Still digging ourselves out of the snow. Apparently, they do snow removal here. Which I'm sure I've heard of before, but never experienced. It involved snow plows of every size and shape, massive dump trucks, and a huge snow blower. Crazy cool. But, the down side to this is that they put up these signs on our streets and that night or the next morning, your car has to be somewhere else or they tow it. I guess cars would get in the way a wee bit. Apparently they tow around 25,000 cars every winter for this reason. Oh, and they have these cute little snow plows that clear off the sidewalks! And everyone has these tarp canopy things in their little driveways (at least the people who have driveways, which is surprisingly few) to keep the snow off their cars. This whole snow thing makes me feel like a 5 year old who is just learning how to add and wants to go around telling everyone how cool it is, but everyone is older and already knows how to add and is, well, much less of a nerd. And man, does it get cold here! Touching anything outside is painful, my lungs constantly ache, and my ears are cold no matter what I do. On the plus side, I'm really quite fond of math.
Anyway, last night Dylan notices this sign telling us we had to move the car. Except we don't actually own a snow shovel and the snow plows tend to completely bury the cars along the side of the road. Luckily, our neighbour was kind enough to lend us hers...by leaving it out on the back porch we share. Dylan goes and digs out the car, and finds a street that isn't doing snow removal yet that isn't full of cars from the streets that are doing it about 4 blocks away and it's all good. Then today I got worried that they would be doing snow removal on that street either tonight or tomorrow morning (I was right) and all of this led to me driving on the snow for the first time! All by myself too. I'm a big girl now. It was terrifying and slippery and the back windshield was covered in ice and condensation so I couldn't see out of it. And everyone rushed to put their cars back on the street as soon as the sign came down so now our car is 3/4 of the way down the block from us. Did I mention that it was cold?
In other news, Dylan and I are looking into a free french course that runs in Jan through a local church and today we talked to the adorable little old lady secretary who, not helpfully, didn't actually speak English. If it works out, it could be pretty cool and end up being helpful for us.
Thursday, December 9, 2010
Tuesday, December 7, 2010
Not much new to report. Except it snowed a wee little bit today.
Dylan decided that it was probably best not to go out on his bike tonight.
It's been going for about 16 hrs now. We just got back from a walk. It was magical. A bit cold, but magical. I like the snow. And I also find it fascinating to see all the things people around here do to deal with it. All in all, I dig it.
Dylan decided that it was probably best not to go out on his bike tonight.
It's been going for about 16 hrs now. We just got back from a walk. It was magical. A bit cold, but magical. I like the snow. And I also find it fascinating to see all the things people around here do to deal with it. All in all, I dig it.
Sunday, November 21, 2010
Crazy thing I've noticed in the last month here in good ol' Montreal: they all suddenly switched to winter wear. One day it was t-shirts and shorts, the next jeans and big jackets. Even last week, when it was about 5 degrees out, everyone was dressed in coats, toques, gloves and scarves. It made me feel like I stood out wearing my skirt and a light sweater. Our theory is that since Victoria has such a mild winter, we do a gradual layering throughout the autumn and winter, adding a sweat shirt to the long sleeve shirt, adding a scarf, adding a toque a bit later, and throwing on a pair of gloves and a jacket when it gets really cold. But since it gets so much colder here, they have a lot more clothing designed for it, so they need to switch over their entire wardrobe. I didn't think there was ever a reason to relocated to the back of the closet, but apparently there is. Whatever the reason, it was startling.
We've been keeping ourselves busy trying to figure out what we'll be doing next year. Dylan is hard at work on his Jet application and I am looking into a program that I'd like to take at McGill. I think it would be amazing, but there are a lot of things to take into consideration and a lot of things that would need to happen, the least of which would be actually getting accepted into the program. We are also in the middle of figuring out our Christmas plans.
Dylan's has been getting really good at the whole bread making thing. He made potato bread last week that was amazing. And he's also started making mayo. We have plans for a tomato plant, and he's also mentioned that he'd like to try his hand at making mustard sometime. And then I will be able to make a sandwich that was made from scratch. Well, it's not like we grew the wheat or raised the chickens that gave up the eggs to make the mayo, but you get my point. I'm excited.
In other news, kittens!
Yes, I have become a crazy cat lady and yes, I know that they aren't actually my cats.
We've been keeping ourselves busy trying to figure out what we'll be doing next year. Dylan is hard at work on his Jet application and I am looking into a program that I'd like to take at McGill. I think it would be amazing, but there are a lot of things to take into consideration and a lot of things that would need to happen, the least of which would be actually getting accepted into the program. We are also in the middle of figuring out our Christmas plans.
Dylan's has been getting really good at the whole bread making thing. He made potato bread last week that was amazing. And he's also started making mayo. We have plans for a tomato plant, and he's also mentioned that he'd like to try his hand at making mustard sometime. And then I will be able to make a sandwich that was made from scratch. Well, it's not like we grew the wheat or raised the chickens that gave up the eggs to make the mayo, but you get my point. I'm excited.
In other news, kittens!
Yes, I have become a crazy cat lady and yes, I know that they aren't actually my cats.
Saturday, November 6, 2010
Boring Update.
One thing that I am eternally grateful for is my computers spell check. It just sits there, reading over my shoulder, gently pointing out whenever I make a mistake. It makes these posts, and my twitters, monumentally more bearable for all of you kind folk. Especially considering how horribly I misspelled 'bearable'. It cannot, however, fix the part of my brain that has to stop and think whether I mean 'where' or 'were', or 'sweat' or 'sweet' (I usually look this one up). I think it is also the part of my brain that forces me to say orange when I mean yellow. This part of my brain bothers me immensely (I misspelled that so badly my spell check didn't even know what I meant).
Anyways, my beloved husband burnt another dish towel. At least this one didn't light on fire because he left it in the oven; this one just was sitting on the stove when he accidentally turned on the wrong burner. And, of course, he wouldn't let me throw it away despite the fact that we have 90,000,000 dish towels.
But we did end up finding a use for it after all, so he wins this time. Kitty cape!
Anyways, my beloved husband burnt another dish towel. At least this one didn't light on fire because he left it in the oven; this one just was sitting on the stove when he accidentally turned on the wrong burner. And, of course, he wouldn't let me throw it away despite the fact that we have 90,000,000 dish towels.
But we did end up finding a use for it after all, so he wins this time. Kitty cape!
Thursday, October 28, 2010
To Sir, With Love
Yo.
Happy 100th Birthday Granddad! Congrats.
My family is having a big celebration party thing for him today at my old stomping grounds (the church). Kinda bummed about missing it, especially since I haven't seen some of the people who are going in quite a while. Actually, I think one of my cousins who I have never met or only met when I was really young will be there. Not to mention that turning 100 is a huge deal!
It's SNOWING! I'm kinda scared, since it isn't even November yet. But it is so pretty.
So, Dylan had a friend/old coworker from Fujiya visiting this week. She actually is having a whirlwind tour of the East Coast - three days in Montreal, two in Quebec City, two in Ottawa, and two in Toronto before flying back to Japan. I, for one, know I don't have enough energy to be able to run around that much. But I'm an old lady.
Anyway, we continue to try and improve on our hosting abilities and to find all sorts of exciting things for visitors to do and see while here. Eventually, we will be the perfect hosts! We tried to take her to the botanical gardens, but the first day it poured rain and it was $14 per person (even though it is free after 5pm throughout the summer, during the fall they have a lantern festival and they pretend that that justifies the price). But, have no fear, Dylan took her back the next day and they had a lovely time. He also took her on a lovely drive through Montreal to see the sights. And the last day we tackled downtown. She has a particular fascination with old churches and cathedrals, so that part was easy since Montreal is loaded with them. Took her down St. Catherine's, to Old Montreal, to McGill and all around there.
And, as it turn out, it was FREE MUSEUM DAY! WOOT! We knew beforehand that the Museum of Contemporary Art would be free after 6pm. Yah, me and contemporary art are not bffs. There was one exhibit about a lady who was in love with her monkey. I don't know. Although this one dude had robots coming out of old fashioned blue and white vases, which were awesome. This is why I stay away from the fine arts...
Anywho, it turns out that the Museum of Fine Arts was also free. Unfortunately, it closed at 5pm and we showed up at 4:30pm, so it was a bit rushed. Still, it was cool to see Picasso and Rodin and all them. And, if that was enough to make it worth it:
Why is Dylan standing next to that picture of that random guy, you ask?
Because he's hanging with his great, great, .... grandpa! Woah.
Happy 100th Birthday Granddad! Congrats.
My family is having a big celebration party thing for him today at my old stomping grounds (the church). Kinda bummed about missing it, especially since I haven't seen some of the people who are going in quite a while. Actually, I think one of my cousins who I have never met or only met when I was really young will be there. Not to mention that turning 100 is a huge deal!
It's SNOWING! I'm kinda scared, since it isn't even November yet. But it is so pretty.
So, Dylan had a friend/old coworker from Fujiya visiting this week. She actually is having a whirlwind tour of the East Coast - three days in Montreal, two in Quebec City, two in Ottawa, and two in Toronto before flying back to Japan. I, for one, know I don't have enough energy to be able to run around that much. But I'm an old lady.
Anyway, we continue to try and improve on our hosting abilities and to find all sorts of exciting things for visitors to do and see while here. Eventually, we will be the perfect hosts! We tried to take her to the botanical gardens, but the first day it poured rain and it was $14 per person (even though it is free after 5pm throughout the summer, during the fall they have a lantern festival and they pretend that that justifies the price). But, have no fear, Dylan took her back the next day and they had a lovely time. He also took her on a lovely drive through Montreal to see the sights. And the last day we tackled downtown. She has a particular fascination with old churches and cathedrals, so that part was easy since Montreal is loaded with them. Took her down St. Catherine's, to Old Montreal, to McGill and all around there.
And, as it turn out, it was FREE MUSEUM DAY! WOOT! We knew beforehand that the Museum of Contemporary Art would be free after 6pm. Yah, me and contemporary art are not bffs. There was one exhibit about a lady who was in love with her monkey. I don't know. Although this one dude had robots coming out of old fashioned blue and white vases, which were awesome. This is why I stay away from the fine arts...
