MontrealGordaneers

First Quarter-January to March

2010-04-04T08:42:00.012-04:00

JANUARY

January began with a bang. 'Cause as soon as we got back from Victoria, Jeremy had a show at the Casa del Popolo. Here is a picture of our friend Eric playing music in front of one of Jeremy's bigger canvases.

This was one of the best openings I have ever been to. A lot of our friends came and the people at the Casa were very accommodating to the kids. The paintings looked fabulous and the atmosphere was very convivial.

Clea, enjoying the food.

BREAKING NEWS! The Gordaneer family finally give winter sports a try. This is now our sixth year in Montreal and instead of hiding out like hibernating bears all winter we decided to go to the mountain and actually try some of those implements those strange northern folks put on their feet in the winter. We first tried cross country skis. It was fun, but because the kids were a little slow and my hands froze while waiting for them. I think I might enjoy it more when they get bigger.

However, snow shoes were a lot of fun. It was like walking, but with bigger feet.

See? We go outside sometimes. Here's proof.

Winter. Yay. Although I have to say it was a disturbingly short one. It was pretty much over by the beginning of March. Although I appreciate it, it makes me very uncomfortable, thinking of how this might be a symptom of unnatural climate change...

FEBRUARY

Sylvie turns 11! Here are the gals, all dolled up. They went swimming, had dinner, watched Whip It! (awesome roller blade movie), kicked a pinata's butt and then had a sleep over. Or should we call it a hardly sleep over?

Looking tired but happy on the morning after...

Serious girls in the serious studio of their father.

February 14th. Skating at Ruth and Alex's.

15 years of being together. And Look! We still love each other! (You can tell because of the heart)

Going to the ballet! Jeremy and Sylvie off to see La Sylphide.

It was also during a lantern festival.

MARCH
Dustin comes to town for some work.
Now, I bet this is the least used port-o-potty in the world...

Kia visits!

Clea turns 9.

Clea's party. We took this gang to see Alice in Wonderland.

We then had cake and presents. And then they proceeded with their hardly sleep over.

Clea in her new Buffy t-shirt. I think she's on her way to be the biggest Buffy fan ever. I can't say I'm sad about it. Although I wish she'd stop trying to stake me...

Just kidding.

La fin

Catching Up to Myself: October- December 2009

2010-01-09T15:00:00.015-05:00

OCTOBER

Yes folks, that old adage better late than never does apply. So be prepared for a mammoth post. I recommend a beverage of choice, a nice comfy chair and at least 15 minutes. Because this might take awhile.

2nd Annual Concrete Banquet
We have some crazy friends in Montreal. One of them appeared in the last post exploring the Turcot Exchange with Jeremy. Now Jason likes to shake things up once in awhile- get people to step outside their comfort zones and do something they don't usually do. Last year, he invited us to a flashmob, black tie banquet in one of Montreal's parks. This park has a unique feature- a huge long concrete picnic table that I think most people are too intimidated to use. It was such a success that we decided to do it again this year. Except the only time everyone could get together was late October. So the flowing dresses, the crinolins, the silk ties are all beneath our fanciest coats (which, alas, are not that fancy.)

Lina, Penny and Jeff drinking something to keep warm.

Jeremy and somebody that I should know his name because I have seen him at parties for many years and he even came to see the marathon. Damn. I suck at names. He's nice though. Trust me.

Mr. Jason Prince spinning a surreal version of Laertes. I tried to support him by yelling out Boo! when he talked about the abstinence of the kingdom. He thought I was booing him and I spent the rest of the evening trying to make up for it. Serves me right for trying to be an extrovert.

Halloween Night
Halloween night was spectacular in Montreal this year, if not a bit frigid. It was cloudy and rainy all day and only started to clear up at around 5 pm. Then it became the most spooky evening ever, with clouds that could have been at home above Mordor.
Clea the witch and Madeleine the cat out on the prowl.

See? Spooky sunset...

And here are our four little monsters out on the town. Together they managed to stock up a mountain of candy. Of course, it ended up in swine-like flu symptoms in Clea. I am still not sure if it was just the candy or the epidemic...

Just one more spooky shot of Montreal.

November
How much is that painting in the window? La lalalalalalalaaaaaaa.
Okay, so nobody actually asked, but it's because people suck. It is up now in the casa del popolo and many people have asked in that location, thank you very much. Nobody that can actually pay, mind you, but who cares? Of course, I just realised that this little part might be very embarrassing for Jeremy. Sorry.

Clea and Turtus, our psychotic turtle. Or should that be Turtus and our psychotic Clea?

Jeremy does a self portrait. He's obviously too brilliant for himself...

December

These last couple of Decembers Sylvie's ballet school has held open houses instead of the semi-annual concert squeeze. As they do such a big production at the end, this is a welcome thing. Trust me.

Here is Sylvie doing her thing.

Jeremy's studio (just 'cause)

Jeremy's studio continued. I am very glad he has his own space. Less rusted thingamahoos in our home, if you catch my drift...

Christmas Vacation and the big finale!

Sylvie and Clea at the airport in the morning of the 16th.

Someone took this photo but it wasn't me. I was back in Montreal,working.

Decorating the Christmas tree with Mamie. Clea and Mateo are obviously too cool for school, but Magritte and Sylvie looked pretty happy.

Marc doing what he does best: fidgeting with gadgets and looking demonic. Installing a television that needs 3 remotes to work was among some of his satanic deeds.
The endangered blue bridge at night. I have a certain fondness for this bridge. I used to attend a school in Esquimalt and needed to cross the bridge in order to get there. When a boat was coming into the harbour, all traffic would be halted and we would watch the large weight suspended from the top lower and the bridge lift up. It was slow, and painful and somehow a big part of my childhood.

My sister's clinic! Yay! One of the best parts of the trip was seeing my sister Katie. Installed in the old Redfern house with my mother and Mateo, she has opened her own clinic and is doing well. She is also the happiest I have ever seen her, with a new boyfriend who treats her well and does not run away screaming from my family. Now that's a keeper...

Beach! Beautiful, sunny, heart stopping beach. Ya okay. So I liked the beach. We spent some good times throwing rocks into the ocean, pushing logs so that we could throw rocks at it, building rafts so that we could push them into the ocean and then throw rocks at them...Yep. Good times.

Chapman house. A moment of silence please.

But back to the beach! Portraits this time.

First we have, the lovely, the sweet, miss Sylvie!

Carrie and Tom comes to visit us! At the beach! I'll stop with the exclamation marks now. I am getting a sore throat just thinking about them.

The ever-poised miss Clea. See? No exclamation mark.
Visit to Grandma's House in port Alberni

But first, Cameron Lake family portrait.
Grandma's House
We were welcomed handsomely by Auntie Liisa, her beau and Grandma. they had prepared a wonderful meal for us. After lunch, we stopped by and saw Liisa's new property, ducks, dogs and all. Thanks guys for such a wonderful visit!

Sylvie and Clea are monsters.
Told ya'. Now how come this is so beautiful?

Here is Grandma and Clea.
Grandma and Sylvie.

The girls with their new Grandma knitted hats.

Now the whole family with their new knits.

Christmas Eve

Haggis Game: Jeremy wins an industrial sized potato masher. I think he might have left it in Victoria...The haggis game has grown to massive, unwieldy proportions since we left. We are pleased to announce though that it has also evolved. The haggis is still in circulation. Now, whoever is the lucky haggis holder becomes the new queen or king of the game. Which means they will be able to choose first and last for next year's game.

Christmas morning
Magritte sipping some virgin margueritas from her new martini set (won at the haggis game).

Mimi looking very chipper on Christmas morning.

Jim looking happy and healthy.
Sylvie with her present from Jim. As she is very interested in the Greek myths, this was the perfect present.

Grandma Branter and me. I missed her 90th birthday party in June, so we were very glad to see each other.

Clea and her spell book from Jim with Jim.
Alisa and her new hat.

Pub time with Jim and Miria.

Oxford Foods: Oh how I miss you. With your cheap deals, competent check out women and hilariously misspelled signs (anyone up for a glass of evaporated mike? How about some oliver oil on your salad?), you will live in our hearts forever. And also in this amazing photograph by Jeremy.

Talking about missing people... Here are two lovely ladies that I miss a lot. We had the pleasure of taking them out for lunch and a little treat (shameless bribery in an ineffectual attempt to make up for lost time). In fact, I got to see all of the lovely young people I have known since their birth and was totally moved by them. First of all, they all grew like Jack's beanstalk. Seriously, kids. I know I'm short, but this is embarrassing. Second of all, I go away for, like a paltry 3 years, and you all decide to become these sentient, thinking, amazing human beings? Now is that fair? Maggie, Bridget, Maita, Jonas, Pierre, Elliott, Sophie, Sacha, Magritte and Mateo. I love you guys so much. We gotta see each other more often, 'cause I don't know if I can handle another shock to my system like this Christmas. It might just kill me if you guys grow up more.

So that's it. Phew. Sorry for the little bit of drama at the end there. But I won't lie. It hurt some.

Happy New Year,

Lina

Autumnal Meanderings at Warp Speed Part 1

2009-10-18T09:04:00.011-04:00

Okay. I have completely dropped the ball, on this whole keeping you up to date. I put these pictures up October 18th, and even that was late. I know, I know, you have all been glued to your computer screen all autumn, wasting away, in tears, cursing my negligence. Well, get over it. Here it is. As I say at the beginning, get a life. 'Cause that's my excuse: my runaway, who-needs-brakes anyway life. And, of course, that of my family's.

Oh. And if you haven't guessed, Jeremy picked the photos for this issue. That would account for the greatness of them.

The Turcot Interchange: where Jeremy and Jason take pictures of an endangered infrastructure

(somethings are meant to go the way of the dodo...)
It is falling apart. Does it need to replaced or can there be other, less car-centric solutions to this problem? Read more about this debate at: http://turcot.ca/
Our friend Jason prince, co-editor of the Book, Montreal at the Crossroads
But also just an amazing example of an urban ruin, ever so prolific here in decrepit old Montreal.

A view of the monster at the amusement park La Ronde. Sylvie and Jeremy rode it in the summer. It has been there since Expo '67, so it is kind of like taking your life in your hands.
What Jeremy sees when her rides his bicycle. A view that has inspired many great paintings. No, really.
Clea and I being all cuddlywuddly. It happens.
This was taken when I was at work so I have no idea where they are. But I do see some kite action though.
In the Parc Jarry near our house. There is a very open field perfect for kite flying. If Sylvie turned towards the photographer, she would see the Stade Uniprix, home of the Roger's Cup, previous home of the Montreal Expos.
Man, I think we're still in August.

Camping: Always seems like a good idea at the time...

I took a week in August between jobs (yes, I changed jobs again- it turns out that the commute was indeed too much for me) and we went camping. As Katie and my mom were moving to B.C. (in case you didn't know, they moved to B.C.), we thought it might be nice to meet up with them in Ontario somewhere and have one last visit before it costs us 1000s of dollars. I can't wait until we can teleport.

First stop: Our friends cabin!
We must be moving up in the world because now we have friends that own cabins! We were lucky enough to be invited to this little oasis in the country near Lachute (between Montreal and Ottawa). It was very tempting to stay there, as it had running water and no tent was needed and the cocktails were divine, but alas, we had to move it right along...

Also, the swimming hole was wonderful. The water was a lovely temperature, there were no big monstrous motorboats or jet skis on the lake and it was small enough to swim to the other side.
Playing our new favourite card game, 10,9,8, after a nice swim.
Clea coming back from the washroom at a campsite near Fitzroy harbour in Renfrew county. This was our least favourite campsite. It had no character but a lot of bugs.
Bonnechere caves
Screw the tent- we're staying in a yurt! In a private campsite on the shore of Round lake near tramore, right on the edge of Algonquin Park.

Emily Park near Peterborough.

Now this is where we met my mother and Katie and Mateo- however, we seem to have no pictures of this. I think Jeremy dropped the ball here.
First Day of school. This is getting to be less and less of a big deal.
Second Marathon. Finished it. Yay!
That's it for now folks. We have now managed to get into the middle of September. I am hoping to post another one that shows the crazy antics experienced in the months of October and November very soon. I promise (with only one hand with fingers crossed behind my back ).

Summer Edition

2009-08-02T08:20:00.007-04:00

Well, at least I think it is. It has been so rainy, if it wasn't for the killer humidity and the bugs, I'd think we were back in Victoria (which, I hear, is having excellent weather.)

Snapshot of this moment:

4 girls, two aged tens and two aged 8 are lounging on the couch watching Penelope in French. They are stuffed with my homemade waffles and tired out from a night of not sleeping. I kind of hate sleepovers. The fallout can be rough. But I digress. Let's begin in June shall we?

June

Clea of the undead. Told ya she was a scary child.

Jeremy from Clea's perspective. No wonder she's so freaky.

School concerts!

This was the best end of the school year concert ever. Brief (always the most important factor) and lively, it was choreographed by the gym, music and art teachers. The kids played drums on large recycling bins, did some circus acts and gymnastics, had great face paint and their pictures on the wall. Bravo for not making the parents sit through another surreal, disjointed nightmare of a children's performance!

Piano recital!
Here is Clea praying to the virgin. Or is it Saint Clea of the sheet music?

Yes, this is where they played.

The two virtuosos (who, I just realised, haven't played all summer. Oops)

July

Pause for a Clea and Sylvie station break. They were gone for the last week of June and the first 2 weeks of July. They went to visit the fam in Victoria. We missed them.

But... while the little mice are away, the cats...go to New York!

Here is Jeremy in our room at the Carlton Arms.

America. You gotta love it. Unabashed idolatry, with just a soupçon of irony and a dollop of pop culture references.

Ahh, yes. Barnett Newman. And over there on the far wall, Barnett Newman's off cut. Leave your history at the door, my....

See? We really were there. It was grey and rainy with bouts of intense sunshine. Kind of like life.

Me. After a day of walking and a lot of wine. Sitting on the fire escape and enjoying watching the NY craziness.

Look! Our garden!

The kids came back!
And one had red hair and the other blond streaks and they both seemed too grown up to be allowed. But then they came back and we were happy. Here is Miss Sylvie sitting demurely on the climbing structure by our house.

Visit from Saskatoon!

So these kids haven't seen each other since the summer we moved to Montreal and it took about five minutes for them to get re-acquainted. In fact, Torin here, an awesome kid, was willing to be adopted by us. Alas, the paperwork was too slow and they had to go back to the West.

Here is Shannon and Nadeige. Shannon is still the same height as she was five years ago but Nadeige has grown considerably. Still the same face though, and just as awesome as her brother.
JF, the chef, discovers the Vietnamese sub. Oh Joy! Oh Rapture!

Then they left, but not before purchasing some great t-shirts from Montrealité.

Visit to the Eastern Townships!

We arrived in Ayer's cliff for lunch on Saturday. It took about 1 minute after eating for the kids to beg us to go swimming (actually, they begged us way before- we just ignored them.) Then we went to my Aunt's sister's place where children the age of my children roam freely. Once again, we entered the door, and I don't think we saw them again until the next day. I recall vaguely two little girls emerging from the pool to eat bread and cheese and carrot sticks but I might be mistaken...

Here they are with Arianna.

We went to this Suspension bridge by Coaticook. Besides having suspension bridges over beautiful gorges, the small town is also famous for their excellent ice cream.

We actually made them walk through the nature.

Here's the Eastern Township gang:

In conclusion

Here is the Turcot exchange, a complicated weaving of intersecting freeways and exits. It is in rough shape and poised for some major action in the near future (which for Montreal, means probably in 20 years). Like a lot of our infrastructure it is falling apart. So, assuming that we do not get flattened by a falling piece of underpass, or a cement block detaching itself from the building overhead while we are enjoying a nice maki, we'll catch you later for the Late Summer Edition of this here blog!

May Long Weekend

2009-05-18T08:07:00.008-04:00

Snapshot of this moment, Monday May 18th:

As I write this, CBC radio is on, a news story about what sounds like Chinese Christians. Sylvie, Clea and their friend Jericho are surfing the internet for traditional Hawaiian meals. So far they have only found Pina Colada and other alcoholic beverages. Jeremy is wandering around the house, sort of cleaning, sort of drinking coffee, sort of reading.

Okay. Now I have set the context. Let us go back in time the beginning of April.

Easter Weekend

I have fond memories of this weekend. Katie and Mateo came to visit and we had a great visit. Yes, we all got the flu. Yes, the kids spent a whole day watching the 3 Mummy movies. Still, the times when we didn't feel sick or weren't puking was wonderful! Here are some highlights:

Ahh, yes, the traditional purchasing of the cheap, Easter egg decorating kit. The kids were lethargic and unenthusiastic at first, yet they seemed to rally at the end. Clea perfected the art of the coloured underlay while Sylvie branded her eggs with little scenes of the Titanic crashing into the iceberg. Mateo went urban and explored the world of graffiti.

We didn't use many of the weird, useless stickers, foil, stencils that came in the dollar kit. In fact, we were downright suspicious of them.

Easter morning

This was the only time they left the couch- to chase the eggs. However, the were feeling so sick they hardly ate any of them.

I actually had to force Sylvie and Clea to come to this Kid rock show. It was great fun. Really.

However, this was Sylvie's initial reaction:

Mateo refused to go, preferring to take refuge inside his brain,taking his eyeballs with him.

Clea ate one of the chocolate eggs and in an unprecedented Easter weekend tragedy, felt her face melting. We told her to take a papaya enzyme, go to bed and see how she felt in the morning.

Here is Katie pondering all of the above remarkable events.

ABBA and the coolest grandma ever

Here are my two disco divas all ready to bust a move with their grandmother, who bought them tickets to go see the ABBA revival tour. Now, how many grandmothers would do that for their grandkids?

Day off with Jeremy

Prod-d day in April. I am working as usual, so Jeremy and the girls decide to go exploring. Here are som pics of their trek up the mountain.

Of course, a day with papa is never complete without a visit to the studio to play with long sticks, sharp knives and rusty metal:

Grease, the musical and the coolest grandma ever, part II

Yes, retirement stuck as well as water to plastic to my mother. She now has a full time job at a high school. That high school was doing the production of Grease, so my mother, always the insane one, decided to take the girls and two of their friends to see it. The girls had a great time, but when I asked my mother how it was, all she could do was giggle. Needless to say, I am glad I didn't have to go. So she took the kids on the metro, brought them back to her house, gave up her bed to a pair of them and slept on the couch. I still can't believe it. She's a hero. Here are the girls on the big night:

Now what were Jeremy and I doing that night? Well, we went to see a contemporary dance piece choreographed by one of our friends. It was smart, funny, moving and beautiful. Did I mention funny? I can't say I always understand contemporary dance or that I always respond favourably to it ( alot of it makes me feel like I am watching a game of charades and have to try and guess what the movement means- I hate that. Especially since it is a one way game and the charade last 30 minutes), but I really loved this piece.

