Counting Down

There's really not that much left to do at our house. The things that aren't yet packed are the things we can't really live without for the next few days (underwear, toothpaste, etc.) My wife has cleaned all the walls. We cleaned the kitchen. Just waiting now. waiting... waiting... still waiting...

Surprise, surprise!

Yesterday, my son and I spent most of the afternoon outside. I was potting plants from our garden so we can transport them with us. Just because we're leaving doesn't mean we can't bring our strawberries with us! My son had a good time trying to help, rolling in the mud, eating unripe strawberries, etc. He was diirrrtttyyy by the time we were done.
Just before supper, we got a phone call. On the other end was everyone's favourite big, friendly Italian guy from Edmonton (some of you should know who I'm talking about). Turns out he was in town for the Christian College Tour (he works for a bible school) and called to let us know we could go see him. So we did. It is always nice when someone you aren't expecting to see suddenly shows up.

Conference Wrap-up

It was awesome. I really felt like I was in my natural environment again. All those people with a real heart for worship. It was so refreshing. I also got to sit in on 2 songwriting classes, one with Brian Doerksen, and the other with Tim Hughes. They both had different and helpful things to say that have inspired me to get moving on my songwriting/recording. After we get settled from our move, then I'll put some real time in. Even now I'll try to put some time aside for writing. The thing that most helped me I think was the idea of editing/re-writing. I've never really done that much. I'll write a song in one sitting usually, and just leave it. Sometimes I've inserted lyrics I wasn't really happy with just because I needed something. But I'll put more work into finishing them off better.

Not So Anonymous After All...

I was home yesterday afternoon. Unexpectedly, the phone rang. I was greeted with a "Hi, is this Doug?" after my "Hello?". When someone uses your name, your immediately begin to scour your auditory archives to figure out whose voice it is. I did not know, but didn't need to guess. "This is the Apple Online Store", came the quick answer I had been looking for. Interesting. The lady said that she noticed that I had been looking at the new iMac on-line, and was wondering what she could do to aid me in my desire to get one. Short of Steve-o donating one to the church I don't think it's gonna happen, but she sent me an e-mail anyway, just in case.

At first I was flattered/pleasantly surprised my this encounter. Then questions began to arise; Wait a minute, how did she know that I was looking at the iMac? I checked and I didn't have one in my shopping cart or wishlist or anything. And how did they get my phone number? I did sign-up for a free GAP iTunes download (I got King of Spain by Moxy Fruvous if you're interested), and I believe I included that info there. But what of my actual on-line presence at the apple store? People know a lot more than I think they do I suppose.

Something else I thought of was my initial reaction; I was pleased that Apple was calling me. Upon examination I was a little disturbed. Let me explain. I think it's a bit like sexual harrasment, it depends on where it's coming from. Since most cases are directed at women I will use that POV. Say Brad Pitt starts flirting with you, chances are most women would not report that as sexual harrasment. Say your slimy, over-weight boss starts flirting with you, chances are that would get reported as sexual harrasment. It depends on where the flirting is coming from. Now with my Apple experience, I didn't mind, because I like Apple. If it was, say, something I don't like so much, like a car company (let's use Ford as an example) then I would feel it an infringement on my privacy. The only difference between Apple and Ford is that I like one and not the other.

Anyway, just thought I would mumble about that for a bit. I know I said I wouldn't be here today, but the fact that I was home yesterday to answer Apple's call means I went home early and needed to come in today. No more posts, I promise. I'll recap the conference early next week.

New Songs

I wrote a new song this week. I've been tweaking it with Pro Tools. My friend, who is a recording engineer/producer type guy was showing me some tricks and made it sound much better. I'm pretty excited about my new recording toy, now if only I could find some time to actually use it.
Instead, my non-work time is spent cleaning, fixing and packing. The pile of boxes has grown to probably 12X6X5 feet by now and takes up more than a quarter of the space in our living room. All the walls are patched and painted. Also taking up my time is the restaining of our stand-up mirror in the bedroom. I nicked up the finish pretty good a while back, and now I have a good excuse to fix it up because we want to stain it to match our new bedframe. Maybe I'll post a picture when I'm done.
I won't be around the rest of the week, so don't bother checking in. There is a worship conference I'll be attending, so I won't be in the office much. Also, it's my wife's birthday on Wednesday, so if you feel inclined, give her a call and wish her a Happy Birthday.

The Times they are a changin...

Most of our earthly belongings are contained in boxes at this moment. They fit rather nicely in a 6X6X6 space in our living room corner. The walls are bare, except for patched-up nail holes. It feels less and less like home. Sad, but exciting at the same time. A new place, new possibilities.

I must say that I am a bit jealous of my wife's older brother and sister. Bro has a nice townhome, and sis is about to get a whole house (pretty nice looking I might add). Not jealous in a bad way, I'm super happy for them. Just not in the cards for us I suppose. Oh well, we have so much to be thankful for without worrying about the stuff we can't afford.

From the bad parent archives...

Ah, Thanksgiving. Twice. Once at our place, once at my bro/sis-in-law's place. Both good, both times ate too much.
Yesterday, we had some of that sparkling grape juice stuff you can get from the grocery store. We had brought some, but it ran out, so we opened theirs, which was pear. I was giving some to our son, when my wife says, "oh, this tastes kinda more like alcohol than the other one." At that point I looked at the bottle more carefully to see that, yes in indeed it did contain alcohol. Ack! Fortunately, it was o.5% and he didn't have much.
Parenting tip #724: Read the label.

A hope deferred makes the heart grow faint...

But in this case the deferredness is over. Two (relatively speaking) long sought desires were fulfilled these last two weeks. First, I got an Mbox2, which is something that plugs into my computer so I can record my music. Yeah! It comes with a bunch of usefull software, and a lite version of Pro Tools, which is arguably the premiere audio editing software on the market. The only draw back is that my new toy is a little too good, and my poor ancient (almost a year old!) laptop has a little trouble handling it. I think it'll work in the end, although if anyone has a G4 or G5 of 1 Ghz or higher they want to donate to the cause, I wouldn't be adverse to that!

The second bit of news is that we are on the move. That's right, after 3 years in our current residence, we are moving. It's a step up in the world, a 3 bedroom townhouse. It's more money, obviously, but we'll trust that God continues to look after us... He's done a good job so far, no reason to think He won't continue to do so. It's also a (estimated) ten minute walk from our new place to the church, so I can walk everyday. It's close to a rec centre and a mall as well. We're pretty excited, it's just a lot of work to get ready to move. Cleaning and packing. We sure have a lot more stuff now than when we got here 3 years ago, not to mention a new family member and all of his stuff! I shudder to imagine how much more we could have though, because we regularly go through our stuff and try to get rid of things we never/will never use...