snow

It's been a crazy day. Can't share the details yet, but hope to eventually.

Meanwhile, Toronto's been snowed under again! Very cold, subway, GO Trains, streetcards, and many roads shut down because of bad conditions. More snow on the way tonight, too...

p.s. WOW, am I ever sore. I mean REEEEEALLY sore.

trip report

I've started working on a trip report. If you're interested, you can take a look at the report as I work on it. Be warned, however, that this is a rough draft (will likely undergo some revisions over the next while), and I will also be adding photos next week.

Aug.16th (Yellowknife)
Aug.17th (Rabbitkettle)
Aug.18th (Tufa Mounds, first night on the river)

Unpacked and did laundry today (everythings smells of campfire smoke), am starting to catch up on work (I won't tell you how many emails were waiting for me when I got back...this is the longest I've ever been offline). Going out for sushi tonight, woohoo!

Helen did a wonderful job at babysitting our apartment...the plants are all alive. AND she surprised us by restocking our fridge before we got back. Thank you, Helen!!!

sushi

Went to Fune last night with Helen Waters and Alison George. Alison had gone on a canoe trip to the Nahanni a couple of years ago, and it was fun comparing notes. I ordered my usual at Fune: salmon sashimi, steamed rice, shiitake mushrooms, white tuna roll.

More trip reports:

Aug.19-20th (Flatwater paddle through Mackenzie Mountains)
Aug.21st (Virginia Falls)

toronto film festival

Ruth's newest picture book, Bye Bye Pie, got a starred review in the September issue of Quill and Quire! Ruth illustrated the book; Sharon Jennings wrote the book.

Also, I forgot to mention that I came home to find a very interesting phone message on our answering machine from Dandelion Wine...a song written by Al, the piper. Unfortunately, the song got cut off by our answering machine. :-( I've written to them begging for a recording.

Jeff, Helen, and I went to Craig's last night to pick out which movies we wanted to see at the Toronto Film Festival (starts next week).

More trip reports:

Aug.22nd (Sunblood Mountain)
Aug.23rd (Figure Eight Rapid)
Aug.24th (Wedding Anniversary and Pulpit Rock)
Aug.25th (Pulpit Rock Hike, Deadmen Valley)
Aug.26th (Riffles and Kraus Hotsprings)

go dog go

Went to my sister's place last night. Annie asked me to read GO DOG GO to her. I did, and when I got to the last page she said, "Again, peeze." I read the book to her four times before Kaarel interceded and suggested another of her favourite books, NINA NINA BALLERINA. I suspect she liked this book a lot because it had a character named Sara in it. I read NINA three and a half times (at one point, Annie seemed to be distracted by a toy and I tried ending the book early by saying 'THE END' after getting only halfway through...she immediately asked me to read the book again, so I achieved nothing with my deception except to horrify my sister, who was within earshot).

More trip reports:

Aug.27-28th (Nahanni Butte, Blackstone Landing)
Aug.29th (Fort Simpson and home, Final Comments)

I'll be adding photos to my Nahanni trip report next week.

Woke up this morning with a bug, ugh. :-( Although I'm grateful I didn't get sick on the canoe trip, the timing of this bug isn't the greatest since it's going to make it more difficult for me to catch up with work.