YIKES!

Hope you had a good Easter and Independence day, and all/any holidays in between. I had no idea it had been this long since I posted. It's not that I was having fun, but time obviously got away from me anyway :-)

Well, there is no big news from this end, so that may also be a reason I haven't been talking..... Mike is healing nicely and slowly catching up on what is "normal" in the healing time department.  He's getting better, but how good he will be at the end...... no one can tell.  He can reach, still throws like a girl (hi hi), but his aim is getting better and he has more control over what the muscles do, he's up to lifting 20LB and he is down to twice a week on his physio...... so before long, he'll be back on full duty. We still haven't heard what is going to happen with work, but in the last month 2 people have left, but there is a "we can't talk about it" rule in effect, so I'm thinking it doesn't have anything to do with the job cuts. It feels kinda strange, on the one hand, you feel bad for them because both were with the company 20 years, but at the same time, you're happy because that increases Mikes chances of still having a job when all this is over......

I'm trying to find a job, but it gets tiresome to be told you're "not in our demographics", or "we're a young team" if you know you have to work at least 17 more years before you can retire, and not have to apply for jobs anymore to keep getting financial help so you can pay the bills. Which, at the moment, isn't much help, since it was decided that we should be able to make the bills AND eat on €900 (The minimal minimum income for one person). I was told "it's doable" and when I asked if she had tried it before, I was told the interview was over, so I took that as a "Hell no!" Oh well, some things don't change.

Castle is going along swimmingly. The foundation is laid for the blacksmith shop, drawings are in the final stages for the gatehouse, I'm almost done with the animal selection for the petting zoo, and the plans are made for where the stables and such are going to be. We got confirmation that the foundation cannot be used for the gatehouse, so we're going to put poles alongside it, put a buffer on top of the poles, and build the building on top of this "pillow". The impression is that none of the rest of the foundations is in any better shape so this will be the norm for the farm buildings.

Our fuzzy roommate thought it would be fun to jump out of the front window a couple of weeks ago. We had the windows wide open, and normally he doesn't really pay much attention, but you can imagine my horror when I come walking into the living room, and all I see is a tail disappearing from view.  I don't think I've been downstairs in this short of a timespan EVER, but once I got there, the little shit was nibbling on the plants, as if he had planned it.  The lady downstairs told me a week or so ago, that she saw him come by her window, but she didn't have the heart to go look if he landed ok.  Oh, that boy! :-)  It did something to him, though and he hasn't been himself, it's like in one dive, his body decided that he was, indeed 14 years old. He's not jumping on the table (he'll jump off it, though) but finds a way to get there in stages (floor, chair, tabletop or floor, couch, bookcase, tabletop) but he runs and plays, eats in his normal picky way, and grooms himself, so he's going to be checked out by the vet this week to make sure it's just mental caution. Hopefully,  he's just sore and realizing he isn't a kitten anymore.

Well, this isn't much for the better half of 7 months of silence, but I think you're caught up on the highlights ;-)

Don't forget to hug a loved one?

Love and hugs,
Pauli