a taste of what's to come . . .

After thinking long and hard about a lot of things on a lot of levels, I have decided I need to be putting my blogging energy somewhere I feel is more productive. Come 2010 January I'll be launching a food blog called Deconstructing the Muffin Myth (url to come) where I'll be posting weekly food related rants, adventures, and recipes.

It seems these days that developing a following on the blog-o-sphere is one of the first steps to becoming a well known foodie, and ultimately getting into the cookbook or cooking show or other food related world. The efforts I put into blogging my personal life will soon be put into my food life, which is, I think, where more of my energy needs to be (as opposed to so much complaining about how much I hate school).

If any of you have any recipes you're itching to see featured, or want re (or de)-constructed, fire them in my direction. Any if any of you are blog-tech whizzes and have some advice (Nicole - how the heck did you create that 'about' page?) send that my way as well. And if you have a D-SLR camera collecting dust that you want to loan/barter/sell me, let me know.

I'll post a link to the new site when it's up and running.
:)Katie

the future of this blog . . .

Is in question. I've been debating shutting 'er down for quite some time, and haven't largely because this is the only way I keep in touch with some of you. There are some things that bug me about the blog though, and I think it may be time to put my energy somewhere I feel better about. I'll keep you posted.

wedding slideshow

We just got the first batch of wedding pictures from our amazing photographer. Its a little slideshow of the highlights, and is set to music, some of which is my very talented friend Harmony, who was kind enough to sing at our wedding, so watch with your sound turned on. You can see the slideshow by clicking here.

and the winner is . . .

Stockholm, Sweden. See ya!

get with it

Shake is out, pound is in. Get with it.

Is anyone else tired of hearing about H1N1?

rain

It's raining, which is sweet 'cause I just dropped a wad of cash on rain gear for my bike. I was going to buy new jeans, but rain gear trumped fashion. Such is life. So my lower half is pretty water resistant - I got neoprene booties for over my shoes, which, I have learned, keep your feet dry-er, not dry; and a stylish pair of water proof pants (you need to wear something under them, I also learned). My upper half needs some upgrading, but will do for now. A new actually water proof, water proof jacket, and a pair of gortex over mitts are in my future.

Biking is the way to go. It is a guaranteed hour and a half of exercise a day, and kicks the shit out of riding the dank fogged up bus full of damp coughing UBC students. Even in the rain the bike is better than the bus, fo sho. And I get the triumphant feeling of making it to the top of the bloody hill each day. Except that I keep getting passed on the way up by a guy on a unicycle! A unicycle! No fooling! And having a bike on campus rules when you have a class in Anso and then 10 minutes later a class in MacMillan. There is no other way. I'm sure at least one loyal bloggee can back me up on that one.

Biking in does have it's limitations, for sure. Being that I bike in full gear and arrive a sweaty mess (giant hill), I have to lug in a change of clothes for the day in addition to my 800lb organic chemistry text book (I have now attached panniers for text hauling, and on Fridays I attach my basket and truck in my compost bucket too). And I have to get there early enough to facilitate my Mr. Rogers wardrobe change before getting to class - that doesn't always happen, I do end up getting to class a dripping mess and trying to carry my backpack and two panniers and maybe a bike basket full of compost, and then have to climb over 20 immaculately dressed second year science students (what time DO they get up to do that?) to get to the one shitty seat in the centre of the row. But I digress. I've been working on this situation and I think I may be getting it down. First I commandeered a second locker in the staff section of the public changeroom at the pool. Ha! Lockers on campus are mint, my friends, and not only do I have two for FREE, but I have keys to the building still, so I stash stuff all over the place. Mwahahaha. Not like I don't deserve it after what I put into that place, and the help I continue to give ("umm, you may want to go down and check your filter tank, it doesn't sound right . . .", "you can tell that from HERE?"). In one locker I have all of the usual accoutrement's - deoderant, shampoo, lotion, towel, that kind of shiz. In the other I have a pair of pants, change of shoes, socks, and a sweater. I bring in new tops each day because they are the lightest. Then I change and hang up my dank bike gear in there. It is still wet and dank when I get back 8 hours later. I may take a third locker for text books.

