Half marathon, Run for Water.

Posted on May 31, 2009 by Nathan

No huge on getting up early on Sundays, but since there was a half marathon race right down the road from me, I thought I better get my ass in gear. Kept outa trouble Saturday night so I could walk over at 7:15 in the morning and pick up my race package, since I forgot to get it Saturday. It was a 8am start, and man was it hot out, had to be almost 20.

Had a pretty good run, course was a bit tough with a lot of hills. It looked like the heat caught the best of a few, but spending the last week working in the sun, it did really phase me. I would say the overall race was put on very well. Had a large group of volunteers, as well as a lot of police blocking roads with perfect signage. The race had a 5km, 10km, and the half marathon on the 2nd annual of the event which I would think will have a 3rd.

201 people did the half marathon, close to 500 did 5k, and over 600 did the 10km. I posted a 1:30 and came 5th overall, pretty happy with the time but under 1:30 would have been nice. Overall great event and good cause.

“By competing in the Run For Water you are helping villages in Ethiopia aquire the clean drinking water they need.”

Shed Saturday

Posted on May 31, 2009 by Nathan

Spent my hungover ass with my pops getting the shed closer to completion. Spent about 10-15 hours total and can’t wait to get my tools out of the house and into the shed. It will end up being a 8×12, so a pretty good size. Adding a little loft in the A frame of the shed giving me a few for extra square feet.

We used all reused form lumber for the walls and trusses, and then had to get 4 sheets of half inch plywood for the roof. I’ll be using a used front door from my folks place and then once the door is set in place it, i’ll add the tar paper and siding. I am not sure what type of siding I’ll be adding but kinda thinking i’ll be doing the same cedar type thats already on the house. It’ll be nice to have the extra storage once its all finished up.

So far project project tally is under a hundred dollars.

: From the backyard

: From the street

Mid-week events, Art shows, logo designs, and photos

Posted on May 28, 2009 by Nathan

Mid week posts are so tough, trying to get something interesting to write about when you are just looking forward to the weekend. This week has been a really busy week. From jamming in a 3d project for the vacuum while in Tofino, to getting our latest flyer (sp?) ready for our next art show. Not sure when the vacuum project will be out but I’ll add it here once I catch wind. I just poped over to the vaccum and see the last project I worked on was the pic of the week in the beginning of May at Commarts.com

litte screen shot

As for the art show, it will be going from the 17-19 at Artlife in Calgary, AB. We are also introducing a new way to display art in a gallery setting. Stay tuned for that…

Flyer for the up coming show

This week I also been getting photos together for family and had a fun time with my little nephew in the water park today. Had some good light and some pretty funny shots. Here’s the little guy in action.

I’m also trying to get my shed all finished up so I can clean up the exterior of the house. I was too lazy today to do progress pictures but I will probably do that on the weekend.

One last little project for this week was to design a logo for our shirts for the upcoming softball tournment in Aldergrove, which goes along with Aldergrove Days. June 13-14 2009.

latest draft of logo

So all and all this week has been pretty busy.

Tofino weekend in the Sun and Surf.

Posted on May 26, 2009 by Nathan

Spent this weekend on another road adventure but this time I stayed in BC. I finally got my butt down to Tofino on Vancouver Island. Headed out Friday and caught the 3pm ferry to Nanaimo, then drove the 204kms to Tofino. Its a long 204kms that took about 2:45 minutes on a very windy road.

We spent Saturday watching the Rip Curl Stew Surf comp at Cox Bay ,weather was amazing and the scenery was even better. They had a huge Monster tent with little cuties handing out free Monster energy drinks, and stew for everyone who asked for it. One the the cool things that I though t was a good idea was a litte half pipe for skaters, right on the beach. I think I watched that more then the surf comp. There was a pretty good turn out for the event that also went Sunday as well. We just headed over for Saturday because we wanted Sunday to try Surfing on our own.

Had a pretty good night of partying Saturday night, then got up early from a yell from the Park Management crew to clean up our site. We ended up staying at Bella Pacifica which I would recommend to anyone who is thinking about heading down. They have some beach view sites which get taken up quick, but you might get lucky. May was still the off season so the rates were pretty reasonable. We had two sites with 8 people for two nights and paid 120 bucks. They had nice clean washrooms, and warm showers for one dollarwhich buys you 4 minutes. They also had limited RV sites with hook up.

After the clean upof the site we headed to the beach after a stop at a friends work place called live to surf. Picked up our wetsuits and boards and headed to Long Beach for my first trial run at surfing. I was a little hung over so the surfing didn’t totally go to plan but was very fun. I am going to have to head back to the island again before the summer ends.

flexisonic at le.tanque

Posted on May 20, 2009 by Nathan

Over at le.tanque, they have released an album. I was hit with it on my drive home from Calgary, and my 10 inch sub was booming all the way home. Very good, and very bass heavy and still being played in my truck. If you jump over to le.tanque you can snag yourself a copy and piss your neighbors off. I’d do it.

