Shopping
Today is a Good Day
I feel good, happy and at peace and stuff like that. I’ve tidied up, re-arranged my books a bit so they fit better in the available space, vacuumed and just went to the store. A nice, balanced day of doing stuff, instead of a flying-all-over-the-place day or a sit-on-my-ass-and-do-nothing-at-all day 😀 (Although I now do have my standard vacuuming head ache :/)
Bought pears and apples to make stuff with tomorrow and next week and a bunch of grapes to take with me to work on the irregular shifts. And since I was quite proud of myself for actually vacuuming today instead of pushing it away again and again, I rewarded myself by buying a cake. It’ll be a delayed reward since it needs to defrost, but it should be ready to eat tonight. Yum!
This week was mostly a good week too, was a bit tired on occasion, but felt good on the whole. Slowly getting used to the time change, but early evenings still completely derail me. I’m continuously misjudging the time and get grouchy at the early dark. Fortunately the mornings aren’t as dark yet.
Met Gert on Wednesday for our usual belated mutual birthday hanging out and gift exchange. I’d bought him a pretty book, but he couldn’t choose so we went shopping to find me a present. No fun Star Trek things to be found, so we headed for the regular book store. Finally decided on E.E. Knight’s Dragon Champion, and Trudi Canavan’s The High Lord. I’ve read the last one, but I didn’t have it yet, and I hate unfinished series in my bookcase. Plus, they’re awesome books, so this makes a re-read easier, too.
Afterward we hit the shops for some clothes. Gert was successful, but I didn’t find anything (except a new hat). I wanted to get some t-shirts at V&D, but they didn’t have them anymore. Shortly after, Gert had to go. I had a last hour to kill before my train would go, so decided to check out the H&M Man. Their basement has the best accessories. There I came across very nice sweaters with the Ghostbusters logo, and they were only €29,95. Together with some heavily discounted ties (one with colourful dogs, and a pink/purple striped one), my mission was successful after all.
And, suprise, surprise, earlier today Gert called. He was in Utrecht at the V&D and they did have the shirts I wanted there! So he bought two shirts for me, and we’ll exchange later this week. Yay!
Also, finally new Glee again this Tuesday. I thought there’d be a new episode right the week after the Rocky Horror Glee Show, so I was all set last week and then nothing 🙁
But! Mash-ups next week, and Kurt’s new (possible boy)friend!
Weekly Four: week 42
I’m grateful for having some book gift cards left so I can get me some good books tomorrow.
I’m happy my Glee dvd box is here.
I’m sad because some dreams just won’t happen, and while it’s great fun to indulge the fantasy, facing the reality can make me a bit saddish some times.
I learned I definitely need some new clothes, even the binder is getting too loose…
Weekly Four: week 31
I forgot week 30 😀
The past week was the week that ended with the, awesome as usual, Castlefest!
I’m grateful for being at Castlefest with good friends, for that makes the experience only more powerful.
I’m happy with the pretty things I bought. New music (Omnia’s latest, a CD of Scrum), some reading (Diana Wynne Jones’ The Tough Guide to Fantasyland), something to watch (a poster of Omnia), things to play with (Vampire Fangs to use when playing Spike at next year’s Elf Fantasy Fair) and things to make other things with (fur, leather).
I’m saddish it’s over already, time flew.
I learned beards don’t look half bad on me 😀
Water
Went swimming yesterday morning with Mom. She has this group lesson every week where they do excercises and stuff in the water. That’s not really my thing, but since the rest of the pool is virtually empty then, it’s ideal for doing laps. Got my 40 laps done and spent the last 15 minutes or so just floating about. I LOVE that, I could do that all day.
After we went shopping. Grocery shopping was planned, but we took a trip into town as well ’cause I was looking for flipflops. Unfortunately I didn’t find any of them, but I did find a shoe rack on sale at the drug store, only 3 euros! I put it together last night and will place it today after I clean/clear out the back entrance area.
