Windows are cracked….open

Things have been relatively slow here, which explains the lack of updates lately.  I have been spending quite a bit of my time organizing my life (aka house) and walking the dogs.  The sun is too beautiful to stay indoors for long.  As my facebook status says today, I have opened my windows.  The snow has finally melted off my windows and now they are free and clear.  The air smells so fresh and crisp (Sewage truck doesn’t come around this end of town until tomorrow) and I can almost see my house shake off the winter blues that it has been holding on to.

On a completely different topic, It is funny how you almost forget you are in the North until odd little things happens to you:

1.  I walk both Chakotay & Sekaya separately for my benefit and for their own – it gives them some time apart and I don’ t have to look like I have rubber arms being pulled in two directions.  There is a little girl who lives just down the street to me, who has taken to Chakotay (no surprise) and Sekaya (very surprising) however, that isn’t the odd little thing.  She was playing with Sekaya (throwing her snow – but not getting too close) and she stopped looked me up and down a couple of times and then said “Where are your boots” – now I was wearing my North Face hikers – I was about to answer her, when I noticed for the first time she was NOT wearing mittens.

2.  I was outside yesterday morning with Chakotay, while he was doing his morning constitutional I had a local lady come up to me and ask if I saw her missing dog.  When I inquired when her dog went missing she said “I didn’t notice”….  So did her dog go missing two weeks ago or two minutes ago, needless to say I didn’t see her dog.  I wonder if she “didn’t notice” when her dog returned… or if he did?

On another note, it is Hockey Playoffs – which means in my household hockey is on the television 7 days a week no matter which team is playing.  However, with our team being the Vancouver Canucks we have been glued to the television for the last 12 days.  Last night was nerve wracking to say the least but the Canucks were victorious – once again jumping all over the Kings in the 3rd period.  The Kings played a heck of a game, and we will definitely see them in the Playoffs next season, Drew Doughty isn’t going anywhere.

Sekaya my little puppy is no longer a little puppy, she turned 3 on Friday.  I didn’t do an official post about her birthday because in all honesty it only seems like yesterday I posted about her 2nd birthday.  Although with owning two huskies comes BLOWING..hair blowing that is.  Yellowknife has exacerbated the hair blowing – last year it didn’t start until the end of May.  I have been dodging hair tumbleweeds all weekend as they filter down the hall.  So I guess I am back to vacuuming twice daily to keep up with the hair.  I look forward to the future where I will have a huge fenced in back yard,where they can shed to their hearts content.

This n That Vacation Photos

 

Caribou Coffee, Mall of America - Minnesota

Caribou Coffee - Minnesota

Team Jackets - Timmins

Mine shaft – Timmins

 

Dressed up as “Bluenosers” – Timmins

New nose ring – Winnipeg, Manitoba

Chubbs – Markham, Ontario

Return to sender

I’m trying to wrap my head around the fact that I’m sitting in my kitchen writing a blog – 30 days flew by.  I know this sounds weird, but it feels good to be home.   Living out of your suitcase for 30 days, even when you place your clothes into an available closet or dresser, is not fun after the initial excitement wears off. 

This vacation was fantastic, although, we did lose a couple days due to flying, whether it was the flight from St. Lucia where we were stuck in the Toronto airport for 7 hours (3-hours of that was us carting around our luggage..blah!) and then sitting in the Edmonton airport yesterday for 6 hours.  However, I will admit those hours did fly by with the help of alcohol and Starbucks/Second Cup coffee.  I also broke my “sleeping in a airport virginity”.  I dozed a time or two in airports, but yesterday after only 1.5 hour of sleep the night before I crashed on a bench for 90 minutes and snoozed quite comfortably. 

I won’t bother with an official play-by-play of this vacation but I will give a few highlighted points for those who read this blog and not the updates I place on Facebook.  (No particular order)

- Hair foils, waxing, manicure & pedicure.  I have fallen in love with the Oasis Mineral Spa in Winnipeg as well as Cedar Springs Spa in Timmins, Ontario.

