As you can see, this year's TESL graduates did not even fill one row!

I'm back from Turkey. Here are just a few photos from the many that I took. It was one of the best trips I've ever taken:

This is a photo of my nephew from last Christmas, I just thought it would give you a chuckle.

Today I'm biking the Tour de l'Ile (I think and hope), the weather isn't looking very good.

What kind of blog do you have?

I've noticed lately that I read three types of blogs: those listing the things the writer own and loves, those listing the things the writers wants to buy along with pictures and links to the online stores where they will buy them, and those listing ways the writer intends to get rid of their stuff and prevent themselves from buying more. Along with all of those types of blog entries is the usual stuff about trips taken, parties attended, maybe a few recipes thrown in, but ultimately, in personal blogs, it's easy to surmise how much of a consumer a blogger is.

So I've added a handy little poll on the left there to find out what YOU'RE blog is like.

What a show!

The Stars of the Lid show was fantastic! It was in smallish room where drinking and smoking weren't allowed. This means two things: clear, clean air and fewer people walking in and out to get drinks. The room was carpeted so I sat on the floor.


There were two violinists, one cellist and two guitarists/effects guys. The sound was incredible; not too loud. I slept soundly without ringing in my ears: also a rare event. During the show, I closed my eyes and let myself get taken away with the music; something that doesn't happen often for me. If more shows were seated, I think this could happen for more people. I had wanted the same experience when I saw Do Make Say Think at Le National but it wasn't seated and standing around in a smoky room on crushed beer bottles really takes away from it all.

Stars of the Lid - Sons and Daughters of Quiet Minds

If you can believe it, tomorrow is the last day of my last internship of my last year of my last undergraduate degree ever! I shall celebrate by attending the Stars of the Lid show taking place a the very neat Masonic Memorial Temple downtown. How many people do you know who've been inside a real Masonic Temple? I am perhaps and the only person you know who, by tomorrow night, will have been inside TWO of them (I think).

I have just taken a few photos of my cat whom you haven't seen much of since I brought her home in late December. These are just practice photos, however, for my upcoming trip to Turkey. I need to learn to use this camera before May 14th!

I finally had a listen to M. Ward and Zooey Deschanel's new album, Volume One. I had avoided it for some time, actually feeling jealous that M. Ward should even be dating Deschanel (ridiculous I know, but I'm making up for a lack of celebrity-worship felt in my teenage years). Obviously, it's a great album. Everything M. Ward touches is lovely and Deschanel's voice is beautiful.

Around town

It was a sad night recently when I accidentally spilled Coke Diète on the keyboard of my laptop. Don't ask why I was drinking that stuff in the first place. :(

And so my internet access has been limited lately, what with no computer to use.

Further to my post about the Apartment Therapy 8-Week Home Cure (which I've abandoned by the way), I was wondering if anyone else is addicted to such systems of living. Before I quit the Home Cure, I was involved quite a few: the Apartment Therapy 8-Week Home Cure, the 13-Week Walk/Run Program and the 12-day Wild Rose De-tox to name a few. Does anybody else get hooked on these lifestyle programs?

Also, why does every spell-check want to change "internet" to "Internet"? Is the world wide web, like God, only respectfully spoken of with a capital I?

Notes...

I haven't updated in so long. How many blogs have that exact line at the beginning of at least one post?

Easter found me mostly in my pajamas with a quick trip to Ottawa for a Mexican themed dinner, homemade Beaver Tails, an annotated list of the contents of a church, the meeting of girlfriends and lots of sunshine.

March is the ending one of practicum, the beginning of another. 5.5 weeks to go and I'm done!

I'll leave you with one of my favourite songs:

Apartment Therapy Spring Cure 2008

I have finally decided to join the 2008 Apartment Therapy Spring Cure! Every year I hem and haw about joining and then don't. But as you may remember, 2008 is the year of firsts!

The Apartment Therapy Cure is an annual event where people join together to make their homes more beautiful, comfortable and livable. The investment can be either financially intensive, labour-intensive or both. It lasts 8 weeks, each of which will be outlined on the website and in the book, which I'll be borrowing from the library when I get home tonight because...

"This Week's Assignment: Get your hands on a copy of the book and read through page 69. This gives you all the ground work and gets you started with the interview and short quiz on the health of your home."

