Phyllis Grows in the Dark

Phyllis is my amaryllis. I inherited her at work when I coworker quit. At that point, she was in bulb form, and stayed that way for about 6 months. I thought owning an amaryllis was about as much fun as having a pet clove of garlic. A pet clove of garlic that you never take out of the dark. Phyllis bloomed last year, and it was pretty spectacular after the garlic thing - see picture. After she bloomed, Phyllis grew leaves and stayed that way for about 5 months. This was about as much fun as having a house plant, but that can be a lot of fun when you have a day job. My horticultural advisor told me the leaves would eventually die back, and Phyllis would revert back to the pet clove of garlic. All of this happened as expected, so a few months ago, Phyllis got removed from dirt and put in a brown envelope in my desk. She was supposed to stay that way for a few months - I guess it's rare for them to bloom more than one year. Last Monday, after having opened and closed that drawer about 50 times, I finally noticed: Phyllis had grown a flower stalk, in my desk, in the dark, with no soil (It was a Jurassic Park moment - you remember: life will find a way. Classic) . It was this kind of sickly pale colour (picture my legs right now) with a glow in the dark tinge (you know, kind of yellowy?). The stalk was growing sideways, so that it could reach the space at the back of my desk. This is one week later, and she is green, with one of those giant lilly-like flowers, with two more on the way. Each flower is about the size of my hand if I stretch out my fingers the whole way. Damn Phyllis. 2008 pic to follow tomorrow.

ps. Happy Birthday* Kir Hogan! *April 28 - I was off by a day on the blog.

German and Frisbee Line Up

I decided to study a little German after I got home from frisbee tonight. The first sentance I opened my book too was, "Ich laufe schnell" - I run fast. Awesome. After posting that I never seem to blog and study in the same night, I do a blog about what I've just studied. I'm a hyprocrite.

Tartan is Visiting His Other People

Tartan went to visit his other people tonight. I miss him already! Abby did look pretty stoked to see him, which definitely helps. If this picture looks familiar, it's because I posted a really similar one a while ago, but that one was colour. Shut up.

I noticed the other day that I never seen to have time to blog and study German. If I don't post, it's probably because I studied that night. If I post a lot, please leave me a comment encouraging me to study :)

I got out a bit on my bike yesterday. Here, a 'bit' refers to long enough to make my legs a tired and my ass make me never want to ride again.

Son of a Witch and the Long Emergency

Did you think I decided to curb my swearing? No dice. I thought I would change the subject a little bit. That said, thanks to everyone who has sent emails, commented etc - I may respond something short and lame, but I really appreciate all the nice things that have been said.


I recently read two books that I would highly recommend, Son Of A Witch
by Gregory Maguire and The Long Emergency
by Howard James Kunstler.

In case you were wondering if the name Kunstler makes me laugh at all, here is a picture that I took in Germany.

Son of a Witch is the sequel to another book I really enjoyed, Wicked: the Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West. I read it on my Grand Canyon trip. It's really weird, but in a good way. I enjoyed the concept of taking a story so well know and building on it. Gregory Maguire does an amazing job and bringing Oz and the Witch to life. Son of a Witch starts at the death of the Wicked Witch of the West and follows Liir, who suspects he may be the son of the witch. One aspect of the world of Oz that I really enjoyed in these books in the animals and the Animals. Capital A Animals talk, and little a animals don't (or they baa and moo). So sometimes the characters have to try speaking to animals to see if they are talking to a goat or a Goat. If you would like to borrow either Son of a Witch or Wicked, I bought them both.

I went to a talk at UofC by James Howard Kunstler. He was a really interesting and very animated speaker. He has a few books, but his talk was specifically on the Long Emergency. I took it out from the library and it was well worth the read. The book is a about what might happen as the world runs out of oil and gas. He covers quite a broad range of topics, from resource wars to alternative fuels to gas prices to suburbs to the hydrocarbons that it takes to make wind farms. I read two relevant articles on cbc.ca today: one on predicted 2012 gas prices and one on the world's food shortage (and rice prices today). For some reason, I didn't find this book depressing, as some doomsday environmental books can be. You won't regret reading it!

I am Shit

Just kidding. I thought this title would be funny considering the "I am the shit" blog that I did earlier. I was also kidding then....hmmm, does anyone see a pattern here?

Yesterday was a bit of a rough day. I got the news that I didn't make the worlds team. Disappointing, for sure. I'm really glad to have gained the experience of the tryout. Also, it was nice to see that the people who ended up making the team were seriously good! Congrats to Viv for making the team (the only Alberta girl).

I decided to "celebrate" by getting blisteringly drunk. Oopsa. I decided to have a glass of wine and watch the hockey game, and it just sort of worked out that way. Clearly my 29-years-wise has not taught me that if you get really drunk on a Sunday night, you will have a hangover that could kill a rhino at work the next day.

This should put it in perspective for you: I puked 12 times. 12.

Thanks to everyone who was routing for me, keeping their figures crossed, etc. All of the emails, texts etc were totally appreciated.

Oh yes, I nearly forgot: too add insult to injury, I accidentlly dropped my iPod in about a foot of water in my washer yesterday. There is a reason they don't call it an iSwim.

