Day 59 (Feb.28, 2010): Gym

Today I went to the gym with Ken. I don't have a membership to his gym so that was my "different" thing for the day. It was nice to go to the gym to add some variety to my workout. I usually work out at home which includes going on my treadmill and doing some type of strength exercises with my dumbells, exercise ball or pilates. However, I don't really like Ken's gym. He is actually going to leave that gym and go to a different one soon. I just don't like it because some of the equipment is getting kind of old and it is a bit dingy. The elliptical that I went on was almost falling apart.

Ken's "different" thing today was that he tried to leg press 1000 lbs.........I know, that is crazy hey? He actually did it but he had to push a bit on his legs with his hands to complete it. Here is the video.

Day 58 (Feb.27,2010): Concert

Tonight we attended a benefit concert for David Garber. He is the conductor for a choir that our friend Heather is in. He has been involved in the Edmonton Choral scene and music scene in general for a long time. He was diagnosed with cancer in December so they held this concert to raise money to cover some of his medical expenses.

The concert was really good. Eventhough it was a benefit concert it was fun and lighthearted. It was held in a beautiful church downtown that had an enormous pipe organ. There was a variety of different types of music. The "PreTenors", Pro Coro Canada, The Metropolitan Chorus (this is the group that our friend Heather is in), Epsilon, Martin Kloppers, 2 Island Girls and VOCE were the preformers. We heard Barbados Island music, African Chorus music, traditional choir music, accapella and an electric cellist performance. The wide variety of music made the concert really interesting and unique.

Thanks Heather for inviting us!!

Day 57 (Feb.26, 2010): UNO

Tonight we were watching Team Canada play Slovakia in the men's hockey semi finals for the Olympics. We really didn't want to miss that game so we decided to do something at home tonight. We had a brand new set of UNO cards that we had never used so we played UNO (by the way, it is really hard to shuffle new UNO cards!). Ken hadn't played UNO since he was a kid and I'm guessing that the last time I played was at work with the summer camp kids, last summer. Ken beat me in a best of 2 out of 3 :( He got lucky cards...... We actually played by the proper rules (we consulted the rule book!) and I realized that we play it all wrong with the kids at work. Oh well, as long as they are having fun!

Day 56 (Feb.25, 2010): Walk

Tonight we went for a walk through our community. Ken had ordered some books from Chapters and he needed to pick them up so we walked in that general direction. We chose to walk down the side streets instead of Whyte Ave (we will save that walk for the summer time) so that we could check out some of the houses in the neighbourhood. We noticed that there are ALOT of apartments for rent. Also, there are lots of incentives for people to rent from different companies. For example some are saying, "1 month free rent" or "no damage deposit". One had a sign outside of it that said "come on in, coffee is on us". I found that so funny! I guess they are really hard up to get people to rent from them. What a difference from a year ago!

Day 55 (February 24, 2010): Did you know....

Tonight we went on www.didyouknow.org to learn something new. Here is what we found:

"The tongue of a blue whale is as long as an elephant. Our eyes are always the same size from birth. Earth is not round, it is slightly pear-shaped. On average, people move house every 7 years. Mel Blanc, who played the voice of Bugs Bunny, was allergic to carrots." These are facts that we found under the "fast facts" tab......

I don't know about the eye thing....maybe it's true but I have pretty big eyes so that one seems a bit odd to me.

Next we looked under the "sports" tab. Here is what we learned: The first modern Olympic Games were held in Athens, Greece in 1896. There were 311 male but no female competitors. A badminton shuttle easily travels 180 km/h (112 mph).

Here is what we learned about statistics: In 1750 there were about 800 million people in the world. In 1850 there were a billion more, and by 1950, another billion. Then it took just 50 years to double to 6 billion. The opposite sides of a dice cube always add up to seven. In 1870, there were more Irish living in London than in Dublin. In 1870, there also were more Catholics living in London than in Rome. US Post Office handles 43% of the world’s mail. Its nearest competitor is Japan with 6%.The world’s average school year is 200 days per year. In the US, it is 180 days; in Sweden 170 days, in Japan it is 243 days.

If you found this post interesting you should go to www.didyouknow.org or you can just google "did you know" and lots of different websites come up.

Day 54 (February 23, 2010): Canadian Pride

Tonight we knew that we were going to watch the Canadian Men's Olympic team in the playoff qualifying game against the German Team. We decided to make some "Team Canada" posters to help us cheer on Team Canada. After the game was over we put them in our front window.



