Sunday 28 September 2008

Week-End Round Up

I've been away all week and have just spent a couple of hours getting caught up on all your blogs. Everyone's been really busy! Holly is working on her 101 list and gave blood (!); Frugal Trenches is focussing on what she needs to make sure her life-puzzle pieces fit together well; Frugal Dreamer is doing great with her monthly goals...

It's so inspiring to have so many people on the same journey and be able to follow the success's, the slips and the recoveries. It's exciting to read how everybody reaches their goals each month - or does their very best - and continues to find different goals each month. I'm learning so much from reading all the blogs that it's almost more fun to just read and not write! :-)

I've had a week away working in Dawson City. It's a pretty quiet community and more so now that a lot of places have closed for the season. I'm not sure what the permanent population is, but it hovers somewhere around 1,800 I think. It's the third largest community in the Yukon and has a comparatively big library, which is a school/public library combination. This poses its own challenges when it comes to automation, but we were there to weed books and spent 4 very full days pulling items that hadn't been borrowed in five years off the shelves. We ended up with about 60 boxes - and we're only half done! It will mean a return trip to finish it, but it's a pretty good start. At this point, I'm not sure we'll get back before spring, as we hit snow flurries just north of Stewart Crossing (about 3 hrs north of Whitehorse) on our trip back. The road will probably close in the next month or so...

Because I was travelling for work, the spending this week was a little all over the place. I also made a visit to the animal shelter and bought some food for the dogs, which bumped up the total (but just a bit...ahem...). I missed the chance the last time I was up there in August, so wanted to make sure I made it this time. It was nice to see it and although it's small, they definitely do what they can. Right now they only have four dogs and four cats, so they're doing "better" than we are - some of our dogs are doubled up.

My spending for the week is as follows:

$240 cash: Meals for most of the week, including half the cost of taking the librarian and her boyfriend out for dinner on Thursday evening (Dawson ain't cheap!); some small groceries and shampoo/conditioner because I managed to leave mine at home; and a thank-you gift for my co-worker who cared for my cats while I was gone! :-(
$178.50: 3 giant bags of dog food for the shelter (that's with the musher's discount). The manager is a great girl, super chatty and even donated some food for residents of the Whitehorse Humane Society!
$45.79: 2 breakfasts at the hotel + lunch for my co-worker and I at our stop in Carmacks on the way home on Friday

Grand total: $464.29

Except for the dog food donation, I will get all my expenses back and probably MAKE money from that. The per diem's of the Yukon Government are quite ridiculous, so I'm not complaning because if I've figured it out right, I should get almost $600 back. On top of that, I worked 16 hours of overtime this week. As I have no choice but to get paid out for that, that should add approximately another $500, too.

It was exhausting work - because we were so focused on getting as much done as we possibly could, the longest time I was out was an hour & a half on my trek to the shelter! Gah...

But I'm off work starting Friday, and off to Victoria on the 8th, which I'm looking forward to. I'm really excited about my time off: a little shopping, a little eating and a lot of catching up with my friends. :-)

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

16 hours of overtime! No wonder you're tired ;) That's going to be a nice add to your pay cheque! Hope you're having a restful weekend, and enjoy your time in Victoria! Such a beautiful city! :)

Anonymous said...

Sounds like my week!!

What's Yukon like for jobs?

So glad you are doing so well!

DINKS said...

that time off sounds exciting! don't know much about Yukon really, but looking forward to checking out the rest of your blog :)

Happy Sunday!

Canadian Saver said...

You deserve the vacation after those long days!!! Sounds like a productive business trip though...

Those must have been HUGE bags of dog food indeed!!

Anonymous said...

Good for you for supporting the animals! They need more friends like you! :-)