Does it get any bigger than this?

Last night, and not to jinx it, Heather and I signed the deal to buy a house!

It's located in South Etobicoke and is absolutely perfect. So we only have a few steps left and its ours, ready to be moved into on May 31st.

To celebrate, Heather and I went for some fajitas at the Fox and the Fiddle right across the street from where the new house is. We were told by our waitress that there's a new boardwalk being built on the lake front, there's a family of swans at the local pond which eat from your hand, and the used bookstore just down the street has been there for 30 years. Pure character.

Of course, the new Shopper's Drugmart being opened just down the street has put Heather over the moon.

We are so very very pumped for this. Special thanks to Shirley, our amazing real estate agent.

Michael Finkel, a great jounalist wrote an article for the New York Times Magazine. I read it and I was blown away.

Unfortunately, it turns out that there are some questions about the authenticity of the report.

There's a fine line that was crossed here. Finkel defended himself by saying that he was trying to convey a larger reality about child slavery. It's a line that's being tread apon every day. Literary Journalism, column writing, features in magazine. Very intelligent people, telling us stories about people and places we can bearly imagine. I'm moved, all the time, by magazine articles. It's one of my favourite forms of literature and I think I'd be bored to tears if I could only get news from the AP. To be honest, I'm not even sure how much I really believe all of the details of news stories anyway, and I've always been a sucker for a good story, true or not. I think the distinction between the spirit and letter of the law applies here. Giving latitude for a good story, that, at its core, is true is a good policy I think. But, of course, that kind of hazy 'policy' is impossible to create. I just hope that the leash is not shortened too much.

Another good article by Finkel, just to show you his range.

A propos, as I'm writing, CBC1 is airing an interview with successful Canadian columnists John MacLachlan Gray and Elizabeth Nixon who both expressed a preference for columns that are known more for the quality of the writing rather than the subjects or opinions covered. Art. Fact. Hmm.

Very strange ...

I was cruising Kottke today and found a neat little coincidence.

He has a link to a google search of images on his site, and deep in the search there is a link to this page: The image in question is at the bottom of the page.

I did this little ditty about a year and a half ago for a communal art project called Visualcomm that was run by Marty.

Nothing crazy really, just a funny overlap and the dogfood ads are pretty funny.

Eventful weekend.

Paully and Aird hosted a wonderful party on Saturday night where good times were had with no police intervention. Preceeding the party, Heather and I had the oppourtunity to see a great house in Etobicoke. We've decided to put an offer in.

We have to hope that we will be the only ones who put in an offer. If not, we have to enter a blind bidding war. From what I understand, the laws governing Real Estate dictate that both bidders in a multiple bid situation need to be told that they are not the only one's bidding on the house. BUT, there's no requirement for any party to be told what the other has bid. So you end up bidding as much as you possibly can. The only winner in this situation is the seller, which is fine, but this is our first house so we have no house to sell yet.

Anyway, nervousness abounds.

But on a completely unstressful note, congratulations to those great great great hockey players. The city went absolutely mad last night, and rightfully so. At the party on Saturday night, Fraser offered his analysis of the, then, upcoming game. He commented that, though there was offensive parity between the teams the defense is what was going to win it for Canada. Which can't be disputed now. Boy, Fraser sure knows hockey. Not to go overboard about this but I love Stephen Brunt's comment in his editorial today in the Globe:

How does the country feel today? Like everything's right with the world. Like your mom and dad really are infallible. Like there really is a Santa Claus. Like Wayne Gretzky can do no wrong.