even a maggot has a mother

This morning (all right, it may have been slightly after morning, but I'm writing this story and I get artistic authority to alter small details) Anna woke me with a stricken look on her face.

Anna: So I was taking out the garbage and I found maggots on the porch, so I went on a cleaning purge and got rid of them. And for the last hour, there have been these two bottle green flies buzzing in circles around the porch where the garbage was...

Pause, in which Anna's face becomes more and more guilt-stricken


Anna: And I feel terrible, because it made me realize even a maggot has a mother!!

Ladies, ladies, ladies.

My Emily came to visit!

Cheeeeese.

 

We went to Schwartz's with the ladies. They're famous for the smoked meat that they store in large, grey, greasy, unappetizing hunks in the window, but you really should go for the pickles. Oh man, those pickles. Oh man.

These girls. They're good stuff.

There were many other Montrealy activities including a poetry open mic at which Malek was the best, and the tam-tams, where we found medieval knights fighting with foam swords - which may explain why they needed to invent castles and fortifications and catapults and things.

Is the guy in the green shirt using a Rock Band kit?

 

Also, his armour does not shine. Disappointing.

 There was also much browsing of book stores, drinking of tea, eating of bread, and walking late at night, and just enjoying each other's company.

Then, we kitty-sat.

Maggie enjoys the book of Hebrews.

And that, for now, is that.

produce and words

Because Maro and Eric are gallivanting in California, Anna and I get to pick up their panier bio. A panier bio is this wonderful system where you pay an annual fee, and you receive a basket of assorted produce from local farms every week. So this week we've been gorging on fresh local vegetables.

Anna enjoys local produce

For one of her job applications, Anna had to take a proficiency test in Microsoft Excel and Microsoft Word. Since she has a Mac, she used my PC to futz around on Microsoft before her test. When I started my computer the next morning, I found the following file:

Insight into Anna's mind?

And so life carries on, full of food and song.

of love and banana bread

Anna here, with a small apology for our sporadic posting habits - apparently blogging requires, like, remembering to put stuff on the blog. But Teffer's been awfully busy working crazy hours at the Y and trying to win her battle with the plague (she still seems to be thriving, however - she sings very prettily while she makes her breakfast, even though for a few days she was sounding much less like herself and much more like Janis Joplin circa 1969); and I've been awfully busy avoiding job-hunting through such various occupations as trying to learn to play the mandolin, attempting gluten-free baking, and reading about string theory (did you know that if an atom were the size of the solar system, each fundamental string would be the size of one tree? String theory is really cool).

Life's been full of company and love lately: Alice came up for a quick visit while on vacation in Vermont with her aunt, and then Jonathan came in for the weekend. Then Maro and Eric flew off to California to love on the family out there and get ready for Celine's wedding - Mom and Dad will head out to join them next week (yay!). We wish we were there too, guys. Hugs and kisses all 'round.

...and now of course some pictures..

Love.

Where there are visitors, there must be maps.

It was so lovely to see Alice. Thanks so much for coming - we miss you.

Daddy and Mama with Alice and her Aunt Donna - a fiesty and loving history buff. I had a lot of fun touring old Montreal in the rain with the two of them.

love my Papa and Mama

Finally, if any of you had a scientific, culinary, or aesthetic interest in what happens when you leave banana bread in the oven for six hours, fear not: Teffer has done the experimental legwork for you. It comes out as a sort of leather-encased pudding. N.B.: should you decide to attempt this feat yourself, be warned that your loaf pan may not survive the ordeal.

Teffer's first post: minimalist photo dump.

That laundry don't stand a CHANCE.

After living on the bare minimum in a moving truck for 40 days, Anna emerges, blinking and looking rested.

The best way to live is in the shadow of chocolate cake.

...but I can't find a posting for it on Idealist.com!

(Click on it; it gets bigger)

Job-hunting: a quick refutation of dreamy grade-school platitudes.

Also, it seems some people are having trouble reading the font. There's supposed to be a black highlight behind the text area, making it readable. If this doesn't show up for you, try refreshing the page. If it still doesn't show up... complain, I guess. We can change it.

It isn't home until it's filled with friends

The best thing about summer is all the fresh vegetables. The worst thing about summer is how quickly those vegetables wilt, rot, and otherwise become unusable. Between Maro and Eric's garden, their panier-bio, Tamika's gift of greens, and Anna having too much free time while living about half a kilometer from marché Jean-Talon, our fridge has become awfully full. So yesterday Teffer decided to make an enormous clean-out-the-fridge soup, and we invited a few people over to consume it. It was delicious, but better yet was the warmth of our apartment filled up with friends and talk and laughter.

Teffer in her element

(This picture has nothing to do with soup or friends.) That's laughter, not wincing. You try to stretch while Teffer lies on her belly on the floor taking pictures of your feet.

WARNING: Dangerous and ill-intentioned chair. Sit at serious risk to life and limb.

Love these girls. We got so busy enjoying our friends that we neglected to take many pictures - we'll work on that habit.

 

 

Outbursts of dancing are necessary.

Moving in

We moved in exactly one month ago. Just a few photos to commemorate the occasion...

Sunset as seen from our roof, move-in night (photo cred to Petey Bass - thank you!)

"UM, GUYS, THERE'S NO COOKIES IN HERE."

Wall-scrubbing

Our lovely and tireless painters

Non-profits

Teffer: Hey Anna, what would you call it if Luke from the Bible worked for Médecins Sans Frontières?
Anna: ...
Teffer: A non-profit non-prophet!