The Week in Cats: Haley Continues to Conquer the World

Friend Maewitch came over this week, and then Friend Midnightstreet. Minion, it turns out, flees from new visitors. Well we never have anyone over (usually our place is too crazy messy.) She'll come out after half an hour. Or in the case of the Videotron man, after I go get her.

Haley, though, was so happy to have guests--female guests. Tortoiseshell and calico cats--cats with an orange/black/white coloring--are almost always female. So Haley is a staunch feminist, one of the man-hating kind. She belongs to one of these ancient goddess-worshiping religions. So having girls over was great for Haley, it was like Sex and the City, let's break out the cocktails, let's talk about sex, let's wear high heels and designer clothes. (Haley can fight like Wolverine but you may have noticed her gorgeous coloring. She's wicked beautiful.) Midnightstreet maybe talked a bit too much about babies for her liking, but she was a chick so it was all good.

As for Maewitch, she is not only a feminist (non-man-hating) but also of a wiccan flavoring, so Haley instantly recognized in her an "âme soeur" (as it would be more accurately said in French.) She was rubbing against her legs in under a minute. Mae also looks like a model, sometimes glams up in super heels and purses, and runs an online store for indulgent and decadent (but natural and usually vegan) perfumes and soapies...

Haley was in for the whole package. The perfect combination of feminism, goddess worship, hippy-tude (Haley's from Vancouver), and glamor. Not since she met me has she taken so naturally to someone. Now I don't even know what she saw in me--I've always suspected she was just trying to seduce me into helping her escape a dog-ridden house (my mother's) and now I suspect her of trying to get Mae to take her away to what has recently become a pet-free home. Mae kept offering her "sisterhood fistbumps."

"I should be on the masthead of Mae's site."

"I am pretty and you know you want to indulge me."

While she did manage to wrap Mae around her manipulative paw, I could never let another person take Haley except under extreme circs because (a) Fernando and I have seen her in Wolverbean mode (we've both been clawed through our jeans and up to our shoulders) and suspect few people would have the patience for that (maybe Mae would, but her boyfriend would enter into a fight to the death and either one's death would be tragic).

(My money's on Haley.)

And (b) I lobes my Haley.   :-) 

But if Fernando and I die in tragic accidentaltude...

Minion goes to Swiss Girl.

Haley goes to Mae. (I'll leave instructions on preventing Wolverbean episodes in my will.)

Just to show how manipulative she is, both Mae and Midnight made the same comment when they left my home, on their respective visits: (in sweet voice, scratching Haley on the head) "I thought you were supposed to be the crazy one."

They didn't see the wicked wink Haley gave me behind their backs.



Here's the cartoon I drew about the visit for my husband, who's away. (Click to see bigger.)
 
(I drew a star of David lol. Clearly there's some Kabbalah thrown in here.)

Polska

Fave bit from book I'm reading. Our hero is talking to his musician friend, who wants to write some songs for his new singer girlfriend.

"You're not gonna make her sing your polka version of Highway to Hell?"
"It's not a 'polka' version it's a 'ska' version, thank-you."
"Mmmm. Yes. Of course. Can we agree on 'polska?'"

This Week in French

Instead of writing 50 postings this week about all my French Excitement, I decided to just save it all up in one ignorable posting.

* At the library, remembered they have an ongoing book sale, and there's always some French books. I was sorely tempted by a poetry book about the astral-plane life of cats.

* Continued watching the series Toute la vérité. I hope the CBC shows it one day with English subtitles, like they did Fortier, cause it's SO GOOD. The best show I'm watching right now. Thanks Swiss Girl! It's about Quebec Crown prosecutors.

 One day I watched 7 episodes in a row, and my French really improved--in the sense that I started thinking in French. So that encouraged me to keep listening to French radio, and keep watching lots of TV. (TV as homework! Woo!)

I believe this is supposed to be very good:


And I started watching this, but... not sure yet, though it has all my favorite actors in it. (Well I love most Quebec actors. It's like the British film industry, full of all these amazing actors who pop up over and over, and you just love them every time.)



* Got some grammar and spelling books to start playing with--wee toys!

* Thanks to an amazon reviewer, finally found an online course.



