Halloween pictures! :)

Today it rained so hard. In French there is an expression "Il pleut comme vaches qui pissent" It's raining like cows peeing .. that's alot of rain! :)

I had to do my groceries this afternoon and was not delighted to have to go out in such terrible weather, but when I left the grocery store the rain had stopped and there was
a beautiful soft wind.. that just lifted my hair and made it feel like it was floating. It was a nice feeling.. like when you were young and played on the swings and you were almost completely upside down.. and your hair would just be in suspension.. that's how it felt.

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Last night I promised some pictures of the trick-or-treaters.. here they are:

This little girl had gorgeous eyes!


So pretty! Can't possibly be a real witch!


Marmaduke and friends


cuties


And I have to show at least one really scary monster

Halloween

Today is the 29th, but here in my little town the children will be passing Halloween. I find it too bad that they don't pass on Halloween night.. on the 31st. So what if there is school the next day.. that is part of the fun. You come home.. all hyper .. rifle through your loot, eat too much.. and as soon as you hit the pillow you fall fast asleep. Ah.. the good old days.

When I was young, there was this very nice .. but very, very old lady that lived on a second floor and she would bring us into her kitchen where she had all her kitchen counters filled with bowls of homemade candies. She also had a bowl of apples that was pretty full.. nobody wanted to deprive her of her daily fruit. Today, sadly, all here delicious home-made concoctions were be thrown in the trash by wary parents. Ah.. the good old days.

One year, when Simon was very young, he went out as a gypsy. Well, everyone kept on saying.. "oh, you have such a beautiful little girl".. obviously he wasn't very happy about that.. "I'm not a girl! " . Next day, he went into the bathroom with scissors and cut his long eyelashes. Remember the expression, you shouldn't play around with that .. you could poke your eye out.. where here it applied!

I have a picture somewhere of me when I was quite young going out for halloween with my dad who is dressed up in drag.. although he was a handsome man, he was an very ugly woman. I'll try and find it and post it here!

Well, I looked and didn't find it.. I guess it is at my dad's house. I don't remember if I had it or it was still there.. but I did find this photograph of me when I'm about 2.. so that's what I 'll share instead. It's a little grainy because I made it enlarged it a bit.

Foggy Morning

Usual after rehearsals I go out with friends to the restaurant.. we usually have coffee or tea or something to eat.

Tonight, instead, I was hoping to perhaps take a few pictures of the halloween decorations on the streets. It didn't go as well as I hoped.. hindered by the fact that I'm walking with a camera and a camera case and a binder with my music and a water bottle.. doubled by the effect that I walked with James who lives close to where I live .. and he is about 6'3" or something.. so you can imagine he is a real daddy-long legs.. so we don't have quite the same stride.. He's strolling along and I feel like the little japanese girl behind her master trying to play catch up with several quick tiny steps.. (Ok, well not quite but you get my drift :P )

So.. I came home with no photos.. but the fresh air helps get rid of a headache I had since the afternoon. I feel much better now!


So, I'm home early!!!

I took a picture outside early this morning to show how unpredictable our weather is.. remember the gorgeous red sky the other morning.. this morning was very foggy.
I should also tell you that I am half-dressed at this moment.. but I don't want to really get dressed because as my luck would have it, I would find the fog already gone.. so braving the cold just for you guys.. here you go:

here you go:


When I enter the house and download the pictures.. I notice that "hey the next door neighbour kids were sitting there waiting for their bus.. Funny.. I didn't notice them.. and usually when they see me.. they come running over.. and are all chatty...

Just to show you that it really was quite cold.. here is a beginning of a spider web that was on the bannister this morning.. There were only two long lines.. I think the spider thought it might have been too cold and gave up... ;) Yes.. that is ice on the one spider string.



Did I mention I wasn't wearing any shoes or socks?




anyways.. later on I had errands to run and I had to go meet some costume rental people for medieval costumes... to see what we can arrange. The fog is gone and the weather is beautiful.. and this is what I see next door..



Yes.. last night my neighbours put up some Halloween decorations including these very unchatty little scarecrows. Ha! They pulled my leg without even trying. Anyways, I thought it was funny so I had to take the picture.

This is what I woke up to:

Where is everyone?

Today is a weird.

It feels like I'm the only person on the net.

The Worth forums have nothing interesting going on. The cookies aren't working in the forums.. so after rechecking them and rechecking them.. I'm wondering if anyone is on.

I'm in the photography tournament and nothing has changed there since this morning. (by the way, only 22 entries and a whole week to vote... why SO long?)

Artalyst is dead too.

Nobody has updated their blogs.

No emails, not even spam.. Gee-Whiz!

Guess I'll take a shower and go out; the weather is nice (10C out) and alot of the trees are still pretty.

Hyped

Our rehearsal last night was really alot of fun. We are really still in the first stages but it's already a blast. I may have already mentionned that the piece moves between the future and the past.. as does the music. Last night we worked on parts that were for the incantations and magic spells.. so you can imagine the eerie kind of singing going on .. about black magic and white magic or somewhere in between.. of course we will have our brew..

our ingredients:
- the pearl drop from a sweaty brow
- a tiny drop of blood
- a rare hair from a shiny bald head
- a large front tooth
- the teardrop of the youngest baby
- the spit off a dripping chin
- the bloody head of a hog (this one gets into all our productions, it's our mascot)
- thirty pieces of gold and silver
- and finally the soft kiss of 2 lovers.

We even call on the planets with the help of a Wizard.

We call on Mars and it's red waters, Jupiter and it's cyclonic eye, the Moon with it's double whiteness and Pluto and it's far away coldness to help us to invoke the Creator of all living things.

We now turn to doing this awesome gregorian chant..(I'm sure you've heard that in scary movies) and we will be doing something that ressembles Tai-Chi movements (as a group) while we sing. This part will obviously be one of the high points of the piece.

When you get home after that you just cannot sleep.. You are just so energized.
Right now we are just learning the basics.. by the time we get to next summer.. we will be rehearsing on stage. We will also have 2 weeks of intense rehearsals everyday. When we are finished rehearsals .. people are so full of energy.. we go out.. we go to restaurants.. go dancing.. whatever.. We are all just so hyped.

baby it's cold outside

Brrrr..... Yesterday morning there was snow on the ground when I woke up.. it melted during the day but winter is definitely in the air. This morning everything was frozen and it's time to drag out the winter boots.

Besides that nothing very exciting has been going on.. we fixed our ceiling but it hasn't been painted yet. Sylvain built a sort of shelter extending out from our house covering alot of our deck. It is only temporary.. for the winter... but we won't have to shovel the deck and we will still be able to BBQ (jut have to get dressed up like a bear to do it )

We also put up our Tempo. For people in warm regions that don't know what a tempo is .. it is like a temporary garage. We have a garage but of course we don't put the car there.. Sylvain has that filled with tools and stuff.. and besides it's behind the house and that would mean we would have to shovel about 75 feet to open the door. The tempo gets put up close to the street. so you only have a few feet to shovel.
This is what it looks like (it isn't completely attached yet but you get the idea)



I just hope the weather warms up a bit for the trick or treaters. I went out to buy candy for Halloween yesterday. Mmmm....there are alot of very enticing treats here at the moment.

Radio

Ah.. this evening I listened to Radio Enigma.. I was looking for Cynlynn's show because I had missed it earlier this week.. anways..

There was some music on.. rockabilly sort of music.. it was pretty good but quite old.. and sounded like it was playing on out of a tin can.

The song ends.

The DJ starts tapping the microphone.. Is this thing on??

now comes his little speech: (not exactly verbatim.. but close!)

Well, I guess alot of you have wondered where I have been the last weeks.. well. I was in the slammer. Yes. In jail.

Well as much as I don't want to talk about it, I feel I have to so I was in jail because of my friend ratting me out. You hear me.. if you are out there and you hear me ... I'm gonna ta get you!

He continues....

So you want to know why I was in prison. Well because I put my bathtub on my front lawn and put my GMC truck engine in it.

When we moved here we had no idea this place was going to be so "high falutin" and that we wouldn't be able to leave our bathtub with my GMC motor in it.

Well, my friend (so and so) ratted me out and went to he commission and told them. I'm going ta get you, I'm going ta get you good!

So 'cause I couldn't pay the fine.. they put me in jail. Mildred finally came and paid and I got out. I was in there for 5 weeks. The fine was $46.- .. but I'm not bitter, I learned alot about myself in the can.

Tap, Tap on the microphone.. Is this thing still on?


:D Hilarious!

Cyn.. thanks for the link to this station. It was so funny. Even better than your redneck bar!

:D

My Thanksgiving Weekend

Thanksgiving in Canada is celebrated on the second Monday of October. We had invited a couple over with their children for a nice supper.

Sunday I prepared making the soup and also made spinach dip to be eaten with veggies, did the dessert..Prepared everything for the stuffing so when I got up early on Monday to put the turkey in the oven.. I wouldn't have so much to do or so much of a mess.

