Floor's in

Song of the day: “Give me love” by Ed Sheeran. Gorgeous song. Heavy, intense, but absolutely beautiful.

First off. It was big brother’s birthday today. Hah. Gawd, we’re getting old. Just yesterday we were teenagers and now he’s galloping towards forty…me too, for that matter, but I’ll always be three years behind big brother in that regard, hah.

But anyway, we didn’t do anything for the occasion, not even pie, or cake, because, let’s face it, big brother hates both. I’ll be making one for my own, of course. I’m thinking a lemon cheese cake, with lemons from our own little tree down in the yard. That sure would be splendid, but we’ll see.

A few of the dogs are not feeling all that well since yesterday. There was some vomiting, shivers and listlessness, and some overall miserable-ness, but they seem to be improving some. Most of them ate again this morning, so they should be fine by tomorrow.

There was the usual stuff, of course. Laundry, feeding the dogs, chores, and me actually managing to squeeze in sweeping the floor of my cabin, which was a friggin’ mess. It didn’t help either that what with the dogs feeling bad there were all sort of unmentionables happening on my bed, which forced me to changed the sheets and blankets twice within six hours, darn it.
Added to that, Knight II was one of the dogs with the shivers, meaning that he had to, come hell or high water, lie against me during the night, making me feel like I’d spend the night on the rack, or something. *sigh*

Headed into the yard for a bit, which was wonderfully warm, since it is out of the wind down there. I found a pumpkin hiding in the bushes, and we watered the young seedlings and plnts. Such a pity that there is relatively little to do in the yard a the moment, because the sunshine really is best down there.

The kitchen. It’s going slow, but it’s getting there. We’ve poured most of the floor now, along with two steps. Only one more level to pour, which is where the fridge and closet will be once we’re done. It’s looking good, nice and smooth, and parts of the wall are up already too. Lots to do still, but we’re getting there.

Got to haul stuff for it, which made for excellent exercise. Big 20 pound blocks of concrete, wheelbarrows of cement, rocks and shovels full to take from one spot to the next, balancing rather precariously at times. Hah.

Went for a jog today, which was going really well, right up until I put my foot down wrong, which made it nothing, if not excruciating to get all the way back to the car. *sigh* Definitely taking an Ibuprofen tonight before I go to bed, jeez.
At least I did some jogging. The rest is really not important for as far as I’m concerned.

There were logs to split, which made for good exercise as well. Still have plenty of that to do, so we’ll get around to it one of these days, I’m sure.

Editing is going slow at the moment, but steady still. Not a day goes by when nothing gets done on the book, but at the moment we're not managing our usual ten pages a day. Way too many distractions.

Big brother cooked supper yesterday, spinach with cheese, of course, while today we decided to fry cauliflower and French fries. Yummy. Did manage to get another piece of meat down my throat this afternoon, which was highly necessary. A little bigger than the last time, but still not a whole piece, darn it. It’s just too hard. The satay sauce helped, though.

Well, as for the rest, I can’t remember anything else. Dratted memory. Doesn’t work all that well most of the time, now does it.
Do know that the weekend is there again, so that means we’re going to have to prepare for market tomorrow, and then spent Sunday in Marbella again…weather permitting.

Ah. No matter. Time to get to bed. The day was a long one.

Bar fight!

Song of the day: “We are young” by Fun. I always see the clip in my head when this song starts tumbling inside my brain.

First off, for the past few days we’ve been trying wean Tadaika off big brother, so she can start sleeping in my cabin. Seeing as I’ve got a lot less dogs than him these days, we discussed which one would mind least. Poor Tadaika got elected. She likes my dogs, has spent an occasional hour in my cabin already and…has been miserable for three nights in a row now. Pitiful darling. She knows how to milk it, I tell ya. She’ll whine for about half an hour, walk back and forth through my cabin, try to climb out over the fence, go through the window, and then, after three times of me hauling her back on the bad, she finally goes to sleep. And the looks she gives me when I don’t let her go…sooooo sad. Poor girl. I just hope that she manages to adjust.

We had a big rainstorm yesterday, which meant getting very wet while I went down to the house for the morning chores. By the time we had to feed the dogs, the weather cleared enough or us to do it outside, so there wasn’t a real problem with that. It did save us from having to go in the yard to water the plants.

There were of course two edits during the course of the past couple of days. We came across some hiccups, which made our progress rather slow. Seriously, there were some intense discussions again, some arguments, and some heated snarling, but we got through them again, thankfully. Have brought the page count of “done” up to 226, so we’re on schedule at least.

Worked on my kitchen, yay. Yesterday we put in the outer edge foundation, which was nice work to do with the sun coming out later in the day. Same goes for today, while the wind was fierce today, working on the kitchen, pouring concrete, was a nice and warm occupation, since it was in the lee of the wind and in the full sunshine. Got the first level poured, and it’s looking good. Now we’re getting somewhere, yeah!

Had to go out today to pick up a donation and picked up some groceries at the same time.
Took way too long, of course, in particular since afterward I still had to cook. No disaster, and not taking as long as I’d feared because I could work with yesterday’s leftovers of cauliflower and potatoes.

Yesterday we had a big fight between the dogs. Middle sister came outside rather unexpected, so there was a collision with her boxer Groovy. I was just a second too late to grab Knight II, who grabbed first Jelly, and then Fortuyn before big brother managed to jump in the fray and sent him up. As is usual for the big lug, (whoever says that Great Danes possess elegance, is nuts) he did more damage to himself than Jelly (Fortuyn ended up with a cut in his neck) by cutting up his paws and such. Gawd, he’s such a klutz, not to mention more enthusiastic than he should be when it involves fighting. Had to wedge him against the wall to keep him from going at it again, and then drag him to my cabin for punishment. Jeez. Spent the next half hour cleaning up cuts and scrapes with a variety of dogs. *sigh
Seriously, if you’d have seen the enthusiasm with which the dogs pounced on Groovy, and each other, you’d have thought that there was an old fashioned bar fight going on. Aaaargh. Insanity!

Tomorrow we might be able to get in some wood chopping with the axe, which will be a nice form of exercise for as far as I’m concerned. I need some, I tell ya, and jogging is not working at the moment, if for no other reason than the fact that it takes too much time. Have less than three weeks until the competition after all. *sigh* Still going to try to fit a run in one of these days, though.

Well, that’s it for me, for now. I’m just about ready to call it a day.

It's that time of the year

Song of the day: “Love is in the air” by…gawd, I don’t remember his name. I just know that the song was for Strictly Ballroom. Fun song, even if he does have a bit of a wonky voice.

First off, let me just get this one out of the way:

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!!

*phew* Almost forgot it, but I didn’t. Kudos for me. Hope you’re having a splendid one.

Right. Let’s get to it then….

Well, today was a total bust, so I’m just going to ignore if for no other reason than the fact that we didn’t manage to do much today. Only thing we did was the piping for the future kitchen, which wasn’t much. Normal stuff, too of course, hauling some wood for the stacks, laundry, dog food, and cooking, but nothing remotely fun, so let’s turn this toward yesterday’s market which…well, which wasn’t a big success either, I fear.

Packing-wise, it was a lot easier seeing as big brother opted to go along. Loading, and unloading was a matter of an hour, rather than two in that regard. Had it all set up before noon, in fact, and we did manage to get home before sunset. Yay. But that was the only real plus to yesterday.

Not that I minded, on the overall my day wasn’t a bad one. We sold for the wondrous amount of two and a half bucks, and my day was…well, okay. Hah. The market was a slow one. If there were fifty customers it was a lot. Did manage to get some nice chats in with Dutch and German folk. There was a couple, who were vacationing these parts, who loved dogs (they weren’t in the market for a dog bed, regretfully, because their dog was killed through the means of poison) and we ended up chatting for a long time about how to train dogs.

Then with a father and son, who were there enjoying the day with friends and family and their little girl. Lots of laughter there, which was fascinating to observe. Big brother and I took a couple of hours in the middle of the day to sit down in the back of the restaurant where we edited over coffee. Managed about five pages, which wasn’t too bad, all things considered.

Also had a chat with the nice lady who organizes the market. She was a little down, as is the case these past few times. She’s taking it rather harshly that the customers are not coming, and since that makes the stand holders unhappy, she gets tossed in the middle a little. Not her fault that folks are watching their pennies, if you ask me, but I can relate. She is putting lots of work into it.

But anyway, afterward it was rushing to get to town in time for the weekly donation bit. Still haven’t managed to arrange it for a different. Well, we did sorta, seeing as Saturday we had another. That guy I met at the market the other week, who wanted to get rid of his stuff before moving back to the UK? Well, I got around to calling him, and we made an appointment at the mall for him to give over his stuff.

Gawd, that guy had some stories. Turns out he’s been away from the UK since ’66. And has basically traveled all over the place. First off he traveled all the way to Timbuktu, and then hitchhiked from England to South Africa. It took him a year, but he got stuck over there in…Mozambique, I think, for the following twenty year.
Then, he somehow ended up here in Spain where he put up this cute little business of designing terrace gardens, which he also maintained. And now he’s returning to the UK to take care of his 90 year old mum, which he feels he should do (as is the right thing, of course) but which he also dreads since he hasn’t been in the colder countries for more than thirty years. Yikes.

Did have a very good edit day on Saturday. It made yesterday’s five pages less disastrous for sure. I think we managed a total of twenty pages, so we’re not actually behind with today’s nine. Yay.

