Long Weekend Round-Up: NYC, Canadian Thanksgiving & Fletcher Tattoos

Photos pending

Friday: Got up bright and early to catch the train to NYC to spend Canadian Thanksgiving with my Fletcher brethren, Rock, Slim and Linda. Packed entirely too much stuff to occupy myself on what ended up being another 12 and a half hour ride through purgatory (actually, Upstate New York) and ended up mostly listening to Broken Social Scene, knitting and reading The Atrocity Exhibition.

Got to Penn Station at 10 PM where I met up with Phil and Tina and jumped on the train to their place in Astoria. Got to meet their doggy, Trixie, drank wine and ate greasy food at Mike's, then passed out on the couch.

Saturday: After a suitably late start, Phil and I headed out to the East Village to price tattoo places on St. Marks Place. Met up with his friend Amber in the park and ate stupidly delicious hummus with sauteed mushrooms at a restaurant called, appropriately enough, Hummus Place. Hung out for a bit and then called my old UBC drinking buddy Andy to arrange a meeting place in Williamsburg.

Met up with Andy and got some cheap and delicious tacos and frozen margaritas, then headed out to Greenpoint to catch his buddy's show. I felt super bad because I ended up nodding off during the set, but it turned out my brief siesta was much needed because the evening ended up turning into quite the adventure.

After leaving the Red Star bar we went back to Manhattan for someone's birthday at the eleventh street bar. Unbeknownst to us it was actually a costume party, although only about half the bar seemed to be participating. Costume highlights include the woman dressed as Glenn Close from Fatal Attraction, complete with a stuffed rabbit in a pot, a guy dressed as Alex my droog from Clockwork Orange and no less than 3 Sarah Palins.

After several cocktails we moved on to someone's loft in the area, but while everyone else was at the convenience store buying more beer I opted for an extra large bottle of mineral water. Partied on the roof to a DJ spinning tunes and managed to sticker one of the Sarah Palins with an Obama/Biden sticker. At about 4 AM I was ready to pack 'er in, but Andy talked me into sticking around to enjoy potato latkes and perogies at some 24 hour dinner in the neighborhood.

Got back to Phil & Tina's at around 6 AM and promptly passed out on the couch.

Sunday: After waking briefly to grab some breakfast with P & T, I passed out again until 3 PM when Bess called to organize meeting up that evening. Ended up choosing to attend an evening of indie/experimental music at the Issue Project Room at the Spiegeltent on Pier 17, which was an eclectic mix to be sure. First up was a noise-rock band from Boston called Neptune who make all of their instruments out of scrap metal and other various things. Next was Tony Conrad, who worked with the Dream Syndicate and krautrock bank Faust, who basically played a modified violin with reverb for about 45 straight minutes. After that was 5 piece blues band.

Being that we were both starving, we ventured up to the lower East side to grab cheap and delicious Chinese food at the Congee Village, where I also enjoyed my first ever apple martini (I know). After catching up over congee and yummy tofu and veggies we both conceded defeat and went our separate ways to sleep.

Back in Astoria I opted to give Louie a call since his plane from Vancouver should have landed by then. Chatted briefly as he was in a cab back to his apartment and once he was settled he came by Phil and Tina's to hang out. Ended up at Mike's again and stayed up until about 1 AM talking.

Monday: Slept a decent amount for the first time my whole trip, then set about helping Phil with his preparations for Canadian Thanksgiving Dinner that evening. I was in charge of desert, so whipped up an old fashioned Quebecois sugar pie & a yummy & spicy sweet potato pie. Other yummy things we prepped included samosa stuffed twice baked potatoes, and a stuffed pumpkin.

At about 2:30 PM Louie came by and he and I made our way to St. Marks Place to arrange for our group tattoos. Luckily they were able to accommodate all four of us and the quote was slightly less than we had originally been told. While we were waiting for the artist to get ready, Louie went up to The Onion offices to grab a copy of the issue with the Sukiyaki Western Django review with my pull quote in it while I waited for Phil. Snuck into Search and Destroy to grab a thank you gift for MC for making sure my cat didn't starve.

Around 4:30 PM Tina showed up and the artist did up sketches of our tattoos. Mine was a little bigger than the others because I opted to get a banner under the house. They were very sweet at the tattoo shop, letting us all take a million photos like the bunch of nerds we are. Phil and Louie left after getting their tattoos to finish the preparations for dinner, so us girls had to tough it out on our own.

Once we were all down we headed back up to Astoria and went straight to Louie's place because we were starving. As soon as we got to the door I was accosted by Louie's friend Heidi, who I hadn't seen in years. Once inside, I proceeded to drink much wine and mingle. Before dinner I helped Louie and his friend Carson from Sarnia put together a YouTube playlist of Canadian Heritage Minutes and Hinterland Who's Whos.

After dinner I chatted outside with a French girl who commented on my Quebecois accent, probably the best compliment I've gotten since I moved out here. I didn't really think about my accent until she mentioned it, but as I was speaking to her I suddenly really noticed the difference between my lazy, low, Canadian French and her more lyric, refined, continental French.

Back inside, things had degenerated into a Rock Band Party, as do most parties I go to these days. Once that started to wind down and people started to go home, Louie got out his Uke for the traditional post dinner Ukulele concert, which went very well, right up until the guy from upstairs came down to ask us to keep it down.

I had started to nod off on the couch when Louie suggested we make a conference call to his parents to tell them about our tattoos, which was funny and lovely. Finally, at around 2 AM, Phil, Tina and I stumbled back to their apartment so I could crash on their couch one last time before scrambling to catch my train home.

Tuesday: Got up at 6 AM and scrambled out the door with my little suitcase in tow and set about getting the supplies I'd need to survive the trip home: food, water, etc. Got on the subway and suddenly realized I didn't have my cellphone. Got off the subway, went back to Phil and Tina's, woke them up, searched the couch cushions and then realized that the damn thing had been in my purse the whole time. Went back out on the street to hail a cab. Forty minutes and $40 later, turned up at Penn Station in time to realize that I'd missed the boarding call for my train by half an hour. After briefly waiting in the Amtrak customer service line, decided to play it safe and asked an elderly police officer where the nearest Greyhound station was. Walked the six blocks to the Greyhound station and bought a ticket for the next bus, which conveniently was leaving in two hours. Put myself directly in the line-up for the bus, since I would be damned if I missed that too, and accepted my bus going fate.

As it turns out, the bus was quite pleasant, and despite leaving two hours after the train, actually got me back to Montreal at the same time the train would have, if not sooner. I even enjoyed our rest stop in Albany. Fuck the train.

Weekend Round-Up: Shows, Shows & Soup!

Friday: Being that I was starting to get a little homesick because I realized I wouldn't be going home for Xmas, I made a date with myself to go see The Evaporators at the Mint Records showcase at Bar St-Laurent 2. Conveniently the bar is a ten minute walk from my house so I spent the evening tidying up and then trundled down just in time to catch Wax Mannequin, a one man prog-rock band, which is exactly as ridiculous and awesome as it sounds.