Here I am cheering on Team Canada in my "Canadian Hockey Rocks" t-shirt. "Go Canada Go"

Day 53: (Feb.22, 2010): Star Fruit

Tonight we decided to try star fruit. It is really funny because when we tried the dragon fruit Ken really liked it and I didn't. He liked dragon fruit because it is sweet and syrupy. The opposite was true tonight. I really liked the star fruit because it is a bit sour and I like sour things. Ken did not like it at all.

This is Ken trying it...he is very cautious!

This is after it is cut up.....these pictures are in reverse order...

Cutting off the slices, they are so pretty.....



When you cut a start fruit you trim off the outer edges first, then the "stem end" that is a bit brown and then cut the slices from there.


This is what it looks like whole.

Day 52 (Feb. 21 2010): Winter Festival at Community League

Today Mel and I went to the community league winter festival that they held. There were alot of things for kids to do and a few things for adults too. There was a soup cookoff and a BBQ, sleigh rides with horses and skating on the rink. It was really fun to see everyone out and having a good time during winter this weekend. It was a really beautiful day. We also saw some of our friends from our gardening group.

Day 51 (Feb. 20 2010): Silver Skate Festival

Today Mel and I went to Hawerlak Park here in Edmonton for the Silverskate Festival and had a great time. We went for a skate on the river and a hot chocolate inside and saw a few people from the community league and our gardening group.

You can see the performers on stilts in the background. In the foreground I am not sure exactly what these sculptures are but Ken guesses that this is how they make a base for the snow scultptures that you will see in the later pictures.....

They also had "jam can curling" for the kids.

Snow sculptures....

This guy was working hard at shaving the snow.

This is me skating.

Day 50 (Feb. 19 2010): Pub Night at Community League

Today was very fun. We went to our community league in old strathcona for Pub night. They have this every 3rd friday of the month. There were a few regulars and us. It was good converstation and one gentleman, Neil, actually gave us some good ideas for the blog. Maybe you will see them up here soon.

Day 49 (Feb.18 2010): Lunch together

Today Mel and I had lunch together. This is a very rare occurance since both of our jobs are fairly busy, but I thought since I was to be around her work that I would stop in for a visit and eat with her at work. It was very nice to spend time together. Kind of spur of the moment.

Day 48 (Feb. 17 2009): Hockey Trivia

Today Mel and I challenged each other to game of hockey trivia. It was not competitive but it does show how little we care about statistics. Or how little we know about statistics haha. Ah well it was very fun to read. The quiz was from a book that Mel got for me for valentines day. It is a book with hundreds of short multiple choice hockey quizzes. It would be fun to do for a quiz night with friends or just a good washroom book, lol.

Day 47 (Feb. 16 2009): Cheering on Team Canada

Today Mel and I cheered Canada to a victory against Germany in their first olympic game. We took a bit to shake out the cobwebs but began to produce towards the end of the second and into the third. YYYEEEEAAAHHHH CANADA!!!! Going for gold.

Day 46 (Feb. 15 2009): Dragon Fruit!

Today Mel and I ate a dragonfruit. I found it very tasty and delicious. I enjoyed the texture and the flavor. I am not sure if you could make a jam of it or jelly but it is certainly worth eating. Mel didn't care much for it. She thought it was kind of bland.

Friday, February 19, 2010

Day 45 (Feb.14, 2010): Valentines Day

Today we went out for dinner for Valentines Day. I decided to get dressed up all fancy. I had a fun day of pampering myself and slowly getting ready, doing my hair, nails etc. We had a gift card for Milestones that we got from a friend of ours for our anniversary that we hadn't used yet. That helped us determine where we would go for dinner. Milestones had some deals on for V-day. For $50.00 we each got a steak meal with crab, shrimp and lobster sauce on the steak, yummy!!!! Our steaks came with garlic mashed potatoes, butternut squash and broccoli that was also very delicious! Included in the price was an appetizer and dessert. We had sweet potatoe fries (they call them "yam frites", lol) for an app and a delicious large chocolate cookie with vanilla gelato and chocolate and butterscotch sauce....mmmmmmmmm, I am getting hungry just thinking about it. We will both be hitting the treadmill this week after that delicious meal but it was worth it!

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Day 44 (Feb.13, 2010): Olympics!!

Tonight we decided to watch an olympic event that we had never really watched before. We watched speed skating (long track). It was okay....it is not something that either of us follow or know much about. I found that with all of the qualifying rounds it took a long time to get to the final. I think that I still prefer some of the other winter sports like snowboarding, mogels, curling, figure skating and of course, HOCKEY!!