Monday rolls around and I get the rest of the food prepared.. and Carmen calls around 2 to say the kids won't be coming.. and that they will be there around 4. Fine. Her kids are good and I really don't mind when they come.. but sometimes it is a nice change of pace to be just "BIG KIDS!!".

We've pretty much decided we will have supper around 6, but it's nice they will get there early.. I haven't seen them in quite a while and I have stuff to show her. I want to show her how I have redecorated my bedroom.. not only painted.. but redesigned the furniture.. put two small side dressers together.. one atop the other.. put new hardware.. and molding on top.. and ball feet made with balls from fenceposts.. (I know it sounds really ratty, but I 'll dig up a picture soon and show you it is really nice) I also made the bedspread in ultrasuede.. curtains .. pillowcases.. well the whole shebang.

I also wanted to show her Worth1000 and the cool stuff we do there.

When they showed up they brought a bottle of wine and insisted we open it up at once.. so I and she both had a glass.

She is the tiniest thing.. perhaps 85 to 90lbs tops! I like wine but I'm a really slow drinker.. ( I guess that makes me a really cheap date, right? ) anyways.. I told her to take it easy.. but she insisted she was feeling fine. She did look fine, at the moment.

Anways.. around 5:30 we start with the soup.. I always put a dash of cayenne just before eating .. it gives the soup a bit of heat. She says.. oh good idea.. and put in one dash.. then another.. I 'm not talking chili powder here.. I'm talking cayenne pepper.. so she already has 2 and says.. not very hot.. and adds a third. Her hubby, Michel, is saying to her.. to go easy on it.

Soup was a hit.. liked by all.. now we are going to have a bit of salad.

She's still drinking.. I'm a bit worried.. I 'm telling to to slack a bit.. but NO! NO! I'm fine. I can tell Michel is not too happy about it either but she still seems fine and nobody wants to jump down her throat.

After salad she is starting to look a little queasy around the edges.. and by the time turkey gets to the table.. she can't eat.. not a bite.. Now.. you may say it is the food.. but Sylvain ate his plate.. you practically have to watch out he doesn't lick it.. and Michel (who before eating said.. oh.. don't give me so much) also left only bones and nothing else on the plate.

Carmen is starting to look a little green around the edges.. I ask her.. do you want to go to the bathroom.. no.. I'm never sick.. blah blah.. ( she's so macho, don't you think? )

So she asks can she have a coffee. We haven't finished eating, but of course we oblige.. only wanting her to feel better.

Coffee isn't going to do it. Michel brings her to the bathroom.. Twice. Second time around she's on her knees and she justs wants to prop her head on the toilet seat.. and stay there.. (This is the moment you are really proud that your toilet is clean!)

You want to say, I told you so! but what will that help now -- insert rhetorical question mark here!

So.. basically.. every one is making light of it.. laughing it off.. but truly it was sad. An evening ruined. I think we tried to keep it light so Michel wouldn't feel so darn bad.. having to support her to get to their car and then to strap her in as if she were a baby.

I prepared their desserts to bring home, especially for the kids.

Now I like wine.. but not because I want a buzz.. I like wine for the flavor. I like it with food. I don't need wine to make me a fun person. I've got to tell you.. I don't care how pretty and sophisticated you are .. you don't look elegant with your head propped on the crapper.

---

Tuesday.

Sylvain has taken the week off and we will be doing renovations. Nothing major.. like room divisions.. but we have old ceiling tiles in the living room that are very crooked.. and look like rec-room tiles.. they are not beautiful or vintage anything.
Here is what they look like.



I'm his official assistant.. ha! We have an expression here .. called "bouche-trou".. you fill in the holes... you do what others don't want to do. I call it being Polyfilla... just like spackle.

I get coffee.. I get tools.. I hold things up .. help bring them down.. measure.. and listen to how old and crooked our house is.

Anyways.. It will be worth it when it is done.

Here is a pic of Sylvain .. putting up the gyproc.



So.. we are tired.. only got half done.. will continue tomorrow and then after that we will have to plaster.
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Oh.. and I did a chop this weekend for a contest.. It really did very badly but I had a blast making it.. it was just so much fun.. I hadn't done a chop in a long while.. well if you don't count the last speedround, where I put the image on my desktop.. left for lunch came home and with an 1 1/2 to go.. started looking for sources.. and shouldn't have uploaded an unfinished image.. but just didn't care. Anyways..
I still like the image.. and even though it "AIN'T" perfect.. it makes me smile.. and
hope it may make you smile too!

Tree - Experiment with Depth 0f Field

Hey.. you could poke your eye out!

