Martin Giroux and Family Blog

2012-02-15T06:33:00.001-05:00

Short Term ForecastUpdated: Wed, Feb 15, 2012, 5:37 EST

	Wednesday MorningMorning: 6:00 AM - 11:59 AM	Wednesday AfternoonAfternoon: 12:00 PM - 5:59 PM	Wednesday EveningEvening: 6:00 PM - 11:59 PM	Wednesday OvernightOvernight: 12:00 AM - 5:59 AM	Thursday MorningMorning: 6:00 AM - 11:59 AM

	Scattered flurries	Scattered flurries	Mainly cloudy	Variable cloudiness	Variable cloudiness
Temp.	-1°C	2°C	1°C	-2°C	-2°C
Wind	SE 5km/h	SW 5km/h	SW 10km/h	SW 10km/h	SE 5km/h
Relative Humidity	86%	93%	86%	80%	86%
P.O.P.	60%	40%	30%	30%	30%
Snow	close to 1 cm	less than 1 cm	-	-	-

5982pv

Hard wake-up

2012-02-14T07:25:00.002-05:00

Short Term ForecastUpdated: Tues, Feb 14, 2012, 6:05 EST

	Tuesday MorningMorning: 6:00 AM - 11:59 AM	Tuesday AfternoonAfternoon: 12:00 PM - 5:59 PM	Tuesday EveningEvening: 6:00 PM - 11:59 PM	Tuesday OvernightOvernight: 12:00 AM - 5:59 AM	Wednesday MorningMorning: 6:00 AM - 11:59 AM

	Sunny	Variable cloudiness	Mainly cloudy	Scattered flurries	Scattered flurries
Temp.	-8°C	2°C	-1°C	-3°C	-1°C
Feels Like	-12	-2	-	-	-
Wind	SW 15km/h	SW 15km/h	S 10km/h	SE 10km/h	SE 5km/h
Relative Humidity	79%	80%	80%	80%	86%
P.O.P.	10%	30%	30%	40%	40%
Snow	-	-	-	less than 1 cm	less than 1 cm

I've been working pretty hard and went to bed around 12:30am. Around 2:00pm Mathieu call me 'cause he thought he had seen a spider running around on his bed. We looked for it, waking Sabrina in the process. And then... Both were too scared to fall asleep. I was back in bed at 4:30am, to get up around 6:15am...

Pirate battles by Mathieu

Going to school I did some mathematics with Sabrina and I was happy to see that she was very good and very quick with divisions and multiplications. She also understand the concept really well. So I decided to test her on tables because she's a bit lacking there.
9 + 2
11
12 - 7
9
no
3
no
6
no
five yells Mathieu...

5968pv

A bit of ski...

2012-02-13T06:46:00.004-05:00

Short Term ForecastUpdated: Mon, Feb 13, 2012, 5:00 EST

	Monday MorningMorning: 6:00 AM - 11:59 AM	Monday AfternoonAfternoon: 12:00 PM - 5:59 PM	Monday EveningEvening: 6:00 PM - 11:59 PM	Monday OvernightOvernight: 12:00 AM - 5:59 AM	Tuesday MorningMorning: 6:00 AM - 11:59 AM

	Scattered flurries	Cloudy with sunny breaks	Variable cloudiness	Variable cloudiness	Cloudy periods
Temp.	-11°C	-5°C	-9°C	-7°C	-6°C
Feels Like	-18	-10	-	-13	-12
Wind	W 15km/h	W 15km/h	SW 10km/h	SW 15km/h	SW 15km/h
Relative Humidity	78%	79%	79%	86%	86%
P.O.P.	60%	40%	40%	30%	20%
Snow	less than 1 cm	-	-	-	-

The kids and I went skiing at St-Bruno today. We had a blast. We went down the Snow Park until we got kicked out (it would appear we need a special pass for that one). Still it was fun, even if the mountain was not totally operational.

