Archive for February, 2007
February 23, 2007 at 8:50 am · Filed under Home
This morning I took my last train ride to work. This evening I will take my last train ride home from work.
On Monday we quit being suburbanites and return to being city dwellers. We are moving to the NDG/Westmount area where I will get more exercise (if I stick to my pledge to walk to and from work every day whatever the weather), I will get more sleep (Aidan permitting), we will have more money (if we don’t spend it all on gadgetry and home decor) and we will have more of a life (once again, Aidan permitting).
I will miss doing the crosswords on the train every day (and throwing away the NYT crossword in disgust on Thursdays and Fridays). I will miss the overheard conversations of spotty teenagers. I will miss our back garden (yard if you insist). I will miss my workshop basement. I will miss Homestyle Bakery.
I will not miss tax bills, heating bills, home maintenance or getting up at 6am every morning.
February 22, 2007 at 3:28 pm · Filed under Movies + TV
American Idol is back, and, as Randy Jackson would say, it’s not good.
I’m completely uninspired by any of the 24 contestants. They seem to have almost no personality, they all want to thank imaginary sky people and the singing has been horrible. Maybe I’m judging them prematurely, but I’m sure previous seasons have started better. If I had to pick the tops, I would go for:
- Blake Lewis - He sang Keane, he gets my vote (even though I thought it was Travis at first).
- Gina Glockson - Big voice, and she likes U2 and Green Day. Gotta lose the red streaks though.
- Chris Sligh - He may love Jeebus, but he’s funny and he’s got a mop on his head.
- Leslie Hunt - She’s a dog walker! And she likes Bjork!
Every year, Canadian Idol surpasses its big brother; I don’t expect this year to be any different.
February 19, 2007 at 9:45 am · Filed under Games
You know the rules by now. Find where this photo was taken, grab the free book, come back here and tell us where it was, go to bookcrossing.com and register the catch.
So where is it (click to enbiggen)?
February 15, 2007 at 9:09 am · Filed under Family+Friends, Food
Yesterday was Valentine’s Day. If that causes surprise, you’re either single or in big trouble.
I dashed to the florist on the way home, dashing past Blork in Place Ville-Marie, who was dashing in the opposite direction carrying his own bouquet of flowers. The florist was manic, but I finally managed to get a dozen tulips (Jen’s favourite) and headed home with flowers in one hand and President’s Choice Tiramisu (also one of Jen’s favourites) in the other.
At home I presented the flowers to Jen along with a card from me and a card from Aidan. In return I got a hug, a card from Aidan and three cards from Jen. After getting Aidan fed and washed and into his pyjamas it was time to prepare dinner while Jen rocked the boy to sleep.
Dinner was going to be pasta with smoked salmon (yet another favourite of Jen’s) and asparagus. Here’s my recipe:
Snap the asparagus and put it in a hot oven on a baking tray. Put a large pot of water on to boil and a frying pan to heat up. Chop an onion and some celery and fry them until they start to soften. Put the pasta (I chose linguine) into the boiling water. Add some capers to the celery and onion and continue to fry. Chop up the smoked salmon and a bunch of dill. When the pasta is almost done, add the asparagus, salmon and dill to the frying pan along with a few dollops of yoghurt or cream; mix well. Drain the pasta and toss with everything else. Serve with fresh italian bread and a good red wine.
The rest of the evening was spent watching TV, because we’re sad like that and we don’t care.
February 13, 2007 at 10:22 am · Filed under Family+Friends
I have a terrible memory, especially when it comes to my childhood. There is very little I remember from before I was 10. Here is what I do remember:
Although I was born in Essex, we moved to Newmarket in Cambridgeshire soon after I was born. My Dad was a race jockey so Newmarket was a logical place for us to settle. We lived in a terraced house on a small street called Field Terrace Road.
I remember Dad putting me on a horse at a very young age. I remember our next door neighbours had red setter dogs and I wanted one. I remember fracturing my ankle trying to jump over a kitchen chair (well actually I may not remember it, I just know it happened). I remember our staircase had a door on it.
I have vague memories of my Dad leaving when I was four, but those could be false memories of how I think it would’ve happened. I remember my step-dad appearing; I wasn’t sure who he was. I remember my step-sister getting hit by a car on the corner of Field Terrace Road; I may have been holding her hand at the time.
