-- Chris Moule -- Adventures and musings --

The Earthquake of 2010

2010-07-01T09:56:00.001-05:00

t was on a sunny and warm Wednesday afternoon that I sat down to finish writing a briefing on my balcony. I had been driven to the balcony as they had been running the monthly fire alarm tests in the building. I decided to escape to the balcony as a way of getting away from the alarm. Around 2 pm my laptop started to shift on my lap. At the same time, my chair started to shift back and forth. The alarm in the nearby car dealership started to wail. It took me a moment to realize that I was sitting through my first earthquake. There was a brief pause followed by three or four minor aftershocks. I did a quick search of twitter and there was nothing. It was a bit freaky. Later in the afternoon, I headed over to the US Geological survey web site to find that we had received a 5.5 on the Richter scale earthquake having an epicentre 50 mile north of Ottawa. I chided myself a bit when it was all over as I had picked the wrong day to work from home as my office colleagues had been sent home for safety reason. But did I really want to have to take fourteen flights of stairs down the fire escape with a bunch of panicking office workers. I think the balcony was probably the best place to spend an earthquake.

Cycling in a dryerCycling in a dryer

2010-05-25T18:14:00.001-05:00

Most days I cycle to work and occasionally I'll run to the office. Today was a running day. A little after 7:30AM I headed out onto the bike path in my sneakers and reached the office a little after 8:00AM. I headed down to the showers, cleaned up and started my work day. I hang my running/cycling gear in my office. As I was reached over at the end of the day, I noticed my jersey was still damp. The coolness of the office was not enough to dry it out completely. As I put it on it felt wet and clammy. Upon exiting the office, I felt a blast of hot air billowing in from the west. As I pedalled in a westerly direction along the Ottawa River I felt as if I was cycling in a dryer as a wave of hot air would hit me followed by a break then another burst of hot air. I could feel my jersey getting more dry with each burst of air. This would not last long as once I crested a hill I started to sweat again and I back to cycling in a wet jersey.

Groin injury

2010-04-24T20:33:00.001-05:00

Every couple of years, I become very familiar with a given muscle, ligament or tendon in my legs due to an injury. Earlier this month, I pulled two muscles in my groin, the adductor longus(F) and the adductor magnus(H) on my right leg. For the past couple of weeks, I've been going for aggressive physiotherapy and massages and these sessions are helping me get back to running. These session are so intense that they have been leaving bruises on my leg. I've cycling to work daily for just over a month as they cycling is good cross-training for these muscles. As well, I've been doing long sessions of indoor rowing machine which are helping to rehab the leg but spending 30 minutes on the rowing machine doesn't equate to say a 30 minute run outside. It sucks when you get injured but since I haven't been injured for a while I guess it was time. I've been doing some very specialized groin stretches which are strengthening the area. The injury has put a damper on a couple of road races in April that I was hoping to do. The running is coming back slowly with each workout getting progressively long and harder. I long for the day when the muscles are fully healed and I can run carefree.

Why you can't tell a tea by it's colour?

2010-03-11T19:27:00.001-05:00

I have a couple of tea strainer/infusers that I use to brew whole leaf tea. I recently spent part of a lunch hour searching for one that which would be slim enough to fit inside my REI travel mug. I discovered the Luci Loose Tea Infuser which is just narrow enough to fit inside the mug and looks like a gnome is sitting inside the mug. While at the tea store I decided to buy some British tea which is hard to find Earl Grey -- Taylors of Harrogate." Once back at the office it was time to test the new infuser and tea. I loaded up the infuser with tea and put milk in my mug and waited for the kettle to boil. The infuser sat in the mug steeping for four minutes and the tea looked white. I like my tea to have a bit of a brown color. I opened up the infuser and poured in another teaspoon of tea and waited. The tea still looked white. I was getting a little desperate so I grabbed a tea bag and plopped it into the mug and now I have brown tea. It was a highly caffeinated brew and much stronger than I'm use to. The moral of the story is just because your tea has a neutral colour after brewing doesn't mean it won't have a punch of caffeine.

Calendar recycling

2010-03-06T14:49:00.001-05:00

I normally buy my wall calendar in the second week of January as by this point they are usually 50% off. This year I decided to try something different. I have a really nice hiking calendar in my office showing people hiking in various locales around the world. Rather than buy a new one, I decided to staple a 2010 calendar page over each month of the year. The benefit of this is that I could pick the picture that I wanted displayed for a given month. In February, I decided to have a pick of a folks hiking in a spring-like setting rather suggested picture of folks hiking next to a frozen glacier. In the peak of the summer heat, I'll switch to the arctic pictures to prep me for the colder months. The benefit is that I saved some cash on a new calendar and can now pick the scenery that I want for a given month.

Why you should bag your oranges?

2010-03-02T23:05:00.000-05:00

Tonight, I ran to the swimming pool for a workout and stopped by the grocery stores to buy some food for dinner. I grabbed some pita, meat, and dried cherries and headed over to the self-checkout area and waited for my turn. There was an older couple just ahead of me having some trouble. The norm is for folks to put all their oranges in a bag when selecting them from the boxes. This couple didn't know this so they were trying to place all their oranges on the scale but they kept on rolling off and landing on the floor. The eventually decided on the divide and conquer approach which is place as many oranges as can fit on the scale and then to weigh them before weighing the next batch. The machine didn't like this as they forgot a little detail which is that you have to tell the scale in advance what it is weighing before it will weigh it. They eventually got it sorted out but it was comical as they would have a handful of oranges on the scale and then one would fall off and the machine would start beeping and saying that they should see the attendant. The moral of the story is to put all your oranges in one bag and to place them on the scale together.

Phoenix half-marathon with a quick detour to San Deigo, CA

2010-01-29T16:07:00.001-05:00

It's time to blog about my latest adventure to Phoenix, AZ with a side tour of San Diego. This would be my sixth visit to Phoenix and my fifth time running in the PF Chang half-marathon. I left Ottawa on Friday morning with my checked luggage and Macbook. The Christmas day travel nightmare prevented me from having any carry on luggage. It was a quick flight to Newark, NJ where I spent much day before my late afternoon flight over to Phoenix. Newark airport has wall plug in various locations throughout the termnal so one you can surf the web (work) and charge up your laptop at the same time. JB and Ashley met me at the airport and our first stop was PF Chang for our traditional pre-race dinner. When I incorporate the two hour time change I headed to bed early on Saturday morning.
I started off my weekend with a filling breakfast at the Hampton Inn. Our first stop was the race expo held in the new Phoenix Convention Center. The race expo was twice as large as last year and I was able to get my race packet and t-shirt quickly. Once again I was starting in the first race corral which brought a smile to my face. We headed to over to REI as I wanted to check out a travel mug that Jason had got for Christmas. Over the weekend I used it multiple times and it kept my tea hot for three to four hours. We next headed over to JB's place and I was able to pick some tangelosfrom a tree in their backyard. They are really juicy. JB, Ashley and I headed over to Qboda for burritos. We spent most of the afternoon walking the various trails at the Phoenix/Desert Botanical garden. I had my pre-race pasta dinner at an Italian restaurant that serves enormous meat balls with their spaghetti.
On Sunday morning, I was up at 5:00 am and headed to the hotel lobby to fill up my travel mug with hot tea. This year I decided to eat my breakfast later in the morning rather than at the hotel. At 6:00 am I caught the hotel shuttle for a 40 minute ride to the start. Your arrive in the dark and there is a buzz to the air with 25,000 people getting psyched for their marathon or half-marathon. I decided to take refuge near the Arizona Senate building to eat my breakfast until the marathoners had started their race. With a little over 40 minutes to the start, I joined that long line of people waiting to use a port-a-potty. It look me about 15 minutes before I could relieve myself. It was then a quick dash over to the UPS trucks to drop off my gear bag. I did an easy warmup as I ran towards the first corral and stretched will waiting for the race to start. The official starter was Senator John McCain and it was great to see him. At 8:30 am on the dot, the gun went off and we started our 13.1 mile journey south towards Tempe, AZ. I decided to run the race at a constant pace and to treat the race as long Sunday run as I knew that setting a course PR was out of the question. As I drew closer and closer to Tempe the crowds began to build. With a mile to go I picked up the pace and sprinted to the finish. It felt good to get my finisher's medal. I picked some food and headed out to meet JB. We attempted to head back to the hotel but got bogged down with road closures so I walked about half-a-mile which gave my legs a chance to recover. Within 45 minutes of finishing the race I had showered and checked out of the hotel which was a record for me. The goal was to see if we could catch a San Diego/Pacific Ocean sunset. It was an ambitious goal. As we headed west the Saguaro cacti and desert transformed into large boulder mountains. Along the way we were gaining elevation and peaked at 4,141 feet. On the other side of the mountain, we found miles and miles of sand dunes which eventually transformed in lush fields of lettuce and cabbages. Once we acrossed the state line the traffic started to buildup and become more congested. We arrived at the San Diego beach within 30 minutes of sunset. It was an awesome sight watching the colors develop and very gradually fade into darkness.
On Monday morning, I awoke to find my legs a little stiff but not sore from the race. This was a good thing. I looked at the heart rate data gathered during the race and it showed I had a hard race but not a stressing one. After breakfast, we checked out of the hotel and headed down to the marina. It was a dark and overcast day, not what I would have expected for California. I was expecting warm conditions, perpetual sun, palm tree along the road and miles of beautiful people. I had to settle for the palm trees. As we walked along the marina there were fishing boats with their lobster and crab pots drying out and most boat were birthed for the day. There was a warning that severe weather was coming. One of our goals of the day was to take a boat cruise of the north and south harbor. As we were waiting in line to boat, JB couldn't stop singing the theme song from "Gilligan's Island." We would be out for a two hour tour not a fateful three hour tour. As the boat was backing out of the harbor I could hear a grinding sound. It sounded like gears grinding against each other. It was under a strong wind and light rain that we started our journey. JB opted to have a Bloody Mary to calm his nerves as the boat started to rock in the waves. As the captain shift to full throttle to combat the waves the boat started to shudder and then stopped. One of the engines was dead. We very slowly crept back to shore with one engine and got a refund. Once on shore it started to rain and the clouds looked dark. JB decided I should take a picture of him writing "I love Ash" in the sand. We headed over to the beach and as we stepped of of the car I could feel the rain soaking through my jacket. I grabbed a couple of dog poo bag to protect my camera and phone from the rain. I offered JB one but he declined. I was happy to be on the road taking pictures while we scribed in the sand. He had nearly finished writing in the said when I head a strong expletive like "Oh, F***." His new Android phone had fallen in the ocean was starting to float away. Once back at the car he took out the battery and laid the disassembled phone on a towel. We were sort of screwed as we were Google maps on the Android phone to navigate in San Diego. I pulled to my GPS which only has base map for California and got using going in a easterly direction. Somehow we reached a dead end which lead onto a military base. A very attractive private gave us directions to the freeway. By this time we were experiencing torrential rain and the roads became minature lakes. This was the first time I had seen a storm surge. Most of the road don't have storm drains. We headed east as quickly as we could with thoughts that we could outrun the storm. As we climbed through the mountains the rain abated but was replaced by thick fog. As we descended down the other side of the mountains we found that we were driving in good conditions, a clear sky and a dry road. The drive back to Phoenix from this point onwards was uneventful. As we were driving towards JB's place we checked the phone and it started to work again. I credit this to good design on Google's part. On Tuesday morning I headed home to Ottawa.

Last workout before my first race of the year

2010-01-13T20:36:00.001-05:00

It's a couple of days before my first race of the year and tonight I did my final workout under questionable weather conditions. It was midway between raining and snowing. As I set off for my run, I knew I was in for a challenge as ice started to form on my glasses making it had to see in the dark. Ever couple of minutes, I wiped my finger across my glasses to thaw the ice. As the workout continued ice started to accumulate and very soon I had a thin layer of ice forming down the front of my jacket and pants. It was a unique experience. I ran long enough to satisfy my legs but not long enough to tire them out for my upcoming 13.1 mile half-marathon race in the southern US. Once back at the gym, I noticed that icicles had formed in my hair. As I was taking on my hat I noticed a long icicle was attached to my hat. I sucked on it while doing my stretching, expecting that it would have a salty taste but it tasted like good old cold water.

Christmas Home Renovations

2010-01-01T11:27:00.001-05:00

Every year my father and I work on a major home renovation project. This year we continued something that we started a couple of years ago and that is to lay hardwood flooring throughout the house. This year we laid red oak flooring in a spare bedroom. We started by removing the furniture and ripping up some carpet that we put down 15 years ago. The underlying floor is a little uneven some we put down a 3/8 inch plywood board to flatten out the floor. In the end, we put down about three 4' x 8' sheets. Over a couple of days, we put down about 140 square feet of red oak planks. We measured our progress in 3 1/4" segments. Our estimate of the amount of wood to buy were bang on as we only had five spare pieces. All that is left is for us to replace the flooring in another bedroom some time in 2010 and the house will be completely finished in red oak flooring.

The Mysteries of Snow

2009-12-28T10:22:00.001-05:00

Over the Christmas holidays I have been staying at my folks place where I have been happy to be away from the Ottawa cold and snow for a while. I knew that the absence of snow wouldn't last long. Overnight we received two inches of fresh snow which brighten up the muddy front yard. As I was taking Hoover out for his morning walk, I started to notice something that the snow had revealed. The snow exposed all of the local animal activity. As we were walking around the back forty we saw mouse, rabbit, mole, vole and deer tracks in the snow. I spotted where mice had started to eat the bark off tree for food. Flying overhead were red-tailed hawks in search of a daily meal.

Albino/Leucistic Canada Goose

2009-11-23T12:16:00.001-05:00

Today on my morning bike commute I spotted an anomaly that caught my attention, a Canada goose with an odd coloring. The bird's feathers didn't have any pigments. Once at the office I did a quick google check and Leucistic/albino geese are quick common. Here is a link to more pictures

Swing dancing -- "switch dancing"

2009-11-14T09:29:00.000-05:00

Something new happened at last night's Friday night swing dance which I will call a "switch dance" but I'm sure there is another name. We were all on the dance floor watching the jam session and once it was over the dance started up again but with a twist about every 15 seconds we had to change dance partner. The DJ would call out "change" and we would dance with the closest follower. Over about a four minute period I danced with a fair number of women and many of which, I have never dance with before. It was a great way to meet a lot of dancers in a short period of time. After the dance I was able to dance with some new women which was great.

