Wet, Wet, Wet

There are a number of times in my life that I can say I have been wet to the bone. Last night was another "happy" occurrence of this.

OK, partly my fault - I didn't check the weather forecast before leaving in the morning ... on my bike. But I did have the sense to bring my rain jacket and wear this fantastic "wicking" clothing (wicks the sweat off you to keep you dry - come on! how cool is that?!). Shortly after arriving at work it started to rain and basically rained on and off all day. By the time I left work to bike over to Ile Ste-Helene for Dragon Boat practice it wasn't raining anymore but the ground was still wet. However, it started raining again during practice and got heavier by the minute. By the time we finished it was basically a downpour. Seeing as I was already kinda damp anyway, I figured I would ride home and "how bad could it be". Famous last words.

Biking in a downpour of rain, through sandy and muddy bike paths, over potholes now filled to overflowing with puddles of water, not being able to wear my sunglasses to keep the water out of my eyes ... Did you know that even when you're on a bike you can get that squishy wet foot feeling in your shoes? It's true! Take my word for it.

Naturally, by the time I did get home (easy 20 min. ride from the Olympic Basin), I was dripping from places I didn't know I could drip from. My bike was so wet that the little sensor that tracks my speed couldn't do it's job anymore. My shoes, socks, pants, back-pack (and nearly everything in it) and jacket were all soaked. Surprisingly though, my jacket while wet on the outside had kept the rest of me miraculously dry (except in the armpit vents that I had open and the rain sneaked in there). Anyway, all that stuff went directly into the washer and I jumped in the shower to wash the mud off me and my hair (my pony tail was gritty with dirt).

It was still raining this morning and seeing as I didn't have any dry exercise gear to wear, I broke down and took the bus to work. But I am determined now to find myself some pants that can keep me as dry as my jacket. And shoes - would that even exist?

Stupid Pill

Have you ever had one of those days when it seems you must’ve taken a stupid pill? That’s the kind of day I had this past Saturday. Seriously, it was enough to make me look in the mirror and ask myself what on earth I had for breakfast. Yeesh …

Frozen sushi

There’s a reason sushi should be eaten fresh and not from frozen. In case you ever happen to see frozen sushi in the freezer section of your local grocery store, save yourself a couple of dollars and leave it in the store. Once thawed (even according to the package directions) it will be dry, taste like cardboard and fall apart worse than your own homemade version of sushi. I promise.

Rubbish

The book I'm presently reading is complete crap. It's going back to the library this weekend even if I don't finish reading it. Yeesh, what a waste of paper.

First Practice

We had our first Dragon Boat practice last night. Thankfully the temperature was closer to the 25C mark this week (not nearly at freezing like last week). As expected it took some work to get the stroke right, the A-frame body position, the timing, etc. all together. But altogether it was kind of a fun way to spend an hour.

However, I am feeling some pain today in my lower back. Not as much as I expected but I will probably feel it even more tomorrow. In preparation for the general soreness and achy-ness, I have lots of Advil within arm's length.

Owww !

Ah yes, the dormant bicycle muscles got quite a workout this weekend. And I am paying for it now.

What does your Birthdate mean?

Have noticed lots of people inserting this info on their facebook page. Here's what my birthday says about me:

Your Birthdate: August 27

You are a spiritual soul - a person who tries to find meaning in everything. You spend a good amount of time meditating, trying to figure out life. Helping others is also important to you. You enjoy social activities with that goal. You are very generous and giving. Yet you expect very little in return. Your strength: Getting along with anyone and everyone Your weakness: Needing a good amount of downtime to recharge Your power color: Cobalt blue Your power symbol: Dove Your power month: September

What Does Your Birth Date Mean?

Dragon Boat

I had prepared a whole post about the aches and pains I was expecting to have today. But guess what? I don't have any aches and pains today. Wanna know why not? Because it was too cold for our first Dragon Boat practice.

How shocked are you to find that I have joined a Dragon Boat team? On a scale of 1 to 10. I'm about a 10 on that scale, as in very, very, very shocked. Thanks to the 2C weather though practice got cancelled and you'll have to wait until next week to hear about all the aches and pains I will have.

