a toonie

A toonie is what one of my colleagues gave me yesterday as a contribution to a gift for another one of our colleagues who is having a baby.  A toonie.  That's 2 dollars.  One coin.  That doesn't even cover the gas it cost me to drive to the mall to get the damn gift.  I mean, really, it's insulting, no?  I went on this rant with my mother yesterday and she pointed out that I don't know everyone's situation, and so shouldn't judge.  The thing is, that I know how much this woman makes, and so I judge.  Her situation is obviously that she was raised by wolves or something.  I understand you might not want to contribute - so don't.  Don't sign the card, and don't waste my time with a toonie!  And then, to top it off, I had to miss the damn meal where we gave her the gift today because I got stuck in a meeting.   But all was not lost, because I did accomplish quite a few things on this fine Friday:

• Booked my ticket to New York, and on points to boot!  I leave in 6 weeks.  More details on this trip to come in a future post.
• Had lunch with Christie, who just came back from NYC and so had some great tips.  Including where to get the best pancakes.  Now if only I could remember what that place was called.
• Bought a new pair of glasses.  My old ones are very old and not at all cool.  So I got a new pair.  As pictured here. The pink on the inside is pretty awesome.  As a bonus, the store was having a promotion/sale/charity thing where if you bring in 10 items for the Food Bank, you get 100 bucks off the frames!  Such a great idea.  

They are called Holland Park.  They are rad.

• When I got home I went for a great run along the river.  It was a full moon and a chinook.  Pretty great. 
• After the run, I rewarded myself with a burger and fries from Boogie's Burgers.  I wish I had taken a picture of the burger.  It was damn good.  And the fries were also awesome.  I recognize that eating like a glutton after going for a run is somewhat counter-productive, but it's a Friday night and eating a salad just felt unfair.  Plus I have absolutely no veggies in my house right now.

math and exercise

So like an idiot, I went and signed up for this run again. Just like last year, I have 8 months to physically and mentally prepare myself for the race, but this time I will hopefully actually stick to the training plan and not suffer in agony for the longest 10 kms of my life.

To that end, today I hit up the gym at my new place of employment. It just opened this week and is a great perk of the new job. Having a gym on the 2nd floor is nice when it's -37 (for reals ... this weather sucks) outside and the last thing you want to do when you get home is leave again. Now, there are a few restrictions of the company gym: it's pretty small (only 8 cardio machines along with some free weights); it's only open 6am-6pm Monday-Friday; and there is a fee. Yep, we have to pay to play. The cost? Sixty bucks for the year. For those of you counting, that makes it $5 a month, $1.25 a week, or 0.25 cents a day. Best deal in town.

One of the funniest things about being a member is that in order to gain access you not only have to pay your fee, there is a mandatory information session. As previously mentioned here and here, my new employer is a big fan of safety. And so, we all had to spend an hour with a trainer from the YMCA who demonstrated the fine art of how to properly use a treadmill, because anything can happen when that mechanical belt starts moving.

good news/bad news pt.2

good news = this past weekend was a getaway to the mountains with 4 of my favourite girlfriends

bad news = the weekend was rudely interrupted by a 10K road race, for which I did not train - at all

good news = I finished said race

bad news = race included a 1.8 km uphill, at altitude, meaning I walked at least 1.8 kms, making my time ridiculously slow

good news = race was followed by beer, burger, hot tub, sunshine, more beer, birthday cake, wine, chips, cheese, wine, pasta, wine, dancing, vodka, oh, and more vodka

bad news = hangover

it's the little things

Running on warm summer's evening = fun.

Getting caught in the rain while on said run = still fun.

Getting caught in a torrential downpour = not so fun.

Being offered a ride by a shirtless man in a pick-up truck = purely Calgarian.

This is a picture of my shoes ... they were soaking. Sadly the moisture doesn't really translate well into the photo. But I'm including it anyway.

anything but running

So I'm supposed to be training for the Seattle Half-Marathon, but am managing to do anything but. The problem is that I'm just not that motivated ... not sure why, because I do enjoy running (sort of) and the satisfaction that comes with having completed a goal (sort of). The issue is that the goal is 2 months away, and if there is one thing I'm really good at, it's procrastination. So today I am thinking of all the great things I can do instead of go for a run: read the paper (which was foiled because the two best sections, Review and Focus didn't come today ... ); clean my bathroom (it really is disgusting); open my mail (I have a tendency to let it pile up); watch hockey (first round playoff time, although I don't really care about the afternoon game today - my Sens aren't on til tonight); have a date with my PVR - plenty of good tv and movies saved for a cloudy day like today; and finally, what I really want to do is eat a blizzard - namely the tin roof brownie blizzard. So tasty.