3 hours! Yikes!

Song of the day: “You’re cooler than me” by Mike Posner. I still find it a catchy and funny song. End up bouncing around when it comes on (as in the radio of iTunes, not when it’s in my head) every time.

Bad news first. Well, not really bad, just troubling. Sitabah has been feeling “off” these past few days to when I saw her shiver this afternoon, and heard her moan and tuck in her stomach while she tried to lie down, we decided to play it safe and take her to the vet for a quick check. Otherwise you’ll see we’ll have to rush there during the night, or tomorrow after visiting hours. That’s always how it goes, ya know. So we went, and she got looked at, and turned out to have a fever. Also some mucus around the eyes, and a sensitive belly…so just to be sure she’ll be going on antibiotics for the next two weeks. *sigh*

But okay, we’ll just have to see how that goes for the next three to four days. On to the past couple of days, shall we. Well, I’ve opened another blog. Unlike this one where I just jabber on most of the time, I’ll be using that primarily as a photo blog I hope that in the near future I’ll be able to get some portraits on there, which is course the plan. Hah. Maybe I’ll even manage to talk some people on the market into posing. That would be cool. You’ll have to see. This is the link: http://samayasview.blogspot.com.es/
I’m going to try to post a picture on there a few times a week, but we’re going to have to see how that goes.

Today was a bit of an aberration, in particular since I felt absolutely awful this morning after I managed to write about one page in two hours. My ears were humming, my eyes stinging, and nausea swirled in my stomach. So rather than schlep my way through the day, I decided to head for bed and catch some zzzzs.

Slept for three friggin’ hours, and had the oddest dream that I was out for a job interview at this limo company. My interview involved driving the owner in a somewhat dilapidated looking Limo on a rather long and winding road that just kept going down and down. At a certain point I started to notice that the brakes were rather sloppy, which I mentioned to the owner, who just shrugged and told me to go on. I did, and once the road straightened out, we suddenly came across this rather massive bump in the road which I barely managed to go slow enough not to scrape the bottom of the car. I stopped right after, and looked at the interview guy who looked harried, got out, walked around the limo twice staring intently, and then said: “Can you start Sunday?”

*snort* That’s about when I woke up a little overheated and a little grumpy. Don’t you just hate wasting an afternoon like that? I sure do. But, admittedly, I’ve been burning the candle on both ends a little lately, so it’s not surprising that it caught up with me.

I was a good Sammie again, because I ate my meat right after. Didn’t complain (too much) stuffed it down my throat and only needed one chocolate cookie afterward to rinse the taste away. Hah. Then it was time to start loading the car for tomorrow’s market. Since we’re sharing a spot with someone, we’ll have to arrange everything different than the last few times, so I’m taking less tables. Less hauling that way anyway.

Sally came back home today. It was a close call whether it was going to be yesterday, but alas, another trip to the hospital had to be taken. Sally was her usual (at least what is usual for her these days) grumpy self and needed quite a bit of help after two weeks of inactivity.
No time for cooking today…luckily yesterday was an entirely different matter.
The day started at usual (too early to my liking, hah) with the normal chores after which we had to rush into the yard because the past two days hadn’t allowed for us to water the plants at all. Poor darlings were looking miserable, so we spent about an hour watering the lot, harvesting broccoli, sugar peas and zucchinis. In other words, dinner. Hah.

What followed was an hour and a half of writing, after which big brother helped tenant to her bed for a nap while I started to do some cleaning in the carport, because let’s face it, the place was starting to look like a pigsty. Hah. We had tentatively planned to work on the kitchen, but what the hey, another day won’t matter. Hah

Had to go out again, another donation, food past the expiration date for the dogs, mind you. Much appreciated that, what with the price dog food rising steadily.

Grandpa wasn’t feeling well in the morning, but luckily it got better during the day. He did call the doctor, just to be sure that it had nothing to do with the pills. According to the doctor it was unlikely, so grandpa was reassured by that.

Played around with my camera a little yesterday. Got some nice shots done, know a little more about the machine. So far I am happy with the thing. It’s pretty much self-explanatory, and I think I’ll get it figured out in time.
Also messed with the new blog, of course, trying out letter types and all. It’ll take some time, but then it should look very nice at some point. Hah

Cooking involved the morning’s harvest. Broccoli with the sugar peas baked in butter, with rice and coconut milk-curry zucchinis on the side. It went down remarkably well.

Knight II’s ear is doing well enough, all things considered and…yikes almost midnight. I gotta go. In six hours I gotta be up again. :-)

Confusion

Song of the day: “Wild Rose” by Kylie Minogue and Nick Cave. Strangely dramatic song. Also not the most comfortable since it is rather depressing. I ended up singing “Things” by Nancy and Dean, just to get rid of it.

Right, the past couple of days have been hectic as usual, and because it is already late, I totally don’t feel like sharing. *sigh* Gotta do it, though, promised to keep the blog as accurate as possible, and frequent, come hell or high water…well, okay, if either of those last two happen, I am not going to blog. Hah.

Well, let’s see if we can keep this remotely short, alright? There were of course the usual chores. The ever pleasant laundry, feeding the dogs, doing some cleaning (yes, I did some in my cabin, yay!) and cooking. Nothing too fancy, mind you, but today there was a rather nice veggie mix to go with the burgers I made last Friday (90 of ‘m at least). It was perfectly edible.

Made a kiwi cheesecake, but it didn’t work out well. I did something wrong with the amount of gelatin. Such a pity. I bet it would have done well at the market…well, maybe not.

Writing wise I managed a total of six pages, I suppose. Both yesterday while at the market, and Saturday morning. The story is processing well. I also took the time to read some of it yesterday afternoon, so I could better remember what I’d already described. The flow is going well, and it reads very different from romance, which is good.

At the moment we are spending the evenings doing some proof reading for ATOL, which we want to send out one of these days. It is going well, I must say. Hardly any errors in the structure, only a few typos so far, so I’m very pleased. Also, the tone is still there, the flow pleasant and fun. We’ve been laughing quite a bit while going through the first forty pages or so.

Had to pick some stuff up, and while at the market I visited with Sally. She’s getting more and more confused, not to mention angry for everything not going the way she wants them to. I had to talk to her a long time before she realized that the things she thought were true weren’t. It was rather sad, really, in particular since the hospital is still not happy with her blood thinness, meaning that she can’t come home yet.

Getting way too little sleep. If I make it through six hours per night it’s a lot, and it ain’t good for me. I really need to find a way to change something about that. It won’t do. Oh, I managed some leather branding the other day, a Scarab that worked out rather well, but the picture didn’t do it justice, I fear.



The market was, profit wise, a bust. Barely sold enough to break even. A very strange audience today. Not at all the usual market folks that tend to come by. Added to that the weather wasn’t all that nice. In fact, there were a lot of clouds, and I was very happy about the fact that I had a sweater with me. Regretfully, the white blouse I was wearing got really dirty with a dark smear on the top, meaning I had to change into to tie dye mid-day. It didn’t look bad on me, so it was no big disaster, I just liked my blouse better.

Loading took quite a bit of time, meaning we were late getting home. Then of course we still had to unload (first eating, though, because I was friggin’ starving), get grandpa and big brother up to date on the day (talked with a nice Irish fella) who was on his way to Brazil with his German Shepherd.

Did manage some more proofreading after we got home, and then passed out during the night. Today, we opted not to do any computer work in the morning, meaning I wanted to work on the kitchen today. Got quite a bit of tiling done, again, yay. Most of the higher horizontal levels where the kitchen cupboards will be. Won’t be seeing much of them in the future, but it will be vastly cleanable. Hah. While cousin Ed and I worked on that (tenant kept us company) big brother did some masonry on the corner of the kitchen, and then took to looking at the future counters.

Big brother talked me out of the green cupboards, by the way. Instead we’re going for real wood again, to really get the “rustico” atmosphere going. I wasn’t too particular about it anyway, so if we can make this work that’s fine with me too. Just as long as it is easy to clean. With a little luck I’ll be able to cook in there next week, or the week thereafter.

Took most of the day, after which the whole cooking thing happened. Loved the garlic burgers. Hah. Oh, and Alexander II got "snipped" today poor darling. No choice there, what with so many of the females in heat. Waited too long, in fact.

Well that’s gotta be it for now. I’m ready for bed…almost.

A little vague.

Song of the day: “Haven’t met you yet,” Michael Buble. I know, I never would have thought I’d like his songs but this one stuck around for some reason. Hah.

Regretfully I don’t remember yesterday’s song, darn it. Ah well, never mind.
Let’s see if my memory works better for the activities…I doubt it. Hah.

Yesterday the weather was downright marvellous, I do remember that. Our tenant had a lovely (warm) time on my porch, and her ascend onto the stairs went rather well. She rather enjoys the buzz going on around her.

Middle sister and I worked on her desk, both yesterday and today (today was miserably cold the moment I stepped out of the sunshine, by the way. Gawd I hate that northern wind) and minus a few little cosmetic touches that still need to be done, she should be able to start painting by tomorrow. The new drawers are sturdy, finished and in, yay. The delicately worked finishing slats are up, and minus one little construction error that we corrected today (in a rather cute fashion, I’ll admit) it all worked out splendidly.

It still needs the back cover, and a lick of paint, but what with the new bottom I put in and the sturdy legs, it should hold for at least another decade, or so. It’ll be fun to find out. Hah.

At the same time big brother has put in the drain under the carport, which should be ready in time because the weather forecasts are predicting heavy rains later this week. Oh my Gawd. Please no…though, admittedly it would be great for nature around here. It was a rather dry summer, so it really is necessary, darn it. That doesn’t mean I gotta like it, though.

Little sister reached a milestone today, she put in her first shelve on her own. It looks great, and what with the new doors in front of the cabinet in the kitchen, for which she made it, the kitchen is finally completed. Yay.

