Over the years, I've been a fan of the television shows offered by Chuck Lorre Productions; Dharma & Greg, Grace Under Fire, Two and a Half Men. Anyway, if you've ever sat through the credits, you'll have noticed a vanity card that flashes up at the end.

Vanity cards are a television institution. The first I was ever aware of was the animated script of "Desilu" that appeared at the end of I Love Lucy. Then there was Mary Tyler Moore's poke at the MGM lion - a mewing kitten and it's variations...dribbling an animated basketball (The White Shadow), wearing a Sherlock Holmes deerstalker cap and pipe (Remington Steele), in surgical scrubs (St. Elsewhere) and with Bob Newhart's voice saying "meow" (Newhart).
Other vanity cards you might recognize include "Good night Mr. Walters" (Taxi), "Sit, Ubu, Sit. Good dog"( Family Ties, Spin City), Bad Robot (Lost, Alias) and the graphic of a Boeing 707's nose with the title: "Braniff: Believe It! (South Park).
Anyway, Chuck Lorre's vanity cards are frustrating because they're impossible to read. Barely legible at the top is " Chuck Lorre Productions" followed by a large . body of small text. I've seen them for years but initially the only way to read them would be to videotape the show and freeze-frame the card. Things have changed with today's technology though and since it's pretty slow at work,I googled his name and found a website ( chucklorre.com ) that houses the entire collection.

So, here's what viewers who taped the first episode of Dharma & Greg would have seen;

CHUCK LORRE PRODUCTIONS
Thank you for videotaping "Dharma & Greg" and freeze-framing on my vanity card. I'd like to take this opportunity to share with you some of my personal beliefs. I believe that everyone thinks they can write. This is not true. It is true, however, that everyone can direct. I believe that the Laws of Karma do not apply to show business, where good things happen to bad people on a fairly regular basis. I believe that what doesn't kill us makes us bitter. I believe that the obsessive worship of movie, TV and sports figures is less likely to produce spiritual gain than praying to Thor. I believe that Larry was a vastly underrated Stooge, without whom Moe and Curly could not conform to the comedy law of three (thanks, Lee). I believe my kids are secretly proud of me. I believe that if you can't find anything nice to say about people whom you've helped to make wildly successful and then they stabbed you in the back, then don't say anything at all. I believe I have a great dog, maybe the greatest dog in the whole wide world, yes, he is! I believe that beer is a gateway drug that leads, inevitably, to vodka and somebody oughta do something about it. I believe that when ABC reads this, I'm gonna be in biiiig trouble. I believe that Tina Turner's "River Deep, Mountain High", is the greatest rock song ever recorded. Once again, thanks for watching "Dharma & Greg". Please be sure to tune in again to this vanity card for more of my personal beliefs.

Once he ran out of personal philosophies he told personal stories, inside jokes, campaigned for himself to replace Michael Eisner as Chairman of Disney and complained about how hard it was to write a new vanity card each week. But he kept writing them. Here are a couple more examples;

CHUCK LORRE PRODUCTIONS, #182
Back when I was writing and producing Dharma and Greg, the only way to read my cards was to record each episode on a VCR and hit the "pause" button. This was not an easy task. The image wobbled like crazy making the tiny words of my weekly tomes very hard to see. Then it hit me. What about building a device that records video images digitally? Wouldn't this allow for a much more precise "pause" function? I took my little notion to an impoverished computer whiz by the name of Schlomo Tivowitz. At the time of our meeting Schlomo was feverishly trying to invent an improved version of the George Foreman Grill. Schlomo's grill would contain a hard drive that remembered all the details of your last barbecue, as well as an address book. I didn't really see the point of it, but, not being a tech guy, I held my tongue and presented him with my idea. I will never forget his reaction. With hamburger-flecked spittle flying from his blubbery lips, he laughed, called me some very unkind names and demanded that I leave his mother's basement immediately. My hopes dashed, I went back to work on Dharma and forgot about my silly idea. Well, I'm sure you can figure out what happened next. The fact that you're reading this card right now should tell you. Thankfully, it's not in my nature to be bitter. But there are times when I feel a little used -- usually when I've forgotten how to effectively grill a fatty piece of chicken.

and

CHUCK LORRE PRODUCTIONS, #172
This week, as a little bonus for all my loyal vanity card readers, I thought I'd give an inside look into the making of Two and a Half Men by telling you about a joke CBS insisted we cut from the final scene in tonight's show. The scene, as I'm sure you remember, involved Charlie finding Alan, post-coital, tied to his bed, and wearing nothing but a bustier and red nylons. The offending line in the scene was what we in the comedy biz refer to as a "callback" since it references a line that was said earlier in the episode (in this case two lines, the first being when Alan's date implies that she hopes to spend the night with him by coyly saying "I brought a toothbrush with me," and the second, when Alan tells Charlie that "that lady in there brought a toothbrush with her because I have a penis and a job!"). Now before I tell you the joke which was cut, it's important to point out that I'm not doing this to make a point about censorship. In this particular case we never felt unfairly edited. The excised joke was, without question, in terrible taste and we didn't even try to defend it. But we did think it was funny. In any case, here it is: In the original, uncensored final scene, Charlie nonchalantly exits the bedroom without untying his hapless brother. Alan reacts with astonishment and calls out, "Charlie?... Charlie?! This isn't funny! Come back!... At least take out the toothbrush!" When we shot this version our studio audience laughed loud and long. Our CBS censor's head exploded, injuring several writers standing nearby.

