How not to: Awning continued

 

 Step 1. Try for three not consecutive days to get that fucking sewing machine to work. Bobbins are the devil.

Step 2. After using almost an entire spool of thread, you take that shit apart, stick a q tip in there to remove the gum-like substance and lint that someone left behind and put it back together. Fucker still doesn’t work. Take it apart even further this time. Turn the bobbin holster into a notch thing that holds it in place. Put it all back together for the third time only this time you forget where the little metal piece goes. Throw it on the floor.

Step 3. Try… and … it works!! woohoo! Time to celebrate. You consider having a drink. You are cool with drinking alone, but drinking alone while it’s still kind of morning and you will still be alone long after the buzz wears off seems like it’s crossing some kind of line. You roast yourself a marshmallow (Siamese twin… it came that way I swear) on the stove instead. Awesome.

Step 4. Spend the next 2-3 hours sewing the square you cut out earlier. Measure meticulously, and by meticulously I mean lay it out on top of the old one and guesstimate. Sew. Realize late in the game that you forgot it is 2 pieces stitched together down the middle and wonder if it had strength giving properties or something. Sew some lines down the middle just in case. (Thinking the whole time that Mrs. Saige Wisdom would definitely approve)

Internal dialogue ‘shit, they’re not straight. Fuck, whatever’

Step 5. Gleefully take the completed awning outside and double check they are the same. It’s 4” too fucking narrow because you wrapped your 2” side hems one too many times. Mother F. Briefly consider ripping and redoing. Fuck it, it’ll still work.

Step 6. Look at awning hardware and consider how you will attach the new awning. Decide to wait for your husband to come home and figure it out. It requires tools of some sort, plus he’s the engineer. He likes this stuff.

 

7. Go back inside for another Siamese marshmallow. You deserve it.

Confessions: The Awkward Files

 

Confessions. The Awkward files

Even though it wasn't a Saige Wisdom Obsessions link up I have a compulsive need to write one in response to her confessions. One would say I've been obsessed as life continues to provide material for this topic so here she goes:

Here's a warm up. I am currently sitting in my truck in front of starbucks blogging.. ya I'm that person, and in addition to my computer being on the fritz my cell phone went today. dammit! computer, phone, boots (see below), saddle, tattoo, camper renovations... I might need to get a job

1. Imagine this; you go to the laundromat to clean a tonne of clothes. You chat up the lady, who is wearing a pink t-shirt and has almondey white hair – older gal. You get your quarters and go to work. Leave to get coffee/veg out in front of computer. Upon your return to switch over to dryers she appears to be watching tv in the ‘waiting lounge’ with her pink shirt on. Move your clothes and ask her if the 42 on the machine means 42 minutes while you run outta there. She says I don’t know, I don’t use the dryers. She’s a frickin customer!!! What are the chances that the laundromat lady’s twin would show up to do laundry wearing the same outfit as the lady?!?! oops…. What do you do? pretend that you knew she was just a customer and say oh ok I’ll just pretend that it does then! in an awkward and too-cheerful tone and exit the scene.

2. You decide today’s a good day to clean the bathroom. Upon entering and gazing into the bottom of the tub you hear ‘what the fuck?’ and realize that this came out of your mouth. For some reason it is a disgusting brown-scum mess. Turns out the sink is suffering the same condition. You use these facilities every day and didn’t realize the extent of the damage?! WTH?!

Turns out, you had to get your copper scouring pad from the kitchen to get that shit off. n.a.s.t.y.

You also appreciate the guy/gal who in the ‘80s made the executive decision to go with cream instead of white. 

3. You have a super fun awesome riding lesson for the first time at your new barn. You go to write a check at the end of it all and misspell the trainer’s last name because you are reading a poster with someone else’s similar but different name on it. Look for another cheque – nope that was your last one. What are the odds?! Ok well you cross it out and try to spell it again but you’ve written Niki… not Nicole. Ok third time’s a charm… you go for it and write the business name. This must be happening to you because you are supposed to write the business name. This cheque looks like a bank’s worst nightmare. put it in an envelope and write an explanation on the front, add in a bit of a joke so she will still like you. Next day rush to the bank and get cash because you really don’t think this cheque is really going to work out. Realize it’s your lucky day, she didn’t pick up the cheque today. Dig it out of the locked box by artfully using a pen to grab the flap of the envelope and then pinch it between the pen and pen lid while you delicately lift the envelope up through the slot. Remove cheque, insert cash, draw an x over previous joke and write new one. aaaahhh. That’s better.

umm what is with spell-check not letting me spell cheque??

