morning run

So I'm beginning to think I'll never be a "real" runner.

I'm only a beginner, but I love running so far. But I'm finding it hard to take on the fixed goal mentality of genuine runners. I still haven't run a mile without stopping, but it's no longer because I can't do it physically. It's because there are too many interesting things to see along the way. :-)





One of the advantages I'm finding of running over cycling is that it IS so easy to stop and look at interesting stuff; you don't have to worry about locking up your bike or stashing it somewhere where it won't be stolen.

I usually stop only long enough to take in the way the light hits the lake, or some spring blooms in a park, or checking out an interesting sculpture I hadn't noticed before, sometimes to take a picture. But the stop is long enough to "disqualify" my run as continuous, I'm sure.

But hey, it's my run, isn't it? Or walk/run, whatever I wish to make it. :-)

I decided to go running in the morning today instead of at the end of my workday because Jodi and I are going to see the performance of "Joseph and the Technicoloured Dreamcoat" put on by Allison's school tonight, directed by Allison! Really looking forward to seeing it. :-)

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Today's Blatherpics:

I took these photos this morning on my run.

	Scene along the harbourfront.
	Sculpture in a (very) small park as I head through the downtown core toward the harbourfront.
	These stairs beside the Skydome mark the last big "push" in my run before heading home. There are two sets of these in a row.

zoo

Jeff and I took a few hours off yesterday to visit the Toronto Zoo with our niece Brittany on her birthday (she's six). It was Jeff's first time at this particular zoo.

Hefty admission fee ($17 for adults, $9 for children). I think this fee should have been discounted because of all the exhibits that were closed because it was off-season...the girls kept excitedly asking to see certain animals only to be disappointed when we arrived to find they weren't there.





Jeff and I met Rachel, Brittany's friend from school, for the first time. Really cute little kid. Super-enthusiastic, too...she yelled "Yippee!" a lot. She also seemed to attach herself to JBR, holding his hand, dragging him around, asking him questions, calling him "Grampy" just like Brittany did. I asked JBR how long he had known Rachel, and he told me it was the first time he had met her. :-)





I'm somewhat stressed out these days, so the zoo trip was a good distraction. Last week, the CCRA (the Canadian equivalent of the IRS) called me and said that my file had been "randomly selected" for review.

I've never been audited before, and can't say that this one of those life experiences I've been hoping to embrace. I've heard so many audit horror stories, mainly about the attitude and treatment involved. Sad to say, so far I haven't come across anything to contradict these stories.

It bugs me that I'm being made to feel like a criminal even though I haven't done anything wrong and have in fact invested a lot of energy and money trying to do the right thing. I'm sure the Inkspot sale was what triggered the "random selection" of my file.

It's frustrating that this is happening just when I feel like my life has finally started to settle down after the whole Inkspot/Xlibris debacle, when I'm finally able to start focussing on my own writing again.

It's frustrating that bad Inkspot/Xlibris karma continues to follow me despite the fact that Xlibris shut down the site and laid off all Inkspot employees over a year ago.





But let me try to look on the bright side of the situation:

-- At least I'm home for all this, not in Philadelphia.

-- I was bound to be audited sooner or later, because of the sale of Inkspot. At least this way I get it over sooner than later.

-- I haven't done anything wrong. Whatever hassles or attitude I endure over the next while, I'll just keep telling myself that and trust (I can hear the more cynical among you hysterically laughing :-)) that in the end, the CCRA will come to realize that.

Wish me luck. :-)

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Today's Blatherpics:

	At the beginning of the zoo trip, Larkin writes her cellphone number on Brittany's arm, just in case Brittany gets separated from us. She does the same for Rachel.
	Watching the camels. Sadly, the camel rides were not running that day.
	We ran into Andrew and Katy (and Andrew's mom) at the zoo. I met Andrew and Pat Williams at local filks. In fact, Allison and I had our first Real Conversation (i.e. conversation longer than the 2 or 3 minute snatches we got at conventions) at one of Pat's housefilks. Pat also gave me a sampler tape with Dave Clement singing years before I actually met Dave.
	JBR and Rachel and Brittany.
	A cute animal whose name totally escapes me. Looks like a Gund stuffed animal, doesn't he? I bet he'd rip your hand off if you reached down to pet him. No, I didn't say this to Brittany and Rachel. (Thanks to Amanda Snyder for pointing out that this animal is a red panda!)

terence poll results

So last week I posted a survey about Terence Chua, a filker (and a judge!) living in Singapore. Terence has a wonderfully twisted sense of humour and is also a very sweet guy. I first came in contact with Terence when I posted incorrect spellings of his first AND last name on the OVFF Web site when he was a guest at the convention in recent years. I was mortified, of course. Instead of being angry, Terence took it all with good humour.

