In a blink of an eye, we’re at the end of June and summer is here. Weather’s been a bit nuts here with a crazy heat wave/drought and then the last few days has been raining and much more comfortable. A little update on the Montreal confinement situation or well, we’re pretty much deconfined at this point although still get cases everyday so you can decide how you feel about that situation. Of course, with this ease of situation, my work situation is getting back to pre-COVID normal soon, which I’m not too sure how I feel about it but I don’t make the call so I just have to follow through with it. Although, today’s announcement (I’m writing this the day before posting so I don’t know yet if its going to happen) is supposed to make wearing face masks mandatory on public transit so that’s definitely rather reassuring.
COVID-19 is part of our lives now for over 3 months now so it has to be addressed before we head into other things that has gone on this past month! Let’s check it out!
Nike Training Club – 4 Week Program
I’ve slacked off during the entire lockdown phase and really struggled to get back on track with working out. The weather is warming up and hiking is starting back up (as you will see later on) which also requires a little bit of outside training to make sure my muscles are strengthened and build a bit of endurance to do the harder trails so I’m getting back on track with another 4 week program on Nike Training Club to kick things off. This time is different from before as I’ve added in the running option.
As the month ends, I should be getting back. Thing is, the weather turned so nice that I ended up being the most motivated to go running as you can see above so I didn’t stick to the program a whole lot but at least it made me want to be more active in other ways like pool workouts and hiking and running while still adding one of the workouts from the program to get some weights or body weight exercises in. At this point, its more of a guideline than following the program and its in the final week.
Movies and Tea Podcast
As I’m getting a rhythm of getting our archive on Youtube for Movies and Tea on a weekly basis, if you haven’t caught up with the first season of Movies and Tea, you can start catching the episodes every Monday. The general idea now is that while we get through Season 4, I’ll be updating the archive of Season 1 every week until we start up Season 5 and that will be uploaded when it goes live so that we’re not always behind. Currently updated to Season 1, Episode 5 with our big Resident Evil Franchise episode.
With that said, I’m not going to go share all the episodes of Movies and Tea posted on Youtube but here’s the latest one above so that you can go check it out and subscribe to our channel if you enjoy it!
Hiking: Mont Cathedrale (Carre) & Marais du Kingsbury
First hike done and the recap of the hike is already posted so you can check it out HERE.
Summer Game Fest
We might have lost E3 this year but Summer Game Fest is the next best thing with a bunch of conferences spanning over May to August. We’re a bit late to the party so missed out most of the May events but June included the Playstation 5 reveal and conference (Recap), EA Play Live (Recap) as well as PC Gaming Show 2020 and a new show called Future Games Show (Recap). We didn’t get around to doing the recap for PC Gaming Show and now its already weeks later so a bit late to do it however, you can check out our thoughts on the other shows. There was a bunch of other things like developer showcases which present the new Crash Bandicoot game titled Crash Bandicoot 4: It’s About Time.
Cute Kitty Pic
That’s it for this June update! I’ll share some garden updates next time. I just forgot to get all my pictures taken.
Publication Date: April 7, 2016
Genre: Science-Fiction/Post-Apocalypse/Zombies
We’re celebrating Zombie Awareness Monthwith a mini tour of Undead Ultra by Camille Picott! Read on for details, an exclusive excerpt, and a chance to win a $5 Amazon gift card!
Synopsis
It’s life or death…
…and two hundred miles to run.
Can she survive the zombies and save her son?
When the virus hits, nobody is prepared. Society collapses and Kate’s son doesn’t have a way out of his dorm. She has to go get him, but the roads aren’t safe, and the government has blockades.
Everything is at a standstill.
It will be the race of her life.
Kate loves running. She’s gone from marathons to ultramarathons and knows what it takes to run a hundred miles at a time, but this is different.
This is twice as far as she’s ever run…
…and finding food is a problem.
Is it even possible?
You’ll love this unique take on the apocalypse because the struggle is unlike anything you’ve read before.
Zombie apocalypse stories are a bit overused in the current landscape whether its books (or movies). However, Undead Ultra takes on a different take from the fast-paced style to taking the characters on an ultramarathon of over 200 miles for these two running best friends to rescue their kids from their different locations as they realize that cars attract too much attention and are dangerous to use in the current zombie apocalypse world that has overrun the country. Packed with a lot of unknowns and their expertise in running and the limited supplies, they go on this insane run that tests them both mentally and physically to not only survive the length of the run and weather but also their biggest unknown factors, zombies.
