Caffinara Wake Up To Life

Developing Owl Eyes And Superwomen Strength

2012-01-04T16:13:00.011-08:00

I upgraded the memory, or ram, in my MacBook, from 2 gigabytes to 4 gigabytes. It was an easy procedure accomplished by following the instructions in the, How To Book, that came with the computer.

The last time I did this I was upgrading my old MacBook from 512 megabytes of ram to 2 gigabytes of ram. I bought the ram from Memory Depot because they had the best price, $91.78. This time around it cost $32. The fact I I got twice as much ram for 1/3 the price makes me feel like I somehow cheated, especially when I know that the same 4 gigabytes of ram would cost $200 if I bought it from Apple.

Before Christmas I bought a membership in the Caledonia Nordic Ski Club. One of the benefits is unlimited usage of their extensive and extremely well maintained cross country and skate ski trails. They even have lights on some of the trails, bonus! I’ve been out there twice, once to check out the trails and try inexpertly to skate ski, and once for a lesson. The private lesson was worth every cent. I got much more out of it than I would have, out of the three beginner lessons I was going to take. Because even though I’ve never skate skied before I’m not a beginner skier.

I’m waiting for the weather to return to winter so I can get out there again to skate ski. It’s been unseasonably warm, the roads are either pure ice or bare and I’m sure the ski trails are ice as well. Breaking my other leg or an arm, is not on my to do list this year or any other year in the future.

So, it was 7 degrees today and sunny. I managed to find enough clear pavement, less ice and snow, to run up Foothills boulevard and back down Tabor boulevard to the icy parking lot, where I left my car. I was mortified, well maybe only slightly irritated, when a women dressed in bright pink, followed closely by a man dressed in black, easily overtook me. They looked like they were in their early forties and had been running, no doubt, their whole lives. I wonder if I'll ever, but I want to be able to, keep up with them?

I've never been completely satisfied with my internet connection. In rural BC the only choice, often, is dialup; however, I considered myself lucky when I found a faster alternative. Apart from all the good things offered by this small company, the connection, beamed wirelessly from Pilot Mountain, was still not fast enough to stream youtube videos. And, their equipment broke down a lot leaving us with no internet service sometimes for days. It's particularly annoying because I depend on the internet for work (who doesn't?). When we got a flyer in the snail mail with this offer, from Galaxy Broadband, we decided to switch. But, unless we want to get up at 2 AM (when unlimited bandwidth is allowed) there is not enough bandwidth to wirelessly stream movies from a service like netflix, (streaming youtube videos is doable). I suppose I should just start getting up earlier ......

Impatient To Get Going

2011-11-17T14:09:00.012-08:00

The other day, while shopping, I got a craving for licorice allsorts, actually I’d been craving them for days, and decided to satisfy it right then. However, the only licorice allsorts I could find, came in a giant box, like the sort of box one might find under the Christmas tree. I briefly considered going to another store, hoping they would have something smaller because I don’t need a whole killogram of licorice allsorts. But going to another store was not in my plan, so I thought, what the hey, and I bought them.

I managed to eat quite a few on the drive home. Feeling somewhat sick I hid them in the bottom of the freezer, forgetting all about them until today. So HELP ME, because now I’m forced to blog about my licorice allsorts self made addiction, in a supreme effort to take my mind away from eating every last one of them right now!

There was a huge sale, up to 70 percent off, on the coveted skate ski equipment a few weeks ago. So of course I bought everything, boots, bindings, skate skis and poles, despite the fact I could barely walk at the time, long story. I'm walking fine now, but not running or doing yoga or skiing. There is acres of fresh, cold snow outside and I feel incredibly bummed out and impatient that my body is taking so long to heal and I can't try out my new equipment.

Instead, I’m lying around on the couch reading, and typing pitches to unknown editors.

One of the books I’m reading is Walter Isaacson’s biography of Steve Jobs. None of what he says about Jobs is surprising because I’ve been a Mac fan since the early nineties. I subscribed to all the Mac magazines and eagerly looked forward to every edition of tidBITS. I picked up the Penguin edition of Stephen Levy’s book, Insanely Great, the life and times of Macintosh, the computer that changed everything, off the remainder table at Coles books for $1.98. Reading it, helped to exemplify and cement my feelings, that loving and using Macs, made me a member of some kind of underdog but exciting cult.