2009 Baltimore race weekend

2009-10-21T14:12:00.001-05:00

Very soon I'll start my second Baltimore adventure and thought I would take a moment to write about my most recent one. For much of the summer and fall the people I train with on Wednesday night at the Running Room had been gearing up for the Ottawa Army half-marathon race near the end of September. Coach Phil had designed a training program so we would peak for around that time. I was able to continue the program for another week. As I was heading down to Baltimore I knew that I probably should have done two more 12-13 mile long runs but if I had done so I would not be racing on fresh legs. I spent the final week detraining and allowing my legs to recover. This is a phase of training that I don't enjoy as you cut back on your training volume and one feels grouchy.
On Thursday, before the race I picked up race packet and like the new system where you pick up your race number outside and then head into Raven Stadium to pick up your gear bag and t-shirt. Friday was spent giving my legs some more time to recover for the pending race. On Saturday morning, I got early and started the fueling routine of eating part of a book of Vector cereal. Jason drove me quite close to starting line area which was great. Thanks, Jason. If I'm lucky may be I can convince him to run the 5km race next year. I spent about an hour chilling at the Raven Stadium before eating my pre-race Clif bar. The idea was to stay relaxed while waiting for the race. About 40 minutes before the start, I headed over to the Inner Harbor to do my warm-up run followed by stretching. With about 15 minutes go I headed over to corral #1 to find a good starting point. After the national anthem was played we started on our 13.1 mile journey by heading north-west over to Patterson Park. The weather started to deteriorate in light rain which reduced one's traction. On the uphills you would slip backwards and on the downhill you would slide forward. One of the race highlights was running in Clifton Park. A second highlight was running a loop of Lake Montebello before heading over to John Hopkins University before heading south to finish at Camden Yards. I was pleased with the way I finished as I had medical complications along the course. When I started off the racing I was sweating which is not a good thing. I had a migraine and severe stomach pain for much of the race. I was tempted to stop in at the medical tent at the end of the race but decided to pass. In the end, I was pleased with my time and place as I improved on my performance over last year and am looking forward to doing the race in 2010.

While in Baltimore I was able to do some geocaching in Falls Road area. I found a couple of geocaches in Falls Road Park before heading over to Robert E. Lee Park which has an awesome running trail network as well as mountain bike trails.

Three more workout to go...

2009-10-01T20:15:00.001-05:00

As I type this blog I realize that time is running out. This a good thing. I only have three more workouts before I do my half-marathon in Baltimore next Saturday. I'll do my usual 40 minute run along the Rideau Canal tomorrow night. The Friday night swing dancing and Saturday night contra-dancing don't count as workout. On Sunday morning, I'll do a 10 mile easy long run. On Tuesday or Wednesday I'll do my final workout which will most likely be quite peppy. I'm looking forward to next weekend for a whole host of reasons. It caps off my fall training season which has been more intense than usual. I will be able to see my good friend Jason and his fiance.

Swing dancing innovations

2009-09-29T15:53:00.001-05:00

This past weekend, I spotted something new on the sidelines of the dance floor. Chip, one of our dancers, who is a professional engineer has built himself a battery powered fan that is driven by ten "C" batteries. C-size batteries are the ones about twice the size of a fig newton or your thumb. Chip has mounted the batteries and the fan on a board which uses to cool himself between dances. The fan face is on a mount which means he can just the angle at which the gusts of air hit his body. I thought it was a cool concept but a little too geeky for me.

Hints of fall...

2009-09-23T12:53:00.000-05:00

As I bicycle commute in the mornings I find it is becoming harder and harder to wear a quick dry t-shirt as it is getting colder and colder. I'm at the point where I start the day in a long sleeve shirt and roll up the sleeves for the nightly commute. My legs are much more durable so I'll probably cycle bare-legged for a little while longer. Along the bike path there are more hints of fall each day, trees starting to develop shades of red, orange and yellow and the trees are starting to thin out as they start their annual shedding cycle. There is now a new hazard starting to appear on the horizon and that is, wet leaves on the bike path. Folks at the office say that they can almost double your stopping distance in an emergency situation could make a bad situation worse. Cycling with studded tires might be an option but I would prefer to take it easy when cycling under these conditions.

It's almost race time...

2009-09-23T07:59:00.001-05:00

In a little over two weeks, I'll be heading to Baltimore to run in my fourth the Baltimore half-marathon. My training is progressing well and I only have two long runs before I can give my legs some much needed rest. The race comes at a good time as my running coach designed a training schedule so that team peaked for a race in Ottawa last weekend. I just have to continue the program for another week and I'm set to go. As the time draws near, I'm starting to get excited. As well, I'm looking forward to seeing Jason and Emily and catching up with them.

Geocaching and bouldering

2009-09-14T08:44:00.001-05:00

Yesterday I went geocaching and was able to use my bouldering skills. It had a difficulty rating of four and a half stars. The highest rating is five stars. The cache was midway up a pine tree. The problem was that the lowest branch was six feet up. What to do? I had a McGyver moment and saw two possibilities brute force, or make use of my environment. About 300 feet away from the cache were two things that might help a shopping cart and a oil drum trash can. I opted to take the plastic bag out of the drum and roll it over to the tree. Once the drum was upended I could reach onto a branch and pull myself up the tree. From there I was able to climb up to the tree until I reached the cache. I signed cache log and slowly worked my way down the tree and finally landed back on the drum. I rolled the drum back to its home and was on my way.

On dancing...

2009-09-11T08:56:00.002-05:00

This last weekend I tried another form of dancing called contra-dancing. The Wikipedia link is. I was encouraged to give it a try as many of the followers I dance with on Friday night are really into contra-dancing. As typical of many types of dancing there is always a shortage of leaders. To prepare for my initiation I watched some contra-dancing tutorial YouTube videos from a dancing group in North Carolina. As Saturday evening approached, I watched them again so I could tell the difference between doing an allemande, a star and a side pass. The dance hall is within walking distance from where I live and just across from Mountain Equipment Co-op. I arrived a little early to find that I wasn't only newbie. We were given a 30 minute crash course on contra-dancing. To ease you into the dance they pair you with an experienced dancer that acts as a mentor for the first couple of dances. Contra-dancing is a more structured dance compared to the free flowing East coast swing dancing that I am used to. The dancing is down and up a line which made up of line of leaders facing their follower. The caller is the person that calls out the moves during the dance. Below the dance starts the caller explains and walks the line through the various moves which acts as a rehearsal. Moments later the band starts planning and the caller calls out the move and the leaders and followers do their respective moves. The leader and follower either dance towards the band or away from the band. Once you reach the end of the line you sit for a couple of cords and then you re-enter the line and either dance up or down the line. When all the leader and follower pairs do there moves in sequence it is a high octane dance. The fun begins when people start to get tired or the sequences of moves are convoluted. The line will get a little screwed up and eventually self-corrects itself. I found the dancing quite demanding and opted to dance every second song. When sitting on the sidelines I realized the dance is about the leader-follower pair weaving back and forth between other leaders and followers. Tongue in check, I think I learned how some of my followers stay in such good shape by swing dancing on Friday night and contra-dancing on Saturday night every second week. We concluded evening with something special, a waltz which is something that I haven't done in a long time and only occasionally on New Years Eve. It was a really fun evening and I'm looking forward to next weekend for two reasons, a waltzing lesson and more contra-dancing.

Baltimore Race Weekend Approaches...

2009-09-10T09:02:00.001-05:00

In a couple of weeks, I’ll be heading down to Baltimore to run in my fifth Baltimore half-marathon. It is a race that I look forward to each year as it comes at the end of my summer and fall training season and it’s how I like to conclude my racing year. There are a variety of things that I like about the race course, running around Patterson Park near the start of the race, the Lake Clifton pump house at the midpoint of the course, doing a loop around Lake Montebello and finally the finale, of running through the gates of Camden Yards towards the finish line. My workouts are getting longer, tougher and more intense as I prepare for the race. I’ve heard it rumoured that Baltimore races are for the strong runner and not necessarily the speed. I’m at the point where I still have a couple of more long runs but very soon I’ll reach a point where I can start checking them off the list and it will be time to give my legs a chance to recover for the big day.

Almost the end of summer...

2009-09-02T13:35:00.001-05:00

This past weekend was a busy one as I headed home for a long weekend at my parent’s place. Much of my Saturday was spent driving to and from the university as well as the Toronto airport. My father has had a visiting research in town for much of the summer and I offered to drive him to the airport. On the way back, we stopped in at Whole Foods and I was able to restock on some Earl Gray Nourish Tea. The highlight of Sunday was heading over to a local dairy to have one last peach sundae as there are hints of fall in the air. In keeping with tradition, G, had his own peach sundae minus the whipped cream and nuts. He normally would have been a couple of times this summer but the car was always full with the foreign guest. On Monday, we headed south-west to Long Point Provincial Park on the shore of Lake Erie. My family camped there was we were young kids and it was great to get back there for a day trip. On the horizon, I’m looking forward to a couple of trips to the US in the fall.

The Beach

2009-08-28T08:32:00.001-05:00

Today, I noticed that the beach along my daily bike commute looked different. It looked unkempt. The groundsman hadn't leveled or smoothed the sand. The buoys were absent from the Ottawa River and the life guard towers were no longer within inches of the Ottawa River. After a closer look the flag pole no longer flew a red or green flag. The nearby restaurant on the beach had shuttered for another season. The swimming season was coming to an end. All that was left, as I took a last glance was an old geezer wanding the beach with his metal detector in search for some sunken treasure. Futher along the path, the trees were starting to show the first hints of fall as there were specks of red in the leaves.

Swing dancing floors

2009-08-26T10:29:00.001-05:00

Over the weekend while swing dancing, I experienced a new type of dance floor, a homemade one made out of particle board and a 2x4 studs. The venue was along the Ottawa River at Britannia Park which is close to where I live. The forecast for the weekend was a 60% chance of thunderstorms so the organizers opted to hold the dancing under a tent and to build an impromptu dance floor which was bouncy in some places and stiff as a board in others. Midway through the afternoon Alaina, one of the local dance instructors, came out with a 10lb bag of corn meal and poured it all of the dance floor. The floor suddenly became very slippery which made for a new dancing experience. There was a side benefits as little kids saw the corn meal as a play toy and made piles and figures out of it while their parents were dancing nearby. This got me thinking about the other two dance floors that I regularly dance on. The Ottawa Swing dance society moved in the spring to a social hall attached to an old church which has a sprung floor. I really like the floor as it hall a nice give. OSDS's previous home was a community centre which had a parquet which sat on a cement pad which was hard on your back and knees after a while. I wondering what other dance floors are out there.

The Beach

2009-08-16T20:16:00.001-05:00

Every day, I cycle by the Westboro beach twice, once in the morning and on the way home after work. Some days I catch the groundsman cutting the grass, usually on Monday. I can usually tell if I can running early or late based on whether the beach has been raked and smoothed. If I'm lucky, I'll catch the groundsman, in action, dragging the rake behind his tractor. It has been so wet this summer that I haven't been able to enjoy the beach first hand. As I write this entry, I'm sitting at the beach for the second time in two days as the hot summer days have finally arrived in Ottawa. People are coming and going with some carrying a once burdensome cooler back to the car that has been sitting in the sun for too long. It's so hot that there are the same number of people in the water as lazying on the beach. The two lifeguard are sitting up in their chairs with water cans ready for deployment at the first cry of urgency. On top, cyclist, roller bladers and joggers trundle by in the unbearable heat. Close to the shore children are building sandcastles under the watchful eye of their parents. The lifeguards finish another shift and head to the portable shelter to gain some relief and his replacement reluctantly leave his oasis . Slowly, the sun descends towards the horizon and the children and parents take a final swim before packing up for the day. Soon the beach will be deserted and the lifeguards will announce that another day has come to an end. The sun finally dips below the horizon and a marvelous sunset graces the Ottawa River. It is dark. Another day await the groundsman as a new day will break soon.

Happy Birthday Wordabble

2009-08-09T19:43:00.000-05:00

Today, I achieved two goals one of which was expected and the other a surprise. 365 days ago I played my first game of Wordabble which is a word game that Jason Lancaster and Adam Douglass released a year ago for Apple's iPhone and iPod touch. I've played every day and enjoyed the 300 word games almost as much as the games when there are fewer than 100 words to find in the 5x5 grid. There is one mystery I discovered today that I have been waiting for quite some time and that is, what happens when you find all the words. Today was my chance when there were only 19 words to find. I can say with a smile that it was worth waiting 365 days to see what was behind the magic curtain. Over the past year, I have earned281,268 points with an average score of 771 points per game and in theory played for 56 hours which I think underestimates the actual time. I close by thanking Jason and Adam for a year of challenging fun.

Ottawa -- July -- Record rainfall

2009-07-31T09:59:00.000-05:00

One of the things I like about Ottawa are its weather extremes. In the winter we get a lot of snow and cool temperatures (-13F/-25C). During the summer months it gets hot and sticky (93F/34C). This July has been different as we have just set a record for rainfall (234mm/9.21 inches) surpassing a record set in 2002. The meterologist mentioned on the radio this morning that we had rain on 24 days this month. This is in contrast to a "normal" July when our average temperature (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ottawa) is (80F/26.5C) and the grass should be yellow, dead and straw-like and not a lush green that it currently is. During a wicked rain storm earlier this week we saw our first "snow" in July. A quick check with google said that there are only two months on record when it hasn't snowed in Ottawa. The wet weather has made the daily bicycle commute challenging as I was constantly dodging puddles. I'm hopefully that we will have a "normal" August with long, hot and dry days.

Almost Wordabble's first birthday

2009-07-24T15:18:00.001-05:00

In 15 days or so Wordabble with celebrate its first anniversary of operation. It is hard to believe that 349 days ago Jason sent me an email at 11:30 pm to say that he and Adam's game was available for sale on the iTunes Appstore. With 30 minutes to go it would be a hard challenge to beat either Adam's or Jason's score for the day. I can say with a smile on my face, that I have enjoyed all the games that I have played. I've enjoyed the 300 words games as much as the frustrating ones where you have to find under 50 words (Argh!). Over the year, I have learned many news words and probably used the familar ones too often. I've also used Wordabble as a way of testing my mental acuity each day. There is still one challenge that I have to overcome and that is to discover what happens when you locate all the words. I know that something mysterious or magical happening but I'll have to keep playing to find out. I'll close out this blog by thanking Jason and Adam for almost a year's worth of daily challenges.

Geocaching extravaganza

2009-07-12T22:04:00.001-05:00

Last week one of my colleagues, who is also a geocacher, suggested that I should revisit a park that I had cached in a couple of years ago. Back then there was only a handful of caches over there which I was able to easily find in an afternoon. When I pulled up the map in geocaching.com, I found that there were now 30 new geocaches. This morning I got up early and cycled along the Ottawa River parkway before crossing the Ottawa River into Quebec. Before I reached the park I had some adversity. As I was cycling all the north side of the Ottawa River I got my first flat tire. I replaced the inner tube and celebrated by having my second breakfast at McDonalds. I was within a stone's throw of Lac Beauchamp park when the second flat tire occurred. Since it was early in the day I decided to persevere and find as many caches as I could. I started by caching the east side of the Lac Beauchamp before heading over to cache the west side. Some of the caches were more unfriendly than others as two of them involved wading through knee high mud. The recent rains had made some of the trails impassible. I headed back to the chalet to try out an innovation, the geocaching iPhone application. I had used the app yesterday to locate a couple of caches and to log my finds aka "field notes" but decided to put it to the test of logging 15 finds. The app worked great. I was able to retrieve the description and logs of some the caches that were hard to find. I'll post a review of the geocaching app in the future. After munching on a Clif Bar I headed north to locate a final geocache and was glad that I did. Sweet! 16 finds!

I retrieved the bike from its hiding place and started my slow trek home. Along the way, I stopped in at McDonalds for a late lunch/early supper. After an hour and half of walking I was back in Ontario. Rather than walking with the bike home I decided to leave it locked up at the office and to replace the tire and inner tube tomorrow at the lunch hour.

Running goals

2009-07-11T10:02:00.001-05:00

Last week's Running Room workout was not what I had expected. We were suppose to start our second round of 1,000 meter intervals on 60 seconds rest. The workout would be 4x1,000 meters with 60 second rest between each interval. We have been getting some much rain in Ottawa recently that our 1,000 meter loop in the arboretum has become water logged.

On paper, we would be doing a simpler workout 1 minute hard, 1 minute easy, 2 minutes hard, 1 minute easy and 1 minute hard. We would do six of these sets. Over the course of 45 minutes we ran just over five miles at close to 85% of my maximum heart rate. I was suffering when I got home on Wednesday night. As we were running back to the store the coach mentioned why the change of plan. We would be starting our training next week to peak for fall marathons and half-marathons. I wanted to blog that my fall goal is to race the Army Run half-marathon run in the September, and either the Baltimore half-marathon or Philadelphia half-marathon later in the fall. So, next week it is back to intervals but with a long rest period (90 seconds) which is fine with me as I won't be grasping for air between the intervals.

Hiking Old Rag

2009-07-04T11:30:00.001-05:00

Here is a link to my recent hike of Old Rag.

http://www.christophermoule.com/2009/07/hiking-old-rag/

Sea to Summit bowl and mug

2009-06-16T10:28:00.000-05:00

When I go out camping and hiking I like to keep the amount of gear I have to carry to a minimum. I recently discovered an new innovation, the Sea to Summit mug and bowl. When you are not using them the mug fits inside the bowl and the result is a disc four inches in diameter by 1/4" thick. To use either of them you push out the centre of the disc and you are ready to go. Before putting the mug to a test in the wilderness I decided to test it out in my kitchen. I added my favourite hot brew to the mug and discovered that it is best to the grip the cup by the black rim and to use two hands when drinking say a cup of hot coffee or tea. I was impressed by how well they worked. The next test will be to see how they operate in the arctic cold of Adirondack winter camping or a local trek in the Ottawa environs.

http://www.rei.com/product/767560 Sea to Summit bowl

http://www.rei.com/product/787278 Sea to Summit X-Mug

Lindy500 -- Baltimore

2009-06-11T09:08:00.001-05:00

In a week's time I'll be heading to Baltimore. Charm City Swing has organized a weekend which showcases some of the premiere Lindy Hop swing dance instructors in the US. Lindy500 will have three nights of live bands and two days of intensive swing dance lessons focusing on the Lindy Hop and Charleston swing dance moves. I'm excited to be able to head to Baltimore as I will be able to learn more Lindy Hop, spend some time with Jason and Emily, hike Old Rag, possibly help Jason on a home renovation project and hopefully much more.

Day #2 Heart rate study a VO2 max test - max

2009-06-04T15:07:00.001-05:00

A couple of days ago, I did the second part of the heart rate study which involved running as hard as I could on a treadmill as the incline increased every minute. When we tried the treadmill test last week we were plagued by a nose clips that kept sliding off. Rachel was able to locate a nose clip that kayakers use when doing the eskimo rolls. With the new nose clip the test started and we were starting to get some good data until I started to profusely sweat. Bingo, off goes the nose clip! By this point in the test my legs were still fresh and I was feeling energetic and could have run for another 15 minutes and was keen to see how high I could boost my VO2 max value. Rachel has a couple of minutes of quality data which is what she needed for the research so she pulled the experiment. Oh, crap! So, I know what my VO2 value was somewhere in the high 50s but much lower than my past tests. After the treadmill session I had to wear the heart monitor for another 24 hours. The goal of the research was to compare my pre- and post-test heart rate responses.

One of the fun parts of the test is that I ran on the latest and greatest of treadmills. Rather than running on a continous belt I ran on a Woodway ELG treadmill which has 87 rubber slats which rotate sort of like a caterpillar track. The slats have a nice spring and mimics running on a rubber floor.

Heart rate study -- Day #1 Again

2009-06-01T13:54:00.000-05:00

This morning I headed over to uOttawa to redo my heart rate research study. A bit of background the research study is looking at "the evaluation of continuous HRV during 24 hour periods and during staged exercise testing." While at the university they attached five heart rate sensor patches to my chest which are smaller and more comfortable than the ones they used last week. Rachel was happy with the first-24-hours worth of data collected before the VO2 test fiasco. As I was heading back to the office they promised me that they had found a new nose clip which won't slide off during the VO2 running test tomorrow. We'll have to see what happens. In anticipation of the test, I gave my legs a couple of days rest from running.

On another note, I had one of my best swing dance nights on Friday. I danced with a record number of followers and for some reason followers wanted to dance with me. There was only one bummer and that is, I didn't drink my diet coke before the dance. This made dancing a little hard as I really had to concentrate and focus on the music, and my footwork. Corona and I discovered a new form of dancing which we are called "fan dancing." Ottawa Swing Dance Society recently changed it dance location to a church hall which doesn't have air conditioning. I usually dance in shorts and a short-sleeve shirt. While Corona and I were dancing I steered her so that we were dancing in front of the fan. This made dancing in the hot church more bareable. For the rest of the night, I would steer my follower over to the fan so we could have a "fan dance." I think they appreciated the breeze from the fan.

Heart study #2

2009-05-29T15:01:00.001-05:00

This morning I headed over to uOttawa for the second part of the heart rate study, the VO2 test on a treadmill. After doing a warmup on the treadmill and then some stretching, it was time for the fun to begin. There are a couple of ways to conduct the test, one ways is to incrementally speed up the treadmill until you can no longer run as fast as the treadmill is spinning and the second, is to keep the treadmill spinning at a constant rate and gradually increase the grade angle. For this test they opted for later and it simulates hill climbing. The test started off well as the angle of the treadmill was adjusted every minute but then something bad happened. I started to sweat and nose clip started to slide off. When the clip was on we were starting to get a VO2 value in the low 50s with the expectation that my final VO2 would be in the mid 60s which is similar what I had done a couple of years ago. The researcher decide because the results were coming out so inconsistent to pull the test. I was having a good time and as I was getting into the "groove"/"zone" and my legs still felt fresh.

The plan is to re-do the research early next week and with the hope that they can locate a non-defective nose clip.

Day #1 of heart research study

2009-05-28T11:49:00.001-05:00

Today is the first day of the uOttawa heart rate research project. I went in early and they attached five EKG pads to my chest that connect to a recording box (Holter Monitor) which will record an electrocardiogram of my heart for 48 hours. An ECG for a normal heart look like this with the typical PQRST pattern of the heart wave.

I did a bit of quick math and they will have 172,800 data point at the end of research. They gave me replacement pads to user after taking a shower. Once the research is over I am hoping to post a graph of my daily hourly average heart rate. It is currently a mystery to me what it might look like. I know it will be very low when sleeping but during the day it is anybodies guess as to what my daily average heart is. Before I left the lab they did a check and were surprised that my resting heart rate is 50 beats per minute. This suggests that I'm in relatively good fitness. Rachel, a MSc student, is hoping to use the data to help doctors better prescribe exercise programs to weight-challenged individuals semi-fit and fit patients.

Tomorrow we have more fun as I get to jump on a treadmill and run as fast as I can before sliding off the back of the treadmill. In the tests I've done in the past they have a student at the end the treadmill to catch you from flying off and hitting the wall.

Another experiment

2009-05-27T11:36:00.000-05:00

In a couple of days, I'll do another physiology experiment at the University of Ottawa. This one involves one of my passion running. There will be three parts to the experiment. The first part involves being wired up with sensors on my chest which will monitor my heart activity 24 hours before the experiment. The next morning, I will jump on a treadmill and do a VO2 test which involves incrementally run faster and faster until you just about fall or fly off the treadmill. The final stage is to monitor my heart activity for 24 hours after the VO2 test. I think the idea behind the test is to see how my body responds to the stress of running as fast and hard as it can in a controlled environment. This will be the third time that I have done a VO2 test and they are always fun but at the same time quite challenging. I blog after the experiment with my the findings.

Geocaching milestone #1,000

2009-05-20T10:46:00.001-05:00

Over the weekend, I achieved a geocaching milestone that has been looming for a while, finding my 1000th geocache. The find was special as it was located in a deer yard with many deer milling around in the background. I discovered geocaching by mistake a couple of years ago when doing some research about GPS satellites. I had bought a watch with GPS capabilities to help me train better for my road races. I discovered that there was a geocache close to where I lived and looked into buying a GPS handset. At this time, I thought they were very expensive and not within my reach and most likely very complex. I went to my local Mountain Equipment Co-op and found that I could get a starter GPS for a couple of hundred dollars. My first geocache was located underneath the rail bed of an abandoned railway bridge. The cache had been disguised to look like a piece of steel with the rivets sticking out. To a novice it would look like a steel plate attached to the underside of the bridge but hidden behind it was the geocache. After finding my first geocache I logged into geocaching.com and found that there were more caches near my place and I started to explore more the city with my GPS handset. One of my most memorable cache is still "Crusty the Clown." You have to climb to the top of a pine tree where you find a bird house. When you opened the door "Crusty the Clown" shoot out at you which scares the crap out of you. After signing the log book I climbed down the tree and cycled to another nearby cache. As I start my second 1000, one of my goals is to try and geocache in more Canadian provinces as well as US states.

Diabetic Research Study

2009-05-12T20:25:00.000-05:00

Earlier this week, I participated in a research study comparing the blood glucose levels of non-diabetic athletes with diabetic athletes during an exercise trial. I'm not diabetic so I was part of the control group. There were two part to the study. The first part involved cycling in a 35C/95F calorimeter to determine what wattage/resistance they should apply to the pedals during the main trial. The second part involved be wired up with a multitude of sensors.

Four sweat capsules attached to my arms and legs to measure my sweat rate
A heart rate monitor to measure my heart rate
A laser sensor on my wrist to measure the maximal blood flow and oxygen level through my skin
An oxygen mask connected to a long hose connected to a metabolic cart measuring my oxygen, carbon dioxide, breathing rate
Three internal thermometer measure my body core temperature -- ear (tympanic), throat (esophageal) and anonymous place
A blood glucose monitor. I have to take three blood samples during the trial

Once I was all wired up I headed into the calorimeter (35C/95F) and remained stationary for 30 minutes. The purpose of this segment was to let my body adapt to the warm conditions and to get some baseline measurements. The main part of the experiment involved cycling for 60 minutes at a fixed cadence and with fixed resistance. The final segment was sitting for an hour chilling. Apparently, all the data collected was of value as the researcher was eagerly analyzing it as I left. The idea was to compare all of the data from my session with a diabetic athlete having similar characteristics who also did the same trial to see how s/he responded to the stress of the exercise.

Lindy 1 summary

2009-05-07T08:32:00.002-05:00

Last week, I finished my first Lindy Hop swing dance with Alana Hock and decided to post a summary of the moves/steps we learned during the course.

Basic footwork followers: right, left, right-left-right (triple step), left, right, left-right-left (triple step)
Basic footwork leaders: left, right, left-right-left (triple step), right, left, right-left-right (triple step)

1. Lindy Hop basic
- rock-step, triple forward, step step, triple back (8-count)
- stay in closed position

2. Send Out
- rock “send” (leaders send followers out on 2)
- begin in closed, move to open position

3. Into closed
- leaders: back-together (on 1-2)
- followers: walk forward on 1-2
- begin in open, leaders catch and stop followers on 3-and-4, end in closed

4. Side pass
- leaders: back-together, bring left hand across body to lead follower to turn
- begin and end in open

5. Flip flop
- begin in closed with “circular” rock-step, move hand to shoulder blade
- leads open “door” on 1-2, then close on 3-and-4
- switch hands on follower’s back, then rock step on opposite foot
- to end, bring hand and arm back around follower’s hip (closing the space)

6. Rotating basic
- same as basic, but leads rotation towards right shoulder (clockwise)
- triple step back on 7-and-8

7. Lindy circle
- begin in open position, and same beginning as into-closed
- leaders: wait for follower, then start rotating clockwise
- triple step back on 7-and-8 (end in closed position)

8. Under-arm Tuck-turn
- “circular” rock-step, and move hand to shoulder blade
- close “door” on 3-and-4 (leader’s left and follower’s right hand squishing a
marshmallow)
- leaders: turn followers out (clockwise) and draw “C” with hand

9. Swing out!
- begin in open position
- leaders: back-together, triple-step (moving 180 degrees)
- followers, walk forward, matching leader’s shoulders
- on 4, face-off position
- on 5, leaders look then step to side 90 degrees
- end in open position

Stability of the Apple iPod touch

2009-05-06T15:10:00.003-05:00

One of the apps on my iPod touch that I consult often is iStat which provides a variety of statistics on the operation of your iPod/iPhone. It is an iPod touch/iPhone version of the iStat application that is available for the iMac and Macbook. There is one statistic that currently impresses me and that is, uptime. My iPod touch has been up for 81 days. I am really impressed with the stability, robustness and reliability of the iPod touch operating system.