Anywho, it turns out that the Museum of Fine Arts was also free. Unfortunately, it closed at 5pm and we showed up at 4:30pm, so it was a bit rushed. Still, it was cool to see Picasso and Rodin and all them. And, if that was enough to make it worth it:
Why is Dylan standing next to that picture of that random guy, you ask?
Because he's hanging with his great, great, .... grandpa! Woah.
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
Can't sleep.
Today's my Papa's birthday. Happy Birthday Daddy! (It's still his birthday back in Victoria, at least.)
In other news, thanks to my dear friend Clair (although Pauly is probably the actual culprit, after having infested our entire home with germs a few weeks ago) , we are all suffering through a cold at the moment. For me, this means that the left side of my face is rebelling against me. My ear hurt, my throat hurts, my lymph nodes are swollen, and, most annoyingly, my nose has been running/blocked for the last 24 hrs non-stop. My poor sinuses are really, really unhappy with me. All of this has resulted in me not being able to sleep. I am very close to cutting off that whole side of my face.
But, I did manage to distract myself for a few hours today by accompanying Clair to this big fancy mall near us (Clair and I went to the Zellers there a few months ago). It is much bigger than we thought! In the one building, there is a Bay, a Sears, a Brick, a Zellers, an Old Navy, an H&M, a Smart Set, three kids clothing stores, every cell phone store you can think of, and a billion other smaller stores. There was also a Rona on the other side of the parking lot. Kinda sad that a mall in the some random neighbourhood is that much bigger than any mall in Victoria. What did I end up buying after wandering around this shopper's heaven for two hours? A spatula. I was pretty excited. Somehow, in the last four months, Dylan and I have managed to break two silicon spatulas. Because we are amazing.
Yesterday and today, Dylan decided to be all mountain-man, and set out to go camping all by his lonesome (I couldn't go) in the great outdoors! He packed up his tent and sleeping bag onto his bike and made the two-three hour trip to a national park, just west of Laval. Isn't he so manly? And, in an extremely unusual turn of events, he left and came back safe and sound, without incident. Depending on the weather, the two of us might head out next week as a final camping trip of the season. Who knows.
That's about it from our neck of the woods. Night night (hopefully).
In other news, thanks to my dear friend Clair (although Pauly is probably the actual culprit, after having infested our entire home with germs a few weeks ago) , we are all suffering through a cold at the moment. For me, this means that the left side of my face is rebelling against me. My ear hurt, my throat hurts, my lymph nodes are swollen, and, most annoyingly, my nose has been running/blocked for the last 24 hrs non-stop. My poor sinuses are really, really unhappy with me. All of this has resulted in me not being able to sleep. I am very close to cutting off that whole side of my face.
But, I did manage to distract myself for a few hours today by accompanying Clair to this big fancy mall near us (Clair and I went to the Zellers there a few months ago). It is much bigger than we thought! In the one building, there is a Bay, a Sears, a Brick, a Zellers, an Old Navy, an H&M, a Smart Set, three kids clothing stores, every cell phone store you can think of, and a billion other smaller stores. There was also a Rona on the other side of the parking lot. Kinda sad that a mall in the some random neighbourhood is that much bigger than any mall in Victoria. What did I end up buying after wandering around this shopper's heaven for two hours? A spatula. I was pretty excited. Somehow, in the last four months, Dylan and I have managed to break two silicon spatulas. Because we are amazing.
Yesterday and today, Dylan decided to be all mountain-man, and set out to go camping all by his lonesome (I couldn't go) in the great outdoors! He packed up his tent and sleeping bag onto his bike and made the two-three hour trip to a national park, just west of Laval. Isn't he so manly? And, in an extremely unusual turn of events, he left and came back safe and sound, without incident. Depending on the weather, the two of us might head out next week as a final camping trip of the season. Who knows.
That's about it from our neck of the woods. Night night (hopefully).
Saturday, October 9, 2010
Phew.
My beloved laptop is safe and sound, happily charging away.
After wanting to scream and cry like a little girl because my favourite toy wasn't working the way it was supposed to, I went into the Apple website and found out it was still covered under warranty (Thanks to my beloved husband and his firm belief in extended warranties), which was a relief since I've had my computer for just over a year. It wouldn't have been a huge deal, since I was 98% positive I just needed to replace the power cord, but I would've been out $80. I still felt bad for any mistreatment from me that might have led to this problem, so I cleaned off the dirt between the keys with a Q-Tip. Anyway, I booked a tech call with Apple online for the next day (yesterday). It's actually very cool; you can book an appointment for a specific time and a rep will call you no latter than 15 mins after that. My dude called, literally, two minutes after the scheduled time. Anyway, we talked, I sent him this report that told him pretty much everything about my computer, and he decided that it would be easiest if I went into a store considering his options for problem solving were somewhat limited on the phone. Luckily for me, the scary report thing told him that my battery was working just fine, so that relieved some concerns. He went on and booked me a time to go in and talk to a Genius (what they actually call their tech guys) at the store downtown.
Wow, seriously. I'm sure you don't really care anymore. I don't think anyone in their right mind cares this much about my laptop other than me. But I'm still going to finish my story, 'cause I can.
Today, at my allotted time, I arrived, and the nice lady, Nancy(?) Genius, told me that some of the pins on the power cord where it connects with the computer got pushed in and that made for a less than optimal connection. And that it was unlikely that it was my fault. She gave me a new one and I was on my way!
They've changed them, too. I like the new look.
Now, I had a fancy new adaptor, but I still had my old extension for it (I left the bit that lets you plug the adaptor straight into the wall back in Victoria, so I always have to use the extension) that was all dirty and didn't match at all. So I cleaned it. Clair thought I was craaazzzzy! Especially since I cleaned it with a disinfectant wipe (it was the most convenient thing I had to clean it). Then I wiped down my laptop with it's nice little microfiber cloth and gave the screen a much-needed cleaning.
All is right in the world once again.
After wanting to scream and cry like a little girl because my favourite toy wasn't working the way it was supposed to, I went into the Apple website and found out it was still covered under warranty (Thanks to my beloved husband and his firm belief in extended warranties), which was a relief since I've had my computer for just over a year. It wouldn't have been a huge deal, since I was 98% positive I just needed to replace the power cord, but I would've been out $80. I still felt bad for any mistreatment from me that might have led to this problem, so I cleaned off the dirt between the keys with a Q-Tip. Anyway, I booked a tech call with Apple online for the next day (yesterday). It's actually very cool; you can book an appointment for a specific time and a rep will call you no latter than 15 mins after that. My dude called, literally, two minutes after the scheduled time. Anyway, we talked, I sent him this report that told him pretty much everything about my computer, and he decided that it would be easiest if I went into a store considering his options for problem solving were somewhat limited on the phone. Luckily for me, the scary report thing told him that my battery was working just fine, so that relieved some concerns. He went on and booked me a time to go in and talk to a Genius (what they actually call their tech guys) at the store downtown.
Wow, seriously. I'm sure you don't really care anymore. I don't think anyone in their right mind cares this much about my laptop other than me. But I'm still going to finish my story, 'cause I can.
Today, at my allotted time, I arrived, and the nice lady, Nancy(?) Genius, told me that some of the pins on the power cord where it connects with the computer got pushed in and that made for a less than optimal connection. And that it was unlikely that it was my fault. She gave me a new one and I was on my way!
They've changed them, too. I like the new look.
Now, I had a fancy new adaptor, but I still had my old extension for it (I left the bit that lets you plug the adaptor straight into the wall back in Victoria, so I always have to use the extension) that was all dirty and didn't match at all. So I cleaned it. Clair thought I was craaazzzzy! Especially since I cleaned it with a disinfectant wipe (it was the most convenient thing I had to clean it). Then I wiped down my laptop with it's nice little microfiber cloth and gave the screen a much-needed cleaning.
All is right in the world once again.
Wednesday, October 6, 2010
Wow, I kinda suck at this whole updating thing.
So, what up, you ask? Well, Pauly came and, sadly, left. But we did have a pretty gosh darn good time while she was here! We took her downtown, showed her the sights, had a picnic on Mont Royal, finally had pizza at this one silly restaurant that we've been trying to eat at since we moved here, and basically got a chance to hang with one of our faves people in the world. We forgot to take her to the Jean Talon Market, but just imagine a normal farmers' market but bigger. It's lost some of it wonder for me, although I do want to head down and check out all the autumn foods sometime. Anyways, we also took a fabs (Vanessa has forever changed the way I think with her article) trip down to Ottawa with her so that she could re-visit some childhood spots (ex. the cheese factory, that proved to be more of a cheese store located in the middle of no where) and see her aunt and uncle. They were pretty cool people, clearly related to Pauly, and took us all out for Sushi. Yummy, except I don't know how I feel about mango on my sushi. Sadly, the Hershey's Factory shut down a couple years ago, so we couldn't go there. And I just keep falling more and more in love with Ottawa. It is definitely on it's way to making it onto my list of places I'd like to live. We took a lovely walk along the canal and it was just beau-ti-ful. I'm loving autumn on the East Coast.
What else, what else? Umm, Thanksgiving is coming up. We're planning ourselves a nice little turkey dinner. I'm making the candied yams. Dylan taught me how to make them a few years ago when he was catering for a convention at our lovely Em's church that happened to fall on Thanksgiving weekend. Ahh, memories. It is one of the only things that i know how to make. That and veg chili. I'm excited.
I'm having problems with my power cord and it is pissing me off. It's not connecting properly unless I fiddle with it and that worries me. :(
Scotty, I need more power!
So, what up, you ask? Well, Pauly came and, sadly, left. But we did have a pretty gosh darn good time while she was here! We took her downtown, showed her the sights, had a picnic on Mont Royal, finally had pizza at this one silly restaurant that we've been trying to eat at since we moved here, and basically got a chance to hang with one of our faves people in the world. We forgot to take her to the Jean Talon Market, but just imagine a normal farmers' market but bigger. It's lost some of it wonder for me, although I do want to head down and check out all the autumn foods sometime. Anyways, we also took a fabs (Vanessa has forever changed the way I think with her article) trip down to Ottawa with her so that she could re-visit some childhood spots (ex. the cheese factory, that proved to be more of a cheese store located in the middle of no where) and see her aunt and uncle. They were pretty cool people, clearly related to Pauly, and took us all out for Sushi. Yummy, except I don't know how I feel about mango on my sushi. Sadly, the Hershey's Factory shut down a couple years ago, so we couldn't go there. And I just keep falling more and more in love with Ottawa. It is definitely on it's way to making it onto my list of places I'd like to live. We took a lovely walk along the canal and it was just beau-ti-ful. I'm loving autumn on the East Coast.
