Sky string ... pulling me back

This is Oscar on the garden wall, yesterday, with a contrail "pulling him up" =D

Please, give it a vote on Cheezburger: click here =)

A video from this time last year..

Antenna gets it.. (Oimouttahere playing)

17082012 ... Oimo has been very ill lately, and was very close to death, some weeks ago.. However, he's gotten better again, and today he was able to jump again, for the first time in several weeks! =D He got right back to the car antenna he loves to destroy.. =)

He'd already been diagnosed with the tumour in the abdomen, but it hadn't grown large enough to be visible, at the time.. He had to be put to sleep on 27th May, this year.. I'll never stop missing him..

Surprise sketch!

One of my Facebook friends, Jean Wilcox is an artist, whose sketches I have been admiring online. She often shares photos of work in progress, and it's really exciting to follow the process. You might see one piece coming from an idea to finish, in just one day - Jean is not only good, she also works fast!

So, earlier on, I was watching telly downstairs, playing with my tablet at the same time.. Imagine my surprise, when Jean had posted this awesome sketch (above) on my timeline - she'd based it on my tablet snap I'd uploaded only yesterday afternoon! =D


I'm sharing her work with her permission =)

I really love the sketch! Thanks, Jean!

Killing time, in the morning

I had an early appt. at St. Vincent's Hospital, today, and this time I felt confident enough to actually drive there. I managed to park on Nutley Lane (=cheaper than hospital parking), but didn't have that much change. Anyway, I had enough to pay for parking until 10:12am, and as my appt. was at 8:30am, I thought that would be plenty.

I still had a bit of time before the appt., so I went to the nearby Tesco and got some sushi for breakfast, thinking I'd eat it after my appt. (Got some more change, too..)

    

    
Well.. The doctor was on time (which was surprising as usually they keep you waiting..), but then he needed to talk to the clinic boss, which was supposed to take a few minutes.. However, the clinic boss must have been busy as I ended up waiting in the room for an hour! I was glad to have the tablet, so I could entertain myself by pulling faces on the crappy cam, etc. =D (I briefly went on Facebook as well, but the hospital guest connection was über-crappy..) I even ate some of my sushi while waiting, because I was so hungry that I started feeling dizzy..

Eventually, my parking time was almost up, so I went and told the doctor that I couldn't afford to get clamped, and I'd have to go and pay for some more time.. I could see that he wasn't impressed, but he just said OK.

The clinic was in a building on the opposite side of the hospital area, to where I'd parked, so it took me a while to walk to my car. As I didn't feel like walking back again, and since I'd found that the building actually had its own (paid) parking lot, I decided to drive there. Luckily, I didn't have to stay for much longer, so having parked for under 20 minutes, it was free! =)

There were some quality drivers around, though.. First, some lady had stopped her car right behind mine, on the parking lot, blocking my way out - she seemed to panic when she realised that I was about to leave.. Then, when I reversed out from my spot, I was so close to the barrier and in such angle, that I needed to reverse a bit further, to then drive close enough to the yoke where you put in the ticket.. But some cunt didn't allow me the space to do that, forcing me to approach the barrier in a way that forced me to actually get out of the car to put my ticket in! [grumpy]I hope that cunt crashed, later..[/grumpy] And, there had to be a third idiot - just when I'd gotten through the barrier gate, some blonde had stopped her car right there, blocking the whole exit from the parking lot!!! She was obviously waiting for some elderly man who was slooowly making his way to that car.. She then copped on, and had to move her car just enough to let people leave the parking lot, but still forcing people to drive around her car through the opposite lane, if turning left (like I was).. And all those people had full driving licences - I don't know how..

    
As soon as I got home (just after 11am), I ate the rest of my Oishii Sushi, mmmm.. And then I relaxed in the garden, playing with the tablet & taking naps..

    
I woke up at some point, feeling cold.. It had gone all cloudy =/ Still, it was nice to get to sleep on the lawn again. It had felt as if the summer was already over, but today was all summery again.

Having great fun with my cheapo tablet

I've been playing with the tablet now for two days, and I have to say that it's actually much better than what I expected, for the price!

    
Of course, the camera is crappy, but I knew it was going to be - "0,3Mpix", after all.. Still, I've even had fun with that, and a free picture editing app (Aviary)..

