Today is world farm animal day. The very sad truth is that the majority of animal related food products (meat, eggs, dairy) come from animals living miserable lives in feedlots and factory farms. I don't believe in telling anyone what they should or should not eat, but I do believe in telling EVERYONE to THINK about where your food is coming from. If you are going to eat meat, choose meat from local small scale farms and do some research about the animal welfare choices they are making. Avoid ALL hormone fed animals (as much for your health as for theirs) and animals that are force fed feed that is not a natural part of their diet. Choose eggs from free range chickens that actually get to hang out outside and enjoy their chicken lives. Beware of supermarket labelling proclaiming free range and free run that is not necessairly what it says it is. Frequent farmers markets and develop relationships with the people who grow and raise the food they are selling you, who happily answer questions about how the animals were raised and what they were fed and even how they were slaughtered and processed.
Read good food books and educate yourself. Some of my favourites:
The 100 Mile Diet
The Omnivoire's Dilemma
Animal, Vegetable, Miracle
In Defence of Food
And check out THIS page on Nicole's blog, where she has done the work of posting links to some great local small scale farms (and wineries!).
Thursday, October 02, 2008
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
ahead of the game
First a thanks for all of the kind thoughts sent my direction when we said goodbye to Buddy. It was the hardest, saddest day, and I know it'll take some time to get over saying goodbye to a great friend of nearly 15 years. I want to blog my favourite Buddy memories, and I will when I'm ready to.
Secondly, I would like to cautiously brag about being ahead of the game. It took some serious catch up work after the first crazy two weeks of September with work being the total gong show it is at that time of year, but I did it. Now I'm reading way ahead in the text and sitting (in the front row) in class actually understanding the lectures. The problem sets are done waaaaay before the next one is even released, which gives me time for extra review problems, which is resulting in good marks on quizzes. Assignments are done way before their due dates, and the next ones started weeks ahead of time. I have barely a shred of a social life right now due to all of this extra work, but it feels so good I don't really care. It is with great trepidation I brag about being ahead of the game, because the last time I was in this position and feeling good and handing assignments in before they were due, THIS happened, and then I ended up horribly behind. Fingers crossed for no repeat incidents.
Secondly, I would like to cautiously brag about being ahead of the game. It took some serious catch up work after the first crazy two weeks of September with work being the total gong show it is at that time of year, but I did it. Now I'm reading way ahead in the text and sitting (in the front row) in class actually understanding the lectures. The problem sets are done waaaaay before the next one is even released, which gives me time for extra review problems, which is resulting in good marks on quizzes. Assignments are done way before their due dates, and the next ones started weeks ahead of time. I have barely a shred of a social life right now due to all of this extra work, but it feels so good I don't really care. It is with great trepidation I brag about being ahead of the game, because the last time I was in this position and feeling good and handing assignments in before they were due, THIS happened, and then I ended up horribly behind. Fingers crossed for no repeat incidents.
Monday, September 15, 2008
sleep well sweet prince
Buddy Trant, aka Mr. Bubbaroo
March 17, 1994 - September 15, 2008
May there be squirrels a plenty for you to chase.
Sleep well sweet prince, and may flights of angels sing thee to thy rest.
Thursday, September 11, 2008
update! update! read all about it!
Ok, yes, I know it's been a while. Gentle prodding noted.
So, since my last post:
-Paul and I had two glorious weeks of holidays. It rained a lot of the time, but I'll take a rainy day at my cabin over a sunny day at work any day. We spent all of the holiday on the Sunshine Coast (not so sunny this time around), with three nights spent camping at glorious Saltery Bay, and the remainder at my family property. The camping was awesome - we've been keeping our eyes peeled for bigger tents on sale, and on the way to our camping trip we stopped at Canadian Tire and found an awesome and HUGE Coleman tent on sale. And when Canadian Tire puts things on sale they don't fuck around, this thing was a steal. I was resisting getting a new tent since we have a perfectly good and only used 4 times little tent, but Paul insisted and man oh man am I glad he did. It was so awesome having a tent big enough to stand up and walk around in, particularly when the weather went bad. On the second night of our camping trip we were joined by another couple, Lindsay and Renelle, and good times were had. Once back at my family property we settled into a routine of sleeping in, going for runs (even all out 400's on the track), eating apple fritters, watching DVD's, and taking our incontinent geriatric dog on as many walks as he'd tolerate (and as such only had 2 in the house pooping incidents).
-I said to myself (and a few others) that we'd have some wedding decisions made by the end of the camping trip, or we were putting it off a year. Decisions were made, troubles talked out, issues resolved. The wheels are in motion for a wedding on our family property August 8th, 2009. I have put a deposit down on the photographer, met with a caterer who is on board for my dream of everything local, sourced out a bartender, ordered our tents, tables, chairs . . . everything we have to rent, and visited a local flower farm to see what kind of blooms will be in season for August next year. Paul and I are in total disagreement about what kind of flowers to have, so 4 weeks away from the wedding when the things that would be available are starting to be ready we are each going to produce a center piece and have people vote on which one they like best. I am not stressed out about this at all - first of all, we're talking about flowers, which will be beautiful no matter what. They're flowers. Secondly, I am going to win. I've done wedding flowers before, I'm crafty, and I'm a girl. Nuff said.
-We came back to town a few days before school started so I could do a bunch of CPR recerts for nursing and med students - a business I run on the side. Business exploded this year and I had trouble keeping up with demand. It's starting to slow down a bit now, but did well for paying tuition and squirrling a little wedding money away. This bodes well for my next point . . .
-I have given my unofficial 10 months notice at work. Yep, thats right. As of June 30th (ish) I'll be an unemployed bum. I wasn't going to say anything for a while, but my boss asked me straight up and I wasn't about to lie to him, so there you have it. I'm hoping to support myself and pay the bills with contract work and the CPR biz on the side, and I'm contemplating maybe snagging a part time job somewhere where I'm not in charge and problems aren't my problem. Necessity is the motherhood of invention, so time to cut the chord and make shit happen. Plus Paul and I will be married shortly thereafter, and I'll be his problem if it doesn't work out. He he he.
-Work stared, school started, and I haven't had a day off yet. September is madly busy as we screen and hire new staff and kick off our programs. I think I worked nearly 80 hours last week AND went to school. I have workshops all this weekend so still another week before I get proper days off, but I'm taking a half day tomorrow to catch up on reading. Reminding myself how this time next year I won't have to deal with this chaos is helping to get me through. As is good dark chocolate (I am now addicted to coco camino's organic 71% spiced chocolate . . . ginger and chili. Yum!) and 'mommy's special medicine' as Paul likes to call it. You know what I mean. And I don't mean those little blue pills all mom's like to pop. You know yours does too. For shaky legs. Pfft.
-Saturday is the five year anniversary of our first date. FIVE YEARS!!! We were going to use our airmiles for a romantic getaway weekend to Napa Valley, but we're still recovering from Europe and the wedding ain't gonna be cheap, so we decided to stay in town and go out for a super fancy dinner and splurge on a great bottle of wine to have at home beforehand. I think it's working out way better this way - I'm so behind on my reading already I think my head might explode if I had to go away for the weekend. Napa will be there another time.
Ok, chemistry calls. And I just threw up in my mouth a little as I typed that.
So, since my last post:
-Paul and I had two glorious weeks of holidays. It rained a lot of the time, but I'll take a rainy day at my cabin over a sunny day at work any day. We spent all of the holiday on the Sunshine Coast (not so sunny this time around), with three nights spent camping at glorious Saltery Bay, and the remainder at my family property. The camping was awesome - we've been keeping our eyes peeled for bigger tents on sale, and on the way to our camping trip we stopped at Canadian Tire and found an awesome and HUGE Coleman tent on sale. And when Canadian Tire puts things on sale they don't fuck around, this thing was a steal. I was resisting getting a new tent since we have a perfectly good and only used 4 times little tent, but Paul insisted and man oh man am I glad he did. It was so awesome having a tent big enough to stand up and walk around in, particularly when the weather went bad. On the second night of our camping trip we were joined by another couple, Lindsay and Renelle, and good times were had. Once back at my family property we settled into a routine of sleeping in, going for runs (even all out 400's on the track), eating apple fritters, watching DVD's, and taking our incontinent geriatric dog on as many walks as he'd tolerate (and as such only had 2 in the house pooping incidents).
