Weedless
They finally came to clear the backyard of the weeds and debris the previous tenant left behind. It’s so gloriously empty now 🙂
Garden
Fencing
Yesterday our friend and former colleague Harm (from Groen & Grond Muntendam) came to build a privacy fence around the back yard. I had to work first, so I did that from home. After working my half day I went to get my T. shot and then proceeded to assist Harm. We finished the fence between us and the attached neighbours, and the outside of the fence separating us from the other neighbours. And since I’d done this, I figured why the hell not and tortured myself at the gym with a steep ten minute stationary bike ride and a 5 km rowing course.
Today was another day off for me which came in handy as Harm returned early in the morning to finish the job. We fairly quickly finished off the remaining fence and then built a door. We ended up having to hurry as Harm had places to be, but we got it done! Hurray! All it needs is a little slide lock on the door so we can keep it from being opened from the outside when we don’t want to. In the afternoon I joined the parents for Aunt Grietje’s birthday. She turned 85 🙂
In the evening, I watched Treasure Planet on Netflix, it’s a fun movie.
6391 Words
I love how something as little as a week, week-and-a-half, off from work can restore your balance. I’m not particularly motivated (yet) to get back to work on Monday, but I’m sure that’ll come once I arrive back in the pit 😀
In the meantime, I’ve had a relaxing week. Monday I hung out with Eva, did some shopping. Eva needed a radio for the baby’s room so I took the opportunity to buy a new SD card for my camera. Afterwards we stopped for some groceries and some browsing at the Wibra. I’m a sucker for cheap/discount stores so I ended up with a bag of easter/spring inspired items to decorate the house with while I wait for spring proper to arrive.
Using the new items with the stuff from last year led me to this:
Tuesday I hung out at the Parents’ place. It had been a week and a half or so since I’d seen them, and as I usually see them at least once a week, it was overdue. It was a quiet afternoon, which is nice.
Friday evening Eva, Ingrid and Mellien came over to see me and Nienke and we went out for pancakes at the pancake restaurant in town. It was gloriously delicious (I had a ham/cheese/pineapple pancake) and we had a lot of fun talking. Afterward
we went back to Nienke’s place to play Just Dance 3 on the Wii. Even Eva, despite being 37 weeks along, did a dance. The rest of us all went twice, and then we decided to do a quick round of Glee Karaoke before the other three had to go again.
Today I had lunch at the Parents’ again before returning home and finding Nienke cutting up all the trees in her yard. I didn’t really have anything better to do, and I love playing with the tree cutter so I gladly assisted her with this. Nienke’s upper arms thanked me 😀
We cut huge amounts from the conifer near her bedroom window, so to make it all fit, we had to push down on the cuttings to create more space. And to allow the lid to close…
Today I also found my very first Postcrossing card on the doormat, it came from Poland. Earlier in the week I got a message from the website that my first sent card was received. Score is now 1 for 1 and there’s four more from me underway to far away places 🙂
That Was The Year That Was: 2010
January
- I started Working at KPN
- We had a very severe winter, which resulted in public transport being down frequently, which is very! annoying
- Had a tea party with friends at Mellien’s place, it was very fun
February
I’ve got nothing for this month. For some reason I only took 3 pictures in the whole of February… And I didn’t blog that month either. Sadness. Here, have all three February pics to cheer you up from this huge, huge let down 😀
March
- Spring was on its way! Not that enthusiastically yet, but I saw the first real flowers peeking their heads above ground
- Finally found a good design starting point for my future tattoo
- Chocolate fondue with Eva & Ingrid, yum!
- Bought new plants for my back yard
- Found an awesome stick to turn into a staff. So far it’s still standing unused in my mudroom, but this year I strive to actually make something out of it 🙂
- Went balfolking for the first time (no, it’s probably not a proper verb, and yes, I’ll tell you what it is; it’s dancing old ball and folk dances on medieval-and-slightly-later type music)
April
- With Eva, Ingrid and Nienke to Lauwersoog, which was hilarious since we got stuck in the parking lot for two hours due to no traffic regulators being present
- This was also the month mom turned 60, Happy Birthday!
- Nienke and I added a garden door to our shared backyard to keep the neighbourhood kids from using our space as a shortcut path
May
- Went to see the Men’s Choir of Warffum (of which my uncle is a member) perform at the museum estate Verhildersum
- Spent Liberation Day in Parentville, where the whole street came together to decorate it for the festivities, great sense of community then, it should be like that more often
- Ingrid came by, time for scrabble in the sun. Eva & Mellien dropped by a little later, on horseback.
