Tids and bits - volume ???

Not really sure what volume this is. It's my usual "holy cow I haven't blogged in so long, time to catch up" post. I keep trying to come up with new creative names, but I give up. Tids and Bits it is, I'm just gonna start adding numbers. Let's call this numero uno! :)

So, yeah. Lots going on lately, hence this post is kinda long. I should have included pictures to distract you from this fact. Maybe tomorrow.

First up, one of my very bestest friends, Strudelie-oodle, is back! (er, ok, her name is really Trudy. Her and our friend Becca have all kinds of wierd and wacky names for each other. Becca is Rrrrebecerrrino. Rolled r mandatory. I'm either Hillerbum or Hilla-ree, Hilla-rye, Hilla-roo-rah-ray. That one get's its own song. I feel so special!) Aaaanyhoo... Trudy was in Africa - Niger, to be specific - for six months and she came home nearly a month ago, making all us Vancouverites very very happy! There's been much silliness and rejoicing since her return!

Also, do you remember this? Well, the magazine came last week! Holy shneikie! It really came! I'm famous! :) Well, ok, maybe not, but I'm now officially a published photographer! Woohoo! And man, that picture takes up over half the page! I was shocked! My name's even there... in tiny little letters... hidden in the spine. Oh well, I'll take what I can get!

Next, the weather. I wouldn't be a good Canadian if I didn't talk about the weather. Now seriously, folks. A few weeks back we had crazy insane hail storms for like a week straight. Some areas even got snow. This annoyed a great deal of people. Now come on, don't give me this "Canada (ahem, Canadia) is the land of ice and snow, of course you got hail." This is VANCOUVER. Lotus land. The tropical paradise of the Great White North. We're more like the Great WET North in these parts, but it's TEMPERATE here (what a great selling point! Come live here! It's temperate!). But then, as it always does, it bucked up and got beautiful two weekends ago. Like, nearly 20 degrees beautiful (that's nearly 70F for you American types)! And it was sunny! And glorious! And bees were buzzing and birds were chirping and a choir of angels sang hallelujah. Well, not so much the angels, but was was GORGEOUS!

So Trudy, Laurie, and Becca - who was 39 weeks pregnant at the time - and I went for a hike. Oh yes. We figured we'd stay low to avoid the snow, but alas. There was tons! So off we tromped having a grand ol time. We joked (um, ok, maybe we were a little serious!) that we were going to make sure to stay in cell contact and that one of us should have packed some clean towels. You know. Just in case. The baby has yet to arrive, thank goodness! Delivering a baby wasn't exactly on my list of things to do that day! Eekers!

After the hike, Trudles and I went down to the beach for some yummy Thai takeout, a glorious sunset, and some serious silliness. Marvelling at the flowers, the cherry blossoms, and the balmy weather, we kept shouting, "It's suuummerrrrr!" That is, until we began breathing fire and the aliens blew off our heads. *

Now cut to this past weekend. With visions of our glorious Saturday still fresh in our minds, imagine Trudy's and my surprise to find if dumping with snow on Friday night. D-U-M-P-I-N-G. So naturally, we did what any sane person would do when it snows on APRIL 18. We went out, bought McFlurries, and found a park to frolic in. We built a snowman, had a snowball fight, and ran around catching snowflakes in our mouths. Trudy has a very special and specific technique for this endeavour. As she puts it: "First, look straight up at the sky so that you can see all the flakes swirling around and zooming down towards you. now, pick out a specific flake that's falling. chase the flake and catch it in your mouth! (if you can incorporate jumping and eating noises... all the better!)" Aurmph! Aurmph! Aurmph! Also heard on this snowy, freezing Friday night in April? "It's suuummerrrrr!" Best said with giganto snowflakes on your eyelid.

Seriously. Silliness like this is good for my soul!

In other news, dancing is still trucking along. I'm taking a blues dance class right now from my west coast swing teachers, which is giving me a whole new range of moves and styles to incorporate into my swing. It's great! We learned these crazy dips last Thursday that had me so low my hair was brushing the floor. So awesome! Um, except for the part when I pulled/strained my quad muscle and have been hobbling ever since. But seriously! My hair! On the floor!

Now normally I wouldn't have worried too much about the leg thing, but I've been training since January to run the Vancouver Sun Run - a 10km/6.2 mile race through this gorgeous city. My leg was sore on Friday, but I just thought it was from a good workout. But, er, it was only one leg. It was equally sore on Saturday. I began to wonder if I'd really be able to run the Sun Run, and I was getting really upset. I've been training for this for so long. It's the first race I've ever done, the farthest I've run in my life, and I really, really did NOT want to bail the day before the race. I decided to see how I felt on Sunday morning...

When I woke up, my leg was mostly still a big ball of owie when going down stairs or bending with any weight on it. But no way in heck was I NOT going to do the Sun Run. Off I went in the freezing cold morning (they think it was the coldest Sun Run on record - a wee 4 degrees (39F) in the morning!) to run my little tail off. It was my goal to run the whole way - no walk/run intervals: run the whole time. I really wasn't sure I could do it, as I nearly died on a mini run Thursday afternoon. But I tell you, with over 59,000 other runners, 12 bands playing live music all along the route, and people cheering you on the whole way, the adrenaline and excitement really gets you going! The farthest I've ever run in my life before Sunday was 9km, and that was with walk/run intervals. I ran the whole. darn. thing. AND I finished about 10-15 minutes faster than I thought I would! My official time was one hour and eleven minutes, and I came in 22,747th! hahaha! That's SO hilarious! BUT, I felt like a million bucks at the end. I DID IT! YEAHOO!!! Thankfully my leg didn't bother me, and it's feeling mostly better today, so I'm glad I didn't end my ability to walk for the rest of my LIFE by doing the run. I'm already looking forward to the next race. I think I'm going to head down to Seattle for the Iron Girl - another 10k - in September with a few girlfriends. Gotta beat my time, ya see!

And just cause I'm a sucker for punishment, I finished the Sun Run yesterday (holy cow, was that only yesterday?) and started boot camp this morning. Three days a week, 6:30-7:30am. Work out central, baby. I'm gonna HURT tomorrow.

And with that, I'm off to put away groceries. Yeehaw. If you're still reading, you're my hero! I don't think *I* would be! Ha! You're clearly a better person than I! :)

Ta ta!

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* You're really gonna have to see the photos to make sense of this one. I'll get 'em up soon.