Ugh, it's kind of weird outside. It's been pretty cold and foggy this evening. Now there's thunder and the temp is going up to 31 for the next few days.
Anyway, not that I had anywhere to go but I'm stuck inside watching tv. I tried watching a new series, Swingtown, but it's so bad I turned it off. Basically, Donna and Eric grow up and get married. Seriously, am I wrong?

Another birthday weekend! On Friday evening, my son showed up at my house with bags of groceries. He cooked me a fantastic dinner and it was so nice to just sit at the table and hang out talking. He's had a lot going on recently (broke off his engagement, moved into a new apartment, changed jobs) so it was great to catch up.


On Saturday Clem, Chrissy, Jackie and I went to the TFC Game. We had a blast; ate a ton of junk food, drank stadium beer, got rained on - in other words the perfect gameday experience! I felt pretty gross the next day but that's part of the experience, right? Anyway, times like these just underline how MUCH I miss seeing the girls on a day to day basis. We're all so busy (especially now that none of us are doing db) but we're hoping to plan more fun stuff in the near future.

Rambo's latest video...Another day in Paradise...these scenes will be familiar to anyone who paddles.

Oh wow. Alyson invited me along to Supperworks the other night and I.AM.SOLD!! In about an hour, we each made 12 meals that will feed 2 or more people.
Last night I had to coach for 3 hours down at Sunnyside. When I got home, I threw the Chicken Marrakesh into a pot. Twenty minutes later...HOT GLORIOUS FOOD. Tonight I'm having Lemon-Glazed Sesame shrimp. No more dinners of microwave popcorn for this woman. Everything they promise on their website is true.

This Sunday there's an event called Canoe the Credit - a fundraiser for the Credit Valley Conservation Foundation.

It's unfortunate and ironic that they chose to hold it a week after the river was treated with lampricide. The river is an odd yellowy-green colour (not dissimilar to the logo at left) and there are so many baby carps floating belly up that it's difficult to take a stroke without hitting one. The lampricide is supposed to target lampray larva (on which the carp feed) so we're not sure if the poison is just working it's way up the food chain or if the poison is affecting the environment itself.

A report published after the 2002 application states;
"• Mortality of nontarget organisms was insignificant ...However, stonecats (less than 500), juvenile Chinook salmon (less than 500), and common white suckers (less than 100) were killed in the middle of the treatment area of the Credit River when pH levels unexpectedly decreased to lower than expected levels."

Anyway, if you're interested in paddling one of three distances on the Credit there's info at the club. If I can get a rec canoe, I'll do the long one. I'm curious to see what's north of the golf course!

Check out Larry's CBC Olympic blog

Click here to watch a clip of a 1984 interview with Larry from the CBC archives

Watch Mars Phoenix Lander coverage live here – today around 7:45pm

Stupid F-book.

The other day as I was writing something on my son's wall, I noticed that the number of our "friends in common" wasn't right. It's a single digit number so it kind of jumped out at me.

My 17 year-old niece, Tara, was no longer there but since there's no reason for her to drop me, I figured it was an accident and sent her an email. She added me again without explanation. That's when I realized she had intentionally removed me from her facebook friends. I was baffled but decided that, in some things, just being 17 is explanation enough.

As it turns out, she cut me off because she thought I'd told her mom about some photos she had posted. Here's the deal, my sister and her husband have bought a new house. It's standing empty pending demolition so Tara decided to have a party without telling her parents. Then she posted photos of that party to her FB where my other niece, Melissa, saw them. She showed her mom, who told Tara she knew about the party and described the photos in detail. Even though I never saw the photos, Tara thinks I'm a rat. Sheesh.

Funny that in the brief moment of realizing I'd been dropped as a friend, I felt like such a loser - immediately returning to some playground state. I've dropped a few people on fb - girls associated with the db team I'm no longer on - but never considered they might notice. And now I wonder about people I've blocked. That's even more obvious - especially if your name turns up in a news feed but they can't find you in a search.

Under the circumstances, I had to laugh when I saw this. FB is re-writing our rules of etiquette...

"For the first time in its history, Canada will race in all 12 sprint canoe and kayak races at the Olympic Games. The final three boats qualified for the Beijing Games yesterday at the Pan Am canoe and kayak championships and continental Olympic qualifier. Canada's previous highest number of boats qualified was 10 in 2004."

Full story here

Just some of the results from the

2008 European Flatwater Championships

This is the only pic of Duke I could find - purple Nelo


Michele Zerial wins silver at home

Saturday of the long weekend.

Woke at 3 am and didn't get back to sleep until 5. geh. This is a new cycle that started a couple of weeks ago and I wish I could break it!

At some point, my clever sleeping-self changed the alarm from 7:15 to 9:15. I have no recollection of it but I guess it was for the best but I'd rather paddle - it's the only time I can break out of this perpetual state of grief and anxiety.