For the record, I’ve owned a Mac Plus, Powermac LC 580, Powerbook 1400, blueberry ibook clamshell, eMac, Two white Macbooks, original ipod shuffle, ipod touch 2nd generation, ipad2, and my newest Apple gadget, an iphone4.

The Unfairness Of It All

2011-03-17T20:20:00.019-07:00

Why bother working on something if someone else is just going to rip it off ?

Two weekends ago I opened an email from a fellow garden blogger. She said she noticed my post, about Araucaria araucana, from my other blog, Northern Gardeners Almanac, had been copied and was now being plagiarized, over on this other blog.There are no comments on that other blog, no email address, or any way to contact whoever is doing this, so, after looking through Googles help files, I filed a DMCA report.

Then, the more I looked the more I saw that more and more of my stuff was posted on that other blog, until, I finally realized, my ENTIRE BLOG is over there. It turned out that much of the content on that other blog has been ripped off other peoples gardening blogs. And, ripping content off blogs happens all the time.

It seems, in every other case of plagiarism, Google acknowledged there was a problem and took steps to resolve it. Since I’ve found out about this, I’ve filed three complaints to Google and have heard absolutely nothing. NOTHING. It makes me feel as if Me and my plagiarized blog are not important enough to bother about. Every time I go over to that other blog to check that maybe, just maybe my stuff has been taken down, it hasn’t, and I feel like crying. What really annoys me is how blatant it is, and that they didn’t ask me if they could use my stuff, nor did they acknowledge that it is MY WORK, not theirs.

All my blog posts have been copied, including all the links in each post, that mostly link back to me. They've used my photos, my labels and my titles. They have substituted my blog name, www.northerngardenersalmanac.com/, in all the title links, with their blog name.

Other friends, I told, wanted to know what the point is, for them to copy my stuff and display it on their blog. Apart from ad revenue there is no point, beyond the fact these people know how to copy content from other blogs, and they are doing it because they can.

Apparently, these feed scrappers, as they are called, steal your content from your RRS feed. One way to discourage this is to shorten your feed down to a few sentences or just the post title. I have done this. I hate that I feel forced to do this. I hate short RSS feeds.

Other suggestions include, disabling right click. There are pages all over the internet on how to do this. After going to pages that claim to have implemented disabling right click, I found I could still drag and drop their writing onto my desktop. Anyhow, what is to stop someone from viewing the source code, and copying and pasting it into their blog template.

On the advice from another garden blogger, who have had a similar experience, I have added a no follow code, rel="nofollow" , in the links I have written to that other blog, go here for details.

I wrote about this on Northern Gardeners Almanac, here here, and here and I tweeted each post. I’m gratified by the numbers of people who have responded. I want to thank everyone who has offered condolences and advice on what to do about it.

Ready Set Go

2011-02-16T20:28:00.005-08:00

It’s a bust. Training for a spring marathon, while living in snowy, sub zero Prince George, is one of the stupidest ideas I’ve ever had. I've decided to downgrade to the the half and go for a Personal Best or PR, Personal Race, as they say in the States.

The last (my first) half marathon I ran in 2 hours. Even if I manage to shave only a minute off that time I’ll be happy.

Like Chocolate Covered Caramilk

2011-02-10T21:48:00.002-08:00

This morning I’m in the car driving to see the doctor about a female problem which may just be the end of my marathon hopes this spring but anyhow I’m in the car driving along the snow cleared, black, non slippery roads, nice for a change, and I’m feeling incredibly, insanely happy. I run up the four flights of stairs to the doctor’s office, light footed and bouncy.

Afterwards I go to Starbucks for a cup of my favourite vanillas roiboos tea. I write an article, for this ongoing gig I started a few months ago, on my Macbook. The sentences fly out of my fingertips, as the information flows from my brain.

I go to five different stores four of them too buy groceries, don’t ask, and one of them to pay a bill. Normally stopping and starting and getting in and out of the car would give me a headache but not today.

Happiness is usual but insane happiness? I’m taking it and running for as long as I can.

The Long Run

2011-02-04T12:42:00.002-08:00

Today I was considering jamming out on my marathon. Winters like these where its minus 20 one day and plus 4 the next day are not common. All this freezing and thawing and snowing, 10, 000 pounds worth, means the differentiation between roads and sidewalk becomes imperceptible. Lumpy ice gets covered in slushy snow and 4 inch deep puddles, or, if its colder and after a snowstorm a foot of impassable powder.