The crew is flexisonic and from what I know they like music, a lot. GLUBTCH volume 1.

Heritage Posters and music Store, Calgary

Posted on May 20, 2009 by Nathan

When I was in Calgary I made a stop at a store called Heritage Posters and Music. It was only a few short blocks from the friends place I was staying at. Apparently they just moved from across the street to a much larger store. We had a few words with the owner, and was well worth our time. He was very knowledgeable and knows the industry. A good bulk of these Heritage posters are signed either by the artist who created them or the band. There had to be hundreds if not thousands of posters littered all over the walls with even more music and accessories.

Store is located on 1502 11th Avenue SW, in Calgary, Alberta. They have a website at www.heritageposters.ca. Like his online store, the actual store is cool on its own. They have jammed every inch with posters, music, cars, and anything that looks cool that deals with all those things. One of my favorite feature of the store was an old vintage car inside the store. The outside of the store is no different. Bright colors and posters all over the walls of the exterior. Its pretty hard to miss if your driving down 14th because the store is a piece of Heritage art. I had some fun taking pictures of the outside. This was one of my favorite stops on my trip.

Banff and Calgary Events

Posted on May 16, 2009 by Nathan

The few days in Banff managed to be a pretty successful with a mix of good luck with the weather. Had a lot of snow every day I was there but did manage to get some good shots from the top of Sulphur Mountain when it finally broke for a bit. It climbs to 2,281m at peak and then a few more meters after you walk up their skywalk. Pretty cool set up, I’m not sure that its worth 30 bucks for an 8 minute gondola ride. I ended up riding for free since I stole my buddies drivers license, apparently if you live in Banff or Canmore you can ride for free. After that did some spa clubbing up at the Rimrock resort with their pretty insane pool and hot tub combo since we knew someone saying there.

Rimrock Pool ---

After my few days in Banff I managed to ram into Calgary yesterday afternoon. Did some walking around later in the evening and picked up a new backpack to go running with so I can carry my camera on my back while I’m out pounding the pavement. Ended up getting the mec Drangonfly 17 litre daypack, ran with it today and was pretty happy with it and also got some pretty good shots at the same time. Weather is nice and warm, nice change from the snow storm in banff that was going on a few days ago.

Later on the night turned to drunkered party with a stop a new pub then a trip to the saddledom to watch the Roughreck lacrosse team win the league championship. Pretty crazy game, good time and looked like it was close to being a sell out. Here an article about the game… After the game we ended up a some bar, was pretty fun til they blew the fuse on the sound system and took them for ever to get it up again. After that not sure what happened but my head hurt when I got up.

Check out my flickr for the updates on my shots of the week. Took some nice shot while running today, we’ll see if I get around to adding them today.

Shot close to COP

Some good Banff fuel millage

Posted on May 14, 2009 by Nathan

Alberta bound started Wednesday morning, I jumped into my truck and left at 9am from Abbotsford. I filled up with diesel the night before at 82.5 cents a litre and took about 116 litres.(I think my bill was 90 bucks, don’t remember …) I drive a 2003 gmc 2500HD longbox with a Duramax 6.6 diesel engine, with a performance chip from Edge Products, and a tank that takes 120 litres.

My first stop was Banff, roughly an 8 hour drive with a total of 776kms (google maps). Generally in the city I get about that in one tank. I ended up getting into town at 5pm my time with a half a tank left . So I figure about 50-60 bucks…go figure. One of the big reasons why my millage was so good was that I used cruise control for about 70-80 percent of the drive. I have heard that it makes a big difference in millage, more consistency in acceleration and less revving. So I guess thats my tip for the day, use cruise.

Shot Just after Revy

Dash shot just getting Banff

Magento Snubbing

Posted on May 13, 2009 by Nathan

The last few weeks I have been battling with Magento, the latest e commerce platform. As promised I would write again about this growing software. As I continue to rack up the hours learning and setting up our new store for the art project I been finding an increase in frustration in how Varien has gone about making this software accessible and free .

In the last year Varien made it clear that they would aid in troubleshooting “at the time” open source software. Nearly after a year of eager programmers, designers, and e commerce folks, playing with the software, Varien all of a sudden halts any help on their forums leaving many frustrated users. In the eyes of many, Varien got a good year of free beta testing. I am not totally new with Magento and have spent my share of hours clicking through pages on the forums and have found dead end posts, questions, and unsolved issues.

Since its 1.3 release of March 2009, Varien had been fairly quiet on the support side of things. They claim they want to make support more accessible in 2009, after listening to CEO Roy in Feb 2009. Well I think I have it figured out, I need to save 10 thousand dollars a year so I can buy the Magento Enterprise Edition…

None the less I have some knowledge to share and will share it with the community. I still believe this is the strongest open source e commerce software out there. I’m just bitchin…

Alberta Bound

Posted on May 11, 2009 by Nathan

I’m heading out to Alberta for the rest of the week, and into the long weekend. I’m going to document as much of the trip as possible. The reason for the trip is to gather up as many photographs for the Art Show in Calgary, July 17-18.

