It is happening!!!

Song of the day: “Shine” by Aswad. A classic that has been in my head for several days now. Nice song, but not so good to have stuck in your head this long. Hah.  Before this, I was a little luckier, having the “Never Enough” song from the Greatest Showman in my head, but okay. Earworms are not something you can really steer, can ya?

So, here we are again…later than planned, but here anyway. I would like to say that there were exciting things to get in the way of doing a proper update this time around, but basically it is all about life getting in the way, the way it tends to do on many occasions. If it helps, I often think, well, crap, I should write about this in the blog…and then forget when the time comes. * wink *

The good news first: I finally found a new (2^nd hand) bike and it rides like a dream. Have it now for little over a week, and already went on three rides…admittedly one was to get eggs, but beggars can’t be choosers, right? After selling my first bike (got that when I just arrived in the Netherlands) several months ago, I looked and looked, but didn’t get lucky, darn it. Then one day I had this thought, “hey, let’s just go to the store where we bought the first one” and behold, he had the right one, right there. We haggled the price a bit. He took off a whopping 75 bucks from the price, put on a new saddle, oiled the chains and before you knew it, I had a new bike that only cost me 75 bucks on top of what I got back from the old one. Not a bad bargain at all, thank you very much.

Have worked quite a bit this last month, but now I have blocked my Tuesdays, because I simply couldn’t muster much energy to work on the books, which is something that I find vital, especially for my future. Can’t be tired all the time if I want to get another book out, can I?

Not to mention that “the voices in my head” are clamouring to get out. Like, just the other day, I was responding to something on Twitter, talking about an actress, and WHAM, I got a new idea of a book in my head. Not smart, considering I am working on two at the moment already. HahTechnically the ones I am working on are done already, but that doesn’t matter. They still require the time and effort they deserve. Especially because one of them, the prequel to Girl in the Mist, is still under negotiation with the publisher. Once they say yes I’ll really need to dive into that, so before that time comes, I really have to finish the other one, which we plan to send to Harlequin in the near future. Could probably offer it to our present publisher, too, but it is always smart to not have all your eggs in one basket, isn’t it?

Cooking has been dialled down to a minimum at the moment. Gotta save the minutes where you can, you know. Meals are nothing too complicated, even though I miss complicated. I might get sick of that in a little bit, and end up doing something elaborate soon. We’ll see

Since the last blog we’ve had two weekends “interrupted” by friends spending a night or two. On the one hand great. Always nice to spend time with friends, but on the other, you can’t get much work done of the computer when you’re entertaining, can you? Ah well, can’t only work in your life. You need to stop and enjoy the roses every now and then. Hah. Also visited with friends, played with babies and pets alike, so socially things can be a tad busy too.

So, the big thing today. Y’all will be the first ones to know right here! Yay!

It’s finally gonna happen. Yes it is! It IS!!! We (finally, finally, finally) managed to coordinate our vacation time to the same date and…We. Are. Going. To. America! Yes!!!

We saved and saved, scrounged and scrounged, and finally popped that wishing balloon…so to speak. Hah.

We’ve got incredibly cheap tickets (seriously, they’re only a little more expensive than our short trip to Finland a few years ago), we got permission from Homeland Security and come October, we is gonna road trip through a whopping 19 States in less that three weeks!

That’s about 5000 miles, I KNOW! But we’ll be with the three of us (to save money), and we’re renting a car, so it should absolutely be doable.

We’re gonna meet up with family there, and finally meeting some friends that I have been chatting online with, like, forever! Seriously, I’ll be going face to face with folks that I have been communicating with since at least 2009! OMG! It’ll be grand, I assure you.

The fun bit is, they’re spread all over the place, which makes the road trip such a splendid idea.

I mean, we could have planned for some famous trip, like route 66 (this held a massive appeal, I kid you not) but then we thought, like: No! We’re going to do it our way and just pick our roads and see where they take us! Well, they will take us the direction of the folks I’m going to meet, of course, (duh) but the how of it will be an adventure.

That is the plan anyway. Who knows, maybe we arrive at some amazing spot and suddenly decide to not do all those States and just spend some time right there before rushing back to the airport at the last possible moment. You just don’t know.

