Monday, May 31: Where has the month gone?

It seems like I just got back from Banff yesterday.

The best part of my day today was realizing that since I got the fancy schmancy new camera, I had COMPLETELY forgotten I took a bunch of footage with my poor neglected Flip, so I'm currently saving those onto the computer so I can (I assume) lol and feel sad all at once.

Today, there was talk of an amazing Eastern Canada meet-up of the martimes + Quebec. This may all be a pipe dream, but it would be great if I could take the little red hatchback to Montreal, picking up my fellow participants along the way. What a happy thought. It would be incredible to see other national parks!

I honed my pitches. I read them all over and over, reworked one completely after talking to a Plover Monitor, painstakingly researched and worded everything as carefully as I could. I'm presenting them to Mike tomorrow for the green light, I hope he thinks they're OK. He knows the main ideas anyways, I am hoping he might have some insight on how to make them even better. All I have left to do on them is work out a timeline that will probably change anyways.

I've been having a lot of trouble with my dead kitten lately. it's hair gets in the way all the time and ruins my shots, and I can never see the hair until I upload the video and see it on the monitor. It's frustrating. After work, I headed to Sober's music to see if they had a cheap alternative, and they did. They had foam ones that fit over very well. Tomorrow I will test it in the wind.

A dead kitten is a wind sock for a mic, in case anyone thought I was just a psycho. Honestly, it looks like I chopped off my sister's cat's tail and used it over top of my mic, so it's accurately named.

Photo of the day: an alive kitten imitating a dead kitten, and an actual dead kitten.

Sunday, May 30: exhausted!

I did a lot today. I wish I knew more words for awesome, because it's becoming grossly overused in my vocabulary.

Instead of going through everything I've done today, I'd rather tell you all of the things that I was reminded that I loved today.

I love how my grandfather assumes that I forgot my collection money for church and hands me a toonie as soon as I sit in the pew beside him. And yes, I did forget it.

I love waking up and watching 4 blue herons fishing.

I love how my grandmother picks threads out of her scarf and piles them on my leg in the middle of a sermon.

I love homemade hashbrowns and could probably subsist on them until I died of scurvy (or whatever illness I would get from eating only potatoes and ketchup).

I love how my aunt works life lessons into seaglassing without even meaning to, "You can't find seaglass because you think you deserve it or ask for it, it's a gift from the sea and you have to be thankful for what you get".

I love calling my stepmom and telling her I'm coming for a visit, and by the time I get there, she's putting homemade cookies in the oven.

I love eating homemade cookies for supper while talking about nothing with her around the kitchen table.

I love when detours make us drive down red dirt roads.

I love the contrast of blues, greens and reds that happen here. I love every rock and every leaf.

Photos of the day: home. Seaglass. Family. Love.

Saturday, May 29: Visiting!

This morning, my fiance and I headed to Souris for the weekend. It was gloriously sunny outside, and we always feel like days like today are wasted when you have a North facing apartment with no lawn. We arrived in Souris and I promptly picked up where I left off last Sunday with my on again, off again relationship with the yellow lawn chair. The wind was cool, but it was still beautiful. I continued to read Anne of Green Gables and just relax.

Today's tide was going to be low enough for seaglassing at around 3, so I headed up to my Aunt Cathy's house in East Point. We'd made a date to go seaglassing in her favorite spot on the phone yesterday, but of course forgot to factor in that we had not seen each other in some time and would of course require approximately 1.5 hours of catch-up conversation. This left no time for seaglassing. I wasn't disappointed; there are few things I enjoy more in life than comfortable furniture and comfortable conversation, and yes, that includes seaglassing.

Plus, we rescheduled for tomorrow anyways.

On the way home I stopped in to see my grandparents. Those two never cease to amaze me. My grandfather turned 85 this year and loved the Talking Carl app on my iPhone. My grandmother wouldn't ever tell her age ("real ladies don't tell their age, Marsha"), but she's got more of a social life than I do. They're a couple that I look up to, and look forward to turning into with my fiance.

Then I went back to my fiance's parent's house and stuffed my face full of barbeque.

