Boston recap

Here's where we spent the last few days. It was a lovely country house (on the left) where our old friends from California have moved. It is outside of Boston on a scenic route. When we arrived, the first thing I noticed was that the boys were smoking (why didn't I remember that they were smokers?) and even though Serge was on day five of smobriety, he crumbled at once. Boo.

Our hosts had prepared Thanksgiving dinner which we enjoyed upon our arrival. It was really nice participating in the American holiday since I haven't been able to do so in a decade. After all, it's just an ordinary Thursday up here and usually I have to work.

Black Friday was a raw, rainy and windy day so we popped out to a couple of shops (insane, insane, insane - what economic downturn?) and I stocked up at Trader Joes before we went back to the house for card games and libations.

On Saturday, we took the train into Boston. I had never been before so it was neat to see all the old and modern architecture as well as the fact that the place is simply dripping with history. I know Montreal drips with history too, it's just not the history I learned about in school so I don't feel the same "wow" as I did in Boston.

In the cemetery in the middle of the city there are the graves of such famous people as Paul Revere, Benjamin Franklin and Samuel Adams. (The person, not the beer.)

Here's me with the boys, our tourguides for the day. It was a nice day, albeit it brisk and windy. The leaves were flying all over the place.

The harbor was lovely as well. I suppose this is where the famous tea party rebellion began.

The drive down and back was pretty easy. It's about six hours by car and although the roads are all marked as scenic routes, I can sum them up with one word. Trees. As far as you can see, nothing but rolling hills and trees. You know we are constantly bombarded with the notion that we are overrunning the planet but when I take a drive like that, I'm reminded just how much wild space there really is. There were lots of signs warning of moose, deer and bears.

It looks like we're going on another trip, a gift from Serge's stepmom, but I'll talk more about that next time. For now, it's good to be home with the love muffin Georgie.

Toodles for a few

Last day in town today. Gotta buttload of things to do including an early morning class and an evening class. Tomorrow is American Thanksgiving day and for the first time in 10 years, I get to be in America to celebrate it! Woo hoo! We're driving down to the Boston suburbs in the morning to visit some old California friends who now live there. According to Google maps, it's a 5 and a half hour drive but I don't think that takes into consideration any wait time at the border. I think I'll have time to post while we're there unless the house doesn't have a computer or internet. That seems highly unlikely since one of the boys still works for his California job, only from Massachusetts. This will be a new place for me to visit which always brings out the giddy giddy. Plus turkey! And Trader Joes! I can't believe I will be able to bring my favorite Trader Joes items home with me in the cooler I'm planning to take along. Now it's been a long time since I've been able to shop there and I'm sure there have been some product changes. Those of you who know, tell me what I should bring back! I think I'm overkilling on the exclamation point thing, sorry, it's just that giddy giddy. Also, we'll be driving down through New Hampshire and driving back through Vermont. I've never been to New Hampshire so that will be new though I suspect it will look a lot like Vermont. I don't think we'll get to Maine this time but that is definitely on my list, maybe next year? This has been a very traveling year even though I've got a pauper's salary. Los Angeles, Chicago, Napa, Mendocino, Las Vegas, Los Angeles again, New York, cruise to the Bahamas, now Boston and who knows, there might be a little December junket as well. Probably not, but if there's a bargain..... (Actually there is one - a 7 night cruise out of Baltimore for $549 for a balcony room. Unheard of! But we already cruised to the Bahamas this year.) Okay, I'm outa here. Happy Thanksgiving to everyone. Gratitude oozes from my pores.

Insurance, bowels, labels and cigs

Yesterday I was poking around for travel/medical insurance since I've been reading horror stories about people who have accidents while traveling to the states and end up with astronomical medical bills. Apparently, and this should be more widely known up here, we have very limited medical coverage while traveling outside our home province. We are "covered" but the provincial health plan only pays what the "cost" is evaluated at here. (These are not scare quotes, these are "I don't believe the word is correctly representing its meaning" quotes) For example, they pay $100 a day for a hospital stay. So if you spend a night in a US hospital for whatever reason, you'll be responsible for everything over that amount which as you can imagine, runs into thousands of dollars. So I got us a Blue Cross plan that covers us for as many (up to) two week trips outside of the province that we take in the coming year. At $160 for the two of us, I find that a bargain for peace of mind while traveling. I haven't required emergency medical services in decades but as Serge said, "You're getting older so you never know." I can't remember how old my grandfather was when he had a terrible mishap on a cruise ship. Seems he got seasick and when he threw up, he ruptured his esophagus. Had to have emergency medical rescue replete with helicopter if I have the story straight. (mom?) Anyway, they didn't go bankrupt so they must have had some good insurance. There was an interesting piece in the LA Times yesterday about a doctor who went to the emergency room for some stitches, in and out in two hours, and the bill came to $5000. It was interesting to note that the tetanus shot he received was billed at $360 even though the doctor knew the true cost of the shot was $27. That is some markup.

