I’m grateful for mothers, they are very good at tending the sick 🙂
I’m happy the weather was halfway decent this week.
I’m annoyed the flu takes so long to fully go away.
I learned being sick does make for a lot of Warcraft time. Got a good number of achievements in.
Me sleeping, at maybe two weeks old or so, in October 1984
As I type this it’s 22 minutes to midnight, 22 minutes until my birthday. And if you really wanna fuck ants* to use a Dutchism, it’ll be another bunch of hours and minutes until the actual moment I age, as I wasn’t born until 17:54 or 17:56, I keep forgetting. I think it’s 17:54.
I celebrated this upcoming occasion past weekend, on Saturday with friends, and on Sunday with family. I tend to split them up as I live in a tiny house that can hold my friends, but not my family. I have a lot of them. 😀
Ingrid was the first to arrive on Saturday, and after chatting and having a drink (and Caek!) we went to play board games. Starting out with some trivial pursuit she brought. It was a topical edition about popular music, so I expected to loose. Ingrid’s a walking pop encyclopedia… However, luck and factoids were with me, and by the time Nienke barged in, I was well ahead. Yay!
Koehandel
With addition of Nienke, we were with enough to play Koehandel (Cow Trading), a game I bought quite a while ago, but never played yet as it needs a minimum of 3 people, and I normally can’t get Nienke to play along. This time I forced her, proclaiming that, since it was my birthday, she had no choice 😀
(If you’re not interested in games you might wanna speed through the next bit as I review the games we played.)
The game was fun, but not one of my favourites. The point is to get as many sets of animals. It starts with an auction each round, with one player being the auctioneer and the other two bidding. The winner then pays the auctioneer and gets the animal. The auctioneer can choose to excercise his right of sale by paying the highest bidder the amount they bid.
After a while, there will be people who have the same animal, and at that point they can barter for it. The one who wants to barter makes a blind offer, and the other chooses to accept or counter-offer. The addition of bluff cards (with a zero value) makes this a strategic part as you never really know what the offer is. If the other counter-offers, he too makes a blind offer and both players give their offer to the other. The one who then paid most gets the animal of the other. Nienke won this game.
Therapy
Then we went on with Therapy. We don’t play this often as it’s best with five or six and it gets out of hand, time-wise, very quickly. The game part of it is a bit long winded, but the conversations this leads to are awesome.
For the game you move around a board with psychiatric sofas trying to be the first one to get the six coloured pins in it. This would make the bed a bed of nails, so I don’t know if it would be very comfortable for a therapy session though…
To move you roll two dice, and then go forward, the square you land on tells you what to do next. This can be a question, and a right answer gets you a pin. Or it can be a question/wait square where you pick whether you want a question or stop your turn. Careful with picking the question here though, if you answer wrong you end up with a psychosis.
Other options are fantasy, where you have to answer a question about a Rörschach test kinda picture, or therapy. Depending on the number of players, this is group therapy or single therapy. If you land on a square in the same colour as one of the player sofas, you go into therapy with that player. If it is an unused colour, you go into therapy with all the other players. The therapist then asks a question (all questions are about the player) from the therapy cards, and the player writes down their answer. The therapist then says what he thinks the player answered, with reasoning. In Group therapy, all the therapists declare what they think the player answered and then come to a mutual answer. If the therapist was right, he wins a pin.
The therapy is the part I love most about the game, it leads to very interesting conversations about how you see each other, how others see themselves and what everyone would and wouldn’t do.
(Reviewy bit is over 😀)
This is what we did for the rest of the evening really, interspersed with more general chatting and eating and drinking and some picture taking.I got awesome presents as well. Ingrid gave me the Boyzone CD Brother. I was a major fan of them in my teens, and even though it has mellowed, I still like their music. They’re special to me because they were quite important to me then, so I do always want the physical CDs they release instead of just downloading it.
Mellien gave me a children’s book I wanted, a favourite I read many times as a kid. Eva gave me something from her and Juut together, a set of iron cutlery, made by Juut himself! It’s totally awesome! It’ll come in handy when we go re-enacting again 🙂 Pictures of this, and other birthday stuff to come along later, btw.
Ingrid stayed over and after Nienke had gone home too we got to talking about (among other things) Warcraft, so I showed her some things about the game, and explained stuff. She ended up with a better idea of what I do when I play and what I like about it. It was nice to share something that I like a lot, with one of my friends who’s not normally into that kind of thing.
Sunday morning I got up ridiculously early at 8:30 (not smart when you go to bed around 02:00…) cause I told my dad to pick me up around 9:00. This so there’d be more than enough time, once we got to the parents’ place, to prep for the family coming that afternoon and evening. I was gonna make a cake (hmmmm cheesecake), but decided against it as mom had an extra cake and we would’ve had too much. This meant I had extra time, and I could’ve (really should’ve) gone to bed for an hour or two longer. But I didn’t. I left Ingrid at Nienke’s for a cuppa while me and all my crap headed over to Parentville.