What else, what else? Umm, Thanksgiving is coming up. We're planning ourselves a nice little turkey dinner. I'm making the candied yams. Dylan taught me how to make them a few years ago when he was catering for a convention at our lovely Em's church that happened to fall on Thanksgiving weekend. Ahh, memories. It is one of the only things that i know how to make. That and veg chili. I'm excited.
I'm having problems with my power cord and it is pissing me off. It's not connecting properly unless I fiddle with it and that worries me. :(
Scotty, I need more power!
Sunday, September 26, 2010
Old Lady.
Hello Kiddies,
It's the 26th of Sept, and do you know what that means? My birthday was three days ago!! Woo! Birthday! Huzzah!
...Ok, enough of that.
But I will tell y'all about it. We stayed up until my birthday started, I got to read my birthday card from Dylan's parents (it was really the only thing I got to open this year, so it was exciting). We watched some Daily Show and went night-night. We woke up and decided to go for ice cream, since our previous attempts the day before failed. For some reason, there's a ice cream store that isn't open in the middle of the afternoon or at night. Oh well. We ended up going to this adorable little place that is only open for a few more days and ice cream was 2 for 1 and the owner was the sweetest old man. That evening we went out for ramen and then were going to see a fancy fountain show. But it only runs through the summer and the 23rd of Sept is apparently not really summer...
I also got some emails from family, a voice mail from Grandma, and all my dear friends giving me facebook well wishes. All in all, I feel the love.
Other than that, my hubby got me a pretty-pretty dress. So yesterday we alls went shopping, (except for the mister) so I could get a shrug for it. And, with some of my birthday money, I also bought a couple of sweaters. It was exciting. And we took Pauly out for poutine, because it is a must when visiting Montreal.
We have vague plans to go to the Ottawa area in a couple days. Oh, and if things work out, Clair, Dylan and I might head down to Washington, D.C. on Oct. 30th. A nice benefit of living on the East Coast.
It's the 26th of Sept, and do you know what that means? My birthday was three days ago!! Woo! Birthday! Huzzah!
...Ok, enough of that.
But I will tell y'all about it. We stayed up until my birthday started, I got to read my birthday card from Dylan's parents (it was really the only thing I got to open this year, so it was exciting). We watched some Daily Show and went night-night. We woke up and decided to go for ice cream, since our previous attempts the day before failed. For some reason, there's a ice cream store that isn't open in the middle of the afternoon or at night. Oh well. We ended up going to this adorable little place that is only open for a few more days and ice cream was 2 for 1 and the owner was the sweetest old man. That evening we went out for ramen and then were going to see a fancy fountain show. But it only runs through the summer and the 23rd of Sept is apparently not really summer...
I also got some emails from family, a voice mail from Grandma, and all my dear friends giving me facebook well wishes. All in all, I feel the love.
Other than that, my hubby got me a pretty-pretty dress. So yesterday we alls went shopping, (except for the mister) so I could get a shrug for it. And, with some of my birthday money, I also bought a couple of sweaters. It was exciting. And we took Pauly out for poutine, because it is a must when visiting Montreal.
We have vague plans to go to the Ottawa area in a couple days. Oh, and if things work out, Clair, Dylan and I might head down to Washington, D.C. on Oct. 30th. A nice benefit of living on the East Coast.
Sunday, September 19, 2010
Pauly's here! Fun and excitement abounds! She arrived two nights ago, but unfortunately Dylan was working. So, guess who got to pick her up from the airport? But, don't worry, I did it in my typically neurotic way. Since I didn't want to be driving at rush hour, we left to pick her up at 3:30pm when her flight was expected to arrive at 6:54pm. Yah, we don't live 3.5 hours away from the airport. Our plan was to just sit in a coffee shop near the airport. It ended up being a Subway, but that's not important. Oh, and I also still refused to drive on the highway. So we took regular streets the whole way. Well, except for about the five minutes (at most) that are absolutely necessary to get to the airport. It wasn't that much slower, I swear! And I had my trusty Clair to read out my written directions and look up her phone how far away the streets that I was going to turn onto were. We would have taken the highway back, but for some reason Pauly refused to drive...
I took the picture in black and white because it seems more french to me. Also, I desperately need a haircut.
Yesterday, we took her downtown, walked through Old Montreal and up to St. Catherines. And today we were going to go for a picnic, but a) we are lazy and b) we decided that we would wait for a day that Dylan wasn't working.
I made dinner! Well, I made corn. Clair may have helped out and made the latkas.
That's all. Love love.
I took the picture in black and white because it seems more french to me. Also, I desperately need a haircut.
Yesterday, we took her downtown, walked through Old Montreal and up to St. Catherines. And today we were going to go for a picnic, but a) we are lazy and b) we decided that we would wait for a day that Dylan wasn't working.
I made dinner! Well, I made corn. Clair may have helped out and made the latkas.
That's all. Love love.
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
Highjacking my blog.
Wow, so many updates, in such a short time!
In family news, my cousin got married over the weekend. I'm super happy for her, but kinda bummed I didn't get to be there. All the pictures on Facebook are beautiful and she looks so happy, so that is all that really matters anyway.
Now, to come to my main point: For those of you who occasionally listen when I get going on my crazy rants, you know that I sometimes get obsessed about a specific topic, research the heck out of it, and bring it up whenever it is remotely relevant, with whoever will listen. Unfortunately for Paul, she is the only one who really puts up with it, and this results in her spending a week hearing about nothing but the British Royal family, or Mao and the Great Famine, or whatnot. I normally refrain from using this as a way to force people to listen to my ramblings, but you can all just blame her for not having been on Skype for the last few days.
The last two days, my newest obsession has been Glenn Beck and the Restoring Honor Rally. I watched his full speech that ran about an hour and have been doing some reading up on him. I don't know how much y'all know about Mr. Beck, but I didn't go into it expecting that much. Our political views don't exactly line up, and in the past he has said some...interesting things. For instance, a couple of months ago, on his tv show, he recommended a book written in the 1930s by a known anti-semite and nazi supported. He also claims that his business is entertainment, not politics, and I just don't see how that could be true. I was actually mildly pleased to find out that he didn't come across as crazy as I was expecting and I did agree with some of the things he said. But there are a few small things that I would like to say:
1) I really don't see a cause for the imminent destruction of the U.S. (and the rest of the world) that he seemed so very concerned about. He said over and over that the States was at a crossroads, but he never specified what exactly caused them to arrive at this crossroads. He did, however, specify that this can be avoided through charity, hope, and faith.
2) Someone forgot to give him the memo that Church and State are separated in America. He is a religious man, that's cool. Even better, he seemed to promote interfaith cooperation (even if I didn't fully buy it). The problem I do have is how he tied faith, patriotism, and politics so tightly together. To be a good American, you have to be married, have a family, and go to church. That is blatantly not true and insulting to the millions of Americans. If he believes that prayer is answer to the problems facing America, it that's his right, and I would be inclined to agree that it certainly can't hurt. But he took it just that step too far by saying that it was people's patriotic duty to pray. I won't even go into all the problems I had with what he said about families.
3) I feel it is irresponsible for him to stand in front of thousands of people and tell them to tithe 10%. He is a very rich man; Forbes estimated that from March 2009-March 2010, Beck earned $32 million. I understand that giving $3.2 million is very generous, but that still left him with $28.8 million. It is an entirely different thing to give 10% when you only make $25,000. That $2,500 is going to be harder to do without, especially since apparently you are less than human if you don't have children. I just don't think that it is his place to tell people to do that. He kept saying that change starts in the church, again implying that if you didn't follow exactly what he told you to do, you didn't love your country enough.
(Cute picture of our neighborhood Mini-Oro to distract you from the fact that I am still talking about Glenn Beck.)
As far as I can tell, the whole point of his message was the importance of hope, charity, and faith. And I agree that it's a good things to tell the truth (somehow the practical application of hope is to always tell the truth...), to financially support causes you believe in and to freely practice religion if you so choose. I don't think anyone could argue that these things are dangerous or harmful. But then he keeps talking and takes it too far. I suppose it is entirely possible that this tendency that annoys me so much could very well be the thing that makes him so popular. Fox News is full of conservative reporters saying that the government is too involved in the lives of individuals and that the Democrats are hurting the U.S. But, he stands out when he takes that, along with some random facts, and comes out with his conspiracy theories that everyone is out to destroying American conservatives.
Oh, and I'm pretty sure it's sacrilegious to refer to the Constitution as being the holy scripture of the U.S. Oh, and unless I missed the part of the Bible that refers to Americans as being God's chosen people, I think Beck might be wrong on that one.
Ok, this is getting pretty long, so I'll finish up now. In my readings, I have come across quite a few people who strongly dislike Beck, but the most entertaining critique has come from Stephan King, who described Beck as "Satan's mentally challenged younger brother."
In family news, my cousin got married over the weekend. I'm super happy for her, but kinda bummed I didn't get to be there. All the pictures on Facebook are beautiful and she looks so happy, so that is all that really matters anyway.
Now, to come to my main point: For those of you who occasionally listen when I get going on my crazy rants, you know that I sometimes get obsessed about a specific topic, research the heck out of it, and bring it up whenever it is remotely relevant, with whoever will listen. Unfortunately for Paul, she is the only one who really puts up with it, and this results in her spending a week hearing about nothing but the British Royal family, or Mao and the Great Famine, or whatnot. I normally refrain from using this as a way to force people to listen to my ramblings, but you can all just blame her for not having been on Skype for the last few days.
