morning

morning :)

How was your weekend?

uneventful I guess... shopped a little bit on saturday when stuff opened up, stayed at home on sunday

yours? :)

christmas tree is still standing btw :D

we were originally going to box it this weekend, but I guess we'll do it the next one

and it's kinda nice waking up to glittery lights <3

not a fan of dark winters :(

You let the lights on all night? Or is it on a timer? ;)

nah, I press a button :P

I had my parents over to help with some cleaning and other DIY stuff on Saturday. Did mostly nothing yesterday, except sort out papers.

it's hooked up to remote control, so once I get the glitchy base station fixed, I could set it to light up together with the alarm

Ah, that's a possibility too of course.

I will probably get a reusable Christmas tree next year, after Christmas ;)

gonna get a Raspberry Pi 4 once it's in stock again, try to hook everything up to that

yeah, we got one of those for this christmas :)

we got one of those snowy ones... glad we didn't go for the heavily snowed one, as this one already sheds a tiny bit

mostly when the roomba decides to ignore the no go zone and bump up against it though :x

Hahaha first world problems ;)

yes, I realise that when I'm typing it :P

but neither of us enjoys vacuuming, so last black friday we got a fancy i7+

I will probably not get a snowy one, or a very big one. I have no room for a really big tree. I think I'll do like we always do with ours at home too: Put it up on a crate (then cover that with a snow blanket), so the tree seems 30-40 higher than it actually is :P

I think our regular vacuum cleaner now sees like 10% of her former use, mostly nooks and crannies, and the occasional spill

think ours is about 1m85, pretty reasonable size

Nice! A roomba (or something like it) is still on my list as well, I would love one that can just vacuum under the bed each day instead of having to get on my knees and use a Swiffer XD

lol, sounds like a nice setup :)

just keep in mind it does have a height, so you gotta have like 10cm clearance

I think our tree is ~150cm, with the crate is just as big as yours :P

it does not get underneath our couch for that reason, moved it this weekend to hang a frame and found... well... new life forms

:D

Yep, got that much space under the bed.. and the couch too :D

nice :)

considering putting the couch up on blocks so the roomba can get underneath now

@MiG Gross XD

I move mine every other week, on floor-mopping day :)

literally actually... we have this plant that produces baby plants by the thousands, and drops them at the slightest bump

Hahaha

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalanchoe_daigremontiana - literally called 'mother of thousands' :x

so they end up beneath the couch, together with dust bunnies

Oh, that's a subspecies of kalanchoe that I hadn't seen before! It looks fun :)

we ran into it at the Hortus Botanicus in Leiden last year, figured it would make a nice addition :)

ours is fully green btw, hadn't seen the purple one before

I should visit the Hortus again someday. Been there a few times while I was studying in Leiden, but never since...

it's pretty nice, both in summer and winter

and there's a small restaurant that you can enter without an entrance ticket, so also good to just drop by and have a drink at

think we went in june or so

I never went as just a 'regular' visitor XD

First time I was there was during the introductory week, after that I went once or twice as part of study trips

oh right, it does of course serve a function for the university :D

what did you study there? :)

Archaeology, with a Master's in heritage management and museum studies. The latter was taught by this guy and he took us to the Hortus because that's where the collection of antique statues first started/was housed.

oh cool! The museum of antiquities is also on the list of places to visit, went there only once a decade ago so must revisit :)

what's your favourite historic period?

Don't really have one to be honest. But I like mummified bodies of all periods ;)

oh dear :D

It's just interesting to look at, and realize that sometimes it's just amazing luck that preserves things like that, and at other times a huge amount of effort. And I like how much information you can get from those, and I dunno, they're a bit more fascinating than just bones.