Next up was The Buttless Chaps, I'd been hearing about for ages but had never been to see. About half-way through their set I noticed someone in the corner who looked strangely familiar. I'd expected to run into some Vancouver ex-pats so I made a point of introducing myself. Turns out she used to work at my local comic book store on Main Street and had been living in Montreal for two years. Just before the second to last act we zipped up to St-Viateur for fresh hot bagels (nom, nom, nom), then nipped back in to finish the show, then exchanged numbers so we could go to movie together some time. Yeah! New friends in town!

Got back just in time to catch one of my new favourite bands (at least they are now, after seeing them live), The Pack A.D. Two women: one on guitar, one on drums, playing amazing striped down blues. Great energy, great sound. Totally check them out if you get the chance if you like that sort of thing.

As per usual I bounced around like an idiot to The Evaporators and I made a point of telling Nardwuar how happy I was that he was in Montreal as I was starting to get a little homesick.

Saturday: Got up hopelessly late and spent most of the day not doing very much. At about 1 PM I went on my weekly bagel run to St-Viateur bagels and stopped off briefly on the way home at the Puces POP craft fair. I had finally tried out Bagel Beaubien last week, which while closer, does not offer flax seed bagels and were kind of lackluster, comparatively. Also, I like people watching in Mile End.

Around 3 PM I finally worked up the will to run the rest of my many errands. First I headed up to Marche Jean-Talon, but got caught up talking to a co-worker and didn't notice that the market was actually closing until it was too late, so I didn't manage to actually buy anything. After that I headed down to IGA to do a quick grocery and almost left without paying. Finally, I went and cast my vote since I'd be on a train most of the 14th and wouldn't be back in Montreal until well after the polls had closed. At least I didn't screw up one task, sigh.

Heated up some leftovers and made my way out to the Drawn & Quarterly bookstore for a vernissage by Jack Dylan (he did a bunch of posters for POP Montreal this year, including an awesome Obey style series of portraits of the four major Canadian political leaders), but there was nobody there so I decided to start walking down to the Just for Laughs cabaret to meet Chris and Lee for the Black Kids show.

Being that I was super early I killed some time drinking a vanilla tea later on St-Laurent and did my best to kill time window shopping/people watching. Ended up being even earlier than I'd counted on by virtue of the fact that the opening act was no longer on the bill.

Didn't realize how hung over I actually was until I started drinking my beer and the fact that my back was killing me didn't help the fact that I felt very, very old as I looked around. I guess that's what happens when I go to see new bands in venues other than dive bars... Didn't really get into the first act, the Virgins, who, as I mentioned to Ali when she arrived, I liked better when they were called TheKillerstrokeferdinands. Opted to leave my perch for the Black Kids, and did have a good time bouncing to the lively, joyful sounds, despite being tired and decrepit.

After the show I went for a beer with Chris, Lee and Ali, despite being rather exhausted, then walked home up St-Laurent.

Sunday: Got up around 9 AM and set about being productive. Went up to Marche Jean Talon and bought a ridiculous amount of vegetables, including some weird broccoli like thing that looked like an angry coral that Chris had dared me to buy the night before. As no one had called me back about going to Puces POP I decided to focus on my culinary plans and set about making 2 kinds of soup and a giant batch of chili. My freezer is now fully stocked for at least two weeks worth of delicious and nutritious lunches (not to mention thrifty!)

Then, to close off my POP Montreal weekend, MC and I went to the Cartune Xprez show, a cartoon-music-performance from the minds of Hooliganship. Difficult to describe, but definitely entertaining. Also, the last part was in 3D, which was super fun. I opted to keep my glasses in anticipation of my Mike Relm DVD, courtesy of the best sister ever since he played in Vancouver but won't be coming to Mtl.

Weekend Round-Up: Vamps, shopping and CAKE!

Friday: A fairly mellow night, punctuated only by a trip to Cinema du Parc to meet up with Chris, Lee & Alex for Daughters of Darkness on the big screen. I was super stoked because star Danielle Ouimet (a.k.a. Valérie) was going to be in attendance. She looked lovely and elegant, radiating the same beauty she did even in her early ingenue roles. She told some very entertaining stories about her difficulties with director Harry Kümel (apparently at one point things devolved into an all-out physical brawl) and her affection for her co-stars, particularly Delphine Seyrig.

I had wanted to ask her for a photograph after the screening, but I totally chickened out. She did seem super nice though, so hopefully by the time I do have my shit together enough to interview her she will be cooperative.

After the movie I opted to walk home, then watched some crap on YouTube before calling it a night.

Saturday: Got up much later than I'd expected, but considering how tired I was from the week I opted not to feel too bad about it. Met up with Alain & MC to walk around and do a bit of shopping. Made the mistake of going to H&M (which, for the record, is the devil) and walked out with what is probably the shortest skirt I have ever owned. I blame the fact that I was having a "skinny" day and everything I tried on looked really good. Also, I deserve clothes that fit me. Yeah, that's it...

After Alain was all shopped out we stopped for Indian food as we all had a craving. I stuffed myself stupid on onion bhajis, extra potato-y saag and some kind of delicious fresh mushroom curry. After dinner more walking was in order, but I'd eaten so much I started to get stomach cramps and had to beg off to take the bus the rest of the way around Mount Royal. Tidied the house a bit, then read and went to bed.

Sunday: Another lazy morning. Finally got around to my bagel run around 1pm, then headed up to IGA for a grocery run. Did a bit of work before meeting up with Gloria from work to bake cakes for Margherita's birthday on Monday. Gloria made an almond chocolate mousse and I pulled out the good-ole Red Velvet Cake. Got home in time to call the 'rents and ice my monster cake before stumbling into bed.

Weekend Round Up: Meetings, JP & Markets

Sorry this is way later than usual, but working two jobs is really starting to kick my ass...

Friday:Since we had another colleague leaving our little translation family, another 5 a 7 was organized for our department. Lucky for me, everyone loved my suggestion of Vices & Versa for the last two 5 a 7s, so we opted to there this time too. However, even though I arranged everything, I had to leave early for a meeting with MJ. Got a little annoyed when she almost stood me up, but luckily we were able to connect and I was actually rather grateful for what ended up being an early, quiet night. Went home after my meeting and watched the penultimate episode of Season 4 of Weeds, which I had been saving for just such an occasion, then nearly pissed myself watching The Angry Video Game Nerd before falling into bed around midnight.

Saturday: In an effort to me more productive, I actually set my alarm for 8 AM, and managed to get-up before 9 AM. Gobbled some soy yogurt and walked down to St. Viateur for my weekly bagel run. I'm surprised they don't just hand me my half-dozen flax seed w/ smoked salmon spread when I arrive I go there so often. But I guess they get a lot of regular customers...

