307 Day 2 & Blown Cleats

I enjoyed another day exploring my new neighbourhood today. Well, okay, actually that was just for about an hour. I also had work to do online, I bought a second round of groceries, and had Lotus practice. But wandering the neighbourhood this morning, in search of coffee, was still a lot of fun.

I like this neighbourhood a lot, and I've only been here two days. I think I'm going to like it even more, when I get a chance to see more of it. For example, I've only actually been in High Park once, yesterday, when I cycled through with my second load of stuff. This mornings highlights including locating Falafel World, reputed by Kristin's cousin Sara(h?) to be the best Falafel place in Toronto. We're going to test the theory tomorrow night. I also found a little independent fruit and veggie place (actually two, but I only patronized one) and made another (previously mentioned) trip to the No Frills. I am now the proud owner of shampoo. It's been over a month. (Since I owned shampoo, not since I washed my hair. Ew).

Coffee was a bit of a let down this morning, because all I could find was the Second Choice (I mean Second Cup) and that OTHER Tim's (Timothy's). I tried Timothy's, and it was pretty damn average. Actually, while I was in Ottawa, I had a conversation with a dude who grew up in High Park. Naturally, my first question is "where is the closest Tim Horton's?", and appearently my face just fell when he said that there isn't one. However, good news tonight! We got gas on the way home from practice, and the ESSO, maybe a ten minute walk from here (no more than 15) has a Tim's in it. HURRAY!

In other news, my right cleats blew out FOR SERIOUS at the end of practice tonight. That got this didn't happen in Ottawa. I actually tried to find a place on Bloor, or anywhere near here that would sell me a pair. I even when into a shoe store and asked them if they knew of anywhere. No dice. Now I will have to, which is a bit of a pisser, since cash flow is....well it's not flowing just now. ;) Check out the remains of my cleat: duct tape is not going to cut it this time.

No Borders and Moving Day

No Borders was a pretty sweet tournament. On Saturday, we had good pool play games against Stella and Storm. I mention those games first because they are most relevant to our next tournament, Canadian Nats. We also had a game against a team from Vermont that we kind of walked on, and a bit of a rough start against Quebec City.

The party was 80's themed. Moving on. ;)

Unfortunately the weather in Ottawa was quite rainy, and I heard that it has been like that the past few weeks. Read: we were very very hard on Ottawa's fields, and I know they work hard to keep them in good shape. There were murmurs of the tournament being cancelled before we played a game. Saturday night, the rumours solidified into loose facts: only the top 8 men's and women's teams were going to play on Sunday. All other games were cancelled. This super sucked for PPF, who lost two games in universe points, and as it turned out it cost them their Sunday. Balls.

For Lotus, Sunday first brought Salty (from Halifax), in a quick game that featured ALL HELL BREAKING LOOSE, thanks to the skies. I felt like I had been thrown in a bathtub. At least the rain and the game didn't last that long. ;)

Game two was Stella, who I always enjoy playing, in the semi. The final score was somewhere in the 13-8 ballpark. It actually felt closer than that. It was a battle game for sure, and I was happy that we took it.

Beating Stella earned us a shot at Brute Squad (from Boston) in the final. One very cool thing about the final (not that playing Brute Squad wasn't cool enough on it's own) was that Rogers was taping it. There were cameras on the ground, and cameras raised up for a different view. I'm so stoked to see the footage. I'm not sure when it's played, exactly, and I think it's only in Ontario. Still, I'm hoping for a viewing at some point. This game was a BATTLE. It was tight all the way, but we were never down, and it really felt like we had it. In fact, we were up two breaks and half, and going on O. We lost those two breaks, which is terrible, but that said, I still think we were playing really well. It just happened. But hey, I just remember Lotus playing hard and playing well, which I think is much more the real story than the two lost breaks. Final game result: Brute Squad takes the game in a universe point. What a heart breaker.

Still, overall I was very pleased with the tournament, so what's one point. (I'm still cursing about it, of course, don't get me wrong). I think it sets us up really well for success at Canadian Nationals. Plus, we were missing some very key folks this tournament, and it will be great to have them back at Nationals. Think folks the likes of Alli Walker, Sheri Madigan, and my superstar girlfriend. I'm so stoked for Nats!

The only thing that I didn't love about No Borders was blowing out my right cleat in the first game on Saturday. I spend the rest of the weekend trying to tape it back together, which is much much harder in the mud and rain. I need to try and buy new cleats (@#)*)@!) sometime tomorrow. Oh, I suppose the other negative (again, tiny bear in comparison) was hitting my knuckle on the ground again, as I've done once before. Hmmm, thinking back, I don't think I've said anything about my knuckle yet. About three weeks ago, I hit a tree with my right handlebar while mountain biking and hurt a knuckle on my right hand. I thought it was just bruised and would be fine, but then a week and a half ago, I re-aggravated it at practice. I just brushed it against the ground on a layout, and it freaked. I did the same thing in the final, and it's super unhappy again. Remind me not to shake hands. I spend a couple of hours today going to a walk-in clinic to get it checked out. I'm waiting on x-ray results. Fingers crossed for me? I'm sure it's fine, and the important this is that it's fine throwing.

A quick note on moving day: it probably looked pretty funny. I was at Mere's last night, and started to move my stuff to my new place today. Nat, a Lotus girl, was nice enough to lend me a bike for a couple of weeks, so I biked my stuff over here. This was a bit more of a workout than I REALLY wanted the day after a tournament that hard. ;) I pretty much biking with as much stuff as I could carry and still ride a bike with, twice. It was tiring, but it's great to have a place of my own here.

Off to Ottawa

I'm in Toronto now, and this time for "good". I move into my place when I get back from the tournament in Ottawa this weekend. Actually, when I say "move in", I mean closer to occupy (since a lot of my stuff will be another week), and when I say after the tournament, I'm going to stay with Mere again Sunday night and then move the next day. It will just be easier, plus it will probably be late when we get back. I'm stoked for the frisbee this weekend. I'll let you know how it goes.

Cycle Wandering in Waterloo

On Monday, I set out for a road ride with my camera. I wanted the ride, and I felt like testing my geography and taking some pictures. Here is some of what I explored.

Who knew that there was an area of Waterloo that has train tracks but no colour?

This picture was inspired by my friend Beaty, who used to like to take pictures of red barns. I wonder if she still does. This is actually someone's shed.

More train tracks.

I'm quite pleased about the number of bike lanes in Waterloo.

I found a little forest park. I cycled through just to see it, and because it was called Sugarbush Park, which made me laugh.

This tiny skunk was in Kristin's backyard. I got closer to take a picture, because I am daft. I thought "that squirrel has odd markings. I'm going closer to check it out".

Good kitty. I was on a bridge and he was under me, so no pets. But we chatted.

Urban corn field.

Cottages

This weekend we headed north to spend some time at cottages. And when I say "weekend", I mean "unemployed weekend", a.k.a. Thursday night after practice. Kristin's cottage is south of Barrie on Lake Simcoe. Here are a couple of pictures. I really wanted to bring my camera this weekend, but I wasn't smart enough to bring my memory card too. I did have the emergency back-up card, but it only holds a....handful... of pictures.

Highlights were swimming, riding bikes and getting home made ice cream on the way back (we also got poured on, but the ice cream was more fun ;) ) and seeing THREE baby racoons. They were SO cute, with little tiny masks, tiny tails, and high, waddly little bums.

Mere and her friend Jo took the GO train up to Barrie after work on Friday. Kristin stayed at her cottage to visit with her fam, since they all were there together. I picked up Mere and Jo and we headed North, just past Parry Sound, to Mere's cottage. We swam a lot, ate delicous food, and hung out. I cursed myself for forgetting my book (it's Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert, borrowed from Sheasby - thanks Sheasby!). I'm really enjoying it so far, so I was a knob to forget it. Instead, I borrowed and read in it's glorious entirety, Nancy Drew and the Mystery of the 99 Steps. Dear god. It was hilarious and entertaining and pretty horrible.

I only have 2 pictures from Mere's cottage (and they aren't very good), with my memory card oopsa. But here they are, none the less.

Date Night

Go see Harry Potter 6. It opened yesterday, but of course you knew that already. It's been in your calendar for months.

Regionals / How am I Such a Terrible Blogger Now That I am Unemployed

I was expecting to be back to daily posting now that I have much more time on my hands. I'm really surprised/not surprised at all how busy I am for not having a job. How did I leave a giant gap like that, with an extra 40 hours a week to work with. Then again, I remember saying last summer that I would have been plenty busy enough with just ultimate and life. Last August was a little insane. For once, I'm not over tired all of the fucking time. And now I've surprised myself with a random blogger f-bomb.

