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I finished 1 of 4 midterms, I’m keeping up on labs, case study is done, essay draft is done, assignments are done. I’m doing well at keeping on schedule so far. Probably going up to Whistler this weekend is not the smartest choice, but it’s the last skeleton session of the season and I can’t miss that!!

I’m hoping that the ice will actually be a little slow, so that I can try out out some new things and try to arrive early in each corner as opposed to late. Early means less slingshot type forces on my body so hopefully that makes everything a little smoother. Our coach only told me this AFTER our last run of the last session, so I’ve been sitting on it for a month.

I am also really excited to see if my weight training has helped at all. I’ve been doing a lot of training of my traps, which should help in holding my head up in the really high pressure last corner. And hopefully I will have an easier time carrying my sled around as well. We shall see.

All for now, gotta get back to studying.

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Rosemarie said I should choose a favourite recipe from each Daily Dinners post and then at the end of the year I will have a great collection of 26 recipes. I think this is a super idea so bear with me while I quickly catch up with the weeks I have missed.

Favourite Recipe #1: Beans and rice, with shrimp. The original recipe is WAY TOO SALTY but other than that it is flipping delicious. And cheap. We add the shrimp and omit all the salt.

Favourite Recipe #2: Shrimp with fried egg and avocado and green onion on rice. There isn’t really much of a recipe for this except cook all that stuff and put it together on a plate. Serve with soy sauce. It takes like 4 minutes to make it excluding the rice.

Favourite Recipe #3: Butternut mac ‘n’ cheese with caramelized onions, bacon, and apple. SO GOOD. Cassia tried it and she liked it too. I roast my own pumpkin because I am anti-canned pumpkin. The recipe is time consuming but so worth it. I may never stop talking about it.

Favourite Recipe #4: Dragon noodles. Scott made it and it was awesome. Leftovers weren’t good though, so just make enough for dinner.

OK back to work for me. I still have 4 midterms, 4 labs, a case study, AND MORE to get through before I can fully relax on the beach/rollercoaster. Ah and I also have skeleton this weekend.

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I’m back with another daily dinners post! I can’t take much credit for these meals… Scott made dinner almost every day. Best husband ever. I’ve linked a couple recipes myself but if there is something else that catches your eye just let me know and I’ll track down the recipe from the chef.

Be sure to check out our Valentines Day meal. We went out to El Inka, a small mom & pop type place tucked into an obscure area of Burnaby. I only heard about it because it’s quite close to the hospital. Anyway it was super delicious and definitely beat out our unpleasant Valentines Day dinner from the year before. I also really like their cheese empanadas.

february 10, 2013 – roast chicken leg, green beans & sweet potato

february 11, 2013 – shrimp and okra gumbo

february 12, 2013 – spinach salad with salmon, walnuts and goat cheese

more dinner pictures after the jump…

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I survived my first ever hot lab rotation. Waking up at 5:10AM was not fun for me at all, but once I got to work it was pretty good. It was an enjoyable two weeks of making kits, drawing doses, doing lots of injections, putting in lots of IVs, and running the stress lab. I used to find stress lab very stressful (for me!), but I am way more comfortable doing it now. And I improved a lot in putting in IVs. They’re no longer scary, it’s fun to try now! Sorry to all those patients that I poked unsuccessfully though…….

Hot lab was really tiring but I still managed to go to the gym a few times per week. Lately I’ve been doing about 30-45 minutes of assorted weights (mostly machines, because I don’t know anything) and then 20-30 minutes on the elliptical. I can’t see much progress yet other than a little weight loss, but I’m still motivated. Skeleton is a good motivator.

I am excited to make a real fitness/food plan when I come back from Fiji. Random stuff is ok for now because my Fiji trip is going to throw everything off, but when I get back I’m probably going to follow one of the plans in the books I got from the library. And get some help from some friends that are more gym savvy. I want to get strong!

I don’t have any pictures to share this time. Going to bed at 8PM does not leave a lot of time to do fun stuff.

Scott got his last three wisdom teeth out. He is recovering very well so far. DENTAL PLAN!

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I got SO riled up on Friday night about skeleton. I was watching the final race of the 2012-2013 Skeleton World Cup season, which was in Sochi on the new track that they will be using for the next Winter Olympics. I’ve been watching all season long and was REALLY excited to see how all my favourites do on this track that was brand new for all of them.

I follow a lot of skeletoners on Twitter and for the past two weeks they had been tweeting about cancelled practice sessions and poor ice conditions and horrible hotel food and all sorts of negative stuff. And the fact that it was 17ºC out!

Anyway man oh man the mens race was BANANAS. Especially the first half of the first heat.

  • Tomass Dukurs started pushing his sled, then at the last possible second decided it wasn’t a good push and quickly managed to stop his sled, do a u-turn and carry his sled back to the start line to try again. This is allowed as long as long as they haven’t reached the first timing eye, and they do actually start within the 30 second start window. It was very surprising because I have never seen any one do that before.
  • The start groove was really NOT straight and many sliders hit in to the walls right at the very top of the run.
  • One guy smashed into the side and a mini avalanche of snow and ice fell down on to the track. And then no one cleaned it up!! So the next few sliders had a big disadvantage because they had to slide over a bunch of ice chunks.
  • The track has a totally unique uphill section.
  • The outrun looks super dangerous and several sliders hurt themselves trying to slow down.
  • There is exposed wood in several places down the track, and the ice is super bumpy. Many sliders pinballed down the track. Some sliders opted out of the race because their brain was too rattled from training runs.
  • Everyone struggled except Martins Dukurs, he made it look easy as usual. He is an INSANELY good skeletoner from Latvia. If he won this race he would win €100,000 for the “Triple Crown” by winning three specific races during the year. It was close between him and a Russian but of course Martins won!! HE IS AMAZING! I think he finished the season with 8 gold medals and 2 silvers, in 10 races, plus the title of World Cup Champion. And when he won a race he won by a mile.

The womens race wasn’t as exciting. The ice was deteriorating quickly and each person coming down had a slower time than the person before them. At least they straightened out the start groove so there wasn’t near as many wall smashes. My favourite non-Canadian slider Noelle Pikus-Pace won the race, and a German girl won the World Cup.

Well now I’m sad that the skeleton World Cup is over, but I’ve still got one more weekend of sliding to come in two weeks so that is good. And I can’t wait until the Olympics!!!

PS My skeleton coach was Martins Dukurs coach in the Vancouver Olympics. :D You can see him yelling at him to run fast in the Olympics footage.