House Sitting

I'm just bursting with news but promised I would wait before reporting it.  In the meantime, here I am in Porter Creek looking after a house and two dogs.  The weather has been cool (light coat due to wind & sprinkles of rain) but tonight was very nice even if a bit buggy.  Sat in my new red striped chair sipping brandy and listening to the birds chirp.    This is about 9:30 at night.  The days ARE getting shorter every day now.  In some respects sad and in others it means it is getting closer to my moving day.  Yippppeeeee.

And here is one of the dogs I am taking care of.  Little Timber.  So cute isn't he ... until he runs away which happens in the blink of an eye.  I now keep him on a leash at ALL times and still he has run away from me.  The little Scamp!

June 15

This has been one of my jobs for the past month, although I have had a reprieve in the last week.  Yesterday's walk (above) was with SR, who threw little Timber in the lake - his first experience of swimming.  (I can't say he liked it very much although he was thrown in twice).  Lily on the other hand loves to swim so fetched those sticks with pleasure.

Haven't written much lately as I probably said in the last post,  as I am quite busy.  Just bought a house although not moving in till Sep 15th.  And selling my house.  Listing it privately on Monday, then an Open House on the weekend coming.  Getting some repairs on my deck this weekend, then have to paint it then clean the house then, then, then.

For those that don't know Brooke is now on bed rest in a Vancouver hospital.  She is growing bigger every day and is probably getting more and more bored every day as she is usually a go getter.  It must be difficult just resting all day long.  In turn, I am helping out at home - with the house if necessary, with the yard when the lawn grows and with the dogs if no one else is around to look after them.

And along with all the above, World Cup 2014 in Brazil has begun.  So am attempting to watch as many games as possible.  Yesterday there were 4 games played (my team lost boohoo).   Best soccer in the world being played here so don't want to miss too much of it.  Two new things added to this World Cup is goal line cameras and disappearing foam, all to make the game more fair.

So I will try to be more vigilant at keeping a blog going but to top things off it IS SUMMER.  Time for outside activities and loving every minute of it.  But I will try.

May 30, 2014

Tonight there may be a very cool meteor shower. Between 2am and 4am EST, that is 11PM and 1 AM my time, Earth will be passing through a debris field left recently by a new comet that passed through our orbital plane. Since it is a moonless Friday night, there should be a good chance to see some of this new meteor shower. So, at around 11 PM I looked out my bedroom window and this is what I saw.  Looks like I'll have to stay up for a few more hours before the sky is dark enough to see shooting stars and considering the robins start singing at 3:00 AM (the early bird gets the worm & awakens sleepers), there is probably little chance of seeing a good meteor shower.

By the way, these photos are not photoshopped.  We are currently getting 18-1/4 hours of daylight.  You wedding people from last year remember the skies of a June 21st evening, which is less than a month away.  Yup, difficult to see the stars at this time of year.

Not many posts lately.  The reason - I am house hunting and getting my place ready for sale.  It is a busy busy time, but when I get my new camera (yeah!!!) I hope to take some photos to see how it works and hopefully will find a bit of time to add a few posts.

Dog Day Afternoon

Who needs to own dogs when you can just take out two dogs for a walk any time you want?  It was a beautiful spring day so I took Timber and Lily out for a walk.  Now young Timber has to be kept on a leash for his walk.  He will chase a butterfly for miles before realizing he wandered away from you, then will get interested in something else, then something else and before you know it he is lost, not that he would care as every little thing interests him, but I would.  So ...  leash it is.

Now Lily, (the perfect dog), doesn't need to be tethered.  She always knows where you are and comes (usually) immediately when called.  And as such, she runs about 10 times the actual distance of the walk so she gets a good workout.

After the walk it was back in the dog pen.  They were both pooped and content.

Found my Friend

Found my long lost friend the other day so we got together for lunch and a long long long long chat today.  I have know Shelley since 1976.  That's quite a few years.  Anyway, it was great catching up and we promised to make this a regular thing.

The River

The Old Firehall is adjacent to the Yukon River.  BR's mom and I went outside after the concert to view the water.

At the Concert

The poster advertising the best choir concert of the night.

A photo of the singers done without flash ... sorry.  Not a very good photo but you get the picture.