The other problem is living in the country with unploughed back roads and barely ploughed highways. I drive to town to run, a half hour trip, only to conclude that conditions are not much better. I could drive back home, get my gym gear and go back to town. Or I could just think to myself what the hay and miss another training session.

My training plan is in ruins.

At least I can control how I feel about it.

A million miles from stress, but only 500 yards from the highway

2010-12-29T19:23:00.004-08:00

On boxing day we struggled out of bed and drove for 2 ½ hours up the highway to Powder King. The trip usually takes 2 hours but bad road conditions and continual lovely snowfall forced us to drive slower. We arrived ½ hour after the lifts had opened and at the same time the buses arrived. Linups for lift tickets were insane. The lineup to pay for a room at the Hotel, (acto trailers) was non existent. That was good since otherwise we may not have got a bed. Everyone else had the foresight to prebook. By the time we had paid for everything it was after ten AM when we hit the fabulous powder. Despite the unheard of people bottleneck at the bottom the slopes were just as deserted as they always are. I think the new terrain they opened up last year has conveniently helped to swallow the crowds. The other good thing was the mild, minus 5 degrees temperature. I was able to leave my down jacket in the lodge.

The next morning we awoke to more fresh powder, the same mild temperatures and even bigger crowds. Lift linups were longer and crazier.

It was definitely the best 2 of days of skiing I’ve had in a long time.

We've been skiing at Powder King for 14 years. Powder King opened in the 1960's giving its owners a raison d'etre for naming most of its runs after Beatles tunes. In the 1980's it was a thriving resort called Azu renowned for its powder skiing. Sometime in the nineties it changed hands, the resort took a drastic turn for the worse. The day lodge and hotel fell into disrepair. The willows on the ski runs were allowed to grow unchecked, although the amount of snow the area received soon covered them up, rarely affecting the skiing. In 2006 a young couple bought the resort. I interviewed them at that time for an article I was writing for Northword Magazine. You can read it here. Heidi and Jim have done a fabulous job of getting Powder King on the skiing map, fixing up the daylodge and hotel as well as cutting down all the willows and opening up the old terrain which was once part of the old Azu ski resort.

Every year Powder King looks less and less like the hick hill down the road that only the neighbours know about. But, despite the new owners attempts to get PK on the front page where it can compete with all the other BC ski hills. We know that underneath its shiny coat of ski wax it still is the old Powder King we know and love.

The Meaning of Ideas

2010-12-11T10:12:00.002-08:00

I’m in The Body Shop looking for stocking stuffers. Another customer, a women, holds up a bottle of orange body wash and asks me what it smells like. Sweet, I say. She holds up another one. Mangoes. She says she is looking for presents for her daughter. The same age as my daughter it turns out. Do all girls that age like this stuff? I ask her. I’m also looking for something for my sons girlfriend whom I’ve never met.

He phoned me to say he was bringing her up for Christmas and could I make her a stocking. I made everyone in the family Christmas stockings out of fabric scraps, and embroidered their names around the top.

He even told me how to spell her name.

My daughters boy friend was one of the crowd of kids that hung around our place after school and on weekends. Now they live together and making him a stocking was a no brainer.

I went to the groop gallery out of curiosity. I can’t draw and I don’t spend a lot of time thinking about composition when I take photographs. I fell in love with a subtle painting in shades of grey with colour around the edge. It looked like boats lined up at a dock on a rainy west coast day.

I started talking to someone who turned out to be the artist. She said she got the idea for the painting when she was at the airport, in the parking lot at night.

She said she liked to compose her paintings so that the final decision as to what it is about is left up to the viewer.

I started thinking how writing should be like that allowing the reader to come to her own conclusions.

Mentally preparing myself for what lies ahead.

2010-11-25T09:13:00.001-08:00

So, I’m back. I’m starting to feel the need for somewhere to write about other stuff other than gardening.

I started the gardening blog as an experiment about a year ago. It’s the one subject I know a lot about and I enjoy it. I put google ads on it and to date have made around $46, it's not enough for google to send me an actual cheque. A couple months ago I got an email from some dude wanting to put up an ad. He said he would pay me $110 for the privilege. The ad turned out to be a couple lines of text with 2 links about earth friendly pest control. My blog is not approaching the stratospheric money making abilities of Heather's blog but I can’t say now that I’ve never made money from anything I’ve ever done online.