The last two days, my newest obsession has been Glenn Beck and the Restoring Honor Rally. I watched his full speech that ran about an hour and have been doing some reading up on him. I don't know how much y'all know about Mr. Beck, but I didn't go into it expecting that much. Our political views don't exactly line up, and in the past he has said some...interesting things. For instance, a couple of months ago, on his tv show, he recommended a book written in the 1930s by a known anti-semite and nazi supported. He also claims that his business is entertainment, not politics, and I just don't see how that could be true. I was actually mildly pleased to find out that he didn't come across as crazy as I was expecting and I did agree with some of the things he said. But there are a few small things that I would like to say:
1) I really don't see a cause for the imminent destruction of the U.S. (and the rest of the world) that he seemed so very concerned about. He said over and over that the States was at a crossroads, but he never specified what exactly caused them to arrive at this crossroads. He did, however, specify that this can be avoided through charity, hope, and faith.
2) Someone forgot to give him the memo that Church and State are separated in America. He is a religious man, that's cool. Even better, he seemed to promote interfaith cooperation (even if I didn't fully buy it). The problem I do have is how he tied faith, patriotism, and politics so tightly together. To be a good American, you have to be married, have a family, and go to church. That is blatantly not true and insulting to the millions of Americans. If he believes that prayer is answer to the problems facing America, it that's his right, and I would be inclined to agree that it certainly can't hurt. But he took it just that step too far by saying that it was people's patriotic duty to pray. I won't even go into all the problems I had with what he said about families.
3) I feel it is irresponsible for him to stand in front of thousands of people and tell them to tithe 10%. He is a very rich man; Forbes estimated that from March 2009-March 2010, Beck earned $32 million. I understand that giving $3.2 million is very generous, but that still left him with $28.8 million. It is an entirely different thing to give 10% when you only make $25,000. That $2,500 is going to be harder to do without, especially since apparently you are less than human if you don't have children. I just don't think that it is his place to tell people to do that. He kept saying that change starts in the church, again implying that if you didn't follow exactly what he told you to do, you didn't love your country enough.
(Cute picture of our neighborhood Mini-Oro to distract you from the fact that I am still talking about Glenn Beck.)
As far as I can tell, the whole point of his message was the importance of hope, charity, and faith. And I agree that it's a good things to tell the truth (somehow the practical application of hope is to always tell the truth...), to financially support causes you believe in and to freely practice religion if you so choose. I don't think anyone could argue that these things are dangerous or harmful. But then he keeps talking and takes it too far. I suppose it is entirely possible that this tendency that annoys me so much could very well be the thing that makes him so popular. Fox News is full of conservative reporters saying that the government is too involved in the lives of individuals and that the Democrats are hurting the U.S. But, he stands out when he takes that, along with some random facts, and comes out with his conspiracy theories that everyone is out to destroying American conservatives.
Oh, and I'm pretty sure it's sacrilegious to refer to the Constitution as being the holy scripture of the U.S. Oh, and unless I missed the part of the Bible that refers to Americans as being God's chosen people, I think Beck might be wrong on that one.
Ok, this is getting pretty long, so I'll finish up now. In my readings, I have come across quite a few people who strongly dislike Beck, but the most entertaining critique has come from Stephan King, who described Beck as "Satan's mentally challenged younger brother."
Monday, September 6, 2010
So, the other day, our landlords stopped by. We now officially have a signed english copy of our lease (apparently, for a lease to be legal in Quebec, it has to be this one specific form that you can buy at pharmacies or whatnot that has to be filled out by hand). We should be able to get Quebec healthcare now that we can prove that we live here!
We had asked them, when they told us they were coming by, if they could look at our toilet because it runs a bit. So, the husband went and looked at that while we were signing the lease. This alone shocked me since I am used to landlords saying they will fix something and then doing everything they can to avoid it after that. Then he re-did the caulking on the tub, while he was there. He told us that he'd have to have his handyman come in and fix the toilet, and when we mentioned that our taps dripped he told us he'd get the handyman fix that as well. The wife used our front door (which we rarely use), to go get something from her car, and noticed that the door stuck. The husband looked at it, fiddled with it for a couple minutes, and added it to the list of things for the handyman to fix. We also mentioned that the fan in our room wobbled in a worrying way, and they told us that the fan was left by the previous tenant because it was supposed to have some dome light thingy. Regardless, the husband went and took a look, but realized we didn't have a ladder tall enough for him to reach. Oh well. So they came back today and fixed it!
They aren't around often, since they actually live in the States. But they actually do stuff. They fix stuff for us, they return phone calls, they are generally helpful people. I think my head may fall off.
We had asked them, when they told us they were coming by, if they could look at our toilet because it runs a bit. So, the husband went and looked at that while we were signing the lease. This alone shocked me since I am used to landlords saying they will fix something and then doing everything they can to avoid it after that. Then he re-did the caulking on the tub, while he was there. He told us that he'd have to have his handyman come in and fix the toilet, and when we mentioned that our taps dripped he told us he'd get the handyman fix that as well. The wife used our front door (which we rarely use), to go get something from her car, and noticed that the door stuck. The husband looked at it, fiddled with it for a couple minutes, and added it to the list of things for the handyman to fix. We also mentioned that the fan in our room wobbled in a worrying way, and they told us that the fan was left by the previous tenant because it was supposed to have some dome light thingy. Regardless, the husband went and took a look, but realized we didn't have a ladder tall enough for him to reach. Oh well. So they came back today and fixed it!
They aren't around often, since they actually live in the States. But they actually do stuff. They fix stuff for us, they return phone calls, they are generally helpful people. I think my head may fall off.
Saturday, August 28, 2010
Things I miss about driving in Victoria.
So, I have been living in Montreal for a while now. I've done some driving around, although I have luckily managed to avoid driving on any highways on the island thanks to my wonderfully considerate husband (I freak out so much I actually try and sit in the back seat so I can't see what is going on). But, regardless, I do sometimes do the driving. Today, for instance, I drove to Zellers (fascinating, huh?). So I thought I'd take this opportunity to reflect back on some driving habits practiced in Victoria that I now miss.
Things that I miss:
-Turn Signals.
-Being able to turn right on a red light (illegal anywhere on the island).
-Being the first car stopped at a red light and knowing for certain that if a car is pulling up to the right of me, in the one and only lane going my direction, that they will be turing right. And not having to worry about the possibility that that car might just pull around me and keep going straight (in their defense, since they are so used to no one using signal, they really have no idea what I'm doing and there is a 50/50 chance that I COULD be turning left and the idea of having to wait for a minute IS completely unfathomable to Montrealers).
-People only honking at me for an at least somewhat rational reason.
-Lanes that don't disappear either because of being worn away by snow removal or just for the hell of it. I suppose there's no fun in knowing whether I'm on a street with two lanes or just a fairly large one lane...
-Not having to move our car twice a week because of the once weekly street cleaning and the $52 parking ticket that comes if we don't move it at the specified times.
-Cyclists that stop for red lights and actually wear helmets.
You could summarize this all down to missing having any semblance of an idea as to what the other drivers on the road are doing and laws that make sense.
Now I feel bad. There are a lot of things about Montreal that I legitimately do like. Just nothing driving-related.
In other news, one of Dylan's uncles is in town house-sitting and was super kind enough to take us all out for dinner. We settled on Thai, and the place we chose turned out to be a vegetarian Thai restaurant that is somewhat known for mock meat. I thought the fake shrimp was good and pretty close to the real thing, but the beef was a bit lacking texture wise. Mock meat aside, everything was exceptionally tasty. And it's always nice for Dylan to get a chance to see some of his family and for me to get the chance to get to know them better, especially with us being so far away from home.
We are so popular! Three visits in as many months and a fourth not too far away.
Things that I miss:
-Turn Signals.
-Being able to turn right on a red light (illegal anywhere on the island).
-Being the first car stopped at a red light and knowing for certain that if a car is pulling up to the right of me, in the one and only lane going my direction, that they will be turing right. And not having to worry about the possibility that that car might just pull around me and keep going straight (in their defense, since they are so used to no one using signal, they really have no idea what I'm doing and there is a 50/50 chance that I COULD be turning left and the idea of having to wait for a minute IS completely unfathomable to Montrealers).
-People only honking at me for an at least somewhat rational reason.
-Lanes that don't disappear either because of being worn away by snow removal or just for the hell of it. I suppose there's no fun in knowing whether I'm on a street with two lanes or just a fairly large one lane...
-Not having to move our car twice a week because of the once weekly street cleaning and the $52 parking ticket that comes if we don't move it at the specified times.
-Cyclists that stop for red lights and actually wear helmets.
You could summarize this all down to missing having any semblance of an idea as to what the other drivers on the road are doing and laws that make sense.
Now I feel bad. There are a lot of things about Montreal that I legitimately do like. Just nothing driving-related.
In other news, one of Dylan's uncles is in town house-sitting and was super kind enough to take us all out for dinner. We settled on Thai, and the place we chose turned out to be a vegetarian Thai restaurant that is somewhat known for mock meat. I thought the fake shrimp was good and pretty close to the real thing, but the beef was a bit lacking texture wise. Mock meat aside, everything was exceptionally tasty. And it's always nice for Dylan to get a chance to see some of his family and for me to get the chance to get to know them better, especially with us being so far away from home.
We are so popular! Three visits in as many months and a fourth not too far away.
Friday, August 13, 2010
Update
Hello world!
I thought I should update, but I don't really have too much to tell y'all.
We had a friend come and visit us last week for two days. We wandered around downtown, had poutine, and went to the Jean Talon market. Actually, the market was really neat - it was huge and had lots of tasty vegetables at pretty good prices. 6 peppers (red, green, and orange) for 2$ or 3$ (aren't I so french?). A 5lb bag of carrots for 3$. We also tried our best to drown her in super hard rain.
Oh, we got a fridge. Unfortunately, not before our guest left. Also, not before Clair got food poisoning. But it is exciting for us anyways.
Clair's friend from Calgary is visiting for the week. Picked her up yesterday from the airport and then Dylan promptly got us horribly lost. We figured things might be going wrong when we started crossing a bridge that lead us off the island... We all went out dancing last night. Good times.
We're having pizza for dinner.
I thought I should update, but I don't really have too much to tell y'all.
We had a friend come and visit us last week for two days. We wandered around downtown, had poutine, and went to the Jean Talon market. Actually, the market was really neat - it was huge and had lots of tasty vegetables at pretty good prices. 6 peppers (red, green, and orange) for 2$ or 3$ (aren't I so french?). A 5lb bag of carrots for 3$. We also tried our best to drown her in super hard rain.
