Well, this ought to help...

In the last week or two, I've started training in earnest for the Vancouver to Seattle Ride to Conquer Cancer I'm doing in June. I've taken some nice hilly detours on my way to work some mornings, and on Saturday I did a good solid 55 km (I chose the route I did for the MS Society 60 km ride in 2008, although I didn't use the official start/finish line). It went well in that I finished feeling sore and tired but not overly so, and my 13 km ride the next day (to get my body used to riding while in pain) was much better than I thought it was going to be. In fact I felt stronger the more I rode on that second day, and if I'd had more time to spare I might have gone further.

The biggest problem so far has been the frustration of stop-start city riding. During the first quarter of my ride on Saturday I had to stop every couple of blocks or so for lights, stop signs, pedestrians, roundabouts, idiot drivers, reversing trucks, you name it. I got in a good, long uninterrupted stretch around UBC (including one long, long, evil hill) and then along SW Marine Drive as far as Granville Street, but then I hit the cross traffic again. And the third quarter of the route I'd chosen zig-zagged all over the place in order to cross the main streets at intersections with stop lights; I found it hard to memorise more than four or five turns at a time, so I had to keep stopping to check the map on my iPhone. At least I'll be able to remember the route next time!

The friend who's doing the ride with me had offered to show me a route around Richmond and Steveston that has much less cross traffic, but a lot of it is on highways. My friend assured me that the highway's shoulders are nice and wide, and I agreed to try his route, but then he bailed on me because he thought it was going to rain (what a wuss! It didn't rain in the end, but I had my waterproof jacket in my bag and would have kept going if it had).

I was quite encouraged by my first week of full training, and felt even better after chatting to one of the PIs at work who did the ride last year and who is also just starting his training for this year's event. He was really happy to have hit the 28 km mark at the weekend, which obviously made me feel pretty good! He told me that his most extreme training sessions last year were one double and one triple circuit of the same hilly 28 km route, which made me feel even better...

I also learned that there's only one significant hill on the first day of the ride (although apparently it's really annoying because it's in the middle of the town of Bellingham, and you keep losing all your momentum due to stopping at lights and stop signs), and four or five "rolling hills" on the second day.

Now, you might think that this would be good news; training on hills for a flat course should give you an advantage, right?

Well, yes and no: I'm sure the hills I do encounter on the ride will feel relatively easy as a result of my training, but I've been caught in this trap before. When all your riding is on rolling hills like Vancouver's (or Glasgow's), you get used to resting your legs and lungs as you coast down hills, and when confronted with the need to keep constantly pedalling on a flat route, you can really struggle.

So, last week, I put out a call on Facebook and Twitter to see if any of my Vancouver buddies had an exercise bike they could lend me. In an example of perfect timing the likes of which I've rarely experienced, one friend was in the process of emptying her house before starting renos, and donated her old bike to the cause!

The cats are intrigued when it's stationary, but terrified when it's moving

Mr E Man borrowed a friend's truck and picked the bike up for me yesterday, and I've already got a couple of short rides in. It's noisier than I'd expected, meaning that my idea of riding it while watching hockey games and other TV shows of interest to Mr E Man has been vetoed. But it's a great addition to my training; the constant pedalling gives me a really good workout (one thing that surprised me is that you get much sweatier when you don't have the airflow you get when you're riding a real bike outside! Phew!), and I can alternate between the flat and intervals modes.

The static bike won't replace my training on my real bike, but it's definitely adding a whole new dimension to the enterprise, and will also increase my overall hours and kilometres; it's easier to get motivated to train when I can read a book, watch TV, or enjoy my podcasts while pedalling!

Things I still need:

• Attractive padded shorts of the kind that triple the size of your arse
• Gel saddle? (I think the current one might be OK. I'll decide after some more long rides)
• CamelBak or similar hydration pack. Stopping to drink water a) slows me down and b) subjects me to the pick-up lines of creepy old dudes. On Saturday, one such fella stopped while I was drinking water to say "Nice day for a ride". I agreed, with a smile, but unfortunately that must have encouraged him because he followed up with "Are you good and sweaty? You look nice and sweaty". Yeah. I could do without that experience!

Head beats heart in overtime: home fans "devastated"

The events described in this post took place several weeks ago. I am only just able to bring myself to write about them... 

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My hilarious soon-to-be sister-in-law, K, owns a float home. (Not a house boat, which is an actual boat that you live on, but rather a log cabin-like home that floats, and that you secure to a dock. You can't drive it like you can with a boat, but you can have it towed. Carefully). 

I saw it for the first time on a cold and rainy night a couple of winters ago. We'd been invited for dinner, and showed up at the North Vancouver marina clutching flowers, a bottle of good red wine, and very complicated instructions to go to Gate E, enter a code on the security pad, go down the ramp, turn right at the hand rail covered in Christmas lights, then take the second left at the blue sail boat, and so on.

