Happy (kind of) birthday, B.

Today is kind of my niece's sixth birthday. She's a Feb. 29 baby, so she doesn't really get a birthday this year. Apparently, she had a good day. She called me on skype to show me the play she was putting on with her dolls.

I'm completely out of practice at getting up and going to work every week, and last week left me exhausted. I haven't done much this weekend and I'm still tired.

One thing I did do this weekend was repaint the ceiling in the shower downstairs. You see, Wanda is out of town - she went to see B for her birthday - and the paint on one part of the shower was bubbling and peeling.

Yesterday morning, I sanded down the bubbling paint and re-mudded it. I did a second coat last night.


This morning, I sanded it down again and did the first coat. An hour or so later, I did the second coat. A little later, I did the third coat.

I painted it blue - it had been white before, but I had blue paint left over from the rest of the bathroom, so blue it was.
In the picture above, the flat-ish part is the part that was bubbling.

Other than that, my day was spent watching hockey and playing on the internet.

I have to say that I've watched more of these Olympics than I have of all previous Olympics combined. I've never really gotten into the Olympics before, but this time I've been fascinated by a lot of the events. I still find moguls incredible - how can anyone's knees take that? I'm far more interested in events that involve hurtling down a hill at high speeds than by those that take place indoors.

It will be odd not to have the TV turned to some sort of sporting event this week.

I don't really know how to wrap this up - I'm feeling pretty scattered. I'm going to get to bed earlier tonight in an attempt to start acclimatizing to going to work every day. I hope everyone has a good week.

Another post about boxing

I didn't get much done on the anti-procrastination project today - I did tidy the one bedroom a bit, but nothing serious.

This morning, I checked out the job listings and updated my resume on Monster and Workopolis. I went to the gym at lunch, then I spent the afternoon reading The Blind Side. I had started it last night, but the first chapter was very football-centric, so it took me a while to get into the book. Once I did, though, I somehow ended up reading the whole thing instead of doing anything constructive.

I finished just in time to leave for boxing. Today was the last class of 2009, so naturally it was a hard class - 16 stations, 8 of them punch outs, 4 of them driving forward punch outs.

A punch out is basically two or more students taking turns on one heavy bag. Usually we do step in/step out punch outs - i.e. you step in, hit the bag in the appropriate combination, then step out - or standing in punch outs - i.e. you stand in and hit the bag constantly.

Today (as a special Christmas treat), we had 4 driving forward punch outs. Normally, the bag hangs straight down (at a 90 degree angle from the ceiling). In a driving forward punch out, you walk forward as you punch until the bag is at a 45 degree angle to the ceiling. That doesn't sound too difficult, but it means you are hitting an 80 pound bag while trying to keep it from shifting too far left or right. It's a challenge.

This week, we had two people per bag, so out of a three minute punch out, we each were punching for one and a half minutes.

When I got home tonight, I discovered that for the first time ever, I have a blister on my knuckles from boxing. I blame the punch outs, but the truth is that I probably had my hand wrap bunched up or something.

In level one and two, the sessions were very predictable - after I'd done the class a couple of times, I knew what to expect each week. Level three seems to change every time.

Seeing Red

So today is Wanda's birthday.

I started the day by washing all of my sheets and my duvet cover. I then put them all in the dryer (with a few pieces of clothing) and ... it turned into a giant ball of clothes inside my duvet cover. It was funny, but it took a long time to detangle. I split it into two loads and dried them that way.

Our cousin Daniel came over for supper and to watch the game.

Well, let me back up.

I come from Saskatchewan. Saskatchewan has a football team - the Roughriders. Rider football is a very, very big deal in Saskatchewan. Rider fans are probably the most rabid fans in the Canadian Football League.

The CFL final (the Grey Cup) was tonight ... and last week the Riders won the western final, so they were playing in the Grey Cup against the Montreal Alouettes. This year, the game was in Calgary, which is an 8 hour drive from Regina. The stadium was packed with Riders fans. It was essentially like playing at home.

In fact, I heard rumours that a grocery store in Calgary ran out of watermelons and had to special order more. (Riders fans hollow them out and wear them as hats. No, wearing a watermelon as a hat in Calgary in November doesn't seem like a good idea to me either.)

The Alouettes were heavily favoured by everyone other than the fans, but the Riders took an early lead. By halftime, they were up by 2 touchdowns.

Starting the second half, the Alouettes started to catch up. The last few minutes, they were two points down. With five seconds left, they tried for a field goal and missed.

Zero seconds left on the clock.

And ... a penalty was called because the Riders had too many men on the field. The Alouettes went for the field goal again and they got it. The Riders lost by one point ... after leading for the entire game.

This is why I don't usually watch football.