Sunday Visit

I went out to visit Plum, who lives with the lovely -ex Tracey.
Plum and I went on a long walk to our favourite park in Centennial Beach. This walk sure brought back a lot of memories. I've run all five of my dals through this park countless times.











After visiting Plum I drove over to my brother Sean's house and had a nice visit with him.
Sean and Conner.













We went out for a walk around the block and I pushed the buggy.












Looking after babies is so easy. Perhaps I'll have a chat with the fabulous liz and see what her thoughts on babies are.

Commitment

As most of my readers know, I've been married before and since then I have had some issues regarding commitment. I am presently dating the fabulous Liz and have expressed my fears around commitment with her and she has been understanding. We have discussed that this is probably a very common thing to occur after a marriage doesn't work out the way you expected. The other day though, I found myself challenging my perhaps knee-jerk declaration that "I have commitment issues" when I looked around at Liz's home and noticed all of my stuff lying around- tooth-brush, lots of sweaters, hoodies, socks, underwear, water bottle, skis, camping gear. I have her keys on my key chain, she has my apt keys, I loaned her my car all last week and I had hers, and most significantly, she knows not only my interac card's PIN but she also knows my passwords for all things. Maybe I've just gotten caught up in the 21st century's hype re commitmentphobia and my "commitment issues" are what I think I should be feeling but are not actually what I truly feel. The more I examine my behaviors, the more it seems that I do not have commitment issues and that I should go against the current trend and commit to NOT having commitment issues; but maybe I better think about it first.

Sugar Free Blues

I've been fairly bad with my diet the last couple of months and I was going crazy with the ju jubes and Coca Cola. There were highs and lows with the insulin swings and I shouldn't be eating that stuff because of my reflux symptoms therefore something had to give. So I started a new "diet" last week - the no sugar diet. I will stay on this diet for one month which should be long enough to stop the cravings. I am trying to eat a lot of fruits and vegetables and also eating carbohydrates such as cereal and pasta, but I have given up any food with added sugar such as cinnamon buns, carrot cake, candy, Coke, etc.
Liz is a very healthy eater and I have been getting much encouragement from her. So far we have lasted nine days on this diet and wouldn't be surprised if I have lost a few pounds.
I did cheat once by "mistake" when I was trying to pick off some melted chocolate that looked really disgusting (because of the coins embedded) in my Mercedes Console and put a small piece in my mouth just to see what it would taste like.
I also cheated in my dream last night. In my dream I was eating a Custard Danish in a restaurant and the waiter came up and asked "May I tempt you with some Ice Cream?" and not wanting to be rude I replied "Yes, please." Just then I woke up. It was so real! I remember being able to taste the Custard Danish.
My Birthday is coming up so I'm allowing myself one more "cheat" day.

The Other Liver Spot

I have owned two Liver Spotted Dalmatians.
Pelham Grenville Wodehouse (also known as Plum) and Sunny.














Sunny was, of course, an unwanted dalmatian (still lots of them around) but I don't even remember how I heard about him. I think he was in the Delta SPCA. I already owned 2 dalmatians, so I certainly didn't need another one, but it just seemed right at the time.
He is a great dog, but he and Whistler didn't get along. Whistler liked being the Alpha dog and he fought with Sunny.
I had Sunny for a couple of months and he was a terrific running dog. But the Whistler/Sunny fighting wasn't acceptable so I gave Sunny to some neighbours in Tsawwassen. Sunny has since moved out to a beautiful farm in Chilliwack where he has tons of room to run.

For the new readers, in the last fifteen years I have owned 5 Dalmatians.
A.J. (Female - about 5 when I got her from the Delta SPCA)
Jasper (Male - Original name Jazz but his musician owner couldn't keep him. I ended up giving him back to the original owner because he barked all day long and it bothered my neighbours the Davenports)
Plum (Still doing well at 13 years. She is on Cartrophen which has helped her mobility immensely)
Whistler (Male - He had a hard life with previous owners and suffered from epilepsy and kidney stones, but he loved living with me)
Sunny (Male - Wonderful dog but didn't get along with Whistler)


But the next dog will be a deaf Great Dane. Why a deaf one? Because I like to take care of the animals that need a little more help.
Check out the Deaf Dane Rescue in my links section to see how cute those guys are.

Bacteria

You can't see the mold, but I know it's there.













I have finally cultured some bacteria at my desk. Unfortunately it is not on the McDonalds Hash Brown which is still looking pretty fresh in my top drawer. (I bought the Hash Brown on April 7)
This culture is in my Protein Drink Mixer. I usually mix the protein powder with water but lately I have been using 2% milk. And I have recently learned the secret of adding TANG flavour crystals to the protein powder to give it that extra zing.
But since I forgot to clean out my Protein Drink Mixer over the weekend the mixer is looking a little unclean. I guess the combination of Milk, TANG, and Protein Powder is a good growth medium. Who knew?
I've tried to wash the mixer but it still doesn't smell very good. Maybe I'll take it out to UBC and Autoclave it. Or maybe I should just buy a new mixer for $5.00.

