We came, we biked, we conquered; they come, they bike, they conquer

This past weekend, M and I went to Cobourg with friends to have a relaxing cottage weekend – sort of.  We actually did a bit of “work” too because we all biked out the triathlon course just to get and idea of what we had in store.  It was a super windy day on Saturday, which made the ride really frustrating, but overall we did pretty well I’ve gotta say.  It only made sense that I did my leg of the journey by myself, seeing as M and the rest of the crew have to do 40 km and only have to do 20 km.  All the same I really pushed myself because in total I ended up doing 28 km – the longest bike ride I have consciously done to date.  Sweet!  It was especially good to know that I could conquer the hills on the course, seeing as the end of my first 10 km and the beginning of my last 10 km is the same GIANT hill!

As good as my effort was, I’ve gotta say it pales in comparison to catching the totally amazing Tour de France that is happening right now.  M and I started watching some of the race last night, and it is truly outstanding to watch these guys ride.  Can you imagine averaging about 50 km/hr on a bike?  Seriously.  That’s insane.  That’s faster than an old lady driving to church on a Sunday morning.  It was especially exciting to watch last night because we were watching the team time trial, and Lance Armstrong and the Astana crew won the stage!  We’ll just have to keep watching for the next couple of weeks to see if they continue to stay on top!  (Or we can keep watching the results here).  Ride on, boys!

Triath-wha?

M and a few of our friends have set up a goal for ourselves at the end of the summer – we’re taking on a triathlon weekend in August.  He is taking on an Olympic length, and I’ll be taking on a sprint version with some nursing friends the next day.  I can’t believe I took on such a challenge.  I was so afraid at first – what the heck have I signed up for? – but now that I’ve been working on some of my “training” I’m feeling really good about it.

I’ve been cycling and swimming for a while now, and within the last couple of weeks, I’ve been working on my running.  It’s my weakest point by far, but apparently I can do it!  A couple of weeks ago I decided to just do it – and I ended up running 4 km!  I only have to do 5 for the race, and I’ve since managed to do that distance with M and it’s been really fun.  Who knew that the girl who hates running might actually enjoy the challenge?  Now I just need to run after doing a 20 km bike!

One year ago today…

M and I got married.

I almost can’t believe it’s been a year, but in some other ways, I totally do.  We’ve had the traditional ups and downs of first year and we’re totally ready to make it to year two and mellow out a little bit.  At least we hope so! 

Tonight, to celebrate, M and I took our gift cards for Kelsey’s that we got over Christmas and headed to the Queensway for dinner and a movie.  It worked out perfectly because in the end we got dinner and the movie tickets for only 5 dollars.  Sweet. Plus I managed to find an old 5 dollar gift certificate for the movie theatre so we got a treat before heading in (Nibs, the usual).  We watched the movie Slumdog Millionaire,  which is so totally amazing.  Everyone should see it. 

Oh – and the best part of the evening?  Walking in to the theatre  and suddenly getting an overwelming smell of nothing else but pot.  Wow! We were kinda wondering what to think, but then we get in to the theatre and realize we’re second only to one older man sitting at the very back all by himself…hmmm….Very conspicuous indeed! 

Overall, a very pleasant evening.

Happy Anniversary, baby.  I love you.

A very busy day

Today was full of stuff. Our planned trip to Sarnia had to once again be postponed because M has to work up north as of Sunday. Instead, we took a much needed trip to the K-dub to visit Mum and Dad. I was a good drive, we made it to KW in just about an hour, and we arrived a Mum’s at dead on 10:00, as planned! Woo! We swept Mum away to the Farmer’s Market – the first stop being a feast of totally amazing apple fritters – and then taking a stroll around the market. It was so blessedly hot that we made it a very quick trip, leaving with a few desired items – mainly fresh cherries and home-made Mennonite cookies. Yum!

After getting home M and I helped Mum with some much needed chores like mowing the lawn and changing the sheets on the beds. Mum’s recently had surgery on her hands for carpal tunnel, so she can’t do any of these things – we were glad to help out. We got lots done – we even made a trip to the thrift store to get rid of some of the things Mum didn’t want anymore. Then it was a well deserved lunch break – we tucked in in the basement, as it’s the coolest place in the house. Ugh!