4. My riding boots have fungus in them. I learned this a few years ago and shortly after stopped riding for a while and didn’t wear them often… so obviously kept them but forgot about the little problem. Well, I’m wearing them a lot again and SHIT. Goodbye my favourite boots – you are as comfy as slippers and as classy as… well not that classy but still. I really enjoyed wearing you until you rashed my legs.Ya. Awkward.

5. You've started hanging out with another 'roadie' (road wife) while traveling with your husbands paving crew every few days. Sometimes she will just shout 'woohoooo' at random intervals, and then return to silence. Like say the two of you are driving and listening to the radio, or just devoured a large pizza, or she's going to the bathroom in her camper while you enjoy your drink outside. The funny thing is you know it should wierd you out but you kind of like it. In fact, you've started doing it when you are hanging out with your husband and it is super fun! Especially because it wierds him out. 

WOOOOHOO

Horses: Thoughts and Reflections

 

The connection horse lovers have with their animals is really special. That moment when you walk out to the pasture and he devotedly ignores your presence. 

You climb into the round bale feeder where he is napping/guarding the hole he has burrowed to put his halter on... because you never know when he might make a run for it. 

You walk around him, patting, talking to him, finger combing his mane, contemplating giving it a shampoo later. You continue to walk around him scratching his favorite spots, looking for bug bites and ensuring that his friends are not chewing his tail. 

You have gone the distance and are now standing again at his head just sending the love vibes in full force and then it happens. 

That awkward moment when another horse comes over and halfheartedly chases him in your direction and he can no longer pretend he didn't see you standing there.

 Yes, it's love like no other

After I took his halter off I really shouldn't have bothered taking a photo and posted an old one. 

So much for documenting the results of a good bath!

Christmas Letter

Ok so this one's long overdue! Way back at the time of birth of my blog I revealed that I'd sent out a Christmas letter (in April I believe)... well here it is in e-form...

 

Hello Friends and Family!

Now that I am a married woman, it seems like a good time to take on the annual Christmas letter, a time honored family tradition started by my mother (also a married woman). She started writing these letters possibly 20 years ago, and got to the mailing stage 5-7 times. For those of you thinking “what the?” you may remember getting a letter around the time that the snow is melting, and the calendar page is about to be flipped from March to April… And so the tradition continues. I just hope to send these Christmas letters closer to Christmas than I did the wedding thank you cards in relation to the actual wedding (my bad… and Quincys – what’s mine is his now right?).

This year sure has been a whirlwind. At this time last year, Quincy had just returned to school after the holidays and I was rousing my friends and clients at the Vernon First Nations Friendship Center to start planning another entry in the Winter Carnival Parade. As usual, I was taking on a major project about 15 working days before the actual event. We had been engaged for about six months, and had our wedding completely planned (this, as many of you know is complete bull #$%^). We actually had some great ideas for the wedding, and had acted on none of them… and would not do so for quite some time. Despite some minor issues (enormous float, flimsy/labor intensive decorations and cold/wet/windy weather) the parade was a huge success, in which we won first prize in our category!

In anticipation of spring fever, I bought a little horse that the owner had dubbed untrainable! Monty joined the family in February about 150 lbs underweight and with a wild look in his eye. Quincy passed all of his classes and graduated (yay) Civil Engineering at the end of April much to his relief… I think it is safe to say he is happy to be out of the classroom and back to work for Emil Anderson Construction with his friends Boob (Bob) Bubbles, Hammer, Doug Carter and others. Those first few weeks on the job site I was getting phone calls at midnight from a thrilled Mr. Burr in Golden BC who had snuck onto the paver or the loader after all of the daytime crew was long gone. Axle the dog was happy too, because he was able to sleep in the bed every night with his own pillow instead of being squeezed down by our feet.

Spring arrived (albeit a little late!) to find us spending our days working, wedding planning (or not), taking Axle to the lake to swim and for me riding my new friend Monty. He proved to be quite the character, with an aversion to cantering on the right lead, jumping (actually walking over top of anything in general unless a person went over it first) and refusing to be ridden through the gate into the arena. Thank you Conti’s (barn owners) for keeping 911 dialed into your phones every time I came up to ride.

Before we knew it, it was wedding time. Oops! We hastily threw together all of the big plans we had been making for the last year in time for our June 4^th nuptials. Many thanks to all of our friends who had the misfortune of showing up early, or unwittingly volunteering to help – our families and ‘best people’ in particular! It was the best (only) wedding we’ve ever had, and we never want to have another!

