Compulsion...

I feel compelled to write a blog post, yet I have no idea what to write about. I will have to make it up as I go along. Maybe something brilliant will come up. 

In the meantime I will think about the chocolate that I'm having a terrible craving for. I can only think about it because I have none in the apartment. I'm never prepared for moments like these. 

Okay, I'm all done thinking about the chocolate. There's no sense in dwelling on it if there's none here. Besides, it would just make my eczema itch because it always does. That's the kind of reaction I get to it. I better think of another food group.

That reminds me that I have to ask the Exfactor to buy me a semi-soft cheese when he goes grocery shopping next. I have been having a craving for that also. I'd like for him to get me a good chunk of it that will last all week.

I think I'm getting in the mood to eat more wintry type of foods. The kind that have more calories. I've got to watch that. I'm already eating porridge every day despite my misgivings about the wheat and the fact that it gives me gas. 

I know what time of year it is when I get in the mood to eat cheese. Next I'll be craving pumpernickel bread with real butter, though I think I already am. I've got to make it a point to keep eating healthy foods. I should be alright then. 

Talking about the food that I'm potentially going to eat is not going to make me gain weight. It's what I actually put in my mouth that's going to do it and so far I've got that under control. I just mustn't get carried away with the shopping list. 

I think I will get lots of Knorr chicken soup and a bag of vermicelli. That should take care of my cravings for something hearty and it will be filling too.  Impromptu meals can be made with it.

Right now I'm not eating anything, but having cups of coffee. After the one I'm drinking now, I'm switching to low fat milk. Ice cold. It takes care of whatever craving I may have and it chills my taste buds into compliance.

I'm very content sitting here, but I am yawning, which is surprising when you consider the caffeine. I'll slowly get sleepy and ready to go back to bed. It was the animals that woke me up. The dog was pestering the cat and the cat was complaining loudly in my ear because she was lying on my pillow. 

I need to get up on time in the morning and make sure I get some quiet time in before my personal helper gets here. I do need to drink a cup of coffee in all silence to gather my thoughts before I get dressed. 

I hope you'll all have a good day with beautiful weather. 

Ciao,

Nora 

Oops, don't do that!

It's in the middle of the night and I'm having my cup of coffee. I've already slept a couple of hours and got up a while ago. I just had a dirty, stinking cigarette that I made with the tobacco crumbs that I had saved in a pot in the cupboard where I also had the filter tubes. It was not such a positive experience. It made me cough, it made my chest hurt, it made my eczema itch and it made me light in the head, plus it gave me a general feeling of sickness. I think I will flush those tobacco crumbs down the toilet, so I will not be tempted to make another cigarette. That will be for the best. I don't need that kind of temptation in a weak moment when maybe my nicotine patch is not working optimally anymore.

The worst thing is the itch from my eczema. It is just possible that as I never smoke again, it will clear up completely, because all day yesterday it didn't bother me. If I diligently apply the ointment now, it is very possible that it will disappear and that would be great. It's been with me for so long that I don't remember doing without it. The chest pain bothers me too, though, and I'm sure that's a bronchial thing. My poor body is just protesting at the smoke and chemicals entering my system. It's saying, no, don't do this to me! It was a good lesson to smoke this cigarette and to see how I reacted to it. I think I will not do it again. It was a complete moment of madness.

I had to take Tyke to the vet yesterday. He had a bad case of the runs and was running a bit of a fever. Luckily, he likes going to the vet and thinks that all the dogs in the waiting room are there for him to visit with. He's such an amiable guy and wants to make friends with all the dogs and their owners. He thinks everybody is great, including the vet, even though he put a thermometer in his butt and gave him a shot of antibiotics. He also gave him pills for three days and then Tyke should be over whatever ails him. He's still lively and eats all his food, so he's not suffering. The vet did say that there was a lot of noise in his intestines. Poor Tyke. Having noisy intestines is not good. Tyke seems unaware that he's ill, though, and is his usual cheerful self. Gandhi can attest to that.

