Demolition work started at eight in the morning. Digger operator must have a heart for all those elderly people around. Aren´t many here which are not yet in retirement. Another reason that work started late was that it is so dark already in the morning. Today I got up at seven fifteen and had to turn the lights on for the walk down to the kitchen. Prepared breakfast, read the newspaper, did a tricky sudoku. I did care little about the noise outside, but the cats of our neighbours did. They came from the terrace, from the entrance door, sat on the windowsills and meowed loudly to be let in. Only Fini stayed at home, which is good. Fini is the bane of all other cats here- taller, fatter, very dominant. I´ve seen only one fight she did not win- it was the fight for the salmon´s skin. So one cat after another entered, got petted, got a goodie meant for Sony, left, came back soon after. Maybe they wanted to watch me finish the cat scarf, probably it was too loud for them outside or the digger blocked their hunting grounds- how would I know! But it´s nice to have cats for petting without having to feed them!
Today was a very nice day. Sunny, warm (20 degrees), and since the cats wanted in anyway the terrace door stayed open until four in the afternoon, when the sun hid behind the range of hills. After lunch I was off in my car to buy a book in the bookstore, which they needed to order. So nothing new then. I now know why so many people order at Amazon. Had I done so, the book would be here in our house on Monday. In the shop it´s Tuesday, and only if I am lucky. And I have to drive- again. I am pretty sure that the new tax for parcels our government established will only go into the public purse but won´t help local traders...
Back home I stitched the cat head onto the scarf and darned in the last threads. The picture I will take tomorrow. Hubby has sent me one, but things are acting up again, my mobile won´t let me open LJ and hides all Whatsapp photos from my PC. Not even the path hubby sent me to follow does work anymore. I think I want a new mobile...

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Rain started during night. Usually, I will get a decent sleep then, because I love the sound of raindrops hitting the roof of the carport. Well, not today- hubby insisted that he needed to close the bedroom window- it was too cold, he said. We had twelve degrees during night. The night before we had been down to four, and he did not complain. I should insist on separate bedrooms! I already dread those long months of winter and early spring, when the windows will stay closed all night long, and all I will get will be hubby softly or not so softly snoring!

Rain did not go away until late afternoon. Hubby harvested three apples I had overseen (the only ones with no tiny caterpillars aka butterflies-to-be inside) and came back in, spreading mud all over the tiles. At least I had a job to do when he was off to do grocery shopping. Even knitting did not work out as it should have- when I measured the scarf yesterday it had the length I needed. Over night that darn thing must have shrunk and I had to add twenty more rows. Besides, it was a rather dark day and knitting needs light, especially when black yarn is involved. It got better in the afternoon, so I skipped my after-lunch nap and unsettled hubby by keeping up my knitting. At least, one paw and the tail got finished. Son number three called in the early afternoon and invited his family for the holidays. With DiL2 and her prodigy off to Romania I thought hubby and I would finally have a quiet Halloween evening, with only a few youngsters coming for trick-or-treating. Now family number three will act as a substitute. Elsa can very well vocally replace her absent cousins…

BTW: Hubby forgot to tell me that Flavius missed his second cello lesson yesterday afternoon. His mum found him covered with pustules in the morning and had his poor brother walk back home from clarinet lesson all alone, to be able to stay with her youngest. That is a long walk, indeed! Well, hubby would have gladly picked the boy up to bring him home! Now DiL is very upset that the mysterious illness might spread over to Cassian after incubation period. With a skin like this he would not be allowed to board a plane. This would be a veritable disaster (even though Cassian has made it clear that he wants to stay at home). Poor girl was up at an ungodly hour- she posted on FB at nine, probably sitting in the waiting room of their paediatrician. She did not tell us which illness has befallen her son, and what to expect for the near future. Maybe her sister, a make-up artist, can give her tips how to cover those pustules with make-up!

