The seam on my pants felt a bit off when I left for my walk.....

I went for a long walk today. I got blisters on my feet. Not to worry. I have worse problems.

....Chaffing.....Oh chaffing......

T

Feasting and Festivus Cheer

Hi!

Please mark off January 28, 2006 on your calendars! - our Italian Feast Fundraiser! Let us stuff you full of great Italian cuisine, and then help you to burn off all those calories as we dance the night away! Tickets are $30 at the door. HOWEVER, since you are so special, we will sell you tickets in advance for $20. :) Looking forward to dining and dancing in support of a great cause!

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and all the best in the New Year!!!

Toni and Roz

Marathon Haiku #67

when we go to rome
we will walk and walk and walk
they will pinch our bums

Welcome to the blog!

My water bath needs to heat up ten more degrees before I can put my samples in, so here' s some new stuff for the blog.
Hello people visiting our website!
We've been having some tough times with fundraising lately, but you wouldn't believe our optimism (see blog top 10 below, nothing will stop us).
We like a challenge, and walking in the snow when it's -25C.
We eat hills for breakfast and we're going to use all of our skills to fundraise like animals (ring tailed lemurs are particularly good at raising money, and they don't even use intimidation like rhinos).
Let's make a list of our skills, I'll start:
- Toni speaks very nearly four languages: english, french, legalese and tabby
- I can draw Sailor Moon, with my eyes close, in 52.5 seconds
- ...
What else?
R

Late November Beautiful Days

The weather has been awesome, seriously awesome.
On Sunday we walked 90 blocks, and I was actually a bit warm.
Today is also lovely, although it might snow by Saturday.
So, wish us well for warm weather walkin'!
R

All better and freshly motivated!

Those who know and love her, know that Roz is motivated strongly through competition. I'm not a competing kinda gal, but I'll give it my best shot.

I'm publicly admitting to our less than stellar training attempts as of late. Yes, sickness and less than supportive husbands have stood in our way; however,..... excuses, excuses!

Now it's on. I plan to train to my max potential 6 days a week starting yesterday. I dare you, Roz, to keep up with me.

Bring it.

Toni
PS - I think I'm going to enjoy this dirty talkin', power walkin me.

Chicken soup for the Toni

So guys, Toni has the plague. We might have to bleed her soon if it gets much more serious.
In order to cheer her up, I propose a joke competition on the blog site. Post your best jokes here and Toni will let us know which one made her snort so hard her knees blew out.
I'll start:

How do you get down from an elephant?
You don't, you get down from a duck.

R

Walking machines

We are walking machines. That's right. Yesterday we walked 41 blocks. Guess how long it took us? We are amazing.
Our kitties also met yesterday. Quite an adventure.
R

Does anybody read our blog anymore?

This blog needs some love. We post, we comment, but where are the people? I don't think my husband reads our blog at all. Come on everybody, teamwork, there's no I in blog. Or "eye" come to think of it.
Here's my dream fill in the blank:
Last night I dreamt that I was trying to teach __________ to play _________.
Go for it!
R

Ramping up for the Waterpark

Waterpark tomorrow everybody! Who wouldn't want to support a great fundraiser and get to splash around for a couple of hours?
I'm most excited about the tube rides and the wave pool.
Next is Halloween, and that should be lots of fun too.
This week we almost ran all of Toni's block, and we only got scared once by thunder and lightning.
HUB was a bit of a bust for fundraising, but you've got to give them credit for being a team.
See you guys on the waterslides!
R

Marathon Haiku # 7,864,329

Two lines on one path
We go to go and go fast
Cake at the finish

Bananas!

Yesterday we met our Team. Team Diabetes Canada from Northern Alberta, or at least our peeps who chose to show up. We have official t-shirts now and everything!
I wonder where Cheez Whiz got its start?
It was nice to meet other people interested in fundraising and training for the marathon.
We will crush our competition like they are old, smelly bananas. And then we will bake them into banana bread (with chocolate chips) and eat them.
MMMmmm, it tastes like victory.