Gandhi has found a new favorite spot to sleep in, but the problem is that it is the armchair that I always sit in, so now we have to jockey for position. I hate to have to move her when she's so peacefully sleeping, but I pick her up and put her on my lap, which she usually likes and sometimes not. Tyke gets jealous when she sits on my lap and tries to push her out with his nose. I try to prevent that, but I'm not always successful. I do have my hands full.

Eventually, everybody settles down and we are at peace and I can read my book and pet Gandhi at the same time. She is an affectionate little cat. Normally she doesn't let herself get intimidated by Tyke, but he does test her patience on occasion and she has to remove herself from the scene, but the first one she goes looking for when she returns is Tyke. Tyke doesn't realize what a privileged dog he is to get so much affection from Gandhi, in spite of the fact that he pesters her so much. He really loves her to pieces, but in his exuberance he gets a little carried away. He doesn't realize that she's a delicate cat and is not meant to be pounced on.

The morning is slowly approaching and, as usual, I'm not tired and I feel better than I have in the past when I still smoked. I think I will sit up the rest of the time until dawn and read my book. I'm more then halfway through it and very interested in the story. I will sit in my armchair by the reading light and have a tall glass of milk, which will leave me with just enough milk for a cup of coffee later on. The Exfactor is coming over today to do the groceries and that is good, because I'm almost out of milk and juice. I do have to make a shopping list and see if I have any money left in my bank account. That would be helpful.

I threw the tobacco crumbs away in the large trash bag and shook them down to the bottom. I will put something distasteful on top. There no longer is any thought of smoking another cigarette. I've put that behind me. I'm fine now.

I hope you all have a very good day and that your weather is beautiful.

Ciao,
Nora

In the early morning.

I wemt to bed on time last night, because I was sleepy early, and for a change I am up early also and completely done sleeping. I double checked to make sure, but I really was and felt comfortable enough to get up. I´ve had one cup of coffee, but that´s all the caffeine I need for now and I´m drinking a glass of cold milk now. I think the new medication makes me thirsty, because I´m constantly in need of something cold to drink, and no, it can´t be water. I´ll never forget the insult of my first mother in law when she finally came to our apartment for a visit and said she could only stay for twenty minutes and that all she wanted to drink was a glass of water. Really! By European conventions that is a very bad thing to do.

Well, that´s pulling old cows out of the ditch, as they say, and we won´t do that.

So, I´m wide awake and now it turns out that I can go grocery shopping this morning with my sister after all, so I have to call her at 8 o´clock and let her know. She´ll be pleased to hear it, because we had planned to go at 4 this afternoon when it will be crowded. This also gives me the opportunity to clean the refrigerator before the domestic help gets here this afteroon. I think that´s the least I can do. I don´t want the poor woman to think that her task is hopeless.

I have to make a shopping list of what I have to get, though it´s not that much, at least not a great variety of things. Very much milk and catfood and rawhide sticks for the dog and coffee pads and Nutella! Some other things I´m not thinking of right now, but hopefully will soon.

I´ve lost 2.8 kilos in the past week. That´s good because I had gained 15 kilos this past year or so. It was due to the increase in my antipsychotics. It made me eat more and gain weight. I think they just make you gain weight period. This Welbutrin that I´m on now suppresses your appetite, so you lose weight. That´s better than the Effexor that made me gain weight. My mood stabilizer also makes me lose weight, but that effect had become undone by the effects of the other medicines.

I tried to eat my regular bowl of porridge the other day, but I ate it without the usual good appetite and I haven´t had any since. I have no desire to eat it and that´s saying a lot. I just eat bits and pices of things now and I drink a lot of milk. I´ve even finished the fruit juice and will buy a new container today because I think I need the vitamins even though it makes my ear and head itch where my eczema is.

Oh, I see it´s time to take my medicines. I wasn´t paying attention, so wrapped up was I in writing this post. I also have to get dressed and walk the dog.

Hav a good day, you all. I hope the weather is good for you. It´s supposed to be 7C here and we may have some light rain. Whoopie!