Oh, we got a fridge. Unfortunately, not before our guest left. Also, not before Clair got food poisoning. But it is exciting for us anyways.
Clair's friend from Calgary is visiting for the week. Picked her up yesterday from the airport and then Dylan promptly got us horribly lost. We figured things might be going wrong when we started crossing a bridge that lead us off the island... We all went out dancing last night. Good times.
We're having pizza for dinner.
Saturday, July 31, 2010
You may call me Lasagna Noodle.
Hi y'all. Clair made me pasta!
What's new with me? WELL...
Yah, that was a bit too dramatic. You should know by now that I am not that exciting.
Today, officially moved out of our sublet and into our new place. We were trying to be jerks in some way since the sublet guys have sorta been jerks to us. When we moved in, they left some of their dirty dishes in the sink, they left all of their bathroom stuff exactly where I'm assuming it stays (as in, a loofa still hanging in the shower), didn't bother to empty out their closets for us, and just generally left the place like they had stepped out for coffee for a few minutes. Add to that the fact that one of the guys kept popping in with pretty short notice to pick up his mail or what not and the other guy sent Clair condescending text messages asking when we were planning on leaving, because he was getting back early (even though normally when you pay rent for the month, you get the whole month!), and asked us to clean up because he wouldn't have much time because he had to work on Monday. Then there was the whole internet thing. Needless to say, we were somewhat annoyed at them. But, we generally fail at being mean people. I am pretty sure that I am incapable of moving out of a place without cleaning the bathroom, sweeping, and wiping off things that are dirty. Clair and Dylan wouldn't let me wash the floors, though. Combine that with the fact that we are actually somewhat clean people and the apartment looked pretty good. They thanked us for it. I felt sad. But really, the only reason it ever looked bad was because all of our stuff was shoved in piles because there was no where to put it - take out our stuff, and it looks exactly the way they left it. Anyway, we take comfort in the fact that their fridge is almost completely empty, we ate a whole bunch of their food, they have no ink left in their printer, and they have no laundry detergent and that sort of stuff. We did refrained from stealing their Starbucks card. We also didn't steal their fridge.
In other news, as of this past Monday, I have been married for two years. Do I still count as a newly wed? How long before you are no longer newly wed? It seems like two years is both too long and not long enough. Anyway, we went for a picnic on the top of Mount Royal is the afternoon, which was pretty much perfect (although scampering down a mountain in flipflops and a dress is tricky). Then we took advantage of the fact that we had two places and spent the night here, hanging out just the two of us. We were going to have dinner and watch a movie, but we were still way too full from our picnic and forgot the movie back at the other place. Instead, we ate crackers and watched a couple of episodes of a Japanese tv show. Boring, but nice.
My top 3 reasons we've made it 2 years (other than loving each other, blah blah blah) (yes, I am too lazy to make a top 10 or even a top 5):
-Constantly bickering. If we are threatening to stab each other in the throat every 5 minutes because the other one left something on the floor or criticizes the way the first one parked the car, there really isn't a chance for problems to build up. It normally takes people a while to get used to, but it's our way.
-Our king sized bed. Stolen blankets, drowning with the other person's sweat and elbows to the face are just not an issue. Seriously. Love it.
-Our super-fantastic friends and family. The dudes and dudettes who would do anything, anytime to help us out. The ones that love and support not only us individually, but the two of us together. It is hard to think back on the wedding and to not realize how lucky we are, both for the people we knew then and for the people we have met since. It may be cheesy, but that don't make it any less true. We love you.
Oh, we also had dinner with two friends of Dylan's uncle last night. (Wow, talk about not following any sort of chronological order!) It was a lot of fun. They had us over to their house, they fed us, they answered all of our questions about Montreal, and gave us some suggestions about where to get a cheep fridge. Super nice people and they have an adorable baby too. They asked why we didn't bring along Clair. And man, did they ever feed us. So good. Chicken, and vegetables, potato salad, tea, tofu chocolate mousse, cherries. Nom nom nom. But it was really nice to go out, talk to new people and feel somewhat less alone here. What more could you ask for?
Ok, that's it. Night-night world.
What's new with me? WELL...
Yah, that was a bit too dramatic. You should know by now that I am not that exciting.
Today, officially moved out of our sublet and into our new place. We were trying to be jerks in some way since the sublet guys have sorta been jerks to us. When we moved in, they left some of their dirty dishes in the sink, they left all of their bathroom stuff exactly where I'm assuming it stays (as in, a loofa still hanging in the shower), didn't bother to empty out their closets for us, and just generally left the place like they had stepped out for coffee for a few minutes. Add to that the fact that one of the guys kept popping in with pretty short notice to pick up his mail or what not and the other guy sent Clair condescending text messages asking when we were planning on leaving, because he was getting back early (even though normally when you pay rent for the month, you get the whole month!), and asked us to clean up because he wouldn't have much time because he had to work on Monday. Then there was the whole internet thing. Needless to say, we were somewhat annoyed at them. But, we generally fail at being mean people. I am pretty sure that I am incapable of moving out of a place without cleaning the bathroom, sweeping, and wiping off things that are dirty. Clair and Dylan wouldn't let me wash the floors, though. Combine that with the fact that we are actually somewhat clean people and the apartment looked pretty good. They thanked us for it. I felt sad. But really, the only reason it ever looked bad was because all of our stuff was shoved in piles because there was no where to put it - take out our stuff, and it looks exactly the way they left it. Anyway, we take comfort in the fact that their fridge is almost completely empty, we ate a whole bunch of their food, they have no ink left in their printer, and they have no laundry detergent and that sort of stuff. We did refrained from stealing their Starbucks card. We also didn't steal their fridge.
In other news, as of this past Monday, I have been married for two years. Do I still count as a newly wed? How long before you are no longer newly wed? It seems like two years is both too long and not long enough. Anyway, we went for a picnic on the top of Mount Royal is the afternoon, which was pretty much perfect (although scampering down a mountain in flipflops and a dress is tricky). Then we took advantage of the fact that we had two places and spent the night here, hanging out just the two of us. We were going to have dinner and watch a movie, but we were still way too full from our picnic and forgot the movie back at the other place. Instead, we ate crackers and watched a couple of episodes of a Japanese tv show. Boring, but nice.
My top 3 reasons we've made it 2 years (other than loving each other, blah blah blah) (yes, I am too lazy to make a top 10 or even a top 5):
-Constantly bickering. If we are threatening to stab each other in the throat every 5 minutes because the other one left something on the floor or criticizes the way the first one parked the car, there really isn't a chance for problems to build up. It normally takes people a while to get used to, but it's our way.
-Our king sized bed. Stolen blankets, drowning with the other person's sweat and elbows to the face are just not an issue. Seriously. Love it.
-Our super-fantastic friends and family. The dudes and dudettes who would do anything, anytime to help us out. The ones that love and support not only us individually, but the two of us together. It is hard to think back on the wedding and to not realize how lucky we are, both for the people we knew then and for the people we have met since. It may be cheesy, but that don't make it any less true. We love you.
Oh, we also had dinner with two friends of Dylan's uncle last night. (Wow, talk about not following any sort of chronological order!) It was a lot of fun. They had us over to their house, they fed us, they answered all of our questions about Montreal, and gave us some suggestions about where to get a cheep fridge. Super nice people and they have an adorable baby too. They asked why we didn't bring along Clair. And man, did they ever feed us. So good. Chicken, and vegetables, potato salad, tea, tofu chocolate mousse, cherries. Nom nom nom. But it was really nice to go out, talk to new people and feel somewhat less alone here. What more could you ask for?
Ok, that's it. Night-night world.
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
Like the Boomerang.
Hmm, I feel like I should update you all on our lives. But we are pretty boring people, so I don't have much to say.
We went down and watched some fireworks this evening. Montreal has an international fireworks thing a lot like the Celebration of Light in Van. Tonight was Canada's night. Not that fireworks are a rare occurrence in Montreal, since apparently there are fireworks all the freaking time. I think that there are fireworks somehow related to Just For Laughs more or less every night. Between that and us living right down the street from the Alouette's stadium, night around here haven't been overly quiet. Luckily, I don't really care...
I've been putting some thought into going beck to school sometime. As of Sept. 2011, I will have been a resident of Quebec for a couple of months and be eligible for Quebec university prices. And, let me tell you, living a couple blocks away from a University is not making it any less tempting. Anyway, McGill offers a somewhat bizarre BSW/MSW two year combo thingy that looks pretty perfect. But there are a lot of things I need to figure out/do/get in order before deciding if that is what I want to do. For instance, they want some work/volunteering experience in a SW related field. Which, in case you are wondering, I do not have. I could also apply to U of T. Or I could kill Alyssa for the life insurance money. There are so many options! Life is just so intimidating. Dylan and I were talking the other day and apparently for us to successfully accomplish everything we want to in the next ten years, we should have started when we were 5. There are just so many things that seem easiest to do while we are this age.
Dylan has been spending most of his time at the new place since he is cat-sitting near there. Oh, except apparently we are on a yoga kick, so we hauled our butts down to the Y yesterday and are going back tomorrow (fyi, my muscles are not a fan of this plan).
I got jealous of Clair and all of her pictures that prove that she is alive, so I decided to steal her idea and take a picture with my webcam. I tried to use fancy effects and have us sitting in front of the Eiffle Tower (it is french, and I know people who are currently in Paris...) or on a beach at sunset, but that didn't work and came out really weird with lines and pixels in the wrong place and whatnot.
That is all I feel like sharing with you fine folks at this moment in time. Take that! So ha! Or something like that...
We went down and watched some fireworks this evening. Montreal has an international fireworks thing a lot like the Celebration of Light in Van. Tonight was Canada's night. Not that fireworks are a rare occurrence in Montreal, since apparently there are fireworks all the freaking time. I think that there are fireworks somehow related to Just For Laughs more or less every night. Between that and us living right down the street from the Alouette's stadium, night around here haven't been overly quiet. Luckily, I don't really care...