Little brother has been tackling the patio inside door, which was looking wretched from intense use for ten years, and lots of dogs trying to get through on a daily basis. Considering that we’re going to put in thick glass this time, it should hold for a bit this time.

The laundry machine is still giving me a lot of grieve. It just doesn’t want to turn on for me, so I’m resorting to calling big brother at ever occasion, who then somehow manages to get the machine on. It’s just freaky. It’s like the bloody machine just doesn’t like me, or something. Hah,

Oh my, how could I have forgotten, we had a flat tire on the Land Rover, so we had our first experience in changing it the other day. It wasn’t all that hard, really, and now we’ve got the spare on, because we need to take the tire to the shop, to see if they can repair it. We would have done it already if the shops weren’t closed again due to a local Holiday, involving Saint Nicholas.

My shiner is…oh wait, I forgot to write about that the other day, didn’t I. Well, I was experiencing a freaky day of clumsiness, that’s a fact. First I got in the car and bumped my head on the ceiling, like, hard. Yikes. Then several hours later, I bent over while we were hanging this humongous board on the ceiling of the carport, and at the same time big brother lifted a chair…which then slammed me right in the noggin’ (forehead, this time) with the stick end of the back. Crap!
And then, last but not least, I was just about recovering from the long day, stretching out on my bed, when Sitabah (Weimaraner) decided she wanted on the bed too and tried to jump over the others to get there. I was only in time to see a flurry of gray coming towards me, and wham: Her friggin’ bony knee slams into my right cheekbone, sending me backwards, wondering whether to throttle her, or just keep quiet until pounding sensation subsided a little. I decided on the latter.
But anyway, the shiner is almost gone again, so it was minor to say the least, and though the other spots are a little tender, all things considered it wasn’t all that bad.

As for today, the fire barrel was burning cheerily most of the day, of course. That wind was a genuine pain in the butt, I tell ya.
I made dinner this afternoon, because let’s face it, when working in the cold a warm meal is detrimental for all concerned.
The dogs would have loved a bite too, but I persevered, and kept them at bay until I had finished my share. They too like the burning barrel, by the way. I swear, if we don’t watch them closely, some of the dogs will actually try to lie against it while the metal is literally scorching their fut.

…And considering I can’t think of another thing to write about, other than that we’re making good progress with the proofreading. Managed to do a total of forty pages in the past couple of days, yay. Which reminds me, I need to get to it, like, right now…

Another quicky post, I fear.

It’s gonna have to be, ‘cause I’m running way behind. I should have written the blog this afternoon, but since we worked straight through, there just wasn’t any time. (I’m making this excuse a lot these past few weeks, don’t. Darn it, I hate repetition.

But, be that as it may, let’s do this so I can get to work on the book, hah.

Well, yesterday there wasn’t much done project wise. Considering I had to drive our tenant to the doctor’s…her blood sugar and pressure were perfect, so now she only needs to go there once every two months or so, yay…then, I had to go to the bank to talk with the manager, who is going to solve at least one of my present problems. Phew.

Then I had to hurry our tenant home, make a quick pit stop (if ya get my meaning) only to depart again to bring Nanook to the vet’s for her operation. As it turns out she had a small tumor between her toes, but we caught it in time. The operation went well, and the doc could save her toe, yay, but still, the operation meant that we had to go out again three hours later to pick up the still sleepy husky, who was more than a little grumpy once she started to come to.

But anyway, in the meantime, and afterwards, we made a tour of the property, talking about options of where to start the biological veggie garden. Lots of ideas going on, for when springtime arrives, lots of preparations to start on too. There’s the future greenhouse to think of, the new septic tank that still has to be built, watering system, and all the others things that will be necessary to make the garden work out properly.

There is also the drain that we still have to make at the top of the carport, so, lots of plans… and so little time.

The day in the bitterly cold wind ended with a wonderfully cozy evening behind the computer where we went through twenty pages of the ongoing book-proofread project. Marvelous, isn’t it?

Which brings us to today: This morning the wind was still howling; I do admit to a moment’s worry during the night where I wondered if the roof of my cabin was going to hold, hah. But it did, and during breakfast, there was the most disconcerting awareness of the absence of sound: All of a sudden, the wind stopped abruptly, almost as if a switch was turned. Downright freaky.

The sun was wonderfully warm then, and our tenant sat on my porch enjoying a book, while we worked around her, on the drain, and the desk cabinet that I still need to fix for middle sister. Got the new fronts of her drawers sawed, and the new top that we’re putting in, and after a quick lunch, she joined in to get more progress. It’ll take another day or two, but then it’ll look great again.

Big brother got most of the drain done, little sister finished painting the new kitchen cabinet doors and we hung one of the two together. With the second one, I made a slight miscalculation, so I’ll have to fix it before we manage to put it in.

The dogs loved today’s weather too, of course. They were more in the way than ever because, like us, they too were trying to find all the sunny spots to catch some nice warm zzzzs.

Well, I gotta go…again. Better luck next time.

Scouring the news. Grrr

Song of the day: “Black Pearl” by Bryan Adams, preceded by “Something Stupid” from Robbie Williams and Nicole Kidman. Now this is what I call diversity, hah.

So let me drop the bomb without hesitation, Spanish political parties are as insane as any other government in the world. Let me explain why: The social party has come with a proposal to pay restitution to the descendants of the Moors, which got the choice “convert, or go in exile” and chose the latter. Now here’s the kicker, they are proposing to offer restitution for what happened…yes, hold onto your hat…what happened in 1492. Oh my gawd! That would be equal to the French paying restitution to Germany for finally throwing out the riffraff after the war, or the Indonesian people paying the Dutch for kicking their buts in the 1900s and taking back their country. Seriously, this kind of crap boggles the mind.

Next cute little bit; According to astronomers there is the disturbing news that for a while now there are less and less explosions occurring on the sun. Said scientists are afraid that the Sun might very well be dying, or DEAD…which, according to them, isn’t all bad because it would make our global warming a rather good thing (I don’t know how they can say this considering the heat isn’t our only problem, hah.) since it would mean that we are heading towards what could very well be an ice age. Aaargh.

Another nice tidbit, there’s going to be an increase in energy prices…so technically with the so called energy and money saving machines and light bulbs we’re going to pay less for more. Marvelous, how very Feng Shui. It almost makes me think that the governments discovered that if people were going to pay less they would decrease the government’s taxes, or something. Now that simply won’t do of course.

I also read a study where they say that newborns of mothers with stressful jobs often have the same shortage in their weight as newborns from smoking mothers. Huh? So does that mean they can just trank future moms during pregnancy, because otherwise her “way of life” is harmful for the baby. I mean, they are basically forcing everything else already, right?

But anyway, this revelation logically would lead me to the conclusion that maybe they made a slight error in judgment amount all those studies of smoking being harmful for babies, ´cause let’s face it, smokers are often people who have a tendency to be stressful. (which is the reason they smoke, right?) And, often smokers are of the working class so maybe the smoking theory was slightly biased. But no, this connection isn’t made. Hah.

In the UK the government can now take away ones’ kids if that kid is obese…Seriously, why not take kids away at birth while they’re born and put them in little children factories where they are prepared be useful little drones for society. *Sigh* (yes that was sarcasm for ya)

The European Union is planning to give a raise to all civil servants of 3.4 percent, and that while we’re in an economic crisis. Who, I wonder, is going to pay for that. Duh. I prefer to laugh about this sort of thing, ‘cause if you don’t, you have to cry. Hah.

The bird-flue is now and endemic in China, the Mexican flue is supposedly a pandemic and if the two mix, first one incredibly deadly, and the second contagious…why, you can say by bye. Then there is also the massive virus that is wreaking havoc in the Ukraine (it already killed over two hundred people, while at least a million are infected and yet I only saw one official notification of it) which apparently turns the lungs into charcoal. Why they would force anyone to vaccinate for the flue is a mystery to me if I think about it. Sort of defeats the purpose if there’s a risk of my lungs turning into charcoal, huh?

Yep, lots of wonderful things going on the world.

Now doesn’t news like that just cheer a body up? I mean seriously, who has time to worry about the economy with stuff like that going on. I sure don’t.

But enough about all that, let’s get on to stuff that is a little less depressing, shall we. What has been going on for the past couple of days? Edits, chores and laundry, of course, while at the same time we are preparing the expansion of the carport roof. What with the temperatures constantly dropping and the first rainy day behind us already, we figure we’re going to need it soon.

First, though, we replaced a couple of corrugated plates on the patio with transparent ones. Considering we need the metal ones for the carport’s expansion, we thought to take the opportunity to create some more light in the patio with the transparent plating. Worked out fine, allowing us to continue on with carport today. Last night I already put together the steeple, so today we should be able to put up the pillars and screw it all together.

While yesterday was miserable weather with thick, misty clouds and rain, at least there was no wind. Today, on the other hand, you can almost take flight in the wind. Yikes. It feels like ice on my skin, and that while I’m wearing a long sleeved T a thick woolen military sweater and a fleece body warmer. Aargh. Luckily, I got me some gloves during shopping, hah. I am using my electric stove for three days now, darn it, ‘cause my cabin is really cold in the evening. Even the poor doggies are clustering together for warmth during the night now.

Our tenant is slowly improving, which is grand to see. Walking (with help yet) is getting easier and more sure, and with a variety of exercises, she is slowly getting mobility in her arm back as well. Stupid physical therapists.

Projects in waiting are, another glass and wood wall for the living room this time, new stairs in the patio, along with a rock wall to cover the natural wall that is already there, and the new furniture for little brother’s room. Yep, still plenty to do…and I should get to it. Hah

Finished for real...I hope. Bring on the writing!

