Life is keeping me busy!

It's been a while since I posted, for which I apologize... Life has definitely kept me busy, but in a good way! As I mentioned before, we had a long weekend, and instead of getting a cottage ready for the summer, which is what the majority of Canadians is doing but since we don't have a cottage, we spent the Monday in Brockville with Nolan's parents. It had been a while since I had seen them, and we had a really nice time catching up and just hanging out. Perfect!
Wednesday I was up at the PRF again, to attend some site visits for a new biomass study that will hopefully be put in and harvested later this year. It's very exciting and includes some leading edge harvesting equipment and other technologies. I actually spent the other days in the office, which doesn't happen very often anymore these days!
The weekend was great. Well, it started with a visit to the vet which went well for Murphy, but unfortunately Fertile might need some more dental work done. But first we have to wait and see what her blood tests will say, since there is also a chance she might have hyperthyroidism. But besides that she is very healthy! On Saturday we had our running friends over for a lunch and birthday cake for Debbie. Lots of food and lots of sun. Tom decided to stay home, since Nolan has been nursing a cold for the past few days, and he had his hopes on a Boston qualifier time the next day during the Ottawa Marathon. Saturday morning was quite chilly, we even had the heat on since it was so cold and damp in the house. However, by the end of the day it got really humid, sticky and warm. I went for a 9k run at the end of the day, and got back completely soaked! Strange how it can change so quickly.
On Sunday we ventured downtown to watch the Ottawa marathon and half marathon, which was somewhat strange. We both have ran it so often that it felt weird to be on 'the other side'. But it was fun cheering people on, and it was quite impressive to see how many runners in as many shapes and form are participating! I knew several people who participated, but missed half of them just to the sheer number of people. The half marathon had about 11,000 runners, and the full around 5,500 runners. Quite a few!! It was really fun to watch, although the steady rain did make it a bit tough. By the end we were soaking wet and cold. Especially for Nolan, who still didn't feel great, the rain didn't help. But we still had a great time!
Tom did manage to get his BQ, which was very exciting! Now it will be a challenge to actually sign up for the race. Last year it sold out in about 6 hours... JoAnn was the only one running the half from our core running group, and she did really well and finished strong. So proud of her!
But I'm also proud of all my other friends that ran a race (there were also a 5 and 10k) that weekend: Debby, Julia, Ann Marie, Julie. Did I forget anybody?? Well done ya'all!!
I am currently back in Petawawa. I spent the day in Mattawa at the Canadian Ecology Centre, to meet up with some of my FRP and CIF colleagues. It was nice to see everybody again, had some good meeting, a great bbq lunch and nice walk (despite the mosquitoes...). The weather has also greatly improved. After all the rain we had last week, this week proves to be more sunny and also much warmer! Tomorrow they're expecting a high of 32...
I have to admit, I'm a little nervous for tomorrow. Our new ADM is visiting the PRF, and Pete and I will be presenting. It is a great opportunity, but I am also a little scared. I know he is a nice guy, but I don't know him well enough to know what to expect. But on the other hand we'll be talking about something that is dear to our heart, so it might come naturally! We also planned a field tour for the afternoon, so hopefully the bugs will behave themselves...  I will let you know how it went!
This evening, so distract myself from the presentation tomorrow, I went for a great run along the Fish Hatcheries in Petawawa, a great trail system. I guess I did have some energy left to burn. I felt really good, and I have good hopes that I might actually get back into our running routine. At least it's going into the right direction!