See y'all at the garage sale!
R

goldfish

I hope everyone had a fabulous turkey weekend!

Things have been going swell, I say. We're into our..... 6th week of training! holy cow! That's incredible! Yay us.

And now here's a joke that kept me giggling all day:

Two goldfish are in their tank. One turns to the other and says, "You man the guns. I'll Drive."

hehe.....HAHAHAHA.....

T

Top 10 Reasons to go Home

We went walking on Sunday, and it got darn cold, darn fast. We cut the Dr. Zhivago walk a bit short and went home. So I begin, the first top ten on this blog: Roz's Top 10 Reasons to go Home
10. Creepy men. It's why we leave bars, it's why we avoid eye contact at bus stops, and it's a darn good reason to cut a walk short.
9. Bad underwear. I mean when you get up thinking today is a good day for sexy panties and forget to bring an extra pair for your walk. If a rash develops in any place you can't see without a mirror and advanced yoga, it's time to go home.
8. Armageddon. If you still have a home.
7. Chocolate. Sometimes, it's not home that distracts you but an unfortunately located confectionary establishment on your walking route. Damn that ice cream place!
6. TV. We have already encountered this one. You will walk much faster if you are in danger of missing your programs. If only we could go faster than the speed of light, we could get home before we left...
5. Boys with toys. We would go home if we saw Nelson and Brad drive by with cable, speakers, electrical equipment etc. No one needs their bedroom ceiling converted into a movie theatre.
4. Zombies. Realistically, the best place to be is home, that just makes sense.
3. Brad Pitt. If Brad Pitt showed up at Toni's house, I don't think I could stop her.
2. Anakin Skywalker. If Anakin showed up at my house, I don't think Toni could stop me.
1. The freaking cold!!! We were so unprepared for October! First, you get chilly, then you lose feeling in your fingers, then your hands and finally your spleen. And if you make it home without frostbite, your butt is so numb your heart almost stops. It was bad people. I'm still cold. Jean, we need hats, stat! Tomorrow, we will be much better prepared.
(PS Nothing else will stop us. Nothing.)
R

@#$@#$@(@#*$@#(@&!&@#* hill

So, now we need some assistance with creating the most incredible reward ever on this earth..... You see, we are quickly approaching the one month mark of training (CAN U BELIEVE iT!!!), and we need a sizable reward to serve 2 important purposes:

1) To make us feel proud of our accomplishments thus far;
2) To encourage us to keeeeeep goinggggggg (Not that we have much choice in the matter).

What brilliant ideas do you have?

Next, it's about time we let you know of a few of our upcoming funraising ideas/activities:
1) the oh so elusive jar of _________. Guess how much/many and if you guess right, YOU WINNNN! The catch: the guesses are gonna cost ya.

2) WATERPARK, baby! Oct 22 from 7:30 pm to 10:30 pm - snack and trampoline jumping included...... email us or post on this blog for more info

3) Halloween activities that aren't quite planned yet..... Roz, let's do this tonight. In the mean time, should you be interested in some form of pubcrawling on this costume occassion, let us know.

4) Good ol' fashioned garage sale in good ol' Cold Lake. Oct 15. Have any goods to donate to this worthy cause? we'd be glad to take em off your hands.

Tonight - up and down the @#$@#$@(@#*$@#(@&!&@#* hill!
T

Jog Blog

It has come to my attention that the way to kill an interesting blog comment conversation is to leave a quantum physics comment. The jar poll has died, and I am so sorry that I ran it over with the geekmobile.
Nelson thinks I'm cool.
Anyways, yesterday we jogged for half of our walk. It felt great, until I stood up after dinner and realized I left my legs behind.
If you want, you can leave ideas for Toni and I for Halloween. What should we dress up as?
R

Yesterday

Yesterday we walked 5.5 (with an error of 0.3) miles. I swallowed a bug. Toni can tell you all about it. She had to stop to laugh at me. We should have a camera with us for these Kodak moments. Bugs don't taste like very much, especially when they hit the back of your throat before you can do much about it. But they do stick there a bit, especially if you're parched and forgot to bring your water bottle. Toni, didn't I pull a bug out of your eye last time? I wonder what the bugs are like in Rome.
R

Pictures!