In running news last week's Wednesday workout was 4x1,000 meters on 30 second rest (ouch). [4.05/4.12/4.17/4.13] The good news is that my times are going down and starting to close in on the kilometer times I ran last year.

Long run and El

2009-04-27T21:40:00.003-05:00

Tonight, I did my weekly long run which was challenging for two reasons, the heat and the wind. For most of the 16km/10miles I was facing a strong headwind that sapped most of my energy. When I had the wind behind me my legs felt like dead batteries. The wind on the way back was so strong that the sand and road grit started to sandpaper my ankles. When I was back at the university it was good to check off along long run.

Last Wednesday, I did a 12km/7m fartlek run with the folks I train with at the Running Room and it ended with a bit of a jolt. The final mile of the looped course is uphill and I could hear footstep approaching and then backing off. Out of the corner of my eye appears "El" whose mantra is "El loves hills." At this moment, I said a strong expletive and with a surge of adrenaline pulled away. The dose of adrenaline was stronger than needed as I was able to hold her off for half a mile. At the finish line, we had a good chuckle as she thought I was an easy target and I had overestimated the strength of her long legs. In four weeks time, we will do the fartlek workout again but we'll have three weeks of intense kilometer intervals before then.

Urban jetboiling

2009-04-19T20:03:00.002-05:00

Tonight, I did something that has been on my "ToDo" list for a while is some Jetboil cooking. On Friday, I was over a MEC buying some bike stuff and grabbed two package of AlpineAire dinners. The idea is to test out meal in an urban setting before experiencing them in the wild only to discover that they are no good. I sort of wanting to make an adventure out of cooking dinner so I loaded my Jetboil, Nalgene bottle, utensils and roll of toilet paper into my backpack and headed out along the Ottawa River. The sun was starting to set so I couldn't travel too far but a handy park bench was nearby.

Both dinners required two cups of water and the nice thing about the Jetboil is that it has a 2 cup/16 oz mark on the inside of the pot. I set up the stove and had my first load of water ready to heat. The first dinner was AlpineAire Wild Tyme Turkey. The Jetboil was steaming in under a minute and I loaded the water into the pouch and gave it a good stir and set it aside for 10 minutes. The second batch of water was heated even faster and was loaded into the AlpineAire Pepper Steak Rice pouch. At this point it was time to get out the toilet paper for all the wrong and not obvious reasons. While both pouches were steeping I dried off the inside of the Jetboil pot and the lid and put the stove away and waited.

The Wild Turkey dinner was tasty but not as filling as the Pepper Steak Rice. A note -to-self to really stir the Pepper steak before serving as the salt and pepper tend to accumulate at the bottom of the pouch. The Pepper Steak Rice dinner would feed two people well. The Wild Turkey when combined with something else would feed two people satisfactorily.

First workout in shorts

2009-04-15T22:35:00.000-05:00

Tonight I did my second intervals workout of the year. While doing my warm-up run down to the Running Room on Bank Street I found I was overheating and so I ditched my winter REI tights. My coach suggested I do the same workout that I did last week as it will take a few weeks for my body to adapt to running fast again.

4 x 1,000 meters on 60 seconds rest -- 4.09/4.18/4.20.4.30

Wordabble -- 200K

2009-04-14T22:20:00.000-05:00

Today I experienced something that I had predicted might happen soon, that is, my high score in Wordabble went over 200,000 points. Over the past little while I have been inching towards this goal. It was a great milestone to surpass. A quick shout out to Jason and Adam for me one of my daily challenges. I openly wonder which will come next wordabble's first anniversary or reaching a high score of 500,000 points.

Multi-national swing dancing

2009-04-12T09:56:00.001-05:00

One thing I like about the lesson that comes before the Friday night swing dance is that I get to dance with people who are dancing swing for the first time. Recently, I have been dancing with people from all over the world, such as from Australia, New Zealand, Netherlands, Germany and the Ukraine. I could usually get a hint from where there from through the chit-chat we exchange before we rotate. This influx of people from around the world is something new. I started talking to the regulars and they mentioned that the swing dance club has been advertising in the magazine and the newspapers that the diplomats read. This sort of explains why there are so many folks from various nations at the Friday night swing dance. So, the easiest way to meet foreign diplomats is swing dancing.

1st interval workout of the year

2009-04-09T14:44:00.000-05:00

Last night, I did my first interval workout with the guys I train with at the Running Room. The bus strike and my recent soleus injury prevented me from starting the intervals a month ago. They are starting there second set where the rest time between each interals has dropped from 90 seconds down to 60 seconds. My workout took the form of a five miles warmup over to the experimental farm and then four 1,000 meter intervals with 60 seconds rest between. I was pleased that my legs survived the workout and my times are a little slower than they should be but using an horse analogy it feels good to be back in the saddle. After the workout I spoke my coach, Phil, and was pleased with my times but said to very gradually add speed back into my workouts as the intervals are always a jolt to one's system.

For the record: 4:14/4:08/4:23/4:37

I was hoping to do something this week but was held off by the snow and that is to have a Jetboil dinner along the Ottawa River close to where I live.

The Old Duffer and running

2009-04-05T09:51:00.002-05:00

For the past little while I have been treating my legs with care as it has taken a little longer for my right soleus to heel than I would have liked. Last Sunday, I did my first 10 mile long run along the canal. I was on my way back and within 3 miles of the university when the hairs on the back of my neck went up. A speedster was closing and would pass me any minute. He thought I would be an easy target. He was in for a bit of a surprise and so was I. Very quickly he went by and opened up a lead on me. This irked me a bit. I caught up and increased the pace as it has been a while since I really stressed my legs. For the next two miles we both ran side-by-side with an ever increasing pace. Who would drop whom first? After two miles he disengaged. I eased up a bit as I could feel the lactic acid building in my legs. The university was quickly appearing on the horizon. I was feeling good as my legs were handling the pressure/stress. The old duffler did another surge and caught up with me. I responded with another surge and finished the workout with a smile of relief on my face.

On Wednesday, I did a 8 mile run and a 7 mile run on Friday. My strategy is to rebuild my base- training before add speed to the mix. On Wednesday, I will do my first set of 1,000 meters intervals. I'm a little behind my training peers but I accept that it may take a couple of speed workouts before my zest returns. Over the next little while I hope to do a 10km road race and may be a 13 mile half-marathon next month.

Culinary -- Hot Cross Buns

2009-04-01T08:51:00.002-05:00

I like hot cross buns and with Easter appearing quickly on the horizon this blog entry is sort of appropriate. The large grocery chain in Ottawa sells hot cross buns all year long. They taste very good after a long workout or a hike with tea or hot chocolate. I recently learned that there are variations in how they put the white cross on top of the bun. I always thought that the white stuff was some sort of special baking material. My local bakery does something different. They put the cross on the bun after it is baked and it is a seam of fresh butter. This make these extra tasty. Over the next little while, I'll be eating a lot of hot cross buns giving me a chance to decide whether I like the baked cross or the butter cross.

A quick trip to Washington and Baltimore

2009-03-31T11:15:00.004-05:00

It was been a little while since I blogged last and I wanted to capture my thoughts on a recent adventure. Last week, I was at the SAS Global Forum conference in National Harbor/Oxon Hill, Maryland. The conference was held at the new Gaylord conference centre which offered an amazing very of the Potomac River. The conference talks were good and I learned about many of the new software products that will be released later this year. I opted to stay in Oxon Hill giving me ready access to Safeway and Starbucks but at the expense of brief commute to the conference centre in the morning. I enjoyed the twice daily walks and was happy to see a flocks of deer, geese on the pond, and bamboo trees growing next to the road. I was able to find a couple of geocaches hidden along a bike path which I did a workout on a couple of days later. The bus trip to Georgetown took us by many famous sites and I would like to vacation in Washington, DC in the future.

On Wednesday, I started my journey north to Baltimore a little earlier than expected. The airport shuttle was suppose to pick me up at 7:15 am but met me at 6:30 am. I was packed by this point but skipped breakfast to save some time. Jason and I had arranged to meet at 10:00 am and I was at the airport for 7:30 am. Ouch! What to do? I had often wondered what it was like to take the light rail from the airport. For $1.60 the light rail will take you from the airport to downtown. I got off at the convention center where they were having an Emergency Medical Technician conference and they had a van whose side was a flat screen display running commercials for the LifePak 15 debrillator and heart rate monitor. Jason met me and we headed back to the Daily Grind in Fells Point. The jolt of coffee felt good. We headed back to Jason's place for lunch. It was the first time I had seen his place finished and he and Emily have down an awesome job. It looked really good. It was bright and warm. After lunch Jason gave me some help with my Macbook which was really great. He pointed out some vulnerability which scared me but we were able to fix them quickly. One of things I really liked is he showed me how to link iCal to Google Calendar to the calendar in my iPhone. This rocked. Thanks Jason. Jason, Emily and I head north to the Druid Hill park area for a dinner at restaurant that looked like a converted warehouse. The location and the meal were great. I can't remember the name of the place but I would highly recommend it.

On Thursday, we headed north to REI where I bought a smaller version of the REI Muir Wood jacket. I had bought the XL earlier this year but found it too large but it would better fit my father. We spent much of afternoon hiking along the Gunpowder in area west of where we have hiked before. We did a circular loop with help of a GPS and Google maps in the iPhone. Afterwards we headed up to EarthTreks for some bouldering. Before heading out to dinner we stopped by the Teavana store and I loaded up on some new teas. We had dinner at PF Chang's before heading back down to Canton. On Friday morning, I headed back to Ottawa. Thanks, Jason for this brief adventure and I hope we can do a couple of more adventures this year.

A small victory...

2009-03-14T19:47:00.004-05:00

Tonight, I had a small victory which made me feel good. I was able to run 10 kilometers almost pain-free. Every day my gastrocnemius gets a little stronger and is a little less sore. As I tell Tina, my massage therapist, my "fist of pain" is getting smaller. What surprises me is that I can dance East-coast swing and Lindy Hop pain-free. It is the sudden jarring impact of landing with twice the force-of-gravity while running is the main culprit. The plan is to try and run the same distance tomorrow.

I started another set of Lindy hop swing dancing lessons with Alana, Rebecca and Louis. We spent most of the lesson going over the basic foot work, RS-TS-S-S-TS. Most the drills we did had us dancing forward and backward where as in other classes we would dance from left to right. There was one thing that sort of bother me a bit and that is what to do with my right hand. I've always been taught to place my right hand on the follower's scapula or shoulder blade (either left or right). Rebecca and Louis were having us place our right hand on the follower's right hip. It sort of felt awkard having been taught to avoid putting your hand on a follower's squishy bit.

Seagate and Running....

2009-03-07T00:43:00.004-05:00

Today as I was heading out my phone began to vibrate letting know that UPS was attempting a delivery. In an early blog I talked about problems with a Seagate backup drive and how it had to be uniquely packaged before a replacement would be sent. The replacement drive came this morning and the plan is to setup a RAID level 1 backup strategy. A quick thanks to the folks at Seagate for sending the warrantied replacement drive in under a week.

Tonight, I did something that I have been desperate to do for about two weeks and that is to have a quality run outside. Two weeks ago while out for a routine training run I pulled part of my right gastrocnemius and soleus . It happened at a good point in the run as I was 50 yards from the university. After a couple of days of rest I was able to aggressively stretch it a couple of times a day still with a fair amount of pain. I called Tina and made an appointment for some active release technique, and some very aggressive massaging. I usually leave these sessions privately moaning. But the injury and the recovery make me really appreciate how lucky I have been recently to run injury-free. After last night's aggressive massage I decided to be bold and take a run outdoors this evening. The run went well and the soleus started to complain as I approached the university. But it did feel good to go for a run. For the past week and a half, I've been cross-training at the gym by using the rowing machine, stair master, exercise bicycle, treading water and water running but they don't compare with a 40 minute run outdoors. The plan is to go for a slightly longer run on Sunday and very gradually start building up my workout length.

Finger socks

2009-03-02T15:17:00.001-05:00

Today we are going to talk about my feet. Over the weekend, I stopped by Mountain Equipment Co-op to buy some new socks. They had some new socks -- Injinji -- which are like the Five Fingers of socks. One of the ideas behind the Five Finger shoes is that they spread you toes apart so that each toe is allowed to carry its share of your body weight rather than being scrunched together with his pals. The Injinji socks use the same principle as each toes lives inside its own pocket. Like the Five Fingers fitting your toes into the Injinji takes a little bit of effort but once you put the sock on they are quite comfortable. I bought two pairs of white and black and will put them through there paces for the next little while. I am curious to see if I notice a difference when I go a run wearing them.

When a backup isn't a backup!

2009-02-24T17:36:00.003-05:00

A couple of years ago, I bought a Seagate FreeAgent disk drive to backup my laptop. In keeping with tradition, my father bought the same drive to backup his computer. Over the Christmas holidays, the backup drive stopped working as you could feel the drive spinning but Windows Vista would not detect the drive. While at home on the weekend my father asked me to take a look at it. We ran the diagnostic software and it said that the drive was toast. We ran the disk recovery software and it said that it could not recovery any files. Once back in Ottawa, I did a couple of more tests and found to my surprise that the drive is still under warranty. Sweet! The repair depot is located near Toronto. Seagate is very precise on how they want the drive packaged for return. The drive has to be surrounded by 2" of foam on all sides. Where to find 2" foam rubber? I had a brainwave which saved the day. Fabric stores sell foam rubber for folks that want to make cushions and comforters. I headed out at lunch to a fabric stores and bought a 2' x 2' x 1" foam rubber pad and cut it into segments to fit a box. I'll send the box on its way tomorrow and see what Seagate does.

Dancing in the dark...

