Pilgrimage to Ironman Florida

Okay - this adventure is not ALL about how to become a yachtie. That part just took over the beginning of Florida for us. But luckily, we had family force us into an impromptu road trip because....

My brother-in-law Ryan is a pro Ironman triathlete. 

What?! Yeah, I know. He’s crazy. And until now, we’ve never had the opportunity to see him race in person. So when we found out that he was competing in Ironman Florida - a mere 12 hour drive around the gulf.... what were we to do?

We haven’t been on a road trip since our little jaunt around the Pacific North West when we sold our house. We were due for another.

And - in a scene straight out of Friday Night Lights (Clear Eyes, Full Hearts!) we came across a High School Football game. Guys, there were lights. There were cheerleaders. There was a f*cking MARCHING BAND!!! I was clearly overexcited about the prospect of sitting down for the remainder of the game and soaking in the Cross City Super Bowl.

But with an early race start looming and many hours left to drive, Juliano’s logic won out over my pee-my-pants-intense excitement. Damn him.

Ironman spectating should be a sport in itself. Seriously, it’s hectic. My sister-in-law Lauren is the race-watching guru. Ryan raced for 8hrs 45mins, and we saw him 6 times. Running into the water, out of the water, transitioning, running past, transitioning, biking past, finishing. 

You can read Ryan’s account of the race here; he talks jibberish about electrolytes and bike wattage. He came in 15th overall which is pretty badass of him.

As a person who’s neither athletic, nor competitive - I find competition at this level hard to relate to. This dedication to pushing and training to shave minutes off your time and beat just one more person through the gates is admirable. But for those of us that think walking across a parking lot is a hardship - doing anything for nine hours is insanity. 

Ironman has a cutoff time of 17hours. SEVENTEEN HOURS! You can deliver a baby in less time than that. It’s probably more pleasant. Knowing it was our first Ironman experience, Ryan and Lauren brought us back to the race for the end of the line finishers. The people who complete the race in the last hour have no business running an Ironman. They are not elite athletes, they don’t have top of the line gear or sponsors. But holy shit do they have some spirit. 

If you pass the finish line the announcers shout out ‘YourName, you are an Ironman!’. It’s a cool moment and a very clear goal for many of these end finishers. It was heart warming to watch people brutalize their bodies and overcome their physical boundaries to achieve these immense goals. I’m in awe of what people can do when they put their minds to it. 

Congrats Ryan on a great race - and thank you for letting us into your world!

Side note: Ryan is cooler than I give him credit for. If you want to check him out here’s his Blog, Facebook and Twitter. 

Van Sold, Party Had

Hey Friends!

Holy crap - countdown is almost done! 4 days until departure for us...crazy. All of our last-minute stuff is almost done, except packing of course. We sold our van (Yeay, another $1000!), so now we officially own nothing that doesn't fit into a backpack. (Or a small storage locker)

We went out with some friends to celebrate our going away, had some beer at a German pub called WURST. If you're in Calgary, it's a great place - the basement is a Beer Hall. I already love beer, now I love halls. They play games like 'Stein-Holden' where you have to hold a one litre mug of beer out in front of you. Last one standing wins beer...

We both lost. Also this happens every weekend:

It's been a surprisingly emotional week saying all of our goodbyes. I guess we've been so excited, and a touch anxious about the details of our adventures, that we haven't really thought about saying our farewells.... So, while everyone we talk to asks us if we are going to miss the people at home we never really thought about the fact that they might miss us. Quite unsettling.

But, the world is small and technology is fast and amazing. Everyone has our skype/facetime/email/facebook/twitter/blog information to contact anytime. Now it's up to us to try to stay in touch as well.

Countdown is on, we're nursing some mild hangovers today and spending all of our time with family and friends...

D&J

Eye can see!

Soo... after I blasted out my blog to my friends and family here, my mom helpfully pointed out that there are things on the Champagne List that are done and you haven't blogged about them! Thanks Mama.

Anyways, remember the Champagne List? It's a list of things that we'll drink Champagne to celebrate as we get closer and closer to our departure date. And on the list... DANA GETS EYE SURGERY. I'm quite blind, and I don't want to have to deal with contacts and glasses and eye exams while I'm out and about in the world, so here we go. My last day with glasses:

I signed myself up for a consult, asked my brother (who got it done last year) how it goes, and put my name down for surgery. After about a billion people poking and prodding at my eyeballs, getting a million different drop that did weird shit to my eyes and vision... the doctors spoke. Implantable lenses it would be for me. With some very generous help from my Mom (full disclosure: 100%), I can now see!

