Thanksgiving Indeed

We spent Thanksgiving weekend in Victoria with Marc's family (minus Dan and Carlynne). Pete, Bette, Julie and Lowell were supposed to arrive on Saturday morning but unfortunately Air Canada Jazz's computers went down for the day (as did the ferries, oh the transport weekend woes) and they did not arrive until Saturday at dinner. We went to pick up their race packages for the 8K, somehow I think I felt a little strange about it . . .

Oh there, that's better . . .

The race packages were at the Empress hotel and Marc got this great shot of the promenade.
And this one of a church downtown.
The next morning bright and Pete, Bette, Julie, Lowell and Marc set off to run their 8K race. Shareen, Gillian and I were the official picture takers.

Lowell ran by first.

Followed soon after by Marc.

Julie soon raced by (she is in the green shirt)!
Then Pete . . .
and Bette.
The official photographers, they certainly don't look as tired as the runners. ;)
Afterwards we had a lovely lunch.
Followed by a visit with Marc's extended family of uncles, aunts and cousins. Some of his cousins and his uncle Tom had run the half marathon and marathon. They certainly looked great for having run so many km that morning!

That evening it was present time! It was Julie (and Carlynne's) birthday last Tuesday and we had picked this apron up last year in Holland, thankfully we remembered where we had stuck it and actually remembered to bring it!
We also received some unexpected gifts for our bambino. This great blanket that Shareen sewed and some books and a bib. (Yes that is for the baby, although I probably could have used it later at dinner.)
Birthday dinner for Julie at Milestones . . .

On Monday we celebrated Thanksgiving with some of Shareen's friends. A great time was had by all and the food was excellent!This article that was in the Globe and Mail the other day about a family of Bhutanese refugees who recently came to Canada reminded me why I should be so thankful to live in the country I do and why refugees like this make our country a better place to live. Happy belated Thanksgiving everyone!

bend

bend, oregon is known for its proximity to a panoply of outdoor recreation. we ventured there in search of biking trails, hiking trails and good food and found all 3.
the drive through oregon was beautiful and took us out onto some smaller highways.

our visit to bend coincided with its annual fall festival. they had a good turnout despite the crisp 5C. our friend justin recently lent me his 18-200 lens and i was enjoying the extra reach over my 18-105. initially i was unhappy with the pictures i was taking, but then i started taking pictures of kids and got some great shots.
we also heard some good music, particularly from a 3 piece band in a used bookship/wine and coffee bar. what a startling and serendipitous juxtaposition of 3 of my favourite things: books, music and wine. we took a picture of the band with kylie's cellphone. maybe i will try to get it online. we did get a good safari shot of a lion in the grass though.
and a lion on a pony!

kids and haybales make nice pictures.


while in bend i attended a trauma course at st. charles medical centre (oops, it is most likely in actuality a center) that was very engaging and useful. also they had excellent food. as i mentioned in the last post, the hospital looked like a high end hotel lobby, complete with marble fountain in the entrance and a jazz pianist in the hospital lounge. their emerg waiting room has a brick fireplace. as an aside, while in the states, it was very weird to hear radio ads touting various hospitals "we have orthopedics, gynecology and a colonoscopy suite all under one roof!"
somehow it got around the class that i was from canada, and the other docs were very eager to discuss the canadian healthcare system, as obama's healthcare reform bill is being tabled this week. most of them seemed to want a more equitable system, but all saw serious flaws in the current legislation, mosltly around the lack of liability reform (ie. if you dont limit the amount that i get sued, i can guarantee you i am going to waste the taxpayer's money). the course itself was informative and well taught, and the food was available all day!

we went on walks around bend, and i went mtn biking one day. bend has hiking, biking, skiing, kayaking and climbing right around town.
the mtns west of bend are webbed with tight singletrack trails. i didnt slow down that often to take pictures so i dont feel like these do the windy xc trail justice. the packed dirt was smooth like lethbridge riding, but with sharp pointy lava rocks in large bands across the landscape. at one point it was hailing and i had to keep going hard just to stay warm. the hottub at the inn/bed and breakfast we stayed at felt good that evening.
another flat... i put my 2.6 tire back on as soon as we got home.

the next morning i woke early to go biking again and saw this scene out our window.

no biking that day. instead we packed up the snowy 4runner and drove over the cascade mountains to sunny and 20C in portland.
here we stayed in an old school that has been converted into a boutique hotel and brewpub. a beautiful building and kylie could write on the chalkboards all she wanted.
we wandered around downtown and spent an evening in powell's books, the biggest used bookstore in the world... it's big. i could spend a few days there easily.
after a nice drive back to canada (during which we narrowly missed rearending someone) and after stopping to restock our groceries and wine cupboard at trader joes in bellingham, we returned to chilliwack to set up our house again, i worked 2 days at the hospital and fiddled with our imploding plumbing and then yesterday we set off again for victoria to visit shareen and craig for thanksgiving. tomorrow our family is doing the 8k portion of the royal victoria marathon. wish us luck!

