Think warm thoughts

OK, it was -40 this morning. That's cold! Today, mid-afternoon, it's -33, which frankly, isn't a lot warmer.

I got up bright and early this morning and wrote up a final exam for my class. I was too busy procrastinating yesterday to get it done; after all I had to play several more computer games, bake buns with Bram, etc. I've already got everything but the essay questions marked though, so am doing well. I have until next Thursday to get the final marks calculated. However, I also have to get the completed syllabus for next semester ready for three classes by the end of next week. One class is the same as last semester, so I just need to change the dates, and fix a few minor errors that I found when working through it. One class is similar to last year's, and so the main change I need to make is that I'm integrating part of the class with instruction by some other instructors, and am waiting for them to get back to me with their input for the syllabus and course outline. Class number three is totally new for me to be teaching, and I've written my boss requesting the curriculum, so that I can know what I'm supposed to be teaching, but haven't heard back yet. It doesn't actually start until half-way through second semester, so I have a bit of time yet. I talked a fair bit in one of my classes last semester, about learning what our different strengths were. One of mine is I work well under pressure (that's the more positive way to say that I'm a great procrastinator). Another is that I'm very flexible. That means that they can ask me to teach just about anything (at an introductory level), and I can develop a course and teach it.

I just heard back from the lead instructor for Yellowknife's Trades and Technology campus this morning. She had talked to me back in November about teaching some classes for her, but I hadn't heard anything for over 6 weeks, so assumed she had gotten something else arranged. No, she hasn't. She just wants me to teach part of the morning, for 17 days spread through three months, so it's workable, but I need to know more about what she wants me to teach. She told me English, Math and Science before, but those could possibly be fairly broad topics, so I'm hoping to meet with her soon to get it fleshed out before I have to start teaching it. The other campus is only about 8 blocks down the road, so I'll likely be hoofing it between campuses; teaching at one from 8:30 to 10:40 or so, then dashing down the road to teach at the main campus from 11 to 12. Then I rush home, check on Bram and his homeschooling, and then back to the main campus to teach at 3. It's a whole lot of running around, but I'm hopeful things will be better for next year.

Major Procrastination

I need to be making up a final exam for my students to write tomorrow. I have to do some major procrastination first though. So far I've played two games of Spider Solitaire (won them), two games of cribbage (won them) and one game of backgammon (lost it) on the computer. I've also got Bram started on his homework (studying for a health test), and practicing piano. I think I need to practice piano next. I will get down to writing up the exam, but it's a challenge.

Last night we rearranged our dining room. Now, we've never been able to eat in the dining room - and we still can't but I like the new arrangement. We have the piano and the electric keyboard facing each other, and a pod with three computer desks at the end of the electric keyboard. One computer desk holds a printer and a laptop, there's a second printer on top of the keyboard. The other two desks hold computers, so that Bram and I can both work at the same time. Behind the computers is a bookshelf covering one wall, and against the far wall is the freezer. Moving the computer desks around, we found an incredible amount of stuff underneath them. They're on casters, so that there's enough clearance for stuff to disappear, but not enough clearance to easily get it back out again. I found over 20 pencils (I think the dog steals them off the computer desk), about 15 pens, Bram's missing science text (that we had turned the house upside down looking for), about 10 hair elastics, and lots of detritus.

If you want to count your blessings, it is -32 out right now (2 pm), so that's probably the warmest it will get all day. I don't have to go back to school this afternoon, and am happy just to stay indoors.

Winter - cold and dark

For most of the past week the temperature has hovered between -25 and -30. This morning we woke up to -11 and lots of fresh snow. We're all very thankful for the warmer weather.

Lloyd got written up in the newspaper this week. Last Friday he got stopped by By-law as he was driving his quad across the lake. He's been regularly plowing a path across the lake, and they stopped him to warn him that he was endangering snowmobilers by plowing the path and that he could be sued if anything happened. So he wrote a letter to the editor explaining that he wouldn't be plowing the path any longer - and the Yellowknife ended up interviewing him and having a 2/3 page spread about it. Then he got interviewed by CBC TV, and was on the TV Friday evening. Now he's been phoned by one of the city counsellors who mentioned that they're definitely discussing this on their next meeting. It's all been kind of interesting (especially since I've just been observing, not a participant). It's been more media attention than Lloyd cares to have, I believe.