There’s a lot to love about Undead Ultra. The execution of the whole story is done incredibly well. It balances the zombie threat in a myriad of different encounters as well as the limited amount of people they meet on this run, some good and some bad as well as sharing their own darker stories with each other that they may not have shared previously. At the same time, they strategize on supplies and the different phases that they go through during this ultramarathon, probably something that not a whole lot of people are incredibly familiar with in the first place. The zombie element brings in the bad ass character elements and builds the two characters as they harden to having to fight them. The story element gives both characters a lot of insight on their past and builds them up so that the readers can know them more and connect with them. The last element of ultramarathon is simply a survival element. Its both strategy as well as survival and sheds some light on the whole concept of ultramarathon and how tough it is and the mental exercise it really is. All of these balance well together to put together this thrilling run.
Undead Ultra features primarily the two characters, Kate and Frederico. Kate wants to go find her son Carter at his unversity where she has news and communication that he is still managing to stay alive but danger is moving closer and closer. She is the main voice of the story. However, her running companion and best friend Frederico is something of a rock and has his own hardships which include some alcohol abuse and trying to find his daughter on the way as well. These two characters have a lot of depth to them as the story unfolds further with each of their conversations and especially Kate’s memories of the past as well as Frederico’s recounts of his past. As they go through their ordeals, their characters build with the knowledge of their past as well as their present actions and decisions.
There’s a lot to love about Undead Ultra. Its a fun read and a page-turner. Its incredibly well-executed and has well-developed characters as well. While the zombie apocalypse landscape might seem familiar and there isn’t a lot to change about it, somehow the execution of sending the characters on foot for an ultramarathon-esque rescue mission is one that sounds crazy but makes all the difference in making this story stand out.
Camille Picott has been writing Stories from the End of the World since she figured out how to turn on her family’s Apple IIe computer and wrangle a floppy disk into the drive. She loves nothing more than penning an epic action scene or pushing a character to his limits.
When Camille isn’t writing or spending time with her family, she loves to run absurdly long distances. It’s not unusual to find her hitting the trail in her running shoes long before the sun rises or cranking out miles (and stories!) on her treadmill desk. She considers sleep optional and largely overrated.
Welcome to February! We just passed through Valentine’s Day yesterday which I spent with my mom for dinner and then went to do some errands and wrapped up the night preparing for a podcast recording and writing and gaming. Suffice to say that I didn’t celebrate but then I’m hoping that you did enjoy the ongoing Valentine’s double feature celebrations going on here. Its been a packed first half of February whether its personal stuff to settle or working (yay to overtime) or trying to get everyone to join into Ultimate 2000s Blogathon and much more. Its been a packed 15 days!
Let’s see what went on!
MY FIRST 5KM – MONTREAL SOUTERRAIN
While I did get forced into doing the 5km and it was a painful experience especially afterwards because I hadn’t trained for it. However, I did a pretty awesome time, coming in 10 minutes faster than I initially expected. Time was: 35:21.9 . Not too shabby,right? Anyways, I’ll be getting back to working out soon since I need to fit into dresses for two upcoming weddings in 2019. And I’m sure that after my good time without training, my friend is going to try to get me to do more 5km runs. I’m not opposed to them because it was quite fun but then running inside through the underground and running outside are two different things completely.
CHINESE NEW YEAR 2019 – YEAR OF THE PIG
February 5th was Chinese New Year and we did some nice decorations different from last year and went crazy looking for flowers to decorate. 5 flower shops but at least now, we know where to buy some flowers near-ish to our neighborhood. Yay to discovering new things, right? Its the year of the pig so Piglet and Pua made its appearance onto the shelf outside of my office as piggy decorations. I also picked up some new fake flowers from Michael’s for the tall floor vase to give it some color.
VALENTINE’S MARATHON
For the first time in all the years that I’ve done the Valentine’s Marathon, this is the first time its extending past the 14th. Because of the theme this year with the Netflix alphabet, I am going to continue through this until the end of February to finish out the alphabet. There are some fun changes due to lack of choices. Anyways, point is, I have a nice little tentative schedule to pair up with the blogathon as they overlap and be able to finish off the Valentine’s Marathon with the entire full alphabet runthrough. I’m pretty excited. I’ve picked a nice variety of subgenres so it still feels very fun.
ULTIMATE 2000s BLOGATHON
Sign up has ended as of last Monday. If you are just seeing this and want to join, you can drop me and email and we can see if we can get it arranged. However, we will be emailing out notices to participants on their posting date. It starts on the coming Monday! Time flies, right? I believe we have over 3 weeks of posts so its going to be a fun time because there are some nice additions this year, some new blogs that haven’t joined in before and then returning ones and some other pieces aside from written reviews. I love seeing our participants getting creative! As usual, I will have a page ready to go on the menu so you can catch up on any posts you missed on either here or Drew’s Movie Reviews.
