10) My favourite food? = BBQ hamburgers. Yes sir-ree Bob. Hand made burgers, grilled over charcoal brikets, with relish, fresh tomato, lettuce, onion. It does not get any better. NO IT DOESN'T, SHUT UP.
9) Do I believe there is life in the universe? = 100% yes. I think it's everywhere in the universe. And I think they will prove it very soon. Either remnants of past life on Mars, or there is life in the oceans of Europa (a moon of Jupiter).
8) Dream vacation? = Prague, Czech Republic (oh, please someone take me there)
7) Beer? Wine? or Liquor? = oh, that's a tuff one, I don't drink much wine anymore, and even though I've developed a taste for good whiskey, I still have to go with beer. After biking all day long, nothing is better than a cold beer (oh, and maybe a BBQ hamburger)
6) If my house was burning down, what would I grab on the way out? = Gerry's paintings. I have two, and never tire of looking at them.
5) Favourite TV show? = Futurama. WHAT? You've never seen every episode 50 times? Sad, so sad. But if you're ever in town visiting, I have seasons 3, 4, 5 & 6. To give you a small taste of what the show is not like, click on this link for an episode that will leave you confused and angry.
http://vimeo.com/31829195
4) Eric has all his wisdom teeth.
3) Favourite concert? = KISS, the final farewell tour with the original line up. On the floor, 20th row, centre.
2) Pet Peeve? = people that comment "OMG, you got your hair cut", when I get it cut every 3 weeks like clock work. It actually only grows about a half an inch, I get it cut, and everyone freaks out.
1) Favourite Whistler Bike Trail? = that's easy! Blue Velvet to Frieght Train to Dirt Merchant to Lower A-Line. Uh? What's that? You've never been biking in whistler? Pft, why do I even try?
Wednesday 15 August 2012
Tuesday 7 August 2012
biking, whistler, adam, etc
I spent the weekend in Whistler, and I'll have to tell you, it was one of the hottest bunch of days I've ever had to bike in. Mid 30's was the name of the game for Friday, Saturday, Sunday and finally cooling down to some high 20s for Monday. Man, it was hot, sunny, dry and dusty. You add some thick, polyester knee length cycling shorts, gloves, protective knee pads, and of course a full face helmet. Oh, did I mention it's a 5K bike ride from Adam's place to Whistler Village, so I'm dripping in sweat before I even hit the mountain.
It was a great weekend of riding, even with the heat. At least it gets cooler as you go up the chair lift, and by Monday, it was actually a little brisk at the top. According to Wikipedia, the peak of Mt Whistler is 7,160 feet, so you're getting up there. Actually, if you take the gondola right to the top (which I have a few times, but there's not much biking up there), I bet there are a few snow banks up there you could make some snowballs with.
I ended up sleeping WAY in on Saturday (14 and a half hours of sleep) so I didn't get up to Whistler till about 6pm, which left very little time to go biking, as the park closes at 8pm, but it doesn't take much arm twisting to get Adam biking, so we hit the hill a little late, but got to do two "Sweep Runs". The sweep runs are when you are working with WhislterBlakcomb staff, and you get to select a group of trails/runs to do a final "sweep" checking to make sure there is no one left on the mountain. It's fun, because for the most part, you are the last ones going down the runs you have selected (no pressure from behind) and there is no one in front of you blocking your way or going "too slow". Adam and I did a pretty technical group of trails for our first sweep, and then had some fun with some easier trails on our second sweep. It was a quite, relaxing night once we got back, BBQing some burgers, having some cold beer and watching some TV.
Sunday was a pretty full day of biking, though with the heat baking us again, it was hard to get moving early on. I love biking with Adam. He's quite a bit better than me, really skilled, but extremely patient. I think he would make an excellent coach or teacher. The only time I hear him chirping at me, is when I take off first, then find myself in his way, as he has caught up. We explored some new trails that were built this year, did some old favourites, and just had a great time biking. I had a close call on one feature; it's on "Freight Train", and it's jumping on this bunch of Sea Cans that happen to be half way up a the mountain. Jumping up onto it was no problem, but coming off the other side, there is a fairly serious drop, and I kind of landed on my front tire, and it got a bit sketchy, but I got it under control. The thing about it is, after you land off the back, it's only another 20 feet or so, before there is another huge drop off a rock, so you have to get your shite together after the Sea Can. Here is video of me last year doing the feature.
