Sharkboy

After finishing our Halloween costumes last year, we embarked right away into our Christmas projects, we wanted to “make” everything we put our family’s stockings… We made some fun t-shirts, we made some placemats, we made some cell phone holders, sunglasses holder and then we made snuggies for everyone…

When we finished and put the sewing machine away, I really wanted to start a new project… in fact I knew I wanted to start making a quilt… Something simple, nothing too tough for the first time around… just some big squares sewn together to make a colourful bedspread.

I quickly designed 6 different patterns, chose one with 8 different colours and bought the fabric:

7 solid colours

&

One fun multi-colour

Today I managed to iron all the fabric and cut my 10″ squares, 80 in total… Only took me 4 hours, not so bad.

Next weekend, I’m starting to sew… yeh.

Last night, we met up with Grove of Blue and Fortress of Solitude and their nice friend Craig for a movie extravaganza. GB and FS had gone to see Alice in Wonderland 3D last week when a popcorn machine fire interrupted their evening. They were given a bunch of free tickets to return and decided to share with us. Aaahthankyouverymuch-a!

I was of course very curious about Alice with all its Disney connections and really wanted to see it despite all the bad reviews I had heard about or read… Everyone said it was excellent in style but very lacking in story… I guess if I was able to sit through Avatar, I sure was going to be able to sit through Alice.

I came out of Avatar happy with the design of the film but felt like I had seen that story tons of time, I did like it, but it didn’t make me feel much. While watching Alice, I quickly realized that I was having fun with all the style and craziness surrounding this trippy Wonderland and yet there was a little bit more to it… the acting was definitely a lot of fun too. I LOVED the Red Queen… she is a really fun villain and the use of her huge head is funny and disturbing and creepy and effective. I also love the way she talked:

The White Queen surprised me too, the way she “Disneyly” moved around her sets, the way she spoke, the was she reacted was just perfect. Of course, this is another movie people will remember for Johnny Depp, but this time, in my opinion, he was eclipsed by the girls as even Alice’s subtle turn was of note.

Another big surprise for me was how much I loved Cheshire Cat… he just charmed me, his animation has a lot to do with it, the way he moved around, the way he rolled around, disappeared and reappeared…

I think one of the thing that people are disappointed about with the film is the fact that it doesn’t really follow the famous story they already know, but you realize soon enough that this is not Alice’s first visit to Wonderland and if you accept that, then you can have fun with the re-imagining… I know I did.

And yes, it is that guy from Little Britain that plays Tweedledee and Tweedledum. It dawned on my while having a beer with the guys after the movie…

Go read Gay in the City’s review of it, I think he really nails the Johnny Depp issue.

… This awesomeness of awesome:

What she lacks in meaning in her lyrics, she certainly makes up in style and music and fun.

My mom still lives on the small island I grew up on right smack between Montreal and the USA border. Since my dad’s passing, she’s been living with her sister, also a widow, her 33 year old son who creepily still lives there… in the basement no less… brrrrr… and a 6 month old French Boxer puppy. A lot of my extended family still lives on this island too. In fact two of my cousins are their immediate neighbours, with another one the next street over, and close to another two dozens within 30 minutes walk.

The island is nowhere near as quiet as it was 35 years ago when I was a child. Back then a police car or ambulance siren meant we’d jump on our bicycles and try to go see where it was coming from or going to… that was huge excitement.

I was on the phone with my mom yesterday and she started telling me of her adventure this week with a police car siren. Last Monday, while my cousin was at work, my mom and aunt needed to go run some errands. They drove away for approximately 1 hr or so. They went to the dry cleaner and also picked up some groceries. Upon their return, while parking the car in the driveway, they noticed one of my cousins running towards them. His small child had been sick and my mom got worried that he was coming with really bad news so she asked right away what was wrong with the baby, he said the baby was fine but that the police had just left my mom and aunt’s house a few minutes ago, that’s why they’d find the front door unlocked, not to worry, everything was fine.

