An Itsy Bitsy Long Day...

It feels good to finally sit down here and to know that I really don't have to do another thing until tomorrow morning. All I have to do is write this post and watch the news and drink my decaf and smoke my cigarettes. For some strange reason, though, the Senseo machine isn't turning out good cups of coffee and I wonder if I have to kick it or give it a good cleaning with vinegar. It's giving me very watery cups of coffee that don't taste very good at all. As a matter of fact, this morning my first cup refused to wake me up. I guess I'll put vinegar on the shopping list for tomorrow.

It seems like I had a long day, but it was actually over in no time at all. For a change the alarm clock woke me up and I considered shutting it off and turning over and going to sleep some more, but then decided that I shouldn't miss creative therapy, although I had no idea what I was going to do there.

So I very sleepily got up and made that lousy cup of coffee and drank it in spite of it being so bad, but made up for it by smoking three cigarettes and then I got up to see what was in my closet that I absolutely had to wear today, I picked two safe things to wear, both weather wise and fashion wise and ended up looking very demure and matronly. Well, maybe it was not quite that bad...

Just as I was getting ready to walk Jesker, a thunderstorm hit and it started to pour, which gave me an opportunity to make a better cup of coffee and feed the cats, those poor animals that are always hungry. We had to wait for about half an hour for it to stop raining and then I took my chance and we went out for a quick walk around the block.

After that it was time for me to leave and just when I got to the clinic and locked my bike, it started to rain again, so I hurried inside and just got some big splatters on my head. Timing is everything in this life. It poured like crazy once I was safely inside. The weather gods are kind to me, but then who are they unfriendly to? Some poor bloke must have been out there getting wet. More than one of them, most likely.

At creative therapy I worked on a project that I had abandoned some months ago. It is a collage booklet that I had halfheartedly started on and I finally decided to finish it. So I had to find more images and texts and paste those in and then paint the pages, which I did. Now I have to jazz them up a bit with pastel crayons and whatever else I can think of.

Sometimes I don't know why I start these projects, because I have a half baked idea in my head and just start to work on it without thinking it all the way through. I guess I think I'll just go ahead and surprise myself.

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I had to stop writing this post, because I was so sleepy that I had to go lie down on the sofa for a nap. I did and fell sound asleep and vaguely remember making it to my bed sometime during the evening. I have my pajamas on anyway. Then of course, I woke up a while ago, wide awake and ready to go in the middle of the night, but that's okay, because I like these quiet hours.

It's confusing to Jesker who thinks it's time to get up and do a piddle and eat, but he is now sound asleep again by my feet on the hard linoleum. The cats also thought it was time to eat, but I ignored them and left them to their kibbles, which they are perfectly capable of eating.

I did manage to get a good cup of coffee and am going to try and get another one now.

Anyway, yesterday afternoon I met Von at café Charlemagne on the Our Dear Lady Square and we were lucky in that it didn't rain all afternoon, which was good, as I sat just at the edge of the overhang and would have gotten wet.

All around us people were eating and I decided to order a grilled cheese sandwich with curry sauce, but my eyes were bigger than my stomach and you can imagine the later results when we were walking through town and I had to visit the ladies room in a department store. I felt much better after that and could shop, where before I had been unable to concentrate on the items on sale.

We ended up in my favorite women's store and I found a long, knitted, black, short sleeved top on sale for 10 Euros and a set of 5 matching bracelets for 4 Euros, which was just about all the cash I had with me, so that was perfect. Von asked me if I didn't need to try on the top and I said that I never tried anything on, and I was right, because when I got home, it fit me perfectly and I was quite happy with it. Of course, it's black and knitted and attracts all the dog and cat hair and I constantly have to keep it clean, but what the heck!

Oh, and let me tell you. Making any sort of trip on my bike now is so much easier and safer. I don't have to worry about a thing. I stop and go when I want to and keep going when I want to and I don't have to worry about falling over and breaking my neck, and the pedals are always in the right position when I want to take off, because that was a problem too. I need to start off with my left foot downward, otherwise I don't get going properly and get in trouble. So, here's to my new bike!

Now, before I forget to do this, John of typos.daylight.fate has granted me an award for which I am very grateful and here it is:

There are some rules that go with getting this award and here they are:

1. Accept the award, post it on your blog together with the name of the person who has granted the award, and his or her blog link.
2. Pass the award to 15 other blogs that you love and/or have newly discovered.
3. Remember to contact the bloggers to let them know they have been chosen for this award.
4. Use the One Lovely Blog award picture from my blog, on your blog to let everyone know that you have one lovely Blog!