The Chin Strip

Here's the question that's been rattling around my brain for a couple of months now. What do you call a beard that is just a strip of facial hair down the middle of a man's chin? For a while I didn't know what this was called, but thanks to a little bit of searching à la Google, the answer, of course, was found. It is called, simply enough, the chin strip.

I've been noticing a increase in the amount of chin strips on men in Montreal. At the gym, shopping downtown, on the bus.

Now that I know that it's called a chin strip I have more questions. Why the chin strip? Why not a full goatee? Why not just the soul patch?

My apologies to that guy at the gym that I can't stop staring at whenever I see his chin strip - it's just that it kinda freaks me out. Sorta like a train wreck.

Advertising is Expensive

Apologies to my parents - I had planned to put a celebration message in The Gazette for your anniversary but due to the fact that the cheapest version possible is still over $100 before taxes, this will not be happening.

I will probably do something closer to the free price range, like post a message on my blog.

Arcade Fire

Rocked out at the Arcade Fire concert on Saturday night. Wow - that was just awesome. The best part of the concert was at the end when the band left the stage before the first encore, the crowd continued singing along to the chorus of the song they'd just finished playing. It started off so that I wasn't sure if it was the sound system still playing back the song, but then realised that it was the crowd! The crowd was singing to get the band back on stage! It was so cool!!! Finally the band came back on and the crowd just roared! (look at all my exclamation points - I'm still freaking out about this)

I can tell you, it was worth the time and effort to see this band. It was the third time we (my brothers and I) had tried to get tickets to their concerts and finally it came through (thank you, Sam!).

As much fun as the concert was, I have the feeling I'm getting old. The concert didn't start until 9:45pm and we'd left the house at 7pm. So it was nearly 3 hours (!) since leaving the house before the main event even started. Also, I'd forgotten how loud concerts can be and consequently didn't bring earplugs with me. As it turns out it wasn't loud enough to make my ears ring (as in many past concerts in my "youth") but I did come out of there with a headache.

Here's the review from the paper yesterday. All in all - a fantastic concert.

Happy 2nd Anniversary to Me!

Can you believe I'm celebrating 2 years of blogging today?! I'm rather proud of myself. Never imagined it would go on this long.

Happy Anniversary to Me!

Good weather = Good mood

It's been so nice this week that I actually finished the switch over between my winter and summer wardrobe last night. I kid you not - ALL my sweaters have been lovingly washed, dried flat and are now packed away in a variety of suitcases until September (ha, ha - joking, until October).

It was even warm enough to go bare-legged in a skirt. Shocking, I know, I don't usually do that until end of June. However, thanks to not having stockings or socks with me at work, I did walk home with bare feet inside my shoes and managed to rip my right foot to shreds on Tuesday. Yesterday I hobbled around in heels all day, gritting my teeth through the pain, but now that I have my summer wardrobe out that means I also have my summer shoes out and I found a pair of shoes that don't touch any of the blisters. It's going to be a long day today, so I better not get any new blisters or I'll be wearing flip flops to work tomorrow.

In case you've been wondering about my cooking/baking ... I was pretty productive last weekend (date nut bread, zucchini soup, zucchini & feta tart - can you tell zucchini were on sale?) and last night I actually had enough energy to cook mid-week! I adapted an Indian butter chicken recipe to use with a soy and wheat gluten based "chicken" product - and wow!!! It was awesome! Not too sure I'd use this veggie chicken again, but I would definitely do it with shrimp or chunks of fish. Mmmm good!

Have got great plans to do some serious baking this weekend but no plans to photograph it every step of the way.

Mother's Day on Sunday, people. Hope you're prepared!

24 hours of flickr

Here's what I've been up to so far today.

Going out for the evening and hope to add more to the set later.

Cough Syrup

Did you know that too much cough sirop syrup can make you feel a bit sick?

Ohhh, my tummy hurts.

Oh, look - a lung

Was that a lung I just coughed up? Blech. This cold is disgusting.