Spring Break is a-comin' in

[etumukutenyak]

..and the weekend of camping is here. Sonny goes off to learn survival skills with his troop in the wild mountains of West Virginia. Next week is promising to be quieter than this past week, and then we have his spring break, for which we each took vacation time.

We're going to Montreal, driving up there to visit the city and friends. American maple syrup will be exchanged for the vastly superior Canadian product. Wine from North Carolina will be delivered for a friend who didn't want to carry it on the plane. We will visit and shop and meet and wander, and then return home.

Ah, the croissants of Montreal!

Comments

[i-calql8.livejournal.com]

Speaking as one in a Mexican border town, I really wish I could sample some of the north-of-the-border fare. I'm not a fan of Mexican food at all, but if Canadian syrup is superior to ours, I'm gonna fire up some french toast and head up your way.

To be fair, Mexican vanilla is far superior to ours, even too strong at times, but you can't use it straight outta the bottle unless you're cooking or making homemade ice cream.

Camping? Sorry, my idea of 'roughing it' is the heater of my water bed turned to 'Low'. ;)

[etumukutenyak.livejournal.com]

Not only is Canadian syrup superior to any American product, or so I am given to understand, but the Quebec product is the very finest of all syrup. I have been denied the chance to bring home a taste of the Canadian products (thanks to the regulations of air travel), so my trip to Montreal is designed to allow us the chance to buy and transport home these delectables.

They come in cans, so if I can mail one to you, I'll be happy to. As an honourary Canadian, I must help spread the gospel of Canadian superiority even to the Mexican border. :-)

It's too bad I no longer have my animated Canadian Borg icon. It would have been so appropriate here.

[i-calql8.livejournal.com]

Sweet (literally)! Maple syrup in cans...that'll be a new one.

There are no delectables you can really bring back from Mexico, unless you count those nauseating Mexican candies they even sell on this side of the border (tried several, all awful), or unless you have a need for alcohol. Pharmaceuticals, on the other hand...well, that's why the snowbirds (yup, those pesky Canadians again) like to come here.

Canadian Borg? Resistance is futile, eh? XD And, 'honourary'? You're already being altered by the Borg, dear. ;)

[etumukutenyak.livejournal.com]

Canadian Borg: Resistance would be impolite. Please wait to be assimilated. Pour l'assimiler en Francais, veuillez appuyer sur le "2".

See? ;-)

[i-calql8.livejournal.com]

Tish! That's French!

Reason #27 why Canada is better than Mexico: French sounds so much nicer when spoken by the opposite gender than Spanish does.

[etumukutenyak.livejournal.com]

On the other hand, Mexicans greet American attempts at Spanish with glad cries of joy, while even French Canadians do more of the opposite. Rather slows the polite Canadian advance into the Lower Provinces, eh?

Serves them right when they go to France and are ignored because their French is wrong. smirks

We shall have a polite Anglo-only trip into Montreal.

[serge-lj.livejournal.com]

Last time I went to Quebec was in 2004, right after the worldcon. Heck, that was in Boston so I took advantage of that and drove to the Great White North. (Note to self: do not cross the border on Labor Day.) The official on the Quebec side was kind of prissy, and my going to visit family even though I have an American citizenship probably had something to do with it. On the way back, the official on the American side looked at me with a stone face, probably because he thought that, in spite of my passport, I really was a terrorist. Good thing I didn't tell him about that can of maple syrup my mom had given me.

[etumukutenyak.livejournal.com]

Ha! The customs officials on the outgoing side was a French speaking man, and he had to wonder why I was importing maple syrup into Canada. I brought some from my home town in the Mid-Hudson Valley for a friend..and traded for a can of pure Quebec maple syrup. The return trip was even faster, with no cars waiting in line before us.

At least I was able to bring some maple syrup home this time, and not have it confiscated by some damned airport officials.

[serge-lj.livejournal.com]

Bringing maple syrup into Québecc? What's wrong with your friend?

[etumukutenyak.livejournal.com]

There's nothing wrong with her. She's a very vocal proponent of Quebec produce, and swears that nothing is better than pure Canadian maple syrup from Canada (the inferior stuff is exported, she says). So I had to get some of the stuff made in my home town to make sure she had a better American product to, er, disrespect. Now if she says Canadian products are superior, I'll know she had some good maple syrup to compare it to.

