Life: Catching Up

It's been a long while since I last blogged about the things happening in my life. There have been ups and downs - mostly downs lately it seems. Thus, I haven't been particularly interested in being a downer, but I'll try to cover a few things at least in general here. If I find myself particularly talkative about any one subject I will expound on that in a separate blog.

Riding to work in the fall went relatively well with an average commute of 95 minutes each way. Some of the hills make it very challenging since I can't really ride the trike very well over the narrow dirt trail that is the less hilly option. The morning ride is particularly hard since I have a big hill to climb barely ten minutes into my ride. The trip home is downhill and then "flat" for a good while, so tackling the uphills is a lot easier.

I didn't ride over the winter. Two circumstances presented themselves that prevented it. The first was necessary repairs to the car that ate my tire budget. The second was the persistent snow and cold that was Calgary's winter this year. For all the years I've lived in Calgary I don't think I've ever experienced a winter quite like this one. So I'm relieved that I didn't spend money on tires and then didn't get any riding in. I did bring the trike inside and modify my cycle trainer for the 20" rear wheel, so I got some peddling in. Which bring me to the next thing that was a bummer over the winter.

My shoulder and back had been bothering me since 2009 when I partially dislocated a rib. It meant I had problems with some motions and lifting that were repetitive - mostly work and running. After a lot of massage and some physio that only brought temporary relief, I saw my family doctor in Edmonton the beginning of February and filed a progressive injury claim with the Workers Compensation Board. The claim was finally approve six weeks after seeing my GP, so now I am getting intensive physio treatment to help the rehab. Another 2 1/2 weeks of physio before I either get an extension on the treatment or released to do my own thing. I'm hoping things continue to go well on that front. I've been taking way too many muscle relaxants to be able to sleep at night, so I hope I can get off them and get back to running and cycling without worry about my back and shoulder.

The work situation has grown increasingly frustrating and disappointing since last fall. Needless to say this has been incredibly stressful and tiring. I've effectively committed myself to placing my health and well-being ahead of this situation with my reducing any "extra" work that doesn't apply directly to pickups, processing and disposal. A lot of this had to do with management, but there are immediate changes being made there. I'm certainly not holding my breath though.

I've been able to get in a steady scehedule of Flames of War games in since last fall. A friend and I have also been able to get back to work on a submission to Battlefront for a website PDF release. It will be nice to see that finished. I haven't got a lot more painting done, but it has progressed a bit. I also got a bunch of Paper Terrain sets for Christmas, so I have start work on those. Aerin found me some really good craft glue to put those together rather easier than my previos sets. Hopefully I can make more progress, but the return of spring means other demands will be made for my time.

I need to finish the baseboards this year. I will probably skip doing the stairs for one more year while I puzzle out how to finish them. A little landscaping will need to be done too, and I need to build a proper gate across the pad beside the garage to prevent pet escape and open the space a little. With the baseboards done I can also do a proper organization of the garage including making space for fireplace wood. The chimney sweep we had check the fireplace last summer was great about educating about all things fireplace, so this spring will see the arrival of a bunch of wood to cure over the summer for next fall and winter.

Ursa turned two years old last month! Has it been so long already? She continues to be the spoiled first child, so her trianing isn't what we'd like it some times. But we do love her to bits for all the joy she brings us. She did freak us out a bit last November, but you can check out Aerin's blog for those details. Here's the quick version: Xylitol (sugar substitute) and dogs do not mix. If she'd been a smaller dog she'd probably be dead. She's 120lbs/53.5kg now, and taller than both her parents. Did I mention we really love her? She's such a character.

I'm really looking forward to having a summer this year. Last year was pretty wet and coool. Much more camping and hiking are planned with some short backcountry trips to get Ursa introduced to the whole experience. We'll likely stick to the Kananaskis area mostly.

That's it for now. (I wish I could predict the same for snowfall, but it's not June yet.)

Life: Catching Up

As Aerin so helpfully pointed out, I haven't posted here in a long while. There wasn't much to say since it was a lot of busy time just doing the living life thing. However I guess I can update things with some more exciting news.