Song of the day: “The Saga Begins” by Weird Al Yankovich today. Yesterday it was “Kids” by Robbie Williams and Kylie Minogue. (I actually remember, hah.)

So let me scramble my mind a little to see if I can come up with some details (they tend to mesh into one inside my brain) of the past couple of days. Uhm, yeah, there was doing the final check of “Saving Nina”, which we finished with, completely, as of today. Yay.
I felt a little odd when we read through the last correction this morning, that particular feeling of “now what?” creeping up on me, almost giving me a panic attack, until big brother reminded me that we’d discussed it last night, and that I would continue writing “Calamity’s Luck”.

This is a story I started with about four years ago, and which is about one third into the story. Unlike Saving Nina that fits in the psychological thriller angle, Calamity’s luck leans towards romance, with a big dose of humor in it.
It will be a nice change, I think, after rewriting, editing and then re-editing Saving Nina for the past eight or nine months. It was a helluva job, done with lots of pleasure, but also endless frustration, on the overall. Now that the manuscript is finally done, something a little lighter will definitely go down well.

First, I’ll have to read up on what I’ve written so far, though. I haven’t looked at the story in almost three years; so refreshing my mind is top priority at the moment.

Like yesterday, little sister and I worked on my new drawer cabinet, which was also finished today and was painted with the first layer just hours ago. Seeing as little sister and our friend Danni both want to learn how to make actual furniture, we’re taking the building of such things slowly, allowing them to gradually ease into it...just like grandpa did with me and big brother.

While big brother is once again working on putting in electrical wiring (he’s going to need it once he start welding the new gate) and fixing mom’s screen doors, we did the cabinet, sanding large sections of my cabin, washed the windows, and varnished the newly cleaned wood. The place is looking really tight now, and I love it.

Two days of running are behind us again, first on a deserted mountainous road that was a pain to traverse on, hah, and then yesterday, Halloween, we went back to our usual spot. Lots of trick-or-treaters along the way; the holiday is really getting to be popular in the area. As a matter of fact, on the way back there was this “Scream” character limping along the road, and just as I passed it, a whole bunch of kids came screaming from the bushes, startling me good. Gawd, I was almost afraid I hit one, but luckily they stayed on the pavement, well out of the way, phew.

Little brother is still busy with repairing the outside benches, and having fun with it, I think. He did an excellent job with the first one, that’s a fact. Caoba painted wood (he’s actually using tropical wood, which will be more weather resistant) and black metal. The things actually look better than they did when we bought them. Hah.

Still lots of laundry; for some reason, whenever I finally empty the dirty laundry bags, someone decides to have another cleaning bug, and fill the darn things up within an hour...earning me an average of three more batches to wash, hang and fold. Now, normally this wouldn’t be much of a problem, of course, but now that the machine is on the frits and the stupid switches don’t work, it often takes me a long time to actually get it on. Aaaargh.

We got another stash of wood the other day (I think it was dumped when we were out for our run) so our supplies are slowly filling up again. Good thing, since there is still so much to do.

Next month, when our funding gets to be a little more stable again (darn unexpected expenses) a new batch of sand and cement will be delivered. We still have to pour a concrete gutter behind the younger sibs’ rooms, and a variety of small things have to be done all over the place. Also the metal that we’re going to need for the gate, and maybe an operation for little Djoti (black and white Cocker Spaniel) who’s troubled by his last eye of late. Unless his discomfort lessens, the vet is going to have to remove the eye too. Sad, but also not much difference for Djoti who’s been blind for several years now.

It’s going to cut into the budget, though, and that’s always a bother. Things go much easier when all the dogs are healthy...added to being happy.

Watched a couple of movies...which were not at all memorable, much to my regret. Apparently, the problem I ranted about a little while ago is still there. *sigh*

Well, time to get back to work, I guess. I can’t remember anything else to write about, so I’ll leave it at this and sign off until Tuesday.

Remarkable...I think not. Hah.

Song of the day....I can’t remember the one for yesterday, which is no big surprise considering that yesterday was the dreaded grocery shopping day. Aaaaargh. Seriously, I’m not even going to write about it, it is just ridiculous. There was absolutely nothing remarkable about it; it just took us five hours rather than six. Hah.

Oh gawd, I almost forgot. There was this teller at the pet store, who asked how much weight I lost, and how much, and ended up saying how she thought I looked guapisima (or something along those lines). Always a pleasure to hear, and fun to see the surprise on their faces (this has happened four times now in the past few months, hah) when I say that I actually stopped dieting and just stopped caring about the whole weight thing. It gave me a little buzz, I'll admit, especially since it reminded me that I've passed the eighty pound mark (lost) just a few weeks ago.

So let’s have fun and go to…yes, today. Nothing remarkable about today either, at least not from your perspective, I imagine. I had fun though. Almost done with the checking of the scenes we altered during the last proofreading session, yay. We found the stunning total of three missing words throughout thirty pages, or so, but that’s about it. Phew. Talk about relief.

And since big brother and I started an hour early this morning, we could start on the daily projects and chores. Yes, admit it. I can hear you cheer! (Sorry I’m in a weird mood today. Hah.)
But anyways, since most of the ongoing projects are coming to a conclusion, I spent the first hour (or two) cleaning out the linen closet, which was a total mess. Jeez. Still, I ended up with all the piles neatly organized and like a handful of fabrics that should have gone in the laundry ages ago, and somehow never got there.

That done, I went outside…it was a wonderfully warm day, and working inside just wasn’t an option…and together with little sister got to work on making a small dresser for my cabin. The old one is annoying me, since the drawers are to darn small, so something a little more manageable would be really handy.

Little sister is slowly getting a handle on this carpentry thing, and while we were putting the cabinet together, middle sister offered to paint my couch. Little brother, on the other hand, worked on the outside bench, which didn’t make it through the last winter. I’ve come to realize that he likes working on his own, so I leave him be, unless he asks something. He too is getting a hang of it, and that is a pleasure to see.

Big brother worked on the electricity today, along with some other little chores that had to be seen to, and grandpa helped with the sawing. So with mom painting her own dresser (we fixed it the day before yesterday) it was a nice day of working in the warm autumn air.

After darkness had fallen, big brother and I headed out for a quick run and to get a batch of rocks. Since we still have to build the new porch still, sometime in spring, stocking up on the bloody things is really necessary. Since we’re out already, we decide to take the long way home and pick up the wood supply that had been put aside for us since last week’s order.

And so the day has come to an end, and with the dogs welcoming us with a choir of barking and howling, we quickly calm them down, have a late dinner and then crawl behind the computers for a quick round on the Net before we call it a night.

Wait for it....All done...sorta. Hah.

Song of the day: “Relight my fire” by Take That featuring Lulu. An oldie for me, but it’s still fun to have tumbling around in my head.

Ah yes, another blog to write and nothing of major interest to write about, darn it. Just the daily stuff so what other choice do I have but to write about it.

All right then, I woke up on the dot, hopped (AKA dragged my whiny butt) out of bed and got started on the day. I distinctly remember that there were dreams, but that is about all I remember about it. Disappointing, isn’t it? Wouldn’t it be grand if I had another exciting dream to write down here? Drat!

There were the usual morning chores, and the washing machine playing hard to get, again. So frustrating. It now takes me up to fifteen minutes of screwing around with the controls until I can get the darn thing working. We’re going to have to take it apart soon, to see what the problem is.
There was some residual soreness from the two in a row runs, but other than that the ol’ body functioned the way it should while I went through the morning stretches and then trudged down to the house.

Still had a little pitfall when I started down, felt like I forgot something, and then ended up thinking about Trin Trin again. Darn.
There was a short writing session for me while I waited for big brother to get through his proofreading session prior to administering the corrections. Got another page added, and then did a full chapter.

We got into a thirty-minute discussion about this sentence, by the way, so if you know the right one, lemme know. Here it goes:

This was my version. (FYI, this is a “dying” scene):

He blinked sluggishly. His eyes popped open with the involuntary intake of a deep, yet faltering breath. Nina was applying pressure to his wound again.

This is what we finally agreed upon, even if I don’t really like to put (an) and (a) in one sentence:

He blinked sluggishly. His eyes popped wide open with an involuntary intake of a deep, yet faltering breath. Nina was applying pressure to his wound again.

We shuffled the stupid thing around like a million times, but I’m still not sure, grrr.

But anyway, after the ridiculously long chapter, the afternoon was in progress and I headed up to my cabin. At last I’ve set aside some time to clean the place, because it’ starting to resemble a pigsty, hah.
It takes about four hours of scrubbing, sweeping and organizing, but around nightfall I’m finally done and the cabin looks almost new on the inside. Yay.

Since we agreed to go for another run the night before, big brother and I haul an old couch up the mountain (took me three trips to get all the pillows up too) and shove it in the back of the car so we can get rid of it at the local landfill that’s on our way. The run gets postponed for half an hour, though, ‘cause the backlight, over the license plate is flickering and we need to fix it first.

That done, we head out and have a forty minute run that went well enough, even though I really didn’t appreciate the chilly wind. The moon was shining, though, and my heels stopped hurting (as a matter of fact, I didn’t feel them at all anymore, at some point, hah) once we got a decent speed going.

So, no, I’m not as fast as big brother, who’s like three inches taller than me, I’m getting there. That is quite an accomplishment, if I do say so myself; and that for someone who didn’t like running at all…well, I’m starting to get a hang of it for sure.

Some more chores followed during the night, the dogs went bonkers while we were out, by the way. They get that way sometimes, for some reason something will crawl up their butts, and no matter what you do, they’ll keep trying to start an orchestra of barking and howling.
But anyways there was a really late dinner, which came down to me stuffing my face before I took my dogs up to my cabin and conked out, face down on my bed until the next morning.

