Thanks For Coming Out

10-1.  Pretty close prediction.  I can't say I didn't tell you so.  That's all I've got to say about that.
As I've been corrected by Hockey Canada for one of my earlier comments... a retraction.  The pools are decided by last tournament's standings, and the home team only sets the schedule for the games.
And now, for something completely different.
Never... and I mean never, take your running water for granted!  I mentioned several days ago, that we were having trouble with our water pump.  Well, now we're completely out of running water.  I've got several jugs going (which I'm carrying in from the store), and we're filling the toilet tank so that we can still flush the toilet.  We've got a great big pot on the stove, so that we have warm water for washing hands.  Showers, are obviously out of the question.
The other southern thing to appreciate when you have it... service people that actually care, and sometimes put effort into helping you out.  I spoke to the town manager on Monday morning, faxed in a work order (because talking to him directly is apparently not protocol), and still nothing.  I phoned him again this morning, to remind him about the work order that I had sent in, and he said that he'll call the guys right away.  Of course, still nothing.  In the mean time, I've got water all over the basement, a house full of stinky people, and no confidence that I'll have water tomorrow either.
I still don't have my Monday milk, bread, or produce at the store either.  Will it all come together tomorrow...

Stay tuned.

Czech That Out!

When they announced the starting goalies, I was a little surprised to see that it was Roy.  I didn't think that he played very well against the Russians, and then when he let one in only 49 seconds into the game, I was thinking "Oh boy, this could be ugly".  But just like game one, the Canadians buckled down, got to work, and got it done.
Schenn was looking like he is starting to settle into the role of points leader, while Ellis just kept on playing as awesome as he has since the first exhibition game.  Roy had a huge save during the 5 minute major, which was followed instantly by a nice short-handed goal.  The powerplay seems to have given up on the backdoor play which I was harping on, just getting some shots on net, and the success speaks for itself.  I don't like the wording of the blow to the head penalty in international hockey, and hated the call, but by the letter of the law, I guess they made the right call.
The funeral for Uncle Francis was held today, and apparently it was a very pleasant ceremony.  The weather was nice, and many of my cousins had something nice to say during the faspa afterwards.  I wish that I could have been there, but of course, circumstances (and cost) were just too prohibitive.
I went over 600 hits today.  That's over 100 just since I got back from Kuujjuaq!
Tomorrow's game should be a laugher.  9-1.  A good chance for a few guys to pad their stats.  Maybe not too much to talk about.

Stay tuned.

It's Good To Be Wrong (Sometimes)

After a terrible, sloppy first period, it looks like the Canadians learned in one period what I thought that it would take them all game to learn.  They really tightened  it up, and kept taking more control as the game wore on.  They got some obviously lucky breaks, but don't let that take away from the fact that they dominated the second half of the game, and fully deserved the win.  Twelve different players on the score sheet, once demonstrating their balanced attack.
Johansen and Foligno (both my early exhibition picks) scored goals, Ashton did some hard work on the third goal, and even more hard work to draw a penalty that lead to a power play goal.  Schenn (I'll give him his dues) scored a huge goal to give us a two goal lead.  Kassian, Leblanc, and Ellis all had very strong games as well.
The one thing that I didn't really enjoy (and that's three tournaments in a row now) is the junior player's insane need to try the backdoor play.  Sure, it looks good when it works, but so often there is someone wide open in the slot, but the passer throws it into a crowd trying to hit the guy standing beside the far side of the net.  This must be a junior league thing.  If the defense is worth their salt at all, they're always going to pick that off and send it down the ice.  Just get it on net!  That being said, the PP did get better each time they had the man advantage.
Next up... the Czechs.

Stay tuned.

Home Ice Advantage

Obviously we can't complain too much, since we have home ice for the tournament every other year, and we always take full advantage of the opportunity.  Generally, we have a fairly balanced bracket, and we always start off with our easiest opponent, have a day off, take on our second toughest foe followed by an easier game on the back-to-back nights, and then have another day off before playing the otherwise top team.  Awesome formula.  Such is not the case, with the Americans playing host!
Our bracket has: Canada, Russia, Sweden, Czech Republic, and Norway.  Other than Norway, arguably four of the top five teams in the tournament.  All that, together with the fact that we have to play Russia in the tourney opener (no easing our way into game shape there).
The American bracket has: US, Finland, Slovakia, Switzerland, and Germany.  The US should have no trouble coasting to the elimination rounds with that lineup!
Unrelated.  Our water pump is crapping out on us, and it's not like you can just go down to the Home Depot and pick up another one.  I've got one ordered (most likely to take close to a month to arrive), and I've taken apart, adjusted, and replaced our current one three times now.  I don't have it quite right (a second person needs to control the switch in the basement keeping the gauge in the optimum range, while you take a shower upstairs), but at least we're not totally out of water.
We watched The Other Guys last night.  We were all laughing out loud several times.  It's not exactly a psychological thriller that keeps you on the edge of your seat, but it has some pretty hilarious moments if you're just looking for some light entertainment.
My pre-game prediction: 3-2 Russia.  The upside, I think that it might just be an invaluable lesson to learn very early on, that you can't take a shift off or stray from the game plan for a moment, and still expect to win.  Will I be right...

Stay tuned.  Eh, Oh, Canada Go (was that Pepsi's WORST idea ever, or what?)

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to you and yours!

Frannie's in the kitchen (wearing her Christmas PJs), Rory's in the living room playing DJ for us off of the 2007 Crossroads DVD, and I'm pecking away at the computer (obviously!).
Considering our locale, it's feeling a little more like a regular Christmas up here (minus the much missed families, of course), than it was last year.  We went to the neighbour's for a fairly traditional Christmas supper last night (turkey, stuffing, spuds, turnips, veggies, and of course Frannie's famous trifle).  We exchanged some gifts, and then went home to open up the various gifts that you guys sent up.
In typical "so, what did you get for Christmas?" style, I'll give you the rundown:
The love of my life was thoughtful enough to pay attention to SOME of my ramblings (although she tunes me out a lot), and remembered my many comments about how much I enjoy Michael Buble's voice, and she ordered two double disks (one of which is a live DVD where he does nothing but old standards).
I got a folding fruit knife (I'd never heard of it either).  But, it's narrow like a cigarette only longer (so that it actually reaches all the way across an apple), and it has a little fork like thing which is useful for removing pits/cores.  Of course I went straight to the store to get some various fruit to try it out (I know the manager, and can get in after hours), it worked great.
I got a deck of playing cards... with a twist.  The picture is of several Calgary Flames (including Iginla and Conroy) celebrating after a goal.  The Flames that are facing the camera, are also facing another guy (who has his back to the camera), who's jersey nameplate very clearly has a "THIESSEN" on it.  Very nice.
Somebody that obviously payed enough attention to realize that I love coffee, and that since turning 40 my evening coffee needs to be decaffeinated.  I got two packages of fair trade coffee (being conscientious and all), one with a holiday blend that I already made this morning, and was awesome.  The other with a medium decaffeinated blend, that I'll try out this evening.
I also got some scratch cards (one of which was a winner), and possibly some other gifts which may still be in the mail.  Quite obviously, everyone that I know is much more generous than myself.
Thanks to everyone that's thinking of us during this Christmas season, and know that we're thinking of you too!

Happy Birthday Jesus!

Uncle Francis - R.I.P.

Now there was a man, who when at the age of 40 was asked how come he had never gotten married, and his answer was that he didn't think that he had anything to offer.  Nothing to offer?  Here's a guy that was sent out on a train to Sioux Lookout at the age of 15, and given strict instructions to send money, and not return until spring.  That of course was just the start of a long life of giving, caring for, and supporting others, while giving almost no thought to what his own needs were.  Strong as an ox, starting work before sunrise, and not quitting until well after sunset.  Keeping only the bare necessities for himself, while giving to others in a manner that makes the word "generous", just seem inadequate.  Nothing to offer?
Francis Thiessen was a God fearing man, loving husband, and favourite uncle to many.  He will be missed!

Uncle Francis - say hi to my Mom!

Perry Gets Engaged!