Whatever it is going to be, I intend to do a daily blog (or at least as often as possible, considering I can’t give a 100% guarantee that I will have wifi everywhere along the way) of the trip. With pics, of course!!! I will be putting up a link to my official website (www.samayatyoung.com) in case you haven’t got that already, and then you can basically come right along with us…if you’re so inclined

Am so excited about the whole thing. I have been wanting to see the States for decades, and now it is finally happening. Will be traveling incredibly light, so basically, I will be washing things at every stop, hah. But the idea of hauling luggage along the entire way doesn’t appeal much to me either, so I’m picking motels with laundry facilities.

So, there will be just some basics (yes, I am already gathering stuff, haha) jeans, yoga pants, a skirt for special occasions, bathing suit, some underwear and some spares, and that is going to be it.

I do plan on doing some shopping there, so I might end up with taking more home than I left with, hah, but who gives a fig? Am curious as heck about US fashion.

As for a few of the highlights we’ll be seeing, in particular since we are going to try to not take highways: Niagara Falls, which is just a must, naturally. Chicago, even if only in passing, we’ll see how that goes. There will be nature reserves we’re stopping at along the way. YES! There will be the Ozarks, which has been on our list to see for years (long story, but it had to do with research for Girl in the Mist, duh). New Orleans is on the list, in particular the French Quarter and parts of the bayou. Yes, that is partly due to books we read, and movies we saw. We gotta see them in real life!

From there on, we are going to make our way back up to Boston. We had wanted to do Miami too, partly because book two to Girl in the Mist happens there, and on the Keys, but we’re afraid we just won’t be able to make that.

Next time! Heck yeah!

We’ll be passing through DC, of course! Can’t go to the State and not at least drive past the White House! I mean, seriously! It’s been in a gazillion movies, you have to have seen it if you go to the States, right?

We’ve debated New York, and finally decided to just pass it, rather than actually go in, but who knows. I do want to take a pic of the Statue of Liberty, and definitely a New York city skyline, so maybe we’ll venture beyond that and brave the city streets after all. In the end it will depend on time, of course.

So that makes for this blog’s big news. The trip will be extremely low-budget, and folks have been telling me horror stories of low-budget motels/lodges/B&Bs and whatever, so we’re going to just see how bad it’ll be, right?

Above all, it is going to be a huge adventure, and that’s what is all about in the end.

What else? Well, I can’t really beat what I just wrote, right? But here’s some more:

Did have to phone with the company through which we have the house, because recently (thank gawd that was in the days that I was dog sitting) while I was walking the dog at night, there was a prowler near the house, and, if I am to believe the dog, who kept going from window to window to bark afterward, around the house. Also, the barn on the property has a door in the back that someone pried open. The dog did not appreciate the nightly visitor and tried to go in pursuit, until the fence stopped him.

But anyway, it shows exactly why folks like us are asked to take residence in these buildings. After discussing it with the company, we’ve all agreed to put padlocks on the barns. In regards to this little incident, I am very happy to often have dogs staying over. Any entrepreneur-ish prowler will have to think twice about thinking that there are none there on the night they want to get adventurous and break in. No alarm system is quite as discouraging as a possible massive dog behind the locked door.

Would like to have a permanent dog, of course, but then events like the trip would, of course, pose a problem. Asking the friends who are going to be taking care of our plants, and feed the cat to also take the burden of a dog, just goes a little too far. Besides, there would still be the problem of this cushy place falling through in the near future, and then I’d have to get rid of the pooch, which would be so impossible just when you get attached. Grrr.

So, for now frequent dog-sitting will just have to do the trick.

The summer so far has been disappointing. We had a couple of steamy weeks, but the month of June on itself has been autumn-ish in regards to temperatures and sky cover. Grrr. It has been friggin’ cold at times, for crying out loud. The only advantage is that everything is gorgeously green because of it, and the biggest disadvantage? Mosquitoes! A gazillion of them! I look like a friggin’ pin-cushion. Dratted little creatures. Apparently there is a plague going on, I heard on the news. But I finally gave in and filled the house with a variety of mosquito repellents. I still feel pricks every now and then, but on the most part that is just my skin being upset in general. Poor skin.

Is there anything else to share? I’m sure there is, but for the moment it eludes me. I’m going to have to get into the habit of jotting down stuff when they happen, because my brain just refuses to retain memories of daily stuff that could be very interesting to write about.

Which means that I am going to wrap it up here. I’ll be back!

