World cup # 2 in Poznan, Poland

Adam won silver in the 500m and bronze in the 1000
Mark won silver in the 1000m

Mark and Gabriel were 1 & 2 in the C-1 5,000-metre race on Sunday

1st CAN Oldershaw 21:4.06
2nd CAN Beauchesne-Sevigny 21:07.94
3rd ROM Sergiu Cracium 21:30.07.

''I was happy to have Gabriel with me because we've been training partners almost all year,'' Oldershaw said. ''Everything went as planned. We got ahead together quickly and we were able to ride each other's wash and save energy. We had both been in races earlier in the day so that was important for us.''

''It was nice to come back from a messy 500-metre race (on Saturday).''
''My focus has been mainly on the 1,000 because it's early in the season and my speed isn't quite there yet. I got off to a great start and felt comfortable right up until the finish.''

I started dance classes last night - salsa to start. It's fun! This part is good because you don't need a partner. Since I don't have a guy, I'd have to pair up with a stranger or worse, a woman.
I'm not comfortable touching people, so that would make me very tense for dancing. I guess I'll have to do it at some point if I plan on going any further. The whole two women pairing up at dance class is a sad image, spinsters at holiday camps like the one in Dirty Dancing, the headgear girls dancing in Sixteen Candles. I'd prefer Long Duc Dong over that!

The class is a fair size - about 14 people - and there's only one couple. The rest are singles - pairs of girlfriends and random single guys. The instructor is pretty funny and pretty pregnant.

It's interesting, the women are fairly quick at picking up the steps but the guys are brutal. Seriously, it sounds mean but I give them full credit for signing up because this is so clearly a challenge for them. We only did a basic step last night - rock forward, tap right, rock back, tap left. Then we mixed it up by step left, tap together, step right, tap together. Trust me when I say it's as basic as it gets.


I think it's because women do step classes, aerobics, those kinds of workouts that help us with body-brain coordination. The guys were all over the map. And once she turned on the music? They lost it!
Anyway, totally fun - I wish I'd started up with these last winter when I wasn't doing anything at all. Right now I'm going downtown for the classes - right at Yonge and Bloor - but I think come the fall, I'll look for a studio closer to home.

I was up at the hospital again this morning. This is the first time Dad hasn't been sleeping when I've been there. I would normally just type "Dad was awake" but it's not really like that. His eyes are mostly open but there's no focus or recognition or response to my voice. He did respond to a cup of juice being put up to his lips but wouldn't open his mouth for some food - a spoonful of yogurt.
The doctor says he has two bacterial infections and indicates that his organs are shutting down. He has a collapsed lung, his skin breakdown is continuous anywhere there's an ulcer (several places) and, since they believe he's in almost continuous pain, are providing some relief from that. The doctor at one point suggested we stop providing him with food to allow him to "give up the ghost" but we declined on that for the most obvious reasons; we have no interest in starving our parent to death and also because taste seems to be the only sense left to him. Two weeks was the timeframe given last Wednesday. We've been hearing these sorts of proclamations for the past 3 or 4 years but this time, I think they may be right.

I was able to move a bookcase to the basement, the stacking shelves with glass covers, and start filling it up with books and my antique camera collection. I might finally be starting to get a handle on the overflow of furniture in my house. My problem is I'm too sentimental. I have boxes of old photos, my grandmother's rocking chair, assorted antique dressers and mirrors, not to mention my own furniture discarded and relegated to the garage in favour of newer stuff. Anyway, I hope some day to get over these attachments (why do I keep buying books and why do I have to keep every book ever read?), put it all up on Craig's list and make a fortune!

I cut the grass in the backyard. Okay, I say I cut the grass but it was mostly dandelions and wild rhubarb. anyway, from the second floor it looks like a nicely manicured lawn and that's the best I can expect for now.

I'm so glad I have my outrigger. It's a beautiful sunny day out there, just 15 degrees but that's nice for a paddle. I headed down to the club and ran into Eric Sziraki who was just putting his boat on the car. He's been visiting from his new home in Brisbane for the past month. Actually, I recognized the boat first as Kris' old one before realizing the guy using it was his brother. We chatted for a bit, their mom is doing pretty well. She recently had a couple of procedures to remove fluid from her lungs but things sounded very positive.

So happy I was able to fix my Garmin! It just stopped working one day for no apparent reason. I thought the battery was dead (dead-dead) but I've only had it for a year so did a quick search of the Garmin site and found a way to soft boot the unit and reconfigure the software. The first three times it worked fine as long as it was connected to the USB port but failed if I disconnected it. It just wouldn't power on. I decided to power it on while connected to the usb before I left the house so I could at least do the workout.

Fortunately, Chris A. showed up for practice or I wouldn't have gotten into the club. The lake was a little rough but mostly from boat traffic - I'd forgotten how many people get out on the lake on weekends! I stayed out for an hour and then headed back into the dock. I really didn't want to come in but frankly, I was just bored. I'd done a workout and didn't feel like just paddling around the river. My Garmin seems to be working fine now after doing a full recharge and workout.