Ok.. well.. almost..

Sylvain stabbed himself with toothpick he didn't take out of his club sandwich.

Right in the chin.. I thought it was ketchup from his fries..

It was blood.

He survived.

Relieved

They are announcing alot of rain here for the coming days so I decided to go out and take some photos while the trees still had leaves on them.

I come home and as usual, first thing i do is download the photos to my computer. Well.. my monitor has a huge bar on it saying : no power source attached to the monitor or something like that. I press the on button, nothing happens.. nada.. nothing. Darn.. I'm a bit peeved. I just changed the power supply in spring. Seems it has died again.

So, I call up Sylvain and let him know that I'm going to have to change my power supply... and he tells me that while I was out.. the whole town had experienced a loss of electricity at least 6 times.

I'm thinking there was some kind of power surge and it damaged my power supply... things like this happen. I once had a digital phone with an answering machine integrated. While out there was a loss of electricity for about a minute.. when I got back home the phone was ringing, so I answered it .. nobody there.. so I hung up .. it rang again.. answered .. nobody there.. well.. the electronics were now screwed up and you couldn't hang up the phone without it ringing.

anyways.. back to my computer.

I am just about to call Glen and ask him how much a power supply will cost me and I'm thinking it won't be too much since I will install it myself.. so no labor costs involved and I look under my desk.. and of course the light for the power surge protector is on.. and it clicks.. not literally.. but in my brain.. I understand all. I shut off the surge protector and turn it back on.. reboot.. and voilà!.. everything is fine and humming along.

They do say you appreciate things better when you think you will lose them.. point well taken.

my Thursday.

Funny, Los told me the other day, that the smaller the job and the budget, the more likely the project would be more involved and the client more indecisive.

Well.. spot on, Los. Today, the woman comes to see me.. the venue will be again changing back to the Golf course.. but not to do that work before it has been confirmed.. if it's not confirmed.. it will go back to the restaurant... so that pretty much puts that project on hold.

She then went on to pretty much tell me that she is into this new-age type of healing and chakrahs and reiki or something.. and that I had tooth trouble because someone caused me stress in my life etc., and that is how I got rid of the stress! Besides all this .. she is very "granola". I don't know if you use that expression anywhere else.. or if it is typically French Canadian.. but it means they only eat things that are organic, no meat, only grains and beansprouts! Very tempting.. but .. uh.. no thanks! ;)

I think she would have disapproved of my shopping list. I went tonight to get several things for our Canadian Thanksgiving. We are having a couple over with their two kids. Leak soup, stuffed Turkey (no candied potato things with marshmallows--- I always see that in American Thanksgivings on TV.. but have never tried to eat that and haven't ever seen it in a Canadian Thanksgiving supper. (ok.. maybe I'm wrong and it's delicious.. but it just looks kind of weird) and I'm thinking for desert, apples in puff pastry with caramel dribbled on top.. sound good? Or perhaps I will make a dish called "Sex in a Pan" that is called that because people say it is as good as having sex.. well, that's an exaggeration but still pretty good and really easy to make.

Does anyone have a better idea? I'm open to suggestions, but only ones that are both fool-proof and delicious.
---

Eric came for a short visit tonight. He is in town for the Thanksgiving weekend. He wanted to tell us about his new job. He draws plans for furniture. The designers from a certain company.. such as Thomasville or something.. will send over the designs and he uses those to make autocad drawings so they can produce the furniture with the proper specs. He has only been there 6 weeks and really loves it. He lives in Victoriaville and has been staying at a B&B during the week..and going home on weekends. They don't charge him alot because it is very, very quiet during the week.. but now he is officially going to move.

Well, that's about it. I wish I had something more exciting to tell.. but then I'd have to make it up.

I hate going to the dentist.

Well.. yesterday the gums around one of my molars was bugging me and this morning I woke up to what looked like the beginning of an abcess.

I hate going to the dentist.. but previous experiences have taught me that things usually only get worse.

So, I've paid someone $200. to torture me and leave me with a slightly swollen jaw.

I should be a happier person tomorrow.

tuesday tidbits

I have a job to do for a ticket for a drawing. It isn't anything creative or complicated.. but you'd swear it was a huge advertising campaign for a multi-national company or something from the amount of times I have been called.

They have changed their minds several times. First the tickets would be in 2 colors, recto-verso and now they will only be in one and recto only. I did get her to agree to allow a gradient because it is not much more expensive .. just the cost for the screening.

They have also changed the venue for the drawing 3 times. First time around it was going to be at the Golf Course, then it was going to be at the Forestel.. now they have again changed it.. this time to a Thai restaurant.

