Joe's still sleeping, so I thought I'd drop a few lines. I was hoping to get out for a run today, but it poured out last night making everything muddy, and now it's getting hot again...like we need the humidity.

Yesterday was fun. Joe and I spent the day shopping on Ste-Catherine. We did the obligatory stops at Simon's and we both ended up buying new sandals at Aldo. I bought a couple of bathing suits on sale at Simon's and Joe bought a pair of shorts and several shirts. We continued walking towards the Village and stopped at several others stores before grabbing a bite to eat at Cafe Europeen and heading back to Jerome's. We quaffed a few beers and headed to Cafeteria on St-Laurent where we met up with Karen, Bertrand, Simon and Alain for drinks and food. Joe and I headed back to the Village and spent the rest of the evening dancing at Unity II.

Today we're planning on walking around the Vieux-Port and getting our souvenir shopping done. Tonight is the beginning of the weekend long party, starting with the HomoRama fashion show at Le Parking, and possibly to Stereo, Aria or Sona for afterhours dancing. Tomorrow is the T-dance in Emilie-Gamelin Park, and possibly some dancing at Sky or one of the other bars afterwards, and Sunday is the parade on Boulevard Rene-Levesque, and the street parties on Ste-Catherine and Berri, and who knows what else afterwards? If I don't manage to add an entry over the next few days, these are my excuses. Wish me luck!

Greetings once again from Montreal! Joe and I arrived safely last night (Wednesday). After spending 48 hours of non-stop walking in Ottawa, it was nice to get somewhere with acceptable transit. We had a lot of fun in Ottawa, and obviously didn't get everything done we had set out to do, but we did get quite a few things accomplished (including taking six or seven rolls of pictures). The city is beautiful. On Monday, we went out for a late dinner on Bank Street, and then Bob Flynn took us to a bar in Hull called "The Living Room" that had a gay night, and apparently is one of the few occasions during the week when anything is going on. It was fun.

Tuesday we spent walking around. We had a tour of the Parliament Buildings, and walked up Sussex Drive, stopping outside the Canadian War Museum and Rideau Centre. That evening we went out with Bob again for a few beers in the Bytown Market.

On Wednesday we caught the changing of the guards on the Parliament grounds and then went to the Canadian Museam of Civilization in Hull. What a fantastic facility! We spent about four hours in there, and realized we were going to have to miss everything else to keep on our schedule and make it to Montreal in the evening. We caught the 5pm bus to Montreal, and we were at Jerome's place around 8:30pm. Joe and I headed down to the Village in the evening, and stopped in at Campus for a few beers. Regrettably, we missed the Flexx show at Emilie-Gamelin Park, which was one of the countless Pride Week activities I actually wanted to check out. Oh well, there's always next year!

Today we are heading downtown to do some "window shopping". Hopefully this does not lead to any impulsive purchasing, but we'll see what happens. I already know we're going to run out of time by Monday to do everything we want to do, but we'll do our best to get as much in as possible.

Still feeling a great high from my finish at Elbow Valley Half Ironman on Sunday. I knocked 20 minutes off of last year's time, ending sub-five hours, which was my goal (4:57), so I'm quite satisfied with my performance, even though the 2km swim was no hell yet again.

Anyhoo, I will add more tomorrow.....

I"ve decided to race in the Bikeshevik this weekend.....I'm not sure if I've made a mistake or not! Actually, with how things went last night at the race series, I hope that I can pull off some good results. I think I'm registered in the 200m sprint heats, the 3000m and something else, on top of the possibility of racing some Points races, Devils and Scratch races. There could be six races in all on Sat. and Sun, all in the Master's category.

Joe has Sat. night off and wants to do something. I'll have to play it by ear.

Results on Monday......

What's been happening? Not too much....work, training, competitions. I've had a cold that won't disappear for the last two weeks - I ended up missing the Bikes on Broadway Stage Race in Saskatoon on the long weekend due to that fact, plus my ride arrangements fell apart at the last minute.

The races so far:

Calgary Police Services Half Marathon, April 28, 2002 Place: 24th. Time: 1:25:49. Pace: 6:33.
Creative Restaurants Banff-Calgary Relay, May 4, 2002 CPR Track Stars overall team place: 14th. Category place: 4th (Fun category). Total time: 11:06:12. Pace: 7:45
Individual results: Leg 1 (Banff-Canmore - 22km) Leg place: 9th. Time: 1:29:19. Pace: 6:32.

Crankmaster's Bearspaw Breaking Away, April 21, 2002. Individual TT time: 12:31, place 2nd overall. Team TT: 14:25, place 2nd - Team place 1st overall.
Velocity Ardrossan Stage Race, May 11-12, 2002. Individual TT: 8:02 (14/53). Criterium: 41:48 (31/53). Road race: 2:19:23 (35/53) GC: 3:09:13 (33/53).

