Microwave baking

Yes, that's right, microwave baking.  It may sound like a throw back to 1989, but it's not. 

I had some egg whites in the fridge, from a moment of weakness involving pancakes.  Rather than throwing them out, I thought I would try out a receipe that I saw on a blog.  Microwave Protein Muffins.  I could have sworn the receipe called for protein powder. A side from using up the eggs, I was also looking forward to using up some of my insane protein powder stash.  I found one brand that I LOVE, and have 3 or 4 other brands that I need to try to use up.

I put in all the ingredients, and then thought.... "where the heck's the protein powder go in?"  Yeah, it doesn't, I didn't read it properly.  Oh well, I threw a good scoop in for extra measure (and flavour).  Microwaved on high for about 4 minutes and it was done.  I admit I was a lot worried when I saw it rising up out of the bowl.  I'm a gluten-free girl afterall, and I haven't seen that sort of rising action in about 4 years.   I guess it's normal...?  After letting it cool, I was all ready to give it a taste.  In a word... EGGEY.  I guess this is what a souffle would taste like. Not that I've ever had one.  I didn't care for how eggey it was since I don't really like eggs. I decided to whip up a quick emergency chocolate sauce from hot chocolate powder (left over from camping).  With a good dose of chocolate, it was pretty good!  I can think of other ways to improve this "muffin."  I might try it again, as I still have egg whites left.

If you're curious, the ingredients were: 1/2 cup egg whites, 1/4 cup pumpkin, 1/2 tsp baking powder, a dollop of honey, 2tbs of flour, 1 tbs of protein powder.  You are also supposed to add cocoa powder, but I didn't have any, I substituted for chocolate protein powder.  Mix and microwave until it isn't liquidy, and it seems more solid, and not much steam is billowing out of it while nuking.

Okay, back to vegan, 10% fat and carrots tomorrow.  34 days until vacation!

New keyboard!

So exciting, I've had it for about a week, and I realized that I hadn't blogged at all.  Blogging was the whole reason for buying the keyboard.  So here we are.  I feel like this last week has been rough, I started off the week with a ton of plans, and they all went to shit by the middle of the week.  For some unknown reason my neck has suddenly become a lot worse just when my thereapy was almost finished.  I actually hurt as much as just after the car accident.  Luckily, I have been approved for more therapy, so for the next little bit I'm doing weekly massage therapy and physio.  Hopefully it's going to help.  Finishing my day with tylenol, a drink and a 8:30 bedtime is not a pattern I want to keep for myself.

The original plan for the week was yoga twice a week, and participating in a meetup group.  The week started great, I went to the group for the first time.  Despite beng the youngest person there, I really liked the vibe of the women.  I'm looking forward to going again this week.  Every woman in the group is working towards a goal, and they share what is working for them and what their next steps are.  So the members of the group get support, encouragement and ideas for how to get to the next step- whatever that step is.  Since a good chunk of my goals of late centre around working through my anxiety, the group is just perfect for me.  But my neck was hurting too bad to follow through with the rest of the plan.  Maybe this week.  It's very frustratng that I can't do things because of this neck injury.  However, I have concurred 3 challenges this week, so it wasn't a total bust.   I forced myself to drive at night, I met a large group of total strangers and I took an exit that I was totally afraid of.  Might seem like little things, but for me that's huge.

I got another ergo assessment at work, in hopes that it will also help with the neck pain.  It's too soon to tell, but I'm thinking it should help, since the pain gets worse the further into the workweek.  This weekends goal was to find clearout summer clothes for my upcomming vacation.  I didn't give it too much thought, it's still mid 20's everyday of the week, and it's still shorts weather.  But it is almost October and all the stores have changed their seasons.  I couldn't find anything!  I needed to find something as the 80/10/10 diet shift has made some changes to my tummy and thighs in a rather spectacular way.  This was starting to stress me out, along with the neck pain, I was feeling pretty down. I went off the diet plan a little bit for the weekend, and treated myself at the spa.  I got my nails done, it's been years since I last had nice long nails.  My afternoon at the spa and the extra fatty diet did lift my spirits. I managed to find a few clothes at the thrift store and watched movies while I moved the buttons on my shorts for the second time this summer.  Last year I moved all the buttons out, earlier this summer I moved all the buttons back to where they started, and now they are further in.  I'm not sure I've ever moved buttons in! 