In conclusion, she can fly! She can fly!!!!!

Spring? Déjà?

2009-03-23T05:38:00.011-04:00

All of a sudden, it is the end of March and I realize I haven't posted since the beginning of January. To say that we have been busy would be like saying that there are a few calories in a bowl of poutine. That is, it would be an understatement. I know. Excuses, excuses. Get on with it already.

January

What happened in January? I have no idea. I can't think of a single thing. The vacation ended and we went back to school and work. I am trying to think back but all I can remember is a lot of snow. We did have Sylvie's birthday party in the last weekend in January however, and that went well. She decided to have a beading workshop this year. The beading workshop lady came for the party and the girls made necklaces and bracelets. Then, of course, presents and cake and all that jazz... All in all, a pretty easy, no fuss no muss birthday. The only problem is that it is Montreal and even though I gave the kids a half an hour leeway before the bead workshop commenced, they were still late. Some even hours late. What is up with that? Is punctuality that uncool? I think I might start a petition to reinstate it in the annals of social etiquette. Be on time, people! Then of course the parents we all late and then they stayed for a beer and well, there goes another day, down the tubes of social niceties. Oh, I'm sounding bitter about it but it was still very pleasant.

Oh yes, and Clea finally decided to take piano. We will see how it goes, but so far so good.

Deciding to enjoy the last days of Christmas vacation, we decide to head to the Musée des Beaux Arts for a little culture...
Montreal in January- looks like fun, n'est-ce pas?
It is my birthday. You wanna make something of it?
Happy Birthday to me! I live in a tree! I look like a monkey and hoo haa heee!
No really. We love winter. Look at us- we could be the poster children for participaction! Does that even exist anymore?
February

And did I mention Sylvie turned 10? I have a ten year old. As she says- double digits. Yes, our groundhog has officially finished her first decade. And its weird. She actually seems older too. All of a sudden she wants to do everything by herself- cook dinner, her homework, her hair. In the last week she has even started walking to the library, just her and her sister. She has also started reading like a maniac too- the last book on my Librarything page was her suggestion. She has got her own fashion sense, likes to write letters to people and is now into playing video games. She still loves ballet and tolerates piano. For her birthday dinner Dustin came down from Toronto, which was really nice of him and much appreciated by Sylvie. We went to the Chinese Buffet and vowed never to do so again- it was particularly horrible this time, with much of the food unidentifiable. Still, it was a good time.

Dustin is bugging Jeremy. Again.
Mamie Denise, as she is known at the kids' school, is much loved.
In February, Jeremy and I went to Sylvie's class to help them dissect cow' eyes. It was extremely awesome. Of course, unbeknownst to us, Sylvie opted out, preferring to research carnivorous plants. Still, I learned a lot...
This is my new favourite chair. Just thought I would mention it...
I had to go to Quebec for a job related thing and Jeremy came with me. It was only one night, but still it felt like a mini vacation.
I don' care if its winter- I am going to relax if it kills me.
March

Spring Break
Although it wasn't exactly Florida and Disney world, the girls had a good time. Sylvie spent 2 days at work with me, and Clea one. And they loved it. If they could, they would quit school and come stamp things and check out books and follow the circulation staff in our library. We did take the last weekend however to go to Toronto. It was short and sweet- we stayed at Dustin's, the girls hung out with Katie that Saturday morning while Jeremy went to the Art Gallery of Ontario and I went to a meeting. In the afternoon we went to the ROM. It was crazy busy and raining out but still- we went first to the room with all the minerals in it. I think this was one of our favourite things. It is amazing how many different formations can evolve out of the same building blocks. Anyway. We were out of there the next day. As I said, short and sweet.

The snow melted! Of course, the jury is still out on this one- I mean I have been bracing for a huge storm any day now. But just to give you an indication, Clea had her birthday party yesterday and I was outside in a tank top. Yay for spring!

Clea's Birthday!

And to bring us completely up to date, this last weekend we had Clea's Birthday party, although she turned 8 a week ago. She received some lovely flowers the day of from some weird flower shop owning relative!

For Clea's birthday we rented the community pool. Although there are no photos of this event (I forgot to bring the camera), it was awesome. We were 9 kids and 3 adults and had the whole pool to ourselves for an hour. And when we got home, Sponge Bop Square Pants of the undead was ready to have his spongy vampire butt kicked.
Here is Clea about to embark in some vampire slaying...
Of course, presents...
Sponge Bob Squarepantless...
A pool cake...

And that concludes the birthday parties for the year!

Happy Spring!

2008 in Photos

2009-01-03T15:21:00.015-05:00

January

We get a piano. Sylvie begins lessons. Clea starts a year later.

February

We get a new member of the family: Turtus Lawrence Gordaneer. He's crazy, he bites and he fits in perfectly.

Sylvie turns 9. Asks and gets Turtus. We are all happy.

March

New York! Running in Central Park with Erinne.

Central Park Beauties!

On Wall Street. The proximity of all that money made us a little psycho.
Ahh. The Brooklyn bridge. Here is some interesting info on the construction.

Move over Gossip Girls- the Montreal crew is in the house!

It's my birthday and I rule the universe.

Snow, snow, snow and more snow. Did I mention we got some snow in 2008?

Turtus grows.

Family photo. They happen so rarely I though I should include it.

Flowers from guess who?
Partee!

April

An actual room being unavailable, Jeremy compromises by making an awesome corner for Lina. Happy Birthday me! Although there are no photos of this, this is also the month that I changed jobs.
May
Jeremy goes to Victoria to help the family fix things, but mostly just to bug Alisa.

June
The month of end of the year shows. Ballet, piano, and school terminates for the year.
Jeremy gardens his little heart out. Or should I say landscape?

School presentation. Sylvie gets in touch with the Iroquois in her.

Pools are just as fun when empty!

Stratford- pick up Mateo!

July
Mateo visits. There is fun, lice and other creepy crawlies to be had.

August

More summer fun and a visit from Annalise (with her parents of course).

September

I run the marathon. Not as well as Kia or my mom, but I did finish, so that's gotta count for something right?

October

Beautiful autumn.

Hallowe'en!

November

Living the urban life by Sylvie and Clea.

Yeah. More of that white stuff. Grumble, grumble.

December

Christmas party time! Playing the haggis game (but here in Montreal it is the lamborghini with woman in bad underwear game-don't ask.)

Open Ballet Class

Christmas morning

And that was our year. Nothing big broke, nobody had any serious accidents and everybody is healthy= pretty darn good. Here is hoping that your last year at least met these standards and that 2009 surpasses them!

November. Who needs it?

2008-12-09T09:12:00.005-05:00

November is the catch all month of the year, the month for miscellaneous events. Sandwiched between October (Thanksgiving AND Halloween!) and December (that behemoth, Christmas), November sort of gets passed over.

So we fill it up with other stuff, like work related events, and make work projects and impromptu visits away. We try to ignore the fact that the days are cold and grey, that the wind is passing through our coats like ghosts through walls and it is dark when we go to work and when we come back. November.

So. November. Who needs it? Why don't we just squeeze October and December together and forget all about November? An interesting idea...However, just to play devil's advocate, here is what we would miss if we were to skip the 11th month of the year:

Playing wall tennis with cheap balls that don't bounce:

Bringing light to the people:
Decorating Jeremy's new easel:

Waking up. It's hard you know...
Taking pictures of the bleak yet beautiful urban landscape:

Taking mental health days in Jeremy's studio:

Enjoying the stylish offerings from Lucia in San Diego:

And, of course, climbing trees (try and find Sylvie)!

I also participated in National Novel Writing Month this year, and am now the proud owner of an appalling first draft.

Jeremy has kept the November blues at bay by working like a maniac for several different people on several different projects.

So. That's done. Now Christmas....

The tenth month

2008-10-13T08:39:00.008-04:00

September. It's over. That means there are only nine months left of school! Umm, not that I'm counting or anything...

Like most Septembers, this one exploded in our face like spaghetti left for too many rotations in a microwave. Time went splattering all over the walls of our lives and now we are rushing to wipe up the mess. Whoah... metaphor much?

So here is how we finished August. The kids went away for the weekend to Stratford, and we decided that we liked our visit to nature so much we should repeat it. We decided to go for a lovely nature hike on Boucherville islands, which I had heard were lovely. Yet what I failed to understand was that it was a wildlife reserve. More precisely, a duck sanctuary. Which means that, however pretty they kept the trails, it was still a swamp. And what lives in swamps?

Mainly mosquitoes. Here is a picture of Jeremy in a premature victory cheer over the little buggers. It soon turned into a nightmare where we were running to the car while flagellating ourselves. I am still having nightmares...

First day of school!
So, I finally figured out how to manage my children's education: by staying the hell out of it. The first day of school went very well, as did most days since then. Why? Because I refuse to get involved (Jeremy will back me up on this- everybody's life is easier since Stalina left the building). I won't go to meetings, I won't bug them about their homework. So far it has worked like a charm. The kids are responsible for their own work and I am going through way less whiskey than last year. It is amazing what they can do when I let them.

Flash mob formal banquet

Yes, people. This is the reason why we live in a big city.

Organised by our crazy friend, this was an event where you showed up in this park with a huge long, concrete table dressed to the nines and armed with gourmet food. We didn't stay long as I couldn't get it together to make some gourmet food, and I was doing my first marathon the next day. Which brings me to my next photo...

My first marathon

This is me around kilometer 30. Believe me, I look happier than I feel. You think I am all carefree, but really I am thinking, "okay. this foot goes in front of this foot." Over and over until I saw the finishing line and then ran a lot faster. Then I felt all dizzy and thought I was going to die.

Oh yeah. And Kia kicked my ass. And then she did another marathon last weekend and kicked her own ass by shaving 9 minutes off her original time. So go Kia, go!

Just because I like this photo...

Here we are, eating my prodigal cousin's birthday cake. It always taste better when it was meant for somebody else, n'est ce pas?

CIBC run for the cure event. I figure that there is a lot of breasts in the library profession and that they are worth preserving.

What the hell am I doing here? When can we eat?

I want to be my dad. Except for his clothes are too big and kind of stinky...

New awesome park by our house.

And that's all folks. Since I began this post, we had Thanksgiving, where we served burritos and poutine (something we would not have gotten away with if my mother had not been visiting Katie in Stratford at the time). Expats Julie, Ryan and Avery came, as well as Sylvie's friend and Mom and our friends Carrie and Tom. I am not sure if we took any photos of this very pleasant and eccentric supper, but if I did, expect them next post!

In conclusion, may all your leaves turn bright umber and fall from your tree...No, no, that's not a good conclusion...May more people transcend their apathy and get their decadent behinds out to the next election. Yes. Yes. That's more like it.

Back to school? Already?

2008-08-23T14:48:00.009-04:00

And in the spirit of the new working year (because let's face it, our brains turn to mush as soon as July hits) I am going to try out this new slideshow thingy I found the other day. For those of you who receive this in an email, you might have to go to the actual blog to view it. But don't panic! There should be a link at the bottom of the email!

Mateo stays for a month
Jeremy and I kept thinking about how when our kids are older, they will remember the summer where they had a month long sleep over with their cousin. What did we do? Well, to be honest, I didn't do much with them as I work all the time. A lot of the time they just wanted to stay around the house playing. Because, as we all know, the modern child doesn't actually have a lot of time to do this, which is a travesty. They played, they watched movies, they dressed up, they tried to sell juice at exorbitant prices and succeeded because they were cute. They also went to the beach, got lice, got pinworms, dyed their hair purple, cuddled like wrestling kittens and generally had a great ol' time!

Granby Zoo
Oh yeah. And we also went to the zoo.

La Ronde!
Yes people, if you read my other blog, you'll know that Jeremy and I caved in and went to the amusement hell- oops.. I meant park... called La Ronde. Despite all the very good anthropological reasons for frequenting such a place (people are weird and they dress really funny, we actually had a lot of fun. We tested our reasonable fear limits and went on a ride that swung you in a lovely 360 arc. This is how I dealt with such a ride: while in the obscenely long line, I counted to see how many loops they made. Thus when I was on the swiftly moving death machine, I was able to count my way through the fear and the nauseous feeling imminent death by plummeting to the concrete ground always gives me. And who says arithmetic isn't useful? Unfortunately I have no photographic proof of this event, just several witnesses. Oh yeah. And Sylvie went on it too. She was calm and collected the whole way. Then she got off, walked a few paces, saw Jeremy and Clea and burst into tears. That is also another way of dealing with the fear- bottling it up until your safe and then letting it flood out of you. Good times!!!

Trip to Maine!
So the kids went to Stratford for a week with my mom. It was a busy week for me, as I had the end of the summer reading program to coordinate, and I needed a vacation. Actually, what I really needed was to see something different.So we stocked the car up, and left Montreal early Saturday morning. Our goal was to see the Atlantic coast of the United States, more specifically, Acadia National Park. And here is, in all its unedited glory if you are interested. If not, the solution is a simple one- don't look.

So, I went a little crazy with the slide show function. I promise the next issues of this Gordaneer News Bulletin won't be so hefty.
Happ Labour day and may your back to school season be sunny and stress-free (yeah. right.)

This is the end, my friends (of school, not of this blog)

2008-06-28T09:20:00.023-04:00

NOTE: Pictures in this edition were chosen by Jeremy. And mostly taken by him. Which they usually are.

Les spectacles de l'année!

The beginning of June brought the end of the ballet season and along with it the dreary 3 hour practices twice a week. The girls were in fine form, Sylvie as an elf and Clea as a...small ballerina person? It was an abbreviated interpretation of a Midsummer's night dream and I gotta tell you, not dragging their tired little children's butts to practice every Tuesday, and Saturday ( and, at the end, Friday and Sunday) was a pre-summer night's dream for moi.

Sylvie also had her piano recital the day after the ballet show, but we don't seem to have any picutres of that. I am sure some of you cringed at the thought of the dreaded piano recital, but I assure you, it was a classy, short affair, which makes me love Norman, Sylvie's piano teacher, all the more. There were only a few students at varying levels who played only two pieces each. Sylvie and her friend Jericho played a duet together as well as a piece on their own. They acquitted themselves beautifully I must say, despite the brief lapse in judgement and subsequent disciplinary trauma that occurred right before the concert.

Soirée amérindienne

Sylvie's class put on an evening celebrating native culture at her school.There was a fashion show, sporting the traditional garb of four native tribes from North America. Then we toured the classroom and had brief little presentations on the types of homes and life styles of each tribe. Sylvie was algonquien. I think. They then served up dishes from each tribe and served their families.

In passing, Sylvie has had a big year. The beginning was mucho hard, with her not keeping up with her work, not being able to follow at school and generally feeling really bad about everything. The end, however, was light years away from that. In the last couple of months of school, something clicked inside her brain. Things began to make sense for her, she was able to work on projects she was interested in and she was generally happier and more self-confident.

My mother, who has become indispensable to the school, helped out alot, and despite a few kitchen disasters with the kids, was able to help the kids serve up a delicious, if not eclectic meal.

Virtual Swimming

We went to visit Ruth and Alex and the kids and their pool was not yet filled for the year. Sylvie looks like she is filming scenes that will be filled with a bunch of CGI effects. According to Jeremy, the pool is way more fun this way.

Ikea instructions

Don't be stupid.

Jeremy's bike

Umm. Have nothing much to say about it. Did I mention he chose the pictures?

Jeremy's studio

Again, I am at a loss. I guess he just wanted to show you the place where he gets to go sometimes but definitely not enough. Fine. Go there then Jeremy. God you are so pushy.

Stratford tales

We went to visit my sister in Stratford for the St-Jean Baptiste weekend. I am ashamed to say it was the first time I've been there since she moved last year. Here are the three monkeys who are obviously causing trouble. Look at them, the little hooligans...

According to Jeremy, the best building in Stratford.

Beach. I can't remember the name of this place, but it was just outside of Stratford and we were the only ones there for a good couple of hours.

This is a photo of me taken by Clea. I think I will hire her as my own personal photographer, as she takes the best pics of me ever. Seriously. Here I am, at the beach, without a book. WITHOUT A BOOK! I almost went insane. Instead I slept, which was good too I guess if you are in to that sort of thing...

Mateo came back with us and will be staying for part of the summer as Katie studies for her boards. After beign stuck in gridlock in Toronto for three hours, we lunched at this little party town called Cobourg, that looked like Florida during spring break.

We couldn't find the kids bathing suits, so they just dove right in. I am still finding sand in pockets.

Then they got tired.

Then they got hungry.

The end

It has been a week since Mateo came and so far so good despite some wee beasties that have appeared on our children's heads. If we survive the parasites, we might actually have a nice summer. Who knows? If you don't here from me in July, it is because the lice won...

Holy Crap, it's the end of May!

2008-05-24T07:22:00.017-04:00

How the heck did that happen? Has it been that long? Oh my god, I feel like a blogging Rip Van Winkle. Well, brace yourselves people. Take your protein pills and put your helmets on, 'cause this one's going to be a doozy. So let us uncap that whiskey bottle together, take a swig, and catch up.

By the way, this is us.

March
Phewph. I just did a little recap, and realised that at least I got our little escapade to New York in there.
But not everything. March did continue in all its excessively snowy glory.

Easter
This one is easy! My mom took the kids to Stratford to visit my sister. It was very relaxing for Jeremy and I. Well, kind of relaxing. I worked and Jeremy... worked? I can't remember. I think we went out one night- but my biggest memory of that weekend is getting up to drink coffee and read uninterrupted all morning.
They got home on the Monday and were relatively unscathed (just kidding Mom).

Clea's Birthday
We also celebrated our own Little Miss Muffet, who, when asked what she wanted for her birthday said, "Surprise me." Like she was already forty years old and gifts no longer held any thrill for her. So I got her a devil t-shirt. She liked it.

It was a small affair, with five of Clea's friends. She didn't want to go anywhere, just hang out at home and play pin the tail on the donkey and that game where you dance and then everybody freezes.

They also spent an inordinate time in the cupboard in her room.

And here they are- the posse.