Something funny? They filmed my eye surgery. I'm not posting it here because its just freaky weird medical stuff, and really - we are that kind of friends yet...

{Okay, fine - since you asked. Actually I'm too lazy to upload my video, so here is my brother's if you really need to see it. You've been warned.}

Have a good day - enjoy seeing the world around you in whatever way you can :)

Dana

Ps. I got my eye surgery done at Gimble Eye Centre in Calgary, Alberta. I highly recommend it for anyone looking into the same thing. They were great with everything and I have better than 20/20 vision now! Despite our awesome Canadian heath care system (not being facetious) You still have to pay $$ for this unless you have cataracts or something. It's not cheap so have your mom pay for it if you can..

We're Moving Friends!

Hi Friends and Family... 

Guess What?

In about 2 weeks. Holy Crap.

Welcome to the blog. I wrote it to tell you a bit about the crazy decisions we were making to sell our stuff, move away and add a splash of adventure to our lives! Take a look around if you want, here's our first post which explains a little about what we're doing and why...

Keeping in touch with our family and friends from home is super important to us... so I'll try to keep this blog updated with where we are and what we're up to as we go. In return, please comment, email, facebook, Skype, FaceTime or message us as much as you want!

We love you all - so buy us a beer before we're gone :)

D&J

ps. for our regular bloggy friends.... telling our friends and family is another check of the champagne list!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Day of love....and lattes? Yep. Is this a day of cheese and superficial materialism? Yep, that too. Buuut... despite knowing that - a little part of my lady-heart loves it. Okay, a big part. Not for the gifts (we're not big gift-givers) but for the cheese!! Romance and glitter! ha ha...

This valentine's day I want a cupcake from Crave bakery, a glass of wine, a season of Friday Night Lights and quiet evening in with Juliano! 

We have been together for 9 years. Four years ago we jumped into the crazy adventure of being married, and now we have another amazing adventure planned together... Can't wait! 

I hope you all have lots of love today, wherever it comes from!

xoxo,

D & J

SPLURGE! Macbook Air

They finally arrived! Our little 11" twin babies! We're so excited, it's like Christmas day around here... Here's the scoop:

We had some problems that needed to be fixed:

• Our laptop was almost 5 years old, and dying a slow dinosaur death.
• We needed to be able to communicate to each other & home easily and simply
• I want to continue keeping up this blog - photo saving/editing/organizing required
• Juliano wants to create movies using his video camera - video editing required
• I wanted to promote synergy with music, communication, email/Internet use, photos & videos
• We needed laptops that fit in tiny spaces, and were light & portable

Solution: 11" MacBook Air for each of us! Yep, two of these sweet ladies are now part of our family. We bought them refurbished, so we saved some $$ while still getting awesome computers.

We're hoping that we will be able to:

• Communicate with each other and our home through facetime or skype
• Organize and share our pictures - update: we still have to use flikr to share them
• Create fun movies using Juliano's camera or even iPhone videos
• Share one iTunes account to enjoy music
• Communicate re: budgeting and money through Mint
• Loads more fun stuff and work stuff that want/need to do

Communication is a huge deal for us on this adventure - both to connect with our family and friends at home, and to stay in contact with each other as quickly and easily as possible. There may come a time when we're not in the same place at the same time - and we want to be prepared for that...

For now - We play around and Enjoy!

Update: Stupid Updates! I just deleted my entire itunes catalog while updating my iPhone to iOSX, in order to integrate with iCloud. Damn you technology. Damn you. Going to the Apple store today to see if I can fix it.

Update Update: Those guys at the Mac store fix everything. High Five!

Roughnecks Lacrosse

Yeay - we're back to being Calgary Tourists! Juliano's brother is here for the month, so we've been pulling out all the stops to show him around Calgary [and most of Alberta!]. Next on the 'Canadian Things' list was a Lacrosse game. The Calgary Roughnecks tickets are lots of fun to watch, and the tickets are affordable ($30 ish).

