01/11/2008 - New Album: Halloween 2008

I took my Zombie Walk album and added pictures from Halloween to it (forcing a name change to the album). I'm one of the zombies and the pirate, Jess is one of the zombies and the vampire, Dad is one of the zombies, Alan is the devil, Linda (Al's girlfriend) is the peacock, and Linda's sister Rachel is the dark fairy.
Enjoy!

13/10/2008 - Let's Catch Up

My Marathon:
On September 28th I ran the Toronto Waterfront Marathon. My goal was to run the distance (42.2km) in 3.5 hours. I was worried that this was an overly ambitious goal as my personal best for half that distance was 1 hour and 38.x minutes... not exactly a lot of room to slow down over the course of the run. I was even more frightened when I saw how athletic the 3.5 hour pace bunny looked (the pace bunnies are runners who run the entire race at a set pace to help other runners meet their expected times). My plan was to follow the bunny for the first 35km and, if I was feeling good at that point I would pour it on to the finish. I started off right with my bunny and noticed that every time I let my mind wander I would begin moving faster. Not wanting to burn myself out (on auto-pilot I tend to try to pass as many people as possible), I kept holding back and waiting for the bunny to catch up again. After 18km, I decided to stop waiting and just did my best to maintain a reasonable pace. Slowly, very slowly at first, I started passing more people. From the 18km mark to the very end of the race, not a single runner overtook me. I overtook many many runners and wound up beating my expected time by almost 7 minutes. Jess and Jason also had fantastic runs (they both ran the half-marathon). Despite a number of setbacks, Jess managed to come within a minute of her goal time (2 hours). Jason ran a strong race and has been inspired to run another half marathon later this month.
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The Bike:
I have been keeping up with biking to work and taking the more scenic routes (typically biking around 48km each day). In the month since I purchased the bike, I have already put well over 1000km on the thing! It rides like a dream and I would recommend the Kona Dew Plus to anyone. I'm also delighted with how much better the ride experience is when you have bicycle panniers on a cargo rack instead of a bulky backpack.
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Thanksgiving
Another season has come to an end at the resort. We closed out this year with a delicious Thanksgiving dinner with 147 guests. It's always difficult to gauge the crowd and Jess and I were asked to pick up 2 additional turkeys on the way home for the weekend. This brought the total to 16 turkeys, 60 pounds of potatoes, 50 pounds of carrots, 8 cans of green beans, 2 cases of stuffing mix, 32 pies, 40 loaves of bread, 2 cakes, and vanilla ice cream. With all of this food, not a soul left hungry. When the dust settled we still had several pies, 2 large trays of turkeys, and enough carrots/beans/potatoes/stuffing to feed a small army. Jess and I will be enjoying turkey sandwiches for a while. Oh, to top off this evening with soooo much food to begin with, Jess followed through with a deal and made deep-fried ice cream to boot! Beyond the food, it was a lovely weekend. We held a hay ride, a pumpkin carving contest, an apple bob, a dance, and a unique night hay ride. I need a long weekend to recover from this long weekend!
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Phil and Rachel
My friends Phil and Rachel are still waiting for their little bundle of joy to arrive. Rachel is now a little past her due date but definitely could go at any time. At this point I'm quite worried about losing my birthday to this child (my birthday is on Wednesday). Recently Al lost his birthday to Phil's brother's son Dylan - so it seems like losing mine to Phil's youngster would be appropriate. As of midnight tonight, I'm sure Phil and Rachel will be breathing a sigh of relief as they wait to see if their wedding anniversary will become their child's birthday.
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I think this brings us up to speed. Phew!

10/09/2008 - New Bike!!!

