Well, it looks like Winter is finally here to stay. This weekend is the Canadian Interuniversity Sport football championship - the Vanier Cup, and the U of S Huskies are in it (again.) As crappy a team as the Roughriders have been over the last - well, forever… - the Huskies have been dominant. They pulled out a nailbiter two weeks ago to remain undefeated for the season, and they’re meeting another undefeated team for the championship. Anyway, it should be a good game. It got me thinking though - the Vanier is being held here next year. We’ve had unseasonably nice weather this year, but by this time next year, we could very well be looking at -30 with a nasty wind and lots of snow. That’s Canadian Football though.

Simpson’s quote of the day: “We want chilli-willi!” - Barney

The weekend brought three caught mice, a night out for me, and the Grey Cup. First up, I got the mousetraps set Saturday afternoon, then we did some quick shopping. When we came back, both traps had caught a mouse. I reset them, and when I went out Saturday night, one more unsuspecting rodent had wandered into my traps. I’m under no illusion that we got them all so quickly, but I can always hope.

Saturday night, I went to a friend’s place, where he introduced me to the first “video podcast” that I’ve ever seen (though I think Pure Pwnage should count too) - Tiki Bar TV. Interesting that both are Canadian groups. Anyway, it was a good time, it had been too long since I got out of the house.

Sunday. Bloody Sunday. What a game the CFL chose to close off the season with. The only thing that would have made it more exciting would be if Calvillo’s last play punt attempt would have worked (can you imagine? ) Jason and I Liveblogged it, which was a blast as well.

Simpson’s quote of the day: “Why do we have to play this corny old game anyway? I’ve got my jacks! Hey, I got twosies!” - Milhouse

It was discovered yesterday that the 9th floor has had a visitor for some time. A mouse, who has been here since at least before last weekend, was seen running across the floor of someone’s office. Complete with screams and people jumping on their desks. They caught a mouse overnight, but the person who climbed up on their desk is not convinced it’s the same one. (”He looked bigger than the one they caught.”) Anyway, so, that was exciting.

We’ve also got a mouse in our garage. Living next to a park, I guess it was inevitable. Erin got traps yesterday, but we didn’t get them put out yet.

Not much else new. Oh - I lied. Canadian Rules has been nominated for a Canadian Blog award. Here’s where I come clean and admit that I’m the one that nominated it :P. It’s kinda neat - I’m a little surprised that we’re doing as well as we are over there. Don’t get me wrong, I like our site, and I think we’re doing good stuff there. It’s just that we’re up against some pretty stiff competition.

One last thing - apparently that Christmas light display was located in Ohio

Simpson’s quote of the day: “I’m Idaho!” - Ralph

We picked up the van yesterday, and when we went to do the financing, I find out that they jacked the price over and above what we agreed on. It works out to a penny a month. Sheesh. Some people. :P

So, anyway the delivery actually went much more smoothly than I expected, and now we have a van instead of a car. It was a little sad to leave the car behind, but it needed to be done. The only thing is that we now really have to get that cabinet out of the garage and into the basement - the van is just a wee bit bigger than the car was.

I’m glad that I can finally leave the casually fanatic van buying research behind me.

Oh, and I figure I’ll throw another link in here, just because I know that’s why you all come to visit. The Warning Label Generator is pretty neat.

Simpson’s quote of the day: “I’m taking this thing to Mexico!” - Snake

So, Chevy Uplander it is. I think we did ok with our negotiations, and we got a good van for a price we can afford. I don’t know when we’ll do the title transfers etc yet. (Give me a break, I just signed the papers 20 minutes ago ;)) Anyway, it’s Racing Car Red or some stupidly named colour like that, with all the amenities of home.

So, my neighbour put up his Christmas light display the other day, and it’s keeping me up at night. Holy smokes, that’s quite a show. Ok, it’s not my neighbour. Note that the video is hosted on a University of Saskatchewan homepage though, and there are lots of houses in Saskatoon that look just like that one from the street - minus the lighting, so it could conceivably be in Saskatoon somewhere.

I posted an experiment a while back, looking for people that I knew back in school, thinking that they might find me via vanity searches. Well, I got my first “hit” on it last week, so I will have to do a followup. It was pretty neat that it actually worked.

Simpson’s quote of the day: “Marge, it takes two to lie. One to lie and one to listen.” - Homer

Door dinged that is.

We took a Saturn Relay out for a testdrive over the weekend, and as I was driving through a parking lot, a kid on a bike came riding out of one of the side lanes and hit the side of the van. He wasn’t going very fast, and neither were we (thinking back on it, I almost wonder if he thought he’d be cool and pass right by the back bumper, but when I saw him heading towards us I hit the brakes…) Anyway, he seemed fine, gave me a dirty look, then sped off. The door of the van has a bit of a scratch on it though - I haven’t heard from Erin what the Saturn guys said about it.

Just to head off the inevitable comments, the Saturn Relay doesn’t have the composite body panels that the traditional Saturns do, so it will get dinged the same as any other vehicle.

So, I think we’ve settled on the GM vans (Thank you Mr. T.) now it’s just a matter of sorting through the various offerings from Chevy, Pontiac and Saturn to see which one can get us the van we want for the best price. Complicating the situation is the fact that there are various new 2005’s kicking around (the Saturns are all 2005’s actually) and the 2006’s are coming/here depending on which brand you choose. We don’t want much beyond the base model, so there are a lot of variables to consider.

Simpson’s quote of the day: “Well, there’s… Jerry the Cowboy. And that big dipper looking thing is Alan… the Cowboy.” - Homer

Ironically, Mr. T may have helped us find the van we’re looking for. We stopped by the Saturn dealer last night, and had a look at their van, which is virtually identical to all the other GM vans out there. After we left there, we went to Sherwood Chev, and sat down with a salesman there to talk numbers on a 2005 Uplander that they have in stock. It’s more van than we need though, and we couldn’t come together on price. That’s what we spent a good part of last night doing though - talking to the sales guy, waiting for him to run back to his sales manager etc. Kind of boring, and unfortunate, in that I was pretty sure we weren’t going to be able to make a deal on the van they have there. They came closer to our price than I would have ever imagined though.

Simpson’s quote of the day: “I’m taking this thing to Mexico!” - Snake