"Pack the car and leave this town, who'll notice that I'm not around?"

People from the north country take a masochistic pride in their winter driving abilities. Conditions that would cripple most cities to the south, northerners plough through and call just another day. We complain about the driving conditions, with the full knowledge that we can make it through with very little problem. When it comes down to it... I think we all like winter driving on some level... even if it's just a weird matter of pride.

That said... I liked nothing about the almost 6 hour drive to London on Thursday. It's one thing to drive 20 minutes on a nearly empty country road... it's another to have your destination still hours away, knowing you have some heavy lifting to indulge in, and an empty fridge to thank you in the end.

But, I'm now quite settled, having got through all that big-move angst. I did the whole sleep on the blow up bed until Dad and James brought my furniture down on Saturday. Had some help (by which I mean I held open doors while everyone else moved my stuff) from the boys (individually known as Jason and Tristan) moving it into my little hovel downstairs. Spent the better part of the afternoon hanging out with them until going home with a couple of samosas in hand, and munching on one of those for supper. Tristan was also kind enough to help hook up my cable.

Things are now feeling much more homely. I have my bed made, my furniture arranged. I have a great picture on my dresser of Main Street Minden of olde with cows running by the Sterling Bank. I've even smelled the place up with my scented oil burner. And, on a slightly morbid note, I've even cleaned Jason's blood off my tv... the lesson? Always pack bandaids!! You never know when your friends will incur pesky scrapes and cuts when they help you move. Not only did I not have bandaids... I didn't even have kleenex.

Housekeeping notes: Still trying to pin down this blog's identity. Really, food was just a topic that normally comes up in life for me to write around. But, I'm hardly a food aficionado - I just desire to share little tidbits that I enjoy rather than express my non-existent genius. Really, this is more an online journal... as much for me as anyone else reading it. So, I continue to diversify and expand. You'll notice the Cork'd feed is gone (it crapped out on me, and I wasn't inclined to try and fix it... if indeed it was fixable), and it is now replaced by my Digg feed. These are just interesting net things I've dugg. Twitter feed continues to go strong...

Nice thing about where I'm living, is I'm a 10 minute walk from the grocery store. In fact, it is faster for me to walk, than to rearrange the vehicles in the driveway and then drive. So, I did my first real substantial grocery shopping today. I hate setting up brand new food wise. But I think I've managed to get stuff for a week or two's meals anyhow. And yay for my frozen lentil soup... that's kept me going for these disorganized couple of days.

Oh yeah, and orientation was on Friday, thus far things look promising...

So, on with the motley. Monday classes begin.