| Oh Baby! |
[Jun. 3rd, 2012|05:14 pm] |
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| Rest Day! |
[Jun. 1st, 2012|01:16 pm] |
I've been seriously busting my ass lately, and show no signs of slowing down any time soon. As of July, I'm signed up for two aerial silks classes each week, on top of the usual running, cycling, dancing, and three or four CrossFit workouts. I'm trying to figure out where to stick the rock climbing I want to do, too.
Today is a scheduled rest day, since I am doing a mountain race tomorrow (my first race since I was in grade five, I think). But I can't stand not doing something, so I figured I'd do a bit of a challenge over on FaceBook. For every "like" I get, I've been doing five situps. At last count, there are 64 likes.
Here I am, banging out the first 100 situps.
Between sit-up bouts, I'm doing housework. Rarr! |
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| Random Memories |
[May. 27th, 2012|07:32 pm] |
While working at Mactaquac Provincial Park in my late teens, overhearing a coworker talk about how they were in a hurry while camping to have sex, and decided that conditioner would make good lube. It doesn't, and there was much burning.
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The moment of astonished surprise when I realized I was climbing a rope using only my arms, on my very first attempt.
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Watching my step-grandfather unsuccessfully try to make the puppy we gave him fight with another dog.
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Riding my little yellow bicycle, the one with the banana seat, by myself for the first time in Rockway Park, Saint John, NB. I was five or six. I felt joyous at my success, then wiped out in the gravel.
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Drawing pictures of people on toilet paper tubes, then showing my Mom when I was in grade six. She started yelling at me for drawing dirty pictures, and tore them up, then looked sheepish when I started to cry in confusion. Apparently, my eleven-year-old drawing skills weren't up to snuff for drawing the flies on pants, and Mom thought I was drawing dicks.
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Wondering why, if penises were such dirty things, there was so much preoccupation with them in the Bible with all the circumcision and such.
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Taming a city pigeon and turning him from a sickly-looking and timid bird to a fat, glossy, proud bird who would (sometimes) fly to my shoulder when I called him.
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My family doctor telling me I'd probably never be able to ride a bicycle because of my terrible knee issues. Going on to become a long-distance cyclist.
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The time my university roommate barged into my room first thing in the morning, still drunk from a party the night before, demanding to know where I'd put her bike, then storming out when she realized she'd left it at the party.
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Finding a huge nest of baby snakes when I was ten, and waiting impatiently to play with them until my cowboy neighbour Bill ascertained they weren't baby rattlers. |
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| Being A Delicate Flower is Overrated |
[May. 16th, 2012|09:45 pm] |
My plague is leaving. Sort of.
Ends up I have a wicked ear infection, so I'm sure hoping the antibiotics kick in, pronto. My balance is off just the teensiest bit, enough to make me look like a tipsy person trying not to look tipsy, and mostly succeeding. The earache of the other night had best not make a return, or I might be pulling a Van Gogh. In the meantime, I have one seriously crappy symphony playing in my ears. The tinnitus needs some music lessons. The crackling and whistling is quite noisome.
I've had perverse cravings to do handstands, but have been resisting them on account of putting my head down throws everything off kilter and just plain feels terrible. I went in to the gym yesterday and was able to climb the ropes without any difficulty, a few low-weight squats, presses, and deadlifts, but one-legged bodyweight squats were a bit too much for my weakened lungs, and I knew it was time to pack it up and go home. I simply cannot exert myself much, right now. Bah, I say. Bah. Regardless, tomorrow is aerial silks day. If I can climb a rope, I should be able to climb the silks.
Today was terribly unproductive, but I don't mind too much. I got a huge amount of work done the other day, so I think I can bank those hours for today, so to speak.
I just put in an order for a bunch of new knee-high socks from Sock It To Me, which is the first online sock shop I've found which doesn't charge an exorbitant amount to ship to Canada. Hallelujah! Apparently, I have the reputation at my CrossFit club as the one in the funky socks. I'm ok with that. I've always liked wacky hosiery. I like wearing long socks to the gym, because they protect my calves from getting rope burn on all those rope climbs I like to do.
I took a picture today of my guns before all this inactivity has my wee muscles fall off.
![[Mini gun show]](https://fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/s720x720/547289_10150858614884864_511799863_10046717_1621170493_n.jpg "[Mini gun show]") |
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| Activities Shelved |
[May. 12th, 2012|08:05 pm] |
Earache makes sick Shan a sad Shan. Go away, plague of never-endingness, now with achey tinnitus. Go away!
On the silver-lining side, my aerial workshop was cancelled today. It's just as well, because the way my sinuses feel, being suspended and spinning upside-down would be a special room in Hell.
I was invited to a party tonight, but I'm feeling destroyed. I was really hoping to get to the gym to do some lifting today, but it didn't take long for me to realize that would be a Bad Idea. Feh.
Despite the malaise of my head tubes, I was productive. ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif?v=92.2) f00dave, Meredith, and I installed a buttload of new shelves to replace the seen-better-days old shelves I had in my room. It's starting to look nice in my room, instead of just cluttered randomness. Now it's eclectic with a theme. Whoa. I never thought that would be possible.
I can't remember if I mentioned or not, but a while back, I discovered a huge abscess on Princess Tubby's face. I don't know how it went unnoticed for so long. I guess I thought she was having a bad fur day for a while until I realized the lump was the size of a marble. That would be huge on my face, let alone on a little critter like Tubby.
