I am currently trying a bottle of Lindemans Cuvée René.

It is not at all what I expected, but I think it's growing on me. It's a lambic that is a combination of old (2-3 year) and young (<1 year) vintages which are then bottle fermented. My first glass was downed straight. It hit me has quite sour but I powered through it.

As I was drinking this first cup I did a little research and discovered that this drink is traditionally enjoyed with a cube of sugar. My second and third cups were enjoyed thus. I find this mode of ingestion is much preferred.

Michelle doesn't really like it (she had one small cup) so I will be finishing this 750ml bottle on my own.

Whee!

In January I signed up for a SportsMed BC SunRun training clinic. The first session I attended consisted of running one minute and walking two minutes, 8 times. It wasn't easy. I was beat at the end of it, huffing and puffing. The first week at the clinic the meeting room was packed as well.

As the weeks have progressed, the room has gotten more spacious and the runs have gotten longer. Starting in January was tough. Lots of rain, a few sub-zero runs, some in the snow. After about the first month I became addicted to the run. I would sit at work on run days daydreaming about getting out and putting a few k under me.

Today was the first really nice day that I spent running. I headed out planning to do 45 minutes and seeing where that got me. The training schedule called for 20, 15 and 10 minute runs, each separated by a one minute walk. About ten minutes in, I decided I was going to extend the training a bit. I had my gps with me, so I wanted to try for my goal, 10k. I ran from sunset beach along the seawall into Stanley Park. I worked my way to Lumberman's Arch, and headed up and over the park, past the rose garden down toward Lost Lagoon and on home. Total time for the run: 1 hour. Total distance: 10K.

I'm not even really tired or sore right now. The next step is doing the run without any walk breaks. Soon.

Yeah.

Some sensible U.S. drug policy.

http://www.streetgangfilms.com/movies/andreas/peter/big.mov

Last post?

From the Lubbock Avalanche Journal:


"Woman Pierces Fawn's Ear"

It appears that the snow has caused our Christmas plans to change. The initial intentions were to rent a car and drive to Egmont to visit my parents, then head out from there on the 27th and hit the circle route, heading to Victoria to see Michelle's parents for a couple of days.

All of that has flown out the window with the snow. My mom called last night to let us know that Christmas has been postponed. The 5km stretch of road to their house hasn't been plowed yet and there is more snow forecast before Christmas. I'm glad she made the call because I was dreading being the bad son who called and canceled Christmas.

So, Michelle, Jennifer and I are going to have a West End Christmas. I'm roasting up a prime rib with seasonal vegetables, 5" yorkshire puddings, and trifle.

We'll still head to Michelle's parent's on the 27th only taking a bus instead of a rental.

The Tone Generation is a pretty comprehensive collection of podcasts about early analogue electronic music. There are ten shows, each about a different country.

I'm on show four right now. I'm away from home so I'm only listening on my crappy computer speakers, but I'm really enjoying the things I'm hearing. Worth checking out.

At lunch today I explained to my classmates that I had found a great podcast about early analogue electronic music and they all looked at me like I had two heads. I think I find this stranger than I should because in the show about England the host explained that one of the composers had also worked on radar technology for the UK during the second world war, and I am here for a course on radar.

It's very easy to stay indoors all the time here at the Coast Guard College. All of the buildings on the campus are connected by tunnels, so getting to class or the cafeteria does not require exiting a building.

Yesterday I forced myself outside for the first time since Tuesday night. I took a short walk from the college and took some photos of the Farley Mowat, an old ferry named the "Fundy Paradise" and some rusted out old shipyard equipment. My connection is pretty slow here so I'll probably upload when I get home.

I'm getting close to being adjusted to the time here, but I'm not quite there yet.

Date:	2008-11-11 10:03
Subject:	Three of Four Legs Down
Security:	Public
Mood:	sleepy

I did not get stuck near the perfume girls on the airplane yesterday, thank christ.