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...it was a good day. Only a bit of housework, my friend´s (private) hairdresser came over to give me a haircut. I tried her out for the first time but was not impressed, given the price and the outcome. My hair looks just as it had before- mostly missing! I cleaned the upper bathroom, especially the window area, so that I finally was able to place back the freshly potted orchids, one of them still dying. The monstera was due to a proper pruning- too big, in danger of tipping over, yellowing leaves because of not enough light from the window (thanks to orchids not dying quickly enough). I was not able to locate my garden shears, which was strange, because I had given them a safe heaven in one of the drawers of my table for seasonal decoration. When I remembered where I might find them it was too dark already to do a proper searching- hubby had painted the table grey like the rest of the wood on and around the house and must have taken the shears out to hoard them in the garage from then on. Since he was off all afternoon long to groom the family grave for All Saint- sister dearest had promised to do this work this year, but hubby, self-proclaimed groundskeeper, would not let this happen- I was not able to question him. And I definitely was not ready to dwell in the dark garage for too long- spiders, spiders, and even more spiders in search of a dry, warmer place for hibernating! The Lord of the shears- hubby would like that title! He can bear it until tomorrow, when I will confiscate what is mine!
I boxed what was left of today´s lunch for tomorrow and did what I like best at the moment- knitting! The scarf is 110 centimetres now and will get hind legs and a tail tomorrow. Well, maybe not all of it! Then I will have to ponder about how to do the cat face. There will be white, even though Sony is mostly grey. I definitely will not do an early tour to the shopping centre beyond the border to get dark grey wool. Light grey I found aplenty in my wool container, there´s a bit of dark grey left from the body of the scarf, so white and black highlighting will take place to fill in the rest. There´s not a lot of time left, before Flavius will leave for Bucharest, and he so wanted a cat scarf, too, since Cassian won´t share his one! And I also won´t have to do a trip to Ikea for new boxes- hubby gave me two he had accidentally hoarded in the basement. Accidentally, Haha! Now clue where those came from, but they have the right colour and will do, even though they need a bit of airing...
BTW: Airing was what DiL wanted to do with the suitcases. Only that she was not able to open them, which was strange, because hubby had already aired them. A bit. Turned out that the boys had been playing with the combination locks. We had to wait for daughter to return home and tell us the numbers, because she had been the one who had set them...

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MOMENTANER AUFENTHALTSORT: studio
STIMMUNG: confused
MUSIK: Janáček sinfonietta- only to remind me why I don´t like his compositions

Dil2 is in need...

...of suitcases. Always ours, I think the family possesses not a single acceptable one. Those they have must have come direectly from Romanian ancestors or a flea market, so worn and ugly they are. This morning DiL called to tell us she´d pick the green suitcases up, poison green suitcases daughter got for her year abroad in Finland. Easy to locate on a baggage conveyor belt at the airport. That was until we noticed that a lot of people thought the same and bought similar colours. That´s how we came into possession of rather modern but dead-ugly suitcases, which are not so easy to locate, because many people have the same...
As usual, DiL was late. She must have come for her progeny at the last possible moment, just before after school care locked up their entrance door. She rang the bell, took the suitcases and wanted to leave quickly, before we would ask her awkward questions about her tip to Bucharest. It did not work, because she had not added the boys into the equation. The moment the car stopped they loosened their seatbelts and were out of the car and swarming the house, happily declaring their undying love for their grandparents (especially me). I have to admit that it sounded strange. They will be off next Thursday, plenty of opportunities to get deposited at our house for mummy to be finally able to pack!
Otherwise it was a quiet day with a bit of housework but mostly knitting along. Good that Cassian had his scarf with him and I was able to measure its length- half of it done already! After the boys were off I finally tackled the problem with the knitted sweaters and cardigans. I have way too many of them, but until today I wasn´t able to part with some. Today I sorted them by colour then kept the prettier one. One big bag ready to go to the clothing drive and lots of room now in the wardrobe. Unfortunately one of the boxes supposed to hold the summer clothing ripped and was a case for the dustbin then. Which forces me to do a trip to Ikea and buy a new, same one. Those boxes are kept on top of my wardrobe and I do not want a hotchpotch of different ones!
Hubby made a fundamental error when he hung up the freshly washed clothing on the terrace. Half an hour later the farmer who is supposed to have given all cows away manured his field. When hubby took the drying rack in, the whole living room stank of manure- laundry is back to the washing machine, and I will take a look into the farmer´s stable building the next days. People here must have a wanton imagination or simply tell lies. No cows in the stable, ha!
LJ is definitely blocked on my mobile, and I have no clue why. It works on my PC, it works on my tablet, albeit slow. I really, really hate my mobile...

