Horseshoes

I feel as if I have horseshoes in my back pocket today. Why you wonder? I’ll tell you.

I was late for work, but I washed the dishes, emptied the garbage and recycling, watered the plants, except for the dead ficus – my second I am evidently not a ficus growing proficienado. What I’m trying to portray is that, although I was late-ish for work, I had a very productive morning, not to mention that I packed for another trip to Stony Rapids.

So my morning at work went very smoothly, had a wonderful jalepeño havarti on rye. I left for my house after lunch to catch a taxi to the airport without delay. Arrived at the airport and could not check in… well my flight was 1.5 hours late and I was going to miss my connection!! (Edmonton-Calgary-Saskatoon) Oh my, thankfully the wonderful lady at the counter booked my standby on the 3pm flight. I had just enough time to walk through security and get on the plan. Thank goodness I showed up early!!! Now I should mention there were six seats remaining and 9 standbys… and Murphy’s laws, remember Murphy’s laws. I enter security, take off my belt, get out my computer, put my eye drops in a plastic bag, put my banana in the bag too just in case, take off my coat and toque and scarf… ready. On the other side of the scanner I was randomly selected for a pat down!! AGAIN!!! I swear I’m going to start keeping track of the proportion of airport visits that result in my random selection for a pat down. But, thankfully the pat down was quick and actually I think I enjoyed it, it was almost like a massage… was that my inside voice? =D

I arrive at the ticket counter and low and behold there is room for me on the flight and I walk right on.

In Calgary I have to go the baggage carousel to pick up my bags cause they were not checked though due to my standby status. I found them no problem and headed to the check-in counter with some difficulty. At the check in counter they cannot find me and I experience a momentary anxiety until I remember, I have a 10:20 flight if all else fails and I can go to the Maple Leaf lounge and drink Baileys. =) So in the end I get another standby ticket. Off I go to the gate… at security I am somehow AGAIN randomly selected for a pat down… I need help here! I know it is possible but give me a break. I have to admit she did not do as thorough a pat down as the previous lady. Anyways, at the gate I find out I have to wait a half an hour before I can find out whether there is room for me on the flight. I hesitate trying to decide whether I should go for a Bailey’s or sit at the gate. In the end I decide to sit at the gate assuming I will most likely have to wait so I can spend the rest of the night drinking. Well I make it on the flight so no Baileys. Perhaps I don’t have horseshoes in my pocket. =)

In the plane, I fall asleep as usual, only to wake up after a while to hear the captain apologize for the delay but some of the passengers could not find the gate so their luggage is being unloaded. So an hour late, but in one piece and with all my baggage I made it to Saskatoon in time for supper and a good night’s sleep before I hop on a plane tomorrow for Stony Rapids. Now if I only had internet access to post this tonight. =)

Sweet Dreams.

Life in the Fast Lane

I am writing to inform you that I am unsuccessfully balancing work, teaching, house renos, dating and socializing. As such, house renos have been put on hold, I am unprudently procrastinating in my marking and I have limited my dating to one person at a time. =)

I did encounter a valuable find on Kijiji this week. A lady was selling a bedside table, when I went to buy it she was also selling a couch, chair, desk, printer stand, shelf, 2 lamps and ... for $450. I have been looking for smoke/pet free second hand furniture for a long time!! It is much nicer than my current regifted set so I expect I will be harrased for putting it in my basement, but it fits better. And really I like my regifted set upstairs. Now I have to reassess the use of my basement, I had thought that I wanted to put my sewing down there... but now the couch changes things and I am contemplating moving the sewing back to the guest room. Yes, the more I think about it the more logical it would be. I mean something has to happen with the crafts! Right now there are a number of rubbermaids in my room and to be honest... it would be nice to reach my dresser and closet without traversing the equivalent of Mount Kilimanjaro each day.

I did envision painting the guest room... well now that it has a purpose I suppose I should get to it. =D

Back to furniture though. I am happy to say that my bedside table is no longer a plastic drawer unit topped with a square of sanded plywood for weight. Slowly but surely I will move into the adult realm of home funishings. As an aside, I do not want to sell my loveseats so I went online and there are a dozen or so organizations that accpet furniture to give to people in need. My only concern is that the loveseats are in need of a steam cleaning... sigh. Why does cream have to show the dirt???

Hunting Again

I had to write about hunting again because I had such a wonderful weekend! Although I don't usually hunt by myself I did make an exception. I still have to apologise to my mom for going out alone. I did carry a cell phone with me and was close to the farm house.

Here's how my Saturday unravelled...

5:20 drag myself out of bed after 3 hours of sleep following late night hockey

6:30 make sure I have everything I need for hunting... realize I am missing my gloves and rifle

6:40 get on the road and listen to another Hercules Poirot Murder Mystery by Agatha Christie

7:50 arrive at Mary's house and say hi

8:30 walk out to the muskeg and field to find a nice spot in front of a willow in tall grass to sit and enjoy the view

8:35 spot deer walking straight towards me and start to shake with excitement (I really need to work on delaying the shaking until after I shoot)

8:37 wait for deer to walk closer and am amazed that it is still walking towards me

8:39 shoot said deer

8:40 find deer, calm down and gut deer by self

9:20 walk back to house to ask if I can drive into the field to get deer

9:30 Mary, Ray and myself hop in their truck to get the deer together

9:45 take lots of pictures

10:00 hang deer with tractor - this is cool!!! skin deer

10:45 go hunt coyotes with Mary, miss coyote and scare others away

11:45 quarter deer

12:30 eat lunch care of Mary - YUM!!

