Smattering of Vacay Photos

Three generations right there. It was great to see dad and grandma.  We had a nice lunch at California Pizza Kitchen and then walked around the mall. Dad bought a whole box of See's candy. Not only was I never hungry during the trip, I was frequently painfully stuffed. I weighed myself this morning. Up four pounds. Now I know why kings are fat.

After I had been there a few days at camp mommy, we got on a plane and headed up to San Francisco to see the baby brother. Mom and I went on a very long walk across the city and when we were crossing  a street somewhere, bam, there was the Transamerica building. It was neat, we walked from Soma to Fisherman's Wharf and then over to the Palace of Fine Arts. There was a magic bus that took us from there all the way back to our hotel.

Mom and I at the Palace of Fine Arts. On the bus ride back, we passed through Chinatown and it really was like a different country suddenly. Pushing and shoving became the norm for several stops. Mom and I had seats and just watched. So interesting how something is so taboo in our culture while so ordinary in theirs.

The real Sticky Crows. I love those but don't eat them anymore for various reasons. Fear of dislodged dental work for one.  This was after meeting up with a friend from high school whom I hadn't seen in over 20 years. We both agreed that we had changed little.

Mom and I took another junket to Vegas during my stay.  Remember I had received an invite from the Venetian for some free night with free gambling money. While in search of lower priced vittles, we came across this kiosk peddling the monstrocities you see above. If I had to choose, I'd take the fried pickles. I'm still curious about those.

The rooms at the Venetian are gorgeous. All suites with a step down living room, three flat screen tvs and an interesting view from our room reflected in the other tower. They totally lost money on our stay. I played the $75 they gave me and cashed out the $42 in winnings, took the free room and bought a couple of coffees. The last night mom sprang for a nice dinner in which we had foie gras, yum! Oh and I took her to see Ka, an amazing show by Cirque du Soleil. The stage is an engineering marvel and the scenes they created were like works of art. If you ever get a chance, I highly recommend it.

Last Saturday was the big hike. Dad and I took the chairlift to the ski area at Mt Baldy and then hiked to the summit.  It was a beautiful day, a bit hot and there were some amazing views on the way up. At one point, if you slipped and fell off the 18 inch wide trail to the right, you died, and if you slipped off to the left, you died. It's rather scary when someone is coming the other direction and you have to pass each other.

We made it to the top! It wasn't easy. 3.2 miles up and 3.2 miles back. The last part, dubbed heartbreak hill, was grueling. You cannot make it to the top without suffering, but that makes it even more worth it in my book. My legs were cathedrals of pain the next day. Dad said I should be fine since I regularly do squats, but as I reminded him, I don't do them 5 hours at a time. I was old man for two days following the hike.

The last day, mom made (and showed me how to make) paella. Oh my but it was good. In the next couple of weeks, I'm going to give it a try. Now where can I find a paella pan? I already know where to get the paella rice, which is essential. Oh and I wish I had picked up some saffron while I was in Spain. You pay through the nose for that shit here.

I made it home yesterday with the haul you see above. Plus the quilt seen in the next photo. I had a little skirmish in the airport in Toronto. Some lady, when arriving at the immigration entry, stopped right where you were supposed to go and choose a line. It was just like the idiots who stop at the top of an escalator to look at a map. I squeezed around her little girl and picked a line. She called out to me, "We were here before you!" I replied, "There's 20 lines, pick one!" She then said, "Well you could have said excuse me.!" I rolled my eyes and said, "Oh shut UP!" and turned and approached the immigration officer. Honestly, I just spent two weeks with my mother, I don't need another one, lol.

Georgie was so happy to see me, he cried and cried. Later he fell asleep next to the quilt. I really missed him and I think he missed me too. He started whining for our regular 8:30am walk right on time this morning.

Happy to be home for a few days before our road trip. More on that to come.

Mid vacay update

I know it's been too long since I've checked in but power relaxing takes up so much energy, I have little to check in and update.  When I got here, mom presented me with the fabulous quilt you see. Actually it's just a small part of the quilt but it's so cool how she embroidered little Georgies into the design. The colors will be perfect for our living room. We may even hang it on the wall for a while.

It was so cold when I got here. Cold for July anyway. Drizzly and mid sixties. Yuck! I didn't even pack a sweater or a jacket so I had to borrow one. It was a nice break from the hideous heat wave of death back in the East but it's July for pete's sake, it's supposed to be warm at the very least.

I had a chance to meet my dad's new dog. Actually I don't think it's a permanent member to his family (he's already got two) but it was so cute. It's kind of like a cross between a chihuahua and a daschund or maybe a beagle. So loving though. Anybody wanna adopt? Serge would kill (KILL!) me if I brought her home, but Georgie wouldn't mind I'm sure.

On Friday, I went up with the family to San Francisco. We stayed at the Intercontinental where my old friend works. We haven't seen each other in at least 5 years, but we were inseperable in high school. It was fun to reconnect over cocktails and dinner. I think it's time to ditch that shirt but it has special meaning. I found it in a $2 bin at a sidewalk sale about 5 years ago. I wish I had bought a dozen.