While Mark is on the campaign trail, I'm stuck in snowy Montreal marking primary school assignments and planning a trip to Turkey! Yes, this May I will spend 12 luxurious days and nights in Turkey with my mom and aunt! I will see and do lots of interesting things, but right now, what I'm most excited for is the Hamam, the Turkish bath experience. One of the best experiences I took away from Iceland is the pool/bathing culture.

There is just nothing like soaking in an outdoor heated (HOT!) pool full of sulphur and silica to put the mind and the muscles at ease.

According to my research, the traditional Hamam is a thing of the past, but you can still go to indoor pools and experience a hot sauna, a soak in a hot tub, an exfoliating scrub by an "attendant" and finally a massage. I know for some people this sounds like too intimate, but I love a hot soak or a steam bath and a sounds like heaven. In fact, I think I'll go take a nice hot bath right now...!

We're in stitches!

Willow's back from the vet! She hated the Elizabethan Collar on the first day; she went crazy, constantly backing up to get it off. Now, when I put it on, even if it's loose enough for her to take off herself, she just accepts it. How pathetic! Her little would is sewn up with real thread (unlike my other cat's stitchless suturing) and she can't help but lick and pull at the stitches when I take the collar off.

When I dropped her off at the vet, there was a middle-aged couple dropping off an even minnier cat to be spayed. The husband was holding the little cat in his arms, giving it little kisses once in awhile. What is it about little animals that makes otherwise tough folks go gaga? I wish I had a picture of that man and his new cat. He looked like the type who spent his weekends chopping wood and ice fishing.

Today is the last day before March Break! I might finally actually go cross-country skiing. Any tips on waxing skis? All the instructions I find online are over my head. I thought it was so much simpler!

I haven't yet written about the wonderful Valentine's Day I had last February 14th. February 15th was the date of my first teaching evaluation by my university supervisor and I was feeling anxious. On February 14th, I stayed at school late to plan my lesson for the next day, which was a good way to get it done without distraction, but I do not advise anyone to take the 211 East after 5pm. It. Takes. A. Long. Time.

Anyway, Mark and I usually don't do much for Valentine's Day, but this year I put in a few requests: flowers, lasagna, Caesar salad, a bottle of wine and a chick flick. I hadn't anticipated the long bus ride that day, so when I finally made it home, I was feeling pretty depressed that I hadn't seen much daylight that day, but so so so pleased to see that Mark had fulfilled my requests and then some!

Behold, the lasagna recipe:
And the Caesar salad dressing recipe, the most delicious I've ever had:


Which came from this book:

This cookbook also contains the recipe for Mark's Monday Night Bean Burrito Madness wraps. Yes, he makes them by hand and yes, Monday night is bean burrito night at my house. You're welcome to join us!

For desert, chocolate fondue and by far Cameron Diaz's finest film, "The Sweetest Thing".

Is it 1984?

According to the Montreal Gazette, Quebec's language police have ordered McKibbons Pub, the site of many after-work, after-exam and after-shopping drinks, to take down antique advertising posters from the inside of the pub. The advertising in question is for Guiness, Palethorpes Pork Pies, and St. James Gate Dublin and is all in English (durr, it's an Irish pub) and as such does not allow for French to be the dominant language inside the pub. Yikes! I wonder who will win this one. I wonder if the language police feel as stupid as we all think they are for doing things like this.

It's cold!

This week is "Teacher Appreciation Week". How are you appreciating your teacher?

In the school where I am working right now, apples are being put in teachers' mailboxes, 6th graders with overhead projector carts are wheeling around offering brioches, coffee and hot chocolate and on Thursday a group of parents is making a huge lunch for everyone.

Lachine Canal ...

or Jökulsárlón?

I'm a new soul...

Lately, I've been obsessed with Leslie Feist, especially her album The Reminder, which can only be listened to while sipping a Brandy Alexander (always gets me into trouble):

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 oz Brandy
  
• 1 oz Dark Creme de Cacao
  
• 1 oz half-and-half or heavy cream
• 1/4 tsp grated nutmeg
  

Mixing instructions:

In a shaker half-filled with ice cubes, combine the brandy, crème de cacao, and half-and-half. Shake well. Strain into a cocktail glass and garnish with the nutmeg.

