We'll see where it goes

Song of the day:…hmmm, I’m not entirely sure. I had a weird one in my head during the night, it was there every time I woke up, like a friggin’ echo,  and now that wanna write it down here, for the life of me, I can’t remember which song it was. Ah well, better to be grateful that I don’t have that earworm anymore, right?

Right, what to tell, first  a bit of semi-good news. Big brother has a new job, full time, near the airport, meaning quite a bit of commute, poor boy. It’s kinda good for him, I think, to have to be there without me buffering conversations and such. He’s on his own, needing to make contact and what not. It’ll be cool to see how that works out, whether he’ll gain some confidence in that regard. He’ll be working at a big company, transport and installation of big household machinery. He comes home with stories of his new colleagues, which is kinda weird for me too, considering normally I’m right there when the stories are made, so to speak. It’s different, I’ll say that much for it.

As for me, yes, I had a job interview that seemed to go well enough the other day. If I get it, it won’t start until January, so at least I’ll have some time to write still. Got some serious ideas rolling through my head for the banshee’s story, so I really want to get back to that soon. Added to that, I still need to work on “Gun” a bit, despite having promised myself to focus on romance for a while. I got an idea that might help me to get the story unstuck, so keep your fingers crossed…but I was talking about my job interview, right? Well, it would be as a chauffeur, not a lot of hours, which I like, in particular since they pay relatively well for those hours, so, yeah, let’s hope I get it.

On the down side of it all, with big brother and me soon working at different locations, we don’t have much choice, we’ve been looking around for a very cheap, very frugal car for the past week. That meant loads of driving around for me, test driving, checking rust, (you wouldn’t believe the carpheaps people are trying to sell) booklets, license plates, because yes, you do have to be careful that a car is not legit, and whatnot. It wasn’t easy, but I managed to get the dozen we’d selected online down to three, of which big brother made his decision. It’s the smallest, basically a covered moped, hah. Can you imagine big brother with his 6’ 5” in a teeny weenie car? It makes me chortle. We’ll be picking it up Tuesday, so keep yer fingers crossed that it all works out. I sure look forward not having to get up at six to bring big brother to work. Hah.

Did some sewing lately. This area of the Netherlands I can’t really find stuff that I like at thrift stores, so I get smaller sizes that I do like, and work on them. Let me just say, I look pretty bohemian most of the time. I got seventies jeans, people. As in legs so wide the darn thing practically looks like a skirt. I love it. You can’t believe how comfortable that is after all the silly skinny fit jeans you can get by the dozen these day. Hate that design. I’ve yet to see anyone over a size zero look good in it. *sigh*

Been experimenting with cooking a little. Now figured out how to prep bulgur, which isn’t bad, I tell ya. I might write it down for the cooking blog, one of these days.

Winter is really coming now, we’ve had a warning that the first wet snow might be coming soon, we’ve got lots of northern winds, the trees have already lost more than seventy percent of their leaves, we’re getting a lot of rain, so yeah, winter is close. Don’t particularly like it, but what can you do, right?

Did see a rather lovely movie the other day “Mr. Deeds”  with Eddie Murphy. I was wonderfully surprised to see him in such a serious role, and in such a lovely  little story to boot. I read some reviews of the movie, which were positive toward him, and yet demolished the rest of the story, which I didn’t get at all. It was the whole thing that set a beautiful background for his role, made him shine even more because the story wasn’t from his perspective, like usual, but from someone who loved him dearly and made him better than good, it made him GRAND. Seriously, it is definitely a movie I would suggest you’d have a look at. I enjoyed it tremendously. It brought Eddie Murphy back for me.

I’ve had several requests lately to review books, some of which I agreed to, despite being short on time, as usual, grrrr. But I haven’t gotten around to it, bad Sammi, bad Sammi.

Fitness has been sporadic what with the busy schedule since the last blog. I do squats and such whenever I get sore from working at the computer, or studying…I’ll get to that soon…and push ups, sit ups, stretches and whatnot, so I’m not letting it slide, no worries.

