Its hard to believe that, by week's end, I will be in Australia. Wow. I'm so excited! It's going to be amazing. I should have my passport in hand by 5pm today at the latest (though I hope it comes sooner so I can take the dog for her walk before dinner) It's coming by courier, so I have to hang about to sign for it when it arrives. The last thing I need is to not be able to get it because I wasn't here when they came calling.

I may post an update or two in here while I'm there, but I wouldn't count on it. I'm going to be too busy exploring and having fun to want to be spending any more time than I have to on the computer. But I'll be sure to post many photos and lots of stories when I return and have time to kill again.

So, doing a bit of a test pack today. Seems I can fit everything I want to take into my bag... However, I seem to be over the weight restriction... Hmm. Time to pare down I suppose. I don't particularly want to pay an extra $75 because my bag weighs more than it should.




update
Hmm, seems I may have read the scale wrong due to my bag half covering the numbers. Seems unlikely that what I removed would take the wt from 77lbs to 23lbs.. must have said 33 lbs when I read it the first time... Oh well, it made me re-think what I -really- needed.

Today's paddle was even nicer than yesterday's. By a lot, actually. And I was mistaken about the name of the lake that's connected to Wood Lake. It's not Mara, it's Kalamalka. Mara is half way to Castlegar, and not all that close to here.

But Kalamalka is a lovely little lake. Lots of sheltered coves and inlets, and a very scenic shoreline. Beautiful clear blue water.. and so warm! I was more than half tempted to go for a swim. We were out for about 2.5 hours today. If the weather's suitable, we'll go paddling one more time tomorrow, but then dad has to go back to work and I have to get back to studying.. *sigh* It's been an awesome weekend so far though.

Woke up this morning with a hell of a knot in the muscles of my right shoulder, right where it joins my neck. Not sure what that bodes in regards to paddling, guess we'll see.

Well, today was the first paddle of the season, and my very first paddle in my new (to me) little boat. Went down to Wood Lake in Oyama and were out for about an hour and a half before my left arm decided it just didn't want to paddle any more. A definite disappointment to the rest of me, which could quite happily have stayed on the water all day (and probably gotten sun burned even worse than I did) 

It was a gorgeous, almost wind free morning, and there wasn't too much motor boat traffic on the lake, so it was nice. We plan to go out again tomorrow morning, and probably paddle Mara Lake, which is just the other side of the road from Wood, and connected via a channel. Looking forward to it for sure. Hopefully my arm will let me go a little longer this time.

Since I still haven't gotten around to getting a picture of myself in my new boat, I thought I would see if I could track down a pic of it OL to show. As luck would have it, I even found it in the right color.

or

Stolen from the Diary of [Viking] and posted everywhere I think people might see it.

Earth at 350
350 parts per million of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20080526/mckibben

Yay! Mom got the envelope full of my passport application and stuff yesterday, and she should be able to go pick up my birth certif from the courier this morning or tomorrow, which means she'll be at the passport office by tomorrow after work, and there should be no problem with me getting my passport in time! Yay!

And, on a completely unrelated not.. I HATE my body's internal alarm click. 6:45 is not a decent time to wake up when one went to bed at 2am!

As much as an income would be somewhat of an assistance at this juncture, I have to admit that I'm -really- enjoying waking up every morning to no responsibilities. No work, no school, no nothing. I got up, had breakfast, read for a while, and then slept for another couple of hours *chuckles* not normally something I would do, but it felt lovely to be able to.

I've mailed all my passport stuff off to my mom, and now it's out of my hands. All I can do at this point is wait with crossed fingers and bated breath, and have faith that everything will work out. I'm very excited about this trip. It's going to be amazing. The 25 hours of travel however, between leaving Kelowna and arriving in Perth, are going to be killer.

So, because of an unfortunate miss-wording on my part which confused the staff at the office that is doing the birth certificate stuff, my application won't be processed till monday. They called while I was getting my hair cut and I missed the call, and when I tried to call back I couldn't get though, and then of course, being a government office, they close for the day at 4pm Alberta time, so 3pm BC time. Aargh! *sigh* Well, I guess one day isn't going to make all that much difference. I won't be mailing the passport stuff off to mom till tomorrow any how, so it won't get sent till monday either. *sigh* I still think I'm going to get my passport in time. Damn it all, I have to!