**Dear Blogger, why is there no spell check for this app?  Sorry readers, you'll just have to suffer with my poor spelling abilities.

Getting down to it.

Tickets are booked! In roughly 40 days I'll be on vacation.  About a year ago when I went raw, I thought it would be nice if I could be in shape enough to wear a bikini.  Don't we all think that?  I'm a long way from that being a reality, but it is still the dream.  I've noticed that I've hit a plateau, maybe because I haven't been working out as often.  Or maybe it was the cheezies.  So now it's the big push to the finish line. I had thought about doing a juice feast (not eating, just drinking a ton of fresh juices) but the thought of cleaning my juicer multiple times a day, and peeing 20 times a day just isn't speaking to me.  If I'm not pumped at the start, I won't last long.  So instead I'm going to try a different version of the raw vegan diet, maybe it'll give my body the jolt it needs.

I'm going to try following a fruitarian diet for a while and see how it goes.  The name is deceiving, fruitarians eat fruits, veg, nuts and seeds, just like other raw vegans. It's just the proportions that make the difference.  The goal is to get 80% of calories from carbs (fruit) 10% from protein and 10% from fat.  I have been doing a modified version of this for a while now.  But today I calculated it. I've been doing 60/20/20.  To compare, a standard American diet is 50% carbs, 35% fat and 15 % protein.  It doesn't sound like I'm that far off, and by American standards I eat a low fat diet.  But upping my carbs by 20% and reducing fat and protein by 10% is really hard!  100 calories of nuts is like 1/4 cup, and 100 calories of watermelon is almost 3 cups.  Eat more to lose more?  Let's see. My morning coffee with soy milk, takes up 1/4 of my fat intake for the day.  My coffee!  16 grams of fat a day is the goal. Can I do it? Who knows, I didn't think I could make the switch to vegan, and it turned out to be a breeze.

If you are worried, it's too little fat, don't worry.  My inner thighs will be able to supply my body with enough fat for a long while :-) Plus in 40 days I'll be falling off the bandwagon.

Maybe?

I've always known that I would go back to school eventually. I like learning, and I really like researching.  With labour day a few days away, I can't help but think of my own plans to go back to school.  I don't plan on going back to school until my student loans are paid.  In the meantime, I've been looking at my options.  The government will pay a portion of my tuition if I do a program that would lead to another government job that is in demand.  I've been researching different options for a while.  The leading contenders were social work (either psychiatric or geriatric) or clinical counselling which would put me into corrections.  But I think maybe neither woukd be very fulfuilling in the end.  No one complains like a social worker.  Maybe it's too much pressure, and not enough resources?  I think I lack the grades to make counsellor happen, and I think I lack some key qualities that are needed to make a good counsellor.  Plus I dislike how mentally ill people are treated in general.  Maybe I should stay where I am and learn about someyhing that interests me more.

I'm thinking of learning something completely different.  I have always been drawn to the medical side of things.  There was a time that I wanted to be a paramedic.  However I didn't have my drivers licence, so I went to psychology instead.  Now I think I would find the job too traumatic.  I thought breifly of nursing, but the shift work and the thought of ass wiping quickly made me change my mind.  Plus having worked in pharmacy, I learned how stupid it is to take 90% of of the drugs perscribed, most don't ever heal, they just cover up the symptoms.  People would rather take a pill, than change their lifestyle that caused the problem in the first place.  This frustrated me in the past, so I knew I needed to look in a less traditional medical field.

