Monthly Archives: October 2005

Spending the Canadian Thanksgiving weekend with Alison’s family in Ottawa. For the first time I was happy that we had a traditional diner (turkey, mashed potatoes, squash etc.) because yesterday a piece of one of my teeth broke off and I could barely chew. But with all those soft dishes I still could eat something, and didn’t have to revert to the can of soup I brought. Alison made a great pumpkin pie as dessert and I ate two pieces.

Today the men (not me) spend some time cutting the hedge. They have extended the hedge cutter with a piece of wood, because it’s too big to reach. They managed to not cut the wire although it looked rather dangerous for an onlooker like me.

Even though the grout isn’t sealed yet, I took my first bath today. And Poupoune really, really wanted to see what I did in that tub. So I invited her in as well. She wasn’t sure if she liked it. But I did.

The act of grouting the tiles makes them really dirty. But after you clean the tiles with a sponge it gets better. And after the grout has cured completely you can wipe of the film of grout and the tiles shine again.
I use dark grout, although it doesn’t hide imperfections in the tiling (and it does have imperfections!), as light grout would do, but it also doesn’t get brown and dirty after a few years. And I like a bit of contrasty lines in all that white.

Since a couple of weeks I spend my friday afternoons in a dance school. Not learning to foxtrot, tango or other ballroom dances but following an Improv Jam session. Modern dance, but we also use voice and props. Today we ripped apart a dozen copies of Time magazine and used them as inspiration for improvisations and later as props.

I used to do something similar about 15 years ago but never bothered to found a replacement class when the teachers stopped with it when one of them moved back to Switzerland. I’m not terribly good at it, but I like it a lot.

No no, the bathroom isn’t finished, far from it. But I did finish tiling today. It took a bit longer than expected, but that was also because Alison took a week of this week and I spend time doing other things than working in and on the bathroom.

I finally installed the columns I made back in May, before my bike accident put me out of business. The client was away to Europe for the summer so it wasn’t a problem. They look really nice and I’m pleased with my work, and so does the client. They will serve as posts to support the old metal fence, that will be converted to the new measures by a metal construction company.
I’ll post a picture when it’s completely finished and painted.

(Photo: Diane)

We went for a long walk with some friends to Mont Rigaud, one of the hills around here. The walk was a bit to long for Poupoune, and in the end we took a shortcut which was a Quad-trail. Unfortunately a lot of those pesky machines passed us and also the road surface (gravel) was hurting Poupoune’s paws, so we carried her in a backpack. To the shock and horror of our friends. At least that’s what Alison thinks.

Alison is pregnant. It’s a boy and we’ll name him Pepe.