On checkered fabric, podcasts and the amazing punnik.

Howdy!

Last night was fun but weird. We went for a drink with a friend. Even though it was a Wednesday night, there is nothing much weird about it. The friend bit was. How odd is it to be thousands of miles from your 'other' home and sitting in some pretend bar, drinking with a lad you've known since he was a 14 yr old shaven-headed raver wearing bad training suits as a fashion statement. In spite of the weirdness, it was indeed a bunch of fun, and if his work changes this way more often, more drinks and nights out should be enjoyed. Too bad Lamieke couldn't be there this time, but surely there will be another chance one day. Hope it didn't hurt too bad to get up that early this morning, Godwin....

On the subject of checkered fabrics, Nell you will have to remain in the dark for a while longer yet. Suffice to say that I like my new and first sewing machine a lot. The automatic light, thread cutter, relative quietude and suppleness are a great treat after mom's old and loyal machine.

While I'm working down the list that is suggested by the title of this piece, I must commetn on the wonderfulness of the invention of the podcast. Yes, I know who was voted party leader for the PvdA. I heard it on the radio! I'm all bewildered about the goings on at Radio Bergeijk, with our broadcasters being paria'ed and all that funky stuff.

I might as well go on with the amazing Punnik. Amazing, because amazingly enough, it seems to be a bead that didn't get brought to baffle the natives. Or maybe it was, and they weren't impressed. Nevertheless, no on around here seems to have ever heard of it, or seen one, no less knows what in the Good Lords' [plural, wouldn't want to offend any of them] Name this weird circular piece of wood with a hole down the middle as if cut with an apple core thingy, and with bow-like metal bits sticking out the top. I felt a little like the first explorer hitting a foreign shore, showing bits of mirrored glass to the natives to which the aptly respond with ooh's and aaah's. Many puzzled looks remained after my explanation which included visual aids, but I blaim that on them, not me. WIth me being infallible, it can't be my fault, you see?

Anyroad, must return to 4th grade homework support, and saving my furniture from (more) lemonade stains. Though I wish she'd start reading in silence instead of reading an entire comic out loud, while mispronouncing every other word. One's allowed a few dreams, right?

Btw, don't forget my birthday tomorrow. I get to talk to exterminators, and do laundry! Huzzah!!!

Judith, scratching away the days until old age sets in and bugs no longer enjoy drinking her blood.

Bgosh! I learned something new today!

Ok, I know it will turn out that anyone/everyone paying attention to this knows about what I found out, only today. As this little nugget of information was absent during my educational years, I had to wait until Wikipedia led me to it.

Pray tell, I hear you ask through the informational highway. Not really, but I've upped the suspense with another sentence, and that makes me giggle. Well, hang on to your chairs, here comes!

Þ

uhm yes. Þ.

It is called "Thorn" and it's anlgo-saxon-icelandic and used in rhunic times right up until this day. Isn't that a wonderful thing?

It has the sound of either a Voiceless dental fricative, like th as in the English word thick, or a voiced dental fricative, like th as in the English word the.

And you know what? I actually know what they mean by that. Who would've thought that particular course would ever come in handy?

A slightly more knowledgeable me says Hi. Goodnight!

Long time, no see, no comment

Nothing to tell really. Nothing happened, not to me, with me or about me. Lots of maybes. I may be moving country this year, or I may not. Who knows. I don't. I may have to finally pick something to do, or I may just become a boring housewife with nothing to do but go shopping or something. Maybe I'll be one of those that only do yoga or sunbathing or get wrinkled really young because of being in the hottub all day long.

Well, not that we have one, or a tub I would put anything but my feet in, and only if slippered. In a manner of speaking. Be a Lady of Leisure. Only I'm not much of a lady, and I'm very bad at doing just the leisure part. See, I'm starting to get fed up with these walls. Oddly enough. It's a strange thing. Some people, and I'm pointing at a certain Swede, would love to sit on a couch, catch up on a movie or two, chat online with likeminded slackers. It's because, for once, they'd like a bit of nothingness. But, as with chocolate, whipped cream and sunrays, too much of a good thing is still too much.

So, if you're looking for an over-qualified, bored-to-the-point-where-braintechnicians-would-get-worried-about-the-
lack-of-activity, broke and bordering on the verge of self-appointed loathing and mock-depression, don't look here. To quote another would-be slacker, I really CBA.

You'd think...

... she'd be wiser as she got older. No such thing in my book[s]. I'm doing it again, only slightly different this time.

Go look at www.scriptfrenzy.org to find out what I'm on about. In the mean time, don't disturb me unless you have some great plot line or character to add. Well. Make that nay character or plot line. No such fish in the river of inspiration to be caught at the moment.

I'll try not to break a leg.

[FADE OUT]

We would like to...

... thank everyone who donated to the "get Wade and Judith a new camera"-fund...

We'd like to think we spent your precious gifts wisely by buying an Olypmus Evolt E-500, with a 14-45mm lens, and a 40-150mm lens, and of course the necesarry accesories (amongst which a polarisation filter... ty Heidi ;))

We'll be taking it out today, just to get it use to beign with us...!!

