Fire at the Monte Carlo

It was interesting to see the damage to the Monte Carlo, which was only about five minutes from the timeshare we stayed at Sunday night. I first learned of the fire on the planeride down. The guy beside me asked where I was headed to as we were landing in Salt Lake City. When I told him, he said, "what hotel are you staying at, because it might be on fire." The tone made it only slightly less creepy than saying, "what hotel are you staying at, because I'm going to follow you there."

I had NSD tonight, and it seriously kicked my ass. My legs didn't feel that tired, but they were. I was a little worried when I started to feel fatigued three things into the workout. I still have a hockey game tonight, and I'm a little afraid.

Trouble in Vegas

Trouble in Vegas was the name of the tournament that I was at this weekend (no jail time). It was great to get to play outdoor in January. My groin held up really well (maybe I should lay off the 'active rehab' that I always do, and go with the rest and ice that I did this time). Unfortunately, we lost the two games that we really wanted to win. We lost to a Goat/Capitals (Toronto) team 13-10 in pool play, and got knocked out by TFP in the quarters in a universe point. My team was mostly from Edmonton, with a few additions. Jen Nicholls and John Russell (JRuss - confusingly like my sister, Jen and John Ross) organized.

After we got knocked out, a carload of us headed to the Hoover Dam (post timeshare showers). Unfortunately, the last tour offered was 15 minutes after we got there. We still got to wander around, take a few pictures and such. It was really (really) windy, but well worth seeing. We decided to park on the Arizona side, which is about 200 ft. further than the Nevada side. It was a tough call. Parking on the Nevada side was $7, and free on the Arizona side. Toughy.
Sunday night we went for the $10 buffet dinner and then wandered around the Strip for a while. Afterwords, we found a sweet live band in one of the bars. We went in for one drink and ended up staying for the night. It was a great time, although I felt bad for Nicholls, JRuss and Eva, who all had to be up for there flights about an hour after we got home. Seb, myself and Dobber all got to sleep in.

In the afternoon, Seb and I went to go check out Bodies the Exhibition. It's very interesting, so I'd recommend it if you get a chance. If you're sciencey at all, you would definitely enjoy it. I really liked seeing the thryroid gland. It was bigger than I thought. I wanted to ask if as long as it hadn't been spoken for, perhaps I could try it on. They had a whale's duodenum to compare to a human. We joked about hoping into a cab in Vegas and asking to be taken to the nearest whale's duodenum. Another highlight was Seb and I looking at each other thru a colon. Priceless.

Another fun part of the weekend was when we showed up at Planet Hollywood for the buffet ($27 US!), and Miss Michigan's entourage gave us all free meals. I guess Miss America was at the hotel at the same time. I have know idea who won, but I hope it's Miss Michigan.

I wrote a little more, but blogspot ate it, so this is all I've got for now.

Penis and Vagina Pasta: Enough to Make Anyone Want to Eat Out

Get it?

I finally made the Penis and Vagina Pasta for dinner this weekend. Yummy!

It was a fairly low key weekend for me. I had lots of active stuff planned, but I cancelled it all because of my groin pull. I've been icing every couple of hours, and it's already feeling a lot better. I'm planning to ride a bike for a bit on Tuesday (just a bit), and I'm hoping to be ready to go for NSD. That's a whole other blogpost - NSD is on my list of things to blog about. I'm probably going to sit out Wednesday's hockey game and aim to be ready for that the following week.

Anyway, the forced rest was nice. I cooked a little, studied German and cleaned. I didn't leave my house today other than to go to Juniors. I'm actually not very tired right now (after late hockey Friday and two big sleep-ins to recover), but I'm going to try to go to bed none the less. Last Monday was a really long day with work and then 3 hrs of German.

Nellie Wins 4-3 with 20 Seconds Left

The Nellie game last night was loads of fun. I would have said that even if we lost, but games are just that much more fun when you win 4 to 3 with 20 seconds left. We were playing the Chilly Peppers, and they seemed to be fairly evenly matched to us. They went up 2 - zip (or was it three?) before Nellie finally scored.

A couple of their players stood out to me - number 4, their 'superstar', number 8 - a really good skater, and their goalie. Number 4 scored all three goals against us. They were impressive goals, although not nearly as memorable as her 'superstar' plumber's crack. She went really quickly from 'that good player who scored all the goals' to 'that girl with the bass'. I really hope she doesn't end up being someone's cousin's brother who reads this one day. In the very small chance that happens - laugh it off number 4.

I think Nat (playing up) had the first Nellie goal, after that line had a couple of nice chances. Sue Hunter scored two nice goals with her laser shot. Murray should really come to more games - I think it's a good motivator. At least if the other team doesn't default. Shelly scored an amazing goal with 20 seconds left (with the game tied at 3's). It was a textbook shot to the upper left corner....or I'm sure it would be if they write textbooks about that short of thing. Hurray!

On a personal level, the game wasn't much of a success for me. I really enjoyed the first 2 periods, but right at the start of the third, I tweaked my groin. Now, I realize that sounds like fun, but actually it really hurts. It's not very bad, mostly because I headed for the bench as soon as I felt it and skipped the third. It was a hard game to sit out of, and I'm really glad my teammates busted it out at the end (the game, not their asses). I'm missing all of the workouts planned for this weekend and replacing them with ice and rest. I've pulled enough muscles to know that if I take care of this now, it won't be a problem. If I'm not smrt about it, it could plague me for months.

Off topic: I do have a picture of the Sesame Snap, but I'm not sure that I can post it. It's a brutal 0.3 megapixel thing I took with my cellphone. Next time you see me (whoever you are), I can show you it on phone.

