Good Friday in Montreal

Seriously, we don't make Bryson sleep in the closets when we travel. It's all his idea. I mean, one time we made McKay sleep in the trunk, but that's a long story. The closet in this hotel even has it's own light that Bryson rigged up with an extension to the cord so he could turn out the light when he was done reading.

We started out the day with a bus tour of the city. One stop was at la Basilique Notre-Dame. It bears resemblance to Notre Dame in Paris, but it's smaller and no gargoyles.

They were holding Good Friday services, so we didn't get to go in. Maybe tomorrow. We did see the procession leaving the church with a guy holding a cross at the lead.

The tour bus dropped us off at one of the look outs on Mount Royal (Montreal, get it?). We happened to have 3 pairs of binoculars in the back pack. I try to be prepared for any occasion. Bryson, Parker, and McKay below.

After the tour was over we explored the underground mall that stretches for miles and then caught the Metro to go to the Biodome.

The Biodome is an old Olympic venue that has been converted into an indoor zoo of sorts. It has 4 habitats that you walk through and see animals and plants that live there. It was very cool. McKay and Bryson's favorite was the otters, David's was the tamarind monkeys.

After the Biodome, we took the Metro to near our hotel where we hiked up to another Mount Royal look out.

Montreal is a beautiful city. McKay says he likes it better than Paris. Not me. But it has it's own charm.

Bon Jour from Montreal!

The boys are out of school Friday for Good Friday (one of the perks of living in New York, we get all the Christian and Jewish holidays off) so we planned a quick getaway to Montreal. We had planned to stay until Easter morning, but yesterday David's dad, Walt, went to his Dr. and found that the leukemia is returning quickly and they wanted him to start Chemo today. They admitted him to the hospital today, although they normally do this regimen as outpatient, but they didn't want to wait until Monday to start, so they had to do it inpatient. 5 days of Chemo, 4 weeks off, then repeat. For anyone that's counting, yes, this is round 4 with leukemia. Since each time he's faced it he's had less than a 50% chance of survival, we can't take the statistics very seriously anymore when it comes to him. I think he has something against statisticians and he's out to prove that he's above their rules. That's fine with us. He can go right on proving them all wrong. Anyway, Walt was supposed to be talking in church for Easter, so David is going to deliver his talk, so we'll only stay until Saturday.

Montreal is interesting so far. It seems a little strange that a city only 4 hours from my house could seem so foreign. It's probably the whole french speaking thing. We were hoping it would be like Paris. I haven't seen much that's like Paris, but maybe tomorrow.

Parker, David, and I set out in search of dessert after we got settled in the hotel room here in Montreal. After stopping by an ATM I noticed a guy following us and watching us while occassionally texting. I had a bad feeling about him. I prompted David to cross the street and we started walking back from where we came. The guy turned and started walking back the way we were going while talking on his phone and crossing over to our side and occasionally glancing at us. We decided to cross the street and duck into a retaurant (more to get away from the guy than to find a dessert) and right in front of the restaurant was another guy with the same cell phone, talking on it and watching us. We quickly walked into the restaurant and decided we were getting a table and staying for a while. A group of the guys were talking outside the restaurant for a couple of minutes then we couldn't see where they went. The restaurant hailed us a cab after we had some dessert and we took it the 2 blocks to the hotel. The guys probably had the ATM staked out. I was mentioning to the boys only an hour before that I read how safe the city was any time of day or night. We're not mentioning it to McKay or Bryson until we leave. We don't want them to be scared. Parker's a little shaken, though.

Is it safe?

Bryson participated in the Voorheesville Elementary Science Fair tonight. His subject was "Is it safe? Lead in toys". With a little help from XOS, he had the right tools to test some of the toys around the house. Good news, the toys he tested from our house were safe. Here is a picture of Bryson showing it to his teacher, Miss Hillard.

I got to act as "Visiting Scientist" for the night and talk to kids about their projects. The kids love to explain their project to a real scientist.

35!

Can you believe it's the number of worms that were on the sidewalk from my car to the door at work? Ewww!

