Montreal for a Day: the NEST gets away from the nest.

ALL WORK AND NO PLAY...

Beautiful churches in MTL!

The new house has been all-consuming. Any of you who read our blog regularly already know this, of course, from reading many posts about the escapades and adventures we've been on while trying to prepare our nest. But there've been a couple of misadventures recently that showed we were both reaching the end of our patience and coping skills.

First off: turns out that if I see even a drop of Brian's blood, I get faint and start to gag--making me the worst First Responder ever and sorta a bad wife, because all I can do is shout out the location of the bandaids as I hang my head over a trashbin--and this is surprising because I have never had trouble with blood, cuts, or grossness before. But maybe more intriguing is that when Bri bumps his shin, stubs his toe, or hits his head, I cannot help but snicker. I don't understand how my brain works; why a gash on his thumb from a knife would make me puke, but a bone-crunching whack with a hammer would make me giggle, is beyond me. But there it is, and if it makes me an evil person, that's too bad because the best I can do is stifle my laugh.

Painty dog.

Secondly: it's vitally important to step away from projects like house repairs and GET OUT AROUND HUMANS. Brian works part time outside the house, but his bookkeeping business is home-based, and so naturally he's been the lead on some of the finishing touches on the house, like painting the living and dining rooms. I came home on Wednesday to find him painting a second coat on the dining room, and as we were talking, our pug Mr Darcy sat down and leaned against the freshly-painted wall. Brian hollered at him to get off, and with something akin to an eye-roll, Darcy stood up and moved away from the wall. His back was now painted a light buttery yellow, and the wall had a fur-textured patch the size of a toddler. (Mr Darcy is large and fat, in case you're not familiar with our pug dog.) Brian was livid about the texturized wall, and MJ, who I was on the phone with, suggested he just pick Darcy up, and texture the whole wall. "We'll call it 'pugging'," she added helpfully. When I relayed the idea to Brian, he looked me, doubled over in mirth and just raised on eyebrow. He then continued on with painting the room, pausing only to kick Darcy out of the way a couple times.

BREAK TIME.

So clearly we're all in need of a break, and I had the genius idea to spend the day in Montreal. It's only a couple hours away, and it had a few things I really wanted to see: the Biodome, a spot I love to visit; and Ben, my friend-and-former-summer-student who I miss keenly since he headed back to school. Add in the Montreal Comicon, plus my friend Hal, and you've got enough incentive to make us pile into the car and head down the road.

For anyone out there working on an all-consuming project like a house, I heartily recommend this type of adventure. The twelve hours we were away refreshed us both and gave us lots of good memories to get through the last of the house tasks. Now at least I can close my eyes and think of penguins while Brian is bleeding from any number of various house repair-related injuries. 

Here are photos for your enjoyment; I'll let them do their own talking. 

And Comicon...

Weapons check. Hilarious.

Everyone needs comics.

Tank Girl, because she's awesome.

The Flash waits for his date outside the ladies' room.

Yum.

Yep, that's Brent Spiner--Data from Star Trek.

Malcom McDowell

Even Starfleet captains need to stop for nourishment. Not from a replicator, this time.