Relatively early update, yay!

Song of the day: “7 years” by Jasmine Thompson. I know that originally it’s someone else’s but this is the one worming in my head right now. Hah

Yes. I made it here earlier. I did it. I’m here without a solid month having passed since the last blog. Yay!

Not that a lot happened since then, naturally. But it’s the thought that counts, right?

Anyways. At the moment I am enjoying a few days off. What with having worked pretty full time the past few months, my region manager and I agreed that I would work a little less this month, which suits me just fine. Been behind with a lot of stuff on the computer, and in most cases I was too tired in the evenings to do more constructive stuff than the bare necessities.

Well, still working on the finer details of the book that we’re pitching to our editor. Though she likes the idea, some elements in the first chapter don’t work for her, so we’ve been brainstorming and working on adjusting it, and came up with an idea she would like to see in writing. Which is what has been keeping me busy for the past couple of days since my days off started. Got most of it rewritten, deleting big parts, and replacing it with over ten pages of new material. Personally I think that it will work, but of course Big brother has to go through it too, and we need to discuss, argue and probably fight about the finer details before we can send it back and await the editor’s verdict.

For my part, I have been enjoying the writing bit a lot. Actual writing (rather than editing) is such a rare thing these days that when I actually get to do it, something inside me actually sings a little. Hah. Gawd, nothing feels quite like having a scene playing in your head like a HD movie, and then writing it down, hopefully in the way that you see it. First only flow of consciousness, which can be confusing at times, but after one or two tweaks afterward it definitely starts to get close. Then another edit of two together with big brother and I get pretty psyched by the result. * sigh *

I sure hope I get to do more of it in the near future. Wouldn’t that be grand, earning enough with writing so I won’t have to keep up the part-time day job.

But that would mean that the book(s) would have to sell really well, and I doubt that will be the case with the first one, or two. Would be nice, sure, but I doubt I’ll be that lucky. We can hope though.

It is reassuring that we managed to think of a solution to the thing that the editor didn’t like in the 2nd book. Basically we went farther back to the original idea for the story, with a backflash as the prologue. I like how the tone is getting more different from Girl in the Mist, every time I work on it. The drama is way heavier. So much sadness from the heroine, and so little chance that she’s going to make it in the end…and I will have to leave you to wonder about that, rather than spoil the end for you. * wink *

On ascension day we had friends over for the afternoon, which was fun. Got to make some special stuff for lunch and dinner. The first involved a rather wonderful broccoli puff pastry with a carrot salad on the side, and the second a lovely saffron rice, topped by baked chard and a sweet corn and bell pepper salad on the side. Added to the good food, the company was fun, with a promise of another visit soon. Which we should keep to. Time goes so fast, and before you know it you run out of it, right? Anyway, we all promised to see each other soon again, so let’s hope that we can make that work out in a decent amount of time.

What with having a little more time off, I have also been gradually increasing my workouts. The normal qigong that I have been doing for more than a year now—still love it—followed by and interspersed by bodyweight exercises, and some weight lifting, just because. I still haven’t got a spot to hang my kickboxing bag, but I really and determined to think of something soon. I miss boxing like crazy. Soon, very soon.

Finally found a nice new (2^nd hand) rug for our work area. The old one was really starting to wear from our office chairs’ wheels, so I took that one from there to the kitchen, where it looks rather nice along with the rattan chairs at the white table. It is also very similar to the one that I have in the kitchen, so it really lightens up the whole room. The one that is now in the oven is a nice dark blue, which separates it a little more.

Rearranged some of the plants, which was necessary too, because a few of them were not really flourishing in their allotted spot. Hope that the new spots do better. Did find a wonderful new plant, a Pachira aquatica. We already had one of them, but this one was way bigger. It was standing in the corner of the supermarket, and, if my guess is correct priced wrong for such a big plant. It was really a bargain, and so gorgeous. Neither of us could resist. So basically we bought ourselves a present.

Talking about presents, also went to Decathlon, a big store for all sort of sports apparel, and got us some necessities. Yoga pants, because mine were really starting to be worn down. I still have two from Spain that are basically threadbare now (use them as PJs) and a couple that I bought two years ago before we moved up north. So, high time. Also got socks, a bathing suit (also still had the one from Spain) and a few more assorted sports items. Was strange to buy something new. Hardly ever do that anymore these days, so I would say it was well deserved.