We thought we were getting the best deal ever on front row seats. Buuuttt... we were right behind the home bench (yeay!) and had a BUTT VIEW of the team for the entire game (boo). We did get to see their trainers in full action though - these guys wear NO shin/knee protection.... lots of blood.

 Awesome Side Note: Roberto took a photo with the Drill Crew when we went for burgers after.

Banff & Lake Louise Tourists

Even though we're in the mountains at least a couple of times a month, we rarely go as 'tourists' and see the fun stuff! We were happy to have my wonderful sister-in-law from Ottawa come to town with a friend who'd never been here... I always love seeing people experiencing the mountains for the first time.The super swanky Chateau Lake Louise has outdoor skating, ice castles and winter magic aplenty. Banff Springs Hotel is also amazing [we even got to stumble on a winter wedding!]

In Banff we got to try traditional Bannock, eat loads of candy and relax in the hot springs [if you go, please rent a 'heritage suit' and wear it - you'll make my day].

Happy Winter Tourists! Also, we got to finish the weekend off with a basketball game, huge dinner [16 people!] at my house with family. I love it. I'll miss being close to my extended family when we're away.

Holiday!!

If we took a holiday - Took some time to celebrate - Just one day out of life
It would be, it would be so nice -  Holiday! Celebrate!

Ha! That's going to be stuck in your head all day... Too bad though, because we're going on....
 a Holiday! To Mexico! Arriba!

It is -35 degrees Celsius today. I'm frozen, and I take the train to work in the morning! Brrr....

But lucky for us - We have something to look forward too! I know that it seems crazy for us to go on a holiday in the middle of planning such an adventure - and it is. We have the best deal ever though... My parents are going on a trip through their work, and with a sprinkle of magic and a dash of air miles - we're crashing the second half of their holiday!
UPDATE: My brother's coming too! It's a family party!

We're going to Puerto Morelos, Mexico - about halfway between Cancun and Playa de Carmen. Here:

It's all sunshine, beaches, good food and open bars..countdown is on! We're staying at the super-swanky Now Sapphire Riviera Cancun. We'll tell you all about it when we get back!

 

Ps. I thing there's a big divide to be made between traveling and vacationing. I'll post more about that later.

Opening and Closing a Business

If you know us personally, or if you picked it up in this post, you know that we owned a business. It was an Esfiha shop at a local Farmer's Market. We called it Mr. Esfihas and it was a realization of Juliano's dream.

Juliano has always been an entrepreneur, in the sense that he's never been very settled with the 'rat race'.  Mr. Esfihas started out with an Idea, some inspiration and a LOT of planning. {Not so different in theory that this adventure!}. It was fun to see it come together, to plan and create every element of our our own mini-ecosystem in the market. We joined a new market and the booth was built from the ground up:

  

 

We were amazed and appreciated all the support that we received from friends and family! It's so great to see that when you pursue something with passion, people truly want to be a part of it. It was a great experience to see everyone come together for us.

The skeleton crew of Mr. Esfihas {all 4 of us!} worked hard to make it an amazing place that was fun to be around, selling delicious food:

 

We had a super-delicious and reasonably priced menu! It was also really cute, a graphic designer and very-crafty friend of ours designed it, and did an amazing job! How great are the little faces??

Here's what we had to say about it on our website:

We started out with the idea of providing Calgary with a new and unique food item, a healthy alternative to fast food. We were both born in Brazil, and grew up eating esfihas. 
Now calling Calgary home, we want to introduce our favorite esfiha flavors to you!

There are lots of great flavors, and all the Esfihas are handmade by us!

See you at the Market!

 Owning and operating Mr. Esfihas was something that we did above and beyond our usual M-F/9-5 jobs. {Didn't I say we're not afraid to work hard?} We were open for about a year, and it was a great experience. We learned so much about how business operates, how to prioritize your life/goals, what giving 100% really means, and how to confidently make really tough decisions.

Turns out a mix of following your instincts and thinking it through usually results in the best decisions!

After being open most of 2011, we've sold our space to an awesome couple to start their own new small business dream! Mr. Esfihas is going on the back-burner for now, while we pursue other dreams. I'm sure that being a small business owner will always be a part of Juliano's life - so we'll see where that takes us...

For now, we loved owing a business and including all the ups and downs that come with it, we don't regret doing it for a second. It was an amazing experience!

