Good Job, MainMan

Last fall, MainMan's company won a special award from the govt of Canada. There was going to be a ceremony downtown Montreal but it was canceled at the time. I can't remember what, but something happened in Montreal around that time-so it was prudent to cancel. They rescheduled.Off MainMan goes. Three other Canadian companies also received the award. But since the other three were accepting in French, MainMan thought it would be wise to have someone from his company accept in French. The award was given by some elected official type person (like a senator in the states . . . I think)
In case you are wondering why I don't give specifics, I never know what I am allowed to post when dealing with his company. Better safe than sorry. But, it was a great award! Way to go, MainMan!

Canada Day*

Canada Day* used to be called Dominion Day. It's been celebrated in CanadaLand since the late 1800's. It is sort of like the 4th of July. It's a federal holiday* and people enjoy a day off with cookouts and fireworks*
MainMan has Canada Day* off the day after Canada Day*. Yeah, he is working on Canada Day*


*except in Quebec (in case you were wondering, that little * is used a lot in Canada. In other words, Quebec follows its own little drummer in all ways Canadian.)

(We didn't take these pictures, unless you count downloading them)

Main Man is home

Main Man went for a fast trip to Germany. In other words, fly overnight, have a meeting and fly home the next day. The only problem was we had to cut short our visit with Reilley (and his parents). Bummer.
But, as I downloaded his pictures from his cell phone-these two just popped out! Wow, the lighting is great. And these are straight out of the cell phone pictures . . . no photoshop doctoring. Danng. Nice pics there, Main Man!

One Last Ottawa post.

There was something going on while we visited the National War Museum. As we walked to one of the areas, we noticed a lot of young military types lining up and getting ready. Hmmm. They had big hats. I stood for a moment and thought. Are these Canadians or English? I mean, don't the English wear those hats? So, I walked up to one of the last guys in line.

What is your hat made from? (thinking he would say beaver since, well, this is CanadaLand)
Bear.Ohhh. hmmm, may I touch it? (I glanced at the other soldier types and they had the look that Iwas ok to talk and it was slightly entertaining to them)
Sure, go ahead.
Yeppers, it was fur.
May I take a picture of you with your hat on? (Tricia sort of cringed with this request-but nothing like my boys would have reacted)
Sure. And with a sort of smile, he puts on his hat for a photo op. Thanks young Canadian soldier type. Mind you, I still wasn't sure they were military. I mean the uniforms were-well, sort of military academy looking. But, I am in Canada, it this may be a uniform.

So, young fella in the big bear hat, just what are you doing? (actually, I asked that a little differently, but consider it artistic interpretation).
We are doing blah blah for public blah blah (hard to hear with the bag pipes in the background).
Hmmm, well, ok, thanks very much.

Tricia made the comment that I was brave to just walk up and ask. I assured her that I have had a lot of practice walking up and asking totally stupid questions for the last two years. The only difference here is that it was in English.
We walked to the section with military vehicles and noticed a lot of empty chairs, some sort of military band, lots of military types walking around. After asking a few people, I found out that it was practice for the next day when a general type was stepping down and being replaced by the next guy. Yeah, yeah, I know there is a better, military way of saying it. Heck, it took me a while to figure it out.
We got to see the young bear hats (yeah, they were real military grade soldiers) marching in, the band playing "God Save the Queen" (ohhhh, yeah, Canadian types have a queen-like The Queen of England and they play that song-just not so much in Quebec) and "Oh, Canada". And bag pipes.
It was a great addition to the day.

Yep, they were tired on the way home

part two

This is the second part of today's blog. I was in the middle of writing the blog and the earth began to move. The earthquake sort of distracted me. So, being the good bloggeee that I am, I hit post in the middle of the earthquake.

It was great to connect up with Tricia, Nolan and Reilley.

We visited the War Museum. And Reilley really did sit down for a minute-maybe even two. He was just so cute and such a pleasure. He isn't in the tantrum age yet. (Notice I said yet-look out, he will be three soon enough!)
"Hi Grandma, I am visiting with Matt. Can you hear me Grandma? Yo, granny! Hmmmmm. She isn't talking back, just some other fellow talking about something to do with this place."

I didn't use the flash much. Besides the "deer in the headlight" looks, it didn't work with the zoom. Low light in museums.

Sorry, Trish, you can't camouflage that tummy. It will peek out and say hi.

Let's drive to Ottawa

Tricia (very pregnant), Nolan and Reilley were visiting Ottawa last weekend for a wedding. It's only a two hour drive (not counting getting lost), so off we went to visit.
Within 20 minutes from home, I noticed the "deer crossing" signs suddenly included a new sign. Hmmmm . . . moose crossing. Just so you know, we didn't see any moose on this trip. Beaver-yeah, moose, no.

Zoom

We met with Tricia, Nolan and Reilley in Ottawa this weekend. It was great to see them again. I will be blogging about it soon, but thought I would let you know about a very difficult situation I found myself in: trying to take pictures of a very fast 2 year old in the low light of a museum.

Maybe we should call him Flash Reilley. Or Zoom. I took a lot of pictures and most are just a little blur.

Reilley the Blur. Yep, that's his name now.

. . . sleeps with the fishes . . .

Yesterday I walked out my front door around 9 am. Going to the local French bookstore to mail a little package of stickers. No free standing post offices close-so it's a realllllll frenchy post office at the back of the bookstore. English varies, depending on the person manning the postal counter.

