Edmonton?

Carmella and I are no longer satisfied in Vancouver.  The rents are high, the job market is very tough, and it rains for most of the year.  It's time to leave!

We're applying for jobs in small BC towns, as we both like the idea of living in a close community with mountains not too far away. 

We've heard that Edmonton has a very strong job market.  This is likely because most people go and work with oil, so it leaves a lot of other positions open.  The University of Alberta is in Edmonton, and they have a very healthy amount of job vacancies posted.

Edmonton is not a small town, and isn't extremely close to any mountains.  Instead of rain all winter, they have -30C all winter, and equally grey skies.  But rents are cheaper there, people are friendly, and the job market is vibrant.  We think we might be able to live and work there for a few years, save up some money, get more job experience, and then see where we are after that.

Carmella and I are both educated, capable individuals who want more from our work than we're currently getting.  It's time to look outside of Rain City!

It's exciting to think about a new adventure together, so we'll see where life takes us.

Where I ran today

I've been running to work lately, and most of the time, running home also.  It's great to be getting out there regularly again, and I'm really enjoying it.

My route is always the same.  I run in the alley between two residential streets, where people's garages are, and where they put your garbage and recycling cans.  It works well if your streets are laid out in staid grid fashion, as they are in my neighbourhood.

I like the alley because there are no cars, I don't have to dodge pedestrians on the sidewalk, and I usually have the alley to myself.  I have a few checkpoints along the way, and I often time myself on the way to work, giving myself split times so I can see when and where I lost or gained time.  It is a great way to measure my progress, and I record it all.

When I started, I was going all out, and my time was just under 30 minutes.  My best happened last week, when I ran 26:13. It wasn't an all-out pace, but a relaxed yet hard effort.  So I've shaved almost four minutes off my time, which is excellent, and I think I could do even better.

Instead of running on my regular route last Friday, I ran along the ocean for a section of my run.  It's not the most direct route, but it's a pleasant diversion if I'm not in a rush to get home.  It's slow going because the rocks are the size of baseballs, so footing is never secure.  It's also the intertidal zone, so the rocks can be slippery.

I run to work with a backpack.  It's got my shirt and pants for the day, and essentials like my phone, keys, and wallet.  It'll usually have my lunch in there too, but I've been bad at making a lunch lately.

I'd like to take pictures of my runs more often, but unless I'm running to or from work, I don't bring anything with me.  Maybe I'll sacrifice and bring my camera or phone along, but I'd have to figure out a way to do that without bring along a bulky bag.

Here's Friday's trip home from work.  The route is much more hilly, and is about two kilometers longer than my standard.  Since I live so close to the ocean (about 16 blocks) I need to make a point of actually going there more often.  I bet sometimes a month goes by without me seeing it.

That's my run!  Now it's off to bed.

Random picture post (Las Vegas pictures too)

Here are some pictures from the past few months. Only captions (some are long) and not a lot of background.

Carmella rock climbing in Squamish, at a spot called Burgers and Fries.  (Climbers name spots like skiers and bikers name trails.  There are climbing trail maps of the area too.)  Squamish is very famous for its rock climbing.  I just watched and took this picture.  Carmella is the climber.

Carmella is barely in this picture, but that's OK.  This is a beach fire on Wes' birthday.  You're not really allowed to do this, but everyone does anyway.  It was a great night.  I'm not in the picture, but Tina and Wes are.

Carmella planned and threw a murder mystery party, so everyone is dressed up to participate.  Everyone has scripts to read, and clues are presented on the tape player.  Carmella found this game at the thrift store for a great price.  The hardest part was rounding up a working tape player.  We got one from the landlords upstairs.

We went to Las Vegas a few months ago.  It was a good price, and we were tired of the constant rainy weather in Vancouver.  Notice they don't have grass, just dirt and crushed pebbles.

Across from our hotel was one called New York, New York.  Our hotel played abrasively loud music all the time, so we went across the street to NYNY when we could, where it was calmer.

This is a famous sign for the hotel called Circus Circus.  We got 2 for 1 dinner coupons and drink coupons, and it was affordable to begin with.  At our hotel, the recommended we not make the journey because we'd have to go through a sketchy part of town.  It was not that at all.  I think they wanted to keep us in the area so we'd spend money at their chains of hotels.

The restaurant was called Rock and Rita's, and we weren't sure if it was made with a trailer park theme on purpose, or if they just thought it was nice.  We're still not sure.

Here's a pic of the drink menu, (you can buy a drink that is shaped with a toilet and comes with chopped up hot dogs floating around), some coupons, our cutlery in a Mason jar, and our wine in plastic tumblers.  While not the classiest place, it was a good meal, and very affordable!  

Circus Circus is popular with families because they have (in addition to the casino downstairs) a whole slew of carnival games.  I won a round of Camel Chase.

Carmella won this little rhino in the fishing game.  I hurried her to catch the red puck, and she got a yellow one instead.  But, you're a winner every time!

We found Las Vegas to be very loud and very jarring.  In the Bellagio hotel, we found a Dutch themed garden!  It has real tulips that smelled wonderfully, and soothing music. 

Here, a little sign talks about Dutch shoes, explaining they're called "klompen".  They look like the pair Carol had when we were little! 

They have slot machines in the airport too, right outside the gate.  The security lady in the background got upset with Carmella here, because she thought she was sitting down for a few rounds of slots just as our flight was boarding.  I guess people do that and miss their flights, so this woman gets passionate!

Another interesting thing is that the Las Vegas airport thinks it's 1987.

We went to a wedding

Hi Everyone,

It's two months since I've posted, and a lot has happened since then.  Instead of trying to write about two months of events, I'll just start from yesterday, and maybe post some random pictures down the road.

Yesterday Carmella and I went to our friends' Tony and Mary's wedding.  It was really nice and a great time.  After our own wedding, it's a treat to attend a wedding where you only have to begin preparations an hour before!

Tony and Mary got married at the UBC Boathouse, which is a rowing dock and also an acclaimed wedding venue.  It's not near UBC at all though, it's just where the team trains I guess.  It's in Richmond (the airport is also in Richmond) on the mighty Fraser river.  I've heard rumours of sturgeon in the river, but didn't see any.

Here are some pictures!

Weddings are always a good time for pictures!  No claw really, I've extended the fingers instead.

The Groomsmen and pastor.  The Fraser river is in the background.

The presentation of Tony and Mary Kwong.  I apologize for the head, but this is the best one I had.

While the family had pictures, we enjoyed the venue.  I liked the balloons.  They were quite large.  We were told we couldn't release them, because we were in the airport's airspace, I supposed because a crashing plane would obliterate the venue and cancel the rest of the wedding.

It was a fun wedding.  We left at about 1am, and there were still quite a few people there.  It's nice that Tony and Mary stayed at the party, because I find that once the main attraction leaves, the rest of the revelers start trickling out and the party dies.

A very nice wedding, and a great way to spend a Saturday.  Tony and Mary's wedding weekend was much like ours, almost a year ago.  Dark, cloudy weather for the whole preceding week, sun for the wedding day, and more clouds the day after.

Congratulations Tony and Mary!

Great News!

About a month ago, I submitted a piece to the Globe and Mail, hoping they'd publish it in the Facts and Arguments section.

I was about to start shopping the piece around elsewhere because I hadn't heard back from them.  This morning, I recieved the following form email:

"Hello,

Thank you for submitting your essay. We are interested in publishing it, but need to confirm a few details before proceeding.

1. We only run original, non-fiction works on the Facts & Arguments page. We do not run pieces that have been published anywhere else -- in print, on a blog or anywhere else online.

2. We will contact you before your essay is published with any questions and suggestions, and to let you know on what date it will run. Please expect the piece to be edited to suit the mandate and style of the section, and to make it fit the space available on the page.

3. Unfortunately, The Globe and Mail no longer pays an honorarium for published essays.

While you retain the copyright and are free to sell it elsewhere after it's been published in The Globe and Mail, as a condition of publication, you grant the paper first-print rights and a non-exclusive right to The Globe and its assignees to publish, store, distribute and sublicense the essay in whole or in part, in print or by any other means, including but not limited to electronic, worldwide and in perpetuity, without compensation to the author.

If you agree to the above and would like to proceed, please let us know so an illustration can be commissioned and I can schedule your essay for publication.

Thank you
The Eds

Woo!  Emphasis mine in the first line.

I like how they'll commission a picture for it.

Sorry, no hints what it's about.  That will come with publication!