I'm still quite busy with Arctic Winter Games. We had an empty store at the mall from Thursday through Saturday, and were recruiting more volunteers. We're up to about 1500, which sounds good until you realize that we're needing around 2500 volunteers, and the cut-off to volunteer is Feb 1. So the clock is ticking, and we're working hard.

School has resumed and we're counting down to term end finals. Rose is back at school and has gone to Eyebrow to visit Lloyd's family for the weekend. It's good that she's able to do that kind of thing. Bram's back to the homeschooling routine, and we're both back to piano practice. In fact, I should be practicing piano right now, but am busy procrastinating.

Lloyd and Bram are playing air hockey right now. This is a brutal game the way they play it, usually resulting in skinned and bleeding knuckles. However, they seem to enjoy it.

Happy New Year

We did have a quiet Christmas with Rose, Lloyd and Bram all sick, but improving. It took several more days before everyone was able to go to sleep without hacking coughs. It must have been the flu as I didn't get sick at all, and I was the only one who had a flu shot. I must say I'm grateful that I didn't have to get it.

Rose has been working most days at Reitman's. They've had some pretty good sales on too, but I don't think she's managed to spend all of her earnings yet. She had today off because she had a doctor's appt, but is working every other day until she leaves town.

This afternoon we had a winter picnic. I invited friends of mine, Raymond Grant and his wife, Kathleen. It was a balmy day, with a high of -12. We went skidooing; a first for Raymond, and Kathleen said she had never done it since she was a child. We also tried kicksledding, and Lloyd was out with the quad, cleaning snow of the walking trail. We made a fire on the ice and roasted hotdogs as well. Bram also did marshmallows. We all had fun and didn't get too cold.

Both Boxing Day and New Year's Day we got together with the Hobbs and Walter and Faye and Bob and Geela. Boxing Day it was at the Hobbs house while New Year's it was at Walter and Faye's. Each time we ate a lot (likely too much) and played scum. We all enjoyed ourselves both times.

Lloyd starts back to work tomorrow. It's been very nice having the time off between Christmas and New Year's. I'm not starting back to work officially until Monday, but I really need to do some lesson planning before then. Rose also has some homework to do before she goes back to school, and I intend to encourage Bram to do some homework as well. So I guess we're getting to the end of the holiday season.

One of the highlights of the holidays for me has been that Lorraine was given a Scrabble game for Christmas and we've played several games together. I do enjoy playing Scrabble, and it's good to to have someone to play with.

Christmas Countdown

No, we're not all tucked up snug in our beds, but several of us have been sick. Bram was sick all week but is definitely better today. However, he shared whatever he had first. Rose came down sick Friday and had to come home early from work yesterday. She came into our room at 3 am last night to tell us she was feeling awful and then ran into our bathroom and puked in our sink. Lloyd also seems to have caught the bug. Thankfully, I'm not feeling sick yet. Maybe it's because I had a flu shot this fall. I hope that'll make the difference.

Some of our friends have gone away for the holidays and we're looking after their house and dogs. That means that we need to go over several times a day to let the dogs out. They only live about three blocks away but we're driving instead of walking. Lloyd's not feeling well enough to want to walk, and although it is warmer out, I just don't feel like walking three blocks at -20. (Besides, if Lloyd's driving, I'm catching a ride).

We have done some Christmas baking. Bram and I made Christmas pudding yesterday. I couldn't find the traditional family recipe in my recipe box, so looked on-line and kind of made up my own recipe. I just tried some and it tastes right. Rose made peppernuts. Again, we couldn't find our traditional recipe, but used one from a cookbook. Lloyd says it's not like mom used to make, but we've managed to choke down most of them anyway.

Rose distributed resumes on Monday of this past week, had an interview Tuesday and started work Wednesday at Reitman's. She had Friday off, but has been scheduled to work every other day this week. However, she came home early yesterday and phone in sick today. Hopefully this bug will be a short-lived one. Two years ago the family celebrated Christmas by being really sick. Rose was sick before Christmas at the movie theatre. Bram followed shortly thereafter and Lloyd and I spent Christmas sitting on our respective thrones. The kids heated up leftovers for Christmas dinner. I have no desire to repeat the experience.

Lloyd and I are off work for the next two weeks. We have some plans of what we'd like to do over the break, but part of the time we just want to have a break. Really looking forward to it.

