weekend recap

• Friday night was spent playing games with janne and Thomas at their place. it was a low key evening but still loads of fun



• Saturday was spent running errands most of the day. it was janne's birthday and she was having a party in the evening. we spent most of the time looking for a present for her



• the original store we were going to get something from, a store she loves, had relocated but hasn't reopened yet.



• we felt doomed and were forced to search around.



• be braked for lunch in the middle of the day still empty handed. we ate at a soup and sandwich bar.



• best.soup.ever. the sandwich was pretty good too.



• feeling refreshed, we continued on our pursuit for a gift. we finally decided on getting a gift certificate at a sporting good store, because we knew she needed/was planning on buying things there and then a little something quirky from an antique store to round out the originality of the gift.



• we ended up getting her a beautiful set of deer book ends from the antique store and i was very jealous of them.



• her party was fun. lots of food, good friends and a fire late in the evening.



• theres nothing better than cool summer nights around a fire.



• Sunday was spent sleeping most the day. it rained the entire day and was very depressing.



• we gave Roxy a bath and now she's fluffy and squeaky clean.



• we went to the 8pm showing of shrek 3. it was hilarious! i didn't think it would be totally awesome, being the third and all. but it was really good! we had such a great time watching it and eating nachos.



• the rest of the evening was spent all 3 huddled up on the couch watching bad TV.



• although, i did learn where, when, how and why silly putty was invented.



• thank you history channel.

some pictures from janne's party:

my white trash news paper wrapped gift

strawberry flavored rice krispie treats with candy sprinkles on top. not tastey.

gregory and thomas feasting on sanwiches. jk-their making sandwiches

gregory enjoying the fire

domesticated living

Gregory hates broccoli but i had bought some and was determined to get him to eat it. i didn't want to do the ole "drown it in cheese" standby so i looked up a new recipes on allrecipies.com.
i found one without cheese in it, looked simple, and i already had the ingredients.
it was a "garlic sauce" but i didn't taste too much of the garlic in it because the soy sauce over powered it. that's rice, soy sauce as well. it also included brown sugar, white vinegar, butter and pepper.
it looked a little crazy so i was afraid it wasn't going to be good but Gregory loved it! and so did i.
with it i had also made breaded chicken for him and breaded scampi for me.
it was a delicious lunch if i do say so myself.

Gregory and i are trying to eat more healthy, and though with the sauce and bread this wasn't the healthiest meal on the planet, but i was still proud because i was trying to come up with something creative and i think i accomplished that. it wasn't just a chicken breast on top of rice with green beans. this week alone Gregory and i have eaten more vegetables in quantity and in variety than we have in any other given week. we usually have alot of starch with our meals be it pasta, rice or potatoes; whatever it is, its usually the staple of the meal. we've been trying to eliminate as much starch as we can which has been extremely hard considering that's all we ever eat! we haven't done ok this week i think. i think we can do better though. but for dinners I've been adding 2 vegetables instead of a starch and both of us agree that we don't even miss the potato or rice or what have you.


in other news, Gregory finally called the vet about Roxy, who had been in heat for about 5-6 weeks. apparently, in Belgium, pets don't get sterilized until after their first heat cycle anyway, which i think is very weird. so Gregory told her how long she was in heat for and the vet said that she should be sterilized if it had gone on that long, because sometime down the road she could have complications. which made me glad that the vet told Gregory it should be done for health reasons anyway because , it not being very common in Belgium to sterilize pets, i think he was feeling a little weird about it. they're not allowed to be fixed until 2 months after the first heat cycle, so the end of august she'll be ready to have surgery. it'll cost 300 euros! no wonder its not so common, it costs a small fortune!

we'll finally be able to return to puppy school on Sunday. her manners are starting to go down hill so she needs it.
i let her go to a field last night to run and when i called her back she didn't listen and instead ran further away. she needs to relearn to listen when we tell her to come for sure!