Ciao,
Nora

Sunday early in the morning...

No new snow fell during the night and we are left with the snow as it was yesterday, trodden on by a dozen feet and compacted by car tires. More snow is expected today and more wind from the northeast. From Siberia, as my sister says. Right now it's cloudy and a mere -2C, so it's not very cold at all. Well, I wouldn't want to go out there in my bathrobe and slippers, but then nobody is expecting me to.

I've been up for quite a while. I went to bed very early last night, finding that I had no patience to watch the television and no energy to blog. I would sleep longer, I think, if it weren't for the pain in that darn arm that keeps waking me up. It radiates from my shoulder, because I know I have a bad shoulder and it hurts too. I may end up going to the doctor with it, even if he says there's nothing that can be done about it. I can't afford physiotherapy, so that's out. I think I will get the heating pad out and put that on my shoulder and see if it helps me any. It's very frustrating not to be able to do anything.

In the meantime, I've had my second cup of coffee, I've fed the cats and petted the dog several times, and I've had a tall glass of multi vitamin juice, which was delicious. I'm imagining that my hair has gotten thicker now that I take that special vitamin pill every day, but that may really just be my imagination. It seems that way to me anyway. It would be really good, because I had a thin patch on my head that really showed up and my mother used to have it too. I guess I'm genetically predisposed. My bad luck. I try to fix my hair in such a way that it doesn't show up, but I'm not always successful.

That special shampoo and conditioner I bought for brown hair work great, though. My hair is keeping the color I dyed it in much better and there aren't any roots showing yet. Usually the color would have faded by now and I would have had to dye it again, so it was worth buying those products. Andrélon has them for blond hair too and you can use those products too if blond and brown or red are your natural colors. It just perks them up a bit. Hey, I should be paid for being a spokeswoman again. I do speak up for a product every once in a while, completely free of charge and hey, hair is dead, you can do to it what you like, it's your scalp that counts.

I put my reading glasses on this morning to read what it said on the tube of ointment that I'm now using for my eczema. Much to my surprise it turned out to be a homeopathic medicine. Now, I hold no faith in homeopathic medicine whatsoever. I don't believe in it, so it is with great skepticism that I will continue using this ointment, but I'm going to give it a fair chance and see if it will do the job. It says that I need to apply it 2 to 3 times a day and so I will. I'm not going to dismiss it outright and say it won't work. I will just assume that it will and forget my prejudice. Stranger things have happened and maybe I will be proved wrong. I used to be very skeptic about antidepressants too, and about mood stabilizers, until I started using them. Once I'm done with the tube, I'll look for an ointment that's based on medicinal herbs. When I'm done with this post, I'm going to look up the main ingredient in the ointment.

Oh well, I just did. The main ingredient is from a plant called Cardiospermum Haliacabum, also called "Love in a Puff" in English. It is a vine from Africa, South America and India and the product of the plant is used there for skin conditions. Well, you learn something new every day. Maybe this ointment will work after all. Except that homeopathic medicine just has the very diluted "memory" of the original ingredient in it. So it's really quack medicine, but like I said, I may be wrong. The ointment is called Cardiflor. I'll keep you updated. At least I didn't go out and buy it, because I never would have.

It pays to always be skeptical in this world and to not believe everything you hear outright. People make so many claims and tell so many stories. It's best to be a cynic and to be your own best advisor and to look up information as well as you can before you accept all sorts of Indian stories. It's unbelievable how gullible some people are or want to be, or just are because they lack a certain amount of common sense or power of deduction. When someone says to me that I'm a cynic, I'm proud of it, because that means the wool can't be pulled over my eyes easily. I'd rather be a cynic than the naive believer in things that I used to be when I was younger and impressionable and not taught to rely on my own powers of observation. Being impressionable is not a positive trait. I say, make your children skeptical and teach them to be cynical. They'll be better armed to survive in this world.

