Suburbanite!

Finally the entry about the hoose!

So this past January, J, wee J and I were sitting in our lovely downtown condo, remarking about what a great space it was for a double income family, sans famille.

Jack’s toys were strewn over what used to be our living room and his bouncy truck, swing, high chair, mats etc were a part of the scenery and a challenge to getting to the sofa…

We all looked at the space, or lack thereof, back at each other, back at the space and started the discussion about how nice it would be to be somewhere slightly bigger…

As the depths of winter subsided and allowed us all to venture outdoors, we realised that there was no discernable green space for Jack to enjoy around our inner city ghetto, neighbourhood.

So we began to have a look at The Gazette’s “Home Front” on a Saturday, and trawling through the mls.ca website.

We talked about a two year plan to get us there…

Hell – we even went to some open houses in neighbourhoods we thought we’d like.

In hindsight that was the beginning of the end.

…breaking news…

Cristobal Huet is gone!

To Washington…

Now I can’t say, whilst watching hockey on RDS… “Mon Christ……… obal Huet” It won’t be relevant!

In other news: We got the house.

We move in May!

Details to follow… 

and just like that…

… we put an offer in on a house.

A freakin’ HOUSE!

Your wee P is all grown up – and suddenly feeling very little and very vulnerable…

We’ll know within the next 36 hours.

The STM come…good?

Wierd.

I can’t figure out if it’s just me, or if the STM (Montreal’s public transport system) have been feeding the monkeys employees some happy-juice lately.

Every day for the last 7 days, I have been greeted on the bus or at the metro gate by a smiling person, who has actually looked me in the eye and said “Bonjour!”

What the hell?

I have long been an un-admirer of the STM’s attitude towards its patrons – especially to those tourists who visit the fair province of Quebec with no french language skills…

I have long been annoyed by their over-paid, surly, unionized workers who appeared to constantly want more at the expense of the city’s residents and travellers, whilst never investing in some of the more humanitarian service elements to, well, make the public transport experience a little more pleasant.

And yet… something appears to have changed… in just seven days…

I wonder if they know… that we know… that they know…

I use the STM because I have to, and because it’s a greener alternative to the car, and for the past seven days, it’s been, well, OK. Less annoying. A more ‘human’ experience.

It’s quite disconcerting…

Is it just me?

Oh.

…and, for the record, I think I might just BURST if I don’t see ‘LOST’ tonight… It’s been a long year without Kate…

..alas I have my first mid-term exam tonight… THIS is where PVR’s (TVO) come in handy.

No surprise/big surprise

I actually wrote this about 6 weeks ago and it inexplicably disappeared… until now… ah well… it’s content. 

…so I was just playing my guitar to Jack and we were both singing away to some heartbroken Del Amitri…

1. Outside it’s snowing like crazy as was forecasted – although I’m not sure we’ll get the 30cms they predicted (No surprise)
2. From nowhere came a solitary, but enormous flash of lightning followed almost instantly by an almighty crack of thunder (Big surprise)

I looked at the window and then back at Jack who had just done exactly the same thing and we looked at each other for a couple of seconds with what I was sure was EXACTLY the same expression…  bewilderment with a little wide eyed fear.
Then at the same moment we both looked back out the window and back at each other meeting with the same dumbass expression.

Had anyone else seen this – it would have been perfect comedy timing.

I guess you had to be there…

Still… I have never experience a solitary winter flash before – mid snowstorm.

It was quite bizarre.

Let’s Play a Game of “Snap”

Just as we’re getting over the hangover of the last Québec election, and dealing with the reprecussions of it’s outcome..(um…?)… it appears that we may have to go through the whole thing again.

And soon.

In good ‘ol snap election style.

Our Minority government can’t seem to agree on whether to give you and I (the common man and woman) the glorious tax break we have been promised for 4 years (in truth probably longer than that) or to reduce the Québec debt…currently sittng scarey at around $120 billion.

It seems that Mr Charest saw the $700,000,000 federal transfer payment windfall as an opportunity to appease those who had lost faith in him and his broken promises of yesteryear.

This has angered Mr Dumont and the leaderless (but magnificently bathroomly equipped)PQ, whose programs were built on a bigger social platform.

“Pay off the debt, give to our schools and hospitals”, they say.

They are all going to vote on the budget proposal next week, and the outcome will doubtless trigger something involving you or I.

Regardless, we will get to see how big Dumont’s balls really are.

And let’s play hypothesis for a second: If we do go to election, then surely our voting reasoning changes radically. Do we vote for ourselves and our own personal wallets, or do you vote for ‘us’.

I want to play.