-I said to myself (and a few others) that we'd have some wedding decisions made by the end of the camping trip, or we were putting it off a year. Decisions were made, troubles talked out, issues resolved. The wheels are in motion for a wedding on our family property August 8th, 2009. I have put a deposit down on the photographer, met with a caterer who is on board for my dream of everything local, sourced out a bartender, ordered our tents, tables, chairs . . . everything we have to rent, and visited a local flower farm to see what kind of blooms will be in season for August next year. Paul and I are in total disagreement about what kind of flowers to have, so 4 weeks away from the wedding when the things that would be available are starting to be ready we are each going to produce a center piece and have people vote on which one they like best. I am not stressed out about this at all - first of all, we're talking about flowers, which will be beautiful no matter what. They're flowers. Secondly, I am going to win. I've done wedding flowers before, I'm crafty, and I'm a girl. Nuff said.
-We came back to town a few days before school started so I could do a bunch of CPR recerts for nursing and med students - a business I run on the side. Business exploded this year and I had trouble keeping up with demand. It's starting to slow down a bit now, but did well for paying tuition and squirrling a little wedding money away. This bodes well for my next point . . .
-I have given my unofficial 10 months notice at work. Yep, thats right. As of June 30th (ish) I'll be an unemployed bum. I wasn't going to say anything for a while, but my boss asked me straight up and I wasn't about to lie to him, so there you have it. I'm hoping to support myself and pay the bills with contract work and the CPR biz on the side, and I'm contemplating maybe snagging a part time job somewhere where I'm not in charge and problems aren't my problem. Necessity is the motherhood of invention, so time to cut the chord and make shit happen. Plus Paul and I will be married shortly thereafter, and I'll be his problem if it doesn't work out. He he he.
-Work stared, school started, and I haven't had a day off yet. September is madly busy as we screen and hire new staff and kick off our programs. I think I worked nearly 80 hours last week AND went to school. I have workshops all this weekend so still another week before I get proper days off, but I'm taking a half day tomorrow to catch up on reading. Reminding myself how this time next year I won't have to deal with this chaos is helping to get me through. As is good dark chocolate (I am now addicted to coco camino's organic 71% spiced chocolate . . . ginger and chili. Yum!) and 'mommy's special medicine' as Paul likes to call it. You know what I mean. And I don't mean those little blue pills all mom's like to pop. You know yours does too. For shaky legs. Pfft.
-Saturday is the five year anniversary of our first date. FIVE YEARS!!! We were going to use our airmiles for a romantic getaway weekend to Napa Valley, but we're still recovering from Europe and the wedding ain't gonna be cheap, so we decided to stay in town and go out for a super fancy dinner and splurge on a great bottle of wine to have at home beforehand. I think it's working out way better this way - I'm so behind on my reading already I think my head might explode if I had to go away for the weekend. Napa will be there another time.
Ok, chemistry calls. And I just threw up in my mouth a little as I typed that.
Thursday, August 14, 2008
wedding schmedding
The question I get asked most frequently these days is about how it's going with planning the wedding. The answer? Meh. Wedding planning is making me cranky, so I'm taking a break from it. It's just all so insane, and so expensive, and so much emotion is tied up with it. We don't have a venue, so we don't have a date, so I can't go ahead and book the amazingly talented (and very expensive) photographer I want to use.
On the one hand I feel like it would be financially irresponsible of us to have a wedding at all, being that Paul is only at the beginning of paying of some huge student loans, and I'm in my final year of working full time before becoming a full time student. We could take the wedding budget and squirrel it away for a future down payment, which seems like the responsible thing to do.
On the other hand I'm worried that if we don't have a wedding I'll feel bummed out about it, well, forever.
And then back to the first hand where I'm aware that weddings are a social construction and they don't really mean anything, and Paul and I can make a 'bigger' commitment to each other with out spending a whack of dough and doing it in front of a lot of people.
Yes it is a construction, and a silly one, but one that has become symbolic and meaningful and what other opportunity will we have to gather our friends and family together in this manner and publicly declare our commitment to one another.
Gah.
On the one hand I feel like it would be financially irresponsible of us to have a wedding at all, being that Paul is only at the beginning of paying of some huge student loans, and I'm in my final year of working full time before becoming a full time student. We could take the wedding budget and squirrel it away for a future down payment, which seems like the responsible thing to do.
On the other hand I'm worried that if we don't have a wedding I'll feel bummed out about it, well, forever.
And then back to the first hand where I'm aware that weddings are a social construction and they don't really mean anything, and Paul and I can make a 'bigger' commitment to each other with out spending a whack of dough and doing it in front of a lot of people.
Yes it is a construction, and a silly one, but one that has become symbolic and meaningful and what other opportunity will we have to gather our friends and family together in this manner and publicly declare our commitment to one another.
Gah.
Thursday, July 31, 2008
story of my running life
For months, MONTHS I tell you, I have been dragging my ass out on these terrible horrible no good very bad runs. Awful runs, feeling like my legs were made of lead wrapped in concrete wrapped in some other ridiculously heavy construction material, just feeling low energy and shitty and bad. And yet still dragging myself out 3 - 4 times a week, partly with the mantra repeating in my head, "this will make you look good in your wedding dress, wedding dress, wedding dress . . ." and partly believing that a good run just had to be around the corner.
It finally came. I felt so good the whole time, good energy, light in the body, actually enjoying the run for the first time in months. It was glorious, and I could see other runs in the near future optimistically, seriously looking forward to my planned Sunday long run on the coast.
So obviously I woke up the next morning with this searing pain behind my knee, unable to fully straighten my left leg. *Sigh* Story of my running life. The good news is that thus far it appears to be muscular, so hopefully I'll be back at it before too long. Hopefully my comeback won't involve months of shitty runs again.
It finally came. I felt so good the whole time, good energy, light in the body, actually enjoying the run for the first time in months. It was glorious, and I could see other runs in the near future optimistically, seriously looking forward to my planned Sunday long run on the coast.
So obviously I woke up the next morning with this searing pain behind my knee, unable to fully straighten my left leg. *Sigh* Story of my running life. The good news is that thus far it appears to be muscular, so hopefully I'll be back at it before too long. Hopefully my comeback won't involve months of shitty runs again.
Thursday, July 24, 2008
go go greens
Thanks to a blissful afternoon visit with my old friend Harmony on her parents 17 acre farm, and a weekend produce run to my favourite organic farm on the Sunshine Coast, I've been up to my ears in delicious nutritious local produce - greens in particular.
I'm glad the local food movement is gaining steam. Eating locally is so much better for our planet, our communities, and ourselves than trucking produce in. But wait, buying locally from farmers is so much more expensive, isn't it? Well yes, the up front cost can be more but hidden costs add up. Your tax dollars go towards subsidizing fuel write offs for big companies, so you actually could be paying significantly more than you think for that pale tasteless tomato bouncing along in a refrigerator truck from California, not to mention the nutrient loss that started the second that tomato was picked in it's sad under ripe state (it never really reached it's nutritional peak in the first place). Plus, buying directly from local farmers means that 100% of the profit goes back to them, rather than the meager 19% most farmers get for their efforts, and anyone who has ever tried their hand at growing food knows that the $3 your local farmer is charging for a bunch of organic carrots is a freaking bargain for the back breaking labour it took to get them into your grocery bag.