* I mostly listen to Radio Canada now. Fave program this week: "Une enfance pour la vie" which included an interview with one of the Passe Partout stars. She had a farm for troubled children, and talked about helping a kid who'd tried to kill himself four times.

* Recently a Videotron technician came to fix my cable. We spoke French the whole time, so yay! I'm preparing for my headache doctor in April, because I've always suspected she wants me to try speaking in French. She has the eye of a French teacher. A nice one, though. Like... she just wants me to TRY.

* The French book I'm reading is great. Dompierre's one of my new fave authors and I SO regret giving away the pirate book!! This book--Un petit pas pour l'homme--would fit in the Nick Hornby genre, High Fidelity-esque, they really should translate it. But funnier, and the character is more likable. And the pirate book wasn't Hornby-ish at all, and definitely funnier. ("He's going to kill us with apples!")

But I don't like to stop and look up words, so I'm just marking them with a pencil for later. When I watch TV I write the words down on paper. Except "Toute la vérité" is so good I don't even want to stop between episodes and look up words. As an early birthday present I'm buying myself an electronic dictionary, which my lovely parental units are chipping in for as well. :-)

Expanding my vocabulary is one my main goals, cause not being able to fully express myself is the main thing that frustrates me when I speak French.

* The only thing missing is the chance to speak French, so I talk French to the cats. "Behn, apporte-moi donc ton stick--je veux dire, ton bâton, que je joue au mur avec toi Diablotine!" And I'm trying to think to myself in French, and then think out loud to myself in French. "Okay là, là, c'est 5 cinq heures du matin, alors fermer l'ordinateur, faut que tu fasses dodo maintenant, hein?"

* In other news... I need to share with you how useless my French dictionary widget is. (And there are no others, I looked.)

Here are my widgets, the French dictionary is upper right:

 Here is the word "mèche" when I take the widget and make it full screen:

I'm supposed to read 2.5 screens worth of information every time I need to learn a new word?

This Week in Cats: faux fire alarms

We get so many fake alarms in this building, most people don't come out for them. I always take them seriously, cause the building is shaped like a U so it could be on the other side and I wouldn't know. Anyway, it's my responsibility for my kitties that I take seriously.

I keep a cat carrier by the front door, and another one at the other end of the apartment, by the window that's closest to the ground. But all of our windows are just low enough that I would risk jumping out of them if I had to. I'd break something, but probably live.

I also take the alarms as a chance to practice my kitty corralling skills--this time sans Fernando. I was pretty good, I had them boxed in I think under a minute. Haley is key because she got spooked by one of the alarms once, hid under the bed, and then I shoved the bed aside and grabbed her anyway. So now anytime she hears a fire alarm she's really spooked and heads for the hills. And cats are SO good at hiding. So the second I saw her trotting past me I grabbed her and caged her.

Funny how the plastic cage lock, which I can't seem to close 99% of the time, I managed to shut with no trouble on the first try. Wonderful what adrenaline will do for your muscles, motor skills, and brain puzzle thinking skills.

Minion was in the kitchen and she had a "Should I keep moseying or take flight?" look on her face. As I walked towards her, she'd take a step or two back. So I just kept talking nicely, as I had to Haley. Scooped her up, and she got the big cage. Got my wallet, my boots, my jacket, and we were off into the night (in my jammies.)

When we returned I gave them Snappy Toms and all returned to normal.

Public Service Announcement - One Second Plumber

A few weeks ago my kitchen sink was clogged, and I couldn't unclog it with the usual goopy chemicals. I had to get the apartment handy-dude to come. Which is always a hassle for reasons I won't bore you with. I noticed he cleared it using some sort of pump that went "GALOOP!" and a second later the clog was gone.

This week our bathroom sink's slow-drain became near clogged. Harumph. Two bottles of goop, to no avail. (Are the cats pouring litter down our drains or something?) I even tried plungering, but didn't work. So I went to the little hardware store down the hill and there it was--the pumpy thing. It's called One Second Plumber.

The starter kit was $24 (probably cheaper at big hardware stores) but it's good for 24 uses. You have to read the instructions, cause if you don't properly plug any air holes to your sink, you'll end up with slug all over you (yes there are horror stories on the internet.) I plugged the sink's overflow hole with a cloth and held onto it. I filled in some water into the sink--because apparently how it works is it uses a mixture of gases, that interact with water, to make the water GALOOP through the pipes and push out the blockage. (It's not compressed air, as many think.)

