Merida sterilised Sunday, 07-Apr-24 22:07:26 CEST

First layer done in staircase hall Sunday, 21-Apr-24 20:59:07 CEST

Sunday, 14-Apr-24 20:33:40 CEST

Ceiling above the staircase is painted

There happened a lot this week, but the most important thing was that DW painted the ceiling in the hall so that I could take down the scaffold.

Monday 8 April

Today, DW went to the office while I was working from home. She went in a hurry because she was late for the bus. I put one cushion hose of the couch in the washing machine. It is unclear if Merida had another accident/seizure while we were at the PILs yesterday. We have a cover clothing on our couch with zippers, so peeling it off and putting it in the washing machine is easy. Her sweater was also a little smelly, but not so bad that I could not live with it. It is gross, though, but it is not to be fixed today.

I could work very well today. In the afternoon, after work, the weather was marvelous. I let out the sheep, who were running around as happy projectiles. I figured Merida also would fancy a walk outside. I tied a line to her sweater. It worked nicely, with no incidents at all. All went fine.

In the evening, we filled in our annual tax form!

Tuesday 9 April

During the night, we had a tremendous storm. I am unsure if it had a name, but it carried harsh winds, thunder, and flashes. I could not see that we had any damage from the storm.

We both went to the office. DW held a course again. She has two more Tuesdays to go before she is done for this time.

I worked on my things, and that went fine. A Japanese cherry tree bloomed at the office. The storm had littered its leaves over the parking. It was a beautiful litter.

At the puzzle table, things are progressing ever so slightly. The porch is finished.

We picked up a package in the delivery box on the way home. This was good because it contained another sweater for Merida. Then we could replace the dirty sweater with a new, clean one. She has another four days with the sweater, so this will work. She started chewing on the new sweater, which was not good. I greased the part she was chewing on with some orange peel. That stopped her behavior. Instead, she started staring at me with dismay.

DW painted the ceiling of the staircase. This means I can now take down the scaffold in the staircase; that is grand!

Wednesday 10 April

This morning, I worked from home. DW also worked from home. Usually, she is off on Wednesdays, but today, she had work to do.

Merida helped me hold the laptop lid. Without her help, it would just fall over. I am so glad she could be of such help.

After lunch, my first task was to go to the vet for our sheep. I was picking up stuff that would prevent fly strikes. I drove small roads to the vet, and there were lovely fields of tulips in full bloom.

 

I took down the scaffold in the hall! DW helped me with the upright poles standing on the stairs. She is packing her bags because she is going to Tallinn with DD tomorrow.

Thursday 11 April

Today, I went to the office, and DW commuted with me, but she was on her way to the airport. We try to avoid flying because CO₂ is damaging our planet. It is inevitable, though. DW is going there with DD, and they will usually be busy with a film for a school project DD is working on. I would rather see them have a school project in their own country, but I am not the one to decide.

At work, we had a springtime lunch. I had completely missed that it was a bring-your-own-food kind of lunch. I thought it was with catering. That was not a good feeling. I have been busy working on the project. I must admit I did not read the email about the lunch so thoroughly.

At the puzzle table, the kitchen door is finished! I had a lot of work to do, but I managed to lay one piece.

In the evening, I made oven potatoes with shredded carrots and the rest of a pasta dish from yesterday.

I figured I would treat my colleagues to cinnamon rolls as a thank-you for the great lunch they made today.

I wrote the recipe on my blog almost a year ago, on 14 March 2023. I found an error in the recipe; the filling did not mention the amount of sugar to use.

I also found using the recipe unpleasant because I had to scroll back and forth, which was not handy. I think I will rewrite that recipe to be more convenient to read.

It was a little late when I was done making the rolls.

Friday 12 April

I ran a wash in the washing machine this morning. There are more tasks to do when you are alone. I went to the office with my cinnamon rolls in boxes.

It was a great success with cinnamon rolls! I think I made them a little too thin, though. That way, you get more rolls – which is nice, but each roll gets drier. Making the rolls less than an inch thick or about two centimeters is better. That way, the rolls have time to get a crunchy golden surface before drying out inside. That must be the bliss point. We will see.

When I came home, I still had many cinnamon rolls over. I decided to bring some to the neighbors; I like them very much. I had a mystery to solve. A while back, I made a couple of songs. I sent each of them a song, but only one answered. What happened to the other? Did she not like it? I packed 6 cinnamon rolls in a paper bag and went to the neighbors. I thought it was a good number because there were three of us, and then each of us could get two rolls.

