I was on my lunch break yesterday, quietly eating my egg salad sandwich (in the living room in front of the TV I have to add) when a caribou walks past my window. Now I have lived in the bush for 10 years, country residential ( on 4 acres of land) for 17 years and have certainly seen my share of cyotes, foxes, wolves and even a muskrat, but never has such a large animal walked over my front lawn until I moved into the city. Go figure!

And what would we Canadians complain about if there wasn't weather??? Although our temperatures have finally warmed - around the 0 mark, the snow fell last night and all morning - about 6 inches - heavy, slushy, wet snow (although on the brighter side, it was excellent for making a snowman). Next time I take a holiday it will be in March so I can miss all this weather!

For those of you who haven't had a chance to tour my fair city, here are two landmarks. The first is Riverside Grocery. Any food item you can possibly think of is in this store. I don't know how they do it. I don't know when it was established, but I'm pretty sure it was here when I came north (1978). It is the greatest grocery store in the world! And the famous log skyscrapers. The smaller one is a store on the bottome floor owned by Gus Karpes and Irene Pugh. The taller building contains 3 apartments which I toured last year. Each floor is one apartment, rented to those who do not own much.

The party's over - of course I was the last the leave. Ikuyo and Kim allowed me to take one last picture. Ikuyo leaves for home on Saturday morning. Besides studying, she has been downhill skiing, ice fishing, dog sled riding, hot springs swimming and northern lights viewing, just to name a few of the extra cirriculum activies. And she took lots of pictures too. Sayonara for now.

My friend Kim has a Yukon College student from Japan staying with her for 2 weeks. She is, of course, studying English. Her name is Ikuyo Ishikawa (red shirt). She is 51 years old, a Phamacist, her husband is a Dentist, and her daughter has just completed her education to become a Pharmacist, and her son is currently in school to be a Dentist! She began studying English in October of last year and talks quite well for such a short time. She also took up piano lessons 2 years ago and played two songs for us. What a talented woman. Kim told her she was planning a dinner party and Ikuyo asked if she could invite her friends to the party so the small gathering turned unexpectedly into a large party. Here is a phote of Ikuyo with Aya, Kim's sister and her cute little daughter, Mihoko, Ikuyo and Mami.

Not much new here. Went for a walk today to my friend Debbie's house. She and her daughter Cody just went to rope basket sewing classes. Here is a sample of their baskets. I think they look neat. The weather is warming up a bit - I went for my walk WITHOUT long underwear although the wind was howling and blowing snow in my face so still needed my down hood. Just finishing off making the necessary reservations for my upcoming trip. My mom told me today about the first class hotels that now find they have bed bugs - one being the Crowne Plaza hotels which I almost made a resevation at! You should check the matresses against the headboards and also in any of the crevasses to see if there are bugs. So now you'll know what I'll be doing in any of the hotels I stay. Other than that, just plugging away at life. Ciao for now.

Tuesday, March 14th

Just to let you know, it was minus 18 celcius today...with the windchill it was MINUS 43 DEGREES CELCIUS!!! That was the daily high. How can that be - it is almost spring???? The night time temperature is -33...don't even ask me about windchill then.
Same forecast for tomorrow and the next day. Man, this is worse than mid winter.

The first picture is just a few steps down from that perfect lot. The view is amazing. The second is just behind my house. After that picture, my camera froze, so I have to stop taking picutres. Oh well, spring is just around the corner.
Today I was busy making plans for my Greece trip and found some monastaries in Italy. Interestingly enough, they are owned by the Vatican and the rooms are rented out. I just read Angels and Demons and all that stuff about the Vatican. Is it a coincidence? Are there really any coincidences?? So I'm checking them out.
As it was again even colder than yesterday, I am giving my 10,000 steps-a-day a rest and keeping warm. Will write again when the weather breaks.

On Sunday, I heard it was once again going to be a high of -17 degrees celcius. When I looked at my thermometer it read -2 degrees. Happily I donned my light coat, grabbed my camera and shot outside. I made it to the end of the driveway and quickly turned back to pull on my silk long underwear and 3/4 length down coat with down hood and insulated gloves. It was COLD out there. Once again, now sporting more clothes I began my walk. 4,000+ steps later (I'm counting my daily steps now) I knocked on my friend's door. It was there I discovered that it was -18 outside and with the windchill it was -28. I still had 2,000 steps to my house, but glad to tell you, I made it.
I walked through the new subdivision (top pic) and found the perfect lot (bottom pic) (although I am certain it is already sold) with the best view of any lot in the whole subdivision. Why does the scenery look so beautiful when it is so bloody cold outside? Of course, I blame this weather on my cousin Joe, who wrote about the warm spring weather in Ontario on his blog - just to make me jealous - it worked.

Watched a couple of good movies again this weekend, for those of you who don't know what to pick up at the movie store: 1. Million Dollar Baby - it took me a while to watch this one as I am NOT a fan of boxing...just like last year's Academy Awards said, it was excellent - and the ending took me by surprise. 2. The Secret Window with Johnny Depp - of course he is so cute to watch, almost any movie with him it it is worth watching, but the story was good as well, and again, the ending took me by surprise. So, two I am glad I watched.

As I was trying to capture the the vivid colour of the room against the new dark floor I spotted a little head in the window. Ren was sitting on the deck watching me take pictures. Obviously he often looks in this window if the nose marks are any indication.

Tonight is Academy Awards night and yup, I will watch. Just saw Walk the Line last night, and I must say that Joaquim Peonix should win for his part as Johnny Cash. He played the part so well and his singing was as close to Johnny as you can get without being Johnny.. If you haven't seen this movie yet I highly recommend it. And another note - everyone does their own singing - no voice-overs. It was made with the help of Johnny Cash and June Carter, so it is true to life. Also just watched Hotel Rwanda. Another excellent movie even though the subject is not one we wish to be reminded of. Haven't seen Brokeback Mountain yet. I'm waiting until I get in the mood for watching gay cowboys and that mood hasn't hit me yet. Well, got to go and see if my pick for Best Actor wins.

So now I'm on my 10,000 steps a day program. To reach this amount, I walk for about an hour each day. My walks are taking me through the "top of the hill" subdivisions. I am learning which properties are good ones, and when I pass an open house, I go inside. I also pass a lot of friends houses at which I stop for a cup of tea as well (not all of my steps have to be done at one time!). Today I stopped at Sue's house. She just had new hardwood flooring installed (looks fabulous!) and is just finishing off painting her whole house. This visit brought back fond September memories (when I painted my whole house). Good work Sue.

Rendezvous is over but the sculptures remain. Was downtown this morning so took a walk through the snow sculptures. Really enjoyed them. They did a wonderful job. Seems to get better each year and the 20 below temperatures are keeping them in good condition. Thought YUKONG (above) was funny.