Whether you're just wasting time or, like me, have always wondered what they say, it's well worth the read.

so. Christmas was pretty awful this year. I'm glad it's over. That's all I'm going to say about that.

After a week of actually cooking meals for myself (eg egg & sausage for breakfast, meat + two veg for dinner) I've decided that I must be a vegetarian by nature. A second turkey dinner last night seemed to put the cap on my life as a carnivore. I can feel myself sweating animal fat out during training. On the plus side (and size), it's keeping my cheeks chubby which cuts down on wrinkles. I'm going to make a t-shirt, "My fountain of Youth contains trans fats".
Any of my clothes that were within a 50 ft radius of the kitchen smell like roasting turkey, onion and herbs. That's not a bad smell when you haven't eaten for hours and are just arriving home but not something I want to face every time I put my coat on. And it didn't help that I had to pick through the carcass after boiling it for soup. Yep. Leek and potato soup is my new favourite.
What? Turkey stock is the best soup base? Ugh...

It's so bizarre to be finished training by 8:30 on Saturday morning. I come home and all I want to do is lounge in front of a fire reading a book and sipping my Starbuck's misto. I get this twinge of guilt over all the things I need to get done and then realize it's 8:45am! Nothing's open yet so I can do whatever the hell I want...

Yeaaahhh, this is pretty much what we heard from everyone before we went to Australia...

It turns out the problem was my SI. Kara was able to fix me up (she's at Nancy's clinic now) and the worst of the pain is gone. The rest will go with time and exercise. It never ceases to amaze me how quickly and efficiently our bodies deal with chronic pain.
The thing about going to Nancy's clinic (Physical Edge in Oakville) is you're basically hanging out with paddlers so it's not really like a medical appointment. Plus there are always new pics on the wall of fame. Most are practitioners at the clinic but I always run into other paddlers seeking treatment. Last night it was Dray. He had landed funny while playing basketball - as he described it, his knee just kind of popped out and then back into the socket - so Karen and Kara taped him up and sent him home with a splint for sleeping. I've go that residual tenderness from having an area worked on but the added bonus (for me anyway) is that Kara trains with us at Revolution and can help modify our circuit so I don't do anything stupid. Thanks Kara!

I got most of my gift shopping done yesterday and I am very happy about that!
Tonight I have an appointment to have that chronic pain in my tailbone dealt with. It's funny how, if you think pain is associated with age or phsyiognomy, you just deal with it and push through it. As soon as I found out that it is indeed possible for your tailbone to be rotated or compressed without some kind of jarring impact, I became a real lightweight. I notice the pain constantly and let myself slack off if I feel pain during a workout. However, I'm very excited at the possiblity that some off the stuff that has challenged me in the year+ since I first noticed this problem will disappear. Paddle pool and spin class in particular have been incredibly uncomfortable.

Crazy weather this weekend. I had to drive out to Scarborough on Saturday night and it was a nightmare. However, I had promised my Dad I'd come for a visit and Gary and Cheryl were having their end of the year party so it wasn't a wasted night.
The weather adn traffic had thinned out the guest list but with this group it doesn't matter - it's always a good time. I sat with Jackie, Blake and Sydney. It was great to catch up but everyone had an eye on the storm that was steadily escalating outside the window. I stayed for an hour and then headed home.

Sunday morning was even better - a ton of snow had fallen overnight and continued for most of the day. These are the times I'm glad for 4 wheel drive. I finished shovelling the driveway and took a short drive to Starbucks and Blockbuster. Now I was ready to be snowed in!

I could hear the waves crashing from my house this morning, so after practice I walked down to the beach at the end of my street. There was a bit of a snowstorm going on but nothing like the blizzard they forecast for us. It's hard to tell in the picture how cold and brutal the wind is but I was frozen once I left the shelter of the marsh trail.

A great cover...

I know...lazy. Just trying to keep things fresh.

Flintstone Car gets pulled over by Toronto cops;
Toronto Artist, Michel de Broin created this pedal-powered car? Here's the story from LiveLeak.com:
This was recorded 26 October 2007 in downtown Toronto, Canada. Michel de Broin, an artist, had totally stripped down a 1986 Buick Regal and outfitted it with 4 independent pedal and gear mechanisms. This was part of 'art' piece being exhibited at the Mercer Union Gallery (24 October - 8 December).Anyway, the police noticed the car's test drive and thought to pull it over and check it out. No tasers were employed, but it did cost the occupants an expensive towing charge.