I've been trying to spread the rumour that he might be moving to Toronto in the feeble hope that he might actually start believing the rumour himself and then do it. Okay, so maybe that should read "VERY feeble" but hey, I figure it's at least worth a shot. :-)

Anyway, 26 people responded to the survey, of which 68% have actually met Terence. In response to my question, "Where do you think Terence Chua should move to?", 24% of respondents chose Toronto, 12% chose Vancouver, 16% chose Atlanta. Here are the comments that were posted by the 52% who chose "Other":

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San Jose, CA

I'd say New York, except that it's probably too much like Singapore. So, failing that, Washington, DC, would be a good place. LOTS of fodder for humor, if his blood pressure can take it ;-)

Gravesend, England. We used to be doing so well building up our filker community but now that we've lost some people we need to build it back up again. If Terence moves here then surely lots of other filkers will move here too because he's so much fun.

Southern California

Terence is actually going to settle in Needles, California.

Where ever he feels happiest.

Anywhere in North America will do

Denver

Galapagos Islands

Peterborough

Singapore

Wherever he wants to.

Cincinnati


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In response to "Anything else you'd like to add?", the responses included:

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I hear Terence has been in incriminating photos of young female filkers involving air ducts.

Secretly Terence is going to move to Gravesend, he just didn't want to burst your bubble after mentioning Toronto as one of his possible destinations. Terence is being bribed to make this sensible decision by offers of fresh cooked brownies.

5q+5q

He still owes us dinner!

I hear ABBA is coming to Singapore this fall and giving an all-Chthulu concert!

I'd vote for Terence moving to the DC area, but Harold Feld and Ed Sobansky have already cornered the market on legal bards. (Though he could be an illegal bard, I suppose.) I'm happy to let Toronto have him 8-)

Rumour has it the best school in the world to study American History is the University of Toronto. It's true. I heard it from the friend of a friend.

We had an interesting conversation about the edition of Genesis that I was reading for school.

Well, I DID see Terence in MilPhil.


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Today's Blatherpic, of course, is of Terence when he was a baby.

poll: breakfast

I had a terrible craving for oatmeal pancakes (prompted by a conversation I had recently with Lissa Allcock about all things maple), so decided to make some. I've only had oatmeal pancakes once, at a place called Mitzi's in Toronto...VERY yummy. The recipe I used came from The Breakfast Book by Diana Terry (1983, Doubleday). It uses yeast, which disconcerted me somewhat, but fortunately the rising period was only 30 minutes. They turned out very well, and I kept some warm in the oven for Jeff. Sadly, we only have artificial syrup in the apartment right now, yuk. I had some of Rikka's wonderful herbal tea, yum.

Which brings me to today's poll question:

Are you a breakfast person? What do you usually have for breakfast on a typical workday? Weekends? What's your favourite type of breakfast? Healthy or greasefest? Tea or coffee or juice?

Please Answer in Blatherchat (if the April chat board is closed, try May instead).

I tend to be hobbit-like on weekdays and have two breakfasts. The first is when I wake up (around 6:30 or 7 a.m.), usually cut up honeydew melon with low-fat yogurt glopped on top, and some water with a lemon slice or herbal tea. After I've worked a few hours, I'll have something else...like toast with cheese and honey, cereal (usually some of the batch that Jeff mixes up from Vector and Raisin Bran and keeps in a Tupperware container on the shelf) with milk, or an egg (over easy).

Jeff and I like going out for brunch on weekends, sometimes with friends and sometimes by ourselves. This is usually lunch for me, since he tends to wake up so much later than I do on weekends. My favourite type of breakfasts are buffets, with lots of choices and a minimum of grease.

On rare occasion, however, I'll get a craving for a greasefest...bacon, fried eggs, sausages, etc. I can practically HEAR my arteries hardening as I'm hoovering down this type of breakfast, but it's wonderfully satisfying to indulge every once in a while.

I haven't been a coffee drinker until recently, when I've done more of my novel-writing in coffeeshops, and have started drinking my coffee black. I'm not a morning coffee drinker, but like to have it mid-afternoon when I need a bit of a perk.

However, Jeff and I have recently made a pact with each other to try and cut down on caffeine, and drink more water instead. We'll see how that goes.

My running is going pretty well. I'm ramping up very slowly, but still getting a good workout in the process, am usually out for about 1-1.5 hrs. My favourite run is still along Harbourfront. Next goal: during my walk/run, to run a mile without stopping! I am still the slowest runner in the world. The trickiest thing has been to figure out what distance along my route constitutes a mile. I've found some pretty good information for beginning runners at About.com, and general running info at Runner's World (there's also a section on fitness walking, for those interested).

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Today's Blatherpics:

	I took this photo near Parki's a while back. Sort of a pathetic and funny at the same time, isn't it?
	Graffiti near One Trick Pony's office.

cleat boots

Yesterday was not a good day.

To make a (painful and ongoing) story short, I'm going through more Inkspot-related tax woes despite the fact that Inkspot was shut down by Xlibris over a year ago.

A while back I said that I've asked my friends to kick me in the head if I ever talk about selling a company again.

I now revise that statement.

If I ever talk about selling a company again, my friends have permission to kick me in the head and then stomp all over my prone body with cleat boots.

Today's photo is of me, taken by Jeff last weekend at the cottage.