I have survived a whole week without my girls! I think I’ve done well so far.

The weather is kind of crazy today: it is very windy, with great big gusts. I’m at the coffee house next door, and sometimes the doors will stay open when people walk in, and there are some paintings on the wall that want to start flying.

Giving a hand at the food bank yesterday went well. I had a pretty good time. Things went rather smoothly. The order for the Longueuil distribution center was already more than halfway ready to go. Turned out there were 3 staff members with doctor’s appointments! The director had the earliest one and came back after his meeting, so I left early and arrived in Longueuil with the order. The distribution went smoothly too: there were enough volunteers. But a lot of them left early and there is still some confusion as to the work that needs to be done after the distribution. I can’t lead by example and provide directions for everyone at the same time, but I’ve improved over the last couple of weeks. Maybe next week I’ll get the hang of it better. Interestingly, the food bank’s truck driver came back and helped with the distribution. He said he was curious about how we did things, what team of regulars we had, etc. And I also had suggested we could watch game 7 of the Pittsburgh vs. Washington series at my place! So we actually ran to my apartment after closing down! We only got to see the last half of the third period. Seems like Pittsburgh easily won that one 6-2, and that the turning point of the game happened in the first. Oh well.

Today, I’m doing office work: newspapers, online job searching, emails (personal and building committee), etc. I may try to improve the website a little. Have you noticed it yet? I’ve reactivated the bilingualism plugin. This time, it works. There is some kind of glitch with an editing feature. I couldn’t figure it out last time, but I found it and I now use a workaround.

I will not go visit my folks just yet: I have to lead a study at the youth group tomorrow night. I may go for the weekend, or more likely go at the beginning of next week as my younger sister Éliane will also be visiting.

Just finished a busy weekend, and already the week seems overwhelming. It feels like time will go by real fast.

I haven’t been able to celebrate Mother’s Day either with Charity or my own mother. I’ll make it up to Charity, but I’ll try to go visit my folks, probably early in the week. I haven’t been able to reach them today: they’ve been out since early morning. Retirement, really! Right now, though, as the day is well under way, I think I’ll just hang out at home until I get in touch with them.

However, this Wednesday, I’ll lend a hand at the food bank. The director and another important regular both have appointments at the doctor. Luckily, they both will start the day with me, and I’ll just pretty only have to make sure the daily tasks are accomplished before the day ends.

Charity & Éloïse are at Mimi and Poppi for three weeks, so I’m home alone. Well, I also have the cats.

So far day one is going OK. I got off on a good start. Charity will be pleased to know I’ve lost no time in throwing out the contents of the diaper bins, along with the cat’s litter. No stinky in this house!

I also fixed the car! The front left wheel was vibrating pretty bad when I finally arrived home yesterday after dropping them off at Burlington International Airport. Just like last year, the wheel was loose… just a few days after changing into our summer tires. There’s got to be a problem at the garage we go to for our tires. I wonder if it wouldn’t be related to one air drill?

With that fixed, I went out to buy cat food. The furry poopy machines are happy again!

And I’m now sitting at the coffee shop, and here comes the call! Perfect synch! Charity and I do have that incredible connection that makes us call each other at the right time!!!

My plans for today are: looking for a job this morning & helping at Bouffe Pour Tous (food bank) this afternoon.

More later!

A good read, and a very good experience of a truly traditional sugar shack experience!

Here’s a few pictures (mostly of Éloïse!) from our holidays.

She was also introduced to the fellow churchgoers with my family in attendance.  Here’s some pictures of last Sunday.

Don’t let me pick up a newspaper if you don’t want me to start ranting. Every day I take the subway I’m being offered one or two free “newspaper”, but I will not take them. I can’t believe the poor guy that hands out one of them doesn’t recognize me: I’m sure I show a sour face every single time. I can’t help it: I always find something wrong, from grammar mistakes to straight news errors. I once found that the hockey scores were wrong! In Montreal, of all the places!