And after the concert caught BR talking to Aaron, my manicurist's receptionist.  The bump is definitely at the forefront these days.

Whitehorse Pop Choir Spring Performance

The second performance of the Pop Choir happened tonight.  This time the choir doubled in membership (apparently now with a wait list) and the audience more than doubled and they played to a sold out crowd.  Here is just a snippet of what we heard.  (Brooke and Emily are the last two on the right).  P.S.  This plays with flash so may not see it on iPad.

April 22nd

Earth Day and my Birthday.  As Taurus is an earth sign it is very appropriate that Earth Day falls in April.  It was sunny all day, then as evening began, we received our first rain shower.  April showers bring XXX flowers.  I know I left out a word but I didn't have to wait for May, I was gifted flowers immediately.  It is so nice to have fresh colourful flowers in the house when not even the first crocus has yet to poke out its head from the ground. 

And more flowers.  What a day.  I loved it!

Also rec'd this "scary" owl for my garden.  We are hoping it scares away any vermin that may come near but I know Gramma also thought it was the cutest thing ever and thought of me while travelling and brought him home.

Ate at the new G&P pizza house downtown (in old Lil's Diner and also in the original Christies where we used to buy Hot Christies).  Apparently the restaurant is larger than their original G&P beside the Kopper King, which is very surprising.  The meal was excellent (I had the Halibut), as was the company, SR, BR and the twins.  Couldn't ask for more.

Just Another Look

And one more look at the parents-to-be with little Timbit in the background.  Great photo.  Hope you don't mind me stealing it from you guys.

The Last Supper

Busy busy these days.  Looking for a new house and packing up my current house so don't expect too many blogs at this time.  I did have the last supper I will be serving to company at my present abode this weekend.  Brenna came with her HAMSTER ON A LEASH!!!!!  Have you ever seen such a thing?  It did come over in a ball as well which was rolling all over my house.  Apparently Santa brought this little critter at Xmas.  

Had to get a photo in of "the belly".  I felt my new little grand kids moving around for the first time tonight!!!  It was very exciting.

Chilkoot Lil

Guess who I had this long weekend. Yes, Lovely Lily.  Even though she attacked little Ginny who came to visit (they made up while going for a walk), and even though she is shedding shedding shedding, she is still good company,  gets me out twice daily for walks no matter what the weather (although this weekend it has been bordering on spring) and is an excellent snuggler.    She goes home this afternoon.  I will miss her company.

And the Oscar goes to ....

Oscar attendees avidly watch the ceremony, bingo cards at the ready.  

The movie stars actually looked good this year - except for KIM NOVAK.  We didn't even recognize her (had to google her in the end).  We were sure she had numerous medical problems - rheumatoid arthritis along with a recent stroke and possibly some other issues going on.  We discovered that it was her plastic surgeon that bubbled up her face and prevented her from forming proper words.  In fact, we looked at her so much that we couldn't remember who she was co-presenting with .... it was Matthew McConaughey!!!  {A plea to Baby Boomers:  Please age gracefully.  Kim may not look 81, but she also cannot smile nor move any part of her face at all, nor can she talk properly.  In fact Matthew had to help her with her speech as it wasn't coming out of her stiff mouth properly.  She is now a sorry reflection of the beauty she was in her youth}

                                    

Swag Bags were at the ready and distributed as the guests arrived along with a glass of champagne.  And I am happy to advise that Revenue Canada will not be requiring that they be added to your income at tax time.

The swag bags contained, among other things, ballots to be completed and handed in prior to the beginning of the award ceremony on which one had to guess the winning result in each category.  Our grand prize winner, the one marking the most correct winners, was Debbie.  Congratulations Debbie!!!  The Winner's Cup will look beautiful on your mantel (or in Ella's play box).  

And Oscar Bingo ran throughout the evening, the luckiest of the Bingo Players was Joan who won twice, before anyone else even won once, and was then restricted to playing a full card before she could yell BINGO again!

After appies then Chinese Food, the evening was topped off with Rice Krispie Squares (yes Dawson, I know they are not the healthiest of foods) and grapes and decaf coffees.