Day 43 (February 12, 2010): Dinner and friends

We did two things tonight. The first one involved going for dinner at the restaurant that Ken's brother cooks at. It is called "Bricks" and it is downtown above the Starlight lounge. He just started working there a month or so ago so we thought that we would go check it out. I had grilled veggies and lemon pepper wings. Ken had steak and poutine. They serve mostly pub food. We had a nice time and visiting with our friend Premo who came with us.

The second thing that we did tonight was go for a drink to our friend Lloyd's house. It was his birthday tonight so we stopped by for the celebration. We don't really "party" much anymore so we only stayed for a couple of hours then headed home.

Thursday, February 11, 2010

Day 42 (Feb.11, 2010 ): Monopoly Deal

Tonight we played Monopoly Deal. It is a card game that we got from Ken's sister and Brother-in-law for Xmas. We played it with them a couple of times over the holidays and really enjoyed it. When they were teaching it to us I remember them saying that it is totally different playing it with only two people. They were right. It is totally different. It was fun playing it with several people but it was also fun with only 2 people. Lots of card games and board games kind of suck with only two people. I am happy that they got us this one because it can be hard to find things to do with only 2 people and 2 cats in the house! I recommend this game to anyone else who only has 2 people in the house to play games with. Also, since it is a card game it is cheaper than most board games.

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Day 41 (Feb. 10 2010): Excercise and feeling like a new woman.

I love my excercise and Mel loves feeling young again. Today Mel fit into a pair of pants that she has not been able to fit into since she was in Korea (and they were even a bit big this time). She felt like a new woman and even curled her hair. It was only the second time she had curled it since our wedding. As for me I attempted a new exercise at the gym this morning. I did a standing shoulder press with a barbell and did not do half bad for never attempting this excersise before. I can not wait for tomorrow.

Day 40 (Feb. 9 2010):Menu

Today we changed our menu's together. Mel has started her new menu and left the old one in the dust, while I have changed mine to a low carb high protien diet to continue cutting weight but not lose muscle in the process. Tonight we did the plan and the actual diet begins on Monday. However, Mel's new menu begins today and she is very excited to be back on the old diet again.

Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Day 39 (Feb.8, 2010): Separate stuff.....

Tonight I had to work late so Ken and I did separate things. He decided to look for jobs online. He has not quit his current job but he is not totally happy with it so he decided to have a look for something else. Who knows what could happen....... He also started planning a new workout. He goes to the gym every morning Mon-Fri at 5am (I wish I had that enthusiasm for working out) and his routine is getting a bit boring for him.



I started working out today. I am going to try to work out 5 days per week. It won't be at 5 am and from Monday - Friday though. I haven't figured out what my routine will be but for now I will go on my treadmill every morning. I am going to start to work on a plan of toning some different muscles every day. Hopefully I can stick with this. It is actually alot given the fact that we are also still doing a "365 day" activity every day.......in addition to our regular lives of working, grocery shopping, house cleaning etc.

Day 38 (February 7, 2010): Superbowl

Tonight we had a few friends over for the superbowl. I made some yummy (aka: unhealthy) snacks and dinner. We just chilled out and watched the game. It was a good game and I was happy with the outcome. I wonder how much money people lost on that game?

Monday, February 8, 2010

Day 37 (February 6, 2010): Chinese New Year Festival

Today we got invited by our friend Audrey and her mom Laurie to attend the Chinese New Year festivities that were being held at West Edmonton Mall. It was only $2 to get in. The majority of the events took place in the skating arena. There was a trade fair and a stage. On the stage they had lots of different performances and demonstrations. We saw some maritial arts demos as well as some dancing and musical performances. We also checked out the trade fair.


We took a couple of pics but it was kind of hard. It was quite busy and crowded there so people kept steping in front of the camera. You will notice this in the picture of the gentleman doing the caligraphy.


These girls are playing a Chinese instrument. I am not sure what it is called. The music was beautiful. What struck me was their posture and demeanor while they played it. They were very graceful.

Day 36 (Feb.5, 2010): Ted.com

Today we decided to open our mind to different possibilities......

http://www.ted.com/ is a website that I have looked at in the past but not for quite some time. For those of you who have never looked at this website here is a description. "TED is a small nonprofit devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading. It started out (in 1984) as a conference bringing together people from three worlds: Technology, Entertainment, Design. Since then its scope has become ever broader. Along with the annual TED Conference in Long Beach, California, and the TEDGlobal conference in Oxford UK, TED includes the award-winning TEDTalks video site, the Open Translation Program, the new TEDx community program, this year's TEDIndia Conference and the annual TED Prize. On TED.com, we make the best talks and performances from TED and partners available to the world, for free. More than 500 TEDTalks are now available, with more added each week." All of the talks on Ted.com are taken from the conferences. The talks can only be a maximum of 18 minutes long. There are alot of cool videos/talks on the site so if you have some free time I encourage you to check it out. We might watch another video sometime for our blog because there are really endless possibilities for learning on this site.

