2010 RE(tard)CAP

Because I have the memory of a goldfish, I have decided to do a recap of 2010 in order to relive some of the wonderful (and some not so wonderful) memories of the past 12 months. I had to rape and pillage from many friend's facebook profiles and albums to acquire this information, but I think it was well worth it. Here she is:

January: Officially moved into the condo or the Penthouse as I like to call it. Threw myself a lovely little housewarming party with much help from, well, basically everyone I know! This was the night the potato cable came out, where my cable cord was plugged into a potato so that the men could watch the hockey game. I will have to say they were not hugely impressed.
February, the Olympics had officially arrived and nothing else mattered. Insert red mittens here. We partied at the German house and the Irish House and wandered downtown in amazement at the crowds and atmosphere.
We went to Surrey house and watched awesome country concerts. Carol and I were lucky enough to scam some Olympic tickets off Katie so off we went to whistler to see a women’s downhill ski event. I basically got frost bite that morning. I convinced my mom that we could give the afternoon tickets away and spend the day at the pub. Watching the event on big screens at the Longhorn Saloon with a nice cold strongbow in my hand was much more pleasant.

March. Shelly re-meets Sean.
Sean convinces Shelly that she likes running. Sean and Shelly sign up for Sun Run. Shelly buys an all white pair of Nikes. Sean shakes head at Shelly and takes her shoe shopping. Celebrated St Patrick’s day with a little party at the pent house, followed by a visit to black forest for some green beer out of little wee mugs. Shelly cat-sits Ted while Katie’s off vacationing.


April: Rolled in style in a limo downtown for Katie’s birthday. Italian food and yuk yuks. Pretty sure there was some crying that night, but I won’t mention names. Spent a lot of time training for the Sun Run.

May: Went and saw Brooks & Dunn- floor seats at GM Place. Fantastical. Sean and I killed the Sun Run mid May with Manda and Lisa following up the rear (xox). At this point, I decided to train for the Scotiabank half marathon in June. Kokanee dies, everyone is more or less devastated.

June: Cabin fever took hold of us and a few of us girls had a fantastic trip up to the cabin. Touche! I spent my Saturdays running forever and then napping to recover. Lisa and I go up to KTown, some very interesting characters in that town. The weather sucked, we didn’t even get to suntan. At the end of June I ran the half in under 2 hours, mommy met me at the finish line. My dentist tells me that drinking vegegreens/ phytoberry is staining my teeth so I immediately cease and desist.

July: House boating up on big Shuswap. Interesting weekend. Kitty goes missing and never returns. Louie is now an only child. Nikita, Alanna, Sara and I hit the road and took our show to the Calgary Stampede. Stopped at the cabin for a night, a great little 50’s diner for grub and also hit up Lake Louise for a visit. We hit the fair pretty hard, especially the fried pickles stand. Saw a whole whack of amazing country concerts and drank too many beers. We brought home many stuffed animal friends, most notably Franklin the Turtle. We also had a bit of a learning session on the way home about family trees and also the English Royal Family. Time well spent. Feel free to quiz us, I can tell a second cousin from a cousin first removed without even trying!

August: Katie, Nikita and I hit up Whistler real bad this weekend. Hiked up at Joffre Lakes, very beautiful (minus the mosquitoes). Played drinking games all day and then partied in the village. Not a super great weekend, but one I won’t ever forget. Met some new friends. Attended Cassie’s stagette in Vancouver (my very first ever!). Her friends are awesome, it was good times.

September: Labour Day long weekend, Katie and I took a huge trip to whistler. Pretty sure both nights we didn’t make it home til well past morning. All I remember is waking up surrounded by Kimchi and Kraft dinner. Towards the end of the summer I bought a bike and rode it three times, then put it in storage to rest and rejuvinate until next year. The rest of this month as a sickly invalid. It began with me feeling a little odd and within a few hours I was flu ridden. I spent the weekend mostly at home in chills and fevers then travelled to my mommy’s so they could look after me. I went to work for a couple of days but was
really in no shape to be there. Towards the end of this flu I could tell I was getting a cold. I spent four days coughing non-stop. I tried Buckley’s, I tried a cough syrup with Codeine all to no avail. I didn’t sleep for days because the coughing wouldn’t cease. I got a bleeding nose and because of the coughing it took me an hour to get it to stop. The next morning, I picked. I’m not ashamed to say it- I couldn’t help myself. The nose bleed began once again. After failing to stem it I packed up my stuff and drove to the doctors. They saw my bleeding nose and led me to a room immediately (score!). The doctor told me I had Bronchitis, contagious, gave me a prescription for meds and told me to come back for a check up in a week. A week later I still wasn’t feeling great so I went for a check up and the Doctor told me I now had tonsillitis. After a very loud “SHUT UP”, he got me to look at the horror that were my tonsils. EWW, indeed. Took the newly prescribed meds and I was finally healthy again! phewwwf.

