We now return to your regularly scheduled programming… (English)
Posted by kanderson on Apr 29, 2008
So on the way from Ottawa to Montreal, we drove through a little town called Montebello. We later found out that it’s kind of the ritzy expensive area, but it didn’t overly impress us at the time. I think people have low standards here. :) Anyway, in Montebello, there’s a little tourist trap called Parc Omega. We’re tourists, so we got trapped.
Parc Omega started out as a private hunting area for a small group, but has been turned into a 2000 acre wilderness area/zoo. As you drive through the park, LOTS of animals will come up to your car in search of food. The recommended food is carrots, and naturally, the park sells them to you. It’s actually not a complete rip off either, at $2 for a bag of large carrots. You go through them pretty fast if you hand them out one at a time, but if you break them into small pieces, it’ll last for the whole drive, even if you share them with your kid, who blew through all of hers within what seemed like 10 feet of the gated opening… (ahem, hi Gina…)
In any case, it was VERY neat.
Gina was teasing the elk, and at one time had 2 of them in the truck chasing her half way across the seat for carrots, Giggling and smiling the whole time. The elk were clearly the main attraction here, partly because they’re the most forward and friendly, but partly because they’re just big, and unique to see. There are also wild boar, there were several little babies running around, and these were clearly the cutest animals in there. Additionally, there were several species of deer, and some ibex, and buffalo too.
Buffalo are far uglier than they look on TV. Up close they look cross eyed and stupid, or maybe this herd was just “special”. In any case, they were just shedding, which certainly increased the overall ugliness of them. (This is distracting, Melanie’s checking her face for pimples, and kinda poking and prodding at them when she finds them. IF she reads this, and asks me to remove it, I will, but in the mean time, I likely shouldn’t laugh out loud, so I won’t, I’ll just write it here for all to share. I’m such a great dad, eh?) The buffalo shed their fur in giant hunks. So when it peals off, it’s almost like a foot wide chunk of skin falling from their body. They’re also fairly bald underneath. So the difference is huge. Generally with a dog, the hair falls out and there’s just short hair left. But with these, it’s just all or nothing, and it’s thicker than a wool sweater. So I’d eat one, but I suspect they’re dumb. We weren’t supposed to feed them, because they CAN attack the truck in search of additional food. I promptly ignored the rule and fed them anyway because… 1) I hate my truck, and I’d likely feed them more of they could actually write it off. 2) that warning is probably aimed more at small cars, since in a car, the buffalo could see inside, and would be even with the windows. They couldn’t even see into the truck.
We saw several racoons. This isn’t new, we’ve seen lots, just generally, they appear more like pancakes, and appear on the side of the road, whereas here, they were sitting in a mini tree house, eating. One was climbing down. That was interesting. There was kind of a ladder thing for them to use to get up and down, but instead, he just climbed down the tree, head first… Which must be pretty freaky when you’re little… Or if you slip.. “careful, careful. CRAP!!!, this is gonna hurt…BANG…”
The ibex were ugly, period. Their horns are WAY too big for their bodies, and their eyes are ugly too, like a goat. There was one that was injured, I felt bad for him, but really, he was little, and I suspect the coyotes will put him out of his misery in fairly short order if he doesn’t heal quickly. Part of the goal of the park is to keep the environment natural. That includes the preditor - prey relationship. Which is likely a good thing…
The radio tells stroies while you drive, and we were told to expect that it would take about an hour to complete the drive. Well, 5 hours later, we were out of carrots, and the park was closing… So that’s likely enough… :) Anyways, it was really fun and I’d give it a reasonable access fee too. It was like what the pictures in some of the Disney/Busch parks promise in their brochures, but this was it actually happening…
There are supposed to be Moose in there too, but we didn’t see any. Gina kept calling the Elk Moose, but seems to have given up on that now. She’s a bit weird, I think she’s the embodiment of my mom’s curse on me “Someday, I hope you have kids just like you…” And when she knows she’s wrong, she doesn’t want to learn anything better, she’ll do it more, just cause she can.
In any case. It’s the weekend, and this is a good day to explore Montreal, so I won’t write too much more. There’s some stuff in Montreal that we’d like to investigate. My dad recommended Le Bifteque (or whatever) and our kids both love Poutine. Montreal smoked meat might make the menu too.
Wow, all I care about is food, and I just finished lunch. I am a sow. (and Lyle, not just with dip!)
Man, it’s amazing how often I write things aimed at people I KNOW don’t read this. Kinda funny.
