*
Our apartment building was originally buit in the sixties as part of a mass renewal of
this part of Utrecht. At the time whole neighborhoods were hacked together in the span of years in order to accomodate the changing times. I'm not sure what the target demographic was at the time, but these days our building provides some of the more affordable housing in Utrecht.
Originally the 85m^2 apartment was meant to house a family of five or six, with a big master bedroom in the back and two additional bedrooms. In our case the dividing wall for the master bedroom was torn down to create a living room double its original size.
The heating in this place is still in its original setup. While some of the radiators and the gas furnace were replaced fifteen years ago, the setup is still geared towards the house's original design. It also has one big draw back, with the furnace being in the middle of a serial chain of radiators.
We only want two rooms out of five to actually be heated and one of them is at the end of the series: Dana's room. The living room should also be nice and cozy, but it'd be ok if the rest of the house was chilly. The way things are right now I wish I could just cut off the "right half" of the heating, thus removing the kitchen, study and bathroom from the chain. Unfortunately I can't do that because the refill point for the system is located in the bathroom.
For now I think it would be a good idea to bring the living room back to it's original size; that way we'd only be heating 20m^2 instead of 40. Of course I'm not going to build a new wall, because the archway is actually pretty cool. Instead I reckon we'll install a nice set of heavy drapes in the arch, thus providing some insulation between the two parts of the living room.
Some of our neighbors have replaced the aging gas furnaces with new, high efficiency systems that also provide hot running water to the bathroom and kitchen. Unfortunately the only good place to install such a system is in the storage cabinet on the balcony. Our neighbors have done so, but at the cost of damage to the exterior walls of our building; something that the VVE isn't happy about. Such a renovation would also set us back a pretty penny, so I think we'd rather wait until buying a whole new house.
Posted in:
apartment
,
design
,
heating
,
house
,
meh
*
With the baby on the way (less than four weeks and counting!) I was planning on ticking things off the ToDo list, instead of putting new items on there. So "yay me!" for accidentally ripping the curtains and their rail from the ceiling this evening. *le sigh*
*puts a new item on the list*
At least we had a nice evening in with Menno and Kaijuu (who just returned from Japan tonight).
Posted in:
break stuff
,
dammit
,
meh
,
sigh
*
The past two weeks I've been sleeping awfully. I get enough sleep, but I guess the quality's just not alright. *yawn* I reckon it's got to do with the change in Marli's schedule (what with her not working anymore) and the nervousness for becoming a father.
*yawn* I woke up around 03:30 this morning and haven't slept properly since then :/
Posted in:
meh
,
rhythm
,
sleep
,
yawn
*
Trip to Texel cancelled (Kilala.nl (Cailin Coilleach)) by Cailin Coilleach
I've had to cancel my attendance at the annual company outing.
For starters Marli wouldn't be coming along, given her work schedule next week. To accomodate for this I would've had to do groceries on Friday and rushed to Texel on Saturday morning. It would've also meant that I'd spend at least three to four hours of my weekend in the car driving back and forth.
Now, all of that wouldn't normally deter me from a road trip. My huge pile of homework however, would. ;_; This is one time that I'd have to let efficiency take the upper hand over fun. Ah, but in three weeks the school year will be over and I'll have a little less to worry about! /o/
EDIT:
I hope my colleagues have a lot of fun though. What with today's weather, it must be lovely on the islands this weekend. I also got to miss Mona's last day at Snow, which sucks. :( Good luck with your new job Monay! o/
Posted in:
company outing
,
meh
,
roadtrip
,
snow
,
texel
*
Oh feck... For the past few days I've been yearning to go back to Japan again. Reminiscing about my trip and looking at all kinds of photos isn't making things easier either. It's just such a bloody brilliant country!
I'm looking forward so much to our next trip! And with "our" in this case I mean that I'm dragging Marlijne and Menno along for the ride. Seriously. No debate. ^_^
Waah! I wanna go back! I'm jealous of the folks who're going on the August trip with
Shiranai Travel. I wish'm an awesome trip though!
Posted in:
feh
,
gah
,
japan
,
meh
,
yearning
*
Ever since I've gotten back from my trip to Japan I've been in a very bitchy, testy mood. Unfortunately this means that Marli's been bearing the brunt of it ;_;
I don't know if I'm still tired, if it's the jetlag, if it's the fact that I miss Japan, if it's the fact that I need to get back to work, or if its the awful weather over here in the NL.
Maybe it's a little bit of everything. Although I have to admit that I really hate the grey, ill-lit weather conditions right now. It really is awful -_-
Posted in:
bitchy
,
feh
,
grouchy
,
meh
,
moody
*
Feh! I'm stuck in a rut again and it's been going on all week!
