Two weeks ago tonight I arrived in FMMA. Time is moving quickly.

I spent last evening re-arranging the furniture in the bedroom...not sure if it is better or not so will wait a few more days. The girls helped by climbing inside the dresser and moving from one drawer to another from inside. Note to self: always do a head count in the morning before leaving, or always leave a drawer ajar.


The girls hung out on the patio with me tonight for a bit. Hudson of course being the braver of the two is always willing to come out with me. Tundra took her sweet time and stayed standing inside the apartment looking at us for quite a while. She finally ventured out but didn't go near the edge of the balcony. The noise seems to disturb her. Hudson doesn't mind the noise and enjoys putting her head over the edge but that is it so far. She has been very cuddly the past two nights and spent most of last night on the couch with me--totally out of character.

Being out on site was interesting. They are quite large and seem to be towns onto themselves. One thing that has surprised me is how safety seems to be everyones top priority. I know it should be...but it is nice to see everyone that I meet concerned about it.

I'm hoping to do a bit of exploring around town this weekend. In the meantime...here's a few more pics.Most of these were taken during the final day as we celebrated with the families. There are the people we worked with every day on their homes.

I'm heading out to a couple of the sites tomorrow. The two big onces. xsinkrude and and xsoncore. Yes...spelled wrong on purpose. Figure it out...or not. I'm excited to head to site and get my feet dirty. Looking forward to it. Spent most of today with one of my colleagues from Edmonton and she showed me around all the files and folders and processes. Work continues to be great but I am looking forward to being immersed into the work. They've been taking it easy on me thus far. LOL.


My little garden is looking good and with all the rain we've had over the weekend I haven't needed to water it since planting. I may try the cats out on the deck with their collars on and attach them to a leash. One at a time until we know how to behave and what is expected of us. Seems a shame to not be able to have the door open to the apartment when the temps have been so great. The rain comes and goes in spurts so there is still lots of deck time on the go. And, considering the fires burning to the North we are all glad the rain is here. Hopefully this helps put the fire out as it is now under control but still burning.

The cats continue to amuse me. Their odd ball ways make me laugh all the time. Coming home and finding one of my good hand towels in their litter box not so amusing but I can't even imagine why or how they managed it. At 9pm last night I found them sound asleep curled at the foot of my bed. I knew this was not a good sign and sure enough when I crawled into bed they got up from their cat nap and decided to run around the apartment for a while. One of their favorite things to do lately is play with the small mat I have just inside the door. That mat really gets a work out and is never in the same place twice but it can often be found half in the apartment and half out. I wonder what the neighbours must think when the see the mat sticking out into the hallway and moving.

Got some bad news on the truck front. It needs some work to pass inspection. Almost $2000 to pass inspection. OUCH! While I have not noticed any problems with the truck and I suspect if it was in PEI it would be fine for a while longer the Alberta motor vehicle inspections are crazy. I took the truck to a garage owned by the company I work for and I'm getting a special rate and all...but still. OUCH!!

I feel like I'm busy in the evenings but besides getting some of my art work up on the walls I don't feel as though I did much last night...and so far tonight I've done nothing besides make myself supper and talk to my mom on the phone...and it feels like I should get going to bed soon.

This week I'm working 7-4 and so I get up at 5:30am to get out the door at 6:40am. It was hard. I put the kettle on this morning and by the time it boiled and I let the tea steep for 10 minutes then took 1/2 hour to drink it I was almost late this morning getting to work. Their must be a better way...other than getting up earlier. Maybe I need to drink faster but it is soooo relaxing to sip and enjoy. Oh well. I guess I should get a thermos and take it to work where I can sip while I work. And I guess if this is the biggest thing I have sitting on my brain at the moment I shouldn't complain.

Here's a few pics from India that I cropped and adjusted on the weekend.

Survived the first week with no issues and as I kept telling people...I'm coming back on Monday. While each day seemed long--only because I haven't had to concentrate on doing a 'day job' for two months.

The apartment gets a tiny bit more complete each day. Today I bought the small baskets I wanted for my cupboard. There are 8 of them in total and each one has a purpose; baking, spices, packages/pre-made, etc The cupboard is super organized and I will easily find all the spices when required. It may also stop me from buying extra soup mix when I already own a bag of it. I also took on the task of going through my 'paper' box. It became this filing box full of paper that I told myself I would organize while driving across the country. That never happened, but today I did it. I sorted out all the items that could simply be shredded and they are sitting by the door waiting to go to work. The other items have been sorted into bank stuff and tax stuff and other. The bank stuff is now in order of year. I didn't even sort the tax stuff--too depressing. I also made a list on the computer of where I have lived since 1999 and for how long. I've thought about doing this before and just never seemed to get it done but with all my tax papers, bank statements, etc in front of me I feel fairly confident that the list is correct. The only ones I wasn't entirely sure of is Newfoundland. I have three addresses for my 4 years there and can't remember how long I was in any one spot and which spot was first. I'm sure if I really wanted to google I could find out and I know I'm missing a couple of spots from there but..close enough.

