Not quite the North Pole, but close

There are days that I think my job is great and others that I wish I had just gone to Accounting School and done something safe. Yesterday was one of the latter. The X-band radar on the Hudson developed a leak in the bit of wave guide that connects the antenna to the rest of the wave guide. Water in the wave guide is pretty bad and gives you a giant blob in the middle of the screen, generally not desirable. So, since I am the new person, me and another newish guy had the pleasure of climbing up there to remove the faulty waveguide in the cold yesterday, and we get to go put the new one in today in the even colder weather. Here's hoping there are no frostbite or falling 30 feet type injuries right before Christmas.



Edited to Add:
Re: the mast climbing in -17 weather. A couple of the older guys on the ship's crew have taken to being quite protective of me since I am one of the few young girls around. When they found out that I was up the mast they gave my supervisor an earful for making me go up there in the cold. They also sent a deckhand to keep an eye on me and make sure I didn't need anything. At least I am well taken care of around here.

Skin of the Sea and early Christmas events

This year, some of my Christmas celebrations had to come early as Fred is now at sea for the holidays. Alright, who am I really kidding. I always celebrate Christmas for about 3 months every year. Anyway, he got to spend about a week in Halifax before sailing away. While he was here we made Christmas cookies.



We also went out to dinner at Opa's before exchaning gifts. Here I am in my Christmasy shirt all set to go out.



I started Ilga Leja's Skin of the Sea a couple weeks ago. I reached the blocking stage last night. After this, I will just have to seam the shoulders and pick up some stitched around the collar and down the front. I think I got the guage off because it seems like it is going to be pretty big. It will come down past my hips, which I don't think it's supposed to do.



I also picked up the Perl Grey Imogen sweater kit on the weekend. It's Green/Blue/ Yellow. I am not sure if it the Rainforest or Nova Scotia colourway, but it is lovely.

Charity knitting anyone??

I know you all busy with those last minute Christmas projects right now, but after all that settles down and you are wondering what to do next here is a suggestion.
I went to a meeting last night of the Canadian Cancer Society volunteer organization. I asked if they had any use for donations of knitted hats,etc and they do! Downtown they run a place called the Lodge that Gives. Basically, if you are from out of town and need to have treatments in Halifax this is a place to stay. Not only is it a warm bed, but they organize activities and offer much needed support to patients. They have a gift shop there that sells hand knits and gives profits back to the lodge. I was told dishclothes sell especially fast, as well as hats, mittens and scarves. So, if any of you would like to donate a couple things you could drop them off at the Lodge that Gives or give them to me at KOL and I will see that they get there.

And the amazing luck continues

As many of you know, Halifax got a lot of snow last night and then some rain, so this morning things were a slushy mess. Also, I still have my all seasons on because I store my tires at my folks place and wanted to change then when I was home in November, but my lock nut key had been misplaced. Now I have a new lock nut key (Portland Street Honda Service Dept is great btw), but still not winter tires. I was hoping that the weather would hold off until after christmas like it did last year. Anyway, I was mentally prepared for a hard commute to work this morning. It was slow moving but pretty good. Then when I was coming down the driveway to my workplace and tapped the breaks coming down a little hill I lost control and slid into a snowbank, right outside work. I am glad it was the snowbank and not the oncoming truck. Also, I was amazed while shovelling myself out at the amount of people who drove by and did not stop to help!!! Obviously some people have not seen the Ninja's pay it forward blog posts recently.

Anyway, I have decided not to leave the house anymore.

Here Anna is reinacting my mood this morning.

This weekend was a bust

I had big plans this weekend of getting caught up on my laundry and housework and also going to the Christmas Open house at Gaspereau Valley Fibres out in the valley.  They were forcasting light flurries for Saturday which didn't worry me too much, but as soon as I hit the highway the wind and snow came up and the visibility was nil.  Seeing as I drive a sporty little  car and do not have my snow tires on yet (they are at my folks in a different province right now)  I decided that a yarn sale was not worth the risk and turned around.  Skidding on the Bedford Highway on the way back confirmed my decision was a responsible one.

I got home and decided to do my laundry, first starting with all my bedding, including my duvet cover.  While my clothes were in the washer the one dryer in my building broke, so now I have a basket of wet bedding and a couple old blankets on my bed, not to mention over 2 weeks worth of dirty clothes on the floor.  After these two failures, (oh yes, my internet was down most of Saturday as well) I didn't think anything useful would come out of the day and decided to knit continuously for the rest of it.  I started my Skin of the Sea by Ilga Leja and am done the back already.

Now that the snow is coming down out there, it looks like another good evening for knitting.  I still wish my dryer was working though.