Mar 30 (Sun):  Quickly....the move and apartment cleaning are complete.  We had a great crew yesterday - THANK-YOU to everyone!  Steven came on the Go Train from Toronto, Huguette came and helped me do more cleaning, so  now our two Best Persons for the wedding have finally met.  Mom came and looked after feeding people and watching the kids, and Monica came and helped Steven and Andy with hauling stuff.  The hired movers also came almost on time and moved the heaviest or most awkward stuff.  Our only hitch was a rather annoying one....our elevator reservation got lost AGAIN!  Andy kicked butt and got a second elevator put on service (other people were using the main one).  I coordinated here, especially when the movers arrived, and Andy, Steven, and Monica brought over 3 or 4 van and car loads.  Melinda, my co-worker, and her husband came by and helped level the washer and dryer, Andy and I installed the dryer vent hose, and we have now officially done a couple loads of laundry, plus the dishwasher has been christened too.

Today we hosted Easter Brunch, but Dad's back is out so he couldn't join us.  Hosting allowed us to break in almost every feature of the stove, especially the warming drawer.  We took advantage of Scot's presence (even though he was exhausted from teaching for 3 days, getting up at 5 each morning) to get the fireplace out of the box and in place.  Tonight we also got the other two TVs going and the phones.  Here are some pix to tell the story of the week/weekend. 

This is one of the Easter baskets we got the kids.

It's 9 o'clock and we are going to bed!

Mar 25 (Tues):  Just back from taking another load to the house.  This time it was almost all of the kitchen stuff.  Andy was off work today.  She did another coat of paint in the office and got the first coat done in the bedroom.  It's a dark, sage green and I was so pleased to see it is coming out exactly as I had imagined. 

We also had to get phone repair back.  The line was supposed to have been working by 5 on Saturday.  When it still wasn't working by noon yesterday, I called repair.  Then last night while I was here at the apartment packing up the kitchen, Andy had a repairman come by the house.  He found the main connection wire in the electrical box cut.  He repaired it and told Andy the phone should be working in about an hour.  When it still wasn't working this morning I called again.  This time two guys showed up, one apparently an apprentice.  They were there over half the morning and ended up running a completely new line into the house.

And to our relief, the appliances also arrived today right on time without issue.  Oddly, even though they were bought from two different places, they arrived on the same truck.  It seems this delivery company works for many retailers.  Andy called me about 11:15 to say they were all there.  By the time I arrived with her lunch they were just finished setting up the washer and dryer with the kitchen appliances already in place.  Holy cow, we can't believe how big everything is, especially the washer and dryer.  When you see them in the store, you are comparing them against other appliances, so only now in this context do we realize their size true.  The stove and dishwasher seem normal, but I bet Andy could fit inside the dryer and the fridge is the biggest one we have ever had.  It will be nice having such a large freezer.

Mar 23 (Sun):  After a pretty productive weekend, it's rest time.  We've been trying to make sure to pace ourselves, but some things are taking a bit longer than planned.  Andy had to do more patching and sanding in the office yesterday than expected, but today she got the first coat of paint completed.

We have also moved a substantial number of boxes and small pieces of furniture, including the dining room table and chairs and the bed frame.  I got all the cupboards washed out, did lots of vacuuming, and washed the hardwood floors with Murphy's Oil Soap.  Some floor areas are more worn than others so they will all need redoing in the next couple years.  We picked up the faux-fireplace today from my co-worker, but haven't unpacked it yet.  Yesterday all the locks were changed plus we got an extra deadbolt installed on the back door.  We weren't comfortable having just a door handle lock.  The EspressVu dish was also installed, new cable run, and now we have our new, little, LCD TV working in the kitchen, plus a receiver in the bedroom and a PVR in the basement just waiting for TVs to arrive.

I lost a bit of time today by having to go to work this morning for a few minutes, then one of the ExpressVu receivers didn't have its programming so I had to get on the phone with tech support, but Mom was a big help today washing walls.  She was also an Easter angel!  She brought us a complete turkey dinner, which we didn't see till we got home tonight and opened the bag.  We were so exhausted and hungry that we can't even say how much we appreciated this.  It was just what we needed.  There was turkey, stuffing, gravy, cranberries, potatoes, carrots, broccoli, yams, cheese sauce, and dinner rolls - plus a chocolate cream pie.

Tonight we are watching the Malaysian Grand Prix and we've just decided to return Scot and Monica's van tonight rather than tomorrow after work to be more time efficient.  One moving glitch has been that the land-line phone is not working at either place, but at least the internet is still working at the apartment.  We got an email from Monica that the kids spotted them hiding the Easter eggs, so now are highly suspicious of the Easter Bunny, so could we help them try again next weekend?.... hide something different without the kids seeing, so we have some planning to do.

Mar 21 (Fri):  Dad's surgery went reasonably well.  In fact, they kicked him out of the hospital the next morning instead of after a couple days.  What they didn't do was give him any pain killers for the excruciating torture they had done to him.  It's taken a couple days but he's feeling much better.