    
Battery life seems pretty good, it's easy to install apps and adjust settings.. My only frustration has been the difficulty of using any touchscreen with the length of my fingernails.. I can't use my fingertips as the screen won't respond to nails, so it's all the sides of my fingers, or knuckles, and that can be very difficult with some tiny links or buttons, especially if they are very close to each other. Often you can zoom in and make the clickable area larger, but not always.. But other than that, everything seems to work just fine!

    

I bought a LIDL tablet - GoClever TAB R70

I just happened to notice, last night, that LIDL were going to sell €99.99 tablets, starting from today.

As I knew that this kind of stuff would be pretty much instantly gone, I thought I'd go and buy one, first thing in the morning.

I was at LIDL Greystones at 8:01am. There were only two women before me, who also bought a tablet! Apparently, they only had six left, after the two we bought, so had I left it a bit later, I might have no tablet now.. (I'll be heading to Newtownmountkennedy as well, this morning, and I'd thought of going to LIDL after that.. I probably still will as I bought no food yet, but at least I got my tablet!!!)

I haven't played with it yet - it's charging =)

PS, As I've noticed that this entry has been read quite often, I'll add this link to my other entry, with some comments on actually using the tablet. I'm very happy with it!

IKEA roombox

It took me two days, but my temporary IKEA roombox is now almost finished, so I can share some photos.. (I have plans for the hanging lights, but I need to buy some materials.. Also, there are enough lights left, for another room downstairs..)

The wallpapers are misc. scrapbooking papers - I didn't have enough of any pattern, for more than one wall.. The back wall is foam core, and there's about an inch of space behind it, between that and another wall, which I made of a pizza box lid.. On the further back wall, I have a LIDL brochure picture for an Irish landscape view - I've created fake daylight with Christmas lights, and it really does look like you're actually looking out through a window. There's no window "glass" as I had no suitable material, and it probably would have been a dust trap, anyway..Window frame is balsa wood.

The ceiling light system is another pizza box lid (Four Star Pizza), which I've covered with adhesive "chrome" or "steel".. It was a nightmare to get it up there, though! Hot glue didn't work, superglue didn't work, so I ended up using balsa wood supports in the back - hot glued to the walls, and not that pretty.. The front part is held up with blu tack!

All furniture, and two rugs, are from IKEA - I have two mini furniture sets.

The plant is meant for an aquarium (I bought it in Dún Laoghaire, probably about ten years ago..) The skateboard and glasses are from K (see my previous entry), the plane on top of the bookshelf, is from a Kinder egg, and there are also two Moomin characters, and a little decorative bell..

I'll take some doll pictures, later on - I don't want to disturb Thatsit, who sleeps between myself and the doll box..

I've thought about putting a fake door on the left wall, and taking out that second green table.. Or, maybe spiral stairs that could be attached to the front of the "house", when the glass door is open.. Hmmm.. We'll see..

Mini post from Finland

I meant to blog this sooner, but I keep getting distracted.. =)

I got some mini post from Finland, on Tuesday. K had shared pictures of her mini room, and I just loved the laundry basket.. As I happen to know the area where she lives, I knew she was within walking distance from the shop where she had bought the basket. So, I asked if she could buy me one, if I'd send her the money for it. She agreed to do it (woohoo!), and when I checked the shop website, I found that they had a "buy two get one free" deal. So, I said I could buy two baskets, and K could have the third one for herself, as a little something for shopping on my behalf =) She got me a green and a blue basket, which were the colours I had wished for - pink would have been an option as well, but I'm not really into pink stuff.

K also asked me if I'd be interested in a mini wheelie bin as she was going to buy herself one. I said yes! I love it! And, she'd included some surprises as well - a skateboard, and four glasses! =D

In case anyone wants to know - these are not 1:12 scale. I'm not actually sure what the scale is, but I'll be using these with my IKEA mini furniture, so it's probably something like 1:8.. My fashion dolls are 1:6, but they are just a little bit too large for this stuff, yet I'm still going to use them for some photos with all this stuff, later on..

Even the parcel was pretty =) *Kiitos, K*

Thatsit's health issue

Thatsit was fine when she went out, the other night (Mon-Tue), but when she came home at 1:30am, she could hardly walk, her back was low, and her back legs looked as if they were perma-cramped or something :o

I had no idea what had happened, I couldn't spot any obvious injuries, and I didn't want to try and pick her up as that would have caused her pain.

