Friday, December 31, 2010

Comparing Washing Up to Going to Church

This came from a blog post I read. The context: someone told them they don't go to church anymore because their parents forced them when they were younger. This blogger said their parents forced them to wash themselves too so by that reasoning...

"Ten reasons why I never wash
  1. I was forced to as a child.
  2. People who wash are hypocrites – they think they are cleaner than everybody else.
  3. There are so many different kinds of soap, I can’t decide which one is best.
  4. I used to wash, but I got bored and stopped.
  5. I wash only on special occasions, like Christmas and Easter.
  6. None of my friends wash.
  7. I’ll start washing when I get older and dirtier.
  8. I can’t spare the time.
  9. The bathroom is never warm enough in winter or cool enough in summer.
  10. People who make soap are only after your money."

Kind of an interesting look at that excuse for not going to church.

Friday, December 24, 2010

Top 5's

I guess the thing to do right now is to make some lists of my favourite things from 2010, so here are mine:

Top 10 Songs: (Top 10 on my playlist, not necessarily new songs)

1. The Script - The Man Who Can't Be Moved
2. Switchfoot - Needle and Haystack Life
3. Ben Rector - White Dress
4. Snow Patrol - Chocolate
5. Tenth Avenue North - Satisfy
6. Taylor Swift - You Belong With Me
7. NeedtoBreathe - Something Beautiful
8. Train - Hey Soul Sister
9. The Afters - Light Up The Sky
10. Jason Mraz - A Beautiful Mess

Honourable Mention: The Joseph & The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat Soundtrack


Top 5 Movies: (I didn't see very many new releases this year)

1. Inception
2. How To Train Your Dragon
3. To Save A Life
4. Date Night
5. The Back-Up Plan






Top 10 Moments:

1. Anniversary in Quebec City
2. Moving into our house
3. Good Goo Dolls Concert
4. City Chase
5. Getting hired full time
6. Caloriefest 2010
7. Joseph at StageWest
8. My first ice hockey game
9. Whitewater rafting
                                                      10. Grease: The Musical in Toronto


Top 10 Books:

1. Fire - Kristen Cashore (the prequel to Graceling)
2. Graceling - Kristen Cashore
3. The Hunger Games - Suzanne Collins
4. Catching Fire - Suzanne Collins (The Hunger Games sequel - I didn't really like book #3)
5. A Thousand Splendid Suns - Khaled Hosseini
6. The Twilight Series - Stephanie Meyer
7. The Chronicles of Narnia Series - C.S. Lewis
8. The Death & Life of Charlie St. Cloud - Ben Sherwood
9. Flashforward - Robert J. Sawyer
10. Something Borrowed Series - Emily Giffin


Thursday, December 16, 2010

Snowpocalypse

I don't want to spend my posts complaining about the incredible amounts of snow we have been cursed blessed with over the last 2 weeks or so instead here's a post to say I'm so thankful for a reprieve. Today, for the first morning in many days we woke up and, although it was snowing a bit, there was only a light dusting on the driveway and road. Which means I didn't have to wake AJ up to shovel the driveway before work. And I even had a decent drive into Barrie despite my lack of snow tires. I think we've got enough snow now to give us a white Christmas and then some so bring on the sunshine! Please...

Wednesday, December 1, 2010

Christmas Bustle Has Begun!

It's only the first of December, but my schedule is already quickly filling up. Especially this week.

Thursday I am going to LIFE 100.3's Christmas For Kids Event. Kids choirs singing Christmas carols and AJ hosting. Should help to get me in the Christmas mood.



Friday is my company Christmas party where I'm hoping to walk away with a TV or something awesome this year.

Saturday we're heading to Mississauga to see AJ's mom perform in her church's Christmas presentation.

Sunday is the super secret surprise staff Christmas party for LIFE 100.3. I know what we're doing and I'm very excited about it!

Whew - it's going to be a busy but fun weekend.

Friday, November 26, 2010

Gearing Up For a Sleepless Weekend

This weekend is our Junior High group's fall retreat, Frequency. It is also the weekend they're calling for 20-40cm of snow and crazy winds. And we're getting on a bus and heading 2 hours north. That makes sense.

But I am really looking forward to it. I've been a small group leader of the same girls for several months now, so I feel like I know them pretty well and the weekend could be like a 2 night slumber party. Minus the slumber.

It will be a weekend of games and music and food. I LOVED retreats when I was younger and I think it's really fun that AJ and I still get to go on them and act like kids again.

