Nope not mine and Jen's anniversary but my Mom and Dad's.
43yrs!!!!
Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad, hope you are having a wonderful day!
Feliz Aniversario!!! Até breve!
Take care
Ewan
Monday, August 30, 2010
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
More This Day in History
The next installment in This Day in History(THID). For this one it was easy, we go back to the day we brought Isla home from the Hospital
August 23rd 2007:
August 23 2010 ...ok it was really 22nd, but work with me here :-)
Until the next THID
Ewan
August 23rd 2007:
August 23 2010 ...ok it was really 22nd, but work with me here :-)
Until the next THID
Ewan
Monday, August 23, 2010
CAKE!!!!!!!!
As promised some more pics from Isla's party. Obviously the one above is the cake that Jen made for Isla. It was an Ariel cake and it was delicious.
There was a bit of a princess theme going on, one of Isla's gift was a princess dress:
The funiest part of the whole cake process was watching Isla try to blow out the candles, here is a pic of her blowing full force:
It was a full day and it certainly took it's toll on Isla, by 6:30 she was asking for bed. She ended up in bed and sleeping by 7
The rest of the pics from the party are here
All for now
Take care
Ewan
Sunday, August 22, 2010
HAPPY BIRTHDAY ISLA
HAPPY BIRTHDAY to our little sweetheart!
Isla is three years old today, or if you ask Isla "Im frrrreeeee yirs olds"
There will be cake and presents later today, the house is already decorated with balloons and streamers.
Hard to believe our little girl is three years old today.
Take care
Ewan
Isla is three years old today, or if you ask Isla "Im frrrreeeee yirs olds"
There will be cake and presents later today, the house is already decorated with balloons and streamers.
Hard to believe our little girl is three years old today.
Take care
Ewan
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
This Day In History
So this will be a new feature on the blog called "This Day in History" (TDIH). We will go back to a post/pic from the past and compare it to this day. Today's picture comes from August 18th 2005.
It is Keir saying hi to his Gran who was over in Scotland at the time (coincidently that is where his Gran is again today!)
compare to a photo from yesterday:
Obviously Keir looks a _lot_ younger!
Here is the Original post from 2005: here
It is Keir saying hi to his Gran who was over in Scotland at the time (coincidently that is where his Gran is again today!)
compare to a photo from yesterday:
Obviously Keir looks a _lot_ younger!
Here is the Original post from 2005: here
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
Family Walk
With summer coming to an end (sorry someone had to say it....) we decided to go for a walk last night because we were not sure how many more nice summer nights there would be.
We went to a trail that is owned by my place of employment
It is a nice little walk in and around the Jock River, and a nice natural setting in a urban area. We got to the trailhead and Keir had to make a ..... errr.... "pitstop"
With that out of the way we set off. BTW Keir decided we should pack supplies for the hike, hence both of the backpacks on the kids. Keir's didn't last long (about 5mins and then he decided it was too heavy). The trail leads you down to the river. Here is what you see looking the "nice" way (i.e. the natural way)
and here is the looking the other direction:
The kids had fun exploring all around up and down:
All in all it was a nice little walk, espcially considerding it was 10mins from home.
Here is the full photo set here
That is all for now
Take care
Ewan
We went to a trail that is owned by my place of employment
It is a nice little walk in and around the Jock River, and a nice natural setting in a urban area. We got to the trailhead and Keir had to make a ..... errr.... "pitstop"
With that out of the way we set off. BTW Keir decided we should pack supplies for the hike, hence both of the backpacks on the kids. Keir's didn't last long (about 5mins and then he decided it was too heavy). The trail leads you down to the river. Here is what you see looking the "nice" way (i.e. the natural way)
and here is the looking the other direction:
The kids had fun exploring all around up and down:
All in all it was a nice little walk, espcially considerding it was 10mins from home.