So back to those greens - I left Harmony's place with a huge bag stuffed full of swiss chard and kale, munching on some of it during my drive back into the city. The following day for lunch I made myself "eggs in a nest" from Barbara Kingsolver's latest book, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle. If you liked the 100 Mile Diet, you'll love this book too. You can get in line to borrow it from me when I'm done.
For the eggs in a nest you chop up some onion, carrots, garlic, and tomato. Her original recipe called for rehydrated dehydrated tomatoes because that's what she was working with at that time of year. I had fresh ones in the house, so that's what I used instead. So saute all of the above until slightly soft, adding the tomatoes near the end. Then take one really big bunch of swiss chard, roughly chop and add to the pan. Put a lid on it and let the chard wilt down a bit, then using a spoon make some hollows in the veg mixture, careful not to expose the pan. I made this dish for one, so I had to push all the veg in the middle of the pan and then make my hollow, but if you were making this for a bunch of people you'd have lots more stuff in the pan and would just go around the pan making little hollows where you could. Crack one free range egg you got from your favourite local egg source (for me the north road egg lady on the coast), and replace the lid. Allow the egg to poach amidst the greens and veg until it is done to your likeness. Barbara Kingsolver served this over brown rice, but I had quinoa in the fridge that needed to be eaten so I used that instead. This was one of the most delicious and nutritious lunches I've had in a while, and will be a repeat item in my house for sure.
With the kale I made a huge fritatta by chopping up this awesome sweet onion I got from the farm, bulb and greens and all, sauteing it in the pan and then course chopping the mass of kale I had and adding it in. Kale doesn't wilt down quite as much as other greens, so it took 12 egg lady eggs scrambled up with a touch of milk to cover it all. I let this cook on the stove top and then chucked it in the oven to cook for while in there. When nearly done I added sliced tomatoes and some grated cheese to the top (the only non local ingredient, but I'm working on that) and finished it under the broiler. It made 10 servings, and was yumolicious.
And now I'm ready for more greens!
I'm glad the local food movement is gaining steam. Eating locally is so much better for our planet, our communities, and ourselves than trucking produce in. But wait, buying locally from farmers is so much more expensive, isn't it? Well yes, the up front cost can be more but hidden costs add up. Your tax dollars go towards subsidizing fuel write offs for big companies, so you actually could be paying significantly more than you think for that pale tasteless tomato bouncing along in a refrigerator truck from California, not to mention the nutrient loss that started the second that tomato was picked in it's sad under ripe state (it never really reached it's nutritional peak in the first place). Plus, buying directly from local farmers means that 100% of the profit goes back to them, rather than the meager 19% most farmers get for their efforts, and anyone who has ever tried their hand at growing food knows that the $3 your local farmer is charging for a bunch of organic carrots is a freaking bargain for the back breaking labour it took to get them into your grocery bag.
So back to those greens - I left Harmony's place with a huge bag stuffed full of swiss chard and kale, munching on some of it during my drive back into the city. The following day for lunch I made myself "eggs in a nest" from Barbara Kingsolver's latest book, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle. If you liked the 100 Mile Diet, you'll love this book too. You can get in line to borrow it from me when I'm done.
For the eggs in a nest you chop up some onion, carrots, garlic, and tomato. Her original recipe called for rehydrated dehydrated tomatoes because that's what she was working with at that time of year. I had fresh ones in the house, so that's what I used instead. So saute all of the above until slightly soft, adding the tomatoes near the end. Then take one really big bunch of swiss chard, roughly chop and add to the pan. Put a lid on it and let the chard wilt down a bit, then using a spoon make some hollows in the veg mixture, careful not to expose the pan. I made this dish for one, so I had to push all the veg in the middle of the pan and then make my hollow, but if you were making this for a bunch of people you'd have lots more stuff in the pan and would just go around the pan making little hollows where you could. Crack one free range egg you got from your favourite local egg source (for me the north road egg lady on the coast), and replace the lid. Allow the egg to poach amidst the greens and veg until it is done to your likeness. Barbara Kingsolver served this over brown rice, but I had quinoa in the fridge that needed to be eaten so I used that instead. This was one of the most delicious and nutritious lunches I've had in a while, and will be a repeat item in my house for sure.
With the kale I made a huge fritatta by chopping up this awesome sweet onion I got from the farm, bulb and greens and all, sauteing it in the pan and then course chopping the mass of kale I had and adding it in. Kale doesn't wilt down quite as much as other greens, so it took 12 egg lady eggs scrambled up with a touch of milk to cover it all. I let this cook on the stove top and then chucked it in the oven to cook for while in there. When nearly done I added sliced tomatoes and some grated cheese to the top (the only non local ingredient, but I'm working on that) and finished it under the broiler. It made 10 servings, and was yumolicious.
And now I'm ready for more greens!
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
Saturday, July 12, 2008
busy busy
Man oh man life has been busy! I feel like my summer is slipping away from me, but I am having a really good time. So, since my last post I have had a number of wedding planning related meltdowns, but have ultimately decided to take the que sera sera approach and believe things will work out. Nothing is set in stone at the moment, but save for the blessing of one uncle (and I don't think he'll say no) it looks like we'll be getting married August 15/09 on our family property on the Sunshine Coast. My mom is worried it might rain, and also that the property may have an unsightly pit of dirt where excavation for their new house is happening. I assured her that people would be looking at the bride, not the dirt pit. She may throw up a lattice and plant flowers to hide it. Whatever. I've been to try on wedding dresses one time, which was hilarious and fun and oh my good god there are some hideous and hideously expensive dresses out there. I am going to have my dress made by a girl I know from back as far as elementary school. It has to be custom made because I don't want to wear white, and the ladies at the dress store looked at me like I was on glue when I explained that by not white I don't mean ivory or cream. Anyways, I met with Laura, the dressmaker, yesterday and it turns out it is going to be considerably cheaper going this route, and I'll have the exact dress I want custom made for me. Yay! Other things that are working out include my god father, who is a judge, agreeing to marry us, and all of my most crafty friends offering their services at any time. Trust me ladies, your help will be enlisted.
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
spain, in a nutshell
Leaving the tranquility of Finland for the chaos of Spain was a shocker for sure. Getting there was half the fun. I had booked these tickets online with some budget airline that no one had ever heard of before and we weren't entirely sure really existed. The tickets were so cheap (10 Euros return) we were mentally prepairing ourselves to have to rush around and try to get standby tickets on another airline. Plus our connection time was short considering we had to switch airlines, which meant collecting our bags off one airline, then rushing back to departures and checking in with another. It was very slow progress going through security in Helsinki due largely to what seemed like a blue rinse crowd tour we were stuck behind in line. Once we rounded the corner to the metal detectors and such, all became clear. There stood the better part of the blue rinse crowd chugging down the mickeys of hooch the security staff were taking out of their carry on luggage. It took a long time to get everyone through, but it was hilarious to watch. In spite of our flight leaving Helsinki late, we arrived in Amsterdam only a few minutes late and much to our delight as we were taxying to the gate we saw a whole cluster of airplanes with the logo of the budget airline I had booked with. It existed after all. Phew!
We arrived in downtown Barcelona at 10pm on Friday night - wow, what a nuthouse. We managed to find our hostel and dump our stuff, and then headed out to explore the night scene on las Ramblas. Coming from Helsinki which was so peaceful and always light, to Barcelona where it was dark and chaotic was a total shocker. But it was good. We set off to have a beer and some tapas at a restaurant right on las Ramblas where we knew we were going to get ripped off, but didn't really care. Then we needed to find Emily - my sister and her boyfriend Andy who live in London happened to have Saturday free, so they were flying to Barcelona on Friday night to have a short visit with us, returning to London Saturday evening. I admit it, our stellar plan of, "meet you in Barcelona Friday night . . ." wasn't well thought out and caused some problems, but in the end we found each other, and we had a great day of sight seeing together.
