The best laid plans...

Song of the day: “Zombie” by the Cranberries. An oldie, right? I know, but it used to be one of my favs way back when, so when it came by on the radio the other day, it got stuck in my head occasionally. Blasted earworms!

Anyways…I’m a wee bit late with my blog again. I know, Bad Sammie! Bad Sammie! But in my defence I have been very, very busy, regardless of the fact that I had that two weeks of house sitting. I would have thought I’d have more time for the stuff I’d planned to do, but regretfully some necessary things took longer than expected. The best plans have a way of doing that, don't they?

There was all the legal mumbo jumbo regarding the sauna going broke. There was so much paperwork to do, so many calls to make, forms to file, calculations to make, facts to check, that took us five to six days alone while we got settled in the office.

Then we had a couple of friends coming over, which meant another couple of afternoons gone. Hah. No matter though. I did get quite a bit of editing done in the last week, and I got in five and a half workouts (the half was because we got interrupted by repair folks knocking at the door, grrr), yay.

Best yet was that I got some serious sleep during the two weeks. I decided that I was going to catch up on the last year shortage of sleep for once and for all, and just went to bed whenever I was remotely tired: I was tired a lot!

The plus is that I don’t have the big bags under my eyes anymore, and that I’m no longer cross-eyed with tiredness around eight in the evening. Hah. So the housesitting was definitely a good thing. It was basically a forced vacation, that tided us over for part of the days that big brother didn’t have a place to live.

Which reminds me; we did manage to get big brother’s apartment empty on time. This means that my apartment is now basically a storage facility, since I had to move a lot of stuff out of the way to accommodate boxes and furniture, and therefore decided to start packing early as well. This means that except for the living room corner that I use for seating, the whole place is a bloody mess that is driving me insane. Everything that needed to be packed is packed in boxes, bags, suitcases or plastic. Furniture that could be taken apart is taken apart, rugs have been aired out and rolled up, and plants take up every remaining horizontal surface. Poor babies.

Also did some of the cleaning already, since we have to leave the apartment in the same state we got it, with everything nice and clean, as our contract states…not that I would dare to leave it any other way (the horror!). If there is one thing that the cleaning job caused is that I horror at dirt now. Hah. Added to that, holes in the walls, like for light fixtures and paintings and whatnots, have also been neatly closed, giving a clear view of the place’s large stretches of wall. What a difference things on the walls make, right? All the homey-ness is gone now, darn it.

Had a birthday…well, two actually, of former colleagues, which was a good excuse to come together. Made a rather nice (albeit a tad too sweet) apple pie with small pieces of sweet potato through it, cranberries, raisins and pecans. Really enjoyed that over a cup of coffee and talk about books, movies and everything else we could think of.

The weather has been downright summery the past three weeks. Today was the first night that we had rain again in a long time. We had temps mid to high nineties, and on the radio they called it tropical weather…which was factual, considering the humidity was incredibly high. Been sweating more than I did even while working at the sauna.

Since being back from the house sitting thing, we had been going to the gym again, which has been wonderful. Had some serious workouts and that included some serious kickboxing for me…that ended with me being barely able to move the next few days, if for no other reason than the fact that I hadn’t done any actual boxing in more than four months. Yikes! Seriously, you did not want to see me shuffling around afterward, like some old crone. Luckily now that has passed and I am almost back to where I left off before work got too demanding for me to go to the gym.

Been applying for work lately, as I am obligated to do (and want to do. Discovered that I am not the kind of person who would willingly take welfare. I just don’t like not working for a living, so let’s hope I find something fast) and have been trying different types of things to see where I can slip in, so to speak. I applied for a cleaning job, duh, night reception at a hotel, which included making breakfast for the early guests in the morning, independently working cook at an Italian place where they wanted someone creative and willing to teach youngsters at the same time, with some experience in vegetarian dishes. Keep yer fingers crossed.

I’m still thinking about starting something myself, but that will depend on whether I can find a market for my type of cooking in the new area we’re moving to. It’s a college town, so I’m thinking yes, but you just never know. I’ll keep you posted.

Like I said, I’ve been editing. So I couldn’t find the inspiration to do new writing, but the editing needs to be done too, so I don’t beat myself up about it. Am over two thirds of the book now, meaning that I’ve almost finished the first edit. That means that after I’ve added some additional scenes, big brother and I can start going through it together without the risk of him getting completely frustrated with stream-of-consciousness writing.

Managed to finish quite a bit of storage foods during the past three weeks, including what we had in the freezer. What the with the move coming up this was essential. Got two of three meals left there, and considering we’ll be starting moving things four days from now, that should work out just fine.

My father and stepmother finally got their vacation to France this week. For a moment there it didn’t look like they were going to manage, first day they basically missed the plane and had to reschedule for the next day. And then dad bruised something in his foot, making nice long walks a no-no. Bad luck, I tell ya…but I think they’re enjoying sucking up the culture regardless, so that’s okay.

Yesterday we finally met up with Cousin Ed and Tenant, to go to the place where grandpa was born and spread his ashes. It took a long time before we could arrange for a date. First our work, cousin Ed’s work, tenant’s health, there was always something getting in the way. But now we got to it, and the weather was hot, but still splendid for the occasion.

Went to pick up Cousin Ed and Tenant at Tenant’s senior home (she’s really enjoying her time there. It’s in the town where she claims to have been very happy for many years, so that’s definitely a relief. It’s a cosy home for staunch vegetarians, right in the middle of the woods, and her room looks out on a courtyard with a pond, so it is really up her alley). The latter had just returned from an arranged excursion to a local museum, so she’d already had fun. We packed her, her wheelchair and Cousin Ed’s dogs in the car, piled ourselves in as well and started on our way.

Luckily I’d thought of preparing a potato-veggie salad with garlic bread for lunch, because with all the excitement Tenant hadn’t had time to have lunch.

We arrived at grandpa’s childhood homestead around four in the afternoon, parked the car across from the castle, and took tenant out for a stroll over the premises. Luckily the present owners didn’t mind us wandering about the place once we explained that we wanted to look around the place that had once been to the home of grandpa. I think the fella even recognized grandpa’s name, considering grandpa’s parents used to maintain the castle for the man’s father after the war.

It was very cool to see the place grandpa was always talking about. The pictures just didn’t do it any justice.

We finally agreed to spread his ashes under a line of poplar trees that grandpa claimed to have planted some sixty or seventy years ago. Big brother did the honors, with us standing at a slight distance, only to have us all start laughing when a fierce gush of wind swept a big bash of ashes along straight for the old homestead off to the west. For a moment the entire place was surrounded by this ghostly white mist and then another gush of wind made the ashes disappear entirely. We all found it rather poetic that he went back to the place where he literally was born. He would have gotten a kick out of that, I think.

What was left of the afternoon we spent in a nice patch of shade, in the grass, eating our lunch and talking some about grandpa, and all our plans for the next few weeks.

We didn’t get tenant back home until seven in the evening, at which time she was pretty tired and wanted to go straight to bed. It had been a long and exciting day for her for sure.

We, on the other hand, went home with cousin Ed where we had beer and a snack before we headed back home. It was already late by the time we arrived, so there really wasn’t much left to do except unwind from the day, a glass of wine, and getting ready for bed.

Which about sums this update up, I think. More to do, stuff to prep and…well, you get my drift.