Living our Metaphors

I just got back from a cold 2.5 km run. I was thinking before I left that I'd run the beautiful almost-7 km route by the river, but once I got outside and felt the cold I thought I'd do the 5 km route. My 5 km residential route starts in the same way my 2.5 residential route does. By the time I had run the first half kilometer (which is all uphill), I decided it would be a 2.5 km day. It was -15, but with the blowing wind/snow, I'm thinking it was around -20. I was smart enough to wear a running t shirt, a running long sleeved t, and a cotton hoodie along with my warm running pants and a toque. I knew to wear the toque because of an earlier November run without a toque, when I realized that my ears were going to be permanently frozen if I didn't start wearing a toque.

The hardest part of any run for me is just finishing it. I always get to the last half kilometer and think "well, that's good enough, I may as well walk home". I hate that side of me. I hate it! If I give in, it's a moral failure, because it's not finishing something I started. I forced myself to run the last bit home because for me, it's just a metaphor of my life. I'm nearing the end of this semester. 3 weeks left. What do I want to do? Give up. I'm nearing the end of my degree - 2 more full semesters plus 3 weeks. What do I want to do? Give up!

For me, it's not really giving up that's the problem. After all, if you walk the last 500 m of a run, you still get home, right? The real problem is running the last 500 m with the same determination and commitment to excellence as the first 500 m. It's the same with school. I could finish my semesters with Cs, or I could finish with As. What will it be?

So I ran the last 500 m. Because if I can't even live my metaphor, there's really very little hope for living my life.

Back to the Pool

Today Chantelle and I hit the pool - we swam for 45 minutes.

I haven't swam at Renfrew for years, but it was an entirely pleasant experience. I didn't even have someone in my lane for about 15 minutes, and when I did have people in my lane there were no run ins or anything. This was my first swim since the Peace River Tri and I did 1500 m, the last 500 m of which I did non-stop. I was still feeling strong in the end so I think I could've gone longer but we had to get going.

I'm going to print the swim workouts that my tri coach sent us and then waterproof them and put them in a binder, which I'll take to the pool. Then I'll have something a little more focused to do.

As far as the swimming portion goes, I'm confident that I could do an Olympic distance triathlon. But that's just the swimming portion.

Tomorrow we're back at the gym, I'll be on bike and treadmill again. I have lots of podcasts to catch up on though so that will be good times.

RK

Marshall Drew's last ride...on 100 Huntley Street - part 1

Watch Drew Marshall school the fake Christians.

Drew Marshall on 100 Huntley Street PART TWO

First day back at the gym

After a whole week (perhaps more) of procrastination, I finally got some exercise today.

Chantelle and I met at the gym at 7:00 to work out. I'm focusing on transitioning from biking to running MWF and then on TR we're swimming. Should be good.

Today I was on the bike for 30 minutes. In 20 of those minutes I apparently did 5.25 miles of distance, which would be 8.4 km. I want to be doing the 20 km in 45 minutes, so we'll see how things go. Obviously I've got some work to do before I'm that quick. I just hope that transitioning from the exercise bike to my new road bike (which I've yet to purchase) in the spring will work equally well.

After the bike, I got on the treadmill and only managed running for 7 minutes, partly because I started too fast. The goal for Wednesday: 30 minutes on the bike and 20 minutes running.

I'll get this transition working yet... I guess I have 9 months before tri season anyway. I'd sure like to do an Olympic distance in summer 2008. We'll see...

RK

never not training.

On the way home from Peace River, I realized that it was the first time in months that I was not training for a race. I didn't like that feeling at all! How dreadful. So of course I went online today to see what was available. I signed up for the Halloween Howl - on Saturday, October 27. For ONCE it's a race on a Saturday. Finally! For some reason it seems most races are held on Sundays which really is inconvenient. I'll be running a 10 km race there. Goal: 1:07. If accomplished, that will be 8 minutes shorter than my last 10 km race, and that's something.

School is almost back in - September 10. I am enjoying the time off, but it's not entirely off as I'm spending it revving up for fall at the church. There is still so much to do, in so little time. I'll be starting early tomorrow, as I'm meeting with a friend for coffee at 9:30 and then another friend for lunch at 12:30. Turns out I'm popular! Ha, not really. In reality, one friend lives in B.C. and I'm catching her on the second last day of her visit, and the other is a missionary friend who is frequently out of the country, so her time is prime. It just so happened that I scheduled them both in one day. :)

Today was my second trip to costco - good lord, is it EVER not busy there? Thankfully, though, I saw some random acts of parenting.