BEST PICTURE:  12 YEARS A SLAVE

BEST DIRECTOR:  ALFONSO CUARÓN, GRAVITY

BEST ACTOR:  MATTHEW MCCONAUGHEY, DALLAS BUYERS CLUB

BEST ACTRESS:  CATE BLANCHETT, BLUE JASMINE

Tak-Tar Plumbing and Heating

Just had a lovely experience this morning.  I called Don from Tak-Tar Plumbing (thanks Joan for the referral).  My drains were gurgling.  He came over within the hour, checked inside and outside, spent about 1/2 an hour at my house and thoroughly explained the problem - ice build up in the vent.   And he advised what can be done to remedy it.   The cheapest option was wait for warm weather.  The second cheapest option was to get my son to do a few things, i.e. insulate the pipe in the attic (a small piece of insulation was missing near the roof) then pour hot water down the vent.  When he was leaving I asked what I owed him.  He said a hug which I gladly paid him.

Rendezvous 2014

And Rendezvous ends with a bang.

Rendezvous Weekend

This is the big Rendezvous Weekend.  Was going to go down to view the snow carvings yesterday but line dancing got in the way.  So, made the trip this morning (after watching Finland beat the USA in Hockey for the Bronze medal & after watching Manchester United beat Crystal Palace 2-0 [finally they won a game!]).  I was to meet Brooke and SR in Shipyards Park.  Of course, I started doing a plumbing job before leaving which put me a bit behind schedule, got a phone call from downtown, then rushed to get ready.  I know SR told me this morning it was around -30 but when I looked outside it looked warm so grabbed my down coat, ear bags, boots and my Pirates of the Caribbean gloves I got for Xmas about 5 or 6 years ago (remember William you gave them to me??).  Arrived at the park to discover it WAS nearly -30 and the rest of my outerwear was good (I was wearing silk long underwear too) but my fingers FROZE.  Sorry but Pirates of the Caribbean gloves are not made for north of 60 winter warmth.

We watched a bit of the One Dog Pull.  This dog was pulling 400 Pounds.  I believe the winning dog pulled 500 pounds.  Also watched a bit of the Flour Packing contest.  Watched a girl walk - I can't remember how far but she was the leader in distance - with 548 pounds of flour on her back.  Her legs shook like jello with each step.

And one of my favourite things to do is view the snow sculptures.  Above is the Team Yukon sculpture of a Moose in some Trees and below (my fave) is Team Michigan's work of a Pirate (speaking of my gloves) and what was really cool about this was the tiny sculpture inside his telescope was a miniature sculpture of the one about 20 feet directly in front of the pirate.

Now back to my hands.  I complained so much we all went inside the tent where I stayed until the throbbing stopped and the redness lessened.   I trying to take a picture with frozen hands but it turned out a bit blurry - sorry.  What I was impressed with was the northern lights they made out of material hanging from the ceiling.  Cool!

February 19

Another performance last night.   We are so lucky.

Post Performance

After Gillian's performance The Big Band performed.  Our Line Dancing group stepped out to their music.  Above, you can see one of the two Queen's that joined in to dance with us.  When the audience saw us dancing to the music of The Big Band, the dance floor soon began to fill.  We 'got the party started'.  

First Weekend of Rendezvous

Each year during the Yukon Sourdough Rendezvous - our winter 'kick yer heals up' festival - a Queen is crowned.  This is the 50th year of the festival and to honour all of the Queens that have been crowned, a special dinner and evening of entertainment was planned and all of the Queens and their partners were invited - and quite a large number were able to attend.  As you probably know I have been learning to Line Dance - this is my second year.  This year we were asked to perform at this event.  We did three dances - the first was a waltz to Hank Karr's "Waltz of the Yukon", the second was quite a bit more lively and the third was choreographed for Hello Dolly, a song which was chosen to honour another frequent and famous entertainer (who was to follow our number), Gillian Campbell, pictured below.

Hands behind our backs mean we were dancing the waltz.  The audience loved the fact we were dancing to the music of a well known Yukoner.

Our next two dances were quite a bit more lively and fun.  Again, the audience clapped along to the music and seemed to really enjoy watching us dance. 

It was fun.  And I was surprised at the response were received from the audience.  Lots and lots of appreciative clapping.  A steady stream of people praised our performance and one even asked where we were going to be performing next!

Northern Lights

The Northern Lights were dancing tonight.  Thanks SR for the phone call.  They never become old, even after 36 years.  I still donned my coat and went outside to view the show.