Now I'm going to get a glass of wine and an apple and finish reading Russell Brand's autobiography. (I've a bit of a crush.)

Yesterday we got our new scarves for the TFC Lakeside Loyals. JP and Jeff had ordered them from a supplier in Poland and they were worth waiting for... don't you agree? (that's JP in the photo).

I met up with the guys at Clarkson station and we joined Toby & Brandon on the train. It started pouring rain as we walked from Exhibition to the Brazen Head but it had cleared up considerably by the time we walked back to the stadium. I met up with Ryan and Jason, a friend from UNB, in the stands.

The TFC online account manager is great - I can email my tickets to anyone before the game so we don't have to arrange to meet somewhere beforehand. I've left tix for people at the will-call before but they have to have photo ID and not everyone brings that to the game.

Anyway, we lost 2-0 to Chicago but as always, we had a good time.

Today, Karen and I had planned on doing OC-2 so I drove out to the Bay. The wind was unbelievable and when I got there told Kev there was no way we were going out. He was all disbelief and wanted to hear what Karen would say when she got back. She'd ridden the bike down to the beach to take a look at the lake. When she came in, she said exactly the same thing so we had to put up with Kevin's ridiculing us for being soft. Lucky for us, we just don't care. Instead, Karen made us a great brunch of french toast and fruit and we enjoyed just hanging around the table talking shit. We had to take another dose of ridicule when Kev saw two db paddlers out in one of the Fairport OC-2s, saying how we might have a chance of beating them - they were clearly inexperienced paddlers and barely moved in the 60km/hr headwind. Even when they turned around and had a tailwind, they were crawling along. It actually didn't seem safe for them to be out there considering the conditions and their inexperience.

This afternoon I'm home and lounging around on the couch. I feel like a beluga! Marisha called from the Q and invited me out for a beer but I passed. She had a masters swim meet this weekend and won a bronze (um, I'm a bad friend because I can't remember what it was in - the 50m backstroke maybe?) and some 4ths and 5ths. The oldest swimmer there was 100 and received a standing O during his race. Can you imagine? I could start swim training now and it would 50 years before I'd be racing in his age group! Ugh. I'll put off making a decision on that for now - I've got lots of time and may consider taking it up when I'm in my 80s.

back to the couch...I'm exhausted.

So Peter was out tooling around in his OC-1 yesterday morning when he saw something rather big perched on the trestle. He thought at first it was a pelican (one of those moments where your stored memories conflict with your geographic reality) but didn't have time for closer observation as it launched itself and plummeted straight into the water. He waited for it to surface and when it didn't, headed over to investigate.
When he got to the spot and looked into the water, he saw a head, a human head, just below the surface. He reached down and, grabbing it by the collar, hauled up a boy, unconscious and turning blue. Still holding him by the collar, he paddled to shore where two CN rail workers were scrambling down the bank to meet him.
They said they'd seen they guy behaving suspiciously and were just going to investigate when he disappeared over the side of the trestle. He'd left behind a gym bag filled with booze and a suicide note.
The guy came around quickly on shore but when he realized he was still alive, plugged his nose, closed his eyes tight and held his breath - apparently hoping to complete the suicide by self-suffocation. Comical under the circumstances. This was a better story than the usual paddler/rower finds body in river...

So wrong but still the only reason to watch SNL since the US election ended...(for now this is the only link that's showing this clip in Canada - sorry about the fat guy. You can fast forward to :30)

I have too much to do at home and decided to skip NTT this time. I got a call from someone at the course around 10:45 - make up races from saturday finals finished at 10:30 am and they were finally starting the 500s. I feel for the paddlers, officials and supporters - I hear the conditions haven't improved much.

Check out this ad for World Cup in Hungary.



Meanwhile at World Cup 1 in Račice, Czech Republic...

Adam has launched his 2009 season with a gold. In the K1 1000m, he posted the fastest time at all the splits and won the gold in three minutes 38.492 seconds. Rene Holgten-Poulsen of Denmark was second in 3:39.969 and Anders Gustavsson of Sweden was third in 3:40.355

Results for C1 1000m (keeping in mind all our guys are at NTT);

1st FRA Mathieu Goubel 4:06:159

2nd UZB Vadim Menkov 4:08:003

3rd POL Marcin Grzybowski 4:09:679

K1 500m

1st FRA Sebastien Jouve 1:36:614

2nd SWE Anders Gustavssen 1:37:448

3rd DEN René Holten-Poulsen 1:38:524

C1 500m

1st UZB Vadim Menkov 1:47.420

2nd BLR Dzianis Harazha 1:47.716

3rd LTU Jevgenij Suklin 1:47.836

Oh wow, results for the 5000m?? I am so out of the loop.

K1 5000m

1st BLR Aleh Yurenia 18:09,0

2nd CAN Adam van Koeverden 18:09,2

3rd ITA Maximilian Benassi 18:12,0

C1 5000m

1st POL Marcin Grzybowski 20:57,5

2nd RUS Pavel Petrov 20:58,0

3rd ROU Iosif Chirila 21:30,6

It sounds like conditions at Welland couldn't have been any worse! The wind blew over two porta-potties - no word if there was anyone in them. Afternoon races were cancelled so basically none of the finals have been run. They'll start running them at 7:30am tomorrow but it sounds like paddlers are in for a long day. I'll be checking the weather before I decide on going out there...
I was going to that reunion which was being held in the east end - Westney and Bayly. The weather was ridiculous as I drove across the 401 (although Port Credit was fine with just a little rain).

