I feel green.

Yesterday, we had lots of strangers in the house. 5, to be exact. 2 Solar Panel installers, 2 guys from the solar panel company installing the inverter, and one electrician, installing new switches and connecting us to the big power grid.

Yes! We finally got our solar panels!!


They work like this.

During the day, the sun is shining and they are producing electricity (very well, actually, because the back of the house faces dead North). We use less than we make during the day, so our excess energy is put back into the power grid and as such, we are producing electricity for other households. And for that, the electrical company pays us by the kilowatt. At night time, the sun is obviously not shining, so we are using power from the grid. The power company charges us for that.


All and all, things pretty much equal each other. We are predicted to only pay our quarterly connection fees from now on. How cool is that?

With the 9000$ rebate from the government, it was hard to say no to.
It's nice to feel we are doing our part for the greener good.

All about timing

I went to see 'The September Issue' with Charlie tonight.


Charlie might be the biggest fan of the movie 'The Devil Wears Prada' so when a documentary about Anna Wintour, editor in chief of Vogue working on the September issue of 2007, we just had to go see it.

It's really amazing how much money is thrown away in a glimpse in that business.

A 50 000$ shoot just put in the bin after less than five seconds under the eyes of the tough editor. Hundreds of thousands of dollars to create a couture dress that will be seen for 45 seconds on a runway, then never again. Quite astonishing as well, how Wintour is so respected in the world of fashion, that no one dares to contradict her. Not even Vera Wang, Jean-Paul Gauthier or the designer for Yves St-Laurent.

On the way back home, Charlie said she's like to get her hands on a copy of that famous issue. I told her that some women out there were probably making a fortune selling their copies on ebay. And I was right. I went to see for myself, just for fun, and one auction was about to finish. The magazine was up to 263$ US. I wonder how much more it went up in the last minute.


That's proof you never know when one of your things might become worth so much more than it did. It's really all about timing.

The puppy rescue

Today was a perfect day to go to the beach with the dogs.
Saturday afternoon, blue skies, 25 degrees, light breeze. Doesn't get better than that.

The dogs love it there, Chomsky runs around and plays with the other dogs. August loves to fetch and swim in the ocean.

The waves were pretty big, and the water, super cold. It's still the end of winter here, so you try to keep away from it. Allen was throwing the ball mainly on the sand, and in the water close by so August could go get it running in the water, not swimming.

Only, we came up to a spot where there was a slope in the ground under the water. So when August ran to go get the ball, she sank to her neck and waves started crashing over her. She was trying to get the ball, and kept going, but after another big wave sunk her completely, Allen got into paramedic mode and ran in the water and jumped in the waves to get her out. She immerged in his arms, with the ball in her mouth. Allen carried her out of the water and I got the whole thing on camera!


The great thing is that August was completely unphased by it all. She kept going back in the waves after that. But Allen was freezing! So we cut our walk a bit short...

Ah, James.

My friend James from work finished before me today and I thought he had gone home.

Only, he came to see me a bit later with a piece of paper. He had gone in the computer in the office and got all the information about what I needed to do to get my passport renewed: where to download the right form, the number to call if I had a question, what to send in and how long it would take.

James and I have been working together for three years. We've gotten to know each other pretty well, and even though I only mentioned my expired passport in passing, I think he felt how much not being able to leave for Canada on a moment's notice really was bothering me. So he put on his 'Mr. Fix It' hat on and went on a mission. He's just like that. Very handy to have around the house, his fiancé says.

Like they say here: Bless his cotton socks.

Thanks, Jimmy.

Mon beau paquet.

Je pense que ça a commencé quand je me suis rendue compte que mon passeport était expiré. Je dois aller me chercher des formes à l'embassade et aller faire prendre ma photo. Je ne sais pas combien de temps ça prends pour faire refaire mon passeport, mais j'ai eu comme un gros coup au coeur.

Pour l'instant, je suis prisonnière.

S'il arrive quelque chose, je ne peux pas revenir à la maison.

Et j'ai comme paniqué.
Tout de l'Australie a commencer à me peser. L'été et la grosse chaleur qui arrive trop vite, le fait que je ne peux pas trouver de sirop d'érable décent, les bogans qui conduisent leur putain de commadores, les gens qui prononcent les fins de mots qui finissent en 'A' en 'EUUR' et les mots qui finissent en 'ER' en 'AH'. Canadeuuur. Watah. That grinds my gears.
C'était la fête des pères ici dimanche dernier et tout le monde avait pu voir leur père sauf moi. La famille au complet était au chalet pour la fête du travail. Ça c'était le cerise sur le gâteau.

Je n'en pouvais plus d'être ici. J'étais écoeurée de ma job, de ma maison que plusieurs ne verra jamais, d'être loin de mon monde, de tout, vraiment.

Et mardi dernier, j'ai reçu mon paquet par la poste. Un gros gros paquet, que ma maman et mon papa m'ont envoyé. A real care package if ever there was one. Des t-shirts que Annie était allée me chercher. Des souliers GAP que mom m'a trouvé, des livres québécois que papa m'a choisi. Le dernier film de Denis Villeneuve. Une canne de café français. Et j'en passe. J'en passe beaucoup.

J'ai ouvert le paquet, j'ai étalé tout son contenu sur mon lit et j'ai pleuré un bon coup.

I feel a bit better now.

But how I miss you guys.

Almost there

So here we are. Almost at the end of the road.
We left off after finishing the bottom of the seat.
Now I needed to make a roll to put on the border of the chair so that the back of the knees would be nicely supported.

Steps for the perfect roll:

One. Put a piece of heshen across the front of the chair, and hammer in.
Two. Take a long thin piece of think cardboard and hammer in on top of it.


Three. Get some coconut fiber. Tease it and put on top.



Four. Roll the coconut fiber in the heshen and tighten as much as possible.
Five. Hammer it in with a long tack every centimeter so that the roll stays as tight as possible and fold on the sides to make nice corners.


Six. Stich it in in a criss cross motion and special knots so that the foll flattens and is pushed to the front. It also makes it even tighter. That's it!


That was last week's class.

This week, I stiched loops in my heshen with slipknots and filled the seat with flock.



Once nice and full, I covered it in calico and started the painstaking job of pulling it, tacking it, untaking it and pulling it tighter, while adding and taking out bits of flock so that the edges are nice, round, soft and tight, just like the back of the chair.


Now the only thing left is to pick a final fabric to finish it off!
That might just be the hardest thing of all...