I have the usual pictures from San Francisco - bridges, cable cars and skylines but I thought this shot came out neat so I'm posting it. When I get home on the 20th I'll post some others I'm sure. Or perhaps they'll show up on facebook. Hard to tell with me.

Our last night in San Francisco with the family. My brother lives up there, hence our visit. We got pretty snockered the last night after Spain won the world cup. The Spanish restaurants were stupid packed but Mexican food is practically as honorable. Mom and I are such geeks in this photo, but that's why I likes it.

I'm home for another day and then mom and I are driving out to Vegas for a couple days. We're gonna see a taping of Wheel of Fortune and take in Ka, the cirque du soleil show. Spend a few bucks gambling too I'm sure. It's supposed to be something like 100 zillion degrees so we'll be sticking inside for the most part.

I'm sure there's more but I'm being called down to dinner. Oh how I love camp mommy. Don't have to lift a finger and get to eat like a king. I definitely see diet in my future. Have a great week peeps, I know I will~!

Weekend update and toodles

That's his new thing there. He runs around at the doggie park and then when it's time to walk home, he stops at every shady spot and lies down. He will literally go limp when I tug on the leash and let me drag him while he gives me the stinkeye. Yesterday it was really hot so I took the car to the doggie park to avoid this behaviour but he still did it on the way to the car. He doesn't like the heat much, he's much livelier in cold weather.

Our friend Ida who lives in the sticks came to town for a little hubby free vacation and dragged Serge and me and Daniel out on the town. We started down in the village to stroll through the arts festival and we were mesmerized by the glassblower. It's just so weird to see it bend.

A little further up the street there was a guy doing body painting. Except for the swimtrunks, it's all paint. It reminded me of a living cartoon. I have another shot where all the men on the adjacent bar patio are ogling him. It's kind of pathetic though.

We decided to seek out an old Vietnamese restaurant we used to haunt many years ago. The appetizer (entrée in French) section cracked me up. They did their homework and looked up the word in the dictionary. Entrée does indeed mean entrance; however, they needed to scroll down to meaning number two in the dictionary. Pork meat is funny too. Like saying beef meat.

Daniel's not in the picture since he forbids me posting him here. He did take the picture but only after fruiting around with the zoom ten times. Hence the thinly veiled irritation on our faces. Well not mine, but I'm faking it. This is down at the jazz festival where we walked around enjoying the free shows for a while. I get uncomfortable around crowds though. It was at the jazz festival 15 years ago where I panicked when the crowd all decided to move from one venue to another and I got trapped in the flow. I ended up climbing a fence to get out. Ever since then I've been leery of any place where there are tons of people and I'm always surveying my exit strategy and making sure I'm at the fringes and not in the middle of the crowd. It might be construed as a personality defect, like being a Republican or being a smoker. We've all got one or two, right?

Although the lighting is not ideal, I love love love this picture. My stoic boys.Yesterday was a quiet day. We puttered around the house and I got the laundry done and started packing for my trip. Today I've got to go to the bank and get some US dollars. In honor of the fourth of July, I had a hot dog for lunch. That pic is posted on Facebook as many of you know. Here's another one that makes me laugh.

I won't be posting as regularly over the next two weeks because I'm on vacation from my vacation. What? Well I'm heading out to California for my annual summer visit. I'll post from there at least a couple of times but I probably will be largely absent from the blogosphere. I look forward to disconnecting a bit. Don't miss me too much now!

Snippets

* And just how would you caption that?

* That Vermont shirt he is wearing in the photo I got for one dollar! At the sidewalk sale there was a bin where everything was a dollar and you know those kinds of things are like the flame to my inner moth so I ruffled through it and realized nothing was in my size. There was plenty in Serge's size though. Turns out he loves that shirt and wishes I had bought more. I'll make a spendthrift out of him yet.

* The mother-in-law's surgery went flawlessly and the good news is that the cancer is stage one (for the moment, have to wait for the tumor analysis) and they think they got it all out and she's recovering nicely. Did you know that it costs $12 a day for the tv to work in your cubicle at the hospital? That surprised me, but I guess when the medical care is free, they've got to find ways to offset costs.

* As for the utensil dilemma from the last post, there doesn't seem to be a consensus. I'm going to try to get him to make the steak knives and butcher knives pointing down. The rest doesn't bother me much.

* Yesterday was a big milestone for me (as noted on Facebook) as it was 2 years cigarette free for this boy. I love everything about being a non-smoker except for the 20 extra pounds. That said, I actually look more normal now. Whenever I look at other 45 year olds, by and large there has been some middle aged spread.

* The magazine picture of Serge and I was taken (to answer commenter queries) separately of him and me. The bubbles were a pain in the ass! I'm surprised they got two shots as well as they did. While one of us posed the other plus the assistant photographer madly blew bubbles as fast as possible. It's not as easy as you think! And we got covered with liquid soap in the process. You should have seen our shoes.