Several updates for you this time:
As of last Saturday I am officially registered in the Toronto Waterfront Marathon. I decided to go for the full distance rather than the half after running a very grueling 40km practice route around Lake Clear (it involved many many hills and was at the hottest part of a very warm day). If you're curious about the Toronto route, you can check out all of its 42.2km glory here. Jess will be earning herself a cake by running the half marathon distance.
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The other big news: I finally replaced my Canadian Tire Special bike with a brand new 2009 Kona Dew Plus. I had mine outfitted with a cargo rack, front and rear fenders, and a set of panniers to aid in my commute. The result is that the bike doesn't look nearly as 'cool' as it did right off the bat but it's a pretty sweet commuter bike. I took it to work this morning for the first time and my speed was up by around 5km/hr. The morning commute was over so quickly that I have decided to take a longer route to work tomorrow so I can enjoy myself a little more. When I got to work my comment was "I think I'm in love. It's a little strange with it being a bike and my being a human... but I think we can make it work".
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Lots of other events since my last shamefully old post. I went to Baltimore with Jess to pick up Maugy and had a great time doing that. We also had very nice visits with the cousins on mom's side and my cousin Katie (+ her boyfriend) on my dad's side. My uncle bill arrived at mom and dad's for his annual visit. Jess's 1992 Honda Civic finally died and was replaced with a 2000 Hyundai Accent (standard). Good times.

13/07/2008 - Running Man

It has been done. Not in an official capacity with a recognized route, a timing chip, or any other such thing, but I have now run the distance required for a full marathon. On Saturday I ran a route of roughly 43km. My overall time wasn't great but it was still under 4 hours. For those who aren't running nuts, a marathon distance is 26 miles (which is the same as 42.2 km). Unlike last week's attempt, this time I carried water in my hydration pack and I had 2 "Power Bar Gel" packs to get me through the energy crashes. As it turns out, all of these aids were quite necessary. The final 5km were quite a struggle and without the water and little energy boots, I may well have wimped out. For the first 30km, I allowed myself a drink of water every 5km to simulate about where I would find water stations on a real race course; after the 30km mark, I allowed myself to drink every time I encountered a bridge (went over one, under one, or beside one). Overall, the strategy worked and I had enough water to get myself through the entire distance even in Saturday's 30-degree heat plus high humidity; I even had enough water left for a good post-run guzzle during my cool down walk.
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Now that I've bored you enough with the story of my run, I'll go ahead and sign off for the night. Before I go, I just want to wish 2 people moving onto new phases of their lives good luck (not that I won't be hearing from them). Curtis, a guy most of you met on the famous road trip of 2005, has moved to Alberta to try his luck in the kitchens of Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise. Some may consider this an odd use of a masters degree in computer graphics; I personally can't think of a more Curtis-like way of getting there. The other person moving on in life is my now former boss Glenn. Glenn is responsible for hiring me into my current position and I'm very grateful for the opportunities I have been given. He was a great manager and was a great sounding board for ideas on any problem. Tomorrow will be my first day at the office post-Glenn; he will be missed.
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That's it. Have a great night folks.

10/07/2008 - Running Fool

Since running the Ottawa half-marathon in May, I have been trying to decide which race to run in Toronto's Waterfront Marathon/Half-Marathon in September. Having never run more than 30km before, I decided it would be best to see how far I can run before I burn out completely and use that as a gauge for which event to enter. I left on Saturday morning at around 9:30am and kept a leisurely pace. After the first 20km, I used a PowerBar Gel pack I had leftover from the half-marathon (they give them out on the run but I've never used one). As it turns out, they are meant to be taken WITH water; unfortunately, I didn't have any water with me and there was no convenient spot to grab a drink on the way. I continued in the heat and got more and more thirsty. Finally, after 37km, I stopped at a hot dog cart and purchased a big bottle of water and downed most of it at once. Once you guzzle the better part of a litre of water, you aren't running anywhere fast; I made it another 2km before this fact of life kicked in. In all, I ran 39km and still covered the full 42.2km in less than 4 hours (I still had to walk home after I stopped running). I want to try it again with a better water source along the way but right now I'm leaning towards running the full Toronto marathon. We'll see what comes of it. Right now I have to get over this sluggish feeling I've been having out on the trails. The good news is that, after a week of searching, I have managed to find a replacement water reservoir for my Camelback hydration pack.