Sleeheeep! I love it. I want to do it more, but since that won’t do any good, I’ll just enjoy it when I can. Hah.

And then we continue on to today, the song: “All summer long” by Kid Rock. Hah. He surprised me with that one. I mean seriously. I don’t like his usual style at all, but that was a fun song.

So today…I really had a lot of trouble getting out of bed today, this wintertime change is a lot harder than the one that took us into summer, but in the end I persevered under the shrill squeal of the alarm ringing for a solid fifteen minutes. I did some stretches, something uncomfortable popped in my lower back—a good thing, considering I felt like a board, or something—and then I was up and about.

Laundry and other chores followed, by some miracle we got the washing machine to work no less than three times today, hah. There was a slight change in the routine when I had to hop in the car to pick grandpa up from the village, but other than that the morning pretty much progressed the usual way.

Okay, the good news…yeeeeaaaahhhh. We finished the last proofreading chapters and except checking a few things that we altered during this particular hike, “Saving Nina” is officially done. Phew.
I’m still not entirely sure how I feel about that yet, seeing as I will have to find a new project to submerge in during the morning hours. Maybe we’ll continue with “Commanding Morgan” the edit, or else I’m going to dive into writing some for as long as that is possible,
I don’t know what yet, but I’ll figure it out, I’m sure.

And with that rather reassuring bit, it was time to head on up to the terrace to start on today’s projects. While little brother started hauling stuff that has been lying about on the road for several weeks now, little sister and I took down one of the “new” cabinets we found recently, so we could work on making two new drawers for it.

It takes a little while to find the right supplies—for some peculiar reason we are rapidly working our way through the massive stash we’ve been piling up for months now—but once we have what we need, we get to it.
After grandpa saws everything on the big machine, it really doesn’t take all that long, and we take it slowly so little sister can steadily learn how such things have to be done. I think she enjoys it, considering she stuck around right ‘till the end when the two drawers were finished and the evening chill was settling around us.

Next, I spent about half an hour scratching old pain of the cabinet frame prior to painting, at which point it was time to start preparing for our planned run again. Considering the temperatures are dropping rapidly by nightfall these days, I asked both sisters if maybe they have an old sweatshirt I could borrow. Now I have two, zipper sweaters size large that fit perfectly and will do very well for my runs.

It’s rather funny that I fit their stuff now, considering I haven’t had this size since I was, like, twelve, or something. I rather got a kick out of it, as a matter of fact.
The run went well, by the way. I managed a solid two hundred yards at semi-full speed before I had to slow down to a very brisk walk. And then, when I caught my breath again, I did three more runs at top speed, before reverting to a sideways skip for a bit and then a backwards jog. I’ve decided to do variety, so I’ll use all muscles available. The pleasant side effect is that I’ll often end up chortling with the backwards run: For some reason it always makes me laugh.

The run over and one with, we headed back home, had dinner of mac & cheese (my body was screaming for carbs and cheese, hah) and then settled down behind our computers for some relaxation before we call it a night.

Anniversary of 1 year. YAY.

365 days of blogs…okay, admittedly for the past month or so I haven’t done one every day, but I did describe every single day in some shape or form. Wow, who’d have thunk that I’d keep it up, but there you have it. Now it would be grand if I had some sort of amazing thing to write down on this momentous day, but nope, just another couple of normal days for as far as I can see.
So, let’s get to it. Hah.

Song of the day: “Mushaboom” by Feist. There was another one, earlier in the morning, but for the life of me I can’t remember it.

Yesterday. Yeah, okay. I feel a tad mush and I can’t remember all the details all that well. Lemme think…well, there was the proofreading corrections. Minor stuff really, but still working up some enthusiasm at the moment is, like, hard. Hah. It had nothing to do with the story, but everything with my state of mind, I think.

But I’m getting ahead of myself. The day had started about an hour earlier than usual, but still I felt like I was running behind, due to the fact that my internal clock insisted that it was an hour later than wintertime decreed. There was lots of stuff to do; laundry, of course, and big brother finally got around to checking out the washing machine and dealing with the clogging problem. It works again, thankfully.

Same goes for the kitchen sink, which has a tendency to get clogged every month or so. While he was doing that, I took the opportunity to clean the top of the hanging cabinet. There was like a mile of dust on it, and after cleaning the lamps and “pretty stuff” they actually had color again.
Seriously, who’s got time for any real cleaning? I mean, I work for five hours on the computer, do six with whatever project we’re into at the moment, maybe manage half an hour run, do my chores and then just barely have time to drop face down on my bed. Where the heck do I fit in cleaning? Hah.

Anyways, after the short cleaning session, it was time to get to work on the manuscript. Reading gets done, the corrections of another chapter made, and before ya know it, it’s time to shift gears to start on the other projects.

There’s a blank wall in the new office (you know, where we removed the fabric shelves) and since we need more storage space, little sister and I head up to the old horse stable to get wood for a new cabinet that I intend to hang there. There are quite a few sections left of when we put the sibs’ closet together, so armed with those we start construction.

In less than two hours, we have a new cabinet…putting it together was interrupted when the dogs got hold of one of the puppies and almost killed it (nature can be so cruel sometimes). For a moment there I thought the poor thing was going succumb from shock, but after some firm prodding and talking to it, he started breathing again. We pumped the little one full with rescue remedy (flower essences that work miracles for shock) and honeyed watered to give it an energy burst, and though he is still breathing a little labored (there’s some bruising around his throat I think, for which he’s getting homeopathic Arnica) and jerky, he’s well on the mend now. Gawd, stuff like that isn’t good for our hearts. Shock went all round, the way such a snafu usually does.
Stupid Pointers. They can be so sneaky that way.

But anyway, we hung the new cabinet over the couch, (the little one with us since our tenant’s caretaker needed some reassurance and thus, company) and put in the last slats of the round terrace doors that lead to the office. It is already a pleasure to sit in the place, and Knight II really loves the couch, especially when he can chase the other dogs out of it just by using his sheer bulk. Hah.
There were a few more chores afterwards, which I won’t bore you with, along with another quick run of about three miles. It didn’t go as smooth as the day before, but I still managed to go the distance interrupted by a few fast-paced walks just to get my breath. I wonder how long it will take me to be able to go the whole distance in one piece.

After dinner…and midnight, I was more than ready to call it a day and conked out once I’d fed my dogs, gave medications to the ones that need it every single day, and just barely managing to brush my teeth. Boy, did I pass out fast. Hah.

And that bring us to today once again: Another beautifully sunny day with comfortable temperatures over twenty degrees and a bright autumn sun. Basically slept through the night, which was rather necessary since yesterday was a doozy.
I woke up early, we fully intend to change our routines a little now that day time is so short, and headed down to the house for the usual morning chores. Laundry, of course and cleaning another part of the living room…things are really too messy for words after so much time spent on projects, while leaving cleaning on a back burner…and then breakfast before starting on today’s computer session.

As is habit, there’s a quick tour over the news channels and the likes, which brings us to today’s off-course topic for a moment:
So there’s a lot of pooha going on about the Mayan Calendar saying that in 2012 the world will come to an end. Now personally this didn’t bother me all that much, (hardly gave it a thought, actually) since there are lots of such predictions going on all over.
But now, I gotta say I’m starting to think that there might actually be something to it.
If memory serves me right, the official status quo on such things was always denial and derision and yet now the media’s spitting out “official” reports by the dozen where all sorts of scientific folks are saying that the prediction is scientifically wrong and that people shouldn’t worry. Doesn’t all the soothing denial (scientifically based, naturally) make it, in fact, true?

Now, think with me here for a moment. (Let’s do Mel Gibson’s Jerry from “Conspiracy Theory” for a moment and take this waaaaaaay outta there). Who the heck spends money on such research in an economic crisis if there isn’t some truth to it?
Makes a body wonder doesn’t it?
Does official scientific denial not scream that they actually think there might be some truth to it? I’m getting a mental image here…like, they took one look at the data, thought: Holy guacamole! What the hell? And then worriedly dug in to find a proper explanation that wouldn’t make it the horrifying truth.
I mean, seriously, y’all saw the disaster movies of the past with me, right? What’s the first thing the government and scientists do when something disastrous is about to happen (just so the masses won’t panic)?

DENIAL!!! (Denial in tenfold, in fact.) Exactly!

What else can they do, really? I mean, they get confirmation that it’s “the-end-of-the-world”, and they all come together to discuss what they’re gonna do next. What can you do as the responsible leader of “the people”? Tell them, “Yes, there’s a massive piece of rock that is hurling straight towards us (or whatever) so let’s all scream and ritually kill ourselves, and…” Oh wait, I’ve got a better image, they give a press conference, and say: “My fellow humans, do not panic. The world is coming to an end. Let’s build a big fire, sit around it and sing Kumbaya until the moment arrives.”
Duhuuh. That would be, like, so outta there that I can’t even imagine it.
Of course they would deny such a thing in every shape and form. They just have a couple of renowned “experts” shove the prediction ahead for another 200 years and voila: problem gone.
Yep, I can see it happen that way. *sigh*

Fascinating, isn’t it? Gotta love a good conspiracy theory.
Now, I could start worrying about the future, but what else is there to do than live life to the fullest and enjoy every minute of it, no matter how long, or how short it would be?
I could get depressed by the finiteness of life, I could be hit by a soaring asteroid today, get smashed by a speeding car and whatnot at any moment so I’ve got a choice here. I can sit down and wait for disaster to strike at some point in the future, or…enjoy myself, be the best I can be and improve quality of life while I’m at it. Is there really any other option? I don’t think so.

But anyway, after this rather intriguing bit of news (don’t get me started on politics because you won’t be able to shut me up until…ehm, 2012. Hah) it was time to get to work on the manuscript corrections. We did another chapter, leaving only two to go for the entire manuscript, yay.

