A Frog in BC: January 2005

The Weekend to End Cancer

I've done it again ;) I've recently signed up for yet another challenging fundraiser. This year, in August (19-21), I am walking 60 km through Vancouver to help raise money and awareness about breast cancer. There is a little catch: to be able to walk, I must raise at least $2,000. I've never raised this much money but I do not doubt you'll help me, once again, reach this goal. Last October, many of you made generous contributions to the Run for the Cure event. In only a few weeks, I raised $450!

I have my own page on The Weekend to End Cancer web site. From this site, you can donate online using a credit card or you can download a donation form and send it in with a cheque.

As far as the physical challenge of walking 60km goes, I have already started some training to run another 10km (the Sun Run, in April) and afterwards, will continue working on long walks around Vancouver (and certainly a few hikes during the Summer).

Playing chess

As a gift for hosting them for the past few weeks, Lara and Charles offered me a game board. It's a combination board that lets you play several games, chess, backgammon, checkers, dominos, cards, etc. For the past two evenings, we have been playing chess. So far, I am undefeated but I think I will have to fight hard to remain victorious. My opponents are sharpening their skills as we speak :-)

Cone-head cat and wearing drycleaner outfits

Oh boy, what a weekend. Nothing as expected, but a great occasion to rest, nonetheless.

Last Thursday, Puzzle was operated to avoid unnecessary proliferation of cats. To prevent her from licking her wound, the vet fitted a plastic cone around her head. It was funny at the beginning, less so when she was walking around at night bumping into furniture, walls, doors. Today, she seems to have accepted her faith and stopped fighting to get it off. I'm sure she's looking forward to not wearing it anymore.

Our weekend in Whistler was a wash-off, literally. It poured the entire time. Until Saturday morning, we were still thinking we might make it, but on our way to the slopes, we realized this wasn't going to happen. The village was quiet, there was a lineup at the ticket booths to get refunds and skiers were wearing plastic over their coats, the type that drycleaners use to protect your clothes once they have cleaned them. Tucker and I did a bit of shopping to find a gift for his sister, rented a movie and headed back to the lodge. We spent most of the day watching TV, reading newspapers, and napping. We played "spot the Vancouver landmark" while watching i-Robot. We were back in Vancouver early today. After so much inactivity, I had to go to my yoga class this afternoon to shake the lethargy out of my body. I feel much better now!

Not entirely sure what they are made of...

Last night, Lara, Charles and I watched Super Size Me, the filmed experiment of a guy who goes on a 30-day McDonald's binge where he eats three square meals a day at the fast-food store. Needless to say you shouldn't do that. But the DVD has some additional features, including an experiment called The Smoking Fries. In this experiment, he takes a bunch of McD burgers, a corner store burger and home made fries, and McD's fries. He places each item in a glass jar on his desk and waits to see what will happen (this is all happening at room temperature). Well, as you can imagine, the food starts getting really moldy and gross, smells terrible... except for the McD fries. After 10 weeks (10 WEEKS!) on the counter in a glass jar they had not decompose and did not have the slightest trace of fuzzy growth on them. Food is supposed to go bad after a while, so what the hell do they put in their fries?

The tradition of the Sunday brunch

Some pictures from Sunday brunches with the Gogal family. These brunches are part of a tradition to celebrate birthdays and get the family together on a regular basis. In the pictures, you will see Gail, Tucker's mom, and Sydney, the recent addition to the family (she's the almost month old daughter of Tiffany and Brent).

Sydney slept for the entire brunch, what a good girl!

Guess who?

Gail and Tucker

Tucker and Garrett

Baby Sydney and Gail

No more snow

It only took one day of heavy rain to clear 95% of the snow we had on the ground in Vancouver. And with the next seven days of rain on the forecast, I don't think we'll have anything left from the snowfall of 2005 ;)

Finally did some snowboarding!

Yesterday afternoon, I finally went out for a couple of runs on the snowboard and I have to say, I did pretty well. I had asked Tucker to coach me and help me get back to being able to make a few turns, just so I would feel comfortable and prepared for my two-day course at Whistler next weekend. We drove to Mount Seymour, on the North shore across the water from Vancouver. We had perfect conditions, the snow started falling as soon as we hit the slopes and the runs had received fresh snow in the past few days. Falling off the snowboard can be painful when the snow is hard but last night, I was landing in wet powder.

I'm hoping the weather's not going to get too hot over the week. Hopefully, the conditions can stay cold enough for us to get good snow. Last time we went, it was actually hard and icy, not good terrain to learn on.

Back to the day-to-day routine

Holidays are fun, but they are not great for keeping good habits. I ate too much cheese (Quebec has really amazing goat cheeses!), didn't move around much... This weekend, I officially started my old routine again. Back to the gym for yoga classes and cardio/weight workouts. I might sign up for the Sun Run in April, another 10k motivator :-)

I also started a studying schedule to prepare for the CCNA. The CCNA is the first level of certification on networking, a created by Cisco and recognized throughout the world. It's a pretty big exam and it will take a couple of months to cover the content I need to understand to pass the test. But I've been working in networking for two years now and it would be good for my knowledge to be recognized. Being certified is also a nice addition to my resume.

Five days after the first snowflakes and the streets and sidewalks are still covered. It's been unusually cold, well, not that cold, but cold enough to leave the snow on the ground. I told Lara and Charles that they were to blame, afterall, they left Montreal to avoid the winter and now the winter is here ;) I'm sure that in a few weeks, this will all be history. Good skiing conditions though!

Snow in Vancouver?

Yes, once a year, Vancouver does get some cold weather for a few days. This is that time of the year. Today, it snowed about 5cm and created havroc on the entire city. Think of it, drivers not used to the driving conditions, no winter tires and no salt or sand on the streets. Deadly combination! But the public transit system was working as usual. Good day not to have to drive around :-)

Almost one week that I'm back from Montreal and the living arrangements are working out fine. Lara and Charles and Puzzle the cat are living at my place until February 1. They have found a place, but it wasn't available until the end of the month. Let's say that it's really cozy! And Lara is cooking for us every night. It's nice to come home to dinner, what a luxury!

The first week back at work was quite hard, but the workload is lighter, fortunately. It's more about preparing for the next few releases, noting down a few things that we didn't have time to do, planning resources and schedules. Not too bad.

I was shocked when I received my property assessment yesterday. The value of my property has increased by 41% over the past year! Good thing is, city taxes are not increased proportionally. I think the city of Vancouver had to put a cap on property taxes collected a few years back. The value of land is so high that the city has been collecting more than it should. It's all good news, buying a condo here was a great decision! Now if all the snow can melt and winter go away... no, wait, that's February ;-)