Real Estate Barons for a Week

So. We are now in the new house -- Home Sweet Home -- and until next Wednesday at midnight, we still own the townhouse, too. Most of the stuff we had left in the townhouse is here now (probably another two van-loads left) but of course there's the U-Pak and the self-storage, too.

The move itself was a photo finish as we waited for paperwork to be filed, money to be deposited and title to be transferred, but we finished the bulk of the move yesterday and this morning got the hot water tank replaced (with near-military precision) and the cable hooked up (the tech actually had to run a new line from the power pole across the street -- I've never, in all the years I've moved, encountered that before).

For breakfast I had an apple from one of our trees and this afternoon, Kiddo came home and within minutes was outside running around in the yard. I even went out and played catch with her for a while. Even the cat is happy now that he can look out several windows to a neighbourhood (instead of a patio and parking lot) full of birds, squirrels, other cats and everything else.

This weekend is Canadian Thanksgiving and there will be turkey to be had -- just not here -- but there is hope that we will, as pledged, be able to host Christmas in the new abode.

Bittersweet day...

My first official job here at the University was in the Stack Maintenance Unit of the main library -- I shelved books. When I first started, all the books were sorted in one central room on the 3rd floor then trucked out to all other floors for shelving. It had been done that way for a very long time; I know, because my Mother used to work in the same department and I used to come up on weekends to help sort the kids' books and wander around the library.

In the 1990s, the sorting was decentralized and each floor got its own sorting area, but third floor still used the large room, which frequently filled to capacity during peak return times.

A few years ago, there was another change, as a new return/sorting area was added in the basement (soon to be "lower level") of the library. From here, books are trucked to the other sorting areas before being shelved. But, the third floor sorting area was still fairly full just a couple of weeks ago.

Now it is empty and much of its shelving will be dismantled in coming days in preparation for demolition of the last remaining "inside" (i.e. behind locked doors) study carrels in the library. Some of the existing area used for the sorting room plus all of the study carrel area will be replaced with shelving to hold the music monographs when the music collection relocates to the new Media Commons on the main floor in February.

So, while I was happy that I got to take some photos of this soon-to-be-gone part of my past, it's a bittersweet happiness, as the photos will be all that will remain by the time I come back from the break in January.

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Slice of Life?

I missed the hoopla... but on March 5th, Life Network disappeared off the dial* to be replaced by (rebranded as?) Slice, which allegedly is aimed at me:

SLICE™ will cater to the highly sought-after target of viewers 18 – 49, with a core demographic of women in their thirties. With guilty pleasure viewing, SLICE™ brings an unapologetic attitude to topics that matter to women – family, fashion, relationships, celebrity, finances and gossip – to name just a few.

Mostly, it's trash TV... and looking through their programming, there's not too much to lure me over to Slice... though I did enjoy Beauty and the Geek, and have been known to watch Project Runway (they are airing the UK version, Project Catwalk) but I can do without Party Mamas (about women who go overboard planning parties for their spoiled children) and Newlywed, Nearly Dead (marriage counselling for newly married couples). Bottom line, I'm not likely to program the channel out of my presets, but I probably won't pause there too often either.


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*hahah, "dial" I'm so old.