readjusting to Belgian time

after two weeks in the mother land, it was time to return to Belgium. i always seem to have a hard time readjusting to Belgium time. i usually nap in the middle of the day, even after going to bed early and sleeping in late. this time i put in a serious effort to just get used to the time, like I'm able to do in America.
the first few days while in America i awoke at 4am and the had a full productive day, retiring to bed around 10pm. once i became accustomed to the time i began waking at 7.30-8am. a perfect time, if you ask me-not too early, not too late.
so back in Belgium its been 5 days and I'm still screwed up! though I've been waking up at a "normal" hour (around 8am) and going to bed around 11-11.30, I'm still bone tired. 11 comes around and I'm not tired, I've been sleeping terrible so by the time morning arrives all i want to do is sleep! last night we hit the hay about 12pm and no matter how hard i tried i couldn't pull myself up when i was suppose to. 9.10am rolled around and Gregory had to get up to make it for work. i lingered in bed a few minutes longer, only to move to the couch. i napped until 10am! this is not what i had in mind at all!
i was hoping to return and get right back into the swing. i had goals to be very ambitious, waking early to walk Roxy, do my chores with plenty of time left over for other things. but it hasn't happened that way at all. I've been walking Roxy in the middle of the day, doing some chores and i haven't even made it to the gym. never mind the gym, i haven't gone to class yesterday or today. though yesterday wasn't entirely my fault, Gregory's car wouldn't start but i reeeeally didn't want to go anyway.
i hope next week will be better.

weekend

our long weekend was no fun!

we had a communion on sunday and gregory and i were fighting the WHOLE time (practically). he got drunk and i..tried. i got a headache instead.

the rest of the weekend was a blurr so i guess there wasnt anything exciting to report.

so instead here are some pictures from a better, more eventful weekend.

enjoy n stuff!

bowling is serious business!

gregory and janne

me and thomas!

me and gregory. i have my tongue positioned in the concentration mode. my arm wasnt quite long enough to take the picture well

.

me and roxy, working it in the park.

workin it is hard, resting after walk.

being so good!

doing the mashed potato? or working out. i forget what dumb thing i was doing.

we love icecream. gregory a little too much.

All-Bran

Gregory and i have decided to give the all-bran detox challenge a go. if William Shatner says its great, then it must be true, right?
so last night we went grocery shopping and headed straight for the cereal aisle. we needed to read the rules to be sure to do it right. we bought 2 boxes of all-bran. all-bran choco and fruit n nut all-bran. we decided that even though we're chocolate people, after 10 days of eating all-bran perhaps we'd get a bit tired of the chocolate version. we also bought lots of fruit, we were suppose to buy lots of veggies too but we didn't.
this was our first morning on the detox challenge. we had our bowl of bran this morning and i sent Gregory off to work with his 1.5liters of water and a banana. later in the day we are to have some yogurt with some bran mixed in as well.

about 5 minutes after eating the cereal i already had to go to the toilet. and having more bran later in the day?! needless to say we're a little nervous of the outcome. i think the real challenge lies in trying to NOT live in the bathroom!

we're looking forward to being lighter, more energetic versions of ourselves as William S promises. i thought it was a great way to get ready for all that American food!

mop mop mop, all day long

this evening the land lady is coming over to finally look at our roof. we had terrible leaking problems in the veranda in the WINTER. It hasn't even rained at all in April. not once. in the entire month of April, Belgium, the land of rain and gloom and everything gray didn't rain one drop. And now, after a warm spell of 80+ weather she decided its a good time to get someone to look at our roof. and of course the only time available she can come is a Friday evening at 8pm. and because she's the best land lady in the entire world she's evening having her boyfriend come Saturday morning to do some masonry work to the house. don't ask if we have plans or anything, don't ask if we mind our weekend being shot to hell.

so anyway, I've been pretty slack in the house cleaning department. it gets kind of depressing after a while and i let it go to the shitter. but now she gave us 1 days notice I've been using all my free time to clean the place. even though i hate her rudeness it did give me a reason to get off my duff and clean. goals are good. having a clean house before 8pm is a great goal. the entire downstairs is now sparkling. Roxy's taking a nap after helping me (aka: bark at me while i vacuum and mop the floor) and I'm taking a short break before beginning on the upstairs of the house. when Gregory gets home this evening he'll be washing down the patio and I've delegated him to clean the downstairs toilet.
this will be her first time seeing the house while we've inhabited it which is why we're going a little nutty on cleaning. we've done alot to fix up the house and we hope it shows. and if she says anything negative I'll let Roxy chew her to pieces!