Andy's presentation Wednesday went well, but has snowballed into much more of this business analysis work, which is getting a bit away from her intended project.  Still, it keeps her busy and employed and she is learning, which she enjoys.

Our schedule has changed somewhat due to a collective agreement with the family that we postpone our Easter gathering until March 30th.  Dad will be feeling better so he can hide the eggs and we will be mostly finished moving.  We may even gather at our place.

The house deal closed yesterday at 3 pm, so we dropped off a few cleaning supplies after work and checked that all was well.  It was such a weird feeling walking in....kind of overwhelming...and it looked smaller than we remembered, but that's because we haven't been inside for weeks and the pictures are a bit misleading.  This morning I dropped Andy off on my way to work and it felt more like our place to both of us.  She cleaned the bathrooms, shampooed carpets, and got some painting started.  Tonight we picked up the van from my brother and will start moving small stuff in the morning.

Mar 17 (Mon):  Happy St. Patty's Day!  As Andy sits watching the debauchery and treachery on "Rome", I will do my best to try to catch up the last couple weeks. 

We had a cat incident on the 4th.  Andy was messing around with boxes in the bedroom while I was eating dinner at the table.  I heard "thump", then "HELP!  HELP!"  She'd inadvertently pulled the 3 very heavy desk boxes over on herself and was pinned between them and the footboard of the bed.

I went running in and struggled to push the boxes back.  Behind me the girls had also come running in very concerned.  Unfortunately, Comet spooked Casper and we then had another Tasmanian Devil incident begin while we were still trying to get Andy clear.  I was pushing the bloody heavy boxes while yelling, "CASPER!!!" repeatedly.  After what felt like an eternity of hissing, growling and whatever that deep-down demonic sound is they make, Andy was free.  I grabbed a pillow but then spotted a better option - a flattened box.  It took a bit, but I got it between them.  After two weeks, we still have our stressful moments of hissing and threatening.  Once things had calmed down quite a bit, I told Andy that was a real bone-head move, that after 3 years as a Safety Manager she should've known better.  She humbly agreed.

We've survived a couple more big storms.  One brought ice and then on Saturday the 8th, it snowed for about 30 hours into Sunday, after which we had some gorgeous clear skies.  We set out for a walk during a lull in the storm and I even tried my snowshoes, but the "trough" kicked clear on the sidewalk (further down the street than this picture), not wide enough for snowshoes, actually made it harder to walk as my ankles didn't like the twisted angle they were presented with.  We went to rent a video, "The Kingdom" with Jamie Fox, Chris Cooper, Jennifer Garner, & Justin Bateman.  It was so-so.

The storm was kind of fun, but also left me OCDing all weekend because we could not go borrow a van to go buy the electic, faux fireplace we both admired.  I was sure that Canadian Tire was going to be out of them by the time we got back, especially as it was on for almost half price.  It's just what the living room at the new house is missing.

Monday, a woman from work took me in her truck and we managed to get one and store it in her garage until we move in.

This past weekend we were very busy with shopping.  We got 5 cans of paint for the house.  I'm very exited about the bold colour for the office, so I hope it looks as good on the wall as in the can.  We also got all the painting supplies and a couple other things and it came to precisely $250 - the exact amount we had on a gift card from my work for my "Pay It Forward" award from a few months ago.  Hilarious how we hit it dead on without even trying.  We also were looking for a small TV for the kitchen and stumbled across an excellent deal on a 19" LCD, and it even has a built-in DVD player.  And we were getting worried, but we finally found a place where we can rent a carpet shampooer.

Sunday, Andy managed to find herself an excuse not to come to a baby shower with me.  She begged Huguette to let her come put more cabinetry together.  I dropped her off on my way.

The shower was for Lori and Gabrielle, the wife and son of one of my cousins on Dad's side, Bobby.

I picked up Mom and we went to a community hall not far from her place.  This is Mom, Aunt Sandie (she is the next child after dad), cousin Bev (Sandie's daughter), Aunt Sharon (wife of dad's brother, Lanny) and moi.

This is Dad's youngest sister, Cathie, then the two in black and brown are my twin (not identical) cousins, Melissa and Amy (daughters of Lanny) and between them is their brother, Brandon's, wife, Hollie.

This is Dad's sister (and Lanny's twin), Aunt Gail, grandmother of the baby thanks to her son, Bob.  Here she looks better than I have seen her in years, but then she's finally got some rest since Uncle Bob passed away last year.

We had good food, delicious punch, and Lori got tons of gifts, but we were tortured with a couple of games, of course.  The first one was a fashion show.  Everyone but all the aunts had to dress up in clothes from the Salvation Army and parade before the aunts.  They tried to get me in a skirt, but soon gave up.

Then came the game I have no name for.  I'm still trying to get over it.  I promised Mom I would not post a picture of her playing it (but I didn't promise my aunts), but I can't resist this one of her laughing so incredibly hard.  It's too cute, however I have made sure to alter it "to protect the innocent".  There is a cucumber in a nylon stocking.  They had to tie it around their waists, put their hands behind their backs, and then swing it to knock the potato forward until it went over the line.  I think Mom is laughing so hard because she knocked hers backward.  They tried to get us all to play this game, but I guess I'm a bit of a prude and declared it a "lesbian-exempt" game.

