I’ve mentioned rugby before on my blog… but haven’t mentioned my team, or how important it is to me here. Joining this team of incredible women has made my time in here in Brussels more fun and full of laughs than I ever could have imagined…. well that is after we kick ass on the pitch… and in case you don’t believe me… here’s proof. I love this picture!

http://www.sportkipik.be/images/rugbyfem/barbariansgent/index.html

After shamefully neglecting my blog for months and months and months… I thought I’d update it with a few pictures of things that have been keeping me out of trouble for the past few months.

visited 35 states (15.5%)
Create your own visited map of The World or determine the next president

Here’s my list:

1. Canada
2. USA
3. Germany
4. France
5. Italy
6. Austria
7. Colombia
8. Costa Rica
9. Ecuador
10. Chile
11. Argentina
12. Uruguay
13. Brazil
14. Peru
15. Malaysia
16. Laos
17. Cambodia
18. Thailand
19. Singapore
20. Indonesia
21. Nepal
22. Vietnam
23. The Philippines
24. Belgium
25. The Netherlands
26. Sweden
27. England
28. Egypt
29. Scotland
30. Ireland
31. Czech Republic
32. Spain
33. Switzerland
34. Liechtenstein
35. Luxembourg
36. Tunisia

(updated November 4, 2008)

An interesting lunchroom discussion last week had us all wondering who we’d include in our “top 5 list.” You know the list of 5 people who, if you ever meet them (and they give consent), you are free to do “whatever” with them, and your spouse, partner, significant other can’t say a single thing about it.

So after 45 mins of standing outside watching 5th and 6th graders run around the playground, all the time mentally compiling my list with a big, goofy grin on my face… here are the top five picks in Tamland.

1- Richie McCaw captain of the New Zealand All Blacks and my future husband ; )

2- Jonny Wilkinson – England’s kicking god

3- Rick Mercer- Canada’s version of Jon Stewart or Stephen Colbert… but much funnier and comes complete with a cute, Newfie accent.

4- Dave Matthews- love him. “Crash Into Me” Dave.

5- Adam Doyle- only long haired dude on the planet who I think is hot. Lead singer of Great Big Sea. Together we’ll “Rant and We’ll Roar like True Newfoundlanders.”

Who’s on your “top 5″?

For the past few months I’ve been pretty crap at attending to my blog… all that is changing today. Here’s a quickie update and some pix to show some of the things I’ve been doing.

 For the February winter break, good buddy Cheryl and I decided to leave the gloomy, greyness of Brussels behind us and head to Sharm-el-Sheikh, Egypt for a week of diving in the Red Sea!

Here’s me with our divemaster Ali… who spent the better part of one surface interval twisting my sarong into this headscarf.

And then we met some new friends Dare and Roger, and went up to Dahab to dive the Canyon and the Islands.

Check out the picture below. See the mountains in the background across the water? That’s Saudi Arabia. Needless to say I took a moment to give thanks to the universe for being born in Canada.

I don’t have time to write anything articulate on this topic (cuz I’m deep in the throes of report card procrastination… but you HAVE to check this out. Jabiz, one of the most switched on dudes I know, found this and brought it into my world… now I’m passing it on (like a great big, tech game of telephone). Go to Jabiz’s blog and click on the story of stuff… if you like it check out his other posts and tell him how much you dig his writing yourself… then go check about his baby-blog for his kid, and tell him how gorgeous she is. He’ll love that, trust me…. but even if you don’t do all those things for Jabiz…. check out his blog, watch this video, and think about your footprint. Jabiz is at www.intrepidflame.blogspot.com

ARGH!!! I just wrote a suoer long post and somehow lost it. ARGH!!!!

  Canada gets its way: Commonwealth

 climate deal drops binding targets

“Canada played a pivotal – if controversial – role as Commonwealth countries reached a deal on climate change Saturday.

It helped block a draft agreement that almost every country in the 53-member group had agreed to, one which called on developed countries to meet greenhouse-gas targets.

The move so frustrated some foreign diplomats that they sought out Canadian journalists to express their disgust at what was happening behind closed doors.”

For the rest of the article visit: http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/capress/commonwealth_climate_cda

Can you believe Stephen Harper? Who the hell is this guy? And what are his advisors doing? Doesn’t he “get” that one of the most important things to Canadians is standing up to the Yanks to the south of us and proclaiming that we are NOT the 51st state!? Yeah, yeah, we know all the stories about being dependent on the US economy, military defense, blah, blah, blah…

 I may be wrong on my dates, but Jean Chretien was a dinosaur when he was elected for his third term as PM (did it not seem like he was in office for a million years) until he did something amazing that set the fire under our freezing, Canadian asses. When W, leader of the Yanks, gathered his troops and headed off to Iraq to avenge 9-11 (I’m sure there are a few blogs there, but I’ll leave that to Jabiz) Our beloved, Mr. “pepper spray? the only thing I know about pepper is that I like it on my steak” Chretien, did the Shawinigan shake and declared that Canadian troops would not be following suit.

Eh? Wah? Excusez-moi? were heard all over Canada. We all put down our Tim Horton’s iced cappuccinos and felt that rare “maybe the rest of the world will finally realize we’re not american” glow. And clearly, the Liberals were in office for-freaking-ever due to decisions like this one. Allowing gay marriage, and the ongoing discussions about decriminalizing/legalizing pot were other big factors in the Libs popularity (too bad some of them were too little, too late)… so what in the world is old Stevo thinking? “Umm, that I’d really like to not be PM after the next federal election?”

 Well done Stephen, I’d say you’re headed there Champ.

As Rick Mercer (one of my fav Canadian dudes – and good Newfie boy) said:

If I were the Tories I’d be a little bit worried. The economy is red hot, the dollar’s through the roof, the GST is coming down, everyone’s working and the Tories are still only 4 points ahead of Stephane Dion. And everyone thinks he’s an idiot.

For those of you not in the know… Belgium is well known for it’s “frites.” French fries to the rest of us. But these aren’t the crappy, freeze-dried, piddly little offering of carcinogenic match sticks offered up by fast food chains around the world. Belgian fries are short, thick, fat, real potato fries that have been double deep-fried to lock in extra goodness. They’re served up in a paper cone with an enormous dollop of whichever calorie-laden topping you like from ketchup to mayo to andalouse sauce. Not quite sure what exactly that is, but my fav frite sauce by far is the curry ketchup, yum!

For others of you who aren’t aware… which would make up most of the planet… Belgium has been without a government for well over 150 days. Apparently there was an election in June, but there’s still no outcome. For a thorough explanation of the situation check out this article http://www.cbc.ca/news/reportsfromabroad/murray/20071106.html written by a CBC journalist. Big thanks to Nicole for passing along the article. Sure hope the political strife doesn’t end in civil war…

Went to the doc today for my check up on my finger. This time I brought my camera to document the gore.

Here’s the top of my finger:

And here’s the underside:

.

Stitches come out next week. Then the pin comes out in about 5 weeks, doc says it shouldn’t hurt too much… yikes!