Congratulations go out to Perry and Kristeen.  I'll give you more details when I get them.  Apparently he was waiting on one knee when Kristeen came home from work.
Back to the game.  Sweden came up with a much better effort than Switzerland.  That gave us a much better look at what Canada is bringing to the table.  Their high pressure penalty kill made it all too apparent that our power play is far from ready for the big games.  We had way too many turnovers in general.  Schenn's line got all of the first unit power play time, and was ineffective, but nobody else's line did any better with the second units.  All 12 goals so far have been scored by 12 different players.  While it's nice to have balanced scoring, at some point somebody's going to have to step up and be the guy that the team can rely on to score when they need it.  That being said, somebody's going to have to earn and deserve the top ice time too.  I hope that I'm wrong, but so far I'm getting the impression that Schenn is going to be one of these guys that looks fantastic against the weaker sisters, and just disappear when the game is on the line.  Did you even hear his name once in the third period?
Roy looked very good, and it looks like there's still going to be quite a decision in regards to who's going to be the number one.  From what I've seen so far, I'm looking for the big guys (Foligno, Ashton, and Johansen) to be the ones who come up big in the big games.  No game tomorrow, so for those of you that don't want to see anything about hockey... too bad.  It's probably still going to be about hockey.

Stay tuned.

Is That All You've Got?

I was actually expecting Switzerland to put up a little more of a fight (as you may have guessed by my 3-2 prediction).  8-0!  The best part to me, was the fact that after mentioning that I thought that they'd have a lot more offense this year, the experts on the panel moaned about how offensively challenged they were, and then they went out and scored eight goals.  Take that "experts"!
Of course this was only against Switzerland, and they clearly just couldn't keep up with the Canadians, who were too big, too fast, and too good.  But, eight different goal scorers, on eight goals... sounds pretty balanced to me.  The goalie sure made a fantastic save in the second too!
The worst part... the commentators couldn't seem to stop going on about the Schenn, Schwartz, Leblanc line, who also seemed to be getting all of the prime offensive situation shifts (including the five on three).  It's almost like they didn't notice the Couturier/Foligno line that seemed to control the play every time they hit the ice.  Couturier had four points!  He's the youngest player, the only undrafted player, and after the first exhibition game, the most talented.  Watch for his linemate Marcus Foligno to come up big in the important games.  Tomorrow's game against Sweden should be a little more of a challenge (5-3 win).  Hopefully you don't mind hockey, because that's all your going to get on game days.

Stay tuned.

Global Warming? Maybe

While living down south, I've never been a believer.  With some of the weather that we saw last year on the Arctic Circle, I still wasn't convinced (even though the locals all said that this was one of the mildest winters that they had ever seen).  Of course, this winter here may just be an anomaly, but it's hard to argue with some of the stuff that we're seeing here.  Even the oldest elders in town are all saying that they have never seen open water at Christmas.  It's not like there is "some" open water, there is hardly any ice at all.  We have had snow, definitely.  But, the dogs are currently doing their "business" in the grass!  The puddles in the street haven't even frozen over night for at least four nights now, with Christmas just days away.  I don't think that anyone know who David Suzuki is around here (or care), but they're all telling stories about how the stuff that we're seeing right now, is totally unheard of.
Speaking of Christmas approaching, we have been receiving a lot of cards, letters, and gifts in the last few days.  Thank-you to everyone that's thinking of us during this celebratory season!
Did you see any football today?  What a bunch of unbelievable finishes!  The short kick that was returned for a touchdown in Indy, four touchdowns in the last 7:28 for Philly, and an OT win for Detroit on the road after 26 straight road losses.  You only play 8 road games per season, and they lost 26 straight before today.
Tomorrow is the first exhibition game for the juniors.  Prediction 3-2 Canada.  Will I be right?

Stay tuned.

Santa!!! I Know Him!

Today was kid's day at the store, complete with a visit from Santa (luckily not me this year).  My grocery manager actually has his own suit (that fits), and as a result, he has no option but to be Santa.  Lucky for him, we didn't have any photo paper that fit our printer, and he didn't have to do the photo shoot like I did last year.  These kids are built like bricks!  There were four year-olds that I could barely drag up onto my lap.
Slovenia is the newest country on the map.  Now that there are more than ten, I see that my stat page only shows the top ten.  Subsequently, from here on out, I may have no idea how many countries there are hitting my page.  You're probably tired of hearing about it anyway.
The store was insane with children this afternoon.  Lots of them I hadn't even seen before.  Did we somehow end up shipping in kids for kid's day?  Overall sales weren't that good, but we're close enough to Christmas, that I don't think that anyone can knock us out of the top three stores in the company (141 stores in total).  It's not that I care that much about being the winner, or in the top three, it's just that you pretty much have to be ahead of everyone else to reduce the amount of phone calls and emails based on what you should be doing to increase your sales.
Fran just pulled a lasagna out of the oven, which clearly takes priority over boring you with this drivel, so...

I'm outta here.

I Never Would Have Guessed

Nickolas Lidstrom has been in the league for 19 years, won six Norris Trophies, played 1,442 games, and at 40 years old, last night he scored his first career hat-trick.  With a career like his, I never would have guessed that he hasn't done that before.
Today was insane!  Eight families got new houses, the QST cheques came out, and the Co-op was out of cash.  None of the cheques were actually addressed to box numbers, so Rory had his hands full with irate customers that couldn't figure out why he might want to check their ID to see if they were actually picking up cheques that belonged to them.  I still haven't been able to figure out how they award the new houses.  Every one of these communities has three and four families living in each of the houses.  Most people have their names in on a waiting list.  Each year they build from 4-8 houses.  And about this time of year, they award those houses to families.  I'm pretty sure that it's not first come first serve, so I'm going to have to do a little more research to figure this out.  In any case, the houses come with a fridge and stove, but nothing else.  As a result, these last two days have been crazy with furniture sales.  I'm totally out of washing machines, fridges, sofas, and beds, while I'm down to 2 dinette sets and 2 dryers.  All this, while Christmas is in full swing.
From what I've seen so far during the inter squad highlights, it looks like offence is way up on the junior team, while defence and goaltending might be a bit of an issue.  As I recall Ovechkin saying about the Russian all offense, no defense olympic team: "The last time I checked the rule-book, the team that scores the most goals wins".  They always say that defense wins championships, but it's hard to argue with the logic.
The weather has once again been barely freezing, but still - no freight.  With huge sales going on, and no replacement cargo to fill the shelves, the store is looking a little bare.  Tomorrow is Men's night, which means another 15 hour day.  Don't expect to hear from me until Saturday.

The End.

Russia Makes It's Move

The blog is now over 500 hits.  Russia has been hitting so many times in the last few weeks, that they have taken over third, and are making their move on the US for second, with Canada so far out front that they can't be caught.  Sounds like a preview of the upcoming World Juniors (expect to be reading lots about that).
We're now up to 7 followers (thanks Uncle Wes!), and yes, Rory is actually doing quite well in the post office.  He's holding his own against the onslaught of requests to break the law, and providing quite a lot of relief for us, along with some added companionship.  I don't imagine that Marty's move has anything to do with the Steeler pick... does it?  Thanks to the newest follower playing a  little catch-up, Monday had a record 26 page reads.
The weather was about zero today (unbelievable!), a bit of drizzle, and a serious setback in the freezing of the ocean.  The Christmas games that are usually on the ice, have already been cancelled.  Games of any kind are huge up here.  It's not strange at all to see a 50 year-old doing somersaults around an obstacle course.  We still haven't quite determined what we're going to do instead, but I'm sure that it'll still be a lot of fun.
As you could probably tell from one of the earlier comments, I'm already getting worked up about the big tourney coming up.  It's strange, when I was of junior age I didn't care that much, but the older I get the more interested I am.  I think that it's something about a bunch of unheard of, unpaid kids, that just want to wear the maple leaf on their jersey, and win for their country.  If I every win the lottery, I'm pretty sure that I'll never miss a game, no matter where they are played.  First exhibition game coming up on Monday.

Stay tuned.

Smart Shoppers

If you've read the blog before, you probably already know that there's no way that this title isn't dripping with sarcasm.
Apparently, on Sunday when I was talking a little football, I failed to mention the New Orleans Saints, who would round out my top five teams.  Just thought that I'd get that out there before I forget again.
We already knew that yesterday was going to be a challenge, with the evening being Ladies' night, making it a fifteen hour day.  What we weren't exactly prepared for, was the fact that Air Inuit was making food vouchers (in the amount of $60 for every adult) available for every adult in town.  The first few hours of the day was insane!  Line-ups down the aisles.  Now, I don't really like mocking my neighbours here in town too frequently, and I know that I just did it two blogs ago, but here we go again.  You would not believe how many customers (and I know first hand, since we weren't prepared for the early morning rush, and I ended up working cash all morning) came to the till with anywhere from $100-$200 worth of stuff in their carts, let you ring items through until they reached their $60, told you to stop, and then just left the remainder of their stuff on the table (expecting you to put it away).  Did they really have no idea that $200 worth of stuff might not be covered with a $60 voucher?  Countless people would be voiding things, trying to get back below $60, be maybe 35 cents over, dig through their pockets, don't have 35 cents, and then have to void another item.  There were also a few customers who needed to void off their fruit to make room for a pack of smokes.
Don't get me wrong, there were some folks that shopped a little more normal.  There were shoppers who came to the till with all of the items that they needed, and only used their vouchers to assist them with the entire bill.
Anyway, that's not actually what I was going to talk about today, but I've already written way too much, and there's another blizzard warning threatening to knock out my internet again.

