Christmas at my grandpa's house

Just for fun, here's a few of the songs my grandpa would play at full volume on Christmas Day...

Whoa.

Just, whoa. Nobody was hurt... Media were calling again today.

music for cooking

This weekend's music for working in the kitchen - KLF - The White Room,
from a CD I finally found at Alibris.

Also this I made Lobster Thermidor for a dinner party and went to a karaoke party. Which was heavy on the Johnny Cash and Patsy Cline. Lots of fun.

lemon loafing

I made lemon loaf this evening. The teenagers have descended on it. Ian is on his third piece. I thought Miguel was asleep, but when I yelled, "lemon loaf's done" he responded.

Finished a project at work this evening, and sent it off. I'm sure they will send more but it's a good feeling at the moment. The house is sort of clean, we've got the Christmas decorating started - well, we've brought the decorations up. They're awaiting general inspiration.

The dog is not feeling well. He barfed his supper all over Kirsten while we were in the middle of watching Wall-E last evening. Then he shivered and smacked his lips all night. Not sure what that's about. He's currently cleaning up lemon loaf crumbs from the kitchen floor and contemplating whether he'll get in trouble if he starts on the crumbs on the counter (and yes, I do know what he's thinking, he's not the brightest animal). So he can't be that ill.

The Hamlet Council voted for an alcohol ban at Christmas this year - which should make life a bit quieter over the holiday, if it goes the same as the last time they had a ban.

home alone

As I took today off, because we're leaving this afternoon, I have the whole house to myself for the morning. Admittedly, I did go to work at my usual time to make sure that everything was ok - my boss walked in about ten minutes later and said, "What are you doing here?" and I said, "I'm leaving, really." He answered the phone at one point, while I was rummaging through things on my desk, and told the person on the other end that I was "away for the weekend". And by nine o'clock I was back here.

Amazingly everything was pretty much ok. The last time I tried to leave on holiday, back in March, I was still at work twenty minutes before my plane was due to leave and I almost missed my ride to the airport.

So I made some tea, put CBC 2 on, and I've been puttering about peacefully, made some rice krispie squares for the bake sale this afternoon, tidied up, had a nice long shower. The dog is sleeping and ignoring me. The phone doesn't ring. I've still got time to pack and run some little errands before everyone comes home for lunch. This free morning is almost as much of a treat as going off to Yellowknife will be...

happy birthday to me

Tuesday was my birthday. It was a good day, pretty quiet at work so I got lots done and then the Beavers had a party for me. Lots of balloons and cupcakes, tin-foil crowns and red Kool-aid, first time I've ever played musical chairs to Nickelback, hordes of six-year-olds giggling, we read stories and then Karen and Patti and I went back to Patti's place for the more grown-up portion of the evening, some wine. Not much, though, because Wednesday is of course a work day.

Kirsten and Rachel made me a beautiful cheesecake, from scratch. It was cooling in the fridge and when Ian opened the door at one point, it escaped and fell on the floor. I understand there were tears, I wasn't there, but really the cake was wonderfully tasty and we covered it with berries so the damage didn't show. Really it's the first time in a long time that anyone made me a cake without any pathetic prompting from me. (Nobody ever makes me a birthday cake. sniff)

This weekend we're off to Yellowknife to do some Christmas shopping, because of the miracle of Aeroplan.

darkness falls

It's getting darker. The sun's totally set by 2:30. I like the dark, I find it cozy, but it makes it so I don't want to get out of bed in the morning. Our bedroom is by the front door, and at 8:20 this morning Miguel was standing in the doorway with his coat on, and he said to me, "Not doing the work thing this morning?" But I did. Really, I've never been very good at getting out of bed, and maybe I just like a good excuse.

cold

It is -27 tonight. Chilly.

Rachel went trick-or-treating, and someone gave her a can of rice pudding and a drinking glass...

Kirsten still has a cold.

Girls, well, one girl, is phoning Ian.

Miguel had a painting (well, a print) at an auction on Saturday and it went for over 1200 dollars.

The Body Shop sent my perfume (sandalwood) and some lovely amber soap, and two little free samples of vanilla spice stuff. I had a bubble bath.

It is court week. My office is full of lawyers.

sunrise on the bay

the view from my window at work, at 9:30 this morning.

lazy shade of winter

today...has been a long day. and it's getting cold.

giving up the upper hand

It's funny, you know. When we were younger and I wanted Miguel to do more things around the house, and he just wouldn't, I did them myself. Painted rooms, took up carpet, unclogged drains, dug gardens, mowed lawns. Now that we're older and presumably wiser, he is more likely to do the sort of manly things that I previously would have loved him to do. Some of our friends that have only known him since we moved up here, have commented that I'm lucky that he's handy.

But there's an uncharitable part of me that remembers stripping wallpaper when I was 6 months pregnant, planting vegetable gardens and painting fences and all that stuff for years, plus all the cooking and housework, and I want to say to them, "He hasn't always been like that. It's a recent thing."

But I don't tell them. I wonder how much of what he's doing here is motivated by the sheer danger that surrounds us so much of the time, the cold could kill us if we allowed our house to deteriorate, and maybe that's the difference here, I don't know.

What I do know is that relinquishing up the upper hand is hard. If I'm being honest (which I am) I have to say that it's difficult for me to give him credit for these endeavours. I always thought that it was what I wanted, for him to help around the house, but maybe the reality is that I became used to the paradigm that featured me having the moral high ground.

