And back again!

I know I know, it's March, and the last blog entry was in October. But a lot has been going on, and we've been really busy. Don't believe us? Check this out. In the past 5 months, we have collectively:
a) celebrated Christmas and New Years
b) finished a thesis (while working at lulu)
c) gone on a vacation to the Dominican Republic
d) defended said thesis
e) done re-writes on above mentioned thesis
f) handed in the final version of the thesis
e) travelled to Victoria to find a job (Chris) and house
f) found jobs in Victoria, but still no house
g) listed house in Ottawa (which meant packing and lots of cleaning)

And if that's not enough, we are moving in 12 days! So that means more packing and cleaning. We are really hoping that our place will sell before we leave...keep your fingers crossed.
There may be another long gap in the blogging process, but don't worry, we will keep everyone updated on our progress in Victoria!

Fall 2008

Is it really October 20th already? I can't believe how quickly the past few months have flown by! Our summer was busy with another visit home (both Victoria and Alberta), paddling, friends and family. Michelle, Ron and family visited us this summer, and Dallas and Florence visited us this September. It was nice to have everyone visit, since it is getting close to when we will be moving back to Victoria. Yes, plans are still underway to return back to the island. Chris has started his job search, and I am doing my part by trying to finish my thesis in a timely manner. I got a job at lululemon in August, and I am thoroughly enjoying my work there. I hope to be able to transfer to the Victoria store, at least for bit so that I will have some work while I will be looking for something more like a "career" type job. Don't ask me what that entails, since I am not sure myself; I would like to work with the CRD (Capital Regional District) again, in environmental services, so I am going to see if I can work my ties there.

We have been enjoying the fall, with its beautiful colours. We have also been enjoying our friends and neighbours. We will be sad to leave them all, but not sad enough to make us want to stay.

On the animal front, the cats are doing well. Well, at least Techno is. Jazzy is starting to fade, although for a 15-16 year old cat, she can still be pretty feisty when she wants to be.

As always, I will try to blog more regularily, since I have been remiss again.

Here is a picture of us after getting "participation" medals from the Huntsville Dragonboat Festival, by far the rainiest and most miserable paddling conditions I have ever seen. We deserved those medals!

Checking in

It's been a few months since my last blog, and it has been a full and busy summer. We have been dragonboating with our new team, whom we love dearly. We went to Boston at the beginning of June for a festival, and a good time was had by all. Then came the Ottawa Dragonboat Festival, which went exceedingly well, for both of us. On the paddling side, our team won 2 medals and 2 cups. For Chris, the festival has exceeded the target for funds raised. Chris was very busy for the two weeks prior to the festival, and I barely got to see him but it paid off in the end: his boss, board members and charities that he works with are all desperate to keep him for another year*. It's nice to be appreciated!

Since the festival, Chris organized a paddling event for the Senator draft picks. He had them form two teams, learn to paddle and then race against each other. I hounded him into letting me participate, and so I got to stroke for one team. By far my favorite moment was hearing one of the young recruits say "So, what is this? Is this like a sport or something?" Ahhh, the uneducated :)

Michelle and her family came to visit for the greater part of the week, and we had a lot of fun taking in the sights, participating in the Canada Day festivities, etc. Perhaps my favorite part of their visit was seeing 2 year old Joshua's obsession with our neighbour Mike. It went beyond anything I have ever seen!

Since their visit, we have just been enjoying the summer, our friends and the city*. We are eagerly anticipating our trip to Victoria and Calgary in just under a week. I will make a concerted effort to blog promptly after our return. Until then, enjoy a few pics below.

* Even so, we are still planning on moving back to Victoria as soon as possible.

Heather, "vogue-ing" in front of the No Vogue-ing sign:

Canada Day:

Michelle and Ella at the Oreo Cookie Licking Contest, Canada Day:

Spring in Ottawa

This is what spring in Ottawa looked like this year. It was a combination of lovely weather, with a few remaining snow banks.

After the winter we had, I wasn't sure if we would ever see spring again, but, like every year, spring comes. With it comes unknown blooms in the garden, the desire to be outside, and of course, the inevitable spring/summer construction. After living through massive construction last summer, we are eagerly anticipating a quiet and enjoyable season. But just to keep us on our toes, we as a strata and we as a couple have decided to do home renos. As a strata, we are going to be getting a new fence, new venting, and maybe new windows. As a couple, we will be redoing our bathroom and maybe our kitchen as welll, all in preparation to sell this place in a year or so. I assure you, all repairs are necessary; check out the state of our back fence! Yes, that is Jazzy sitting on the remains of half of it!