BTW, You’ll also notice that there’s a Texan reading this, and he’s cheering for the Rangers. So if you’d like to let him know that Hockey is Canadian, please feel free to comment back to him. (Though after watching the Flames, we certainly don’t deserve it - Though in fairness, I have ALWAYS maintained that Kipper sucks. And he does. Just slowly more people are realizing it now…)
So here’s the real question, if I cheer for Montreal, is that a Canadian team? Hahaha. Also, for the record, Montreal is also called the “Habs”. What is a hab? Is it short for habitants? I dunno, but if you do, I’d like to know…
Over and out.
Apologies to those of you who speak French.
Posted by kanderson on Apr 29, 2008
Quand ont arrive en Quebec, Je dis a tout le mond, quand onts est dans Quebec, on parle le Francais. Nicole parle direccions a moi don Francais, et onts arrive ici OK. Les filles parle Francais quand elles jouez cartes ou quand elle jouez d’ahor. Et, je parle Francais aussi. Mais, pas bien 
Oui, je parle comme un bebe, mais je experimenter. J’etudier. J’aime erudition.
Mais maintenant, Anglais… :) Parce que beaucoup des person lit pas Francais.
Sur et dehors.
Teacher, Teacher.
Posted by kanderson on Apr 29, 2008
Well, Last week was the class I was scheduled to teach for Scalix.
It was quite disorganized, but for the most part, the student’s were protected from seeing it.
It was also very rushed, whereas the class I took wasn’t. We covered the same material, but we did it in only 60% of the time. Overall though, it went fine, and I’m happy with the outcome. I believe I made the students aware of what they needed to know, and I believe that it went pretty well.
In any case, I’m glad it’s done, though it does appear that I’ll be running another class in Chicago for the first week of June. (Nick, if you’re reading this, I’ll be there for your wedding, I wouldn’t miss it. No worries.)
The class ran from Wed-Thurs-Fri. We started building 8 desktops on Monday evening. With all the updates for Windows, Office and CentOS, it just took a long time to complete. But we finished it. Access to the classroom was given at slightly after midnight on Tuesday Night/Wed Morning. I finished setting up about 3 hours before the class started, so I was pretty tired for the first day. I think it went OK anyway.
In any case, we did manage to go for a quick tour in Ottawa on Thursday evening, after the class.
We toured the Youth Hostel in Ottawa, which used to be the Ottawa Gaol (Jail). In light of recent movies like Hostel, this must be a bit freaky to stay at. Nobody in our family has seen them, but Nicole and Melanie both said there was no way they’d stay in there. Gina took a pass on the tour. Not sure if that’s because she wanted to watch TV in the hotel room, or because she was scared, but in any case, she didn’t come.
Interestingly, Ottawa at one point was considered the most dangerous city in North America, so this jail was sorely needed at the time it was built in the 1800s. This Jail was also the site of 3 executions, including the last public execution in Canada. Two of the 3 executions were based on, shall we say, sketchy, evidence. Having said that, the person leading the tour was CLEARLY of a Liberal, anti-execution bend, so that may have been played up to support his bias; intentionally or not. Personally, I’m not sure where I stand on executions. I’m certainly OK with it in some cases, there’s talk about releasing Paul Bernardo early here, as an example. But clearly it can be overused as well.The Jail itself was interesting. The jail cells were 3×9 feet, on the top (8th) floor, we were told that initially there were no windows or heat, so it was REALLY cold in the winter. People did die from exposure. It was clearly built on the idea of punishment for wrongs, rather than reforming the person’s character. Again, this is a bit of a struggle for me, and somehow, I like both ideals, I’m just not sure yet how to reconcile them to work together. Color TV and spacious rooms are going too far in one direction, I’m OK with 12 hours of lockup and a 3×9 cell. On the other hand, freezing to death from exposure or even a lack of running water, seems over the edge. Since prisoners were not able to clean themselves regularly, many died from simple cuts once gangrene set in. The Prison hospital’s only solution was amputation, and as was simply the case in the 1800s, this was often a fatal operation, sometimes immediately, sometimes not. Having said that, this hospital was worse than most, and was closed after only 5 years of operation. From then, it was turned into the women’s section. Interestingly, if women were convicted, their children were sent to jail with them. What an ugly way to start a life.
After the class ended on Friday, we came to Montreal, which is where I’m writing from. I’ll follow up with that in another post…
Over and out.
Ottawa, without the liars.
