Dee's Life

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Journal :: July 2004

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01.07.2004 (thu)

This was an incredibly busy day. I was exhausted by the end of it.

It started with taking Scully to the vet. They were going to check out what's wrong with her ear. She's had an ear infection for ages and the treatments don't seem to work.

Then I had to pay the garage rental and buy the car's tax stamp. This was a bit of a hassle because it was the last day and there were tons of people there. So I got the form somewhere else, went home to fill it out in peace and quiet and then returned. I waited in line for about 45 min. I say line but it was actually a spiral since people were wrapped around the room and it ended in the middle. You know, kinda like a snail shell.

Then I came home to work. I had some calls to make and more estimates. At 5 I went out again to pick up Scully. The vets says it doesn't look like nothing serious and I'm just going to try a different medication since she may have just built up a resistance to the one we used before.
Then I dropped her off and went out again to pick up hubby's X-Rays. But the clinic closes at six and it was a quarter to. I waited for the bus, that took its time, and got there just in time. I actually had to run from the bus stop.
And then I couldn't get a bus back. I waited for about ten minutes in the boiling heat and gave up. I walked home. At least like that there's a slight breeze and I can look for shade.

I got home at a quarter to seven and had to work some more. I was still at it at 8 PM when hubby got home.

I finally gave up at about 9 PM and cooked dinner. We watched some Mad About You and then went to bed. I tried reading a bit but was too tired.

02.07.2004 (fri)

I woke up nervous again. It seems to be cyclic.
I have tons of work to do and don't know exactly where to begin.
And new stuff keeps coming in, so I sometimes have to drop whatever it is halfway through to go do something else. I had that. It messes with my fairly organized mind.

I bought 'Love Actually' from Blue Planet a couple of weeks ago. There was nothing on the site so i thought they had just ignored the request. But it arrived today and now it's on the site's 'order history' weird...
Anyway, at least it arrived. And hubby's Mozilla shirts also arrived today. I had to pay almost as much as the shirts cost - customs charge.
It's really not worth ordering stuff from the US.

I'm listening to Sia again. The song 'Breathe Me' is really getting under my skin. I can now safely include it among my favorites.

Actually, some time ago I tried to do a list of favorite songs - those songs I like whenever I hear them, as opposed to songs I only like when I'm in the right mood. Most are pretty obvious choices, because they were the singles, but still:

Tori Amos: Mr. Zebra, Winter, Leather, Precious Things
Prince: Strollin'
Portishead: Glorybox
NIN: Hurt
Zero 7: Distractions, In the Waiting Line
Lamb: Gabriel
The Cure: Friday I'm in Love, Lovesong
Sting: Moon over Bourbon Sreet
Kate Bush: Wuthering Heights, Oh England My Lionheart, The Sensual World
Duran Duran: New Religion; The Chauffeur
Fiona Apple: A Mistake, Fast as You Can
Placebo: Taste in Men
Morcheeba: Trigger Hippie
Sophie B. Hawkins: Sometimes I See
Olive: Miracle
Sia: Breathe Me

I'm sure there's more but I usually only remember when I hear them :)

At night we went out for a bit. I finally recorded a CD with the rest of the Milan pictures and took it to get printed. It's almost 200 pictures. I had a salad for dinner and bought a couple of magazines. One of them Premiere, came with the 'Bowling for Columbine' DVD but the case was broken. I have to get a new one to replace it.

03.07.2004 (sat)

Today was a nice day.
We woke up at around 11 and went to see Shrek 2. It's really funny with tons of references to other movies. I loved the cat :)

Then I picked up the photos and we went to IKEA. It was probably not a good idea to go so close to the opening date and on a weekend at that. But we did. The parking lot was full and we were about to return home when we decided to try and find another place to park. We eventually found it, in a side street. It was a bit far, but nothing too out of the way (as long as we didn't buy anything too heavy).
The place is huge but there wasn't as much choice as we expected, especially in terms of beds. We need to get new bedroom furniture and were looking forward to seeing what they had but didn't find anything that we really liked.

I did see a couple of really cool office tables and bought a simple but effective thing - a plastic floor protector. My chair has completely removed the varnish from the living room floor, and now that I moved the office to another room, it was about to do the same. Well, better late than never.

And I was happy to find some cool ceramic pots, which I can never find anywhere. But they were too heavy to take today. But we did buy some nice looking glasses. We had almost no glasses left and the ones that survived are one of each.

We got back at around seven and I spent most of the evening doing my Milan photo album. It's going to take forever!

