Lately, I've been lamenting the lack of variety in food available in Canada. Maybe it's because I shop at Loblaws too much. But one does get tired of having a choice between Liberte and Sugar-and-Chemical-Laden yogurt. Until I found the brand Damafro at Segals.

Ah, there was a time I lived in Plateau and could walk to Segals - that bastion of CHEAP groceries and weird brands. I went there the other day at Mark's insistence, and he's never even lived in the Plateau. I found 3 individually sized Damafro (never even heard of Damafro, perfect!) yogurts with real sugar, real fruit and real yogurt for 1$.

My public service announcement to you is: buy your yogurt at Akhavan's. They have this kind of deli counter with too many kinds of fresh yogurt, it's to die for. Damafro's consistency is like something so disgusting, I won't even type it here because my mother reads this blog and I don't want to offend.

I am feeling more bright-eyed and bushy-tailed this morning than many a morning before. I have the popular children's song "Sally the Camel" in my head and timed my morning shower to the length of the song.

Mark made almond milk last night and I added some to my coffee - delish! I should have taken pictures, he was pretty chuffed!

Have you ever had an Irish Moss? It's the best drink ever and make of the weirdest stuff ever, including at least a half a pound of Irish Moss, a seaweed from the Atlantic Ocean.

Not only is Irish Moss (the drink) deliciously sweet and creamy, it's a popular aphrodisiac!

Check out your local Jamaican grocery and buy some now!

Or make your own. I'm pretty sure they do at Bon Appetit Des Caraibes and they're right on Notre Dame at Atwater, go!!

Happy Candlemas!

According to a book I have here at home, Candlemas (February 2nd) is the day to take stock of your candle inventory and add more if you feel you're missing some to take you through the rest of the dark winter. I can't find anything online to support this however. I did manage, sadly, to find one candlestick holder with a rather pathetic green stub of a candle and a single tea light. If there's to be any romance in this house on Valentine's Day, I'll definitely have to stock up.

(Ignore the ugly window trim, it's Mark's paint-stripping project.)

I also found this little poem:

If Candlemas day be fair and bright,

Winter will have another fight.

If Candlemas day brings cloud and rain,

Winter won't come again.

Unfortunately, today is BEAUTIFUL: sunny and mild.

I also found out that in France, Candlemas is celebrated with crêpes, eaten only after 8pm. If you can flip a crêpe while holding a coin in the other hand, you're assured prosperity throughout the coming year. I'm giving that a try tonight.

Today is also Groundhog Day and I guess North America's groundhogs all saw their shadows and so we'll have a "long" winter; 6 more weeks. But aren't we going to have at least 8 more anyway?

I'm watching Bill Murray in Groundhog Day to commemorate today and realize it's a lot more heartbreaking and warming than I remember. Well worth a watch if it's been a while since you've seen it.

Happy Candlemas!

Truth be told, there are quite a few blog posts awaiting posting. I write many posts and save them, without ever posting them. Not *that* many people read this blog, so I guess I shouldn't care *so* much, but I often wonder why I even have a blog and what direction it should take. Should it be merely about my personal life? Should I write about current events that peak my interest? Should I blog about pop culture? Music? Clothes? All of the above? Do I even *need* a direction?

Buoyed and inspired by Kath's Tribute to Oatmeal (have you ever seen anything like that?), I've decided to take a photo of my breakfast every single morning. Stay tuned!

Blue Imelda

Have I already posted this? Is not, it's time I did and if so, well it's worth posting again.

Final Fantasy's Blue Imelda

An SNL digital short

I wasn't Doogie Howser's biggest fan by a long shot, but the theme song is so great. When I saw this on SNL last weekend, I knew I had to post it here to share with all of you. I especially love the MPC and synth guys at 1:16. Beware: if you watch this video, you'll have the song in your head all day.

An Italian Playlist

Are there songs that when you hear them can only ever take you back in time to when you first heard them or when you listened to them a lot? For me, listening to Ratatat's Classics album takes me back to the beginning of 2007 and the 1km walk from the bus stop at St Jean and Autoroute 20 to Ecole Primaire Pointe-Claire during an internship I did there. I listened to that album over and over during that walk and I can't listen to it now without feeling the same emotions I felt walking to that school every day: excitement, stress, impatience.

