Song of the day: “I’m like a bird” by Nelly Furtado. Such a cute song, cheerful and very appropriate for the time of year, I think, ‘cause it feels like spring is here, the birds are out and everything warming up after what felt like an incredibly long winter. Hah.
Yesterday's song was: "If you go" by Sophie Ellis-Bextor, by the way. Quite catchy.
But anyway, things have been incredibly busy and for the life of me, I can’t get this blogging on time worked out properly. I just end up squeezing one in, here and there, never knowing how on earth I’m going to do the next one. Ah well, let’s do a quick sum up while we’re at it, shall we.
Yesterday’s weather wasn’t by far as pleasant as it was today; the wind was chilly in the morning, and the sun burned, which was cause for my very first, real sunburn of the year, drat! I’ve been slathering after sun milk onto my back and shoulders since late last night, and still there’s that pesky burning sensation going on.
Ah well, the day was spent in the yard turning another few patches of earth, and putting in approximately 20 home grown tomato plants. Boy, are we going to have a lot of tomatoes this summer; seriously, I’ve warned the sibs, but they’re all convinced that it will be grand. Yep, I’m seeing bloody Marys, tomato soup, tomato pizza, tomato everything. I’m guessing that if this all works out we’re going to be pretty darn sick of tomatoes by the end of the summer, hah.
No matter though, we sowed carrots too, some spinach, and of course the almighty potato, ‘cause let’s face it, we’re all potato addicts. The first potato plants are doing splendid by the way, soon I’m going to have to put up some decent pictures of how everything is doing down there. A before and after shot, maybe. Hmmm.
Yeah, editing, last night we managed only eight pages compared to the twelve from the day before, but seeing as we had to go out twice, this wasn’t a big surprise really. The dogs hated it, I wouldn’t have minded going to bed early, and well…there was just no helping it in the end. It is work nonetheless.
I think that we were both a bit on edge, ‘cause the edit really went rather snappish. Big brother would say something, I would get my hackles up and then we’d be snapping at each other before doggedly continuing with the edit. Still, progress is being made, so who gives a fig.
Which brings us to today: no oversleeping for me anymore, I talked with grandpa and he’s calling me when it’s time to rise and shine. He was right on the dot too, today. Aaargh. I had absolutely no excuse for sleeping in, so I headed to the house to start on the daily chores and have breakfast.
Lots of plans for the day; helping our tenant out into the sunshine, watering plants, trying to school Fortuyn (pointer) into NOT scaling the fence when we’re working in the yard, keeping Sitabah (weimaraner) inside the fence rather than going after the neighbor’s dog and on the overall trying to keep the lot quiet enough so we don’t piss off the entire valley.
Once we’d taken care of the majority of the inside chores, it was time to head up to unload the car from last night’s endeavors, and then the ancient RV which we’re fully planning on using for storage. Within several hours time, the entire drive sweep is filled with dog pillows, wood, garbage, bags, old clothes, suitcases and boxes, all which need to be sorted through, after lunch. Today we had home grown lettuce, cheese, beets, asparagus, tomatoes and a yogurt sauce on bread, which filled the gaps well enough to continue on with the sorting, emptying and boarding up the insides of the RV against rodents and such…they’ve been a pest inside it, and we’re doing a full garbage run tonight, darn it.
Which reminds me, I’ve got to hurry this along because we really want to get at least four hours of the edit behind us…we finished up reloading the RV ‘round six in the afternoon, so big brother and I filled another hour watering plants (pots and plots, hah) in the lower yard. All’s looking splendid, by the way, and as of today only one more apple tree needs to bud before we can say that they’re all doing splendid. Yay. The last Golden delicious that budded today at last, looks so cute, really. This miserable stick points straight up, and on a tiny little branch, a single leave just popped into existence.
Well, I’ve gotta go, on to the edit of the day. Yay.
Friday, April 2, 2010
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Mosying on.
Song of the day: “I cried for you,” by Katie Melua. Beautiful song, of course, but a teeny bit depressive.
So yeah, I’m running way behind, my stupid alarm is giving me fits so I’ve been bothered by running behind for three days now. Very annoying, of course.
But let’s get to yesterday...work our way to now, ‘cause I really have a lot more to do today.
Yesterday...okay, I started late, had to rush my way through a major load of laundry, and then headed on out to our tenant’s place so we could do some exercises and then steadily walk down to my porch, where she could sit in the sunshine while we all went down into the yard.