Next we headed to SSH to visit Dad. He’s looking so much better – still very skinny, but that’s to be expected as he’s been in the hospital for about 10 weeks now and has only been doing physio for a small portion of that time. He’s up and walking around now, which is great, and he seems to be relishing the freedom he has at Sunnyside. Very good to see, as I think it’s improved his morale and want to get better. They’re projecting that he’ll make it home at the end of the month, which will be nice, though Dad will still have to do some serious physio at home too.

After the visit, M and I dropped off Mum and headed back to the city. We had a small shopping stop downtown, as M needed to replace a pair of jeans, and well, I just like to shop! Then we got some groceries, ate dinner, and have been vegging ever since. It’s nice. I’m sooo looking forward to be shortly, especially as we’ve got AC in the bedroom.

Tomorrow will be another adventure – though I’ve gotta say, I’ll really miss M this week – he doesn’t come back until next Sat. Love you, babe.

Signing off.

Minnie Mouse dress

Today I was about to get dressed for work, pondering what I was going to wear, seeing as it was supposed to be super humid today.  Our dress code is “business casual” so I usually opt for wearing dress pants/skirt and some sort of top.  Today I told myself I would wear one of my dresses because it would be nice a breezy and cool.  I was about to reach for one of my usual dresses – the grey gap one – but something said – hey, wait, there are some perfectly good dresses you own that you only wear to wedding-type events.  What about one of those?

Hmmm…  Another minute and it was decided.  I picked up the awesome red dress with white polka-dots that I bought for Andrew’s wedding and went with that.  I went downstairs, and all at once, M greeted me with “Yay!  It’s the Minnie Mouse dress”.  Yes, I had forgotten.  The first time I wore the dress, M noticed me at the wedding and him and a friend dubbed my dress with the above title.  Oh, well, at least I looked cute!

A short week

It’s always strange to have a holiday week because the monotony of your regular schedule is interrupted.  Luckily this past week has been relatively calm at work, so it hasn’t had all the frantic energy that past holiday weeks have had.  However, all the same I am very please to have the weekend coming up just so I don’t have to sit at a computer all day long.  Plus I have wedding to go to, and M and I are celebrating our 6th month of being married.  Woo!

This week was also strange because I had yesterday afternoon to get a few more details of my school stuff in order.  I had to go to the doctor again, check on my medical forms, and then I went to register and get my student card.  It’s weird!  I’ve got a U of T student card now.  It’s one more step to the reality that I’m going to be a nursing student in about 2 months!

I guess it’s just another step in my drastically and ever changing life – it’s been a big 2 years!

A sort of long weekend

It’s come and gone.  The Canada weekend spectacular at the Duncan cottage is over.  It was full of adventures, drinking, and peeing in the woods!

Friday afternoon, M and I left the city early (3:00) but still landed in the mass exodus of cars leaving the city.  In the end, we were glad of the early departure, because it could have been WAY worse.  We met up with Dave and Danielle in Peterbourough and followed them all the way to Shawville, QC where we snagged the keys from Dave’s parents and headed to the cottage.  Now, let me explain, Dave’s cottage is a wonderful little house with no running water and an outhouse out back – totally a great place to have crazy good times, especially when you’ve got cold beer – which we did!  That was the first thing we had before heading to bed.

Saturday brought more people to the cottage – Dave’s cousin Rob and Danielle’s sister Lisa plus her awesome puppy, Tia. Then Andrew and Ericka came from Ottawa.  We had a relazing, partly rainy day, playing board games, reading and chatting.  We even managed to squeeze in a swim before dinner of organic beef steaks, potatoes and an awesome dessert made by Ericka.  After dinner we did some fun DIY fire works by the water at Norway Bay before coming back to hang out some more and go to bed.