The semester is over for me; only one more semester to go! Chris is busy at work, gearing up for the festival. Today will be our first dragonboat practice, and even though Chris will have to miss it, we are thinking that this team will be a better fit for us. We go to Boston in June for a festival. We are both very excited about that, since we've never been to Boston. We will be staying in the Boston Conservatory of Music, which is mere blocks from the Boston Fluevog! How very exciting!

Enough is enough

I am sure most of you have heard about the massive amounts of snow that Eastern Canada has been getting. It truly has been a banner year for snow for us....here are a few stats:

444cm: record amount of snow fall, set in 1970-71.
411cm: the amount of snow Ottawa has had to date

83cm: amount of snow we received last week

56cm: snowfall from Friday to Sunday

400: number of shovels at one Canadian Tire on Friday
0: number of shovels left at same location on Sunday.

The atmosphere here varies between just sheer snow exhaustion, and the desire to beat the previous record. People figure that if we've had this much, another 33 cm can't hurt. The crazy thing? We could actually make it before the season (which may last until April) is over!

If just the numbers aren't convincing enough, here are a few pictures.

This is our street, on our walk to Tim Hortons. I thought that rolling up my pants would keep them clear of snow, but after trudging out of out snow covered drive-way, I realized that the rolling up was an exercise in futility. My pants got wet anyways!

Below are photos of our deck and our driveway. We have nowhere to put the snow, and so we had to pile it up in front our neighbours garage. They don't use it for their vehicle. The city has had to get creative with where they put the snow, as have we.

The snow on our deck is almost up to the railing, and we can't see our BBQ. Chris has already shovelled it once this season, but we will have to do it again before it gets too heavy and our deck falls off our house. A family in Westboro (a posh part of Ottawa) had their roof collapse because of the weight of the snow.

Not surprisingly, we have decided to move to Victoria once I am done my schooling here!

A true confession, and a real dilemma

The time has come for me to start thinking seriously about pursuing a PhD. I have one year left of my program, and there is the pressure (mostly internal, but some from outside sources) to look into post-graduate schools. Chris and I have been talking, trying to plan our future, which is hard when I am still undecided as to what I want to do. The real dilemma is that if I don't do my PhD, in all likelihood we would move back to the West Coast. Both Chris and I feel that is home for us; Chris's family is there, my friends are there, we could both paddle year round, and we wouldn't have to wear winter boots for 5 months out of the year. Neither Chris nor I are abundantly happy in Ottawa, although I am doing better than I was last year. So what do I do....do I go home because I am happier in Victoria, or do I actually commit myself to more schooling? See my conundrum?

Christmas 2007 and the New Year

Happy New Year! I trust all your Christmases and New Years celebrations were everything you all dreamt of. We decided to stay in Ottawa this year instead of travelling to Alberta and BC. It was a first for both of us, but we managed to have a wonderful Christmas with just the two of us. We made our own turkey dinner, went to see a movie on Christmas Day, spoke to our families and just generally enjoyed each others company.

We both took Christmas jobs; Chris at HMV and Heather at the Body Shop. We have also decided to continue on at these jobs in the new year since they both proved to be enjoyable for us. My (Heather) parents came to Ottawa late on the 26th, and we were able to spend 3 full days with them. We thoroughly enjoyed their visit, even though we didn't get to cross country ski as we had hoped. Mom and Dad took us to a few great restaurants, and generally spoiled us rotten.

We spent our New Years at Mike's sisters place. I managed to stay awake until midnight, but shortly after that, I fell asleep on the couch. This is now the second time I have fallen asleep at a strangers place during a celebration. I truly am the life of the party!

January is almost half over, and we have both gotten back into our respective schedules. I am back at school (one class and my thesis writing) and Chris is back at work. Since my typical New Years resolution is to be in better health, I signed up for a yoga class at school. I had my first class yesterday evening, and I really enjoyed it. Pretty much everyone in the class is a beginner, so I didn't feel out of place. The whole experience was much better than my first attempt at yoga (see Yoga and the Raines', September 2006) and I look forward to next week's class.