Here is the full photo set here
That is all for now
Take care
Ewan
Monday, August 16, 2010
U7 Soccer World Cup
I just realized that I haven't updated much on Keir's soccer lately. Well the Ivory Coast team has improved each week and is actually playing very well as a team, It has been very interesting watching them progress. The one thing that has been constant from week to week has been the rain!!! It seems that Mother Nature has rain scheduled for Tuesday Evenings this summer.
This past week was their last regular season game, it was "versus" (like Keir likes to say) England. And they promptly won it! Nothing like waiting till the last game of the year for he first win :-)
After the last game was the end of season tournament, 3 games back to back on Sunday morning. Sunday morning we awoke to lighting, thunderstorms and rain (thanks Mother Nature!) The kids had fun on a fairly successful day. They tied one game and lost two(but played very well in those games).
Keir said that he enjoyed the season and would play again next year (if his friends played), which is all we can ask.
That is all for now
Ewan
This past week was their last regular season game, it was "versus" (like Keir likes to say) England. And they promptly won it! Nothing like waiting till the last game of the year for he first win :-)
After the last game was the end of season tournament, 3 games back to back on Sunday morning. Sunday morning we awoke to lighting, thunderstorms and rain (thanks Mother Nature!) The kids had fun on a fairly successful day. They tied one game and lost two(but played very well in those games).
Keir said that he enjoyed the season and would play again next year (if his friends played), which is all we can ask.
That is all for now
Ewan
Saturday, August 14, 2010
AWESOME
Warning: Star Wars Nerd Alert!!!! (Yes that would be me)
Check out this deleted scene from Return of the Jedi
http://www.theblurayblog.com/2010/08/video-star-wars-blu-ray-return-of-the-jedi-deleted-scene-debut/
Check out this deleted scene from Return of the Jedi
http://www.theblurayblog.com/2010/08/video-star-wars-blu-ray-return-of-the-jedi-deleted-scene-debut/
Changes
No not those kind of changes, but I have made some changes to the blog, I have added a menu bar above /\ with the different choices of what you may want to look at (Family, Race Reports, Cool Photos) Hopefully it make the site a bit more useful in the end. You can also search the site with the searchbar on the side ->
There is also a fishy surprise on the bottom :-)
Ewan
There is also a fishy surprise on the bottom :-)
Ewan
Friday, August 13, 2010
Race Report
National Capital Olympic Triathlon July 31, 2010
Race Week: A week a felt a little “off”, the only thing I can pin point was on Sunday I was stung by a hornet (which hurt a LOT) then Monday and Tuesday I had a huge headache, consequently all week long my workouts all felt a little off. I even had a cramp in my foot swimming (haven’t had that happen in ages) on Thursday. I was also trying to wrap several things up at work (as I was taking the next week off) so the whole week was a little “off”.
Race Morning: I had planned to get up at 5:15 but ended up sleeping in till 5:50am. I got up and tried to eat breakfast but couldn’t eat much which is pretty normal. I ended up leaving the house a little late (I was biking in to the race venue) I guess it was fair to say I was a little unorganized this morning. Further evidence of that was I forgot my one of my water bottles and my energy gels. LESSON LEARNED: plan ahead, have a plan for the race and race morning no matter the size of the race.
Warm up: I biked into the race (about 40mins) and again felt off, had a small stomach cramp (not a good sign). Once at the race I set up my transition area (for those that aren’t sure what a transition area is: it is a the large area at the race where racers rack their bikes and “transition” between sports, each racer has their only little spot to set up their bike and running shoes and anything else they need). My run warm up was fine, felt good on the run. I got a quick swim warm up in as I didn’t have much time left (see Race Morning Section!)
Swim: My plan was to stick to the outside away from any contact. In a couple of previous races I have gotten boxed in with a bunch of other swimmers and it really isn’t a good feeling. I felt ok after the first 250m, from 300m to the turn around I really struggled with my motivation (not sure why) but I even took some breatsrokes when I really didn’t have any reason to do so. After the turn around I really got going I think I brought it home fairly strong and swam a pretty straight line. Time : 25:58
SWIM LESSON LEARNED: I could have swam harder. I also have to trust my training (but I still need more more longer straight open water swims) I keep looking for reasons _not_ to push it in the swim, if I want to get faster I will have to push it more in the swim.