Anyway, back to walking out the door. I turned to lock the door and noticed a sort of big stick peeking out of the grass in the lawn about 10 feet away. Hmmmm. Well, I guess I should move it as the little lawn mower doesn't do well with sticks. I walk over to the stick.

What the hell????

I mean, really-what the hell??? It was a fish-well over two feet long. A big, dead fish. Just laying there in the grass. In my front yard. A fish?? A big fish??? I look around. No one was out. I look up. Why? I am not sure. I look around again. How did this fish get here? Did a raccoon drag it up here from the lake? Mannnn-that would have to be one big raccoon. Or maybe a big bird? LOL, I am thinking not. I look closely to see if it had been cleaned-maybe it was from someone's trash (even tho it wasn't trash day).

MainMan was out of town for a quick trip to the states. #1 was at work and #2 was asleep. Finally, I decide to go on my way and deal with the fish when I got back. As I drove, I had the fleeting thought-maybe it was some sort of message-like if you don't speak French, we will throw fish at you. Or maybe . . . someone was watching the Godfather too much. But, they would get the fish closer to the door. If you are going to give someone a message, you would want them to find it for sure.

I come home, wake sleeping beauty to show him the fish (because I am thinking NO ONE will believe me). I take a picture. It doesn't show how big it is. Finally, I get some newspaper and pick it up and put it in a trash bag and then into my trash can. Well, that will smell really good on trash day. :)

#1 comes home in the evening and sits down and says- wow, mom, I have had a really strange day . . . all day long. And it started early. I was walking to my car . . .

Ohhhhh- does this have anything to do with a big fish?

It was still there? I would have thought it would be gone (ok, if I wasn't curious by that moment, NOW, I was) I was walking to the car and a BIG fox ran up right beside me. He was coming up the side yard and I guess he didn't see me until he was right next to me. He dropped a big fish-thump- and sort of trotted away. He turned and looked at me. I was shocked . . . and scared. I thought for a split second that the fish was Cesar! I yelled- Ohhhhh @#$%! The neighbor was getting into his car and called over and asked if I was ok. I sort of said it was a fox and a fish. The guy said . . . OK. I called the cat and he came running and I put him in the house. I really expected the fox to come back. It was a HUGE fox, mom. I mean like a big dog.

LOL, well I wonder what the heck the neighbor was thinking-I might try to explain next time I see them . . . but then again, I am not sure his English will really grasp what I will try to say. And it had to be a big fox to be able to carry that fish.

Mr. Tomato Plant, Part Two

Remember Mr. Tomato Plant from Last Year? I sure abused him. He was blown over several times in his small pot. Then he moved and was abused by the move. Several big limbs were broken. But he came back . . . several times. And we got tomatoes. But, in the long run, I think those were pretty expensive tomatoes.
This year, I decided to branch out (so to speak). The first plant I got was big like Mr. Tomato Plant but was little tomatoes. I guess I will call her Miss Tomato Plant. She was tall and fruitful. Then I bought two tiny plants from Wally world - less than 6 inches tall. See how tall they already have become?
And finally I bought Mr. Tomato Plant #2. Ummm, I hate to have to tell you this, but he didn't make it with the transplant. He is the little stub in the pot. Can you see him? Oooh, yeah, and he was the biggest of them all.

thoughts on rivers-yeah, it's a slow day

Living beside a lake can be wonderful. And it can also be cold, wet, hot, muggy, frozen, etc.. And it can be full of bugs and those creatures that eat bugs (some of which spin webs).
I was thinking the other day that most, if not all of the lakes, I have visited have been man made. This isn't. It's the way it has always been. Basically, its a widening of two rivers into a water area. I am used to dams and big deep lakes that don't have currents. This lake isn't as deep as I would expect (ok, its pretty darn deep in places). And since it it connected to ocean VERY far from here, there are some ocean creatures (eels . . . yuk). And some really big fish. Bigger than I would want to deal with on a fisherman level. When the lure used is bigger than my hand, it is meant for a big fish.But those fish are really not around the area where I live. I live on a quiet part of the lake. Not too deep. And while the big fish might venture up here, they soon get bored and move on to the St. Lawrence River.

Yep, it's pretty quiet here. At least until I get into the kayak and flip over. Yeah, it's not all that quiet then. But, most of the time it's quiet.

Feed the Beaver

I found him at the local Dollar Store. Isn't he cute? LOL Ok, fine. I just couldn't resist. I put my Loonies and Two-nies in it. (that would be one and two dollar coins)

Feed the Beaver.

Yeah, yea, that is wrong on many levels. But . . . it's my job to embarrass my kids .

Cat Dreams

Number 2 enjoying the dock. Yeah, it was windy. Yeah, he has long hair.
On a calmer day, Mama Goose was visiting.
And KC was dreaming of Christmas Goose stuffed with dressing (or stuffed with mice) Yummy.

Mama and Papa

We have a couple here. They are very sweet on each other. Visited a lot. I fed them and they started to swim to the dock when they saw me in the back yard.

Then they stopped coming. There were other geese but not the two that had gotten to know me.

And then . . .

Mama and Papa Goose came back- and brought someone (someones) to show off. They swam up and let the babies get really close to me (less than a foot). They would chase off any other geese that got anywhere near-within 30 feet.
I fed the babies. And they loved it. They swam away. I haven't seen them since, but it was nice that Mama and Papa came back to visit.