Posted by kanderson on Apr 23, 2008
Ok, so I’m not THAT bitter.
Anyways, yesterday, we drove to Ottawa.
Cause you know how cool Parliamentary anything is. That’s TV worth watching, and news worth reading. Governments are cool, right?
Well, this is, actually. First of all, the buildings are totally wicked. They’re these huge old neo-gothic buildings, with copper roofs, and they just look really neat from the outside.
Then you go inside, and they’re just as cool!
BOTH of our kids decided they wanted to be politicians. (My advice? Don’t vote for them. Neither can administrate a clean bedroom, nevermind a country.) Anyways, The people were awesome, really friendly, and very interested in what they did. One of the people on our tour was a political journalist from the US. He was just awestruck with it all. I guess there just isn’t the same richness and history in the buildings there. But overall, it was quite impressive.
The buildings are built with Tyndal Limestone from Manitoba, for you trivia Buffs. The sculptures and stuff are works in progress, something is always changing or being updated. I think Gina struggled to stay as disinterested as possible, because this is EXACTLY what she’s learning about RIGHT NOW in history. So as much as she liked it, and though it was cool, she had to fight to hate it because it was also school. But that fell apart in the library.
The original parliament buildings burned down because they were build of white pine, with a very flammable varnish on it. So a small fire spread VERY fast, and eventually a few people even died because they couldn’t get out fast enough. The only thing that remains is the library. This is a stunningly beautiful room. A hardwood floor with several intricate designs inlaid, leads to walls of books and resources. The woodwork in this roon is amazing. Comparable to the woodwork done by that guy who had build a wooden Ferrari, and other crazy neat stuff like that. Maybe better. It’s a shocking room, worth seeing for anyone. If you have the chance, stop in for the tour. It’s free, and I can honestly say, worth more than it cost.
After the tour, we drove over into Hull, Quebec, just over the river. It’s a different world. There’s just French EVERYWHERE. So we stopped at the grocery store (I didn’t bother asking directions, CLEARLY, it doesn’t speed anything up anyway) grabed some batteries, and some water. The darn French have some strange obsession with sugar (which is awesome for Gina), so the store had sponge taffee out. Nicole grabbed some, and quick, Gina drooling and begging… Gina’s MEAN dad told her that she wasn’t allowed to get it unless she spoke to the store clerk in French, ONLY. So she did. Strangely, I think I understood the conversation better than Gina did. Partly because it’s routing in any language.
“Did you find everything you were looking for”
“How will you be paying for that today”
“Do you have any coupons”
“Do you have a loyalty card”
“Stripe down and facing out”
“Please enter your PIN number”
“Have a nice day”
Lets face it, it’s an autopilot conversation.
I remember a friend being offended when he asked how someone was, and the person didn’t say fine, but rather said awful, and proceeded to tell them about it. “like I cared…” was the comment, I believe. But really, it’s true. We never ask because we care, it’s autopilot.
Anyway, off we went, and out to the truck. Melanie almost fainted when she saw the taffee, she loves it. Gina tried it, and didn’t like it at all. Nicole said she likes it, but doesn’t like when it sticks to your teeth. I like to think I showed them how to eat it. You eat it like you drink a sno-cone. You suck out the flavor (or in this case, let it melt out). Then when you have a ball of nothing left, you spit it out - before it sticks to your teeth.
Anyways, after that, we went to the Museum of Civilization. It was just the normal museum. Nothing spectacular. I learned something, I can’t remember what. It wasn’t important, just more trivia. I was offended that there wasn’t more about Terry Fox, and less about Trudeau. I don’t care about Trudeau.
Wait, I remember… I learned about Tommy Douglas, the guy who came up with the idea of Medicare. He had a leg injury that would have left him without a leg, except for the Dr thought this would be a good subject for his students to see. So they did the operation for free, and it saved his leg. He decided from there that medical attention should be free for everyone, and worked hard to get there. First in Sask, and then the rest of Canada. Interestingly, it was clearly an uphill battle, which is especially interesting because it happened so recently, 1961 for Canada, and yet people love the idea so much. Anyway, Keifer Sutherland, the actor, is his grandson. Not sure why that matters? Actually, it likely doesn’t. But The Lost Boys and Flatliners were both good movies, so I thought I’d mention him anyway…
Wait, is that Darryl reading? I meant to say Young Guns… That was the cool movie. No vampires or Sci Fi here, no-sir-ee! None of that foolishness when there’s a good ol’ western available…
I know, he’s also in 24, but I’ve never seen it, so I can’t comment on it. It sounds like a MacGyver ripoff though.
