Sunday, February 27, 2005

I'll start with the Yukon Quest. The race is over! It started Sunday, February 13th and the first musher to cross the line was Lance Mackey of Fairbanks Alaska at 1:12 PM on February 24th. Cousin Frank came in in 7th position (out of the 12 that were left) at 7:00 AM on February 25th. This is the 22nd time he has run the 1000 mile international sled dog race.

The weather is a-warming. Pleasant, just below zero temperatures and should go up to 5 celcius on the PLUS side this week. Yeah. You can feel the sun's warmth now when it appears bringing hope that winter will not last all year.

The post office is charging more and more and offering less and less. Just received a letter in the mail telling me I now have to pick up my parcels at the main postal station between 8:30 AM and 5:00 PM Monday through Friday. I phoned them and told them I could not do that as I worked from 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM Monday through Friday. She took down my concern (including my home phone number) and said someone will call me back. Of course, they will call my home during their working hours, which I already told them are MY working hours and guess what -- no one will be home to take the call! The capital city of the Yukon now has 2 locations to send letters and parcels. Two! Only Two! And have you tried mailing anything bigger than a letter lately? $9.00 minimum. Boy, they burn me. So, that's my gripe for this week.

Went to Book Club on Saturday. Have got a couple books that look interesting to read, Bella Tuscany by Frances Mayes (which may make me want to return to Tuscany) and A blade of Grass by Lewis DeSoto.

Am working on a holiday to Greece, but right now Aeroplan has no seats available in September across the ocean, so it looks like I have my work set out, browsing the Aeroplan website constantly to see if anything opens up.

Other than that, just working on income tax.

News from Shaun: Nadda

Soccer news: ManU is now 6 points from Chelsea for first position in the Premiership beating Portsmouth 2-1 on Saturday (2 fabulous goals by Rooney). Arsenal tied Southhampton 1-1 dropping them 4 points behind ManU.
UEFA - Into the final phase. First knockout round, first leg, Milan won over ManU 1-0 on Feb 23rd. Second leg, March 8, 9 & 15th.

And that's about it from the north.