Saturday, August 27, 2011

Can you have too much fun?

Nah, I don't think so either!!

Mike was going to drop me off at the station on his way to work, and I had planned on taking the train at 8.53, but mike got me to the train a little early..... 8.10 LOL, so I took the 8.23...... Good thing too, because right out of Sittard, there was something wrong with the signals, and instaed of everybody stopping for the train, it was the train stopping at every crossing.... And instaed of getting there at 9.32, we got to Eindhoven 5 after 10.... Stores open at 10, so that wasted some valuable shopping time LOL.

We had a blast! I had forgotten how much fun it is to shop with my sister en niece.  We met with Nicky's hubby at the Pancake house, and my nieces boyfriend.... and they collectively took me to the train when we were done..... I actually splurged. Bought 2 pairs of pants and 2 tops. I know I over did it again, and I don't care! LOL. It got my mind off Monday, Tuesday and Thursdag..... and I LIKE that alot.

Today/yesterday (that means, Saturday) Mike played the sims, while I dozed on the couch, with the Ipad, so I could keep an eye on Irene. I know it's a long way from here, but there's too many people I care about in jeapordy to just catch up on it if it hits the news. Hope everybody rolls thru it alright, and she goes back to sea before she does too much more damage.

Tomorrow, I'm going to look some more for my medical records, and if I get too bushed to do that, I'll play in Photoshop for a bit. I also have some landscaping to do in Barnacle Bay. Mike hates it, and I love it, so he builds, and I dig LOL. But, the only time I can do the landscaping part is when he's not playing/home....

I slept goooooood last night (9 hours) but I'm getting tired, so I'm going to "hang it up" for today, and I'll talk to you tomorrow. Have some pages to post, picks to make, mails to answer......

NIGHT!

Thursday, August 25, 2011

YIKES!!!

It's been almost a week since I visited!

It's been a weird one.
- First, my neighbor gets hauled off in an ambulance at 4 in the morning, with all kinds of noise, and neither Mike or I have noticed anything! I mean, WHEN I sleep, you can't easily wake me up, but Mike usually hears the dog 2 doors up scratch behind his ears! Can't figure out how he wakes up with the slightest sound, and than turns over and goes right back to sleep once he knows what woke him up and there is no threat, and doesn't remember he woke up... But honestly, how can you sleep thru 2 ambulances, people walking back and forth on the landing and pretty much all the neighbors talking in the street?!?!
- Mike hasn't been feeling well. His legs are killing him and usually keep him awake at least part of the night.
- Than, my sister in law leaves a message on my blog, which is good, because we haven't been able to contact her.
- I got a "Patch"-letter from the government, and need to go to IND/legal council to figure it out, which means I need to find all kinds of paperwork within 10 cubic meters of boxes, excludung my handy-dandy, new - and hopefully temporary - filing system, consisting of 3 plastic bags, stuffed on the bottom shelf of the clothes closet
- Perky has been off his wetfeed, and all together not himself, but he's not running a fever, he drinks normally, eats his crunchies with a vengeance and keeps an eye on the neighbors, so the vet sais there's no reason for concern, but when he's "off", I worry.
- And Monday, I'm having my bloodtest and hopefully find out that I won't need surgery again, that my blood is clear, and that I worry too much!!! I am SO hoping that that is the way it goes!!!

tomorrow, or actally in 6 hours, I'm meeting my sister and my niece for a day on the town. There's a hobby shop they keep tellling me about, and an international market, and than there's " my" bookstore..... THREE stories of books! I promised I would only look.....
I'm hoping to find scone mix. For the life of me, I canNOT make them from scratch. They can either double as hockey pucks, they're so dense, or they are as chewy as day old bagels....
I tried dozens of different recipes, mixing methods and baking temperatures between them but the only way we can actually eat them is if I make them from a mix.

And right now, after I post this, I have JUST enough time to make a cup of tea before the heritage chat at IvyScraps starts, at 3 AM my time, OR, I can go to bed, and try and catch about 3.5 hours of sleep before the alarm goes off and catch my train at 9......