Cooking…well, I didn’t do any yesterday. We settled for fried stuff. But Saturday I made an Indian dish that didn’t work out the way I’d planned, and today there was a rather nice pasta fungi that went down really well.

Digging was part of Saturday, preparing for pouring the concrete foundation (which we didn’t get around to today, darn it). Finished digging the gutter for the tubing, set the concrete blocks of the wall in place (I carried two up while big brother used the wheelbarrow…almost wrecking it…with the remainder) and basically scraped as much rock as possible away.

Still haven’t gotten around to cleaning Chaos’ ear, nor Carla’s. That is something we’ll have to do tomorrow…after the edit. *sigh*

Weather wise we’ve been very lucky (except yesterday, since Funny Beach Marbella was completely in the fog) with clear skies and a warm sun. Strangely enough the valley has been mostly obscured by this thick blanket of clouds that lay on the hills and valleys like a thick fog. Up here, we’re not bothered by it, but the village, town and the sea have been utterly obscured for days. The only thing visible is Africa. The mountains are higher than the clouds, which makes for a rather splendid view. Jutting peaks of green in a blanket of cotton. Fascinating. Reminds me of horror movies, really. You know, the Mist, the Fog. Ya can just imagine dangerous creatures lurking within, or some sort of acid raining down and eating your face right off, or something along those horrible lines……I know, I have a rather gross imagination going there. Hah.

Well, that’s about it. I’m sure I’m missing something vital, but since you won’t know if I do, we’ll just leave it at this. *snort*

No apocalypse yet

Song of the day: “It’s the end of the world as we know it” by REM, of course. Strange…well not really, to have that today. It’s not like I put much stock in an actual “end of the world” thing, but still, it’s been in the news so much that it does pop up every now and then.

As for it being the end of the world. I gotta say that it was a beaut. The sky was blue and clear, the sun bright and shiny and the temps downright wonderful. Didn’t even need to wear a thick sweater today. Wonderful.

Personally, I would have hoped…ehm, thought, that the day that would be the end of the world, would be a dreary one. You know what I mean right? Threatening clouds, howling winds and rain lashing at you. There’d a heavy rumble in the air, something electric and dangerous, while in the distance you’d see the sea churn magnificently.
Then just as you think it can’t get any worse, the sky will become darker and in the distance you hear a massive boom before everything goes…well, ya get my meaning.
None of that…so far anyway. Hah.

But okay, let’s stick with reality for now. Yesterday, what the heck happened yesterday?
Oh yeah, we chopped wood yesterday. Got most of the tree processed into manageable bits for grandpa to saw to pieces.

There was garbage to load. Didn’t get around to that much the past few days, so it was a nice big load that we had to bring to the local landfill later on. Took a while to get it all in the car, but we managed it before our visitors arrived. Liane and her boyfriend came over, with King, one of the dogs we sometimes have staying here, so he kept us company up in the old horse paddock while we processed the wood.

Had two more digging sessions for the kitchen, of course. Not a lot of progress, since we’re still in that stage where you have to measure everything out twice, and then again. Seems like it takes forever and ever, but such are the breaks, I guess. Nothing to do about it. It’ll take as long as it’ll take.

Also had two ventures into the yard involving some serious gardening. Had to fertilize the little seedlings that are not at all in a rush to start growing. There was watering to do, planting lettuce seedlings, and building several reed fences to keep the dogs from wrecking the young plants and the gutters we created for proper watering.

The normal stuff had to be done too, of course. Laundry, dog feeding, and cooking. The latter involved broccoli, cauliflower and potatoes with a nice creamy herbal sauce…well, it did yesterday anyway, while today we went for something Indian, which didn’t work out as well as I’d planned, mostly because the spices I got weren’t the ones I needed.

Edits went really well the past couple of days. Shot right past the halfway mark, bringing us to somewhere around 185, I think, which isn’t bad seeing as we’re still almost three weeks away from the deadline. Keep your fingers crossed.

Poor Chaos has an ear infection again, I had planned to clean it today, and then didn’t get around to it darn it. Guess I’ll have to do it tomorrow, which is going to be tricky considering I have an appointment with that guy from the market who is very kindly donating his stuff to us for the dogs.

Well, that’s it for today. It’s past midnight, so unless the Mayans meant only the 21st 2012 up there in south America, the world is still here. Ain’t it grand? We get to mess about a little longer yet. Hah.

Kitchen stuff

Song of the day: “Bruises” by Train and Ashley Monroe. Still cute, and easy to get stuck with.

Yeah, long day. I was a bit under the weather yesterday so I went to bed early and got up at seven thirty this morning so we could get an early start on the edit. As to yesterday…it was a busy day.

Started off early, with me and big brother heading out to town to drop the car off at the garage. They warned that they probably couldn’t work on it, since the receptionist was out sick and the second mechanic was out to hospital, and our mechanic couldn’t bleed the brakes on his own, so unless he could find someone to help him, it wasn’t going to work until the next morning.

Ah well, we had to go out to see Sally at hospital. Drove to Marbella, headed for internal medicine, only to discover that she wasn’t on ward where she was supposed to be. The nurses had no idea whom I was talking about and referred me back to the ground floor, the information desk. So it was back down the stairs (I was starting to turn red like a lobster) and to the desk where I spoke with this nice, very, very metro dude who spoke only a little bit of English, but who referred me back to the ER where she had apparently spent the majority of the night.
She was all confused when I got there. We talked a little, I asked her how she was doing, and she was all stoic and distracted. Had to leave her after five minutes, due to her not being in a room but in an observation hall. The nurse finally took pity on me, gave me Sally’s future room number before she sent me out again.
By the time we finally got back to the car, my foot was about ready for amputation, jeez! I’d put on wrong shoes, I tell ya, they were way too hard for my friggin’ insole, and then the two mile walk back and forth, around and up and down. Gawd.

On our way back we took a little side trip to the big DIY in Marbella, got some ecological seeds and then afterward stopped at Funny Beach, so big brother would know what it looked like.
Once at home, the fun started for real for me. Yep. We changed clothes, got out the axes, the chainsaw and started on the tree up by the storage which was getting way too big. Cut down two of the big trunks, and processed that so grandpa could saw it up later on the big saw table.

Later I was feeling pretty bad, so we only managed about five pages in the edit before I gave up for bed.

This morning, well, there was the six page edit followed by the normal chores, of course, very fascinating, as you know. Then, after feeding the dogs, we managed another two page before it was time to start working.

Cousin Ed took her turn to visit with Sally today, so big brother and I could start working on digging more of the future outside kitchen. Got some good digging done, along with figuring out the how, when and whys of the future days.
It is taking forever, but such things can’t be rushed, in particular not when you’re in the middle of a dead-lined edit.

Cousin Ed came home with the latest. Turns out Sally’s present problem is thrombosis and diabetes, meaning she will have to go on even more medication, darn it.

Had to stop at four because we had to go to town to pick up the Land Rover. Little brother and sisters dropped us off at the garage. So, I was curious and asked our mechanic if he ever taught folks to work on cars, and guess what? Turns out he does, and when they relocate to a bigger place, he will let me know when he starts new lessons. Yay. And he doesn’t even charge for it. So that’s a double yay. Hah.

But anyway, we picked up the Land Rover after I gossiped a little with the receptionist. Which is always fun. Once at home, with a new load of food donations from that little market of our friend, I quickly cooked dinner of chard with noodles, and then went down for some more edits. Added another four pages, so our quota was made today. Yay.

Which brings us to now, with me being more than ready to call it a night. My foot still isn’t happy with me, but I gave it some rest today, so I’ve been a good girl. Knight II on the other hand wasn’t I had to redo his “sock” poor darling. He has a licking obsession, I tell ya.

I should take out some time tomorrow to clean my cabin, because let’s face it, it’s a pigsty. *sigh*

Too short days

Song of th day: “Rapper’s delight” by the Sugar Hill Gang. Cool song, in particular when you’re digging, and need to walk to and fro the wheelbarrow over uneven patches of ground. It made for quite a sight, I tell ya, and I assure you that I made very sure that no one was around to see it. Hah. Good song to swing to. Made digging a lot nicer.

But I’m getting ahead of myself. Saturday’s first, then Sunday, and then, of course, today. *sigh*
Well, the usual stuff, naturally. Laundry, dog food, the feeding as much as the preparing, followed by editing.

Managed only a few pages on Saturday, which was a pain in the behind since also I wouldn’t manage a lot on market day, right? But anyway, after the edit (strangely enough like before, Saving Nina makes us break out in the occasional argument) we had to do some minor repairs in the house.

While I was doing the digging, big brother worked on the trunk of the eucalyptus tree, going through roots and in the end just wrenching the darn thing out while Cousin Ed and I loaded up the trailer for market day. Afterward big brother and I spent some time cutting wood up by the storage with the chainsaws. Got quite a bit done before it was time to head out for the food donation for the doggies. Got a good load, thanks to the drug rehab place. *sigh*

Once home we dined on French fries and other fried stuff, which went down well. Am glad to say that at the end of the day we did manage to reach our daily goal of ten pages. Yay. Which is not something I can say about Sunday which was of course spent at the market.

Started the day with a weird dream about us having to dig this massive, almost giant tree out of a pile of gravel. Where that came from I don’t know, but seriously, it was downright weird.