If you haven’t followed Drew yet, then you definitely should HERE. My blogathon co-host is absolutely fantastic!
MONTREAL SNOWSTORM
We are currently in the aftermath of the snowstorm which means sitting here waiting for the city and boroughs to clear out the snow. The day after the snowstorm in the morning to work was when this photo was snapped. As you can see, not much as been clear and well, walking on the streets is because the sidewalks were pretty much non-existent or just snow-covered ice which is almost more dangerous. The city whether Montreal or suburbs have been doing a pretty slow job in general this year. As I’m writing this post, its raining outside so bye-bye to snow but welcome rain on ice and giant slush puddles at all corners of the street. You know…the fun stuff, right? 😉
However, I can’t complain too much because we are incredibly lucky at our home. I went out to shovel at 11:30pm and the city was clearing their second round of snow and the very nice guy plowing saw me, the crazy lady that shovels in the middle of the night, and decided to move his plow up my driveway and cleared it all including the path. Its the first time its happened to me so I was pretty shocked in a really happy way. Although, when we woke up in the morning, it was so very tall that I had to climb the mountain at the foot of the driveway to head to the bus stop. But we are also super lucky because my neighbor has a snow-blower and he does our driveway when we get storms or lends it to my husband.
Cute Kitty Easter Gnome Pic
**Pictures taken at Winners Homesense at Quartier Dix30**
Thats it for this Weekly Adventures!
What have you been up to?
Instead of boring you with my little details, this time, I spaced it out deliberately to two weeks. I had nothing to report back with so it just makes sense to get this in now with a little bit more activities. This time around, its slowed down quite a bit. I’m trying to clear up my schedule a little and just relax, catch up on some sleep and find back some energy. Plus, I need to get ahead with the blog so its all a work in progress. We are also trying to get the house in order and looking nice enough for any relatives that come and want to visit 😉
1) Second visit to Poutineville
As mentioned in the last Weekly Adventures, we went on our second visit and I met even more of my fiance’s friends. Crazy stuff, eh? This wedding, I tell you. Its making life colorful. And I mean, his friends are really colorful like their personality and their thoughts are hard to catch up with.
Anyways, I finally had the poutine at Poutineville. Its not so much real as I wasn’t sure about the gravy so they suggested the Italian meat sauce instead. Its kind of what we call Michigan-style (instead of hot dogs, we have fries and cheese).
Chicken & Bacon Poutine with Dairy-free Cheese and Meat Sauce
Then, like the last time, a visit to Chocolate Favoris.
Gelato choices
Sorbet choices
Ice Cream with Hazelnut Milk Chocolate Dip
Banana Mango Strawberry Sorbet
Its turning into something of a tradition. I just might want to refrain from Poutineville for the next few weeks until after the big day. So that, all my hard work is not put to waste, right?
2) Nike Re-Run
Last weekend, Nike Running app sent me an email telling me that on Saturday, a run that we did would give us the chance to have a Nike Re-run video. Now, that sounds awesome and what’s great about having this blog is I love trying out new little things. So, I got in an afternoon run on Saturday even though I was so not feeling like it. But I did it and kept to my workout goals. I was thinking that maybe I wouldn’t get it because the run wasn’t all that great. My time was a little meh. But on Sunday, I ended up getting the email prompt to get the video. We got to choose the time log and pick whichever one. My routes are more or less the same. It varies in direction, side of the street or going through the park or whatever small streets. I actually need to map out a new path to explore the other side of the new neighborhood I moved in. Still, here is what I yield.
That is my fastest time I’ve done so far. I haven’t quite beat that time yet as an average.
Oh right, and I run against traffic because it feels safer for me and the lights don’t change when I plan on crossing the road or whatever. I just like to run with as little interruptions as possible. On a side note, a few days later, I ran my fastest km…but still, this is my best average pace. Lets hope it improves 😉
3) Quantico’s Set
If anyone is interested in seeing the new series Quantico, they have been shooting in Old Montreal right in front of the old Royal Bank building. They had done filming on and off for 2-3 weeks at least. It looks really impressive and my guess is that its going to be the series headquarters or something. The series already has me intrigued. Its right up my alley of what I usually watch for TV series and with it being filmed so nearby, it has me even more interested 🙂
4) Vist at Seigneurie de l’ile d’Orleans (and some spontaneous stops)
We bought a voucher for a visit to this garden at l’ile d’Orleans a while back and its edging near expiry and we even missed the peak season to see the lavender gardens but we did buy it so we took a little day trip out to l’ile d’Orleans and visited a rather green garden 😉 I apologize but I only have my fiance’s pictures. My pictures haven’t quite made it in the computer yet. However, I will be doing a full post on this if the pictures do turn out good. I think I did some artsy stuff playing with the focus and whatnot. Not sure how it turned out.
