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Man, being sick sucks. It sucks twice as much when you're supposed to be cleaning and moving and stuff. We're getting started on prepping the new living room for painting; yesterday, we had lunch with our friend Kyra, who gave us her advice about colors and all that. Mmmm, Habana. Later on, I carried about half a ton of books over there, and started removing crap that we didn't want, like some nasty shelves that were bolted onto the wall with stripped screws, and some really nice outlet and light switch face plates. Filthy miniblinds, nails, hooks, all gone. Meanwhile, Bernie is getting down with the TSP, scrubbing the walls clean for the primer and paint. It's ugly and dirty, but it needs to get done.

Meanwhile, my throat is raw and scratchy, and I think that phase two of the nasty cold that's been going around is hitting me. Starting to get the chills, and more phlegm and the hurting and the bad language and the glavin. Perfect for working around dirt and dust and industrial cleaning solutions. And carrying heavy stuff. Ah, well, at least I'll get to rest sometime soon. AAAAHHHHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!

One of our other pressing tasks is getting the water heater replaced. The current one is pretty old and corroded, and I wouldn't trust it not to explode or something further than I can throw it - and it's pretty heavy, so that's not far. So, we want to get one of those snazzy new tankless water heaters - they're a good chunk more to start off with, but they save a lot of money, so it should pay for itself within a few years, plus there's no tank to explode or anything, and it takes up a lot less space. We've found a couple of major hardware supply stores (which shall remain nameless) that carry them, but nobody is willing to even consider installing them. This bothers me for two reasons: first off, this indicates to me that this is "unsupported" technology, which might cause problems later on if something goes blooey - even though it's been around for decades - and second, I'm beginning to think that we might have to install it ourselves. I've been doing a bit of research, and as far as I can tell, it's a pretty standard install - you got your water, you got your gas, you plug it all in, and it goes, just like a regular tank heater. I'm wondering what is so strange and different about these that scare all the burly plumber-men away. Well, I guess we'll just have to give it a shot and find out...