I remember visits with Dad. He drove a brown Rover. I threw up all down the side of it because I was reading comics in the back seat. I remember hanging out in the tool hire shop he worked at. I remember he had a pair of loaded dice and an old bus ticket machine that I loved to play with.
I remember an old Ford Anglia dumped at the end of our street that I used to play in. It might have belonged to Dad. I remember going to Laureate school and becoming best friends with Michael Collins. We roamed Newmarket together even though we were only seven. I remember catching slow-worms with him. I remember moving back to Essex and realising I wouldn’t see Michael again.
So what are your earliest memories?
February 9, 2007 at 1:41 pm · Filed under Montreal
Montreal is, allegedly, the sex capital of North America. We have sex shops, we have adult nurseries, we have a red light district of sorts, and of course we have the strip clubs.
On my short walk along St Catherine Street, I walk past at least four of the strip clubs. Each one usually has a guy standing outside trying to entice people to come in. Usually it’s something inane like “lovely girls inside”, but occasionally they get a bit more creative.
Here are two that have been yelled at me recently (I’m sure these are being yelled at all the guys who go by, or do I just look like a potential strip club customer?):
We’ve got tits and clits and jiggly bits, come inside!
Come on in, you won’t be a loner and you might get a boner!
February 8, 2007 at 12:35 pm · Filed under Blogging, Geeky
A lot of my fellow Montreal bloggers are switching over to WordPress; either .com or .org, so I have a little trick I learned today that I’d like to share with you all.
If you’re in the visual editor writing a post, you can hit Shift-Alt-V in Firefox or Alt-V in IE and a new set of buttons will magically appear in the editor toolbar, allowing you to:
- Create headings
- Do underlining (but remember, underlining on websites is a Bad Thing)
- Justify
- Change text colour
- Paste in plain text and paste from MS Word
- Remove formatting when you mess up
- Add funky characters (handy if you don’t have a French keyboard)
- Undo / Redo
February 7, 2007 at 9:30 am · Filed under Games
UPDATE 3: The book is gone! And so, interestingly enough, is the tree… It was outside the restaurant on the corner of Sherbrooke and University, next to the Canadian institution Tim Hortons.
UPDATE 2: The book is still there, so it’s time for another clue. The tree is at the entrance to an independant restaurant, next door to a Canadian institution.
UPDATE: The book is still there this morning. Maybe you need an extra clue: The tree is at the bottom of a small flight of steps off the street close to a major intersection.
It’s been a while, but the Montreal Scavenger Hunt is back. Identify the location of the photo below, go there and claim the book I’ve hidden there. Tell us all about it in a comment, and register the catch at BookCrossing.com.
I was feeling festive for some reason, so the book is hidden under this tree. The tree is outside, but only just. It is somewhere between McGill Campus to the north, de Maisonneuve to the south, McGill College to the west and Parc (yes, it’s still Parc) to the east. So where is it?
(Click to enbiggen)
February 6, 2007 at 1:36 pm · Filed under Geeky
When will politicians learn to do a bit of research before coming up with wacky new ideas? The latest suggestion for protecting kids online is to force sex offenders to register their email address on an online database. Anyone with even a tiny bit of knowledge about the online world will immediately realise how completely futile this is.
If I started now I could probably have 100 new email addresses at countless different providers by the end of the day. I could use anonymizing services to further cover my tracks. I could join a multitude of social networking sites using fake email addresses; some of the sites don’t even insist on an email address.
It’s a stupid idea; it shouldn’t have made it past the “hmm, I wonder if…” stage without someone saying: that’s never gonna work. Do these people not have technical advisors?
The only way to protect children online is to educate parents and teachers so that they can educate and monitor their kids. I don’t know how much setting up a pointless database like this would cost, but I’m sure it’s enough to fund a few free training sessions at local community centres.
February 5, 2007 at 9:51 am · Filed under Home
We completed the sale on our house on Friday; we are no longer homeowners. Some people were dismayed by our decision to return to renting, but I think it’s the right thing to do, providing we invest wisely and don’t spend all our released equity on new TVs and ipods. Hmm…
We are now busy packing up all the stuff we want to take, selling the stuff we don’t and throwing out all the stuff that nobody will want. We collected an impressive amount of clutter considering we only had the house for three years.
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