The good news is that it should only take one business day for the new birth certificate to get to my mom. So if I get everything mailed off today, she should be able to get to the passport office and get things going by mid next week. *breathes a sigh of relief* I think it's going to be ok..

All I have to say at this juncture is Can NOTHING ever be EASY???!!!

As you're all aware, I'm planning on going to Australia in just under a month to meet [Galain] in person finally after over a year of delightful conversations over this wonderful thing called the internet. Part of the whole process is, of course, getting my hands on a passport. 

Well, I went down to the passport office in Kelowna today. Rode my bike clear across the city. I don't even know how many km I covered today, but there were a lot of hills. 

In any event, at the passport office, I was informed that I need to get a new copy of my birth certificate, because my current copy is .. well, somewhat worse for wear. And unfortunately, one of the important bits of information that are supposed to be on it, a signature, just isn't there any more. 

So, this is the first stumbling block. I have to send off a fax tonight as soon as dad gets home from work for a rush request for a new birth certificate. Then it turns out, I'm going to have to get it mailed to my mom. I'm -also- going to have to mail the whole application document to her. 

You see, there's no full service passport office in Kelowna. There should be, but there isn't. And the only way to get my passport in time to go to Australia on the 29th is to get mom to take the application to a full service office in Calgary, and have it expedited and processed there.

*beats her head against a brick wall*

So, yeah... hugely frustrated. But, at least it can still be done. It's just going to cost more ($ to get the new birth certif, $$ to do the rush order on it, $87 for the passport fee, and another I think she said $70 to get it expedited..) *sigh* But I'm not giving up. Not by a long shot. And I'm -very- lucky that I know my mom will do this for me in a heart beat. She's a wonderful person.

So, then.. Wish me luck!

So, in an effort to get all my ducks in a row in regards to getting everything I need done to go to Australia at the end of next month, I rode my bike down to the mall today to get passport photos taken. I succeeded in that part of my mission, but unfortunately not in the other part, which was finding a replacement Mothers Day gift for my mom (what I wanted to get her, I can't, because you can only order it OL if you live in the USA) There wasn't a thing that jumped out at me and said "Here I Am!" And I'm super picky when it comes to buying my mom stuff. It has to be just right..

*chuckles* Unfortunately, I did give into the urge to do some shopping for my self.. Picked up a few new pieces of clothing, including one pair of capris that as soon as I tried on it was like, "oooh, I have a feeling I'm going to wind up living in these..." So comfey.. *grins* But I really need to not do that any more and save money for Australia. *nods*

The bike ride was an adventure in it self. I'm not that familiar with how to get around in Kelowna yet, and I wound up taking a few wrong turns coming home. And oh the hills... :oP Holy crap did my legs and lower back burn. We just -have- to live at the top of a very large hill, instead of down in the valley.. *chuckles* Good, much needed exercise though. I don't think I'll have to do any cardio at the gym tonight.

I just got home from my daily walk with the dog and I'm a bit sad. In the first orchard we pass on our rout (it's a 4km walk and we go past several) there was a crow hopping along with an obviously injured and possibly broken wing. Of course, being who I am, I couldn't just walk by. So I tied the dog to one of the apple trees and set off after the crow. Unfortunately, it wouldn't let me get within 10 feet of it. I wanted to catch it and take it in to the clinic to see if it could be rehabilitated or if it should just be euhanized. Unfortunately, now it will end up caught by some other bird of prey, cat, dog, coyote, or whatever. *sigh* No matter how much I want to, I just can't help them all.