As well its freaking cold outside and I’m supposed to be training for a marathon next May. Ok I’m not starting to train in earnest until January but I need to stay in shape, somehow.

The other day I went to the Northern Sports Centre with a package of oreo cookies, my entry fee donation to the foodbank. It only works until Christmas, after that you have to pay the regular fee. I planned to do two, mile repeats on the 280 metre indoor track and maybe check out the machines. A mile on the track is 5.75 times around. I wanted to try out a negative split. That’s when you run the second mile, after a walking break, faster than the first one. I ran the first one fine, walked about ¾ of the way around then felt up to running again. As I rounded the corner for my second lap my brain started telling me how boring and stupid this was, my lungs wanted me to at least slow down. By the time I was starting my third lap my brain had convinced me to stop.

Most of running or anything really is mental. Tell yourself you can’t do something and you will probably falter right at the crucial moment. In my case having the confidence to finish running the marathon and to do it the best way, fastest time, I can is what I’m aiming for.

The Time Has Come

2010-03-04T07:11:00.000-08:00

I've decided to delete this blog. I've been thinking about this for over a year and now with Bloggers decision not to support FTP anymore I've been forced to stop thinking about it and actually do it.

If you still feel the need to keep up with me you can always come over to my gardening blog, follow my twitter feed, under the same name as this blog, or, look at my flickr photos.

Will It Ever End?

2010-02-18T11:12:00.000-08:00

Even now, in late February while spring is bursting out on other peoples blogs and on the news in other places, and despite the fact it’s been the warmest winter on record and I find myself running through mushy puddles when I'm outside training, and other people are enjoying lunch, sitting outside at cafe tables on the south side of concrete buildings, despite all that I don’t have any desire, like some of my gardening friends, to create real spring, by starting seeds under the fluorescent lights in my basement, or anywhere else because, damn it, it’s still winter.

To prove it I can show you photos of the two feet of snow that still surrounds my house, and, it’s snowing again for the second time this week.

Ok, so its been nice to only feed the woodstove the occasional log and to hardly ever feel the need to crank up the baseboard heaters, to be able to go for a run outside without the fear of frostbite, on the tender skin of my face or my long suffering fingers and toes and to only have started the snow blower a handful of times.

But, skiing for the most part has been shitty to nonexistent. It's depressing to spend the better part of a morning climbing up a mountain, wishfully thinking the snow will get lighter and drier, but it doesn’t. Instead of slush the mountains further north have ice. Slicker than a Teflon frying pan it can be dangerous in the bumps and boringly stupefying on the groomed.

Desperate for something exciting and stimulating to do between intense periods of writing I've stated knitting again, only to find it exacerbated the pain in my shoulder, already sore with an RSS injury from too much trackpadding on the MacBook.

I almost think I should buy a big screen, HDV TV and a satellite dish, the only way I can get TV, so I can watch the Olympics in comfort, rather than squinting and cursing at the poor graphic quality and sketchy feed of the CTVOlympics.ca stream over the internet.

Woe Is Me

2010-02-06T17:37:00.000-08:00

My right arm hurts or more specifically my shoulder and part of my neck. Lifting my arm above my head is painful. Everyone’s been telling me the pain is from scrolling and clicking on the trackpad of my Macbook.

I’ve tried limiting the amount of scrolling and clicking I do but even with keyboard shortcuts there are still things one needs a mouse for. Someone suggested I get a special mouse, sort of like a joystick, made especially for people with problems like mine.

I‘ve decided to train myself to use my left hand for all mousing activities, and after reading this article, make an appointment with a physiotherapist.

Last week was not a good week for running. I’ve discovered running 13 k through 2 inches of snow is like running through sand and makes me feel extremely tired. Downhill skiing the next day, hard and fast, makes me feel even more tired. Despite having a great run, after a couple of days rest, I found running today was making me feel tired again. I’m really hoping next week will be better.

A few days ago I found out Blogger will no longer be supporting FTP blogging. that's how I publish this blog. It seems I can either move all my files back over to their servers, still keeping my domain, or find some other blogging software to manage my blog. I have no idea what I’m going to do. I’m scared my limited HTML knowledge is not up to figuring out how to meld my blog with new software.

Update: I've found these stretching exercises to help with my RSI pain.

