It was a little scary to see smoke pouring out of the building next door. A couple of firemen went in and the others were waiting with heavy duty equipment, I suppose in case they needed to go in and chop down walls and things. In the end, the two guys who went in first came back out with the blackened hood, no doubt the result of a grease fire. Later in the day, the occupants of that apartment moved out. We were just happy it didn't impact our building at all, whew.
People were wondering how I make tuna salad. I made some more and took a pic of the ingredients. 3 cans of tuna, 3 eggs, 2 stalks of celery, half an onion, 1 dill pickle and a little mayo and sweet relish. Pepper to season. The avocado is for the sandwich and not part of the tuna salad. I also put tabasco when I make the sandwich. Also, the flyer there depicts the bed that serge and I are presently lusting over but not buying.
Serge jumped up and got the camera and took a few shots of me like this. Later when I asked him why he had taken them, (I didn't ask when he took them because I was glued to season 4 of Six Feet Under) he said it was because he thought I was cute and looked "man". Well. I certainly don't see it, all I see are the sunspots, double chin and puffy eyes. I suppose the elbow is cute enough. Happy Monday peeps.
I got taken down by Serge's cold finally. I thought I had escaped but no, my throat caught on fire Friday night and yesterday I lived on cough drops. I felt bad enough to skip my workout, (which in an alarming turnabout did not make me feel guilty, only mature) but not enough to stay in bed all day. I noticed the magnolia bloomed down the street so I hoofed it over to the botanical gardens to see how things are progressing. I walked for a long time because each time I sat down I felt sickiness and then I adopted a "keep moving" mantra. As long as I was moving and doing, I wasn't focusing on how shitty I felt. This was the logic of yesterday anyhow. There were pretty much just magnolias, rhododendrons and tulips blooming at the gardens, though I did see one cherry tree blooming. Those and the apples will explode later this week.
The bee was tired and soaking up sun. The sun makes both him and I happy. The tunes that I was listening to also made me happy. I spent a large part of the day contemplating how I could feel so miserable and yet have these little punctuations of joy sprinkled in. I decided it was a nice metaphor/reminder about life in general. I can't get the song Luz Negra out of my head. So hauntingly beautiful. Specifically this version (which is much better on the disc.)
I was all psyched about the springtime, "It's really really spring," kept running through my head so I headed over to the garden shop and bought potting mix, flowers, herbs and strawberry plants. Spent the afternoon ("amenaging" popped into my head here, but that's no word, at least not in English) potting my purchases and now looking at my patio makes me smile.
* This blog is kind of like the recession. Traffic is down 30% from a year ago. I can't believe that the french fry recipe is still by far the biggest traffic drawer.
* The tulips all popped out yesterday. It was like they were all in cahoots. Spring is really and truly here. I'm gonna wait another week before I put the jasmine outside though since frost is still possible in these parts.
* Now that the weather is warmer, I just want to play hookey every day. I have to keep the momentum going until the end of June though.
* In California a couple weeks ago I popped out to get Serge and I a breakfast sandwich and coffee from McDonald's (shutup the coffee is GOOD there and the Mcmuffins are hangover helpers) and it cost more than in Canada without even making the currency conversion. That meant it was about 25% higher priced there. Everything seemed more expensive to me in fact.
* I know why traffic is down, who could possibly care about all this crap I write? I'd love to make it more interesting, but life is pretty dull at the moment (which frankly is how I like it) and meals are probably the most interesting thing going on. This week I had killer tuna salad with avocado and tabasco for lunch every day. I just can't get enough of that combo. The only drawback is that the butt coffee is a little spicy.
* The college buds are coming out of the woodwork on Fbook. I keep being reminded of things I had long ago forgotten. I'm not so sure this is a good thing.
* This will take up more of your free time than you think. Via Matt.
* At the convenience stores here, there aren't any fountain drinks, only bottled sodas. The idea of a big gulp would probably be abhorrent here.
Ahhh, we're back into sunset season here. The sun has swung back around to where it shines in the living room and throughout the apartment every evening. This makes it all glary on the tv which is probably a good thing. All they seem to talk about is the darn flu anyway. I've got a student who has been vacationing in Mexico for the last two weeks and is due to return tomorrow. All the people who work around him in the office have urged the boss to give him an extra week off at home because they won't feel comfortable with him in the office.
Yesterday morning, I saw people in the metro with masks. I couldn't help but roll my eyes since there are zero cases here in Montreal so far.
Serge though, he's really sick. With a really bad cold. I haven't seen him this noisy with the coughing ever. When it wakes me up I want to hate him for it, but then I refind my pity response and think, "poor little guy." Nonetheless, I told him to sleep on the sofa last night. And the hacking still woke me up clear away from the other room. Such is life in a sicky household.
Wow, we had another record breaking weather day again yesterday. In the 80s! I don't know what nice thing we Montrealers did to deserve this or what divine being of probability we should be worshiping, but I sure do know how to appreciate such gifts. After living for 35 years in California, a hot sunny day was just the norm and boring as all getout to be frank. It's taken 9 years but now I ooze gratitude for hot sunny days now. (It took that same nine years for me to develop a major SAD face at the first sign of snow in the fall too.) We probably won't have any more hot days for a while, but we get lots of them in the summer. Uh oh, this post is all drivelly again. Whatever.
