Speed Trials

When life gets overwhelming, when there’s a tightness in my chest and I get a feeling of guilt that I can’t quite name, then I know it’s time to reflect, get back to the basics. These personal adages help me enjoy my life, rather than fret over it:

1. Buy less stuff. I am not a fan of buying stuff. I don’t like the idea of buying the same stuff over and over again every couple of months. After watching The Story of Stuff, I began to question all of my stuff purchases. Especially NEW stuff. And so I try to stick to second hand stores as much as I can, as they are an amazing resource for anything from books to housewares to fabric and notions. And if I do buy stuff that’s new, I try to make sure I really REALLY REALLY want it and that it will make my life exponentially better.

2. Eat less food. I like to keep fit (as you can see from my other blog Speed Trials), and so I know how important it is to fuel properly to be able to do what I want to do. But when I was a disordered eater, I ate WAY too much and then subsequently worked out WAY too much. I think this is a huge problem: how environmentally sound is it to eat more food than you need just to go burn off the excess calories at a gym? That’s not right. The fight against over-consumption goes beyond the credit card to our actual food and water. I don’t hoard food, I don’t stock up on basics, I try to keep my kitchen pantry light, and use things I have on hand, rather than buy 10-15 ingredients for a specific recipe.

3. Use less gas. I’ve been driving around town a lot lately, and there’s really no reason to. Driving in the city is not significantly faster than biking in the city. My commute to work is either 12-15 min by bike, or 10-12 min by car. There’s no need to drive. Especially when the weather is nice. (the vehicle is mostly for distances and hauling)

4. Use less water. While things like refusing to use bottled water are pretty much no brainers, especially for someone living in Ottawa (a city that has the cleanest drinking water around), also limiting water use whenever possible is key. Ange and I “let it mellow” if you know what I mean, and I’ve gone back to taking navy showers (where you turn the water off while you soap up). Angelo thinks I’m crazy, but I like it. I like being all sudsy. Plus it gets me in and out of the shower much more quickly.

5. Stop watching TV. We got cable recently, you know, to watch the hockey, but the problem is that I never watch the hockey games because I’m too obsessed with HGTV and Slice. I’m like an addict (not joking). I can’t take TV in moderation. And TV, when you get right down to it, is the biggest enabler for all of those other vices listed above. So TV’s gotta go!

6. Friends are your friends. When things get real busy at work, it’s easy for me to go weeks without catching up with friends. And yet, it’s so important to connect. Even if it’s just for a chat, or sitting together at the laundromat, or going for a jog or on the bike polo court. I have to remind myself to be a friend to my friends.

7. Make time for family. Lately, I’ve drifted away from my family, and I’m trying hard to steer the rudder back towards them. We all know how important family is. It’s necessary to know where you came from, and hang with people who get your idiosyncrasies. Cause they have the same ones!

These are things I strive for in my life. Sometimes I don’t do so well, sometimes I really uphold these tenets to the letter. The idea is to keep them tucked in the back of my mind, ponder them a little and learn from them. And learn to ignore them when I need to. Sometimes rule 5 goes RIGHT out the window because nothing will make me happier than watching ANOTHER episode of Sarah’s House. Sometimes the best meal of the week will is a surprise concoction from the remnants of my fridge. You know, just go with it – simple, and so sublime!

Hard to believe, but we’re quickly coming up on Speed Trial’s 4-year anniversary!

What started off as a means to keep my girlfriends apprised of my soap opera escapade to Australia, turned into a bit of a food journal during an obsessive period of my life where food (and not eating it) was everything, to now being a mish-mash of posts on exercise, bikes, crafts, food, roller derby, and colonoscopies. Pretty disjointed, if you ask me.

I’ve been thinking a lot about my very favourite interests – those things that really, really get me going. And I’ve come to realize that they are split in only two streams: running and active living; and pretty homemade things. The yin and the yang. Hard pavement and eyelet cotton. Or viewed another way, energy spent vs. energy conserved.

Problem is, I never seem to have time for the things in my life that I really want to focus on. I keep branching out in a thousand different directions.

