Hockey Night in Canada November 7, 2009
Posted by lifeonthego in awesome.Tags: NaBloPoMo, Ottawa, hockey
add a comment
I’ve got myself in a bit of a pickle as I’m on living on the wrong side in the Battle of Ontario.
That’s right, I’m an Ottawa Senators fan stuck living in Leafs Nation. That means unless both teams are playing each other, I’m in the broadcast zone of Toronto where I end up watching the Leafs lose against some other team. I know I could subscribe to Centre Ice but I’m cheap and don’t want to pay extra to get the hockey package when I just want to watch the Sens and not every single game in the NHL.
This happened tonight. I couldn’t watch the Ottawa Senators host the New Jersey Devils. So I flipped between bad Saturday night reruns and the Detroit Red Wings in Toronto. Okay, I mainly watched bad tv because usually watching the Leafs is just painful and pointless. (Literally!) Tonight I was shockingly surprised to see the Maple Leafs actually beat the Red Wings, 5 to 1. It was an exciting game and my four letter word vocabulary was used repeatedly to express my shock.
But what was worse is that the Sens lost their game. Score was 3-2 Devils, thanks Internet for sharing the bad news with me. Then it proceeds downhill, when I find out that the Tampa Bay Lightning defeated the Montreal Canadiens 3-1.
To recap, that’s both the Sens and the Habs losing with the Leafs winning. I feel as if hell should be freezing over or something equally as drastic, that just does not compute. There’s been a shift in the order of things! Let’s hope this doesn’t last long.
p.s. GO SENS GO!
Tis the season November 6, 2009
Posted by lifeonthego in awesome.Tags: NaBloPoMo
add a comment
Oh the joys of the holiday retail season have been unleashed on the consuming public. I think the most noticeable to me was the Starbucks holiday release earlier this week. Red felt, silver snowflakes, all to entice feelings of coziness. I haven’t been to a shopping mall but I can only expect the Santa’s village be set up any time now with the artificial snow and staffed with people in ridiculous outfits.
Maybe it’s because of the weather or the fact that I haven’t been in a mall as often in the past but I feel as if Christmas holiday season release actually made sense this year. Usually, I recall Christmas trees being sold alongside the Halloween candy and school supplies. Surprisingly, I see the potential of feeling the goodwill of holidays.
Humans in little fur coats November 5, 2009
Posted by lifeonthego in awesome.Tags: Fluff, NaBloPoMo
add a comment
When I was growing up, I have no strong recollections of having any pets in the house. Sure, there’s the standard goldfish but I’m talking pets with fur. There’s this one picture and I mean one single picture of me no older than 4 or 5 years old and I’m sitting with a dog on our coach. My parents tell me that this is my dog and that it ran away but I don’t really have any memories of it except for that one picture.
When I went out to live on my own, I also decided to get a cat. He was cute and little. He’s been with me since he was 7 weeks old and going on 6 years old. When I got him, I didn’t really take into the long term commitment into consideration. Well, I’m stuck with him now and he’s about half way through his life expectancy. I think he’s still cute just not so little.
In the meantime, my younger sister also grew up and moved out. However, she decided to get a dog. A big, young and crazy dog. She thinks her dog is cute yet to me, he has NO brains and is a menace. Sure, he’s cute and nice to pet but he terrorizes the cat and I find you can’t take him anywhere. It’s not that I don’t like him, I just don’t like that he’s not trained at three years of age. Seriously, I’ve only seen him respond to the SIT command when there’s food involved or he’s been yelled at. The dog was over today and no less than three separate occasions did he pee inside today. I may not be a “dog” person but I that it’s not right. Plus, honestly, that’s too much pee to clean up for me.
My sis and I talk about our pets like they are little humans in fur coats. I know my cat is better because given enough food and water, I can leave the cat alone for the weekend and will come back with my home intact. In comparison, you can’t even leave the room without her menace of a dog whining and crying.
For now, until I see her dog use his brains, I’m confidently on the winning side of the cat versus dog debate.
Seasonal comparisons November 4, 2009
Posted by lifeonthego in awesome.Tags: NaBloPoMo
2 comments
Without fail, the first few days of daylight savings change throws me off. It’s not even 6 in the evening and it’s really dark outside. I feel like I’m ready to go to bed. I’m thrown off and I know the best thing to do is try and stay up to my regular bedtime to settle into a routine.
Looking at the time again reminds me that in the summer months, this would be the time to get ready for an ultimate game or on my way to a dragon boat practice. Or getting ready to go for an evening run.
Last night at this time, I was raking leaves on the front lawn and stuffing full two or three yard bags. And I know that I’ve got to do that a couple more times until all the leaves have decided to fall off the trees.
