Weekend Update

I was working on Friday. I was at the elementary school across the street teaching Inuktitut until recess and then the rest of the day I shadowed a student. I learned my colours in Inuktitut as well as the days of the week.

This was Language Week across Nunavut which is especially troubling since I was the Inuktitut teacher for three out of the five school days. Anyway, there was a special assembly at the school on Friday morning with throat singing, drumming, and presentations. A television reporter was there and I made it onto Igalaaq. There was a shot of all the children sitting in the gym and I'm standing in the background. You might even be able to see it here (will likely be cleared on February 12th at 6:00pm-ish).

My lunchhour was a disaster. I got home and checked my email to discover that the heat in my house in Toronto wasn't working. I sent a few emails and tried to do whatever I could to get it organized, but I didn't have a lot of luck. I felt quite ineffectual since I was so far away. I pictured the tenants huddled up in their beds trying to keep warm as icicles formed on the curtain rods. I sent my roommate some numbers and emailed my sister, but I couldn't do much more. I headed back to work for the afternoon and worried about the heat.

After school, my email told me that my sister was on the heating situation and it seemed that everyone was taking care of things for me. I felt bad about it, but apart for getting on a plane and flying home, there wasn't much that I could do. With that taken care of (to some extent), we moved. My girlfriend and her roommate were being kicked out of their apartment so that a pregnant couple could move into their two-bedroom. *** and I moved downstairs which was one of the easiest moves ever because we just walked things down the three flights and then unloaded boxes right into their new homes. We started and finished in about 95 minutes. I had three beers during the move which made it much more enjoyable, too.

Friday is usually a boring night for us even though it's Legion night. Because *** wakes up at 4am, she isn't able to tie one on on Friday because the tiredness catches up to her. We skipped going out, watched some television, and went to bed by 9:00.

Saturday was a beautiful day, but we decided to stay indoors for most of it. We went to the Northmart and spent $326 on groceries. When we got back, I checked my email and found out that the heat was back on and that a $276 service call had solved everything. That was a huge load off my mind.

We are housesitting for someone and since she has cable, we went over there for the afternoon to enjoy all the wonders of Saturday afternoon television. Strangely, we ended up watching the Junior Curling on CBC so we didn't need cable anyway. We fell asleep on the couch and missed our broomball game.

At about 5:30, we headed back to our apartment building to help with the last little bit of our roommate's move. We carried a few boxes downstairs and then drove them over to his new place. When we were all finished, we put our feet up for a few minutes and enjoyed a beer. We tried to get the hockey game, but the antenna wasn't working very well. I decided to plug the tv into the cable jack to see if it would help the reception, but instead of a clear antenna reception, we discovered that his new apartment has free cable. I began to wonder if ***'s apartment has free cable too. I will have to investigate on Monday. It's moot right now since we don't even have a television.

After the cable discovery, the three of us headed over to the Elks' Lodge. There was a fundraiser for Nunavut Sport and they were holding a Chili Bash. We met a few more friends and had a few drinks and all the chili would could eat. It was a nice evening, but *** and I were pretty tired and headed home at 10:30.

I baked oatmeal-cranberry cookies this morning. We're going out for a walk as soon as I finish typing this entry. I expect when we get back we will head over for another afternoon of television. I'm looking forward to watching the WPT of Citytv at 4:00. We might have some friends over for dinner if we feel up to it.