Kitty Corner

There were a couple of things that came up during the trip, that I said "I so have to blog that..."

First: how many times have we wished for a coffee shop that was open later?  Like, for a board game event, or even after supper when you don't want to sit at the table in the restaurant but you don't want to go home?  Well, on Rue St. Catherine in Montreal, there's a 24 hour Second Cup.  Want here!

Second: a dress.  Gorgeous, classy dress.

( Dress drooling )

Apparently in the States, they're finally putting laws into place making airlines treat their guests properly when the plane's stranded on the runway.  Regulation won't come into effect until mid-2010, but at least then they'll have to let passengers off if the plane's stuck for more than 3 hours.  This following many horror stories, including people stuck on a plane overnight with a stinky toilet (and IIRC no airline-supplied snacks or water), numerous 3h+ strandings, and one case where passengers were stuck for almost 11 hours.  About time. Hopefully Canada will follow suit...

So.  We're back.  It was a wonderful holiday. :) :) :)

After breakfast we went to Mass at the Basilica.  _Beautiful_ church.  Huge, as one would expect, but somehow we didn't feel lost in the vastness of it during Mass!  Interesting - the processional included one white guy.  Just one out of ... six? seven people?  Very cool to see. :)  The cardinal was presiding, but one of the other priests gave the homily.  Very clear French, very well spoken.  I think French is his third language, too!  Excellent homily.   ( couple of homily points )  

Also, the cantor had the most gorgeous voice... :) So after that, we went to L'Oratoire St-Joseph.  We were kinda pinched for time, as we had to go to the airport, but we still managed a full hour there.  So glad we went.

( Oratoire highlights )

We got to the airport in good time, but our flight was delayed. Oh well. We were warned that any flights that routed through Toronto would be delayed.  Ironically, it was the plane coming in to Montreal (not the one leaving Toronto) that was delayed!  Meh.  Ate supper in Montreal at a place called Casey's.  Good stuff. :)  Very fast.  No problems on the flight.  In Toronto, one of the West Jet agents asked a kid (over the P.A.) if he had a kennel for his hat. *g*  It was Chip from Chip 'n Dale. :D  We all laughed, and the boy was delighted with the attention. :)  Apparently on the Toronto leg, I fell asleep within seconds of leaning over on Rob's shoulder.  Tired!!!  And then, home.  Into our wonderfully comfy bed, in our own place...

Life is good. :)

Thought I'd list the books we brought with us (and bought) for some "light" holiday reading.  Well, _some_ of them really are!

In alphabetical order by title:

The Crediton Killings (Michael Jecks - medieval setting mystery)
The Hunt for Red October (Tom Clancy)
I, Claudius (Robert Graves)
Logical Chess: move by move (Irving Chernev)
Monstrous Regiment (Terry  Pratchett)
Practicing History (Barbara W. Tuchman) (selected essays)
A Taste of Maple (Micheline Mongrain-Dontigny) (bought at a museum bookshop)
Watson & DNA (Victor McElheny) (bought at a discount book store - new) (yes, I started reading it on the holiday)

I shake my head. :)  And appreciate what geeks we both are. :)

We're heading home today.  *sigh*  Had another wonderful breakfast at Cora's.  The girls there really made our morning by telling us they'd really enjoyed having us there! :)  If anyone's wondering, the hotel we've been staying at is the Best Western Europa.  Good hotel.  Free internet!  Relatively inexpensive.  Recommended. :)  If you want to take the airport shuttle from Trudeau, get off at the Sheraton and walk a half a block.  It's $16 vs. the ~$40 for a cab.

Been an excellent holiday.  There will be one more Montreal post when we get home.  If nothing else, we're eating supper in the Toronto airport, so that may be an adventure! :P Thanks everyone for your comments!  I've been enjoying the responses. :)

Today was perfect. :)  Okay, it was a little cold, but not enough to freeze my legs so I'm happy. :)  Under the cut: the day's activities in reverse chronological order.

