montréal

Apr 16 2008

Before

before

I finally started building built-in bookcases in our living room. It was long overdue but I was just too busy with other things to make something for ourselves.

Here’s an artist impression of how it will look like in a few weeks.

sketch

Apart from the bookcases there will be drawers for CDs and a big shelf for Alison to put plants on. After the bookcases, one in every corner, are finished, my books can finally leave the boxes that they inhabited for the past four and a half years. I don’t even remember which books I brought to Canada and which I left behind.

While temporarily putting Alison’s books and the books I collected over the past years into boxes I felt very sad. It somehow seemed I was moving out, instead of building something new. Fortunately that feeling didn’t last long, but I surely hope I didn’t suddenly became clairvoyant…

By • english, home, montréal, reno •

Apr 10 2008

Knee

into the mri machine

My knee hurts.

Since quite a while now but it got worse after a fall while cross-country skiing a few weeks ago. So my doctor made me have another MRI. The technician was so kind to make this photo. As you can see I didn’t have to go into the machine head-first so the whole experience was not at all claustrophobic. I even managed, despite the loud noise, to nearly fall asleep at the end.

I paid an additional fee, on top of the $650 that will hopefully be reimbursed by my health insurance, to get the results on a CD-ROM.

If you are an orthopaedist you might see exactly what is wrong, if you’re not, just enjoy the little movie. I think it’s really cool to look into your own knee sliced like it is a loaf of bread.

[Click to play; click circle button on bottom right to play full screen]

By • english, health, montréal •

Apr 6 2008

Candles

candles

44 candles, and I managed to blow them all out at once but one.

Alison baked this cake, a Gugelhupf or something. It turned out to be very bready, so I suggested to top it with icing. That worked well and the result was delicious. A really sweet birthday cake.

My mood has lifted today (Yay!), so Alison invited (and instructed me to invite) some friends to come and eat the cake. Of course it was very last minute, she had to see if I was feeling well enough to cope with visitors. On top of that it is beautiful, almost-spring weather so we just left a lot of messages on answering machines, hoping that at least somebody would show up. Two people did and we had a good time.

By • A., english, health, home, montréal •

Apr 2 2008

Passage

poupoune climbs mountain

The snow is covered with a crusty layer because it’s thawing and Poupoune has found out she can now use the mountain of snow as a secret passage to the neighbour’s garden, and subsequently, to the cats in the alley.

Note to self: make the fence two metres taller.

By • dogs, english, home, montréal, weather •

Apr 1 2008

Black

black

It’s my birthday today but I’m totally not in the mood for a party. Alison is in Toronto, and I’m invited by friends to celebrate my birthday with them. Even though i didn’t feel like it I reluctantly went. It costs a lot of energy to appear human.

The supper was great, the cake was lovely, the company pleasant, but nevertheless I wasn’t able to really enjoy it.

This depressive episode lasts a couple of weeks now and I’m want it to be over. I can only see the negative side of things, the house that needs lot of maintenance, the tenants that refuse the rent increase, my lack of friends, clients that didn’t pay my invoices etc. I even shout to the dogs.

By • english, friends, health, montréal, tmi •

Mar 30 2008

Ice

ice on bike

Not very smart to park a bike under the spout of a gutter. You have to de-ice it before you can use it. Or get a cold ass.

It’s thawing rapidly now, but at night it’s still below zero, so the mountains of snow will be present for at least a couple of weeks. Especially the ones in our garden, that aren’t warmed up by the sun.

By • english, montréal, weather •

Mar 15 2008

Bin

bin

Poupoune is surprised to find the 1 metre high bins in the park reduced to ‘holes in the ground’ she only knows from her visits to the hair dresser.

[Made with the new camera, but I’m not blown away by the ‘snow’ preset. O wait, I had another setting wrong. Too many options…]

By • dogs, english, montréal, weather •

Mar 11 2008

Covering

cover

Pepe often covers his bowl of food so he can eat it later when he doesn’t feel nauseated. He does this by using his nose to move sand over his food. Since we are in short supply of sand in our kitchen, the dishtowel that we put his bowl on has to do. And it does.

Now he only needs to find a solution to that pesky creature called Poupoune, who keeps eating his food the moment Pepe leaves the kitchen. Even when he covered it.

By • dogs, english, food, health, home, montréal •

Mar 9 2008

Record

another snowstorm

347 cm and counting.

By • english, home, montréal, weather •

Mar 5 2008

Camera

kaput

My camera, after almost 7 years, gave up the ghost. It fails intermittently, sometimes with beautiful results but this wasn’t exactly the photo I wanted to make.

We were at the yearly Nuit Blanche, an all-night event during which a lot of places like museums, cinemas and other venues are opened for free until 05h00. There are also many special events like almost free wine tasting (one glass Chianti for me, water for Alison) and this dance show by students of the UQAM.
window dance

It was very busy and for almost all events there were big lines of people waiting. We are not so big on waiting so we just left the lines as they were and went only to a small number of events but walked a lot through the snow. Unfortunately I had made a terrible shoe choice, having spent mostly indoors for a week working on a computer application. So my low sneakers were soaked quite fast by the puddles of melting snow.

The spectators for the dance performance were located in a courtyard and most of the dancing took place behind the windows of the university building surrounded the courtyard. Very nice, even though I was standing in deep snow with soaked shoes.

The dance show appeared to both of us as a homage to the dancing lady that was on display a couple of blocks away from the dance show venue. It was a perpetually projection of the silhouette of a naked dancing woman, as an advertisement for a strip club. That building is recently razed, and the seedy projection will be missed by many.

We didn’t stay that long, after 23h00 Alison was tired and wanted to go home. I begrudgingly complied.

A new camera is ordered, my birthday present. Alison bought it at Amazon in the US where it was almost half the price of a very discounted model at Future Shop. Plus free shipping and no taxes. I’ll pick it up at a forwarding service just over the US-Canadian border.

No, I didn’t go for the DP1, but for a Panasonic Lumix with a 10x Leica zoom lens. It will be a huge improvement compared to my current Canon camera with 3 seconds shutter lag and 1 inch screen. You’ll see the results here soon, I hope you will notice the improvement.

By • A., art, english, montréal, tech •

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