L’ile d’Orleans in summer is definitely different from winter. It was full of people. We did end up stopping at a newly opened La Nougaterie which is a place that I love which makes amazing soft nougats. Apparently, they just moved to this location for two weeks and I caught it completely spontaneously. We bought some little nougats and had some tasting. If you haven’t tasted these nougats, you have to. I look forward to getting it at the arts and crafts show for their Christmas flavored one. Its like heaven in my mouth.
The last stop we made before we left was at Cassis Mona et Filles which is a winery that focuses on blackcurrant wines and liqueurs. They have a really awesome recipe using one of their Fruité liqueur and the syrup based one along with club soda and fruits that makes THE BEST sangria I’ve ever tasted. We, of course, got that. They also sell some more dry wines like their Port. I almost couldn’t swallow that one because it was rather dry.
5) Garden Updates
Its almost time to close the gardens but we had a surge of heat wave and my plants are all confused. Its good though. We’re getting our big batch of strawberries and raspberries. I’m considering to get a blueberry plant for next year. I have a bit of space next to all these berries but it might not work so well because sun doesn’t hit that corner as much. Anyways, next year’s projects aren’t anything to discuss now. Look at those strawberries and raspberries 🙂
Raspberry plant
Strawberry plant
Confused plant doesn’t get any more than my clematis. It has the hardest time staying alive in that spot. I was starting to think about moving it again but didn’t know where just yet. Then the heat wave hit and its having a ton of buds. I sure hope the weather holds up so that it can bloom. I haven’t seen one flower bloom on it yet. Better late than never, right? 😉
Clematis
Finally, we are seeing signs of the fall chrysanthemums coming out. Its budding and about to bloom. The big one is from the previous owners and my little ones last year, only one survived but its more than enough with whats there now since the marigolds are still blooming.
6) What’s Next…
Netflix A-Z: I-L movies (next two weeks)
The Classics Adventures: book review and corresponding movie review
Alaska Cruise: Day 5 & 6
PRIORITY: Baking Through Disney: recipe & next movie
That’s it for this time’s Weekly Adventures! Short and sweet! 🙂 Happy Friday, my lovelies! Enjoy your weekend!
I’ve been a tad on radio silence about my own life after the whole getting sick ordeal. I already don’t have great health so when I get sick, it takes time to get better. And then, work gets busy and I hurt my toe so things have been interesting. Suffice to say, I had to change up my routine that I had worked on in the last month to build but that’s okay. Although not a whole lot went on, there was still a few memorable moments to share.
Of course, there were some frustrations. For one, I mentioned this on Twitter about Netflix changing their whole setup structure. I’m feeling a little conned because I now cannot see what movies will expire. At least they fixed whatever stopped me from seeing my entire list on Netflix. I’m still a little angry at it but they’ve been updating some stuff I like so its made me feel a little less bothered by the whole thing. Not that I’m not displeased. Then I had a Paypal issue that probably was from a phishing email pretending to be from Netflix and that caused some scam on my Paypal account. Thankfully, it will be reversed. Finally, its the whole roof business that my mom’s place has. I’m just not understanding how that company had defected shingles so its ruined before the warranty period and there’s a whole settlement thing but to get it, I need to climb on my roof and walk all over it and take pictures. There was one part that said to count the shingles that were done. Excuse me…I’m not counting every shingle on my roof. Plus, after I send it in, they will still send someone to check it. Then just send the dude in the first place, no? I just don’t understand…
Done with my rant, moving onto the actual Weekly Adventures from the past month! I’m giving you mostly highlights so buckle up and have some fun!! 🙂
1) Running/Training
Being sick and hurting my foot meant that I was off running for 2 weeks. My idea is to not further the injury so that I couldn’t even walk. I think that’s pretty fair 😉 I did do upper body workouts to keep in line with training a little so I didn’t just sit around. And had to put some foam roller and yoga after the first week of recovering when I could. Sitting around all day just meant a lot of hip pain so it helped.
Fortunately 2 weeks ago, I got back into running again with a little 4 mile run which felt tons of good, especially after being on the road to Toronto and then eating a lot so that night I headed to the treadmill at the hotel. It felt pretty great. Then this past week, I went out with one of my girl friends and her husband for a jog/bike thing and did a nice 10km run. My time isn’t great and it was baking hot even at 8:30-9am in the morning. But point is, its the first time I ran my whole run instead of taking brisk walking breaks.
