carmanahwoo

Well, Ghis and I are on a blogging roll these days. I am so tired tonight that I’m not sure what I’m going to write about. Lots of corrections lately, but I can see the end in sight. Classes end in one month. We are reading lots these days. Ghis is reading a couple of books by Maxime Mongeon, the principal of Morgane’s alternative school, and he’s also reading Trudeau’s biography. I am reading Theresa Kishkan’s essays: Phantom Limb. The story about the death of her thirteen year old wolfy dog had me in tears. I’m also enjoying reading the writing of the other people in my course. Even that will soon be finished for Christmas. So, it looks like this year I’ll get to bake a few cookies. Hurray!

Lots of pumpkins still around.Ghis says I should chop them up before I put them in the compost, but this chopping doesn’t appeal to me. Just stuff ’em in there, right? Well, I’m off to stuff myself into me bed. Good night!

Les photos gagnantes de notre concours “Choisissez votre photo favorite” sont enfin sélectionnées. Nous allons les faire développer, les encadrer et les accrocher dans notre cage d’escalier.

Fait à noter: Andréa et Carla avaient sélectionné les trois photos gagnantes. Carla les avaient même choisies dans l’ordre gagnant.

Merci à tout ceux et celles qui ont participées.

Pictures” contest are out! We will get them printed and framed for our stairwell. Thank you for participating.

It is interesting to mention that both Andrea and Carla have picked the three winning shots. Carla even had selected all the pictured in the same order as the final selection.

Thanks to everyone who participated.

Numero 1

Numero 2

Numero 3

Well, Halloween is over, but the pumpkin is still sitting there by the front door. The initial excitement of kindergarten is starting to wear off and Morgane is pretty tired. Ghis has a few stores to open, so he’s working long hours. And me? It’s not so bad, but it’s that time of the session when marking piles up and there is still prep to be done.

I’m still enjoying trampoline classes a lot, and Morgane is, too. Her best friend from school, Magalie, happens to be in her class – what are the chances? Thank you Murphy for giving us this break. I can do back flips by myself now even though it scares the crap out of me. Front flips are fine and I’m working on adding a twist at the end.

Writing is going well, too. I’m enjoying my class so much that I find it hard to pull myself away from it. So, even when I have to do other things, my mind is often still on my stories. I’m learning a lot. Already, I can almost imagine teaching a creative writing course. So far, we’ve written memoir and one travel essay. In the spring, we’ll write a nature essay and a personal essay. My stories have gotten much longer since starting this course. Michelle came with me in Ottawa to hear my teacher, Wayne Grady, give a reading. We both enjoyed it and promised to go to more literary events together.

At home, we are enjoying our backyard. We’ve done a lot of work clearing it over the past years. Now we are actually waiting for an offer on our house and land. If we get what we want, we’ll probably take a year off and travel about. We’re thinking of buying a Westfalia in Europe. The great thing about my courses is that I can do them from anywhere. And the great thing about my job is that I can leave it for a year without losing it.

I really have been wanting to blog more, so now that the leaves are off the trees around here, let’s see if I can turn over a new leaf…

Bon matin!

J’ai enfin eu mes nouveaux kayaks hier. Je suis allé les essayer sur le lac St-Joseph à St-Adolphe de Horward. Mon ami César et moi sommes embarqués sur l’eau vers 17h15 et avons allègrement pagayés jusqu’à 20h. C’était la première fois pour César.

Nous sommes revenus à la lueur de nos frontale. Avant d’arriver à la berge, on est arrêté au milieu du lac, à la noirceur, et on s’est tapé une bonne bière en regadant le ciel étoilé. Première classe. De plus, on était en t-shirt. Le 6 octobre… Quoi de mieux? Ben, on est allé souper avec mon amie Johanne au pied de sa montagne. Bonne chair, bon amis, après une bonne sortie en kayak. Bonheur.

