Song of the day: “Somebody I used to know” by Gotye and Kimbra. Yep. It’s been those sort of days again where a single song will be stuck in my head for endless hours, driving me bonkers, while at the same time charming me too. Strange how that works, really.
Right. Got less done then planned, but we found a rather wonderful location for tenant’s relatives, so it wasn’t for nothing. By some miracle I had forgotten to tell Ox that we had already had found a finca in the country, so when he called yesterday morning, and said he had found a nice place just outside the village with a nice English lady as the owner, and a better price than the other one, we couldn’t resist and headed out to see. The owner met us half the way, drove ahead and led us straight to this cute vacation paradise, overlooking the village. Gawd, I can tell ya we were properly stunned and could do nothing but nod and say, wow, while she led us around. It was so cute, a neat living room, kitchen, new bathroom, two bedrooms and a recently filled pool. Cousin Ed and I were more than a little relieved at the realization that we had been reluctant to make any deals with the nice fellow of the finca, because this one would be so much more suited for a nice vacation. And the owner was such a nice lady, too. And she had two dogs. And the views, well, they were splendid. Luckily tenant’s relatives didn’t mind the third change in plans at all and really took our wishy washy-ness rather well. Hah.
But okay. One disaster dealt with, we are of course on tenterhooks about the fact that the owner of the cottage won’t be home today, and wasn’t home either yesterday, so I’m crossing all my appendages that this doesn’t go wrong again. Never knew that renting something was this much of a bother, but there you have it. *sigh* Did get to see lots of fun places, though, going on roads that I otherwise would have no business traveling. So there’s a good side to everything, right?
So let’s get to business as usual. What with grandpa and big brother still working on that kitchen counter, I’ve been scrambling a lot to keep things going that need to be done routinely. Like the dog food. Two batches of vegetables that needed to be cut. Leftover leaves from the cabbages, nopales, tomatoes that are getting wrinkly, pumpkins that can’t be saved anymore, the leaves from beets, and all that good stuff which they so clearly love. There was most of that to chop, which takes about thirty minutes a day, and in the mornings, after the veggies have boiled on the woodstove for most of the precious evening, it is time to knead water soaked bread and mixing the lot with dog kibble. Gawd, it is rather nice to do this part. I will be standing at the table, mixing everything up, while around me more than twenty dogs are watching every move I make. If I raise my hand (I know, very mean, but it’s hilarious) all heads will tip back and tongues will slide over lips in restless anticipation. It is almost like a cartoon. Hah.
But anyway, they will dig in fast enough…too fast in fact, seeing as Chaos, Indigo, Ama, Labhana, Gada, and Tadaika need to be separated in the carport to prevent them from reaching their ultimate goal: the bottom of the bowl. Jeez. Those babies can seriously eat. If we don’t set them aside, they’ll eat about two thirds of the total…and they’re already fat, for crying out loud!
Yesterday, what with big brother and grandpa so busy, I spent most of the afternoon on my own in the yard. The plan was only to water some of the plants that really needed it, but after I checked, I saw that really most of them needed water, so what followed was three hours of watering, going up and down the incline, harvesting, gathering our own veggies as well as that of the dogs. I was seriously pooped by the time I came up, had cut everything up and then headed for the kitchen (I want my outside kitchen, darn it. The day was too grand to spend it inside) to cook supper. Not bad at all, a mix of cauliflower, broccoli and corn, served with macaroni and a white green herb sauce…in fact, it worked out so well, that grandpa stole it this morning, and used it for his own meals. Which had me scramble a little today, since I had counted on that particular leftover, hah.
We sent out “Saving Nina” last night. Yay. It took some doing, we spent the past few evenings hacking our way through that synopsis, a character description, best line of dialogue, best scene, the query and all that jazz. A pity that you can’t just send a story without anything extra, but such is not the nature of the beast. It has to be just so, and like in any other business, you have to adhere to the standard. *sigh*
This afternoon, due to the fact that somehow we didn’t manage to get around to it before, cousin Ed and I spent most of the time on our knees scrubbing the tiles that we did the grouting of the other day. Yep. It was a royal pain in the behind, seeing as all the excess had been stuck in place, and we had to use scrapers, sanding paper and in the end a mop to get the job done. It is beautiful, though (got pictures, I promise, I just haven’t taken them off my phone, yet) and exactly as we planned. The colors go together splendidly, and it is more like art than a floor. Hah.
Yesterday evening was spent fixing the old chainsaw. Rust, grease and whatnot had stuck everything together, so everything had to be soaked in petrol and then put back in place. Nothing quite as exciting than turning a machine on that wasn’t function before. Yay.
There was a workout this morning, of course. I was a little late getting up, but since I didn’t have to account for the dogs of the younger sibs, (market day) I could take that little extra time before going down for a shower and doing the laundry.
Made patties, despite the fact that the kitchen is momentarily missing. Got a bit annoyed when Ayana decided to steal part of the dough, though. Little monster. I turned my back for five seconds (and of course I can’t expect big brother to notice something like that) and a third of the dough was gone without a trace. Grrrr. Luckily there’s enough left, eh? Went for a chickpea with chicken broth mix today, to see if I can make it taste more like chicken.
Was starving again about two hours after supper, so when big brother went back to the kitchen to deal with his own problem, the conversation went like this:
Me: “Take something nice down, yeah?”
Big brother: “You want a hotdog?”
Me: “Eeew. Never mind. Don’t take ANYTHING down for me. Jeez”
At which point I grabbed for a bag of cornflakes and dug in. Hah.
Tick hunting: Yes, the time is getting to be in full swing. One of the few things I really dislike about summer ‘round these parts. Sooooo many ticks. They’re everywhere, and about an hour a day is spent removing ticks. Not one session, or anything, but every time you pet a dog, there’s another one, and another, and another to remove. Luckily they love the attention.
Well, that’s about it for today. I’ve got to prepare A.I.L. for sending out to a publisher as well, so that ‘ll take a few more days at least, and then, yes, I am already gladly anticipating the grand event (don’t trip over the sarcasm) it is…(drum roll please)…back to editing. *sigh*
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