2) Garden update
Some win and losses this month. We had a little issue with the cucumber plant but I soon realized it was because of the heat and not watering it enough. I’ve gone back to the wine bottle watering system to keep it moist while I’m away at work so that when I get home, I get take care of it. Same goes for the raspberry plant. Strawberry plant is extremely abundant BUT the little bunny has a really nice eating schedule and just nibble them away whenever they get anything close to ripe. And its just cute as a button that I don’t really get that mad anymore…
Strawberry Plant
Raspberry plant
Cucumber
Romaine Lettuce
Flowers!!
Second round of romaine lettuce is coming out. The iceberg ones aren’t quite growing again. I think we need to figure out the way to harvest it properly. Two out of six regrew a second round while 5 out of 6 is growing again for romaine.
My pink and white flowers are growing but thats really just a guideline when they did the seeds because there’s yellow and purple flowers also. I don’t really mind. They are super nice.
Aside from that, I spent Quebec’s birthday gardening like a crazy lady and the weekend before last pulling weeds and trimming ferns and fixing up the garden beds and they are ALL DONE! Sure, its just maintenance now but its a whole lot nicer than before.
How are your gardens doing?
3) Toronto/Gatineau Weekend Getaway
On the last weekend of June, the fiance and I went off for our weekend getaway to Toronto. It wasn’t exactly super planned and we just did a lot of practical shopping like we needed to get him new glasses. I had already gotten mine last month and I don’t even think I had posted a picture of it. I mean, we went to Canadian Tire to get car parts. Like I said, practical. We did make a little trip to Vaughan Mills to do a little shopping.
Make your own Minions at the Build a Bear Workshop in Vaughan Mills
Other than stocking up on Teavana and getting some yellow tea, which I have yet to try, the best buy was going to Disney outlet and finding the last Miss Bunny plush toy to add to my collection and on sale!! You should’ve seen me! I was this short girl frantically waving my fiance over to grab it from the shelf because I couldn’t reach it. It was pretty funny…and probably embarrassing, but I didn’t really care 😉
Casino Lac-Leamy
Aside from that, we took a little ending thing to redeem our voucher that was going to expire at the Casino Lac-Leamy in Gatineau for one of the restaurants called Banco Bistro. I’m going to do a recap on the 3 restaurants we tried on this trip. Probably in one post. Since I still have a ton of Seattle and Alaska ones to do.
4) Starting Zumba classes
One of the reasons my running has somewhat slowed down is also that, I started Zumba classes with my girl friend (that I did the run with). We got a sweet Groupon deal for $30 for 10 classes within a month. Its pretty close to home and so far, after these two weeks, we’ve tried out 3 instructors and we’re having a lot of fun.
Zumba is really feel-good, full of cardio and dynamic body weights of some sort. Its energetic and can get pretty intense. My only issue is that my body doesn’t function that way in like the whole shaking your chest and moving my hips…questions marks float around my head. Haha! Still, I’m slowly picking up these routines and its a ton of fun! We’re definitely thinking of continuing to do this.
Have you done Zumba?
5) Our first hike this year: Mont St-Hilaire
The weekend before last, we took an afternoon and went to do our first hike. We were supposed to go off to Quebec City area to visit a garden but other priorities took over in the morning and we ended up heading out in the afternoon to Mont St-Hilaire and catching a nice hike up one of the trails.
Mont St-Hilaire
The view was awesome and while there was a good bit of people going, it was pretty spaced out so there was never a lot of traffic and we got to enjoy the peace and quiet in the nature.
Chipmunks and toads were our main companions 😉
6) Festival season in Montreal!
Francofolies and Jazz Festival both came and left the city. We just stepped into Just For Laughs Festival and the last weekend was the Percussions Festival.
Percussions Festival
We met up with some friends and checked out both of these events. The main highlight for us in Just For Laughs Festival was the food trucks.
1st truck: Lucille’s
My dinner: Lobster Roll ($16)
2nd truck: Le Smoking BBQ & Ribs Poutine
3rd Truck: Zoe’s
Fries & Watermelon Lemonade
Last stop: (not a truck) Havre-aux-glaces with Raspberry & Strawberry Sorbet
I’ve only tried one before so we were down to try some delicious food and we definitely did. There wasn’t a lot of food trucks, at least not much I could eat from because of food allergies but the ones I tried were great.
Any festivals hitting where you are?
7) Fantasia Festival 2015 begins TODAY!
