How we moved out of Waterloo and into Gatineau

Ha ha ha! Whoever moves in next (Eugene ^_^) will be cursed with this terrible pot of crap from the market.

Said goodbye to these babies.

Got into this baby.

Drove for 10 hours or so in total, to arrive at the house in Gatineau. After a few days, it looked like this.

And then we discovered some unwelcome neighbours.

We fed ourselves this.

And this.

But finally after hard work (by everyone else), I could now see the floor.



Yay~!

BONUS PIC:

Goodbye little plateau condo. :(

House

There's finally news on the Ottawa front - Jorghnassen and I took possession of a house. That is, we did not overwhelm and tearfully bully an innocent bystander out of his or her domicile. We did, however, legitimately purchase a residence in Gatineau that is more likely to be permanent than the other places we've been living at in the last several years.

Before I get all mushy about the move (and divulge more details about it), let me show you my house. (*This is the realtor's photo.)
*
Right now there's nothing inside, as the previous owner had just moved out of the house yesterday and I finally stepped inside the thing for the first time ever. We drove from Montreal to Ottawa to arrive to find the ever-efficient and handy Mme Emond and Hector waiting outside for us, to report that the house was indeed empty and they were ready to start fixing up, cleaning and painting our house. Fantastic!

There are no real complaints about the house itself. It's got its quirks and such that Jorgh noticed after an empty house examination, such as curved walls, a completely lit basement with one switch, and cables running through every room from holes drilled through floors and walls:

I suppose it just means there's more places for TVs to be found in the house. Not that I'd want a TV in every room. Oh, by the way:

...walk-in closet. Or room-sized closet.

We hope our paint colour choices will not be distasteful. For instance, quick sloppy 'shop jobs (and not sure what the actual colours are anymore):


Boy, my 'shop skillz teh suXX0rs.

To be fair, I did drive 8 hours back to Waterloo after visiting, and I had to get a coffee to get through the last hour because we were both falling asleep. Which also explains such a late post.

As far as I know...

This is the floor plan for where we are going to be living. Actually, it's not. It's a guess as far as I know, from the limited photos available from Jorghnassen, the inspector, and the realtor's web site. I seriously have no idea what it looks like.

Anyway, there's three bedrooms, one and a half bathrooms, and a finished basement. Not only that, but there's enough patio and patio windows to complain that there's too much. Oh, what will we do with so much BBQ space??? Mwa-ha-ha-ha-ha!!!

Jorgh mentioned that there's a possibility of making a third washroom in the basement, thereby completing the trifecta of places to run for toilet emergencies when your two other washrooms are occupied for some reason when there's only two people living in the whole house. I am against this prospective washroom because then that would make it three toilets to scrub. I already hate doing one.

---

In the meantime, while Jorgh and his parents have been busy taking care of absolutely everything else about the house, I've been assigned the task of finding a mover who will not break our stuff transporting it to Gatineau. On one hand, it's not hard to find a mover. On the other hand, it's quite difficult to find the mover who will agree to:

• Not be a douche and move our shit across the provincial boundary (I know, Ottawa-Gatineau?)


• Come to the apartment and actually look at the stuff to be moved to give an estimate


• Come over to our apartment to give a written estimate that isn't ridiculously huge


• Call back after the estimate and say that their written estimate will be ready to be emailed, even though it was written down in front of you while they were here.

I'm just about ready to pick the movers once they actually do the last point.

---

It's very odd to find polite people wherever you go in a city, but (as long as I'm not driving) everyone here has been exceptionally friendly and wonderfully courteous. There really is a small-town feel when I'm going around town, even though it's been reported that this area is actually expanding too quickly for its water supply to catch up with.

If there's anything I'd miss about Waterloo, it's the way people actually regarded each other in their everyday interactions. Except while driving. They're polite, patient, and very friendly. Except while driving. They're very quaint, what with their Mennonites and farmers markets and small community strawberry and apple festivals and their warped ideas about cheeses... so adorable. Except while driving. They go as far as helping a stupid woman take care of her windshield wipers, bringing her to a "mall" when asked, and tolerating our every single critique when we were looking for edible food.

On the other hand, the one thing I will not miss is the food and restaurant choices. This guy puts it more succinctly: "More than half the times I think I haven't got the energy to cook, N suggests we eat out, I run over the possibilities in my mind, and then I get up and cook a meal."

Mind you, I enjoy the few places that Jorgh and I visited, like Raintree Cafe and Sakura Island, but for mind-blowingly awesome you'd really have to go back to larger and/or more diverse cities. Or where they know what a loaf of bread looks like.