1:00 go pick rocks for my garden with Ray and Mary

2:00 think about going back into the field after a cup of tea to hunt coyotes

2:15 guests arrive

4:30 lay down for a nap before driving back to Edmonton in daylight

5:30 wake up for supper before driving back to Edmonton in daylight

6:30 have one more cup of tea and apple pie before driving back to Edmonton in dark

8:20 get home exhausted with a deer to deal with...

Hunting at Ray and Mary's place was a real treat. And now I think I am done hunting for the season. I have some wonderful msg free garlic sausage and am contemplating having jalepeno/cheese smokies made up.

Hunting

I am sure you are all wondering about my hunting habits. This blog is to enlighten you. =)

Carefully placed footsteps echoing thunderously on crunching leaves.

Sharp eyes scanning for the elusive doe...

Until they glaze over as my brain starts to think about a picture I should take for my blog and how should I write...

I had a wonderful day last weekend. You can all admire me in the picture... if you can see me =) I'm below the orange hat.

I spotted a deer from 200m down a pipeline and proceeded to creep along the edge of the forest quieter than the dozen voles I spotted. After about 100m I could no longer see the deer and thought they had run off... buy my pal Rich was still sitting where I left him... so I kept going. Finally I stood up to take a better peak and stepped on the loudest twig of the day. Up popped a head 20 meters away... Rich could see me and the deer in his binoculars at the same time. WOW!!! Anyways... I hesitated... I've never taked a head shot... needless to say I startled it and two others... =(

My heart racing from the excitement I turned back to meet up with Rich. I had a good time.

I did shoot an 18 month old deer and had some wonderful garlic sausage made up at Victoria Meats - they don't use MSG!!!

Ecologically Minded

I am watching the history channel and it is telling me what would happen to earth if all the humans died... it is very interesting.

It is sad the number of animals that would initailly die. Pets trapped in houses, pets hunted by packs of dogs, domestic fenced in livestock... They say that the last reported serious dog packing was after Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans. Large zoo animals may be okay as they can escape once electricity fails. But they will need to migrate south to find sufficient food and not freeze come winter.

But in the long run, the Eiffel Tower will rust and collapse. And although the Statue of Liberty's skin is copper, its skeleton is iron the the arm holding the torch will detach from the shoulder and fall to the ground to be admired only by the local wildlife.

The spillway of the Hoover Dam will eventually erode and fail and the power of the water rushing down river will supposedly demolish any dams blocking the way to reach the ocean and allow fish to once again swim upstream.

Oh... and the spent nuclear waste stored in buildings for cooling will heat up after electricity fails and evenually cause an explosiion spreading nuclear waste and killing surrounding life... I missed how long it will take to recover.

But without all our body heat, the temperature of the globe is supposed to decrease!!! WOW!!

Eventually the show says we will have another ice age in 25000 years and any remains of the Statue of Liberty will be wiped out.

The good news is that in the end the earth will clean up after us... by degrading anything degradable and burying everything non degradable... though it will take a really long time.

So if you want to leave a mark... put something on the moon as most artifacts and craters are preserved there. =)

Oh right... but what struck me is my admiration of stainless steel, which is long lasting so I won't have to replace my cookware... environmental I thought... well it will still be around centuries after I die!!!

Blind Date

Okay, I have a cute, happy story. The photo is of me at work. Notice the sign in the background =)

I went biking with my friend Val on Sunday and she had just bought a new tire pump. Well needless to say it came without instructions and we thought we set it up right but it didn't work. As I have become lazy and don't carry my biking bag at the moment we did not have another pump. But there was this guy across the parking lot who looked like a serius biker so I went over introduced myself, explained the problem and asked if he had a pump we could borrow. Of course he did but the offered to look at Val's pump first. He was cute, had a beautiful smile and was a friendly biker. WOW!!

So after biking, his truck was still there so I left a note...

"Thanks for your help today Chris. If you're single and interested in going fot a hot cocoa call me... =) Nicole"

Well he called me later that day!! WOW!!

Turns out he loves hot chocolate. So we talked a bit and I found out that sadly he was not single. But he was flattered by the note and thought if I was brave enough to leave a note, that I might be brave enough to go on a blind date with one of his friends... ... OK. So he told me a bit about his friend... single, never married, no kids... he sure knows the words that warm a woman's heart. =)

I'll keep you posted. He still has to ask his friend if he's interested in going on a date with me.

Nicole

Dating Blunder

You'll be happy to know I went on a date with someone new last night. Here's what happened. He suggested we go for a bike ride. As he was picking me up and I called him to let him know I was ready, there was really no excuse for me to be late or not ready. So of course I was ready. He showed up and was surprised that I was ready and said, "Don't you want to have a drink before we go?" Of course, how silly of me. =)

So we stood out on my deck drinking water and watching stars. He pointed out the Big Dipper. I geekily replied, "Actually that's Pegasus, not the Big Dipper. You can tell because... The Big Dipper is hidden..." In hindsight, telling him he was wrong the first time we met was probably not the brightest idea I have ever had. But really who wants to live with the misconception that Pegasus is the Big Dipper?!!? What would you have said!?!?

He also really doesn't like plants. =(

Cheers. Next date with someone new is on Saturday night.