By the time we'd navigated the maze of floating walkways and found the right home, we were soaked through and freezing cold. But we were welcomed into a floating haven of light and coziness that made me fall in love at first sight.

Before I'd even taken my coat off, I turned to K and said, "if you ever decide to sell this place, CALL ME. Seriously".

Well, we got the call in September. K and my brother-in-law are selling her float home and his condo so they can buy a house; between them they have two grown-up kids, two almost teenaged boys, and a couple of large dogs, so it's time. 

Mr E Man and I were very excited by this news. We both love being in, on, and around the ocean, so this would be perfect! We could buy kayaks and tie them up to the back of the house! I would even be able to commute by boat, FFS!

We started discussing how much we could afford to pay in additional mortgage payments, factoring in the rent we could charge for our current place. 

But then we heard the asking price, as (finally) calculated by the rather lazy realtor. I was devastated; it was way more than we'd expected, and completely out of our price range. We briefly discussed selling our current place instead of renting it out in order to finance the deal, but the thing is that a float home is a depreciating asset, and there's no way we're going to give up the appreciating asset of our house*.

However, after the float home spent a few months on the market attracting very little interest, the realtor told K that it was time to drop the price. We got another phone call; at the new price, it would make more sense for K to sell the place to us directly at a further discount than to go through realtors and pay the fees on the revised price.

The excitement built again. I was all for going straight to the bank to renegotiate our mortgage, but luckily Mr E Man is much more sensible than me, and suggested that we spend a weekend at the float home before deciding. K agreed, and that's how we spent our first post-Olympics weekend.

When we walked through the door, it was just as lovely and cozy and warm as I remembered. I fell in love all over again.

The kitchen space is right by the front door

 Laid-back neighbours

Back deck. No doubt Saba, our ever so "special" cat who often falls off the sofa, would fall off this, too. But Kyrsten, who has lived on a boat with a cat, had already suggested that a fishing net would be a functional and economic investment.

 

Main living space. The stairs lead up to the sleeping area. The bathroom is behind the wall with the painting on it. This information will be important in a TMI section later on in this post. You have been warned...

Extreme coziness inside...

...and extreme beauty outside, even on a cloudy day

We found a great brew pub within walking distance and had a lovely evening of good food, great beer, and awesome hockey on the TV. We then strolled back to the lovely float home, threw some more logs on the fire, and snuggled together on the sofa to re-watch Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels on DVD.

At this point, we were ready to call the bank.

The problems started when we went to bed. The Queen sized mattress only just fit into the sleeping space; we have a King size, and can't imagine switching back. (Yes, I'm spoiled!) But worse was to come (and here comes the TMI...) 

Mr E Man went to the loo while I was in bed, and, well, the privacy of the situation left a lot to be desired. For both of us, but especially for me. The bathroom is really nicely designed inside, but as you can see in the fourth photo in this post, it's separated from the sleeping area only by a wall of rough planks. Planks with gaps between them that let out far, far too much sound. And fumes. (Did I mention all the great beer? The brew pub does a very hoppy IPA that is delectably delicous... but dangerous). 

A married couple can get used to these things, but what happens when you have guests?! 

We had already highlighted the lack of a guest room as a problem. There's plenty of room for a sofa bed, but the whole space is open plan.We don't have guests all that often, but when they do come, they come for a long time (we have some British friends arriving on Thursday for nine days, then we have a couple of weeks off before my parents arrive for a month). Things can be frustrating enough in our current house, which has plenty of distance (and walls!) between the main and guest bedroom, but only one bathroom. My Mum in particular has a bad habit of taking very long showers without checking if anyone needs to get in ahead of her, often when I was just about to go and get ready to leave for work. In the float home, we just wouldn't be able to have long-term guests, and after that night, we were completely put off the idea of having any overnight guests at all!

Another con manifested itself at 1 am. And 2 am. And 3:30 am. And so on throughout the night. Yep; the railway tracks run right by the marina. You don't notice the sound during the day, but you sure as hell notice it when a train whistle suddenly wakes you from a deep sleep! This wouldn't be a deal breaker in and of itself; you can adjust to new noises over time. But on top of the other cons (and the smaller living and storage space; we'd be back to our apartment dwelling days of having bikes in the kitchen and skis and golf clubs in the living room), it was just a bit too much.

We agreed over breakfast at the awesome and OH, SO HEARTBREAKINGLY CLOSE! Lonsdale Quay Public Market that we should get over our state of denial and realise that we are in fact responsible grown-ups, who need to think clearly and rationally rather than basing major financial decisions on love at first sight.

But I could still feel the love. 

The news a few days later that K had hired a new, less lazy realtor who was able to almost immediately sell the float home for way more than the original September asking price, came almost as a relief. I was still in two minds, and having the decision made for me made things so much easier. And the higher price really helps out our wonderful family members, who we love truly and dearly.

But. 

But but but. 

There will always be a little part of me that regrets not following my heart and buying K's beautiful, cozy float home.Given enough time and money we could have closed up the gaps in that bathroom wall; we could have built some kind of private space for guests; we could have built an extension to the sleeping space that would accommodate our King size mattress; we could have got used to the train whistles. 

