Fitness test

Did a fitness test with dragonboat teammates. The results were a bit unexpected. Overall I did better than I expected actually, but still in a weird way.

In the "beep test" which is about cardio, running, I was the third best (we all already knew the other two people would totally dominate).
In a "plank" test, which is core/abdominal, I was very good too.
The weight/muscle ones (pulldown and chest press) I did so-so, not particularly good.

The reason I say this is a bit weird, is that when I exercise, I'm always doing weights to try to build muscle. I don't do much cardio, and I don't like doing core/abs (basically never did it prior to last year, though I have done a bit more since then). So it is very strange to me that the things I do not train/practice much, I'm good at, while the things I do train/practice a lot I'm not very good at.

So what does that tell me? Is it reinforcing the idea that it's all just based on body type, and it's very hard to change anything? Or does it just mean my workouts totally miss their target?

Taxy

Worked on income tax. Overseas Employment Tax Credit requires a form partly filled out by my employer. But they don't want to give it to me. Can't seem to explain why, as she changes her reasons and contradicts herself, even though I outline clearly why her arguments don't apply. Anyways, now I have to try to get revenue canada to tell me I qualify, and pass that on to her, which could be difficult finding someone who understands and giving them all the details. What a nuissance. But it's worth thousands of dollars, in a year of low income, so worth spending at least some time trying. Hope it works out.

Update: CRA says I don't get it. Not the same reasons as our payroll person gave, but same conclusion. Drat.

XC ski 2

Monday, my second time skiing. There was a debate between C and The J about which trail to take, based on my lack of skill. Ended up trying the more challenging one. Conditions were slow and sticky, so it turned out ok. Actually because of that some parts felt too slow. I was starting to think I wasn't going to fall at all, as we were more than halfway done and still no problem, but then we went down a black part and I almost made it but not quite. At least that fall was actually a little fun, cause it didn't hurt, and was going fast so it was a bit fun sliding a distance along the ground. Later on in the day though, I fell three more times within a couple of minutes, and that was pretty lame and I felt really crappy about it. Oh well. Will do better next time.

Thoughts on cutlery

Hugging from behind is called "spooning", because of the way spoons stack together like that right? Well... forks stack like that too... but noone wants to call it "forking", I wonder why not. :)

Missing items

On a long shot, I visited Habitat for Humanity where I was volunteering about 4 months ago. I knew I used to have my thermal mug there, well before I noticed it missing. Finally got around to checking, and guess what, it was there! I was so happy, I didn' tbother looking around for the other less important missing items, though, probably I should have spent a minute just in case. Anyway, that's part of one mystery solved.

I'm black

At least, according to my recent hotel rewards membership. I started out as gold, moved up to platinum, and am now at the highest level, black. I'm not sure why black is the highest.

I think it would be awesome to create a rewards program based on racial stereotypes... like you start out as "asian" status, then move up to "honkey" then up to "latino" and finally "black". Or is latino above black? I'm not sure these days.