Well the flu scare is certainly living up to its name. As I was out working yesterday, I saw several news snippets on the monitors in the subway and at the lobby of the workplace. First it was the European Union advising people not to travel to the US and Mexico, then I saw the mayor of New York talking about remaining calm as they showed New Yorkers donning masks. Uh oh, this looks like it may be more serious than thought. The newspaper told everyone to be prepared for local cases and reviewed the best methods of avoiding getting infected. Here's the reality that no one talks about. The only really safe thing is to stay home and have no contact with anyone until it's over. Somehow we all believe that that isn't an option, but it will be if this gets out of hand. I'm still not scared, I mean I've had the flu and "wanted to die" during that misery many times. One more won't kill me (smirk).
Ten Top Trivia Tips about Tornwordo!
1. The pupil of an octopus's eye is shaped like Tornwordo! 2. Women shoplift four times more frequently than Tornwordo. 3. Tornwordoolatry is the mindless worship of Tornwordo. 4. It took Tornwordo 22 years to build the Taj Mahal! 5. While sleeping, fifteen percent of men snore, and ten percent grind their Tornwordo! 6. There are more than two hundred different kinds of Tornwordo. 7. Europe is the only continent that lacks Tornwordo. 8. The horns of Tornwordo are made entirely from hair. 9. The colour of Tornwordo is no indication of his spiciness, but size usually is. 10. Duelling is legal in Paraguay as long as both parties are Tornwordo!
Are you worrying about the swine flu? It sounds so much lovelier here (as many French words do) to say "la grippe porcine" than pig or swine flu. I thought it would be something like "l'influenza de cochon" which sounds pretty bad, but they found prettier words to use. Serge says it's all just a bunch of hype but I reminded him that it's only a matter of time, the nature of disease and especially viruses make it certain that future pandemics will occur. I think this one doesn't transmit person to person all that easily or we'd see a much faster explosion of cases.
I need a third paragraph to give a better aesthetic look to the post. Two never looks right, as even numbers seldom do, so that's why you're being forced to read this, what can only be described as drivel. I'm wondering if drivel can be clever or if that's an automatic oxymoron. Speaking of word wonderings, I figured out why those who "chew" tobacco say chew instead of suck. It's because if you ask them if they smoke they will have to say, "No, I suck." And nobody wants to say that. Oh and here's the oxymoronicest of them all - Happy Monday! (I find it interesting that the spell check approves my use of the word oxymoronicest.)
I broke one of those guitar strings in my neck yesterday. Oh sweet baby christ child on a skewer but it hurts. I woke up a dozen times last night in terrible pain. I don't even know what I did either, I was just finishing my over the head press and *snap* ow ow ow ow ow. I had a lot of trouble, actually, working out yesterday. I hadn't done my routine in three weeks due to the vacation so I really pushed myself. This was probably unwise as I felt little twinges and pangs in my knees and hips and elbows too. Oh how I love aging.
It was a lovely day yesterday - we reached 83 degrees! That's got to be a record (I just checked and it was) for this time of year. This morning we're back to our normal temps in the 50s. I spent a lot of time outside and cleaned up the yard, went to the shopping center and even ate bbq steaks outside on the patio. A little taste of summer way back here in April.
This is my 1250th post and my 300th day without cigarettes. I don't know how many more posts I've got in me but I'd better have many more days without cigs. I am grateful every day for not having to be a slave to the nicodemon. On the family vacay, there were a couple of members who "chew" tobacco. It seems more to me like they are sucking the tobacco but whatever. I asked if they had to "chew" first thing in the morning when they woke up and the answer was a strong affirmative. Same drug, different injection method that's all. Anyway, I really saw the master/slave relationship that nicotine has with all her addicts. So glad to be free of it.
* It's been a hard week. It's always like that after the relaxing cadence of vacation. I'm resisting changing that cadence and have woken up 20 minutes before having to leave the house twice this week. For me, I need/want 90 minutes from waking up to leaving the house in the morning. Otherwise I'm not fully awake.
* It's supposed to be 80 degrees this weekend (26C). This is the weekend where I will be astonished at the number of people in this city. That's because every single one of us will be outside. They could charge $20 per chair on the terraces (patios) tomorrow and still fill them up.
* How much would it take to retire forever? For us it's half a mil, that way we could pay off the buildings and live off the revenue they generate. At the rate we're going, that will be in 22 years. Barring the unforeseen of course.
* We ate cheetohs before bed the other night. Those things are evil. The reason I had them is that I tried this new white trash recipe for scalloped potatoes. I hate to say it but they were darn good. You slice up a bunch of potatoes and layer them with a can of condensed cheddar cheese soup. Then you sprinkle crushed cheetohs on top and put in the oven for an hour at 350. (I sprinkled some bleu cheese crumbles on top, but serge said that ruined it. He's a bit antsy about the moldy cheeses.)
* Here's an oldy but goody from the blog. Serge told this story over vacation.
* We put an apartment up for rent and not one person has called about it. That never happens so maybe the recession will finally be hitting close to home. Bummer.
* In Chicago when we were waiting for the shuttle to the comped hotel room, a young man approached me with a very heartfelt and earnest rendering of misfortune. He wore a backpack and explained that the airline had lost his checked bag and he was stuck at the airport with no ID, money, or anything because it was all in that bag. I started laughing right away and said, "Well that sure was stupid putting all of that in that other bag. This is probably a good lesson for ya." He admitted that that was a bad idea but if I just had $6, he could get a hotel room for the night. I kept laughing and said, "Dude, you gotta get a better story than that." Then he got all irate and hurt saying he wasn't homeless and no common beggar. I said, "Look, if you're lying, fuck you, and if you're telling the truth, then this is a great lesson for you. Now go try your story on someone else, there's plenty around here." And that's precisely what he did. (It's such a bad story though. You can't get through security without ID after all.)