When I was young, I was taught to ignore many things that were just very wrong and I was not allowed to talk about them or acknowledge them in any way. That teaches you to doubt yourself and your feelings and your powers of observation. It also teaches you to accept the unacceptable. You can see how subsequently that allows you to get into all sorts of unpleasant situations when you get older. You doubt yourself too much to put your foot down and demand proper treatment and living conditions. You don't know when you are in an unacceptable situation. You go along with whatever program you find yourself in, no matter how unpleasant it is. It's very awful to be denied the truth of your situation when you are a child, but also when you are older and you don't have the tools yet to extract yourself. You find yourself trying to manage a life that you're not equipped for and there's nobody around to show you that it's not okay, that there's something seriously wrong with it. If on top of that you are naive and gullible and impressionable, you have a very sad situation. That's why I prefer being a skeptic and a cynic and I hope I only become more so.

That was a little observation on life I allowed myself. Now it's time to eat breakfast and go back to bed for a while. I've got to get a few more hours of sleep. First I've got to find the heating pad, but I think I gave it to the Exfactor when he had a backache.

Have a wonderful Sunday and don't let the weather get you down.

Ciao,
Nora

Snow!

It's been snowing since early this morning and it hasn't stopped once. We have about a foot of snow now and it is a lot of fun trudging around in it and watching your dog sink into it up to his shoulders. The dog doesn't seem to be the least bit bothered and actually seems to like it. If he could skip and hop, he would do it, but it's a little bit hard in all that snow.

At noontime, when I sat here after my morning sleep, there was a loud knock on the window. It was my sister who was out with my nephew and her dog. They were having fun in the snow and said that they were going to build a snowman. I told them that I'd be right out and got dressed and took the dog to the field where my sister lives, but they were back inside having hot Cup a Soups. They said the snow was too dry to make a good snowman with. We had cappuccinos and watched the snow fall and the wind that came from the northeast blew all the snow sideways.

I don't have snow boots, but the leather boots my sister gave me are doing a good job at keeping my feet warm. Of course, I'm not out there for really long periods of time. I'm sure if I were to track through the snow for a long time, my boots would get soaked and my feet would get wet. I do also have my hiking boots that I can wear, if nothing else, but they are not very high and I would sink into the snow deeper than that.

My sister has started to have eczema just like me and she gave me a tube of natural ointment that she used before her doctor put her on a cortisone creme. I am loathe to use the cortisone creme that I have, because if you use it too often, it will damage your skin, so I'm more than happy to try the natural product. I had been planning on buying it, because my eczema is bad right now, but now I have an almost full tube and I've already applied the first layer. I'm counting on it working and will use it every day. At least I won't have to worry about it damaging my skin and I do believe in natural medicines. I think there are many medicinal plants that can help you very much and the ointments and pills made of them are widely available, so I'm going to give this creme a fair chance.

Sleeping in the morning makes the day go by quickly, especially if you subsequently go and have cappuccinos at your sister's. I've really wasted most of the day. It's kind of a shame, but I don't quite know what I would have done with it otherwise. Oh sure, I could have done some household chores. There are always those things to do. That's a never ending story. As a matter of fact, I will do some of those things later on, when I'm done sitting behind the computer. When I have a sore rear end and I do get one of those on occasion. The solution is to get up, right? No, the solution is to find a softer place to sit.

I don't want to have another wasted day like this though. I do want to fill my time more usefully. I don't like these empty hours in which I don't achieve anything. That's okay now and then, but not all the time. I have to make it a point to get some things done that will give me some satisfaction. There's nothing worse than looking back at the day and seeing no result of anything. That's not how I'm put together. I do want to feel that satisfaction of a job well done, although I realize that I can't always perform up to my standards. But I think if I feel good enough, I should do better than just having wasted most of my day. It doesn't make me feel good at all. That's a warning to me to make tomorrow a better day, even though it will be Sunday. It doesn't matter. We're snowed in and I may as well do something useful inside the apartment.

Well, now I'll go and do something useful like make cigarettes. That needs to happen too.

Goodbye from the snowy Netherlands.

Ciao,
Nora

A new haircut...