I've been putting some thought into going beck to school sometime. As of Sept. 2011, I will have been a resident of Quebec for a couple of months and be eligible for Quebec university prices. And, let me tell you, living a couple blocks away from a University is not making it any less tempting. Anyway, McGill offers a somewhat bizarre BSW/MSW two year combo thingy that looks pretty perfect. But there are a lot of things I need to figure out/do/get in order before deciding if that is what I want to do. For instance, they want some work/volunteering experience in a SW related field. Which, in case you are wondering, I do not have. I could also apply to U of T. Or I could kill Alyssa for the life insurance money. There are so many options! Life is just so intimidating. Dylan and I were talking the other day and apparently for us to successfully accomplish everything we want to in the next ten years, we should have started when we were 5. There are just so many things that seem easiest to do while we are this age.
Dylan has been spending most of his time at the new place since he is cat-sitting near there. Oh, except apparently we are on a yoga kick, so we hauled our butts down to the Y yesterday and are going back tomorrow (fyi, my muscles are not a fan of this plan).
I got jealous of Clair and all of her pictures that prove that she is alive, so I decided to steal her idea and take a picture with my webcam. I tried to use fancy effects and have us sitting in front of the Eiffle Tower (it is french, and I know people who are currently in Paris...) or on a beach at sunset, but that didn't work and came out really weird with lines and pixels in the wrong place and whatnot.
That is all I feel like sharing with you fine folks at this moment in time. Take that! So ha! Or something like that...
Friday, July 9, 2010
I'm watching you.
Ok, so I actually wrote this yesterday, but couldn't post it since our internets aren't working.
So, it might be somewhat uncouth to admit to this, but I've been stalking you all. Or at least watching you watch me. I added a gadget thingy that allows me to know who visits mine here blog. And I must say, there are more of you than I expected. I.e. more than just Clair and Alyssa read this. Well, ok, them and the occasional visit from various family members. Freaks me out! Not that there are more than a dozen of you. But now I feel all this pressure to be witty or entertaining or form coherent sentences. Don't feel too alarmed, though. The gadget more or less only tells me what city are from, so the 90% of you that are from Victoria are safe (except I've more or less pieced together which one is Alyssa!). None of this is at all important. But would it kill ya to say hi every once in a while? I feel like our relationship is somewhat one sided...
So, what has this crazy group of folk been up to? Well, a couple of days ago, while on the way to check out a stove for our new apartment, little Putt-Putt turned a corner and decided she needed a bit of a break. Luckily (the ridiculous kind of luck that only my husband's family has), it was RIGHT BESIDE a service station. LIterally, we stopped in front of the house next to it. A couple days and a few hundred dollars later, she's feeling back in tip top shape, now equipped with a new distributor (Anyone? Any ideas? 'Cause I have none). But congrats to Dylan and his dad (on the phone) for correctly figuring out what was wrong! I've been driving that car for over a year now and all I know is that she is red, you can't turn the key too hard or it gets stuck, and that making sure she has gas and oil is important. Oh, and Dylan's dad was trying to tell me that I needed to smell something sometimes to make sure something was working?
Ha, I just told Dylan that the ignition coil ignites coils. I think his head is going to explode. Bah, and he told me how little the battery does. The lazy bum!
Sorta related - we got ourselves a stove! Ahh, Craigslist, how we love thee. So, since we needed someway to pick up said stove and our one month free of storage was almost up, we rented ourselves a u-haul van and Monday was moving day. Acquired the stove (and the free kitchen table the guy threw in) and emptied out the storage unit, all with very few problems. Now all we have to do is move the stuff we have here to the new place and we are good to go. Well, and unpack. And get a fridge. That might be the biggest hurdle.
And these last few days all we have done is stew in our own sweat. But it should be cooling off by Saturday, I think? Tomorrow is going to suck though, since it is supposed to be low thirties, with humidity up at about 90%.
P.S. Ok, so the weather was no where near as bad as expected today. It poured rain and there was a pleasant breeze. Humidity was still a pain, but we were much happier. Well, between that and the Bones marathon...
So, it might be somewhat uncouth to admit to this, but I've been stalking you all. Or at least watching you watch me. I added a gadget thingy that allows me to know who visits mine here blog. And I must say, there are more of you than I expected. I.e. more than just Clair and Alyssa read this. Well, ok, them and the occasional visit from various family members. Freaks me out! Not that there are more than a dozen of you. But now I feel all this pressure to be witty or entertaining or form coherent sentences. Don't feel too alarmed, though. The gadget more or less only tells me what city are from, so the 90% of you that are from Victoria are safe (except I've more or less pieced together which one is Alyssa!). None of this is at all important. But would it kill ya to say hi every once in a while? I feel like our relationship is somewhat one sided...
So, what has this crazy group of folk been up to? Well, a couple of days ago, while on the way to check out a stove for our new apartment, little Putt-Putt turned a corner and decided she needed a bit of a break. Luckily (the ridiculous kind of luck that only my husband's family has), it was RIGHT BESIDE a service station. LIterally, we stopped in front of the house next to it. A couple days and a few hundred dollars later, she's feeling back in tip top shape, now equipped with a new distributor (Anyone? Any ideas? 'Cause I have none). But congrats to Dylan and his dad (on the phone) for correctly figuring out what was wrong! I've been driving that car for over a year now and all I know is that she is red, you can't turn the key too hard or it gets stuck, and that making sure she has gas and oil is important. Oh, and Dylan's dad was trying to tell me that I needed to smell something sometimes to make sure something was working?
Ha, I just told Dylan that the ignition coil ignites coils. I think his head is going to explode. Bah, and he told me how little the battery does. The lazy bum!
Sorta related - we got ourselves a stove! Ahh, Craigslist, how we love thee. So, since we needed someway to pick up said stove and our one month free of storage was almost up, we rented ourselves a u-haul van and Monday was moving day. Acquired the stove (and the free kitchen table the guy threw in) and emptied out the storage unit, all with very few problems. Now all we have to do is move the stuff we have here to the new place and we are good to go. Well, and unpack. And get a fridge. That might be the biggest hurdle.
And these last few days all we have done is stew in our own sweat. But it should be cooling off by Saturday, I think? Tomorrow is going to suck though, since it is supposed to be low thirties, with humidity up at about 90%.
P.S. Ok, so the weather was no where near as bad as expected today. It poured rain and there was a pleasant breeze. Humidity was still a pain, but we were much happier. Well, between that and the Bones marathon...
Saturday, July 3, 2010
Life as we know it.
Bonnaroo ended and we come to Montreal to return to life as usual. So, naturally, the first thing we did was go to a concert. The New Pornographers, to be more specific. We actually bought the tickets quite a while ago and they were the first real commitment we made to being in Montreal at a set date. Very good show. We were pretty much front and center and crowds in Montreal are apparently not the pushing and shoving kind.
Since, then life has quieted down. Being applying to jobs, checking out apartments, and getting to know the fair city of Montreal. I got a call from the first place I applied and went in for a trial shift. But it sucked, so I'm planning on turning it down. In terms of apartments, we hit up Craigslist, sent out a bunch of emails, and went and looked at a couple. And the landlord at one of the places really liked us, and we thought the place was cute and within our budget. If that wasn't enough, she offered us July free to move in, so we took it. But, since we are the people we are, it turns out that in Montreal refrigerators and stoves are not included in unfurnished apartments. No worries though, we went back to our bff, Craigslist, and have so far found a stove for $50.
Oh, we went to Ottawa! Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day a big deal in Quebec and falls on the 24th of June, and Canada kinda takes a back seat. So, we figured, 'What better way to celebrate the Nation's birthday that to go to the Nation's capital?' Saw the Parliament Buildings, some pretty cool fireworks and wandered around. Ottawa definitely falls at the top of my list of most livable cities in Ontario, with the only real competition being Kenora.
Sorry for the short, lame update.
Since, then life has quieted down. Being applying to jobs, checking out apartments, and getting to know the fair city of Montreal. I got a call from the first place I applied and went in for a trial shift. But it sucked, so I'm planning on turning it down. In terms of apartments, we hit up Craigslist, sent out a bunch of emails, and went and looked at a couple. And the landlord at one of the places really liked us, and we thought the place was cute and within our budget. If that wasn't enough, she offered us July free to move in, so we took it. But, since we are the people we are, it turns out that in Montreal refrigerators and stoves are not included in unfurnished apartments. No worries though, we went back to our bff, Craigslist, and have so far found a stove for $50.
Oh, we went to Ottawa! Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day a big deal in Quebec and falls on the 24th of June, and Canada kinda takes a back seat. So, we figured, 'What better way to celebrate the Nation's birthday that to go to the Nation's capital?' Saw the Parliament Buildings, some pretty cool fireworks and wandered around. Ottawa definitely falls at the top of my list of most livable cities in Ontario, with the only real competition being Kenora.
Sorry for the short, lame update.
Saturday, June 26, 2010
Finale
Ok, so. Finally finishing what happened with Bonnaroo trip. Yes.
Ok, so we left Bonnaroo with the plan of driving for a few hours, sleeping in the car for a bit and then making it to Virginia to camp for the next night. The night is pretty fuzzy for me, so I don't really know where we stopped. Dylan and Clair tell me that it was in a parking lot, but can't really tell me more than that. Oop, ok, so I was driving at this point. That has to have been safe. it was behind a shopping center! And I pulled off the highway because I was looking for somewhere to stop and there was a sign for Fuddrucker and I didn't think those existed anymore. I couldn't find it, but Dylan was still way too sleepy to drive, so we stopped and slept. Then we woke up, drove for a while and stopped for breakfast at Subway/gas station where the gas attendant was freakishly nice and we ended up talking to the Subway guy for quite a long time. He was adorable. I don't think he had ever really left Tennessee, said that he didn't think that most of the States were worth seeing, but that he would like to visit Canada sometime. And that Bonnaroo would be fun to go to sometime. There was also a mean truck driver who rolled his eyes when we told him that we were from Canada and accused Canadians of all disliking Americans. Drove for a while through until we got to Virginia and stopped for lunch/dinner at the Waffle House. Cutest restaurant ever. Well, mainly just the cutest waitress ever and the food was decent. Lots of processed cheese and that sort of thing. None of us had waffles. Eww, and Southern Sweet Tea is the grossest thing in the world.
