Water Woes

It is almost like someone doesn’t want to me start “Christmas Cleaning”.  I got all my products together, lined up on the counter and then I sprinkle some happy dust [Arm & Hammer dog & cat carpet deodorizer] on all my carpets (happy because it helps lift up the dog hair 10-fold).  I have to be quick though, some how Chakotay developed a fetish for licking that stuff off my carpet (yes I realize how that sounds) but it is true, I sprinkle – turn my back and when I turn back around there he is having a mid-morning snack. Gross – so needless to say I can only sprinkle one room at a time, vacuum and then proceed to the next room thankfully I only have a couple rooms.

So I start a load of laundry, and for some reason I seemingly have about 5 loads (between two people that is a lot), however, since I’m CC’ing I want to wash all dogs bedding and my own.  I managed to get one load of wash complete and in the dryer before I ran out of water! Blasted!  Although I wish I only said that..Luckily I set the coffee maker before bed last night, and still have a full Brita-system in my fridge for the dogs drinking water. 

So I’m sitting here, dusting, vacuuming and placing the odd little Christmas decorations around my house.  Things are slowly coming together..but by god just don’t look at my laundry room. 

Enlisting your help:

My lovely-darling husband and I are planning an all-inclusive for our next vacation; and I believe I have him on the fence now about where to spend our time kicking back with umbrella laced drinks. 

We are stuck trying to figure out a location; up until recently we were 100% decided on St. Lucia and we still are on the St. Lucia fence but I’m willing to widen my horizons to check out other locations in the Caribbean.

So my question to all my fellow bloggers is do you have any negative or positive things to say about your all-inclusive? 

The only  two guidelines I have is that I would love it to be a “Adult Only” resort, or at least a resort that offers partial restrictions to anyone under the age of 18 and a nice soaker tub where I can throw in a lush bomb and relax with a glass of wine and kick back to the sounds of waves crashing the shore.

We are not booking anything until after Christmas as we are still in limbo about our official dates.  So any help you can pass along would be awesome and very much appreciated.

Tis’ the season.

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Getting kissed under the mistletoe or in the snow?       

Well since I live in the Arctic where you couldn’t find a piece of Mistletoe if your life depended on it. I would say snow.  (Did you know that Mistletoe can be used as poison)

Santa or Rudolph?:
They come as a pair, no choosing.

Stocking or presents?:
I love stockings as you never know what could be hiding in the very bottom.

Egg nog or hot cider?:
Both, however I prefer my nog with some Rye or Rum; although I’m in Kugaaruk so neither is available.

Decorating the tree or putting lights on the outside?:
I love decorating the tree, with Christmas Carols playing in the background with an open box of chocolate nuts.

Snow ball fight or snowman?:
Snow is only snowball/man snow here in Kugaaruk very very early in the winter..September.  So neither at the moment. I’ll just have to make due with Frosty the Snowman.

Open presents quick or slow?:
As a kid I dived under the tree with my brother & sister and went crazy, I’m now more refined and we take turns opening our gifts.

Fake tree or Real tree?:
I grew up with a fake tree and it was awesome but my husband has since converted me to a Real tree and you can’t beat that smell.

Red and White Candy Canes or Colorful Candy Canes?:
Well since we bought Sour Watermelon, Sour Peach and Peppermint candy canes, I will say “All of the above”

Get up early or sleep in late?:
Depends on what time we get to sleep

Old Christmas Movies or New ones?:
Love them all, nothing beats the classics: Scrooge & Miracle on 34th Street…but I love The Santa Clause & Elf

The Grinch movie or Elf movie?:
Both but as I said above, I love to watch the ELF movie, it is our Christmas Eve Tradition

 White Lights or Colored Lights?:
I prefer white lights on a house, and colored lights on a tree, as long as they don’t blink or flash.

Do you put up a Christmas tree?:
It is on its way from Nova Scotia!

If so is it fake or real?:
As real as a Nova Scotia tree can be!

Do you put lights on the tree?:
yes – last year we had a Vancouver Canuck colored tree.

 How about popcorn and cranberries?:
Nope, the dogs would be snacking.

Christmas Movie?:
I’m a sucker for them all.

Christmas Song?:
Winter Wonderland 

When do you open your gifts?:
Around 1 or 2 in the afternoon, after the Turkey is in the oven.

Do you like wrapping gifts?:
I’m addicted to Christmas bags, I dread wrapping presents.