We had all kinds of Canadian products while we were there -- including poutine. I wanted to swing by Canadian Tire for a little shopping but we ran out of time. We needed milk at home, and I was hoping to bring back some homo milk.

I should probably explain that I lived in Guelph for a semester, about 20 years ago, and got used to the superior Canadian milk. In fact, I had freshly pasteurized milk in the farmer's kitchen one morning. It made all the work in the cold almost worth it. ;-)

So now I have friends in Montreal and I tease them about taking over the world, very politely.

[serge-lj.livejournal.com]

Maple syrup and poutine... Argh. To think I'll have to wait until next year to savor both - although not at the same time. It'll have been 5 years since I'll have seen my mom, up in Québec City. And the worldcon will be held in Montreal.

[etumukutenyak.livejournal.com]

I can't actually enjoy poutine myself -- potatoes give me heartburn, which I discovered only just before our trip to Ireland a few years ago. I had to suffer a little longer before I could remove potatoes from my diet. At least I could drown my sorrows in a cuppa tea without fear.

Now you've got me wondering why no one has ever combined maple syrup and poutine. Sort of a dessert poutine?

;-)

[serge-lj.livejournal.com]

Going to Ireland and having a potato problem? Isn't that like going to Mexico and having a really bad reaction to beans? As for dessert poutine, I wouldn't be surprised that it has already been tried. No, don't look at me. I'm not crazy enough to try it.

(By the way, I am currently finding it difficult to write on my the computer because cat genius Agatha keeps pushing her head against my hand that's holding the mouse.)

[etumukutenyak.livejournal.com]

Precisely. It is almost unheard of to not eat potatoes at every meal. At least I redeemed myself by drinking tea.

Your young heterodyne is betraying her heritage by working on your mouse, eh?

[serge-lj.livejournal.com]

Yep. See today's entry about that. This whole thing leave me with a sinking feeling (http://pics.livejournal.com/serge_lj/pic/0005gx3x/g1).

[etumukutenyak.livejournal.com]

Aww..everyone knows cats are so good at cleaning themselves. I think she likes your sink, unless she's just hamming it up for the camera. Be careful not to take too many pictures of her there, or you'll feel drained.

[serge-lj.livejournal.com]

Right now, I feel flush with success. She's so well behaved so far, in spite of her being in heat. Yup, she is. Can a cat get in heat at 4 months? If not, then Agatha is older than she looks. Hopefully, she didn't get buns in her oven before we took her in. Well, I'm taking her to the vet on Monday for a checkup and shots and stuff.

[etumukutenyak.livejournal.com]

If she's in heat she may be closer to five months. I'll keep my fingers crossed that there are no buns.

If she starts yowling, you can always tell her to pipe down.

[serge-lj.livejournal.com]

you can always tell her to pipe down

I'm sure that'd be met with total success. She mostly is very loveydovey, makes chirping sounds but not constantly, and she tends to stick her butt up in the air while flexing her hind paws a lot.

As for buns... That happened to a cat of mine, when I was single. It was quite interesting having a bunch of little furballs zipping all ove rmy appartment. Kind of makes me think of that Comcast ad where rats are on superspeed all over the lab. I'd be interesting finding homes for the kittens. New Mexico really sucks, where pets are concerned. Of course we'd have to keep them, not abandon them. Well, we shall see.

[etumukutenyak.livejournal.com]

It's happened to me as well; one of my cats got out before I could spay her, and I ended up with her three sons as well. I brought them all home (plus her sister) when I finished vet school.

Female cats tend to focus on humans and demand lots of petting. Male cats tend to get along well with each other, and prefer playing to petting. Then there's my cat Buzz, who is just a nutcase.

[serge-lj.livejournal.com]

In my case it was the other way around. Our previous female was not the cuddly kind. Jefferson the Bad Cat wants affection, but we are leery of letting him do the lapcat thing because he sometimes decides to take off suddenly, using our legs as a launching pad. Maybe we attract crackpot cases. (Don't answer that question.)

[etumukutenyak.livejournal.com]

Oh, yes, the age-old problem of cats-with-claws perched on legs-without-protection. My partner has learned not to let Brady get on her lap if she's wearing sweatpants or anything thinner than good denim jeans. He has that tendency to use his claws that she finds not so pleasant. I've got enough scars to ignore most of that by now. ;-)

(Carefully not answering that question.)