M O M A R cumberland 2009

last week was that time of year again. time for marc to run, bike, kayak and attempt to get thoroughly lost in the wilds outside of cumberland BC, along with 359 other mildly mentally ill people running around in the woods with numbers pinned to their chests and straws hanging over their shoulders.

on the short urban course through downtown cumberland, a guy about my age with a big bushy black beard and a knee length black trenchcoat asked me while sitting on the curb, "what's up? are all you guys in jail or something?"

at 50km, the course this year was 5km longer than last year, but i felt much stronger and finished almost 30 min faster (what a sweet map of the course eh? thanks google earth and whoever made this map!) we started with a 10 km kayak, and in the tight starting rush i got knocked sideways from behind and piled into another boat and got turned around backwards. by the time i recovered i was solidly in the back of the pack, as the course designer reminded us every time we passed his boat.

after the kayak was an unmarked trail run up a mountain and i was able to make up some time and pass a number of teams. the navigation was with a topo map and compass and i lucked into the second checkpoint ahead of a number of lost people. from there it was a lot of technical downhill running and i had a great time jumping off things. at one point i ran up a vertical wall ride meant for mtn bikes, using it as a superelevated corner. after calling down the hill for other racers to "hit the wallride!" and having a few take me up on it i felt i had to up the ante by taking 2 full strides up the wall and i leapt off about 6 feet in the air. higher than i anticipated but with a clean landing. knowing the cumberland trails a bit definitely helped my time on this portion of the race.

at the bottom of the mountain we ran along a bike trail into cumberland where we picked up our bikes. having decided on mostly liquid nutrition this year i took the opportunity to down one of my 3 ensure meal replacements (my stomach having learned to process this during my surgical rotation in medical school) and a few complimentary orange slices. with my adrenalin pumping and my blood sugar surging i saw a photographer at the transition gate and attempted to wheelie past him for the photo op. unfortunately i was stronger than anticipated and i flipped over backwards and landed on my back, scraping my right leg in the process, directly in front of the spectator gallery! i have not yet seen this photo posted on the web, but if i find it i will post it.

the mountain biking was certainly my strongest event and i gained a lot of places, despite having a flat tire at one point and having to change tubes on the fly. my pump wasnt engaging properly but luckily my friends trevor and matt happened by and lent me their pump. it was frustrating watching everyone pass me while i worked on my bike, but i had the satisfaction of passing most of them again on the downhill. i hit a few of the logrides and most of the drops but took it pretty easy as i didnt trust my little 2.1 tire to protect my last tube. this year the bikers were nicely spread out though, so i was able to fly without slowing down to pass too often. a big improvement over last year.

after the bike ride we ditched the bikes for a short run through town, just long enough to convince the locals that we were crazy, or escaped convicts, or both, then we jumped back on the bikes for another self navigated portion of the race up through some scrub and down a fast loose trail to get us back to the starting gate at comox lake. here we were given a detailed orienteering map and sent on a scrambling, bushwacking adventure to find 8 checkpoints hidden in the rocks and trees. i love navigating with map and compass on the fly and this part was seriously fun.

having found all 8 checkpoints i arrived at the finishline feeling great, and was happy to find my beautiful wife waiting to meet me! i knew my time was under 6 hrs this year, but i didnt find out until 2 days later that i got 23rd out of 130 teams, and 11th in the solo male category. my time was 5hr 43 min. i was thrilled with both my time and my place, as last year i finished the race in 43rd place with a time of 6 hrs 10 min. better knowledge of the terrain certainly helped, but i was also a lot stronger this year which was fun. my buddy matt bested his time last year by over an hour, so he was pretty happy as well. what a great day!

once again i was also very impressed with the town of cumberland. if an emerg position ever opens up in neighbouring comox, it is the town in which i want to raise a family.

speaking of great towns, kylie and i are currently in bend, oregon. we are here for a medical course as well as for the mtn biking. so far i can tell you that americans are very friendly and open, and that they have jazz piano players in the lounge in their hospital... chilliwack hospital doesnt even have a lounge! just some grungy tables outside the mini tim hortons. no piano player either, although sometimes i sing without realizing it.

