It's Thursday. That means we have all survived hump day and are headed into the weekend. Let's hear it for weekends!! I am totally in countdown mode--as of this morning and not including today 16 work days left. Nice.

On Tuesday I thought it was the weekend--yesterday I thought it was Thursday. Today, I know it is Thursday because the big noisy garbage truck was here this morning. Thursday is generally quickly followed by Friday and a nice big glass of red wine. :)

I have been looking at Chicken replacements on line. Build A Bear is looking like an interesting option. But the 'toys' look either too big or too small. Hmm. A trip to the mall is in order.

Spring is back--again to Edmonton. The trees are out in that initial first bud of leaves. I am looking forward to watching them grow. I will likely be moved out of my apartment by the time the lilacs bloom this year, but I suspect I may take a drive by and collect a few. Sshhh. It will be our secret.

I haven't had the camera out in a while so you will need to view some older photos....or click over to a different website now...


For those of you who are still tuned in...I present 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2009 pictures from mid-April


This is from Pangnirtung--April 2006

I still remember getting this awesome treat delivered to my home in Pang by one of the nurses from the Agency. What a great gift and oh, the smells were so good.

April 2007 I was in PEI around mid-month. Here's the potatoes to prove it.

I kinda look like Bud the Spud in the self portrait.

April 2008--for some reason there are no dates on these photos so I am guesstimating them at mid-April. This would have been Toonik Tyme and this is from the Ice Sculpture Contest.

A very dear friend who was in my thoughts yesterday--I owe him an email.

April 2009 up North again. This photo currently hangs in my office. This was the return from a 'team building' exercise in Cambridge Bay.

Heading into the sunset around 10:30pm in Cambridge Bay.

Such a contrast to the view I have out my window today. Blue skies, expeting +15 temperatures and no snow in sight. Have a great day.

Weekend Warrior!

Well, not really. The weekend is about 1/2 over at this point and I haven't really accomplished much. I did venture out this afternoon to pick up groceries...and ummm, yep, thats about it. Maybe tomorrow I will accomplish something--not! Well, maybe I will at least tidy up.

The countdown at work has officially begun. 20  working days. Very happy. Very excited.

Still nothing on the job front, but that will come.

We have been having some freak weather here in Edmonton the past few days. Snow, ice and very high winds. There was a warning to stay off one of the highways the other day. Today was still quite windy. So windy the truck was swaying at the stop lights.

Not Edmonton--Iqaluit, January 2006. The place and the people are very much on my mind at the moment.

Chicken has also been on my mind lately. I am about to retire him. I haven't found a replacement yet, but I am looking. I had a couple of possibities but they both failed the geography test and were eliminated from the competition. Chicken has had a great run. He has been to the US, Mexico, England, France, Amsterdam, Indian and briefly stopped in Germany. He has been misplaced in the hotel laundry, had part of one foot eaten by a dog in Newfoundland, hiked to the Arctic Circle and many other adventures along the way. He is suffering from cataracts, (likely caused by the repeated trips in the washing machine and dryer), limps due to the short foot, and is starting to lose his 'feathers' (fur). I would like to retire him before he falls apart in the laundry. Retirement will come with a secure place of honor in my home.

Now...to find a new travel companion.

It's Hump Day! YEAH!! This week can not be over soon enough.

There is so much going on in my mind right now--each thought overlaps the next one. I want someone to create a pill that I can use to just turn off my thoughts and then turn them back on again when needed. Wouldn't that be nice?

Indigo, thanks for researching the flower. I will be interested to see if your friend can identify it.

Lori, here are some stats on the egg:

EggFacts


· Egg Width: 25.7 feet

· Egg Height: 18.3 feet

· Total Height: 31.6 feet

· Material: Alumuinum skin

· Turns like a weathervane

· Weight: 5,000 pounds

· Star Patterns: 524

· Triangular Pieces: 2,206

· Visible Facets: 3,512

· Nuts and Bolts: 6,978

· Internal Struts: 177

· Man Hours: 12,000
 
That's one big egg.
 
Edith, your cleaning spree made me tired just reading about it. Phew.
 
Not much news to report on my end. Just trying to keep it together. One of the ladies at work pointed out yesterday that this is likely an emotional time for me...filling my own position. I hadn't really thought about that part before. In fact I wasn't thinking that part was going to be hard. Moving on from a position that I love will be hard. But I want to find someone awesome to fill my shoes. Heck, I want to find someone with bigger shoes who can just take what I have done and improve, increase and take it to the next level. Maybe though at the back of my head--in that part that is always on thinking but never lets you know what it is thinking about--maybe that is weighing on my mind.
 