Ontario Regionals were this part weekend, in Waterloo, which I never would have guessed would be a convenient location for me. I'm used to Alberta Regionals, which is typically just a seeding game against Edmonton. It's always been fun and good practice, but then so is a scrimmage. Ontario Regionals has 6 women's teams, so we had 6 games over two days. Admittedly, we sort of stopped on the team over 3 of them, but still. The first time we played Stella, it was super close: we won just 8-7 in the pool play game. The next day we had one more pool play game (we won easily) and then the big 1-2 game vs. Stella. It was a super fun game to play, because Stella is a really good team, and I'm happy to report that we took it...actually I don't remember. I'm going to hazard a guess of 13-5. Can anyone confirm or deny?

After Regionals, I got a lift back into Toronto to spend a little time here and let Kristin get some work done. I'm staying with Mere (I'd say thanks via blog, but I know she never reads it), which has been lots of fun so far.

Last night I headed over to see my friend's Jenn and Ryan's new house (congratulations, guys). It's was about an hour walking from here, which was great for it's own sake as well as helping me learn my Toronto geography. I'm working on it. Jenn and Ryan made me a delicious dinner, and we hung out outside, drank wine, and chatted. I also got a chance to see where I will be living, because I move into their basement suite at the start of August. :)

My plan was to stay in Toronto for the week and head north for cottages (Mere's and maybe Kristin's too) for the weekend. It's a long story, but there is a now a plan B. I'll be there today (practice tonight), and then heading back to Waterloo tomorrow for date night / opening night of Harry Potter. As me if I'm STOKED. :)

Here are a couple of shots from Regionals. Photo credit to Mere's buddy.

What number? 1. So idea what the hell I am taking about here, but we had a good laugh about it.

Me.

This shot was worth included because of Mere's hilarious "Awwww" noise when we were looking at these pics last night.

Lotus.

I included this shot because I am very pleased with my right forearm in it. Now if I could just make my calves look like that! I suppose it's good to have aesethic goals? No?

Waterloo Mountain Biking

Mountains, no. Mountain biking, yes. :)

As I mentioned the other day, I now have my bike out east. I only didn't have it for a little over a week, and a busy one at that, but I missed it none the less. The whole riding to work from my parents house deal meant I was riding 6 days a week, so the week off seemed cold turkey.

The trail system here is just a 20-or-so minute ride from Kristin's house. It's called the Hydrocut Trails (or something like that), and is a series of well-loved one-way singletracks in the forest. There is lots of rolling singletrack fun, logs to hop over, little bridges etc. There are two halves to it (I suppose there are two of anything divided into halves), and we've done both in the last two days. Actually, Kristin went again with a friend this morning, but since we are going again tomorrow, I slept in until 9 instead.

My bike took the trek from Calgary like a trooper, with only a slightly bend back rotor as a war wound. After riding with it like that twice (oops, what can I say, I wanted to keep riding, it was fun), I took it in to get fixed. Picture my back wheel NOT freely spinning, ie. riding with a brake on the whole time. It was a good workout at least. Anyway, I was afraid I was going to have to get a new rotor, which I didn't want to do because they are expensive, and I don't have a job right now. Instead, the nice folks at Kings Street Cycles in Waterloo fixed it (bend it back into shape), which they did, along with a few other things, for a Tim Horton's coffee and $5. So, if you find yourself in Waterloo, needed something done on your bike, go there.

Jazz Fest and Sickly

East is still great. This past weekend, Kristin and I were playing at Jazz Fest in Montreal. Unfortunately, that sentence is only acurate for the first two and a bit games on Saturday. I was feeling really sick, sick enough to miss practice on Thursday, and at that point I caved. So 'blerg' comes to mind, because I really hate being sick and felt pretty gross. But on the other hand, Kristin got to play, the team was fun, and Montreal was great. You know a city is fun when you feeling disgusting and are still having a good time.

Two quick notes on Montreal:

1. There were loads of opportunities to eat really amazing food.
2. I really need to learn to speak french.

In other news, by bike arrived today via Greyhound. Kristin's cousin was nice enough to drive me to the Greyhound, and I assembled it there and cycled home. I'm excited to have it here. I was only without if for a little over a week, and a really busy one at that, but I have been doing a lot of riding and I really missed it. Today's ride was only 16 or 17 k because I'm feeling human but not yet completely recovered. But it was great to ride, and I'm stoked to have it. :)