Praying for safe travel, good weather and a fun weekend!

Monday, November 22, 2010

Visiting Narnia

I never read the Chronicles of Narnia series when I was a kid. I'm not sure why. I even have the full set on my bookshelf.

It's been a couple weeks since I finished my last audiobook at work and I decided it was time for a new one, when I remembered that we have the Focus On The Family radio theatre version of the Narnia series. Perfect.

So far, I'm about halfway through the third book, A Horse And His Boy. Focus decided to put their dramas in order of chronology, rather than the order C.S. Lewis wrote them in. What's kind of cool is that the guy who intros the books is the step-son of C.S. Lewis so he has some pretty interesting stories to tell.

The other great part about this series is that it's done like a movie with voices, music and sound effects, not just a guy reading through the book. It's very entertaining.

Monday, November 15, 2010

It's beginning to look like Christmas

Usually, I am an adamant subscriber to the idea that Christmas music/decor doesn't begin until December 1st.

But this past weekend was so beautiful out, it was really the perfect time to put up Christmas lights outside. And if AJ got to decorate for Christmas, I wanted to too.

I spent the afternoon listening to Christmas music and putting up all the decorations I've been making for the last week or two. It was a nice way to spend a Saturday.

No tree yet - that definitely doesn't come until December begins. But it's going to be a REAL tree this year, which I'm very excited about.



Friday, November 5, 2010

Risk Takers

Tomorrow night is another Junior High even with my church. A fan favourite, Risk Takers.

It's basically a live-action stock market game where the kids can buy and sell stocks as they go up and down in different rounds.

When I played it for the first time last year, I really wasn't sure about it. It sounds very complicated for a bunch of 11 and 12 year olds to pick up on. There's a lot of strategy involved and I wasn't even sure I totally understood it. But it was a huge hit! The kids got it right away and did a really great job playing.

This year, AJ was writing the scenarios that caused each stock to rise and fall and let me help him. I love creative writing like that so I had a lot of fun with it.

Not sure if I'll be on a team tomorrow night or selling stocks or being the banker like last year, but I'm looking forward to a fun night!

Thursday, November 4, 2010

Thinking Christmas

It's after November 1st which is when I officially allow myself to think seriously about Christmas.

Of course, I work in retail Advertising and we've been working on Christmas material for over a month now.

We have a new house this year, which means lots more space to decorate, but on a pretty small budget. No worries. This year is going to be a homemade Christmas. I've been doing research for a little while now and am planning on making a Dollar Store trip for supplies and spend the month of November Christmas crafting.

We'll see how this turns out...

Monday, November 1, 2010

Shark attack!

We don't have kids, so of course we dressed up our dog as we handed out candy this year. She wasn't a huge fan of the hood, but she didn't mind the rest of it. Cutest shark I've seen.

Friday, October 29, 2010

The great Halloween debate

In the church community there is a long-standing debate about Halloween and whether or not Christians should take part.

As a child, my parent's let us go out for Halloween. We dressed up, went door to door and shared our candy with them when we got home. We were never allowed to dress up as something scary or evil, which really didn't bother us. There are so many other harmless costumes to choose from.



We did sometimes attend the "Hallelujah" parties churches held. Usually, everyone there was some sort of Noah's ark animal and you got WAY less candy than you did from Trick-or-treating.

I understand the reasons for people not wanting to take part in Halloween. There are a lot of evil costumes and movies and stories surrounding the occasion. But generally, kids who are trick-or-treating aren't thinking about any of that. They're thinking about their fun costume and the candy they'll get.

This year, we're handing out candy at home. And when we have kids, I'm pretty sure we'll let them go trick-or-treating, with certain stipulations about costumes. I think it's mostly harmless fun for kids and not something that will shake the faith we are trying to instil in them; it didn't for me.

Monday, October 25, 2010

Another couchsurfing weekend

Our couchsurfing friends Barbara & Jochen stayed with us again this weekend. It was really nice to have a couple people over on a Friday night instead of just me and my dog. We watch old episodes of The Office, which does have a German version, but it's very different apparently. The American version is much funnier.

On Saturday we did go to the film festival. I definitely didn't love the movie (or the overly long self-centred Director's Q&A), but Barbara and Jochen seemed to like it, so that's good.

After the movie, we had a Settler's of Catan re-match, with AJ participating this time. AJ even won a game! I still can't beat them.

On Sunday AJ and I carved our pumpkin - design to be released next weekend.

I love weekends!