Again, thank you all for being there, and giving so incredibly generously to our cause.

We love you all,

Judith

so what's been cooking.....

.... you might ask.

"mostly me" i'd have to answer. about 3 weeks ago, i punished myself for wanting to look pretty in my dress by treating myself to a 10 minute ride in the sun canon at the local beautician's. i also got my eyebrows plucked. not a success either, as was the lobster-look colouring of my parts which don't usually see the light of day, let alone a ray of sunshine. it's all good now, i'm almost looking like i'm supposed to, the early summer (what's the opposite of an indian summer?) has fixed the strap problem and natural hair growth has got me my face back. sort of.

if comparing what you see in the mirror and what you look like in a picture.... which is the true you?

[just took a break and came back here after. in the mean time i got age-bashed, attacked for 45mil gold, and read an article about someone getting shot in the head. i also inquired after a possible package with lip gloss]

so, there's the wedding coming up in a week-and-a-half. they should put a health warning on those. it's bad for your physical health in general, but mostly for your sanity. if sanity was an athlete, it would be running like Haile Gebrselassi [sp?]. when it starts going, you don't really notice the speed, but it just keeps going and going.... until it find the finish line which is located at the morning-after. or so i hope at least.

so what happens when you get closer to d-day?

well, for one, you start doubting everything and anything. did you go for the right dress, location, guests, flowers? can you justify the spending of huge amounts fo money on things you'd never dream you'd spend money on at all? what's expensive, what's worth it, are *you* worth it, what about the dress, shoes.... and well, everything else.

phone calls get postponed until they cannot be avoided any longer. strange new guests pop up out of nowhere, reminding you of the few people you should've but didn't and now no longer can ask. online trivia starts taking over your days, when you're not wasting your time reading or watching tv or being lethargic in general.

the thing is to concentrate on all kinds of fun you're going to have afterwards. i got me a new cookbook full of sumptuous desserts. i'm going to try at least a few in the immediate weeks after the big day. must eat. can't be expected to still fit in my clothes, can i?

i'll leave you with thoughts of chocolate, cake and pudding. huzza!!!

here's what Laura stays up for at night

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let it snow let it snow let it....

Why is it that everything's on hold all the damn bloody time? What with all the progress of the modern world, why is it that everyone is waiting for something to happen? Is it the curse of the twenty-somethings? Why can't I get into control over even the littlest of things, having to leave it to others who don't seem to get my sense of urgency?

why why why why why why?




*argh!*


and oh yeah, it snowed

here and there and everywhere

and sometimes one should update one's blog. It helps with keeping one's reader base from slipping into disinterest. Or so I imagine. If I had a reader base larger than the base of friends who know what's going on without me posting in here as a result of talking with me on the phone, or through texting, or through email even. But, if there is someone, something, some entity out there who just stumbles upon here, it would be nice for such alien a creature, to find something to read that is not months old. And anyways, it's the new year. New resolutions, or vague ideas of possible resolutions for the next year, have been made and already forgotten. Plans made to bring new elan to lives have already begun to gather dust, which isn't terribly hard or unexpected, because I don't dust very often. But that is besides the point. What the point is, exactly, isn't exactly clear, but by the end of this apparently pointless blog entry, one strives to have found a point. Just in case this end up being pointless, I have my needlepoint at the ready. So no matter how you end up after reading, I do have a point available, at least to myself. But enough of this pointless babbling.

If I haven't spoken with you yet this year, I'd like to wish you all the best for this new year. I'll leave it to your own discretion to come up with what you think is the best, because everyone needs something else to make their lives better. For instance, I would like to think, and am almost one hundred procent certain, that a visa to live with my new husbad of almost 7 weeks, would improve my life to no end. Hopefully, barring any unexpected sillyness, we should be able to work that out this year. If not, I may end up spending my life as an illegal Mexican, call myself Juanita, only speak spanglish and clean up other people's houses. Let's just assume we won't need to be that person, but never underestimate the jokes life will play on you if you're not very careful and read all the small letters on the bottom of the contract of your life. It may say "binman" in invisible fineprint. To any of you have get life served to you on a silver platter while you're having a champagne breakfast in your bed sized to befit a king, or in some cases a CEO, would like to say, as they do in odd places where sane people should dare not venture, "dai." I know of a few people who would love to take your life contract and rip it into tiny pieces to make a rather large number of lives significantly easier to live.

If you're a designer who answers phonecalls 3 days a week to make ends meet, I sincerely hope people who have the power to employ you and make your designs available to the masses, will pull their heads out of their asses, and give you a job already.

If you're a facility manager with more creativity that the regular facility can handle, I wish you all the luck that you don't really need with creating your own facility, and with making your own possibilities work for you. You can't really fail if you do it right.

For anyone else, there will be two more weddings, on a continent near you!™, © and or ® [whichever takes your fancy] Dates will be revealed.