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Day three of early morning drives meant that I was mostly ill-tempered all day long, constantly hungry and otherwise useless. I had come back home at five in the morning, was no more able to fall properly asleep (half an hour of sleep, twice interupted by a walk to the loo, do not count) and finally got up at seven thirty. Hubby was the first victim of my bad temper- he had just started to make his Sunday breakfast with scrambled eggs. I really do not like that smell at such an hour, especially after not enough sleep! No housework for me today, I preferred a bit of knitting and left things as they were- there wouldn´t be any visitors today. And if there were I´d frighten them away. Flavius´s scarf has front paws now and some real scarf part already. The problem is that I am in need of more wool, which I always buy in a shop on the other side of the border. A shop I have been to just a few days ago, when I had not yet noticed that I needed more of the wool. That´so typical! I definitely will have to wait until the end of the month, when a next drive to this shopping centre will be on my menue. Besides, the boys will be off from next week on, so no need to hurry. Flavius won´t be here to bemoan that Cassian has a cat scarf while he has not...
To add insult to injury hubby told me that I had to be the one to pick daughter up at the airport, because he needed more time for cooking. So I fried my chicken breast early, poored wine over it and let it simmer, while husband dearest turned the content of our freezer upside down, because he could not find the spaetzle. My head threatened to explode because of all the freezer´s beeping (too warm, too warm!), the kitchen had turned from moderately warm to quite cool and my temper flared quite hotly. Besides, the roast venison had begun to spread its scents all over the house, and there´s only one scent I hate more, that of cauliflower cooking. Yuck, yuck, yuck! At one thirty I was at the airport to bring daughter home for lunch. Then we rested in front of the TV while watching some obscure documentation about mountain lakes, which suffered greatly because of too many hikers visiting. Mind you, visiting, mostly passing by only, because ten degrees aren´t exactly inviting for bathing in the lakes. Since there had been only minimal garbage been found in and around the lakes, harm must have come because of the hot looks of those hikers...
Later in the afternoon hubby stoked up a fire, since it was quite cool then, only ten degrees with no sun but plenty of clouds, like last night, when we ought to see Northern lights, alas, it was clouds and rain only. At least they told us just in time that there might be auroral lights to be seen...
Daughter got brought back to her flat by hubby at six in the evening. She took with her what was left of the roast venison and lots of other goodies (that´s why she needed a car to get back home). Since I still have half of a roast chicken breast left, hubby will have to warm himself Frankfurter for tomorrw´s lunch- I am unwilling to do cooking for the next days. There has been too much of it going on the last week...

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Flavius came to the bedroom at four in the morning- he had peed onto his pyjama bottoms when in the loo. A new pyjama it was, but the boy refused to return to his bed but climbed into ours instead. Where he slept until six thirty three, when Cassian entered the stage. Good that the boy can read the time, because hubby has confiscated the sun- moon clock, since he found it blaring at top volume last night, because Cassian had turned the music on. We had breakfast at seven, and Cassian had three!!! rolls with jam. Since the weather will get wonky from the afternoon on we used the morning for swimming (and reviewing maths, but only the older boy) then cooking. I still wonder- when I was a child a snack in the morning was a banana or an apple. The boys had a big banana each, grapes and two mini muffins today, yet were demanding lunch from twelve o'clock on. I had made peanut chicken with ramen noodles, but lunchtime is and will be at one at the earliest. Bad enough that hubby as well as I are in bed now at ten in the evening- too tired to stay up longer. BTW: Hubby has injured his ankle by tripping and cutting it. It gets worse each day, but he does not go to a doctor. Well, maybe now, since I told him that one of his favourite (local) actors got his foot amputated because of an infection gone awry...