We bought a house in Deer Run. It's close to Fish Creek Provincial Park and the off-leash dog park. My commute will stretch from a 20 minute walk to under 60 minutes on mostly the LRT. Overall we are very happy with how things turned out with the price, location and the house.

The house itself is a four-level, front-bank split with a double detached garage. The garage needs some exterior finishing and new shingles, but we'll do the shingles this summer and then redo the exterior next year when we'd like to upgrade the windows and house exterior. The windows are original, and the house has metal siding right now. We need to replace the foundation parging, so this would all happen together. The eaves off the gables were not installed properly either, so that's a matter of bolting things back on. Replacement of the furnace and hot water heater is also future project, but for right now the exterior is our focus.

The first order of business after possession is changing locks, and then it's out with all the carpeting. We're getting a cash deal with someone Aerin knows, so we should be able to redo everything with laminate that's currently carpeted. Renovated bathrooms and the kitchen are on the future projects list, but the structureal stuff is of most immediate concern. After the initial bit of busy work it's on to moving. By the end of June we will be in our very own house.

I am doing more strength training and cardio on the recumbent bike at the gym. I can wake up in the morning and not feel soreness or stiffness in my back once I get moving around. This will continue for another month before I start into the running again. I've had some stiff shoulder/neck spots due to being a little stressed over the whole house thing, but that is slowly working out too. Lots of long walks with Ursa have done well to help keep Aerin and I active.

And speaking of Ursa, SHE'S HUGE! I knew we were getting a big dog when we got her, but she is officially way past the breed standard for a female Black Russian Terrier. She stands about 29.5"/75cm at the shoulder (standard max. 28"/72cm as I recall), has a big, black nose (the breeder even says so), has a chest of 35" (and growing), and some darned long legs. We haven't had Ursa on a scale in almost two months now, but the last time she was weighed the scales tipped just over 100lbs/45kg. One of her brother's already has 10kg on her. Basically we couldn't show her if we wanted to since she's bigger than standard. Another BRT we know named Sasha is a good year and half older than Ursa, and last we heard he wasn't even 100lbs.

We love our puppy a lot. It's great fun seeing peoples reaction to her when we go for walks along the river. "Fantastic", "beautiful" and "great" are some of the many positive adjectives people use to describe Ursa. We still haven't met anyone that has guessed her breed right the first time, but we don't keep her trimmed in the usual BRT cut either. "Big" or "huge" are also commonly mentioned in conversations with other people about Ursa, but she's just our dog. We can't help it other dogs look so little. No doubt we'll have a whole new group of admirers and people in awe of Ursa's wonderful puppy-ness once we've moved.

The Flames of War Escalation League I've been running at The Sentry Box has been quite successful this year. Lots of new players and many battles fought on Sundays for the last five months almost. I plan to try another league in the fall that I am trying to decide the details, but it will be set in the Late War period.

Some other players and I have also started up a historical game club with our focus being Flames of War. We will branch out a little, but for now it's just FoW. We are currently planning to run a big D-Day battle that covers Juno Beach from Courselles-sur-Mer to Bernier-sur-Mer. I have my work cut out for me building terrain over the next month. Trench lines, barbed wire obstacles, an enfilade bunker and some tank tobruks are all waiting for my attention.

I had thought I'd gotten my American Armored Rifle company finished just about, but then I realized I'd completely forgotten about the damned transportation. So now I have to finish those too. Except I have now hit a bit of a snag with applying decals because the gloss varnish is beading on the basecoat to form a bunch of ripples and ridges. So now I plan to take a little 600 grit wet sanding paper to things to try and even out the surface before going back to finish the decals. I have a detailing left after that, but otherwise things are pretty well complete. Then it's on to my next army - Soviets. Then it's back to Americans and Soviets in alternation to finish off some of the other platoon options for switching out or expanding things.

I will try to do some more catching up later this week or next.

Life: Me and My Dog

So I woke up after New Year's Eve and discovered the month is almost a two-thirds gone... I don't what it is exactly that causes it, but I find this feeling of blur unsettling.

