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.)

A Bunch of Posts!

Damn right!

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Vacation was good and bad in Alberta and TO.


The whole reason why we went to Calgary in the first place. Congratulations, Ilinca and Curtis!

Good: seeing my cousins in TO and Alberta, wedding meal, visiting Wesley, Banff and Lake Louise, Calgary Zoo (hence the sudden red panda craze), no heat wave (thank God), Aki and Betty's "vampire dog" Bobo after it calmed down.


One of four asian elephants at the Calgary Zoo. So cute!

Bad: how sad MH was, crazy urban planning in Cowtown, the misleading provincial-tax-lessness (because of more expensive goods), lack of any actual good chinese food in the two-block Chinatown, homeliness, homelessness, lack of humidity, lack of any plushie cows in the entire freaking city, driving back from MH (I thought I was going to *DIE*), Aki and Betty's "vampire dog" Bobo when it bit Michelle and Brian


Ugly photo of pretty mountains next to Banff. You should go there!

Funny: more pick-up trucks than SUVs in Montreal, "honour system" train, cowboy hats, Albertan accent, crazy freaky people roaming, Aki and betty's "vampire dog" Bobo.


Bobo the "Vampire Dog." Bad dog!

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Anyway, I thought I would just tell you some projects I am (attempting to start) working on.

Firstly, the webcomic is still stuck in limbo, since I had an idea what to do a long, long time ago before I started drawing the damn thing. Then I lazily forgot what was going to happen, which led to a terrible, terrible standstill. I have every intention to complete the project, but it's massive. (Following the BG1 storyline, without all the sidequests and idiotic backtracking.) So I'm contemplating on that while I'm working on finishing the game. No, I haven't finished the game. Not once. No. Dammit.

I posted those BG portraits some weeks ago, so you're always free to use for your own personal games, or just to stare at and worship, or something equally as hilarious. I am working on some more portraits as well, just to fill out the necessary roles. (Like the triple-classed whatnot... eh, who am I kidding. That one'll probably look like a freak.) What I can't do very well is everything having to do with non-person features. Clothes, weapons, props, backgrounds, etc. - these are the things I will be featuring more often in my drawings.

I have been reading many mangas online. This led me to recall a story years ago I wanted to work on in manga form, though I am afraid to start drawing and stop, due to forgetting the story *coughwebcomiccough* ... so I am writing the whole thing out before drawing. I'll present a draft of a few chapters here when I finish. Just to note, the writing is presented in pseudo-manga form, so don't expect an award-winning novel format.

That's all folks!

Go West!

My mum just reminded me tonight that there's a wedding in Calgary of one of my cousins this July (23rd) so I have to start planning that now. Fortunately, right now, there's a marvelous seat sale for 1$ to "go west" (with return ticket purchase) from Montreal or from Quebec.

Just wondering, if I go out to Cow-gary, should I stay there for a bit longer than a week and see if I can visit (somehow) my dear friends out West? (Hint hint, Davy?)