April
This photo was taken by Clea. It is a perfect example of why we love Montreal so much.

I have no idea what happened in April. Oh yeah. I changed jobs. I am no longer working at the large library downtown. I am now working in a small library way out in the suburbs where I get paid more, have way more freedom to implement ideas and generally happier.

I also turned older. In absence of an actual room with doors, Jeremy was kind enough to make me my own habitat for my birthday:

It's like totally modular dude.

Hey Sacha! Here's your fairy house! It is sort of like finding Pompeii after Vesuvius exploded... If your not aware of Pompeii, I suggest you ask your mother and father to get you a nice book from the library. Then you will know what I mean.

May
Okey dokey then. Making our way to the end of May... In May, Jeremy left us. No, no. Not forever. Just for a couple of weeks. Why? 'Cause things are rocking and rolling for the westcoast part of the family. They is busy pimping up their abodes in order to sell the mofos. And, of course, who better to help pimp but that Jeremy of all trades, that Harlequin of the hammer, that Roi de renovations? But here is some pictures of the May long weekend, when Erinne came down from New York with her friend Matthieu.

For the saga behind these khakis, I will refer you to my other blog.

Look. Idyllic, ain't it. We even saw a real live muskrat!

Oh Yeah. 11th wedding anniversary
That is today. Today Jeremy and I have been married for 11 years. We have been together for thirteen years. And we have known each other for twenty years. Holy mother of all that is good and healthy. 20 years. Now that is something to celebrate! When my mother gets back from Katie's graduation from naturopathy school which is also happening right now.

The End
Well that's it, folks. In conclusion, may all your toasters arrive by train.

Où sont les neiges d'antan?

2008-02-24T09:50:00.017-05:00

I know. You probably ask yourself this all the time. Well, the answer is, in Montreal. All the snow from yesterday, today and tomorrow has wound up by some weird spacetime continuum, here in Montreal during the 2007/2008 season. And I am sure I am not the only person to feel this, but I am thoroughly sick of it. So what have we been doing this February and March? Well, here is a list:

1. Trudging. Trudging through snow, through ice, through slush and puddles that would count as lakes in some countries.

2. Cursing. Cursing the Gods that we believe in and even those we don't. Cursing the gods of weather and the gods of the black sense of humour. The Gods that decide who lives in this God forsaken place. Oh, wait a minute.We decided that. Damn.

3. Whiskey. Drinking whiskey. Because when all meaning has been covered in several feet of snow, the only thing to do is to drown your sorrows in whiskey. In Sylvie and Clea's case, their poison of choice is Orangina.

4. Getting on with things. Of course. Because what else? Yes, it sucks. Yes, I would give my left eye for a look at the deadened, yellow grass flattened under our local ice age. But what can you do? We still need to eat, and work and get the kids to school.

Here are some highlights of us getting on with things from the last two months (obviously, writing this blog has not been a priority- I apologize profusely for my lapse- or perhaps you don't care, in which case ignore the apology.)

Miria's visit (January)
Holy snow drifts, I am late in writing this. My only excuse is a snow induced stupor. Miria came for a visit in mid-January, her annual "we get to have Mimi all to ourselves for a couple of days" extravaganza. As usual, the woman can run circles around me. She yogaed with Denise, hung out with the kids and generally was great to have around.

Sylvie turns 9!
I know. I am just not going to think about it. The double digits are now less than a year away. I swear, it is making me seriously doubt that I am still young and chipper. How on earth can I have an almost ten year old? Yes, it is all about me, in case you are wondering. Still, several good things happened on her birthday:
1. Sylvie and I spent the afternoon together, just walking around and having a good ol' time. Happy memories for me and hopefully for her too.
2. Sylvie requested and received a turtle for her birthday. Although it almost bankrupted us, the turtle, which she has named Turtus Lawrence Gordaneer, is now a lively part of our family. I say lively, because I think we must have the only hyperactive turtle in existence. Our friend at Un autre Pamplemousse was kind enough to take a video of him which you can view here.
3.We went bowling for her birthday- always a cause for celebration.

Here are the troops gathered for present opening after they bowled themselves out.

Camp de neige
In late February, both Sylvie and Clea went to the school's annual Camp de neige, where they frolicked in the snow, went to bed late and, in Sylvie's case, got quite ill. Denise, that trooper, accompanied them (I would rather poke out my eyeballs than accompany a school of children to snow camp for three days- but hey. Whatever floats her boat.) During that time, Jeremy and I played. Here is a post I wrote about my time without children.

March Break- New York New York!
And then, all of a sudden, it was March break and we were off to New York! The trip almost didn't happen as Jeremy and Sylvie had been very sick right before the trip. But he rallied at the last minute and we made our way down to the Big Apple after the kids' ballet lessons. Erinne was waiting for us there in her fancy mid-town Manhattan digs.

Central Park Zoo

Notice anything? Huh? Yep. We are dressed for the storm but there isn't one. It's sunny! AND THERE IS NO SNOW IN NEW YORK.

Here is the polar bear who lives in the middle of New York city. Who'd a thunk?

We also saw a mouse deer from Madagascar and a red panda that looked like a cross between a fox and bear. Wait a minute.... I'm sure I have a picture somewhere...Ahh. Here it is:

FAO Shwarz

Remember that scene in BIG? Well, here we are, living the dream and playing the big piano keyboard at the mega toy store FAO Shwarz.

Natural History Museum
Just so that you know, the museum is totally different from how it looks in Night at the museum. It just goes to show you that you can't trust Hollywood... Still, the fourth floor was a miracle of organization- they had it set up by evolutionary milestones- you know, the first animals with jawbones, etc. Totally cool.

New York Stock Exchange
We just walked past it and thought it might be fun to fake money happiness...

Brooklyn Bridge

A lovely walk and an interesting history lesson. Also, if you cross the Brooklyn bridge and duck under to the pier, you will find a pizza place called Grimaldi's where we had possibly the best pizza I have ever tasted.

And that is that. Erinne received the good news that she was matched with the residency in Madison, Wisconsin, which was the one she wanted. So I guess the next trip will be to Madison...

Well, that's it for now folks. Look for accounts of Clea's birthday party and hopefully, the melting of the snow in the next issue.

Christmas vacation fun

2008-01-20T14:58:00.000-05:00

And welcome to the first blog post of the year folks. To begin with, we will have a small glimpse of how we finished 2007 ( a year that is best looked at from the vantage point of the rear view mirror).

Snow, snow and yes! More snow! (not that I am complaining...it's better than rain)

I can't even remember which snow storm this was, as we have had so many. However, this is a good glimpse of our street before the snow removal carnaval appears.

Here is Clea taking a break from the hardwork of building a snow fort. She really just needed a little lie-in.

Ah, yes. Jeremy's annual snowfort building extravaganza. Inspired by my mother's reminiscences of the snow forts her father built her when she was little, this particular model was igloo-like in shape and big enough inside to have a chair and some candles. Unfortunately, because of the inconstant climate, it melted twice and there has not yet been enough snow (or time) to rebuild. I guess that is what you get for building with a material that is mostly air and water.

Christmas morning! Yay! We spread a cover on the ground before the loot. The big score this year was a gym mat. One of those ones from gym class. Remember? The royal blue sweat imbued things you would roll around on in school...

Second Christmas up at Mamie's....

The traditional Christmas day walk. Although it was very warm outside on Christmas day, we decided to try our luck and go sledding at the park near our house. No, we are not on the skating rink (although there is a frozen pond one could skate on).

They totally conquered that snow drift...

Next day. Skating early in the morning! This is the pond of which I wrote. Perfect for beginners, but if you are looking to do a triple axle and need a smooth surface, I wouldn't recommend it.

Again, the annual tradition of the Nutcracker for Denise's birthday. Going up the stairs at the Place des arts.

Party! This year we were celebrating my mother's sixtieth birthday. Katie and Mateo arrived shortly after we got back from the Nutcracker and Ruth, Alex, Olivia, and the twins David and Catherine also came over to celebrate the happy event. Jeremy thought he would waste no time and began little David's training as a rock star right away.

Here she is, the happy matriarch, the woman who has made all this possible. Without her, I wouldn't be here, and you wouldn't be receiving these annoying emails. So you can all give thanks to Denise!

Here is proof that we forced them to sit in a row and eat cake. We are very mean parents. See how Mateo is already practising to ward off the paparazzi. "Please, no pictures!"

Here I am, holding the little Catherine. I love that my friends have small people to hold. It saves me from having to make them myself.

Mateo also totally conquered that snowdrift.

Look. I am such a totally awesome mother- reading them A Christmas Carol before bed. Unfortunately, this was not to repeated as that 19th century English just doesn't wash well with the 6 year old set. This is the problem of having utopian visions- once you actually try to implement them, they go south quickly.
We are making our way to the hill for a little bit of sledding action. This area is a little pocket of industrialism between Little Italy and Parc Extension- still many garment factories in the area although the condos, like a pack of ravenous wolves are getting nearer everday.

Ah yes. The snow toys for big boys. This beaut belongs to Alex and allows him to remove his own snow from his driveway instead of hiring a contractor. Here Jeremy is trying it out on the soon to be skating rink in the back yard. Note the huddle of children in the corner. Nothing says fun like blowing snow in the faces of your children...

Okay. This whole growing up thing? Not so cool. I would like it to stop. Immediately.

I made this.
I made this too.

Dustin was able to come for a couple of days between Christmas and New Years. As you can see, there were some happy faces. He brought us a couple of games that the kids absolutely love, notably a version of Tic Tac Toe that makes the game actually fun and less lame. Thanks Dustin! He then sped back to his fancy life, leaving us little people in a dust storm of anonymity.
Now don't they just look so comfy?

In conclusion: the perils of being a bicycle in Montreal. The tragedy, the devastation. It is a bit of a scorched earth policy but undertaken with a myriad of snow removal machines.

Appendix: January
As this post will have to do for the first month of the year, here is a little update on all our goings on. I began the New Year by kicking some bureaucratic butt and finally getting things done. Things I have been letting lapse for years so I feel that my job is done and I can rest on my laurels until 2009. Okay, not quite true. Still, an auspicious beginning.

Sylvie began piano lessons and is loving it. My mother's piano is now residing in our living room and she can't help plunking out a little tune everytime she passes. She has also started her skiing days at school. Despite a certain anxiety I have about the transportation to and from the ski hill (The sweet hereafter is forver etched in my brain), she seems to love it.

Clea opted for gymnastics and is also enjoying it immensely. The gym mat helps with the practising...

Jeremy designed the lighting and set for a contemporary dance piece this January. It was called Synthesis as composure II and featured our friend Peter Trotzmer. The piece was a sort of Beckett has tea with Virginia Woolf, but in dance. I liked it a lot. For someone who doesn't actually have a job, he sure does work a lot. He has also been cleaning our basement, which on the surface, seems a silly thing to mention if you haven't seen our basement. The words Herculean and, perhaps, Sysiphisian come to mind.

My mother is catching up on about twenty years of reading, going through books faster than I can provide her with them. And as a librarian, that is saying a lot. She leaves in February for some gallivanting in Florida.

That's all folks. I am sure you're relieved.

The Amazing Before and After Shots You've All Been Waiting for!

2007-12-17T07:33:00.000-05:00

This Holiday season, I am going to give you all the gift of thanking your lucky stars your weren't us this year. Generous, hey? Well, that's me in a nutshell. Not really of course. I would never fit in a nutshell...
Anyhoo, here are some pictures of our new abode. There are still a few rough edges to smooth, like flooring against the wall, thresholds, etc. but for the most part, we have a floor, walls, water that runs inside the pipe instead of out, and although they are ugly doors, they are still doors. Now if only we could get them to close...
So here it is folks room by room:

Bathroom Before
In my opinion, on e of the most important rooms of the house. In fact, Jeremy and I gave up some space in our bedroom to make the bathroom bigger, it was so important, and I must admit I have no regrets. Of course, now our bed frame doesn't fit into the room, but hey, minor inconveniences.

Here is a shot before at the very beginning of the renovations.

I just thought we needed to see this beaut from another angle

Note the lovely geriatric blue and the backsplash to the shower held up by duck tape. We hadn't touched it yet folks-it actually came like that!

This photo speaks for itself- you know you are in trouble when making it to your toilet involves an Indiana Jones like excursion.

Bathroom After

I love my bathroom. I l.o.v.e it. I would just like to pause here and say that it is all Jeremy. The tiles, the walls, the wonderful little glass cubes, the bathtub, the faucets as towel hooks. Everything. I also love him quite a bit too. And not just because he make good bathroom either.

Kitchen before
The kitchen was the hardest part for me. When we moved in, we had three very good friends who helped me clean, or in the case of this kitchen, who tried to help me clean. The cupboards were so sticky with grease and tar from years of smokers that I could not get them clean. The floor was a grimy mess, not to mention spongy in places and everything stunk.

Ssshh.I think my parents are insane! Have you seen this place? Don't tell anyone, but there are pears on the walls and it smells! Can you help me? I got get outta here!

Now you see it...

Now you don't! and you get a glimpse of the pears that functioned like a frontier around the kitchen.

I will take this opportunity to repost the link from Un autre pamplemousse. It is a great video of Jeremy and Pamplemousse tearing down this wall!

Hmmm. Some walls, a floor, and I think we can do something with the place...

What to say? Well, it was an improvement from the pears...

Kitchen After

Look at this counter! Ain't it a beaut, folks? Jeremy made them- you can tell because bicycle parts "accidentally" got caught in the mold...

Just because we have a new house does not mean that we are no longer slobs...

Ahh, our Christmas party! Our house looked splendiforous.

Kids' bedroom before

Once again, Jeremy and I prove not to be the best before and after photographers, as we had not taken a shot of the room before we moved in. Nor have we taken one of the kids room lately when it is nice and clean. I could, of course, go take a shot right now, but Mateo has been visiting for over a week and the room looks like a refugee camp.

Um. Yes. Moved in. sort of. Just for the record, no we did not drink this amount of Labatt's Blue. Actually, I am a little nauseous at the though of it. We just got the boxes at the box store at a discount.

This is Clea's side of the room. Cozy isn't it? She slept in the space between the filing cabinet and the wardrobe. (You can stop dialing social services and put down your phones- I was just kidding. She actually slept underneath the wardrobe.)

Oh, look! The furniture can actually fit against the wall! Already an improvement. And I thought I was bad at interior design...

And here is Sylvie's side of the room-note the lovely peptobismol colour of the walls, and the frame of mirrors around the closet. Now that I look back, whatever could have possessed us to alter such a balanced state of narcissism and indigestion. The harmony, the gut rot!

Clea chose this blue for her room. The pink phase is now over and she has entered her blue period.

I wanna green room and nobody's gonna stop me from getting it!

Better...

Even better....

For the best, you'll just have to wait until we clean the room and remember to take photos. Sorry. That's just the way it has to be.

And last but not least...

The parental bed chamber before

Here is how it looked before we took down the wall adjacent to the bathroom, and made the bedroom smaller.

Here is the closet. The only thing that has changed is the colour...

The parental bedchamber during...

Here is the famous wall from our side. We painted the walls and sanded the floors, but unfortunately, our bed frame no longer fits in the room and we have no furniture in it. So, until we have book shelves, a bed frame, some sort of workable closet solution, you just have to wait to see the final result. 'Cause it ain't done yet folks.

Well, there you have it. This post only took me about three weeks to complete. Here's hoping that I am a little more efficient in 2008. Stay tuned for the holiday edition, where you will see familiar happy faces and a lot of snow...

October, O thou fickle month! Where have thee gone?

2007-10-27T07:13:00.000-04:00

To the land of used up time no doubt. For yet another month has flown by without nary a backward glance. I think I saw a glimpse of it, a quick flash of light, like the sun reflected through a rear view mirror, but it might have just been the sun. Oh, I am feeling so literary right now! This is in grand preparation for the annual National Novel Writing Month in November, where I will be completely incommunicado on this here (and all my other blogs). Yes, I know that we are still in the midst of renovations and that November coincides with our moving back in the house and that I am setting myself up for failure. Then again, there is no time like the present...

Of course, it won't make much of a difference on this blog , since I only update it once a month, but my other ramblings will certainly suffer for it. Anyhooo, down to business.

September Wedding-

I am not sure if I mentioned this in my last entry (and I am way too lazy to go check) but the last day of September saw my newfound cousin (long, sordid story) getting married to his girlfirend of about fifteen years. They have three kids and live in Granby, about a 45 minute drive from Montreal towards the Eastern townships. The wedding was very charming, especially since their three kids played a part in it. It was also very moving as they are such kind and generous people. The reception took place on the Mountain where my cousin teaches skiing, and we were able to ride the ski lift up to the top. It was damn freezing, so we did not stay long.
Here are the crazy sisters going for a ride on the ski lift.

I have no idea
What happened this month? I am drawing a complete blank. Perhaps this is because it was spent just working. At day, in the library, at night in the house. Well, at least for Jeremy. Have I ever mentioned how this man works? Like a steam train on a collision course with infinity, I tell you. There is no stopping him! And because of this, we are contemplating moving in very, very soon! Soon there will be before and after pictures of our new abode just like in those home decoration magazines.

Update as of November 15th (when I am actually going to publish this entry)
Thos big slabs of mud you see Jeremy standing by have now taken their rightful place on top of our new ikea cabinets and they look awesome! Of course, you will all have to wait for the special renovation edition of this blog to see them. Yep, I am that mean... Oh, yes, and we are now living downstairs, or at least sleeping there. I have a door again, an addition to my life that I will never again take for granted. I also have the best bathtub in the world, where I spend much of my time in very hot water reading children's books.

Thanksgiving
Oh yeah! Now I remember! Katie, Dan, Mateo and Katie's friend Vicky came down for Thanksgiving! They arrived on the Friday and left on the Monday, giving us several days to catch up. Although a tad bit cramped in my mother's apartment (Okay, we were nine people- my personal gazebo was taking a beating) it was still a lot of fun. We had a huge feast on Sunday night with all the fixin's, took them to the Botanical Gardens, Katie and Vicky shopped 'til they dropped Montreal style and the kids invented hip hop dodgeball hackey sack. All in all, a weekend full of laughter and entertainment.

Cinderella
Last night we went to see the ballet Cinderella performed by the Grands Ballets Canadiens de Montreal. Although Clea fell asleep in the last act, I think it was one of the best ballets to take the kids. The stepsisters and step mother were played by men, lending an asexual, grotesque quality to the role emphasized by the jerky , deconstructionist movements. The costumes were superb, ranging from Cinderella's simple frock, to the more elaborate costumes of the people at the ball, who were wearing forties inspired dresses and suits in muted colours, with prosthetics either on the women's hips or the man's shoulder lending them a lopsided, crooked quality. The sets were also amazing.

