Cottage Critters The first weekend at the cottage went well. The weather was perfect, and the swimming was excellent--the water was actually the right temperature for feeling refreshed but not so refreshed that it took hours to steel yourself for the first dip. Apparently, I am allergic to mosquito bites. I am now covered in small welts that itch like mad (antihistimines are helping). I actually woke up because I was scratching myself in my sleep. I don't even recall getting bitten. Regardless, next weekend, I will liberally apply a deet-based repellent and keep as much skin as possible covered. This evening, I'm looking forward to slathering aloe and lavender on my bites in the hope that this will calm the itching down a bit. The cottage itself is beautifully quiet. We discovered that bull frogs will sing us to sleep every night without our asking. The wild roses surrounding the structure release their odour pretty much all day, and their scent wafts through the open (but screened) windows of the living room and veranda. No inaugural trip to the cottage is complete without an exploration of the shopping in the area. The closest village is Ste-Agathe, and it possesses a fine Dollarama store, a well-stocked Provigo, a hellish Canadian Tire, and a Tigre Geant. In the latter, I purchased "my kind of flip flops": they have small kitten heels that go fetchingly with jeans and will take me from city to country and back again in sweet urban style. They were only ten bucks, so I bought two pairs; black for evening and blue for cocktail hour by the lake.

Hoser Last evening, after voting and before dinner, glass of red wine in hand, I decided to install an automatic watering system in my garden. I had forgotten until recently that I had all the components to attach and snake soaker hoses through the flower beds in my backyard. With July and August ahead of us, having a system that will regularly get water to the plant's roots will be good for everyone. What surprised me is that it only took about 45 minutes to get it up and running. This is what I did: Installed a double tap with separate flow controls. Attached regular hose to one tap. Attached small non-soaker hose extension to the other (you don't want soaker hose running directly from the tap outlet if it's not close to a plant bed.). Attached soaker hose to hose extension. Wound first 25 foot hose through bed on south side of yard. Kept it in place with stakes. Attached 50 foot hose to end of the first and wound it counter-clockwise through the rest of the garden. Turned on water. Adjusted postioning of hoses. Got very wet. Finished wine. If you're going to try this (and I highly recommend you do if you have any kind of garden to maintain), make sure you purchase some extra washers to keep all the connections tight. Also, you don't have to go with soaker hoses (although they are the best at getting precious water where it needs to go--in the ground), you could embed sprinklers instead. Tomorrow: Install an automatic timer to run it for a short period every night. Later: Perhaps a wicking system for all my flower pots!

What Do They Think They Are? A Monopoly? I just cancelled my service with Videotron. Of course, they asked me why, and I simply stated that I didn't think I'd be using the service much over the summer. They then offered to let me "suspend" my service for $35.00 for the following three months, saving a reconnection fee. When I said I didn't know if I was going to re-connect the service, they passed my up the food chain. The deal then became that I could suspend for six months, and only pay $50.00 to reconnect the service. I decided to cancel the service outright, taking the risk of going to another quasi-monopoly for "free" television signals. Sheesh. Does this seem reasonable to you?

June Monkey This June, Blork and Martine encourage us to confess to the monkeys on our back. I'm pleased to announce that while I am not monkey-free, I did manage to get rid of some monkeys this week: - Applied for new driver's license and medical insurance card after my wallet mysteriously disappeared over a month ago. How's that for procrastination! - Made an appointment to review my sorry RRSP portfolio with a professional. - Put all my bills in a stack so I can easily pay them tomorrow morning. First thing. I promise. - Arranged to have money automatically taken out of my bank account to pay down my line of credit--if I don't see it, I don't spend it. - Resolved to cancel Videotron, because I should watch less and read and write more. I'll do that for July. I swear! Plus, Nip/Tuck is back! - Resolved to put bike in back of car to take it to the bike repair shop so I can ride it this summer. Baby steps....

Cap St-Jacques For those of you seeking a country experience in the city, I highly recommend Cap St-Jacques. My employer treated us to party there yesterday at its Maison Rond Pointe, a facility that you can rent for company or family parties. Situated at the tip of the "cape", it was almost ocean-like--the wind was strong, causing grey-green waves to crash on the rocky shore. It was beautiful to gaze across the Lac des Deux Montagnes and imagine it was one of the bays of Nova Scotia or Maine. A few of us wandered onto the beach a few yards away, and I managed to dig my toes into the sand, getting that much needed connection to a sandy beach--any sandy beach. Take a mid-week trip, before school lets out in earnest, to get one of the cheapest vacations you're likely to find.

The Cottage On a bit of a whim, my friend L and I rented a cottage for a year. We saw it in February, and were charmed by the setting and the cosiness of it. This weekend, we finally got to see it in all its early summer bucolic glory (we finally move in July 1). Imagine a century-olod farmhouse with an acre of meadow in front of it leading to a pristine lake. Imagine the meadow full of indian paintbrush, forget-me-nots, and daisies. Imagine me lying in the middle of the meadow wondering why I hadn't done this sooner.

Mommy just got a brand new digital camera! I desperately wanted a half-decent digital camera--one that had an excellent lens *and* an optical zoom, but was only willing to spend $200.00 CDN. I found one on ebay: a Sony Cypershot DSC P51. I received it this morning and it took all day to charge what I hope are its robust batteries. When they finally finished, it was 11:00 p.m., so I can't regale you with pictures from the garden, but I can give you a glimpse of my little furry guys in their night repose.

Oh, You Kids! My parents found me a set of Cambell Kids dolls at a flea market a few years ago. My mom washed and ironed their outfits and dad made sure they were completely disinfected. During our last crunch at work, my colleagues began using them to star in their own theatre macabre, also known as "Cream of Spanky Soup". Please don't tell my parents. (Yes, that's a naked Ken doll and a Barbie New Beetle in the background.)

I Hate the Grand Prix What wears a white leather suit, gold wrap around sunglasses and has skin like leather? That would be my impression of the crowd hanging out on St-Laurent and Crescent, celebrating in high shallow style fast cars and fast women. Ugh! It's like all of Montreal has turned into the Playboy mansion. While I can appreciate camp style as much as any gal, when icky euro-trash wannabes increase my commute time by 400%, I resent it. Crossing the Plateau and downtown last night at around midnight was pratically impossible. For revenge, I think I'm going to strut around Crescent street in a gold lame halter top and short shorts that do nothing to camouflage my cellulite. Quick, where's my insta-tan spray?

I am Geek! I'm typing this entry on my brand new laptop. A Toshiba widescreen, 3.4 Mhz Intel, 1 GB Ram, NVidia GForce 5700, wireless-ready. I installed a wireless network in my house and now I can surf the net in the garden. Oh, and it has an integrated TV receiver. One last thing: It's blue and matches my eyes. Sweet!