I'm excited to start working out with Chantelle again. We'll be starting up soon, right now we're working out the schedule. She's considering doing the Halloween Howl 10 k with me. Christine is also considering it.

I'm working on meal plans for when fall is in full swing - believe it or not, I'm putting the plans on spreadsheets. I have the "chicken", "beef", and "other" spreadsheets with our favorite recipes listed and what book & page to find them on. Then all I have to do is make one shopping list for the week, and then get all the groceries on Saturday when Tyler is usually working anyway. I'm such a geek. But, organization is going to be even more key for the fall. I've gotten into this comfortable "shop for groceries every day" routine in the summer which I thoroughly enjoy, but it won't work in the fall. The only thing I refuse to do is buy frozen meat. Frozen meat tastes so much worse than non-frozen meat, and I'm really not a fan of meat to begin with. So, while I still will have to go to the grocery store more or less every day, it'll only be for meat, so I won't be wandering about.

Wow, this blog really is a random amalgamation of thoughts.

This upcoming weekend we'll be in Fairmont with my family (mom, dad, lyden) and Danny! (my cousin visiting from England). Tyler and I bought Danny a little gift when we were in Peace River to help keep him occupied at the condo. I really hope he likes it. Tyler has convinced him to watch some Star Wars with him, so that's awesome. I'm looking forward to that Star Wars ACTION!

I'm also looking forward to some runs in Fairmont. I'm really looking forward to just doing some relaxed runs without worrying about races. I know I can do a 10 km race, so when I go for my weekly runs it's just to clear my head, do some praying, and blow off some stress (which I'll need to do, spending all that time with the family! OH BURN! ... just kidding, mom). Every run will contribute to making the Halloween Howl easier. And I guess that's what it's all about.

I'm planning to make my training schedule much more varied this fall - swimming Tuesday/Thursday, bike OR run (or both) on Monday/Wednesday/Friday @ the gym, and long runs on Saturday on the bike paths. Apparently doing that cross training will make my running faster. The only reason that matters is that I want to be running 1/2 marathons in 2 hours or 1:55 before I consider doing marathons.

Anyway, I guess I should make dinner. Tyler should be home any minute :) We're going to have a nice quiet date night tonight - dinner, maybe some cards, and perhaps a movie! - I got "Finding Neverland" at Costco for $9.99 today. :)

RK

Home Again

Well, we've returned safe and sound. Yesterday we drove from Peace River all the way back to Calgary - with coffee, bathroom, and meal stops, it took us 9 hours. Pretty impressive, if you ask me.

The tri was ... awful? The weather was just so bad it was unbelievable. It was MAYBE 7 degrees, and it was windy and rainy. My swim went great, my bike was ok, and then the run was absolutely awful. My feet were so cold and sore and WET. Oh, so wet. It was just silly. So I did mine in 2:20 (pretty terrible, I know). My goal for next time is to gun it way more on the bike. I was taking it easy because I wanted to save energy to rock the run. But it totally wasn't worth it, because you're using totally different muscles for the run and the bike. So if I had badly fatigued my bike riding muscles, I don't think it would've made a difference. In any case, I know how to train differently for next time. When is next time, you ask? Well, next summer now.

PUBLIC NOTICE: all Christmas gifts for Rachel need to be gift certificates from Bow Cycle. 6531 Bowness Rd Nw. Unfortunately they're not online. I want to get a road bike for myself, and I would love your cooperation. :) Thanks!

I really liked the road bike that we rented for the race, but I definitely want a carbon fibre frame on the bike I'll buy for shock absorption. And, I'm getting a really good seat. I can hopefully get something I want on sale for $750-$1200.

I'm going to be looking for some 10 km races to run before it gets too snowy outside. Yay, running.

RK

Whitecourt

Today we (Christine, Tyler and I) are in Whitecourt. We arrived at the Lakeview Inns & Suites last night at 11:30. We had fairly good traffic along the way, with the exception of one construction incident that left us sitting in the car for 20 minutes. Boo! Rachel was not impressed.

