Fundraising

I had the pleasure of encouraging my friend Steve through a fundraising stunt that had him post 48 blog entries in 24 hours, all in an effort to raise funds for the Montreal Childen's Hospital Autism Clinic. Steve raised almost $1,800, which is incredible. His initiative was also the focus of an article in the Montreal Gazette on Saturday. In the article, Steve talked about the 24 hours of blogging really being a stunt, maybe a bit of a silly way to raise funds for a cause, just like walking two days for breast cancer. I had a laugh when I read this, because indeed, this is what I'll be doing during The Weekend to End Breast Cancer in September.

A lot of fundraising these days is done through such "stunts". Some are physical challenges that most people could train for and complete safely (CIBC Run for the Cure 5km run for breast cancer, or The Weekend, for example), while others are incredible endurance events that most people would not sanely embark upon (Running the Sahara, 7,000 km in 111 days straight by three endurance runners, raising money for clean water in Africa). I think the common thread of all these events is that not only do they raise funds, but they also raise awareness. When the media covers the different stories, they also publish some background about the illness, or issue. That, I think, is the key driver behind the stunts. It also gives the opportunity for people who want to get involved to feel like they are physically doing something to help a cause.

I challenge you to get involved in a fundraising event in the future. Find an activity that you enjoy doing (you can walk, bike, dance, and even write blog posts) and raise funds for a cause that is close to your heart. Then, tell everyone that you know about your initiative. The biggest donations often come from the most unlikely sources, friends you haven't seen for ages, colleagues you don't know very well... But as I have discovered, raising funds is not that hard because people are really generous and want to encourage you. To this day, I have raised over $7,000 for breast cancer research, $1775 for this year's edition of The Walk.

Go ahead, give it a try.

A cold?

Catching a cold is never fun, but in the summer, it's a real bummer. I have no energy to go outdoors, although I should go for a walk and some fresh air. Maybe this afternoon. I'll bring lots of kleenex, that's for sure.

In a way, things didn't turn out too bad. I was originally invited by Scott to attend the Pemberton Music Festival. In true Scotty fashion, this was an all-weekend music marathon (Friday-Sunday) because Scott can never get enough live music. I pondered about the invitation for a little while (especially since Sam Roberts is playing this afternoon and I LOVE Sam Roberts), but I finally decided to pass. It was going to be an expensive weekend, even with discounted festival tickets that Scott very likely managed to deal himself. I'm heading the Whistler next weekend, so I had to pick between the two. Well, this was a fortunate decision, because now I can't imagine being a the festival in the state that I'm in. It's sunny outside, but when you're sick, you just want to stay in your PJs all day, read a book, nap... not hang around an open-air concert with 40,000 other people.

I was hoping to get started on some appliance shopping (I want to replace the appliances in my kitchen). If I feel better today, maybe I'll do a quick trip to a few stores. For now, I'm keeping a low profile and drinking lots of liquids. A tip for people who want to increase the amount of water they drink but don't like drinking straight water: pour two ounces of juice (mango, blueberry, whatever fruit juice you prefer) and fill the rest of the glass with tap water. I'm sure parents have known this trick for a long time, but I found the diluted juice far more refreshing than straight juice, and a lot less sweet.

Summer time

The living is definitely easy :-)

It's summer in Vancouver and that means beautiful weather, not too hot thanks to the breeze from the ocean, and wonderfully sunny. It also means that my corner store started selling local berries and that I can start my days with a bowl of fresh blueberries and raspberries with yogurt. Local cherries are for my afternoon snack. Mmmm.

It only took six straight days of heat and sun to get my hopes up about a potential tomato harvest:

I'm a sad, sad excuse for a gardener. I'll consider this an improvement over last year's disaster if 1) I get more than three tomatoes and 2) they turn some color other than green. I think this plant is supposed to give me orange tomatoes. It's a heirloom variety called The Earl of Edgecombe. Check it out, my plant made an appearance in the tomato database :-)

Rock climbing in Squamish

Well, I am now both equipped and trained to climb outdoors, but I have to admit that my first experience was so-so. First, there was the weather, rainy and cold with the two last hours of our course spent under the pouring rain. OK, this is BC, but aren't we in July? Around 3 p.m., we were all wet and cold, not happy. Fortunately, we started the class early, around 9, so it was a good day's work.