Monday of the long weekend, it was again just too hot to be Up & Atom too early, plus I had some bike repairs I had to tend too. Bike repairs are pretty much on going in the world of downhill biking. There is a saying that "Whistler Eats Bikes", which is SO true. Another cute saying on a T-shirt for one of the local bike shoppes is "Mountain Biking, as additive as crack, but twice as expensive". With our bikes up and running, we biked the 5K back to the village, where I realised I forgot my bike park pass, so it was a 5K ride back to Adam's place, grab my pass, 5K back to the village, to meet up with Adam and a guy he had met the day before (I forget his name, lets call him Dean). Dean is in his late 40s, from Kamloops, and was riding with some good Karma as he found and returned a wallet with $520 cash in it. Adam met him a few days earlier when the wallet owner was buying Dean beers (Adam was beside them at the bar). Well, we three got a good long run in (it can be 30 to 45 minutes from the top to bottom), and it started to rain, and thunder and lighting, so they closed the lift. We went to a local bar for a beer, and met up with another rider, Kaylen, from one of the Hawaiian islands. He's in Whistler for two months, to just ride. He's young (early 20s?) and just loving it here. We all went for pizza slices, and it continued to pour rain for our bike ride back home. FYI, I did about 20K going back and forth between Adam's and the Village, which may not seem like much, but I'm doing it on a downhill mountain bike that weighs about 50 pounds. by comparison, a good road bike weighs less than 20 pounds.
Great weekend. I've been biking for so long now, and I never get tired of it. I could bike every day, all day long, and still be smiling at the end of the day. Having a biking buddy like Adam along for the ride, just makes it better. He is definitely the icing on the cake.
I surprised myself tonight (Tuesday) with an 8K run after work.
It was a great weekend of riding, even with the heat. At least it gets cooler as you go up the chair lift, and by Monday, it was actually a little brisk at the top. According to Wikipedia, the peak of Mt Whistler is 7,160 feet, so you're getting up there. Actually, if you take the gondola right to the top (which I have a few times, but there's not much biking up there), I bet there are a few snow banks up there you could make some snowballs with.
I ended up sleeping WAY in on Saturday (14 and a half hours of sleep) so I didn't get up to Whistler till about 6pm, which left very little time to go biking, as the park closes at 8pm, but it doesn't take much arm twisting to get Adam biking, so we hit the hill a little late, but got to do two "Sweep Runs". The sweep runs are when you are working with WhislterBlakcomb staff, and you get to select a group of trails/runs to do a final "sweep" checking to make sure there is no one left on the mountain. It's fun, because for the most part, you are the last ones going down the runs you have selected (no pressure from behind) and there is no one in front of you blocking your way or going "too slow". Adam and I did a pretty technical group of trails for our first sweep, and then had some fun with some easier trails on our second sweep. It was a quite, relaxing night once we got back, BBQing some burgers, having some cold beer and watching some TV.
Sunday was a pretty full day of biking, though with the heat baking us again, it was hard to get moving early on. I love biking with Adam. He's quite a bit better than me, really skilled, but extremely patient. I think he would make an excellent coach or teacher. The only time I hear him chirping at me, is when I take off first, then find myself in his way, as he has caught up. We explored some new trails that were built this year, did some old favourites, and just had a great time biking. I had a close call on one feature; it's on "Freight Train", and it's jumping on this bunch of Sea Cans that happen to be half way up a the mountain. Jumping up onto it was no problem, but coming off the other side, there is a fairly serious drop, and I kind of landed on my front tire, and it got a bit sketchy, but I got it under control. The thing about it is, after you land off the back, it's only another 20 feet or so, before there is another huge drop off a rock, so you have to get your shite together after the Sea Can. Here is video of me last year doing the feature.
