Good Morning!

I'm not a morning person. In fact, Mike sent me an article from the BBC a couple of days ago about how different meerkat groups consistently get up either really early or really late, and we knew right away that I'd be in the "lazy" meerkat group.

It's just that I love to sleep and I need about 9-10 hours of it to feel happy and well-rested. I know some people think sleep is over-rated and totally wastes away your day, and it's true, it does take up a good chunk of it especially when you've only got 24 hours, but I really enjoy my sleep!

I can get up if I go to bed early, but it's lame going to bed at 9:30pm, isn't it? We go to bed around 11pm nowadays and I hardly ever manage to get up with Mike at 6:20am if I don't have to. Besides, when I do get up early, I am one of those people who are annoyingly full of energy, dancing and chirping around like an idiot, and Mike doesn't appreciate the wonderfulness of the world as much as I do this time of day.

So, I've come to exert some of my energy here in order to stay out of his way for a while. (Which reminds me of this T-shirt we saw once that said, "Sometimes I wake up grumpy, other times I let him sleep," hahaha, took me a minute to get it, but I'm slow like that.) 

Ahhh -- it's going to be a great day, isn't it? :o)

Training for the Half Marathon

Sometime in the first week of May, I decided to look back on my January resolutions and see whether I've managed to accomplish anything a quarter into the new year. That was a bad idea because as it turned out, I hadn't accomplished anything. (To be fair, I had foolishly written down 10 resolutions for 2010, which Mike had rightly judged as "unrealistic".)

Anyway, to make myself feel better, I decided that I had to cross off at least one thing, and I had to do it right away. I have no idea why I thought "Run a half marathon" was the thing that I should get on with--seeing as I wasn't even entirely sure about it when I wrote it down in the first place--but Mike went to work devising a training program in Excel and we bought new running shoes that weekend and started running the next day.

I am not a runner; there was a time when I despised running and could barely keep moving for 15 minutes without struggling. 

But sometime last spring when I figured out that I didn't want to eat less and had to lose weight some other way, I signed up for the Oxford Town & Gown 10K run with a group of other people at work. Poor Amanda had agreed to be my running buddy without fully realizing what she'd gotten herself into. Three months of whining and complaining later, we took on the cobbled streets of Oxford city centre and finished our 10K run in just under an hour (in the rain, of course, typical English style) and rewarded ourselves with G&D's ice cream afterwards. 

Since then, other than the occasional today-is-Monday-so-I-should-seriously-start-exercising-and-dieting-again moments, I basically stopped running.

Now, 10 weeks into the training, we finally got back up to the 10K mark on Tuesday. It wasn't too terrible, actually, but this time I knew it wasn't the end. According to "The Schedule", we've got to keep running 5 days a week, and hit a big one (10-19km) every weekend. For the next 10 weeks. 

Then, at 7:30am on Sunday, September 26th, we head down to City Hall and run the Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Half Marathon. I feel a bit ill just thinking about it. 

Why couldn't I have just picked "Paint a painting" instead?

Summer in the City

Summertime is pretty awesome, isn't it? Sunshine, blue skies, drinking beer on a patio, lazying around at the cottage, swimming, walking around at an outdoor market, ice cream sandwiches... Yeah, pretty awesome, I'd say. (Except funny enough, for someone who grew up in Taiwan and Arizona, I really can't handle the heat; I can, however, just about manage to sit in a perfectly air-conditioned condo and drink iced tea.)

I went to meet up with Mike after work on Friday to grab a pint at the Irish Embassy (wouldn't it be cool if it actually was the Irish Embassy?!) where I managed to down a few gulps of Guinness before I gave up and asked for a Magners cider instead to go with the tasty bacon-wrapped scallops we were snacking on. Then we skipped over to Commerce Court for our dinner at Jump. 

Nothing quite like Summerlicious to make you love Toronto. I can't think of many things better than a beautiful 3-course prix fixe lunch or dinner at a fantastic restaurant so we always try to take advantage when it rolls around. We start to feel rather guilty if we make any more than three reservations in a season but over the years we've ticked off some great restaurants off our list including Canoe, Auberge du Pommier, La Maquette, The 360 at CN Tower, Bymark, Oliver & Bonacini, Provence Delices, and Zucca Trattoria. This Saturday we've got lunch with Derek & Karina at The Bier Markt then next Friday we're gonna try out Eight Wine Bar. When Winterlicious comes around again in February, Centro and North 44 are the first ones I'm going to call. (I think I should probably get a job first though...)

We got up at 9am on Saturday feeling well rested and ready for our 8K run which wasn't too much of a struggle actually particularly when followed by a cool dip in the pool. I made a massive salad for lunch on the balcony (I normally hate salads, but this one had tomatoes, cucumbers, avocado, feta, and my own Dijon dressing and turned out to be really yummy) and then fell asleep during the second half of the Germany vs Uruguay game. After my lovely nap, we got ready and headed down to Polson Pier with free tickets to The Drinks Show (admission is usually $30 but someone was giving away free tickets downtown), had a number of lovely cocktails and saw the Toronto waterfront for the first time as the boats drifted in and out of the harbour.

