Places to eat in Pierrefonds/Montréal

I’ve been tagged by Wreckless to list my top 5 favourite places to eat in my area, Pierrefonds/Montréal.

I thought it would be fairly easy since we are so lucky to have so many restaurants, but like everything else, the fact that we have such a wide selection to choose from made it a little harder to select only five. We have periods where we do go out quite a bit, but lately we’ve been “home bodies”, but nonetheless, here are some of our favourites, the price range varies from affordable to quite expensive, but no matter what if ever you make your way here, be sure to drop by one of those:

1. Every so often we feel like a good smoked meat sandwich, and “Abbie’s” is the place for us, 10 minutes from home. You do not go there for the décor or the ambiance, but for their great smoked meat! We often take out the “Laki’s Special” which includes 1 lb of meat, rye bread, pickles and coleslaw for $13 – can’t beat that!

2. In 2004 before our trip to Greece, Hubby’s cousin (who’s married to a Greek girl) took us to “Philinos”, as preparation for what we would eat in Greece. The feel of the place is like a taverna, with small tables, loud environment. The food is simple and quite good, especially their marinated grilled octopus, and it just melts in your mouth. One of my favourite is their fried zucchinis and eggplants. We’ve been there many times since, and we’ve never had anything but appetizers – never had a main dish, we just order a bunch of different appetizers and come out of there, happy & full!

3. The brother of a client of mine opened this little Italian restaurant, right in the heart of Little Italy, called “Ristorante Primo & Secundo”. It is a very quaint restaurant, with limited seating, therefore sure to get attentive service. The food is very mouth savouring and made fresh. You can surely taste the freshness in the ingredients. Highly recommended, but be ready to open your wallet.

4. This B.Y.O.W. (Bring Your Own Wine) on Le Plateau was a pleasant discovery. We don’t do French cuisine often, but “Le Pégase” is worth the drive downtown. Also a small restaurant with good service and the food is really good. Was there last week and their “mignerons de porc servi sur un chutney de fruits” was so darn good. I’m salivating just thinking about it! And their desert!!! O.M.G. So worth the money spent there!

5. And finally, no selection of ours would be complete without a good pizza place and in the West-Island there’s no place like, “Gigi Restaurant” on the Lakeshore in Pte-Claire Village. Their Gigi Deluxe (all dressed with bacon and onions) is everything you want in a pizza, just greasy enough to be burped a little while later. That’s one pizza joint we do like. We never really had anything else from them, 'cause their pizza alone does it for us!

Et voilà, those are 5 places you could go to while in my area, and you would be certain to have a great meal.

I'm not tagging anyone, but if you want to let me know your favourite spots, please do!
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Image: Bar at Philinos

Your Friday Smile!

Amy, a blonde city girl, marries a Colorado rancher. One morning, on his way out to check on the cows, the rancher says to Amy, "The insemination man is coming over to impregnate one of our cows today. I drove a nail into the 2 by 4 just above the cow's stall in the barn. You show him where the cow is when he gets here, OK?" So then the rancher leaves for the fields.

After a while, the artificial insemination man arrives and knocks on the front door. Amy takes him down to the barn. They walk along the row of cows and when she sees the nail, she tells him, "This is the one... right here."

Terribly impressed by what he seemed to think just might be another ditzy blonde, the man asks, "Tell me lady, how did you know this is the cow to be bred?"
"That's simple. By the nail over its stall." Amy explains very confidently.

She turns and walks away, and with complete confidence, says, "I guess it's to hang your pants on."

***

While I was driving down the 401 (motorway) the other day, (going a little faster than I should have been) I passed under a bridge only to see a policeman on the other side with a radar gun, laying in wait.