I'm finding it hard to concentrate. I have a couple of things I need to finish right now at work before I wrap things up. I'm hoping to get all the filing up to date before I leave and to have some notes or at least a few key post-its ready for the next person. I need to concentrate on studying but am finding it difficult. I think there is too much going on right now in my head and my life to be able to give it my all. I'm done work in 30 days. I don't have a job lined up yet. I have this exam to write. I need to study. I need to focus on finding a new job. I need to look at getting a few things finished at work. Augh. Deep breath.
 
I'm fine. It's just been an emotional week. Bi*chy Payroll Lady is gone. I walked her out the door yesterday. Yes, I am glad that her negativity is out of the office. I know the mood of staff certainly improved yesterday once they got over the shock. I just hate doing this kind of thing. She isn't going to have an easy time of it. I know that. But just because she isn't going to have an easy time out there in the big scary world of looking for a new job doesn't mean I should change or alter my decision. Imagine if we didn't let people go everytime they were going to have a hard time/or were going through a hard time. We'd need to hire double the staff in every office just to get the work done.  I guess this just means I still have a soul and a heart. That's good to know.
 
Check back in a day or two. I'm sure my mood will have improved. Perhaps I just need some perspective on things. And I guess it confirms that I should have escaped for the weekend after all. Oh well, I'm only 30 days from a long vacation break.

Happy Easter!

This is what the Easter Bunny brought me...

And this is chicken about to take a big bite...

Ok, not really. It is the giant Pysanka (Easter Egg) in Vegerville, AB. A giant Ukranian Easter Egg. I had a visit in August 2008. Hoppy Easter!

I went on a bike ride today.

That may not seem like a big deal to you...but it was for me. I haven't been on a bike ride since the Summer of 2005. That is about 5 years ago. Just before I moved up North. I had my bike shipped North but then decided I didn't like the bumpy roads and never used it. I sold it or gave it away before I left. Last Spring I bought a bike the day before I went in for my surgery. I wasn't allowed to bike for the month afterwards and by the time I was comfortable with the thought of biking I was headed to Nunavut. Upon my return I went camping on the weekends instead of heading out on my bike...and life happens.

The biking thing may not surprise some of you but for those who worked with me prior to NU and were around the summer I biked PEI tip to tip you know I enjoy feeling the wind through my helmet.

TODAY...I finally got the bike off the deck, filled the tires with air and took it for a quick spin around the block. Total time logged 10 minutes. I need to get some WD40 and make a few minor adjustments before I head out for a longer ride.

And I realized today that camping season will soon be upon me. I need to be a good girl and study this month but once May 7 hits I can even go camping during the week. Wheee! Something to look forward to.

Found this on another blog today...made me smile. A quick pick me up for all of you anxious for Spring.

Spring Flowers

Hold your mouse down on the black screen and drag it around.


In case anyone is keeping track...I still don't like coffee. I tried a vanilla latte yesterday--YUCK!!

It's Friday of the long weekend. Ah.

We had a do at the office yesterday and I snagged the Tim Horton's boxed coffee containers when they were empty...why?????  I am going to take them camping. They are foil bags (see picture) meant to keep beverages warm. I think they will be great for holding liquids and roll up when empty. So I just got two containers to hold water for free. Cheap--nope, creative!

If I put water in them they will heat the water up a bit during the day so it doesn't take as long to boil it later on. At least that is my theory at the moment...if it doesn't work I'm not concerned--they were free!

I bought a small tv for my bedroom months ago. I hooked up the cable in the bedroom and enjoyed going to sleep on my bed with the tv. Then I switched cable companies and would need to pay for an extra box to have cable in the bedroom. I'm cheap and didn't want to. I'll buy a dvd player I think and just pop in a movie when I need to sleep. So I finally bought the dvd player a couple weeks ago. I went to hook it up a couple of nights ago and realized that the tv and dvd player are not compatible. They don't have the same connectors on the back. Hmmm. I was wandering around stores this afternoon and happened to ask the nice young man in the tv section if this was fixable--this was after staring at the new tvs and realizing that there is no way I am handing over $500+ for a new tv. He said for $40 I could buy something to fix the problem--so I did. The box to fix the problem costs more than tv and dvd player combined. I bought the tv at Value Village around Christmas for $9.99. The dvd player was just under $30. I laughed at myself when I paid more for it than the tv...but now, $40 for this thing to fix the compatibility issue is really rather funny.

Now hopefully when I go to hook it all up later it will work.