Even though it was a vacation, we still had some structured activities. I thought of it as Family Camp. We had a white elephant gift exchange, a scheduled hike, and a who am I activity. One morning, we did masks and took a bazillion pictures. I liked this one. Another day we all painted t-shirts in honor of the matriarch and then took the group shot with them.
Cousin J is going to sew them all up into a souvenir quilt for grandma. Here you see the motley clan. See AJ in the bottom right? He and my dad went to the party store and bought fart machines. You know the kind, it has a bunch of buttons with different fart noises. When we went out to the restaurant for the big birthday dinner, I told AJ I'd give him five bucks if when we left, he'd cruise through the restaurant tooting the thing. I haven't laughed that hard in a long time watching the concerned patrons' faces as he accomplished the task with flying colors.
The last couple days the sea calmed itself down and though we had sunsets each night, I only thought to take a picture once. This is from the backyard of the place we stayed.
It was a great trip overall and I think everyone felt the same. It was decided that we shouldn't wait 5 years to do the next one and somehow, cousin S and I were chosen to organize the next event in 2 years. I'm happy to do it, but also know that it's a lot of work! I think one of the greatest things about this trip was that we were totally cut off from the world. There was no cellphone service and no internet. So liberating! I couldn't know if I had urgent phone calls or emails (which I did) so I didn't worry about it. It definitely made me resolve to cut down on the computer time. I guess I've already started too since I'm only up to the Cees on my blogreading list. I'll catch up.....eventually. Have a happy hump day peeps.
After wine country, we headed up to the Mendocino Coast to gather with the clan on my father's side in honor of my grandmother's 85th birthday. We did a similar thing on the Oregon coast five years ago. Serge and I picked up the keys for our house and went over to open up. We had rented two houses about 5 minutes apart. I was in the smoker's house (everyone did their thing outside though) and had a couple urges, but I made it through pretty easily.
Our house is just out of frame on the right. There were very rough seas and high winds the first couple days up there and the sea was mesmerizing.
The light of this lighthouse shone in our window. It was about 3 inlets down the coast from our house. Here, it's this one.
One day as I was going down the little road to our house, I passed these guys. It took a moment for my brain to register, "Hey wait, were they real?" So I stopped the car and backed up and took a picture of their frozenness. The camera sound scared them and then they bolted.
Here's me and the guest of honor for the week. She is my only living grandparent and to quote my 12 year old cousin AJ, even though she says she doesn't want to live to a hundred, I hope she does.
Serge and I down at the tidepools.
Here's a sort of funny thing that happened the second day there. My cousin AJ asked for a piggyback ride while we were visiting the cutsie little town of Mendocino. I told him that if he wanted a ride, he'd have to ride on my shoulders. He was game and hopped on up. Then I started to fake that I was losing my balance and saying "Whoa, whoa, whoa," to scare him a little and he was laughing so I kept it up and lurched forward. Only that time he didn't lean back, he leaned forward with me and that was it, we were going down. So many things run through your mind at that point. Mostly, I didn't want AJ to get hurt, I mean his mom was right there and she'd kill me if I cracked her kid's head open. I fell squarely on my knees and wrists and he tumbled off after I broke the fall. I decided I'm not going to do that anymore!
Okay one last funny thing. On the first day my aunt just had to play me a recording she had taken with her cell phone. She was absolutely giddy about it and played if for my dad too. It was of a particularly noisy dump in the bathroom that she had taken. Yeah, that's my blood right there.
We had a great time in California but it was a tough journey home. Our first leg was delayed so we missed the last flight to Montreal out of Chicago. They booked us on the morning flight instead and gave us a meal and hotel voucher. That was great and all, but there were only 3 1/2 hours of sleeping time available to us. So now there's all sorts of things that need doing and, here let me go check, 986 items in my blogfeed. Oy. Plus it's back to work Monday morning for a full week. Oh goody gumdrops.
So. I thought I'd do this in 2 or 3 parts so that I can milk more blog posts portray the trip more accurately. We flew to Sacramento, rented a car and then stayed in Petaluma for two nights. On Sunday the 12th, we toured the Sonoma and Napa valleys. Although it was Easter, many wineries were open and traffic was lighter than I would have expected on such a delicious spring day in wine country. We visited 3 wineries (including Sterling, a very commercial operation but which offers a view to die for) and had a picnic with deliciousness procured from Dean and Deluca. Here goes the 12 of 12 from that day. All pics will fill the screen upon clicking.
After 7 months of winter, we were both filled with glee over the 70 degree temps and sunny skies. It was just perfect and the scenery was stunning. Here look:
See?
Serge calls this the pignose photo. Those are cows on my Ben & Jerry's shirt.
I love this shot. The camera made the first noise but not the second indicating a picture had been taken. It's a candid shot even though we were posing.
At ten am, we stopped into Alpha Omega and we should have known it was going to be pricy due to the lovely pond and fountain deal they had out front. I had never heard of this wine and as I suspected had only been in production for a few years.
At the Sterling winery, it's kinda gimmicky as they take you up on a sky gondola and then you tour the hilltop operation with wine tastes along the way.
I know the sun is bad for you. But I couldn't help it, it just feels so nourishing sometimes.
