don't eff with my dip

seriously, i don't care what time of year it is - don't try to dress up my vanilla dip doughnut with novelty sprinkles!!!
this is for a variety of reasons:
1) the bat sprinkles actually taste different
2) it ruins the aesthetic pleasure of the doughnut and makes it kind of assymetrical - dark black heavy sprinkles across from the dainty colourful balls?
3) just don't. nuff said.

fort st. james

burns lake

i liked burns lake. i drove down to francois lake and watched the ferry and then i went for a walk around loch lomond (no, not the one in scotland).

there is so much crap in burns lake that most people don't actually swim in it. i found some debris on the shore.

houston

home to the world's largest fly rod....

bulkeley valley

the hazeltons

terrace (which in its bad moments was tear-ass)

loooooooooong trip

i am so happy to be home.
it was an okay trip from terrace to p.g. with lots of driving, meetings and beauty in between. here's the short and sweet blow by blow.

1) AC lost my bags. both of them. with all of my workshop supplies and clothes.
2) the roundtable went well despite wearing the same clothes as the day before and not having any of my supplies. i got my bags after my roundtable was done (of course).
3) it rained 95% of the time i was in terrace which stank.
4) the rain lifted about 45 minutes out of terrace and then it was all beauty.
5) the hazeltons are really pretty.
6) smithers was fun and very swiss-like. i got to go to a community meeting for the morning which was really interesting.
7) burns lake is beautiful too. i liked it there. and it was full moon night too (miakonda night) which made me happy.
8) the rcmp can kiss it. they pulled me over for not having an n on a rental car which still infuriates me so i won't say anything more about it. but because of my travels and going to vanderhoof and then back to fort st. james, i had to go through the road blocks 4 times which made it really funny.
9) fort st. james was great. if not open.
10) it was cold and a real big sky trip. it was nice to see the sun for so long.

some realizations that i came to on this trip:
1) i am a big body of water kind of girl. i.e. i prefer lakes and oceans to rivers.
2) the mountains in the skeena valley were HUGE.
3) i don't know how people up there do it - and by it, i mean drive insane distances just to get to the next town. but i guess you trade off certain things for living on the land surrounded by insane amounts of beauty in nature.
4) if i lived up north, i would officially get nothing done. if i had that much beauty around me at all times, i think i would spend most of the time staring off into the distance and being outside except for maybe when it's absolutely freakin' freezing.

and now for the photo dump.

t minus 14 days and counting

why, oh why, am i blowing candles out?
weeeellllll that's because when i was home with la famille, we had a birthday pie (thanks harrow united church and grandma) and i got to do a little pre-emptive candle-blowing-out.

so in anticipation of my favourite national holiday (unrecognized by the ignorant masses), here's the list.

WARNING: these gifts are not practical, but, hey, it's a wish list!
* le creuset kettle (a half one - the 80 dollar kind)
* a little cast iron skillet
* an ipod shuffle (shockingly, i don't want it in turquoise - green or pretty pink please)
* 1 skein of noro "silver thaw" wool from dyelot 5A only available in the states. pooh.
* the "duh" list - the new nigella cookbook, the new (and hopefully not the last) rebus novel
* meaningful gestures from lovely people

party news will be going out SOON.
yesssssss.

(on a completely random note- look at the pic closely - you can actually see my eyebrows! rare occassion my friends)

and there shall be no more sea

one more...

the purdiest river you ever did see...

finally...

fernie and back

more cranbrook

and trip to kimberley and south to moyle lake

cranbrook pics

hewers of wood

my trip to cranbrook was AMAZING and filled with side trips to kimberley (thurs) and fernie (friday). which is good since it took about 9 hours to get there. sure, the calgary airport is nice, but i would have prefered to spend less time there than i did.

i have to say up front, though, that the happiness of the trip is muted and muffled by the sadness of the fact that when i came home last night, i found out that my grandad died on friday night. and now i am numb and struggling to express all of the wonder i felt when i was away.

so here's the short version - i'm sure there's more in my head, but that's been erased or at least painted over by grief.

* industry - again, the resource economy is nuts and out in the kootenays, there is the lumber industry and the mines. sure those rockies are beautiful, but people are still working so hard to get by. one of the women i worked with is essentially a single mom since her husband works 4 days on, 4 days off, and yet, if he works overtime, which happens often, he's only home for a day and a half.
* speaking of industry - the interplay of nature and man is pretty evident. (i.e. huge mills set against the backdrop of the rockies)
* i'm not surprised too that these folks sometimes identify more with alberta since the landscape is pretty much the alberta flag (plus cows in the field).

that's all i've got right now, which is more than i thought i would have, frankly. i'm going to post the photos and then i'm off to ontario for the week.

love to all.
j. xoxox

fun facts

prince george was THE prince george - as in the madness of king george.
lose the states, but keep this city?
awesome.

mo' geo'

georgie photos

who was prince george anyway? (i'll look that up, but in the meantime enjoy the pics.)

P to the G

here's the first update /photo dump from my trip. i arrived in prince george on monday morning and got to the workshop at 10. when did the workshop start? 10 am. ha ha.

anyhoo - the roundtable was grrrrr-eat. the people were amazing, the mood was pretty casual and we got a lot of great stuff going. we also played disc golf on the new course in p.g. where i learned that i should not quit my day job and become a professional disc golf player. i actually almost took out someone behind me. (really, i was just doing it so the group would have a central joke. yes, that's it.)

after work, i dumped my stuff and watched some cable tv in the hotel room as a cold snuck in and threatened to overtake me. but a good dinner, and some company with some of the folks from the Roundtable in the hotel bar helped stave it off and made for a great evening.

yesterday, went to a regional meeting for work and met some more great people and had a tour of the new northern sports complex. it's HUGE! 2 indoor soccer pitches and a gym with 3 basketball courts. (saw some workers installing the seats on the bleachers, which i realized is something i take completely for granted). and then there's a track above it all. it's nice, but i felt bad for jenn, leone and lo since it's here after they have left. it also felt weird to be up at UNBC where the 3 of them have spent so much time when they're not here.

after the meeting, we went to the art gallery and saw 2 great shows. then my 2 other co-workers flew home, and i toodled around p.g. on my lonesome which was FUN. i walked around and hit the local yarn shop (leone - did you go to darlene's? was that your wool hook-up? her dog is sooooo cute) and then like any sane traveller, i went to the railyard and took pictures. (mom - it was bright out, i felt safe and didn't go play amongst the trains, merely took pics of them).

so after this long winded post, here are my impressions of p.g. (those of you who have lived here, feel free to comment):
* it's pretty - all of the cottonwoods are GLOWING yellow.
* they actually experience this thing called "fall" which causes all of the ontario cells in my body to react and feel like i am somewhat at home
* pine beetle sucks - they had to cut back most of the park where we played disc golf because of the devastation.
* capitalism doesn't work and resource economies are fickle things - despite the riches of the forestry industry, there is so much poverty here and so many systems in place to exploit the poor. bars are loaded with video lottery and horse racing betting machines.
* i could see how it could get stinkin' cold here. this morning it's 2 degrees. yikes, and yet, i LOVE it.

there you have it. pics to come in the next post. off to cranbrook today (via calgary - it's so weird - leave the province to come back).
i'm having fun being away and meeting all of these great people. gotta run and go work out at gold's gym before my butt and brain explode from too much TV watching. and really, who comes up with the crap on TV these days? although i am LOVING watching music videos (although the new james blunt makes me want to stick skewers in my ears).