Carvings :)

Here are my two carvings :) I have feelers out among the carvers and they know to bring me their latest and greatest carvings.

Seal Hunter

Muskox (soap stone with bone horns)

SNOW!

Nigel's squeaky chicken no longer comes inside because it is filthy.  It's kind of a step up from the regular snow angel, if you ask me.

I woke up this morning to a wonderfully crisp day and thought I'd share it with you.  I hear heat records are being broken all over Canada and while you're sweating and swearing about sweating I thought I'd help out with a little dose of shut it, it's cold here. Who am I kidding, though, I freaking love it!  Ha! I've been rocking mitts and a toque since July 30th :) 

 Standing on my porch you can see some of the crates from the construction across the street.  I also like that you've got a decent measurement of the snow on the banister.  Looking at photos from winter last year, I have to say, the information on the internet about this community is FALSE!  Last year, they received almost 16 FEET of snow but the stats online declare the annual precipitation to be 30cm.  Now, I admit to being a bit foggy on the cm-ft conversion but I'm almost certain those two numbers aren't even close... 

View of down town from up town.

I smiled the whole walk to work today :) The snow does something to the sunlight to make it so pure and the angry wind that usually blusters constantly from the north was at bay today.  Granted, by the time school was over most of the snow was gone but I can't help but think of all the snow to come!

Finally.

In a previous post, I think I mentioned a huge ridiculous hole in the middle of my couch.  Well, I have officially - after many emails and many weeks - received a new couch...finally.  I can't tell you how incredible it feels to just lounge on the couch without worrying that the middle would open up and swallow me or that I would be pierced by an errant spring or perhaps suffer some varying degree of tetanus.  

The couch, though, is just another small victory in a long line of classic north nonsense. According to my neighbour, the gaping hole was well known to housing for over a year and she couldn't possibly understand how after I re-notified them on July 30th I could still have the thing in my house.  Turns out to get anything done housing related you either have to bribe or cause some serious shit.  I chose the latter... is anyone surprised?

I started out with a CC'd email to everyone in the housing echelon including the big wigs in Cambridge Bay asking nicely about my new couch's status.  That got the ball rolling with a lot of promises and official dates being thrown around for when I would be able to relax on a whole hole-less couch.  Those deadlines came and went and when I followed up with a phone call there was some confusion as to what exactly I wanted and when - it was like I hadn't even called, miraculous! The guy on the other end said he'd get to it by Friday but he couldn't guarantee the state of the couch I would be getting to replace my old one... nor would he have time to build me new chairs so he'd drop off a box and I could do it myself.

That stuck with me: he couldn't guarantee and didn't have time.  One of my co-workers asked if I was getting a discount on my rent since I was paying for a furnished unit and only part of the furniture was safe/functional.  It was that exact moment when I lost it and CC'd a far less friendly email to everyone in the housing department. 

I seem to use this blog as a place to rant and rage but really in real life I'm only this angry sometimes.  So please, when you read the list of - shall we say - requests that I made, somewhat sarcastically, don't pity me for having so much anger in my heart.  And just know how satisfied I am to have a real hole-free couch.

Request 1
Since no one had any time to help, I asked for wood glue and permission to fix my old chairs, as well as a time sheet for me and the shop teacher to fill out so that my and his time could be credited against my rent.

Request 2
A new couch, or a couch that was in SIGNIFICANTLY better condition than my old one.  OR permission to buy my own couch and submit my receipts to be deducted from my rent.

Request 3
A break down of the cost per unit of furniture that my "furnished apartment rent" covers.  I offered to use my own time to calculate all the rent money I should be credited for the 6 weeks I went without a couch and chairs.

I followed these three little requests up with a gentle suggestion that I would be seeing them in small claims court should the results not be to my satisfaction... a bit heavy, I know, but much needed.

The CC'd email was followed by radio silence on their end... AND I even had to call on Friday to remind them that they had promised me a new couch BUT it did the trick and I came out of it up one comfy chair, too!  I still don't have any safe kitchen chairs, they will be the focus of my next CC'd email :)

Behold!

The new couch.  It's cheap as hell, and came with a rip on the left side but it's better than the other one.

Juxtaposition of the old chair (front) and the new chair (profile)  I made them leave the old one. 

My living space.  Complete with ridiculous Ikea curtains to jazz up the place.

Wall art in keeping with Nunavut McThompson Northern Tradition.