Not sure yet what to do. LOL

I also made a couple of pages this week. I'll post the ones from the August Mega now, because it's the "free with purchase" right now.

Ok, 2 things just went wrong....
- Can't upload pictures, because ..... don't know, just isn't working right now
- No heritage chat at Ivy, so....

NIGHT ALL! :-)

Friday, August 19, 2011

I'VE RECOVERED

at least enough to write the report I promised you. LOL

I left home around 9ish Saturday morning and Mike picked me up at Heerlen Station at 10.30 Sunday evening and IT WAS GREAT!!! I could hardly walk, let alone walk in a straight line, I hurt every where, and some places I hadn't hurt in a long time.... but it was worth it. I knew I had over done it, but I didn't think it would take me 4 days to be able to walk.... I gotta get in better shape for next year!!

It sissy-rained almost all weekend, with the occasional torrential downpour thrown in for good measure. I drank 7 "mede's"  and only one Guinness..... I know, I was really looking forward to having at least 3 over the weekend, but they had draughts, and I prefer the Stout PLUS..... The Mede is a honey wine, that must have been invented and brewed by angels! It was the best I've ever had. It was really sweet, but not sickening sweet.... The one they had at the festival is from a small winery, and they only make so much a season. Nicky said I was lucky. Last year they were out by afternoon on Saturday... and this year? I had my last one about half hour before I had to go to the station! So all in all.....That they had draught instead of stout, was only to make things easier.... LOL.

We had lunch in camp Saturday, sandwiches with panfried "spek lapjes" (it's uncured pork belly, sliced about half inch thick and my favorite meat) and knakworstjes. Cup of tea as desert.... and listening to Celtic music while we ate. For dinner most people in the group had shrimp, I had minute steak, Franka had salad and Nicky had kokkles...... Breakfast was at Nicky's and consisted of 2 friend eggs, 2 slices of bacon and coffee, lunch was "frietje speciaal" (french fries covered in mayo, onions and curry ketchup) and dinner was a javanese plate, consisting of rice, green beans, sateh, fish cake and loads of peanut sauce...  YUP! Except for the greenbeans, not a healthy thing all weekend! (So great! HIHI)
We listened to and watched at least 21 hours of music AND I slept a full 6 hours!

I took some pictures, but not a quart of what I wanted to take. Don't get me wrong, our compact sony performs miracles, but in lowlight and moving objects, it just is NOT my Minolta. And of course, if the owner/operator malfunctions, you really can no longer blame the camera LOL
I changed one setting I wasn't sure about what it did, and didn't remember what it was set on, so now, instead of taking the picture when the button is pushed, it has a couple of seconds delay before you hear the shutter, so if anybody moves in the meantime..... you end up with a whole lot of blur.....

Camp-life was mostly fun, very relaxing and in general, WET. As with all groups of people that know each other very well - some have been going since 2000 - sometimes the personalities clash and they're comfortable enough to tell the other person exactly what they think. Add to this, the loose canon that seems to be standard equipment for any kind of gathering, and you end up with a couple of uncomfortable moments here and there. But, on the whole, everybody got along good enough to not let these little hiccups interfere with the fun and the enjoyment of the music.
Trying to stay dry AND get something to eat....
Adding an awning with the help of painters plastic and a branch......

Nicky and Willem on KP Duty. Cool awning, huh?!
(It doubled the "dry place to sit")
Having been away for 23 year, my idea of folk-music was, shall we say, "left behind in evolution" LOL. I didn't recognize any names but one. And that one, I never cared much for, but I figured I'm here, my taste of music may have changed, give it a shot. Only to discover that his songs didn't make any more sense to me than they did when I was 20.
What I think is funny, was that my niece had never seen or heard of him, and she asked me: "What the heck is he talking about? He babbles! His lyrics don't make sense, and he acts like he's on some really weird medication". Sometimes, age does NOT make a difference in how you perceive things. LOL

I did see on of my favorite Dutch troubadours though. He was just walking along, checking out the music like the rest of us. So that was cool. I didn't want to be "one of those" so I tried to sneak a picture in without being too obvious..... Right after I almost knocked Nicky over while whispering really excited (and louder than I meant) "Hey, is that Gerard Maasakkers?!" And sometimes, age does not mean having more restraint either!

