Vive Le Montreal

I planned a trip away this past weekend to get out of Ottawa for a while, Montreal was the city of choice. One reason being because I haven't really visited there in a long time and the other being it is only a 2 hour drive. It was such a cold day but the sun was suppose to shine most of the day. I was able to get away from the Ottawa Santa Parade, but noticed when I got to Montreal the over abundance of children with their parents lined up along Saint Catherine Street. Apparently I didn't miss the Santa Claus Parade after all, I just got the french version. I did find that the Montreal Parade was much more entertaining than the one back home.

I tried to use my french while there but it seemed like everyone knew I wasn't really from there and so switched to english for me, although in one spot their english was as good as my french so I didn't feel too bad. I did meet quite a funny sales guy in one of the shops explaining to me how he knew and I tried to defend myself but english was used in the end.

After some lunch I strolled through McGill's campus, the buildings are so beautiful. I would definitely want to visit here again but on a warmer day so I can enjoy it more. All in all it was a good day.

We Are All The Same

I have just finished this book by Jim Wooten and it was definitely an eye opener as to how life is so different in other parts of the world. It is about a young boy, Nkosi, who came to this world infected with AIDS. He is from a place in South Africa which was known as Zululand, his mother had the HIV virus and when she was impregnated passed the disease to him. He was only supposed to live a few years but because of all the love given that was given to him he became a role model to others living with this disease.

This book also talks about the history of South Africa and how the government helped or rather didn't help this boy or the other millions of infected people, but rather ignored the issue. It really touched me and made me truly thankful that I am living in a place with such freedom, love and help. I do hope that there will be a lot more positive changes for the people in Africa and that the government understands the full meaning of it all.

Barbara

I have just finished reading this wonderful book. It is a memoir of Barbara Walters. It showed how she began, some of her personal life and the many many interesting people she met/interviewed. I enjoyed watching 20/20 and learning more about these interviews she did was like a sequel to the show. She has come so far and is still going far with the many tasks she is accomplishing even now.

What I enjoyed the most was the chapter on The View, all the different roads they took in finding the right combination for their panel today. I don't always get to watch the show because of my job but when I do I am not usually disappointed. It is like a calmer kind of debate than the political ones.

Definitely a book I was looking forward to reading and was not disappointed.

Toronto Waterfront Marathon

Last Sunday I ran my first Marathon, that's right all 42.1km of it. I met up with a friend of mine that I have been training with and we decided to run together as much as we could. I didn't want to hold her back if she was having a good run and I wasn't. We started off well in the big crowd of people, for some reason they wanted the half marathon and full marathon runners to start together which was very busy and difficult to maintain a pace as we were dodging around some of them. I felt good and took all my 10 and 1's religiously, for those that don't know what that is, it is running for 10 minutes then walking for 1 minute.

My first 10km was right on track for my pace. I continued to feel strong and run through it all. When we reached the halfway mark things got more serious for me as some of the runners were finishing and I could focus more on the other 21km I had left. At that point I noticed that I had lost track of my friend and so I carried on alone. Because the race had a lot of turn around marks I was able to cheer on the leading man and the leading woman as they went past me and eventually found my friend.

At about the 40km mark I noticed my calf starting to cramp up but remembered there were only 2 km left and so I pressed on ignoring the pain. It didn't take long to forget about it because the adrenalin kicked in and it was so nice and helpful hearing the crowd cheering me on. I felt strong right to the end and pushed it right over the finish line. No hitting the wall for me.

My gun time was 4:01:07

And my chip time was 3:57:40

I came in 37 out of 154 in my age/sex category and 891 out of 2532 over all.

I guess I am bound for Boston one of these days. My next marathon won't be until May 2009.

One and a Half

In a week and a half I will be heading down to Toronto to run my first ever (and hopefully not my only) Full Marathon. I had run a Half Marathon (21.1 km) back in May and had a good time finishing it so I thought the next thing to do was train for a Full (42km). The only problem was that there was no time to recuperate after one race before training for the next. I guess I didn't have to choose this Marathon as Toronto has another one mid October, but I liked the idea that the Waterfront Race was quoted as being "flat, fast and festive". I wanted a good experience for this first one so that I would be willing to try it out again and one day get qualified for Boston (one day).

