Arney Mountain

On Sunday we decided to head out for a little geocaching adventure and see what Arney "Mountain" was all about. It was basically just a big syenite, but rather reminded me of home in N. Ontario. This would have been a nice pic of Tom and Kali if it wasn't for my finger. We spent about an hour and a half "exploring" back roads to get up there... at least enjoying the leaves that were starting to change colours and the apples on the trees on the side of the road. We followed the suggested instructions on the way back and made it to Kingston in half the time.

Grad BBQ

Last Friday was the Grad BBQ . I didn't think to pull out the camera until a bit later in the evening when things had already degenerated to measuring Al's and Pim's heads to see whose was bigger... Apparently that wasn't the only thing that was supposed to be measured... here's 6inches for reference. Note the finger at the top of the shot... well... enough said about the state of the photographer.

Also trouble obeying signs at this point... note the "Do not touch! Danger!!!" written on the broken chalk board. It was knocked off the wall during a previous wine and cheese - we had hoped the sign would warn people off, but alas simply led them to touch it more.

Amy's Baby Breanna

Hello everyone. My name is Breanna and I arrived in the world today at 3:32 pm. I weighed 8 lbs. 13 oz. and I am 20" tall. I made my mom wait an extra long time for my arrival, but I am worth the wait. I can hardly wait to meet my Aunt Tonya, Uncle Daniel, Aunt Becky and Uncle Tom. Since I won't be able to see them for awhile I will have my Grandma send them pictures.

This is me and my mom!

A close-up of me!

Me and my Great Grandma!

It's a girl!

Amy just had her baby today... born at 3:32 this afternoon. Her name is Breanna Marie... pictures and details to follow!

New Hair Style

I did this to my hair about a week ago... just felt like doing something a little different and funky. In about 6 weeks it will grow out enough to chop off again... not sure if I'll dye it again or not. Perhaps red or orange next - although about then I'll be doing job interviews and might go for a slightly more conventional look.

Random News

Things have been mildly eventful around here. After being gone for work we came back home to find that the bike we hadn't brought with us - our hardtail (2002 Giant XTC SE 1) was stolen from our locked basement. We've reported to the police and I talked to our tenant insurance people, but apparently we're only covered for about 1/4 of what that bike's worth... which is equivalent to our deductible. Thank goodness we took our other bikes with us! You can bet were getting extra insurance for our other bikes this week! ... so if anyone sees this bike around Kingston please let me know - it's pretty rare and distinctive.

In other news... my sister still hasn't had her baby. She was due on Aug. 17th so it should be any day now. Last I heard the name was going to be Breanna Marie if it's a girl and Chad (Joseph or Wayne) if it's a boy. I'll post pictures and info as I get it. Tom's back in TO this week, but next week heads up to Baker Lake for a couple of weeks. My thesis is coming along... by the end of the week I will be done all of the small last details... just still waiting for corrections for my third paper to come back. I guess that's all the traffic around here these days!

Depot Lake

We went hiking at Depot Lake on the weekend. We originally found the place because there's a geocache listed there. Unfortunately, while I had the location of the trailhead, I forgot to download the coordinates for the actual cache. We did have a pretty nice hike anyway though and will be heading back out again for more hiking and maybe some kayaking.

Resolute Revisited

I finally got around to putting some pictures on from working in Nunavut this summer. We were based out of Resolute, but got to fly all over Cornwallis Island and western Devon Island in a helicopter. Our pilot was a frenchman named Claude Noel so we were thinking of telling the niece and nephews that we were flying around with Father Christmas.

This is Tom at the Pond Inlet airport on our way up to Resolute.

The next three pictures are from the archaeological dig site at Resolute. These structures date back to the late 1800s (if I remember correctly) and are constructed from large whale bones.

The sea ice was really neat and I ended up taking quite a few pictures of it. This is from west of Resolute looking towards the mainland.

We had quite a few fog days . This was a rather mild one where fog covered the channel to Devon Island, but we were still able to work on Cornwallis. Near the end of the project we were completely grounded for several days in a row. I shot this picture of Tom at a bulk sample site on Devon Island as he was watching the helicopter take off.

Just a shot taken on northern Devon Island with some of the neat colours of the various rock, debris, and vegetation. This is one of the most heavily vegetated areas we came across... meaning more moss & lichen, some

This is the edge of the glacier on Devon Island with a sea-ice filled fjord in the background.

Fjord on Devon Island.

I bet this would make a pretty spectacular waterfall when the water is flowing... but for now it's an ice-covered perched lake.

Delta emptying into the channel between Cornwallis and Devon Island, from the Devon Island side.