Our friends went skiing at Tremblant this weekend. They had a blast. I'm hoping we'll get to ski there one day.

5955pv

Paying some bills; Valentine

2012-02-12T07:33:00.000-05:00

Short Term ForecastUpdated: Sun, Feb 12, 2012, 5:00 EST

	Sunday MorningMorning: 6:00 AM - 11:59 AM	Sunday AfternoonAfternoon: 12:00 PM - 5:59 PM	Sunday EveningEvening: 6:00 PM - 11:59 PM	Sunday OvernightOvernight: 12:00 AM - 5:59 AM	Monday MorningMorning: 6:00 AM - 11:59 AM

	Variable cloudiness	Variable cloudiness	Cloudy with clear breaks	Cloudy with clear breaks	Mainly cloudy
Temp.	-18°C	-13°C	-14°C	-14°C	-13°C
Feels Like	-26	-21	-21	-21	-20
Wind	NW 20km/h	W 20km/h	W 15km/h	W 15km/h	W 15km/h
Relative Humidity	71%	72%	72%	78%	78%
P.O.P.	30%	30%	30%	40%	40%

I like Sundays. I got sleep late (7:00am), went down and within an hour the kids were making their valentine day's cards for their friends.

Though Suzanne wanted to go to work today, she decided to work from home instead. It began by having her reading the publisac with Sabrina to hunt for specials.

After I was done with the groceries the kids were treated to a treat: hot-dogs. Not something we eat often here but judging by the hmmmms and hmmms I got from the kids they were quite appreciated. Why is bad food so good tasting?

Afterwards it was time to pay bills...

No, no, no we're not burning them, we're just getting rid of papers that need to be shredded and that can't be recycled.

Suzanne did our taxes today so that's done, at least.

A nice supper a good wine, some time together, a great day...

Château Les Pins Côtes du Roussillon Villages 2008

Code SAQ : 00864546
CUP : 03294910 512426

Catégorie :	Vin rouge
Couleur :	Rouge
Nature :	Vin tranquille
Format :	750 ml

Good night to all.

5939pv

Papa who is Santa Claus' father?

2012-02-11T08:09:00.004-05:00

Short Term ForecastUpdated: Sat, Feb 11, 2012, 5:46 EST

	Saturday MorningMorning: 6:00 AM - 11:59 AM	Saturday AfternoonAfternoon: 12:00 PM - 5:59 PM	Saturday EveningEvening: 6:00 PM - 11:59 PM	Saturday OvernightOvernight: 12:00 AM - 5:59 AM	Sunday MorningMorning: 6:00 AM - 11:59 AM

	Mainly cloudy	Cloudy with sunny breaks	Mainly clear	Cloudy periods	Variable cloudiness
Temp.	-12°C	-11°C	-15°C	-20°C	-19°C
Feels Like	-21	-18	-	-29	-29
Wind	NE 25km/h	N 20km/h	N 10km/h	NW 15km/h	NW 25km/h
Relative Humidity	72%	72%	78%	70%	71%
P.O.P.	30%	30%	20%	20%	20%

From Mathieu, goes in the list of questions that will never be answered.

Thanks mom for this picture, I'd forgotten about it. My first show. We worked so hard on it and we gave to presentations. Of all the shows I've given or been part of, this one (and two others in Cowansville, one at a bar with a standing ovation, another at a Chevalier de Colombs with another) I will never forget. Thx mom.

Thanks Steph for showing me how to play the guitar.

