Weather, Travel and Me

Its seems to me that the minute that I want the planes to work out, the weather gods cook up a doozy and send it flying to fool with my plans. (Those of you who recall, I was recently stranded in Rankin for 4 days - and the Science Fair nearly was cancelled - although in the end the weather worked out and everyone made it in) Not to mention my wild non-trip to Iqualuit. I do have to give them some credit - no problems at Christmas. So, I'm watching the weather again with a glint of horror as I hope beyond possibility that the blizzard conditions will abate long enough for a plane to land this evening. I'm not holding my breath, but I can't help wishing, especially since this looks to continue to get worse and last until Friday at which point, there will be nearly a weeks worth of bumped flyers trying to make their easter destinations and after weeks of seat sales, I expect that it'll be a while after the weather clears before my incoming guest can get a seat.

Baker Lake is the blizzard capital of the north, averaging nearly 20 blizzard events annually, thus our choice of the Blizzard as our athletic mascot. Still, while looking for a description of the minimum landing conditions necessary, I found this wonderful quote from the late weather caster, Bill Matheson:

“I really believe that Baker Lake, N.W.T., has got to be the epitome of all things Canadians hate about winter,” Matheson said. “The wind is blowing all the time. You're on the tundra. For half the year it's dark. And it’s always the coldest place on the weather map.”

Most of the time, I like the weather in Baker Lake. The crispness, the wind, and even the dark. The wind doesn't actually blow all the time, only when I want the planes to fly and frankly it has been quite mild this year and I can still see the sign, so maybe everything will work out fine. I guess sometimes you just have to hope and prepare to accept the worst. Not much else to do - to be happy in the north you have to be able to accept the things you can't change and weather is definitely out of my hands.

So, heres hoping beyond hope for a large miracle.... and making the best of things as they are.

Vinegar and nails....

If you want to induce rust this is a fun experiment. I was surprised that the nails under the vinegar were rust free, but the heads were very rusty. (The beaker was covered in tin foil so the heads were in vinegar fumes)

My head doesn't want to seem to want to wake up this morning, so I apologize for the short post.

Home Sweet Home

I had a wonderful weekend away from home. I have to say that the regional science fair is one of the most fun activities I've ever taken part in - a big thanks to the kids and colleagues that made it great. I'm already looking forward to next year. The really cool lab coat was a great idea. In the mean time, I'm looking forward to having only the normal teaching load on my shoulders. Its funny - it seems the busier that I am the more I get done, but I'm glad for a break because I have some great ideas I'd like to enact, but I need time to actually do them properly.

A happy anniversery to my amazing and inspiring Grandparents. I'm sorry that I couldn't be there to celebrate with you, but I'll see you in the summer and talk to you soon!

In other news, it is shockingly almost April and the days are starting to get longer. By the end of April they will be long and by the middle of May the sky will no longer get dark enough to call night (even if the sun does technically set below the horizen.) We've been spoiled with warm weather the last few weeks, although currently its pretty bitter. Hopefully, it'll get springy again in time for me to actually enjoy going out on the land (well, at least outside) for easter.

I'd better get my supper cooking and my biology homework done and a good workout in....

:D

Muffin Tree

Who said muffin's didn't grow on trees? Or at least grow like them!

Well, it didn't last long after I took the picture. It'll probably take me longer to clean the little tree cakepan then it did to eat it, but I was pretty hungry.

Yumm.... oh and I still seem to have the yawns. Okay. Quick bit of yoga, then out the door.

NWTel Science and Technology Challange

One of my favourite special events is the SET challange where students are given about an hour to complete a Science Challange. This year we were building Card Inukshuks and Straw Iglus. The one pictured about was my pick for most artistic. Good work to all of the students who participated. This event always surprises me by how engaged the students are with the task. Everyone had fun and even the ones that didn't win did a really great job working together as a team and coming up with some very inovative projects. Congratulations and a huge thank you for NWTel for their sponsership and KSEC for planning and organizing the event.

The nordic center in purple

It was already a monotone picture - but I like purple better than grey. Its been an amazing day for Canada - more medals - I wonder... if we count every medal given out for hockey individually... if that pushes us up in the standings any. Still we may not "own the podium" (well technicall I imagine that the podium itself is physically the property of some Canadian entity.), but I think we've show some real mad skills

and franky... I'd die trying most of those sports non competitively... so wow! They did all that jumping, flipping and cross checking - and they came out walking on their own to feet.. that in itself is a feat in my eyes.

Yawn. I feel almost more tired this week. Too much sitting at a desk - I miss standing up, talking, walking and all the normal movement that my job requires and this is the most TV I've watched in years.. and there are still 2 hockey games to watch... I wonder how many people put on weight during the olympics because they are watching TV so much. Hopefully afterwards, we are more likely to be inspired to get off our keisters and do something active.

But in the short term - I better continue craming biology back into my brain... and head for bed.