Sunday was BBQ and the World Cup finals (is it just me or was the World Cup here then gone really quickly?) followed by a not-so-great-but-brainless movie to wrap up the evening. 

And here we are again, a brand new week in July. I hope summer never ends.

Charlie Ba is 10 Years Old

I keep telling people (and myself) that Charlie is 4 or 5 years old, but I've been saying that for about 4 or 5 years now. Charlie was a year old when we picked him up from the shelter in 2001, so I guess he is about 10 years old now actually. Apparently that's roughly 56 human years, so Charlie is a middle-aged man, hahaha.

Charlie has got to be the cutest, sweetest cat ever. He is a *little bit* overweight (Mike calls him "fatty" and he is on weight management food...), has white paws, green eyes, and a nose that gets really pink when he is hyper. He may shed everywhere and drive us crazy sometimes with his whining, but he's still the best cat ever and we love him to death.

Here are 10 photos to celebrate Charlie's 10 years:

Bev & Ty's Wedding

We had such a lovely time at Bev & Ty's wedding at the Ancaster Old Mill on Saturday. The weather could not have been better and the wedding was beautiful (*tear*). Here's a picture of the happy couple just after the ceremony in the garden chapel.

Bev was in Mike's Civil Engineering class at Queen's. Technically they're SCI '06s but both did an internship--Bev with Bantrel in Calgary where she met Ty and Mike with Halsall in Toronto--so we all ended up graduating in '07. 

When we moved to Oxford, Bev and I sort of became modern-day pen pals--yeah it sounds lame, but it's actually really cool (yeah ok it still sounds lame)--and exchanged e-mails of all the little things that were going on in our lives on either side of the Atlantic. 

We hitched a ride to Hamilton with Amy & Andrea (also engineers, they're quite a clique, these iron ring types) who were both Bev's housemates back in Kingston and are those smart-beautiful-successful-and-yet-still-super-fun-and-cool types that you would just love to hate but can't. 

We had a great time hanging out with them and they did a wonderful job as co-emcees at the wedding. Andrea was heading back to Calgary today and we owe Amy a visit and a beer sometime down in the Distillery District where she lives.

Now, I know it's a cliché to say "what a small world" but sometimes it really is. In the elevator at the Sheraton we bumped into our high school teachers who were also guests at Bev & Ty's wedding! Mr. Crozier was my Grade 10 math teacher and Mme. Crozier taught French at Bayridge as well. It just so happens that Mr. Crozier was Bev's dad's roommate at Queen's when they took Phys Ed. together and have been close friends ever since and Mme. Crozier came along to play her beautiful harp at the ceremony. They make such a cute couple and it was so random and lovely to see them. Just before they left, I told Mme. Crozier that I used to have a little crush on Mr. Crozier way back when, to which she replied, "I still do!" (*aww*)

 
Since Bev & Ty both live and work in Calgary, we never got to meet Ty until now. They are so perfect for each other it's ridiculous and we are so happy for them. Maybe someday we'll end up in the same area code again and can see each other all the time!

These two spoiled brats are off in Las Vegas for their "mini-moon" now (a proper honeymoon in Hawaii is slotted for September) and we are left with one of the gorgeous centrepieces to remember them by (beautiful white hydrageas, football mums, roses, salal and variegated pitt). 

I love flowers and am really missing the good old days working with Nancy, Paula, & Marisa at the Flower Market in Kingston. I can't resist the urge to buy some for myself every once in a while (Mike says I'm too picky when it comes to flowers so that's why he won't buy me any) but I wish we could have flowers in the house all the time. Maybe one day when we are rich I can just stay at home all day and play with flowers...

I love weddings too, they are so wonderful. I so wish that we could get married again but Mike says no (I know, right, he's so negative). We'll see if I can't convince him otherwise. In the meantime, I can't wait for Sarah & Richard to get married next year (Cape Town in March!!!) and for Kyle & Masa's wedding in Ljubljana at the end of August!! Both are going to be absolutely amazing!! :o)

Mike's Camping Trip

Mike was like a little 8 year old boy in the days leading up to his big camping trip at Algonquin Park last week. To be fair it had been a number of years since he'd been on a proper camping trip and this time it was going to be 6 guys, 4 days, canoe and portage and all. (The word "portage" and various conjugations thereof always makes me giggle, can you get more Canadian than that?)

He was so excited and stressed out when he was packing and getting ready on Wednesday that I hadn't dared to say "Sweetie, you know it's just a camping trip, right?" for fear of getting snapped at. At one point I might have slipped and said something like "Everything is going to be OK" and he'd gone on to explain that they were going to be in the wilderness for four days and anything could happen. Steve gave him an extra "bear bell" to protect him from those gigantic black bears (see insert above right) roaming in Algonquin Park. (For those of you who are unfamiliar with a "bear bell", it's a minuscule version of the cow bell which at first sight, seems like it would be entirely useless in scaring a bear away, but then upon further inquisition, you learn that it's actually meant to alert the bear to your nearing presence so that he doesn't feel like you're sneaking up on him and respond accordingly.)