Just how dire is my rain jacket situation (this paragraph seems out of place, but I like it like this, so shut up, okay?), you ask? Okay, the one I bike in I bought about 7 years ago. It's not waterproof anymore. And my goretex one for every day use? I got that in grade 7. I'm not kidding - my name and phone number are written on the inside with indelible marker. I recently tried treating them with waterproofing stuff, and I think it actually wrecked the old one a little. Then, I think nearly 20 years is pretty impressive for a rain jacket. You?

Or?

Maybe Sweden. Or maybe eastern Canada. Time will tell.

change . . .

Last night I was waiting with Harmony for the bus, making sure she'd make her way home. After, during the 1/2 block walk back to my apartment, I thought to myself, some things never change. (those who were at the wedding will know what I mean)

And change has come. Here it is:

Paul and I are moving to Scotland. Indeed, it is official.

I'm a good aunt, I swear . . .

done!

Well, that's it! Done! Paul and I are married!

We had an absolutely fantastic day. It was threatening rain, which was stressing me out, but we added an extra tent and walls for the big one at the last second. The brooms in trees did their job, the rain held out, and we had a marvelous day. The ceremony was quick and lighthearted, and the celebration was fun. We'll be waiting a while for our professional pics, but here are a few teasers sent to us by a neighbour . . . including the day after waterskiing in the wedding dress.

2. Saturday mornings with Kimmie

My first week at the UBC AC I was told that on Saturday morning someone named Kim would show me the ropes with backwashing the filter tank, and I thought to myself, oh, I hope she's nice. Later that day I was introduced to this big tall hairy manly dude named Kim, and a beautiful friendship was born. In the early days I treaded carefully around the fact that he had a girly name, but that was short lived. Now he's Kimmie or Kimberley or Kimberley Anne (his middle name is Andrew) all the time.

One can't really describe Kimmie so much as experience him, so I'm not going to try that hard here - those who have met him will know what I'm talking about. Kimmie is the person with whom I've laughed the hardest and possibly had the most fun with in my entire life. He's a marvelously complex human being - tall and rugged and manly, yet collects african violets (I think he's got a bit of a problem actually). I took him to the african violet show at Van Dusen Gardens one year, and I'm not sure the blue rinse crowd knew what to make of him. He doesn't really drink, yet when he does he makes sure it's Jagermeister. He loves Star Trek, and any and all musicals. He's hands down the funniest person I've ever met, yet can also be the most serious. He's got one of the biggest hearts of anyone I've ever met. And he can clap the loudest. He for sure holds a permanent spot on my list of top 10 favourite human beings of all time.

So Kimmie and I worked the Saturday morning early maintenance shift together for about five years. When it looked like he was going to lose the shift due to seniority reasons, I changed the criteria for working that shift (makes much more sense, but I did have alterior motives) so that he'd be sure to secure the shift for the duration of his tenure at the UBC AC. We had fun. We made dirty nasty pool maintenance work a hoot. And we hold the record for the fastest backwash ever, at just 20 minutes and change (this job normally takes two people close to an hour).

Many of my other favourite UBC AC memories feature Kimmie, so he'll show up again, but he for sure deserves to be in a category of his own. Yay Kimmie!!!

1. The Katie and Christa Years

Seriously, those were the best.

Before I started working at the UBC AC I had met Christa very briefly one time at some sort of a workshop - an NLS recert examiner's clinic, or something like that, I think.

I had been working for a few of the municipal pools, but wasn't getting the hours or recognition that I wanted from them, so decided to give up my shifts and spend the summer doing nothing but contract work (full circle now). Contract work is abundant in the summer months, but I was worried it was going to dry up come September and wasn't really sure what to do. Then Nicole pointed out a job posting for the Head Lifeguard position at UBC. I was teaching an NLS course in North Van at the time, and asked the programmer there if I could use their fax machine to send off my resume (which, which I looked at it years later, was terrible) for the job. Later that very night I saw Christa on the pool deck with her water polo team. She came over and asked what I was teaching, and I told her NLS. She asked if I was interested in teaching courses at UBC, and I said funny thing, I just applied for the Head Guard job there. She said, oh, you must be Katie! So we chatted for a while about the job, and I asked her to put in a good word. A few days later I got a call for the interview, and needless to say, I got the job. I found out later that since my resume was so terrible (not my experience, but my actual resume) they weren't going to bother contacting me. But Christa went back to them and said she had met me and I seemed really keen and passionate, so they decided to give me a call after all. Thanks Xta!!!

