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I found some ways to distrsct myself this weekend so far. Last night Dan hung out with some of the guys at Joseph’s studio and it sound like they have a good time watching Mystery Science Theatre. While he was out I watched Napoleon Dynamite which I missed in 2004. It was really good – it was so nostalgic for me going to school in the 80s and 90s. I showed a bit to Dan today before we returned the movie and he said he really was interested in seeing it too.

Today Dave, Sanan and Lois organized a road trip to go apple picking and we came with them. We picked 20 pounds of apples and got to ride on a tractor back so we didn’t have to carry all the apples to the car. We also saw many bugs including an inchworm, the caterpillar for a monarch butterfly and a monarch feeding on an apple, which I was able to pick up and hold in my hand for about a minute or two. I think the butterfly was so high on eating a rotting apple that it didn’t notice at first and kept trying to eat me as if I were an apple too, then got pissed off and flew away. After apple picking we found a small grill in Rougemont serving the usual fare so I indulged in some poutine. Must eat better next week – I’m counting potato chips, ice cream and poutine all within one week!

I spoke with the family member in question and she had to go to the hopsital for some intervention last week and was in quite a bit of pain yesterday, but is doing much better today thanks to some painkillers. I’m really glad to hear that. I am still trying to come to terms with what this is going to mean for our future. It hasn’t even been a week yet since I found out. Of course I am very anxious to find out more details on Tuesday, as they will give us a very good idea of the timeline and possible treatments involved.

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I have something important to share with you, reader of this blog. This may be the first time you have ever visited or maybe you’re a regular but in any case you’re in for a surprise!

If you’re wondering why I haven’t been blogging much lately, it’s because I’ve been somewhat preoccupied and sleepy. Why is that, you ask? The answer is that Dan and I are expecting our first child. In other words, I am pregnant!

Ok pick yourself up off the floor and read that again!

As of today (Tuesday Oct 3rd) we are 13 weeks. I’ve been keeping this a secret since I found out in the end of July for obvious reasons, but it was really hard not to tell! Last week Dan and I went for an ultrasound and we saw this:

How about a close-up?

Here are the feet:

No, we don’t know the gender yet – this will be revealed in November. In the meantime it was very reassuring to know aside from a rather minor complication everything is going very well!

I’ve been going through all the textbook symptoms: a bit of nausea in the morning before I’ve eaten, “digestive changes”, sleepiness, and a little bit of headaches (seem to have stopped now thankfully). I lost my appetite a bit in the beginning but it’s back now. During the first month I was going to bed at 8:30 PM – I just couldn’t keep my eyes open after supper!

For those of you who know that I handle with some rather carcinogenic chemicals at work, rest assured that I informed my co-workers and supervisor as soon as I knew and other people have been handling the most dangerous ones for me. We also had a safety inspection last week and we’re very strict about the safety in our lab.

The due date is April 10th. Dan’s exams start around then. It will be interesting, no?

In the meantime we’ve had a blast posting images on our church website and having everyone guess who it is …

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The Flickr site is set up. So here are some new images:
Wow! Never before seen photos from Toulouse, France
Thrilling! A bike trip near Boucherville along the St. Laurent river!
At last! The missing Orlando photos.
A little slice of the July 1 moving madness
Recently new! Lots of Montreal photos.

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Well Dan had some very good news yesterday. After several years of conflicting opinions about whether he may have a heart problem or not, the final answer came yesterday as a clear “no”. Thank goodness! It’s been a pendulum of “hmm, that doesn’t look good” mixed with “everything is fine, nothing to worry about” but Dan said after having his heart viewed under every possible angle by two different people yesterday the slightlest possibility of a problem has been ruled out. He’s been 100% symptom free anyway which is always a very good indication things are ok but it’s nice to have the final word.

Yesterday was also a rather momentous day in that I finally had to give in and become a card-carrying member of the SAAQ (read: I finally exchanged my almost expired Alberta driver’s license for a Quebec one). I was so loth to do it because of the ridiculous cost ($50 a year) especially considering we don’t have a car – but alas, taking the test over again is much more expensive and inconvenient. I have heard horror stories about how long and difficult the process is, so I was actually rather surprised yesterday that it went as well as it did. It only took an hour and a half, I had all the necessary paperwork with me, and I was even able to keep my married name (hooray for ID that actually doens’t have a different name on it)!

In other news, Dan borrowed a superb recording of The Magic Flute directed by Ingmar Bergman from his teacher. I have heard some of the songs from it before but it was the first time either of us watched it (live or recorded). It was a very well done opera. The best actor was by far they guy who played Papageno, and my favourite part is when (out of despair and lost love) he plans to hang himself but turns to the audience and makes one final plea to the ladies (“I’m still available, will any of you have me?”) with the funniest grin on his face.

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It’s been a busy couple of weeks. Last weekend we had a curry party at our place. We cooked three vegetarian curries, rice and a cucumber yogurt dip as well as partaking in chai and yummy desserts from Pushap. It was a really fun time.