Summer followed spring and found Quincy working long hours in Golden, and me working multiple jobs in Vernon (we had a wedding to pay for!). Lauren was nervously preparing to move down under, and I planned a big surprise for her – I went for a visit! In the middle of packing, working, selling her car and renting her apartment she also did a great job of entertaining me and we got in a lot of quality ‘sister time’ before she moved a daunting 24 hour flight away.

Meanwhile…Quincy continued working in Golden, frequenting The Golden Taps Pub every night from which I received phone calls that required translation into sober. His favorite pastime of the summer was to do ‘the tour’ and drink a pint of each of the 7 locally brewed beers that Taps had on tap.

In August we had a wonderful whirlwind visit in Golden with the Carnahans my long lost cousins, aunt, and uncle! We went whitewater rafting, drove to the top of a mountain and ate at a ‘50s diner. No family vacation out west is complete without these activities right? (don’t worry, they did get the ‘cowboy treatment’ at my parents place where they were riding horses and driving trucks.)

One day in late September disaster struck, and I found myself in Calgary helping out on the farm after the usual, a Susan related horse-incident. I spent a month there, and all of the sudden realized it was honeymoon time! After booking two round trip flights to Honduras and selling my beloved old Mercedes car, I took off to start the honeymoon adventure. I traveled to the interior of Honduras, a city called La Esparanza where a long lost Showriders friend now calls home, while Quincy remained in Canada for a few more weeks.

I met wonderful people, learned more Spanish than I had hoped to (mucho) and started taking riding lessons again for the first time in 6-7 years.  Dressage and jumping, and all in Spanish!!! Talk about a steep learning curve. I was lucky enough to compete in 2 horse shows before Quincy arrived – the first was dressage in which I ‘improved’ (translation: can’t get worse) every day and had a legitimately great test on the final show day… until my nice bay mare Alexa stepped on one of the dainty white fences, broke it and exploded outside of the arena. The jumping show was marginally more successful – no disqualifications! I even got a 3^rd place prize, beating a 13 year old boy (yay)! I also had my first and last experience babysitting Honduran children. never. again.

Needless to say by the time Quincy got to Honduras for the official start of our honeymoon I was fully integrated into Honduran life. Minus getting up at 4 am to walk 2 hrs to work, do physical labor all day, eat tortillas for breakfast lunch and dinner and walk home to collect firewood etc etc.

We really enjoyed our trip, visiting the smaller island Utila (unfortunately during bad weather – not that we spent much time outside the hotel anyways…). Flew to the capital city Tegucigalpa, drove to the rural city where I had spent most of my time previously, La Esparanza and settled in for the Holidays. Between riding horses, zip lining, shooting guns, buying fireworks, making 300 + perogies, punta-ing, eating, drinking etc etc. we had some good times with great friends. Quincy enjoyed a short ‘guys only’ trip to El Salvador – 3 hours into which Sara (showriders) got a phone call that the boys were missing documents for their vehicle and unable to get through the border. Leave it to the women to save the day! yea, still not letting that one go guys!

We ate a lot, drank more, met some really great people and I even extended my trip! I just couldn’t pass up the opportunity to participate in another show, speak more Spanish and be there for the impending birth of Sara’s 2 baby horses! I think Quincy wanted to stay longer as well – he missed his flight and got to stay another night in Honduras, and a night in LA too!

My three bonus weeks in Honduras were spent riding horses, discovering Honduran over-the-counter drugs (the things you can get without a prescription, dios mio!), horse showing, spending time with more Canadian visitors and waiting, waiting waiting for those baby horses to arrive! (they are still in the oven). I rounded off my amazing once in a lifetime experience by getting food poisoning and experiencing the worst symptoms I have had in. my. life.. ever. along with 8 of my other innocent and unsuspecting companions. Let’s just call it a bonding experience and move along.

During all of this excitement, Quincy was stuck in the office at work, drinking coffee or something.  I flew home January 26^th, was joyously welcomed back into Axle’s life (every second every day and night for the next week). I visited Mr. Monty who is enjoying an abundance of winter fur. I didn’t eat dirt, or have my life flash before my eyes during his first ride back, and that brings us to the present.

Here I am trying to get settled in to our new home (for now). Quincy is working outside of Kamloops and we have rented an acreage close to the job site (Calgarians -think Bergen. Don’t know where that is? …exactly). We are excited to start living life as a ‘married couple’ whatever that means… maybe we will have the answer in next years Christmas (Easter) Letter.