2009-02-14T11:58:00.003-05:00

I am typing this blog in the dark. It is Friday night and my first swing dance in a little while. A construction crew cut the power to studio earlier today by mistake. There is a CAT diesel generator humming outside which is still warming up so it is not producing any power yet. The dance hall is full of people talking with hushed tones in the dark. There are pockets of people huddling near folks that have cell phones. The phones are acting as portable flashlights and beacons. It is a weird situation. Power is expected soon but they keep on announcing delays. Harmonic Dave has pulled his harmonic and we are have a jam sessions waiting for the lights to come. Updates to follow...

Time Capsule installation a success

2009-02-10T09:53:00.002-05:00

Last night, I installed my Apple Time Capsule backup drive and it went really well. It was simple to do and fun at the same time. Apple makes the installation and configuration easy to do. The plan was to buy the Time Capsule to backup my Macbook and little else. When I flipped over to using WiFi so my iPod touch and iPhone could access the internet at home I have always faced the dreaded wifi drop problem. My iPod touch would find the wireless modem and I would surf for a few minutes and them BOOM out-of-the-blue I would get signal degradation. This was frustrating. I made an antenna out of tin foil and it sort of helped.

While waiting at the Apple store for my GarageBand workshop, I started talking to concierge and explained the problem as his father had the same problem. He gave me some leads to look at. I downloaded Apple's Designing Airport Networks guide and started to think about the scenarios. I opted to have an Ethernet connection from the modem to my windows laptop. I run another Ethernet connection from the modem to the Time Capsule. This allows my Macbook, laptop, Touch and iPhone to have access to WiFi. An added bonus is that my printer can wirelessly accessed from either computer. The wireless signal strength from Time Capsule is good. To reduce interference, I set the signal strength of the wireless modem to low. So, I now have a wireless network that I am happy with and a backup drive for my Macbook. The initial Time Machine backup took longer than expected but I really pleased that I was able to solve a major wireless problem. Thanks Apple.

Another 30 seconds faster....

2009-02-05T11:35:00.002-05:00

Short version

Ran the PF Chang RnR half-marathon in Phoenix, Arizona
Finish time:1:35.26, 30 seconds faster than 2008 time
Place: 443/21,000
Distance: 13.1 miles/21.1km
Visited the Grand Canyon and Four Corners, Arizona
(Location where four states meet at a 90 degree angle)

Long version

In mid-January, I ran my third PF Chang RnR half-marathon in Phoenix Arizona. On race day, I got up at 0500 and ate half a box of Vector cereal before taking the hotel-provided shuttle to the start line in Phoenix. The race starts in Phoenix and runs south-west finishing in Tempe. When I arrived at the start area it was pitch dark. There was an air of anticipation as both the marathon and half-marathon start side by side about an hour apart. It was fun watching the sunrise and to take in some people watch. Some people wore minimal clothing and shivering while others were bundled up and would sweat a bucket during the race. I was happy to chill on a hillside and watch the race traffic mosey by. About an hour before the start I munched on my Clifbar and did an easy warmup. As the race approached I dropped my gear at the UPS trucks and had a couple of biobreaks.

I would start the race in the first of 26 corrals. They volunteers at the corral entrance were checking your bib number to make sure you entered the right corral. One of the race innovations I really like are the new disposable timing chips. It is a loop of plastic that contains an RDIF chip which you fasten to your shoe laces. At the end of the race you throw it away. After the playing of the national anthem the governor started the race. The conditions were a sunny 5C/41F. But it wouldn't stay cool for long as the blistering Arizona sun started to rise. I started off at a brisk pace and then geared back a bit at mile three. The course is flat and fast and quite familiar. When I arrived at the eight mile marker I thought I would need to take in a gel as usual but still felt energetic. My friend JB met me at mile 10 and we ran together for the final three miles. It was good to run with him as it was at this point that I started to feel the heat. Up to this point, I had been taking in water and pouring water on myself every second water stop. With two miles to go I decided to speed up as it couldn't be any worse than a Pretoria Bridge to Bank Street bridge fartlek surge. As we crossed the finish line I was a little concerned as I thought I ran slower than last year. It was only back in the hotel that I realized that I had run 30 seconds faster.

After the race we headed north to the Grand Canyon and were able to hike around part of the south rim. It sort of felt like home as there was snow and ice everywhere. We drove the Grand Canyon parkway as far east as we could before heading north to Monument Valley the backdrop of many western movies. Our final stop would be Four Corners, USA, a location where Arizona, New Mexico, Utah and Colorado meet at a 90 degree angle. By perching yourself you can have your hand and legs in four states at the same time.

Minimalist

2009-02-04T15:25:00.001-05:00

Today I ran to the office (3 miles) which is something that I do a couple of times a week. With the bus strike unofficially over, the buses will remain in the yards for another week. After I showered I started to do a ritual which I do a couple of times a week, shaving. Today I had a crisis. I squeezed the shaving cream can and nothing came out but a pin-sized amount of cream. I looked at myself for a while and contemplated using the hand soap but felt it would be too hard on my face. I opted to shave without shaving cream. It worked. I was able to shave without cutting myself and my skin felt okay. Over the lunch hour, I headed to the drug store to buy some more cream. So, the moral of the story is, that if you are in a bind you can shave without shaving cream.

Arizona 2009 -- part 1

2009-02-03T10:12:00.001-05:00

A little while ago I came back from my annual Arizona adventure and so it is time to blog the adventures. Early Friday morning, I caught my flight from Ottawa to Chicago and finally to Phoenix. JB and Raeanne met me at the airport and we headed to the race expo to pickup my race packet. I would be running in the first corral which was a intimidating and the same time exhilirating. We next heading over to REI to pickup some clothing that I had shipped to the Tempe store. I really like my new Muir Woods polar fleece jacket fitted. We headed across town, to the Bitlmore plaza home of Teavana and the Apple Store. It was my first time visiting Teavana and I had a fun experience. I bought some Early Grey and Dragon Pearl tea. To my regret I would have to wait until I was home before trying the teas. We went to the nearby Apple store and I checked my email and checked out the Time Capsule backup drives. We ate dinner at PF Changs which is a traditionally place where we have our pre-race dinner.
I was up early on Saturday by Arizona time and had a hearty breakfast at the Hampton Inn. Mid-morning JB picked me up and we headed over to the gun range to meet Pete. He is a former private investigator and has in excess of 300 firearms in his house. Canada has strict rule on firearms making it very difficult for me to check out handguns. For a long time I have wondered what it was like to shot a handgun. I also wanted to have a better understanding of the second amendment to the US constitution. Here was my opportunity to explore both and have some fun. Pete brought four guns of varying caliber including a 9mm and 45 calibre "John Wayne" gun. We bought $200 worth of bullets. After putting on eyeshield and ear protection we headed into our range slot. Pete and his son loaded up the gun cartridges while JB mounted the paper target. Pete gave me some firearms training and I emptyed my first cartridge consistently hitting around the same area. As Pete put as long as you are hitting "body matter" that is all that is important. During the experience I had sweay palms. I don't know whether it was my body reacting to the warmer conditions or the experience of firing a gun. Over the next two hours, the four of us cycled through successfully more powerful guns. Even with a double hand grip of a 45 calibre handgun, I found it had quite a kickf. Firing off these various guns will be a memorable experience for quite some time.

We stopped in a Qdoba's for lunch and watched Obama's Baltimore speech. It was a good speech and one which I think he wrote himself. We headed north of Phoenix to Lake Pleasant which is a source of drinking water for the Tempe-Phoenix-Scottsdale area. JB had done a triathlon in the area and the cycling hill looked brutal.Our next stop would be Glendale, where the last SuperBowl was played. JB, his parents and I had a pasta dinner at a Italian restaurant.

Innovative uses for a coffee stirring stick

2009-01-29T10:19:00.002-05:00

Every year my honor society has an induction ceremony where we welcome our new members. Myself and a couple of other students form the local chapter's executive. Many of us have been organizing the ceremony for a couple of years so we delegate the various tasks among each of us. I send out reminder emails to our 400 new members and handle all the email correspondence. While in Phoenix, AZ, the president and I drafted the speeches and constructed the programme. One of the more humorous part happened in Monument Valley. We were midway through a three mile hike around a 1000 feet butte and waiting for the morning sun to catch it and admiring the stillness and silence when when my iPhone chirps away. The message was along the line, do I remember how many cakes we bought last year.

Every year there are new challenges and some we can't seem to solve. The most pressing deals with knives to cut the celebration cake. We always end up by forgetting them in the mad rush. This year was no exception. In the past we have used cardboard, plastic plates and forks. They all work but not very well. While the speeches were going on we had to quickly find a way of cutting and serving cake to 400 people. The solution this year was to slice the cake using wooden coffee stirrers and to us two forks to lift the cake onto the plates. The solution worked and at times it was comical to watch. The students and parents didn't seem to notice as they were eager for free food and coffee.

Half-marathon and some traveling

2009-01-15T10:50:00.002-05:00

This coming weekend I will head to Arizona to run my first half-marathon of the year. I am looking forward to the race as it will give me some relief from the arctic cold weather that the Ottawa area has been getting recently. There is also another thing I curious about and that is my physical fitness. Over the Christmas holiday, I ran a 10 mile race in Hamilton in a time that suggested that I am in better shape than last year. This could be because I am eating better this year but I really think it is the extra exercise that I am getting each day. I run to and from the office twice a week and walk the other days. One of the bummer is that all this exercise leaves me more tired than usual in the evenings. The upshot is that I am loosing more and more weight which is a good thing and might mean that I will run faster on the weekend as I will be lighter.

Once the race is over I'll spend a couple of extra days in the Phoenix area and head up to explore the Grand Canyon area as well as head up to the north-eastern corner of the state to a place called "Four Corners." The states of Utah, Arizona, Colorado and New Mexico all meet at a 90 degree angle. It is the only place in America where this happens. I am excited to take a picture of myself with each arm and legs in a separate state. I'll post a blog and pictures next week talking about all my adventures.

Wordabble at six month

2009-01-08T10:56:00.001-05:00

Today is a special day for folks that play Wordabble. Wordabble is an iPhone/iPod Touch game from the folks at Fusion Bay and today it celebrates its first six month of offering challenging daily word puzzles. When you look at the rankings page, five of the top 20 regular players have over 200,000 points. Congratulation and thanks to Jason and Adam for six month of fun and daily challenges.

2008 Goals in Review

2009-01-07T12:41:00.003-05:00

Last year around this time I uploaded my goals for 2008. The wisdom was if you publicly state some of your goals you are more likely to take the steps to achieve them. I found this a good exercise last year and something I will do this year. Before I list my 2009 goals I thought I would take a minute to see how I did in achieving my 2008 goals.

* Run a 1:30 half-marathon time
Getting closer with each race. Will have to try harder in 2009

* Go on more OHOC outdoor adventures
Achieved

* Do more hiking trips
Achieved (OHOC trips, Catochins, Pretty Boy dam, etc.)

* Climb more of the 46ers (46 highest peaks in the Adirondacks , NY)
Achieved. Climbed a couple of more peaks

* Loose 10 lbs by May 30 (race date –National Capital half-marathon)
Achieved.

* Hike the West Coast Trail/Shenandoah National Park/Old Smoky National Park
No. Shifted to 2009.

* Run a faster Baltimore half-marathon (< 1:34 ) in October 2008
Achieved. Each year I run the race around a minute faster

* Visit Brent ( Algonquin Park ) by canoeing and portaging and bring along a digital camera
No. But parents had two roofs and one patio deck rebuilt.

* Reach 500,000 Babble point (now 350,000) www.playbabble.com
Achieved. When I combine my babble scores and wordabble scores I achieved this goal.

* Do more cycling (road and mountain biking)
No. Ouch

* Geocaching goal 900-1000 finds by Dec 31 2008
Achieved in the spring and finished off the year with 949 finds.

* Become more mobile
No

* Complete an Olympic Distance triathlon (1500m swum/40km cycle/10km run)
No

* Swing dancing – Learn the Lindy Hop
Achieved but more work to do.

* Take the train to Baltimore
Goal for 2009 (Montreal to New York to Baltimore Penn Station)

2008 was a good year for me. I did more than I expected an achieved other goals that I that I didn't push up to my blog.

Date Squares and Caesar Salad

2009-01-03T20:18:00.002-05:00

This is a culinary blog entry. I recently have taken a strong liking to date squares. It is similar to my enjoyment of a caesar salad. A couple of years ago while volunteer I spent a summer preparing caesar salads on Saturday mornings. It got to the point where I could tell how long ago it was that the greens/lettuce had be washed and spun in the salad spinner. The crisper the salad the sooner it had been prepared.

When my folks were visiting Ottawa recently we visited a bakery that they had been eager to visit for a long time. We made two trips to the Rideau Bakery. When I headed down to my folks place for the winter break I brought down a shopping list of breads that my mother wanted. One of the bakery's specialties is date squares. They are yummy and so sweet. While doing some Christmas errands we stopped in at my mother's local bakery and I asked for date squares. They were not as good as the ones in Ottawa. Today, my folks and I made our second time to the Oakville Whole Foods store. I bought a variety of there scones and you guessed it, date squares. Compared to other date squares the ones from Whole Foods were better as they were not as sweet and the top material did not disintegrate and they looked and tasted healthier.

Whole Foods rocks

2008-12-23T16:38:00.003-05:00

Today, while doing some Christmas shopping with my folks we stopped in at Whole Foods in Oakville. I was going to pop in and buy some Pomegranate tea that I spied last time I was at the Baltimore Whole Foods store. This would be my third visit to Whole Foods. Jason and I went their in the fall and I grabbed some lunch when he was returning some things.

My folks were really impressed with the place and asked if we could go back after Christmas. My mother bought a wide variety of cheeses that she hasn't seen in years. As we were walking by the bakery we picked up a fresh baguette for dinner. I stocked up on some of the exotic black teas that looked yummy. We went up and down every aisle and enjoyed taking in the Whole Foods experience. Since it was close to lunch time had paninis for lunch. Jason thanks for taking me to Whole Foods in the fall, as a trip their is the easiest way of having really stoked parents.

