Loose ends are getting gathered.

Many things are finally coming together.

• My new laptop arrived yesterday and I've transferred most of my data over from my old one. It's a lovely thing, with green satin lid, large glossy screen, and Windows Vista which doesn't seem as bad as all the reports and, frankly, is not that much different from XP, at least in terms of the interface.
  I can't find my CD copy of Quicken though. I purchased it last summer when we arrived in Toronto and were living in the condo. I simply cannot lay my hands on it and I need it to transfer all our financial files to my new machine. I will do a detailed scour of the house today to try to locate it.
  
• I have been in touch with a behavioural therapist/trainer for Wilson. He's a doll in many ways, but he's got a lot of anxiety and is dangerously prey driven. That includes people, other dogs, small animals, and anything that deigns to come onto our property. Jana will come out Tuesday afternoon for 4 hours of training and we'll see how it goes. She's with Bark Busters and the organization has been recommended to us by multiple people. I just need to be able to have a plumber over without Wilson barking his head off for two hours.
• My car is scheduled for repair starting on Monday. The total (including rental) is about $1300....I've learned not to be surprised at how expensive it is to have a few scratches and dents taken out of a car. But that's why we have insurance. Because I wasn't at fault and got to the car to the Collision Reporting Centre within 24 hours, I don't even have to pay the deductible.
• I'm back on track with my cleaning schedule. I've flipped between Flylady and the Motivated Moms planner, and am on the latter these days. I like her system because it's slow and steady. A little bit every day and pretty soon the house is looking fine.
• Alex was all in a tizzy because he is behind in his community service hours for school, specifically for Religion class. He is a peer tutor for math and science but he hasn't had much business so doesn't have the requisite 20 hours. I have lined him up some tutoring with one of his cousins who's in Grade 9 and having trouble with math, and he'll start that tomorrow. He and his father are also going to make some casseroles as part of a ministry that our parish has, making meals for the Good Shepherd Centre. The parish provides the recipe and large aluminum foil casserole pans. Parish members make the casseroles and then drop them into the freezer at the parish on an on-going basis.