So I started working there, and immediately Christa and I started getting along famously. I remember the early days one of us would pull out a bottle of lotion and the other would go, "oooh! I use that one too!!" and then one of us would talk about heading to a yoga class, and the other would go, "yay! I do yoga too!!". And so it began. I have never worked with anyone else who I saw so completely eye to eye on how things should be done. We were a team, Christa and I, no doubt about that. We understood that the workload was shared, and when one of us was bogged down, the other would step in and help out. We taught courses together and each complimented the others teaching and evaluation style. When I threw my back out and couldn't stand up straight, Christa came and helped teach my NLS class in North Van. We amused ourselves by terrorizing the swim coaches together (I so miss those Steve and Derrick days). We bartered tasty food for jewellery making. We brought out each others inner crafter - Christa taught me to knit at work, and once I got the knitting bug we would regularly 'compromise the integrity of the facility' (according to our then manager) by knitting under our desks, in the classroom, on our breaks . . . it was good times. Christa is also one of the small handful of people I've met in my life who I have always felt I could talk to about anything, anytime, without any judgement whatsoever. It's a real gift to find that in a friend and a coworker.

I was sad when the Katie and Christa years ended, but she needed to move on, I understood that. I'm so glad we've remained friends, even though we don't see each other quite so often anymore. Christa has stayed a source of inspiration in my life, and seeing her leave the good benefits and regular paycheque life of the UBC AC and enter into the unreliable realms of contract work and self employment and succeed, helped me make the decision to take the plunge myself.

Thanks Christa, you rule! Real hard!

(and she really liked working with me too!)

the end of an era

This past Saturday was my last day in official capacity at my job at the old UBC AC. I'd use the word 'work' pretty loosely for what I've been doing the past couple of weeks - my replacement started three weeks ago, and after a week and a half or so of training, I pretty much sat back at let him do everything, just being there to answer questions and intervene in absolute emergencies. With a little more than a week do go, my alarm went off at 4:35am for the last time. I rolled over and looked at the alarm and then said to my self, "fuck that." and went back to sleep. Anyways, it's all done now, and the staff did their best to send me off in style. I used to always make breakfast for the staff on Saturday mornings, and so for my last Saturday they put on an extra deluxe breakfast for me . . . pancakes, waffles, scads of fresh fruit, whipped cream, tea, and I drank four mimosas before 10am. It was pretty much one of the best days at work ever. Sunday I went in for my last staff inservice, and that was quite the fiasco. The staff presented me with some tokens of their appreciation - a cookbook they had made with recipes they had contributed with personal messages written on the backs of each recipe, one of the UBC Lifeguarding shirts that the staff had made (not uniforms, just shirts they wear around. it's weird, I know.) with my nickname 'the enforcer' put on the back, and a gift certificate to the campus bookstore to help with my texts come September. One of the staff brought me a 'special drink' in a water bottle which definitely wasn't water . . . and so it began. I knew there was a very high probability of getting tossed into the pool (it's just what happens on your last day) and so I had been carrying around a spare change of clothes for my final couple of days, and since inservice rolled around and I still hadn't gone in, I knew that was the day for sure. And tossed in I got. Twice. Well, once tossed and once carried in officer and a gentleman style. My strategy of just lying down on the ground and going completely limp when I saw them coming for me wasn't so good. Well, maybe it would have worked if it wasn't three buff young fellows doing the tossing.

Then things got ugly. The staff went out to a nearby watering hole for some drinks and appys. This would be the first, and last, time I went out with the staff. It all started out innocently enough with Dan, my replacement, buying me a 'muff dive' which I finally agreed to do from Xta's crotch (thanks for stepping in!). Next was the 'mine field', 10 shots of clear liquid lined up, 5 of which were water, the other five gin. They were shot 30 seconds apart from each other. It was awful. I did have a few pinch hitters, thankfully, but I think they mostly took care of water shots, not gin. Then were a few tequila shots, some other shots, more shots, and oh, did I mention the shots? I think it was the mine field on the nearly empty stomach that started the badness, but the thing that really tipped the scales was when they put a pocket mask in my mouth and used it as a funnel to pour beer down my throat. Huge thanks go to Mike Belly for finally sneaking me out there (and by finally I mean at 8pm) and to Tia for not only driving me home, but for pulling over so I could puke on the way. Needless to say I spent the remainder of the evening and the better part of the next morning wrapped around the toilet. This served as a good reminder of why I am glad my twenties are over. And thank god for Gravol.

So that's it, I'm done. The end of an era. I was 23 years old when I started that job. I owe a huge gratitude to my years at the UBC AC for so many things. I made some of the best friends I have, met the man who in just five weeks will be my husband, got inspired to go back to school and was supported hugely by both of the managers I worked with, got amazing experience and leadership opportunities in the industry, and learned an amazing amount from the people I interacted with. I learned things about pool chemistry and the ins and outs of filtration (like which side of the filter tank produces the biggest hairballs, which are better for throwing) that I never imagined. I learned to become a morning person. I dealt with spinals, heat stroke, broken hips, dislocated shoulders, and more heat exhaustion and hypoglycemia than I knew possible. It was all in all a very good experience.

Staying in my position for seven years is the stuff that legends are made of. The job obviously had it's challenges, and there are certainly parts I will not miss, but I'm glad to have gone out on a positive note. For that, I am going to blog my seven favourite things/memories about the UBC AC. Seven things for seven years . . . coming soon . . .

Jude Taro

My first nephew, born Saturday June 13th 2009, 7lbs 14oz. Cam, I love you, you are a warrior!

Welcome to the world, Jude!

bad bad bad

Yes, yes, I know. I've been a bad blogger, a bad money dieter, a bad eater, a bad runner, definitely a bad worker. Just bad. But I've been having lots and lots of fun!!! (except for the week where I was home with the most awful case of vertigo, that was not fun in any way)

Over the last two months I haven't accumulated any debt, but I haven't saved much either. There was the new computer, the trip to Calgary, the extravagent weekend away in Whistler, the great deal on wine for the wedding which couldn't be passed up, and now that summer is nearly upon is, the weekend getaways to the Sunshine Coast. And so many expenses looming . . . it gives me chest pain to think about it. I need to reevaluate the money diet and figure a way to work it for the summer months that has me saving some money, prevents me from cheating (as I have been lots over the last two months), and doesn't leave me feeling deprived. $60/week just isn't going to cut it when there are things like ferry fare and sipping cold beer on sunny patios to think about. I'm trying to put my thinking cap on and figure out a workable system to implement for June 1st.

week 18

I'm too busy to spend money these days. That is until I get a free afternoon or evening, and then watch out! I didn't even withdraw my weekly $60 from the bank until Friday afternoon but there isn't much of it left after the weekend, and every single shred of it was spent on hooch. Fun times though.

My lovely bridesmaids informed me that I had better get my ass in gear and deal with bridal registry since they had already put the information out there. Yowza. I've struggled with the concept of registry and have been putting it off, but I guess it had to be done. So Friday afternoon I spent meandering through a kitchen store picking lovely things and Saturday afternoon saw me walking around the Bay zapping bar codes with a scanning gun. Interesting times. I second Nicole's recent rant about registry (baby, in her case) and how it's a big old load of bo-shit that you can't register online. Why is it that I can't go on the online catalogue from the comfort of my own home (office) and register on my own schedule (company dime)? More annoying is how if you don't want to be hit with a schwack of spam from the Bay and other companies they affiliate with, you can't just tick (or untick as it were) a box indicating your privacy preferences, you have to actually contact their privacy department and ask them to take you off the list. Bosch.