- Seeing the Manitoba Moose as well as the Minnesota Wild lose…brutal luck but the beer was cold and crisp.

- Palomino Club in Winnipeg…what a spot.

-Sourpuss (Raspberry & Green Apple)

-Manitoba winning the Championship, and knowing the only team they lost to in round-robin was NWT/NU! (Sorry Gary)

-Hospitality Suite with the added bonus of $2.00 drinks.

-Quarry Physiotherapy; Gimli, Manitoba

-Meeting the most charismatic cat, Chubbs.

-Ikea with Andrew & Laura.

-Mall of America – Nordstrom's, Victoria Secret, Yankee Candle.

-Wearing boots that are NOT Sorels

-Toronto Eaton Centre

-Winnipeg Polo Park

-The North Face store in Minnesota

-Bubbles replica

-I know I did the official blog post but..LADERA, ST. Lucia.

-Caribou Coffee, Starbucks, Second Cup & Tim Horton's.

-Seeing my dogs for the first time after vacation.

I can go on and on about this vacation, it was just that good – but then if I did that I should have just wrote a “play by play”.  I’m glad to be home even with all the vacation laundry that has to be completed.  They are calling for some nice “seasonal” weather over the next couple of days, so I’m looking forward to hanging outside with my pups taking in the fresh crisp arctic air.  Our time is coming to a close and I want to take advantage of every nice day that I can.  (No we don’t know where we are going…lol).

Ladera, St. Lucia

I find myself sitting in the Sheraton lobby drinking a Sleeman’s Honey Brown waiting patiently for our next flight to Timmins, Ontario.  Our vacation is half over, yet we still have 8 days ahead of us that will be filled with curling and hospitality suites.   I’m looking forward to unpacking my luggage and having some non-wrinkled clothes.  I am still in awe at how well this vacation is going – I know that may jinx us, but I’m willing to take that chance. I am however, starting to miss my fur-kids – it always seems to be about this time, when I have a moment to sit back and reflect on the last 20 days.  We have been purchasing them little “treats” along the way so their homecoming will be as exciting for them as it is for us.

**Addendum:  I’m currently sitting in Timmins Ontario watching Mtl vs Tor on HNIC, during our last night of CPCA curling.  I started this post a week ago, I feel the need to complete the Ladera post prior to finalizing the rest of vacation.

Enough with the jibber jabber, I know you are all wondering how my big week-long all inclusive vacation to Ladera was.  The easiest and best way to  organize my thoughts is to rate all the major points on a scale from 1-10 (10 being FANTASTIC and 1 being CRAPTASTIC)

Travel -  Ladera is a 45 minute drive from the airport [twisty & turns, so if you are prone to nausea from car-sickness take a gravol] – if you choose a package with Ladera most will cover the taxi fare – if not expect to pay approximately 80 (USD).  Our taxi driver was fantastic and stopped along the way to allow us to take pictures of the Pitons from afar as well as other notable items.  (I’ll post a few pictures once we arrive back in Kugaaruk).   The taxi driver, Edmund who drove us back to the airport was equally as attentive and we had a great chat about deep-sea fishing and fish.  (8.5/10)

Check In – Hughie was so out to lunch in awe over Ladera and the beauty of our resort that I handled the check in – that and he did/does enough paperwork while he is working so he didn’t need the added “stress” of more paperwork.  They offered us cool facecloth spritzed with rose water & fruit punch (without the rum – the added rum part came later and it was DELICIOUS). 

Resort -  As you will see from the photo’s the resort maintains an open feeling with all rooms having a open wall to the outdoors *as you see in the photo below #1.  We were complimentary updated to a two-bedroom villa.  (We had booked a one bedroom villa)

 

Every room has there own plunge pool* as you see in the photo below .  The pool was so warm at nights that it seemed like a giant bathtub; we even had to to turn off our waterfall on occasion just so the water would cool down slightly.  I spent many hours in our pool; nothing is more refreshing that coming in from the beach and jumping into your own pool

Overall the staff went out of their way to help us, they were always asking if we needed anything, and that included keeping our fridge full of Piton beer and diet-cokes; and had no problems keeping the “lovely ladies” in my hands – I fell in love with coconut milk!