weekend/holiday update

• Friday night we went to the skate park where there was a barbecue. it was quite nice but the air was a bit too chilly at night to be sitting outside.
• Saturday was very warm and not too much got done. we stayed inside for most of the day with all blinds down and a fan blowing on us.
• Sunday morning we got up bright and early to bring Roxy to puppy class. she was brilliant!
• she made a friend at puppy class and the trainers we impressed with how well she played with the other dogs.
• they also saw remarkable improvement with her relationship with people as well.
• after class we went to Gregory's grandparent's house and she ran around and didn't try to bark or bite anyone there as well. she was an angel.
• Sunday evening we got an urgent call from Gregory's grandfather. his cow was giving birth.
• we ran over to help.
• the vet came shortly after us.
• the cow got a c-section. apparently cows deliver badly and its just common practice to give all cows c-sections.
• there are alot of cows around Belgium with c-scars right now.
• the cow gave birth to a baby BOY we were all "awwww"
• Gregory got the cool job of holding the forceps while the vet stitched her up.
• i wasn't jealous after i saw his clothes all splattered with blood.
• after the vet had gone we moved the calf in to be with his mother and as we were all looking in on them waiting to see the new loving bond between mother and baby-WHAM! the cow kicked its baby in the head twice and them stomped on its head.
• you know those stress balls in the shape of a face and when you squeeze it the keys eyeballs pop way out of its head? that's what i saw in my mind.
• turns out the cow didn't want us watching her and later that evening they bonded and the baby is doing well.
• Sunday night we went to a a small concert show where we sat outside with billions of people and drank and listened to music.
• my friend Janne was very drunk and silly.
• we weren't drunk, but a little silly. it was a fun night and was too hard not to feed off others drunkenness.
• Monday Gregory had no work so he did some work in the yard. then Dimitri came over with his daughter and some Chinese food.
• Janne also stopped by with some mcflurries for us!
• we did a bit of shopping in Kortrijk. theres a position open part time in the coolest store in the city. I'm gonna apply for it.
• later we had dinner at Janne's house with her sister and boyfriend, Thomas. we made pasta salad and everyone enjoyed it.
• last night we went out. i really wanted to go dancing but surprisingly alot of bars were closed even though today is a national holiday and nobody has to work. you'd think the bar people would want to capitalize on people not having anything/anywhere to go the next day.
• we had a drink at a bar and then next door to it a new bowling alley/pool hall/restaurant/bar place . we bowled a couple rounds. i won the second round which never happen.
• we had quite a lot to drink and at 2.30 i still wasn't ready to go home, but since Kortrijk is 15km from home and we had bikes Gregory wanted to go.
• it was for the best, I'm sure. it wasn't sooo bad but theres a couple of hard hills that made it difficult.
• it made me a little sick. i spit up a bit when i reached home. which was also probably for the best. i hardly had a hang over this morning.
• since theres nothing open today we've been very lazy, which we kind of planned for with our late night. we've been dozing all day and just hanging around.
• we love holidays!

Pin cushion Queen

Life isn't easyfor the Pin Cushion Queen.

When she sits on her throne

Pins push through her spleen.

from the book "The Meloncholy Death of Oyster Boy" by Tim Burton

Today Roxy dog went to the vet. why you ask? because when no one was looking she stole the pin cushion on a side table, ran outside with it and ate it. shredded it really i should say. i found lots of pins on the ground but who could really be sure if she ate any or not? so gregory called the vet, who wasnt there and was referred to someone else and brought to have pictures taken of her insides.

she was apparently really badly behaved, trying to bite the vet. the vet gave her a sedative to calm her down and she apparently resisted sedation and kept trying to bite the vet. we havent picked her up yet so its unsure wether he is still alive or not.

dont worry though, she didnt eat any pins.

fun with webcam

last Friday i finally went to get my hair cut,and colored. I've been wanting to cut it for months. it hasn't been cut or even looked at by a hairdresser since end of November. my hair was well overgrown, heavy, too long, dead feeling.

i wanted a short cut so the hairdresser to a hunk of my hanging, heavy hair and just cut it off, an urge i had myself that i had to keep myself from doing. i literally let out a sigh of relief. i was already lighter, and feeling much better.

my hair is much easier to maintain now! not only was it cut short but i got the very necessary DE-thickening treatment. you know, when they run a razor through your head and take the thickness out of your hair. i have plenty to spare and love when they do it. now i can get up and run my fingers through my hair to get it back in place, whereas before i would have a huge rat's nest in the middle of my head where the bulk of my hair lives,tangling around itself because it was too long and unruly for its own good.

i took some pics with Gregory's web cam because my camera is out of batteries. silly pics of hair!

