Tag: vancouver
Bye Bye 2013
Greetings from one of the last places where it is still 2013.
I just skimmed all my posts for the last year and have come to the conclusion that my 2013 revolved around three things: FOOD, NUCLEAR MEDICINE, and SKELETON.
FOOD: wow we made and ate a lot of food this year! So many delicious things. Good thing I also started going to the gym this year otherwise I’d definitely be heading towards 900 lbs.
NUCLEAR MEDICINE: I graduated from BCIT, passed the CAMRT exam, and eventually got a job. That all worked out nicely! I’m incredibly grateful that it did.
SKELETON: the thing that gets me through the winter tbh. I went 120 km/hr, got the hang of lower ladies start, made the BC team (sort of), made new friends. All good stuff.
I was also lucky enough to go to LA, Fiji, Hawaii and Osoyoos this year. I love travelling with Scott, every trip has been fun.
Life has been good to us in 2013.
We’re off to do some NYE bowling tonight. Happy doo doo, see you in 2014!
Leisurely Days Off
I LOVE DAYS OFF!
Not that I’ve done much with my time. Mostly all I’ve been doing is watching tons of Bob’s Burgers and Suits and making and eating food, haha.
We haven’t done Christmas yet. We’ve made up our own arbitrary holiday and it happens on January 1st. This means we could wait for boxing day sales and get MOAR PRESENTS for less $$. The day is also going to involve the polar bear swim, an egg hunt, a big meal (not sure what yet), stockings…. basically just all the fun parts of other holidays.
Did I ever write about how our TV broke and was deemed unfixable by the repair shop? Well that happened. We went to Costco on Boxing Day morning to replace it. I was expecting it to be a madhouse, but actually it was totally quiet. I have never seen Costco so empty, it was lovely. We ended up getting a cheap 32″ TV. It’s nice being able to watch TV during daylight hours again.
I don’t work again until 2014. I have two and a half weeks solid of training in January but then I’m not on the schedule after that. I’m sure I’ll pick up some shifts here and there but I think I’m not going to be very busy for a while. Perhaps I’ll go back to nights at the data centre? We’ll see we’ll see.
Crashes Of All Sorts
A lot happened last weekend.
It all started on Friday. Of course it had to snow 10 cm on the one day that I actually had to drive to work (I was supposed to pick up my skeleton friend Matt and drive straight to Whistler after work). The roads were horrendous. I got to work no problem (yay Subaru) but I had to park on the street and was worried all day that someone was going to slide and smash into it.
…And someone did. The back left corner was pretty smashed. The front is damaged as well from hitting into the car parked in front of me. At least the person left me a note. This was my first time dealing with an accident so I wasted a lot of time figuring out what to do. Unfortunately because of that I couldn’t meet up with Matt in time and I had to miss skeleton practice. Usually that would be fine, but it was a race weekend (BC Cup) and Friday was “official race training”. I got some texts from Matt and our coach saying that I might not be eligible to race on Saturday or Sunday because I missed the training. I was double sad.
The next day I was told that I could still come and be a forerunner (test person) and they would try to make my runs count as official race runs. I was told they would have to talk to the jury and see if they would let me participate. Of course I really wanted to!! My first ever skeleton race??!! So exciting!
I didn’t find out I was actually racing until the very last second. I was frozen because one of the bobsledders sliding from the top crashed and we had to wait for a long time while they inspected and fixed up the track. I was first to slide after the crash. My first run was ok until the last straightaway. I ping ponged a bit before the finish line and lost a lot of time. I had the worst time (out of the three of us). Then we went back up, the bobsled crashed again and we got re-frozen and I had another bad run.
There were three skeletoners and one bobsled going from the top, and three skeletoners and two bobsleds going from Lower Ladies start. It was a weird mix of official and not official… the people going from the top were competing for medals and points, but we weren’t really… yet we had a race official with us and had to ask a jury for me to be allowed to participate. Iunno.
Race 1 was disappointing but I just kept thinking Race 2 is its own separate thing and I’m going to do awesome. Our coach found speedsuits for us (that we can keep!) and everyone was pumped. I was optimistic and less distracted (I thought).
Everything was feeling good and then the bobsled crashed again. This time was pretty bad, he crashed in corner 4 and slid the whole rest of the track upside down. We saw him come by our start area upside down making a horrible scraping noise. Not cool. (He is fine though). The track was pretty gouged and we had to wait a long time before it was cleared for sliding again.