This seemed out of place in the coupon pamphlet from the newspaper. I thought the firecracker cauliflower figure was funny.

Oh I bought something else yesterday too. Mailing labels. This might be a yawner for you but for me it's quite the treat. See, normally when I'm faced with the possibility of purchasing something, I assess whether or not it is REALLY necessary. So for many years I have wanted return address labels (especially at Christmas card time) but have always decided that since I could just write the return address, it wasn't really necessary. Indeed, if you have ever received a missive from me, the return address was hand written. Well, yesterday Serge was admonishing me for never treating myself, and I realized he was right so I splurged. Sure it was only a ten dollar splurge, but I'm looking forward to slapping those things on the cards this year.

Let me see, it seems there was something else. . . Oh yes, and I hope this isn't too blaringly codependent but spouse didn't have any ciggies yesterday. He claims that he is a non- smoker now. Cheerleading in the comments is welcome.

Broken record blog

What? I didn't do anything wrong, did I?

So cute, how can you get upset at such a mug? He seems like a living doll sometimes he's so perfect looking. Then he chews something up and it's like, oh yeah, more like a living monster. I ordered him a tag with our contact information on it so in case he ever gets away from me again, people will know where he belongs. Yeah, some idiot at the doggy park opened the gate and let Georgie out "by mistake". Ooh I was livid. I was lucky there were other people walking their dogs nearby because Georgie was checking them out long enough for me to run over and grab him. Honestly, that dog will run right into the street if he's not on a leash. Anyway, now I guard the gate area when we are there to protect him from the idiots.

The other news around here, or non-news if you will, is that spouse has decided to quit smoking. But my (and everyone else's) definition of quitting and his are not the same. See for me, when you quit, you stop lighting the tobacco stick, bringing it to your lips and inhaling. For Serge, it seems to mean reducing your repetition of this act by 75%. Heck, if I could be a person who only smokes a few a day, I'd probably still be a smoker, but I'm not and the only solution for me is complete abstinence. NOPE, Not One Puff Ever. Serge seems to think he can win the battle by continuing to dance with the enemy. I'm not very optimistic.

Bad dog and jobs

You have to wonder why. Out of all the things he could have chewed on while we left him alone in the house, why does he have to choose the irreplacable thing. This is the remote control for the dvd player. I suppose it's possible that it will still work but I'm not all that hopeful about it. Last time we left him alone, he chewed up a newspaper. Perfect, I was done with it anyway. Now we're going to have to put things out of his reach when we leave. The Christmas tree is going to be interesting.

Now a little idea I pinched from Polt. Feel free to pinch it from here. Tis nothing new, just a recounting of the jobs you've had. Kay here goes.

The first real job I had was in a bank. This was when I was a 15 year old high school student. After school I went to (I think it was called) Security Pacific Bank to file checks. This dates me, doesn't it. I took all the cleared checks and filed them in the appropriate customer's folder and then once a month I bundled the cleared checks up with the statement and put them in an envelope for mailing. When machines were ready to take this task over, I lost the job.

Next was a stint in a Del Taco venture. They opened a concept shop where they married ice cream and video games. Two things I adored. I loved that job but ultimatley the concept was a flop. I remember days where sales were under a hundred bucks. No bueno.

At the same time in the summer, I worked as a camp counselor. The thing I remember most about this job was that I had to be there at 6:30am. For a teenager, this was torture.

Then there was the graveyard shift job I took at a company that transferred paper documents to microfiche. My job was to remove staples from documents before they were sent to the microfiching department. That's all I did - remove staples. If there is a hell, that is what it will look like.

