House Managing

Being a House Manager in a Katimavik house can be very stressful at times, you have to make sure the house looks presentable for the all the guests we have, you have to prepare food that everyone can and will eat without screwing it up, and you have to complete at big list of chores by the end of the week. This week Rob and I are in charge of making sure the house doesn't fall to pieces, its been a pretty easy week as it hasn't snowed yet so there's been no shoveling. We set a record for grocery shopping yesterday, it took us just under an hour to spend about $350 of our $400 and something grocery budget, last time it seemed like we were in Super Store for hours. Super Store is what the rest of Canada calls their grocery store, its the Ontario Lobaws, Independent, and No Frills all rolled into one massive ugly green building that is overly patriotic. They have giant flags that stand so high you can see a provincial flag and the Canadian flag for kilometers, especially in Saskatoon.

Christmas is only a few days away and I haven't bought the Christmas presents for the group yet. I'll probably do it on Friday night during free time. I have sent out some Christmas cards as well for family and friends back home, I had to stand in line for 15 minutes at the post office to buy stamps, but I guess its just the time of year. Some crazy plans have been made for the Christmas break, there is a plan in the works to go to Super Store and go to the giant coupon board (its right inside of the front doors for those non Super Store people, I don't really like it there, its a grocery store version of Wal-Mart) and teams of people will pick three items off of the board and race race around the super busy Super Store on the 23rd or 24th or December dressed like elves. On Christmas we will be working for a couple of hours at a soup kitchen and having turkey dinner at home. On Boxing Day I am going to my Billet's house for the afternoon, it should be a lot of fun. New Years Weekend we are going south to Weyburn, and Moose Jaw. But what I am looking forward to the most is a small town the size of Keene between Weyburn and Moose Jaw called Rouleau where they film Corner Gas. I was able to talk them into stopping there for half and hour so we can see the Ruby and Corner Gas, and hopefully some other important landmarks like the "Foo-Mart", grain elevator, and the Liquor/Insurance Store. It should be a lot of fun! Well back the housework!

I'm a Roadhammer

This week at work I have been spending a lot of time out on the road with the Food Bank truck driver Chuck. We have mostly been going around Saskatoon to different grocery stores picking up bread, pastry, and any other close to expiring items they have. We also pick up the donor bins at the front of stores. It has been a lot of fun and I've been able to see a lot of the city. On Thursday we took a trip to Craik, Saskatchewan, a 2 hour drive south, to pick up some potatoes. It was really cool because we got to see the flatter part of Saskatchewan, you could see Craik's grain elevator from the next town away, which was around 20 KM away! It was a lot of fun even though it was a little foggy, but you could still see forever.

Also this week we finished our French lessons, I guess they helped a bit with making conversation which is pretty important. We have also been busy getting ready for Christmas, which is only 10 days away which is hard to believe. Maybe because we haven't been watching TV we don't know how close it really is.

This weekend we have Franco Noel, and the Food Bank Christmas Hamper day along with the regular weekend junk. It will be a long weekend, but I'll have a week off from work as Rob and I are House Managers.

Saskatoon - Yours To Discover

On the weekend most of the group was given the task to create a scrapbook to mail out to New Brunswick for the next group that will show up in Saskatoon in less then a month now. Sara and I, however, were given the task of creating our final presentation. It has to be 30 minutes long and show all of the things we have learnt and done in Saskatchewan. We decided that a slide show would be the best way to go as we had lots of pictures of the group, but what we didn't have was pictures of the city. So Sara, who is from Kingston, Ontario, and I set out to discover Saskatoon. We didn't really have any plans of what we would take pictures of, we just went to our favorite spots and took pictures. We found so many crazy things that we had never noticed before, like a blue pig. We also found some random things that we just had to take pictures of like the Western Beer Factory, a beer glass on a statue that some drunk left behind the night before, and a curling rink. We hung out in the curling rink for awhile watching a game as we figured it was a pretty Saskatchewan thing to do. We then asked the man in the office if we could come curl as a group sometime, he gave us the information and we went back to watch some more curling. After 10 minutes he came out and was surprised to still see us there, so he gave us some shoes and brooms and gave us a sheet of ice to throw some rocks on. It was a whole lot of fun.

Sunday we drove 80KM south to one of the only two "cut your own" Christmas tree farms in Saskatchewan. The trees were so expensive and and the cheaper ones were $22, and the best ones around $45. The cheap ones were so perfect though, they prune the trees so much that each one is perfect, so you don't have to look long to find one. They also paint the trees in August to make them look green, ours looks artificial from a distance but when you get close you can see its real. We came home and I had a package waiting from my Aunt in Maryland, it was full of goodies and decorations for the house. So now with the tree and some decorations its starting to feel more like Christmas.