She did well, got a really steady pace going, with some speed to boot; she was really proud.
Turned quite a bit of earth in the lower yard, considering we had to get cucumbers, melons, cantaloupes and tomatoes into the ground fast, and had to rush it a bit. Was good exercise, though, besides, the sun was shining, (I actually got sun burned a little) and the breeze made it rather pleasant.
We took stock of everything about a hundred potatoes have come up, the green beans are looking adorably green, spinach is forming leaves, tomatoes are up, lettuce and practically everything we put down in the ground is doing well; it makes me smile.
Only three more trees need to bud, all the others are doing splendid (except for one of the mangos and we can’t figure out why) the kiwis are showing leaves, so are the berries and for the rest, it’s just plain fun walking around seeing it all flourish.
The edit went really bad last night, which was frustrating as heck. I don’t know what the heck was wrong, my focus was just shoddy, and all over the place, and big brother wasn’t any better.
Added to that is grandpa, who fell down with his moped the other day, and now has a swollen hand...which reminds me a little of Hellboy. Hah.
I was of course way too late last night, which was the reason for my waking up late this morning, no doubt. There was laundry again, and I rushed through breakfast, so I could bring our tenant down to the third gate with her wheelchair, so she could then walk down to the old pool where the cold wind couldn’t bother her. She loved it, so it was well worth the effort.
Today we put in sweet pea pods, by the way, along with silver onions, you know the tiny ones? And the younger sibs turned earth for later planting as well as sowing another small patch of spinach.
For dinner I made potato, pepper, wild onion (from our very own yard, no less) tomato and cheese tortilla, which worked out rather splendidly, if I do say so myself. Just for dinner we went through one and a half pie-sized ones, so I am now hoping that there still will be enough for us to eat from tomorrow. It appears to be a successful experiment, so maybe it won’t be enough for another meal, darn it. Here I thought three would be more than enough.
All in all it’s been a couple of busy days, and what with today not being over yet, well, you’re guessing it, my times’ up: I need to get to work on the edit and hope that we manage to get some serious work done on the edit.
So yeah, I’m running way behind, my stupid alarm is giving me fits so I’ve been bothered by running behind for three days now. Very annoying, of course.
But let’s get to yesterday...work our way to now, ‘cause I really have a lot more to do today.
Yesterday...okay, I started late, had to rush my way through a major load of laundry, and then headed on out to our tenant’s place so we could do some exercises and then steadily walk down to my porch, where she could sit in the sunshine while we all went down into the yard.
She did well, got a really steady pace going, with some speed to boot; she was really proud.
Turned quite a bit of earth in the lower yard, considering we had to get cucumbers, melons, cantaloupes and tomatoes into the ground fast, and had to rush it a bit. Was good exercise, though, besides, the sun was shining, (I actually got sun burned a little) and the breeze made it rather pleasant.
We took stock of everything about a hundred potatoes have come up, the green beans are looking adorably green, spinach is forming leaves, tomatoes are up, lettuce and practically everything we put down in the ground is doing well; it makes me smile.
Only three more trees need to bud, all the others are doing splendid (except for one of the mangos and we can’t figure out why) the kiwis are showing leaves, so are the berries and for the rest, it’s just plain fun walking around seeing it all flourish.
The edit went really bad last night, which was frustrating as heck. I don’t know what the heck was wrong, my focus was just shoddy, and all over the place, and big brother wasn’t any better.
Added to that is grandpa, who fell down with his moped the other day, and now has a swollen hand...which reminds me a little of Hellboy. Hah.
I was of course way too late last night, which was the reason for my waking up late this morning, no doubt. There was laundry again, and I rushed through breakfast, so I could bring our tenant down to the third gate with her wheelchair, so she could then walk down to the old pool where the cold wind couldn’t bother her. She loved it, so it was well worth the effort.
Today we put in sweet pea pods, by the way, along with silver onions, you know the tiny ones? And the younger sibs turned earth for later planting as well as sowing another small patch of spinach.
For dinner I made potato, pepper, wild onion (from our very own yard, no less) tomato and cheese tortilla, which worked out rather splendidly, if I do say so myself. Just for dinner we went through one and a half pie-sized ones, so I am now hoping that there still will be enough for us to eat from tomorrow. It appears to be a successful experiment, so maybe it won’t be enough for another meal, darn it. Here I thought three would be more than enough.
