Awesome ride

I finally rode my new bike last week! Tuesday I went for a short ride heading West along the Lachine Canal but I stayed on the crushed stone path. So it was a small initiation to mountain biking as there are some tree roots and other hazards along there.

Thursday's ride was a much longer trip. I ended up going East along the Notre-Dame path then crossed the Le Gardeur Bridge into L'Assomption and returned via Gouin Boulevard and then down Christophe Colomb. About 80 km! I also biked a bit through the Pointe-aux-Prairies Nature Park.

About halfway along I realized the quick release on my front wheel was not tightened. Luckily my wheel did stay in place the whole time, even when I went through this mini mountain bike circuit with little hills & turns in a park along the way. That could have turned quite, uh, interesting, to say the least!

Friday I felt fine after such a long trip the previous day. But on Saturday I was stiff in the legs. Maybe next time I'll drive to Pointe-aux-Prairies (as we now have a bike rack for the car) and cycle the paths there.

This is a view of Ile Ste-Thérèse, I believe. It's vis-a-vis the end of the Island and Varennes on the South Shore. It looks like there are summer cottages there with boat access only.




This was a disgusting but somehow pretty looking marsh in the nature park.

Flowers & Bugs

I left Tim at home alone for a couple of days for the first time, I think, since he moved in. Apparently it was nice for him to be able to stretch out in our big bed. But not quite as nice as having me there to snuggle with! (Always nice to hear!) I accompanied my parents on a trip down to my mom's hometown of St-Eugène. It's about 45 minutes past Quebec City on the South Shore. It was nice to see a lot of aunts, uncles & cousins I hadn't seen in quite a few years.

Thursday was my parents' 38th wedding anniversary. This is the church where they got married.

Frivolous indulgence/guilty pleasure/early birthday gift to myself

I bought a mountain bike!

Last week & this past weekend

Last Tuesday Cathy had the day off as it was July 4th and so we we went for a looooooong bike ride together - just over 50 km! My longest ride this season, for sure. We started from their house in Brossard & followed the bike path to Chambly then headed towards Saint-Basile-le-Grand to make our way to St-Bruno. I finally got to see "The Loft", Cathy's parents' sail shop, Larsen Sails. I also got to see her aunt & uncle's place and witnessed the weekly feeding of the fish in their backyard pond. We picked up some artery-clogging but seriously delectable lunch at Cantine Deso and brought it back to the Loft to eat. Then it was time to put our sore butts back on our bikes to make our way home to Brossard. Luckily we made it there before the rain started up so we spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing & chatting under the protection of their gazebo.
Tim had taken the bus to the Shore after work (since I had the car) so he could go to the bike shop at the end of Cathy & Eric's street. We joined him there and wandered around while he looked at bikes.
For supper, Tim & I discovered a neat little café on Victoria in St-Lambert, Café Passion. I was in the mood for a yummy sandwich like something from Santropol but since Italy had just defeated Germany in World Cup Soccer there was no way we were heading for that neighbourhood. Café Passion did the trick!

Wednesday's Dragon Boat practice was, to say the least, interesting! We had to practice in Lachine because the Canal was closed due to the heavy rainfall. It was windy so we had choppy waters and we managed to bash the boat into some rocks but at least we got to experience something other than the calm waters of the Canal.

Thursday saw me doing some bike shopping - more about that later!

Friday we played softball, badly. Lots of errors, a couple of outs (by two people who shall remain nameless but their initials are T.C.C. and E.C.C.) for leaving the bag before the batter made contact with the ball, and not much action for me in the field.
In all my sports endeavours, it seems like I've never been part of any very succesful teams. We'll have to see if this theory holds true for Dragon Boating!

Saturday we headed up to Tim's curling buddy Eric Lessard's family place near Tremblant at Lac Bibitte. We had a beautiful day of sitting by the lake, swimming, eating, canoeing and just plain relaxing, aaaaaaahhhh.









After supper we took off and went up to La Minerve to join Katja, Jouni, Élise and the mosquitoes for a night of camping.
Not quite a full moon...



And Sunday we loafed around for a bit and took off after an early lunch.

Camping weekend

We went camping last weekend in Gatineau Park and had an excellent time. Saturday as Maya relaxed & spent the day at the beach recuperating from her cold, the rest of us (Murielle, Cathy, Christina, Paul, Eric, Tim & I) went for a walk around Pink Lake. Pink Lake is actually green! That's because it's a meromictic lake. The layers of water in the lake don't mix and so the deepest layer of water doesn't have any dissolved oxygen and there aren't any living organisms at the bottom.



Eric's friends Glen, Heather & their daughter Melissa joined us that evening & arrived just in time for the rainstorm. Melissa quite enjoyed the rain much to her parents' dismay. 4 year olds don't take well to being told to put their raincoats on! We also had some thunder & lightning in the night but woke up to clear skies.

Maya, Tim & I packed a lunch and hiked to Lusk Caverns which was about 5 km from the campground. It was really neat. The caves were formed in marble pockets found in limestone. A rare phenomenon apparently for caverns to be carved out in marble.



As usual, a greater panoply of photos can be found on Tim's site...
the last one at the bottom - Gatineau Park 2006, enjoy!

What's been happening

I guess I've "officially" been let go from Lallemand as I seem to have received my vacation pay but I can't make rhyme or reason out of their pay stub!

Dragon Boating is going well. Last Wednesday I even took in a second practice with JAG, Ysabel's other team which is desperate for paddlers. So if you know any women who would like to try it out, we need them!

The kitchen advancements include having our eating counter in place and also the pieces for the doors were all cut last weekend.

We've been out to the movies to see The Breakup, Over the Hedge and last night we saw The Da Vinci Code. All are recommendable.

Weather permitting, I've been going out on my bike. I joined Cathy & Eric for a couple of rides while they were on vacation.

We celebrated Tim's birthday with a bbq at our place and my first attempt at cake decorating was quite successful if I do say so myself!




We've been enjoying going out and coming home smelling smoke-free! Most recently was Saturday night at Miami bar to see Jouni & my brother play with their respective bands - The Moonshine Orchestra and Chariot of Shame.
That show took me back a good 10 years at least!

The Art of Blogging

Sometimes as things happen during the day, I start composing in my mind how I can relay them in my blog but most of the time, it doesn't happen...we can attest to this fact quite obviously as my last entry was 3 weeks ago!

It's not always easy to choose what to write about as I am usually rather reserved about personal things. That's why I usually only talk about more significant events that happen. (Photos work well too!) I think I also tend to be selective about what I write about knowing who makes up my my audience and not always being comfortable having all of you read about my daily life.

I've thought about starting another blog for more personal thoughts but I can do that just as easily in a journal. I don't really need total strangers stumbling across my site and delving into my psyche.

I guess this blog gives some people a chance to get to know me & some people who aren't always in touch a chance to keep track of what's going on in my life.
And I guess that's okay.
It better be or then there's no real reason for me to keep blogging, now is there?!

Long weekend

As it was once again raining, raining, raining all day Friday, our first softball game of the season was cancelled. Great top off to spending most of the day at the stupid car dealership to fix a faulty emissions light connection. Anyhow, after supper we headed down to Mountain View to avoid crossing at Lacolle on Saturday morning since we wanted to go shopping in Plattsburgh.
THe shopping trip was definitely fruitful...I got a PFD for dragon boating and...a KITCHENAID MIXER!!! for about half the price it goes for here. My parents were even able to bring it back for us tax free as they had been down for 7 days. I picked it up from them this evening and promptly came home and made oatmeal raisin chocolate chip cookies. Oh so yummy!

We won't mention that we had snow yesterday morning but I will leave you with one of my favorite sounds of spring in Mountain View.

Dragon Boating

Ysabel convinced me to join her Dragon Boat team, the Sonic Dragons and we had our first practice last night. We did a minimal amount of paddling as some of us were out for the first time and needed to be taught the technique. I guess that's why I'm not very sore today. I don't have the hang of it yet, I know, that will come with time. But I found that for us newbies, we were paddling a bit too fast. It's hard to concentrate on getting the proper technique when you have to make sure to keep pace with the person in front of you. And at first we started off without being told anything so I got tired out by doing it wrong. Can't wait til we start practicing twice a week!

Conjugating "to care"

Wow, I hadn't realized it's been 3 weeks since my last post...well, here's a little something to keep you entertained for now...I started reading this book Dad's Life at the gym this morning and got a chuckle out of this passage - the main character is wondering why his partner left him -

"What went wrong, exactly?
I didn't drink too much, sulk too much or break wind in bed too much. I didn't own a Playstation. I didn't get a hard-on at the sight of a Ferrari. I knew where everything was: the clitoris, the toolbox, the Toilet Duck. And I could conjugate the sacred verb 'to care':

I care.
You care.
He cares.
She cares.
We care.
Who cares?
See if I care.
What the hell do you care anyway?"

Other things that have kept me occupied...

Jackhammering Steph & Olaf's garage floor



Carwash at Paul & Murielle's & trying out Cathy's recumbent bicycle

Where da kitchen at?

The floor has been varnished and the counter tops installed!



You can also see more images on Tim's website
I think the new images are from #374 on.

