Je me souviens

Well, our car no longer screams "Alberta" which means that we have no excuse for bad parking jobs and weaving throughout traffic trying to find the right exit. We and the Boo are bona fide Quebekers, at least on the road that is! Alex and Steph will also find it really funny that our licence plate spells "PWD". Here are a couple of picutres of Steve giving the Boo her makeover. The background is our underground heated garage...NICE.
Two more sleeps till we come home. Cannot wait to see everyone!

Madeline Wilson

Our good friends Dave and Nicole had a beautiful baby girl on October 29, 2006 and we finally got our hands on some pictures of her. She is just so beautiful and we are just so excited to come home and meet her at Christmas!

A Touch of Alberta

Last weekend my parents visited us in Montreal. We had such a great time showing them around our condo and the city. They arrived Thursday night and we treated them to a Montreal special - steak and frits. Friday we went to a spa up by Mont Ste Gabrielle where we enjoyed the hot - cold - relaxation treatment followed by dinner with JD, Andy and their family. Saturday the ladies shopped and the men did art galleries and home renovations afterwhich we all regrouped for a night out at the Habs game. Sunday was a bit more sightseeing before we dropped them off at the airport. It was great to get a burst of home to prepare us for our return to Edmonton on December 9, 2006...only 8 days to go, I cannot wait! See you soon!

Jenny and Glenn

Last weekend Steve and I took a roadtrip to Ottawa to visit our good friends Jenny and Glenn. We had such a fun time! After a delicious and body concious breakfast of eggs benny and hashbrowns at Glenn's house in Kanata (a suburb just outside of Ottawa) we were off to enjoy a day at the spa. Le Nordik is located just outside of Ottawa in the Gatineau hills. You rotate between hot-cold-rest stations which means that you start with either a steam or a sauna and then a freezing cold waterfall followed by resting in a calming room sipping tea. You do this three or four times and then relax in a hottub to finish off. It was wonderful!

Hanging the Hook - Part Trois

Did I mention that we had a mascot?

Hanging the Hook - Part Deux

Did I mention that we had a mascot and a sponsor (tower of Base drink shown above), the music rocked so loud that the speakers blew and all of our neighbours still love us? Viewer discretion advised for the following photos!

Hanging of the Hook

This past Saturday we celebrated the "Hanging of the Hook" which in Alberta terms translates into the "House Warming Party". The Hanging of the Hook used to occur when someone built a new home and then hung the hook for their pots over the hearth. While we didn't actually hang the hook a lot of us ended up hung over!

Our first house warming gift came from the Quebec government a couple of weeks ago when they issued us what is known as the "Welcome tax" (a tax equal to your property taxes that must be paid each time you purchase a new property). However, lessening the pain somwhat significantly were Dom and Jenn's friends along with our Edmonton celebrity, Zippy Zarzeczny, and Steve's friends from school who came over to help us celebrate our new home. Attached please find 4 of the 5 blog appropriate pictures.

Note, the following all take place prior to our guests arriving!

Let's go Oilers, Let's Go!!

Steve, Jenn, Dom and I went to the Edmonton/ Montreal hockey game on Tuesday night! What fun and what bang for our buck - 4 goals, 40 fights, overtime, shootout, and to top it off we got to park where the players do! Throughout the game Steve and I loudly cheered for the Oilers, Jenn sat on the fence and Dom cursed, hissed and applauded with all the other Frenchies in the building that were cheering for the Habs. Here are a couple of pictures from the night. The Bently in the picture belongs to Saku Koivu and is worth +$350K. Just think, if we put our houses on wheels we all could compete!

I'm on a roll...

We really do live in the best area of town. Everything is close to our house - grocery stores, market, parks, restaurants, movie store, movie theatre, Rona, car inspection shop, winshield repair shop, Costco, recyle centre, UNESCO World Heritage Site - basically, you name it and we got it. Today it didn't start raining until later in the day so Jenn, Dom, Steve and I headed out for breakfast. Check out the line-up for the restaurant - that's how cool our neighbourhood breakfast spot is!

Also, we have ginormous squirrels in this neighbourhood. We thought of marketing them as purse squirrels, kinda like the celebarity purse dogs...if this take off good-bye law!
Anways, here are a couple more pictures from our hood.

Our Beautiful Wedding Gifts

This blog is mostly for my parents, my grandparents and for Steve's Grandma so that they can see the beautiful wedding gifts that they bought us. After scouring the city for furiture and lamps these were the pieces that we took home with us. Well, actually the Bay delivered a lot of it and the moving men we not impressed to find out that we live on the third floor and there is no elevator! They likely won't ever come back. Thanks again so much everyone, we love it all.

More of the Pad

I've been a bad blogger as of late. It's really not my fault though - more, Montreal's. See, as I have mentioned before, all it does is rain here which puts quite a damper on exploring and wandering around the city. Steve was having coffee with one of his profs last week and commented that this fall has not been that nice. His prof's reply, "Not that nice - this weather is Sh*t!". Well, I second that! And, what makes things even tougher is that with the daylight savings out here, it's pitch black at 4:30!

But, Montreal is known for its shopping and this is one indoor activity that we have been taking advantage of lately. We have been shopping up a storm for our new condo and basically have everything up and running. Jennifer also now has the skill set to be one of the IKEA dudes that drives around an puts together the furniture for an extra $100 bucks after spending all of last week assembling a mammoth wardrobe!

So...here are a couple more pictures of the condo with some of our new acquisitions. We have a housewarming party next Friday and of course everyone is invited but so far the only on to RSVP is Amy. Appetizers start at 6pm, pre-party hosted by "Frank the Tank" at Chez Magnon starts at 4. We promise it will be a good one...