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First of all- I almost did not make it to Flavius´s birthday party. My stomach decided not to behave and I already wanted to call son, when daughter gave me some pills and I finally felt better. At son´s there were a lot of children and a family I had never met before. Turned out the mother was from Romania, hence the constant use of Romanian language done by DiL. We brought son a pumpkin for carving. Turned out that he did not need one, because DiL got her way and will leave for Bucharest on the 22nd. Cassian will miss two days of school- holidays will start on October 24th only. Son will stay at home, as should have the rest of the family, but no. I told hubby quite amused that I had won the next bet between us, and Dil was not amused. Her friend talked German a bit better than DiL does, but when she told that she was teaching at a nearby school I had to ask hubby how this was even possible- shouldn´t teachers here be perfect in German? No wonder that Dil thinks that speaking German language is largely overrated! We left at six, when the first children got picked up by their parents. By then I was half deaf and had a veritable head ache...
This morning hubby picked the boys up at eleven, to take them to Smyths Toys and exchange daughter´s birthday present for her nephew- he had gotten the same by a friend. Flavius opted for another package of Kinetic sand- blessedly they had a rather big selection. Then they picked daughter up at the airport, hubby delivered the boys, and just when I put the salmon into the frying pan they were here. Hubby hated the cross skin, while daughter and I loved it. So he put his outside for the cats. One hour later we had a huge catfight on the terrace, neighbour´s Finele heavily involved. But the winner was the grey cat, usually off when Finele aka Baronin enters the stage. Not this time, apparently there´s nothing better than salmon skin for grey cat!
At four in the afternoon sister mine and her husband came, discussing music and theatre for more than two hours with hubby, while I twiddled my thumbs- for me there are more urgent topics to discuss, which mostly involve common sense and bodily work, which isn´t sister´s forte. Honestly, sis and I are sitting on two different ends of a spectrum, but it has always been this way.
Last night daughter gave me a gummi bear with melatonin so that I´d be able to fall asleep quickly. Had to be taken one hour before I planned to drop off. Only that it was intent on lulling me to sleep after a few minutes, which I did not want, because I had not yet finished the story I had been reading. And when I wanted to doze off I was no more able to and even less so, because hubby came to the bedroom early. With hubby in the room falling asleep is really hard, he is a windmill personified. Not good, since I had to get up at three in the morning. I will give the gummi bears another try this evening. Maybe it will work correctly this time...

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Until today we got spared of too much rain and cold. Even today we had sun and nice temperatures, which made enduring this time of the year so much easier. But after lunch, just during our after-lunch resting in front of the TV, strong winds came up, and it got considerably cooler even inside, because the window of the TV nook was wide open to let the pleasing sun-warmed air in. No more warmth for some days, I fear. The building work at neighbour´s came to a stop, when the rain filled the pit so quickly that for some time it looked like a giant swimming pool-to-be. Which makes me wonder why the new houses will have a basement at all, when all people living here got told that no insurance will insure their basements because of high possibility of flooding. Besides, the old building (still standing) did not have one either...
At four in the afternoon daughter decided that we needed candles to make the day brighter. I think that she really enjoys to be at home for a few days, even though her old room is in a shambles. At least we managed to sort out her clothing- two more bags for the clothing drive, change the bedding and shake the carpets. And now that hubby has finally managed to bring down the last box with winter clothes there might soon be a third bag- more of my summer shirts will go, since I haven´t used them all summer long, because too narrow, too wide, wrong colour, wrong cut. You know how this goes! But I noticed that I will have to do a purchase of jumpers, sweatshirts and one or two new slacks. Slacks which I can wear inside and outside the house. Formal trousers I seem to have aplenty but hate them all...
Since last night had been a hectic one due to the consumption of Krautsuppe by three people I will have to quit prime time programme today and go to bed earlier than usual (or I won´t be able to watch dumb FB reels)- three early morning drives are looming ahead. Then there´s the thing with Flavius´s birthday party tomorrow. We are invited and as grandparents have to attend (so DiL says). But seeing the same people, carefully picked out by her, and hearing the pack of children turn the house upside down makes me wonder why we always surrender to her whims instead of simply giving the boy his presents, have a cup of coffee (sans cake) then kiss the boy goodbye and leave. It would be so much easier on our sense of hearing! And honestly, neither birthday boy nor his brother won´t mind, because they´ll be so occupied with taking the house down!