* I'm getty giddy about my upcoming California trip. I'm taking the new Air Canada flight into John Wayne airport. (Much more convenient for me than LAX) I've got to connect in Toronto but that's easy. Air Canada is great because you don't have to worry about checked bag charges and they have those free personal video systems in the seats like JetBlue does.

* I think Georgie needs to be enrolled in a 12 step program. Shiteaters anonymous.

* It's not supposed to rain the next few days so I'm going to waterseal all the patios and balconies at the other building today. See how fun landlording is?

* Here's wishing a nice long holiday weekend to my American peeps. In honor of the 4th, I will be making hotdogs on the grill and thinking of y'all. Later gaters!

Hot dog storm, utensil magazine

On the weekend Serge mentioned that he hadn't had Ruffles chips with onion and sour cream dip in a long time and how he missed it. Well I missed it too so when I went to the market I picked up this bag of chips (I don't like Ruffles - too salty) because I thought it was like Ruffles. When we were eating them with the sour cream and onion dip Serge asked why I had bought flavored chips. I said that they were not flavored he was imagining things. Then he went and got the bag. Flavored with a hot dog, mustard and relish. Have you ever seen anything so retarded? They're not so bad, just kind of weird. Hot dog flavored potato chips.

Oh my but did we have a big storm blow through on Monday afternoon. Here is what the sky looked like before all hell broke loose. The sun would have been right there but it was so eerie and the sky was roiling. The rain and hail and wind spooked us so much that we retreated to the interior closet. Yesterday when I walked the dog there were tree limbs down all over the place. It wasn't a tornado but boy did the winds blow. The rain gauge measured 1.12 inches in 23 minutes. That's some storm right there!

Hey I've got another disagreement to bounce off of you. You know how the division of labor in our household works so well to avoid marital discord. Well I had a minor complaint this week and it's about the dishwasher. Remember he loads it up and I empty it out. Well when he loads the utensils he puts them in the little basket with the sharp edges and fork tines sticking up. I don't like this because I've stabbed myself inadvertently more than once so I asked him to put the sharp edges pointing down. He says they get cleaner sticking up. But the basket has holes all through it, surely they get clean pointing down I protest.  Moreover, I have to touch every part that will touch our mouths when I unload the utensils. So that's not very "clean" now is it? He said I just have to make sure I wash my hands before I unload. Comments please. How is it in your house?

Look, we got published! Thanks to Father Tony, we got to see this result of the photo shoot we did in New York back in May. It is for Pride magazine which is distributed for the gay pride week festivities. They feature several couples with a quote and this one was ours. We had a wicked hangover that morning but you'd never know it eh? Also I made a mistake on the quote. It should have said when you're married instead of when you marry. Oh well, the sentiment is the same. Happy hump day peeps! (I say that in solidarity for the employed readers. It's just another day to loaf around for me.)

Weekend update

Weekends are supposed to be fun but this one saw us cleaning up the upstairs apartment getting it ready for the new tenant who moved in yesterday. We both hate cleaning up someone else's funk and I really don't see how someone can come to our door and claim, "I'm all done cleaning up," when that didn't even entail using a broom. It was gross and the things he didn't want he just left. That's okay, we'll be happy to take that out to the curb for you. And here is when I start sounding like an old man but what is wrong with people these days?

My recompense? Mexican food! Well, sort of. It does look like Mexican food doesn't it? This is that place that opened up on the plateau called Koka Loka which is decorated in that gaudy pinata way with bright colors, oddly matched, thrown up onto all the walls. Purple and Red and Yellow and Green and bright as can be. Okay they got the cheesy decor down. This is the place that at Yelp, the lone reviewer claimed, "It was like the chefs looked at a picture of Mexican food and imagined what went in it to make it look that way." Well I wouldn't go that far, but the salsa served with the chips looked and tasted like they used spaghetti sauce as a base. So. I had a vegetarian tostada which was okay. I'm looking forward to getting the real thing when I get back to California.

So the new tenant arrived with a moving truck yesterday just as we finished watersealing her balcony. When we asked for the balance of the rent (Serge let her sign the lease with a mere $100 deposit) she whined and offered a post dated check for the first of the month. So not only did she get 4 free days but she took possession with a hundred bucks and a promise. It remains to be seen whether or not we're idiots. Okay back to the big walk yesterday. When the movers arrived, we took off, had Mexican food and then walked around town. It was a beautiful day.  The jazz festival was in full swing (get it?) and we listened to some big band for a while and had a drink.

Since it was a Sunday, Tam Tam was happening so we went over and listened to the hypnotic beating at the drum circle where people joined and left the group as the beat morphed according to I'm not sure what. Very organic is the best way I can put it. I've never seen so many people openly smoking pot since I was in Amsterdam either.

Then we happened upon a festival (you can't throw a stick without hitting a festival in Montreal in the summer) that I think was a steel drum band competition. Or a caribbean festival, not sure. But we were totally mesmerized by these kids playing the steel drums. Normally I don't like this sound, but they were good. Here listen:

Then we came home and Georgie was a good boy waiting for us. He didn't chew anything. I think he's finally starting to lose his severe separation anxiety. He still sticks to me like glue but he doesn't cry so much now when one of us leaves. Who's a good boy?

