Song of the day: “Country Roads” by John Denver. I know, it really is an oldie, but I can't help that.
Today's blog is going to be a little short. My computer has broken down, you see, and big brother is trying to fix it as we speak, so to speak...and he just told me that he can't do it. Darn it! I hate it when a computer does that. In particular when it is something extremely silly, like the on button that doesn't work. Aaaargh. Seriously, I get incredibly POed, cranky, PMS and all that crap. I wanna scream, I wanna swear and...well, I just don't like writing on someone else's computer. It's like borrowing underwear or something...ooh, bad example! That's just gross. Forget I said that. Jeez.
Okay, yesterday was a nicely sweltering day that was spent in the full sun, baking my behind...well arms anyway, and the backs of my calves, (my feet were on fire. The good shoes with the insoles that I need get waaaaaayyy too hot!) and anything that wasn't covered by leather, denim or cotton turned to a nice crispy red...or felt that way. Hah. In fact, by the end of the day it wasn't all that bad, really. Just a little darker than usual and more than ready to settled down behind the computer for some REAL work.
Even though I was seriously distracted I did manage three pages by the end of the day (was interrupted by a quick drive to town to pick up Sally, who has a part time job now and needs to be picked up at the end of the day. By then wind had started to blow and the temperatures went down to downright pleasant by then. I could have sat in that wind all night, but of course sleep got precedence.
This morning started early with a dip in the pool (Knight II and Chaos joined me)laundry, tackling spiderwebs and then heading up to tenant's place to do today's bit on her wall. There were sections that had to be glued on the doorposts that we put in the other day, stuff to saw by the storage...which was interesting since the wood just didn't want to get cut until we got creative. Big brother pushed the hardwood slats through while I pressed sideways to keep it tight against the lead beam. I always get tense from working with the big saw table...remember that scene in Saw (one, two, three, four or five...whatever) where someone saws through (length wise, mind you) his arm. Insane, I tell ya. No one in his right mind does that. I mean, really. I saw what a machine like that did to big brother's thumb and finger way back when. *sigh*
We did supper down by the basin. Tenant was right there with us after she and caregiver took a dip in the pool and even though it was a rushed affair, it was a wonderful moment in the day. Then, of course, we had to head for town to pick up the papers for the Opel Astra, and a quick trip to the sea for some exercise. Finally didn't forget to bring my goggles and ended up doing some serious mileage in crawl, and butterfly. The water was incredibly cold, but also wonderful. I enjoyed it.
Well, big brother managed to get my computer on after all, so we're going to do a backup and then see if we can have it fixed tomorrow. It better be, because if they can't fix it I'm going to scream like a girl...or a banshee. Stupid technology. It's a button for crying out loud!
Cooking wise, this afternoon supper consisted of fresh veggies with macaroni, which was wonderful. And tonight I did my first experiment with fish. There might be a party to cater in the near future, so I want to at least be able to make fish. Since I don't know what the stuff's supposed to taste like and since I wasn't going to try to taste it either, tenant gladly offered herself as a test subject. I made two different types and she liked them both, she said. I'll have to experiment some more, of course, but it doesn't seem too big a problem.
The dogs were absolutely insane when we got home, but luckily settled down once the smell of fish filled the air. *sigh*
Ah well, I'm going to see if I can get some more writing done, and then maybe call it an early day. I am a bit tired after that swim and hauling butt up and down the mountain most of the day. Building projects always involves walking, because I always forget to take at least ten things from the carport.
Right, heading out.
Friday, July 8, 2011
Wednesday, July 6, 2011
Change of plans...literally
Music of the day: “Everything for free” by K’s Choice. It’s been a while since I heard it, but I downloaded it yesterday and it was great to hear again. Of course it has been in my head since then, so...well, whatever.
My voice is still acting funny. Seriously, if you didn’t know better, you’d think I’m a chain smoker, or something. If you know the band I mentioned up here...well, my voice sounds just like that at the moment. Hah.
Yep. It’s happened again: There’s a new project. I know, all the old ones ain’t done yet, but it just had to be done. We were about to start on the day when, out of the blue tenant’s new terrace doors were there. Seriously, we thought to just postpone most of those plans until a later time, but there they were, and since we couldn’t stand the idea of tenant spending another dark winter inside her room with windows that were too high to look through from her chair, we decided to just start on it. The place was still a mess from the new floor project anyway.