Tonight we watched "Derek Sivers: Weird or Just Different". I am not going to write about the whole talk. Here is the link: http://www.ted.com/talks/derek_sivers_weird_or_just_different.html You should just watch it an tell us your opinions on it.

I thought it was totally funny and informative. Ken has a more traditional personality than I do and at the end of it his comment was "why can't they just call them streets". HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!! Ken totally cracks me up.....that's why he is my husband.

Day 35 (Feb. 4, 2010): Baby Bok Choy

Ken and I often eat Bok Choy and Baby Bok Choy in stirfries. Tonight I decided to try to cook it a different way. I saw a picture on a magazine where it looked like it had been roasted. I like to make roasted veggies every once in awhile so I thought I would try it with baby Bok Choy. When I make roasted veggies I usually coat them in olive oil, sprinkle some herbs, pepper etc. on them and roast them on a cookie sheet in the oven until they soften up a bit. We really enjoy potatoes, yams, mushrooms, peppers, onions etc. cooked with this method. I prepared the Bok Choy this way and cooked it. Ken didn't mind it but I really didn't like it. That was an experiment that went wrong! I will leave the Bok Choy for the stirfries from now on!

Wednesday, February 3, 2010

Day 34 (February 3, 2010): Skating at our local rink

Tonight we went skating at our local rink. It is an outdoor rink at our community league. We actually helped build it a couple of summers ago. We really like it there but due to the weather conditions (-50 in December, melting in January?!?!?!) and our holidays over Christmas time we haven't been able to go yet. On Wednesday nights they have Men's Shinny on the main ice surface so Ken played hockey while I twirled around figure skating on the smaller ice. I had a great time skating, but twirled a bit too much and got a bit queasy and had to stop. Ken reports that he had a great time. He scored a couple of goals and made a couple of assists. It was really nice to get out and get some exercise and fresh air.

I am also happy to report that I finally have this blog up to date!!!!

Day 33 (Feb.2, 2010): Fig Newtons and Song Writing

I worked late again tonight so Ken and I decided to do things on our own.

Ken used to write alot of music but he hasn't done it in a long time so he started writing a new song. I have no idea what it is about so I can't even write about it on here. I'll update this if he shows it to me.

I decided to try a fig newton, for what I think is, the first time in my life. I know that as a kid I never ate them because I knew that I didn't like dates, figs or other similar dried fruit. Tonight at work we had Fig Newtons for a snack so I decided to be adventurous (lol) and try one. I thought that it was okay but not great. I would only eat them if I was hungry and didn't have anything else. If I am going to eat a cookie or snack that is going to make me fat I am going to eat something that I really enjoy, like white chocolate macadamia nut cookies, or Doritos Sweet Chili Heat mmmmmmmm, not fig newtons.

Day 32 (Feb.1, 2010): IQ Tests and Superheros

So Ken's big idea for tonight was to do an IQ test. I have looked at them online before and so I knew ahead of time that alot of them are scams and some of them will get you to do the whole test and then ask you to pay for your results. Knowing this ahead of time still didn't prevent both of these very annoying things from happening to me.

The first one that I did Ken found and it was only 9 questions. At the end of it, it said something to the effect of "you are an idiot. Only a really stupid person would think that you could judge your IQ from 9 questions". It is funny looking back on it now but it was really annoying at the time because I was tired after a long day at work. I should have let him do it first but I was so tired that I just wanted to get it over with and get to bed (I worked until 8:30 tonight).

The second one that we found I figured would be some sort of a scam again (and I was right) but it only had 38 questions so I thought that maybe I had enough energy and mental stamina left in me to try it. I was very low on patience so I skipped a few of the tougher questions and answered as many as I could only to "submit" my answers at the end and have it ask me for a credit card number etc. to get my results. At that point I said to Ken, "I am done. No more IQ tests for me!".

So he decided to find a more fun quiz for us to do online. He found one called "which superhero are you". That one had about 30 questions. It turns out Ken is "Ironman" and I am "Supergirl", LOL.

I would totally recommend the superhero quiz over the IQ tests anyday!!