Since my back had been bothering me something fierce this week I forced myself to do some pilates, which actually seemed to do the trick. Then I finally got around to tidying my office and did a quick grocery trip. By about 3 PM I was finally ready to get down to business. Worked on the media package a bit before heading off to yet another meeting with MJ.

After my meeting I was able to hook-up with an old karaoke pal from Vancouver, JP, who was in town impromptu from Toronto. We got dinner in the Village and talked about lives on the Eastern side of the country. We both agreed that it was hard to compare our lives here to our lives there, but it was very nice for me to spend time with someone who'd known me in my former life. After dinner I went home, goofed on the internet a bit and called it a night.

Sunday: Another bright and bushy day, I managed to get showered and dressed in time to meet Rachael and Ben and their baby at the Jean-Talon Market. Got home in time to make up a big batch of potato leek soup with my freshly purchased veggies & finish off a bit of work before my previously scheduled dinner plans. Sadly, those were canceled at the last minute so I consoled myself with some instant ramen (chow mein style!) and Christian Bale & Alan Tudyk (3:10 to Yuma). Called a few peeps out West and tucked myself snugly into bed at a respectable 11 PM.

Weekend Round-Up: Garage Rock, Dinners and Smoochy

Friday: After a slightly more mellow week, had a quick sushi dinner with a friend after work and then hurried home to give mom a happy birthday phone call before zipping down to the Bistro de Paris for the B-Sides album launch party. After blowing $6 on a pint, realized that the half-pitchers were $7.50 and kissed my good intentions for the evening goodbye. Danced like a goof and put out my back and neck, but it was worth it. Good old fashioned, garage-y blues/rock-- my favourite dancing music.

After the show I introduced myself to a couple guys I recognized from Fantasia and followed them to some other garage bar on St. Denis for one last beer. Spent the evening talking to strangers and getting asked questions like, "what model are you?", the correct answer being "1979", which was followed by, "I'm old enough to be your dad". Awesome. Finished the night off with some greasy-ass french fries and a cab ride home.

Saturday: Woke up hungover with a mild case of whiplash. Realized that I am getting too old for this shit, but I doubt that's going to stop me. Spent most of the day in my pajamas watching Weeds, but I did manage to make a couple phone calls, but that's about it.

In the evening I met up with my friends Rachael and Ben from Vancouver and their new baby. They are recent transplants to Montreal and I've been dying for a chance to show them around. Had a nice pasta dinner on Mt-Royal and then called it an early night. Went home and watched the rest of Weeds, then crawled into bed.

Sunday: Got up late and wandered around in a lazy stupor until Alain called to invite me to meet him and MC at the Jean-Talon Market. Took the opportunity to pick-up some much need fruits and veggies & also remembered to grab cat food and litter for K.C. After the market we went back to Al and MC's place where they proceeded to make an excellent Pasta Puttanesca. Drank too much wine and some Turkish drink that tasted like anise & watch Death to Smoochy, which was much longer than we'd expected. Didn't end up watching Dirty Harry like we'd planned, but I guess there's always next time. Wobbled my way back to the Metro and called it a night after a quick call to Van.

Weekend Round-Up: Takin' It Easy

After a hectic week that included attending two free shows at the Apple Store (Plants & Animals and Creature, if you're interested), a potential business meeting and another 5 à 7 with the translation department at Vices & Versa, I decided to play it a bit more casual this weekend.

Friday: After running some errands in Mile End, met up with a friend for dinner on the Plateau. Sadly I don't remember the name of the restaurant (damn aportez votre vin), but it was good, decently priced Italian at the corner of Duluth & St-Laurent. Afterward we stopped at Crèmerie Meu-Meu, an artisanal ice cream place that also does sorbettos and Soy Ice Cream! Can you imagine my joy? While my favourite so far is the fresh green tea sorbetto, I have to say the cinnamon soy ice cream I tried was quite something as well. Went home and listened to music, then called it a night around 12:30 AM because I am old.

Saturday: Feeling quite drained and fuzzy from the hectic week I slept in very late and generally bummed around. Did manage to get out of the house to do my weekly bagel run, but didn't end up doing much aside from that. Thought about going to Place des Arts for Cinema Under the Stars, the outdoor screening series that's part of the Montreal World Film Festival that kicked off on Thursday, but eventually decided I was too tired. Caught up a bit on season 3 of Weeds, called a few people in Vancouver, listened to lots of new music, cuddled with my much neglected cat...

Sunday: Another pretty mellow day. Managed to do some yoga, laundry and a quick grocery trip. Met up with a contact from Fantasia to discuss my possible involvement with her company. I won't say much about it as I'm afraid of jinxing things, but so far it sounds like a great opportunity and definitely more the direction I'd like to take my "career". Right now my duties would consist mostly of writing grant proposals, but it sounds like she also wants to move me into programming, which is just too exciting to contemplate. Then we drank beer and ate dried squid as is the custom in Korean. Got home and called some more people out West, then called it a night.

Recipe: Warm Potato Salad

I mostly came up with this one on my own. An excellent summer recipe, perfect for BBQs.

1/2 lb panchetta or bacon, sliced and cut into 1/2 inch chunks ( I used spicy panchetta)
1 - 2 lbs new potatoes, scrubbed but not peeled
1/4 cup parsley (flat leaf is best), finely chopped
2 green onions, sliced thinly or 1/3 cup finely chopped red onion
Cider or while wine vinegar (I used herb de provence flavoured cider vinegar)
Olive oil
Salt & pepper to taste

Chop the onions and parsley, set aside.

In a big pot of boiling salted water, cook the potatoes until just tender, about 12 mins. Immediately drain the potatoes and rise under cold water until cool enough to handle. Roughly chop the potatoes into 1/2 cubes and throw them in a salad bowl. Add the onions and parsley, then drizzle everything with a tablespoon or two of vinegar and toss gently.

Meanwhile, fry the panchetta at medium high heat, stirring to break up the slices. Continue cooking until the panchetta is browned and slightly crispy. Immediately add to the potatoes, including any grease that collected in the pan. Add a tablespoon or two of olive oil to the potatoes, depending on how much panchetta grease there was. Add salt, pepper and any other seasoning you'd like to include. Toss gently and serve immediately.

Serves 4 - 6

Weekend Round Up: Stand-Up, Improv & Tea

Friday: Since L was working late with the art department, I decided to call up my new friend Brandon and his wife to see what they were up to. They are newly arrived from Texas and neither of them knows much French so I'd kind of taken it upon myself to help show them around town. Since Andrea was opening for Joey Elias at the Comedy Nest I suggested we do that since it also met the necessary criteria of being an Anglo activity.

After some not very helpful directions from me, they managed to find their way to the club just as Andrea was getting ready to go on. Her set was good and included some material I hadn't heard before, but for whatever reason the audience wasn't that into it.