Update-and-a-half

Well I've spent the last 3 weeks keeping myself occupied, but how? I didn't work at Lallemand at all until last Wednesday the 10th. I thought I wasn't called in because my boss was away in Estonia but it also turns out Luiza, the stagière who I replaced (and who also trained me) had gone in to help out. I found this out when I saw her initials in the log book for the pH meter. I wasn't too pleased but when I questioned my boss about it I didn't get any explanation as to why Luiza was back working there. Anyhow, seems like she was there to clean out the storage area of old boxes of samples from 2003 so she's more than welcome to that job!

I am now hooked on Prison Break. Tim started watching it from the beginning but I never paid attention to it until a few weeks ago when they had a recap episode. They escaped last week! Now I suppose the next season will be all about them on the run.
That's what Monday nights are all about, that and 24, of course. Jack Bauer is absolutely invincible! I love making fun of the writing on that show. But it's hokeyness hasn't stopped me from watching week after week!

I've been trying to go jogging at the track behind Westmount High every few days, when the weather permits. I manage to go non-stop for 15 minutes & do 5 laps. I know, I'm not breaking any records (far from it!!!) but it's better than nothing.

Ho hum

I just looked out and noticed that it is pouring rain and also realised that I barely stuck my nose outside the house today, just long enough to take the garbage out and empty the compost, how exciting.
At least I took advantage of yesterday's nice weather. I biked out to the East end and met Cathy so she could try out a recumbent bicycle from this guy Vélo Queztal.
Quite a different experience. I only tried one out in the laneway next to the guy's house but Cathy rented one for an hour and we rode around Bellerive park by the water. I thought it wisest that only one of us at a time should be attempting to ride a recumbent for the first time. Other than encountering a group of mommies doing their stroller-exercising, things went pretty smoothly.

What's doin'

Last night we had a late night at the curling club. Tim, Eric, Dave & France formed a team again to take part in the Intermediate Bonspiel at Glenmore (Tim's club.) So Cathy and I spectated but didn't witness any spills this time. Maybe tomorrow!

This evening Tim & I went to see "Lucky Number Slevin". Pretty good, I recommend it. I'm sure we'll be adding it to our DVD collection once it comes out, in what, 2 months time. It's crazy how fast they are releasing movies to DVD nowadays. Some are still playing at the theater (ok, maybe the Dollar theater, but still...) and you can get them at the store.
I even managed to stay awake through the whole thing!

Spring has sprung

These popped up in the back garden last weekend

Inspiration please

I was encouraged last week to get back into writing some short stories but I have yet to come up with any ideas. It has been over 2 years since I last took a writing class and I don't think I've written any stories since then. I always have trouble getting inspired on my own. That's why classes are a good motivator. The teacher gives you a topic or gives you some kind of direction to come up with a story.
So I figured I would reach out to my audience (I'm not even sure who reads this blog...) and inquire:

"What would you like to read about?"

Awaiting your comments so I can get writing!

Luck o' the Irish

If you're going to the parade on Sunday (or not), you're welcome to drop on by our place afterwards for some stew and you can check out the kitchen too!

Lots more pictures

Tim's website
(I suggest using the thumbnails!)

Kitchen update

And the work continues! And as of today we're 20% over budget!
Tim had taken the week of the 20th off so we got a lot done with some help from Olaf and Eric.
This is what things looked like 2 weeks ago...

Monday the floor got sanded and the hole to the dining room was made. The house got covered in dust even with all the precautionary plastic and drop cloths. I've just given up on doing much cleaning until this is all over.
Tuesday we picked up our (huge!) sink. You know you've got quality when your sink comes in a cloth drawstring bag. It should make a good stuff sack for camping gear too!
Wednesday we had more than just plywood...we had half the carcasses for the bottom cabinets, yay! It was starting to look like a kitchen! We were able to take the dishwasher and stove out of the boxes so they'd be ready for hookup the next day.
Thursday I left Tim & Olaf to fend for themselves and I went to work. The plumber came and when I got home we had a new sink and stove in place.

Friday was a slow day with the guys trying to figure out cutting the melamine for the upper cabinets. By Saturday morning Tim had figured out he needed to build a sled for the table saw. It made for much easier and faster cutting.
Saturday was open house day! Quite a few people dropped by to check out our progress.
Sunday Tim deservedly took things easy. He did a little bit of electrical work and then we went to pick up his mom and headed down to Cowansville for a visit at cousin Mike's.
And Tim's vacation was over!

This past week was a lot of priming & painting cabinets and putting up the upper cabinets.
When we finally unboxed the microwave/hood we discovered that the back corner had been dented so we went and exchanged it for a new one on Thursday. Sears had offered to give us a $100 rebate if we kept the damaged one but we nixed that idea. No damaged goods for us! We're damaged enough ourselves as it is!!!

The last few days' progress include staining and putting together drawers and tiling the backsplash...