First this lead me naturopathy, which is a 4 year full time program similar in difficulty to med school.  No thanks, I'm too lazy for that.  Colon hydrotherapy? Too many bums.  Chinese medicine? Same level of difficulty as naturopath.  Accupuncture? Not intereted.  Massage therapy?  Maybe.   Life coach (as suggested by Judy)- I think I'm too young.  Then I thought of homeopathy. The program takes 4 years, but is on the weekends, 11 weeks of the year.  Pretty doable schedule.  The last 2 years are in clinic practicums perscribing herbal, and mineral remedies.  I'm thinking this would be good because I could work as a homeopath part time (while still keeping my other job).  There is the potential to work online through skype doing consultations and or an online store selling the herbal remedies.  Or working in a wellness clinic (there are a few around).  I've been wanting to do a type of work that I could do anywhere in the world.  I think this might fit that bill.  Full time homeopaths make somewhere around $70,000- $80,000 a year, not that I would work full time. 

The drawbacks?  Homeopathy is currently an unregulated practice in Canada, but is moving towards accreditation (it's more mainstream in Europe).  It's not eligible for student loans, and my employer will not help me with this.  The tuition is about $5000 a year.  It's slightly kookie.  Although it's less kookie than animal psychic, or alien transportation specialist. I'm also looking into a few other options, but I'm welcome to suggestions too!

What do you think? Could you see me doing this? 

End of Summer update

It seems like this summer went so quickly! This morning I got up early and headed out to the farmers market. The onky thing on my lisg was organic blueberries.  No luck. For some reason, this weeks market was terrible!  Nothing but carrots and potaoes.  Also there were fewer farmers this week. Those that were, weren't organic.  I decided to drive over to the farm to buy the blueberries direct, but turns out their season is over and they were closed.  But that wasn't going to stop me!  So I drove to the roadside berries stands close to me, but they were also closed.  On my 5th stop I finally found some, not organic, but that this point, I didn't think I could be picky.  Guess it's nothing but potatoes and turnips until spring. Bleh.

This summer was very busy, I got so busy doing things that I totally went off my routine.  I hardly hiked at all.  But now that Sarah is back in Hong Kong, I am back on track. No more hawkin's cheezies.   No more thinking about Me 'n Ed's pizza. (I'm still working on that one.)  Not that it was Sarah's fault, she just got me busy doing other fun things. Almost a year ago I made a goal for myself that is probably impossible.  I wanted to wear a bikini when I go to Hong Kong at the end of Oct.  At this point, I'd have to develop annorexia to make that happen.  Maybe next year.  A couple weeks ago I was 4 pounds from my "realistic" goal.  However that was before a rather indulgant campjng trip that was the caloric undoing of many a Friesen.  So now that I'm zeroing in on the realistic goal, I need to set myself a new numeric goal.  I'm thinking of setting 5 pound goals since weightloss seems to be slowing.  Seems reasonable.

The other day, it dawned on me one major advantage of living and working here.  This will be the first time in 3 years that I won't be commuting in the winter.  For that alone, I have decided to stay put until the spring.   And then who knows? I had briefly thought of moving closer to the centre of town becuase my landlord was pushing me to pay more rent.  I think I have held her off for now.  The cost of moving would have been greater in the long run than just paying more rent. I'm sure at some point she'll broach the subject again.

In other news, I have just purchased a bluetooth keyboard for my tablet that will make it sooooo much easier to type. I love my tablet, and think it was a smart purchase, but the touch screen keyboard is not ideal for blogging.  Everyother word has a typo.  Once the keyboard arrives , I'll do a photo update.  If you are thinking of buying a laptop, let me persuade you to buy a tablet instead.  It's like combining your laptop, with your ebook reader, with your phone (apps and games) with your tv (controls your tv and sends images from the tablet to your tv). I was a firm supporter of laptops, now I would not go back. The only thing I wish it could do is connect my iphone to the tablet and send information between the two of them.

I'm back!

well sort of.  After the dropping of the laptop disaster, I ended up buying a tablet and repairing a old laptp.  The one I dropped wasn't worth trying to fix.    The old one is  barely usable, so I will only use it for things that I can't do on the tablet.  Typing on this thing is a bitch!  FYI something to think about if you any typing.  you are just going to have to live with the disaster that is this pist. it will takeme an hour to fix all the typos on the tablet. there has got to be an easier way.  I'll find out.