The Perils of Poor Packing and Chai Tea

2008-12-18T16:34:00.002-05:00

Today I learned about the perils of poor packing first hand but was able to make a quick recovery. In my last entry I talked about how I wanted to try running to work soon. Today, I awoke really early and decided to run to work. I packed all my work clothes and shower stuff into my backpack; it was a full and heavy load. I made a critical mistake of not closing my zipper sliders at the top of the bag and not to one side. With all the giggling of my bag the zipper started to peel open and things started to fall out along the route. One of the first things to fall out was my winter hat and office access badge. I only discovered when checking into the office of my fatal error and was lucky that I had other identification. After showering I decided to retrace my steps and found my access badge hanging from a tree as someone had seen its value and picked it up. My loss was only a winter hat. As I run home tonight I'll stopp by MEC to buy a replacement and will most likely carabiner my zipper slides together.

My second adventure today deals with Starbuck Organic Chai tea. For a long time, I have been a fan of their Early Grey teas but found at times it contains too much caffeine. I switch every so often to the Tazo Organic Chai Tea. To the folks at Starbucks when you say you want Chai tea it brings up two connotations, one cheap and the other expensive. The cheap version is some hot tea with a Chai teabag and the other is the Chai Tea Latte. Today, I was downtown for a meeting and asked for Chai Tea and tried to be clear what I wanted and jokingly the barista just gave me the tea bag in its package. I said sort asked where was the hot water and which we all rolled around laughing as they wanted to figured that I wanted hot tea.

Commuting

2008-12-17T21:32:00.002-05:00

A little while I moved a little further away from the office. This has some advantages as well disadvantages. My new place has a partial view of the Ottawa River and is twice as large as my old place. One of the disadvantages is that the commute is a little longer. But it satisfies one of my goal of being able to run, blade, ski, snowshoe and cycling to work depending on the season. My commute recently has been a little more challenging over the last two weeks. I had only been living in my place for a few days when the transit company decided to go on strike just as our first major snowstorm descended on the city. This created major havoc as the bus drivers decided to protest in front salt/sand depot in unplowed and unsanded roads. I've considered this situations as a bit of an opportunity as it has allowed my to explore my new neighborhood on foot, something, I otherwise would not have done. Each day I hike 6 miles/10 kilometers round trip to the office using I can in about an hour depending on the footing. By bus this commute would normally take about 15 minutes. Each day has been different as I'm making good use of my iPod as some days I listen to swing music, jazz and occasionally a string of symphonies. I have learned about the various plows and sanding trucks the city uses to keep the roads clear. I'm starting to see familiar faces and can sort of gauge who is late and who is early. I have been able to recall what black ice looks like and what consistency of snow is the most and least slippery. As you can see much goes through my mind on my hour to and from the office. I've been comparing notes with my briefer as to who is loosing the most weight as a result of our extended commutes. My daily adventures will most likely end soon as I head home for the holidays at the end of the week and the city will eventually have to settle with the strikers. While the drama continue I still have to see what it us like to winter run to the office. I also openly wonder what expressions I would get as I visibly stow my snowshoes in my cube after a commute through the hinterland along the Ottawa River.

Innovations in snowplows

2008-12-11T10:04:00.001-05:00

On my morning commute, I saw something that got me excited and that is, the latest innovation in snowplows. The traditional setup is to have a concave blade that can plow straight ahead, plow right or plow left. The new plows have the blade split into two sections each which can be independently angled. What this means is that at a twist of the joystick the blade can change to a "V" shape or the shape of an arrow or one part at a 90 degree angle and the other straight ahead or whatever combination meets the needs of the situation.

Moving

2008-12-10T12:24:00.001-05:00

I've been thinking about moving for a little while and made the plunge recently to a larger place. I am a little further from the office which may or may not be a good thing. With the help of my parents we purged, packed and cleaned my old place over a couple of days. On the weekend, I moved into my new place using a 14 foot U-Haul truck that was 3/4s full. The weather cooperated as it was a sunny and a cool 8C/46.4F. It took about two hours to fill the truck and I fell in love with the box cart as I could move three boxes at a time. The drive to the new place took about ten minutes. It a little long to unload the truck at the new place as the elevator was smaller. I think that my new place is double the size of my old one. I'll blog more on the adventure soon.

During my moving week I stayed with my parents at a downtown hotel. It was more convenience for everyone and my parents did want to tackle the Ottawa city traffic. Our bedroom looked down onto a day care. As we drank our morning tea we would watch the parents drop the kids at a really early hour of 7:00 AM. The kids were all bundled up and looked like minature Michelin-man people. Before we would head out for the day we watch the kids playing during recess. Some would be making snow angels, other on tricycles, throwing snow, shoveling snow and have fun in the cold weather. One of the things they did brought a smile to my face and that was the hoola hoop. They had learned about wiggling the hips thing and we happy to throw it five feet away and to pick it up and throw it another five feet. They were getting joy from just tossing around some plastic. Another brought back memories and that was that all the kids had their mittens on strings. I can remember having my mittens on strings.

Guest blogger segment -- my father

The most notable incident occurred when returning to the hotel as we bundled up against the sub-zero freezing weather. Outside the hotel door was a stocky fellow in just a t-shirt and shorts puffing on a cigarette with a sarcastic look on his face. He ball cap said Junior Canadian Ranger. He was an Inuit/Eskimo and a member of Canada's Army of the North and our last frontier. Somehow he found the freezing weather to his satisfaction and felt right at home.

Wordabble -- 100,000 points

2008-11-30T11:37:00.003-05:00

This morning, I passed a landmark that has been looming for a while and that is have found 100,000 points in the Fusion Bay's iPhone/iPod Touch game Wordabble. Earlier in the month, I achieved another milestone and that was to have played my first 100 games. As I think about these two milestones, I wonder what other milestones I can achieve by playing wordabble. I'll close this entry by thanking Jason and Adam for developing wordabble. 100,000 points later and 100 games later I still get my daily mental gymnastics through Wordabble. Thanks guys!

Geocaching, the military, and bow hunting

2008-11-23T15:26:00.005-05:00

Yesterday, I was out geocaching and with the expectation that it would be cool and quiet afternoon. This was not too be. As I was driving up to the trailhead I passed two groups of army recruits decked in cammo, face paint and carrying an assortment of rifles, sniper scopes, and machine guns. They looked like a serious and dangerous bunch. At the last moment, I noticed that most of the guns were plugged. They were hoping to ambush another platoon concealed much deeper along the trail. Lucky for me the first geocache was in the opposite direction and an easy find. I continued along the trail and noticed a guy in cammo sitting midway up a tree keeping very calm and quiet. Later I would find out that the woods were occupied by deer hunters with bows. The third cache find was what I call a "gotcha." The cache was suspended 15 feet in the air and hanging from the nub of a branch. Standing on a three foot stump and using a 10 foot long branch I was able to knock the cache down. As I was lifting the cache back into place along came a couple of deer hunters wanting to know what I was doing. I showed them the cache and my GPS and explained what geocaching was all about. Before they headed back along the trail I asked them what to do when in the woods during deer season; do you move silently or make some noise. They suggested to make more noise that you would expect of a deer prancing through the forest.

100th Wordabble game

2008-11-16T01:16:00.001-05:00

Today I played my 100th game of Wordabble. Each day has been a lot of challenging and rewarding fun. I can say with certainty that my vocabulary has increased as I continue to learn more and more obscure words. When Jason and Adam introduced the finger-dragging with auto-entry option I found I could play the game faster. Another feature that has become more valuable over time is being able see what words I have missed at the stroke of midnight as I use it as a way to increase my vocabulary. I would like to take a moment to talk about a couple of the more entertaining days. In one of them I was able to make use of most of the urology terms I had learned a couple of years ago. In the other game, I was using my knowledge of the various components of the heart and lungs. I can say that I have enjoyed each days whether it had 200+ words or less than 100 words. In the high value games it was frustrating to find 50% of the words. When there were fewer than 100 words I would scratch my head and wonder if that four letter jumble of letters was indeed a word. In most cases it would be a new obscure word that I would park away for future reference. I'll close off this entry by thanking Jason and Adam for my first 100 days of fun playing wordabble.

Bras to Masks

2008-11-10T18:02:00.002-05:00

I'm at home for a long weekend which gives me a chance to catch up on reading. This morning I was reading one of my father's technical magazines. It talked about a recent patent for a bra that could be quickly converted in a face mask in the event of civil emergency.

Urban Jetboiling 2

2008-10-28T07:48:00.001-05:00

One of the dangers with your iPhone/iPod Touch is that you will write less than you should. I'll try to make up for this fault.

I was impressed by how quickly the Jetboil heated the water. The Mac N Cheese tasted good but it would have tasted better after a long day of hiking and camping. I think it would awesome with tuna or salmon. There was a little problem with portions. If this was an outback adeventure I would have had to cook two packages. This may vary depending on the meal. I think my next meal will be Ginger Pasta which when served with salmon is awesome. Jason, Em and I had this meal when we hiked in the Shenandoahs last year and it rocked.

Urban Jetboiling

2008-10-27T21:23:00.001-05:00

Tonight I did something I had planned to do last weekend but got rained out. This is cooking with my Jetboil. I loaded up my backpack with my utensils, flashlight, Nalgene bottle, fuel canister, the Jetboil stove and packaged dinner. My destination was the bike path that runs along the Ottawa River. The idea was to test out the stove in a familiar setting before putting it to test in the foul elements. I assembled the stove as dusk was setting in. I reached a point of indecision, should I light the stove before or after mounting the pot. I opted to light the stove first. The stove lit on it's first try. In the meantime I started to prepare the grub. Before I knew there was a geyser of steam coming out of the stove's portal. I poured the steaming water in the Mary Jane Mac N Cheese and waited patiently. A little while later I was eating my first Jetboil assisted meal. A quick thanks goes out to Jason for the stove.

2008 Baltimore half-marathon

2008-10-21T11:19:00.001-05:00

Short version – finishing time 1:34
60 second improvement of 2007
pace per mile 7:10
pace per km 4:27,
position 142/6245

Long version –

This past weekend I headed down to Maryland for my forth Baltimore half-marathon. My friend Jason met me at the airport and we headed over to the race expo to pick up my race kit. Registration was well organized and was able to get my gear quickly. One innovation this year is that they had disposable timing chips that look like a loop of tape. He headed back to Jason's place and had a pasta/BBQ dinner with his girlfriend. I came dressed for Ottawa weather and very quickly had to start peeling off the layers. Mid-evening, I checked into a nearby hotel as I would have to start race preparations early. I awoke at 5:30 AM and started my feeding. Over the next little while, I ate half-a-box of Vector cereal. I caught the 7:00 AM hotel shuttle over to the race start and was able to watch the start of the marathon. For the next while, I chilled before eating a Clif bar at about an hour before my start. After multiple bathroom breaks I did a long warmup along the edge of the Inner Harbor. I was seeded in the first corral and had a great start. It would take me a while before I finally reached my race pace. The first four miles are a gradual uphill reaching the steepest part at the six mile mark. Along the way I enjoyed running along Patterson Park, and Clifton Park. One of the highlights of the race is running around Lake Montebello. Your start at the south-east corner and come out at the south-west corner having knocked off two miles. We next headed over to John Hopkins University at which point we start the downhill section of the course. My energy was starting to wane a bit so I pushed back a gel. I was pleased as my mile pace was a consistent 7:10 despite the rolling hills. The final hill takes you over the very colourful the MLK (Martin-Luther-King) parkway. The hill comes at a bad time as you still have three miles left to run. I finished off my gel and appreciated the sugar surge and caffeine jolt (15 mg). Ever so gradually the view of Camden Yards (home of the Orioles) became closer and closer. At this point, I pulled away from a pack of runners that I had been working off as they detoured to a water stop. I increased the pace a bit and imagined that I was doing my last 2.5 km/1.553 mile interval along the Rideau Canal. I was in a fair amount of discomfort but knew that I still had more left in the tank. I was really pleased to find that I had finished the race a minute faster than last year.

Sneaky Geocaches

2008-10-19T11:57:00.004-05:00

Yesterday, I went geocaching along the Ottawa River and eventually located a sneaky geocache. The GPS told me that I was within a couple of feet of the cache but where could it be. This link shows where the cache is. The cacher had transported the tree segment home, sliced off the top, ground out the core and the put dowling support to secure the top. From a distance it looks like a large tree stump sitting next to the river. Afterwards I was reading the logs and noticed that the tree had stumped a lot of people.

MacGyver moment

2008-10-17T22:12:00.003-05:00

While on my run tonight I had a MacGyver moment. When I packed my running gear this morning I packed my large winter overpants. They are designed to be worn over a couple of layers. As I started out on my run they started to slide down. Every so often I would pull them up a bit. At the midpoint of run there is a construction site with miles of yellow caution tape laying around. I grabbed a foot of tape and used it to secure my pants. My run back to the university was at a faster and more relaxed pace.

Voting

2008-10-09T13:12:00.000-05:00

Earlier this week, I cast my vote in the Advanced Polls for the upcoming election. I was one of the first 15 to do so which created complications as the folks in charge were still working out the details. There were a variety of forms, a new Voter Certification, a Change of Address Certification and Proxy Voting Certification. I showed my drivers license and presented voter registration card and spent the next 20 minutes people watching. Most of the people were much older than I (read retired) and should not have been pressed for time but they were. I had an Asian chap constantly poking me saying “You Next!! You Next!!” I said that they were three people ahead of me so we would have to wait. A couple of minutes later he would poke me again and I would say we still have to wait. I’m not sure if he was trying to sway my vote using physical force. Most of the old folks started to complain about government waste and inefficiency and why the exercise was taking so long. When it came time to marking my “X” in the box it was a straight forward process as I knew who I was going to vote for and did so without any second thoughts. The candidate’s brochures, the TV ads and the debates had no bearing on who I voted for. It is a relief as I can now wait and watch the election results when they become available.

Lindy 1.2

2008-09-30T21:42:00.002-05:00

Last Thursday, I had my first Lindy Hop dancing lesson. There is a bit of a story as to how these lessons came about. About two weeks ago Andrea, sent out a group email mentioning that they were in need of leaders for upcoming lessons. A couple of days later along comes another email saying that they were in desperate need of leaders. This caught my attention so I kept a copy of the email on my desk. At the Friday night dance, Andrea asked me if I was going to take the lessons and I was more yes than maybe. A day later I got an email saying that if you replied within 24 hours the lessons would be free as the waiting list of followers was continuing to grow. This was enough encouragement for me to signup for the lessons. The lessons will repeat what I did in an eight course in the spring and I'm looking forward to brushing up on the steps.