I held it down to the drain, in some water. Pushed it down for a second. There was a faint GALOOP noise. I lifted it up. Bubble bubble. And then swiiiish! The water disappeared and my sink has been working like new.

The One Second Plumber is my new best friend. And I recommend it to all my little friends out there too. Your life will take on new meaning. Buy it as your next housewarming gift.

Actual vegan restaurant eat-ahj

Fernando and I went to Aux Vivres restaurant for the first time last night, for supper. We'd never been--it's all vegan, which means I don't care if the food is mediocre, I'm gonna eat a lot! A starter, a dessert, everything!

The actual seating is really minimal so there was a line to get in, and a line pretty much the whole time we were there; but we only waited about 15 minutes I think.

Fernando had borscht, and I ordered us a starter plate of dips--more so I'd know what's good for any future trips. The vegepaté was fine, good tapenade, hummus is always good. The tofu dip was just okay, and there was something carrot-based-fishy-tasting that neither of us liked. I suspect it might be what they use for their bagel and lox.

Fernando then had the mumbai plate, which tasted good.


I ordered a dragon bowl--and they had three other types of bowls. It was so good. Next time I wouldn't have a starter, so I could finish it all. It's inspired me to try making a dragon bowl at home again. I tried one from Jae Steele, but it didn't turn out very well--I think it's helped having it made by someone else first so I know what the goal is.

(pic off their site)

We ordered dessert to go: chocolate banana pie, faux cheesecake, and truffles.

The truffles weren't sweet enough. The chocolate banana pie was good, but I'm not a huge banana person anyway. However the cheesecake... holy cow. Each layer was perfect, my DAYS. In my pre-vegan days I never met a cheesecake I liked as much as I loved this little spot of sugary goodness.

(pic from their site - it looked like this, but paler)

As they say in French: menoum menoum!

Wonder Woman's costume revealed

Here's the new costume. I like the pants and boots. But it's hard to add metal to something without it looking like plastic, which makes it look like a Halloween costume. Probably should have gone with bronze colored material instead, like the piping on her boots. Interesting that they moved away from the Americanness of the costume.

I also think that, in real life, her boobies would constantly pop out of that costume while chasing baddies. Usually her bustier goes up a little farther than that. Wonder Woman must now go through a lot of double-sided tape.

I also hope these high heels are like those new really expensive boots with lots of cushioning, and good grips. Cause running around in heels is really hard. When I'm in running shoes, I can by-pass a woman in heels any day. But it's possible that amazonian women have exceptionally high arches and this is a healthy shoe for them.

Balcony Amour

My little Wolverbean. Now that it's above zero, any chance I give her to sit on the balcony, she takes. Usually she prefers to sit out at night, but she'll take the day if that's all she gets. But the wind is still chilly so I can't leave the door open longer than 30 minutes cause indoors where there's no sun, I get too cold.

Minion doesn't really get it. She wanders in and out, but she doesn't really understand why her buddy wants to sit out there so long.

I'm back watching the Thornbirds, though I missed the beginning cause I had a headache night last night (it's menstruation week) and slept past 2 PM. But I woke up in time to see Dane's death, like I wanted. I'm waiting for the big scene where Meggy tells Ralph: He was your child! No no noooooooo!!!!

Sillines before I go to bed

Was out walking with Swiss Girl and passed a duplex with a for sale sign. It made me laugh cause it was so pretentious with its little columns out front. And how fun it would be to say: "You'll find my house no problem, it's the one with the columns, next to the castle!"

So I had to find it online. Looks like usually they rent it out--only $3000+ per month, let's go!--but I guess it's sold? And here are pics of the interior as well, cause you can have it furnished as well.

Found a book to read

I finally came across the perfect French book for my mood--I'd forgotten I'd bought it on my last day of work. It's called Un petit pas pour l'homme (One Small Step For Man.)

A couple years ago I read Morlante, a book about a psychopath pirate who just wants to be left alone to write novels. It was so funny, it's the only book I wish I hadn't given away because with my practicing-French-mode I might have actually re-read it.