They were home, busy building their house, as you do on a Friday evening in this area. I told them about my situation that I had too many cinnamon rolls. They liked this initiative. They suggested a cup of tea or coffee together with the rolls.

This evening, they were busy anchoring the house to the foundation. They had already drilled holes for a threaded rod. However, they could not find a tool to switch disks on their angle grinder. More notably, they could not find their disks either. Well, I had a stack of disks lying at home and the tool to switch the disks, so I suggested I go and get that for them.

This turned out to be a little more tricky than anticipated. My neighbors had another angle grinder brand, so my tool for switching the disks did not fit their grinder. It's another walk home to get my giant water pump pliers. While I was walking, the neighbor's wife had to do something, like eating a cinnamon roll.

I first went back to get the disk and my tool. Then I went back to get the water pump pliers. That is a lot of walking, and not only that. It is a lot of cinnamon rolls.

Finally, it was time to drink the tea and eat the rolls. The neighbor got one, and I got one. Huh? Where did the rest go?

Now, they had a working angle grinder, so they cut the rod into pieces, put it into the drilled holes, and applied chemical bonds to the rods. That worked flawlessly!

Then, we could figure out the mystery. The answer was that when someone sends you a melancholy song about rain, the appetite for listening to it is not present. So then you ignore it. Now, we listened to the song and laughed aloud at the text. The song was "It is raining again and again." Indeed, it had been raining a lot, so that was funny.

I still wonder if he knew he missed his second cinnamon roll and that she had eaten four. So that is a new mystery. I will find out. Haha.

You would think the evening was already finished here, but not all. I went home and treated myself to a pizza. I had already bought that yesterday when I bought things for the cinnamon rolls. Armed with this delicious and easy food, I started finishing a new song. The pizza was blazingly hot, so I scorched my mouth with it.

I have to be completely honest with you, this song is about a situation at work when I play a DJ set at our parties there. I cannot even recall if it was three or four times I played a set at work. I so much wish someone would start dancing if it was just for a moment. So that is what the song is about. Here is the song, it is a happy disco song.

Here is the lyrics of the song:

[Verse]

The deejay is playing, but no one cares.
People are glued to their fricking chairs.
Talking and pretending they are fine.
Good music, but they move no spine.

[Chorus]

Dance, have fun, and play well.
Don't let naysayers make you dwell.
Dare yourself! Be the dancing rebel.
Turn your back to the sitting cartel.

[Verse]

The floor is empty, awkward to be the first.
Let your feelings out; let it burst.
You want to have fun; you want to play.
Find a good excuse to sneak away.

[Chorus]

Dance, have fun, and play well.
Don't let naysayers make you dwell.
Dare yourself! Be the dancing rebel.
Turn your back to the sitting cartel.

[Bridge]

Get up and dance, dance, dance.
Move your body. This is your chance.
You are happy by all to be seen.
Now is playing ABBA's 'Dancing Queen.'

[Chorus]

Dance, have fun, and play well.
Don't let naysayers make you dwell.
Dare yourself! Be the dancing rebel.
Turn your back to the sitting cartel.

[Verse ]

You overwon that awkward feeling.
And now your confidence is healing.
The feeling in the room is excited.
People are dancing. Deejay is delighted.

[Verse ]

You overwon that awkward feeling.
And now your confidence is healing.
The feeling in the room is excited.
People are dancing. Deejay is delighted.

[Chorus]

Dance, have fun, and play well.
Don't let naysayers make you dwell.
Dare yourself! Be the dancing rebel.
Turn your back to the sitting cartel.

Who knows, I might play it myself at a DJ set at work.

Saturday 13 April

This morning, it was beautiful weather. I had a cup of tea in bed and blogged about the week. Other times, when DW is away, things become a mess. This time, I decided to do things that we usually do. We often have a cup of tea, still in bend, on the weekend, so I had a cup in bed, blogging about the week. The only difference was that I was alone. I could easily skip that tea, but DW loves it. Usually, I make that tea. So, this time, I made it for myself.

I also started the washing machine program while making a cup of tea. I sat blogging; it was great. The washing machine hums in the distance. Merida had slept on the bed that night. That was great, I like that. On other nights, she slept on the couch in the guest room. That feels renunciative.

