Dead Garden Part 2

The saga of the dead garden continues this year. Two months ago I tenderly planted some tomatoe and pepper plants and nurtured them to 1 foot high!! Last Wednesday I had an evening at home to do what I wanted... so after two months of having all these plants in my house I decided they had to go outside, plus it was in between two paddling weekends so seemed convenient.

Well as those of you in Edmonton know, Thursday there was a frost!! I swear, I checked the forecast before planting. Needless to say my squash, tomatoes, peppers and beans are now all dead =(.

But more than that!! I think all the shrubs in the front yard are also dead!! So now, I have a dead tree and two dead shrubs from last year, and now 4 more dead shrubs!! I may have to revise my front yard plans... anyways I do not have enough rocks for my rock garden yet, so maybe the front yard will be for next year. I think I want to turn part of my front yard into an extra parking space - so I mean paving stones of some sort.

The good news is that I can buy more squash seeds, and I have my pots for the corn - I just need soil for them. And I'm sure I can buy a couple of tomato and pepper plants at the greenhouse to replace my lost ones. =) So now, I just have to plant more peas and beans. I meant to do it tonight, but instead I'm watching "On Her Majesty's Secret Service." Perhaps tomorrow night. =)

Pyrola

These are the best and newest photos of me this year!! I love my floating head!!

Beer

I was just minding my own business the other day when I was informed that beer only stays good for 3 months!! Oh my, I thought, I have some beer that is older than that...

After some discrete inquiries I learned that beer does have a shelf life, but it is longer than 3 months. However, I was challenged with the response of why on earth would one keep beer for that long? Logically, when you consider the competition - beer versus cocktails - cocktails win 80% of the time.

The immediate concern was what to do about the beer?

• At first I thought I could have some friends over and drink it, of course keeping the hard liquor locked up for the evening. BUT, what if the beer was bad, I would die of mortification if I served bad beer.
• I thought I could throw it away and start fresh, but the idea of wasting potentially good beer knotted my stomach and I quickly discarded the notion.
• My third thought was to test it to confirm its quality.

If the beer was still good then I could share it. BUT then I realized that I should employ some statistical test on a sample of the bottles to determine the proportion of bottles that were good and bad; with the hope that the majority of them were good. Because really, if I sampled only one bottle luck of the draw would result in me testing the only good bottle. However I soon realized that I would have to drink every bottle to confirm the quality. My plan was to drink one beer a day, solely for purposes of testing the beer. I say "was" because it didn't turn out quite as I anticipated. I am not a hard core beer drinker, which really I should have guessed based on my preference for cocktails.

However, after five days of drinking beer I had to take a break. My body was designed to drink cocktails as frequently as I desire, but not beer. =)

I've taken a week off and I think I am ready for another testing session, but I think I will limit it to three days for health reasons, as well as concern for the public at large. At this rate I should have all the beer drunk within say six weeks... at the earliest. To date although I have drank five beers, somehow 11 new beer appeared in my house... It has me stumped too. I'll keep you posted. =)

Teaching

Well, I may be temporarily crazy. I am teaching biology labs at Augustana (UofA) and kayaking at the UAPS (United Albertan Paddling Society) in addition to my job. But I love teaching!!! I hate marking!!! Not to worry though. I am very content most of the time, except that I do not see my friends as much as I would like to right now. Only 4.5 weeks of teaching left though and then spring will be upon us and I'll be ready to think about biking. =)

You may wonder why I am teaching and coaching at the same time. Well it has been 3 years since I taught at Augustana and the gap in my life resulting form not teaching was growing and I was discontent. But, I love to paddle, and I thought I would contribute back to the UAPS community so I took my level 1 certification for kayaking this winter and started applying for grants for new equipment and coach training to help cover costs and now I'm coaching too.

For those of you interested, the UA in UAPS used to stand for University of Alberta, but in the UofA spirit of profit they decided to cut us loose and form a Campus Rec club. Unfortunately they are lax in caring for their equipment and slow to attend to their financial responsibilities. But the UAPS is coming together, we're working with the new UAPC (UofA Paddling Club), and although I feel at times I am overly aggressive for example in meetings - meetings are for business, so I redirect the conversation frequently because I think people can socialize after the meeting; I mean for godsake imagine chattering on about your personal life and then complaining that the meeting is running too long, -sigh- and -shrug-, I am really excited to be part of the force driving the revival of the UAPS to a community oriented club.

WOW!! Building the UAPS is like a mountain, but I love to organize and find it is quite refreshing to be entangled in this collapsed web, realigning and linking the strands anew. I am really looking forward to this summer and becoming a better coach and working with a wonderful group of friends to make UAPS a success. We even have a new website under construction and a cool domain name http://www.paddleuaps.ca/ =)

And thus it came to be that I overloaded my schedule this new year. =) I love you all and hope to see you in the spring. Most of my free time is being spent in my shell right now, and I am quite happy there. My only fear right now is when will I have time to watch the 1995 Pride and Prejudice 6 hour BBC mini-series with Colin Firth???

Hockey

Well this post is two weeks late cause I did not have computer access when I wrote it and instead of entering it into the computer at my earliest convenience, I carried it with me for safekeeping. Now it is tattered and folded and no one can know its contents unless I send out this blog.