I thought I would update on a couple things.  I had given myself the challenge of reducing my garbage output as much as possible.  Well.  That turned out to be a pain in the butt.  That's probably why no one tries too hard.  I did pretty well for a couple months, but then my freezer was fukk of stuff waiting to go to the compost, but I didn't have the time to take it.
 So composting is pretty much out the window. It's just too hard if you don't habe easy access to a compost bin.  I did stick to recyckeing everything possible though.  Gold star.

Update #2. Toilet trainingthe cats. Very littke progress, but I'm fine with that.  Having the litter box on the toilet and changing to flushabke litter had been awesome, and even if they never get the concept, I'll keep it up.  Having no litter box smell is worth it.

Stay tuned, I willhave some summer highlights coming out soon. 

Add, i have downloaded a app that makes it easier to blog and edit, next post should be easier.

Worrywart

I'm not too sure how this happened.  But... Hi my name is Hilary and I am a worrywart. I don't think I've always been a worrier.  It just happened.  Someone recently pointed it out to me, and I argued how ridiculous it was because that was not me.  ....And then they proved me wrong.  As I was explaining out what I believed were logical thoughts I had while in a situation, I realized, "oh crap, I really am a worrier."  Now that it's been pointed out to me, it's everywhere!  It's like all of a sudden, I see Waldo, and now I can't stop being able to see him.  It's amazing that I really could not see this in me at all.  Did you know I am a worrier?  Why didn't you tell me?


Eg.  Today I was to drive out after work to the Wack.  I saw that they were calling for thunder and lightening and rain.  I hate driving in heavy rain.  So for like 2 hours at work I worried about it.  Should I cancel?  Should I risk it?  But I went, and while there the skies opened up, thunder storm!  I immediately thought: Oh No! I'm going to have to drive home in this, it's going to be dangerous, I could get in a car accident, etc etc.  I thought about maybe sleeping over if the rain didn't stop, or maybe driving the back road home.  I waited for my take-out dinner to be ready and by then the storm had passed.  So I drove home.  Hardly any traffic, the roads were wet, but fine, and not a single drop of rain fell.  I spent about 4 hours thinking about what might happen, but didn't happen at all.  All that energy spent on worrying, and it was all for nothing. 


So that's the way I think all the freakn time.  So annoying.   


Awareness is the first step to making a change, right?  This is one of the things I'm working on in this: The Best Year Ever.  This is turning into a blog series, things I'm doing to make this the best year ever.  So if you're out and about with me, and I'm doing this, ask me why are you worrying? 

Dentists

For a good chunk of the last ten years I haven't had any dental coverage.  I couldn't afford the dental visits, so I didn't go.  I hated the dentist, so I wasn't too worried about it.  A year and half ago, I got dental coverage, and started to slowly catch up on all the dental work that was overdue.  My coverage wasn't great, so I had to spread out my visits. 


This was my first experience of not feeling pain at the dentist.  I'm not sure what the deal is, but growing up, I felt every second of the dental drill when I got fillings.  I seriously thought that was normal.  I was so happy when I switched to a new dentist, I didn't feel anything!  But then I switched jobs, and didn't get dental coverage for the first 6 months.  Now I live too far away from that magical dentist- she moved back to Montreal :(


It took me a couple months to find another dentist here.  I had a couple of criteria.  Must have TV's in the ceiling and must do zoom whitening.  Tv's in the ceiling, because I want to watch TV with the volume up, so I'm distracted.  My childhood dentist had wood paneling, a bad sailboat painting on the wall and Kiss FM playing on the radio.  I have had way too much dental work done while listening to the BeeGee's and ABBA.  I am not a fan.  The deal I made with myself was that I would reward myself with zoom whitening after all my required dental work was done. 


