Last weekend of my vacation

Let's see... what have I done since last Thursday? Well on Friday me and Mat ran around most of the day doing errands together, first we went to the south shore to get some stuff done for him and stop off at his mom's place for a while to pick up his brother, then to the Revenue Quebec offices downtown for some paperwork for me (and waited about an hour for it). Afterwards we went back to my place to have dinner and watch a movie, both me and Mat had already seen it, and Max fell asleep lol. So I made dinner and then we packed up and left to go to Mat's dad's place till Sunday, Mat had his daughter over for the night there for the first time. So we arrived there at around 8:45pm Friday evening, and sat and talked for a while before going to bed.

On Sat. morning we were up at around 8:30am, we made breakfast and then I got dressed, tidied up a bit and did some laundry while Mat put up some gyprock in the basement with his dad before we left at noon to go pick up his daughter at her mom's place. She was sick with the flu and fever, but when Mat offered to come back next weekend she insisted on going to her dad's place. So we took her back to Mat's dad's place and gave her her birthday presents which she played with for a while and then she had a bath and a nap. After dinner we went to rent some movies, 1 for her and 1 for the rest of us. When we got back Mat and his daughter went downstairs to watch her movie and I went and sat on the front porch for a while before the sun set. There were tons of june bugs flying around the houses and trees, there were lots of birds singing, and it had rained all day and the sun had finally come out just before setting, it was really nice out. I saw some woods off further so I decided to take a walk and investigate. I found a little 4-wheeler track going through empty fields down at the end of a dead end. The fields were full of low fog, and it was so pretty with the twilight and bats flying around overhead and the frogs singing. The end of the road overlooked a golf course with woods around it and the 4-wheeler track running beside it through the trees.

The last house at the end overlooking the golf course was still being built, I wish I could buy it just to site outside and listen to the frogs and birds singing in the evening with the fog on the golf course at twilight. It must be beautiful there in the winter too. I went back home when it started to get too dark to see through the woods. I didn't get any pictures though cause I forgot (gasp!) to go back inside to get my camera before going for a walk. By then their movie was almost finished, when it was over Mat put his daughter to bed and we watched a movie with his dad and went to bed after.

Sunday morning we had to get up early to drive her back to her mom's place by 9am, then we went to my parents place and Mat waited for me there while I was at church. Afterwards I invited some friends from church over for coffee, and they stayed for half an hour or so, after they left me and Mat stayed another half hour and left as well to go back to Montreal. Before leaving Mat's friend Dew called us and invited us over to try some of the rum he had brought back from Cuba, so we stopped at his place for a while and I left quite tipsy lol. Then we went back to my place and packed up and left for Mat's mom's place since he's going to be staying there for the next two weeks to dog-sit his mom's 3 dogs while she's on vacation, and I'll be spending most of my time over there too. We arrived at around 8 or 9pm, and I made dinner and took a shower and did some laundry and went to bed.

Yesterday was nothing special besides being the first day back at work after my vacation, and I happened to find the MOST AMAZING recipe for fries EVER, which I made, took pictures of, and then consumed with glee (and some french dressing). Mat pronounced them the best fries he'd ever had as well. I'm gonna make an EVEN BETTER version tonight when I get to Mat's mom's place, I can't wait :D It's here, not the one given in the article (which I'm going to try as well soon), but the one given in the first comment by NotAmerican. I just used flour, salt, and pepper to coat the fries after they were boiled. And it's true that the oil really does explode, not in the usual sense, but it foams up like crazy, there was maybe 3 inches of oil in the bottom of the deep fryer and at least 6 inches of space till the brim, and it foamed to within an inch of the brim! I was starting to worry but then it stopped rising and eventually started to go down again. The only flaw with mine was that they were a bit too thick with the chopper I used, so tonight I'll try using the chopper first and then slicing those up in 4, I'll get something equivalent to the thickness of McDonald's fries, which is what I want because the thick ones got less crispy after a few minutes because of all the moisture still inside. Pictures will go up tonight hopefully.

Tomorrow is Canada Day, so we have the day off. I have no idea what I'll do, maybe give the dogs a bath and go back to my place to get some stuff/hang out with Scott a while if he's home.

I just got up from a nap, before that called the government to get papers for my income taxes, finally. Here's 10 of the pictures I took at the St. Jean Baptiste show yesterday (the rest are here):

Here's at the entrance of the Parc Maisonneuve:



Here's Sonia and her friend in front of the Habitat 67, the housing they built for the athletes when the Olympics came to Montreal in '67:



Here's the ferris wheel they set up in the park:



Sonia and her friend on the ferris wheel:



Me and Sonia:



The view from the top:



The view of the Olympic Stadium:



In the ferris wheel:



The show, with everyone waving their Quebec flags:



Some mounted police:



Here's some videos:













And I'm off to make dinner now.

So far today I have: gotten up at 8:30, gone on the internet a bit, had breakfast, gone to the store with Mat for smokes, came home and slept for two hours or so, got up and bummed around on the net a bit more, did some dishes, and now I'm gonna start a load of laundry and grill me some lunch. Then when the laundry is done I'll go meet up with my friend Sonia at the Parc Maisonneuve for the St-Jean-Baptiste show, then meet up with Scott at Lionel Groulx later and go to the Parc Des Rapides for the bonfire, then go home.

