Category: Film

Film: Sorry to Bother You

Posted on by boj Posted in Baby, Film

Trev is now old enough to babysit, so I can go to movies again!!! We actually went to see “Sorry to Bother You” a couple of months ago and I have been thinking about updating the blog since but could not think of profound thoughts or intriguing pictures to put up. You know what? This blog is not about that. I will go back to irreverent thoughts about life, sometimes without points or illustrations but always about something on my mind. For example, parenting!

My goal this summer was to spend quality time with the kids and to get them to start doing life chores (cooking, cleaning, getting places on time) without losing my mind. I think I did ok!

Just to prove it, here is a photo of the boys on one of our mandatory fun outings.

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Film: Wonder Woman

Posted on by boj Posted in Bike, Film

While I generally really enjoy movies and shows with strong fighting women, over time I have become weary. It is an overused trope and it is easy to do badly. In the case of Wonder Woman, where the main character and her powers are divine, the concept works well. Ditto for, say, Dark Angel where Max is genetically engineered super solder. The concept strikes me as disingenuous where mortal women fight soldiers and win by strength rather than skill or wit.

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White Lake during the Chenaux 200 brevet

I bike a lot and try to do at least a few challenging rides over the season. Since I don’t like riding far on my own, a lot of the time I bike with men. This makes it difficult because there is no way to cover up for the difference in strength.

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Quyon ferry ride back to Ontario on Cheanux 200

Riding with Randonneurs has worked so far since the speeds they keep to are manageable for me. When biking with friends, I keep the directions to myself so they have to wait for me at intersections.

Film: Djeca jeseni

Posted on by boj Posted in Bike, Film

I was complaining to my awesome trainer Laurie how I am all achy this year and that I am a little concerned that I will not be able to do all the rides I have planned. She asked me to compare my spring rides for last and this year… So here it is:

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I ramped up slowly last year, but this year I started too fast and needed to take some time off to recover. Lower mileage in May and June also has to do with my family schedule, the weather which has been of particularly rainy disposition and my preference to ride with company and all the trappings that come with that. Randonneurs’ schedule starts the second week of March (the rides, though scheduled, are not done if there is ice on the road or the weather is bad enough that no-one feels like riding). Populaires (any ride below 200km) fill up March and the first brevet (200km) was in early April. Though I had no problems with the populaires, I found the first brevet quite challenging. In the future, I will make a point of putting in a few more kilometres before getting into brevets.

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Britannia Beach this Sunday

I’ve had some trouble with my setup. I tried out a new saddle but it did not work out and I had to put the old one back on. Also, my handlebars keep drooping! Must get this fixed and get back into form!

Film: Dual

Posted on by boj Posted in Film1 Comment

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At the beginning of the year the one intersection that Trev has to cross on his way to school got a crossing guard. For those of you not living in Canada, a crossing guard is an adult with a stop sign that helps kids cross the street on their way to school. As an extra bonus, the crossing guard is a friend of mine and I always enjoy chatting with her as I walk Trev to school. It had been my plan to start sending him to school by himself, but he still prefers to walk with me. We always have really nice conversations in the morning and, as it is on my way to the office anyway, I take the extra ten minutes and spend it with him.

At the beginning of the school year there were a lot of kids, with and without parents, crossing the intersection, but as the weather got colder the numbers dropped. On a nice day you still might get two or three families, though most of the time it is just us. At first I was wondering why people are freaked out by weather. Now I am worried that I am not.

Film: Love and Friendship (sp)

Posted on by boj Posted in Bike, Film, Travel

After some thought I decided to put password on the kids blog but not mine. In their age of literacy, or near literacy, I want to be able to write cute stories without worrying if I am embarrassing them. As I only tangentially talk about my family here, there is little need to password it.

After three years of training, I have participated in the Rideau Lakes Tour. This is one of those quintessential Ottawa things. Instead of boring you about it, I’ll let the T-shirt convey the salient details:

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Despite the head wind that some will tell you went up to 40km/h, this turned out to be a great girls’ weekend getaway. We kept a nice pace, had the best bike snacks I have ever imagined, got comfortable with clippy shoes and, for the first time ever, biked 200km in just 30 hours.

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Perth

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Kingston

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Perth

I am still putting my thoughts together about the weekend. More than anything it was fun. Though we never passed anyone that was not stopped and had the support van “chase” us from Narrows Lock to the finish, neither of us had done this kind mileage before which made our success sweet. Luisa pushed her bike to the limit and then a bit further. Though her derailleur was trashed before the last 20 kilometres were out, it was somewhat gratifying to know that we can complete the route as the support cars with bikes of people who had abandoned the ride passed by. It was fun to bomb down the hills we had climbed the day before. What a great weekend!