I notice I have to make an effort to post at the moment. I apologise if this means I’m not posting as frequently as I ought. It’s partly that there is a lot of things to do at work, as well as a lot of staring blankly into space – or anything which, with the help of a little distraction, passes for space, such as my computer screen – thinking about a certain person. Not that I normally do a lot of posting from work. *Cough.* It is also partly that I never seem to be at home, or at least not alone, so there is none of the “I’m bored, let’s post something” time that I used to have.

There is, also, not all that much to write about. No. Strike that. There is a helluva lot to write about, too much, in fact. To quote another Norwegian blogger:

Å skrive om noen man er forelsket i er litt som å ha besøk av noen som sier “så.. la meg høre musikken du liker da”. Det blir liksom til at man bare må sette på Wilco, og så får man ta The Magnetic Fields og Ron Sexsmith og Smog og Yo La Tengo og R.E.M. og Low i dagene og månedene og årene som kommer.

(Or, in other words: “To write about the person you’re in love with is a bit like having a visitor who says “So… let me hear the music you like, then.” Which means you just have to put on Wilco, and then The Magnetic Fields and Ron Sexsmith and Smog and Yo La Tengo and R.E.M. and Low in the days, months and years following.” – except in my case the person would ask “So… read me some of the books you like, then”. 1001 nights ain’t in it.) So. There’s too much of that. And not enough of everything else. For the blog, that is. In real life there is certainly not too much of that. And there is too much of everything else. Like work. Which again affects the blog.

So you’ll just have to bear with me.

Voice in my head: Eddi Reader – The Exception

The new IKEA catalogue is here!

YAY!

And I’ve got two. Why? Has my reputation spread that far?

Voices in my head: The Style Council – You’re the Best Thing That Ever Happened

The Monday Mission – knowing for sure I’m beating Martin to it, as he’s over here on the couch being ignored…

1. Are you good at responding to emails and/or Blog comments?
I generally respond, yes, but to comments I tend to respond with a comment, so unless people come back to check, they might never see my response.

2. Does it make you crazy when people won’t reply to your emails even though you know good and well that they are reading them?
Yes.

3. I recently watched the FOX special “101 Things Removed from the Human Body” which was quite disgusting in a can’t-help-but-watch kind of way. It got me to thinking about many of the accidents I had as a child. I remember climbing over a fence after T-ball and catching my palm on the top of the chain-link fence. Went through my hand and tore it right open. What’s the most unusual thing you’ve had inside your body?
I used to have a pebble embedded in my knee. Come to think of it, it’s probably still there. Or somewhere else – like my heel. I dunno.

4. What person from your past would you most like to run into and visit with for an afternoon? Why them? What person would you like to not ever see again as long as you live? How come?
That’s at least two questions… Gertrude, though the chance of running into her is slim to non-existent as she’s living in South Africa (being from Zimbabwe originally). Still, it would be great to see her again. Who would I like to not see again, then? I honestly can’t think of anyone. There are a few people I’m completely indifferent to seeing, but none I’d go out of my way to avoid.

5. What was the last bad meal you (or your special someone) paid too much for? What’s the story there?
Can you ever pay less than too much for a bad meal? It’s been a while since I had a really bad meal out, actually. Oh, I know, that place down by Politihuset. I’ve been there twice – it had changed its name in the interval, but the food has been equally pricey and equally indifferent both times. It used to be called R?d Tomat, now it’s called Santinos or something like that.

6. If out-of-the-blue you were forced to find a new career, if there was just suddenly no need for your field of expertise, just what job do you imagine you would seek out? Do you have any skills you can “fall back on?”
I suppose I could go back to academia. Or I could start that combined pub and second-hand bookshop in Scotland that I’ve been talking about.

7. If you were to open up your own restaurant, what would it be called and what type of food would you serve? Describe the “feel” of the place (the decor, the music, etc).
Uhm. That pub. Traditional. It would obviously have to be called either The Robin Hood or something to do with whisky. The Pot Still? The food would be pub-grub, with some slightly more ‘exotic’ specials, I think. Music from a jukebox (the kind with singles, preferably) at a level which would mean people could talk. The paperback section of the bookshop could overflow into the pub, to provide people with reading material while they were there.

I was glancing at someone’s ‘100 things’ list the other day and realised I couldn’t remember what I’d put on mine, so I went back and read it. It’s outdated. So I’m working on a new one. Now, obviously, what I could have done is just update it, and keep the 80-90% that’s still valid. However, I’m not. I like making lists.

Voice in my head: Bjørn Eidsvåg – Drømmemann

Oh, dear. Just remembered it’s that time of year again. The time, that is, leading up to my mother’s birthday.

Yet again I have absolutely no idea what to get her.

To-do list for this evening:

– write a referrer script that actually does what I want it to do rather than what some other person thought was a good idea and install it on this site (this might come in handy)
– check the provided stats-pages for nmwl.no/sandlund.no and figure out whether said referrer script needs to be installed there as well
– consider the fem-fav script on nmwl.no – can I enable editing lists or is that a whole heap of trouble waiting to happen?
– buttons for the forum
– the small fish-tank needs some serious TLC
– watch program on Douglas Adams at 22:30 on STV2
– pay a little attention to Martin or he might give me up as a bad job altogether

We (the boyfriend and I) went to Arvika again this weekend – partly to make Linda dinner, the poor girl was working all weekend, but mostly to pick up the kilt.

Mmmm.

Pictures will be forthcoming, eventually. I was too preoccupied with staring and, well, you know, other things to remember to use my camera while he was all dressed up Saturday night, but I’m sure there’ll be another occasion pretty soon (if not, I’ll make one up).

Anyway, since I went home (alone) to do some much-needed tidying and cleaning-of-flat last night, I obviously ended up spending some time finding the other pictures I have of him. So, probably much to his dismay, there are a couple up in the gallery. I have a few more, but they are still unscanned slides, so don’t hold your breath.

The weekend was not all good: While cutting potatoes for the potato gratin I stuck the knife pretty firmly into my little finger. Miraculously I managed to avoid bleeding all over the food, I did, however, bleed over pretty much everything else. And it still hurts. Ow. And itches, obviously.

But otherwise, pretty good.

Go me!

Ha!

(Imagine the rest of the space filled with similar triumphant exclamations. The problem with the database was exactly what I suspected it to be and it now works beautifully. I even got a hug from one of ‘our’ doctors. They’re starting courses next week and were imagining trying to explain away the 17 minutes it took to log in. Of course, having fixed the speed I got around to a little testing and found an error that REALLY needs fixing before the courses start. But then, I rock, so of course I’ll get it fixed.)

1. How much time do you spend online each day?
As I’m online at work… 8-10 hours, I guess.

2. What is your browser homepage set to?
At work: nettavisen, on the laptop and at home to my own index page.

3. Do you use any instant messaging programs? If so, which one(s)?
Msn (msn at sandlund dot net). I’m listed on ICQ as well, but I’ve deinstalled it as it took up too much processing power and msn is enough…

4. Where was your first webpage located?
At the University of Trondheim student server. The address was something like http://www.stud.ntnu.no/~ragsan, though this was before the university changed its name to NTNU, so I assume it must have been avh-something… Way back when, this was – I think I set up my first webpage in the autumn of 1995.

5. How long have you had your current website?
I moved from virgin.net’s server to my own domain when I moved back to Norway, so… autumn 2001 – about two years. It’s had its current design only since this spring, though.