Do you make Christmas treats?:
yup, I love baking

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Online shopping Limbo

It seems like all our ‘good’ luck with online shopping has been fizzling over the last couple of weeks (excuse me for a moment, Sekaya just dashed into the spare room with one of Hughie’s slippers).  So first we had the mishap with UPS and my Disney store purchase.  Then my exercise mat is stuck in the land of limbo in a warehouse in Yellowknife, or so UPS says. 

The most recent item of merit is London Drugs.  We purchased a lot of Christmas Treats, stuff we really don’t need, although we did order candy canes that will taste like fuzzy peaches and sour watermelons. Yum!  Anyways, the problem was that I ordered a Gingerbread house – I love to be artistic and unfortunately for me I haven’t had the gumption to put pen to paper or pastels to canvas in a good many years, so I figured this year I would play with my artistic side and decorate a gingerbread house. There was NO gingerbread house to be found, although, according to our shipping list manifest there should have been, they also failed to produce a couple other things as well.  (If I list them, you would definitely think my blood is made of pure sugar, but in all honesty the house is for me and everything else was for the Mr.)  

However with that said Customer Service has won out again, I was on the phone with them minutes after opening the box and they promised to check it out and get back to me.   Well it was Friday night, I didn’t expect to hear from them until today or tomorrow (Monday or Tuesday).  Needless to say they called last night on a SUNDAY to help rectify my Gingerbread house mishap.  They are reshipping the lost products.  They were quite interested to find out that the box was not tampered with or open prior to arriving here in Kugaaruk. 

I’m a stickler for good Customer Service, no matter which company that I call or deal with.  I guess that comes from years of working in the Customer Service world.  I worked the Toys/Seasonal department at Zellers for almost 4 years in my younger days….yikes I just realized how long ago it really was! There is nothing worse than bad Customer Service, although I’m sure I’m one of the few that realizes that everyone has a bad day or a bad call and sometimes you are just the lucky person to talk to that person.

Christmas is almost here!  We got the call yesterday (although our phone lines sucked here last night from what I was told) our Christmas Tree is ON ITS WAY!  Yippee!! I pulled up the Christmas Decorations last night from the crawl space and put Dawson and Brookie’s Christmas presents in a box last night getting ready to ship it off to the Island.  I’m officially done shopping for Mr. Fidler, the dogs ordered him one more gift last week so we are just waiting on that to come in.  I still haven’t purchased anything for my parents or my Sister/Mark but they are just getting back from a whirlwind shopping adventure in the States so I was waiting to see what they came back with.

31 days until Christmas

*Addendum:  According to UPS my Disney stuffed toys for the pups will arrive on PEI and in my mom’s hands tomorrow.

*Addendum:  My Yoga mat has been lost in transit according to UPS somewhere in Yellowknife, being refunded and we need to replace the order.

Happy Birthday

 

(Above ~ Approximately 6-9 months old) – The photo that made me fall in love with “Mickey”. *Name was changed to Chakotay the day I knew he was mine* I saw his face on an animal rescue site and I was head over heels.  Chakotay has been my protector, and my best friend ever since. 

(Above) He was ours the second he walked into our apartment, he claimed us as his “people” and left his hair all over the place.  Needless to say that hasn’t changed.

  

(Above) He claimed my papasan chair from the moment I brought it in the house, the big comfy cushion was just too much to pass up.

(Above) He was very happy to  have a little sister join his family.

                     Happy 6th Birthday Chakotay!

Have a magical day!

I don’t know if I should or  shouldn’t be surprised that it took over a year for a parcel to go M.I.A.  I purchased Sekaya & Chakotay stuffed Disney toys for Christmas (yes I spoil my dogs)..A stuffed Bolt dog for Sekaya and a Dale (Chipmunk) for Chakotay.  According to UPS-Canada it arrived in Yellowknife on November 4th and left Yellowknife via an air service.  From that date -  no one knows where that parcel could be, it is like it disappeared into thin air. Although I have a hankering that it is wrapped under someone else’s tree.  (Although I definitely have NO proof of that). 

