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2002
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May 12-14  WILU, Windsor
June 2  2 years
June 12  The Closing
June 21-25  CLA/ALA, Toronto


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28.4.03 ... recently...


• borrowed from the library: Middlesex and The Muse Learns to Write
• shopped for: a couch
• had success in: couch-shopping
• eaten: fajitas
• read: mental floss 2.3
• watched: the Wild beat the Canucks and Identity
• prepared, just in time for Spring: meringue pie. Get some.
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25.4.03 ... politics of home ownership or politics and home ownership


I have fairly strong political convictions and the husband, bless him, does too. But sometimes these inclinations lead us to the proverbial bumping of heads. On a social level, our beliefs aren't dissimilar: subsidized housing for the underprivileged, government provided health care, pro-choice on the abortion front, public education, government funding for the arts, employment equity, etc.. These are all good things. But when it comes to economics, we part ways. If there was a card he could carry to declare his essential capitalism, he'd be carrying it. I think I can say, without misrepresenting his opinions, that he firmly believes that a fully-functional free market is the best possible economic model, that the strong weeding out the week will make us all stronger, and all the rest of those law-of-the-jungle adages that would make Milton Friedman proud. I, as you will know if you spend any sort of time around here, don't buy into the notion that laissez-faire economics is good for anybody (never mind everybody) because I have an essential mistrust of corporations and their motivations; I don't think things like the environment and social/public good are protected in any sort of market economy where profit and endless cycles of consumption are the driving forces, and I don't think that a purely demand-supply model is equitable in any way. And I certainly put very little faith in the functions of government and extol the virtues of libertarianism (a point that we do agree on).

So with the recent talk of Provincial elections, much heated discussion has transpired within our modest walls (and when I say "heated discussion" you must understand that we have nothing but respect for each other's opinions and we both relish the educational nature of these discussions, and only one of us likes to debate for the sake of debating). He tells me that if I plan to vote Liberal, we shouldn't bother voting at all because we will essentially cancel each other out. And then there is The House. Recently circulated rumours have the current Progressive Conservative government making the interest paid on household mortgages tax deductible. Now, setting aside the fact that this could well be, and mostly likely is, another empty election promise, this is suddenly meaningful to me. Because if I choose to vote with my conscience, I might well be voting my husband and I out of a fairly consequential tax break. So, all of a sudden, the waters of my political conscience have become muddied. Either I was never meant to be a home owner, or I am destined to join the ranks of the politically disillusioned who don't vote and still choose to complain about the state of our society and/or economy.
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22.4.03 ... may i interest you in some shares?


The value of my blogshares spiked just around the time that we bought the house. Coincidence...? If you like pretending at playing that cornerstone of capitalism, the stock market, you might consider investing. This is only my second foray into trading, my first venture was into the real stock market in 1999, during the giddy height of the dotcom days, well before the bubble burst, when a few hundred shares in this company afforded Michael and I a cruise in the Caribbean. I'm hoping for as much good fortune in the Blogshares market.

But speaking of The House, the home inspection last week went well, the only two major upgrades required are upgrading the electrical from 60 to 100 amps (mostly to appease the insurance company) and redoing the roof in a couple of years. We also learned that the house was built sometime between 1900 and 1930, with our home inspector leaning towards the mid teens to early twenties. The current owner has done all sorts of work on the place, from adding a pantry to lowering the floor, underpinning the foundation and completely finishing the basement. He mentioned that during one of his upgrade projects he removed from the walls crumpled newspapers, dating back to 1911, that were being used for insulation.
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18.4.03 ... it seems that i need help


Excerpt from spam received this morning:
Does your team at etches-johnson.com need a marketing boost? Do you find that etches-johnson.com products aren't reaching your targetted market? Are you satisfied at the extent to which the etches-johnson.com name has infiltrated the marketplace?

If so, etches-johnson.com NEEDS OUR HELP!
Apparently things are worse than I thought they were.
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15.4.03 ... good times to come


Faithful readers have had to put up with two recent preoccupations of mine: weather and The House Hunt. Well good news, faithful readers. First of all, as you will have realised from yesterday's post, good weather has arrived and acerbic complaints about copious amounts of snow and hibernating tendencies have thus been mothballed for a few months. Even though this week's forecast calls for freezing rain, I will bite my tongue and hold my breath until the sun returns next week.