All in all it’s been a couple of busy days, and what with today not being over yet, well, you’re guessing it, my times’ up: I need to get to work on the edit and hope that we manage to get some serious work done on the edit.
Monday, March 29, 2010
Groooooohoooooceries!!! Saw it coming?
Song of the day....well, there wasn’t any. What with it being grocery-shopping day, I’m not surprised either.
Yesterday was a pretty good day, all things considered, though. Started off a little late, what with summer time throwing me out of whack, and my alarm giving the spirit, but all in all lots got done.
My bed got a solid remodel, and now sports a big storage underneath a huge spring that actually manages to lift up with mattress and all. It took some designing, fixing and them wood work to hide the metal contraption, but now it looks downright pretty and solid.
When I finally finished with it ‘round eight in the evening (in full daylight still, hah) I was so darn tired from it (illness is such a persistent little bugger) I could have crawled into it right then.
I didn’t, of course: always lots of other things to do…in this case editing, naturally. Managed a solid nine pages during the last four hours of the evening, which was good enough for me, all things considered. Still sick and then still managing a four-hour edit is not all bad, and only one hour less than usual. 70 pages in the full 330…we’ll get there yet. Hah.
I am pleasantly surprised at how very few errors there are in the manuscript. Seriously, this is the rough material, completely unedited, unread, and let’s face it, unseen, seeing as I wrote it straight through without ever once going back to check…and yet there are only few errors: some typos, a missing word here and there, a sentence turned around, of course…but nothing as bad as I’d expected and feared. There are actually entire paragraphs that don’t need work at all.
Suffice it to say that I am properly stunned about the entire thing.
Added to the wonderful realization that it is pretty darn good already, is that it feels like reading a book for the very first time. Hah. Seriously, I’m going over pages I wrote thinking, “huh? I wrote that? When?” It’s great!
Going to bed last night was a wonderful reward after a job well done.
Which brings us, inevitably to today, darn it: Grocery shopping day! Lemme just get it out right now: Aaaaaargh!!!
It was a long one, I tell ya. It started off early too, seeing as we had to go to the bank as well. Took us a full hour too, and then we still had to head for town to get two weeks worth of supplies for nine people.
So yeah, I’m always complaining about grocery shopping day, so I figure I might as well take this splendid opportunity to share the experience.
Shop # 1:
The hobby shop: mom needs oil paint and this is our first stop of the day. We rush inside, get the sap green, black and white, and then are back outside on the road. It doesn’t really count as the first shop, though. It is minor, all things considered.
Shop # 2:
This is the biggest shopping we do on this particular. We used to save it for last, but then we realized that we might as well start with it while we’re still fresh, rather than drag our butts through it when we’re already exhausted. We hit it (little sister, big brother and I) with three carts and separate sectional lists of the supplies that need to be gathered. I head off to the canned section, the fresh produce and then slowly work myself to the back of the store, picking up little sister n the way until we come upon big brother by the fridges, finishing the last bit of his list. Yay. Talk about excellent timing, eh? We headed straight for the registers, unloaded everything on the treadmill counter (for the life of me I can’t recall what they’re really called), reloaded and then hauled the lot out to the car. There we could unload again, putting everything in boxes and bags, and then at long last into the car. Half full we depart.
Shop # 3:
Is a small speciality store from country of origin, where, miracle above miracle we only move out of with a minimal of two tiny bags. Hah. Getting there took twenty minutes, though, and heading back takes the same amount.
Shop # 4:
Big supermarket chain that mostly caters to foreigners. It also holds the DVD rental, where we need to return Surrogates with Bruce Willis (oddly enough for a Bruce film, it was disappointing, darn it) and rent a couple more.
The only things we need to buy in the store are hair paint for our tenant’s care taker, mom, and some sunscreen 30 for our tenant.
Shop # 5:
Big frozen specialty shop fifteen minutes further into the city. It takes a good fifteen minutes to go through it, pack up five big bags and pay before we’re outside and head across the court for some do it yourself articles. *snort*
Shop # 6:
Hardware store. Yeah, now we’re talking. I drool at the power tool section for about five minutes, we buy three boxes of screws, varnish and a shovel. Another twenty minutes lost, darn it; time goes too bloody fast. We were starting to lose steam ‘round here, considering we’re all still coughing occasionally and the weather could have been better. I did enjoy what little sun there was, though.