I decided to drop by to see my aunt Donna, who was on her third rally at trying to get a wicker patio set together. I jumped in to help, and subsequently proved that sometimes, two brains aren't really any better than one. Let's just say that the patio set remains in pieces, and the term "some assembly required" can apparently be used very loosely.

Wedding stuff was decided! Wait, wrong blog, check out the other one if you're actually interested, link's to your left.

Photo of the day: Glorious sunlight and 2 redheads.

Friday, May 28: no time!

Today was so busy that I can't even recall most of it. You know, those blurred days.

Photo of the day: tonight! Blue steel!


The best rat impression:





- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Thursday, May 27: Re-energized!

Today was a great day. Just one of those days that you look back on and smile.

My good day started with my computer arriving! Mike waited for me to set it up, and he was just as excited as I was.  It only came with one monitor, which killed our dream of the dual monitor set up, but who cares? The computer rocks. I was elated to get it up and running in my new temporary office area.

In the afternoon, the server went down for several hours. Of course, being the most prepared Parks Canada employee, I did NOT print off my word document of the agenda and questions I had written up for the meeting I was leading with students. However, the network Gods were smiling upon me today, and the server came back up with moments to spare.

I must say, the meeting with the students returned my lost energy. I left with so many new ideas and so much life. Even just being able to shoot the shit about what's going on in the park with people my own age was phenomenal! I can't wait to pitch my ideas. Thanks again, students of Dalvay/Cavendish/Greenwich/Ardgowan!

I drove home, listening to the radio, car dancing, and generally enjoying life. As if the day could get better, I got to skype with Heinz! It was amazing to be able to catch up (briefly... the skype Gods are not as kind as the network Gods) and to talk about the program again.  I miss everybody!

Now I'm going to take my happiness on the road and grab some food at the Olde Dub before trivia tonight.

Photo of the day: My new temporary office. Please notice the bright orange Parks Canada water bottle, my favorite colour. It was fate.

Wednesday, May 26: Pant bras.

Horray for a round table discussion being finalized and happening tomorrow! Horray for peer support on what's interesting in the Prince Edward Island National Park and National Historic Sites! 

I drew up an agenda for the meeting tomorrow and worked out exactly what I wanted from the attendees. Of course, the highlight of my day was getting my PARKS CANADA UNIFORM. WOOOO. This uniform is amazing! 

The stiff cotton/polyester blend wards away stains - and boys! 

The high waisted pants virtually eliminates the need for a bra - just tuck the girls right into the waist band and away you go! 

The overall square design of the garments hide all of my curves - who wants that pressure! 

In all seriousness though, I was happy to get a uniform if only because, short of buying a whole new wardrobe, I didn't have any garments that could be worn both in office and in sand and forest. I was considering making the photo of the day my new uniform, but I'm not ready for that yet. 

After work, I headed to Future Shop where I bought a webcam. I've had my desktop computer for 5 months and haven't bought one, so I took the plunge today. It'll be much more convenient than always trying to take over my sister's laptop for skype purposes. 

I miss filming. I hope my camera gets fixed soon, I want to do early morning timelapses. 

Photo of the day: I caught my camera looking out the window in longing. He says that being hurt and stuck indoors doesn't effect him, but I know better. 

Tuesday, May 25: Narwhals are real.

Warning: dramatic overuse of caps lock. Viewer discretion is advised. 

Since all I did today was research, which makes for (more) boring blogging, I thought I'd talk to you about the most interesting thing I stumbled upon today.
While getting slightly off-topic on the Parks Canada website, I found myself looking up parks in Nunavut. I was lazily browsing the info until I got to the list of animals that live in the areas. My eyes snapped open. My heart rate accelerated. Surely I was not seeing narwhals on this list, for they are not real.

Well, up until 10:20 this morning, I THOUGHT Narwhals were imaginary. IMAGINARY. Think about it. A WHALE. WITH A HORN. HA!

It's not a horn. It's an overgrown incisor tooth. I know this now.

Did ANYONE else think they were imaginary?

Photo of the day: Narwhal pictures taken off Google. Because I'M STILL NOT USED TO THIS NARWHAL BEING REAL THING YET.