I have spent a good part of my life in this province. I lived in Lethbridge for almost 5 years while at the University of Lethbridge. It would be cool to make it all the way back there, since I haven’t been since I finished up there in 2004. I believe the school has doubled since I left, and I’m sure the program which I graduated from has changed since we headed the first class to go through it. It was called the New Media Program, not sure what it is called now but it was a great program at the time.

I’ll stop in Banff for a few days, then continue to head east to the prairies. I haven’t gotten to many good shots of the prairies so I am hoping I can come back with some good ones. Looking forward to the big skies and long fields.

I hope to get some good weather, and some good shots. Leaving Wednesday and hope to be back Monday.

Concrete styles 101

Posted on May 10, 2009 by Nathan

Been a busy week since the weather has been nice, so that means it time to make some money. We’ve been busy taking out and replacing residential concrete driveways, we have done 4 just in the last week and a half. While some have been a normal broom-finish type driveway, others, have a bit more complexity. We do all type of driveways from smooth, broom finish, stained, and stamped. You can also add more dimensions to your concrete by adding colors, boarders, inserts, and murals. Prices usually range from 1.50 a square foot to a 90 dollars a square foot for the highest level of complexity.

At my house we have done many types of concrete inside as well as outside, from colored fake wood stamp pattern in my kitchen to rock pattern in my bathroom. My kitchen (from previos post) has a smooth finish with black coloring mixed in with the concrete. Outside I have a similar rock pattern (from the bathroom)around my padio as well as walk way. In my studio I have a smooth finished floor with 4 colors stained on it to give it a rustic feel.

Stamp Kitchen Floor with a wood pattern.

Above are shots of my kitchen floors with a brown concrete. We don’t normally do interior stamp mostly due to the mess, but if your willing to put up with it-its very modern way to fancy up your house.

Bathroom Shot--Stamp rock pattern

Here is a shoot of my bathroom floor. Stamp concrete with a rock tile in set. A lot of work but the end result is well worth it. Probably my favorite room of the house, mostly because of the floor.

Black Counters in my Kitchen.

Smooth Finish counter tops with black coloring. Lightly sanded, and then a high gloss sealer apply to the surface.

Stained Floors in my old Appartment

Here is a smooth finish floor with a four color stained pattern. I also used with style in the basement of my current house. It is easy to clean, and easy to up keep. I gives a cool rustic feel to all the rooms. It also goes with so many styles of room, homes, and designs.

I love the use of concrete for many designs. Its strong, but can be used in so many different ways. Different colors, patterns and styles make this material fun to use. I remind many people that it can a great alternative but should be done by professionals. It is a tricky material and be very costly if not done correctly.

Birthday/ BMO Vancouver Marathon weekend.

Posted on May 5, 2009 by Nathan

This weekend was a hard weekend to be good. It was my 29th birthday, but it was also Vancouver Marathon on the same day. There was a pretty large group of friends running the full, as well as my mom and another group of friends doing the half marathon. The weather was awesome, sunny but not too hot. We all trainned for about 4 months and all of us dropped large amounts of time, ranging from 18 minutes to 15 minutes.

The course was different from when I ran it in 2006. We didn’t have to run up that ugly hill to prospect point. (halfers did though) 2006 was the first marathon that I did, and doing my research, did it in 3:33.15. This last weekend 3:15.56, getting closer to a Boston time, but still pretty far away. The qualifying time for that for my age group is 3:10.59, or I can wait til I am 35 and squeak in at a 3:15.59. Here is the list.

I really enjoy doing this marathon, a lot of people turn up to cheer and it takes you through many great parts of the city. 2006 had a more scenic route taking you right through Gastown, but also had alot more hills. This year you went through small parts of Gastown, Grandville Island, and most notable , Stanley park. I think Stanley Park had to be my favorite part with a lot of peeks of the water.

Here is a cool little article from Kelly Grant from the Vancouver Sun about their experience.

Here is a video of some crazy dude huckin the thing with no shoes…

I was lucky enough to stay with a friend that lived 2 blcoks away so I could sleep in, as well as get a hot tub afterward. I took a few shots of the halfers running by, they started at 7:00, while we had a 7:30 start.

Nathan Veldhoen

::A Lifestyle blog of what I enjoy :: running, Triathlon, Art, Design, Photography, DIY and Building.::

Monthly Archives: May 2009

Half marathon, Run for Water.

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Shed Saturday

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Mid-week events, Art shows, logo designs, and photos

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Tofino weekend in the Sun and Surf.

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flexisonic at le.tanque

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Heritage Posters and music Store, Calgary

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Banff and Calgary Events

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Some good Banff fuel millage

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Magento Snubbing

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Alberta Bound

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Concrete styles 101

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Birthday/ BMO Vancouver Marathon weekend.

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