Exciting times eh?

Last night, Friday evening I spent part of my evening cooking and finished up today. I had to wait for Telus to show up today and took advantage of my imprisonment in the apartment to get some cooking finished. In the freezer at this moment is 6 tubs of butter chicken with basmati rice, 9 containers of vegetarian chili and 9 containers of chicken soup. Enough lunchs for the next month at work...plus a bit more. I like being able to just open the freezer door in the morning and grab lunch. It saves so much time. The funny thing was that when I went to go make supper I kept opening up the fridge door and proclaiming to the cats that there is nothing to eat. LOL. Didn't want to waste my lunches on supper on the weekend. I finally threw together some linguini noodles with an alfredo sauce and lobster mushrooms. Not bad.

I am hoping to tackle the bedroom tomorrow and get the craft stuff put away and my jewelry.

The other deed done today was that I bought and replanted some plants for my balcony. I now have a yellow tomato plant, rosemary, basil, mint, parsley and a few others that I'm not sure of. It looks great and smells nice too. Not big on the flower side but it is more green--and practical.

I still haven't purchased my bbq. I was leaning towards electric but am not sure now. The reviews seem to say it will just taste like you cooked it on a G. Foreman grill--and I already have one of those so why bother? But I will see. I certainly like the idea of cooking outdoors and received the names and directions to a few camping places around FMM.

Tomorrow is Father's Day. Happy Day to my dad. He's always there with advice when I want/need it. He's handy, and considerate and darn it he's good with rope. Always an invaluable help to me over the years as I travel the globe. While I may not be there physically, I am of course there in spirit.

I've been playing with the settings for comments--again and it may or may not still be working for everyone. According to blogger I have all the same settings as for the old blog.

Monday went well. They are working me into the position slowly, though I know my supervisor is anxious to toss the reigns over to me as she has been covering the position for a long time. I was given my office, met the staff and basically left on my own for the day--after I had my orientation with the computer guru. The office needs a lot of cleaning out of files, etc and I went with gusto to the shred box many times...and I'm not done yet. I'm making the call on what needs to go/stay and its been a great way to start to read about what the person before me looked after.

Tuesday I spent away from the office taking a test. I am now certified to go out to site. I won't be working out at site but you need to pass this test before you are allowed out at any of the sites around town. It's all safety and common sense. Today is another day in the office sitting with the other staff and getting an idea of what they do and what they cover. Thursday I have an orientation session to attend for the company, its a half day session and I'm looking forward to it. Then Friday is back in the office for more settling in and watching and learning.

I took advantage of being finished early yesterday to get a few chores done--visit the post office to try and get my mail sorted out, get my insurance switched over and things like that. The post office issue has been taken care of, but now that the workers are locked out the likelihood of my mail ever arriving is getting very slim. There was a mix up with my mailing address and the original unit number I was given is incorrect so any mail that was to be re-directed may or may not have been sent to me and it may or may not have been collected by the person living in that unit...or I just might not have any mail that has arrived yet. Sigh....and now with the lock out I'm never going to see mail again. The post office was alive and well yesterday when I was there. Lots of mail being sent and people hoping to collect mail...so I'm not sure this strike has eliminated all the mail that Canada Post claims.

In other news, the fires above town continue to burn. There are over 600 hectares burning at present and over 700 firefighters trying to stop the fire. It isn't coming close to town and they don't really expect it to but the smoke drifts in on a regular basis and gives the appearance of smog/fog but leaves a distinct fire smoke in your nose. I admit I haven't been following it too closely and the general consensus around town is that beside the devastation to the forest and land farther North that it won't really affect us.