Cracks in the sea ice on our last trip back to Resolute from Devon Island. The ice disappeared surprisingly fast with a little help from some warm weather and several days of strong north winds.

Back on Cornwallis. We were hiking along rivers taking stream samples. This is a picture of me right after sinking into the mud up to my knees. Fortunately I've had experience walking through quick sand in northern Ontario and had the technique down to walk through it without losing my rubber boots. I'm just glad it wasn't any deeper otherwise I would have had to belly slither out of it. My boots weighed a ton by the time I got out though... at least it amused the other people on my crew - they couldn't stop laughing!

Here's Tom checking out a plane wreck we came across on the Tundra. We were hiking along another stream and saw it. We spent a bit of time checking it out, and just as we were heading back Claude came buzzing up behind us in the helicopter to do an emergency run back to Resolute because the fog was rolling in.

Resolute

Tom and I have been in Resolute for nearly a week now... busy putting in 10-12 hour days. Today's my camp day so I get at least a hot lunch and a chance to check my email. It's been pretty neat up here - flying around in a helicopter every day, but also hard work. We've seen a few muskox, seals, caribou, and polar bears (fortunately just from the helicopter as we flew over the sea ice). Our connection is a bit slow, but I'll post pictures when we get back home... or TBay at least. It's kind of fun working with Tom instead of sitting at home missing him while he's gone... although still not a whole lot of time for just us.

Wild Women on Wheels!

I just went to the Wild Women on Wheels weekend at LaRocca Mountain Bike School! It was based at Camp Fortune just outside Gatineau, Quebec. It was SOO much fun! I learned some new techniques and conquered some fears... I probably will still be nervous facing some steep descents, but I think I've improved a lot. I had a few crashes - my legs are a bit battered looking with a few fist-sized bruises. My intermediate class was taught by Steph & Ora, who both did an awesome job teaching & inspiring me and my fellow biker-chicks - Lisa, Elizabeth, Shari, Pascale, and Lorena... As Dominique (the owner & 2 time national team member) said, it was totally a Ya-ya sisterhood experience. I even found a friend, Nora, who also has a caffeine sensitivity just like me! I wish I had pictures but I was too busy biking! At least I now have a network of girls to bike with if I can get back to Gatineau... and maybe they'll come visit here (although we'd have to find somewhere to bike!).

The only bad thing about the weekend was spending such a small amount of time with Tom. He came back to Ktown friday night, we had a quick BBQ and headed off. He spent the weekend biking too, but we only managed to hook up for a few minutes during the day and dinner... and then he had to get back to TO sunday night.

I miss my sisters

I'm missing my sisters right now... wish I could get back home for a visit. Tonya's moving to Seattle next week - her husband just got a job with Amazon.com and he starts June 1. I haven't seen them since Thanksgiving at the wedding and I'm not sure when I'll get to see her again... possibly not for another year. It would be nice to see my younger sister Amy too... I finally got a recent picture of her and she's looking great! She's pregnant and beautiful and I wish I could give her a big hug. I will definitely be up and visiting by the end of summer at least... just seems too far away.

Here's a picture of Amy and my mom.

Return to Wolfe Island

Tom and I managed to get back out to Wolfe Island with our friends Steve & Wanda - this time I programmed the route into our GPS so we wouldn't make any wrong turns... plus there are a bunch of caches out there. We picked up 2, but didn't have time to get the rest. There's 2 more at the beach, so might need to get out again... plus if we took the ferry to the states or Simcoe Island from Wolfe Island we could pick up 3 more. Should make another good day trip.

We were all impressed when Tom took this picture of us while cycling (looking backwards of course).

This is a view of New York from Wolfe Island... unfortunately you have to pay for this ferry... but we didn't have passports or time to make the crossing this time. Sign of a true geologist - Steve's busy checking out rocks at our lunch spot. By this point the wind had picked up and we were all pretty cold... having been lulled into a sense of warmness as we left Marysville on our bikes we neglected to pack our extra wind-gear. D'oh!

Geocaching

Tom and I took Kali to Parrot's Bay conservation area on the weekend and finally managed to sneak in some time for geocaching! We scooped up 5 on the way back home. The first two shots are Tom & Kali with a sneaky cache hidden inside a fake rock - it was our second time trying to find it... no wonder we missed it the first time. We saw about 5 snakes at that location (2 garters, 2 black water snakes, and one striped one that we hadn't seen before)... making us leery to stick our hands under the rock, but we found it! This one was a different cache, but the moody sky and old lighthouse made for a picturesque scene.