This scene could have been in Italy, Spain, Chile or France. Pastoral kept coming to mind.
The souvenir photo spot. I got a great laugh here because Serge didn't have the setting right on the camera and started taking a movie. I knew it, but it took him a bit longer to realize. Here watch:
(I keep playing it set on loop and it cracks me up each time.)
At our hotel in Petaluma, I noticed an error with prepositions on the comment card. I use these things in my class for a "find the mistake" activity. Who proofed that? That's a pretty lame error.
The old town Petaluma at sundown.
On Tuesday or Wednesday I'll put some more pics up. After our sejour in wine country, we went to the Mendocino Coast for fun family frolics for five days. More on that later.
I know I said I wouldn't be around but there's free internet today and I just wanted to share a little travel experience. It was a dreadful 16 hour door to door marathon yesterday with 3 planes and two layovers and a two hour drive at the end. Boy are we pooped! In Toronto, we had to clear US customs and immigration in the airport. We went to fill out the customs card and it said "only one declaration card per family" which I had never noticed before. We sat there debating whether or not we should fill out two cards or one, but trying to follow the instructions and do what we are supposed to do, we filled out one card and approached the officer together. He immediately asked how we were related, and I answered that we were married. The agent said to Serge fairly sternly, "You need to step back behind that line and fill in your own declaration card." I then said simply, "We were only trying to follow the instructions and do what we were supposed to do." To that, the officer said nothing except, "What is the purpose of your trip?" I did note other married couples approaching the immigration officer together.
When we come back to Canada, we always approach the immigration officer together and fill out one card with no BS.
Oh yeah, Happy Easter if you celebrate such things. We will be tooling around Sonoma tasting wines and having some cheese for lunch. Dinner will be at this place.
* I went to the dentist this week. I hadn't been for 3 years which is the longest interval I've ever taken. The good news is that there were no cavities or major problems. The bad news is that it's time to redo all the fillings I got in childhood since they are showing signs of wear. Two of them HAVE to be done in porcelain, or so says the dentist. I really don't get why the porcelain one is $800 when I can buy 8 porcelain sinks for that price.
* No, I do not have dental insurance.
* Here's a little video that I wanted to post yesterday. It's about advertising matter that we received. Pay no attention to my puffiness. (It's better today, thanks.)
* One of my favorite words in French is cocotte. Here in Quebec, it is a big casserole baking dish. It also means old whore in France, tee hee.
* Ski season is over and we didn't go AGAIN this year. If I want to fulfill my goals this year, we will have to go in December.
* Tonight, we will finish season one of Six Feet Under. Yes, we are both hooked.
* There is a strange thing happening in the basement. It appears that moisture is coming up from under the house. I don't get it, but I suspect it has a multiple thousand dollar price tag. I'm ignoring it for the moment.
* Serge and I were totally taken in by this April Fool's article. Poor Serge even told everyone at work about it and then had to go back and admit he was a retard. I'm glad I told no one (except Serge, ha)
* Finally a bloggy break. I don't expect to be around until the 20th. I hope everyone enjoys a lovely Easter week.
Well shit. I tried to make a video log for you this morning (replete with just woken up puffy face) and the sound is all squelchy and effed up and I don't know why. There is no time this morning for dawdling either so all you're going to get is this quick update. We're leaving the day after tomorrow for a week, so in addition to all of my work duties, there is the preparation to be done. You know, stopping the newspaper, arranging our mail pickup, letting everyone know how to contact us in case of emergency and making sure we have everything we need for travel. In case you are interested, spouse and I will be here next week. As you can see, there will be NO internet. I'm actually looking forward to that bit. If the internet were available, I'd certainly be distracted by it, so it will be nice to truly disconnect for a while. (Actually, I just noticed that the other house the family is renting DOES have internet, so I probably will check in once or twice.)
How so many tabs end up open on the computer: I got home yesterday and opened the email on Yahoo.com. I clicked on the email I received telling me about a book I should get from Amazon. It's the new one by David Sedaris but I've already ordered it and will get it next week when we go to the quinquennial family reunion on my father's side. (I had to look up that every-5-year word) Then I remembered from class today that I wanted to know what the difference between an ox and a cow was so I opened up wikipedia. The answer is that an ox is a cow, or more specifically a castrated male cow. I always thought they looked different somehow. I asked myself then, "Would I know an ox if I came across one?" We essentially eat them too I suppose since we eat castrated male cows in hamburger and steaks and whatnot. Hungry? Thinking about the family reunion made me question our flights, see, we have a connection with only 40 minutes so I wanted to look if there would be alternate possibilities should a delay be experienced. Then I wanted to know what airport IAD was and opened another tab to find out. It's Washington Dulles which explains it since I've never passed through that airport. Then I wanted to see how much I could exchange for US dollars so I opened my banking site to check my account. I clicked on another link which opened in a new window for the currency exchange rate. But that's not it, there's more! Then I remembered that on the metro in the morning, they announced a CODE 99 for all the employees. I know they have codes for everything and I wondered if it was injury, suicide, or something else. Then I ended up reading this whole page. I never did find out what code 99 was. After that, I looked for an article that I wanted to send to a colleague, it was this one, a fascinating account of a linguistic oddity in the culture of a small tribe called the Piraha. Since it was raining outside, I decided to check the radar to see if it would stop long enough to bbq up the steaks I had bought. Then I went to my Facebook page and played my turns in Scramble and Lexulous and checked a couple updates. Then I opened my bloglines to check updated blogs and of course each one of those I click on opens in a new window. Then I wanted to go back to Wikipedia to check the Block Universe theory but I couldn't find the tab I already had open because with 13 tabs, you can no longer see all of the tabs at once.
