SUMMERTIME!

I really need to stop saying I will try and post more often cos that seems to backfire on me...Anyhow, Tim's birthday was a week and a half ago so we celebrated the weekend before. We went out to supper with a group of friends on the Saturday evening at Fourquet Fourchette. It's a great restaurant with great ambiance and great beer! They serve Unibroue products and much of the cuisine is prepared with beer. We went to the one in Chambly on the South Shore (they also have a resto in the city at Palais des Congrès). Chambly is a very nice community, I suggest a visit, there's the fort to see, bike paths and I'm sure lots more.

To continue with the celebrations, I took Tim to Kooza, the Cirque du Soleil show, on Sunday afternoon. The show has now moved on from Montreal to Toronto. It was pretty entertaining and the air conditioning under the tent was definitely welcome as it was one of our first hot, sticky, humid days. Ahh, Montreal in summer!

And then began my last work week before vacation! I only biked back from work on Monday (Tim had driven me there in the morning with my bike on the car rack) so it was a bit of a lazy week (outside of work, that is)

Friday was a nice way to end the week just before vacation...we had a semi-activity day at work. We finshed at 11 and then went and played softball followed by a catered lunch of pulled pork and roast beef.

Then it was our usual Friday evening softball game with the Curling league which was awesome. We played against the Royals from TMR and gave each other a run for our money but we, the Granite, came out victorious in an extra inning!

Then it was home to pack for our hiking weekend.
Which I might get to telling you about.
Eventually.
Maybe.
When I take the time to do so.

That's all for now!

Tim & Heidi stream crossing

Adventures in Biking

Remember last Wednesday morning and how cold it was? Probably not as we sit here in now 30 degree-plus weather...Anyhow, I should have seen it as a sign when the back brakes on my bike were jammed when I headed out at 6:20 that morning. But no, I didn't woos out and take the bus (stupid me). I forged ahead, against the howling wind. The howling wind that kept me from feeling the drizzle that was falling. I did make it to work in one piece and with a bike lock this time, although it did take me almost an hour and a half to get there. Not to mention the fact that my hands were so numb, I could not unclasp my bike helmet. Let's just say the bike ride home that evening was much more pleasant.
Thursday morning was also much better. Tim drove me to work with my bike so I only had to do the trip one way that day.

And what about the weekend, you ask? After playing softball (and losing) on Friday evening, we headed to my parents' cottage on Saturday morning with Heidi in tow (or more like in VW following us.) In Chateaugay, New York we encountered strange people sporting t-shirts with hearts on them offering us a free car wash. We encountered another group of them upon entering Malone and these folks were even stranger. They were offering free car washes, free blood pressure tests and free hot dogs! Do you take the blood pressure test before or after having eaten the hot dog?!

Well, we got to the cottage hot dog-less, settled in and had some lunch then headed towards Saranac Lake to do some trail riding. If a tree falls in the forest and three people are there, you definitely hear it! Craaaaaaaaack!!! It was quite a bumpy ride with lots of tree roots to maneuver over but we had a blast and didn't have to fight the bugs off too badly.

Sunday was quite a different story. We went back to Hatch Brook where we had gone on Victoria day weekend but this time we took the trail to the left. The bugs were a little more pesky this time out but nothing we couldn't handle until about half an hour in. We must have hit lower boggier ground cos it was HELL I tell you! We couldn't stop for a second or we got swarmed. And I wasn't wearing dark colours. And I was covered in Skintastic AND Muskol. And then we missed the cutoff for the other loop back. Sooooo, we ended up at the end of the trail at Meacham Lake campground with no way back but INTO THE BUG WOODS FROM HELL!!! There was no way we were going back in there for another hour and a half's ride back. So I called my dad from the pay phone at the campground and 20 minutes later, he showed up in his pickup and we loaded up the bikes and crammed ourselves into the, ahem, king cab and headed back to Hatch Brook to get our car. Thank god for dads!!!

I would post some photos but someone's busy at the computer downstairs so you'll have to wait, sorry!

Weekend fun

Our softball game was cancelled on Friday due to the wet weather so we had an uneventful evening instead.

Saturday was a little more exciting. I went to La Ronde (sans Tim, he hates amusement parks) courtesy of the social club at work. We only did 6 rides but went on all the newest rollercoasters. The Goliath and the Vampire are definitely the best. My throat still hurts from screaming on the Vampire. Didn't peg me as a screamer, didja?!
And I also won tickets for the fireworks in July, yay! I've never been to the actual site to see the fireworks, it should be fun even if it's on a Wednesday night, zzzzzzzzzzzzz, it'll be past my bedtime!

I left early to go to a potluck at Paul & Murielle's. The theme was North American cuisine. So we had chips, chicken meatballs, ham casserole, maple salmon, coleslaw, sausages, macaroni salad, apple sucre à la crème pie, fruit kebabs drizzled with chocolate and I think that was it! We were all stuffed!

And yesterday we finally bought our annuals to plant in front of the house. I stick to Impatiens. I know they will do well and they don't require too much maintenance. I also hacked away a bit in the backyard to try and make it less jungle-like.

Tim made it to the beerfest yesterday with Carolyn & Heidi. I stayed home to garden which apparently was not a bad choice. It was crowded and it being the last day, there were a lot of products that were no longer available.

That's it for now, I promise I will write more soon!

Transit strike

I was one of the lucky ones, I guess, having no problems whatsoever during our short-lived transit strike. The bus was a little fuller than usual on a couple of mornings but everything was on time. I actually had more delays in the morning last week, I think my regular 211 bus driver was on vacation so the bus was later than usual making me miss my connection for the 202. But I give myself enough time to still get to work before 8 when this does happen.
On Tuesday I decided to give biking to work a try. It took me 1hr19min to get there and 1hr15 to get home. 25.5km. And I wasn't completely exhausted when I got home. Not completely. So I plan on biking to work maybe once or twice a week. When the weather is on my side. Which it wasn't today, darn. And I'm going in for 6:30 tomorrow so I'll be driving in.

I've been bad.

It's high time I write a new post as I'm sure you're all probably tired of checking out my blog and seeing "Brain Donation" ! That is if I still have any of my captive audience left...So is it too late to tell you about the Victoria day long weekend?
It was excellent.
It got off to a good start with our first softball game of the season on Friday evening. We actually won! 17-16 against TMR. That means we already tied our winning record for last season!
Then on Saturday morning we headed off to my parents' cottage in NY state via Plattsburgh. Surprisingly we didn't have to wait at all at the Lacolle border crossing. We got to the cottage in the afternoon and after unpacking we went for a short bike ride around Mountain View.
That evening we tried a recipe out of my new cookbook, King Arthur Whole Grain Baking. We made whole wheat pizza dough and it turned out very good. And the secret to an even more delicious pizza experience is eating it drizzled with honey and green tabasco sauce. Try it, you'll like it, I swear! My friends Bonnie and Michael introduced me to the concept and anyone who's tried it has become a convert.
On Sunday we packed a lunch and went biking at Deer River State Forest. A nice ride, muddy at times but the black flies didn't get to us too much as long as we kept moving.
On Monday we did the trails at Hatch Brook (which you can also see on the Franklin County North map).