Ending on a Low Note

This Easter weekend turned out to be a very busy three days. We had two delicious family dinners; one of lasagna and one of the largest ham you've ever seen. I had some tasty Star Wars themed drinks thanks to our local mixologist, Jeff! Tom and I also had a fantastic orphan dinner, care of Mallary's cooking skills! The orphan dinner included cheesy scalloped potatoes (from Paige and Chris), proscuitto wrapped asparagus (*Drool*), spinach and artichoke dip in toasted wonton wrappers, carrots and green beans, beer can chickens and gravy, and... The grande finale... Homemade cream puffs! The cream puffs were amazing! Mallary, you absolutely out-did yourself this time!

I broke out my bunny ears for our family Easter dinner because I thought Dylan might like them. I found them in an old box of costume materials that my mom gave me when I moved out. I think Dylan did like the ears, but he didn't want them anywhere near his head. He has also reached an age where he likes to contradict adults. So... It was hard to tell.

Dylan got a set of coloured bubble-blowers from grandma and grandpa. It was surprisingly challenging to aim his breath through the holes on the bubble maker. As a result, a lot of the bubble solution ended up on his face.

After consuming half of the chocolate in a KinderSurprise, Dylan was on a surprisingly high sugar kick. He burned it off by burying Uncle Tom in pillows for about 25 minutes. When that got boring, they hid inside a pillow fort. Then Dylan bossed me around and told me to "Shut the door (on the fort), Auntie Manda!"

In the mean time, Dylan's baby sister, Madelynn, had a snooze on the floor a few meters away. She didn't seem to mind the ruckus at all!

We were supposed to have brunch with Ashley and Andrew this morning, but unforeseen circumstances caused us to cancel our plans. No worries! We'll catch them the next time they are in town. It's actually probably for the best that they aren't available. I felt a cold coming on last night, and it is now in full swing. Headache, cough, congestion-- you name it, I've got it! Advil, ColdFX and Bentasil cough drops have become my best friends. Talk about ending Easter on a low note.

I'm going to go drink some tea and watch TV in bed now.

Happy Easter!

Inner and Outer Balance

When I started doing yoga two years ago, I didn't know much about it. My friend, Heather, would go to classes two or three times a week and often talked about how much she loved it. But my vague impression of yoga was that it was a bit "out there" with the meditating, loud breathing, and the spirit-mind-body mumbo-jumbo. I know that might be kind of offensive to all the hard-core yogis out there, but all I'm trying to say is that I had no clue what yoga was.

So, how did I get in to yoga in the first place?

I tried yoga purely out of convenience. I was sitting in an office at a computer all day, every day, with very little variation to my routine. When I realized my company offered lunch-hour fitness classes, I decided to try one out. And... I really, really liked it!

Yoga is much more intense than I thought it would be. I am pleasantly tired after classes, and always interested to see what new postures and stretches the instructors will throw at us. What I like about yoga the most are the challenges. There is always a new asana (that is, body position) to try. And while many of them seem impossible at first, there is no better feeling than finally nailing an elusive pose! My strength and flexibility have increased leaps and bounds over the last two years.

Here are some poses I have mastered over the winter session:

Sitting Forward Fold

I can't do this every day. But around week 8 of each session of yoga (approximately 12 weeks in total), I hit my peak of maximum flexibility and strength. Then there are a few weeks of off-time before the next session starts, and I have to build myself up again.

Splits

I haven't been able to do this since I was 12! Interestingly, I am only able to do splits with my left leg forward. I tried to find an old photo of me doing the splits. I'm not sure what happened to it, because I know it was the sister photo to the one I've posted below. I'm about eight here, and I don't think it is possible to replicate this pose...

Circa 1992

Crow

This is an arm balance that probably looks a little crazier than it actually is. It's a bit reminiscent of a hand stand, which I am familiar with from my brief childhood stint in gymnastics. It looks pretty cool though!

Side Crow

This arm balance in my crowning achievement for the winter. I had never heard of or seen this pose until Jasmine mentioned hearing about it during one of her yoga sessions. We googled a photo of it, and I immediately found myself thinking, I. Will. Learn. This. I went home and searched You Tube for an instruction video. And with the help of a Dutch instructor, Esther Ekhart, I started practicing. I mashed my face into the ground many, many times before I found my center of balance. This time I found myself thinking, "SUCK IT, YOGA! I OWN YOU!" A very un-yoga-like attitude!

I am currently working on Flying Pigeon. It will eventually look like this:

Esther Ekhart in Flying Pigeon.

I can't quite get my leg up yet.

And many attempts end in a face plant.

But that's not a big deal. That's what pillows are for. Er... Sort of.

If you've never tried yoga before, I suggest you give it a go! You might be pleasantly surprised like I was. If it doesn't help you find an inner balance, I guarantee it will help with your outer balance and strength. Yoga is something I look forward to every week. Now that I've started, I can't imagine going back to a yoga-less life.

I'm definitely a yoga convert!

Tee-hee!

I saw a link posted on Facebook called, "The 10 Most Obnoxious Responses to Misspellings on Facebook." It seriously made my day.

Here are some hilarious examples:

I want to be Daniel's friend!

"Board! Like I don't have anything to do, not BORD, like a chalkbord. Learn to spelcheck."

*Snort*

If you'd like to see the other 8 obnoxious responses to Facebook misspellings, check them out here: http://www.someecards.com/2011/04/06/the-best-obnoxious-responses-to-misspellings-on-facebook

The First Spring Blizzard

Well... I spoke too soon.

After 26 years in this city, you'd think I'd know that you can never celebrate an early spring. It just never works out like that. Snow in April and May are common place.

Friday, April 1

If you look closely at this picture, you can see our neighbourhood deer right below the furthest set of windows.