Good luck to everyone racing at national team trials this weekend. I have a high school reunion tomorrow afternoon but plan on being there for 500s on Sunday. My son and I had my mother's day dinner tonight so I'm good!
I'm hoping you have no rain and no wind.
Get out front, don't get tired

My dad is back in the hospital. This was a pretty long stretch - he hasn't been admitted since the first week of January so that's...3 months and a bit of good health. That's something!

Wasted.
The day, not me. I can't believe I slept until 2pm.
I didn't go to bed until 3am but still - that's no reason for an 11 hour snoozefest.

It was my brother-in-law's 50th birthday last night and my sister had a blowout party - 140 people - at their new home. Don't get me wrong, it wasn't a blowout like, say, the senior party at nationals in Dartmouth. The guests were mostly affluent, middle-aged and figure prominently in business, politics and sports.

The invitation said BBQ but I knew that meant something completely different with this crowd. I struggled with my wardrobe (gaining so much weight doesn't help since most of my 'cute' clothes don't fit) so I settled on black dress pants and raspberry camisole with a wrap sweater. So glad. As I searched for a parking spot on their street, I noted the trail of people heading to their house - suits on the men and everything from cocktail dresses to pleated Burberry skirts topped by Lacoste polos on the women. At least I'd blend in. My sister looked fantastic in white linen pants and a loose, patterned shirt she had picked up in West Palm beach on their last ladies' group trip. She's slimmed down incredibly since I last saw her at Easter. She has always been able to starve herself leading up to any given event. On the one hand, I wish I had that ability but on the other, it's completely unhealthy. Either way, she looked incredible and happy!

Randall is a pretty laid-back guy with a good sense of humour. Loves the cottage, fishing, golf...so the caterer went with a cottage theme. There were massive posters of him on the living room walls - blow ups from the family albums of him waterskiing, scuba diving, driving the boat...and outside there were portable bonfire pits where you could roast marshmallows and make s'mores (with imported chocolate, of course).The hired musician was playing the grand piano in the foyer early in the night and later brought his guitar out to the bonfire where he played a lot of Dylan, Neil Young, Springsteen...(basically the music of our high school years and definitely nothing recorded after 1980).Tara's male friends loved it since that's what 17 year old boys are listening to right now.

And then there were the bass... in the hot tub. Yeah, that's right, I said bass...as in fish. The hot tub wasn't heated obviously - and I guess the idea, stay with me here, was for the pro photographer she'd hired to take shots of these people in Armani suits and cocktail dresses wearing hip waders and holding up the bass they'd "caught". Unfortunatley, the hot tub borders the chlorinated swimming pool. Three of the bass jumped the breach into the main pool. They were netted and returned to the hot tub (fresh water) where they instantly died and sank to the bottom. Am I the only one reminded of the WKRP thanksgiving media event where Les throws turkeys out of a helicopter not knowing they can't fly?

The food was pretty amazing with staff circulating an endless stream of french fries in small take-out containers - topping choice of ketchup, malt vinegar, mayonaisse or truffle mayonaisse - and trays of shrimp with coriander, mini burgers of pulled pork and a dining room buffet that featured mango salad, a variety of pasta dishes, pad thai, roast beef, etc....I didn't actually see the entire buffet. I had eaten dinner and was cursing myself for it. I wasn't at all hungry so only viewed the spread from a distance (although I did have some of the truffle mayonaisse fries). There were 3 bars going but since this wasn't really a drinking crowd, they shut down the one on the patio once the speeches started.

I left at around 11:30 and headed out to Pickering where there was a going-away party for Ryan. He's moved to Carlton Place and taken the head coaching job at the club there. He has a line on a teaching job and Julie will join him in September.

Since I was so late, lots of people had already left but Kevin & Karen, Schro & Amy, Pete & Sarah were still there. I also ran into a db paddler I haven't seen in awhile, Mike. Mike's a hardcore Salsa dancer and I've been wanting to ask him about where I can take lessons. I start an introductory class at the Spanish Centre next Saturday but if I really enjoy it, want to take classes from someone from within the (extensive) Toronto salsa community. Mike has put dancing on the backburner these past couple of years while he went back to school to add some letters to his name. He's finally finished his degree so I'll get in touch with him after this 5 week session is over.

The Clarkson contingent left with me around 1:30. The Gardner was closed and there was construction on the 401 with a massive backup from around the 409 exit. I took the detour towards the airport and swung back around to the 427 south in order to miss it. Bad news for the people in the car who desperately had to go to the bathroom.

When I got home, I wasn't tired and finished watching the movie Delirious.

So now, I'm eating a Burrito Boyz chicken burrito and watching Quantum of SOlace. Might as well make the day a complete write-off!