KatieTheKat

Last weekend Johnny and I had a great opportunity to join a few members of the canoe club in an introductory whitewater paddling trip in Northern Saskatchewan. We had a fantastic time and met some awesome people and loved riding the rapids! I have put together a video from everyone's pictures and I will let that tell most of the tale. Just a few things to add:

1. Johnny and I didn't flip once on the first day of whitewater! (woot!)

2. Before we left camp Saturday morning, we stopped a slowly smoldering forest fire that must have been started by the campers before us (there is one picture of us firefighters in the video)

3. We rented a couple of boats from Churchill River Canoe Outfitters and they were great!

4. Here are a few of my favourite pics from the trip:



kat

So yes, I was trying to make a hula hoop out of bamboo. There is a problem, however. After bathing for 4-5 days, the bamboo was barely bendable. Seems it must have been treated or something. So anyhow, now I have these 6 bamboo rods and no plan. What can I make with them?

In other news, had some fun last week: swimming at Pike Lake, watching the Perseids south of town, having Sharon (one of Johnny's friends and co-workers) over for dinner, a little paddle in some kayaks on the weekend, and yesterday I joined some slackliners and disc tossers in the park...

Also yesterday, I finally got in touch with the right person at the Saskatoon School Board, and I expect to have an in-person interview scheduled today. If that goes well enough, I should be on the substitute list for the start of the school year. I'm not aware of any openings for more regular positions, but perhaps like Vancouver you have to be a part of the system before you can apply for those. I sure hope there's work for substitutes in September here!

ps. The tent and all our other missing Regina paraphernalia are back and intact!

So today I decided to start working on a prototype of a new project that I think could be a big hit. I'm not sure if it will work yet though. I wonder if you can guess what I'm up to...

Since I couldn't find my sunglasses, I had to dig out the swim goggles for the cutting phase. Here is a picture of me in my safety gear:


And here is a picture of the cutting station on the kitchen floor. The kitchen, by the way, currently smells very strongly of charred bamboo:
(That's Johnny's Dremmel I was using for cutting)


And the product thus far... these guys may have to soak in the bathtub for a few days before I can move on to the next step:


.. so, knowing me, is it obvious what my goal is?

PART II (no more chapters)

My phone rang around 8am the next morning. It was the owner of the other house on Broder Street. He wasn't really upset but he also didn't seem to have much of a sense of humour. After I re-explained the story of why my tent had been in his yard, he informed me that when he found it, he didn't know what to do, so he chose option d): call the police. He told me that the police had come to his house and packed up my tent and that I would have to contact them about getting it back.

I don't believe that option would even have occurred to me, had I been in his situation. And I was surprised that the police did come and pack it up for him. When I called the police, the communications officer was very curious to hear just why I had set up my tent in a stranger's yard, and she found the whole story quite humourous indeed. She was also very helpful, though she informed me that my tent was already "on exhibit", which meant that it was likely inaccessible until Monday morning. I told her that I had to be back in Saskatoon by then, so she gave me the names of the constables who had responded to the tent "incident" and let me know when I could call back to talk to them about it.

Unfortunately, when I eventually got in touch with the constable late Saturday night, he reiterated that our belongings were on exhibit and the department with the key to that area would not be on duty until monday morning. He also mentioned that their first response to hearing about the mystery tent was to suggest the homeowner just toss it out in the alley. I'm not sure why they decided to go in and collect it instead. I guess that we should consider ourselves lucky that crime was not heavy in Regina on that particular night.

Collette was incredibly helpful through all this - not only did she put together a nice little nest in her tent for Johnny and I to stay in on Saturday night (once it had dried out), but she volunteered to go to the police station in my place on Monday. Furthermore, she had some friends at folk fest who happen to be driving to Whitehorse starting on Tuesday, and chances are good that they will be able to deliver the tent on their way through Saskatoon.

And that is where the story ends, for now. I have not yet been in touch with Collette today, but if all goes according to plan, Johnny and I will be reunited with our gear by sometime tomorrow morning.

As for the remainder of the folk fest, it was great. Turns out all of the daytime performances are freely open to the general public, and even the main stage was quite visible from outside the fence. If you ever find yourself near Regina around the middle of August, I would highly recommend looking out for the folk festival. Apparently it is one of only 2 North American Folk Fests with official free entertainment. And the lineup of artists was really quite excellent.

