I’m grateful that Monkey’s leg is okay, it could have gone totally the other way.
I’m happy Nienke’s back to Warcraft 😀
I was annoyed at the rainy and cold weather this week. It’s not autumn yet, give me more sunshine!
I learned oil spatter can burn your arm in a nice spot pattern.
I had a dream last night/this morning, about elephants 😀
September 5, 2010
I was in my house, standing at the window looking outside at the communal field of grass it’s built around. But it wasn’t the field it’s located at in real life, instead it was the field that was before my maternal Grandmother’s house when she still lived in the same town as I do now.
I knew we had a circus in town for a few days, even though there were no signs or anything nearby. Suddenly two or three elephants appeared and started running around the field. People present, outside and in their houses, started panicking, and there was screaming and running around. I wasn’t afraid, just very fascinated, and I turned away from the window to go get Nienke to come and see.
When I returned, for some reason without Nienke, one of the elephants was sitting down in the middle of the field, under a tree. The tree was the tree that is there in real life, but it’s position was different, as the field was still my Grandmother’s. Around the elephant were a bunch of kids, playing with and around it. The kids all seemed to have come from the nearest history book as they were all dressed in late 19th/early 20th century outfits. They were also playing old school games like jump rope, throwing an old leather ball, hopscotch (although that can’t have been easy on grass…) and playing with old wooden dolls.
I watched this for a while before I slowly woke up.
The cat seems to be doing better already. Not that I noticed much difference with the spot on his leg yet, however his fur seems softer and shinier already. That’s probably the antibiotics kicking in. He also seems to mess with the spot less (licking it and stuff) so I guess the anti-itch pills are working. We have to come back for a checkup next Wednesday so we’ll see what the vet says. I’m guessing we’ll have to continue the salve treatment for a while longer because the spot is not becoming smaller very quickly.
I’ve been messing with voice recognition software since last night, so far it’s okay. Dictating is a bit troublesome, mostly because I’m not quite sure what I want to write as I dictate. For example as I write this, there’s a lot of pauses in my dictating and that doesn’t help the software very much. But as I learn, the software will learn, so we’ll get along, eventually 😀
It does make a fair amount of errors still, but as I dictate more and it gets used to my voice and my pronunciation (it transcribed that as Comanche nation…) then the errors should lessen. Of course my current setup doesn’t really help very much with the dictating since I’m not wearing a headset but am using the built-in microphone that laptop has. So it’s not always ideally positioned in regards to my mouth.
I’m hoping that as we move along, I can use this to do actual writing with. Fiction writing I mean. Mostly because when I get dialogue in my head, it feels stilted to type that up sentence by sentence. My head runs ahead of the writing then, and it gets impatient. So I’m hoping the more natural feel of just being able to say the dialogue and having it transcribed automatically will make writing easier.
Plans for today include teaching Nienke the basics of using Paint Phop Pro and probably scrapping some more myself.
Went out for pizza and ice cream with Eva and Nienke. While we were out, and afterwards back at Nien’s place for tea, we discussed crafts. Eva’s very much into fabrics right now, notably felt, and is making hangers, and bags and puppets and stuff. I’ve not been very crafty lately, but felt attracts me a lot (and the work I see from Eva & Signe fires the drive) and in my head I’m sketching out the big ass painting that I want to create. One corner has been figured out, but since it’s so big (about 0,75m by 1m canvas) I want it figured out fully before I put paint to canvas.
This led to asking Nienke what she has in terms of craft supplies, which turned out to be mostly things for drawing. Eva then mentioned that she’d like to paint, but is never satisfied. I always find that working on a canvas, as opposed to just paper, makes it more ‘real’. I’m better able to quit and say it is done, instead of just going and going and finally tossing it away because it sucks. We talked about differences between acrylic paint and oils and then decided we’d like to paint together sometime soon. Totally inspired I got a call just after I’d left for my parents again (I’m spending the weekend there) when I had to work on Sunday. Unfortunately it’s 4 hours in the middle of the day, so not easily combined with painting. We postponed for a later day.
