Update!

Now that the dust has settled slightly, I figured I'd fill you in on what's happened in the past... uh... 3 months.

- My good friend Sean came down to visit me in Ottawa for Canada Day long weekend. We spent a lot of time hanging out at "The Works", the notorious Ottawa burger restaurant. Unfortunately, we didn't get a chance to play the ponies at Carleton Raceway. Next time, though. Sean is now plying his trade as a geo-physicist on an ocean-going vessel. I told him that if he starts seeing anonymous henchmen in blue jumpsuits, then he should try to swim for it.

- Jenn, Rudi, Sofia and Noah came for a visit, and darned if my niece and nephew aren't growing up quick. We went to the Perth Road Village Fish Fry, but left before the fist fights started, which apparently happens by the end of the night. The fish, however, was all shades of awesome. Sofi got to spend some time with "Uncle Wy", though not as much as we'd hoped - but I'll be going back to Calgary for Christmas, and should have a week to engage in further uncley activities.

- A bunch of us spent Labour Day weekend out at the cottage, and were fortunate enough to have some pretty fantastic weather. Jess and Peter have bought their own place out there, and we were on hand to help my sister break in her new porch. I'd estimate each person ate, on average, 3 pounds of meat over the course of the weekend - but at least we had some Cuban cigars the size of our forearms to aide in digestion.

- Andrea and I bought a condo - yes, just like that, faster than most people would buy a car, or even a new pair of shoes. It was the first place we saw, and we knew it was the place for us pretty much right away. We still went through the formality of seeing a few other places, but end up putting in an offer less than a week after we started looking. The deal closed in the first week of September, and we're now in the process of moving in.

I hate moving, but it does give me a good excuse to get rid of some of the junk that's accumulated over the past few years - I'm donating a full suitcase to charity, and will likely have more to drop off once all's said and done. So, that's right - a childless couple living in a loft condo close to their respective workplaces. All I need is an eliptical trainer and annoying laugh, and my ascension into Yuppiedom is all but assured.

- Andrea, myself, Brian and Joanna went for a vacation at an off-season ski resort in Utah last week. It still feels odd telling people that I went for a vacation at an off-season ski resort, as it sounds like the kind of place you'd tell people you visited when what you really did was join a cult. Really, though, it was a lot of fun. We spent a lot of time hiking, sightseeing, swimming, riding mechanical bulls, and otherwise being active, and spent the rest of the vacation eating, drinking and lounging by the pool.

One highlight was chartering a rafting company to take us about 6 miles up a river that we then floated down on tubes, whilst I smoked a fine Costa Rican cigar. The second highlight was the Alpine Sled, a flimsy plastic contraption that hurtled down a concrete track at about 80 km/h. I never managed to quite figure out how to break, and smoked the pylon at the end of the track twice, and barrelled into the safety pads once. Good times.

That's it for now. Andrea and I still have a lot of moving to do, but we should be done by the end of the weekend. Then, we just have to wait for the extra furniture to arrive, and we'll be all set. Visitors are welcome, but I hope you don't mind sleeping on the inflatable bed. Don't worry, we're reasonably certain that our kittens lack the means of detonating it with their claws at 3:48 am.