Things in Barcelona improved significantly for me once I acquired a set of earplugs and was actually able to sleep at all. We had three great days there of sightseeing, drinking, and eating. The weather was hot and sunny the whole time we were there. The best food definitely came from the market, and this held true all throughout Spain. After Barcelona we headed back to the airport where we picked up our rental car - a kicky Citroen C4 turbo diesel. I wasn't stoked on driving in Spain but Paul was still too injured to attempt to drive, so there I was doing the one thing I said I didn't want to do. We agreed that he would navigate and I would drive and if things got stressful we wouldn't snap at each other. I don't think either job was any less challenging than the others. The Spainish drive crazy, and the highways are market with several numbers and are quite confusing. Right away we took a wrong turn, which wouldn't have been a big deal except for the police had the exits blocked so not only could we not turn around, we sat for nearly an hour in stand still traffic. Still not sure what was going on, but eventually we got turned around and on the right road. The highways were expensive (nearly 40 Euros in tolls from Barcelona to San Sebasitan) but were fast and really nice to drive on.
We arrived in San Sebastian in the early evening and had to find a place to dump the car and then locate our hostel. We located it without much trouble, but the trouble was there was no one there to let us in. We sat outside for a while and then Paul left to try and call them. No answer. We were mulling over what to do and decided to check out some of the other places in the area. Paul left to go check out one that was reccomended in one of our two guide books, and while he was gone the hostel owner came back and was quick to get our bags inside and get us set up in one of the rooms. The place was very clean and modern inside, but was just rooms, no common area or anywhere to sit. The double room we were in ended up being bunk beds, which seemed fine but the room was too small to sit in or anything so the next day when some other people left he moved us into a triple room which had a bunk bed and another bed, and was much much bigger. Also had 2 balconies. San Sebastian was a nice change of pace from Barcelona. Still very beautiful and old and steeped in culture, but way less touristy. Not much english spoken there so we had to sharpen our questionable Spanish skills. I had a really hard time finding vegetarian food there and then ended up eating the same egg and potato fritatta on baguette style tapas over and over and over. Part of the problem was that our eating schedule didn't line up with the Spanish one, so while we were walking around at 7pm starving and trying to find a restaurant, none would open until 9pm. All a part of the Spanish learning curve. San Sebastian was also where we got engaged, so it was extra special there inspite of the weather, which was pretty crappy.
After three days we left San Sebastian and headed into la Rioja region to check out wine country. It was really beautiful - rolling hills with vineyards as far as the eye could see, and spectacular wine for a handful of Euros. We spent one night in Haro, the heart of la Rioja region. We arrived there in the middle of siesta time so the place was a bit of a ghost town, but come 5pm things livened up and we had a really nice night. We found a bunch of wine stores and managed to communicate that we were looking for some wine to drink now, and some to lay down for a few years. So far we haven't been dissapointed in any of them. 4 bottles came home with us. It would have been nice to have more than one day there to get an opportunity to check out the bodegas (wineries) but we needed to move on.
We left Haro and headed for the Pyrenees which was on Paul's list of must visit places, due largely to the Tour de France which always holds at least one stage in these mountains. Paul wanted to look up what the toughest climb would be in this year's Tour and then go spray paint something on the road, but instead we headed for l'Ainsa, a small town very close to the French boarder. We had pretty much just randomly picked it out of the tour book and didn't know much of it, but were pleasantly surpised when we got there. Getting there was quite the adventure. We took some wrong turns on the highways and ended up a bit lost, but once we got into the Pyrenees the road was easy to follow and amazingly challenging to drive on. I was going about 20km/hr for a large part of the drive, and Paul wasn't even telling me to go faster which said a lot about the sketchiness of the drive. Windy narrow mountain roads with crazy drops to the side, but spectacular scenery. Once in l'Ainsa we checked into our hotel and then asked the lady at the tourist office where a good spot for a picnic would be. She told us to walk up the stairs to the old town, and we did, and up at the top was a 13th century town! It was amazing to be sitting on the grass at the top of a mountain surrounded by such old beautiful (and well maintained) buildings looking down on the river canyon, eating cheese and drinking Spanish beer. What luck! We wandered through the village after our picnic, and then had a couple of glasses of wine on a restaurant balcony with the most spectacular views and no one around. Four glasses of wine cost us 4 Euros! It might have been a bit of a deal since I had to open the bottle for the bartender who had an injured hand, but still! Paul got to go for his altitude run in the Pyrenees, so he was a happy camper.
We left l'Ainsa a little earlier than planned because getting there from Haro had taken us so long and the drive was so sketchy, but we took a different road it was way shorter. We headed back to the Barcelona airport to drop of the rental car - I had had enough of driving in Spain and was not about to try to find a hotel when there was a free shuttle from the airport. We stayed the night at an airport hotel, which was relatively uneventful.
Up early the next morning and back to the aiport to catch our 9am flight to Amsterdam. After landing, getting our bags, getting the train to Amsterdam Central and finding our hotel, we enjoyed a day of pure gluttony. We went coffee shop hopping, then pub hopping, junk food hopping, checked out the red light district, more coffee shops, more junk food, walking around seeing the sights. It was a nice end to the trip.
On the flight home we were lucky enough to end up with a section three seats with no one in the middle seat, so that made the long daylight flight much more bearable. The trip was amazing, I had so much fun. Paul and I travelled really well together other than 1 small meltdown. Once I get the pictures uploaded to flickr I'll post a link. To all 746 of them. Yep.
It sucks to be back at work, but it's nice to be back in my own kitchen and bed.
We arrived in downtown Barcelona at 10pm on Friday night - wow, what a nuthouse. We managed to find our hostel and dump our stuff, and then headed out to explore the night scene on las Ramblas. Coming from Helsinki which was so peaceful and always light, to Barcelona where it was dark and chaotic was a total shocker. But it was good. We set off to have a beer and some tapas at a restaurant right on las Ramblas where we knew we were going to get ripped off, but didn't really care. Then we needed to find Emily - my sister and her boyfriend Andy who live in London happened to have Saturday free, so they were flying to Barcelona on Friday night to have a short visit with us, returning to London Saturday evening. I admit it, our stellar plan of, "meet you in Barcelona Friday night . . ." wasn't well thought out and caused some problems, but in the end we found each other, and we had a great day of sight seeing together.
Things in Barcelona improved significantly for me once I acquired a set of earplugs and was actually able to sleep at all. We had three great days there of sightseeing, drinking, and eating. The weather was hot and sunny the whole time we were there. The best food definitely came from the market, and this held true all throughout Spain. After Barcelona we headed back to the airport where we picked up our rental car - a kicky Citroen C4 turbo diesel. I wasn't stoked on driving in Spain but Paul was still too injured to attempt to drive, so there I was doing the one thing I said I didn't want to do. We agreed that he would navigate and I would drive and if things got stressful we wouldn't snap at each other. I don't think either job was any less challenging than the others. The Spainish drive crazy, and the highways are market with several numbers and are quite confusing. Right away we took a wrong turn, which wouldn't have been a big deal except for the police had the exits blocked so not only could we not turn around, we sat for nearly an hour in stand still traffic. Still not sure what was going on, but eventually we got turned around and on the right road. The highways were expensive (nearly 40 Euros in tolls from Barcelona to San Sebasitan) but were fast and really nice to drive on.
We arrived in San Sebastian in the early evening and had to find a place to dump the car and then locate our hostel. We located it without much trouble, but the trouble was there was no one there to let us in. We sat outside for a while and then Paul left to try and call them. No answer. We were mulling over what to do and decided to check out some of the other places in the area. Paul left to go check out one that was reccomended in one of our two guide books, and while he was gone the hostel owner came back and was quick to get our bags inside and get us set up in one of the rooms. The place was very clean and modern inside, but was just rooms, no common area or anywhere to sit. The double room we were in ended up being bunk beds, which seemed fine but the room was too small to sit in or anything so the next day when some other people left he moved us into a triple room which had a bunk bed and another bed, and was much much bigger. Also had 2 balconies. San Sebastian was a nice change of pace from Barcelona. Still very beautiful and old and steeped in culture, but way less touristy. Not much english spoken there so we had to sharpen our questionable Spanish skills. I had a really hard time finding vegetarian food there and then ended up eating the same egg and potato fritatta on baguette style tapas over and over and over. Part of the problem was that our eating schedule didn't line up with the Spanish one, so while we were walking around at 7pm starving and trying to find a restaurant, none would open until 9pm. All a part of the Spanish learning curve. San Sebastian was also where we got engaged, so it was extra special there inspite of the weather, which was pretty crappy.