Following right along that topic up there, Fantasia International Film Festival starts today! I’m not heading over for any movies today but the advanced screening of Ant-man is probably the highlight to kick off the festival. I didn’t even want to bother with getting tickets since last year’s Guardians of the Galaxy ran out in a second.
I posted up my list on Saturday after getting the tickets. If you missed it, check out the run down HERE! I’m still on the fence about two movies which show at the same time (Synchronicity and Momentum) so I might just take a day off in general for that one. I’m pretty pleased with the line up. Head over there and tell me what you think. There’s a ton of horror and I’m sure all of you have better insight than I do for that genre 🙂 I do have to head over to pick up my tickets today so I’ll see how everything is.
As for posts, I hope to get reviews up within 2 days after I see it. It might change since some are late showings and I’d get home late especially on week nights when I need to prepare for work the next morning. If you aren’t here for movies, I’ll try to keep a good bit of variety going on here. I’ve gotten back in cooking and baking so hopefully more recipes and all those backlogged posts need to go up.
Anyone else going to Fantasia?
8) Upcoming….
Seattle Day 2
Fantasia Film reviews
Toronto/Gatineau food
Baking and Foods (recipes)
And to wrap it all up, a song that I’m totally obsessed with. Its just so happy!! 🙂
This week is all about being calm and quiet. My mind not so much but activities, yes. Trust me, its a good thing. With a breakdown (physical or mental) feeling like its looming in the background earlier in the week, I tried to take it easy and find some routine back in life so that I can avoid it. But, the title already says it all…I lost that battle in a really really bad way eventually…
Still, lets take a look at this week.
1) Running Update: Week 3
The rain, my friends! Its been my absolute enemy. I used to do dragonboat so drizzle, I could work with but its just been downpours. I ended up doing my Tuesday run around my house. Like I literally ran up and down the stairs then circles around the dining table and my den and my bed then back and forth in the basement, etc then repeat. I was jogging doing chores with one hand because I needed to have the Running App track my movement with the other hand. It was crazy and I probably looked ridiculous but it was done in the end.
The second thing I’m learning (again) is commitment. Training is a choice and a dedication. One that means you trade off certain things and rearrange life to do this because it means something. Just like any goal, right? So with that said, despite the stupid migraine plaguing me on Friday and I eventually just took the night off after starting to feel a little sick. I actually felt better on Saturday and went for my run, which turned out to be a huge mistake. You’ll see… especially since I managed to go do groceries and run a few errands before realizing my body was not too happy.
2) Updating the Appearance
I’ve talked about this for two years at least. My stuff on the side bar was from 2013! 2013!!!! Can you believe that? That’s when I started losing touch with blogging a little but this week, I sat down and took care of it. Change the header picture last week and then updated a few things and rearranged stuff around. Now it’s better! I’m not changing the theme since I just changed it last year or something. I’m happy with where this is all going. My indexes are all back up to date and will be updated on a weekly basis as promised and trust me, that Disney baking project! I’ll get that Snow White recipe done! 🙂 I literally have all the ingredients and even a little more for a little baking extra (once my energy level increases).
3) Garden Update
There was a lot of rain in the past week. I mean, a lot. So, the good part was my garden was so alive. Everything grew like crazy.
Lettuce after all the rain
Cucumber Plant
Ground Cherry
We’re starting to harvest the lettuce and its delicious. Both the iceberg and romaine are awesome. The cucumber plant is having some flowers now so its all good. And the ground cherries are looking lovely. My issue is that last year, we had that but it never ripened before it fell. So I’m hoping to figure out why that happens and fix it.
4) A Little Visitor (who could be my strawberry eater)
Can you see it?
I went out for a little bit of fresh air and to catch some pics for the garden update. And who knew that I turned around to look at the mess of moving over a plant to free up space for my raspberry eventually and something brown moved around in my peripheral vision, kind of. Its a little bunny. I have neighborhood rabbits. I know that because they hang out right in my garden here. I’ve been suspecting the rabbits are the ones responsible for eating ALL of my strawberries but I guess I can’t get angry when its a cute little one like that…
5) Being Sick with the Not So Forgotten Gastroentritis
Being sick sucks. We can all agree with that. Its been a while I haven’t had gastro not to mention one that took a billion years to build up to the actual symptoms resulting in my taking a day off work today (as I write this after sleeping and lounging around the entire day). It has not been easy. From migraines to realizing I had a minor fever on Saturday and having slept 12 hours but still lasted into Sunday and then the fever tapering off and my date with the bathroom began for hours. It was memorable and painful and I just couldn’t work up the energy to go to work nor did I want to pass on whatever bug I had to my coworkers because I’m not that evil. Its taken me a whole day with some congee, a good amount of warm water, sitting around lounging in bed and watching Netflix and wondering if it was actually over.