The hotel is totally nicer than any of us expected, so go team Lakeview Inns & Suites! I still have a nice, deep, phlegm-filled chest cough which I'm hoping will go away soon.

Today we'll head to Peace River, drive along the bike route so we know what to expect, and Christine and I are even hoping to get a bike and/or a run in. Here's hoping! We've both been somewhat lacking in the exercise department over the last two weeks, so we're fully expecting this tri tomorrow to run smoothly.

Oh, and I forgot my sports bra. Go team preparedness. Thankfully, Christine randomly packed 2. I'll post some pics on facebook after we get home.

RK

grinds my gears!

Wow, look at me, posting twice in a day.

It's that time people: time for another episode of GRINDS MY GEARS!

People Who Have No Control Over Their Children

I'm so sick of being in public and seeing people with no control of their children. Like, seriously. Get a grip. Now, I will fully admit that I have no children and therefore have no concept of the difficulty of raising children. Furthermore, I also admit that even the best parents can't avoid the odd breakout from their child. But there's no excuse for the majority of crap I see in public places.

Case in point: Today I went to Costco. It was a total zoo in there. All I was buying was ink cartridges for our printer (although I was very VERY tempted by this totally awesome stapler). So, I get to the line ups, and every till is just backed up for what seemed to be miles. Now, at this point, I have a sinus headache, I'm standing on sore feet, and I want to go home. But I can patiently wait in line.

So there I stood. And next to me stood a mother with her two children. The boy was probably 13 or so. No complaints about him. The daughter ... well, that's another story. She was probably ... grade 3? And she's standing there - make that SQUIRMING there - and making a lot of whiney noise. She's fidgeting, she's throwing her arms down at her side, and she's whining. I have no idea WHAT she was whining about, because I didn't care to listen all that carefully. So there she is. The boy mentions (quietly) that he needs to go to the washroom. So off he goes. The girl starts to follow him. This ensues:

"mother": come back here (also in a whiney voice. Parents, please stop whining at your children. Seriously. You're the adult)
child: well he got to go!
"mother": well, he's older (still whining)
child: I'll go with him! [of course the teenage boy is gone by now]
"mother": [feebly] no

*child walks away*

"mother": I can't believe it. I just can't believe it. *stands still*

ARE YOU KIDDING ME? SERIOUSLY. I almost looked at her and said "I CAN!". DAMN! That kid would be back in my hands and whooped so fast nobody would know what happened. GIVE ME A BREAK. It's not like this is a very small baby who can't stop crying in a grocery store. That I can handle. I sympathize with that. But this is a grade 3 kid who should know where the boundary lines are and not to cross them. Is your place in line so important that you can't abandon it (when the people in front of you haven't even emptied their cart yet) and grab your kid? Think about this: why don't you want your small girl going to the bathroom in the first place? Probably because you don't want her getting abducted or something. So let me get this straight. You standing there helpless because you have no control of your child but don't want to create a scene by chasing her, and let's not forget that the heavens should FORBID you losing your place in line - is worth running the chance that your child could be abducted, NOT TO MENTION that she's obviously running the show at 10 years old.

DAMN.

Let me say, I have a lot of faith in parents. There seems to be 3 major categories: parents that know what they're doing; parents that don't give a rat's ass what's going on with their kids; and parents that, if they knew better, would do better. I'd like to believe that this woman just had no clue what she was doing, and that given some skills, would do better. But seriously. Get a grip. You're an adult.

RK

look! a post!

So, it's been a little while since I've posted. I guess there hasn't been too much to say.

After not exercising at all since the marathon (which was on Sunday, August 12), I rode my rented road bike to my parents on Tuesday night (21st), and I went for a swim yesterday (22nd). So that was good times. The swimming went better than I expected. I hadn't exercised since the marathon because of my injuries. The bike was a challenge, but it was certainly do-able. It's kinda funny though, I have a hard time convincing myself to go out for a bike ride unless I'm "going somewhere". I just feel like biking without "going somewhere" is pointless. Isn't that bizarre? I can run without having to "go somewhere" but I guess I just see the bike as a vehicle or something. I'm going to force myself out for a cycle this afternoon though. I think I'm going to skip the pool (although I'm really not sure ... I'm being quite non-commital today) as I have this stupid head cold. On the plus side, I had a sore throat 2 days ago, and that's pretty much all gone. Now I've just got sinus headaches and lots of snot. Woo! I hate sore throats. I'd rather throw up for a week than have a sore throat for a day.