A rather odd occurrence this afternoon.. Got home from work, noticed a few things out of place, papers knocked off counters and the fridge, stuff like that, and didn't think much of it. And then I'm sitting in my room with the dog, and I hear what sounds like more papers falling, and the sound is repeated. So I'm curious and go to investigate. Look in the kitchen first and can't see anything that's fallen, and then the noise comes from the living room. *look* And there's a bird.. My only thought is that it must have come in through the dog door, but it must have been pretty determined to come in that way to lift the flap.. I was rather bemused and not quite sure what to do. I don't even know what kind of a bird it was. At first I thought it was a Robin, just from the silhouette, then a blackbird, but it was brown with fairly cool markings on it's feathers. I may see if I can find it in the bird book. I ended up just closing the blinds on all the windows and opening the patio door, knowing that it would head towards light as freedom, and it eventually flew out on it's own. Definitely an odd thing to come home to, and something I hope is not repeated. It must have been in the house for several hours, all it's droppings were dry. Poor thing. I'm glad it got out safely, but I imagine the dog was trying to catch it every time it flew, and stressing it out quite a bit. Huh. Odd.

So then, I just got home from my first bike ride of the season, and I think it'll take a while before my muscles are up to taking the hills around here without having to stop and rest, but it's all good. It's a gorgeous, summer like day, with a current temp of 19 degrees celcius. The sun is shining and it was an absolute joy to get out on my bike again. I really missed it over the winter, but I hadn't realized just how much. I think I'm going to be getting around by bike a lot during the warm months, which will last a lot longer than they did in Alberta. Calgary got 23cm of snow this week. Here's to Kelowna *grins*

Thieved from [Viking] who thieved it from [windowframe]: What can I say? I'm bored.


1. ONE OF YOUR SCARS, HOW DID YOU GET IT?
There's one on the back of my head about an inch and a half long from a skiing accident. That's probably the best one, and I've never seen it.

2. WHAT IS ON THE WALLS IN YOUR ROOM?
Not much besides my calendar right now, haven't gotten around to putting up my photographs since I moved in

3. WHAT DOES YOUR CELL PHONE LOOK LIKE?
Um, black and oblingish?

4. WHAT MUSIC DO YOU LISTEN TO?
Pretty much everything except rap, heavy metal, and anything Top 40

5. DO YOU KNOW WHAT TIME YOU WERE BORN?
Noonish, if I recall correctly

6. WHAT DO YOU WANT MORE THAN ANYTHING RIGHT NOW?
A plane ticket to Australia.

7. WHO DO YOU MISS?
Nic and some of the girls from school.

10. WHAT'S YOUR MIDDLE NAME?
Dawn

11. THE BEST TV SHOW EVER CREATED:
Dead like me

12. THE LAST PERSON YOU TALKED TO?
My dad

13. DO YOU GET SCARED IN THE DARK?
Sometimes...

14. THE LAST PERSON TO MAKE YOU CRY?
I can't honestly recall. Or I just don't want to say, one of the two.

15. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE COLOGNE / PERFUME?
For my self, Simply, by Clinique. On a guy, I don't know. Whatever smells good.

16. WHAT KIND OF HAIR/EYE COLOR DO YOU LIKE ON THE OPPOSITE SEX?
I seem to be partial to brown hair, but any eye color will do.

17. WOULD YOU RATHER BE SMART OR FUNNY?
Smart.

18. COFFEE OR ENERGY DRINKS?
Occasionally decaf lattes.

19. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE PIZZA TOPPING?
Cheese.