Aerin has gone off to Montreal to help a friend undergoing surgery. That leaves me and Ursa to hang out. We started doing some serious grooming work before Aerin left on Sunday to take care of some issues with Ursa's coat getting so long. Being somewhat less experienced with dogs I didn't foresee issues with Ursa's visibility jacket causing matting between her front legs. Unfortunately Ursa has been slightly uncooperative with the process of detangling the matted hair, so it's going to take concentrated bit of effort to get things sorted out there. If it was spring and the weather going to stay mostly warm I would be tempted to trim it short, but there's still two months of wintery weather left at a minimum.

We also ordered, or will be ordering, some new kit for Ursa. Our "little" girl is now 28.5"/72cm at the top of her shoulder. This puts her well past the breed standard of 27"/69cm. And she's not done growing yet! Hopefully she does move growing sideways to fill out her shoulders, chest and hips. So a new crate for unsupervised times, and an actual space she can den, that fits her better is on the way. The thing is enormous at almost 6'/1.83m long plus much taller and wider. Hopefully she'll be able to stretch out a lot more since she's a little crowded even laying corner to corner in the current crate.

Ursa's a pretty smart girl, and we really need some toys that will keep her mentally engaged. It's one reason we don't feed her out of the bowl at home anymore. (What we'll do while backcountry has yet to be worked out.) The plan is to get some wooden toys designed by Nina Ottonson for her to play with. This lady has at least one BRT herself, so it's not a stretch to know that Ursa should be just fine with them.

I sound like some proud parent taking about their kids' accomplishments, don't I?

I've committed myself to making a batch of chili while Aerin is away. I was thinking I'd make it tonight, but now I think that will be on the Saturday menu when I have the chance to supervise it a little more closely while it simmers for the morning and afternoon. I only really make mac & cheese these days when I need something quick and easy to fill things in while Aerin isn't around, so last night I did some with zuccini and red pepper. Tonight is bison burgers and not sure what else. I forgot to get a yam while grocery shopping to do some fries.

In between eating, sleeping, cooking, cleaning and Ursa are my attempts to get more miniatures done. I have started to base coat a bunch of minis I had assembled and primed with the new Battlefront base coat colours. It's a heck of a lot easier than using the air brush for time and consistent colour. It's obvious that a bunch of my America vehicles I'd already painted are a little too green and not enough brown, but I'm not going to stress about it. I also have an US armoured rifle platoon good to go pretty much. I will keep pumping out the US guys for now. I will start to touch up the base coat on all my Soviet tanks so I can start the detailing on those. I have a whole bunch of Soviet infantry to do too, but not nearly so much as if I had to paint an infantry company.

Some gaming to do too. I hope to play a little Flames of War before Aerin's return, and I will start a Napoleon's Last Battle campaign game that might take a few weeks to get done. The Flames of War is to playtest some new stuff a friend and I are working on. The Napoleon's Last Battle campaign is a follow-up to the course on Waterloo I did last fall.

Aerin and I will be celebrating our third anniversary the beginning of February. Since it falls on the Thursday we're planning to celebrate on the weekend with a trip out to Banff for dinner at the Bison Bistro. I have yet to decide what to get Aerin for a present, but no doubt I will decide soon.

I'll leave an update on how things are going with running for another time.

Life: New Year of Possibilities

So begins the 36th calendar year of my existence on this rock hurtling through the vaccum of space. I can't really say that this event holds anything special for me. It's just more of the same. I've had a few years practice with passing the time. I certainly don't like waking up the New Year's Day when Ursa wants some attention, food and a bathroom break way earlier than I'd like. But with the changing of the calendar comes a whole new year of challenges and dreams.

So first on the list is what to do with my running. I'm still not entirely happy with how this is going with continued back problems that don't seem to respond to anything with ongoing positive results. I am running, but not in any sort of volume I would consider truly useful to undertaking much more than a gimpy half-marathon distance if I raced this week. And yet I find myself desiring to lighten my wallet with race entries for a number of events.

I have currently decided I want to run the single lap of the Blackfoot 25km baby ultra since it is the only distance other than the 100km I have yet to run. Since I won't be running the 100km this year it seems a reasonable compromise. My other decision is to enter the Lost Soul 50km again given the disappointing lead up to the race due to the dislocated rib. My hope is that continued progress, however slow, will make for very different race this year.

