Below are the 16 most recent journal entries recorded in studog3's LiveJournal:

Tuesday, August 29th, 2006
6:41 pm	Polo fun is back Tonight I'm getting the regular season of polo back into full swing. Soon I will have the look of a drowned rat, and constantly smell of chlorine. So maybe I enjoyed the break. I've tried yoga, and Salsa, and escaped to the rockies. Good summer. I can't believe it's over. If you're in my hood and want some apples, help yourself! Current Mood: mellow (4 Comments |Comment on this)
Tuesday, July 25th, 2006
10:14 pm	Happy Birthday to me! Thanks for a great birthday folks! I think that's the best turnout I've had since I turned 16! It was nice to see everyone too. So Jillybean - do you have plans for this weekend? Where do you want to go (I'm off this Friday - YESSS....) (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, May 8th, 2006
11:22 am	Finally! Hey kids - sorry - long time no blog. Recent developments really should have been added earlier and inputted with much more detail, but here's the highlights. Yay! Water Polo is done! With a big bash of a send off with Edmonton hosting the first years CNWPL finals. Lots of growth to happen here, but Edmonton pulled it off, taking the 6th & 7th place finishes. But here's to getting Edmonton pumped for water polo, and working on putting together a kick ass team for next year! Lots of new talks, initiatives, boards and rule defining going on (like does Canadian water polo NEED to include getting the CRAP kicked out of you - sounds like a firm NO from the majority of Sr. Canadian teams.) The hope is that taking the violence out of the Senior level of the game will encourage our older & wiser ladies back into the sport, and make the Senior level, actually a Senior event (not the one or two seniors accompanied by a Youth aged team as it is currently). Lots of excitement there, and that's with water polo essentially being over! Also new in the agenda...I FINALLY got that new job guys!! I have another week and two days left at Westcorp, and the Wednesday I start at Rosslyn Place as the Recreation Coordinator for Seniors! Essentially I will coordinate volunteers for the programs i set up, so it's giving me some supervisory experience that I need, and gives me a pay raise! Yay! I'm NOT going to become an electrician! So that's what happened last week (good week!) When something new happens this week, I'll update again! Current Mood: chipper (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Friday, April 21st, 2006
12:01 pm	counting down to springtime freedom! Ahh...it won't be long now, that water polo will be over and my evenings will belong to ME!! Edmonton is hosting the Senior women's CNWPL Super Finals (with a whole 7 teams attending) for the culmination and high acheiving status of this season with the UA team. We'll be crushed. Soon it will be over. I can't wait. It's taken a whole lot of work, $$ and begging? to get this team to participate, but we've managed to scrape our way into it. We are hardly competitive, which is the main reason for the crew's apprehension. But at least we've gotten to play, and are putting ourselves on the map for Canadian Water polo. They know we exist now. *yay*. Wish us luck! (4 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, April 13th, 2006
9:15 am	Kite Runner I've been staying up late every night reading lately. The Kite Runner was claimed by my sister to be the best book she's ever read. With a recommendation like that, of course I'll read it. I have to say I found it fairly dull for the first half, but the second half is everything it says on the cover..."breattaking", "powerful". I'd have finished it last night, but it was 1 a.m. and I've been late for work...everyday...again... Current Mood: mellow (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, March 9th, 2006
11:39 am	Ski cynics I'm just realizing I haven't put a post up about my weekend. I'm still on a buzz from it so...to share... I made a trip out to Fernie for some skiing fun with my friend Nimcan & some folks we've been skiing with for a couple of years now. (Okay...I'M skiing...they all board.) The ride out was long, loud & fun, but full of good people. I was a little concerned at first. Nimcan and I were originally staying with a girl we didn't know, and at the last minute (Thursday actually) we find out her boyfriend is coming along. A little disappointed at the last minute mystery tag along was going to infringe upon our "Girls room only" I protested with "I hope she's not a ho". But based on the knowledge of the kind of guy that the organizer is, and she being his friend, I was assured that these were needless concerns. So met her and her man on the bus and were very cool people, he was a riot, she was an abrupt sweetie, and both were mature to not be one of those folks calling out "Chug, Chug, Chug" or drinking