So much fuss for 777 tickets... Somebody thinks 7 is a lucky number. At first I thought perhaps the winner would be taking a Boeing 777 so that was the reasoning behind the magical number of tickets. but when I mentionned that to her.. she just said, oh.. we hadn't even thought of that!

----

Ran out and paid bills today.. and then went shopping for undies. yes.. panties! If you think we are going to talk sex here.. sorry to disappoint.
It always takes me a long time because I fall in love with all these really gorgeous
items that are not that comfortable but just look great. So I end up buying some for comfort and some for .... well "fun". The weird part of the really nice ones are that they are 1/2 the size.. and twice as expensive.

----

Got home in time to listen to Cynlynn's radio show.. or should I say Raven's Radio show. It was alot of fun and nothing less than diverse. She plays everything from
Led Zeppelin to Willie Nelson.. now that is what I call eclectic :)

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Little of this, lots of that!

Today's lesson... save or you may have to rewrite your whole post over!

---Little this.

Since yesterday it is freezing here. As warm as it was last week, 24-25 and more.. that is 78+F ... we wake up this morning and it is 1, with a windshield factor of -3. In Fahrenheit that is 33 degrees and perhaps as little as 27-28 with the wind factor.

I just wanted to put on woolen socks and not care if I looked like a babushka.. I was freezing!
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My brother Henry came on the weekend.

He lives in Granby but travels to Montreal to work. Shirley, his partner, is an RCMP officer and since a few months also has been working in Montreal. They have been traveling 2 hours a day, and 3-4 when there is heavy traffic. They traveled in different vehicules since they aren't on the same schedules. Since a few weeks ago, they have rented an apartment in Montreal. They will stay there during the week and go home weekends.

also

He hadn't seen any of the photographs I had done since I started and even though he is my brother it is a huge compliment to me that he not only really liked them but wants several of them to display on his walls. He just happens to have great taste!

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Martha Stewart: I hear she's going to prison very soon. Ok, I know she lied.. so now we can all sleep soundly knowing our streets will be safe now that she is behind bars.
enough said.
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Lots of that!

Remember my one day job for a mine. I was talking to Donald about them and we did a little bit of research about them on the internet. (great invention, by the way! ;) )

Long story.. short!


- Flashback 15 or so years.
They own a small meatpacking plant in the US. They have problems with the union.. they go to court.. they close down.

-- they come up with the idea of buying mines that have gone under but that they believe are still profitable as long as they have "good management".

--
fastforward a bit...
They invest in a mine in Canada.. they put up a little.. government puts up alot.
They again have problems with the union.

There is a strike.. things get very nasty. They helicopter in scabs to work the mines.. things get worse. There is violence. They fire the security people and bring in a private company and lower the amount of security around the mine. One crazy miner goes into the mines and plants a bomb.. 9 people are killed.

The CEO, a woman and the current CEO of the company, is being sued as being just as responsable as the guy that planted the bomb as she allowed the violence to escalate and didn't augment security when it was really needed. She has also angered many people by not wanting to shut the mine down temporarily after the incident.

They go broke.. Well.. she has received 1.75 million a year since she's been there.. but that money is of course safe!

--

They invest in another mine.. I guess it is true that she can sell ice to the eskimoes because she manages to get more money.

This time around they again have problems with the union. When gold prices fall.. they close the mine. They leave it 600 million in debt. They also leave a huge amount of arsenic trioxide to clean up.. it can cost anywhere form 500 million to over a billion dollars to clean.

They have also been fined several times for polluting.

-hijack: One engineer said it was the first place he ever worked where he was obliged
to bring his own pencil from home to work. /hijack

Even though they knew they were in trouble.. they decided to not put the money they should have into the worker's retirement plan.. instead they re-invested it into their own company... so not only have they gone bankrupt but now workers have lost 25% of their retirement money. Don't these guys have one moral bone in their bodies?
There's more.. but too long to add here... so

--Today.

Now they are here.

They have changed their company's name. They use hotmail as their email address! (What?.. that just sounds so professional, don't you think? ) and their CEO has changed her name and is using her maiden name now! I guess she really doesn't want anyone to confuse her with the other "CEO" from that "other company".

Donald has been keeping my up-to-date on how lovely they are. They are not too happy about Hyrdro-Québec. We don't have any competitors here for electricity.. it's Hydro-Québec or it's nothing. Donald says they are quite angry because they think it is way too expensive.. and told him our government was Communist. lol!

anyways.. enough rambling for now.