This is another Dompierre book, about a guy who dumps his girlfriend, and then realizes his new single life isn't as glamorous as he anticipated. The line I like best in the description is: "At 20, there was nothing cooler than being the manager of a record shop. At 30, it's another thing."

I only read the first chapter on the bus, but it was très funny, dans le style Nick Hornby, who I enjoy.

By the way, when I write titles here in French, I get mixed up about what to capitalize. I'd always remembered the rule as being: You only capitalize the first word, unless the first word is a word like an article or whatever (the, and, a) in which case you also capitalize the next word.

But a lot of the time when I see titles written on the internet they still only capitalize the first word no matter what it is. But you can't trust what you see written here and there, because frankly people just don't know their own grammar. I remember in grade 9 I was saying something apologetic about my French, to my French teacher, and she said (in mild disgust--she was Very Proper) that it was better than many of my fellow Francophone students. (I didn't have the worst grades, and French wasn't my worst subject.)

Anyway, I looked up the rule just now, and it's worse than I thought:

If the title is a definite article followed by a noun = article lower case, noun upper case (unless I guess it's the beginning of a sentence.) The Cat by Shakespeare.

Noun followed by adjective = only the noun is capitalized. The Cat fat by Shakespeare.  <--okay imagine this is all in French where adjectives often come after nouns.

So far we're okay, it follows the rule I was taught. Here's what's new to me:

An adjective followed by a noun, well now they're both capitalized!  The Fat Cat by Shakespeare.

Two nouns tied together by "or" = both capitalized. The Cat or the Mat by Shakespeare.

And apparently all other cases, only the first word is capitalized: Un, on, et...  So the rule I learned only applies in the case of "the", so I must have remembered it wrong. And if it's in the middle of a sentence, you wouldn't capitalize the. So the Fat Cat by Shakespeare is written like that. But the Cat fat by Shakespeare like that, and the Cat or the Mat by Shakespeare is like that. But One cat who went to market by Shakespeare is written like that.

• Pour les titres d’œuvres, voici quelques règles¹ :
  • Le titre est un article défini suivi d’un nom : l'article s'écrit avec une minuscule, le nom avec une majuscule. Avez-vous lu la Chute de Camus ?
  • Le titre est un nom suivi d'un adjectif : seul le nom prend la majuscule. Non, mais je vais lire la Machine infernale.
  • Le titre est constitué par deux noms coordonnés par ou : les deux noms prennent la majuscule. Jorge Semprun a publié l’Écriture ou la Vie en 1994.
  • Le titre se compose d'un adjectif suivi d'un nom : tous deux prennent la majuscule. René Barjavel a publié le Grand Secret en 1973.
  • Dans les autres cas, seul le premier mot prend la majuscule. On remet toujours à plus tard la lecture d’À la recherche du temps perdu.

This week I'm going to get my hands on some grammar books and start reviewing all this. :-)

Hiding dying birds in French

My step-mother is French-Canadian, from a small town a couple hours outside of Montreal. She left home before she was 20. I don't remember the exact order of her travels, but some of her early English adventures included traveling around the United States, and there are yellowy pictures of her in little 70s bikinis in Las Vegas or wherever.

Anyway, the Step-mommy had this little office in our new house, and one of my distinct memories is of sitting in there and her telling me about how she learned English. She used to read Agatha Christie books in French and in English, and another book she read to learn English was The Thornbirds. Or: The Birds Hide to Die.

That's what the French translation means. Les Oiseaux se cachent pour mourir. I always remembered because my stepmother thought it was such a stupid translation. (And it's not even accurate. It's really: The birds throw themselves upon a thorn and sing the sweetest song they've ever sung to die.)

I guess if it was an accurate translation of the actual term for a thornbird, it would be excusable, but apparently they're called "les synallaxes." (That's the French, not the Latin.)

So I was excited to come across The Hiding Birds today on TV in French! It's a fine family tradition to practice another language using The Thornbirds. I was even in time to watch Meggy and Ralph getting it on on the beach. Now she's telling off Luke in front of his macho friends. "...que je ne to revois pas jamais!"

McCullough is great. Like the other 80s writers Thornbirds was a multigenerational family saga full of trashy ups and downs, but she gets the psychology of the characters just right. The relationships between the mothers and daughters are really interesting, as well as the whole ambition theme.