Incredulous, they all entered the house to find multiple mud prints all over the living room floor, kitchen, hallway leading to all the bedrooms, the washroom and also on the steps going down to the basement. My mom asked how everyone got in as she was sure they had locked the door and what the hell had happened. My cousin said he was home when he heard the police car coming, flashers on, and parking at my mom’s place, he put his coat on and ran over to see what was going on. He could hear a female voice on the police radio saying that she could hear the dog barking through the telephone. They were just about to break down the door when he said that he could probably get in the house by one of the bedroom window which was slightly opened. The dog was definitely barking a fury. After identifying himself as a relative, the police let him go inside and open the door for him. One of the policeman said there had been a 911 call made from this house and proceeded to go room by room, helped by the dog no less who was more than happy to have new visitors. Room by room everything looked fine, nobody lying on the floor helpless… And then they saw it. In the living room, on the floor by the couch, a chewed up cordless phone, lights on… That’s where the call had been coming from.

Stupid innocent dog had decided to play with the phone and inadvertently chewed 9 – 1 – 1 in the right sequence and had called the police…

Huh!! Silly dog. Good thing he didn’t call Australia or Japan… or me… I’d had to remind her I was on the No-Call List.

Cabbagetown, Toronto, Ontario
Corner of Parliament & Carlton, Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce
4:42 pm
Waiting for the light to turn green so we can walk across.
Me, Woman, Toothless Homeless.

Toothless Homeless: (faintly in our direction) “… change… please…”
Me: (on full ignore)
Woman: (on full ignore)
Toothless Homeless: (louder) “… please… small change…”
Me: “Sir, it’s illegal for you to be asking for money this close to an automatic teller”
Toothless Homeless: (loud and angry)”aaah fuck off… &#$%^%”
Me: (to Woman) “Well, he sure dropped his “please” and “thank you” quickly didn’t he?”
Woman: “Yeah, he’ll have to work a lot harder than that for my money”

I’m not sure if it was because I had the vacation blues after such a nice trip and wanted a special treat, or if I was just homesick for the place I grew up in, but I had this amazing crazy craving for some Quebec poutine. I’m not talking about the crap that fast food restaurants in Ontario serve. I’m talking about the real stuff: freshly cooked French fries with real Quebec cheese curds swimming in hot gravy…

And then it dawned on me that this place had opened up downtown boasting real Quebec poutine… I just had to go give them a try. I mean I’d already gained 5 pounds while on the cruise, what’s another extra pound.

So there we went to Smoke’s Poutinerie on Dundas St, just east of Jarvis, yeah, yeah, right across from the topless bar (another Quebec specialty) and let me tell you, if you haven’t been yet, you’re really missing out.

It absolutely compared to the best poutine I’ve had on any nights when after a night of boozing in the clubs or bars we’d manage to crawl to Crystal or other crappy late night dive that served food to those who didn’t want to call it a night just yet at 3:30am.

I’m gonna take my sister there next time she visits. And she’ll let me add ketchup to mine without a horrified look on her face.

Thanks to Erik at gambrinous with griffonage for sending these vintage images of my beloved Disney World my way:

They invaded central Florida for the filming it seems as it also went to Sea World.

…and after more than 10 years collecting dust for non-use, I just put 324 movies on video by the dumpster in the back of our place. Free to grab for anyone that would have any use for it.

I still managed to salvage 72 movies that I know I can’t find on DVD or that hold very special memories… like the actual 1st ever edition of Jaws on video.

Hope they find a good home.

(By the way, our first choice was Goodwill, but I don’t know if you know how much 324 movies weigh, and I’m not about to walk 30 minute each way to bring a bag of 30 – 40 movies at a time… and Goodwill doesn’t pick up apparently.)

* * * * * * * * * * UPDATE * * * * * * * * * * *

I went back to check on the boxes out of curiosity an hour later… poof… empty… all gone. Probably some little entrepreneur… or homeless who can built a shelter with all of them stacked up.

It’s no secret we have experienced some negative moments during our last vacation. Nothing too serious to leave us with bad feelings and regrets about the cruise but still surprising us daily by these older gentlemen & ladies’ actions.

There were lots of groups of seniors traveling from the States and Canada too. It was hard to differentiate them on the ship, except sometimes by their language and/or different accent. Regardless, a lot of them acted selfishly, uncaringly and obnoxiously.

All I know is my father was president of a senior citizen group for at least 12 years and would have never tolerated his members acting this way in public. He would have gladly refunded their membership back and told them to stay home instead of being seen in public with them.

