hockey, riding and relatives

Up early for 2 hours hockey with the boys. Traditional christmas time hockey. Good game, good times. Back home for a wander around Ottawa with the relatives. Did the tour of the Parliament buildings, wicked cool architecture and detail work. Got home, and hit the rollers for a solid 3 hours before dinner while the fam continued their tour of downtown. Watched Shattered with Pierce Brosnan for the first hour and half or so of the ride. Wicked thriller of a movie I must say. Pretty gripping. In to work tomorrow and Saturday. Got a call to play nets early tomorrow morning, but also have limited time pre work and the need for a long ride. We'll have to wait and see on this one I'm afraid. New Year's approaches, and I need a plan. Unfortunately plans and I don't gel all that well, so it will most likely be another 'flying-by-the-seat-of-my-pants' affair. No worries, New Years is always a shit show. Been busy playing with my new mobile. Pretty wicked sweet, except for the fact that I currently can only respond to texts, not compose my own. Plus, I'm sick of being stuck on hold with those wankers. I'm going to the source.

Post christmas ramblings

Parliment Hill in the mist around dark. Cool. Call me tourist.

Christmas has come and gone again. Made more enjoyable again not only by good times with the fam, and some wine, but also with the christmas day outdoor ride. Managed to sneak in a solid 2 hours outside this afternoon out towards Manotick and back through downtown Ottawa. Solid road conditions and pretty warm temperatures allowed this and I was only kept to a maximum of 2 hours due to many food related commitments. Spent a solid evening with the grandparents in church Christmas eve enjoying the religious aspect and other charades accompanying the church experience. An overall entertaining experience in watching my grandfather sing his heart out in his off tune and off note type of way and watching the small children (like really young) perform the nativity. Though due to their age, the performance was interrupted by some new features such as: the tossing of the baby Jesus, the sword fight of angels vs. shepherds and one wayward donkey (?) wandering off stage after getting smoked by a "sword". Entertaining to say the least. After our arrival home for the traditional family feast and "entertainment" we discovered our stove had exploded so we're forced to cook our hors d'euvres in a toaster oven. Ate dinner eventually, relaxed for the evening and hoped the remainder of my newly created gift's varnish had dried. No such luck so took the hairdryer to them in the morning. Gift time went well, the meals were wicked, and got a good ride in. Now, time for coffee and the traditional stay up all night with Pook to attempt to be first in line at the Future Shop Boxing Day sale. Not sure if I even need anything. But tradition is tradition. Happy Boxing day to all. Or something like that. Fill in your own non-offensive cheer perhaps.

Happy Festivus or whatever you celebrate

As far as I'm concerned, politically correct can kiss my buttocks. All this about no longer putting up Christmas trees or whatever pisses my off sometimes. I'm no offended if someone wishes me happy Hanukkah or something. Tis the season to be happy and stressed. Nearly finished all my gifting related activities, and cooking demands. Training has been somewhat week for the last few days. Bothers me a bit, but hey. Family is around only a few days. I'll be back in the saddle soon. Back to serious hours and serious business. For now, I'm busy praying that the varnish I applied for a few gifts dries by tomorrow morning. For the rest of you, happy/merry festivus or applicable holiday season.

Ride?

More hockey and "work" then riding lately. Something like 3-4 hours of hockey in the last 2 days. No riding. And about 5 hours of hand tool wood working today. Stupid carpentry. Apparently people expect "handmade" wooden gifts now. Saves me on the cash, but causes a lot of work. Coming along pretty decent though. Nothing wrong with a little respite from the riding, especially since judging from how sore I am after this cutting and carving I could probably have worn a heart rate monitor and called it "cross training". Real work tomorrow. Hopefully a few hours on the rollers in the evening. Going is getting tough in the next few days with the arrival of christmas and therefor relatives. Nothing wrong with that, love hanging out with family. Just cuts into available training time. Maybe some early mornings. Hopefully finish off several of my "projects" tomorrow and then have one less thing on the go. I'll report more later after I find something interesting going on and some spare time. Odd that now without class, I seem to have less time available...

Wednesday update

My internet situation around here blows. Forgot about that. Got pretty accustomed to good, high speed out in Perth. Come back to Ottawa, no internet, drivers are tools, and as a general rule I hate most of the people around here. Not you all, you're mostly ok. Just the rest of this town. Good couple of training days, 3 hours on the rollers yesterday, 3.5 hours today followed by a pretty wicked skate ski session at Mooney's Bay. Straight up anger on the way home with traffic's lack of movement. Realizing that I kind of miss cooking my own dinners. If I can find time, I may have to start cooking some dinners around here. We'll see. I still promise some Christmas pictures to come, just need to get access to some decent and dependable internet. We'll see. Christmas is approaching. And I need to get on that.

I feel a white christmas

Seriously? 37cm of snow? This is ridiculous. Cyclery party was its usual self. No disappointment there. Vipond may be regretting the couple extra martinis he consumed. No one seems quite certain how he got to that point, but big up to Tomsic who partook in the cab ride home to carry big Nick to bed. Poor Jenny. Still somewhat fuzzy on the details of how or when I got home. Woke up about half undressed about 1 or 2 in the aft. Managed to both not lose my camera and even take 139 pictures. Wow. Though, after looking through them, I don't think I had the camera in my possession for the duration of the evening. Maybe Brian's $100 a bottle "sipping" tequila had something to do with that. Overall. An excellent evening/night/morning and a complete write off of Sunday. Did manage to sober up and suit up for my first hockey of the season at a well attended (me and 5 others) game. Operation snow removal is in full swing here. Was trying to bust out for a ski with Keir this aft, but after an inspection of the snow situation, I rode the rollers for a solid 4 hours. Basically, my car parks on a lane way. The snow plows have now passed the main streets, which means that these gigantor snowbanks along the roads are blocking my car in at either end of the lane way. Seriously tough to get a Civic (even with winter tyres) over a 5 foot tall embankment of snow. So, more shoveling. Nice easy evening ahead I hope, generally martini and Bailey's free.

Quick

Quick update:
-Christmas Party stache. Check
-Christmas party suit (can you say pink and argyle?)
-Little something extra for the coffee. You know it.
-Watching Norm on New Yankee Workshop with my coffee. Check. I'm I'm closet case old man apparently.

Couple hours on the rollers yesterday. Had to cut the ski out of the sched to allow for helping my mom out with a bunch of stuff. No big deal. Still got a couple hours in. Plus, the full on training doesn't restart until after tonights festivities. My camera should be in attendance. Sober camera operator, yet to be seen. Sunday should be for the most part a write off. Sent off my South Carolina stuff last night. From what I see, most seem to be working in advance. Not really my style, but hey. I can adapt. Enjoy your Saturday.