Anyways, after all the bar code scanning was done with, Tatjana and I headed upstairs to ladies wear where I was happy to find that my favourite bra (the T-shirt bra by Triumph) was on sale 25% off. I've been in desperate need of a new bra for MONTHS, so obviously snagged one. While we were up there we also checked out shoes since I need a pair to wear under my wedding dress. I saw some cute white flipflops with a flower on the front that I think will do if I find nothing else. Outdoor wedding on a very uneven lawn/beach = the most comfortable sensible pair of summertime flats I can find. So then we poked around the dresses since Tatjana still has yet to find her bridesmaid dress and has a very specific vision of what she wants to wear (I told them they could wear any black dress they wanted). She wants a halter dress with a deeply plunging v-neck, some paneling, and a skirt that goes just below the knee. So we're perusing the dresses and I happen to stick my hand into one of the racks and pull out a black v-neck halter dress. The only one around, and we couldn't find any more on nearby racks. She tries it on. It fits PERFECTLY, looks stunning, is EXACTLY what she wants, AND is on sale from $125 down to $25. How awesome is that? Defo the find of the day.

Obviously even though we were still out half an hour later than I said I would be home, we continued shopping. With my strapless wedding dress I am in need of a strapless bikini for the summer, and we just so happened so walk by the bathing suit section and find just that. It wasn't so bad all in all, I got my new bra and a new bikini all said and done for around $80. Doesn't beat Tatjana's $25 bridesmaid dress, but its the first shopping I've done in a very long time, and although I hadn't planned for it, I kept things under control.

This weekend is a long weekend and also Paul's birthday. Being his last birthday while I'm a working lady, I've decided to whisk him away for the weekend. We're going to Whistler, which we've been talking about doing for YEARS, staying here and going for dinner here. It's going to be a pricey weekend, but I've been planning for it for a while so I can absorb it. Yay!

weeks 14, 15, 16, 17, and month three wrap up

I apologize for the blogging hiatus. It was finals, you see, and I decided to give up the interwebs in an attempt to increase productivity. It worked. I, Katherine Elizabeth, passed physical/organic chemistry all by myself. All. By. My. Self. Seriously people, do you know how awesome that is? Don't get me wrong, I didn't do shit hot, but I friggen passed, and not too bad. A solid pass, and I'll take it.

Okay, so you know when you go on a diet and you reach your goal weight and you feel invincible and start eating anything you want and gain a bunch of the weight back? Month three wasn't quite that bad, but it was up there. The money diet me knows that I should have waited until I had the cash money to pay for the new laptop, rather than assuming I would have the cash money and just going and buying it one day. I'll have you know though, that the laptop rules. I spent a little crazy month three, but I didn't acquire any debt, so I think I came out okay. The mastercard bill is hefty due to the laptop (which rules) and the trip to Calgary (which ruled hard!)

I set myself a cash budget for the trip to Calgary, and I'm pleased to report I stuck to it (thanks in part to easy access to Tim's debit card . . . heheh) and managed to come home with $20 still in my pocket (I stole that from your sock drawer). It was my adorably pregnant sister in law's 30th birthday, so I took my Martha Stewart Baking Handbook with me, and told Cam she could pick any cake out of the book, no matter how elaborate, and I'd make it for her. The winner was a devil's food cake with mint chocolate ganache, henceforth referred to as ganny. Soooo much ganny was consumed. Plans are in the work for future ganny creations . . . raspberry chocolate ganny, triple chocolate ganny cake, just a plain ol' cup o' ganny . . . Luckily we did a stairs workout and two killer abs workouts over the weekend as well - well I did the abs, Cammy watched. It was my punishment for getting to drink more than 1.5 glasses of good wine over the weekend. But I also got an incredible hot (stone massage from a wizard named) Carl. I mean Curt. If you're ever in Calgary you should go to the Oasis Spa and ask for a hot Carl. Curt, I mean Curt.

So now on to month four and I'm back on track. I'm working an insane amount over the next two months, but if everything goes according to plan (which it surely won't) I should be able to squirrel away a good chunk of money. My goal is to have enough to pay for the other half of my wedding dress (plus alterations), the photographer, inevitable extra wedding expenses I haven't yet thought of, and tuition for September.