Younger people understand that older people aren’t as mobile or agile or fast as they are, so a “please” or “thank you” can go a long way in helping them get what they desire. Pushing, yelling, swearing, blocking the way, ignoring others, smoking in their room, leaving a mess behind, disregarding simple rules or being verbally rude to others in public places are not becoming attributes to anyone and seniors definitely should know better. One of the worst for me was the constant complaining. Why pay so much money for traveling if all you’re going to do is compare it to what you have home and keep saying how much better you have it there.

“This salad is good, but I prefer the one from Olive Garden”
Really? Olive Garden? Why not stay home and go there instead

“They give you much more shrimps at Red Lobster”
Really??? Because if you ask your waiter, he’s gonna fucking bring you buckets if you want.

“Ponderosa can do a much tender steak”
Oh, that’s it! I’ll see you at 3pm on deck 4. Bring your boxing glove.

“I can’t wait to go to Burger King”
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAhhhhhhhh…

Service and food and entertainment is what you pay for when you go on a cruise. I have always experienced it to its fullest too. It really feels like eating in a 5 star restaurant every night. You can ask for anything and you will get it. You can have 15 entrees if you want, you won’t have to pay a cent extra. Olive Garden?? Burger King??? Ponderosa???? Red Lobster????? Really???????????

That being said, we did meet with some very nice people that were in their golden age too, people that could hold a conversation, that were interesting, that were kind and fun and knew how to conduct themselves in a group.

Still, I think I’ll make sure that the next vacation is more 40′s friendly. Disney here I come again.

I regret not taking more pictures of our delicious travel mates now that the trip is over, I really could’ve made an amazing “stucrugliot” collage (stupid, crazy, ugly and idiot).

I’ll start with stupid and idiot before moving into crazy and ugly.

There we were, in St-Martins’ French side, on a hill overlooking this gorgeous bay. I asked one of our ATV tour mate to take a picture of DR and I with this spectacular background. I almost died laughing that night when we reviewed our pictures:

If you’re looking for DR, just look at the reflection in my glasses, that’s him standing next to me in a loving amorous way.

Throughout the days, we found ourselves snapping pictures managed to get some gems, in my humble opinion of course.

Here’s me, relaxing in the sea water pool under the warm Caribbean sun, smiling away. Who wouldn’t with those bathing beauties around them:

The fun never stopped. Here we are at Karaoke Superstar… the pickings must have been slim (no pun intended) as this Romeo made it to the finals and couldn’t really sing… nor dance…

Aaaaaah… I call this one Classé:

Here’s a very bad picture of someone standing in the dark, but the reason I took it is because she annoyed the shit out of me for many days during the cruise. Her and her family were incapable of arriving to the shows on time, they’d wait until last minute and as the leader she’d go find a seat, then stand up, her back to the stage, and wave to her family to come join her as she’d point out empty seats in the area around. She would also whisper to them as if that helped in a place that could hold 1500 people (There, sit there… you sit there… you sit there). She was not popular.

Here’s another of our favourites who we quickly nicknamed Lurch for obvious reasons. He had the kookiest outfits too, I mean, just look at these delightful pants specially worn for the midnight buffet:

This lady was responsible for us arriving 10 minutes late at the dock after our Antigua tour. She got a bit drunky during the beach excursion and became a fat lard tub of molasses. She could hardly help herself inside the small boat taking us back to our bus and literally had to be “hoisted” on it with the help of a few other people. Same thing when it came time for the bus. The ship was leaving at 4pm that day and we were asked to be onboard no later then 3:30. We arrived at 3:40. DR and I, and other people with heads screwed on straight ran to the ship… Little Miss Fatty decided to go shopping… I’m surprised they didn’t leave her there. She was the last one onboard that day:

What can I say that hasn’t been said about fat men in their 50′s wearing speedos… Oh I know, a picture is worth a thousand words:

This one takes the cake though as I had to spend every day and night with him:

I’m aware that this post sounds crass, but trust me, if I would’ve had the presence of mind to take more pictures, this could’ve been a lot worse. Maybe next trip. I mean, why should I be the only one bleeding from my eyes?