Home from Montreal

Sunday, rysmiel and I wandered around bookshops (both used and new) while papersky rested, and then we all had a very nice dinner together. Saturday Papersky fed me her "treyf skillet," which is quite tasty as well as very treyf; Sunday we got her version of lasagna, which is nonstandard (it involves tortellini instead of lasagna noodles, and no tomato) but again tasty. Both are also quite filling, and she served both with baby bok choy.

Sunday morning, we all had Easter chocolate on our plates. Adding that to what I got at Marche Atwater on Friday and at the Chinese Belgian chocolate shop on Saturday, I am now very well supplied with chocolate. Fortunately, cattitude stands ready to help.

In between food and wandering, we talked about books, about life, about politics, about future conventions and possible programming for same, about people one or more of us know, and other good stuff. On the Metro, Rysmiel and I were discussing the recent Quebec elections. I said something about "Tories," and as I was starting to explain about Charest having been a Tory at the federal level, Rysmiel pointed out that "Quebec Liberals are Tories."

One bit of conversation was about people with odd names, and Papersky's feeling that usually this is the result of a woman who felt she really ought to take her husband's name, regardless of how odd the results sounded. At the airport, I ran into one that, if not a pseudonym chosen to be obvious, really falls into "his parents weren't thinking": Air Canada was paging Winston Smith.

On the flight home, I was chatting with my seatmate, who asked what people in Quebec think about the war, after I mentioned headlines about Canadian soldiers killed in Afghanistan. I noted that the only political discussion we'd had was about said recent election, and the conversation went on to other things. I seem to have been in serious chatty/talk to strangers mode: before that, while I was waiting for the last bus on my way to the airport, someone came over and addressed me in French. I said "Pardon, je n'entiends pas" and she smoothly switched languages. We established that I didn't know how long the bus would take to get to Fairview, and then we talked, at the stop and on the bus, including an interchange in which she asked if I'd heard of Frank Zappa, I said "Of course" and then realized, and said, that no, that isn't an of course. And we talked about Zappa for a couple of minutes, and then I got off the bus at the airport.

I'm feeling a bit tired, because even easy flights are still flights, and because the loud children upstairs woke me around seven every morning except yesterday. I did find a use for at least some of my pre-trip fidgets though: minor bits of tidying, such as clearing away the breakfast dishes.

[I'm sure I've left things out; if they seem important, I may add to this post, or write another.]

Home from Montreal

Sunday, rysmiel and I wandered around bookshops (both used and new) while papersky rested, and then we all had a very nice dinner together. Saturday Papersky fed me her "treyf skillet," which is quite tasty as well as very treyf; Sunday we got her version of lasagna, which is nonstandard (it involves tortellini instead of lasagna noodles, and no tomato) but again tasty. Both are also quite filling, and she served both with baby bok choy.

Sunday morning, we all had Easter chocolate on our plates. Adding that to what I got at Marche Atwater on Friday and at the Chinese Belgian chocolate shop on Saturday, I am now very well supplied with chocolate. Fortunately, cattitude stands ready to help.

In between food and wandering, we talked about books, about life, about politics, about future conventions and possible programming for same, about people one or more of us know, and other good stuff. On the Metro, Rysmiel and I were discussing the recent Quebec elections. I said something about "Tories," and as I was starting to explain about Charest having been a Tory at the federal level, Rysmiel pointed out that "Quebec Liberals are Tories."

One bit of conversation was about people with odd names, and Papersky's feeling that usually this is the result of a woman who felt she really ought to take her husband's name, regardless of how odd the results sounded. At the airport, I ran into one that, if not a pseudonym chosen to be obvious, really falls into "his parents weren't thinking": Air Canada was paging Winston Smith.

On the flight home, I was chatting with my seatmate, who asked what people in Quebec think about the war, after I mentioned headlines about Canadian soldiers killed in Afghanistan. I noted that the only political discussion we'd had was about said recent election, and the conversation went on to other things. I seem to have been in serious chatty/talk to strangers mode: before that, while I was waiting for the last bus on my way to the airport, someone came over and addressed me in French. I said "Pardon, je n'entiends pas" and she smoothly switched languages. We established that I didn't know how long the bus would take to get to Fairview, and then we talked, at the stop and on the bus, including an interchange in which she asked if I'd heard of Frank Zappa, I said "Of course" and then realized, and said, that no, that isn't an of course. And we talked about Zappa for a couple of minutes, and then I got off the bus at the airport.

I'm feeling a bit tired, because even easy flights are still flights, and because the loud children upstairs woke me around seven every morning except yesterday. I did find a use for at least some of my pre-trip fidgets though: minor bits of tidying, such as clearing away the breakfast dishes.

[I'm sure I've left things out; if they seem important, I may add to this post, or write another.]