04.07.2004 (sun)

Today is my sixth wedding anniversary. It's also the final of the European football cup. So, although I wanted to spend a quiet and relaxing day, other people armed with whistles and horns had different plans.

In the end we spent the afternoon in bed, then went to the park at six, where we sat on a bench and read a book while catching the last rays of sun.

At seven we went back home cause the game was about to begin. I stopped to pick up some chinese food, cause I didn't feel like cooking, and spend the next two hours reading and doing a bit of gardening. It looks like the rose bush will make it after all.

Portugal lost the game, as expected and so hubby was not in a good mood for the rest of the evening. The fact that tomorrow's a work day didn't help either.

We watched 'Love Actually' before going to bed, but none of us was into it much.
At least I finished the photo album.

05.07.2004 (mon)

Monday once more.
In the morning I did my usual rounds and redid an estimate and in the afternoon I did some templates.

At the end of the day I did some reviews which were quite overdue. It's a matter of discipline sometimes. I have all the thoughts in my head but I don't always manage to sit down and write them right aways and they eventually get lost. Which defeats the whole purpose of the site.

06.07.2004 (tue)

Today I couldn't stand the thought of sitting around in front of the screen all day. So I decided to paint the living room instead. It was half done, but it still took the whole afternoon.

In the meantime I also managed to do an estimate, so it wasn't just fun and games (if you can call painting walls fun). I also did the rest of the bathroom ceiling. there was an area where the paint wouldn't stick and we had to treat it with a special surface treatment but didn't apply the paint on top of it. It's been waiting for a lick of paint for more than two months. It was about time!

After all this, which made me exhausted, we still went shopping.

Basically our oldest cat is refusing to eat cat food. So we decided to try alternatives, like tuna and sardines and stuff. The point is just to try to make her eat something. I can't stand seeing her starving to death out of sheer stubbornness. But it's getting harder every day.

07.07.2004 (wed)

In the morning I organized all the paperwork that I have to send out this month. It's all ready to go.
At lunchtime I watched 'Young Adam'. I liked it. It's the sort of film that leaves you thinking about it afterwards.

In the afternoon I had some work to do for a client and spent quite a lot of time answering calls, and then I did a couple of reviews for screengazing.
Later I decided to watch Shrek again. I really think I liked the second one better, which is unusual.

At night I finally got my antenna! Which means I was able to place the desk against the wall and still have wireless signal. Finally!

When I got back my parents were just arriving at the coffee shop downstairs so I sat with them for a bit. Then I had some dinner and watched another episode of Mad About You while I waited for 24 to start. They're playing season 2 now. All i can say is, that Kimberly sure knows how to pick her company!

08.07.2004 (thu)

I was expecting new work to arrive today and it didn't - not yet anyway. So I just did a change to this layout that has been hanging around for ages. Let's hope it gets approved now. It's been delayed because of something as simple as the framing of an image on the homepage.

I had a late lunch because I spent my regular lunch hour doing screen captures. It's been a while since I've had the patience to do that and I don't think I'll be doing anymore in a hurry. So I updated my Ewan McGregor site but I still have to find a good way to make galleries from screengazing. At the moment it's more trouble than it's worth.

09.07.2004 (fri)

I had a really busy day. The problem is that I was almost falling asleep, so I had to make some coffee. This may seem quite normal to most people but I never drink coffee. It's not that I don't like it. I just never got in the habit, don't need the caffeine to help me retain any more fluids, thank you very much, and prefer tea anyway. But on a day like today it had to be done. And it worked.

I still managed to write a couple of reviews, but just the thoughts part so I haven't published them yet. I'll need a bit more time to do that.

10.07.2004 (sat)

My diet has been going well. To the point that my new clothes are now loose. So I decided to commemorate by baking a cake. You know, when you achieve a goal there's nothing better than throwing it all away and having to start fresh :)
Yes, I have a slight tendency to boycott my own plans.

It didn't go too well, but it's still tasty. Now if only I can manage to not eat it all :)

11.07.2004 (sun)

We stayed in again. I watched some more Neverwhere and had a nap. Then I did a bit of gardening. The leaves had to be washed. There was too much dust on them and they can't breathe properly when that happens.

At night we went out to dinner with my in-laws. I wore a long-sleeved sweater but it was really cold and we ate outside, so after a while I was absolutely freezing.
The two restaurants where we went to dinner are the only buildings that have a decent appearance. Everything else on the river front is falling apart. It's really sad cause it could be a beautiful place.

12.07.2004 (mon)

I had another busy day but it was satisfying because I finally finished something that's been hanging on since January. About fucking time!