I feel invigorated now, I want to create! *buzzes off*
I’m grateful it didn’t rain yesterday. My parents had a great time at the Agricultural Day at Verhildersum Museum Estate, and Nienke’s Birthday BBQ approved of the dry weather as well 😀
I’m happy Monkey is so close lately. I think he missed me when I was away last weekend. He’s letting me pet and hold him much more, and is seeking my company (and lap) of his own accord more as well. He’s on my lap as I type this <3
I’m angry with my WordPress. After returning to this site, and updating WP to the newest version, updating pages stopped functioning. And later posting pages stopped working, and now I’m even having trouble posting blog posts. Didn’t find a lot of info on the net, but what there is, is pointing to security issues and .htaccess file edits. So I first had to scour through my hosting provider’s FAQ to figure out 1) if I already had one somewhere (I couldn’t find it in the directory structure) and/or 2) how to edit and where to put it (since hosting provider is not using the standard public_html folder for the site but has named it differently. I think I got it now, we’ll see if this posts, then I probably got it 😀
I learned that draping a string of fake ivy across the top of my window looks neat.
Nienke had her Birthday BBQ yesterday. Much fun was had by all 😀
Got to talk more with a (now ex-)colleague of mine last night, she’s emigrating to Australia end of this month, or early next to live and work on a replica 17th century Dutch East-indies Ship, the Duyfken. It was very cool to hear about her plans and the ship and all that.
Today I’m hanging about, doing nothing much. Enjoying a day in which I don’t “have to…” anything. Of course I can think of plenty of things that should be done, and I will, in all likelihood do some of it, but for the most part I’m being lazy. I woke up relatively early around 9, and then lounged about with the laptop for an hour or two. Playing games, reading GMail and GReader, arguing with WordPress (grrrr), general browsing. Then Nienke came barging in if I wanted to help finish of the last bit of cake, it was a strawberry cake, and I <3 strawberries so I could not resist 😀
Then, some more games, and now I’m writing this and contemplating whether to shower now or tonight, what I should eat and which of the things that should be done will actually be done (dishes probably, I might, just might, also pick up the vacuum).
…
Right, ate some cheese for now. Nienke mentioned leftover meat last night, so I don’t think I’ll have to worry about dinner 😀 Showering tonight so will just barge about in my pj’s, nice and comfy (ignoring the holes in the armpits of the t-shirt…) 😛
Now to decide what else to do today, just internet gets boring. Playing some WoW tonight, if I wanna make my 101 goal of leveling Yathra to 80 before Cataclysm I need to put some more hours in her, she’s just 31 now. Weather’s not nice enough for sitting outside, the sun is there, but there’s a rough wind. I might remain with the pc, but then continue with the Castlefest photo’s and things like that, that need editing and sorting and posting and whatnot.
Gah! Can the heat stop one of these days?? I don’t mind summer, really, I quite like it, but the oppressive heat we’ve been having, no. *sighs*
Even with the storms of the last two or so days the heat won’t piss off 🙁
Bought a planter for my strawberries, they’re outgrowing the secondary pot I put them in after the nursery greenhouse. Filled it up with soil, now just need to transplant them. Might do that tomorrow morning if I’m up early enough (need to work in the afternoon) and the weather is cooperative.
Talked with Nienke about friendship tonight, how it developed and why it did so the way it did. Not just between her and me, but also the others from our little core group that goes back to high school. We concluded we’re all a bit weird and outside the box and that’s why we mesh so well.