5924pv

Friday and so much to do

2012-02-10T06:17:00.003-05:00

Short Term ForecastUpdated: Fri, Feb 10, 2012, 5:00 EST

	Friday MorningMorning: 6:00 AM - 11:59 AM	Friday AfternoonAfternoon: 12:00 PM - 5:59 PM	Friday EveningEvening: 6:00 PM - 11:59 PM	Friday OvernightOvernight: 12:00 AM - 5:59 AM	Saturday MorningMorning: 6:00 AM - 11:59 AM

	Variable cloudiness	Cloudy with sunny breaks	Scattered flurries	Scattered flurries	Scattered flurries
Temp.	-3°C	0°C	-3°C	-12°C	-13°C
Feels Like	-8	-5	-8	-20	-21
Wind	SW 20km/h	SW 20km/h	SW 15km/h	NE 20km/h	NE 20km/h
Relative Humidity	86%	80%	86%	72%	72%
P.O.P.	20%	30%	40%	70%	40%
Snow	-	-	less than 1 cm	close to 1 cm	less than 1 cm

Today Mathieu and I went to the Ford dealership after dropping Sabrina at school. There's a problem with my ABS breaks, the light is turned on on the dash and when I break they often kick in, as if I was sliding, but on dry asphalt. Then they'll be on for the next 20-30 seconds. Anyway it took them two hours to tell me what the issue was and that they didn't have the piece. So we'll be there next week sometimes.

I kinda liked the Ford Explorer, it's a bigger truck but I love the third row. It's too bad that the finish on the truck looks so crappy. The material looks really cheap. I don't know but I think that if you have a dealership you show all the best cars on the floor. When I wait for our car at Mercedes and I walk around, there's not one car that looks bad.

Mathieu and I came home, I worked a bit we played. We went to get Sabrina after karate, then it was off to the pool. After swimming the kids had tacos and Suzanne and I had steaks, our red meat of the week.

5903pv

Snowman, Karate

2012-02-09T06:30:00.002-05:00

Short Term ForecastUpdated: Thurs, Feb 9, 2012, 6:19 EST

	Thursday MorningMorning: 6:00 AM - 11:59 AM	Thursday AfternoonAfternoon: 12:00 PM - 5:59 PM	Thursday EveningEvening: 6:00 PM - 11:59 PM	Thursday OvernightOvernight: 12:00 AM - 5:59 AM	Friday MorningMorning: 6:00 AM - 11:59 AM

	Cloudy periods	Cloudy periods	Cloudy periods	Cloudy periods	Variable cloudiness
Temp.	-7°C	-1°C	-3°C	-5°C	-4°C
Feels Like	-13	-5	-7	-11	-10
Wind	W 15km/h	SW 15km/h	SW 15km/h	SW 15km/h	SW 20km/h
Relative Humidity	93%	86%	80%	86%	80%
P.O.P.	20%	10%	10%	10%	30%

Mathieu had his first karate course today. It's not really his first course as he had a few last year at Sensei Normand Bordeleau's dojo last year. This is however is first real course. It's also the first time I leave him by himself at an activity outside of school or daycare. We arrived in time to see him take a pose and hit a tennis ball with his feet.

Mathieu and Sensei Normand

Sensei Normand has been teaching Sabrina for close to three years now and we're very happy with the results. You can see his school at: Karate Kyokushin Longueuil.

While waiting for Mathieu to complete his course, Sabrina pointed me to a picture in the corridor she did with her friends Kiara and Megan.

What's cool is that her picture is in the school's foyer for all to see. It's actually a super nice snowoman.

5887pv

Harvard University

2012-02-08T07:16:00.000-05:00

Short Term ForecastUpdated: Wed, Feb 8, 2012, 5:00 EST

	Wednesday MorningMorning: 6:00 AM - 11:59 AM	Wednesday AfternoonAfternoon: 12:00 PM - 5:59 PM	Wednesday EveningEvening: 6:00 PM - 11:59 PM	Wednesday OvernightOvernight: 12:00 AM - 5:59 AM	Thursday MorningMorning: 6:00 AM - 11:59 AM

	Sunny	Sunny	Cloudy periods	Variable cloudiness	Variable cloudiness
Temp.	-15°C	-4°C	-8°C	-9°C	-8°C
Feels Like	-21	-10	-13	-15	-13
Wind	SW 15km/h	SW 20km/h	SW 15km/h	SW 15km/h	SW 15km/h
Relative Humidity	85%	68%	79%	73%	79%
P.O.P.	0%	10%	10%	20%	30%

Remember the: Harvard, more on that later? Well here it is: Suzanne has been accepted at Harvard University. More on that later :)

Listen, not much to say here except that we had a normal day. Kids went to school, I worked, they came back, I fed them, I cleaned... Poor Suzanne worked until 10:30pm.