Stay tuned.

Tom Brady - Invincible?

Obviously the novelty of my blog is wearing off.  I didn't have a single hit, yesterday or today.  Not that I'll let that stop me from prattling on.
Did you see any of the Patriots game?  They seemed to thrive in the snow.  Sure, they have two losses, but they look pretty close to unbeatable (again).  Not that they're the only ones.  Atlanta, Pittsburgh, and Philadelphia all look pretty good as well.
We now have water and sewer restored at the house and the store.  It looks like life has returned to something close to normal, now that the storm is over.  Apparently, the forecast calls for plus five on Wednesday!
The Christmas rush continues on in full swing.  We have a Ladies' night tomorrow, a Men's night on Friday, and a kid's day on Saturday.  Hopefully we can make up for some of the sales that we lost during the snow week.
As Christmas gets closer and closer, I'm sure that we'll all keep becoming more and more aware of how far away from family we actually are up here.
Anyway, that's probably it for today, and tomorrow will be a 15 hour day, so hopefully you'll be hearing from me again on Tuesday.

Stay tuned.

Aren't You From Here?

Almost every day, something else happens up here that makes me question the intelligence of the locals.  I mentioned yesterday, that there was this massive multiple day storm going on.  This morning, just before noon, it finally broke.  The planes that had been stranded here for five days now, just got off the ground around 1pm.  By 2pm there was now one lane cut through the drifts, only on the major streets.  At 3pm, someone came into the store, and was annoyed that I didn't have any milk yet.  Aren't you from here?  After 45 years of life's experience, have you not figured out how things work yet?  Have you seen a plane?  Where was this magical milk supposed to come from?  And, how did this suddenly become my fault?  I just don't understand how there can be so many middle aged folks that just don't have a clue.  There was another guy that phoned me yesterday (he wanted to talk to me because he didn't believe what Rory had told him from the post office), he was irate at the fact that we didn't have any new mail to put in his box.  Once again, where did he imagine that the mail would have come from during a blizzard, when there haven't been any planes landing in town for four days?  I keep wondering, if maybe some of these people were born in Cuba, and just emigrated here recently.  How can they not have figured out a few of the basics yet?  Mail, milk, and bread are all brought in by plane.  No plane = no mail, milk, or bread.  Isn't that pretty simple?  You've never been here before, and yet I'm sure that your wondering why I repeated myself so many times, because obviously you get it already.  And yet, these people have lived here their whole lives, and have no idea why the Northern store won't give them their mail.
Anyway, we did finally get some freight tonight (about 10 minutes prior to close), so there is hope for tomorrow.  The problem is, at this point we need $55,000 in sales over the next two days just to break even.  We got mail, we've got child tax credit cheques, we've got moonlight madness sales tomorrow night, and there's still a Super Saturday sale to go.  I've also got at least one customer that has a possibility of coming in to buy a snowmobile.  Tomorrow's going to be a 14 hour day, and we've got a huge challenge ahead of us.

Stay tuned.

Bring On Winter

We were having bad weather on and off for about 10 days already... and then this.  We have had blizzard conditions for three solid days now, and it looks like there will be a minimum of one more.  We've only received cargo twice in the last two weeks.  We haven't had milk or bread (is there anything more essential?) since last week Thursday.  So, not only is the stormy weather keeping customers away, but there wouldn't be any point in showing up anyway, because we don't have the essentials.  One of the other things that we have on our side to increase traffic, is the fact that we have the post office.  Of course, with the weather being what it is, there hasn't been any mail since last week Thursday either.  As a result, nobody's coming in, nobody's buying anything, and the fact that we are second place in the entire company for an increase over last year's Christmas season, is in serious jeopardy.
All communication here is pretty sketchy with the weather being what it is, work and the storm is pretty much all I've got.  That being the case...

The End

O Canada

A few days back, when I had mentioned that they wanted to take "God keep our land, glorious and free" out of the Canadian anthem, I pulled up the song on Wikipedia to see if there was actually anything to learn.  The fact is, while I thought I knew a few things from grade 3 Canadian History, I obviously missed a few facts.  I was well aware that the song was originally written in French, but somehow I was under the belief that the song that we've been singing regularly for all of my life, was a translation of the French version.  That was my biggest mistake.  As it turns out, our English version isn't nearly as good (although the direct translation probably wouldn't fit the music that well).  For your own education (unless of course, you knew all of this, and I was the only one in the dark), here is the direct translation:

O Canada!
Land of our forefathers,
Thy brow is wreathed with a glorious
garland of flowers.
As is thy arm ready to wield the sword,
So also is it ready to carry the cross.
Thy history is an epic
Of the most brilliant exploits.
Thy valour steeped in faith
Will protect our homes and our rights


And they want to take the word God out of our English version?  The more times I read this, the more I love it.  Canada's arms are equally prepared to both carry the cross, and wield the sword.  Our history is an epic tale full of brilliant exploits (brilliant exploits, is an awesome term).  Canada's courage (steeped in faith, is also an impressive phrase), will protect our homes and our rights.  There, of course, is the crux of the point.  Canada has a courage, steeped in faith, that will protect our rights.  Shouldn't we be brave enough to protect the right to leave the word God in our English version of the anthem?  Our arm is ready to carry the cross, but we can't mention out loud, the name of the man who might be hanged on it?  The only way that I'm OK with changing our anthem, is if we find a way to start using the original.
I was going to mention our recent weather, but I've been prattling on for too long.

Stay tuned.

Kuujjuaq - Continued

When we left off, I just finished telling you about the dude with the backwards feet that I saw in Kuujjuaq.
Before we get to the rest of the story, I should give you something else.  I'm now up to six followers!  Thanks David!  Twice as many as I was hoping for in the start.  Also in the last week, two more countries entered the mix, and were up to 10!  Can you believe it?  What a bunch of idiots.

Here's one more honourable mention in the snowman contest.  This little guy is watching the door, and keeping the house safe.  I also like the caribou mounted above the door. As I always say (and you're probably getting tired of hearing about it by now) weather permitting.  I was only supposed to have one hour between my flight in and my flight out, but the weather had different plans.  Of the multiple stops that were supposed to be along the way back, one by one they were being cancelled.  At one point, the airline guy came on the PA to say that the flight to Kangirsuk would be cancelled because the runway was "slippery like a popsicle".  Eventually it came time to cancel my stop too, so it was off to find a hotel.  While there, I thought - what better time to write a few letters.  When I went to the front desk to ask the French lady for some stationery, I was surprised to find out that she didn't have a clue what I was talking about.  Isn't stationery a french word?
The next morning, I was washing my hair in the shower, when the power went out.  It's not like the city, where you still have some water pressure for a while after the power goes out.  As soon as the lights went out, the water stopped running, with all of the lather still in my hair.  I waited and waited, and then I gave up, tried to dry the soap out of my hair, and get ready for my flight.  Right at the last minute, the power came back on, I quickly stripped back down and jumped back in the shower to rinse off.
Once back at the airport, I was also reunited with all of the people that were also waiting for their flights from yesterday.  There was one little girl that was busy playing by herself in the corner, when one of her fellow playmates from yesterday walked into the airport.  Na-na-na-na-na (apparently the universal call for "chase me"), and the chase was on... again.  Apparently, the fact that there was a night in between chases was no reason for the kids to remind themselves of the fact that they were actually strangers to each other just 20 hours ago (oh to be young and innocent again).  That's pretty much it from Kuujjuaq.
We then had to get ready to do an inventory over the next few days, which we completed today.  Got to love all of those "days off" the we get with the Northern Company.  There was a guy that flew in to help us with the inventory, and he's scheduled to fly out in the morning (weather permitting).

Stay tuned.

TREES!

