Saturday, April 10, 2010

This and that

It's a beautiful Saturday morning here in Quebec. This follows a pretty gloomy week of clouds and rain. We had some wild thunderstorms the other morning where the sky turned so dark that all the street lights were triggered on. It's extremely rare to have t-storms this early in the year up here but I suspect it's related to the changing climate.

I've just finished a week with 13 new classes down at the justice department. A lot of the classes are just for people who want to practice so they don't get rusty. They are already fully bilingual. That makes it pretty easy for me. I have a couple people working in the tax evasion department. I asked if any citizen ever wins those cases where they've contested the government's tax assessment. Laughter and a big fat "no" ensued. So why the process? Also I found it interesting that they will prosecute someone who fails to pay a few hundred dollars. "Doesn't that cost way more to prosecute than the government stands to gain?" I queried. Of course I was told, but fiscal logic is not the guiding principle. The law applies to all citizens equally is the way it works. No wonder we've got deficits!

We booked a little trip (another one? I know...) to New York in May just for a weekend. Baby bro will be there and we will be celebrating a cousin's graduation. I foresee alcohol consumption. And shopping and theatre! I do so love that city. Hopefully we can meet up with a couple NYC bloggerati too. It will be the weekend of the 7th. We should have pricelined a room but instead I used their vacation package feature (save up to $500 when you book the flight and hotel!) and ended up a bit disappointed. The savings totaled $17 than if I had booked the airline ticket and hotel room separately. Plus the hotel would have been cancelable, but with the package price it's not. Wow, thanks for saving me 1.5%! I'll go back to bidding next time.

Don't have much else. News is slow, my work week is full, spring is starting to show and there's a lovely weekend at my door. I hope you enjoy it too!




10 comments:

Anonymous said...

We are having a great weekend too. The weather has been nice. It does not make up for the last 6 months below average temps but it helps. Ted

Rick Bettencourt said...

Weather is decent here today. Lots of rain yesterday but sunny now.

Java said...

Spring was masquerading as summer earlier this week, but it's finally spring-like again. Hope you have bunches of fun in the sun today.

That sounds like a lot of classes. How long does this session last? It's good you've got work, but too much can be, well, too much. Take good care of yourself.

Mark My Words said...

Happy-spring-weekend to you guys too :)

Birdie said...

It is spectacular here in Florida, but I've been indoors the entire visit so far. That will change shortly.

A weekend jaunt to NYC! I'm so jealous! I have GOT to do that this year. So many bloggers to visit.

Rox said...

Mmm it's cold and snowy here this morning. Just flurries but still, it's enough to make a person want to go into full-on ugly cry.

I hate it when things are disguised as savings and they end up being screwings instead.

Have a great weekend!

Blobby said...

Maybe I can see you in Montreal the following weekend. That's my plan to be there on the 14-17th.

GayProf said...

Yay for the trip to New York.

Anonymous, too said...

Another trip without Georgie?

No wonder that dog always wants to lay or sit on you. He's trying to hold you down so you don't go anywhere without him!

Fresco said...

Well, you certainly keep the travel industry going. :-)