Lately I keep thinking about owning a house. In itself this is nothing new, I do this regularly, in fact, I have a whole folder system on the computer with inspirational images from various interior blogs and websites (like apartment therapy for example), sorted on room. I’ve got colour schemes for the various rooms picked out and furniture placement ideas. You name it, I probably thought of it 😀
Except that now the thinking isn’t just making castles in the air, for a ‘later’ that is so far away it might never come. It’s getting more real, more realistic. Where the folder system is for a Big house with four bedrooms and an office and a library and nooks and crannies, my recent thoughts go towards a house that is a more realistic follow up to my current abode. Two bedrooms instead of the one I have now. A living room/kitchen big enough that I can place a proper dining table to sit at. A top floor that is reachable by regular stairs instead of a fold-down one. A garden that is actually mine, and more private than the current semi-shared space. And the thoughts are more towards owning a house, as opposed to renting. And I’m now actually considering what it would take to get to that point.
I know I most likely won’t be able to buy a house in the next few years, as getting a mortgage is not easy to get approved when you don’t have a solid contract. Add to that my in all likelihood continued singleness. Without another person with a solid job it’s even harder. So this dream will have to remain a dream for now, but I guess the thought process itself is a definite sign of yet another step in the process of growing up.
Had the day off work today so I was expecting to sleep in and lounge about the house today. Managed only one of those as around 8:30 the housing cooperation started drilling into the wall that separates my house from the neighbours’. And let that wall be my bedroom wall, where my head is… Suffice it say I was not pleased >:
I’m thinking I can expect more shenanigans like this in the next week or so. New neighbour is about to move in (that’s why the housing guys were here, I think, fixing up stuff so he can move in. It seemed like they were doing rather a lot though) so I expect more noise as his stuff gets placed.
I did the rest of my waking up on the sofa with the trusty laptop and some Facebook games, then went to play Warcraft. It’s Midsummer Festival in the game so lots of special, temporary, things to do. Then the housing cooperation called me to make an appointment for someone to come by and look at the garden door. I’ve mentioned it before, Neighbour Nienke and I closed off our backyard with a door to stop neighbourhood kids from using it as a short cut to a play field; and now another neighbour is complaining about it because he is convinced it actually is a path and not our yard. HC guy let through on the phone he doesn’t really buy that, but feels he should see it with his own eyes rather than from the pics behind his desk 😀 I don’t blame him, and it will finally settle this mess so Nienke and I, hopefully, won’t be forced to keep the door locked just to stop the kids from using it still. We set an appointment for coming Wednesday so we’ll see what he has to say.
Shortly after this Nienke came home from work and we decided to take a trip to the supermarket where I still forgot half I wanted to buy :S Eva mailed me this great recipe for a low-carb chocolate mousse thing and I wanted to get the stuff for it. The only thing I came home with from that list was the whipped cream… I did buy carrots and chicken and new eggs. I’ve been doing a no/low carb and high(er) protein diet thing since two weeks or so to help me loose weight. So far it’s going well, it’s a kind of thing that still let’s me eat a lot of stuff I like (chicken!) However I use a lot more eggs now (they’re full of protein and as such an excellent way to make you feel full) so need new ones regularly 😀
Cooked 8 eggs this morning, and there’s only one left. To be fair, Nienke and Eva had some too.
Eva, who’s doing the same diet thing, came by today. Of course we first had to discuss the finer points of our respective journeys along the dietary path. Then it was time for dinner. Eva had brought hers along, and with a few minutes at Nienke’s stove to prepare her meat, she was all set. I needed some more time since I still had to make my salad. It turned out great: lettuce, egg, french cheese, a bit of dressing and grilled chicken. Nom, nom, nom 😀 I stole the idea of an eat-book from Eva. Not just a book to list your daily food in (I tried that before and I never manage to keep that up for more than two or three days) but also for numbers, notes and ideas/comments about the food as well as inspirational things and stuff. Kinda like a cross between food diary and regular diary. I found an empty book and wrote the first page today. It does need decorating though, otherwise it’ll be boring and I’ll still forget it after a few days. I’m hoping I keep this up.
