Tim Hortons and a beautiful Saturday

Ah....... Spent all day unpacking and I feel much more at home now than I did a week ago. It's amazing what a different outlook I have than even, say, Friday morning.

I spent most of the day unpacking, sorting, and putting away our collective collection of books. We never get rid of books. Tiff spent most of the day doing lawn and leaf work, but she came in just in time to watch me put away our collection of issues of the Allegheny Review, which got us arguing as to who was the better Senior Editor when we were in college... (I was on the board for four years, so I win - no seriously, I think Tiffany was the better editor - I was always a business and procedural type and I did my best to fake it on the literary side.)

On a separate note, Tim Hortons is building their fourth location in Erie PA - On East 12th and Holland. Good for them! Now, we just need to see one in Edinboro and one in Meadville... (Particularly the last one...) I am jonesing for an old-fashioned plain and a mocha to go.

Our neighborhood had trick-or-treat on Thursday, and we had all of 12 kids stop by.... Big difference than what we're used to, now we have too much chocolate. What are we to do? ;)

New Depeche Mode

Playing the Angel is the best CD Depeche Mode has put out since Violator, and none too soon. I was listening to a lot of Violator the first time I lived here. Symmetry is a funny thing.

On a happier note, I seem to be pulling out of these fall doldrums. Things are settling into place with the new house. I think I need a good week of being settled, getting caught up, no big changes or new distractions and I'll be back on the track I want to be. Given that week, I look forward to next Monday.

In our new house

We're officially moved in to our new house in Meadville! We got the cable hooked up, so I'm posting my first post from down here. We do still miss our wonderful house in Erie. If you're looking for a great house in a great neighborhood in Erie PA, check this house out! We still have some stuff to move out, but we can be out pretty darn quickly.

10 miles of moving

We got pedometers last week at work at work as part of a wellness initative. I think it's neat. I walked 10 miles moving stuff into our new house yesterday.... Over 20,000 steps!!!! No wonder I was so tired. I think my threshold for staying sane is 17,000 steps. I looked down at about 7:30pm and saw I was up to 18500 and I was so sick of being on my feet.

This makes me think on our recent trip to Montreal that I must have walked at LEAST 50 miles.

Computer Art

I was taking a break last week and made some photo art from a recent trip - this is a shot of Parliament in Ottawa that I thought turned out neat.

Busy day

I kept pretty busy today. Tiff took me down to a great little hideaway for lunch. We moved more stuff into our new house. Some friends of ours gave us a spare freezer. (They warned us we would not want to pay them for it and they were right, but it's still usable so we were happy to take it off their hands.)

On a totally different subject, what do you do when you've done something really stupid to someone, but talking about it or trying to make it better only makes it worse? You leave it alone. Why can't I let things drop? I guess the lesson learned for me is that you can't change who you are, but if you learn enough about yourself, you can minimize the damage you cause to others. I'm still working on that last bit.

Closing!

Today is our closing day on our new house, but there's little to no drama because the sellers have already done their end of things, so it should be pretty straighforward this time. Hopefully, this means one less thing in my brain that I have to deal with, which right now is a big help. (Now, wanna buy a house in Erie, PA?)

Life has gotten pretty crazy - and for me less so than so many other people in our country and around the world, but I think September 2005 is a month I'd rather just tuck away in my mind and avoid thinking about for a long time - boy, did it go out with a bang... I think I've been reeling for a couple of weeks now.

On the other hand, Fall in Northwestern Pennsylvania is wonderful, and even though I have two yards to rake this year, I still love the leaves, the chill in the air, and the chance to reflect on hazy memories from the summer and settle in for the long winter.

