Montreal

There is a certain temptation to just link to rivka and hobbitbabe's posts, and add that papersky's cooking continues to be excellent, though she could be a fine host and keep people happy and well-fed without wearing herself out so much.

But brevity is not always my failing.

We went to the Biodome--and I renewed my membership, because at the moment a year's one-person membership costs slightly less than two admissions for a non–Quebec resident. We saw the sloth, very clearly, which I hadn't before. rysmiel found it, pointed it out to me, and asked me to stay put and not lose it while they went to find Papersky. There were also two new species since my last visit, the cotton-topped tamarin and the bird, about knee-high, black with bits of blue, green, and purple iridescence, which the zoo staff member who was keeping people from coming too close to it referred to as a "blue trumpeter" (Google is all set to tell me about jazz on this one). It was on the path through the tropical area and seemed quite bold, investigating my daypack while I stood looking straight up to see the sloth. I also came home with a fine cuddly plush tarantula. Rysmiel spotted it on a shelf in the gift shop and handed it to me. When I realized that I'd been carrying it around and cuddling it for two or three minutes, I decided it should come home with me. (I didn't have my stuffed panda, and the bear Papersky kindly lent me, while well-meaning, wasn't quite the right shape for me to tuck under my arm.) This led to a Rysmiel remarking, later, on the number of sentences (like "that's a fine soft tarantula" and "I'm just looking for my tarantula") that were coming up that would not have been part of our normal conversation.

Having Rivka, curiousangel, and their toddler along meant we went into the room full of natural history stuff intended for children. I'd never been in there before, and there's a lot of good stuff in there. I expect I'd get bored eventually, but for one visit I had a fine time looking at moose antlers and shiny beetle carapaces and such.

As Rivka noted, our attempt to visit a natural history museum on New Year's Eve was less successful. If I were closing a museum from Christmas to just after New Year's, I'd mention it on the web site. We had, a few days earlier, discussed doing tourist stuff in the Old Port, but it was snowing and a little below freezing, fine for the adults but not for a toddler. So we took refuge at Indigo, where Alex was happy to sit in the children's book section, and people browsed some, drank things in the cafe (I'd forgotten that they have a nice selection of interesting tea leaves but don't boil the water), and talked. When we got back to the house, Papersky was at a stage of cooking such that she didn't want anyone else near the kitchen, which meant I didn't get tea. Frustrating, in part because I'd thrown away the dubious beverage at Indigo, telling myself it would be fine because I would have tea as soon as we were home. I dealt with the immediate need for caffeine with a can of Pepsi, and talked with Rysmiel a bit--in the midst of which Rivka knocked on the door and explained that there had been a lull in the cooking, and here's a pot of tea. Very welcome, and since we were planning to be up past midnight I didn't worry so much about the caffeine levels. [I was up until a little past one, I think, and then at 7 the next morning--the only day I managed to sleep in was the very last morning of my visit, though the only really bad nights were the first two, before I registered that I had forgotten to pack my valerian capsules. (Awake around 5:30 two mornings running, about all that can be said in favor is that I didn't wake anyone else.) Once noticed, that was easy enough to solve, with a quick stop at a Pharmaprix.]

This year, my Christmas cracker contained a pair of elisem earrings called "Instinct," which Papersky explained she had selected to go with my tattoo. They do--more shimmery, but that's a virtue in beads. (It would be in tattoos, too, if we had the tech yet.) Also, Hobbitbabe gave me a teapot, to which my response was "you're a genius," because I don't think I'd told anyone but cattitude and adrian_turtle that I was wanting a new teapot. I may try the Papersky thing of keeping an eye out for suitable gifts well before holidays and not just presenting the cool things to the people at the first opportunity--I tend to figure, hey, this is right for so-and-so and give it to them then, if there isn't a birthday or holiday coming up soon, rather than focus on holiday gifts.

Both Hobbitbabe, and Rivka and Curiousangel, brought bottles of Voyant Chai cream liqueur. It tasted more like chocolate than like tea, but was quite pleasant, enough so that I not only drank some while other people were having mulled wine on the 29th, I toasted the new year with it when the time came. (I'm not a fan of white wine, which most people were drinking.) Papersky cheerfully got out the very pretty liqueur glasses that she and Rysmiel got as a wedding gift, the ones they refer to as "the broken glasses" because the glasses seem sufficiently fragile that they decided that they had to think of them that way or they'd never use them. Once again, they survived unbroken, due to a bit of care on everyone's part. I don't think I'm going to try to track down a bottle, given how seldom I want liqueur--but if I did feel the impulse to buy a bottle of cream liqueur, it would be this, not Bailey's.

Two wanders through big-box bookstores, and I came home with nothing new to read except the copy of Anthony Price's Soldier No More that Papersky and Rysmiel gave me to read on the plane. (I did buy a calendar, but I seem to have neglected to pack it, and I got zorinth a holiday gift.) We didn't get to any used book shops this time, though.

The only advantage to being unable to do a week in Montreal in winter on a carry-on bag is that checked luggage means I had my Swiss army knife. And that meant Alex could get a taste of the seared edge of the beef sashimi at Kashima, the night we all went out for sushi. I don't think I needed to get it out during the dim sum meal before our Biodome trip: we shared things without trouble, and there was plenty to go around. I even found someone else willing to eat some of the water chestnut cakes, and introduced Rivka and Curiousangel to the superior version of pork buns done in flaky French pastry, which I think I first had in Hong Kong (where they also do a chicken curry version).

embryomystic, who I gather lives around the corner, was there for both the mulled wine party and New Year's dinner, which meant I actually got to talk to him a bit, which I hadn't at the Farthing Party.

[This is in no sense complete, but it may help me remember things six months from now.]