Five o'clock already? Serge garnished our drinks with, wait what's this flower? He can't remember either, he just knows it's edible. Anyway it was a nice end to a great walk and a work filled weekend. Now it's Monday but it's all the same to me cuz I is on vacation. (Don't hate.)

Snippets

* It's been a while since I've done a snippety post. There's lots of little things to mention, but nothing earthshattering. Being on vacation, I've been walking around town a lot and have been pleased to notice more and more of the trash cans like the one above. On the other side is a slot for trash and on this side there's a slot for anything recyclable. I was pretty shocked that we couldn't find ANY recycle receptacles in New York City.

* I was also shocked on our last flight on US Airways. When we held our cans until they came by for recycling, we were told with that "how could you be so stupid" way that "We don't recycle, it would just be impossible to implement." Really? You're collecting the trash anyway, why can't you collect it in a more intelligent way? I know I've got at least one flight attendant reader - why don't airlines recycle?

* We have Fridge again! We lived for a week out of an ice chest and then the guy came and fixed our appliance and it is so nice to have it back. It was cute at first with the ice chest, but the novelty wore off quickly. (And they don't really keep things that cold either.)

* On the walk to the doggie park, I pass by this new condo development where all the units have fake balconies. I don't get it, why didn't they just make a real balcony? Or just leave it off altogether.

* Serge chickened out the other day and didn't get his teeth pulled. They don't hurt so I keep saying to keep them until there's pain or they fall out. The dentist seemed to think they needed to be out. As far as I know he hasn't rescheduled.

* It was the Quebec holiday celebrating all things Quebec yesterday. The parade went in front of our place. We hung out around the house and did little. The pictures came out crappy.

* Here's something I picked up for mommy. A couple bags of rice. Ever since I've been back from Spain, I've been eating olives and Serrano ham pretty much every day. Not a lot mind you, just a couple nibblets at cocktail hour.

* Wow, this is really boring isn't it? Hang in there, you're almost through.

* We watched Ché this week. I enjoyed it, but it's always hard to "watch" when you're stuck reading the subtitles the whole time. Oh and the last season of Nip Tuck is available across the street. Usually I wait until the DVDs are not at the "premiere" price but I crumbled and got the first disc. Now if we can just hold off on the other 5 discs. At $5.75 apiece, it makes for pricey TV.

* The village is looking festive this year. This part of Ste Catherine street is closed for the summer again and I rather like how they've decorated it. It'll be closed and for pedestrians only until September.

* Have I mentioned how much I love being on vacation? Totally undercapitalized but walks are free. Every day I wake up and do that quick run down in my head, what day is it, where do I have to go, what do I have to do, and then I realize the answer to that is, it doesn't matter, nowhere, nothing. Bliss.

* I've been spending a lot of time here playing Pai Gow and Caribbean Stud. Not for money of course, but the practice mode is free. My luck is up and down so it doesn't make me want to open an account. Great time waster though.

* Another stick he brought home from one of our walks. He is so cute strutting down the street with his treasures found in the park. It's kind of a pain when he shreds the stick up all over the floor, but it's all part of having a dog.

* Oh and he did not do anything out of the ordinary before the earthquake. You heard about that didn't you? I was sitting at the puter and my chair started rocking and I shouted "Earthquake" over and over. Serge was pacing on the phone in the other room and didn't notice it until it was over and he saw the lamp swinging. I thought I had left those behind in California. It was only a five and fives are just a fun ride. It's the 7 and over that I never want to see again. There was a funny bit on the CBC website. Someone commented that there was a tsunami alert on the fake lake in Toronto. That's way over the heads of my American friends, but all the Canerdians will get it.

* Sorry about the length and uninterestingness of it all. Hope you have a lovely Friday. I'm off to walk the dog and putter about. Oh and the jazz festival starts today, so maybe I'll take in some free concert action. Ciao!

Scammed

You know I consider myself a fairly bright person. When something happens condtradicting this belief, it is hard for me to accept. And yesterday, I did something so dumb I've been filled with hatred for myself ever since. Here's how it went down.
I got up sleepy eyed and set the coffee to brewing while I came to my computer. There was a window open that was a kind of news website with the lead article from one of their bloggers announcing some amazing new diet breakthrough. The blogger was from Montreal which intrigued me so I started reading the woman's amazing experience with this, and this is where my stupidity really shines, new pill combo that you take and the pounds just melt off. (I know! I'm cringing as I type!) You might be aware that I'd like to drop about 10 pounds because I've gained 20 since I quit smoking. Anyway, at the end of the article were two coupons for "risk free" trials of the pills. The coupons let you get the shipping for half price, so you could try the stuff for a month for under 10 bucks. Coupons are another weakness of mine and of course they expired the same day. So I went and signed up for the "free" bottles which were from two different companies. The second company I noticed that you were signing up for a subscription and that you would have to cancel before two weeks was up in order not to be charged for subsequent bottles.