The training through the summer was tough especially with all the humidity we had this year, but I made it through and learned a lot about my body and what gels worked. I was also busy this summer with Ultimate Frisbee which is a nice change from the constant pounding of my poor feet. My summer Frisbee team had a pretty good season in that during the playoffs we won the second tier. Now the fall season has begun and we now play 2 nights a week, which means that along with all my running and the increased distances/speeds/hills I don't really get much of a break. Plus when I play Ultimate I don't just go and have a good time but I am also very competitive and want to make the plays so I have fallen on my knee a few times the past week (but hey, I caught the disk), I now have a few bruises there but not too much pain right now. I will be playing in 2 more games before heading to Toronto so maybe I should go a little easier on myself (if possible).

I do have to say that after all the work I have been doing I will definitely be glad when this race is over and I can just go and run with no plans and schedules. I will let you all know how well I do after the race, but since it is my first and I am just wanting to finish the race I do still have a time to finish in mind (between 4h and 4h30min).

Wish me luck

WICKED

I was so happy to get to go see this Broadway at the NAC. It was very good considering I didn't really know what it was about. I knew enough like that it involved the Wicked Witch of the West and how she became so "wicked". I tried reading the book before going but couldn't really get through the first few chapters.

The music was good and catchy (I will probably get the CD soon) and the costumes were amazing, especially this one that ressembled a pom pom. It was a nice break during a very busy day and much needed.

I moved out of my place the next day and into another the day after that. We had such great helpers too, we could not have packed a truck any better ourselves even if we tried. We kept wondering if all our stuff would actually fit. Our motto ended up being "Don't worry about the chairs".

Moving in had a few hiccups as we were supposed to have the keys and the elevators at 9am, although when we showed up there was no one there and there was no number for us to call either, I started to worry since I had to get the truck back by 4 that afternoon. It turned out the lady had to take a bus and forgot about the holiday hours. Then she couldn't find our keys and so had the super let us in so we could start to unload and hey look there on the counter were all of our keys. After that everything went really smoothly and we had everything out of the truck in about 2 hours. We had great help for the move in too and we appreciated all that they have done for us.

Thank you

Update

It has been quite a while since my last little update on here. So I do have a few things to share with you.

• I finally saw The Dark Knight, now there was a lot hype before this movie came out into theatres and I wasn't really sure if I wanted to see it or not. It seemed like a lot of people were going to see it just because it was Heath Ledger's final film and I didn't want that to be the reason for me to go see it. I did see it and the movie was quite good, definitely not a movie for the kids. My only problem seeing it was the other people around me who talked during it and had quite a loud laugh, but other than that I would recommend you to see it.


• I also saw Mamma Mia, also a good movie and also some annoying people sitting beside me. They decided to explain the movie to each other and talked through the whole movie. Not fun. The movie was almost exactly the same as the Broadway one, I wasn't sure about Meryl Streep playing the part of Donna but I was surprised with how well she did. Pierce Brosnan however, could have used a few more singing lessons but that is just between you and me.

• August 3rd Ottawa held the Red Bull Flugtag competition. I went downtown to see the different "aircrafts" there were so many people and so little space to sit and watch, some people seemed to have paced the Alexandra Bridge to see it better but there was no stopping on the bridge. We stayed for 19 of the 32 competitors as it was a very humid day and we were afraid of getting too burnt. One of the ones we saw was the ultimate winner. Yeah!

• August 8th was the start of the Beijing Olympic Games and because I am lucky enough to have a job where the little one actually naps in the morning and the afternoon I was able to see most of the opening ceremony and Canada enter into the Bird's Nest. My favourite parts of the opening ceremony was the many more hands, many more fingers, many more drummers drumming on drums (taken from a Dr. Seuss book), and the men painting on the big scroll of paper.

• I am moving to a smaller apartment and have about 3 weeks now to get this place in moving order. I have come to realize that I have too much stuff and so Value Village will be seeing me a lot in the next few weeks. Painting things back to white and packing boxes are also not some of my favourite pastimes but these things all have to be done. Luckily we have a group of people willing to help out at the end of the month and I am much appreciated to you all.

• Finally it is another 48 days until my 1st marathon (42km) in Toronto. I have been working hard and I am just hoping to finish the race I have no set time to finish in but I will build on it for my next marathon, whenever that will be.

Happy 141th Birthday Canada

Happy Canada Day to all my Canadian friends. How are you/did you spend your day on this special day?

I started out by going for a little run.......well it wasn't that little it was a 10km race put on to support our Canadian athletes before they head off to Beijing for the Olympics this summer. Some of the athletes competing this year came out for the run as well and even led us into some warm ups before we sang the anthem.