Chrissy visits the Australia Zoo on Steve Irwin Day (nov. 15)

I am so dumb. I had to get a root canal today and broke the cardinal rule of "don't eat while your mouth is still frozen". My appointment was for 1:00pm and I hadn't eaten lunch. By the time I got out of there at 3:45, I was STARVING. Around 5:00pm I figured I was safe and ordered sushi. At some point, I chomped into my anaesthetized lip while eating gyoza, only realizing it when my lip swelled. Great. So not only do I look like a stroke victim, I've got a fat lip which is REALLY going to hurt when the freezing wears off.
Anyway, that's not my reason for posting today. I know lots of people are wondering how Chrissy's doing in Australia. For those who may not know, she stayed there after the world championships and has been travelling around making new friends, grabbing odd-jobs and generally having the time of her life!

She had a good start since Clem's cousin, Candice, who we partied with after worlds, is going to uni in Sydney.Even before the other girls had left for home, Chrissy had taken a job on the Solway Lass. She washed a lot of dishes and polished a lot of brass but she also made a ton of new friends. I can't wait to hear her stories since she says the captain was a seaman in the truest sense of the word with tons of sailing and pirate stories.

It was a beautiful day here so I decided to spend it in Kensington Market. I wasn't shopping for anything specific but that's the beauty of the market - you might not know you were looking for something until you see it.
I spent a couple of hours down there and came away with some ideas for Christmas gifts as well as some pots & pans which I needed to replace the various that have lost handles and their teflon coating.
I also picked up fruit and some rice snacks while fortifying myself with a latte and red bean dumpling.

Late in the afternoon I headed home and decided to pick up my dinner at Burrito Boys in PC. Walking over from the canoe club I took some shots of the shoreline and the low water levels.
A little Google research when I got home turned up the following - Lake Ontario is 8 inches below average and 17 inches below last year's levels. One report states that a Level 2 low water condition has been declared but the only defining information provided with this is that a Level 3 condition, which has never been issued in Ontario, would mean mandatory water conservation measures. As much as I don't like the idea of being buried all winter, I really hope we get lots of snow!

It's time for someone to cover this - Crosby, Stills & Nash's Suite: Judy Blue Eyes. I'm thinking the White Stripes could do it justice.
Stephen Stills wrote this about his then-girlfriend, folk singer Judy Collins. Stills said: "It started out as a long narrative poem about my relationship with Judy Collins. It poured out of me over many months and filled several notebooks. I had a hell of a time getting the music to fit. I was left with all these pieces of song and I said, 'Let's sing them together and call it a suite,' because they were all about the same thing and they led up to the same point."
The last verse is sung in Spanish. Stephen Stills didn't want it easily understood since it had little to do with the theme of the song. He just put it in because the song had gone on forever and needed to be wrapped up somehow. translation:
"How nice it would be to take you to Cuba, The queen of the Caribbean Sea. I only want to visit you there. And how sad that I can't, damn!"

You know how gas stations and convenience stores have a sign that you must be 16 years (or is 18) of age or older to purchase cigarettes? Shouldn't there be a similar sign behind the counter at Guess stores or other retail outlets - You must be 32 years old or younger to purchase this mini-skirt or skin-tight satin pants or Skechers...

I'm not sure what's going on but I'm in full-on spring cleaning mode. It could be a number of things;

1) my trip to Australia messed with my circannual rhythms and fall is spring
2) I'm finally getting over that debilitating, post-divorce stress syndrome or
3) I have no money, it's Saturday night and this is some kind of cheap entertainment

It's probably a combination of all three but whatever it is explains the overwhelming drive towards change (eg note the new hairstyle). Right now I'm cleaning out the pantry and clearly it's time. There are so many memories and emotions attached to the items I'm finding and it's not right that a person should get sentimental over dry-goods.

There's a tin of duck pate that Ryan brought home from his exchange trip to France in 1995. It was the first time he'd ever left the continent. He was 15 or 16 and and it was a more painful severing of the umbilical chord than the literal event. The expiry date on the tin is 1999. I don't know why I didn't eat it and can't say for sure why I packed and moved it in 2000. Maybe it was proof that he could leave home and return safe. And it's a good thing I got used to it because he'd caught the travel bug and never stayed home for long after that, leaving for Costa Rica within 18 months, university in New Brunswick for 4 years after that and tree planting in B.C. in between times. I never worried about him after that first trip to Vaux les St. Claude.

I am currently emptying assorted canned goods left behind by generous, or were they just too lazy to pack their food, former roommates. Ugh, maple syrup beans?? Who would put that in their body?

Then there are the left-overs from various fads; my Celestial Seasonings Tea phase (aka the great de-caffeination of 2001) and my "Just-say-no-to-gluten" diet, evidenced by half-used packs of rice flour spaghetti and Spelt pancake mix... and what's this...Chupa Chups? Ice wine? Cooking sherry? Oh hey! Crown Royal in the original purple felt bag. How long has that been up there? Thank goodness whiskey never goes bad.

Anyway, you get the idea. The clean-up is cathartic. It has reminded me that I've changed a LOT in the past few years. Regardless of whether it's for the better, it indicates movement forward and that's never a bad thing.