Speaking of (crazy offtopic rabbit trails?) TV shows, ahem, Stingray was pushed ack, so it STILL isn’t available on a DVD set yet. So those of you who had planned to get it for me for Christmas last year, you can stop looking now. It’s supposed to be out now sometime. But I don’t know exactly when, and I’m too tired/lazy to google when the new release date is…
Anyways, there you go.
I understand French better than Gina, likely because I like to practice “french” with my wife… Before the kids toss their cookies, I’ll stop there. Gotta keep this G rated…
Speaking of French… It’s time for bed..
Over and out.
Prescott & Ottawa.
Posted by kanderson on Apr 23, 2008
We’re staying just outside Prescott, right against the border. Actually, the kids rented a canoe and boated ON the border. We’re camped RIGHT on the St. Lawrence River, so you can see the US across the river.
Down the road is a Fort, it’s too early in the season, so we aren’t allowed in yet, but it looks interesting enough. (Yes, that’s meant to be a letdown, as much as it was a letdown for us to see it, but to be able to see it. We should still be in the US.)
There was a teeny lighthouse out on a man made rock peninsula. Gina and I walked all the way out. Melanie was too lazy (or was scared of the spiders, not sure which, she’d deny both) and Nicole still wears those useless flipflops that haven’t allowed her to walk anywhere interesting since we started this trip. (And she’s still saying she’ll get a “real” pair of sandals, but she won’t). In their defense, it was pretty boring. I think Gina and I both just like exploring for the sake of exploring, so that was neat. Some of the rocks are big, and occasionally, they move as you walk on them. Gina didn’t like that, so she always wanted me to lead the way. I think it’s scarier for me, realizing that these rocks easily way several hundred pounds, and I’d never be able to move one if it trapped my leg, or Gina’s. So then I thought about the recovery for us, 500 feel out on these stupid rocks, with no real access other than walking out behind, where we had walked. Quickly, I decided that I should think about something else.
Earlier in the day (It’s my story, I’ll screw up the chronology if I so please) I had been looking for a grocery store. Being a guy, I asked directions. Yes, I ask directions. But not always, sometimes I’m stubborn. Not this time. I was hungry, and I needed eggs for breakfast. So I asked. “Take Main street, and turn right just before the bridge. You can’t miss it.”
She was some older lady. I didn’t think she’d lie to me. Apparently she did. So I stopped at a Mac’s store and asked an attendant there. “Yep. Just go up main street, and turn before the bridge.”
“I can’t find main street”. I said.
“Oh, sorry, it isn’t actually called Main. It’s whatever street. (I can’t even remember, mostly because I was trying to decide if I should laugh or cry that this was 2 for 2 people telling me to take a street that doesn’t exist. You know you’re in a small town when…) So anyway, I went up 2 sets of lights. Same street as before. I’ve looked both ways on every street leading up to the bridge. No sign of the “You can’t miss it” store.
I can, and I am…
And, for the record, you friggin’ people are all liars.
At this point, since nobody knows the names of the streets, and the certainly don’t know where the heck this store I can’t miss is, I decide to explore. It’s been an hour, I’m on a 5 minute run to the gas station for eggs (which they DID have, but I opted to pass on, since they were dated for March.) Anyway, I drove up and down every street in town. It’s like Unity, there aren’t many streets, that sounds like there are a lot. There aren’t. It was just as fast as asking another liar^h^h^h^hperson for directions. (Some day, I’ll explain that. For now, just know that it amuses me, and if it amuses you too, you’re one of the cool people.) 10 minuted of driving later, I’ve covered every road. No store.
You people are all liars, I’m crossing the bridge.
Now, I should say, when we were in Fenelon Falls, we were warned, that if you take a wrong turn, you’re going to the US, Like it or not, cause there’s no way to turn around. So I was a bit hesitant to cross the bridge. But I figured, at least the Freakin’ USians would know where they sold eggs.
So I drove to the top of the bridge. Guess what I saw..
Another bridge.
And the turn off to the grocery store.
So here’s the moral. If you tell people not to cross the bridge, they won’t. EVEN IF YOU DON”T TELL THEM THAT IT”S THE SECOND BRIDGE THAT THEY AREN”T SUPPOSED TO CROSS.
Arg…!
I’ll write about Ottawa later. I’m getting all tense writing about this…
Over and out.