It's back to school time for many out there, me included. I start taking two more courses at university on Monday; Political theory and Community democracy. I just got all my schedules and most of it looks doable except for one thing. My Political Theory course has an exam end of October that I will do at home. You get to download the exam at a certain hour and you then have 5 hours from them to complete it. Sound good? It does sound good until you see the time. I am studying at a university in Sweden. The course is a distance course so I can do all of it from here and I'm not required to show up for any classes they all show up online. The exam they want me to take is available to download at 9 am Swedish time. Canada is 6 hours behind Sweden so for me that means it's available to download at 3 am an need to be finished before 10 am.
This is not good.
Granted I might get some peace and quiet while writing the exam seeing it's so early and everyone will be sleeping but I doubt my brain actually functions at that hour.
I wrote my teacher and asked if there is anything I can do about this so we'll see how it'll work out. I'll keep you posted.
We've been busy been around here lately rediscovering our city dealing with the embarrassment that is the car and generally spending hours and hours in the park but today it's raining.
I am the caretaker of a budgie this weekend so I have to go and feed it and give it new water and that bird hates me. It's probably because I smell like cats... can birds smell things? They don't have a nose... I don't know. The bird hates me anyways.
Saturday, August 29, 2009
Friday, August 28, 2009
Beautiful weather
Lately we've been treated to lovely weather. The temperature has dropped and the sun is shining so me and W has been spending all our time outdoors.
Yesterday me, W and J went to the old port and today me, W and another J walked up Mont-Royal.
Yesterday me, W and J went to the old port and today me, W and another J walked up Mont-Royal.
Friday, August 21, 2009
Rude people with dogs
This post is really all about me complaining about that horrid bitch (yes I said it) of a woman with her big black dog.
Yesterday morning I took W to the park, we went to the little playground park on the corner of our street because the sky was looking a bit threatening. Once there I unpacked W's sand toys by a bench right at the entrance of the park and we started making sand castles. Right in the middle of the sand castle making this huge black dog comes running up to the entrance of the park and pees on the fence about a meter away from me and W. I get annoyed for many reasons.
-One there is a huge f*cking dog about a meter away from me and my child and it's not on a leach.
-Two it's peeing in the sand in the playground.
-Three the owner sees this and does nothing about it.
-Four did I mention it's loose and really near my child?
The dog then runs away and finds two other big loose dogs to play with on the grass next to the playground. They play and growl and bark and jump and chase each other around. I keep a close eye on them since I don't want a huge dog biting my child or jumping on him or anything of that sort. I am also preparing myself to kick the stupid dog if it does choose to come close to us.
The owners appears to be having a grand time laughing and watching their dogs and don't seem to notice that I am fuming or that their dogs are chasing each other in the sand and running in between me and W. Then the big black dog needs to pee again and he chooses to do so on the little playhouse in the sand in the park. I get furious and start complaining loudly about it being disgusting and get your f*cking dog out of the sand and the playground and put it on a lead or something. The owner ignores me and the huge sign saying she's now broken the law and should receive a 300$ fine if I could only find out her name and call the police or city and complain.
After a little while she finally seem to notice my complaining and they all pack up their dogs and leave rather quickly.
Now I am not a dog hater in any way I actually like dogs a lot and I would probably have one if J liked dogs too. But I do hate dog owners who think that their dogs are so cute and adorable that no one will mind if they pee on the playground. Much like I hate parents who think their kids are so adorable that no one will mind if they empty your bag at the playground and eat all your kids snack or steal your kids toys from his hands. I like dog owner and parents who treat others with respect and that take their dogs to the dog park (there are about a million of them in Montreal) and teach their kids not to touch other peoples things without asking first.
Now is that too much to ask of people?
On a different note Happy Birthday to my little brother S (the one to the left) 13 today!
I thought I'd throw in one of W and J at F's birthday party too.
Yesterday morning I took W to the park, we went to the little playground park on the corner of our street because the sky was looking a bit threatening. Once there I unpacked W's sand toys by a bench right at the entrance of the park and we started making sand castles. Right in the middle of the sand castle making this huge black dog comes running up to the entrance of the park and pees on the fence about a meter away from me and W. I get annoyed for many reasons.