After three days we left San Sebastian and headed into la Rioja region to check out wine country. It was really beautiful - rolling hills with vineyards as far as the eye could see, and spectacular wine for a handful of Euros. We spent one night in Haro, the heart of la Rioja region. We arrived there in the middle of siesta time so the place was a bit of a ghost town, but come 5pm things livened up and we had a really nice night. We found a bunch of wine stores and managed to communicate that we were looking for some wine to drink now, and some to lay down for a few years. So far we haven't been dissapointed in any of them. 4 bottles came home with us. It would have been nice to have more than one day there to get an opportunity to check out the bodegas (wineries) but we needed to move on.
We left Haro and headed for the Pyrenees which was on Paul's list of must visit places, due largely to the Tour de France which always holds at least one stage in these mountains. Paul wanted to look up what the toughest climb would be in this year's Tour and then go spray paint something on the road, but instead we headed for l'Ainsa, a small town very close to the French boarder. We had pretty much just randomly picked it out of the tour book and didn't know much of it, but were pleasantly surpised when we got there. Getting there was quite the adventure. We took some wrong turns on the highways and ended up a bit lost, but once we got into the Pyrenees the road was easy to follow and amazingly challenging to drive on. I was going about 20km/hr for a large part of the drive, and Paul wasn't even telling me to go faster which said a lot about the sketchiness of the drive. Windy narrow mountain roads with crazy drops to the side, but spectacular scenery. Once in l'Ainsa we checked into our hotel and then asked the lady at the tourist office where a good spot for a picnic would be. She told us to walk up the stairs to the old town, and we did, and up at the top was a 13th century town! It was amazing to be sitting on the grass at the top of a mountain surrounded by such old beautiful (and well maintained) buildings looking down on the river canyon, eating cheese and drinking Spanish beer. What luck! We wandered through the village after our picnic, and then had a couple of glasses of wine on a restaurant balcony with the most spectacular views and no one around. Four glasses of wine cost us 4 Euros! It might have been a bit of a deal since I had to open the bottle for the bartender who had an injured hand, but still! Paul got to go for his altitude run in the Pyrenees, so he was a happy camper.
We left l'Ainsa a little earlier than planned because getting there from Haro had taken us so long and the drive was so sketchy, but we took a different road it was way shorter. We headed back to the Barcelona airport to drop of the rental car - I had had enough of driving in Spain and was not about to try to find a hotel when there was a free shuttle from the airport. We stayed the night at an airport hotel, which was relatively uneventful.
Up early the next morning and back to the aiport to catch our 9am flight to Amsterdam. After landing, getting our bags, getting the train to Amsterdam Central and finding our hotel, we enjoyed a day of pure gluttony. We went coffee shop hopping, then pub hopping, junk food hopping, checked out the red light district, more coffee shops, more junk food, walking around seeing the sights. It was a nice end to the trip.
On the flight home we were lucky enough to end up with a section three seats with no one in the middle seat, so that made the long daylight flight much more bearable. The trip was amazing, I had so much fun. Paul and I travelled really well together other than 1 small meltdown. Once I get the pictures uploaded to flickr I'll post a link. To all 746 of them. Yep.
It sucks to be back at work, but it's nice to be back in my own kitchen and bed.
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
news
Ok, so I have 10 days worth of travelling Spain to blog about, and that will come once the jet lag fades and the copious pile of work on my desk starts to dwindle. But for now, hot news! The mister and I are engaged!!! Yup, atop of Mont Igeldo on a grey day with little to no views of the city I was cluelessly meandering away from what he thought was the perfect spot and I called out to Paul to take a picture but he told me to wait and when I turned to hand him the camera there he was standing with a ring box in his hand. He got down on one knee and asked me to marry him, and I said heck yes!!!!
So there ya have it. Spain updates to come in due time, but that news was bursting out of me first!
So there ya have it. Spain updates to come in due time, but that news was bursting out of me first!
Thursday, June 05, 2008
helsinki
Last Saturday May 31st after working a half day that turned into leaving only 10 min only, I came home from work and frantically packed my bags, and then we were off! We flew the red eye Vancouver to Amsterdam and then a quick transfer to another flight Amsterdam to Helsinki. The flights were relatively uneventful other than poor Paul barfing four times (once on me) and the flight attendants being relatively unconcerned (responding to our button push a good 30 min later when they were serving drinks). The airplane food was gross, but that's nothing new. Arrived in Helsinki Sunday afternoon and made our way to our downtown hotel. We're staying at Glo Hotel an awesome little boutique hotel with a lot of art and character, really central. It's of course way out of our budget, but this is the leg of the trip being funded by UBC, so we're enjoying the luxory while we can. If you can afford it, I highly reccomend it. Finland is expensive in general (the beer is cheap!) but we've managed to spend not very much money all things considered.
I had pretty much no expectations for Helsinki, and it blew my mind! The lightness is really amazing. This time of year it's light out and sunny and warm nearly 23 hours a day. Around midnight it gets a little dim for a while, but no darkness to speak of. The city is gorgeous, steeped in character and history, clean and safe, bustling but not crowded, the Fins are amazingly friendly, and English is spoken everywhere. The Finnish language is very complex - every letter is pronounced. For example Tuullikki, the name of a girl who showed me around on Tuesday - you need to pronounce both t's, both l's and both k's. Challenging for our western tongues.
Monday morning Paul was off to the conference. We had breakfast together at our hotel buffet which was incredible, and had all the fixings for sandwiches too, so we made some for our lunches (and have done this every day, so didn't have to pay for 2 meals a day) and headed in opposite directions for the day. Paul out to Espos, the suburb where the conference was being held, and I meandering around the city. I did a guided tour and learned a lot of Finnish history, and then wandered through the markets and some of the historic buildings. Back to the hotel to try and nap off the jetlag, which proved extra challenging with it being light 23 hours a day. Paul returned around 5pm and had a brief nap, and then we headed out to meet Jens and Antti (Antti is a Finnish boys name, you need to say both the t's) who are in Paul's research group at UBC (Antti is also in my brother's fraternity and comes from a small town in northern Finland but has been at UBC the last few years . . . small world). We went back to the conference site to go to a wine and dine (more like wine and salad for me - vegetarian eating has been somewhat challenging here) with the conference people. Paul shook hands with the Finnish prof who was the external examiner for his PhD.
Tuesday I got up and went for a run with Paul, and discovered the window where I thought I'd be a faster runner than him has already closed, broken bones and everything. Back to the hotel for breakfast and sandwich making, and then he headed to the conference and I headed to meet Tuullikki, a girl friend of Antti's who he had arranged to take me around for the day. She was really kind and showed me around Helsinki's design district - some really cool and really expensive clothes, particularly once you translate Euros into Cdn dollars. In the evening Paul and I met up with Antti and Jens and some of Antti's friends and we went to a Finnish restaurant. My stomach had been bugging me till this point so we stopped at a pharmacy where Antti translated between me and the pharmacist and eventually I left with some Tums type thing. We came home early to bed totally exhausted.