From Surgery and Beyond

We have been absent from here for a while but we have a good reason . . . I had surgery last week. But let's start from the beginning - Marc and I are having a BABY! We are very excited and are even more excited now that my surgery is over. We found out at the beginning of summer that we were having a baby and I very quickly found that my pants didn't fit and I was looking VERY pregnant. Marc examined me and thought we could be having multiple babies (i.e. triplets or more!) or thought there could be something wrong. After going to the doctor and getting an ultrasound we found out we did not have quadruplets (much to my relief!) but instead a very rapidly growing ovarian cyst. Because of the size of the cyst I had to have surgery to remove it last week. All went well and I delivered our first spawn - a 2L pop bottle sized one and am very happy to be rid of it!!

Right before surgery, I look a lot happier than I felt!

Home 2 days later, Niko greeted me very calmly and very gingerly came up on the couch beside me. I have no idea what he sensed as he is usually super excited to see me after a couple of days absence but it sure was nice when he laid his head on my legs!

I am feeling better everyday and on Sunday our friend Jarrid arrived for a visit and last night we went boating with friends. Although I was unable to surf :( it was still fun to be out on the water on a beautiful day!

The leftover vestiges of corn
I am not sure what Jarrid is trying to do here, maybe make sure that all the remnants of my cyst are gone!

Marc surfing behind the boat, you start with the rope then once you feel balanced, throw it in and surf the eternal wave. DUDE!
Yesterday Marc took me to emerg and we did an ultrasound and saw our baby waving to us! (Oh the perks of having a doctor for a husband!) Needless to say, we were very relieved that all is well and excited to get on the with the more important things in life now that include multiple trips in October- one to the island this weekend, then off to Bend, Oregon for a course, to Victoria for Thanksgiving then to Ottawa and New York for Halloween!!!!

We have been so blessed by all our wonderful family and friends here with meals, phone calls, visits and flowers! Thanks so much everyone!

september is always beautiful here

the annual chilliwack airshow is conveniently located 1 block from our house.
great community event

last week kylie and i picked over 20 lbs of sumptuous blackberries on vedder mtn. i froze them for use in smoothies and other fruity drinks, along with a 20 lb flat of blueberries (for $17). i derive a strong dopamine rush from the act of picking berries. much more than is justified by the mere cost savings. my 21st century brain still wants to store up for the winter. niko likes slurping them off the bush as well.

after a busy summer we were able to once again connect with friends.

just this week, we attended our friend madison's second birthday party. where are all the people? checking out uncle kevin's firetruck of course!

"did i hear something about a firetruck?"

i have never been a daschund fan, but butch's new pup wheatsie is super cute.



and of course, the birthday girl graciously opening presents.

precious bodily fluids

"have you ever seen a commie drink a glass of water? vodka... that's what they drink isn't it? never water? and not without good reason."

dr. strangelove (or - how i learned to stop worrying and love the bomb) is my new favourite movie. my friend chris lent it to me quite a while ago b/c he knew how much i liked kubrick as a director. kylie and i put it on, and initially found it funny but quite slow (it was filmed in 1964 - well before "Speed" changed movies and attention spans forever). i think we only managed to watch 30 min before we started falling asleep.

a few weeks ago i put it back in to watch it again while kylie was otherwise occupied. i dont know what changed, but this time i was riveted. the dialogue is so dry and so hilarious. peter sellers is incredible in 3 roles and delivers a subtle comedic performance (at least mandrake and the president are subtle, the eponynymous dr. is anything but) that just isnt seen these days. i have since watched the movie 3 times and gone through all the special features. i love it!

my favourite character by far is general ripper. i was working an overnight shift a few days ago and my brain was in the state common to those who are still awake and trying to function normally at 4:30 in the morning. i had a friendly but fairly intrusive diabetic patient pestering me to give him a prescription for insulin or another sugar lowering medication and i was explaining to him that his problem was dehydration or lack of water. suddenly my voice turned low and gravelly and i started to slur my words like i was holding a cigar in my mouth:

"water, mandrake. water is the source of all life. seven tenths of the earth's surface is water. why, do you realize that 70 percent of YOU is water? as human beings, you and i need fresh pure water to replenish our precious bodily fluids."

the patient did not catch the reference, so i apologized and explained i was quoting dr. strangelove. i didnt realize i had the scene memorized, but it is my favourite and it kept spilling out of me. i then turned to the nurses and intoned once again in a serious gravelly tone:

"mandrake, have you never wondered why i drink only distilled water (or rainwater) and only pure grain alcohol? have you ever heard of a thing called fluoridation? fluoridation of water?"

unfortunately my sleep deprived attempt at humour missed the mark with the nurses as well. none of them had seen the movie either. its funny to me though. i can make myself laugh just thinking about those lines delivered so seriously and mandrake's panicky disbelieving responses.

great movie... although you probably wont like it unless you are sleep deprived or a nuclear policy afficianado. extremely slow paced but funny in a way no movie is funny these days.