blogging for the sake of blogging

My deep thoughts about Spring.

I feel like these tree things my mom picked from the woods... Like them, I am inside where I don't belong, but I continue to thrive  (me: thanks to ice, muscle stimulation machines, biking, physiotherapy...etc; the tree things: thanks to some water)  BUT I am not where I want to be...(outside breathing in the amazing spring weather.)  I have replaced my typical spring activities with knee rehabilitation.

The knee rehab has been a slow process and there have been ups and downs, but I know that I will be stronger from all of this and things will continue to move forward now and in the future!!!

Either way, I am taking advantage of patio season and reading tons of books.  I just finished "Bel Canto" that Chelsea and Trevor sent to me. I really really enjoyed it and I even read it while spinning on the bike today!!! If a book can be read while biking, it must be good.  I also read "the sister" by Poppy Adams which I didn't really like in terms of the plotline, but I enjoyed the narrative way in which it was written.

This is a picture of the plant that I represent. ha

And I've made some friends!

At first they were shy, and I was shy, and we are all still shy.

Anyway, jokes aside, Tremblant is an amazing place to go when you need a breath of fresh air.

Here's what I saw on my way up to the house yesterday. ahhh.

Cabane A Sucre! (sugaring off!)

Welcome to my 100th blog post!!  It all started back in July while I was bored waiting in the airport lounge in Toronto for my flight to New Zealand!  I have really enjoyed documenting my travels and teammates through pictures and in writing.  Although many things have happened along the way, ups and downs, I hope to continue to find inspiration to write blogs through my photo's and friends!  Since having surgery I haven't had the picturesque landscape photo opportunities that I normally have travelling for skiing, but I've still found ways to get out and have a good time and take photos of funny weird things to do when you can't do SPORTS!

For example.... Last weekend was Stefan Guay's (another knee injured teammate) birthday!! And what better way to celebrate his birthday Quebec style than to hit up the SUGAR SHACK!  Tapped trees, tire sur neigh, saucisses, crepes, sirop d'erable!  Health-wise, it's pretty much the worst meal ever: dip deep fried bacon, ham, sausages, crepes and omelette in a ton of maple syrup.  And then for dessert, take reduced maple syrup, pour it onto some snow, and roll it up onto a popsicle stick and eat it.

AMAZING.

It was a good time!  PLUS in was Marco and Jeff's first experience EVER.  I think they left satisfied for at least another year.

Sugar Shack decorating tips: Go oldschool and cover the walls with junk you don't use anymore.

Pipe anybody?

EAT AS MUCH AS YOU CAN! and cover everything in syrup! I definitely put it in my soup.

They planned this!! bros for life.

Syrup in everything, seriously, no joke.

DROWN your crepes in syrup!! well done birthday boy.

EAT SYRUP ON A STICK (tire sur neige)

Roll it yourself!!

And enjoy.....

My only advice is to pop a couple Zantacs or heartburn remedies before and after consuming this amazing meal!

yay for maple syrup.  NEVER EVER offer me aunt jemima's or log cabin fake stuff. I will be mad.

Anna and Anne : Grilled Tandoori Chicken

As I've mentioned before, one of my "injury activities" was to begin cooking more creatively.  And, as it happens, my mom just picked up "The very best of Anne Lindsay, Lighthearted at Home" cookbook.  And since my name is Anna, and her name is Anne, it was like a calling from the movie "Julie and Julia" to cook a delicious new meal!

Marco, Jeff and I each opened the cookbook to a random page, then voted on who chose the best recipe.  Marco's random choice of "Grilled Tandoori Chicken" won.  We gathered some groceries and got down to BUSINESS!!

Here we have Jeff grating fresh ginger, and marco mixing the mustard/yogurt mixture.

Step 1: 

-1 tbsp dijon mustard

-1tbsp canola oil

- 1/2 cup of low fat plain yogurt

- 2tbsp minced gingerroot

Place mustard in mixing bowl, whisk in oil, drop by drop until well blended.  Stir in yogurt and gingerroot.  Set aside.

STEP 2:

- 1tsp each ground cumin and ground coriander

- 1/2 tsp ground tumeric

- 1/4 tsp cayenne

In a skillet over medium heat, cook cumin, coriander, tumeric and cayenne 1 to 2 minutes or until fragrant.