( Saturday's awesomeness )

It was a great day. :)  So glad we had it together. :)

Meeting's over.  Rob was _tired_, so we slept in.  Got down to breakfast at *mumble11:30mumble*.  You wouldn't believe the line-up outside Cora's!  But they're so efficient we got in really quickly anyhow!  And for all that we've been going there all week, it was the best meal yet. :)

Our waitress has had us for the past several days now, so she even remembered our usual drink orders. :)  We were impressed.  And then she came out with Rob's bowl of latte (special day, so not his regular coffee), and there was a lily in latte art on top!  She'd trained as a barrista, but it's a really demanding, tough school out here so she decided to go for waitressing instead.  That said, she didn't forget her barrista skills, and Rob said it was one of the best lattes he's ever had. :) :) :)

Then we had their seasonal special - chocolate cinnamon brioche roll covered in crème Anglaise with fresh strawberries and bananas beside it.  Where did they get such good strawberries in the middle of December?!?  And the brioche...  Chocolate and cinnamon and brioche... what more can you ask?  Oh, and I think I got extra fruit on my main course, too. :)

Now we are off to the Musée McCord, which I'd given up hope getting to!  Then supper at Le Pyrénées, a restaurant we saw on Tuesday in Old Montreal.  Was so funny - we'd stopped to look at the menu, then saw someone coming out the door.  So we backed off to give him space.  Turned out it was the host, coming out to explain the menu to us! :)  He said "Don't worry - I don't bite!"  We laughed.  And right there decided to make it to that restaurant before we left. *g*

Then after that, we have tickets to a concert at Le Place Des Arts. :) :) :) :) :)  They have a feature - Quebecois artist weekends.  I am excited.

And now, a humorous tidbit along the theme of these blogs:

( Your table is ready, sir. )

iterininfinitum , you mentioned you might be coming out to Montreal.  This is a definite recommendation for you! Restaurant called Le Caveau.  Nice 15 minute walk from our hotel (which we also recommend :P ), down a side street off a very main street.  Their full menu (with prices) is online.  The name means "vault" - with reference to wine cellars.  Get the table d'hôte.  I figured that since the table d'hôte was $20-29 and the entrees were $20-34 that the main with the set menu would be a bit smaller, or something not quite as splishy.  How wrong could I be?  And how happy to be wrong?

( The meal, blow by blow )

Summary: great restaurant, great service, good location, and for what you get it's ridiculously cheap. :)  Fine dining! I'd go to bed now, but I'm too full and wired on sugar. *g*

The video is awesome - octopus grabs a coconut shell and runs off with it.  Later shots have an octopus using one as a shelter.  Rather cute, to see it peeking out from inside. *g*

Oh, be warned: there's a 30 second unrelated ad before the start of the octopus video.

Was sick in bed most of yesterday. :(  Sucked.  Managed to get out of the hotel for maybe an hour...  That said, I made it back to Première Moisson. :)  It's the place in the underground city beneath the Queen Elizabeth which I got the yummy pastries at the other day.  This time I got Tartelette de Cerf (and you don't pronounce the f, as I discovered *blush*) and a couple of desserts for later.  (cerf is deer/venison, for those who don't speak French)  Got a chocolatin and a tartelette de trois noix.  The chocolatin is a chocolate pastry.  The tartelette - TO DIE FOR!!!!!  Like a pecan pie, but with so many assorted nuts that there's barely enough room for filling, but what is there is melting deliciousness...

And we went down the block to Anton and James to get supper. (the deluxe take-out place) I got really yummy wild mushroom pizza. Rob got baked chicken breast with roasted red pepper and wild rice. Yes, I said deluxe take-out. *g* Though granted we got take-out because I couldn't handle a restaurant. :( So yeah, that was yesterday.  *sigh* Today was much better. :)

( Adventures of Friday )

We went back to Odaki. Had been there for lunch, now have experienced their supper menu. Soooo full... But it was all fantastic... And the cool thing was that we saw the difference noted in the sushi MRI! ( Sushi science! )

We got an idea, from eating. I tried mackerel. I haven't liked it in the past because it's always tasted fishy. Here, no fishiness at all. Just a distinct, strong flavour that I still don't quite care for... Strangely enough, it reminds me of pickled herring. So I figured, why not have a roll with mackerel and oshinko (Japanese pickled cabbage) inside. Call it a Maki Mop (instead of rollmops). Hey, it sounds good to me! *g*

Not on a Mac, so can't do the accent aigu. :(

First: today's stuff. ( Wednesday wanderings )
Yesterday I was quite struck with the beauty of some of the art we saw in galleries in Old Montreal. Would have gone back for a closer look today but it was a bit cold for random wanderings.

Figured this would be a good time to do general impressions of Montreal. The stuff that hit me when we arrived and as we've been wandering around.