Drove for a while, until we finally found a KOA kampground outside of Lexington. Dylan stayed in one on his Sasquatch trip and thought they were great. And they were. They had camp sites that were not right on top of other ones, clean showers, running water, a flush toilet, and a fire pit. Aww, it was paradise. There was even ping pong, but the pool closed early. Sadness. We ate, slept, and were merry.
Morning, woke up, showered again (ahh, the luxury), and decided to see this Natural Bridge we kept hearing so much about. But, in true American style, they had put a big fence up around it and were charging $18 to go and look at it. They added a bunch of random crap to try and justify it, but I really had no desire to see their wax museum or whatever. Drove through Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland, and New Jersey at which point we realized that New York City was a mere two hours away. Took that detour and made our way to the George Washington Bridge. Crossed that, got really, really lost, took a few wrong turns, almost caused a horrible accident, and broke a law or two. This resulted in a police officer whipping around the block and pulling up in front of us. Asked us what was up, you know. We told him we were a bit lost, look for Manhattan... He told us that we were in Harlem - at around 11 or 12 at night. Was super nice and pointed us in the right direction. We parked for the cheap cheap price of $16 or so for an hour and a half. Saw Times Square (where I had pepperoni pizza!! In New York! How cool am I?), walked past Rockefeller Center, drove past Ground Zero, and saw the Statue of Liberty from Battery Park.
Our plan from there was to drive enough to get out of the New York surrounding areas and find a nice rest stop to sleep (we left NYC at about 3 a.m.). This took a lot longer than we anticipated and took us through the terrifying Blairstown. There were ghosts. But we ended up finding a swanky rest stop with an underground parking lot that was nice and dark. Ate, and then more or less made our way back into Montreal. The border guard was pretty nice, passed back in no prob.
The End (oh my gosh, finally)!
Ok, so we left Bonnaroo with the plan of driving for a few hours, sleeping in the car for a bit and then making it to Virginia to camp for the next night. The night is pretty fuzzy for me, so I don't really know where we stopped. Dylan and Clair tell me that it was in a parking lot, but can't really tell me more than that. Oop, ok, so I was driving at this point. That has to have been safe. it was behind a shopping center! And I pulled off the highway because I was looking for somewhere to stop and there was a sign for Fuddrucker and I didn't think those existed anymore. I couldn't find it, but Dylan was still way too sleepy to drive, so we stopped and slept. Then we woke up, drove for a while and stopped for breakfast at Subway/gas station where the gas attendant was freakishly nice and we ended up talking to the Subway guy for quite a long time. He was adorable. I don't think he had ever really left Tennessee, said that he didn't think that most of the States were worth seeing, but that he would like to visit Canada sometime. And that Bonnaroo would be fun to go to sometime. There was also a mean truck driver who rolled his eyes when we told him that we were from Canada and accused Canadians of all disliking Americans. Drove for a while through until we got to Virginia and stopped for lunch/dinner at the Waffle House. Cutest restaurant ever. Well, mainly just the cutest waitress ever and the food was decent. Lots of processed cheese and that sort of thing. None of us had waffles. Eww, and Southern Sweet Tea is the grossest thing in the world.
Drove for a while, until we finally found a KOA kampground outside of Lexington. Dylan stayed in one on his Sasquatch trip and thought they were great. And they were. They had camp sites that were not right on top of other ones, clean showers, running water, a flush toilet, and a fire pit. Aww, it was paradise. There was even ping pong, but the pool closed early. Sadness. We ate, slept, and were merry.
Morning, woke up, showered again (ahh, the luxury), and decided to see this Natural Bridge we kept hearing so much about. But, in true American style, they had put a big fence up around it and were charging $18 to go and look at it. They added a bunch of random crap to try and justify it, but I really had no desire to see their wax museum or whatever. Drove through Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland, and New Jersey at which point we realized that New York City was a mere two hours away. Took that detour and made our way to the George Washington Bridge. Crossed that, got really, really lost, took a few wrong turns, almost caused a horrible accident, and broke a law or two. This resulted in a police officer whipping around the block and pulling up in front of us. Asked us what was up, you know. We told him we were a bit lost, look for Manhattan... He told us that we were in Harlem - at around 11 or 12 at night. Was super nice and pointed us in the right direction. We parked for the cheap cheap price of $16 or so for an hour and a half. Saw Times Square (where I had pepperoni pizza!! In New York! How cool am I?), walked past Rockefeller Center, drove past Ground Zero, and saw the Statue of Liberty from Battery Park.
Our plan from there was to drive enough to get out of the New York surrounding areas and find a nice rest stop to sleep (we left NYC at about 3 a.m.). This took a lot longer than we anticipated and took us through the terrifying Blairstown. There were ghosts. But we ended up finding a swanky rest stop with an underground parking lot that was nice and dark. Ate, and then more or less made our way back into Montreal. The border guard was pretty nice, passed back in no prob.
The End (oh my gosh, finally)!
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
So, since we got into Bonnaroo so late, we had missed a few of the bands we had hoped to see. But, luckily, the organizers had thought ahead and not booked anyone huge to play on the first day. Regardless, we parked our car in our spot and headed out to catch a few bands. First band of the festival (that we saw): Need to Breath. After them, a few others, and some delicious samosas, we went back to the campsite (read: tiny square in a sea of cars and tents) to set up our tent and then collapse. Woke up in the morning way earlier than planned due to crazy heat that turned our little tent into an oven.
Got up, lazed around and spent the day watching people and stuff. Noteworthy bands: Ok Go, Kings of Lion, and LCD Soundsystem. Oh, and Dylan and I both cleaned ourselves off in the centre fountain, aka the mud fountain. I'm pretty sure the water in this fountain started off clean at least every morning and was just reused throughout the day. Since there were people in constantly, it got really dirty really quickly. However, it seemed like a better option than paying $7 for a shower. Since LCD Soundsystem finished up at 4am, we were completely exhausted by the end and crawled back to our tent.
Saturday, our morning started off more or less the same. Except we went to the bathrooms earlier since the day before was unfortunate. Wanted to see Conan O'Brian, but were pissed to find out that you were supposed to get ticket way earlier that day and couldn't get in without one, but no one had told us this. Highlights of the day: Norah Jones, the Avett Brothers, and Stevie Wonder. Laying on the grass, drinking copious amounts of water and relaxing to Norah was actually a personal favourite moment in life. Other than those forced moments that are supposed to mean a lot to you, like graduating high school and whatnot. We decided not to stick around and watch Jay-Z and wandered back to our campsite so that we could actually get some sleep. Well, our dear Dylan stayed up and went back to listen to some of the late night bands. He's a crazy man. But a sweet crazy man, since he slept in the car that night as to not disturb us when he came back.
Sunday was the last day of the festival, so we decided that our need for gas was now pressing. We figured we had about a quarter of a gallon left, so most likely not enough to make it out. Especially since we had no idea how busy the roads would be and had heard that it could be quite bad. So we took some hose (that Dylan had acquired the night before...) and asked (or more so re-asked since we had asked them earlier) our dear neighbours (from Nebraska!) if we could siphon some of their gas. Unfortunately, they had a huge SUV whose gas tank was really far away from the fill cap and our hose wasn't long enough. So, on we went, asking kind strangers if we could siphon out some of their gas and people were really nice. Except that most people who owned cars didn't know if they had enough gas to make it out and very apologetically said no, and we had the same problem with other people's SUVs as we'd had with the first one. Enter a nice man with a car who did have gas and was willing to let us steal some. Our initial tube was too wide to make it to the tank, but we duct taped it to another more narrow one. And finally Dylan got a mouthful of gas instead of just fumes (we had a few concerns about the long term consequences to his health), but that was pretty much it. We probably got about a cup of gas, but it just would not flow. We think because of the difference in diameter of the two hoses. So, defeated, we pulled out the hose. Ooops. Duct tape doesn't handle getting wet real well. There is, in fact, a man driving around somewhere in the States who has a piece of hose stuck in his car put there by us. He took it really well. After that, we decided to cave and call a local towing company that had been coming around to the festival and picking people's locks for them, giving them boosts, and selling them gas at the low, low price of $10 a gallon (normally costs about $2.75 a gallon in that area). WIth a 5 gallon minimum. Sucked, but at least we didn't have to worry anymore. Packed up our tent and off we went to enjoy the last day of fun in the sun. Remarkable acts of the day: Regina Spektor and Phoenix. None of us were ridiculously crazy about seeing all of the headliner for that day, Dave Matthews Band, so we stuck around for a few songs and then headed to the car and said goodbye to Bonnaroo.
Got up, lazed around and spent the day watching people and stuff. Noteworthy bands: Ok Go, Kings of Lion, and LCD Soundsystem. Oh, and Dylan and I both cleaned ourselves off in the centre fountain, aka the mud fountain. I'm pretty sure the water in this fountain started off clean at least every morning and was just reused throughout the day. Since there were people in constantly, it got really dirty really quickly. However, it seemed like a better option than paying $7 for a shower. Since LCD Soundsystem finished up at 4am, we were completely exhausted by the end and crawled back to our tent.
Saturday, our morning started off more or less the same. Except we went to the bathrooms earlier since the day before was unfortunate. Wanted to see Conan O'Brian, but were pissed to find out that you were supposed to get ticket way earlier that day and couldn't get in without one, but no one had told us this. Highlights of the day: Norah Jones, the Avett Brothers, and Stevie Wonder. Laying on the grass, drinking copious amounts of water and relaxing to Norah was actually a personal favourite moment in life. Other than those forced moments that are supposed to mean a lot to you, like graduating high school and whatnot. We decided not to stick around and watch Jay-Z and wandered back to our campsite so that we could actually get some sleep. Well, our dear Dylan stayed up and went back to listen to some of the late night bands. He's a crazy man. But a sweet crazy man, since he slept in the car that night as to not disturb us when he came back.