Part of Joey Elias' thing is to just talk to people in the front row and riff on what they tell him, and oddly enough the couple he was picking on also happened to be from Texas, which we all thought was extra funny. His set was very long, but there was at least point where I had to wipe away tears and Brandon and his wife seemed rather impressed with their first Montreal comedy experience.

After the show I suggest we go for a drink, but then it came out that they'd never had poutine, so I took them straight to Belle Province to remedy that. We got a family style poutine, but between the three of us we only managed to finish about half of it. Then I looked at the time and realized L was probably freaking out so we opted to call it a night.

When I got home L was lying on his back on the sofa, barely conscious after a 14 hour day. I helped him into bed, despite his incoherent and half-hearted protests and tucked myself into bed.

Saturday: Being that L wanted to hit a public pool at some point in the weekend I insisted in doing a pilates workout at home before going out. While I was in the shower we got a call from Alain & MC who were apparently in our neighborhood at a Spring Tea Seminar and they wanted to know if we wanted to join them for a couple sessions on Sunday. We told them we'd join them for the Intro session and talked them into joining us for brunch at Coco Gallo.

After brunch we followed Alain and MC back up to the Jean-Talon Market and L and I got lost in the Marche des Saveurs du Quebec. We decided to stock up on local beers for when Kat and Doug are in town and I picked up some Caribou pate.

When we got home I realized I was exhausted so I opted to take a nap while L sat outside and called friends back west. When I awoke L let me know that he'd taken the liberty of making evening plans for us. We would be going to an improv show called Argument with a Dolphin that was a part of the Fringe Festival.

The show was very funny and successfully washed the disappointing taste out of my mouth from my last improv experience. The format was similar, a single story interupted periodically for the audience to vote on whether to continue the story. But this time, instead of starting a whole new story, there were merely interruptions, either shorter scenes or other games with provocative titles like "Argument With a Dolphin" or "The Slap". After each interruption we were then given the choice of whether to proceed to another interruption, or go back to the story and with one exception of two interruptions in a row, the evening followed a story, interruption, story, interruption, etc. format.

After the show, Mark, Andrea, MC, L and I decided to walk up to Sergeant Recruteur for a drink and Alain met us on the way. While we paused on Mont-Royal to wait for Alain I ran into my colleague Alexandre and convinced him and his date to join us for beer and pizza.

At the bar I opted to stick to the Frousse, and while I was concerned about my tummy and it's adverse reaction to my shish taouk dinner I was shocked to discover that the beer seemed to settle my tummy. I decided to take advantage of this gastral calm and ordered the Beer Mouse cake. While L admitted to becoming bored with the beers on offer, I have to say that the beer cake would certainly entice me back. Thin cake layers with delicate mouse with a faint beer aroma and a layer of dark beer jelly right in the center. Incredible.

By 11 PM it was down to me, L and Mark so we managed to coerce into coming back to our place to hang out. He and L had another beer and decided to finally check out our creepy basement. Turns out there's lots of room down there for storing beer once we start brewing, although that probably won't be until sometime in the fall.

Sunday: Despite our late night, L and I still managed to get up in time to attend our 11:00 AM intro to Spring Teas seminar. Luckily we got to taste the teas too, otherwise we might not have made it through the entire hour.

After our seminar we met up with L's cousin Annie for breakfast at Coco Gallo, and L started to have second thoughts about our planned afternoon excursion to the public pool at Parc Jean-Drapeau. I pointed out that if he wanted to go to the pool he'd need sandals, so Annie accompanied us to Plaza St-Hubert after breakfast so that we could find L some flip-flops and I managed to find some walking sandals.

However, by the time we'd finished our shopping there were some mighty angry clouds gathering so L chickened out for good and we called Alain and MC to see if we could still register for the afternoon session on Japanese tea since we weren't going swimming after all.

After the second session we stuck around the Market and picked up some boar and pork sausages, corn, and new potatoes for dinner. When we got home I opted to scrap my original plan for the potatoes, butter and chives, and skipped out to get some spicy panchetta, green onions and parsley to make a warm potato salad that L is still raving about. (I'll post the recipe tomorrow).

While I was cooking, at my urging, L called our landlord to inform him that the contractors he'd hired to sandblast our building had not only failed to shield our tiny vegetable garden from clay dust, but they had also repeated dragged their hose through it, effectively killing every last plant in it, effectively break L's heart. Later, L also discovered that they had taken our garbage out of our garbage can and left it instead filled it with murky grey water. L wisely decided to stay out of the house on Monday when the workers were due to return to finish the job as he was afraid of confronting them in a rage.

After dinner we tidied a bit in preparation for Kat and Doug's arrival next week, I called my dad to wish him a happy father's day and we watched as much of the second season of weeds as we could fit in before bedtime.

Weekend Round Up: Improv, Opera and Walking. Lots of Walking.

Friday: Got charmed into going to another All Stars! improv show with Alain and MC at Theatre St-Catherine, which was sadly rather disappointing. The crazy homeless man who kept interjecting/playing with crinkly plastic bags didn't help much, but luckily he left half-way through. It was an intriguing format, but like with most improv it really depends on the players and the night and it just kinda felt like things were a little "off". Also, I was exhausted and nodded off a couple of times. Never a good sign.

Yet, despite my weariness I was determined not to be a complete wimp and so we joined Alain and MC on a walk up St-Laurent to take in some of the F-1 street sale action. Had fun laughing at the Eurotrash and L coveted the twice baked potatoes. Ended up walking all the way home from St-Catherines street, which didn't quite take as long as you'd think, and passed out almost immediately.

Saturday: We were supposed to go L's friends cottage just outside of Ottawa so L could get some practice driving, but I was having a very bad day so we opted to stay home. Called Alain and MC to see what they were up to and after a quick breakfast at a cute little cafe in Mile End we walked down to Mont-Royal to meet them. Turns out Mont-Royal was also closed for street-sale action so I loaded up on cheap cotton undies, half-priced organic cosmetics, not to mention free yogurt (yum!).

After a couple of hours of that we went back to Alain and MC's place to have a sit and Alain whipped up some coffee smoothies for everybody, although I had to abstain for the good of my digestive system. While sitting on the patio L thought better of his baked potato for dinner plan and we opted to go to the awesome Mexican place Alain had mentioned the night before. I got a veggie burrito and horchata, which was a little grainier than I was used to, but still super yummy.

Post dinner we continued down St-Laurent towards St-Catherines so that we could take in a little Crescent St action before hitting Place-des-Arts for Madame Butterfly Under the Stars. However, once we got downtown we realized we didn't have as much time as we'd thought so we decided to just grab a beer at Benelux before the opera. I grabbed an apricot cream ale, while L was seduced by the gold medal winning rye beer.

Being that the boys were a)slow drinkers, b)trying to find reasons to procrastinate, MC and I headed off to PDA alone. It wasn't 'till we got there and saw the sea of lawn chairs that we realized how ill prepared we were. We had a mere 5 minutes to find a spot on the concrete by the far right side of the stage to park our bums. Luckily I had a sweater to sit on for a bit of tail bone cushioning, other were not as lucky.