The day course was enough to learn all the basics and safety precautions, rappel down a few routes and try actual rock climbing. Because the rock was really slippery, we only tried to do half a route, the Burgers and Fries in Smoke Bluffs. Problem is, this 5.7 route starts with crack climbing, basically you have nothing much to hang to but climb up by wedging your feet inside cracks. Well, for some reason, that didn't agree with me. I felt really unsure about the route and didn't make it really far up. I think I would have been more comfortable on dryer rock.

I added some pictures of the day on Flickr. Candice also took a few while I was climbing, I'll point to them as soon as she gets them online somewhere.

Today, we went shopping for outdoor gear at MEC. I bought a cordelette (5 meters of 7mm static cord to anchor around a tree), a prusik (1.5 meter of 7 mm static cord to use as a break for repelling), a double shoulder-length sling (nylon, to build an anchor), a single shoulder-length (nylon, to build a leash), a locking carabiner (again, for the leash), six straight-gate carabiners (anchoring) and a helmet. All I'm missing is a rope, but Sarah bough one and I wasn't exactly ready to spend another $200. Yes, 60 meters of climbing rope costs $200. Sarah and Candice bought extra equipment as well as two climbing guides with routes. Now we just need for the weather to cooperate :-)

More weekends please!

Especially when the weekend lasts three days and I spend it away from home and from the computer. Bliss.

After the heavy-duty week we just had at work, a weekend away was needed. Not a heavy-workload week, but a heavy-emotional-load week as the company laid-off half of our R&D department in Vancouver. Last Friday was the last day at the office for many, including my boss, my boss' boss, several of my colleagues and others we will probably hear about later. What a mess.

When I was invited to spend a few days away in a rented cabin in Yale (just East of Hope), I jumped on the occasion to experience a chance in scenery. The long weekend was looking to be warm and sunny all across BC and the getaway was really needed.

Although Yale is only a few hours East of Vancouver, it is far enough from the coast to offer +35 degree weather in the summer. It's a dry heat, so it's tolerable, but boy is it hot! That's pretty much the weather we had the entire weekend, very sunny, very warm. Fortunately, the cabin was well insulated and we were able to sleep well at night, even though it did get a bit warm inside in the afternoon.

The cabin was right next to the Fraser River. We had a boat launch access across the street from us and a nice sandy beach where we could lie down and read. The river was too cold for swimming, but the beach was quiet and, most of the day, would have some shaded areas. You've guessed that the shade was my preference, unlike Sarah and Candice who made conscious efforts to return to Vancouver sporting a tan (or a sunburn).

On Saturday, we all had great plans of getting up early to go for a hike and visit the area, but we were all so exhausted from the week that most of the day was spent lounging around the cabin or lying on a beach towel. Everyone needed to recover from something. With a three-day weekend, no problem. You can take a day to bum around and not feel bad about it.

On Sunday, we headed to a nearby lake for a swim. It was a 10-minute drive, not ideal, and the lake was a very popular spot. There was only one small beach access to the water (at least on the public side of the lake) and it was crammed with people. We looked around the lake and noticed a small beach on the other side of the lake. We had two small inflatable boats with us and decided to pack our belongings in the boats and swim across. Sarah and Candice were rowing the boats while Katrina, Robert and I went for a leisurely swim. It was approximately half a kilometer across, not a very long distance, but it made for a good workout. Especially since we had to swim back to the car! Everyone built up a nice appetite for dinner that night!

Monday was our last day in Yale and we decided to go for a hike. One of our hiking books mentioned a trail called Spirit Cave Trail, a moderate hike that was a three-hour round trip. We wanted to hike in the morning, while it was still cool, so we woke up at 7 and were on the trail by 9. The hike was challenging at times, mostly on the way down because it zigzags along a really steep hill and some parts are slippery, with little gravel washouts. The view from the top was spectacular (photos to come) and we did find some caves. Whether or not these were the "spirit caves" is not clear, we might have missed some of the bigger cave entrances (the caves we saw were really small).

What a weekend. We had time for rest, time for physical activity, time for reading, time for games (I learned how to play poker and ended up cleaning everyone out, woot!), time for good food and wine (for Saturday's dinner, I made tandori chicken with basmati rice and a salad, served with a crisp Gewurtz).

Again please :-)