Sunday was the last day of the festival, so we decided that our need for gas was now pressing. We figured we had about a quarter of a gallon left, so most likely not enough to make it out. Especially since we had no idea how busy the roads would be and had heard that it could be quite bad. So we took some hose (that Dylan had acquired the night before...) and asked (or more so re-asked since we had asked them earlier) our dear neighbours (from Nebraska!) if we could siphon some of their gas. Unfortunately, they had a huge SUV whose gas tank was really far away from the fill cap and our hose wasn't long enough. So, on we went, asking kind strangers if we could siphon out some of their gas and people were really nice. Except that most people who owned cars didn't know if they had enough gas to make it out and very apologetically said no, and we had the same problem with other people's SUVs as we'd had with the first one. Enter a nice man with a car who did have gas and was willing to let us steal some. Our initial tube was too wide to make it to the tank, but we duct taped it to another more narrow one. And finally Dylan got a mouthful of gas instead of just fumes (we had a few concerns about the long term consequences to his health), but that was pretty much it. We probably got about a cup of gas, but it just would not flow. We think because of the difference in diameter of the two hoses. So, defeated, we pulled out the hose. Ooops. Duct tape doesn't handle getting wet real well. There is, in fact, a man driving around somewhere in the States who has a piece of hose stuck in his car put there by us. He took it really well. After that, we decided to cave and call a local towing company that had been coming around to the festival and picking people's locks for them, giving them boosts, and selling them gas at the low, low price of $10 a gallon (normally costs about $2.75 a gallon in that area). WIth a 5 gallon minimum. Sucked, but at least we didn't have to worry anymore. Packed up our tent and off we went to enjoy the last day of fun in the sun. Remarkable acts of the day: Regina Spektor and Phoenix. None of us were ridiculously crazy about seeing all of the headliner for that day, Dave Matthews Band, so we stuck around for a few songs and then headed to the car and said goodbye to Bonnaroo.
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
I do deClair!
Things I learned at Bonnaroo (and on the way there/back):
-Being a dirty hippy is fun. It would, however, potentially be more enjoyable if it were in a place that was somewhat cooler (i.e. not mid to high 30s). And it would be infinitely more enjoyable if it weren't for the dirty part (we totally showered while we were there...yah...)
-You can drink an incredibly large amount of water and not pee at all if all you are doing is sweating.
-Only putting sunscreen on once in a day = getting a sunburn. Putting sunscreen on three times in one day = somehow getting a worse sunburn, this time with ear-blistering consequences. My tan/burn lines are ridiculous.
-All sorts of slang the cool kids use for drugs. There was frequently people standing on the side of walkways calling out for "Lucy" or "Molly." Oh, and lots of people were selling "ice" from their campsite.
-That a LOT of people smoke pot. A LOT.
-And drink beer, which is just gross. Because beer is gross.
-Misting tents are the best thing in the world. They don't really help with the being dirty thing though, since you end up standing in a giant mud pit.
-Our car is awesome. Still running just fine, thank you!
-Siphoning gas is a lot harder than it looks. Even though there were plenty of lovely people who were willing to let us try, and even more people who would have been willing if they had been at all confident that they would be able to leave with enough gas.
So, we left for Tennessee Tuesday evening. Hit New York after talking to a lovely border guard who seemed to think we were weird for going to a music festival when none of us had jobs. The jerk. Drove down through New York, and stayed in Eerie, Pennsylvania for the night. It was a fairly long drive and was the first in a series of late nights for us. In the morning, we lazily got up, Dylan had waffles from a machine and we headed out. Went through Ohio and into Kentucky. We stopped in Columbus for gas and, all of a sudden, there were, seriously, no caucasians. No, wait, there was one guy. After, we went across the street to KFC (the entire staff was African American) and Dylan got a sandwich made of chicken, with some bacon. Oh, and when we drove through Cincinnati and a guy randomly swerved into my lane and scared me. Dylan leaned over and honked at him for me. Stopped for the night in Bowling Green. I was pretty excited for Little Put-Put, aka Big Red, who got to re-visit her ol' stomping grounds. Woke up in the morning with the plan of stopping at the Walmart in Bowling Green, picking up groceries, and making the quick two hour drive to Bonnaroo. Did not turn out that way. Apparently the Walmart website and Google Maps are both liars, because the Walmart was not where it was supposed to be. There was, howevere, a very cute dog. So, we drove around for a while and decided to go to the Walmart in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. Did that and headed out to get to Bonnaroo with plenty of time to get our tent set up before the first concert we wanted to see started. And then we hit the interstate. Met both some really nice and really jerkish people in line. Seriously, who cuts ahead of someone who they are going to be in line with for who knows how long?! What should have been a two hour drive, max, ended up taking 8 hours of us crawling along the highway and then side roads. Hence being really low on gas - starting and stopping for that long is hard on a car. We did make it there on our own steam though, thanks to our trusted jerrycan. Actually being able to leave isn't important, right?
Anyway, this is going to have to be a three part installment, because this is already long and I haven't even gotten to the specifics of the festival yet.
Sunday, June 6, 2010
We've arrived!
Well, we actually arrived Friday night. But that's not the point. Not to mention that a four day drive turned into a seven day one.
Why did it take twice a long to get across the country, you ask? Well, first of all, it is one heck of a big country!! Driving across Ontario took freakin' forever. Second of all, cars were involved in this process. Cars break down. We (read: Dylan's dad) figured that the ball joints in the front end of the Honda needed replacing, so we took it into a mechanic in Weyburn. He told us that they did in fact need replacing, that they were quite worn and that we shouldn't drive with them because they could break if we went over too big of a pothole and that that would result in the tire falling off. But that Weyburn didn't have what we needed. So we drive three hours further to Brandon. But got it fixed there no prob. and that mechanic told us that the Honda was in great shape. Then Ontario was quite cruel to the truck. It sprung a fairly serious fuel leak that took Dylan's dad about three or so hours to fix, and then later on him and Dylan had to replace the fan belt. Add to that the fact that we spent longer than we'd planned visiting with family friends in Calgary, Dylan's grandma in Weyburn, and Dylan's brother in Shilo (just outside of Brandon). Not a bad thing, we just like to pretend that these things don't take time when in the planning stage.
Now that we are here, however, things are pretty cool. Montreal is OLD. Lots of cool buildings and whatnot. I think our apartment building was built before electricity was readily available. Definitely before elevators... Have I mentioned that we live on the fourth floor? It would be even cooler if we would have had time to do or look at anything. We spent all of Saturday dealing with U-Haul storage and trailer returns and hauling stuff up four flights of stairs. And Dylan talked to customer service people and filed a formal complaint. We are hoping to get another free month storage and a day truck rental for our troubles. Yesterday, we were trying to get some errands done for Dylan's parents so that the two of them could actually get some time to see Montreal, but we ended up getting horribly lost for almost an hour. They are really not keen on you turning left on this here island. But last night we did go out for poutine; it made us feel like true Montreal-ers and it was pretty darn tasty. Today was even more thrilling - we went and tried to figure out how to stop getting 50$ (aren't I so french?) parking tickets, since most of our street is residential parking and we arrived here Friday night, too late to try and get that dealt with, even if we could. It is kinda hard to prove you are a resident when your car has B.C. plates and you have no proof that you do, in fact, live in the city you say you do. No rent agreement, no bills, no nothing. We failed at that endeavor, but a block away there is a bit of non-restricted parking.
Today is also Dylan's parents last day with us here. Sadness. They are leaving tonight, pretty much as soon as they get packed up. It will be weird not sharing a two bedroom apartment with four other people and a parrot anymore. Not that that is terribly important in the short term, since Dylan, Clair and I are leaving for Bonaroo tomorrow!! It should be amazingly awesome, I do deClair!
Friday, May 28, 2010
T-1
So, our moving preparations are well on their way. Which is good, since we leave tomorrow morning. Eeep. Bright and early. But our room is mostly packed up, and Dylan is working away at packing up kitchen stuff. Unfortunately, I am quickly running out of stuff to do, and Dylan still has a lot left to do. But, soon it will only be a matter of shoving it all into a tiny trailer. Then taking it all out in Merritt and putting it in the size trailer that we actually ordered (grumble grumble stupid U-Haul). Oh, and making sure the Honda doesn't explode while we are in the middle of nowhere.
This is just me procrastinating. I'm going back to packing now.
Monday, May 24, 2010
Aren't I pretty?
In honour of my impending move with my dear buddy, I decided I needed a new look. You like? Don't worry Pauly, I don't think I'll be able to stomach the Pepto-Bismol pink long.
Things are slowly starting to come together in preparation for the big move. Maybe not as much as I'd like - there is some stuff that I don't really feel like I have a say in, which is somewhat frustrating. (I am all but positive that that isn't an actual sentence.) But I guess that comes with my decision not to be a lonely old maid whose only source of companionship is her cats.
Not much of an update I'm afraid. But, oooh, look:
My new neice, Emily Jane! She has a bit of Jaundice, hence the blue tinge and the rocking eye gear.
And see how big Rachel has gotten:
Things are slowly starting to come together in preparation for the big move. Maybe not as much as I'd like - there is some stuff that I don't really feel like I have a say in, which is somewhat frustrating. (I am all but positive that that isn't an actual sentence.) But I guess that comes with my decision not to be a lonely old maid whose only source of companionship is her cats.
Not much of an update I'm afraid. But, oooh, look:
My new neice, Emily Jane! She has a bit of Jaundice, hence the blue tinge and the rocking eye gear.
And see how big Rachel has gotten:
Monday, March 8, 2010
So, as expected, nothing exceptionally noteworthy has been happening in our lives since we've returned. Dylan got one of his old jobs back and got a new one at a restaurant downtown. It took me slightly longer to find a job, but now I'm working at a touristy coffee store downtown that seems quite promising to not suck. Random stuff has happened around us, I guess, like friends moving, people going on trips, the odd bits of family drama and whatnot, but life has been pretty tame for us the last few months. Not that that is at all a bad thing. It is, after all, one of the reasons we are here - a place to enjoy some calm and to take it easy while we pay off our bills and save up some dough for our next adventure.
Next adventure, you ask? Well, the whole Japan thing didn't work out quite as planned, but since we had also more or less accustomed ourselves to the idea of not living here while we were off adventuring, we decided not to let our Japan failures hold us back. We've instead settled for a somewhat smaller, but no less exciting, adventure of moving to Montreal! with our dear friend Clair! The plan, more or less, is for us to finish paying off our debts and then go. Don't start panicking yet though - it will take us a few months to do that. We still need to figure out how we're moving our stuff out, where we're going to be living, find jobs, and everything else that goes along with moving. But, we have a plan and that is really the biggest hurdle, right?
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