Then I worked for my dad's friend's cabinet shop. My job was to go to different city halls to scour recent building permits and then hit up the contractors to bid on the cabinet part of the jobs. It was fun until I wrecked the boss's car. It was a little truck he had purchased barely a month before. Badness.

After that or maybe at the same time I got a job at BJ's Pizzeria where I waited tables for the first time. I rememer I quit that job by throwing my uniform in the manager's face. She had cut my hours in half to accommodate a friend of her's that she gave a job to.

A few weeks later I was hired by the Hyatt Regency Long Beach as a busboy in their fine dining restaurant. I worked my way up to evening waiter and this was the job that got me through college.

Next up was the Rose Cafe in Venice. Another waiter job but we had lots of celebrities come in at that place. That's where I waited on Arnold the gouvernator many mornings since his office was next door at the time.

After that, I did a stint as a delivery driver for a gourmet take out business. Yawn.

Then I was hired by the Ritz Carlton first as a waiter and then as a manager. After a couple of years of management slavery, I asked to transfer to another property as a dining room captain so I could "go back to school". Really though, I just didn't want to be a slave anymore.

I quit that job to go visit Serge after he was stuck in Montreal after getting blocked by US immigration. That whole story is here.

When we snuck Serge back across the border and came back to California, I got a couple of waiter jobs, the more important of which, Spaghettini, became my life for several years. I became a manager for them and opened a new concept business for them, a bakery cafe with ready to heat and eat meals. I quit after our first profitable month. I wanted to go out on top.

Serge and I focussed on building our own website design business, which Serge still does today under the name Drafter.com. It was then that I decided working together wasn't a positive influence on our relationship.

When we came to Montreal, I worked in a restaurant for a couple of summers to solidify my French skills but mostly I've been teaching English. I've been doing that now for 8 years, longer than any other job in my life. Most days I love this job so I figure I'll be doing that for the foreseeable future.

There were other jobs in there too. I got a few modeling and acting jobs in my California years, but as you can see, I was never really discovered. Sometimes I wonder what life would be like had I gotten a job early on and stayed with it. A job with a retirement plan. I'd only have about 15 years left to retirement. But then I'd have never met Serge, learned French and lived abroad and gained dual citizenship. I'd have to say I'm pretty happy with the way things turned out.

This n that

Unbelievable. I could not roll my eyes any further back in my head when I read about the outrage over Obama's bow to Japan's president. You'd think the ridiculous screechers would have preferred Obama lifted his leg and peed on him instead. Apparently to some, Obama has disgraced the nation by respecting the other country's culture while on their soil. I honestly don't know what is wrong with people. All I can think is that they are so narded up because we have a black president and even further panty wadded because they can't publicly criticise him for his skin color that they invent ridiculousness such as this. Tell you what. Let's switch. You guys can have Stephen Harper and we'll take Obama. Wouldn't that rock, Canucks?

I'm working eight hours a week for the next month and then I'm off for 6 weeks. Yay, I get to read, knit, walk Georgie and play games on the computer. I'll probably plan my lessons for the intensive courses that start again next January too. As long as I limit spending to the essentials, I'll be fine. I added a blog on scrimping, saving and traveling but haven't set it up except in name. I may work on that over the next couple of months as well. If I could make a few bucks from click throughs to sites like Priceline and Hotwire and books I recommend on Amazon, it might be worth a go. Other people are doing it and making money, so why couldn't I? Serge and I are kicking ourselves over how we were such early adopters with the internet but didn't buy up domain names like we could have. Oh well, you know what they say about hindsight. So true.

Georgie's poopy troubles are over. Pedigree Health & Vitality has solved the problem. I'm quite happy about it because of the obvious reasons but also because we don't have to spend oodles to figure out how to appease his digestive system. Look here he is with a spot of peanut butter on his maw. Slurp slurp slurp slurp slurp slurp slurp.

Weekend update

We went over to Serge's mom's house yesterday for dinner. More birthday boy festivities were held and just look at how excited he is over the Dressmaker II that he got. It's a portable sewing machine. I can't imagine what he thinks he's going to make with it but if I get a go, I'm going to fashion Georgie garments with it.