Thursday, October 21, 2010

Barrie Film Festival

The Barrie Film festival has been going on for the last two weeks. AJ signed up months ago to volunteer. He is all about the film festival movies. Especially the documentaries. Me, not so much.

I find film festival movies, local or otherwise tend to be very artsy and not very plot-driven. This is about the opposite of what I would request in a film. I like movies for their ability to entertain me and transport me into a story. Much like books. I'm all about fiction, while AJ loves non-fiction.

Last year, AJ and I saw Art & Copy, a film festival documentary about advertising. Being my chosen profession, I was definitely interested and really enjoyed it.

This year, there are a few that might look interesting, but nothing I couldn't live without seeing. However, our couchsurfing friends are coming back for another stay and they want to go see This Movie Is Broken, which is one of the few films I thought maybe I would enjoy.

So, on Saturday I'm going to check out the movie while AJ sells tickets. I'm sure it will be great, but I'll probably still go back to my guy meets girl, guy screws things up, guy and girl make up and live happily ever after movies.

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

30 by 30 Reading List Update

Next on the list was the favourite of my friend Meaghan. Meaghan is an English major and has bookshelves full of wonderfully colour-coordinated books, so I was really interested to see what her favourite book was. She said she had a really hard time picking, so she just chose one she thought was good.

Her choice: Nikolski by Nicolas Dickner



Nikolski is a Canadian book originally written in French. It seemed to translate well into English since I didn't really notice any weirdness in the wording. It is the story of several characters who end up living in Montreal and are all interconnected.

Sorry to Meag, but I can't say I was really a fan. I just didn't get it. It definitely wasn't meant to be a plot-driven story, which is normally what I enjoy. It was very much about the day-to-day lives of the characters and a bit about why they turned out the way they did. I didn't find a lot of character development and there was no resolve to any of the issues that arose. It actually took me quite a while to read because I just couldn't get into it.

I think this book is great for a very specific audience - one which probably doesn't include me.

Caloriefest 2010

It took a couple months of planning to get us all together, but we finally made Caloriefest 2010 happen. My friend Ashley, her 2 kids and I drove to Trenton to meet up with my other friend Ashley and continued on to spend a day with our other friend Lauren in Kingston.

We planned on making it a weekend of girl time - chatting, hanging out and eating food, as the name would suggest.

It was such an awesome weekend for me. I absolutely love spending weekends with AJ, but there's something so refreshing about having a girls weekend.

We took the kids to the park, walked around Kingston, got ice cream, roasted marshmallows and stayed up later than I have in months just chatting around the campfire.

I've been friends with these awesome girls since high school and it's so amazing that we're still really close through moves and marriages. We're already planning Caloriefest 2011 to go down in Ottawa sometime this winter.



The kids woke me up at 7:30am with cuddles - 
can't really complain about that.


We spent hours climbing the jungle molecule.


Best hats ever, no?


Ashley and I were both suckered into giving
piggy backs. It's those big adorable eyes.

Friday, October 15, 2010

I need to write more

I have this problem that I tend to get really excited about things and go crazy working on the project. If it's a short-term project, I work like crazy until it's finished and it's awesome. Long-term projects, however, I struggle with. My 30 by 30 (which I've done a lot with, but I've mostly done the easy ones so far), the blog, working out - I'm all about it for awhile and then...nothing.

So, a couple people suggested the other day that I just write on my blog several times a week, no matter what. There doesn't have to be a big special occasion or 30 by 30 entry. Just write something that I'm thinking about. Make it short. Just write.

Therefore, today's thought:

I love pomegranates. They are a lot of work to get at, but so delicious. The other day, I finally saw the return of the pomegranate in the grocery store. I was so excited! They were a bit small, but it's early in the season. I bought 2.

I went through the whole bit, put slits in it, submerge in water and pull apart. The seeds sink to the bottom and the other stuff floats to the top.

The seeds were a bit white, but that's okay. Until I tasted them. Not okay. Definitely not ripe. So disappointing.

Maybe I'll give them a couple more weeks.

Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Un Anniversaire Incroyable!

This year, for our 4th anniversary, it was AJ's turn to plan our activity. AJ decided that he was going to do something big because his next "big" anniversary to plan isn't until our 10th. He told me to take Friday and Monday off work and we would go away.

Usually, I am very hard to surprise. Not because I sneak around looking for clues (despite what AJ believes), I'm just a really good guesser. But, impressively, AJ managed to keep our destination, and method of travel, a secret the whole time.