And from a museum studies perspective, there's an interesting thread of thought to be had with regards to exhibiting any kind of human remains.

can't choose either tbh, but I love reading about ancient civilizations of many periods as much as WW2 and the cold war, and having an engineering degree means the industrial revolution is both a fascinating and dirty (from a health and human rights perspective) period of time :)

Somehow people are more squeamish about that than about exhibiting other animals ;)

you sound like my gf :x

they're not open to visitors, but there's this body farm in the US she would love to visit

research into the decay process of human remains under varying circumstances, probably knowledge useful for conservation as well :)

I once visited Amsterdam with mom, and we discussed going into the 'body worlds' exhibition for a while. Eventually, she didn't want to but it's still on my list.

yeah, on gf's list as well... I'm not sure yet :P

it doesn't have my primary interest, but I'm not squeamish in any way, so I'll tag along I guess (:

I wouldn't call mom squeamish either, but she just found that many bodies in an exhibition weird and wanted to do something more 'fun and light'.

I guess she thought of the exhibition more like a graveyard, with the associated demeanour.

funny thing is I do actually look up old graveyards when I travel, they tend to make for gorgeous photos and there's something peaceful about them

especially in highly catholic countries like Poland and Italy, where people continue to actively maintain the graves of their ancestors, including keeping them neat and supplied with flowers... looks beautiful

was going to visit the one in Brooklyn when I went to NYC, sadly they had changed the opening hours :(

Old graveyards do have something about them that's nice, I agree.

especially during sunrise or sunset

I don't really know about that, can't remember visiting at those times.

you get this low, more golden light that creates long shadows

:D That does sound pretty, I know that kind of light from the forest :)

wish we could travel freely again :(

You can, within limits :P

I meant without the limits :P

There are always limits!

Money, time :P

we were hoping to do a family visit to India in a month, but there's a significant risk that at that point in time there'll be COVID developments, and we'll either not be allowed in, get stuck in quarantine for two weeks over there (although nobody seems to enforce that over there), unable to travel back here, or get stuck in quarantine over here... All of these would be a problem job wise :(

You can't be a 'digital nomad' for a while?

I can sort of, but she can't

Ah... yeah that doesn't work then :)

part of the job involves physical documents (yes really, in the 21st century)

how old-fashioned :P

I've been said digital nomad for the past two years, working fully from home... but apparently working abroad for an extended period causes trouble with insurance, pension stuff etc

Hmm. I guess so, but that should be a really long period then, shouldn't it?

it's a money thing, they could replace all the older equipment with fancy digital versions, but they prefer to stick to that for a while :|

I've had coworkers work from France for 2 months last year...

(Though perhaps EU vs India is different too)

dunno, but I'm also concerned about getting stuck with huge KLM vouchers if we have to cancel, prices are rising

Schengen btw does not necessarily mean everything transfers iirc

Yeah, to be safe it's better to postpone...

yeah :(

oh well, at least shops are open again

now restaurants, museums and music venues and I'll be semi happy :P

Talking about shops... I should call the hairdresser for an appointment this afternoon.

made an appointment one week ago for saturday, I no more look like a hobo :P

Hahaha

Long hair is easier to hide, I just roll everything up in a bun and you don't see the ugly ends ;)

But mine can really use a proper cut as well. I'm probably getting rid of a good 20cm, as it's really too long now.

I'd check right away then, they may have few spots available already

They don't open until 1PM ;)

ah of course, monday mornings

And I first have a meeting from 1-2, so I'm probably going to call after that.

good luck then :x

there may still be a huge backlog... my appointment on saturday also ran almost half an hour late

Oh, I'm in no hurry. If I have to wait a month, I'll wait another month XD

I just need to arrange things today, then it can be taken from my to-do list ;)

hell no, I wanted to leave my Sons of Anarchy days behind me :P

Hahaha well I'm used to going once a year or less, because my hair doesn't need that much cutting.

hehe, got a pretty big one for this week as well... couple of big meetings to prepare for, report to finish and then there's all the running stuff :(

So, usually I go a week or three before Christmas

lol, people would probably give me coins if I let my hair grow for a year :x

Oh, and ordering an at-home test as part of a 'bevolkingsonderzoek'

that's a pretty concise list then :)

Yeah, I don't like big lists :P

I could put more on it... I just refuse to :P

me too, made a 2 page list of single lines with tasks on everything that's open (from the next couple of weeks to the next couple of years)... looking at that one stresses me out a bit

and thanks to IBS the first hours after waking up usually involve anything from discomfort to downright pain, so that messes schedules up quite a bit :(

