All Hallows Eve

When there's something strange in your neighbourhood, who you gonna call? Tonight was fantastic, the evening started with handing out candy to trick or treaters, then eating candy for the trick or treaters, and followed by some spooky glamor shots. Then we ate more candy, then sugar cubes because the candy just wasn't enough. After a tummy ache, we danced under the moon and whistled at the northern lights. We topped off the night by watching Halloween Simpons and Beetlejuice. Only another year left until next Halloween!

A Very BEARY Experiance

Well, I finally did it. I ate a polar bear, well not the whole thing. I got a phone call this evening that one of our friends uncles had shot a bear and did we want to try it? First question: was it cooked, why yes it was. Ok I'll be right over!
It's a pretty fascinating story actually, I guess the uncle was out with a few other guys on a fishing trip. They had noticed the bear stalking them for 4 days and decided to be on the safe side that one of them would stay awake at all times. They set up a string around the tent area tied to gas cans, so if the bear got close it would make some noise. On the night it's the uncles turn to stay up, he hears a noise come from the gas can rig. He then puts his ear up to the tent and hears the heavy breath of the bear. When he is certain that it is the bear, he wakes everyone in the tent and proceeds to run out of the tent and shoots the bear. The details between that and being on my fork are unimportant. It's here and now I am tasting it. It looks like beef, it cuts like beef....but it AIN'T beef! It has a flavor that I can't quite describe. It almost tastes musty to me. Our friend says it's a very rich flavor and I have to agree, however I am not fond of it. It's almost a musty fish flavor. Anyways I only ate it so that I can go down south and freak people out.
On that topic Aleks and I got onto a conversation about what meats I won't eat, being dog, cat and whale. I said I would try everything up here, but not whale. Why not whale Jen? Because I want to free Willy, not stuff him in my belly. I guess I have some strange feeling that they are pretty intelligent and I would feel really upset about consuming them. Plus I would never be able to go back to marine land.

Halloween Cinema Madness!

This Halloween I didn't want to get stuck watching just the classics like Beetle Juice and Nightmare Before Christmas, I was looking to widen my spooky movie database. I am lucky to have satellite and DVR, as I sniffed out a few movies I hadn't seen before. Here are a few you should check out if you are looking to get into the Halloween Spirit. If you have the Channel TCM (Turner Classic Movies) you can get most of these movies.

Pit And The Pendulum (1961)
A young man investigates his sister's death in a mysterious castle. Cast: Vincent Price, Barbara Steele, John Kerr.
What says Halloween more then Vincent Price acting in a Movie based
off of an Edgar Allen Poe Story? The acting wasn't too bad and the effects were as good as you can expect from a 1960's movie. Nothing puts me into the Halloween spirit more then Vincent Price going insane!


War Of The Worlds, The (1953)
A scientist on vacation stumbles upon a Martian invasion. Cast: Gene Barry, Ann Robinson, Les Tremayne.
Super Cheesy special effects and bad acting make this a must see!


Strait-Jacket (1964)
Murder follows an axe murderer home when she's released from a mental hospital. Cast: Joan Crawford, Diane Baker, George Kennedy.
This Movie was totally cheesy, but that's why it is totally amazing! And there is a little twist at the end.

We did the Mash....the Monster Mash

Frankly only getting dressed up in a costume once a year is not enough. I decided to remedy that by having a little Halloween shin dig at my place this Saturday.
Pumpkin Carving Nunavut Style, courtesy of Mark.
Everyone had great Costumes!
Does the KC hat give it away?
A Witch and her Mountie.

It's the most Wonderful time of the year...

C'est HALLOWEEN!Aleks brought up a few treats up from the south and I got my London drugs box in the mail with my black nail polish, so I am really feeling spooky. Have any of you ever tried those Molasses candies that come in the classic orange with silhouette black cat wrappers? My Mom used to eat them, Aleks and I would be totally grossed out (as you should around Halloween), but now I think I really like them.

