However... the faucet seems to be leaking a tiny bit on the right hand connection, so I already tightened it up in the evening and this morning the leaking had practically stopped. Will keep an eye on it today and take it back off tomorrow if the leakage is not fixed permanently. Update : took it off already and used some extra telfon sealer to seal things off properly. Doesn't seem to leak anymore now.

Tomorrow : town hall, post office and attaching cables to the wall.

Well, things have been moved around and I've reattached all cables and the TV is functioning as it should. Yes, we've got a damn ugly cable laying on the floor, but I'll see if I can attach that to the walls tomorrow, which leaves us with the following equation :

"2-3 hours of work + a big fat curse + lifting heavy things = happy girlfriend"

The final result is that she's happy and this setup looks good as well...

Yesterday I got to spent the day home, vacuumed, took out the trash, played some World of Warcraft, went shopping for food, cooked a nice meal for Schattie and we planned to go out to the movies in the evening. In the end we just stayed home and watched the semi-final of the Eurovision Song Contest. Not exactly the same as catching a movie, but we were enjoying our new sofa, she wasn't feeling too well and was a bit tired too. Guess we'll be rescheduling that movie date for who knows when.

Due to circumstances at work, I'll be working 13 or 14 shifts in June, were I was supposed to have gotten rid of those. Illness, time off and such however mean that we all have to put in an extra effort, but we were able to give almost everyone in the group the time off they had requested. I can't say that I'm pleased with how things are going right now, but considering the issues at hand, I think I should be pleased.

I'm looking forward to my own time off in June, and I've already asked for another week of in November when I'll be taking up all the overtime I'm putting in now. Past two months : +35h and counting.

That's the update for now. I'm off to vacuum the first and second floor now, do more food shopping and prepare another meal for the both of us this evening.

Came home, entertained the kids in the garden, waved my Schattie out - more training for the performance on Saturday - fed the kids, gave them a bath (first time for me and I think it went rather well) and just put them to bed.

Now I'm gathering all my data so I can file my taxes for the year and I think I already have most of it, if not everything. Only thing lacking is my login details, lol.

Sure enough, she forgot to take her phone with her, so now I've got no way to contact them, which is a major bummer indeed. I'm really considering stepping into the car and heading over there, just to make sure they're fine. Yeah, maybe I'm a bit over concerned, but I like knowing those I love are fine. I like hearing her voice, seeing her smile, holding her hands.

Maybe she'll find a way to call me - I sure hope so.

We had a bit of discussion last night about me working so much, and while I do like my job, I'd rather be home with them instead of working another weekend or shift. We don't see each other too much right now with me heading off to bed early - waking up between 4:45AM and 5:45AM stinks - and her training so much for the dance performance next weekend (22nd of May).

If I'm every asked - or forced - to choose between my job and my family, I won't really have much of a choice to make : family comes first.

Once I was up and dressed, I drove off to my old apartment to fill a couple of bags with things I no longer need - really, who realizes how much stuff they have, till the day they have to move it? - and to take apart the book cabinet and my desk. Schattie later joined me there 'coz her car is just a bit more practical to move stuff then mine, lol.

Came back home and installed the book cabinet and desk in the "office room" filled it up with most of my books. I don't think I brought them all though, as the shelves are (not yet) filled. Yeah, I've been an avid reader since I was ten or eleven, and - luckily for me - my parents never had a problem with it. They did monitor a bit what I wanted to read at that age, but rarely told me I couldn't read something, and they did have a ton of books for me to enjoy and delve into.

Just had the police at the door to check our address, so I take it once I take in all the documents, I've officially moved. Yay!

Under 5 minutes after I arrived home, he pulled up and started working on getting everything installed. I must say, he did an excellent job, worked clean and tidy and worked fast. After getting everything installed, he explained what needed explaining and we even had a chat about network security and access to the modems he installs at customers.

I made sure that all the temporary passwords were changed ten minutes after he left and that I reconfigured my modem to be more secure. Not because I don't trust him, but I happen to like setting my things up myself, so I know they're secure.