Yep, selling wise it wasn’t a bad day, but regretfully with today’s economy folks are in no big rush to buy anything significant. Lots of interest, lots of touching, talking and looking, but buying…? Nope. *sigh* Ah well, at least we made our expenses, and I did manage to add another two pages to the sci-fi story I’m working on.

Had a wonderful chat with this older English guy. Met him several times already, and we got to talking about how he was going back to England because his mom was getting on in years and needed help. For that reason he was on the market, trying to get rid of some of his stuff, rather than toss it away. He, and two of his friends (Austrian and Denish) decided that he would like to donate his stuff to us rather than bother standing on the market again.

He gave me his card so I could give him a ring next week and meet up somewhere to get his stuff loaded up. Since he’s a nice dude, I didn’t mind going with that arrangement.

There might be troubles up ahead for the Funny Beach market, because the customers aren’t coming in the amounts they were hoping for. There is already talk of bringing it down to once a month, which would be a pity, considering it is such a nice place. Ah well, we’ll see.

My friggin’ foot was killing me at the end of the day, but then what else is new, right? Kids that kept falling into our baskets with small toys were a wonderful distraction, though. They are just not resistant against that. Hah. Even sold a few, yay.

No more fun stuff to tell, since once we got home big brother and I headed out again immediately for a donation in town. I know. Shouldn’t do those on Sundays. *sigh* It wasn’t much, but what the hey, bits and pieces will get you there.

Had to phone the garage this morning to let them know that I couldn’t come in today. I totally forgot that Sally had to go to hospital for chemo, so I couldn’t drop the Land Rover off. They were understanding about it, and I really do have to start remembering not to pick Monday’s for the garage because I can’t cancel during the weekends because they’re closed then. Meaning I have to wait ‘till the last possible moment, darn it. I hate that. But they said it was okay to bring the car in tomorrow instead, so it’s okay.

There were the normal chores, followed by helping tenant while caregiver was out with Sally to hospital. Once I’d set her up with breakfast and coffee, big brother and I went to work at the edit again and managed about four pages before chores of the day demanded our attention.

First there was tenant to walk down to the house since she was going to visit with mom for the day.

Lots of digging afterward (involving Rapper’s delight, hehehe) and figuring out how much further we have to go. And then going up to see how we’re going to do the counters, which materials we’ll be using and all that jazz. Very exciting, all, despite the fact that the days just seem to be too short these days. *sigh*

Did cooking. Pumpkin with vegetable mix, on chickpea patties. Need the nutrients, and the taste is pretty good to boot. Had to interrupt the cooking session to pick up tenant and bring her back to her place. Once she was set up with food, (later I had to help her to bed too, since caregiver was still out) big brother and I got our own portions and got back to work on the edit once more…I know, I know, so boring eh, all that editing, but at the moment that is really part of our daily efforts…less than a month now until the competition. I would like to say I’m excited, or nervous, but I’m not. I’m not going to waste time on hoping. We’re going to see one way or other. Hah.

Then tonight, while writing this blog, well, close to midnight really, caregiver came home, informing us that Sally was going to have to stay at the hospital again, due to a very slight fever…which is why they spent the majority of the day in the waiting room of the ER. Bet that drove them bonkers.

Nasty bit of news is that Knight II's front left paw is now swollen. I don't what he did, where, or how, but he makes me want to scream. I should just strangle him, the idiot, with his crappy immune system Grrrr.
Well, that’s it for me. I’m off to bed.

50 yard sprint. Yay!

Song of the day: “Perhaps perhaps perhaps” by Doris Day, duh!
Good song, but I do have it a lot in my head, which could get annoying if it lasts too long.

Right. The past couple of days. I really gotta start doing something about this brain of mine so I can remember stuff better. Need that diary again…

Okay, woke semi-on-time yesterday, which is a problem lately, considering my alarm is acting wonky again. It fell the other night, so now, every once in a while, it stops running, darn it.

As is usual at the moment, the day started with taking the visiting dogs for a walk. They’re really used to it at the moment, are bouncing and barking when I let them out in the morning and take them for a walk…over coffee, of course. Can’t be without coffee doing that, or the laundry that follows. Thinking about it, that is a perfectly fine description for today and yesterday, including feeding the dogs and the two hour edit that followed.

Yesterday’s edit was really good, by the way. Managed to make our way through twenty pages during the course of two sessions. While today we added another fourteen pages to the hole, bringing us close to one third of the edit.

Spent some time in the yard, of course, watering stuff, searching for bugs, which was vastly relaxing. Couldn’t do much for the outside kitchen yesterday, seeing as we had to go out to do some groceries. That took quite a while, in particular since we had to go to the vegetable distribution center to get our load of veggies or the dogs, and some for ourselves, which are way cheaper than at the supermarket, which is awesome.

Cooked supper once we got home, which involved the newly bought carrots and potatoes which made for a great mix of food, which fell on the heavy side.
Good though it might be, today I opted to prepare pumpkin soup, which is something Sally likes a lot, and tenant, who both enjoyed it…me too for that matter.

Today we did manage work a little on the outside kitchen. Did some serious digging, in particular for the foundation, and removing rocks which I’ll use for the wall, later on. While cousin Ed and I worked on that, big brother dug, chopped, and wrenched out the eucalyptus tree trunk that was left from the one we cut down the other day. Took him quite some time, but by the time I’d picked my kitchen windows, he had it done.

Had to go to the vet tonight, where a massive bill still needs to be paid, but of which at least paid part again. *sigh* Took Knight II along, because afterward we headed for our usual spot to do some jogging. Went well today (also for Knight II, of course), I even managed a fifty yard sprint full out. Yay! Not bad, eh? And I think that the fact that I managed to choke down a small slice of beef again, this afternoon, helped with the jog. I hate to admit it, but red meat does give the body more energy.

According to the weather forecasts Sunday’s going to be a rainy day, which is a pain in the behind in regard to the outdoor, Funny Beach market. Supposedly it is going to be a special day, with lots of events, so if it goes through that would be splendid. It’s looking bleak though, which means I might be going to mom’s market to see if I can get a 2nd hand chainsaw if it rains.

Hmmm. Well, that about sums it up. I’ll be keeping track (with photos) of the kitchen project so that I can give y’all a full update once it’s done. That’s it, I’m heading out for some zzzzzs. The day’s been a long one.

Making progress

Song of the day: “Give me Love” by Ed Sheeran. Song is totally stuck n my head ever since I discovered it yesterday. Rather wonderful…but then, I do like Sheeran’s songs a lot.

Okay…I have no memory of what I did yesterday. Lemme get my diary to check...well, there was laundry of course. When is there ever no laundry, right. Moving along. There was dog feeding, of course, both yesterday and today, of course. Same goes for editing sessions, which were done (today and yesterday again) over breakfast. Better to use the time as effectively as possible. Were running way behind, but got a good session done, on the overall. Managed a total of eleven pages, which isn’t bad at all, since edits have a tendency to go incredibly slow.

Did manage to clear away some of the piles of clean laundry that has been getting higher and higher in my cabin over the past few weeks. I should be doing way more in there, but let’s face it. I walk in there at the end of the day, drop into a semi-dead state the moment I hit my pillow, and get up to stumble out again in the morning. Hah.

But anyway, yesterday afternoon was mostly spent out in the yard, which was wonderful since the temps were a lot higher down there, then up by the carport.
While big brother planted tiny cabbage seedlings, and Cousin Ed tackled the morning glory vines, and Grandpa turned earth, I was set to work to build reed fences to keep the friggin’ dogs from going through it. Fortuyn, Tadaika, Gadah. They all love going through freshly turned earth and lying in it. Grrr.

Planted about fifty seedlings, dragged out a lot of vines, but there’s still plenty to do down there. Around five the temps started to drop drastically, so we headed back up. Part of the reason was because we were going to pick up a load of rocks (grandpa needs it to build a storage for the garbage up at his place) and to go for a jog. For the first time in more than two months, I think. Didn’t go splendid, but also not horribly. My foot didn’t kill me, but it wasn’t playing nice either. Still, the rest of me felt nice and limber afterward, which is all that counts in the end, right?

As for today. I had a late start. I friggin’ forgot to set my alarm, meaning I didn’t get up until nine thirty. The dogs were a nuisance all through the night. For some reason Chaos thought it a good idea to lie down there where I was supposed to sleep, meaning I was bent like a pretzel most of the night. Painful, I tell ya.

So after today’s edit, and those pesky little chores I mentioned earlier, we got to work on…yes, hold your breath…my outside kitchen!!! Yay!
Broke ground, so to speak. Got interrupted by tenant, who I walked down to visit with mom while the younger sibs went out to the movies.
Got a lot of the digging done. Still need to do more, but the beginning is there. We had some debate going as to the size. I don’t want it to small, since sometimes we’ll have to work in it with more people, but big brother doesn’t want it too big. Little does he know, right?

I cut the dog veggies this evening, my turn and everything. Got a nice batch going, a mix that the dogs will appreciate.
Afterward I got to work on our own supper, leaving big brother to light up the dog food. Made the same as yesterday. Asian stir fry which is so wonderfully easy. Not to mention nice.

Well, I’m going to cut this short, it’s late, and I wanna be in bed on time, so I can get started on the edit earlier tomorrow. Don’t like spending too much daylight hours, which is what happened today and yesterday, where I was constantly behind on everything. Ah well, no matter. We’re 76 pages in the edit now, so we’re making proper progress. Yay.

Okay, that’s it. Signing off. Move along. Nothing more to see here. Hah.

