New Weird

[Regenbogen]

(((((Fcrate))))) 
Glad to see you back here! I hope you are well. The mulberry tree sounds nice.
Our apples will be ripe in late August or early September, depending on how the summer was. The plums are also ripe in late August. So there will be cake, cake and for variety also some cake, lol.

I have a new bicycle, and when I have the time I drive around a lot. Today I was lazy, or better to say: I didn't trust the weather, lol.
Mini is at a festival with friends in the next village. June and July (especially July) are always packed with different kinds of festivities you can attend. Often several at the same day. Last weekend there was one almost directly in front of our house. I went there for the start to say hello to my former marching band, wanted to hear what the mayor had to say and to see if they have something nice to drink.
They did and I bought a cocktail. After that I walked around a bit and tried to decide where to sit. It was rather full with people, but usually there is akways room for one more person. But I couldn't decide where, so I just went home again with my cocktail, enjoyed the peace hidden behind the house and brought back the empty glass later.
On the next day the whole family went there for lunch, as did all our neighbours, because why not? No need to cook yourself, yay.
Tomorrow we will be at another festival at the river. Probably they will have fish. The plan is to have lunch there too. Maybe I'll eat some fish or maybe they have salad or other non fat stuff.

[Dina]

(((((Fcrate)))))))
I am so glad to see you! I wondered a lot how you were doing.
Excellent about the mulberries! Not about your weight though, I wish you the best for getting rid of the extra kg. I do have a lot of extra weight, but I do not feel like talking about it right now.
I have been well, quite busy. And luckily I was confirmed in my position at the university so I am very happy. Unless I do something really, really wrong I have a job for the next 3 years. I am also finishing the semester now, so I am planning the exams and things like that.

((((Regen)))) That is hilarious about the festivity in front of your house. I hope you have fun in today's one and in the rest of your Summer 

[Fcrate]

Glad you're both OK.
@Regen: Healthy food sucks. The whole point of eating at a festival is to get the deliciously lethal fried foods. I can never resist eating fattening stuff, when they're available. For example, a month ago my sister came from USA on vacation, and she got me about 1.5-2kg of various delicious chocolates. I ate them in 5 days, and that's me controlling myself. The only way I can lose weight is to deny myself access to any of that.
@Dina: That's great about your job. To be honest,  it blows my mind that you have such high standards for teaching positions, and it bodes well for your country's future. Here, you're a TA until you get your PhD, then you're job is safe for life. At least in public universities.

[Dina]

((((((Fcrate))))))) It is ironic that you said that about public universities right now. Just yesterday there was some outrage because one of the most viable candidates to be our next president has said that even when Argentina has a lot of universities, some of them are empty and 50% of the students are foreigners. None of those things is true, and the latter is a racist-fueled thing, because she is not worried if we have German or Swiss students. She is worried because we have Colombian, Venezuelan or Peruvian students. And even if we had so many Foreign students, that would not be a bad thing. It is true that in the last few years the number of foreign students has raised but that has to do with the situation of the country. We are so poor that is economically easy for our neighbors to come here. And we have a good and free education. But in other years, when the cost of living is not so cheap here for foreigners, they do not come.
I had several foreign students this year. Some were really not good, some were excellent. A few abandoned my classes. I hope the remaining ones do good in the exams.
In my university specifically, the idea is that you can be a student TA, a TA when you are a graduate, a thing I do not know how to translate but it would be like Head of the Assistants when you have a Ph.D., and a Professor when you also have several years of experience and a good enough résumé. Problem is...we have more Doctors than Professor and Head of the Assistants positions, so most TA are Doctors too, at least the full-time ones.
I have a ph.D and I've already been a Head of Assistants for some years. It was a part-time job while I also had a researcher position that did not involve teaching. I tried to be a Head of Assistant in a full-time position (research+teaching) but I could not win (it was quite competitive) so the last times I applied for full-time TA again. And that is what I confirmed this year. So yay!

[Regenbogen]

Hey, weird people!
How are you.
I was very busy again. But now I hope there is more quiet. It's always like this in July. Everybody wants to squeeze their stuff in before the summer holidays. I had to work last weekend and this Sunday I'll take over the shift of a colleague who is still too sick to come. But Saturday is free. I hope to be able stay in bed long and maybe go biking or swimming during the day.

My knee is still bad, though. The other doctor said it needs surgery. OK, at least I know now. There is still swelling and I can't walk properly.

Micro maybe needs glasses now, but the doctor wanted to make another test in two weeks to see for sure, if she can still go without. It wouldn't be so bad, we all wear glasses. And there are nice ones these days, one doesn't have to wear the uglies like in my youth, lol.

I often didn't wear mine, because they looked ugly and they were heavy on my nose. Only for school when I needed to see. On other occasions I rather went half blind.
Like once I was at the fair with some friends and the others wanted to shoot with guns to win prices. They insisted I shot too, but I didn't even have my glasses with me and could only see funny colours. Surprisingly I hit some by chance, so we still won some sweets and a stuffed animal.

[Dina]

Hi everyone!
I am doing well but most people around here have a cold or something. It is cold (today is the coldest day in the year, but it does not feel so bad because ir is mostly sunny) but a few days ago it was warm and so some people was caught without the right clothing for the weather. Also, it has been rainy the last few days, but luckily not today.
((((Regen))) Sorry about your knee. I do hope you enjoy your Saturday and yes, if micro has to wear glasses is not to bad. I use my glasses quite a lot but only if I have to read. Anyways I like them.
I have been having trouble with the login here at the forums. I always got a privacy warning and even when I used the " I trust the site" button, it made me do that every time I loaded a page (the login, the front page, every thread). It was super annoying! But then I tried using Edge, and even when I received the same warning I could add this to the exception list or something and I think the problem is solved now. Only I normally use Chrome at home, so I will need to remember to use Edge when I want to come here.
It is only 11;30 but I am beginning to feel like eating something. For lunch, I have a few mini milanesas (I believe they are like schnitzels) and a tomato and onion salad, but I think I will made me an instant soup now, as a "pre-lunch".