Computer Disasters

I'm back!!! About two months ago my computer died so I've been using Tom's laptop. A couple of week's ago, Tom's computer took a turn for the worse... becoming very unstable and eventually refusing to boot altogether. Thank goodness for Rob, the geo department magician!! He was able to determine that it was just a fried memory card rather than the whole thing, and has just popped in the new part today. I'm participating in a Diamond Exploration Short Course at the moment... learning a ton about diamonds and kimberlites, and all of the stuff Tom does at work! It runs until thursday... so i guess after that i'd better get some thesis stuff done before Tom comes home. Stay tuned for pics of the awesome new mountain bike i just bought! It's a Gary Fisher Cake 1 - very cool!... and an update of the mountain bike course i'm taking in the beginning of June.

Cycling Wolfe Island

We finally got our bikes out this week! Thursday we had a "warm-up" bike out to Lemoine Point (about an hour round-trip after Tom practiced hopping things). It was a pretty easy bike, but I have to admit I wasn't used to being in the saddle and my bum got a bit sore. Friday we went out to Wolfe Island - just a short ferry trip from Kingston. We had planned to do an easy 28 km ride, but ended up taking a wrong turn (missing Button Bay, the whole point of the trip!). The weather wasn't horrible, but we were rained on (and a bit of sleet)... plus we were a little tender around the saddle, so we tossed the bikes in the car and went to catch the ferry. Unfortunately, the ferry schedule changes at lunch-time and we got there in time to see it heading away from the dock. Such is life on the island... as they say, there's always another boat, so we headed over to the Island Grill for lunch and caught the next one. During lunch, the sun came out and the weather warmed up. At least we got to enjoy it waiting at the dock for the ferry!

Thesis update

Looks like I'll be in Kingston for the summer. I had originally hoped to finish this May and head off to work somewhere exciting... or at least somewhere with better pay, but there's been the usual delays that have crushed my high hopes. I'll be done by the end of summer, so still within my 4 years. So far i think we're planning to kick around Ktown until the end of October or November — that gives me time to do post-doc NSERC applications, plus many of the oil companies swing by Queen's in October so that will give me a chance to do some interviews... and of course John & Fran are getting married in October so I'll definitely be able to catch that at least!... and I'll have a bit more flexibility this summer to go up and see the new niece or nephew.

Officially Spring

Well, it officially feels like spring now. Kali had her first bath of the season after a muddy session of wrestling at the morning puppy play-group... and I went running in shorts for the first time this year! Usually as soon as it hits 0 ˚C I'll be out in shorts, but this year there's been a lot of strong, cold wind... Friday was perfect though. +5, warm gentle breeze... couldn't ask for better weather!

Maple Madness

Six of us went out to Cataraqui Conservation Area to check out the maple bush today! It was an awesome sunny day, a balmy +2º C or so. I think it's the first time i've been out there for Maple Madness in the sun. We got to ride out there in a tractor-drawn, covered wagon. Definitely a fun, but bumpy, way to get there. Oh, and who could forget the recycle rap? I'm sure everyone who has been out there will remember it fondly... I'm not quite sure what this structure was for... but it was along the road back from the interpretive sugar bush trail. And then it was time for pancakes drenched in fresh maple syrup!! I meant to take pictures of the maply goodness, but got distracted by eating it. Oh well... I'm sure you can use your imaginations.

Agility

Just before christmas we started Kali in agility classes. She gets to do all kinds of neat stuff in agility... it's basically obstacle courses. The beginner agility class basically familiarizes the dogs with the equipment... A-frames, tunnels, chutes (a fabric tunnel), dog-walks (narrow bridges), jumping through tires, over obstacles, weave poles and teeter totters! Kali graduated beginner agility in January, and last weekend she graduated from intermediate... or rather I did... Intermediate agility mostly trains the handler how to give the proper signals to the dogs so they navigate the course in the proper order. We begin advanced agility this weekend, which will be more handler training. If we're still in Kingston this summer we're hoping to go into some beginner "fun" courses since the rules aren't as strict for these competitions. I'm hoping to get pictures of Kali on some of the equipment, but I doubt that will happen until Tom's back in town... and probably not until we get to practice outside because it's kind of close quarters with 5 other teams to worry about on the floor!

Ice Storm

We had a pretty impressive mini-ice storm about a week ago. The next afternoon I was out chipping an inch of ice off the driveway and decided to snap a few nifty scenery shots. It was a bit eerie being out there... every few minutes there would be a crash as large branches fell off the trees across the street onto the sidewalk. By mid-afternoon the sun came out and everything pretty much melted away.