Blindsided

Song of the day: “Sympathy for the devil” by Guns ‘n roses. I know. They’re not the original band, but this is the version I always hear at the end of “Interview with the Vampire”, and it is perfect there.

Sooooo. Another weekend gone. Stuff happened, of course, but as usual it is late while I write this and my mind’s pretty much mush. Hmmm.

Oh yeah, Saturday afternoon was the foray to town to meet with the guy who’d paid that deposit on one of the dog beds. We’d been holding on to the thing ever since (had decided to wait two more weeks in fact) when suddenly he phoned to ask if we still had his basket. Yep. Since I had to go to town anyway, we agreed to meet in front of the mall.
Big brother and I arrived a little early. We had to be in the big supermarket and by the time we came out, I saw the guy…or at least someone I thought looked like him. He and his girlfriend were standing on one part of the stairwell, I on the other, so I called out the dude’s name and saw him take a moment before recognition hit.
Had my hand out and everything to shake on it, but before I knew what he was up to, he moved in for a hug and a kiss on both cheeks that totally took me by surprise. First one was about eight inches off the mark, and the second one almost had us bump noses before he scraped the stubbles on his cheek over mine (ouch!). Seriously, I was considerably blindsided by that one, hah. Spoke to him a total of five minute once, some odd two or three months ago and there he was, dragging me into a hug. Jeez. That’s the Spanish for you, I guess. They’re very expressive that way. *sigh*
Next, he absently introduced his girlfriend to me, and then followed me to the car where big brother was waiting for us with the dog bed. The transfer was made, me the money, they the basket and five minutes later I was laughing in the car, relating the event to big brother.

Gawd, some odd five years ago I would have been mortified, not to mention red like a lobster, but now I could laugh heartily at the event…same happened the other day when I brought Liane’s car to the garage so it could be serviced. The English speaking mechanic wasn’t there, so there I was, looking at the very round and friendly and expectant face of the Spanish one. I could not think of a single Spanish word, and, looking at his face, I promptly burst out laughing, apologizing for not knowing what to say. Luckily most of it had already been explained to him, so we could in the end agree that he would phone as soon as the car was done.

That turned out to be sooner than expected, and because his was not actually a full work day, we had to cut short our editing session to go pick up the blue Land Rover. There was something about the car computer, for which he asked us to come back on Monday so he could do a proper diagnostic on it. *sigh* Sure. It’s not like we have anything better to do. Hah.

Sunday. Yep. You guessed it. Market day. Not a bad one again. Sold two big products and some small 2nd hand stuff, which didn’t make it big bucks, but enough to make it worth our while.
I often hear folks complain about the unloading and loading on Market day and I don’t get it. On the most part, that is the best thing about the whole market day debacle. At least you’re actively doing something when you’re loading or unloading. Seriously, the rest of the day you’re just standing there (if you’re lucky, you’re chatting with someone) waiting for someone to come and buy something. Considering our biggest attraction are dog beds, quilts and purses, we don’t cause big runs. Most folks take a few bucks to a market like that, so most of ‘m are not prepared at all for a big expense. Ah well. They’ll just have to get to know us, I guess.

Starting to recognize the regular stand holders like ourselves, which is fun, because you get to chat with them, compare notes, so to speak and ask pesky questions about where they come from, what they usually “do” and where they’ve been etc. etc. It’s fun.

We were late getting home yesterday afternoon (don’t actually know why since we started loading the same time as usual), but big brother had made supper with leftovers from the day before, allowing me to eat quickly before we had to head out again for a donation in town…we really should start thinking of not doing those on Sunday’s anymore.

What else.
Right. There was the big trailer to unload of sand still in there from working in the mountains on the terrace. The rainy day in-between hadn’t allowed for it. Saturday morning turned out to be bright and clear, though, so there was plenty to do in open air. One of which was loading up for the market, and later going out for another donation…the food one. It comes from the drug rehab place where they need to get rid of the overdue dates. Works just fine for the dogs, of course.
Were on the late side, but got more than enough to last us through several days.

There were the normal chores like laundry, cooking, and feeding the dogs. I did some writing still, mostly because without big brother the edit hasn’t got much use so I used an hour at the market to sit somewhere private and type away the time. Also this morning, partly due to the fact that big brother was distracted and working on the big house computer to see if he could get it to function again. Took him hours, so I got several more pages done, rather than editing.
Managed only a few of that, since we had to change a full paragraph which took absolutely forever. What is it about Saving Nina that makes us so friggin’ picky. We got into quite a “discussion” during the episode, I tell ya, and took almost three hours for only two pages. Insanity. Grrr.

Got the info as to how much the repairs of our Land Rover’s brakes will be. First round of chats gave a price of 335 bucks, which gave me heart palpitations. Second round, after a talk with the mechanic about how we were going to have to postpone that ‘till next month at the very least, brought the much more doable news of 215 bucks. *phew* Still almost half my salary, but what the heck.

Went into the yard for about an hour today. Didn’t have much time due to the appointment for the blue Land Rover’s diagnostics session, but did manage to whack some odd six (or so) caterpillars trying to molest our cabbage plants. They’re not doing well this year…except for the ones all the way down in the yard, which are doing splendid. Wonder what that is all about.

Other than that…well, BLANK! No matter. Almost two whole pages, so that’s more than enough. Gotta hit the sheets and catch me some Zzzzzzs.

Project pics

Song of the day: "I hope you dance" by Leann Womack. Splendid song to have tumbling through your head, thank you very much.

Today was utterly boring. Was in the car most of the day, went to town twice, and the village too, so let's do something fun and do a pic update. Yay!

The project.

Day one:
Clearing the ground and starting on the pillar.


Pillar done. Cute, right?


Day two:
Doing the woodwork at home.


Day three:
Putting the beam up.


Then the whole lot.


Day four:
Putting on the ceramic plating.


And then pouring the first layer.


Day five:
Putting on the mold.


Pouring the floor and smoothening it.


Day six:
Et voila! There was a massive cleanup involved on this one


Day seven:
The future terrace. Digging out the square and pouring a layer of concrete.


Day eight:
Putting in the tiles. Only managed halfway due to planning bits that took more time than anticipated. Killed my knees despite the pillow. Hah.


Day nine:
*sigh* This was yesterday, where we finished the project and cleaned the whole lot up. Long day, yet not as long as I feared.


To be on the safe side we'd taken an extra load of sand but luckily we didn't need it.

I kinda like the end result. Very rustic, fitted in a way that makes it seem like it's been there always, which is the best thing of construction for as far as I'm concerned. On the most part I even like to use 2nd hand materials that date back to the same time as when the building was constructed, but you can't have everything, I guess. Hah.


What do you think? He makes it look like art, doesn't he? Hah.


Well, that's that. Not a bad job, I gotta say. Nothing like standing there at the end of it and seeing what it turned into. Went back a gazillion times to check that we got all the tools, all the mess, but you just never know if you missed something. We'll find out, I'm sure.

What else? Well, Knight II went to the vet today, and she declared that I was no longer under any obligation to bring him. What's left of the wound will just take time, and until it is completely shut, he'll have to continue carrying the sock. *sigh* The bugger got rid of one yesterday and within half an hour he had licked up blood again. I could strangle that dog sometimes. *sob* It'll take time, according to the vet, and regretfully he'll make sure that it'll take as long as possible. Grrr. It's a good thing I love him to pieces, otherwise I might strangle him. Hah.

Manni, little sister's Cocker Spaniel had to be operated on his underdeveloped eye today. Poor doggie had an infection (we were warned for that when little sister adopted him with the bad eye)that made the eye bug, so it had to be removed.

There was cooking, there was laundry, there was editing and writing to be done and dogs to pet. I know, fascinating, right? No matter, though. Such is life as I know it, and I better darn well enjoy it.

Well, this should suffice for today's blog, right?

Back to work

Song of the day: Hmmm. Some Sinatra Christmas song, I think. I can’t remember the title now, darn it. It was going through my friggin’ head the entire morning, driving me absolutely bonkers. *sigh*

Not a lot going on, thankfully. Had another much-needed nap yesterday, which was a very deliberate decision on my part in light of tomorrow. Yep. Weather permitting, big brother and I will be heading out to Liane’s again, to finish up the terrace. It’ll be cold, it will be windy, but since the predictions are declaring a worsening in the weather conditions for the next ten days, it is our last chance to finish.

So, for that reason I had a solid nap, and decided not to mind oversleeping this morning because sleep, after all, is the best thing for the immune system. Still, it made me way behind on schedule, which always annoys me. Hah.

But anyway, yesterday involved walking the visiting dogs in the morning, piles and piles of laundry, and heading into the yard for a bit to check the cabbage plants. There is some leaf damage, and I found some caterpillars, so that means I’m going to have to go down there more often to save the poor plants from being eaten alive. It was rather wonderful being down there, out of the wind and in the full sunshine. Heck, I ended up taking off both my sweaters and walked around in a double T for a bit. It was bliss, I tell ya.

Also to the opportunity to put Carla on the table and shave off all the clusters of dirty hair. Since we were at it anyway, we cleaned his ears, and Labhana’s too, and Chaos’, who all have a persisting infection going there.

I have (semi) decided to join Amazon’s ABNA competition. Now isn’t that exciting? Sure, I’m not the biggest fan of competitions, but what the heck. Ya gotta take a chance sometimes, and I did promise that if Spain was allowed to join, I would do it, so there you go. I’ve gotta. Now if y’all are willing, I would really appreciate it if you gave me a vote or two when the time is right. Once I figure out how that is done, I’ll be sure to put up a link where you can help, if you are so inclined.