I just got my hair cut and I suppose it's okay, but it's shorter that it was the last time and I have to get used to it, and to the way it is fixed, and I dare not look into the mirror for fear that I will not like it. I've avoided both the bathroom mirror and the hallway mirror so far and I'm planning on avoiding the closet mirror too for a while longer, anyway, and then I have to decide which one I am going to look in first. Of course, the one that's most flattering, and I think that's the bathroom mirror. I will carefully sneak up on it and take it by surprise and look into it when it least expects it.

I've been feeling a bit anxious all day and in the morning my eczema was acting up quite a bit and I had to scratch a lot. I get that often when I'm nervous. I did nonsense things that didn't do anybody any good at all on the computer and basically wasted my time and at 1 pm I realized that I forgot to take my medicines in the morning, so I took them all then and sat down by the dining table to wait for them to work.

After about half an hour I made a shopping list and went to the supermarket, where I spend a cool 15 minutes inside getting the things I needed. Outside it was warm and humid and it made me sweat something awful. After I had loaded up all my bags, I went to the tobacconist, who's little shop was stifling hot and where I luckily only had to be about 3 minutes before I bicycled home.

When I got there, and hauled my bike inside, the dog barked at me while I unloaded the groceries. I don't know why, it is a new thing he does, as if he is telling me a story about how happy he is to see me home again and what the cats did while I was gone. He didn't want to eat, I tried that, and he went to sleep as soon as I sat down to drink a glass of juice.

I ate some Camembert, but had to stop and save the rest, because it was too much for me to finish. It did taste delicious, though, and then my sister called me and told me, in the course of the conversation, that her least favorite cheeses were Brie and Camembert. Isn't that funny? Those are the ones I like so much. Actually, I like all cheese. I don't think there's one I say no to. Is there? I'll even eat processed cheese on a hamburger, when I still ate those, and macaroni and cheese from a box.

Anyway, I was feeling a bit anxious and I keep having that feeling and I wonder if it is finally from having quit taking the tranquilizers. I've tried to talk myself out of it, but find it impossible to do, as if I'm not quite in control of it, though when I'm really occupied, I don't feel it so much and it is practically gone. I find that I can really focus when I'm behind the computer typing and doing mundane things such as making lists and inventories of my books. Things that require dogged concentration and ability and stick-with-it-ness. I reality I'm a very dull person who likes dull jobs.

I'm supposed to walk the dog one more time, but he's very merrily snoring at my feet and I'm waiting for it to cool off a bit before I go outside. Itś so muggy and it wouldn't surprise me if there were rain coming, but I don't have my little forecast bar anymore. I don't know where it went. It disappeared into the ether. Just like single socks. To the dimension where multiplying clothes hangers come from. You lose some and you receive some.

I have an unending supply (it seems) of plastic clothes hangers on the bottom of my closet and when I try to pull one out, they all grab each other by the neck and become a tangled mess, just like their wire relatives. I don't know how I got to be in possession of so many, but I think they are mating in the dark, and sometimes when the door creaks open, I know it's from the ruckus of the mating hangers. There's no other explanation.

Every once in a while I put up my hands to feel my hair. I know I will love it in the morning when I get up and I won't have to do a thing to it. The hairdresser put wax in it and spray on it that both smell like candy or strawberry jam, whichever you prefer it. It smells very good and she says she never gets tired of it.

There was a woman after me, who had come to get her hair cut, who had washed her own hair at home. Isn't that silly? For me that's part of the treat, having your hair washed by somebody else. The hairdresser does it so gently and thoroughly and the water is always the right temperature, I just love it. She washes all that awful wax and hairspray out that I've put in and on, in an effort to get my hair to stay in place, because it really was too long to fix it properly anymore. And that day sneaks up on you before you know it. One day your hair is fine and the next day it is not and nothing will help it. How lovely it is to go to the hair dresser.

I should be a walking advertisement for cheese and hairdressers and...well, for what else? For the local dog pound where I got Jesker. And for the supermarket and for the tobacconist and for bicycle repairmen. I should have ads put on my bike. Rent A Space!