I also wrote another page or so for the untitled, which is always a pleasure. The hero is starting to shape up nicely, and there are some marvelous ideas for the heroine too. I wish there were more hours in the day, so I could devote more time to writing it, but until the day comes where I actually have real time again, I'll just enjoy the short writing sessions.

Next up, is heading up to the carport where I spent some time repairing a triple picture frame of wood, that broke in six places, after which little sister helped me haul the metal file cabinet up too, so I could put wheels underneath it. This means drilling hole in lots of metal, but in the end I did manage to get all four wheels underneath, which run grandly on the tiles in the office.

The younger sibs were working on their own projects, (little sister was doing hinges for her wardrobe, middle sister continued painting her room)and grandpa and big brother made a reading stand for our tenant, who’s been having some trouble holding a book since her stroke.

The puppy (Niobe) is still in a bit of shock and looking a little pitiful, but he’s slowly bouncing back. He wants to eat a bit now, and is wagging his tail a little when he sees a familiar face. Poor puppy.

Another day to an end, I suppose. Not that I mind, since I could head up to my cabin right now and pass out. Hah. Still have some cleaning to do there, though, and there’s another batch of laundry to hang after I did my usual rounds on the net and posted the blog.

Progress.

Song of the day: “Four seasons: Spring” by Vivaldi…I know, I know. It technically isn’t a song, but the tune kept spinning through my head and I had to hum it, like, constantly. Grrr.

Yesterday: Though I really wasn’t in the mood for it, we did manage to do a chapter of “Saving Nina”. It is so very hard to get back into the flow of proofreading after a three or four day interruption, like my brain has to shift gears totally just to find the pattern of text once more…rather frustrating I’ll admit.

The loss of Trin Trin keeps popping up during the course of the day, but keeping busy and remembering the good stuff is working well enough. The evenings are hardest, however, since I still have the tendency to prepare her food bowl, only to remember…just too late.
It will fade, I know, but for the time being it makes me feel sad still.

The crying jags have a nasty side effect: I lost my voice, sorta. I’m like totally husky now, which has a rather peculiar effect whenever I’m singing a tune, or talking. I don’t even recognize it myself, hah. The raw songs go rather splendidly at the moment, of course. I mean, really, Rock songs never sounded this “real” before.

What with the sibs’ floors done I was feeling a little at loose ends yesterday, so I mostly did busywork. First, I decide tot plant two wheelbarrows worth of plants into the courtyard garden and the big plant containers along the path leading through the center of the property.
Unfortunately, this is done in relatively little time, so rather than head inside again, little sister and I clean up the terrace down by the pool quarters, where chairs, and some leftover construction materials still scatter the ground.

After organizing garden tools and wheelbarrows over by the courtyard entrance, outside work is basically over and done with we head inside (no other options left) to hang a big lamp in the hallway and then move to the veranda office to empty the fabric closet, which is terribly in the way. The unattractive fabrics go to the pantry closet while the pretty ones get put in the big closet in the living room.

Regretfully this effort only empties one of the big shelving sections, but at least the couch fits in now, creating a nice little corner for sitting. Next, I gather tools and remodeling leftovers, creating some more space, which we certainly can use now that we’re going to need the space for work hours inside.

The day draws to an end, with my eyes drooping and my stomach growling (I didn’t take enough time to eat dinner) I eat a couple of sandwiches and then head on up to my cabin. I really should take the time to do some cleaning there, but couldn’t muster the energy.

Which brings us to today. There’s the reading of course…after getting up an hour too late because I forgot to set my alarm, darn it!…and the proofreading corrections that still have to be done. Luckily they go well enough. We manage another chapter in the hours that follow, and soon the time to start on outside work arrives.

There is still that sense of being at loose ends, but I find something to do fast enough. First thing up is repairing a nice old closet that should do the trick in the pantry. With little sister’s help, I (we) empty out anything that shouldn’t be in the pantry in the first place, relocate the old metal cabinet for the small pets’ food and then scrub everything down.

Once everything that we can cram into the new-old closet is in, and the shelving on the veranda is empty at last, we take the dratted thing apart and start hauling it all to the old horse stable for storage. No reason to throw perfectly recyclable wood away, after all. It takes a few trips, but soon we have the last part of the veranda empty at last.

While little sister sets out to paint the wall, I fix the birdcage (stupid me removed a board to which the fencing was attach, aaargh) and then balance precariously on a stepladder to put up electrical wiring, which has been bugging the heck out of me for months now.

The loveseat gets set in place, the round little table put under the turtle tank, and then we’re done with the day’s task. Time to get ready for the run we agreed upon last night, yay.
I had completely forgotten, so I only had about half an hour to not-feel-like-it before we were on our way (the car loaded with garbage, of course) to a nice deserted stretch of road where we could run undisturbed for a couple of miles.

I’m actually very glad we went, since the run went splendidly. The temperatures were wonderful, even though there was a rather hard wind coming from the west…it actually blew straight into us on the way back, which made the run a little tougher, hah. Was nice to go out again, though, and the moonlight made it very doable. Let’s hope we can squeeze in another next week, or so.

And so, we got home afterwards, properly revved from doing the run, and pouncing on dinner little sister made like starved wolves. Neither of us had eaten anything in seven hours, so it basically felt as if our stomachs thought that our throats had been cut, hah. A good workday, a nice run and then the conclusion with the run. Yep, all things considered, that makes for an excellent day in my book.

Ditzy...moi?

Song of the day: “Grace Kelly” by Mika. Still a fun song.

So let’s see how things have gone yesterday and today…boy, I never figured that it would be almost more difficult to write an update every two days, rather than every night. I manage to shave off maybe half an hour in total, but that’s it, because it takes so friggin’ long to remember what I wrote already, and what not. Drat.

But anyways, yesterday morning started almost two hours late because my alarm was behind by two hours, which was frustrating as heck. Felt slightly off-stride all day, the way oversleeping tends to do.

Then when I came downstairs to start on the humongous batch of laundry, it became clear that the washing machine was on the frits again (still is, aaargh). This, of course means that I won’t manage to get through the stuff before the rains starts, which puts me out of sorts a little. Now we’re going to have to take the machine apart and hope that we can fix the problem. It’s one of the nasty side effects of modern machinery, I think. They make everything high-tech and impossible to fix without a master’s degree, or something. I mean, seriously, you can’t just take out a lever and replace it…nooo, you need to replace the motherboard, or some sort. It’s like looking into the bowels of a spaceship, for crying out loud.

But we’ll figure it out, somehow. On to the next item: Rather than do more proofreading, big brother and I opted to start on a new round of send outs, so the majority of the morning’s hours were spent going of the manuscript’s query letter. We looked up addresses for publishers and agents working in the genre of “Saving Nina” and going over the alterations and adjustments that have been made in the requirement lists of said companies. Tiring work, that, which makes my mind murm that’s a fact.

As is the norm for time, it passes way too fast, and soon we wrapped it up to start on the activities of the day.
While big brother and grandpa finished up the fence of the upper part of the yard, I helped the sisters mix paint for their room (the one with the new floor) and middle sister’s bedroom. Next, while they got to painting, I took out the laminated slats intended for the second landing at the top of the stairs and put in a new floor there too. This part only took about half an hour; the rest of the four hours of work were spent selecting plinths and doorsteps to add to it. Grrr, the detail work is so friggin’ time consuming!

Big brother fixed the bathroom faucet, which blew last night, for no apparent reason, and luckily he managed to (at least temporarily) correct the error. It would be a real pain to have to find a new faucet that is twelve centimeters, rather than today’s standard size 16; you actually can’t get the 12 anymore.
Be that as it may, my small section of floor gets done, and after a quick dinner made by mom, big brother and I head into our office for some much needed cleaning/organizing (because the weather is ominous of late, we’ve slowly been piling things into it, until we find the proper places for them.

It took an hour or so to create some room to work in, but once done we got down to printing the letters, synopsis and chapters. We don’t actually finish with the stuff until 1:30 AM, but what the hey, we overslept so, we could do with a few hours less of sleep.

Of course, by the time we were done and had moved up to my cabin for our habitual report of the day and the plans for the next, we started doubting if we had done something wrong with the letters so we had to reopen all the envelopes again to check. Aaaargh. We didn’t do it wrong, as it turned out in the end, but better safe than sorry.

Spent an extra half hour scrubbing out my bathroom, ‘cause seriously it was a mess. It is just so hard to find some decent time to do a proper cleaning, but I ended up getting it all done to my satisfaction.

So, yeah, got too little sleep today (darn me for checking my alarm last night, hah) and my eyes were bleary when I woke up, no matter, though, much to do and too little time. When all the tasks, projects and whatnot ahead started to pile up (they tend to do that from time to time) into this massive mountain ridge that I had to climb, I decided to just blank out. I picked a song from the top of my head (Unwritten by Natasha Beddingsfield, just for the heck of it) and not think of more than the next action.

Afterwards, I could just start on the day and have a positive outlook of all the happy accidents that might occur. Lots of accidents occurred, I assure you. Apparently I’m ditzy again, ‘cause at this very moment I’ve got five bandages on a variety of appendages from asinine little mishaps from the course of the day.

But I’ll get to that later. The morning started out with some writing for this rather new “thing” I’m working on (thing referring to a story I don’t have a title for yet, hah) and then delving back into the frustrating job of finding the right publisher/agent. Yesterday’s packages are in the mail, by the way, and this morning we spent the majority of the session preparing and sending out to three agents (one already said no. Why do I do this to myself, aaaargh), which isn’t at all easy because they all have different formats to which I need to adhere.