So I did pick one up today. It was abandoned on a subway seat (don’t get me started on “abandoned” stuff in the subway). I picked it up, not like I usually do, which is to stuff it in a recycle bin (don’t get me started on the waste of paper these “newspaper” are). No, I picked it up because I didn’t have my reading book with me and was wondering if I’d won the lotto.

Well, I didn’t find the winning lottery numbers, but I found an article that got me ranting. It appears that our prime minister doesn’t believe that we need more police on our roads to reduce this year’s record-breaking death toll. In his comments, he says that “people have responsibilities, and they have to take their responsibility” (my translation). He also recognizes that his government has already increased police presence as well as fines, without apparent effect. Finally, he states that the problem is found in Quebec’s culture.

Ooookay. First of all, it is obvious people do not take their responsibility behind the wheel: the death toll is only one of many things that proves it. They do not take their responsibility, yet they do drive around and use their cars. How then does our premier thinks people will take their responsibilities?

Of course, he does skip that part, politician that he is. He points out what’s already been done, and singles out our culture as the core of the problem. Culture! He dropped the magic word through which every head bows down — but that’s starting another rant. Alright, then, Mr.premier, how do you solve a cultural problem that leaves 32 persons dead in only 2 weeks? On holiday too, where you can drive leisurely because, well, you’re not late to get to the office, or in a hurry to the bank before it closes. You can’t even blame frustrations or road rage from traffic jams because there wasn’t any for those 2 weeks! (If anybody out there *thinks* there was one, try driving through that same spot now that the holidays are over.)

“We’re not going to create a police state to discipline every driver”, Charest said. That, while he’s in China for a few days this week.

Sorry for those who are trying to support Francois and cancer research by paying for this brave-ish action of his, the people from Leucan said they are still trying to ‘get everybody registered’ because of the large volume of work. It sure is LONG waiting, but we encourage you not to give up and give the money away. We’re still bugging them!

Other news from the Jazzy city of Montréal:

• Francois continues to study and works hard on balancing things so he won’t wear out during this difficult time to study. WHO wants to study in the summer with a daughter this cute???!!!
• All of us celebrated the fête de la St.Jean Baptiste; Québec’s “national holiday” on June 24th, with a great little barbecue and time around the campfire. It was great to see our friends, Merci d’être venu tous le monde!!! Sorry if Eloïse spit up on you, SaraLee…she DOES love you.
• Eloïse got her first vaccinations last week in her little tiny thigh. It was quite a cocktail to prick and pour in there, but she only fussed a little…what a tough little munchkin!
• François and Charity go to see the fireworks for South Korea yesterday as part of the International Fireworks Competition. They were so beautiful!!
• Charity and little Loï will be traveling to Washington D.C./Virginia to visit relatives for 6 days….ALONE! She’s a little nervous about the airport stuff, but Mimi and Poppi were kind enough to help her by getting a direct flight…now she’s excited! Eloïse will see her namesake: Grammie Lois Rowe, and her 2 aunts; Ruth and Debbie. It will be un vrai aventure!
• Charity and Eloïse (of course) are taking cardio-poussette ; Stroller Aerobics classes at the local park, two days a week. This is torture in disguise but Charity is trying to apply her stubborn strain to the idea of loosing that pregnancy, well, ‘bulge’ is a nice word for it. Did anyone go through this after their child at 30years old??!!
• Eloïse continues to “stop traffic” wherever we go, and here’s the proof with some cute new photos!

This idea came to me suddenly: why wouldn’t I join the shaved head challenge?  For those among you who don’t know, this challenge is to raise money for children battling with cancer.  So I’ve set a price for my head: 150$.  I will shave my head if I can raise 150$, and I’ll publish pictures of me, before and after.

My uncle Pierre is actually at the origin of this idea.  He wrote us a while back to let us know that he was part of a group of coworkers that would participate.  So far, they have raised 911$, for 6 heads!  That’s pretty good, right?  Considering I only have less than a week, you’re lucky I set only 150$ for my head: had I been earlier, I’d ask for much more!

As I write these lines, I have pledges for 40$, which is about a third of what is needed.  Please consider contributing!  It’s for a good cause!  Or two: you’ll get to laugh at me!