OK so this last one isn't of my hair but there's something about extreme closeups on web cam photos that i love. so there you go.

Roxy and the dog (non) whisperer

Last night a dog behaviorist came to our house. or at least thats what he called himself. he's the trainer at the new dog school we're bringing Roxy too. at her first lesson, she tried to rip his eyeballs out of his head, so after class we had to stay. then, she was a peach. i swear she's possessed. anyway he said he's also a dog behaviorist and he gave us his number.

when he came he read a long list of questions off his paper. alot of things we were already doing correctly, according to his paper. he proceeded to her cage to do some exercises. she did OK. he gave us a few new tips but he also didn't have any tips for some of her problems. like when i touch the vacuum cleaner she goes crazy; if she sees people passing on the street she barks all day long. all he said was "ah ja" yeah, ah ja--aaaaaaaand what can we do to stop it?! oh of course! distract her!
derrrrrr i knew that already! hopefully with a "professional" telling Gregory that Roxy needs distraction from those things (including the doorbell!) he'll actually help me now. i asked him about a month ago one weekend to help me desensitize her to the doorbell but he never did it. he told me "OK so when you're vacuuming you're going to have to distract her then" haha! buddy! to told him i cant vacuum and distract all at the same time, that he'll have to help me perform an exercise with her.
the dog "communicator"(?) said she's not a lost cause but it will be alot of work. he told us to expect at least 6 months before it sinks in and then another 10-12 weeks after that before it sticks like glue in her doggy brain.

Gregory and i already found a good distraction tool for her: she loves squeaky things. lucky for us she also loves tearing things up, and had already torn the squeakers out of one of her toys, so now Gregory and will equip ourselves where ever we go with a squeaker in the pocket. i took my squeaker and some treats on a walk today with her, and when she had her nose buried to the ground smelling something particularly interesting and wouldn't listen to come, i squeaked and she came and she got a treat. and after that, as i was sweeping up her confettied toy, when she tried to attack the broom i squeaked and her attention was on me rather than the broom. its working!

now we just need to invited people over to do people exercises with her. the dog guy said to have the people she doesn't know very well treats when shes being calm and good. I'm thinking of asking people along our walk route if we can stand and watch them garden or go about their business for a couple minutes so she can get lots of people "contact" i wouldn't go close to them but she gets angry if someone is moving around in their yard while we're walking by (sometimes) sometimes shes too distracted by the birds to even care what other people are doing. but I'm pretty shy and i feel nervous asking people "hello, my dog is not socialized but i would like her to be, could we watch you for a couple minutes while i try to make her not bark and growl at you?!"yeah right if someone asked me that I'd probably run back inside the house.

It must have been the new clothes

Today, in honor of my interview, i skipped class in the morning and went clothes shopping instead. i dont have too much "business attire" and some that i do have is now too small and others are old. a pair of pants i normally wear on interview i had origionally bought for my grandfather's funeral. i've worn them for everything business like all through college and beyond. the pants are 6 years old. they're grey (on purpose) and tired looking. and a shirt i normally wear with it is probably about 3 years old and though theres lots of color in the shirt, pair with the pants it all looks lifeless, drap, unfashionable, boring. since i feel all those things in that outfit i decided i wanted to go out and buy a new outfit. one with color. one that makes me feel good and confident. and i did. black pants, of course. theres nothing wrong with a good pair of black pants, a pink striped shirt and a beautiful robin's egg blue sweater. i felt good.
and my interview went good too. i was complimented on my dutch and they seemed pretty ready to hire me on the spot with one concern: am i up for the heavy work that comes with the job?
well i think i am but one can never really know how hard it is to carry a horse head , legs, butt, whatever until they do it, right? so on monday and tuesday i'm riding in with my boss*(!) to try it out