A Dream Come True part two

2010-02-04T17:29:00.000-08:00

Today I signed a contract with Caitlin Press, to write a book of approximately 65000 words, to be finished and delivered by June of 2011.

I've already written about half of it, the words I wrote were what got me to this point. Caitlin Press sent the original manuscript to an editor, who extracted and distilled my thoughts, giving me a direction and focus, for my book, that I never could have come up with by myself.

The book is about the three gardens and the houses attached to them that I have lived in, designed and built for most of my adult life. It is full of anecdotes and information about life, gardening and what to do with the harvest.

Now I have to finish writing the book.

I’ve got to stop biting my nails and get on with it.

January 29 2010

2010-01-30T10:59:00.000-08:00

It was getting dark, piles of dirty snow lined the roads and there were puddles in the gutters. I noticed an empty parking spot in a strip mall, so I drove in. There were people standing on the sidewalk. Down the road I saw the blue flash of a cop car. I waited for the traffic light to change, crossed the street and stood next to a tall guy, with a little girl sitting on his shoulder. A group of seven year olds showed up with their attendant parents, just as a red truck stopped in front of us. People jumped out, their arms full of red plastic flags, advertising 2010 Olympics, Vancouver BC, icoke.com. I took the flag handed to me. Right after that came the Bank Of Montreal van, blaring music, we waved our flags and cheered. A handy dart stopped right in front of me. A young man wearing a white, Olympic logo emblazoned suit and carrying a slim white plastic stick, climbed out. The kids surrounded him, their eyes like fluorescent, Christmas tree lights, all talking at once, they got their hands autographed and their photos taken with him. He said his name was Brian. He got chosen to be a torch barer, after he wrote a letter to the committee extolling his virtues as a science student. He said he had represented Canada in some world wide science fair. His brother appeared holding a camera. Then came his mother, smiling and holding a red Olympic banner. She posed with him for more photos. Meanwhile, we all stood on tiptoe, and leaned out into the street, wanting to be first to see the torch. A guy riding a bicycle roared up and stopped in front of us, he approached Brian. He took a key on a string, he wore around his neck, and used it to turn something on the torch to see if it was working. Apparently it is filled with propane. Wearing a grin that could span the Strait of Georgia, Brian stood out in the middle of the road holding his torch high. The kids yelled and screamed and we all waved our flags, as the preceding torch barer ran up to Brian. He tilted his torch towards Brian’s so it lit his. Brian ran off down the road with kids trailing behind him. The guy on the bike went over to the preceding torch barer and turned off his torch. I noticed it was a little black and soot covered from the flames. I turned around and followed the police cars, back towards my car.

"The Times They are a Changing" Book Review: The help by Kathryn Stockett

2010-01-17T10:26:00.000-08:00

The best book I have read lately is called, The Help, written by Kathryn Stockett. I put it on my hold list at the library back in November. Five days ago I bought it home and stayed up way past my bedtime to finish reading it.

All the action in this story takes place in Jackson Mississippi from 1960-1964.

The story unfolds from the eyes of two black domestic workers, Aibileen and Minny, they spend their days cleaning up after white families, cooking their meals and raising their children.

Skeeter, a young white woman just returned from college, is struggling with the racial inequalities she sees all around her. As well, her mother would like her to be like her friends and settle down with a husband and kids. But Skeeter is desperate to become a writer.

Following her curiosity and passions she becomes embroiled in writing a manuscript, which, given the conservative almost fascist views off the white majority, needs to be kept secret.

As the story evolves and historical events such as president Kennedy’s death, the 1963 march on Washington DC and Martin Luther Kings, I Have A Dream, speech, unfold, other events, like Skeeter’s boyfriends confusion, over the shortness of her skirt, and a scene in the car, when she listens to Bob Dylan sing the words,

'…you’ll sink like a stone
for the times they are a changing’,

remind me that is wasn’t just the racist tumult in the southern United States but increasing liberal attitudes everywhere, that were turning the world upside down.

Dylan’s words, leave Skeeter with a feeling of relief, like she’s “just heard something from the future.”

Stockett's exceptional writing and engaging story telling, are reasons why you should get this book. You will not be disappointed. I’ve added it to my Amazon wish list, because I’m definitely going to want to read it again.

It’s Not Complicated

2010-01-10T15:02:00.000-08:00

I've been making croissants for years. I’m not daunted, anymore, by all the folding and rolling required for that wonderful flaky texture and refrigeration of the dough, necessary so the butter doesn’t melt.