Current Mood: pensive
Current Location: studio
Current Music: sound of silence

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...to KIK? Daughter had wanted to buy a present for Flavius´s birthday, but the shop had neither acceptable boy´s wear nor toys. Instead they now run a full assortment for crafting, just like Tedi, only more expensive. Yet I bought two small bags of buttons in decent colours (white, old pink, beige and pigeon) for crafting. We paid (well, daughter did- one had to pay cash, because some idiot killed the EC device, which just got repaired) and were almost out of the shop when I saw the glittering tree I always had wanted but never got (because I am always late at Christmas deco shopping). It went straight into my car, which is very glittery now, because the tree toppled over during the drive back home. I won´t tell hubby, because he´d bring forth the vacuum cleaner, but the boys will love all that glitter...
Otherwise my day was rather bland. A bit of house cleaning, a lot of cooking (or better, cutting), crossword puzzles, that´s all. I really had to overcome my weaker self to dress adequately and get out of the house after napping. Though I did not nap but crocheted another pumpkin while watching TV. Something about Eland antelopes and Drakensberg Mountains. The most interesting aspect was the a capella soundtrack. Isingizi´s music sounds definitely captivating. I might buy the CD at Amazon, if only to irritate hubby- definitely not the sort of music he likes to listen to!

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Yesterday building work at a neighbour´s property started, and guess who came out of hiding, just as if the excavator had unearthed him? Idiot neighbour number one, who was rarely to be seen for weeks but came out of the house and watched the proceedings all day long. Because he is so loved in the neighbourhood neighbours had a plan- they brought an old garden chair to the construction site and put it next to the property, with idiot neighbour´s name on it. At least he can sit down when he is watching building work progressing. That man is such a nosy parker, when something with a connection to constructing is going on, only that no one wants him near a building site. I vividly remember the site foreman of a nearby construction area who had to call the police, because idiot neighbour had been entering the building site without permission and was watering the concrete of the block of flats-to-be, because no one else did it. Now guess why no one did the watering? Today´s concrete can handle a bit of warmth, and the old idiot is still stuck to his working days a long time ago, when there hadn´t been additives to the concrete. The police arrived with blue lights switched on, water was dripping from the first floor, there was a lot of shouting and idiot neighbour running to get away. I was no eye witness but an ear witness and had aching ab muscles because of too much laughing for days. Unfortunately, idiot neighbour did not show up today. Probably his family confined him to the house, knowing that him being on construction sites spells trouble. His seat stayed vacant today, but there´s always tomorrow…

So today was a day filled with lots of noise from outside again. Had already anticipated it but this won´t help when one tries to sleep in a bit- having to get up at three is hard on old women! Granted, there wasn´t much housework to do, but cooking alone can be a pest if one is tired. Besides, I noticed that I had bought salsiccia with rosemary, just the one I do not like much. My bad! Daughter was back after work and will stay at our house a couple of days- more early shifts, plus she, too, is fleeing from construction work at the block she lives in. She says it´s way worse than the sounds of an excavator excavating. Then there´s the lift out of order, which means climbing stairs, lots of- daughter lives on the seventh floor! At least daughter can help with cooking- hubby has bought minced meat and cabbage and kraut for Krautsuppe, her absolute favourite. This means a lot of chopping she can do, since hubby shredded the Moulinex I used for cutting cabbage. Accidentally, of course, yet he never bought a replacement…

denise posting in

dw_maintenance

It's only been... okay, I don't want to think how long.

We are preparing to take the beta update page and the beta inbox out of beta with the next code release. We don't have an exact date yet, but this is your last chance to tell us about problems!

To enable the beta versions: go to Beta Features and enable the "new Create Entries" beta test for the new update page and the "New Inbox Page" for the, well, new inbox page.

If this is your first time using the beta update page: nearly everything on it can be adjusted, moved, or removed to some degree. The upper right side of the update form has a " ⚙️ Rearrange Panels" link.

Not every panel is enabled by default! If you don't see something you're used to finding, look in the disabled panels. While in Rearrange mode, you can enable or disable panels, drag them to whatever position you want, and generally customize it to your heart's content.