GFS Marketplace

We decided to stop at the new GFS Marketplace on Peach St. GFS is the store for people who like to buy industrial size ketchup, noodles, or "beef-like patty product". I wanted to wander around in the store loudly wondering where the GPS aisle is, but we were able to have more fun than that... Here is a sample exchange:

Tiffany - "Look at the giant box of oatmeal."
Jason - "That is a lot of oatmeal."
Tiffany - "I like oatmeal."
Jason - "Look at the giant tub of barbecue sauce."
Tiffany - "Look at the giant jar of pickles."
Jason - "Should we buy seven pounds of fortune cookies?"

We didn't grab a cart, so we were obviously "walkers". There were other walkers loudly regarding the size of other fine food items while we were there, but the GPS people were keeping an eye on us anyway. They can't have figured on anyone walking off with ten pounds of bagel bites, could they?

Then we had to fight our way out of the parking lot around people who had just polished off 18 oz. steaks at Longhorn next door and wanted to top it off with several gallons of shortening.

Mad World

This is another awesome Michel Gondry video... - click on the Gary Jules link to view (and sorry - I can only get it to work in Internet Explorer...)

Love the song too, definitely better than the original Tears For Fears rendition (and I have been known to like early 80's vintage pop/rock...)

I won't ruin it by telling you who paid for the video... What I will say is that Michel Gondry isn't afraid to create art on a pedestal built from advertising money.

IM'ing with my wife

It's not weird that I am IM'ing my wife right now on Yahoo! Messenger.

It is weird that she is sitting right behind me on her computer...

Lo and the Magnetics

A song I discovered last month on CBC Radio 3's podcast - If anyone knows French and can post a translation, I'd be grateful. I understand enough and can babelfish my way through the rest of the way to the point where I think the lyrics are cool, but I might be totally wrong.

Tachée by Lo and the Magnetics.

Moi, je suis née dans une fausse ville
Je suis née dans une pauvre ville
Je suis née sans yeux

Toi, t’as âgée au bon moment
Toujours prêt pour le moment
T’étais née sans mains

S’ils vous donnent une grosse somme
Pour perpétuer l’addiction
Laisse faire votre dose

Moi, dis mois les possibilités
Et j’te dirai qu’c’est okay
Je suis pleine de rien

Toi, tu manges toujours tes sentiments
J’adore toujours les sentiments
Je suis pleine de rien

Une fois, j’étais pleine de rien
Mais maintenant, j’ai faim
De toi

Moi, je m’ennui de toi
Toujours les pensées faites en soie
La tache est permanente

Moi, je suis née dans une fausse ville
Je suis née dans une pauvre ville
Je suis née sans liens

Toi, t’as âgée au bon moment
Toujours prêt pour le moment
T’étais née sans mains

Moi, je m’ennui de toi
Toujours les pensées faites en soit
La tache est permanente

Toi tu mange les sentiments
J’adore tes sentiments
Je suis pleine de rien

Moi je m’ennui de toi
Toujours les pensées faites de soie

They have a neat logo too:

Crappy conference food

I'm in Northern Virginia at a conference - whee... I am so tired.

I just ate some seared chicken and salad. The watery liquid accompanying the chicken kind of ran into the "caesar" salad. All there was to drink was iced tea and water. I hate conference meals. There's going to be some kind of forced socialization from 5:30 to 7:30. I'm not feeling terribly social this time.

People all around me have stupid annyoing cell phone rings. Plus, the hotel has crummy wireless that doesn't work in my room.

I'm in a bad mood. I'm sorry. My goal for the rest of the day is to try to smile more.

T2? Will it sell you a T1?

It sucked Chuck back in. (Read the press release for 9/28/05, regarding the Erie internet pioneer.)

Expedient is starting to remind me of the crazy liquid robot in Terminator 2 after Arnold does it in in that burning factory. If I commented any further, it would expose a bias I might have one way or another that I might not necessarily shout in a crowded room.

On the house front, we spent most of the weekend cleaning the new house. Tomorrow I'm driving with a co-worker to a conference all week, so I won't be around to do a lot more for a while. But, I'm taking my laptop, so I may still post!