I called Marisha to see how she's doing. She's pulled something in her back which is in spasm. It causes her to walk like a gymnast or ballerina in toe shoes (e.g. carefully and very erect). We decided to go to the St. Lawrence Market and then drop in on Jackie and Blake. I had to drop off some TFC tickets for Blake anyway.

We got to the Hara's just as Jackie and then Blake were getting home - the former from brunch, the latter from shopping. Jackie looks fantastique btw.

Sydney was in her crib but awake so we got her up. She is SO cute! And sweet. And has these amazing rolls at her wrists and ankles.
Considering that 2 relative strangers gatecrashed her nap she was extremely good-natured. Oh my god she is CUTE!! Her hair is lightening up and getting curly and her eyes are turning a greenish-brown colour.
We didn't stay long. Marisha had to get back because her chiro (Dr. Gav) was going to give her an adjustment and I had to get up to North York to see my dad.

I got there in time to feed him his lunch. His caregiver, Ruth, went for lunch and we watched a couple of Seinfeld epsiodes together. Thankfully he fell asleep before the Simpsons came on. It was the episode where Grandpa Simpson decides he can't take it anymore and goes for assisted suicide. He gets hooked up to the Die-pod but Dr. Death is arrested before it can completely take effect. It actually made me feel better in some twisted way because the dialogue acknowledged this is a common state for families.

I got home about dinner time and went for a paddle. The wind was UNBELIEVABLE. I would guess 40-50km headwind straight down the river. It took me 25 minutes of steady paddling to get from the buoy out beyond Snug Harbour up to the block building and smashed up marathon canoe north of the QEW. Of course it took me less than 8 minutes to get back again! I paddled for over an hour and definitely felt better afterward. As I was leaving, an older couple who were heading out in a K-2 got dinged by the police for no lifejackets. I don't think they can enforce that on the river but the guy didn't want to argue with them.

Larry's in Hawaii right now for the Molokai solo race. He sent this pic - I think that's the China Wall behind him. Marisha and I stopped along this stretch when we were in Hawaii. The water was MUCH bigger that day and as we looked out over the churning waves I said, "I don't think I will ever race in this."
Boog and Schro are also there and it'll be interesting to see how these guys do considering they can only paddle half of the year and that's on lake-sized conditions. Their competition has been paddling (year-round) on the ocean since they were zygotes.
Larry didn't arrive in time for all of the warm-up races but Boog was 10th with a 3 second lead over Derek in 12th (of 18) in the solo warm up on Friday, while Larry and Schro were 21st (of 81) in the relay on Saturday. However, they combined for the 6-man, 8-mile race on Sunday - and won. The crew was called CC & Diet Coke - nice nod to Canada and rye. Anyway, all this netted them some cash - everyone wins in Hawaii.

I'll post results as they become available. It sounds like the forecast for the race is not favourable at this point - 3 foot waves - but apparently the shore break off Molokai is over 7 feet which could make getting off the beach a little tough.

YELLOW CARD Globe & Mail!!

...for publishing the article Olympic Doubtfuls by Allan Maki and Dawn Walton. I'll leave it for you to read how our national newspaper is spreading doom & gloom about our athletes and suggesting we're a country of whiners with statements like, "it's a wonder Canada's Olympic motto isn't "Citius, Altius, Unlucky-us."

This article itemizes the injuries suffered by our high performance athletes and makes it sound as though Canada is sending the inmates of a leper colony (no offence) to Beijing. What the hell! These are sports writers?? Injury and recovery - mental and physical - are part of every athletes life. Shouldn't they just acknowledge that this ability to come back from injury stronger than ever is what sets them apart and use the space to, oh I dont know, actually promote Team Canada?

So I'm reading through this article thinking, "WTF?" when I see, "and kayaker Adam van Koeverden, who had surgery to remove a tumour before breaking a bone in his left hand last spring." Was the fact-checker at lunch? Horst Bulau from Ottawa, alerted them to the error with this comment to their web page, "That injury would come as news to Adam Van Koeverden. It was his friend and teammate Mark Oldershaw who broke his hand again last summer. Oldershaw has a good shot at the podium in Beijing." They subsequently changed the on-line article to read, "and kayaker, Mark Oldershaw...". Okay, calling a canoeist a kayaker is a minor foul but seriously, doesn't anyone over there know how to use Google?

And since this is being published in the Sports section you'd think they'd recognize the importance of distinguishing between one discipline and another. Apparently not. In a related May 10th article where they describe "a Canadian Olympic team limping its way toward Beijing", these two remind us that, "just 27 days after her accident, (Silken) Laumann put down her crutches, got back into her boat and paddled into Olympic history with a bronze medal. "

Anyway, I really hope these two (and why do they need two of them? Are they sharing a laptop? A brain?) aren't part of the team of journalists reporting on the Olympics this summer.


ps... Be sure to check their linked photo-gallery called "the Unlucky 8" which still features this photo of Adam