I am breaking the rules and am not passing this on to 15 other bloggers. I think that would be too much of a good thing and I would sit here for hours doing that, but I will pass it on to a few people I think are especially deserving of it.

1. Babaloo @ Fairymix.com
2. Grit @ Grit's Day
3. Maggie @ Nuts in May
4. WWW@ The Other Side of Sixty
5. Laurie @ Three Dog Blog
6. Connie @ A Crone's Chronicle
7.Angelique @ Sugar Cain
8. Sanna @ Violet Sky
9. Gail @ At the Farm
10. Casdok @ Faces of Autism
11. Jo @ Jo Beaufoix
12. Lisa Sarsfield @ Lucky Dip

Well, that is close to 15, but not quite. I think it is enough, but God forbid I forgot someone. Please let yourself be known to me if you think I forgot you. I scanned two lists and may have overlooked you in my eagerness to get it right.

In the meantime, the clock's hand are moving toward the dawn and at any minute now some birds ought to start singing. I've got the blinds open and can see the whole street by the light of the street lamp. That way I'll see the morning start sooner. Only one cat is visible, but I'm sure the other one is laying on my bed.

Today will be housecleaning and grocery shopping day. Oh, such fun, will it never end? The only good part about it is the Brie I will buy. I also must open my mail and check my bank account to make sure I'm still solvent. I'm amazingly free of fear of opening my mail today. That must be due to my medication. Those good old pills!

Have yourself a terrific Saturday and hopefully we won't get rained on too much, although the trick seems to be to wait for the afternoon, when it stays dry.

Ciao...

An Award from Tessa.

Before I forget to do this, as if I would forget, right, I have to post this very nice award I have gotten from Tessa Edwards and if you click on her name you can read for yourself the reasons why I got it.

The very difficult part is passing this award on to other people, because I do want to limit myself to some extent and not make the list endlessly long. So here I go.

I want to pass on this award to the WiseWebWoman, to Aims, to Crystal Jigsaw, to Grit, to Jo Beaufoix, to Jeannette, to Maggie, to Potty Mum, to Laurie, to John Mora, to Violet Sky and to Cheryl.

There, that was a lot of work, but I think I have chosen well and I hope the recipients are as happy with the award as I was. I think it's a real beauty.

In the meantime, it's well into Sunday morning and I'm still in my pajamas. The dog is very lazily digesting his food on his blanket under the coffee table. I bought him some different dog food and he likes it so much, that he growls extra hard at Toby and Gandhi, who don't dare even come close to his dish. This dog food has chunks of real meat in it and the dog thinks he has died and gone to heaven. At least, that's how I am interpreting it.

My older sister called me a while ago and we discussed the situation of ourselves and that of the country in general. With the way the economic crisis is being handled, you can imagine what that conversation sounded like. She has her own business and things are very tough. I think my sister lives under a great deal of daily stress and she has high blood pressure, so I do worry about her a lot. Maybe I already mentioned that before. I worry about her general health and think she needs a complete check up. I wish I could give her an award.

I am not going to make this a long post, because I have to notify the recipients of the award and then walk the dog and clean up the kitchen. The Exfactor is coming over to help me change my bedroom around.

I hope you all have a wonderful Sunday and that it lives up to its name.

Ciao...

A blog award.

A dear sweetheart of a lady, and a fine artist, Diane Clancy, was kind enough to give me this Art Blog Award and it makes me feel very good all over. Thank you, Diane. In return, I have to reveal seven facts about myself and pass this reward on to seven other people. Officially, they are supposed to be artists, but I think that includes people who write exceptionally well too.

1. The very anticipation of springtime makes me high in my head and makes me feel as though it is already happening when clearly it is not.

2. I am very fond of chocolate in all forms, shapes or sizes. I think handmade bonbons are worth their weight in gold and should be eaten as if they were gifts from the Gods.

3. I love nature, but I equally love downtown with all of its crooked little streets and the cobblestones that twist your ankles and the shops and the crowds and the cafés.

4. I love people watching and imagining a whole life for them and the relationship they are having with the person who is with them.

5. I think children and animals are the most vulnerable creatures that exist on earth and we all ought to do the utmost to protect them from harm, everywhere in the world.

