We do, but it’s not my mouse hand. It’s the arm I tend to lean on. Perhaps I can get an elbow pad or something 
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For mattresses and pillows, Sleep Foundation has not yet led me astray.
Not sure how product availability is for continents that don’t start with “North Americ” though.
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I’m recovering having stayed up until 330am watching the Superbowl. Fortunately it was a heck of a game (I think I’d have cried if it went into overtime)
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Right, Cyclone Gabrielle has been and gone, and it has left the country quite swamped. We have been lucky here in Hastings, we only had a power cut yesterday morning, from 4 AM to 1 PM roughly, and no damage to the house or section, but other friends haven’t been so lucky. We are hosting our friends (family of 4) that have been evacuated from coastal Haumoana, 3 out of the 5 bridges between Napier and Hastings have been damaged seriously, and the other 2 are cut to traffic.
The trip to collect our friends yesterday was quite something, 2 of the bridges I crossed were nearly level with the water (and normally there’s about 8-10 meters below for a gap) and trees have been damaged or uprooted everywhere. I had to wade through a long flooded area (head lights level on a SUV) for about 300-400 meters, and the water was reaching the bottom of their house (it is elevated over pillars that may be just under half a meter tall). The trip back was tricky with the extra weight on the car, but we did it.
This morning I went to work and we had a meeting where we will be closed and working remotely until Friday, and after having a look at the freezers, the damage may not be that terrible to the product stored there.
I feel really grateful about where we are and how lucky we’ve been (Napier could be without power for a week).
The best thing? We cooked bacon for breakfast on our gas camping cooker. Right after that we had a game of Architects of the West Kingdom by candlelight yesterday morning, and my daughter thrashed us 44-40-36.
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The cyclone moved out to sea before getting as far south as my region (we suffered only “regular” bad weather from this), so I’m feeling extremely lucky.
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Yikes! It’s not a regular occurrence for New Zealand to suffer a tropical cyclone is it?
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Indeed – NZ hasn’t been subjected to a storm like this in a very long time.
We do get some nasty ones from time to time, but the PM referred to Gabrielle as “the most significant weather event New Zealand has seen this century”, and it’s prompted a national state of emergency, with much of the north island getting hit very hard.
(The solid 6.1 earthquake we had this evening won’t have made people feel any better, either.)
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Is a volcano next? Or maybe a rain of toads? Sheesh!
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I think the list is: water turns to blood, frogs, flies, pestilence, locusts, darkness, boils and then firstborn children…?
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Not that we didn’t feel it, but was just a small shake here in the Bay. I just looked it up because the Death Star lamp started oscillating a little bit.
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The fast laptop should get back to me tomorrow. (Then I try to find out why they didn’t provide the on-site service I paid for.) It’s been a bit awkward using the older backup machines that are normally for less demanding tasks like coming with me on road trips.
I strongly suspect they’ll have reimaged it with generic Windows, but I have full backups of the Linux machine.
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They didn’t, so I don’t have to spend today rebuilding it.
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I haven’t mentioned the renovations in a while. Stuff is actually happening and it seems like all the fights are fought and all the debates have found closure. Still, I am sooo tired and done with deciding stuff all the time.
Summary
- Floors will be started week after next (tiles, we’re getting big beautiful tiles, I like tile laying so…).
- When the floors are in my kitchen will arrive and the baths can be done.
- Windows are almost ordered–we’re waiting on the okay from the new energy person we have (the person who made the plan in the first place ditched us… this is to get state subsidies for energy saving measures).
- Monday we have an appointment to finalize the new stairs that will be put in.
- 95% of the cables for electricity, internet, home automation and sound are done.
- the carpenter is beginning his work on the built-in cabinets and the doors and is designing the mounting for the LED strips & curtains in every room
- The water piping that needed replacing is replaced.
- In March the person that will renovate the balcony/veranda is coming.