October. Surprise birthday party thrown by our lovely friends much to our chagrin. I’d have to say it wasn’t the most gracious entrance ever. I will direct blame toward the Carol and her dragging us around ALL DAY LONG to keep us busy. Good party though! A few days later, Amanda and Carol gift me a kitten of unknown sex. After much mulling I decided it was a boy and named him Sir Watson the Kitten and nicknamed him Boots, in case the first name didn’t stick. The first trip to the vet shed no light on the situation, the vet and her assistant both murmured something along the lines of ‘beats me’. The second trip to the vet was a bit of a shocker and resulted in the kitty having another makeover on her name. She may now be called Miss Watson or Bad Kitty for short. Please note this is also around the time that I got my first every blackberry!
November: Watson and Shelly get acquainted. I accidently put a hole in a pipe and have to bring in emergency help. Don’t worry I got to meet a cute plumber AND dry waller out of the whole thing! The bathrooms get wallpapered and re-grouted (yes, unfortunately my counters are still blue- shut up about it already). An old friend from croupier school, Jwins, returns to my world. He is shortly headed out to Ontario to become a famous actor. You heard it here first! Shelly spends most of the month on her new blackberry.


December: Katie buys a condo, shelly and katie shop for new furniture. The next five visits to Katie’s are filled with putting together IKEA furniture. I finally make it to one of Kayden’s birthday parties. Christmas decorations go up at the condo. Watson ruins the tree a billion times. Manda throws a great Christmas party at her love nest. Christmas is awesome with only a minor temper tantrum had by an unspecified Little. Boxing day the tree comes down. Sara and I, along with Carrie & Sean put on our party pants and head to Reese's for his Paul-a-Palooza boxing day shindig. Good times. Return to house at 6 am. sleep for two hours adn back home to check on kitty. She scratched me to shreds for leaving her alone all night. I am practically an abused spouse.

That's all for now folks, Happy New Year to you all! Thanks for reading my blog slash skimming it.

Like, uhm... like, y'know!

The other day Simon from work brought up "non words". A non-word is something you say when speaking outloud (usually unconsicously). It is, most often, gramatically incorrect and, even more often than that, makes you sound like a moron. Some examples of non words are "Uhmm", "ya know" or "like". I googled it for a better understanding and here's what Miriam-Webster has to say:

Definition of NONWORD: a word that has no meaning, is not known to exist, or is disapproved. First Known Use of NONWORD: 1961.

Unfortunately they didn't mention what the first ever Non word was. It was probably something silly though, like "Ack".

In our training programs we teach Instructors to notice their own non-words and to try to keep them to a minimum. Shortly after bringing up this non-word topic, Simon mentioned at his last program he used ME as his example... HIS BAD EXAMPLE! I'm pretty sure he did an impression of me using a high squeaky Valley Girl voice. "Like, uhmmm like y'know" is probably along the lines of how it went. He probably did a fake hair toss and giggled as well. The class then asked if I was a teenager and he revealed that no, I am a full blown adult (lol, apparently). He then proceeded to liken me to his twelve year old niece. Safe to say I was rather mortified and immediately made a sheet where I could mark down how many times I said "like" in a day. Three minutes later I forgot all about my new crusade. Three minutes after that Simon mentions that I had said "like" 7 times in the last paragraph I spoke. Insert blush face here

Goal renewed. I must nip this non word problem in the bud! I must, I must! Plan of action- think before I speak. Less rambling and a more consicous speech tactic. I am asking that anyone who may hear me say "like" in an innappropriate manner politely let me know. I promise not to be too offended by the correction. If I am unsuccessful in this plan of action, my Plan B involves a speech therapist. I am pretty sure it is covered under our extended medical. Maybe they can make my squeaky voice a little less squeaktastic while they're at it!

Walking while intoxicated can be a high-risk activity

I was doing some research at work and came across this little article. I was vaguely shocked at their statistics. Spoiler alert: December 23 and Jan 1 are the most deadly days for pedestrians. Tomorrow being one of those days I am rather freaked out. Also, we are planning on walking home after the concert at the casino on New Years Eve as it is really close to my condo. I am having second thoughts. Should we perhaps ride our bikes there? Or maybe it's just safer to drink and drive than it is to drink and walk? Either way folks, after having a few drinks make sure you look both ways before crossing the street.

Here's the article from the Vancouver Sun:

For all the warnings not to drink and drive, little is heard about a risky motor activity of another stripe: impaired walking.

Nearly 40 per cent of pedestrians killed on Canadian roads in a recent year had been drinking, with two-thirds of them having a blood-alcohol concentration more than double the legal limit for driving.

Of all the fatally injured pedestrians with booze in their systems, four in five had more alcohol in their blood than allowed for drivers, according to the Canadian Council of Motor Transport Administrators.
Heading into two of the deadliest times of the year for pedestrians -- Dec. 23 and New Year's Day -- experts say there's an urgent need for people to take the dangers of "drinking and walking" seriously.