The actual day of our anniversary, I woke up to a gift. A fancy outfit I was told to include in my bag and a packing list. Point AJ. Loved it.

It wasn't until we reached Toronto City Airport and got our tickets that I found out we were jet setting to Quebec City!

We had an amazing 4 days - lots and LOTS of walking, enjoying the sights and the French food. It was like being transported across the ocean and we only had to take an hour and a half flight. And I got to practice my French which was a lot of fun!

The lounge at the Porter Airport - all Macs!

Free food while you wait for your flight.
Comfortable chairs and hip people.
Our amazing hotel room
A beautiful church and mural near our hotel
Walking fun our first night
One entrance into Vieux Quebec
The church and mural in daylight
The fountain in front of Parliament
Quebec even has an impressive train station
AJ guarding the wall of the old town
A cool view down the cobblestone street with
the Funicular (elevator) in the background
We went for a stroll through the Old Port Market.
So much delicious looking fresh food!
We took a Ghost Tour one of the nights - here's our guide
A beautiful view of the Chateau Frontenac from the top of the hill
The inside of just one of the gorgeous churches we walked through
A view of old town from the hill near the Citadel

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

30 by 30 #6 - Play Ice Hockey

AJ plays a lot of hockey in the winter. He says to make up for his parents not putting him into hockey as a kid, but that's a long, sappy story I don't need to repeat.

But the hockey is really good for him. Physically because it's a great work out, and mentally because it lets him connect with friends and feel good about what otherwise might be lousy winter months.

I have a friend whose dad owns an arena so she is able to book free ice time every couple of weeks and invites a whole bunch of us to come and play. AJ played a number of times last year and I just watch. There are two other girls who play and they kept inviting me to join them as it's just for fun and apparently no one would care that I have no idea what I'm doing.

Finally, I decided I should.

I borrowed AJ's back-up equipment, chose matching colours as best I could and suited up by copying exactly what my friend put on, in the same order. I warned everyone how awful I would be, but they said it was fine.



And it was. For my first time on skates in 2 years and hockey knowledge derived from watching AJ play and a few games on TV, I think I did fairly well. I didn't fall over or freak out when the puck came near me. I didn't make many plays, but everyone was very kind to me and passed it my way when they could. The other team even backed off a little so I'd have a chance to pass it to my teammate.

Trying something new is a whole lot easier with friends who don't judge and are encouraging.

The verdict? I think I'll try again a few times this winter. Maybe buy some skates that aren't 20 years old. I think I could get better. Maybe even score a goal one day.

Saturday, August 28, 2010

30 by 30 #26–Buy a design program

Although my job is copywriting, I work with designers all day and I've become pretty interested in the design side of things.  So I thought it would be cool to get a design program to play around with at home.

The only problem is that design programs are very expensive. The plan was to go with a starter program like Photoshop Elements since it's not like it's for my career.

Then something awesome happened. AJ has been helping out at church and they wanted him to get in a little design stuff, so they offered to buy us Photoshop Elements! Very generous of them. And since AJ uses my Mac, I get the program too.

I haven't had a chance to play around too much yet, but I'm excited to have it and AJ has definitely been having some fun playing around with pictures of our dog!

Friday, August 27, 2010

30 by 30 #25–Get a great permanent job

This was a big one.

For the last year, I have been working as a copywriter, which has been a really great job with fun people that I really enjoyed. The only problem was that I was on a one-year contract, covering someone's maternity leave.

As the end of my contract drew nearer, I had to start thinking about the future so I didn't find myself unemployed again. I knew that my boss and co-workers liked me, but that's not really enough.

Turns out my hard work all year paid off because they offered me a job. In fact, they offered me the job I was already doing and really enjoyed! The woman who came back from maternity leave was given another job that ended up suiting her really well.

And so, I'm not a permanent employee at a job I really like and didn't even have to give up my desk! Awesome!

Thursday, August 26, 2010

30 by 30 #21–Go white water rafting

Check another one–a fun one!–off the list. My husband gave away a trip to go white water rafting on his radio show and I got the chance to go with him and "chaperone." The winners were all over 18 so it really wasn't chaperoning. More of a fun trip really.

We went to Horizon X in Ile du grand calumet in Quebec. I have technically been white water rafting one other time, in B.C., but it was on one of those huge rafts for about 20 people and all you have to do is hold on. That is exactly what we weren't looking for on this trip, which is why we picked Horizon X. It's more of a cottage atmosphere, with incredibly friendly staff and small, 6-7 person boats where we had to do lots of paddling.