My feet are almost all healed up - the swim yesterday helped clear it up actually, so that's good.

I'm looking into getting my latest eco-feminism paper PUBLISHED! My prof gave me an A+ and a rave review. She's told me to get it published, so I'm going to give that a go. I'll continue to post on that.

I'm looking forward to school starting up again, my two rels classes will be good but of course I'm dreading music history. I don't know how many times I can say "I DON'T CARE" in one paper. But I don't ~ I really, really don't. I honestly can't be bothered to research for music history courses. It's just so boring, and .. oh yeah, I DON'T CARE. Oh well, just 2 more to go (one fall and one winter) and I will never have to take another one again. Take that, music history! Honestly, when you've studied it for like 10 years against your will, it's time to let it go.

Tyler, Christine and I head up to Peace River this weekend. I'm sure funny pictures and ridiculous stories will abound. I'm feeling fairly confident about it so we'll see how it goes. I haven't run since the marathon cause I'm waiting for my foot to finish healing. Hopefully I won't do any major damage on Sunday. I'm missing my runs. :(

Well, I think I'm going to go ... home to work? ... to the pool? ... all I know is I'm not staying at work.
RK

Grinds my Gears!

It's that time again ... for another edition of GRINDS MY GEARS!

First of all, I will admit, that I used to be the sort of person I'm going to describe below.

The "I'll Run a Marathon Someday" People

I'm sure you have met at least one of these people in your life. Maybe you ARE one of these people. You know, the sort of person who says "I'm going to run a marathon before I die", but they've never run more than 20 minutes in their whole life. Let me explain something to you. If you are not a runner, you have absolutely no business saying "I'm going to run a marathon before I die". You know why? Because you have no clue what you're talking about.

First of all, these people have absolutely, positively, NO CLUE how long 42.2 kilometers is. They don't realize that in many cases it's at least the distance of driving to work and back.

Secondly, these people have absolutely NO CLUE how fast they can run a mile, or a kilometer. If they did, they'd realize that at present, they, as a non-runner at let's say "average" physical fitness, are probably running a 8 minute kilometer. I think that's generous. They therefore have no idea that they should even do this math: 8 x 42.2 = 337.6. That's over 5 & 1/2 hours to run 42.2 kms. That's a freaking long time.

Thirdly, these people have a romanticized idea of what it's like to run a marathon. All they can imagine is the sense of pride they'd feel upon finishing and the sense of awe everyone else would feel toward them. What they can't imagine is hours and hours of tireless training, running in the snow, rain, blazing sun, and wind, and those long long runs on the weekend. What they can't imagine is the way your body shuts down after 2 hours of running. What they can't imagine is frantically running around the woods trying to find a portable toilet. What they can't imagine is how they would need to completely and utterly change their eating schedule and diet to be able to have the energy to run long miles and to avoid those foods that slow them down. What they can't realize is that the mental discipline required is at least twice as difficult to cultivate as the physical discipline required.

That is why those people GRIND MY GEARS!

As I said earlier, I used to be one of these people. After having run 1/2 a marathon, I can honestly say I'm not sure if I even WANT to run a marathon. What I can say is that I would like to run many more 1/2 marathons. Perhaps when the half does not feel like as huge a challenge I'll be ready to take on the marathon. I felt confident that I could run the half when I finished my 10 km race feeling like "yeah, I could do that again". If I ever feel like that after 21.1 kms, it might be worth the challenge. In the meantime, I'm going to continue to enjoy running my short runs (now 7 kms) in the week, and my long runs (I'm hoping to up those to 15 kms) on the weekends. But I've gotta wait for my feet to heal first. Ug! Grow, skin, grow!

RK

half marathon

Well, I did it. And, it took a long time: 2:40. Yeah, people run full marathons in that. Of course, those people are near-professional athletes, but whatever.