Had some time in the morning and early afternoon to play some WoW and mess with the Blog (I played with the layout and contents of the 101 list at the top) before the first people showed up. After that it was mostly very busy, very gezellig and very fun.I got two book gift cards, some money, very pretty and lovely scented shower gel and a drawing and a written piece by my two young second cousins 🙂
From my parents I got a book, in two parts, about the excavations in Midlaren, where I was working the second half of 2004. During the summer with the actual excavation, and from August to December with the washing, drawing and cataloging of the finds.
After the last ones left, I basically rolled into bed exhausted. All my energy was gone (that’s what lots of people for a prolonged period does to me, I’m a major introvert). It’s not back yet either. It didn’t help very much I had to work today, which, by necessity, has more people too 😀
Bought some candy to treat my teammates at work with, and made it through the day without too much trouble. Although I did start to notice, half way through the day, that the cold I’ve been seeing at the horizon for a few days has hit home. My nose is stuffed and my energy regeneration is down to half strength 🙁
Scheduled for a full work day tomorrow, but gonna see if I can get off early. Need to sleep some more, and a half day off tomorrow along with Wednesdays usual freedom it should see me through the worst of it.
It’s 00:42 now, it’s my birthday 😀 Got the first congratulatory text message, from Gert, at 00:04, nice timing 😀
And with that I will say goodbye, and good night.
*Mierenneuken as we say means fucking ants, literally. It can also be said as mierenneuker which is to a person, as it means antfucker. It’s English counterpart would be nitpicking.
I’m babysitting Tessa tonight, and when I let her inside after my parents dropped her off, the cat had no time to run and hide. So I let him be, and let Tessa in the living room. And from then on they both have been on their best behavior.
Tessa has been neglecting Monkey to such a degree I really have wondered whether she even saw him.
Monkey on the other hand definitely saw Tessa. He growled the first time Tessa walked past, but kept quiet after that. He’s now starting to relax and sleep,while Tessa sleeps beside or behind the sofa.
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 🙂
I’m grateful for parents that live one town over and always have room for me to crash there when, oh say, the bus doesn’t go through my town for the weekend, but does through theirs…
I’m happy I found inspiration this week.
I was annoyed with WordPress for not doing what I wanted and it taking forever to figure out where and what the problem was. It’s still not working as I want it, but there’s progress. Also, yesterday I was sad for no reason :S
I learned more bits and pieces of and about WordPress and CSS while messing with the site.
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.
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.
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!
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 😀
Halfway done with the attic, yeehaw!
Emptied the Ikea shelf unit in the bedroom (no, not an expedit 😀 a magiker, they don’t sell it anymore), piled all the crap on the bed and then took the unit apart to be taken up. I first had to vacuum there some more, I hadn’t gotten round to doing half of the attic room previous time and it hasn’t been vacuumed in like a year…
Once that was done I could hoist the unit parts up and put it back together. Luckily for me, by now I’m a reasonable expert on putting together Ikea furniture 😀
After that half the crap that was on the bed, mostly my craft-related stuff, had to be dragged up stairs (and yes, by that time dragged was all I was capable of) and put in the magiker up there. The whole process took the whole afternoon, but the bedroom is a lot emptier (safe for the pile of stuff that did not go up stairs) and ready for the two Billy’s I’ll be getting end of the month; and the attic is a lot fuller, but also a lot neater. It still needs a lot of finishing touches, there’s still quite a lot of stuff that needs to be in cabinets and such. Plus the junk part of the attic also needs a tidying up. But that can wait until next week.
Today I have to work and tomorrow I’ll be at the parents for food and my aunt’s birthday. Sunday I have planned to paint the garden door to seal it. I’ve also figured out how many tiles I’m gonna need for the little terrace I’m planning. And Sunday will also be good to get some boundaries laid out for the other parts.
Other random life stuff:
Got fined in the train the other day 🙁 I couldn’t buy a new train/bus card that morning ’cause my salary hadn’t been deposited yet (it usually arrives after noon, which I forgot) and forgot to go get one in my lunch break. So when I got off work, I had 5 minutes to catch my train and no time to buy a ticket or a card. I decided to take my chances since half of the time they don’t check. And when they do, it’s 50/50 from what end they start. So I went to sit at the end farthest from the driver, gambling the controller would start from there if he showed. And then he a) showed, and b) started from my end 🙁 No way to escape him anymore so 37 euros down the drain.
Monkey managed to gash open his cheek earlier this week, he was covered in blood. Cleaned it up a little but then had to leave for work. When I came back, he was all clean again 😀 Good little washing machine. It’s healing nicely too, turned out to be a much smaller cut than the amount of blood would suggest.
Right, 10:30, time to get dressed, need to leave in 45 minutes.