There are three grassfires that prompted the evacuation of some folks who live about 30-45 minutes northeast of Edmonton still burning out of control. The whole city smells like smoke tonight.

OK, the whole family thing is now feeling a bit less weird now. Don't know why I felt like I did the other day, but all seems OK now ( Read more... )

Well, we arrived in Edmonton after an uneventful drive across the country. Of course, I think uneventful is the best way for these to be when you're doing a lot of driving. It was approximately 3,900 km from Ottawa to Edmonton and we stopped to overnight in Espanola, Nipigon and Neepawa en route. The last morning of driving, when leaving from ( Read more... )

I continued with the theme of practice hiking yesterday. At the end of it, my knees felt like mush. It was only 5 km in and back on the same trail (2.5 km each way) but about 3/4 of it was steep, so it was uphill on the way in and downhill on the way back. Uphill was fine. My knees were OK. Downhill just about killed me, though I made it. I wasn't ( Read more... )

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That is the amount that I have raised so far for the walk/run fundraising event that my family is participating in on May 2 just east of Edmonton. 25% of the first $250 goes toward the fundraising of the Strathcona County Parks Department and the balance goes to the charitable organization of our choice. We've selected the Lynda White Memorial ( Read more... )

Well, 5 days from today, I'll be off on the start of my trip west. Getting excited, but have tons of stuff to get done before then:
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• practice packing my backpack in advance of the west coast trail hike
• check existing equipment for operability and acquire whatever supplies i need.
• ensure that i have sufficient dried foods for the hike
• decide which ( Read more... )

So, tonight has been two extremes. I finished up all of my end of term assignment grading. Students do very well usually on the final assignments. It always makes me happy ( Read more... )

In keeping with getting ready for the West Coast Trail, today I:

• hiked 9 km
• in 1.5 hrs
• with a backpack containing 13 kg (29 pounds) of stuff

No issues at all.

Here are a few pics of what I passed by on my hike:


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Was chatting with my boss the other day and she's booked me for my annual performance review - even though it's really only officially my first 5 months review. In any case, she let slide that she's looking forward to doing mine because the good ones are always easy to do. Yay me! This wasn't a surprise. She does like what I've accomplished in my ( Read more... )