Eugene

March 25, 2009

Blend is back!

I was pleasantly surprised when I heard this morning that Blend had reopened, so I decided to stop in for lunch.
Blend has changed the menu and lowered prices by taking their sandwiches and salads and turning them into wraps. Sandwich wraps are $5.95 and the salad wraps are $6.95. They also have a selection of 3 soups you can choose from for $2.75, and you can get a wrap/soup combo for $6.95. If you pay with cash, they’ll also knock 5% off the bill.
I miss the proscuitto/cappicola sandwich, but the wrap versions are still just as tasty as the original sandwich versions. Hopefully the lower prices will draw more customers and help keep Blend around as a good alternative lunching spot to the cafeteria.
Blend is open from 10-4.

March 24, 2009May 23, 2024

Easy morning jog

A little on the cool side this morning. Who left the fridge open?

Went out for an easy jog this morning with the dogs. Don’t want to push myself too hard. Being someone who used to run quite a bit back in high school and university, and then not doing it for a long long time makes getting back into running a little challenging. The brain remembers being able to run a lot faster and harder than the body is capable of. The brain says “hey, this feels good, let’s go out a little faster” and makes the body go out harder than body is ready for. Then body ends up getting injured, which means no more running.

This has foiled some of my previous attempts at getting back into running in the past, so I try to make myself take things easy for the first few weeks. I’m not too concerned that I haven’t gone out in a few days. Those days of obsessing and gnashing of teeth because I missed a day of running are long past me now (yes, I used to be one of those runners). My main goal is to be able to get back to a point where I want to go running regularly, and that means not getting myself injured.

Plus, I have a goal this time. I’m on an i5k team (go vote on a t-shirt design for our team)! It would be embarrassing to do all this training, and then get myself injured so I can’t run in the race.

Temp: 11°C
Distance: 2.4 km/1.5 miles
Time: ~30 min
Pace: ~20:00

March 21, 2009

Penguins at the Aquarium

One of the perks of being a volunteer at the Aquarium is getting the inside scoop on new exhibits and animals. Needless to say, I thought it was pretty exciting news when I heard a few months ago that the Aquarium was going to be getting a penguin exhibit.
Now that Penguin Planet is officially open, I figure it’s safe for me to show off some of the pictures I’ve been taking over the past couple of months.
Here’s the penguin enclosure just after it was delivered to the Aquarium. The old touch tank on the first floor was removed to make room for the Penguin Planet exhibit.

A couple of weeks later, the enclosure moved into its final resting spot and the exhibit space was getting framed out.

Here’s the exhibit space all framed out. Life support systems for the enclosure have been installed and the enclosure filled with water. No leaks!

The walls have been put up and covered and waiting for the final touches on the exhibit. Penguins have moved in and are getting used to their new space (you can see them hanging out in the top left of the enclosure.

The completed exhibit.

Here are three of the four penguins. None of them have names, but they each have wing bands with different colours so staff can tell them apart.

These particular penguins (Magellanic penguins) are pretty buoyant and don’t dive very deep