As you know (if you were following along), I was going down to Kuujjuaq to do some banking on Wednesday, and I managed to see a few things of note.  We haven't had any internet for the last three days, so I'm running a little late on sending an update.
First of all, this was called a three hour flight, but only because we stopped four times along the way.  The longest leg of the flight wasn't supposed to be more than 35 minutes.  The problem was, the second last stop (just before the longest leg) was skipped, since we tried from both sides of the runway and just couldn't see well enough to make a landing, which meant that the total of the last leg was more like an hour.  Of course that's way too long for me to sit still without drifting off, so I was kind of in a fog when the pilot came on to say that we were making our final approach.  When we came out below the clouds, my eyes popped open and I shouted out loud... TREES!  I got a few chuckles from the passengers around me.  You'd think that I hadn't seen a tree for years.  I knew where I was headed, from looking on the map, but I guess that I didn't pay attention to the curves in the tree line.  I'll continue the story tomorrow, but there is one more thing that was note worthy enough to mention on day one of the story.  I was only supposed to have about an hour between my flight in and my flight out, so I only had enough time to make a quick stop at the Northern store there for a bite to eat.  At the next over table, there was a dude about my age, maybe a little older, and he sure made me wish that I'd brought my camera.  His torso, and head were totally normal, and his legs looked quite short (almost as if they were cut off just above the knee).  The short legs weren't the point though.  His feet were completely backwards!  I'm not talking about pointing to the side so much that they were almost backwards, but totally backwards.  I mean, his right boot was on his left foot, and vice-versa.  Perfectly in line with each other, only backwards.  Totally weird!
There's more to tell.

Stay tuned.

Christmas Wish List

At the risk of spoiling the "surprise" (not that there really is one), I'll let you know that all of my Christmas shopping was done on-line, through the World Vision Gift Catalogue.

I know that I promised this yesterday already, but weather was my nemesis (again).  And so, here we have it.  The winner is: "the mother and child reunion".  The only problem, this morning when I drove by, the child had been driven over, mom's skirt was missing, and her lower half had obviously been visited by the stray dogs several times (gross).
A few reasonably priced items that I would be interested in (other than the things that I already bought in honour of others) are:
$40 - (each) piglets
$100 - stock a medical clinic
$30 - 3 soccer balls
$30 - 3 warm blankets
$50 - art and music supplies, and
$75 - water filter for a family
On something like stocking a medical clinic for $100, you might even say out loud "that's not even possible".  But, World Vision has so many corporate sponsors that will match what they raise, that your donation on medical supplies are being multiplied 18 times!  $100 from you, equals a total donation of $1,800!  Just do it.
I'm flying out to Kuujjuaq and back tomorrow (weather permitting), and if I actually make it back, I'll provide a snowman honourable mention, and a few other goodies.

Stay tuned.

What's Wrong With Christ/God?

I'm actually getting fairly annoyed with the increased vigor surrounding the removal of the words Christ or God from every mainstream thing that the words have managed to entrench themselves in.

The first runner up, and next in line to take over, should the winner be unable to fulfill their duties - "Snowman with life-saving vest, cheering after scoring street hockey goal".  Yes, that's his actual name.
During this last week, I have noticed:

1. Business News Network (BNN) referring to Christmas gift shopping as "the retail year end shopping rush"
2. Canada AM asking the question "have you finished your holiday season shopping"
3. Rice Krispie commercials referring to their red, white, and green Rice Krispies as "holiday coloured treats", and
4. A CBC morning news poll surrounding the discussion of taking the line "God keep our land, glorious and free" out of the Canadian National Anthem.

What is wrong with these people?  Nobody seems to be overly concerned with how often the word "hell" is used, but somehow somebody might find it offensive to mention Christ/God.  Is there somehow a possibility of having one without the other?
I do, for the most part, attempt a certain amount of politically correctness, but if someone is offended by me wanting to mention my love of God, or my Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they can go to hell (not literally directly to hell of course, since only God can determine what the fate of people denying their faith, or not having any at all will be).
Totally unrelated - why does the Grey Cup have to start so late (7et)?  By the time all the introductions are done, and the game is over, it'll be close to 11 my time.  That's too late for an old-timer like me.  Don't they know that I have to get up in the morning?  Whatever, I just hope that the game is good, which of course means that my fellow Quebecois win, while the Riders lose.

Stay tuned.

Snowmen in Salluit

We've had a few days of heavy snow, and today was barely zero, which creates the perfect day for snowmen.  As Rory and I drove around town, we came across quite a few, prompting me to run back to the house for the camera.

I've been kind of slacking off with blogs, and on the last one I couldn't add a photo, but now that it's back, I thought that I'd start off with a shot of some kids in action.  Then I'll follow it up with second place tomorrow, and the winner on Monday.  Now that I've said that, I'll be kind of forcing myself to make sure that I get something in on the next two days.
The Christmas rush has set in, sales are through the roof, and we're all busier than ever, leaving little rest time left over for blogging.  Some time next week I'll probably be taking a one day trip to Kuujjuaq, we'll be getting a guest from Inukjuaq for a couple of days, and we're supposed to have a grocery inventory done by the end of next weekend.  All this, while the Christmas rush is in full swing.  Should be pretty hectic.

Stay tuned.

Is The Hitler Stash Back?

You may or may not have seen those commercials on TV with Michael Jordan, and a carpet salesman on a plane.  They're talking about the guy across the aisle, and the fact that his T-shirt collar has "baconed".  The phrase for the Hanes brand, is that their shirts won't "bacon" (referring to the way older T-shirt collars get all wavy).
I was going to throw my winter picture in here for a dramatic pause, but once again they have taken away my ability to put in photos.  Now I just have to throw in these two sentences, to attempt the same effect.
Now, back to Hitler.  The next time you see the commercial mentioned above, pay some close attention.  Is Michael Jordan sporting a Hitler mustache?  And, why is Hitler the only person that you've ever seen showing off that look?  Is it the mustache that made him evil?  Are you somehow being compared to him just because you have the same mustache?  There are so many different styles, and very rarely are you compared to another person that has the same mustache style as you.  Why is the Hitler style on an island unto itself?  Who knows.  It's not like I really care, it's just one of those questions that I've always asked, but Fran is the only person who has ever heard it.
The weather has been pretty stormy for the last few days, and there was an unexpected cheque for everyone (except for the white people, of course), which has resulted in our sales here going crazy.  It was only three hundred dollars, was totally unscheduled, and yet everyone needs their cheques cashed right now.  They waited in line at the rec. centre to get them, and then waited for hours at our store to cash them.  Our sales for the last two weeks are way more than 50% higher than over the same period last year.  Bring it on!

Stay tuned.

South Korea - Who Are These People?

South Korea is now the 8th country on the board.  The title of this thing was that I don't care, that you don't care what I'm writing about.  Now, I'm a little bit caring about the opposite.  Why do you care?  Why would someone from South Korea want to know why we now started using the back door instead of the front door?  I don't get it, but obviously it doesn't matter that much.
Did you see the CFL division finals today?  It's only fitting that there would be a rematch from last years most exciting Grey Cup final of all time.  I wonder how many Riders will be on the field this year?
Obviously I wasn't paying that much attention to the schedule yesterday.  I was fully expecting to see Ian's debut yesterday, only to find out later in the afternoon, that he already did that on Friday night.  As it turns out, he did a little better in his real debut than he did in last night's game.  On Friday, he got an assist, a penalty, and was plus one, while getting 33 shifts and 27.5 minutes played.  Saturday wasn't quite as good with a minus one, but he has managed to log over 53 minutes in just two games.
Our construction guests did manage to get their flight out this morning, so we got our furniture moved back to the way we were comfortable with, and life might return to some degree of normal.  I was going to add a new picture that I took this morning to show off the view of the winter wonderland that I have out of my front window, but it's a little late in the blog by now, so you'll have to...

Stay tuned.

Weather Permitting - The Arctic Mantra

Our guests were leaving us this morning... weather permitting.  We brought them to the airport at 9:00 this morning, only to see them heading back into the store to buy some snacks at about 2:00 this afternoon.  It's not so bad, Fran was making a beef roast that was too much for us anyway, so now she just needs to throw in a few more potatoes and carrots to feed two more.  We had made some of the post departure changes already, but it was actually just as I was about to bring the arm chair back downstairs, that I saw them out of the window.  Not like it's that important to you, but I'll tell you of the most major change for us anyway.  In the front of the house, the stairs are on the outside of the house, and that's the door that we had been using, since the back door had lots of daylight showing and was propped shut by a table leaf.  One of the things that they did was to replace the back door, together with the deadbolt and door knobs.  The theory being, that with the back stairs being indoors, there would be less shoveling, less ice build up, and therefore much safer all around.  This small change of course requires us to move all of the jacket hooks, outerwear, and footwear, as well as going off to the Co-op to buy a slush mat for the doorway.  We didn't realize until we started cleaning up the stairway that we hadn't been using, how much they had used the basement during the construction phase, and therefore how much re-cleaning we had to do in the basement now that we were going to walking past it several times a day.
I was certainly planning for my few hours of allowed remote control ownership, to watch Ian's debut with the Carolina Hurricanes tonight.  I guess that I still will, only with several guests and plenty of interruptions.
Yesterday, my blog officially went over 400 hits, with one page "The Joke's On Me (I Guess)" hitting 50 all by itself.  Russia has also really picked up on the hits, taking over fourth place behind Canada (of course), US, and Slovakia.  I don't know and don't care why all of these strangers are tuning in, but they keep doing it.
Anyway, I might be able to cash in a few hours tomorrow, to watch some of the CFL playoffs in peace, since our guests are scheduled to fly out tomorrow at nine in the morning... weather permitting.