In Meryl Streeps latest movie she works in a bakery coffee shop. Given her recent movies I wonder if she, really, knows how to cook? Anyhow In one scene, with Steve Martin, she makes croissants from scratch, seductively rolling chocolate up into each one.

In another one of my marathon kitchen baking blitzes, which included bagels, chocolate chip cookies and croissants I decided to put chocolate into some of the croissants. I used an organic baking chocolate called Vivani, available at Save On Foods or health food stores. I like it because the first ingredient is cocoa mass not sugar and it tastes fabulous.

I was unsure how much to use and worried about chocolate oozing all over the place. Silly me, next time I’m definitely using a lot more chocolate.

New Years Day at Red Mountain Cabin

2010-01-05T20:48:00.000-08:00

On the first day of 2010 I drove with a friend to a tiny place north of the Fraser river and East of Prince George called Penny. We left the truck at Clarence and Olga’s house, skinned up and began the mammoth climb to the cabin. It actually only took us five and half hours. We arrived just as it was getting dark and the others were getting back from a days skiing. The cabin was a bit crowded with eight of us but after a much needed dinner, and a glass of red wine we all managed to find a place to sleep.

The next day was warm, minus 4. A thin raincrust had formed over the snow and it was snowing some more. It was disappointing but we skied anyway. I could hear the crunch of the raincrust as we poled up the slope. Visibility was poor and there were no views anywhere. The warmer weather had also made the snow a bit heavier. Even so we did five runs and had a relaxing two hour lunch.

By 3:30 PM it was getting dark.

After dinner and some more wine we tuned the short wave radio to CFMI the best classic rock channel of all time. It came in loud and clear. Apparently it is only available in the evening along that stretch of highway sixteen. Seems weird that the signal can beam so far north all the way from Vancouver.

Sunday dawned clear, I could see the Big Dipper above the cabin door. The rain crust had evaporated and we could hardly wait to eat breakfast and get out he door. We headed straight up Green Mountain for a look on the other side.

The sky was endless blue.

The trees were frozen into weird, royal icing like sculptures. The powder was almost perfect. Skiing was awesome.

Go to my flickr to see more photos

Christmas Holidays

2009-12-30T16:18:00.000-08:00

I'm getting to do a ton of skiing and visiting. I even got to visit friends in Dawson Creek although the reason for going there is sad.

It was my first non family funeral. My friends husband had this very aggressive cancer that exploded into his life and left him, as my friends said, in five months less a day. It was not my favourite thing to do. But you know the more I think about it, I realize life is a gift and I'm damn well making the most of every second.

I've watched with interest as the wind turbine project on Bear Mountain, in Dawson Creek, was developed and came into being in August 2009. Read more about it here. After the funeral we went for a tour, taking pictures of the turbines from every angle imaginable.

The Peace is a great place for wind turbines. Ridiculous as it may seem, when I first moved to Prince George I used to miss the wind. In any case the electricity these turbines produce is enough, I hope, to put to rest the whole notion of flooding the Peace River valley. Apart from the people who eke out their livelihood in the valley it is a beautiful place, not one we want to have disapear, under the water created by the proposed site C dam.

Toffee

2009-12-23T15:41:00.000-08:00

Nuts were a part of my childhood, every Christmas we had a large bowl of walnuts, brazil nuts, hazelnuts, almonds and a nutcracker to open them. Walnuts were a standard in cookie recipes and coconut was a close second. Peanut butter sandwiches were our favourite substitute for meat.

My innocent nutty life came to an abrupt end when I met Robert.

I offered him a cookie from my latest baking frenzy. I was surprised when he tentatively asked if it contained nuts. I had never heard of anyone being allergic to nuts. My first reaction was that he was making it up.

It wasn’t until after we were married that I realized I could no longer spread peanut butter on my toast, then use the same knife to spread jam on top if it. It meant no more peanut butter cookies since the smell of them baking, made him feel sick. It meant no more walnuts in my baking, no almonds in salads, no Christmas nuts, no Malaysian or Thai curries, they contain coconut, he’s allergic to that as well.

I’ve been piously avoiding nuts at home for twenty six years. I’m missing nuts more then ever this Christmas because I‘ve discovered homemade toffee.

First Lisa, over on get in the garden, raved about her English toffee so much I requested her recipe. she generously printed it on her December recipe page for me. Scroll down to the bottom.