We've had some exciting RSVPs for the wedding in the last couple weeks.  Joanne and Rod are coming from BC for their first visit to Ontario, Kathy & Denise, who we used to spend a great deal of time with before we moved out west, are coming.  We still see them, but Kathy now has her own law practice so is harder to nail down for social occasions.  And Andy is very excited that Rowan, John and Lyra are coming from Virginia.  Rowan and John were Andy's best friends through University, and Andy and Rowan back-packed all over Europe together.  Lyra is their baby who Auntie Andy has not yet met.

This week will be quite nuts.  Today, we met with an accountant to get our tax returns done.  Tomorrow, we go to the lawyer to complete the house paperwork and hand over a whopping amount of money, then to the hospital.  My Dad was diagnosed with prostate cancer a few weeks ago.  It's very small right now and treatment hasn't been decided on, but for now, for comfort, he is having a TERP -  a Trans-Urethral Resection of the Prostate.  He will be in for two days.  Wednesday, Andy has another big presentation and day full of meetings.  Thursday, we get the keys to the house.  Good Friday, I have to work but Andy doesn't so will shampoo the carpets and start painting.  Saturday morning, we are doing an Easter breakfast & Egg Hunt with the family, then to the house by noon as the locksmith and ExpressVu installer are coming between noon and 6.  I will stay there and Andy will start moving boxes over with the dolly and Scot's van.  Sunday, we will move as much as we can with the van and then continue over the weeknights.  Tuesday, Andy will take the day off to be at the house for all the appliances to be delivered, then the hired movers will move the 10 heavy items on the 29th.  Steven, Monica, Mom, the kids, Huguette and maybe some other people are coming to help that day as well.  Sunday the 30th, we will clean the apartment so I can hand in the keys on the 31st.  Can't wait for April Fool's Day!

Mar 2 (Sun):  It was a pretty quiet weekend, mostly due to my still ongoing lurgy.  I'm beginning to wonder if I will ever have energy again.  Friday, I had to withdraw from my company's evening Bowling Competition because I was just too exhausted & headachy.  Too bad as the Pyjama Party theme was my idea, so I now can't wait for pictures to see what the clowns came up with for "sleep wear".

Yesterday, we got a few supplies at Costco, then picked up the recumbent bike at Sears and that was it for me, even though Andy had done most of the work anyway! (It sure was interesting when the 3 guys that brought the box out realized it was going in our little car, but with the back seats down, it only hung out of the trunk a few feet!  Luckily, we only had to bring it about a kilometre.)

In the afternoon while I rested and tried to shake the shakes, Andy went and visited my Grama.  I've been feeling guilty for not visiting since Mom's birthday December 26th, so Andy went in my stead and showed Grama pictures of the house.  Then she came home and went for a lovely, long walk all the way out the Burlington beach strip adjacent to the Skyway Bridge, basically from the top of this map on Brant Street down to the lake, then along the Waterfront Trail along what is here called Beachway Park until it ends at the channel.

Andy figures it was 3.5 to 4 kilometres each way.

Today, we went out to Mom and Dad's.  We knew Scot, Monica, Ben and Grace were going too, so went later than initially planned.  That way Grammy and Grampy had some time with the kids without us to share them with.  When we arrived, as I walked through the door, there were shouts of "Help me, help me Heather, help me!" from Grace.  She and Ben were piled on top of Scot on the couch, but he was still winning the wrestling match.  I helped her alright.  I grabbed her away and started wrestling with her myself!  A great deal of wrestling then continued between two kids and three adults as Andy got sucked in.  Next thing Andy knew, Ben had licked her eye-lid, but then he cried the blues when she wiped it dry with his own sleeve!  Too funny.

Before we got there, they'd been out in the yard looking for ice.  They found the "bag of ice" from before and shoveled it off (Dad and Ben on it below), but they also found a patch of ice where some thawing and re-freezing had happened to create a natural ice rink (Scot and Grace on it below).  From Mom's camera:

Hmmm.....those hockey sticks look awfully familiar!  When we later realized that it was Andy and my sticks that were used, we had a brief scare when Mom thought that dad had cut them down for the kids.  He then tried to scam us that he had, but I saw the twinkle in his eyes.  That's where Grace and I get the teasing behaviour......from Dad!  We then made it very clear to all that our sticks were there so we could play with the kids if we were all there, and that the sticks were to stay there, in tact!  No funny ideas (like Scot thinking about taking them back to his place).

After they left, we hung out to visit and with plans to catch an early Canucks game on Mom and Dad's satellite dish....but we were ripped off.  It was blacked out!  We couldn't believe it.  We started to head home but decided to drop in on Sherry and Ken, and to our surprise they could get the game on their dish.  It turns out Ken pay $180/year extra for all these blacked-out hockey games, and our Canucks just happened to be playing his favourite team, the Blackhawks.  After almost an hour we headed home and listened to the end of the game on the internet.  Maybe we shouldn't have as they lost badly.

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