Energy Boost

I've been feeling great this week.  I have been coffee free for the last 5 days and I feel much better.  I have switched to green tea sans caffiene and I have actually seen a significant boost in energy.  I also have rededicated myself to eating right.  This has likely also helped, though again after only 5 days it's effects are negligable.  I hope to keep myself disciplined so I can be in decent shape come the spring.  I plan to run a few road races this year and will need to do some significant training to make it happen. 

It's Monday morning and just as it has been for the last 4 years that means I am nearing the end of my work week.  When the clock strikes half past 2, or slightly before, I will be out of here.  I will go and pick up Asher from daycare and then head up Ospika to go and get Jasmine from school.  She always waits patiently for me to come, then regardless of when I arrive be it 2:45, 2:50 or later she always says something like "I had to wait sooooooooo long!"  It's true, she does have to wait.  She makes her little pouty face and climbs into the vehicle.  I actually get a kick out of it now, the little attitude she gets, very similar to her mom's moods. 

So, normally on Monday I am very exhausted due to my 2 early mornings and a distinct lack of sleep so we just head home and laze around for the afternoon.  Today, we have a trip to the hockey rink planned and I doubt that my little Asher man will forget about it.  He came downstairs last night near bedtime to find me taping up my hockey stick.  This prompted him to start excitedly saying "hoggie, hoggie, hoggie" as he ran over to get his mini stick and find the ball.  Dad had to tell him that no, we couldn't play because it was bed time.  Well, my little 2 year old is in love with hockey.  He started to cry and when he was called upstairs shortly after by his mom, he through himself on the floor at the bottom of the stairs to have a little tantrum all because he couldn't play "hoggie".  Today is the day.  It's about -5C with a light snow falling so hopefully in about 4 hours when we can play the weather will still be nice, and Dad will still have some energy.  Jasmine has even rekindled her like of hockey due to Asher's enthusiasm and that also makes me happy.  Last time out, Jasmine even joined me in the game of shinny that was going on while were there.  She even set up dear old Dad for a goal. 

My plan for this post was to provide a review of the book I am currently reading.  As I am still currently reading it and didn't finish it as I had hoped, I can't review it quite yet.  I am more then half way through "Time Must Have a Stop" by Aldous Huxley.  This is the second of his books I have read, after being gifted "Brave New World" last year by my sister.  Unlike the first novel, the current one is more of a standard novel rather then a dissertation on a utopian world that Huxley created.  The main theme of the novel so far has been teenage Sebastian and his place in the world.  He sees the contrast of his father's communist type ideas juxtaposed against the materialistic ways of his Uncle Eustace who married into money and couldn't be more different then his brother John who is Sebastian's dad.  I will provide a complete review when finished, I am quite enjoying the read so far. 

As a book nerd I had some considerable excitement over the weekend.  I was dropping off some clothing donations at the St.Vincent de Paul thrift store (love the small shops, they truly feel like non-profits) and as always I browsed their book shelves.  I found 2 gems, "Sons and Lovers"  by D.H. Lawrence and "The Red Pony" by John Steinbeck.  I happily plunked down a toonie on the counter and walked out.  "Sons and Lovers" was written in 1913 and finds itself at #9 on Modern Library's top 100 novels of the 20th century.  As I outlined last summer a long term goal of mine is to read all 100 books on the list.  At the time I thought it could be done in a few years, but its more likely to take a better part of my lifetime.  As I found out, the local library has suprisingly few of the books on the list, unfortunate because you would think the classics would be the books that most belonged in a library.  I will have to acquire most of the books in stores, so I was happy to find the first copy of this novel I had seen since I started looking.  I haven't memorized the whole list, but I remembered this one due to it being in the top 10.  I've already read books 2, 5, 6 and 10 so this will make 5 of the top 10 once i've read it.  Yes, I know I am getting way too excited about this.  "The Red Pony" is not one of John Steinbeck's well known books, but it was the third novel he wrote (it's more of a novella) and I look forward to reading it.  "Grapes of Wrath" and "Of Mice and Men" were both awesome reads that have turned me on to Steinbeck in a big way.  I then walked across the street to the other thrift store "Bibles for Missions".  There, I was lucky to find 2 more books to my liking.  "Life of Pi" by Yann Martel and "Lucky" by Alice Sebold.  I have almost bought "Life of Pi" on Amazon a few times and am looking forward to finding out what all the hype is about.  "Lucky" is a book I already own, but I made the purchase for a friend who has been wanting to read it.  I know it is a great book and am happy that I was able to find an extra copy for a quarter.  Yes, the religious ladies were holding a 50% off sale making their dirt cheap prices even cheaper.  Major score for a total of 3 bucks!

The movie at work this week was "The Hobbit" in 3d.  As someone who is complete ignorant to the whole storyline I was still able to thoroughly enjoy it.  Great visuals, cool story and a solid amount of humour mixed in.  I am looking forward to the next installment.  My favorite movie moment this week though was when I caught the last half hour of "That's What I Am".  Done on a tiny budget starring Ed Harris and his wife, it's about kids in the 8th grade at a school where Harris' character teaches.  Set in the 1960s it involves a trio of nerdy types who end up getting to know each other through a school project that their teacher (Harris) puts them together for.  I caught the tail end of it and, wow!  I was tearing up during a scene where the most outcast of the three gets up at the school talent show in the face of bullying and sings accapella despite not being that great of a singer.  I excitedly told Sheila all about it, and will have to go about watching the movie as soon as I can. Hopefully Sheila and I can enjoy it together if I can find it online.

Sheila pointed out last week that this blog has a distinct lack of Sheila in it.  I pointed out that most of my content is related to sports, books, movies and poker but I did agree with her.  My next post will be dedicated to all things Sheila, look forward to it later this week most likely on the weekend.  Until then.