20. IF YOU CAN EAT ANYTHING RIGHT NOW, WHAT WOULD IT BE?
Popcorn

21. WHO IS THE LAST PERSON YOU MADE MAD?
My dad's boss.

22. DO YOU SPEAK ANOTHER LANGUAGE?
Bits and pieces, but nothing fluently.

23. WHAT WAS THE FIRST GIFT SOMEONE EVER GAVE YOU?
That I'm aware of? A little stuffed panda bear from my Grampa.

24. DO YOU LIKE SOMEONE?
Absolutely.

25. ARE YOU DOUBLE JOINTED?
Nope.

26. FAVORITE CLOTHING BRAND?
Mission Playground

27. WHAT'S YOUR DREAM CAR?
Something eco-friendly.

28. WHAT COLOR IS IT?
Blue? 

29. WHAT'S YOUR FAVORITE KIND OF EXERCISE?
Hiking. 

30. WOULD YOU FALL IN LOVE KNOWING THAT THE PERSON IS LEAVING?
Yeah.. done that.

31. WHAT IS THE BEST WAY TO TELL SOMEONE HOW MUCH THEY MEAN TO YOU?
*shrugs* I have no idea.

32. SAY A NUMBER FROM ONE TO A HUNDRED:
73.

33. BLONDES OR BRUNETTES?
Either or.

34. WHAT IS THE ONE NUMBER YOU CALL OFTEN?
mom's. I just text everyone else.

35. WHAT ANNOYS YOU MOST?
Irresponsible pet owners, currently.

35. HAVE YOU BEEN OUT OF THE U.S.?
A better question would be have I ever been -in- the U.S. 

36. YOUR WEAKNESSES?
Baked goods..

37. TATER TOTS OR FRIES?
Fries.

38. FIRST JOB?
Working in a pet store.

39. EVER PRANK CALLED SOMEONE?
A few times when I was really young with my brother.

40. WHAT WERE YOU DOING BEFORE YOU FILLED OUT THIS?
Going for a bike ride.

41. IF YOU COULD GET PLASTIC SURGERY WHAT WOULD IT BE?
I wouldn't

42. WHY DID YOU FILL OUT THIS SURVEY?
Shits and giggles? 

43. WHAT DO YOU GET COMPLIMENTED ABOUT MOST?
My art.

44. WHAT WOULD YOU DO IF ALCOHOL BECAME ILLEGAL?
Shrug?

45. WHAT DO YOU WANT FOR YOUR BIRTHDAY?
It's too far away to really think that much about. A car might be nice, but that's not going to happen.

46. HOW MANY KIDS DO YOU WANT?
Two perhaps.

47. WHERE YOU NAMED AFTER ANYONE?
Nope.

48. DO YOU WISH ON STARS?
Sure do.

49. WHICH FINGER[S] IS YOUR FAVORITE?
That's a silly question.

50. WHEN DID YOU LAST CRY?
Last week when I was really frustrated about work.

51. DO YOU LIKE YOUR HANDWRITING?
Yes.

52. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE LUNCH MEAT?
Turkey.

53. ANY BAD HABITS?
Oh definitely.

54. WHAT IS YOUR MOST EMBARRASSING CD ON THE SHELF?
I'm not embarrassed by any of my musical selections.

55. IF YOU WERE ANOTHER PERSON, WOULD YOU BE FRIENDS WITH YOU?
Depends on what kind of a person I was, if I wasn't me...

56. HAVE YOU EVER TOLD A SECRET YOU SWORE NOT TO TELL?
Yes...

57. DO LOOKS MATTER?
To a degree, but they're far from the most important factor.

58. HOW DO YOU RELEASE YOUR ANGER?
Loud music or strenuous physical activity.

59. WHERE IS YOUR SECOND HOME?
Vancouver Island

60. DO YOU TRUST OTHERS EASILY?
Sometimes.

61. WHAT WAS YOUR FAVORITE TOY AS A CHILD?
My stuffed rabbit named Peter.

62. HOW MANY NUMBERS ARE IN YOUR CELL PHONE?
20

63. DO YOU USE SARCASM?
Yes.

64. DO YOU KNOW ANYONE FAMOUS?
Would [smakeupfx] count?

65. HAVE YOU EVER BEEN IN A MOSH PIT?
Yes.

66. WHAT DO YOU LOOK FOR IN A GUY/GIRL?
Personality. Conversational skills. Intelligence.

67. WHAT ARE YOUR NICKNAMES?
Angi, Anj, Mouse, etc.

68. HOW MANY PAIRS OF SHOES DO YOU HAVE?
Probably more than I truly need..

69. DO YOU UN-TIE YOUR SHOES WHEN YOU TAKE THEM OFF?
Seldom.

70. WHERE YOU UPSET ABOUT STEVE IRWIN DYING?
Yes, quite. I grew up watching him.

71. WHAT'S YOUR FAVORITE ICE CREAM FLAVOR?
Mint Chocolate Chip, or Triple Chocolate Delight

72. ARE YOU LAZY?
Some times.

73. WHAT ARE YOUR FAVORITE COLORS?
Earth tones.

74. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE BAND?
hmm, I'll go with Red Jezebel.

