Happy Non-Denominational Gift Giving Day!

We're not dreaming of a white christmas....we're having a white christmas! Big Flakes, warm weather (-13), couldn't be better. We're having a wonderful time despite Scott being so sick and our cat's newly diagnosed diabetes, and Moe being fatigued from the extreme change of climate and elevation. Scott's mom gave him a wicked pair of mukluks and I got both a really nice pullover and the game Puerto Rico from Scott's uncle. Scott made Moe a hope chest (not for dowry purposes but for when she moves out) and we got her all sorts of household type stuff for when she moves out on her own. We'll keep it here until then and continue to add all the things a person needs for their first apartment. She seems pretty happy with it.

Anyways, hope you all had a Very Merry Christmas. Wish we could all be together. We're gonna head out to the Humane Society pretty soon to walk dogs. They deserve a Merry Christmas too.

Scott wearing his new hat and sweater.

Scott's new mukluks-a wonderful present from his Mom.

Both Khan and Milo enjoyed all the treats our friend CJ gave them for Christmas.

Sick Scott played Santa this morning!

Christmas Eve PJs. Moe and I switched the tops and slippers! Hers was too pink.

Moe opening her xmas eve presents (always pjs-it's tradition).

Our Christmas tree last night.

The view of Dawson last night from across the river. Moe's first time on an ice bridge, too.

It's a sad day for Scooby Doo

Co-creator of Yogi Bear, Flintstones dies at 95
Last Updated: Monday, December 18, 2006 7:22 PM ET
CBC Arts
Joe Barbera, half of the Hanna-Barbera animation team that produced such beloved cartoon characters as Tom and Jerry, Yogi Bear and the Flintstones, died Monday, a Warner Bros. spokesman said.
Barbera, 95, died of natural causes at his home with his wife Sheila at his side, Warner Bros. spokesman Gary Miereanu said.
With his longtime partner Bill Hanna, Barbera first found success creating the highly successful Tom and Jerry cartoons. The antics of the battling cat and mouse went on to win seven Academy Awards, more than any other series with the same characters.
The partners, who had first teamed up while working at MGM in the 1930s, then went on to a whole new realm of success in the 1950s with a witty series of animated TV comedies, including The Flintstones, The Jetsons, Yogi Bear, Scooby-Doo and Huckleberry Hound and Friends.
Their strengths melded perfectly, critic Leonard Maltin wrote in his book Of Mice and Magic: A History of American Animated Cartoons. Barbera brought the comic gags and skilled drawing, while Hanna brought warmth and a keen sense of timing.
"This writing-directing team may hold a record for producing consistently superior cartoons using the same characters year after year —without a break or change in routine," Maltin wrote.

"From the Stone Age to the Space Age and from primetime to Saturday mornings, syndication and cable, the characters he created with his late partner, William Hanna, are not only animated superstars, but also a very beloved part of American pop culture. While he will be missed by his family and friends, Joe will live on through his work," Warner Bros. chairman and CEO Barry Meyer said Monday.
Hanna, who died in 2001, once said he was never a good artist but his partner could "capture mood and expression in a quick sketch better than anyone I've ever known."

More pretty sunsets

For those of you who are new to our blog: this is the view from our front deck/living room. Even when the town has no sun all day long in the winter we still get a little though you can't really tell if it's sunrise or sunset. I think I took this photo on Saturday afternoon. It's been pretty much snowing ever since.

Secret Satan Party

Our very nice friends, Nathan and Anne, threw a secret satan party on Saturday night. We had a wonderful time until the grinchy neighbours shut us down for playing the handrums. Oh well. A few of us came back to our place for more tunes. Good times. On the way back to our place one friend got his car stuck in the snow at the bottom of our driveway-our driveway is for driving down people! Not up. Made for some fun the following morning getting it pulled out.

I especially like the surprised looks on Tim and Marni's faces here.

A Good Night To Look Up

We had some friends over for games night-a slightly different group than usual but great fun all around. We're getting more people into it but be warned, we discovered that playing Carcassonne with seven players can turn ugly.

The aurora is awesome tonight and according to the site I use (in my sidebar) you all should be able to see it across Canada and even those of you in the northern U.S. should look skyward. We took plenty of breaks from our game to bundle up and head outside-it was only one colour but it was moving and covered a giant area of the sky. We were lucky to have seen it given that it snowed all day. In fact, you can see ice crystals in the air in this picture. The rest of the pics are a little grainy but they give you a small taste of the show we got tonight.

A Winter Morning

Hey everybody, I know I've been a delinquent blogger so I've posted a bunch of pics today to try to make up for it. Nothing very exciting going on here right now. We had a good weekend: played games on Sat night with some friends, went to look at some property across the river yesterday (very exciting!), put up our xmas tree, and I somehow managed to finish the rough copy on my final philosophy paper...whew! Oh yeah, and we watched a fair bit of Battlestar Galactica: I highly recommend it-I've already cried several times.

Hope everybody's doing well. Christmas is almost here! I can't wait to have Moe up! We head down to Whitehorse next Wednesday after school (with passengers this time!) and have a day to do all the xmas shopping before we pick her up and head back on the friday morning. I can't wait!!! It's going to be a very merry xmas!

ps. I took this pic about half hour before sun up this morning. Pretty, huh? If we move across the river we may not have this view but we'll have lots and lots of trees and privacy and quiet.

