I'm dreaming of a white Thanksgiving

So I woke up this morning, and there you go, lots of white fluffy stuff falling from the sky. I'd be more explicit but most of our readers are from southern Ontario and we need to be cognizant of their sensitivities. This is a family blog after all, and some words you don't mention before November.

Honestly, none of it actually stayed on the ground, so I don't know for sure that we'll have a white Thanksgiving, but I'd bet quite a bit on a white Hallowe'en.

Lately I've been trying to pick up the local lingo. I can now have the following theoretical and pointless conversation:

Me: Good morning!
Someone: Good morning. How are you?
Me: I'm good, thanks, how are you?
Someone: Cold.
Me: Sorry!

Of course any time I have this conversation its because someone is indulging me with the seven or so words I've learned so far. The nice thing is that the folks at work are having fun teaching me new words when I ask.

I've found a lot of people have a great sense of humour in Baker Lake. People seem to love laughing here. For instance, the first word I learned was "good morning", or "u'bla'kut" (spelled more or less phonetically). The thing is, if I mis-pronounce it, I'm actually saying "spread your legs". The women at work got a kick out of explaining that to me. So, suffice to say I'm pretty careful about my enunciation there.

Speaking of amusing translations, apparently "its cold" (again phonetically) is "icky". I said its the same thing in English.

Quick list of interesting and amusing things going on these days:

• We've gone nearly a month without grocery shopping. Its amazing what you can do with a freezer and high food prices.
• The house across the street perpetually has a bicycle on the roof. I have no idea why.
• I think there may be more dogs in Baker Lake than people.
• The children here are never afraid of strangers, only strange dogs.
• Since we've been here (eight weeks) we've had 3 water outtages, 2 water-heater failures, 1 satellite dish failure (on Leafs opening night!) , the local water-pumping house has broken down (forcing us to conserve, which we did comfortably) , 1 furnace failure, and if you don't flush the toilets just right, those sometimes fail too. Just part of the fun though :)

Things we're looking forward to soon:

• Figuring out how to get Internet access on MY computer (instead of just her laptop...the trials I've been going through with wireless ethernet cards and my operating system are epic-worthy)
• Getting our Sobey's sealift bulk shipment...presumably in the next week or two.
• Finalizing our plans for our Christmas trip back south.
• Foodmail grocery order tomorrow! (I'm out of tea...help!)
• Learning how to make mash-potato-stuffing (if you don't know what I mean, don't ask. If you do, send us the recipe so we can survive Thanksgiving!)

~ he