Anyway, less then 5 hours after the install was completed and everything tested, I'm on the phone with support because I lost internet as well as my cable access - so... no TV either. Turns out that a rather large node has failed and put over a thousand customers out of service (internet, TV and phone combined). It took them an hour to fix it and get it back up.

I sure hope this ain't the start of a bunch of problems, coz I'll have it all taken out as fast as it was installed ;)

Tomorrow afternoon the internet connection should be installed, so I'll have to be home and up for that. We started the front garden this weekend, as well as doing the "office" room, so there's plenty to paint.

Tomorrow morning I planned to sleep in - would be the first time in about three weeks or so - but the kid of a colleague is ill, so he can't make it to work. I'll work an early shift from 6AM till 11h30AM and then rush home to hopefully make it in time for the telenet technician to show up.

Friday, Saturday and Sunday is more work... on Sunday evening the familiy returns from the coast, but I'll probably only see them for about an hour or so before we all have things to do and places to be.

More updates later. I'm gonna quickly log in to facebook now to show people I'm still alive :)

Still unpacking, though Schattie has made a major dent in the number of boxes left to be unpacked. She rocks, and rocks my world.

Don't worry though... there'll be plenty of things to handle, carry and move around still, so if you're "enlisted" to come help out next weekend, you'll have all the work you can do.

Today I finished the garage box project completely : it was finished on Friday, but some loose ends were still hanging about. I replaced some screws with nuts and bolts today (less chance of anyone getting injured) and filled the waste bag up some more. I took out close to 1 cubic meter of waste on Saturday, so today it was just the few remains I didn't spot earlier due to it getting too dark.

Note to helping hands : We'll send out a mail this week to let everyone know where to be and at what time.

It's getting very close now, and while we do look forward to it, it'll also be a very awkward and stressful day, so if anyone feels like they're getting their nose bitten off by us, don't take it personal : your help is much appreciated but there is so much to do and arrange that we may not always be as good a host as one would expect. We'll make it all up later, we promise :)

It's been a busy day, but with quite some tiles cut into the right size and placed already, the kitchen is starting to look good. Will need to complete it tomorrow (depending on the weather) and after I've worked on closing up the garage box. I sure hope to get that project finished tomorrow as well, but doubt it. I should get most of it done though (crosses fingers that nothing unforseen pops up).

I'll try to stay awake just a bit longer so I can get a more or less final draft ready for the garage box project tomorrow, but sitting down in the couch makes me soooo sleepy.

Note to Schattie : I love you. It may not always show, with all the stress and busy days, but you can be certain about it... I do!

Should get it all unwrapped and installed this weekend. The house is really taking shape now and with Schattie giving the living room and kitchen their final colors, it's starting to look just wonderful!

Can't wait to really move in.

Off to bed now, got another early shift tomorrow :(

Working shifts again has seriously affected the plans we had made for the new house, and as such we've changed things around and adapted to the situation as well as possible.

I sure hope it'll all become more manageable at the start of April, though I don't really expect it to do so just yet. Could we ask for some peace and quiet in May maybe?

Thanks to the help of B&H, as well as M, the Disney Castle in Yenthe's bedroom was completed, the old furniture and sinks in the bathroom was removed and two new cabinets were installed. Schattie covered the walls in our bedroom in a layer of painted and several more kitchen cabinets were cleaned and disinfected.

More wall paper was removed and everyone was working hard and it shows. The kids' bedrooms are almost finished and we are slowly moving away from the phase were you only tear things down and create a mess, towards a phase were you see things change and get finalized.

Still loads to do though and March will be a true challenge, especially with me being forced to work shifts again, which means less weekends or days we can work together in the new house :(

Went to see The book of Eli in the theater and liked it. Off to work some more, late shift this afternoon. If you wanna reach me, just call my mobile phone, I won't bother with putting my schedule online as I'll be at work all the time anyway (either at my job or in the house).

Did quite some shopping in Venlo - Tegelen itself where the Chateau is located has hardly anything worthwhile mentioning - and arrived at our temporary "home" with new shoes, clothes for her and I and something to eat.

It was a very nice and recommendable trip, that's for sure. When we were wondering what to do on Saturday, we opted not to go shopping again - we did so on Friday since the weather was too overcast to go walking - but came home to work some more in the new house.

That's it for now folks!