Stay tuned.

Ian White - They Beat Me To The Punch

I had actually spent the last two days researching a bit of a topic that I was planning on blogging about today.  It was all about the insanity of offering Mark Giordano a five year/20 million dollar contract, while only offering Ian 3M for one year.  Ian has slightly more experience, and way more points overall than Giordano.  It was making me wonder what Ian may have been thinking about the whole thing.  They may not talk about that sort of thing in the dressing room, but obviously they watch sports centre and read the papers, so there's no way to avoid thinking about it.  But then, while I was putting the finishing touches on relevant stats and comparisons, I see on the news that they ended up trading Ian to Carolina, beating me to the punch.
On the up side, Ian now gets to join his former minor league coach, the coach that brought him up to the big leagues in the first place (same guy obviously), who is also the same guy that ended up giving him some prime ice time, and lots of it.  They do have a pretty set first powerplay unit, but there's always a chance that he can prove himself and take over one of the two available roles.  Good for him!  Hopefully everything works out well.
The guys are finished with the flooring, and have installed a few light fixtures.  Apparently, the debate rages on about whether or not they'll take a shot at leveling the house again next summer.  Until that decision gets made, they probably won't finish the bathroom.  As such, they may be almost done here.  Not that they're bad guys, but it's not like I'll miss having another two guys around the house that haven't been trained in the fine arts of putting down the seat, or cleaning up after themselves.  That being said, no decisions are final.

Stay tuned.

Visible Progress

They finally officially gave up on straightening out the house, got down to business, and today we could actually see some results.

This is the end of the inlet that our town is on.  Off towards the back, you can see the river that leads into the ocean water.  I enjoy the end of the mountain that's right in the middle.  If you use your imagination a little, it kinda looks like a gorilla's face.  Do you see it?
They put down the flooring in two of the bedrooms and the hallway today.  It's kind of a fake hardwood, that's supposed to look like oak.  Cheapness aside, it's miles ahead of the rust, puke, and bong water stains that totally covered the carpeting that was there this morning.  We also had both of the guys over for supper today, although it's hard to take too much credit for it, since we just heated up the supper that Karen had made for my birthday, but we had put it in the freezer.  Knowing that we were feeding five, we took it out last night, and had Rory throw it into the oven when he got home.  It was pretty good.  Thanks Karen!
With so much activity going on in the house, and a little too much hosting (especially considering what recluses we are, if you recall... we moved to the arctic), it gets a little tricky finding time to blog.  Not that I'll let that stop me.

Stay tuned.

Winter Finally Reaches Salluit

There has now actually been five consecutive days with snow up here.  That, together with some definitely sub-zero temperatures, and it finally feels like winter.  Our work crew arrived yesterday, but they haven't really gotten started yet.  They checked out what it would take to get the slant out of the house, and then waited for confirmation as to what they should do if they can't straighten the house.  We did get three crates full of stuff on the last sea lift, and as it turns out, there is new flooring, a tub, vanity, low-flow toilet, light fixtures, doors, and a few other things.  I guess that the point would be, not to bother getting any of the other things going, and then straightening out the house afterwards.  That way, everything that they do will get thrown off kilter when the house gets straightened out.  But, now that they seem to have been given the green light to ignore the slant of the house, and just go ahead with the other renovations.  The problem is, the beams are sunk right into the ground, and the frost is right solid.  Now, there's no way to get the jacks under the beams to lift up the house.  It's really no big deal to us, since we have gotten used to the slant by now anyway.  My biggest beef when we got up here, was the pathetic shape that the rest of the house was in.  If the guys do manage to get most of what came up in crates installed into the house, we should be in pretty good shape.  I guess that the down-side of the whole ordeal, is that a few weeks ago, there was just me a Fran in the house (which we have gotten quite used to), but now not only do we have Rory in the house, but we have our new guest Peter as well.  It's a bit of an adjustment.
On unrelated matters, our sales are up enough that if we didn't even open the doors tomorrow, we'd still be up for the week.  There definitely are some bright sides going on up here, it's just that I'm not always 100% convinced that the pros are outweighing the cons.  Oh well, I'm sure that we'll persevere.

Stay tuned.

Blue Bombers - Was There a Silver Lining?

It's hard to imagine, with a season so dismal, that there was a silver lining... but there was.

This shot was taken at the same place as the one of the seagull standing on the rock that you may remember.  I just happened to turn slightly to the right, and aim the camera towards the break in the mountains that leads off to the ocean.
The silver lining?  First of all, Fred Reid ended up leading the league in rushing.  This shouldn't be that shocking.  Not only has he done this before, but in a season with such upheaval at the quarterback position, you would tend to lean very heavily on the running game.  Hence, leading the league in rushing.
The much more impressive silver star, Terrence Edwards.  While hauling in grabs from... count them, four different starting quarterbacks, he ended up in second (only 8 little yards back) for receiving yards.  I don't even see how that's possible.  This is obviously one guy that we need to offer a contract extension to.
Tomorrow will be the first time that we're actually hosting guests (Paul & Karen from next door).  Then, on Monday, we're expecting a team to arrive for about two weeks to work on leveling out the house.  I doubt that they'll be able to do it, but at least is appears as though they're trying.  Might work... might not.

Stay tuned.

Remembrance Day - Lest We Forget What?

I'm generally not accused of being "wishy-washy", or not having an opinion, but I'm really on the fence on this one.  Up here, we were given very direct orders that Remembrance Day is not a Statutory Holiday in Quebec, so it is imperative that we stay open for business.  Everyone else in town (Co-op, schools, municipal offices) was closed.  But, they were not closed for Remembrance Day.  They were all closed for the anniversary of the James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement (signed November 11, 1975), which is the treaty that created the Nunavik Region.
I find it offensive, not only that there are still areas within Canada (Quebec, Ontario, and Manitoba) that don't think that their fallen soldiers are worthy of a National Holiday, but that Quebec would take the stance of - Remembrance Day (as listed in Wikipedia) is a day celebrated by the Commonwealth of Nations (formerly the Commonwealth of England), and Quebec, while part of Canada (who knows why), does not consider itself part of the Commonwealth, and therefore does not take part in Remembrance Day at all.
Did you notice that the last paragraph was all one horribly run-on sentence.  So what!
I'm equally offended that in all of the areas that do respect the day as a National Holiday, most people don't pay any respect to the fallen anyway.  Don't get me wrong, I don't either, but that's beside the point.  And another thing, simply buying and wearing a plastic poppy doesn't count either.  What percentage of people actually attend a memorial, or even recognize a minute of silence at 11:00?  Not even worth one minute of our "busy" day?  Come on!  The only reason that I'm on the fence with this one, is that for most, the National Holiday idea is simply that.  A holiday.  Another day to sit around doing nothing, and getting paid to do it.  If you're not going to respect the day for what it is intended, then you don't deserve it!
Pay homage, or get to work!

The end.

Stellar Steven Stamkos

After really roughing up Sidney Crosby yesterday, I thought that I might give another positive shout out to another youngster, who's doing much more than living up to expectations.