Next up: CBTL racing night on Thursday, May 30. Bikeshevik Grand Prix at Glenmore Velodrome on June 1-2. Headwinds SR June 15-16. Geldsetzer Memorial Track Competition on June 22-23. Arbour Lake Triathlon on June 30.

The Lilac Festival was on May 26 - Joe, Doug, Wayne and myself spent the day moving up and down 4th Street and sampling all of the different beer gardens. Spent most of last week in the gym and at yoga, due to the fact I was still feeling crappy and had the sensation that there was no cardio endurance to be summoned.

I received another order of M. Stevens dancewear at the end of April. I ended up ordering a navy blue unitard, a white leotard and a nude dance belt all in milliskin. The unitard is the most comfortable lycra article I've ever owned - paired with the milliskin dance belt, I could dance forever. Fits like a second skin. I can't wait to start lessons now! I ended up making two waist belts to hold up the tights from some material I bought. The belts work very well, especially with the tights over the milliskin leotard. There is movement at the waist, but you can cinch the belt tight enough to secure the tights in place. Marvelous!

I'm waiting to buy some more Juventus team gear - jacket, skinsuit, bib shorts. I will probably get the rest of the order at Headwinds, but now I'm thinking that Juventus, even though they are a great team, aren't for me. I'm going to join Bicisport or Synergy next year. They get track practice time included with their membership, which is a great deal, plus all of the organized team rides. I'm feeling pretty isolated here - if I was in Edmonton, Juventus would definitely be the way to go. I was hoping on being able to do more team stuff here as well, but since all of the other Juvie riders in Calgary are Cat 1/2/3, there's no chance I'll be able to ride with them, at least for the first half of the season. By adding in a track practice and racing night once a week, plus weekly crit races on Tuesdays, I'll be able to network and meet some new people, and find new people to train with (hopefully). The limits of Wednesday and Friday nights for group road rides isn't working with Tim, Doug, Wayne, or Hugh's schedules so far.

Joe and I finalized purchase of our flights to Ottawa/Montreal a week ago. We're heading to Ottawa on July 29th, returning from Montreal on August 5th. I wish we had more time, but that's the way of the world. We're going to spend a day or two in Ottawa and check out the sights, and then we're going to bus to Montreal and spend the remainder of the week and Pride weekend in the city. It's going to be so awesome! I found out from Jerome that Bob Flynn is living in Ottawa now, so hopefully we'll be able to meet up with him, along with Fraser and Matthew. Jerome will be done is art show by then, Tom will be free, Karen will have just moved there, and Wendy will be around too. FUN!

I'm planning now on heading back to Manitoba on July 12th for Keith and Sharon's Century Farm celebration, and return the following weekend of July 21. I may be hitching a ride to Grandview with Bob and Trudy, and hopefully will be able to spend the 19-21 in Winnipeg visiting the old haunts. I want to spend most of the week up at the lake - I'm really hoping I'll be able to either take my scuba equipment or my bike. I was originally going to go back with Cheryl-lee for Pattie Rausch's wedding on June 15th, but it was too early and too much money I don't have that factored in to screw up that plan.

The volunteer list for the Juventus team has been posted. It looks like I'm going to be helping out with the design of the team website, and also in charge of team clothing for the Calgary contingent. Sounds interesting!

Speaking of the rest of the workout clothing, I'm hoping to buy some more M.Stevens dance stuff. The Milliskin material is SO superior to anything else I've ever worn. The dance tights fit like a glove and feel like you almost have nothing on. I'm intending on buying a black unitard, a white SS leotard, and a nude color dancebelt, all in Milliskin from Get to the Pointe dancewear online. I probably won't do this until mid-summer, when some more of my bills are out of the way/under control.

I'm really looking forward to trying new things this fall. So many options - I'm seriously considering taking a few dance classes (for sure Introductory Ballet, and possibly a jazz or modern class), but also possibly getting back into speed skating again. Why not? It's a good overall sport for muscle conditioning, and I already have all of the equipment! On top of that, I'm also wanting to get back swimming with UCTC in September. We'll see what happens.

Get a bonus copy of "Fever" with the "CGYOOMH" CD. I'm going to give it to Oliver Obermeyer, in appreciation for burning me all of those CDs. It will be great if I get it before the weekend.

Received Kylie Minogue "In Your Eyes" remix CD-R from Rob Rumble in Lincolnshire through eBay auction at the end of February, the week before Malina's 25th birthday party.

Received Kylie Minogue, "Butterfly" limited edition remix CD from BluePlate Records in Chicago (Mark Picchiati's label) on April 4, 2002. Expecting "Can't Get You Out of My Head" club promo CD from Praphan (Kevin) Kongthanasunthorn in Bangkok this week.

Another letter to Fraser Valentine in Ottawa:

Hey Fraser,

I'm just heading out of the office for another week....just thought I'd drop you a quick "hi" and see how things are going.

