Wednesday 2011-10-19 -- Professional Pictures and One Happy Kid

Long Term Forecast Updated: Wednesday, October 19, 2011, 5:59 EDT

• Day
• Night

	Thursday Oct 20	Friday Oct 21	Saturday Oct 22	Sunday Oct 23	Monday Oct 24	Tuesday Oct 25
Conditions  6am - 6pm
	Light rain	Cloudy with showers	Variable cloudiness	Cloudy with sunny breaks	Variable cloudiness	Isolated showers
P.O.P.	80%	60%	30%	30%	30%	40%
High	18°C	14°C	11°C	12°C	13°C	12°C
Low	9°C	9°C	6°C	3°C	4°C	7°C
Wind	NE 25 km/h	SW 15 km/h	W 20 km/h	SW 5 km/h	S 10 km/h	W 20 km/h
24-Hr Rain	5-10 mm	close to 1 mm	-	-	close to 5 mm	close to 1 mm

Wake up is hard for all this morning. In fact everyone is still in bed at 6:30. It's started badly. First I saw a cat get hit, next Kim got me convinced that the grade 3 teacher is horrible, finally I had an argument with Mathieu when we got home. Oh and a note to tell me I forgot to pay pre-K (which I just did).

And I still have to take care of Mathieu's party. So I've sent an email to Isabelle, Kim, Donna and Annick to invite them and their kids on Saturday November 29th to celebrate his birthday. Let's see how it goes.

I've done a small amount of work for OneHappyKid this morning, and it's already time to go get Mathieu. Time just flies. Afterwards we're going to get the McCall pictures.

The pictures are just amazing. I find though that they are a bit low resolution, but they do the job.

So far, Isabelle is out, Donna is in, and Annick verbally told me she would come. Now for our closest friends.

I've setup a blog, Longueuil St-Mary's 12D 2011 Homework, to help parents with our respective kids. I will make sure to publish it shortly.

Dinner is spaghetti. It's been a while since we had some. The kids got to play some Lego Indiana Jones 2 while I worked. I really enjoy the complicity they share when they try to figure out the puzzles in the game and they're quite good at it.

I got a two hours done for OneHappyKid this morning. Julie brought in the new Logo. It looks great:

Tuesday 2011-10-18 -- There's Nothing Like A Good Mexican Take Out

Short Term ForecastUpdated: Tues, Oct 18, 2011, 8:00 EDT

	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	Wednesday AfternoonAfternoon: 12:00 PM - 5:59 PM
	Variable cloudiness	Variable cloudiness	Variable cloudiness	Variable cloudiness	Variable cloudiness
Temp.	13°C	11°C	4°C	6°C	15°C
Wind	SW 20km/h	SW 15km/h	W 5km/h	NE 15km/h	NE 25km/h
Relative Humidity	67%	71%	87%	93%	67%
P.O.P.	30%	30%	20%	30%	20%

Up at 3:00am, worked for 3:00hrs on Sw4P, built the initial design plan. Mathieu woke up around 2:30am and took a while getting back to sleep. I was able to build the design in my head while waiting for him to fall asleep, and wrote it down afterwards. It's pretty complex, very high level, but will get better defined with time, when I start it next September.

Sabrina is in school, I will bring Emily and Mathieu in 5 mins.

I spent most of my free time writing the logic design for OneHappyKid. It's got to flow right and it currently doesn't.

Mathieu did not want to go to the Baobab after school today. Yet he made a beautiful necklace for Marie at school. She was quite touched.

We got the pictures from school today. We're ordering a set for Mathieu and one for Sabrina.

We had a good day. Kids had home tacos, parents, tacos from Tamales. Going to bed was a bit hard for Sabrina she had quite a cough. I had to install the vaporizer in her room to make her feel better.

A bit of Terra Nova completed the evening. I did not work at night.

Monday 2011-10-17 -- the great tuna

A simple day today, very windy, some rain. It was a bit hard to get up as Mathieu had a hard night. Sabrina went to school, got her test (92%, inattention errors).

