When the Cat's Away The Mouse Will Play

So it's been a few days since my last post - I consider that I've been pretty busy, for the most part.

On Monday I left at 9am to head into town. After 2 hours on the dirt road into town I was thinking "This has gone on long enough" and I considered just shopping in Sioux Lookout. I then thought of all the conveniences that the shops in Dryden would offer - mainly a Dollar Store and Wal*Mart - so I straightened up and drove the additional hour. I stopped at M&M meat shop for some bulk chicken and meatballs. I found the "Downtown Dollar" store, it wasn't as great as a Dollarama, but I found what I needed. I headed to Wal*Mart and easily spent over $200. My final stop was to the grocery store where I stocked up and again easily spent $200. Money goes fast! So my shopping trip took 3 hours.

On the way home I stopped again in Sioux Lookout to pick up some fresh water since we can't drink the water here. I stretched my legs for the last time and headed towards home. Right as I was hitting the dirt road the skies opened up and gallons poured down on me. My wiper blades could not go fast enough to keep up. The tire tracks that kept the road easily drivable filled up with water causing me to hydroplane OR drive on the rocky areas. FUN! Fortunately the clouds passed about half an hour into the road. The dirt road is about 130km long and as I watched the clock, I figure that I can drive about 1km a minute. So basically, NEVER AGAIN!

On Tuesday I kissed Chris goodbye and sent him to school while I ate some breakfast and got to work. I built Chris's desk - all by myself! :) - and set up that area. I cleaned and tidied the laundry room. I did some more laundry and tried my best to put things away. Chris came home for lunch (yes I did all that before lunch) and told me that he met the woman who holds the portfolio to a very interesting project, told me I should come with him to the school and check things out. So I did...

I checked out Chris's class (he is as we speak taking pictures of it for his blog), attended a meeting describing the teaching philosophy and potential difficulties Chris might encounter, and then Chris's principal, Rachel, took us to the hub of the community - the band office. Close to the band office is the police station, fire hall, warehouse, boat launch where the plane arrives as well and the water filtration place where you can get semi-clean water for cooking. The band office is where the councilors work, the councilors are elected women (they don't have to be women, but right now they all are) who make the important decisions in the community and provide the guidance to shape the community. This is where I met Kathy (I really hope that was her name, we met A LOT of people yesterday). Kathy holds the portfolio (i.e. the money) to the land use projects where basically you decide how the land should be use in association with the neighbouring logging company land. She also holds the portfolio to a new Species At Risk project identifying the presence and then tracking ... wait for it.... CARIBOU!!! I told her my credentials and she said she'd bring up my potential to other partners in the Cat Lake first nation community and the liaisons in the Ministry of Natural Resources. I'm very excited to get on board in any way, not only because SAR projects are my favourite, but also because I'll have something to do. Anyways, I have no idea when this project will get underway - they are still wrapping up some issues with the land use planning - but I'm very excited.

So today - Wednesday - I slept in, woke up, got frustrated with my boyfriend who doesn't do housework (dishes Chris, dishes), got frustrated at the mess in general, turned on the Food Network (my best friend) and zoned out. I will be, however, helped put together a BBQ after lunch. Today is student registration day so a BBQ is a must. So that's it. And I'm going back to TV now. Bye!