§ ¶Wednesday 30 June 2004

Tonight, Holland is playing Portugal. Please, let it be over after this. Am I the only one in this city - no, in this country - who doesn't like soccer? Ugh. I was thinking about going to bed early (had to leave work today because I was utterly exhausted, to the point that I nearly fell from my chair, and have been sleeping all afternoon), but with all this noise going on, trying to sleep some more will be like a bad dream. Yes, one word: ugh.

But there's happy news too. Because it's Olivier's birthday! Well, not really, but he's exactly six months old today, so it's a bit like a birthday, don't you agree?

Addendum: I found a solution to the whole balls problem. Ingredients: a CD by Emma Kirkby (her version of Mozart's Laudate Dominum is just... heavenly), a pair of headphones and a doll project. Oh, and a goal for Portugal.

§ ¶Monday 28 June 2004

Hmm. So, Olivier was ok. Couldn't be better. 7195 grams, 64 cm - perfect. Just one thing: his heart. To be more precise: a slight heart murmur. Or so the paediatrician thought. She couldn't be 100% sure, as Olivier was making too much noise for her to hear exactly... Doing his favourite motorboat impression.

Going to make an appointment at the GP tomorrow, so we'll probably know for sure end of this week. That is, if Olivier will keep quiet during his examination.

§ ¶Sunday 27 June 2004

Did I mention before that Olivier's getting a little sweeter every day? No? Are you sure I didn't? Well, in that case... *grins*

Take a look at his latest picture and tell me he hasn't grown big! He's doing so incredibly well, I almost can't believe it. I can't believe that somehow, some way, I seem to be doing it right. Unbelievable but true: I'm being a mother, I'm raising a child! Still getting used to it myself, even after (almost) six months.

Ok, so I've got an appointment at the child health centre coming up tomorrow, and who knows what they're going to say, but I feel good, as a mother.

I just wish you could hear Olivier's giggles. See his little legs kick. Feel his soft, warm head against yours. Need I go on?

§ ¶Saturday 26 June 2004

Phew. Tried to upgrade my Pivot, and couldn't get through anymore. Some silly database error blocked everything! The blog seems to be in working order again now (did a complete delete and re-installed the full version), but I still need to do some tweaking here and there. Fortunately, I made a back up of my entries, templates and archives before I deleted...

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I bought a lamp for the new house. It's an old house, really: built in 1932, so it needs oldish things. Art nouveau style things.

It already has the stained glass windows and the paneled doors; now it has an art deco wall lamp. Or it will have, in a couple of months. I can't link to the lamp itself, but it's on the index page, top right, the one called 'Wandlamp Amsterdam'.

§ ¶Thursday 24 June 2004

Will you look at this!  Someone Starry-Sheep-Googled to my site, so I thought I'd check out the results myself, just out of curiosity. And what do I find? A Do-it-yourself kit for a Starry Sheep rug! I would love to make that one... Alas, I know nothing whatsoever about rug making, and the price is somewhat high for an experimental try... But wouldn't it make the best rug ever for our new home?? Oh...

§ ¶Wednesday 23 June 2004

I can't for the life of me remember where I found this link - in one of my daily reads, but which one?? Anyhow, this is a great toy! It lets you create a cute little icon of yourself. This is mine:

Go here to make your own!

§ ¶Tuesday 22 June 2004

Now that we've found & acquired our new abode, life has returned to its usual steady trickle. Ups and downs, exhaustion and, well... less exhaustion.

Summer has just begun, but to be honest, I can't wait for Winter to arrive. Not only because of our expected move into the house, but also because it's a much more quiet time of year. Less exuberant, more... introvert. Covered up, hiding, dark and suddenly peeking. That's how I like things.

But now I've got to leave you, because a) it's getting close to bedtime and b) Bolke the guineapig is wheeping for food.

§ ¶Wednesday 16 June 2004

P.S. Lots of new Olivier pics here.

Many thanks to my friend Fiona for the mommy & son pictures!

§ ¶Tuesday 15 June 2004

Ok, can talk now. Was at work this afternoon, and quite busy, too, so I just took a quick moment to shout it out!

Pics can be found here: click

It's not a big house, but it suits our needs perfectly. As the current owners are waiting for their new house to be built, we won't be moving till later this year, probably not even until November (end of January 2005 at the very very latest). But it's the thought that we *will* be moving that'll keep me hanging on!

§ ¶

We've got the house!!!!!!!!

Can't chat now, but I'll get you more info & pics this evening. But we've got it!!!!

§ ¶Friday 11 June 2004

Of course, it's not all bad.

• The upstairs elephants are away on vacation, so it's blissfully quiet for once.
• Olivier's getting a bit better at amusing himself every day.
• I've got another house coming up on Monday, and it looks like this:

          

See? I can be positive.

§ ¶Thursday 10 June 2004

Bah. I'm getting sick and tired of this whole house hunting game. Feels like I am the game, and the game's on me. Honestly, I had no idea it would be so difficult to find The House. (I am conveniently ignoring the fact that, in fact, we did find The House - and that it was totally beyond our price range so we had to let it go.)

You know what? When we get to house number 25, a joyous event that will probably take place somewhere next week or the week thereafter, I'm going to treat my real estate agent to cake. Like a good luck charm, but different. Bah.

This week's good news is that Olivier has learned to roll over! From back to stomach and back again! He preferably performs this magical feat right after he's had his feed, but hey, if that's how he likes it, who am I to complain?

§ ¶Tuesday 08 June 2004

I've got a seamless image!! At least, it's seamless for me. Is it seamless for you too?

Thank you Fizz!!!!!

§ ¶Monday 07 June 2004

If anyone knows how to make the image above seamless, could you please let me know? Thanks!

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Ok! Here we are! StarrySheep on Pivot.

Still tweaking, so not everything's looking just as I would want it to look yet, but we're getting there. Could you please let me know any weird things you might stumble upon? Comments are working fine, so fire away!

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All I need to do now is think of a way to incorporate my old MT & (even older) GreyMatter and Blogger archives... Unfortunately, the 'Export Archives' function in MT doesn't work properly; it only exports about a year's worth of entries and refuses to take the rest. Grmph.

§ ¶Sunday 06 June 2004

Moving away from Movable type - although it's been my favourite blogging tool for a long time, version 3.0 just didn't do it for me anymore. Yes, comment spam is annoying, but... registering for each and every new comment? How's that user-friendly? So I have now switched to Pivot. A Dutch product, no less! And proudly so. :)