 

The best thing, was when we woke up in the morning we awoke to this. (Picture - Gros Piton)

This is what we went to sleep to every night.(Picture - Petit Piton)

We didn’t take advantage of a lot of “off-resort” festivities or tours; we were quite happy staring at our Pitons and drink refreshing beverages; however, we did manage to take a “Sunset Tour” and “Dolphin & Whale watching tour”.  The sunset tour was fantastic, the beers were cold and the Skipper was quite knowledgeable about his Island.  Unfortunately the Dolphin tour didn’t leave me with the same kind of euphoria.  We did not see one Dolphin or whale, just flying fish. 

Some photo’s from the Sunset Tour:

I could spend hours posting pictures of our resort, Ladera and St. Lucia..but I’m due at the hospitality suite soon.  I promise to update more frequently and tell all about the CPCA-Timmins when I get back to Kugaaruk.

Dear Agony..just let go of me.

Time is ticking down; the bags are packed the I-pod is charged and updated with all new travel tunes and cds.  The only hindrance that can surface is the weather; and believe me, I’ve been watching the Government weather site like I was watching a Reese Peanut Butter Cup (reminder:  No PB for 40 days.)  In the last three days they’ve changed the weather 3 different times; cloudy, sunny w/cloudy periods and now SNOW.  I wish I could explain how much I need out of this town, not just for my southern transformation which is to start on Tuesday, but for my Mental sanity – I feel myself slipping lately.   I need a Starbucks to level out the chemical imbalance.  I wish I could blame my lack of mental stability on SAD, but the sun has been beautiful the last couple of weeks and I’ve been enjoying it’s rays while walking the pups in the afternoon.   I just think I’m so close I can almost roll up my first rim and I don’t want to wait an extra day.

So this is my final, “Going on Vacation” post – if I don’t get out of this hamlet on Sunday you just may hear the worlds largest curse word resonate through the hills and rocks.   I’m hoping my next update will be from somewhere “warm” with a hot steaming cup of Starbucks sitting next to me, or better yet…a BEER

I’m not sure how I’m going to do anything for the rest of the weekend, my fingers and toes are all crossed…

*Title “Dear Agony” is currently playing on my IPOD – performed by Breaking Benjamin

Hangover

I find myself flipping through the channels; 212, 400,406,407 over and over again – never settling on any one show or program.  I can’t remember what I watched or what I did prior to the 2010 Olympics.  For the last 17 days I watched CTV, TSN & Sportsnet religiously all hours of the day; and even found myself catching the replays of the events I missed during the day.  I even miss BRIAN….[Williams].  I think all the patriotism that I was growing and expanding inside me has started to deplete and breakdown into a bitter aftertaste.  I’m starting to get tired of hearing “Believe” and seeing, still, the Olympic commercials.. I wonder if Advil will help the Olympic Hangover.

Thankfully, tomorrow will be a day of curling up on the couch wearing my comfy clothes watching the TSN ticker and Sportsnet's coverage on the NHL Trade Deadline 2010.  I’m hoping the Canucks are active, yet not to active.  With Willie Mitchell possibly being out for the season and Bieska still a couple weeks away from playing we can use some  increase coverage until they are ready and 100% healthy.  If I had to guess, I would say Hodgson, Schneider, Demitra are going to be up on the trade block, but that is all just speculation.

This weekend also brings the first couple days of the Halifax 2010 Brier.  “Its a shore thing…”…that always makes for some good curling and amusing ‘statements’ from my husband – who has played against most of them at some point in his curling career; and if hasn’t played against them he  knows of them. 