Transition 1: I past 3-4 people on the run up to t-zone, wetsuit came of great, watch strap didn’t go on well (despite practicing it) passed one more person running out with the bike. Mount was OK.
Bike: I wanted to really push the pace one the bike. The course was a 4 * 10km loop course (for 40km) and the out portion was into the head wind and you would get the tale wind on the back portion. On a course like this (closed to traffic and multi lap) my plan was simple: bike as hard as possible and take nutrition on at each turn around. Everything went according to plan, so there is not much to say about the bike. The only problem was that my chain would skip on the bottom three gears so I could use them on the downhills (lost a little time there) and at about half way the hips felt a little tight but the legs felt great the whole time. Time: 1:03:33
Here is the Speed vs Heart Rate Graph from the race:
One Race shot from the race photographer (notice the drafter stuck behind me....he is hard to see as he is stuck to my wheel after I past him, something you are not aloud to do! HINT: look at the second shadow behind me)
T2: very good in and out no wasted time
Run: felt great starting the run I purposely held back because I know that first 1kmcan be really fast especially on this course, I even tucked in behind a guy who started talking about how some guys on the bike hand only done 3laps????) everything was going good and I was feeling really good until a slight downhill at 4.25kms and my hamstring tightend up, crap!@!!! Not good, I kept running but had to slow my pace up a fair bit… I didn’t give up instead I shifted my focus to counting my steps to distract my brain from the hamstring tightness, this seemed to work and after about 1.5kms I was back to normal. But I wasn’t running with a full stride ( I saw a duathalete running who was a pure runner, and that is how I should be running in a tri). A 8.25km left I picked up my pace and passed I guy that had been in front of me for a while, I tried to bring it home as hard as I could, the last km has a huge hill in it and it _HURT_ , with 100m to go you turn of the path and run up a small hill to run to the finishing shoot, I ran that as hard as I could, I running down the shoot I looked up and saw the clock and it said 2:14:33, I had 27secs to break 2:15 and only about 50m left, I put my head down and ran as hard as I could. Time: 40:15
Here is the run splits from the race guess where the cramp hit??
RUN LESSONS LEARNED: I still think I have another notch on the run (avg HR 173 for a 10km it should be closer to 177) it is hard to keep and even pace on this course but if possible I should have done it.
more photos here
Overall: Crossed in 2:14:42 good for 10th place I a, Happy with placing and time (about 2min improvement over last yea), but not happy with my swim performance. I think my run could have been better as well.
Race Week: A week a felt a little “off”, the only thing I can pin point was on Sunday I was stung by a hornet (which hurt a LOT) then Monday and Tuesday I had a huge headache, consequently all week long my workouts all felt a little off. I even had a cramp in my foot swimming (haven’t had that happen in ages) on Thursday. I was also trying to wrap several things up at work (as I was taking the next week off) so the whole week was a little “off”.
Race Morning: I had planned to get up at 5:15 but ended up sleeping in till 5:50am. I got up and tried to eat breakfast but couldn’t eat much which is pretty normal. I ended up leaving the house a little late (I was biking in to the race venue) I guess it was fair to say I was a little unorganized this morning. Further evidence of that was I forgot my one of my water bottles and my energy gels. LESSON LEARNED: plan ahead, have a plan for the race and race morning no matter the size of the race.
Warm up: I biked into the race (about 40mins) and again felt off, had a small stomach cramp (not a good sign). Once at the race I set up my transition area (for those that aren’t sure what a transition area is: it is a the large area at the race where racers rack their bikes and “transition” between sports, each racer has their only little spot to set up their bike and running shoes and anything else they need). My run warm up was fine, felt good on the run. I got a quick swim warm up in as I didn’t have much time left (see Race Morning Section!)