It’s going to be quite a bit of work, admittedly. Big brother and I discussed it, and we’re going to go through the manuscript one last time, to apply some of the changes suggested by that official critique I got last month. All other projects will be momentarily suspended, since we only have ‘till January 14th to get it all done.

There was dog food to cut, twice actually. Can’t always just leave that to cousin Ed and Grandpa, ya know. Gotta pull my fair share in that department. Fed the dogs on my own, since big brother was otherwise occupied.

Did some cooking, which was also necessary. Beets with potatoes, which went down extremely well if you want to know. At it again this afternoon, because grandpa has the flu too, and didn’t feel like making pancakes. Hah.

Sally came back from hospital the other day. She’s oddly subdued lately. I think the chemo and then the bout with the bacteria is really hacking into her, and there is little I can do for her. If I try to talk with her, she’s insistent that everything is fine, and though I can see that she isn’t, there is little more I can do than accept her words. The fact that she is withdrawing to her cabin almost constantly, staring blankly ahead, is another thing that we’ll just have to accept for now.

Spent a part of today installing TV in her cabin, so she can have some entertainment while she’s cloistered in there. Personally I would go bonkers being inside all the time like that.

Another part of today, you know, after I overslept by at least an hour, darn it, was spent unloading the wagon of market stuff, and then reloading with sand for tomorrow. Took a while. Digging sand to load up almost always does, but with that and the cement bags we tossed on top, we’re basically ready for tomorrow.

Also made an appointment for Liane’s Land Rover at our garage. She would like to have it serviced and after sending her the prices, she preferred to have it done before she returns home.
Got an appointment for Friday, so that should work out just fine.

Knight II is doing well now, eating properly, cheerful as heck, and wanting to play a lot. New playing thing for him is chewing on my wrist, apparently, which I should work on, because boy does that hurt if he gets too excited.

Well, it is pretty darn cold at the moment. Doesn’t help that the stove is as good as off, because it’s the end of the day. Bed time is rapidly approaching and I’m happy for it. Did manage to do some writing in-between the editing for the competition. Have passed the 100 page mark yesterday, so, yay!

That’s it for me. I’m sure I forgot something important that happened these past couple of days, but for the life of me I can’t remember what it is. Hah.

Face down

Song of the day: “Come on” by Will Young. I just looked at the original version by Kish Mauve, and I have to say that I like Will’s waaaaaay better. The complaint of one of the comments rung really well (but as a compliment in my head) Will Young’s version is too serene. Oh come on, how can someone be too serene. That’s the beauty of it, for crying out loud. There’s more than enough gritty out there. The serenity of how he sings it, is the good part. *sigh* People are wonky.

So, there really isn’t all that much to tell. I’m still battling my flu, which sank into my lungs and shaped into a nice cough. It doesn’t help much that I got way too little sleep during the past three days since the best way to recover from the flu is sleep, of course. Ah well, no helping it.

I can’t say that I have a lot of market details to share. For the most part of the day my head felt like my skull was missing the top and I was floating somewhere a foot or two higher. Jeez. There were times I couldn’t do anything but laugh about it. Seriously, bending over I’d see stars, lifting something up ditto, on the most part the best thing would have been for me to drop face down somewhere and sleep it off. Couldn’t do that, of course, but the thought did occur occasionally.

No fun stories of chats with other patrons, didn’t have all that many due to the flu and cough that forced me to stay at a distance. Wouldn’t want anyone to catch what I had. Did enjoy the many, many visiting dogs. I believe that we saw more than fourteen Yorkies (which is wonky if you think about it. You’d think there was some sort of dog show, or something) some crosses and plenty of doggies that wanted a serious petting. Made me wish I had the Knight along.

Writing-wise things have been incredibly slow lately. I added a couple of pages this Sunday while I sat at the restaurant at the market (had two coffee to stay awake), and over the past three days I have slowly, oh so slowly, added more pages. Passed the 30k word count mark so whatever you say, you can say it’s getting somewhere. I was a little stuck, so big brother and I did a brain storm in the car discussing the possibilities of the story’s progress. Thought of at least seven possible plot turns, so I’m all set.

Knight II is gradually improving. He’s stopped vomiting, is eating little bits again, and has stopped shivering throughout the day regardless of the nippy temperatures (hitting the low forties at the moment, darn it). You should see the lot right now, clustered around our feet, as close to the stove as they can get.

When I got home from market, I noticed a slash of blood and discovered that somehow Dax has managed to rip out one of his nails. Seriously, what’s up with the dogs, for crying out loud? They’re constantly getting into trouble. The entire nail is just gone, which makes me horror at the thought of how he must have managed that.

What else, nothing vastly interesting. Did laundry, naturally, cooked supper, loaded, unloaded market stuff…didn’t have a bad selling day, by the way. Sold a dog bed, a quilt, some kiddie clothes and a dog carrier bag. No bad at all.

This morning was another early one, by the way. The Land Rover had to go to the garage and we had an appointment at nine. So we dropped it off after feeding the dogs and such, did a few groceries, went to the post office where I had to wait forever in line, and didn’t get home until after two, at which point I was pretty close to crashing. Decided to just give up on the day and headed for my cabin for a nap. Gawd that was nice. I slept for a solid hour and a half, and could have continued on for the remainder of the day given half a chance. Hah
As it was, I made tomato soup for supper, got a phone call in the middle of it that we could pick up the car. Headed out and did just that.

Turns out the hand brake is fine again, and it only cost us 20 bucks. Regretfully the regular brakes problem he promised to check up on was a little more serious. Something about the brake cylinder leaking. He’s going to have to order the part which will set us back some. *sigh* As soon as he has the part, we’re going to have to get another appointment. He also checked our distribution belt (we’d heard some awful rumor that they’re bitchy expensive to replace) and told me that we don’t have one. Instead we have a chain, which should (so he told me after I asked if that was a good thing) last us a life time. *phew* A relief that.

Once at home, I resumed making dinner and prepared cauliflower with broccoli with mashed potatoes on the side. It went down really well prior to heading down and starting on today’s writing session. Added a page or two, and then started on the blog. I really want to get back to the morning writing sessions. This evening writing is getting to be pretty impossible. My eyes keep falling shut. *sigh*

Time for bed.

Down for the count

Song of the day: “Bruises” again, by Train and Ashley Munroe. Cute song, but since I’m a bit feverish, it comes across as a bit freaky.

Not a good day, and I am not in a good mood at this particular moment. I am still sick, and so is Knight II, who’s at the moment in a worse state then me. He’s got a fever, hasn’t eaten in three days now, and, well, let’s just say I’m pretty worried. The fact that I’m sick as a dog myself, and not all that clear in the head, makes that I’m having some serious emotional shit going on with the trouble about Knight. He might very well just have some sort of doggie flu, and nothing scary, the way my feverish mind is imagining.

Sally is going to be staying in the hospital for the next few days. At least until Monday because her bacterial infection is severe enough for her to need observation, and treatment for that long.

As to yesterday, big brother and I spent the day up in the mountains, tiling underneath the balcony we built. It was cold over there, windy, and the day was really too short to finish it in one day. By the time the day drew to an end, we were over half, but I’d done three tiles wrong, meaning I had to take those out again, and start over before we gave up half an hour before twilight.

At that time we had to rush, because Knight II really wasn’t well by then, and I wanted to visit the vet. They couldn’t find anything wrong, and when we got into the car, he ate a piece of bread at least. But it didn’t improve, and this morning I took him to the vet again, only to have his antibiotics changed. Now, in the evening, he has a temperature going up and down. He’s still shivering and I…well, I want him to get the heck better, darn it. I don’t like him like this at all. Earlier he startled awake from dozing, jumped up and basically ran off, backwards, of all things. Poor darling.

Today, despite the illness, and having been to the vet, I did very little…I’ve decided to focus on getting well first (well, with Knight) because I’m not worth carp like this.
Signing off.

Kicking my butt

Song of the day…well, there wasn’t one. I’m sick as a dog. Got a stuffed nose, some fever, and have little aches all over the place. I had some discomfort in my nose and the back of my throat yesterday, and the fact that we went out to work in the freezing cold of El Burgo, didn’t help in the end, I think.

But anyway, we left early for it, loaded up everything that had to go to Liane. Meaning the tiles and tools, and, on the way there a big load of sand that we bought at the local construction company. The guy did apologize for this time being a little less than usual, because he has to guess the load, but then we agreed that the next time he’d put in a bit extra, so all’s well.

So we got on site, luckily with grandpa who helped us unload both sand and tiles, prior to us leaving for el Burgo where we had an appointment with a dude who’s in control of a large piece of property, with loads of trees on it that were either dead or in need of trimming. The biatch is that almond wood is pretty tough, so if I hadn’t figured out at some point that you could just rip the trees from the ground when they’re dead, we wouldn’t have managed to reach our quota for the day. One I pulled out was a bit on the big side though, seeing as when it “went” I couldn’t hold it, and landed flat on my butt. Pulled a thigh muscle in the process, darn it. Took me at least half an hour to walk that off. *sigh*
Good I was a little upset too, otherwise I would never have managed, I’m sure. Hah. But anyway, most of the following six hours were spent pushing, pulling over trees, and carrying them all up the steep, steep incline toward the car where we could process them.