What else?
I must be going senile, because I can't think of anything else that has happened this month. It truly has been all work, work, work....

Halloween
Need I say more? Of course I must! Clea, as you can very well see, was a cat and Sylvie with her usual imagination was a witch cat. We went trick or treating with their friend Jericho where we discovered the motherload of candies and Halloween spirit. I tell you, the street was filled with ghoulish mannequins and haunted mansions handing out actual size candy bars. It truly doesn't get better than that!

Here they are, the tired trick or treaters, after an evening of hauling in the loot.

More update!
Since I began writing this post, I have since become permanent in my job (I am now an official youth librarian at the BANQ and have written over half a novel. We are in our new house (as mentioned above) and Jeremy has decided to quit one of his jobs and so doing will save our familial sanity. Hopefully, next blog entry I can report some visits to the studio for him.

So until December, mes amis!

September: Now you see it, now you don't

2007-09-25T05:23:00.000-04:00

Once again, I have been trying to write this post for about a month. The photos that I have selected are now incredibly out of date, but there you have it. Let us just say that my tardiness gives these little information sessions the charm of snail mail.

Renovation Nightmare
These photos of our renovation date back a month, so I am pleased to say that the nightmare is slowly turning into just plain everyday drudgery, with an occasional glimpse of light at the end of the tunnel. God knows I don't often stray into the dangerous waters of advice giving, but I feel like having no floor leaves me in a privilege position to dole out this gem: If you are ever tempted to buy a fixer upper, don't.
Yep, that's it. Now I am fresh out of wisdom.

This is the bathroom. It has a charming, rustic quality don't you think?

Our bedroom- I took down that wall! (Hey, every small part counts) This wall has been moved a few inches to the left, making the bathroom bigger and the bedroom smaller.

Our kitchen with its picturesque view of the basement.

I like to call this design decision the "Indiana Jones". We were thinking of keeping it like this in order to avoid complacency in our children.

Another photo of the kitchen. Very practical don't you think?

Ahh yes. This photo gives you an idea of the great waterfall of 2007, where it rained inside the house instead of outside.

Of course, it all ended up in the basement....

fun, hey?

Oh look! A wall! See? a glimmer of hope.

But as I say, these photos date back a month and it looks much better now. For a full understanding of our trials and tribulations, I will direct you to a post I made on In(parent)thesis about Incompetence. We are almost at the point where we can begin putting in the wood floors and are now engaged in the pleasant if not a bit overwhelming task of choosing colours.

One night visit
With the faded blue skies of late August came a quick visit from Uncle Doug and family. At the tail end of their yearly family tour of the Eastern Townships, the trio stayed with us for one night before heading back to Victoria. Yes, they were able to get first hand experience of our daily chaos- the first few hours they were here, we had no running water and ended up eating at 9:30 at night. Still, it did not seem to affect the little ones so much- they look pretty happy and healthy and wayyy less stressed out than their parents.
Back to school

Look? No trauma! We are nearing the end of the first month of school and I am pleased to announce that so far, nobody has been scarred for life by the return. Clea has Sylvie's teacher from last year as well as a plethora of comrades from her previous school in her class which has made the transition into grade one smooth as a kitten's tail. And for the first time in her school career, Sylvie seems perfectly at ease and self-confident. God, just writing these words makes me want to cry with joy. She is also reading for her own pleasure now, to the point where she came home from school yesterday, hid herself on the front porch, and read. Seriously, I have tears in my eyes.

Look! I'm still fun!
After the first week of school I was able to spend the whole day with just me and the kids. We went to the Jardin Botanique, a place we all love to visit. If you are thinking the Butchart gardens of Montreal, you could not be wronger (I mean more wrong, of course). Although the gardens are divided thematically like Butchart, they suffer less from English anal retentiveness and the compulsive need to group begonias by colour and benefit more from the desire to be educational. And so, in the midst of the chinese gardens, you will have little pagodas with informational displays on rice, etc. Or our favourites, the poisonous plant garden where you can read about all the horrific deaths these plants could cause you if you were foolish enough to get near them (think the haunted castle of gardens) and its counterpoint, the medicinal gardens that could help cure you.Here is a photo of me and my two loves ( can you tell I miss them?)
During the months of September and October, the Chinese gardens are lit with lanterns

Sylvie taking a nap

The real reason we went to the Gardens was to witness the tagging of the Monarch Butterflies before they undertake their long and gruelling migration south. Never having made the voyage before as they are the second generation to be born in our part of the world, they nonetheless know by instinct when and where they should go. Butterflies that have been tagged in Montreal have been found as far as Peru. I find this fascinating, as it points to a collective memory held in their biological being. Do humans have this? They must, as every woman who has ever experienced childbirth knows- some instinct or consciousness housed in the body takes over and your intellect finds itself in the passenger seat, along for the ride. Wow. There are some Jack Handy Deep thoughts for you... Hope you had sufficient coffee before reading that little tidbit... Anyhoo, here is a photo of a monarch that had just been tagged. They put a tiny sticker in the middle of the black dots at the end of their wing. The sticker has a unique serial number and a 1-800 number to contact when the butterfly is found.

Visit from the Martel-El Grablys
When we got back from our lovely day, imagine my surprise when I entered my " room" (okay, the futon in my mother's living room) and a tiny little body was there asleep and Olivia was put to work with a sharp knife peeling paint. Sylvie and Clea joined in with gusto, of course. here is Sylvie, feeding one of the twins.
Getting my freak on
I cannot remember when the last time I danced in public was until I attended the wedding of our friends Mike and Lindsay. I have to say, I love weddings. It is one of those character anomalies, like my love for action films and ABBA. But there you have it, I love the idea of celebrating in public the decision to go through this spider's web we call life together. So Mike and Lindsay, Congratulations! (And thanks for giving me the opportunity to get my freak on!)

In conclusion, dear friends, as you can see, everything is going just swimmingly....

July Insanity-Posted August 12th

2007-07-20T06:22:00.000-04:00

Moving, moving, moved! (well, sort of)

Are you talking to me?

So the deed is done. It is a fait accompli as we say here in frenchland. We have moved. How did we do it you might ask? Well with a lot of help from our friends first of all. I tell you, when we get a bathroom in our house, I am having everybody over for a barbecue. I'll even pay for the beer! Although the month leading up to the month was one of the most stressful months I have lived through, the actual move went smoothly. We managed to be out of our old diggs mid afternoon. Thanks to said friends who cleaned while we were moving, we were all ready once the last load left the house. I can't believe it. I am still in shock. Not only do we have friends, we have really good friends who cleaned our bathroom for about an hour.
Yet Canada day was not just moving day. It was also let's get the carpet out day, as there was no way we could stay in our new home with the smoke filled, doghaired, disgusting floor covering. So Eric and Jeremy ripped the sucker out while the rest of us tried desperately to get the carpet staples out of the floor and vaccuum up the residue before we had to pick up the kids.

First night in our new home- we are camping out in the living room with my mom...

August 10th, 2007 (Yeah so? I've been kind of busy...)
-I have started writing this post about a month later and that day seems so far away. Nothing much happened for about a week after our move. We tried to settle in as best we could without actually unpacking too many things. My mother had a houseguest from Australia who proved to be helpful and understanding of my very snitty mood. Wow. I really can't even remember what happened that first week. I had a job interview for a job I eventually got but did not take (just to add to the overall chaos and stress of that time) and Jeremy had to get ready for his big show in Peterborough with John and his dad, who arrived exactly a week after the big move.
I must admit, although the spirit was willing, the guest accomodations were lacking. No touring around the city this time, boy. In fact, Jim was lucky to have a toilet at his disposal during his stay, as the bathroom was in such bad condition we had to rip out most of it very soon after his arrival.

Pause for a station break (or a trip to Peterborough)

So serious- it is like they think are something...

July 13th. The big night. The Vernissage as we like to call it here in la belle province. Jeremy had gone to Peterborough a couple of days before laden with his REALLY BIG AND AWKWARD (I just say that 'cause I had to move them) sculptures and Jim in the front seat. They worked feverishly for two days getting the show ready. On the Friday, I drove down with my mother and two chittens for a big fat reunion in Peterborough. Now, let's do a head count, shall we? There was a our family of four, plus Jim and Miria (who had just flown in that day), Margo (old family friend of the Gordaneer side), Alisa and her two kids, and finally Kia and her fabulous four. No, we didn't all stay at John and Claire's. We do have some pity , you know. We took over one whole floor of a hotel. Okay, maybe there were a couple of rooms not populated by our clan, but I can assure you the poor people felt surrounded.

Here is an "arial" view of part of the show- pretty fandancy if you ask me.

Jeremy's odd creations now include electricity.

The venerable artistes

The opening went very well, with lots of people oohing and aahing and making intelligent (and not so intelligent) sounding comments on the art. The show looked great- the pieces were larger than they were in the Chapman years and it was very interesting to see how the three of them diverged in certain aspects and yet how the same vein seemed to run through their work. See? Intelligent sounding, sounding being the key word here. It is amazing how easy it is to sound intelligent while not saying anything. Politicians should take a lesson from all the art critics out there.
Anyhoo, we succesfully invaded the gallery with our bevy of children and our three generations of insanity, until, to the utter horror of all civilised people in the room, the dufus art director kicked people out on the dot of nine by shutting out the lights and making a derogatory comment to our friend John. Why, you may ask? Was there a fire? Did someone die? Nope. His pet project the Festival of darkness, a not so very clever attempt at counterpointing the more mainstream festival of lights in Peterborough, was about to begin. Darkness and bad music must prevail, even at the expense of interested art gallery patrons. He also did not advertise the show at all, which, in my mind, defeats the purpose of showing in a publicly run gallery.
Sometimes people suck. That is all there is to it.

But in better news, I just received word from our dear friends, that Clare has had a healthy baby boy, a whopping 9.2 lbs.. August 9th was the auspicious date of birth, which must have given her a good three weeks to recover from the Gordaneer invasion and concentrate on birthing the little monkey.

Look what happens when you send your kids to drama camp.

There is no place like home, there is no place like home.... Unless your place has no floor, than there are many places that are better than home.
No time to mince words here, I am going to give long subtitles today. Back home then. We came home with the rest of the Gordaneer family (Jim, Miria, Alisa, Sacha, and Magritte) and tried to accomodate all these bodies. The kids were wonderful, completely entertaining themselves while the adults began the renovations. I, of course, was at work for most of this, so I hear that despite the sibling tension, they got stuff done. Okay, I saw that they got stuff done but I was a little bitter because I did not have much of a hand in it. And we all know how I like to have my hand in it.

before the renos (I know, it is hard to believe)

Ain't it beautiful folks- Blue like the sky! And more rotten than fallen wood in Cathedral Grove (West coast allusion)

To watch an awesome video of Jeremy and Tom taking down the wall, let me redirect you to un autre pamplemousse: a very short movie about smashing a wall

Ahhh, look at Jim, pretending to have a peaceful moment just so that we don't feel too bad about the hell we are putting him through! The patience and equanimity of a saint, I tell you.

Is it the Rage or just the consequences of being our friend? Will we ever know the truth?

During....

The toilet was lonely so we brought in a fan to keep it company

Fine. Fine! You can have your clawfoot tub! Look! There it is! God, you are sooo demanding! (the subtext of the finger pointing)

I've conquered the bath! I now proclaim this Clealand! All must worship me!

I don't need a catwalk,
a kitchen or a floor
I don't need a toilet,
a cupboard or a door
All I need's my sister
and a space to strut my stuff,
So Papa put away the crowbar
the hammer and the nails,
Get down off that ladder
Kick away the pails,
Come strut your stuff
Like Johnny Cash
with saintly June by his side,
'cause if you look around again
We'ra scared that you might cry.

Yeah whatever. I just wanna go home.

Who need a floor anyway? Out, out damn floor.

And walls? Who needs walls? Out, out damn walls.

Let's play "Can you spot the bathroom?"

Can you believe they didn't phone each other to see what the other was going to wear that day? Like, oh my god, how gauche.

How I like my mice

Denise decides to go whole hog with the lifestyle change...or maybe it is just living with us.. or maybe the Rage? The truth? We may never know...

Ruth and Alex have a pool!

And we are not afraid to use it I tell you. No matter that they have baby twins. That won't stop us from inviting ourselves over, no sirreee!

No, really. I am a great babysitter. You have nothing to worry about.

La Ronde (cue in the Star Wars Darth Vader theme)

What I did take part in was a day trip to La Ronde, Montreal's amusement park since 1967. Very expensive and hellish line-ups, I felt perfectly Kafka-esque in this desperate grab at fun having. Of course, the kids loved it. The adults however needed a stiff drink , preferably one in a glass and not some sugary concoction out of a two liter plastic souvenir cup with a bendy straw in it. Once a year, people, once a year.

This was

their

favourite

part

Leaving (otherwise known as the adults' favourite part)

Harry Potter!!!!
This was also the day that Harry Potter came to my door, delivered by a nice Canada Post man. Alisa and I showed considerable restraint not bringing our books to La Ronde with us (on second thought, it would have made the line-ups go faster...

Psycho adult Harry Potter fans- at least we are not joining in the adults only quidditch tournaments ...

The Honeymooners

This is more August depravity than July Insanity, but we had a very pleasant visit from Jeremy's cousin and his new wife Danielle. Yes folks, they chose our wonderful city to inaugurate their marriage. Poutine, Belle Gueule, cretons,feves au lards, and a trip to PEI were all hotspots on their itinerary. Oh yes, and they experienced the thrill of a hurricane in our tent.

Danielle and Jason at the Jean-Talon market

We need a vacation
So get this. My kids have the nerve to leave for ten days and be happy about it. I mean it is the second day now and they don't even miss me. I keep on calling them to ask them and nope. As of an hour ago there has been no missing yet. I don't know about kids these days. Why they would want to get away from us just because the house is a little bit messy and just because we spend more time hugging a crowbar than them is beyond me. Kids these days.

Yep. We are childless at the moment. My saintly mother rented a car and took them far, far away into the land of Stratford to visit Katie and co. Apparently they are having fun but I don't believe it for a second.

If you look closely, you can see the fear, the angst, the sheer horror of leaving us. No, closer. Nooo, closer. Okay, get the magnifying glass out. God, you are blind.

In conclusion,
Stay tuned for the conclusion of the renovation saga. Tomorrow the contractor begins putting floors and walls back in so we are now at the turning point. We have got a kitchen in boxes and tiles piled up on the living room floor and Tuesday we get the wood for our kitchen and hallway.
Hopefully I will be able to update you sooner rather than later from my own desk, instead of my mother's dining room table.

So there it is. I have nothing else to say. That is it. Fetchez la vache s'il vous plait.

That's all folks!

June Craziness

2007-06-24T09:03:00.000-04:00

At least it's nice out. 'Cause I gotta tell ya, it has not been smooth sailing around here. Once again, I offer up our lives in photographic album format. Time, money and general stress located at the base of my neck will not allow me to write more at this time.

Below is a wonderful sepia toned photo of our darlings crossing the underpass. I am assuming they were making their way to the St-Viateur festival (the road was closed off in order to celebrate ten years of Ubisoft). As I was not there though I can't say for sure...

Imagine pirahnas attacking a clump of cotton candy. Seriously, this sugary mound of sticky goodness was gone within one minute. Fascinating and horrifying at the same time. Every year Montreal has a free museum day. We went to the Science center to see Bodyworlds but it was not included in the free part, so we headed toward this sugar festival, then took a detour by the Montreal History Museum in the Old Port. There was this fascinating tale of a black slave named Angélique who was accused of burning down Montreal in the 16th century. The exhbition took us through the events of the day, including a video reenactment of her torture using brodequins and ending with her being burned alive. The essence of a family activity. Here is a link to a book review if you feel sadistic enough to read more on this chapter of Montreal's history.

They're here! Along with my mom's truckload of Christmas decorations.

The view from mom's back porch->

The view of her backyard-> And yes, the whole place needs some lovin'.

This is the way we scrape paint from the wall, paint from the wall, paint from the wall...
Going to my happy place....Sshhhh...almost there....

Light All Terrain Attack Bicycle! Really! In the midst of our bad luck, there came a jewel, a beacon of hope, in the shape of this Swedish Kronan bicycle. Orignally built for the Swedish army, it is the volvo of bikes. Heavy, with a built in generator light, lock and bicycle pump this beaut also sports its own gun rack in the front. Jeremy refuses to leave it outside so right now it lives in our living room where he spends hours staring lovingly at it ( I am getting a little worried actually.)

Just Clea. Setting us right on what's what.

I am sooo relaxed...
Now I am ready to partee!

Rock'n'roll Clea

During the street fair on St-Laurent. Sylvie asked the balloon lady (who seemed like one of those gentle yet downtrodden women from an Edith Piaf song) who made her this masterpiece. It still hasn't deflated, this beautiful dove.

Clea got a butterfly...

Look! Aren't we just adorable? Such a loving, calm family....

Sisters- is it love or a new wrestling tactic?

This weekend we went strawberry picking with Alex and Olivia. As we were picking, Sylvie wandered off and kept on coming back with full buckets of strawberries while we were still only half way through ours. We went to inspect and realised why- she could pick them off by the handful. She is now officially our strawberry hunter.

After picking, we went to visit Ruth and the twins and got our babyholding fix.

Well, that is it folks. Next week we move if all goes well. Look for the next post in the midst of rubble and scarped paint and holes in the walls.... Wish us luck- we desperately need some!

To view the movies...Reminder

2007-05-26T07:33:00.000-04:00

Just a reminder to all of you who receive the blog through email. The movies I embed into my blog do not show up in your inbox. You must click on the link at the end of the email that looks like this:

Posted By wire monkey mama to MontrealGordaneers at 5/25/2007 10:11:00 AM
--~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~
See the actual blog at http://www.montrealgordaneers.blogspot.com/

That is it-until the next set of ever exciting adventures where we take possession of the house, receive my mother an my sister, find out if I have a job and go see RUSH in Saratoga Springs. The month of June will be a doozy people!