* one of many bosses. the assistant to the head honcho of the department live in Rollegem--IN MY STREET . he has a dog which i go to visit with roxy every morning. WE'RE NEIGHBORS!

only problem is, is that he doesnt go in as early as i would have to every day because he has to drop his kids off at school. and the problem with that is the public transportation to the facility is poor. its not actually in the city of gent but more of a suburb of gent called Merelbeke and apparently i would have to take the train to gent and then a bus to Merelbeke and i hear theres only about 1 bus an HOUR going to and from there. and normally i would have to start at 7.30. thats very early for public transportation. they said probably with public transport it would take 2 hours to get there, from a 20 minute car ride. depressing.
but we'll see how it all goes

weekend recap

1. Saturday night went to a friend's house who we haven't visited in a while to eat junk food and play card games.

2. i won two games.

3. i had to drive home, and i haven't driven in quite a while so i was very stressed out.

4. i didn't stall at all and i actually did quite well aside from my hyperventilating.

5. Sunday morning i was treated to a surprise breakfast.

6. Gregory had ordered a basket from his baker friend. in it was rolls and croissants, 2 freshly hard-boiled eggs, fresh cheese, fresh butter, a small jar of jam, juice for me and chocolate milk for Gregory, and 2 small packages of candy and chocolate.

7. it was delicious. i felt like it was my birthday.

8. later we had a drink at a bar for a friend's birthday.

9. she was hosting it beginning at 11am!

10. but we didn't go until 12.30

11. we still managed to get a good buzz going

12. and then the crash from the mid afternoon drinking was horrible

13. in the evening a couple of unexpected guests came by.

14. Roxy, for the first time ever, didn't try to maul our guests. she was perfectly behaved because of a new training method i tried out

15. we figured out she cant make eye contact with anyone for now because that's what freaks her out. we're trying to get her comfortable with being around new people first before having anyone make contact

16. then i began to have symptoms of what was to become a 24 hour stomach bug.

17. come to find out the friend we visited on Saturday had the same thing, and its suspected that he gave it to us because he was feeling a bit under the weather before Saturday.

Tales from the crypt

hey everyone,

I've been idle for quite some time. not much had been happening in life this past month. however, life is beginning to pick up once again.

starting Wednesday I'm beginning a new class. its dutch for administration professions. I've been waiting since the summer to take this class but they keep changing the times or canceling the class altogether etc etc. but i got a letter and a call from the actual teacher, not the class coordinator (who doesn't do a very good job of coordinating) and its for sure on Wednesday. finally.
and then on Thursday i have an INTERVIEW! that's right and actual interview with an actual job. its been 1 1/2 year since I've had an actual job (not making sandwiches) so everyone cross their fingers that i get it. its in the city gent, where Gregory and i used to live. its in a university doing autopsies on animals. I've never worked on animals before so I'm a bit nervous but we'll see how it goes. I've applied to a few other places in the last week as well so if this job doesn't go through i still have a couple of things that could work out for me. so I'm very excited for my interview and i hope it goes well.
i also hope I'm healthy by then. Gregory and i keep getting sick. first it was a fever, chills, cough, snotty nose-a virus that's been going around. i still cant get rid of the snot in my nose. then, yesterday we both came down with the stomach flu. nasty stuff coming out of both ends at the same time is NOT fun. but today i do feel a bit better.
that's it for now.
I'll keep more in touch again.
loves!

sea side

yesterday gregory, roxy and i joined our friends in a trip to the coast. it was cloudy, foggy, a little misty and fairly cold. perfect day for a winter beach trip. it was roxy's first time on the beach and she loved it! she had a great time digging in the sand, chasing the ocean as it pulled back in (she doesn't like actually getting wet) and chasing around her new doggy pal, babs, the dog of our friends. she behaved very well in town with all the very many other visitors and other dogs as well. and slept like a rock on the way home! just the way we like it! gregory and roxy enjoying the sea air. in the background is our friends pieter-jan and thomas and, though its hard to see, babs is in the sea ready to go for a swim!

the rolling waves.