My head knows we made the right decision. But that doesn't stop me from thinking that being a grown-up really, really sucks sometimes.

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*or rather the land it's built on; the actual house is old and depreciating, and according to our last property tax assessment now makes up something like 8% of the total value of the property. That's Vancouver for ya; with the border to the South, ocean to the West, and mountains to the North, the only way to build is either up or East, making land in Vancouver proper extremely valuable. This is why Mr E Man insisted we buy a house with land rather than a condo or townhouse. He really is much more sensible than I am, and also much better at pretending to be a responsible grown-up.

Hockey pool, week 24

OK, I think the images are working again. Here's the belated hockey pool update!

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Well, I had the most points for this week,

but with only two weeks left, I really don't think it's going to be enough.

Nice work, That Damn Alyssa! You know your hockey! Too bad about your team... but there's still hope, and at least you get bragging rights over Massimo's Oilers!

We're gonna need a montage! MONTAGE!

I was planning to update the hockey pool, but Blogger is borked and I can't upload any new images. Some of the old ones aren't showing up either, including my lovely "kayaks at sunset" banner image. I feel so naked without it! Hopefully it'll be back soon.

To compensate, here's a photo and video montage I put together of Olympic and Paralympic fun and games (hopefully I can still haz videos). The song is "Oh... Canada" by Classified, which was released during the first week of the games; fittingly enough, I first heard it on one of the CBC Radio 3 podcasts, and bought it on iTunes a few days later, 'cos I'm cheesy like that. And yes, I promise that this will be the absolutely last and final Olympic video*.

Enjoy! I'll keep trying with the hockey pool images...



*Probably.

Olympic Pool Results, and the best street party Vancouver has ever seen

Yeah, I know: finally!

Sorry for the delay... but here it is!

The aim of the pool was to choose the country that would get the most medal points per capita. I assigned 3 medal points per gold medal, 2 medal points per silver medal, and 1 medal point per bronze medal. The final medal table is here, I took the population stats from the CIA's World Factbook, and reader picks from these two posts. Please let me know if you spot any errors or omissions!

Here's the table:

Congratulations, Chall! 

Nice work! The Bragging Rights are yours and yours alone, with no need for the tie-breaker (predictions of the numbers of each kind of medal).

And to celebrate, here's a very celebratory video of the downtown Vancouver celebrations that followed Canada's victory in the gold medal hockey game (with a special shoutout to Nina, as requested!).



Watching my sloppy, drunken footage again made me very happy, but also very sad that everything is over now :( Ah well, it was one of the most fun times of my whole life, and I will always remember it fondly. Inspired by Vancouver 2010, I will probably go to London in 2012. I might even go to Sochi in 2014...

Up next: World Cup! Ing-er-land, Ing-erland! There will be a pool, there will be trash talk. My goodness will there be trash talk...

The hills are alive...

...with the sound of cow bells

Or at least, they were. The cow bells are silent now. Yup, the Paralympics are over, and the last few days have felt very flat and empty. It is so, so sad to cycle past City Hall and see the empty poles from which the Olympic and Paralympic flags have flown so proudly for the last four years.

But on Saturday, I managed to get to one last event before the end! And thanks largely to Mermaid's fabulous guest post about the ski jump and luge events she attended during the Olympics, I was adamant that my last event should be in Whistler. My friend and I originally had tickets for the super G slalom - men's and women's standing class, but they had to rejig the schedule based on the latest weather forecasts. Our tickets changed from the original event to slalom - men's and women's standing class, and finally to the super combined (super G + slalom) - men's and women's standing, sitting, and visually impaired classes. We were extremely happy with the change; as you'll see from the video below, our day was defined by variety!

As if Alpine skiing wasn't dangerous enough...

We had an absolutely fantastic day in the warm Whistler sunshine, and think our husbands were fools to go skiing instead, despite their enthusing about the "EPIC!!!" conditions*. And we saw Canada win a bronze, a silver, and a GOLD!!!** The latter was the fifth gold medal of the games won by my new hero, Lauren Woolstencroft. I have nothing bur respect for every Paralympian, but Lauren Woolstencroft stands out even in this exalted company. She was born with no legs below the knee, and no left arm below the elbow, and competes in the standing class, along with every other sighted Paralympian who skis in the standing position. And she doesn't just win, she totally obliterates the field. She ended up winning the event we saw by 12 seconds. 12!!! That just isn't supposed to happen!

I sang the Canadian anthem at her ceremony with more pride than ever before.

I may have cried.

Anyway, here's the video. Sorry for the fuzzy bits; the bright sunshine and glare from the snow were not very kind to my poor little Flip Video.



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*we planned to join them on the Sunday, but it was raining on the bottom half of the mountain, and all the lifts above freezing level were closed due to high winds. They did open later, but the price of a half-day pass is almost the same as a full day, and it just didn't seem worth it. This is the first time I've ever been to Whistler during the winter or spring and not skied, but it was totally worth it for the once-in-a-lifetime experience of going to the Paralympics.

