A place of one's own

I was having coffee with Andrea last weekend, and the topic of blog hosting came up. (Andrea was great company that night - too bad I couldn't say the same thing about myself. It was the same week we found out that frostie didn't work out, and Simon was in the thick of his barf and poop marathon. I could barely get my nose out of my navel, and yet she left me feeling better than I had all week. Perhaps I should have said thanks for that before now...)

Ahem, anyway, we were talking about my disappointment that Blogger won't allow true mobile blogging for cellular customers outside the US, and she said that I'm a big-girl blogger now and perhaps it's time to move out on my own.

Six months ago, I would have said I was perfectly content with Blogger, but the tides are slowly turning. I've long coveted the capability to make catagories, and I made a stab at it with del.icio.us a while back, but I never kept up with it, and the idea of sorting and tagging several hundred posts makes me tired just thinking about it. And Blogger's capriciousness with its ability to post photos is annoying at the best of times. And maybe a nice three-column format would be nice for a change, wot?

But, there are obstacles. First, Blogger is free and domain hosting is not. Then I'd have to choose another blogging interface, and while for no particular reason I'm leaning toward Typepad, don't I have to pay for that, too? (Too lazy to click around and find out.) And the biggest obstacle is that moving from blogger means change - and you know how I feel about change. There'd be a change to how blog looks, and a change to the blog-posting interface, and a change to how you'd find me, and I'm just not sure if I'm up for all that.

So, whaddya think? Any thoughts or recommendations? Tell me what you love and hate about the blog interface you use. Is it time for me to pony up an actual cash investment for this silly, addictive hobby of mine? If you don't mind, if you're paying an ISP in Canada, would you comment or e-mail me with information about your domain hosting so I can get an idea to expect what to pay, and whether you would recommend your ISP? (I have absolutely no idea.)

Would you still drop by if I moved to a fancy uptown place? And hey, if it works out, stay tuned for the 'name that domain' autumn contest!

Edited to add: if you're thinking about domain names and web hosting in Canada, check out the most excellent analysis over at Miche's place. Thanks, Miche!