Still here

You thought I was in a drunken stupor all this time, didn't you?

Well, I wasn't.

I did have a drink Friday night, and a couple last night, but nothing major. I went to Matt & Kara's Friday night to check out the work they're doing on their backyard - it looks pretty good now, so I can only imagine how great it's going to look when it's complete.

I drove to Ross River yesterday morning to put up a sign at the Canol Footbridge. I didn't know where I was going, and there weren't really many people around to ask, but I asked the man at the hot dog stand (which was actually just across from the bridge). And then I was starving, so I bought the most expensive hot dog in the world - seriously, it was just a hotdog, like you make at home. I could have bought a whole pack of hot dogs (and buns, too, if I were still in Ontario) for that.

But I was really hungry.

I filled up with gas at the General Store, so now I have no excuses for not going to Ross for gas (since I know how to do it and how to pay for it now). Then I came home for my last day of snuggling Titus. Heather came by to pick him up in the evening, and now I find the house is a bit too quiet.

Now the mad rush to get my house presentable for my parentals is on. I want them to see me living in a neat and tidy house (even if most of my belongings are stored in Rubbermaid containers). They'll be here in just over 2 weeks, so I need to get crackin'.

Baby, you can drive my car...

If by car I mean truck, and by you I mean me.

I woke up kind of late this morning, which isn't surprising since I didn't fall asleep until late. I puttered around the house, doing dishes, cleaning the fridge, and just generally trying to clean house. I pretended Mom was coming over for lunch, and I didn't want her to see the kind of disorganization I normally live in.

It worked pretty well - it was mostly my quilting stuff that had spread all over the floors. I got a handle on it, and did some trimming and pinning this evening.

In the afternoon, though, I went for a drive. I needed to get gas for my truck (and for my jerry cans), and decided I would take a spin to Carmacks. The store in Carmacks has a much better selection of vegetables than the Hardware store does here in Faro. (I know, Kara, I said I wasn't going to buy any more food, but when I was cleaning this morning I found some veggies in the fridge that had gone a little manky, so I needed to replace them.)

It was a very nice drive. Two hours there, with my satellite radio cutting in and out so that I wound up listening to a CD. I saw a few birds but nothing really big (I guess the North and I are still uncertain about each other), and I sang out loud as I whipped down the road.

By the time I did my mini grocery shop and filled up my tank and cans, I had spent almost an hour in Carmacks. I didn't want to stop at a restaurant because I didn't want to be still for any amount of time - I wanted to be back on the road. The radio was strong all the way home, and I sang and sang.

I like the Campbell Highway between Carmacks and Faro. I like being beside Little Salmon Lake, the way it's open and lovely with the mountain on the opposite side. The shadows of clouds pass over the still-icy surface of the lake and the sun lights up frozen wavelets.

I am glad that I went, and happy to be back. I am making food plans for the rest of the week, and I am confident that I will not be resorting to burgers in the near future ^_^

So, snow?

When I tucked my tipsy self in to bed last night (yes, I was drinking on a Thursday, we'll keep a close eye on that in future), the hillside behind my house was almost totally bare. All the snow was gone, and I could see dried grasses and rocks. I had a vision of what the hill might look like in summer.

This morning, when I stumbled my groggy morning self out of that same bed, the hill was covered in snow. You may have heard me crying out, "What?" or "Why?" or "The hell you say!" - I was not impressed.

It isn't a heavy snow, and there's not tons and tons of it, but it was just so surprising. It's the wet stuff, too, so my jeans are damp around the bottoms from walking out to the truck. And I had to brush snow off the truck - good thing I bought a brush/scraper at Canadian Tire.

Speaking of the truck, I have figured out that it is a strange height for me. It's not quite high enough for me to need to step on the rail, but if I try to get in without stepping on it, it is awkward. On the other hand, if I do step on the rail, I have to scrunch down to get into the seat. So it is all around strange.

But I love it! Don't get me wrong, I love it!

It's just strange.

Angry Bees

Today, on the whole, was the kind of day I like to refer to as an Angry Bees Day.

When I worked at the Gakuen, we weren't allowed to swear in front of the children - not an unreasonable request, really, but one that sometimes taxed a person's creativity when it came to expressing her true feelings. So we had to come up with words that could not be construed as being bad, but which got the meaning across to those in the know.

My favourite was funny turtles, after a story someone told me about having referred to someone in a very vulgar manner, not realizing there was a child present, and the child agreeing that, yes, so-and-so was a funny turtle. Sean and I used that expression all the time - it was our code for when the other teachers were passive-aggressively acting out against us.

Angry bees, on the other hand, means the kind of day where everything is wrong from the get-go, and every interaction you have with other people makes you want to cry with frustration. Knowing that you are being irrational doesn't help, either - it just makes you madder. I apologized several times over the course of the day to my coworkers, because I was adding to the stress level in the office but I couldn't seem to stop.

The upshot of this angry bees day is that I am staying at the office instead of going home, so that I can get the public packages printed up for the meeting tonight, and I can get some things done now that I am alone.


On the plus side, I was approved for financing, so I will definitely be picking up my truck this weekend ^_^

One is the loneliest number...

Well, my main hang-out crew has departed for Mayo for the week, leaving me blue. I hope they have a great time, though - I will just have to remember how to occupy myself.

I am thinking that a quick round of "Clean House" and some "Spring Decluttering" might be just the ticket. It's amazing how much stuff I have accumulated... particularly when you think of how little storage I have here.

I've also got some new projects on the go, quilt-wise. I haven't bought any new fabric - I'm using mostly scraps from the Rainbow Quilt (and the Mermaid Quilt), a stack of four fat quarters I bought last month when I went to WH with Kara, and a fifth fat quarter that Lucy gave me for looking after Oscar. The projects - baby quilts. I want them to be cute, but I don't want to get emotionally invested in them. Then perhaps I can try selling them.

Because I bought them before the fabric-buying-embargo, I don't need to have any guilt about them. I keep telling myself I am not allowed to buy more fabric until after the Crane & Sheep Festival, but with a new truck and insurance payments to think about, plus the new computer, it's beginning to look more like no fabric until September, which sucks.

On the other hand, the last pieces for the red quilt should be arriving shortly, so I can work on quilting that over the summer months, which should keep me occupied.

Oh dear, I think this is turning into a quilting blog.

To recover - I would like to buy the materials needed to build a coffee table when I go in to WH to pick up my truck. It would be nice to have a table I'm less worried about scratching or setting on fire than the one I am currently borrowing. I'm just concerned I am going to wind up with too much stuff to fit in my hotel room.

Okay, then. Clean House it is!