Now, I did something infinitely stupid: I ran in new shoes. My old shoes are, well, really old. My concern was that I was actually going to pull a muscle in my feet or legs running in those shoes. So, when I got a 20% off coupon to the Running Room on Saturday, I bought the exact same pair I used to have, but like 2 models newer. I knew I was running the risk of major blisters, but that was a chance I was willing to take.

Fast forward to kilometre 5: oh, we have a major blister on the bottom of my right foot. Like, we're talking 3 inches long and 2 inches wide. Ok, so I ran on that for the next 16.1 kms, no big deal.

Fast forward to kilometres 8-9: oh, here's an entire kilometre uphill! That's cool.

Fast forward to kilometre 12: oh, there goes my groin. I didn't need it anyway.

Fast forward to after the race in the hotel: I took off my shoes, and the bottom of my right sock was covered in blood. That's cool. I also had a quarter-sized broken blister on my left ankle, and blood on that sock. The blood actually bled through my shoe. Awesome!

So, I was left to hobble/run/jog/walk the last 9.1 kilometres. That was cool. So, it took longer than planned.

So in the end, I pulled a muscle, but if I could pull any muscle, I'd pick my groin, so whatever.

Now my nick-name is "hobbles". Hopefully I can walk properly by Wednesday.

RK

Everyone should check this out

Here is a great cartoonist's site:

www.basicinstructions.net

Check it out. I learned of it from the Dilbert Blog.

RK

update!

I feel like it's been a long time since I've updated my blog. It MIGHT be because of my new enjoyment of Facebook. :) Yes, I caved, and now I'm on facebook. :(

Here are some upcoming excitements:
-My 11 year old cousin, Danny, is arriving from England tonight
-This weekend, I am marathon-ing! - I will have 3 hours worth of podcasts to carry me through. :)

Podcast reviews to follow.

wonderful world of podcasts

So.... I might have accidentally gotten addicted to podcasts. But the good news is, it's all Jon & Amber's fault, so I can not be held responsible.

It all started when Jon & Amber started their very own podcast called Monster Cookies. I started listening, and I got hooked! One of the features of their podcast is Jon's podcast reviews. So, I ended up subscribing to "The Daily Breakfast" and "Catholic in a Small Town". I thought they were a-ok. I'm not sure I'll stay subscribed to either of those ones, but we'll see. But then I thought, "hey, couldn't I get my news via podcast? Hey, couldn't I get information on the enivronment? Hey, this could be really cool!" So... I MIGHT have subscribed to another 8 podcasts today. I'll let you know which ones are good and which ones are garbage.

The thing is, I listen to them while I run! I gave up trying to listen to music whilst running because I found that as the music's pace changed, so did my run pace, so that was just altogether not good for a girl trying to learn to pace herself through 21 kms. With the podcasts, there is no such issue, because it's all talk. <3

I may feel absolutely excited, and totally geeky.

Stay tuned for my totally awesome podcast reviews.

RK

tri training = broken spirit

So, last night I decided to bike to triathlon training. It's around a 10-12 km distance. It's ALL uphill, to varying degrees. It takes an hour to get there, and half an hour to get home.

So I bike up to the pool, and then we had this swim workout:

Workout Monday July 30
Warm-Up
100 m swim
100 m 3 strokes left arm, 3 strokes right arm, 3
strokes both arms.

Main Set
TAKE UP TO 1 MIN. REST BTWN EACH
500 m 2x250 m swims relaxed long strokes
up to 1 min rest btwn 250’s.
400 m 4x100 m intervals using pace clock or
wrist watch. 15 seconds rest btwn 100’s
300 m 6x50 m alternate sprint kick.
no rest
200 m All pull, easy swim.
100 m 100% for the whole 100 m

Cool Down
150 m easy choice swim
Total: 1850 m

It took, as usual, an hour. I felt good and strong afterwards. I am a swimming queen. A goddess, if you will. :p I'm thinking about taking a lifeguarding course just for fun. I don't know what that all entails, but I think it would be good, because it would keep me swimming and then I have another skill. I imagine that life-guarding would be exceedingly boring as a job, but who knows, it could be some good part time work if for some reason I stopped working at the church.