In a few weeks, I’ll be spending this time shoveling snow from the driveway and sidewalks. It’s the same every year, the first snowfall is fun and sort of romantic. After that, it will be just filled with cursing and dread of the long winter.
Actually, I’m feeling that cursing and dread coming on and snow hasn’t even fallen. I think I’m going to start thinking of planning a vacation with sunny destination as a goal to get through the upcoming winter.
What kind of mouse? November 3, 2009
Posted by lifeonthego in awesome.Tags: NaBloPoMo
add a comment
Again with only mintues left to the day, I’m typing madly to fulfill my NaBloPoMo entry for today.
Today I took the GO train into Toronto and it reminded me how different it is living in suburbia compared to the downtown urban core. First of all, just the number of people walking around going about their day is amazing. For obvious reasons, I find that the level of interaction with strangers is much higher.
I feel like misplaced little mouse. I’m not quite the city mouse hanging in my trendy Ottawa ‘hood but not quite the county mouse either living on acres upon acres. Is there such a thing a suburban mouse??? Coffee shops do exist, I just need to drive to get there.
Will e-mail be enough? November 2, 2009
Posted by lifeonthego in awesome.Tags: NaBloPoMo, Psirens Dragon Boat
add a comment
Registration for the 2010 Ottawa Dragon Boat festival opened yesterday. As team organizer of the Psirens, I registered my team. Not any different from the last previous two years except for the tiny little detail: I don’t live in Ottawa anymore.
I’m quite confident that I can still organize the team remotely as a majority of my communication was done by e-mail.
Part of me thinks that I’m nuts for taking this up again and I should have just let the team die off when I moved. But the pride and the thrill of knowing I put together a team of people for this awesome, fun-filled, adrenaline pumped event keeps me hooked!
The realist in me knows all about the meetings and picking up of stuff so I’ve asked for a volunteer to captain and to be the team representative in Ottawa. I know that the festival is still months away but I’m covering my bases.
I am also confident that once I’m on the water paddling away, all this doubt and hesitation will melt away. Until then, I’ve got some e-mails to write and phone calls to make. Wish me luck!
NaPoBloMo. Or is it NaBloPoMo? November 1, 2009
Posted by lifeonthego in awesome.Tags: NaBloPoMo
add a comment
Whatever this activity called, it’s about posting every day during the month of November. A writing in kinship with those brave and crazy enough for NaNoWriMo. That’s writing a 50,000 word novel in 30 days. Tried that in 2006 and the result is that I have 15,000 words of a very bad novel saved somewhere.
In 2007, I forgo that for blogging daily instead figuring that it was a low bar. I was a full time student then so I had something to complain about daily. In 2008, I was still a student but had less to complain about, but had less of life to write about. I fell off the blogwagon quite quickly.
What will November 2009 bring? I have no idea. So here I am throwing caution to the wind and typing with 10 minutes of November 1st left…
Threadless says it best… July 28, 2009
Posted by lifeonthego in awesome.Tags: Blogging, Ottawa
1 comment so far
This Threadless tee explains my relationship with blogging so well! Honestly, I have files and files of drafts and half written posts but never really get around to finishing them. I find that by the time I get around to it, the timeliness and relevance of the post has diminished. For example, there are posts on the how proud of I am of my Psirens Dragon Boat results or what an amazing time I had at Bluesfest but I’m forecasting that I may be done sometime in September. But with Twitter I can tell you how we made the paper or where to find the beer!
Perhaps, I will commit to giving NaBloPoMo another shot to get me back into blogging regularly. Blogging daily for a month feels mind boggling. I read lots of blogs and I think I’ve found more after attending Blog Out Loud last week. As a compromise, I’ll start with something simple like de-lurking as long as no one minds that my comments will probably be 140 characters or less!
Psirens – A History March 31, 2009
Posted by lifeonthego in awesome.Tags: Awesomeness of V, Images, Ottawa, Psirens Dragon Boat
2 comments
This is a short history to answer the question that I’m often asked: “What’s a Pah-siren?”
In 2007, I was asked to participate as a paddler on a Dragon Boat team for my friend Nisha’s team set up through her work. It was an event that I had always been interested but just never got around to it. Initially, I was a wee bit skeptical as I’m not the sportiest girl out there but I was convinced me to try it.
After the first practice, I was hooked! The feeling of paddling is unlike any other, as you can just feel the boat glide across the water. It was a co-ed team and placed well in the recreation division during the 2007 festival.
2007 Ottawa Dragon Boat Festival
The following year, Nisha and I were inspired to organize and recruit our own team. It was never my intention to organize solely a team of women paddlers. However, the rules state that you need a minimum of 8 of either gender. Around January 2008, after asking everyone I knew and then all of their friends, I decided to make it an all women team when I had 13 committed women. I really wanted to put a team in so I gathered some cash and put down a team deposit in late January. All of this without having a full roster! (Eek!)