The chance to run a couple ultras as part of a relay team has presented as a possible option. This is currently in the discussion and exploration phase. The Iron Horse and Sinister 7 are the two I'm most interested in. After some reflection I have no interest in the Canadian Death Race until I'm ready for a solo attempt. If this doesn't quite work out I have alternate plans to do more exploration of the trails in the Canadian Rockies this summer.

There are plenty of shorter trails to run, but I would also like to run some of the Glacier Trail and over Jonas Shoulder. There are some passes that I might be able to transit in a day too. A lot will depend on the kind of mileage I'm comfortable with by the time summer arrives. I'm not particularly interested in unsupported runs of more than 6 to 8 hours unless I think my body is up to it.

And speaking of the Canadian Rockies, there will certainly be more time spent there this year. Ursa will be pretty much finished growing this summer, so we will do some light trips into the backcountry. Car camping and a few overnight backpacking trips will begin the summer. Hopefully this will work out the kinks for a multi-night backpacking trip with Ursa by the end of the summer. Lots of day hiking is also on the menu. With Ursa being up for almost 3 hours of snowshoeing last weekend I think she will do just fine hiking around the mountains for more than a few hours.

And winter has not yet left us, so there is still snowshoeing to do. No doubt we will go out to Kananaskis a few more times before the snow starts to disappear. Some trips closer to home at Nosehill or Fish Creek will no doubt happen if the snow isn't all melted away by chinooks. I have little motivation to run on a cold weekend, but if the chance presents itself I will certainly head for the south side of the river on snowshoes or just shoes with appropriate ice gripping attachments. Either way me, Aerin and Ursa are still getting out lots between our walks and other activities.

Aerin and I are looking into buying a house this year. Who knows if this will actually happen, but we have started discussing our options. Wrangling a down payment and what we would actually spend the money on our the top two house conversations. We have little interest in buying something for the sake of buying since the cost of certain fixes or renos to make things liveable are not an option for us. We really would like to find something we can say we're still happy with ten years later.

We really enjoy our Friday night boardgames with our friends. It is by far one of our favourite events of the week. I am currently organizing a regular Flames of War league at The Sentry Box. I get to play some games, meet some new players, and generally have some good motivation to get things done with my terrain and miniatures. I'm so lucky and thankful that Aerin lets me play my games. We're both going to need to sit down with some paint again to move things along. Thanks for helping Sweetie!

That's all I can think of for now. I'm certain the year will whiz by in a blur of barely remembered details - 2009 certainly did.

Games: One Era Ends. One Era Continues.

On Sunday I sold my complete collection of BattleTech miniatures and books to one person for the sum of $850. This was a great relief to me (and Aerin too). I had feared I would just end up having the lot picked through until all I had left was the hard to sell stuff, but now it's all taken care of. It's going to a good home, but I've been ready to move on for a while now.

Of course, I've already made plans to spend some of the proceeds to further expand my Flames of War collection. While there are still a ton of options for armies that I could buy, I've tried to keep myself focused on purchases that will actually see the tabletop at some point. For all that I want to actually see everything painted, I've decided to mainly work on just getting everything together. I know I keep changing the plan, but at least if it's not sitting in blister packs I can actually get something onto the table to play with.

There are a few things that still need reorganizing. I still have a bunch of Heavy Gear mins from Dream Pod 9. I really like these minis, and I definitely want to use them again at some point. However, it will probably be with another game system in all likelihood. I haven't even seen a set of the Blitz! rules, but I like the Flames of War game mechanics too much not to try a conversion.

So that's were things stand.

Life: The Holidays Beckon

It's been a couple of very busy weeks at work leading up to the Christmas to New Year's break here at the university. There are labs moving over the holiday, and they all want their 20+ year old chemicals removed from the old labs. And, of course, they all waited until this month to do it. We're still not done with them, and won't get to them until the new year now.

Waste shipments always make for extra icing on a busy week, and with our desire to clear out as much from our building as possible, it meant that we shipped out more than 70 drums worth of waste in two shipments on consecutive Fridays. Thus, last week was a blur as we hurried to process everything we picked up. I can fit a lot into my days, but some days it just doesn't go fast enough anwyay.

