On with our story

And life continues. Not much new here. Ordered a fancy new elliptical trainer that will hopefully get me off my butt more, and then my honey pulled the treadmill out so he can exercise at the same time. I'm not sure if I'll like that, I'm not a big fan of having an audience when I slog along - "where are you going, stop chasing the cat, keep running!", etc. but it'll be good for Jay.

Found out that taking the company trucks over the border is frowned upon (mostly by us, sInce the border guys will start charging us tax on the usage). So instead of selling my car, the plan is to keep it and register it down here. Also not on my list o' fun things to do, but oh well.

Anywho, till next time.

Aaaaand we're done

Well, so far. We finished the renos, the house sold, and the move has happened. We're now rockin' the Bakken in Williston. We're living in company-provided housing, and our stuff is living in a sea can.

The sea can is pretty packed. It's rather inconvenient, especially when I want to cook things or bake things, but have no access to the pots and pans that are taunting me. It's amazing how many things I get the urge to do when I can't. Stupid contrariness.

The company provided housing is a trailer - a living/kitchen/dining area, a bedroom, and two bathrooms. There's a second bedroom, but it's mostly holding the double beds that we don't want the cats to destroy. The kitties are much more constricted here but are quite happy. I think they have more fresh air now, since the satellite cables are running through the slightly-open windows. It's all good.

My lab at work is also in a trailer. I win! I'm now double trailer trash. I'm having a good, yet frustrating, time setting everything up at work. Good because I can organize things how I want them (yay OCD!), and frustrating because I'm waiting on tools and equipment that may or may not have been ordered yet. That's the anti-bonus of having to rely on someone else to remember all the things that need to be done. I was hoping someone had previously documented setting up a lab from scratch, since it seems like that happens a lot with this company. But no, that would be convenient.

I'm not bitter.

Oh well, maybe I can set a precedent. Pat myself on the back and feel superior. Some good might as well come from this. :)

In other news, we had a fairly decent time during the holidays, at the farm and in Minot afterwards. Lots of stuff on sale, so my honey got some sweaters and I got in my yearly allotment of clothes shopping and got some new shirts. Plus we each got a bathing suit, since ours are hibernating somewhere in the sea can. Jay's trunks: $1.04, my suit: $80. Both were on sale. Boo to societal pressure on women, and also to me for caving to it. Le sigh.

I really needed to supplement my wardrobe of mostly painty/stained t-shirts, though. I somehow neglected to keep any dressy (read: not t-shirts/jeans) clothes out when packing the sea can, so all I had were grubby work clothes. Jay's shopping trip was good for me - whenever he updates his t-shirts, I get all the ones that don't fit or don't get worn much. It's like shopping, but without the annoyance of actually shopping! Everyone wins! Mostly my laziness.

Oh, the little things I forget to mention

By the way, we're moving out of country. Jay leaves next weekend, starts his new job (transfer with the same company) in Williston, ND, USA. I transfer too, possibly starting after New Years. In the meantime, I'll be finishing up detail work in the house while waiting for countertops to arrive. We've been busy little beavers finishing up stuff like the kitchen, and tiling and hardwood, and Jay put in railings. Here, see (Please excuse the mess):

Transcription

For posterity, here's my notes/diary on our trip to Cuba:

Jan 17 (day 1)
Rode plane to Varadero (despise flying - neck is sore). Went through customs, only needed passport and entrance card, not the millions of other paperwork we were supposed to have with us. Changed money - mental note: next time, remember how much I want to change so I can tell the money changeer. Bus ride (bumpy, felt ill after flying) for 2 hours to hotel in Old Havana. Marble floors, open central courtyard, chirping birds that look like some type of parakeet, and tropical plants. Meal in the hotel restaurant was good. Sleep...