Wishing you a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year,

Quincy and Heather Burr

Muchas gracias to the Turner family for an awesome (not very romantic) honeymoon!

And here is the art that I had originaly planned to hold a colouring contest with the kids in Honduras to attain... as it turned out (due to my procrastinating nature) I was the only one that entered...

And here you can see the booklet format that I spent countless hours trying to attain... I mean countless, at home and at Staples in Kamloops - I was there for longer than the day shift... 

Hmmm so due to some rather shitty computer troubles, you are going to get a rather shitty post instead of one full of awesome photos of our adventure to Prince Rupert this weekend!

In light of recent events, I have spent the last hour hour and a half in Starbucks dreaming about these:



























Also I have been here and here instead of here. oooh fun!

   

The hub and I have been feeling a little... well, jiggly. And so I'm thinking of converting us to gluten free eating. I'm thinking this because then we will still get to eat food... rather than engaging in a binge sesh for the next few weeks prior to giving up (this will most likely still happen just so you know) cut the cravings and cut the processed edibles. My source will be the Gluten Free Goddess - I've stalked her site before but never really 'committed'.

 

Oh and there was a little of this .... can you tell I'm loving the sarcastic with a hint of dark roast humor today?

 

How Not To:

How Not to Replace Your Shitty Old Camper's Shitier Old Awnings

Episode 1

Ok so this is a new thing I'm trying where I do something ill-advised and walk you through the process until the project is either complete(ly fucked up) or abandoned. Back to the awnings.

Step 1. Go to Fabricland. Snoop around oohing and ahhing, scope out the deals on drapes and outdoor upholstery fabrics. Decide both (albeit the deals are 69%off) are too rich for your blood. Dive into the 'ends' bin with gusto and pull out a hulking 4m of amazing quality vinyl. So good that even though you know it's not you look to the left and right and do a secret smell test just to make sure it's not leather. Buy this on impulse and leave the store

Step 1.5 Renew your 2 yrs expired Fabricland membership just to take advantage of this sweet deal.

Step 2. Think about drapes and outdoor fabric for approx. 5-7 days. Play with your vinyl, unfolding it, holding it up to things, bringing home paint chips to see how the colours 'go' etc.

Step 3. Return to Fabricland. Consider some items but make no commitments, who do these people think they are with these prices anyways?

Step 4. Happen across a table marked 'sheirs & drapery' full of flimsy see thruough fabrics marked down to $3. Discover the jackpot. Grey-ish brown heavy woven fabric - an entire bolt for $3/m!! Fibre content unknown. Decide to try a few meters as an awning to see if it will work before you commit to the entire bolt.

Step 5. Wait at the cutting table for like, 5 minutes. Nobody comes. Decide to try rolling your eyes while avoiding eye contact with any bystanders. Works. Bitchy older lady named Fern who has been standing at the cash the entire time asks if you need anything. Consider saying no I'm just standing here with my fabric on the cutting table for no reason but don't. Just say 'yes please'. Initially ask for 4 m, then 3, then 6, and then go for the whole damned thing. The whole 9 meters if you will.

Step 6. Smile when the total comes to less than $50 remembering the quote you got on an awning for thousands of dollars.

Step 8. Go to Zellers to buy the sewing needles that you forgot to get at Fabricland. Wonder if the machine you bought at a junk store weeks ago in Hope, BC will even work while you wait patiently behind the lady with oxygen at the cash register. She probably bought denture glue.

Step 9: Drive home quickly, begin a different project all together

Step 10. get sick of that shit and start measuring awnings. Won't detach from the hardware on the trailer? Just rip that shit down.

Step 11. On rotten picnic table at your campsite lay out old, ripped up awning and huge bolt of fabric. Draw and diagram the shit awning wiht measurements.

Step 12. Spend the next hour or so cutting a piece off of your bolt into a perfect square that should (fingers crossed) work out to be the same as the original awning

(please nothe there will be a near fatal accident with your husbands $1000 dollar bike which had the misfortune of being parked under previously mentioned shitty awning. This would have resulted in a double homicide - the bike and yourself... possibly involving use of the bike)

Step 13. Pour yourself a drink to take the edge off. Not too much - you still have to go and ride your horse... ok, well a little more than that! Pair it (Gin &OJ) with the leftover cottage cheese in your fridge and be pleasantly surprised.