**you'll notice that all three of our medals were won by women. This was a recurring theme of the Olympics and Paralympics, with women accounting for a majority of our medals in both tournaments, but especially in the Paralympics. Canadian women KICK ASS!

Hockey pool, week 23

Man, I really sucked this week.

The regular season is coming to an end very soon, with just three more updates to come. It looks like Alyssa's got it; I'm not going to give up just yet, but it would be one hell of an upset if anyone else was to win!

Resoluquinox 2010

I am continuing my new tradition of making my resolutions at the Spring equinox, rather than at the deepest darkest time of winter. (I'm a day late, but let's pretend we didn't notice).

Most of my resolutions are the same as last year's, so I've combined my 2009-2010 progress summaries with the new / revised resolutions (the blue headings). One thing I've learned is that I do better with specific targets than with vague "do more of X and less of Y" resolutions, so I've tried to set goals for each resolution this year.

A) CAREER

2009-2010 progress:


i) do everything I can to make sure I get to stay on in my job after my original two year contract expires in November.

DONE! My funding source, and therefore my job description, changed a bit and I'm working with a different (but overlapping) set of PIs now, but I'm still employed and still enjoying it (on the macro level, at least. On the micro level, some tasks are more fun than others! I'm looking at you, CV formatting days).

ii) stop procrastinating and develop my freelance writing

I got my first freelance writing income this year - the first (and so far only) royalties for an online high school textbook section that I wrote and project managed with some former colleagues back in 2007 - and also my first byline, hopefully the first of many articles for the MS Society. That gig puts the free in freelancing, but it's a great start to my portfolio (and also an improvement on how I've volunteered for them in the past; standing in the freezing rain in Stanley Park for a few hours during their annual fundraising walk. Kinda fun, but I prefer writing, and they seem to agree that it's a better use of my time and training :) ). I've also worked on a couple of side projects for a PI who I know from my day job, on projects that aren't really in my job description but for which the PI has funding to hire me for a few hours here and there. And I also worked with my former colleagues this year to update the textbook content and change the format for another market, which will hopefully bring in some more money. Other than landing the MS Society gig I haven't been terribly proactive though, i.e. I haven't submitted any queries or articles anywhere.

2010-2011 goals:

i) be more organised and proactive at work

The deadline-driven nature of my work means that I go through peaks and troughs of urgency, with periods of panic followed by calmer weeks spent trying to deal with the fall-out from the panic (e.g. inbox chaos, trying to catch up on non-deadlined tasks before the next deadline hits). I also tend to get overwhelmed by the regular floods of new tasks that all hit me in the same week. (They always, always, cluster). So here are the initial goals, although I may add more and / or modify these ones depending on how they work.

a) Check work email only three times a day (first thing in the morning, at lunch time, and then at about 4pm). Turn off email auto-alerts. Answer every single email within one work day. File all emails weekly. (The first two points do not apply during deadline weeks!)

b) Have a daily and a monthly to-do list, as well as a weekly one

c) Have a list of non-urgent, non-deadlined tasks, organised by how long each task will take, so that I can easily pick one if I have a spare 20 minutes / hour / afternoon. These tasks tend to get neglected otherwise.

d) Get a Mobile Me subscription and have ALL events on ONE calendar.

e) Try again to negotiate a day a week working from home (I get horribly distracted in the open-plan office).

ii) do more extracurricular writing

I've modified this title category from last year, as I want to include blogging as well as freelance writing.

When it comes to the latter, I'm much less sure than I was last year that freelancing is my ideal long-term job. I've been reading / listening to a lot of books, blogs and podcasts by and for freelancers, and have gained a much more realistic appreciation of how hard it is to earn a living in this way. Although I still think I'd love freelancing, given our current mortgage there's just no way that it'll be a viable career for me any time in the next ten years.

In addition, Bean-Mom's recent post about her own writing really hit home (I haven't commented yet because I'm still mulling it over). I have similar issues with discipline; I really knuckled down for the projects I mentioned above, especially the textbook project, but that took up every weekend and evening (and some mornings before work) for several months, and when it was done I just wanted to veg out. I spent Boxing Day 2007 locked in the computer room alone while my in-laws hung out with Mr E Man, eating turkey and bacon sandwiches and playing fun board games with lots of laughter (they'd all come over for Christmas Day and got snowed in), leading to my niece saying "I thought your name was Auntie Cath, not Antisocial". I also had to work for 14 hours on New Year's Day 2008, when I'd much rather have been under a blanket on the sofa with Mr E Man, eating pizza and watching movies all day like a normal person. In other words, freelancing is a very, very hard thing to do, especially when you're also working full time in a demanding job.

