great news

I'M ENGAGED!

quote to start 2011

"...the key to getting started down the path of being remarkable in anything is to simply act with the intention of being remarkable. "

Chad Fowler

and then the holidays were over...

vacation time

I believe Canadian companies seriously fail their employees. And I would even go so far as to say that the Canadian government also fails the Canadian population due to their lack of action. Most companies in Canada start new employees off with 2 weeks vacation a year after a year of service. This in my opinion is criminal. 10 days a year to recharge, take care of personal matters, spent time with family etc. Two weeks a year hardly encourages a good life to work life balance. In fact I believe our society encourages workaholics and actually makes people workaholics simply by denying enough personal time. I cannot understand how companies think that they get more out of their employees by having such standards. I would wager that if Canadian companies provided more vacation days to their employees not only would they have happier employees, but the would have more productive, well rested, more alert and positive employees.

After a recent visit to England - where I stayed for only one week because of vacation day restrictions - my family and friend in the country were astounded at our vacation allowance. It was often referred to as "archaic". In England every employee gets a minimum of 20 days starting their first day on the job. That is part time and full time employees. And most get more than that. My cousin gets 28 days a year at his job as a CA. Amazing! After further investigation my friend from Hungary gets 24 days a year and that is actually mandated by government. ALL employees receive a country standard depending on age. As you get older you receive more days. AMAZING!

Canada - figure it out one time.

2011

New Year, New Ideas, New Dreams, New Possibilities, New Outlook, New Life.

Happy New Year!

Life is what you make it, make it count.

the walking dead

What is the appeal of being scared? There is a new show on AMC right now called the Walking Dead and it is scary! I sit there at times with my hands over my eyes and my ears plugged, but I still watch it. Crazy! It certainly gets the blood pumping! If you like zombie movies then you'll be into this new series that plays out like a zombie movie but actually has characters you get to know and keeps the Adrenalin pumping.

The New York Times on the Walking Dead

"Rules are guidelines for stupid people who can't make up their own minds" - House

jackson james neiles

Just look at this face...

My best friend's baby - Jackson - turned 1 year old in October. I can hardly believe a whole year has gone by. Just look how big he is! Time is a funny thing. When you want it to go quickly it goes slow; and when you want it to slow down, it goes even faster. All I know is that this little guy has changed lives.

day light savings

Today the clocks went back an hour. This is usually good news for a terrible sleeper like me because it's actually later at night when you go bed, therefore hopefully I am a little more tired when going to bed, and it's a little later before the alarm, helping again because I am always very tired after not sleeping much through the night. However, tonight despite the fact that it should really be 1:49AM instead of the 12:49AM it is I am still wide awake. Go figure.

I heard on CBC radio last week that in England there is a group of people trying to permanently alter daylight savings time in order to take advantage of the day light hours instead of sleeping through them. I think the theory is if you move the clock a little more than we do now for daylight savings we will wake up more of the year in darkness, but the afternoon will allow for more daylight. The theory of course being that you would be able to take better advantage of the afternoon daylight more than the morning daylight for activities such as sports, family time and leisure. Interesting thought. I find it fascinating and somewhat hard to grasp that we can just play with time regardless. You'd think if you just change the hours by a few to make the light better fit our lifestyles that there should be more repercussions. Isn't that human-kind toying with the universe? Then again time is a creation of man in the first place so why don't we mess with it to best suit our needs. I say go for it. Not sure it will change the fact that I'm lazy and if given a few extra hours of daylight it will most likely not entice me to go running more than I already do, but far be it for me to deny those people who would take advantage.

Let there be light! or is it Let them eat cake? Either one I'm good with...

Couple gives lottery winnings to Charity

I can't believe this couple gave away all of the 11.2 million dollar winnings. I'm afraid I would not be so generous. Just the truth; does that make me a bad person? Does it make a bad person because I don't care if it does or not? :)

Article

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

The new Harry Potter movie comes out in a couple weeks and I already have tickets! The Harry Potter movies evoke a lot of emotions from me. They are most often released near Christmas, so I get a warm and fuzzy feeling around that. My family all loves the Harry Potter books and we, for the first movies, went all together to see them so that we could discuss together after. That part is bitter sweet now that my dad is gone. We still try and go as a family, but as much as we love them, it is always a sad experience at the same time. For the same reason the movies make me think of dad and I love them for that. He died before the last book came out and that is tragic for me. He would have loved the end.

For many reasons I am anxious, excited, exhilarated and apprehensive to see the next one. It is the first of the two movies that will tell the story of the last book - and I will be sad to see the end of the Harry Potter saga.

The trailer is a great one: check it out> Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

Dear BB

I miss your smile
I miss your wisdom
I miss your guidance
I miss your kindness
I miss your comfort
I even miss your Bob Marley - sometimes
I miss your books
I miss your letters
I miss your notes
I miss your tea making calls
I miss your humour
I miss your conversation

I miss you.

Love you always,
SGB

the finish line

We did it. It's all over.

We really couldn't have asked for a better day. It was a cool 15 degrees partly cloudy and little wind; ideal conditions for the race. Let me tell you though, 5:30am came very quickly Sunday morning. It was so early we had to force down food and hope we had left enough time to digest. We started in the lobby with hundreds of other runners huddling to keep warm for an extra few minutes before venturing out to the start canals.

When the time came we made our way to the purple canal, which was not an easy task with thousands of other runners lined up and trying to get to their spots too. We finally arrived and started looking for our pace bunny. We decided to make a finish time of 2 hours and 15 minutes our goal. This was a bit of a stretch from our training time but not so much to be unrealistic. Once we got going I stuck to that pace bunny like my life depended on it. At least for the first few kilometers until I got my stride. The pace bunnies run with a specific end time in mind so that you can keep up with them and know when you will finish approximately. Very handy!

From the start gun we started moving forward finally crossing the start line. Then it was game time - Kilometer after kilometer. It truly was an amazing experience. Looking ahead of me all I could see was a mass of people from edge to edge of the street and as far as my eyes could see. Crazy! The last two kilometers almost killed me but somehow I made it through. Finish time 2 hours and 10 minutes. What a feeling! Crossing that finish line was such an amazing feeling and such a rush. The whole event was just so exciting with all the people lining the race way and people calling out my name, all the music along the way and people dressed up in funny costumes and the pure energy of thousands and thousands of runners.

I managed to raise almost $400 for the Sunshine Foundation and I managed to cross the finish line at a personal best and do it with such great friends. What a great day!










Pre race bib problems





Vic and I at 7AM















Finished the race











Thank god for these blankets!













That's a big check mark on my bucket list! CHECK!!

give me your money!

It is finally that time. The race is exactly one week from today. By this time next week it will all be over. 18 weeks of preparation, countless hours of running, 2 pairs of shoes, night after night of training - ok, I didn't work that hard, but pretty hard! :)

I am raising money for the Sunshine Foundation. This is a wonderful organization; please go to their website and see all the amazing things they are doing every day. This wonderful organization once granted a with to a very special personal and family close to my heart. It is so important that we do anything we can to help them keep helping other families.

To sponsor me on my run and thereby support this great Foundation please click here:

Sponsor Susie and Sunshine!

Thank you for your support - I will do you proud or collapse trying...

jackets

I love both of these looks. The jackets are so great!

Too bad it was the jeans that were up for sale...