Last night I returned from a three day Scrum Master training course led by Mishkin Berteig, one of only two certified trainers in Canada. I found it interesting that my employer's existing non-formal development processes will make it MUCH easier to implement Scrum than everyone else who attended the course. Much of what we do already can be refined and made consistent to become Agile and the Scrum way. For example, releasing changes to customers every few weeks. The companies my colleagues work for have hierarchies of sign-offs, waterfall like processes, and way more paperwork than I ever thought possible.

I also found it interesting to contrast the kinds of questions I asked (from a developer's point of view) with the questions asked by the project managers. My questions were more about how to make Scrum work with our tools such as JIRA (with Green Hopper plugin) and Confluence, and how to build a truly cross-functional team that has all the skills necessary to implement any product backlog item from start to finish. I was really surprised to find out that many of the companies my colleagues work for do not use issue tracking systems, or know what Subversion does!

My next plan is to create wiki pages that talk about how to implement Scrum in our company using as few words possible. I think it's important to make it short and readable. I've written several process documents for our company before, usually over 50 pages, and I find that people don't read the whole thing or remember what they read.

I've been going to Toronto the last few weekends to look at condos for sale and apartments for rent. To make a long story short, my dad has been schooling me on the global economy crisis and strongly encouraging me to rent for 6-12 months. Ultimately I decided to buy because I was able to find exactly what I was looking for, am able to make affordable monthly payments, and can see myself living there for 10+ years. As long as I can stay employed, I don't care if the housing market crashes and prices plummet.

Below is some of the criteria I gave to my real estate agent:

• Queens Quay area (waterfront)
• New building that allows small dogs
• 1 bedroom + den for home office
• Breathtaking views of lake and city where I can see the CN Tower
• Walking distance to subway
• Walking distance to parks, boardwalk, restaurants, bars, etc.
• Balcony
• Ensuite washer & dryer
• Dishwasher
• Modern interior (granite counters, nice finishes, etc.)
• etc.

We looked at about 9 condos before we found the perfect one. I had to go back to my bank several times while making offers to see how much higher over my pre-approved amount I can go. The seller wouldn't budge and I ended up paying close to list price. Still, I'm very pleased with my purchase and move in the day after I move out of my Orillia house.

My dad is pretty disappointed that I didn't wait 6 months, and thinks I'm going to bankrupt myself. He doesn't realize that the mortgage payments are affordable (within my gross debt ratio), otherwise the bank wouldn't have allowed it. The bank is making me pay my car off with some of the profit from the sale of my Orillia house. I don't have any debts other than the mortgage. I will have almost the same amount of left over money at the end of the month as I do here in Orillia. If the housing market crashes, so what. The payments will stay the same for 5 years. All the websites I read and people I talk to seem to think that Toronto condo prices are going up this year. If a unit like this were any more than it was, I probably could not have afforded it.

Below is a picture standing at the door of the bedroom (larger than my current bedroom!). The second picture was taken standing near the bedroom window. The view from the living room is exactly the same.

A couple guys came by tonight to buy my home theater at full asking price. They also wanted to buy my couch, kitchen table & chairs, and microwave! I sold it all to them except the kitchen table & chairs. If they pay what I want for it, they can have those too. Now I get to start with fresh decor.

Next month I'm moving into a Toronto condo with a smaller living room. I can't fit this home theater in the living room and need to sell it. If you're in the Orillia/Barrie area, please email this link to your friends.

What's included:

• Fancy 3 piece Concordia wall unit (shelves, drawers, curved glass doors)
• 52" wide screen RCA HDTV (model D52W20BYX1)
• Panasonic SA-XR50 A/V receiver
• High end Samsung DVD-HD931 DVD player
• Philips VRA63IAT VCR
• Original xbox with 12 games and 2 controllers
• Yamaha YST-SW015 subwoofer
• 6 piano black Yamaha bookshelf speakers and 4 speaker stands
• All cables and manuals
• Surge protector
• One remote controls everything

I paid over $5,000 for this four years ago. I'm asking $2500 or best offer. 705-828-2223, Orillia.

Last week I put my house up for sale. Before the sign went up and before the agents tour, my agent asked if she could have three potential buyers come through. They came, they saw, they bought! After the first viewing there were talks of an offer. Two days later they put in a near asking price offer, but wanted an April 8th closing date because they sold their house with that closing date. I accepted the offer and decided to rent a condo in Toronto for 6-12 months instead of buying one. That will give me time to learn Toronto's areas and also to see what happens to the housing market.

Yesterday I took the day off work to view a few apartments. The first was a nice 2 bedroom condo in a new building. Allows pets, in unit laundry, A/C, forced air natural gas heating, balcony, granite counter tops, parking space, storage locker, 5 min walk to subway, etc. WHAT A VIEW. From every room you can see a beautiful Toronto skyline including the CN Tower. Allowing pets, and the view are the most important things to me. What I don't like about this place is the location. It's at Bloor/Lansdowne which is a bit dumpy with a handful of brand new residential developments. It's a 20 minute walk to High Park, and 5 minute walk to subway. He'll let me do a 6 month lease then go month-by-month after that. I saw a second larger unit in the same building that is $100 more, and min 12 month lease.

The third place I looked at was High Park Village. One company owns about 7-10 high rise apartment buildings. The location is beautiful, it's across the road from High Park, lots of great shopping and restaurants within walking distance, 5 minute walk to subway, allows pets, etc. They have multiple vacancies but could not show the one with a city view without 24 hour notice to the tenant. I looked at another without a view instead. The building is 40 years old, parquay floors, no A/C, dated looking balcony, and some really old kind of heaters along the base of the walls. It costs an additional $85/month for parking, more for storage locker, more for access to shared laundry facilities, and if I want a 6 month lease instead of 12 month I have to pay an additional $200/month. This is a lot of money.

I'm going back on the weekend to check out some places in Queens Quay, and maybe by The Beaches. I'm most excited about Queens Quay because this is going to be close to what I will eventually buy. I want a great downtown view, newer or completely renovated interior, pets allowed, nice places to walk the dog, shopping within walking distance, etc. From what I hear, Queens Quay has it all.

What concerns me is that I can't figure out how I will set up my living room furniture in any of the units I've seen. Most units have small living rooms. My furniture fits, but not properly. I need a 10 foot or larger wall for my entertainment center, and the couch needs to be parallel to it. In these units my couch would be in the way of a doorway no matter how I place it. The only way around this is to get rid of my home theater and buy something that will go in a corner. It can be still be large, but it can't take up a 10 foot wall! I'm going to see if I can sell my home theater, but if not I'll find a way to make it fit.

Today my agent emailed to say that the deal has been finalized and the SOLD sign will go up tomorrow.