While blogging, I played the tune I made yesterday, and Merida listened to it, but she did not know what to think about it. There was something uneasy about the song for her. I noticed she got something with music. Whether it is played by speakers or someone whistling a song. There is one thing I have not tried yet: Playing the violin for her. How would she react to that? From idea to action: I pulled out my violin, still sitting on the floor. She thought I was sad, crawled onto my lap, and started spinning loudly. Either that or she was happy hearing the music. It was a magic moment. I do hope she likes Swedish folks' music. I will gladly play with her, sitting on my lap purring loudly.

It was a beautiful day. It was a bit windy but sunny and a perfect temperature. We collected 34.1 kilowatt hours of sun, so that was not bad. It has been better this year, but I don't complain. It was beautiful.

I had to do tasks. Well, I set myself to do tasks today where I had to have the front door open. Not just a moment, but for a longer time. I wanted to move out the parts of the scaffold. How would I do that with Merida trying to escape? Or would Merida escape? I decided to put the new GPS tracker on the collar. The collar delivered with the tracker snapped; it was useless. She got the tracker with the collar we gave her last year. That worked very well.

It turned out that Merida was not that brave at all. She got the name Merida the Brave, but with the slightest gust of wind or sound, she ran back into the house. I could quickly move out the scaffold parts. At some point, Merida roamed around the vegetable garden rather happily.

I will need to clear out a large part of the workshop to plaster the workshop. It is difficult to do that with one broken tiller machine and one broken branch cutter now occupying the middle of the workshop. Moving these two machines to the sea container would be possible, but then I need to make room for them. For that, I need to bring my junk to the recycling center. But to do that, I need to empty the small trailer because it is already full of stuff. I went to the recycling center with the trailer.

When I returned, I started sorting out junk from the sea container. I concentrated my effort on the stuff that the electrician left behind. I have been dreading this moment because I am unsure what is valuable and what is not. I decided to keep things I understand that can be useful for me. Things I don't know about, I threw away. I managed to move away so much stuff from the container into the trailer that there was space for the two broken machines from the workshop.

With that, I moved the broken machines out. It was fantastic to create more space in the workshop. A little side note on the tiller. The toolbar had become slightly crooked. I wanted to put the wheels on the machine, but they would not fit. I had to jiggle with the toolbar to make it more straight. That eventually worked out, and the machine was moved out to the sea container.

Later in the evening, I started texting about the cinnamon rolls with my neighbor, and it was indeed so that he had no clue that his girlfriend (spouse, whatever) had four rolls and he only had one. He started making illustrations of the situation (with dall-e), and I must say that this is hilariously funny.

My neighbor also made an image combining the texts of "Sitting in my Skoda" with "It is raining again and again." He is definitely on to something there.

Sunday 14 April

I had a slow morning this morning. It was a little cloudier than yesterday, but the weather was perfect. I sat with a cup of tea as if DW was next to me, but she was not, and I worked on a new cartoon! I started on it yesterday, but so much was done yesterday that if I were to talk about this cartoon, you would not believe me. I had been playing with the idea of making more cartoons a while back. They need not necessarily be funny, but they will have something to say. So, I had a conversation with two imaginative figures. I might take photos of myself and draw the cartoon from the photos as a reference, but first, I wanted to have a synopsis. I said to myself: make it simple! I looked at the simple style, and I liked it. So, I figured out that this is the style I will go for.

I sat in bed working on the cartoon. It was late in the morning when I got up from bed. I made breakfast and continued to work on the cartoon. I decided on the name of the cartoon: "The Finger Puppets." I made the final style more elaborate, but the initial idea is what it is. So here it is, the first release of my cartoon "The Finger Puppets."

I know it is not a haha cartoon. It is likable, and that is it. I must say, though, that I am thrilled to put out a song and a cartoon for the second week in a row. I don't know if I can continue that next week, but it is an excellent achievement.

The workshop was far from finished, so I continued clearing things up. I took a load of deposit bottles and cans to the grocery store to redeem money. At the same time, I got some groceries for the next week.

More workshop cleaning and tidying up. Then I made my supper. I made potatoes in the oven again, but this time with firm potatoes, that was much better. I had some vegan crunchy sticks. It was good.

While I write this, it is Sunday evening. DW is flying back from Tallinn, first to Frankfurt and then to Amsterdam. It will be great to be together again. I will go to the train station and pick her up. I am sure she has a lot of stories to tell about her journey.

I will end the blog here. This week's most important milestone was when DW painted the ceiling, and I took down the scaffold in the staircase hall.