There are advantages to being burgled, as I'm discovering. I've had more personal contact with some friends this weekend, which has been really nice. Ash called me up and offered to lend me a laptop - can you believe that? Thanks, Ash! Niek wants to replace the stolen laptop as soon as possible (more on that later), so I've said 'no, but thanks a lot!' to Ash's very generous offer. Rachael has called a couple of times, and Annemarie's also called. Thanks! I have to admit that being home with the kids all day for most of the week, I began to feel like I was stationed out on Antarctica. Lonely? Don't get me started. But I sure do look forward to coming in to work now!! LOL

On Saturday we also visited one of my "oldest" friends here in the Netherlands - like me, she's not Dutch-born but fell for one of these great Dutch guys and has been here ever since. She's finally let the cat out of the bag that they are expecting their second child this summer. The little traveller has been long wished-for, so this was wonderful news. On Sunday we went out for dinner to a real restaurant with the whole crew, something we don't often indulge in. The kids had a great time and ate everything on their plates. It was fun, and I wished I'd brought a camera to catch the happy faces.

We also priced laptops, in hopes that we'd finally get the paperwork from the police. They called Saturday night to say it was finally ready, so we picked it up Sunday morning and we're now waiting for the Big Boss to arrive. My employer doesn't wwant to issue me another laptop (and I don't blame him), but we do need to work out some sort of compromise because I work from home sometimes and need that connection. Hopefully - cross your fingers & toes - we will have everything ironed out today or tomorrow, and we can either buy or order a new computer for the house.

Until we are again connected at home, I'll continue to eagerly await my chances to check my mail and peek in at the occassional blog. I'll have a lot of reading to do when I finally am back online!

For stitching projects, I've made some good progress on Max's dragon and have begun the wonderful Quaker mystery project. I actually started it twice - I was unhappy with my original choice of linen/silk so I switched. I'm now using Vikki Clayton's "French artichoke" on Silkweaver's "Porcelein" and it looks great.

Thank you all for your wonderful outpouring of support. We have had to accept the fact that at this time we simply cannot afford to move, so we batten down the hatches - locked doors, drawn curtains, and we are going to install motion-sensitive lights. I don't like it, but for now it's all we can do.