As I write this up, I’m rebuilding my energy and my health because gastro is ridiculously damaging especially since I already have the underlying IBS so my digestive system is already bad. Either way, I don’t know how regular my posts will be this week. I have the content. I just need to write it and that takes energy that I’m not sure I have right now. So I apologize if things are a little slower here this week. Bear with me as I work hard to recover. Perhaps, I’ll take this opportunity to write about vacation since that takes a whole lot less time than reviews.
Upcoming:
Orange is the New Black Season 3 TV Binge
The Fault in Our Stars Book Review
Day in Seattle Vacation posts
That’s it for this weekly adventures! Stay Healthy!! 🙂
My Weekly Adventures (just like travel and vacation) will be a seasonal segment 😉 I go out a whole lot more in the summer as Montreal livens up a lot and has a ton of events. This year, May’s been a whirlwind so to kick this off is a special month long event of May along with some upcoming things you can expect. Reason for this is that: I know I’ve been taking it easy on here. I really needed a break to get my thoughts together and find some energy and motivation. Between moving and house stuff, its been quite hectic. Plus, I’ve been in and out of town during May. I haven’t spent one weekend at home. The fact that I’ve had even 5 posts going up scheduled (and that’s massively thanks to all those late nights doing contributions to other blogathons and segments on other awesome and amazing blogs).
Let’s check out the May insanity!!
1) Vacation to Seattle and Alaska
Our cruise ship parked offshore in Icy Point Strait
I did a post back at the end of April or early May before I headed off to vacation so some of you already know about it. My first cruise ever and after 11 days, over 2200 pictures from the trip. I’m going to be posting about those gradually over June but not last past vacations where I do a daily recap. That would be a massive post and I’ll only select the best of the best that represent the places I went to. I’ll also give a cruise recap on how I felt about this cruising experience on Norwegian and I have a little fun addition that I’m putting together in memory of the new acquaintances I had on the trip.
2) Ottawa Marathon Weekend
No, no! I didn’t do a marathon. Just like last year, I headed down with my friend who did the half marathon. This time, we also had a friend do the 10K so we hung out, shopped, ate and all that good stuff. It was pretty fun 🙂 We ate brunch at a place called Zak’s Diner which is rather delicious.
And due to strict budget after vacation, I went down to get some really good Rose Wines and a ridiculously expensive but I know is worth it sports bra at Victoria’s Secret. That’s pretty much what it was all about. I also got exposed to the 7 day TV event called 500 Questions and because I’m a nerd, I loved it. I’ll probably do a review of it since I came home and started tracking the episodes the week after.
3) Officially training for a 10K marathon!
I haven’t posted about workouts in a while. Ever since I talked about it a few months ago, I have gotten back into it and if the cruise was not only full of breathtaking sceneries, my downtime included a lot of working out. Going out to the marathon weekend, the night after, I downloaded the Nike Running app and set up the coaching program to train for a 10K. I’m not a runner so I’m ridiculously slow in pace. I only completed my first week and it looks like that up there. I’m on my second week right now and Montreal is having really shitty weather so its not exactly motivating but then, when I have these programs, I get really competitive. If weekly adventures doesn’t have anything else, it’ll be where I’ll be updating you on my progress.
The goal right now: 5K of some sort somewhere around Montreal and then end goal is 10K in Ottawa next year with a decent time.
Bring it on!!!
4) Wedding in Toronto
As exhausting as it was, my niece (don’t ask, I have a enormous and complicated family) got married over the weekend. I’ve never seen her before but family events are always fun, so I was my mom’s +1. On top of that, I had to go to get some new glasses because its way more worth it even with the gas prices being ridiculously high. It actually felt good to be the one in control of my own transportation in the past month. Anyways, the wedding was held in Markham at Angus Glen Golf Club and the venue was very nice along with some very good food. It started off up to the ceremony in a massive downpour but eventually cleared up a little before having a little drizzle again.
Other than seeing family and cousins, it really emphasized on seeing my cousin’s kids so yeah, more nephews mostly. Haha! I’m definitely starting to feel old. Still, it was a very fun time and that’s what is most important.
5) Gardening begins!!
Iceberg & Romaine Lettuce
Leek
Stevia
Pink and White Flowers Mix
Asparagus
Ground Cherry
Cucumber
Right after I got back from Alaska, I went to the greenhouse that I frequent and bought some gardening. Sowing seeds are not my forte so maybe that’s an adventure I’ll take some time to master. For now, we got these ones up there along with some Sweet Basil, Rosemary and Greek Oregano which is happily inside the house. My calla lily is also very good. I’ll have pictures of those next time 😉 Also, I had to buy another Clematis and Campanula because my lack of experience murdered those last year. This year, I’m giving a second shot at Ground Cherry and Stevia. With a little more experience, I’m hoping it’ll be better.
