We’ve been here in our new home for exactly one month today! It still feels a bit like a cross between a holiday place and home, and I still tend to turn the wrong way when I’m coming out of the Den, but it’s feeling more and more like home every day. This morning the guy from Jim’s Mowing arrived and gave our grass a manicure, sprayed some weed but not grass killer around, and neatened up the garden beds a bit (but there are still weeds in the small strip of pebbles along the bit of fence I can see from the bathroom and treadmill windows!) Julian says he’ll be back in three weeks, so if we haven’t plucked them out by then, I’ll get Julian to tactfully mention them to him 😉 Julian did a few office-y things first, and then the two of us went Rifting! I’m not sure when it’s going to be released, but it must be pretty soon because the breadcrumb quests for RIFT 3.4: Into the Wilds are already available, and that’s what Julian and I did this morning – we started the lead-up quests (and they’re not easy, either!) So far these breadcrumb quests are only available for level 65’s but I think the new build, “Primalist” (which sort-of sounds a bit like a cross between a Druid and a Mage?), will be available from level 1 (I hope so, anyway!) Anyway, we played until lunchtime, and after lunch I went and had my stroll on the treadmill, dithered around a bit, and then went and read until the Podiatrist arrived. I think we got on rather well – she’s a “cat person” too, so we chattered about our feline slave drivers while she made my feet look vaguely human again, instead of like something out of a horror movie. Regarding my bathroom. I’d closed the tab that had the picture of the bathroom that I’m trying to emulate – tile colour wise, anyway – and do you think I could find it again? Surely you jest! I searched and searched last night, to no avail, and I was starting to get very discouraged – but I started my search again this morning, and somehow – more by good luck than good management – I did manage to find it again! 🙂 Quite by accident, really, but this time I took a screen shot of it and saved it as an image file – so unless my computer bursts into a ball of flame or something, I can’t lose it again! So, it’s mainly the floor tiles and the non-textured wall ones that I want to go looking for – I’m not all that keen on the textured tiles they’ve used, I’d prefer just to have the marble tiles, with highlights of a different colour, around the toiletries niche (or whatever it’s called!) and the built-in bench seat… and I’m sorry, but I don’t believe what that tile place yesterday told us, about not being able to get lilac/mauve mosaic tiles, or about not being able to use glass tiles on the floor… because I found some! 😛 We’re going to go and have a look at them tomorrow! The lilac/mauve mosaic tiles are more of an iridescent “opal”, which would look really pretty used as a decorative trim, and would go perfectly with the lilac glass bricks I had thought to use. The description next to the picture of them states that they’re suitable for both floors or walls, but if for some reason we’re advised against it (because they’re glass) they have larger mosaic tiles in all sorts of colours from a deep lapis lazuli blue to a beautiful amethyst that would also fit in. You see, the “core” floors here are all tiled, and only the rooms branching off the core (the four bedrooms, the Den, the Office, and the Library) are carpeted… so the floor directly outside the bathroom will have different coloured tiles to those in the bathroom, which is going to look… not nice. The solution to this is to put a fairly thin “demarcation” strip of contrasting but complementary coloured tiles down between them. These tiles can be, but don’t necessarily have to be, the same as those used for the decorative trim, though they should be in the same sort of tone (e.g. an iridescent mauve opal mosaic decorative trim, coupled with an amethyst and a blueish mauve slightly larger mosaic for the “demarcation” strip) add in the scattering of lilac glass tiles in the window, and I think it should all look fantastic! 🙂 Well, I hope so, anyway, because you know, “a bathroom is forever” (mainly because it’s just too expensive, not to mention exhausting, to re-do them every couple of years!) Anyway, tomorrow should be another interesting, enlightening, and I hope not disappointing, day! 🙂
Weigh-in this morning. Still trundling along – I went down another two points this morning – from 73.4kg to 73.2kg – right on the cusps of the bottom of the kilogram zone and the end of the month! And this spells grief and trouble for me, unfortunately 😦 For the next two and a half weeks (or more!) my weight will start fluffing around, up one, stay the same for two or three days, up one, down two, stay the same – etc., etc! Plus the fact that in five days I start consuming those horrible, awful, hateful fluid retaining pills again. Can I please go to sleep and hibernate for the next three weeks or something? 
I’m a little worried about my Treadmilling this evening – the Podiatrist has trimmed all my callouses right back (even the callous that was over my blister!) and I have an uneasy feeling that my evening stroll is going to be… painful. I’ll wear my running socks, as usual, and I’m going to put a band-aid back over the blister and the balls of my feet, but I’m thinking I might get some of that tape stuff that athletes use and tape myself up instead of churning through band-aids at a rate of knots… I just need something to protect the balls of my feet and my toes from the slight abrasion of the treadmill, and I need to be able to remove it easily when I’ve finished walking. And no! I will not wear my shoes! For a start off, they’re so old and almost broken as it is, that if I wore them on the treadmill they’d last for maybe one brisk 3.2kmph stroll, and they’d break…. hmm… Actually, maybe I will wear my shoes tonight! 😉 Secondly, I can’t balance properly in shoes! Anyone who’s ever seen me walking in shoes will tell you that I look as though I’m drunk or something – staggering around and almost losing my balance and going head over heels – imagine what might happen if I staggered around like that on the treadmill! No thanks, I want to lose weight, not become a paraplegic and lose the use of my legs! Oh, and I can’t get into sneakers either – my feet are too deformed… so it’s bare feet or socks for me on the treadmill, which means blisters and sore feet, but hey! It’s good for me, right?! (I mean the exercise is good for me, not the blisters and sore feet!) I’ll see how I go with a combination of band-aids and socks tonight – if that’s sufficient, I’ll stock up on more band-aids – or try the tape… or simply get more blisters – whichever is easiest! 😉
So tomorrow we have tiles to look at, and a small amount of shopping… and Sunday! Well, I guess we’ll continue doing the breadcrumb quests for the next expansion. I know that Trion having a “Locked Chest Sale” between September 25th and 29th (you’re supposed to be able to get all sorts of fabulous items out of these Locked Chests, from Mounts to Armor and Weapons, but I never have, so I’ve stopped buying them! ) and I’m sort-of suspecting that after the “Locked Chest Sale” the expansion won’t be far behind… They’ve just finished a Big Deal “Costume” Sale, which probably means that new costumes will be coming in with the expansion (which is supposed to be going live “in the Fall” i.e. Autumn! Which it now is, in the US!) so every time I log in to Rift, I find myself holding my breath to see if there’s an “Update” available or not 🙂 And once again, that’s about all from me for tonight – drop by again tomorrow night though, and find out if my weight has indeed gone off on its little end-of-the-month journey into “La-La Land”, or if it’s still “muddling along, as usual”. I’ll have a full report on the bathroom tile situation, too, and lots of other interesting and amusing bits of trivia for you all, so don’t miss out! 🙂 Until then, though, please try to bee good, remember that the spirit of envy can destroy; it can never build, and don’t forget to look after yourselves, to drive carefully, and to keep warm – but most importantly, don’t forget to stay safe! 🙂 ciao, all! 🙂
My Word! 