I don’t really like zoos. I think it’s sad to see these animals trapped in little environments.

Tonight on the Amazing Race, contestants were in Thailand at the zoo. And it was even worse than other zoos! They had a tiger laying down with a huuuuuuuge chain and a handler using a stick to make the tiger look at the camera, so that people can take a pic with a tiger. YUCK! Then they had an elephant doing stupid tricks, like squatting over a human laying down. Geez! Elephants are not made to squat on demand! It makes me angry to see animals used for profit for stupid things…

In the beginning of the week the pages for my recruitment folder project arrived… But the folder itself, arriving from a different printer, only got here Friday! I was excited to see the final product, and I must say I like it very much!

Top…

Inside…

Back…

I am now in the looooong task of assembling the folders… In each putting 3 pages and 1 postcard. I am half way done, just 500 more to go!

There are 2 minor glitches with the final product…
1) The 2nd information page inside was cut a tiny bit too short, so when the 3 pages are put on top of each other, I don’t just see the titles like I wanted, but a bit of the coloured line on the 3rd page… It’s not a HUGE thing, but still! Why didn’t the printer print/cut exactly like the proof, which was perfect? I’m calling them Monday.
2) The printer I used for the folder changed a bit the colour fade out I had for the picture on the inside flap and it created a bit of a fog effect on the top… As if the mountain was in the fog! But it wasn’t! Again, not huge, but a minor glitch.

Overall I am VERY satisfied how it all turned out. I learned a lot about doing print work. And though it was a bit stressful working with printers so far away, it went very well! Yay!

Today at work was a very busy (yet rewarding) day… And also I got a phonecall from someone in the village who wanted to buy some of my craft… For 10 people a little gift… And for tomorrow! Wow, what a short deadline! I accepted the challenge…

Following the person’s suggestion I bought 4 gifts at local shops because I didn’t have enough craft stuff made… I had 3 framed photographs, one photo/driftwood keys holder. Still missing 2, so tonight I made 2 photo decorative pillows… Yep! The quickest production ever, in 45 minutes I had my 2 pillows ready (innie and outie)!

I also bought all the wrapping material and prepared the 10 gifts. To each I attached a mini Moo card with a pretty picture of the region to make it even more personalized.

I hope he’s pleased with it all… With such a short deadline, there’s only so much I can do! I like this kind of work… Except next time a bit more heads up would be great!

Some of the first houses built in my village still stand today. Built all the same way, square house, with 3 windows on the front/top floor. It seems one person knew how to build that type of house and everyone did the same model. Also, it was pretty simple architecturally. I heard that back in the day, it took this man 6 months to build one, and he was paid 600$. My childhood home was also one of these square houses my mom and dad bought from a certain Baptiste Labadie, but it doesn’t exist anymore.

Here’s one where they added a porch with the years…

Another that got a little extension on the right side…

This one got new siding which makes it look nice…

They added a front porch on this one…

This one also was extended on the left side…

There are way more in the village… They are mostly located in the old part of the village, near the church and hospital.

I’d love to learn more about them. Though they are simple houses, they are a part of our architectural heritage.

Tonight for supper I invited 3 guests…

My 2 neighbors and the owner of Happy’s best friend. In the afternoon I prepared most of the food… On the menu:
-Vegetable stuffed baguette bread
-Chinese fondue
-Apple and red berry cake

The guests seem to have enjoyed the supper. Only sad thing is that by 22h everyone was gone! They were tired from a day outside enjoying the nice weather we had today… Oh well!

My real job wasn’t such a success today… I went to St-Paul’s River all day with my colleagues (1 hour away by car). They had things to do during the day so I didn’t have a choice but to spend the day there too. But the meeting we were all supposed to attend at the end of the day was canceled. So really I went there for nothing. I got some work done, but not nearly as much as if I would have been in my office.

On the flip side, my side work was a success today! I got an email saying a new article was published about the Coast Raid and some of my pictures from the event are in it, with credit and my name spelled out right! It’s called TRIMAG Europe…
Page 1
Page 2
Also, for the recruitment folder I received the proofs for the 3 inside pages, which look AMAZING! So I told that printer to go ahead and make 1000 copies of each. The folder was also sent to the press. YAY! And I received the box of postcards I made to put in the folder as a “goodie” and they look great too! Hopefully the folder and pages will get here in time for our deadline of mid-April!!! But I’m happy, it’s going well this project.

This morning I left on the 7h plane to go to St-Augustine for work… A program I coordinate has activities there. That means I got up at 5h15!! Whoa.

After 20 minutes in the sky, I arrived at the little village. The animator I was visiting picked me up on her skidoo. We went to her house, and then to the school. A bit later her group of 2 year old kids arrived. So cute! All little boys with only one little girl! The workshop was fun… They did group play, reading, singing, played with play dough, etc. It was nice to finally see the animator in action! After the workshop, when leaving the school for lunch, it was neat seeing the school’s parking lot… Full of skidoos! In that village during Winter the means of transportation goes from car to skidoo, the roads aren’t cleared.

My flight, I was scheduled on the 14h, arrived a bit past 12h! Geez! They phoned me at the animator’s house where I was eating to say I had to be at the airport in 5 minutes. So the animator and I hopped on the skidoo, crossed the river, and I came back home. It was a short visit, but I liked it very much.

Somedays I just feel like going back to Montreal.

Because it has been a while, a video montage of Happy around 2 years old (from January to now).