"You don't think of impaired walking being a big deal, but it definitely is," says Valerie Powell, communications coordinator for the Canada Safety Council.

"A lot of times, at night, people aren't wearing bright clothing and blend in with their surroundings. And when you get an impaired pedestrian, they're not paying attention to the cars around them. That's where the problem comes in."

The CCMTA report, published this year, is based on 2007 data in national databases maintained by the Traffic Injury Research Foundation.

In the U.S., the facts are strikingly similar: according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, 38 per cent of fatally injured pedestrians over the age of 15 had blood-alcohol content at or above the legal limit for drivers, with the percentage rising to 53 per cent for deaths between 9 p.m. and 6 a.m.

These numbers, although dramatic, likely underplay the problem of so-called walking while intoxicated since many fatally injured pedestrians aren't tested for alcohol.

In Canada, for example, of the 426 pedestrians killed on our roads in 2007, 247 -- or 58 per cent -- were tested.

The figures also don't reflect those people whose impairment led to fatal injuries outside of road settings.

"We often see people who have been drinking that have fallen down the stairs or tripped at home and injured themselves," says trauma surgeon Dr. Thomas Esposito, in a statement issued by the Loyola University Health System. "Others have unwisely chosen to 'get into it' with guns, knives, bottles and fists."

A landmark study in the journal Injury Prevention found Jan. 1 has more pedestrian crash deaths, on average, than any other day of year, with 58 per cent of those killed having high blood-alcohol levels. Halloween ranks second in the data, which looks at the period between 1986 and 2002, followed by Dec. 23.

Susan Bondy, an epidemiologist at the University of Toronto, says this fits with previous research out of Ontario that found "a really clear pattern" of alcohol sales and consumption increasing during the summer and holiday periods.

"If we're drinking more, and there are more drinking occasions, it follows that the risks should increase," says Bondy. "Spacing out your drinks is a good idea, but the bottom line should be to limit the amount consumed. There's nothing magic that will turn wine into water."

holiday lolcatz.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Please note that Watson and I will be travelling to The Little's for Christmas day. The Big Breakfast will commence at 9AM I'm told. This will be followed by PRESENT MADNESS. Drinking will commence shortly after that, to be followed by Christmas Dinner. In attendance will be the original 5; grandma & grandpa; great uncle ron & aunty joyce; maggie and grandpa robert; uncle stu and his terrible 2; Peter, The Apple Pie for Breakfast Guy; assorted strays unknown.

Watson has major plans to ruin Carol's tree. Louie has plans to eat Watson. I imagine it will be a quiet, lovely day for all.

Broken ornament count: 8

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!! This years decorations on my Very first Christmas Tree EVER! are a temporary lone from mommy. The color scheme is pink and purple and it is rather awesome slash a bit excessive. Unfortunately, between kitty and myself, I believe we are at a total of 8 shattered ornaments. There are also some re-located to various corners and secret kitty hiding spots. The ribbon has been pulled off and put back on more times than I can count. My dad likened Watson to the squirrel from National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation.
Apparently there is a scene where a squirrel climbs up the tree and hilarity ensues.
I can ensure you the hilarity of the whole kitty up the tree thing has gotten old rather fast. The whole broken ornament thing makes vacuuming a necessity and that makes for an unhappy shelly. The other night I put two presents under the tree. I had wrapped them so nicely and they matched the pink and purple ornaments and I later found most of the ribbon scattered around the living room. No big deal. I'll tape it on again. To be honest the whole bad kitty thing isn't so bad. She's kind of cute for such a monster.

Last night when I was baking Gingerbread cupcakes, she jumped onto the counter to watch. A second later I look over and she is licking the stick of butter I had set out- I guess that will just a little something special to that batch of baked goods. Ps. these cupcakes were baked in pretty gold liners and are going to be topped with a vanilla & cinnamon cream cheese frosting. That topping is going to be topped with a Ginger Kid cookie. There is little doubt that they will be adorabley adorable. I might even have to post a picture. I am bringing them to our in-office Xmas party tomorrow so No, you can't have one.

PS. I am very excited for Christmas. If anyone sees Santa let him know that I've been super well behaved (mostly). Also, it woudln't hurt if he found out that my laptop is broken and needs to be replaced.
UPDATE: Here's a picture of the ginger kid cupcakes. I got to eat one because it wouldn't fit in the carrying container. Pretty delicious

half marathon madness returns

Hello all,

I just wanted to inform you that Michelle the Mad Running Machine will be back in action shortly after the new year. She will be doing two sets of three month training programs. The programs are yet to be decided, but will most likely be a beginner program Jan-March and the second will be a hard core April-June set. Her associate, Nikita Iggulden, has also enrolled herself in this race. She plans to break her previous half marathon record and finish in 1 hour 45 minutes. All others are encouraged to join.

Save the date: June 26th Scotiabank Half Marathon.