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Hulk Move Boxes

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april5Yesterday was moving day for Eva and Jarig so I went over there to help. I took the 8:00 train to Groningen where Eva picked me up and drove us to their old place. We packed a lot of boxes and moved them into the rental truck. We then took that first load to their new house. I rode along with Eva and the zoo in the car (her, me, the kid, the dog and two cats) to wrangle the cats. Snoes, the old-lady cat, was in a carrier, but we had none for Briek, the other cat, so she was leashed and on my lap. It actually went surprisingly well, Briek seemed interested in the goings-on outside the car so behaved nicely.

Once at The Farm we put the cats in the dog bench so they wouldn’t escape and run off in the general chaos of a move. After unpacking I headed back to the city with the other guys and the truck to get another load. When we got that back at the farm, I spent some time setting up the computer so it would work, built stuff and moved things. Then there was more unpacking when the truck came back for the third time.

Along the way we had  a lot of fun with the whole crowd, especially watching Hidde (the dog) run around like crazy because People! Awesome! New Stuff! Awesome! and Feije entertaining us by just being his own two-year-old self. Although we did forget about the poor cats for a bit o.0 After a few hours of working Eva and I were back in the bedroom where the cats were. I went to see them and suddenly realised we had put them in there without food or water. So we quickly got that settled, I think they forgave us 🙂

Around dinner time, Eva had to drop Mellien and Bas off at the train station, so we piled the four of us into the car. Along the way, she dropped me off at the snack bar to get us all food while she drove on to the station. The snack bar was surprisingly quick, cause when Eva returned, I was already sitting with our completed order waiting for her. Back at The Farm, we ate, then did some more last minute things and one by one most people  left. Eva was kind enough to drive me back to the station in Groningen so I was home at a really decent hour.

I did skip Pilates this morning. I figure that with yesterday, I’ve done enough excercising 😀 And the sore muscles I was expecting today were a lot less. I’m only feeling my arms really, the rest is pretty much fine. Yay me 🙂

Sunshine Day

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Went in to work a little earlier today so I would be free at noon to meet Gert for a movie. We had lunch at Subway and then crossed the street to sit in the sunshine with coffee and cake at TOET. I can definitely live with moments like that, it was an hour well spent. The we crossed the street again to hit the cinema since our showing of The Monuments Men was at 13:30. It was a pretty good, fun, movie. Insofar a World War II movie can be “fun”. I liked the characters and the actors playing the characters. It was also interesting to watch and get a glimpse of what the real guys were doing back then. I missed a good through line. There was no real plot, it felt more like several vignettes that featured the same characters. Not in itself bad, but not really good either. The movie is saved by its casting.
Tonight I tried yoga at the gym. I’m used to Pilates, and figured yoga would be calmer and more zen and stuff. Instead, I died o.0 It’s crazy intensive and much more challenging than Pilates is. Although it did end with a nice couple minutes of meditation.

april2-2Yesterday I finished After Earth, the book of the movie. Now, the movie was really bad, but the book is actually pretty good. It helps it was written by Peter David. This is also what convinced me to take the book when I was over at Kim’s the other week to rummage through her box of books-to-get-rid-of. I’ve read several Star Trek tie-ins that Peter David wrote and I really enjoy those. He’s a good writer. Which was evident throughout the book. Of course he has to follow the script but he really managed to make it his own and work in a lot of extra background info about the world of After Earth that rounded out the story. The book is much better than the movie.

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 🙂

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 😀

Achievement Unlocked: Succesfully Avoided (3) Excercise Demons

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Managed to skip going to the gym for the entire week, bad me. On Monday I skipped because I realised I didn’t really like the one half of the class I was going to, and to just do the other half isn’t long enough. Plus the instructor always manages to guilt trip me into staying for that second half anyway and I don’t like that. Tuesday I skipped because there’s too much time between getting home from work and going to the gym. By the time I have to go get ready, I’ve settled in and really don’t want to go anymore. Today I slept in and missed Pilates, which is a shame because I do like it.

Wednesday I went over to Gert to, couple months late, exchange birthday prezzies. I got him the NL variant of Ticket to Ride and he got me Machiavelli. We played Ticket to Ride a couple times and then watched some Doctor Who and Attack on Titan. I’d never seen that before but I really like it. Was also nice to just hang out and chat and stuff. Usually we go to the movies and then there’s less catching up time 😀

At work the buzz is that the workflow they took is coming back in week 8, so yay!

Yesterday and today I played a lot of Warcraft. Decided to try out my solo abilities on Cataclysm Dungeons. I face roll Burning Crusade stuff, but never really tried soloing Wrath instances since I was guilded back then and did all that with them. Managed to do Stonecore, Voretx Pinnacle, Blackrock Caverns and Grim Batol, all on normal. It wasn’t face roll easy, but it was very well doable. I wonder once I get some more Timeless Isle pieces, if I can try my hand at heroic versions. I need that to finally get my Ramkahen rep to exalted. I want my camel 😀

I also finished Cycle of Hatred earlier this week, good book.

And, I finally managed to write three letters to some people in my pen pal group, yay me. I’ll be mailing them out tomorrow, together with the traveling notebook.

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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.

Like a Baby

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The new bed? It sleeps fantastically! 😀

Yesterday in the morning, after sleeping in and doing some laundry I put the closet back. That left the bed, and the sidetable I use as altar space.

