The leaky valve will be replaced/fixed on Wednesday, which would or should end the heating problem.

The seller - who was exposed to Schattie's wrath on the phone last night - has cleaned out most of the garden of his filth and rubbish as he promised, but he still left some things behind, which will need to be taken out as well. We'll handle that tomorrow while signing the final act though. Go Schattie (apparently she's & Goddess and I'm a Wussy)

It seems the circulation pump on the heating has broken down, so we'll need to have that checked, confirmed and fixed, preferably before next weekend when the kids will be at the house as well. Small kids don't do that well in a chilly place.

More working in the house tomorrow, we'll be doing more grinding, tearing down wallpaper and cleaning out the garden. The painting is mostly Schattie's job, as she's pretty good at it, while I'll be taking care of wallpaper and garden duty. I also hope to be able to get some final notes on paper regarding building a storage level in the garage box, which will help us when we move to store things we don't really need every day, yet can't throw away (yet). All that, without losing any free parking space in the garage.

Off to bed now, need to take care of some other things now.

kids - school - key - new house - shopping - work - doctors visit - hard work - afternoon - paint - wallpaper - removal - eye - pain - notary - emergency room - french fries - 21h30 - eye specialist - damaged cornea - bandage - eye drops - rest - 2 days off.

That's it for the time being. I'm tired and heading off to bed, once I get my totally exhausted Schattie awake and in bed.

Called in to work that I wouldn't make it, and I'm glad I did. I'm on the couch right now and feel weak, have trouble staying up and have a terrible headache to go with it.

Schattie has managed not to catch it (for now), and I sure hope she doesn't either. First day at the new office today and not feeling all that well, I don't envy her. Gonna give her a call later today or text her to see how she's doing.

Enough sitting up for me now, I'm gonna lay down and go back to feeling crap now. Laters!

In short : my mail will be forwarded to the new house, my phone line has been canceled and if you're trying to reach me, use my mobile number. If you don't have it yet and think you should, ask me in person, or shoot me a mail requesting it.

Went ice skating with the kids today, was fun though a looooong time since I did try. I managed to stay up, lol.

It may not sound or be very romantic to get things in writing, but we're both adults and know it is for the better.

That's all for now, folks!

We also went looking for two different set of lights (one strawberry red, one lime) but both stores were closed on Saturday.

It's all coming rather close now, and we're so looking forward to it!

We'll be calling in help for sure, so if anyone is up for it, let us know. We'll need at least a painter for the kids' room and may need someone experienced in electricity to read the plans or check things around the house. I've got little to no experience with it.

Wednesday morning Schattie went to the clinic to have her blood sugar levels measured, but she was turned away before the testing even commenced. Apparently her sugar levels were so high they couldn't give her any more to actually perform the test. Off to the doctor we go again to have the reading verified and off to a specialist later to confirm or test further. As soon as I heard when she called me around 09:25AM, I went over to the paramedics at work to request some info and hear their opinion on things. Sure enough they said they couldn't give individual advice since they ain't doctors nor do they know the levels, but they were able to give me broad information about diabetes and what can or can't be done about it, but more importantly even, they were able to put me at ease that even though it is a serious illness, it is not totally life rupturing or altering. Food is still allowed, so is sugar or candy, fruit and exercise. Key is to measure regularly and know what a certain type of food or exercise will do to your blood sugar level and to anticipate.

Definitely things will change in all of our lives knowing this, but none of that scares me. I'm here to help, aid, love and take care of those I love.

On Saturday the two of us went out on a shopping spree, got ourselves a nice new garden table, and - believe it or not - we even found a clothing cabinet and a nice new bed. Our style when it comes to furniture is sometimes quite different, yet we we both rather fond of this set we spotted. I think we'll be heading off to the shop again later this week (well, next week since I'm writing this on Sunday evening) to have the order taken and a deposit made. Then we can have it all delivered at the new house and enjoy it as well.

While we were over at the new house - we had to take a look at the garage - our soon to be neighbor popped his head out of his door to see what was going on, and immediately invited us in to meet the family. We accepted and sat down to meet Mehdi and his family, had coffee - which I normally never drink, but it just didn't feel right to refuse their hospitality, so I finished my cup while talking to them - and fresh dates (dadels in Dutch for those who wonder). Mehdi is Iranian and has been living here for years, and the whole familiy was eager to know who would be moving in next to them in a few short months (67 days and counting we think).

I think we'll have great neighbors there and hope they had a good an impression of us as we had of them.

Saturday evening I was thrown to the lions as I was about to meet two aunts and an uncle of Schattie, but - as you can read - I wasn't eaten alive. In fact, I was accepted it seems. It was quite a fun evening as well...

Off to Sunday (them weekends sure look longer than 2 days, don't they?). We got out of bed rather late (that's what you get for spending time with family on Saturday evening) and I went out to get some food while Schattie cleaned up in the house a bit. Later in the afternoon when everything was more of less tidy, we faced the snowy roads to head of to an erotic fair where we did some shopping (mainly clothes, massage oil that doesn't taste bad when you happen to taste it "by accident" (editors note : according to Schattie, I should have just written "lickable" and be done with it) and a couple of toys, before we returned home to wait for the kids to return home.

Had food, showered the kids and now we're ready to take a shower ourselves. Tata!

@nurse kody : I've never had a flu shot before, so neither did I get one this year (or last year, since I'm writing this in 2010). Don't know what I had, guess it was the I'm fed up with everything and my head is full of snot and slime and I feel generally like crap illness.

@Kenny : thanks dude! Wish you the best for 2010 and we may run into each other again soon, who knows.

@Hilda : I think they are just doing their job and don't get rewards of bonuses for making ill people go back to work anyway. They're just evil.

So... this is two thousand and ten! I wish you all the best and I may post an overview of 2009 later, if I get to that, it is.

On the 23rd whilst sitting down, my WoW authenticator broke :( The display cracked right in the middle and now I can't read the digits properly. Tried ordering a new one, but for that I need to be able to log in, which I can't. Now my account is locked out due to too many failed attempts :( Already sent off a ticket to the support team, but it'll probably take days before they get to it and help me out. Ah well... the authenticator idea is solid, but obviously it also has it's flaws...

Whatever. I kinda hope all my colleagues get ill and they have to shut the whole place down because no one shows up anymore. I wouldn't wish it onto them for the mere fact that I wish no one to feel as ill as I've been the past weekend, but the rebel in me yells "fuck it all".

Note : I don't really wish that things have to be shut down, or that everyone gets ill. So if that was the impression you had, get a new impression now, please :)

You head off to bed and listen to your Schattie who declared : "if you're heading off to work on Monday instead of the doctors, I'll be very pissed."

Point taken, and right she was. I was still running a (slightly lower) fever this morning (only C38.2°) and the doc has written me a complete collection of meds that I'll be taking for the next couple of days. I'd rather be healthy and off to work, lemme tell you.

Schattie, thanks for getting through to me - finally, I admit - that I can't just keep on running around as if I can't get ill. I haven't been ill as much in the past 8 years as I've been in the past 2 months. Guess I'm catching up on my bacteria and viruses :(

Off to bed I go again... more rest is needed.

Gotta give dad and Hil a call tomorrow, then we head off to the sauna for some relaxation. Have one mail to sent, one to reply to, and some shopping left to be done. When will I do all that? There's only 24 hours in a day!

Kids are just off to bed - tad bit late but the decorating of the tree took a bit longer then expected - and now we're relaxing a bit. Tomorrow we're off to J&E's to celebrate A's birthday.