The church bells are ringing and it is 7:15 pm. I just want to call your attention to it. Why are they ringing at this time on a Thursday?

Okay, that's all I wrote. I have to wake my snoring dog now and walk him.

Have a good evening!

Ciao...

So early in the morning...

Well, here I am again, early in the morning and as bright and chipper as a chipmunk, all ready to start the day and have my second cup of coffee, if I ever make it to the kitchen, being so busy answering emails from Bookmooch. Man, talk about a new addiction, but those people really know how to find you too when you first join up. To them you are a whole new source of books they have been waiting for and, of course, I do my own mooching too. It sure keeps me busy and out of major trouble in and outside the home. I am sending out six books and in two weeks I'll do the next batch. I'll probably keel over from shock when I find out out how much it's going to cost me in postage, but I'll cross that bridge when I get there. I am mentally preparing myself for it.

I did find the wrapping paper that was used as packaging material and I was able to use large sections of it and I still have some left over. Luckily, I had plenty of tape, but now I must make sure that I always have these things handy, so I must be an organized lady.

I didn't sleep for a long time. I went to bed late and woke up early. I was done sleeping and nothing could keep me in bed. Out of loyalty, Jesker gets up too, but continues to sleep in the living room. It's too early for him or for the cats, but I'm ready to go and I hope I get some things accomplished today, because I have enough energy for it, regardless of the fact that it's Sunday. I have a lot of discarded clothes lying on a heap in the bathroom and they really must be put away or washed. It's a tidy heap. don't get me wrong. I always have tidy heaps. No wrinkles.

The plants need watering and I have to decide if I'm going to turn one plant around and expose the other side to all the sunlight that comes in through the windows. It is doing really well on one side, but it's getting kind of lopsided and it needs exposure on the other side as well. I just hope it doesn't go into shock from it. Plants are so fickle, I hardly know what I do right and if something goes right, I just keep dong it that way and I hate to make changes. They're like silent sentinels that keep watch in the living room and I have to instinctively know what they want, because they don't tell me.

I still have to do the ironing, but some cat has managed to squeeze between the clothes in the ironing basket and the laundry basket that was sitting on top of it and has deposited some hair there. For me now the job to get rid of the hair in the most convenient way. Whenever you think you have a full proof system to keep a cat out of something, think again and do it differently, because they will always fake you out. I do have a special brush to get animal hair off things and it works with some success, but I'd rather not have to use it at all, especially not when I haven't even worn the clothes yet.

Toby has decided that he now needs to sleep right beside my pillow at night, as close to my head as he can get. It is very cozy, but every morning there are cat hairs there that I need to brush off and is it any wonder why I have eczema on my head and now on my fingers? I was never meant to have such close relationships with animals, but I can't help myself. I can't live without them and will always have at least one of some sort. I am completely enamored with them and for them I'll have an itch all day long. Which reminds me to go to the herbal shop for Jesker and me to pick up herbal solutions for his eyes and my eczema. I have to go all the way downtown to do that and I always forget.

I have just taken my medicines and now I'm waiting for those good pills to start working. Hopefully they will slow me down a bit, because I have to last the rest of the day and I'm not going to be able to at this speed. That means that the rest of the coffee I'll be drinking will be decaf, which luckily I have enough of. I have to pull my own inward handbrake and cut the speed down by half. I'm much too excited. If I were a Zen Buddhist, I would do some meditation exercises now. Instead I will just mentally ease up on the gas and enjoy the scenery.

My SPN said, that as soon as I noticed that I became hypo manic again, I had to take another anti psychotic pill. We made a deal about that, but I'm afraid to take one, because of becoming depressed, which I am definitely not now. It is possible for me to take one now and take the second one at night and not take a third one, so that I will still be on my old dose, and not go to 6 mg. which I was on when I got depressed. It is a bit of a puzzle, but for now I will first drink decaf and see how I do and then make a decision.

Any input from you will be appreciated. Often it is the people from outside looking in who can be objective the most. I feel a bit sped up and I am suspicious of my mood. I don't trust how good I feel. It is too jubilant.