Naughty, naughty

look who I found this morning just making himself comfortable on the couch.

Carcassonne!

You know Dasher, and Dancer, and Prancer, and... Milo?

This is a pic of Milo and Honey taken while we are getting ready to put up xmas decorations.

Where did the winter go?

It's minus one here right now. Yes, you read correctly: -1 degree Celcius on Dec 6 in Dawson, Yukon Territory. I've let the fire go out and the dogs have been out for hours. Yesterday, in about -15 I walked down into town with only my jeans and some thin sweat pants underneath, no snowpants. Today I think I'll wear no second layer! I know, I know. You're thinking, "slow down, Lynne. Don't get too carried away. It's still -1." But really, once you get used to the cold, you really get used to it. I could run around nekkid outside now and not even get the shivers, I swear. It's hard to believe just last week it got to -47 or something silly like that...and stayed there for days! I wonder if this will affect the ice? I guess people here probably don't want it to stay this warm for long.

Anyways, I just needed to take a break from last philosophy paper. It's my last one and worth 40% of my mark. Unfortunately, I put my back out for the first time in at least a month, if not more, and so am currently high as a kite on T3s. Who knows how this will affect my paper. Maybe it will be especially creative, perhaps it will be incoherent. I guess I should be asking myself those same questions about this post. I guess it may disappear magically when I come down and have had a chance to review it.

I know you guys are wondering why the usual pictures have been absent and replaced by long rambling boring-as-hell commentaries. I actually have an explanation for this: Scott has had the camera for the past three days with him while he's at a workshop. He's making a traditional bow and arrow. I'll hopefully have pics of it later today or tomorrow. I'll also try to post a pic of the beautiful winter scene laid out before us. It's quite spectacular, I tell you. Even though the hours of sunlight have become more and more limited as the 24 hour darkness draws near.

Nothing too exciting going on. I'm gonna housesit for a few days down the hill and I'll be subbing the next two afternoons. Call it being in the wrong place at the wrong time. I walked in to the reading recovery room yesterday after school with the kid I tutor to pop some popcorn in their microwave and the grade two teacher and the reading recovery/art teacher I sub for regularly while she gets more training were trying to figure out how to solve their dilemma. The RR teacher had a terrible toothache and needed to go to Whitehorse to the dentist but was supposed to be housesitting for the Grade two teacher while her and her family were in Whitehorse. Suddenly I have a busy weekend. Add that to company tonight, games nights tomorrow and Saturday night, Scott doing more training for the radio station, and getting my papers done for school and an exam coming up in ten days and holy shit. Good thing these T3s have caffiene in them.

Enough said.

A picture to prove the point

thanks to Andrew for sharing this.

Maybe it's time to move to another Country

I've always been so proud to be a Canadian...that is until lately. Have you all read the news today? http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20061202.wsamesex02/BNStory/National/home (sorry, for some reason I can't make the link) They're going to vote on same-sex marriage again on Wednesday. No, not vote on whether or not to reopen the issue. The motion asks: "that this House call on the government to introduce legislation to restore the traditional definition of marriage without affecting civil unions and while respecting existing same-sex marriages.” I ask you, what the fuck?! I agree with some of the comments posted on this article in the globe and mail-next thing you know they'll be bringing back the "tradition" of women not being allowed to vote, and other such issues. This is just wrong. Why is our government doing this, you might ask? Well, it probably has something to do with the massive religious support the Conservatives get. But aren't there rules about keeping church and state separate? It is these people, these Christian/Catholic zealots, that are causing social unrest in our country, not the gays. To me it's like saying that black people cannot get married in this country because they are different than the majority. And hey, don't think that couldn't happen-what better way to bring back the "tradition" of keeping slaves? And don't tell me that slavery wasn't a Canadian tradition, I know that, but neither is marriage. Nor is it purely a Christian tradition. Man and woman have been traditionally paired together for one reason and one reason only: survival of the species. This isn't really a pressing issue right now in case you hadn't noticed. And with the ridiculous growth in population that we've seen these past couple of generations we can't really seriously think that a small percentage (gays) that can't reproduce in the traditional way (as is also the case with many man/woman couples) are a threat to our survival? There are much more serious threats brewing that should be getting the full attention of our governments: our environment, crimes against humanity (Bush!), terrorism (Bush!), etc. This brand of facism we are seeing in our governmentis not what we want in our country. We are better than that. I have no problem with religion as a personal thing, don't get me wrong-there is tonnes of good being done out there because of those folks but when you get together with a large group of people and then, amongst yourselves decide that your beliefs are right and everyone else's beliefs are wrong and therefore they should not have the same rights as your group unless they conform-well, that's just pure ignorance and if you look at it with a logical and open mind I'm quite sure you'll see it the same way. Can't we all just love one another? Really? Don't let Harper do this. Speak up! Write letters! Do whatever you can to tell our goverment to stop prying into our private lives and to keep religion and goverment separate.

Thanks for your patience during my rant. I truly hope that if you are supporting the current goverment that you try to put yourself in someone elses shoes for awhile and realize that just because you want something doesn't make it a good thing for others.