a bit of everything...

So not too much has changed here since I've been gone. The roads are still shoddy, it's flat and the sun is still shining. Yay for the sun. The fate of the vacant army base on Kenaston is still apparently undecided; since 2004 almost 90 hectares of land (including the military base and housing) has been unoccupied - what a waste. The army of crickets that has since moved in is keeping Steve and his team company in the gym they train in on the grounds - apparently everything is just rotting away and falling into disrepair. And this is where Team Canada trains. Not for long I suppose! On to Gatineau some time in the new year. What has changed is our bathroom! Steve did a fabulous job tiling, as you (hopefully) can tell...



Change change change. On my way home I read an article about Abihinav Bindra, India's first individual gold medal winner in Olympic history. He won the men's 10-metre air-rifle event (never saw that on tv) and was rewarded with a lifetime rail pass. The article failed to mention that Bindra was also given almost US$800,000 in addition to his rail pass, by no less than ten different state governments and a handful of other well-wishers. To its gold medal victors Russia purportedly dished out US$160,000, China US$150,000, the USA $25,000 and Canada $20,000. I'm not sure that Bindra made the most money off of his win at the Olympics though - someone predicted that Phelps, with his medals, reward money and endorsement deals is now worth over 30 million dollars. Ridiculous. How about tae kwon do-er Rohullah Nikpai, the first Afghan to ever win a medal for the country (bronze); he was rewarded with a new house, a Toyota sedan and $20,000. I'd be pretty happy with that. I mean, I'd be pretty happy with just going to the Olympics, but the athletes do deserve some monetary incentive/reward, as training is a full-time job in itself, and usually one that is not, at least in Canada, funded all that well.

Anyways, we're off to Sioux Lookout this weekend - for fishing and eating. And, in my case, intensive reading. Visiting Steve's aunt Patti and uncle Paul is always a good time, and Steve gets to go fishing - his first love... I mean second (I'm first... I think). It was last year in the Sioux that some creative wedding ideas were put forth in the name of fishing: the idea is that Steve, the groom/fisherman, would cast into the serene lake looking for a fish/bride and somehow, he would hook line and sinker me-the-bride and I would come aboard the boat and we would wed. Hope that this is not the plan for the weekend. I'll fish and read (not swim) and Steve will... fish.

back to the middle of ...

Soooo I'm back in Winnipeg! I had an awesome time in Vancouver, though it really did fly by. I left mid-July and, when I was booking my ticket, thought that I would be itching to get back here, back home and back to Steve by the end of my stay in Vancouver. And, I was; but, like I said, the time seriously zoomed by, and voila! Here I am. I had a great last week of camps at Capilano U. and a great gong show of a final weekend in town. The week was full of catch-ups: I hung out with a few friends that I thought that I would have been able to see several times instead of a semi last minute planned/rushed fit-each-other-in thing; and then the weekend was... do I remember? Super fun! Saturday night involved going to a West Van party (didn't know the hosts - OH WELL!) and seeing my sister Karin who was in town from Denver, having dinner with my best friend Lindsay at a bit of an upscale place in Gastown - Boneta (food was GREAT but small portions - I recommend the salmon tartar and arriving sober) , and meeting friends for a drink and some Olympic volleyball viewing at a bar in Kits. It was super fun; first, the party. Karin's friends are renting a place on the water in West Van, and threw a birthday party for another friend (maybe she lived there, I don't know and it doesn't matter); there was a ton of food, booze and music, and the place was outfitted with a makeshift DJ booth in the living room and a portable sauna in the back of a semi in the driveway. For real. This was fun until I was joined by a crew of nakeds - I left not knowing any of them (not wanting to know them so well either) and not knowing what they wanted to know of each other. Anyhoo.. so the partay was a good time. And great to hang out with my sisterpants. Dinner: good food, good wine and good company. Yum and yum. The bar: the USA won GOLD! That was crazy to watch, as we (Steve and I) had gotten to know several of the guys on the American team. Steve played with and against a few of them in Greece, Italy and Russia so it was really incredible to see them do so well and win an Olympic gold medal. Pretty crazy. The bar was also a fun send off - from there I headed back to the party and then home at much too early of an hour. Oops. Sunday I compensated by staying in bed all day and plowing through a fabulous book... and by trying to stave off the repercussions of the previous night's, er, booze. In any case, Sunday included, the weekend was fabulous.