I found a great dentist that met all of my criteria and didn't hurt at all.  Plus last time I was there, he gave me a review of the movie review of Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter.  Added bonus, my coverage is now really great, most things are covered 100%.  So strange to not owe anything!  I've had everything done that needed to be done, except getting 2 wisdom teeth pulled.  I went for a consult last week.  The dentist said I would be knocked out, and only 2 need to come out.  What a relief.  But I'm still totally dreading it.  Since I don't feel any pain at the dentist, it's not so bad being there.  Now I'm taking advantage of the great dental coverage by having my old fillings removed and replaced with white fillings (no mercury).   Unfortunately, I will still have a few silver ones at the very back.


I really wish I'd known way back when that trips to the dentist don't have to be painful.  Maybe I would feel differently about the BeeGee's and ABBA today.

New skinny clothes

So!  I am currently wearing my "skinny clothes."  Basically, these are just the smallest clothes I own from when I was a bit thinner.  Or they are clothes that I bought, only to find that they were too small, and the skinny mirrors at the store lied to me.  Very exciting, but also a bit of a pain in the ass.  Currently, the clothes I wore last summer fall off (literally).  The clothes that were too small last summer are bordering on too loose to wear anymore.  I was starting to not be able to see the weight loss anymore, because I was just used to it.  It was a nice to see a major difference when I switched over to my summer clothes.


Interestingly, back when I was wearing my skinny jeans they were too small for me.  I had an ugly muffin top situation going on.  Not anymore!  They fit better now, than they did back then.  So I'm actually smaller now, which means this is the smallest I've been since some time in grade 8 or 9.  Is that right?  Too bad I don't have any clothes from that time to be sure, but I'm pretty sure it's true.  I do have a dress that I wore when I was 11 or 12.  I'm not too sure that it'll fit, but I'll see if I can remember which box it is in and try it on.  Pictures of course! 


I don't own a scale, so I have been more or less measuring weight loss by how clothes were fitting. This started to become a less useful measure now that everything is too big. I'm too cheap to buy clothes that I know won't fit me when I could really use clothes that do fit.  So I asked Sarah to bring me some of her clothes that are too big for her.  I tried them on, all of them are too small.  Normally I might have been gutted, but I'm actually pretty happy about it.  I now have new skinny clothes.  Yea!  I'll let you know when they do fit

El Camino del Ray

Sometimes youtube gives me the best video suggestions.  This is one of them (I facebooked this a few days ago).  Video of a crazy 110 year old dilapidated platform that runs 700 feet above a canyon in Spain.  Since this video was made, the government has since closed the trail down after a tourist died, but I hear that you can still risk it.  I also read they are improving the platform so it can be reopened. 

I'm pretty sure the person that filmed this had a death wish.  No safety gear at all.  Every other video I've seen people were geared up for rock climbing.  The video also happens to have the perfect music background.  I think I'd like to check this place out once they've fixed a few things. You'll see what I mean. 

Kale chips

Dad and Judy were kind enough to grow kale for me in their garden this summer. Last night I harvested a grocery bag full of kale.  Today I made kale chips.  The kale shrinks down quite a bit, so it's pretty easy to eat a lot of kale if you aren't careful.  Some people have a hard time digesting kale, so it's best to go easy on it.  I juice kale and put it in smoothies all the time, I didn't think I would have an issue.  But oh man.  I have over done it.  I have the worst stomach ache! 


I planned on making this a kale chip recipe review, but I now have a total aversion to kale chips.  I can't even look at them.  I haven't even put them away, I could barf at any moment.  At this point, I don't ever want to eat kale again. Let's just say when the kale departed, I was very glad I was only a couple feet from the washroom.  Cautionary tale of kale.

moving weight

Ah yes, that awkward moment when you realize you have stumbled into something you shouldn't have.  I was at the Aldergrove lake trail, and decided to see where a well travelled side trail went.  It was basically a goat trail through the bush up a steep hill.  It rained a lot yesterday, and the trail was pretty muddy, tough going.  I got to the top of the trail and it opened up into a clearing. ... I was in a berry field?  Why is there a trail up to a berry field?  I walked all the way along the length of the field trying to find out where to go from there.  It took me about 5 minutes to walk all the way to the end, nothing but barbed wire.  How was I going to get back to the main trail from here?  But there was no where else to go except south into the berry field or back the way I came. 