I don't even recall exactly which part of our journey this came from, but at the time, I obviously thought that this would make a very pretty shot.  And now that I'm flipping through which picture I want to put up on the blog, once again, this one just really looks like a nice shot.  So there it is.  Awesome!
Back to Steve.  Two years ago at this time, there was very regular talk around the league and through the media, about how Steven Stamkos hadn't earned his way onto the team, wasn't pulling his weight, and didn't deserve to stay on the team.  It would certainly be best for both Steve and the club, for him to be developing in the minors until he was ready.  His coach was in regular battles with the GM on the topic, right up until the point of where he got fired.  To his credit, the GM was sticking to his guns, that he had made this high draft pick, and he was going to play on the big club.  So, he went ahead and hired a coach that was willing to go ahead and give Steve all of the prime ice time, and not beat him up when he didn't flourish.  Boy did that pay off!
From the all-star break in that first season, till today, nobody has scored more goals than Steven Stamkos.  After hearing that he didn't belong in the league all the way through his first season, his second season finished off with him winning the Rocket Richard Trophy, which is given to the player who scores the most goals during the regular season.  Now, 13 games into his third season, he leads the league in goals, points, power play goals, and game winning goals.  Here's a guy that had every opportunity to throw in the towel and pull a Alexandre Daigle (top prospect that never lived up to expectation, and packed it in before even giving it "the old college try").  Instead, he pulls off way more than expected, when he really should have been overshadowed by all-star teammates like Lecavalier and St.Louis.  This guy deserves all of the accolades, while I don't believe that I've seen him getting any lucrative endorsement contracts at all.  Way to go Steve!
I should take a break from the whole thumbs up/thumbs down thing for a few days, but that doesn't mean that I will.

Stay tuned.

Sidney Crosby - Thumbs Down

I wish that I had a boatload of stats to back me up on this one, but I don't.  Therefore I have to resort to childish name calling instead.  Is this guy a total flamer, or what?  I might be all alone on this one, and it's not up to me to judge, but...

While we were out for our ride, we stopped right along the shore.  The wind was howling, and we were both reflecting on how close to hypothermia we were, when this little guy (who had just been swimming) hops up and stands on the rock.  Our first thought was: how does this guy's feet not freeze to the rock?  Sure, the water in the picture isn't frozen, but only because of the high salt content and the wind caused waves.  That, to me, shouldn't preclude such a small amount of water (such as what would be dripping off of this fellow's feet) from freezing, upon contact with a sub-zero rock.  The other thing, was the fact that most of my photos are landscapes, which, to everyone who's not here to know the difference, probably all look the same.  Therefore, a seagull sitting on a rock.
Now that you're wondering why I seem to have a "thing"  against Sid the kid, that may or may not have anything to do with homosexuality, I'll give you a few observations.

1. Ever since he was a small child, he has been touted as the next face of the NHL.  Now that he's here and established, it doesn't seem to be wearing off.  That, together with my natural urge to cheer for the underdog, makes me want him to lose at everything that he does.
2. If you'll recall the year that he won the cup, he was totally invisible during the finals, and the MVP went to Malkin.
3. He was once again totally invisible during the gold medal game too, except for the fact that on a crazy, impossible angle, he just threw the puck towards the net, and somehow accidentally scored.

Don't get me wrong.  Obviously I wanted the Canadians to win, just not by having that guy score.  Now, all we get to hear about, was how Sidney Crosby won us the gold medal.  If he hadn't been skating around with his hands in his pockets for the first 70 minutes, we wouldn't have needed OT to do it.
I do give him credit for being very particular about what he puts his name to for endorsements.  He does Timbits (because he was one as a youngster, and he believes in the program), and now he's doing Dempster's 12 grain bread (because it's a healthier alternative to bleached white).  He endorses Nike, but only after he puts his stamp of approval on the merchandise that carries his name.  But, that's where all credit to him stops.  Prove me wrong Sid... show up for a big game once, and then tell me that you actually deserve the Mark Messier trophy for exemplary leadership.  And another thing, the third fight of your career does nothing to make me stop thinking that you should be replacing Toucan Sam as the official spokesperson of Fruit Loops.  Take that, and...

Stay tuned.

Arctic Air Care

You never know what you're going to run into up here, so you always have to be ready for everything.

This, of course, is back in Repulse Bay again.  But, it's from August 23rd, and we had been ice free for several weeks already.  The wind just happened to be in the right direction for a few days, and the ice (from who knows how far away), just happened to blow in and clog the bay.
The point of that little flashback, was the fact that we had a drastic weather change yesterday, I mentioned that I had been sick as a dog, and a reminder from George Lessard "the Media Mentor", that the dry air of the arctic can give you an awful tickle, which may not have anything to do with any illness.
We had a brutal wind storm last night, with gusts up to 100 km/h.  Some of the gusts actually bowed out the picture window in the living room, and we could hear the squeal of air getting pulled out of the house, right through the window.  I'm supposing that some of my feeling ill was due to the change in the weather.  The other precautions that we took, were to clean the filter for the furnace, give the dogs a bath, and make myself a great big pot of homemade chicken noodle soup (aunt Betty's recipe).  Apparently, Grandpa Penner had commented that Aunt Betty made the best chicken noodle soup, so I knew where to go for a recipe.  I had something totally different lined up for today's blog (including the much anticipated who gets the thumbs down, and a picture from our trip out on the land from yesterday), but I was so pleased to be feeling myself again, that this is the most important thing that crossed my mind.  That being said, there's plenty more to say, and more pictures to show.

Stay tuned.

Saturday Salluit Salutations

Woke up this morning in a huge sneezing fit, after only a few hours of sleep, sicker than a dog.  It's not like I didn't know that it was coming.  I sneezed about five times on my way to bed, and had an awful tickle in my nasal cavity.  For me, that always spells disaster.  So, even though I was feeling pretty good, I made sure that I had a box of Kleenex beside the bed, and my sweats handy, ready for an early exit from the comfy cozy confines of the bedroom.  Judging from the title, and that last line, today is obviously alliteration day (is that a paid holiday?).  Anyway, I was bolstered by the view (once the sun rose two hours later) as I gazed out the living room window.  The tide was high, the wind was blowing north (which always brings the high tide even higher on our side of the bay), the river was backed way up, and pushing great big blocks of night time ice back into the ocean.  It was the majesty of it all, that brought me to my next topic.
What's with those stupid Tim Horton's commercials?  I realize that they are trying to capitalize on the great Canadian wilderness, and that it's the bond that holds us all together, but get real!  The three guys going fishing, all meeting at the lake with coffees in there hands, the skating rink in the middle of the forest, and now the guys in the lake bringing the dock in for the winter.  Does their coffee stay hot indefinitely in those little paper cups?  How long do you think it takes to get from downtown Toronto to a secluded lake?  And, why would anyone travel more than five minutes to get a bowl of instant oatmeal that you can make at home in less than four minutes?  It's all fine and good to try to paint a romantic picture, but wouldn't anyone know that a minimum of 99% of all the "Timmie's" (would you please come up with a less gay nickname?) sold would come from a major urban centre (seeing as how I haven't found too many donut shops in the wilderness)?  Enough about that.
Bomber lost... big whoop.
Flames lost... inconsistency seems to be the only thing that they can do regularly.
Obviously I jinxed poor old Tim Thomas.  Last night he let in three goals in the first period and got yanked.  Fortunately for him, Boston came back to tie the game (only to lose it anyway), so that he wasn't on the hook for the loss.  Bad game - still undefeated.
Still expecting to have a chilly, but eventful afternoon on the quad with Rory.

Stay tuned.

Tim Thomas - Thumbs Up

Even for non-hockey fans, Tim Thomas is the ultimate story of perseverance.  Here's a guy that was drafted by the Quebec Nordiques (remember them?) in 1994.  Other than a few spot appearances due to the top goalies' injuries, he wallowed in the minors for eight seasons.  Expecting that his shot at the NHL was most likely come and gone, he signed with a team in the Finish Elite league in 2004.  After one season there, he was signed as a free agent by the Boston Bruins in 2005, only to be assigned back to the minors.  It was not until January 2006 (at the ripe old rookie age of 32), that he finally got called up to the NHL, and earned himself a full-time job.  In only his second full season in the NHL, he was selected to the all-star game.  At the end of his third full season, he was awarded the Vezina Trophy (given out to the league's most outstanding goaltender).
Which brings us to today.  At the age of 36, after seven games played, he is 7-0 and has only allowed five goals in total.  He leads the league in shutouts, save percentage, and goals against average.  In the only other major goalie category, he is second in wins with seven.  The season is young, but at this stage of the game, it would be very hard to argue that anyone other than Tim Thomas is the top goaltender in the league.  All this from a guy with an extremely awkward playing style, that had to wait twelve years between getting drafted, and getting a full time gig at 32.  No wonder there's still a bunch of thirty-somethings out there that still haven't given up their dreams of making it to the bigs.  It's been done before.  Play on Tim, play on.
Just wait till you see who gets the thumbs down...

Stay tuned.

Panormous? Are You Kidding Me?

Have you seen the panormous commercial from Pizza Hut?  I know that it's not new, but it's been bugging me for just about long enough now.

