A new computer!!!

I am the proud new owner of a Macbook!!! Eeeeeeeee!! I'm so excited. I'm actually more excited to have gotten rid of my PC - an HP Pavilion that has given me nothing but trouble trouble trouble. I was talking to Steve on skype earlier this week (which is SO awesome... I love skype) when the computer froze - the picture, the voice, all of it skippy and frozen and then blue screen followed by meltdown. Well, shutdown. So, after having taken it back in to the store no less than five times, Future Shop finally gave me me a new one! I was not expecting it to be so easy... nor was I expecting them to say Sure! No Problem! when I asked if I could use my credit towards a Mac instead of a PC (piece of crap). I am so glad that we bought the extended warranty... and so glad that it's gone! I totally felt like I should have been/could have been in a Mac commercial - intense frustration with the complications and never-ending problems... it was almost a joke it broke so frequently. Oh well! It's gone! (I hope I'm not scaring you if you have a PC. I'm sure it's great.)

The last few days have been pretty productive, but I've made no progress in finding renters for our place. I cleaned the air filters in our furnace after rescuing one of them from the trash at Home Depot (I'd taken it in to get a new one and they thought it was a range hood fan screen, and told me to throw it out... oops) and finally bought a programmable thermostat which I will NOT attempt to install. I could bore you with all of the extreeeemeeeely exciting things that I've been doing around here but instead I'll just tell you what books I bought to take overseas with me. With some gleaned from a crammed second-hand bookstore downtown (Red River Books) and others carefully picked and paid for with a Chapters gift card, here's the list:

Oscar and Lucinda, Peter Carey
Fugitive Pieces, Anne Michaels
The Known World, Edward P. Jones
Pilgrim, Timothy Findley
Bel Canto, Ann Patchett
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, Junot Diaz
The Complete Short Novels, Anton Chekhov
Three Cups of Tea, Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin
Suite Francaise, Irene Nemirovsky - I'm reading it again...!!
The Rough Guide to Romania

I have one more Nemirovsky book to read and then it's back to the library for some more. I have been loving her writing - I couldn't put David Golder down (ha!) and so far Fire in the Blood is fabulous. Okay... last thing. I was really looking forward to watching The Office last night, but had to settle for something almost as equally politically incorrect - the debate. Some debate! More like five squabbly teenagers... not that I'd know what that would be like. I did kind of like how you could see the daggers shooting around from eye to eye, thinly veiled by forced smiles and reluctant composure. Anyways, there were too many people and too many issues to be answered in between the name-calling and finger-pointing; also there wasn't enough time for all of it - not that I could have watched much more but... sheesh. My favourite question of the night was, "Do you think the Conservatives are barbarians?" Ha! Just a little inflammatory. And Layton asking whatsisname Harper if he was hiding his platform under his sweater... ha!

Fall is definitely here! A colourful view from our bedroom...