It was the first time we have taken Georgie over to visit at another human's house and, as I feared, the housetraining rules he has come to understand at home did not apply at the mother-in-law's. She's cool though, being a dog owner as well. Her dog goes in the house on newspapers and we are pondering whether or not to switch Georgie to that method. He peed and pooped in her house. Actually, he peed twice in the car on the way over there. Little fucker. I think it has something to do with the rain. It was raining quite hard when we were getting ready to go so Georgie got kind of wet as we were prepping the interior of the van. (We had to put the bench in that we had taken out to move a dishwasher.) Sara used to have pee pee accidents when she was wet too. It's like the feeling of "wet" makes them think they are outside or something. I know it seems like all I talk about is the damn dog, but seriously, I couldn't relax at all last night since I was constantly fixated on him and what he may damage. Luckily, his "accidents" were not on any carpeted areas, nor furniture. He got lots of exercise playing with Tigars so he was an instant blob upon returning home.

Normally, he isn't allowed to lie on the afghan that my Grandma crocheted but we made an exception last night. After all, I had bathed him earlier in the day.

12 of 12

First thing in the morning, Georgie likes to sit on my lap while I check my email on the computer. Such a little love muffin.

Breakfast of champions - Cheeze whiz on Pumpernickel. The dog is never far when food consumption is happening, but he waits calmly without any annoying behaviour.

Shower, shave and youknowwhat later and it's time to go to work. Serge had dog walking duty while I ran out to catch the bus. It was really hoary in the morning, frost coating all the grasses and cars.

After the bus it was down into the metro to ride the virus transmission vehicle. There were two sneezes (not mine) on the way to work from passengers. Both times followed by muttering and hairy eyeballs directed that way.

Nerdy pic of me at work.

After class, I went over to the farmer's market to pick up some avocados. They have it all shut up now for the winter. During the summer it's open air.

Then back home and crossing over the train tracks. In the bottom right you can see some ice that never melted from overnight because it's in the shadows all day. The sun's angle is really low in the sky right now, even at noon.

Once home, it's time to take Georgie to the doggie park. He had a great time playing but he had 5 runny poos. I think Metamucil is the next tactic.

I am marveling at my flower pots this year. We have had several light freezes and the geraniums just keep on going. I was shocked to see the pansies bloom again last week as well. This has got to be the nicest November I have experienced here. Mild and sunny practically every day.

Serge's birthday season is here. We went out to dinner with his stepmom. Her treat. We all had seafood dishes at Vinnie Gambini's.

Once home, we discover what a good boy Georgie was even though he was alone for several hours. Kisses!

Then, one of the best Survivor tribal councils ever. A delicious end to a fabulous day.

If you'd like to see other 12 of 12's from around the world, check over here.

All Georgie network

There's really not much to talk about in my life right now except for Georgie. It has really been wonderful for me having a new friend. I find myself looking forward to hanging out with him, taking him on walks and especially going to the doggie park. I can't decide which one of us likes it there better. I feel like a proud parent as Georgie is just the most playful and gregarious one out there. He approaches every dog with a "do you want to play" tail wagging demeanor. And oh how he runs. He is a really fast runner and when he really gets going he makes these strange whelping cries. It's very cute and it appears that this is called "baying", something hounds do when hunting prey. He has several different voices. The "give me my food" wail is my favorite and the piercing "my master has left me" is my least favorite. He also whines excitedly when he thinks I'm gonna take him out for a walk.

Several of the humans at the dog park have asked me if he is a Jack Russel. I always say maybe since he's probably got something else mixed in with him but then I tell them how we got him at the pound where they identified him as a beagle mix. He charms just about everyone. I keep thinking that one day someone is going to stop me and proclaim that he is their dog. I don't think I would give him up. He's stolen my heart.

He's had very loose stools pretty much since we got him. We had switched to Pedigree dry dog food and his turds were much better although he tended to eat them. So we switched (gradually of course) to the high protein "vet diet" brand and it went back to diarrhea city. Poor little guy. So we are gradually going back to the cheap stuff and the butt biscuits are firming up again. We've already run out of all our plastic bags since the shops are charging for them now and everybody brings their reusable ones to shop with. Luckily, the pet supply place has biodegradable ones in the shape of a glove for easy scooping. Unfortunately, they come out to about 15 cents a bag - three times what the markets charge. Up here though, you're likely to get dirty looks if you don't bring your own bags to the market. Oh well, cheap food and pricy bags, I suppose they even each other out.