The policeman pulled me over, walked up to the car and with that classic, patronizing smirk, asked: "Runway too short"?
To which I replied. "I'm late for work"
To which he asked, "What do you do?"
"I'm a rectum stretcher," I responded.
The policeman was surprised and confused.
"A what"
"A rectum stretcher"
"and just what does a rectum stretcher do?"
"Well," I said "I start by inserting one finger then I work my way up to two fingers, then three, then four then with my whole hand in, work side to side until I can stretch and stretch and then I slowly but surely stretch the hole until it's about 6 feet"

Then the policeman asked questioningly and cautiously: "And just what do you do with a six-foot arsehole?"
To which I politely replied, "You give it a radar gun and park it behind a bridge..."

Speeding ticket: $105,
Court Costs: $45,
Look on copper's face: Priceless....

On that priceless note, may you have a great weekend!

It has begun...

Let me say that I’m sorry for being so scattered in my bloging – there is just too much going on at the moment… Between meetings with the builder, the bank, the mortgage, shopping for new appliances, choosing our cabinets, flooring etc, it feels like one very long never ending week. I often wake up and wonder what day it is…

Things are progressing though… actually quite fast. When we first saw our unit they had just pour the cement floor; the exterior walls were up and that was it. My first feeling was “how small” it was. Both the sales rep and Hubby, told me not to worry about it; it looked smaller without walls. WTF? Shouldn’t it look bigger? It’s empty, there’s nothing, and it looks small. Not good!

Then we went back and the framing for the walls was done (2 by 4). It didn’t feel much bigger to me. The men again reassured me. I’m excited about seeing the progress of it all, because after all we will be moving in for June 28th, but every time I go in, I can’t help to have this feeling of “smallness” about the place.

The model unit looks and feels so much “roomier”… it might all be in my head, my perception or an optical illusion because the are no walls as such yet…

When I look at the floor plans, it is about the same square footage as we have here, except that here we have a garage and a basement, which don’t count in our liveable space, but sure counts for accumulating things! (Which we did - we have so much shit, it's unreal!)

For those of you who are curious about our new pad, here’s the “original” floor plan. Let’s just say that we’ve made some significant changes to it.

The most changes we've done is to the kitchen. We tried to maximize the space we had. It took a lot of drawings and back and forth with the cabinet-maker, but we finally achieved something we both liked. Also on this plan, the washer and dryer are in the basement, in our unit they are on the main floor and I just noticed that the stairs are on the opposite wall… Anyway, this is just to give you an idea.

Yesterday we started moving boxes into the storage unit we rented. Since we don’t know how it will really feel we decided to get a storage place, so yesterday we did our first trip: boxes of books, cds, movies, photos albums and winter tires. It’s starting to feel like we are moving.

So between packing boxes, starting to make some address change, selecting paint colours, we decided to participate in this “Relay for Life”, a cancer fundraising event. We just didn’t have enough on our plate!

The Relay is an overnight non-competitive relay that celebrates cancer survivors and pays tribute to the lives of loved ones. It involves teams of 10 people who take turns walking, running or strolling around a track to raise money to support the work of the Canadian Cancer Society. It's a night of fun, friendship and fundraising to beat cancer. We will be doing it with friends, should be fun. If you’re interested in pledging me, let me know, and I’ll send you the link to do it online. Quick and easy!

That's why I haven't been around much... keeping busy as you can see!

Your Friday Smile!

*Husband and wife in bed together. *
*She feels his hand rubbing her shoulder. *
*She: "Oh, that feels good." *
*His hand moves to her breast.*
*She: "Gee, honey, that feels wonderful."*
*His hand moves to her leg. *
*She: "Oh, honey, don't stop."*
*But he stops.*
*She: "Why did you stop?" *

*He: "I found the remote."*

***

It was the happiest day of her life. Arrived at church, husband waiting at the altar. Walked up the aisle. Kissed him on the cheek, smiled... and closed the fucking lid...

***
Check this out: Guess what is in my pants...

Have a great weekend!

Stressed? Me?

Every Tuesday and Friday I go to my meditation classes. I find it helps me in many ways. On those days I don’t book clients.

