I am your mothers lesbian lover aka family day in Ontario

Monday, Feb 16 was a Family Day in Ontario. Vanja had an idea to celebrate it with a dinner with the entire family. And not just the family but the dysfunctional family. It was SO much fun.
My role was to be the Matriarch of the family. So I was mother of Vanja, who was married to Darren (to whom I was the mother in law). They had twins boys, both of which had been made by a different guy and none of them was Darren. I brought candy to my grandkids. And then there was a Miss Misstressy, who was Darrens secretary and as the night continued, the Matriarch herslef and Miss Misstressy had a private session in the bedroom. That could have been influenced by the fact that Matriarch's lesbian lover was unable to come that night. And then there was also an alcoholic aunt who prepared an amazing turkey loaf. And an uncle of a sort. And a random neighbour whom noone knew, but she always showed up to the events. Ah, and also a Grandpa, who was very in love with young females and still claimed to be the father of my daughter, which I declined. Such a lovely family.
And - the family portrait (taken by Leslie):

Estonia is a World Champion in skiing

Feb 20 - Andrus Veerpalu of Estonia won the men's 15-kilometer classical race at the Nordic skiing world championships. Yay!!!
Good news!
And it feels SOOO good to tell people that news:) I even managed to get it in at the Meet the new Candidate (for the Faculty position) meeting.

mul haavada paranend, voi mitte/update on wounds

So... a week ago (last Saturday) I went to see a doctor to get an estimation about my snowboarding wounds. It had been a week and there was still a significant amount of pain. The doctor dude told me (after 3 hours of waiting) that there is no reason to worry. 1 - the rib pain will go away in a few (!) month, because it's likely fractured. 2 - the shoulder pain/weakness -he prescribed me physiotherapy and said if I don't do anything then I may lose/never gain back the normal function of my right arm. Whaaaat?
At least I'm alive and my face is ok, I thought.

I couldn't get an appointment for physio, as they are apparently very busy. I have to get one once I get back. I hope my shoulder does not "freeze" in the meanwhile.
And then Wednesday came around, and I had such horrible pains in my ribs, that I was ready to "throw my soul away" (hinge heitma). I couldn't breathe or move. Poor Dorota was so worried and was trying to force me to see a doctor for another time. I ended up not seeing anyone (after the pain reduced upon consumption of large amount of painkillers). But - it did feel a lot better the day after.

And now - it's 2 weeks after the day when the mountain hit me, and the ribs feel better, but still - no sleeping on my stomach or intense hugging or any abs exercises. And the arm... well... I learned a few exercises to try. Some strenght have returned (I can shake peoples hands), but I still can't do "propeller" aka circles with this arm.
Ahh... why??? How will I be able to surf in 2 days like that???

President in town

Yeah, so Mr. Obama was in O-dot today. What a day! The entire center-down was blocked for cars. People living by his route were not allowed to open windows or doors. There were american and canadian flags everywhere. And there were police-people EVERYwhere. Every street corner had at least 4 cops. I was walking to my friends place via canal, and the edges of the canal appeared yellow (because police was wearing the fluorecent yellow vests). And there were helicopters flying around.

I did not see him or his car... But still - I had a chance to be within a kilometer from the American president and breathe the same air and enjoy the same snowflakes as him. Woot!

Edit: Obama also had an unplanned stop at the Byward market in Ottawa. He bought a souvenir for his daughter, a BeaverTail and maple cookies from the Byward market house Le Moulin de Provence. So the next time YOU will be in Ottawa, I will take you there:) The pic is from the Ottawa Citizen.It's also rather symbolic that it was the very first place where I had coffee in Ottawa (six years ago). It was Ave who took me there. Good times:)

how to tame Her

She is very independent and walks Her own way. She is convinced that the little dot on Earth where She lives does not contain Her Prince. She even doesn't pay attention to guys anymore. She is nice and flirts occasionally, but Her thoughts and heart are not to be taken over by any random butterflies.
The Valentines Day came and She didn't even notice. Whatever, She thought. But yet She decided to go out with Her friends. She walked into Her friends apartment and met Him. And there was something about Him that made Her feel a little restless inside.