Monday of the long weekend, it was again just too hot to be Up & Atom too early, plus I had some bike repairs I had to tend too. Bike repairs are pretty much on going in the world of downhill biking. There is a saying that "Whistler Eats Bikes", which is SO true. Another cute saying on a T-shirt for one of the local bike shoppes is "Mountain Biking, as additive as crack, but twice as expensive". With our bikes up and running, we biked the 5K back to the village, where I realised I forgot my bike park pass, so it was a 5K ride back to Adam's place, grab my pass, 5K back to the village, to meet up with Adam and a guy he had met the day before (I forget his name, lets call him Dean). Dean is in his late 40s, from Kamloops, and was riding with some good Karma as he found and returned a wallet with $520 cash in it. Adam met him a few days earlier when the wallet owner was buying Dean beers (Adam was beside them at the bar). Well, we three got a good long run in (it can be 30 to 45 minutes from the top to bottom), and it started to rain, and thunder and lighting, so they closed the lift. We went to a local bar for a beer, and met up with another rider, Kaylen, from one of the Hawaiian islands. He's in Whistler for two months, to just ride. He's young (early 20s?) and just loving it here. We all went for pizza slices, and it continued to pour rain for our bike ride back home. FYI, I did about 20K going back and forth between Adam's and the Village, which may not seem like much, but I'm doing it on a downhill mountain bike that weighs about 50 pounds. by comparison, a good road bike weighs less than 20 pounds.
Great weekend. I've been biking for so long now, and I never get tired of it. I could bike every day, all day long, and still be smiling at the end of the day. Having a biking buddy like Adam along for the ride, just makes it better. He is definitely the icing on the cake.
I surprised myself tonight (Tuesday) with an 8K run after work.
Wednesday 1 August 2012
Sorry for the gap
I hate people that say "sorry, but I've been busy" so I won't use that line. I'll just try and let you know what's been going on.
I've been up to Whistler a few times to go biking now that Adam is back in town. SO great to have someone to hit the hill with up there. Biking can be a bit of a bore by yourself, and I'm really not that good at meeting new people. Biking with Adam is great for me, because he pushes me to do better. It's never stale or stagnant around him. He knows exactly what I should be capable of and always tries to get me to take it up a notch. There are some new trails up in Whistler this year, so they are fun to explore, along with all the old trusty stand-by trails. It's a late start to the year; Adam was here in May last year, and it's August already and he just showed up. I think I got in about 30+ days on the hill last year, and I'll probably be around half that this year, but still fun times.
I think my running has paid off up in Whistler. For the most part, I'm standing up when biking from the top of the hill down, so I'm relying on my legs a lot. I haven't had many epic days up there this year, but I've not had any where my legs are just aching. There are times when you are going down certain trails and you can't stop, no matter how much your muscles are burning. You stop, and your done.
Usually I'd be taking a bit more time off during the summer to do more biking, but Adam doesn't have his own place this year, and work has kept me a bit occupied. I'm enjoying it though, and the days seem to just fly by. You can tell your enjoying your work, when your not staring at the clock all day long, just willing it to get to 5pm. As much as I would love to be up biking more this year, it just might not be in the cards.
Work is going exceptionally well. I'm really getting a handle on everything. It's a huge accomplishment what I've done so far, (at least I think so), considering I had to jump in, and just go with it. I've taken 7 companies, and had to figure out what's been done, whats needed, continue with all the incoming working, contact all the restaurants and work with them. Plus, as I'm taking over for someone that is not there, there was no training, and also, a lot of mistakes I'm finding done by the previous accountant, so I'm fixing all that too. It's a real mental challenge, probably the biggest in my life, and it's going fairly smoothly.
