Thursday the 25th was my birthday. I’m 27 years old now.

I can’t believe I’m this old… I’m so much closer to 30 than 20 now. How on earth did that happen?

But creeping age paranoia aside, it’s been a good birthday

Markus’ parents + sister came to visit last weekend, bringing gifts and taking us out to dinner.
On Thursday me and a few friends got together to play laser games (like paintball, but with laser instead of paint) and have a few drinks. It was great fun, but getting up for work the next day was… hard.
And yesterday mum came down to visit and take me out for dinner (again).

I got a gift certificate for a beauty salon (whoo make-up!), tea spoons, ear rings, socks and a digital photo frame that was rather cool.
And Markus got me a new camera! It has 12 mega pixels and it’s small and pink and shiny and I love it It’s a Casio EX-Z90, not that I’m that knowledgeable about cameras. But the great thing about it is that it comes with a chargeable battery. And it can record video clips! I’m so going to abuse that function.

But I’m not the only one getting older – Monday the 22nd was Zaphod’s birthday!
If it’s hard to believe that I’m this old it’s even harder to grasp that it is now 5 (five!) years since the first time I carried him up the stairs to my apartment. A tiny, skinny puppy with legs that were much to long for his body and green paint all over his left ear from the ear-mark tattoo… and now he’s almost middle-aged.

From this:

To this:

Unbelievable.

At least his age is finally starting to catch up with his personality, on the inside he’s been an old fart since day one Markus’ parents got him dried pig ears and I gave him an extra large rawhide bone at work, that was his celebration. It’s not like he understand the concept of birthdays anyway.

Finally I’d like to say THANK YOU for all the birthday greetings around the net! I was surprised how many people knew/cared/took time to write a little something. You’re all so nice

One full month since the last post, eh? Feels like I’ve fallen off the face of the Internet…

But it is for a good reason! I now have a job
Previously I’ve been pending between freelance work, temporary jobs and unemployment – but since the end of February I actually have a normal 8-5 job. It’s at the same advertising agency I’ve done so much freelance work for so it’s not a huge difference. I already know everyone there and such. It’s just that now I actually have to be there

It feels great to have somewhere to go in the morning, when you’re working from home (or not working at all) all routines go out the window. Especially for me. I turn into Onslow from Keeping Up Appearances in no time… Now I’m actually forced to get out of bed, take a shower and put on some nice clothes rather than loafing around with greasy hair and dirty sweatpants all day.
I’m just not used to getting up so freaking early, I was walking around like a zombie the first two weeks *yawn*

And what’s really great is that I can bring Zaphod with me He doesn’t care about people coming and going and never barks so it’s no problem having him here. He sleeps in a basket under my desk and during the lunch hour we go for a walk along the river.

This is the view from the window. Not a very good view at the moment though… There’s a snowstorm raging. The spring equinox is on Saturday, but it doesn’t feel very spring-y at all…

Anyway, I’m not dead
It’s just that I try to be good and leave the computer at work (really, 8 hours/day should be enough) so I don’t get to do much personal online stuff. And when I get home I’m usually to tired to do anything constructive.
But I will try to make some stuff for the new Qbee activities! The club has been updated in several ways and is now having a “house swarming party” I’ll show up with some cupcakes later, ok?

Happy belated Valentines Day! I don’t celebrate it myself but I know many other’s do

My Sunday was mostly spent serving Markus with tissues, hot beverages and cough medicine. He’s sick and weak and we all know how men get when they’re sick Thankfully I don’t seem to have caught his virus. Yet… *crosses fingers*
But then Alexandra called and wanted to go to the movies. To see The Wolfman. Of course I immediately said yes and left Markus in his pile of mucus and Kleenex. It’s about a friggin werewolf, how could I possibly resist?

Lawrence Talbot, a haunted nobleman, is lured back to his family estate after his brother vanishes. Reunited with his estranged father, Talbot sets out to find his brother… and discovers a horrifying destiny for himself. Talbot’s childhood ended the night his mother died. After he left the sleepy Victorian hamlet of Blackmoor, he spent decades recovering and trying to forget. But when his brother’s fiancée, Gwen Conliffe, tracks him down to help find her missing love, Talbot returns home to join the search. He learns that something with brute strength and insatiable bloodlust has been killing the villagers, and that a suspicious Scotland Yard inspector named Aberline has come to investigate.
Written by Anonymous

First of all I just wanna say YAY LYCANS!!! The first time I saw the trailer for this film I was jumping with joy, the werewolf is my favourite monster/mythological creature ever!