Après Victoria

2007-05-25T12:52:00.000-04:00

(photo taken by intrepid photographer Tom Weston)
Just because we went on holiday does not mean that our life suddenly stopped being busy. Au contraire mon frère (or in my case my soeur).
The week began tout de suite on Monday with school and work. Sylvie had twice as much work to do and attacked it with admirable quasi gusto. Clea was just her usual scintillating self- one could only detect the après vacances fatigue in her unusually voilent temper tantrums and the rash that has broken out all over her skin. To put it in a nutshell, although there is still a month of school left to go, both my children have decided that they are already mentally on summer vacation.

Recital weekend
The Friday after our return, the girls had a ballet rehearsal for their concert on Sunday.

Saturday was the Sylvie's choir which do not have photos of because we forgot to bring it. It took place in the little chapel where they practice and was very beautiful. Hardly any cringing moments at all!

Sunday was the big recital day where the kids had their five minutes on stage. We learned our lesson about trying to film it ourselves with last year's debacle, so this time we decided to film a little summary if you will, a recital abstract of their performance:

Stay tuned for the version with music. In the meantime, here is a pic of the girls in their costumes:

Another bike stolen
When I got out of work on Saturday, late for my kids concert and all ready to hop on my brand spanking new bike with the trail-a-bike attachment, lo and behold, it was no longer there. A curse on all you bike thieves- may you suffer eternal Karma damage!!!!!

10th Anniversary
Yep, it's been ten years since the kegger of our lifetime. The state of the union meeting Jeremy and I had a moment suggests that we are still going strong despite the daily challenges. Here we are in our marital bliss:

So that's it folks. All caught up and ready for more adventures.

Trip to Victoria or the reason it is so hard to leave...

2007-05-25T10:11:00.002-04:00

Now excuse the paucity of writing in ths entry but you know what they say- a picture is worth a thousand words. If that is true, consider this post a novella.

Once in Victoria, Clea became obsessed with the local flora...

And on bass...

When travelling through Victoria, one must exercise extreme caution. Gangs of nephews and nieces prowl around waiting for any sign of weakness to pounce..

The modern day Breughel junior and senior

Man, I love these kids. I look at these photos and I want to cry I miss them so much. HI Guys! Come see us okay?

No really, I fit perfectly!

Gussied up and ready to celebrate Mom's permanent vacation from work as well as the perfect example of why I never smile in pictures (I look like I am terribly constipated)

That's a little better...

They sho' do clean up good!

The splendid speechifying sisters!

Chère indeed!

Everbody likes me but I think I'll eat some worms anyway!

The boys

The girls (or some of them at least)

I was lucky to get this rare image of Uncle Dave with a glass of wine and Erinne talking... (I love my family)

Friends, sisters, damn fine looking women- call us what you will...

The female branches of the Branter family tree (4 generations me thinks)

The Gordaneer side of the family (4 generations once again!)

Home again, home again jiggedy jig!

Winter is so bad...

2007-04-18T05:37:00.000-04:00

This photo was taken mid April. The humanity, people.
Fed up. Ras le bol. Fetchez la vache. Had it up to here. These would be my feelings right now, about this last (it better be or I will do something drastic like move to Guyana-that's a hot place, right?) snow storm of the year. It is not right people! We have been lulled into a false sense of security. We have gotten used to shedding our winter gear for lighter spring togs! I don't want to go back to winter boots! I don't want to have to go running bundled up like some sort of lumpy ninja and have the downhill section of my run be thought of as the "Ok I just need to survive this part" section. I don't want to pick up the monotonous chant every morning before we go to school: HATS, Mitts, Neckwarmers! AAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRGGGGGGGHHHHHHH. Stupid weather.

Letting the cat out of the bag or Denise back into Montreal
It is finally time to mention this huge event on my blog, as the papers are signed, she is officially retired and most of your know about it anyways so it won't come as much of a surprise. In one of those lightning decisions that she is famous for, my mother has retired and is moving to Montreal. This plan has been cemented by the fact that she no longer works (which actually must be a little bit of a shock despite her supernatural powers of adjustment) and that she has bought a triplex here in Montreal where she will be letting us stay and pretend that it is ours too. Now, I know it is not 38 million or the Super 7, but it sure feels like I won some sort of lottery. The Mommy lottery up in heaven? Anyway, she arrives in June to oversee the major renovations that need to be done to the building and we all can't wait to have her close by!

My fancy sister Erinne
As if it wasn't enough traipsing all around the world alone, Erinne has just been given the VERY PRESTIGIOUS (I'm told- because, really, what do I know about vet internships) internship at the animal center clinic in New York City! Yay! She leaves in June as well, and will be installed just in time for summer visits from her lovely sister Lina.

Clea's Birthday
In other news, Clea turned six this March! Six. That is so young and so old at the same time. We went to see a ballet called Polyphonia on her actual birthday night. It consisted of three pieces by different choreographers. The girls seemed to like it alright. The next day was her birthday party. Having learned my lesson with Sylvie's party, we only invited four little girls. This was such a different crowd from the Sylvie bunch- they were calm to the point where I wondered if they were having any fun. We played games and had the pinata, etc. Clea, being the unique individual that she is, did not want a birthday cake but chocolate eclairs. And so, we had an armada of eclairs and nothing left over at the end of the day. Perfect. Just in passing, Our friend Ruth came to the party with her daughter Olivia. Ruth is about to have twins any minute now so it was good and brave of her to attempt a child's birthday party. For those of you who know Ruth, let me report that she looks beautiful, glowing and like she has swallowed a medicine ball.

Christina Aguilera
For those of you who don't read my other blog, I have written a report of my extremely uncharacteristic foray into the world of pop music. Rock on little mama.

Pause for a station break...

Once again, this entry is taking me about a month to complete. Since the above tirade, the weather has not improved. If possible, it has gotten worse. Last night we received another few centimeters of snow, which is funny (in the horrifying way) because the temperature stayed above zero. Yay Global warming! I swear, I am half waiting for the seas to turn red and the four horsemen to ride through town waving their flags of famine, war, pestilence and death. Fun times.

Okay, okay. I will stop being such a gloomy puss. Since I began this entry, Ruth also had her babies. Unfortunately, an insane lifestyle has not allowed us to go visit her, but I hear the two munchkins are just fine.

The one beautiful weekend!
Let us back track now, to the one sunny weekend that lulled us into a sense of complacency. That weekend, after ballet, we decided to gallivant around town. As usual, this led us to the Musée des Beaux Arts, where right now, there is an exhibition on Disney and the works that inspired him. As we were walking in, one of those poor souls whose job it is to accost innocent passersby and try to sell them stuff stopped us and asked us if we wanted to become a friend of the museum. Jeremy and I looked at each other and decided on the spot that yes indeedy do, we wanted to become official friends of the museum. So armed with a family membership and free access to all of the traveling exhibitions, we went and had a gander at the Disney stuff. The exhibit featured many of the original paintings from the old movies, as well as interesting film triptychs. For example, in the middle would be the Disney animated film of the sorceror bit from Fantasia framed by the old films The Cabinet of Doctor Caligari, Frankenstein and Bela Lugosi films.The girls liked it because they could play a guessing game with the paintings (which painting belonged to which film). At the end, as if for a special treat in weirdness, was an unfinished collaboration between Walt Disney and Salvador Dali.
That Sunday was so beautiful we walked around in sweaters and actually went swimming (inside pool, but still.) And then it snowed.

Easter fun!
Easter Sunday we did the requisite Easter egg hunt. Half the fun is watching the girls manage their Easter eggs. Before they even began they had made a pact to use only one bag and then to split the loot evenly between them. They searched high and low (and because we have some very mischievous adults who helped us hide the eggs, many of them would not have been found were we to rely solely on the field of vision of children. After searching for Easter eggs we had breakfast and then painted some eggs of our own. We then took those eggs (hard boiled of course) and headed toward the Biodome.

Although Jeremy was balking (parking, Easter crowds, you know, general leaving the house issues), it ended up being a very fun thing to do. The animals were in top form, feeling very frisky. A highlight of this visit were the penguins who had just been fed. Apparently fish are like cocaine to the penguin population as, once they were fed, they whizzed around leaping and creating little smoke clouds of pee that they would then swim through. Ahhh, good penguin times.

Cabane à Sucre: not for the faint of heart
Yep, I think we gots ourselves a new Easter tradition out here in Kweebec. Easter Monday we drove into the country with the whole family and my birthday twin (BT). We arrived at eleven clock at the lil' ol’ sugar shack in the woods. The décor was strictly habitant, with the big, wooden logs and mismatched dining accessories. BT was very impressed with the Tupperware condiment holder. Hailing from Edmonton, this three headed attached cup device was an emblem of her youth. Yet inside it, the treasures! Condiments of the gods I am sure. A trinity of onion confit, beets and pickles were laid out before we even arrived. Not to mention the plate where the cretons (spreadable pork product -think the peanut butter of meat) were displayed in perfect rectangles on a white plate, an artistic vision in the midst of all this sylvan glory. But the feast hadn’t even begun! These were just trimmings, the compliments to the meal. The first course came swiftly. Pea soup à la Canadienne. Bile like in colour and texture with chunks of ham floating as if they were the undigested remnants of a giant’s stomach, it was the epidemy of down home goodness (have you ever noticed that epidemy and epidemic seem to share the same etymology? Hmmm.) Even the kids let go of their warm rolls for one second to taste it. Then, hot on the heels of the soup, was a replenished bread basket, a bowl (yes, a bowl!) of bacon, oreilles de criss (I think the English version is porc rinds but without the wonderful, blasphemous edge), egg soufflé, a plate of ham (just in case we missed out on some of the pig) and some baby potatoes. Halfway on our way to death by coronary, it was still not over. Oh. And I forgot to mention the syrup, the big bottle of maple syrup with which one was to suppose to smother each piece of food. Yes folks, there was still dessert. And what do you think they served for dessert? Pancakes! And dough boiled in maple syrup (a delicious confection called grand-pères-perhaps because that is how they killed off the old people back in the day). After we managed to haul ourselves of the benches, we headed outside where we promptly paid two bucks each to ride in an old wooden wagon pulled by two work horses. This “idyllic horse and carriage ride” consisted of our small company at the back with about twenty other people being dragged along the muddiest country road ever. Those horses even did a Uey! Now, just in case you were wondering, those country wagons do not have any suspension, so it was a little like being on a roller coaster ride but without seat belts and with live animals. Oh yes, the bonus was that if you were indeed thrown out of the wagon you would not fall to your death as you would from a roller coaster. No, you would fall into the slurping, oozing muddy vortex they called a road. You might not break any bones but you might drown. Of course, we all wanted to do it again as soon as we were done.

Well, how I do I run on... Here is my own little Castro to tell me to get this over with already. So that's it. C'est fini. Like winter, hopefully...

Winter's not so bad...

2007-02-27T05:48:00.000-05:00

At least not when you are benefitting from our profoundly criminal behaviour towards our planet. If there were a social services for the universe, I am sure the rest of our solar system would have us on speed dial. That is now the end of my Al Gore moment. I will now commence to talk about what really matters, namely me and my children. Or is it my children and I?

Chateau Gordaneer
Every year since we have moved to this wonderful winterland, Jeremy has built a snow slide for the kids int backyard. This consists of periodically going out and piling snow into one big heap, beginning at the back porch. He then pounds it into the shape he wants and stomps into the house, wet boots and all, to fill buckets of water in order to achieve a nice frozen slide. Sometimes he adds food colouring to the snow which always looks like somebody was peeing blue or green. This year he even buried a glove under the ice. A special feature this year of the slide is the Chateau accompanying it. The wall of the slide serves as the wall of the castle. A little farther down, where you would stop sliding, you have the choice of either getting up and going left to do more sliding, or going right and crawling through the arched entranceway to the castle. And like any civilised community, one of the first buildings to be built was the chateau's jail, where Clea can guard you with her fierceness while you sit in the small snow chair cowering with guilt and fear.

Sylvie Triumphant!
Sylvie has been kicking some winter butt lately. She has gone skiiing twice with her school and apparently she rocks at it. Her teacher was incredulous when I told her that it was her first time. Even better, she loves it, and is gaining confidence in herself. I love how she rises to these challenges. She will be nervous and a little scared before she tries something new, but usually she comes back feeling great and empowered. The same could be said for her three day vacation from her family, when she went to a "camp de neige" with her whole school. Actually, she wasn't even nervous. Jeremy and I were though. Wow. Sure felt that umbilical cord tugging my guts out. But enough about me. She came back alive (which is what I was worried about), without any major emotional traumas (second on my list of worries) and having excelled the art of having fun in -10 degrees.

Erinne's back in town
Well, if I wasn't feeling frumpy and sedentary before, I am now. Erinne breezed back into town after having travelled through Cambodia, Laos and Egypt ( I know, I know, I keep on telling her that she should really consult an atlas when planning her trips, but she just won't). Here is a link to her photos where you can see her travel on her bike to 3000 year old ruins, do some rock climbing à la Tom Cruise, sport the guerilla style with an AK47 and then channel Lawrence of Arabia as she gallops on horseback to the pyramids. Hmmm....Well I went...nowhere. The most exotic thing I have done lately has been to remember to take my cloth bag to the market where I bought some apples and lemons. Whoo hooo. I am a wild woman.

Besides being way more interesting than me, she is also acting like the perfect nanny to my children. Perfect meaning I don't have to pay her. And she likes my kids okay which doesn't hurt. By the way Erinne, thanks (just in case I haven't said it yet). Oh, and I came home from work after writing this and she had cleaned my house so that it is cleaner than it has ever been.

This Just In...
Schools were actually closed in all of Montreal today because it, er, snowed. Now, maybe I've got it all wrong, but isn't that supposed to be normal? Hmm. Montreal and a snow storm in March? Whoever heard of such craziness? Not that I am complaining- I was able to rejoice and hang out with my two kids who didn't want to go to school anyway.

Ottawa and the Canal!
Okay, that was Friday. In usual style, it takes me about a week to actually write these entries. Since then we have gone and come back from Ottawa where we visited with the Gouttes and skated our pants off on the canal. Although the ice was a little soft, it was otherwise perfect weather for skating- we could of stayed for hours. Wait a minute. We did stay for hours. On Sunday we even skated to the Natural History Museum, looked at some oddly wonderful dinosaur bones, had lunch and then skated back to the Goutte house. There was some serious fun to be had.

It would have been perfect if my skates had not been fashioned from the evil schematics of a medieval torture device designer. Now that it is official and we all like skating, it might be time to get some of those new fangled leisure skates that don't cut off the circulation to your ankles.

Lina reads
Two things you oughta know about my reading habits lately. First, I have been working in the kids section and have been taking this opportunity to catch up on my youth fiction. Secondly, I have been keeping track of what I read through librarything and posting my reviews up there. So I think I will just post the permanent link to my entries, and if you feel like checking out what I think of a book, just click on the title...

Richter, Mimi-Fat talk

Pullman, Philip-The Ruby in the Smoke

Chevalier, Tracy-The Virgin Blue

Well, that is about it folks. March break is upon us which means the Library will be chock full of screaming kids, so here's to my survival in the face of incredible odds. But before I go there are birthday wishes to doll out:
Magritte- feb. 23: To Magritte, my lovely pixie like niece- Happy happy birthday!
Alisa- March 4th: To Alisa, her lovely pixie like mother- Happy, happy Birthday! I hope caulking the bathroom was all that you hoped it would be!

February Grey? or Gray?

2007-02-16T08:24:00.000-05:00

Don't you think that should be a colour? Or maybe we can call this snowy wind swept hue "blizzard"? What colour are you painting your living room? Why, I hear that "blizzard" is all the rage, trimmed with some February grey. I swear, I missed my calling. I should have been a paint colour namer (is that an actual job?)

Birthday Parties: Precious Childhood Memories or Highly Overrated Stress Inducers?
The jury is still out.
Yes, we had the birthday party a couple of saturdays ago, and I am just about recovered. I think there was about 13 kids present, 12 of them girls and one lone boy. It went quite well, I think, despite the periodic tears due to that legendary girl cruelty. All round fatigue also played a major part and I must admit I was very happy to see the parents come and pick their kids up. This eighth year of my child's life is bringing up some interesting issues, one of them being how to get along with one's peers. There are some intense personalities in her class, from the Atype "my way or the highway" girl to the impulsive, emotional chaotic type. We are getting to the age where the whole "do what I want or I won't be your friend" is being refined into an art form and I can see Sylvie trying to find her way through this. So far, she has not been part of any of these fights, but I know that it takes a toll on her, if only because when all the girls are fighting, nobody is talking to her or will tell her what is going on. I swear my heart might break before she turns ten. Anyway. We survived. Next year she can have a friend sleep over and we will go see a movie. Oh yes, one more thing. Jeremy went to order the cake this year and bought one about twice as big as it needed to be. It was hilarious. It was the big department store of confections, the IKEA of cakes. Except it was pink and had "girls rock" and a singing eight candle on it.
New job!
I have started my short term replacement in the kids section of the library and so far I love it. I love it! Of course, I haven't yet worked a weekend (where it is supposed to be busier but just as bad as hell itself) and I haven't done any workshop facilitating, but I get to spend my whole day evaluating kids' book as well as making little added-value quizzes on cool non-fiction books for children. I can't believe they are paying me for this.

New stuff on my blog
If you click on the actual site of my blog (which I recommmend) instead of reading it in the email, you will notice a few new features. I have recently discovered this wonderful new database called LibraryThing where I can catalogue my own books online and have them connect to Amazon (just in case you want to pick it up. I have added most of the books that I have talked about in my Lina reads section and have rated them according to my very own extremely educated opinion (cough, cough). Have a look and start one of your one! We can be library buddies! (Oh god, what has library school done to me?)

New blog
Because I have a lot more to say than would fit the mandate of this blog, I have started a new one (I wonder if they have a blogs anonymous group? I am going to my B.A. meeting... I can see how that could be confusing). It is called Inparentthesis and in it I have stories, musings and just weird observations that I feel like sharing with this world. Mostly it is about the wobbulous world of parenting, but as we all know, we are more than the sum of our offspring, so sometimes I stray into the simply gratuitous.

News from Erinne
Now, I know this is selfish, but here, in the debatably worse month in Montreal, in the middle of our first real blizzard of the year, I get this email from my sister Erinne:

Hello to all- salamalekum Oh and I am figuring out how to say hello- Salamalek, and goodbye- maleka, and *&&% off dont touch me you gross Egyptian man with roaming hands, and no I will not marry you if you sell me that for a good price. hee hee- I am joking but not really, it has been great. So yesterday...