After the swim, we hauled our bikes up the stairs and biked for 10 minutes, then went outside for a 2 km run. This might have been ok, if Coach didn't think it was a good idea to do one minute sprints every once in a while. This is what I have to say about sprinting:

I distance run.
I do not sprint.
I do not care if sprinting would make me a better distance runner.
I will sprint only if the mood strikes me, and not at anybody's command.
I hate sprinting.
I do not sprint well after biking for an hour and then swimming for an hour, and then biking 10 minutes.
Sprinting sucks.

So, I had to sprint. Let me tell you that my sprinting was more like "slightly faster than my normal slowish run speed". That run broke my spirit.

Let me tell you what happens when my spirit breaks:

The reels and reels of tape that have been recorded in my head for over a decade begin to play. As soon as I knew how to dislike my body and think I was fat, I got started. The tape sounds something like this: "you're fat. You're not as fit as these other girls. Why are you trying to do this? You have no natural athletic ability whatsoever. You look stupid. Why are you even trying?" and on, and on. And that was somewhat censored for the blog.

Let me explain this. Once one has listened to this tape for over a decade, it doesn't matter how much time one has spent working against that and re-recording nice, positive tapes. When it kicks in, and you're tired, and you've already been exercising for over 2 hours, it's going to be hard to win that battle. But, when I got home, I had a good cry and Tyler gave me hugs and pointed out that he couldn't do a triathlon, and that he sinks when he swims, and that he's really proud of me. :) Which means a lot, because Tyler is decidedly more sporty than me and has much more natural atheletic prowess. Hee hee, prowess. That's a good word. :)

Oh anyway, after my spirit broke we still had do go bike for another 7 minutes, and the Coach told us all about transition stations. I'm sure that will be interesting times. He made some obvious points that were not so obvious to me: take off your goggles before you start biking! Take off your helmet before you start running! Riiiiight. I probably would've done it if I noticed everyone else doing it, but there's really no guarantees.

---

Tonight Chadley, Andrew, and Grayson (sister in law, and nephews) are coming over for dinner. We're having tacos. Andrew has informed me that tacos are his "second favorite food". I can't remember off hand what his "first favorite food" was, but I'm hoping second best will be good enough. :)

---

Let me end with a cheerful quote from the Qur'an, Surah IV, for all you fun-loving feminists out there:

"Men are the managers of the affairs of women
for that God has preferred in bounty
one of them over another, and for that
they have expended of their property" -> Rachel's Translation: you bought them, you control them!

"Righteous women are therefore obedient,
guarding the secret for God's guarding.
And those you fear may be rebellious admonish;
banish them to their couches, and beat them.
If they then obey you, look not for any way against them;
God is All-high, All-great."

I'll let the text speak for itself. For the record, I am not in any way anti-Islam, but I am in every way anti-spousal abuse.

---

RK

grinds my gears...

I feel the need to blog about some things that grind my gears today. Aren't these your favorite posts? I'm not red-hot angry, so it may not be as amusing as I would hope, but oh well.

-Age of Sexual Consent-

I'm going to unabashedly adopt some of Roy Green's arguments here. So, way to go Roy Green. (Roy Green has a show on the Corus Radio Network on the weekend, and today was covering for Charles Adler on Adler Online.)

In Canada, as a 14 year old person, you are prohibited by law to vote and to have a driver's license. You can't drink alcohol until you're 18, or 19, in some provinces. However, you are "allowed" to have sex with your 77 year old neighbor as long as you want to (as long as he's not your grandfather, or an "authority figure" in your life).

Hello?

I'm sorry, but have any of you MET a 14 year old lately? My cousin Chantelle is 14. I love her. She's awesome, and she's smart, and she's got a good head on her shoulders. We've talked a lot, and I know that she has absolutely good sense when it comes to drinking, drugs, and sex/dating. However, I would hazard to guess that she is an unusually bright, common-sensical and upright young woman. I've taught piano to teenagers. I couldn't have gotten them to consent to practice their scales! So why is it that they would consent to the pedophile who lives down the street to them? Because that pedophile is pushing different buttons and manipulating them.

I don't mean to discredit 14 year old young women or men, but their capacity to reason properly when it comes to sex is just not developed. I'm a lot closer to 14 than I am to 40, and it's not that hard for me to remember back. I didn't have good capacity to reason when it came to sex until AT LEAST 16, and that was with a good upbringing where it was talked about. Why WOULDN'T a 14 year old have sex with an older person if they are neglected (or abused, or even something as simple as misunderstood) at home, and nobody gives a rat's ass what they do? Of course they're going to be flattered when an older person, even in their 20s or 30s are hitting on them. RIDICULOUS.