Bryson went to work with me so he could work on his science fair project (not every 9-year-old has access to world class scientists and equipment, so we take advantage of it. I'm pretty sure most of the parents at the science fair didn't understand his project 2 years ago. The principal commented, "That seems really advanced for a 2nd grader." It was, but it was all his idea. I just helped him understand the concepts behind the science. He understood and could explain it perfectly). When we were walking into the building he was counting rythmically and I thought he was counting the number of sidewalk squares to the door. When we got to the door he said "35!" I said, "There's 35 squares to the door?" "Nope, 35 worms." Ewww!

Karaoke and sewing don't mix

I just got the wierdest phone call from home. McKay was singing karaoke and was annoying Parker who was sewing. So Parker took the cord to the karaoke, so McKay took the cord to the sewing machine. And thus began the standoff.

Anyone who knows my (or any) 15 and 17-year-old boys has to ask, what in the world were they doing anywhere near karaoke or sewing? Good question. Parker is working on a service project for his Citizenship in the Community merit badge for scouts and is make some baby quilts for a local homeless shelter. Sorry, that's what you get when you ask mom to help you find an 8 hour service project that can be completed in 5 days in his spare time. McKay and karaoke...still a mystery. This is the kid that dropped out of chorus as soon as mom would let him. I came home and found him singing last night. Although, it might have something to do with the fact that he's grounded from the computer, TV, movies, and video games.

Word to the wise...don't leave your teenage sons home sewing and singing karaoke at the same time without a referee.

The family that pulls together sticks together!

That's what I was looking for! Walt gets 1st place in the clever quip contest. Is anyone surprised?

Pulling Taffy

I'm serious, the Gibson family had a taffy pull tonight. Bryson got some laffy taffy at church and asked if they really pulled taffy. So I just had to show him. I haven't done it for years, but the recipe still works. The boys had a great time and the blisters on their fingers will heal soon enough. Just kidding.

The family that pulls together, ummm...uhhh...man! it sounded like such a good way to start a clever phrase. Sorry, I've got nothin.

My Young Women!

I ran across this picture from New Beginnings earlier this year. Being YW President is challenging and a lot of work, but moments like this make it all worth it. Aren't they beautiful!?!

I curse all software programmers

OK, so I'm working on a project at XOS where I'm the Project Manager for a new ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning which is code for "software that runs everything in the company") software implementation.

The thing is that we chose a brand new release of the software because it has some functionality on the financial side that they didn't have in the old release. Unfortunately, there are way too many bugs for my liking. I feel like a beta tester. I'm on a first name basis with 4 tech support people at the software company and have talked to about 10 others. It's starting to wear on me.

Luckily, I have the support of an awesome implementation team (oh, and don't forget company President - thanks, honey) that is as willing as I am to set unrealistic goals and then make them happen. Darn overachievers!

Out of Touch...

I feel like I've been out of touch with the world lately. 2 weeks ago the motherboard on my laptop died. Such a hassle! No data was lost (plus I back up the things I really care about frequently, so I wasn't too nervous about that), but I depend on the computer so much! Even something as simple as I wanted to make some fresh lemonade and my favorite recipe is online, I turned to my empty computer desk and grumbled as the empty desk mocked me. I now have my new laptop and it will take me weeks to configure it the way I want it again, but now I can blog!

We've been unbelievably busy even without my computer. David's free time has been dominated with a Superintendent search and interviews for the School Board as well as church responsibilities (if he volunteers for anything else, I'm going to scream!).

I have been working mostly full time and the project team is great, but the product we're working with is riddled with problems that I am constantly having to work out to try and keep the team working. Throw in being Young Women's President at church, Young Women's Camp Certification Leader, and, oh yea, all the mom stuff - I barely have time to breathe (if I can't say "no" to anything else I'm asked to do, I'm going to scream!).

A pathetic example of how busy we are is that one of our cars ran out of gas close to home, so it has been sitting in the driveway for two weeks and we've been driving the other two cars because we can't find time to grab the gas can and get gas. Totally pathetic.

Anyway, I'm back online and feeling human again.