Thank you, Waterloo, for teaching me to be less lazy in cooking meals at home because you have no viable alternatives.

And thank you, Waterloo, for teaching me that drivers are just as crazy here as they are in Quebec. I don't feel so bad anymore.

"Wait, when did you make this tetrahedron 5-compound?"

Wow!
Originally uploaded by chowmaylay

Waaay back a few months ago when I was making all sorts of polyhedra for my classroom, I printed out the templates from korthalsaltes.com. This one was seriously awesome. :D

OH YEAH!!! :D:D:D:D

I finally finished marking everything in the gigantic backlog, and it only took ... uh... more time than it should have. But it's done!!!

Jorghnassen's coming back from Ottawa tomorrow evening. He's been on the search for a condo/house, and it seems there are a few choices he's about to make his grand decision upon. :o OK, not yet, because I haven't seen any of them. Personally, I have no idea what to look for except I don't want to be pressured into overpaying for something that isn't worth it. I mean it's not like a mediocre meal at a restaurant - I can't just grin and bear it while people are sucking the money from your wallet (and weird things are happening to your intestine). Anyway we'll see. It's a bit too early to say there's any decision there yet.

I'll have more to say tomorrow after giving the KEYNOTE SPEECH at the graduation tomorrow that nobody told me I was going to be giving until last Friday. Well, you'll have to wait and see if I manage to get anyone to film it. Then we'll all point and laugh at my mediocre speaking skills. Point and laugh. Point. And. Laugh.

Wow, what am I going to do in Ottawa?

Finally, I think it is safe to announce, and it's about time. (I waited to let Jorghnassen announce it but he seems to not have wanted to do the official announcement.)

Jorghnassen has secured his tenure-track position with U.Ottawa, and we are going to be headed to Ottawa by the end of August. Exciting!

This means I will have to bid farewell my current students, and the school where I helped develop one of the most gut-wrenchingly depressing mathematics programs in all of Southwestern Ontario. (Depressing... for them, mwa ha ha ha...) Seriously, if they don't give me a good reference then I'm quitting teaching forever. :(

I will also have to go out there once again and find a job where I will not become blacklisted for being maddeningly under-trained by everyone in charge of such work that I have ever encountered. I've definitely had a butt-load of self realization, development, and reflection happen over the course of the last several years. As for becoming a better teacher? I have yet to understand if/how that can be achieved.

I spent the last weekend with Jorgh in Ottawa, but I had to come back today to work tomorrow. Jorgh has a stats conference in Ottawa that he is attempting to attend, but I suppose I'll let him talk about it.

What am I going to do in Ottawa? Well, that will have to wait. In the meantime I will probably blanket some CVs but one thing's for sure: I ain't workin' this summer.

I giiiiiive uuuuuuuppppppp :(

Another one of those tax-related worries. For part of the year last year, I mentioned that I was considered self-employed or I was supposed to get some business number otherwise. I didn't register a number and now my taxes are a million times more complicated, including filling out another separate form for a reason absolutely escaping me.

I spent the weekend with Jorgh ripping our hair out over these forms, and tomorrow we're heading to H&R Block and hope to GOD that someone out there will do this for us.

How many :(:(:(:(:('s ? LOTS.

I haven't posted in a while due to general lethargy and/or Puzzle Pirates addiction. Seriously, I think playing as a Playmobil character pretending to be a pirate is awesome, among a bunch of SA goons, to boot.

Anyway, I wanted to report on our most recent outings. Yesterday we went to the Daily Grill, a casual diner style restaurant that would probably more than satiate any person hungry for a plate bigger than their heads. We made the mistake of ordering too much; for some reason, wings as appetizers are a whole meal in itself and comes with fries and this odd cheese dipping sauce... why would you need a super thick dipping sauce for wings already drenched in the most powerful vinegary barbecue sauce ever? Jorghnassen managed to finish off the veal schnitzel, while I barely made a dent in the souvlaki meal. And then I had a hard time getting up.

Last Tuesday, I ordered Gordon Ramsay's new book, Gordon Ramsay's Fast Food, from Chapters/Indigo online. He was also going to be in Burlington today for a book signing from 3 pm to 5 pm, and then Toronto tomorrow at 7pm. Unfortunately, I didn't have the book by Friday, so we bought the book from the local Chapters as well. So I have two receipts of two exact copies of the book.

Being one who takes advantage of any travelling experience, I dragged Jorghnassen out to Burlington today at 1pm, taking a lot of scenic turns (thanks to our misguided GPS).

Scenic route through the outskirts of Hamilton (yes, Hamilton, the city we said we'd never visit again).