I keep getting distracted by all kinds of other chores and shiny things, while I should be focusing on my homework. It's like high school and college all over. Wait... I -am- in college all over :D
Anywho. I managed to finalise
my summary for Statistics 1, though it still needs some polish. And now I'm staring at a pile of reports and books that need to be finished by tomorrow.
Slowly, but surely... That's the only way to get through it I guess. *churnchurnchurn* Scratch one item off the ToDo list at a time. I'll start off with
Statistics - Didactics. That seems to be my favourite subject this semester.
Posted in:
college
,
get moving
,
homework
,
meh
,
slow
*
I don't know what it is, but the last few days (maybe a week) I've been sleeping real badly. It takes me way too long to fall asleep and when I eventually do I sleep very lightly. I don't get well rested, I wake up at least three times each night and I wake up way too early. Case in point: tonight. I've been awake for half an hour now, feeling tired but not sleepy. Seeing how I went to bed around 23:30 I really haven't had enough sleep yet. :/
Let's hope that, when
the festival madness is over, my sleeping goes back to normal.
EDIT:
I'm gonna make some warm milk and some tea, then put on NBC or CNN for some reeeeeally boring TV and hope that I'll fall asleep on the couch. *yawn*
Posted in:
i can has sleep
,
meh
,
sleep
*
Right now I'm at the fourth
NLOSUG meeting that is being held in Waardenburg for a change (as opposed to the Sun Microsystems offices in Amersfoort). Unfortunately I'm bored out of my skull.
We were supposed to get started around 1900, but the meeting was adjourned until 1945 because of technical difficulties. As a result of those difficulties the meeting was moved from the rented location to the Snow offices.
Alright, that happens to the best of us, I'll admit to that. But what's worse is that the first hour of the meeting was spent re-introducing the NLOSUG,
its goals and means and on discussing whether the UG is even needed and in what form the meetings should be held. After the break we'd continue with a presentation on
Sun's Crossbow technology, which is really neat... But frankly, I can't be pantsed to stick around.
You see, the turnup this evening was quite horrible. The group rings in at around twenty-five to thirty people and that's only because
Snow (my employer) had a company gathering in Waardenburg earlier in the evening. Six to seven of the group are people who aren't from Sun or from Snow... Disappointing, to say the least.
I know
Bart and the rest of the NLOSUG core crew are trying their hardest, but I don't think I'll be attending another meeting. Unless it's held at the Sun offices again.
Posted in:
meh
,
nlosug
,
open solaris
*
You know? I don't think I'm doing too hot :[
The past few weeks I've been feeling stressed out, constantly tired, overall mopey and to top it off there's some doubts and confusion. I'm doubting about life, about work, about decisions I've made so far. Thinking about how different things could've been if I'd made a few different choices here and there. Thinking about
what-ifs and
what-nows in general.
Unfortunately this has had its repercussions on my environment as well: I've been a dick to Marli for the past few weeks (less attentive, more bitchy), I haven't had that much
oomph! at the office and I've let my work for
Anime 2007 go down the gutter :(
What makes things worse is the nagging voice in the back of my head that's telling me that all of this is nothing and that I should easily be coping with it all. Guilt++.
I've known about these feelings and doubts all along, but I've only realised just now how deep things are getting. While on the phone with my friend Kaj, who's just come back from Japan (glad that your back!), I noticed a tremble in my voice and some moisture cropping up in my eyes... That ain't no good sign as far as I'm concerned.
I think I need to think things over...
Posted in:
doubts
,
emo
,
meh
,
stress
*
Meh, this sucks! I don't know what's going on but I just can't get going at a proper pace today! I overslept this morning, my body feels like it just won't move, my typing is -way- off (making much more mistakes than usual and typing a lot slower) and my head just keeps wandering off.
Today's my last day off that I can spend
studying for my LPIC-102 and I need to move my 47 page summary from paper into Word and expand it where needed. So I really don't need this crap right now!
As
Mr Mudkips used to yell in order to inspire me:
Faito! Faito! Gambate!.
Posted in:
cannot wake up
,
get moving
,
lpic-102
,
meh
,
slow
*
Well crap, my whole daily rhythm is blown to pieces. Remember how I've been
riding my bike to work every day? Well, for the past six weeks that challenge has amounted to nothing, due to my irregular working hours. All those nightly shifts really screwed up the regularity I'd built up in my daily schedule.
The end result:
* I haven't ridden my bike for six weeks.
* I've come to sleep irregularly, usually waking up around eight after oversleeping grossly.
Meh :(
So here's the plan!
* Start sleeping regularly again immediately: sleep at 2200, 2230 tops and wake up at 0600.
* I've asked for three days off at the end of either this week, or next week. Those days will be spent relaxing, stretching, riding my bike and generally working up to the daily 28 kiloms again.
Sounds good to me, now I need to stick with it!
Posted in:
daily rhythm
,
meh
,
starting over