(New) Typical Tuesday

Asparagus, spinach, apples, cucumber, live broccoli and more goodies

So, welcome to Tuesday and what will be the new Tuesday norm around here.  First, this afternoon I picked up the very first of our bi-weekly farm (and egg) shares from Plan B Organics. I've been thinking about joining a farm for way too long, but in typical fashion, did nothing. So, while I was looking up something else on a local business website last week and discovered that they were now a depot location beginning the following week, I signed up. Now, along with whatever we can glean from the garden, we'll also have wonderful, local, fresh veggies and eggs every other week. Yum!

This is what Tuesday afternoon looks like.

Tuesday evenings, for the past two weeks, I've been attending a French conversation group hosted by the Centre Français. It's a younger group than their monthly happy hour, which makes for some very fun games and interesting conversation. Each week we begin our sessions by having each participant tell the rest of the group about their weekend (activities have ranged from kiteboarding, mountain biking and running up all of the steps in the CN Tower to undertaking home improvement projects, art crawling and enjoying a "grasse matinée"). Now that I know the ritual, I spend Monday evening and most of Tuesday trying to:
a) come up with something INTERESTING that we did this weekend (sometimes difficult, if all we did was groceries, homework, and watch TV).
and
b) make sure I know all of the necessary vocabulary. My Tuesday morning runs are now spent talking to myself in French.

It's now 5:55 and I need to make sure I know how to say "reupholster," "host," and "kosher," as well as try not to confuse framboise and fraise (a regular mistake that I seem to make, oops). I was also hoping to travel by bike but those grey clouds and the weather stations threat of thunderstorms has me rethinking that plan. Hmm...

Bike to Work Day

Monday, May 28th is Bike to Work Day in various cities in Toronto and the GTA. As part of the celebrations in our fair city, commuters are invited to meet at a downtown park between 7:30 and 8:30am on Monday morning for snacks, hot and cold beverages, free t-shirts and the chance to win prizes (including a few grand prizes from VIA rail and St. Catherine's tourism). Visit here for the local Smart Commute website and to register for the day.


As part of my registration, I pledged to:

The "new" trail, nice, smooth pavement

• Ride to work or school on May 28, 2012; (I'm normally downtown three days a week and I travel by bike, but even though Monday is not one of regular downtown days, there is little I won't do for free food. I'll be there!)
  
• Tell a co-worker or friend about Bike to Work Day and send them a link to this form;(that's why I'm posting on the blog...) or
• Assist a new rider in finding a route to school or work (If you live in the western end of the city, be sure to check out the newly made extension of the Rail Trail from the university all the way to Dundurn. No more awkward walking/riding over the highway overpass. Wonderful news and such lovely new pavement!)

So, get that bike out of the garage, give it a quick "ABCD" and hop on. And call me if you want a cycling buddy!

Sporting Life

Cycling gear. And definitely not a skirt.
Jacket and pack: MEC
Leggings: ROOTS (thrifted)
Shoes: Puma
Helmet: Giro

Well, it has been awhile since I blogged my cycling attire, probably because my bike has only recently been released from winter storage and after a lovely tune-up from these guys, she's back on the road.

I know when I started blogging about cycling my focus was about being able to wear my everyday clothing on my bicycle, but that kind of shifted this week. Maybe it was feeling really comfortable in this gear on my trail ride on Wednesday. Maybe it's because I'm getting used to wearing this kind of clothing on a daily basis. Or maybe it's because it's warmer this spring than it was last fall and my focus has shifted from keeping warm in the wind and somewhat presentable when I arrive to not arriving all sweaty in jeans and cute top. Arriving sweaty in workout gear seems somehow...less sweaty. And it's still kind of cute. Maybe not European cute, but after spending the day in the library, mall and Farmer's Market, I feel pretty comfortable in this outfit.

But can I study in it? Well, we'll try that out next week. 

On Two Wheels

Oops, it's been a month since my last past? Oh dear. Does anyone still read this? I wouldn't be surprised if I were the only person, with such sparse posting practices here. Oh well. I do like to talk and I don't mind talking to myself. And it is less ridiculous if I do it online, right?

I have kept up the running (both here and in Ottawa. Maybe a post on that later). Sometimes I even start writing blog posts in my head as I go but by the time I come home, text Mack at work that I'm back (both he and my mother worry about me, a lone female, on the trail. *sigh* So I humour them), stretch, shower and eat breakfast, my mind has already moved onto my other responsibilities for the day. Which is probably just as well.  I enjoy framing my thoughts on running in a kind of diary format as I write, but there's no reason that it has to be written down. Ephemeral running prose.

Today I decided to cross-train (even though I'm still not sure what I'm training for) and took the bike out on the trail. This was the first time going beyond the 1km mark on two wheels (yes, I've been that lazy that I've biked the kilometre to the Plaza for errands instead of walking) and made a few observations:

- The "out bound" Rail Trail follows a rather gradual incline just pass the 3km mark and continues for who-knows-how-long. I only made it out to the 5km mark and decided to turn around because there was either a) something wrong with me or b) something wrong with my bike, since this part of the trail was so (invisibly) difficult. I was rewarded for my efforts with a much faster glide home. 