I recently uploaded hundreds of songs to my iTunes including Andre 3000's Speakerboxxx and when I listen to it I'm taken back to my daily walk along the beach in Scalea, Italy 2003 - 2004. It's a funny feeling to not be able to listen to it without feeling the pebbly sand under my feet and the salty scent of the Mediterranean. So, here is your very own 2003-04 Italian Playlist:

Andre 3000 - Speakerboxxx
My Morning Jacket - At Dawn
Neutral Milk Hotel - In the Aeroplane Over the Sea
The Unicorns - Who Will Cut Our Hair When We're Gone?
Bonnie 'Prince' Billie - Bonnie 'Prince' Billie sings Greatest Palace Music
The Beatles - The White Album
Belle and Sebastian - Dear Catastrophe Waitress
Vincent Gallo - Recordings of Music for Film
Smog - Red Apple Falls
Mirah - Advisory Committee (produced in part by Phil Elvrum - awesome album!!!)
Dntel - Life is Full of Possibilities

Here is a video edesade made for Bonnie 'Prince' Billie's New Partner which also happens to be one of the first songs Mark ever sang to me:

The other day Mark spent some time with his friend who told him of his dream to move to Killaloe, near Algonquin Park, with his wife to live among the hippies and run a second-hand store of sorts. This got us talking about dreams and while Mark's are pretty vague yet lofty, mine are very specific and perfectly achievable. I keep them specific and achievable so that I can be assured of continually being appreciative and satisfied with the work I put into achieving them.

For example, I recently came upon an a journal I had forgotten I started where I wrote of two dreams: to have a sofa comfortable enough to take a nap on and to live somewhere with a nice view of a body of water. Now, if you'd spent as many years in your 20s being a student as I had, you'd understand the unattainability of having a nice sofa. While Salvation Army has many many affordable sofas, I can assure you, those that I've bought have been far from the kind I'd want to spend a couple of hours on on a lazy Sunday afternoon. Now, though, I have a lovely sofa that I spend many hours on reading, listening to music, watching movies and napping. This sofa that I thought was so far out of my reach is finally in my living room! Dream attained!

It was timely that Mark was just talking about dreams to his friend, because a blog I find so interesting for many reasons I might get into another time, mentioned Randy Pausch and two of his lectures, one about achieving childhood dreams and another about time management. If you shed a couple of tears watching this, you'll almost definitely shed a few watching the lecture about childhood dreams. It's not that it's a tear-jerker, but Randy had cancer and died just months later. The lecture is not about his death or cancer though, and I think it's an important lecture to listen to and watch if only to light a fire under your own dreams. Each lecture is over an hour long, but worth watching because as he says, if you're not spending time reaching your dreams, what are you spending your time doing?

Today is November 23rd and it's also Saint-Catherine's Day! I don't know about children who grew up in Quebec, but growing up in Northern Ontario (at least those in French and French Immersion schools) meant November 23rd was dedicated to making "tire" and wrapping up little pieces of it wax paper to take home, forget on the "rad" and then scrape off the next day. Sure, it's delicious, but what kid doesn't leave sticky sugary on hot surfaces because naturally they already ate a ton of it at school?


The maple stuff we dip a popsicle stick in and roll through the snow at a cabane a sucre is called "tire" in French and the stuff we made out of sugar and molasses on Saint-Catherine's day was also called "tire" even though it's referred to as "toffee" in English. It's not really toffee at all - it's really molasses and sugar. We were told that Catherine was a teacher who made the "tire" in order to lure little First Nations kids into her school so she could teach them.


Maison Saint-Gabriel, which happens to be just around the corner from my house, is the farmhouse/cottage where some of the first young single women from France lived and learned to housekeep, take care of animals and grow vegetables under the guidance of Sainte Marguerite Bourgeoys.


While Maison Saint-Gabriel's website mentions "tire", it doesn't say how it's connected to Catherine, rather it explains how she is the patron saint of young girls and unmarried young women. The Maison Saint-Gabriel is inviting all Catherinettes (women over 25 who are not yet married) to take part in the Sainte-Catherine day festivities today - sounds like personal invitation to me!




edit: St Catherine's Day is not on November 23rd, it's on November 25th! Thanks to Anonymous.

What the world needs now

Wow! Friday night I found myself with two great friends at Eglise Saint-Jean Baptiste...

...watching Burt Bacharach! I can't say enough great things about this show. The sound was incredible, the church is beautiful. He came on stage and started playing the piano for about 15 seconds, it was just him and the piano, and then he and the whole band launched into the chorus of "What the World Needs Now" - the sound was so huge and so perfect! What an experience! The rest of the show was great, great, great. Burt and the band played lots of medleys of his hits, he talked to the crowd a bit about studying at McGill and working with lots of great singers. His encore was really long - it seemed like neither he nor the crowd wanted him to leave the stage.

Look what happened at my school today!

Where to start...

Sigur Ros finally made it to Montreal again and I went to see them at the Quais of the Old Port. It was a beautiful mild evening with no rain - perfect for such a show. I got to go backstage too, but I didn't talk to the band. Cool! They were busy speaking Icelandic and playing some kind of wrestling game with the opening band. Here's my pass:

Here's me looking awesome during the show:

And here's the confetti that exploded from the stage at the end of the last song, which was Gobledigook!!! Click the link and watch the video. It's so scandalous that it was removed from youtube.com which is why I can't post it directly here. But I'm sure my readership is mature enough to handle it, hee hee!