Once the out-of-date items have been disposed of, the actual amount of stuff that's MINE, bought by ME within the last 6 months will fit on one shelf. That leaves 5 big empty shelves to be filled. Just imagine what kind of a time-capsule I'll create in the next decade!

I got most of my hair cut off....and I'm so pleased with the results! (sorry about the in-your-face face. Just wanted to show off the new do)



I love my stylist, Victor. I've been going to him since I was 26 and he's never given me a bad cut, bad colour or bad advice. I've been with Victor longer than I was with either of my husbands, in fact, longer than both of my marriages combined. Okay, TMI but the point is we're good friends and know more about each other than many couples. Do most women have such long-term relationships with their stylists?
I guess it helps that we have a lot in common; our sons are about the same age and of similar temperament, we take any opportunity to travel and we both have problems with the men in our lives. I just happened to have an appointment with him the week my dog died and we consoled each other because his dog had died the same day. Don't ask me why but it was comforting somehow - it's one of those situations when you can't be empathetic unless you're actually going through it.
For awhile during the `90s his salon was on the ground floor of one of the best plastic surgery clinics in Toronto and I got lots of dirt on which celebrities had work done, often encountering them in the shared waiting room. All I can say is don't believe infommercials where a certain local celebrity claims, "this face cream has kept me looking young without plastic surgery!" and don't get me started on a particular former mayor.
Anyway, besides all of his great character traits, he's one of the city's best colourists and an amazing stylist. Last night I took in People magazine, pointed to a photo of Jody Foster and said, "That style." Then pulled a photo of Drew Barrymore from a magazine in the waiting area for the colour. He executed it perfectly while we chatted about our current relationships. Better than therapy! LOVE Victor!

The Dalai Lama was in Toronto on October 31st so I went to hear him speak at Skydome (Rogers Centre). I had no real reason other than just wanting to see this personality who has loomed large for our generation. I'm so glad I went - he's a very engaging speaker!

He came out on stage wearing one of those Madonna wrap-around-the-head microphones, greeted the crowd of 16,000 then proceeded to take off his shoes and sit lotus-style on the couch provided. He rambled conversationally for awhile before even pretending to address the topic, "The Art of Happiness". He's a giggler and has those crinkly eyes which make him seem like your favourite uncle or a gnome or whatever. This isn't disrespectful, I think it's part of his global appeal. In fact, at one point I had an overwhelming sense that I was watching Yoda. The parallels between the two are many and so obvious that I'm not the first person to posit this comparison; the worldly-naiive wisdom, the broken english, the unexpected giggle, "do or do not, there is no try". Go ahead and Google 'Dalai Lama & Yoda'. It pulls up roughly 50,000 hits.

He addressed many aspects of happiness but in fact, his talk referred more often to a global emotion as opposed to the personal. One buddhist expressed surprise that the Dalai Lama had chosen this topic because, as he stated in an email read to the crowd, "happiness is never discussed in the texts or teachings of Buddha, only the absence of suffering." The DL waved this away as semantics and would not be drawn into an academic discussion of Buddha's intent. Having grown up in a Christian culture where arguing the minutae of a multi-translated, second-guessed text is considered dinner conversation, this was incredibly refreshing.

His message was pretty straight-forward and familiar. Be tolerant, be kind and be who you are. He advised that while there's nothing wrong with educating yourself in the various religions & teachings of prophets, it's important to stay with the religion in which you were raised. He told a funny story about a buddhist friend who moved to America and after several years there told the DL that he was converting to Christianity. "But don't worry," he said, apparently oblivious to the fact Christians don't believe in reincarnation, " I'll be a Buddhist in my next life."

Anyway, as I said he's an interesting speaker and there's a directness about him that you don't usually find in such a public figure. I'd definitely recommend going to see him if you ever get the opportunity. At the end , I was so relaxed it was like I'd had a massage. I stood in the middle of the field, waiting for the floor and exit aisles to clear when I suddenly realized that I was standing IN THE MIDDLE OF SKYDOME FIELD!! I had to text my son and say, "Hey, guess where I am!".

Actually, that's not the first time I've stood on the field at Skydome - except the last time it was after midnight during the '93 World Series, all the lights were off and I was playing baseball.

A group of us had rented one of the Skydome hotel rooms to watch game two of the series. It was one of the two-level rooms with one full wall of windows overlooking the field (there was actually an incident a few weeks before this where two people "forgot" to close the drapes and were caught on camera having sex during a game). Anyway, late that night we decided to head out to a bar. We jumped in the elevator intending to get off at the lobby but when the doors opened, we were looking at the Skydome field. Somehow we'd gotten down to field level and we weren't about to pass up the opportunity.

In fact, we'd actually come prepared on the off-chance that something like this might happen. No kidding. One of the guys hiked back up to our room to grab the gloves and balls we'd brought "just in case" and we started to play some baseball. It was very cool. We threw the ball around and took photos for about 15-20 minutes before security came down and rounded us up. The security guys pretended to be pissed but they weren't. As soon as they realized we weren't going to cause any problems they relaxed and asked us to follow them back up to the lobby. One of them told us it was their fault for forgetting to lock down field access on the elevator panel. Ah, such a great memory! I'll have to find the pictures of that.

