Executive Week

We just spent the week in Edmonton for what's called "Executive Week" for all of the Alberta Municipal Affairs interns. It kept me quite busy, but I enjoyed most of it. I've connected more with my fellow interns, and I got to meet a lot more people involved in local government. On Monday, the interns had dinner with Ray Danyluk, the Minister of Municipal Affairs. He's a very charismatic man. I liked him. In fact, if he were the leader of the Conservative party, I might vote Conservative.

As is custom for whenever I visit Edmonton, I got sick. So did Alex and Kenny. That made for a few nights of terrible sleep. We're still not quite over it, but we're on the mend.

The boys had some time to play with their cousins. Kenny and Max clashed over trains, but things went well for the most part.

We stayed an extra day so that we could join in the celebration of Dad's 59th birthday. It wasn't a big party, but it was nice to be around for it. I miss a lot of the family birthdays being one of the out-of-towner kids.

Scroll down to the "On the Move Part II" entry to see pictures of the house we're moving into.

By Popular Demand

My fans want photos on my blog, so here's a sampling of the photos I have on my work computer. I'll add relevant photos to some of my early posts later this evening while I'm at home.

On The Move Part II

A family has recently moved out of the Three Hills Branch. They called us up a couple of days ago and offered to rent their house to us until May, which is when my internship ends. We hummed and hawed about it for a couple of days, and then this morning we decided to take them up on their offer. So we're moving from Trochu to Three Hills at the beginning of December.

There are a lot of reasons why we decided to move. Money was a small reason. Right now, we're paying $1200 rent with utilities included. The Jabureks are going to charge us $875 not including utilites. The utilities will add up to about $250, for a total of $1125. Not a big difference, but that's $75 we didn't have before, and every bit will count because Avril's maternity leave runs out in November.

The biggest reason to move for me is the differences in the houses. We'll be living alone in the house instead of sharing it with two other families who always seem to be setting off the smoke detector. All of the screens on the windows in the Trochu house have holes in them, and some are missing. The Trochu house has a useless steel chimney that leaks water when it rains and will be a major source of heat loss in the winter. The windows in Trochu aren't sealed well, which will also be a heat concern in winter. And then there's the flood, which really soured my mood towards the house, and there's quite a bit of water damage to the floors, walls, and my temple clothes.

The house in Three Hills has a nicer yard that is completely fenced in the backyard (good for little kids), and we'll also be closer to more ammenties, such as IGA, the aquatic centre, church, and the hospital. Also, as much as a like Trochu, Three Hills is a nicer town. My evening walk route in Trochu didn't have sidewalks the whole way, and along one street there are hedges grown over the sidewalk in places, and in one case the sidewalk is completely torn out for a development that's dragging along slowly.

Thanksgiving

This year was the first time that Avril and I spent Thanksgiving on our own instead of going to visit my family or her family. It was a very relaxed, enjoyable experience. Kenny insisted on helping in every aspect of preparing the meal. He especially helped me a lot making the death by chocolate for dessert.

Alex enjoyed the mashed potatoes, and I also fed him some Gerber's vegetable and turkey baby food. Kenny's favourite part of the meal was the sweet potatoes, probably because of the marshmallows on top. My favourite part was the turkey sandwiches that I'm still enjoying. I also enjoyed the stuffing. I made Mum's stuffing recipe, and I got to keep it all to myself instead of fighting over it with a dozen or so people. Avril doesn't like stuffing, and Kenny wasn't all that interested in it.

It would have been nice to see my family. I saw the photos of the Lloyd MacKenzie family Thanksgiving on Mum's blog and thought that it looked like a nice gathering. On the other hand, it was nice to stay home and relax with only two kids to liven things up.

On The Move

Alex can't crawl yet, but he can get around. He'll roll onto his belly and push himself backwards and squirm around the whole room. Then he'll start yelling because he doesn't like to be on his belly for very long. He knows how to roll from his belly to his back. I've seen him do it. But his preferred method of getting off his belly is yelling at Mom and Dad about it.

Kenny's vocabulary is growing by leaps and bounds. He's a smart little boy, and very cute. Yesterday, I was at the opposite end of the house than Avril and the boys. Kenny came running up to me and said, "There you are! I'm so glad to see you!"

Calling

The second councilor of the branch presidency/elder's quorum president was release yesterday at church because he's moving to Red Deer. They called someone to be the second councilor, but the elder's quorum president spot was left open. After sacrament meeting, Bruce Woodruff from the high council (who, I understand, grew up across the street from Curtis in Olds) ask to speak with me and Avril for a minute. "Oh, crap," I thought. "They're going to make me elder's quorum president." Fortunately, I was wrong. They called me to be the seminary teacher. I'm actually looking forward to that.

What Is That Noise?

I was awoken at 3:45 this morning by a noise. My first thought upon waking up was, "What is Avril doing out there?" When I realized that Avril was in bed beside me, I listened more closely to the noise. It sounded like running water. I figured the toilet in the main bathroom was running, which it has been known to do. But why would Avril have used that bathroom instead of the master bathroom? I sat up and listened closer still. It was definitely water. Feeling a little dread gnawing at my belly, I got out of bed and walked down the hall. It wasn't the bathroom. It didn't sound right to be the kitchen sink. I left the lights off to avoid waking the boys. When I reached the end of the hall, my feet squished on wet carpet.

Crap.

I closed Alex's door and stepped into the laundry/entryway. My feet were in an alarming amount of water. It was over a centimeter deep. I turned the light on and immediately saw the problem. The hose connected to the cold water tap on the washing machine had burst, and a jet of water was shooting up and hitting the shelf above it. I turned the tap off, and went into the kitchen to see how far the water had spread. The water spread all the way into the dining room. Avril arrived behind me to see what was going on, and she was closely followed by Kenny. We spent the next few hours cleaning up by soaking towels in the water and wringing them into a mop bucket, and then emptying the mop bucket into the bathtub. Kenny thought it was a great adventure, so at least one of us enjoyed it.

Kenny didn't go back to sleep until noon. Alex woke up at 6:00. After the mess was cleaned up, we slept in shifts.

The ceiling in the empty suite below us is ruined and has to be torn out. We don't know the full extent of the damage to our floor yet. Our landlord is bringing his insurance company to have a look at it. Avril had just cleaned the house a couple days before, so none of our stuff was permanently damaged. A couple of books got wet, but other than that, we came out of it nothing worse than tired.

Last!

It's important to me that I'm always last when it comes to techno-fads. I was the last person on earth to get a cellphone. Now I'm the last person on earth (under the age of 40) to start a blog. I figured that my baby-boomer parents each have their own blog, so it's my duty as a member of Generation Y (albeit one of the older members of said generation) to write a blog.

An explanation for those who know me in real life instead of online: the name of my blog is Hyperblogianism. It's a modification of my longtime screen name "hyperferrianism". I wanted an original name (as opposed to such names as sk8trdude2000), so I took the word "ferry" and added a bunch of random affixes. Later, due to popular demand, I provided a definition: "Of, relating to, or resembling the act, characteristic, or state of having too many commercial services with terminals and boats for transporting persons, automobiles, etc., across a river or other comparatively small body of water." But never mind that.