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With the McGill Outdoors Club I went for a hike in the Upper Laurentians, about 250 km North-west of Montréal. It rains during the long drive but when we start the hike it miraculously dries and even the sun comes out. After a couple of hours we get a few showers but it is never totally awful.
And when we set up camp at a camp site, just after it got dark, and we start cooking meals on three stoves in three groups. I’m in the vegetarian group, and we even prepare a vegan meal, because one of us is vegan. While we are eating our couscous with vegetables and tofu we look in amazement to the stuff that comes out our fellow backpacker’s backpacks: someone brought a cook-set of pots with glass lids. Another thought she really needed a whole pound of butter, and we also spotted a full bottle of Tabasco.

No wonder they were so slow when going up the mountain. I, by far the oldest, and also one of the heaviest, was certainly not the slowest. Nobody even noticed that I was so much older, as they almost all asked what I studied.

I thought another tooth than the one that broke a couple of days was the target of today’s visit to the dentist but I was wrong. So the tooth probably felt it was about time it got a Cerec. A Cerec is sort of a filling/crown that is made from a ceramic block. The ceramic they use is almost identical in properties as the natural tooth and because of that it is extremely strong and will stay in my mouth for many decades.
The block of ceramic material is milled to the right shape in a mini robotic milling machine to the exact shape and size of the hole in my tooth. To define the shape of that hole the dentist took a picture with a special camera with 7 lenses. The computer then makes a 3-dimensional image of my tooth and the dentist forms the shape of the top of the filling on the computer screen, in a sort of 3-dimensional Photoshop application. It’s really easy (it’s done in one session with only one freezing), really fast (the whole procedure takes 2 hours) and very expensive (CAD $ 900).
Fortunately our dental insurance pays a part of that.

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.