There we went, breaking open the old wall (I did an almost bounce after kicking at the second beam that refused to budge, but we managed. Yay. It was a mess for sure, but I’ve gotta admit that I could imagine the end result and it’ll be grand. Sure, we’ll need to chop away some rock surfaces, but there’s no rush for that.
So the plan was to take out the old windows, the panels and put in three huge terrace doors with small panes. Now that everything is out, there is so much light in her room that it’s almost like a veranda...which would be awesome. The next best thing is the French doors. It’ll look grand, and I’ll have pictures to prove it. Hah.
There were some mishaps, of course. For instance there was the moment when we discovered that we’d put one of the posts at 87, rather than 78 centimeters. Seriously, we were putting the last post in and discovered that the distance wasn’t right. So we went back to the first one and removed the fill-section we put in there, only to discover that we had made an error with the second post. There was some swearing (big brother) and insane laughter (me) and then we had to change everything back before resetting post number two and three. *sigh*
The concrete grandpa had made, had turned into...well, concrete within the wheelbarrow. Hah. So we decided to just leave it at that and head on down to the basin terrace for some very late cooking (had to skip lunch due to several really embarrassing little miscalculations). Supper was nice, though. Made potato with tomato, onion garlic and a wee bit of cheese. Gawd, I was so stuffed afterwards. I did manage to write a page or two, before it was time to head down into the yard and harvest four pounds of green beans, several peppers and zucchini and watering what needed to be watered...which is a lot since summer is finally here. Yay!
I’m serious, the temperatures are finally in the high nineties and it’s like we’re on vacation, or something. The sun bright, the sky clear and the wind warm. It can be uncomfortable, but I’ve decided to fully enjoy it considering we’re already back to month seven. Before you know it, winter will be here again and I am determined to get as much from summer as I can. It’s days like these that I remember the full attraction of Spain, it is marvelous.
Bit of bad news is that the pool pump gave the spirit yesterday and decided to die on us. It was literally burned through, and we still don’t really know what happened. It might be that somehow it ran dry for a long time, but since that has happened before, I don’t think it’s likely. Ah well, either it gets fixed (we didn’t manage it ourselves) or we need to buy a new one.
Wrote three pages during the course of two writing sessions last night. Not a lot, but progress at least. I discovered that I’m about five weeks into the writing and have already past the half-way-through mark. Yay. Considering that the story is going rather well, I’m going to have to be careful not to overshoot the word count.
Which brings us to today. For some reason I overslept this morning (not smart since it doesn’t improve my mood) and was running behind on everything while I rushed through the morning ritual, took a very necessary dip in the pool...Chaos, Labhana, Gada and Knight II all insisted on a dip too. Poor darlings were really hot after the sweltering night. Hah.
After laundry I headed up to chat with tenant (she had a doctor’s appointment this morning and all was well) and then continue with her room where we proceeded to hang the last post and prepare what we could for pouring the concrete. While big brother did the latter, grandpa (he’d made the concrete) and I sanded, shaved and made the doors the right size (there’s always some of that when you’re putting something new in, mind you) and on the overall were melting right there in the pitiful shade while the sun slid up to its zenith. Gawd, summer. Ya gotta love it!
That done, it was time to clean up and head on down to the basin terrace (it works best this time of year due to the constant breeze there) where we made dinner of green beans with coconut shavings, and baby potatoes with the peel baked in real butter. Yummy.
So, rather than sit, I really didn’t feel like sitting today, I getting a wooden behind from it, you know, I decided to blog standing up straight, and gotta admit that it’s going well. It give the illusion that you’re doing something a little more active than just writing, you know, and since I read that piece where research showed that sitting down for more than three hours a day is bad for your health, I don’t mind this standing bit at all. Hah.
Well, time for me to see if I can fit in a bit of writing yet. There’s the book to finish after all, and...yeah, need to get to that.
My voice is still acting funny. Seriously, if you didn’t know better, you’d think I’m a chain smoker, or something. If you know the band I mentioned up here...well, my voice sounds just like that at the moment. Hah.
Yep. It’s happened again: There’s a new project. I know, all the old ones ain’t done yet, but it just had to be done. We were about to start on the day when, out of the blue tenant’s new terrace doors were there. Seriously, we thought to just postpone most of those plans until a later time, but there they were, and since we couldn’t stand the idea of tenant spending another dark winter inside her room with windows that were too high to look through from her chair, we decided to just start on it. The place was still a mess from the new floor project anyway.
