First Wednesday of February

That doesn't mean anything, but I couldn't think of a decent title.

Here's some photos to catch up:

Costco was carrying "Cheating by Chocolate" and I loved them! Then they stopped, but I never stopped searching for them... or a decent substitute. Found 'em! They're yummy and in THREE flavours, not just two.














This was sunrise on the way through the back roads from Alliston to Mississauga this morning. It was amazing - red, orange, pink... with a shaft of light that went right into the clouds above.











Tomorrow we have PT then presentations all morning. Then in the afternoon we have a new bunch of stuff to learn. And tomorrow night... Karaoke!! Wheeee!

Groundhog Day

Well, it's February, finally. I have been taking photos, but I haven't had every day to upload them. I'll try harder to find the 30 minutes or so I need. It's a forced relaxation. Here's a few to catch up on:

A couple from the course I'm on and I went out to dinner one night. We don't have an ESM in the area of BC I live, so it's something of a novelty for me still.

















One of the guys on the course celebrated 28 years in the military. He doesn't like cake as much as he likes pie, so us girls bought him a taffy-apple pie and sparklers. He was so surprised and very happy about the gesture.












This is a full moon keeping me company on my way to dinner in Oakville one night. It was pretty cool.
















At my friend's place for a get together, one of the babies arrived sleeping in her car seat, all bundled up. I had to take a snap.











On Sunday, we visited the Art Gallery of Ontario and saw ancient Egyptian artefacts from the King Tut collection, among others. It was spectacular! Things I'd only seen in magazines and text books were right. there. Amazing artistry! No pictures allowed inside though.

This week's flex:
Tues: School, babysitting for friends.
Wed: School. Stuff.
Thurs: School. Stuff.
Fri: School. Toronto with a friend - the ROM at night!
Sat: Toronto with a friend (Science Centre?) then baby shower.
Sun: Raptor's game with my uncle and a visit to a cousin I've never met!

I'll try to update with yesterday's pictures later today.

GPS = Getting Purposely Screwed-up!

Well! What a weekend it was! On Friday I did some laundry:

I needed to pack to get ready for my trip to Guelph and surrounding area to meet my 'invisible friends from the other side of the keyboard'.

I managed to rent a Nissan Versa for the weekend (Enterprise has a great weekend rate!) and set off with the GPS plugged in, and leading me south-west-ward.




I arrived Guelph in good time - about an hour and a half - taking back roads all the way. Got to see a lot of Ontario farm country. I filled up in Brisbane! I thought that was kind of funny. Then I met someone I'd known for 8 years! We had a lovely night catching up and she and her boyfriend and I went to a local pub for a late supper. The mound of mashed potatoes was like something out of Encounters of the Third Kind's sculpture scene with Richard Dreyfuss!

On Saturday, a beautiful sunny day, we went to the Cathedral in Guelph, where I took a bunch of pictures of the lovely building, practicing my architectural eye. We did go to the local market and
I bought some elk pepperettes, some orange cheese curds, a bottle of fresh maple syrup, and a loaf of lovely Russian bread for the pot luck later. I'd love to go back!




























We had lunch at a restaurant called, Angel's, and there was a ton of Elvis, Marilyn, James Dean, etc memorabilia all over the place. I took this photo because there's a "Elvis Fan's Only Parking" poster... which says, "Violaters will be all shook up". I thought that was pretty funny.


I left Guelph and tried to plug in St. George into the GPS. It took it, but couldn't find the street I needed, so I decided to use the postal code. After an hour's driving, I made it to Scotland. Then I was directed to Paris. Not bad considering there were no trans-atlantic flights involved! I picked up a friend at a pub in Paris, and we drove to St George for a lovely supper with some more imaginary friends (some of whom I'd met before). The love and laughter, the fun... it was stupendous (and I'm not just saying that because some of them read my Blog!). I really had a great time with these women, who has shared so much with me and each other over the years. I stayed up til 1:15 chatting with my hostess and then had a lovely sleep. We had a great breakfast made by her husband and chatted for another 3+ hours before I dragged my sorry butt to the car.

The GPS got me on the 401 and back to the 400N in plenty of time to hit the outlet mall where I bought the girls some clothes and a new, smaller pair of snow/rain boots for me. And another book. While driving, I made it through Milton, where some friends are from. I thought I'd take a photo to email him back at home.










I got to Skype with the girls when they got home from their Grandmother's and spent 30 minutes absorbing their faces in chunks, as the camera isn't as smooth as it could be. Sailor's doing a great job with them. They were smiley, and happy and Greta and I "tickled" each other through the camera. We're going to try to Skype again tomorrow around dinner time so that they'll actually stay at the table to eat!

This week's flex:

Mon: Powerpoint presentation (tested) in syndicate. Budgets. Night: nothing.
Tue: PT, Budgets. Night: nothing.
Wed: Budgets, procurement. Night: Nothing.
Thu: Procurement, Purchasing, my Emergency Preparedness presentation, PT. Night: Karaoke.
Fri: Guest Lecture, PT. Night: to Toronto!! Mississauga's having a dinner and I'm crashing!
Sat: Pickering party.
Sun: ROM and return to Barrie.

Connectivity at last!

We have interwebz!! And some pictures to catch up with...

Monday Photo 1: Ice shacks on the lake in Barrie. There are people out there, on thin ice. Crazy people.


















Photo 2: Dinner at Chez-D (say it out loud, hee hee). My friend D is an amazing chef. She made mushroom risotto with a baguette of sauted mushrooms, cheese and garlic butter. The wine was a Pinot Grigio, the curious dog is a Golden Retriever who is the biggest lapdog I know, and the movie was Julie & Julia - VERY appropriate!