Despite a restless first act, L did manage to get into it. I was impressed by the fact that they'd managed to find a Japanese soprano to play Cio-Cio San, not just the usual white chick with too much eye make-up. When it was all over I asked L what he thought of his first opera, and his response was, "they were all such jerks, except Mme. Butterfly," which, in my opinion sums things up quite nicely.

After the opera we wandered up towards Crescent, but things were starting to wind down and I was getting super tired so we walked to the Metro and called it a night.

Sunday: L had tried to find us a pool, being that it was yet again, crazy hot; but sadly was unsuccessful. We almost ended up at Parc Jean-Drapeau, but at the last minute I convinced him that we should to to the Tam-Tam. He called our friends Andrea and Mark and they agreed to meet us there. We opted to walk the 20 mins to Mont-Royal park through Mile End so we could grab some fancy groceries for a picnic, a concept L seemed to be having quite a bit of difficulty grasping as it had obviously been a while since he had just hung out in a park.

After our mini-feast of sparking blueberry lemonade, whole wheat baguette, guyere chese, summer sausage and hummus I took L on a tour of the sites. In addition to the drumming hippies and the guys (and girls this time) beating each other with swords there were circus arts and capoera and a girl swinging from a giant sheet tied to a tree. L. was also shocked at the number of people drinking in public, but as usual everyone was so chill about it it wasn't a big deal.

On our way home we got caught in a sudden deluge, and while it was still very warm I cannot say I was all that comfortable being that soggy. Luckily it let up enough for us to grab some Portuguese chicken in Mile End which we happily scarfed while watching yet another installment of Buffy. Since L had to be on set quite early the next day we called it an early night, but not before switching our duvet for our summer quilt.

Weekend Round Up: Movies, Indian Food, Tam-Tam

Friday: After a busy week where L and I both entertained guests from out of town we opted to make it a quiet night in. After scarfing some leftovers from my lunch at Elio's I tried to make a few calls out west and L went to pick us up some DVDs. Sadly, they didn't have Wendigo or Paris, Texis and Henry Fool was only available on VHS so we ended up going with The Wicker Man (73), Un crabe dans la tête and Altered States. Popped on Wicker Man only to discover it was the US theatrical cut, not the UK Director's cut, but that was okay by me since I really didn't like it as much as L. But it was definitely worth it if only to see Christopher Lee in a kilt. Oh, and he sings too.

Saturday: L was busy at a course during the day so I chilled at home by myself and cleaned the kitchen and bathroom. When L came home we went for a walk towards the Plateau and had some excellent and very reasonably priced Indian food at Maison de Cari Golden. After dinner we walked back through Mile End and accidentally ended up in a Hasidic neighborhood. It was strange being so close to home and yet feeling like we had trespassed into another country, but very cool and comforting in another way. When we got home we watched Un crabe dans la tête which was directed by André Turpin, who is quickly becoming one of my favorite directors. After the movie we called it a night since L had to be at his course again Sunday.

Sunday: With L at his course again I met up with Alain and Marie-Claude at the Jean Talon market. They were there with some friends from Ottawa and were gathering supplies for a picnic on Mont-Royal park. Every Sunday when the weather is nice enough hundreds of drummers gather in Mont-Royal park for a huge drum circle known as "Le Tam-Tam". After a delightful lunch of sausage, cheese, bread and pesto we wandered into the woods a little bit to witness the other bit of lunacy in Mont-Royal park on Sundays: dozens of boys and men whacking each other with duct-taped swords. Some of them were in full armor, some only had chain mail or leathers, but the majority were in basic jeans and a t-shirt. After a couple of rounds of that we ventured back to the front of the park to paruse the hippie wares for sale on blankets, but being that it had cooled down considerable since we'd arrived we decided to call it a day and I walked home through Mile End so I could check out a used book store I'd spotted a couple weeks ago.

After purchasing a book on Herbal Magick and some body lotion I got home in time to record a French Slang video and work a bit in the little garden in the front. When L got home I cooked a nice pork loin in the oven and we watched Altered States which was both awesome and pure Ken Russell.

Weekend Round Up: BBQ, Demolition, Maple Syrup

Friday: Started the weekend a little early with a 5 a 7 on Thursday at work. Finally got a chance to talk to some co-workers not in my department and alternated between playing Rock Band and watching the first two periods of the Habs game projected on the wall on the cafeteria.

On Friday my teammate Susie invited the rest of the English team to join her for lunch, although only Fred and I were able to. We ended up at a cute little Chinese/Thai place on Beaubien, not far from my house. After work I met L at Club Video Beaubien to pick out some flicks for the weekend, but limited ourselves to two because Mark and Andrea had invited us over for BBQ. Being that we had a little time to kill we wandered up to Plaza St-Hubert and I bought my first ever bikini. It's brown with blue flower accents, and it was on clearance so it was very cheap.

After snagging beer and burgers at IGA we wandered over to Mark and Andrea's place in St-Henri. After dinner we amused ourselves watching Flight of the Concords videos on YouTube and I laughed like a maniac. Being that I hadn't actually slept that well Thurday night, I was dead tired by about midnight so we took a cab home and I crashed out hard.

Saturday: Being that I knew we were going to be eating a big-ass breakfast on Sunday, we opted not to go out in the morning and I did some pilates. Then we got ready and headed out to run errands. The shredder we'd gotten less than a month ago never worked so we went to Bureau en Gros to return it, and as I'd suspected we weren't the only ones having trouble with that model. Afterwards we headed up to Zellers to pick up some more stuff for our backyard project with the Gift Card my brother had gotten me for Christmas. As we were lugging all our goodies back with us on the Metro a girl actually approached us to ask if we were moving (apparently she had something to sell us if we were). We told her no and continued on our way.

Back home L got to work demolishing the faux deck thing in our backyard, but it turns out most of the work had been done for him. The whole thing was so rotted and poorly constructed in the first place that he was able to pull most of it apart with his hands. Luckily the soil underneath looks like it's in pretty good condition so it shouldn't take too much more work to prep everything in time for L's dad's arrival to build our garden. Meanwhile L has thoughts of paving stones and patio sets dancing through his head.

Later, Alain and Marie-Claude came over to watch the game. After a disappointing loss we opted to watch Living in Oblivion to boost our spirits. I couldn't believe I hadn't seen it before, especially since it has my boy, Peter Dinklage. I doubt Dermot Mulroney has been better in a movie.

Sunday: Sadly we hadn't gotten as much sleep on Saturday as we would have liked, but we still made it to the parking lot of my office in time to catch our ride to the Au Pied Des Erables cabane a sucre. The social committee at work had organized a last minute sugar shack outing and I had jumped at the chance to enjoy the tail end of the season.

