Happy birthday to me

Woke up this morning to -27. Okay, so maybe Mike got up to that and I stayed in bed, I just happened to get today off. Didn't do too much during the day at all, but Mike took me for a very nice dinner at Diamante, where he had flowers waiting on the table. The waitress wrote Happy Anniversary on the bill!

Thanks to everyone for their well wishes via phone, email, post and blog, it was very nice to hear from you all. It's days like that that remind you how loved and thought of you are. Hmm, warm fuzzy, feeling happening again!

Here's the lovely song that I got from Elisabeth, my niece who just turned seven.

dear noelene and mikle
happy birthday noelene.
i wrote a song it goes
in sweety land is a big pudding-
pie yummy yummy in my tummy
i like pudding pie. pudding pie
you are mine yes you are.
it is my party on friday so
you could send me a email then.
love elisabeth and mummy anddaddy and alexandra adn mary
xxx

Sundogs and other things

On Sunday night it was really windy, and we had to put engine covers on the plane we were leaving outside overnight. To make a long story short, it was not a very fun experience, and when we were done I wished I didn't work on a plane that has four engines! Why does your nose run so much when it's cold and windy like that? Anyway, I will dress better next time and then it won't be so bad.

On Monday we were supposed to go to Diavik and then Snap Lake, but they had a whiteout the whole day, so it was a bonus day off and I got to go back to bed. Yesterday we were supposed to leave for Diavik at 7am but didn't leave until 10:30 because we had to wait for them to dig themselves to the airport and then clear the strip. When we got there, I took some pictures of these sundogs.

When I get homesick

I can watch this and hear the birds or the crickets chirping (Mike just said what a racket!) We discovered it last year and got hooked, then they stopped it for the summer (which is winter there and there aren't any animals) and now they're back with a new camera. You just have to remember that Botswana is nine hours ahead of us right now, so I think the best time is before bed, when it's dawn at the pond.

I feel the need to post these pics now, of when I was in SA last! We went to an elephant orphanage place and got to take the ellies for a walk. The pics are kind of dark, but that one is holding my hand with his trunk!

Some interesting blogs...

Some of you saw a little while ago that a journalist from Inuvik (his blog is good too) contacted me about an article he was writing, I didn't manage to get back to him in time, but the other blogs he mentioned are worth a look if you're interested. One is by Arctic Mark, who is a teacher in Ulukhaktok(Holman) and the other is by someone who lives in Tuktoyaktuk. My friend Jack also started one called Northern Exposure, so now anyone who wants to know what living in the North is like will be able to have a pretty good idea from a bunch of different viewpoints!
Just to switch things up a bit, a friend of a friend just got flying with Kenn Borek Air and went to the Maldives with her husband. It sounds really nice, I think a short "tour of duty" there wouldn't be a bad thing at all!

Happy Birthday Connor!

On Wednesday it was Connor's first birthday, so Steve and Michelle had us over to celebrate. We had some delicious finger food and cake, of course! We had a good time, and I think Connor did too! For some reason he wasn't very happy when we sang Happy Birthday, but then he found out about eating the cake, so it was all better. William and Michelle helped Connor open his presents, and we all helped him try out the new toys.

And right now

It's been snowing, still is coming down, YYYIIIIIPPPPPEEEEEEEE!!

Some random pictures

I took these pictures the other night, just a sunset on our street.

There's only a little bit of snow on the ground, not enough for riding our snowmobiles yet, have to wait for just a little more.

Saturday night

We didn't do anything special for Halloween weekend, on Saturday we went over to Jack and Kim's house to play Scene it and also to congratulate Steve and Michelle on getting engaged. Monica baked a cake that looks like a litter box, and Jack found a wig. You can see The Ring in the pic of Michelle holding Liam.

On actual trick or treating day we were delayed at work all day because of the weather, I didn't get home until 08:30, so didn't get to hand out any candy.