The Goodie Box

*knock knock knock* Who's There? Goodies!! 

I was very excited to come home Thursday night to this innocent looking package outside my door. Hmmm, what could it be?

So of course I brought it in and immediately ripped it open to see what was inside: Bike clothes!!

And none too soon either because I was just the other morning having one of those embarrssing moments that happen in private when you realize there was a moment that happened in public in which you should have been embarrassed, but that has passed you by.

Yup, the seats in some of my "A-shorts" have become indecently threadbare. Thankfully, I can convincingly tell myself that no one has really noticed, since most of my riding has been done indoors lately, and I'm the instuctor, so no one is looking at my bum. Butt (ha!) I digress.

 

Speaking of free shows, hopefully my new neighbours weren't paying close attention because I was so excited by the contents of said box I decided to try on everything immediately. In my dining room.

The good news is it all fits, and it's all awesome, and it's coming to this blog in much more detail in the coming weeks as I properly try it out. So stay tuned!

Photo of the Day

That's a good price.

Vancouver By Bike

Vancouver By Bike, a set on Flickr.

Still recovering from an awesome weekend that included a [really] quick trip out to Vancouver to see Gerhard and some friends on the west coast. We had such a good time -- maybe because we knew we didn't have a long time -- so I submit to you our adventures by bike in Vancouver in photo-essay form. The weather was supposed to be rainy, but ended up sunny, so when Myrosha offered up cruisers and himself as a tour-guide extraordinaire, we were helpless to resist.

The night before we had an amazing dinner up in Squamish. A couple of little tykes have been added to the group so they provided the night's entertainment while we all talked about how old we're getting. Oh Time, you devil, you.

Anyway, nothing fixes up my soul better than a drive through Sea to Sky country ... besides maybe a day on bikes so I was pretty pumped by the time I red-eyed home Sunday night. Hope you enjoy the photos, and if you're in Vancouver, make sure you do the same.

For My Fellow Writers and Editors

This is my new favourite entry in the lolcat-meme continuum.

To Catch A Bike Thief: Episode 1 Now Online!

My old rowing-friend Ingo has gone all the way to Vancouver, where he's swapped boats for bikes (it happens to the best of us.) Another happenstance we have in common is bike theft. I admit, I don't know any of Ingo's [many] bike theft stories, but I do have one of my own.

It was a Raleigh Tarantula. Purple. Grip shifts. I used to ride it to the beach for a day of swimming and frisbee. I rode it to my summer-job picking berries at Hi-Berry Farm. I rode it to music camp, racing along the rail trail with friends pretending we'd be the next Olympic mouintain bikers.

One day shortly after beginning my second year at U of T, I'd just spent a boat-load of money on new gears, rings and the like so it would be all the more fit to carry me to and from rowing practice. I lived in a high rise at the time, and bringing the bike up was sort of a nuisance, so one night I left it locked to the rack downstairs at Yonge and Bloor. My roommate (and mutual rowing friend of Ingo and mine), Ross, said someone would steal that bike in two seconds flat. I didn't believe him but the next morning the joke was on me. Even as I approached the empty bike rack, I refused to believe my eyes. I thought maybe I'd brought it up afterall ... or this wasn't the right rack. But eventually, as all of us who have lost a bike know, that heavy, sick feeling settled into my gut telling me I'd never see that beauty again. And also now getting to rowing practice was going to cost $20 in cabs.

If you know that shitty feeling, check out Ingo's new web-series, "To Catch A Bike Thief" in which he and his merry men (and women) chase down those lowly criminal-types who prey on the two-wheeled joy machines to find the answers to burning questions like:

- Why did you steal my bike?
- What are you going to do with it now that you've stolen it?
- How could I have prevented this whole thing?

And if you like what you see, help these guys out on their mission by visiting their indiegogo site and dropping a donation in the hat: http://www.indiegogo.com/To-Catch-a-Bike-Thief. The very first episode has dropped and you can watch it there as well, free of charge.

"Live Your Moksha" 7 Week Challenge

I just spent a few days in California and while I had a good time surfing, relaxing and spending time with G, even the palm trees and sunny weather couldn't penetrate my cloudy attitude.

That just won't do -- life's too short to get stuck in "broody Kristen" mode.

So perhaps as an answer to my new-found awareness, the universe plopped this in my lap. And I'm looking for some moral support. I'm calling it "Spring Cleaning" but for the soul. The yoga studio hosting the challenge is calling it "Living Your Moksha."

It's seven weeks long, and focused on "yoga off the mat" — one week for each of the seven pillars. In their intro they say, "Yoga is not just something you do, but something you are. It’s in the way we talk to people, wait in long line ups, how we eat, even how we argue." I'm hoping to add a bit of that yogi peace to my day-to-day — because goodness knows I am not talking, waiting, eating or arguing with any kind of grace or eloquence lately. And hey, they're even promising some magic.

We get our challenges delivered to our inboxes and then it's up to us to put our minds to completing them. Stuff like:

• Be Healthy Challenge: No processed foods/toxins in the home


• Live Green Challenge: 7 days of vegetarian/vegan eating


• Be Peace Challenge: 1 hour of silence daily

I am really hoping I can convince one of you out there to join me in this — it starts May 1 and it's only $10 to sign up, plus whatever costs you need to cover for yoga classes (though that's not the focus of the challenge). Some Moksha studios are apparently even offering a discount. If you want to know more about the challenge, check out their website, or the facebook community.

Hope you'll think about joining me!

Namaste, Bitches.