Boys Club

I told you we have a "basement"! Maybe you have to crawl through a hole, and maybe the ceiling height was made for an Oompa loompa, but we doooo have a basement! YAR, it's where the pee and poop tank be!

dude.

Nathan is really happy to see Aleks. He played it all manly and unexcited but when Aleks actually made it, Nathan ran around the house showing Aleks all his cool Northern Toys (including the guns) like a school boy. I barely had a moment to talk to my own brother! MOM, Nathan's hogging Aleks!

For those of you who don't know, my brother and my husband have a relationship that began long before I even knew of Nathan. They met in University and Nathan broke the customary rule of Don't Date Your Friends Sisters. I figure we did Aleks a favor of marrying someone he is already friends with into the family.

Aleks Arrives

Trying Raw Frozen seal on his first night in the north. First thoughts afterwards "will I get worms?"

Gifts from the SEALIFT

My baby came back.

Well he has been back a few days now, but I can resist putting up this wonderful picture I took of him when I picked him up at the airport. Life is much more wonderful with him around, except for the mustache, couldn't you have left that behind on your trip?

Get back to work!

Inspiration comes from this site, check it out!

The Kid/Dog Relationship

Well it just solidifies any theories that kids and dogs are made in heaven for each other. Yesterday I got to watch Ainsley over dinner hour as her parents celebrated an anniversary. She had pasta and of course it got everywhere. Have you heard of this product called the Scuba? It's a circular robot that washes your floor as it moves, mine has four legs and especially loves cleaning up food items.

Milizzard fo shizzard

Well, one of the beauties of living in the north is that the weather actually does effect your life inside and out. We have just come out of a 48 hour milizzard (not a blizzard but still miserable!). I was without T.V. and internet for entirely too long (no t.v and no internet make Jen go something, something, crazy? Don't MIND if I DO)! It all started the other night when I noticed that it looked like someone had thrown a slurppy on my front porch, then it got really cold and the slurrpy froze. Now I am in constant fear of breaking a hip, there isn't a enough salt to melt the amount of dangerous ice outside! There was also snow and high winds that shook my house. That's finished, my internet is back but there is still much too much ice. And I have to use a lighter, along with my house key when I want to get into my house. I guess some of the slurppy got into my lock and now that it's frozen I need to heat up my key for any lock turning action to happen. How does one fix this problem ultimately? As I am only temporally melting the ice inside the lock to get it to turn? Then it freezes again and I have to repeat the process? Do I shove a piece of paper towel into the lock to absorb the moisture after I heat it up?

Nathan's home tomorrow!! I can't wait!! Not only for him, but so he can fix the T.V, I think the dish was blown out of alignment. Also in a week my brother will be up visiting from Ottawa. I can't wait for him to finally see where I live as he is a large city lifer, who I know will get a shock from being up here. And I do love to shock him, that's what sisters are for. A week after he leaves, Nathan's sister is up. She is a seasoned visitor to Nunavut, so no shock value there, just looking forward to visiting! I am hoping that it snows enough to get the snow mobile out for her visit, but all the weather gods seem to want to do these days is to make unpractical ice! Who needs that?
Speaking of Ice, check this out, I got one of my photos published in the Nunavut News North paper, front page too! It's the picture of the three boys running on ice. SO go get your copy TODAY folks!

P.S I was forced to change my hair style again because of few northern bloggers guessed my "top secret profession". And it's almost Halloween so I needed to have black hair.

Sleep....will it ever come?

I am still fighting for a good sleep, it hasn't happened yet, I am blaming Nathan.

I have changed my header just for Tina, it's the view of town from this morning at about 7:30 am. You can see how much less light we have already and how much more snow. In this picture you can see a basic view of town or at least the part people refer to as town, there are other named parts. I find this amusing as it's so small you could walk across it, but here is a defined "down town" so to speak.