Now my life is changing again. Though it seems I can not sit still, cannot allow for things to just “be”, I feel that this particular change is a sort of “falling into place”. I’ve actually never been so happy, and things seem to be aligning very nicely for me. Here are things that have happened to the crew on Wellington in recent months (in chronological order):

1. I injured my knee and was unable to run, bike, roller skate, or pretty much do anything for 6 months.
It was a hard time for me, but it did put into perspective a lot of things. I quit roller derby, faithfully followed my physio rehabilitation, and got a new outlook on fitness. Angelo also decided to fit working out into his daily routine, and started to appreciate the way muscles work and what they can do for him, instead of hiding behind his bike messenger job as an excuse to eat whatever he wants and never exercise.

2. we gained a family member.
Enzo has been amazing, and in hard times, in stressful times, he has been able to provide comfort and has soothed my soul. There’s also lots of kitty licks and love. And chewed plants. But I digress.

3. Angelo enrolled in school. He will be taking the Architecture Technician course at Algonquin college. More significantly, he will be leaving the road.
Ange has been a bike messenger for 13 years, and that’s not something you take lightly. Bike messenging is more than a job, it’s a lifestyle, it’s like a cult. His coworkers are family, and the work is a passion. He found something that he loved to do, and was able to make a life for himself doing it. So this big change, this decision to leave the road, it’s on his own terms, and it’s to move on to bigger and better things.

4. I applied and was selected for the position of Cultural Planner at the City. That means that I will be working in the Arts Funding unit, working with grants to artists and arts organizations in the City. This is my dream job. Literally. If it were up to me, I’d stay in this job for the rest of my career. And, as someone who hasn’t held onto a job for more than 2 years since she started working, you know that’s saying a lot!

5. We got engaged a couple of weeks ago.
I got him down on lock! He proposed in Punta Cana, after being taunted by a large drunk vacationer who told him he was lucky I was still around after 4 years and no proposal. Ange turned to me and said: “He’s right, it’s about time I put a ring on your finger.” The proposal was everything I wanted it to be: natural and cool, but really special and full of emotion. We picked out a ring a couple of weeks later, and announced it to the folks. They were all overjoyed. I love my almost-husband!

So, in light of these new developments, I have decided to change things up a little here at Speed Trials. Mostly, I’m going to keep this blog as my active living blog, to recount training and races, things related to bicycling and bike polo, and any other sport I decide to pick up.

Things that relate to the pretty, or to planning the upcoming wedding, will be over at the new blog: Bad Dirt Designs. Homage to my roller derby name, this will chronicle my projects from the sewing room (and classes I am determined to start taking) and things that make my heart go pitter patter.

I hope that by breaking these two separate threads into different blogs will get me more focused in each area. So come on back to Speed Trials to hear more about my re-introduction to running and training for two upcoming races. And when you’re done, head on over to Bad Dirt Designs for a sneak peak at the new sewing room revamp, and my trials as I go from neophyte sewer to full-fledged seamstress.

And as always, thanks for stopping by, and make sure to leave a comment if you see something you like/dislike. I’d love to hear from ya!

It’s been quite a while since we’ve done any experiments over here at Speed Trials. Lately, my interest has been piqued by this whole Greek Yogurt craze. Now, Greek Yogurt is just thick “regular” yogurt; you can easily make it simply by pressing the water out of regular yogurt. But, is it really worth it?? It takes days to do, and in order to get good quality Greek Yogurt, you have to start with a good quality regular yogurt – which can be just as costly. So I wanted to find out if it was worth making Greek Yogurt at home.

To start you’ll need:

A nice quality (organic if you like) yogurt. I used Stoneyfield plain organic yogurt (this is the Canadian affiliate of the US company). It’s quite possibly the best yogurt I’ve ever eaten. You’ll also need a strainer, a bowl, and some cheese cloth.

(Also pictured are some vanilla pods from our recent trip to Punta Cana. I didn’t end up using them, but my original plan was to flavour the plain yogurt with a pod.)

Place the strainer over the bowl, and line it with the cheesecloth:

Then, go ahead and dump your yogurt in. I used 560g of yogurt:

It will start to shed water right away:


I noticed that my bowl choice was poor, so I swapped it for a smaller, deeper bowl:

I let the yogurt sit on the counter for most of the afternoon, dumped the water about 4 hours later, and then put the whole thing in the fridge.