Not too much new here. The weather is still sucking shit - really putting a damper on getting some miles on the bike before competition season. The first race of the season is on the 20th...only two weeks away. I doubt the snow will all be gone by then, but hopefully the route will be clear enough.

I've been in physiotherapy for my knees for the past month. Nothing too major, apparently muscle imbalance in my legs from concentrating on too few sports has tightened up my IT band and weakened my gluteus medius muscles enough to pull my knees off center when I run, causing some nagging pain. The massage and acupuncture therapy has been doing a lot of good, and I've been doing a lot of Pilates, yoga and stretching along with muscle training in an attempt to swing things around. I went for a test run on Tuesday night - 16km, everything seems to be working okay, which is a good thing, since I'm running two half marathons back-to-back on April 28 and May 4.

The rest of the summer is full of competitions, either triathlons or road/track races almost every weekend. I am still taking the August long weekend to come to Montreal for Pride. I would really like to take a few days to check out what Ottawa has to offer too, still no definite plans. You and Matthew should come to Montreal for the Pride weekend. Should be a lot of fun!!!

Sept. Labor day long weekend is the Vancouver International Triathlon taking place in Stanley Park. I'm definitely considering that one as well. I'm planning on taking the week off after that to do some riding on the Pacific side of Vancouver Island and some scuba diving off of Nanaimo, Victoria and the Lower Mainland coast.

Some friends are also considering heading to Toronto for Pride in June as well. One of our good friends is moving there this weekend, and so we'll have a place to stay. So many plans, so few confirmations......

I guess I'm considering so many trips because I have a pile of Aeroplan miles and Airmiles I can use up for some free trips, and instead of putting myself further in debt this year, I've thought it would be a good idea to use them up to still complete the trips I've intended on doing, while still keeping my spending under control. It all sounds good in theory, at least.

Most of my spare time right now is spent in the gym or in the pool. I've had one cold after another this season, which has really been dogging things as well.

I haven't bought any new gear lately either. I think I told Matthew that I won an auction on Ebay a few months ago for a longsleeve 2000 season Mercury-Viatel skinsuit. It's a beautiful piece, I've been wearing it on the windtrainer, but I'm anxious to test it out on a few time trials this season.

Other than that, not too much is new. Work is going better after the budget fiasco that occurred here at the beginning of the year. I got picked up by another project team at the beginning of February, and things have been pretty hectic since then - just the way l like it! Joe (the bf) has 24 days until his last exam is over, and then he's officially an alumni, barring any technicalities like failing a course. He's so excited to be done (he's been in school seven years sans break as well) - so am I - maybe we can start building a normal life together with normal hours. Who knows? Maybe spending more time together is exactly what we need. Maybe it's not. I guess we'll have to wait and find out. I'm still having issues with commitment specifically because of this vagueness in our lives right now - time will tell whether the fog clears somewhat.

Speaking of school, isn't your dissertation due at the end of this term too, or maybe it was at the end of the fall session??? I can't remember anymore (something tells me I'm three months behind things). At any rate, you're close to being done too, thank god. It's so nice not having all of that studying to do on top of everything else, like classes, jobs, working out, maintaining your health and diet, and boyfriends for starters.

Well, I've been at this desk enough hours today. I'll drop another line soon. We should be firming up our Montreal dates within the next month or so. I think the plan is to leave Calgary on the evening of July 28th (after the big triathlon of the season - Elbow Springs- on the morning of the 28th) or the morning of the 29th. We are planning the return flight from Montreal on August 5th, but I am still thinking of using a few more AV days to get to Ottawa after the 5th. Maybe I should fly into Montreal, and return from Ottawa. That will sort of depend on what Westjet is planning for its flight expansions this year.

Enough about details! I hope everything is well at your end. Drop me a line or two to prove you're still alive.

Talk soon,
Reid

Another letter - "The State of Training" address to Reid Cummings:

Hey RJC,

I think everything is going really good. I was at six pills a day last week with no adverse effects - I was even sleeping good. I started 8 a day yesterday, and everything is still fine. I guess I will stay here until either I reach my target weight or the pills run out. I'm sitting under 180 (178 to be exact on an empty stomach at lunch hour today), a loss of 6 or 7 pounds already. I think I'm setting 165 as my absolute low limit for now. I haven't weighed that little since early high school, I think. I reached 167 at one point last summer, and I know that once the weather warms up, I will have no problem maintaining that. The rate things are going, I should only have to take one dose of this stuff (240 pills) and save the other batch for next spring. That would be a good idea considering I am starting to balk at the cost of all these supplements.

BTW, I paid $72 for a pail of Endurox at Samson's last Tuesday on their 20% off day. Another friend has told me their products are overpriced. Would you check out the regular price of Endurox (and Hydro-Lean) at Gator's the next time you're there? I'm curious to find out how overpriced they are...I don't really think they are, if you buy on the SuperTuesdays.