Awesome weekend in Baltimore

2008-09-21T13:34:00.002-05:00

I spent last weekend having an incredible great time in Baltimore. I arrived on Friday afternoon and Jason met me at the airport. We headed over to Whole Foods for a late lunch as I was famished. After lunch we headed back to Jason’s place to chip away at a layer of cement in his bathroom as earlier in the week the bathroom tiles didn’t set properly. Having two hammers and chisels beaver away at the floor allowed us to nearly get the floor free of cement debris 1 2 . In the evening we headed south to Glen Echo, which is south-west of Washington for some swing dancing. Jam Cellar and Sac au Lait were hosting an outdoor dance in the old bummer car pavilion. It was a great venue and the music was good.

On Saturday, we headed back to Jason’s house and spent much of the morning scouring the bathroom floor of cement so that Em could lay the tiles in the afternoon. In the afternoon Jason grouting another bathroom and I was cool to act as a support person doing chores for Jason and Em. In the evening we headed over to Camden Yards to take in an Orioles game. It game started late as the “O’s” were playing a double-header. We had great seats and we watched a good game despite the fact that “O’s” lost.

We started off Sunday with a large breakfast (home-made waffles) at Jason’s parents place. Jason gave me some tips on how to get my Yahoo Mail on my iPhone/iPod Touch which was really good. Afterwards, we headed to REI as I had an order that needed to be picked up. I was able to buy two BPA free Nalgene bottles which was sweet. We next headed in a North-Western direction to the Catochin Mountains close to Thurmont, MD. Much of the day was spent hiking and doing some light climbing. I was happy to watch Jason scale some steep rock faces. (Note to self – I should have brought my climbing shoes and harness.) (Wolf Rock n39 38.042 w077 26.258) There was a little exciting when we were at Wolf Rock. I found a crevasse in the some rocks which allowed me to lay back and to take and get in some R&R. Once Jason had climbed Wolf Rock he set his eyes on a more ambitious goal of seeing his could climb through a rock face underneath me. He got very close to the surface only to find he couldn’t get his chest through a small crevasse. What to do? The only solution was to head back down the way he came. It was a hot day and the rocks were slippery. As he was heading down Jason lost his grips and fell 15 feet bouncing from one rock to another. It was a WOW moment. A little later we headed south back to Em’s place for an awesome lasagna dinner with family friends.

http://picasaweb.google.ca/moulec/Baltimore_Sept_2008#

On Monday, Scott, Jason and I headed over to Home Depot to get some Hardi-backer flooring boards. I had estimated that we would need 14 boards by measuring the area and adding in an error factor (15%). After lunch we laid down the cement, Hardi-backer boards, and screwed in 850 screws. Having three people working on the task meant that we always had a ready-supply of cement, some putting in the screws while someone else was measuring the next board. In the evening we headed to the Austin Grill for some swing dancing. I head a great time dancing while many folks that I had danced with before. We close out the evening doing something quite memorable and that is playing wordabble on our ipod Touch/iPhone.

On Tuesday, we had a leisurely morning which was great. We exchanged gifts and I’m pleased with my JetBoil. For lunch we headed to Rosina’s which is a sort of tradition. In the early afternoon I headed back to Ottawa by way of Philadelphia.

Exhaust Burger: Let your tailpipe cook for you

2008-09-10T21:59:00.003-05:00

I was listening to an engineering podcast tonight which caused to laugh for quite some time. An Iranian engineer has invented a device that attaches to your car exhaust pipe and uses the excess heat to cook a hamburger. It is a novel concept.

Roofing

2008-09-03T14:44:00.003-05:00

Every year my father and I tackle a couple of large home maintenance projects. This summer we completed three. We started off by manually drilling and installing four concrete footing for my parent’s deck. This stabilized the deck and extended it by a couple of feet. Earlier this month, we stripped off the shingles from half the roof of the deck and re-shingled it. Last weekend, we finished our most ambitious project of re-roofing 40% of the roof of the house. We started off by removed three layers of asphalt shingles and two layers of pine shakes. This exposed the underlying laths. We covered the laths with 15 - 2'x8' plywood sheeting. Our final chore was to apply 15-year asphalt shingles to the roof. It was a sense of great relief when the last shingle was nailed to the roof.

Meeting a distant friend

2008-08-25T14:00:00.001-05:00

Over the weekend I did something that I have been meaning to do for a while which is to meet a friend from the other side of the globe. Gemma and I have known each other for a couple of years but only formally met in Montreal when our paths crossed recently. A couple of years ago I exchanged emails with the New Zealand chapter of my honor society. Gemma was their communications person and put me in touch with some folks that would be attending the Arizona conference that I attended. We connected again through myspace and finally on Facebook. A while back she commented how she had been able to buy a ticket from New York City to Toronto for $12.00. She would then be heading to Quebec City for a World Youth Summit. I could either meet before or after the summit. Getting together before the summit proved hard to schedule so we opted to meet afterwards. On Friday, met in front of McGill University and had supper at a nearby Italian restaurant. [The caesar salad and pizza were great.] We went across the street to Ben & Jerry’s ice cream as even though she has been in the U.S. for six months she hadn’t experienced the marvelous Vermont ice cream. We concluded the evening talking at a local coffee shop. As the clock was striking midnight, I headed back to Ottawa and she departed for Toronto-New York City-Washington, DC.

Wordabble

2008-08-12T14:42:00.001-05:00

I thought I would blog about a new game available for the iPhone and iPod Touch which has me excited. The folks at Fusion Bay recently developed a game called Wordabble. Using the touch interface of the iPhone/iPod, you locate words hidden in a 5x5 block of letters. What I like about the application is it is easy to use, intuitive, fun and addictive. You can play the game in three modes, a timed game, a marathon session or you can download the game of the day and challenge your friends and family. At any time you can submit your scores to see how fair with other players. I like the way the application cleanly and smoothly presents the challenge of finding the words. I say check-it out!

Civic Holiday, Colonel By day or John Graves Simcoe day

2008-08-06T14:28:00.001-05:00

The first weekend in August we have a holiday that has many names, Civic Holiday, Colonel By day or John Graves Simcoe day. I decided to head to Montreal to see if I could achieve my geocaching goal of 900 finds. On Friday night, I joined a long line of people at the bus station heading to Montreal. In all there were 180 folks in line for the 5 p.m. bus. Security was heightened as they had undercover cops and sniffer dogs checking out everyone’s luggage. Once at the McGill residence, I found that the place was overbooked for the weekend. They have another nearby residence which I checked into and was upgraded to a better room at no additional cost. On Saturday, I joined a line of five people eager to buy the iPhone. I bought a white 16 gigabyte phone. WooT!

Over the next couple of days I did a geocaches marathon finding 26 geocaches putting my finds tally at 902. On Monday, I headed up to the Apple store which is located in the second largest mall in Canada, the le Carrefour de Laval. I was talking one of the specialist (blue shirt) about my challenge in getting the native Yahoo mail on the iPod touch to work and he suggested seeing one of the Genius (black shirt). After an hour the genius couldn’t get the Yahoo Mail app to work. I opted to use some custom IMAP and POP settings to get it to sort of work and not work. All in all it was a great holiday weekend.

Animals in the Hinterland

2008-07-27T19:05:00.003-05:00

Today I was geocaching in the Greenbelt of Ottawa and trying to locate some caches in deer yards. As I was walking to my next cache I heard a branch crack and stopped dead in my tracks. This could have been a good or bad decision. If a tree or branch was falling I was going to get whacked. I was lucky as whatever made the noise stopped too. Through the cedar underbrush I could see that I was five feet away from a deer. We stared at each other for a while and then it flicked it tail and was off on its way. A little later on I spotted another one heading away in the distance. My current find tally is 875 and so my goal of 900+ finds by the end of the year is quickly coming within sight.

IAT – Implicit Association Test

2008-07-22T14:48:00.001-05:00

While exploring iTunes U recently I downloaded a couple of psychology lectures from the University of Washington. During one the lectures they talked about the IAT (Implicit Association Test). These are self-administered tests that will help you find out your unconscious levels of prejudice about age, gender, race, self-esteem, and mathematics vs. art. (Wikipedia Entry) At the Harvard IAT web site you can take a variety of IATs. I took one comparing Canada and the United States and one comparing Obama and McCain. It was interesting learning about my natural biases.

iPhone 2.0 Software Update

2008-07-14T13:36:00.002-05:00

I like the iPhone 2.0 software update as it offers many new features and builds on the things offered in version 1.1.4. The ability to delete multiple messages at once, the “push” feature, improved map support; the scientific calculator and the AppStore make the negligible cost I paid worthwhile. Over the weekend, I downloaded four applications, Things (a productivity app), WeatherBug, Units, and Remote (controlling iTunes on your computer from your iPhone/iPod touch). A news release from Apple today said over the weekend 10 million applications were downloaded from the AppStore.

Getting the iPhone software was a bit of a challenge. It took me a while and a bit of frustration to learn the trick. I had assumed that once I had bought the software it would download automatically. This was not the case. Every time I tried to download the software the orange download icon would spin for three seconds and then disappear. A 225 megabyte download should take longer than three seconds. It could be that the servers were busy so I attempted the download a couple of times an hour without success. I checked the Apple discussions area and was pleased to learn that I wasn’t the only experiencing this problem. There is an expression that trying the same thing repeatedly and expecting a different result is a definition of insanity. On a whim, I tried something different and that was to plug the iPod touch into my computer at which point iTunes asked if I wanted to download the update. This was the trick. Sweet! The orange download icon spun for 15 minutes and the download was done. From this point on the upgrade was routine and I was finally happy and relieved to experience the new powers of my Touch.

Adirondacks June-July 2008

2008-07-03T14:58:00.001-05:00

Wright Peak/Algonquin/Iroquois/Phelps/Colden

Friday June 27
One of my goals is to eventually climb all of the 46 peaks in the Adirondacks whose elevation is above 4,000 feet. This past weekend I added one more to the tally, Iroquois. On Friday morning, Chris Mc and I headed down to Lake Placid and stopped in at the Price Chopper to get lunches and groceries for the long weekend. Once at camp we setup a tarp and bug net over the picnic table as suspected we would meet the bugs and/or rain over the weekend. Na, Paul and Ben would arrive at the campsite a little while later. After supper we started a fire and contemplated when Wendy and Erin would arrive. We took bets on when they might arrive and I won. They wouldn’t arrive until mid-afternoon on Saturday.

Saturday June 28
The five of us were up early (0630) and eating breakfast by 7:00 AM. Our goal for the day was to hike the mountains near Algonquin Peak much of this would be dependant on our stamina and the weather. At 8:21 AM we headed out from the ADK Loj trailhead and made our way south-west. After 30 minutes the trail splits, one direction leading to Marcy Dam and the other to Algonquin. We took the right path and headed south. The trail very gradually climbs and is a Mecca for boulders. Along the way we took in the sight of a waterfall. After climbing for about an hour we reached another trailhead. Half of the group climbed Wright Peak while the others continued on the trail to Algonquin. The view from Wright was good but we could see a storm approaching in the distance. As continued our ascent up to Algonquin it started to lightly rain and in rolled the mist. It was hard to spot the next cairn. We stopped for lunch at the summit. The mountain steward was standing on watch. The group split again and most of the people headed down Algonquin. The remainder continued east to Boundary and Iroquois. The intensity of the rain increased and the fog grew thicker. It was at this point that the GPS proved its value. At breakfast time I punched in the coordinates for all the peaks we would be climbing. A father, his son and a large poodle mistook Boundary for Algonquin. I shouted that the GPS said we had another 300 yards to hike. They were not happy by this remark. The final 300 yards involved hiking through shoulder height trees and boggy mud flats. My knee high gators kept the spruce trees from scratching my legs as well as keeping the mud away from my boots. Once we reached the summit we retreated back to the valley between the mountains. We had a choice to head back by Avalanche Lake or return the way we had come. Three groups were making the same decision and all opted for coming back the way they had come. It would be better to head back on familiar terrain that to take a longer route with an uncertain terrain. The constant rain made this choice obvious. As we headed across Algonquin the rain became more intense and my heart went out to the steward huddled next to a large rock. It would be another three hours before he could head down. Once below the tree line the rain let up and we could take off our rain jacket. The forest was steamy hot. A little while later the sun came out. As we were heading by the falls I saw some naïve hikers making there way to Wright Peak. They were wearing button-down white and blue shirts. I wonder how long they would stay clean and dry as another storm was an hour away. Once back at the camp I had a piping hot cup of tea to celebrate my ascents. Wendy and Erin had arrived by this point and prepared a marvelous pasta dish for supper. Paul and I trimmed up a standing conifer tree and as a standing dead tree is a dry tree. A blazing warm fire was a welcome site to the group.

Sunday June 29
Most of the group was awake at sunrise and we started down the trailhead early in the morning. Our goal was to climb Phelps. At the first trail junction we headed east towards Marcy Dam and took in the sights before heading further east. There was much relief as we were climbing the Phelps trail as it had fewer rocks than the trail leading to Wright. We ate lunch at the Phelps summit. The knats and black flies were swarming on the summit so we headed down shortly after lunch. We were at our campsite by mid-afternoon. After a Chinese stir-fry meal we headed into B&J for ice cream. There were black clouds hanging over Lake Placid. As we were heading back to camp it started to pelt. There would be no fire tonight. It would rain for most of the night.

Monday June 30
On Monday morning, Na, Paul and Ben packed up and headed back to Ottawa. Chris Mc, Erin and I set out early to climb Mt. Colden. We headed over to Marcy Dam before hiking in a southerly direction towards Avalanche Lake. By lunch hour, we were climbing over the ladders that take you along the shores of Avalanche Lake. The edge of the lake ends in a steep cliff so they have wooden ladders and platforms hanging from the edge of the cliffs. Our trek along Colden Lake was muddy. Midway down the lake we started our steep ascent of Mt. Colden and reached the summit after much exertion and heavy breathing. It was a bright and sunny day on the summit. We ate our lunch while admiring the views, of Marcy Dam, Avalanche Lake, and the three other peaks we had climbed two days earlier. The hike down to Lake Arnold was a pleasant one as the switchbacks allowed us to gradually drop elevation. We pumped water at Lake Arnold despite the black fly infestation. Within an hour we were back at the Marcy Dam trailhead. We all headed into town for steak dinner at the Lake Placid Boat Club which sits on the edge of Mirror Lake. Erin and Wendy headed north to Ottawa after dinner. Chris Mc and I headed back to camp for the final camp fire.