Tuesday, February 2, 2010

Day 31 (January 31, 2010): Horoscopes

Ken and I were once again exhausted from the move. We had to wake up early this morning and go back over to our old place and finish up a bit of cleaning and then do the walk through with the Boardwalk minions who run that mad house. Audrey helped me clean alot on Friday and Ken and I did more on Saturday night and then finished up this morning.....I knew that we would need the place to be spotless because I moved out of a Boardwalk place before and they charge you for the strangest things.....case in point: during our walkthrough today the lady noticed one exterior window ledge that I forgot to clean and charged me $10.00 to get it cleaned! Imagine if I had forgotten other things....at $10.00 for one swipe of the cloth my damage deposit would have been eaten up really quickly. Luckily that was the only thing that she noticed from the mile long list of cleaning requirements that they gave us. Anyway, after we did the walk through we came back here and unpacked, cleaned, organized etc. We were really not up for a big activity after all of that so we decided to read our horoscopes. I used to read my horoscope all the time but I don't anymore. I'm not sure why I just don't make the effort I guess.

Here are our horoscopes for today.

Mel:Virgo
Things need to be a little tidier around your home or work space today, and you are perfectly in sync with where things want to be. Your great energy helps you make the most of your situation.


Ken: Libra
Your social nature can't be denied, and today you find yourself with more time than usual for mixing it up with new people. You should get out there or get online to meet new people!


Our thoughts: Mel's totally makes sense. Firstly, I am a virgo and always like things neat and tidy. Secondly, we just moved and are in the process of figuring out where everything will go. I actually sort of like that process but it would be better if I wasn't so tired!

Ken's is way off base. He is so tired today that the last thing he wants to do is be social. He just wants to go to sleep!

Day 30 (January 30, 2010): First night in our new place

Tonight was our first night in our new place. We managed to get the bedroom, living room and kitchen fairly organized so we feel a bit settled. I am so happy to be out of our Boardwalk nightmare and into a new place. We lived in a swanky 1 bedroom apartment in a highrise with a "fantastic view", gym and pool for 3 years.......sounds good doesn't it? The whole three years was one nightmare after another from someone causing a flood above us and having to live for 3 months in our living room with all of our bedroom furniture (no deal on the rent eventhough we could only use half of our apartment), to rental increases, to parkade repairs that lasted longer than planned and caused us to have to park in a mud pit (ruining all of my shoes/boots and making the interior of my car very dirty) to them taking rent out of my account twice in one month and then making me "prove" that they did it eventhough they could just check their bank records and see that it had happened!! GRRRRR!!!!! Obviously we are very happy to be spending our first night in our new 2 bedroom apartment for half the rent and no Boardwalk Nazi's to harass me!!

Day 29 (January 29, 2010): Subway Flat Bread

So I know that this is kind of a lame one but it is really hard to think of something when you are completely exhausted from washing walls and cabinets all day and packing and carrying boxes up stairs and putting away stuff etc. etc. etc. Since our food was all packed up today we decided to go to Subway for dinner. I tried the new "Flat Bread". It is like a panini except a bit more fluffy and doughy. It is a really soft bread. It is actually quite good. It's not as heavy and filling as getting a regular sub, which I liked, but wouldn't be good for someone like Ken who has a big appetite. I don't think it is actually a healthy alternative though because it is white bread and is very doughy. I don't think it has much nutritional value but I didn't check it out so I'm not sure about that.

Day 28 (January 28, 2010): Visit from a friend

Today I was very sick. I actually didn't even go to work. It is definitely a challenge to find something to do when you are not feeling well and have no energy to leave your house! Luckily our friend Audrey came over for a visit. We visited for a couple of hours and also planned our cleaning/packing strategy for tomorrow because we are moving this weekend. I know that this weekend is going to be difficult to find things to do in the midst of the craziness of moving. We'll see how it goes........

Day 27 (January 27, 2010): Motley Crue

Ken's sister wanted to help us out with our 365 challenge so she bought us tickets to the Motley Crue concert. She got a really good deal on them since she bought them the day before the concert. They were 2 for $10.00!! Motley Crue was awesome! The light show was pretty crazy and I was very happy that Tommy Lee pulled out the white grand piano for "Home Sweet Home" in the encore. Our seats were actually quite good given the price. They were up a bit high but we could see the whole stage really well. Airbourne, which is one of Ken's favourite bands, was the first opening act and they did great. Unfortunately neither Ken or I liked the next band. It was the Joe Perry Project and in my opinion they sucked! For those of you who don't know who they are, Joe Perry is the lead guitarist for Aerosmith. I really didn't care for his lead singer in The Joe Perry Project. As Ken said, "This project gets an 'F'"!

This is Airbourne.

This is us, tired and bored after The Joe Perry Project. Just waiting for Motley Crue to set up.





This is Tommy Lee playing "Home Sweet Home"

The light show and pirotechnics (spelling??) were awesome!

More fire!!

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