I had never been to a sugar shack before and had not really known what to expect, but I have it on good authority that the one that we went to was quite good. Basically, a sugar shack outing usually involves a meal around a large communal table, followed by tire on snow. The food is generally homey old-fashioned fare: potatoes, fluffy omelet, pancakes, baked beans and ham, all with liberal dousings of maple syrup. After gorging ourselves, the group went for a little nature walk where we found a grass snack and a tiny black froggie.

After the ride back I had a little nap and L continued to work on the back deck, then we had some burgers and watched The Kiss of the Vampire, which while not one of the best Hammer horror's, does boast one of the most amazing endings to a vampire film I have ever seen. If you're a Hammer fan and you haven't seen it yet, it is worth checking out for that alone.

Weekend Round Up: Movies, Gardening, Bloodsports

Friday: By the time Friday rolled around I was dead dog tired. Never did recover from our whirlwind trip to the Saguenay and I trapped in a bad habits of going into work late and leaving late. After work I walked down to Mile End to buy cosmetics at the organic grocery store we found a couple of weeks earlier. Called L. at home and he met me there so we could find a place to eat together. On the way to the Polish restaurant/general store L. had spotted on his way to meet me we ran into an old friend of my sister's. I told her that my sis would be visiting me in June and she gave me her number so they could hook-up.

At the Polish place we got the platter for two, which consisted of two kinds of perogies, cabbage rolls, Polish sausage, goulash, potato dumplings & something called "hunter's stew". It all had a wonderful homemade taste and was all together delicious and extremely filling. Actually, a little too filling for me, if truth be told. That said, I would gladly go back for their chicken perogies any day.

After dinner we went back to the house so L. could change as we decided that at least he should go to the party we'd been invited to by Mark & Andrea. I was just too tired. L. walked me to the video store so I could grab some DVDs I knew he wouldn't want to watch and he continued on to the Metro. I settled on an eclectic triple bill of Primer, Paprika and The Sea Hawk.

After thoroughly bending my brain with the first too films, I was still up watching ol' Errol Flinn when L. came home around 2 AM. Turns out the couple with the two cats who were on the flight from Vancouver with us were at the party. Small world.

Saturday: Since the weather was still good we decided to focus to getting stuff together for our garden since L.'s dad would be arriving soon to help us with it and we hadn't even started demolishing the faux deck yet.

After a surprisingly tasty breakfast at a new place on Parc in Mile End, we opted to pop in to Rona to start amassing supplies. We got a crowbar to start the demo, as well as planters and lots of dirt. I also grabbed a bunch of seeds and a little rake and a trowel to start working the soil.

When we got home, I determined that we didn't have enough soil and we also needed some rocks for drainage so we ventured out again to Home Depot to pick up the rest of what we needed. L. and I both put out our backs carrying home big heavy bags of dirt and rocks. I spent the rest of the afternoon building my Martha style tiered planter (thanks for the tip, Bean!) and cleaning the garbage and weeds out of our front "yard". L. meanwhile took charge of cleaning the inside of the house in anticipation of our hockey watching guests.

I was anticipating an easy Habs victory, meaning that they could move on to the next round of the playoffs. But no. They let an early lead go as we all howled and wailed at the television, deeply disturbing poor K.C. I think he was just upset we hadn't gotten him a little Canadiens jersey yet.

After the game Andrea had to make an appearance at a birthday party and I convinced everyone once else to follow me to the creepy sports bar near our place to watch the Georges St-Pierre/Matt Sera UFC match. Yeah, that's right, UFC. I had recently discovered Georges St-Pierre on RDS late one Friday night about a month ago. Actually, the fight I saw was the titled bought he had lost to Matt Sera where St-Pierre had been strongly favoured, but had gotten his ass handed to him in violent and mildly disturbing fashion. Hearing that a rematch was on the horizon and knowing that it was going to be held in St-Pierre's hometown of Montreal I was very interested in seeing the fight, but after the Canadiens' shocking loss, it was imperative. I had to see someone from Montreal win something that night!

We quickly found a spot amongst our fellow depressed Canadiens fans and settled in for the fight. There were four matches before the main event and we quickly determined that we could guess the winner from their entrance theme. Dude who entered to the Verve Pipe did not do well. Our boy St-Pierre came out to a French Rap song, so we knew he'd do well.

There were a number of Canadians fighting, including St-Pierre. The first fight involved a kid from Toronto named Mark Bocek who lost, but he stayed in all three rounds despite crying blood through two of them, so he did okay. However, this show of true Canadian grit augmented our disappointment at Kaleb Starnes of Surrey's performance, dancing around so his opponent, Nate Quarry, couldn't even take a swing. My other faves (incidentally they also won their respective fights) were Mancurian Michael Bisping and Rich Franklin.

Finally it was time for the main event. Everyone was channeling their hockey frustrations towards Matt Sera. Although he comes from NY, to us he represented Boston. And we howled with blood lust as Georges St-Pierre charged into the octagon and pummeled Sera like he should have the first time. While Alain was hoping they would go at least three rounds, it was called near the end of the second round, St-Pierre winning on a TKO.

Sadly, Andrea arrived just as the match finished, so she missed out on our vicarious vengence. Alain and MC had to go home, but Mark and Andrea followed us back home to watch a movie. Being that Andrea needed some serious cheering up we pulled out the Showgirls box set again, although this time we abstained from the drinking game. However, we did play a quick round of Pin the Pasties on Elizabeth Berkley just for fun.

At about 3:30 AM, Mark and Andrea said their farewells and L. and I crawled into bed.

Sunday: Annie called at 10:30 AM to see if we were still up for breakfast before salsa dancing. Being that neither of us could move, we opted to skip both, knowing that skipping a second week of dancing lessons essentially meant we were dropping out of the class. But we promised instead to join up the next classic ballroom class offered at the same studio in May.

After lying in bed as long as we could we moved to the couch and watch Right At Your Door, a surprisingly effective low-budget apocalyptic flick we'd missed at last year's Fantasia. While the ending was a little too Twilight Zone for my liking, it was still quite well done and I totally recommend checking it out, especially if you have a crush on Rory Cochran like I do.

After the movie we decided to get dressed and located some cash, cheap food and more DVDs. We ended up at Le Roi Du Smoked Meat in St-Hubert plaza where we ate our meal in the company of an Italian bridal shower upstairs. Luckily they had Mulberry Street, another one we missed at Fantasia which L. has been obsessed with, at the video store. I also got to pick a film and for some reason opted for Richard Kelly's epic mess, Southland Tales.

After enduring Southland Tales, where about every three minutes L. and I would look at each other and say "Uh, what?" we opted to at least make a real dinner to make up for our complete lack of motivation in every other aspect of our day. Then it was on to Mulberry Street, which did not disappoint. If you like old school survivalist horror, see this movie. I highly, highly recommend it.