I took a dose of Endurox on Saturday. I ran 21km in the morning, did Pilates at the gym and then an upper body workout. I drank a glass of Endurox afterwards, and I did feel pretty good an hour or so later, as I continued to stretch out awhile longer.

I had hoped to ride yesterday, but you know what the conditions were like. I ended up going to Swan's in Inglewood on Sat. night to meet up with Joe (that's where he works), and we ended up staying until 1am playing darts and drinking beer with a bunch of people. The snow started falling around 9pm, so I knew I wouldn't be going out for a ride anyways. It was nice to have a full day off at any rate.

Once cycling starts, this is going to be the schedule I will be trying to maintain:

Monday am - gym workout
Monday noon - stretch/abs
Monday pm - cycle - speedwork
(THIS WILL BECOME MY OFF DAY ON COMPETITION WEEKS)

Tuesday am - swim
Tuesday noon - stretch/abs
Tuesday pm - Crits at UofC Research Park

Wednesday am - gym workout
Wednesday noon - Pilates
Wednesday pm - run

Thursday am - swim
Thursday noon - stretch/abs
Thursday pm - cycle - hillwork

Friday am - gym workout
Friday noon - Yoga
Friday pm - OFF

Saturday am - run/Pilates
Saturday pm - OFF/distance cycle?

Sunday am - distance cycle/OFF?
Sunday pm - swim/OFF
(THIS WILL BE MY DAY OFF ON NON-COMPETITION WEEKS)

The weekends will change according to when everyone else wants to ride, and when the competitions are. Most people want to go out for their distance rides on Saturday morning. I'd much rather go out on Sundays, but since most weekends are being taken up by competitions anyway, it won't matter much. I'm going to have to find a full OFF day during the week in that case.

Anyways, gotta go,
R.

I've had five (?) physiotherapy sessions. I like Mina, she's very good, but the receptionists at that Lindsay Park physiotherapy center are pretty inept. Acupuncture and electric therapy are pretty weird, but they seem to be working. Man, could Mina ever massage the crap out of my IT band. I came out of their with bruised more than once.

I went for a 16km run last Tuesday and a 21km run on Saturday morning with Wayne Guest. My knees didn't hurt at all! I was so relieved and this fact has alleviated a lot of training stress for me. I was so worried I wouldn't have anything for the Policeman's half marathon, and it would take me a good chunk of Spring training to get back in shape.

I've been taking Hydro-Lean for two weeks now. I've already lost 6 lbs., down to 179. I was quite amazed. If it stays at this rate, I'll be down to my target weight in 1 to 1.5 months. Then I'll be a lean cycling and running machine! It will definitely be an advantage for me in the early races this season.

I've been feeling pretty good lately. I feel spring is right around the corner, and with that comes freedom, the warmth of the sun, and MOBILITY! I will be able to spin all over the city again on my bike. I really enjoy that.

Here's a letter written to Jerome a few minutes ago:

Hey Jer,

How are things? Spring MIGHT be finally showing its very late sorry-ass face around here soon. It snowed again on Sunday, and I don't trust it enough to say that it might not do it again. I've been dying to get my bike out on the road. I have a race on April 20th, only two weeks away! Talk about an abrupt start to the season, eh?

Ahh, now that the obligatory Canadian conversation about the weather is over, how have you been? I imagine you are feverishly painting once again. That next show with Tom and Marie-Josee is coming up in a few months, isn't it? You were so successful at your last show that you are probably having to do a few more paintings than you had originally thought before the first show. Oh well, sucks to be talented...LOL

I was thinking earlier today that it has almost been a year since I was in Montreal, and I am SO wanting to come back and visit. You live in a fucking cool city, man...I want to experience more of it. It's so much fun having a cool friend there to hang around with too! Diverscite is going to be so much fun. Joe has managed to book days off then, so we're heading your way for sure! Be scared, be very scared!

I think the tentative dates of arrival and departure are July 29th to August 5th....at least that's when Joe goes back. I wouldn't mind taking a few days after Pride to check out Ottawa, but my AV days are pretty precious (aka scarce)...I'll have to see what else is going on. I'm considering a few more short trips this year.

The Vancouver International Triathlon is on the Labour Day long weekend, and I'm thinking of going to it, and then taking the week after that to cruise around Vancouver Island on my bike and do some scuba diving. It would be fun to have someone to go with, but I may go by myself anyways.

Also my friend Natasha, who was integral spoke to a fun set of friends, moved to Toronto last weekend. A few of us are thinking of going out there for Pride in June.

I have two free flights in North America that I can use, so I am thinking of using one to come to Montreal. Joe and I will split the cost of the other one and then I'll have one left to play with.

I was considering using it to go to Vancouver, and then I thought, "Why waste it on a trip that's cheap?" So now, I'm thinking maybe San Francisco for a getaway in November or something like that, OR coming back to Montreal for Black & Blue? Hmmm....what kind of crazy thought is that???