Okay, I thought, I remember the music subscriptions where you got free discs and then a new one came to your door each month. Fine, I'll check it out and then cancel before the time limit. I pushed buy and then went to get my coffee. Why oh why oh why. When I noticed that the second bottle had the subscription requirement I went back to the first bottle and looked at the fine print to realize that it was the same thing there only you had to send back the empty bottle (to England) in order for the cancellation to be valid. Ru-roh. Oh and you had to cancel by phone or email and then they had to receive the bottle within four days for it to be valid. Double ru-roh. This all seemed fishy now especially with the coffee now coursing my body waking me up. I wrote down all the things I must do and the dates and then went back to the original site where that article was.

That's when I realized I had been scammed. The "news" site had all the usual tabs, world, local, business, weather etc but when you clicked on any of them, a pop up window appeared with the exact same page. It was a fake page with a fake article about a fake weight loss scheme! Do you know how yucky if feels to realize the depth of your dupage? Well if there's any silver lining, at least you know you're alive with those wildly negative emotions flying around. Then you start typing "acai berry" into google and you get "acai berry scam" as a suggestion and there you see all your worst fears confirmed. See, the problem is, it's impossible to cancel and most folks end up having to cancel their credit card accounts. Fun! Of course I tried to cancel immediately before I even get the trial bottle. I haven't had much luck of course. My "help ticket" while "very important" to them goes unanswered and when I finally got a human at the other place, I wasn't in the system yet and I should try again today. Sigh.

I checked with my card company and there were only the little charges for shipping on there so that's good. Also, it just so happens I'm changing that account to a different type of card which will have a different account number and everything but the bank couldn't say for certain if this would protect me from future charges. I sure hope it does. If it doesn't, my stupidity will cost a couple hundred bucks and I'll cease being a customer of that bank. Now, aren't you glad you're not me? I think this calls for a Georgie pic.

Odds and ends

What're you doing down there? He really doesn't mind us messing around with his feet unless the clippers are near. Then it's whine city. I had his nails cut again with the free service across the street and he whimpered (loudly) all along. He must have been traumatized sometime before we got him because he's really a big baby about it.

 

My hillbilly husband is having two teeth removed today. Cue the sad trombone. This is what happens when you shun dentist visits for too many years. He had one removed many years ago, I'd say about 15, but you'd never know it since it doesn't show. These aren't really going to show either since they are in the back. Now he has to decide between the cheaper partial denture or the automobile priced implants. I feel bad for him so I'll be extra nice today when he comes back. Would you like a smoothie honey?

 

It's just lovely this getting old bit. We were at a little birthday barbeque on Saturday and the gang was primarily around 30 years old. They were actually talking about how they didn't feel quite as spry as in their twenties and how little pains were cropping up where there had been none before. Ha! We had to inform them that they better get used to it since it's all downhill from there. Honestly though, I didn't think those things at 30. 40 yes, but not 30. My latest ailment is arthritis which it looks as though I've inherited from my mother. It's just eating away at my right pinkie finger these days. I don't notice it much unless I shake someone's hand and then, ouch! As I understand it, it's only going to get worse over the years. Fun!

 

We have so many dang flies in the house. I don't mind it so much unless I go outside and see them crammed onto a Georgie turd as though it were a small beach on a sunny day. Then I remember how dirty the creatures are. The reason there are so many is that we leave the back door open so Georgie is free to go in and out to do his business. (Poor little guy didn't see the screen door and ran smack into it the first time. Now the screen is open too.) So Serge opened one of the front windows and took the screen off. I asked him about it since the way I see it, there are now two entryways for flies. He said, "I took it off to get rid of the flies." I pressed for an explanation of his logic. "They have no way to get out, so now when they come in they can just fly out the other side." As you can imagine, there are still flies in our house. What we need is a screen door/doggy door. I wonder if that exists.

 

Today is Monday, the first day of summer and I do not have to work. Yippee dee dee!

Whee!

This was a hard shot to get. There's always that beat between pushing the "take the picture" button and the camera actually taking the shot. I have tons of pictures of the moment right after what I wanted to take. This time I got it though. Looking at it now it sure seems like Georgie's got a big one for his body size, doesn't it? That's one hung dog right there. Nutless sure, but hung nonetheless.

I'm so proud of Serge. He had a repairman come out for the refrigerator and was told it'd be $375 to repair (all the gas leaked out and it needs a new evaporator) and though he really, really wanted a new one, he okayed the repair. We have to wait until the beginning of next week though.

For now, we are living out of an ice chest. Each day we "make" a block of ice in the freezer and then put it in the camping cooler. Thrifty as I am, I suggested we just forego a fridge and make ice for the coolers for our milk and whatnot. Isn't that what they did a long time ago? Isn't that why we sometimes call it an icebox? Works just fine. Serge mocked me derisively when I suggested that.

