New proof of how I am a control freak has recently surfaced. Yesterday, we went out and bought a new TV (more on that in a later post), a huge ass LCD TV with full HD and all that shazzam because apparently full HD is very important and HD-Ready is just utter crap and we CAN. NOT. HAVE IT.

So anyway, huge ass TV is brought home and carried up into the living room (I watched), and while Tor proceeds to hook it up, I take a look at the manual. And EGADS, the manual says PLASMA TV, which also is something that we CAN. NOT. HAVE. (and I totally agree because I read somewhere that Plasma TVs use a whole lot more power to run, and we’re trying to keep the electricity bills down).

Tor takes it easy. He tells me that honey, calm down, obviously they just gave us the wrong manual because we bought an unboxed model (NOK 4000 discount ftw). And I’m all NO, NO! They might have given us the right manual AND THE WRONG TV. So I proceed to call customer support and snarl at the automated voice telling me to press ooooneeee iiiif Iiiii waaant toooo heeeear iiif myyy stoooreee stooockssss a ceeeertaaain proooduuuuct, press twoooo iiiiif… Ok, you get my point. I press two because I have already bought a product. WRONG. Line goes silent. Voice starts again with press ooooneeee… I yell at it. Press two again. Line goes silent. Wait. Wait some more. Lousy music. Annoying voice tells me in a much too cheery voice that they will talk to me SOON! and that if I want I can go online and just find my answer there. I yell at it. Guy picks up, he’s Swedish. Swedish customer support guy tells me that hey, calm down, we just got you the wrong manual because you bought an unboxed TV.

I hang up, and breathe.

Yes, I failed in my project to clean the room my brother (who got accepted into the bachelor’s program in history, huzzah!) is going to rent. I managed to clear out 3-4 boxes and I moved some other stuff around, but most of the time was lost in looking through papers and throwing out many of them (like the confirmation slip that I passed the theoretical part of my driver’s test - goodness knows why I’ve held on to it for this long), and sorting stuff into smaller boxes to store on shelves. So - not much done, but what IS done is done pretty well. I can be organized if I really want to, I can, I can.

Today we are going to Ikea to pick up some stair gates for my parents’ house, so that Hera (puppy!) won’t fall down them. And no, she is not ours, she is my mom’s. We’re just her chauffeurs. We’re also picking up some picture frames for the library - my plan is to print stills etc from movies, frame them, and hang them up in no particular way. We already have two large, framed Lord of the Rings posters (Fellowship and Return of the King, no Two Towers yet), and I have some awesome postcards featuring artwork from Pan’s Labyrinth.

Then hopefully we’ll find the time this week to go to the gym. I’m starting to feel very unfit, bordering on flabby, and I’d much rather go to the gym and get a good workout, than resort to pills or similar, such as Phentermine.

Four more days to go and then it is holiday time! I can’t wait.

This is really silly, especially considering my age and everything, but I am a little afraid of going to bed all by myself. I mean, I go to bed all by myself somewhat often during weekends, because Tor will be out with friends, but then at least I know he’ll be home at 2 am at the latest. But not tonight, tonight I am all alone, and of course I had to go and begin reading a scary book (Heart-Shaped Box by Joe Hill), because I have no sense at all.

I keep hearing these noises all the time, and with our house being attached to the neighbour’s house, it is a little hard to determine where the sound is coming from. Also, I distinctly heard someone up on the roof (our roof is the neighbour’s balcony (which reminds me, we have to look at some patio furniture, preferrably before summer is over)), yet I was so sure the neighbours were on holiday.

And yes, I do have a unique ability to make myself even more scared than I start out being.

July 19th 2008 from Renate S on Vimeo.

While on the topic of video blogging, do you have a preference between Vimeo and Viddler? Why?

It seems that in the past couple of days, something like 2 out of 3 blog entries I have read have in some way or another featured the elusive Apple iPhone. People tell their tales of standing in line to get one, how they eventually got one, how awesome it is, what apps they are installing, how much more awesome that made it… It’s all iPhone.

People, please. Stop this madness! I am a very impressionable young girl with not a whole lot of money to throw around right now, but you are making me want to throw it SO MUCH. I mean, who needs food and housing anyway? I bet there’s an app for it, right? iEat and iLive.

Obviously this entry stems from jealousy. Being the closet Apple fangirl that I am, I crave the iPhone. However, given my current financial situation, I have to restrain myself and keep that money in my bank account for the rainy days ahead. Because as I am sure many of you have found, the iPhone does not come cheap, and neither does its usage plans. So far, only one Norwegian provider offers the iPhone, meaning that there essentially is no competition when it comes to price.

Any bets on how long it will take before I cave? I’m betting on sheer willpower to get me through this with my finances intact. My sensibility, let me show you it.

Sometimes (quite often, actually) I find myself missing my old life. You know, the life I had before I grew up and became the somewhat boring person I am today. My mom was telling me on the phone today that she hoped the cloudberries would be ready for picking when we come visit, because then she’d send us out to pick some, since she can’t (she’s recovering from surgery). And I found myself missing the time all those years ago when I would love going out to pick cloudberries and blueberries with my mom and my grandmother.

I also miss skiing. We never did that whole downhill, slalom kind of skiing, we did only cross-country skiing, just for the fun of it. We’d ski across the frozen lake, then make a fire on the other side and eat hot dogs and drink Solo (orange pop). The village would arrange a skiing cup every year, where everyone got trophies if they’d participated many enough times.

I miss playing in my room, and how I could take almost anything and make it into a piece of furniture or some much needed item for my Barbies and my ponies. I miss the imagination I had, how I could entertain myself for hours, all alone.

Do you miss your childhood?

For once, I’m not having a bad, dead tired morning. Usually I feel a bit dead when I wake up, almost on the verge of wanting to get a cup of coffee to wake me up, only I utterly hate the taste of coffee. I wish we could get one of those espresso machines with a milk steamer on, so that I could steam milk for hot chocolate every morning. So much easier (and faster) than boiling it.

Anyway, looking to be a good day so far. Now if only the sun would show its lovely face instead of all this cloudy, rainy weather… 7 more days of work (not counting the weekend, of course)!