Along the back of the field was a 6 inch diameter pipe that ran the length of the field.  I noticed that someone had spray painted the pipe with arrows.  I figured the arrows must be pointing the way to go.  They pointed me back to the steep muddy trail I had just come from.  The trail was marked with spray painted words "TD Black."  I have no idea what that means.  The trail was so muddy and steep, I had a hard time going up, I really did not want to go down the trail.  But there were no options. Down I went, with a stick in one hand, grasping on to whatever I could to stop myself from falling. About half way down, I stopped to rest.  It was then that I realized that I had traipsed through some sort of stinging nettle or poison oak.  4 hours later, my legs are still on fire.  

By the time I reached the end of the goat trail, I had figured out what this trail was all about.  No one is going to climb up a hill like that, that was 20 minutes from the parking lot, in the middle of the park to go steal strawberries and raspberries.  But, this berry field is on Zero avenue, and the arrows were pointing the way out of the field.  Yup, I had stumbled along a drug smuggler's trail.  Whoops!  Sorry about that... moving on.

 

When the going gets tough, poo on the floor

Yup. this is where we're at.  Poop on the floor.  This is the cats rejecting the new flushable cat litter.  It looks like chicken feed, and they are having none of it.  After having this happen three times, I got the message.  So we have temporarily gone back a step to non-flushable litter, and there is no hole in the middle of the pan. 


Today I bought another brand of flushable litter.  Fingers crossed.   I have only found 4 flushable litters, two of them are made with wheat.  Not an option for me. 


I have noticed a major advantage of flushable litter.  The smell factor.  It's much less smelly, as soon as the cats visit the toilet, (they get some cat treats and then) I flush it away.   No more awkward elevator rides down to the dumpster with a bag of shit and piss with some poor person giving me "the look."  You know the, did-you-just-pooh-your-pants look. 




Despite this bump in the road.  Things are going along really well. 

Rock Climbing!

This really isn't the best picture is it?  I can't fix it.  I'm on the far right.  Oh well, I'm glad someone thought to take a picture at all.  So after my disastrous experience with meetup.com, I decided to give it another shot.  It was really fun, but really hard.  I learned that I have a bit of an issue with heights.  I climbed all the way to the top once, and then looked down to tell the instructor I was coming down, OMG.  Lesson learned, Hilary does not look down.  Today is the day after, and I am so sore!  Mostly my arms and whatever the muscles are that are under my armpits.  It's a whole body work out, there are not many parts of me that are not at least a little sore.  My neck is okay, but I'm dying to get to massage therapy tomorrow.  My hands were so sore when I left that I was having a hard time holding the steering wheel!  Next time I think I might tape my hands up a bit. 


Verdict?  Rock climbing is highly recommended.


(note I am scheduling blog posts into the future,  as I had a back log of things to post about.  This actually happened over a week ago.  My massage therapist put me back to rights.)

Cat Toilet training

Well week one is over. 

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.

It was the best because I have hardly any kitty litter to sweep up.  The cats used to love the feel of flinging cat litter off of their four paws as they stepped out of their box.  It went everywhere, and created dusty conditions that really stood out on my dark wood floors.  It took about 24 hours for the cats to accept the new place to do their business.  I read that some cats don't and they either hold it in until they are sick, or use your bed/sink/laundry basket/carpet.  My secret? Cat treats.  Each trip to the cat box earned a handful of cat treats.


It was the worst of times because Salem sits in the middle of the Litter Kwitter and pees over the edge and on to the floor every single time.  It's not the end of the world because it's onto the tiles and it takes a minute to clean it up and wash the floors.  But it's annoying.  She's doing fine on number 2's.  Marley is a toilet rock star, she totally gets it.  We are supposed to stay on this stage for 2 weeks until they don't pee/poo in other places in the house.  Since they have never done this, we are moving on. 