Bonne fin de semaine de l’action de grâce. Ayez une pensée pour mon père qui va la passé à l’hopital…
Ghislain

Bonjour. Roulez jusqu’à http://www.flickr.com/photos/famillehuskies/sets/72157602114316371/with/370795907/ pour jeter un coup d’oeil aux finalistes du concours.

Good day! Go to http://www.flickr.com/photos/famillehuskies/sets/72157602114316371/with/370795907/ to take a look at our contests finalists.

Merci de votre participation.
Thank you for participating.

Bonjour à tous le monde.
Hello to all.

Nous lançons ce soir un concours.
We’re launching a contest tonight.

Nous vous invitons à choisir vos trois photos préférées sur notre site flickr (http://www.flickr.com/photos/famillehuskies/).
We’d like to invite you to pick your three most favorite pictures from our picture site on Flickr (http://www.flickr.com/photos/famillehuskies/).

Nous allons afficher sur notre blog les photos gagnantes à la fin du concours, soit le 15 octobre 2007.
At the end of the contest on Octobre 15th 2007, we will unveil the 3 winning shots you have selected.

Envoyez-vos entrer au concours au courriel: transithuskies@gmail.com
Send your entries to the following e-mail address: transithuskies@gmail.com

Malheurusement, il n’y a rien a gagné pour vous sinon que nous allons imprimer les trois photos gagnantes et les mettre au mur de notre cage d’escalier.
Unfortunatly, you will not win anything other the pride of knowing that we will print the three winning pictures and install them in our stairway.

Bonne chance.
Ghislain

Our trip to Maine last week was excellent, I did not want to come back. We picked Louise up on Friday afternoon and left for a 3 hours ride to a campground in Maine at the Québec border. We had a nice dinner in a surprisingly good restaurant in the middle of nowhere.

We woke early on Saturday and had a leisurly peanut butter sandwich breaky. While I packed the camping gear, Morgane and Heather went to play on a nice playground and Louise went for a stroll with Carmanah. Very efficient of us.

We got the the Coast at around 3 after a very slow and pleasurable drive and stop and drive and stop and drive. We hooked up with our hosts (couchsurfing.com) and left our stuff to head for the beach before dinner. The water was really cold so we did not linger. Dinner was pretty good and we all had fresh fish.

On Sunday, we had breakfast with our hosts and left to go to Popham beach. We walked around, I did some reading (Harry Potter’s last) and walked some more. Morgane and Carmanah had a hay time.

We had dinner with our hosts at their incredible house. We left on Monday morning with the sense we had made an new extension to our family. Morgane was hugging them like she had known them all her life.

We made a quick affair of the drive back. Within 5 hours, we were back at Louise’s place and an hours and a half later, back at home. Went to bed early.

On Tuesday morning, I got up to realise that my kayak had been stolen. Right from the roof of my car in our own driveway. What nerve some people have. It makes me want to leave this neigbourhood and get lost in the woods, away from crime ridden cities.

So much can happen so fast.

Woo went to his last sleep on April 27th 2007. To the last minute, he stayed true to himself, strong, wild and vulnerable. Our family life as changed with his departure. I still dream about him now and then. I cherish those seldom visits from Woo to my sleep as vigourously as I hold on to the memories I have of our adventures together. He was one hell of a good companion.

Heather’s school year finished and we’re already days away from her return to André-Grasset. A lot of new in this department. First, she went back to school in July. This prompted us all to go to British Columba for a visit to Andrea and Glen and other friends. Then she will be teaching a 40% course load to allow time for her Master’s demands. Finaly, she is one half head of Grasset’s English department. The other half is her estimed collegue, musician and friend Bruce.

Morgane’s last Summer at daycare is also coming to an end. She had a busy one. The annual trip to BC was a good opportunity to make friends with other kids of our friends. Her personal growth is more easily noticable when put in the context of BC visits. We remember how she was last year in contrast to this year.

She is now in great preparation for her 5th birthday. It promises to be the event of the year. Already, Heather has purchased the goods necessary for this world class happening.