The thing is I love that. It's like a path through my mind in a way, and sometimes even seems like art.
We went to the PDC cabane à sucre (sugar shack) yesterday and it was fabulous as I knew it would be. They had baked alaska, banana split and maple cream crepes for dessert. OMG the baked alaska was to die for. Well everything was wonderful but I'm afraid to weigh myself today.
Afterward, we sought out a nature park to take a stroll and I saw my first robin of the year. Come to think of it, I saw my first robin when we went to the cabane à sucre last year. I'm not calling them robins anymore though, now I use their scientific name, turdus migratorius, or turd for short. I'm sure you can see how this amuses me.
In the evening we watched the Six Feet Under episodes. I was pretty squealy with delight over some of the situations, though I was yelling at the character in the closet (I haven't quite got their names down yet) and spouse has a sizable crush on Michael C. Hall. He kept making lascivious noises and I responded, "I'm right here, you know, and I'm at least half as pretty!" He wasn't buying it. I have to admit he is pretty hot though.
And this was mine yesterday. It didn't say which oven rack to use and mine was set a little too low. There's just no salvaging them when they're like this. Luckily this was only a third of the batch and the rest came out perfectly. Tollhouse recipe.
I haven't much else to relate. It's a rainy weekend. We watched Milk last night and at one point serge said, "he looks like me." I started to laugh and then he acted a bit hurt, "why are you laughing?" and so we stopped the film and I got the camera so we could analyse his claims in the cold light of sobriety day. This morning, I'm still laughing a bit. Maybe if he were capable of sprouting facial hair, but as we all know, he didn't get much of a beard gene.
Oh I got the first few episodes of Six Feet Under too, but those aren't due back to the store until Tuesday so I'll watch those tonight or tomorrow. Have a lovely Sunday peeps.
* I loved all the comments yesterday. I'd like to give a special shout out to lurky Colleen who claims to love those kinds of posts as well as the poop posts. I love that I have poop groupies.
* Here is the forecast for the week. I think they are high with that snow next wednesday. On Sunday, we are going to the sugar shack that is being put on by my fave resto and then going on a hike. It looks like it'll be muddy but sunny.
* I found a site with a video of the sugar shack food. I'm even more excited now. The mackerel omelet looks a bit out there, but OMG split pea soup with foie gras! Here watch.
* That survey from day before yesterday was pretty interesting - 114 votes! Over half feel that blogs will continue to be one of many sources of content on the internet.
* What does it say about me that the television programs I watch almost always have commercials for stool softener (and really they should hire me to redo those commercials, I'd have a big stick in my hand and talk about how I have to use it to get the logs to go down when flushing for example) and Flomax? (Oh my God I'm not peeing fast enough!) Are these the problems I have to look forward to in old age?
* This has got to be 1981 or '82. My dad still lives in the same house but the wood paneling and couch are gone. That's Laverne and me there. Maybe she can remember what that button said on her overalls.
* I have to pay my entire March paycheck to the government of Quebec. Still, I'm grateful to be living here.
* This weekend, thanks to several goaders yesterday, I will try to get season one of Six Feet Under. It should be easy enough, the video store is across the street.
I do not know who or what Hannah Montana is. I have no clue why the Jonas brothers are famed. I have never watched Nip and Tuck, Torchwood, Six Feet Under, Deadwood, Battlestar Galactica (except the original), Grey's Anatomy, America's Next Top Model, Gossip Girl and a thousand other programs people talk about.
I feel like I need Cliff Notes for contemporary life.
Is this what it is to get old? To realize that you can't consume it all? To know that no matter the depth of your knowledge there will always be more to be learned and that life is, and I think I'm finally getting this, just too darn short.
Going for long walks in the sun, eating pie, whispering and giggling after sex, sipping sangria on a sultry summer afternoon, a dog licking your face, the scent of a thunderstorm bearing down, spelunking, bodysurfing, reconnecting with an old friend, the harsh serenity of the desert. I think I feel better now because no matter what I'm missing, there will always be these things to dip my soul into.
Maybe getting older is more about letting life wash over you, like how when you were a kid at the beach and you stayed in the shallow area and bobbed and squirmed and tumbled a bit with each passing wave.
Peanut butter pie. From this recipe. On the right, I improvised with Reese squares from the Reese bar. The pie on the left was sent to work with spouse. Every time I have a slice (once per day) I moan helplessly and shriek, "THIS IS SOOOO FUCKING GOOD I CAN'T BELIEVE IT!"
You know, the most exciting parts of my day, week, month, whathave you are mealtimes and potential sex times. What about you? What are the most exciting events for you these days?
I'm wondering about the future of this blog and blogging in general so I made a little poll (my first!) I think it will only work for one day though:
The Rules 1. Link to the person who tagged you who in this case is Phronk who is also known as Mike. 2. Post the rules on your blog. 3. Write six random things about yourself. 4. Tag six people at the end of your post and link to them. (Not doing this, consider yourself tagged if you're reading) 5. Let each person know they’ve been tagged and leave a comment on their blog. (See parenthetical above) 6. Let the tagger know when your entry is up. (Oh alright)
1. Since leaving home on my 18th birthday, I have never lived anywhere longer than 5 years. The closest I got was 4 years and 10 months in the first house we bought in Long Beach, Ca. We've been in this place for nearly three years and I'm already feeling the itch. I wonder why I'm like this.