I have gotten some fun in too. I got in a couple of games of Flames of War last weekend. I have also had the chance to sort through some more of my stuff to figure out what else I can do in terms of getting things finished on the miniatures front. I hope to concentrate on assembling all that I can over the winter. I have been working to settle on some armies to try, and will fill in gaps as needed to get things painted and playable over the spring and summer.

So now that that insanity has slowed, it's time to gear up for the trip to Edmonton to visit the families. No doubt there will be way to much eating and sleeping, but both Aerin and I are looking forward to some slack time. Tonight we finish getting everything packed up and ready to load into the car tomorrow afternoon. We both have to work the morning, but that will be mercifully short and filled with things to kill time. I will get my pickup stats done between now and then, and do a corrective inventory for our beyond frustrating online waste system.

Christmas Eve dinner with Aerin's family followed by present opening with my family will lead to a late night, and we will both sleep long on Christmas Day. We're having an early dinner with my family, and my grandmother and uncle should be there too. The rest of the day will no doubt be spent eating yet more food and sweets interspersed with games and movies. Boxing Day is presents with Aerin's family and then yet more food, and hopefully some bargin shopping.

The rest of the time is pretty free form. I will be working on a proposal for a game project I am collaborating on with another Flames of War player. There is also some final proofing to do for a guy from Italy that has been patiently waiting for me to finish since August. I may actually get some Flames of War in too.

Happy Holidays! Happy New Year!

Life: The Bachelor, Week 1.4

Well I can say that it really blows that Aerin is still away. I think I would be much happier if it had only been a week, but two weeks is getting to be a really long time. I'm pretty sure I'm suffering withdrawl from the lack of hugs and kisses. A large dose of chocolate chip cookies can only take you so far.

Last Sunday was the Gear Swap at the MEC store. I didn't get rid of everything I took, but I got rid of most of it and made $260 in the process. I really would have liked to have sold my Salomon light mountaineering/heavy backpacking boots since they don't fit anymore. I certainly didn't get many miles on them before I needed a larger size. Oh well. I hardly splurged either since I got groceries and some salad rolls from the nearby Vietnamese place and still had plenty left over for the coming weekend. Of course there is more gear in the future, but not yet.

What else...

More packing is complete, but still plenty to go. More empty boxes will no doubt return with us from Edmonton this weekend. I really don't want to bring back anything else that I will have to just move again in a few weeks.

I had a great visit with Raj (our soon to be new landlord) on Sunday afternoon. It's really great to be forming this new relationship, and I really look forward to living in a great new place too.

I've started to do some work on another Flames of War writing project. This will be a joint venture with another Calgary player. I've also dusted off some files of mine for converting some old pulp science miniatures into Flames of War.

I'm having dinner with Mike and Angela and the twins tomorrow evening. No doubt Aerin will be thrilled with the opportunity to house sit a little since it usually involves a nice soak a much larger tub.

Time to get some food before class and finish up a couple other things.

I hope you enjoy the Thanksgiving Weekend if you're in Canada.

Games: FallCon Game Convention

Last weekend was my weekend to play games at the FallCon game convention (the website is currently down) in Calgary. This annual September event was in it's 21st year, and I've had the pleasure of attending 13 of those years.

This year I ran a Flames of War tournament on Saturday morning and afternoon, raced to glory playing Formula De Saturday evening, and concluded with a very slow game of BattleTech on Sunday. Here's the synopsis of my weekend.

I have run a Flames of War tourney at FallCon for three years now, and I have yet to get a full event. This in itself was a little disappointing, but I did get to play as a result. This is a bit hard to do without tipping the balance, but at the same time with only three games to play I don't want people sitting out. I briefly considered just pushing the tables together for one big battle, but that has it's problems too. In the end everyone had a fun time. Players brought armies that included the First Special Services Force (American/Canadian infantry), South Alberta Regiment (Canadian armour), Governor General's Foot Guards (Canadian infantry), 21 Panzer Division (German armour and the winning army), 2 SS-Division (my German infantry), and another generic German infantry company.