And secondly, we bought a house, yes we did! For those of you who know Toronto, it's in High Park, one of two neighbourhoods that was high on our desirability list. The house is probably over 70 years old although we should get a better idea on that after the inspection, which is tomorrow afternoon. It's a tiny little row house, the lot measures a diminutive 14.25' x 73', but it's got all manner of living space inside, is warm and bright and filled with light, and I for one couldn't be a happier camper! We move in on June 12th and pictures are sure to follow shortly thereafter.

So thank you, gentle readers, for bearing with me through all the kvetch and occasional vitriol that has plagued these pages for the past few weeks. Good times are indeed to come!
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14.4.03 ... things i love about this weather


• Birkenstocks without socks.
• Carrying my fleece, not wearing it.
• Eating supper outside while watching hacky sack matches.
• Funny campus-unicycle-guy riding his unicycle without the parka and snowboots.
• Toe jewellery.
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13.4.03 ... dear Amazon,


Imagine my surprise when I went into my amazon.com wishlist to discover that The Best of Cher was the last addition to the list, even though I know for a fact that the last item I added to the list was The Best Democracy Money can Buy: The Truth about Corporate Cons, Globalization and High-Finance Fraudsters (nevermind the absurdity of the Cher addition to begin with). Things have been funky around Amazon lately. The Donnie Darko recommendation should have been the tip off, but it was the Richard Scarry's Best Ever 1st Grade Starter Kit recommendation that finally did it.

By the way, I've redesigned and streamlined bibliolatry, my library blog. It should be more pleasing to the average Netscape user, finally.
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9.4.03 ... lexically languising


I've clearly hit a reading dry-spell. And I'm inclined to believe that this is not the result of poor book selection as much as it is a symptom of an acute case of preoccupation. The last book I read was The Tipping Point, and I finished that on March 20th. I restarted Atonement a day after that and then the house thing started picking up momentum, and when I said it consumes you, you must believe me because it really consumes you. I've been eager to finish off Atonement for weeks but every time I pick it up and read a couple of lines, my thoughts wander back to real-estate: damn those were some nice baseboards; the hardwood sure creaked a lot, but that's charming right?; I've never seen such an attractive door in my life; a couple of rugs on the floor in the basement would warm the place right up. And then all of a sudden the trials and tribulations of Briony Tallis and her mislaid staging ambitions can't hold a candle to how to deal with knob and tube wiring.

Must. Find. House. Soon. Or. Else. Basic. Literacy. Will. Suffer. And. Lazy. Lexicon. Will. Result.

Later that day ... I read a book!
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8.4.03 ... small as life


The good thing about being a student for seven years is that you learn to live small, and if you're lucky, you become quite good at it. This is coming in particularly handy in these looming-mortgage/downpayment-scrambling days. Recent high-level decisions include: going from two cell phones to one, switching plans on the remaining cell phone, and deciding that no long-distance travel will be undertaken for a few years. These decisions were fairly easy to make. The more difficult decisions have to be made on a daily basis, when you have to constantly remind yourself that you are saving your pennies for a reason and that reason is that you are tired of living in a two-room flat that sees no sunlight, because the body needs vitamin D, the soul needs flowers and light, and the cats would really like to be able to run and chase without colliding into bookshelves and coffee tables and other floor-laden miscellanea.

And even those daily decisions become easier to make the more you make them. And, is it all worth it? Yes. Because living small can also mean doing less damage. I don't need to buy those handy anti-bacterial, conveniently-boxed kitchen wipes when a good old-fashioned towel and mild cleaning agent (vinegar, baking soda, whatever the occasion calls for) does the trick just as well and means that I'm consuming less, using less chemicals, producing less waste, and saving more money.
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4.4.03 ... in which the author rants about real estate


I've been coasting on the strength of literary genius (thanks Atwood and Galeano) and shutterbugging all week but recent rumblings from faithful readers has prodded me right back into posting action. The lack of content around here is the direct result of having been sucked into the real estate vortex. After we completed the Homebuyer's Workshop in December, we rested on our laurels for a couple of months while discussing the very best time to buy a house. Two months later, we finally came to the realisation that there is no best time to jump into the real estate market, there will always be a few unknowns and a couple of variables and lots of doubts.

