Winter Pics

If you live in Canada, you had better like snow! I can't say I love snow. But I love wood fires and hibernating and hot chocolate and warm beds.  But I actually ventured outside today to take some pictures for a friendly photo contest with friends. Here are my 3 submissions.

I may have forgot to actually submit the last one.  And I only took it because I fell over and my sister was screaming at me as I fell "Don't get the camera wet!"  The camera was safe. I did save it.

Maybe I'll go adventuring tomorrow and see if I can get some more pictures.  I may have won the contest and my reward is to pick the next theme.  I might let someone else chose.

Stay warm,
Leann

Hair today, gone tomorrow!

Another long break between posts. Mostly because I'm limited in what I can write about at work. Its only been a few days since I left work but its been slightly post worthy. First, my drive home was not the nicest. Not my worst drive but nothing beats sun and dry pavement and I didn't have either. Second, was my hair cut. If you can remember the few selfies I've posted, I had longish hair. I had been growing it for a wedding I was a bridesmaid in and actually had my hair up :p but I looked stunning none the less. My plan was to cut off my hair and donate it to a wig charity in Canada when it reached a constable length. Which it did. I haven't measured the cut ponytails but I've been assured that they are close to 12 inches. Which left me with about an inch.

I'm not great at taking selfies. But the hair is gone except for a bit on top. The long hair was getting annoying, so I'm really happy its gone. I'll pack up my donation as soon as the weather gets nicer.

Which leads me to today. 50cm of snow fell last night so today I learned how to use the snowblower. I now know my driveway is huge and pity the people that had to use a shovel.

I eventually dug out the car, did the rest of my stairs and finished where the car was. My car is still under a mountain of snow, with a lovely path around it, around the corner.

For anyone that actually reads these post, you may remember my cat died back in October. Mom basically started right away with wanting to get another one. I said no many many times. But this month when I got home, mom had this...

So I've kitten-napped her for the month and named her Zoe. She's actually a pretty good cat. She sleeps on my pillow so maybe its a good thing I cut my hair!

The rest of the month should involve some snowboarding lessons, photography challenges and finishing some crafts (not to mention mailing the ones that need to get sent!).

Later

Leann

Merry Xmas and Farewell 2014

Well the holiday season is almost done and it's soon time to go back to work. It was a green Xmas here in Newfoundland which was especially welcomed because last year, winter was very very long, very very cold and there was A LOT of snow. A green Xmas means we can hope that winter will be more kind this year. I did put up a Xmas tree to conform to social conventions but its down now and I instantly felt better when it came down. I did decorate it with zombie gingerbread people that I made :D I woke up early Xmas morning and drove to my sisters house so that I could watch my 1 year old nephew open his presents. He's still very young and didn't really understand it all. He's fascinated with the vacuum so Santa brought him a kid version. That was the first thing he opened so nothing else really mattered to him! I'm glad I only bought him a couple shirts. How can I compete with a vacuum! The snow finally has decided to arrive. If it had arrived earlier, I would have tried to learn how to snowboard but alas, I'll have to wait until February. Tonight is New Year's Eve. I don't have big plans. Once again, I'll be headed to my sisters place and hang out with my nephew (who really needs to stop giving me colds BTW) and drink and eat and then fall asleep on the couch. I have no idea what 2015 will bring. I suppose that's part of the fun. I've enjoyed my 2014 adventure and I look forward to my next adventures. I love seeing that my little blog still receives visitors. Thank you for reading my ramblings and looking at my pictures (I think I like groceries more than the average traveller!) If anyone has ideas for new adventures. Let me know. Happy holidays and a prosperous & healthy 2015 Leann

The 3rd Week Crazies Has Set In!

