37th Birthday and Easter Weekend

This year my birthday happened to occur on the same weekend as Easter, which is pretty sweet. Extra long gluttonous weekend!

I think Chrissy sensed that I was having issues living with a set schedule (needed for Sophia) so for my birthday she chose to wake up early (on little sleep) and take me out to the Farmers Market for the first time with Sophia. We arrived early before it got too nuts, or at least not too crazy unless you wanted to buy tulips.

It was a small venture out and greatly appreciated as the rest of the weekend was spent mostly hanging with Sophia around the house or consuming copious amounts of food and drink.

In the absence or any of my nuclear family being in Edmonton over the weekend Chrissy's parents helped me celebrate  by baking an angel food cake and picking up a bucket of Chicken (my sole request).

Overall a pretty great birthday and weekend.

Bonus: Chrissy's gift to me was tickets to Return To Grace the following week - basically an Elvis tribute show. The perfect "first" date for us in months.

Highlights of Autumn 2014

Our Garden Harvest

Birthdays

Too much icing

Crisp Fall Walks

Halloween

Early Frost

Chrissy Turns 34

Today is the day that Wifey (aka - Chrissy) turns 34 years old. I am practically robbing the cradle :)

Our day started a little late as we slept in (her favorite weekend treat). I finally  left her to go start breakfast and arrange her gifts when her birthday phone calls started.

After a quick shower she threw on a special jersey that I set out for her and came downstairs to open gifts.

After non-stop honeymooning the gifts were a little less impressive than previous years: A pewter letter opener (she relishes her role as house accountant and bill opener), and a "C" necklace from a shop in Victoria we visited last week.

I think she liked the gifts but they were only a warm up for the true gift: Bacon!

And because she is the best wifey, she is even humoring me on her birthday as our next stop will be Happy Harbor Comics for Free Comic Book Day! What a woman!

Cheers to many more birthdays together!

Turning 35 and Turning Back Time

Last week I turned 35. And with my birthday comes the annual taking stock of my life...and it's a fine life by all accounts: Fantastic loving wife, supportive family, some cool friends, and employment that allows me to make a difference in my community. I have been extremely fortunate.

But am I satisfied? Have I lived fully to match the gifts I have received? Not really...

Last year Chrissy and I talked about a shared general desire to "Be Better".  We didn't attach any specifics to our drive to improve instead we installed it as a mantra that we could use to motivate ourselves against. If we were feeling lazy and wanted to sit on the couch, I could ask myself is this contributing to me "Being Better"?

Of course this is a bit of a loaded question. Is the sitcom relieving stress so I can focus better at work the next day, maybe I'm watching a science documentary, or the news. While I still try to follow the mantra "Be Better" I started to realize that I needed some more tangible goals. The more and more I thought about what it should be the more I came back to the question: How do I feel each day?

A long time ago I used to be an athlete. I loved competition and playing sports to near absolute physical exertion was the greatest feeling in the world. Nowadays, I am an armchair athlete getting out for beer league sports about once a week. Where I was once had energy, and felt fit, flexible and strong, today I just feel...old.

I realized my fitness and in turn my self identity as an athlete, or at least as being fit, would be my specific quest this year in "Being Better". What I needed was a fitness goal.

But what should I set that goal as? I consider myself overweight (~213 pounds) but weight and weigh loss isn't a measure of fitness (an outcome maybe)...I consider myself relatively weak compared to my youth but physical mass and strength on it's own strikes me as vanity....So I did what any person my age who is incapable of making a decision does; I asked Facebook.

I received many great suggestion (which can be viewed here) and evaluated each one in the spirit it was suggested. Eventually, though I would had to make a decision. After much consideration and some research I landed on my fitness goal.

Before my 36th Birthday I will run a 400Metre sprint in under 60 seconds.

Considered the longest sprint in track and field, the strength and endurance training required to the meet my desired time translates well into improving my overall general fitness and enhancing my competency in other sports.

Way back in highschool I remember running the 400 with seconds to spare but today I would estimate that I would probably need an extra 40 seconds. I haven't done an official test time yet, just some rough estimate sprint/jogs (as I can't sprint the whole way).

For reference: In the 2012 Olympics the men needed to run under 45 seconds to reach the finals while the women needed to run under 51 seconds to reach the final.

So now that I have publicly stated my goal to the world at large I better get off my ass and starting working to meet it. I will be updating my progress to my goal as I progress.

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Birthday Bonus: With my fitness goal set and Chrissy out of town for work I figured my birthday meal would be a mix of an unhealthy favorite (Drake Sausage) and healthy veggies.

Things I learned from this: phallic food, especially sausage does not photograph well.

Christina's Birthday 2013

On May 3rd it was my betrothed Chrissy's birthday. Although the day is important I have learned that she tends to celebrate about a week prior till a couple of weeks later. So as far as I can tell we are somewhere near the end of her celebration and so I can finally write about it.

On the day before her birthday I realized that it was officially the last time I would ever get to date a smoking hot 32 year old so I took her out for dinner and a show. First stop was Packrat Louie for a great supper then we took in Flight of the Viscount at the Varscona Theatre. The show was pretty fantastic (it is only playing till May 19th) go see it!

For the big day, after receiving a small token gift in the morning, Chrissy and I met her (future and always) bridesmaids and their menfolk at our favorite restaurant in Edmonton: Continental Treat Fine Bistro. Home to the best dill pickle soup you will ever have!