new addition

The newest member of our little family



Roxy. she's 6 months old and comes from the pound. she was from a breeder and her and her brother didnt sell from that litter. she's a bit skittish and has seperation anxiety. the pound people said on several occasions that she probably wasnt socialzed and i think they were trying to warn us. she's super sweet and loving, she just cant handle people leaving right now. i've been working really hard on trying to get her to just relax and deal with it but its really hard! she has to sleep in our room right now because otherwise she'd howl and bark all night long and i think she's going to get used to sleeping upstairs with us which is NOT what i wanted.

its been less than a week but i'm already going crazy with her crying! i cant leave the room without her crying for me to come back!! not.good. though i do have to say there has been improvement. so thats one thing i guess. its slooooooow going. i just hope she can overcome this.



UPDATE

we went to the pet store this afternoon to buy a proper pet gate (we were using a laundry drying rack before) and i also bought her a kong to hopefully keep her occupied. since we dont have any peanutbutter in the house (and before you all gasp and go all "sacrelig" on my ass please know that i DID have to full jars of jiff but i ate them and never had mumsie send more or buy more on visits and though peanutbutter recently exhists here in belgium, i am brand loyal and only like jiff) anyway, i filled it with banana bits of her dog food and broken up chunks of 1 treat and she had a blast! i had 10 full minutes of her playing with it while i was up here, she began to get whiney so i began doing my desensitization exercises with her again. this is where i just open the door to the upstairs, wait 1 second and return then go longer and shorter mixing up the seconds i'm away to show her theres nothing to worry about and that i will always return. during the exercise she fell asleep and i kept at it bringing the time away to 1 full minute then 2 and every time i returned she was still sleeping and not even waking up when i opened or closed the door! since then its been 15 full minutes without 1 peep from her. the kong tuckered her out. of course she fell asleep right in front of the gate but heck! who cares where she's sleeping just as long as she is sleeping.

oops spoke too soon. a howl is heard. well anyway, its an improvement!

Roller Rant

Ok, I have a problem with Belgium.

once upon a time there was a guy who was Belgian and decided to invent the rollerskate. Great invention Belgian dude! May many years go by and somehow rollerskating is a very teeeeeny tiny sport in Belgium.
Ok fine. I can sort of live with that even though I would totally be joining a roller derby team right now if I lived in the states still. So I cant be a derby girl, I can at least go to a roller rink and skate around, recapturing my youth, right? WRONG! I've done search upon search with the yellow pages, white pages, regular google web pages and NOTHING. There is one inline skating club but who cares about inline skates! Those are stupid, ugly and ghetto and where do they practice? Where does one go if they are Belgian and interested in roller skating????? How does this country function?!

I'm irritated.

Auntie Em!

(north of france, yesterday)
For the past week or so we've had high winds. Yesterday was at its worst with hurricane-like winds blowing tiles off of roofs, trees down, and though I didn't see any fallen powerlines, they were sure blowing like crazy like they were about to snap at any second. Lots of fire trucks driving around everywhere.

I heard this area for Belgium was the worst. The north of France got hit the most, and being only a couple towns away from the north of France, we too got hit pretty bad.
but the worst is over now. Yesterday; dark, grey, cold, and unwelcoming tornado weather has passed to a beautiful sunny day. The sky is blue, the rain is drying and there's not a whistle of wind to be heard.

all is right in the world again.

bleh

i just feel like doing a retarded survey thing because i'm bored. it happens.