I have to say I’m very impressed with the customer service I received from the Disney Store Online.  I emailed them a generic “Help me” email at 2:30pm this afternoon and by 3:10 I had a reply.   They contacted UPS and it was deemed that my parcel was “lost” in transit.  Therefore they were issuing me a replacement order.   Learning from my first MIA mail I was smart enough (or not smart enough, as I should of done this the first time around) I’m having The Disney Store online send my parcel to my parents place on PEI.   Who will then stuff the presents in the generic brown box they will ship to me for Christmas.  There is definitely something to be said about being wished a “Have a magical day” that just instantly cheered me up after this ordeal.

The next step is to find my Yoga Mat that Hughie ordered me from Costco that should have arrived approximately 2 weeks ago.  Working out on my living-room mat leaves little indentations on my upper back/body…freaky looking but still annoying.

I look forward to Christmas 2010 when all I have to worry about is parking spots, finding a coffee shop and my Christmas list.

Spam

No not the lunch meat in a can but the Spam known as Email-worms.  This morning I log onto my hotmail account only to see approximately 10 “undeliverable emails”.  Excuse me?  The only time I use hotmail is to receive invoice and the occasional family response.  From what I can see and my limited experience I have been hit by an Email Worm.  Blasted!!  I wonder if  the people expect individuals to call the International #? If they don't, then why, is it just to slow down hotmail’s servers?

In all honesty, I’ve been a member of Hotmail since 1997 and this has been my first “hack” into my contact list.  I have to admit that is pretty good.  Lucky for me my husband has a knack for computers so he will figure this out. 

So, once again I apologize to all my friends & family that received this spam-email from my account.  It wasn’t my intent to make you purchase products that probably don’t work, smell bad or just cost too much money.

*Addendum
1:52pm
I can't believe how bad my grammar/spelling is when I write a post pre-coffee. Yikes!

Gingerbread

I didn’t see the sun rise today, however, as I look out my kitchen window I can just see the dim glow over our ‘mountain’ as the sun sets.  It is a blustery-snowy typical day here in Kugaaruk with one main difference, it isn’t –20.  I was able to take the dogs for a walk today in just my pants, no long-johns or ski-pants.  I enjoy the extra freedom, although jumping in the snow with Chakotay and Sekaya tends to be a little on the chilly side.

We are now more than half way through November.  Christmas is sneaking up on us faster and faster.  I have officially finished most of my shopping, although like I said in my last post I still have a couple more presents to go.  I wish I could make my days go faster, I love December and the Christmas season.  All the presents around the tree and the Christmas carols & cartoons on the television.  It is hard to be glum about the lack of sunlight when you have Frosty learning life lessons in his feature film “Frosty the Snowman”. 

In order to boost my Christmas spirit I ordered a Gingerbread House Kit from http://www.londondrugs.ca.  The rule of thumb if you want to order from London drugs is to make sure you first don’t go over 10lbs (shipping up to 10lbs is $29.99 – Over 10lbs is $39.99). The second rule of thumb is to use up your 10lbs of shipping weight to make it worth while to pay that shipping fee. They have a vast collection of Christmas Treats.  So I managed to wrangle Hughie into the chair and let him go shopping.  I’m not a huge Christmas Candy fanatic however Hughie is.  So with my Gingerbread House Kit we purchased the mandatory Christmas Nerds, Mint Christmas M&Ms and a few other things.  They also have a Christmas Decoration section, however most items are breakable.  If you do wish to look at their site, look at it daily as some products that “are not available at this moment for online purchase” do come available.

I’m just biding my time before I start decorating my house, now that Remembrance day is past I can officially start humming Christmas Carols.  I am even becoming antsy to wrap Christmas presents, and I HATE wrapping presents…. I know..surprising considering I’m a huge Christmas fanatic.

I’ve recently ordered a couple of presents through different sites that I normally wouldn’t.  Once they come in I will be sure to add my thoughts and opinions on their shipping and handling.  Until then…

Punch Buggy – No Punch Backs

 

I have fully immersed myself into the world of Christmas Shopping.  I started early this year, as my source of income is now dry and cracked beyond repair.  Although; with that being said, I do have access to other funds, I just rather use them on myself! I only have a ‘few’ more gifts to purchase (My parents & my sister and her “better” half).  I have a few things to send back East for my niece and nephews and then I can sit back and wait for the Christmas wrapping paper to be placed on the shelves at the co-op so I can start wrapping.  I still have a few gifts in limbo somewhere between point A & B so I’m not in any rush; and Christmas is still a month and a half away.  So no need to worry yet.