Tuesday July 1 – Canada Independence Day
We were both up at 5:00 AM. I spent a little while packing my thermarests and sleeping bag before leaving the tent. Meanwhile, Chris Mc got the Coleman stove alight. We had all our gear packed and heading north by 8:00 AM.

http://picasaweb.google.com/moulec/2008_Adirondacks_July

East Dix – South Dix – June 2008

2008-06-17T11:30:00.001-05:00

I spent the past weekend hiking in the Adirondacks and visited two peaks I had climbed last fall (East Dix and South Dix). A recent microburst and the unmarked and unmaintained herd trails made the trek more challenging. On Friday afternoon four cars headed south from Ottawa and rendezvous in Keene Valley at the Rock and River lodge. On the way down we stopped at Price Chopper to buy lunches for the Saturday and Sunday hikes. I replenished my stock of fig newtons. Our group stayed in one of the largest chalets which was a converted barn and had a climbing wall on the back side of the fireplace.

On Saturday morning after a hearty breakfast we headed 20 km south to the East Dix trailhead. I fired up the GPS and punched in the coordinates for the East Dix summit. At the critical point on the trail we forded the Bouquet River learning from our mistake from last year. As we meandered along the river the GPS “distance to final” fell very slowly. At times we were slowed down due to downed trees but soldiered on. Our OHOC group (12) broke up into three smaller groups and the distance between them grew. Every half-hour we would regroup. Brian and I were the first to reach the East Dix slide after a three hour hike. There is a well defined path to the west side of the slide which takes you about halfway up at which point you have to cross to the east side. One had to be aware of your colors. A black or brown colored rock is slippery while a gray will give a firm purchase. With the GPS running I could watch the feet to the summit ever so slowly decrease. It was slow going up the slide. Our goal was to climb toward a cliff that looked like a hammerhead. There is a path along the edge of the cliff that leads to the summit. It was a big relief when we reached the summit. We took a couple of pictures and started our one mile trek to the summit of South Dix. We made the hike with a certain amount of urgency as there were looming dark clouds overhead. Once again the GPS allowed us to keep our bearing. As we were taking pictures on the cliffs of South Dix it started to rain. I fished out my rain jacket and Brian and I headed back over to East Dix. Midway along the trail the rain stopped but we continued to wear our jackets as the forest was wet. Once back on East Dix the sun came out and quickly dried off the rock face. It was mid-afternoon by this point and I ate my sub quietly and pushed back some fig newtons and diet coke. We would spend the next 40 minutes climbing very slowly down East Dix and in some cases walking on all fours. With a little luck I found the trail that runs down the east side of the slide and eventually leads to the campsite. Once off the slide I sighed with relief as we were out of harms way. The journey back along the trail was more brisk than I would have liked. By this point I had consumed three liters of water and only had one more to spare. The forest was warm and muggy. We bumped into the other group midway along the trail which was a relief for me as we as there was no longer a need to travel at a breakneck speed. We learned that the other groups had made it halfway up the slide but missed the cairn that tells you to cross over to the other face. They turned back as it was raining and thundering overhead. Once back at the car I headed down to the Bouquet River and stood in the cold river for 15 minutes to cool myself down. It felt awesome. As we were driving back to the lodge the skies opened and it pelted with rain.

Once back at the lodge I had a blistering hot shower and washed the caked mud from my legs. We had a group pasta dinner. After supper I bedded down really early as I bushed.

On Sunday morning I awoke really early and headed over to the lodge for a hearty breakfast with the rest of the crew. The goal for the day was a short four hour hike up Pitchoff Mountain. It was a good day hike as long as you kept moving. Our turnaround point was “the ridge” which had a great view of Cascade Mountain. At is at this point that we experienced our first bugs of the trip. The black flies were out but they were not in a bitten mood and were more of an irritation.

http://picasaweb.google.com/moulec/June2008_Adirondacks_EDix_SDix

Apple – WWDC – iPhone coming to Canada

2008-06-11T09:48:00.002-05:00

On Monday, I received some much expected news from the Apple WWDC conference. Steve Jobs announced that the iPhone 3G would go on sale in Canada on Friday July 11. This was exciting news. During the day I had been infrequently been following his keynote speech through posting on macworld.com blog. Jason and I talked about the WWDC but it would take until the evening before I had a chance to listen to the keynote speech. I was stoked when I found out that my cellular phone carrier will be selling the iPhone. I am hoping that they will release the contract details in a couple of days. There is one thing I am eager to explore and that is, the GPS capabilities of the iPhone which was only very briefly demonstrated during the speech. It would be sweet to be able to use it when geocaching.

One of the applications that they featured is me.com that is described as “Microsoft Exchange for everyone else.” It is a subscription-based website that allows you to keep your mail, contacts, pictures and documents in sync not matter what device you are using. I have read the web pages describing the product but still not sure if I would ever need the functionality that it offers. I’m curious what others think of the product.

Hmm, only 30 more days before the iPhone arrives…

Retirements and meeting the CEO

2008-06-05T20:32:00.002-05:00

This is a sort of work-related blog, something I usually don’t write about. I work for a large organization that has about 5,000 employees and I receive about 1.3 email messages per week announcing that someone is retiring. In the past week, one of the head honchos retired with much fanfare. He has been with the organization for 51 years and 23 years as its CEO. Around the office this was a really big deal. They organized a lottery to select employees that could informally meet him and wish him greetings for his retirement. I was selected to informally join 700 other employees to meet him. This came as a big surprise to me. My first concern was what to where, a tie, a jacket, a tie and jacket or my normal work garb. In the end, I opted to wear my usual work stuff and not to get to puffy about the gathering. I joined the reception line in our cafeteria and very slowly marched along towards the CEO. In the background, they were playing very sad and somber baroque classical music almost as if I was attending a state funeral. In hushed tones were told that we had only 15 seconds with the CEO. I can’t remember what I said to him but his reply what that we were all colleagues together. Tom, one of the guys I work with, took my picture with the CEO. In the afternoon they had live streaming of the formal retirement ceremony delivered to all employees’ desktops. I’ll talk about a couple of nuggets from the ceremony. The CEO mentioned the whole exercise was like eavesdropping on his own funeral. The new CEO was eager to know what the outgoing CEO’s wife put in his cheese sandwich to promote longevity. The last nugget is sort of weird. One of the vice-presidents gave a testimonial of the CEO and didn’t have a chance to proofread his speech. I think that he had intended to say that the CEO had been a pillar of the organization but due to translation he said that CEO had been a boat anchor to the organization.

Off to the Adirondacks soon…

2008-06-04T12:52:00.000-05:00

In just over a week, I’ll be heading down to the Lake Placid area for my second hiking trip of the year. The plan is to climb East Dix (4012 feet) and South Dix (4060 feet). Last year, Chris Mc, Kevin and I camped at the base of what we thought was East Dix and later confirmed once we were at the summit. This year we are taking a different approach and staying at a hostel overnight in Keene Valley and to summit both Dixs peaks as part of a long day hike. Now that we have the GPS coordinates we can start at the car and just follow the GPS arrow as it counts down the kilometers/miles to go. Chris Mc and I are leading a group of OHOC hikers this time round. There is still one unsolved mystery and that is, will there be bugs and how fierce/intense they might be as this is the earliest in the spring that I have been hiking in the Adirondacks.

Another 31 second improvement…WooHoo!

2008-05-30T10:49:00.001-05:00

2008 May 25
292/8368
1:33:42.7 chip
4:29 pace

2007
377/7005
1:34:13 chip

The ING Ottawa half-marathon is one of the three half-marathon races that I train for each year. I usually start off the year by doing the Phoenix, Arizona, PF Chang RnR half-marathon in January and close off the season with the Baltimore half-marathon in October. This year’s Ottawa race allowed me to better my time by 31 seconds but a few hours before the start even running the race was uncertain. After an 11 km tempo run on Wednesday night I developed a severe cold which affected my lungs and throat. For three days I was without a voice. I decided the best thing I could do was rest and hope that I could nix the cold. By late Saturday, my lungs were clear and throat was still coarse. Using the old running adage that it is okay to run as long as the cold as above your throat, I decided wait and see how I felt on Sunday morning.

I got up on Sunday to find my legs feeling fresh, energetic and ready to go. I ate four bowls of Vector cereal and drank some strong tea before heading over to the start line. At this point my first challenge arose as I was 300 folks behind the 1:40 pace bunny who I could see off in the distance. It would take about 1.5 miles of hard and fast running for me to surge by the bunny and his entourage. The pace I was running at was fast but very comfortable. I asked myself do I want to slow down or speed up. I sped up and surged by a hoard of people. The course was very familiar to me so I was able complete the Gatineau loop quickly. I surged each hill and glided down the backside. As we were heading across the over of the Ottawa River I went into a “zone” and worked hard climbing the three hills before descending along the Rideau Canal. At this point, I saw my folks who cheered me from the sidelines. The remainder of the race would be on familiar territory, the bike paths and roads that run parallel to the Rideau Canal. My journey down to Bank Street went quickly as we were racing in ideal conditions a cool and crisp 8C/46F. At this point I had a bit of fun as there was a jazz band playing in a nearby tent. They were playing swing with a fast tempo. I decided to do a 400 meter wind sprint and have my legs keep in sync with the beat of the music. It was fun to do. I eased back on the pace once out of earshot. At the Bronson Bridge, we crossed over the Rideau Canal and started our northward trek. I threw a couple of cups of cold water over me and sponged down at the water stop. I ingested a Powergel with 35mg of caffeine when I was 5km away from the finish. As I was heading up the canal I heard the jazz band playing a fast tune from the other side of the canal, time for another surge. For the next three km I pressed myself to try and shave at least one second off the next km. This strategy worked well under the final kilometer when I stitched slightly but the energy of the crowd pulled me through. I was really pleased by the race as the 31 second improvement was unexpected.

The Spitting Goose

2008-05-15T13:32:00.002-05:00

Today, I decided to have lunch down near the Ottawa River along the bike path. As I was walking along the path I was approached by a spitting Canada goose which is a sign that it was upset. I moved along a little further and it started to follow. I opened up a 200 yard gap and sat down to eat my Ruffles. A short while later along comes the waddling goose. It started to spit at me again so I walked a little further along the path. At this point the goose backed off and it was happy to munch on dandelions. Is this normal goose behavior sort of, as this is the peak season for mating and reproducing. The goose wanted to guard its turf against invaders even if they are six feet tall and it is a mere two feet tall.

Close to where I live there is a railway bridge that runs across the river a goose has setup camp underneath one of the abutments. It has built a nest and laid a couple of eggs. I pass by the spot a couple of times a day and notice the progress. I’ll try to get down there with the camera to capture some of the sights. As I meandered back to the office I kept a safe distance from the goose who was keeping a watchful over me.

11 days before half-marathon

2008-05-14T20:52:00.003-05:00

Tonight, I did my final interval workout before my half-marathon race next weekend. The workout was brutal, 6x1km on 30s rest. It was over quickly but a painful experience as you are only able to take a couple of breaths before you start sprinting again. My intervals times are better than last year but I am still not sure about my fitness level so I will use the outcome of the race to act as a judge.

I am looking forward to the race as I have been training for it for the past couple of months. The race really be special this year as my folks are coming to town to watch me run.

Geocaching

2008-05-05T15:09:00.001-05:00

One of the goals I set for myself in January was to have found between 900 and 1000 geocaches. This past week I was able to go geocaching on three occasions. (current tall 886) I set a new weekly record by finding 18 geocaches. Yesterday my geocaching got off to a rough start as I spent much of the afternoon searching for geocaches underneath light standards at shopping malls. I don’t really enjoy this sort of urban caching. By mid-afternoon, I stopped in a Starbucks to log my finds using my iPod touch and to see what other caches were in the area. I copied down the coordinate for six caches which would take me into some of the wooded areas and parks in Kanata. As dusk was starting to descend the forest drew cooler and quieter and the wildlife started to appear. From a distance, I could see a furry black blob walking towards me at a slow and steady pace. It could either be a skunk or a raccoon. As we got closer the raccoon decided that I was a larger animal and headed off the trail while keeping a watchful eye on me. My next animal encounter was will a flock of deer. I was headed down a railway bed that has been converted into a jogging trail. To my right, I heard a branch break and I stopped dead in my tracks. The wind was blowing towards me. It was a family of deer that were planning to cut across the trail. I stood still, held my breath as they came with ten feet of me. They were suspicious but quickly headed into the woods without flapping their tails (a warning sign of problems).

Cracking eggs

2008-05-01T15:00:00.002-05:00

I was at the hospital recently and decided to have breakfast while waiting for my appointment. The person ahead of me ordered a Western sandwich and I decide to do the same. The chef had a unique way of cracking the eggs. He dropped the eggs, shell and all onto the hot grill, one at a time. This caused me to recall an experience a couple of years ago when I was volunteering in an industrial kitchen. One of my chores was to crack 144 eggs/12 dozen into a bucket which would be used to make scrambled eggs the next morning. I initially started by cracking one egg at a time. After watching some of the cooks I could crack two eggs at once but could never reach the “pros” level when you can crack four eggs at once, two in each hand. Hmm, I wonder if anyone can crack more than four eggs at a time.

Geocaching

2008-04-29T19:38:00.003-05:00

Today, I had a meeting on the outskirts of the city. In the case of Ottawa this means a heavily wooded area. I decided to pack my GPS and to do some geocaching after the meeting. Over the course of a couple of hours I found five geocaches. The forth find was the most memorable. I had hiked down to the end of the trail to find my third cache and noticed that the next one was 1,500 meters away in a southerly direction. This is where the fun begins! I set a reference point for the next cache and started walking through the woods. Along my trek south I spotted a couple of cotton-tail deer, I navigated around a beaver bog, hiked through a couple of (cedar) deer-feeding yards, spotted a couple of deer hunting platforms and finally forded a couple of streams by walking across downed trees. It was a fun afternoon.