But I'll leave you with the song from the new MacBook Air commercial: Yael Naim's New Soul. How can you not like a girl who sings, "meeestake"?

With all the fuss about the amount of plastic grocery bags floating around everywhere, I wonder what we'll use as garbage bags in the kitchen, if we don't have them. I'd have to go out and buy them!

If you read the comment already written about this post, you'll learn about the much more user-friendly recycling system in Germany. What do Germans do with kitty litter?

What is frustrating is when the sidewalk plowers drive and plow right through your recycling box and scatter everything all over the street and sidewalk. Why does everyone hate each other sometimes?

I also have this return-ticket to anywhere Iceland Air flies; any ideas about when and where?

Here is a picture of my new cat and chair:

How many blogs do you read?

...And how many do you actually like? I read about 6 or 7 personal blogs but I only actually enjoy reading 3 or 4. What of the remaining? I think I read them the way I read celebrity gossip or occasionally eat Kraft Dinner. That is to say, I read them with a mixture of annoyance, envy and nosiness, not because they are entertaining or have something very relevant to offer me. Reading them allows me to confirm my suspicions about that those people's lives are cooler than mine. I wonder if anyone reads my blog with this same feeling?

Could you live in a glass house?

I was watching an episode of Linda Reeves' House and Home about living in a home that is somewhat open-concept, with lots of uncovered windows and very, VERY little clutter. Very minimalist. I was intrigued by one home she visited, that of interior designer Dina Theodoropoulos whose home is was so clutter-free as to be hotel-like. I would kill for a home like that! Dina said something about how she feels so relaxed and calm when she comes home to a place that is so serene and minimal. I could live like that. I find it cosy to be somewhere that has too much stuff, or even any stuff on surfaces, sort of like my house:


I also went to La Croissanterie, the one on St. Catherine near St. Marc. As part of my goal to try new places to eat, I finally went into La Croissanterie after having walked passed it a million times. It's a pleasant little lunch place with great croissants and great coffee. I had lentil soup and a ham and cheese sandwich. The soup was delicious! The service was good too and no, there is no connection to it's more popular counterpart on Hutchison in Outremont.

I also patronized Boucherie Lagace & Fils in my neighbourhood for a sandwich. Di Rienzo's it isn't, but the sandwiches were nice (too much meat though!) and Mr. Lagace was the most enthusiastic butcher I've ever met.

Welcome to Willow!

Say hello to Willow: my new baby cat from the SPCA. So far she's proven to be a challenge. Why do I get all the sick cats? Mark picked her out from the many cute little kitties in cages, so sad to leave them all behind. Willow was sharing her cage with her brother, a beautiful grey tabby, but we're not ready for 2 cats, so we stuck with just Willow. I noticed one of her eyes looked glassy, but the woman who helped us out assured me Willow was healthy. That glassy eye would prove to be indeed a cold. And complications with her cold/flu mean that she's now on a course of antibiotics, aspirin for her fever and must be force-fed because she won't eat. In our over-zealousness in feeding her last night, we knocked out a couple of her teeth. She seems fine with it and the Internet told me baby cats lose their baby teeth as a matter of growing up, so I guess I'm fine with it too.

Today Mark and I went skating for the first time in 2008. Me on my 6$ Sally Ann specials and Mark with his new Christmas hockey stick and puck. There are a couple of outdoor rinks near my house, though the ice isn't in the best shape. I'll take pictures next time.

Today I am drinking a cup of tea for the first time in 2008. I *never* drink tea, but 2008 is going to be the year of firsts.

Firstly, I went skating at an outdoor rink in my neighbourhood, first I drank a cup of tea and another first includes the absence of New Year's resolutions. Rather, I will make goals. One being to try 2 new restaurants and/or cafes each month. Another being to wash dishes at least once a day. And yet another being to make sure 2008 is a BIG year. 2008 lends itself to being a BIG year in that I will graduate from university and be forced to find a job, we might move to a new city and I'll most definitely be taking an overseas trip. Mark has a few things up his sleeve too. Stay tuned!

I made it!

One of my secret wishes finally came true the day I was to fly out of Reykjavik to Montreal, one blustery Dec 15th of 2007...