In the following months, I kept asking the women around me if they were interested and to ask the women that they knew. In the meantime, I was hosting socials to have the team meet each other and recruit new members. (It almost felt like my sorority days.)
The e-mails were flying as we worked on finding a team name, getting t-shirts, creating a logo and continuing to recruit. (I highly recommend Gmail for stuff like this!) Goals were set, I tracked metrics, kept planning events and scheduling practices, as well as paddling! Nisha worked on keeping me calm and reassuring me that it would all work out okay with a boat full of new and inexperienced paddlers.
After feeling as if I’ve asked everyone I knew as well as sorting through all the e-mail, it all started to click into place. We agreed on a kickass name, designed and printed some awesome shirts and most importantly, completed a full roster!
We decided on “Psirens” which has history as a Greek legend of fatally beautiful women who sat on the rocks and distracted sailors, luring them to their watery graves with their enchanting music and voices. As for pronunciation, the “P” is silent, it’s the original spelling, derived from the Greek letter “psi”. Just like in psychology.
The first Psirens first team practice was on Saturday June 7th 2008 and it was fun but we knew we had some work to do. After a few more practices, we were ready for race day a few weeks later on Saturday June 21st. We were scheduled in the first race of the day and we were the first team at the staging area. Notice how we were the only ones there. Later in the day, the staging area would be completely crowded!
First! It was EARLY!
I was very proud and happy with the Psirens results, no one fell out of the boat, we didn’t crash and we weren’t disqualified. It was great for a first year recreation team and we placed only seconds away from making it into the second day of racing. All that effort made for a happy and smiling team.
"We lure, we devour, the Psirens have the POWER!"
Help us support Ottawa area charities by donating to the 2009 Psirens Dragon Boat Team! Thank you!
~V
Psirens Team Organizer
Capital Cupcake Camp March 29, 2009
Posted by lifeonthego in awesome.Tags: fun, Images, Ottawa, sugar HIGH, yummy
7 comments
Capital Cupcake Camp must have been a huge success because we arrived at Jack Purcell around 2:10 pm and there was already quite the turnout. We ended up waiting in two lines, one to pay, and then one to get into the room because the room hit fire regulation capacity. From our place in line we could hear the first few rounds of cupcakes being judged and the general excitement about the event. We waited patiently for about 30 minutes and finally got into the room with all the sugar! There were people everywhere and it made the room quite warm and stuffy but we were on a mission to taste some cupcakes. Lucky for us, we made it into the room as a batch of cupcakes was being released.
Taken from the back and there were more people behind us!
The first one was a chocolate cupcake with chocolate icing and mini M&Ms. It was gooey, fluffy with just the right amount of chocolate sweetness.
Look at those M&M toppings!
It must have been the chocolate round because Cupcake #2 was chocolate cupcake layered thick with frosting, garnished with mini chocolate and peanut butter chips. Upon tasting, the frosting was peanut butter goodness. It was also light, moist and fluffy. Yum, yum.
There were so many photographers and social media types out that I got a great kick out of seeing this on the table.
Twitter. FTW!
Whoops. I had been tweeting using another hashtag (#cupcakecamp) all afternoon.
After milling around a bit and jostling for space, the next batch of cupcakes arrived.
Cupcake #3 was an innocent looking white cupcake with vanilla frosting, garnished with what looked like a chocolate covered raisin. When I bit into it, I was quite surprised! It was delicious! It was a banana cupcake with chocolate chunks and the garnish was a chocolate covered espresso bean. Pure heaven!
So innocent looking, yet a knockout cupcake!
Cupcake #4 looked really good! A white cupcake with oodles of chocolate frosting, garnished with a little jelly bean. But, when we tried to divvy it up, it sort of just crumbled. It was alright but tasted a bit dry.
Unfortunately, after being in a crowded room full of people all hyped up on sugar took its toll so we ended up bailing shortly after this batch. Personally, I would have liked to stuck it out a bit longer to see the Cupcake results, but the crew was getting restless and overheated. Plus I knew that there were other people waiting for their shot at the cupcake goodness.
True enough, when we walked out there was still a line up that ran into the hall, down the stairwell and almost to the front door! I was quite impressed with number of people who had shown up. Overall, it was a pretty delicious afternoon and I would definitely go if the event was held again. Although, I suspect that next year it will be at a bigger venue as I overhead one of the organizers say that Ottawa’s Capital Cupcake Camp turned out to be the largest in the world!
This is one of the reasons I absolutely LOVE living in Ottawa! When we do something, we do it up BIG. Thank you to all the bakers and volunteers, it was a yummy afternoon.
~V
