... or it could be for Parallels...

No, we aren't out of the woods yet in all the household travails.

The kitchen isn't quite finished, as my pretty toy (AKA the integrated espresso machine) has yet to be delivered.  The kitchen suppliers have an ordering/distribution system that sucks donkey balls. Big time.

TOH's software woes had gotten to the point that it was simpler to junk the computer.  Exit stage left.  Hard-learned lesson #35 of 2009: don't expect a Helpdesk to sort you out, much less hold your hand. 

Enter stage right - a new computer which was delivered late in the afternoon today.  TOH has spent the entire evening putting the hardware together and is now in the process of loading the software. With multiple pitfalls including being sent the wrong disks. And recovering the data from the old box?  The saga continues....

Taking down the old kitchen and prepping it for the fitters (i.e. boxing up all the stuff) was a simple matter of several hours' work between TOH and myself, with the help of all the boxes that several kind friends had donated to us for the effort.  A very big 'Thank You' to you lot.  Coffee and cake coming your way once I actually get a coffee machine.  :o)

Now, putting back the stuff we took out - finding homes for everything, getting things organised... that's taken like flippin' days.  Although the bulk of the work is over, I'm still fiddling around, testing out how best to make a well-oiled machine out of one little (OK, slightly large-ish) workroom. 

Teardown's a piece of cake.  Building / repairing / finessing something so that it works - that's a much harder job.  And where am I going with this?  Sometimes we charge full steam ahead with our actions without completely considering the consequences.  And when the latter has a destructive effect.... well, rebuilding bridges isn't so hot, izzit?  That could be someone's hard-learned lesson of 2009, or maybe again they may never learn their lesson.