Will: “You can’t just get a baby. You have to hope. Hope’s pretty powerful.”
Well said.
Author: Christine Cogger
I am not a writer. I like my kids, coffee, running around and reading about you. I live in the most incredible part of the world and am lucky enough to live some pretty great adventures.
Musings
I’m happy Hallowe’en is OVER for another year. I suppose I don’t hate it as much as I used to now that we have kids, but it’s still one of my least favourite “holidays” of the year. I didn’t like it as a kid; I disliked the pressure of finding “the perfect” costume, and since I grew up on a farm with a Dutch mom, trick or treating was rare, so I never cared about it that much. I particularly hate that most costumes for girls/women have been taken to soaring heights of slutiness. That’s just annoying. Anja will henceforth be an old fashioned ghost, white sheet and all, until she’s 21.
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CITS is creeping along through the fall and early signs of winter. However, CITS #8 and #9 have been run with a boy. That being said, he can hold up his end of the conversation and walks when I ask/tell him to, so we shall continue until it has to turn into Chicks in the Snow… which means ski days.
I’m trying to decide what, if any, races to do next. I’ve damaged my knee so it either needs to be soon – before the doctors kibosh more running, or post-op. Suggestions welcome.
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Our home office is close to the kids playroom and it’s actually kind of nice to be in here working while they play together (we have a door we can close when we don’t have to break up fights). The best part is eavesdropping on their conversations. It’s quite something listening to a 6 year old explain to a 4 year what “outnumbered” means. Or listening to a 4 year teach the 2 year old how to count to 20 (who needs 12 and 14, anyway?)
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It’s November 1… which means no more perusing cooking sites with guilt-free pleasure. My cooking challenge starts today. What was I thinking?? We head to Kona tomorrow as a family which is great but we’re joining friends who happen to be great cooks. Some would see this as an opportunity to learn. I see it as pressure!
That being said, please send me some of your go-to recipes so that I don’t have to spend my days on Pinterest! Maybe I should have started small, as in one new smoothie recipe a week – I can handle that!
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QOTD
Will to Rory, late one night. “It’s in my dreams to have you come to school with me”.
Rory: “I’m so glad the world isn’t made of black pepper otherwise my whole body would be so itchy”.
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Kona-bound tomorrow. 3 kids. 6am flight. I’m not asking you to feel sorry for me… but think of me with fondness as you roll over in bed at 7. Oddly, one of the things I am most looking forward to about this trip is being in the US for the election. I’m curious to watch the coverage without the Canadian twist.
Hard to believe that when we come home it’ll be one week till opening day at WB!
Aloha!
Making a better me?
In the fall of 2004, I taught myself to like red wine. Until that point, I loathed the stuff. It took a while, but I got the hang of it and now – even though I can barely tell a good one from a cheap box one, I enjoy it.
Bear with me, there’s method to my madness.
I’ve been off work now for about a month and pondering my next move. While I’m enjoying the freedom that comes with being home full-time, I’m getting antsy to do something outside these 4 walls. However, since I’ve decided to seek out the “perfect” gig – if there is such a thing, I’m filling days until that happens with various projects, plans and adventures.
One of these projects is learning to cook. Oddly, I am semi-obsessed with food blogs, cookbooks and recipes. I love the pictures of food that Shira takes and how she makes veggie food look so easy and delectable (I am not a vegetarian). If someone links to a recipe on their blog, I feel obliged to click. I can spend hours looking a pictures of food on Pinterest (my own personal productivity vortex) and thumbing through recipe books. I so admire my friends who can make delicious meals from scratch, with little or no guidelines.
I think eating out is a luxury – one of my favourites. It doesn’t have to be fancy or high-end for me to enjoy it. I love that someone else has taken the time to prepare something that I want to eat.
And yet.
I really, really dislike cooking. I am not good at it, never have been. If I set foot in a kitchen with the intent of making something, I get easily distracted by almost anything else and, worse, someone will almost always comment “ooh look! Cogger’s in the kitchen”! This makes me want to turn on my heel,have cereal for dinner and let everyone fend for themselves.
So back to my learning to love red wine. I figure I’ve got time now, maybe I can teach myself to like cooking? I initially thought that I would do something insane like trying a new recipe daily and then realized that that was just setting myself up for total failure. So I’ll start slow, maybe twice a week? The trick will be making things that everyone – including me – will like to eat. And that doesn’t mean making cookies every day.
Since I like round numbers and things to be *just* so, I’ll start November 1 and give myself a month. I figure this gives me lots of time to continue to peruse recipes and pretty pictures of salad, guilt-free, until at least October 30.