However, I still really enjoy writing, and there's no reason why it can't still be a fun hobby that brings in a little money here and there. And given the soft-money nature of my salary support, it's always good to have a back-up plan (although if my funding ends, I will have to make finding another full-time job my top priority). So with that in mind, my specific goals are mostly aimed at providing motivation to write in ways that I find enjoyable and productive, with half an eye on developing my portfolio and keeping my eyes and ears open for paying opportunities.

a) write at least one "research blogging" style blog post per month (on my other blog). I've been reading over my blog archives recently, and I'm really proud of how some of those early posts turned out, even if they barely attracted any comments. I'd like to get back into this style of blogging as I have "lazy blogger" tendencies otherwise :)

b) develop a portfolio website. Mostly just for the experience, but then I'll have something ready to go in case I spot an interesting opportunity.

c) I'm reluctant to even mention this, but... I have an idea for a pop-sci book. In a way this appeals more than taking on a larger number of small projects, but I'm extremely ambivalent about it given my comments above about locking myself in a room to write while other people have fun. I honestly don't know if I have it in me to do this, although I would love to have a book published (I have no illusions about making a ton of money and quitting my day job; I know people are interested in this subject, but it's still a very small niche, and I'm aware that only a tiny percentage of authors make enough money for it to be their sole profession). It would be a HUGE, multi-year commitment; many, many holidays would be spent in the same way as Boxing Day 2007. I've read some excellent posts recently about how to develop a book proposal (a must in the non-fiction market), so at the very least I will take the first couple of steps (defining exactly what would be in this hypothetical book; the scope is potentially huge and I would need to whittle it down to a much more focused subset of the subject matter). I may be contacting a couple of fellow bloggers for feedback!

B) HEALTH

2009-2010 progress:


i) exercise more

I did really well for the first 8 months of the year. I went to the gym more, I swam every week until my swimming partner had her baby in July, and I started running for the first time in my life. I started out with 30 second running / 1 minute walking intervals over a 7.5 minute run, and built up to running 33 minutes (3 x 10 minute intervals interspersed with 1 minute walks) twice or thrice a week. However, everything went to pot when I got swine flu in November. I was still recovering when we left for two weeks in Cuba, still had a cough when we returned... and by the time I was feeling completely better, it was the darkest, coldest, and rainiest time of year and I was just out of the habit. Good habits are so much easier to break than to form! I have done some exercise since, just... not much.

ii) stretch more


For me, stretching tends to go hand in hand with running. So, see above for how I started well but ended poorly...

iii) improve my diet

I did OK here, but not great. I've cut down further on the amount of meat I eat, especially red meat, and Mr E Man and I are both doing better at going out of our way to buy organic free range meat rather than the other stuff that's available at our closest three grocery stores. But I need to do better at eating locally. I have had some good long streaks of making my own lunch, but one forgetful / rushed day tends to lead to a skipped week or even longer. When I do buy lunch I try to get something vegetarian, but the best veggie lunches are a longer walk, and grant deadlines and nasty weather make me lazy.

2010-2011 goals: (I'm going to be really, really unoriginal here!)

i) exercise more

My upcoming bike ride from Vancouver to Seattle (sponsor me! It's for cancer research!) is an excellent motivation here.

a) On weekdays, I will do one weights session and at least one cardio session per week. At least one cardio session MUST be on a bike (real or static).

b) On weekends when I'm in town, I will do at least one long bike ride per weekend until the ride, and thereafter at least one run OR a long bike ride OR some other form of cardio (kayaking, hiking etc).

c) I will stretch before every session.

ii) improve my diet

a) No more meat at lunch, unless it's leftovers from a previous dinner, or unless I go out for lunch (this only happens about once a month and I often go for the veggie option anyway, depending on the restaurant).

b) Red meat no more than once a week, unless I'm served red meat at someone's house and I've already had some that week. But in that case I won't have any red meat the following week.

c) Go to the farmer's market every summer weekend when I'm in town. Eat more local produce in general.

d) Drink more water: at least a litre a day at work on top of my usual cups of tea, and also alternate alcoholic drinks with a glass of water when I'm out.


C) MISCELLANEOUS

2009-2010 progress:

i) play my guitar more 

As with making lunches, I'm streaky. I came back from Cuba with masses of inspiration, but being away for two weeks over Christmas and New Year broke that good habit (I played a LOT of Beatles Rock Band while I was away, but I don't think that counts). 


ii) don't neglect the garden so much

Another one that started well, but ended with a chaos of weeds... 

2010-2011 goals: (Again, same old same old, but with more specific goals)

i) play my guitar more

At least one hour per week

ii) don't neglect the garden so much

a) Plant a hedge

b) Replace the shrubby thing that died last year

c) Replace the fern that died last year

d) Fix the outside tap and buy a hose so that I don't stop watering the plants when I realise that going up and down the stairs into the kitchen with a watering can ten times per night during a heatwave is not really all that much fun

e) Weed for at least five minutes a day on weekdays, and as needed on weekends (subject to weather conditions, of course)

iii) Finances

Persuade Mr E Man that we need to see a financial planner. Relying on the house to fund our retirement is probably not all that smart, even in Vancouver.