There we went, breaking open the old wall (I did an almost bounce after kicking at the second beam that refused to budge, but we managed. Yay. It was a mess for sure, but I’ve gotta admit that I could imagine the end result and it’ll be grand. Sure, we’ll need to chop away some rock surfaces, but there’s no rush for that.
So the plan was to take out the old windows, the panels and put in three huge terrace doors with small panes. Now that everything is out, there is so much light in her room that it’s almost like a veranda...which would be awesome. The next best thing is the French doors. It’ll look grand, and I’ll have pictures to prove it. Hah.
There were some mishaps, of course. For instance there was the moment when we discovered that we’d put one of the posts at 87, rather than 78 centimeters. Seriously, we were putting the last post in and discovered that the distance wasn’t right. So we went back to the first one and removed the fill-section we put in there, only to discover that we had made an error with the second post. There was some swearing (big brother) and insane laughter (me) and then we had to change everything back before resetting post number two and three. *sigh*
The concrete grandpa had made, had turned into...well, concrete within the wheelbarrow. Hah. So we decided to just leave it at that and head on down to the basin terrace for some very late cooking (had to skip lunch due to several really embarrassing little miscalculations). Supper was nice, though. Made potato with tomato, onion garlic and a wee bit of cheese. Gawd, I was so stuffed afterwards. I did manage to write a page or two, before it was time to head down into the yard and harvest four pounds of green beans, several peppers and zucchini and watering what needed to be watered...which is a lot since summer is finally here. Yay!
I’m serious, the temperatures are finally in the high nineties and it’s like we’re on vacation, or something. The sun bright, the sky clear and the wind warm. It can be uncomfortable, but I’ve decided to fully enjoy it considering we’re already back to month seven. Before you know it, winter will be here again and I am determined to get as much from summer as I can. It’s days like these that I remember the full attraction of Spain, it is marvelous.
Bit of bad news is that the pool pump gave the spirit yesterday and decided to die on us. It was literally burned through, and we still don’t really know what happened. It might be that somehow it ran dry for a long time, but since that has happened before, I don’t think it’s likely. Ah well, either it gets fixed (we didn’t manage it ourselves) or we need to buy a new one.
Wrote three pages during the course of two writing sessions last night. Not a lot, but progress at least. I discovered that I’m about five weeks into the writing and have already past the half-way-through mark. Yay. Considering that the story is going rather well, I’m going to have to be careful not to overshoot the word count.
Which brings us to today. For some reason I overslept this morning (not smart since it doesn’t improve my mood) and was running behind on everything while I rushed through the morning ritual, took a very necessary dip in the pool...Chaos, Labhana, Gada and Knight II all insisted on a dip too. Poor darlings were really hot after the sweltering night. Hah.
After laundry I headed up to chat with tenant (she had a doctor’s appointment this morning and all was well) and then continue with her room where we proceeded to hang the last post and prepare what we could for pouring the concrete. While big brother did the latter, grandpa (he’d made the concrete) and I sanded, shaved and made the doors the right size (there’s always some of that when you’re putting something new in, mind you) and on the overall were melting right there in the pitiful shade while the sun slid up to its zenith. Gawd, summer. Ya gotta love it!
That done, it was time to clean up and head on down to the basin terrace (it works best this time of year due to the constant breeze there) where we made dinner of green beans with coconut shavings, and baby potatoes with the peel baked in real butter. Yummy.
So, rather than sit, I really didn’t feel like sitting today, I getting a wooden behind from it, you know, I decided to blog standing up straight, and gotta admit that it’s going well. It give the illusion that you’re doing something a little more active than just writing, you know, and since I read that piece where research showed that sitting down for more than three hours a day is bad for your health, I don’t mind this standing bit at all. Hah.
Well, time for me to see if I can fit in a bit of writing yet. There’s the book to finish after all, and...yeah, need to get to that.
Monday, July 4, 2011
Shaking...Hah
Song of the day: “What’s a woman” by Vaya Con Dios. I heard it this morning on VH1 and it has been going through my head ever since. Ah, the good old days.