It was a little scary, but mostly an adventure. The guides were very knowledgeable and talented and made the whole experience, including the 8am bus ride, tons of fun. The rapids were pretty intense, but it was part of their jobs for the guides to make it even more intense and cause the raft to purposefully flip. This was fine until one time I fell out and came back up under the boat. I took in a lot of water on that one and was pretty hesitant to fall out of the boat after that. But I pushed that back and enjoyed the rest of the ride.

Back at camp we were able to play some volleyball, enjoy some relaxing time in the hammock and canoe a little. The second day we opted for bodyboarding. The same rapids, minus the boat, just your body and a board. I tried a couple rapids, but stayed in the boat for the most part with one of my friends who won the trip and enjoyed watching everyone else.

I had lots of fun and even more fun watching AJ have such a great time. I'd try it again for sure!

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

30 by 30 Reading List Update

After two unsuccessful tries, I finally managed to pick up my friend Ashley's favourite book at the library. Graceling by Kristin Cashore.

This book was written for young adults, but Ashley assured me that it was amazing anyway. And she was right.

Graceling is a fantasy story about a world where some children are born with "Graces" or special talents. It follows Kasta whose Grace is killing and is being used by the King as his personal hitman.

Kasta goes on a special mission as she escapes the hold of the king and falls in love along the way.

It was a really easy read and well-written no matter what bookshelf I found it on. I found myself reading it every spare moment I got because it drew me into the story so much.

Definitely one I would recommend and I'll be looking for more from Kristin Cashore next time I visit the library.

Good recommendation Ash!

Wednesday, June 23, 2010

City Chase 2010!

AJ and I participated in our first ever City Chase this past weekend. We both love the Amazing Race, but fear our participation would lead to much frustration. City Chase is the one day version and we figured our relationship could hold up for one day of competition. It did.

We had no idea what to expect when we signed up. We read blogs and information on the site, but still felt unprepared, though excited. We packed a backpack of everything we thought we'd need and had some friends on standby to help us with Internet searches since neither of us has a BlackBerry.

We arrived bright and early to Nathan Phillips Square at 7:30am in case we hit traffic or long registration lines, but we faced neither. By 7:45 we had our shirts on and ready to go so we spent some time relaxing and watching the crowd gather.

Before the race officially began, we enjoyed a hip-hop performance, even trying out some moves they taught us, as well as a quick workout from Goodlife. The MC brought some people up on stage who were brave enough to wear costumes and awarded "The Blue Brothers" $100 for being fan favourites. There were lots of "100" references since it was City Chase's 100th event.

Usually, the race begins with a scavenger hunt that you have to complete in order to be given your clue sheet, which I was happy to discover they were scrapping and just handing out the papers. As soon as the host said go, teams scrambled to the four corners of Nathan Phillips square to push and wedge their way to the front of the line. We weren't quite prepared for this and ended up getting our clue sheet near the end of the line.

We sat down and went through the clues, looking up locations and calling a friend to find out where some landmarks were. We had our first and only real argument about where to go first and then got over that quickly and headed out to our first stop.

ChasePoint #1–Walk Hard

We caught a bus (thanks to our unlimited transit pass) and headed to a park for our first point, a low ropes course that had one partner walking across 6-part course with the other supporting them. Touch the ground and you go to the back of the line. It was a very long line, taking us over an hour to reach the front.

Being new, we stayed in line, thinking that every stop would probably be the same anyway. We now know better and will save ourselves the time next year and just move on.

But I did complete the course without falling–thanks to AJ's very necessary support–and we received ChasePoint #1!


ChasePoint #2–Target Practice

This was supposed to be a paintball challenge, but apparently the city wasn't down with that and it was cancelled. The first time we walked by, the stage was shut down, but as we were in line for low ropes, we were told that it had re-opened as a new event.

This was practically a freebie, since all we had to do was toss a ball in a bucket. I let AJ and his impeccable aim complete this one. It only took him three tries and we were off.


ChasePoint #3–Sweeeet Ride!

Next, we stopped in a mall parking lot for what we thought was a rickshaw challenge. Instead, we had to work with another team (luckily we arrived at the same time as one) and pull a Mitsubishi (the main chase sponsor) part way across the lot and back into its spot. AJ pulled, the guy from the other team pushed, while his partner drove and I gave directions. Our instruction were a bit confusing, but we ended up figuring it out without too much trouble and received ChasePoint #3. We were on a roll!