Been in a very strange mood lately. Moody almost. Snappy even. Been missing the dogs like mad, and don’t really understand why it is worse now. Perhaps it has something to do with living out here in the country where having a dog would be totally awesome. But alas. Can’t be done. It is not allowed with anti-squatting. Makes me want to publish a friggin’ book or two so I can have a place of my own where I can do what I friggin’ want, like have a dog! Grrr

Have been studying, don’t have much choice in that regard, since we paid for the dratted course. Hah. But, it’s not going bad. We’re into the third section,  did our second test and only had on of 24 questions wrong, primarily because it appeared to be a bit of a trick question, we could have had it right if we had assumed some things that weren’t actually in the question. I don’t know if that was intentional and that they want you to make assumptions, or if something had been accidentally left out. Whatever it is…not bad, only one wrong. Gotta hold onto that little victory after weeks of frustration, reading boring laws.

Edits…well, that hasn’t changed at all. Seriously, there’s times we’re at each other’s proverbial throats. Nuff said.

Had our father and his wife came for a visit last week. Had a nice afternoon. Had pastries with tea, went for a walk through town, cooked dinner and talked about lots of things, including our new place, their new place and such. It was nice.

Well, we’re going to see how it all goes from here. I got stuff to do, things to arrange and…gotta go.

On the move.

Song of the day: “Shake shake senora” by Harry Bellafonte. So much fun, and I always see Winona Ryder float to the ceiling with a bunch of dead football players swinging behind her. Hah…Drat, I really should watch Beetlejuice again.

I wish I could say that the past few days were downright exciting, but since we’ve been having a lot of rain that would be an outright lie. Today I am feeling a little under the weather (pesky emotions going haywire, grrr) for some reason, so don’t pay me no heed if a snarky remark escapes me…hmmm, I better stay the heck away from politics, ‘cause, seriously…oh my Gawd!

Using what we could of the rain there was some sowing going on. Filled two full seed trays with a variety of veggies. Also, considering we had to go to town yesterday anyway to get paint for the car, we picked up four more grapes, which I put in the ground down by the fence. They’ll do nicely there, I think, lots of room to grow…as long as the dogs keep their teeth and paw out of it. Hah.

Whenever the sun is gone the weather is remarkably cool these days. It’s freaking me out a little, considering that by this time of year the temperatures should be gradually rising instead.

The edit is once again going slow but steadily. We managed ten to twelve pages in the past three days or so, so it isn’t bad, I guess. Tension, for some reason, is high though, so concentration tends to overshoot the mark at times. Hah.

But anyways, I don’t have much time today. Little brother has a dog to save. The mutt will fill the gap dead Sita III left behind, and though I hoped to postpone this event a bit longer, it is in the end his and little sister’s choice. Ah well, I consider it a holiday, seeing as I will be playing chauffeur for the day. Hah.

So I’m going to leave it at this, there still is lots to do before I head out, and I better get to it.

Nasty!

“It’s a Beautiful day, the sun is shihininggg” (by Queen, yes, you guessed it) and sarcasm is going to be the tone of the day, ‘cause I’m in a crappy mood, and I Don’t Care! Grrrr.

There’s no reason for it, really, just the silly brain bringing as of yet non-existent problems to the fore. (Makes me wanna swear a blue streak, I tell ya.)

We had a wonderfully exciting day yesterday, (yes, this is where the sarcasm jumps in) started off with rain, then went on to sun…which should have made it all better, but didn’t. We were working outside, of course, when suddenly Prama decided to pounce on Indigo, which then led to, just when I was about to grab him, Knight II snapping at poor Clue and ripping a three inch hole in the side of his neck, darn it! Which meant an unexpected trip to the vet that cost us a solid sixty bucks and ten more stitches to remove in the near future.

Yep that definitely put a cap on my mood which was already going on a steady downhill slide. Then (yes, the fun isn’t over yet) when I came home from that rather time-consuming trip, we were told we could pick Clue up later that day, Knight II was bouncing around (as usual), rushed down the mountain, came across Fortuijn and gave him a “nice” gash in his side…which was luckily small enough not to need stitches. Ah yes, the joys of owning a 120-pound pup, they just never cease.

Be that as is it may, some work got done after all. I have the manuscript up to a 127 pages at the moment, which means that I’m “ejaculating” an average of four pages a day…not bad, all things considered. The story is shaping up nicely, the characters are likable and the plot is thickening, as they say.

