We bought a house last Friday. After a lot of looking, we actually found something that we liked right away. No pictures yet (camera batteries are flat). It's a 5 bedroom split level ranch house on 1.5 acres, built in 1967, very "moderne." Quite a lot of mature trees, lots of lawn and a sizeable award-winning rose garden (!) The couple who own it are getting on and are a bit dizzy - they've had it for thirty five years ... and are moving into a retirement village. We take possession on 16 August. So now we have plenty of room, come stay! quite a few other creatures seem to like it too: the owners have all sorts of repellents in their garage: termite, gopher, mole, wasp, chipmunk and armadillo. The rose garden has an electric fence around it to keep the whitetail deer out.

Other events: semester has finally started so I now get to see what kind of students I'm dealing with (much like anywhere else) and what they are capable of. Tomorrow we have the college Convocation (like orientation) - speeches mostly probably (incl. me) and a cook-out in the courtyard of Dudley Hall (our building).

Boris and Jacqueline right now are out buying B's football gear: helmet, pads, longsox, boots etc. We approach this particular activity with trepidation. What can go wrong when you're wearing a helmet, face guard, mouth guard and chin guard, right? Thing is, with Boris, anything can happen. He's starting to get a slight drawl too ...

Since everybody else here has a ute, we're thinking of getting one too. An old clunker kind of ute, for hauling furniture for our house and beartraps and ride-on mowers - that kind of thing. It's funny how they all drive round in great gas-guzzling pick-ups with nothing in the back (except perhaps a couple of military-style rifles in the tool box). Our little hunter talks about scopes, and muzzle-gauge and whether the gun has 'good action'.

We'll get our photos up just as soon as we get some new batteries ...