Nevertheless, Diverscite will definitely be a blast. I am so looking forward to partying with you again. Tom and Wendy will nicely add to the mix, and JOE WILL BE THERE! Wow! The mystery boyfriend....

Anyways, I've got lots of bike racing and triathlon crap to do before that. We were even originally thinking of coming to Eastern Canada on about July 27th , but my main triathlon of the season is that weekend! Joe ended up having to work that weekend anyways, but you get the idea. I pretty much only have maybe a half dozen completely free weekends this summer. It's all very good. I've been working out pretty hard this winter getting ready, so I hope that all the hard work is going to pay off.

How's Tom? I guess he'll be in Taxation hell for at least another month. Maybe you'll get to see him sometime in May. You'll have to tell him that I'm deeply in love with Kylie Minogue (again - I'm such an 80's hag), and that the DVD "Live in Sydney" of the last show of her "On A Night Like This" tour last year comes HIGHLY RECOMMENDED. She is such a sweet, appreciative woman - and a great ass too! I've been getting a lot of her rare remixes imported lately; winning eBay auctions, etc.. She's such a diva.

I've still been in touch with Rejean Livernois. He was living with Louise from the Aids charity dinner we went to last spring because he ended up not moving to California as he was supposed to last year. We've been playing answering machine tag over the past six months. He's living with a guy named Robert now. It will be fun to see him when we are there too.

Sean and Nancy's housewarming is this weekend. I called Susan Armstrong tonight to see if she had any gift ideas, but we're both stumped for the time being. I've had the advantage of already being to the condo since the naked repainting job they did, so I know the color schemes, etc. I was trying to think of something for their bathroom, but I'm at a loss for ideas. I regret not thinking earlier of getting them that painting you did of them. I could've had everyone chip in some money and could have easily covered most of the cost. Anyways, too late now. Do you have any good gift ideas? I need something original yet functional.

I'm starting to run out of things to talk about. I would have called you tonight, but I didn't get home from the gym until almost 8pm. Email is a great thing, isn't it? It's just crappy when you have a lot to say and type like a drunk monkey. It takes so much longer!

Anyways, I gonna take off. I hope everything is going well in your end of the world, and I'll talk to you soon.

Hugs,
Reid

Just thought it would be a good way to update the blogger too.

Went to the physiotherapist at Lindsay Park last night. She told me she thinks my knee problems are due to poor balance of my muscle groups (some muscles more developed than others, creating misalignment in the knee socket) as opposed to damage per se, although that will occur soon enough if I don't look after the knees a bit more. This will require a lot more stretching, yoga, loosening the I-Band muscles, building the gluteus medius and inner thigh muscles. She's suggested I stop running for awhile, do some pool running, exercises.....worth it to get rid of the pain, no doubt. God, I can't wait till cycling season starts.....

Forgot to mention Joe, Doug, and myself went to the Carl Cox show at the Whiskey last Wednesday night (Feb. 20). Great venue, great music, great evening....it's nice to see DJs as big as "the People's DJ" don't mind coming to these little backwater burbs once in awhile. Thanks Coxy! Come again soon!

Wow...I haven't written an entry since before Christmas....well, not much has happened since then. I've been busy with my new workout schedule, and work has taken on a new direction in the last few months.

When I got back from Manitoba on Dec. 30, I had a few more days of parties to endure before heading back to work. Once I returned to work on Jan. 3, I found out that the funding for our Doc Mgmt project was pulled, and no one seemed to know what was going to happen next. To make a long story short, I spent most of the month of January surfing the internet and getting caught up on emails until I was scooped up by the Webmail project team in early February. Now work is busy again, and I feel like a contributing member of society again.

The 30th birthday party and New Year's were a lot of fun. About 30 of my closest friends showed up at Ming on the evening of Dec. 30th. We ate and drank, and headed to Detour for the drag show and dancing around midnight. The rest of the night was a blur for me, but apparently I looked like I was having a lot of fun.

New Year's Eve, twelve of us went to Kyoto 17 for sushi, including Grant and gf from Saskatoon. We all went back to Joe and my place for drinks and the countdown, and to Detour again afterwards for more dancing, where I proceeded to lose Joe's tie that he had gotten for Christmas.

January and February have been a blur of gym workouts, pool sessions and running. I've been faithfully keeping to my goals, and I can already see more definition and feel more strength in my upper body. Yay!

Feb.3 was the Lindsay Park Aquathlon, the first "competition" of the year. It was only 2.5km run, 750m swim, 2.5km run, but it was really nasty to transition from an all out sprint to sudden breath control in the pool. Needless to say, I ended the race in 10th.

February has been completed by non-stop Olympic action. I've been watching everything rather fervently, and it all came to a head this weekend with Canada's hockey team win over the Americans on Sunday. I met up with Jeff, Tony, BJ and Jeff at Watchman's Pub. The game ended in complete chaos, which then spilled out onto the street. I will never forget Jeff in the middle of the intersection at 17th Ave and 8th St offering champagne to anyone who drove by.

