arwen_lune

This morning I was at the stable at 10 because the equine dentist was coming. Rowan didn't need any work, which was nice. It was very sunny (hurt-my-eyes sunny in fact) and though it was cold and windy too I enjoyed being outside for a while to lunge-work the powney. I rode bareback for about 10 minutes too - only to walk him out, but he was solid and I felt safe on his back (which isn't a given these days, pain makes me a little apprehensive) and it was nice.
Then I went by the garden centre because the sun is making the MUST GROW THINGS part of my brain wake up. Must grow things! Sadly there is planned work on the gallery and thus the ledge must stay cleared of things.. the work was projected to be finished by early april but there's been a lot of delay with the bad weather, so there's actually a reasonable chance I won't be able to put anything outside until well into May. Boooo! Mum keeps saying I should grow things at her place, but that means I'd miss out on all the actually watching things grow, and by the time the plants could be here on the ledge a lot of it would be far too large and heavy to move.

The other day I was overcome by a sudden lust for a Dymo label maker so I could label ALL THE THINGS. I don't know why that's so satisfying, but it is, and some research revealed that a lot of people have the same impulse. So clearly not as weird as I thought.
A modern printy Dymo is far more practical, but I really like the look of the oldfashioned 3D embossed labels, so I finally gave in and got one of those things and some rolls of tape.

So far I've labelled lots of things, though I spent the most time on labelling the pots of my new spice rack and then filling them with spices. It looks niiice.

In other domestic bliss news, I finally sold my terrarium this morning. Which means the spot on my chest of drawers is free at last and I can go to Ikea to buy something to put there. I want a booze cupboard, but sadly it's impossible to find something of the right size that has sliding doors, so I'll probably end up with a halfhigh, halfwide Billy with a door.

I exorcised. Exercised.

Warm and sweaty now. I really quite like the EA Active program, the 30 day challenge is excellent, though the exercise band that came with is way too stretchy, I'm using it with wrist weights and/or a tougher band. I just need to stay in the rhythm of doing it every day, once I've had one day's break it's really easy to have more.

Tijgje is so sweet. Most mornings now he jumps up onto the corner of my mattress at around 7:30-8am and curls up there for sleepy scritchies and a lot of 'prrr?' which is possibly the sweetest sound to wake up with. Then at around 8:30 he leaves to check if there's food yet (there's always kibble but things have to get really dire before he eats that.. or so he says) and returns shortly after to jump up and meow in my face. Which is less cute, but hey, I no longer need an alarm clock...

And no, you didn't imagine the update to that last post before I pulled it. *quiet squee*

So went last night. I've missed one lesson (and so did someone else) because we hadn't been told about the start. The other lesson was cancelled because of no wind. They'll let us make the missed one up another time, and the cancelled lesson will be next weekend. Scheduling is pretty easy, pretty much whenever the instructor and we both are available.
We were five in the boat, which wasn't so bad for the first time because I needed a calm intro not an intense 2-hour stretch. The instructor seems a nice guy. He's asked for a second instructor, and if not possible, he plans to have the two more experienced people sail along in the second boat. He also finally took it seriously when I said 'no really, I don't know what I'm doing, don't just put me at the helm and call it learning' (some of the others are more experienced) He picked a sheltered bit of river and let me do some mostly downwind sailing to get a feel for it. That went okay, but they all seemed confused about why I found it scary and stressful. I don't know what I'm doing! I can't see (at least not without lenghty reasoning) which way to turn is safe, what the sails should be doing, what the tiller should be doing, I just don't know! Add to that that the water has walls (sailing on a river is really weird) and windy bits and sheltered bits and freight barges and I'm feeling profoundly out of my depth. Let's assume it'll come.
They are doing exams at the end of the season. Don't know if I want to go for that, it might feel better to keep it pressure-free. I can decide fairly late in the season if I want an exam, so I'll just wait and see.

Sadly my hands are a lot worse today, I'd forgotten how much rope gripping was involved. The joints are all sore now. Hopefully gloves (must dig them out) will make it a little better.

Reposted from spellfecker :

Nomnivore, n. an organism whose diet consists of a wide variety of foodstuffs, including plants and animals, and who really, really likes it.

ex: My chihuahua is a nomnivore.

I was going to England for Christmas, but the plan has been changed to stay until after New Year :-)

I had a lovely weekend sailing with wonderful people.

I'm now going to catch up with sleep that's not interrupted by a church bell on the hour throughout the night...

* Arwen wants a system in the kitchen that is a recipe database/ingredient index
[Arwen] it should know what food I have in the house and suggest me some recipes based on that
[Arwen] plus a category of "if you buy [this] you can make [these recipes]"
[Mal] and while you're cooking a friendly rolling pin character shows up "I see you are making a cake. Do you want help with that?"
[Arwen] "One moment, I'm just draining the cake"
[snow] "Judging from the contents of your fridge, my recommendation for a recipe today is: Order pizza."
[Arwen] "today's options: defrost the red box in freezer-drawer 3 (contents unknown); eat week-old bread with french mustard; eat out"
[Arwen] seriously, this has potential
[snow] *snigger*
* Arwen hacks a niche in the market and becomes fabulously rich
[snow] suggestion: "Catfood gratin with blue (formerly yellow) cheese"
[snow] yum
[Arwen] LOL. it could be integrated with various nutritional recommendation programs
[Arwen] "suggestion: go shopping"
[Arwen] one step further is that it places the order for you, of course
[Arwen] and someone from the supermarket comes and brings it in
[Arwen] and like a Tomtom it would have all different kind of cooking/language styles
[Arwen] Jamie Oliver: "and then just whack a bit of smoked bacon on top and you're all set"

I think I might be particularly partial to the 'Gordon Ramsay' setting...

Brother got married on thursday... he and Marijke both looked gorgeous and very happy and it was a lovely day. The weather helped with its spectacularness. You couldn't have ordered it better.

It's still like that today - predicted to hit a staggering 26 degrees. Ridiculous for April.

8 days until I go to Vejer. Guess there's a few things I need to do before then... Uni is all closed off until after summer though. That feels really strange.

Here's the requisite amount of AYEEEfloofypupppyCYOOOT! for today.

Some very lovely people came over and brought various tasty poisons and we went to the Eritrean restaurant (which was Approved Of) and walked and talked and sampled poison and watched Firefly and it was wonderful. I hope I didn't give them a cold to take home as a souvenir...