Once we push the button and switch to the new update and inbox pages for everyone, we cannot keep the old ones available. We are so close to finishing the decade-long "get rid of the undocumented custom templating language from 1996 that no one else uses" modernization project that's been sapping our collective will to live that we can taste it, and we can't convert the old update page and the updated inbox page is the converted version. This is your last chance to alert us of problems. If you let us know after the switch goes live, we'll still fix it, but we can't guarantee how fast. Prevent future problems and test drive them now!

la_samtyr

Alex Ovechkin has announced that he will retire after this season. If you haven't seen him play, this is your last chance to see him. And who knows? Maybe you'll see him get another goal!

Current Mood: excited

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The morning was spent with housework- add preparing the guest bed to the list. Hubby brought the boys for lunch. From then on - pure chaos. Today was siren and alarm testing day. From twelve to one we had all sorts of alarms. Worst were the ones sent by mobile, those lasted three minutes each. Three minutes of ear torture...
We ate soup, Weißwürste and Brezen. My stomach does not tolerate Weißwürste, but the boys love them. We forewent resting and started with decorating. Never let youngsters decide about where to place certain items- the skeletons are not in the frames I wanted to put them. Those are where they put in the spiders. Skeletons are sitting on cupboards and the buffet.
Will have to navigate around them when dusting, but I will manage. I had to clean some windows, where they wanted to put stickers. DiL sent the boys with a package of Fimo and water colours. I had modelling mass bought at Tedi which will harden, too, but was coloured already. We made pumpkins, ghosts and bats. Put everything in the conservatory and hope they can take it home tomorrow. Their father is supposed to pick them up around lunch time, means I will have to do a proper cooking. Meh... Then I sent hubby and the boys outside, went upstairs and nursed my bad stomach. Hubby promised to do dinner for the two. Now let's see how that goes...

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...a bag with artificial flowers, leaves and pumpkins. I had taken it out of the box with Halloween decoration, ready to put it into the vases in the upper bathroom. Then the boys came, and I forgot. This morning, me more energetic than usual and up since seven, I saw one of those little pumpkins placed upon one of the decorated lanterns and remembered. Only that the bag was nowhere to be found. That was until I brought the rubbish bag to the bin. And there it was, ´safely´ stored next to old bike tubes and other waste. I was very much ready to throttle my husband, especially since he frankly said it had been one of the boys. As if they had ever put any rubbish bag in there! I carefully pulled the bag out and saved what could be saved. It wasn´t about the leaves and pumpkins, those could easily be replaced, but not the flowers made of ceramic- DiL and number three gave them to me as a Thank You, because I had stepped in as a witness to their marriage. I have to remind myself to never put things into a bag which reminds hubby of a garbage bag, even if said bag is in or next to a box with decoration. According to him those always go into the bin, no matter what´s inside. At least I was able to save some of the flowers, but half of them were already smashed to death...
When hubby was off for grocery shopping a neighbour snowed in. We had a cup of coffee each, then I had to start lunch cooking- Mongolian minced beef with rice. We had a late lunch, because hubby brought daughter in. We ate, we rested, had more coffee plus cake this time, and just when I thought I´d go upstairs to read in the quiet of the bedroom some excavator started work at neighbour´s property. The same excavator that startled me up from sleep early in the morning. I fear we are in for more unpleasant diggings during the next days…

mark posting in

dw_maintenance

Hi all,

I had to push some code live today to fix something, and that brought with it a couple of new things like if you have two-factor authentication (2FA/MFA) enabled, you got automatically logged out and it is now required to log in. If you don't, you can set it up if you want (you don't have to.)

This also means that if you have 2FA enabled, you will not be able to use 3P clients using your username and password anymore. You should be able to use API keys in most cases, but there's some nuance to that (and tbh, I just am not precisely sure what clients anybody even uses.)

Please do comment if you're seeing anything weird, as per usual, and we'll work on it. Thank you!

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aglarien

August 2018

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Style: Sky Treader for Ciel by nornoriel

Aglarien's Ramblings

The Home of Erestor's Cats

Reading

Oh, those cats!

Rainy day

All things considered...

(no subject)

Dil2 is in need...

Good for nothing

gah!

I misbehaved... again

Real autumn has arrived

What happened...

Look what the excavator has dug out!

LAST CALL for beta update and inbox page

Hockey News

Panic mode

There once was...

Code pushed -- FYI

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August 2018

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