Here he is at dinner time.

Post number 1345

The other day Dan came over for dinner and as the boys were preparing a pasta extravaganza, I put on the disc I'm in love with right now. Seriously, I cannot stop playing it I am so addicted. It was nominated for a grammy so there must be others like me but it just seemed to perturb the boys. Change it they screamed. Okay fine, I'm not one of those who foists my music on others so I asked if they wanted some faggy music. (I can say it, but unless you're a member, don't.) So I scrolled through the songs until I got to Babs and selected "I'm the Greatest Star" from the Funny Girl soundtrack and then touched the Genius button on the ipod. OMG it was one gay anthem after another. KD Lang, Allison Moyet, Celine Dion, Madonna, Carole King, Swing Out Sister, Scissor Sisters, Kelly Clarkson, Gloria Gaynor, Annie Lennox and George Michael. There were also a few showtunes sprinkled in from Hair, Cabaret and Jesus Christ Superstar. It was so great I saved the playlist and named it homolicious.

We've rented a few films this week. We couldn't get through the Mummy even though the box claimed it was the best of the series. The special effects were pretty good but the script was insufferable so off it went. Monsters vs Aliens on the other hand, was quite the treat. We watched that one twice. We were gonna rent Kill Bill 2 but Serge nixed that. Apparently he really didn't like the first. Perhaps we'll never see it.

On Saturday afternoon, we went to see Bent. It was quite good but not the most uplifting setting since it takes place in Nazi concentration camps. We sat in the front row and could see though luckily never feel the spittle from the actors lips. I used to go to the theater more when I lived in California but there's plenty of it here too, in both languages. It's going on next year's goals list. See at least 5 plays. Anyway, the show is on for another week, so you've still got time to catch this play at an intimate theater on the plateau. Happy Monday peeps!

Snippetry

* We picked up another octopus for Georgie. That has been his favorite toy so far even though he manages to remove all the stuffing mere hours after bringing it home. Serge keeps calling it a squid because it reminds him of Squiddly Diddly. Oh how I laughed and derided him when he said that. There's no such thing as Squiddly Diddly I howled. Nothing like derision to propel someone out of their seat and to the computer. Apparently, it was a cartoon from Hannah Barbera that I had never seen. In my defense, there WERE only 26 episodes total. Couldn't have been that successful.

* I got some good news this week. Apparently I will be paid for all the canceled courses I was scheduled to give between now and Christmas. I don't feel all that comfortable earning money for doing nothing, but at the same time, I don't have to eat hot dogs and mac n cheese for the next two months.

* The parks are carpeted with leaves now. This makes it hard to see what Georgie is sniffing at. The other day he was all interested in something and it turned out to be the rotting carcass of a squirrel. Gah.

* I made "beer bread" the other day from the casa's recipe. No kneading, no waiting for the bread to rise. In other words, super easy. It came out like biscuits so I think next time I'll make it with a cupcake baking dish.

* We went to the Biodome this week since it's free for botanical garden members this month. Saw some monkeys, caymans, penguins, bats, and more.

* Indoor zoo photography simply wasn't working. I don't know if it was the camera or the conditions. If I used flash, the shot was totally underexposed and if I didn't I had to hold still for too long (as I type I'm remembering that I have an anti-shake setting on the camera and that I probably should have used that) to get a clear shot. The above shot is the best one I got.

* We've had Georgie for a month and we are still learning his little idiosyncracies and he ours. For example when we walk him, he often picks up a stick and marches down the street with it. He bites the stick, it breaks in two and he stops to pick up the bigger half and then repeats. I can't figure out his stick criteria though.

* Facebook is so great for the fact that even when your friend moves to Italy, you can still keep in touch and be up on the news. I don't update my status much but I lurk plenty. I've learned not to "like" or comment on too many things or else the follow up messages clog my inbox.

* And yesterday I won two theater tickets on there to see "Bent" this afternoon. Why don't you friend Montreal Tourism liaison for the gay community, Daniel Baylis and you could win neat stuff too.