Oh Monty

Since having Monty on the road, he has been in my Pritchard back yard, at a vinyard, at my friend's neighbour's orchard in Summerland, at an Equine Rescue in Prince George (yes, there were many jokes told by yours truly about leaving him there for his own sake), and now, for the first time in ... YEARS I have my horse at a reining barn!!! The arena is large, the sand is beautiful and I am loving every minute of it. It is so nice to ride in a pristine arena and train my horse without hills, obstacle courses, gravel, and a plethora of other minor yet annoying troubles. Monty has a love hate relationship with it. He is having to work harder than he ever has in his life, however he is doing sooo well... well despite some displays of attitude that is, but it's to be expected considering who we're talking about. Last night we had a little 'scare' though... he clipped himself (no visible injury... just a very obvious sting) and was quite concerned that he couldn't bear weight on his left front foot ever again, and waved it at me many times to illustrate the point. After walking a few circles and discovering that all was not lost, we carried on. In fact we carried on with style, Monty was so overjoyed with his miracle that the 'attitude factor' was gone for the rest of the ride, he went like a totally broke horse! Not to worry, attitude was restored this evening...

Here is a little cartoon that I drew up this am inspired by yesterday night's events...

Something's Missing...

Can you tell what it is??

the 'about' section that most every blogger known to the www has in their profile. Uhhh... the whole point is to practice writing, obvs I should have written an 'about' by now, right?

Well, it's been bothering me lately. I've been procrastinating because, well, I'm a procrastinator and also because I'm not really sure what to write. What makes a good 'about' and what makes a bad one? What kinds of things are you supposed to say about yourself, how much i can you add before it becomes tmi? Well I am sitting here in Starbucks doing some research on the topic and we are about to find out my friends.

Here are some of my fave's from around the web:

1.

Now this is a sort of new to me blog that I'm loving because it tells me that you don't need photos and visual effects to practice your writing through blogging, but you can still have an interesting blog. Basically that translates to I'm too lazy to add a photo montage (or even learn how to create a proper photo montage) to every post - so sometime's I don't post!!

... until now. (I'm sure you've noticed my visually uninspiring additions of late... I'm loving it!)

 

 

 

About Me

The first thing you should know about me is that I have a British accent. This will help you establish a voice in your head when you're reading, which is important, don't you think?
My name is Holly Burns. I'm 31 and I live in San Francisco, California, with my new-ish husband Sean, and two enormous cats. I work in the travel industry and I'm often on the road. This means that I am on a first name basis with most of the TSA workers at San Francisco International Airport and could probably tell you how their kids' Little League teams are doing at any given moment. I own many bottles of shampoo that are three ounces or less.

This is in fact a small exerpt from her about page... Basically she gives a life history, and provides links to a more detailed account of her life history. Borderline tmi but I like her opener a lot (in fact I like the whole thing, but well you can follow the link if you really want to read it)

2.

I had an 'about' from Joanna's A Cup Of Jo but then I decided not to put it in because I actually didn't really like it. I also had a story about how my Baba and I are both preoccupied with being funny, and then I deleted it. Shit.

3.

I like this one for the swearing, and the Pintrest... nuff said.



 
Hi! I’m the Pintester. I test pins from Pinterest. Mostly, I fuck them up.
I am in no way associated with Pinterest, except that I spend far too much time on it planning weddings I will never have and designing rooms I know I will never do. (I can’t even work up the energy to paint a wall, honestly.)
If you like the site, please pin it, tweet it, like it, and tell all your friends about it.
If you hate the site, please keep your goddamn mouth shut.


Ok now I'm bored. Maybe I'll weed through a few more 'abouts' on my bookmarks column later and share them with you.
And yes, I do keep my blogs in my bookmarks column. I know there are other things out there and what not, but I guess I just don't really care? Am I missing out here? Should I be allowed to blog if I'm not going to use the blogey tools available to me?? Do they regulate these things, I mean, are there blog police?

Neeewww Direectionsssss

haha! I have been inspired yet again re: Mr. Avion renovation theme... this is going to take so much energy I will never get around to doing the actual work!!!