Other than that, the new fence is set up about half the way now, the weather allowed us to proceed with it, after all. Now, of course, due to finances, we need to postpone the second half to next month…presuming that there will be no emergencies with the dogs that’ll drain more of the funds. First off, Hummel (small crossbreed) needs an operation on her glands, ‘cause she has a growth there…which means that she will have to have her uterus removed too. Bye bye spare savings, and poor little Hummel!
Next, we need to have two growing pups castrated. Having two males walking around with thirty fertile bitches, really isn’t a smart thing, to say it mildly.

Then there is the washing machine, which has totally given up the spirit and is now standing uselessly like a pile of metal in the courtyard. Aaargh. Stuff like this drives me bonkers.

Little sister and I added a few more drawers for Grandpa in the courtyard. I wasn’t in the mood for a big project so that was just something simple to keep busy.

I cooked the other day, which didn’t work out as well as I wished, but I was in the mood for it, so who gives a fig, I sure don’t. Hah.

And I better stop right here, ‘cause I’m starting to feel downright nasty. Who knows, I might actually start bashing politicians because they’re all bloody bonkers!

Is the day over yet?

Strange dreams this night. First there was a confusing mixture of the last episode from “Dexter” and “CSI” which confused me to some extent. And then, after the monster Boxer woke me up for the second time this morning, I think I had a dream about Posh and Becks, and them needing a nanny for their kid. They have several I believe, but in the dream there was one. Weird.

Don’t know where the heck the dream came from, considering I haven’t been a nanny in…gawd, ten years, and of course the fact that I never met, and rarely even hear about the Beckhams these days.
In the dream they did have a wonderful house, however. It was huge, halfway underground, I believe, filled with plants, large windows, wonderfully eclectic furniture, and a toddler that was really sweet.

Dreams. They’re odd things, when all’s said and done. Take this one for example. What is the use of it? I can understand interesting and adventurous dreams, I even get the scary ones, but these are about as comprehensible as daytime television.

I’m feeling pretty miserable when I wake at my usual time and shove the monster Boxer in the back and let the rest of the dogs out into the yard.
The feeling’s both physical and mental, with no way to explain it or make it go away. I’m actually close to tears, which makes no sense at all as I procrastinate through the morning rituals and then head down to the house.

What with the recent escapes of several pack-members, we planned to do some fence fixing today. Seeing my mood, grandpa and big brother don’t push for me to join them, and leave me in peace while I give Yadzia his extra meal. The poor lab has been loosing weight this past week, and starting to get concerned I use the leftover soup to poor over dog food, bread and whatever else I can find to make a big portion so I can fatten him up a little.

It takes a bit of effort to be able to separate the blond Lab from the rest of my pack, eagerly trying to sneak their way between my legs as I open the pantry door and call for Yadzia to come and eat.
I actually need to wedge Knight II against the wall with my knee, in order to get the Labrador inside without company, and stand there at the door, occasionally chancing a peek inside, for ten minutes while he devours the meal with obvious enthusiasm.

At long last he’s done, wagging his tail like mad and bouncing around me when I take the advantage of Knight II wanting to check out the empty dish by locking him up so he won’t try to bowl me over when I head out into the yard to join big brother and grandpa near the section of the fence where the holes have been made.

They’re pretty much done by the time I arrive, but I do manage to make myself useful by braiding wires through the last hole. Next grandpa and I spend several minutes on the ground, sorting out a pile of bolts and screws that have somehow ended up in the middle of our rocky dirt road, digging it all out and placing it in a plastic bag when the small box that had contained them has obviously been crushed by the truck.

I’m thinking that when we repaired the gate the other day we forgot the box and left it on the middle of the road where it stayed until we left for town on Thursday. I do faintly remember hearing a thud, without being able to identify the cause on that day.

But anyways, once we’ve saved what we can from the supply, I head back down to the house to start on today’s laundry. There’s a nice dry batch, and a wet one to hang, and I do it by rote rather than thinking about it. Routines are marvelous on days such as these, I’ll admit. They allow me not to think about anything and still do my chores.

Since I’m feeling nauseous I don’t have breakfast, and start the day on a glass of orange juice rather than anything more substantial.
The few Sunday messages get worked through after I turn on my computer, and afterwards, big brother and I go over the last few pages we changed yesterday. At long last we declare the vampire story done and I’m more than a little relieved.