In my Christmas letter I mentioned I scored a really good goal in hockey and that perhaps it was a good omen that I would score more after Christmas... will it's true!!! I have scored 3 goals since Christmas and none of them on a shooter tutor!!! I am so excited. I scored a goal this past week too... but they have yet to determine whether the whistle blew before or after my shot. And the down side is there is no video replay to confirm. =( My friend Darren was kind enough to call me a showboater!!! Oh my! But really, I don't score every week, this is a big deal for me. Someone has to celebrate!! =D

I wrote this message on paper as I waited for my bus from Saskatoon to Edmonton. The flights were booked solid out of Saskatoon to Calgary/Edmonton! But my Tuesday Karma has depleted and I waited from 6:12am until 8:40am before I boarded a bus... I of course slept for the first hour and a half of the following 8 hour trip.

On the plus side, I did not require a body search to ride the bus, it was quiet and roomy, and a much needed mental respite.

Horseshoes

I feel as if I have horseshoes in my back pocket today. Why you wonder? I’ll tell you.

I was late for work, but I washed the dishes, emptied the garbage and recycling, watered the plants, except for the dead ficus – my second I am evidently not a ficus growing proficienado. What I’m trying to portray is that, although I was late-ish for work, I had a very productive morning, not to mention that I packed for another trip to Stony Rapids.

So my morning at work went very smoothly, had a wonderful jalepeño havarti on rye. I left for my house after lunch to catch a taxi to the airport without delay. Arrived at the airport and could not check in… well my flight was 1.5 hours late and I was going to miss my connection!! (Edmonton-Calgary-Saskatoon) Oh my, thankfully the wonderful lady at the counter booked my standby on the 3pm flight. I had just enough time to walk through security and get on the plan. Thank goodness I showed up early!!! Now I should mention there were six seats remaining and 9 standbys… and Murphy’s laws, remember Murphy’s laws. I enter security, take off my belt, get out my computer, put my eye drops in a plastic bag, put my banana in the bag too just in case, take off my coat and toque and scarf… ready. On the other side of the scanner I was randomly selected for a pat down!! AGAIN!!! I swear I’m going to start keeping track of the proportion of airport visits that result in my random selection for a pat down. But, thankfully the pat down was quick and actually I think I enjoyed it, it was almost like a massage… was that my inside voice? =D

I arrive at the ticket counter and low and behold there is room for me on the flight and I walk right on.

In Calgary I have to go the baggage carousel to pick up my bags cause they were not checked though due to my standby status. I found them no problem and headed to the check-in counter with some difficulty. At the check in counter they cannot find me and I experience a momentary anxiety until I remember, I have a 10:20 flight if all else fails and I can go to the Maple Leaf lounge and drink Baileys. =) So in the end I get another standby ticket. Off I go to the gate… at security I am somehow AGAIN randomly selected for a pat down… I need help here! I know it is possible but give me a break. I have to admit she did not do as thorough a pat down as the previous lady. Anyways, at the gate I find out I have to wait a half an hour before I can find out whether there is room for me on the flight. I hesitate trying to decide whether I should go for a Bailey’s or sit at the gate. In the end I decide to sit at the gate assuming I will most likely have to wait so I can spend the rest of the night drinking. Well I make it on the flight so no Baileys. Perhaps I don’t have horseshoes in my pocket. =)

In the plane, I fall asleep as usual, only to wake up after a while to hear the captain apologize for the delay but some of the passengers could not find the gate so their luggage is being unloaded. So an hour late, but in one piece and with all my baggage I made it to Saskatoon in time for supper and a good night’s sleep before I hop on a plane tomorrow for Stony Rapids. Now if I only had internet access to post this tonight. =)

Sweet Dreams.

Life in the Fast Lane

I am writing to inform you that I am unsuccessfully balancing work, teaching, house renos, dating and socializing. As such, house renos have been put on hold, I am unprudently procrastinating in my marking and I have limited my dating to one person at a time. =)

I did encounter a valuable find on Kijiji this week. A lady was selling a bedside table, when I went to buy it she was also selling a couch, chair, desk, printer stand, shelf, 2 lamps and ... for $450. I have been looking for smoke/pet free second hand furniture for a long time!! It is much nicer than my current regifted set so I expect I will be harrased for putting it in my basement, but it fits better. And really I like my regifted set upstairs. Now I have to reassess the use of my basement, I had thought that I wanted to put my sewing down there... but now the couch changes things and I am contemplating moving the sewing back to the guest room. Yes, the more I think about it the more logical it would be. I mean something has to happen with the crafts! Right now there are a number of rubbermaids in my room and to be honest... it would be nice to reach my dresser and closet without traversing the equivalent of Mount Kilimanjaro each day.

I did envision painting the guest room... well now that it has a purpose I suppose I should get to it. =D

Back to furniture though. I am happy to say that my bedside table is no longer a plastic drawer unit topped with a square of sanded plywood for weight. Slowly but surely I will move into the adult realm of home funishings. As an aside, I do not want to sell my loveseats so I went online and there are a dozen or so organizations that accpet furniture to give to people in need. My only concern is that the loveseats are in need of a steam cleaning... sigh. Why does cream have to show the dirt???