Most Canada Days in the past have been cold and somewhat wet, this year however it was nice and cool and full of sun, then as the race started the humidity decided to come visit us yet again. I had a hard run and got a stitch early on (within the first 2km), but somehow I was not only able to finish but also get another PB. Everyone in the race was so fun to run with encouraging people and helping them through. I have to say this is one of my favourite runs.

Enjoy your Canada Day!

Hot Hot Hot....High High High

Two big things happened today for us here in Ottawa, one was the EXTREME heat and the other was the price of gas.

We have been having above average temperatures here, usually we would be in the mid 20s (celsius) at the most, today we hit 29 degrees and with the humidity it felt like 39. For me it is a little too hot, it is like hitting a wall when walking out of the house. I believe we will be having this weather for the next little while along with thunderstorms. The weather men are also expecting an above average summer, so I guess I will be taking advantage of the local beaches around here, hopefully it won't be too crowded.

Our gas here is also on the rise, I noticed today that it was at 134.5 a litre. Not so good for me who drives quite a bit to get to work and I also drive the kids around to their various activities. I have a feeling this may prevent a lot of families from vacationing too far from home. I'm not sure how much I will do except for a wedding and more races coming up at the end of the summer. What kind of plans do you have for the summer months? Traveling much? What are some of your Hots and Highs?

Also a great big HAPPY BIRTHDAY to this little girl. She turned 1 year old today!

My Book Binge

Here is the list of books I have read this month. I am not quite an avid reader as probably some of you are but I have been reading 3 this past month and that is a big accomplishment for me.

Whistling in the Dark - Lesley Kagen

A nice summer story taken place in 1959 about 2 sisters living on their own because their mother is hospitalized and their stepfather is always at the bars. Plus there is a murderer and molester out on the loose. Enjoyable and an easy to read.

My Best Friend's Girl - Dorothy Koomson

One friend asks the other to look after her child when she finds out she is dying, but problems arise and lessons are learned.

Little Pink Slips - Sally Koslow

Basically a sequel to The Devil Wears Prada. I am still reading this one and I am on page 73.

National Capital Race Weekend

I have completed my Half Marathon race. It was nice and cool in the morning which is what you would want, but then it got hotter and hotter which is not what you are hoping for. I met with my group of runners and got a few "team pics" taken before the race since we may not see each other by the end. We made our way into the corrals to get set for the gun to go off. There were about 9000 participants in the Half Marathon. I started off well trying to get my nerves out, although I do have to admit I went faster than I should have for the beginning of a race. My plan was to go at about a 5:15 pace for about the first 20 minutes and then take a 1 minute walk then I would run a bit faster at a 4:57 pace for 10 minutes and walk for 1 minute all the way to the finish line. The race had quite a few hills in it which I went at a fast pace to get up it and then found I didn't have much in me when I got to the top to continue at that speed.

There were lots of water stations along the way, usually I avoid them to try and get past the other runners but I found I stopped long enough to take a cup of water to dump on my head and cool me off a bit. We did have sprinklers and sponges but not until the 15km mark of the race.
I didn't have much in me near the end of the race but I still managed to push it the last little bit and I finished with a time of 1:49:06. I am quite happy with this time as it is also a personal best for me. I was a little worried about making it because I find it tougher running in the heat rather than the winter, and I am glad I didn't pass out and was able to walk on my own at the end. There were a lot of people passed out along the race route. I was the 294th female to finish out of 4742 and the 59th out 760 in my age/sex category.

The Countdown Is On

I have been training for the past 4 months for the Half Marathon race. I do have a certain time I have been working towards and am hoping that everything will go as planned. I have run through snow, rain and sun. I have done my hills work starting at 3 and going up to 9 hills over the weeks. I have done my 3 nights of speed work. I have run the race route 2 times the past few weeks so now all I seem to have left is to actually run the race.

I have had a great group of people to run with and we plan to start off the race together, but then it is everyone to themselves. Some of these people are running this for the first time and others are trying to cut their time a bit. All I know is that crossing that finish line is going to be the best feeling. I will have lots of people out there cheering me on and helping me get to that line. My Grandmother will be coming in from Cornwall, my 2 sisters and my mom (I guess I will have to get lots of whacking sticks). So far the weather is looking pretty good and hopefully it will stay that way.

It is suggested that you have another goal lined up for after the race so you have motivation to keep going, so I am trying to decide between 2 races both are in Toronto but one is along the waterfront and the other is through the streets of Toronto. Oh, and it is a MARATHON!

Wish me luck.