The new idea came about while I was on The Perfect Pallette looking for some buttercreamy - camely yellows mixed with greys and a little bit of metalics. Surprisingly there are some really great examples of how this bizarre combo comes together (I had low hopes)

anyways, I was looking at the camel (or caramel who knows) and saw this

and more specifically THIS







 Don't you just love menswear? I looked at the little photo collage and the bride is wearing a brushed feltey soft looking blazer (brown) and you know, there is a stalk of wheat boutennire blah blah but it just reminded me of menswear (which I LOVE - I wear leather old man shoes that I thrifted as often as possible.. so gross I know, I also love wearing my hubby's sweatpants and occasionally his boxers - also menswear). In fact the hubby's wedding 'dress' cost more than mine did!! (until the fiasco) and I was totally OK with it because I LOVE MENSWEAR. Anyway, back to the point.. that set of invitations just KILLS me. The vintage walletey leathery lived in-ness. I can do it because it's vintage and Q will love it because manly and I will say so. Takes me back to the days of sitting in a smoking lounge smoking cigars in vintage suits and drinking scotch out of crystal with dark leather and oak cabinets and fancy shit around. What movie was that from again?

ok so new airstream inspired by: man-time. I'm hoping to pull it off with lighter colours.. it's so small in here. Like camel upholstery, some metallic reflective shit and fingers crossed for a painting project on the cabinets. Colour suggestions? I'm at a total loss....


What I'm not a lost cause for is liquidating. I got fed up with the overstuffed cabinets (and having to many of them) and de-junked this place. I'm ruminating on a post about that, along with about 8 others so we will see which ones you actually get to experience. I did take photos though! yep, there are photos of heaping mounds of clothes (wth did they all come from?!)

Here is where you can find my inspiration behind the inspiration (on the liquidating, that is)

So, I'm pintresting cigar lounge and f'n look at this!!!! unh... whaaaattt?? YES!

This website has some stellar photos of the awesomeness.










vintage books? are you kidding  me??



OK so gloss gloss gloss sparkle sparkle sparkle leather suede leather. smoke.

oh thank gawd..

Judging by the number of spelling typ-os and 3 glasses gone from my 1.5 litre bottle of wine... I think we can officially call this aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa  DRUNKEN DISPATCH!

I am writing now from Prince George BC.... our Hope days are gone and without souvenir t-shirts much to my dismay. Apparently all of the Sasquatch t-shirts sold out when where was a Sasquatch festival in a neighboring town. dammit.

Anywhoodle, it seems like I am forever behind on the blog updates... could be due to the fact that our mac laptops have a problem with connecting to our current trailer park's internet... wtf?? so frustrating! it's so close, yet so far...

So, Monty has joined us in Prince George, he had a nice trip up here with a 3 foot thick bed of straw and free reign of the horse trailer. The truck 'Dilbert' is doing well. He got to go into Dunbar's (our mechanic) for an oil change and look over - we have now driven approx. 4500k in the last three weeks or so. The doggies are adjusting well, our new trailer park 'South Park' (also coincidentally Quincy's favourite show) seems nice, not too busy or fussy which is good for me!!

Today however, we had a huge contingent of 'Caravan Adventurers' roll in..... it is a group of American white hairs that group-travel in their $200 000 motor homes with their papillon doggies with big yellow stickers in their windshields announcing their association... aaand how many 'adventures' they have been on (I'm totally jealous). This group is heading up to Alaska to earn the coveted Alaska sticker that is empty on their decal map of the US. It's been a wonderful day of people watching in South Park, let me tell you!

The weather has been great! not too hot, not too cold. The town is better than I had feared... It's got the small industrial town feel, with about 5 highways running through it with big box stores, hotels and casinos spread along the highways in all directions heading out (or in) of town. I took the dogs for a hike yesterday and got lost, and took Monty and Ax for a ride on the road this evening and saw a hillbilly driving by with what appeared to be a lifesized 'woman doll' in his passenger seat (I was thinking bachelor party joke)... but then her eyes followed me!!!!! acrylic looking florescent red hair, pale pale skin and enormous round eyes accented by hanging open mouthed slack-jawed expression turned out to be a REAL human. A little creeped out.

Anyways, Prince George: so far so good. I also have a bit of writing marinating in my mind re: how good it feels to be in the north again! Born and raised (untilJunior High) in the boreal forest and it's still in my bones...


FYI: while drunken dispatching one of the paving crew pulled into the rv park.. Reportedly Quincy had arranged a site for him for a few days to park his trailer while he was visiting home. Quincy has long since gone to sleep (it's 9:00pm on Saturday) and resisted all attempts that I made to wake him up. With some hilarious sleep-talking thrown in. His best line was "I don't know, and your boobs are really not that big" and in response I slapped his sweet sleeping cheek (just tryin' to wake him up ok?) and then he says "whooooo does that?" and falls back asleep with his eyes closed... What a gem.