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Gah.

My sister recently posted her senior kindergarten progress report. I don't have a copy of mine handy, but I have a sneaking suspicion that it might say something about my not playing particularly well with others.

There is a very small community of Canadians in Quantico. As a result, we have to work together on a presentation about Canada for the International Officers' Wives Club. (The term "International" is a bit of a misnomer. About 90% of the membership is American. It should really be called "The Officers' Wives Club (with some honorary foreign members)". But I digress.) There are four of us working together on the presentation, and I am butting heads with one lady in particular.

It is pretty hard to condense Canada into a 10 minute presentation, so I did a rough mock-up focussing on what I thought would be a few key points of interest to a group of people who have never been further north than Niagara Falls. I did this because no one else offered to. I should have known the old addage of not pleasing everyone would hold true.

Basically, I included a three-bullet history of Canada, an explanation of the name "Canada", and then launched into some of the fun things Canada has to offer... for those who enjoy the outdoors, Canada has the largest park in the world; for those who enjoy shopping, Canada has the largest mall in North America, and for those who are interested in history, Canada has the oldest fortified city (Québec) in the "New World". This is where the other lady took umbrage. See, she comes from another fairly historical part of Canada, which I did not mention. I neglected to do so, because the whole bloody country is historical, and I could go on for a hell of a lot longer than 10 minutes talking solely about the nation's history, but most people wouldn't find it particularly interesting. We (I and the other two participants) tried to get her to move on to the next slide, but with each click of the mouse, she'd bring up some other obscure, mundane historical fact from her hometown. (A hometown with which I am intimately familiar, and which I know for a fact is not quite as interesting to outsiders as the residents believe it to be.) GET OVER IT!

The other point at which we bumped heads was when I offered to provide photos of Toronto for the slide describing it as the most culturally diverse city in the world. I suggested we add pictures of the various cultural festivals and parades that take place throughout the year. Before I could even finish the last syllable of "parade", she jumped in with "God, just don't put any photos of that Gay Pride Parade up there. What a bunch of sick transvestites. It's embarassing." That's a direct quote. You will all be proud of me for not grabbing her by the scruff of the neck and slamming her forehead into my dining room table at that point, but trust me, it took every last shred of will in my body not to do so. How someone can be so disgracefully oblivious as to come into my home and unabashedly spout such ignorance is astonishing to me. GAH!

Needless to say, I do believe that will be the last time I allow her to grace me with her presence in my own home. Sadly, however, I do have another organizing meeting to go to today where I will have to deal with her.

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Hockey Night in Washington

On Saturday night, Capt Mike got to live out every Canadian boy's fantasy, and play some hockey on NHL ice. His team, The Coyotes, had the opportunity to play a game at The Verizon Center after Washington beat Carolina. The announcer even stayed behind to announce the game, so Capt Mike got to hear his name over the the loudspeaker three times... that's right, he scored his first-ever hat trick.

Below are some shots of Capt Mike's evening of glory:

Capt Mike's ever-elusive smile. It was a very special occasion indeed. :-)

Of course, Capt Mike is No. 1, and not just in my book.

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The Quantico Turkey Trot

This past weekend we were treated to a visitor: my friend The Other Sarah C. came down from Toronto to run along with me at the 23rd Annual Quantico Turkey Trot. We ran the 5-miler in an official time of 49:51, but I know for a fact that we didn't get over the start line until 35 seconds after the gun went off. We ran the whole way with an average time per mile of 9:51, which is a personal best for me. I can usually go no faster than 10 min/mile. We got to the halfway point in 26 minutes, which is not too shabby considering most of it was up a steady incline. :-) That means we ran the last 4 km in just over 23 minutes... which is anothe personal best for me. :-)
All in all, it was a great weekend, with good company, beautiful weather, and delicious food courtesy Capt. Mike. :-)

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Quantico Sentinel, Vol. 1, Issue 3

I have been pretty remiss in updating the site regularly. There's no real excuse, other than living in a new country keeps you pretty busy.
Capt Mike and I have been having plenty of mini-adventures. We've explored Fredericksburg, Old Town Alexandria, and D.C.; we saw Canada's Premier rock band, The Tragically Hip, perform at a D.C. club with a max capacity of 1100 people; we attended the Marine Corps Birthday Ball (they sure do know how to throw a party); and, of course, we've been kept pretty busy with keeping Dexter and Zeppelin busy.
Today marked the first day we woke up to frost on the ground. That's right, November 7th, 2007. I can still get away with walking around outside without a jacket, but I have had to trade in my flip flops for socks and shoes. Hating to wear socks, I am glad I managed to go this long without them. I am sure I'll be able to nix them sometime in early April, too.
To occupy my time while Capt Mike's is monopolized by schoolwork, I've bought myself a guitar. My first lesson is tomorrow afternoon. So far, I can play three chords very slowly; sadly, they aren't chords that appear together in any songs I've ever heard.

