We finally got our floor installed last week after much faffing around and being told by several builders that we were not able to accurately measure our own flat (we have nearly a whole box of wood left over and we didn't have to buy any extra). The first builder who came said that we didn't have enough wood, that we would need to wait at least 5 weeks for our wood to acclimatize, conveniently the same amount of time we would need to wait for him to do the installation, that he would "call my husband to discuss the details" every time I asked him a question, didn't actually show up. We had several more quotes, one of which was for 28 square meters (I *wish* we needed 28 square meters of wood for our living room and hall) and then we finally had the installation done last week. I've come to accept that when decorating an old council flat with brick and plaster walls, wiring running along the baseboard, and previous tenants with corner cutting strategies, one has to adopt a sort of big picture attitude. Yes, there are a few places where the floor didn't come out quite perfectly, like the bit of wood that isn't quite stained properly that was cleverly installed right in the middle of the living room floor, or the half inch gap along one bit of the hallway that was too narrow for another piece of wood which is now full of half a tube of sealant, but overall it is *soooo* much better than the awful carpet we had before. And it looks fantastic with our wall and trim colors and the furniture and rugs we've been accumulating. Kim even took a day off work to paint the trim in the living room while we had all the furniture moved out. Here are a few photos - you might also notice that we have replaced the old curtains and moved the furniture around a bit.

While we were rearranging furniture and cleaning, I can't even count how many times we hoovered the floor while we were moving furniture to prevent scratching our new wood floor and Kim is still walking around picking up bits of stuff, Kim went to the shop for supplies and Yuengling sat patiently by the door waiting for him. Until a bit of fluff drifted buy and she was distracted.

Also our anniversary was this weekend and Kim bought me flowers :).

Yuengling and I spent the day together at home yesterday trying out my new spinning wheel (both how it spins and how it tastes), knitting (and knotting) various balls of yarn, and playing fetch. Yuengling has sort of learned to play fetch although she has a habit of returning the toy to the wrong location. I tried to get a photo but as soon as I got my camera out she refused to bring anything back (as you can see by all the toys scattered in the background).

Attacking stuff that moves and not fetching toys is hard work and Yuengling eventually fell asleep with her head dangling off the side of the blanket but not before she stretched out to her impressive full length of about 14 inches.

Oh and I almost forgot, Yuengling is a Fred Astaire fan.

This is Yuengling (pronounced "Yingling") who we named after a great Pennsylvanian beer.

She is about 12 weeks old and we've had her for less than a week. She is super active - think "ohh look something shiny!!". She is also teeny-tiny although she's doing her best to eat as much as a cat 10 times her size. She has a pitiful little meow that she's used quite successfully already to get into our bedroom after Kim and I decided she should stay out until we were sure that she is flee free. And while writing this blog entry I've discovered that she snores tinny little kitten snores. Her favorite activities are falling off things and attacking things, often both at the same time.

She is a bit tricky to photograph since she doesn't sit still much.

But fortunately she is about the size of a shoe so I can just pick her up to suggest a more photographic location with one hand while I get ready to snap a photo with the other.

Check out these lovely tea plants I got for my birthday from my brother. I can't wait for them to get big enough to turn into actual tea. I also got some tea and coffee seeds so that I can grow my own plants but I'm not sure if my thumb is quite green enough for that.

1. Your front door is probably easier to kick in than you think it is and having an open balcony and front door only one floor above ground level are not enough of a deterrent to discourage someone from proving this fact some time between 3:30 and 8 in the drizzling rain.
2. Burglars in a rush only grab things that are sitting out in plain sight or are in the first drawer, a filling cabinet or even the second drawer are hiding places enough to foil someone nervous about being caught.
3. Don't store the only copy of important or valuable data on your laptop.
4. Socialist schemes might be better for achieving a certain minimum amount of service for everyone but it also means that we're all stuck in the same pile of paper repair orders waiting to be transferred to the computer system several days before any actual repair work can be done.
5. Just because an insurance agent finally shows up at your flat doesn't mean he actually knows what he has ensured.
6. Possibly most importantly: check outside in the gutter and under the bushes to see if the aforementioned thieves with expeditiousness on their mind have discarded any items such as tv licenses, old receipts or passports that they may have liberated from a top desk drawer.

We finally got some new lights for the hallway to show off our lovely green paint. We even installed them ourselves. It may have taken us a few tries to get both the new hallway lights and the other lights in the flat to all work at the same time but in the end we did it and they look great. Of course they are brighter than all of the other lights so I'm either going to have to start knitting in the hallway or our light improvement program will have to continue to several other rooms.

You might think there would be an airtight seal between us and the apartment above us. Or perhaps you might think there would be a water tight seal of some kind. Well I can tell you for sure that between our kitchen and the kitchen above us there are several strategically located tiny holes which, given the opportunity, shoot water at such an angle as to ensure that you will get more water in your eye than on the towel you are trying to sop the water up with. Unfortunately I was too distracted to take photographic evidence when I discovered this nifty fact but I drew a picture with a neat little application I have installed on my Iphone.

Also Kim got me some lovely flowers recently

And in case you thought everything in America was super-sized check out the size of the fig newtons here.