Today is my last day of work for the summer! And it's a cake day too, we are just going out to lunch for the last class. Dim sum too! Then a little paperwork and I'm free free free! I have submitted an application for unemployment though I don't know if I'll be approved. I'm on the fence about it. If I do get it, I'll have to prove that I'm looking for work, but really I just want to take the two and a half months off and enjoy it. We'll see what happens. No fabulous cruises or jaunts to Europe this summer, but I do have a couple things planned. My annual summer visit to California is on, with side trips to San Fran (to see baby brother) and Las Vegas for a couple days. I was sent an invite from the Venetian to stay free in a suite plus $75 in free slot play. They are gonna lose money on me, but they don't know that yet. Then when I get back from there, Serge and I are gonna take a road trip for a few days up to Lac Saint Jean, Charlevoix and Quebec City. Then in August we're going to meet friends for a weekend in Ogunquit Maine, a state I've never visited. So lot's of things going on, I don't see how I can look for a job too : )

Let the summer vacation begin!

Blahdy blahdy blah

I found out yesterday that I'm eligible for unemployment benefits since I've worked enough insurable hours to qualify in the past 12 months. Of course they make it quite complicated for you to collect. In my case, I've got three employers I've got to get paperwork from and I've got to review every week in the past 52 and detail how much I made and if I didn't make anything, why not. I don't even remember what I did last week, let alone 25 weeks ago. I went in and asked, "Can't I just bring in all the pay stubs? Of course I can't, that would be too simple (and forgeable I suppose.) Anyway, my philosophy is if there's money on the ground you bend over and pick it up, so I'll spend tomorrow trying to get that application done.

Today I've got my second to last gig (Friday's the last but it's a class+lunch at a restaurant) and it's with the government peeps who come up with all the statistics you see bandied about in the news. Unemployment rate, inflation, housing prices, demographics, you name it and they study it. I can't imagine a more boring profession, but the people are fun. I especially like it when they complain about the zillion committees and meetings they have to go through before anything gets done/changed. Ahh, government.

The fridge is pretty much dead. I opened it up as much as I could, cleaned all the coils, left it off for a day and then rebooted it. Same sitch - 48 degrees F. Serge is gonna call someone today to have a look (so he says) since I discovered a little sticker inside that has contact information for the manufacturer. It's only 6 years old this fridge. Yesterday Serge went out shopping for a new one even though I had shown him numerous used ones from the internet he could buy. Let's see, a 9 month old used one for half price? Nah, he prefers the new one with the equal no-interest payments. And this is why I want him to handle it, we do not see eye to eye at all about it. (But I'll surely love whatever the final result is.) Happy hump day peeps!

This and that

So we went out for a five hour stroll yesterday all over town and there were zillions of people everywhere. It was grand prix weekend, the only formula one race in North America, so the city was swelled with rich rednecks. Plus the world cup soccer tournament was on and the poorer locals spilled out of every bar and tavern in town. Couple that with the various festivals going on and it was just impossible not to have your attention drawn all over the place. Plus perfect weather. We sat and had a little coffee after our legs got tired, here you see my hair getting longer. (I haven't had a proper haircut since before Spain at the end of February) I ordered a double espresso allongé and when we were in Spain it was an Americano but when I thought about how I'd order it in English, I was flummoxed. I'm fairly sure we don't say elongated espresso nor American espresso, so how do you order it? Probably the first time I know how to say something in other languages save my own. Oh and check out the look on that lady's face behind me - it looks like she ate a roach or something, lol.

The reason I took this picture is the precarious air conditioning unit way above the patrons on the terrasse below. It kept dripping too which caused the patrons to look skyward and furrow their brows.

As you can see, I've put back the crow sketch, but with this new template, it automatically puts a white border around all my pictures and I can't figure out how to get it off. Serge and I spent a good half hour yesterday trying to find the key code but we couldn't. I have found others with the same problem, but no solutions to it.

We finished up our walk with a couple drinks on the roof of Sky which was packed. Then we came home and had a lovely shrimp and penne pasta dish out on our patio. Georgie had been a good boy and didn't destroy anything, yay! (Sometimes he gets bitter when we leave him alone and he destroys something.) During the walk, I talked with Serge about getting a fridge and it was clear that we did not agree (at all) about the course of action to take. I just want to get another white one, but he is fixated on one day having all stainless steel appliances. Of course once we have them all, it will be a fad past its heyday. Nonetheless, he is adamant. I don't agree with paying hundreds more for something that you have to clean even more. Anyway, I don't care who's side you're on, I came up with a solution. I said, how about if I pay the window that got broken at the other place, and you buy whatever you want. A fridge can be had for the same price as the window, but probably not the fridge he wants. He was thrilled with the idea and I patted myself on the back for helping avoid marital discord. I'll take pics once it happens.

Bummers plus Georgie porn

So much going on this week, and most of it negative, so let's get that out of the way first. Let's see, last night one of the tenants called to tell us their unit had been broken into and all of their valuables stolen. It's worse for them I know, but we had to pay (up the butt) for a new window. Same drill as last time, they put a temporary one in and then in a week or so they come back with the exact replacement type. $600 again.