Rose is home once more

But it wasn't an uneventful trip home. She was supposed to fly home Friday. However, I had it in my head that she was flying home Saturday - so she also had it in her head that she was flying home Saturday. She didn't check until it was too late on Friday to catch her flight. So... her flight was rescheduled for early Saturday morning.

Bright and early Saturday morning (think, before 6 am), Rose was at the airport to catch her flight. She boarded on time, and says, "I must have fallen asleep because an elderly lady woke me up as she was getting off the plane." However, they weren't getting off the plane in Edmonton, they were still in Regina. The plane had computer problems. Then fog rolled into Regina, and they had trouble getting a replacement plane so it was actually 2:15 before she flew on to Edmonton. They made several postponements... "the flight will leave at 10; the flight will leave at 12," etc. She says that the new plane was a prop plane and she was sitting right beside the props; it was noisy and it made the plane shake.

Anyway, she arrived in Edmonton at about the same time she left, thanks to the time change. However, the flight to Yellowknife didn't leave until after 8 pm. So, she has lots of time to kill in the Edmonton airport now. Finally, at five minutes before the flight was due to leave, they announced that the flight was cancelled. Rose phoned collect, in tears. "I have no money, I'm hungry, they've cancelled the flight until tomorrow morning, what do I do?" I told her not to wipe her tears, to go to the ticket agent looking as forlorn as she sounded on the phone and to ask for a meal voucher, a hotel room voucher and a breakfast voucher for the morning. Air Canada came through with all of those things, and she did catch the flight Sunday morning at 6 am. She was home by 8:30. It was really good to see her, and we put her right back to bed for another four hours. Somehow she felt like she had been shorted on her sleep the night before. (When she set her alarm Sunday morning in order not to miss her flight, she had forgotten to reset her clock to mountain time, and so was up an hour early).

It was the Christmas concert at church yesterday. Bram had a small part; it was of course, the little kids who stole the show. There were a few angels (one with a soother), that were really cute. Jenna was also an angel, but she's so tall for her age that she didn't look quite as adorable. Bram read part of the scripture from Luke, and organized props for the little kids, hanging them up at the right time.

This is Lloyd and my last week of work before Xmas break. All government employees have an unpaid break between Xmas and New Years. I'm really looking forward to the break.

The clock is still ticking down in preparation to Arctic Winter Games. We've got about half of the volunteers we're needing (1200 or so), which is doing fairly well; but we've only got 83 more days until the games. The deadline to register as a volunteer is Feb 1, so the time is really going quickly. We still don't have anyone planning to come see us during the games - would love to have you visit. March 9-15.

Thankfulness

It's Sunday afternoon - I've just gotten up from my traditional Sunday afternoon nap. I need to think about making supper right away. I think we're going to have grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup.

While I was warm and cozy napping, Lloyd and Bram were wrestling with our little utility trailer outside. It has one very flat tire. I purchased a new tire for it, and seeing as it had warmed up to -20 today, it needed to get put on. I'm so thankful I have menfolk who can do that kind of thing and don't end up freezing the way I do. Once the tire's on, they're loading the fourwheeler in it and taking it back to the dealership so that it can be looked at. Lloyd was using it on Wednesday to clean the snow off our driveway when it slipped into reverse and now he can only get reverse and neutral. It should be covered under warranty because it's new.

I'm feeling particularly thankful right now. It's a little bit warmer out, after -35, -20 is positively balmy. In addition, Rose comes home next weekend for Xmas holidays. I'll be really glad to have her home. The family seems incomplete without her. Bram has completed his math in entirety. That means that in the new year we'll start him on Grade 9 math. It has been a good decision to homeschool Bram, and I'm very thankful that I was cut back in hours so much that I had the option to do that. I enjoy my job, and new options are possibly opening up for next semester. I'll write more on that if they come though.

I did the sound this morning at both services. I always feel sort of incompetent when I do that. Kind of like, what happens if something goes wrong? There's so many dials and buttons that surely I can't know what to do with them. In addition, not only am I manipulating all the dials and buttons on the sound board, I'm also doing the media shout on the laptop alongside it. There was a video clip to play this morning, and to do that I had to manipulate two remote controls. When I was shown what to do with them, my response was, "Don't you know that because remote controls are strictly the province of the males in the house - I don't know how to use these things?" However, everything went well.

My tomato soup just boiled over on the stove and I can't find either bread or cheese for grilled cheese, so it must be time to stop and finish getting supper ready.