New Motivation

Is it wrong that I increased the length of my intervals and my speed (fastest ever) so I could do my proper miles and get home in time to watch NCIS????

I just can't help it, these Ontario times are killing me.... who puts a prime-time show on at 8:00?  My whole life I've structured my tv viewing for the 9 o'clock hour... darn you Ontario!

Happy Robbie Burns Day

It makes me sad that I'm not in Calgary to celebrate this today, perhaps somewhere on base they will have something Scottish, if not I guess I'll head on over to the mess and have a nice dram o' Scotch Whiskey

Address To A Haggis 

Fair fa' your honest, sonsie face,

Great chieftain o' the puddin-race!

Aboon them a' ye tak your place,

Painch, tripe, or thairm:

Weel are ye wordy o' a grace

As lang's my arm.

The groaning trencher there ye fill,

Your hurdies like a distant hill,

Your pin wad help to mend a mill

In time o' need,

While thro' your pores the dews distil

Like amber bead.

His knife see rustic Labour dight,

An' cut you up wi' ready sleight,

Trenching your gushing entrails bright,

Like ony ditch;

And then, O what a glorious sight,

Warm-reekin, rich!

Then, horn for horn, 

they stretch an' strive:

Deil tak the hindmost! on they drive,

Till a' their weel-swall'd kytes belyve,

Are bent lyke drums;

Then auld Guidman, maist like to rive,

"Bethankit!" 'hums.

Is there that owre his French ragout

Or olio that wad staw a sow,

Or fricassee wad mak her spew

Wi' perfect sconner,

Looks down wi' sneering, scornfu' view

On sic a dinner?

Poor devil! see him ower his trash,

As feckless as a wither'd rash,

His spindle shank, a guid whip-lash,

His nieve a nit;

Thro' bloody flood or field to dash,

O how unfit!

But mark the Rustic, haggis fed,

The trembling earth resounds his tread.

Clap in his walie nieve a blade,

He'll mak it whissle;

An' legs an' arms, an' heads will sned,

Like taps o' thrissle.

Ye Pow'rs wha mak mankind your care,

And dish them out their bill o' fare,

Auld Scotland wants nae skinking ware

That jaups in luggies;

But, if ye wish her gratefu' prayer,

Gie her a haggis!

She's earned it

Shamelessly stolen from akinoluna:


"From the blog Attack of the Toddler!!! which is written by a former female Marine and Iraq veteran - when her Marine husband's coworkers asked if it bothered him that she doesn't work, this is what he said:

"My wife spent five years in the Marine Corps and has spent more time in Iraq than most of the people in this company. She works; when I get home I don't even have to lift a finger, it's all taken care of. So as far as I'm concerned, she can do whatever the fuck she wants, she's earned it."  "


I would be hard- pressed to argue with him... 

Apparently this is the new ad for Fuller Edge Photography as featured in Wedding Bells magazine, and it features my friend Teila and her hubby Brad - they look awesome!

You can also check Teila's photography company out here

Amazing

I'll be thinking of this girl the next time I think about not giving it my all when I run.

Book Club

So I've joined my first real book club.  My new sister-in-law (and mom) and her friends (plus their mom and their mom's friends) met tonight to discuss what we should read.  It actually turned out to be less of a what book to decide on and more so "how literature influenced my life"  We spoke about our first memories of books - a lot of us remembered Beatrix Potter's books as our first, I also remembered a series of books about a clumsy maid named Amelia Bedelia, and those crazy choose your own adventure books that drove my Mom crazy.  We also spoke about our favourites, and our not so favourites.  I mentioned Outlander of course and took turns jotting some notes down as to the next few books that we should be reading.  Jane Austen was tossed about for a while but in the end we settled for "Wolf Hall" by Hilary Mantel.  Indigo lists the description as :


"England, the 1520s. Henry VIII is on the throne, but has no heir. Cardinal Wolsey is his chief advisor, charged with securing the divorce the pope refuses to grant. Into this atmosphere of distrust and need comes Thomas Cromwell, first as Wolsey's clerk, and later his successor.  Cromwell is a wholly original man: the son of a brutal blacksmith, a political genius, a briber, a charmer, a bully, a man with a delicate and deadly expertise in manipulating people and events. Ruthless in pursuit of his own interests, he is as ambitious in his wider politics as he is for himself. His reforming agenda is carried out in the grip of a self-interested parliament and a king who fluctuates between romantic passions and murderous rages.

From one of our finest living writers, Wolf Hall is that very rare thing: a truly great English novel, one that explores the intersection of individual psychology and wider politics. With a vast array of characters, and richly overflowing with incident, it peels back history to show us Tudor England as a half-made society, moulding itself with great passion and suffering and courage."

In any case, it should be great.  However, I seem to be getting myself deeper and deeper into a reading debt with my military university courses and my current book "The Guns of Normandy".  It's an intriguing account of the canadians in Normandy after D day and one of the artillery sergeants at work brought it to my attention.  With Pete being artillery now it is very fitting that I should be reading this.

Alright, time for bed - good night!

Blue Sky Thinking

It's been 4 years, amazing how quickly time flies by, and yet it seems like it's been such a long time all at once.
I'm thinking of you and your family today Matt.

Delays and more delays

Just a quick note before I start the recap - I read this over at The day to day, semi-normal life of a female marine and couldn't believe my eyes... some people have no idea how ignorant they can come off spouting out their opinions...


Beginning tonight with some bad news - Pete's course has been delayed from next week to May.  This means of course that he'll still be on course in Sept and not finishing until December.  Which then translates into no wedding in the fall and of course no living in the same location until Christmas this year.  Just as I was beginning to plan stuff, well, that's the military life for you.


Other fun news though, looks as though my next course will be offered (we think) at the end of April and in June.  Hopefully I will be able to get on the earlier course, be qualified sooner, get promoted and therefore have a pay raise all by the end of June! Although, with my track record so far who knows what will happen.


I've begun properly training again for my next half marathon - normally I just run every other day, gauging how far I run with how I feel.  I guess doing that doesn't really put forth a real challenge for my body to work with so I'm thinking this will be a good thing to kick my butt off this plateau.  My friend also signed up for the CN Tower stair climb in April, also a good idea for me.  Luckily the stair-climber at the gym has a magical button that lets me pretend like I am climbing a set of landmark buildings (the CN tower is #7 on their list) this keeps me pretty busy on my Cross training days.


Anyways, I'm at the in-laws for the weekend to escape the base a bit and catch up on my reading (history and military courses, pleasure reading, and now a new book club book - yikes!)  So it's off to bed for an early sleep after a real dinner, I love hangin' with the in-laws!