The next big thing coming up is Pop Montreal. Hopefully I'll get to see Great Lake Swimmers, Akron Family and Hooded Fang. I'm told my connections aren't good enough to get me into Ratatat's already sold-out show, boooo!

Finally, after a couple of weeks of practice, Willow has managed to make it to the top of this door frame. She gets there by scaling the thin wooden frame around the glass of the door.

And now I'm off to catch the season premiere of Desperate Housewives!

Happy Birthday to Me!!

Today I am 31 years old; I can't believe it.

Every year, I try to get in as many birthday cakes as possible. So far I had one during my housewarming a few weeks ago, another today at a restaurant and a third tonight just between me and Mark. And, there is another one on it's way next weekend. Yahoo!

Mark and I decided to climb Mont St. Hilaire this afternoon. It was a lovely hike and an activity I love though don't do nearly as much as I could. Now that I'm working just 4 days a week, it's probably time to join the YMCA hiking club, whose website I visit seasonally but then I don't act on my desire to join. It's time!

Brown paper packages tied up with string

The best thing about Saturday morning is that my most pressing decision is whether to hold the newspaper in my hands and place my coffee on the table or hold my coffee in my hands and place the newspaper on the table.

More stay-cation news: I got my hair cut yesterday and it looks like a perfect little helmet. I love it. I also put together a kitter-litter box hiding contraption from a tip I found at Ikea-hacker. Pictures of both to follow soon.

After some hemming and hawing, we've decided to spend the next week or so on a stay-cation. Here are some photos from the first few adventures...

We went to Nocochi for coffee and cookies:


Followed by the Yves Saint Laurent restrospective:

Then the Old Port to relax in the sun:

Today we'll relax at home with Willow:

And do some laundry...

Well I finally made it to a viewing of the fireworks, with only two more displays to go. We had a couple of false starts in getting out the door:

"I'm too tired."
"It's going to rain."

And then when we were actually on our bikes:

"It's too cold, let's go back for sweaters."

And then when we had our sweaters and were walking out the door:

"I'm too tired."

We made it though and good thing we did. Summer is almost over and it feels like it never really started. The rain, the overcast skies and the chilly nights are making for a glum time this year.

Mark and I are fully moved into our new apartment and compared to our previous homes, it feels huge! Sometimes, we don't even know where to find each other in here.

And now I'm going to enjoy Ratatat's new album on my sofa.

Bon Voyage Mateys!

I haven't updated in so long, and yet so much has happened! I guess that's what happens when you graduate with distinction.

First of all, I've moved into a new apartment. When I first lived in Montreal, I shared a bedroom with the friend I came here with (which resulted in a serious breakdown in our friendship), then moved into a tiny room with no windows and no door with Mark. We moved out of that room into a surprisingly spacious yet not surprisingly moldy basement apartment downtown. That lasted a month. Treat of all treats, we moved into an apartment.....above ground! And then (could it get any better??) we moved into an apartment 3 floors above ground with TWO bedrooms and a balcony! We keep feeling so blessed as we move up in the world of Montreal apartments. We are easy to please I suppose. Finally, we have moved into a THREE (kind of) bedroom apartment with TWO balconies, a FIREPLACE and a DINING ROOM!! When I count out the rooms like this, it sounds so great, but in fact all of this extra space is kind of in the wrong places. If only the dining room were a bit smaller and the bathroom significantly bigger. As in...wouldn't it be nice to be able to fit the kitty litter box in the bathroom? Yes, it's that small. So far, I've found these solutions. If anyone has encountered anything better for kitty litter housing, please contact me!

Again, if only the living room were slightly smaller and the kitchen had more than 2 feet of counter space. We have managed to create more counter space, but still...

I also spent some time at Mark's aunt's cottage near Matachewan. Matachewan! What's that? For you Ontarioans, it's not that far from Timmins. And for you Quebecois, it's as far North as Val D'Or, about 200km West. We drove through Quebec to get there and stayed at Auberge Orpailleur in Val D'Or, which happens to be a lovely place to stay, run by a French couple who immigrated to Quebec about 7 years ago. They are selling the auberge and returning to France. So far only other French families have shown interest. Imagine immigrating from France to Val D'Or!

The cottage in Matachewan was absolutely perfect. We spent all our time sauna-ing, swimming, eating, singing, playing games, boating, talking and laughing.

My sister is moving to Australia. Yahoo! And booo! at the same time. I'm excited for her, but so sad to see her go! Her blog is not really happening just yet, but stay tuned and visit often for her updates!

I am also taking a French class at the YMCA and the teacher is hilarious which makes spending two beautiful summer evenigns a week in her class more than bearable. She taught us an expression that fits my apartment perfectly at the moment: mon immeuble est sens dessus dessous!