My friend R. enjoying the trail

- Cyclists might actually be quieter than runners (even those huffing and puffing on the ride out); or perhaps it's that we come up faster on the wildlife. Even on a bike with a metal side baskets that squeaks with every bump, I had two or three birds explode out of the trailside grass just before I rode by. I've never had that happen so close to me when I've been running.  At  one point, I almost thought I was going to run over a chipmunk that ran out onto the trail, just in front of my tire.

- With that sound in mind, I'm still confused about bell etiquette. People never seem to hear me come up (even with creaky-squeaky basket) but are startled, and nervously jump to the side to let me pass (not unlike the little chipmunk). Is that better than breezing by them and startling them once I'm passed?

Books upon books

After running out of more traditional
book storage options, the author has resorted to
incorporating books into her livingroom decor.

Sometimes I'm so slow on the popular zeitgeist that it takes an article in a national daily to introduce me to these things like The Book of Awesome. Luckily, the Globe and Mail nicely gathered together the book related awesomeness for me this past weekend.  All I have to say is "Yes, yes, and more yes."

Books really are awesome, as are visiting public libraries and borrowing copies from friends and browsing through secondhand bookstores and checking the "What's New Shelf" at the library, and receiving birthday books with the recommendation that "you'll love it" and discovering that the bestseller, for which you're listed 157th on the request list, is actually available on the Express shelf, and finding an old favourite (that you only borrowed from the library but had to return) is for sale for a $1 at a charity book sale.

And what's even better is when a books is a few of those things, and more. The day before my birthday, I picked up an Indigo package on my doorstep. Still in graduate student mode, I opened it on auto-pilot, thinking it was probably schools books I had ordered, although I couldn't remember exactly what (again, something easily chalked up to the kind of absent-minded professor look that anyone in academia tends to get around the end of March/beginning of April). Instead of opening up the package to the latest cultural critique from Sarah Ahmed, or another hefty project from Walter Benjamin, out tumbled three books that on first glance I might label "Sci Fi." It took me a moment to realize that a) these probably weren't mis-shipped to me (I looked at the packing slip) and b) that I hadn't ordered them (they were from my parent's address). It turned out, quite charmingly, that these were a gift from my middle brother, a collection of well-chosen novels to be added to my summer reading list.

C., if you're reading this, I have to tell you, I cheated. I started The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay right after I finished another birthday book. And wow....I'm loathe to give a review in the middle of reading it, but I have to say, it's already in my Top 10 of (read in) 2012. But don't take my word for it. My wonderful friend Catherine reviewed it on her blog two years ago and named it her favourite book. I'm wishing I had listened to her then, because I might be reading this for the second or third time and revelling in Chabon's incredible use of language or his dissertation-worthy level of research that must have been required to write this tome. I know once I make it through this, and the rest of my birthday loot, I'm heading right to the library and tracking down some more Chabon.

Week(end) Update

A wonderful selection of birthday cupcakes

Another year, another birthday. And what a grand birthday it was, as it started and ended with cupcakes and spoiled me in between. My mother, on a recent sewing kick, sent me a handsewn summer tunic and skirt; my brother chose me some Sci Fi for my summer reading list; M. bought me some running gear and the book club gals provided dinner, gifts and cake!

Another splendid creation from our Book Club
Pastry Chef

I even managed to run five kilometres in 34 minutes the morning of my birthday. I think it was the birthday cupcake in bed that fuelled that accomplishment.

All in all I managed about 20 kms that week, including a Good Friday run with the wonderful Bex. It was a nice week for running. And getting just a bit older as well.

Then Easter happened, 10 lbs of chocolate arrived at my house and I haven't made it our on the trail since.

Oops.

But this happened (or, well, didn't.) Good news for the university and students wanting to graduate (and members of Unit 1 - we made some excellent monetary gains) but bad news for sessional instructors, job security and higher education in general. I've climbed up on my soap box a few times already this weekend so perhaps I'll save my posturing for another day, but the casualization of academic work is alive and well it's going to take more than one set of contract negotiations and a strike to change it. And now is the time to start mobilizing around the call for that change.

Thing 1 and Thing 2

In lighter news, I made these this weekend. I really just meant them as practice versions of some new patterns from this wonderfully wacky book but they worked out well enough that they might just go into gift circulation. It's a good thing that there will be two new cousins on the way....

And some work got done, groceries were purchased, we had homemade turkey pot pie for dinner and I'm feeling ready to take on another Monday and another week.

Last weekend, we had 10 pictures up on this part of the livingroom wall and that looked just fine. This weekend, while doing some spring cleaning I found a few more picture frames, so we doubled it. I'm a little worried how much it might grow with the next closet I empty (and what our landlord will think of this wall full of holes.)

Oh, but the memories that are up on the wall! The miles we walked, the food we ate, the nights we spent just wandering in another new city, another new place.

For the moment, the most travelling I will probably be doing is moving between the kitchen and the office to refill my teacup. But at least I'll be able to enjoy some fantastic views in the process...

Ciao, Monday

The best part about work-from-home Mondays. 

Run count: 1= 5 km. Not bad for a Monday afternoon outing.

Cupcake count: 0. But I made crepes for lunch and had a sweet one filled with bananas and hazelnut for dessert so I think that's in keeping with this week's birthday celebrations.

Now, back to marking. With a little help from today's pump up anthem: Ciao, Monday.