2. The top musical genres on my ipod are Jazz (by way far), Latin, Brazilian, Electronica, and Dance. The top ten most played tunes are all jazz and all instrumental.
3. Sometimes I wonder about wondering and then it's like when you are between two mirrors and they reflect you into infinity except that you can never really see the infinity; either your head is blocking it or it turns out of view.
4. One of my pinkies is removable. Here watch:
5. I've gained 20 pounds (officially now) since I quit smoking 2 days shy of nine months ago. I'm hoping that tanning the fat will be a good strategy. Having seen this technique employed by others, it seems like a worthwhile effort. Spouse says I'm a behemoth, but that's only because he's still fatter than I.
6. I think scrotums are like parmesan cheese, both are delightful but don't get too too close or the Parmesan cheese will smell like vomit and the scrotum will look like this:
(it was too ugly and marring the page)
(Number 6 goes with a wink and a nod to Snooze for this post.)
It was such a gorgeous day yesterday that I had to go out for one of my long walks. I headed east to the botanical gardens. It was so nice, I only wore a sweatshirt and I was surprised to see the ponds still frozen at the gardens. The birds seemed confused walking around on the ice.
I took this shot because you can see the stadium from two vantage points. The funicular runs up the "spine" of the inclined tower.
Cattails from last season. Everything just gets frozen in place once winter descends, which if I recall correctly, happened quickly and brutally.
My cheap haircut and cheap sunglasses. Who cares? I had the sunshine and bossa nova blaring.
I took a lot of tree pics. They look so strikingly bare against the blue sky. These willows will produce an opaque canopy of leaves in May.
I had promised myself not to spend any money which is why I walked to the gardens but then instead of walking back home the way I came, I decided to loop back via the Promenade Ontario, which sounds far classier than it is. That's how I ended up at Value Village trying on dress pants. I scored TWO pair that fit me perfectly for $5 apiece. I don't really consider that spending money, more like winning it. Have a lovely Sunday peeps.
* When I was little, I used to hear the war games going on at night in Camp Pendleton. I always thought it was Godzilla out and about. Boom Boom Boom, is he getting closer?
* It got up over 50 degrees yesterday and I was sweating like a pig in my winter coat. Yay, spring jacket time.
* I think I'm going to vote from now on based on the following criteria: would I let this person babysit my kids? (I know I don't have any but still)
* "I'll be long gone before some smart person ever figures out what happened inside this Oval Office." --George W. Bush, Washington, D.C., May 12, 2008 (Who knew he was prophetic too?)
* Almost vulgar word verification:
* Two different classes this week told me I was the best English teacher they've ever had. It sure feels good to hear things like that especially since we all teach alone so we don't know how we are perceived compared to others.
* Often times when Serge says "We need this," I quietly insist, "Maybe next year." I figure if we can do without it for a year, we really don't need it after all. (This is how I've scored another year out of our cheap patio furniture.)
* Did you know that ALL men are capable of breastfeeding? It's true.
We just hid from the Jehovah's Witnesses who came to the door. We're not sure they were, we didn't see any watchtowers. But literature was kindly left in our mailboxes. Once we stopped hiding on the floor (our computer room looks onto the entrance way to the building) we came back to our desks. That's when they returned, a father and 10 year old son duo, to drop the friendly literature off. I don't even want to go out and check what it is. I find what they are doing about as heinous as if I tried to convert someone to be gay. Serious heinousness. I don't begrudge you your beliefs (much), but if I want to know about them, I'll ask.
Gosh I sound cranky. Actually it's been a pretty nice couple of days. Warm (for here) weather and good night's sleep. I just love most mornings where I wake up around 5:30 but don't get out of bed for at least another hour. So luxurious. In the smoking years, I HAD to get up once achieving any sort of consciousness. To smoke, naturally. I'm starting to find some major differences in life now, now that smoking is no longer a part of it. It's amazing how every single day revolved around "getting my fix". So sad in a way. I'm trying not to pity too much though, as spouse is still steadfastly addicted. My sense of smell seems to become more acute daily, and I feel like Grenouille in Perfume, loving the intensity of the odors, good or bad. Yesterday, there was a huge pile of vomit in the metro, just beneath the pay phones attached to the wall. There was absolutely no smell and I found this odd, so I kept sniffing at the air trying to find the tell tale vomit smell. I started to move closer but then I stopped myself from approaching the vomit and sniffing, I mean that would be weird, right?
One last thing, you know the Reese bar I mentioned the other day? The unbelievably delicious limited edition bar? Well I went out yesterday to score some more from the Dollarama. And they are gone! I went to 3 different Dollaramas too and they were all sold out. They had the jumbo reese, the easter egg reese and the "whipped" reese log, but no bar. Dangit, I knew I should have bought more when I had the chance. But maybe now I can avoid the man girdle thing.
Every time I saw these on TV I wanted one. But since we have a no buying from the TV rule in this house, I never bought any. (In Vancouver there was a "As Seen on TV" store which I browsed.) What a great idea right? I mean you can water your plants for up to2 weeks which is perfect for vacations and bad memory. (I didn't notice the "up to" until I had the box home.)
So can you guess what they don't tell you about the product? It seems to work fine and everything once you get the water into the globe but here's the problem. It takes forever to fill the darn thing because you only have one tiny hole to fill it up with and in order for the air to come out while you fill, it just takes a long time and you waste about 3 gallons of water doing it. Really, I had to laugh as I stood at the sink for five minutes trying to get the water in. Okay, so now you've been warned. But they are kinda pretty, no?