And the irony (maybe that's too global, I always tell the kids that coincidences and unfortunate turns of events aren't per se ironic) is that now that he's doing these things, I can't be happy for his personal growth because nobody in our lives at the moment can see that he's had a free ride up til now....... Although really, what does it matter.

blowing in the wind

We drove out to the cabin today to retrieve the water jugs and make sure the oil valves were turned off, for the winter. It's cold enough that the water out there is frozen, Miguel walked out on the lake a bit. There isn't very much snow yet, but it's really windy. We saw this little fox in his winter coat, on the way out - I thought he was a patch of snow but then he moved.

barge fun

Our appliances are here! It's like Christmas, but with dishwashers. We ordered a new stove and dishwasher, and also a washer and dryer, to come up on the barge. I was over at a friend's house last night, and he mentioned that when he went to get his pellets for his stove off the beach where the barge left them, there was a large crate with our name on it. We got pellets too, but that's nowhere near as exciting.

The old dishwasher was barely pretending to wash dishes, and the stove couldn't hold a temperature in the oven. Which is important, given the amount of baking that gets done by the teenagers around here. The dryer didn't shut off by itself, and the washer had that "I'm going to die soon" burning oil smell. We've been here two years now, in this house, so this is happy anniversary, house. Today was the dragging upstairs phase of things, and Miguel and I lay on the floor in the kitchen for a lot of the evening, trying to hook up the dishwasher but it's done now. Tomorrow will be washer/dryer day, after church. too much fun! And if they ever bring us water again (I begin to wonder) we will be able to try out the dishwasher...

zombie movies to add to the list

recently:

Sunday

things I did today:

got up at eight to finish printing the readings for church.
had coffee with Miguel.
led the service at church. (water from the rock)
went to Patti's for coffee with everyone from church. (and cinnamon buns, yum)
came home and had more coffee with Miguel.
repotted some plants cuttings that I've been rooting.
roasted all the peppers in the fridge - food mail sent too many and we'd never be able to eat them before they rot.
admired Rachel's assorted bruises that she acquired on the cadet camping trip.
watched Ian sleep on the couch as he was exhausted from the above-mentioned camping trip.
made roasted garlic and yam soup.
made black bean hummous.
made caribou shepherd's pie for dinner and lemon cake for dessert.
watched my family phone each other with their new cellular phones
called my mom. she
worked on the blanket I'm crocheting for a friend's baby (due Oct 12)
went to work and finished what I was working on yesterday.
came home and made tea. no more coffee, I've had enough.

so now I've got a fridge full of lunch fixings for this week, I'm all spiritualled up, tomorrow I can start something new at work, and I've got plants to give away to a new lady in town who is missing the greenery of her home.

we're going home

Turtle cheesecake

Two of my favourite things all rolled up into one. with whipped cream. yummmm. It followed a very nice meal downstairs in the restaurant. And now I'm pleasantly full.

The course is good, I'm learning lots of cool and useful things, and we even finished early today, so I was able to come back to my room and get some work done. I actually wish I'd brought more work, because I'm almost done the stuff I brought. I was feeling a bit guilty yesterday because I bought a Peter Robinson book I hadn't read at the Northern in the morning, then went hiking, and came back to the hotel room at about 3pm and spent the rest of the day reading. It's not often I get to sit down with a book and read it from cover to cover with no interruptions. (well, other than to get more Pringles and cheese...)

Tomorrow is the end of the course, and the exam. Then on Friday I head home. Via Yellowknife so I can buy some clothes.

Iqaluit

So on Sunday night we invited people over for dinner - I think the final total came to 20 - (well, most of them were kids - 6 adults besides Miguel and I and a whole bunch of kids).

At 5:30, half an hour before everyone was supposed to arrive, I was just finishing up the Alu Gobi I was making (cauliflower-and-potato curry for the grownups) and the phone rang. It was Canadian North, to say that the direct flight to Iqaluit that I was supposed to be taking at 6:45 Monday morning was cancelled. The guy I was talking to told me that I wouldn't make it to Iqaluit before Wednesday afternoon. Which was of no earthly use, given that the two-day course I was going for would be half over by then.

As I was stirring the Gobi and glumly wondering if walking might have been a better idea, Patti came in, and when I told her what Canadian had said, she suggested I call First Air and see if they could fly me out that night so that I could catch the Canadian flight from Yellowknife in the morning.

So Miguel kindly called for me, First Air kindly obliged, and then I gobbled some Gobi, packed willy-nilly and rushed off to the airport. By 11 PM I was sitting at the Super Eight in YK.

So although I did all the cooking, I effectively missed the dinner party (and the dishes, which Miguel was left with) but I hear it was fun.

And now I'm in Iqaluit. I will be there in the morning tomorrow for the start of the course, which is one I've been hoping to take for a long time.

I went hiking down by the river at lunchtime.

things this week

hoo boy. It was court.

1/ according to a very drunk lady, I am going to burn in hell. Miguel says he'll come visit.

2/ watched Untraceable. creepy.

3/ teenagers keep taking my car.

4/ my avocado is sprouting. it has leaves.

5/ dyed my hair. it's browner now. wanna see?

Dedication ceremony for a S/Cst. grave. It was raining. We all got wet.