Then things have been spoiling lately in the fridge so I started to monitor the temperature and it never gets under 47 degrees even when I have it at max. Serge left it open all night one day last week so that may have something to do with it, we're going to try using everything up and then turning it off for a day in case ice has built up on the inside coils. There is no freezer, only fridge ; we have a separate freezer. Anyway, it does produce cold air, just not cold enough. I hope it's fixable and of minimal cost. Experience tells me that such optimism is unreasonable.

I'm writing today at this hour because tomorrow we've got to go to the mother in law's to do a garage sale (see above for impetus) for which we have spent the last couple weekends building a pile. We have to be there at 7:30, which really is a crime on a Saturday. Also in craptastic news this week, the mother in law was diagnosed with cancer and now must face surgery and 9 rounds of chemo. There's no easy or nice or pleasant way to write that previous sentence. I'm just sick about it as is Serge and we're crossing fingers and saying prayers. She goes under the knife in a week. Think nice things please! Or even say some, she's a reader!

Okay, enough bad news. Here's something to make you smile. Georgie had been playing and his bone got up on the piano and he was whining at me to get it. It was soooooooo cute, so I grabbed the camera. When I started filming, as you'll see, he goes and gets the bone without a whimper. After that I get him going though with his plaintant howls. I dare you not to smile.

Learning moments

Heard a funny story from one of my students this week. I had been talking about moments of embarassment being excellent learning moments and he came up with this: It seems he was in an interview for a job and since one of the requirements for the position was a solid grasp of English communication skills, part of the interview was conducted in English to confirm this ability. Well. When it came time to switch to English, he was asked the common and simple, "How are you today?" He was tired, but he was more than tired since he had had trouble sleeping the night before and he wanted to convey this. He couldn't quite remember what the word was for "very tired". He took a stab at it though and told the interviewer, "I'm very horny today." The interviewer smiled broadly and asked why that was. My student explained why and then answered a few other questions in English from the interviewer. At the end of the interview, he was told that although his English skills were acceptable, he might want to reconfirm the accepted use of "horny". Imagine his horror upon realizing what he had said! Happy ending though, he got the job. If you could see how serious and conservative this guy is, it would be even funnier. Me, I'll be chuckling for months about it.

My big similar moment came at a restaurant when I asked the waiter if I could move my chair back. The word I was trying to use was "reculer" which means "back up" but what came out of my mouth was "enculer" which means "butt fuck". Really not the same thing at all. At all, at all. But you know, great learning moment as I've never made that mixup again.

And you? Any embarassing learning moments you care to share? Do tell.

Weekend update (boring version)

Good Monday morning to you. Did you have a nice weekend? It was a rainy day yesterday, the steady all day kind, so we had a lazy Sunday blobbing around the house. We had a bit of company in the afternoon, the mother in law and her boyfriend, and we shot the shit for a couple hours while noshing. Saturday we cleaned out the garage, or rather scoured it for garage sale items. It looks like we'll have that sale next weekend, weather permitting.

We weren't very hungry come dinner time, plus we were feeling lazy so I suggested splitting the frozen pizza we had in the freezer. It was a Delissio Hawaiian pizza. When I inspected the nutrition panel I was horrified. The quantities noted were for 1/6 of the pizza so we had to triple the quantities since we were splitting it. 40 percent of the salt for the day so that means 120 percent each! And I'm feeling it this morning too, all bloaty and puffy. Gross. Never will I buy that again. There should be a warning label on such foods.

It's my last full time week of work and then next week I have work-lite and then I'm done done done for the summer. Getting pretty excited about that, but for now I've gotta focus on getting all the classes wrapped up. Time to get going. Have a lovely day peeps!

A night out

We went to the Cirque du Soleil yesterday to see their new show Totem. It was filled with native tribal imagery and music. It didn't blow me away like the early shows, I think Saltimbanco was my favorite, but there were some awesome feats performed. The one that impressed me the most was where four girls rode tall unicycles all the while tossing bowls onto their heads with their feet. Difficult to imagine I know, and as I watched I wondered who could have dreamt up such a thing. It was so improbable. Very cool though.

Serge liked this hat and though we pondered buying it for Georgie, it was clear he'd have had it in shreds within minutes. It was made of the fabric he loves to tear apart. We got a cute picture out of it anyway. At the intermission we had a soft drink for five bucks each. Such a ripoff. I had lunch on Thursday (general tao chicken - which incidentally I've now dubbed spicy chicken doughnuts) for five bucks. I can buy five liters of soft drink at the market for five bucks. It's just insulting to charge such a price. Next time I'm smuggling.

After the show, we did a kind of date night and went to the new Steak Frites in the village. This is a high end steak house with no liquor license. This concept may be unique to Quebec, the bring-your-own booze restaurants, but it's quite common here and a couple of big chains as well as many small restaurants do it that way. We brought in some wine and shared a delicious côte de boeuf (prime rib) for two. Although it was served with three delicious sauces (and all you can eat frites) I was a bit disappointed that I couldn't get horseradish. The American in me wanted to tell the waitress that there was a market just around the corner, but I zipped it and ate it the way it came.

I'd give you a Georgie pic but he has been the earl of stinkdom the last couple days. Instead of reaching for the camera, we're running screaming from the room holding our hands over our mouth and nose. Disgusting!