And why has the bill which proposes raising the consentual age to 16 not been passed in Canada? Oh yes, that's right, because it didn't get passed in the senate.

We conservatives all love the senate. We love the octogenarian liberals who can't see the light of day because they can't see over their huge paycheques that we, the taxpayers, pay them to do nothing. We love that they won't pass any common-sense bill that comes their way. We're not paying them to DO anything, obviously. We're just paying them to smoke cigars, take summers off, and golf.

-Babies in Wells-

Today I read a really sad article in the Calgary Herald (page A9 in yesterday's paper). This is not funny at all. I will post it below:

"The remains of dozens of fetuses and newborn babies have been found in an abandoned well in India, apparently aborted or discarded after birth because they were female.

Police are investigating whether a clinic in the state of Orissa identified the infants' sex before birth, which is illegal yet widespread in India, and then disposed of them at their parents' request.

A 12-year-old boy raised the alarm after finding the remains of seven baby girls stuffed into bloody polythene bags in a disued well near the Krishna clinic in the district of Nayagarh on July 14. Police said Monday that they had found the skulls and body parts of 23 more infants over the weekend. - Times of London"

I can't even attack this one with humour - that's just awful.

However, here is my solution (whether or not it would be AT ALL plausible in India is a totally other thing):
Baby Drop Off Centres! This of course is not really "my solution", it's just a good solution that I've heard about through the media. Currently, in many states in the US (almost all, I think legislation is just pending in less than 4 states now), pregnant mothers can take their unwanted babies to these Drop Off Centres, no questions asked. They can just drop the baby off, period. They are encouraged to give medical information, but they don't have to.

This is seriously such a good option. Perhaps in India there would be no one who would even want these babies, but I'm sure you could work some sort of international adoption thing. Seriously, with all the people who are unable to conceive, these options should become available everywhere. It's much better than having desperate mothers stabbing their babies (just google that, you might be surprised), or worse yet, throwing them in an abandoned well in India.

On a feminist note, I just want to point out that all the babies and fetuses were girls. I don't know Hare Krishna well enough as a belief system to be able to analyze it on feminist grounds (plus, there's no concrete evidence that members of this faith system were responsible for these babies), so I won't. Furthermore, I don't know Indian culture in general well enough to criticize it from a feminist perspective. So I'm just saying - they were girls. No boy fetuses in the well. I wonder why.

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Those are two things that grind my gears.

For information on Hare Krishna and other world religions, see www.religioustolerance.org. It's a nice starting point.

RK

yesterday's work out

Here's what I did last night:

Workout Wednesday July 18
Warm-Up
3x100m 1. 100 m Swim
2. 100 m Kick
3. 100 m Pull

Drills
8x50 m 1. Swimming in a box
2. Wrist flick
3. Body roll
4. Catch-up
5. Near catch-up
6. Swimming in a box
7. and 8. Choice

25 m easy swim

Interval Set
5x100 m timed interval.
Use a time that gives 15-20 seconds rest/100 m

Total: 1225 m

It was a good time. I'm feeling more natural in the water all the time. The breathing thing is getting easier, but it's still a challenge. The new drills "catch-up" and "near catch-up" were really difficult, and I got quite frustrated cause I couldn't get it RIGHT AWAY! At least coach mentioned in an email to the class afterward that those drills take months to years to perfect. So oh well. Perhaps I'll get better in time. I'll practice Sunday.

Today is my last lecture in art history 203. I'm actually sad to see it go. It's been a lot of fun. I'm tempted to take another 3 week class right after this (if it's open) since it's been so enjoyable. Sick, I know. The final is on Monday. I expect to do well.

I still have another 3 or so weeks of my "Women and Religion" class, which I am enjoying tremendously but at the same time it hurts to study some of it.

