Started on the TopFinish layer in the staircase hall. Sunday, 28-Jan-24 21:09:08 CET

Almost finished plastering the first phase of the ceiling of the staircase hall Sunday, 11-Feb-24 21:47:32 CET

Sunday, 04-Feb-24 19:39:49 CET

Plastered the staircase hall with TopFinish

This week I did not make so many photos. I made three films though. I am working on the TopFinish layer in the staircase hall and we celebrated DWs 60 birthday.

Monday 29 January

It was a beautiful morning. Actually, the weather was beautiful the entire day. DW went to her office, and DD and I worked from home. Well, she slept until noon. I suppose she was a cat in an earlier life.

In the afternoon, I took this photo of Merida. She was not herself today. She is withdrawing from our company. It is not feeling good. DW called the veterinarian, and we will get called tomorrow.

We had some issues with the car lately. The clutch gets stuck. It happened before, so I wonder what that is all about. I called the garage and got time for Thursday. This all gives the feeling stuff is breaking down. It makes me sad.

In the afternoon, I brought DD to the train station, picked up DW, and brought her home. I thought it was clever to combine these two commutes.

Tuesday 30 January

Today, I went to the office, and DW worked from home. She had contact with the veterinarian. We were going to give Merida medicine, Phenoral, to prevent her from getting more epileptic seizures. Curiously, it is designated for use on dogs, so if Merida starts barking, something is wrong with the medication.

I left the office earlier to be able to pick up the medicine at the veterinarian before they closed. I also bought "easy pill cat," paste to wrap around the pill to make it easier to administer the medicine.

When I left the veterinarian, I figured I could try getting more plaster since I was close to the hardware shop, and it was perhaps within opening hours. It was open!

Driving from the hardware store, I had to put my feet under the clutch to pop it back into normal position. The situation with the car is deteriorating.

The clutch did not stop me from buying some groceries as well. I had to be agile with the clutch. It helped that I popped it back into the normal position. Good that it will be at the garage on Thursday.

In the evening, we gave Merida her first pill. I have not written about it before, but I have been practicing a trick with her. I have been giving her pieces of her food by hand and having her stand on her back legs to get it. Now, that training came in handy. She took the pill as if it were part of the ordinary routine, standing on her back legs to receive food. This time, one of the pieces was wrapped in the paste. She took it!

In the evening, I worked on the Matrix scene of the VFX program. I have the basics working. The camera image is transformed into letters. Now, I can work on introducing the components of illustrating the sound somehow.

Wednesday 31 January

Today, I worked from home. DW had a day off. After lunch, I went to the dentist to repair a tooth that I broke when working on the ceiling in our cottage in Sweden. That is something I am doing; I bite when doing something heavy. It is totally unconscious. That time, I bit really hard, and a tooth broke. So now I went to the dentist and had the tooth repaired.

While driving to the dentist, I concluded that on Tuesday, I went to the veterinarian to get medicine for Merida to repair her. On Wednesday, I went to the dentist to repair my teeth. Tomorrow, I go to the garage to repair the car. It is a repair week.

After the dentist, DW and I had a walk in the neighborhood. That was nice. Then, I plastered the staircase hall. I finished the southeast corner. I also did the left and right reveals of the window. Then, I continued with the east wall. I stopped at the first door. I plastered two buckets of TopFinish.

In the evening, I worked on the Matrix scene of my VFX program.

Thursday 1 February

Today, both DW and I went to the office. On the way, I was called by the garage; they had a staff shortage that day. I was fine bringing in the car on Friday.

It was a sunny day; it was beautiful. It was not warm, so I had gloves, a scarf, and a hat. A colleague and I decided to go for a walk. We came around the first corner of the building when we first saw a less fortunate citizen. Well, we had nothing to do with him, so we walked in a circle around him.

He noticed my gloves. I had gloves I bought in Sweden. Winter work gloves with broad sleeves. Those gloves triggered something in the man. He said, "That is huge gloves." Well, the colleague and I just walked because that was the idea: To have a lunch walk. We had no intention of interacting with someone obsessed with gloves. The man followed us and said deranged things. It was not pleasant. He kept going behind us, and I decided to take off my gloves and tuck them into my coat. Perhaps it would please the man that I no longer wore gloves. No, that did not help. The man had passed the stage of gloves; he talked about other deranged things. We had a deranged follower.

The man was lagging behind at a bridge over a canal near the office. We met another colleague on the way back from his lunch walk. We told him to avoid the deranged man. From then on, the lunch walk was fine; no more encounters with the glove-obsessed persons.