We were a little on the late side when we finally got down to the projects, but in the hours that followed, little sister and I put in the first section of the new floor for her bedroom. Which is one of the reasons I ended up with three band-aid, by the by. A tip: Do not turn your head around to call for a certain type of screws while your hammering in a plinth. OUCH! Didn’t feel anything for a full ten seconds and then it started: Oh my Gawd! Slammed a piece of skin right between the hammer and wood--not one of my smartest moments for sure. Hah.

The other band-aids are for other nicks that were just starting to heal. But no matter, we got the intended section in so the majority of her room looks rather neat right now. Once we were done, middle sister was doing the second layer of paint in their rec-room in the mean time and little brother is fixing one of his favorite cabinets, there was a short road trip.

As it turns out, we did anticipate correctly during the past few days, ‘cause on the way back, the car loaded to full capacity with wood and a new mattress for our tenant, the clouds burst open and the deluge started. I for one am not looking forward to having to slosh my way up to my cabin half an hour from now, yikes! I haven’t even dried out yet…better yet, nor have the dogs. Gawd, I’m going to have my entire cabin soaking wet if it doesn’t let up for a few minutes at some point. Darn it all to…okay, not thinking about that.

And so another day has come to an end. Yep, I’m definitely ready to hit the sack and get me some shuteye…hoping that tomorrow the weather will be sunny once more.

Busy work.

Song of the day: “Don’t leave me this way” by the Commodores. Gawd, I grew up with that stuff and it’s still good. A good thing since it was inside my head all day, yesterday.

A busy day, all things considered. There was the five hours of computer work that actually went well. I managed to go through four chapters even though we had decided to take it easy. It was just such a pleasure to read through the work when there were pages without any actual hiccups.

But, as is usual those five hours passed way too fast and soon it was time to head on out into the yard so we could plant those twenty or so baby oak trees in the lowest part of the yard. We used to have poplars down there, but due to the droughts of the past year several of them didn’t make it. We’re now hoping that the oaks…which are basically indigenous to the area…will hold out better in the future. Only one way to find out, I guess.

While little sister and I were digging holes and putting in the plants, grandpa and big brother were putting in a watering system that should help the little plants along for next year at least. Middle sister was working putting in two small coconut palms in the courtyard, which should make for a nice addition to the small flower bushes blooming there. Little brother was doing some minor repairs on damaged furniture in the carports, until little sister and I finished up with the planting and headed back to the house.

The day’s plan was to put in the desk in their room at the very least and if there’s time, the doors of the new closet. The first we managed in four hours, the latter had to be postponed, if for no other reason than the evening rapidly drawing to an end. The desk works now, however. Double layered they can store their computers under the top if they’re not using them, and as soon as I’ve added and extra support underneath it, the temporary pole I set up against it can be removed.
It looks good, but it was a rather laborious task since this room is under the eaves of the roof and there are large sections where I can hardly stand, let alone maneuver. My back was killing me at the end of the evening.

The fencing on the upper part of the garden is coming along nicely too, by the way. Just putting up the fences on two more poles and it will be done.
After dinner—little sister made fresh red beets fried with rice and cheese with carrots on the side…delicious—there was some more busywork, but all in all we managed to wrap the day up at around two in the morning, more than ready to conk out for a bit.

Which brings us to today:

Song of the day: “If you go” by Sophie Ellis-Bextor. I don’t know the lyrics all that well yet, but it’s fun nonetheless.

We had a two chapter proofreading that was a success, even though I could barely keep my eyes open for some reason. It was downright weird. I’d gotten a decent night’s sleep, I wasn’t tired, or anything; I just couldn’t keep my eyes open until I punched the boxing ball about fifty times and did some knee-ups.

The chapters turned out well, though and when our usual five hours were over, we started working on the variety of projects that have been going on of late. Big brother and grandpa worked on the old horse stable roof, preparing for the rain that’s been predicted.

Little sister and I finished up supporting the sibs’ desk and then, with the help of middle sister hung the new closet doors…which look bloody amazing on this big ol’ closet we made. Excellent end result. Now the floor in little sister’s room, the small part on the second floor landing, and the top floor will be done for the time being. Good thing too, ‘cause I want to enjoy the outside for a bit yet.

The nights are already getting decidedly colder. Once the sun goes down I’ve got a turtleneck and body-warmer on already, soon I’m gonna have to take my sweaters and jeans out, which isn’t something I’m looking forward to, I tell you.

After some more busy work, dinner and watching a rental “Appaloosa” with Ed Harris and Viggo Mortenson. I do love a good Western, and though it’s a little slow, the dynamics between the two are fun and entertaining. Yesterday’s flick was really good, though: “The International” with Clive Owen and Naomi Watts. I find those kinds of stories fascinating to be sure. Scary, and true, does a movie get any better?…well, yeah, but still, I enjoyed it. Hah.

Projects aplenty.

Song of the day: “I come undone” by Robbie Williams. Great lyrics, impressive song, and luckily I know it completely. Also had “Unwritten” by Natasha Beddingfield, which I’ve had before.

So it was a busy couple of days, which appeared a little unreal due to Wednesday’s lack of sleep and then the consecutive nights catching up.
Well, where to start. Yesterday’s proofreading went slow, but another chapter got added at least. We went outside and in a somewhat chaotic atmosphere we managed to continue on with the closet for middle sister, and at the same time a large closet for the room (the one with the new floor) in the sibs’ communal room.

The first turned out beautifully. A light yellow, sturdy wardrobe with more than enough space for her clothes. It was a pleasure to see it standing there against the big wall in her bedroom.
With that one done, there was time to focus fully on the big closet for the communal area, and boy did it turn out to be big.
It was no easy feat either, for some reason I was still clumsy (a full night’s sleep does that to ya too, hah) on this part, and it got so bad that at one point we all just started swearing, for no other reason but to get rid of the frustration going all ‘round. We actually got to be quite inventive, and I fear that most of the valley got to enjoy it with us, but in the end we did manage to finish the first one…minus the doors, that is.

They look grand, by the way, and will look even better once the glass and wood doors are in front of it. The best thing is, we didn’t even make any errors during construction that needed fixing later on, so…yay. Total surprise, considering the…ehm…clumsiness, but I was seriously awed that we’d managed it after all.

A disappointing aspect of the day was that the publisher got back to me, informing me that they were not the right company for “Saving Nina”. Darn it. Again, no negative response. They liked it well enough, just because they were taking on “so few new authors” they decided to opt out. So that means that we’re going back to the sending out part of the entire getting traditionally published, again.

Despite the news, we have decided to look at this on the positive side. They didn’t dislike it, it is just a matter of finding the right place for the story. Time (no matter how annoying) is on our side. We still have it, and until we don’t…well, we’ll see.

So anyways, I was totally exhausted by the end of the evening, which meant that I basically konked out in my room. Heck, I could barely keep my eyes open while I fed the dogs, but it was a successful day, so I didn’t mind all that much.

Today very little got done. It was grocery shopping day nonetheless, and what with the pressure off from the proofreading, big brother and I decided to take things easy…we were going to need it too, especially with ten stores ahead of us.

We set out on schedule, went to the usual stores along with the familiar trip down to the hardware store where some paint, tools and screws had to be bought. In the end the entire endeavor takes five hours, with an extra one added to it, for unloading and setting everything away, but grocery shopping day is over and done with for at least another two weeks. Thankfully.

I’m actually looking forward to another early night, ‘cause let’s face it, I can use it. Hah.

Thud!...Zzzzzz

Song of the day: “Misfit” by Amy Studt. It’s been a while since I last heard it, but it was with the others little brother loaded a while back. Very angry girl music, of course, still cute, though.

So let’s get down to business, I only had a couple of hours of sleep last night, and a catnap this afternoon so every fiber inside me is literally screaming for shut-down…Oh no, wait. That’s the dogs. Give me a sec, I’ll kill them before I go on……………..so yeah. I’m tired; heck this afternoon I was so friggin’ tired that I couldn’t even get myself to read more than a page of “Saving Nina” so instead I headed out and started on carpentry. But I’ll get back to that late; let’s get up to date about yesterday.

The morning past as usual, really, big brother and I worked on the manuscript, did a big chapter and we were just about to start on the physical work of the day when little brother popped his head from between the balustrade of the stairs and asked if we could do their laminated floor. So, no, I hadn’t planned it in yet. I was thinking more along the lines of next week, or maybe at the beginning of the new month…but then, the younger sibs rarely come up with a project for themselves, so I figured what the heck. They’re grown up now, and if they want to have that floor put in, we’ll do it.

I am hoping that by showing them that such suggestions can lead to nice results, they’ll show more initiative in the future, and perhaps even start coming up with their own. It’s so much fun to do, and I really want them to experience that as well.

But anyways, we worked on the floor for the majority of the afternoon and except for the corners that still need to be put in, we had exactly enough to cover the entire floor. (Oh boy am I glad we guessed right…I know, we should have measured it, but seriously, where’s the adventure in that? Hah) Three colors in a pattern: Ebony double lines thrice; the same goes for the grayish oak, with three single lines of orange-ish just to make things fun. It looks grand and it will be a pleasure to clean.

Afterwards, I spent about an hour putting in a temporary desk that will be downright beautiful once I actually manage to finish it. The remainder of the day and evening…no I’m not going to share, ‘cause it’s just too much to mention and I still wanna tell you about this dream I had during my nap…was spent with busywork that kept me busy ‘till well past midnight. This meant that I didn’t manage to get to bed until after three, and as luck will have it I lay awake in bed until well past five in the morning.

This was a total pain in the butt since I had to get up at 8:15 to pick up our visiting friend in Marbella, which is a solid hour drive to and then another back. Suffice it to say that when I got home around noon today I HAD to get to bed and snooze for an hour.