Gerard Maasakkers (in the green shirt)

And on that note (serious pun intended!) I saw a couple of acts that were fun to watch, but I won't run out to find their cd. There's also a couple, I'm going to look for their cd for sure and there was one, I don't know what to think of......

His voice was  A M A Z I N G ! It ranges from a deep bass to high soprano, and he is clear as a bell in all ranges... He is also, literally, a one man band. I swear he looks like he's 18 or so, sitting in the middle of the stage, on a barstool, with only a guitar and a microphone. So he starts to sing, almost as if he's singing to himself, and all of a sudden, in the middle of it all, you hear a slide trombone, a bass, a fiddle an organ and a monkey. I kid you not! He doesn't miss a beat and goes back to singing. He did a couple of straight songs, and I really loved them. Not sure I want a CD with all the sound effects thrown in, but just songs? I can see me playing that.  A LOT!

Chris Chameleon

There were several Irish sounding bands, but there was one I really liked. They actually enjoyed the music, not just performed. I don't think they would have minded if there was nobody there to listen.... They were perfectly happy making the music together. I think Mike might have enjoyed watching them as well. I may have to test that theory by getting a ced. You know, for Mike, to see if he likes them.... HIHI!  So, I'll be looking for a cd of Skyclad.

The funny part is, that although the whole experience was great, the things that will stick with me are odd things: Not so much the music, but the atmosphere. The diversity in people. There were people that looked like they came straight out of the 60's and people wearing kilts, teenagers, people with little kids, people our age (aka old people LOL), and seriously OLD people, but everybody belonged.

People getting together to play music, just for fun.

Nap time. 


The watchmentals
(One of the groups I'll get a CD from)
Bluegrass Boogiemen.
(Good music, but a little more into entertaining than the music)


Just to give an example:
- Everybody drank, nobody got out of control.
- At the entrance were 2 shelves. One was for the GLASS container you got your beverage in, and the other had plastic containers to pour the beverage in if you were leaving the festival grounds. And everybody stuck to it and transferred their drinks before they left!
- The drink cards you could buy had 15 points and the points taken per drink varied from 3 to 7. You could get as many as you wanted, because you could turn them in if you hadn't used them all or all of the card, and get your money back.
- Sanitation, although mobile, was porcelain, and was cleaned 5 times a day, of if it needed it in between, all you had to do was tell someone with a "crew" shirt.
- EVERYBODY working the event was a volunteer, and I've never had such a friendly and smiling service! Some have been working the event for years, and know the regulars.
- There were garbage cans, and everybody used them. Every once in a while you saw stuff laying on the floor, but never long. Crew and visitor alike would pick it up, and get rid of it.

People watching is SO MUCH FUN, and even more if there's alcohol and music involved!
Can't wait for next year!

Tuesday, August 16, 2011

OH, THAT STARE!

I was just kinda looking at the Daily puppy, and found this thread on Border Collies. Our Whisper was one. Sadly we only had her a little while, because they didn't give her the medication she needed for her epilepsy while she was in the shelter and the frequent seizures had damaged her heart.

One of the "things" of the Border is that they stare at the animals they have to herd and keep track of. That's why this answer in the thread just had me roaring laughing:

My friends' working BC had an accident a year or so ago and was on house rest while his leg heeled. He got so bored he decide that his job would be to know where the cat was every second of the day. He didn't herd the cat or do anything except stare at it. If you sat in the way he would peer round you or move until he could see the cat again. Thankfully he is now out working sheep again and the cat is relieved.


G'Day! LOL

PS: I'll update you on the weekend after my nap... YUP! I'm still in recovery.