Yesterday Dan and I joined some others at the Oka Abbey for a day of silence, meditation, appreciation of nature and stocking up on goodies from Oka. The weather was perfect – not a cloud in the sky and warm without being hot. The Abbey itself had very nice grounds but by far the best part was the little path off the grounds that led to a small river and a path leading to some fields. We were there quite early in the morning and there were hundreds of frogs hiding out under the grass in the path as we walked to the field. There were also all kinds of wild berries including some raspberries which looked awfully tempting. On the way back we saw some small chipmunks playing in the drain by the path – oh my were they ever cute! We had lunch beside the stream next to a few frogs and with a chipmunk watching us from the other side. Dan just about sat in a pool of tadpoles! In the afternoon we visited the Abbey store, which features products the monks from this and other abbies harvest/make. Of course there was Oka cheese, but also a large variety of chocolates, honey and bread. On the way to the abbey store was an impromptu farmer’s market in the parking lot where we got a very nice loaf of sourdough bread. But here is the best part – in Montreal we have been buying this wonderful homemade jam from a lady in Oka (some of you have received it as Christmas or birthday presents) – and the husband was selling jam at the market!! It was like meeting a rockstar – of jam. I bought a jar of strawberry rhubarb jam (a flavour I haven’t seen in Montreal) but decided against saying anything, as “I’m a big fan of you wife’s jam” would probably sound really lame in French.

It’s “harvest week” in Quebec so we took a trip with Sanan to Marché Jean-Talon to stock up on fruit for the winter. We bought big flats of blueberries, raspberries, strawberries, two baskets of grapes and a basket of kiwis (which only cost a dollar!) and hung out with Dave and Sanan while we prepared them for freezing. They’re in Sanan’s deep freezer right now, so now we just have to go and buy a freezer for ourselves. The little one in our refrigerator just doesn’t do the trick.

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We had a dual housewarming party / birthday party for Dan yesterday which was a blast! Dan got about 6 chocolate bars and some stilton and I bought him the first season of The Raccoons which we will probably start watching today. We also received a tomato plant and a potted rose plant as housewarming gifts. I have to say I’m a bit daunted by the tomatoes since I have heard they are very hard to grow, but this one is quite large already so if I can learn how to keep it alive it should be ok.

Thanks to everyone who came – it was a lot of fun!

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Yesterday Véronique invited us for a bike trip to the south shore. Dan had found a map of cyclotourisme for the south shore region and we picked out a relatively short route to do (60 km – the longest ones were over 100 km!). Véronique came and picked us up at Vendôme metro and we were able to fit all the bikes on her rack without dificulty. We got out of the city relatively easily but got horribly lost trying to find the bike route we had chosen. I don’t know what it is about this part of the country and useless maps, but we basically gave up and found a path in Boucherville which led to the south shore of the St. Laurent instead. We all agreed that it seemed a better route in the end, so it turned out well.

It was a lovely bike ride. We went through the town of Boucherville and then along the river. On the way the path went over an old bridge and we saw a pair of blue herons in the slough. I’ve never seen a large wild bird before so it was incredible. Dan was able to take some video of one of them walking through the water. It was really an amazing experience. After that the path continued along the river and went through a lovely park where people were flying the biggest, coolest kites we’ve ever seen. It was quite a breeze coming off the river so they had just tied the kites to a post and left them there while they had a picnic. After that we went through the town of Varennes which had a tiny chapel dedicated to one of the saints, so we took a look inside for a few minutes. Not long after we turned around and headed back. We hadn’t had lunch yet but had all agreed where we were going for lunch … Monseiur Patate!

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Last Sunday we headed back to Atwater market with a clear-cut goal: buy some flowers for the planter box. We walked on the way there and it was a lovely day. We brought the camera and I finally took a picture of the mighty mouse graffiti on the corner of Notre Dame and Atwater. I’m sure just about everyone with a camera has done it, but I’ve always enjoyed that painting and wanted a picture of my own. I think someone must touch it up every year since it looks as good as when I first saw it.

So anyway, we were off to the visit the greenhouses by the market. We wandered around a bit and decided on some plants that we liked. I went and asked some of the people working at the largest greenhouse (with the nicest plants) if they thought plants in a planter box that is right beside a south facing window that’s open all the time would survive. They were very unhelpful and told me to go to the houseplant store nearby. I wasn’t satisfied with this answer since 1) they were 20 year old girls who knew nothing about gardening and 2) I wanted to try anyway, darnit! So we went to another smaller one at the end and there was a older fellow there who looked like he actually got his hands dirty with soil. So I asked him and he said that yes it was possible and that he could help me put together a planter or sell me one he had already done. There was only one problem – I hated all the plants he had! Geraniums … ugh. Marigolds … no way. He really tried to give us the push and was asking “Ok, so do you like this one, and how about this one beside it?”. Eventually we got away and went back to the silly girls and bought some plants there. I can’t believe how inexpensive it was! Eash plant was $2-3 so we were able to buy enough to fill the planter for $20. So here is a picture of it …

After a week of adjusting to their new surroundings some of the flowers have died but they’re still doing quite well. I think they might actually be getting too much sun!