Which was when the dream happened. It was so totally outta there that I just have to tell about it.
So yeah, in the dream I was working out in the yard, at the top of the property with the sibs, when suddenly there was a commotion with some of the dogs and when we checked it out it looked as if they had caught one of the Chinchillas.
I went over, to check if the little one was savable, but when I looked, it wasn’t our Chinchilla, but a baby bear…I know, that should have tipped me off, but everything else was so real that for a while I didn’t have a clue I was dreaming. Hah.
As it turned out, the poor little thing had a hurt leg (could have fooled me when, in the dream, I saw it lying there in little more than a heap, but what the hey), so I didn’t even need to take it to the vet, or anything.
So there I was, hauling this cuddly baby bear around, when suddenly, over the mountain the big momma bear came sniffing around in search of her young. Now, in reality this would be a tricky thing, but while I was climbing towards her to hand her the cub, she was just patiently sitting there, waiting for me.
I had almost reached the momma bear when, for some reason, I glanced back and (somehow) was able to look down on the drive sweep (that should have tipped me off that it was a dream, since that is completely impossible) and saw an entire zoo of animals come meandering down the road. Now, in the dream, I explained this incredible image of tigers, giraffe’s and Gawd knows what, with the brilliant thought of them having escaped from a circus that had been passing through town (it hasn’t, mind you) but whatever the reason it made complete sense to me. Hah.
Around this time I woke up, so I had to get out of bed and head down to the house again.

So that brings us to my earlier complaint of being too darn tired to do any serious work on the manuscript. Instead, big brother and I decided to start on the physical part of the day a couple of hours earlier.

While he and grandpa started on the fencing, again, the younger sibs and I started hauling down wood and whatnot to commence with the large closet that we need to build for their stuff in the room with the new floor. We have everything we need, so for the remainder of the afternoon we’re measuring, sawing, and at the end, when big brother and mom depart to bring our visitor home putting the first one together.

One done, three more to go.
In the last bit of daylight, middle sister and I put the doors in her closets. Only the doorknobs and drawers left to put on and in and then we can move them to her room. This one worked out splendidly, so the new ones should too.

And that concludes today. I’m sure that there is a lot of stuff that I missed, but it will have to do ‘cause I need to hit the sheets.

Haul number two.

Song of the day: “I really don’t think so” by K-Otic. It’s a definite one-hit wonder, but it was cute. Strange that’s in my head…well, maybe not: it was one of the songs little brother put on Itunes the other day. Hah.

A busy day, yesterday. Middle sister and I hung the shelves in her room, which was a pain in the butt, considering the wall in there isn’t all that straight to begin with, but we managed. I still need to put a support under it, but by then the closet should be done too, so there’s no hurry.

Also hung the new mirrors in the corridor, and they look kind of grand, since they’re huge and have a rather wide border with intricate woodwork and everything. I like it. The old mirror had to be hung in the bathroom (it is going to need some repairs) and it looks nice there too.

All this needed to be done within a couple of hours, since we fully intended to go out into the country to get a new batch of rocks (the flat kind that we can only get on one location) before nightfall. It’s a long drive, however, and due to rush hour it was already getting dark when we finally got there.

So we ended up skulking through the riverbed, searching for the dratted things with bad flashlights. Got a nice batch, however, making up for at least half of the patio stairs. You see, we decided that we’re really going to have to redo the patio stairs, which are literally eroding because of all the action they’re seeing. It’s going to be a hell of a job, but it’s gotta be done.

It was kinda nice to do the rock hauling again, really, excellent exercise walking back and forth with heavy rocks that make your joints protest and your muscles scream, hah. I was pretty much done for by the end of it, and just the thought of doing any proofreading made me look cross-eyed…luckily we decided against the task, and went out (in the middle of the night, mind you, hah) for a drive to clear our heads instead.

Came across another dumpsite, filled with piles and piles of wood that we really couldn’t leave there for the garbage disposal trucks to take away. It was just too beautiful, downright beautiful and perfect for the glass and wood walls we still have to build this winter. I have to say that it was a rather interesting end of the evening.

This morning, was of course, back to normal, beginning with a four hour work session behind the computers, putting in the corrections (it feels like we’re really finagling the details by now, I feel downright nitpicky because of it) and going through the materials.

Since, I’m a little ahead of big brother, after one chapter I can quickly get to my messages, go through the chat forums (they’re just too much of a temptation) and then it’s back to the second chapter of the day. Once they’re done it’s back outside for the third layer of paint on the closet and me working on the three drawers that need to go in it…again in just a few hours because we intend to do another rock haul trip.

We get there about half an hour before nightfall this time, and because the rocks are scattered around in one particular area it is more than enough time to fill up this huge crate we made for the back of the car. We head on back with a full load that should make the supply enough to (hopefully) get the full stairs done.

Saw a lot of the puppies these past few days. They are acclimating to the pack rather well, and just love to go roundabout, driving our tenant’s caretaker bonkers with chasing after them. For us it is rather fun to watch, what with the little ones not being our responsibility for a change, hah. We just get to cuddle the little ones…they’re getting to be so big…without any of the hassle.

The puppy stage is really an amazing time, but such a dratted fuss that I am rather happy that all my dogs are fully grown and independent. For the first eight weeks or so it is practically impossible to get anything done properly (when you’ve got puppies around, that is) and having had puppies for a time of four years in the past thirteen, I’ve had all the puppy time I ever needed.

It is one of the reasons why I have switched to adopting dogs that are at least over six months old for several years now. They’ll still be young enough to form a tight connection, but they won’t need the 24/7 attention, the way puppies do. Between three and eighteen months is the ideal age to get a dog…for me anyway.

Pups are still incredibly cute, though, no amount of exposure to them will ever change that…and I still end up using baby talk with them. Hah.

But enough of puppy-talk, the day has come to another end, and I head towards midnight at the new desk in the new office. It still needs some work, but the atmosphere in the area is rather pleasant, to say the least. I think it is going to be a splendid place for some serious writing in the near future.

Forgetful me.

Song of the day (well, the day before yesterday): “I love you but I don’t like you” by Right said Fred. A funny song, but it drove me bonkers all through Thursday.

I know, I’m a day late with the Blog, but because of some inexplicable reason I completely forgot last night. Very bad of me. I’m shocked that I forgot, really. Very unlike me…in particular because I’m usually making mental notes throughout the day, so I’ll have a general idea what to write about. Well, let’s just try to compound it all.

Lots of carpentry these past three days. Middle sister’s closet is almost done, it was primed just last night, and today the light yellow paint will be slapped on. It’s starting to look pretty good, allowing for lots of space once we get it into her room.

Little brother is hard at work with those lamps I mentioned the other day. They all need fittings, and power lines, but he’s steadily slugging his way through the lot. Two are already standing on the veranda as of last night, and they look pretty darn cozy.

Big brother and grandpa are working on the outside fencing and have got four poles in the rock ground, and have fixed the side gate so we can use it, whenever the dogs are crowding the big one. Yay. Big brother figures he’s going to need some practice with the welding machine before we start on the new main gate, so this was an excellent start.

Little sister’s birthday went by without a hitch on Friday, and the cheesecake was a bloody success. An excellent desert for the pasta and fresh tomato (from our own yard, by the way) sauce she prepared herself.

Her birthday resulted in a trip to town yesterday, because she really wanted to have zipper sweater for the winter, so we did some relaxed shopping by roaming through a department store. Since there was a late sale, I bought a body warmer for myself, ‘cause, let’s face it, I’m a total whiner when it comes to the cold. Hah.

The puppies are getting along famously with the other dogs; the pack took about fifteen minutes to sniff them up and down, nudged them a little out of sheer curiosity, and before you know it, lost interest in favor of snoozing around us while we worked on the ongoing projects.

The weather is downright gorgeous this past week. Sunshine, fresh breeze and temperatures in the high twenties (C)…which has the sibs in a snit, while grandpa and I are downright thrilled. Hah.

So, what else was there these past three days? I’m trying to think of something here, give me a sec…oh yeah, managed to get a new second-hand wheelchair for our tenant. It was damaged some, (which explains why we got it practically for free) but after a short examination of the old and new one, I quickly managed to make one perfectly fine wheelchair of the two. Tenant and her caretaker are thrilled, of course, since the new chair is far more comfortable than the old, and you can almost imagine that this one isn’t second-hand.

Yesterday’s song of the day was: “You’re my mate” also by Right said Fred. I don’t know what’s up with that. I mean, the songs are fun and all, but having them inside my head for several hours on head is, like, wahay too much.

We did another garbage run, of course, got this huge load of new, strangely cut MDF (Medium Density Fibreboard) boards that are going to be a pleasure to work with in the near future. That stuff is so darn expensive, and yet, there it was, piled so high in a garbage bin that we could hardly fit it into the car. Insanity of a shop-aholic society is the wet dream of the do-it-yourself home-improvers. Hah.

There were a couple of days involving lousy proofreading, and then yesterday, we suddenly (much to our surprise) managed two full chapters again. I don’t know why one day it will work, and the other it feels like mounting the Himalayas, but there it is.

Lots of ticks again: The ugly little parasites seem to be breeding by the dozen. Why, just yesterday I petted Njanna (Golden Retriever) and removed fifteen big ones that were sitting on him like big warts. The same goes for old Ambah (Cocker Spaniel) who had about the same amount small and big all over his face and shoulders. Gawd, I hate those things…and the stupid chemicals are obviously not working. We might start using the natural way again, one of these days. We found this rather interesting recipe for a spray that we really have to try.

Today’s song of the day is: “Blame it on me” by Maria Mena…or at least, I think it will be because I woke up with it.
With a little luck we’ll finish the new closet today, get another session on the book done, and then…well, we’ll see how it goes.

Unexpected surprises.

Song of the day: “The animal song” by Savage Garden. I really love this song. I hadn’t heard it for years and the little brother suddenly put it on the house Itunes yesterday, and wham, I got it stuck in my head. I don’t mind. Hah.