I'm trying to get back on track with the diet but was so starved at lunch time that I had some pasta. But I managed to keep away from the cake, which is great.

At night I watched Angel on Fox. I know I have the DVD but I just felt like it. It's interesting how they only seem to play shows that have already been canceled. If only they'd play season 5. I'm sick of waiting for the DVD.

13.07.2004 (tue)

I really didn't feel like getting up today. It's not that I was particularly sleepy or tired. I just didn't want to face the day. But I'm not depressed either. Just fed up. I guess I should seriously consider taking a few days off. The weekends seem way too short.

I had some work to do, so I eventually gave in and got up, had a shower and got to it.
I finally stopped for lunch at 3 PM and watched an episode of Poirot.

At the end of the day, when I thought I was done, I got a call and had to schedule a meeting for thursday. It got me a little stressed, especially because it's isn't exactly near and there isn't transportation nearby. I may have to take a cab.
I don't like meeting very much but it's a necessary part of the job, even if nothing comes out of it.

At night me and hubby went shopping. Apart from the usual groceries I also bought the new Cure CD. It seems to be a good mix of dark and upbeat songs, which is good. I was never that big a fan of their all-depressing albums. The funny thing is that Blood Flowers was supposed to be their last album, and yet, here they are again :)
I guess it's too much fun to just let it go :)

At night I had to rewrite the company's presentation in preparation for thurday's meeting.

14.07.2004 (wed)

I did a bit more prep work for the meeting tomorrow. The most stressing things about meetings is figuring out how to get there. But it turns out it's not as far as I had feared.

I've been reading The Truth by Terry Pratchett. I'm halfway through it at the moment but reading his books seems to take forever because there's so much detail in them. Although the story is developing really slowly, as usual, there are certain points about the book that I found interesting. One of them is that the characters Mr. Pin and Mr. Tulip remind me a lot of Mr. Croup and Mr. Vandemar from Neverwhere.

I've been watching Neverwhere, by a strange coincidence. But I liked Mr. Croup and Mr. Vandemar a lot more in the book. They were more subtle. The acting on the mini-series is a bit over the top.

15.07.2004 (thu)

I had a meeting this morning. It was in a part of town that I had never been to and assumed was really unpleasant, but it's actually not so bad. it has lots of trees and little gardens everywhere and the buildings are brand new so it looks clean. The only downside is that there is no local commerce. There's only a couple of coffee shops and lots of banks.

The meeting went rather well and I have hopes for this one. I have to talk to my brother about it because, if I get it, it will mean work for both of us.

Then I went to lunch with Pedro. He was a bit tense. His working environment is far from perfect and he's getting really tired of it. I don't blame him, but I think he needs to relax a bit and not take everything so personally, which, off course, he is unable to do.

When I got home I had work waiting for me. Nothing major, just a couple more updates for one of our clients.

I found a Tori interview where she talks about the censorship of the DVD. It was interesting but it still bugs me. Because that's exactly what I think - the most provocative things in the songs are NOT the words they cut out. It's the twisted world we live in.

16.07.2004 (fri)

I have another meeting set for next week, which is good news, and the day went fairly smoothly.

The main problem was that the post office has managed to fuck yet up again.
They lost a package I sent to our accountant with all the papers from the second trimester. Some of them I can print again but some are irreplaceable and I'm seriously pissed off.

I sent it by registered mail and so they can't just say they don't know what I'm talking about. It seems that they hired some guy for a couple of weeks to replace someone who's on vacation and he either lost the package or took it home. Which shows really high standards for the service.
I just hope they find it again because this time I'm willing to spend a lot of money to see them in trouble.

I'm worried about my cat. She's eating less everyday and vomited during the night. I don't know what I can do anymore. Have to take her to the vet again but I know there isn't much that can be done.

17.07.2004 (sat)

The cat is vomiting water now. She can't keep anything down. We took her to the vet and left her there for treatment. She'll probably be there for a week.

Then we decided to work on the new songs for a while. We listened to all 11 of them and took notes on what needs to be done. We have new software that may help with the sound but it'll take a while to learn how to use it properly.
A couple of the songs are almost done so we'll start with those and then move on to the more incomplete ones.
I can't believe how long it's been since I've done this. This year seems to be going by at light speed. It's been a bit hellish and very stressing and I can't believe it's already summer.

18.07.2004 (sun)

I went to see the cat and came back really depressed. She still refuses to eat and now she's locked in a cage, in a room with two huge dogs that don't stop barking. I almost brought her home again. At least here she can sit in the sun all afternoon. I'm not sure I'll be able to leave her there for a whole week.