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I wonder how he gets away with that sign!

Whenever I walk by a greenhouse / plant store / market I get this urge to have a garden. This is somewhat problematic given we don’t have a garden, yard or balcony. We might turn our herb planter box into a flower planter box and keep the herbs in pots – this will be decided tomorrow. In the meantime we’ve both discovered that (now that we have an apartment with plenty of windows facing in the right direction) that we want lots of plants in the house. We moved with two plants (one I don’t know the name for and one Oxalis) and now have 7: Marvin the mint plant, Basilik the basil, an unnamed Crown of Thorns cutting, two bamboo shoots and a cactusy/flower thing called Maria in addition to the other two. I planted some Thyme seeds in pots today and am trying to germinate the Oregano ones. They’re so small I wonder how I will know they have germinated – they’re smaller than poppy seeds!

We went to Atwater market today since we didn’t fancy a 3 hour bike ride in the rain. Compared to Jean-Talon it seems small and pricey! But I did find some jalapeno jelly there (which is very tasty). After we got back home we walked down Sherbrooke into NDG to go and get a) Kimchee, tofu and pickled vegetables at the Korean store and b) chicken at a boucherie. We have been getting some very good chicken at one near Jean-Talon and last week Lisa came with us and pointed out that it was a Halal boucherie. We hadn’t paid much attention to that before but it might explain why the chicken tastes so good – so we got today’s chicken at a Halal boucherie nearby and will see how it compares. And … I can’t believe there are so many types of pickled cucumber! We also went to D.A.D.s Bagel & discovered they had homemade naan there so we will give that a try with this week’s curry.

We also discovered Co-op La maison verte which has a wealth of envrionmentally friendly resources including eco cleaners (in bulk) and a free book on how to make your own household cleaners. Everything looks very simple except for laundry detergent, so next time we run out we will try theirs.

We’ve been having fun playing the Intellivision. So far the favourites are Burger time (of course), Lock ‘n Chase, Night Stalker and Advanced Dungeons and Dragons. I remember having a lot of fun playing the latter as a kid and when I started out this time I accidentally chose the hardest setting – then after reading the manual I figured out how to choose the easiest setting and managed to win after a few tries. With Night Stalker we both managed to get to the white robot stage but he’s very hard to kill and it will be a while before we get to the invisible robot stage.

The overhead light in the living room wasn’t working and Dan discovered that the switch was loose in the wall and was able to put it back in place. Hooray for proper lighting!

I really need to get the gallery situation sorted out! So in the meantime, here’s another photo. As a funny aside, I met the girlfriend of the son of the owners of this restaurant in Toronto at the Bioinformatics course. It’s two blocks away from our place.

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Ok, so I know you are really annoyed with me now but I still don’t have pictures of our place yet. There are two reasons for this : 1. I am a perfectionist and it isn’t perfect in here yet and 2. I still haven’t had a chance to get a new gallery working. In the meantime here is a photo of Miette from two weeks ago. I was looking for somewhere to put her while I cleaned her cage and the kitchen radiator/windowsill worked very well. Miette really enjoyed it and I happened to get some really nice shots.

Things are coming together well here for the apartment. No painting yet but my co-worker can lend me her brushes and rollers so we just have to try and pick the right color, borrow a ladder and get the paint mixed. We had a few things to sort out this past two weeks. The screens were ripped in the living room and bedroom so Dan took them out and the landlord fixed them. Unfortunatley they were incredibly dirty so we had to a mega-cleanup after the new screens were installed. Then the bathroom tub drain stopped working. We tried to play bricoleur/euse bu putting DRANO down it, but had no luck. Yesterday we called the landlord and she sent a plumber to clean it out. The landlord is an incredibly good building manager. She got back to us right away and even let us know that the plumber might be late. I could tell when we saw the building that it was run well and it’s something I really appreciate.

We’ve been trying to find a place to put our bikes and Dan bought a wall mounted rack at MEC last week. He moved things around a bit and the new arrangement is much nicer. With next year’s tax refund we’re thinking of getting Bromptons but in the meantime we need to keep them somewhere.

I bought some fresh herb plants at Marché Jean-Talon last week and bought a wood planter box yesterday to put them in. In a fit of insanity I also bought some seeds for oregano, thyme and rosemary so we will see how the manage. We don’t have any space outside so they will have to stay on the windowsill.

We went swimming at the nearby pool on Wednesday night. I really like the free pool concept! Last night we were supposed to go swimming too, but ended up reading in the nearby park instead. I really like this neighbourhood!

It’s the construction holiday in Montreal which means whatever public services had reduced summer hours just got reduced more. On Thursday night the bus didn’t come at work and I had to walk to the metro. It happened on Monday too, but I was lucky enough to get a ride with a co-worker. It’s strange though, as this has never happened before. I just hope it doesn’t happen again next week…

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