As for today, it’s opera…or at least I think it is. Remember that song from “The Shawshank Redemption” where Tim Robbins locks himself up in the director’s office and puts this opera piece on the speakers throughout the prison? That one. Pretty song, but much like Morgan Freeman in the movie…I have not a clue what they’re singing about. Hah.

I’ve discovered that it is really hard to remember stuff from yesterday, so I hope that I can touch the highlights in a fashion that they’ll make sense.

First of all, (yesterday) we had a really good proofreading session, checking out alterations we put in during the last edit, crawling two chapters closer to the end. Yay. Excellent scenes, making us want to read on even after the allotted time came to an end and we had to head outside, to start planting the fourteen aralias we found and the four others-that I don’t remember the name of.

It took a few hours digging up to 18 holes in the ground, but they do look pretty grand within the courtyard garden, over the old pool and down by the old bus. I love green shrubs like that, especially since, according to the Internet, they can grow up to nine feet high and spread underground. Marvelous.

Who knows, at some point we might actually get the entire yard filled with green…it’s not that farfetched really. With two thirds of the property already greenery, we’re by far the greenest patch in the neighborhood. Hah.

After the gardening, I had fully intended to head inside to continue with the office, but since middle sister told me that her wardrobe closet is slowly falling apart, I decided to take her up to the old horse stable. There we went through the large supplies of wood we have been gathering for the past few months, and came up with a nice selection of what will soon be a really solid closet. Added to a dresser we’re going to scrape bare and the paint into the same color, she’ll be all set.

We’d just about finished gathering everything we needed, when little brother informs me that we forgot to return the DVDS yesterday, meaning that big brother and I headed for town to see to the task. Since there was another load of garbage to dispose of, we headed for the landfill as well and were absolutely stunned at what we found.

I mean, seriously; I was agog. Some store with artisan furniture and knickknacks must have gone bankrupt, or something, because the enclosed area was filled with (slightly damaged but still) beautiful small cabinets, artfully inlaid picture frames, CD racks, drawers, heck there were even a lot of those African Giraffe art pieces, cats and horses. And lamps, absolutely gorgeous lamps that I couldn’t have left behind if my life had depended on it. Whicker with leather tubes, some of reed and metal, beautiful. We took just about everything that we managed to fit in, and even tied three of those lamps to the top of the car.

Once everything is repaired…’cause somebody obviously had a field day wrecking it all while unloading…I think that everything combined would have set us back 1K. And someone just threw it away. I don’t get it. I mean, okay, you lost your shop (I think this is a shop I’ve actually shopped at, at times, but found to expensive to return to) why throw anything that gorgeous away? Seriously, put it for sale for 50 cents and you’ll save on the gas costs, for crying out loud.

Not that I’m complaining, mind you. Due to this I can pretty much redecorate the house, hah.
But anyway. We were pretty much stuffed to full capacity…I barely fit in there at all and by the time we got home I was feeling a tad claustrophobic and more than a little achy from having twisted into a rather extreme angle, Hah.

Once at home, we immediately unloaded the stuff, because early this morning the car had to go to the garage to have the windshield replaced, and then headed into the house for a very late dinner and then another quick reading session up at my cabin.

Which brings us to today:
Not much computer work today, considering big brother had to go to the dentist. While he was there I went to the hardware store to get another bucket of paint, (middle sister’s room needs to be redone, ‘cause the paint is peeling everywhere…saw as much yesterday when I took measurements for her closet…, a roll of fencing (due to all the wood we’ve been gathering these days we really want to put a fence around the last part of our property. There’s a problem with theft ‘round here) and another gas stove for the office. What with winter rapidly approaching, we’re going to need it in the office.

Once we got home, I made the cheesecakes for little sister’s B-day tomorrow. It only took an
Hour or so, but still it left me only half an hour to do some more reading on the manuscript. Then it was time to go outside again…it was another gorgeously sunny day, loved it…to start on middle sister’s closet.

While we were doing this, little brother and sister started on the repairs of the new finds, completing two wonderfully old-looking Chinese cabinets that are going to look gorgeous in the new office.

Mom, spend her time painting the two identical mirrors we found the other day, and by now they are ready to be hung in the hallway. Big brother and grandpa headed out to the horse stable, where the started digging the holes for the new fence poles.

By the time the evening drew to an end…I spent most of the afternoon diverting my attention between the younger sibs, helping them with the repairs, and working on the closet with middle sister…finished the basis of the closet and were more than ready to call it a day. Oh boy, there’s nothing more exhausting than doing three to four things at the same time. My brain feels as if my skull is cracked, letting air in, hah.

Little sister made red beets with rice and cheese, which fell really well on my empty stomach by the end of the evening. I was so friggin’ hungry, my stomach must have thought my throat was cut, haha…don’t remember where that quote comes from, but I always thought it was hilarious.

Well, that just about sums up the past couple of days, I guess. Time to finish up and get to my messages.

Office remodelling: part 2.

Song of the day: “Can you hear me” by Enrique Iglesias…and boy did I hear. It was like a stereo pounding in my ears when I woke up. Hah. Still, it’s not the worst song to have in one’s head…the volume could have been a little more modest, but still.

Well, let’s get to this, ‘cause I still have a lot to do. Yesterday, lemme think here for a minute. What’d we do yesterday…yep, the old noggin’ isn’t really cooperating for some reason, and whenever I come up with something, I start to do doubt whether or not it was yesterday, or the day before. Hmmm.

I know we hung two shelves, and then spent the remainder of the afternoon hauling in my files, going through them to see what we could throw away, and cleaning the piles of dust coating books, knick-knacks and supplies before setting them in place. Looking good, so far, but still not entirely done. Soon, though. Very soon.

The rounded terrace doors are in and so are the finishing sections that close off the wall around it. Only a paintjob, and setting the panes away from having them done completely. While the younger sibs and I were putting office supplies and research books in, big brother and grandpa were using wood paste to close the cracks and whatnot. Looking good.

I spent a portion of the afternoon working with Knight II. The big lug is such a klutz that the only solution to his sometimes-disastrous exuberance is teaching him some extra manners. Seriously, when he barges through the pack they will literally scatter from fear of getting hit by his massive paws.

The puppies are doing really well. Growing rapidly and more than eager to head out of their confinement: We checked with the local vet, just to make sure that memory served us right and confirmed that parvo has an incubation period of 3 weeks, so one more week to go and then they should be home free. A good thing too, ‘cause they’re getting to be a mite impatient.

As it turns out the flea bath we gave them had no effect whatsoever…darn it! Fleas aplenty all over the place, which is rather frustrating. But that too will pass, at some point. I don’t suppose it’s helping that for the past couple of days the temperatures went back up. Here we were, already adjusting to the cooling temperatures of Autumn and the next thing you know, the mercury rises to a solid 28 degrees (C) during the day and 23 during the night. It is a rather shocking sensation. And there I was, already contemplating getting out my winter clothes.

I did decide on doing a workout yesterday, by the way, and it was downright wonderful. All the old moves (haven’t done any real kickboxing for almost four months) were still properly engrained and the hour session went by without a hitch, leaving my muscles humming their delight. I’d worried that I would have to start from scratch after the long summer break, but I was basically still at the level where I left off…which is grand.

But anyways, even though yesterday’s correcting session (hopefully this is the last round) went pretty well, at night big brother and I, were both too weary to be able to focus properly. As luck would have it the focus was still lacking this morning, and that while I was in a pretty good mood at finding out that I wasn’t even sore from yesterday’s workout. Darn it.

Did manage a full chapter, so all was not lost in the end. We did something at least, and that is all that matters. With the slight hiccup dismissed we head out to continue with the office. There’s more organizing to do, maybe putting in another shelve, because let’s face it, there’s no such thing as too much storage space. Hah.

I am rather looking forward to little sister’s birthday three days from now by the way. 21 years old, oh my. Time does fly. I remember the night she was born almost like it was last year; such an adorable little baby, turning into a downright amazing young woman. I sometimes marvel at her and the other younger sibs, really. All three adults now, and decent, pleasant people with whom life is pleasant, if not downright fun. I can’t ask for more than that, really.

But let’s not get maudlin. On with the day:
The shelving gets to be a definite thing, considering there’s a large pile of photo albums (I really should scan them and organize them into new books…I’ll have to wait until time opens up a bit) that are still floating about without a destination. It takes only half an hour or so to make one to match the others, and soon, we’re cleaning the albums and putting them on top.

While the younger sibs are painting the arched terrace doors, middle sister and I tackle cleaning windows and then the new desk and shelves for more stacking.
At the same time, mom is putting new seats on the office chairs, and by the time darkness falls, and I have put up a temporary network of electricity, it is time to call it quits so we can take out another batch of debris we have accumulated for the past few days.

Much to my relief there is nothing awesome waiting for us at the landfill…except for a few wooden beams that should turn out to be useful with outside work. On the way home we pick up a couple of large framed mirrors, and the this cute little loveseat I’ve had my eye on for months now, and which will fit in the office perfectly.

Now this would have been a fine day, but it got even better when we drove on the road near another nursery where they had filled up an entire waste bin with a big load of plants just begging us to take them along. I can’t believe that they threw stuff like that. Two plants of twenty bucks a pop, and another fifteen or so of ten bucks each. I mean, seriously, are they insane…hmmm, stupid question. I’m not complaining, really, I’m not. They are going to look so neat in the courtyard.

When we got home and unloaded the urgent loads, it was time to get to dinner. Mom made paneer with curried veggies and boiled rice, and the first is still, literally making my mouth water. It was delicious and for all I cared dinner could have consisted of the paneer alone. Yum.

But by now the evening has drawn to an end, and even though there is still some “work” reading ahead of me, I’m just about ready to call it a day, phew. My feet are killing me, for some reason.