Saturday, April 2

And... 20cm of record-breaking snow later...

The snow kept coming down all of Sunday. I do NOT envy all you people out there with sidewalks and driveways to shovel! It was thick, wet and heavy snow. But the sun came out today and melted a great deal of it away.

Oh Canada, you do love your snow!

Return Visitors

The last few evenings we've had some return visitors in our back yard.

Every once in a while, a deer will wander in between the condo buildings. But for the last four evenings, the same two deer have ambled their way out of the trees.

There has been a lot of snow in the area, so maybe there are some good eats between the buildings. Tom and I like to watch them from our living room. Usually the deer seem a little uneasy being so close to the buildings. Their ears are always twitching, and they are constantly looking around.

This is one of the nice things about our community. Last summer when I was running, late in the evening, I saw some deer on the side of the road, and I ran right past them! I've also seen coyotes a few time when I was driving home. Although... I don't think I ever want to meet a coyote on one of my runs!

Today almost all of the snow has melted. Hooray spring!

Auntie Manda and Unca Tom Go Toboganning

Tom and Dylan getting ready to go down the hill.

After my niece, Madelynn, was born, Tom and I thought it might be a good idea to take our nephew on a little outing.

We strapped him into the car seat in my parents Jeep, loaded in some crazy carpets, and made the two minute drive to an average sized hill in Copperfield.

In the car, we told Dylan we were going toboganning, and that we were going to slide down the hill. Dylan was more interested in tell us that he had seen Grandma Nonna out the window.

After we unloaded ourselves, we trudged through the snow, and up the hill, while Dylan chanted a chorus of "WIIIIINNNNNDY!" every few minutes. It was really windy!

We got half way up the hill, and I unrolled one our bright red crazy carpets. I'm pretty sure the crazy carpet is older than I am, but it has held up well for the last 25+ years.

I sat down on the crazy carpet and made room for Dylan to sit in front of me.

Then I said, "Okay Dylan! Are you ready to go down the hill?"

Dylan looked at me, looked at Tom, and looked at the crazy carpet, and said, as polite as can be, "No thank you."

Hmmm... Not exactly the reaction we were hoping for.

So I told Dylan that I would go down the hill by myself to show him what it was like. So I re-adjusted the crazy carpet, and went down the hill. I wasn't even at the bottom when I heard Dylan yelling, "Fuuuuuuuuuuuun! FUUUUUUUN!"

I dusted the snow off myself, and took the crazy carpet up to Tom and Dylan. This time, Dylan had no qualms about getting on to the carpet.

Crazy carpet action shot.

It's been a long time since I've been toboganning. I think the last time I went was some time in High School, which was probably 10 years ago. During that occasion, we used the same crazy carpets, and also a wooden sled. One of the guys tried to use the sled like a snowboard, and broke it in half. Then he denied it was him who had broken it-- but he was the first and only person to use it that day! I'm still a little bitter about that.

It probably would have helped if I had some sort of water resistant pant... My butt was soaked through! Dylan remained surprisingly dry.

Dylan seemed to enjoy himself. There were plenty of "Wiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiindy!" and "Fuuuuunnnn!" exclamations. But after about six runs down the hill, Dylan declared that he wanted to go home. I guess the wind was too much for him.

Me dragging Dylan back to the car.

He was making very slow progress walking through the snow on his own, so we tried to drag him back to the car on a crazy carpet, but he didn't have his hands in his mittens all the way, so he couldn't hold on. He kept sliding off onto the path. Truth be told, I think he enjoyed sliding off! He certainly didn't try very hard to stay on.

I think good times were had by all. I look forward to toboganning with Dylan again!

The Wonderful World of Edmonton

Tom and I decided to get out of town this weekend, so we drove up to the wonderful city known as... Edmonton!

We stayed at the Fairmont Hotel MacDonald, thanks to the discounted rate by my company.

I've always thought the hotel looks a bit imposing at the top of MacDougall Hill. This is the second time we've stayed at this hotel. I really like the location, and they also supply free bags of Fairmont blend tea... I took them all home with me!

We met Tom's aunt and uncle for dinner at a Turkish restaurant downtown. We had freshly made pitas with a trio of dips, a savoury dinner of meatballs and satay beef skewers, followed by baklava and buttercream vanilla icecream for dessert.

I was stuffed full of food, and promptly fell asleep at 9pm, back in the hotel room.

The next morning we had breakfast with Jeff and Shauna at a restaurant called the Sugarbowl near the U of A campus. I had the Eggs Benny, which were served on cornbread instead of your typical English muffin. Delicious!

Next, we hit up the World Waterpark at West Edmonton Mall.

We had heard a rumor (confirmed here) that the waterpark was getting a new waterslide. The old waterslide, known as the Skyscreamer, was in the process of being dismantled. This will make room for the newest "extreme" waterslide-- the Aqualoop.

To ride the Aqualoop, you will get into a container which I like to think of as a "drop capsule". Because the floor drops out from under you!

Random guy in drop capsule.

Then you get shot up and around a loop-- almost rollercoaster style!

Aqualoop in China.

Now... I'm a pretty big wuss. So, I doubt you would have caught me on that thing even if it had been installed in West Ed. But I do think the idea of it is pretty fantastic!

It seemed like we had barely been at the waterpark when suddenly it was already 3:45pm. By then, Tom had a scraped up back from falling out of his tube in the Lazy River (and then I rammed into him), and we had witnessed a lifeguard jump into the pool to help a panicky little boy. We left around 5pm, and then tagged along with Shauna and Jeff for a Mediterranean dinner on Whyte Ave.

We had dim sum with Tom's aunt and uncle in the morning, and then made the drive home.

Back to reality all too soon. But it was a great weekend!