"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it" - George Santayana

It's Wednesday afternoon and I'm bored out of my tree at work. Thought I'd write a few notes down about the weekend, and prep for the wonderful trip across Saskatchewan back to Manitoba next week.

I got back into Calgary on Friday night. Doug was there to pick me up at the airport, and we proceeded directly to Jeff's Christmas party. It was a lot of fun, not nearly as many people as last year, but that was probably a blessing in disguise. I ended up drinking too much and making a fool out of myself. Poor Kim...I was giving her the old "why don't you like me?" sob story. I really have to apologize to her next time I see her. That's the state I was in....and yes, I ashamedly admit it. I can't believe I packed away a case of beer....well, actually I can. I haven't drank that much in one sitting in at least five years (okay, maybe it hasn't been that long, but it has been a long time).

I got a phone call from Robert in Lethbridge at about 8 in the morning. After I talked to him, I went back to bed and ended up missing running. However, unbeknownst to me, the Christmas brunch was taking place at Tim and Doug's, and since I didn't get back in time to organize a ride up there, I wouldn't have made it anyways. I did head down to Eau Claire around 10:30, and not surprisingly, didn't find anyone there.

I went back home and went back to bed for awhile longer. Joe and I got up around 2pm. I spent the rest of the day slithering around the apartment, and then got ready to go to Jeff and Susan's with Sean and Nancy. Philbert showed up, and we had a lot of laughs during the evening. I so enjoy getting together with that gang.

Anyways, Sunday, Sean, Nancy and myself headed to the Westhills Chapters. Jeff told us that all CDs were 50% off, and he was right! Nancy and I went temporarily insane, and bought a lot more CDs than we probably needed to, but it was so worth it. I even got the rest of my Xmas shopping done there (except for Joe, of course). Did some grocery shopping with them, then headed home and spent the rest of the evening lazing around.

This week I've started at Fountain Park finally. I'm still using the guest passes, so I'm only going to the noonhour classes. Step Aerobics was on Monday - lots of work, as was Move It! on Tuesday. I did Fusion today, which was essentially Yoga. Very relaxing. I think I could add on top of Wednesday a swim workout at LP. The run last night was pretty good although I didn't properly stretch afterwards. Tomorrow is my first ICE (Spinning) workout, and I'm looking forward to it. Actually I may keep the swim workouts on Thursdays and Sundays as I had originally planned since I will start the weight workouts in the gym on Monday and Wednesday (and possibly Friday) mornings. That leaves Tuesday evening and Saturday morning for the runs. What day to I get off? Well, after Pilates after running on Sat. mornings, I still have well over 24 hours off until the Sunday night swim. I hope the schedule works out.

I'm meeting up with Reid, Louis, and possibly Tony tomorrow night for a night on the town. We've been planning on getting together before Christmas, so it should be a lot of fun. Friday night is the last Christmas party at Greg and Marion Tompkins, and Joe's coming too. It should be a lot of fun.

Vonnie and Louis are planning on leaving for Grandview at around 7am on Saturday morning. I hope I'm not too hung over - although I figure, what the hell? There'll be four of us to drive anyways.

I also sent out my birthday party invitations on Monday. The plans are to do this on Sunday, December 30th. 8pm at Ming (I'm reserving the "Red Room"), and then heading to the Night Gallery for Sunday Skool around 11pm - midnight. I'm looking forward to it. Should be a lot of fun.

Ken isn't planning on getting back to Calgary from Winnipeg until the afternoon of the 30th. He's staying over in Regina on the 29th. I'm thinking I'd like to be back in Calgary before the 30th at least, so I may have to cancel the trip to Winnipeg after all. Probably just as well....I'm sure Grandview will be more than enough to handle.

Anyways, this will be the last blog until the new year. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to anyone who may be reading this in the future.

I am stuck in Denver International Airport for six freakin' hours. Luckily they have these 15-minute internet kiosks. I've been doing some emailing, checking the weather in Calgary, etc. I wanted to go into Denver and check out the city, but the shuttle bus downtown is $32 dollars retrun, for god's sake. This country is such a big ripoff.

It makes me happy that I'm Canadian - "the land of the good deal" - where everyone's not trying to screw you and providing a service for what it's actually worth.

Anyhoo..if I'm still bored in an hour or two I may be back. My time is running out.

Joe wanted me to call him this morning. I tried him in New Orleans and here as well, and he's not answering the phone. I'll keep trying until I get him the hell out of bed.

Last day in New Orleans....extremely humid, spotty rain all day. People say it's cool, but I'm still sweating buckets and getting the clammy, greasy feeling on my skin.