That's all I got this am. It's my early day and I'm already running late. Here check out my kind of Funniest Home Video:
It's finally sinking in that WINTER IS OVER! No more sub zero arctic blasts, no more blizzards. I know I'm tempting fate saying this, but I can just feel it this year, it's done. You know what that means - BBQ season commences. It's going to be a spell before we actually dine outdoors, but since we bought a new bbq yesterday, we officially started by cooking a marinated bavette (flank steak? skirt steak? butt steak? I can't recall now in English) on the new toy. (And I'm still poor, the bbq is one year no payments or interest.) I thought it was pretty neat to be bbqing when there was still a bit of snow on the deck too.
So this winter wasn't as heinous as last year's. It was pretty rough for a couple months, but how quickly a few budding trees serve to erase the memory. Also, this is the very first year spouse and I didn't fight over heat. The last fifteen years have seen him too hot and me too cold. We never really figured out how to work the thermostat in our home despite having been here for three winters now. Oh you'd think it was a simple matter, setting the temperature on the thermostat - intuitive even, but you would be wrong. No matter what we do, it always seems to revert back to some previously entered setting. One day, Serge got cold and fucked with it and somehow got it unlocked and he was able to set the temperature at 22C/72F. (It is now locked at that temp, he doesn't know what he did.) I have to admit, it was a little warm at times at night, but at least I didn't freeze all winter like last year when it was stuck at 19C/66F.
Here are two things that ARE truly heinous. I did my US taxes yesterday, which basically means I say what I earned and that I paid income tax here. Then the total due is 0. Here's a hoop, now jump through it, because it's the LAW. Lame. The limited edition Reese Bar is so dang good but oh so bad for you. I'm doomed this Easter what with the Reese eggs and now this. I'm gonna need a girdle for the cruise.
We watched Rachel Getting Married on Friday night. It wasn't at all what I was expecting, it was a far darker tale than I had imagined. And so real. Almost too real. It reminded me of a Henry Jaglom film in a way, it all seemed so tragically accurate and spontaneous, this disfunction and heartbreak that infect so many families at one time or another. It's not one of those movies where it ends and you feel uplifted, no, it's more like one that haunts your thoughts for several days. I recommend it.
We sat around talking about the upcoming cruise we're taking in 79 days. Tigars, MIL's dog hung out with me most of the time. I swear that dog is even more clingy to me since Sara died. Here look how cute he is following me to see what I'm up to.
There's not a whole lot else going on around here this weekend. It's snowing again this morning, oh joy. It looks like just a dusting though, so hopefully that'll melt off by this afternoon.
I need to institute a "no buying online" policy while imbibing. That's how we ended up going to Chicago in January, and now it' s how I've bought myself a ticket to a concert that begins at 10:30pm. See, I'm always asleep at that hour and now I've committed myself to an event that BEGINS at that time. Really, what was I thinking? At least I've got a couple months to prepare so maybe I'll have a strategy worked out whereby I'll be able to stay awake for it. Anyway, I was listening to his music when I got the bright idea to see if he would be coming to town as part of the Jazz Festival, and lo and behold he was. Then when I checked for "best available" tickets and a seat in the back row came up, I panicked and bought it thinking they were nearly sold out.
Let's not even bring up the fact that I swore off concerts altogether already.
At least I didn't buy the dolphin swim at the same time. I was also checking out the activities available on the cruise we're doing in June. I have always wanted to swim with the dolphins, but have never done it because it's so darned expensive. So this trip, it's only available at Nassau and starts at $200. But Nassau also has this place called Atlantis, which looks like a combination aquarium/amusement park/beach. So if you want the run of the place and swim with dolphins, it's $269. You only live once, I know, but that just seems like an obscene amount of money. Anyone been to Atlantis there? And any New Yorkers want to join us? It looks like you can go for less than $100 a day. June 9th, details here.
I can't believe she died. Man, when it's your time, it's your time. Who'd think a little trip and fall (in the snow!) could kill you. It saddens me this morning to find out that she's dead at 45. She wasn't my favorite actress or anything, but tragedy is tragedy, and well, quelle tristesse.
Yesterday we were talking about climate change in class and I had asked everyone to research something on the topic. Some of the information is really astonishing. Like the level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has risen by 20% since 1960, and this rising is accelerating. (The debunkers would say humans had nothing to do with this rise.) Another alarming statistic is the estimate that we have decimated 90% of all marine animals in the last 150 years. In other words there are not "plenty of fish in the sea", there are only 1 in 10 fish in the sea left. Overfishing coupled with overpopulation, oh yeah, 240,000 human beings are added to the world population EVERY DAY! Not here of course, but still. Anyway it was really depressing. One interesting line was, "If every person in the world lived like an American, the fossil fuel supply would be exhausted in 15 years." Basically, in the next 25 years, we are going to have severe shortages of fresh water, food and fuel. So get out there and enjoy today.
Spring does a couple of things to me. It makes me want to clean and hornifies me. Not at the same time, mind you. As for spouse, I think it softens up his heart. I caught him looking at Labradoodles on the internet. (Cross between labrador and poodle) He was actually looking for our next breed of dog. Yay!