So Sunday's book: Swimming to Antarctica by Lynne Cox. What an amazing story, written (and lived) by an amazing woman. She's a long distance (and may I add, cold water) swimmer who, by the age of 15 had not only made it across the English Channel, but swam it in world record time - beating all previous women's and men's times. Other incredible feats that seem contrary to reason - physiologically and mentally - include swimming around South Africa's Cape of Good Hope, swimming New Zealand's Magellan Strait and making it across the Bering Strait from the USA's Little Diomede to the USSR's Big Diomede . Not only was she the first person to complete some of these swims (in just a bathing suit nonetheless) but she helped melt some of the tension and icy relations of the Cold War, bringing about some resolution and cooperation between the USSR and the USA. An amazing book written by an amazingly accomplished woman - read it! Other books that I've made it through this summer that I can recommend are Brick Lane by Monica Ali and The Gathering by Anne Enright.

Little Diomede Island (USA, left) and Big Diomede Island (USSR); also from Wikipedia:
"During the Cold War, that gap constituted the border between the USA and the USSR, and became known as the "Ice Curtain". In 1987, however, Lynne Cox swam from one island to the other, and was congratulated jointly by Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev."

Between flying in from Alaska and flying out to Wyoming, Sarah and I got to hang out a bit last week - walking, talking, drinking coffee and perusing the fabulous second hand book store in Ambleside, The Book Stall. The place is absolutely sardined with books: the stacks and piles and boxes are a bit overwhelming, but it's almost impossible to leave without a gem or two. Both of us are book lovers so we had to exercise some self control ... but as I expressed my anxiety for the growing list of books on my to-read list and the pile of tomes in my arms, she gave me a sly but smiley sisterly look that she is so good at giving and smartly said, "it's best to not... overbook oneself." Fabulous. So we didn't, and left with about ten between the two of us.

So, Winnipeg. What to do here? There is a ton to do around the house, and the job and work ideas are flying every which way. It looks like we might be staying here until January, or until the second half of the pro-season, as Steve (and/or his agent) hasn't procured a job yet. This is all up in the air, but we're hoping to have a plan within the next couple of weeks, at least for the next couple of months. Steve tiled the bathroom upstairs and it looks GREAT! I'll have to get some pics up ... though not right now. Well, the sun is shining and there's work to be done inside and out, so I best be off this machine and get to work.

The summer is speed-of-light speeding by but it has been amazing, and this past weekend was one of the best. A group of friends headed over to Pender Island for Lindsay and Marcus's wedding - it was AWESOME! I bussed out to Tsawwassen on Friday night - that was not so awesome - and took the ferry by myself (finished my book and read some mags) - which took forever! But better (I suppose) than fighting traffic all of the way. Anyways, I met up with friends at a very unique (I hope) bed and breakfast on the island. Our hostess Penny was/is a few bricks short of a load (or all bricks short) so there are a few stories from the weekend that involved her being crazy, screechy and, besides some see-through granny whites, naked. Only one member of our group got to witness that, lucky guy. The wedding happened on Saturday afternoon at Lindsay's family's cottage on Pender Island at Wallace Point, and it was beautiful. The weather couldn't have been better, and the superb natural scenery was just awesome. Lindsay looked like a supermodel (so did Marcus) and the ceremony was really nice; it happened right at the point, with guests casually arranged here and there, standing room only. Following a bit of an emotional ceremony we hit the wine and appetizers, had dinner, danced it up (apparently I won on the dance floor) and just had a wicked time. The group there was great - not a ton of people but a pretty tight knit group of friends, so not only was it great to see Lindsay and Marcus but also to see and spend time with all of our friends. Many had come from far away - all of the Swedes from Sweden, and Kim and Jesse from Calgary and Janine from Bermuda. So we really enjoyed being together and having fun, as we are all slowly being spread out to other parts of the country and the world. Over the course of the weekend, we didn't sleep too too much so I am playing catch up now... sort of. I'll admit that I'm a complete volleyball nerd for doing this, but I got up at 7:00 this morning to watch Olympic volleyball: the Americans somehow managed to beat Italy in five sets, winning 15-6 in the fifth. It was a crazy match. Anyways. What else... This week I'm coaching a final week at Capilano University (the college got an upgrade) and so far so good. I do have to say that my favourite age group this year was the grade 6/7s - they had such good attitudes, worked hard and improved so much over the course of just five days. Awesome.