And for dessert: Home made shortcakes a la Bisquick, fresh berries, whipping cream with vanilla sugar, and melted chocolate. Heavenly.





I was still digesting at 7:30 this morning.

Tuesday Photo: My room.

Monday Monday... doo doo...doo doo doo dooooo

Well, first week down. Syndicate work all week, another exam in there (94.5% - I suck), and then FRIDAY!!! Here's this week's flex:

M: course, hangin' with Deb.

T: course. Ironing. Reading. Working stuff.

W: course. Etc.

T: course. Etc.

F: course. Off to Kitcher/Waterloo/Cambridge/Hamilton/etc.

Here's some pictures for Project 365+:

Here is the door leading from our common area in the "shacks" to the front door of the "shacks". A collection of modular rooms, two on the bottom floor, two one floor up, two one more floor up from that, with two beds per room. The chicks are usually at the top, and the guys below (hee hee). We have a laundry room, and a wee bar fridge, and a tv with cable. We're hoping to get interwebz for Tuesday.

Saturday's photo is of a wooden Mayan calendar that hangs in the upstairs of my friend Deb's house. She bargained for four days for this and eventually, she wore down the vendor. This is why we get along so well - we are good at wearing down the competition.

It's very striking in real life and so I needed a photo of it.

Sunday!! La Scandinave Spa with some good friends. Hot, steamy and wet... and that was just the gossip!! We named the waterfall, Lars. We wanted to wed Lars. It would have been a lovely relationship. One-sided... but we could live with that.

And another of the sunset over the Blue Mountains.

I'll try to update this week, but no promises.

Catch-up day!

Well what a week it's been! I landed in Toronto at PIA about 15/20 minutes late and thankfully my friend D was there to pick me up after waiting 30 minutes for bags! She drove me to Borden and we both searched for the accomodations building and then the building I'm staying at! We started at the wrong end of modular (#20-something) and needed to get to #4! Heavy bags. At any rate, 20 minutes later, D noticed that I had left my wallet in her car, so she had to come back. She now knows where I'm at!

Here's a picture of us landing at PIA. It's blurry because we were moving.

It was cold. And snowy. And minus something-or-other cold. Thankfully it started to warm up during the week.

We started course at 7:30 the next morning - in a classroom with computers and we settled in for 'death by powerpoint' for the next five weeks. Here's an illegal picture of the classroom. I found out after I had taken the photo that we're not allowed to. Shhhh... don't tell, ok?

The weather started improving while we were there... surprisingly warm, sunny and things started melting. Before it did, I took a photo of the view outside of my window.

Now, in the olden days, before real computers, the Supply System worked with micro-fiche and data cards. Then they got a computer system called TNR. Now we're on a destktop system called MIMS, soon to move to ANOTHER system called MASIS. Yeah... your tax dollars at work. Anywho, here's pictures of the old system from the school I'm at:

This is the microfiche system, just like in the old libraries.

And this is the TNR - a computer monitor that could be used as a paperweight, the card system - a series of cards with little holes in them - in the yellow box, two books, known as the 501 and 502 with all the codes inside that made the TNR system do as you wanted it to, and a giant book on a table, the "bible": the 186. The 3-tiered grey in/out box holds our old forms, 2302's, tags (192s), and other various bits of paperwork that all Supply Techs had on their desk.

It wasn't the best system, but it made logistics flow reasonably smoothly throughout the military.

Now we're learning a system that will soon be superceded by a system that is currently in use by the Naval ship repair units. It's taking one single system for all elements and turning it into three seperate entities, which means that the Army will use it differently than the Airforce and those two differently from the Navy. To many of us, it seems like two steps back. I guess I'm just bitter.

I forgot my download cable for the camera (these pictures are from my phone), so once I can get it, I'll download the photos from that and add to the blog - most likely Wednesday, as we're supposed to be getting internet in the shacks on Tuesday. Ha. We'll see about that!

Make and Mend

Well, it's nearly time to leave. My last-minute to-do list is growing, but I'm managing to strike off two for every one I add. The longest thing is the torrent downloads I'm waiting on... *sigh*.

So, this week's flex:

Mon: drop of Ray and Greta for school/daycare and go to the airport. Fly out at 1000. Land at 1855 GTA time. I get a drive up to the base from a friend. I'll sign in, find my room, and head there to unpack and iron my uniform up for Tuesday.

Tues: first day of course at 0730! I need to connect with a friend in Barrie to pick up my Mona Vie which is waiting for me at her house, I just hope her husband is home from hospital (poor guy).

Wed: course. Should practice some dance too.

Thurs: course. Perhaps some reading... cross stitch... surfing...

Fri: course.

Sat: Hanging with the girls, I hope! I may or may not rent a car for the day, depending on weather, plans and money.

Sun: La Scandinave Spa with some of the girls! YAY!!

Today's photos. Photo 1: The coat I'm bringing with me.

It's the warmest one I have and has ripped at the zip (due to me wearing it through part of my first pregnancy. Bad move). I have put off sewing it up for about 4 years now, so it's time to fix it. I have done so now and it's not a pretty job, but it'll do. I tried it on and it's comfy, and warm, and fits! It's also longer than my butt, so with any luck I'll be nice and warm while in the frigid East (and yes, Barrie is East to me!).

Photo 2: My flowers bloom during the winter!

I purchased a couple of Easter flower baskets when the girls were baptized and the flowers from them have been blooming and growing ever since. This specific blossom is in front of a horse picture I picked up from China. The fabric is separating inside, but I love it and can't bear to part with it. Until I or Sailor go to China to replace it.

Behind is the front patio area, compete with extension cords that Sailor has not put away which means our Christmas lights are still up. We're such a country song.