Friday, May 18, 2012

Edmonton Spring Sprint - June 2, 2012

 The following is a message from my Mother regarding Edmonton's upcoming Spring Sprint Walk and Fun Run for the Brain Tumour Foundation of Canada


It's too far for me to make it there for the weekend or I'd be going for the run, some food, fun and the great prizes I've been hearing about...


If you're within Canada but too far away to make it to Edmonton that weekend, the Spring Sprint is taking place in a number of cities across Canada through May and June - check out the list at the bottom of this post for a list of upcoming dates.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dear friends and family

As most of you know, last year at this time, our daughter was diagnosed with a brain tumour. As you can imagine this was one of the most difficult times of our lives. At first it was difficult to even comprehend (I found it easier to call it a growth in her head, rather than a brain tumour).

Lyndsy had brain surgery in Dresden, Germany in late August, 2011 and has made a remarkable recovery. We couldn't be happier. She is attending University and in fact at the end of April she competed in a 10 km run. 

Shortly after she was diagnosed last year,  I found out about a fundraising walk for the Brain Tumour Foundation called the "Spring Sprint".  I attended this walk last year, and as well Fred and I went to a support group meeting in Edmonton to learn as much as we could about this terrible disease. This past year I became involved with the Spring Sprint as a way to give back and help others. I am the Spring Sprint Coordinator. 

The walk will be held on June 2, 2012 in Hawrelak Park. It is a 2.5 km or 5 km walk around Hawrelak Park. Along with the walk there will be entertainment, door prizes, a silent auction (we have obtained some great prizes), and lunch. 

If you are able to participate - I encourage you to sign up.

To register or to donate directly to the Edmonton Spring Sprint (we have a goal of $75,000) please go to


Thank you.

Sincerely,


Sharon Schultz

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sunday, May 6, 2012

Oberelbe-Marathon 10km

To parallel yesterday's race package pick-up Johannes was completely relaxed (almost bored?) and I was super pumped! Too bad we still had over an hour and a bus trip out to the start line to go after already driving the half hour from Freiberg into Dresden for the race...

The Finish Line was in the stadium behind us
We were both still a bit sleepy since my bed is tiny, it was noisy outside until about 5am and well, we had to get up early to be there on time. Perhaps the greatest disadvantage of a race that doesn't start and end at the same point is the logistics of getting to the start/from the finish if you come with a vehicle...

Saturday, May 5, 2012

Race Package Pick-up in Dresden

I was so excited about finally entering a race again that I'm surprised I didn't have this entry written and ready to publish much earlier. I'm sure I would have been sitting in front of my computer so I could tell you all about the race and my excitement the night before it if Johannes wasn't around to make the weekend even busier (and more fun too of course)! He's such a distraction sometimes...


Am I the only one excited about this race?

Last weekend we had such beautiful weather and although we got moving a bit late and spent a tiny bit more time in the sports store than we should have Johannes, Johanna and I had a wonderful time hanging out in Dresden Saturday afternoon and into the evening. 

Wednesday, April 25, 2012

A Crafter's Nightmare (but a Happy Runner)

After being up late into the night untangling this mess, I was still anxious to get a start on the project those bobbins had been set up for prior to being tossed into a bag for a week for 2 while I went ahead and made something else. Now that that's finished I wanted to go back and finish what I'd started. I didn't know that would be so complicated!


This definition of patient: " Bearing or enduring pain, difficulty, provocation, or annoyance with calmness"  describes how I handled this yesterday evening. I was very proud when it was finally all untangled!


I have good news too. 

Tuesday, April 24, 2012

Hot Cross Cookies?

At home we always have Hot Cross Buns  around Easter and I definitely haven't seen any here anywhere. Apparently there's 'Easter Bread' but I haven't seen that either. Now, I know Easter's over, but I really missed having these and we ran out of time to try making them over the Easter weekend itself, so here it is now.

My friends and roommates I shared with had never seen/had a hot cross bun before and immediately referred to them as cookies, which is just as well since I deflated them just before putting them in the oven and they never recovered from it. I'm gradually improving my ability to work with yeast and the lesson I've learnt this time is: even if you read the word 'slash' in a recipe, they probably don't mean for you to take a knife to your nicely risen buns - the air goes out of them like a balloon that's been stabbed! 

Like I said, it's for the best no one knew hot cross buns so they couldn't know that they were supposed to be a bit lighter... Even so, they were still very tasty.

This recipe is adapted from The little loaf. She's hosting April's Fresh From the Oven Challenge. The challenge is to make Hot Cross Buns this month and that's what I did. Fresh From the Oven is a monthly baking challenge that I wanted to join earlier when I saw they were making bagels and croissants, but finally got around to it this time! Those goodies will have to be a project on my own some other day.

Sunday, April 22, 2012

Running Plan: Monday, April 23 - Sunday, April 29

Only 1 week left until race day! I'm pretty excited, it's been a long time since I've been in a race and this one is supposed to be a beautiful run down the Elbe River into Dresden.


This Week:
Monday        30 minute run
Tuesday       35-45 minute run: 7.3 km in 48 min!
Wednesday  Running Group - Week 4: Pyramid Sprints and a few laps around the track barefoot; then Climbing!
Thursday     35-45 minute run

Sunday         10 km Race: Oberelbe-Marathon, Dresden


Saturday, April 21, 2012

Spring is in the Air


Finally, it seems like spring is actually here! I've been so excited seeing blossoms around town. Especially on the magnolia trees! There are at least 4 of them with in a few blocks of campus and I think it's the combination of the pastel-pink colour and the sheer size of the flowers that makes me feel so giddy.

I always enjoy seeing a little bit more open each time I go out for a run or in the case of this tree, when heading to the gym. Unfortunately this is something I don't do often enough to make it worth it these days. As soon as it was nice enough outside, I completely lost my motivation to go there to workout and I switched to running outside. As could be expected, I'm enjoying that a lot more than running on the spot in a sweaty room and have been exploring the area around the outside of the city a lot more lately. My routes keep changing and sometimes I just take a trip down the small streets heading out into the countryside, through the little villages and other days I'll head into the forest where things are just starting to turn green. I've been falling in love with running again and have been feeling a lot better lately because of it, both physically and mentally!

Friday, April 20, 2012

Monkey Bread Minis


Alright, these are already polished off so it's about time I finally got my post finished.

I've never had Monkey Bread in it's original form and correct me if I'm wrong, but these are just smaller - since they're baked in muffin tins instead of a bundt pan.

I think I've been missing out. I mean, it's like cinnamon rolls, but a bit more fun because you've got all these separate ball bits to pull off and nibble on. And the individual balls are like Tim Bits! Plus, while they're baking it's at least as enjoyable as when you get to eat them - the smell of the cinnamon sugar + pastry + a hint of maple syrup is to die for. 

This recipe was part of last week's challenge with the Gutsy Cooks Club and I was anticipating something good again. The tricky part was that I was already set on the suggested recipe before I realized that a food processor was the main tool used. Alright, I have an immersion blender and a hand mixer but my little student kitchen isn't equipped with a food processor (no idea where we'd put it if it was 1) in the budget and 2) something we thought we'd get enough use out of). Of course it's still possible to make these little guys, what did people do before all of these gadgets entered the kitchen. In my case, I went with the 2 knife pastry cutting method until I got a bit tired of it, then switched over to my hand mixer at a low speed. It seemed to work just fine.