Maybe if I cooked while drinking red wine it would make the learning curve less steep?
QOTD
Some days, it’s best to take your cue from vintage Calvin and Hobbes.
“Life is like topography, Hobbes. There are summits of happiness and success, flat stretches of boring routine, and valleys of frustration and failure.”
Ironman, eh?
So presumably, you’ve heard the news. Ironman Canada is moving to Whistler in 2013. This is pretty exciting news for a tri-nerd like myself. No, I won’t be signing up. But I’ll be involved in some way and will be following developments closely (and by closely I mean I’ll be following my favourite pros twitter feeds to see if they are coming and hoping the Ministry paves the road between Whistler and Pemberton).
Liz has written a very good account of what race day is going to be like and if you’re racing, I highly suggest you read it. Preparation is key!
Most of the people signing up seem to know quite a lot about Whistler (based on the forum chit-chat I read). Some are knowledgeable, some are grossly and amusingly misinformed (for example, the dude who thought a swim in Green Lake in October would be awesome!) However, no one seems to mention Pemberton all that much so consider this my open invitation to come to my little town and create your own training base!
Pemberton is small, fun, active and family-friendly. It’s a great place to live and train – trust me, since I do both here… If you come to town to train, look me up, maybe I’ll even invite you to a CITS run!
Herewith, some suggestions…
1. The swim.
Despite years of asking for one, Pemberton doesn’t have a community pool. If you are coming to our part of the world between October – June, you’ll be swimming in the 25m pool at Meadow Park. It’s a decent facility (with a hot tub and steam room) but stick to swimming during “swimmer’s hours”… that is 6am – 9am. Otherwise, you’ll encounter hordes of screaming kids and are liable to get landed on by an overzealous rookie on the rope swing. Plus, there are only 2 lanes open during non-lane swim times, so you’ll be battling for space with the head-up breastroker and the one length, board-short wearing sprinter.
If you come from June onwards, the open water swim possibilities open right up. Alta Lake is where IMC will be held, so best to train there. Like Liz said, watch those boats! They are pretty pointing and they go backwards. Lost lake is a great option with the added bonus of a nudie dock (if you’re into that sort of thing). But let’s not forget Pemberton! Mosquito lake is small but clear and beautiful. It just takes a little work to get to… 1 Mile is an ok option, if you don’t mind getting your face caressed by weeds, which I kind of do. Last but not least, Gates Lake in Birken is absolutely worth the drive north. Clear, quiet and big.
Oh – and you’re kidding yourself if you think wetsuits won’t be required at this race!
2. The bike
Perhaps I’m in the minority but I think this course is tougher than Challenge Penticton. It may not have Richter Pass, the 7 Bitches, and Yellow Lake, but the ride back to Whistler at the end of 180K is not to be underestimated, nor is the long out and back in the Pemberton Meadows. It’s pretty much guaranteed that the wind is going to be picking up just in time for the AG’ers to make the turn and that’s when the real drafting, er, I mean work will begin.
If you are coming up here to train, don’t limit yourself to the course. There’s some fabulous riding to be had around here. Riding from Pemberton to D’arcy is a gorgeous and tough training ride. Bring your $5 and treat yourself to a cold Coke at the D’arcy General Store before you start the ride back up to Pemberton. Challenge yourself -as we do every year – to ride from Lillooet Lake to Joffre Lakes sans timing device and see how close you can get to your estimated ride time up the 13KMs of switchbacks and climbing. Ride the Classic “Tour de Train” – ride from Pemberton to Lilloet, take the train back to D’arcy then ride back to Pemberton.
Of course there are lots of hills and rides to be had in and around Whistler. Join the Whistler Tri Club on Wednesday mornings… they’ll welcome you up Cardiac and Kadenwood. Fun times at 6:30am, I swear.
The thing with riding around here that everyone – triathletes, roadies and drivers – needs to remember is that the roads are going to be pretty crowded next summer. Everyone’s going to have to play nice.
I know tri-nerds are loathe to risk injury in the months leading up to their “A” race, but trust me when I say that the mountain biking around Pembi makes it worth the effort. And that’s saying something when it comes from a chicken like me.
3. The run.
The course description makes it sound pretty flat, but there’s a few kick-your-ass deceivers in there. By all means, train on the course. Run the Whistler Half Marathon course.
But Pemberton has some great trails to train on and miles of roads (here’s where that out and back on the Meadows comes in handy… have someone drop you off at the turn around and you can run back to town. It’s not super exciting but it’s scenic and dead flat – what better way to practice leg turnover!) While it’s true that most of the running in Pemberton tends to out-and-back style, we local girls have managed to string together some pretty long loops over the years. Look us up and we’ll let you in on our secrets…
A tried and true and tough long run? Go from Pemberton to Whistler. It’s not very exciting but it sure as hell gets the job done.
4. Nutrition
We triathletes are known to eat and eat well (and often). How much do I love finishing a long run or ride knowing that I get to end the day at Mile One Eating House? A whole lot. You won’t find a better burger and micro brew combo! I’m sure they have some veggie options, I’m just not that interested in what they might be.
We happen to play host to 2 fantastic coffee shops, too… Blackbird Bakery and Mount Currie Coffee Co… Try both, you’ll wind up with your own favourite.
For such a small town, we can boast about having 2 grocery stores, a natural foods/supplement place, a couple of yoga studios, a gym, a physio clinic, the world’s best masseuse but if I told you who that was I’d have to kill you because he’s already busy enough, a totally weird General Store and last but not least, 3 gas stations.
See? Doesn’t it make you want to come and play?
QOTD
“Hey Mum, you have a cute bum”.
-Anja, 2.
QOTD
We were all loaded into the truck and driving to Vancouver early this morning. The following conversation actually happened.
Rory: “Mum, I had a dream that Auntie Lizzie is getting married.”
Me: “Well, as a matter of fact, she is”.
Will: “Rory, ca c’est, comment dit-on, a dream come true”.
(Translation: “that is, how do you say, a dream come true”.)
My boys are closet romantics.
Rubble Creek and random thoughts
Rubble Creek Classic
Last week, Jen and I, accompanied by 30 friends/strangers ran the Rubble Creek Classic . Chicks in the Sticks go racing! We’ve been wanting to do this run for years and we finally committed; or rather, I signed Jen and I up whether she liked it or not. Neither of us have gotten in much quality training of late but the day was spectacular and well worth the effort of getting up early and running 24K.
About 8 km of climbing, a random number of kms of flats around the base of Black Tusk and then 10 painful kms of down, down, down… I felt that run for days.
It was mostly worth it because I had the most spectacular nap that afternoon.
Fact
“If you want something done, give it to the busiest person you know”. Truer words were never spoken – to me, anyway. I’ve been “retired” for about 3 weeks now and I am struggling to relax and feeling the need to fill my days with tasks and projects. I’m afraid that if I slow down, I’ll never get going again.
Fall
It’s Fall now, pretty much officially. Shorter days, cold mountain mornings. I love the leaves, the light, the change. I don’t love having to layer the kids in clothing. I’m counting the days till the can dress themselves intelligently to head into the cold outdoors.
Early runs now start in the dark… harder to pry oneself out of bed, that’s for sure. This morning’s CITS run was the 2nd Annual-Earn-That-Turkey-Dinner-run through the Mosquito Lake trails. The sunrise made it special, as did the fact that we were done by 8:45am.
Thankful
There is much to be thankful for this year. Despite the loss of my mother a few weeks ago, I am thankful for being surrounded by such good friends, ridiculous children, a close-knit family and some pretty nice physical surroundings. Frankly, there isn’t much I can complain about.
Ed: is it thankful FOR or thankful that I? See? Told you I wasn’t a writer.
QOTD
Anja and I fly to Quebec tomorrow to prepare for Mum’s celebration of life. She is very excited about prospect of “fwying on da aiyapwane”. Little does she know that flying is basically like sitting in a car for 5 hours, but with a bathroom. I can’t bring myself to burst her bubble. I have, however, drilled the notion of sky martials into their towheads. Scream and the “sky martian” is allowed to open the door at the back of the plane and “fwow you out!”
Parenting 101. Fear and mild skepticism.
On playing hookie
I’m a big believer in the importance of education. I consider my family to be extremely fortunate to be educated in French in BC. We’re privileged enough to have small classrooms, outstanding teachers and programs that allow our kids to experience different things other than just sitting behind a desk 24/7.
This past weekend, we were chatting with friends who were telling us about their own experiences with their schools. For instance, they were reprimanded when they took their kindergartner out of school for a week to go to India (India!) Others are charged $200 per absence because truancy levels are so high where they live.
Personally, I think that is outrageous. I want my kids to experience a diverse education. If that means that I’ll pull my first grader out of school for one day to do something I think has value, I will. If I want to give the kids the opportunity to travel somewhere exotic (or not), I’d like to do that without penalty (within reason, of course). Granted, growing up, if we weren’t bleeding from our eyeballs, we didn’t skip school – ever. I don’t regret that because our weekends were so wildly different from our Monday-Friday life.