Today I did a bit of packing, and headed back downtown. My mission today was to check out the New Orleans Museum of Art. I got down to Canal Street, and through talking to several extremely rude people decided to take the 46 City Park bus. Big mistake! Actually it wasn't too bad....definitely went through some questionable neighborhoods along Basin Street and Orleans Street. Seemed like I was in the Projects. Unemployment must be running pretty high in those neighborhoods, coz everyone was out on their front stoops, not really doing much of anything. We ended up on the west (er...uptown) side of City Park, so I had to walk across to the other side to get in on the Esplanade Ave. entrance. I finally made it to the Museum, and spent all afternoon there as well.

Fascinating variety of art there, for sure. The first floor was devoted to special exhibits, right now that being the Martele Silver Collection. These were handcrafted silverware pieces created by craftsmen of the Gorham Mfg. Company of Rhode Island from 1897-1912. Apparently they were the first response to Art Nouveau design in North America, and were progenitors to the modernist movement. They were figured very prominently at the 1900 Paris World's Fair and were extremely sought after over the next two decades. These pieces displayed incredible craftsmanship. I kept thinking about the first class table settings on the Titanic when I saw all of this stuff.

Disappointingly, the 17th century Dutch artist exhibits on the first floor were closed for some reason. I followed a tour group around for awhile, but the guide was really dumbing stuff down for the fat American tourists that were there, so I ventured off on my own again. There were also lots of 15th to 18th cent. Italian Renaissance paintings on the main and 2nd floor galleries. The second floor also housed French 17-19th century art, and European, American, and Louisianian 19th and 20th century pieces, including an impressive collection of Picassos, Renoirs, Rodins, and Degas. Edgar Degas' family lived in New Orleans, and he visited here often. He was the only French impressionist to paint in the U.S.

Of special note on the 2nd floor were the Decorative Arts section, including a huge ceramics collection, esp. Belleek and Meissen porcelain. There was some glassware pieces there from well over 2,000 years ago. The Faberge section was very cool. The detail that was involved in the pieces was incredible, and what's even more incredible is that most of the detail was made from precious jewels, metals, etc. There were three Imperial Easter eggs from 1893, 1895, and 1912. There were many flowers, clocks, and such other things as cigarette boxes, opera glasses, and photo frames. What I thought was really interesting was the Imperial Basket of Lilies of the Valley. It was a tiny arrangement of these flowers, but all made out of gold, diamonds, and other precious stones.

The third floor contained all of the global art collections. There was a huge variety of aboriginal pieces from Oceania, Africa, and North and South America in the pre-colonial periods. There was also a large collection of Japanese, Chinese and Indian Art, such as Chinese porcelain jars, Dynasty ceramics, Japanese silk screens, and Indian paper art using tempera and gold.

After I left the cold, air conditioned museum, the humidity and warmth outside felt like getting hit with water. I took another bus down Esplanade Avenue, took one last walk through the French Quarter, and had a last meal at a Creole restaurant named Gumbolaya consisting of Crawfish cakes, Gumbo, Red beans and rice, and Jambalaya. It was fantastic. I walked down Bourbon Street to Canal and caught the Magazine bus back to Bill and Ed's.

I'm going to relax for the rest of the evening. My flight for Denver leaves tomorrow morning at 9:30. I took out some more money today - hopefully enough for a cab to the airport and an airporter bus out of Denver International to downtown Denver and back while I try to kill seven hours tomorrow afternoon. Then it's off to Calgary tomorrow evening, and to Jeff's Christmas party as soon as I get home. *Sigh* ...another trip coming to an end, but I'll be glad to get back to my arctic desert home.

I spent WAY more money here than I thought I would. The conversion simply destroys you. A Canadian pays on par here what they would back home, plus having to add 60%. This will be my last trip to the United States for a long time. It seems ironic that Canadians can pretty much go anywhere else in the world and get great rates on the Canadian dollar, except for here. And where did I decide to go vacationing? You guessed it.....

At least I got to send my dance gear order from Action Dancewear to Bill and Ed's place with the 2 pairs of M.Stevens tights and 3 BalTogs bodysuits. That'll save me some hefty duty charges when I cross the border with it packed away in my suitcase. I also got the "Hard Heroes" movie sent here -- the customs office wouldn't allow it across the border because of it's content. I mean, please, it's a wrestling/bondage/hero-villain fantasy. What a bunch of prudes. That's coming across the border with me as well!

Next trip? Well, I had been thinking about going somewhere in the spring, but that may be a little to premature. I'm definitely going to Montreal-Ottawa this summer for a week again, but Joe and I are thinking about Mexico for two weeks in the fall. Cancun for one week, Cozumel for the other. Now that sounds like an awesome time!

I love New Orleans...I'll be back again someday.