We’re keeping it simple this year: The focus is on less plants and weeding and organizing/maintaining the lawn to look better so its ready for bigger and better projects next year! I think thats a solid plan. What do you think?
6) Upcoming
TV Binge, Arcade Block Unboxing, Music Obsessions, more Movie Reviews (hopefully)….I have probably 10 posts sitting around waiting for me to write up. I just can’t get it all together and live life all at the same time while not being in town on the weekends when I normally draft the majority of my posts early mornings or late nights. I’m trying hard to get ahead of schedule instead of scrambling together a quick post the night before. It worked for a while where I was 2 days ahead so let’s hope I can get back on that pattern. Oh right, and that recipe I’m missing for the Disney Project is coming right up! It’ll be a lot more simple than I first planned but I just want to kickstart this one. The next one will be more epic, hopefully!
And that wraps up My Weekly Adventures segment for the May monthly issue. For now, I’ll leave you with this cute sign I saw in Ottawa.
If you made it to the end, welcome back to Weekly Adventures and be sure to drop by again next week for more! 🙂
There’s a few festivals coming up this weekend so it’ll be a fun post! I promise!
A mid week workout update? Just to show you how sporadic things are over here. I’ve been working hard to get all those posts I promised to bloggers on top of that. Lets hope I clear some stuff off my to-do list this weekend, while having family visit and fixing the house and trying to finish up a work deadline, oh, and those darling income taxes. Maybe thats why I’m writing about working out because thats been the most calming time. I don’t even need music to do it anymore.
As of the last post, the weather has been ridiculous. For one, we had a snowfall with a bit of accumulation last week so forget about my following that Walker to Runner routine. I had my first run two weekends ago because it was lovely weather and being the amateur I was, I went out running in a sweater and man, I heated up so quick. I did for a short 3km walk/run in the early evening. On that same day, I came home and did Day 1 of the Beach Body Challenge!
Today, I just finished Day 12! A little recap on progress. I’m starting to really feel how I haven’t been training doing push ups in a while so even 30 is slightly hitting hard, but I know I’m improving. Bicycles, crunches and planks are all just testing my abs and its muscular endurance. So far its been pretty good. 2 mins planks near the slightly shaky phase. I’m not a huge fan of tricep dips as they are my weakness so its good to get back into doing those, same goes for wall squats. I can’t imagine Day 14 coming up and I have to do a minute of those. Burpees are pretty tough too. I never had to do 50 in one go so thats the biggest challenge. Aside from that, I like the cardio inserts with butt kicks, skaters, jumping jacks and high kicks. Tiring and refreshing at the same time 🙂 So far, it seems that I feel like its a bit more promising on me completing this. Thats already a pretty good start!
As the weather warmed up and the snow went away, rain stopped falling and chilly winds moved away a little, Saturday cleared up and it was a lovely day. I mean, it was a no jackets day pretty much or have a jacket but don’t zip up type of day. After all the house errands were done, it was early afternoon and I went out for a quick jog and to get some images in for the #RunWithMe event thats going on in Tribesports. I sent them in and here’s my GIF that defines me as a runner. Credits to my boyfriend for being a champ and walking behind me and snapping random shots 🙂
Isn’t that pretty cool? Now, what is your running story?
Maybe you’d like to join into the Run With Me campaign and get your own little GIF to motivate yourself and other runners. Click on the image to get the instructions on where to send your images and they’ll do this for you 🙂 Other than my best friend and my boyfriend, Tribesports has been immense at keeping me motivated with everything. If you are on Tribesports, add me! By the way, thats my Twitter contact there but I’m @kimtranquildreams on TS community 😉
I’ve only done two jogs in 10 days but thats already better than last year’s 2 jogs in 3 months. I’m really seeing the appeal of it. I’m ver much still a beginner at this and I’ll figure out what works best for it but no doubt, its a amazing feeling and I look forward to training to be a better runner. As the weather warms up and my lungs can deal better with it, I’ll be getting a bit more intense. Right now, I’ll take it a little easier and build up slowly 🙂
Things are definitely getting back on track with my work out motivation after a month of break. I’m ready to take on this summer!
Here’s to running more and building a better balanced lifestyle. Its only the first step. I’ll be back in 2 weeks with another update probably! 🙂
What are your workout strengths and weaknesses? Are you a runner? Are there exercises you absolute love or hate doing?
Tranquil Dreams 