Scrumptious!

Here are some pics of the beach in the winter in my lovely little town.





I just tried one recipe from a site that Radmila recommended on her blog today and it was fantastic. I would have given her the compliment on her blog page, but I often have a hard time posting on her site, for some reason it does not always load up completely. Thanks all for your kind words about my ridiculous injury, it's not severe or anything but mostly annoying. Hopefully it will get better soon as I miss having to think so hard about moving the right way, and I wanted to go to the snow soon to cross-country sky or even try snowboarding!

Starry Starry nights

I seem to be writing less and less lately. I must confess that work continues to be a bear and I come home exhausted and spent, ready to mindlessly watch tv. On the plus side, the Aussie Open was on most of the week and I took great pleasure in watching some of the matches. Too bad Mauresmo did not get good games from her opponents on her way to the title, three of them retired with injuries. I am tempted to stay up most of the night to watch the Federer-Baghdatis live at midnight. I'll see how I feel.

I have been on-call for a little over 24 hours and it already feels like I have spent a week with the thing. I am getting lots of calls and it makes me feel drained. It is keeping me from doing stuff that I would like to do, such as enjoy a good alcoholized beverage or go for a walk as it keeps needing my attention. On the plus side is that I have brought home from Montreal lots of great films and TV shows on DVD and my sequestration via pager gives me a guilt free occasion of watching them.

I am still hurting from retrieving something from my big blue recycling bin. The thing is 4 feet tall and I tried to fish out something that the Hubby recycled by mistake last Saturday night. As a result I bruised or stretched my ribs and side muscles. It is painful when I breathe, laugh, sleep and try to turn over, and when I try to reach out and forget that I can't. I have taped it, and taken Tylenol and Ibuprofen, but it does not seem to change much. I must say though that the power of Tylenol to reduce pain is greatly superior to that of Ibuprofen, although the latter is supposed to reduce inflamation, but does not do much for pain. The taping does not do much either, but I have slept a little better with taping and pain reliever. I tried to exercise yesterday, but I think it was premature and I am in more pain today. But pain is so subjective.

The skys in these parts have been mostly clear and have yielded some spectacular nights, bright, crisp and cribbled with lovely sparkling stars. I do love a night sky, it makes me feel so small, yet infinitely connected to the universe and all of its inhabitants. I can think of my friends who are far away and who can also enjoy the stars, and that makes me feel closer to all those I know but do not get a chance to see as often as I would like.



One of the most fun part of my week has been to listen to the Mes Aieux CD. Of particular interest is the song "Homage en Grain" about Poutine as it describes the dish to a salsa beat. I can't help but laugh everytime I hear it. Oh and yes, it is as disgusting as described and shown, and no I have not sampled it, however, I have had "Patate-Sauce," which is basically Poutine without the cheese, just a little less fat, but not much! With this, I launch a challenge: What is the most disgusting dish your native homes have produced? Think small regional weirdness, please!

Confusion

I find life confusing at best, don't you? Here I was, having a pleasant evening with the Hubby (first we went to see Narnia, which, I think, was actually well done, and then we went out to dinner) and as we sat, chatting and enjoying wine and dinner, this homeless guy came by on a bicycle, hauling along a mattress (his bed) on a specially designed trailer for his bike. First, I marvelled at the ingenuity of the guy, and then I felt deep sadness that at this time of the year, when even in California, it is quite cold at night, anyone has to sleep outside, on a makeshift bed. Now, I have camped in the winter near Vancouver and was not too sorry for myself doing so, but I was 23 or so, and knew this was not a lasting state of affair. It just hit me as we sat enjoying our expensive meal and wine, that this guy probably barely ate today and would sleep by the creek as long as no cops picked him up tonight. I feel unsettled. It does not help that the Mr and I did not see eye to eye all day and continue to inhabit our disjointed universe despite trying to get on the same page today. I guess some days are like this.

On the plus side, the sky tonight is amazing (ůžasný, new čech word courtesy of the drummer's kind e-mail message). The stars are immensely bright in our california sky as there is no haze. One of the sorrow of the sky here is that there is usually some level of visibility impairement due to the mist coming from the ocean. (Yeah, life sucks, hey?, ocean, mild weather, lots of sunshine) But tonight, the cold, crisp air allows the stars to shine to their brightest, and I was lucky enough to notice them, in all their splendor.

"La vie est drolement faite, maluron-lurette"

One of the cds I brought back from my trip is that of "Mes Aieux" (which means my ancesters). It's a great group of actors turned musicians to make ends meet. Their song "Continuer Pareil" sounds particularly a propos today. Work continues to be insane as I have no down time between supervising the two new workers and all the rest of what I'm supposed to do. The big boss today also adds a task to my list, like there is time in my nearly 10 hours days to add anything! (I accidentally typed ass, hmm, very freudian!). My very close friend and co-worker is also going through her second miscarriage in 6 months or so, and the families we work with are just out of control. So yeah la vie est drolement faite!(Life is made funny). What I like about the song is that it ends on "if life is poorly made, we must change it." How social workish of me to go for the call to action!




Oh yeah, also the man who served as secretary for the last two years for my local social worker unit committed suicide this week-end, get ready, while he was supposed to be in a suicide watch at the local inpatient unit! Great! I feel so safe sending the kids I work with there now! Not an up week for me. Everyone at work feels overworked as a result of some folks leaving the agency and having no-one yet to replace them. This too shall pass.

Lucky I live in such a beautiful place that helps me refill the void.

I'm so anti establishment

I had a fun evening with friends as we said goodbye to a co-worker who is moving on to a new job. He also announced that he is getting married sometimes soon and some discussion ensued on marriage and men and women's idea of marriage. I just find it amazing how so many women want a huge wedding with all the fixing. I just don't get it. As he was saying that the wedding would really be for her, I thought then why do you go through with it if it is not something you want too? And all the folks there agreed that the wedding is really more for the woman, and that the guy should indulge his new mate with the wedding she wants. I don't get it. Anyway or as Spin would put it pretty pictures.

Here is a fun site I stumbled upon today. Spin, check this one out, it is especially for you! Threadbared

"Lovely and Snowy"

Church in Saint-Sauveur















Classic little street in Montreal. Note the Quebec flag next to center tree.














Montreal was "lovely and snowy" as Spin put it. It was very snowy in fact, and about five days out of 11 there was some snowfal. The up side to all that was that it was mild weather condition for the most part and we were not uncomfortable. It was great fun visiting my family and for the first time in I don't know how long, we were all four siblings together. My Sis did not miss an opportunity to let us know just how miserable she is and how terrible it is for her and her children that her husband left her. She also complained at lenght about how her brand new house (three stories, including basement, with three bedrooms, a large kitchen with all new appliances, huge yard, wood floors, fireplace, etc) was so much not as nice as what she should be living in! Meanwhile, "back at the ranch", I don't have a dishwasher, dryer, fancy stove, or storage space, but really, I don't care. I'm rather content with my wierdo house that is old and funky, except for the pincher bugs that plague my bedroom, and the occasional ant invasion. But, hey, we live in california, and an old, slab house.

Other than that, I had a great time, bought a ton of music and films that do not reach the us, chatted in french with loads of folks and that was grand. I now want to be served in french at every store I enter! It feels like such a challenge sometimes to live your life in a foreign language! (English) It was so fun even that I now miss the snow, and we had to dig the huge truck we rented (a 4X4 jeep, that was the biggest thing I ever went in, but it did serve its purpose for two out of practice snow drivers on country roads that have not seen a grate or snowblower for three snow storms) out of the snow to make it in time to the airport to return home yesterday morning!

Here are a couple of pics of our adventures.