Update to Dec. 12 -

Just got home from another long day of walking around. Today's big event was checking out the National D-Day Museum. If anyone is in New Orleans, I highly recommend that you go and check it out. I spent five hours there this afternoon. It is very well set up, very interactive, and very moving. They play a movie co-produced by Steven Spielberg in the main theater as well occasionally throughout the day. I'm not sure if they run another one, but this one began with the bombing of Pearl Harbour and went on to discuss the rest of the War in the Pacific. It was very moving. I was tearing up through the entire thing, and I know I wasn't the only one who was. The exhibits are set up chronologically, beginning with the world events that set up the stage for WW2. Next were the beginnings of the fights in the Pacific and European Theaters, the entry of America in the war in 1942, and a detailed look at both fronts for the American Armed Forces. A look at life for American civilians during the war years brought the immensity of the war and the effect it had on everyone around the world to light. Of course, the most powerful exhibits were the D-Days in Normandy and the numerous attacks across the Pacific. There was a lot of mention of the British and Canadian forces in Europe, and the British and Australian forces in the Pacific that I really wasn't expecting, so I got a chance to learn a lot more about what our own national armed forces achieved in 1944-45 when pushing back the Nazis (all of that brought on some nationalist tears of my own).

Even though I was expecting the exhibits to be overwhelmingly from an American slant (and I'm not saying they shouldn't be), I was pleasantly surprised to see a lot of explanation of how the citizens, resistance forces and armed force personnel from Japan, Germany, Britain, Canada, France, Russia, the Phillipines, etc. were coping with the situation. There were displays of how the war propoganda from each side (Allies and Axis) was scewed to portray the enemy as being even more horrible than they were (the Nazis were just horrible). It's amazing how a suppression of the truth is seems necessary sometimes to keep moral and alliances strong. I don't suppose the war's outcome would have been the same had the people from each side really known what the other side was like. It makes you realize that we're all people and that we all aspire to achieve the same things in our lives. It's also amazing how one or two people can make that all go horribly wrong (and that has even more relevance in the events that are unfolding today on the world stage).

All in all, a very amazing museum. By seeing how the American effort changed the face of the war and the face of the nation itself (the economic implications of the war effort on the US were mindboggling), it's certain that the world would be a much different place if the US hadn't gotten involved in the war when they did. December 7, 1941 certainly did change the course of world history (those two words, coincidentally, were scratched out by Roosevelt and replaced by "infamy" in the Declaration of War he made the following day - "A day that will live in infamy"). Pretty powerful stuff.

Things of note that I learned, or learned more about:
-By the end, the entire world was involved - the logistics would have been unbelievable.
-Eisenhower was the commander of the allied forces in Europe. He had to make a decision to send the D-Day forces to Normandy through a storm in the English Channel, or risk delaying the attack for weeks. It was a decision he had to make over the course of a few hours, with half of the allied leaders saying "yes", the other half saying "no". If you've ever thought you were in a stressful situation, you don't know what stress is...
-the Canadian 3rd infantry were one of the first six "teams" on Normandy, were responsible for landing on Juno Beach and meeting the British outside of Caen and occupying the city. Is this how the Junos got named? Seems like a strange relationship if true.
-Nimitz was the commander of the allied forces in the Pacific (MacArthur was leader of the American forces (I think)). I had never known much about the Pacific theater before since Canada was not involved in it, but it is fascinating. It makes me want to learn more about the involvement of such countries as Australia and the Phillipines. It makes me want to visit the places of the fiercest battles, such as Truk and Leyte Gulf (scuba dive down to the plane and shipwrecks) even more. Even though the battle was fought so much more on the water, hundreds of thousands of people were killed.
-mainland Japan was destroyed by air raids to an extent I had no idea. The pictures were horrible - some of the cities were completely (ie. 100%) razed.
-there were 2 million soldiers, etc involved in the European D-Day + followups. The initial sail across the Channel involved 5,000 ships. Amazing...
-before the go ahead was given to drop the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Allied tactical plans to move onto Japanese soil (to start on Kyushu) were to be the biggest, and undoubtedly bloodiest battles ever witnessed by humankind. We are talking millions of casualties on both sides. The a-bombs killed around 250,000. I know I had always been one of those that didn't know what to think about the decision to drop the bombs, but now I think the best decision had been made, despite the horror that resulted. Harry Truman weighed on his decision VERY heavily as stated in his diary (he was sworn in after FDR died of a brain hemorrhage in early 1945 - something else I didn't know).

War is absolute hell. I just hope people don't forget that.

That does reflect back on my fundamental belief that people are essentially lazy and ignorant. I would think we would NEVER want a repeat of the years 1939-45, but given the wrong conditions with the wrong people in power, I can completely see a scenario like this, and most likely a LOT worse to play itself again.

"Those who cannot remember history are bound to repeat it", or so the saying goes. Sometime I wonder if it should be "do not want to" instead of "cannot". At any rate, in order to not forget, we must all go and see such things at the National D-Day Museum in New Orleans, Louisiana. 'Nuff said.....

On much lighter news, I have officially finished my souvenir shopping. Tomorrow is a completely free day of touring. I'm going to head up to the Museum of Art tomorrow in City Park.

I fell asleep watching my movie last night. I'm going to go and watch the rest of it now. Nite nite.