It is officially the no-mores. What are 'no-mores'? You ask. No-mores are that exciting last week of work. It is when single digits just isn't enough of a countdown. No-more Tuesdays, no-more Wednesdays, etcetera becomes the countdown of the day. Sadly to get to no-mores you must pass through week three which is also when people start to get a little loopy. Since I'm probably a little more loopy than most even on a good day, it's slightly harder to tell that my crazies have started. Fortunately, it's a good ship and a good crew so even at it's craziest, it's mostly entertaining! This third and fourth week has been relatively mild on the crazy scale (but again, I'm high on the scale!). The weather hasn't been the greatest but spirits have been high (no not the metaphysical or liquid kind of spirits). Random rumors have started right on cue. Hard to believe that on a ship with 22 crew, rumors can start but they do. Most rumors involve the same theme: crew change day! You were expecting something salacious weren't you. Sorry, it's not a soap opera ship. Everybody has insider information that they've heard indirectly from an un-named important source, as to exactly when we can get to port for crew change. Mostly, it's wishful thinking and pure entertainment to see if you can get someone to believe you. Hey, if you say it enough, maybe crew change WILL be yesterday! Nope. I'm still here. The only thing that is certain, is that crew change day will arrive and it will be four weeks after we joined. We will be the mostly tired but smiling faces, standing by the gangway, eager for our reliefs to arrive. They will be the refreshed and slightly frowning faces walking up the gangway as we walk down. The themes for this trip has been wind and water. It's November/December in the North Atlantic after all so there is no getting away from the wind. But as far as winds go, I've been in worst and I'm sure I will again. Water was the engine room theme. If a pipe had water in it, it found a way to drip, leak, break, gurgle, burp or sputter. And in each case I'm sure I learned a little something new about each drip and leak. And water was a much better theme than my last trip, which had an oil theme! Topics at coffee break included: the latest rumor and everyone's two cents on such rumor; each two cent opinion more valuable and important than the last, random crazy conspiracy theories and most importantly, what was for lunch/supper! The conspiracy theory was that aliens are google, run google, use google or some variation thereof. I must say, this theory was no thought of by me (so please don't hurt me google aliens) but it was probably triggered by me. I like that this blog shows me stats on where people are viewing from. No, not in your underwear, on the couch in your parents basement (I don't think the google aliens are that good....yet!). But it does tell you from which country and city. When Santa Clara started be a frequent city, I started to get excited that I might actually have someone that looks at my blog regularly whose name wasn't "Mom"! I was then promptly told that Santa Clara is where google headquarters is located. I was then sad that I didn't in fact have a real person intrigued by my random blogs but instead, google was stalking me. OK. Most likely a google bot pinging the blog. But this lead to the whole, google-alien conspiracy theories. Me, again being slightly more crazy (let's say imaginative), was not bothered by a google-alien partnership. My thoughts went to, zombies are a head-shot, werewolves are silver bullets, vampires are a stake through the heart but how the hell do you kill a google-alien??!! No one else seemed as concerned as I was and the less imaginative just said "Unplug the internet". I fear for her life in a zombie, werewolf, vampire apocalypse because she might cover her eyes and say "If I can't see them, they can't see me!" And I'm concerned that my house has far too many big windows to be zombie proof! See, the third week crazies have set in! Waiting for crew change day and crushing rumors, Leann

Happy Birthday to me!

Happy Birthday to me! Well not today, but a few days ago. I'm at work but it was still okay. I work a 6 and 6 shift. 6 hours on, 6 hours off, around the clock for 28 days. I work the 12-6 shift. Don't worry, its my favourite shift and I actually like the 6 and 6. So my birthday started at midnight. The weather was fine and there wasn't too many jobs for me to do. I had breakfast when I got off shift because French toast was on the menu. I had my 5 hour nap and got up for lunch, which was salmon with hollandaise sauce. The cooks also had a chocolate birthday cake with pink icing and star sprinkles. Definitely nothing wrong with that. I even got a present. A vampire fang lollipop. I'll have to get a picture.

The day after that the weather wasn't so nice. There were high winds so not a lot of work got done because most people were hanging on. The engine room is the best place to be in bad weather. We're low in the ship so we don't roll and pitch as aggressively but there were a couple times I flew across the control room in my chair.

Not the best pics but it wasn't nice. Trust me.

Successful Hunt

Finally I have been victorious! No more moose hunting for me, for another three years. Yesterday mornings hunt started very early. We (my hunting buddy and I) left the house at 5:30, drove 10km on a dirt road and then used the quad to go even farther so we could be in a spot where the moose would be at sun up.

The sun was up and it was bright, very early. It had been a clear night when we left with the sky full of stars and the moon. So there were no clouds to get in the suns way come morning. So we started searching. We came down a little hill with a small bog on the right and there were 2 moose. A cow (female) and a calf (baby). My licence is for either sex so I could shoot the cow....but I didn't. I have a hard enough time killing animals to begin with. So there was no way I was going to kill a mom with her kid standing next to her.

But on the edge of the bog, hiding, was the bull (male) moose. There was no guessing. There was a rack of antlers on his big ol' head. I didnt have as much of a problem shooting the bull. Don't worry, it wasn't the kids dad. That's not how moose roll! He took a couple steps out, turned, bang, down. He was dead. One shot. No suffering. Which makes me feel better. I said sorry to the moose and thanked him.