Jan 18 (day 2)
Slept well, ate buffet at hotel - good guava juice. Thought we were going on bus tour, but did quite a bit of walking in Old Havana. Saw lots of old buildings, a couple of squares. Then went on bus tour of important buildings and places near downtown. Missed most of it because I slept. Changed into runners at the hotel - Crocs are too slippery due to storm last night. Went to restaurant in one of the squares. Food so far is simple and quite bland. Soup at both meals was very good. Lunch - only choice of chicken or fish. Sadly, there was a band and dancers at lunch, very loud, wanting money. Not my taste in music at all. Then went to the tourist market down along the harbour, lots of artwork and jewellry and clothes besides the tourist crap. Some funky wood carvings, but too bulky and possibility of breaking on way home. Bought a painting for $90 CUC, oil on canvas, bright colours, of a "scene" in Havana. 5 minutes later the vendor had the exact same painting back up. Rested in the hotel (tired, hot, sore feet). After a rushed supper, went to the cannon shoot across the harbour. Since some people were slow, it was rather a waste of time, couldn't seen anything for the crowd. I hope the rest of this trip isn't going to be like this... Note: maids like pens (so do people on the street) and don't seem to care for brushes/socks. Most people we see are well dressed, very new clean clothes.

Jan 19 (day 3)
Breakfast at the hotel. Bus ride to Vinales. Lunch at a restaurant near there, El Palenque. Food was okay, only chicken for meat. Paella was extremely tasty, smelled like all dressed chips. Then stopped at hotel (La Ermita) in Vinales. Maid was sleeping in one of the beds in our room. "No problema," says another maid - maybe not for you, I think. But amusing. Rain kept us from visiting the Santo Tomas cave, so that was sad. And the only reason for being in Vinales. But I'm okay with not breaking an ankle, really. Turns out that the guide, Juan Carlos, is a spelunker. Oh well, there'll be another at Guajimico. Supper at the hotel was fine, buffet. Rice pudding, woot. Note: remember to bring alarm clock next time we travel - hotels here don't have them.

Jan 20 (day 4)
Buffet breakfast at the

To be continued at a later date - right now am packing up computer room...

Just things

I forgot to blog about the other day, when we almost lost the cat. I blame it all on the Girl Guides and their good cause cookies. When they came to the door I went back in to get money, and in the ensuing cookie-money trade Gizmo went out the door. And I shut the door, not realizing what had happened. This is one of the times when I wished we had put a collar and tags on the cats.

She was outside for about 4-5 minutes. For a cat that hasn't been outside in almost a year, that's a long time. I freaked out, went out the back door, called, looked out the front door and didn't see her, went out to the garage and freaked to Jay, then started looking in all the closed rooms and closets inside again. Jay calmly looked out the front door again and found her, she must have been cowering in the flower bed or something. Sigh of relief. The cats are both microchipped, but that won't stop them from getting run over by the major traffic on our street.

In other news, here are some more pictures from Cuba:

Roasting pig - now with more snout nail!


One of the guys on the boat tour swam down to pick up a live shell. Pretty, but not too good for the critter in it.


I think what we've picked up from this is that I get bored easily. All the people on the trip were bird fanatics, so I got annoyed and started taking pictures of flowers.


My goal for the next tropical/watersports vacation is to get a much better underwater camera. I hate coming home, developing them, and finding that they're blurry/dark/terrible.


And for your splashing pleasure...

Some kitty pics

We take quite a few pictures of our furry kids. Here, have some.

Here's Gizmo. She had a drooly love fest on my belly this afternoon, so she was happy to pose.


This is Roly, rolling around and half asleep on our bed. He frequently sleeps in positions like this - it always looks painful, but he seems happy.

Many kisser

This is a note from the first hotel we stayed in on my relatively recent trip to Cuba:


Here's a transcript of it, as the picture (and writing) are hard to read:
Dear Guest:
We hope you have felt wel with our service. For us was a pleasure have you a our Guest. Comeback again always welcome we love you. Have a good trop and the love and good luck come with you always. Many kisser for you from. [Pepsi and Manic]

I'm not sure about the names, but on the 2 notes we got, that's what it looked like. Best note ever.

This is one of the towel elephants we got for leaving gifts for the maids at one of the resorts:

Lions and tigers and plague goo, oh my

It's karma, coming back to bite me. I didn't get the plague in Cuba (good thing too, since Megan needed all my plague meds), so I'm getting it double time now. I shouldn't have been all up on my high horse about not getting sick. I've missed two days of work (although really, no complaints on that count) and tomorrow's not looking good either. Boo, sinuses. Boo.

There was no photo editing

There's nothing like a Saskatchewan sunrise.