- We’re talking to 2 roofing companies after having sorted out various issues about the roof…
- edit: forgot the walls. at some point in between some of these steps—our architect knows when—the walls will be done…
I am so glad we have someone organizing all of this. This is not even everything. So many things to decide. The tile guy asked if we wnated the window sills tiled? They are now done with stone. I just nodded. How do we want to store toilet paper? Which side of the room do you want to have your table on? Do you want this or that or …
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So glad this is finally ending, it looked like it was really stressing you out. You’re almost there!
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We have taken that advice to heart, and our pantry is now so tidy and organised that it’s unrecognisable. It’s also full of rotating Lazy Susans enabling easy visibility and access to things which would previously have been hidden at the back of the shelves. You lose a bit of storage space, but we’ve gained that back with extra shelving, and I love the convenience – I’m confident that I’ll not forget I have things back there any more; and hopefully it’ll make us better at using what we have rather than buying new things if we don’t need them. It’s quite a satisfying outcome to an unpleasant situation, and if we keep on top of the storage then hopefully we won’t ever suffer that again.
I have realised after the fact that some of the containers I got are not actually air-tight, so I may still replace those. Grains, oats, and the like are all in airtight containers though, and most things that weren’t thrown out at the time have had their four days in the freezer at this point, and the pantry itself was cleaned pretty comprehensively, so I think we’re good for now. Certainly we haven’t seen any of them since the final disposals and cleaning a while ago. Although they’re so small that almost any speck of anything looks like one, and has me in a momentary panic.
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Figured I’d give you all a bit of an update on Maryse’s condition:
She’s doing WAY better. There, update over. Move along, now, nothing to see here…
…
…
…
Oh FINE, if you insist. 
So, she was supposed to get a follow-up appointment with the oncologist on 13 February. In preparation for that, she got a blood test the previous week. Two days later, she gets a call from the oncology department saying the appointment’s been postponed to 3 May (yes, May). Every health care professional we’ve talked to (nurses, family doctor, other cancer patients and specialists) agrees: That means the blood results are so good that there’s no point in making her come in (we’re roughly 2.5 hours away by car) just to tell her “everything’s looking really good, things keep improving, we’ll stay the course for another three months and then re-evaluate”. Which is what we figured immediately, but it’s nice to have confirmation.
While I wish the doctor (or at least the nurse) would’ve told us that directly and we didn’t have to go looking for answers (we got definite proof with Maryse’s family doctor, with whom she had an appointment a few days later, who looked at the results and saw a clear trend in the right direction once again), the news is so good it doesn’t even matter. Her body’s fighting and winning. She’s got a PET scan on 15 March, so we’ll know just how badly she’s beating cancer then.
Add to that her back getting stronger by the day (still fragile, of course, she does have a damaged vertebra, and one that’s QUITE load-bearing), morale is sky-high right now. Gotta love it when hard work pays off.
I love having good news. 
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Fantastic news! So happy for you both!
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I did forget to mention something else, and I can’t believe I forgot it: The lump in her breast has shrunk, by, like, a LOT. Granted, we’re not professionals and we don’t have access to the necessary equipment, but it’s IMMEDIATELY apparent to our touch.
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My Wife’s car went into the garage today (main dealer) for a new master control unit.
It is now bricked. Keys aren’t recognised by the car and it’s set to French language (default language one presumes as it’s a Citroen).
Senior technician is in on Monday.
Joy.
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Powerwolf show last night in Montreal, it was absolutely insane, everything I was hoping for, except no pyro (which I expected) and a couple of songs I wish they’d played.100% recommend, would see again. Venue was PACKED. Not a good place if you’re claustrophobic.
Falk Maria Schlegel (keyboardist/cheerleader) is a delight to watch. He looks like a kid having a blast (it helps that he looks like he weighs like 80 pounds soaking wet).
The band seemed rather taken aback at the welcome they got. Really appreciated frontman Attila Dorn speaking in French for most of the show, too. Very nice touch, and despite what he says, his French is very good.
Seven Kingdoms opened for them, which no one knew about, as they were never advertised and they were NOT in New York the night before (the singer mentioned they were a very last minute surprise addition). They brought the house down, great band I barely know and should explore more.
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