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Lazy Sunday

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Nienke had her Birthday BBQ yesterday. Much fun was had by all πŸ˜€

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 πŸ˜€

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 πŸ˜€ Showering tonight so will just barge about in my pj’s, nice and comfy (ignoring the holes in the armpits of the t-shirt…) πŸ˜›

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.

Weekly Four: week 28

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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.

Growing Up?

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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 πŸ™

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 πŸ˜€

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.

IΒ 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.

ZZzzz…

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Bought the two Billys I’ve been wanting for my bedroom πŸ™‚ 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 πŸ˜€ 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 πŸ˜› ), they were out of Billys. And I’d even checked the online storage checker to see if they still had them in stock πŸ™ 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 πŸ˜€

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 πŸ™
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!

Weekly Four: Week 21

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Per #10 on my list, starting today, I will post my Weekly Four every Sunday identifying something in the past week I was grateful for, something that made me happy, something that made me angry, sad or otherwise gave me a negative emotional response, and something I learned.

I’m grateful for the lovely weather we had yesterday for most of the day. I tried to do some yard word, and also sat in the sun, read a book, it was all out lovely.

Having lost some weight, even if it’s just a little, made me happy. It’s a first step.

A particular customer e-mail I got on Friday during my e-mail shift kinda pissed me off. Partly because of the content of the mail, but mostly because of how the person communicated. He ended with wanting to cancel his service, and IΒ set the end date for June 5th because he pissed me off (instead of further away allowing him time to get a new isp). An hour later there was another panicky e-mail, my co-worker picked it up and took it upon her to calm the person while I pulled the end date of his service back to July 1st. So it ended well, but lesson is to be nice to customer service people, even if you’ve had loads of issues, that will usually get you further.

I learned yesterday that my shovel works just fine for digging through already loose soil but isn’t sharp enough to cut through packed ground. Hence the trying to do yard work above, IΒ barely managed to dig two small cuts to mark where the garden bit has to be. I’m gonna need to borrow dad’s shovel to finish the job. Wanted to do that today but the weather sucked.

Next week should be fun. Slightly busy-ish, but fun. Working full days tomorrow and Tuesday, then Wednesday is dad’s birthday. Thursday and Friday are stupid days with 3 or four hours work each day at not always convenient times. Thursday for example from 15:15 to 19:15. While that gives me time to sleep in after the birthday, it also means you don’t really get anything done because you keep going ‘IΒ have to leave soon’. The same goes for Friday. And then it’s weekend again.

Saturday I want to go to Ikea and get the two Billy’s I’ve mentioned before. The holiday bonus got deposited so I have some leeway to get them. Then I can get rid of the pile of crap in the bed room (all the stuff that has to go in the Billy’s). And I just figured I might wanna put the old black bookcase that’s still in the bed room (one of the Billy’s is its replacement) in the attic so I can put my kid and YA books in there instead of in boxes. Makes it easier when I wanna reread something in bouts of nostalgia πŸ˜€

Spring in my Head

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Halfway done with the attic, yeehaw!

Emptied the Ikea shelf unit in the bedroom (no, not an expedit πŸ˜€ 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 IΒ 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 πŸ˜€
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 πŸ™ 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, IΒ 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.Β And then he a) showed, and b) started from my endΒ πŸ™ 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 πŸ˜€ 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.

Bits and Pieces

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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 πŸ˜€ 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 πŸ˜€

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). IΒ 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 πŸ™
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? πŸ˜€ ). 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 πŸ™ At least both these things should be a significant help with the financial woes πŸ™‚

Right, I mentioned Castlefest. I haven’t gone there in a while, but this year I WILLΒ 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 πŸ˜€
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.

Flame

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We had a huge, town-wide, powerfailure last February. We were out of power for about 5 hours or so during the evening, so candles were a definite must.

Random Occurence of My Mind – Whoosh!

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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 πŸ˜€ ). 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 πŸ˜€ 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 inΒ 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 πŸ˜€

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 πŸ˜€

This morning I got out of bed and did remember the vacuum cleaner πŸ˜€ 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 πŸ˜€

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 πŸ˜€

Ooh, methinks the laundry is all done. See ya!