With the help of a few very loyal and tenacious friends, the move has been completed and we are comfortable ensconced in our new home in Medicine Hat.

It is a nice apartment. About a hundred square feet less than we are used to, but we'll make do. The neighborhood is quiet and the neighbors are friendly.

Speaking of which, it was only with the assistance of Matt, our new neighbor across the hall, that our hide-a-bed made it up the stairs at all. I'm afraid the rest of us were far too weak by that point, and he simply appeared like a guardian angel and hefted far more than his share of the weight.

Once again, Ronja and Joel were the key elements in my move. Ronja ties with my father in being the best truck packer in the universe, and her and Joel together can haul more weight down the stairs than all the rest of us combined.

Many thanks also go to Gail and Selene who not only lent hands on the Friday night loading, but also drove all the way to Medicine Hat to assist in the unloading. These superbabes went far beyond the call of duty.

My Dad is definitely the best dad in the whole world. Because I was nervous of the cold and ice, he drove the U-Haul all the way down here for me, and then drove back all alone. I hope his back doesn't hurt too badly.

Our new manager is not quite what I expected. I get the impression that the reason prices here were so affordable was due to the fact that he likes to do as much of the maintenance as he possibly can himself.

He doesn't lay the carpet or install the appliances, but he handles all the plumbing, painting and general carpentry that the place needs. When we arrived, the carpet had just been put down and he was about halfway done painting. The doors were all off and the baseboards and wall plates were still off. There wasn't even a toilet yet.

I managed to get him to finish painting, get all the doors on and the toilet attached. But we've got a list a mile long of other things he still has to fix or finish. Talked to a guy down the hallway who was just moving out, who said the only problem they had with the place was they had to continually hound the manager to get things done.

We've been awfully spoiled by our management I guess. Our last two managers would get all repairs done within a day and could completely refurbish an apartment in two days. Ah well.

I was able to reconnect to the Internet after a great deal of fussing about. I am limited to a 56k dial-up account, and I suspect this old crappy modem I have is only churning along at about 36,000. Cable or DSL Internet both look to be not showing up until January, so we'll have to make do.

I spent half today getting my VPN fixed so I could get some work done. It works now, but it is pretty shaky.

The plan is for me to head home Wednesday night, and stay straight through to Tuesday. That'll be my two days a week in the office, and I'll be on vacation after that right through the holidays, so won't have to go anywhere. I can stay at home, relax, muck around on the computer... Ah heaven.

Speaking of computers, the new one should be delivered on Friday or so. Ordered it from Dell, and it's going to be sweet. A P3 800mhz - not the top of the line, but plenty good enough for me.

I'm sure there is more I'm forgetting to tell you, but the move in -20-degree weather has left me with the makings of a nasty cold. It's left me a little groggy. Or is that the paint fumes?

We went to see Dungeons & Dragons Sunday night.

Oh my. What a horrible, horrible film.

Visually, it was a lot of fun. Dragons are always cool, and the mazes and monsters and junk were all fun, but, oh my god the DIALOGUE! Every trite cliché was trotted out and beaten over the heads of the audience.

The only one in the movie who seemed to be convincing in their delivery was Jeremy Irons, who got to go WAY over the top in this one ("Now... is your time... TO DIE!"). Oh, and Thora Birch is no Queen Amidala, that's for sure. Her impassioned speech to the council sounded like she was reading it off cue cards.

Lisa and I caught on quickly to the nasty nature of the spectacle, and were able to treat the movie like it was just a big camp-fest. We ended up enjoying ourselves, but we couldn't help treating it like an episode of Mystery Science Theatre 3000 (Lisa, for example, kept wanting to yell out 'ACTING!' whenever Thora opened her pouty little mouth).

Only one comment sat in my mind on the way out of the film. 'Did they actually WATCH the movie before releasing it?' I would guess not.

Did you see it?

Anything nice happen recently?

So what have you been reading?

Take me home, big fella