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It’s been an interesting and eventful week of skeleton.


Last weekend I slid on Saturday and Sunday with the regular skeleton school. I wasn’t sliding that well… didn’t even crack 120 km/hr and was mostly coming in last place each run. It was still fun though. Leslie came to watch us and took a few pictures. The best part of the weekend was that our coach said that Matt and I could start coming up to slide on weeknights with the BC team. After 2+ years of skeleton school…. we have graduated!!

Thursday night BCBSA sliding was awesome. We got to do a track walk for the first time. I was surprised how steep it was. One guy almost took out the whole team when he fell down, haha. My first run was wild and not great, but then Ivo reminded me about how I need to keep my toes together the entire time and my second and third run were much better. I even beat Matt on my last run. Ah, everything returning to normal. ;)

I went up again on yesterday too. I did one mediocre run from corner 7, and then Ivo got me to move up. Starting at corner 3 adds about 4 seconds on to your run time and up to 10 km/hr faster. It was scary!! The first run I did from there was ok… I had a couple big bumps, went 126 km/hr. Exhilarating!

My second run from corner 3 was more exciting… I fell off my sled!! I drove up a corner so high my sled tipped me off and I couldn’t get back on. I watched my sled disappear in front of me while I slid down the ice on my stomach. It actually wasn’t that bad though, it didn’t even rip my suit. I walked off the track. I’m a little sore today but not in any particular area. For a first crash, it went pretty smoothly.

So now I’ve got two more days of BCBSA sliding next week before I head to Toronto/Ottawa/Calgary. These team sessions are so much better than the schools because Ivo has so much more time to spend with us. I feel like I’ve learned so much in the past few days. I’m so excited for Calgary too…. a slower track, a new track, running starts, fresh start. YAY!!

And to finish off this post, here is my first One Second Everyday video! My project this year has been to take one second of video each day with the 1 Second Everyday app which stitches all the clips together into a video. Here is the January 2014 instalment:

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Rosemarie got Scott (and me) a voucher for EXTREME trampolining for Christmas. It was way harder than we expected. We were there for 1.5 hours and got so tired. It was fun trying to bounce from one side of the room to the other without stopping, and flipping into the foam pit. If I ever go there again I know I need to bring tape to wrap around my socks… they come off soooooo easy in the foam pit!!!

They randomly turned the lights off for about ten minutes. For once I was actually wearing the right clothes for black lights. I felt like I was in a Sia performance.

I donated blood for the first time this week. I always thought people were exaggerating when they talked about how big the needles are there…. they are not!! The needles are like straws!! But anyway it was fine and I enjoyed my juice box and cookies at the end. I will most likely go again in 58 days when I am allowed to come back. Why not?

I also recently signed up to be a bone marrow donor. Did you know that donating bone marrow is a lot less painful than it used to be? Sometimes they can get the stem cells via a vein in your arm. They even give you back the parts of the blood that they don’t need. Sometimes they still have to tap the bone, but if it’s going to change someone’s life then a little bit of pain is worth it, in my opinion. They really need donors, especially young ethnic males. You have to be between the ages of 17 and 35. When you sign up for One Match you do a little online quiz, then they mail you a cheek swab kit, which you mail back with your samples. Pretty easy and pretty cool! I hope some day I get a call.

Leslie, Rosemarie and I went to Ladies Night at Mount Seymour last Monday. In case you haven’t heard: winter here in Vancouver was been extremely mild. The mountains barely have any snow at all. Whistler’s base is about one quarter as deep as it was last year at this point. I guess most people have given up on winter sports because Ladies Night was deserted. There were like 12 people on the whole mountain, haha.

I was a little overdressed in my (new) parka. The snow was more like little balls of ice water. We could take our gloves off no problem. We couldn’t even see our breath. It was still fun-ish, although Leslie was having equiptment issues and my toe was realllllly hurting (more about this later). We stayed a few hours but left early. Still okay for $5 (for charity!).

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Last week Leslie, Scott and I checked out Las Margaritas Dine Out menu. Three courses for $18. Because there were three of us, we pretty much got to try everything, which was fantastic.