[Regenbogen]

@Dina
Oh, that's inconvenient about the site. Maybe they changed something. I am using my phone and it uses chrome. Every few months I delete my browser history and all the cookies. I did that last week. I was told only once after opening the site that it wasn't secure, but it does that every time after deleting. Even now there is still a small exclamation mark in a red triangle, which usually went away after I said "open anyway". But this is all there is.

Hope you enjoyed your lunch. Yes, milanesas are like Schnitzel. Yummy.

I need to clean our rubber pool today. I would like to soak myself in cold water. There was a storm a few days ago and it removed the protecting sheet on top of it, so that there are apples, branches, leaves and insects in the water now. I intended to do it yesterday but I had so much else to do and after that my knee hurt too much, so I left it for today.

[Dina]

Hello there!
I believe it was an automatic update in my windows which caused me the problem with the forum, but today I manage to login without problems using Chrome! So I am super happy.
I enjoyed my milanesas a lot, thank you.
I hope you could do the pool cleaning and you are not in much pain.
I had an active Saturday, with many house chores and then I baked a cake. We have not tried it yet but at least it looks good.
Also, I did a little work for my teaching, as on Tuesday we have the last exam.
So it was good but I am tired. Luckily we had some sandwiches for dinner so I do not need to work for that 

[Dina]

Here in my country, it is Friends Day! I will do a specific thread about this, but to my friends here in Weird, have a very HAPPY DAY!

[PilgrimDan]

*materialises and waves "hi"*

[Regenbogen]

Here in my country, it is Friends Day! I will do a specific thread about this, but to my friends here in Weird, have a very HAPPY DAY!

Happy friends day!

*materialises and waves "hi"*

Hi 


@all:
Sorry that I didn't write sooner. There was and still is birthday preparations, which go very slowly, because parallel I need to take the cat to the veterinary quite often now. She is living her last days. 
Her kidneys are very bad and her liver isn't better. There is cat- pee everywhere in the house and also sometimes little brown things that are not chocolate.
She can't walk straight any more, is very weak and doesn't eat and drink well. We'll see how she is during the weekend.

We are very sad and hope he can go without too much suffering.

On Monday I will get some more medicine and then we'll see.

[Dina]

((((PD)))) Hi!

@Regenbogen. thank you!
I am sorry to hear about your cat. My last cat, who died many, many years ago, had kidney failure in the end too. Apparently he was in not pain and it was more or less quick. It was very sad too, we loved him so much. But it is the circle of life and so on. The only thing you can do is make her feel comfortable and loved, so she can go to rest happily. The memories will be always with your family. I am sending you a big, big hug. I am sure you need one.

[Regenbogen]

Hi @all.
I told you about our old and sick cat. She died.  
On Sunday she got worse. Before that she could at least eat and drink from a spoon and she wanted to. On Sunday she wasn't able to get up any more and she couldn't even swallow her water when I put it into her mouth with a syringe.

We then decided to let her go and I planned to call the vet Monday morning to tell him, so he would put her to permanent sleep.

She was with us all afternoon and evening and when we went to bed we took her with us, because we didn't want to leave her alone on the sofa. In her condition she would have fallen down.

So she died at night in our bed.

I am glad we didn't need to put her down in the end. And that she went in her sleep in a peaceful and painless way.

She was the first cat we had who died of old age. All the others were hit by cars when they tried to cross the busy street to get to the fields with the best mice.

We are very sad. My best friend said something beautiful: now she is in heaven on my father's lap purring while he is petting her. At his foot is a dead mouse she brought as a gift.


I gave Blood Rites to my colleague and told her not to read the text on the backside of the cover, because there is a massive spoiler there. And after that I want to know, if she found out about who Thomas is on her own. LOL

[Dina]

Hi Regen! I am very sorry about your cat, but I think is lovely that she died surrounded by you. I am sure she felt so loved and it is also good that she died in her sleep. A good way to go, I'd say. And I am also glad you did not need to take her to the vet. It is horrible to make that decision. It was her time to rest, she deserved it.
I thought about her with your dad too but I did not picture a dead mouse 
Of course you are very sad! I am sending you a big, big hug.

About BR. When I was about 20 years old I stopped reading the backside of the books. I do not remember what specific spoiler was too much for me, but I decided enough is enough. Sometimes I read the blurb in internet but in general I try not to. Better safe than sorry.

Here weather is completely crazy. We had several very cold days and then we have super warm days (one day it was 27 C and so humid...it was sticky. Then we have normal cold days for winter. I have 7 C now, but they are forecasting 25 C for Sunday!

I am planning to do a short walk later following a Pokemon Go route. At heart, I am such a child  , I have fun with those things.

[Regenbogen]

@Dina.

Thank you for your kind words ((((hugs back))))
Did you have fun with Pokemon Go?

We've had rain and thunderstorms these last few weeks. The rain is much needed though. There will be heat again in August. I need some warm and dry days to put the big carpet out to dry after washing. I noticed it still smells of cat piss in some places.

Maybe we'll travel to Austria for a few days during the summer holidays. We want to see my husband's stepmother again. And make a trip to his home town, meet some relatives and jump into the lake. One can also take a boat. There is a beautiful view at the mountains in the middle of the lake.

We started to watch Strange New Worlds. I like it a lot.