I took her into the vet, and he checked it out. The good news is that it wasn't a tumour. The bad news is that draining and rinsing it out then giving her a course of antibiotics didn't solve the issue. So surgery was next. She had the lump removed, and I was worried about her for quite a while after that. She lost a lot of weight overnight and was miserable. But then her appetite returned and she gained her weight back.
Alas, but the surgery site was starting to refill. The abscess was trying to return.
Ends up the bacteria in the infection was not responding to the antibiotic. For chinchillas, antibiotic options are very limited. She's been put on a new medication, and I think it is finally working.
She hated the taste of the old stuff. We had to force feed her, and she made horrible faces all the while. But this new stuff? Well, take a look for yourself.
Tomorrow morning, I'm going to Mississauga to see this: Canada East Crossfit Regionals Competition. A team from my CrossFit club qualified and I'll be there to cheer them on. I sure hope this earache is gone by then. Gah. |
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| I've a Little Teapot |
[May. 10th, 2012|01:03 pm] |
I'm almost completed my teapot. Here's the B-side, as of this morning. It's in the kiln now. I just have to finish the lid and then it's done.
![[Teapot]](https://fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash2/s720x720/156239_10150841481689864_511799863_9998679_1796912551_n.jpg "[Teapot]")
My next plan, since I'm still too sick to work out, is to mosey around outside picking flowers. I think I'll make something with dandelion blossoms. I found a recipe for jelly, and another for cookies. |
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| Snippets of Memory |
[May. 9th, 2012|09:39 am] |
In 1999, when I was a cashier at a grocery store, there was a big advertising campaign in the deli. The posters said, "2000 is at the door. Answer it with cheese." Uhhh....
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I remember walking with f00dave along a residential street. Some 10-year-old boys were playing street hockey, when they suddenly threw down their hockey sticks and ran up to us excitedly. "Can we have your autograph?" they asked Dave.
"Who do you think I am?" he asked, confused.
"You're Wayne Gretzky, silly!"
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I was waiting in line for boxed lunches. The woman at the counter said, "We have a vegetarian option, a beef option, and a chicken option."
A clueless man asked, "Is the chicken vegan?"
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In grade eleven, while in a haze of too much studying for final exams and not enough sleep, I, for some inexplicable reason, hooked up a piece of surgical hose to two high-pressure water taps in the chemistry lab and turned them both on. The hose exploded off one of the taps and sprayed everyone in the room.
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When I was too young to walk, my father held me in his arms and I remember looking up at his nose and seeing nose hairs. I reached up to pull them, and he gently pushed my hand away saying, "No, no."
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I remember knightky in wet, green Cornwall, creeping up on some furtive sheep amongst the standing stones and thatched roof houses. I laughed when he charged the sheep and they bolted, leaving him standing there in the sodden grass saying, "But I only wanted to give them scritches!"
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When I was 9, I was walking with my family, my collie Shep, and her litter of hyper puppies across the dunes of northern Newfoundland. All of a sudden, Shep barked, and tore off across the dunes and out of sight. The puppies tore off after her. We crested the dune and they were nowhere in sight. We could, however, see a beached whale. It was moving. As we got closer, we could smell the rot and corruption, and it became obvious that the whale was moving because it was full of rolling dogs. Dad pulled them out, covered in maggots and slime, and he puked a few times while he threw them in the ocean to clean them off. They screamed and yiked like they thought he was trying to murder them, and every chance they got, they'd try to run back to the whale. We had to keep them all tied up for a few weeks lest they return.
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I remember the time in university when my Victorian Literature prof., Dr. Bentley, gave us a very special Victorian Literature lecture: instead of talking about Wuthering Heights or Erewhon, he'd brought in the local Natural Law party representative, who spent the hour explaining to us how if Natural Law were voted in, that they'd teach us to yogic fly, make all home entrances southern ones, and prevent the birth of national enemies. |
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| 3 2 1 GO! |
[May. 8th, 2012|02:46 pm] |
On Saturday I did my first-ever timed 5 km run. I'm not going to win any races. I was the slowest person who did the run by far. BUT, I am pleased. I didn't have to stop even once. I didn't even need to slow down. And at the end, I was fresh enough to put on a block-long sprint and finish in 35:51. I know now I was overly cautious in my cadence, but since it was my first time, I didn't really know how to pace myself. Lance, the CrossFit running coach, was impressed by my time, and says I should be able to shear it down to 30 minutes by October.
Here's our running group about five minutes after I finished the course. I pretty much crawled into position.
I was afraid I might run something like this camel, but apparently my form looks pretty solid.
( Behind this cut lie photos.... ) |
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| Picture This! |
[Apr. 22nd, 2012|11:49 pm] |
Hi. I haven't been here in a while. Time to fix that.
I've been been excruciatingly busy. I'm taking classical voice lessons, and am starting up with musical theory again. I'm doing much better with it than I thought, because I haven't forgotten nearly as much as I was afraid I had. I look forward to being able to sight read music again. Right now, I'm sounding melodies out slowly, kinda like learning to sight read words the Sesame Street way.
I've also been continuing with my china painting class. My painting style in this is surprising me. It's completely different from any other paintings/drawings I've done in the past. I'm currently working on a teapot. It's not done yet, but here's where it stands after about two months of work:
( Read more... ) |
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busy
sore
sick
dizzy