Motorcyle Supershow

It was once again time for the annual Motorcycle Supershow at the International Centre in Mississauga. Jim & Sandy were once again staying with us in Woodstock and we left late in the morning. We didn't have any plans to see anything specific aside from the usual wandering.

Heather on an Indian.

A couple of things I wanted to see was the new Kawasaki Vaquero and the whole line of the again-resurrected Indians. Though expensive, I've always found the Indians very appealing. Another booth of note belonged to the Canadian Sidecar Owners. It has a different theme every year and this year paid homage to the troops. Rudeboy, a fellow VROCer, was partly responsible for the work that went into the booth although he wasn't present at the show at the time we passed by.

One of the motorcycles at the sidecar display.

In the evening, we made our way to the Mandarin for the annual Frozen North dinner. I was the pleasure organizing this year's event. Based on the response from the web forum, I made a reservation for 12 although only one other person, Mike from Ottawa, showed up aside from the four of us. None of it mattered though as the Mandarin completely ignored our reservation and constant reminders to the point where we left after an hour of waiting for a table. Mike suggested that we go to Woodbine to try their buffet so we followed him. There wasn't much selection at the buffet but the food was good enough. But at that point nothing was going to get the sour taste of the Mandarin experience from my mouth.

December Recap

It was a very busy month as we were settling into our new house. Heather's parents, Jim & Sandy stayed with us for a few days to help with the transition. The big moving day was Friday, December 3rd when Mike and my two brothers were over to help us move our belongings from our storage unit in Woodstock.

Our new house.

Next day, on Saturday, Remi and Lisa came from to Toronto. Remi helped me with insulating the garage while Heather, Lisa, Jim & Sandy worked on unpacking things and shopping for blinds and other neccessities. Even Kim & Mike stopped by for a short visit with their kids. Remi and I put in about 8-9 hours of work as we put the insulation in place and drywalled over it. Heather and I chose not to pay the builder to finish the garage as the materials we bought cost only a fraction of the builder's price. However, we didn't quite finish as we ran out of drywall but we came close enough. We did a lot of work and I couldn't have done any of it without Remi's expertise and directions. Thanks, buddy!

Happy Birthday, Jolene!

As if that wasn't enough, December also had its usual share of family functions including Jolene's birthday, Adrian's birthday and we also had a small gathering at our new house for my birthday.

Happy Birthday, Adrian!

Then there was Christmas and we were able to spend it with our entire family as we had a Christmas dinner in Breslau with my parents, Heather's parents and her grandparents. A wonderful time of the year, indeed.

WE HAVE MOVED!

The big day has finally come and the excitement is overwhelming. Neither Heather or I could get more than 4-5 hours of solid sleep. It's a good thing we both had a day off work. At 8 in the morning I took Heather's car to a local garage for an emission test which is required for older cars at the time of renewing stickers. The inspection took about 15 minutes and the Grand Am passed the tests with flying colours.

Back at home, Heather was finishing out our passport applications. My passport expires at the end of December and Heather decided to get a new one with an updated name. We didn't encounter any lines at the passport office in Kitchener and were out of there in less than 15 minutes. Then we drove straight to Waterloo to the office of Ministry of Transportation to take care of some business. That business included: updating driver's licence to the new address (x2), purchasing plate stickers for our vehicles (x4 - Elantra, Grand Am and two Boulevards), new vehicle registration papers with new address (x4) and changing address on the health cards (x2 - we will not receive new cards as those don't include the address info). All of that took so long that the line behind us grew from zero to about 6-7 people as we were leaving.

Back in Breslau once again we had lunch and then Heather went upstairs to catch up on some sleep while I waited. The call finally came at 2pm. I woke Heather up and 25 minutes later we had the key to our very first house!

We have the key!

We went back to Breslau to quickly pick up some loose ends and then drove both cars to Woodstock. I had planned to ride a motorcycle but it rained constantly throughout the day so I decided that the motorcycles will have to be moved at a later date. We took both cars because beginning tonight overnight parking on city streets is not permitted in Breslau. The key worked and we were in our house for the first time as owners just before 4pm.

A little present from the builder.

I moved the Grand Am into the garage and then we went on a drive around Woodstock which included stops at a post office, Canadian Tire (making copies of keys), Public Storage to pick up some things that could fit into a car, and Subway for some much needed supper. Since the bulk of the move will not happen until Friday, we did a few little things and I was able to at least start furnishing one of the 'rooms' in the house. We left Woodstock at 7pm with three more days to go before we actually start living there.

The garage is filling up.

The Final Walk-through

With eight days to go before taking possession of our new house, we had a final inspection at 3pm. Aside from some minor touch-ups and a couple of missing small items, the house looked ready to move in. All the phone calls to utilities have been made and now we just wait.

Our new kitchen.