At first, I was going to get ready to take her to the 24h vets immediately, but she dragged herself to the bean bag (pictured above), and relaxed. As she clearly wasn't in constant pain - it only seemed to hurt when she tried to move - I decided to sit with her in the living room, and see if we could wait until the morning. (The basic fee at the 24h vets, is my 2-3 week's budget, and it'd be even more with expensive tests or such..)

She had a good sleep, only changed her position a few times, which caused her pain and made her annoyed, but then she relaxed again. She was able to move her tail, so I thought it probably wasn't anything spinal, but I wondered if it was a hip problem as her hip has been a bit dodgy - like she might occasionally side-step a little, etc.. She was also able to stretch her back legs when relaxed, but whenever she tried to put any weight on them, she'd be in pain.

I didn't leave her alone at all, and first thing in the morning, I was in touch with the vet, who happened to be doing a house call nearby, that morning, so he offered to pick Thatsit up and take her to the clinic! (That could have saved some human lives as well, since I was so tired at that point, that my driving would not have been the safest..)

I had a badly needed nap, and a few hours later, the vet returned Thatsit. She'd received a shot of antibiotics, and some pain medication (which I keep giving her every day). As there wasn't anything actually broken, there was no need for X-rays, at least at this point. She had some cat bite marks on her tail (which is now a little bit shaved..), but those couldn't really cause the 'funny' walk..

We decided to keep her on meds for a few days, and see how it goes. After that, if necessary, there might be some blood tests, etc..

I was hoping she'd rest downstairs, but no.. She loves being in the attic with me, so she actually dragged herself up the Stira.. :o The scarier part was when she decided to climb DOWN the Stira! I was planning to put her in the other cat carrier, and carry her down, but by the time I made it to the Stira, she was already making her way down, so all I could do was to stand and watch, going "JESUSGODMARYOHCHRISTPLEASEGOD", etc.. Fortunately, the whole gang was listening, and she made it without any extra injuries! Phew..

She has amazed me by actually taking her meds with food :o (She has a history of being difficult with meds.. It usually needs to be given as an injection or applied on the neck, or it's not happening at all..) Also, there has been improvement, although her walk is still 'funny', and when she walks on the rugless part of the attic, she really sounds like something out of a Japanese horror film.. :o

I've been in touch with the vet, and he reckons we'll keep following her progress for the weekend, and then see if any tests are necessary.

I had a fun day in Hollywood, today =)

Maaria was showing her quilts (see Pikkusilli on Facebook) at The Hollywood Fair, earlier on today, and I kept her company - hehe, she did the stitching, I did the bitching =P Here's a little video, which features her beautiful quilts as well;


At The Hollywood Fair (feat. Pikkusilli quilts)

The morning was very slow and quiet, and the weather was this and that, but eventually it got really busy, and even the weather improved a lot!

I really enjoyed the day, had great fun in the craft tent, and even saw some friends. Hoping to go again, next year! (I'll post lots more photos, but some of them need cropping, etc., so I won't be uploading them until sometime tomorrow..)

Facebook - Pinterest - Twitter - Youtube

Custard Pie recipe - *licking the screen* (and Pinterest-ranting..)

I haven't tried making this custard pie yet, but I definitely want to try it! The picture looks lickable..

Btw, I absolutely HATE the widgets on the new Pinterest. (I was using the new version of Pinterest when they first made it available as an option, but soon went back to the old version for this particular reason - but now the old version isn't available anymore..)

Before, when you clicked for the embed tags, you were given the option of selecting the size of the picture, so it was perfect to customise it for your blog (or wherever you were going to embed it). Now, you don't get to customise it, you just get a really stupid looking widget, and you actually need to tamper with your blog template first, or it won't work at all. Even then, if you blog like I do - mostly writing everything in HTML view, but sometimes changing to Compose view and maybe adding more text - the widget won't show up at all, in the Compose view. You need to take a Preview, to make sure it's working. I never use the Preview, it's a time-waster. I know my code will work, I don't fuckin' need a Preview, so now I'm forced to use it, just because Pinterest went from brilliant to shyte. Thanks for that, Pinterest..

PS, I sent them feedback about this.. "Request #1193167"

Swimming near Arklow

I went for a swim, yesterday, near Arklow. My first time since summer 1999!

Sea water is great for hair.. If I took a shower without using conditioner, my hair would be one big dreadlock.. After swimming in the sea, my hair is not knotty at all, it feels really soft, and it's extra wavy =)

I should swim more often!

Done with July

July 2013, in my ShutterCal.