I had setup three tables: a crossroad in bocage with a farm, Normandy "nearly" coastal town, and an Italian village in a pass. I spent a lot of time in the previous few weeks building my bocage, but the glue let me down as it slowly let go of it's green foliage over the day. Despite this disappointment it looked just great, and I look forward to going back with better glue to fix it up and add the extra foliage needed due to an insufficient supply for purchase at the store. I will also add some more long sections to the collection to ensure I have sufficient quantities for a larger table. It was an absolute blast to play on this battlefield.

Hopefully someone emails some pictures from the game because I completely forgot my camera. I want to post some pictures if I can since it really does do better with pictures.

After the boardgame and miniature auction (which I recouped $124 from the stuff too long sitting in boxes in our apartment) it was time for a game of Formula De. This is a great boardgame! It's a game of Formula One racing that has all kinds of tracks available for you to race on. It does an excellent job of simulating both the driving and excitement of racing using differently numbered dice to move your car around the track. This year I had all the luck with my rolls (as evidenced by my lack of luck with the dice in my other games) and quickly went from second at the pole to first and not looking back.

We played a three lap game with all the rules for car construction and weather on the Valencia track. It doesn't have any long straight aways for getting up to speed, so I setup my car for a lot of sudden downshifting and maneuvering. Luckily for me I started with soft tires that got me into the corners in fine form. I don't think I've ever had so much success in cornering while playing this game. And it really showed since I was pretty much dominating the race half way through the first lap.

When the weather changed to rain with two corners to go to the finish line, my car was in great condition to fend off a late hard charger with barely any rubber on his rims or fuel in his tank. He spun out coming out of the second last corner, and I was free to cruise across the finish line with the competition cringing at the sight of my rooster tail on the track two corners ahead of everyone else.

Sunday morning was my last game of BattleTech. I was a real fanboy of the game and the game universe back in the day, but I have since outgrown the slow and overwhelmed game mechanics and more of the same-repacked-as-new support that does little to interest me. The game proceeded entirely too slowly yet again, so I'm pretty sure that's it for me. I have considered simply holding onto my considerable BattleTech miniature collection and continuing to work on the fast play rules I started on years ago for large battles, but in the end I prefer Flames of War and other systems to having to come up with my own.

My game of BattleTech did accomplish one thing though - I made some contacts with people interested in acquiring some of my collection. So I will begin the process of slowly selling off chunks of my collection. I do have some real attachment to bits of it, but in the end it will likely all go. I've already started an inventory that I will send out.

This is one very fun gaming convention. I'm already looking forward to next year at FallCon. The return of the CalCon game convention in March 27-29, 2009 after a long absence will bring new opportunities for games. I'm currently considering running some games there too, but I have to finish moving first...

Games: Flames of War

I really don't know why I've waited so long to post something about one of my favourite hobbies...

I play a miniature game called Flames of War. It is a World War 2 game played with metal and resin 15mm miniatures. (For the uninitiated, 15mm refers to the scale size of a human figure, so a soldier stands 15mm tall.) I started collecting the miniatures (and trying to find someone to play) about four years ago.

I really like this game because it plays quickly while staying true to how combat was conducted during the war. Certainly it does not handle all of the details of World War 2 battles in depth, but it does well enough that I can't be bothered nitpicking any perceived shortcomings.

It is played at the platoon-level, which means a force is created from several platoons to create a company for the battle. Depending on what kind of force you chose (armoured, mechanized infantry, infantry or reconnaissance) a company will start with two to eight or more platoons. You can field a company from any nation involved in the war based on organizational lists for creating your company.

There is all kinds of equipment to choose from throughout the conflict, so battles are generally fought according to the era. The first era was the Mid-War period of 1942-1943 that concentrated on the Mediterranean and East Fronts. For the last couple of years the focus has been on the Late War period of 1944 onward with most of the new supplemental material concentrating on the summer of 1944.

Personally, I have miniatures (not all assembled and painted) for mid-war and late war Germans, Russians and Americans. I'm slowly trying to build up my completed armies, but it is slow going sometime with the other things I enjoy doing. Running and outdoor stuff takes up more time in the summer, so after the move this fall will be prime time for going hard with more miniatures to complete.

In September I am running a Flames of War tourney at the Fallcon game convention, so right now I'm busy with making terrain. I'm also trying to get some more finished minis for some demos at The Sentry Box.

I'll try to post some pictures of my games in the future.