The longest day of the year is upon us!

Baker Lake:
Temp: +1
Sunrise: 2:47 a.m.
Sunset: 12:05 a.m.

Edmonton:
Temp: +17
Sunrise: 5:05 a.m.
Sunset: 22:07 p.m.

Well, I'm at the hotel for one last night. Tomorrow I will finish off a bit of shopping and visit some more friends. All in all, it's been a nice trip. Today I did some shopping, had some appts and then tonight met the crew I used to work with in Edmonton for a barbeque slash baby shower. My friend Lori had a beautiful baby girl named Amber a couple weeks ago. What a little heartbreaker she's gonna be.... Beautiful!



Dana, me, Jacquie and Heather hanging out at Hawreluk Park



Horsin' around



SUCH a beautiful park!

Temp: 20 (in Edmonton)
Sunny!!!

Well, I landed in AB on June 13th after a bit of an adventure. First, we left Baker at 8:00 a.m. and, as luck and the weather would have it, we ended up not having to do the 'milk run' of stops we normally make. The fog was too bad so we ended up going from Baker straight to Thompson (missing Chester, Rankin, Arviat and Churchill). Good for us! Bad for those who were supposed to make connections in Rankin. And the turbulance was really bad! I hadn't realized how uptight I was about it until the next day I could hardly open my jaw, the muscles were that sore! Sheesh. And, with having missed all those stops, I would have expected to land in Winnipeg early. And we were: 5 mins early. I have no idea how that worked out.

Anyway, a hop skip and a jump and I was in Grande Prairie, AB meeting my folks off the plane. Green grass/trees and family... it doesn't get better than that! So, we ended up staying an extra night in GP because my cargo didn't arrive. Apparently it got bumped in Edmonton due to a large shipment of live bees and fish that had priority. Go figure... :-) Friday we headed home to PR and.... a haircut! Woohoo!! I no longer look like a cave woman!!

Which brings me to today, as I write this I'm in a hotel in Edmonton. I'm here for a friend's baby shower and to catch up with people that I haven't seen in wayyy too long. Sunday I head back to PR for a couple weeks and then the last two weeks of July will be spent in a lovely cabin of my friends on Lac St Anne. I'm sooo excited for that. Relaxing on the lake.... good times. But, being here today it's crazy how much Edmonton has changed in just two years. There is so much more traffic and construction. There are new buildings everywhere you look! It's one busy city and it's way past busting at the seams. Housing is brutally expensive and in short supply. The more I see of it, the less I think I'll be able to afford to move back when I finally leave the north. It's too bad.

Anyway, here's a picutre of one piece of my cargo that got way-layed on the trip up. Gotta love that duct tape! It's a beautiful old rocker that was at our school in the library and the base broke off of it. It was to be thrown in the garbage but I couldn't let that happen so I brought it home to repair. One of my friends said 'How old are you that you're collecting rocking chairs?!' but I don't care. It's so special to me to think how many kids rocked in it while reading books in the library. Love it!!



And Oliver likes it too!



The view from my hotel room... downtown Edmonton.



Just another beautiful tree!!

Temp: 1
Wind warning ~ gusting to 80 km/hr
But, it's relatively warm outside
Sunrise: 2:59
Sunset: 23:48

Well, school is finished for this year and it feels good. Friday the staff went for lunch at the Nunamiut Lodge and it was really nice. We are losing some really great teachers to other opportunities; Jen and Taras have bought a lovely acerage in Bancroft, ON; Marie and Phil are heading back to NFLD, Nancy and Gary have accepted jobs in Inuvik (where they have a fantastic indoor pool - I'm so jealous!), and Kelly is heading back to BC.

Last night after work we all got together at Chad's for a wind down. It was nice to see everybody, some for the last time in Baker, and just hang out. A bit of music was played but mostly just shootin' the breeze and reminiscing about the year. Good times. Tonight Todd and Jenesta are hosting a bbq at their place. Mmmmmm I miss barbeques! Should be fun.

Here's most of our staff



Phil enjoying the view



It's been a long, long year :-)



And, big surprise, it's snowing again today

Temp: -2
Wind chill: -7
Winter Storm Watch
Sunrise: 3:03
Sunset: 23:43

Well, today was the last day at school with the kids. It was a good day; pretty much just hanging out with them and then the awards ceremony in the afternoon. Good times.

Only one more day of school and only 5 days until I get to go home. Providing the Winter Storm Watch warning that's posted on Environment Canada's webpage doesn't turn into the last 5 day blizzard of the season that some of the elders still think we are in for. Hard to believe there's only 13 more days until the official first day of summer....

:-(

Temp: -5
Wind chill: -14
winds gusting to 46
Sunrise: 3:09
Sunset: 23:39

Well, I complain about the weather way too much so I'm not even going there today. I will, however, show a few humorous pictures from today. Up here, with the temps as they are (NOT a complaint!!) we don't get bugs really until July and August. So, with that, you don't keep the screens on the windows until the bugs arrive because they really restrict the circulation.

Having said that, with wide open windows come critters. Until now I had no problems with this, after all, I have a ferocious guard dog. Hmmm... yeah right. So I came home after work today, toodling around getting supper ready when I heard a funny noise from the bathroom and out of the corner of my eye I thought I saw something flit by. Sure enough, there was a very confused little bird flying around my apt. And, an even more oblivious dog following me around wondering what it was that I was doing. Yeah, Labs are good bird dogs my butt! Anyway, I called in the cavalry, the bird was shoo'd into the hall, out the doors, and all was right again with the world. Too funny...

Lost and confused in the 12 plex



Bonding with the other birds that exist in my apt



Apparently I scared more than the heck out of this little fella! Nice....

Temp: -3
Wind chill: -12
Winds gusting 50-70 km/hr
Snowing

Well, it's Sunday morning and the wind is just a blowin'! So much for going for a walk out to the airport like I had been hoping to do. The weather hasn't been great lately, cloudy and chilly but the snow has finally been melting! The ditches are running with water and we have red mud everywhere! I took Oliver for a walk last week and he took it upon himself to roll around in a massive puddle with some kids. He truly is a filthy dirty dog... :-)

Anyway, here's a couple pictures that aren't particularly interesting but it's all I've got for now. The first two are the view from my apt today. The last one is of Oli saying goodbye to his hunney for the summer. Tania and Sable left last weekend for the summer so it's much quieter around here. :-) Evenings have been spent hanging out and having tea at Chad or Ivan's. Friday night I had everybody over for ribs, Sat morning we all headed over to Ivan's for a great breakfast and the rest of the day was just super lazy.







School is winding down now and this week will be mostly just tidying up loose ends; a class party, cleaning up, sports day, awards day, and then the final day with no students. It's funny. I'm really looking forward to going down south to summer (or going down to be a Qaplunaaq for awhile as Bertha, the teacher I work with, says), but I'm sad to not see the kids and my friends for a couple months. Not so sad to not see the snow however. :-)