There and back again

Last Wednesday I went out for a medical appointment. Most northerners will understand the term "out". For my southern friends, lemme 'splain; specialists arrive here for clinic visits, any further tests and follow up appointments may be booked in Ottawa or other southern destination. Such was my case, further testing was required and off I went. Really I didn't want to go. Too much noise, too much traffic too much of everything. However I had to go and decided to make the best of the trip south.

The weather in Ottawa was beautiful, somewhere between 6 and 12 C, no rain, sunny days, and no wind!

This was the first time I had been in Ottawa since the grade eight class trip. A friend toured me past the Parliament buildings, the market downtown and we dined on real Sushi!

She was kind enough to take me shopping after my appointments and remarked that I was like a kid. Can you imagine 10 light bulbs for 10 dollars!? A box of laundry soap for $8! Honestly! I filled my luggage, the extra bag and a box, full of goodies to bring home. Yes soap is a goodie, so is white sugar at $10/2lb bag.

A girl can't have too many shoes, and lets face it, the high heal spikes just aren't practical considering my climb to the tree house over the open metal steps. New shoes are shining on the shoe rack, new clothes to match. Might as well make the best of the opportunity and I treated myself to a manicure and haircut! Wheee I'm a girl again!
My birthday came and went and was fun. I got to fly in a plane, was treated to a nice dinner and a party followed! Most of all just being home for my birthday was the best part of the whole thing. My friends were generous in their kind wishes and the evening rounded off the trip home perfectly

The Food Chain

Such is the dogs life. The raven in their cunning ways pester an animal to exhaustion. Each taking turns at the game "distract and rob" I couldn't believe my eyes when I counted a dozen birds awaiting their chance at Aputi's spilt kibble.
Persistence wins the day as the tied dogs usually tire of the game and the ravens win their booty.
They may squabble and caw and fuss, but they're a co operative lot willing to wait their turn. They are not fussy eaters and will take any opportunity to rob a dog of it's meal.
Last week, a neighbours dog slipped her collar and spotted a murder of ravens on the hilltop. She promptly ran up, stole their food and took it to her home! One for the dog!

Voting Day

Go cast your ballet. It's the power we have!

taaadaaa-my first time sea lift

Sea lift has arrived! It was a chilly and gusty morning. We headed down to the dock to unload early. The only thing we ordered on sea lift was 1120lbs of dog kibble. The problem here with dog food is: it is not always available, it's poor quality food, and it costs a fortune. We didn't have a crowbar, but friends arrived with one; the skid was split between two households. I hired a young neighbour to lug the 16 (40lb) bags up the 28 stairs...I forget how strong men are..he carried them 2 at a time! Didn't even get winded!
Purchasing on sea lift was the equivalent of buy 2 get one free. And we got a top grade Canadian product. We bought one bag of Nutri Zoo in the winter and for the first time in his life, Caesars perma-ear infection cleared up! (I don't mind giving them free promo)
The other household will make good use of the wood product, it isn't pressed wood, but plywood and the hardwood skid ( a rarity) will be used to ship goods south. Angela and I seen whacking the crate used this opportunity to cleanse our frustrations, it was very cathartic!

This weekend we all will be enjoying the good food!

ilinniaqtunga inuktitut....again (atilu)

Learning Inuktitut it seems to me is somewhat mathematical. In re writing the exercises I have discovered that performing a mathematical type equation works well in remembering the rules. Interestingly the order of the words is unimportant, the meaning comes in the construction of the word. It is not incorrect to say ilinniaqtunga inuktitut or alternately to say inuktitut ilinniaqtunga.
Example
umiak= boat (pron. oo me ak)
-juag = large, big, (pron. ju ak)
umiak+juag = large boat, ship
umiakjuag= umiarjuag. Sound 'k' must change to sound 'r'.
-kkut = by way of.
umiak+juaq+kkut = umiakjuaqkkut =
umiarjuaqkkut = too many consonants q has to go.
umiarjuakkut!- by ship, by way of big boat (pron. oo mee aar joo aak koot)

Tikit= arrive, (pron. tee keet)
tunga= self or I.
So it becomes tikitunga. (no tricky rules here) (pron. tick ee tunga)

A two word sentence: umiarjuakkut tikitunga or for fun tikitunga umiarjuakkut. "I arrive by ship"
Whew! that sure seems like a mouthful!

Incidentally I arrived by plane.