rye from a rock glass (on a bus???) until they puked and passed out at the back. The roomies received the "Karen's nod of approval". Yay - 7 hours & too many wasted girlfriends of the mid bus party crew later...finally at the lame hotel...that I'm happy to say upgraded it's interior decor to remove the red carpet (that harmonized only to the color blind with with the green sink & tub), and the bedspreads actually worked with the room colors rather than against them. But hey - the room has a microwave & fridge. Excellent. Now to the best day I've had in my life...for as long as I can remember. It's probably an exageration, but it was a wicked assed day that just kept getting better. You know the kind you get blindsided by. Day started out kinda rocky. Roomies got up earlier than I would have liked, never really got back to sleep. But rolled out of bed, groggy as per usual. Made a trip down the street for the ski bunnies breakfast of champions...bacon & egger combo. Got on the bus, got rolling, and half way up to the hill I clue in that I did not bring my ski boots. Dumb ass...now I gotta waste my time trying to beg the bus driver to bring me back, cab it, or rent them. So I opted to rent them. Then I opted to rent the full meal deal, try out some different skis and see what the hype/difference is. OH MY GOD DID I HAVE A GOOD DAY ON THE HILL. I am getting myself a pair of these babies. These are little fatter & faster than what I have, and they were so responsive I could make quick turns easy, with little work. The hill was simply splendid. Perfect temperature which warmed during the day that I actually got hot, blue skies and a fresh layer of snow. Skiied on powder for the first time...and liked it. Any other time I've tried I sink in and lose my tips at the front. These allowed me to float on the top. So good. Skiied the trees, skiied the big flats, filled my need for speed for the day. Wicked awesome I tell you. Tired, but happy. But oh no! It gets better! We head to the hotel, clean up, have pizza for dinner at BPs. The bus driver (who is actually a driver for Edmonton prison's...hmmm) was nice enough to drive a group of us to downtown Fernie to look for some good time for Saturday night. The place that was supposed to be the hub of the "Grizz days festival" wasn't hopping yet (understandable at 9:00). I even managed to grab a table and was in the middle of a drink order when I was told we were leaving. Fine. Cancel that, then moved over to the rest of the crew to see NO ONE moving to leave. oookkkaaayy...Eventually we do get moving and our large party bus starts breaking into smaller groups. We head to one of the three places left to check out, they won't let us in for another 15 minutes, and see the sign for our last resort...Hey..DJ and they have armchair cynics playing. Not sure who that is off the top of my head (who can keep track of bands these days, Arcade Fire, Fall out boy, Metric...who's who??) But I know they don't suck and may actually be worth seeing. So the bus gang head down to the tiny basement known as phat city, to a cool assed DJ playing funky James Brown inspired beats, with some new twists. Some actually get me on the dance floor to bust some moves. Then, under the disco ball lights is *heavenly sounds* a foosball table. Yes it's true, I get a little excited at reliving my youth of playing foosball in my Jr. High basement. I adopt Nimcan as my partner, though despite her obvious lack of skills in the foos, she is a fiercely competitive sort and she's always game. Gathered up the tag team of Jason & Darren and DEMOLISHED THEM!! So addicted to victory we were, we owned the table against the cocky young lads that next presented themselves for further defeat. It wasn't until the younguns came forward that I started scoring from defense in my traditional fashion. With Nimcan's learning curve, and my D working for us...we were unstoppable. Until the boys loonies ran out, and our drinks were empty of course. We danced to a few more funky tunes, chatted & giggled with the bus tour gang. And then out they came. The Armchair cynics. (Ok - I totally haven't figured out this links thing...so here is the addy if you want to look...http://www.armchaircynics.com/) And the place was still pretty empty. All the more room to get the groove on :) The band was great, it took a couple songs to get me going, but the third one in was one I recognized (Bang) so I got up, and didn't sit down for the rest of the night. My legs were aching from a day of hard skiing, the band wasn't letting up (until the drummer kick a hole in his drum...I thought the show was over...but they prevailed) and they played hard & played solid through the whole night on a teeny little stage with four of them on it, and drunken dudes throwing their jackets on their sound boards, OR completely falling on to the stage, nearly taking out the lead singer. I thought he may have lost teeth on the mike. But he was cool, told the dude no worries and I spent the rest of the night feeling like an unintimidating bouncer/babysitter for the band. Excellent band, excellent show. Good times. I'm still on a high from that day. It was just one of those days that you just weren't expecting it...and it just turned out so good. :) Current Mood: jubilant Current Music: It's high time you found diamonds in this coal mine... (Comment on this)
