...on morbidity
When it's my time just throw me in a burlap sack and bury me under the closest tree. Use the money saved to get everyone together, have a party, and forge meaningful relationships. Hah. Seriously though. I'll make a podcast or something. At least in death I can guilt the captive audience into actually listening to my music for once. ;) Or distribute my iTunes library to anyone interested. Or writings, blogs, posts, emails... I dunno. Whatever. Open source me. That'd be pretty cool. I hoard way too much data, might as well let it loose.

...on running
I should have kept quiet in my last post about being confident that I will be able to run without hurting myself. The next run I got some serious ankle pain and clicking noises on rotation. Similar to what my shoulder felt like. It got better a week later, but it's not fully healed yet. Sucks. Maybe I should start using orthotics again. I'm very disappointed, but at least it's pretty much cycling season now. Hopefully it'll get better sooner rather than later. Maybe I'll take it easier next time. Maybe no marathon for me this year. Boo.

...on cycling
I'm not sure if I'll be able to do the ride this year. In fact I'm pretty sure I won't. Considering I personally paid half the money I needed to fundraise last year, that's a pretty big expense. I don't have the time, energy and resources to put in a proper fundraising effort either. So I've decided to spend the time off work and the money on something that seemed more worthwhile to me this year. I really enjoyed last year's ride, and would love to do another... it was not an easy decision.

On the positive side after reading Tanya's last post on riding with the Randonneurs I think that might be a good fit for me. I know when riding to Montreal last year I was wishing we could cover more ground in a day. Maybe twice as much? Check out Randonneurs Ontario for more info. They start off with nice 120k single-day rides, through 27 hour 400k rides, up to 75 hour 1200k rides! Just crazy enough for me.

...on swimming
Still haven't done it yet. The pool in Columbus was too small, and I've been way too busy catching up from consecutive weekends out of town. I'm hoping that in two weeks Kristine might be able to give me some pointers while she sips mojitos by the pool. [nudge nudge]

...on Columbus and soccer
Columbus is a really nice small city. Not what I expected from a midwestern rust belt city. The actual soccer game was disappointing, but the smoke bombs thrown on the field and segregated seating gave me an idea of what it must have been like in England years ago. I got a kick out of the light hearted insults after the game:

You guys aren't singing anymore... EHHH?

Yeah, well we've got universal health care!

I'm undecided as to whether that sounds more European or less.

...on Quebec City and French
We didn't start the fire—it was always burning. It certainly answered the question of why upon arrival the city smelled like a barbeque. Chantel and I watched a video in a museum about the history of Quebec and Canada, which went on to discuss the future of Quebec in a predominantly anglophone North America. Picture Celine Dion singing to a backdrop of some high-tech transportation being built by Bombardier. Brutal. The tone was alarmist, as if the English language was threatening their lives, their culture, and their economy. I can understand how some people might take that and jump to the conclusion that anyone who speaks English is a threat. It seemed to echo how many Canadians stereotype and antagonize Americans.

...on Kim and Giles' wedding in Cuba
I didn't think I would be able to go. A combination money and timing pretty much killed any hope. It was a pleasant surprise when Sue found a vacation package that saved us 25% over what it would have cost. Even more surprising was that it was cheap enough that Chantel decided to come too! I didn't want to sacrifice the ride, but I'm happy. I would rather support my friends... not to mention it's a pretty sweet vacation to get out of it! I haven't been anywhere south of Florida since I was three. It'll be awesome to have so many friends on my first trip south.

If I get to the point where I'm counting down days/minutes/hours until we leave on twitter and facebook just shoot me... then throw me in a burlap sack. :)