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Things That Are Different in Our New House, Mostly Because It’s Not a Dank Cave:

• I wake up between 6-6:30 every morning to the sight of sunlight streaming in the window.
• I come home and immediately open the front door and the patio door so I can feel the breeze.
• I made some serious smoke with the new stove last night, and it didn’t set off the fire alarms. In fact, it cleared out of the house within 10 minutes.
• I don’t have to make a special effort to see what the weather’s like before I leave the house. There’s always a window within sight.
• I saw a currawong from my desk yesterday morning. Snookums helped me identify it. Nature! Right where I can see it!

I feel like all this light and air flow are going to make such a difference to our moods and health. You should see the piles of dust (and MOLD!) we’re finding behind things at the old place. We talking Is Your House Killing You? territory, folks.

Need a little pick-me-up? Watch this adorable YouTube video. I don’t normally like such things, but I liked this one.

I got a phone call today just before lunch.

Guy: Hi, this is Rob calling from EB Games about your pre-order–
Me: EEK! IT’S HERE, ISN’T IT?
Guy: Yes. Your copy of High School Musical: Sing It is here.
Me: Sweeeeet. hysterical laughter Am I the only one who pre-ordered it?
Guy: Yes.

I’ve been reading the reviews, and they’re pretty much what I expected. Still, I think I’m gonna have fun with this. I was also excited to pass this tidbit along to the Snook: “If you have a friend who doesn’t want to sing, he or she can use the d-pad to rotate between percussion instruments — cowbell, drum, etc. — and then shake the Wiimote to use the instrument as you sing.” I CAN SING AND HE CAN PLAY THE COWBELL. (It’s like we’ll have our own band!) And it comes with a microphone in case anymore Singstar type games come out for Wii.

On AskMeFi: What’s it like to feel loved? I wrote about my Mom.

We gotta move these refrigerators…
I’ve had Dire Straits stuck in my head all day. This morning was to be the final big push of the move, the day that we moved the last of the heavy appliances. I had a brainwave last night and called up a nearby secondhand whitegoods store. “Hi, I’ve moved into a new house and I’ve now got an extra washing machine. Do you want it? And as long as you’re here, can you help us move a fridge?” (That’s what you call putting your feminine wiles to work.) The guy agreed to come by this morning “between 9 and 10” to pick up the washing machine and help us move stuff. By 9am the Snook and I had emptied the fridge into a cooler, unhooked all the washer connections, and shifted all three appliances into place near their respective front doors. Then we waited. And we waited. And he didn’t turn up. At 10am I rang the shop again to find out where he was. The guy who answered didn’t know: “He hasn’t gotten in to work yet.” He asked if we could stay til 11:30. “Uh, we’ve both already taken time off to be here NOW. That really sucks.” So as I stood there, fuming, something snapped. “F*** IT. WE’RE MOVING THEM OURSELVES.” Thus, fueled with the kind of adrenaline that only comes of being screwed by a service professional, the Snook and I got to work. And folks, we moved both washing machines and that fridge (up six stairs!) with only a two-wheeled trolley and the sweat of our own brows. It was glorious. I’ll probably be sore tomorrow, but today I feel like a superwoman.

Oh, and the washing machine guy finally turned up 45 minutes late. He took the old washer and gave us $100 credit at the shop. Better than nothing, I guess!

Anthony Bourdain bags out the current “stars” of the Food Network. HA! We watched a fair bit of FN when we were in Indiana last April, and Snookums still has nightmares about “that Italian chick with the huge teeth.” (Link courtesy of patrick.)

For those who are interested, in the five days my site has been at my new web host, mod_security has successfully repelled 384,360 spam comment attacks on the site. That’s over 76,000 per day. And while I’ve done all I can to thwart them, I feel really powerless and frustrated by this. Whoever is doing this: YOU REALLY SUCK.

It’s been one week now, and I’d say we’re past the 75% mark. It’s starting to look like a home! Amy came over on Friday for a much needed interior design consultation and also helped me move over quite a bit of stuff. (She’s handy with a wrench, that one.) We also had the plumber and the exterminator over that day too, which made for quite a party. (Dude, toilets aren’t cheap to fix!) Saturday the Snook and I took apart the IKEA entertainment wall and started sorting through the crap. We put some stuff into storage (VHS tapes, etc) but the rest is all going to Vinnie’s. We also started on the mammoth task of moving over the books and bookcases. Sunday I continued to move books while the Snook started bringing over office and computer stuff. What’s left: the last two bookcases, about half the kitchen stuff, and about half the office. Oh, and the fridge and the washing machine. I’ve got no idea how we’re going to handle those…

The Snook and I walked to work together this morning. About five minutes after we split at Liverpool Street, I had a phone call from him.

Me: What is it?
Him: Idol sighting!
Me: No way! Who?
Him: All of ’em! I think they must be staying around here.
Me: What were they doing?
Him: I dunno, going to breakfast probably. I saw the Jazz Man; he was wearing a hat and sunglasses but he wears those on TV so I recognised him. And then I saw this little girl, and I was like, there’s another one! So I looked around and then I saw Bad Haircut going up the street.
Me: Nice one.

For what’s it worth, I want Natalie to win. Holden’s pulling out all the stops for a Matt Corby landslide though…