Sydney Hara

Born October 7th, at 6:53am

6 lbs and 10 oz

I finally got a chance to meet Jackie and Blake's little girl, Sydney. Isn't she beautiful?! And it was so nice to just hang out with the family for an evening. We ordered dinner in from Spring Rolls and since Sydney is such an easy-going baby, we had a chance to catch up on things. She is seriously the MOST relaxed baby I have ever seen - no surprise considering who her parents are (but I am starting to think this is a phenomenon common to paddler babies). These two were born to be parents and the transition from metro-sophisticates to Mom & Dad appears to have been effortless (well, except for about 34 hours of labour). Nice work, you two!

This is CocoRosie. I really like their music. I think. Listen to the whole song before you judge. The duo was formed by sisters Sierra Rose Casady ("Rosie") and Bianca Leilani Casady ("Coco") in 2003. Their music is strangely beautiful, compelling...and for some reason I can only write in short, incomplete sentences when listening. Anyway, the link above gives their WIKI bio which provides some insight into why their music is so different. It's an interesting life they've lived to this point...

The very first sketch from the very first SNL show in 1975. Michael O'Donoghue, seen here playing across from Belushi, died on this date in 1994.
On a side note, I watched SNL last weekend and noticed they no longer say "Live from New York, it's Saturday night!". However, I never watch SNL anymore so this could have happened a long time ago.

For those who don't have facebook, I've added the Hallowe'en photos of the babies...
Charlie and Benjamin are dressed up as the cutest babies in Port Credit and Vancouver.

I don't know about yours but this is what happens to MY Coke before it comes down the chute!

One of the things to do when on holidays, sitting in airports, lying on a beach or waiting for friends at a coffee shop, is to read horoscopes. It passes the time and even though they're predictable, just for that split second you get a thrill out of thinking that a new love/job/apartment is just around the corner. Generally though, the prediction is instantly forgotten. While in Hawaii, I was so charmed by the one I found in the Honolulu paper that I tore it out and stuck it in my wallet, where I forgot about it until tonight...

1974 - Arnold on The Dating Game...

Paddling is huge on the east coast. When we're out there no one ever says "so you're a rower?". Hell, in the Dartmouth Valumart one whole wall is a mural dedicated to paddlers and paddling. No surprise then, that the Dartmouth paper put women canoers on the front page. The girls from Banook, Senobe & Orenda encourage others to stick with canoe in spite of the limited opportunites for international competition.

Gender inequality on the water
Female canoeists say they won't switch to kayak: 'We're not going anywhere'

KATE WATSON - THE WEEKLY NEWS
The Dartmouth Cole Harbour Weekly News

Most people don't give a lot of thought to gender equity. In this enlightened day and age, it's taken for granted that males and females deserve equal opportunities in education, in the workforce and in sport.

That's probably why a lot of people are surprised to learn that there is a great and gaping gender divide for athletes who choose to compete in the sport of sprint-canoe racing.

Although the female canoeists train as long and as hard as their male counterparts, it's futile for them to dream of winning medals at the Olympics or even at the World Championships, because there are no women's canoe events at the upper levels of the sport.

Maybe you're thinking, "Well, what about Karen Furneaux? She's been to the Olympics, hasn't she?"

This common question reveals the other great disparity within the paddling world. Women kayakers, of which Karen Furneaux is one, can compete in all the same competitions - though not in all the same distances - as the men.

This raises the question of why a young girl with athletic talent and the hopes of high-level competition would decide to take up the canoe rather than the kayak.

Sixteen-year-old Adrienne Keene from Senobe Aquatic Club on Lake Banook in Dartmouth is a successful competitive canoeist. She says she made the decision to focus on canoe because she found it more challenging and exciting than kayak.

"I love the fact that there's so much technique involved and that you can always improve. You're never going to be perfect."

Jenna Marks, 17, of Banook is a high-level athlete. She was a member of the Canadian Canoe Team at the Lake Placid Invitational this past summer, bringing home medals in all of her four events.

"My brother and my sister were canoers, so I was like five or six when I knew I wanted to be a canoeist," she says. "Even though my parents thought I should switch to kayak because I could go further, I said, 'I don't care, I just want to do something that I love, in spite of the fact that not everybody agrees with it.'"

Jeff Houser, Atlantic Regional High Performance coach for Canoe Kayak Canada, says it is a common misconception that athletes who choose canoe would be just as happy and successful doing kayak.

"Some people feel that offering canoe would lessen the field of athletes for kayak, which is an international discipline," he explains. "I personally think this is not the case, as that would assume athletes who paddle canoe would paddle kayak. It's different and the paddlers are different. The sports share many similarities, but are fundamentally different in the biomechanics of execution. Would hockey players all switch to lacrosse or vice versa if their respective sports were unavailable to them?"

There are many reasons that sprint canoe has not become popular on an international level. Thankfully, we've come a long way from the days when it was argued that women who paddled in sprint canoe were at risk of damaging their reproductive systems. Now, the resistance to adding it to international events has more to do with the paradox of funding in sport.