You know what's really irritating? To find out Youtube has muted the video because you had a song on while you made the video. Plus they don't even bother to tell you. Yesterday when I was uploading the video, I purposely did not mention that Rihanna's Disturbia was playing in the description of the video. That's because one time when I mentioned the artist and song for a collage I did of the gay pride festival here, the actual band took umbrage and requested it be removed. Youtube kindly offered to replace the soundtrack with something uncopyrighted. So now I try not to mention the music. But when I scrolled through my past videos yesterday, I saw that the song Urgent that I lipsynched for y'all had been muted, and they didn't even tell me. Sheesh. Oh sure you can see dozens of people mangle the song karaoke-ing Urgent. But you can't listen to it while watching my video. (I suppose you could play it yourself and try to match to the screen though.) THEN, I saw that the New York collage that I did had been flagged, and I got this screen:
I didn't mention the song at all in that one, so they must have some crawling music-matching robots poring over the videos to detect copyright infringement. No problem if you mangle their song, just don't play the original. The absurdity of ego, and lawyers of course.
On a brighter note, I got a really nice letter this weekend that I wanted to share.
There are many different kinds of blogs, some are about the person: I did this, I did that, I met this person. You know...me, me and little bit more about me. Some are more journals of discovery: I felt this, I thought that, I learned this. Some are political: I believe this, I don't believe that. Your blog is all of these and more, it is informative, fun and interesting. I cannot tell you how many things I've lifted from your blog and printed out to hang on the refrigerator, in the bathroom etc. I think it was seeing the pictures of Montreal that you've posted and reading about your adventures across the city that rekindled the desire to visit there again, not having been there for at least 15 years or more. Would I have done this, made plans to visit the city, made reservations at this restaurant if your blog hadn't been there? Probably not, because your blog is unique.
Most of us tend to minimize our affect on the world around us. It's only after someone passes away that we look at their past life and see all the people who were affected by it. That recently happened to me with my mom. I looked around at all the people at the viewing, from all the different places and times in her life, and I realized what a vast reach she had. In the midst of my sorrow I realized that she would have loved it, she would have loved seeing all the those people talking to each other, trading stories and catching up. And who's to say she wasn't there enjoying every second of it?
Not wanting to be too deep, because a blog should be a fun thing to do, you send out ripples. They travel across miles and borders and cultures. Most go on and play themselves out, some encounter another object along the way and slightly transform that object or themselves. That's what your blog does and I want to let you know how much I appreciate it everyday.
Merci,
Carl
And if that wasn't enough (it was, I was deeply grateful to receive such feedback) yesterday's post seemed to help another fellow in town. I like the idea that I'm putting positive energy into the world. Knowing that, it makes plugging along on this here blog thingy that much easier. And it's a great way to start this week, the VERY last one of the winter, YAY!
There are so many things to be grateful for. And there doesn't have to be a specific entity to be grateful to, what's important is flexing that gratitude muscle. Why? Because it's good for you and prevents you from turning purse-lipped and uptight. I generally thank the universe, as that's least conflicting for my brain. I don't see much evidence of a monotheistic construct in the universe, so for me, I'm just grateful for ALL OF IT. Take the picture above. Success! I successfully made whole wheat bread yesterday. Still a tad on the dense side, but nearly perfect. I was on the phone with dad last week and he reminded me of a time long ago when mom made her wheat bread and I was transported back to my childhood and the smell of that bread filling the house, the butter slathered slices warm from the oven sliding down my throat. So I just had to try her recipe (which I had had all the time in the family cookbook on the shelf) even though it called for scalded milk. I didn't know what scalded milk meant. I learned and now I know. I'm grateful for friends I can call up to find out. (Mom was "gone fishing")
I'm grateful for good friends, like the kind who invite you over for dim sum. Because I'm nice, I'm not posting pictures of Dan, but we enjoyed a lovely evening at his place eating bread and dim sum, sharing wine and laughs.
The sky treated us to a lovely view from Dan's place at sunset. We are right on schedule for maple syrup season and these are the days we get above freezing during the day and below freezing at night. I hope they have a bumper crop this year as the price has doubled due to several poor harvests.
Remember it always feels better to be grateful for the things you have than resentful for the things that you don't. It's not always the easiest mindset to keep, but definitely the healthiest.
Finally, you can dance along with Serge and I as we cross the Jacques Cartier bridge listening to Rihanna. This was taken yesterday on our way to Dan's place. Have a lovely Sunday peeps!
It was a little scary to see smoke pouring out of the building next door. A couple of firemen went in and the others were waiting with heavy duty equipment, I suppose in case they needed to go in and chop down walls and things. In the end, the two guys who went in first came back out with the blackened hood, no doubt the result of a grease fire. Later in the day, the occupants of that apartment moved out. We were just happy it didn't impact our building at all, whew.
People were wondering how I make tuna salad. I made some more and took a pic of the ingredients. 3 cans of tuna, 3 eggs, 2 stalks of celery, half an onion, 1 dill pickle and a little mayo and sweet relish. Pepper to season. The avocado is for the sandwich and not part of the tuna salad. I also put tabasco when I make the sandwich. Also, the flyer there depicts the bed that serge and I are presently lusting over but not buying.
Serge jumped up and got the camera and took a few shots of me like this. Later when I asked him why he had taken them, (I didn't ask when he took them because I was glued to season 4 of Six Feet Under) he said it was because he thought I was cute and looked "man". Well. I certainly don't see it, all I see are the sunspots, double chin and puffy eyes. I suppose the elbow is cute enough. Happy Monday peeps.