Bad news was that by the time we started the processing bit, both the chainsaw’s gave the spirit. *sigh* So, in order to meet the deal we’d made with the dude (giving him a big load, ready for use) we stacked what was already sawed and chopped inside the car, so I could drive him home and unload at his place before dark, and before big brother and grandpa froze to their deaths on that deserted mountain top.

Personally I was frozen halfway through by the time I got back, and since the sunshine was gone by the time I got there I didn’t warm up anymore either. But anyway, we got the wagon full at least, and part of the back of the car, so it wasn’t for nothing. But cold. Gawd it was, really, really cold over there. Sooooo not doing that again. I think grandpa and I went up and down that mountain some odd twenty or thirty times, and boy was it steep in places. I am terribly glad that I didn’t take Knight, because he would have perished from the cold.

We didn’t get home until dark, and by then we were so sick that big brother’s teeth were chattering, and I could barely move anymore. So I went to take a shower, a hot one (as hot as I could stand it while my toes tingled) for as long as the boiler water held out, end then up to thaw out in front of the stove while trying to do some work on the computer. I couldn’t of course. The common cold had set in for real by then and I decided to just give up and go to bed at ten.

Basically slept through the night. A solid ten hours, and I will tell you that they were downright wonderful. I just slept, and slept and slept (woke a lot, but turned over and went right on) and finally got up around nine feeling still sick, but at least not at all sore from the activity. Guess my stamina for such activity has improved at least.

This morning, what with the pounding head, my leaking nose and sleepy state of mind, I didn’t get much writing done, so around noon we headed up to unload the wagon and car (the first got damaged some, by the way. Big brother went right through the wood putting in a trunk). Got a phone call from the hospital that Sally had to return asap, because her cultures came back and because she still has a fever. Caregiver took her, and she (Sally that is) has been admitted in hospital once more because her cultures showed that she had some sort of unknown bacteria that was making her blood respond oddly.
She’ll be staying there for a few days on antibiotics.

Tenant also has the same cold as us, Cousin Ed…the only one exempt at the moment, appears to be grandpa, so I’m hoping that’ll stay that way. Would be a pain in the behind if we all end up useless.

Had to take Knight II to the vet this afternoon. There was some swelling in his foot, so he’s back to the antibiotics, darn it. He did like being at the vet, though. His tail wasn’t down for a change, and he let them fuss with him without trouble. Gawd, sometimes it seems as if that stupid paw is never going to heal.

By the time we got back there was the trailer to fix, you know, from the broken barrier and back that I mentioned earlier. It took some time, and a brisk wind made it rather unpleasant. Then, after the damage was fixed, we still had to shovel it full with sand, get the wheelbarrow strapped on, and prepare that wood for tomorrow’s job at Liane.

I am going to bed early, by the way. This cold is really kicking my butt.

One after another

Song of the day: “Dream a little dream” by the Beautiful South. Along with some other oldies, like Crazy by Patsy Cline and Ain’t that a kick in the head, by Westlife. What can I say, I was in that type of mood, I guess.

So yeah, I’ve been somewhat busy these past two days…well there were three, of course, but since Saturday was a wonderfully quiet one at home, that was only interrupted by loading the big wagon (after cleaning it) and loading the small one for the Sunday market at Funny Beach Marbella.

There were of course the boring events, such as laundry, feeding the dogs, cutting the dog food, but I won’t bore you with that. Nothing new, right? So yesterday morning I was lying in bed, wondering what the heck that annoying sound was, ringing in my ear for more than half an hour. Turns out it was my alarm. *snort* So I was late and had to rush through the morning rituals in order to make it on time. I did, thank you very much. Who the heck needs a full breakfast anyway, hah.

At one point I thought, what the heck? A quarter to eight? We still have forty minutes before we need to leave. Turns out my watch was stuck, which is why grandpa took it to the clock shop in the village. Luckily, it turns out that it was only the battery. Guy said that according to his notes on the inside of the back plate the battery lasted almost exactly two years. Good watch, eh?

The weather looked abysmal during our ride toward Marbella. Clouds everywhere, cold temps, but luckily, by the time we reached the beach and started setting up the temps were more than bearable. Setup took a while, though. Not that it mattered, since customers didn’t start trickling in until noon. Not a lot going on during the course of the day. If there were more than seventy people, I’d be surprised, but I had some nice social contacts that made it more than bearable.

Chatted with a Dutch Interior designer who was there selling the majority of her garage contents. She wasn’t a big fan of markets, which I can totally get since you have to make a conscious decision to like being a vendor at the market. You can’t make it about the money because that is not something you can control, nor can you make it depend on the buyers and their respective moods. Nope. Ya gotta try to make it about something that you can actually control. For me it’s the setup and the contacts. Makes all the difference.

But where was I, oh yes, the Dutch lady. We chatted something, exchanged some superficial history tales and compared notes of living in Spain as a foreigner. Her complaint was that friendships were so transient…which I could understand after hearing that she moved here on her own. I went with my whole family after all.

The Argentina girl was there again, and we went through the hellos, the how are you selling and why is the sun not coming out, darn it. Hah. Then there was the English fella with the Paul McCartney mouth who loved the dog beds, but didn’t have dogs, and was there to see if he was going to be a vendor next week. He’s moving back to England and needs to get rid of excess baggage.

Had half a dozen people come over, looking around desperately for Knight II, and expressing their disappointment that he was no longer there. It was actually kind of fun to see them come to our stand, smiling a greeting while peering behind our tables. Hah.

Since Knight wasn’t there, I did get the chance to take an hour and a half to write. Managed 3-4 pages, so that was a success. Oh yeah, that Dutch interior designer. I gave her my number in case she needs to have any work done for a reasonable price. She is located in a nearby town after all. We’ll see.

Oh, I bought this tiny little computer (7” screen) for €25. It’s only a couple of years old, barely used, and if we manage to figure out a way to put Kindle on it, I’ll be using it as an E-book reader. It’s not a bad little, machine, by the way. The battery lasted more than three hours, the basics, for as far as I know work, and…well, we’ll see how that goes too, I guess.

Sold two dog beds, yay, with the promise of a couple of more. Also a handful of baby clothes, which still get a lot of attention, thankfully. Actually made a bit of a profit, so it wasn’t for nothing. Hah.

Didn’t arrive home until twilight, which forced me to rush a little through a toilet break, and stuffing food in my mouth prior to leaving again with big brother, so we could go pick up a donation. (How big a pain is it that this almost always happens on a Sunday.) Didn’t get home until after nine, at which time I barely managed another half page.

Was in bed right after midnight, meaning that I was once again listening to an annoying buzzing sound that I couldn’t identify this morning.
There was loads of loading to do this morning, and though we did our best to think of everything, we ended up forgetting to take working gloves and (this is embarrassing) the wheelbarrows. Aaaarrrgh! Seriously. How stupid is that. There was not a single thing we could do without those. Luckily Liane had a broken one standing by her shed, and we managed to fix it up (nicely, if I do say so myself) so we could make use of it during the course of the day.

Phew. Big relief that…in particular since we had to dig out a couple thousand pounds of dirt, then haul sand and concrete (I mixed while big brother worked on the masonry for the border of the terrace we’re putting in). Underway, we stopped at the local construction company where we bought ten cement bags of 65 pounds. It was the oldfashioned Portland, the one I’ve been missing like mad. The kind that makes concrete look dark and oily. *sigh* We can’t get them around these parts anymore…which is why we’re planning on loading up on a big amount of those bags the next time we drive past with an empty trailer.

Around four in the afternoon it became obvious that we weren’t going to make it with the sand (darned stuff is either too much, or to little) so I went down the mountain with the trailer, and acquired a wagon-full of the stuff. That did meaning lots of unloading, but since we won’t be able to get in more than about 2400 kilos before Thursday, the extra was well worth the hassle.

It was nippy out there, in particular since the sun didn’t show, and a wind kept picking up right until the end of the day when the rain started. (Some odd thirty minutes after we finished clean-up.) Knight II didn’t like the cold at all, so he spent a lot of the afternoon inside the car. Unless of course, if there was something to eat. His nose was literally against mine while I was having lunch…until I shoved him back that is. Hah.

Finished the pouring well after sunset, so it was a good thing that we didn’t forget to take the light big brother put together for this very purpose. The basis of the floor is in, so Thursday we can put in the last layer with the tiles. Let’s hope we can manage it in one day.

Bad news is that while we were working, Cousin Ed phoned that Sally had a light fever. The doctors had warned for this, so Ed packed up Sally and took her to hospital, where they are, even now waiting for a battery of test results. I don’t expect to see them back before one, or two in the morning…which is when I hope to be in bed, already. *sigh*

Well, that’s it for me. Once we got home I had to help tenant get ready for bed time because caregiver was otherwise occupied, then ate some fries, and wrote this blog, which means, for me that this is the end of a freaky long day. I’m pooped.

Another day, another project

Song of the day: “Que Sera Sera” by Doris Day, of course.

Today was a busy one. Woke up just after eight and quickly went through the morning rituals of laundry and feeding the dogs. Loading up took a while, but still, not as long as the previous few times. We left a little early for a change, meaning that we arrived forty minutes early. Yay.

Was still sore, thank you very much, but not as bad as the day before. I can now bend over without moaning, again. Hah. First thing we did after arriving was remove the mold. The floor worked out splendidly, thank you very much…I will show you pictures soon, but not tonight. Haven’t taken them off the phone yet, so you’ll just have to be patient.