Began at the pyramids on a horse (Imara)- I actually galloped up over the desert to the pyramids....well my friends that is a holy experience- Lawrence of Arabia style. Then to an essence den- mmmm I hate perfumes and bought 2 essences. They were amazing. Then to old Cairo to see the coptic cairo. I actually stayed for mass in a small church that had too much energy for me to leave- that had been a while. I had some friends who needed some praying done for them, so I obliged in one of the oldest christian churches in the world. Then to the Citadel in all its splendor and in the evening the Khan night market- or city! Amazing market, went for tea at Fishawi- where the likes of Jean paul Sartre ect.. frequented in their time- and even refrained from having a Sheesha- local flavored tobacco that is smoked through a water bong- quite nice when apple flavoured.

Well, I am off to see the Museum today then to Luxor on the overnight train. I hope all is well in all your respective zones. Much love to all, Erinne xoxoxo

So here's the question: do you think she is getting back at Katie and me for having stuffed her down the laundry chute when we were kids? Because that's just mean.

Sylvie Reads
Come to think of it, I should make her do her list on her blog.
Max & Lili- Anyway, I just thought I would mention that Sylvie has been really into this series of "bandes dessinés" (french style) called Max & Lili. So far she has read one about the dangers of the internet,Lili se fait piéger sur Internet where Lili has a photo taken of her in the locker room and one of her cruel girl classmates posts it on her blog and than almost falls into the hands of a pedophile. She has also read one about wanting to be star and one about healthy eating and the traumas of being fat. These are the books she reads aloud to me, which I am grateful for, as it allows us to have some discussions, but mostly so that I can talk to her about these issues (mostly stuff I would never think to broach).
Totally Spies-I am less fond of this one, but at least she is reading, right? This is like a teenage Charlie's Angels. Just as insipid, just as unabashedly promoting an unrealistic body type. Sylvie loves it. Insert parental ambiguity here.

MAJOR APOLOGY
To the Goutte family: in the biggest case of neurological indigestion that I have ever experienced (commonly known as brain fart) I completely forgot that I had made plans for us to go visit you this coming weekend. Words cannot describe how bad I feel about cancelling at the last minute for no good reason except that I forgot and made other plans. Nobody died or suffered life threatening injuries. The kids did not have the flu or even a bad case of lice. I, let it be known to the world, am simply an idiot. I am very very sorry and promise that it will not happen again. Please don't banish us from your friendship. Please don't go fetch la vache (in the immortal words of Monty Python).

Maintenant, c'est fini! C'est tout! Fichez le camp! Fetchez la vache!

Just another crappy Monday

2007-01-31T05:35:00.000-05:00

Monday. Need I say more?
I am having a hard day. One of those days where it begins well, but then everything goes terribly wrong. You see, I function on a very tight schedule. I have stuff to do during the day and I depend on a little external support to make it happen. For example. I depend on the washer and dryer to be working on the only day that I have to do laundry. Apparently, this is too much to expect from the world. A couple of weeks ago, our dryer broke, making it necessary for us to use our landlord’s brand spanking new apartment size bachelor-load dryer . This means that I must invade her space several times a day on the one day I do laundry. But today, it just got better. Our pipes have been springing leaks here and there and I have been waiting patiently and nervously for our landlady’s handyman to come and fix it. As the clothing in the dressers slowly diminish and the clothing in the laundry hampers begin to mountain (yes, I am using mountain as a verb and woe is you who would try to stop me!), I was nervously looking forward to today, my last day off for the week, in order to ensure clean underwear for my daughters. The handyman came, pronounced the pipe fixed and I gratefully proceeded to commence the laundry. Alas, on my way out, I noticed that the water was not just going in the washer but all over the floor. Luckily, said handyman was still in the building and together we assessed the situation. It turned out that there was also a pipe loose connecting the washer to the wall. We fixed that and then noticed that the washer was leaking from the inside. Yep. The d#@!# thing decided to just up and die. It would not spin, it would not rinse and I was left with a lake of children’s clothes. Did I mention that I hate today? So now I am without a washer or a dryer and our backyard looks like a landfill with washer parts strewn all over. If I was more zen I would be able to take it in stride, not expect the world to bend to my will, bend like a sheaf of wheat in the wind instead of breaking like a rigid twig in the gale that is the uncooperativeness of old GE appliances. But I am not. I am pissed off that my very precious day off was spent f##@$@!@!@# around baling out my clothes.

Clea’s bad day or the day Clea learned a very important lesson
A couple of weeks ago, Jeremy and I met up at the school around five thirty to pick up the kids. Again, we were very busy with much to do and everything depended on smooth sailing. Jeremy and I got to the school around the same time, and were greeted by a bawling Clea. Now usually, she only begins crying after she sees us, because it means that we will have to take her away from school. After we calmed her down a little, we asked her what was wrong. “I…..puth my thongue on tha pppole outhside,”she whimpered, then proceeded to stick out her tongue. Now at this point, Jeremy and I both stopped and took a minute to readjust our faces. One of the bad things about being with someone for so long is that you get to know them. If we had looked at each other at this moment in time, all would have been lost and our daughter would surely have been in therapy, dealing with the memory of her sadistic parents who, when told of her tongue trauma, began to laugh hysterically and had to lean against the school lockers in order to not fall down on the floor in a puddle of hilarity. Nope. We had the wisdom and good grace not to look at each other. Pause. A moment to eject the laughter from our brains and react with the appropriate sympathy. That sounds like a happy ending right? Nope. I wrecked it by telling both our daughters of the time I was unfortunate enough to put my tongue on a metal pole as a kid and how I was too embarrassed to tell anyone so I just ripped it off leaving a little bit of tongue skin on the pole as a souvenir for the next dumb behind. After this story, both my daughters burst into tears at the image of part of my tongue remaining on the pole. I guess they have more empathy than I. But you gotta admit, someone sticking their tongues on a metal pole is still pretty funny….

More job
I am now officially employed full time until the end of March. See how I am moving up in the world? That is, one month at a time.. This time, the intrepid librarian will be descending to the bottom floor of the great institution, where I will be serving the under twelve crowd and their deranged parents (of which I proudly count myself as one). I am looking forward to the chance to work as a youth librarian- see if the dream matches up to the reality.

Super Sylvie!
Today was a pro-d day and both Sylvie’s and Clea’s out of school service went to a sliding hill (think waterslides but colder). Because Sylvie was a little nervous about going, we were a little nervous about picking them up at the end of the day. But finally, I am glad to say that something actually went right today, and when Jeremy went to pick the girls up, there were two tired but very, very happy girls waiting for him. When Sylvie has a day like this, when she conquers her fears and ends up living outside herself for a moment, she seems invincible. Nothing could touch her, not even a dinner full of unidentifiable foods. I tell ya, on days like this, she’s got the powah!

Then Tuesday came along
And with it came the auditions for choir. Although the mother who works as the assistant to the choirmaster assured me that it was just a small audition and that it was just to see what type of voice the child has and that it was very rare that they did not accept kids, I was still a little nervous. Unfortunately, I had good reason. The audition ended up happening after the first practice as they were running late so Sylvie had time to enjoy herself. She was a little nervous when her turn camer up to audition, but she put on a brave face and gave a shy bird rendition of "Au Clair de la lune". The choir master seemed to spend more time with her, asking her to sing it in different octaves. He then pronounced that she was an alto, which seemed very acceptable to me, being a nontrained, everything-my-child-does is perfect mom. Besides, I read John Holt this summer who taught me that 99% of the population can sing, and that tone deafness was very rare. After the practice, he seemed to want to talk to me, so I hung back. Now, I am not sure what he meant, but I definitely got the feeling that he didn't think Sylvie was quite suitable for the choir. I would have been more alert if I didn't have this horror-struck, deer caught in the headlights look on my face. While he was talking, the panicky mother inside my head kept on chanting, "Please don't tell me Sylvie didn't get into the choir, please don't tell me she didn't get in. Oh god." I think he was trying to tell me that she can't hit the high notes, that her voice just isn't there yet and that instead of trying to go high, she would just mumble instead of sing. Of course, this is the girl that goes around trying to hit the high notes in the Queen of the Night aria so, yes, I am a tad bit surprised. As a survival mechanism, I have decided to chalk it up to first time jitters and just believe that she'll be less "shy" next week. Again, I ask. Who on earth ever let me be a mother?

Lina Reads and Reads and Reads

Therese Borchard, ed. The Imperfect Mom: Candid Confessions of Mothers living in the Real World-The title of this book should tell you how I have been feeling as a parent lately (okay since I became a parent). I have to admit that I was really looking forward to reading about other mothers who screw up as much as I do. Instead, I got a bunch of mostly neurotic mothers from the privileged class who talked about their unreasonable neurosis or else how their imperfections are actually better than what is considered perfect, making them more perfect than the norm. My final analysis: Yeah. Whatever. You want imperfect? I'll show you imperfect...

Heather O’Neill. Lullabies for Little Criminals- I was not expecting to like this book as much as I did- it was one of those books that made you feel that you died a little inside after it was done. It is raw and chafing and lyrical.

Amélie Nothomb. Métaphysique des Tubes-Wickedly funny and one of the most original authors I have ever read, this book is the memoir of Ms. Nothomb's third year of life.

Heather O’Neill. Two eyes are you sleeping- This is O'Neill's first book of poetry and it reads much like her novel- full of disenfranchised Montreal urbanity as well as similes that don't quite get off the ground. If you think about it, a simile is kind of like a metaphor with training wheels...

In Conclusion
Well, it is now Friday,February 2nd, ground hog's day, James Joyce's birthday and, as it so happens, the anniversary of my eldest daughter's birth. Yes, Sylvie is now 8 years old and I am having a minor heart attack about it. How dare she get older? How dare I get older? Isn't it fun tormenting yourself with nonsensical questions? As if I had a choice or something...

Oh yeah. Sorry about the lack of photos in this entry- I just noticed that we failed to take any this month. I have photos of the washer overflowing and of Jeremy's paintings (he has his own blog don't you know) but none of our month of January, which is indicative of the kind of month it was. All work and very little play people. Look out for the special birthday edition coming soon, though. Tomorrow is the party and I am sure there will be many choice pics!
Okay, now I am really going.

Happy New Year Y'all

2007-01-02T07:45:00.000-05:00

We now have both feet firmly in 2007. So people, no signing checks with 2006.
Making our own Christmas traditions
On Christmas Eve we had some friends over and we played what has come to be known as the Haggis game. For those of you who have never played the haggis game, it originated in the Gordaneer family a few years back on Christmas eve. Every invitee must wrap up something they do not want and bring it to the party. You then take a number and going in ascending order, you choose a present. The person that comes after you also chooses a present and then can choose to trade with everyone that went before him or her. The thing I happened to not want that first year was a can of haggis our vegetarian friend living in Scotland had brought back for us one year. Well, it has been about four years since that fateful Christmas eve and the haggis, now expired, is still in circulation. This year we had some doozies in our game- I think an eighties poster with a babe in granny panties leaning provocatively over a lamborghini was the winner.

What didja get for Christmas?
It was a windfall Christmas for the junior Gordaneerettes with most of their wishes from the novel they wrote Santa being fulfilled (thanks to a crack team of Santa, and Grandparents). Canadian Dolls were "l'objet du jour" this Christmas for my two munchkins and I must say, it is a quality product. Sylvie received Alexi and Clea received Jenna, along with a wardrobe that cost more than mine. Think Sarah's doll in Burnett's "The Little Princess" and then add combat boots and track suits.

Jeremy received two magazine subscriptions from yours truly: The Walrus, and Maisonneuve. He also received a black hoodie from my mother which he hasn't taken off and I suspect he won't until it disintegrates off his body (you don't believe me, but anyone who lived through the green cardigan of '96 will know what I am talking about). As for me, I was the recipient of a beautiful purse chosen by my love, who barring his penchant for wearing the same piece of clothing over and over again, has exquisite taste. I also received a pair of comfy penguin pyjamas from my generous mother as well as the most rocking coat ever (it has the most awesomest purple lining!).

The Christmas day hike

Have you ever done something that upon looking back seemed like a very stupid thing to do? No? Nothing? Well, our Christmas day hike falls into that category. We foolishly followed Clea up the mountain (that is Mout Royal for all of you non-Montrealers) which meant going straight up. No, not following the carriage trail or even the nicely cleared paths up the mountain. Nope. It meant climbing the very rocky, very steep and very muddy vertical slope to the cross. All this with their very expensive dolls in tow. Yes, things could have gone very very wrong and I am glad no one who witnessed this momentary lapse of sanity had social services on their speed dial. That is what you get when you let five year old lead the way. Funnily enough, their was more whining on the way down when we took the carriage trail. Something about it taking too long and feet hurting if I remember correctly...

Mom's Birthday and The Casse-Noisette Encore
We once again took my mother to the Nutcracker. It just happened to be the performance dedicated to the recently deceased choreographer and it showed. Everyone was dancing their little hearts out. Clea hummed through out the whole performance and Sylvie was on the edge of her seat. Success! Success, I tell you!
When we got home Katie and Mateo had arrived from Toronto and our friends Ruth, Alex and Olivia came to join in the birthday celebrations. Which of course meant more eating.

Not with a bang but a whimper...
That is how we brought in the New year. Really. We were in bed by eleven.During the day though, we took the kids skating and sledding on the pond near our house. Now, shhh...I will let you in on a little secret, but don't tell anybody-Jeremy really likes skating. He is very proud of himself for not falling on his rear and cracking his skull and I have got the picture to prove it!
On New Year's day however, we made up for our party lameness by having a splendiforous brunch with our friends Carrie and Tom and Kia and family from Ottawa.

Lina reads
Elizabeth Gaskell- Mary Barton
A contemporary of Dickens, Gaskell portrays the horrors of the disenfranchised poor working class.Although she can't get away from the prejudices of her own time (she tends to talk about the poor as if they were a different species and is all amazement and wonderment when they act like civilised people) she creates some surprisignly strong, flawed and interesting female characters. I really enjoyed this book despite the neatly wrapped up threads at the end (a blind girl suddenly becomes unblind).

Humour that will make you not believe everything you read
We regret the error...
C'est tout folks. A sincere happy new year greeting to all of you beloved people out there!

'Twas a week before Christmas and all through the house...

2006-12-18T05:22:00.000-05:00

We were all running around with stains on our blouse? There lay the corpse of the poor poisoned mouse? The mommy and daddy just spoke in a grouse? All of the above? (Okay, I exagerate slightly about the corpses- we don't actually see them. There are no state funerals for the mice of Montreal I am afraid.)

Now with that last paragragh can you tell that Christmas is stampeding upon us in an unprepared, overwhelming hurry? I by no means think that I am alone with this feeling. I am sure in your own households it is the same. I have to admit though that this is the first Christmas in my life where I have to work during the holidays and it has shortened my shopping time considerably, not to mention just maintaining house and children in a state of basic hygiene. Ahh but enough of my woes.

Christmas Tree Decoratin'
Because we had a set date when we had to pick up the tree, we decided to couple our tree accessorizing with some cocktails and friends. And thus we did. Friends from throughout the land (okay-throughout Mile End and the Plateau) came to place a decoration on our tree and indulge in some red or buttered concoction. The most pleasant and less labour intensive tree decorating I have experienced so far I must say. (See the very popular recipe for mulled wine in the recipe section of this blog entry)

'Tis the season to attend your children's concerts
Fa la la la la, la la la la. Well this last week has brought us a bevy of Christmas concerts (or is that a murder of Christmas concerts? no, I think the proper term is a torture of Christmas concerts). Again, I am being unfair. You see, once upon a time there was a shy little girl who every year had nasty experiences at the Christmas concerts. It all started back in grade five with a geography test. No, the girl did not fail, but alas, the ignominy! The shame! She received a 69%. The morning of the Christmas concert day was spent in a puddle of angry, embarrassed tears. At lunch, the little girl spilled orange pop all over her white tights, which wouldn't have been a big deal except for the fact that being the smallest in her class, she was invariably put in the front row of every concert. Yet still the little girl rallied and with a brave face marched onto the afeared stage with the rest of her classmates. When it came time to perform their piece, every recorder began blaring out the tune except hers. She blew and blew but nothing happened. With a mixture of deep embarrassement and desperate nervousness the little girl looked down at her instrument and realised that it was all twisted around and that she was trying to play it with the mouthpiece the wrong way. Now, the little girl could have simply twisted it back to its rightful place, but she didn't. Nope. She had one of her famous laugh attacks, where she can't for the life of her stop laughing. Of course, as we all know, laughter breeds laughter and soon all of the children could not play their song as they were all laughing so hard. And so went the first of many embarrasing Christmas concerts....
But this was not to repeat itself with her oldest child thank god, although the little girl all grown up was nervous enough about it.No indeed, the eldest child soldiered through admirably and enjoyed the Christmas potluck and jigging that took place after in admirable fashion.

Ahh, but the fun does not stop there. Just a few short days after, both Sylvie and Clea had their short ballet recital. This was also admirably performed and admirably planned for brevity, a quality I look for in children's concerts (I think I have mentioned it before?). The girls danced beautifully and we were only forced to sit in awkward positions clutching our coats in one hand and our cameras in the other for only under an hour.

Congratulations Erinne!
Well, she did it folks. After four gruelling years slogging it out at the ass end of the world, Erinne graduated with honors from vet school! So gather all your sick pets and livestock 'cause there is now a vet in the house!

What else?
Hmmm. Well, Jeremy has been off work now for over a week and has had time to indulge some of his more eccentric whims, which this time trespass into the world of industrial design. Yes folks, while most of us would take this time to catch up on housework or maybe even read a book, Jeremy has been relaxing by making Frank Ghery-like light fixtures.

Lina Reads
Jane Austen-Pride and Prejudice
One of my all time favourite books. Her satirical powers and comedic wit are truly dizzying.

D.H. Lawrence-Sons and Lovers
Now this title was a bit disconcerting as I was sure I had read it before. Yet, I couldn't remember anything. So here is to hoping that I was mistaken and in fact had never opened this book before because I cannot bare to think of the alternative answer to this conundrum. But about the book- very lyrical in his description of what can only be classified as an oedipal relationship. Also so exasperatingly DH Lawrence in that you want to take a frying pan to the head of many of his protagonists for their broodiness and their penchant for overcomplicating affairs.

Recipe for December
Clarence's Mulled Wine from It's a Wonderful Life
Chosen for its few ingredients and its simplicity, this mulled wine was very popular at our little cocktail party- in fact the only thing left in the pot was a couple of soggy orange slices.

