There's a party in my house and it's only 6:30 Wednesday night. Sheesh. Someone's making salad, someone's playing upright bass, someone's waiting for pizza, a few other people are loitering and Willow's sticking close to me.

This past weekend I had two great friends visit me from far away. With one, I did the ultimate Montreal bagel taste test and had a Fairmount bagel, walked a few blocks and had a St Viateur bagel. I'll say that Fairmount had a line out the door, but St Viateur sold individual-sized cream cheeses. Guess which bagel won (in both my and my friend's opinion)?

Then we had drinks at Dieu du Ciel where we monopolized Bruno the bartender: he is 31, is in police school, used to be a chef and spends all his time studying. 

Then we all went to Gibby's in the old port where I dined on shrimp cocktail! lobster tail! veal! wine! cosmopolitans! and had our picture taken by Mona, our waitress.

Then we all went back to the W Hotel which is OVERRATED! I'd never been inside and was excited to see what all the hype was about. While the outside looks like a mental hospital, the inside looks like someone wondered, "How many totally awesome neon light and water installations can I fit in one mental hospital?" and then fit as many awful neon light and water installations in it. 

Then I went home.

About my last post, Margaret commented, "okay, not to be the voice of doom and gloom here, but I heard the other day that historically, Montreal gets 23% of its annual snowfall in March, and March is only half over. I'm just saying...enjoy the moment." BUT I DON'T BELIEVE IT! 

Do you do an annual spring cleaning? I love spring cleaning but haven't felt the tug of the garbage bags strongly enough yet. I love throwing stuff out (or donating or recycling, etc).

Some more M. Ward...

The weather is GORGEOUS! I pulled the plastic off one of my living room windows and opened the window wide to let in some much-needed fresh air!

What a beautiful day today! I didn't find myself at the Expo Manger Santé this weekend like I thought I would, but rather waiting for Mark to come home and then off to dinner at my brother's house where we had a delicious dinner made exquisite with homemade coconut ice cream topped with spiced rum fresh off my sister-in-law's cruise in the Caribbean. Delicious!

Today we took advantage of the sun and walked to one our favourite breakfast places, and I just dined on some of Mark's best pizza yet.

I have just discovered TED and I think I'm one of the last to do so. Everyone keeps posting links to TED talks on Facebook and I finally clicked on one to see what it was all about. If you have 20 minutes to spare, go to TED and learn something!

...and how can a man like me remain in the light...

The second love of my life is coming to Montreal! Oh M Ward! I can't wait!

I need to get back on the blogging bandwagon here! After finding out that my cousin reads (how nice!) I feel I should be more diligent!

I just polished off a piece of toast with peanut butter and it was sadly disappointing. Why? Because I'm back to the same old-same old PC Just Peanuts stuff instead of the delicious (DELICIOUS) Trader Joe's peanut butter my parents brought back from the U.S. Man oh man, if you get a chance to buy Trader Joe's peanut butter, do it. It'll change you.

Yes, my parents are back from Australia and can't stop talking about how wonderfully warm and beautiful it is. They are in LOVE with Sydney and I'm in love with the macadamia nuts, Cadbury's milk chocolate and, although not from Australia, the above mentioned Trader Joe's peanut butter - all of which are gone, gone, gone.

This weekend, the Expo Manger Santé is happening in Montreal - maybe I'll find some nice peanut butter there. Until then, I hope you enjoy your glass of scotch after work tonight as much as I will!