Stuffed Animals

My friend Meander asked if anyone had a teddy bear from their childhood. My Grandmother brought this guy over from England and gave him to me in 1961. He is a Chiltern bear. Not collectible since Scamp (our Boston Terrier) has eaten half his face and one ear, but I still keep him around.

The Jersey Collection

One Jersey? No, you need more than one.
Here is my current Bike Jersey Collection.


My Oldest Jersey - Shaftebury Brewery
Tim Wittig from the tri club started the brewery in 1987 and he sold it to Sleemans in 1999. It's a cool jersey and kids really like the bee.













My Triathlon Club Jersey (old logo)













Rocky Mountain is a Bike Company in Vancouver














Of course you need a "Canada" one if you ever race overseas or in the States.














And you need a long sleeve one for the cold days. Sometimes you don't want to use the arm warmers.













I really like the colours of the Campione one. Joe Donahue wants me to give him this jersey because it matches the colour of his bike - but no way.















Race Jersey














Fun Jersey - fits in with the Tri Buddha philosophy













Generally, I disapprove of short sleeve bike jerseys, but on a really hot day you need one.















I went to SFU for my Masters so it's kind of sentimental.














My "one-piece" Racing Suit. I can't get away with wearing it this year. Maybe if I drop 10 pounds I'll model it. You have to have a hot body to wear that one.

Visit with Little Brudder

My brother Sean is definitely Senor Science, but he's not one dimensional. He took Art History at University and was even accepted into some Fine Arts type programme but he didn't go - he likes the science stuff too much. He is a pretty good artist and his latest medium is chalk on pavement. Here is a recent work called Trogdor. Click the link if you don't know who Trogdor is.














Brian with nephews Brendan and Connor.












I have the two little brothers, Sean and Patrick. Patrick lives in Alberta (poor guy) but Sean lives in pretty close and I don't visit him as much as I should especially since he has TWO children now. So I did a "drop by" today. My nephew Connor has taken a liking to me and lets me hold him. If I pick up Brendan then I have to keep picking him up (upside down) and then we get into playfight mode. I don't really care about getting Brendan wound up because that's Sean's problem but I have to save some energy for the Marathon tomorrow.


Check out Sean's Basement Work Area. I can't believe all the stuff he has from when we were kids. He's got the models, the trains, the figurines, and lots of art stuff. He seems to be taking apart a Toshiba Notebook for some reason. There's all sorts of electronics stuff there. Hope he does another Rocket Launch (with video) soon.

Dalmatian Genetics

Many people ask what kind of a dog Plum is and are surprised when I tell them she is a Dalmatian. "But she has BROWN spots" is the typical reply.
Dalmatians come with either black spots, or brown (liver) spots.
Remember Genetics in school?
Black is the dominant colour (B) and Liver is the recessive colour (b).
So you can have a BB dal, which does not carry the Liver colour gene. Or you can have a Bb dal which is black but carries the Liver colour gene and may produce a Liver if bred with another Bb.
Or you can have a bb dal which must be Liver colour.

In fact they come in a wide range of other colours/varieties too:
Lemon
Orange
Pale Lemon (almost white)
Blue
Tri Colour Black
Tri Colour Liver
Brindle
Brindle Tri Colours (also known as Trindle)
Mosaics
Two Tone (a spot that is both black AND liver)
And Long Haired.

If you want more information here is a very interesting Dalmatian site:


This is a Lemon Spot. Looks kind of similar to the Liver, but is paler.

200

200th Post!
Wow. I started on April 17, 2005 which would be 379 days ago.
That means I'm posting three and half times a week!
I coached at the Y tonight and here's a shot of me in action.
I'm yelling at Carrie and Jody because they were swimming in the public "slow" lane rather than swimming in their proper lane. They drive me crazy! They scared some little old lady out of that lane! Of course, they're not paying any attention to me.











I had a huge group tonight - 16 people! Only two people didn't show up. This programme is really quite successful and the swimmers really appreciate what Joe and I do for them. Coaching is definitely a highlight of my week.

Swim Suit Shopping

I am going bathing suit shopping with Neil at lunch. Yeah, I know it sounds kind of weird, but who cares what you guys think. I need a second opinion to make sure that I don’t walk out of the store with something too skimpy. Just don’t have the body for that anymore.
My tri-suit, which has been substituting as a swim suit is starting to wear thin and I don’t want another embarrassing episode like that one at the Riverside pool in Penticton.
I could get another tri suit but really I am a purist and I need a swim suit.
Where to go downtown for a swim suit? Hmmm. I normally get my suits at Watermania in Richmond, or else at Splash on West 4th.
OK. I’ll try The Just Cruisin’ Shoppe (although it goes against my grain to shop in a shoppe) and If they don’t have anything I’ll check out SportMart.

I did buy one.
















Not this one.

It was just too skimpy. Although I have always wanted to look like Rod Steward from the 70’s wearing tiger striped pants – this just isn’t me.