We pulled up next to the Indigo, and I let out a "OMFG!" A whole pile of people were wrapped around the building, lining up on the sidewalk.

The store said they had run out of bracelets about an hour after opening at 11 am. They also said we could wait in the outside line because there were three indoor lines already.

So we waited.

Waited.

Waited.

Waited.

Wai- WHAT it's 4:45 p.m. and he's GONE!?

:(

Tomorrow I'm returning both copies of the book I bought. (Yeah, that'll show him!)

Ms C is tired :(

It snowed during the weekend. (Yeah, no kidding.) The entire region is literally wheeling like mad to get out of the mess. However, I've had no problems with the Rav4. (Except for the door lock mess.) It's driven through piles and piles of snow and I am still in one piece.

The first priority a few weeks ago was to fix the giant meter-long potholes that the city is legally required to fill up. Now the first priority is to dig out everyone from their snow packed mess. Then the second priority should be to fill in the giant meter-long potholes the city now has to refill, along with all the new ones.

Thousands of giant potholes. I'm sure people from Montreal would love getting their 50$ times a thousand.

Jorghnassen and I have been making lots of different bread things with the breadmaker. Some have been ugly as hell, while others have come out relatively eye-pleasing. However, there still lacks a certain Montreal bakery charm that these delightful homemade loaves can't seem to recreate. Nevertheless, we've had a ton of stuff so far and now we've already reached the bottom of the 10kg of flour. @_@

Anyway, whoever wants to come visit can now be treated to pizza, boules, and other random things coming out of the dough setting, as well as the weird bread mixes that we create...!

Weekend in TO

Jorghnassen posed for a shot, dedicated to both Ms. Rachel, and my cousins at the same time. ;)

Jorgh also posed for another shot that is reminiscent of another one from England:

Contrast to this:


We also were treated to some Chinese New Year supper, courtesy of my cousins.


The trip could not be rounded off without a visit to get some asian provisions. This time Jorghnassen visited the infamous Chinese malls in Markham. This particular moment was pure *triumph.*

Notice that I didn't have to run over *anyone* to park that close to the building.

It's another year...

and I have yet another group of newbies in the school. In fact, there's been a lot of things that have changed in the school besides the newbies.

For one thing, the principal "is no longer with the school."

I don't think I have the right emoticon to express this... except maybe @_@

Needless to say, it's been a little crazy over the last two weeks at school. We've all noticed the kids getting uncharacteristically undisciplined. They're great kids, but only under the right conditions!

Jorghnassen has a really brief mention of his trip to Ottawa... and there may be more mention of this in the near future!

I hope to help promote this school next Saturday at its Open House, but it all depends what they're planning to do. At least they promised a "light lunch."

Happy New Year! Bling!

Happy New Year, 2008!

Got another 8 hours of driving to go. At least we aren't lost. :P

Christmas 2007

Yes, this is my hand.

Tourtière!? NOT. It's called MEAT PIE.

Ingredients:
Crust

• flour


• baking powder


• salt


• egg


• water


• milk


• brown sugar


• shortening

Meat

• ground pork


• veal


• onion


• celery


• garlic


• salt and pepper


• allspice or other spices

Low heat. Cook meat.


Oh wait. Chop celery and onions. Chop some more. Really small. Until Jorghnassen says it's small enough.


Dump it in. Mix it up, yeah.


Cook it low forever. Stir once a year.
Ok, an hour or so.


Take out the rivers of fat. (Seriously, it filled an entire bowl.) Cool overnight.

In the meantime, make the dough. Cool overnight too.


Roll the dough.


Cut the dough. One big disc, one little disc.


Fill the dough in a muffin tin.


Before!


After!


It said "EAT ME."

Colm Wilkinson

There were some problems. The moment we arrived at the Centre in the Square, the downtown Kitchener theater, we knew we were in for a bit of a mess. My purse malfunctioned, sealing the tickets and everything else inside and I almost had to cut it open with scissors. The people vacantly strutting about were on average older than Colm himself. Some obnoxious couple was sitting in front of us calling out crap, when he was trying to make friendly banter with the audience. The same couple's big heads were in the way when he broke out with the "Bring Him Home."

Nevertheless... the theater was indeed as acoustically awesome as Dennis (who is a teacher at the school and who coincidentally happened to be attending the show) claimed. The staff was friendly, the price of parking was not too embarrassingly high...

HE WAS AMAZING!

Let it be known that you haven't heard Danny Boy until you've heard it from an irish ex-pat who defined the roles of both the Phantom and Jean ValJean.

