Sweaty Saturday... and a Hockey update

I don't have much to talk about for sweaty Saturday because I didn't get much running in this week. The week began with me getting locked out, so no running then. I got a run in on Tuesday and then woke up Wednesday morning with some pretty swollen lymph nodes and a bad cough. I have gotten this sickness every single winter ever since having a bout with mononucleosis when I was 16.

When I was in University, this sickness would stay around for a week or more. I was almost always in the middle of track season and there was no way I would let my smokers cough interrupt that! I wouldn't miss a practice, let alone a meet. Just medicate a bunch and all would be well. So it makes perfect sense to me why it always lasted so long. And although I'm training for the marathon now, I don't mind taking some days off to really allow myself to get healthy. It sure worked too, it's been only three days and the cough is almost gone and was able to do a short, easy run today. Yoohoo!

Hockey has been going pretty dang great for Kev's team. They have won 7 of their last 8 games including a big win last night against Berlin. The Freezers are currently sitting in third place in the league with a game tomorrow. A game that you can all watch! I'm not sure if that link will work, if it doesn't: go to the league website, www.del.org. Click on the "Krefeld Penguine-Hamburger Freezers"on the right side of the page under Live Videos. The game will be at 10:45 a.m. for the WI folk and 11:45 a.m. for you Markham people.

From last night's game

I will be with a bunch of the girls tomorrow and their children watching the game and decorating Christmas cookies. Cookies that I must go finish! Tschüss!

Cursed on the November break...

Cursed might be a strong word, but our bad luck with sickness and the November DEL break is 2/2. Our trip to Prague was plagued by a bit of a stomach flu. Not nearly as bad as Paris last year and I felt perfectly fine, but Kev wasn't doing so great and we definitely spent more time in the hotel than we would have liked! No wild nights out in Prague for us.

Nevertheless, we did get out to see the city and I have determined that it is my favorite place I have travelled to thus far. If you would have asked me before coming to Europe what I think European cities would look like, I believe I would have described Prague. The architecture is old, delicate, and beautiful on what seems like every single building, there are many cathedrals and synagogues, a castle, statues with meaning everywhere, and not to mention the beautiful Charles Bridge. We had breakfast at a cafe Albert Einstein was a regular at by morning and snacked on Czech pastries in the lit up Old Town square by night. We went back in history and toured around in a beautiful red car from 1928.

Sadly, I feel like I did not walk away with much more knowledge of the history or current events of Prague as I came in with. We had intended to do a half-day walking tour Friday, but we cancelled that not knowing how Kev was going to be feeling. I did find out that the Prague castle was founded in 870 is able to boast the largest castle area in the world (with 18 acres total in courtyards and buildings). The city is amazing and has so much history, I would love to go back again!

Astronomical Clock

Old Town Square

Charles Bridge

Kev's favorite part of the trip I think!

View from "Powder Tower"

Charles Bridge

View from Old Town Hall/Astronomical Clock Tower

Kev has been feeling better since we got back and he was able to just rest and sleep yesterday. He will be ready to go for Friday's game. The break was nice to have, but I'm sure Kev is hungry to get back on the ice for some games. The boys went into the break on a five-game win streak, so hopefully they will be able to carry that forward! 

Happy Monday, Tschüss!

Our time in Paris... with the Flu

Yep, you read that title right. Our Paris vacation was taken over by the flu.

Needless to say, it was not quite what we were hoping for out of Kevin's much needed break and vacation. We had a ton planned: a bus tour, bike rentals, trying French cuisine, meeting Kev's teammate and family from Hannover's team, shopping on the Avenue de Champs Elysees, seeing the Eiffel tower and the many beautiful parks and churches all around the city. We did get to see the Eiffel tower, do a little shopping, take almost all of the bus tour, meet the Chamberlains for dinner ... and not much else. We spent the majority of our trip lying in bed going back and forth from having the chills to hot sweats from our fevers and aches and pains everywhere. At first we thought it was food poisoning from some duck we ate Thursday night, but after some consultation with Gale when we got back, the flu it was.

It all started Thursday night with Kev having a fever after dinner (luckily we got in a little shopping and a trip to the Eiffel tower before then). Friday we woke up to bad headaches, but thought we would try to venture out a bit. We took some of the bus tour and were back in bed with fevers by 3 p.m. where we stayed until that time the next day. Saturday we met the Chamberlains for dinner and headed back for one last look at the Eiffel tower at night. I think even if we were healthly the whole time, I would have asked Kev to take me back to the Eiffel tower every night, so beautiful all lit up! Sunday we were relieved to come home and be back to our own beds. I never thought I would be so happy to hear and see German words again, but my was it comforting!!

However, the parts of Paris that we did see were absolutely beautiful and we will just keep it on the list of locations for another time! It was great to be able to muster up some energy and meet the Chamberlains for dinner, even though at that point we were still set on the food poisoning idea and were a bit paranoid about what we ate. So much for branching out and trying new French foods! The architechture on the different churches and museums that we saw from the bus were absolutely amazing and made for some great pictures! Check out the video at the end to really see how they illuminate the Eiffel Tower at night, bear with the fact that you have to watch it with your head on your side!

We stopped to watch some breakdancing on the first night

too foggy to see the whole thing!

Still too foggy the next morning

Notre Dame church

Galeries Lafayette, 6 floors of shopping available

view of city from top of the Galeries Lafayette

Saturday was much nicer and no fog!

The nice weather on the weekend made the lines ridiculous!

So beautiful!

The Chamberlains! So great to see you guys!

On the hour, every hour at night they illuminate the Eiffel tower

In other news, we are almost back to feeling 100%. Kevin has been back to practice already yesterday, and I got back to work Thursday. We have visitors coming again, Horst and Gale fly in Friday morning! Just in time too, on my way to class today I saw them setting up the Christmas Markets downtown! Even though they make me so excited for Christmas there will be no decorations in this apartment until after next Thursday, American Thanksgiving!!! That's all for now, check out the lit up Eiffel tower video below! Tschüss!

Oh, and HAPPY 25th BIRTHDAY to my brother, Thayne!