All this long winded diatribe to say that it was great to pull Will out of school today to take him and Rory to hike the Chief in Squamish. I’d been promising/threatening to take them all summer and with the weather about to turn and empty retirement days looming, I thought it would be a great time to do it.
The boys did great. The hike was no joke and we made it to just beyond the second peak. Saved by some PB&J sandwiches in the sun, we ventured back down and had some very amusing chats about a variety of topics on our way down: Star Wars, manners, Omi, squirrels, walking sticks, burping and sore muscles to name but a few. I’ve heard that the best way to communicate with young boys is while they are moving. If my kids are any indication, it’s 100% true.
We didn’t make record time by any means but there was sunshine, limited whining, minimal blood and no fights. I’ll call that a win.
The journey continues
The guest posts continue…
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Hi there,
When we left you last, we were bedding down for the night in Rivière du Loup. The next day started off poorly though, as some city workers had knocked out the water supply to the better part of the city, including our hotel! So un-showered and unshaven, (like good road-trippers) we put Riv in the rearview mirror and sped through the rest of Quebec and northern New Brunswick. We veered off the Trans-Canada at Grand Falls heading to the Miramichi valley based on a reports from an old college friend that The ‘chi is beautiful,… and it was! On the way, we stopped for lunch at Plaster Rock,known for hosting the largest pond hockey tournament in the world (hey, that’s something!) and a Tim Horton’s stop in Miramichi which, as it turns out, is the “Irish Capital of the Maritimes”… who knew?
At sunset, we were cruising over the Confederation Bridge between New Brunswick and PEI, and by nightfall we were having fish and chips at a little place I remembered on Water Street in Charlottetown.
The next day was another beautiful, sunny and warm one, and Dad and I took advantage of the nice weather to tour the Island from West to East. We drove out to Summerside and then followed the shore north and all the way back to Charlottetown, passing through Anne of Green Gables country – replete with all the gimmicks and Trilingual (Japanese!?) signs. But I think the highlight was definitely Cavendish Beach which was stunning. Miles and miles of soft red sand, a little surf, and basically we had the place to ourselves as this is the “off-season”. I recommend you drag the kids out there: a fraction of the price of a Nantucket vacation, and the water’s just as cold, guaranteed!
Yesterday, we took the ferry from Wood Islands PEI to Caribou, N.S, and pushed on another few miles towards Antigonish to stop for and visit my friend Paul and his family at their cottage. Paul is also recently back from London, and for the occasion, his brother Chris and Sister Kate had come up from Massachussets to visit, so it was a very full house! But Paul’s mom pulled out all the stops and the family whipped up a fresh seafood feast of epic proportions: Pan-fried scallops and fresh oysters literally just out of the bay behind the house, smoked Atlantic salmon, trout, all kinds of other goodies from a family of serious “foodies”, and I am proud to say I sampled everything despite my strong dislike of seafood. I must admit that, prepared properly and being that fresh, I would eat it all again!
As the night wore on, a nice neighbor from down the road popped in for a nightcap. He is a retired lighthouse keeper.Seriously, I am not making this up!
We had set dad up in a B&B just down the road, so dad adjourned, and I stayed up later with the 3 Basile kids, and crashed in the guest room. Our visit all ended too soon, as we were off this morning for our next destination.
We drove along the back road past Cape George to Antigonish, had a bite to eat and went to check out the STFX campus. So much has changed, but somethings were still exactly the same, and I was so pleased when I popped into the old Kinetics building and ran into the former chair of the program as well as another one of my profs. Truthfully, I was pleased to be able to gloat about my involvement with the last 2 Olympic games…
Finally, we continued on our way to Cape Breton, looking for (former senator) Lowell Murray. We drove and we drove on an on northbound along the Cabot Trail until we found his home…. but he was not there. So we went to get a bite to eat, killed some time, and came back…. but he was still not there! So we decided to carry on to Baddeck, which is stunning, and which is where we are camped out now. We sat by the water enjoying the warm breeze and the sunset, then found a nice Inn, played some cards and are about to crash. We hope to hear from Lowell before we leave tomorrow AM so that we can meet up with him.
UPDATE: Lowell just called, and we are meeting him for lunch tomorrow at a place called The Distillery, midway between Inverness and Mabou.
After that, looks like we will be heading home. Having seen the highlights on the way out, we are not sure what is in store for the return trip: we will either go to Qc City or through the states. As with most things on this trip, we will play it by ear.
It will be sad to get home to the empty house and try to start fresh, but this has been an amazing trip full of laughs and old memories with dad, and I like to think we created some new ones along the way. Paul said it reminded him of a Hemingway story, and like those, I will cherish this one.
À la prochaine!
N
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