After we lunched at a bakery. Since I can’t really eat bread products (carbs, carbs, carbs!) I hopped to the next door butcher and bought metworst. We browsed the nearby clothing stores for a bit but nothing came of it (yay, says my wallet). Did buy a few discount dvd’s (seriously, 5 for 5 euros… how can you pass on that 😀 )
We then finally decided it was about time to hit the supermarkets. I didn’t need a lot myself, just refill the meat supply and get some more cheese. I also bought this huge plastic tub/bucket thing. It will store a shitload of crap, and has other useful uses 😀
Ma Pool! 😀
It took about 5 buckets or so to fill 😀
And of course, after a while, Monkey had to come and see too 😀
Inner City, Beards, Soestdijk
Got off work early today. And so did Nienke. And while I had agreed with my mom to meet her at the train station halfway home, there was time left so Nien and I decided to hit the city. I still needed to go the party store and see if they had a beard, ideally blue, for Castlefest. So we made our way to the inner city and spent quite some time at the party store marveling at the many, many fun things they had. I’m so definitely going back there again. I saw a couple nice things to create scary looking Halloween decorations while also being usable for LARP and such (foam torn off limbs 😀 ).
They didn’t have any good looking beards I liked, let alone blue ones. Since it’s probably gonna be warm during Castlefest, I figured I don’t want a really big beard anyway. I ended up with a Jack Sparrow-like beard. It’s not blue, but we’ll figure something out for that. Nienke, who’s going as the rat catcher of Hamelin, bought a pretty Venetian type eye-mask in cream with gold edges and musical notes on it.
After that we headed out towards another party store to see if they had beards. Along the way I felt festive and sunny and bought the both of us awesome ice cream (pistachio and hazelnut/chocolate for Nienke, cookie/vanilla, lemon and hazelnut/chocolate for me). Before reaching the second party store we quickly hopped into this cute newish store I’d not seen before. I bought two very cute bibs for the new second cousins that are expected in July and September. The second party store, finally, kinda sucked since they had no proper beards, just mostly wigs and hats and other gag gifts.
We then decided to head back to the train station and wait for the train that would lead us to the meet-up with mom. We drank something at the Burger King before the train got there and then got off at Winsum to meet mom. She had some errands to run too so we hit a few more stores. I bought a new birthday calendar to replace the one I have. I’ve used it for four years or so now and want something else to look at 😀
We then dropped Nienke off at home, I grabbed my things and went with mom to their place. I’ll be sleeping here tonight because tomorrow we’re going to Soestdijk Palace and we need to be at the bus really, really early.
ZZzzz…
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!
Bits and Pieces
I can tell it’s spring, I’m all over my house doing things. The increase in light always has a good influence on me, both physical as well as mental and emotional. I’m happier and more content with life in general now than in the winter, even though the financial woes are still there (it’s quiet at work so I can’t make as many hours as I’d like, and as a result I get less money coming in, so far it all still works out but it can’t go much lower).
And in light of said financial woes, I spent money recently 😀 Not that much though, some flea market bargains mostly. The only indulgence was a new garden table for 40 euros. At the flea market I bought a ‘new’ comfy chair for the living room as the old one wasn’t that comfy anymore. It’s nice to sit in, soft yet supportive, and a very pretty purple-greyish colour. There was another one and I was so tempted to take that one too (they were 5 euros a piece) but I just don’t have room for it and there’s no way I can get it up in the attic to use there. I also got a red wooden herb rack for the kitchen for 50 cents and two easy read paperbacks, also for 50 ct.
At another flea market on Liberation Day (May 5) I bought two children’s books, a set of book ends with old globes on them and a hanging, made of netting, IKEA storage thing, all for 1 euro 😀
Thursday’s the big yearly market here in town, not a flea market, but I’ll see if I can find a bargain or two. I definitely need a few more plants/flowers. I have this cute flowerpot that is screaming for some desert type plants. Which reminds me, I shall have to go look around see if I can get some tiles for cheap or nothing somewhere. I want to tile a part of my front yard to turn into a small terrace. And, in combination with that, I’m gonna need some rocks and stuff, to turn the edge of the front yard, where it lies against the neighbours area, into a small proper garden bit (instead of grass). I plan to put some flowers and such there, but also to use aforementioned rocks to create a tower of sorts to play with different levels in that bit. ‘Cause eventually, when money’s less tight, I want a smallish privacy fence between me and the neighbour and that will then be the ‘back wall’ for the proper garden bit.
