On April 15, 2013, I had the joy of refreshing my screen a hundred times watching for the finishing times of friends who were running in Boston. As soon as I saw the last of my friend’s pass with a time of 4:06:30, I smiled and went and ran my errands. So it wasn’t until a little while later that I heard about the bombs. And then spent the rest of the afternoon frantically searching online for our friends. Right before I left work for the day, we got word from the last person we hadn’t heard from. Sigh.
I cannot imagine what it was like for those who were there, who were injured (physically, mentally) or who lost someone.
My first response was to dig out my donor card and go online to Canadian Blood Services to get the number to call and make an appointment. Turns out they have a new online service now. You can register and then make your own appointments online! I find this very convenient; I can have my calendar open and chose any available time slot at my local permanent clinic.
Some terminology: a permanent clinic is just a clinic that is in a fixed location. In Toronto there are a few: 163 King St West (at King and University; this is where I usually go); 67 College Street (at College and Bay I think) and 55 Bloor Street West (in the Manulife Centre). The 55 Bloor one is nice because it’s open on Saturdays.
A mobile clinic is when Canadian Blood Services sets up shop in an office tower, or a school or church hall. Usually it’s there for a day or two and people can often just walk in to donate (although appointments are preferred).
They usually take whole blood although they also have appointments for donating plasma and platelets. And if you’re worried about the whole idea of giving blood you can find a “what’s your type?” appointment – they prick you and tell you your blood type. I guess the idea being that you’ll see it’s not so bad after all. And there’s always juice and cookies afterwards.
Anyway, if you’ve never given blood, please give it a try; and if it’s been a while since you have, go check out the online appointment booking. I made three appointments, the first the week after the Toronto Women’s Half Marathon.
Hey it’s been more than a week since I’ve had this blog and there hasn’t been a whisky post yet. (A picture yes, here, but no post). So here we go.
Whisky, at its root, is fermented grain mash. Doesn’t that sound appealing? Depending on the grains used, and about 50 bazillion other factors, the final product ranges from the smoky, peaty, warm the inner-most parts of your every last organ Islays to the caramel and honey of some of the Kentucky bourbons, to the comforting nostalgia, well to me anyway, of “Canadian” whisky.
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NOTE: While I’ll try and keep my digressions to a minimum there’s bound to be some and well, this is the first of them. In Canada there is no legal requirement for “rye whisky” to contain anything more than the most miniscule bits of rye or rye mash. Actually, there’s no legal requirement to contain ANY rye. Seriously. That’s the way the Food and Drug Regulations are written.
B.02.020.[S]. (1) Canadian Whisky, Canadian Rye Whisky or Rye Whisky
(a) shall
(i) be a potable alcoholic distillate, or a mixture of potable alcoholic distillates, obtained from a mash of cereal grain or cereal grain products saccharified by the diastase of malt or by other enzymes and fermented by the action of yeast or a mixture of yeast and other micro-organisms,
(ii) be aged in small wood for not less than three years,
(iii) possess the aroma, taste and character generally attributed to Canadian whisky,
(iv) be manufactured in accordance with the requirements of the Excise Act and the regulations made thereunder,
(v) be mashed, distilled and aged in Canada, and
(vi) contain not less than 40 per cent alcohol by volume; and
(b) may contain caramel and flavouring.
(2) Subject to subsection (3), no person shall make any claim with respect to the age of Canadian whisky, other than for the period during which the whisky has been held in small wood.
(3) Where Canadian whisky has been aged in small wood for a period of at least three years, any period not exceeding six months during which that whisky was held in other containers may be claimed as age.
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This makes me sad. I don’t know if it’s always been this way but I’m not so fond of the Canadian Whiskies that are mostly corn based. Canadian Club for example, although I am told it’s Don Draper’s drink of choice on Mad Men. I can’t tell you what the percentages are for CC, I can’t find it anywhere on the website. Forty Creek is at least partially rye based and I far prefer it to CC. Highwood Distillers in Alberta also make a couple of products with actual rye in them – white owl and centennial. Both are yummy. One of my usual go-to bottles is actually Alberta Premium. What I didn’t know until quite recently was that Beam Inc, owns both CC and Alberta Premium now!
But this post isn’t meant to be about all of that legal stuff. Well, maybe a little. It’s also meant to be an intro as to why, when I say I like whisky, I mean everything from “scotch” to “bourbon” to “rye.” Oh and to show off a bottle I own…
For example, I got this bottle of rye from Toby for Christmas:
It’s American (okay another digression – it’s sourced from Canada but bottled in the US; apparently that means it’s “American.” I don’t know how I feel about that one…), so calling itself rye means that it’s at least 51% rye based. Turns out Masterson’s is 100% rye. And man is it yummy. Earthy – you can taste the grain. And both peppery and vanilla-y. It finishes with a citrus, floral feel on the tongue.
