouldn’t. After clearing the malware, fortunately no viruses, I installed Adblock and told him to stop clicking on things he damn well knows are ads and stuff. He said he would watch out. I expect to be doing this again next year 😀

Party Up (Up In Here)

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Spiffy OutfitFriday was this party from work. And I’m not normally a party kind of person, but this time, I decided to go. Mainly because of the other people that were also going 🙂

We (being Nienke, Nico and I) decided to go “fancy dress”. Nico’d bought a suit, Nienke had a sparkly dress, and I bought new pants and a red shirt to go with the vest I already had. Accessorized it up with my pocket watch and a silver sparkly bow tie (as did Nico). Meeting point was outside work, and there would be limousines to drive all of us to the party location 😀

Turned out there were three, a Lincoln, a Chrysler and a frakkin Hummer! Of course we decided to take the Hummer 😀

The party itself was actually really good. Not at all what I had expected (I tend to end up in corners going ‘can I go home now?”).

After the obligatory waiting, and the intro talks the music started, and it was actually good. It was this DJ duo where one of em regularly played the violin with the music the other guy was doing. I’d never seen something like that before and I really enjoyed it. Plus it was good music to dance to.

I usually have a hard time not moving when I hear music, or singing along. So before I knew it, I was dancing. And that had been a while 😀 I ended up dancing along another co-worker, picked up some extra moves and had an all around great time.

Too bad we had to leave early because stupid public transport.

 

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In he Limo  In he Limo Again

 

We’re Moving!

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Yesterday Nienke and I went to view a house. One of the newly built houses in the town about ten minutes away from were we now live. We’ve both been really sick of our current (way too small) houses, and these new ones seemed really promising. We’d already called the Housing Cooperation about two weeks or so ago to indicate that we were interested, and then again the week after. Then they sent us a form to fill in, and Monday I called them to ask if they’d gotten it.

To my surprise, they had not only received the form, but the lady had been about to call us later that day. Turns out someone withdrew, and we were next in line. So we set up an appointment for the viewing for yesterday afternoon. It only confirmed what we already thought. It’s an awesome house. Nice and big, lots of light, lots of space, big backyard, and a garage for crap and a (future) car.

Afterwards, we went to the Housing Cooperation’s office to confirm with them and get the first bits of paperwork squared away. And! Since they’re new houses, and we’ll be the first renters, we get to pick the kitchen cabinet doors and handles. We went with this grey-light brown colour and chrome handles. Now the Housing Cooperation will order the kitchen and have it placed. However since it’s the summer, this will take approximately six weeks. She’ll let us know as soon as there’s a definite date for it. At that point we discuss the actual moving dates and so on.

It’s actually quite fortunate that it will take a wee while, that gives both of us the opportunity to do some major organising and throwing away of stuff in prep for the move. I do expect that we’ll be moved before my birthday, which would be nice, since otherwise I can’t even seat all the family 😀

We’re moving!

Celebrate! (Nienke’s Birthday Drawing)

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I also made a drawing for Nienke’s birthday in the style of Connected. It has the same basic shape with the focal circle in the middle and the detail panels surrounded by a knotwork border.

I decided to do a drawing after Nien expressed how much she liked Connected. I chose to put a Tree of Life in the middle, with Murphy (her cat) below, except I exagerrated him a bit into a lion so he could also represent her astrological sign.

The panels show various things that are important to Nienke or mean something to her. Below is her name and date of birth. The border features knotwork in blue, which is her favourite colour.

Celebrate!: the process

As I was colouring more and more, I realised the colouring of the letters was off. I wasn’t sure what to do with it at first. For a second I even despaired the thing might be ruined. But then I found my silver marker and realised that would be perfect.

Celebrate!: details.

 

Celebrate!: final result, framed

Excuse some of the glare, silver marker doesn’t photograph well in evening indoor light.

The Hunger Games

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I first learned about The Hunger Games early this year. I read about it somewhere, got a brief idea of what it was about and filed it away in my head as a ‘I should read that sometime’. A short while later, I started seeing images across the web of a movie that intrigued me called The Hunger Games. I put one and one together, did a little bit of research to confirm my math and promptly forgot about it again; the movie wasn’t even out yet.

A week or two ago I started seeing more and more about it and realised the movie would be released soon. I read some more about the plot and stuff and realised I really liked it. And I’m a bit of a book-snob occasionally when it comes to movies after books, so I decided I wanted to read the books first.

Cue my regular online bookstore having a 3-for-2 sale last week which included all three books in The Hunger Games trilogy. I ordered, they were delivered, and I started reading book one last Saturday.

I finished it Sunday. I loved it. I was hooked instantly.

I started book two on my way to work Monday. At work, there was so little to do, me and Nienke asked for leave and decided we’d like to go to the movies. I immediately exclaimed we should see The Hunger Games. Fortunately, Nienke agreed 😀 I wanted to finish all three books before seeing the movie, at first, but with this opportunity I didn’t mind.

So we left work, had brunch at Starbucks and then went to a noon-showing, nice and quiet with only five people or so present. I was completely engrossed in the movie from the start. Normally about two-thirds through I tend to go ‘are we there yet’ and checking the time to see how long it’s been. Not this time. The movie follows the book very well. Of course some changes were made, but I think they were all smart changes. And necessary changes for a medium like film.

I continued with book two that night, finishing it shortly after midnight. I started book three Tuesday evening and finished it Wednesdag afternoon. While I’m happy with the ending Katniss’ story, I remain very curious about how Panem did after the ending of Mockingjay and before the epilogue some fifteen years later. I hope there will be more about this at some point in the future, but I’m not getting my hopes up too much, I can’t find indications of more books, either featuring Katniss or the expanded universe.