But enough of blaming the person before me, and the uber-boring chat of accounting. The work environment is fantastic. I'm really enjoying the team I work with, and they all seem really excited I'm on board. One of the guys brought his dog into work one day. I loved that, nothing makes a work environment more wonderful than a pet. Dog, cat, fish, I don't care which, every workplace should have a pet. I had those Chinese fighting fish in Victoria for about 2 or 3 years. I used to look over at them to find them staring at me (or something close to me).
It's been difficult to keep up with my running, but I'm still getting out there. My Nike GPS Watch will start to flash messages at me like "are we going running tonight?". I'm feeling good out there, but this last stretch I missed 5 days, yikes. Need to figure that out, and fix it.
I know I haven't talked much about dating on my blog, but there isn't anything going on in that area of my life, but there is not much I can do about it, so I just put on a brave face, and try to move forward. I will be honest, and wish I had someone waiting at home for me now, with this new job, wanting to know how my day went, how are the people I'm working with. I know I have friends and family that are asking me, a text, email, phone call, but it really doesn't compare to sitting on the couch and getting to talk about what's going on in your life right now.
Oh well, it was the best of times, it was the worst of times.
Who said that? anyone?
I've been up to Whistler a few times to go biking now that Adam is back in town. SO great to have someone to hit the hill with up there. Biking can be a bit of a bore by yourself, and I'm really not that good at meeting new people. Biking with Adam is great for me, because he pushes me to do better. It's never stale or stagnant around him. He knows exactly what I should be capable of and always tries to get me to take it up a notch. There are some new trails up in Whistler this year, so they are fun to explore, along with all the old trusty stand-by trails. It's a late start to the year; Adam was here in May last year, and it's August already and he just showed up. I think I got in about 30+ days on the hill last year, and I'll probably be around half that this year, but still fun times.
I think my running has paid off up in Whistler. For the most part, I'm standing up when biking from the top of the hill down, so I'm relying on my legs a lot. I haven't had many epic days up there this year, but I've not had any where my legs are just aching. There are times when you are going down certain trails and you can't stop, no matter how much your muscles are burning. You stop, and your done.
Usually I'd be taking a bit more time off during the summer to do more biking, but Adam doesn't have his own place this year, and work has kept me a bit occupied. I'm enjoying it though, and the days seem to just fly by. You can tell your enjoying your work, when your not staring at the clock all day long, just willing it to get to 5pm. As much as I would love to be up biking more this year, it just might not be in the cards.
Work is going exceptionally well. I'm really getting a handle on everything. It's a huge accomplishment what I've done so far, (at least I think so), considering I had to jump in, and just go with it. I've taken 7 companies, and had to figure out what's been done, whats needed, continue with all the incoming working, contact all the restaurants and work with them. Plus, as I'm taking over for someone that is not there, there was no training, and also, a lot of mistakes I'm finding done by the previous accountant, so I'm fixing all that too. It's a real mental challenge, probably the biggest in my life, and it's going fairly smoothly.
But enough of blaming the person before me, and the uber-boring chat of accounting. The work environment is fantastic. I'm really enjoying the team I work with, and they all seem really excited I'm on board. One of the guys brought his dog into work one day. I loved that, nothing makes a work environment more wonderful than a pet. Dog, cat, fish, I don't care which, every workplace should have a pet. I had those Chinese fighting fish in Victoria for about 2 or 3 years. I used to look over at them to find them staring at me (or something close to me).
It's been difficult to keep up with my running, but I'm still getting out there. My Nike GPS Watch will start to flash messages at me like "are we going running tonight?". I'm feeling good out there, but this last stretch I missed 5 days, yikes. Need to figure that out, and fix it.
I know I haven't talked much about dating on my blog, but there isn't anything going on in that area of my life, but there is not much I can do about it, so I just put on a brave face, and try to move forward. I will be honest, and wish I had someone waiting at home for me now, with this new job, wanting to know how my day went, how are the people I'm working with. I know I have friends and family that are asking me, a text, email, phone call, but it really doesn't compare to sitting on the couch and getting to talk about what's going on in your life right now.
Oh well, it was the best of times, it was the worst of times.
Who said that? anyone?
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