My magical talking cat

This CVing is killing me. I'm procrastinating like I'm a student all over again! I must be having a psychological block. It's traumatic. I caught up on a few blogs yesterday, but not the Betties (69 unread posts!)

I just wrote ONE LINE. And felt I could reward myself by coming here to tell you that Minion has become so talkative! She wasn't very talkative when she first arrived here, but she's learned this is how one must communicate with the hu-mahns.

I looked at her just now and it was all "Squemreeemoewmeow!"

The other day Fernando woke up and came out and she ran to him and spoke for a good 30 seconds. I don't know if she was saying goodmorning or telling him everything she did since he went to bed.

And when I push her off somewhere she's not supposed to be it's never without a loooong protest.

When I picked her up from the vet recently I was wondering with the vet tech whether it was warm enough (considering that she was recovering from being ill) to take her on the bus home and save some money and suddenly she said: "Meowrowreeeeowrowrowmeowmeowrow!" I looked down at the cage in surprise and said: "Fine, I'll spring for the 20 bucks, geez!" And she replied with another indignant meow, and then was pretty quiet.

Apparently she chirruped EVERY time someone went past her cage too. The tech knew every time someone walked past cause she heard: "Brrrip?"

It's pretty amusing.

But amusing won't get the CV written.

whattoread

Sorry, I may have given a mistaken impression in my last posting when I said things were "peaceful." I didn't mean to imply that the cats were acting peaceful... just normal. Which is peaceful to me. In reality Minion is bugging the crap out of Haley. Meaning, life is back to normal. Re a reader comment, I'm not so sure Minion has really come face to face with the fact of her mortality. From the way she flings herself from to and from the furniture, I'm not convinced.

Just finished reading a novel, time to pick another. Better get back to a French book. Got to decide if I want something light or literary or what. I don't have as much Light in French. Harder to find, at least stuff that's inexpensive. May have to depend on the library, come to think of it. Even though I live in such an Anglophone community, my library carries a ton of French books--almost as much as the English, except there just isn't as much available in French as in English. I'm not sure if that's because there are more Francophones around here than I realize, or has something to do with government funding.

Anyway, decide tomorrow. Must go to bed. Here I am going to bed at a good hour (4 AM) but stupid daylight savings makes it seem like a naughty time (5 AM). I should be working for a jazz club, or for a rock star or something.

movies and les films and la télé

So after the horror of Le Nèg, the next day I watched a sort of romantic comedy called Les Crabes dans la tête (Soft Shell Man in English, but it's a French-Quebec movie). It was great. Yesterday I watched a translated Breakfast Club while picking out pictures for my collage. I was never a John Hughes fan because I didn't identify with any of his characters, but the scene where they're all sitting around admitting why they're really there was even better than I remembered. It's too bad their careers all got Hughes-stink on them and they ended up as silly extras in other people's comedies.

Today I watched another episode of Toute la vérité (exshellent) and started up Fortier again since it's something I can watch while doing other stuff (yet it's still SO GOOD!) Then Fernando and I watched Snow Walker and Nanny McPhee (in English.)

My current French problem: My dictionary widget is too good. Each definition has the kind of information you get in big fat heavy dictionaries that you only need at the university level. Not what you need when you're looking for a quickie 5-word definition. I'm trying to find another one...

Ho hum, that's about it. Life's been good this week since the cat came back. Peaceful and unremarkable. I'm back to my old self-adoodle.

My new favorite French phrase: "Hansel. Il est tellement tendance."

I have a very old fashioned cable setup, so if I'm taping something on digital cable, I can't watch something else. (This is how you live on a low income with no debt, my friends. No PVR in this household yet. Just sayin'.)

So if I'm taping something I don't want to watch yet, I put on a DVD. My new thing is to find which of my DVDs have French dubbing!

Tonight was Zoolander. Next I'm starting Angels in America.

Richard Dawkins Cites His Other Writings

Maewitch sent me this site: betterbooktitles. I found that the funniest ones were the ones for books I hadn't even read, because they were just true for a great number of books.

 

 

And then there's this book which bang on expresses the joy I felt at the end of this book (and it's a spoiler so you've been warned. The book is The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao.)