San Fransisco

San Fransisco was a cool city. I really liked it. It seemed progressive, diverse, classy and fun, and I was only there for a day and a half.

I arrived on the Sunday in the early evening, and started by wandering a bit around the Mission. It was a gritty yet artsy neighbourhood. One of the first things I saw when I got out of the BART station was a giant rainbow flag flying in the street. Very cool. I wandered around for a while, but honestly, I was feeling a little beat up after the tournament, and I just wanted to go to bed. My feet hurt, I was still carrying my stuff, and I hadn't washed my hair yet after playing 7 games of ultimate.

The next day, I felt refreshed and ready to go. I took BART into the core, and wandered around the city all day. i walked everywere. In the end I walked for about 5 hours, which worked the lactic acid out of my legs nicely (but made my feet feel like ass). I saw a lot of the waterfront, plus a lot of the planned torch route. I missed the Olympic torch in San Fran by just one day! That said, I probably wouldn't have actually seen it is I had still been there, because the last-minute route switch thwarted protesters and fans alike!

There were Free Tibet posters and signs all over San Fran while I was there. A group of people scaled the Golden Gate Bridge that day and attached two giant :'Free Tibet' banners. I didn't know about it under the next day, reading a newspaper in the airport. (I love doing this, by the way - reading the local newspaper whereever I travel). Here are some of the pictures that I took. In this first one of the Golden Gate Bridge, I can't tell if you can see the banners, or it is just a paraglider or something. I guess the banners took several hours to get down. All four people who put them up were arrested.

At the end of my day in San Fran, I went clothes shopping at REI. I got two new sweaters, a new belt, and a new pair of short pants. I'm still pretty stoked about all of my purchases.

More to come on BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit), but in another post.

ps. CONGRATULATIONS to Mel, Mike and Lucy Wrigglesworth on the birth of Oscar James Wrigglesworth.

The Charmin Bears Stoop to a New Low

I hate the Charmin Bears. They are creepy. Bears don't use toilet paper. All of the commercials they are in are really weird.

In one of the old commercials, a bear hands toilet paper as a second bear, the first bear just finished taking a dump under a tree. The second bear takes the toilet paper and sits in the exact same spot the first bear just came from. GROSS!

In the new commercial, two bears are playing football. When the little bear begins to snap the ball back to the quarterbear, it notices toilet paper all over the ass of the little bear. GROSS!

On a much happier note:

A big happy birthday to Toby today! Herzlichen Gluckwunsch!

(And belated, at least in terms of blog props to Dylan, Sheasby and Nat. They turned the big 2-9, the big 2 and the big 4-0, not necessarily in that order).

Sexually Explicit Links

I've been wanted to do a blog about my couple of days in San Fransisco, but I haven't had time yet. I tried to write a bit while I was still there, but the hotel's computer wouldn't let me access my own blog.

It said it has sexually explicit links!

Seriously, I blog about swans and somebody else's cat. WTF. Perhaps the words "plastic boyfriend"?

Team Canada Tryout in Davis

The tournament this weekend went well. The weather in California was gorgeous for ultimate this time of year. Saturday was sunny, 20+ degrees, and a little windy. I'm especially glad the weather was good because we played 5 games.

A few people have asked why I was trying out for Team Canada in California. Fury (from the Bay Area) is team USA this year, so it was a great opportunity for the two teams to meet. Traffic and Fury were both using the tournament to try out players. Both teams split into 2 squads. There are many Vancouver players trying out, plus 10 'out of region' players from across Canada.

Overall, I was happy with how I played. I did have one really stupid mistake (a drop) in the last game of the day on Saturday, which happened to be the showcase game (Traffic and Fury each combined their respective two halfs for this game). It was really hard, I'm still pissed about it, but think of how pissed I'll be if I got myself cut that way. That said, I'm not looking at it that way. It was just one mistake, and I was proud of myself for keeping my head up and handling well when I got back on the field. I'm not going to lie, it was hard to do after making the mistake.

I got fouled in the Fury pool play game and jammed my thumb. It's okay though, because it wasn't too bad, plus it was only Larry.

My team came 4th in the tournament, loosing the 3-4 game to one of the two Fury teams. Unfortunately, I missed all but one point of this game because of early flights. My flight wasn't until Tuesday, but teammates had to get back and I was the only driver on the way home. The point I did get to play was very exciting. It was an upwind point against Fury's zone, which fires me up. We scored! It was one of my favorite points of the tournament.

The other half of Traffic did very well, coming second in the tourney, losing the other half of Fury.

I'll find out if I make the team by the 19th, and I'm having a hard time thinking about much else.

In other sports news, Canada women's soccer qualified for the Olympics tonight. Very cool. In Calgary sports news, the Flames won 3-2 in there first playoff game against the Sharks. Go Flames go!

New Favorite German Word

I learned a new German word tonight, and I'm going to make it my new favorite: geklopft. I'll use it in an example for you:

"How did the test go?"
"aweful! I geklopft."

Okay, I think it actually means 'knocked'. Say it a few times out loud - what fun. Better yet, shout it from a rooftop: GEKLOPFT!