So we enlisted a real estate agent and went through the Buyer Consultation where we laid out everything from finances to neighbourhoods we want to live in to house features we want and/or need. Throughout this process we told ourselves that we are only casually looking, getting a feel for the market before actually taking the plunge, but little did we know that once you've met your agent, and once the listings start flowing in, you are effectively sucked into the eye of the storm, there's no getting out. The Toronto market is such that lengthy contemplation and deliberation is an unaffordable luxury. To give you an idea of what I'm talking about: last Friday we were supposed to see five houses. We really liked the first one, we thought two were OK but didn't love the neighbourhoods so we didn't bother going inside, and the last two ended up being mere drive-bys. So we sent our agent back to her office to crunch the numbers on the first house about 30 minutes after we saw it, while we went back to the neighbourhood to confirm what we already knew: that we wanted to put in an offer on the place. Back in our car, tooling around the neighbourhood, it was 40 minutes after we had seen the subject property and our agent is on the phone telling us that said property is conditionally sold. Already? It was just listed this morning? Well, we should have seen it earlier in the day, we should have done a 10 minute walk-through, we should have registered our offer hours ago. Work? Plans? Sleep? Cancel them. Once you've entered the housing market, you will be consumed by it.

We got a little further with the second house we liked, we actually presented an offer on it last night but we were outbid by an as yet undetermined sum. The whole process is wretched, I am exhausted from excitement and anticipation and restless sleep, and we still don't have a house. Of course I know exactly what the problem is: I'm getting emotionally involved when really I should be thinking of each offer as a transaction, which is how Mike is handling the whole thing, how does he do it? We're seeing more listings this weekend and I'm reservedly hopeful and not yet entirely emotionally detached, but I'm getting there.

In somewhat related news, I heard this when I called work this morning: "switchboard good morning, campus is closed". Always a nice thing to hear, even though a snow day in April is in fact an abomination.
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1.4.03 ... Atwood to America


Margaret Atwood is one of Canada's literary heavyweights, and for good reason. This is an excerpt of a letter she wrote to America, published in the Globe and Mail on March 28th.

"This might be the reason for my hesitation: embarrassment, brought on by a becoming modesty. But it is more likely to be embarrassment of another sort. When my grandmother -- from a New England background -- was confronted with an unsavoury topic, she would change the subject and gaze out the window. And that is my own inclination: Mind your own business.

But I'll take the plunge, because your business is no longer merely your business. To paraphrase Marley's Ghost, who figured it out too late, mankind is your business. And vice versa: When the Jolly Green Giant goes on the rampage, many lesser plants and animals get trampled underfoot. As for us, you're our biggest trading partner: We know perfectly well that if you go down the plug-hole, we're going with you. We have every reason to wish you well.

I won't go into the reasons why I think your recent Iraqi adventures have been -- taking the long view -- an ill-advised tactical error. By the time you read this, Baghdad may or may not look like the craters of the Moon, and many more sheep entrails will have been examined. Let's talk, then, not about what you're doing to other people, but about what you're doing to yourselves.

You're gutting the Constitution. Already your home can be entered without your knowledge or permission, you can be snatched away and incarcerated without cause, your mail can be spied on, your private records searched. Why isn't this a recipe for widespread business theft, political intimidation, and fraud? I know you've been told all this is for your own safety and protection, but think about it for a minute. Anyway, when did you get so scared? You didn't used to be easily frightened.

...If you proceed much further down the slippery slope, people around the world will stop admiring the good things about you. They'll decide that your city upon the hill is a slum and your democracy is a sham, and therefore you have no business trying to impose your sullied vision on them. They'll think you've abandoned the rule of law. They'll think you've fouled your own nest.

The British used to have a myth about King Arthur. He wasn't dead, but sleeping in a cave, it was said; in the country's hour of greatest peril, he would return. You, too, have great spirits of the past you may call upon: men and women of courage, of conscience, of prescience. Summon them now, to stand with you, to inspire you, to defend the best in you. You need them."
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 dammit panda, where are my flowers?