Happy birthday, Jorgh! -xox-

Vacation!

I'm on vacation!
It's celebration!
It's celebration,
I'm on vacation....

Oh wait, no I'm not. :(

At least not yet! :D

As soon as these kids write their final exams on Monday afternoon, I'm taking everything home, correcting it all (which is going to be less than last term, as I have half the number of students and exams), delivering them Tuesday morning, and we're jetting off (by car, that is...)to possibly Toronto, and Montreal. And possibly Quebec. I don't know about Quebec, since Jorghnassen doesn't seem to want to take the extra two hours of driving to visit, but I'd like to see my mum at least, and hopefully squeeze in some time with the bunny man and his wife.

Then we're jetting off (literally) to England on the 27th, to attend Jorgh's brother's weeding. (Inside joke.) Oh, that reminds me, I need to get a camera before that. A real camera, not one that takes things like this:



Anyway, time to get cracking... I have another pile of corrections to complete at the moment!

Conflicting Sentiments

A few hours ago, two girls were standing outside our apartment building. They were from this building, as I recognized the older, pudgier girl who constantly had a sour look on her face, as many tween girls often do. She was cradling around a charcoal grey kitten; or rather, the kitten was clawed onto her hoodie with dear life, as she would wave her arms around to any passerby, calling out to them. She would then stretch the cat out with one hand as the car would drive by. The younger one was waving around an empty box, similarly yelling out to the street, and rushed over to the opposite side to yell out some more.

As I am a sucker for cute furry things, I had an idea of what they were doing. Unfortunately, I cannot follow through my desires, as I am still allergic to such animals. So I can only watch as the mother came out of the building to console the kids, and they were brought back into the building.

Had I any initiative, or less of an allergy, I would have gone out and done as I wanted to do, which Jorghnassen kept reminding me that I could not do. Hence, I can only write how my imaginary conversation with the girls would have followed:

-Dear, what in the world are you two peddling?

"We're selling a cat." She points to herself with both hands, while the cat is hanging on to dear life with all four limbs hooked onto her shirt.

-Is that how you treat a cat?

"No, miss, we're trying to find a good home for it." The other girl shouts out at another car barreling down the road. "CAT FOR SALE!"

-How did it come about that you have this... cat for sale?

"We had it for a while but now my family can't afford to keep this cat." The girls pout and look toward the cat forlornly. The cat is squirming desperately out of her arms, but the girl manages to enclose it in her pudgy embrace.

-Dears, where is your mother or father?

"They're inside..."

-Do they know you're doing this?

"Yes..." Their eyes dart around and they kick their legs into air with the suspicious look that kids give when they are up to something.

-Well, let me talk to them.

"Are you going to buy the cat?"

-Let me talk to your parents first.

The girls lead me to the mother, who is furious at their callous behaviour. (Why? I don't know. She was pretty mad earlier when she took the girls back inside.) On the other hand, the mother confirms the story. Despite Jorgh's objections, I agree to take the cat in. Everyone looks at the cat, now clawed onto my shirt and scratching me as I take it back to my apartment. It now leads a happy life without little girls trying to perform acrobatics with it on the street.

---

Jorghnassen is known as doublebof, and we were comparing our OKCupid match questions.

I have something on my face...

... otherwise, why would those girls be looking at me at that Zehrs?

Jorghnassen, of course, is the reason why.

We walked by an aisle going to the cash register and I looked straight at her, as she stared straight at me. She stopped talking, and the other girls continued oblivious to her silence. I was wondering if the asian (chinese probably) girls at first were long lost cousins or something because I seriously have no idea why that particular one was staring at me for much longer than a stranger would at another person. Then I realized that none of my cousins are anywhere in proximity of the Wawaloo region, and they didn't look anything like anyone else I knew.

As we loaded the things in our basket to the cash, I looked back at the girls who were still standing at the aisle, still curious at first. Now hiding behind a goddamn clipboard that she was holding, she was peeking from behind it and still chatting with her friend and staring at us. At me. Wha-?

After a few more covert confirmations that I was being stared at, I mentioned it to Jorghnassen. The ill-concealed spying from the girls was rather disturbing. By then, we were already moving away from the register, and he looked back and he thought he was actually the one being stared at. Then I got more disturbed.

Now before you think I'm becoming jealous, it was because Jorgh is teaching a course right now at the university, and the girls (or one of them anyway) are probably in his class. He says the spy-girl looks familiar, and he could probably confirm it next class.