When was the last time you shaved?
2 days ago.
What were you doing this morning at 8 a.m.?
trying to wake up. got up at 8.30
.What were you doing 15 minutes ago?
trolling the internet thinking "i really should be doing something else but i'm not so whatever"
Are you any good at math?
i'm shit at it. its amazing i'm even here.
Your prom night?
i went to 3. they were all pretty good. i think my senior prom was the best.
Do you have any famous ancestors?
not that i know of
Have you ever taken out a loan to pay for school?
have i EVER?!
Last thing received in the mail?
some survey from the VDAB asking how i feel their service is to me and how i thought the recent class i was enrolled in went. i "joked" that i was going to write 'VDAB SUCKS' across the page and send it back
How many different beverages have you drunk today?
a mixed berry juice with alovera puree and fiber in it, for my over all health, well-being, and keeping my healthy intestinal flora, well, healthy. and also a tropical juice from minute maide
Do you ever leave messages on people's answering machine
yeah
Do you draw your name in the sand when you go to the beach?
no!
What's the most painful dental procedure you've had?
umm...i once had a cavity as a kid and had it filled with no novicane. it hurt alot. but um, that tooth fell out and i currently have no caveties so i'm doing pretty good in the dental hygene department.
What is out your back door?
patio, table, a fallen over christmas tree waiting to be carried off with all the other trees on the 24th to a horrible death. better than blowing around the back patio i guess. theres also a shed, some shrubs, a clothes line and a trash bag full of rotted pumpkin that gregory refuses to take away.
Any plans for Friday night?today is friday. no offical plans. we were gonna go bowling but our friends are busy, i think. maybe do something with dimitri.
.Do you like what the ocean does to your hair?most of the time, sometimes it just gets too snarled and nasty, but mostly i love the wind blown, salt roughned kind of free feeling it gives me.
Have you ever received one of those big tins of 3 different kinds of popcorn for Christmas?
you bet! i only like the salt and the cheese, caramel can go to hell.
Have you ever been to a planetarium?
sadly, no.
Do you re-use towels after you shower?
of course.
Some things you are excited about?
starting a new work out routine with my friend janne
What is your favorite flavor of JELLO?
strawberry and orange.
Are any of your great-grandparents still alive?
no.
Where do you keep your change?
pocket, bottom of my bag, little jar on kitchen table, 2 change purses that i have.
When was the last time you spoke in front of a large group of people?
in college, i think. i hate speaking in front of people i dont know very well. hence why waitresses can never hear my order!
What kind of winter coat do you have?
i have 6 winter coats! i only rotate 3 right now though. 1 is a beautiful coat my parent's bought for my birthday. its long, and has polka dot looking design on it, and a fur collar- it looks alot like an old ladie's coat. another is a camel colored pea coat with a peter-pan collar and another is a red coat that my parents bought for me last christmas. its kinda parka-ish.
What was the weather like on your graduation day?
i think it rained because we had to graduate in the gym.
Do you sleep with the door to your room open or closed?
open
8 lasts --
8.] last kiss: this afternoon, saying goodbye to gregory.
7.] last beverage: juice
6.] last movie watched: 40 year old virgin
.5.] last phone call: dimitri asking if we're doing something tonight
4.] last cd played: ummmmm i dont remember
3.] last "i love you": this afternoon
2.] last time you cried: 2 nights ago because i was home alone alllllllll day and was very lonely and i cried. but then i got better
1.] last alcoholic drink: mojito last night

.6 have you evers --
6.] have you ever dated someone twice: yeah
5.] have you ever been cheated on: yeah..
.4.] have you ever kissed someone: uhhh yeah!.
3.] have you ever kissed someone you regret: no
.2.] have you ever been depressed: definitely.
1.] have you ever been drunk and thrown up: yep but not in a while, thankfully

6 things you've done today
1.] woke up
2.] picked up house
3.] began knitting gregory's hat
4.] signed up for a gym membership with janne
5.] this
6.] bought new workout pants that make my butt look big but whatever they were only 7 euros

3 favorite colors --
1.] red
2.] emerald green
3.] midnight blue

2 things you want to do before you die --
1.] learn to yodel
2.] learn to swing dance

Do you usually remember your dreams?
most often i do and boy do i have weird dreams! just ask gregory. i tell him everyday the sagas of my unconsious mind and every day he leaves for work more frightened than the last day.

Home schooling

The trouble with teaching yourself stuff is that there's no one around, who knows what they're doing, to tell you that you're doing it wrong.