Shop # 7:
A foray into the massive media store; peering at laptops, blinking at huge TV screens and then heading on over to the back where the TDT machines are stored. What with Spanish TV going digital officially, as of this year, there’s dire need for one of those nifty little machines that just freak me out when they’ve got fifty different brands (and prices) for the same darn thing. Stupid machines.
Nothing gets bought in this store, thank gawd.
Shop # 8:
Luckily there was no need for the pet store today, yay. The smaller pets are still supplied enough to get through to the next shopping day. We did need to check out sales in the third supermarket, because this particular one often has sales on laundry detergent and such.
Only a few items get added to the supplies in the end, seeing as the stuff we need isn’t on sale, and before you know it (sucking orange juice) we’re back on our way to the next place.
Shop # 9:
Fourth supermarket, specializing in mostly fresh produce. Veggies, bread and cereal (the younger sibs’ favorite) are added to the pile; a whole cart full no less, and by this time it is already past five in the afternoon (four and a half hours after our departure) and the smaller stores are open again after the three hour “siesta” break that is normal ‘round these parts.
Shop # 10:
Chinese Euro shop. We love this place, especially for garden stuff, a watch for little sister and cheap underwear that will actually stay in place. Hah. Big brother needs a calendar to keep track of our gardening schedule and I need more paper.
We are also regulars, and the girl behind the counter is always laughing and chatting (in Spanish, even though she knows we seriously suck at it) and offering us a present by the time she’s tallied up our purchases and we’re about ready to depart. Such a nice girl.
Shop # 11:
Last shop of the day, yes, another supermarket; a German one this time, where we buy a nice batch of vegetable seeds, some teas (they have the best chamomile that is still affordable) and a sale on coffee. If all goes well, we won’t need to buy any for a month now. Hah.
And that concludes today’s shopping, thank gawd. Four less than the last two times, and due to a reroute on the way home, (darn road works have been going on for a full year now, darn it!) it took us almost an hour longer than usual.
I can tell you that I was seriously bushed by the time we got home, unloaded the overfull car…we’d actually put down the back couch, leaving only one seat for little sister…and put everything in place. Seriously, I’m amazed I even managed this blog, ‘cause I was looking at the entire writing of it rather bleakly.
Well, I’ve got to go! We’re watching 2012. I’ll let you know if I found it remotely interesting.
Yesterday was a pretty good day, all things considered, though. Started off a little late, what with summer time throwing me out of whack, and my alarm giving the spirit, but all in all lots got done.
My bed got a solid remodel, and now sports a big storage underneath a huge spring that actually manages to lift up with mattress and all. It took some designing, fixing and them wood work to hide the metal contraption, but now it looks downright pretty and solid.
When I finally finished with it ‘round eight in the evening (in full daylight still, hah) I was so darn tired from it (illness is such a persistent little bugger) I could have crawled into it right then.
I didn’t, of course: always lots of other things to do…in this case editing, naturally. Managed a solid nine pages during the last four hours of the evening, which was good enough for me, all things considered. Still sick and then still managing a four-hour edit is not all bad, and only one hour less than usual. 70 pages in the full 330…we’ll get there yet. Hah.
I am pleasantly surprised at how very few errors there are in the manuscript. Seriously, this is the rough material, completely unedited, unread, and let’s face it, unseen, seeing as I wrote it straight through without ever once going back to check…and yet there are only few errors: some typos, a missing word here and there, a sentence turned around, of course…but nothing as bad as I’d expected and feared. There are actually entire paragraphs that don’t need work at all.
Suffice it to say that I am properly stunned about the entire thing.
Added to the wonderful realization that it is pretty darn good already, is that it feels like reading a book for the very first time. Hah. Seriously, I’m going over pages I wrote thinking, “huh? I wrote that? When?” It’s great!
Going to bed last night was a wonderful reward after a job well done.
Which brings us, inevitably to today, darn it: Grocery shopping day! Lemme just get it out right now: Aaaaaargh!!!
It was a long one, I tell ya. It started off early too, seeing as we had to go to the bank as well. Took us a full hour too, and then we still had to head for town to get two weeks worth of supplies for nine people.
So yeah, I’m always complaining about grocery shopping day, so I figure I might as well take this splendid opportunity to share the experience.