Friday, March 3rd, 2006
9:22 am	Why does escaping for a mini holiday, not really seem like much of a holiday? I'm heading off to Fernie this weekend for days full of snow, sun & beers. I'm looking forward to leaving work and water polo behind for a bit, but the thing is, I'm going to be so exhausted by the end of it, I will want a weekend after my weekend, but will have somehow figure out a way to recover DURING the week instead. (What, like maybe go to bed at 10:30?? BAHAHAHA) I was up until 1:00 packing because I worked until 11:30 - picked up groceries on my lunch. There will be no sleeping on the bus, no sleeping in..:(. I'm all happy with the sewing machine jillybean gave me - it was so nice to be able to quickly stitch up a hole in the pant leg of my ski pants. (This big tear on the outside basically collected a nice pile of snow for me at the bottom of my pants after a day of skiing - loverly). Other than my eyes feeling heavy, and my wishing to extend the morning by a couple more hours, I'm packed and good to go where cool crisp air wakes you and new terrain will get me pumped for two days! Jillybean I hope your getting your skis out for this snow too! (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, February 22nd, 2006
9:17 am	Out & about Long time no blog. Lot's been happening. Going to see stomp tonight. Heather is now 26. Ate too much for her birthday dinner at Maurya Palace...mmm Indian. Tharin was here for a day, got a quick visit. Played Water polo against a Winnipeg team all weekend. I don't know how I'll hack a 6 game weekend (at the end of April). Three games tapped me. Still on the job hunt. Nothing that I fit into yet. Set the date for Skyline. I'm already excited. I'm going to keep my schedule very open this summer to get out to the rockies more. Oh yeah...and my greatest accomplishment...almost debt free! I've paid off all of credit as of this month, and have two more car payments to make...and then I can save/spend money on myself...and be able to afford it. It's kinda started already...it feels great! Three years of buying myself NOTHING has finally...meheh..paid off! (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, September 21st, 2005
3:09 pm	20 random facts Time starts now (I better get this done in five minutes, cause that's about as many people as I can tag) ;) 1. I am addicted to the obscure game of waterpolo. 2. I was born Canadian. 3. Parents & most of my fam are British. 4. I like critters despite annoying allergies to most of them. 5. I believe in balance & cycles. 6. I think I'd make a great food critic. 7. Keeping my family close keeps me in Edmonchuck 8. I think I'm smarter than my grades in school ever demonstrated. 9. I'm addicted to fresh air. 10. We should have four day work weeks instead of five. 11. In my future I will push to legislate for more leisure time. 12. Too bad we are pretty addicted to material things, which is what I'm currently blaming for working MORE than a five day work week. 13. Ack!! I'm at five minutes. 14. I am currently hard at work ;) 15. I have a phobia of math. 16. My friends are intelligent fun people. 17. I'm a ferocious nailbiter. 18. I like people in general and believe people are inherently good. 19. I'm okay with eating dirt. 20. I'm a dork. Not a geek, nerd or something that could help me out a bit. Just a dork. I also don't know how to tag things... Current Mood: cheerful Current Music: muffled weight room music (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Friday, September 16th, 2005
9:02 am	Work and Polo Long time, no blog. Been keeping busy of course. I've changed my schedule a bit to accommodate water polo kick starting again. I have cut down my hours in St.A and work late Mondays, and now teach 6 year olds how to swim Tues, Thursdays just for a change of pace. It's great working with kids again. My highlight is getting on of the girls that has taken this level a few times to put her head underwater by the fourth lesson! Still got full time too, not too much exciting there. Water polo had it's first practice on Wednesday and I have to say the first days turnout concerns me. Our price has gone up a fair bit, and may have turned some people off. I don't know if all the experienced players didn't come to the first day because they didn't want to swim with alot of green players or what. There was a total of 22 people. I budgeted for 50 to join...and my nails get a little shorter. Regardless it looks like we'll have a great women's team, and probably a guys team too. I can't get into the water myself for a couple more weeks. I have a shoulder injury I'm nursing that I don't want to reinjure. It's hard to watch everyone else swimming and getting in shape though. I should be in soon! Current Mood: content Current Music: muffled weight room music (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Wednesday, July 27th, 2005