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Virginia 1, Ontario 2 (just barely): battle of the bulge

Virginia is apparently the 23rd-fattest state in the Union, with 24.5% of residents classified as "obese". In 2004, Ontario was ranked 3rd leanest province, with a rate of 22.7%.
Obesity is defined as having a body mass index (BMI) of 30 or higher, and a body fat percentage of more than 30%.
Your BMI is measured by dividing your mass, in kilograms, by your height in metres squared. So, if you are a 5'6" tall woman weighing 150 lbs, your BMI is 68 kg divided by 2.72 (1.65 m × 1.65 m), or 25.
Your body fat percentage is just that: the proportion of your weight attributable to fat alone. A healthy percentage for women is between 12% and 25%. Less than 12%, and you will probably develop health problems such as infrequent, irregular menstrual cycles and loss of bone density, which can lead to osteoporosis. These things might not phase supermodels and celebutantes, but they're certainly not illnesses I'd want to develop voluntarily. On the flip side, body fat percentages of more than 25% can put you at increased risk of type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and high blood pressure. The higher your body fat is over 25%, the more likely you are to develop these conditions, all of which can lead to premature death. Again, not something most of us willingly sign up for.
So, what should 24.5% of Virginians and 22.5% of Ontarians be doing? Surprisingly, not much. As little as 30 min of brisk walking each day (try covering 3 km in 30 min) while trying to follow Canada's Food Guide for a healthy diet will drastically reduce your risk of developing potentially life-threatening conditions. In fact, regardless of how active you are now, increasing that activity level by only 30 min a day will lead to improvements. Oh, and Virginians should probably lay off the high-fructose corn syrup, too.

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Virginia (and the rest of the US) 1, Ontario (and Canada) 1: Sugar vs. HFCS

High freakin' fructose corn syrup. It's damn next to inescapable up here, and it makes everything taste like something you'd buy from a carnie. It's in eveything, and almost impossible to avoid. The treats we might buy once in a while in Canada (the occasional coke or iced tea, popsicles, even ice cream or juice) contain good ol' fashioned sugar (not without its own problems, but at least we can vote with our pocket books and push for fair trade options in that department). Here, they contain HFCS, which lobbyists here have made sure is much cheaper for manufacturers to use than sugar. Sometimes, it's hard to remember that difference.
Example: Ocean Spray Cran-Grape "Juice". The third ingredient on the label? HFCS. It comes before the "Cran" part of the label. Why don't they just call it Ocean Spray Corn-Grape "Juice". Incidentally, it also only contains 15% real juice. In Canada, we'd call that a "cocktail", and I would know right off the bat to avoid it's pseudofruit siren call. Here, a teeny tiny wee little speech bubble on the side label lets us know that what we're buying is basically insulin resistance in a bottle.

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Virginia 1, Ontario 0

Yesterday and today have been declared "code orange" on the smog advisory scale in Northern Virginia. The scale goes from green, meaning it's a decent summer day, to purple, meaning go outside at your own risk, the temperature is over 40 without the humidex, and the air looks a lot like pea soup (but doesn't taste anywhere near as good...I do miss me some Habitant).

But the really interesting thing to me, that gives Virginia a point advantage here, is that on code orange days and above, the Transit authorities in the metropolitan areas of Northern Virginia give free bus rides. FREE. F-R-E-E. OC Transpo only gives free bus rides on Canada Day, and the last time I rode the subway in Toronto I vaguely remember having to get someone to cosign the loan forms for my fare...

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Quantico Sentinel, Vol. 1, Issue 2

Well, we are now officially living in our house, with our stuff. But it was quite a ride getting to this point...

After living in Springfield for exactly 1 week, in a motel under an overpass, we decided that enough was enough. We couldn't stand eating at crappy all-American franchises any longer, we felt crummy because we couldn't exercise after eating at said crappy restaurants(neither of us were inclined to jog along the highway in 40°C heat), and we were sick of coming back to the hotel to see it surrounded by police cars. The stress was taking its toll, so we went to Wal*Mart, bought an air mattress and some sheets and towels, and moved into an empty house for two days before the movers finally arrived. It's not saying much for the Red Roof Inn that we were more comfortable camping out in our new master bedroom than staying with them any longer.

Our neighbourhood is quite nice. Dexter is a rock star. The local kids keep calling on him to come out and play. He's pretty much over his fear of people less than 4 feet tall, so he's never been happier.

Capt Mike is returning to Canada tonight to go to the Maxville highland games, so Dexter and I will have the weekend to ourselves to explore the area a little further. Wish us luck!

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