Let’s get to it. I feel a little shaky at the moment, considering I just had a massive scare. Silly me had intended to put my computer on standby while we moved up to the terrace in front of my cabin, rather than the one by the basin, and forgot to save the two pages that I’d written in the two hours down there in the fresh summer breeze. Aaaaargh!!! Seriously, I haven’t made a mistake like that since I lost seventeen pages of “A Deadly Legacy” in ‘98 due to a power outage. Gawd! What a horrible feeling. Even now, my hands are still trembling. I know, it is a weird thing to get upset about, but even though you’d think that you can just rewrite the pages, it just won’t ever be the same again. Somehow you just always keep stumbling over “that lost scene”. Really frustrating. *sigh*
But anyways...for the past two days I’ve been friggin’ sore from the six hour tiling spree, which was followed by the two hour grouting spree, which then was again followed by today’s six hour tiling spree. Seriously, there was a change in plans at the last possible moment, meaning that I couldn’t use the already picked-and-ready earth-red tiles for the finishing edge of tenant’s bedroom. Instead I had to head back to the storage to find out if we could use something else. I ended up working with the last few spotted gray, and light yellow tiles of the floor. This of course meant that I had to measure and cut every single tile in the right size, and then make sure that the finished decorative edge was pointing outward. Have you any idea how much cutting and measuring you have to do on four whole tiles and about six damaged and broken ones to fill a four inch ledge that is about twenty feet long? Well, it took six hours, so, blegh. Luckily it looks good, because otherwise I would be seriously Poed.
Which reminds me, yesterday’s grouting went well. It only took a relatively short time and it really did make the floor look like a whole. The small error I made during laying was still there, but on the overall the whole looks good. Of course the grout work won’t be white for long. It never is. Have you any idea how hard it is to have anything white while you love with several scores of dogs? Impossible! I mean it.
Cooking wise, yesterday was relatively simple. Left over sauce hollandaise mixed with left over pasta and fresh veggies. Nutritional and tasty. Can’t ask for more can you? Today, on the other hand, was an absolute treat. Though I was feeling a tad harried (due to being behind on everything) I did manage to put together a nice batch of baked red beats with potatoes, onion and cheese. Seriously, we ate our way through the entire pan and left only traces of red for the dogs to lick off. Hah. It was delicious, and since it was seven and my breakfast was at eleven, I was friggin’ starving.
While I did the cooking, and before that finished up tiling, and helping tenant to the pool for a dip before she walked down with me (didn’t get there until past six) all refreshed and up for dinner until caregiver returned from her day job.
Yesterday afternoon was spend shaving Nata (golden retriever) who’s now that he’s getting older, less capable of keeping himself clean—strangely enough, we have noticed that as soon as dogs get old, or sick, their fur no longer stays clean. Perhaps it’s a lack of grooming, but I think there is more to it—meaning that we had to do something about the mess on his thighs and chest. So he looks like a badly trimmed poodle at the moment, but at least he’s a lot more comfortable.
I did finally get around to taking my winter sweaters from my wardrobe and stuff them in the storage box under my bed, but I still have horizontal surfaces covered with clean laundry that I really have to put away soon.
This morning I also finally got around to doing some cleaning in the house again. Seriously, in there all the vertical surfaces are the problem. Hah. This morning I rediscovered the redness of the kitchen drawers, the transparency of the glass doors of the storage closet, and that the corners of the house are indeed square...or so the sudden disappearance of spiderwebs showed me. Hah. Afterwards I managed a quick rub-down of the washing machine and the flat surfaces around it. Phew. Glad that is over again.
Took Knight II and Chaos along for a dip in the pool too, since the latter is really bothered by the heat. Chaos was downright uncomfortable during the night. He was crying and didn’t quiet down until I dragged him onto the bed and allowed him to lie in the stream from the fan.
So anyway, I took him and Knight II into the pool. Chaos went into the water like the amphibious tank he is, and when I called Knight II, he took two steps down the stairs (staring at me wide-eyed) and then leaped until his front paws almost speared me. Jeez. I just barely managed to dodge, and then he spent the next two minutes demanding that I keep him in my arms like the puppy he really isn’t. *snort* Seriously, he’ll pull all fours to his body and float against me for eternity if I don’t order him out of the water...looking all insulted, of course. Hah. Idiot!
Be that as it may, I’m going to try to get back into the writing spirit now that the scared-shakes of almost loosing two pages (only lost a few paragraphs after big brother go involved and discovered an unexpected backup hidden in a folder somewhere) and then call it a day.
