Mmmmm.....tasty!

I just took a walk down memory lane as Adam directed me to this article in the Detroit Free Press:

Guinea Pigs for Dinner

While not completely thrilled by any French Canadian cuisine (yet), I was a bit humbled by the memory of my diet in Ecuador. Not even a 'no thank you' helping of cow liver or pit fired guinea pig for me, thanks.
Though, we are really really curious about the "crispy spinach" which we have now been served twice at Chinese/ Korean restaurants. Somehow the chef crispifies the spinach and then covers it in SUGAR?! But not for dessert. What? Is that authentic?

Adam and Ralph enjoying aforementioned snow.

Mother Nature Reads Our Blog

There is SNOW in Montreal! We have been graced with more than 17 centimeters of snow since Tuesday morning and I am thrilled...really. After weeks of hearing about the abundance of snowfall from friends in the Mid-West, particularly in Southwest Michigan, I started to get anxious for our own winter wonderland. Mother Nature most certainly read my plea on this blog for a winter I could appreciate.
WooHoo!
This storm was preceded by one of the coldest days I can remember (like Minnesota cold...as in your teeth feel cold and you can imagine the icicles on the inside of your lungs cold). Luckily, the system has warmed up a bit...unfortunately, enough to create some frozen rain overnight, a recipe for disaster on the roads. I literally just saw the Montreal Gazette change the headline from "Icy morning for Montrealers" to "Snowy morning for Montrealers." As long as we don't have to drive anywhere, I'll be thinkin' this snow is just the bee's knees.
Adam is still riding his bike, yikes...but, rest assured he wears a helmet and has reflexes like a kid who has been bouncing back from skateboard falls all his life.

Homeward Bound, soon anyhow...

Loyal Blog Followers,

I hope our absence has not caused our loyal readers dismay or caused defection. We have been quite busy as of late with our respective jobs and the like. I have my first Ph.D. committee meeting this week and have been preparing for that as well as organizing reviews and answering questions as part of my duties as TA for the evolution class. The final exam for said class was originally scheduled for Monday the 8^th but had to be moved due to Quebec’s provincial election. So… it was held today! I can’t imagine the students thought it very ‘cool’ (that’s a word the youngsters here use to describe something they like) to have an exam at 9am on a Sunday but, you know, it builds character. With the exam out of the way I now get to spend the coming week grading all of them!!!

!!!IMPORTANT NEWS ALERT!!!

For those interested Grace and I will be coming back to our great state of Michigan on the 20^th of December and will be there probably until the 4^th of January. To say we are excited would be somewhat of an understatement. You could employ almost any adjective, positive and negative, to describe our life so far here in Montreal and our first four months of marriage (err…only positive adjectives here, OF COURSE!). A bit of a recharge and some ol’ home for the holidays spirit (read: getting fat on Connie’s (Grace’s mom) food and a few drinks at Crunchy’s) is just what the doctor ordered.

END IMPORTANT NEWS ALERT.

We made kombucha tea this past Friday. This effectively means putting a little disc of bacteria and yeast into sugar sweetened tea, with the result being a slightly sweet, acidic tea that of course, like any good oddball food from East Asia, has numerous purported health benefits. After the Christmas break we plan to start vermicomposting to get rid of our organic waste. Living on the third floor of an apartment building in the city is not very conducive to compost piles and constantly throwing away vegetable matter really eats at my conscience. I’ll spare the details of what vermicomposting actually entails as they might offend the sensibilities of some of our readers.

Anyway, we look forward to seeing those of you that we will and wish we could see those of you that we won’t!

- A & G

P.S. Canada has been experiencing somewhat of a political meltdown/crisis/kerfuffle lately. You should check it out.

Birds of a feather...

Over the weekend Adam and I each had our own moments of great naivety or airheadedness. That we both have these ditsy moments assures, for me anyway, that we are in fact as compatible as we pretend to be.

In explaining to me that an evolution exam will be rescheduled over a weekend....
Adam: "There is a law that says that the university can't schedule exams on a provincial election day."
Grace: "Oh really?"
Adam: "Yeah, so it's got to be that Sunday the 7th because the provincial elections are on the 8th."
Me: "Oh, the election is that Monday?"
Adam: "Is it a Monday? I don't know."
Grace: "Umm, well you just said that Sunday is the 7th."
Adam: "Oh...then yeah."

And then in my moment of glory.....
Last night we went to see Synecdoche, New York. Since then we've been collaboratively trying to interpret the film's abstract themes (not an easy feat). The movie going experience came up again this morning.
Grace: "Oh hey, this has nothing to do with the movie, but did you see the woman who came out of the bathroom with me? Her jacket looked just like one of those SECURITY parkas but it said ANTI-PIRACY in block letters on the back."
Adam: "No, I didn't see that. Wow."
Grace: "Yeah, she must feel pretty strongly about napster and stuff to make a statement like that with her outfit."
Adam: "No, I think she probably worked for the theater and makes sure nobody pirates the movies."
Grace: "Oh, yeah."