After a long process of thinking and dwelling over the what ifs and if nots.. I decided to get both the H1N1 injection and the seasonal FLU shot this year.  I think the deciding factor was that we don’t have access to respirators and ICU’s if the situation called for them.  So on Friday afternoon we all made the huge trek to the school gym (a 2 minute drive away).  After waiting in line for what seemed like hours – at one point I thought I was sitting in the same chair for two hours; and in retrospect was only an hour of my time.  (The clock in the gymnasium was not set back an hour).  It was finally my turn. The needles were quite painless, however my left arm where the H1N1 vaccine was placed feels like I played “Punch Buggy” while sitting at a beetle bug convention.  Nothing that a bit of Advil couldn’t cure, however for whatever reason I haven’t gotten up to get one yet, I call it a bit of laziness on my behalf.   It is funny though, that no matter where you live there will always be people complaining about the way things are run.  I’ve seen plenty of news broadcasts with regards to the way things were run in the south regarding the immunization clinics, I happen to think that things were nicely run in our community compared to those clinics down south; I much rather waste an hour of my life here in the north in a line up verses spending upwards to 5 or 6 hours in a line up down south. 

The weather along with the sun has been progressing towards the land of 24-hour darkness.  The air has turned dry and crisp, making you feel like a popsicle after only a couple of minutes outside; however, with two huskies you really don’t have much choice but to get outside…

Here are two pictures so you southern readers can see what I see when I look out my window. 

 

Oídche Shamhna

Meaning : The night of Samhain

Samhain (pronounced “Sauwain”) – The autumn equinox.  As Beltaine (May 1st)  marked the beginnings of summer, so Samhain recorded the end.  Samhain was celebrated with ritual bonfires and is the origin of Halloween.  The Celtic year began with Samhain at the end of October, a time of deliberate misrule and contrariness.  It was also thought to be a time when the dead could return to warm themselves at the fires of the living and when poets were able to enter the Otherworld. 

Halloween pumpkin lanterns may have originated with Celts’s customs of placing the skulls of ancestors outside their doors at this time.

“Decoding the Celtic. Revealing the legacy of the Celtic Traditions, Claire Hamilton & Steve Eddy.”

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Last night was the beginning of Samhain.  On my bucket list is to go to Scotland, but if I could put an asterisk next to it, it would say “Go during the celebration of Samhain”.  I’m deeply in love with Celtic history with all of its lore and mythology and I have Michael Linkletter to thank for that.  He was my Celtic professor at STFX (6/7 years ago).  Since that class I’ve read everything that I can with regards to their deep history.  Someday I hope to return to study the Gaelic language and divulge my time into taking another Celtic History course.  However until then I will bide my time reading my Celtic Lore, History & Mythology books

Meanwhile Halloween in Kugaaruk is over and the kids are probably holding their bellies after consuming all their treats from last night.  We gave out suckers, skittles – starbursts, goldfish crackers and tootsies pops.  It was a great evening and over all we had approximately 110 kids, unfortunately we didn’t get to see a lot of costumes,  half the kids were out in their winter garb considering it was –35 with wind-chill.  We did get to see plenty of face paint that turned the kidlets into mice, cats, clowns and scary creatures.  We also had a couple of furry animals grace our door early in the evening; a  very adorable puppy & bear. 

We thought about heading over to the Hamlet for the Costume Contest however it was damn cold out, and considering we spent a considerable amount of time there last year we felt that we wouldn’t see anything different.  So Hughie and I decided to kick back with a couple of good “old” horror movies.  Pet Semetary and Night of the Living Dead.  Two classic horror movies that still had my skin crawling.  I’m just glad we don’t own The Ring.  It was a great spooky evening. 

I came to the realization that we must live in one of the safest Trick n Treating locations.  The whole town knows one another as does the kids and the chances of someone tainting the candy is not even thought of.  As a child I was never allowed to eat “homemade” candy that was given out the doors however here I saw fudge, popcorn balls and squares in the bags of the kids .  There are also no pumpkins in town for kids to destroy no hay bails to burn and eggs are so expensive kids don’t buy them to throw at doors and cars.   It is nice to wake up in the morning look out the window and see nothing; in Selkirk you would see Toilet paper, destroyed pumpkins and egg shells spattering the roads and sidewalks.

I hope everyone one had a safe Samhain. 

I’m not sure if it is too soon for this but…54 days until Christmas Eve.