- Saw a hedgehog in the yard, awesome little critters
- Joined the LifeLines research project about long term health
June
- Dad’s birthday, 67 for him. Happy Birthday!
- With the summer in full swing, Nienke and I tried outdoor computing
- It was also the time for the yearly full family visit to my aunt and uncle in Harderwijk
- Went to visit Soestdijk Palace with Mom and a friend of hers, it was awesome! I’m very glad I got to see the place before they closed it down
July
- Celtic Midsummer Fest! Need I say more? An awesome weekend in which I went re-enacting for the first time. Great friends, great environment, great things to see and do, in short, a great time!
- Also, aforementioned festival will (for me) henceforth always be connected to ‘that time I banged my toes into oblivion on a tent peg’ 😀
- It got so warm I regularly spent my free time lounging outside with my feet in water. At first in two buckets (one for each foot) and later in a giant tub-like thing. Monkey approved of this, always enough water to drink nearby
- I bought my binder this month, which turned out to be a huge step on the road of self-discovery and gender identity
August
- Castlefest! Again, need I say more! Another awesome weekend! I’d not been able to go to Castlefest for some years, so it felt great to be back here. I love the atmosphere at this particular fest, plus being able to see Omnia live again for the first time in a couple of years as well was great, too.
- Nienke had a BBQ in honour of her birthday, it was tasty!
- Mom started knitting socks, after a conversation about how the warm socks we had were not getting any better.
- Went out for a sudden and unexpected pizza with Eva & Nienke
- Dad, on request, cut off the hedge in my front yard
- Monkey got weird spots on his back leg, he ended up with a salve treatment and antibiotics and return appointments at the vet three times in a row. Fortunately, they have cleared up completely
- And finally, this was the month I decided to continue blogging here, instead of trying to maintain both this blog and a LifeJournal
September
- I burned my arm a wee bit by splashing hot olive oil on it. Fortunately I washed it off right away, so it didn’t go much further than some light second degree burning one one spot and some intenser first degree burning on the others. The second degree spot left a scar, it’s pretty 🙂
- Had Tessa over to dog-sit, and got both her and Monkey in the same room without Tessa trying to eat Monkey, and without Monkey trying his best to hide as far away as possible
- Had my own birthday, turned 26. Happy Birthday me!
- Got the flu right after the birthday parties, ended up having to stay home for about a week, and had noticeably less energy the weeks after that while I was recovering further, not fun 🙁
October
- Became obsessed with Glee 😀
- Got my iPhone
- Mom started knitting gloves, nice and warm for the winter
- Went out to wok with Eva & Ingrid, yum!
- Attended Julius’ birthday, which was a sort of High Tea type thing with a whole bunch of cakes he and his mom made, it was awesome (and very, very tasty!)
- Bought two awesome pumpkins for Halloween and carved them; one a face, the other a sort of cheese with holes kinda idea with mice in the holes
November
- Was a bit down for a good part of this month, a combination of Daylight Savings Time ending, winter coming up and some other random shit. Took a while before I saw the colours of the world in full shine again, instead of dulled
- Mom knit me a pretty hat to match the gloves she made, my mom rocks 🙂
- Discovered the Instagram iPhone app (among many, many other apps; I <3 apps 😀 ) which is fun to play with
December
- Had a St. Nicholasmas (a combination of St. Nicholas and Christmas) party with Nienke, Eva, Mellien and Ingrid. It was fun and very nice to have a group get together again.
- CATACLYSM! W00t!
- The snow really hit. It looks awesome, but just like last year, it’s wreaking havoc on the public transport system. Which is kinda ridiculous as they spent the whole year winterproofing their systems and all, and they were sure it would be better this year… And then the first few days we have heavy snowfall, everything falls apart, again.
- December was good, even though in the beginning of the month I wasn’t sure about that (residual gloominess from November)
Weekly Four: week 28
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.
Organise, Organise, Organise
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.
Image Dump
My newly transplanted strawberries:
The mouse Nienke’s cat Murphy caught the other day:
The hedgehog I saw recently:
When it’s hot, this is the best way to sit outside 😀
Cat approves, for he thinks I do it all just to make his life easier 😀
Growing Up?
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.
Weekly Four: Week 21
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 I 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, I 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 ‘I 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 😀
Spring in my Head
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.