The sky is falling

There is such panic around here about the flu pandemic. It's another case of the media whipping everyone into a frenzy for nothing. Someone dying of the flu should not be story number one on the national news. She was 83 for chrissakes. We all have a chance of dying when we get the flu, but we don't panic like this every year. This hysteria is causing people to behave irrationally, standing out in the cold for 8 hours with their children waiting to get vaccinated. And it's not even their turn. I don't know how it's working where you live but up here they have set the timeline for when you can get the vaccine, health workers first, then people with babies and compromised immune systems etcetera. I'm eligible starting December 7th. Not that I'm going to get vaccinated. It's the flu, and I'm not scared of it. Last time I got the flu I lost ten pounds. Since then I'm up 25 so a little flu diet wouldn't bother me at all. Anyway, people are lining up in "me first" fashion claiming that they have ailments that they don't so they can get vaccinated first. They also mentioned on the news that those who don't want to wait their turn can drive down to Walmart across the border and pay $30 for a shot. (It's free up here.)

If it were really that dangerous, we would be seeing piles and piles of dead bodies in countries where vaccination is not happening. But no, we're going apeshit over an elderly person's death. Ridiculous.

Economizing, Monetizing and Georgie too

What a pleasant treat to sleep in until 8am. That's the upside of getting laid off. I could have slept even longer too but some contractor came to the door insisting he had a counter to install here. It took several times for him to understand that we own the building so he must have the wrong address. I figure he made the old East and West mixup. We live on a long street that stretches both East and West of downtown so there are matching addresses on either side of city hall.

I was thinking about how to make money from blogging. I saw this article about a BC blogger who is making forty grand a month from his blog. He started it just like most of us, to keep in touch with friends and family but then it morphed into a blog about "monetizing blogs". I don't think Sticky Crows has a big potential for making money (maybe for poop related products ha) but what about something else I know about - how to scrimp and save and make chump change for a living but still be able to travel the world. Hell you can live for a month off of a large bag of rice and beans that'll cost you less than a dollar a day. Dull, but doable. I'll let you know if I start a different blog.

There was a good chuckle on Facebook yesterday when my cousin posted about looking for Thanksgiving centerpieces for the table. Apparently, and I checked to make sure, if you google thanksgiving turkey centerpiece, the first site that comes up is a site that shows you how to make such a thing from tampons. And no, not used. Actually the site is hilarious - tampon crafts dot com. Hey Rox, there's some new crafting ideas for you there. Now I can't help wonder if the owner of that site is making any money. Surely if she (gotta be a she) can, then I can.

I'm off today but it's rainy. We can go to the Biodome and the Planetarium for free this month as part of our "friends of the botanical gardens" membership. Maybe I'll take a tour of the indoor zoo. If I do, you'll see those pics here. In the meantime, have a look at Georgie and cookie time. Ain't he the cutest?

Weekending

It's been quite windy and many of the trees have been stripped of their foliage. This makes for better sunrise viewing out the back window. Come Christmas time the sun will be rising behind the building at the very right. It will slowly march in that direction. Since we live on a corner, we don't usually have any leaves to rake as they blow on by. Sometimes a pile will develop on the side of the house in the lee spot but I just move the pile into the street and the city handles it or it disperses when the wind changes direction. Fascinating, I'm sure you're thinking.

I switched cell phone companies yesterday and it was far easier to do than I had anticipated. I had been paying (well in truth it was Serge who was paying) $42 a month for something I used about 20 minutes per month. That comes out to a couple bucks a minute. I switched to Virgin Mobile and now pay thirty cents a minute. I bought a hundred bucks worth of minutes and that will last a year. No setup fee, no access fee, no hidden anything fees. So apart from having to buy a new phone (sixty bucks) it will now cost me $8.33 a month. Canada has a reputation of having some of the highest cell phone rates in the world, so I was pretty tickled with Virgin. I got to keep my phone number too. The only downside is that it won't work when I travel to the states, but Serge will have his Iphone. He's locked into a three year $80 a month contract for that. More fascination from you, I'm sure.

We watched Kill Bill last night. Are we the last to do so? I liked it except where it dragged in a few places. Campy and over the top and the violence fit right in with the Halloweeniness. Serge kept pointing out plot faults: "How can she fly to Japan right after being in a coma for 4 years? How'd she get a passport?" Suspend your disbelief I kept shushing. Georgie likes watching tv with us and every time there's a dog on tv, his ears prick up and his head tilts. It's so cute. I haven't got a pic of that yet, but here he is with me last night.