fumigated

It has been yet another one of those weeks. The apartment across the hall was recently vacated and our landlord needed to do some major fix-ups before being able to rent it out, which resulted in the floors being varnished last weekend. We knew the smell would be strong, but it turned out to be much stronger than we ever expected. Because our apartment shares a wall with the other, the varnish smell diffused through the walls (especially the hall closet) into ours. We decided to escape and go out to a café in the afternoon, then out for dinner and a movie afterward. We were forced to leave the windows open when we were out, the end result being that our apartment was very cold when we got home. The temperature last weekend was around -20 … a very bad time for varnishing. We managed to sleep at home Saturday and Sunday night with at least two windows open the whole time. Our air purifier, fortunately, has an activated charcoal filter and was working overtime. On Monday I did some calling around to find out how worried I should be about the potential toxic effects of the fumes and got a variety of different answers ranging from “don’t worry about it” to “you shouldn’t be staying there at all”. It was still quite smelly at out place so we ended up sleeping at a friend’s house Monday and Tuesday night, the only two nights we had time to cook (Wednesday we are taking a prenatal class and Thursday I leave for yoga before Dan gets home). So things were ever so slightly messed up. Not only that, but Dan sang at school Wednesday before the class, making it a very tight schedule indeed.

Friday, finally, we took a break and went out for dinner at “le Jardin Asean” which despite it’s bland name and unassuming external architecture was actually a very nice place to eat. I had a yellow chicken curry and Dan had BBQ duck and we shared tempura, avocado maki and dumplings. Many “Asian” restaurants in Montreal seem to want to take after the English chippy in their ambitious menus comprised of over 100 items from about 6 different countries, and few do it well. This place was a nice exception – everything was very good and it’s kind of fun to mix & match. After that we visited the Banzai grocery store nearby and scored a nice collection of odd snacks including something that tasted like ginger frosted flakes, corn chips, almond crush pocky, guava juice, and a black tea/condensed milk drink. We watched the latest Lupin movie, “Missed by a dollar” which was highly enjoyable.

I am in the process of selling Mom’s condo and things are coming along quite well. Thank goodness I have an amazing team to back me up … my aunt, the lawyer and the buyer have all been indespensable help throughout this process, which based on the hurdles seems to be inherently against the nature of the universe (along the same lines as dividing by 0). I have to make no less than 4 phone calls about it early this week at work … but it’s almost done. Speaking of work, I have only 6 weeks left until I start my leave, which is a bit freaky actually.

Kicky is running out of space and we’re both feeling a bit cramped right now. She does this move that we call the “jellyfish” that looks like what it sounds like, involves most of her body and feels very funny. I don’t think it’s possible for my tummy to stretch any further yet she still has to double in weight! Still 2 months to go. My back is quite sore – the yoga certainly helps though. We still have to solve the car seat issue – that’s on the block for next weekend.