Sunday, September 28, 2008

New Week, New Listing

Met with my new real estate agent this afternoon and have signed the papers to my condo back on the market. Agent #2 took pictures of the place, got a bunch of details about the place and has already prepared the listing to get it up on their website site early this week.

Keep your fingers crossed, people. I'm feeling confident, the agent is positive and so far has been super fast on everything I've asked. There are a couple of great condos out there just waiting for me so I hope this goes fast!

Saturday, September 27, 2008

Let's get this show on the road

I gotta sell this condo fast so I can decide once and for all where the heck I'm going to live for the next 10 or so years. I can't keep finding two nearly exactly the same places and finding pros and cons to each of them while trying to decide which is the better investment.

CRAP!!!

Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Gosh

Posted here twice yesterday and only just noticed that I said the word "gosh" in both posts.

Must be my soft side (you can stop laughing) making an appearance.

Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Here We Go Again

At the risk of sounding like an 80s hairband, here I go again.

My contract with the real estate agent ran out at midnight Sunday. Today my listing was off mls and I was able to pick up my house keys from the agent. At the same time that all this was happening, my parents estate agent (who sold their condo twice, in a month, in a dead market), sent my Dad an email, who forwarded it to me, giving the agent's coordinates. Tonight I left him a voicemail and less than 20 minutes later he called me back (no "I never got your message" crap). Going to meet this agent in a few days and we'll get cracking on getting my condo sold once and for all.

Strangely enough, on Saturday both my agent and her assistant left me messages. The assistant wanted to set up an appointment for Sunday. The agent wanted to renew her contract with me! Then I read the paper and noticed that she'd placed an ad in the paper for my place - ONE DAY before the contract ran out! Gosh, that made me laugh. Also that she was SURPRISED I didn't want to renew my contract with her!

Anyway - contract with agent #1 is done, contract with agent #2 will hopefully be on the table by the end of the week.

Updates to follow.

Three Times More

Last year was my first year dragon boating and I only got to compete at two festivals. The season ended suddenly when our team ran out of funds for training and the last festival.

This year was quite a different story. I raced at six festivals this summer! Wow - I hadn't counted them up before today but it's pretty impressive. Come on now - SIX! Gosh, so impressed with myself.

Monday, September 22, 2008

Done!

That's it - Dragon Boat season is over! I made it through to the end! I'm so proud of myself. Yesterday the Montreal Waves finished our summer season at the Quebec Cup and we did well!

Our 250m races on Saturday were average - we finished 4th in Division C. Great that we made C, but it sucked that we couldn't place in the top 3.

Our 500m races on Sunday were much better. We finished 3rd in the semi-final and 2nd in the final. That final was a great race. We were neck-in-neck with a boat to our left and it was only the last couple of strokes that put them ahead. So close.

The end of the day finished with the 2000m challenge (up to 12 boats racing, leaving the docks with a 10 second delay between each boat). We were a bit worried about that. When we've practiced this race, we've always done it in 500m sections. At the competition they decided to break it into 250m sections. The organizers said because it made it more interesting this way. For the spectators - yes, I agree. But for the paddlers, doing 7 turns instead of the 3 we'd practiced was kinda hard. No, a lot hard! Funny what adrenaline can do to your body though. It pushed us through the first 3 turns no problem. We even managed to pass not one, but two boats! Turns 4 and 5 were hard, no question there. But as we came into turn number 6, we were able to feel the surge in the boat, knowing that our last 500m was coming up. And then- we powered through our last turn - screaming and shouting and grunting our way through, we even managed to pick up some speed going down our last straight away. And then, we were done! We'd made it through 2 kilometres and 7 turns! What a feeling. It was a great end to a pretty fun season paddling with these women.

We sat around and watched the last 2 races and cheered (i.e. screamed ourselves hoarse) for our coach as he paddled on his men's team. Then down to the pub for a celebratory burger and beer. A short night out and then I was in bed shortly before 9pm.

I have some other things to say about the weekend (mostly about the cold, the cold, the cold), the fun t-shirt I bought, the great atmosphere at the festival but for me it all works out to finishing off the season with a bang.

Now I can rest. For 6 whole weeks! Then we start the indoor winter training and I can start complaining about my aches and pains all over again ;)

Oh yeah - October 18, RDS, 11:00am, you can watch the Saturday races of the Quebec Cup. Doubtful that you'll see my team, but you'll see some interesting racing (particularly the mixed elite sports teams doing their 2k) and maybe it will inspire some of you to try it out next summer ...

Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Cold already

This weekend will be my sixth and last dragon boat competition of the season. I'll only be racing with the Montreal Waves so it'll be nice to really have a chance to relax between races (2 x 250m, 2 x 500m and one crazy 2k race). However, with a couple of very cold nights ahead (down to 3C!) - it's going to be positively frigid paddling. You can guess that I'm not looking too forward to that. I will have a suitcase with me full of dry and warm clothes. (How long will my hot water bottle stay hot?)

Wish us luck or at least that nobody gets hypothermic.

Tuesday, September 16, 2008

True Blood

Two episodes in and I'm hooked. True Blood is the latest in fab TV from HBO. It's about vampires, based in the South (States, that is) and is rather over the top but I can't help myself, I really like it. It certainly helps that our hero, Bill Compton, is one sexy and hot looking vampire.

Sunday, September 07, 2008

Kathryn & John Got Married

Photos from Kathryn & John's Wedding are up on flickr.

It was a great day. Everything worked like clockwork (of course it did - Kathryn was in charge!). Everybody seemed happy, relaxed and remarkably stress free and it came across through the whole ceremony. It was a casual and friendly atmosphere - very much like a party at the Wight household. Even the rain managed to hold off until after the ceremony.

Congratulations, Kathryn & John.

Tuesday, September 02, 2008

That's a first

Sunday night I celebrated my birthday with my family. My usual birthday menu (bbq salmon, potatoes, veggie kabobs, corn on the cob). My mother even humoured my request for a formal dinner in their new dining room, with the good china and silver, etc.

After dessert, we retired to the salon/living room/sitting room/parlour (take your pick) and I opened my presents. My parents had actually already given me my gift (Kitchen Aid stand mixer - so beautiful!) several weeks ago so there was just a card from them. Marc gave me a couple of cool Native art things from his cruise to Alaska (for Chris's wedding). Eric bought my ticket to the Radiohead show earlier this month.

The thing is, these two brothers NEVER and I do mean NEVER EVER give me a birthday card (or at least since Marc outgrew making his own). And that's OK. Really and truly. I get it. I don't know if it's because Sam is more a part of Eric's life or if she's rubbing off on him (in a good way) but this year Eric gave me a birthday card. That in itself was pretty shocking. More shocking was what was written.

Imagine if you will, a lavender coloured card with a black and white picture of two puppies snuggling closely together, it says For My Sister. Open the card and it continues, "Close as can be - that's you and me!" Then I nearly peed my pants for laughing so hard. After reading the card out to the rest of the family Eric admitted he got it in the joke section. Ha, ha, ha. Whatever possessed him to get a card, I don't know but I sure had a good laugh. I don't think a joke card could've been any funnier.

Good one, Eric.

I should also mention that Marc gave me a good laugh too. He showed up at my parent's place for the birthday dinner a day early.