Did a fair amount of cleaning in the past few days too, as usual a necessity after several weeks of work. You don’t really feel like vacuuming the house after you have run around at work for hours on end. But got it done, and that’s what matters…until the next time anyway. Hah

The tension between big brother and me has lessened a little, thankfully. I think that the pressure of the book proposal was weighing on us, and now that the pressure of work has let up a bit too, seems to have helped. Neither one of us is about to go off with a short fuse when we work on something now. Thankfully. Maybe it was something in the air. I for one am relieved.

We have been having some absolutely lovely weather. Sunshine, warm temps…heck today was a rainy day and what with all the green even that was gorgeous. Driving through the woods today, with all the new spring growth, shiny from the downpour was almost magical. Wish I’d taken a picture, but regretfully that didn’t occur to me.

Had a huge computer crash the other day, which totally freaked me out. Took big brother most of the day to solve it, involving some serious reinstalling of programs, leaving the computer with some problems still, but functioning at least. It seems that the last update went wrong for some reason, which totally ticked me off. Seriously! There is nothing I hate more than a computer that doesn’t work. Well, cars, too. And plumbing. And…well, anything that can malfunction I guess. Hah.

That about sums it up, I guess. Tomorrow is an in-between working day for me, despite me being off until Friday. They needed an extra hand on Monday, so I agreed to come to work anyway. Do have to get to bed on time if I want to be worth anything afterward, though. Been getting way too little sleep again lately, despite having slept in the last couple of days.

Gotta go. I’ll be back, with hopefully some nice news in regards to the new book, eh?

Stuff

Song of the day: “Hit the road Jack” by Buster Pointdexter, fun song, and not bad to have in your head on a day like today.

Well, let’s start with yesterday, shall we. It started off a little late, considering I didn’t manage to get to bed until three in the morning. I hate it when that happens, but there you have it. No amount of “hating” is going to help one bit, now will it? So I overslept by half an hour, and then had to rush through the morning rituals to get ready in time to drive caregiver, tenant and Sally to the local infirmary for their appointment.

Loaded tenant into the car, along with her wheelchair, drove to the village, helped them all out and then went to look for a spot to park for a bit. I’d taken my computer along so I spent the majority of the morning reading in the book I’m trying to review. Got quite a way through too, well past half, by the time I got the call that the ladies were ready to be picked up again.

The sun was out, nice and warm, but the northern wind made it not at all pleasant. Very nippy. Did some mild cleaning in the carport and on the road up to the gate, since everything has become a massive mess during our sickness this past month.

Since mom’s birthday arrived (I gave her a nice scarf for her birthday) she had a couple of friends come over for supper, which was nice for her. I got to play with a visiting dog for a bit, bound a mattress onto the visitor’s car and then went for a much needed nap, prior to leaving to pick up a nice sizeable donation in town. Took us quite some time to load up, but what the heck, it was well worth it.

Didn’t get home until it turned dark outside, so while big brother went down to light the stove and start cooking the dog food, while I went to the kitchen to cook our own dinner. Had some leftovers from the day before, and added some fresh cauliflower to that, making a rather nice meal.

Editing didn’t go all that bad both yesterday and today. Managed a total of thirteen pages, I think, so that’s a good thing. This morning went best, in fact, so in that regard I’m pretty happy. We’ll get this book worked out yet, despite that we will have to do some research on WWII.

Nanook, one of our last huskies, is not doing well. Considering she’s almost fourteen years old, has cancer in several spots, that is not a strange thing, but still, it is sad to see a proud husky that way, so old, getting skinnier and grumpier every day. Time’s passing oh-so fast.

Knight II did it again yesterday. He’d wrecked his sock, and by the time I noticed he had licked open his skin again, until it bled, darn it. Had to clean it all out, bandage it up, and put a new sock on, just to keep his persistent tongue away from the newly created mess. Darn it, what is wrong with that dog. Sometimes I fear he’ll just keep licking until he’s eaten away his friggin’ paw.

Did laundry, which luckily dried again these past couple of days. Though the temps are low, the sun is out and the wind is blowing everything dry. The dogs had to be fed, of course, and they loved it. This variety of fresh veggies, spices, bread and an occasional batch of meat is really working for them.