Wednesday I went out to the conference with the boys and watched Paul give his talk. I realized that Paul had been getting a much worse deal - he's been at this conference listening to lectures on paper physics and I've been gallivanting around my new favourite European city. After the talks Paul, Jens, Antti, Juha (another Fin who did a stint at UBC a few years ago) and I got some Finnish beers and drank them in the park, then met up with the rest of the conference congregation and went on an hour boat trip from Espos to a little island (can't even begin to spell it) near downtown Helsinki where there is an old sea fortress built by the Swedes when they controlled Finland, and conquered by the Russians. We had a guided tour and then a banquet in the inner most fortress. The banquet hall was stunning, but the meal was among the worst any of us had ever eaten. There was lots of wine though.
Thursday Paul finally had a day to go sight seeing. We went for a run in the morning to the Olympic Stadium built in 1938 for the 1940 games, but war broke out in 1939 so it wasn't used till 1952. There is a tower you can go up and get a great view from. We went up, but my acrophobia took over and I went right back down after a quick look. After showers and breakfast I took Paul around downtown and showed him all the cool things I've discovered, and then we went and had a treat at Helsinki's oldest bakery where they used to make pastries for royalty. We met up with Jens for a drink at a bar literally on the roof of another hotel which has a great 360 view of all of Helsinki, and then out for a decent dinner.
If Helsinki and nordic Europe hasn't been on your list of places to visit, put it on! This place has really been amazing and I am genuinely sad to leave it. We will be back for sure. We leave this afternoon back to Amsterdam and then on to Barcelona, where my sister is going to meet us for a 22 hour visit! More adventures to come. . .
I had pretty much no expectations for Helsinki, and it blew my mind! The lightness is really amazing. This time of year it's light out and sunny and warm nearly 23 hours a day. Around midnight it gets a little dim for a while, but no darkness to speak of. The city is gorgeous, steeped in character and history, clean and safe, bustling but not crowded, the Fins are amazingly friendly, and English is spoken everywhere. The Finnish language is very complex - every letter is pronounced. For example Tuullikki, the name of a girl who showed me around on Tuesday - you need to pronounce both t's, both l's and both k's. Challenging for our western tongues.
Monday morning Paul was off to the conference. We had breakfast together at our hotel buffet which was incredible, and had all the fixings for sandwiches too, so we made some for our lunches (and have done this every day, so didn't have to pay for 2 meals a day) and headed in opposite directions for the day. Paul out to Espos, the suburb where the conference was being held, and I meandering around the city. I did a guided tour and learned a lot of Finnish history, and then wandered through the markets and some of the historic buildings. Back to the hotel to try and nap off the jetlag, which proved extra challenging with it being light 23 hours a day. Paul returned around 5pm and had a brief nap, and then we headed out to meet Jens and Antti (Antti is a Finnish boys name, you need to say both the t's) who are in Paul's research group at UBC (Antti is also in my brother's fraternity and comes from a small town in northern Finland but has been at UBC the last few years . . . small world). We went back to the conference site to go to a wine and dine (more like wine and salad for me - vegetarian eating has been somewhat challenging here) with the conference people. Paul shook hands with the Finnish prof who was the external examiner for his PhD.
Tuesday I got up and went for a run with Paul, and discovered the window where I thought I'd be a faster runner than him has already closed, broken bones and everything. Back to the hotel for breakfast and sandwich making, and then he headed to the conference and I headed to meet Tuullikki, a girl friend of Antti's who he had arranged to take me around for the day. She was really kind and showed me around Helsinki's design district - some really cool and really expensive clothes, particularly once you translate Euros into Cdn dollars. In the evening Paul and I met up with Antti and Jens and some of Antti's friends and we went to a Finnish restaurant. My stomach had been bugging me till this point so we stopped at a pharmacy where Antti translated between me and the pharmacist and eventually I left with some Tums type thing. We came home early to bed totally exhausted.
Wednesday I went out to the conference with the boys and watched Paul give his talk. I realized that Paul had been getting a much worse deal - he's been at this conference listening to lectures on paper physics and I've been gallivanting around my new favourite European city. After the talks Paul, Jens, Antti, Juha (another Fin who did a stint at UBC a few years ago) and I got some Finnish beers and drank them in the park, then met up with the rest of the conference congregation and went on an hour boat trip from Espos to a little island (can't even begin to spell it) near downtown Helsinki where there is an old sea fortress built by the Swedes when they controlled Finland, and conquered by the Russians. We had a guided tour and then a banquet in the inner most fortress. The banquet hall was stunning, but the meal was among the worst any of us had ever eaten. There was lots of wine though.
Thursday Paul finally had a day to go sight seeing. We went for a run in the morning to the Olympic Stadium built in 1938 for the 1940 games, but war broke out in 1939 so it wasn't used till 1952. There is a tower you can go up and get a great view from. We went up, but my acrophobia took over and I went right back down after a quick look. After showers and breakfast I took Paul around downtown and showed him all the cool things I've discovered, and then we went and had a treat at Helsinki's oldest bakery where they used to make pastries for royalty. We met up with Jens for a drink at a bar literally on the roof of another hotel which has a great 360 view of all of Helsinki, and then out for a decent dinner.
If Helsinki and nordic Europe hasn't been on your list of places to visit, put it on! This place has really been amazing and I am genuinely sad to leave it. We will be back for sure. We leave this afternoon back to Amsterdam and then on to Barcelona, where my sister is going to meet us for a 22 hour visit! More adventures to come. . .
Saturday, May 31, 2008
we're leaving on a jet plane . . .
Yep. A Europe we will go go. We leave this evening and fly the red eye from Vancouver to Amsterdam and then Amsterdam to Helsinki, Finland. Paul has a conference in Helsinki that he could not be talked out of going to, and the trauma docs gave him the green light to fly after a nice x-ray of his lungs, so off we go. We will be in Helsinki from June 1st to 6th. I haven't quite figured out what I'm going to do while Paul is busy nerding it up with the other paper physics geeks, but I'm sure I'll find something. Finnish soap operas anyone? One night we're booked onto a boat cruise around the Baltic Sea which is supposed to be quite stunning.
On the 6th we fly back to Amsterdam, and then hop on another flight from Amsterdam to Barcelona, Spain, which I managed to secure for a whopping 10 Euros each. Return. Plus taxes and shiz, so it worked out to 200 Euros for the two of us round trip. We have three nights booked in Barcelona and then we rent a car and are going to drive to San Sebastian where we have four nights booked. After that we have three nights unaccounted for until we have to be back in Barcelona for June 15th for a 9am flight back to Amsterdam. We're not sure where those three nights will take us, we've agreed to just wing it and see how it goes. Then just over 24 hours to chillax in Amsterdam and enjoy the cafes and the botanical gardens Cammy is insisting we see. Cafe first, gardens second. Understood. Then flying back home, arriving back some time the afternoon of June 16th.
I have to admit, I'm more nervous about this trip then I ever have been about travelling in third world countries. After surviving being trapped in a sinking boat and stuck in the middle of a military coup, I'm pretty sure I can handle pretty much anything travelling decides to throw at me, but this broken man of mine I'm not so sure about. I guess I'm nervous about his pain tolerance while sleeping in strange beds without his special bed contraptions (way too big to take with us) and while sitting in airplane seats for long periods of time and rickety rental cars. And I'm nervous about having to lug his luggage around the pedestrian only parts of San Sebastian trying to find our hotel which may or may not exist according the reviews on the website we booked through. I'm packing extra light with a wheelie bag that can be converted to a backpack so I can take over handling his stuff if need be. It's all apart of the fun of travelling, so whatever, we'll just roll with it.
I've got my money belt (with no actual money to put in it . . . hello overdraft, my name is Katie . . .) and my airplane pillow and two books on Spain and "Spanish for Dummies" audio CD's to listen to on my ipod and we've got a shit load of ativan and funky narcotics, so yeah. Whooohoo!
