stranger every day

This is how happy I was when I still had the black jacket (see above) that I got for my birthday.

After the last time I visited my grandma's house, I couldn't find it when I was packing up to leave. I figured my mom had already grabbed it or something. I should have known something was fishy when my grandma brought up a completely different black jacket (with giant shoulder pads) to my parents' place, saying "Oh, here's that jacket of yours you were looking for."

Guess, just guess where my brother (who has been living at my grandma's) told me my ACTUAL jacket is?

It is now owned by the man who lives in my grandma's garage. Worse, my grandma, who knew he had, sent a decoy jacket to me to try to fool me.

isn't she lovely?

Jessica channeled her inner witch at Westmount City Hall.

proof that my neighbourhood is a strange locale

Last night while we were at the local pub, we saw an old man who had drank so much Boreal beer that he brought it right back up all over the floor...and lost his dentures with it.

Les Jardins Botaniques de Montreal

Our friend Jessica is moving back to Winnipeg in a few weeks, so she has come up with a "to-do" list of all the places and things she wants to see and do before leaving the city. One of the more subdued activities was a visit to Montreal's botanical gardens and insectarium. We sat on the banks of a pond in the Japanese garden, watching coy fish suck the shoreline grass, and frolicked in trees like little kids. I know I rave about Montreal, but really, it's incredible how much there is to do. Gah! How am I going to move away from this city?

Here are the rest of my photos.

ready for close-ups

Lately, thanks to a dear friend of mine, I have had the opportunity to start doing some professional photography. I have always enjoyed doing photoshoots with friends, so photographing people for money is pretty damn sweet. I would love to do freelance photography in the future, or the present. My grandma told me I'm "not assertive enough" to do it as a profession, but my grandma also told me to get a job at McDonalds to learn the value of an education (after I had just completed my B.A.) so, I take her career advice with a grain of salt.

I've decided to keep my paid stuff private for the time being, but here you can see some ones I did just for fun last weekend.

oh the places to go

Okay, so maybe there are a lot of awesome aspects to the "flexible" schedule of grad student life. For example:

Baking my first pie from scratch...


Calling it a day early to meet friends for shared pitchers of sangria, and strolling through Old Montreal...









Realizing the fact that your boyfriend bought Feist tickets in the wrong city (Quebec City instead of Montreal) can make for a fun (albeit impromtu) road trip...







Doing a double take after realizing that yes, you did just walk by Steve Carell, and yes, if you grab your camera fast enough, you can still get a creepy photo of him...


...and that you can take your schoolwork and a picnic lunch to the park beside the movie set of Get Smart to form "Carell Watch '07" in hopes of seeing him (or, even more exciting, The Rock, who also stars in the film).


Checking out Montreal's International Beer Festival, which is absolutely amazing, and a great deal.


Things are good.