So now the work begins. Get to the moose in the bog. Gut moose. Get moose out of bog. Get moose home. Skin moose. Bring moose to butcher. An all day chore. And I went to bed very early last night.

Today I have to bake a cake for my birthday supper on Saturday. It's not my birthday then but I'll be away at work, somewhere on the Grand Banks or off the coast of Labrador I suppose, on my birthday. I asked friends what I should make. They have complete faith in my baking/crafting abilities so the combined suggestion is something like a red velvet, drunken gummy, skittle umbre cake. I think there was a suggestion for a stout cake too. Maybe I'll need layers. 2 cakes even. One mostly full of liquor and one for the kids (ie my nephew).

I should probably also clean. Step 1, get out of bed!

Also there are no moose pics because well I don't like posting that kind of stuff. Yes I took his picture but you won't see it here or fb or twitter. And can the girls that work with my mom smack her. She keeps looking at pics from the SPCA.

Leann

Long time, No post!

It has been awhile since my last post. I wish I could say it's been because I am just sooooo busy but that is not true. Actually, anytime anyone tells you they've been just soooo busy or toooo busy, it's an excuse for it wasn't important to them.

Example: I wanted to call/text/write you but I've just been soooo busy! Yes, it is true. They didn't want to call/text/write. Busy is their excuse so don't bother ask, "Busy doing what?". Suddenly every life chore/event/task that everyone does, becomes the 'busy' thing.

I have not been busy. I've been lazy and unmotivated :)

I hosted two German couch surfers for two weeks. Which was fine for awhile but then it gets tiring. It's fun to learn about other cultures and places and I like that I get to share my culture. When it gets to the point that it feels like there is not much left to share and it seems like freeloading, that's the tiring point. Especially because I'm not that kind of traveller myself. And I live alone so I do like having my house to myself.  Sure it's a big house with plenty of space but I like my space and my mess :) I'm sure it would be different if I was living with a friend but couch surfers aren't friends. So that was two weeks. We cooked some good meals and I brought them to the family cabin for a night.

One of those meals: pumpkin soup and red lentil curry

I've also been crafting. Okay, crafting my be the loose interpretation of the word. I painted my stairs going down to the basement. The tread got painted brown and the risers were painted with a grass butterfly theme. I saw the idea on Pinterest.

My stairs

Most of the paint I had in the basement so it didn't cost me anything to give it a try. I think it makes my trips to the wood stove a little nicer.

I also made a pallet headboard for my bed. Again, a Pinterest induced craft. I took apart the pallets using a jigsaw to cut the nails which makes the process so much faster and easier. I then arranged the pieces in my basement and gave them a good sanding. I gave them a quick paint and trimmed them to length, added back supports and legs to take the weight (it was super heavy), added a sharpie dandelion and quote and installed. It looks pretty good.

Half painted

Sharpie work done

My new headboard :)

I like that I can sand off the design or quote whenever I want and sharpie on another one whenever I want. And it is very big but it fits the room.

I also made a craft for my friends husband. Don't worry I have a craft planned for her too! He likes star wars and coffee so I found a design I thought he'd like and put it on a canvas. I had considered painting it but I found sharpies in the colours I needed so I used them instead of paint.

There is a method to my madness

Ta da! Now I want one too!

My crafting has slowed or shifted to slightly quieter. I started a winter themed cross stitch and I fixed my embroidery machine but haven't tested if my fix worked :)

In sadder news, my cat Buffy had to be put down :'( She was old and her health has started to deteriorate. She had even become I'll before I left for the Netherlands but she pulled through so I went on my trip. Basically, she was starting to become paralysed.  The first time it happened I told myself that she had just pulled a muscle and she rested for a few days not moving much but she pulled through. She then had a slight limp for the next month and was basically a little old lady. On her last day the paralyse returned but it was worst. Much worst. So I made the decision to put her down. She is now buried at the cabin. And my house is empty without her and I miss my old lady.

 One of her last pics. Having a nap.

I also tried out my pasta maker. I turned out pretty good. I'll have to try it again.

It was also Halloween. My nephew was going to dress up as a pirate so I had to as well!

Arrrrrgggg

The slightly less beardy Aaarrrrgggg

Back to work next week. Oh well I can't complain. I've had three months off!

Leann