July briefly;
My Game of Thrones marathon continued from June, until I'd watched all three seasons.. I trimmed my hair a few inches, but you can't really even notice.. I went for a 9-hour morning spin, visiting Victoria's Way, etc.. I spent days in the back garden, enjoying the sun, hanging with the cats, reading.. I watched the Vikings S2 shoot at Lough Tay, during another summery spin.. I made lovely vegetable soups.. I picked bog cotton on the mountains.. I ordered a pizza - it had been a while.. The month ended with some rainy days..

My new dress

This is the dress I bought, yesterday. (See the original pic on Facebook - I looked like I had two black eyes, lol.. So, my photoshop magic got rid of those.. I should sleep more!)

Naas, IKEA, Liffey Valley - yesterday

I had a really brilliant day with Maaria, yesterday =)

We'd thought of meeting up in IKEA, but as I still don't have a full driving licence (self-reminder: book that feckin' test!!!), and therefore amn't allowed on motorways, it would be a pain to get to IKEA from Bray.. So, instead, I went across the mountains to Naas, and then Maaria drove us to IKEA (and Liffey Valley shopping centre as well).

I left home very early in the morning, and stopped at Kilmacanogue Topaz for petrol. As I hadn't eaten anything at home (having skipped my weekly shopping to save up for the IKEA trip..), I decided to look if they'd have any sambos or such.. They had Oishii Sushi!!! =D I stopped at Lough Tay to enjoy my sushi breakfast.. It was 7:20am - I happen to know this as one of my photos shows my car clock.

It was very, very foggy on the mountains, but once I got to Blessington road, it cleared up a little bit. After Blessington, it got very rainy, and there were lots of dodgy bits on the road..

I stopped at Naas Tesco, to buy some fresh croissants, and once I got to Maaria's place, we had them with her homemade jam. Mmmmm...

IKEA was fantastic! I think we were there a few hours.. My only disappointment was to find out that their meatballs contain pork =( I no longer eat pork (or maybe it would be more correct to say that I no longer buy pork), so I had salmon and bread instead. Such a shame, though - I'd love some IKEA meatballs. Why can't they use beef mince only?

I had a shopping list - I wanted two sets of IKEA mini furniture (which is actually bigger than I'd expected, but I still got the two sets I'd planned to get..), some more storage boxes, and maybe some fabric.. I got it all, and then some.. The grey(ish) blanket can be used as a winter scarf as well.. I only had one towel that was large enough for my hair, so I bought another one.. Some vanilla scented candles.. New dishwashing brush.. And IKEA rhubarb chordial.. Oh, and their apple & lingonberry bubbly drink, which we had in Naas, later on. I think that was all.

On the way back to Naas, we stopped at Liffey Valley shopping centre (where I hadn't been before), to get some sushi, etc..

We went to some shops that Maaria knows - I'm on €100/week budget, so I just get all my clothes from Dunnes, generally, and my most expensive piece of clothing in the last 20 years or more, has been the practical green summer coat I bought at Tinahely Show for €40, two years ago.. LOL.. But yesterday, I just happened to find something I've been dreaming of for a few years - a maxi dress that's nearly perfect.. I say nearly, because it's sleeveless, and I'd have wanted sleeves, but I can always wear something under or over it, with sleeves.. But it was €75!!! Anyway, I had wanted one for such a long time, and I knew that it would be very unlikely that I'd come across anything as nice again, at least within price range that I could afford at all.. So, I bought it! =) No pics yet.

Finally, we bought M&S sushi & donuts, and went back to Naas. It was a really clammy day, and the air was really bad at IKEA, so we were both quite bollixed. It took a while to eat, sort our shopping, take some pics, etc.. And then I drove back home, over the mountains again. It was even foggier, this time! Zero visibility.. Roundwood road was the worst bit again, and I was so glad for knowing the road quite well as there were times when I really couldn't even see the road.. I thought about stopping and waiting if it would clear, but then decided against it as it might have just stayed foggy, and there would have been darkness as well! =D The sheep were a pain, too.. It was as if the fog made them ALL end up on the road, and they were running back and forth, in front of the car (and I was driving very slowly, at that point)..

I made it safe home, anyway, and it took 1h 27m exactly =) Funny: I was at Lough Tay at 7:20pm, having been there at 7:20am as well! (Also, I'd left Naas at 6:20pm, so it took an hour to Lough Tay..)