Humour completely unrelated to Christmas
You might be a redneck if...
I came across this site by accident (don't ask) and thought I would give the gift of sharing it with y'all.

Well that is it folks. I am pretty sure I won't be able to sign on again until after the festivities so please have a very MERRY CHRISTMAS and a HAPPY NEW YEAR!

P.S. If you perchance happen to be reading this online and not through email, check out my new link to my reading list- I have created a simple spreadsheet and plan to keep track of what I read from now on (and avoid the above D.H. Lawrence fiasco.)

Ballet, Opera, and Hallowe'en

2006-11-06T21:32:00.000-05:00

Ballet anyone?
In the spirit of taking advantage of living in a big city, as well as attempting to provide a bit of culture for our daughters, we took the kids to see the ballet Rome & Juliet. Despite the lateness of the performance, both Sylvie and Clea loved it. Sylvie's comment was," I wanted to fall asleep but it was too exciting!". Clea did admirably well but unfortunately got a bad case of antsinthepantsitis for the last half hour. She was able to dance them out in the empty lobby as we waited for Sylvie and Jeremy to emerge.

Mimi's visit
October also means that we are blessed with a visit from the venerable Gordaneer matriarch also known as Mimi. Her visit was as short and sweet as the lady herself, full of walking and visiting and laughter.

The fun never stops with us!
The weekend after Mimi's visit we took the kids to see a children's version of the Magic Flute condensed into one hour. As you can imagine, both our kids were spellbound. Sylvie has a real love for opera and she was in 7th heaven to see her favourite queen of the night aria performed.

Hallowe'en
And then there was Hallowe'en. I have to admit, I am a little bit of a Hallowe'en scrooge. I have never really liked dressing up, therefore having a whole holiday devoted to costumes and bad candy tends to give me cramps. Yet, as much as I wasn't looking forward to it, the night itself was quite fun. We picked the kids up from school and decided to remain in the neighborhood to start trick or treating. We did a couple of blocks and then stopped for some dinner. We then went to visit our friends Kirsten and Jason who were having fun terrorizing the little children who came to their door. After a couple more blocks and a candy counting session (which meant a beer break for the adults) we took our two exhausted munchkins home.

Um-November is almost over...
Okay. Confession. I started writing this post almost 3 weeks ago. I would love to tell you what happened in those three weeks but they passed in a blink of an eye. Suffice it to say, that November is indeed kicking our butts. Everybody is tired and hanging on for dear life. The kids had a sleepover on Friday night with their art group and it took them the whole weekend to recover. Yesterday, just to continue on our big city cultural journey, we went to see a "comédie musicale" called "La chèvre de Monsieur Séguin." For those of you who are francophone ( which might just be my mother) you will recognise the title as one of the french children's story classics. It was very good children's theatre if I do say so myself. Just that right mix of simple storyline, opera and brevity that makes going to the theatre with kids so much fun. I guess I need not add that both jeremy and I nodded off...

Oh yes, speaking of my beloved, last weekend he donned a pair of ice skates for the first time in his life! yes, yes, I am sure many of you would have liked to have been flies on the wall for this occasion. Alas, you were not. But I was there! I saw it all! And I am pleased to say that, in true Jeremy style, he mastered the ice quite quickly and did not once fall on his derriere. Hi only comment was, "it sure is slippery!"
Yep, that pretty much sums up November.
We tried to mail her, but she wouldn't fit in the mailbox...

Now, since I am now working at the coolest job ever, I have been listening to many different kinds of music and watching a lot of movies. Here are my picks for this blog entry:

Film:
The man who cried
Most definitely not a piece of fluff, I actually watched this film because of the soundtrack (which I highly recommend- it is so beautiful it almost incapacitates me). This film follows the life of a Russian Jewish girl deported from Russia to England as a child. As a young adult she travels to Paris before WWII to sing and save enough money to join her father in America. Christina Ricci plays the girl, Cate Blanchett her friend and Johnny depp her gypsy lover (don't you just love the gypsy lover character? I think M. Depp does..)

Music:
Beirut
For my job, I get to read music magazines. This group kept on popping up and I must say I really dig them. The reason why I picked them up was because the review said they were like "the Smiths at a Balkan funeral." Now if that doesn't whet your appetite, I don't know what will.

Books:
Now of course, that doesn't mean I have stopped reading. I have finally finished my very last John Banville book (I promise!) entitled Doctor Copernicus, about, you guessed it, Doctor Copernicus. Banville spends alot of time detailing the dichotomy between the dirty business of living and the human need to transcend out sordid quotidian details. I sho' liked it! Kind of...
Clea, taking the gangst'a look to a whole new level...

Well, that is it for now folks. Here's hoping for another entry before Christmas!

Food Hangover...

2006-10-10T05:33:00.000-04:00

Thanksgiving News
Well, in good North American style, I gave thanks by attempting to stuff myself as full as I stuffed my first turkey. It is a nice symmetry I suppose, although I must admit consuming way more than I need is a strange way to thank the world for its bounty.

Still, in a more positive light, we had a wonderful Thanksgiving. Our friends Kia and Cyrril from Ottawa came to visit with their three children Joshua, Leo and Alina (you will know them from a previous post in June) and we painted the town red!
Okay, the children only painted some pumpkins red- it's just an expression people, you shouldn't be so literal. Geez...

We had the most amazing weather all weekend. On Saturday we took the Gouttes to the Jean-Talon market where they were reminded of the markets in France they left behind last April. After getting some lunch for everybody and purchasing some food for our Thanksgiving dinner, we headed home and drove up to Mount-Royal where the trees were dressed in their variegated autumnal glory and the view of the city was unobstructed by smog. We walked all the way up to the cross, the kids frolicking in the dry leaves and running off all that built up steam.

The next day we headed down to the Old Port where we explored and walked some more. We had to head back home around three in order to get the turkey in the oven, so Jeremy and Cyrril took the kids to the park while Kia and I prepared the bird. This was my first attempt at so large a fowl and, thanks to Kia's expert guidance, I think it turned out okay! Yay! Successful first turkey! No mishaps or bird flu or mad cow disease! Indeed, all things to be thankful for! (I will stop with the exclamation marks now.) After an Ichat with the family back in Victoria, we sat down to a wonderful meal of turkey, apple sausage stuffing (I am very proud of my stuffing), corn, and mixed vegetables and pumkin pie with ice cream and vin cotto for dessert. A feast indeed! Of course, we ate so late that soon it was time to put the kids to bed and, as so often happens when you have a toddler, the adults ended up falling asleep with them.

But the fun was not over, not by a long shot. On Monday we headed down to the Botanical gardens in order to see the chinese lanterns. Another beautiful day to roam around and get some exercise after the excessive feasting of the last couple of days. We saw the chinese lanterns, visited the insectarium and took a ride on the train. After a lunch of leftovers, we sent them back to Ottawa, tired and with their waistbands just a little tighter (at least mine was).

Unthanskgiving News
I guess the big news these days is that I finally got a full time job! It is at the BANQ in the music and film department. I am in charge of selecting the sheet music and books on music as well as helping out a colleague with a backlog of cd selections. Although it is just a maternity leave replacement until March, I feel very lucky to have such a cool job. It is very busy and always interesting and the hours are not too bad.
What else? Oh yes. After about a week of ignoring Sylvie complain about a toothache, Jeremy and I finally clued in that something might be wrong and promptly (in a manner of speaking) made an appointment with the dentist. She went last week with Jeremy (it happened to be my first day on the job) and it turned out that one of her fillings was broken and in danger of abcessing. Funny thing though, she is now in a way better mood...

The kids have started taking some art classes after school with a neighbour of one of Sylvie's classmates. The girl in question is studying to be a teacher at Concordia and needs to do art lessons with children of Sylvie and Clea's age. They participated in a Concordia student's project last year and had a lot of fun doing it! It is also a way for Sylvie to get to know her classmates a little better. It is always hard when you enter a group that has known each other for quite some time. Another issue for her is that they are considerably ahead academically speaking than her last school and she is feeling a little intimidated by everything she doesn't know. Wow. I wish I could tell her that feeling goes away.

Jeremy is doing well. He is still working at Concordia and trying to use every spare moment to get to the studio. He might be working on some other theatre projects as well but I haven't received the news bulletin on that issue so that will have to wait for the next post.

Lina Reads
Edith Wharton- The Buccaneers
A classic written by the grand dame of american literature. If you want to read about how 19th century nouveau riche upstarts invade upper crust Britain, well this is the book for you.

John Banville- Shroud
This is a new name for me, one that I found while trolling the wonderful database Novelist (check out your local library's online resources for this gem, it is well worth it!) and I am quite enjoying his work. In the previous post I talked about the Book of Evidence from him. Shroud is about an old man who has been living under a false identity for most of his life. There is something deeply moving about Banville's characters as well as deeply unsatisfying. They are hateful, sympathetic, incomprehensible and comprehensible all at the same time. In short, just like most people.

Commentary Response
In response to my very dear friend FSC, who also doubles as my literary critic, consider this an offical apology for my misrepresentation of Tracy Chevalier's fiction. The Pearl Earring indeed is only written in the voice of one character. The last two books I have read of her, The Lady and the Unicorn and Falling Angels, were however written from several perspectives.

Recipe of the Week
Apple, Cranberry, sausage stuffing
This is the recipe I used for our outstandingly magnificent Thanksgiving dinner.

Just Cause...
I can't remember if I gave people this link in a previous post, but here are some handy tools to use with Google:
Google Guide

Okay people. Gotta go earn my living now. Have a wonderful rest of the week!

It's September- On your marks, get set, go!

2006-09-14T09:18:00.000-04:00

That is sure how it feels anyway. The kids are now in their third week of school and ballet classes have already begun. The weather is making it quite clear that summer is over-it is squishing out misty rain and generally being way more inclement than need be. Jeremy is also back to work at his leisurely part-time job at Concordia and I have just gotten my first regular hours at La Grande Bibliothèque. They happen to be on the weekend, but who am I to complain? My foot is now securely jammed in that door. I am still applying for other jobs, but I am not unhappy with my lot right now. The kids are in school and time seems stretched out like a king sized sheet in front of me. The days are mine to do with what I will, and in most cases I choose to write.

As I write this, I am listening to the Current on CBC Radio One, where they are talking about the horrible shooting that occurred at Dawson yesterday. I remember hearing a girl interviewed on the television yesterday who described the shooter as wearing all black, like something out of the "Matrix", with a "retarded" haircut. Hmmm. The interviewee is now talking about how these people are usually socially rejected and I wonder if anybody looks at their own behaviour when faced with such violence. Is introspection dead? I am by no means justifying any such action but it does confirm my belief that our actions, however trivial and seemingly meaningless, have consequences. Sorry, I have been listening to the same news coverage for almost 24 hours. My head is filled with horror and pity and shame for all the times I acted or talked without thinking.

But what about me? What have I been up to?
Yeah.
We spent labour day weekend in Peterborough with John, Claire, Anwyn and Rhys where we were rained in for most of the time. It got off to a bit of a rocky start, with Sylvie demonstrating her tell tale signs of stress and physical exhaustion by complaining of an ear ache and crying at the drop of the hat. We got about 45 minutes out of Montreal before we seriously thought we should turn back. But, as luck would have it, she fell asleep and was fine and dandy for the rest of the weekend. Although she goes about her days without complaining, the newness and the stress of not knowing what do to accumulates until she blows up like a mini volcano. She is doing a little better now, but she still has a cough and a runny nose. of course, now that I think about it, we all do. I think I will take the easy way out and blame it on the weather. But John and Claire... yes.
We hardly saw the kids all weekend, they were so busy playing with Anwyn and Rhys. It was truly as if a year had not gone by and they had seen each other just the day before. Anwyn is still really into animals and Rhys is still the kooky little cheese eating man he has always been. The reason we were there of course was that John managed to get a show for himself, Mark and Jeremy. The official opening is tomorrow night and displays the recent works of the three.

Homework.... How I hate homework
So Sylvie's homework has begun again and although it is a lot more relaxed than last year's she still needs to get through it so she does not get left behind. If anybody has some tips on how to remain patient during this trying time of the day, or can recommend any books that provide techniques on how to explain certain concepts to your children, I would greatly appreciate it if you would write to me. I will have a look today, but there is nothing like a recommendation from a friend. Perhaps I will put together an annotated bibliography for anyone who is interested.

Extracurricular particulars
(Sorry- couldn't help myself) So. Ballet and violin on Saturdays and swimming lessons on Sundays. How did I become one of those parents trucking their kids from activity to activity? Curses on my over eager, motivated children, waylaying all my plans for a nice, easy laissez-faire parenthood. Sylvie is now officially in "beginner's ballet" and to mark her promotion from "pre-ballet" we had to purchase a lovely purple bodysuit and actual ballet slippers. She is very proud of her new suit which I will only let her wear on Saturday, so we will all have to wait for a picture. Speaking of Sylvie, last Thursday was the beginning of the year potluck at her school. Meticulously organized, with each grade in charge of bringing a course (eg. Sylvie's grade was in charge of the salads) and even an allergy free table available, they had an actual DJ, one of the kids from the school who had a penchant for David Bowie. They even had wine, beer and Sangria available to the parents which I think should be a prerequisite for any school event. It does take the edge off. Anyway, Sylvie was happily hitting a tether ball that Jeremy was obligingly dangling from his arm, when she gave it a particularly good tap. It orbited Jeremy's arm and collided with Sylvie's face. A second later Sylvie spat out her last front tooth. You could imagine what a sight we were, in front of all these new parents, with our daughter bloodied and crying and Jeremy and I laughing and laughing. I must work on my first reactions. I suspect I might come off as a bit callous sometimes. Tonight is the first parent-teacher meeting. Unfortunately, Sylvie and Clea's meetings are scheduled for the same time so I am forced to do this frenetic running back and forth, trying to take in all the information from both schools and probably retaining none of it. How, I dread tonight...

Lina Reads
John Banville- The Book of Evidence
This is an irish writer whom I have never heard of (until now of course). Written in the first person, this book explores the mind of a man who committed a murder for no good reason. Shades of Mr. Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment abound.

Tracy Chevalier- Falling Angels
The writer of "The Girl with a Pearl Earring," I have to admit that I treat her books as escape reading. They are always written in several voices and are always set in certain historical time periods. "Falling Angels" takes place in London at the beginning of the 1900s and follows the story of two girls coming of age and losing their innocence. If you want something light but not unintelligent, this is a good book to pick up.

Recipe of the Week
I thought I would add a recipe segment to my blog for those of you who are tired of the same dishes and want to try something new! Here is one that we had the other night- it was really easy, made us ate fish and was tasty too! Always the librarian, I have to quote my source which in this instance is from the eating plan of Self.com. (Don't ask) Because I had never heard of tilapia I have included a link to the wikipedia entry.

Tomato-olive tilapia (makes 2 servings)(photo of tilapia taken from http://sofia.usgs.gov/sfrsf/rooms/species/invasive/focus/tilapia.jpg)

Sauté 1 onion, chopped, in 1 tbsp olive oil until softened. Add one 28-oz can Italian plum tomatoes and simmer 10 minutes. Add 10 olives, pitted and halved, and two 5-oz fillets tilapia or other firm, white fish. Simmer 8 to 10 minutes or just until fish is opaque throughout, adding 3 tbsp chopped fresh basil in the last 2 minutes of cooking. Serve with brown rice and salad.

Well, that's it for now folks. Until I have something more to say, I bid you au revoir and not adieu.

What's up? School's up!

2006-08-30T10:25:00.000-04:00

Yessir, it is that time of year again, a whole week ahead of everybody in the rest of the country. Why is that? I have no idea. They also go for an hour more than most kids. Sylvie now finishes school at the odd hour of 15:41. Not 15:40 or the nicely rounded 15:45, but 15:41. Besides the oddity of the schedule, école Arc-en-Ciel is already proving to be what we hoped it would be: basically a place where we can meet like-minded people with children our age. Sylvie seems to be very happy with it and Clea, well, Clea only had a couple of hours of class yesterday, so we will see how much she likes it today. Nestled in the plateau among narrow streets lined with brick duplexes, the school is as urban as urban can be. Trees that the students have planted line the schoolyard and the walls are decorared with bright murals. The part of the building that belongs to Arc-en-ciel is also brightly coloured, with each class having their own colour. Sylvie is yellow and although her door is red right now due to a change of classrooms, it will soon reflect the colour of the second grade and shine out bright and yellow.
After the kids were herded into their separate classes and all the paperwork had been put away, there was a meeting with wonderful pastries and coffee for the parents. Jeremy and I have been assigned "godparents" to help us through our first experience with the school. I met two of the mothers of two children from Sylvie's class and was able to pick their brains to my heart's content. Jeremy and I then took Clea home and waited anxiously until the clock struck 15:41 to see how Sylvie's first day went. I am pleased to say it was a success! She made a friend (although she doesn't know her name- kids do have different priorities, don't they?) and had her first homework, which consisted of drawing a self portrait of herself, which is right down her alley.
This morning we took the plunge and rode to school. It went smoother than I was expecting, only taking us a half hour. Yay! So far so good!

In other news...
Last weekend we headed out of town for our yearly visit to Ayers Cliff, in the heart of the eastern townships and just north of the Vermont border. Why Ayers Cliff you might quite rightly ask yourself? Well, that is the hometown of Christine, my aunt, who because of only a small age difference, I prefer to think of as my uncle's wife. As usual, her family opened their hearts and their homes to us. We crashed August's birthday party (Christine's nephew) and spent a languorous, relaxing day drinking wine and talking with interesting folk. The kids meanwhile had with quantum speed joined the wild pack of roaming little girls and we didn't see them until it was time for them to go to bed. It was great to see my uncle, Christine and their two year old daughter Annalise (my youngest cousin!) who got along famously with Clea. Unfortunately, we were too dazed to break out the camera and I have absolutely no pictures of our visit there. Hmmm. weird, that. It might have something to do with having our first drink at 2:00 in the afternoon.

ASIDE-->Don't we look so cool- like we are in a band called "up yours" or something....

Lina Reads
Mansfield Park by Jane Austen- I thought I would revisit some Jane Austen after reading her biography. I have to confess this is not my favourite Jane Austen. The character of Fanny Price is so submissive and battered that if I knew her I would have to constantly resist the urge to kick her in the fanny. Of course, she just might be exemplifying the "meek" quality so lauded by the new testament and I am just an arrogant, loud, demanding piss ant. The fact remains that the latter is infinitely more fun and less dependent on the goodness of others. Man. I am sooo glad I am not a poor relation living in the early 19th century.