J

Potatotential

What do you do with potatos that sprout prolifically before you have time to cook them? Plant them!! They are getting bigger and bigger and bigger everyday. :D

Chocolate Orange Cheesecake

We kicked Russia's butt. I expected a close game, but it seems my country-men remembered their patriotic duty.... play hockey better than anyone else.

Smitten by my mittens :D

The upside of my longer than planned stay in Rankin was that a lovely pair of sealskin mitts found me. They are soft and silky and wonderfully warm. I really really would like to get a parka made, but I haven't decided what kind I want and I have to do that before I order the material. Colourwise - I'm thinking red, or turquoise or navy and I think I want full front zipper, but beyond that... I'm really still thinking. I'm not even sure what weight of parka I want. A friend of mine from another community has a spring/fall parka that I really admired. Frankly, so far this winter I've been running about in my primaloft jacket between the shortness of my comute and the unusually mild (for the arctic) weather.

I had a quiet weekend. I've knit about 3 dishcloths - and I have a nice pile of dishes to test them out on. My foodmail came in - although thusfar I've only managed to make the cabbage roll cassarole and guacamole. I should make up a batch of Tabouli tonight to eat at lunch tomorrow. I have the couscous cooked, but the veggies need to be chopped up and the dressing made.

The rest of my excitement for the weekend was watching 10 episodes of Heroes and the Canada-US hockey game. The ending was sad, but I don't think it'll give me the heeby jeebies the way that Heroes did yesterday... I was creeped out enough to tuck my blankets carefully and I had to move a chair that was casting unusually creepy shadows (well, I put the chair back in its usual spot.)

I expect it to be a pretty quiet and low key week. I'm looking forward to working on a variety of professional improvement projects (including my thesis of doom) and recharging. After this week, school kicks back into high gear with Science Fair coming up (Local and Regional) and the 3rd term coming to an end. After that... it will frighteningly enough be April - leaving me wondering at how fast this year has literally whipped by.

I'll post pictures of the cheesecake once its baked. The northern lights were actually out as I was walking home, but its nippy out and they weren't nearly as bright even as the night last week that I go okay pictures on.

I'll keep an eye on the magnetometer graphs, but I expect that it won't be worth getting frostbite over tonight.

Cheers

J

If its cold, don't worry, you'll be warm if you are furry!

Here, one of my fellow teachers is modelling a Caribou Parka on Olympics day. The sunset was beautiful tonight. I should have grabbed my camera and gone out to shoot the thin crescent moon and the beautiful sky.... but some things were just meant to be remembered.

I'm kind of glad that I'm not one of the organizers of the Olympics right now - there seems so much stressful stuff between the weather and protesters and stuff. Still, I have to admit to being glad that Canada has earned not one, but 2 gold medals so far.

I managed to watch most of the pairs long program last night. I don't think I can leave home tonight. I'm baking bread, but maybe tomorrow.

Aqsarniit - One final Aurora Pic

I decided not to go out - mostly because the spaceweather sites said that things had toned down and I'm feeling ready for sleep. But I wanted the picture at the top of the list to have northern lights..... Its nice seeing them again and there is cloud predicted (regular weatherwise) for tomorrow... so it might be a while before I see them again.

Stained glass and broken glass

Adventures in having my own home. From the top... my newly knitt washcloth - knit during the opening ceremonies of the Olympic games.

My new "stain glassed" pattern rug to protect the floor from my desk chair while being more classy than a cardboard box.

Finally.. in memory of one of my ikea glasses that was tragically killed in an accident involving a cake dish of unremarkable heritages (aka - its not a pyrex dish and I"m shocked that it didn't break) I thought I'd post this picture. I don't even think I nudged the dish rack, but the cake pan slid off the top (probably a bad place to put it) and knocked the glass to the floor where it shattered. The only thing I can say for the cake pan (aside for the fact it didn't break) is that it hit me in the back of my leg and protected me from flying glass which was good because I didn't have the kitchen light on or any shoes. Fortuantely.. my kitchen has a window to the living room that I was able to escape through without getting glass slivers in my feet.

No glove no scrub

I made myself wear rubber gloves to wash the dishes in an effort to help my poor dry hands heal. I shot this random photo yesterday because I wanted to note that I've now had more than 40,000 hits on this site since I added my hit counter.

Photo from last post

The Skies Celebrate Canada's First Gold Medal on Home Turf??

Skydancers

:D brrrrr.... I'm still cold though... although I'm toying with the idea of going back out

NORTHERN LIGHTS

Okay... so they aren't perfect... but I think they are some of my best yet.

Class Flag

We had a good time putting this together. Its probably the closest thing I've done to a patchwork quilt... one day.. when I have time to tackle another hobby.

I really hope it works out that I get to watch the opening ceremonies tonight. Oddly... my itch to paint is up too.

Life is a crazy place. I'm glad I'm crazy enough to enjoy it.

Olympic Flags

I've really missed art on fridays from my days in Kash - too much fun!

Sunrise

I managed to catch the surise this moring en route to work..... We are spoiled here in the north!