Is that a massive bone... or what?  I don't know what part of the bowhead whale this actually is, but it's huge!  That's back from Repulse Bay, but I know that I hadn't shared it yet.  So there it is.
Now, back to the commercial - you know the one with the mayor, the hockey goalie, the astronaut, etc.  First of all, the mom said "dinner's ready", like as if she actually has something to do with it, while she's clearly holding one pizza box.  The claim is that it's "enough to feed the whole gang".  They actually show the pizza out of the box, and it very obviously has eight slices.  When you put all the little clips of the commercial together, it's fairly apparent that there's a minimum of ten people there.  Even if everyone was totally satisfied with only one slice (which obviously no teenager or professional athlete would be), there's not even enough there for everyone to have one.  Are we all supposed to be idiots?  Obviously that question was rhetorical, because clearly all advertisers believe that the average TV watcher is hard of learning.  I have a had time arguing with them (considering some of the crap that passes for entertainment these days), but seeing as how I am also a TV watcher, I find it insulting that they think that I might believe some of the outrageous lies that they are somehow allowed to tell us.  Isn't there supposed to be some sort of law about false advertising?  Obviously it's never being enforced.  Oh well, the average American ordering that pizza, is probably eating the whole thing by themselves anyway.  What commercial might get a piece of my mind next (I know, I know, not too big of a piece... there's not that much left)?

Stay tuned.

Is It That Time Already?

Today I got informed that the next two days were set aside for the 2011 action plan.  It seemed to me that we just got started with this year, and I already have to start planning for next year.

I know that this picture isn't mine, isn't totally recent, and I'm not taking credit for it.  I borrowed this one from James.  It's a picture of the waves caused in Newfoundland by hurricane Igor.  There were some other ones that showed a lot more damage, but I thought that this one with the waves would have been awesome to see in person (although I'm glad that I wasn't there).
If you've ever put together an action plan, you know exactly how terrible and boring it is.  What are you going to do, how are you going to do it, who's going to be responsible for the follow-up, and by when are you going to have it completed.  Blah, Blah, Blah... who cares?  They know exactly how they want it to look, and exactly what you want to set as your goals, but you have to do it yourself.  Then when you're done, they send it back to you to change over and over again, until it looks exactly like they wanted it to look in the first place.  Later on, if you don't happen to complete everything, they'll say something like "Well this is your plan.  You put it together.  Why aren't you able to finish off the plan that you put together?"  Like you actually have anything to say about the plan that they make you type up.  Whatever!  On the upside... I have the next two days to complete it, and I'm already done 12 of the 13 categories.
While not hanging on every pitch, I did watch the world series.  It seemed odd to me that everything that Texas did for 173 games to get to the world series, totally went out the window.  The bullpen rotation wasn't used the same, batters weren't used in the same situations, everything was just off a little bit.  Doesn't everyone realize that you need to dance with who brung ya?  If what you did got you there, why wouldn't you keep on doing the same thing when you get there?  Idiots!  Now it's time to get back to focusing on hockey.  Can't wait for world juniors already!

Stay tuned.

They're Back!

Did I call that?  All of the same kids are pounding on the door again.  The worst part of it is, I kinda heard through the grapevine, that since there was a funeral yesterday, and the fact that nobody was supposed to be going out on Sunday, there is a chance that there might be trick-or-treaters again tomorrow!  I suppose that there's an opportunity that I might see the same kids three nights in a row.

With yesterday's trip being in the opposite direction of our usual quest for open ocean, I managed to get this shot from a greater distance.  It's kinda hard to tell, but beyond the hills, about 3/4 of the way up, the straight line in the background is actually the ocean.  While Rory spends most of our trips on the lookout for signs of wildlife, we haven't seen any yet.  Maybe it's the time of year, but there doesn't seem to be nearly the amount of animals here, like there was in Repulse Bay.  There is lots of hunting going on, but obviously we're either not going far enough, or not in the right direction.  The locals do seem to think that we're a little bit nuts for not taking a riffle with us on our journeys.  We do see lots of caribou antlers, and hundreds of rodents, along with the fact that I've already been given gifts of geese, caribou, and arctic char, so obviously the place is teeming with life.  We just haven't happened to stumble across any yet.
Here's to a night free from trick-or-treaters.  Keep your fingers crossed...

Stay tuned.

Halloween - Is There a Cure?

These kids just don't stop coming to the house!  Is there no way to realize that this useless tradition of begging strangers for candy has run it's course, so we can shut the thing down?

Rory and I went in a whole different direction today.  We did catch this little scene, as well as a few high elevation lakes, but there wasn't much for excitement.  We probably won't go in that direction again.  Frannie made me a lemon and a chocolate pie today as a continuation of my birthday.  They were both awesome!
Sealift actually went a lot better than I expected.  I obviously can't complain at all, since we had at least a dozen guys show up, and I didn't move a single case of pop.
Texas looked pretty good while getting back into the world series, and the Bombers... well, there's nothing left to say about that.
Now, back to Halloween.  I was told yesterday that the town's Halloween games were going to be held on Saturday, since they don't allow much activity on Sundays, but that the actual trick-or-treating will take place on Sunday.  But, as soon as the games let out at 10:00, they all started coming for their candy.  Of course I'm not prepared, because it's supposed to be tomorrow.  The problem to me, is that I'm almost guaranteeing that all of the brats that came to the door today, will just be back again tomorrow.  Is there no end to this?  I mean, isn't this ancient tradition of superstition almost done?  I guess maybe I'm Halloween's version of scrooge, but this definitely has to be the worst tradition that we have.  It's time to call it a day!  I usually go to bed at 11:00, but it's now past midnight and the kids are still coming.  I sure hope that it will start and end a lot earlier tomorrow.

Stay tuned.

The Joke's On Them

As I'm tracking some of the stats, I now see that 33 hits, or more than 10% of all hits are on the blog entry called The Joke's On Me (I Guess)?  So obviously their getting ahold of the blog titles, are looking for something completely different, and accidentally get my page.  So, the joke is obviously on them.

What you might not be able to tell right away from this picture, is that this cross in the rocks is at quite a high elevation, and that we're really quite close to the town in the background.  It's a very simple metal cross held in place by a pile of rocks, for no particular reason.  Tomorrow, Rory and I will head off in a completely different direction, and hopefully find some wild and new things to capture in the camera, and hopefully share with you.
Today being my birthday, I didn't have to cook supper or do the dishes tonight.  Quite a pleasant change for me.  I also had many more birthday wishes at the store today than I'm used to receiving.  Obviously some of that being due to the fact that very first present received today included a "birthday boy" ribbon that I proudly wore all day.  Anyway, the day went quite well, I sold another quad, and we have already met most of our October targets.
The Rangers are sucking in the world series, the Bombers don't matter, and it's generally a slow sports day.  There's always a new set of adventures to begin tomorrow.

Stay tuned.

Netherlands Is On The Board

Netherlands now brings the country total to seven.  Obviously a mistake.

This is just a random picture of nothing particular, just the stark beauty of this place we call home.
Our tour guys were supposed to show up at 8:30 this morning, so I was at the airport at 8:20.  Finally, at 9:35, they called to say that they weren't coming, and that maybe they should have called a few minutes earlier.  Ya, maybe just a few minutes earlier.  Like I've got nothing better to do than hang out at the Salluit airport for 65 minutes.  Thanks guys!
Yesterday, I got an update on our ship arrival, that said that they would be here on Monday.  Then today, I get an email from the ship captain that they'll be here this evening, and that I should expect the first container to be at my door by noon.  Another great big thanks to the awesome communication that takes place around here.  Realistically, I should have about 20 guys to help me out with the shipment, and now I'll have about 2 hours in the morning to line up as many drunken/stoned locals that I can roll out of bed before noon.  Good luck with that!
I hear that everyone else in North America got hit by this "weather bomb", while our weather is fantastic.  We've had a bit of snow, and one storm so far, but all of that has melted.  There's a bit of frost on the pumpkin in the morning, but the daytime highs are still slightly above freezing.  Perfect.
About 50,000 cans of pop to move tomorrow, and probably a few sore muscles to go with it.  I'll try not to complain too much about it tomorrow.

Stay tuned.

Ready Or Not...

Fran really busted her butt today, getting everything as ready as possible for the big tour tomorrow, and I have to admit that it looks a lot better than I thought it would.  If all goes well, the credit obviously goes to her.  She even went into my office and took carts full of junk out of there, as well as cleaning off my desk.