You can see our Northern store as well in this header (Tina can you see it?). It's under construction right now and not in the best shape for pictures. I am currently looking for a an older archived image of it for Tina, as she is making a post card of all the Northern Stores or Northmarts in the North. So all northern bloggers drop her a line...or a sized JPG.

OOOOooooo went the WiND, and out went the LiGHTS

And the FiVE LiTTLE PUMPKiN'S rolled out of SiGHT...

It's almost Halloween and I am ridiculously excited! My Halloween costume came in the mail the other day, I am going to be the Wicked Witch Of The West (slash North)! It was slightly too small but I am managed to SQUEEZE into it, although to play it safe I will be going on a little diet to make sure that all goes to plan on ALL HALLOWS EVE!

Anyways as I sit here and write this, the wind is hallowing outside, illegally making entrance into my home, through cracks in the windows, rattling doors and making terrible screaming noises! It's starting to freak me out, that should be appropriate considering the time of year, but I am especially freaked this time because I am all by myself! That's right my comfort and security has left me to do relief for another detachment in another community. FOR A WEEK! Rattling noises and shaking doors are an especially bad thing when you are over tired from Insomnia too (I have been working a few nights and my sleep schedule is all wacky)! It's at this time that I am giving thanks to my large, protective Malamute and my sympathetic, cuddly kitty! It will be alright as long as I don't hear them answer me back when I talk to them. "Res, I wRould enRoy Rat cRookie! I WRUV ROO!"

I am going to hate every second that Nathan is gone! But I know that this little time apart will only be a reminder of how much he means to me. I think that sometimes it's easier to take something for granted when it's always around. While he is gone I am going to be reminded every second why he is wonderful and I keep him around. I hope that for all the pain I go through this week, that at the end, it adds up in appreciation and I know I will be counting the seconds until he is back. I am a big girl and can take care of myself no problem, it's just miserable being without your best friend...without getting SAPPY... "DUDE I TOTALLY MISS YOU"!

IMalamute

My new shirt.The white thing above the IMalamute is not a swirl of poop, but rather a dog dish with dog bone. Pfft, my shirt rocks!

The Day & The Dinner

It doesn't seem like something that's important to blog about, but apparently I thought it was important enough to blog thrice about: Thanksgiving. Holidays are important here, it's a reason to celebrate! We spend them in a much more simplistic & old school (we have no tv, so lets all sing a song) manner.
A big breakfast, a family activity and then the main event; dinner! Nathan, myself, Tallinn, Christina and Ainsley spent the afternoon on the beach. Christina made the dinner part and all I had to do was bring some bread, boy was that a breeze!
The seaweed forecast for today: Thick and squishy!
What amazing fashion sense this man has! The dog leash belt....HOT and dangerous all at the same time!
This was fantastic! I love food! Yey, the elliptical trainer is coming soon!

A Tale Of A Few Crepes

What do you do on a lazy Thanksgiving Monday, when all the stores are closed and the comfort of your warm house is the most appealing thing, when you want to just stay in your Pjammas all day? You make crepes and have a little fancy, but not formal breakfast(because remember you are still in your raspberry stained pjammas). But first you have to learn how to make crepes, because even though they look simple, simple they are not! The first few were tough and thick, until I got the hang of the pan swirling down (to thin out the batter on the pan). Even after I got them to a nice thinness, they weren't perfectly round, but who cares they tasted great and next time I will prefect their beauty.
Breakfast Art.
Norman Likes them too (This was just an extra one I was trying to take pictures of, he also seemed interested, but was put off by the non-tuna flavor)!
More to Come on Thanksgiving dinner...My two loves; food and photography!

