well, i was finally able to put the hangmat back up on the roof. it’s been dismantled for a while because with the work we were doing on the fence, all the plants were all over the roof, and there was no space for it. now the fence work is close enough to done, so i put the plants back out around the edges, and i stuck my hammock in the back corner where i’m likely to get the most privacy.

it seems like it’s going to rain any second, so i think we’ll be taking the train to zaandam for patrick and kiki’s bbq. i guess that means i can have a drink.

i’m going to go upstairs for a quick shower now before we head out.

it’s my little brother’s 33th bday. As usual, i forgot to call. Bad. I finally sent my nephews the tshirts i bought them in berlin, in february, early this week. I DID remember to add a card for my brother, but i was pretty late for the boy-os. I hope the shirts still fit.

the wedding party was fun, and i had a good time. The bride’s dad told how the groom had asked permission – which matt had done too – romantic -and then how the bride had sworn she’d never marry – which i had done too.

What is that, anyway?

so matt challenged people to write something every day in july on livejournal. here i am. today i don’t think i have much to say. work has been crazy, and kind of good, and since i’m having a hard time not thinking about it, i guess i’ll post about that.

we are trying to hire someone to replace our current PA/admin person. i plugged for a full time person this time, because my duties have grown to encompass too much on the corporate development and research sides of the business, and i don’t have time to do the office management and financial assistance that i have been doing. basically, we’d be hiring someone to eventually take over parts of those roles. maybe all of them, depending.

it’s going. we have a couple of candidates now and we’re trying to sort out the logistics/offers and do that this week.

simultaneously, my boss has been giving a number of speeches. i write the speeches and presentations, and i’ve been very busy with that. i wrote one earlier this week, and have to complete another one (a hard one) tomorrow. i like writing presentations, but am really struggling to get it all done.

i leave for vacation next week, and have just been given an “assignment” while on vacation – sort of a test. we’ve been talking about my role evolving into some of the actual biz dev on behalf of the company, and my boss has come up with something she’s curious about in that regard. she’s asked me to put together a general plan of how we’d go about moving forward in that. it’s a test, and although i’m a little grumpy about the timing, i’m going to do it, because i do want to head in that direction at my work.

i also want a raise and enough of one to start putting away into a pension, which i don’t have through work. so those are my two plans for over the vacation – put together a plan of action for an idea we could move into, business wise, and put together a good description of how i see my job (and pay) developing in the next year(s).

that’s what’s going on.

oh, and i’ve got a doctor’s appt in the morning. and then a fysio appointment. yay me. then i go into the office to do a one-day uber presentation (this one is super important, as it’s for a client, to impress their new corporate overlords and keep us in business with them), then i go to a party to celebrate some friends’ wedding. busy day. saturday i might collapse.

oh wait. on saturday i have to put together whatever i need to get for the trip to america, and then go to a bbq at some other friends’ house, in zaandam. so sunday i can collapse. oh wait. another friend is arriving to stay with us for 2 nights.

i feel tired. it’s only 11:20 and i’m going to bed.

hi everyone – anyone want our room at the Motel One in Leipzig? Queen bed, across the street from the bagel place downtown – you know the one!

296eu – checkin Friday, checkout TUESDAY

i have to cancel/change by end of day today, so contact me directly at +31 65 470 4071 if you want it. USA/UK people, if you want it, email matt at matt.feigal@gmail.com because he has push email to his phone on that account.

🙂 sorry n – it wasn’t complete, just ran out of time on the bus (i was blogging on my phone on the way home from work).

so, from where i left off:

i ran up the steep and muddy trail. it was pitch dark and i couldn’t see a damn thing, so i was mostly just hoping i ended up in the right place. i could hear little critters in the woods around me, and i kept clapping at them to scare them off (because i always remember this horrible campfire tale i was told years and years ago when i was a girl scout). eventually, i could see the hotel lights above me, and it was even harder to figure out the trail with the lights blinding me. i decided that with my bad knee, going back DOWN the slope with the light behind me was going to be much worse.

i went in the back door into the bar/lounge, and everyone in there looked at me like i was the creature from the black lagoon. i was panting and wheezing a lot. (my breathing problems of a couple of weeks ago, when i lost my voice for a week, were really exacerbated by this little adventure.) i wheezed over to the reception desk and after panting for a second, asked the man there how i would drive to the lake at the bottom of the hill. then i went up to the room to get my credit card & pin.

with sudden insight, i realized that i wasn’t entirely sure i had the right pin for the card either, and checked the numbers… indeed, wrong pin. quick thinking, i called matt:

M (amid laughter and music): I’ve been caught!
S (wheezing): oh, i guess you’re not at home…
M: hahahahaha! no, why?
S: (short synopsis) … but you’re not at home so i’ll think of something else
M: well, i’m not at home, so what do you expect me to do?
S: uh, nothing. you’re not at home.
M: oh. well, what DID you want me to do?
S: check the rabobank file for the paper with my pin on it.
M: oh. well i can’t because i’m not at home (apparently matt had had a great deal of whiskey by this point).
S: yes i know. don’t worry, i’ll figure something out! bye!
M: don’t get arrested! love you!
S: love you too! don’t worry! bye!

then i had another quick thinking: how much cash did i have?? i opened my wallet to count it, and found, in small bills, 60 euros. the tab was for 75. with small european tip we needed at least 80.

i was considering how long it would take me to drive to spa, find a bank machine, and drive back to the lake…

then i considered if the hotel could be persuaded to part with cash on my tab…

then i remembered that during the day’s ride, i hadn’t wanted to carry my wallet with me, and had squirreled away 20 euros in my leathers in case of gas or food need.

so i collected all the money together, grabbed my helmet, grabbed D’s helmet, and straps, strapped the extra helmet to the back of the bike, and drove off to the rescue! a little drunkenly…

end of story: D was rescued, was drunk enough to agree to ride back to the hotel with me drunk-driving, and we laughed and drank in the hotel bar until all hours.

a good little adventure, even on a pretty adventure-less (if very enjoyable) trip.

we were in Hotel Dorint, in Balmoral, near Spa, in the Belgian Ardennes. (alis asked, i think)

the last night @ our hotel, we decided that rather than head straight to dinner, we’d first take a short excursion to see where the trail through the woods behind the hotel led. We walked down the steep & muddy path to find a small lake. On the opposite side, we could see several restaurants. So we went there.

We had a delicious meal in comfortably informal surroundings, & t half-liters of wine. Then it was time to pay. I hadn’t brought my wallet, not expecting restaurants at all. D had, but didn’t know the pincode for the credit card. No signature possible.

So i ran, literally, around the lake and up the steep & mu