Today I started the day making spaghetti sauce… It’s a quick process to prepare, just takes long to cook… And the whole house smells delicious for hours! There was enough to make 6 double portion jars, so 12 meals.

Despite today’s cold weather I did go out for walks with Happy. The longest one was walking all the way to moms, but she brought me back home by car.

I watched movies… Nothing fabulous… Daddy Day Camp and The Visitor.

Looking forward to a nice bath, after I’m done cleaning the dishes… With the big spaghetti sauce pot to clean too… Yuck!

I’m so stressed out. I completed the design of a recruitment folder and pages, for a contract I’m doing. I am now at the stage of sending it to the printers. Thing is, it’s tough…

-Because the deadline is short (they would like to have their folders ready to go on April 14th);
-Because we’re far away from the printers (and sending proofs and such take forever, especially with looming snowstorms that slow down mail);
-Because I used Photoshop but perhaps should have used Illustrator (though I don’t know that program);
-And because one of the printers I’m using (using one for the folder and another for the pages) doesn’t seem good with client services, they seem in a real hurry each time I speak with them!

I am slowly having no more fingers, nervousness makes me chew on the skin on the side of my nails!!

This weekend I went inside with J.&M. On Saturday afternoon, once the wind was a bit milder, we headed for Grande Coulée with the truck/trailer, where the skidoo ride begins! Going in was a bit tough, it was still windy/snowy, and it was very blinding… Couldn’t see if there was a little hill/bump or anything coming up! I was following the skidoo in front of me, looking to see “ok, a bump” if it was moving up/down. Quite a ride! We did make it to the cabin at Caterpillar Cliff nice and safe!

There we set everything, for example putting the food in a cooler outside, placing my sleeping bag, starting a fire, etc. And then we relaxed, cooked supper, etc. We ate delicious moose steaks cooked on charcoal from the woodstove.

The next day we headed to Stag pond for some ice fishing. Getting there was a bit complicated because the portage wasn’t opened and there was thick/soft snow with tiny trees everywhere… T.&C. and their 2 kids and W.&L. and their daughter were already there when we arrived. J. and I put our snowshoes on and walked up the portage to make the snow a bit less fluffy, tap down the trail a bit. Then the skidoos proceeded to make their way through. We made it to Stag pond!

There we fished a bit (all together catching 24 trouts), made a fire to have lunch around, saw a porcupine in a tree, and just enjoyed the nice sunny (but windy) day on the lake.

Back at the cabin that evening we prepared a yummy “thai beef” recipe, but using moose meat instead. Once again, it was VERY delicious!

Monday morning J. & I went for a snowshoe walk in the woods surrounding the cabin. We saw 3 white partridges fly away.

Since the wind was very strong (luckily the cabin is protected by a mountain and woods), we decided to head back to the village after having lunch and not to go around exploring or anything like that.

The ride back went fine. The sun was there most of the way, but still it was tough seeing anything on the ground because of snow drifting! Again I couldn’t see bumps, hills, etc. Luckily the wind was blowing in our backs and not face-on! We made it to the truck, loaded the skidoos/sleigh on the trailer and were ready to drive the rest of the way home… But nope! The road was closed with big snow banks that had accumulated.

So we unloaded the skidoos, got dressed again, abandoned the car and headed to the village with the skidoos, which is about 45 minutes ride I guess (instead of 10 by car)… It was now enjoyable though, because there was no more snowdrift.

What a nice weekend I had! I picked up Happy, who stayed at mom’s and came home to relax a bit… Before going back to work today!

I was supposed to go inside on the skidoo with J. & M. today. But it’s a bit stormy outside so the trip is a bit delayed. We’ll go once the wind dies down and stay until Monday. I was really looking forward to it! Oh well… It allowed me to finish some projects this morning, like the Blog par la poste. But I would have liked more being on the skidoo. Later on I guess!

Apparently 15 484$ was raised with the bald head challenge! That’s pretty good for a little community like ours!!

And I got lucky too. To raise donations, one of the participants was doing a draw of a necklace. I bought 1 x 1$ ticket, just to help them along, not even really looking at the necklace. And I won it! It’s got an inukshuk in the centre…

I have to admit I watched The Bachelor this season. And I was rooting for Jilian, but then when she went, out of the two left, I thought Molly was best suited for him, not Melissa. And then last night when I saw what happened at the “after the final rose” show I was so happy! It’s such a stupid show, but it entangles you in it! And you can’t stop watching!

Last night was a bad storm here! We got snow, hail and winds gusting to 110km/h! Needless to say my room was pretty noisy, but I liked it! With big winds like last night the noise is constant, like music playing or so. The bed shakes too. Happy didn’t like it though. She slept in a little ball in her doggie bed.

There’s so much snow in my street today, just as high as the surrounding snowbanks!! And in my driveway too… Hopefully it’s cleared by tomorrow morning! Because this afternoon I walked in at work. My Photoblog has a pic of the banks.

Yesterday I went to the arena, for the first time this Winter. It’s a fun league tournament this weekend. I saw our team play L’Anse-Au-Loup’s, and loose badly, but it’s all about playing for fun! So it’s ok!

Last night I went to the arena again, this time in the hall. There was a “bald head challenge” going on to raise money for cancer. It was VERY crowded/hot. I stayed to see some people I knew get shaved and then was out of there! I wonder how much they raised total, because the amounts I heard from a few participants was pretty good!