Week 17 went okay. I made a stupid excuse to use my credit card for a dumb $10 purchase, which I won't do again. Otherwise I stuck to cash - I did dip into my $100 monthly money already, but hey, that's what it's for. I think week 18 is going to go much much better. My fingers are crossed.

week 13

Remember that $10 I was trying to make last over week 13? It was still in my wallet on Sunday morning when week 14 begun. Natch I blew it on treats on Sunday evening, but still, it lasted the week! Being off the hooch is such a money saver - but it is harder than I thought. I think because I'm depriving myself of it, I'm thinking about booze constantly, but I'm glad for the challenge. We went out Saturday evening and I volunteered to be designated driver. Not only did I get all the free soda and lime that I wanted, I stayed out not unreasonably late, had fun, had a decent sleep, and had a productive Sunday. Not the way it would have gone had I been drinking.

This week isn't going to be quite so frugal. With the long weekend coming up we plan to hit the Sunshine Coast for a relaxing weekend (packed full of organic chemistry studying, but still) which always entails extra treats and extra spending. I've set aside $100 cash for the weekend, and I plan to stick to it.

And can I just tell you all how awesome my new computer is? I just finished transferring all of the files over from my old clunker, which I'm about to send the way of the neighbourhood hobos. I'm currently downloading music from itunes and working at the same time, and it hasn't slowed down any. Duo processors rule! Money is going to be a bit tight this month due to the purchase, but it was totally overdue, and totally worth it.

Currently downloading: Chambermaid Swing by Parov Stelar. Check it out.

home cooking

This money diet tip should be super obvious - cook yer own darn food! You can cook fabulous meals at home for a fraction of the price you would pay going out, and have fun too! Paul and I eat out a handful of times a year - typically on our anniversary, and maybe one or two other times. We really love cooking together, and lately we've been on a kick of trying all kinds of new recipes and building a bigger repertoire. Last weekend on Sunday we made a delish and healthy lentil soup with kale and tomatoes, and as an accoutrement we made these awesome baked polenta fries, and whipped up a chipotle lime sauce for dipping them in. OMFG were they ever good. One of our neighbourhood watering holes has polenta fries, but these home made ones were thinner and crisper and healthier being that they were baked and not deep fried. And they were so easy! I made the whole batch of polenta but we ended up making only about half of it into fries, and freezing the rest for future polenta fries emergencies. I'm sure the recipe could be easily veganized, but I did use the milk and Parmesan as specified. Try them out! Easy! Tasty! Gluten free! And polenta is cheap cheap cheap!

C&T - these are soooo going to make a hockey night appearance in your pad when I'm visiting!

week 12 and month three

Suffice it to say the money diet is going well, and it felt fabulous to finish month three with a zero balance on my line of credit. I'm going to keep plugging away and now the big focus will move from debt repayment to saving, which is going to be cool. A few big ticket items on the horizon . . .

First of all, I'm typing this post on my brand new SHINY lenovo thinkpad laptop. It was high time I joined the new millennium and got myself one; my desktop at home (which I got five years ago as a hand me down from my brother) has been chugging along and getting slower and slower, a lot of the advanced level courses I teach now require powerpoint presentations, and it was getting not cool to try to borrow laptops all the time. I did some searching around and eventually found what I wanted at a good price, and now I have it. And it's shiny. My tax return will pay for about 1/3 of it, and the rest will come from some upcoming courses I'm going to be teaching and the inevitable end of semester rush of nursing student CPR renewals.

Next I've got an ever so important birthday for an ever so important soon to be legitimate sister in law coming up, which necessitates a weekend visit to Calgary. I've got to plan for the flight, and for the fun while I'm there.

After that another someone special has a birthday coming up, and I've got something extra special up my sleeve, since this will be the last birthday he will enjoy with an old lady who has a full time job. Once I become a hobo, I doubt I'll be forking over for special events like this one. More to come on this after, say, the May long weekend.

Then there is the minor detail of the wedding, which looms just four months away. FOUR MONTHS. Warm socks, anyone?

And after that, the supporting of myself through school without a reliable full time income. So the savings becomes so uber important.

For a variety of reasons, one of which is certainly the money diet, I have decided to go off the sauce for about a month (or until finals are done). While I'm not drinking I can do EXTREME money diet, like this week for example, which I'm attempting to get through on just ten dollars cash. Anyhoo, more later. I have a chemistry pre lab to get through (last one of the semester!!!) and a SHINY new laptop to play with.