Registration time is creeping up and today I must go register the kids in ballet class. Have a great labour day weekend and back to school for all of you tardy western canadians.

Cool bike, hey? We call it the Clea taxi, or Claxi for short.

Hello again!

2006-08-16T06:49:00.000-04:00

Hmmm. I don't even know where to begin it has been such a busy month. I am sitting here looking at a blank box, wondering what I should write. Of course, like anything, your muscles begin to atrophy if they haven't been used in a while. Well, let's just say that my blogging muscles have turned to petrified wood.

The weather in the last week has cooled down considerably. Jim could always tell that August had come and summer was almost over before anyone else. The quality of the blue of the sky was different or some such painterly observation. Anyway, I see it now too. Not to mention that subtle bite in the air, where pants are actually an option and it is conceivable (of course still not probable) that you might need a sweater.

Well, let's recap shall we?

Uncle Dave, Auntie Julia and crew
The weekend of July 22 saw my Uncle Dave coming into town with a whole car load of family. They arrived Friday night with three very tall children (although only two were theirs) and we immediately sat down for some barbecuing and drinking.
In Saturday we took them out for one of the famous Quebec greasy spoon breakfasts, where baked beans and several different kinds of meat abound. Because Julia had broken her ankle a few weeks before, she opted to go hang out with her brother while the rest of us headed to the Île St-Hélène to check out the Biosphere which is housed in the geodesic dome of Buckminster Fuller.

The kids had a great time learning about the scarce resource of water as well as some interesting environmentally friendly architectural designs (okay, the last one was fun for Jeremy, Uncle Dave and I).
After the biosphere, I took them to the Bibliothèque nationale for a quick glimpse of its grandeur (in my defense, you can get to it directly from the metro so it wasn't much of a detour- it was just like taking a more interesting exit! Ya!) The plan was then to walk a little in downtown Montreal but of course it was raining. Luckily, St-Denis is right around the corner from the library so we ducked into a restaurant and sampled the poutine (all in all a healthy day fo us!).
Okay, even if it was raining, I was not eating two of Quebec's famously artery clogging meals without walking some of it off, so we made the children walk up St-Denis to Sherbrooke and then scooched over to St-Laurent where I thought we could take a bus home. "Thought" is the key word here, because the 55 bus never came. I guess it was tired, or had better things to do, or maybe it doesn't like the rain. Either way, we ended up spending over a half an hour waiting for a bus with five soggy, tired children (okay four children and one teenager) that in the end never came. This of course meant more walking! Yay!
We finally got home and immediately settled into the positions we would be in for the rest of the night. On the menu for the evening? Indian food of course! We live right beside a neighbourhood that is quickly becoming known as little India, where we have access to some of the most delicious and cheap Indian food. Julia came back with her brother and his wife and we had a very fun albeit crowded kitchen party.
Sunday my uncle and Jeremy went to get some bagels before we headed off to the old port (sans Jeremy who had to work) to check out the Point-à-Callières museum and to have a light picnic by the water. A museum of archeology, I was realy impressed by their displays and the fact that it was built over the ruins of the old customs house and original square. Sylvie and Clea also liked it, as anything to do with digging and treasure they find titillating (Sylvie spotted an old bottle that had been left in the foundation of a wall in the ruins). After our brains were showing symptoms of museum burn out, we exited into the bright light of the out doors and walked a ways along the main street that lines the river. We stopped at a picnic table and had leftover samosas and bagels for lunch. An ice cream each and a few balloon animals later, we had split into two groups: my Uncle and aunt with me and the kids, and their kids with Jesse, Jocelyn and their cousin (Oh my god- I feel so horrible- I have forgotten her name! Forgive me Oh 14 year old who makes funny noises!). We walked around a little more before heading back home on the 55 which obviously likes the sun better than the rain. As my Uncle and Aunt went out to visit some family in Beaconsfield that night and they left the next morning, that was pretty much the end of the visit.
Although I love showing Montreal off (I feel a lot of pride in the city) the highlight of the trip was having the time to talk to my Uncle and Aunt. Both successful musicians, we heard some of their pieces they had been working on (which I will find a way soon of putting on this blog hopefully) as well as talked about my dad and other philosophical musings. I sure do like my family, yessir.

INTERLUDE
Where I work a lot and spend the weekend cleaning and going insane with stress and fatigue and taking it out on my sister Erinne.

So my two month contract at the corporation finished on August 4th. Although I am loathe to admit it, I really like working there. The dynamic was such that everybody knew what they had to do and were left alone to do it. I really liked my coworkers as well as the reference work and the collaborative software structural design I was doing. I also liked the regularity of the hours and the fact that it did not take up anymore of my life than I needed it to. Sigh. Oh well, back to the drawing board in terms of job searching [insert quiet note of panic here].

NEW YORK!!!!!
So, the evening of my last working Friday we went to Erinne and Stéphane's house for a lovely dinner. Sylvie was shaking with a hacking cough but seemed to rally once her front tooth fell out. Little did I know that Erinne is seriously dating (as in this might be the one dating) a wine connoisseur. To my utter delight I was plied with some of the best wine I have ever tasted that he receives by the case load because he is in contact with certain Chateaux in Bordeaux. Hmmm. I wonder if he is aware of what family he is considering joining?
So, sick daughter be damned, I got to taste good wine. In fact, now that I look back on it, I should have just given her some. I bet something that good has magical healing properties. It sure took the edge off for me.

Okay, before you call social services on me, I did not actually drink that much of it because, ironically (Uncle Dave you will appreciate my careful use of the word), wine that tastes that good cannot be downed like the regular case replenished at the SAQ depot. No sirree, one must twirl and smell and make sure to hold the glass by the stem which only allows for sophisticated sipping and no chugging. Alas. All this to say that we left Erinne's household with the three children (Katie and Mateo having arrived that day) and three relatively sober adults.

Now for the good part. Early Saturday morning Jeremy and I snuck out of the house and high tailed it to New York yelling "Vive la liberté!" the whole way down. [note the use of dramatic hyperbole. We did not in fact sneak, having planned this trip months in advance as well as importing a reliable babysitter in the form of katie all the way from Toronto. We did however leave early, but not so early that I could not go for a run. In fact, I saw two lovely foxes that morning on the mountain. As to yelling the whole way, although Eric appreciates loud sounds as much as any other musician, six hours of cheering and whooping would have eventually gotten on his nerves.] Yes, we went to New York with our friends Eric and Erin and arrived there at around 2:00 on Saturday afternoon. We checked in to our favourite hotel the Carlton Arms (where we stayed with the kids in January and in fact ended up in the same room this trip) and then parked the car in the east village where we had lunch. Saturday was going to really good book stores day. I was finally able to go to the Strand where they literally have miles of books. We also went to a really nice book store that I cannot recall the name of but where I purchased a fascinating treatise on scarcity and anarchist thought. Yep- fun, fun, fun 'til daddy takes the t-bird away. At the Strand I was able to pick up two books that I have been searching to purchase second hand for a long time: Carol Shields Penguin Lives biography on Jane Austen and Ted Hughes translations of Ovid. Yeah! Rock on! After roaming the book stores for a while and walking around the city, we decided to all go back to the hotel so that we could drink beer on the fire escape. And yes, it was as fun as it sounds.
For dinner we walked down to around 4th street and chose an Indian restaurant. This turned out to be an unfortunate choice. Although Jeremy specified no nuts in his curry, apparently cashews do not count as nuts. He went very quiet for a moment and then cryptically informed us that there were in fact some nuts in his food. Luckily he did not eat very much and only suffered excessive belly aching and cold sweats as well as an unfulfilled urge to purge. We left the restaurant and went to sit in Washington Square where we were mesmerized by the quantity and brazenness of the rat population. That pretty much marked the end of an evening- with a glimpse of the dirtier side of the city and a new found longing for an epipen.

Sunday. We walked. and walked and walked and walked and walked. In short, it was a really good day. Breakfast was taken in a Subway-like diner on the way to the Metropolitan Museum that served omelettes instead of sandwhiches and where you could choose what ingredients you wanted. We spent the morning at the Met where we hooked up with some old friends (you know, Cézanne, Van Gogh the usual suspects.). As usual though, the modern and contemporary galleries left us slightly nauseous and underwhelmed but all in all it is good to see some art.
After walking several blocks south again, we all decided that we would rather walk in downtown and skip midtown all together (you can only see so much very expensive apartment buildings without wanting to step in front of a distracted taxicab.) More in our element, with narrow streets and crowded sidewalks and interesting people, we explored SOHO and the village, where we got a damn fine burrito. Here we split ways with Eric and Erinne to go walk down to the 9/11 site and Battery park. This was a strange thing to do but kind of interesting, disturbing, moving and uncomfortable all at the same time. Still, I am glad I saw it. Or lack of it. Oh you know what I mean...

On the way back we walked through Tribeca. As Jeremy and I were discussing the most interesting route to take, an older gentleman approached us and asked us if he could provide us with directions. We ended up having a twenty minute conversation with him, about Robert Deniro's status as unofficial mayor of Tribeca, the places he lived, the rising cost of living in New York and where that left all the interesting people (read artists). It was really pleasant.
We walked back to the hotel having had a wonderful day and ready for a beer on the fire escape!
But no, the day was not over yet folks! After a couple of beers, we headed down to the village for some pizza and an attempt to go to a bar. It was a feeble attempt I grant you, as Jeremy and I are not real club people. We ended up in a bar where we downed a beer and decided to go back to our fire escape. Which we did after visiting the corner store that sold 500 different kinds of beer, a whole range of organic face creams and some very very nice chocolate. (I love that corner store.) Although we tried valiantly to stay awake, Jeremy fell asleep on the bed and th rest of us could not finish our beer.
Monday. The day we had to go home. We had breakfast at Kate's joint and then checked out of our hotel. We head over the bridge to Brooklyn where we walked around Williamsburg before heading back to our home and native land. We would have arrived sooner if it weren't for a dastardly accident on the 87 that left us in a David Lynch like landscape with cars lined up along the highway and people walking like zombies in the light of the accident flares. It turned out that a car had hit a greyhound bus. Fortunately no one died. However, I did get to see two of America's great stereotypes: a refugee from the Ozarks who I assume was a volunteer fire fighter, with no teeth and no coherent verbal skills. His traffic directing abilities were also lacking as they consisted only of erratically waving the "accident wand?" once in a while. A more authoritative figure came along eventually in the guise of the "state trooper." And what a state trooper he was, with that large broad rimmed hat and the behind that was so tight he gave the impression he kept his lunch box up there. He gave Eric the direction to turn around and to follow him down the wrong side of the highway. He then gave Eric directions for a detour and told him that he was the lead car and that all the cars behind us would be following us. O the pressure! The responsibility! Although we arrived safely on the other side of the accident, I suspect we might have lost a few cars on the way. And that, might friends, concludes our first weekend away from the kids ever.

SISTER WEEK and TORONTO
We arrived late on Monday night and found the three kids and katie stuffed into the two bunk beds. Apparently, Sylvie had been sick all weekend and Katie had the generosity and wisdom not to mention it when I phoned her. Once again, Katie and Erinne, thank you for wonderful weekend!

But the fun was not over, no sirree! Katie stayed the week. Although we did not do much in terms of activities, the days seemed to whizz by. The kids played and played with nary a tense moment between them. It helped that Sylvie slept with Katie and the two youngs were left to their own devices. I think this was the first visit where they were actually sufficiently rested. Last Thursday we went to get Mateo's haircut. While we were waiting for the hairdresser, Sylvie asked if she could get her haircut like Lucy in the Chronicles of Narnia. I said sure. Of course, Clea wanted the same, so they both got their hair chopped off into nice, manageable bobs. Oh joy! Oh rapture! No longer will I have to struggle with knots and horrid noises emanating from the plaintive mouths of my babes.

We left on Saturday morning to drive Katie and Mateo back to Toronto. Erinne came with us, which makes this trip the first Branter sister trip since, well since a long long time and of course meant a crowded sometimes grumpy carload. Negotiating my very palpable fear of the forty (the very badly designed highway out of Montreal)I got us to Toronto with every limb intact albeit hot and sore.
In Toronto we hung out with Dan, went running, had a picnic at the water park where the kids played all afternoon on Sunday (picture déjeuner sur l'herbe but with water shooting up from holes in the ground and lots of swings and monkey bars). We left on Monday to come back to Montreal.
Pheww. I think we are now up to date! I am going to try and make some online "photo albums" so that those who wish it will have access to more photos so stay tuned!

Lina Reads
Carol Shields on Jane Austen-Just this morning I finished the Jane Austen biography mentioned earlier. For someone like me who grew up reading and loving Jane Austen's novels, this biography was more like talking to a very intelligent, good friend about one of her favourite authors. Shields' affection for her subject shines through on every page as well as her utter reader's delight in her novels. I am glad I finally picked it up. Comforting, and inspiring all at the same time.

Lina's Picks
Odd Musical Instruments - here is a site that Sylvie really loved. You can hear a beer organ play Elinor Rigby, or enjoy the dulcet tones of the bikelophon.
Darth Vader: Smart Ass -just because it is really funny.

July ends with a soggy, heat soaked whimper

2006-07-29T17:08:00.000-04:00

After all the excitment here in Little Italy, everybody is limp with the heat. The competition for the person who can just sit there with the minimum of movement is now on. It is perhaps not as exciting to watch as the World Cup, but it is just as important in terms of survival.

Camping with Alex and Olivia
One of the highlights of July was our weekend camping trip with Alex and Olivia.

Yes, here we are in the beautiful provincial park Voyageur, on the border of Ontario and Quebec, enjoying a gourmet dinner after a day of basking in the sun and swimming. Alex was kind enough to take the kids on Saturday afternoon to a special activity for children while Jeremy and I actually lounged at a beach. Now take note folks, because this is a rare occasion, probably never to be replicated. Jeremy and I do not usually lounge, especially when their is sand and water involved.
We stayed for two nights and were very happy to find our camping legs again.

However we did have to go back on Sunday, just in time to grab a parking spot before all hell broke loose with a whole neighbourhood breaking out in purely dionysian raucous joy:

It was a loud, loud night in our neighbourhood, yesssirree!

Okay. That is about all I can handle for today...I might do more tomorrow if the humidex permits it. (Right now I am bathing in my own sweat, which I don't think is the best thing for the computer.)

Lina's pick of the week
CBC Podcasts
For those of you who enjoy the show Ideas, they produce some pretty interesting podcasts freely available at this link. I just listened to Part one of the David Cayley series on Market and Society, all about Karl Polanyi. If you are a runner or suffer from a long commute, or just happen to like listening to good radio, these podcasts give you an hour long, commercial free banquet of thought. Okay, now I think I might be drowning in sweat. Gotta go down a wine spritzer and attempt to have none of my body parts touch other body parts.

To view the movies...

2006-07-16T11:12:00.000-04:00

Just a reminder to those who receive my posts by email- you are not able to view the movies I embed in my blog through the email message. If you want to see my blog "all dressed",or "full loaded" or as they say in québecois, "full équipe" please click on the link at the bottom of the email message that looks like this:

Posted by montrealgordaneers to MontrealGordaneers at 7/15/2006 07:58:00 AM

(In the original message the montrealgordaneers part should be a hyperlink)

July 1rst- Canada day for the rest of you

2006-07-15T07:58:00.000-04:00

,moving day for Montreal. Ya. Coincidence or political statement? Hmm. Let us deposit that question into an ironclad strong box and throw away the key shall we.
If you aren't familiar with Canada day in Montreal, all leases end July 1rst so the city is packed with moving vans, trucks, cars loading up with people's personals. It also means serious dumpster diving activity. Beds, sofas, dressers, tvs, you name it are left on the side of the road to either be picked up by you or by the next passerby.

Felipe moves out
We also participated in the chaos of moving day with our own Felipe going out on his own. We are now only four people in our humble abode with another room to mess up (or use as a guest room if any of you folk would like to visit!)

Katie and Dan arrive

On that same day, Katie, Dan and Mateo arrived for the weekend. This would mark the first time my sisters and I had been in the same city since Katie's wedding in 2002(?) I think. Now, how on earth did that happen? I must admit I am as flummoxed as George Bush trying to read the instructions on his shampoo bottle.
I took the kids to the pool for the afternoon while Katie, Dan and Erinne went to watch some of the soccer action in a cafe in Little Italy. It is amazing how close Sylvie, Clea and Mateo are.
They love each other so much and play together so well that it would be a shame if katie and Dan didn't pick up after naturopathy school and move to Montreal to set up shop. (oops- did I just say that aloud?)
We barbecued, shopped, drank a little wine and played some hackey sack. A very nice weekend indeed if I do say so myself...

here is alittle video of the chittens...

Sylvie goes to day camp
The Tuesday after the July 1rst weekend marked the first day of day camp for Miss Sylvie. She was very excited about it and could hardly sleep the night before. I wonder what sort of expectations she had of it. As a kid, these camps always seemed so extravagantly fun. Having read so much about kids going to camp and all the amazing things they did there (horse back riding, living in a log cabin, roasting marshmallows, swimming in a lake all day) I was always disappointed with the urban day camp experience. I think it was the word "camp." In my mind it did not fit the bill at all. It should have been called day park, or day parking or glorified babysitting in the park with stupid theme days that were the bane of my existence. I guess day camp is shorter though... but I digress..
Sylvie however, seems to enjoy it quite a lot. So far she has been to a farm, a chateau (where she was able to make butter) and to the Ronde. The rest of the days are spent in the pools and parks in the neighbourhood. Her friend Janis is also enrolled so I think they have a dandy old time. One issue that has emerged with this experience though is that Sylvie is a very shy, unsure girl sometimes. (Hmm. Remind me of someone?) Jeremy has to contend with her extreme reticence when dropping her off when, god forbid, her friends have not arrived yet and she is on her own. I remember feeling so completely out of place and paralyzed with shyness. It is difficult to see Sylvie going through the same thing and not be able to do anything about it. It is one of those situations where she is just going to have to learn to cope and one day control those emotions. Aaargh. Whoever let me be a parent? I think it was some sort of slip up.

Lina explores boing boing....
Pay your troll toll!
Do you think they named it Janus?
You can get anything on ebay
NFB animated shorts online!
Try something different, make a watch!

C'est tout pour aujourdh'ui!