It is lovely both on the rocks and in a rye and ginger.
yea, it’s a better picture of my awesome glass
I love my rye and gingers. I recently told my mother-in-law that a rye and ginger is essentially a poor Canadian’s version of a Manhattan. And I also love my Manhattans. So much so that when we went out for a pre-birthday dinner at the globe bistro earlier this year, and I had the most wonderful Manhattan in recent memory, I told the waitress this. My enthusiasm for the drink must have been pretty evident because she went and told the bartender; who then came over to chat. I asked about the bitters used, and his preferred ryes and so on and while he was a little quiet and shy to start he soon spoke at length about what was available etc. And to cap it all off, at the end of dinner he brought over a “flight” of Manhattans – each with their own unique taste.
This is all that remains. At least I was nice and shared with Toby and his parents!
I mentioned this last week. Basically to help keep me motivated I’m going to track my progress from City Hall in downtown Toronto to City Hall in Charlottetown PEI – where my brother, sister-in-law and niece and nephew live.
So the start is Nathan Phillips Square.
Farmers’ market on Wednesdays in the summer (although I’m a little worried. I just checked the City website and it’s not listed for this year!) and skating all the time in winter. It’s a nifty place to work beside. Our City Hall was built in the early 1950s. It was designed by a Finn: Viljo Revell. Never mind 1950, it still looks freakishly modern and its been used in lots of movies and shows.
Running since May 1:
May 1: 4.2km – ran Q to day care
May 3: 8 km – just a random run for 66 minutes. Ran after Q went to bed so an hour is about my limit then I think although I’d like to bring it up to 88 minutes (I do 10:1s remember?)
May 5: 12.2 km – this was my first “long run” since eating keto. My legs are a little tired but overall I’m still okay. I’m drinking some salty water now (trying to be carb friendly so avoiding gatorade) ’cause it was really hot out!
Total = 24.4 km
Not great but not too bad for the week after a half-marathon.
And that puts me about a kilometre or so past Colonel Danforth Park. Still in Toronto, which is freaky if you think about it. I mean, I started almost mid-point in the city and I’ve run almost 25km and I’m still in the city!
They’re saucony powergrid hurricane 14s. I love them except that they are so *&^!@ng pink. I hate pink.
They cost me $192.09 (I checked the receipt) at the Running Room. When I went to the Go! St. Louis Marathon expo I bought a pair for $90. Seriously? They only had one pair left in my size so I only bought one pair. Another friend bought me a pair that were on sale at a US outlet. Even with shipping them from the US they still cost less than $100. I have no idea why they’re so much more up here.
I also wonder how much my feet will change as I lose weight. They definitely changed when I had Q. I used to be an 8 – 8.5. Now I’m a 9. And my running shoes are a 9.5.
It has my name, blood type, the fact that I don’t have any drug allergies and Toby’s cell number and my parents’ phone number. If anything should happen to me when I’m out running, this will be able to let the paramedics or whoever at least know a little bit about me and be able to contact someone who knows it all.
This is my garmin
Well. It started out as Toby’s but mine died so he gave me his 🙂 I am slightly addicted to it but man do I love it. I run 10:1s. So I run for 10 minutes then walk for a minute. Not sure why, it just seems to work for me. I always run with water and I drink, even just a sip, during the walk minutes. I download all the runs to the garmin command centre or something BUT I also download them to Running Ahead. My uncle told me about Running Ahead back when I first started to run in 2009. It has easy-to-use features for logging runs, setting out training plans, tracking equipment etc. The forums are really amazing too. You’ll always find someone who is able to help. Often that person also happens to be a sub-3:00 marathoner, or a medical doctor, or an ultra-runner, or….well you get the idea. There are also sub-groups so if you’re training for a half-marathon or want to find runners in your area you can find a sub-group. I joined a sub-group back in 2009 made up of an amazing bunch of women, without whom, I would have given up this running thing long ago. They put up with me in 2010 and 2011 and heck most of 2012 when I was pregnant and couldn’t run (2010), when I had a baby and was too tired to run (2011), and when, well I thought I was too fat to run and it turns out I was just too lazy (2012). They were amongst the first people I told I was pregnant. They encourage, they goad, they kick my butt. You’ll hear more about them when I get around to writing a race report for my half in St. Louis.
Oh and in case it wasn’t clear Running Ahead is definitely a running thing I can’t live without.
This is my hat. It’s brand new. Actually it’s an internet picture of my hat ’cause I don’t know where my actual hat is.
asics was a big sponsor for the half-marathon I ran at the end of April in Montreal. The race pick up was at a running shop. One of the things in the race bag was a coupon for $25 off if you spent $75 on asics gear. Seemed like a good deal to me and I needed socks and a hat so there you go. My old hat is old. And really smelly. I’ve run in this one twice now. I love it. It fits well and keeps the sweat away from me.