State of the Uterus Address

 **NOTE: I'm not actually preggo in this pic. It's the fake belly from a maternity store.**

**I highly suggest this as an activity with preggo friends - it was a good day**

Sigh. Yep, this is conversation that I've had a million times - so here we go again:

You: What are you doing? I thought you'd have babies by now!
Me: Yeah, me too. But I'm not.
You: What?!?! WHYYYY?? Have some BABIES!! Babies are so GREAT!
Me: I know, I generally like babies. But not now, I've got some other stuff on the go. Plus I'm still young!
You: You're not YOUNG! You're TWENTY SEVEN! That's almost THIRTY!
Me: I'm aware of how time works. I will one day... ha ha...
*starts to get awkward*
You:  But you SHOOUULLDD! It will be so FUUN!
Me: Fuck off. No Vacancies in this Uterus!

Okay, so that may be a sliiight exaggeration of the whole thing. But really - people expect us to have babies. And not in a malicious way - I have fully lead them to believe that this is where I'm headed. This is the case I currently present to the world:

Reason I could should would be able to have a Baby:

1. I have a husband. {Heterosexual monogamy? Double Points!}
2. I have a house with an additional bedroom. In the 'burbs.
3. I have a car with 4 doors and some airbags. {Safety first people!}
4. I am 27 years old - sooooo close to over the hill! My Eggs are OLD!
5. My friends have babies.
6. I like babies. {Except on planes - sorry friends with babies!! I don't hate yours! Just other babies on planes. Just the ones that cry. I KNOW it's not your fault, it's a baby... but still. I. Like. To. Sleep.}
7. I have a job. So does my husband. {Yeay - stability!}
8. I have a fully functional uterus. {Most people don't really know that, specifically.}

See? I get it why people are all gung-ho about me having babies. I have all the things society tells me I need before I have babies.**  It's the next natural step of life:

And don't get me wrong in all of this, I do love babies and kids.But here's some other things I love right now:

1. Drinking. Mostly wine. And Champagne. And fancy gin.
2. Sleeping. In long stretches.Whenever I want.
3. Eating Sushi!! This is fairly arbitrary, only applies to pregnancy,  not a strong argument.
4. Traveling recklessly. {Ah, here's a big one.}
5. Selling everything I own and moving away from my support system. {another solid strike}
6. Not having babies. {Checkmate my friends, check. mate.}

 But really, I'm not quite ready yet. There were a number of things that Juliano both wanted to do before we officially 'settled down'. One was open a business - check, the others aren't done yet!

When we look at our friends who have kids already, we're overjoyed for them and we LOVE their kids SO MUCH. And we know that we want that eventually - but it just doesn't feel right yet for us.

 My friends who are moms tell me that that all of those things are completely forgotten about when have a baby of your own. A bit tsunami of love comes over you and nothing else matters.
Guess What? I BELIEVE YOU! 

And this is my response:

 But really, this choosing not to have babies business does have some downsides, mostly personal. I was talking to a close friend a few days ago about this - and we were both surprised to discover that we felt the same way about delaying babies. There are a few things about it that affect me:

I'm worried about being an 'old mom'. I know that people have babies at all sorts of ages now, but for some reason - I've always assumed I'd be a 'super-young mom'. As in - babies DONE by 30. This seemed especially possible when I got married at 23! Now at 27 it's still not time. Not a bad thing, just different from what my original plans were, and I have to adjust to that.  

I want Juliano to be a dad. I know that it's cheesy, but I think so many women know that they want to marry someone after seeing them with kids. I know I did. Juliano is SO GREAT with kids - even though his thoughts are exactly on par with mine at the moment, I still feel like I'm potentially 'taking something away' from him - and me!

I do see WHY it's a good idea to wait and WHY it's a good idea to just get on it {ha ha.. no pun intended}. But for now - we delay and do life like we want for a bit. We'll come back for you future mini-deBritos!


** Don't send me cranky email about not needing these thing to have a baby. Yes, you can have a baby without a husband - obviously!! I KNOW!! These are just reason why people think I should have one. Sheesh.

Happy Christmas!

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and Good Tidings to All!

I hope you are enjoying a festive meal and not being as Scrooge-ish or Grinch-like as I usually am!

In celebration of our favorite holiday, here's the best of my favorite Sketchy Santas:

 

 

Happy Holidays ~ See you in the New Year!