Nada mucho

Do the Georgie pics ever get tiring? Not for me they don't. Sometimes when I love on him the love I feel practically hurts. There isn't really a line between pleasure and pain, it's more like a zone where the two exist simultaneously. My big fear is that he's going to get away from me on one of our walks and get hit by a car. These things happen you know.

I've got a huge day today with 9 hours of teaching lined up. This is insane, but doable since it's only for today. I couldn't do that every day. Well maybe if the money was right. Today's total is a bit over two hundies which really isn't. Three would be more like it.

As for the questions on the last post, the thing on the window is something we bought at home depot. It's a kind of membrane with a design on it that you moisten and apply to the window. It can be taken off and put back on easily. Serge got the bright idea to cut out parts around the edges and he put those parts on another window of the house. As for it looking like spatter, I suppose so from far, but irl it looks more like stained glass. Oh and the reason we didn't drywall it up is because Serge loves light. This is a standard response from him when you ask why about just about anything. Why did you do that honey? Because of the light. I don't press further, I guess it's just a natural response from someone who grew up in the icy North with the long dark winters. Happy hump day peeps.

This and that

Since it's a slow news weekend, I'll catch you up on our latest addition to the bedroom. In the picture you see the new window that we had installed between the bedroom and bathroom. If you'll recall, we bought this place from a pornstar and he and his wife had "fixed up" the building to be some kind of brothel. At least the two studio apartments were. They were all decked out with tasteful (okay cheesy, but not raunchy) nude photos of themselves. Anyway, in our apartment which is the one that they lived in, they made it so there was an opening between the shower and the bedroom. Fail. This made it so that you could never really have a poo in privacy because anyone could poke their head through and have a look. And of course sounds and smells travel easily through open spaces. We always thought it was weird and now finally that hole has been plugged. We opted for clear glass instead of frosted for two reasons. One, they wanted like $250 more for frosted glass and two, we liked the idea of being able to cusotmize a design on it. So what we've got now is a (I don't know how to call it) stained glass look applied. It's translucent and easily removable. It's nice to have a shower now without all the cold air rushing in from everywhere too.

I was flipping the other night and happened by Fox news for a moment. Somebody was shrieking some kind of non-truth, but I can't recall exactly what, and I just thought why don't they make their slogan "Biased and Proud"? I mean at least I could respect them a bit more. Fair and balanced? Hardly.

Oh my gosh you guys, I got the nicest email ever yesterday from someone who stumbled upon the blog by misclicking a link on someone's blogroll. He then whiled away his Sunday reading the archives and sent me a nice letter of appreciation. My favortite part of his letter was this: I have spent my complete whole lazy Sunday (well into this nightly hour) reading your blog. Laughing out loud, caring, chuckling, link-clicking, crying, being jealous, not caring that much, relating, whining, farting, deciding I want to move to Canada, clicking 'next page' religiously, summarizing yet another year of your blog to my boyfriend, being mesmerized, reading some more and finally decided to write you this quick message.
Thanks so much Peter for your kind words. Glad you enjoyed it!

Finally, some Georgie porn for ya. Happy Monday peeps. I'm off to work, enjoy your day off Americans!

Cute explosion

What're you taking a picture of? Huh, huh? I'm lookin' at you.

I posted some pictures last weekend on Facebook about the Just for Men treatment I did on Serge. It was Serge who read the directions but I who applied the hair dye. What he failed to mention was that I was supposed to take pains to avoid getting it on his skin. I didn't want to miss any hair so I slathered it on good and thick and it got onto a good half inch of skin all around the perimeter including his eyebrows. He ended up having to use the potscrubbing side of the sponge to get it out. So now he has black hair. It looks good as long as he is shaved because his facial hair gives it away. I think it makes his blue eyes "pop" more than usual.

Here he is with Georgie and the little toy giraffe that Georgie found outside in November. He carried it all around on his walk and then brought it into the house. It's still one of his favorite toys and a gift of the universe.

I went on a big walk yesterday during my lunch break and passed by the new Place des Festivals which is in the performing arts district of town. It's been a good year and a half of torn up cityscapes but the result is appealing. They're still cleaning up the surrounding area too, but I think they are trying to get much of it done before the jazz festival begins.

There were a couple seedy blocks nearby but they are slowly gentrifying the area. This I believe is the oldest strip club in the city (We have more per capita than anywhere in the world) and they are fighting expropriation. But you can't fight city hall right?

Hence the title of this post. How can you not melt in the face of such a creature? Explain me that. Uh-oh, it's happened again. My students' poor English is rubbing off on me. I've already accepted the use of take instead of make with the word decision, but now I'm infected by "explain me". At least with "take a decision" I know it's acceptable around here since I've seen it numerous times in the newspaper now. When I met Blobby a couple weeks ago he wrote that I'm getting a Canadian accent. When I called my friend Em back in California to dispel such a notion, I was surprised to hear her confirm it. 10 years of percolating here changes a person.

I saw someone wearing this shirt yesterday. I WANT ONE!!!