5875pv

Above and beyond

2012-02-07T08:19:00.002-05:00

Short Term ForecastUpdated: Tues, Feb 7, 2012, 5:13 EST

	Tuesday MorningMorning: 6:00 AM - 11:59 AM	Tuesday AfternoonAfternoon: 12:00 PM - 5:59 PM	Tuesday EveningEvening: 6:00 PM - 11:59 PM	Tuesday OvernightOvernight: 12:00 AM - 5:59 AM	Wednesday MorningMorning: 6:00 AM - 11:59 AM

	Few flurries	Mainly sunny	Mainly clear	Clear	Sunny
Temp.	-5°C	-7°C	-12°C	-18°C	-16°C
Feels Like	-	-	-	-	-22
Wind	NW 10km/h	NW 10km/h	W 10km/h	SW 10km/h	SW 15km/h
Relative Humidity	68%	67%	72%	71%	78%
P.O.P.	40%	10%	0%	0%	0%
Snow	less than 1 cm	-	-	-	-

Mathieu: "Why did you break with Max's mom?"
Me: "We broke off because we didn't love each other enough."
Mathieu: "Oh!"
Me: "But it's okay, because if I had stayed with her, I wouldn't met your mom and we wouldn't have made you."
Mathieu, after a few seconds: "It's okay, mommy would have me someone else and still made us."

We're doing homework tonight (like every other night) and Sabrina is doing her English work. She's supposed to write three sentences of six or more words that each contain one of the following words:

bus, pot, swim, cube,tune, used, excuse, little, down, useless

Her sentences:

The bus was very little, and a lot of places were used.
He said "excuse me" because he touched the useless pot that his mother said to not touch.
I swim in a pool that looks like a cube, and when I'm down in the water, I hear a nice tune.

I did ask her to use two words per sentence instead of one, reinforcing the "above and beyond" concept, that everything you do you should do above and beyond the request's expectations. Sabrina managed to trump me by using ALL the words in her three sentences. I love my girl.

I found this note in Mathieu's Communication book:

"Just to let you know... Mathieu is doing very well... He always listens to instructions and follows directions well. He socialized with the other children much more now than he did at the beginning of school. Mathieu is quite sensitive will become quiet if there is something bothering him... so I know when to intervene if there is an issue. He is a wonderful boy and a pleasure to have in class." Miss Helen.

It feels good to get those little notes. She's spot on with respect to sensitivity so the rest must be totally true.

Here's a gift from Mathieu: Papa and Maman in a heart, with five butterflies and a ladybug.

5861pv

Why is it that every Monday...

2012-02-06T06:10:00.002-05:00

Short Term ForecastUpdated: Mon, Feb 6, 2012, 4:58 EST

	Monday MorningMorning: 6:00 AM - 11:59 AM	Monday AfternoonAfternoon: 12:00 PM - 5:59 PM	Monday EveningEvening: 6:00 PM - 11:59 PM	Monday OvernightOvernight: 12:00 AM - 5:59 AM	Tuesday MorningMorning: 6:00 AM - 11:59 AM

	Variable cloudiness	Mainly cloudy	Scattered flurries	Cloudy with clear breaks	Variable cloudiness
Temp.	-1°C	1°C	1°C	-6°C	-7°C
Feels Like	-8	-5	-5	-13	-14
Wind	W 30km/h	W 30km/h	W 25km/h	W 25km/h	N 20km/h
Relative Humidity	86%	86%	86%	86%	73%
P.O.P.	30%	40%	60%	30%	30%
Snow	-	-	close to 1 cm	-	-

...the house is much much messier then how it was on Friday :( Sigh.