1rst German Class

Monday night is my new has-to-be-a-rest day. I'm hoping to keep it to one day of rest a week, but I'm not sure it will fly. I did 6 days this week, and by the hockey game last night, my legs were seriously done-zo. So I guess I'll have to see. As soon as I need a rest day in order to have quality workouts, I take one.

German class is from 6:30-9:30, which leaves very little time to exercise if you factor in the whole day job thing. The first class was good. I think I will get a lot of of it. I'm taking German Level Dumbass through Mt. Royal Continuing Ed.

This morning, Amanda finally got her Sesame Snap. While she was away traveling the world for 4 months, I saved all of the crumbs from my keyboard (and some from the toaster in the kitchen) and glued them into a fake Sesame Snap (in a real wrapper). I like to call Sesame Snaps 'bird food'. I'm not exactly a fan. KA-KAAHHH!!

Not Much and Lots Missed

My apologies for the break in posting. This was a really busy week for me for some reason. I think it was just because it was the first week back after the holiday break. 5 days and 40 seemed like a lot, all of a sudden. I was also working out a lot this week. For some reason my running seems to be going really well these days.

Even the weekend was busy. I was up early both days, and seemed to be going from place to place and thing to thing (in a good way, but busy). This morning was the first sport and social club floor hockey game (just for funsies). I think it's going to be fun. I really enjoyed the first game, and the team seemed like nice folks. I was a little annoyed at the organized/ref chick, who would 'warn' players if their stick raised above their big toe. This was true even if there wasn't another person within 10 feet. Overall, well worth getting out of bed for (and I'll bet you know how much I love my sleep).

I need to leave shortly for a Nellie game. That's a lot of hockey in one day.

Busy Week!

It's been a really busy week. I'm really trying to stay on top of this whole sleep thing. Instead of writing something, I will just post a picture of what I will be doing instead of posting - sleeping. Good night!

Purging and Getting Rid of My Spare Tire

Okay, so it's really not my spare tire. It's the tire that I wore out commuting back and forth from Bowness to downtown for a year, plus the trip to Moab. When I still I the stupid thing in my bedroom I can't tell you. I changed it off my bike months ago.

I'm trying to get done a few things that I didn't get around to over the Christmas break. Tonight I went thru my clothes. I try to do this once a year. I purge anything that I haven't worn, even if I still like it or wish it fit me a little bit better. It's always bittersweet, because even though I never wear the stuff I am getting rid of, I still like it, or at least rather did like it at one point. On the other hand, there is no point in hoarding anything that I don't use, and maybe somebody can use it.

Tartan helped.

Barfy Zen Porkchop

The success of my runs is directly linked to food, and runs on a scale from Barfy to Zen to Porkchop.

Two days I broke my 'no dairy' rule (I didn't plan on running and had a Barfy run. Tonight I had a Zen run. Let me explain.

Barfy: I don't actually have to barf. A Barfy run is a bad run that often ends early because of stomach troubles. I need to leave a lot of time (ideally about 2 hours) between eating and running. Absolutely no dairy, nothing heavy, etc. I learned my no dairy rule the hard way, having several nasty runs before being tipped off that it's well-known not to not eat dairy before you run. I mentally coined the term jogging up the stairs (the little ones by my house) at the end of a run. The whole run felt terrible. Right at the end, five minutes from home, I puked, just a little. A mouthful would be most accurate. Without meaning to, I swallowed in again almost instantly.

Zen: This one's easy to define, if hard to achieve. I don't have very many of them, which is why I don't care for running. On Zen runs I get the little endorphin kick that attracts people to running. I feel great and feel like I could run for ages. My legs and my lungs eventually stop me, not my stomach.

Porkchop: This one's pretty easy too - I bonk. With Barfy in the back of my head, sometimes I will wait too long after eating and bonk on the run. The term comes from one terrible long run where I majorly bonked a long way from home. It took me almost an hour to walk back. If there had been any convenience stores or even restaurant, I would have stopped in. Instead, I walked wobbly-legged up my four flights of stairs, immediately flung open my fridge, and ate a porkchop with my hands. No plate, no cutlery, shoes still on. Don't worry, it was cooked.

Springtime for Germany by Ben Donald

I bought Springtime For Germany
in a bookstore in Karlsruhe named Thalia. There were two interesting books on Germany I was looking at. The other booked looked a little more serious. I think it was called the Five Germany's I Know, or hopefully something similar enough that I can find it again. I went for the light-hearted one, but now I want to read the other one too.

I enjoyed the book because I seem to be mildly obsessed with all things German right now. The book talks about lots of places that I've just been. It's written by a British man who takes multiple trips to Germany to regain his wanderlust. The book is full of interesting little tidbits of information on Germany and all things Germany. He focuses on the language a lot. Did the you know that there is a seven syllable word in Germany to say 'speed limit'? Geschwindigkeitsbeschraunkung. I'm missing the two little dots over the a. The downside is that the book is quite badly written. I took almost two months to read it, and not because it was difficult or long. At times the author makes little inside jokes that I'm sure are hilarious in you speak German and English (Jayanti?). Maybe that's not what's happening at all. The author also jumps around so much that it's hard to following, but I can't really fault him on that....oh look, an elephant.

2 out of 5.

Happy New Year!

Happy 2008, everybody.

I decided I needed to confirm if my "no dairy before running" rule applies. It does! I still had a pretty decent run considering it fell under my "barfy run" category. My sore ankle help up very well.

I can't believe I'm back at work already tomorrow. The couple of days that I had off for Christmas really flew. I got a few of the projects that I wanted to finished, but lots of them remained untouched. Hopefully the weekend can be counted as overflow.

I have been taking advantage of the time off to take a bit of a break from computers. It's been very nice - sorry for the lack of blogs.

Coming soon: Book review - Springtime from Germany by Ben Donald.