Suzanne came home at a reasonable hours. I made an excellent, restaurant worthy (Sue's words) tuna cooked 3 minutes on each side, filled with lemon juice and Montreal steak spices. I made a very simple yet amazing sauce made of one half soya sauce, one half taco sauce, a few drops of lemon juice and a couple of jalapeño peppers to spice the deal up. I made sole fish sticks for the kids with a ketchup/mustard sauce. They hard raw broccoli. I also made a small portion of broccoli noodles to complete the plate. Very good.

Very tired, I went to bed around 21:00.

My first ever Rice Krispies squares

Sabrina and Mathieu helping me cleanup

Sabrina wins 1st in Dictee PGL 2011

Considering that half the kids in her class are French, and she didn't speak much French two years ago... Bravo!

March Break Skiing; Baobab

Mathieu is at the Baobab. It's Spring Break for Sabrina so we decide to hit the slopes at Mont St-Bruno. It's a beautiful day and the ski is great.

At one point, Sabrina is considering going over "the wall". The wall, as the kids call it, is a part of the mountain with a very strong inclination that can be frightening to anyone who doesn't have very good control of their skis. She looks at it, hesitates, then backs down. Next time we go up however, she decides to try it again. We go. She examines. It looks scary.

As we wait we are greeted by Isabelle and her son Alexandre who's in Sabrina's class. They're really cool and we'll end up skiing the rest of the day with them. As for Saby, she eventually decides to go down the wall. A great achievement for her. She's quite proud.

What a great day we had.

Search Results: March 1 , 2011Montreal Downtown

Max Temp: -2.8 °C

Min Temp: -9.2 °C

Mean Temp: -6 °C

Precip Accumulation: 0 mm 

A bit of winter with friends

Today we went out to Boucherville to go skating with Ben, Kate and Pascal. Sabrina was on skates, Mathieu and I were on boots. We had a great time playing hockey and throwing snow balls. I know someone created the biggest snowball of them all...

It was really nice out there and as a bonus there was almost no one on the ring. A lot of snow of the rink but we still had a great time.

Search Results: February 28 , 2011Montreal Downtown

Max Temp: 1.2 °C

Min Temp: -4.3 °C

Mean Temp: -1.6 °C

Precip Accumulation: 15.3 mm 

A slow day; Donkey Kong; Skating

Today was a slow day. Suzanne and Sabrina played some Donkey Kong on the WII.

Afterwards we went skating. A very slow day, but quite pleasant.

Donkey Kong is great. Sabrina is an expert at the game.

Search Results: February 27 , 2011Montreal Downtown

Max Temp: -3.6 °C

Min Temp: -11.7 °C

Mean Temp: -7.7 °C

Precip Accumulation: 2.2 mm 

Ski Day; St-Hubert Chicken

Today was an amazing ski day. The kids and I went to St-Bruno to do some very good skiing. They're becoming so good it's very pleasant to ski now.

At the chalet we got to meet their favourite mascot:

Now this is a big thing. The kids have always been terrified of clowns and mascots. Now every time they see a mascot it's got to be a big hug. We're still working on the clowns...

Lucky Mathieu manages to find a dime while skiing in the middle of the mountain. You got to see it to believe it.

You have to realize that he's skiing, in the middle of nowhere, and just finds a dime. He does this all the time.

Search Results: February 26 , 2011Montreal Downtown

Max Temp: -8.3 °C

Min Temp: -12.8 °C

Mean Temp: -10.6 °C

Precip Accumulation: 0 mm 

Not much snow for a ski day

The kids and I went skiing today. As you can see there was not much snow. Oh how I wish we had a chalet up North, in Tremblant...

We still had fun.

Search Results: February 25 , 2011Montreal Downtown

Max Temp: -1.7 °C

Min Temp: -8.3 °C

Mean Temp: -5 °C

Precip Accumulation: 3 mm 

Karate Demo

We got to see a Karaté demonstration at school today. I love watching the kids do karate. Sabrina may not be strong, but she has determination. Eventually, she'll become quite good.

Search Results: February 17 , 2011Montreal Downtown

Max Temp: 6.5 °C

Min Temp: -1.7 °C

Mean Temp: 2.4 °C

Precip Accumulation: 1.4 mm 

After School Special

We went skating in Boucherville with Ben, Kate and Pascal after school. A bit of hockey, a lot of skating and snow ball fights. All in all a great time was had by all.

