Transit Strike

If you're in the HRM area, you know that Metro Transit went on strike on Groundhog's Day. I really didn't think it was going to happen. The day before, I was telling all my coworkers that I doubted they were going to strike as they were still negotiating. Then I told some girls I was running with that night the same thing. I guess I jinxed it. Sorry...

Although I don't own a car, I am not too bothered by the strike. I'm one of the lucky ones. Since I work downtown in a job that does not require me having a car, I've chosen to live close enough to work to be able to commute via foot/bike within a reasonable amount of time, and to not have a long commute via transit. Also, I have friends and coworkers who have offered to give me a lift. So far, I've accepted one drive home. The rest of the time, I've been commuting by foot.

Tomorrow will be three weeks that transit has been on strike, so 15 business days. I had a vacation in there, plus a sick day, so I've only commuted 9.5 days (due to accepting that ride). But that's 9.5 days * 2 ways * 4.5k to work = 85.5km that I've walked/ran due to the strike. Checking my run log, I ran 36k of that, which means I walked 49.5k (including tonight's walk home). Not too shabby.

Truth be told, I kind of enjoyed the push to commute by foot again. I normally do in the nicer weather months, and then start taking transit again in November until March. There have been a few days that I would have taken transit if it were running due to weather, and those days, I admit that I kind of scowled as I ran/walked past the picketing workers. (I think this morning was the worst with snow being blown sideways into my face on the bridge.) But, it has been nice to see how many more walkers/runners/cyclists there are on my commute. I hope everyone who is new to commuting on foot/bike is enjoying the commute and will keep it up if and when the strike ends. And I do look forward to taking the ferry on those nasty weather days again.

Books of 2012

I'd like to track which books I read this year, but without the boring review that I attempted to write last year. It's more for my own curiosity to see how many I read. I'm going to attempt to list just the title and author, and keep updating my list. So, for now:

1. A Secret Kept, Tatiana de Rosnay
2. Bossypants, Tina Fey
3. The News Where You Are, Catherine O'Flynn (audiobook)
4. Hurt Go Happy, Ginny Rorby (audiobook)
5. Bittersweet Rain, Sandra Brown (audiobook)
6. Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children, Ransom Riggs
7. The Edge of Winter, Luanne Rice (audiobook)
8. The Gospel According to Peanuts, Robert L. Short
9. Broken for You, Stephanie Kallos (audiobook)
10. Bet Me, Jennifer Crusie (audiobook)
11. Anyone But You, Jennifer Crusie (audiobook)
12. A Town Like Paris, Bryce Corbett
13. Not My Daughter, Barbara Delinsky (audiobook)
14. Then Sense of an Ending, Julian Barnes
15. Complete Without Kids, Ellen L. Walker
16. The Peach Keeper, Sarah Addison Allen (audiobook)
17. Seriously... I'm Kidding, Ellen Degeneres
18. Another Woman's Son, Anna Adams
19. Agnes and the Hitman, Jennifer Crusie & Bob Mayer (audiobook)
20. The Birth House, Ami McKay

Review of 2011 & Looking Forward to 2012

I had a fun time with last year's resolution. As a quick review, I basically picked a country a month and sampled wines from that country. I learned a lot about wine, and I think I have a better understanding of what I like and don't like as much. I thought about expanding my resolution to include whites this year as I basically focused only on reds, but 2012 is a new year, and I want to work on other things. That's not to say that I won't be trying new wines, as I definitely WILL be, but I won't be doing it in a structured manner.

A friend on twitter asked what people's favorite moment of 2011 was. It really made me think. I know a lot of my friends had no love for 2011, and couldn't wait for 2012 to start. Not me. I had a great year. I started it with a friend visiting from Vancouver, spent a lot of time with friends and family, learned a lot about wine, read lots of great books, had a consistent year of running, traveled to some great places, got my motorcycle license, bought a Vespa, did some (minor) renovations to my condo, and ended the year with a very fun get together with some great friends. Of course, there were some down moments, but they don't come to the top of my mind when I think about 2011.

I think my favorite moment was my first morning in Honolulu. I'd dreamed of going to Hawaii since I was a kid, and I finally got there. I flew in a day before my friend, and spent the first day just wandering around. I landed at night so when I got to the hotel, I couldn't really see much other than the fact that there were palm trees. I was so tired from the seven hour time difference and the long day of travel, but the first morning, my eyes opened at about 6 a.m. and I could see the sun light peeking in through the corner of the curtains. I really wanted to sleep, but once I saw the sun, and opened the curtain to a view of Waikiki Beach, I had to go outside. I grabbed some breakfast (at McDonald's - don't judge me) and a coffee and sat on the pier, listening to the surf, watching people play in the water. It wasn't even 7 a.m., and there were so many people out. People were walking past barefoot with surfboards under their arms. Everyone seemed so relaxed and happy. That morning was my favorite moment of 2011. There were a lot of other pretty awesome moments in Hawaii. Also in San Francisco later in the year.

So, what will 2012 bring? My resolution is much more boring this year. I'm budgeting. I'm paying off my line of credit, and I'm going to be in a much more organized financial position on December 31, 2012. I'm not in a bad position right now, but I haven't been budgeting, just spending when I want, and randomly putting money away for the future. I'd really like to take a big trip in 2013 (to Europe), so I will also be saving for that trip. That will be different than my old approach of booking and paying for it later.