When we returned to the office, our colleague could tell us how he had encountered the deranged man who had insisted on getting cigarettes from him, but even if the colleague had any, he had not given them away. It had been a little more intense encounter, with harsher words exchanged. What saved the situation was that the deranged man met his buddies and got distracted.

In the evening, I finished the Matrix scene of the VFX program.

I made it so that for the frequency bands, each band had a shape growing from the top edge of the screen. I also made that shape with letters. The base at the top had the "dark" letters; towards the end of the shape, I made it with lighter letters. Also, the base was broader than the end of the shape. And then for higher intensity longer shapes.

Here is Merida in letters on my chair.

Friday 2 February

Today, I brought the car to the garage. DW worked from home. On the way home, I got warning signs on the dashboard. The car indicated that the brake system had stopped working correctly. Indeed, it was a lot more challenging to break the car. Luckily, I found out about the breaks when driving slowly. Had it happened at full speed, I am unsure how well it had ended. Also, I could not confirm that the clutch had improved entirely. I picked up the clutch pedal once. This was an odd experience that the car was in worse shape after repair than before. I called the garage, and they suggested I return with the car tomorrow, Saturday.

It had been better to let the car stand unused until I had to drive it to the garage, but we had one vital thing to do this evening: start preparing for a party tomorrow! So off we went with the broken car in the dark. It was crowded at the grocery store. We bought prosecco with and without alcohol. We also got ourselves a pizza. Driving around without proper brakes is so incredibly challenging!

Saturday 3 February

Today, we celebrated DW's 60 years birthday! First, we had to do preparations, such as picking up the birthday cakes. It was difficult to drive there; there were many speed bumps on the road to the bakery, and I found that you need to use the breaks more often when the road is narrow, there are many speed bumps.

After the cakes, I drove to the garage. It was unclear if I would return the car and they would fix it on Monday or if the car were to be fixed today. When the technician and owner of the dealership arrived, he drove the car into the repair shop. He found the issue immediately; it was a vacuum hose leaking. He had to order a new hose. For now, he repaired the hose with duct tape. I will be back in the garage on Thursday next week. I tried the breaks, and it worked perfectly!

So on Thursday next week, the car will get:

• A new vacuum hose for the breaks,
• A new battery, the old one was not good anymore.
• A new fuel pump
• Recheck of the clutch repair.

The technician said there could be air bubbles in the system if the clutch is not behaving well on Thursday next week; then, he will need to investigate more thoroughly.

At home, we cleaned up a bit. I hung up the flags DW and DD made for DD's birthday last summer. It was much more party feeling with the flags. I arranged for background music, not the complete DJ gear, but the speakers and a laptop.

The guests arrived, and it was lovely. We were tired in the evening when all the guests had left.

Sunday 4 February

This morning, we had tea in bed. It was a slow morning. I blogged, and DW knitted. Knitting is much more convenient since spinning wool in bed is impossible. Blogging is easy in bed; I do recommend blogging while drinking a cup of tea. Someone has to make that tea, obviously, and that is me. I make the tea and put the cups on a tray. Then I gather laptops, knittings, and also, not to forget, knitting patterns.

After breakfast, we took a walk to the grocery store because there was one thing we had forgotten on Friday evening, to pick up a package from a package delivery locker. It was dry weather but not that beautiful. It was entirely overcast and a bit windy.

It was unclear if the package would still be at the delivery locker because it had been lying there for three days. After three days, it is supposed to be removed. This was a Sunday, so perhaps that does not count; it is difficult to know. We took the calculated risk of walking to the grocery package delivery point without knowing our mission would succeed. The package was still in the locker; that was great. It was a present to DW. On the way back, we tried to avoid the wind via a neighborhood near the grocery store. I found a slide track. Obviously, I had to try it. Here is a slow-motion film to prove it.

After the walk, I plastered and plastered. Since I cannot plaster next weekend, putting in some extra effort this weekend is better. I did four buckets of TopFinish plaster. I mix TopFinish on feeling only. I pour some water into the bucket and slowly pour TopFinish. The powder sinks to the bottom. One must spread the TopFinish evenly in the bucket for this work. At some point, an island appears in the bucket, the moment to stop pouring the powder. I even the powder so that it is below the water's surface. This then has to stay for a while.

This phase is called "The mixture has to drink." At least, that is what the package is saying in Dutch. Then, I stir the mixture carefully. Then, I am ready to plaster the walls. As I said, I did four buckets.

I plastered the east wall so that it was finished. There are door reveals still to do. I plastered the north wall and the small west wall as well. The top reveal of the window also has a layer so that the window is done. Next time, I can start plastering the ceiling.

In the evening, I was tired. I was so tired I did not blog or program any visual effects. I finished the blog on Monday evening.

See you next week!