Thursday, August 11, 2011

I HAVE THE COVER......

but I can't show it to you just yet LOL

I figured, since I start a new Life Book session, I might as well start a new book, and fill in what I didn't get done for Mikes.... (so.....that would be most of it)
I may have told you I love orange? Well, StarSongStudio has a new kit she let us play with, but it's not out yet, so I can't show you the page yet HOWEVER...... One of the lay-outs is the cover page to my LifeBook. I know, I jumped the gun a little, but I really couldn't help it....

Still don't have the cabinet set up.... Hopefully tomorrow. They switched Mikes day off, so he could go to a hazmat training.... Atleast they didn't make him shave his beard and moustache this time.... When he worked for Donneley in Reno, they made him shave his "stach" because he had to wear one of those funky suites for the class... but only for the class, and because of his favoring facial hair, he couldn't be on the hazmat team anyway, he just needed the training..... It was kinda fun for me though. At that time, I hadn't seen his WHOLE face for about a decade! LOL It didn't last long, but it was nice for about a week :-)

So he'll have tomorrow off, and hopefully we can finish, so I can go thru the boxes. Just not this weekend. HIHI!    I'm going to my sisters on Saturday, stay the night, and come back Sunday night. Not sure at this point, if I'm taking the train both ways, or just going up. Depends on Mikes hours.  That reminds me, I better make sure I have cash to get the ticket.....

This weekend, starting tomorrow morning and ending Monday is the Folkwoods Festival in Eindhoven. I've been told, if you like folk music, or Irish music, it's the place to be. I'll let you know on Tuesday LOL. I may even post pictures, if I don't forget the camera, batteries and an extra memory stick!

The weather is going to be positively rotten, according the the weather service, but hey... they've been wrong before...... A LOT! Let's hope they're wrong this weekend. Nicky sent me pictures a couple of years ago, of people knee deep (I'm NOT kidding!) in mud.... She said it was awesome. Kids were telling me the other day about how they would put socks ON to go to bed, so they would keep the tent halfway decent LOL..... The rest of the time, they were barefoot, with their pants rolled up above the knee, and still couldn't keep the mud off them.  Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you. The whole family, plus friends and connected ones are camping. They're setting up camp tomorrow morning, and break camp Monday after breakfast..... Sounds like SOOOOO much fun! I LOVE camping, but my body doesn't anymore.  I still can't get cold too long, so I'm going home with Nicky at night, and we'll go back in time on sunday morning to hear the Bagpipes over the campground, while we're having breakfast.... It will be fun. On both fronts.... I'll get to witness first hand what the yearly outing is all about, AND I get to spend extra time with my sister in the meantime! How cool is that!?

Well, gott get some stuff done before the weekend, so I'll be off. I may pop in later today (read tonight) if I can't sleep.




Thursday, August 4, 2011

Can't stop......

It's like a dam broke. I can't stop scrapping LOL
I look at kits or pictures, or just stuff around the house and all I can think of, is what to do with it on a scrap page..... If I'm not careful, I'm going to have  to take a couple of days to "load up" on pictures, so I can scrap some more.....
(The fact that I can't find my photo-albums or don't have a functioning scanner probably has NOTHING to do with that)
We have a new printer, (one of those all-in-one jobbies, because you can't just get a printer anymore)  it's wifi, there's no software to install, it SHOULD work with our Imac, but it doesn't. It does not register with the computer at all. I sent an email to Epson, asking for downloadable software, or an idea how to make it talk to the computer, and vice versa, and heard.... squat!  I thought I was supposed to be the one to have a language problem, not my computers...... One doesn't want to talk to the keyboard, the other won't talk to the printer and than there's the one that doesn't talk at all (still looking for a power supply for that one)............ party poopers!

