Over the last couple of days I've been playing around with a new design for the site. I know I've talked about this in the past, but nothing really progressed past the initial sketch phase.

Here's what I'm thinking it'll look like (click for a bigger image):

Here's what still needs to be done:

• *something* in the left-hand side of the header.
• menus aligned properly
• a contrasting colour placed through the design. I've been recommended both green and orange, but I'm thinking black might be a better choice .

I've been showing it to a few people and I've already had a stack of feedback on it. More would be welcome though.

Expect the design up and running in the next week or so. Depending on work load and laziness.

Six weeks.

That's how long it took to get all our furniture delivered to the house. Then on top of that there were the untold hours I spent putting the damn things together. But at least it's done. It's over. We have a fully functioning household. We're no longer squatting on the living floor like vagrants, balancing plates on crossed knees while we watch a TV balanced precariously on a stand.

I came away from the experience having learned a few things: how to follow poorly laid out instructions, that rubber mallets can fix anything and of course that those around you can be injured when not even in the vicinity of your primary work area.

You see, while I was putting the TV cabinet together last weekend Ange was running around the house getting ready for a baby shower. She leaped over a pile of cardboard and came down on a pair of scissors I had lying on the floor. The scissors went straight into the webbing between her toes and made a nice hole. I was told, quite firmly, that she has lost feeling in her little toe, so I jumped on the phone and started dialing. A few phone calls later I discovered that all the medical clinics around us closed up shop on Sundays. Very helpful.

We got in the car and headed to the next best thing: the local pharmacy. Once there I got Ange to show the guy the damage. A look of disappointed crept over his face as he said "Oh, is that it?" I'm not sure what he expected, maybe he imagined we'd be reenacting scenes from Hostel or something. We'll never know for sure, because he handed us a bottle of anti-septic and told us dab it on every now and then. No stitches necessary.

When we first moved into the new house, mum noticed that we had a rosemary plant growing in the back garden This "garden" is little more than a sparse, bark-covered outline that runs along the edge of the courtyard. At most there's ten plants breaking up . It seems unusual to me that the landlord would decide that one of those plants had to be a herb of all things. I could hazard a guess and say that your common rosemary plant is very hardy and will survive just about anything. Of course it's not out of the realm of possibility that they can also be used to ward off evil.

Having that plant nearby has inspired me to grow my own food. It'd be a handy skill to have if humanity is ever brought to the brink of extinction by zombie apocalypse. That and fresh food just tastes that much better than your store bought variety.

Of course, I'm not what you'd call a greenthumb. Sure, operating a watering can falls safely into my comfort zone, but anything more advanced than that has been met with failure. Hell, a few years ago I even forgot to plant the seeds when attempting to grow chilli plants.

I'm hoping I have all that out of my system by now. I'm due.
Ange and I were out at Bunnings last Monday and thought it would be a good idea to try and cultivate more herbs, to go along with the rosemary plant. After some hefty decision making, we walked out with four plants: Basil, Oregano, Italian Parsley and a Bay Tree. I then spent that afternoon repotting them and, after a short detour to clean potting mix out of my car, stood watching like some proud parent as my herbaceous children took root.

Having no TV in the house is certainly an interesting way to live, but after a while you begin to feel that loss of connection to the outside world. No matter how many magazines and newspapers you read there's always that nagging feeling that something is missing.

I took steps on Saturday to mend that disconnect. After tracking down Ange's Dad in Brunswick, I drove both of us out to JB HiFi to pay off and pick up the new TV. After getting home and unpacking it, I discovered that we'd been sold a dud. The image on the screen, while crystal clear, flashed like some giant strobe light at a rave. I must admit I was impressed with the quality of the image, even if it was only there for half a second at a time.

A quick call to JB HiFi and a trip back to the store resulted in a brand new cardboard box, complete with brand new TV inside, being wheeled out to us. I also picked up a component cable for the Wii while I was there. After all, what's the use in having a new flashy TV if you can't show it off?

We're still waiting for some other furniture-type things to arrive. TV cabinet, coffee table, dining table (with chairs) and a couch. The TV cabinet and coffee table have been delayed two weeks. Lucky for us, Ange's parents have donated a small cabinet to perch the screen on in the meantime.

While we're waiting for the couch and dining table we've got two beanbags standing in for both. We'd originally been quoted six weeks for delivery for both items, so with any luck they'll arrive around the same time as the coffee table and cabinet. And then we're basically done.

Apart from these little hurdles we're settling into the house quite nicely.