75. HOW MANY WISDOM TEETH DO YOU HAVE?
None of them, they were all removed.

76. DO YOU WANT EVERYONE TO ANSWER THESE QUESTIONS?
Nah. Only if they feel like it. My bet is no one will.

77. WHAT ARE YOU LISTENING TO RIGHT NOW?
The birds outside. 

78. LAST THING YOU ATE?
mini-oreos.

79. LAST PERSON YOU TALKED TO ON THE PHONE?
Mom.

80. WHATS THE FIRST THING YOU NOTICE ON THE OPPOSITE SEX?
Face.

81. FAVORITE THOUGHT PROVOKING SONG:
Don't know that I have one.

82. FAVORITE THING TO HATE:
Not real big on hate.

83. FAVORITE DRINK:
Okanogan Nectarine Cider.

84. FAVORITE ZODIAC SIGN
No real preference.

85. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE SPORT?
Not a big sports fan.

86. WHAT IS YOUR HAIR COLOR?
Brown with blond highlights

87. EYE COLOR?
Brown.

88. DO YOU WEAR GLASSES?
Yes.

89. SIBLINGS?
One older brother

90. FAVORITE MONTH(s)
September

91. DO YOU LIKE SUSHI?
I gave it a valiant effort, but no.

92. LAST THING YOU WATCHED?
About 5 minutes of Battlestar Galactica when I was saying good night to dad last night.

93. FAVORITE DAY OF THE YEAR?
Don't really have one particular day I'm fond of.

94. ARE YOU TOO SHY TO ASK SOMEONE OUT?
Usually.

95. SUMMER OR WINTER?
Summer.

96. KISSES OR HUGS?
Both, but I can't live without Hugs.

97. RELATIONSHIPS OR ONE-NIGHT STANDS?
Relationships. I'm past the point where one night stands appeal to me.

98. WHO IS THE MOST LIKELY TO ANSWER THESE QUESTIONS?
I don't know.

99. WHO IS THE LEAST LIKELY TO ANSWER THESE QUESTIONS?
Nic.

100. CREATE YOUR OWN QUESTION
What would you do if I bit your nose?

101. IS ANYONE IN LOVE WITH YOU?
*grins* Yes!

So I've made a commitment to take Ginger for a walk every day, either before or after work, depending on my schedule. Today was the first after work walk, and it definitely emphasized that I'm just as in need of getting back into shape as she is. We were both pretty tuckered out by the time we got home. But, if we do this walk once a day (it's about 45 min to an hour, depending on how fast we're walking) then that's a good step in the right direction. And when we're starting to get better, we can start walking it counter clockwise, so we'll be going up-hill most of the way. *nods*

Well, one day left of the first week of my practicum. I have to say, it's been very interesting so far. Seen quite a few new things, and took part in my very first emergency blood transfusion this morning on a little Pomeranian pup who's less than a month old and has been very sick. Was a bit nerve wracking, to say the least.

But I'm really liking all the staff and the clinic it self. Their values and what not seem to run right in step with mine, and I think I've found my self a really excellent practicum site and (hopefully) future job. 

It's a busier practice than I've ever worked in. About 20 staff altogether, with 4 full time Vets and 1 part time. There's always something going on, and it really keeps you on your toes. I understand that this isn't even as busy as they get, which is a little intimidating to think about.

I think I'm going to learn a lot here, that for sure. But I'm having a lot of fun too, which is important. I'm excited to see what tomorrow and next week brings.

Just got home from taking Ginger for a long walk. It's absolutely gorgeous out there. Everything is greening up, the sun is shining, the birds are singing.. It's just wonderful. I wish I could take her for a walk like that every morning but I won't be able to once I start my practicum. In the evenings then, I guess.