GivingThanks For My New Earrings

Yesterday I attended a craft sale, set up a table and sold some of my photo cards. That was the first time I have ever done that and was surprised to see how good the reaction was from the shoppers! Of course I couldn't save any of that money that I made, but instead spent it on these amazing ivory earrings. I think they are supposed to be char, fish of some kind at least, obviously. Norman can tell because he has taken a special liking to them, batting them off the kitchen table a couple of time, I finally had to lock them up! I absolutely adore them and couldn't bare the thought that they would get trashed the first day I had them!
Here is a sample of one of the photo cards I sold.

Thanksgiving weekend activities for the kids included racing around on a half frozen pond. I kept hearing a high pitched twang and realized that it was the ice cracking. It was harder in parts, but some parts of the pond were moving in wave like motion. I was a little worried, but it's not too deep and no one has fallen in ....yet. Here is a boy practicing his harpooning skills for when he is all grown up.

We Be BLiZzARDiNG

Well it finally happened, Christmas threw up in my backyard! We have been having 100km/hr winds and horizontally slicing snow that would put speeding cars on the 401 to shame! I have stayed inside as much as possible to avoid getting my face whipped by the pelting snow. And stuck inside all I seem to want to do is bake cookies and burn candles that remind me of Christmas. Really this is just too soon, I mean it's at least 3 months away! White just doesn't make me feel like Halloween. I need that rotting orange colour of the grass to get me into the mood for that spooky holiday!

Even "someone" wanted to be inside! The winds were just too hard core for him! Inside, bored he shredded every piece of cardboard he came across! Here I am trying to confiscate a FEDEX box that he had found. What a baby!

Here is the baby expressing his displeasure of the weather conditions and then his happiness when I let him inside.


I did go out to get a few pictures (including my flip flops in the snow just for Tina! Is it the exposure of toes that you don't like?). Here I am braving the blasting winds, I can't even keep my eyes open for the 1/200th of second it took to take this picture!

Here is poor Norman demonstrating what happens when Jen gets stuck inside for too long. Don't worry he forgave me. I was only doing a little preparation work for his Halloween costume...just kidding I don't think he will want to be there, even if the candy was made of Tuna.

Curing the Blues

Don't worry, don't worry I haven't completely lost it yet! I have plenty sane cells left in my brain (even if the pictures suggests otherwise). It's has just been the weight of living in the North over a year and the best way start fresh for the dark season was to get drop dead weight from my brain. February won't be the time for going crazy, rather spending time on the beach, here I come Hawaii! The count down for February will be a joyous one.

Here are a few little things that I do to cure the southern blues in the North.
1. To fix my coffee house and latte deficiency:
Take a half cup of milk and microwave it, then take milk and blend(froth) in a magic bullet. Pour milk into (Starbucks) mug simultaneously with overly strong coffee (made with two table spoons of French Roast per cup of water). Enjoy while listening to the Buena Vista Social Club.

2. To Pep me up when I want to be stylish:
Go online and buy super cute (northern Friendly) winter boots that your husband will remind you that you don't need because you already own them in a different colour.
Take a long shower, exfoliate, put in a conditioner treatment, use soaps that remind you of summer and finish it off with Body Shop body butter (coconut will make those winter blues and winter sandpaper skin melt away).
Paint your toenails and wear flip flops inside even if it's snowing outside.

3. And just to get rid of any other frustrations
Get your wonderful husband to take you out target shooting with the 22. I have actually gotten to be a good shot, I wonder if this skill will ever be useful someday.

Here is what I don't miss about living in the south that I thankfully don't experience in the north:
1. Peoples horrible impatience. Waiting in line is the end of the world to some people. I hate getting stuck behind some restless woman at the grocery store, smacking her gum and tapping her $20 gel nails on the counter. In the north, it's a social event waiting in line, and no one really complains. I like to call this place my arctic Jamaica, just chill man!

2. Complaining. People in the North could be stuck with no power for many, many hours in minus 40 weather and no one complains, it's just assumed the power is out for a legitimate reason. In the south the power could go out for an hour and it's not even breaking the 0 mark, the next day the news is complaining about all the senior citizens being frozen to death. I am not saying no one complains up here, just at least not about things they know they can't do anything about.