On the 6th we fly back to Amsterdam, and then hop on another flight from Amsterdam to Barcelona, Spain, which I managed to secure for a whopping 10 Euros each. Return. Plus taxes and shiz, so it worked out to 200 Euros for the two of us round trip. We have three nights booked in Barcelona and then we rent a car and are going to drive to San Sebastian where we have four nights booked. After that we have three nights unaccounted for until we have to be back in Barcelona for June 15th for a 9am flight back to Amsterdam. We're not sure where those three nights will take us, we've agreed to just wing it and see how it goes. Then just over 24 hours to chillax in Amsterdam and enjoy the cafes and the botanical gardens Cammy is insisting we see. Cafe first, gardens second. Understood. Then flying back home, arriving back some time the afternoon of June 16th.
I have to admit, I'm more nervous about this trip then I ever have been about travelling in third world countries. After surviving being trapped in a sinking boat and stuck in the middle of a military coup, I'm pretty sure I can handle pretty much anything travelling decides to throw at me, but this broken man of mine I'm not so sure about. I guess I'm nervous about his pain tolerance while sleeping in strange beds without his special bed contraptions (way too big to take with us) and while sitting in airplane seats for long periods of time and rickety rental cars. And I'm nervous about having to lug his luggage around the pedestrian only parts of San Sebastian trying to find our hotel which may or may not exist according the reviews on the website we booked through. I'm packing extra light with a wheelie bag that can be converted to a backpack so I can take over handling his stuff if need be. It's all apart of the fun of travelling, so whatever, we'll just roll with it.
I've got my money belt (with no actual money to put in it . . . hello overdraft, my name is Katie . . .) and my airplane pillow and two books on Spain and "Spanish for Dummies" audio CD's to listen to on my ipod and we've got a shit load of ativan and funky narcotics, so yeah. Whooohoo!
Sunday, May 11, 2008
getting back to it
I suppose I should have posted an update sooner, but time is of a premium these days and blogging took a low priority. Shocking, I know.
Paul is back at home now, which is great and also certainly has it's challenges. I stayed on medical leave last week to be home and provide care and help where needed, but I will go back to work next week. Paul is approaching his recovery with the same intensity with which he approaches all things he is serious about - the same intensity that saw him finish his PhD in less than 4 years, among other things. So watch out world, he's coming at ya! We've had an OT come in and do a home assessment and have been outfitted with all kinds of things to make it easier for him to be independent . . . bath seat, hand held shower, bed rail, bed lift wedge thing. Yep. We're officially octogenarians. And so good looking.
It seems the pain from having the surgery is wearing off, and so he's starting to feel all of the other things, like the 7 broken ribs, 2 fractured vertebrae, and all of the little fractures and bone fragments around his broken scapula and collarbone that they did not repair, letting time and the body do their jobs instead. We saw the trauma team again last week for a follow up chest x-ray, and the verdict was that the pneumothorax and hemothorax have resolved (thanks largely to the chest tube that was in for 3 days, and Paul's mega healthy lungs) which is really good news. Tomorrow we see the orthopaedic team again, and look forward to hearing what they have to say about pain management and starting rehab.
We documented pretty much everything with photos from lying in hospital beds to bandage changes. Out of respect for Paul's privacy I'm not going to post them on this blog, but you can check out the one he posted on his blog if you're interested in seeing him at his worst (still pretty dang cute if you ask me).
Paul is back at home now, which is great and also certainly has it's challenges. I stayed on medical leave last week to be home and provide care and help where needed, but I will go back to work next week. Paul is approaching his recovery with the same intensity with which he approaches all things he is serious about - the same intensity that saw him finish his PhD in less than 4 years, among other things. So watch out world, he's coming at ya! We've had an OT come in and do a home assessment and have been outfitted with all kinds of things to make it easier for him to be independent . . . bath seat, hand held shower, bed rail, bed lift wedge thing. Yep. We're officially octogenarians. And so good looking.
It seems the pain from having the surgery is wearing off, and so he's starting to feel all of the other things, like the 7 broken ribs, 2 fractured vertebrae, and all of the little fractures and bone fragments around his broken scapula and collarbone that they did not repair, letting time and the body do their jobs instead. We saw the trauma team again last week for a follow up chest x-ray, and the verdict was that the pneumothorax and hemothorax have resolved (thanks largely to the chest tube that was in for 3 days, and Paul's mega healthy lungs) which is really good news. Tomorrow we see the orthopaedic team again, and look forward to hearing what they have to say about pain management and starting rehab.
We documented pretty much everything with photos from lying in hospital beds to bandage changes. Out of respect for Paul's privacy I'm not going to post them on this blog, but you can check out the one he posted on his blog if you're interested in seeing him at his worst (still pretty dang cute if you ask me).
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
baby steps
Paul is still in hospital, and seems to be making good progress. His surgery yesterday took longer than expected, but the surgeon felt it went well. He now has screws holding his scapula together and a metal plate on his clavicle, as well as a temporary hose coming out of his chest draining an impressive amount of fluid from around his lungs. This will hopefully come out sometime tomorrow. He managed to stand a few times this morning (turned a magnificant shade of green the first time), and went for a walk up and down the hall in the afternoon. Since the right side of his upper body doesn't work at all right now, we are getting to know each other VERY intimately. He started eating today. Two bites of muffin in the morning, two mouthfulls of spaghetti at lunch, and a few slurps of soup at dinner. He's doing well with fluids, although nausea is still a problem. Probably all the meds.
He may be coming home by the weekend, which will be nice for both of us. I can't seem to relax unless I'm at the hospital, in spite of being completely exhausted and living off of take out and vending machine food. It only just occured to me this evening that once he's at home, there won't be any nurses. Just me. Shit man. Mental list of things to do being compiled. Work has been good about giving me time off on medial leave. I got a message that they were working on covering next week for me too which I didn't really think would be necessary until I started to think about Paul coming home, and now I'm pretty sure it will be. I'll take it day by day.
Paul is the strongest person I know physically and mentally. I have no doubt he'll recover well and swiftly. It is hard to see him like this though.
He may be coming home by the weekend, which will be nice for both of us. I can't seem to relax unless I'm at the hospital, in spite of being completely exhausted and living off of take out and vending machine food. It only just occured to me this evening that once he's at home, there won't be any nurses. Just me. Shit man. Mental list of things to do being compiled. Work has been good about giving me time off on medial leave. I got a message that they were working on covering next week for me too which I didn't really think would be necessary until I started to think about Paul coming home, and now I'm pretty sure it will be. I'll take it day by day.
Paul is the strongest person I know physically and mentally. I have no doubt he'll recover well and swiftly. It is hard to see him like this though.
Monday, April 28, 2008
life happening
The post I was composing this morning while enjoying my first full blissful day off, no studying, not a care in the world, was derailed. I got a call from the hospital just after noon letting me know that Paul was there after being hit by a car on his bike. I have dreaded this call for the nearly five years we've been together. So off to the hospital I rushed - luckily we live only 4 blocks away, so rushing to the hospital can be done in short order.
He is currently stable, but has multiple broken ribs, broken clavicle, broken scapula (shoulder), some fractures along his spine (which don't seem to be of much concern), a punctured lung, and blood pooling around and in his right lung with is making breathing difficult. He also had some trauma to his head and has a concussion, but it seems his helmet did it's job, and he is really lucky as far as this is concerned.
After many x-rays and CT scans, the orthopedic people have decided they need to operate to repair his shoulder tomorrow. The socket in which the ball sits is cracked and has shifted, so that needs to be realigned and will be held in place with a screw. Since they are already going in there, they have also decided to repair his collar bone, which wouldn't normally be done, but what the heck. He will also need a tube put in his chest to drain out the blood and air putting pressure on his lungs. Surgery is booked for around 9am on Tuesday.
He is currently in an acute trauma unit, but I believe after the surgery he will be moved to a different trauma unit. Paul will likely be in hospital for the next 4 days or so. I would not recommend visiting until Wednesday, depending on how his recovery from surgery goes tomorrow.
I will update as frequently as I can.