But, other than that boring resolution, there are other things I'm going to aim to do. I'm going to start sketching. I can't draw worth crap, but I really enjoy trying to draw. I'll continue to read a lot of books, and maybe even start throwing in a book that is not just chick lit. Maybe even one I'll learn from. I'll continue with my French lessons after taking a much needed semester off. This summer, I want to take a longer trip on my Vespa. There are some more renovations I'd like to do on the condo (i.e. rip out the carpets and put down flooring). Generally, just start adding a bit more variety to my fun to make up for not taking any big trips this year!

I hope 2012 turns out to be a great year for everyone! I'm sure it will be!

Discount December!

Since we all spend so much money in December on the holidays, I thought I'd end my year off with a month of discovering good, cheap wines. Do you have any suggestions? The cheaper (but still good), the better.

So far this month, I've had my old faithful Fuzion shiraz malbec blend. It's under $10 at the NSLC. It's pretty good for the price.

Then I was out with some friends last weekend, and I had taken a bottle of Fuzion with me. I meant to go pick up a more expensive bottle, but time ran out, so I grabbed the bottle I had at home. I felt bad taking the $10 bottle to share, and felt that I had to tell the girls that it was only $10. Luckily, they weren`t insulted, and were instead adding it to their list of cheap wines. And one of the other girls suggested another good, cheap wine that is her go-to bottle, so I picked it up this week.

I usually stayed away from South African wines as I hadn`t yet found one that I really liked. But, since it was just around $10, I picked it up. I was pleasantly surprised. It was quite nice for the price.

So, I guess my next step will be to head to Port of Wines and ask for some suggestions. I am a little afraid trying $10 wines. Not that I`ll waste a lot of money if I don`t like them, and could then keep them for cooking, but I`d rather them be drinkable!

Any suggestions on what else I should try?

Carmenere

Trying to be a little more proactive on this wine blogging so I'm not just rooting through my recycling bag to write a blog post on what I've tried...

I headed over to Port of Wines on my lunch break and told them I was looking for a carmenere to try this weekend. The lady working there (who is always helpful) pointed me to a few, and told me that this one is good. It was $19.99, so I decided to pick up a bottle. This will be my one more expensive bottle of the month. (I usually try to stay around $15.)

She also mentioned the Carmen carmeneres. I'll try to find those the next time I pick up a bottle. Again, noting this partially for my blog, but mainly just as a reminder for myself in the future.

Hopefully, this proactive post will help me to remember to post when I actually open the bottle this weekend. Here goes nothing...

Yummy Wines!

My recycling goes out tonight, and it is time for me to put out those wine bottles that have been collecting on my counter! I've been saving the bottles so I could write them down. Weeks have gone by, and usually, I just chuck them in the recycling before I get a chance to remember what they were.

First, I brought a bottle of Rutherford Predator home with me from Napa Valley. Sounds tough, doesn't it? The LCBO has a good description of the flavors of this old vine zin.

I really did love the name, and the cute little ladybug on the label. But most of all, it was just yummy. This was on our second winery stop of the day, and I'd already tasted about six other wines. But this one, I had to buy. It was smoky, and big. Actually, when I opened the bottle at home, it wasn't as smoky as I remembered from the tasting. But it was still really good. We can't buy this one in Nova Scotia right now, I don't think, so I'll have to take another trip to California to get another bottle. Too bad. (Or pick some up in Ontario...)

Then to finish off October, I picked up a bottle of Bonterra Zinfandel. It's an organic wine from California. It surprised me. It wasn't nearly as fruity as I was expecting. It was more mellow than I would have thought a zin would be. I guess there is more to zin than my limited experience had taught me. I really enjoyed sipping that one, and will definitely pick up more in the future. I got that bottle at Port of Wines for under $20.

When November started, I realized that I was out of countries that I wanted to try. So I decided to pick a grape that I wasn't as familiar with and sample a few of those this month. For November, I picked carmenere.  I picked up a bottle of Concha y Toro Casillero Del Diablo. I've had carmeneres in blends before, but I think this was the first time I've bought it not in a blend. It snelled like it was going to be big and spicy (if I remember correctly), but it was really mellow. I really liked it.

I'm looking forward to trying some more carmeneres over the month. Got any good ones to recommend?

Lazy Blogger

So, I didn't blog at all in October. Oops. Not that I'm a regular blogger anyway, so I don't think anyone really noticed.

Running - I ran my half marathon in San Francisco. It was hilly. It was great. I really enjoyed the run, and I was really thankful that my injury derailed my plans to attempt a personal best. I enjoyed the trip to San Fran, and wasn't anxious before the race since I had no set goals. I think that having no time goals on a traveled to race is the best way to do it. I was able to drink wine the night before the race and not worry about how it would affect me the next day. And, when in California, you really should drink the wine.

Reading - I've been reading. Actually, I've been listening more than reading. I have been enjoying many e-books on my iPod on the walks to work. I haven't kept track of those that I've read or listened to, though. So I can't really comment much on that. Terrible reading update.

Resolutions - Heading to San Fran, I knew that October would be my month to try USA wines. I really enjoyed the wines of October. I topped it off with a day trip to Napa Valley to visit four vineyards and sample their wares. That was a lovely day trip, even if I did start out a little hungover after some post race celebrations with my friend the night before. However, sampling wines at 10 a.m. does wonders for lifting the hangover. As does a large latte from Peet's on the bus ride up to Napa.

I realize that this post is a terrible update as there are really no details! But, let's just say that in October, I was focused more on living life and enjoying the moments instead of writing them all down. When I have more time in the future, I may go back and fill in some details on some of my favorite things.