Welcome to 9rules!

If you know of 9rules and their submission rounds – I’ve been accepted! Yey!! Nuff said.

Now, for those of you that don’t know, 9rules is a blogging community, with the tagline that says “The best content from the independent web.” They accept submissions of sites in rounds, there are 3 rounds this year, I submitted this blog, and it was accepted... at least I hope so, because I keep checking back to make sure that is actually my url on the list!!

I am so honored, I feel like I should make a speech or something, you know, thanking those key people in my life who made this all possible, my millions thousands ahem, tens of fans, my kids, my parents, my dog, oh wait, I don’t have a dog!

Seriously though, thanks to the 9rules team for the acceptance and for actually reading through the thousands of submissions that they probably receive, and thanks to all of my readers and wonderful friends for always being there for me! You guys rock!

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On the momentous occasion of my first win

The main reason that I started playing squash was because my husband did, and I thought that it could be something we could do together… that was about 8 years ago… now I play it because I really enjoy it!

Because…
1) It’s indoors. Not that I am an “indoor” kind of person, but I do live in the great white north and as such, I enjoy the warmth of an indoor sport!

2) It’s high impact. While I am not at the stage where I slam into walls and whatnot, the game really works out all your muscles!

3) It’s competitive. Now, my husband must be the king of competitiveness… he would even compete against our kids (seriously!), and usually I really could not care less about winning, but I do enjoy a challenge, so I will often try to beat him, just so that he does not win!

4) The court is private. Which, for me, means that I don’t have to wear a hijab, or dress modestly, and so the mousehunter gets the added benefit of being able to check out my “assets”! haha

5) Rules are simple. And also, because I play only with my husband, I made a few minor changes to the rules so that I get a very slight advantage!

Today for the first time in, umm, was it 8 years, AND yes, with my “modified” rules, I WON a game!!!!

Come on people… congratulate me!

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Accomplishments

Friends, I have a confession to make, that sort of makes me feel like a complete hypocrite, I have been really unmotivated and depressed lately, and I’ve spent the past 3 days wanting to do nothing but sleep, I think because sleeping means that I can escape reality. I’m so depressed that I feel depressed about being depressed… does that even make sense? Sorry, sorry for anyone who’s emails I haven’t answered, (at this moment, I have 118 unread, and 82 ‘starred’ for follow up) I am in a “funk” it would seem.

I met a teacher tonight (if you’re visiting, hi!) and she said that I seem like a fun person, and I thought, “ok, so maybe I am not that depressed”. Anyways, I need to get myself back to being a normal functioning person, because seriously, my kids can’t take care of themselves, and I am certain we can’t live on cheesecake for too much longer!

My free WordPress theme, sakeena, made it onto Smashing Magazine’s 100 Excellent Free WordPress Themes list! Smashing Magazine is a wonderful resource and their lists are always really well thought out and impressive, so I am, naturally, very excited and honored. Yay! Thank you Smashing Magazine! (And Irene and Baraka, who allowed me to use their amazing photos) And, just for good measure, my Textpattern theme, Life, that I entered into a competition and sadly did not place, has however, been downloaded more times than any of the other themes, including the winners! People’s choice is always the coolest position in my opinion.

In other exciting news, I am writing a parenting column in a Caribbean magazine, called Caribbean Belle, you can subscribe from their website if you’re interested.

I am amazed and humbled that people enjoy my work, I have much to be grateful for, and I am very grateful, I just can’t seem to motivate myself to do anything but sleep! Ideas?

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Snowboarding for the first time at 30

One word “Ouch!”

I really love warmth, and the ocean, especially a warm ocean, but since I have neither warmth nor an ocean, I decided to embrace my adoptive Canuck-ness and head for the snowy slopes… ok, it was more of a slight incline that a real “slope”, but you know… whatever.

If you’re crazy motivated like I am, and would like to try snowboarding, I have compiled a list of ‘stuff you should know’

1) It HURTS, and not only because you fall a lot, but also because you will have to get into very odd positions (no, not those kind of positions!!), for example, you will have to bend down to buckle on your snowboard, then flip yourself over, with said snowboard attached to your feet, then push yourself into a standing position without falling flat on your face

2) You will fall a LOT

3) If you’re taking a lesson, the 7-12 year olds will surely kick your old ass!

4) Make sure you’re taking a lesson, because there is no way you’ll be able to figure out anything without help

5) Make sure you take along some equally incompetent friends of like age, so you can all laugh at with one another, and also so you don’t look like the lone loser trying to reclaim your youth

6) You will sweat, a lot, and no, that does not mean your should wear shorts, but it was actually quite surprising that it was not cold

7) Even if you’re sick, you’ll be so scared of falling, that all that adrenaline flowing through your blood will cause you to feel pretty darn “not sick”!

8) You’ll eventually manage to stay off your butt for longer than a second and then you’ll realize that going down a hill on a snowboard makes you go FAST, and I mean really fast, which is both terrifying and extremely freeing

9) As soon as your 2.5 hours are over and you’re walking your snowboard back to the chalet, you’ll have this amazing feeling of accomplishment (haha), and say things like “wow, this was fun, we should do it again!!”

10) But once you remove your boots and have to raise yourself up off the bench, you will realize that your legs are really sore and then, as you are dragging yourself back to your car, you will be saying things like, “damn, are we old or what?!”

11) Coffee, Chai, Hot Chocolate, (I opted for French Vanilla Cappuccino, yum!)... seriously required once you’re done, not to warm up necessarily, but to comfort your bruised ego, ummm, among other things

12) Once you get back home, all you’ll want to do is vegetate but every time you need to get up to pee do stuff, you’ll be saying things like “holy crap, my butt hurts!”

On boots and other foot wear

So, I got boots… (still working on the lotion though)

everyday boots

on-the-rare-occasion-that-I-actually-have-somewhere-to-go boots

You know what the best part about wearing boots is? The boot socks!!!

Seriously, I don’t know if I would consider myself much of a socks fan, I would prefer not to wear them if there was some guarantee that my feet won’t be cold, however, something about socks that go all the way up to my knees is strangely comforting. And yes, I am only now getting on the ‘boot socks’ bandwagon, you know, because I have been wearing the same shoes for the past 2 years, although my sister has been swearing that they are the best thing since slice bread for a while now!

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