Trailer Provider

The ride today was interesting. In total I rode just under 23km which is pretty good. The ride in I was rained on pretty good, but the slicks I have did a great job of shedding the water and not spraying me with it. I was actually surprised at how little water was being thrown. I was cold on the way to work though, but still very sweaty. The twist to today’s ride is that I was towing Sprout in the trailer.

Climbing some of the hills to and from home were hard! He is not a tiny boy, and his added weight behind me led to a great workout. I think I’d like to do that again some time. The downside was that the ride took a lot longer. A 20 minute ride stretched into 45 minutes. This made me late for dropping Sprout off at daycare, which meant he had to come to work with me for a short while as the daycare provider had some errands to run. Oops.

Bike Beer

Our office is doing Bike To Work Week again this year, with some added challenges. Two people in our office have ponied up some extra prizes for participation. Each year our office has succeeded in 100% participation. The extra prizes are a beer to anyone who cracks 80 kms traveled to and from work in the week, and the person with the most mileage gets a bottle of liquor of their choice (or 6 pack).

Today was day 1, and also fday 1 for me back to work after a month off. I took a pretty direct route to work which ended up being 8.8 km. The ride home I stretched out a little so that it was 11.3 kms. This gives me a day 1 total of 20.1 kms. Nice start I would say.

Soleil Afternoon

A while ago I saw that Cirque du Soleil was coming to town. I knew Sox had been wanting to see a performance of theirs for quite a while, so I got us some tickets for her as a birthday present. This happened a few months ago.

We set up some child minding with Gramma, and we tried (unsuccessfully) to train Beet to take a bottle.

Today was the performance, and I was a little nervous about how Beet would be with Gramma. I knew Sprout would be fine since he would be napping. Without the bottle, Gramma might be in for some trouble.

The show itself was fabulous. I thoroughly loved the show. The performers were amazing, and managed to make a lot of what they do look easy. I know for a fact that juggling 7 balls is not easy. I know that the acrobatics are not easy. I know riding a bike on one wheel while facing backwards is not easy. Yet, the performers all made those actions look normal.

The music accompanying that performance was excellent, and the singer was amazing. All in all it was an extremely enjoyable show. I just thought of this now, but I almost wish I could buy a DVD of the performance so I could see it again.

Arriving home I opened the car door and didn’t hear screaming. As we climbed the stairs I saw that Gramma was reading her book. I knew then that it wasn’t a difficult afternoon like had been envisioning. Yay for sleeping babies, and yay for adult fun.

Dump Loved

I went mountain biking yesterday! Woohoo! First time in a while. It was a gorgeous sunny day that wasn’t too hot. D and I met at the dump, and did a small tour over some familiar trails, and took numerous breaks. It was heavenly. I do still miss mountain biking, and I look forward to the point in time when my family is old enough that I can get out riding on a regular basis.

Our route took us up to the Swtichbacks, then up to Snakes and Ladders. Down that trail, we then ended up on Skull, then back to the cars. We were out for over 2 hours, and I loved every minute of it.

Two legs turning two wheels is pretty simple. A lot can happen when you turn off your brain and concentrate on one thing only. I sometimes enter a zen state and have a completely empty mind. Yesterday wasn’t that kind of day and I don’t mind one bit.

Darted Camouflaged

I cleaned the fish tank out again today. There was a lot of green algae growing due to the increased sunlight, and with the new Cory’s there is a lot of extra food in the rock. It was getting bad.

I cleaned the sides, removed all the decorations, and started cleaning the rocks with the gravel vacuum. I was half way done when I saw a tiny blob that I thought was a bit of rooty material from one of the plants. When I moved the vacuum to suck it up, it darted away.

Awestruck, I quickly realized that it was actually a very tiny fish. It was less than a centimetre long, orange with black fins. I think it might be a Platy. Strange thing is, I only have 1 Platy in my tank.

Of course now I can’t find the mini fish. When I could see it, I noticed it was hugging the bottom, and hiding in amongst the rock. I worry that I somehow killed it during the cleaning, but maybe it is just camouflaged really well right now.

Angrily Confused

People are weird. I know this, and take it as a common truth.

While riding to Ultimate last night I was reminded of this. I was riding up Bay St, and was reaching Richmond. I wanted to get over into the left turn lane, so I shoulder checked. Since it was clear, I made an arm signal and moved over. At the red light I was behind a VW van. I also held my arm out to show people behind me I was going left.