In the evening we ended up making music. Eva on guitar, me vocals and Nienke as the silent companion and occasional moviemaker 😀 At the end of the evening we did manage to FINALLY! get Nienke to actually sing!!! This after she figured out that when she has notes with the lyrics, she has a much easier time singing. With just the lyrics she can’t get the melody and with a melody she can’t remember the lyrics. It turns out she has a really pretty voice! After Eva was gone Nienke went on to say she would sing You Raise Me Up at Christmas 😀 I wrote it down into my book and am so keeping her to it 😀
And now I need to crash.
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.
Here’s a little bit of everything post to kill some time and populate the journal some more with stuff beyond just books (even though that is clearly more than enough 😀 ). Also, I’m hanging out at the parents and need to kill some time until my laundry’s done (I don’t own a washer myself so I come over here for theirs).
So, let’s see… I’ve had fun this week helping my best friend Nienke move house. She went from a tiny house about 50 yards across from me to a somewhat less tiny house right next door 😀 It was much fun both to watch people move pieces of furniture across the field separating the old block from the new place and to be walking back and forth myself. Connected her computer, messed with furniture placement in the living room and repacked the bookcase. I LOVE organizing bookcases. Seriously, if you want to make me happy, give me access to your bookcase and let me re-organize it.
Right… So Nienke handed in the key to her old place yesterday and then went off to Ikea to get some additional furniture and shelves and such. I was going to spend the day doing some chores around the house so I emptied the trash cans, made food, went to the store and then wanted to vacuum. Only to realize my vacuum cleaner was still in Nienke’s house and I didn’t have a key yet… (And so began the quest to get the vc back!)
So, instead, I grabbed the dust buster to get rid of the biggest clumps of cat hair and then had a relaxing afternoon. The weather was absolutely lovely for the time of year: sunshine, decent temperature, hardly any wind, so I opened all the windows and the back door to let the fresh air in. The cat was ecstatic to be able to walk in and out as he pleased. He was also very happy to find that Nienke has her attic window (where her bedroom is) open enough for him to climb in to (he jumps from my large trashcan on to a little wall and then on to Nienke’s mud room roof and from there it’s easy-peasy into the attic window…). He apparently spent some time sleeping there ‘ cause Nien found a load of cat hair on her bed yesterday evening 😀
When Nienke came back she had brought me three little stuffed rats from Ikea as a present. They’re absolutely gorgeous and very cute. Then she went off again to go with her parents for dinner. I remembered the vacuum cleaner just a minute or two too late. I ran towards the road but they were gone already… *sigh*
She got home late and since it was too late to actually do anything with it, I forgot about the vacuum again. Instead we watched Stargate. We’ve been working our way through the entire series, we made it to Season 9 a day or three ago and we’re enjoying the Daniel-Vala dynamic immensely 😀
This morning I got out of bed and did remember the vacuum cleaner 😀 I pulled the sheets from my bed and put them in the laundry and then hung the duvet and coverlet out to air. Then I tried Nienke’s door to see if she was awake, but no such luck. So I grabbed a handful of cat kibble and started throwing them against her window until she appeared.
After that, I asked her to watch my bedding for me (they are expecting rain today) while I was away and got the vacuum cleaner back, yay!
Not that I really want to vacuum… it is the chore I hate most. However, with a cat that never seems to run out of hair to drop everywhere, it is a necessary evil. *sigh* The dreaded thing awaits me when I get home. If it’s still dry then I think I shall open the door again to at least keep some fresh air coming in while I work the monster 😀
Outside of the banalities of the household, I should start studying for my history exam in ten days. It’s a mid term about the first half of the class (of which my attendance was far from regular). It shouldn’t be too much of a problem though, it covers the middle ages and I’m reasonably familiar with that period already; both from my fascination with history from childhood on and my archaeology BA. That was also the reason I took the class in the first place, I figured it’d be an easy way to fill up five of the required 30 credits 😀
Ooh, methinks the laundry is all done. See ya!