I was supposed to go to a client yesterday, but due to our lovely weather (again a day of snow, rain, pellets, etc.), I postponed my visit to today. I thought I could manage to do all I had to before making it to my class. I hate having to drive downtown from the West-Island, 2 or 3 days in a row. On a good day it takes 30 min. When I hit traffic, which is almost every night I go to class, it takes me between 60 min to 80 min. I hate the bumper-to-bumper dance. Moving downtown will be great, if only for that reason!

Every time I’m at that specific client, it’s a loooong day. I normally don’t get out of there before 7:30 – 8:00pm, and sometimes even later. Tonight I wanted had to get out of there by 6:30 the latest, if I wanted to make it to my meditation class. I knew I would get there totally stressed out, but hey, I was attending those classes to learn to relax and breathe.

From 4 o’clock on, I started to rush a little. I was making sure I was doing everything I was supposed to, printing the required documents, etc. By 5 o’clock, I encountered a little problem; something wasn’t balancing. It took me a while to find the error, but I managed. By 6 o’clock, my stress level was getting up there; I was truly rushing to get everything done. By 6:45 I said my farewell and basically ran to my car.

By 7:00 pm I got my keys back from the valet, threw my briefcase on the backseat, started the engine, took a deep breathe when I realised that my dashboard clock was showing “6:00”. WTF?!?

O.M.G. It was only 6 pm! The whole afternoon I’ve been rushing for no other reason than because the darn clock on the computer I was using wasn’t adjusted properly! It was one hour too fast. Talk about useless stress!

Well… I got to my class in ample time, sat in my car for 35 minutes and read…
Nope! I’m not stressed. Not at all… What would make you think that?

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Image: Computer Time

Your Friday Smile!

A Mountie pulled a car over on the Trans-Canada about 2 miles West of Winnipeg. When the Mountie asked the driver why he was speeding, the driver answered that he was a
magician and a juggler and he was on his way to Brandon to do a show that night at the Shrine Circus and didn't want to be late.
The Mountie told the driver he was fascinated by juggling, and if the driver would do a little juggling for him then he wouldn't give him a ticket.
The driver told the Mountie that he had sent all of his equipment on ahead and didn't have anything to juggle.
The Mountie told him that he had some flares in the trunk of his patrol car and asked if he could juggle them. The juggler stated that he could, so the Mountie got three flares, lit them and handed them to the juggler.
While the man was doing his juggling act, a car pulled in behind the patrol car. A drunk, good old boy, driving through from Alberta got out and watched the performance briefly. He then went over to the patrol car, opened the rear door and got in.
The Mountie observed him doing this and went over to the patrol car, opened the door and asked the drunk what he thought he was doing. The drunk replied
"You might as well take me to jail, cause there's no fuckin` way I can pass that test."

***

***

One Sunday morning, the pastor noticed little Alex standing in the foyer of the church staring up at a large plaque. It was covered with names with small American flags mounted on either side of it. The seven year old had been staring at the plaque for some time, so the pastor walked up, stood beside the little boy, and said quietly, "Good morning, Alex."
"Good morning, Pastor," he replied, still focused on the plaque.
"Pastor, what is this?" he asked.
The pastor said, "Well, son, it's a memorial to all the young men and women who died in the service."
Soberly, they just stood together, staring at the large plaque.
Finally, little Alex's voice, barely audible and trembling with fear, asked,
"Which service, the 8:30 or the 10:45?"

Have a great weekend and happy Friday the 13th!!!

It’s unreal!

This morning our little old man (I’m so not in “Desperate Housewives”, with the yummy guy doing the lawn, let’s just say I won’t be sad to not see him every week this summer…) who takes care of our lawn came by to do the spring-cleaning. He cleaned my flowerbed, raked the lawn, and even mowed it.

A white blanket is now enveloping everything the gardener took time to “clean” – you wouldn’t believe that a few hours ago we were thinking spring-cleaning… Unbelievable! It looks like Christmas is coming not summer!