Its not like the story is bad or anything. Not at all. The story’s great, but my present mood just doesn’t allow me to enjoy it.

What follows is writing a query letter and a short synopsis. It takes a solid hour, but in the end we both agree that it’s good and transfer everything to big brother’s computer so he can send the entire package out, while I half-heartedly start searching through my files to see if any of the stories draw my attention.

In the end I narrow “my next project” down to two stories. One is a paranormal, drama/thriller, about a psychic who’s reluctant to help the authorities due to some events in the past.
The second one’s a comedy romance, about a writer with disastrous luck, which has made her a famous reporter.
Tough choice, I’ll admit. I would put the question in a survey, to see which would get the most votes, so to speak, but…well, not right now. Maybe later.

Dusk has settled by that time, and I decide to do something, anything, lest I start screaming, or worse. I would call it the screamy/headbangy feeling, but that would be overstating it, I think.
Dinner. It has to be made, and since all the ingredients are available I start preparing a solid chili-sin-carne for this evening’s meal.

The power goes off halfway through the preparation and lasts for fifteen minutes before suddenly turning back on. Looks like it’s going to be another one of “those” nights, I muse while blowing out the oil lamp I lit just minutes earlier and scowl.

It takes little time, and once the meal’s done, I actually manage to choke down a small portion. I’m far too stressed out to calmly digest the food, though, and soon I head on out to the courtyard to get a bucket of soft-yellow paint, so I can start on the wall that we displayed with last night’s demolition.

The paint in the bucket is a bit thick from a full year without use, but after adding some water to make it useable, I start slapping it on the wall. I usually am rather quick at painting, but not today. Since I’m doing this particular chore with the intension of keeping myself busy, I go through the motions slowly and steadily, actually grabbing a chair for the ground level sections and just slapping the paint on.

The electricity goes off again, but I pay it little heat after I light the oil lamp again and continue to paint that way for the next ten minutes of darkness before it switches back on.

By the time I finish with the wall, both sisters have come down and we decide to start tiling the section of the floor that’s bare now that the old counter’s gone.

Back, when it was built the house was barely done with only concrete floors. Since we needed the kitchen sooner than the actual floors, we’d put it in before the tiles, leaving middle sister and me with the not-so-wonderful chore of fitting and matching new tiles into the missing sections.

While middle sister is mixing the glue I get down on the floor to clean it properly before use. There are layers of grime to scrape off, and an actual chisel is needed when I find big lumps of the old glue sticking out from the edges of the tiles already there.

It takes some time to get it all ready but in the end, middle sister takes over the actual laying while I start cutting the tiles we need to fit in. The new ones are not an exact match, but they’re close enough as slowly the biggest part of the concrete is covered.

While we’re in the midst of laying the tiles, the dogs decide to come check out why we’re working on the floor, thus making it necessary for little sister and brother to get a large board to block the part of the kitchen we’re working on. This, of course, is not something the dogs appreciate, and the majority of middle sister’s and my pack are gathered behind the board, occasionally hopping up to peer at us with miserable expressions on their faces.

Finished with the section of the floor that was planned for today’s laying, we move to the counter, and use the remainder of the glue on the cooking side of the kitchen, where small blue and white tiles will cover the wall.

It is close to midnight when we’re finally done, and the other sibs join us in the cleanup. There’s a small disaster while we’re shifting the protective board to lay it over the newly laid tiles, however. My pack is eager to join me in the large niche that was closed off for a full two hours, and while they’re crowding close, little Dax’s paw somehow ends up under the board big brother and I are putting over the tiles.

Now this wouldn’t have been a big deal if Yadzia, Chaos and Amri–all big and heavy dogs–hadn’t decided to bounce right on top of the board big brother and I just barely manage to keep from smashing right down to the floor…and therefore sparing poor Dax some serious damage.

There is a lot of noise when the Pocket Beagle (Dax) squeals, and the rest of my pack thinks that there’s some excitement going on, but in the end the paw gets freed and calm returns.

Once cleanup is done, I eat a few crackers with apricot jelly before big brother and I spend about an hour at the kitchen table discussing the possibilities for the next book project.

With the arrival of one in the morning I call it a day and head to my quarters.
Sleep. It is all I really want at this time.