Dave & Dana in Australia

The time has now arrived (rather quickly) for us to bid you all adieu for now and get on the plane to LA, Auckland and finally Sydney. We’ve sold off the vast majority of our accumulations up to this point, stored what we’re not bringing but wish to keep, and distilled the rest into 3 suitcases, a backpack, 3 boxes, 2 carry-ons and one briefcase - quite liberating!

We’ve secured an apartment for the first few months and tearfully said goodbye to our kitties for the same amount of time. The apartment now offers us an old futon, a really stained and beat up couch, and the plastic patio furniture (table, 3 chairs) that no one wanted. We’ll be basing ourselves out of Mississauga at Dana’s parents for the remainder of our time here. Christmas with the families is over and done with, with New Years to go.

So that’s it - we’re off. Feel free to write, or Skype. We hope some of you will find the opportunity to make it to Sydney to visit - we can promise to show you a good time. We’ll be back to visit family in late August, and hopefully we’ll see everyone at Cornfest 2006!

So, it’s the Christmas break in the NHL season and the Toronto Maple Leafs are ensconsed in fourth place in the North East division, 1 point behind Montreal. This happens to be the toughest division in the Eastern conference, so fourth place ain’t so bad, although it ain’t so good either. In the conference standings, fourth in the NE puts us tied for 8th with the defending cup champs Tampa Bay, and a 3 point cushion over the 9th place Isles.

Since I’m leaving for Australia soon and will only enjoy a couple more games this year, I thought I’d lay out where I think the Leafs stand. Sure, a lot of people have gotten used to the Leafs duking it out for the NE and conference titles every year, and those people are not very happy with the Leafs right now. Here’s the point though: If you were expecting the Leafs to continue at that level in a faster, more wide open NHL with the roster they managed to cram under the salary cap, you are likely to be disappointed all season. Save yourselves some anguish and realize that the Leafs are roughly the team that has shown up so far this season: good enough to make the playoffs, but won’t be challenging the Sens for supremacy of the East this year. There is some serious cap room coming online next year that should allow them to make some additions to what is a shambles of a defense corps, but for this season just sit back and enjoy a team that on any given night can beat anyone or be beaten by anyone. Hey, everybody likes suspense. I’ll be watching from Australia (somehow).

That’s right, we’ve got a website…and a blog. I figure this will be the easiest way to keep all our friends and family apprised of what we’re up to on the other side of the earth. Tune in whenever it’s convenient at daveanddana.net. We’ll try to keep it as up to date as possible.

For those of you thinking “why the heck do Dave and Dana need a blog?”, you should know that Dana and I are moving to Sydney, Australia at the beginning of January 2006. We fly on January 4th and will likely be there a few years. We’ve both found jobs that we’re quite excited about, so apart from getting settled into a nice place (hopefully with a view of the water), and somehow getting used to all that hot weather, we should be fine. Visitors are welcome!