I've been knitting lately. With the sales that are going on ( Belgium only has sales twice a year, far different from sale!sale!sale! America) I bought some new yarn, a couple new needles so I can branch out from knitting things only in 4mm and a knitting magazine (even though I didn't buy enough yarn to complete anything in the magazine, I'm just trying to stock up on supplies) Gregory checked out one of the colors of yarn I picked and exclaimed he wanted a hat. suuuure, no problem! Seeing as how the only thing I ever completed was a ribbed scarf.
last year when I had just taught myself how to cast on stitches and do the boring ole garter stitch I decided I was going to try to knit Gregory a hat. Pretty bold of me, I know. Things seemed to be going pretty good with it but after a enough rows where I could kinda try it on, I noticed it was HUGE as it didn't even go on my head at all but rather fell straight to my neck. Needless to say I gave up on the ginormous hat. So today I began trying again. I have some round needles already from my first failed attempt and I bought a smaller size today just to have around.

so I'm knitting and I casted on all 132 stitches and I knitted myself up the first row till the end and then I couldn't remember. Do I turn the needles around or just keep on going! So I checked out my stitch n bitch reference guide to see if it said anything about knitting in the round. It did. It says you cant use needles with a diameter larger than circumference of the garment you're knitting. OHHHHHHH.....So that means last year (before I owned the book) when I was trying to knit a 60 cm hat onto 80cm needled that's the reason why it was ginormous?????!! Ok, thanks.
but of course I didn't read that before I had bought more round needles and though they are smaller I'm still unsure if it'll work. The garment will be 60cm and the needles are also 60cm does that mean the hat will still be too huge? Do I throw in the towel now or try it to find out?

where's grandma when you need her??????????

Blood, sweat and tears

While living in America I was a fairly regular blood donor. I like giving blood. I don't mind needles. I think its fun to watch myself fill up a bag. I feel good knowing that I've helped someone, I feel good knowing that my blood can help anyone, being a universal donor and all. I liked the stickers they gave you "Be Nice to Me, I Gave Blood Today!" and I enjoyed the cookies and juice at the end of it all.

lately, I've been missing the feeling of goodness and after a couple of times of seeing a sign come and go for a blood donation day I felt it time to make a point of going. And last night I went and donated blood. I figured I might try to take over the world, one blood donation at a time throughout the entire world mwahaha. No seriously, I just like to help.
Gregory drove me and I told him to stay near just in case I needed help with all that blood, aids, "have you been to the jungles of Africa and contracted some crazy disease in the last 6 months" jargon-type questions. So when it was time for me to fill out my questionnaire he in fact was helping me and we got scolded for it. I was suppose to fill it out by myself in secret. But back in Massachusetts ( perhaps every red cross volunteer center has their own way of doing things) we just filled out the questionnaire while in the waiting seat, shoulder to shoulder with the rest of the potential donors, so I figured that part didn't need to be in secret, just the secret baled with the question "yes or no--do YOU think your blood is safe to use? Be honest now, it doesn't really matter what you say because we're gonna test you blood anyway but why don't you just safe us the trouble and let us know if you're skanky straight up" anyway, I got a special English card to finish off my questions.
now here's where things get a little different, in MA they give you a finger prick and test your blood to see if you have enough iron to donate. One of the hoops I was anticipating so I was sure to eat my spinach last night. They never tested me. I instead, they gave me iron pills to take after donating! How weird. I think I prefer knowing that my iron level are good instead of taking pills that could potentially block me up, as the doctor stated. And since I have a pretty sensitive system I don't really want to take anything that I know beforehand will block me up. I took one right afterwards but I have no intentions of taking anymore. My iron level have always been great even when I was vegan.

the volunteer redcross phlebotomist was excellent with her needle! It didn't hurt even the slightest! However, she was a bit stupid because my blood "just stopped" and she couldn't figure out why, and the other volunteer who manned the bags of blood was all "umm, yeah that's because you have the dial on locked and when she opened it WHOOSH blood came rushing out of the broken dam. It all went well. Filled up my bag AND instead of cookies and juice they give you a ticket to get a free drink at the bar and also some little bar code sticker that gets you a free small gift. I got shower gel. It went really well and I think I'll do it again in the near future.

***************************************************************

on a different note, last night in the mail we got this:

here's my super translated version:

it's a promotional ad for a new ironing service. They come to your house to iron for you. (sound familiar mom?) mom had once suggested I make up flyers and send them to neighbors saying "yo! I'll do your ironing and shit like that for you because your country doesn't want to give me money or give me a job-whatd'ya say????" and I told her yeah I iron but I don't think I'm particularly good at it that I would iron other peoples clothes for money. Well some bitch stole my mother's brilliant idea! Only took it a step further and turned it into a professional business. If that bitch is reading now: I hope you drop an iron on your foot!