8:54 am	2 weeks of insanity... I am exhausted. Great way to start off a 6 day trip, no? The past two weeks I have crammed so much into a day, its unreal. I've run a kids waterpolo camp, held a transforming waterpolo meeting, put together a company BBQ that was well attended, wrote an AFLCA exam (for the second time), was spoiled for my birthday, which I could have done without and had more time for practical stuff, worked, picked up carpet, saw Tharin off (a few days early but in good time), painted the basement, carpeted the basement, made furniture, packed for backpacking (thanks to Christine for taking over the food, and making a splendid menu) and of course worked. I'm not exactly sure how and why everything had to happen in a couple of weeks...but I haven't stopped...I'm really looking forward to sleep in the mountains. HOLIDAYS!!! Current Mood: exhausted Current Music: muffled gym music (Comment on this)
Wednesday, July 13th, 2005
8:19 pm	Are we there yet? Working and working. Kind of out touch with the rest of the world...haven't been reading or watching the news. I catch tidbits on the radio and that's about it. Done a bit of work in the garden...still so much to do. My sister has moved out of the house and in with her man. As a result, I got to participate in this odd pasttime called "shopping". Bought some furniture pieces to replace the ones she'll be taking. I'll be moving into the basement for the sole purpose of having my own bathroom. :) Glen is around. Trying to change my mind but not change my mind. Yeah, very confused. Looking forward to some distance. Looking forward to K country. Looking forward to Mt. Assiniboine in 2 and a half weeks!! Are we there yet?? Current Mood: gloomy (Comment on this)
Tuesday, July 5th, 2005
12:51 pm	Long weekend is over... After a very late Thursday of waiting at the airport for the letdown that my partner in camp wasn't going to come due to pre-paranoia of pot. Yes, I have been dating someone so opposed to pot we will probably break up for it. How we got this far, one will never know. So after coming to terms that there is only so much that I can do around a campfire with my friends, I continued to pack until 3 a.m. to leave to William A Switzer to meet my old buddies and play catch up because I've seen very little of them of late. When realizing that I came solo their immediate reply was "We don't want you to date him anymore", and gave much relief to the rest of the troops that they didn't have to be paranoid about his paranoia. The day proceeded with the burning of a great big fatty. The rest of the weekend was mostly spent around a fire, drinking, smoking and preparing meals. I think I've gained five pounds from the weekend alone. Ok, maybe 10. I didn't get to hook up with jillybean74 or tblumens on their romp up to Indian Ridge or Wilcox. Too early and too far. I did get to watch Nimcan and her new beau go fishing. No fish. I giggled with Kelley and then romped in the bush and followed some deer trails. Found some nice fishing spots...I'm gonna buy me a Canadian Tire rod. I saw a kid with a cool spiderman one! Sunday I made a nostalgic trip out to Cadomin, even went into the cave. Thought about going higher, but there wasn't much of a trail and it was super steep. 38 minutes there. So the rollercoaster has been nothing but sweet since (he's very good at that after the fact), but it's just not sitting well. It's hard to walk away from someone when they are being uber affectionate. Current Mood: contemplative Current Music: Muffled weightroom music (5 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, June 15th, 2005