As for today, we had planned to work some on the window for the future kitchen, but didn’t get to it since we first had to unload the car (took more than an hour) and put everything away in storage. Then, just as we were about to start, mom called if we could come to town with the Land Rover to pick up a donated fridge. So we locked up the dogs, drove down the mountain, picked up the machine, and got a nice big aloe vera plant as an added bonus.

Once at home I once again cooked supper, broccoli, peas, potatoes and a herbal sauce, that worked out even better than yesterday’s meal. So there was some more editing, which was of course interrupted by today’s blog that had to be done. *sigh* Nothing really fun to share, is there. Well, can’t have it all.

This is it, I’m ready to call it a night.

Last day

Song of the day: “Jesus knows me” by Genesis, I think. Seriously, cousin Ed mentioned it in the morning and it has been going through my head ever since. Thank you Cousin Ed! Grrrr. Then there was “Call me Maybe” by Carly Rae Jepsen, which is a little embarrassing, but it was even going through my head when I woke during the night. Darn it.

This is so embarrassing, but apparently I forgot to write in my diary, so now I’m going to have dig deep in my brain to discover what all happened yesterday. Gawd, this is difficult as heck. Ya can’t expect my brain to remember stuff…oh wait. We did masonry yesterday, of course.

That small platform we started the day before, got finished, yay. It really is looking rather grand. Sorta like a tower of natural rock, about the size of the water tank it’s going to support. It took several hours, but I was only there for the beginning of it. First because I had to cut the veggies for the dog food, and then because tenant had finished cutting veggies for our supper, and I had to start on supper.

Tenant, on the other had spent most of the early afternoon in the sunshine, sitting in the old horse-paddock. I think she was a tad tired from the busy day she had before, going out to the village and walking up a long stairs and everything, so she dozed a lot. Hah. After several hours of that, she was ready for some action and offered to do supper’s veggies.

Food preparation only took about half an hour, at which time I decided to experiment with making tart. Yep. Again. This time lemon cheesecake…and boy, did that work out well. Made two, just so we could try it out prior to offering it to the visitors. I can honestly say that we devoured a whole tart with just the four of us. Hah.

Throughout the day the weather was acting rather wishy washy, which wasn’t something my dogs appreciated. They spent quite some time inside my cabin, poor darlings. Spent about an hour in the yard and greenhouse. Hunting bugs, harvesting some tomatoes and such. I think that was the highlight of my day. Hah.

We had quite a good edit, yesterday…or at least, it appeared to be a good one, since we managed at least ten pages of V.L.’s last edit…after which I headed for bed on time for a change and passed out before I even managed to write in my diary. *sigh*

Was only a little late this morning, making me rush a bit through the morning rituals. Laundry, cleaning, and digging up the spare coffee machine so I could take it up to tenant’s so we’d have a big pot of coffee when her daughter and family came over for the last time before they went back home. (Tomorrow)
We doubted for the longest time whether the visit was going to be outside, or inside (still that wishy washy weather, thank you very much) but finally ended up around the big wooden table in the old horse paddock. The weather cleared enough for it to be semi comfortable outside. Yay.

Had pie…mine and the one the visitors had brought along, hah. How’s that for like minds, eh? Took a piece of both, as the impending departure was discussed and last-minute arrangements were made. When I suggested I take the lot (tenant included) for a little drive into the country, it didn’t take too long to decide.

Hopped into the Land Rover, including tenant, and drove out into the “wild” towards that little river I’ve occasionally mentioned over the past couple of years. By the time we got there the sun was out in full swing, so to speak, so it definitely left a good impression on the relatives. Took the adventurous road back (had about two inches left on either side of the car while we drove home) and were back and hour after departure. It was well worth the trip, and by the time we got back it was time to say our goodbyes. Tenant was glad with how things had gone this past week, her daughter and family seemed content as well, so we said our goodbyes with smiles and exchanged see-you-soons.

Afterward big brother and I had to head on down to town for a pickup and to get some sewing supplies for mom. We got home way too late, meaning I didn’t have time to cook (we fried potatoes instead) and that, due to needing to blog, I didn’t have time to edit either. Blasted blog!

Well, I’ve gotta cut this off, because it’ is well past midnight, and I would like to be in bed before two in the morning. *sigh*
Things should be calming down a bit in the near future, now that the visit thing is over and done with, allowing for blogs that are a little more detailed.