General Archives - Page 2 of 17

Biking on the Hana Highway in Maui

Ok, so I wasn’t really biking in Hawaii, but I sort of experienced what biking in that neck of the woods might be like. This will in fact be a different sort of post for me, because it’s actually going to be… wait for it… a product review! What?! I’m sure you’re wondering why, and fear not, your questions will all be answered, and you’ll also get to laugh at me trying to do yoga, and read about a set of cycling DVDs that are new(ish) to the market. Yup, my tireless blogging and training has finally got me some notice. I noticed a comment on my site less than 2 weeks ago asking me if I’d like to review some spinning DVDs, as I’m a cycling blogger, and the gent thought I’d be interested. What follows in the next few paragraphs will explain how I came to get those DVDs, and just what I thought of them. I had to get cracking on it, because with the nicer weather, I didn’t want to stay locked up in my basement spinning anymore, so I sacrificed a Friday night to bring you this review and the associated pictures and videos, all of which you can check out on the flickr folder I put them in. But before that, you might as well just hit the read link, since I’ve embedded the videos as well.

Life in General Race Reports

Biking for Bucks, Charity Style

Howy folks. Nope, I don’t have a huge exciting blog post for you, but I just realized I’m only a week and a half away from the CN Cycle for CHEO Tour, and haven’t gotten off my butt and started fundraising yet 🙂 Each year, I try to do at least one charity race. Normally, that’s the 48hour Quest for a Cure adventure race supporting the Ottawa Regional Cancer Foundation. Unfortunately, this year I’ll be in BC racing in another race at the same time, so I had to find an alternative. This year, I’ll be riding 70km in the CN Cycle for CHEO, in support of, obviously, CHEO, as well as Ronald McDonald House and the Candlelighters.

If you’d like to sponsor me (any amount would be greatly appreciated), just head on over to my personal donation page. Donations can be made in any amount, and you’ll obviously get a tax receipt (for amounts $10 and up). I know, it’s not exactly the same as suffering for 48 hours straight as I’ve done in the past, nor am I riding for days on end, but the cause is still an excellent one, and every penny counts. CHEO helps countless families every year, and they’re always looking for support. This idea was actually Jody’s, so I’ve let her get a jump on me in the fundraising, but she’s been mainly targeting the ladies, so fellas… why not sponsor me? 😉

Life in General Travelogue

Putting on the Pounds in Pictou

Gobble gobble. Oops, I guess that’s Thanksgiving, isn’t it? Okay, I’m really talking about Easter weekend for this post. The title is a bit misleading, since I already seem to have burned off the extra bunny weight, but boy, did I eat a whole butt-load of great food over the weekend. If there is one thing I can say about visiting my dad and his wife, it’s that you never leave with an empty belly. This visit was no exception. You see, on a whim about a month ago, I booked a fairly affordable weekend airfare for Nova Scotia, since I hadn’t been out to see him since he moved fully into his new house in Pictou . It took a while for them to off-load the old house, which meant there was a bit of stress on their end, but now that they’ve sold it and fully moved to the new place, they can now work on getting it set up the way they want it. I figured it would be a good chance to see it ‘in progress’. I’ve taken a number of pictures over the weekend, both at home, as well as around the area while running and visiting friends. Check ’em out if you want, then come back to read a short bit more about what I got up to over the 4-day weekend.

Life in General

Turning up the Heat ( and Preparing for the Heat)

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Hello folks, and thanks for popping by for another chapter in the happenings of ActiveSteve. The contents of this little blog post may not be the most riveting that I’ve ever written, but it was certainly and exciting moment for Ms. ActiveSteve and I 🙂 People, I’m talking about none other than a new furnace, and a new air conditioner! Yes, it definitely would appear to not be the right time of year for a new air conditioner, but if you’ll bear with me, I’ll explain it all out to you fine folks, and I’m sure you’ll see that it was a good time to do this. For those of you who have a penchant for the gory details, and particularly in pictures, click yourself over to Flickr to see the set of pictures that we uploaded. This will be the first set of pictures in the start of a new collection… our 2009 renovations! Yup, this is the first step in a mini-renovation which will see us giving the kitchen a facelift. Read on for a bit more about the process and where we’re going with this.

Life in General

The Order of Good Beer is Born!

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Whew! Well, this post was meant to be written on Sunday, while all the events were ‘fresh’ in my mind, but best laid plans and all that ended up delaying it by a few days. You see, Sunday was a bit abbreviated in my mind, as I slept soundly quite late, then lacked any sort of energy to write coherent sentences on my computer. So what exactly caused such a derailing of my blogging ability? Well, the Order of Good Beer of course 🙂 And the logical second question you will no doubt be asking yourself is just what is the Order of Good Beer? Well, I’m glad you asked, for the tale contained in the following few paragraphs should be able to clarify that for you, as well as fully explain why we decided to throw a good old fashioned barn burner at our place on Saturday night. I had great plans of documenting the entire evening in photos as well, but that turned out to backfire too, and I ended up with only a couple clumps of photos. Some of very early in the evening, then a whole bunch when we devolved into crazed karaoke singers. You can view them all if you dare on the folder on flickr that I put up. Once you’re done, click back to here and read the rest of the story.