Although after the Brier and the NHL Trade Deadline is over, I’m going to be lost for those final few days until we are FREE…well free for 30 days.  The vacation is 100% booked and planned – just need to compose a list of all our emergency numbers for the Kennel in Yellowknife and to leave here…just in case.  Hughie finally ordered his curling shoes (and they are beautiful…lol yes curling shoes can be beautiful) as well as a new broom and bag.  So now are just waiting; 12 more days until we are in Yellowknife rolling up the rim!  I’ve started in on the weather network, I’ve said it numerous times that I’m addicted to checking the  weather – well now I’m well into the 14 day advance window for Yellowknife, Edmonton & Winnipeg – so needless to say I’ve been driving myself crazy looking at the long range forecast – I should know and realize that after living up here that there is no controlling the weather…lol I suppose whatever I need to do in order to pass the time…

At least my dogs know how to pass the time until they are off for a month of relaxation and visiting amongst otherdogs at the kennel.

*Above* Sekaya with her Entourage (Pluto, Bolt & Baby – if those three dogs are not in the kennel with her she will go “looking” for them)

*Below* Snoozing in the sun-beam

             

*Below*  Chakotay snoozing; apparently Sekaya felt the need to share her toys with Chakotay; but only as long as he is sleeping.

Hotels-✓Car Rental-✓Flights-✓Packing✓

Vacation is almost upon us; 17 days are remaining in our countdown and we have everything officially booked and confirmed.  We are just filling in the odd gaps with friends from afar and family outings.  I can’t wait to be sitting under Connie’s hairdryers and enjoying the heavy feeling of a head full of foils.

As the title says, I’m even packed – or about 98% – we have some items coming from Nova Scotia as well as a couple of items from the states that I purchased to wear while on vacation.  I find it fairly amusing that I’m packing swimsuits and shorts/tank tops when tonight we are suppose to dip down to –60 (with wind-chill).  So for that very reason I have two bags; one for St. Lucia and one for the chilly State of Minnesota and Toronto/Winnipeg.   I’m in love with my new duffle-roll luggage from Eddie Bauer; the color makes me smile (Rustic Orange) and it will hold all my summer gear (I have more summer gear than winter gear; how is that possible) and I have a second duffle Eddie Bauer bag for my winter-garb.  I think that someday I will have to grow up and purchase real luggage; but until then I will enjoy my new rolling duffel.

                                         

                                              GO CANADA GO!

I’m thankful for the Olympics and all CTV’s coverage to help pass my time during the day and evening. I’m very proud of all our accomplishments during these winter games and I wear my Red-Mittens & Red Olympic T-shirt with honour and pride.  Sure there has been some controversy with regards to some of the events and the security but even that isn’t enough to snuff the Olympic Flame, or to stop some crazy Canuck from coloring his body and face red & white.  However; the best thing I love about these Olympics is….. there is no CHANT!!! (NO Eh, Oh Canada GO!!)…I didn’t realize that the Olympics are sanctioned by COKE not Pepsi…so therefore there are no signs that depict the “New chant” or not that I’ve seen….or heard!   I look forward to this evening; when I will cheer loudly for my Luongo and the Canadian Hockey Team when they take the ice against Russia.  If I recall my history we are going on ~50 years since the last time we won against them in any shape or form (someone correct me if I’m wrong please)

We have finally got 100% go ahead on Police curling in Timmins this year; and I look forward to walking into the ice shed, grabbing a beer and cheering on my husband.  He is at his best when he is on the ice; so confident and calming – I could only imagine how relaxed he would be here if there was a curling club…

I’m still running 4/5 times per week and thankfully have been hitting all my milestones that I’ve been setting for myself.  This week my goal is to run between 30-35km and I’m half way to 30km and after tonight I’ll be over the 21/22km mark.  I enjoy pushing myself to my limits and then going one step further.  I’m hoping in two weeks I’ll be running between 40-45km a week; but if I don’t get to that I won’t be too bummed as initially my goal was to hit 35km; last week I ran 33km – so I’m only 2km from my initial goal.  There is nothing better than jumping off the elliptical dripping in sweat and feeling the rush of adrenaline.  It is that rush that keeps me going; nothing like perking up the endorphins in your blood to keep you smiling.  Believe me, I need to keep smiling!

“Go Canada…Luongo Go”!!