For many countries, including the United States, sport funding is 100 per cent tied to the potential to go to the Olympics. This creates a chicken-and-egg situation, where there's a lack of resources to attract and sustain female canoers, and without the athletes, there's no reason to push for the inclusion of women's canoe in the Olympic Games.

"If women's canoe were an Olympic event, you'd see a lot of other countries jump on board," says Houser. "But with so many countries tied to their Olympic funding in terms of what they can do in development, they just can't afford to add canoe."

For a women's event to become an Olympic sport it must be practiced by at least 40 countries on three different continents. While that goal may be a long way off, Canada has been making steady but slow progress in promoting the sport to other countries.

"Efforts to promote women's canoe have included trips to Russia and Europe," says Graham Barton, high- performance director of Canoe Kayak Canada. "It was an exhibition event at the 2003 World Championships and has been included on the race card at the Pan Am Championships. And, at the very least, we have an opportunity to include them as an exhibition event at the 2009 Senior World Championships being held in Dartmouth."

Though there is some small hope for the future, right now the disparity of opportunity between male and female canoeists and between female kayakers and canoeists means that women in canoe are not always taken seriously.

Maria Halavrezos, 16, of Senobe has been dedicated to canoe since she was 11. She was also a medal-winning member of the Canadian Team at Lake Placid this year.

"For me, the thing that hurts the most is the lack of respect. I would love to see women's canoe get the respect that it deserves, even if it never makes it to the Olympics," she says. "It seems that even though we train with the boys, have the same coaches as the boys, have the same practices as the boys, people still look at us differently. Some look down their noses at us and call us WICS."

"WIC" stands only for Woman in Canoe, but it has come to be used as a disparaging term.

Halavrezos sounds resigned when she says, "When you make a team, you have to get your mind around the fact that there are going to be people who are going to mutter 'WIC' under their breath when you walk by."

"Yeah, they're like, 'Why are you here?'" adds Marks.

One answer to that question seems to be because these young women feel a responsibility to change things for the girls that come after them.

"When I race canoe, I think I'm doing something that is actually good. I'm not just winning or getting medals," says Marks. "I'm doing something that will affect other people so that younger kids are going to get to do more than I did."

"The younger girls, the girls we coach, need someone to look up to. So, we work hard to keep a presence in the sport, so people know we're not giving up," says Halavrezos. "We're not going to switch to kayak. We're not going anywhere!"

Twenty-two-year-old Sara Lawlor of Lake Echo has won medals in women's canoe at every level open to her. There's really nowhere left for her to compete.

"My life would be totally different if I'd had higher levels to compete at," she says. "I retired because I'd done everything, so I decided that school was more important, now. But if I'd had the opportunity to go to the Olympics, I would have sacrificed everything to get there."

Still, she only has words of encouragement for young women in canoe.

"I would say to stick with canoe, no matter what anyone says. Don't let the fact that it's not in the Olympics change your mind. Think in the present and don't worry about the future, because if you enjoy canoe, you should do it."

watsons5@accesswave.ca

Your surreal moment of the day is provided by James Blunt singing on Sesame Street about his longing for a pink triangle;

Excellent wall animation...(no sound)

Congratulations to Team Pogue for finishing 14th out of 111 crews in the 55th Molokai Hoe. The team is made up of solid paddlers but their first time together as a crew was when they were paddling up to the start line. Makes their results especially impressive;

Larry

Stringer

Ivan English

Schro

Peter Buday

Dana Morgoch

Steve Bujos (B.C.)

Paul Mcnamara (B.C.)

David Louie - steer (Hawaii)

The Molokai Hoe is a 41-mile open ocean race that launches from Hale O Lono Harbor on Molokai and ends at the beach in front of Duke's bar in Waikiki, Oahu. This year marks the 55th crossing of the Ka 'iwi Channel, which separates the islands of Oahu and Molokai. Here are the results for the top 3, Team Pogue in 14th and Team Anuenue in 56th.

Place Name Time Pace/mile
1 SHELL VAA TE UIRA 4:40:22.5 6:41
2 TEAM OPT A 4:43:15.5 6:45
3 TEAM NEW ZEALAND/HAWAII 4:56:59.9 7:04
14 TEAM POGUE 5:18:19.4 7:35
56 ANUENUE 1 5:55:55.0 8:28

I've included Team Anuenue because it was the crew of Joseph "Nappy" Napoleon. He's the first person to complete 50 consecutive Molokai Hoe outrigger canoe races. To mark the event, his crew was made up of his 5 sons and 3 of his grandsons. One of his sons, Aaron Napoleon, steered Team Pogue in last year's race.

I noted with interest that in Australia there are no pennies and cash registers round up or down to the nearest nickel. Further, coins for larger denominations were usually smaller - so while the 50 cent piece is huge, the $1 and $2 dollar coins are smaller (about the diameter of a quarter and nickel respectively but about twice as thick). This makes a lot of sense - for example, if the government said they were going to do away with the 50 cent piece, everyone would agree immediately, they'd be so relieved they didn't have to carry them around anymore.
Not so in Canada where a proposal for doing away with the penny and adopting the rounding-off system is being submitted FOR THE THIRD time! I'm not sure why we'd want to hold onto the coppers. Here's hoping logic prevails and we can ditch them for good this time.