Montreal

There is a certain temptation to just link to rivka and hobbitbabe's posts, and add that papersky's cooking continues to be excellent, though she could be a fine host and keep people happy and well-fed without wearing herself out so much.

But brevity is not always my failing.

We went to the Biodome--and I renewed my membership, because at the moment a year's one-person membership costs slightly less than two admissions for a non–Quebec resident. We saw the sloth, very clearly, which I hadn't before. rysmiel found it, pointed it out to me, and asked me to stay put and not lose it while they went to find Papersky. There were also two new species since my last visit, the cotton-topped tamarin and the bird, about knee-high, black with bits of blue, green, and purple iridescence, which the zoo staff member who was keeping people from coming too close to it referred to as a "blue trumpeter" (Google is all set to tell me about jazz on this one). It was on the path through the tropical area and seemed quite bold, investigating my daypack while I stood looking straight up to see the sloth. I also came home with a fine cuddly plush tarantula. Rysmiel spotted it on a shelf in the gift shop and handed it to me. When I realized that I'd been carrying it around and cuddling it for two or three minutes, I decided it should come home with me. (I didn't have my stuffed panda, and the bear Papersky kindly lent me, while well-meaning, wasn't quite the right shape for me to tuck under my arm.) This led to a Rysmiel remarking, later, on the number of sentences (like "that's a fine soft tarantula" and "I'm just looking for my tarantula") that were coming up that would not have been part of our normal conversation.

Having Rivka, curiousangel, and their toddler along meant we went into the room full of natural history stuff intended for children. I'd never been in there before, and there's a lot of good stuff in there. I expect I'd get bored eventually, but for one visit I had a fine time looking at moose antlers and shiny beetle carapaces and such.

As Rivka noted, our attempt to visit a natural history museum on New Year's Eve was less successful. If I were closing a museum from Christmas to just after New Year's, I'd mention it on the web site. We had, a few days earlier, discussed doing tourist stuff in the Old Port, but it was snowing and a little below freezing, fine for the adults but not for a toddler. So we took refuge at Indigo, where Alex was happy to sit in the children's book section, and people browsed some, drank things in the cafe (I'd forgotten that they have a nice selection of interesting tea leaves but don't boil the water), and talked. When we got back to the house, Papersky was at a stage of cooking such that she didn't want anyone else near the kitchen, which meant I didn't get tea. Frustrating, in part because I'd thrown away the dubious beverage at Indigo, telling myself it would be fine because I would have tea as soon as we were home. I dealt with the immediate need for caffeine with a can of Pepsi, and talked with Rysmiel a bit--in the midst of which Rivka knocked on the door and explained that there had been a lull in the cooking, and here's a pot of tea. Very welcome, and since we were planning to be up past midnight I didn't worry so much about the caffeine levels. [I was up until a little past one, I think, and then at 7 the next morning--the only day I managed to sleep in was the very last morning of my visit, though the only really bad nights were the first two, before I registered that I had forgotten to pack my valerian capsules. (Awake around 5:30 two mornings running, about all that can be said in favor is that I didn't wake anyone else.) Once noticed, that was easy enough to solve, with a quick stop at a Pharmaprix.]

This year, my Christmas cracker contained a pair of elisem earrings called "Instinct," which Papersky explained she had selected to go with my tattoo. They do--more shimmery, but that's a virtue in beads. (It would be in tattoos, too, if we had the tech yet.) Also, Hobbitbabe gave me a teapot, to which my response was "you're a genius," because I don't think I'd told anyone but cattitude and adrian_turtle that I was wanting a new teapot. I may try the Papersky thing of keeping an eye out for suitable gifts well before holidays and not just presenting the cool things to the people at the first opportunity--I tend to figure, hey, this is right for so-and-so and give it to them then, if there isn't a birthday or holiday coming up soon, rather than focus on holiday gifts.

Both Hobbitbabe, and Rivka and Curiousangel, brought bottles of Voyant Chai cream liqueur. It tasted more like chocolate than like tea, but was quite pleasant, enough so that I not only drank some while other people were having mulled wine on the 29th, I toasted the new year with it when the time came. (I'm not a fan of white wine, which most people were drinking.) Papersky cheerfully got out the very pretty liqueur glasses that she and Rysmiel got as a wedding gift, the ones they refer to as "the broken glasses" because the glasses seem sufficiently fragile that they decided that they had to think of them that way or they'd never use them. Once again, they survived unbroken, due to a bit of care on everyone's part. I don't think I'm going to try to track down a bottle, given how seldom I want liqueur--but if I did feel the impulse to buy a bottle of cream liqueur, it would be this, not Bailey's.

Two wanders through big-box bookstores, and I came home with nothing new to read except the copy of Anthony Price's Soldier No More that Papersky and Rysmiel gave me to read on the plane. (I did buy a calendar, but I seem to have neglected to pack it, and I got zorinth a holiday gift.) We didn't get to any used book shops this time, though.

The only advantage to being unable to do a week in Montreal in winter on a carry-on bag is that checked luggage means I had my Swiss army knife. And that meant Alex could get a taste of the seared edge of the beef sashimi at Kashima, the night we all went out for sushi. I don't think I needed to get it out during the dim sum meal before our Biodome trip: we shared things without trouble, and there was plenty to go around. I even found someone else willing to eat some of the water chestnut cakes, and introduced Rivka and Curiousangel to the superior version of pork buns done in flaky French pastry, which I think I first had in Hong Kong (where they also do a chicken curry version).

embryomystic, who I gather lives around the corner, was there for both the mulled wine party and New Year's dinner, which meant I actually got to talk to him a bit, which I hadn't at the Farthing Party.

[This is in no sense complete, but it may help me remember things six months from now.]