Swim: My plan was to stick to the outside away from any contact. In a couple of previous races I have gotten boxed in with a bunch of other swimmers and it really isn’t a good feeling. I felt ok after the first 250m, from 300m to the turn around I really struggled with my motivation (not sure why) but I even took some breatsrokes when I really didn’t have any reason to do so. After the turn around I really got going I think I brought it home fairly strong and swam a pretty straight line. Time : 25:58
SWIM LESSON LEARNED: I could have swam harder. I also have to trust my training (but I still need more more longer straight open water swims) I keep looking for reasons _not_ to push it in the swim, if I want to get faster I will have to push it more in the swim.
Transition 1: I past 3-4 people on the run up to t-zone, wetsuit came of great, watch strap didn’t go on well (despite practicing it) passed one more person running out with the bike. Mount was OK.
Bike: I wanted to really push the pace one the bike. The course was a 4 * 10km loop course (for 40km) and the out portion was into the head wind and you would get the tale wind on the back portion. On a course like this (closed to traffic and multi lap) my plan was simple: bike as hard as possible and take nutrition on at each turn around. Everything went according to plan, so there is not much to say about the bike. The only problem was that my chain would skip on the bottom three gears so I could use them on the downhills (lost a little time there) and at about half way the hips felt a little tight but the legs felt great the whole time. Time: 1:03:33
Here is the Speed vs Heart Rate Graph from the race:
One Race shot from the race photographer (notice the drafter stuck behind me....he is hard to see as he is stuck to my wheel after I past him, something you are not aloud to do! HINT: look at the second shadow behind me)
T2: very good in and out no wasted time
Run: felt great starting the run I purposely held back because I know that first 1kmcan be really fast especially on this course, I even tucked in behind a guy who started talking about how some guys on the bike hand only done 3laps????) everything was going good and I was feeling really good until a slight downhill at 4.25kms and my hamstring tightend up, crap!@!!! Not good, I kept running but had to slow my pace up a fair bit… I didn’t give up instead I shifted my focus to counting my steps to distract my brain from the hamstring tightness, this seemed to work and after about 1.5kms I was back to normal. But I wasn’t running with a full stride ( I saw a duathalete running who was a pure runner, and that is how I should be running in a tri). A 8.25km left I picked up my pace and passed I guy that had been in front of me for a while, I tried to bring it home as hard as I could, the last km has a huge hill in it and it _HURT_ , with 100m to go you turn of the path and run up a small hill to run to the finishing shoot, I ran that as hard as I could, I running down the shoot I looked up and saw the clock and it said 2:14:33, I had 27secs to break 2:15 and only about 50m left, I put my head down and ran as hard as I could. Time: 40:15
Here is the run splits from the race guess where the cramp hit??
RUN LESSONS LEARNED: I still think I have another notch on the run (avg HR 173 for a 10km it should be closer to 177) it is hard to keep and even pace on this course but if possible I should have done it.
more photos here
Overall: Crossed in 2:14:42 good for 10th place I a, Happy with placing and time (about 2min improvement over last yea), but not happy with my swim performance. I think my run could have been better as well.
Thursday, August 05, 2010
Cool Contest
I just enter a contest to win a new GPS/HRM watch, you too can enter:
http://www.dcrainmaker.com/2010/08/garmin-forerunner-310xt-giveaway.html
BTW: this is an amazing blog that has quickly become on of my favorite blogs, have a read around.
http://www.dcrainmaker.com/2010/08/garmin-forerunner-310xt-giveaway.html
BTW: this is an amazing blog that has quickly become on of my favorite blogs, have a read around.
Wednesday, August 04, 2010
Holiday Part 2
I have taken a second week of holidays this week (the first week of August), for the first couple of days we were up at the cottage relaxing. We got some really good photos. Here are a couple of my favorites:
Jumping Isla:
Jumping Keir:
Exploring:
My new desktop:
here are the two sets one and two where you can see a bunch more of photos
That is all for now... got to limit computer time while on vacation!
Ewan
Jumping Isla:
Jumping Keir:
Exploring:
My new desktop:
here are the two sets one and two where you can see a bunch more of photos
That is all for now... got to limit computer time while on vacation!
Ewan
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