So today we are moving to the next phase.  There is now a small hole in the middle of the litter "box".  If we're lucky they will start accidentally doing their business down the hole (and not freak out).  It will maybe also teach them how to perch correctly, since Salem won't feel so comfortable sitting in the middle.  Hopefully this will fix Salem's crappy squatting.  We have also changed to flushable litter so any litter that gets pushed into the toilet won't be a problem.

Update, Salem did not think the change was a good thing from 3am to 5am last night.  She voiced her displeasure - keeping me up half the night.  We compromised by me putting the Litter Kwitter on the floor for her to use instead (she was happy with that arrangement).  In the morning, the Litter Kwitter went back up on the toilet, and she used it again (no pee on the floor!).  I'm thrilled.  Marley thinks the hole is fun.  She keeps putting her arm down the hole and splashes around with the toilet water.  She also likes to push litter into the hole to and watch the splash.  So basically she's a 2 year old child learning about the potty.  I'm cautiously optimistic.

If a car rusts in the forest...

Today I went along a different part of the park that I usually walk in.  I had never gone down this path because it said it was the way to the dog park.  I assumed that it was not far down the path, and so never went that way.  Today I decided I would check it out.  My dad and step-mom have adopted a puppy, and I have asked if I can take him for a walk sometime or dog sit.  I thought I should check-out the dog park for him.  Turns out, it's about a kilometer down the trail.  My eyes spotted this up the hill from the trail I was on. ...

Judging by the trail that encircled the car, I wasn't the only one that wanted to check it out. 

It had clearly been there a long time.  There were no seats left, the tires were gone, the interior was gone as well.  I couldn't even tell what make of car it was, looks older than the 80's. 

No motor, no hood. I'm not sure how it got here. There is a road about 50 meters up the hill that runs parallel to the car. In between there are a whole lotta trees. I figured someone must have dumped it, and it was too much trouble for the parks workers to pull it out of there.

Ferns growing in the middle of it.

 This made me think of a scene in Footloose, where the characters go to an abandoned train car that was covered with quotes from books that were banned.  This car was covered in writing, but none of it was Hemingway.  Then I started to think about Christopher McCandless- the guy that Into the Wild is about- he sold everything, and went travelling.  He eventually ended up living in an abandoned city bus in the middle of the forest in Alaska.  He made some stupid mistakes and ended up being too weak to save himself and he died in the bus. 



Lots of people hike in to see the bus.  Hiking in Alaska is on my bucket list, although I'm not sure I need to visit this sad bus.  I've seen pictures of the inside, it's still full of his belongings.  It's all been left as a monument to him, and his way of life.  So then I started wondering if someone had died in the car in front of me, and maybe it was a sad accident that I just didn't know the story of.  And then I left, because I was getting sad over a rusty car in the forest.

Hottie of the Game - Stanley Cup Edition

Say what?


That's right we've got a hottie of the game!  So exciting.  So who's it going to be?

Willie Mitchell!! A couple of Canucks are representing on the LA Kings team. I say once a Canuck hottie, always a Canuck hottie. Plus he buys his shirts at the Salvation Army, he's staying humble, not letting his hottie status go to his head. Congrats to the LA Kings, if we had to lose, I'm glad you went all the way.

It has begun

That's right, the toilet training has begun.  It's going to be a long road of baby steps and cat treats.  We skipped to step 2, Litter Kwitter on the toilet.  Step one is Litter Kwitter on the floor, in the bathroom.  Too easy.  I haven't taken away their old litter box, and they are still using it instead.  So far they are just playing the new litter "box".  We'll be in this stage for about 2 weeks.    The next stage has a little hole in the middle for them to get used to.   Then the hole gets bigger and bigger.  If all goes well, they'll be perched on the toilet seat in about 2 months.  If all goes wrong, they'll be pissing on my bed.  I'm pretty confident in the cats, they have already learned some good tricks- how to play fetch (Marley), how to ring a bell for the balcony door to be opened (Salem), how to open cupboard doors (although I didn't teach them that) and how to push doors open (Salem). 