6. I love to watch huge swarms of birds fly in unison across the sky swooping and turning as if they are one big entity.

7. Wild mushrooms, if picked carefully, are very good fried up in real butter, eaten with freshly baked bread.

Now I have to hand out this award to seven other people.

I give it to:

A Soul Among Found Objects,

Constance Rose Textile Designs,

An Aerial Armadillo,

Art by Lisa Sarsfield,

The many hats of Debi Cates,

Pebbledash,

The Artful Eye.

There you are, I hope I have been able to make you all happy with that today.

Ciao...

Picture and Award.

I am sitting here with a nice mug of coffee after I have just woken up from a nice nap on the sofa. I was watching CNN News for a change, but it did not prevent me from falling asleep. I don't know about you, but I find CNN News a strange phenomenon with all those Kens and Barbies who cheerfully present the world events as if they are nothing but equally casual bits of tidbits of unimportant information. I wonder how they would present the end of the world...and now back to you, Ken.

It has come to my attention that you all would like to see a picture of me with my glasses on and since I can't ignore that request, I took a bunch of photographs of myself today and tried to look as friendly as I could. I deleted a bunch of them and then was left with a couple to choose from. I hope I picked the best one to show you, because here it is.

I don't think it is the most flattering picture of me, but I am not in the mood to sit and take a hundred photographs in order to get the best one. That would be rather obsessive.

I was also given a reward by the lovely Diane, which I really appreciate and which is this one here.

Now, I already have this one, and I think I have already handed it out, but that doesn't spoil the fun.

So, this was just a little in between post. I must go and walk the Überhund now.

Ciao...

And the winner is...

Well, the poll is officially closed now and The Finely Tuned Woman has won with 11 votes, so that is who I am going to be from now on. My public has spoken and so it shall be, you made no bones about it, although there were some votes for the Idiosyncratic Watermelon. I think some people just wanted to be ornery. Or they just liked watermelon a lot.

The fact that The Finely Tuned Woman has a TV tuner laying beside her on the sofa was something that only caught my attention after I had posted the image, but I must have subconsciously registered that. It made for another perfection in the picture. The dog is actually barking at a bird in a birdcage, but I cropped the picture, so you can't see that.

But I am well pleased with the outcome of the poll and I thank you for your participation in it and for being patient with me in what actually turned out to be 2 polls. We made it in the end, though, and that's what counts.

I broke my computer reading glasses and put on my regular glasses and realized how much better I see overall and I have decided to just start wearing them again and not worry about my vanity so much anymore. They work for behind the computer and for faraway, so they solve two problems. That's because I am near sighted in one eye and far sighted in the other. I think I may have to go to Specsavers and have my eyes checked again, because one eye is just a little bit off. That is because I was having thyroid problems when I had these glasses made.

Isn't vanity a funny thing. I do my very best to look at my most advantageous, yet all day long I haven't worn any make up and I didn't really care about it. I don't think I look that much worse without it. It is mostly just a compulsion on my part, because I have worn make up my whole life and can't imagine going out in a public place without eyelashes with mascara on them, because they are so blond. I feel naked without mascara and vulnerable. I should really do a test and go without make up when I go places.

Speaking of vanity, I got this really nice award from Debs over at The Lehners in France and it is an international friendship award. I feel quite honored to have received it.

I am supposed to hand it over to international friends and, of course, I have no shortage of them, but if you don't mind, I will do that tomorrow when I am in the mood for all that copying and pasting. It is kind of late to do that now.

I have written my Christmas cards, although I did cut down the list quite a bit and did not include anyone of the Exfactor's family and friends, because I don't have their addresses. The Exfactor always did those. I wrote notes for those that needed them. I am only sending 20 cards right now, but will probably send more as cards come in that I have to respond to. I wrote cards until all of them were gone and I had the most important ones done.

Then there was this huge thick envelope from Social Services and I looked at it since yesterday with some amount of trepidation, because I thought something very complicated and nasty was going to be in it, but when I finally opened it tonight it turned out to be an offer for health insurance for low income people at a very reasonable rate with all sorts of things included. Well, I looked at it and for me the offer turned out not to be so good and the rate was higher than what I am paying now, so I'm not going to change health insurance companies. So, that turned out to be a popcorn fart. I breathed a sigh of relief.