I know I'm not always the most restrained of girlfriends in the PDA department, so I can gather that seeing your prof with a girl who *looks* like a university student (but who is probably glad she's not a university student anymore) holding his arm might look suspicious, and smacks of unethical behaviour if one thinks that student-type is in the same class as the prof is teaching. And I know that one has a right to talk to other people in public about people you happen to recognize in public.

Nonetheless, it's not polite to stare! >:(

Whine whine

There is one thing I loathe to look forward to in April. Don't get me wrong, April is a great month; great surprises often lurk in April. (Wink.) It's the time of year when the sun finally sticks its spindly million degree nose out and melts the remaining scattered clumps of white stuff, leaving behind black piles insulating the white stuff. (Anyone who lives in Quebec will know what I mean.) And it's that time of year when I get off my sorry butt and start my new yearly tradition of sweaty 5K training, although it's going to be kind of difficult this year with a toenail broken from kicking a clump of hardened white stuff hibernating behind the car tire a few months ago.

No, it's that one thing in April that I always whine about, and it's just around that time of year again. HINT: it's not avoidable, unless I want to get fined by the CRA.

Fortunately, Jorghnassen is also in the same boat this year, having never gone through the scalp-scarring, brain-jarring, seizure-inducing experience of filing his own taxes. So he took the easy way out and paid for Impotrapide. Even with a program for his filing, it is not that simple, as he has now been in two provinces earning incomes and getting hosed by the government more ways than usual.

In the meanwhile, I have to defer the yearly hair-pulling by another week as I have a pile of algebra corrections that are inducing another type of hair-pulling.

Back and Forth, Back and Forth...

"Back and forth, back and forth; I'm beginning to feel like Sisyphus!" -some merchant, Zeus Master of Olympus

Once again, I took to the task of driving back to the homeland, while Jorghnassen had the monumental task of keeping me awake and calling for rest stops at every other service station. Our primary goal was the week-long vacation in our home province. Our secondary goal was to obtain the Rav4's summer tires from Jorgh's dad in Quebec.

Our first stop was in Toronto, to attend the pre-wedding Ning fling at a Dave & Buster's out in the middle-of-nowhere-Toronto. All I know is that one of the Ikeas was next to it. (I-KEEEEE-AAAAAHHH...) I haven't seen Ning in a long time, and even then it was a brief coincidental meeting in Quebec City as she was walking in old town with her now-fiancé Steve. They're supposed to be getting married this week. So happy...! :)

After spending overnight in Toronto with my cousins, we spent all day driving to Montreal, and then I spent all evening correcting Calculus final exams. The marks had to be submitted the next morning at 8 a.m. by email, otherwise I would have had one hell of a commute. I called Davy up as soon as I arrived, certain he would be having his party, to send my regards, and he promptly told me to get our butts over there. Unfortunately, I could not complete my corrections until 10 pm.

By the time we arrived, Ian had already scuttled off, having waited all night for our arrival. On the other hand, Ivo had been asleep and appeared half-dead on our arrival. Then he slept some more. ;) We spent the rest of the evening chatting, sipping tea and whatever else was left, and singing more Beatles songs.

Checklist of Montreal/Quebec Things to Do Eat:

• eat poutine


• eat poutine from Ashtons


• buy maple syrup in cans


• buy bagels by the dozen


• eat and buy tasty bread


• buy or eat own weight in cheese and curds


• eat sushi (!?)

(The last one actually makes sense if you remember what my mum does for a living.)

My favourite thing to do with friends is to make food for them. (Heck, any excuse to get the old roomies together.) So we ended up having one supper in Montreal with homemade sushi (unfortunately not Sushi Sunday but still good).

I managed to secure some of SUMS' doorstops Calculus textbooks for the school. Another reasonable excuse to make this trip's expenses tax-deductible. :)

Eventually we made our way to Quebec, but none of my siblings could make the trip. My bro is recording a new album, so all his evenings are taken up; my sister was entertaining her 'rents-in-law. And arriving in Quebec... my mum was working. Alas, we were also booked for pre-Easter supper with Jorgh's parents and brother in downtown Quebec, so we had virtually no time to go anywhere nor do much shopping. :(

I do feel like we ate a lot though...!

I was pretty bushed by the end of the week. And I still had to drive back to Waterloo, and then the next day yesterday was the first day of school.

... also I had to stop in Toronto for about an hour or so to drop off the bags of bagels, cheese curds, and beans for my cousin. We got back in Waterloo at about 10:30 p.m. and I worked late into that night at making new lesson plans.

Ooh you can bet your sweet patootie I'm completely off my rocker. I made a class blog for my computer class and I think it shows. (In order not to let random strangers get to this blog from the other one, or vice versa, you'll have to ask me what it is.)