the past 2 weeks have seriously sucked.  week before last everything went wrong and last week we tried to fix everything.  we were not very successful.  the meeting with the city guys over a solution re: our windows didn’t go so well.  we’re still reeling from that.  they MIGHT let us start doing the back windows – a good thing – but we really need to do the front, and besides that, replacing the gutter should happen at the same time to save us the scaffolding expense.  work was hard and stressful and even some things there went wrong. 

yesterday i woke up feeling very stressed out at about 8:45, and jumped into the shower.  then i felt so lethargically unable to consider the first step in doing something that i fell asleep.  matt got up and put my motorcycle battery on the charger for me, which was sweet.  i woke up at 11:30 and we got to work on things.

first, i finally installed the new shower set – this is a silly problem that had been going on and on.  took me about half an hour to fix but i only just friday had FINALLY bought the appropriate things to fix it.  then i joined matt on the roof, where he was getting started on prepping the old floorboards of the terrace to be relaid.  i worked on oiling them while he experimented with ways to build the new fence.  then we ran out of oil, and he bicycled to praxis.  it should have been about 45 minutes before he was home again, but praxis didn’t have the stuff for some reason, so he had to go to gamma.  then our neighbor across the street dropped by and asked to borrow something which it turned out we didn’t have and invited us to drop by when matt got back.  matt eventually got back, so we dropped in over there, chatted a bit, then went and got turkish pizzas.  on the way back, we ran into our neighbor across the inside alley and chatted with her.  then we worked on the roof until about 6:15. 

jeffrey came over around 7 and we watched a pretty bad indie film that i’d gotten the screener for.  dick dropped in while we were watching it, and jeffrey left at about 9:30.  we made massaman curry and ate it, then watched robot chicken until i nearly fell asleep on the sofa, and dick went home. 

today we woke up around 10.  matt made popovers and we ate them on the roof, then went and tried to start our motorcycles.  mine didn’t start.  i had lots of "help" from biker neighbors, while matt went for a little ride.  now i’m recharging my battery to try again later.  matt and i worked again on the roof for a while, then matt left for the airport.  i took a LONG shower and have been messing around online for a while.

actually, later may be now.  i think my battery is charged enough to try again.  if it doesn’t work, i’ll try again tomorrow.  woo hoo!  springtime is here!  i’m exhausted.  if the bike doesn’t work, i might head over to my chinese lady for a massage.  we’ll see.

on saturday, the awesome  had a birthday party.  at the party, i met a girl who has a VERY firm handshake… i nearly fell over from the pain.  probably she just got a weird angle or something, because that’s just not normal.  i was rubbing my hand throughout the rest of the evening and trying not to shake people’s hands.  yesterday, i could barely work by the end of the day because my hand hurt so much when using the mouse and typing.  no, it doesn’t hurt in my wrist; it hurts when my pinky is extended in any direction.

today i’m wearing one of my boxing wraps on my right hand to try to prevent myself from moving my pinky.  it’s hard to type and i’ve moved the mouse to my left hand, which is awkward… even though i changed its settings to mirror the normal.  anyway… if it doesn’t go away with care in the next couple of days, i’ll have to go see my doctor.  never fun.

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housing:  last week a major torrent of water was streaming into our living room from a leak in the front of the house.  i called a repairman recommended by my boss’s husband (who is very picky), but his earliest availability was this week.  he came this morning.  it turns out that a small gutter that runs through the front inside of our house is so old that it’s worn through.  it will need to be fully replaced, as the metal is worn through in many places.  however, it can’t be replaced without access to scaffolding.  we will eventually be having scaffolding anyway to do the windows, but we have no idea when, because of long other story.  in the meantime, he patched what he could.  he won’t charge yet, because he’s not sure his patching job will hold up. 

he pointed out that if THAT gutter was worn through and needed replacing, probably the ones that lead into it (also inside the front side of the house) are at that point as well.  this becomes a major project.  next week he will come back with the appropriate person to evaluate and make a bid for the work. 

also, he had a look at the roof work done by kees and was highly critical.  noted some potential problem areas we should keep an eye on, but said they should hold for a while, and that they can be changed pretty easily later when we actually need to. 

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now i should get back to work.  much to do.  prepping the big MIPtv insanity.

i wonder if this will affect those of us who are already here… i will have to read the article better.

The Netherlands Wants Immigrants

and also synthetic chris
courtesy of zarathoestra who sent the link!