I've added some photos the other girls have posted. mine will have to wait until I get home, I think.
Drinking beer in the internet cafe right now - we've rented bikes and spent the day exploring the area, including Diamond Head. We're getting a workout for sure. I've been really sick with a cold but I think it's run it's course so more better fun soon!

Yee haw. Another great night last night. We met up with Gavin on Campbell St. around 6:00pm and had a couple schooners before heading over to the korean B.B.Q.. We got the set meal for four but it was way too much food! We ended up leaving most of the seafood hot pot. We decided to stay fairly close to the Westend since it was Gavin's last night and he had to leave early early.
We went to this bar on George St. that caught our eye everytime we walked up that way - 3 Wise Monkeys.(http://www.3wisemonkeys.com.au/). Met a bunch of guys who were on a stag night for their buddy Gav. Partied with them for a bit - they didn't want to leave we were having such a good time but they had to carry on with their stag night - something about strippers. Through feats of strength (way to go Forklift) we met some coal miners from Mudgee. Very fun and funny. One of them looks like Mark McGrath from Sugar Ray. I have to tell you that all of the guys we
met were terrified of Gavin
when we brought them over to meet him (until he put on gav's orange statetrooper sunglasses). There aren't many guys his size out here! They wanted to know if he was our "minder". Another couple of people we met - Clair and her friend (Ummm. can't remember but maybe Scott??). Great 3 level bar with a live band on the top floor playing the requisite '80s rock! We ripped it up on the dance floor for a long time but there are a bunch of guys here who rush you from behind and grab your ass. It was exactly the same as when we go to El Convento Rico at home
so I just used my elbows to shove them off. I don't know if it's Sydney or just this bar but the ratio of men to women was 3 to 1 - the polar opposite of Toronto! That, coupled with our "exotic" accents, made for lots of attention. I think I only paid for one beer all night.

I'm just waiting for the girls to come downstairs and then we're off to the league final at Telstra Stadium! 90,000 seats sold out - crazy or what?! We got our tickets from the produce guys we met at the Orient Hotel. There's a bit of a problem because when we picked up our tickets we were rushing back from Bondi to pack up our bags etc because we have to leave for the airport around 7:00am. When we tore off our three tickets, one of the barcodes was left on Geoff's ticket. However, I called David and it's all cool. They're at the stadium already so two girls will go in, get the bar code and bring it back down to me. Hope there's no problem at the gate!
Okay, so when we got to the gate, we were worried about the ticket thing but as soon as we started to explain that we couldn't scan the bar code on one, the ticket taker said, "You must be the Canadian girls - the gentlemen arranged everything - go ahead." Whew!
Marisha had bought all kinds of purple fan stuff for the game and she was wearing the Dr. Seuss Canada hat. The guys were happy to see us - we were about 20 minutes late. At the half we went to get beer and, of course, attracted a lot of attention (marisha and I were wearing our team Canada jackets). The gentleman in the beer line ahead of us introduced himself as Peter Wynn.
I said, "hey, I was in your sports store in Parramatta last week. you're the rugby guy!" He showed us his photo in the game program - him playing back in the 80s and invited us to the Melbourne Storm's after party at the Albion. too bad he forgot to give us wristbands - we weren't able to get in once we arrived and security wouldn't go find him for us. Julie had arranged to meet Callum, the guy from the bar the night before at half time so we just hung around for a bit. he didn't show but we met a lot of people. A guy wearing a hockey night in Canada t-shirt came over. he ahd moved to Australia from calgary and just wanted to say hi to people from home. We got back to the second half late. Our hosts weren't too pleased when Julie spent 20 minutes yelling into the phone, standing and waving, trying to tell Callum where we were but we finally convinced her to go find him on the 100 level and things calmed down.
The game was so fast and so much fun and coincidentally we were cheering for the right team! The Melbourne Storm won it.
Wow, the Aussies really do things right. Not only is transit to and from the game free with your ticket, when we left the stadium we went straight into a huge area with a stage - after-party times ten! Live band, cheap beer and a party that killed. We met so many people and I gave out my remaining Canada pins which prompted people to buy us drinks since they "had to give us something in return". We were partying with some really fun guys. One of them was the Austral-Asian Marble World Champion - Mark Macdonald who works for Macdonalds and we met another woman, Leanne, who coached the bronze medallists from outrigger worlds. I gave her my email address and said she should come to Toronto for the 'round the island since it's their off-season.
I can't wait for Marisha to upload her photos when we get home!

Reminders for myself when I have time to post...

Monday: hangover day - we decided to stay at the Rydges Parramatta for one more night as we were unable to function (pack bags and check out in any decent time). I spent a couple of hours at Westfields Mall. We went to a mediterranean restaurant on Church street. Great food, early night.