19.07.2004 (mon)

I woke up really nervous about the mail thing and the cat.
At ten I got a call saying the package has been found, so I calmed down a bit.

Then I took care of some work related stuff. I'm getting rid of the remains of the stuff that's been left over from last year and that still manages to give me the occasional headache. From now on hopefully I'll only have to deal with problems I created and not problems other people created and left for me to solve. It's seems that's all I've been doing all year.

The vet called. The cat isn't getting any better so I may bring her home today or tomorrow. They didn't find anything wrong with her. She simply refuses to eat and is basically starving to death. I'll just have to keep insisting with food and liquids and wait and see.
I don't have the courage to put her down because she still behaves normally, apart from the food issue. She doesn't seem to be suffering terribly or anything. It's a tough decision.

At seven I picked her up from the vet. I have lots of meds for her and I have to go back daily for some more. It's going to be hellish because I have to force-feed her which is really unpleasant. But at least she's not locked in a cage anymore.

20.07.2004 (tue)

I didn't manage to get any work done today. I was mostly taking care of the cat, had to go to the drugstore and so on, and was really tired.
I've been waking up really early and really stressed about all this. The only good thing is that I may lose some weight in the process :P

But I managed to make the cat eat well today, so it wasn't so bad. Although she did manage to bit my finger, so I had to get an alternative method of feeding her. If you're going to stick your finger in a cat's mouth 100 times a day, chances are the cat'll get you at least once.

Hubby went shopping without me today and got me a new plant. Thank you sweetie :)
I have to find out what it is now...

I felt the site was looking to wintery so I changed the layout again.

21.07.2004 (wed)

I spent the whole morning coming and going. I had to go to the vet, then to my parents place to pick up something, then to the bank and so on.
Feeding didn't go so well today. She's a fast learner. At first she was just trying to stop me giving her food but now she keeps it in her mouth and as soon as I look away or let it go, she spits it out. How am I going to make her swallow? And it's only day two!

In the afternoon I did manage to work, despite feeling really sleepy, but I just slapped myself and got on with it.

My magazines have finally arrived. I can't tell if they resent them or if it just took a really long time for some reason.

I got my first hate-mail today since changing the site language. I thought it would upset me but it didn't. Quite the opposite. I thought it was amusing. It's funny how people just assume stuff and then decide to insult you based on their assumptions. The truth is that since I changed the site I've stopped getting a lot of really annoying emails I used to get at least once a week, so it worked.
And I can say hi to friends now - Hi Winni! I sent you an email yesterday - please write soon :)

I was alone all night. Hubby went over to his sister's house to fix her computer. I stayed home trying to get the cat to eat some more, with no success, and then I watched 24.

I gave up and went to bed at around midnight. I have a meeting tomorrow morning so I need to sleep.

22.07.2004 (thu)

I woke up at seven and got up shortly after. Had to give the cat her morning pills and try to make her eat. Yesterday was not a good day in the food department because she managed to find a way to spit everything out. She's on hunger strike and there's little I can do. But I'll keep trying.

Then I got ready for my meeting. I left at about 9.30h, armed with map and instructions. I got out of the subway at 10.40h and had to walk really fast to get there in time, while figuring out which way to go. It's always easier on the map than IRL. The streets seem to curve more and it doesn't say anywhere you have to go down some stairs and cross under the main road, and so on.

But I got there in time. Unfortunately I forgot my little pocket mirror and was sweating like mad, so i didn't look my best (I had marks from the sunglasses on the side of my nose and probably a bit of running mascara that's supposed to be waterproof but really isn't).
Anyway, it went ok but not brilliantly. And it's a site that's going to mean a lot of work so it won't be cheap, which means they won't like the estimate. But that's life.

Walking back always seems easier somehow. But this time it made some sense because it was downhill :)

Then I had lunch with hubby, who was really stressed out as usual. We haven't seen each other at all this week. It's been crazy and I'm starting to feel myself adjusting to living alone, which is something you're not supposed to do when you actually live with someone.

After lunch I did a little shopping - some hand-made soap and face creams - and returned home to my sick cat.
I managed to feed her some more, although she put up a bit more of a fight than in the morning. Then i gave her the afternoon pill (another ordeal) and finally took her to the vet for her shot. Tomorrow's the last day and so I may have to learn to give her saline shots myself (since she doesn't eat the vet injects fluid under her skin so that it's absorbed during the day). I'm not exactly looking forward to that experience.