03/07/2008 - Another Canada Day Ends

A big thanks to Willy, Cheryl, Jason, Steph, Crystal, Ryan, and Jess for keeping the Canada Day Weekend tradition alive. I have been having a Canada Day camping get-together for a number of years now and thoroughly enjoy the weekend every time no matter what the weather is. This year the rain conspired to keep us from spending much/any time in the lake and the deer flies kept us off of the trails but it was still a great visit. Jason and I tested out our new kayaks, we all saw Get Smart and got some Schnitzel at the Granary. Despite the rain, each night proved to be beautiful for sitting around a campfire and making hobo pies. As always, I look forward to next year.

A few pictures from the weekend are posted in the Spring/Summer 2008 photo album.

24/06/2008 - Fabulous rib streak ends

One day short of a solid week of rib eatin' joy, the streak has come to an end. I actually still have a few partial racks of ribs in the freezer but didn't have the patience to defrost/cook them at dinner time (plus I forgot about the streak at the last minute). Instead, I opted to enjoy a full helping on one of my remaining Curry in a Hurry meals (only 2 more before I need to go back to Waterloo to get more).
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Things are shaping up for Canada Day weekend. Looks like it will be a larger group than last year but still smaller than the university days. Attending will be Willy, Will's girlfriend, Jason, Steph, Crystal, Crystal's boyfriend, Jess, and me. A few others had talked about joining in but had difficulty getting time off. Who thought of putting July 1st on a Tuesday?

22/06/2008 - Lost: I pair of sun glasses

It's official, I have now pulled out of a kayak on the Madawaska River. Dad and I took a run today and I was flipped about half way through the route down the lower Madawaska on what should have been a fairly easy run. I wound up digging the bow of the kayak deep into a set of waves crossing over each other and did a poor job maintaining my balance. Given that I was in my dad's giant Necky Zoar Sport and that I'm quite out of practice, I pulled without attempting a roll. Next time I will try to roll back over; I also hope to be in my own boat. Even with the spill, it was a pretty good day to be out on the river. The only damage from the slip was the loss of my new sun glasses. If you happen to see a pair of wrap-around Riders floating down stream, they're mine and I want them back.
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Aside from falling into rivers, I've been busy enjoying various 'fests' in the city of Ottawa. The streak of dinner disasters was broken by an all-u-can-eat Sushi night at Sakura. The next day I enjoyed the numerous food offerings at West Fest in Westboro. Last Wednesday the Ottawa International Rib Fest kicked off down Sparks St. and I started streak of rib-eatin' goodness that has continued to today (with the help of mom making beef ribs this weekend). I have pictures from West Fest, Rib Fest, the river, and other events that I hope to post in the next day or so.
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This weekend will be my annual Canada Day gathering. Looks like the group I'll have with me will be larger than last year's gathering with Joe and Willy. I still don't have final numbers. Unfortunately, the timing of Canada Day on the Tuesday will severely cut back on celebrations as Wednesday is a normal work day. A lot of folks at the camp ground have forgotten to book the Monday off and will be going home on Sunday. I'll stick around at the resort until after the fireworks.

13/06/2008 - Dinner Disaster Week Continues

This week has proven to be exceptionally difficult in terms of finding something good for dinner. Monday, due to doggy issues, my plans of cooking up something nice for dinner were put on hold and I had an MEC Sausage Cart polish sausage. Tuesday I had the Denny's steak disaster. Determined to have something good on Wednesday, I decided to make beef ribs in the slow cooker. The beef ribs cooked down to practically nothing (a small scrap of meat loosely attached to the bone) and I didn't have much of a backup prepared. I wound up with a scrap of meat, some Kim Chi (not as good as I remembered it), and enough chocolate to make me feel gross. Last night I decided to go back to basics and have one of my favourite foods: guacamole. When I got down to making it, the first avocado was fine, the second one had seen better days but still looked usable, the rest were completely spoiled (they had somehow had their skins pierced). I went ahead with the 2 avocados and tried to make the batch. The resulting dip was very bitter and not a joy to eat. Jess and I grabbed some grub at West Fest instead. The search for a good dinner will continue tonight.

11/06/2008 - News Flash: Denny's is NOT a Steak House!