For the remainder of the day, most of our activities involved clean-up. Yep. There was plenty of that to do. Scrubbed the walls. Scrubbed the beams. And by the time half of that was done, with big brother continuing on, I painted the walls and then the beams while big brother worked on the concrete slab to shave of any ridges and fill the tiny air holes that inevitably happen.

Then there was the hauling, taking everything back down to the trailer, putting the concrete mixer in place and planning the next stage of the project where we’re going to put in tiles underneath the terrace so Liane can use the spot for relaxation in the near future. It’ll be another two to three days for sure, I hope. Longer would be a total pain in the behind, since at the moment we haven’t even been able to get started on my outside kitchen, the way we had planned.

Hauled some rocks, and then worked on the fence to put the corner poles up straight, the way we had wanted to do the last time, but didn’t manage. Took some figuring, along with the car that we had to use to pull everything straight again, but in the end we managed it. Put some screws in to keep it all in place, and then, when darkness had already fallen, we started on our way home.

Did some writing, not much, but since I did at least four pages yesterday, my one today was not disastrous. Would have tried for more, but the blog always takes a lot of time, and I just couldn’t postpone that any longer.

And now I totally forgot to tell about yesterday, eh? *sigh*
Did load up what we could, spent the morning (after the usual rituals) doing some fixing on the Land Rover. Put a temporary handle on the passenger door (still can’t find that one from wherever we stored it), replaced some screws in the back door, and sprayed clean the feet section of the back seat because a pack of fruit juice emptied all over it.

The remainder of the afternoon was spent working on my Chinese boxes, of which I’ve almost finished the first lid. It is actually starting to look pretty awesome. I’ll have to take some before and after shots, eh?

Time passed way too fast, and before you know it, it was time to start cutting the dog food so we could put it on broil prior to heading out for a donation. Not a lot of useful stuff, except for these rather wonderful terrace doors. Won’t be able to sell them, of course, but we’ll find some use for them, I’m sure.
Knight II got the okay from the doc yesterday, so I left the bandage off for a bit (hoping for some drying). Then I got to town where he started trying to lick the former damage. To play it safe I put his sock on without the tape I usually use to keep it in place. By the time I got home he’d pushed the sock out of place, tightening the rope that held it precariously in place until blood ooze, of course, friggin’ idiot. Had to tape him up again, of course. *sigh*

As for the other dogs, they were grumpy again when we got home tonight (around eight this time) but I’m starting to get used to that, at least.
Well, that’s it for me today. I’m absolutely ready to call it a night.

Practically done!

Song of the day: “Coconut” by Harry Wilson. Awesome song. Makes me want to shake some booty, if you must know. Hah.

So let’s get this blog thing going. It’s rapidly getting late, and though today was a quiet day, all things considered, I’m close to calling it a day.

Yesterday: It was an early morning, really, seeing as there were plenty of preparations to be made before big brother, grandpa and I could depart for the balcony job. There were tools to load, cement bags to be hauled, wooden molds to be carried, and all those other little things that you need on a work day.

We left later than I had planned, but that mainly because binding stuff took more time than anticipated. One of which was the ladder we almost forgot until the last possible moment. Hah. No matter though, we arrived at eleven and immediately got started unloading everything we needed and setting up the molds. Regretfully they always took longer than anticipated and though I did a lot of preparations beforehand the actual concrete pouring wasn’t possible until 14:30.

First we tried it with me mixing cement and grandpa lifting the buckets up the ladder so big brother would be able to smoothen the floor. But that turned out to be impossible since the buckets were too heavy for grandpa to carry up. Since I am not a big fan of heights, and since that floor was well over 8 feet in the air, I couldn’t do much of the lifting because my limbs start to shake some when I stand on a high edge and I get out of breath, that was off too. So we ended up with grandpa mixing the cement and big brother hauling everything back and forth.

I’ll have you know that I conquered some of my height issues and did haul up an odd hundred or two up there, while I spent the majority of the afternoon on my heels and bending over smoothening the new floor surface. Gawd, that was a lot of bending over (have been suffering from severe muscle aches all day today) and of course we didn’t manage to finish the pouring at sunset. Worse, turns out we miscalculated the amount of sand we needed, meaning that Liane and I headed out at dusk to the nearest construction company and had to somehow manage to get a batch of sand to finish up our task. Luckily the place was nearby and still open, so we got a good load for ten bucks and headed back up the mountain so we could finish up.

Didn’t actually manage until nine in the evening. I did the whole floor minus the last two square feet that big brother did. Of course my foot decided to cramp up the moment I started down the ladder after many hours of squatting, which made for an interesting moment of teetering high in the air. Jeez. Stupid effin’ foot. Had to sit down for a bit afterward just to catch my breath. Scared the bejeezus out of me, I’ll tell ya.

As for the balcony...except for the finishing touching, it is practically done, so, yay! Right?

What followed was an hour of cleaning up and hauling stuff to the car. Grandpa, who’s usually in bed around nine in the evening, was pretty beat, so he retreated to the car after having done his fair share, leaving us to the last bits and pieces.

The ride home, feeling rather satisfied that we had managed it all in one day regardless of the hour, I drove home on a basically deserted road. That was rather nice, basically having the road to myself. It certainly shortened our traveling time by more than five minutes. Yay.

Once at home, and after eating the potatoes Cousin Ed had baked for us, we didn’t linger long (only some networking online, and some chats, of course) and managed to be in our respective beds before one in the morning.

Labhana was upset with me yesterday. She’s sit at a slight distance from me, looking at me balefully and turning her head away whenever I’d call her. Poor darling. She doesn’t like me being away most of the day. Chaos on the other hand broke through the door to come and greet me, which his did by jumping up against me, and almost making (shaky) me fall flat on my face. *sigh*

Having learned from the last thirteen hour work-day, I remembered to take a painkiller before going to bed, and slept a solid 6 hours without interruption and managed to catch a total of 7 and a half hours. I was remotely human this morning.

There was a big load of laundry waiting for me this morning, followed by feeding the dogs and then unloading the car from tools and rubbish. Since we were so late yesterday I missed my vet’s appointment with Knight and had to take him this morning instead. He is now only wearing a small piece of bandage and a sock, so let’s hope that he continues to heal so he’ll be without any trouble within the next few days. The vet was hopeful about it.

That done big brother and I headed for town so we could get some small items from the stores and make an appointment at the garage this Monday. The mechanic wasn’t there, but I did end up chatting a little with the receptionist who, as usual, was bored out of her mind sitting inside the office staring at the computer.

The appointment made we went home…with a slight detour because I talked big brother into taking a turnoff that I’d been curious about for months. Ended up back in town, and arrived home just a little late.

There I took some time covering up the sibs their market stuff with plastic because we’re going to need the trailer again on Friday when we go over there for the last time to pack up and clean up from the job. Cooked supper of cauliflower and chard, which took longer than expected because there was quite a bit of dirt clinging to the chard leaves.

Did manage to eat another piece of beef this afternoon (decided to do it for lunch with a fresh Satay) and though my stomach felt heavy most hours afterward, I didn’t get nauseous of it this time. Yay.

Worked a little on my second wood sculpture this afternoon too following the delicate shapes of the wood with relaxing pleasure.

As for anything else…nope, that’s about it...well, except for actually managing a bit of writing this evening. Not whole lot, mind you, but some at least.

Something different.

Song of the day: "Under African Skies" by Paul Simon. Such a gorgeous song…reminding me of being a little girl.

So yeah, since the market in Marbella didn't go through yesterday (it was raining friggin' buckets…what am I saying, swimming pools, hah) I decided to the take the opportunity and do tenant and myself a favor. I took her to the big market where mom and the younger sibs work. I dropped her off at mom's and then took Knight II (yes, I took him along) through the market several times.

First round he was shaking like crazy, pressing himself against me every time someone wanted to pet or take a picture. *sigh* There were plenty of those. Seriously, three times that I remember, I was surrounded by a friggin' crowd of twenty or so who all wanted to pat the horsie. That sure is the last time I'm taking him along. Sure, I had loads of nice chats with complete strangers (dog lovers, of course) but finding what I'd come there for was rather tricky.

I'll have you know that I did end up mostly successful (like 70 percent). I found the requested underwear for Sally. Yay. I found a sanding machine for grandpa, and myself. Did some wonderful haggling with a nice, very short and old, Spanish guy. We were gathered around his selection of sanding machines, and he was trying to sell me one with some damage on the sanding paper surface, and I wanted another one that looked just a little less used. We talked about Knight, of course, who was definitely top of the conversation all through the afternoon. He too had some dogs, seven of them, in fact…which were, according to him, about the size of Knight's head. Hah.
But anyway, we did some haggling and I managed to shave off an odd three bucks before we shook on it. Gawd, that is such fun, in particular if the vendors are good sports about it, know the score.

Came across several small TVs, prices varying between fifteen and eight bucks. Almost did a deposit on one, but was happy I hadn't when I came across a friend who said I could have one of hers since she wasn't using it anyway. Good deal all round, since Sally would really like to be able to watch a movie or two in her cabin, every now and then. Saves on money and on risk, for as far as I'm concerned.

Talked with an Irish couple who had friends with a Great Dane they often "babysat" for. Very typical people. Very big, very round, dressed in all cottons (old hippies is my guess) and extremely nice. Knight got patted again, hugged and then we went on once more, now looking around at a roof rack for the Opel.

