"Home" again.

Well, the sidekick and I are back in Oil town, settling into our old routine. G is still on Ontario time so his wake ups and naps are off. He must have really missed his Daddy as he pitched a huge fit when Ian left for work this morning. G was very excited to see Fiji and his purple ball, he seems to really enjoy being in his own surroundings. I will be working hard in the next while to make this house more like home. A home inside "home".

The day we left Ottawa I went on a mini shopping spree. Having made it the whole winter without purchasing anything unnecessary (clothing wise) a trip to The Workshop to blow some serious coin was in order. Me and my trusty new credit card had quite the time. B was kind enough to offer me my old employee discount which may have either softened the blow or made me spend more. The clothes are amazing and make me feel like a really hot styling urban mama; who can put a price tag on that?

After the spree it was time to bid farewell to home (*sob*) and make our way back to Montreal (hooray!). First though, I had business at the butcher shop. See, Ian has a second (must be third now that G is around ) love, double smoked Ottawa Valley bacon. Being a wonderful, fabulous and ridiculously good looking wife I purchased 6lbs (yes 6lbs) of the stuff and had the boys at Aubrey's vacuum pack it (vac packing was really Ryan's idea).

Friday night's dinner in Montreal was a fabulous curry prepared by K's partner D. He has recently become the proud owner of a book full of amazing curries; I can't remember the name of the book but it was a eggplant dahl and it was incredibly fabulous. G has been obsessed with oranges of late and instead of eating dahl he settled for crackers and oranges. I think the dahl might have been too spicy for him.

Saturday was a load of fun. K and I with the sidekick in tow picked up a friend of hers and went yardsaling. I haven't been to a yard sale in a really long time and judging by how quickly I picked up stuff, it is probably a good thing. The good yard sales were great and the bad ones were awful. The sales were pretty spread out so we ended up driving to most of them. G fell asleep and K had an allergic reaction to a really icky house that was having an estate sale. K didn't find her breadbox but we all found some treasures.

After the obligatory visit to the Jean Talon Market, where I got 18 vanilla beans for $20, we had a lovely dinner at Rumi. I had really amazing lamb kebab and the best fatoush I have had a in a long while. G slept almost the entire dinner but woke up just in time to have some french fries, which are unfortunately one of his favourite foods. We had plans to see a Ghanaian dance troupe but when we arrived at 8pm no one was there except people waiting to see the troupe. A little bit discouraged we headed down into Plateau for the best (BEST!) chocolate gelato ever.

"Fleur de sel" chocolate gelato is absolute heaven. G, being a foodie baby also loved the gourmet gelato and preferred the "fleur de sel" above all others. We did give the chili chocolate a try and it was good but I regretted getting a whole scoop of it as my mouth was tired of it and really just wanted more of the "fleur de sel" stuff.

Sunday, our last day in Montreal, was pretty chill. D & K played with G (did I mention that D is great at playing with G?) while I made pancakes (sour cream pancakes) and then we visited the awesome cafe with the huge pate selection. This particular cafe makes the most divine hot chocolate with milk on the side.

One of my favourite parts of the trip was cooking Sunday's dinner. D cooked trout and I made a blood orange sauce to go along with it. D makes the most amazing basmati rice, he gave me pointers on how to make mine as great but we shall see how it goes.

Well that was basically the trip. The plane ride back was a challenge and I am sure that when I lost my temper ever so slightly with G everyone thought I was "Mommy Dearest". I think it is because I am so used to his chill that his crankiness, while not obvious to others, really grates on me.
We will be "home" for the next little while. Looking forward to planting the garden plot and buying the bike trailer. Woo Hoo the open road!

Home again home again

A darling friend of mine has flown me and G down to visit her in Montreal. We had a lovely whirlwind of a weekend with the sidekick and introduced him to some urban living. Most of you know that the sidekick and I used to be urbanites but I think suburbia has caused him to forget how awesome urban living can be. I think he was a little shocked at our packed calendar but he is adjusting.

One day in Montreal and I am in love again. If I could just have one Montreal thing follow me everywhere it would be the cafes. Twelve kinds of pate and the most divine hotchocolate! Why is the rest of the country so uncivilized?

The sidekick and I spent a day exploring the hood (I miss having a hood). We tried Mama et Bebe cafe on for size but the coffee was overpriced and they charged a ridiculous sum (which I paid) for the boy to play with boring toys. Happily, K saved the day by bringing us to a great cafe in the late afternoon and out for awesome Indian food. G slept almost the entire day away in the stroller allowing me to (gasp!) read most of a book.

As my dear friend has a busy week day schedule (having a real j-o-b) G and I have borrowed her car to whisk ourselves back home.

Ah, home! I need to stop thinkng of Ottawa as home as we do not live there anymore but it just feels like the place I/we belong. G and I plan to hang out with allour bestest Ottawa friends and visit our favourite Ottawa places. Blowing my monthly budget on pretty handmade clothing at "The Workshop" is also in my "homecoming" plan.