Again I had to go right after the bobsled crash. Frozen and distracted. I steered myself right into the wall at the start. SO DUMB. Even though the rest of my run was fine, I lost a lot of time with my start so I was in last place again.
Then one of the skeletoners from the top hit a wall and flew off his sled. So crazy. (He is also fine though). That scraped the track quite a bit too so more waiting, more freezing. Last run of the weekend what do I do?? STEER MYSELF DIRECTLY INTO THE WALL AT THE START AGAIN. I was like “NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO” down the rest of the track.
Matt and Grant had some great runs. The track was fast and they got some PB times. I beat them a lot in practice but I came decisively in last place in both races. Sigh. The pressure got to me I guess! I think the cold and stress of the car might have had something to do with it as well. Anyway it was still fun and I’m glad I got to participate, and I can’t wait to beat those guys in the next race. :D I’m going to go do some track visualizations now…
Daily Dinners Post #25 of 26
Wow I seriously do not want to know how many calories and grams of sodium I ate in the last two weeks. We ate out A LOT!! Someone pass me the salad please.
december 1st, 2013 – turkey banh mi from Saigon Noodle in Kailua
december 2nd, 2013 – Loaded Nuggets Munchie Box from Jack in the Box in Kailua
As I learned a few months ago, Jack in the Box started selling these Munchie Boxes after 9PM for $6 (actually $7 in Hawaii). They’re pretty much for stoners. The boxes all come with a big drink, curly fries, regular fries, two tacos, and some kind of main dish. The options are
- Stacked Grilled Cheese Hamburger (hamburger with a grilled cheese as a top bun)
- Exploding Cheesy Chicken (chicken burger with mozarella sticks and cheese sauce on it)
- Loaded Nuggets (chicken nuggets with cheese, ranch and bacon on top)
- Brunch Burger (burger with egg on a croissant)
I chose the Loaded Nuggets and it was tasty. The tacos were two-dimensional. I nearly died of food overdose afterwards. Scott and Natasha had the Exploding Cheesy Chicken. Rosemarie was smarter and just ordered a regular burger.
I will probably never eat at Jack in the Box again.
december 3rd, 2013 – Original Chicken Sandwich at Burger King in Honolulu
Our flight home left Honolulu airport at 11:30PM so we were at the airport very late. We didn’t realize that the food court was about to shut and were left with very very very limited options for dinner. This chicken sandwich was pretty gross but it was pretty much the only option left after 8:59PM.
december 4th, 2013 – alaska roll and spicy tuna roll, yam, potato and shrimp tempura from Sushi Garden
Rosemarie requested cheap sushi after being away from Vancouver for 1.5 years. Sushi Garden definitely hits the spot.
december 5th, 2013 – homemade falafel with tzatziki
Rosemarie made this and it was mega tasty. She says next time she will make the pitas too. BEST HOUSEGUEST EVER.
On December 6th Scott and I went to Kevin’s house for dinner. I didn’t take a picture because I was shy. They made a whole bunch of appetizers for dinner and everything was awesome.
december 7th, 2013 – quinoa with roasted vegetables, and sausage
december 8th, 2013 – spicy peanut cabbage salad and spicy chicken
december 9th, 2013 – pesto pasta bake and spicy cucumber salad
december 10th, 2013 – beans and rice with shrimp
december 11th, 2013 – slow cooker chicken and wild rice “soup” and raw carrots and cucumber
This was supposed to be a soup but turned out very very thick. Mmm glop. It still tasted fine, even though it is seriously not visually appealing.
december 12th, 2013 – ahi tuna club sandwich and fries at Joey’s
The doctors at the hospital I work at took us out for a lunch/dinner for the holidays. I had a tuna club sandwich and it was really good! The ahi tuna was pretty hefty, and just seared on the outside (the way I like it). The onion rings added crunch and the chutney and mayo sauce added even more tasty flavour. All the appetizers we ordered were really good too. I enjoyed this meal a lot.
december 13th, 2013 – hot and sour wings at The Pint
Expensive mediocre wings and a bland drink. The nacho I stole from the table next to us was the culinary highlight of the evening. Might not return.
december 14th, 2013 – microwave lasagna
To save money in Whistler we always try to bring as many meals with us as we can. This time we brought a frozen lasagna and cooked it in the microwave. We forgot to bring forks though so I had to eat it with a big knife.