Came across a couple that cost a solid fifty bucks a pop, so that wasn't happened. Then I stumbled on a small stand in a corner somewhere, where there was a couple lying about that looked reasonably good. I was examining them closer, wondering if they were suited for an Opel Astra, and asked the price (€50) when I started to doubt once more. It is very hard to scramble back once you've already asked the price and had the things in your hands, so I was already shaking my head and saying "maybe some other day". The guy actually came out of his stand and asked me what I was willing to pay for it then. He was looking pretty desperate, and I was feeling pretty bad already for getting his hopes up, so I thought I'll ask a ridiculously low price so he'll send me off.
Let's just say I now have a car rack for twenty bucks. *sigh* I feel horrible, but once he went that low, I could hardly not take it. And we do need it, ya know. But anyway.

Funny how having a large dog with you provokes a variety of responses. There are those who startle and jump away, others who are drawn to it like he’s a magnet. Some stop, stare and point, while others look annoyed.

On the most part folks responded positively, and talked a mile a minute, which is fun. In particular kids who are just bursting with questions. How come he’s so big? Will he grow more? Can I pet him? How old is he? Does he bite? And so on and on.

Talked with a Belgian woman who suggested I use a chalk paste on Knight’s paw. Works like a charm, she claims.
Chatted with an elderly Spanish couple who loved the way Knight looked and showed me pictures of their Bordeaux Bulldog. Sort of like the electronic version of proud grandparents yanking out their wallet to show sleuth of grandchildren. Hah. But they were beautiful, those dogs. So massive.
There was the Dutch family who claimed they had two dogs and a Shetland pony that was smaller than Knight. An Italian woman who started telling me about her two lap dogs and her Pyrenean mountain dog, and how her friend in the mountains of Italy had a Great Dane that was 14 years old (gives a girl hope, that).
Had a long talk with two Irish guys, one of which had two Irish setters and a pit bull. He loved his dogs, imported their food from the UK and thought Knight gorgeous. Then he started talking about his daughters, one of which had a Shih Tzu, while the other had a bitch Rottweiler who really was a bitch. Hah.
The stuff people tell complete strangers, eh?

Did look around for some pants again, but couldn’t really find anything nice this time ‘round. Three hours after arrival, the rain had stopped at last, and I rode tenant back to the car while little brother carried the stuff I bought for us. The rain didn’t resume until we reached our mountain and started on the incline.
There was a river on our drive sweep, and we both got solidly soaked through before we were inside.

So what else? Well, there was some writing of course. Passed the 80 pages mark and am liking the progress so far. The tension is slowly building, the suspicion increasing, the hints becoming more frequent. Very different from my usual style, I’ll admit. More serious, less dramatic and not at all focused on the romance side of things. We’ll have to see how it works out.

There were massive batches of laundry to do, in particular since today’s weather was a vast improvement to yesterday.

Cousin Ed took Sally to hospital today, by the way. It was time for her third round of chemo, so she’ll be feeling pretty out of it again for the next two weeks, or so.
She’s not looking well, despite the fact that the doctors say that her test results are okay, but she hanging in there, and that’s what matters.

Been working on my Chinese boxes only a little. Time is presently spare. Luckily I’m not in a hurry. The wood is starting to look pretty good, though. I love the reds, and it’s getting smoother with every treatment.

This afternoon was mostly about preparing for tomorrow’s job (we’re going to work on that balcony again). Big brother worked on putting together materials for the mold which we’re going to need tomorrow, while I emptied the trailer of the market merchandise and then shoveled it full with sand for the concrete. It took a while, but it’s now ready and waiting. We are going to have to get a batch of cement before leaving in the morning. Our own stack is almost completely gone.

There was dog food to cut and dogs to feed, of course.
Angie (the Basset with the torqued stomach) is doing better, but she will have to eat and drink small amounts n the future to prevent the problem from recurring.
Panni, little sister’s cocker is still doing badly, and the vet can’t figure out what it is exactly. At the moment he’s on prednison and antibiotics. Poor puppy.

Well, I’m going to cut it short here. Other than the stuff I’ve mentioned all I could jabber about from here on out would be cooking anyway…oh and some wood chopping, which was wonderful to get the muscles working again, so who cares. Bed time is nigh. Yay!

The aftermath

Song of the day: “Bruises” by Train and Ashley Monroe. Cute little song, but I’ve been listening to it a bit too much because I even woke up with it this morning.

So what’s been going on? Not a whole bloody lot, really. Most of all, yesterday was rather tedious for everyone involved. Part of it was because I wasn’t worth a damn after that thirteen hour workday. I was tired, sore and out of sorts, in particular since, in order to sleep I had to take a painkiller because my every muscle was screaming, and refused to relax. Very annoying. But anyway, I did in the end fall asleep, which was what I really needed. Wasn’t at my best after waking up, but did slowly go through the morning rituals such as laundry and feeding the dogs, and getting into the day.

There was the car to unload (had an appointment later on to pick up a donation), which was a friggin’ mess after three days of hard labor. There were tools to gather from the mess, metal debris, paper cement bags, and all those little things that filled up the whole of the back. While I did the remainder of the Land Rover, big brother took care of the trailer so little brother could come up and reload for their market on Sunday, and protect everything against the predicted rain.

My doggies were very “sticky”, which is something that often happens when I need to be out a lot. They’ll follow me around everywhere, sticking their heads under my hands, and basically trying to trip me so I’ll be on the ground where they can hold me down. *snort*

Okay, my memory is failing me, so I’m just going to mention whatever pops up in my mind, and you’ll just have to figure it all out yourself. Hah. Right…okay, yesterday we did some wood chopping and bringing it up. Regretfully I only managed one three foot trunk, seriously, my feet refused to climb the mountain all the way, and I had to drop the darn thing at the top of the garden steps.
Luckily today went a lot better. Managed to chop about half a load of the pieces of trunks that big brother sawed off. Was a nice exercise, oiled the muscles, allowed me to get rid of the lingering stiffness, which was good, because stiff I was.

What else? Well, there was the donation thing. Got about a thousand pounds of canned beets. Big cans, mind you, that were about a year overdue, which isn’t a big problem considering they were on a sour base. It took some time to load them, especially considering we were both sore as heck. Hah.

Put the last touches (blue slats) on Sally’s roof. We’d been postponing it and since the weather is rapidly turning bad again. There is a prediction of rain for the weekend thank you very much, meaning that it is unlikely that we’re going to be heading for the Sunday market. Not that I mind all that much. A quiet weekend, which we can use to prepare for Tuesday with the balcony, at home.

Knight II’s foot is looking good. Regretfully he still has a small wound on the top of his heel that needs to heal before his sock can come off. The bastard has been making a nuisance of himself, if you must know. He’s gone through four socks already, chewing through the fabric, darn it.

Gada…well, she’s not doing well. I took her to the vet the other day to discuss her options, and promptly ended up crying. So stupid. Must have been the tiredness, because I know better than most that sometimes the end is just there. Still, it startled the vet, I think, who immediately said that there were other options to try. One of them being a change in her pain medication to see how she would respond to that. She asked if I thought Gada was unhappy, or in a lot of pain, and I answered yes to the latter, while to the first I had to be honest and say that I had no idea. She’s a Labrador, after all, and to a lab life is grand as long as the boss is there to play with. Regretfully Gada is the type of dog who would gladly walk on a broken leg if that meant that she could do her cheery job as a Labrador. Poor darling. I have noticed she’s in pain, though. More often than not she’s sagging through her hind legs, and at night I will sometimes find her awake, breathing heavy despite the fact that the nights are cool. Ah well, right now I’m in the possession of new pain medication that will last her for about ten days. We’ll see how it goes, but so far I’m not particularly pleased with her progress.
Now let’s hope that the next time I need to take her to the vet I can keep from blubbering all over the place. Because that won’t help anyone, and even worry Gada, which is not something she deserves.
I should look at it the way the vet does. Sometimes the body is just at its end, and Gada’s hips are there.

There was more unloading of the car, of course. All those cans that had to be stored
Supper had to be cooked. Thought big brother took care of one of those by making spinach which potatoes, I made a veggie mix on spaghetti which went down well…or would have, if I had been remotely hungry.

Some concerns are going on at the moment what with the strikes in the big cities. Though the small villages aren’t really bothered, the unrest is affecting everyone, scaring folks quite a bit. Me too, admittedly. I mean, seriously, what use do the strikes have when there IS NO MONEY? I mean, you can stamp your foot all you like, but that won’t make the wallet full (and no, getting that money from the rich won’t help at all. Either everyone gets a buck this month, or one more pay, and then what? Idiots!). Heck, even the Twinkie company went down because of silliness like this. What do folks think: someone waves a magic wand? Mommy and daddy will take care of it? What? Scary how so many folks can be so shortsighted. I do hope that stuff won’t get as bad as a few years ago where we were without dog food due to such strikes. I mean, seriously, I can do without a meal or two, but the doggies can’t.

Did some more leather branding this morning. Not much, just trying out some shapes, seeing what works.
Dog food had to be done, of course. Which meant cutting the lot while big brother took care of our supper tonight. Yay.
Decided to take this writing session of the blog as an excuse to re-watch Resident Evil (the first one) which is still a splendid movie. *sigh*

Well, that’s about it for me. Did manage to sweep the floor in my cabin this morning, but the place is still a mess, darn it. I really have to eke out some time for that. Same goes for the writing. Though I have added some pages, it is going extremely slow at the moment, darn it.