Last week was a very busy week at work, that is why there aren't many blogs. Chuck, the truck driver, hurt himself and needed help out on the road. So i got to drive around Saskatoon with him for a couple of days. An 18-wheeler also came in full of oranges and I had to move them around in the trailer with a pump-cart for the forklift because we don't have any loading docks here. It was pretty cold in the -20 weather.

Tonight, those of age will be going to practice their bar tending skills to prepare for the Francophone Christmas party next Saturday night. We will be serving some drinks that are only found in Saskatchewan, so we need to know how to make them.

"You can fly anywhere in the world . . . Just not Saskatoon" - Part 3 of 48 Hours

Dale and I awoke early Sunday morning to try and make the earliest flight out of Vancouver so we would make it to Saskatoon that day. The direct flight from Vancouver to Saskatoon left at around 1:00PM, and after that we had options to fly to Calgary, or Edmonton. Luck was on out side that day and we managed to make it on to the direct flight back to Saskatoon. We told the ticket lady of our adventure and she said "You can fly anywhere in the world, but just not to or from Saskatoon." On the plane we couldn't see very much because it was so cloudy, so I wrote a letter to FYD-L-STYX to explain where Dale was on Friday night.

We made it back to the house and found that all there other who left the house for the weekend had not yet returned. It was a long day, so I went straight to bed to prepare for another long week at the food bank.

WE ARE ALL CANUCKS - Part 2 of 48 Hours

Dale and I were sure that we would get out of Saskatoon on Saturday morning. We did the entire security thing one more time, and they picked totally new things to bug me on, like a lack of belt, my watch, and my toothpaste. My toothpaste past the first two times but the third time wasn't lucky and I had to leave it behind. Once we found out that there was space for us on the plane we were very happy. The flight was 2 hours and 15 minutes (only 15 minutes if you factor the time change) and it was a clear day over the mountains, it was very cool.

Once we arrived in Vancouver the only thing we had to worry about was if the tickets had made it there overnight. We rented a car and drove to the hotel and were pleased to see that the tickets had beat us to Vancouver. After lunch and shopping, since Dale's clothes were in Peterborough, we went to Stanley Park. When we parked the car it was right beside a Katima-Van, THERE IS NO ESCAPE FROM THIS PROGRAMME!!! I got my picture beside it and looked all through the park but didn't see and Katima-Victims.

We went back to the hotel and watched most of the Leafs game there because it had a flat screen TV, then we headed down to GM Place to see the game. It was an awesome game, fast, and lots of hard hits. There was a fight in the first 2 minutes of the game then they spent 5 minutes cleaning the blood off the ice. One Canuck goal didn't count, but it should have because there was no kicking motion at all. Half way through the 2nd the first goal of the game was scored by Vancouver, the Aves tied it in the 3rd but the Canucks scored a second powerplay to lift them to 2-1. That's the way it ended, and it was overall a great game. Luongo had an awesome game, only letting in 1 goal in 41 shots. After the game we headed back to the hotel and watched the two hockey games once more. Then it was off to bed to try and get back to Saskatoon.

"We've been bumped = BAD" - Part 1 of 48 Hours

So this last weekend was my 48 hours off for my Saskatoon rotation, I haven't written much in my blog about it because it was to be a surprise for my friends and family. Fyd-L-Styx had a concert on December 1st, the first day of 48, so the plan was for Dale to come and pick me up and get me back to the concert in time to surprise everyone. The next morning we were suppose to fly to Vancouver for the Cancuks and Aves game.

Everything was going to plan, I got off work at 10:00 AM and caught a bus up to the airport to meet Dale around 11:00. His flight came in on time and we were all ready to go to Toronto. The day before there were still seats avaible and we thought we had a good chance at making it on the plane. But when they called the Standbys we found out there was only 1 seat left, and because there was light snow a weight restriction had been put onto the plane. So Dale and I ran back down stairs to the ticket counter and tried to find an alternate route. We decided to wait for the next flight to Toronto and hoped that the concert ran longer so we could still make an appearance. So we hung out for a couple of hours and had lunch then went back through security for a second time. The first time they waved me through, but this time they didn't like my belt and watch. So when they called the Standbys again and we found out the we had been bumped again, the 4th time and Dale's life and second time that day. So decided just to stay in Saskatoon Friday night and leave for Vancouver in the morning since we would arrive in Peterborugh at 12:30AM. It was a smart choice because later that night the flight to Toronto was cancelled due to poor weather in Toronto. Dale's wife sent the tickets from Peterborough to Vancouver over night since we couldn't make it back. It was Jess' 19th birthday so we all went out dinner at Boston Pizza and had a pretty good time. It was off to bed early for me to get ready to try and get out of Saskatchewan one more time.