Us out and about.








More us.

How to pledge us online - in detail. Bikini proposal!

I thought that perhaps a detailed description of how to pledge us online might be helpful.
Also, if we get over half of our fundraising completed online - we will do the marathon in bikinis. That's not to entice you to give us money, that's a threat. Hee hee.

Okay, you go to: http://www.diabetes.ca/Section_donations/teamdiabetesindex.asp
Now, the site is pretty busy, so don't be too distracted. I know, you will want to start reading about Team Diabetes, and you'll be all like "Who's this guy in the sunglasses?", but press on! Nay, do not tarry at the BMI calculator (I tried it and it's not as much fun as you might guess) or be frightened like Brad might be by the bumblebee colours.
You are looking for the button "Pledge a participant."

You're in! Fill in some information about yourself so that you can get your tax receipt. On the left side of the page, choose pledge a participant. We're going to Rome, March 26, 2006. Enter our name(s). Great! There we are, you can make your donation.

Now, you might be planning to support us in other ways, by coming to events or baking us cake. We appreciate everybody's support and enthusiasm, in all the little ways (like giving us blog comments to read when our bums hurt). Thanks so much friends and family! Get on it strangers, you are seriously lagging behind.

R

period. punctuation.

I've just spent the past 20 minutes trying to figure out how to use this blog - post pics, post charts of our progress, filter out strange spam comments - and I got nowhere. crap.

After my minor meltdown yesterday (OMG How are we EVER going to FUNDRAISE ENOUGH!!!???), I'm better now. I'm calm. Serene. Focused

We need to walk..... and walk and walk and walk and walk and walk and walk.

Continuing on with my random thought process - we forgot to tell you about Sam the Student! So, almost a week ago we decided to walk up and down Groat Road (you know, the road that winds and is on a gradual slope so that it BURNS and BURNS and BURNS when you are walking North and you can't quit because where are you going to go? and it Burns and Burns....) and we see a young gentleman with a bookbag (hence the appropriate nickname Sam the Student) - and to extend this runon sentence even further I will keep going and tell you the rest of this oh so exciting story without using even one period - Sam was quite a distance ahead of us on the opposite side of the road heading north on Groat and we get this silly idea that we will PASS HIM oh yesss, so we forge on one burning step at a time and he didn't stand a chance too bad he didn't know we were racing him but that's not the point the point my friend(s) is that it burnned and burnned and burnnnned and our inner buttocks we crying out in pain the entire time but we didn't quit (regardless of the fact that, as previously mentioned, even if we wanted to quit we had no place to go!) and that is then end of my story. period.

T. period.

Marathon Haiku 4

roz walks toni walks
we walk around all the blocks
we want cake and naps

Jar Poll

Imagine:
You are walking around with some money burning a hole in your pocket. If I was in charge of the world you'd have dabloons in your money purse, but we will have to wait for that.
You see a jar. A large jar. It's enormous. The mammoth of the jar world. And, could it be? Oh man, it is. It is filled with, no, you are too exicted to speak. Take a moment to catch your breath.
They are offering you guesses, $2 a guess, and if you tell them how many are in that jar, you win them all. You pee yourself, just a little bit.

Now, what is in that jar? Chocolates? Spiders? Transistors? Bacteria? Teeth?
Let us know what you think!

Where our journey begins and ends in Rome!
















Picture courtesy of www.aviewoncities.com

Today my bum, tomorrow the world!