So Monday was a normal Monday, with Sabrina going to school and Mathieu and I staying home, cleaning up, playing. I made a spaghetti sauce for supper and it was quite good.

Monday, normal Monday.

5842pv

A fantastic day at Bromont; Chateau Fleur du Casse Saint-Emilion Grand Cru 2008

2012-02-05T18:23:00.003-05:00

Short Term ForecastUpdated: Sun, Feb 5, 2012, 15:00 EST

	Sunday EveningEvening: 6:00 PM - 11:59 PM	Sunday OvernightOvernight: 12:00 AM - 5:59 AM	Monday MorningMorning: 6:00 AM - 11:59 AM	Monday AfternoonAfternoon: 12:00 PM - 5:59 PM	Monday EveningEvening: 6:00 PM - 11:59 PM

	Scattered flurries	Scattered flurries	Cloudy with sunny breaks	Mixed precip.	Mixed precip.
Temp.	-6°C	-4°C	-2°C	2°C	1°C
Feels Like	-12	-10	-8	-3	-4
Wind	SW 20km/h	W 25km/h	SW 25km/h	W 25km/h	W 20km/h
Relative Humidity	79%	74%	74%	86%	86%
P.O.P.	40%	60%	30%	60%	60%
Rain	-	-	-	less than 1mm	-
Snow	less than 1 cm	close to 1 cm	-	less than 1 cm	close to 1 cm

This morning the frozen snow on the trees made everything look magical:

We had the best day ever at Mont-Bromont. Pascal and Ben came to pick us up at 7:30am exactly, and we got to Bromont around 8:45am. The parking was almost full. Nevertheless, we got our tickets (thank you St-Bruno's season passes, you've saved us a lot of money) and then when up. Every one had a great time skiing. The view was just beautiful, the trees were covered of frozen snow, like our trees at home.

Going up, Suzanne took her BB to take a picture of Sabrina in the chairlift.

The boys on the chairs. We're currently on top of the Edmonton. A simple one but a fun hill with kids.

Everyone skied so well. That is, until we got to the black diamond that only Pascal and Sabrina were able to ski. Both Ben and Suzanne fell (and in the same breath lost her mojo) and I had to help Mathieu go down on his back, no skis, 'cause he was too afraid. It's a good hill, a fun one I wish I could have done, but to Mathieu it must be twice as high.

We just love Bromont. It's a great mountain, well taken care of. I see season tickets in our near, 2012-2013 future.

I just can't get enough of the Fleur du Casse. It's a great wine for a good price. My original thought was to work on my Oeurth series with a glass or two in front of the fireplace while Suzanne watched the Superbowl. It was not to be, as I fell asleep with the kids. I did sleep very well, however.

hmmm.

By the way, if you watched to Superbowl half time show with Madonna, you will be interested to learn that the company that made ALL the lighting and effects is called Moment Factory, one of Suzanne's clients. Really cool stuff.

Mathieu's 1st birthday party

2012-02-04T07:46:00.003-05:00

Short Term ForecastUpdated: Sat, Feb 4, 2012, 6:16 EST

	Saturday MorningMorning: 6:00 AM - 11:59 AM	Saturday AfternoonAfternoon: 12:00 PM - 5:59 PM	Saturday EveningEvening: 6:00 PM - 11:59 PM	Saturday OvernightOvernight: 12:00 AM - 5:59 AM	Sunday MorningMorning: 6:00 AM - 11:59 AM

	Mainly sunny	Cloudy periods	Cloudy periods	Cloudy periods	Cloudy periods
Temp.	-11°C	-6°C	-9°C	-15°C	-14°C
Wind	W 10km/h	W 10km/h	SW 10km/h	N 5km/h	N 5km/h
Relative Humidity	78%	79%	67%	66%	72%
P.O.P.	10%	10%	10%	20%	20%

Mathieu was invited to his first school birthday party. It was at a place called recreofun in St-Bruno, between 12:00pm and 3:00pm. I brought Emily and him there, and Emily's mom brought them back. Let's just say he'd lost his voice (lots of yelling I take it) and looked real tired when he came back :)

According to Julie, the place was huge. Also she was able to walk in and out of the place without anyone looking at her so she felt like the place was not very secure (I just want to warn you I have already told them about their lax of security).