Sunday was just as relaxing – for the most part – until we decided to have a brilliant stupid idea of hiking to a swimming hole nearby with Tia and with Dave’d parent’s dog Bridget.  It was a good plan overall because this swimming hole is awesome – it’s where I bumped my keister last summer when I chickened out on jumping off a rock.  HOWEVER – we did not fully take into account the fact that we were traipsing through a wooded area that was muddy and exceptionally slick because of a major rain the night before.  M, Lisa, Tia and I went in first, and managed to get somewhere though there were a few falls on the way, and a few nervous moments where Tia went a little to close to the edge of the fast moving water than we would like.  Then we discovered we were at the top of the falls, not the bottom and had to walk crawl on our bums down a rock face towards the pool.  Tia was the first down, moving straight into the water (God loves puppies who can swim) but she couldn’t get out of the slippery rocks to find Lisa!  Marty rescued her, and all three of us and the dog managed to test the waters a little bit. 

Then came adventure part 2.  Dave, Rob, and Danielle arrived with Bridget, a super dominant and slightly aggressive German Sheppard.  YIKES!  This got complicated because she wasn’t well behaved at all and nearly pulled Dave into the water when trying to get towards Tia.  Then she started biting at Tia, and they started a little fighting right on the edge of the fast moving water!  NOT COOL!  We all panicked a little, separated them, and quickly made the call that this was a BAD idea and scrambled out of there.  Dave, Danielle and Bridget left first.  Then the rest of us left together.  We managed to keep the dogs separated and then opted to swim in the bay instead.  That was until lightening and thunder rolled in.  We made it back to the cottage just in time – and apparenely we just missed a huge tree crashing on the beach at the bay too!

Waiting for us at the cottage was more friends, Ash and Maria, who chilled with us the rest of the time.  Lisa unfortunately had to take off with Tia, but we were a new crew of people.  We had dinner – and after that I had to head off to the Duncan’s house to sleep, because unlike everyone else, I had to work on Monday!  Luckily I had the option of going in to the Ottawa office, so it was an easy commute in with Mr. Duncan and an easy day at the call centre.  I was later picked up by the cottage crew who has decided to foray in to Ottawa to look around a little.  It was too bad is started to pour there too so we jumped back in the car and headed back to have an awesome dinner of BBQ burgers.

Yesterday was the last day – we relaxed in the morning in the sun! (I got a little sunburn – finally some colour!)  After tucking in, we cleaned up and headed back to civilization.  We left about 2:00 and made it home just before 8:00 last night.  All in all a good trip.

Thanks Dave for hosting!

Run, work, run

It’s been a busy start to the week after a relatively relaxing weekend of watching movies with M and sleeping. This week my work counterpart in Montreal is enjoying a week’s vacation, and as payback for all the vacation help I got over the last little while, I told him I would cover his site for him this week. Little did I know it meant I would barely have time to breathe for the last two days – yuck. But it’s not just me – our whole work place is a-buzz with craziness. I’ve just been trying to make it through the day.

Otherwise, it’s kind of weird not having M around this week – he’s up north working on a job site, so I’ve been chilling at home by my self. It’s strange, but it’s also good to have time apart so you appreciate the reunion.

Highlight for the week – seeing Get Smart with Coatesy. Definitely worth a view!

Too much, too soon?

I have to admit it – I’ve been kinda going full throttle since I finished up my school work – M and I love to get out and do things, so we’re reverting to our old ways of cramming in as many activities into a week as possible.  It’s been good, but I’ve got a admit, I’m a little tired this week.

Last night I got a preview of The Superreal Life by QPT.  I wasn’t supposed to be able to go, but our ultimate team didn’t have enough people to play this week, so we had to forfeit.  Instead of staying home, I did what was good for me – I went to see the show.  It was fun to be there on opening night, plus I got to take on my favourite role of “raffle girl”.  We made an extra bit of cash for the Stephen Lewis Foundation, so it’s well worth being put to work.

The show was fun – we’ve got tickets for tonight – M, Danielle and I.  Unfortunately Dave bailed so he could go prepare the cottage for next weekend.  We’ll miss him, but in the end, it’ll all be good.

Now all I have to do is get through this super busy work day!