The cats are behaving a bit differently here than on PEI. I guess it is an adjustment period for them as well. They are much more vocal that before--and they have always been vocal kitties. Tundra doesn't seem as happy as she could be, she seems to never be able to settle. I'm hoping that will end soon once she has gotten used to the new smells and sounds of the apartment. I am also ordering a couch cover--leather couch and the cats is not a good combination as they slip off the couch and I'm terrified of the claws getting into it. Hudson my little kneeder was doing her thing the other morning while she purred and the claws got stuff a couple of times in the leather...there goes the damage deposit. The deck is of interest to them and they enjoy watching out the window to see all the action below us. I am hoping to put some screen up around the edges of the deck, get some flower boxes around the edges this weekend and then allow the cats out...but I'm not sure. Obviously with supervision...but I'm worried that Hudson will jump up on the railing or attempt to and since it is curved and there is a 4 storey drop...I'm still not sure about the deck and cats.  At the moment she is walking along the top of the cupboards in that space between cupboard top and ceiling...no amount of coaxing is getting her down from there....sigh.

Oh well. I'm off. Have a great day.

Survived the first day of work...but today, Tuesday is not starting out good. Made my tea this am, waited for it to steep and checked emails. Checked tea early--impatient today and it was pale...nuts, wait longer. Pour cup of tea...no colour...just water. Forgot to put the tea leaves in. ARGH. LOL. Oh well...tea is now made and I'm sipping away.

Welcome to my first weekend in Fort McMurray. What have I done so far? Unpack. And I'm not finished yet. Since this is supposed to be a fresh start and a new beginning I thought a new blog was in order. For those of you who have been around before its the same old stuff just with a new address.

I arrived on Thursday evening and spent my first 3 hours in town in the dark--literally. Apparently someone cut a power line or disconnected a power line and it left most of the city without power for at least a portion of the evening. I survived without issue and was able to order Chinese food from a part of the city that apparently did have power. Early the next morning I was hovering outside of the landlords office ready to get the keys to my new apartment. By 12noon I had unpacked my truck and was staring at the pile of boxes, totes and bags wondering where it was all going to go. By Friday evening I had the kitchen into a semblance of order and was able to at least walk from one room to the other without jumping over anything.

It is now close to supper time on Saturday and while I have continued to make progress on the unpacking it is at the point of chaos. So many things piled and stacked with the 'I'll deal with you later' label thrown on them. I am desperately trying to get all the boxes and totes emptied so that nothing goes bad (in case of water inside the container) and so that I have located everything. I have been to Walmart, Canadian Tire, Save on Foods, Sobeys, a liquor store--though the wine is in a bag somewhere as yet unopened, a dollar type store and the bank. I have purchased and put together one of those over the toilet shelving units which took much longer to assemble than I would care to admit only to find out that the brace in the back is at the exact same height as the water pipe coming out of the wall. I am hoping that the brace will not prove to be a vital part of the entire unit. I am in need of a shelving unit for my storage closet and will venture out again tomorrow with the truck to pick that up along with more groceries as no matter how many times I have bought food the past two days I still don't seem to have anything to eat nor to make lunch with for Monday.

So...new job...new location. I'm looking forward to both.

Let's talk about the location. As I drove across the country from the East Coast to the Prairies people would ask me where I was going and I would say, "I'm moving to Fort McMurray. I have a new job." The next reaction is this look of pity on their face followed by, "Oh, that's too bad." Now most of these people have never been to Fort McMurray so I can't imagine that they are experts on the situation nor are they able to give me a true reading of my new home and so their comments have been largely ignored. But it happens ALL the time. I don't think I met yet with a "Congratulations! A new job. How exciting for you." I don't care. I received about the same type of response when I decided to move to Nunavut and that was one of the most amazing experiences of my life. So to everyone out there who gave me the pity response 'ppffffttt' I'm determined to have a good time while I'm here.

I have the summer ahead of me for camping (though if we don't get rain soon I may not get to experience the joy of a campfire this summer), visiting friends in Edmonton, learning about this new city I have moved to and becoming an expert at my job. It's all positive and good from here.

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Monday morning. I'm sipping my tea and watching the clock. Don't want to be late for my first morning. I was going to drive the route last night just to make sure there were no surprises but opted to stay and hang out with the cats instead. They have survived their cross-Canada flight with no issues. They were a tad confused when I finally dumped the kennel on the floor in the new apartment and they walked around meowing for about 1/2 hour. I just sat on the couch asking them to keep it down a little. By supper time they had explored the whole apartment and had settled down to stare at me from across the room. At one point I got up to use the bathroom and wondered where they had wandered off to...turns out it was the tub. They love the tub. This tub is much deeper than in the last apartment and Tundra is having issues jumping out, but I'm sure she will get the hang of it.

So...back to work. Or rather off to work for the first time with this particular company. I'm looking forward to it and am a bit anxious at the same time...which seems about right. I don't know if I should bring my lunch or not...yes, minor point but it is one of those defining moments to the first day.

Anyway...I better run or I will be late. Here's a few pics from the move before and after...a few you have seen before.