It used to be so easy. She liked someone, She smiled and after that everything proceeded naturally. Obviously, there were many broken hearts, on both sides of the battle field, but there was never any excessive planning nor worrying. But once one sees the same routine over-occuring for enough times, one learns to know the game and its rules and flowing. But how do you act when you know the game? And what are the rules anyway? Should you follow the "innocence" route and pretend you don't know what will happen later? Not that you would know anyway. Or should one be just straight foward and say how things are? But then there's no mystery...

So She was there, had no idea what to do and was thinking: Should I go and talk to Him? But what if He doesn't like me? Or what if I will talk too much and be too obvious? But if I will be too "hinty", He will never understand. Perhaps I should just be my usual "Ice Princess" ."

Then they chat. The talked about labware at home and about best potato salads. He thinks he can prepare the best one, and She thinks She can do better. She talks about wheat and He says He can drive a tractor. She is impressed. Interestingly, they are significantly taller than everyone else, so it leaves just them to chat (or maybe this is just how She feels, levitating on a small cloud). They dance. And dance a bit more. And then the music stops and everyone just disappears. He asks to have dinner with Her one day. She is so happy. They chat and She feels She is standing too close to Him (closer than you should be to a guy you don't know). He holds Her hand and She doesn't want to let go of it ever. He walks Her home. Before He leaves, He kisses Her. Happy Valentines Day:)
She is the happiest girl on Earth.

Ilusat sobrapaeva/Happy Friend's day

Hea sõbra jaoks on valla
mu uksed ja mu hing,
mu silmad ning mu kõrvad
ning mu perekonnaring.
Kui tahad, tule alati,
ma ootan aken avali
või lenda-lenda kas või
läbi telekanali

Oi poisid-plikad
tore on see elu
JAAA!
Kui kõikidel on
seltsimees ja semu
HURRAA!

Kui sinu hoov on ka su sõbra õu,
siis ükski soov ei käi teil üle jõu!
Kui põnevaks ja rikkaks
laupäev saab,
kui sulle sõbrad
külla tulevad!
JAAA!

For the good friend
Open are my doors and my soul,
And my eyes and my ears
And my entire family.
When you want, always come,
I will be waiting, windows open,
or perhaps just fly through the TV screen


Oi, guys and gals,
This life is awesome
When everyone has a companion and friend!

When your courtyard is also your friends’
Then none of the dreams is unachievable!
How exciting and rich
The Saturday will become,
When your friends will come by!

Leopold, Koige Suurem Sober/From Leopold, my childhood kids show

And here's to set the mood:

I'm goofy aka Hundionu's weekend Mont St Anne

On Friday (Feb 6) at 10 am we (BMI grad students) loaded ourselves and our plentiful stuff onto the bus and headed toward the Mont St Anne in Quebec. For our superfun skiing/snowboarding weekend.
Only 5 hours later we there, stocked up on food, changed and headed to the hill. I had brough skis and a snowboard with me. I had never snowboarded but I have the equipment (that I found from Julias basement before she moved out), so I wanted to try. The skis came from the same basement. So Friday was the skiing night. It turned out that the rental boots didn't fit my skis (go figure, why people can't lose their skis with the boots, so I wouldn't need find alternative ways??). Anyway, I got the boots and rental skis too and Leslie and Mark and I headed to the first chairlift and up we went. Man, was it ever cold. But thankfully the chairs had "lids" so we could encapsulate ourselves. Once up, we couldn't see any Green Circle runs (the easy ones), so we took the Blue Square. How difficult can it be, I said. Note: the next day there was a big orange banner in the beginning, saying `not for beginners`.
Eh... it was actually a pretty tough run. REALLY steep in two places. And I was scared. And I fell. And lost one ski. And a knee almost. But Vanja brough me the ski and I got back on track. Once we got down with Leslie we made sure we know where the Green runs are. The rest of the nightskiing was pure pleasure and fun:)
And the lights - they were so beautiful.
Later we had a great dinner, a few drinks, had visitors from neighbouring condos coming over to eat my `hapukoore kook` and I went to visit others to play Apples to Apples game. Good times:)