My sister and I walked the dogs for a long walk at noon time. Her dog is only allowed on a very short leash and has to walk right beside her and is not allowed to sniff and explore, whereas I give the Überhund lots of space to roam all over the sidewalk. I can't imagine that my sister's dog enjoys his walk very much and I don't see the purpose in it very much. I always think it's the Überhund's outing and he has to have all the fun when we go. I know my sister silently disapproves of my attitude, while I silently disapprove of hers.

Well, it's time to go to bed and take my medicines and shut the apartment up for the night. I hope you all had a good day and that you all will have a good night.

Ciao...

And the Award goes to...

I want to give away an award I have discovered. I like it very much and it fits in with my sense of humor. I discovered some other ones too, but I am not in the mood for them right now. This is the one I want to give away:

1. I want to give it to Frances of A Carpet Full of Holes.
2. To Babaloo at Fairymix.com.
3. To grit at grit's day.
4. To Lane at Lane's Write.
5. To Mean Mom at Mean Moody Middle Aged Mom.
6. To Maggie at Nuts in May.
7. To Laurie at Three Dog Blog.
8. To John at Typos. Dayllight. Fate.
9. To Cheryl at Wishing and Discovering.
10. And last but certainly not least, to Bev at On Another Planet.

I hope that gives you guys a certain amount of satisfaction.

Cheerio...

Those guys...

Those guys who were installing the boiler yesterday gave me a hard time and teased me mercilessly when they found out I was a single woman living on my own, especially when they found out that one of their colleagues was interested in me and they tried to set me up on a date with him, until we discovered what the age difference was and then they really started teasing both him and me. It was all done in good fun and it made the day go by quickly, until they were done in the early afternoon around 2:30.

I've got a wonderful new boiler now that doesn't start up with a whoosh and make a racket while it heats the water and a brand new thermostat that is digital and reads in half degrees Celsius. I keep telling myself that this is a good thing and that it is going to save me money, but it is true that I can choose the temperature that I want in the apartment more carefully now. One degree can make all the difference between paying more or less for my energy bill.

The old boiler was at least as old as the apartment, so about 20 years and that is about the realistic life of one. Or, as one of the installers said, they'd be out of a job if they lasted much longer than that. Replacement is the way to go when they start showing signs of wear and tear, as mine did. The man who had been here to fix mine, had turned up the internal thermostat and the water came out piping hot. Much too hot. I guess that was the only way he got it to work.

The Exfactor came by when the installers were just finishing their job and much joking around was done about me having a boyfriend on a motorcycle, which I left them to believe for a while was true, until one of them guessed that he was my ex. I don't know how he figured that one out. Much joking around was done about that fact too and many innuendos were made. Cheeky, they were!

Oh, before I forget, I have to direct you to an interesting site. It is called Dreamlines and you can go there here! What you do is, type in a few keywords from a dream you had, and graphic images will appear in a little while that will illustrate your dream. Be patient, because sometimes a blank page appears and then sometimes it is followed by more images. It is a very unique experience. I am sure you will enjoy it.

And something else. I came by this award the way I seem to come by them all lately and that is quite easily by visiting someone's blog and just picking it up, because I am allowed to and getting their blessings afterwards.


I got this at Lane's Write, so I must give a great big thank you to Lane who I owe this to. I don't know if you all lack the same amount of shyness that I do, but I assume that you will do what I did and just take this award for yourself and plant it on your blog. That's what it's there for. People nowadays don't seem to be handing out awards anymore in the conventional way, so you just pick them up as you go along. It's a free for all, it seems. It's like collecting trading cards.

Heck, now I got distracted looking for blogging awards on Google and another 30 minutes have passed, but I did find some. I will see what I can do with them. Mmm...

So you guys, the Überhund is standing here impatiently waiting for me to take him out and I suppose I will go and do that now. The poor guy is always waiting for me to get done behind the computer and waits and waits...

Have a really terrific Saturday. I'm going over to my sister's whose birthday it is today.

Ciao...

An Award.

I came by this appropriate award the easy way. It was handed out by Flowerpot to anyone who came by her blog and I couldn't resist taking it. Can you blame me? I am never very hesitant about those things, or bashful for that matter. If I see some bling that I like, I take it and figure that somehow I have deserved it.

Of course, there is the matter of handing it out, but since I came by it so easily, I think you should all do like I did and if this award appeals to you, then please feel free to take it and add it to your blog. I am sure every one of you deserves it and I am not going to sit here and decide which of you does and does not. Go ahead and be bold. Take it!

Have a good evening.

Ciao...