Oh goodness.

Sunday with the Serbs

We live on Avenue Melville here in lovely Westmount, and coincidentally, there is also a Serbian Orthodox church on the Avenue. As you may or may not know I (Adam writing) have been to Serbia and have actually been in the company of Patriarch Pavle, the most important man in the Church. The reasons for my being in Serbia would require quite a long explanation but here's the short version. During World War II my grandpa, Clare Musgrove, was flying in a B24 on its way to Romania to bomb the Ploesti oil fields. His plane was shot down over the then Yugoslavia and he fell, quite literally, into the hands of a group of Serbians sympathetic to/under the leadership of General Draza Mihailovich who subsequently led his, and many other's evacuation out of the country and back to safety. In 2005 my grandpa (who I accompanied, see photo below) and a few other airmen posthumuously presented the Legion of Merit award to Mihailovich's daughter. For more detailed information, BUY THIS BOOK!, it features my grandpa's story quite heavily and details the large-scale, behind enemy lines rescue that was little publicized post-war for political reasons. Anyhow, the church was having a bake sale today so we thought it would be a good opportunity to stop by and say "Hey, I've been to Serbia!" and basically show off that I knew something about Serbian history and had some connection to the country.

Fortunately, the bake sale also included a hot lunch sale and since it was cold outside and it was lunchtime, well, the pieces just sort of fell into place... Grace and I enjoyed our bean soup and bread, coleslaw and crepe but felt a bit out of place and were wondering who we could approach to chat with. Fortunately we noticed there was a bar (yes, a bar) in the church reception room. Fondly recalling my first experiences with slivovitz I thought that it would be a good opportunity to initiate some conversation. Unfortunately, the barman didn't speak any English but he summoned someone who did and this was the man with whom we began speaking. They unfortunately did not have slivovitz as you can't get it in Quebec but they were very quick to offer both of us other drinks. I accepted a brandy, Grace however thought it was a bit too early (this was lunchtime Sunday, recall), and requested a gingerale. This would not do however and they eventually convinced her to drink A MIX of Bailey's and Peach Schnapps! Over our drinks I showed them some of my pictures from my trip and we talked about my experience in Serbia. Everyone was extremely nice to us (we didn't even have to pay for the drinks!) and invited us to come to future church events. When I showed them my t-shirt with General Mihailovich on it this warranted some extra excitement and we were introduced to the former President of the Holy Trinity Serbian Orthodox Church. Well into a bottle of wine himself (these Orthodox religions really know how to do Sundays) he was quite interested in telling us how great the American people are but how terrible their goverment is. Keep in mind that even though *most* of us remember the Clinton years fondly, this was also the time during which NATO, with Clinton's support, bombed Belgrade (this was still quite evident in 2005). He also extended many invitations our way and promised that the next time we were together we would surely drink slivovitz. As the crowd had begun to filter out we thought we should also take our leave and bid 'adieu' (get the religious/French wordplay??!!). Fun day.....

Long time, no blog!

Well, I hope we have not lost any of our faithful readers in our blogging absence.
Since we started the blog I seem to categorize my thoughts and activities into either blogworthy or not blogworthy. As of late, all have fallen into not...until today I guess.

After Halloween, I magically turned our McGill grown pumpkins...


into cookies!

I'll spare you the recipe, 1. because they are SO last season and 2. they have a whole heck of a lot of sugar, which I can happily not revisit knowing how many cookies I have personally consumed over the last week. The before and after pics are fun though, aren't they?

Looks like I made the cookies just in time as our faucet sank days later and we're patiently awaiting kitchen renovations. In the meantime, this is where our sink used to be...
Yuck. I'd be a drama queen if I didn't mention that this condition will likely last less than 24 hours.

Ralph and I continue to frequent our beloved dog park when I'm not job hunting. The conversations there have mainly been about what kind of dog the US president elect will end up with to appease his allergic daughters. Rumors today hinted that he's leaning towards a golden poo.
Anyway, we've also been taking long walks up the mountain, where Summit Park is located. Summit moonlights as a dog park, it's actual designation is a bird sanctuary...somehow that works. Here is the view from the park:


And, last but not least (we couldn't have a posting without a link you know)..
I encourage everyone to visit the site Etsy Molasses. Our friends Xander and Alana have created the store as a way to generate support for their pending adoptions of two Ethioian infants. In addition to their own creations, their friends and family have donated handmade items to be sold on the site. I think it is a great idea, I even made a contribution..see if you can find it! You know, Molasses would be a great place to do some Christmas shopping.