Tuesday: took the train to Katoomba. Jorg was on the same train but we didn't connect until we got off at the other end. We checked into a triple at the backpacker's hostel and headed for Echo Point. Climbed down to the Three Sisters then hiked the trail approx 4 hours. Bought some New Zealand beer at the bottle shop ($22. for 6 bottles!) and hung out in the hostel lounge. Headed out around 9:50. picked up Thai take-away since the pubs weren't serving food anymore. Took our food to the Carrington Hotel and ordered beer. Played the longest game of pool ever, then played some local guys in doubles, then the longest game of 501 at the dart boards. Cool though since it was FREE VIDEO JUKEBOX night! endless tunes from every decade but mostly the eighties. Marisha was excited taht Eagle Rock was on the jukebox. HAHAHA. Hard-core eighties fashion. It was very funny!

Wednesday: got up early and packed our bags, stored them at the hostel after checking out and headed back to Echo Point to do the other trail. Starts at the Three Sisters as well but we turned left at the bottom instead of right. Beautiful. After we finished the trail we collected our bags adn while I watched them at the train station, the girls went and picked up sandwiches for the 2 hour ride back to Sydney. Surprise! Jorg met us on the platform at Central Station. He was also checked in at the Legend Has it....Westend. They headed out to the opera (Puccini - love triptych) and I settled for noodle soup and an early night.

Thursday - met up with Gavin. Ran into Suzanne, her sister and some other guy from the senior team. Decided we would meet them for dinner and drinks at the Orient Hotel in the evening. For some reason I'm drawing a blank on what we did this day. Shopping around the Rocks for sure...oh yeah and we happened to pass by the Canadian Consulate so we dropped in and said hello. They had just taken down the item about the world championships but said they would send a press release about our results to Ottawa - took teams names and quotes from coach gavin. We carried onto the Rocks after that, then hit the Lowenbrau bar with our
free beer coupons! Ran into two guy paddlers from the sr team. headed back to the hostel to shower and change then met the crowd back at the Orient. Ate dinner and met some guys who said they could hook us up with tickets for the league final on Sunday. Spent the rest of the night with Stefan from Switzerland. We ended up at a great club called The Establishment.

Friday: Another hangover day. Spent the day and evening at Manly beach. Met Gavin and Suzanne for dinner at a rooftop bar overlooking the ocean. Sipped beer while watching surfers ride waves as the sun set. Ferry ride home presented a great view of Sydney skyline.


Saturday: Paddington Market! shopping, shopping, shopping, Art Gallery of New South Wales, shopping in the gallery gift shop. We'll be meeting up with David and Geoff (the guys with the tickets). I have a bad cold so don't know how late I'll be out. Tomorrow's our last night in Sydney (as Gavin put it in reference to our spending, "Thank God honolulu is free"!)

Sunday night - we headed back to the hotel after being presented with our final gold medal and the cup for the Women's Division. The other girls had to rush to get ready to go to the IDBF party at the Olympic Park - the bus was picking them up in 15 minutes - but I was able to take my time. Quite a few of us hadn't purchased tickets to the party. Eve, Katy and Clem had ordered pizza so I called Domino's and added another to their order, then headed down to their room for drinks. We were lounging around laughing and talking a singing when the front desk phoned up to ask us, very politely, if we would consider moving our party to the lobby bar as some guests had complained about the noise. The bar was closed but they gave us free rein. We brought our stereo and moved the furniture around to suit the group and settled in for an awesome time. After an hour or so we decided to head to P.J. Gallagher's on some aussie's advice. It was awesome! There was a duo playing eighties tunes and we dropped ourselves into the middle of the dancefloor and ripped it up. K.C., Matt, Kaylynne, Rachel, Clem, Clem's cousin, Sara, Sara's boyfriend Chris, Eve, Chrissy, Jess, me - I hope I'm not leaving anyone out - we had so much fun dancing and singing along at the tops of our lungs along with the locals. The US team had booked a function room upstairs for a private celebration but came downstairs at some point. They were yelling their usual U-S-A...U-S-A...U-S-A and were genuinely surprised when we shreaked back CANADA! I think the locals were just annoyed but it made us laugh.
I got back to my room around 12:30. I was just making some phone calls when one of my roommates arrived with a False Creek boy in tow. Awkward. My options were limited as I had nowhere else to go and I didn't fancy sleeping in the lobby so I asked the boy if he didn't have a room somewhere. He said yeah but not at our hotel...just then Eve knocked on the door and I thought I might be able to scam a spot in their room. Nope. we were still having an awkward discussion of sorts when Chanda knocked on the door. Yet again, no offer of a spot so I told the guy he should consider going somewhere else. He was actually a little rude to the girl but they finally left.
The next morning all the girls said their goodbyes in the breakfast room. We were heading to Katoomba but were all a little under the weather (and not packed by checkout time) so we decided to book our room for one more night. I spent the afternoon checking email and wandering around Westfield Mall. We had a great dinner at a mediterranean restaurant on Church street and hit our beds early so we could catch the train to Katoomba first thing in the morning.