BUT, that doesn't stop my ideas, and to demonstrate: here are 2 pages made with StarSongStudio's Rosy Dawn. On the page for Anna, the frame with her name and birthdate is a cluster from the Time Passages cluster set.  (I added the flowers and leaves as well as the branch)


This next one is a rewind of my sisters wedding day page I made a couple of years ago. 
Let me know which one looks better? I'm not sure which one I like more. (I kinda miss the shadows and depth perception on the 1st one, but I also like the simplicity of it)




I would post the new bingo page I made for Ivy, but than I would have to make a third one, and I don't think so! The first one I made from the page of my mom and altered some small things on it, and I completely spaced the fact that it had to be a one of a kind page, not to be used/seen by anybody but the person who wins it...... DUH! The second one I just sent over, and didn't even keep a copy of, just in case I have another brain-bubble and use it. LOL

Got a date with the new cabinet..... talk later!

Wednesday, August 3, 2011

OH heck, why bother......

It is now 3 AM, Wednesday morning. I'm still up, not tired, bored as all get out, so what do you do?
You scrap of course. Alarm goes off in 3 hours, so why bother trying to go to sleep. Maybe I can get a head start on some stuff this way. Tomorrow night, I have a webinar about Legacy Family Tree. It has to do with organizing..... I sure could use some help in that department, and not just for genealogy LOL. This means I won't get a whole lot of sleep than either, so maybe, jsut maybe, I will sleep Thursday night?

Monday we went to Ramstein Air Base for Mikes day off. The trip took a little over 3 hours one way, and was a total bust. We were going to look for a small convection/microwave combi-oven, vacuum cleaner and maybe a crockpot.... but (God only knows why) they only sold 110V. On a continent that runs on 220V..... Go figure!
We thought they would have more variety, since just  the mall is about the size of the whole base here, but.... no dice! Mike was going down the isles pointing at things he stocks in the store, and what do you know.... about 99% they have. As far as we could determine what they had that Schinnen doesn't is: Fiesta ware (4 colors) Le Crueset and dvd's, although the clothes looked like they had a bigger variety, but still no levi's, and this girl doesn't fit in the Dutch cuts! LOL.

The commissary was bigger and had a GREAT fruit and vegetable department, but didn't have any more variety on the other stuff as the one here on base..... Just 5 shelves as opposed to one, per item. Prices are the same, Captain America was GREAT and the road we picked to go home, was equally cool. We found out one thing about our little KA though.... It's a gutless wonder on any type of hill......  We dropped from 120 to 80 over the length of a 5% grade, but the minute she crested....we were back up to 120-ish (aka 140) in no time flat :-)

The road we took back, brought back memories of Nicky and me, on our vacation to get dishes in Metlach. (Story for when I start my LifeBook) And I discovered, that Trier is only 2.3 hours away, and the place I wanted to show Mike most, the  Pruemer Wasserfaelle, and Gondorf animal park, are actually about an hour and a half, so..... I smell a daytrip! Hopefully before winter, but after the leaves start turning...... that would be soooooo cool!

Tonight we were going to put the cabinet up that Nicky and I picked up on Friday, but... Mike was beat. He hasn't slept well. He DOES go to bed, he just doesn't rest. I told him to start scrapping, but he disrespectfully declined because "one nutter in the family was enough"! The nerve of that man! LOL.

So tomorrow, I can do the paperwork, I should have done today, but didn't do because I wanted to get the boxes out of our "work space" to build the cabinet. But for tonight.... I can't sleep, and we got the August Mega from IvyScrap, so I played, hoping for sleep to get here....Tired HAS been here, sleep is on vacation I believe. Oh well.

These are pictures from our trip to Keukenhof. When I saw the background paper in the kit, I could just see the pictures that had to go with it... the trick was the rest of the page. :-)  
I don't think it came out too shaby. I'm quite happy with it, actually.



The picture I used on this page, is one I absolutely, positively love of my mom. The dress she's wearing was very bright, for the era. It had great big yellow sunflowers on a cream background. She had that dress for a long time and somehow she always smiled when she wore it!


Well, something went goofy, and it didn't post when I posted it, so let's try this again :-)