I'm really enjoying watching the Olympics too - another nerdy thing to admit is that I totally just teared up watching Matthias Steiner, the German Olympic lifter, win the gold medal. In his final lift, he cleaned and jerked 10kg more than he ever had in his life (258kg - mind boggling) to win gold for his recently departed wife, to whom he had promised a gold medal. The emotional celebration that followed his final lift and subsequent victory was tear-jerking, and he held up a pic of his wife when he was on the podium. Check it out...

There are so many more Olympic moments to think about and write about but for now, for today, that one takes the cake.

say what?

There are so many things to write about and I have so many zzzzzs to catch up on but I heard this story on the radio this morning and can't resist. I was listening to a french station, trying to wake up and refresh the small part of my brain the houses the francais when I realized that I wasn't really understanding... or was I? A giant piece of inflatable dog poo causes problems in Switzerland? Quoi? PAS possible! So... yes, very possible. Contemporary American artist Paul McCarthy's giant inflatable dog poo (art) was on display at a Swiss museum when high winds took the stinker up up and away, sending it crashing into a children's home 200 metres away. Seriously!? I have so many questions: dog poo = art? (Apparently it does; I dare you to google it.) And the size of a house? Why? It is called abject art, and if you dare to find out anything about this dude then consider yourself warned. It is bizarre. I guess the point of art is to evoke a reaction, though usually that reaction is somehow connected to beauty or visual appeal... non? Whatever. Care of Wikipedia, this is a little something I learned about the artist, and what not to expect in an art class:

His work evolved from painting to transgressive performance art, psychosexual events intended to fly in the face of social convention, testing the emotional limits of both artist and viewer. An example of this is his 1976 piece Class Fool, where McCarthy threw himself around a ketchup spattered classroom at the University of California, San Diego until dazed and injured. He then vomited several times and (you don't want to know).^[1] The piece ended when the audience could no longer stand to watch his performance.

Okay ANYWAYS! I just had to write about the flying shit. I should be writing about the Olympics (I love the Olympics!!), or about what's happening in Georgia but ... tomorrow. Maybe.

some happenings...

Wow. I am getting worse and worse at staying up to date. The back(b)log of thoughts, ideas, reflections and goings-ons is piling up, so I'm going to hammer out a quick one (I hope) about what's been going on with me. So, what's been going on with me? BUSY-NESS! The amount of free time/down time/time to blog/TIME in general that I've had (well, that I haven't had) since we've been back from Russia is really making up for all of the time that I had on my hands in Yaroslavl. Over there, all I had was free time. I'm not complaining - I love being busy, and I'll take this over the not-much-to-do situation in good old Yaroslavl. I digress... but here's a question: What happens when you add children into this busy-mix? Answer: AGH! I have no idea! Honestly! Anyhooo...

SO! Last week I coached some fabulous (mostly) grade 8s, 9s and 10s at a Cap College summer volleyball camp. Things went really well and I'm looking forward to the malleable grade sixers and sevens that we'll be getting this week. The learning curve is so steep at that age that the teenyagers make considerable (and very noticeable) improvements over the course of a few hours. It's awesome. So what else. I made the trip down to Seaside, Oregon this weekend for a massive beach volleyball tournament - apparently the largest amateur beach volleyball tournament in the world! Yikes. It was my first year, and I went down with a large Canadian contingent to play with a teammate from Gonzaga: Miss Shannon O'Connor. Shannon showed up with a group that takes the tourney by storm every summer - they were major party animals, dishing out jello shots for our second game which - I won't lie - helped us immensely. Okay, the beer helped too but game two was WAY better than game one, and unfortunately we lost 15-13 in the third set: one two BBQ. We were out just like that in the double elimination tourney. So, for the rest of the weekend we watched vball, cheered on some friends and ??? enjoyed some beverages. What we did not enjoy were the high winds and gusty sand blasts that burrowed sand a la Sahara sandstorm into every nook and cranny of clothing and exposed skin. It was nasty. Despite the unforgiving weather (there was some rain too) Canada was well represented on the women's side: Barb and Jo won the open in front of a packed crowd - it was AWESOME! So that was super fun, to watch and cheer for good friends who totally took it to the Yanks. Okay, here are a few pics and I'm to bed... super fatigue from a long, but amazing week and weekend!

Shannon and I at centre court on Saturday afternoon - it was COLD!