On the house front, things are moving. Today I’ve booked a moving company. I don’t know about the rest of the world, but here when July 1st comes around a bunch of people move. Every year it is a crazy time; leases usually expire on June 30th so everyone moves at the same time. This is creating some major gauging from the moving company. To try to book a move for July 1st, today, nothing is available. People book that date a year in advance! We’ve met with our builder last night and we managed to have him guarantee a delivery date (occupation) for June 28th. As far as movers are involved there’s a $25/hour difference on their hourly price between the 28th and the 29th. The closer one gets to the 1st the more expensive it gets. So instead of paying $75/hour, we will be paying something in the range of $150/hour – talk about the business to be in that time of year!

We didn’t even consider the option of moving ourselves; we decided to go with movers because:
1) Hubby can’t lift anything heavier than 25lbs because of his hip replacement.
2) We don’t really help people during their moves so we don’t expect them to help us. (Kind of makes sense, no?)
3) If something gets broken during the move, the company is insured. (It’s hard to give shit to a friend who breaks something while helping you, unlike someone you’re paying big $$ to…)
4) If someone gets hurt, it’s not a friend, so I won’t feel “so” bad… (um…I may sound like a real bitch here, but they chose that job, they should know the risk of lifting heavy things, no?)

Speaking of heavy, I should be packing some books… but I won’t lift those boxes, way too heavy for me! ;-)

Who said it was going to be easy?

When we put our house for sale we knew we wanted to get out of Pierrefonds. We were so ready for a change, a big change. We’ve been trying for overseas for years, but to no avail. Maybe we are meant to stay here and take care of his parents, at least until the dreaded day. So, now that our house is sold we are shifting our energy and focus on moving downtown.

Saturday we met with the builder and then went shopping for some appliances. Since we left our dishwasher as an “inclusion” when we sold our house, we knew we had to get a new one as well as a hood fan. On the architect’s plan the washer and dryer are stackable. The ones we own aren’t, so we thought we’d look for that as well. Long story short, we went to a few stores and splurged. We got brand new appliances for the kitchen as well as stackable washer & dryer.

When we walked out of the store I felt odd. Yes it was/is a lot of money we just spent, but it was something else, like this little voice deep down triggering something. I’m not sure it is doubt; I don’t quite know how to express it either. We are both the type of people who, when we make a decision, try to make it as wisely as possible then forget it, because the moment of absolute certainty never comes. Hubby is better at this than I am. I know that nothing is permanent; life has shown me that on more than one occasion. I’ve been living here since 1994. What was Hubby’s first house became our home, our refuge. I love our house, I’m comfortable here, and it’s roomy. I just finished packing some boxes (we have way too many books, but let's not get into that), and can’t help to feel a little overwhelmed.

The idea of moving is exciting; the thought of living in a new house as well. But this move that we’re about to make is so against the general trend… Everyone who moves, at this stage in their life, go for bigger, for having their own yard; having a big kitchen; having a basement; having a garage, away from the city… we have/had all that here! And yet we decided to go for a condo, downtown Montreal! Right smack in the middle of it all! We won’t have a yard, but a deck. Our kitchen will be well equipped and functional, which is more important to me than size (for that, at least! ). I will miss our big bathroom and powder room; we will have only one toilet, that’s going to be interesting at times… We will have a garage, which we will share with our neighbour. (That is one thing this will be VERY strange, we will most likely have to talk to our neighbours, we never really did that here…)

Actually thinking about it, I realised that we will, unlike here, use our garage to park a car. I never did that before! We will be able to walk to shop, which we just can’t do in the suburbs. It will be fun to discover new shops, where we can go for what… it will be thrilling and a complete new life style, that’s for sure.

Yeah, upon reflection, this move will be good. Maybe not easy at first, but it should be interesting…

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Image: Thinking

I'm a year old!

On this date, a year ago, was my first post as Stinkypaw! 263 posts later I’m still blogging. ONE whole year of blogging!!! Time flew by!

I must say, at certain times, I felt like the blogosphere wasn’t for me. I remember, at the beginning I felt shy to leave a comment somewhere, and I would get so excited when somebody would leave a comment on my blog – I still feel very happy to read all comments and that is also why I answer them. I appreciate every single visitor I get, and I hope that they will come back.