September will also be Morgane’s debut in the scholastic world. There is an alternative school just blocks away and that is where she will walk to, 5 days a week for the next 7 years. We are looking forward to joining this new community. It promises a lot of new friends and activities.

As for me, well, I got PJ’s. I have not worn PJ’s since my very young years. I had been thinking about getting some for a while now. Heather made me a nice top and bottom a couple year’s back but their too warm for Summer. Big news…

Work is work. I am not too uncomfortable there at the moment.

I try to put in 2 to 3 kayaking outing a week. So far, so good. I have a nice group of friends from work that love it as much as I do. We go to Laurentian lakes on week night. This week-end, we will be in Gatineau for the twin’s 35th birthday. I am hoping to sway someone to come with me on an expedition in Parc de la Gatineau. Wish me luck.

I must go and get packed. Everybody is up now. Bath, breakfast, packing and up, we’re on our way in less than an hour. I love our family…

We went swimming with Morgane last night. She is truly amazing. She swam the full length of the pool four times without any help. She wears her googles and just comes up to breathe now and then. She does sommersaults in the water all by herself and loves to kick her way down to touch the bottom of the pool with her hands, even where the water comes up to my head. She floats around underwater like a synchronized swimmer and when she does her lengths, she looks like she’ll be swimming the English channel one day – she is so determined. But she is perfect right now, a little mermaid enjoying her time in the blue water with her Papa.

Hello! I got the news yesterday that I am one of the finalists in the Laval photo contest. It is put on by the city with four prizes ; the highest is $1000. There are 22 finalists and we will be displayed at the city hall, and the night of the show, they will announce the winners. Yippee! The picture is of Morgane in the autumn leaves, and most of you haven’t seen it since I blocked public access to it on Flickr. I’ll let you know when I have some news.

I have to say that anyone reading this Blog must be a true fan because our updates have been few and far between, which is not to say that nothing interesting has been happening in our lives.

Today, I am happy to say. my Mom came through her heart surgery, and it went very well, and took less time than anticipated. I hope she’ll be through the worst of this by her birthday. If the recovery is hard, it’s still probably nothing compared to the four-month wait.

Ghis is in Sherbrooke tonight. Morgane is sick, and she’s coughing a lot in bed. I hope she manages to sleep a bit and me, too.

What else is new? I have a laptop and cell phone and my own office (in anticipation of starting my writing classes this summer). I’ve also been taking a photography class, so I can learn how to use our camera on manual. It’s been a lot of fun, and very interesting. I’m starting singing lessons next week, and I still go to trampoline twice a week. Soon I will attempt a back-flip without my teacher’s help (yikes!). It can be a little tiring, but these activities inspire me and make up for the boring parts of teaching, such as correcting papers that not even the author cares about.

Ghis still loves tennis, and often leaves at the crack of dawn to play. If it’s not tennis, then he must be having an affair with a rooster.

We have been invited to visit Morgane’s future school to observe how the classes function at the primary and intermediate levels. We are looking forward to joining this community. Hopefully, we’ll meet some other freaks there.

Woo has become old, almost overnight. Now he lives in the house, going out only to pee and do other unmentionables. He sleeps in his cage since otherwise, he sometimes finds it convenient to do these things in the house. Carmanah is still happy outside. She keeps a watch over her corner of the yard, and she won’t even come inside when she’s trying to protect her food from our backyard squirrels.

Well, aren’t I chatty tonight? You’re just the most interesting person I’ve talked to all day. Am I actually talking to myself? Did I just give myself a compliment? Maybe I’d better get to bed. I’m just scared of falling asleep and being woken up and falling asleep and being woken up. The other day I felt like I did when Morgane was a baby. I forgot what being sleep-deprived feels like.

We might get out of town this weekend for Easter, with a stop in Drummondville. But, where to go? Maybe Quebec City and Ile d’Orleans or who knows. It doesn’ t matter. Sometimes the best conversations happen in the car. When Morgane sleeps.

Good night my friends…
Snowfeather