RK

Exercise Log: Monday

So, Christine and I had tri class last night. It was CRAZY. We started with the swim (1 hour):

Workout Monday July 16
Warm-Up
3x100m 1. 100 m Swim, Stroke count.
2. 100 m Kick
3. 100 m Pull

Drills
9x50 m 1. FTD
2. Arm Entry
3. Body roll
Repeat

50 m easy swim

Main Set
200 m Alternate slow relaxed and fast
by 50s
100 m Alternate slow relaxed and fast
by 25s
2x100 m 50 m kick, 50 m sprint
No rest.

Cool Down 100 m easy
50 m stroke count. Stretch
and roll.
Total:1450 m

Then we biked for 15 minutes, which was followed by a 2 km run, and then three 200 m BPM drills. That consisted of figuring out what our max heart beat per minute was (220-your age), and then finding what 80-90% of that feels like in our body because APPARENTLY (I don't think so!) that would be our race pace. So, that was crazy. But, I persevered.

I was feeling pretty down during those stupid 200 m run drills, I was near the back of the pack, and that was making me feel unhappy. In the first of the 3 drills, I was second last, in the second of the drills, I did a little better, but by the LAST drill, I came in second. You know how that made me feel? Good. You know why? Because it proved to me that out of the class, I'm in the upper percentage that really knows how hard to push to be able to endure - some of the really fast girls in the 2km run just dragged in with the drills, (especially at the end), whereas I knew how to pace myself throughout the 2 hour workout. So that made me feel a bit better. Perhaps my having no natural fitness ability or talent comes in handy in this regard. Since fitness and athleticism does not come naturally to me, perhaps I have to be more thoughtful than some of the more athletically talented do.

So, that was definitely a plus. It was a good way to end the evening. AND, all I ate afterwards was my apple. The temptation after a big workout like that is just to gorge myself afterwards, cause I've earned it, dammit! But no. I ate my apple, and then I went to bed a couple of hours later. Good stuff.

The other highlight of the evening was that "coach" complimented me on my water drinking. He's been telling us as a class to keep hydrated, and at the pool, I had my orange Royal Tyrrell Museum triceratops water bottle (that Tyler bought me! <3) and I was extremely diligent in "hydrating" whenever there was down time. I think that was literally THE first time any fitness authority figure (you know, like gym teachers, etc) has EVER complimented me on anything. Now, was it on anything I physically did? No, it was just for drinking water. But I'll take it. :P

Today is a long school day so no work out - but I think I've earned a rest day.

RK

worms worms worms

Yesterday after church Christine came by and with Tyler's help we made our vermi-composters. What is a vermi-composter, you ask? Let me tell you.

Vermi-composting is a cheap, clean, odor-less way to dispose of your organic garbage. "Why dispose of my garbage this way, and not just in my garbage can?", you ask. Well let me tell you.

When too much organic waste goes to the dump, it piles up, which does not allow it to decompose into the soil. This means it just rots openly in the sun, creating a nasty smell and methane gas, which contributes to the destruction of the biosphere, negatively affecting all forms of life (including you, a human!). Seeing as 2/3rds of your garbage can be recylced or vermi-composted, this is completely unnecessary, and, for Christians, a very bad act of neglect when it comes to our charge to be just and loving stewards of the earth.

Now, to the vermi composter. Here's how to do it:

Get two identical mid-sized rubbermaid containers. Drill about 10 holes in the bottom of one of the containers. The holes need not be bigger than 1/4 to 1/8 of an inch. These holes allow air into the composter so that the worms can breathe. :)

Fill the rubbermaid container with the holes with ripped up paper. It's ok if there's ink or crayon on the paper. They'll be ok. It just needs to be a paper "nest".

Add some leaves/foliage to the container.

Add worms.

Put the container in the non-holed container.

Rest the lid on top - but don't seal it too tight because worms like air too.

Then all you have to do is put food waste in it! Banana peels, vegetable waste, that kind of thing. No dairy, no meat. They can have (I think) a quarter pound of food a day. They'll end up eating the paper and stuff too.

"Where do I get worms?" you ask. You'd better just drop me a comment and I'll find out from Christine. However, if you wait for about 3 months my worm population will have doubled and I can set you up.

Worms worms worms! It's fun, and it's a good way to introduce your kids to environmental stewardship early. If our waste can be enjoyed by another organism (and it won't harm that organism), there's no reason not to share - and to keep all the waste out of the landfill that we can. :)

RK