Month: May 2010

by

Gift of a Salesman

We’ve had a fishmonger staying in one of our rooms for a few nights. He travels around in a refrigerated truck hocking frozen fish to individuals (restaurants have their own suppliers). I inquired about his wares and when he realised that I was shopping, not just being polite, he was quick to offer me a good price on a 5lb box of haddock.

Much as I love haddock, I knew there would be no way I could get through that much fish in a reasonable amount of time, so I asked a friend to split the box with me. By the time she had examined the fish and agreed, the fishmonger had dropped his price again, to $80, or $16/lb which is a good price for up here.

I’m just waitin’ on dinner…

In the meantime, here are some random pics that don’t warrant their own post:

no need to close the rear blind this winter!

c is for cat AND contentment

Dinner’s ready! And YUM! Best haddock EVER!!!

by

Lunch at the Riverwest

I went into town today to take out some money and check my mail, so I decided to pop into the Riverwest Bistro for a quick bite to eat.

The Riverwest is what passes for a fast food joint in Dawson. You order at a counter and are given a number to display prominently at your table. There are magazines and newspapers available to pass the time until someone brings you your order. You can also take your order to go, and there are always cold sandwiches and other items you can grab on the go. They serve breakfast and are also a popular place to grab a coffee. The only negative is that they close at 7, so forget grabbing a quick dinner on the way home if you finish work late!

The food is good, fresh, and quite cheap, as compared to an equivalent meal at McDonald’s or Wendy’s. Today, I tried their ‘peppercorn ranch chicken wrap’ which ended up being cold diced chicken with fresh tomatoes and lettuce drizzled with peppercorn ranch dressing wrapped up in a tomato tortilla, for $7. I like their ‘curly fries’ and added them to my order, for a total cost of just under $10. It was all very YUM.

My $10 wouldn’t have gone far at the general store, and the tomatoes and lettuce I would have gotten there would have been respectively mealy and limp while the bread would have been stale.

Proper sit down restaurants aren’t that much more expensive than the Riverwest, but they are quite a bit slower, so the Riverwest is the place I go to when I just want to do a quick in and out. Or catch up on my Macleans magazines. 😀

by

iPod Touch Disappointment

I can’t believe it. I just put my new-to-me iPod Touch in a drawer.

What makes the Touch so special is all the ‘apps’ you can put on it. Without them, there isn’t really anything the Touch can do that I can’t do with my classic, albeit in a roundabout way.

I have spent more than seven hours trying to get apps onto my Touch and the end result is that I have to say something to Apple that I never in my life would have thought I’d say to them: you suck. The number of hoops I’ve had to jump through is unfathomable.

This is the short version of the story:

First off, I had to get around the fact that you need wi-fi to use an iPod Touch to its full potential. I was shown how to manage my Touch through iTunes, meaning that I could access the App store from my iMac via my cell connection by-passing my lack of access to wi-fi.

So, I opened iTunes, clicked on the iTunes store, and was told I needed to update iTunes before I could use the store. It was going to use a huge chunk of my monthly bandwidth limit, but okay. Get iTunes updated and then the store tells me that wasn’t good enough, that I need to update Safari, too. I don’t use Safari! Still, I download the update, only to be told I need to update Java, too, which means running a full OS X and security update. Major bandwidth use! And it took forever! And I hate running the latest OS X version because it’s always buggy.

My computer was finally up to date and I was allowed access to the iTunes store login page. I have an account for the US iTunes store, so I tried to use that login info. The login worked just fine, but I couldn’t shop since my billing info is in Canada. So, I tried to create a new account for the Canada store, but Apple would not let me use the same email address as for the US store. I dug through my password files and found what must be, based on the password, an ancient account for the Canadian store. I tried that and was able to access the store.

Next, I browsed for a free app, wanting to get my feet wet before paying for apps. I was not allowed to acquire an app, even a free one, without entering credit card information. My card expires at the end of May, so Apple rejected it. So, until I get my new credit card, I can’t get any apps or do anything fun or cool on my iPod Touch.

My respect for Apple just nose-dived. They are still, of course, infinitely superior to Microsoft, but this was a low blow I would not have expected from a company that markets itself as being ‘plug and play.’ I am very, very disappointed.

by

Gabfest at the Sluicebox Lounge

I was invited out last night, but had too much on my plate. So, tonight, I called the person to see if the offer still stood. Yes!

We started off the night at Gerties, then we drove to the home of one of her new friends so she could introduce us. By the time we were passing Bonanza, it was only 9:30, so we decided to go back into town for another drink.

Since we were in chat mode, going back to Gerties didn’t make sense. Bombay Peggy’s, the cozy pub, would have been nice, but it was jam packed. The next nearest bar was the Sluicebox Lounge at the El Dorado hotel, a block away.

It was a charmless place, unless you consider 70s decor and formica tables ‘charming’, but it was clean, open, and reasonably quiet. A pint was a full seventy-five cents less than at Gerties!

The gal I was with is a French national who has been in Canada for several years. We met briefly last fall as she was moving in. Imagine what sort of courage it must take, even after spending a year in Whitehorse, to pack up for a remote location like Dawson in the winter!

She had both positive and negative things to say about winter in Dawson and seemed to have generally found the experience to be pleasant and worthwhile. A part of me wants to try it, just once, but another part of me knows that she doesn’t do well in a world of constant twilight and inclement weather.

Her winter gave her a chance to get to know the Dawson establishments that stay open late into the fall and even through the winter. I ribbed her about how casually she led me to the Sluicebox Lounge when I know that the gal I met last fall wouldn’t have imagined herself in such an establishment. It just goes to show how a place can slowly mould you into the kind of person it needs you to be to survive there. She hasn’t changed, she still doesn’t drink, but she’s comfortable in locales she never was comfortable in before. I experienced a similar transformation during my month in Scotland.

It turned out to be a fun night and I’m glad I found a more quiet place than Gerties to go to when I’m in a chatty mood!

by

iPod Touch

I don’t need the newest gadgets, perfectly content to use something until it really doesn’t do what I need it to do. When I bought an 80GB iPod classic a few years ago, it was a huge purchase for me, justified only because the iPod would double as a read-only PDA in addition to being a music and video player.

For about a year now, I’ve been wanting to upgrade to an iPod Touch, which at its simplest, does exactly what my classic did, but with the addition of being able to input things. Moreover, I’ve been wanting an ebook reader and the Touch can be used as such, also, delaying the purchase of another gadget. I also think that it will be super useful on the road, giving me access to my calendar, movie database, and Google Maps, without having to fire up the desktop computer if I forgot to synch it with the laptop.

Last year, the most pressing thing I had to buy was a new laptop, which was a major expenditure. For this year, I decided to leave room in the budget for both an iPod Touch and a new camera. The Touch was the more ‘fun’ of the two purchases, and was also replacing an older piece of equipment, so it got first priority. I’ve been researching and saving for about six months now. After playing with the devices, gathering info from friends, and being talked out of buying an older, basic first generation 8GB Touch by Andy Baird, I was able to narrow my focus and score an incredible deal on a 3rd generation, 32GB model. I had just enough money in my Touch fund to cover it. It’s true; saving up and paying cash for something makes the purchase so much more rewarding!

Well, I’m going to leave my new toy to charge and synch while I go work my evening shift and then I’m going to have some fun at the App store. 😀