So, for those of you who don't already know, this weekend I helped a friend move, and I am still stiff. In the region of the back of my thighs, only higher. I would like to add that yesterday we walked in the rain, and that the cold weather is certainly not helping me recover. So, today I say to Mother Nature, enough already! My parking lot is becoming the gray Nile and the darkness is altogether disconcerting. Some of us have things to do that involve being outside, and big plans for October that would come off much better if the weather would give us a break. Seriously, wasn't summer bad enough? I had to go to Mexico to see sunshine, and as it was, I just missed the hurricane there.

I thought I had a brilliant fundraising idea, but it was in my dream and I don't remember what all the excitement was about. I am convinced that my sleeping self is much smarter than my waking self. So, if I am ever knocked out cold, please be aware that I might try to take over the world in my snoozy stupor.

I would like to add a haiku composed by my mom,
Pink with ears up straight
Together never alone
Maybe winter white

R

pretty it up!

Roz, you should make this blog prettier. It needs some of your creative energy.

T

folk

So we need some fundraising ideas, folks. Or is it just folk? how many people read this anyway? hmmm... maybe we can just use it as a personal journal. We can talk about our crushes, and who's flirting with whom. Oh wait. We're married. Well, we can talk about our cats. Today, meetoo climbed up my leg and made me yelp like this "YELLLPPP!!!" But then he was so cute and cuddly that I kissed him like this "mmmmmuuuuuaahhhhhhh".

Back to marathoning. We need fundraising idea, folk(s). If we can fundraise, we can get inspired to keep on a trainin'. Things are going awesome though! There's some weight losses in there too. But I still want cake.
T

The Long Walk

Yay! We have finished our first week of training. Yesterday we walked about 11 km. We have begun to get a little bit concerned about the weather, it was pretty cold for the last 30 min of our walk. I have to get my sister to knit us hysterical hats. I think they should be like those cute hats we all wore as little girls, that cover your neck and the back of your head with little cat ears sticking up on top. Maybe, maybe. On the plus side, the hats might scare away the crazies...

R

Marathon Haiku 3

walk chilly night air
push on past sunset grows dark
winter is coming

saying yes to anything

So. We walked a difficult and challenging 5 k that including a whole lotta sweating, some swearing, and resulted in some cake eating. Good times.

Oh, ya. And a crazy man asked us if we were preparing to go fight in Iraq. Out of fear and surprise (mostly fear) I said yes. What does that say about me?

What does it mean to "do your daily dozen"? Crazy lady crossing the street asked, and again (out of surprise and fear) I said yes.

What did we learn today, folks? Out of fear and surprise I may just say yes to anything.

Good night!
T

Marathon Haiku 2

speedy shoes swift steps
sayonara sluggishness
soon success so sweet

Marathon Haiku 1

swing arms wiggle hips
kick dirt trod grass crunch leaves go
walk walk walk walk walk

oh cramp

Another 4 km done. We were laughed at. But it's fine. We're fine. yes.

I look forward to plenty of posts filled with Haikus and Rozisms. I will simply add my usual sarcasm and snide remarks. In a supportive tone of course.

At this point I wish I knew a little more about Blogs so that I could add pics and charts that show our progress .... until we figure it out you're stuck reading our blabber.

Here is some info about Team Diabetes Canada:

http://www.diabetes.ca/section_donations/TeamDiabetesIndex.asp

Here is some info on our MARATHON:

http://www.maratonadiroma.it/

OK Roz, let's go make it official tomorrow.

T.

The first day - why do we look so silly?

Have you seen these people walk by? Bobbing along with water bottles on their bottoms, through rain, snow, hail, hurricane, tornado, earthquake, attack by Vogons... That's us now! No longer can I shake my head at frosted walkers and runners on my way home to hot chocolate and TV. Now I will smile and wave at them as Toni and I walk by, bobbing along with water bottles on our bottoms.
The first 5 km have been walked.
In the words of Bilbo Baggins, "It is a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don't keep your feet, there's no telling where you might be swept off to."

just the beginning....

I'm still trying to figure out how this works... give me a minute.....