Then Kathie over on Threadlines sent me her recipe and Molly over on Orangette has yet another variation.

I’ve made all three of them. We’ve managed to gobble up at least half of it. Even without the nuts it’s still delicious.

Garmin Forerunner 305: Review

2009-12-16T20:04:00.000-08:00

Anxious to get going with this wristwatch like GPS, designed for running, I took a hasty look at the quick-start-guide, strapped the Garmin too my wrist, put on my running gear and went outside. The device took a couple of minutes, or less, to find a satellite. I pressed the start button and I was off.

What it keeps track off

You can keep track of useful things like how far you run, the time it takes you to do the run, your pace, your heart rate and not so useful things like how many calories you burn.

The GPS comes with software to program the Garmin for the type of run you want to do and the pace and heart rate zone you want to do it at. The software keeps track of all your runs and also comes with a set of prepackaged workouts.

You can also just program the Garmin.

Heart Rate Monitor

I haven’t tried using the heart rate monitor yet. It is a rubber strap like thing you wrap around your chest. Because, you have to wet the sensors to create a connection between your pulse and the transmitter, it doesn’t seem like the ideal thing to be wearing when the temperatures outside are below zero. I'm waiting until Spring.

Programs

In addition to running, the forerunner 305 is able to keep track of all your cycling statistics. You can also program it to keep track of one other sport. Although the forerunner 305 is water resistant it is not waterproof so it would not be the ideal device if you are a triathlete.

The forerunner 305 can tell you the direction you are heading, the elevation and the grade or inclination of the slope you are on. Thus, I decided my third program was going to be hiking/skiing.

Why The Forerunner 305 is great to use for Hiking and Skiing

It is always interesting to know how high you are, but knowing the degree of steepness, of the slope you are skiing is crucial, when making decisions about whether to ski it or not.

Thirty-eight degrees is the sweet spot when it comes to avalanches. It is also the best slope for powder skiing. When out in the back-country, terrain is the only thing you can control, so having a device that can accurately measure the slope is just another thing for us geeks to chortle about. After all you don’t want to become dependent on a device you could lose, or that could break down, or not function due to a whiteout or heavy fog.

Even though it is not as much fun, an old fashioned compass and your brain are still the best tools you have in the backcountry.

Reading the Manual

After a few days I began to notice that the statistics my Garmin was downloading to the computer had the wrong time and date on them. I spent ages flipping through the manual and fiddling with the Garmin trying to figure out how to fix it.

Finally, out of sheer frustration, I Googled something like,

why do my workouts on the forerunner 305 have the wrong date?

Almost the first hit told me. It said- after completing each workout press the stop button, duh, AND, press the lap button until the forerunner resets itself.

Now if I had just RTFM before I ran off that first time…

If George Elliot can do it so can I

2009-12-14T15:55:00.000-08:00

I find this story amazing and disturbing, in fact it makes me angry. Given my own experience as a freelance writer I'm beginning to think I should change my name.

I'm thinking maybe I should adopt the pseudonym, Thomas Hall. That's my Dads name. He died twelve years ago with prostate cancer. I'm sure he would be pleased and proud if signed his name to my writing instead of using my own.

Windchill

2009-12-10T07:15:00.000-08:00

Running shoes just don't cut it when the temperature is minus eighteen and the windchill makes it feel like minus twenty eight. I was thinking of getting a balaclava but nixed the idea when I realized how stupid it was too run in temperatures like this anyway. Even skiing is a bit dicey at these temperatures despite the fact ski boots are warmer than running shoes.

By midday it has warmed up to minus thirteen but the windchill is still making it feel like minus twenty, and my body is rebelling at the thought of running, maybe because the promised sunshine has not shown up.

The other thing, is the house is finding it hard to keep warm, even with all the heat sources cranked. It's not cold, just cool enough that I feel the need to wear a wool sweater, to take the chill off. I'm not complaining just stating a fact.

Real books versus ebooks,

2009-12-03T20:35:00.000-08:00

I want something that is portable, durable, scanable, searchable ….

The Amazon Kindle is now available for sale in Canada. For the non technies among you the Kindle is an electronic device you can use to read digital books, you buy the digital books from Amazon. I have no idea if you can get them anywhere else in fact I know very little about it since I’m not interested in it.