Search Results: February 7 , 2011Montreal Downtown

Max Temp: 1.1 °C

Min Temp: -0.6 °C

Mean Temp: 0.3 °C

Precip Accumulation: 3.6 mm 

Pinot noir La Crema Californie Russian River Valley 2008

Pinot noir La Crema Californie Russian River Valley 2008
Code SAQ : 00707380
CUP : 00049331 002314

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

Wow, just wow! For $40, amazing. Lots of wood, vanilla, pleasant to the nose and the mouth, evolves in the glass. Mid length to long, a pleasure while tasting. Amazing.

Sabrina is still sick

She was sick last night at least three times, and three more times this morning, once walking towards Mathieu's school. When she was done the last time, she asked:

"Do you think we could go ski all day today"

Book I read

97 Things Every Programmer Should Know
By: Many Authors
Publisher: O'Reilly Media, Inc.
Pub. Date: February 12, 2010 Most Recent Edition
Print ISBN-13: 978-0-596-80948-5
Pages in Print Edition: 256

Interesting, quick read, logical ideas that should be followed in my trade.

What a day!

Last night, Mathieu woke me up asking me to scratch him. He was covered with welts. He was obviously reacting to something but we don't know what. Benedryl and a lot of TLC helped him go back to sleep, though the epipen was not far away, just in case.

Today Sabrina was sick all day. She "emptied her contents" sixteen times (She kept tabs). She became so blasé about it that she would be "tossing her cookies" in a bucket while her eyes were glued to the T.V. -- Now for someone who watches maybe 2-3 hours a week, she got her fill today.

I'm glad my dad had a case of 7up in the stuff I have in my garage. I was able to use it to help her pain. Unfortunately, just to add to a non-perfect day, a can escaped my hands and fell hard on the floor, exploding in a fine mist that I am sure coated my entire garage with sticky soda juice.

First Ski Day of the 2010 season

The family went skiing Sunday. We were able to enjoy the first snow of the year by going up and down the Bunny hill at St-Bruno. Both Mathieu and Sabrina were unsure at first, and both became very good within the next few hours. We were there at 8:00am, we left at 11:30am



Invited by our friends to have our kids eat their first ever "poutine", we all met at a restaurant, tired but happy. The food was ok, quite greasy, something no one at the table I believe is used to eat.



Once we left the restaurant, Sabrina asked if she could go ski again. Sue and Mathieu went back home and Sabrina and I went back on the slopes. We were there from 2:00pm to 4:30pm, When we left it was getting dark and the projectors were going full blast.



We parked under the Bunny hill and while going up the carpet, Sabrina asked if we could take the chairlift. We went up, and when she(we) realized the only trail opened was the wall and the chairlift (both difficult) she cried all the way down, clutching me. When we made it down, Sabrina turns to me and says:

"let's do it one more time"

We went down the trails at least seven times. She skied them by herself.

wine - Chablis grand cru Bougros William Fèvre 2007

Had this one for Pascal's bday...

Chablis grand cru Bougros William Fèvre 2007
Code SAQ : 11058435
CUP : 03443620 001441

Catégorie : Vin blanc
Couleur : Blanc
Nature : Vin tranquille
Format : 750 ML

Wow. Simply wow.

wine of the night - Château du Grand Moueys Premières Côtes de Bordeaux 2005

Château du Grand Moueys Premières Côtes de Bordeaux 2005
Code SAQ : 10864443
CUP : 03444132 000526

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

$18.00, a bit young, soft on acid and tannins, medium long in the mouth. Well worth the money.

p.s.:
seems like we drink a lot of wine but we tend to have about 1 glass a night. It's just that I tend to be late in some updates and the wine of the evening may have been a wine of a few evenings ago, but I want to remember it before I recycle the bottle.

wine of the night - Domaine de l'Ile Margaux Bordeaux supérieur 2006

Domaine de l'Ile Margaux Bordeaux supérieur 2006
Code SAQ : 00043125
CUP : 03441590 000082

SAQ

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

$22.40 - so far the least expensive of the wines in this blog, but up there in taste. Flavor that evokes small fruits and spices, to my nose, with good acidity, strong tannins and fairly long. Money well spent.