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Phew! It's going to be another busy year. And I just spent 90 minutes writing this blog post. It's just as well I got up extra early... gotta go, things to do!

This post does not exist

Apparently women don't blog: 

"That's guy stuff. And they are welcome to it."

So I guess you're only imagining this page. And - let's see - at least 60% of my blog roll. And I have dozens of imaginary friends! Sweet!
 
More drivel:

"Men clearly have an urge to blog that women lack. Like extreme snowmobiling, the blogosphere is dominated by men. Not many women are interested enough in spitting out an opinion on current events every 20 minutes".

and

"These days, you don't even have to start a blog to get an audience. All you have to do is write “Margaret Wente is an idiot” and hit send. Instant gratification!"

Ms. Wente, I'm about to spit out an opinion on current events. Are you ready?

---------------

You give idiots a bad name, and journalists a worse one. Have you heard of doing research? (Asking your 24-year-old friend doesn't count). Here's a good place to start. (Oh look! Some of those hits are brand new pages discussing what an idiot you are! Or did I just imagine them?)

In addition, trying to tie your ill-informed opinions in to a high-profile fatal snowmobile accident is not a very classy thing to do, to say the least.

Please bugger off back to journalism school.

--------------- 

You were right about one thing, at least: that was gratifying.

THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS SAINT PATTY'S DAY!

It's Paddy. The diminutive form of the name Patrick (or Pádraig in the original Irish form) is Paddy. Therefore it's Saint Paddy's day. Patty is a girl's name, the diminutive form of Patricia. Think Peppermint Patty. Kiss trust me, I'm (half) Irish.


I appreciate that the softening of the T sound in North American accents makes it difficult to distinguish from a D. I mean, even I ask for "warder" in restaurants now, as no-one ever understands me when I say "water" with a hard T. And one friend who thinks he's British but is actually Canadian says "bacon buddy" instead of "bacon butty", for the same reason - I have told him he's wrong, but old habits die hard.

But now you know, and you have no more excuses!

Anyway, I realise I'm fighting a losing battle here, so I guess you can call it whatever you like, as long as you call it a good reason to have a pint or ten! Have fun, and get home safe!

photo credit

(Post scheduled for 12:01 am my time, to make sure I catch most of my readers before this happy day ends)

Sledge hockey rules!

The Paralympics are here!

Everything went a bit flat after the Olympics, and many of us actually experienced withdrawal symptoms. We missed the crowds and the atmosphere and the flags and the cheering. But never fear, the Paralympics are here! Welcome back, world, we missed you!

After a couple of weeks of vague "hey, we should go to the Paralympics" talk, my friends and I realised on Friday that we needed to get our arses in gear. Top of our wish list was the sledge hockey (or "hockey sur luge", as the French text on my ticket says. Now that would be a sport: stick-handling a puck while you fly down a luge track, with a goalie waiting for your shot at the end. Best. Shootout. EVAH. But I digress). All of Team Canada's games were sold out, but we did manage to get decent seats for Norway vs. Sweden last Saturday - a snip at $20 each!

It was great to be back on the bus with chatty sports fans wearing their team's shirts and singing away. We passed the curling venue, and saw more huge crowds with flags and painted faces. The party is back in town! But none of this helped me with my dilemma; as we neared the stadium, I was still trying to work out who to support. This was the first time I'd ever been to a live sporting event where I didn't already support one of the teams; I've watched lots of sport on TV as a neutral, but never in person. I was truly stumped. I like both Sweden and Norway; I have Swedish and Norwegian friends; I like ABBA and Aha; I'd already seen a team from each country lose to Canada in the Olympic hockey. One idea was to cheer for whichever team had the fewest supporters in the stadium, but it seemed like a fairly even split (most people were cheering in English, though. A big group of local kids behind us had turned their own team's red jerseys inside out (you could see the logo through the fabric) and added blue arm bands and letters spelling out "NORWAY", all made of electrical tape, to match the Norwegian team's jerseys). I would usually support the underdog, but honestly had no idea which team that would be; in Olympic hockey it would be Norway, but apparently they're better at sledge hockey than at regular hockey.

So, I fell back on Plan B: support Norway during the first period, Sweden during the second, and for the rest of the game either the team that was behind at the beginning of the third, or in the event of a tie, whichever team I thought deserved it the most.

As it turns out, this cunning plan resulted in me supporting the team shooting towards our end in every period, which was a bonus. And it didn't take me long to get into the game and cheer loudly for whichever team I was supporting at that time.

Team Sweden get ready for the start of the game

It was a great first period, with lots of action in our end. It was quickly apparent that Norway were the better attacking team, with lots of flair and skill, whereas Sweden were more defensive and had the better goalie. But it was Sweden who went into the first intermission with a one goal lead, with a breakaway goal after some sustained pressure from Norway.