Actually, if I had the choice now, I would want to slow down and become calmer, because I don't want to be this unguided missile cruising through the day, looking for interesting things to do and possibly getting in over my head somewhere. I feel like there is a party going on inside my head and I'm supposed to join in and I don't want to.

Well, there is a pill at hand and it works quickly, so there is help if I need it.

Have a great day.

Ciao...

A Migraine???

Across the Meusse.

I'm supposed to have a migraine and that's why I am not at ergo therapy this morning. The truth is that I only have a little bit of a headache and I very easily could have gone, but I didn't feel like riding my bike through the cold and rain, which was bad enough when I had to take the dog for a walk this morning. So, I'm taking the morning off with an excuse.

It is truly miserable outside and I want to be here in my warm and cozy apartment in my warm clothes with the heater turned on. The rain is dripping down the windows and obscuring my view of the street. All the cats are very wisely inside and the Überhund is curled up on his blanket, although he hasn't had his breakfast yet. I'm waiting for him to let me know when he is hungry.

I very wisely did my grocery shopping yesterday afternoon, just after it hailed for a few minutes and before it started to rain again. I hope I have bought enough groceries to last me for most of the week, because my bike was truly loaded and I only half dared to ride it. I walked it part of the way, because I had a very heavy shopping bag hanging from my handlebar. I had visions of the handlebar becoming undone and the bike becoming unmanageable and me laying flat on my face in the street. Luckily, none of that happened and it would have been a sort of slapstick, but also dangerous.

I bought tins of mackerel and sardines and mussels in a piquant sauce and I had those last night and they were very good. For someone who is always very suspicious of mollusks, I did a good job eating those. I tried not to think about their origins too much.

I also bought a lot of soup and extra vermicelli and plan to make a one liter pan full every day. I did that yesterday and managed to get three large bowls of soup out of it. I bought cream crackers and rusk toast and healthy margarine too. Now I have to make sure I don't eat too much of these items, so I have to balance everything nicely. Today I'm going to have mushroom soup and cream crackers.

I wasted a lot of time behind the computer yesterday. I spent quite some time on Facebook picking out favorites of everything under the sun and publishing them. There was no stopping me once I got started. I even picked my favorite beers, although I very seldom drink a beer. It goes to my head too quickly and before you know it, I'm drunk. I'm a cheap date.

I spent a lot of time on the 6S main site reading other people's 6S's and commenting on them. I published a bunch of them myself this weekend and you can read them if you click on my 6S button. They're under My Blogs.

I forgot to buy the required trash bags and will have to go back to the store, where I will also buy a package of strong tobacco instead of the half mild that I buy now. I want to try and see what the strong tobacco tastes like and if I will like it better. That's why I'm only buying a package and not a pot. The aubergine trash bags I can only buy at the supermarket tobacco counter, so I will kill two birds with one stone. Maybe I will choke on the strong tobacco, but at least I will have found out. It will be like smoking Gaulloises, but with the filter.

Créez.

Here's the last collage I made. It always bothers me that the texts are unreadable, but they are in Dutch anyway, so they wouldn't mean much to you, but still. Most of the images are from the pottery by the artist Ben Lisa. Some other images thrown in for effect. The background color is yellow and burnt sienna. I thought that gave a nice effect.

Here is a photograph of the way I look today. My right eye is a little bit swollen, I woke up with it. I don't know why. It must be the effect of old age. Still, not bad for an old lady, huh? I took ten shots to get this decent one. I always look so ridiculous on photographs and I never want someone else to take my picture, because I look like a nomad from Mongolia in them. All I need is a yurt in the background and some wild mini horses and yaks, lots of them.

Well, that's enough lingering here for me. I must do some work. I think I'm actually having problems with my sinuses and maybe I'm getting a cold, or it's just plain allergies. My eczema is really acting up too. Time to get out the cream and the lotion.

Have yourself a good day. Hope you don't get rained on and blown away by the weather too much.

Ciao...