Wine of the night - Château Simard Saint-Emilion 2005

Château Simard Saint-Emilion 2005
Code SAQ : 11084051
CUP : 03700188 015595

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

Strong tannins and long lasting flavour. Excellent.

wine of the night - Château Sérilhan Saint-Estèphe 2006

Château Sérilhan Saint-Estèphe 2006
Code SAQ : 11095201
CUP : 03394150 024939

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

Thanks Julie et Nico for the wine. It came in at the right moment.

Jacques Giroux - 14 septembre 1933 - 01 Novembre 2010

(L) Martin

Il neige

It's snowing.

wine of the week

Cabernet-Sauvignon Cuvaison Napa Valley Californie 2006
Code SAQ : 00903534
CUP : 00082148 029723

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

Strong and subtle all at once, strong, long tastes of oak, vanilla and chocolate. Excellent wine for $45.

Wine of the week

Cabernet-Sauvignon Sterling Napa Valley Californie 2006
Code SAQ : 00314575
CUP : 05010103 913379

Very red, strong, emphasis on cherries plus wood. All in all good for $33

"I know how you can redeem yourself"

I got mad at Mathieu. He was not listening to Suzanne, climbing on the living room table and disrupting Sabrina's homework. I told him in no uncertain terms that he had to get off the table. He complied but not without telling me things like:

"I don't love your"
"You're not invited to my birthday party"
"I'll never do anything for you ever again. Never never never"

It's okay, it's natural and it doesn't hurt me. I don't get angry at Mathieu very often he listens quite well.

I was in the shower an hour later when Mathieu came in, all excited.

"I know how you can come to my party! And I won't be mad at you anymore. All you need to do is to go to "pbs Toys'r us" today and buy me a lego star wars star destroyers and everything is going to be okay. It's a great deal" he told me, little hands flying all over the place.

Quite a bargain.

Never seen this. Ever!

It's Mathieu's birthday tomorrow and we decided to start celebrating with a cake tonight, along with one present out of his 5-6. I chose the lego pack with 4 stormtroopers and a transport vehicle.

While Mathieu was blowing his candle, he made the following wish: "I wish I had Darth Vader". He does have it, but in another gift he will unpack tomorrow.

When he got his present right after cake, he was ecstatic. When he opened it there was a surprise caracter in there that was not supposed to be there, no marking on the box or on the Internet, nothing. A ten year special edition of.

Darth Vader.

I've never seen a wish come true so fast.

A day at the Montreal Botanical Garden

It's just a great place to be. We left quite early to go see the pumpkin decorations at the garden and it was so beautiful.




We walked through some of the greenhouses, and the two that I liked were the desert plants and the Bonzai exhibit. I've decided I want a Bonzai tree in my future office.




We then walked through the grounds, going through a rock garden...



a trip to the China garden...



and we even found a place to play. We had a great time. After a very late lunch, a quick nap back home, we returned to go see the magic lanterns after sunset. Us and half of Montreal that is. It was simply magical (just imagine the pictures below at night, with all the displays light up).

Mathieu builds a star destroyer and plays music

Sabrina is taking keyboard lessons at school and brought it home for the week. Mathieu enjoyed it.



And they like Star Wars. Mathieu built this lego star destroyer (he's 3).

Mathieu is sick

And Sabrina takes care of him in room #6. A glimpse in the future?



I forgot to say that she just started grade one, yet she already reads in English, and is starting to read very well in French. In fact, after a reading in class, her (great) teacher just said: "Wow!". That says a lot. We also have between 45 mins and an hour of homework every day.

Fall 2010

And so much has happened. School has started again, my dad was moved from Rimouski to Montreal (stayed 24 hours here and in residence, has been in hospital ever since). Suzanne has been very busy with work but things are good. This weekend was the first we were able to spend together as a family in a long time, even if the kids have hard colds.





At least I'm not driving to Rimouski every weekend now.

Sabrina is six years old

Can't believe our little girl is six years old already! We had a small party for her.