Stir the fragrant spices into yogurt mixture...

Pour mixture over chicken.  (we doubled this whole recipe for 8 pieces.)

Cover and refrigerate for at least 8 hours. (we only did 4... it was still YUMMY)

We grilled the chicken on the BBQ along with some asparagus.

Et Voila!  A delicious indian dish!!! Quick prep for LOTS of taste!

Enjoy along with a view of your choice... (We chose Tremblant)

The recipe was taken directly from Anne Lindsay's "Lighthearted at Home" cookbook.  I give it ****4 stars out of 5 because it was SUper easy to make, no crazy ingredients, and tres tasty!  I am beginning to absolutely love indian food and can't wait to try some more recipes in the near future!!!

My days lately....

I've been spending a lot of time at physio lately, so I thought I'd share some of the things that go on during a typical physio session.  Arrive, bike for 15-20 minutes, stretch!!! As seen below. Get treatment, do exercises, balance, muscle stim, and icing.  

My "special" ways of stretching.... I'm actually trying to see in the mirror how straight I can get my leg...

THE AGONY!!! hahah. This machine, the "game ready," has saved me.  Although at times it can be slightly uncomfortable, if it wasn't for the game ready I would still be a lot more swollen and a lot worse for wear.  Thank you game ready. I think I am in love with you.

And just a reminder for why we go through all of these ups and downs!!!

Thank you Mont-Tremblant for all the support!!!

Can you match me with my picture???  I have less "hat hair" in real life....

We are celebs now!! (at least around Mont-Tremblant!!!) aint' no big thang (as kent would say)

WEEK 1 post op. The adventures of Anna and Jeff on crutches!!

It's been a week! Who would have thought that doing rehab could be so entertaining!!  Jeff Frisch and I have teamed up as rehab partners, icing, stretching, biking, physio and adventuring out of the house (finally) and trying to be social!  The week started with the two of us getting out into the BIG CITY for a  delicious sponsor dinner with our sweet "patch" sponsors DGRGCPM!

Here we all are enjoying and AMAZING meal at Jo Beef!! Good food, good jokes, good times.

PAPARAZZI!!!  I love this picture, it sums up the night.  Laughing and having fun!

DGRGCPM are all the initials of each person who contributed to this sponsorship (in no particular order!! haha)  I can't thank them enough for their support!! Not to mention their non stop entertainment at dinner!

After a busy week of physio, extreme room cleaning, and too much coffee, I headed up north to the peace and quiet of the outdoors.

THE KNEE CLUB! Louis, me and Jeff hitting up the patio scene in Tremblant and having intense ACL reconstruction discussions!! We all had our knees done recently, so we had lots to catch up on! haha

AND me and Julie with a random guy we ran into on the street. He was overly stroking our heads and it was creepy.

Talk about intense rehabbers!!!  Jeff and I headed to Louis' going away party and we even managed to talk the bartenders into getting us some bags of ice! MOTIVATION!

And continuing on our intense rehab-ness, we spent a good part of the afternoon putting together my spin bike!! Don't know how our trainers do this in 20 minutes..... makes us look bad!

hmmm.... don't know what to do?

Help has arrived along with the completion of the bike!

YAy we made a bike.

P.S. can you spot the crutches in almost every picture?? haha typical

4 days post-operation! WALKING-ish

What I was doing a week ago!

What I am doing now... post ACL surgery...

Hanging with my family.... Giacomo and Dad... me looking slightly drugged...

ICING CAN BE FUN!! haha good times.  I lived on that couch for 2 days post-op.

Giacomo and I re-created the Olympic Spirit!! Miga became a gold medal skier and we had our own Olympic torch!! (popsicle sticks, tape and a candle!! Who woulda thought!)

And of course "exercising..." which means flexing, stretching and straightening!  It's really hard to straighten a swollen operated knee.... And my foot looks ridiculously HUGE in this picture! Bigger than my head! ha (I'm only a size 9.5....)

And this is the beginning of my career as a poser for stretches!! I can picture this exact picture on the wall of the gym's stretching area!!!

Anyway...