It’s been an interesting road, where I’ve met some pretty cool people along the way, I can say that through this past year I've made some "blends" (blog friends).

Thank you all for dropping by and hope to continue this fun ride through "Blogsville"!

Vendu! Sold!

It's official - our house is sold! We met all conditions; their mortgage was pre-approved and the inspection went super well!

Within one week of our house being on the market, we accepted an offer. Their six days to refuse or ask for anything to be changed on their original offer expired yesterday night. As of this morning, we sold our house!

Woohoo!

We will be moving! I'm so excited!!!
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Image: Sold

Your Friday Smile!

On the farm lived a chicken and a horse, both of whom loved to play together. One day the two were playing, when the horse fell into a bog and began to sink. Scared for his life, the horse whinnied for the chicken to go get the farmer for help!

Off the chicken ran, back to the farm. Arriving at the farm, he searched and searched for the farmer, but to no avail, for he had gone to town with the only tractor.
Running around, the chicken spied the farmer's new Harley. Finding the keys in the ignition, the chicken sped off with a length of rope hoping he still had time to save his friend's life.

Back at the bog, the horse was surprised, but happy, to see the chicken arrive on the shiny Harley; and he managed to get a hold of the loop of rope the chicken tossed to him. After tying the other end to the rear bumper of the farmer's bike, the chicken then drove slowly forward and, with the aid of the powerful bike, rescued the horse!
Happy and proud, the chicken rode the Harley back to the farmhouse, and the farmer was none the wiser when he returned.

The friendship between the two animals was cemented: Best Buddies. Best Pals.
A few weeks later, the chicken fell into a mud pit; and soon he, too, began to sink and cried out to the horse to save his life!
The horse thought a moment, walked over, and straddled the large puddle. Looking underneath, he told the chicken to grab his hangy-down thing, and he would then lift him out of the pit. The chicken got a good grip, and the horse pulled him up and out, saving his life.

The moral of the story?

(Yep, you bet there IS a moral!)

"When You're Hung Like A Horse, You Don't Need A Harley To Pick Up Chicks!"

***
Wimpiest dad:

Two kids are arguing over whose father is the wimpiest.
The first one says," My dad is so scared that when lightning strikes, he slides underneath our bed."
The second kid says, "That's nothing. My dad is so scared that when my mother works nightshift, he sleeps with the woman next door!"

***
***

Have yourself a great Easter weekend and try not to eat too much chocolate!

Need to vent...

Even if it’s only been a few days, it feels like I’ve been away from Blogsville for ages. There are so many things going on, that I don’t know where to start so instead I’ve decided to vent a little…

Today was a strange day temperature wise: it rained, we had some hail and it snowed… Oh the joy of spring…

Had to go for a blood test yesterday morning. Waited over 2 hours for a test that took less than 5 minutes – ‘gotta luuuvvvv our lovely medical system!

When I asked the nurse how long it would be before my doctor (which I’m seeing tomorrow night) gets the results; why did she say 5 to 10 days? The doctor’s office had the results that same night! If you don’t know, it’s ok to say so.

Why is the sale procedure of our house taking so long? I want to see that “Sold” sign! We’ve accepted an offer, within a week of our house being on the market, we met the conditions (mortgage and inspection), what’s happening?

At the grocery store earlier, the lady in front of me wasn’t agreeing on the price she was being charged for raspberries. The clerk was too lazy to do a price check so he charged her the price she said, 3.99 vs. 4.99. When came my turn to pay and the cashier asked me if I needed anything else, I answered: “I would like to pay the same price as the lady before me did for the raspberries” – why did she look at me funny? She did correct the price though.

What’s the matter with stupid people? Why are there so many of them out there?

On a positive note: Dairy Queen is now open - I'll be able to go for a Peanut Buster! Yuuummmmy!

ok... I feel a bit better now...