The skill levels were truly phenomenal. Beth Snow has some background information on the sport on her blog; the sticks she shows have hockey stick blades on one end, and spikes for propulsion on the other. These guys can stick handle with both hands while using the same sticks to move around; I'd like to see your average NHL player try that! One popular strategy was to come at the goalie on an angle, with the puck hidden behind your body, then to suddenly sit back, lift the front end of your sled up, and shoot under your body so that the goalie couldn't see the puck coming until the very last second. We also saw one of the Norwegian players lean back and pass the puck under his sled with his left hand, then collect the rebound off the boards behind him with his right hand, transfer the puck back to his left hand, and finally pass it right onto the stick of a team mate - all while using the same sticks to move forward. Simply amazing.

The rules and penalties are pretty much the same as in regular hockey, but with the addition of a penalty called teeing, which basically means ramming another player with your sled. Did I mention that this is one hell of a physical sport? There were full body checks into the boards and everything else you might expect from Olympic hockey.

Failed attempt to get a good photo of a full body check into the boards

The game is obviously not as fast as the hockey I'm used to watching,



but there was no shortage of action and excitement. Power plays, breakaways, shots, saves, goal line clearances - this game had it all!

Norway were still 1-0 behind at the beginning of the third, but I'd already decided to cheer for them in the final period even if they'd tied it up. Both teams were great, but very different, and I'll always go for a good attacking team over a good defensive one. The volume in the stadium ramped up to eleven as Norway finally beat the Swedish goalie midway through the final period, after outshooting the Swedes something like 25 to 8. Overtime was fast and furious, and then we went to a shootout - this game was certainly great value for money! The players start at their own net, build up a crazy amount of speed, pick up the puck at centre ice, and barrel down on the poor goalie. After several saves from both teams, Norway finally broke the deadlock for a well deserved victory (although I was glad to see Sweden pick up a point for their excellent defensive efforts), and we stood up and cheered ourselves hoarse before going for a well deserved pint.

Conclusion: sledge hockey RULES! And Team Canada are kicking ass so far.

On Saturday I'm going to the Apline Skiing in Whistler and I can't wait!

GO CANADA GO!

Hockey pool, week 22

Arriving at a friendly North Vancouver brew pub during the second period of the Canucks-Senators game on Saturday, Mr E Man and I were invited to draw a name of a Canucks player out of a hat. We were informed that if the player on the slip scored the next goal, we would get a free drink. We drew again at the start of the third period.

Now, I've done well at a similar game before, at a different pub, where you pay a toonie to enter but get to choose the name of the player. I once chose all four scorers in a single game (no-one else chose the same players, meaning that I got the full pot each time), and paid for our entire dinner and drinks bill, including tip, with my winnings. Thank you Ruutu (twice), Cooke, and Salo!

However, my luck at random draws really sucks. While Mr E Man pulled the names of two of our hottest players and got two free drinks,

I chose this very junior, low scoring guy...

...twice...

...and he wasn't even playing that night.

You'll notice that I crumpled the second slip up as soon as I saw it.

Anyway, I checked my performance in the hockey pool on Saturday before the game, and at that time my luck in the pool was mirroring my luck in random player name draws. But when I checked again this morning, I realised that the Canucks' back-to-back victories had propelled me to the top of the pile!

Not that it really helps that much in the grand scheme of things, as That Damn Alyssa is still kicking ass:

Ah well, the Canucks' epic road trip (the longest in NHL history) is now over, and hopefully a string of home wins will help me repeat the success of that one glorious night when I picked every single goal scorer and became a (very) temporary (very) local celebrity.

Thursday giggles

When I was a kid, my sister and I used to love the game show Catchphrase. I don't remember this particular bonus round, which popped up on the Fail Blog yesterday*... but I sure do remember it being played on every UK bloopers show since!

*for some reason they didn't show the whole clip, but I found it on YouTube.

Tuesday pet peeve: I just want clothes-type clothes!

I once went to visit a friend in Manchester, and she took me on an epic all-day quest for the perfect pair of shoes. The most frustrating aspect of the day was that she couldn't describe what she was looking for:

"I just want shoe-type shoes", she said. "You know, just a normal pair of shoes. And I can't find any".

"These look fairly normal", I said for about the tenth time that hour.

"No, I don't want that kind of shoe, I want shoe-type shoes!"

Finally, she found what she was looking for.

"OH!", I said, as all became clear. "Shoe-type shoes!"

"Exactly", she sighed happily.

On Saturday, I went looking for clothes-type clothes. You know, just normal clothes. I can't describe to you exactly what I mean, but I'd know them if I saw them. I actually prefer going shopping this way, with nothing particular in mind; looking for something specific is usually a recipe for disappointment.

Unfortunately, all I saw was either

a) boring clothes

or

b) fugly clothes.

Seriously, I couldn't find a single thing that fell into the happy middle ground. (Well, that's not entirely true. I found a t-shirt that I quite liked. But at $210 it was just ever so slightly out of my price range). Plain black pants, plain grey sweaters, and plain white shirts everywhere, and hideous colours and/or nasty patterns everywhere. No middle ground.