I'm Back

I know I have been away from here for quite some time. I think I have just been having some blah moments where I felt like I didn't really have much to say. I have still been reading a lot of your blogs and keeping myself up to date on what is going on with you. So I figured it was time for me to update a bit now too:

• I have just run 21.1km as part of my training for the ING Ottawa Half Marathon Race later this month. I met with my pace group downtown to run the route we would be running for the race. Even though it rained for the first half of the route it felt good to finish and I still felt good at the end. Sunday is usually our Long Slow Distance (LSD) run so we didn't run it at a race pace but we did tend to go faster than we should have. We will be running it again next Sunday as well, hopefully it will be a bit more sunny then and we can really enjoy it. The route is quite nice it starts at City Hall and goes across the Parliament Buildings, over to Hull then comes back along the Rideau Canal. I am actually looking forward to the race, it might sound crazy but I am.


• I went down to the Tulip Festival this past weekend, it started this weekend and goes on until Victoria Monday (May 19). I wanted to go just to Dow's Lake area which is along the canal, however my sister thought it was better down at Major's Hill Park so we went there and unfortunately not many of the tulips have come out to show their bright colours yet. We will probably head towards Dow's Lake next weekend to see more. I did get a few pics though, here is one of painted Tulips all in a row.

• The new family I am with has just moved into the Glebe and I am loving everyday being there. We are about 2 blocks from the Rideau Canal, a block from Bank Street and it is just a short walk to the Nature Museum which we will be getting a membership to at some point. I now have the little one (11 months old) on a great schedule and I am really enjoying my time with her. We go out on a walk everyday and eventually will be making it to the Tot Lot down the street, a park only for Toddlers. The mom will be going back to work in a month and then things will change for the little one but hopefully she will adapt well to it.

• I will be starting another season of Ultimate Frisbee in the next few weeks. I played with this same team last fall and I enjoyed it quite a lot so I decided to play with them again, for the summer we will be playing on Friday nights.

That is pretty much all that is new with me for right now. What have you been up to? Plan to do in the coming weeks now that summer is at our doorsteps?

Dancing is Back!

Dancing with the Stars starts tonight and I am so excited to see the new group of celebrities and dancers make their way out on the dance floor. They will be dancing some great dances some of my favourite ones to watch are the Samba, the Foxtrot and the Jive, but there are many other ones too.

Here are the list of Stars with their partners for this season.



Kristi Yamaguchi (figure skater) and Mark Ballas









Marissa Jaret Winokur (Broadway star) and Tony Dovolani






Jason Taylor (NFL player) and Edyta Sliwinska

Monica Seles (tennis pro) and Jonathan Roberts







Priscilla Presley (actress) and Louis van Amstel

Penn Jillette (magician) and Kym Johnson

Marlee Matlin (actress) and Fabian Sanchez







Mario (R&B singer) and Karina Smirnoff

Steve Guttenberg (actor) and Anna Trebunskaya








Shannon Elizabeth (actress) and Derek Hough

Cristián de la Fuente (actor) and Cheryl Burke

Adam Carolla (comedian) and Julianne Hough




I will predict who I think will win this competition and my vote goes to Kristi Yamaguchi and Mark Ballas

Boleyn

I have just finished The Other Boleyn Girl by Philippa Gregory. It was a long book, 735 pages to be exact and probably the largest book I have read to date. It is about....you guessed it....the Boleyns; Mary, Anne and George. The slow rise of power all the way to their deaths. The story was told from Mary's point of view and although it is a fictional story it is pretty close to what they encountered.


This book has just recently come out to theatres and I am interested in seeing how similar it is to the book. In most cases I find the books are better than the films. In this film Scarlett Johansson plays Mary Boleyn, Natalie Portman plays Anne Boleyn and Eric Bana plays King Henry VIII.


My next book is Suite Française by Irène Némirovsky.

A Book Meme

Here is what you need to do:

1. Pick up the nearest book.
2. Open to page 123.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the next three sentences.
5. Post a comment here once you post it to your blog so I can come see.

Here are the sentences from my book:

Lord Henry Percy laughed. "I'm sure I could get an indulgence," he said. "The Pope would surely grant me a dispension.

The book is The Other Boleyn Girl

Spring? Where?

This is outside my basement bedroom
window.....it is quite pretty.
<------------

This is just outside my

place and the "steps" that

lead down to the sidewalk.

--------->

This is the snowbank before the main road outside my place. If you look closely you car even see the top of a car. I was standing on the bottom of the steps.

<-------------

This is how deep the snow is as I was

walking out to see how to get my car

out.....which I could not get. The snow

was up to my knees!

-------------->

This is the only reason why I still like winter Mmmmmmmm!