Successful 5K Race, and Cross-Border Shopping

Saturday was an eventful day.  It was St. Patrick's Day, and Carmella and I signed up for the St. Patrick's Day 5K.  I've done this race three years in a row, and I was able to convince Carmella to run it this year.  It's in Stanley Park, and it attracts a big crowd.  The race is limited to 1500 runners, and they reached that before race-day.

You get a free beer glass, and people wear green costumes.  There's an after-party as well, where people are excited to buy $7 beers at 11am.  This race has an official race shirt you can buy, and also an official after-party shirt too.

I've been training on and off for the race, which is better than most years.  Most years it's my first race of the season, and it's painful and it makes me want to train more.  I was looking forward to this year because I was a bit more prepared.

Carmella meant to get some training runs in, but it didn't go as planned for her.  We ran together Friday night for about half an hour, and that was the extent of her training.  It looked like she'd be running this one off-the-couch.

We arrived at the race, and I was getting nervous as I always do before a race.  I looked into my bag to discover I'd forgotten my running shoes at home, and it was too late to go back.  I was wearing my skate shoes, and didn't want to try and run a fast time in them. 

I was distraught for about a minute, and then Carmella suggested that I just take it slow with her instead of sitting out of the race.  I thought that was a good idea, so we paid for parking, and made our way to the start line.

Usually I line up a few people back from the line, to be sure I'm with people of my speed.  If you line up too far back, you'll be stuck behind people with strollers and walkers, but if you line up too far forward, you'll be in the elite runners way.  Neither is good, so it's important to slot yourself in correctly.

Carmella and I headed for the back, and started behind about 75% of the runners.  It was a new experience for me.  The air-horn started, and we just stood there for almost 30 seconds.  Then we started walking, then stopped again in some more congestion.  Finally we crossed the start line and began to trot along.  All 1500 runners were packed onto one access lane, so it took awhile to get moving.

Carmella picked 40 minutes as an arbitrary goal to shoot for, so we would try and get in before that.  We began running, and Carmella enjoyed the atmosphere.  Everyone around us was happy to be moving.  We passed some walkers, we were among people waving to family members, and beside many people wearing elaborate costumes.  Headbands with shamrocks mounted on springs so they looked like ears, people with signs about St. Patrick's Day stuck to their backs, and people wearing green underwear over tights.

After the first kilometer, the party atmosphere was gone, and it was down to business.  Carmella felt like stopping to walk, but didn't.  Instead, she made it her goal not to stop during the race.  I was making observations about the people around us, the distance to go, or random chatter.  Carmella asked that I stop doing that, because she needed to concentrate. 

We stayed at the same pace for most of the race, seeing the same people around us.  We'd pass some people, and they'd pass us back.  A couple girls around us carried on inane conversation for more than a kilometer, and Carmella was frustrated with them.  Roomates, exams, and probably boys were covered.  However, we weren't able to leave them behind, and they didn't pass us, so we were stuck!

The last kilometer was mostly uphill, and Carmella did well not to stop.  She got in a zone and just kept plugging away.  The last 200m were especially tough, with many around us opting to walk.  Carmella persevered and we crossed the line at 37:21.  Carmella achieved both her goals, since she ran sub-40 and also didn't stop.

They had a big food tent, like the kinds people erect at weddings.  To keep people orderly, they only opened one door, and didn't roll up any of the windows.  There were hundreds of sweaty people in there, and no ventilation, so it was kind of like a cool sauna in there.  Very stuffy.  We grabbed some Irish Stew they were doling out, some water, and found a place to sit.  Before we left, I also found the free beer glasses, emblazoned with the sponsor and race emblems. 

Carmella enjoyed herself, but not enough to start mentally preparing for another race.  Her back hurt a bit, and she was tired.  We went home, and she napped.  I headed out in the car, going south towards America.

My post title was a bit of a lie.  I realize that getting into my America trip would make this post too long, so I'll create a new one for that.  Our race was good, and I was happy to have run it with Carmella in my skate shoes.  I'll start preparing for my next race, on April 1st.  It's a half-marathon, and I aim to beat my time from last year.  I'll remember my running shoes this time!

I finally hit Send.

I finally did it.

For the past four or five weeks, I've been working on a writing piece that I wanted to send out into the world.  Just a few minutes ago, I finally did.

I wrote it in about three or four drafts, and just needed a few extra pieces to make it complete.  I added those tonight, after thinking about them for far too long.

I'll keep the details to myself for now, but count on an update if I receive good news.