I ended up buying a pair of jeans, a pair of plain black trousers, and a plain charcoal grey sweater. I already have two charcoal grey sweaters (one plain, one patterned), but I really liked the fit and shape of this one. The only other colour options were black (not available in my size*), purple (I can wear some shades of dark purple, but not the brighter purples that dominate this year's offerings), or mustard yellow (with my skin tone I absolutely can NOT wear ANY shade of yellow). In fact, a great number of things in the mall only seemed to come in either bright purple or some kind of yellow, and occasionally a mix of the two (I wish I was kidding).

What is with this year's colours and patterns?! What happened to all the nice blues and greens and chocolate browns and even reds that I can actually wear?! Where did all the nice patterns go?!

I often have a hard time finding clothes that I really like, but this is the second time I've gone shopping in six months, and the second time I've hated (or yawned at) almost every single thing in an entire mall. I even tried all the stores I would never usually consider entering, and it was the same everywhere, at every point on the price and age range.

All hope is not lost; I can usually find some very funky t-shirts (and occasionally dressier tops) in the independent and vintage stores on Main Street. And I haven't been to R&W lately, which is usually a happy hunting ground. But I might just have to wait this season out before trying to find any more work clothes; not good right now, since I've lost a little weight and all but three pairs of pants are literally falling down when I wear them.

I have friends who are much more into fashion than I am and always look very stylish. I might have to recruit one of them as a personal shopper; they might know some places that are off the beaten track (Kyrsten, I am looking at YOU!). Either that or I am going to have to learn how to use a sewing machine.

A plague of moths on the people who design, produce and sell only boring and fugly clothes!

--------------

*this is another gripe. I am the first to admit that I am carrying some extra weight, but I am only a size 10-12 (on top, 12-14 on the bottom), it shouldn't be this hard to find something that fits. Some stores had a size 10 (that was really an 8) as their biggest size! Even the Gap only had one (ONE!) pair of size 12, regular length jeans in the style that I like. Although Mr E Man did point out that shopping in our part of town, with its huge Asian population, might put me at the extremely large end of the local size spectrum...

Hockey pool, week 21

I had intended to write a non-hockey post before this one, but a work trip followed by a weekend spent learning the ropes on the new Nature Network blogging platform got in the way. Speaking of which, if anyone is currently following my Nature Network blog using an RSS feed or via their blog roll, please update your links to the new address. Assuming that you'd like to keep reading, that is. Thanks!

Right, the pool: Alyssa managed a seamless transition back into her strong pre-Olympic form, and kicked all our asses again this week.

The rest of us seem to be feeling the post-Olympic slump that's hit me and all my Vancouver buddies since last Sunday's hockey final. I miss the happy crowds and the buzz around town, but hey, the Paralympics start on Friday and we get a couple more weeks to milk the Olympic mood for all it's worth!

Post hockey therefore proper rockin'

After the huge post-hockey party on Sunday night, Mr E Man and a friend who lives nearby shared a taxi home from downtown. Mr E Man told me the next morning that the 15 minute ride had been really fun - the driver was flying Canadian car flags and playing bhangra music, and was happy to crank it up to 11 when asked by his passengers, who were equally happy to keep the party going as they headed home, dancing in the back seat with all the windows open, shouting "YEAH!!!!" at pedestrians.

We heard last night that after Mr E Man got dropped off, the party continued even further...

Our friend was having such an awesome time that he asked the driver to take him back downtown for a drive around Stanley Park.

Halfway around the park, the driver was having such an awesome time that he switched off the meter.

An hour later, when our friend finally made it home, the driver gave him the CD of bhangra music as a parting gift.

For me, that story sums up the atmosphere in the city over the last couple of weeks.

Note to self: leave better notes to self

I'm currently (intermittently, half-heartedly) tidying my inbox and desk after the latest round of grant applications. In the process, I uncovered a note in my own handwriting on the pad of post-its that I use for jotting down phone messages:

Louise Golbey

Same old same old

Hmmm, I thought.

Who the hell is Louise Golbey? And why did I react that way to her phone message? "Same old same old" implies that we were having a conversation that I found boringly familiar... but I just can't place that name. Did the grant-inspired adrenaline rush and/or the two-week Olympic party seriously addle my brains that much?!

I searched my email folders for her name - nothing.

I searched a couple of institutional contact lists - nothing.

But Google had the answer: she's a musician who was recently profiled on the "BBC Introducing" podcast, to which I subscribe.

She has a song called "Same Old, Same Old".

I keep a list of artists I've heard on podcasts who I want to investigate further, but it's usually as a note in my iPhone.Using the telephone message post-its instead probably saved me a couple of minutes on a busy day, but cost me much more than that in solving the mystery (and then blogging about it - d'oh!) today.

Anyway, you should check her out. I don't write that many names down in a given month, so her music obviously stands out, even if her name didn't!