Little packets of joy!

Ah, our seed order came in! Sitting here watching the squirrels run around the neighbour's snowy roof it seems like a long time 'til spring, but it'll come fast enough I'm sure!

We got:

Oregon Sugar Pod Snow peas
Arugula (Rocket)
Turnips (beautiful when smaller than a golf ball, straight out of the ground and cleaned on a trouser leg - succulent and juicy!)
Spinach
Peppers (Canadians call them Sweet Peppers as opposed to Chili Peppers)
Salad Bowl lettuce

Plus some tomato seeds I saved from last year, and some Good King Henry and Sunflowers.

Mmmmmmmmmm!

Let's just hope I can grow them! We have a nice roof outside our bedroom window, so I'm hoping (once the new windows go in next month - touch wood 0 we can put a container or two up there).

Turnips will probably go out the front of the house, though I'm not sure there's enough light. Alternatively at my sister-in-law's... But that'd be odd, not being able to keep tabs on what was happening.

Tricky. I asked the City about allotments but there are neither public- nor private-owned ones near us, sadly.

Dear HP

Dear HP,

I am a long time user of your printers. I generally like them.

What I don't like is bloated drivers and stupidly shortsighted configuration options.

My printer is able to print and scan. It can do this over USB or wirelessly.

In order to change from one wireless network to another, instead of plugging in a USB cable and somewhere in the printer's properties click "wireless->connect to new wireless network-> enter details and SAVE" I had to

-uninstall the bloated driver
-reboot PC
-download new version of driver (67.5Mb for - you guessed it - the basic version of the driver)
-install driver
-connect printer via USB to set the wireless settings
-disable my firewall so the computer can talk to the printer?! What now?

Now, on any other computer I can just detect the printer and use the driver that is already installed. But to reconfigure the printer itself I need to do all this?

Why?

Stupid, pointless, time-wasting rubbish.

I had a Deskjet 920c I should have shipped from the UK to Canada. I swear these printers get flimsier and flimsier.

New place

The last few days have been hectic. We've now moved in to our own little apartment (bedroom, kitchen, living room/office and tiny toilet/shower room). I'm looking at the things I sent over from the UK, unpacked - those treasured few posessions I thought it worth sending.

A few I'm wondering about (A-level Chemistry textbook) but mostly they are "special things" that I love (books, consoles and games, two small tables) or things we need (knives, saucepans).

I love it here. It's small, but cozy - 1/4 of an "old" house in Ottawa. We're sleeping on the floor til we get a bed, and need a sofa and so on... but it's our own, private space. Warm, full of things that are familliar to me - though we're going to purge some stuff I guess.

I'm happy and content. Some filing and organising to do, but that's all fun.

Finally - I feel at home!