I prefer my books to be made of paper, with pages I can turn. I like seeing them on my bookshelves and browsing through the titles on their spines. I like that books I got as a child and that I still own, bring back so many memories. I doubt you can get any of this with pixels, arranged to form words and displayed on a computer like screen.

OK, so you can adjust the text size on the Kindle to suit the degree of deterioration of your eyes. You can fill the Kindle with a stack of books and it will still weigh the same and take up the same amount of room, unlike a stack of real books.

David Pogue discusses the merits of the Kindle and other ebook readers in one of his, "collection of holiday gift guide videos," here.

But, if I could get the Canadian Oxford Dictionary in digital format. I would be first in line to get it.

The digital dictionary would anticipate the word I'm trying to spell, much like Words spell checker. It would be small and light. Much easier than my unwieldy paper version to carry around. It would be easy to look up exact definitions of words anytime, anywhere. When new words come into the language I could easily download them. The digital dictionary would be portable, updatable and smart.

Black Friday Dilemma, Shopping deals for runners

2009-11-27T06:55:00.000-08:00

Today is Black Friday but it is also Buy Nothing Day however, one should be prepared for the other 364 days when you can spend, without worrying about your conscience, therefore I present to you the, The Ars Technica Holiday Gift Guide.

This year they’ve conveniently divided it up into sections. Under the kitchen section for example, the first item is an Impressa E Espresso Machine, made by Jura-Capressoit it will set you back an astonishing $899 although, when it comes to the coffee fiend who shares your bed you should spare no expense.

Moving along the next section to catch my eye was the fitness section.

The first item on the list is the Gramin forerunner 305 GPS. It’s a special gadget made for runners. You strap it too your wrist like a watch. If you are a runner and feel the need for something to track how far, how fast and at what pace you are running you want this. It also comes with a heart rate monitor you strap around your chest so it can send data wirelessly to the GPS. The cheapest place to get this is at GPScity .ca or .com. For a cool $169.95 CAD you are saving $80 -$100 over the competition. Mine arrived in the mail two days ago. I will post a review in another week or two once I get on to it.

Next up is the Spibelt running belt. At an affordable $21.95 it would make a great stocking stuffer for your favourite runner.

The belt is also the same price as the Road id, a bracelet, engraved with your name, address and phone number, that you attach to you wrist. In the event you get run over by a car or slip and bonk your head, while running, this will let the paramedics know whom to contact. You shouldn’t depend on your technological device to provide all your details since it could get broken in your fall.

For the price you should get the belt, just throw in your drivers license. The pocket expands to accommodate your ipod, car key, lip balm or other small items you deem necessary to take on your run.

Under the iphone section RunKeeper is listed as being the iphone ap of choice for those fanatical runners on your shopping list. It takes advantage of the iphones GPS to map your run much like the Garmin does. The app costs $10 for the pro version. While it sounds cool I’m a little worried about how much it would actually cost since the iphone has too dial through the phone line to connect to the satellite and with my runs lasting 1.5 hours or more I can see the dollar signs piling up behind my eyeballs.

I've thought long and hard about what gear to get for running. Apart from buying good quality shoes and replacing them when they wear out these 3 items are extra things I want.

Update: If you are buying the Spibelt go to this coupon page to save! Use US15 to get 15 % off and Ship 09 to get free shipping, even to Canada

Get a Yaktrax, How to Run Safely on Icy Roads

2009-11-19T18:18:00.000-08:00

I got these Yaktrax gizmos to put on the bottom of my running shoes, to help me get some grip on the icy roads and sidewalks that have suddenly become de rigueur around here. I don't want to have to give up running just because it's winter.

I've never liked going to the gym. I don't like all those stinky, sweaty bodies working out right next to me, not to mention all the intimidating machines. I've only run on a treadmill once and I didn't like it at all.

The yaktrax are made of rubber and have metal coils, that bite into the snow or ice. They come in three sizes that stretch to fit your feet. They have two rubber pieces, one fits around the toe and the other around the heel. There is also a velcro strap that folds over the front of your foot to make sure it stays on. The metal coils criss cross over the bottom of the shoe. They are very easy to put on.

I felt fairly safe wearing these things on my shoes today, when I went running. I didn't think about where to put my feet, to avoid slipping, or even think about slipping at all. I just concentrated on my breathing and rejoiced because I was outside running for the first time in over a week.

I have decided to leave them permanently on my running shoes, after all winter is going to be here for a few more long months and I want to be outside.