ChasePoint #4–Art of Movement

ChasePoint #4 & 5 were in the same location, which is the reason we chose to complete them. The first took place in a Parkour training facility. I didn't even know they had these! We had to either do some vault jumps or climb up to a balcony and jump 15ft. or so into a foam pit. We opted for the jump. 15 feet is a lot higher from above than below and it definitely made me a little nervous, but I did it. AJ was obviously a pro and even impressed the employees with his form.


ChasePoint #5–Gastronomy


Outside the building was the dreaded taste test. As a very picky eater, I was unsure about this one. One partner had to taste 5 items and tell the other partner what they were. For every one the first partner got wrong, the second had to eat a cricket. Since AJ offered to be the cricket eater, I took a deep breath and put on the blindfold. I shouldn't have been worried. I had to eat a Craisin, banana chip, Corn Pop, chocolate chip and something like a wasabi nut (though not spicy). I got the last one wrong so AJ got to eat one tasty little cricket. I definitely got the better end of the deal.


ChasePoint #6–Footie

We headed next to Jack Astor's for a fun drink-mixing event, but the line was long and we had learned our lesson from the low ropes, so we went instead to Fionn MacCool's for World Cup Trivia.

One of the great things about City Chase is that everyone is really friendly and, for the most part, very helpful. By this point, we had seen several of the same people over and over and had made friends. Luckily, the ones we were with at this point had a BlackBerry, because that was the only way we could answer these questions. They worked from the top down and we made some hasty phone calls to friends to answer from the bottom up. Working together paid off because we finished in no time and were more than halfway done.


ChasePoint #7–Burn It Off

We had done a lot of running by this point and we getting pretty tired, but we headed to GoodLife Fitness anyway for a challenge we heard included chocolate. It did and it didn't. The challenge was to choose a chocolate bar and then work off however many calories it had. We had been told earlier to choose Crispy Crunch, while a guy just coming out told us Coffee Crisp. We opted for the first, while our friends went for the second. We had to burn 240 calories, while they only had 190. Grr. Oh well. After a short wait for a machine, we hopped on and started working out. It only took us 10 or 15 minutes and we made it to 240. Apparently, chasers were given chocolate bars to actually eat afterwards, but they had run out by the time we got there. *sigh*


ChasePoint #8–Boot Camp

Our time in the gym had really exhausted us, but we still had a couple hours left and then end was in sight so we pressed on.

We got some poor directions to the next location and ended up walking a lot more than we had to, to get to another park with 2 events.

The first involved yet another workout, more like circuit training, where we had to squat, run, hop and lift our way around the lawn, sweating like crazy in the very hot sun.


ChasePoint #9–Using Your Head

After Boot Camp, we dragged ourselves a few feet to the next challenge, which was, thankfully, much easier. AJ put on a helmet with a bucket attached and I had to throw bean bags into his helmet from four different distances. I guess we make a good team for this one because it only took us 5 shots and we had our ChasePoint. Just one left to go!

We considered going back to City Hall and doing the 28-story rappel, which we really wanted to try, but we only had about an hour and a half left and were told the line was really long. Fearing not finishing, we decided to go to an easier task we knew we could complete.


ChasePoint #10–Say Cheese

Finding our last bit of energy, we made our way to our last stop, where we were given a BlackBerry Bold and a list of tasks to complete. These included: taking a picture of a stranger doing a handset, a video of us doing a random act of kindness, serenading some strangers with "Life Is A Highway" and a few others. This was our least favourite challenge as bugging non-Chasers wasn't that fun, but we completed it, got our final ChasePoint and headed back to the finish line.

A few more subway stops, an unnecessary bus ride and an exhausted jog to the finish line and we were there! The entire chase took us 5 hour and 20 minutes. A success for us, since our goal was just to actually complete the chase. We ended up in 315th place!

There were a lot of other challenges that we just couldn't make it to, but deserve a shout out:

Tissue?–In this one, both members of the team had to make themselves shed a single tear. Apparently a toughie.

28 Floors–An urban rappel down Toronto City Hall and one that we had really wanted to try, but the line was so long, we were afraid it would slow us down. Next year maybe?

Mon Cheri–A team member had to sketch a nude model. 2 points in the nude model was the other team member!

Although we were more tired that I can ever remember feeling, it was an incredible day and we're already planning our strategy for next year. We want to head to the challenges that offer Passing Lane Cards so we don't have to wait in line and maybe plan our route a little better. We can't wait until City Chase 2011!