Saturday: Snowboarding time. I rented the boots and got ready for the lesson. I was happy to learn that my Aloha! snowboard does indeed functions on the snow (you never know - such name does not exactly indicate any snow). First we learned `shuffling" aka walking up the hill with the board attached to one leg. Great workout. And then we learned "heeling" and then "toeing". Ah, and I also learned that I am not "regular" but I am "goofy", which simply means that my leading leg is the right leg. Most people have the left one on the lead. We also attempted to learn the turning and tried to go up the t-bar lift, where most of us failed and just fell off the lift like ripe apples. But it's not easy holding onto the bar, then stand straight on the board, while only being attached to it by one foot and figure out something to do with the other foot. Anyway.
And then we were done.
Laura and I headed to the gondolas, because we refused to use the chair lift, because how the hell how are you supposed to get down from there. Gondolas are much nicer. So we went. Up and up and more up. Until we were really high. And we found a Green Circle run. And went down. It went pretty well:) Yes, a few falls, and some "shuffling". But also some really nice runs. It felt so good!
Later I upgraded to the Blue square ones (the difficult ones) and had a blast. Andrea was teaching me a bit more. And I learned to do the "toe to heel" turn. I also almost got the "heel to toe" one, but I never managed to stay upright after the turn:) Ahh, and the snow was SO soft and nice.
All and all - such a good time!Then we went home, I ran quickly to the sauna, then changed, and then we headed to the Quebec City. We had a tasty mussel dinner with beer (very nice, but just a bit too long), and then walked around the city in the rain. They had a big Winter Festival going on, but not too much was happening at night. The snowsculptures were amazing though. We never made it to a bar... It's weird, I have been Quebec City twice, and both times it has been raining and I never made it to a bar.

Sunday. All was ICE. I still rented the boots and went up to try to snowboard. Afterall, I did pay for the skilift for Sunday. So I need to use it. Oh, was it ever hard. The ice pebbles were about 2 cm in diameter and it was so difficult to manuver. I fell once and it hurt SO much due to the ice. But I did get a few straight runs in and it was nice. And then we were almost at the bottom of the hill. I saw the First Aid people skiing by with someone strapped to the bed. I thought that I wish it will never be me. A minute or two later, something happened - the ice did its job and I got stuck and fell. Well, first I flew like a superman and then fell flat on my ribs. I was totally "winded (read: I could't breathe). Once the breathing came back, the ribs were still in such pain that I couldn't get up. So the Prince, with a cross on his back, came on the red "horse". And he ended up driving me down. At least I was not strapped to a bed or anything, but I still felt embarrassed. I even tried out the First Aid facility and was seen by a Doc. He said all seems allright. Thank god.
What a day!
So I was resting for a bit, played cards, had lunch and then went to the bunny hill. But even this was all ice, so after two runs I decided not to risk with my life anymore. Besides, I couldn't really bend over to do the bindings anyway:)

We got back to Ottawa at 10 pm. I got home, had tea and went to bed:)
Such an amazing weekend! I had such a good time. And I am so proud of myself that I did succeed in snowboarding! Yes, I do have quite some practicing to do, but still - I thought I could never do it. But I did. And on a difficult hill. And Andrea and Teodora said that I was doing really well:)
When I was on a move on my board and had to think of the balance, then I was pictureing the penguin from the "Surf's up" movie. SO you can imagine me, on my Aloha board in a penguin surfing position:)