Offer's In

Good morning and welcome to Day 3 of the HHT.

Last night we submitted an offer on the what we consider to be the best of the worst. It's like so many of the homes here in that it doesn't have it all by any stretch of the imagination. But it has some of the things we think are most important. It is still wildly overpriced - but they all are.

What struck me most this morning, as I drove up the road to Tim Hortons, is that many of the houses we looked at over the last two days had alarm systems. Strange that we're leaving a place where, for the most part, we didn't bother to lock our doors. Here, they're not only locked, they're dead-bolted and the alarms are activated. Sad but true.

Anyway, the offer expires at 4 p.m. today. In the meantime, at 9:30 this morning, we will be taking a second look at one of the other potential properties. If the deal on this first house doesn't happen, we move on, check out some more and make another offer. After all, including today, there are only 3 days left in the HHT. Too much pressure for such an important decision, I think.

As for Thompson, it's a little smaller than I thought it would be. Population, they tell me, is about 15,000. But everyone is squeezed in to a tight bit of real estate here. Going from one end of town to the other takes a little less than five minutes. Packed into that space, though, is a Walmart, Canadian Tire, Safeway, Staples, Tim Hortons, Boston Pizza, KFC and a fair number of other restaurants, bars, beer stores and assorted businesses.

Last night we took Sonwun and Sontoo to a playground at one of the local schools. There were a lot of kids there, which is nice to see. Sonwun had an absolute blast playing with the other kids, climbing things, running around like a maniac, falling off things . . . everything he's been denied for the last few days. He's been strapped into that damn car seat since Sunday, going from house to house, not being allowed to touch, not being allowed to run. He was a bomb waiting to go off. I think we'll be going back there at some time today.

Anyway, the boys are up and it's time to get the day under way. Wish us luck.