In the afternoon, we celebrated Uncle Tammo’s birthday. Had a great time, nice to catch up with the cousins as I don’t see them as often. As expected Uncle Louw was also there, so I asked him if he would come home with me for a sec to help with the bed. I tried with Nienke earlier in the week, but that didn’t go very well. With Uncle Louw, it went much better and we got the thing upstairs in one piece 😀

In the evening, I put the bed together, and returned the Altar and rest of the things.

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And! It started snowing! So this morning, I woke up gloriously on my new bed, and was greeted with a beautiful white world outside my window.

Was a bit tricky to get through to get to Pilates, but I made it. After coming home again, I dug a path from the front door to the road.

Spent most of the day playing WoW and watching stuff on Netflix, which I reactivated yesterday. Now with an iPad, and the improved offerings, the cost-benefit analysis was much more postive 😀

Hnnnnngh…

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I am so completely dead. Went to the gym for the first time on Monday, and O. M. G… I was going for the half hour of Vario Sport, wherein you do something else every week. This first week of the new season it was mainly twenty thousand forms of hopping about. After doing that, I felt fairly good. And so I was easily convinced to stick around for the half hour of Tabata that follows on it directly. Tabata turned out to be a high intensity interval training where we did all kinds of exercises rapidly for about thirty seconds and then another and then another and another and a 30 second break and again a series of the same exercises. Combined this killed me sooooo dead.

I made it home afterward, fell down on the sofas and refused to get up until it was time for bed. Which was a bad idea in itself because…
The next day I could barely walk, my calves hurt sooooo bad 😀

After work I made a cheesecake for the team, from scratch, just like with Christmas dinner. Started a bit too late though, it was after midnight when I took the cake out of the oven… So late, that I didn’t get around to putting up the raspberry topping until the next morning before work.

After that it was quite the adventure to get the cake in the bike crate, it only just fit. It survived the bumps on the way to the train station as well as the ride to the city. Left the cake with the team leader for handing out during the daily meeting. At that point I was gone, though.

I had to grab the train back home right after finishing at one, to make it in time for the appointment for my second T shot. It went well, I tried to keep the leg even more relaxed than I did with the other for the first shot in the hope that this would be less painful and for a shorter time. I think it worked, as I only felt it for a day or two. The calves, though… Man, they’re still driving me nuts.

Also on Wednesday, my shiny, shiny iPad Air arrived. I went to check on my old iTunes account and all my old apps are still there. And, joy of all joys, all my progress in Magic Piano is still there as well as my more than 160 songs. I did spend some money on that back when I still had an iPhone, so nice to know it’s all still here.

During singing on Saturday I noticed some first subtle changes in my voice. It’s starting to get a bit scratchy a bit sooner. And then it didn’t help I was doing How You Remind Me 😀 Am very curious to see how this develops.

The rest of the day I dumped shit in the attic and I worked on the carpeting for the front hallway. Also had a nice evening with some friends coming over.

Today I did go to Pilates (I skipped body pump on Thursday) and that was great fun. I always liked Pilates back in Leicester, so I’m glad I went here, too. Spent the afternoon in relaxation watching Sherlock again as well as my new blu ray of Les Misérables. I love that movie <3

And So It Begins…

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Today I registered at the gym in town. I wanted to do something about my general physique and stamina and such for a while now, but now that I’ve started T, it’s easier to build muscle. Plans are to do about three group lessons a week, and after a period to get used to it, to add solo work on the various devices. I hope to gain in the torso/upper arm area, build stamina and lose more weight. Although it would probably be good if I also got rid of the candy crap then 😀

Hit the city as well today. Went looking for new bags, one for my laptop as my current 17″ doesn’t fit in the 15″ bag I have, and a new messenger bag for work. Unfortunately I didn’t find any that were both pretty and in my price range. Did buy a game (Black Stories), and a trash bin at Xenos.

The Week(s) in Review: 2012-12 & 2012-13

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I’m grateful for quiet times at work that allow me to take some extra days off here and there. Not just because yay-freedom, but also because I have a lot of in-my-head things going, what with the genderprocess and all. Some extra days to deal with stuff are nice.

I’m happy because I finally have a new appointment date for my genderteam intake. It will take place April 23rd. This time they actually managed to refer me to the shrink so this really is it: the start of my road to fully being who I am. It’s going to be a long journey, and it’s not going to be easy, but I’m more than ready to finally get this show on the road.

I’m also happy because the Postcrossing is taking off quite nicely. All but one of my cards have been received. The only one still in transit is one to a school class in the USA. I got my first five cards, they came from the USA, Canada, Germany, Austria and Poland. The cards can be seen on my Postcrossing profile. I requested new addresses yesterday, which I will pick (and write) cards for tomorrow.

Last Friday we went out with (almost) the whole e-mail squad from work. Nico and I put the thing together, and since it was meant as a getting to know each other better thing after the team expansion from early this year, we settled on bowling and food. The evening was a grand success, a lot of fun was had.

I learned I need a lot of warm up time before I throw proper balls, and that if I want to throw a strike, I first need to drop the ball behind me so it rolls back to the people on my team.

I discovered that it is actually possible for naturally (somewhat) touchy people to be like this in a fun, non-obnoxious, non-threatening way. Normally when people, for example, hang over my shoulder to ask me something, or randomly grab my arms, I have this knee-jerk reaction to pull back and get this ‘get the fuck away from me’ vibe. I’m glad to say I did not have this then. Yay, progress!