"Would you like to fly to New York instead of Boston and receive either 200 USD or a return ticket anywhere Iceland Air flies?"

Would I! I have wanted to be asked that question since I boarded my first plane back in 1996. But, as far as I was concerned, I had a connection to catch in Boston to take me to Montreal and there was no way I was willing to miss it. The problem was that the day before, Reykjavik was racked with winds up to 100km/hour and all flights had been cancelled, meaning the day I was to fly, all flights were overbooked. I told the check-in woman about the Boston-Montreal connection and she dutifully checked my bags through Boston to Montreal. I should have known something was up when she suspiciously *didn't* give me a boarding pass, informing me, rather, that I would have to go through security and get the boarding pass from the service desk on the other side.

The line at the service desk was short, but each person in line was taking up to 30 minutes to be served. The problem was that nobody wanted to take the "fly to New York instead" deal because they all had connections to make in Boston and so the service desk workers were trying to re-route all their flights.

If I learned anything about Icelanders while I was there, it's that they do not love to offer good customer service; it's just not in their nature. So when the people in line kept moving to the front (concerned they were going to miss the Boston flight, which turned out to be delayed 2 hours) the other people in line got mad at them. It didn't behoove the service desk workers to walk out to the line and inform us about what was happening, rather they were content to lose my luggage tags, lie to me (Just wait here, I'll be right back to help you out.), and eventually put me on a flight to New York instead, give me an open return ticket anywhere Iceland Air flies (even though I asked for the 200 USD), book a new flight to Montreal from New York for the next morning and offer to pay for a hotel that night in New York. Fine.

When I got to JFK, my bags weren't there to be collected. I was fine with this: I figured they hadn't been moved to the new plane, they were still headed for Boston, even though the woman who served me assured me my bags would come to New York with me and didn't give me back my old luggage tags. I got over the bag situation because I had my carry-on with enough stuff to last my night in the hotel and get on the plane the next morning for Montreal. Except that I wasn't fine with the fact that 40 people were arriving from Reykjavik who were supposed to be headed to Boston and were meant to stay in hotels at the airport, but Iceland Air hadn't bothered to call ahead to warn JFK about this. Instead, we waited 2 hours for Iceland Air at JFK to call hotels and book us in.

Naturally, there weren't enough rooms for all of us at the JFK hotels, so about 10 of us were booked into hotels at La Guardia. There is no shuttle between these two hotels (or that's what they told us at JFK) and so we were to cab it and send the receipt to Iceland Air. My flight to Montreal the next morning was from JFK, but was then changed to leave from La Guardia so that I could just take my hotel's free shuttle instead of taking another cab back to JFK.

Of course, you will recall that on Dec 16th, there was a big snow storm in New York and Quebec (and other places in that area), so my flight was cancelled; all flights that day from New York to Montreal were cancelled. I took the shuttle to La Guardia and the check-in woman said my flight was cancelled but I could still make the flight to Montreal from JFK. So I ended up taking a taxi back to JFK, but the flight was cancelled there too. I had to stay in a hotel again that night and finally arrived in Montreal via American Eagle on Dec 17th, still with no luggage.

If you've never lost your luggage before, you may not know this: no matter how your bags were tagged, no matter which route they were supposed to take or ended up taking, you can only report them lost with the last carrier you flew with, even if that carrier never touched your bags. My bags were tagged to go to Boston with Iceland Air and then to Montreal with Air Canada, but because I'd flown to Montreal with American Eagle, I had to make the claim with them, which I did. In the end, I got my bags back on Dec 27th! I might have had them back sooner if I'd had my original luggage tags, or any tags at all, but because my bags were supposed to have been transferred to that New York flight, my tags were never given to me and new tags were never issued.

So that's my big adventure in trying to get home through two storms in three countries. I was a little peeved that I was given the open round-trip ticket anywhere Iceland Flies; I thought, "Why would I want to come back here after this horrible service!" - but now I see that Iceland Air flies from Toronto to many places in Europe, so I'll have to go on a congradulatory graduation trip in the Spring!

Of course, I had a wonderful holiday and I'll write more about it in upcoming posts, but for now I'll tide you over with my mother's delicious arancini...


And the new Transformers Trailor Director's CUT