Only 91 days until the Olympics so expect a lot of posts about canoe-kayak - especially since the team is entering the final stages of selection.
The trials in Atlanta last weekend were pretty exciting. Adam performed as expected as did the rest of the kayak group (although Chris Pellini has been flying under the radar - look at him go!) but on the canoe side there was a dq over a flip-flop (sandal), a REALLY close race in C1 1000 and 500 (less than a second) and a new contender in the C2 500m. I'll post a little more on those results later. Right now, check out this article about Mark.
Canoeist in fine form with weekend sweep in Georgia, Oldershaw on verge of Games berth

Day two of Olympic Trials:

Okay, ignore Padtrac. It shows Tommy & Attila as first in the C2 1000m but they're second. The DSQ was due to a foul-up by boat control. Gab & Andrew use a flip-flop in their boat to secure the block. One of the boat control people removed the flop before weighing it so the boat was underweight. The flip-flop was securely in place and didn't fall out on it's own so they're appealing the DQ. The Budays are supporting their appeal because it clearly wasn't their fault. Word from the tower is that the appeal is accepted. Gab & A-Russ in 1st (3:43.913), Attila & Tamas in 2nd, Kyle and Morty in 3rd.

Bogus results:

Actual (almost) results:

Olympic trials - Day One (click to enlarge image);

I'm not writing much these days because my father's in the hospital. I don't want to remember this time later so instead I'm going to post about other things.

I went to the TFC home opener last Saturday with Marisha, Sonya (this
was her birthday present) and Ryan. So much fun. It was a great day: friends, beer, sunburn, 1-0 for us. I told Ryan to remind me of that day whenever season's ticket renewal time came around. It is so worth it. For some reason the 7 seats to my left remained empty the entire game. I swear they were the only empty seats in the stadium! I hope it just meant they had found a really good spot along the rail in the beer tent because it would suck to have empty seats beside me the entire season. My new seats are as close as you can get to the fan section. I loved our old section - lots of spirit - but it's way rowdier (= fun) in 109!

After the game, we walked along King Street past Rob's restaurant. Rob's gf, Esther, was outside the Bungalow putting up planters. Even though the bar was closed she invited us in for a drink. Big mistake! She opened the french doors onto King and we sat at the window table. That's all it took for other TFC fans wander in and order drinks. Esther handled it like a pro - calling in Rob and a bartender to pick up the slack. We apologized a million times but she said not to - that it was an unexpected windfall. They're going to get the TFC schedule and make sure they're open after every game!

Afterward, Ryan went off to some bbq, Sonya went home to feed and walk her 18 month old "golden doodle" Fin while Marisha and I hit Burrito Boyz and then went on to Hot Docs. We saw Talking Guitars, about Flip Scipio, the dutch guitar restorer. The film was not fantastic but it was interesting to have Flip at the Q & A afterward. He is a very funny man.

On the training side of things, I've been paddling outrigger for the past month. I still have my C-1 but don't see myself paying a fortune to go to Dartmouth for just one or two races. Pete has been great about loaning me one of his Hody OC-1s. He's been keeping it in an empty slot at the club and it's worked out really well, allowing me to paddle until my new boat arrives this weekend. The weather these past few weeks has been phenomenal. I'm so glad I've been able to take advantage of it. Thanks Pete!

Hmm, there's clearly a dutch theme happening here today. If you're a fan of Rube Goldberg, check out this commercial for a dutch department store. Just click here, let the page load, don't try to select anything, give it a minute and watch what happens.

Click here for a good article on Adam's training leading up to Beijing. Rob Longley did a great job of describing life at the Pines. Reading it immediately put me back there and made me smile. The grey cubicle with the grimey window overlooking the 427 actually disappeared for a few minutes.

Most of you know that I've been thinking about moving to a downtown condo in a year or two but I may have to rethink that plan. There's a lot to be said about living in a great community like Port Credit. Aside from the obvious benefits of being close to the lake and trail system so many of our friends are still living here. Yesterday, after a discouraging weekend of clearing out my parents' house, I couldn't stand to be stuck inside anymore. I headed toward Clarkson with a vague intention of hitting Shoppers and Starbucks, avoiding the tempting shelves of red wine at the liquor store and then swinging back home through the marsh.
Instead, I ran into Carrie and Charlie on their way to the bank! We had a coffee at Tim Horton's and Carrie invited me back to their's for a bit. Charlie is a sweetheart - she's so happy and SO active! Running into them was just what I needed after such a dismal day.

I'm a big collector of music. Tv is a great source - commercials, themes from shows, credits - especially since the stigma of "selling out" has been removed. If I hear a song I like, I hunt it down on youtube or google - great resources when you don't know the name of the artist. Today, I went looking for the song "New Soul" from the most recent Macbook "Air" commercial. A search of Feist's listing came up empty. I just assumed it was Feist - it sounds like Feist, they used 1-2-3-4 in the iPOD commercial. Anyway, as it turns out, it's an artist named Yael Naim. Love the song, love the video! Maybe girls can relate more to this but this reminds me of every new start I've made in my life - my first apartment, holding my son for the first time, first home of my own, first time in a new country...all great memories. Anyway, it's worth a watch if you have the time...