3:27 pm	Motivate Me! Had a lovely weekend in Jasper with the Chiks. Was feeling the repurcussions for the next couple of days. Decided that the liners in the socks worked better for me. Although only two days still produce hot spots and blisters on my "unhappy" feet. Loved the Hot Springs. I felt odd to go to bed in a tent thoroughly warm and squeaky clean. Saw lots of wildlife. HAHA - I saw a bear! and elk and sheep and woodpecker of a grey variation, and other big unidentified birds. Anyone know the difference between hawks and eagles? Something to learn for the near future. Was pretty happy with all the flora I was able to identify without the help of that teeny little flower book we have. Came home. Did NOT break up with Glen as predicted. It was nice to see him so I was easily coerced out of my frustration after a bit of venting. :) Back to the same old same old with work. I'm bored with this job and have motivational problems, but I'm sure that's the same for most of us eh? Some weeks are great and I get alot done. Today has been brutal and I don't know why I'm here and have a long list of things to do at home that I could be much more productive and spending my time with. Looking at trying the "Rec Therapy" avenue. It seems I have the qualifications for this field but I think I may need to take some courses to get updated or something. It seems that once you attach the word Therapy to Recreation, the pay doubles. Not a huge number of jobs out there - but wish me luck! Current Mood: bored (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, June 1st, 2005
11:52 am	Delayed reports A bit of a delay I know, but had an interesting weekend to note on... Saturday May 28 - First day of outdoor waterpolo had a good turnout. Enough to play a game and enjoy the sunshine! Even managed to turn my pasty whiteness into a white creaminess. Rode my bike around town getting ready, inspected and registered for my first triathlon of the season at Coronation. Got reinvited to a wedding which was set in the outdoors at the Provincial museum. Gorgeous day. Didn't need to change to head over to the Royal Glenora Club (for the first time ever) for my 10 year highschool reunion! It was about what I expected. The people I was looking forward to seeing didn't come, and you spend the evening "checking out" everyone, double taking with recognition, then trying to remember their name, and deciding whether or not you wanted to talk to them. Most I didn't - wasn't feeling terribly social. I caught up with my friend Nadia who is studying immunology in St.Louis, and lives in Nelly's old hood! (He actually holds the high score in the local bowling alley!) I sat at a table where I was the single person with an Arts degree surrounded by Dr's and Engineers. Kid you not. Thank god the food was good. Thank god I had a good excuse to leave early. Yes I paid $50 for an evening of awkwardness. Sunday May 29 - Got an unexpected but welcome wake up call to get my sorry ass out of bed from Glen, who also came by providing a good morning coffee to help get my triathlete ass to the races on time. Who could ask for more? Rode my bike over and was feeling fine until Sue (Christine's coach) asked me to swim first in our lane. Yeah - she passed me on the first length. Whoda thunk that my swim time would be so different without 500m of warm up? Swim - 1000m - 17:55. The ride was much better than expected as the grade on the road of Groat is much nicer than the sidewalk I usually ride. Because my swim time is faster I always seem to get stuck in a part of the race between the guys and the girls, and ride mostly by myself and have no one to compare myself to. The wind was against you rolling down so it made your downhill speed the same as your uphill. Good ride though - 24 km - 55:21 - The run was pretty similar too - the uphill was not as evil as I was expecting and didn't slow me down too badly. I actually beat my training counterpart on the run! (by a whole minute...) My knee started to cramp up at the top of the hill, but not too badly and I managed to run through it. - 8 km - 42:27 Total time 1:55:53 placed 17/44 in my age group. I took a good nap after that! (Comment on this)
Wednesday, May 18th, 2005
1:27 pm	My garden loves the rain I put in the last bits and pieces into my garden last night, got my knees and feet completely dirty and heavy with mud in the process, but it was a good time. I am a bit upset though because I have a horrific canadian thistle problem, and I'm not sure if continual weeding will really help. It's was unfortunately inherited by rental neighbors that have a large garden plot that allowed the thistle to grow 6 ft high before we got an early dump that flattened it. We now have new neighbors that have at least cleaned up the plot, but now I get to deal with the aftermath in my vegetable garden! I can go out everyday and find new shoots. Persistent, large, fast growing buggers I tells ya. Not to mention my backyard seems to consist mostly of dandelions also. But this year I'm putting in strawberries, the usual lettuce, zucchini carrots, potatoes, peas and beans. I have a little more space at the end... I'll find something new for that spot. The rain has certainly dampened my allergies today too! :) I feel like I've had a headcold for about two months...finally some relief!! My first tri is in a week and a half! Not expecting an amazing performance, but I've learned alot about myself physically lately - I hope to be able to put into good practice for this race. Races are always exciting! Current Mood: moody (3 Comments |Comment on this)