( Impressions of Montreal )

One more note on our hotel room: it has four or five non-right angle corners and three right-angle corners. *g*

Funny thing: We went into a number of places, were greeted, replied "Bonjour!" and were answered in english. After one of those, I asked Rob if I had a sign that said "tourist" plastered on my face! To my relief, when I go out alone, I get answered in french until someone speaks too quickly and I have to ask them to repeat, or until I forget a word and have to say it in english. :) Though it was funny to have a conversation with a greeter whose accent was worse than Rob's... :P

Assuredly more later. :)

I am full. Very, very full. But satisfied.

We went to Cora's for lunch, then out. They serve piles of salad at lunch where they serve piles of fruit at breakfast. :)

( The day's wanderings )

From there, home. Well, hotel. And here I blog.
Montreal really is foodie heaven. :)

The power's out in our entire block. No word as to why. :(

No Cora's for breakfast this morning. :(

I do hope it comes back soon, for a lot of reasons!

Funny moment: we have bagels we bought yesterday as snacking food. We'll be having them for breakfast. Rob decided to make coffee to go with them. With what power?, I asked... ;)

PS: Yes, the wireless internet still works. :) (and the elevators!)

PPS: Power's back on now. :)

PPPS: 200,000 people lost power! It was a station 1000 km north of Montreal!

We're in Montréal!!!

Very happy. Got a ridiculously early flight (which was then delayed by an hour while we were on the plane... de-icing at -45 being part of it! - oh, Air Canada cancelled all its flights out of Edmonton yesterday, so glad we were on WestJet 'cause we actually got out of the city!) so basically slept a good bit of yesterday after getting here. But good trip regardless.

Grateful to our housemates for keeping an eye on our place while we're away, too.

So far, it's been both fun and relaxing. :)

( trip details )

Assuredly more later. :)

For anyone who's been hearing about James Cameron's latest film Avatar, there's an interesting article on BBC about the making of the alien language in it. The official site with trailer. (warning: huge Flash as the opening)

Very simple, often-done story, but ooooh...pretty... They'll win an Oscar for makeup and special effects if nothing else!

And yes, the idea is similar to the excellent series of books by John Scalzi (starting with Old Man's War), but the books are surprisingly deep (given how much you laugh!) and the movie, at least from the trailer, is quite basic.

In a followup to the previous post (where I talked about the robotic arm for an amputee), I've since found an article about a newly commercialized product - bionic fingers, customized to the person. They cost $60,000-$75,000, but it doesn't matter if your fingers were amputated or if you were simply born without them. "Myoelectric sensors inside the elbow-high prosthesis pick up nerve signals from contracting arm muscles, setting the motorized digits in motion — just like natural fingers."

The poster child of the product is a 60 year old guy who lost his fingers to an industrial accident. He's looking forward to getting back into fly fishing. :)

This is wonderful! I can't even imagine losing fingers, especially not on my dominant hand, and this completely restores function.

How to cut a bagel into a Mobius strip. The advantage: cool factor, and greater surface area for the cream cheese. :)

Link courtesy of Making Light.

Just finished reading Briar Rose by Jane Yolen. Thank you snooness for lending it to me. Slim little volume, but believe me you don't read it in one sitting. Also, have kleenex handy at the end. Combine Sleeping Beauty (Briar Rose) with the Holocaust. Excellent book. Highly recommended.

Lots happened over the past couple of weeks. Two weeks ago, went to snooness ' place to make traditional Ukrainian food. YUM!!! (also: lots still in the freezer. :) Made perogies - cheddar/potato, bacon/potato, sauerkraut, blueberry, raspberry... am I forgetting any? Loads of each! Also cabbage rolls and naleśniki. Of course, we had some for supper that night. :) Lots of people involved, but the last of us were up to the wee hours of the morning finishing. *g* Much fun. Looking forward to the next one. :) :) :)

This past weekend, we went to the Alberta Baroque Ensemble Christmas concert. Absolutely lovely. :) We bought their CD. :) It being a concert night, we first went out for supper. Discovered a new restaurant. :) A Taste of Ukraine. Very good food. Loved the... little bun-shaped things with a dill stuffing inside and dill sauce on top... Very good perogy and cabbage rolls. The naleśniki, though, just weren't up to the standard set by AJ at the perogy party, though! *g* Much more crepe and less filling, and not the same creamy taste. We do plan to go back there. Very close to MEC, but on Jasper.

Quote of the night from the perogy party: (well, the gist, anyhow): You know you're Ukrainian if dill isn't a spice, it's a vegetable that you include in everything.

Quick note: from looking at the online menu for A Taste of Ukraine, the bun-things are pyrizhky.