Emily Wells was the star as far as I was concerned, though Johnny says Patrick Watson is incredible (we decided to get an earlier start to the drive home last night and ended up missing his performance). We discovered Alexis Normand from Saskatoon who I really liked - hopefully we will see more of her around here. Then there was BD Willoughby, who is moving to Victoria to go to school for a little while - I gave him my brother's phone number since I thought maybe they'd have fun jamming together... later I discovered the number I gave him is out of date and has been disconnected. I hope he's not too disappointed. Oh also Arrested Development put on a great show. And Mr. Something Something. It was all good.

I'm writing this up from the edge of the river underneath the University Bridge in Saskatoon. It's shady and there is a nice breeze, a great escape from a hot day. From here I have a view across the river to the University grounds, which I have yet to explore. I am probably about a 10-15 minute walk away from home. Speaking of home, perhaps I will go back there now to post this and relieve your suspense.





kat

What would you do if you got home, looked in your backyard, and saw an unfamiliar tent pitched jauntily on your lawn?

a) Just leave it there and see what happens
b) Pack it up and keep it for yourself
c) Put a note on it requesting that its owner state his or her business pitching said tent in your yard
d) Call the police
e) Other. Describe: __________________________________________

As to why I would ask such a question, allow me to describe a few particulars of Johnny and my trip to the Regina Folk Festival on the weekend...

CHAPTER 1

On the way down, we took back roads. We saw some sights:

Beaver Creek Conservation Area




Some crazy highway construction (this is the view in front of the car - the road was otherwise paved)


Lake Diefenbaker


The town of Eyebrow


Some Very Flat Prairie


As we approached Regina, I put in a call to Collette, our couchsurfing host. We had planned to camp, but the campground that was reasonably close to the festival was fully booked, so instead I arranged for us to camp in Collette's backyard. When we called, she was out at a pre-folk-fest party, but she told us to just go ahead and pitch our tent and that she would meet up with us at the festival later.

CHAPTER 2

So we drove through pretty Wascana Park into town and found a little house on Broder St. I had written down the address and Johnny had used that information to print a map from google, so we found it easily enough. The house didn't have a number on it, but the adjacent ones did so we were pretty sure it must be the place. We went into the backyard and found the shadiest spot we could and pitched the Hubba Hubba. Since it had been quite a long and adventuresome day, we decided to crawl in for a little nap before heading over to the festival.

You might be starting to get a little antsy now, given the foreshadowing and hints of disaster mentioned above. At this point, you might think we would have wanted some assurance that we were in the right spot before we set up that tent. We certainly did, though on the other hand we were a little tired. We didn't have a description of the house, though Collette had mentioned something about a piece of plywood being used as a gate to keep the dogs in (we didn't notice this plywood, but thought little of it - it could have been at the back of the yard and we had come around the side of the house). She also mentioned she had watered the lawn in the morning. This lawn did seem to have been watered quite recently - in fact I was a little surprised at how well-kept it was, given that Collette had been perfectly happy to let us pitch a tent there for the whole weekend. Also she had mentioned her two dogs.. well, I saw a cat looking out at us through the back window and was happy to see that she had a feline as well.

So anyhow, after our little snooze, we grabbed Johnny's thermarest, which converts to a chair and headed around to the van to collect our bikes and the items we wanted to have with us for the evening. We left my thermarest and Johnny's sleeping bag in the tent. Not much else though. Then we locked up the van and biked over to the festival.

I sent Collette a text message once we had staked our spot in front of the main stage for the evening's performances so that she would know where she could find us. We sat there for Ohbijou's performance but got up and danced to Mr. Something Something (who I had seen at the Montreal Jazz Fest a couple of years ago) and stayed right at the front of the stage for the fabulous Emily Wells. (Amazing!). Anyhow, it wasn't until we had returned to our seats on the grass for John Prine's performance that I got a text back from Collette, who had just arrived. We didn't actually meet her until about 10:30pm, just before Sarah Harmer came onto the stage.

The thought had crossed my mind earlier that when we met Collette, she might decide to make some joke about the tent. Perhaps she'd say something like "I hope you haven't set up your tent yet, because I didn't see one in my backyard". Then we'd look shocked and she would laugh and say "Just kidding, it's there!". Ha ha ha. We would all have a nice laugh and become the best of friends.

CHAPTER 3

So when we did make our way through the crowd and meet Collette and when she said "I hope you haven't set up your tent yet, because there isn't one in my backyard", I'm afraid I did not play my part correctly. Instead of looking shocked, I just laughed and said "Ha ha, you're kidding, right?". And then She was the one who looked shocked and said "No. There is no tent in my yard." And that is when I realized that is when I realized that we should have seen the signs: the missing plywood, the cat instead of the dogs... I asked her what colour her house was, what the address was. Neither matched the house whose yard we set our tent up in. Oh sure, the address was close. But if you take a 4 digit address and flip the middle two numbers from 53 to 35, you're no longer at the same house. We spent the rest of the concert trying to answer the question I posed earlier.