A toy Mathieu wants for his birthday. We went to Chapters (or Indigo) in the Quartier Dix Trente to buy a few books for Camiah's birthday.

I'm happy my kids like the same things I like: sci-fi, fantasy...

5804pv

It's a Friday full swimming, karate, soccer and smurfs

2012-02-03T06:58:00.003-05:00

Short Term ForecastUpdated: Fri, Feb 3, 2012, 5:00 EST

	Friday MorningMorning: 6:00 AM - 11:59 AM	Friday AfternoonAfternoon: 12:00 PM - 5:59 PM	Friday EveningEvening: 6:00 PM - 11:59 PM	Friday OvernightOvernight: 12:00 AM - 5:59 AM	Saturday MorningMorning: 6:00 AM - 11:59 AM

	Cloudy with sunny breaks	Mainly cloudy	Cloudy with clear breaks	Variable cloudiness	Cloudy periods
Temp.	-13°C	-3°C	-4°C	-10°C	-10°C
Feels Like	-	-7	-9	-	-
Wind	SW 10km/h	SW 15km/h	W 15km/h	NW 10km/h	NW 10km/h
Relative Humidity	85%	93%	86%	79%	79%
P.O.P.	30%	40%	40%	30%	20%

Such a nice Friday... Mathieu stays with me as he has no school and we go pick Sabrina later because of karate. It's started again and now my little girl is in the advanced Friday class. Mathieu is in the beginner's class on Thursday. I got him in even if he's not really in kindergarden yet. To me, karate is an important sport, like swimming, skiing. This summer I'm thinking of putting the kids in soccer.

Notice that she's wearing her Harvard t-shirt? More on that later :) If she looks tired, that's because she's just had a one hour soccer course a few hours ago. But that's not all. An hour and a half after this picture was taken...

Yes, one of swimming. While Mathieu's course looks fun, Sabrina must do a 25 meters (that's 82 feet for you non-Canadians) stretch over and over again, practicing one technique and another, non-stop.

But that's not all.

We also had movie night at St-Mary's 50 minutes after swimming. To speed things up, the kids and I went to McDonald's drive thru. Such a treat for them. It was Sabrina's fourth time and Mathieu's fifth time (it's not very healthy food, but it taste good). After the meal we got to school and sat down on our lawn chairs with a bunch of other parents and kids to watch the Smurf movie.

It's a cute movie, it's worth watching. Almost half the parents there I knew so it's a bit more then a movie for us. We are becoming part of the St-Mary's community, that's for sure.

To end the evening a glass of Vigorello San Felice 2003, a gift to Suzanne by one of her clients.

Very good, must be amazing in a tasting environment instead of a couch while talking about our day. I'm not hot on Italian wines but perhaps the reason is that I've never had a good wine from the region except for Chiantis and that's a taste that doesn't work well with me. This Vigorello is amazing, worth the money.

Vigorello San Felice Toscana i.g.t. 2003

Code SAQ : 11641014
CUP : 00709067 168035

Catégorie :	Vin rouge
Couleur :	Rouge
Nature :	Vin tranquille
Format :	750 ml

Prix : 50,25 $

Disponibilité

SUCCURSALES

Fiche descriptive

Pays :	Italie
Région :	Toscane
Appellation :	Toscana
Fournisseur :	Società Agricola San Felice SPA
Pourcentage d'alcool :	14.0 %

A note about our wine drinking. We were starting to get too much into it so we've decided to contain alcohol to the weekend only, except on special occasions.

5786pv