Sadly our viewing of the film was interrupted by a mini-infestation of some sort of horrible multi-legged bug I had never seen before. They came one by one, but there were three of them. Each dispatched in turn by L.'s boot and quickly disposed of so we knew it wasn't just the same one. Even K.C. was scared of these things, backing away as is skited across the floor. Somehow, despite all this we managed to get to bed a decent hour so that we could start the week in better shape than the last one.

Weekend Round Up: My Saguenay Adventure

Friday: Went into work super early so that I could leave at 4:00 PM without dipping into my vacation time, which was hard because I was starting to come down with a sinus cold. Spent the day starring at my monitor in a fog, but still managed to get something done. At exactly 4 PM, I met L., Annie & Mel in the parking lot and we started our trip north.

It took about an hour to get off the island, and if we had waited even half an hour later it would have taken three times that long. Mel managed not to get into any road rage incidents with anyone, which was good and I prayed to St. Christopher as I do anytime I get into a car with someone in Quebec. Not that I've converted or anything, it's just that scary.

After a quick supper at a St-Hubert Express in Trois Rivieres it was back onto the road. Sadly it was too dark for me to enjoy the view on the treacherous Parc, and it had started snowing, but the trip was pretty uneventful. We got to Annie's parents' (L.'s taunt Denise and oncle Evans) place around 10:30 PM and we hung out in the kitchen talking and looking at Annie's sister Jasmine's pictures of South American beetles.

At around midnight we bid our farewells and Evans gave us a lift to L.'s cousin Valerie's charming little trailer home where we would be spending the night as Valerie was actually in Montreal for the weekend at a dance conference. Again, Saguenay hospitality was offered in spades and L. noted that a boy cousin probably wouldn't have thought to leave out towels for us.

Saturday: After a restful night we called L.'s step-dad Yves who was also in town for L.'s cousin Dave's anniversary memorial (the real reason for our trip) who picked us up so we could all have breakfast together.

Being that it was nearly noon, finding a place for breakfast was a bit of a struggle, but we did manage to find somewhere that was still serving. There was some minor drama regarding the coffee and I thoroughly confused the waitress by asking for black tea (I got Earl Grey and an apology).

After breakfast we toured around the Saguenay at bit on our way to the fromagerie Boivin (cheese factory?).





The Saguenay is a very interesting and beautiful city, that is actually three cities merged together: Chicoutimi, Jonquière and La Baie. L. had lived in all three areas at various times, and the cities that make up Ville de Saguenay were actually made up of smaller cities and towns. It is actually a Fjord but is mostly agricultural, with rolling hills and fields. The main industry is still Alcan, one of the first to settle in the area. We actually found out recently that my uncle Martin (my mom's sister's husband) had done co-op work for Alcan while in college in Arvida, now part of Jonquière.

Unfortunately the weather was a bit inclement and it started snowing again. We drove around taking photographs and L. bought a bag of warm, fresh, squeeky cheese curds. That's right, squeeky. That's how you can tell they're fresh. In joual, the sound they make is "skouik, skouik".

Around 3 PM we arrived at L.'s dad's place in Jonquière. It's a beautiful Victorian era apartment, originally built by Alcan when they opened their first facility. It even has a dining room! Yves hung out a bit with us all and L. got to play with Nicole's dog Noisette.

Later, Nicole's daughter Katherine showed up with a giant tourtière, the official meal of the Saguenay. L. had two helpings and we saved him some for breakfast. After dinner we all sat down to watch the Canadiens game, when L.'s half brother John and his mother, Florence, came by for a visit. It was a very nice surprise as it had been a couple years since L. had last seen John and we had a very good conversation about video games and film. It turns out that John had been interested in pursuing a career as a game designer, but stumbled into starting a degree in art instead.

It was a little overwhelming for me to meet so much of L.'s family all at once, but most people I had met before and everyone was so welcoming and genuinely nice that it was really a pleasure. Everyone seemed very excited to meet me, and L. boasted that I was the reason he had decided to move back to Quebec.

Sunday: Went to my first Catholic mass. Ever. It was actually less scary than I expected, due mostly to the engaging young priest with a goatee and skate shoes under his robes. After mass we went for a brunch buffet with the rest of the friends and family, where L. had (believe it or not) more tourtière. I met more of L.'s family and he and his cousin Caroline talked about how somebody from their side of the family better start having babies soon.

After brunch we visited with L.'s tant Reine and oncle Arthur while Yves gathered his stuff as he had been staying with them for the weekend. Arthur taught us about L.'s ancestor's (apparently the Malthais side of the family is originally from the Isle of Malta) and Reine asked if my parents spoke French at home, probably the best compliment I've ever received.

Then it was off to Ste-Foy (next door to Quebec city) with Yves so we could catch a bus back to Montreal. Luckily we were able to catch an express bus and made it back in time to catch the third period of the game.

Weekend Round-Up: Snow, Taxes and Dancing, Dancing, Dancing

Friday: All of my dreams of spring gardens and not so sensible footware were violently dashed by a mid-afternoon snowstorm. Tabarnak! Being that L. was also feeling a little drained we opted for our usual Friday night routine of burgers and fries at Nouveau System Hotdog Beaubien followed by some DVDs at Club Video Beaubien. I was starting to get a little impatient in my stupid high-heeled boots as L. agonized over picking the perfect combination of films. We finally settled on an eclectic combination of French indie-horror, Ils, Japanese coming of age comedy, Kamikaze Girls, and old school UK thinking man's gorefest, Hellraiser.

Since it was still rather early we opted to watch Kamikaze Girls first which L. enjoyed way more than he thought he would. I laughed myself stupid and managed to get weepy. Then it was on to Ils (Them), which was frankly a little disappointing, but still not bad considering it was obviously made for almost no money.

Saturday: The day started off with a bang as both Annie & Frank invited us out for breakfast. Being that Frank & Isabelle had to come in from the suburbs and wouldn't be around until close to noon, we opted to meet Annie & Mel at Coco Gallo again. It's really nice having so many good places to eat around us. We had our usual server, originally from New Brunswick who remembers me because we have the same French Immersion accent.

After a quick weekly grocery trip it was back home for taxes. Weeeee. After about 4 hours of struggling, it looks like we're getting a hefty chunk of money back, so that's good. And L. only starting hyperventilating once.

Just as we were finishing up the taxes, Frank and Isabelle showed up so we could go grab the dinner and then find somewhere to watch the game. We were hoping to watch it at our place, but Isabelle's deadly cat allergy meant she could only stay inside for about half an hour at a time, so that was no good. Instead, they took us to an excellent little Italian restaurant just a couple blocks from our place called Elios which we had been meaning to check out but just hadn't had an opportunity yet. The fresh pasta was tasty and prompt and L. and I opted to indulge in some homemade Italian style cheesecake to finish.