Blondie: Brad&Jana: New TV

This past weekend/week beginning has been full of activities.  Yeesh.  It’s no wonder I’m feeling the need for coffee this morning.  (Starby’s, of course).  And now you can read all about it!

Friday, as announced, M and I travelled to Casino Rama after work to hit up the Blondie concert.  I’ve never been to Rama, let alone Orillia before – so it was a new adventure.  Rama was cool enough – lots of very gambling oriented stuff (obviously) and lots of grey hair.  That’s not meant in a mean way, just a truthful one.  We had dinner, then headed in to the seemingly empty theatre for the show.  Our seats were pretty decent, and we spent the pre-show prep time playing a game of “spot the people younger than us!”.  Then the show started at about 9:03 (on time!  WOW!) and we were launched in to the awesome vocal stylings of the amazing Deborah Harry.  I couldn’t believe it!  She’s 63, and she’s still looks like she just walked on to the stage at CBGB.  Too cool!  Her voice was fantastic – and the band was great too – some of the original members and some new young’uns.  The drummer was really good – the only complaint was that the one guitarist was a little loud (even for M, so that’s saying something!)  The other thing I was totally impressed with was how much of a show the crew put on!  Everyone was wanting to address the crowd, and well, they looked damn good!  But then again, I’ve always maintained that Debbie Harry is one of the sexiest and coolest women in rock and roll!  Seriously.

After the concert, M took driving duty and we headed to KW to crash at Mum’s place.  (I, as per usual, fell asleep in the car and was a terrible driving buddy).  We got in around 1:00, and got up early the next morning so we could get on the road to Leamington for Brad & Jana’s wedding.  We managed to get organized and get out the door around 10:00, which worked out well for the long drive.  We got to Leamington around 1:00 in the afternoon, and we glad to see the hotel let us check in early.  We also got a chance to relax a little before heading out into the very warm day for the ceremony.

The wedding overall was a beautiful, love-filled day!  The ceremony was very special – the couple was married by one of Jana’s best friends from UW, which was really sweet.  Every little detail in the church was covered, and it was just beautiful.  After that, they had all of the guest hang out in little groups so we could chat and get a nice candid picture with the bride and groom.  This was fun because M and I fit into the “School and Toronto friends” group – and seeing as he knows Jana from school, and I know Brad from school, and we have intermixed friends, meeting up with everyone and meeting new people was a breeze!  None of the awkward weird wedding feeling was present.  Definitely good. 

The reception was wonderful – it was in a giant tent in the back yard of Jana’s parents.  There was tons of food – each being served from a themed station (ie. Country Menonite, Greek) and the appetizers were spring rolls and edamame because it was the first thing Brad and Jana made together in the kitchen.  (So cute!)  The tables were family style, the wine flowed at a good rate, and it was all about having a good time.  The kissing game was particularly inventive as you had a choice to do one of two things: 1) act out a kissing scene froma movie and watch the couple perform it or 2) make a charitable donation and pick a theme for the couple to act out during their kiss.  M and I donated to ALS research and got them to do “awkward 7th grade first kiss where you’re braces get stuck together”.  Hilarious!    Dinner wrapped up and we got to enjoy the musical stylings of Franklin’s Fault who had a reunion for one night only.  We danced away and kept it going for as long as we could before we needed to get to sleep!

The next morning we all met back at the tent for a brunch to help eat up all the leftovers!  Super smart idea as there was still tons of delicious food to eat.  M and I headed out right after eating, as it’s a long drive home – which I admit I was awake for most of – and we got back in Toronto with enough time to relax a little before I headed to church and M headed back to work. 

Monday, we barely had time to recover!  After work we had dinner, then M and I headed to the new Future Shop at Dundas Square to get him something he’s been eyeing for a while – a new flat screen TV.  After much debate (even a rebate), we settled on a new Sharp Aquos which got set up last night.  It’s way cool and it’s going to be even more awesome when we have time to sit down and watch it.  Last night we spend a good chunk of the evening cleaning/organizing and buying a new TV stand from Ikea.

Tonight – Dave Matthews Band at the Ampitheatre (interestingly enough with Brad and Jana and some others).  More news to come!

It’s good to have a “life” back!