When I got back I got some more work done but thankfully there wasn't much requiring my attention. I feel really exhausted lately. I just want to sleep for a week.

I'm still feeling a bit numb about this whole cat situation. I feel frustrated and a bit useless but won't let myself get emotional or anything. I do what I have to do and if I start feeling too much I won't be able to take care of her properly because I'll feel bad when she complains and feel worse when I have to feed her and she just wants me to leave her alone. It's difficult to know what's the right thing to do in a situation like this. I know she's old and won't live much longer but I can't just let her starve herself until her organs shut down. But at the same time what I'm doing is also causing her stress. The whole thing really sucks.

23.07.2004 (fri)

It was a long day. Apart from work stuff I had my last trip to the vet and had to go around trying to find a drugstore that had the glucose solution I needed for the cat. And when I found one they didn't have the 20 ml syringes. Oh well, it will have to do.

I hate needles but I think I can manage it. We'll see.

24.07.2004 (sat)

We had to do a little emergency shopping and ended up buying curtain poles.
We meant to put up curtains abut a year ago, when we moved, but never got around to it. So we did it today.
It was terribly expensive and it took a really long time but it turned out nicely.
We also had to move the bedroom furniture (which we had already planned to do) because one of the dressers was under the window and it doesn't look good now.
So there was a lot of lifting and climbing stepladders, adjusting the hem of the curtains and so on.
Not what I'd call a relaxing saturday, but it was worth it. At least it's something I won't have to do again any time soon.

I also had to give the first injection to the cat. I hate needles but I was able to not freak out. At least it's not painful for her, so it's not so bad. If it was Jones I bet I'd be missing a thumb by now. That is one sensitive cat...

25.07.2004 (sun)

I was exhausted so I did nothing the whole day. I took advantage of the new light in the bedroom and spent most of the day reading, so I finally finished The Truth.

I think the flat is getting cozy. I still have a couple of rooms to decorate properly but it'll get there. The main problem is that to buy the furniture I like I have to find some way of getting rid of the stuff I have now. Most of the things I don't like came from several different sources and weren't hand-picked. i'm sure it happens to everyone when they first move. People give you stuff, you get other stuff that's cheap just 'temporarily' and so on. But now I feel it's time to replace them with stuff I've chosen. Only I can't just throw it all away. I'd feel bad about it. So I keep having to find new homes for everything, which takes forever.

One of the things I have to get is the bookworm bookcase. I didn't buy it yet because I thought it was too expensive, but after seeing how much the stupid curtain poles cost it's starting to look fairly reasonable :P

26.07.2004 (mon)

I spent most of the day doing an estimate. It's one of those really time consuming things because i have to organize the structure of the site in all its detail in order to be able to figure out how long it's going to take me to do it and how much it will cost. The bigger the site the longer it takes and the least likely the client will accept because it will cost a lot. So most of the time I know I'm doing it for nothing. But it's part of the job and you can never be sure so you do it anyway.

After work I had this urge to go take a look at the doll house site. It's still expensive :P
Maybe one day.

At night I watched the rest of K19 and fed the cat before going to bed.
I start getting ready to go to bed at least one hour before I actually manage to walk into the room. There's so much stuff to take care of before that.

Apparently since we moved the bed and switched sleeping sides, I started kicking a lot in my sleep. I think it's because I was already programmed to feel that I had room on the right side (which was the edge of the bed). Hopefully I'll adjust soon before hubby starts getting too many bruises :)

27.07.2004 (tue)

I slept a little better tonight. I think I still kicked hubby a couple of times during the night, but I didn't wake up in such a panic in the morning and didn't have the weird dreams anymore.

I had some work to do but still didn't get the material for the new mock-up. I'm betting it will arrive on friday :P
I tried starting it anyway but it's difficult without a more accurate idea of the amount of stuff I'm going to have to fit in there.

More work arrived at 5PM but it was good because I wrapped up another project.

The cat seems to be doing better but she's hiding a lot, especially after I feed her. But by mid-afternoon she's usually acting normal again.

31.07.2004 (sat)

We went shopping in the morning. I ended up buying The Sims Making Magic. I'm hoping that by reinstalling the new one it'll stop crashing and allow me to play again.

In the afternoon I watched some Poirot and did my nails.

At night we went out to dinner with hubby's family. We ended up staying at a table right next to my brother and his friends who were having a birthday dinner.

We came home late but I still had to feed the cat. She hates it as much as I do but since the pills are over it's starting to get a little faster and less frustrating. She seems better at least, apart from still refusing to eat.