Saturday, March 24, 2007

Adventure hikes, skucks & Cool Aid

We have recently discovered that there are skunks under our house!! Our noses made the discovery on Thursday and maintenance confirmed it on Friday by finding burrows they have dug underneath our back porch! It’s not really a smell you could imagine. At first I didn’t think it smelt as bad as I thought it would. Lindsay then informed me that this was very mild and if I was sprayed it would be 1000 times worse and Id smell like it for weeks! I now take the long way up to the house and freeze upon and movement or noise as I approach the house. Maintenance are going to remove it/them early next week. Until then I will continue to have painful fear of stumbling across one and getting sprayed! Last night I saw my first Racoon, Will start to see a lot more wildlife as they come out of hibernation. On my to see list is a bear and a moose. Apparently if you go over to the dump in the evenings you can see lots of bears. We will be going over in the truck, I don’t think my insurance will cover me being mauled by a grizzly bear!

Other news I’m off from Thursday to Monday going to Lindsay’s house for the weekend and going to see Snow Patrol in Toronto. On the way we’re stopping in Barrie for Tom to get a tooth pulled at the dentist. This could be very good entertainment once he comes round as he’s paying $300 to get knocked out for the procedure.

Went for a walk last Sunday afternoon across the road and got lost in the forest. We ended up walking around in knee deep snow, jumping rivers and climbing up rock faces, I was not particularly worried until I noticed huge animal prints which at first I thought was a bear then my friend kindly informed me that they were cougar prints and that would be worse that stumbling across a bear. We hot tailed it out of there and thankfully found the highway and followed it back to camp. It would have been a better time had I not been wearing jeans and trainers. I was expecting a nice leisurely stick to the path work not a getting lost adventure hike! Never a dull moment.

Here’s to accidentally setting off the fire alarm at 12.30am after lighting an indoor sparkler Emma bought me for Christmas, Lindsay and I thought it was very funny the rest of the house not so much!, having the genius idea of picking pineapple chucks and peach slices out of the fruit bowl for breakfast smoothies- good money saver right there!, the snow melting and not fearing falling walking on the icy paths, giving Matt a Mohawk, to the day of rain which reminded me of home, pimping out our common room, "Brenda should NEVER wear this!!"... "eh thats mine Rachel!!"... "yes and thats why Brenda should never wear it!", recieving shamrocks for St Patrick's day, cycling along to prison break, being woken up in the middle of the night by huge chucks of ice, that slide off our roof on to the porch roof and on to the ground, “I want to teach Cool Aid 101”, discovering Dallas Green, Mikes Mexican wrestling mask, great chat times, and to going to Florida!

Pictures: The top one is clearly a skunk, I like to only use pictures I myself have taken but theres no chance Ill be getting close enough to a skunk to take a picture!, the next 2 have really just been added because I think blogs look better with pictures. We have the bear that is outside the office window, then a picture of my desk where I am currently working.

Saturday, March 03, 2007

Toronto, clear roads & little

I got to spend a few days in Toronto last weekend was nice to get a break and do things like eat in a fancy restaurant and go to the cinema. After a considerable time in the underground, we eventually got downtown Toronto via are very dodgy hostel which we decided not to stay in, thankfully we were able to stay with a friend. We had dinner in this amazing place called 'rich tree' when you arrive, your given a swipe card and can go to lots of different stations and get what you want, it was such nice food. After this in the freezingness of night we went ice skating [with no skates], Its now 1am when someone decides to go bowling so off to the 24hour bowling alley, where we met William the desk guy- we kept him well entertained on his night shift with shoes flying down the lanes, Whitney dedicating songs to him and many funny names on the score board. We left after 3am and were in bed by 4am. Slept in on Saturday morning and then went into Toronto to watch Ireland stuff England in the 6 nations rugby!! [again with my good friend Emma] We then decided it would be a great idea to walk up the CN Tower for free rather than pay for the lift, sadly/thankfully they wouldn't let us. Off to the Eaton centre for shopping and a hair cut which turned out to be from a Chinese woman that didn't speak very good English! It was a very nerve racking situation she kept trying to talk to me all I wanted her to concentrate on was my hair, not trying to pronounce skiing properly!! Our friends were going to a couple of party's so Tom and I went to the cinema and met up with them after and had to go to the tail end of a party which I fell asleep at which past the time nicely. In bed by 3am. Up on Sunday morning to met our ride at Yorkdale mall then back up the road to the woods just in time for our Oscars party!

Enough about the weekend... thankfully the temperature has risen this week so much so that I was able to ski and snow shoe in a t-shirt! Although it has dropped slightly again and is snowing which is a good thing as our tube hill is a death trap. When I had a group this week they were going over 100 feet further at the bottom of the big hill and hitting the shed and about 30 feet further on the small hill and sliding into a river! When the kid hit the river I don't think Ive ever ran as fast in my life thankfully is was just soaked could have been so much worse needless to say I shut down tubing. More snow will make it safer. Its also nice to be able to see the roads, maintenance have started to scrap huge chucks of ice/snow from the roads and paths.
I received 10/10 on my room this week I have definitely set a standard!

Here's to "Because your NOT mad?", Tom's 80's CD, finally trying to roller blade, "Your a liar and that's no lie!!" to freshly made bagels, Lindsay hiding Stephs mug, being asked by a kid in my group if I can say the word 'little' because I always say wee!, "Could you explain please what exactly was funny about that?!", to Aaron putting glitter in Mikes hair, missing Alias, blue skies, Tom being sick after playing the salt game with Braden, and to Heif.

Pictures: Top is myself, Tom, Melissa, Colin and Whitney. Next is the CN Tower, a picture we had to wait in the freezing cold for Tom to take, Followed by well.. Ireland beating England, Lsat we have us all with William the desk guy.