Here's Mat sitting outside on the front steps of my building this morning:

Visiting parents and a cat

This morning I went on the computer for a while and we left for my parents place at around 1:45pm. Spent the afternoon there watching tv while dinner was cooking, then ate and watched some more tv, then left. I had wanted to make a bonfire, but it was getting late and Mat wanted to leave before dark. Just got home about half an hour ago, gonna go to bed soon. This afternoon I made a yummy mix of Pepsi and passion fruit soft drink, but seeing as I never drink anything caffeinated or sugary I had a total sugar crash at about 6:30 in the evening and felt all weak and shaky, and flopped on the couch and just about fell asleep after dinner lol. Would be cool if I could find de-caffeinated, 1/2 sugar Pepsi. Oh and my dad gave me the little gas hibachi I had bought for him last summer since he got given a proper bbq by a friend of his. I can't wait to start bbq'ing, but it'll have to :P Here's a pic of licorice yesterday:



Tomorrow... nothing planned yet.

Friends and plans

Yesterday I went to church, then waited at Lionel Groulx for Scott to lend me his key, then went home and bummed around on the net a bit, and we left and went to do some groceries and came back. Then Sonia came over and we played frisbee by the river for a while, and then came back and played Le Banquier and listened to music:



Then Scott came home with Josh:



And we went to bed 10 minutes later cause Mat had to get up early this morning to go to work. Today I'm alone at home, have laundry and cleaning to do, and no key for the front door lol. I forgot to ask Mat to lend me his. I'm going to go and give the superintendant a $10 deposit to get another one today though. I just hope someone will let me in :P Tomorrow we're going to my parents place finally, and hopefully make a nice big bonfire :D And then Wednesday is St-Jean Baptiste here in Quebec, excuse for millions of Quebecers to get drunk and party and light fireworks lol. Orthodox also celebrate his nativity under the name of St. John the Forerunner. It's technically a feast day but I don't think there'll be any special services at my church.

Kursk Root Icon

Here's a slightly larger image of the icon that was at St. Nicholas at Vespers, click to enlarge. From what little digging around I've done on the internet I've learned that it's a copy of the Kursk Root Icon:

St. Nicholas Russian Orthodox Church

I went to vespers here last night, there was a miraculous icon there (I have yet to ask my friend the name of the icon or other info about it), and the service was 2 1/2 hours long, it's a beautiful church, and I was sooo tired after :P











Saw this today:



Here's an icon at St. Benoit de Nursie this morning:

Back home and pictures

So on Thursday I sat around all day watching tv while it rained outside, going stir-crazy, so finally at 10pm I upped and decided that I wanted to take the bus back to Montreal yesterday morning instead of waiting for a lift from Mat on Sunday. So I called Mat and told him that, and he offered to come pick me up, so he came and slept over at my parents place in Rawdon Thursday night, and then yesterday after breakfast he helped my dad and I cut up and clear away a few fallen trees.

We left at around 3pm, got back to my place around 4:30, and I promptly fell asleep till 6:30pm, completely ignoring the brimming smelly cat litter and other little stomach surprises that my cats had so kindly left me that morning (and Mat stepped in). So I got up after my nap and cleaned up, then we went to eat at Dagwoods, then went to Canadian Tire to get some plastic lawn chairs for my balcony, then to Toys R Us to look for a scooter for his daughter's 5th birthday and found one on sale for $30. So he bought that and I got her a large (10cm diameter) clear rubber water-filled ball with purple sparkles in the water, and 3L of pink bubble soap :P When I told that to my dad he said "she'll be blowing bubbles till she's 17!" lolll. Afterwards we went to the grocery store and then came home and did laundry and went to bed (late). This morning Mat called me after leaving for work to say we won't be going back to my parents tomorrow as planned cause his car broke down and he won't be able to fix it till Monday or Tuesday.

Today I've been bumming around in pj's all day (it's 2:48pm now) and I'm gonna make something to eat and then leave around 4 or 5 to go to vespers at St. Nicholas Russian Orthodox cathedral here in Montreal cause there's a miraculous icon that will be there today and tomorrow that a friend told me about, she'll be there with her family as well.

Tomorrow no plans besides church so far, I might hang out with Mat or go to the Tamtams.

Here's the branch pile we collected from the fallen trees before it's completion, it was even larger than that when we were done, with a big pile of logs beside it. Me and Mat are gonna go back soon and have a nice roaring bonfire (without setting the forest on fire) lol:



A delicious crab sandwich I made with fake crab, salt, pepper, mayo and spicy mesquite in the food processor, on Ryvita crisp bread:





A few pics from the garden:



























My sister on the veranda:



Mat and Papa doing some father-son-in-law bonding of the best kind: with a chainsaw and some trees! Lolll:









And here's Rambo, my parents are getting rid of him finally cause they don't have the time and patience to train him, he does too much mischief:





Here's some pics my dad took of his breakfast Thursday morning lol:





And Mat and Rambo, Mat wanted to take him, but I told him no way with my two cats and no time to train him either lol:

Finally-found-things-to-do day

Some pictures I took outside today:







Here's the ring my sister bought the other day:



I found a large red ant and a large black ant fighting, then a third small black ant came to attack the red ant as well lol:









Here's some Italian style beans I made for lunch, recipe here (scroll down a bit)



And my new favourite flavour of chips:



And my second favourite flavour:



Here's a pic of my mom studying that my dad took, she just started taking college courses by correspondence, her major is psychology:



Here's Rambo enjoying being on the porch:



My dad and one of his friends and his son emptying rocks out of the trailer to go pick up the rocking chair my dad bought:



Me on the balcony in the new (old, and breaking lol) rocking chair:





Here's some fried rainbow trout I had for dinner:



And some tomato hummus I made and put on naan bread, the tomato hummus was just chickpeas thrown in the blender with tomato pesto spaghetti sauce:



Here's the view from the balcony: