When I move back to Montreal I’d like to buy a condo. And something like this would be great!

Old charm and new modern (kitchen especially), enough rooms for bedroom+guestroom+craftroom, wood fireplace, backyard for Happy and near a dog park. Would be perfect!

Now, what kind of job can I find to be able to afford it?

Sometimes I send weather pictures to Radio-Canada’s weekend morning show. The last one featured Happy (at the bottom of the pic)! My dog is famous! She was on tele!

This weekend was the craft fair at the school. It’s a charity organised by the Olivier Beaudoin Foundation. I had about half of the things I had last year and that’s good because I got rid of about 2/3 of the things. I guess the economy isn’t back 100% on track! It was nice to see a lot of people but also very loud/crowded at times on the Saturday..! Kids ran around a lot while their parents shopped… Ouf!

I wanted to enjoy my Sunday and do something outside but it has been raining all day! I couldn’t even put up my Christmas lights! I’ll do it tomorrow after work… They say the rain will stop tonight. I also would like to get a small tree to decorate inside… Even though I won’t be there on Christmas, it would still be nice to have a tree until December 23rd when I fly to Quebec City!

The good side is I had time to do indoor things… For example I cleaned the craft room, which had become quite messy, and made 5 individual moose meat pies. Had one for supper, simply delicious!

I’m torn for my accommodation when I go to Montreal for 5 nights (around New Years). I would like to stay at this nice Old Montreal hotel. But at the same time by head is being reasonable and saying I should just stay at the youth hostel.

Last night it was quite difficult to fall asleep because of the winds outside and the noise it makes in my bedroom, which has 3 outside walls. That kind of wind also makes things inside my house move… My bed, as I am laying in it, jiggles around a tiny bit! Right now it’s still windy and my desk is shaking a bit… Hard to describe. I did manage to drift off, because I was extra tired.

At about 2h though, the 60 km/h to 80 winds woke me up. I couldn’t fall back asleep. I went to the guest bedroom. There was less wind/wall noises but that bed was shaking more than my bedroom’s bed! So I went back to my bedroom. I was actually thinking of packing up and going to sleep at mom’s house, in a quiet basement bedroom! Instead I turned the tele on and watched RDI for a while… Which is something I hardly ever do in the middle of the night! After a while I felt my eyes closing, so I put snooze 30 minutes. I guess it worked, I woke up at 8h with wind noises. So despite the wind, I was able to get some hours of rest!

But geez… The winds I could do without this weekend. It’s the craft fair at the school gym and I think many people aren’t coming because of the crappy weather of rain and heavy winds.

My snowmobile was delivered today… And when I got back from work there it was waiting for me! Yay! It was getting dark so I couldn’t appreciate its beauty too much, but I did get a quick snapshot.

Now. Snow.

First, my ski-doo didn’t come yesterday… Apparently it’ll be delivered after lunch. Sure hope so!

I like listening to my iPod on shuffle. And this morning it played songs that reminded me of trips! It seems on each holiday I listen to one CD more specifically…

Lukey’s Boat of Great Big Sea came on… It reminded me of the June 2009 Iceland trip! While driving around in my little rental car I often listened to the live Great Big Sea CD. It was energetic enough, in a happy/cheery way, and didn’t distract me from my driving.

Then a Whitlams song came on… That was instant flashback to Oz in 2004! I went to a Tim Freedman gig (the Whitlams’ singer) and it’s just so typical Aussie… Talking about Gough (old P.M. of the country) or pokies (poker machines).

Finally Bury Me With It of Modest Mouse came on! That was the London/UK trip of 2006! My boyfriend at the time lended me his iPod for the trip. I didn’t like much of his music, but there was that good MM CD on it… So I mostly listened to that.

Now… My next trip is to Europe with my bro in June. I wonder what music will become the soundtrack of that holiday!

This morning I went in to work… But I knew I shouldn’t have. I woke up with a bad headache… And an hour into my shift it was only getting worse. So I went home for the rest of the day. After a 2 hour nap in the morning (whoa!), I spent the afternoon watching the movie De père en flic. It was funny, but not as funny as I expected! Would have liked more funny lines from the character Marc.

I also found out a new feature for my iPod! I like to listen to it on shuffle. Except some of my music I don’t want to listen to really… But keep it in case… Today I found out that in iTunes I can tick them off using “Skip when shuffling!” Yay! No more annoying transitions! For example going from nice Bloc Party to annoying Mudvayne screaming.

I bought my plane tickets for the holidays too… I’ll go to Quebec on December 23rd, do a little detour in La Tuque to see father & family for a few days from December 27th to 30th and spend the rest of the trip until January 4th in Montreal. Should be fun!

I hung out with my two-three best friends since a I was kid, and they were good at socializing/in with the crowd. Without them around I wasn’t invited or didn’t go out.

And today I still feel that crappy feeling. People socialize, have gatherings… I’m hardly ever invited.

I’ve tried watering that “social circle” plant, for example hosting suppers at my place and such. But nope. Not really helping.

It sucks really. Because I miss having friends to hang out with.

Thankfully I do have some people around here, but they are older than me (the parents of my best friend growing up, the parents of a classmate)…

It was easier to meet people and socialize in Montreal with all the events going on all the time…

On Thursday I went to check out the snowmobiles at a Bombardier dealer in Labrador. I brought M. along with me… And by some strange coincidence R. was also there! M. & R. are the two guys I trust the most with snowmobile-related things! The ski-doo I was thinking about buying wasn’t assembled in the showroom yet… It would be by the next morning.

So Friday I went back with R.. He’s been a client at this dealer for years and knows them well… My Tundra LT was assembled and I could see it! It’s exactly what I wanted! R. explained a few things about the ski-doo, like a fan-cooled motor and what that means really (I know next to nothing about mechanical things). I went ahead and bought it! Yay!

Those are extra thingies I got with the snowmobile… Oil (enough for 4 trips inside according to R., sparkplugs and belt). The snowmobile will be delivered on Wednesday. All I need now is snow! Right now the forecast for the next few days calls for snow on… Wednesday! It’s surely a sign.

More pics when I actually get my ski-doo parked in my driveway!

This weekend I made some Christmas ornaments. I used the cookie cutters I already had (star, tree and gingerbread man) and new ones (snowflakes, angels and snowmans).

Today I made a tote bag using pretty Michael Miller fabric, Lava Bloom. I really like it a lot, enough I’d like to keep it for me!

My goal is to make at least one item per evening on weekdays and some more on weekends. We’ll see how that goes! But the deadline for the craft fair is getting closer… Just over 2 weeks!

I am thinking about getting a snowmobile! It’ll be my 3rd Winter in Blanc-Sablon and I’m tired of being the only one without a sled!

Pros:
-Be able to enjoy small trips to the nearby lakes, to ice fish for example.
-Day trips to cabins or overnight stays inside, which are amazing experiences!
-Befriend people here more and go on these trips with them.
-Be able to easily go to work on days after a snowstorm when streets are not cleared.
-Enjoy Winter even more! It lasts long here, might as well enjoy it!

Cons:
-The price…
-Happy won’t be able to join me, in the beginning at least… She’s scared of snowmobiles! She’ll have to stay here alone or go to mom’s more often.

If someone asks me to make sure some documents at work are final/ready, I’ll do it. I worked on it all week. Then today on Friday just before the weekend I finally send the documents. And this person tells me I could take the extra time early next week before she’s ready to use them to double check for mistakes. I’ve been checking for darn mistakes all week! Doing corrections! Finalizing translation! It’s almost insulting.

IT would be neat to see the Olympic torch relay… Apparently it will be going around the country touching 90% of people (passing within 1 hour’s drive of them). I guess I am in the remaining 10%! The closest it will get to us is in St-Anthony, which is across to Newfoundland (1.5 hours of boat) and then drive (120km). It’ll be there Thursday. But yep. I’m working. So no torch for me!

A little while ago I registered on the Post Crossing website.

Until now I’ve received 6 cards until now, from different countries such as Belarus, Russia, China, The Netherlands, Taiwan and Germany. They travelled 44 982 kilometers to reach me. The longest ones to travel took 26 days!

I’ve sent quite a few as well. It’s funny… I tell myself I’ll write just one… I start writing… Then I feel like doing one more… And in no time I’ve written the limit of 5 cards! It’s kind of addictive! It’s fun to see what cards each person enjoys receiving, finding one in my stash, writing a note.

Then the person receives my card and often comments back via the website on what I wrote…! So there’s also interaction.

I ordered a set of 20 cards on moo, using different pictures I took. Not always the typical landcapes, but things like my dog Happy, burgers and fries I cooked, flowers, concerts, urban scenes, etc. That way I’ll have new cards to choose from! Now just waiting for them to arrive…

I had 11 little visitors last night, which wasn’t bad at all! Others I spoke with only had less than 10! So I’m happy. I got to see cute costumes and give away my bags of goodies.

Today I made some pumpkin marmelade. It’s my first time making it, but it turned out quite delicious! I put 6 cups of tiny chopped pumpkin, grated the skin of 6 oranges and 1 lemon, chopping the fruit up after too. I added 2 cups of water. I let it boil 45 minutes. Then I added 3 cups of sugar and put it on way high until it thickened. I mainly followed a recipe I found online, but changed the amount of sugar. They asked for 4 cups! Nuts! I almost never put the total amount of sugar they ask in recipes.

I also went to vote in the municipal elections. I cast my vote for a half-women and half-men mayor’s council, making sure to choose some of experience and some younger people. If my choices get elected, it’ll be good! I feel more involved with elections here… We know all the candidates… Makes it much more interesting!

I can’t believe the weekend’s already over. I do feel rested a bit but at the same time I feel I’d need a few days more to feel optimal! It’s not the flu, it’s just normal fatigue I guess.

Also while everyone else changed the time, we stayed the same. It means here it’s 17h, but in Montreal it’s 16h. It also means some of my TV shows will now be too late to watch at night!