Finishing off the weekend and the halfway point of her 'no clutter, experiences gifts' was a trip to Fort In View golf course by our house for a quick 9 holes of golf.

But nearing the green on the first hole, tragedy strikes! Leaning over awkwardly to grab her ball out of a puddle Chrissy rips the bum on her jeans wide open.

Like a champ she finishes out the hole.

Completely composed she raps her bunnyhug around her waist and we walk back to the clubhouse to buy a skirt or new shorts. But, alas, so early in the season there is absolutely no womens 'bottoms' to buy in the pro-shop. Thinking that we may have to turn back in to town the course manager appears with his extra pair of shorts from his office. We gladly accept and Chrissy changes into a male strangers shorts.

And she rocked it out having a fantastic game.

The festivities slowed down during the week until her official birthday gift on the 1 week anniversary of the actual day. My gift? A surprise night out with her parents and myself at Jubilations Dinner Theatre to see  My Big Fat Edmonton Wedding.

We have a stressed out Bridezilla, whose mood swings make Jekyll and Hyde seem tame. There's the nervous groom, with a seemingly dangerous secret past, and the "thrifty" Father of the Bride, who fancies himself to be a wedding singer. The best friend/bridesmaid with an eye for the groom, and a best man who has crashed more weddings than he can remember and has both eyes on every female present...you have My Big Fat Edmonton Wedding!

Unbeknownst to us the whole venue and staff are fully involved in the plotline of the wedding with the servers all being cousins or friends of the wedding party with their own back-story. The show clipped along quickly inter-spliced with the our multicourse meal. Both the production and the food were top notch.

It being Chrissy's birthday (kind-of) she was personally serenaded at our table by the bride from the production and then ushered on stage with the other birthday folks to give her age and take part in a dance. As you can see she's a natural.

I am a lucky man. 

Happy Birthday Chrissy. I can't wait to spend many more with you.

Turning 34 Years Old

Another year and another birthday, or at least in this case, birthday week.

As both Christina and Monica (my family in Edmonton) were going to be out of town during my actual birthday, the 26th of March, they each planned little celebrations prior to their leaving town.

Monica arranged a small little party that included delicious cakes made by my niece Claire in her Easy Bake Oven and a candle stuffed inside of a slice of meat. Little did I know at the time that the presence of meat was foreshadowing for my actual birthday.

Chrissy took a different approach and presented me my gift prior to her leaving for work in Texas. She always stresses out about what I may want as a gift so to help ease her mind I gave her a list of suggestions. Even with my suggestions she was still nervous; but she had no need to be. I quite like my 'man valet' organizer.

So, on my actual birthday I woke up to an empty house and hit the snooze button with no remorse twice.  

I went out to the mail box to check if my mother still loved me and found out that she did. I got a nice card from 'sunny?' Thunder Bay where she is visiting my brother Richards family. Also included with my birthday card was a true card celebrating my birth. Mom ended up inheriting a bunch of personal items from her aunt and included in those items was the following birth announcement that my mom wrote up 34 years ago.

I thought it was pretty cool! Plus, its funny to see that Mom's handwriting has not changed a single iota during all that time.

Once I got to work and started up the computer I was greeted by a bunch of emails and facebook comments wishing me well from my family and friends. As well I got a 'doodle' from Google wishing me a  special day.

I usually play it pretty quiet at work for my birthday but Chrissy all the way from Texas had other plans. She arranged her friend Mary to enact "Operation Cupcake" and deliver me and my office-mates treats. I was taken completely by surprise.

Mary knowing that I had been 'orphaned' offered to take me out for supper with her husband and brother so I wouldn't have to celebrate alone. To sweeten the deal she suggested BBQ food and I immediately took her up on the offer. Shortly after work we met at a new restaurant (open about 6 months now) called Sloppy Hoggs Roed Hus.

My pictures can't do it justice. The whole spread was awesome from the poutine like 'Slop', starter through the platter and ending with the peach pie. I can say with no hesitation that it is the best BBQ food in Edmonton and possibly the best BBQ I have ever had. It is a must try and I'm looking forward to going back many times.

While leaving the Kingsway area I got a text from my buddy Jeff D to go see the new Rock movie "Snitch" up at North Edmonton Cinema. I readily agreed and jumped in my car hitting the theater 5 minutes before the show started. I grabbed my ticket and then texted Jeff who was still on his way. Eventually, he arrived at the theater and as we texted each other to meet in the lobby a strange thing happened. It turned out I went to the wrong theater. It was a typical Stuart move. If you ask Chrissy she will tell you that I am a complete idiot with place names and stores. For me, every grocery store is Safeway, every crap country singer is Kenny Chesney, every theater is the one in Clareview, and Stadium and Colisuem LRT stations mean nothing - they are the place where they play football and the place where they play hockey. Jeff was cool about it all and we each watched the same movie in cinemas 20 minutes apart. It was a somewhat fitting end to the day.

Reflecting on a day like today, or week like the past, I feel fortunate to have such a caring family and to have so many great friends. I don't say it enough but I appreciate you all. Thank you.

BTW - I originally started this blog to document my 31st year. After that first year I just decided to keep posting and with the odd short sabbatical I have now been blogging for 3 straight years and have produced 233 posts. Who would have thunk it.