We started out with lime margaritas. Blended for Leslie and on the rocks for me. My margarita was decent. Not much to say about it really, I’ve had better ones other places.

We ordered one of each of the appetizers. The first was a poblano pepper and corn soup with crispy tortilla strips. It was nice… sweet and spicy. The second was two tiny empanadas filled with chorizo and potatoes. They were served with two salsas. The green salsa was the best part… the rest was pretty forgettable. And the last was a “masa boat” filled with refried black beans, chicken, lettuce, salsa, sour cream and cheese. The boat tasted like a thick corn pastry and was really delicious. All three of us thought this was the best appetizer.

For the main course Leslie and I ordered the Chile Colorado. It was beef simmered in a rich sauce, with rice, beans, guacamole and corn tortillas to put it all in. Both of us liked it a lot. Very filling.

Scott ordered the Chile en Nogada which was a poblano pepper stuffed with turkey, vegetables and apple, covered with a walnut cream sauce and pomegranate seeds. It also came with rice and beans. For something so fancy sounding we were a little disappointed. I didn’t expect it to be cold? The flavours were all interesting and fine, but it just didn’t come together into a delicious dish for some reason.

Then we had Tres Leches and churros for dessert. I had been wanting to try Tres Leches cake FOREVER!!! Unfortunately they only had one piece left so I didn’t get to try a whole lot of it… but the bites that I had were super delicious. I need to try and make it myself immediately!! The churros were also great. Covered in sugar, crispy, warm melty chocolate to dip them into… om nom nom.

All in all a very good meal. I would recommend the masa boat, the beef chile, and the tres leches cake.

Las Margaritas Mexican Menu, Reviews, Photos, Location and Info - Zomato

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I’ll be honest… the last few weeks have been kinda bland. Just been working a lot, mostly at the hospital, but some at the data centre as well. I am tired!! But loving the paycheques. Anyway all this working is helping to lead up to the MOST AWESOME FEBRUARY EVER!!

It starts off a little early with Leslie visiting from Korea/Ottawa, our first Dine Out Vancouver meal, ladies night at Mt Seymour, and skeleton this weekend!!! If the ice is slow we may be moving up starting positions. If it’s fast then we’ll stick with lower ladies and then wait until the next weekend to move up. That weekend is also Rosemarie’s birthday. :)

Then Scott and I are flying to Toronto for a few days, then Ottawa for the rest of that week (where Rosemarie will be too). We’re cramming in seeing as much family and as many friends as possible. Plus Scott has never been to Toronto so we’ll do some touristy things as well. Is Niagara Falls fun in winter???

Then Scott and Rosemarie fly back to Vancouver and I fly to Calgary for a whole week of skeleton training! I don’t know a whole lot about what we’ll be doing there but so far it sounds like we’ll be learning to do real running starts in the icehouse, and also trying out the Calgary track. That track is slower, so we’ll be able to start from the top. So cool!

After that my calendar is blank. Haha.

PS Check out the shirt I made for Rosemarie for Christmas. WE LOVE BOB’S BURGERS. We especially love Tina. I don’t know how they keep coming up with such hilarious things for her to say… but they do… and it’s awesome.

CAPOEIRA! BRAZIL!

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I thought I was going to have a few days off work so I painted my nails on Saturday morning. Turns out I’m actually working a whole bunch. Ha. Plus we went trampolining. Well anyway it’s Day 4 now and I still don’t have any chips whatsoever!

I’ve always liked the Complete Salon Manicure line of nail polish. I like the wide brush, the formula, and the cool colours. I was pretty happy to be selected for this Influenster box.

Pat on the Black and Red My Lips had full coverage after 2 coats, but Jaded was quite sheer. I did 4-5 coats and it’s still not completely opaque, although it is really pretty. I topped my manicure with Essie Good To Go (my HG top coat) and it looks nice and shiny.

Disclosure: I received these nail polish samples from Influenster for review purposes. I was not financially compensated for this post. All opinions are my own.