After dinner I headed back to the apartment to make some calls, shower and get ready to go out dancing with our friend Chris. L., Frank and Isabelle headed to Bar Chez Serge to watch the Canadiens game and I was supposed to meet up with them later, but the bar was packed so they left after the second period. Frank and Isabelle decided to call it a night and L. watched the end of the game while we waited for Chris, who was also watching the game.

A bit around 11 PM we met up with Chris and his friends at the Green Room, about a 10 minute walk from our house in Mile End. Being that the weather was still nice, I was marveling at how "Montreal" I've become in such a short time. I mean, look at my get-up:
I fit right in with the young and hip crowd, sort of. L. and I tried compared the venue to something in Vancouver but couldn't. First of all, the hipsters in Vancouver don't dance, at least not the ones I've met. And I can't think of a bar in Vancouver where no cover, DJs and $4 beer specials would mix. But I'll accept that I'm biased.

The music was an interesting mix of 80's Brit-pop, DEVO, Mash-Ups, 60's R&B, dance-punk and French electro. Not all of it was exceptionally danceable, but there were only a couple tunes that I really didn't enjoy. Chris and I meanwhile entertained ourselves by mocking the DJs with their twin hairdos, black-rimmed glasses and head bobbing.

Being that we're old, we called it a night around 1:30 PM and walked home.

Sunday: Despite saying that we could make breakfast at home, I woke-up craving a restaurant breakfast so we made our way towards Deli-Joe on our way to dance class. They were jam-packed so we instead headed up to Premiere Moison in the Marché Jean-Talon for fancy sandwiches. While it wasn't cheap ($15 for two for sandwiches, one soup and one salad), it sure was tasty and left us feeling much less gross than a greasy breakfast would have.

After lunch we hustled our way down to the Village for Salsa lessons. L. was stressing because we'd only been able to practice once last week, but I think we did okay. What was a bit of a problem was the new dance we learned in class: Bachata. I was doing pretty good, the basic steps are rather simple. It was the hip "thrust" that was giving L. some difficulty. I did my best not to laugh and the instructors were all very good at giving us some extra attention and telling L. to relax and just enjoy himself.

After dancing we popped in to Bureaux en Gros to pick-up some stuff to organize the office. While we were there we picked-up a paper shredder, but when I got it home it didn't work. Boo.

Later in the evening I went to Chris' place for a meeting to discuss plans to possibly help put on a movie night in the near future. Sadly, by the time I got there the meeting was over, but Chris filled me in on the details. Everything is still in the very early planning stages, but it's exciting to be involved with a group of people keen to get something going.

Being that I fell asleep on the metro on the way to Chris' I opted to skip the movie and headed back home where I promptly passed out.

Yet More Observations About My Job

So I've been at my current job almost three months, what would be considered the "probationary period" at most companies and the point at which your benefits finally kick in. But my benefits kicked in when I started, so I guess I'd better get my ass to a dentist...

I still enjoy my position quite a bit, even if the patently ridiculous nature of some of my tasks (I won't post them here, but they aren't that different from most office busy-work) and office politics have started to rear their ugly heads. My work is writing related and I do have to work my brain muscles on a fairly regular basis. Sure, there are days when my eyes glaze over, but I get paid to play video games and surf the net. Things could be so much worse.

Another thing that helps is my coworkers. They are all genuinely awesome, cool people. Because I work in translation, the majority of my colleagues are educated and not originally from Canada and as a result the cafeteria conversations are free of your standard observations of what Britney Spears did on the weekend. Recent topics include the German education system, the Brazilian economy and French politics. T

While I am a Canadian, I find that I relate to my foreign coworkers very well as I am still an outsider here in a lot of regards. I think they also find it interesting how different things can be on one side of the country versus another. here are also discussions on Quebec language laws, which my coworkers for the most part find unnecessary and bordering on fascist.

While the office itself is very quiet due to our reliance on MSN for office communications, everyone is warm and friendly. My department tends to stick together, but that suits me just fine. We also take turns bringing in baked goods when it is someone's birthday.

Weekend Round-Up: Spendy Cupcakes, Comix & Salsa Dancing

Because L. and I both work day jobs, a lot of our exploring the city is done on the weekend. In the spirit of providing as much first hand experience of Montreal as possible, I had been wanting to do some sort of Weekend Round-Up feature for a while now, but I would usually forget until Wednesday, at which point the previous weekend was starting to get fuzzy and it stopped seeming all that relevant. I was hoping to have this post up on Monday, which would have made more sense, but we're a girl short at work right now so I actually have something to do during the work day. So here you go:

Friday: Hooked up with MC as I was going to be in her hood running some errands and I wanted to drop off Alain's metro card which he had given me last weekend as he was going to be out of town for a week and figured I could use it. Had a very girly evening of buying Organic shower gel, $15 worth of cupcakes at Petits Gateaux & body butter at Bella Pella. Grabbed dinner at our new addiction, Thai Express & met up with L. at our new favourite video store, Club Video Beaubien. Rented The Getaway (original), Pump Up the Volume & Shampoo. Watched Pump Up the Volume, which is AWESOME and the only Christian Slater movie Kim and I didn't watch during a sleepover night because her mom rented us If Looks Could Kill instead.

Saturday: In an effort to break out of our usual routine we opted to explore the Mile End neighborhood which is basically the area between us and The Plateau on St-Laurent. It is a predominently Anglo & student hood, with lots of cool boutiques and bagel shops. Had brunch at tiny, but packed Brazilian restaurant with roasted fruits. Found Drawn & Quarterly, a very nice store specializing in alternative and indie-press comics and novels. L. hinted strongly at wanting the Rick Trembles book, I finally picked up Therefore, Repent! and butted in on conversation about Vancouver and the till. Found another Organic supermarket with a huge selection of wellness & cosmetic products. Will pick up foundation there when I am all out. Headed up to Plaza St. Hubert to try on Yoga pants at Belle & Rebelle. On the way there we stopped in to Studio 9, which I had been avoiding it because it is so close, but I will have to start a box or something there. Didn't really find any pants & went home. I worked on computer (hello, editing!) while L. cleaned. Sorta participated in Earth Hour by watching the Habs game by candlelight with no heat (it's better than nothing, right?). After the game, Alain & MC came by to watch my recently purchased (for $9.99, natch!) Showgirls VIP Limited Edition Box Set. I made the mistake of the playing the drinking game with red wine. Tried watching Shampoo after Alain & MC took off, but my tummy would have none of it. Vomited red potato chips into the sink and called it a night.

Sunday: After Saturday night's adventures, opted to join Annie for Salsa Dancing classes in the Village instead of our planned outing to the Wine & Spirits Salon. Met Annie & Mel for breaky first at their favourite weekend haunt, Coco Gallo (after we introduced them). L. and I managed to get through the lesson without breaking up or physically harming each other, so that was good. Had coffee in the village with Annie and her friends before departing to wander downtown prior to getting to Comedyworks to see Andrea in a best of Open Mike showcase/contest. She won in a tie. Stumbled home & passed out by 11:30 pm.