Let’s get to it. I feel a little shaky at the moment, considering I just had a massive scare. Silly me had intended to put my computer on standby while we moved up to the terrace in front of my cabin, rather than the one by the basin, and forgot to save the two pages that I’d written in the two hours down there in the fresh summer breeze. Aaaaargh!!! Seriously, I haven’t made a mistake like that since I lost seventeen pages of “A Deadly Legacy” in ‘98 due to a power outage. Gawd! What a horrible feeling. Even now, my hands are still trembling. I know, it is a weird thing to get upset about, but even though you’d think that you can just rewrite the pages, it just won’t ever be the same again. Somehow you just always keep stumbling over “that lost scene”. Really frustrating. *sigh*
But anyways...for the past two days I’ve been friggin’ sore from the six hour tiling spree, which was followed by the two hour grouting spree, which then was again followed by today’s six hour tiling spree. Seriously, there was a change in plans at the last possible moment, meaning that I couldn’t use the already picked-and-ready earth-red tiles for the finishing edge of tenant’s bedroom. Instead I had to head back to the storage to find out if we could use something else. I ended up working with the last few spotted gray, and light yellow tiles of the floor. This of course meant that I had to measure and cut every single tile in the right size, and then make sure that the finished decorative edge was pointing outward. Have you any idea how much cutting and measuring you have to do on four whole tiles and about six damaged and broken ones to fill a four inch ledge that is about twenty feet long? Well, it took six hours, so, blegh. Luckily it looks good, because otherwise I would be seriously Poed.
Which reminds me, yesterday’s grouting went well. It only took a relatively short time and it really did make the floor look like a whole. The small error I made during laying was still there, but on the overall the whole looks good. Of course the grout work won’t be white for long. It never is. Have you any idea how hard it is to have anything white while you love with several scores of dogs? Impossible! I mean it.
Cooking wise, yesterday was relatively simple. Left over sauce hollandaise mixed with left over pasta and fresh veggies. Nutritional and tasty. Can’t ask for more can you? Today, on the other hand, was an absolute treat. Though I was feeling a tad harried (due to being behind on everything) I did manage to put together a nice batch of baked red beats with potatoes, onion and cheese. Seriously, we ate our way through the entire pan and left only traces of red for the dogs to lick off. Hah. It was delicious, and since it was seven and my breakfast was at eleven, I was friggin’ starving.
While I did the cooking, and before that finished up tiling, and helping tenant to the pool for a dip before she walked down with me (didn’t get there until past six) all refreshed and up for dinner until caregiver returned from her day job.
Yesterday afternoon was spend shaving Nata (golden retriever) who’s now that he’s getting older, less capable of keeping himself clean—strangely enough, we have noticed that as soon as dogs get old, or sick, their fur no longer stays clean. Perhaps it’s a lack of grooming, but I think there is more to it—meaning that we had to do something about the mess on his thighs and chest. So he looks like a badly trimmed poodle at the moment, but at least he’s a lot more comfortable.
I did finally get around to taking my winter sweaters from my wardrobe and stuff them in the storage box under my bed, but I still have horizontal surfaces covered with clean laundry that I really have to put away soon.
This morning I also finally got around to doing some cleaning in the house again. Seriously, in there all the vertical surfaces are the problem. Hah. This morning I rediscovered the redness of the kitchen drawers, the transparency of the glass doors of the storage closet, and that the corners of the house are indeed square...or so the sudden disappearance of spiderwebs showed me. Hah. Afterwards I managed a quick rub-down of the washing machine and the flat surfaces around it. Phew. Glad that is over again.
Took Knight II and Chaos along for a dip in the pool too, since the latter is really bothered by the heat. Chaos was downright uncomfortable during the night. He was crying and didn’t quiet down until I dragged him onto the bed and allowed him to lie in the stream from the fan.
So anyway, I took him and Knight II into the pool. Chaos went into the water like the amphibious tank he is, and when I called Knight II, he took two steps down the stairs (staring at me wide-eyed) and then leaped until his front paws almost speared me. Jeez. I just barely managed to dodge, and then he spent the next two minutes demanding that I keep him in my arms like the puppy he really isn’t. *snort* Seriously, he’ll pull all fours to his body and float against me for eternity if I don’t order him out of the water...looking all insulted, of course. Hah. Idiot!
Be that as it may, I’m going to try to get back into the writing spirit now that the scared-shakes of almost loosing two pages (only lost a few paragraphs after big brother go involved and discovered an unexpected backup hidden in a folder somewhere) and then call it a day.
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