Dispatches from a happy Hullian

We have emptied out the kitchen and bathroom downstairs in anticipation of the renovation crew arriving early tomorrow to demolish anything left in there. It's going to be a bit like camping at home for several weeks, but when it's all done we'll have normal-height counters, a built-in dishwasher, better plumbing and a kitchen arrangement that gives us a bit more room to swing a cat (put the cat down, kids). Meantime, our place is feeling pretty small, and a bit like we're moving.

I was at three days of national union meetings Thursday through Saturday, and we're trying to tighten up a lot of things internally while processing the latest budget and rumblings from Parliament Hill. With Liberals like this, who needs Conservatives? I really like enough people in the union to make it still fun, but this is going to be a hard stretch.

I also replaced my beaten-up road running shoes with this year's version of the old model, and have been putting them through their paces. Almost 24km at a run in and out of Aylmer. Wanted to do more, but I was kind of flagging on the way back and walked the last three.