It stayed that way over night, and 24 hours later, looked like this:

It was getting pretty thick, and clumping together (you can see it here pulling away quite nicely from the cheesecloth)

It went back into the fridge for another 24 hours.

When it was finally ready, it was really thick:and had reduced significantly in weight:

189g!!! Down from 560g. That’s pretty much 1/3 of the original mass. The texture was nice and thick (actually super thick) and the taste really reminded me of cream cheese.

I tried it on an omlette with a side of corn chips for my dinner tonight. It was good, but so rich that I couldn’t even eat that entire dollop. I put pack maybe a 1/4 of it.

Now, let’s crunch some numbers: a 650g container of Stoneyfield costs $4.69 at the Superstore. a 500g container of Liberté Greek Yogurt costs $4.99

So basically, to yield 500g of Greek Yogurt, you would have to start with 1475g of regular yogurt (I’m rounding here… bare with me, math ain’t my strong suit). So that means you would have to buy 2 containers, plus a bit, to yield the same amount in a 500g container of Greek Yogurt. Not to mention it takes a long time to make, space in your fridge, etc. etc.

So, my verdict: not worth the trouble. BUT, I could see this being quite killer if a) you want to alter the consistency of your yogurt to make it more watery or more thick; or b) if you live in an area that doesn’t have Greek Yogurt readily available.

We went to Punta Cana for our vacation this year because my girlfriend Shayla was getting married there. It was the first time I had ever been asked to be a Bridesmaid, and I was STOKED!

The wedding day took place on the fifth day of our vacation, and though there had been some rainy days earlier in the week, April 22 turned out to be nice and warm, a little overcast, and breezy. Perfect for a wedding.

The girls spent the morning by the pool and the afternoon in the salon. Our stylist was great, and despite major language barriers (she spoke no English and we could only manage a poquito of Spanish) she gave us all (almost) everything we asked for. She really was great. (unfortunately, we all left our cameras at our rooms, so no pictures were snapped at the salon… boo)

We were able to get dressed in Shayla’s sister’s room – which was a large suite with two bathrooms and LOTS of mirrors. Perfect for five girls plus one mother-of-the-bride. It was a whirlwind of makeup and jewelry options, with girls trying on different combinations, swapping necklaces and earrings, etc. Coming from a family with only brothers, I was amazed at the relationship between the three sisters (and their mom too). Must have been SO fun to have sisters growing up!!

The Photographer was on hand too, and there was a lot of posing and primping going on.

Meanwhile…

the groom was waiting on the beach:

The resort staff were all ready to go:

The guests took their seats and waited:

And finally the ladies arrived! We each walked down the aisle – the two sisters, followed by the two sisters from other misters!!

Then the Bride walked down the aisle with her father.

No father could be more proud!

She joined her expecting groom, and his best man (and brother).

This is no trick photography – I actually am a head taller than the other Bridesmaids

There had been some drama prior to the wedding regarding the dress. But in the end, it all worked out, and she wore a beautiful gown that suited her personality so well, as well as showed off her curvy figure!!

The ceremony was quick and painless,

(and surrounded by more bystanders than I thought there’d be… Seriously? Filming a total stranger’s wedding? Really?)

The newly married couple were happy to get on with the party!!

But first, thousands and thousands of photos:

The Bride saved a couple bucks by reusing the Bridesmaids’ bouquets as centerpieces, and by bringing her own fake flowers to decorate the cake. Smart girl. A wedding can easily triple in price at these kinds of resorts through the upgrading… (want fireworks? No prob, they just need a cheque for $5000!)

Side note: the Groom LOVES his wedding band. Shayla said that she caught him sneaking it on his finger at home weeks before the wedding. Now, if that isn’t the best thing you’ve heard all day, I don’t know what’s wrong with you!!!

Ange and I had a great time making goofy faces at dinner.

And hanging out with the mothers. They were so happy they got giddy!

We moved to a secluded area for speeches and dances:

And then moved the party to the discotheque, for those who wanted to dance the night away. Unfortunately, I lost Angelo after the speeches, he was getting pretty drunk and was ready for bed. I turned in way early, too. It had been a long (though wonderful) day!

Congratulations to the happy couple!!!