I obviously wasn't thinking, because the only really good thing that I did with the camera concerning the waterfalls, was taking a video from basically inside.  Otherwise, this way off shot is the only one that I took.  I'll try to remember to do something more if I ever get up there again.  You can't really see it, but the falls come right from the top of the mountain, and run their way down the crevasse.  Someone really needs to explain to me where the water is coming from.  From what I can see, the water is cascading down from nearly the highest point in the whole range.  The last time I looked, water generally runs downhill.  So the question needs to be asked... if it's not raining, and there's no melting, how is water running over the highest part of the mountain?
Anyway, keeping it short today.  If I want to get the floors swept and mopped before picking up the crew at the airport by 8:30, I'll have to get quite an early start.

Stay tuned.

Woohoo! Pictures are Back

I suppose that it wasn't necessary, but the first thing that I wanted to put up now that for some reason the ability to post photos came back, was proof that I actually brought Fran along on an adventure.

The only problem is that Fran's not exactly as thrill seeking as Rory is, and therefore, there's a little less action on the rides that I take with her.  Don't get me wrong, I enjoy having her with me, we just have to lean a little bit more to the cautious side.  We did get most of the way to the falls, hiked up pretty close to the top, and took a few pictures that I'll share with you at a later time.  It was a typical Thiessen date - full tank of gas, a general idea of a direction, some driving, some walking, and precious little romance.
A little sports - thankfully, the Yankees are as done as the Bombers.  Man I get tired of hearing about Derek Jeter!  Did you realize that the Yankee payroll was $150M more than the Rangers?  Marcy Ien (co-host on Canada AM, and having nothing to do with the sports part) had the best quote that I'd heard in a while.  "You can't buy a heart."  Could the evil empire be described any better?
The head honchos are coming down for a store tour on Wednesday morning (weather permitting), so the next few days will hold a little tension.  I really don't have that many expectations for us, considering how little time we've had to correct all of the wrongs that were done to this store before we got here, but that doesn't mean that the stress level doesn't rise just a little.
Anyway, even if nothing else terribly exciting happens, I'll still have a picture or two to share with you.

Stay tuned.

Pathetic Performance

That game was painful to watch.  There were so many moments where it was clear that the Blue and Gold were not even trying.  I guess that I'll at least pay half attention to the last two games, for the sole purpose of seeing just how poor of an effort they can send themselves home with.  I don't even know where to begin.  Never mind the injured quarterbacks, the whole team's effort was lacklustre.  Biggest thing being the season-long special teams struggles.  They've been terrible all season long.  I don't believe that they need a complete restructuring, but they are going to need a new special teams coach, and a slightly different strategy in regards to letting the quarterbacks run wild until injured.  That's all I've got to say about that.
Rory and I did head out for another ride yesterday (5hours), but it didn't end up nearly as hair raising as last time, and I didn't come home with my pockets full of mud.  We first headed east, trying to get an unobstructed view of the ocean.  While we did see some great things, every time we cross what we believe to be the last mountain, there are at least three more in behind them.  I'm sure that there's a way, but apparently a five hour ride won't do it.  On our way back, we did manage to track down the elusive waterfall that we've heard so much about.  Once we figured out where it was, we realized that it can be seen from miles away, even with the naked eye.  There is a crater near the top of a huge mountain, and the river runs through the valley.  We were trying to ride up the river until we found the falls, only to realize while going by, that the falls were actually right in the crater at the top.  There is a small lake up there at the top as well.  The whole thing is simply amazing!  The only down side, is that it's already starting to freeze up there (since the altitude is pretty high), and it's not quite as impressive as I'm sure that it is during spring runoff.  I'm hoping to bring Fran up there today for a closer look, after we get a few things done at the store.  The most curious thing to me is, if that's the top of a huge mountain, where's all of that water coming from?  There has to be something more than has met my eye so far.  The last two Saturdays I've been leaving Fran at home, while I'm taking Rory out on our adventures, and obviously that's not fair at all.  So, although it's been snowing all morning, I'm hoping to get her out of the house, and even the score a little.

Stay tuned.

Morning Quickie

Get your minds out of the gutter!  I'm just writing a quick blog in the morning before a big day.
BC made it a lot tougher for the Bombers last night, and their magic number is now one, so if the Bombers lose today, it's all over but the crying.  Before that, Rory and I are planning on another road trip.  Hopefully just as event filled, but less harrowing.
So, back to those stats that I promised.  So far, all time, this blog has 259 hits.  The breakdown by country (that's right, there's more than one country involved) are as follows:
223 - Canada (of course)
18 - US (could be some American cousins)
14 - Slovakia (really, 14 from Slovakia?)
2 - Denmark
1 - Russia, and
1 - South Africa (what?)
I'm guessing that most of the foreign ones are obviously not on purpose (including half of you reading this).  That being said, with a few billion people per day surfing the world wide wiebe, is it too far fetched to imagine that you could make a living (I don't really mean financially) off of a bunch of folks that accidentally entered your site?  Why not?  I'll just imagine that I'm hugely popular in Slovakia, like David Hasselhoff in Germany!  Stranger things have happened.  Well, a little breakfast, and then into the great white north.

Stay tuned.

The Rock

I just can't figure out what they've done to my ability to add photos, so I'm going to have to finish off the adventure with Rory story without the help of visual aids.
So far, I've been thanking everyone for joining up as followers.  Except for... The Rock.  Now, there are a few "The Rock"s that I know of.

1. The wrestler (Duane Johnson)
2. Newfoundland
3. The movie (with one of my favourite Sean Connery quotes), and
4. A radio station in North Battleford, Saskatchewan.

This leads me to believe that it could be Duane Johnson, but more likely just some toothless, straw chewing, banjo player from Saskatchewan.  I guess I should be careful about provincial slurs, seeing as how I'm a Quebecois and all.  You know how sensitive we are about what the rest of Canada thinks of us.  Thanks Perry!  (Most of you should have realized that I was just playing off of Troy Westwood's comments that sparked the naming of the Banjo Bowl, and not trying to insult any of my many family members from Saskatchewan)
Anyway, back to the story.  Before we even got to the quicksand, we had already crossed one river, and were driving along side another one.  We could look over, and see all kinds of trails on the other side.  So, we looked for what looked like the safest place to try to cross, and very carefully tried to make our way across.  We just got passed what looked like the second worst spot, when we got hung up on some huge boulders in the worst spot.  With both feet on the rocks, I put it in reverse and actually managed to slide off.  Now we were kinda caught between a rock and a hard place, in water that was really too deep for us, so I looked back at Rory and said "so, should we get off and push, or just try again faster?".  Of course his answer was to try again faster.  So I gave it some gas, and with great scraping, bouncing, and splashing, we made it to the other side.  Of course on our way back, we noticed that the trail led us to a safe and calm place where we should have crossed in the first place.
To finish the story off, just before we got back home, and at the peak of the cliff wall that I see outside my dining room window, we noticed a cross anchored in some rocks.  When we went over to check it out, I took a picture from behind the cross, that had the cross right in front of me and an awesome view of the town from up high in the background.  That was of course the picture that I was trying to post for the last several days.
Anyway, I was writing this last night, and the internet gave out half way through, and I'm finishing it off during my lunch today.  I'm still hoping to get something out tonight (weather permitting) about some interesting stats that I have found.  For those that know me that well, I'm big on stats, and was thrilled to find out that there is a tab on the top of this blog entry page that tells me where all of my hits are coming from, what kind of server their using, and a bunch of other useless junk.  Not that I'll share all of the boring stuff, but some of it was pretty cool, and very surprising to me.  So unless something wild happens and takes priority...

Stay tuned.

Welcome to My Whine Cellar

Five followers!  Thanks Rose!  This is already more than I hoped for.  I was originally thinking that three hits/week would keep me going.  On Monday I had 15 hits, and yesterday I had 21.  I know that this sounds like it's going to my head, but don't worry James (thanks for the comments), I'm just surprised enough at the attention, that I thought it was worth mentioning.  They've still got me locked out of adding pictures, so I'll just get to the point of this entry.
What's up with wine cellars?  Does anybody actually need 150-200 (or 15-20 for that matter) bottles of wine on hand?  Didn't they buy them all at the store?  And if so, couldn't they just go to the same store if and when they need a bottle of wine to go with supper?  If you were making your own wine, and wanted to do it in bigger batches to reduce the frequency... maybe.  If you were a wine maker, and needed stock to sell to your buyers... obviously.  I guess, on the other hand, it may not be that much more pretentious than keeping five cars in the garage when your household only has two drivers, but still, come on.
Anyway, as soon as they take the cuffs off of my ability to attach photos, I'll finish off the story of my adventure out with Rory, and our final descent back home.

Stay tuned.