Perk of Country Living

Salmonberries!  One of my earliest memories was sitting at the pig pen feeding the pigs salmonberry leaves until they had green frothy beards hanging from their chins.  The pigs were my babysitters when my sisters were at school and mom was busy doing mom things in the house.  Pigs love salmonberry leaves.  I love how much food there is in the forest, if you know what's there- and it's all free.  Everyday I pick a big handful of salmonberries along my hike.  You pretty much never see salmonberries in the store, I think I saw them for sale once.  Do people not know how delish they are?  It doesn't look like many other people are picking them.  More for me!  

I have thought of one drawback to moving.  Right now I live close to the farms that ship their produce into the city.  It is kind of nice to be able to buy flats of berries fresh from the farmer.  Today I went to visit a farmers stand that just opened up a couple days ago.  Maan Farm on 790 McKenzie Road, Abbotsford.  It's early in the season, and it looks like they aren't selling any of their own produce. It all looks like the same stuff that's in the grocery store.  They also have some gourmet grocery items, a dairy section, and frozen locally made foods like perogies, stuffed potatoes.  I think they also have a restaurant/cafe, but I'm not sure, it wasn't set up yet.

They didn't have any organic produce- which was the whole reason I went.  But in a couple weeks they will have their no-spray berries.  I'll go back then and check it out. 

 I think it will be a fun place to go visit with kids.  They have a picnic area, a play ground, tractor rides, a petting zoo and corn/sunflower mazes.  But it's not free to do all of those things, but it would be a good way to spend a hot summer afternoon. 

Does it Float?

So I've been doing the math, and a float home (and moorage) would cost about the same as an apartment (and strata fees).  Hmmm.  A float home could be kinda nice.  Nice views, feed the ducks, see seals from your couch.  Peaceful, but still in the middle of it all. 

However, I just watched a couple documentaries on the Sumatra and Sendai tsunamis.  The mental picture of a tsunami hitting is still pretty fresh in my mind.  Maybe a float home is not a good idea.  Plus, the smell of diesel in the air, and I would never swim in the Fraser River, and the front door in the picture above seems to be missing something.  Plus I'm not sure about the whole maintenance thing, and I'm not sure how mortgages would work on a float home.  Do these things sink?  What about mold?  All things to think about.  The float home above is listed for $78,000, so definitely an  affordable option. 

Why am I thinking about these things?  In the next month I have a meeting.  It's like a professional development thing where I decide the direction I want my career to go.  I need to have a goal- shouldn't been too hard for me right?  I love goals.  I make goals to make more goals.  Problem is any job I apply for in the future needs to be part of my professional development plan.  I can't just spur of the moment pounce on whatever job posting comes up.  So I need a plan.  Option A, would mean eventually moving to Victoria for a job that appeals to me quite a lot.  Again fricken tsunamis.  Will all of Victoria be destroyed?  How far from downtown would I have to live to survive a tsunami?  Is it true that there are a lot of sailors in Victoria?  (and now the theme from Top Gun is in my head). How does the cost of living compare?  Googling these questions has really got me nowhere. 

Option B is to plug along as I am.  Not having an ambitious plan looks bad, it means I might as well not plan on anything different for the next 2 years, and it's unlikely that I would be selected for any jobs that I do apply for.  Lack of ambition seems to be frowned upon- and really, that's not me.  I've been very good at cooling my ambition lately.  I don't even look at job postings everyday anymore as much.

Option C, I go for something in between, making my goal to have a very specialized job, that would limit my ability to do anything different after that.  It would also probably limit me on where I could work.  Maybe there is an option D, which would involve changing to something completely different, but I don't think I want that right now.  So where do I see myself?  I don't know.  I know that I want to move out of the valley, and back to the city for a while.  I want a bit more hussel and bussel.  Can't I just put that as my plan?  That's the only thing I know for sure.  So somehow I need to make the work plan fit with my original plan of living on the other side of the river. Or on the river, whatever.