3. The Rush. I always had 10 thousand people to see and things to do in the south, and it all had to be done at the same time. This is why you need a cell phone, so you can arrange details and schedules while traveling in the car, in line at the store or while using the toilet. In the North the worst thing you need to worry about is getting dinner made on time. Nathan comes home for meals while he is working and it's totally normal for businesses and offices to close for dinner hours, like we are now talking Italy on top of Jamaica. GO GO GO to buy groceries and get to bank before 5, why don't they have a drive through grocery store?!?!?!!?

Sure I complain, but I love living here, I like to chill man.

Singing the Blues

While I can't say I regret being up here or that I don't enjoy every minute of my time here, I do have flashes of missing the south.

Yesterday was horrible, we had 100km/hr winds and blowing snow, if that doesn't make you miss a warm Ontario day, I don't know what would. My house was shaking so bad from the wind, the water in my toilet had waves! I am starting to cultivate a little cabin fever and I haven't seen the sun in days! Mostly I think a few little things are starting to get to me living up north, things I really miss about the south. For example, sometimes I would just like to wear a pair of heels or some kind of work of beauty on my foot, but alas the boot of rubber is what I get. I love my stiff rubber boots, it's just sometimes I want to wear something that matches my outfit and doesn't make me feel like my name should be Jenny-sue! Sometimes I just want to be able to go to Starbucks first thing in the morning, get a Fru-Fru Latte and stand in line while listening to classy Cuban music! Sometimes I just want to go to 7-11 at 2am, get a Dr.Pepper Slurpy and then complain about how far behind the times we are because there isn't a 24/hr Walmart that I can go to after and do a little late night shopping. Yes I would shop at 2am, given the chance. There is a store in the States called Meijers that I have been to in the wee hours of the morning and lived through their many isles with an excitement. Sometimes I would like to just get on a bus, put on my headphones and ride anonymously for an hour without recognizing everyone, or have anyone notice or wonder what I am doing. Sometimes I'd like to just slip below the radar when I leave the house and not worry about anybody else's business or worry that they are worrying about mine. Most of these things have their charms in opposite living in a small community, but I came from a large city and just sometimes I enjoy being in a place where no one knows your name, you have destinations at all hours of the night to visit, good coffee is abundantly available and there are multiple radio stations to choose from.

One thing I miss the most are sounds and smells. How are the fresh smells of the pumpkins going to be this year or the far away cries of a train in the distance be without my ears to hear them. I miss the hum of cars racing away on the highway as it sooths me to sleep. Up here I get the bloody screams of dogs and ravens, while the dogs torment the ravens and the ravens torment the dogs, and the dogs torment the other dogs and so on. These are all things that I thought I could forget about, but i really can't and I don't think I will ever. The North is my home for now, but it will never be where I am complete. I am more sympathetic now when an Inuk tells me they can't stand Ottawa because they can't see anything for all the trees and buildings.

Ad Vision

With magical ability of digitally recording television, one tends to loose the commercials. And is this really such a bad thing. Well I have to say that I admire a good commercial, and I mean a good one. Here are 3 of my all time favourites, ones that I can watch over and over again (to fill the ad hole that the DVR has created).

This first one here is running top of my list, it's best if you have seen the movie "The March of the Penguins". And a little hint for this one is that in French it's called "The March of the Emperors".


This one comes in Second (yes I know I am counting backwards). And Since I am a Mac girl I present Mac Vs. PC. This ad is the best of the series because it points out some of the many flaws with windows new operating system Vista. One thing I hate is control and I am glad I am not running vista!


Last of all I bring you a classic, the Ikea Lamp left on the street ad. I love this one in so many ways. It brings me deep int feeling, I feel terrible for the neglected old lamp, notice how the woman tenderly touches the new lamp. I think however I love this best because it displays a practicalness that I love in Scandinavian people. God Bless Ikea.