[Homer searches under the couch for a peanut]
        Homer: Hmm...ow, pointy!
               Eww, slimy.
               Oh, moving!
               Ah-ha!  [looks, then says remorsefully] Oh, twenty
               dollars...I wanted a peanut!
Homer's brain: Twenty dollars can buy many peanuts!
        Homer: Explain how.
Homer's brain: Money can be exchanged for good and services.
-- The voice of reason, "Boy Scoutz 'N the Hood", The Simpsons

We have moved. It was much more difficult than the last time. For one, our house’s former inhabitants were extremely high-strung crazy people who seem to have gotten coffee stains… everywhere. Second of all they weren’t our of the house in time and threatened us with lawsuits because they blamed us. But they were only two hours late, luckily.

So after over 96 hours of moving and unpacking we are mostly unpacked. It looks a bit bare because we’re not putting anything up on the walls until we patch and paint them.

I’ve also had a fun (hah!) time installing our StarChoice system. First of all let me say that StarChoice are bastards when it comes to providing help for self-installers. There is none. I hate them. Also I don’t have a handheld signal finder which apparently makes it much easier to do. Today I’ll be picking one up and making another trip to the dish……. fun.

Our neighbourhood is really nice! Most of our neighbours are under-30ish couples starting families. We’re already planning a new front garden design with our neighbour to replace the ugly stuff the previous owner did. All in all I don’t think I will ever be bored again.

Today we sign the papers for our new house.

Tomorrow we take posession and start moving. I am so damn stoked. I know Sandy is too but she’s too tired from packing to show it 🙂

What else has been happening?

• We are entering box hell – that time before we move when we try to do as much pre-packing as possible. You can tell it’s getting time to move because photos and pictures start to come off the walls, and then when we talk it sounds like we’re living in a barrel. It’s only three weeks until we take possession of our house.
• Maptuit (where I work) is plugging along. Check out our new corporate website with lots of juicy press releases and technology demos.
• Sandy got into York University for teacher’s college, as you may have noticed. This is the news we’ve been waiting for for months now. It’s a huge relief to know that she’s going to school in Ontario.
• As a result, we’re seriously looking at buying Sandy a notebook computer. Her requirements are “as light as possible and good battery life” for normal Office / Web browsing use. My requirements are “must last at least three years without failing” as I’ve seen so, so many notebooks become doorstops over the years. Also it must be under $2000. So far I’ve looked at the Sony VAIO 505 series, Apple iBooks, and some IBMs that were in their clearance center. Mmmm… IBMs are looking good actually.

For those of you who are keeping track, yesterday Mike’s girlfriend gave birth to a healthy baby girl. Raven Rochelle Kamenka came into this world weighing 9 pounds and 15 ounces. We went to see them yesterday evening at the hospital: everyone was doing A-OK.