Update:
The interview (Thurs 11/3) was interesting. They seemed to ask a lot of questions about whether I had encounters with law enforcement many years ago; much more than I would have expected. They did not provide details but I suspect it was due to the fact that as part of my gaming license renewal I was fingerprinted every year for a number of years while I worked at a local casino, so maybe they were on file and showed up as a match without any additional info? Don't know, but they grilled me on it for quite a bit, then both agents met privately for about 5 minutes before bringing my wife in, which lasted all of 2 minutes. I got the feeling they didn't trust my story or something.

Wife had her approval e-mail before we pulled out of the parking lot, but I didn't get mine until today (also concerning given the extra scrutiny and discussion they had). Not sure why mine took longer on both ends, but I'm approved now. Wife got her card in the mail today, too.

Both applied: Aug 18
Initial Approval: Wife 10/14, me 10/24
Interviews: 11/3
Final approval e-mail: Wife 11/3, me 11/7
Card received: Wife 11/7, me not yet.

One thing to note: Fort Frances, ON (across from International Falls) DOES have an iris scanner. It's not listed on the website yet, but I chatted with the agent there while scanning us and she indicated it's a permanent location, it's just not listed on the site yet. So that's an option for anyone going up that way. I had the same experience as zeebanker; after the interviews they explained the process and suggested we run across to get our iris scans at the Canadian office. A quick pitstop at Tim Horton's and we were back across 30 minutes after our interview was done. Easy peasy! (Aside from the extra grilling I got ) Note that there is a $7 toll to cross the bridge by car from the US.