The one problem most werewolf movies have is the actual werewolves themselves. They often have a low budget and because of that the monsters are mostly put together with rubber masks and fake hair glued on. And if they do have enough money to use 3D they still often make them ugly and… just not right. Lupin in The Prisoner of Azkaban for example is one of the worst I’ve ever seen (sorry Lupin, I still love you though).
But The Wolfman actually seemed to have a real budget and the trailer looked good so my hopes were high.
Unfortunately my expectations were only half met… In most scenes he looked ok or maybe slightly above average, in some scenes he looked beyond incredible, but in some other scenes (mostly the full frontal shots) he just looked like a disfigured dog. I still haven’t really decided what to think about him.
The actual transformation scenes though, when he changed from man to werewolf, were great! I loved how you could see his feet turn into paws and how his jaw got stretched. I guess that’s were most of the 3D money went

The scenery and the colour scales were just perfect, dark and beautiful and ghostly. Benicio Del Toro was perfect in the lead role, me and Alex both agreed that he kinda looked like a werewolf even as a human And Anthony Hopkins is, well, he is Anthony Hopkins. Can’t really go wrong with that.
I was a little surprised at how much blood and gore the movie had. I don’t think it was truly necessary, it was already creepy enough, but I don’t mind. Blood splattering only adds to the flavour you know.

All in all it was money well spent and I will definitely buy it when it comes out on DVD. The not-as-perfect-as-I-had-hoped werewolf aside it’s still a good movie. I’m satisfied.

Camila came to pick up Oggie on Wednesday night. They came right from the air port to us, she missed him that much

So now I only have one dog again. Feels really great to have peace and order restored to our home, but at the same time it’s a little sad. Even if he drove us crazy at least 3 times/day with his energy and random crazyness it was such a fun experience having him here. I will miss having a little furball to cuddle with, and he did bring some life to our otherwise rather calm household.
Zaphod is sweet and all, but cuddling with him is like hugging a kitchen chair. Everything is sharp and pointy and there are limbs sticking out everywhere. And he releases all his energy outdoors so when at home he lays down in a corner and refuse to move. Sometimes I don’t even see him for hours. (Which is actually one of the things that makes him so easy to live with, so I’m not complaining about that.)

Oggie in list form:

Good stuff

Not so good stuff

- Small and lightweight. Takes no space at all. - Enough fur to stand the weather, likes to go out even if it’s cold and snowy. - Very happy and outgoing, tail never stops wagging! - Doesn’t seem to have much guarding instinct, little to no barking (huuuge plus). - Kinda cute after all :3

- TO much fur!! Zomg - Follows me around like a tail wherever I go. Cute at first but after a while it gets irritating and stresses me out since I’m not used to it. (Why? What do you want from me!?) - So much energy! Even after 2 hours of playing in the woods he has no desire to sleep. - So small, furry and flat-faced I had to hunch down right in front of him in order to make eye contact. Makes it kinda hard to communicate. - Doesn’t seem to have any understanding of basic dog language. (a deep growl means you should STOP biting the ears, not bite harder and start pulling…)

I have to say though that it has been a fun and worthwhile month, and all in all it wasn’t that much trouble.
He had zero respect for Zaphod (he is such a wuss) but he did listen to me. His fur was insane but on the other hand it was nice to have a weather-resistant dog. It took me a while to learn how to walk with two leashed dogs so the first walks were… interesting. But eventually I figured it out

I also learned that it’s impossible to say the name Oggie without using your most ridiculous baby voice and adding a long line of poggie moggie woggie loggie after

Can I imagine getting a dog like that for myself? I think my answer is no. Size is good, I could definitely see myself with a slightly smaller dog. But I don’t want something that requires that much grooming and definitely not something that flat-faced.

I’m not gonna spam this post with pictures, but they’re up on Flickr so you can go there if you wanna see some cuddling and dog-on-dog action. I recommend the bath photos if you want some lols