The Hilton hotel in the Toronto airport is stupid. I ate at the hotel bar. Hotel bars are usually somewhat expensive, but not $8.00 for a bottle of Kokanee expensive. The hotel had high speed internet available, but it wasn't wireless and it definitely wasn't free $16.95 for 24 hours of internet access? Are you fucking kidding me?

Sleeping sucked last night. My body was in eastern time but my head was in pacific. My head won and I got to sleep at 02:30 local time. Up at 06:30 local. I dozed a bit on one of my flights today, but I don't want to nap too much during the day, as I will have the same problem tonight, except I'm another hour ahead.

I'm at the Halifax airport now which has free wireless access. I'm trying to decide what to do about lunch. It seems my options are either greasy pub food or a Tim's sandwich. I think Tim's is about to win.

People talk funny here.

- I'm at YVR right now waiting for a flight to Toronto. I spend the night in Toronto the I do a semi-milk-run to Sydney NS tomorrow. I'm in Sydney until the 29th doing a couple of courses. The first course is a Marine Radar Principles course. In this course I will learn marine radar principles. I'm guessing this has to do with how radar signals propagate through the air and bounce of things. After this course I do a course on maintaining a specific radar (Bridgemaster II) that is located on our Cost Guard vessels. My ultimate goal with this training is to spend ~six weeks next summer/fall working as a ships electronics tech. on a Coast Guard ship as it patrols through the Canadian arctic.

- I picked up my not broken anymore bike yesterday. It now has a new fork and two new wheels as well as some new bar tape. I rode home from the shop which was the first time I had been on two wheels since July 14th, the day I landed on my face. I was a bit nervous on my way to get the bike, with some jitters right up until I got on the bike. However, once I started riding everything felt completely natural once again. I can't believe how much I missed riding. It's kind of sad knowing I'll be away for three weeks with a new-again bike waiting for me at home. I am really looking forward to riding on a regular basis again. I'm not sure when I'll start the 40k/day ride again. I would like to do it a soon as possible, but Michelle would like me to wait for a while. I have to see my doctor one more time to get the full go-ahead for the commute.

- I really hope I'm not seated near these women who are wearing way too much perfume. Am I wrong in thinking that it's rude to wear perfume on an airpplane?

Troops to teachers, really?!? Troops straight into the classroom without any certification whatsoever?!?

John McCain so whack!

Lamb makes amazing schnitzel!!!

It is so tender and pounds out so easily. It's very little work to make it wafer thin.

Mmmmm, schnitzel.

Or maybe not.

How the fuck can John McCain have gotten a boost from adding Sarah Palin as a running mate?



The money shot at the end:

I'll try to find ya some and I'll bring em to ya!

I think my head is about to explode.

Michelle and I are in search of a new computer for our home. She needs to be able to run AutoCAD so that she can do homework and keep up to speed in her course. Our (almost) 5 year old Powerbook won't run AC 2009 by any stretch of the imagination.

So, we need something new. We are planning on staying in the realm of Mac, but that's where our decision process has stalled. I have looked at the Mini, thinking that we could get a relatively large screen and save a bit of $$ on the hardware, but I don't really think it will be up to the task of running the program. Michelle's heart is set on a new laptop but we can't squeeze the $2000 for a new MacBook Pro and with a MacBook we would need to buy another screen so that she doesn't get a headache working drawings on the 13" screen.

I am leaning towards an iMac. The screen will be a goodly size for now and the performance should be able to handle the CAD (running windows, of course)...

It's going to be a pricey weekend.

Date:	2008-09-14 11:35
Subject:	R.I.P. DFW
Security:	Public
Mood:	sad

On Charlie Rose

I recently read the re-release of his 2000 essay from the Rolling Stone on the McCain media circus.

I was looking forward to new things from his pen.

http://wellmedicated.com/inspiration/50-incredible-film-posters-from-poland/

Cats!!!

Michelle and I are seeing the first fruit from our indoor garden. So far, the only fertilizer we have given this plant is "worm tea" from our vermicompost.