-One there is a huge f*cking dog about a meter away from me and my child and it's not on a leach.
-Two it's peeing in the sand in the playground.
-Three the owner sees this and does nothing about it.
-Four did I mention it's loose and really near my child?
The dog then runs away and finds two other big loose dogs to play with on the grass next to the playground. They play and growl and bark and jump and chase each other around. I keep a close eye on them since I don't want a huge dog biting my child or jumping on him or anything of that sort. I am also preparing myself to kick the stupid dog if it does choose to come close to us.
The owners appears to be having a grand time laughing and watching their dogs and don't seem to notice that I am fuming or that their dogs are chasing each other in the sand and running in between me and W. Then the big black dog needs to pee again and he chooses to do so on the little playhouse in the sand in the park. I get furious and start complaining loudly about it being disgusting and get your f*cking dog out of the sand and the playground and put it on a lead or something. The owner ignores me and the huge sign saying she's now broken the law and should receive a 300$ fine if I could only find out her name and call the police or city and complain.
After a little while she finally seem to notice my complaining and they all pack up their dogs and leave rather quickly.
Now I am not a dog hater in any way I actually like dogs a lot and I would probably have one if J liked dogs too. But I do hate dog owners who think that their dogs are so cute and adorable that no one will mind if they pee on the playground. Much like I hate parents who think their kids are so adorable that no one will mind if they empty your bag at the playground and eat all your kids snack or steal your kids toys from his hands. I like dog owner and parents who treat others with respect and that take their dogs to the dog park (there are about a million of them in Montreal) and teach their kids not to touch other peoples things without asking first.
Now is that too much to ask of people?
On a different note Happy Birthday to my little brother S (the one to the left) 13 today!
I thought I'd throw in one of W and J at F's birthday party too.
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
Saturday, August 15, 2009
Embarrassing
Montreal is boiling hot these days. The temperature hovers around 30°C (86°F) but with the humidex it feels more like 40 (104). J had Thursday and Friday off this week so we took the opportunity to deal with the car. I don't know if I told you I was stopped by the police last week because my car is registered to J and well he doesn't have a license. So Thursday morning we made our way down to the SAAQ which is the society of automobile insurance of Quebec (I would write that in French if I could only figure out how to spell it) which is not to be confused with the SAQ which is the society of alcohol in Quebec (the alcohol store) to do an ownership transfer. Since we're married and since I'm not buying the car from him (I paid for it the first time around and it was only due to other reasons he's the owner) there would be no fees for this service.
At the SAAQ we got a grumpy lady who rolled her eyes at every question we asked and seemed very annoyed that we didn't know what number the odometer on the car was. After filling in some papers and signing here and there and everywhere and paying up the difference until the registration needs to be renewed in November she hands us a new license plate and sends us on our merry way. A new license plate. When I asked why I was told because. So when we got home we realized that we now need to deal with the parking sticker asap since it has the license plate number on it and we'll totally get a parking ticket if we don't change it. We decided to deal with all that in the morning and simply just leave the old plate on the car until going up to get the new sticker. Fast forward to Friday morning, as I'm getting W ready to leave J goes out to change the plate on the car. He comes in swearing a few minutes later exclaiming that it's impossible because one of the screws just spins and the other one won't turn at all. I freak out a little because I've already had a run in with the police this month and driving with an expired plate will surely not be good. Not to worry J says we'll get his dad to fix it soon and until then we'll just put the new plate in the back window and put some tape over the old plate. We do this and I have never been more embarrassed to drive my car before. We look like such idiot losers with our plate taped to the inside of the window with the only tape we had which was black electrical tape.
Now I have to make my way out to see J's dad as soon as I can so I can get this fixed because I can't drive around like this for long.