I'm back at home now and things are progressing! I am walking slowly and trying not to limp!  Also, I'm reading a pretty good book called "The girl with the dragon tatoo" (Thanks Christa!!) But I will probably be done by tomorrow!! Reading is back!  Sometimes I read a ton and then stop reading for months... So I am back on a reading roll with lots of free time on my hands while icing etc...  Check out goodreads.com  it's sort of an online book club!  We can be book club friends!

Good times! The internet is bugging me other than blogging... so. That's my story!

for once a fat knee is a good knee! (yay surgery)

NEW KNEE!  It is fat because I got SURGERY!

I have been surgically repaired by the amazing Dr. Litchfield!  New ACL and cleaned up mensicus's? Menisci? Not sure it that is plural or something.  BUT all I can say is that I'm glad I'm on track towards getting better now, even if it is momentarily painful!! But that's what Percocet is for!!  Here is a weird shot from my phone this afternoon of my big fat knee (incisions covered for your stomach's sake...) beside my nice normal knee.

Just want to include a huge thanks to my family, friends, doctor Litchfield and doctor Irving, Kent, Stef, all my teammates and coaches and trainers and fellow blogger and readers! And of course Melanie, Frank and Giacomo for their hospitality this weekend!! They are letting me take over their couch and feeding my yummy snacks!  This season has been memorable for good and bad reasons, and even though the skiing part is over, I still plan to have many sweet adventures to blog about in future!!
Until then!! I will be crutching and icing.

SOCIALIZING at closing ceremonies!

Since we had not stayed in Athlete's Village, our arrival to the Vancouver village was overwhelming!! Everywhere you looked, was a recognizable face!  It was cool since we had been watching and cheering for these people all week, and finally got to congratulate them in person!

First up! Alex Bilodeau and Brigitte!

I got a chance to talk to Clara Hughes,  an inspirational athlete who I've looked up to over the last few years!! But I forgot to take a pic with her, but noticed that she was in my torch wannabe picture. ha.

PS did you see us dancing on CTV??? That was us!

Chatted up a couple of our american friends! Adam, stef, johnny and yoshi

Stef and Joannie Rochette!! She is so pretty, and the figure skaters are so tiny in real life!! We were "marching" into the stadium near them and I felt slightly mammoth.

After all the fun at closing ceremonies, we headed back to the athlete's village and had a CANADIAN Pizza PaRTY!

I met Kevin Martin and he told me that sliding and pushing and sweeping is hard on the ice when you are curling. I have no clue about anything when it comes to curling. Anyway, now i know...

Bilodeau again! And cousi! Yeah Quebec (except johnny.....)

Stef and Marc-Andre Fleury... one of the backup goalies....

LUGERS. SAM AND JEFF. good times.

My Calgary homies. we work out together. but not really.

THE MOOSE!!! Most of our team posing with the moose!!

Alpine tech team!! me,bri,mitch,mp and erin

THE FAMOUS KENT "magic hands" KOBELKA!! I would not have been competing without him!! PLUS he was the hockey canada physio, so he has touched famous people with gold medals!

Some sweet getups and trades... once we were all out on the stage during the closing ceremonies, there were some serious trading sessions!!  Everyone wanted Canadian clothes!! And apparently this guy wanted a cross between finnish boots and scottish kilts..?

Me and Maelle Ricker!

The amount of pizza a roomful of athletes can consume!

Sarah Schleper and Hubertus Von Hohenloe ? Dunno how to spell his name BUT he is a 51 year old Mexican ski racer! AH-MAZING.

Biggs and the Georgian figure skater!  I just googled her and I think her name is Elene Gedevanishvili...BUT if i'm wrong just ask biggs, Im sure he knows!

me MP and SIDNEY CROSBY!! nothing more to say.

AND our local HERO JASEY JAY!! He is the only one of these "famous athletes" who I can say I am on a first name basis with since we train together in the summer!! YEAH BUDDY!

That concludes my photo diary of people we met who did well at the games!!

Maybe one day people will post pics of me on their blogs because I did well!!?!?!

BUT, this is probably my last blog for a while since I am leaving tomorrow for knee surgery on Thursday.

I'm glad I got to experience these past 2 weeks, but now it's back to reality and REHAB.

Aurevoir!