On the medium term list there's a visit to IKEA, to the local DIY store, and more cleaning/sorting of stuff left in boxes.

been to IKEA on saturday :)

On the looong term there's just saving up enough to pay for the veranda when it arrives somewhere in June ;)

And probably getting garden furniture and the front yard sorted out.

got a giant pile of cardboard in the basement from our move to this place a year ago (!) that I still need to clear out

nice, covid or not at least you get to hang outside :)

we just have this in building balcony that doesn't get much sunlight :(

Oh, the backyard probably won't get much sunlight either, that will be the front yard. Which is why I need to drop by the local DIY store and get both insect and sun screens sorted ASAP ;)

I also still have three big boxes of cardboard left, I might try and just slowly get rid of it through the paper waste bin. I could also pack everything up in the car and just drive it off to one of those locations where they collect the old paper for charity... but effort XD

(also, that place is only open on Saturday mornings until noon, which is waaaay too early :P)

don't you have municipal cardboard and paper pickup? They come by here once every 2 weeks

mijnafvalwijzer.nl

this is national I think, just fill out your postal code and number, and it'll list pickup times

Nope. We get a 'blue bin', that's emptied every 4th Saturday of the month.

ah alright :)

I have the app for that site, it's handy as it gives notifications. Our green bin is emptied every other week on Monday and the grey bin every other week on Tuesday, which confuses me XD

I see my house number is finally there too!

inner city trash (pun intended), so we only have centralised collection in the basement and at the front door :)

I've been using a neighborhood house number as mine was unknown to the app XD

@MiG Yeah, makes sense. Village here :P

sigh, I guess like a lot of these companies they use old address databases

it's so damned easy to pull the newest one automatically now, there is no excuse

There are a few underground bins near apartment complexes here, but most are still getting the regular bins.

yeah, same for my parents

@MiG Not that old... I've been living here since Nov 6th, and it took them 3 weeks after that to get me my bins. So I guess that means I should've been in the database since late November/early December? I just never checked again XD

it's person independent, the address I'm sure existed before you moved in :)

The upstairs neighbors here don't want to use their sheds for their bins, so they conjured up a plan to put the bins on the path to their 'front door' (which leads to a stairs where they can go up to their second 'front door'). I'm still not fond of the idea, but there is exactly 1 drawing out there that seems to indicate the ground underneath that path 'belongs' to those upstairs apartments, instead of being ground with a 'recht van overpad' for the ground floor apartments

ew, property law

Yep.

well, we're renting and we're not on the ground floor, so I guess we have little to add there :P

As ground floor neighbors we reluctantly agreed they could, but they are obliged now to put the bins at the sidewalk end of the path (not the front door end), and to get one of those 'sheds' built around it so it doesn't look too messy

wouldn't be happy either having to look at trash bins... but I can also imagine it should stay practical for everyone

just make sure the smell doesn't bother you whereever you prefer spending time outside

i.e. that the trash bins are away from there :)

Yeah, that's one of the reasons we said no bins near the front door, as one neighbor's front door is right next to my bedroom window.

To be honest, I would think the shed is more practical than having them on the street side where every random hooligan can set them on fire... I am definitely putting mine locked away in the back yard as soon as I have tiles for that exact reason.

set them on fire? :D

Or tip them over.

ew :x

always a couple of asshole kids I suppose

Yep. Though don't discard adults, there's a pretty group of perpetually drunk or high football hooligans in this pretty town XD

It's an affordable place to live, and I have my friends/family near.... but there are definitely downsides XD

Mould? :D

@Tinkeringbell If things go horribly wrong, we have a experimental centralised pnumatic trash clearance system in the new place

@JourneymanGeek Definitely. The contractor should be coming by on Thursday to take a look...

I keep finding spots though, I now think there's also some in a corner in the kitchen :/

the roomba is still so much fun \o/

just sent it off to vacuum the bedroom and bathroom, and off it goes :)

Hahaha