He is currently stable, but has multiple broken ribs, broken clavicle, broken scapula (shoulder), some fractures along his spine (which don't seem to be of much concern), a punctured lung, and blood pooling around and in his right lung with is making breathing difficult. He also had some trauma to his head and has a concussion, but it seems his helmet did it's job, and he is really lucky as far as this is concerned.
After many x-rays and CT scans, the orthopedic people have decided they need to operate to repair his shoulder tomorrow. The socket in which the ball sits is cracked and has shifted, so that needs to be realigned and will be held in place with a screw. Since they are already going in there, they have also decided to repair his collar bone, which wouldn't normally be done, but what the heck. He will also need a tube put in his chest to drain out the blood and air putting pressure on his lungs. Surgery is booked for around 9am on Tuesday.
He is currently in an acute trauma unit, but I believe after the surgery he will be moved to a different trauma unit. Paul will likely be in hospital for the next 4 days or so. I would not recommend visiting until Wednesday, depending on how his recovery from surgery goes tomorrow.
I will update as frequently as I can.
Sunday, April 20, 2008
April Snow
I woke and saw
That softly, in the night
Sweet April lost her way!
And o’er the ground
A soft snow had fallen,
Displacing balmy showers-
So long a token of the
Fair freshness of nature’s
Wakening month.
Yet, lying ‘neath the fond
Caress of winter’s parting gift
We know the buds and green
Of spring will burst forth
Even more aglow
Vibrant with beauty!
From their rest
Beneath the snow.
Valerie Morrison
1917-2007
That softly, in the night
Sweet April lost her way!
And o’er the ground
A soft snow had fallen,
Displacing balmy showers-
So long a token of the
Fair freshness of nature’s
Wakening month.
Yet, lying ‘neath the fond
Caress of winter’s parting gift
We know the buds and green
Of spring will burst forth
Even more aglow
Vibrant with beauty!
From their rest
Beneath the snow.
Valerie Morrison
1917-2007
Saturday, April 19, 2008
bill c-517: mandatory labelling of GE food
This post is copied with permission from my dear friend Harmony's blog. This is a very important issue near and dear to my heart. Thanks Tro!
. . . . .
I urge you all to get involved in this very important issue. GMO foods are undertested and owned by major corporations who (yes, corporations are legally a who and not a what...scary) wield their power to destroy the lives of farmers in Canada and many parts of the world. You have the right to be able to make an informed choice about what you put in your and your childrens' bodies.
Please follow the actions suggested by Greenpeace on this site to pressure federal MPs to vote for the mandatory labeling of GMO foods, which may lead to a ban on them in Canada altogether. As of now, if you buy non-organic soy, wheat, corn, animal products, canola, yellow zucchini, potatoes, flax or cotton, you are likely paying for GMOs. The global food crisis is being worsened by this phenomenon, which seeks to limit nature's bounty to a few corporate owned Frankencrops.
Get involved! Everyone is needed for this, and we are so close to achieving victory.
. . . . .
I urge you all to get involved in this very important issue. GMO foods are undertested and owned by major corporations who (yes, corporations are legally a who and not a what...scary) wield their power to destroy the lives of farmers in Canada and many parts of the world. You have the right to be able to make an informed choice about what you put in your and your childrens' bodies.
Please follow the actions suggested by Greenpeace on this site to pressure federal MPs to vote for the mandatory labeling of GMO foods, which may lead to a ban on them in Canada altogether. As of now, if you buy non-organic soy, wheat, corn, animal products, canola, yellow zucchini, potatoes, flax or cotton, you are likely paying for GMOs. The global food crisis is being worsened by this phenomenon, which seeks to limit nature's bounty to a few corporate owned Frankencrops.
Get involved! Everyone is needed for this, and we are so close to achieving victory.
Saturday, April 12, 2008
sesame maple roasted tofu
1 tsp canola oil
2 tsp sesame oil
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1 medium onion, diced
1 brick o' firm tofu
1 Tbsp tahini paste
1 Tbsp soy sauce
1 Tbsp maple syrup
1 Tbsp rice wine vinegar
1 Tbsp sesame seeds
Preheat your oven to 450. Dice up your fu into 1 inch cubes. Toss with canola oil, sesame oil, salt, pepper, and onions. Spread onto a baking sheet and roast in oven for 15-20 min, until tofu and onions are starting to brown. In the mean time, whisk together remaining ingredients into a delish sauce. Remove tofu from oven, toss with sesame maple sauce, return to oven and roast another 8 min or so.
I've made this recipe a few times, and it's always been tasty but the sugars in the maple syrup burn and stick to the pan, so you sorta have to scrap everything off and get lots of burnt bits in with your tofu. Last night I had the genius idea to put the whole thing on parchment paper, so I did, and it was fantastic. The maple sauce still burned a little where it was in a puddle around the outside, but that was easily removed and the tofu turned out so fantastically delish.
I served it hot over a nice big spinach salad. Yum yum.
2 tsp sesame oil
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1 medium onion, diced
1 brick o' firm tofu
1 Tbsp tahini paste
1 Tbsp soy sauce
1 Tbsp maple syrup
1 Tbsp rice wine vinegar
1 Tbsp sesame seeds
Preheat your oven to 450. Dice up your fu into 1 inch cubes. Toss with canola oil, sesame oil, salt, pepper, and onions. Spread onto a baking sheet and roast in oven for 15-20 min, until tofu and onions are starting to brown. In the mean time, whisk together remaining ingredients into a delish sauce. Remove tofu from oven, toss with sesame maple sauce, return to oven and roast another 8 min or so.
I've made this recipe a few times, and it's always been tasty but the sugars in the maple syrup burn and stick to the pan, so you sorta have to scrap everything off and get lots of burnt bits in with your tofu. Last night I had the genius idea to put the whole thing on parchment paper, so I did, and it was fantastic. The maple sauce still burned a little where it was in a puddle around the outside, but that was easily removed and the tofu turned out so fantastically delish.
I served it hot over a nice big spinach salad. Yum yum.
Wednesday, April 09, 2008
fueled by chocolate milk
Big whopping congratulations to UBC swimmers Brent Hayden, Brian Johns, Annamay Pierse, Tanya Hunks, and Savannah King for making the 2008 Olympic team. These are five incredibly talented athletes and really nice people who have worked hard for this. Must be all that chocolate milk they guzzle as a recovery drink after each workout. Research came out suggesting that chocolate milk was the perfect recovery drink for endurance athletes, what with it's high levels of protein and the additional sugars from the chocolate. And it's deliscious. So the UBC swim team jumped on that bandwagon and started chugging down chocolate milk after every workout, and even one time showering in it. I'm not even joking about that.
Last week I managed to 'acquire' a case of chocolate milk of my own during a huge intramural event on campus which seemed to be sponsored in part by the chocolate milk people, whoever they are. Everyone was walking around with a bottle or two of milk, but I wasn't having any of that nonsense so I marched over authoritatively, picked up an entire case, and walked away. I've since discovered that chocolate milk is good in everything. And by everything I mean in my tea, and straight up, which are the two ways I've consumed it so far. I have big plans for chocolate banana smoothies and chocolate french toast on the weekend (note to self, buy nutella before weekend), and I'm sure it'll get twisted into some sort of tasty alcoholic drink after classes are done. Who am I kidding, after 10am today. I get up early, ok. My 10am is your 3pm.
Last week I managed to 'acquire' a case of chocolate milk of my own during a huge intramural event on campus which seemed to be sponsored in part by the chocolate milk people, whoever they are. Everyone was walking around with a bottle or two of milk, but I wasn't having any of that nonsense so I marched over authoritatively, picked up an entire case, and walked away. I've since discovered that chocolate milk is good in everything. And by everything I mean in my tea, and straight up, which are the two ways I've consumed it so far. I have big plans for chocolate banana smoothies and chocolate french toast on the weekend (note to self, buy nutella before weekend), and I'm sure it'll get twisted into some sort of tasty alcoholic drink after classes are done. Who am I kidding, after 10am today. I get up early, ok. My 10am is your 3pm.
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