The next morning they took off at 5:30am and I didn't hear from him for four days (there's no signal in the wilderness, duh). It all of a sudden dawned on me that I wasn't going to see him at all for four days (we spend too much time together, you see), and I got all sad and lonely for about 10 minutes as he was leaving. Then I got over it.

I am an expert at finding things to do. I always manage quite well to keep myself occupied. I think it's a blessing; I know so many people who would get so bored and tear their hair out if they weren't working or constantly doing something yet my days pass without me even trying. I've been cursed with list-making: I have this near obsessive-compulsiveness with starting every day with a list of things to do and sometimes I can't fall asleep without writing bits down the night before. I also suffer from putting-way-too-many-things-on-my-list syndrome. I remember Mike gawking at me on my first day of unemployment when I'd scribbled down two pages, front and back, of "stuff" I had to do in the coming weeks. When I don't really have to get anything done, I only manage to cross a few items off the list; when I'm having an extremely efficient day and manage to cross everything off, I get a sense of accomplishment and satisfaction only a fellow list-making geek would understand.

So while Mike was away, I--cleaned and tidied the place, started this blog, puttered away on Twitter (I'd given up on trying to figure it out a couple of years back but decided to give it another chance), went through my e-mails, met with the property manager to discuss July's community newsletter for our condo (I am the Newsletter Editor-in-Chief with a masthead of me, myself, and I), wrote and designed the newsletter and began its Chinese translation, and pulled a couple of all-nighters reading The Time Traveler's Wife (pretty good, the concept wasn't as silly as I thought it would be, but still confusing at times--haha, get it, "at times"? No you probably wouldn't get it unless you'd read the book--and I think the biggest novel I'd read since the Gone with the Wind sequel several years ago).

Then I got a text alerting me to the fact that four days had passed and saying the boys were on their way home. They arrived just after 6pm Sunday night, looking exhausted, weak, tanned, and greasy. I made the mistake of hugging two of them. Mike said, "The place looks really clean," and I said, "Of course." I continued working away at my stuff while he unpacked and showered. Then he told me camp stories while struggling to stay awake.

Here are some great photos from the boys' camping adventure:

This photo made me laugh, because they were all standing so properly like they're in an elementary school class photo or something. They all sort of systematically angled themselves towards the centre. Hilarious.

So I guess that sums up the weekend. Tomorrow is the last day of June and we're spending the evening at the Steve Miller Band concert over at the Molson Amphitheatre then it's Canada Day on Thursday and I'm thinking that all-you-can-eat-sushi would be a great way to celebrate the country's 143rd birthday. Friday morning I have a facial/mani/pedi at Holts Spa (ooh la la), a sweet gift from Candice for revamping her condo back in April, and Saturday we're going to Bev & Ty's wedding at the lovely Ancaster Old Mill. Stay tuned!

Welcome to Mike & Sunny's Blog

Three years since "sunnyandmike.com" and a million times thinking about starting another blog, and here we are; a free one this time, and much easier to work with hopefully. For no one's benefit in particular but my own; it's nice to just ramble on for a while sometimes with no end goal. Suppose I could just write in my diary or start up a Word document too, but this way seems less work, and one day when I've had a chance to sort out our Picasa albums, we'll be able to have some pretty photos on here too.

How is it the end of June already? It never ceases to amaze me, how quickly the time goes. We've been back in Canada since the end of August, so it will soon be a year. We're still surprised when it's sunny and blue skies out, a habit hard to shake off after two years of living in England. We miss lots of things about Oxford: walking along the Thames and around town, cycling to work, picnics in the meadows, sitting around in a pub, Moo-Moo's milkshakes, "Never Mind the Buzzcocks", M&S, the university, all of our "mates"... and oddly enough, the rain and greyness, every once in a while.

On the other hand, Canada--that's the "Land of Moose & Maple Syrup" to the Brits--is pretty awesome in the summertime. Soaking in the sun on a patio somewhere, spending a lazy long weekend at the cottage, going camping--all things on my "Feel Good" list.

We're also liking Toronto much better this time around. We lived at Yonge & Eg for a year back in 2005 and didn't click with the city at all. Partly because I worked two jobs and completely different hours from Mike, and we were pinching pennies in a tiny studio apartment and saving up for the wedding and the Europe trip. This time we are living in a nice new condo with proper furniture and making an effort to get out and do things and explore everything the city has to offer. No car either, which most would see as an inconvenience but we see as one less thing to worry about.

Mike is loving his corporate real estate job at the Bank of Montreal and I, after 6 months working from home for my UK company, www.holidaylettings.co.uk (yes I still URL drop whenever I can, though the readership of this particular blog is currently 1 consisting of yours truly) and two months of hiatus, am back on the job market. I've done the figure-out-what-I'm-going-to-do-with-my-life part so now I just gotta go find it. I'll keep you posted.

Anyway, I just thought I'd put in an intro post so that the page doesn't look so drab and pathetic, so I think I'll go to bed and come back to this in a few days.