In fact, Johnny and I being slightly preoccupied with our possessions and our sleeping arrangements for the night, we decided to leave a little bit early. And so it was that at a little before midnight, we snuck back into the yard of a little gray house with no plywood gate... and saw absolutely no trace of a tent.

CHAPTER 4

The house was completely dark and it was very late, so it certainly wasn't the time to knock on the front door. Instead, I wrote up a little note beginning "Dear residents of this house, I can only imagine your surprise when..." (I wish I had taken a picture of the note now, but that thought somehow did not cross my mind at the time). The note included my name and phone number and requested that they give us a call asap so we could arrange to retrieve our belongings.

We then made our way to Collette's clearly numbered house down the street where two excited little dogs started barking at us long before we got near the backyard. We let ourselves in with Collette's key (she was staying out for the after-party) and met the dogs, Katie and Simon.

1. Katie and Katie 2. Katie and Katie and Simon


Collette had offered us the use of her tent for the night, but when we set it up, we found it was still wet from its last trip and opted to sleep in the van for the night instead. We put Johnny's thermarest sideways so that at least our hips had some cushioning.

---- PAUSE - it's time for me to get ready for some tutoring now. The next chapter and conclusion will come this afternoon. ----

Finally! I have completed the reversible homemade duvet cover. And after several attempts, it even has a neatly installed and fully functional zipper closure. Woot!





Of course, there is not actually a duvet in there at the moment, as it is far too warm for that. Well, not Far too warm - but the cover sans filling has been about the right amount of warmth so far. But wonder of wonders, the duvet even fits pretty well when I tried stuffing it in there.

Another accomplishment today was acquiring a dresser, but that is still out in the van as it would be quite the challenge to get it up here single-handedly.

The paddle on the river yesterday evening, by the way, was fantastic. But unfortunately we did not see any beavers.

kat

So I am thinking I might do a semi-regular daily/weekly-ish report on life here in Saskatoon and what's been going on. We shall see. At least there will be this one.

Today has been pretty busy so far (like most days in the past couple of weeks). I got up early (that is before Johnny left for work) to have plenty of time for it. After a tasty breakfast of toasts (I had 3 today like Johnny does instead of my usual 2, since I knew I'd be busy!) and yogourt with fresh peaches, I saw Johnny off and took the laundry upstairs to the washing machines. I like to go to the balcony up there on the 11th floor in the morning for the beautiful view eastward over the river and towards the north. Not that this is something I do regularly, but perhaps I should. Then I came down to the apartment and transplanted all of the organic herbs and flowers I picked up at Garden Patch Organics yesterday (http://www.gardenpatchorganics.com/) into their new balcony planter homes.




The grassy one is lemon grass! mmm. Time for some Thai food.

No sooner had I done all the planting and retrieved the laundry, then it was time to hit the road for the pretty riverside bike ride up to do some tutoring in Lawson Heights. For once I gave myself enough time and didn't arrive dripping with sweat, only mildly soggy like a good worm compost (speaking of which, ours is doing quite well I think). Tutoring went well and as usual was followed by snacks and a chat with my student and his mom. Then I zipped back and had some lunch out on the balcony. And well, I guess actually that's all I've done so far today. But I still have plans to contact another potential tutoring client, finish sewing up this sheet duvet cover, perhaps make some cookies, marinate some beef for bbqing tonight (with some fresh lemon grass, I'm thinking..). Oh and practice my bamboo flute.

Here it is relaxing on the couch, clothed and naked:


Tonight Johnny and I will go paddling on the river (we joined the canoe club last week!).

As for what else has been going on, well the Regina folk fest is coming up next weekend. Yesterday I played ulti and met some cool people. Last weekend was a long one and we spent it in Edmonton, mostly hanging out with Johnny's family, but also visiting my aunt and uncle there and quickly checking out Heritage Days. We drove with Johnny's former classmate and sort of coworker Sharon, whose Jeep turned out to be a real bugkiller on the highway. It got to be nearly impossible to see through the windshield on the way into Edmonton due to the residue of thousands of squashed mosquitoes, too thick for the wipers to handle. Mosquitoes were pretty bad at ulti last night too - but other than the last few days they have not really been a concern. And they never come up to our 8th floor balcony.

Well that's about all for now. À la prochaine!

kat