An astronaut

I know Jay already posted this, but I wanted to as well. It just shows me how much we listen to our mothers. She's always told us, "You can do anything you put your mind to". Jay's a rocket scientist, he's built his own canoe, and now he's pursuing astronaut-ship.

Hee hee.

Dear Canadian Space Agency,

I am applying in pursuit of my dream to become an astronaut. My peak mental and physical conditioning will allow me to not only survive but to tame the very wildness of outer-space for the betterment of all Canada-kind.

All of my education and training has been in preparation for this moment, to answer my country’s call for spacemen. I have completed my Master’s degree in Aerospace Engineering, so my natural mental acuity has been supremely trained and honed with the concepts of aerodynamics, robotics and space systems. Physicality is certainly an area where I am no wimp, for camping, hockey, and ultimate frisbee have honed this body of mine to the point where I have been compared to a Greek god.

Perseverance, tenacity, dedication, charismatic, genius, future Prime-Minister of Canada; all of these words, and more, have been used to describe yours truly. Whether I am captaining the University of Toronto Free Flight Glider Team or leading my ultimate frisbee team to yet another victory, I always demand the best from my teammates and myself. My father has described me as my own biggest critic, and I am, but yet I see no flaws. Perfect candidate, check!

End Letter.

Morning Glory!

Today my first morning glory bloomed. I'm so happy! I'm growing morning glories, and tomatoes, and mini sunflowers on the balcony.

Some successful basil... and my not so successful rosemary. - Mary

Penguins

Penguins are a British biscuit - like a chocolate wafer. Our friend James Ramage taught us how to make them super tasty: bite a tiny bit off of two diagonal corners and sip tea through the rest like a straw then put it in your mouth really quickly as it dissolves into warm, chocolatey goodness.

Another fun thing about penguins is they have these great penguin jokes on the wrappers.

Esther brought us some penguins from the UK recently. Here are some penguin jokes to share our penguin joy:

What's black and white, black and white, black and white?
- A penguin rolling down a hill

What's black and white and red?

- A penguin with a sunburn

Where does a penguin store money?

- In a snowbank

What do you need to see a glacier 20 miles away?

- Good ice-sight

What do penguins have for lunch?

- Ice bergers

Why Women Run

That's the name of a book Melissa lent me recently - she's been cleaning up their house to make room for BP (Baby Peron). I think the book is a compilation of essays by women runners on the topic of why they run. Just a guess.

Sometimes I ask myself that very question - why do I run? Or, more commonly, in the middle of running, I think desperately, "Why am I running?!!!" Especially on Saturday mornings - when I wake up early, without much energy - and proceed to spend the limited energy reserves I have, dripping with sweat along the canal.

Early in Melissa's pregnancy she cut her running down to 5k then down to walking. She was a bit discouraged about that so I told her I would make sure I keep running while she's pregnant. My own little "Run for Melissa".

When I started out my run this morning it was the perfect morning - just like cottage mornings growing up. There was a cool breeze and the water was perfectly still and you could smell summer in the air.

I passed two asian women with big straw hats fishing in the canal. They were putting their fish in an empty Tostitos bag. I thought, now isn't that practical. Why taunt the fish and keep them alive in a little bucket of water when you're just going to eat them for breakfast anyway? The Tostito bag jumped at me when I ran past it. Yikes.

I thought a lot about the dim sum I'd eat for breakfast later on with Carla. That kept me going on my run I think.

I also passed an older woman probably about 50 or so running along. She was good. I thought, I'm going to run like that when I'm older. I'm going to still be running. I thought of the verse, let us run with perseverance the race that is before us...

I think that's why I run.

Mary

Through the eyes of a tourist

Our friend Esther has just visited us from the UK for 10 days, and what an adventure we had. There is something about entertaining out-of-country guests that makes me so absolutely Canadian and so absolutely thrilled with Ottawa. We showed Esther around town, then the best part...we took her on a huge road trip with our friend Edem from Ghana! Maryann had to work, so I chauffered the two ladies to Peterborough, Toronto, Burlington, Niagara Falls, and then on the weekend, we all went to Montreal!

In Toronto, I did something I haven't done in years...I went up the CN Tower. I loved it !!! Hahaha, we did the whole thing: the glass floor, the sky pod, the cheesy adventure ride, and the open air observation deck. This last part was the absolute best. We laughed ourselves to pieces as the wind whipped around us and nearly carried away Edem! We took a video of Esther describing the experience, and in the end all we could hear was the wind. It was awesome.

Esther's trip ended with Canada Day on Parliament Hill. We went and watched the musical performances on the stage in front of the Peace Tower and then quickly tried to get around Major's Hill Park to watch the fireworks explode over parliament. I guess a lot of people had the same idea, so we ended up sandwiched in the middle of a massive crowd, getting pushed a little in all directions. The fireworks began, partly behind a large tree, while three very drunk and very loud guys directly behind us sang "O Canada", our anthem, as loud as they could. The music played and the whole crowd joined the singing and errupted in a loud cheer. A perfect Canada Day.

Ben