When the light went green the van took off and I followed. After rounding the corner, I immediately moved over to the bike lane.

A couple seconds later, some guy in a small blue car (a Honda Fit sized car) passed me, and shook his finger at me angrily. Confused I turned up one hand to indicate to him that I didn’t know what he was talking about. He continued shaking his hand at me.

I was confused. I really have no idea what he could think I did wrong. Perhaps I didn’t clear the intersection fast enough? I was in a pretty hard gear and should have been one lower. I know I didn’t cause him to miss the advance left turn. Truly weird. Maybe he thought I shouldn’t have been on his road.

Maybe he is just an ignorant driver. I’ll go with that one. After wagging his disapproving finger at me and continuing on he approached a crosswalk with people waiting to cross. He started to slow down, then let go of the brakes and gunned it around a corner. Smooth move loser.

Afforded Headwind

Another Ulti game last night. The ride there was longer due to a change in location. This afforded me a longer warm up which suits me well actually.

The game itself was good. We played pretty well, and scored a few points. The zone was thrown on us quite a bit (still windy), so we got to work on breaking the zone. I was a popper this time instead of a handler, and I wasn’t doing a good job of it either. My timing was off from the other popper and I was frequently in the wrong place, or just a few steps off from being able to break the cup.

Then when I was handling, it seemed I did poorly at that too. My throws were getting caught by the wind and lifted way too high and out of bounds. I also missed a couple catches. Not my best showing, but I still had fun.

The ride home was hard. I kept a brisk pace the whole way home, but with a headwind and always facing into the sun, I was glad when I reached my garage.

Dwindling Afternoon

Vacation update. The days are dwindling!

Last time I mentioned we watched the parade. Since then there has been a bunch of things happen. We did a bunch of things around town, including a nice walk with J, L, and C at Elk Lake.

Then we went to Vancouver. We were there for 4 days, and had a (busy) fun time. We went to one brunch where there was 8 kids there, and 7 adults. Once Sprout got warmed up he had a great time. We didn’t leave that one until 2:30, so we ended up letting Sprout skip his nap. Waking him after a short nap results in a grumpy bear that we didn’t really want to deal with.

The next day it was another brunch with some more friends and their 2 daughters. I think Sprout had a great time there playing in the sandbox and the pool.

Then on the 26th, we went from Langley in to Stanley Park to visit the Aquarium. We spent a couple hours there, and Sprout definitely had fun. His favorite was the scuba diver in the big tank, closely followed by the beluga whales.

We came home that day. I did some grocery shopping on Tuesday while Sprout was at daycare, then Wednesday Sox took the kids to a friends while I did some things on the computer. I also had an Ulti game last night.

Today we drove up to Duncan and saw the Forestry Centre there. We rode the train (the highlight) and poked around the grounds a little bit. Finished there we ate lunch in the car on the way to Nanaimo where Sprout is having a sleepover at Gramma’s for a couple days. Yes, Sox and I only have 1 child until Sunday. We drove back to Victoria late in the afternoon, and had a leisurely dinner in front of the TV.

Injury Dent

A severe injury to a good friend.



I discovered this a couple weeks ago when I pulled my Canon S30 from its case. There is a small dent on the front, so it must have been dropped onto something pointy, and this is the result. The metal case cannot be bent back into place, and I may try disassembling the case to fix it. Amazingly the camera still works.

No idea when, or how, this actually happened though.

Earlier Zone

Ulti is such a fun game. Tonight our timeslot was at 7:30. I think I prefer playing in the earlier slot, but with family, later means I can help around the house more.

The game itself was tough since it was pretty windy. We were zoned many times which is fine if the team can handle it. Our team is pretty green so it is hard to teach them quick enough to keep up. We did ok though and played more than a few points very well which wasn’t reflected in the score ( 13-0 not for us).

I was handling a lot tonight which is great since less running is necessary. On one point when we were applying the zone, I was in the long position directing the mids. Never done that before, so that was pretty cool. This is only the second game though, and I don’t have everyone’s names down yet. Its getting better though.

I think I played pretty good. I was catching very well, my throws were pretty decent with a few bad ones due to the wind, and my defence was alright. Still working on the cardio which will greatly improve my games. It would help if there were less guys on the team and I got more playing time. Can’t have everything though.

I like the team I am playing and already I am looking forward to the next game.