At the SAAQ we got a grumpy lady who rolled her eyes at every question we asked and seemed very annoyed that we didn't know what number the odometer on the car was. After filling in some papers and signing here and there and everywhere and paying up the difference until the registration needs to be renewed in November she hands us a new license plate and sends us on our merry way. A new license plate. When I asked why I was told because. So when we got home we realized that we now need to deal with the parking sticker asap since it has the license plate number on it and we'll totally get a parking ticket if we don't change it. We decided to deal with all that in the morning and simply just leave the old plate on the car until going up to get the new sticker. Fast forward to Friday morning, as I'm getting W ready to leave J goes out to change the plate on the car. He comes in swearing a few minutes later exclaiming that it's impossible because one of the screws just spins and the other one won't turn at all. I freak out a little because I've already had a run in with the police this month and driving with an expired plate will surely not be good. Not to worry J says we'll get his dad to fix it soon and until then we'll just put the new plate in the back window and put some tape over the old plate. We do this and I have never been more embarrassed to drive my car before. We look like such idiot losers with our plate taped to the inside of the window with the only tape we had which was black electrical tape.
Now I have to make my way out to see J's dad as soon as I can so I can get this fixed because I can't drive around like this for long.
Sunday, August 9, 2009
no excuse
W is sick again. Not very sick this time but sick none the less. This makes it 4 viruses in 4 months. He gets sick in the beginning of every month. It's quite something.
W has watched a lot of Pippi Långstrump (Pippi Longstocking to you non-Swedes) lately and he's been talking for the last week about "baka bullar Pippi" which translates to bake cinnamon bunns like Pippi. He even pulled out his dough roller and baked the floor a couple of times so I've been waiting for a rainy day to bake some real ones and let him help. Today is not rainy but since he's sick the park is not really an option so we did it today. The results are yummy. I would have posted photos of the whole thing if I would have had my camera but J forgot it yesterday at W's cousins birthday party. We'll get it back tomorrow... (I hope)
All the baking and the flour on the floor wore my sick little man out so he's now sleeping in mammas säng (Mamma's bed or sometimes Pappa's bed) which he's only allowed to do since he's sick.
W has watched a lot of Pippi Långstrump (Pippi Longstocking to you non-Swedes) lately and he's been talking for the last week about "baka bullar Pippi" which translates to bake cinnamon bunns like Pippi. He even pulled out his dough roller and baked the floor a couple of times so I've been waiting for a rainy day to bake some real ones and let him help. Today is not rainy but since he's sick the park is not really an option so we did it today. The results are yummy. I would have posted photos of the whole thing if I would have had my camera but J forgot it yesterday at W's cousins birthday party. We'll get it back tomorrow... (I hope)
All the baking and the flour on the floor wore my sick little man out so he's now sleeping in mammas säng (Mamma's bed or sometimes Pappa's bed) which he's only allowed to do since he's sick.
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
Three more photos
Just wanted to post these because they're so cool. My mother-in-law took them when we were on the west coast in Sweden.
on repeat
This is now playing on repeat at my house since seeing the awesome movie (500) Days of Summer.
I loved Regina Spektor before this. W's second name Samson is actually partially so because of her song with the same name. Enjoy!
I loved Regina Spektor before this. W's second name Samson is actually partially so because of her song with the same name. Enjoy!
Monday, August 3, 2009
Agreeing
Today me and J got into another conversation about child rearing. This time we agreed. We had to take a moment after the fact to ponder this amazing event because it's not very often we both agree fully on things. The subject on which we agree is feeding. We both believe that you should never force your child to finish their plate of food but it's OK to tell your kid that they need to take 3 more bites before leaving the table.
It's nice to agree on things.
Since I promised I would post some photos of our holiday before but haven't gotten around to writing fully about all the fun we had I will post part 1 of our holiday photos now. These are from the first 2 weeks in Sweden. Part 2 will include J and M (W's dad and Grand-maman)
The beach by lake Mälaren in my mom's hometown.
It's nice to agree on things.
Since I promised I would post some photos of our holiday before but haven't gotten around to writing fully about all the fun we had I will post part 1 of our holiday photos now. These are from the first 2 weeks in Sweden. Part 2 will include J and M (W's dad and Grand-maman)
Waiting to board our plane in Montreal. W loves the airport, he loves looking at the planes and the trucks!
Blowing bubbles over W's pool at my mother's chalet in Sweden.
Helped my mom move some furniture around and build some new IKEA stuff. W made sure we all sat in the closet for a while.
Playing outside my Grand-parents, W's great grand-parents house on the west coast of Sweden.
The beach by lake Mälaren in my mom's hometown.
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