Spring makes me plan things and also execute those plans. Or at least big parts of it. I’m also working on my attic. I’ve already had part of it converted into a room, but it was used for junk storage mostly the last year. I’m now going to turn it back into a usable space by making it my craft & game room. Game room mostly because I’m gonna store my board games up there since there’s hardly anyone around me who likes playing games 🙁
Crafts to be done there will mostly be bigger stuff like making things for Castlefest and other renaissance faire like things. Although I will probably move most of my other craft stuff upstairs as well to create more space in my bedroom where I store it now. Attic will have a table to work at and cabinetry to hold the various things.
Getting the place into shape goes pretty slow though. I’ve cleaned out most of the room there and, after another vacuuming turn, it’ll be ready to put stuff in there. However, one of the cabinets to be used there is still in use in the bedroom. And I can’t move it from the bedroom until I get two Billy’s from IKEA to replace it (need to put all those books somewhere, no? 😀 ). And getting the Billy’s will have to wait until either holiday bonus or my tax returns come in, whichever comes first. I’m betting on the holiday bonus which should be end of this month. Tax probably not until end of June 🙁 At least both these things should be a significant help with the financial woes 🙂
Right, I mentioned Castlefest. I haven’t gone there in a while, but this year I WILL go, even if I have to crawl there. And I’ll be going as Bluebeard. For that I have an idea of the costume I want, something mostly generic fantasy with some fancy overtones. I’m of the opinion that Bluebeard, outside of his murderous tendencies, was really a charming man, otherwise how’d he ever get that many women to marry him 😀
I’ll obviously need a blue beard to get the message across of who I am, so a trip to the party store is in the works to see what they have in fake beards. I want something that looks as realistic as possible, and is dye-able, since a semi-realistic beard is not gonna be blue by itself.
Teehee
I’d ordered some new clothes a little while ago in one of my favourite online stores and they finally arrived last Tuesday afternoon. Everything was there, even the blouse I’d been informed would come a few weeks later…
That evening I went to Eva for her birthday and we had a very nice and happy, lots-of-laughs evening save for a bout of sorrow when my friend got reminded of her pet dog who would be put to sleep the next day. Lodewijk, as he was called, was really, really old and just couldn’t go on anymore so the vet came by at their place yesterday afternoon. Eva said it had been a difficult day (of course) but that he had gone peacefully and it was okay.
Today was my mother’s birthday, she turned 57. We didn’t really celebrate though, that’ll be Saturday. We went grocery shopping this morning which enabled me to hop into the bookstore and get her a present. I’d been unsuccessful at finding a nice book last week but now I succeeded in finding a very nice book with short stories in our provincial dialect which was priced so nicely I could add another book to it. This was also a short story collection in our dialect but of a different author.
After I’d bought the gifts and we had finished the rest of the shopping we drove home. Along the way, we stopped at a car dealer ship as my parents (who’ve been after a new (2nd hand) car for a while now) knew he had one they thought was nice. So we spent some time there and they took the car for a little spin around the neighbourhood and when they came back they’d decided to buy it. They’ll go in next week to pick it up and leave the old car there. I’m gonna miss the old lady we’ve got now, a Volvo V40, ’cause she’s a very pretty red and we’ve had her for years. The new one’s gonna take some getting used to, I’m not too fond of the colour or the model of the car but it’s my parent’s car so their choice. And this one, a Peugeot 306, was very nicely priced.
When we got home, we stored away the groceries and then I finally got to give mom my presents and she was very pleased with them so yay me 😀