Shop # 1:
The hobby shop: mom needs oil paint and this is our first stop of the day. We rush inside, get the sap green, black and white, and then are back outside on the road. It doesn’t really count as the first shop, though. It is minor, all things considered.
Shop # 2:
This is the biggest shopping we do on this particular. We used to save it for last, but then we realized that we might as well start with it while we’re still fresh, rather than drag our butts through it when we’re already exhausted. We hit it (little sister, big brother and I) with three carts and separate sectional lists of the supplies that need to be gathered. I head off to the canned section, the fresh produce and then slowly work myself to the back of the store, picking up little sister n the way until we come upon big brother by the fridges, finishing the last bit of his list. Yay. Talk about excellent timing, eh? We headed straight for the registers, unloaded everything on the treadmill counter (for the life of me I can’t recall what they’re really called), reloaded and then hauled the lot out to the car. There we could unload again, putting everything in boxes and bags, and then at long last into the car. Half full we depart.
Shop # 3:
Is a small speciality store from country of origin, where, miracle above miracle we only move out of with a minimal of two tiny bags. Hah. Getting there took twenty minutes, though, and heading back takes the same amount.
Shop # 4:
Big supermarket chain that mostly caters to foreigners. It also holds the DVD rental, where we need to return Surrogates with Bruce Willis (oddly enough for a Bruce film, it was disappointing, darn it) and rent a couple more.
The only things we need to buy in the store are hair paint for our tenant’s care taker, mom, and some sunscreen 30 for our tenant.
Shop # 5:
Big frozen specialty shop fifteen minutes further into the city. It takes a good fifteen minutes to go through it, pack up five big bags and pay before we’re outside and head across the court for some do it yourself articles. *snort*
Shop # 6:
Hardware store. Yeah, now we’re talking. I drool at the power tool section for about five minutes, we buy three boxes of screws, varnish and a shovel. Another twenty minutes lost, darn it; time goes too bloody fast. We were starting to lose steam ‘round here, considering we’re all still coughing occasionally and the weather could have been better. I did enjoy what little sun there was, though.
Shop # 7:
A foray into the massive media store; peering at laptops, blinking at huge TV screens and then heading on over to the back where the TDT machines are stored. What with Spanish TV going digital officially, as of this year, there’s dire need for one of those nifty little machines that just freak me out when they’ve got fifty different brands (and prices) for the same darn thing. Stupid machines.
Nothing gets bought in this store, thank gawd.
Shop # 8:
Luckily there was no need for the pet store today, yay. The smaller pets are still supplied enough to get through to the next shopping day. We did need to check out sales in the third supermarket, because this particular one often has sales on laundry detergent and such.
Only a few items get added to the supplies in the end, seeing as the stuff we need isn’t on sale, and before you know it (sucking orange juice) we’re back on our way to the next place.
Shop # 9:
Fourth supermarket, specializing in mostly fresh produce. Veggies, bread and cereal (the younger sibs’ favorite) are added to the pile; a whole cart full no less, and by this time it is already past five in the afternoon (four and a half hours after our departure) and the smaller stores are open again after the three hour “siesta” break that is normal ‘round these parts.
Shop # 10:
Chinese Euro shop. We love this place, especially for garden stuff, a watch for little sister and cheap underwear that will actually stay in place. Hah. Big brother needs a calendar to keep track of our gardening schedule and I need more paper.
We are also regulars, and the girl behind the counter is always laughing and chatting (in Spanish, even though she knows we seriously suck at it) and offering us a present by the time she’s tallied up our purchases and we’re about ready to depart. Such a nice girl.
Shop # 11:
Last shop of the day, yes, another supermarket; a German one this time, where we buy a nice batch of vegetable seeds, some teas (they have the best chamomile that is still affordable) and a sale on coffee. If all goes well, we won’t need to buy any for a month now. Hah.
And that concludes today’s shopping, thank gawd. Four less than the last two times, and due to a reroute on the way home, (darn road works have been going on for a full year now, darn it!) it took us almost an hour longer than usual.
I can tell you that I was seriously bushed by the time we got home, unloaded the overfull car…we’d actually put down the back couch, leaving only one seat for little sister…and put everything in place. Seriously, I’m amazed I even managed this blog, ‘cause I was looking at the entire writing of it rather bleakly.
Well, I’ve got to go! We’re watching 2012. I’ll let you know if I found it remotely interesting.
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