I was recently informed that my blood iron level is a little on the low side. The advice was that I take steps to increase my iron intake especially during times of the year I do a lot of exercise. I mentally transformed this advice into: James needs to eat more chicken, pork, and beef. With my new-found advice in hand, I decided I wanted a very meaty and not otherwise 'healthy' dinner last night. The original idea was to hit up Montana's for a big plate-o-wings or maybe a steak... this didn't happen. Instead, Jess and I decided to hit up the local Denny's. Denny's is not the first place that comes to mind when I think 'meaty-meal' but still a consistently good restaurant. Back with my original plan, I order their T-Bone steak with onion rings and cinnamon apples. The rings were good, the apples turned out to just be apple pie filling, and the steak was terrible. This supposedly 13oz T-Bone was wafer thin in spots, well done in some areas, raw in others, fatty all over, and somehow still about as flavourful as a brown cardboard box. All of that for only about twice the price of their beef melt sandwich (which is actually yummy)! I still like Denny's but I think that was my last Denny's T-Bone experience.

08/06/2008 - Busy Weekend

Another weekend passes and I have managed to be extremely active and, despite the activity, indulge too much food. Since I got home on Friday, I have run 42km and spent at least 14 hours walking. A brief summary of the weekend's dining habits: mini-potluck on Friday (veggie lasagna, meatloaf, duck/asparagus/egg, wine, and custard), more eating on Saturday (yogurt, fruit, more lasagna and meatloaf, cake, Pho, summer roll, various patio drinks, lots more lasagna, lots more meatloaf, chocolate), and still more eating on Sunday (Dim Sum, samples at the farmers' market, strawberries, smoothies, fruit, and chocolate). Oy!

On this busy weekend I went to Art in the Park, 2 farmer's markets, 3 patios, various other restaurants, and many 'Doors Open Ottawa' sites including: St. Andrew's Church, Carleton County Jail, Ottawa Conference Center (former train station), Art's Court (former court house), Bytown Museum (former Rideau Canal offices), Supreme Court of Canada, and Abbotsford House (former farm house).

...I'm tired.
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Mission Richmond Update:
Went to Saigon Son Pho. Their food was good and, as is always the case with Pho, inexpensive. They looked at me funny when I ordered the food 'dry' (broth separate from noodles and meat). Overall, I would go back to Pho Bo Ga 2 before taking another trip back here. We skipped Chu Shing Dim Sum in favour of a return trip to Palais Imperial. 2 new places have been added to the 'soon to try' Mission Richmond list: a Korean Table BBQ place at Sommerset@Percy and Hot Peppers Expressive Thai.

06/06/2008 - Mission Richmond

Jessica and I have made a deal. We will, throughout the summer, be eating at a different restaurant at least once every two weeks (and aiming for every week) down Richmond/Wellington/Somerset streets (they're all basically the same street). When we were on our way back from picking up our race kits for Ottawa Race Weekend we realized that there is a wealth of neat restaurants down this road and we'd like to try more. The problem is that we keep going back to our 3 favourites: The Works, MHK, Pho Bo Ga 2.

Since we started this new policy we have tried a nice Indian restaurant (I'll have to find out the name some other time) and Theo's Greek Taverna. Coming up soon we know we'll be trying Sushi 88 and possibly Chu Shing Dim Sum.

18/04/2008 - Dilbert Widget

Largely for easy access for myself:

22/02/2008 - New Photos

Hey, so it's February 22nd and I finally got around to uploading a winter background and adding more pictures to the Winter 2008 photo album. I'm still having a hard time getting the web cam to update on a regular basis. It seems to work okay but stops completely as soon as the wireless router stops working for a moment (which is at least once each day).
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Jess has been living here since October and now has a pretty nice job working for a vet on the east end of town. Since it looks like she'll be staying for a while now, we decided to move to a 2 bedroom apartment so she no longer has to live in my dining room. We're now on the 21st floor facing the river and the view is spectacular. The new banner is a small slice of one of the pictures I took of the river with ice fog floating in towards the shoreline.