Frostbite Footrace Funtime

It's Rondy Time again! The Fur Rendezvous festival is every February. There're dog races, people races, and even outhouse races; ice bowling and ice sculptures (not at the same venue); a parade, fireworks, and more. Greg participated in the outhouse races last year (see here). I wasn't really planning on going downtown this year. Parking is nuts because there's lots of people there and they've closed roads; parades are great, but they're similar year-to-year and it's cold; Greg isn't doing the outhouse race this year. Little did I know...

For those that don't know, Greg is training to run a marathon this summer. He & his buddy (Mr. Furious, of roller derby fame), have been training together. They decided to enter the Frostbite Footrace - a 5k run during Rondy. As with the Running of the Reindeer, a huge portion of this race is the creative costumes that people wear. There were clowns, longjohns & bunny boots, fairies, tigger & eyeore (sp?), a sunny couple (she wore a bikini over her running outfit & he had a hawaiian shirt & shorts), bumblebees, and loads more.

And there was a roller derby girl with her ref. I heard that Mr. Furious couldn't get his costume to work properly. More specifically, he couldn't get his hooters to stay put - a problem many women have, but not quite the same... many find the uni-boob (sports bra) helpful when they're doing strenuous activities like running - which is what Greg used to keep his melons in place (thank goodness they're stretchy!! (I meant the uni-boob, not his tatas...)) =) So instead of a roller derby girl, Mr. Furious came as a ref. We'll see him again shortly in his official capacity, since there's a bout tonight. Wahoo!

After the race, we headed to Snow City Cafe for food and conversation. All-in-all a nice morning, even if I did have to roll out of bed tons earlier than I like to on a Saturday. The guys did great, and now they have a benchmark for progress. Summer isn't really that far away (altho I feel like we're having a setback: it's been snowing all day - we've got at least six inches of new snow and it doesn't look like it's going to quit anytime soon). And 26 miles is a fair bit farther than three.

As my prize for getting out of bed early, I promised myself a new pair of shoes. I get my Danscos from a shop downtown, but hardly ever go there - since the shoes are expensive and the shop's downtown... I know the ones I want - I even have a pair in brown already, I just want the black ones now. They don't have my size - so I put them on order, yay! And as a consolation prize I got some cool "smart" socks - they're supposed to cool my feet when it's warm, warm them when it's cold, and keep everything dry. How great is that?!?

Status Update

It's hard to believe that it's mid-February already. It's noticeably lighter in the mornings & evenings - I get at least some dusk light for the trip home, altho it's still dark enough to need headlights. But it's one of my Portends of Spring. This is how it goes:

1. December 21 - Winter Solstice marks the beginning of the return of light
2. In February, the increasing amount of light becomes noticeable
3. Seemingly related to the increased light, I expect temperatures to get start getting warmer
4. March is Spring Equinox and eventually an end to snow (probably after a huge dump)
   
5. April is dirty, but drying
6. May is the start of green
   

I know it's going to be a while before everything warms significantly and even longer before things green up, but we're almost halfway through my Portends. Yay!

As for the rest of my update: We're still on Orange Alert for the volcano watch - but fewer & fewer people think it's really going to go. Scientists are still saying that based on it's current activity, it's may blow - but it also could subside. Way to cover the bases! We're off the hook at work - don't have to cover the equipment anymore. If the volcano erupts, we have people who are responsible for coming in and getting everything squared away. This saves lots of time - not only the time saved every morning & evening, but we've had lots of computer issues (slow boot up, problems with updates, computers dying, etc.) that are tapering off. Whew!

I've also been spending a lot of my free time on Facebook. I finally set up an account, and I've been customizing it and adding pictures. Haven't figured out how to link my Flickr account to it, but I've still got some learning yet. Yesterday, I took a break from my computer to do some shopping with my friend Jennifer and then take in the movie Taken (with Liam Neeson) - a *great* way to spend the evening! And today was spent in my pj's helping Greg to re-organize the miscellanea that has migrated into the office. I've enjoyed the three-day weekend, and am going to spend the evening watching Chuck & Heroes (and avoiding thinking of work - which will be here all too soon).

Sleeping Lady
with ice chunks in the inlet

(photo coutesy of Greg)