Biggest Loser

Jenn, Heather and I are going to start the Biggest Loser between the three of us. We officially begin on July 1st. Jenn and Heather live together so they will be each other’s support and I have Patrick. He’s not really doing it with us but he’s going to help me. I hurt my foot earlier this month and I’m going to the doctor’s office on Tuesday (the first day of the Biggest Loser!) to find out what the hell is wrong with me. I am hoping that the doctor says “it’s no big deal, keep working out!” but last time it really hurt when I was at the gym doing the stationary bike. Eek! Well, we’ll see what happens.

So wish me luck!

Summer Fridays

I am soooooo lucky! I get Fridays off during the summer. So today I had the day off. I went to Home Depot with Jenn to get an air duct for her dryer and then we had lunch at Kebab Factory. I came home to do a bit of laundry and cleaning and now we’re about to go out again to get our nails done. She’s actually getting a pedicure but I’m going to get a manicure. I haven’t had my nails done in FOREVER. It’s weird because I used to get them done all the time. Anywho. It should be fun.

I LOVE summer Fridays!

What do you get when you put Scratchy with Noumi?

Scroumi!!

If you don’t get it… read it out loud.

Work work work…

Well, I’m at work but it has been very slow since graduation. In fact, I don’t have too much stuff to do so I try and keep myself busy. I have created a new blog that is all about my TV addiction. If you want the link, you’ll have to ask me for it. :)

Other than that, Patrick still hasn’t heard from anyone at the International School of Boston. He has, however, made an appointment for an interview at Harvard for next Monday. He’s not too thrilled about it, but that’s life. Heather and Jenn came over last night for dinner and we had some ribs. Patrick has a great recipe and we’ve had it a couple times now. I really really really like it. Maybe when Audrey comes this Christmas we’ll make it for her. It’s nice and messy and when we eat the ribs, we are always so stuffed afterward. It’s great.

Starting next week, I am getting every Friday off until September. It’s all part of the exciting working world of Harvard. :) My current boss isn’t really down with the Fridays off so since this is her last week, I’m still going to be here this Friday. Sad story. Well, I can’t wait until those days off. I’m pretty sure I won’t actually do anything on those days (kinda like weekends) but it’ll be nice to have that extra day. Jealous? I bet.

Patrick will be in Texas on July 9-12 for a friend’s wedding so if you are in the Houston area and want to see his mug, you should email him and let him know. Danny, one of the groomsmen in our wedding, is getting married to his fiancee, Janet. What I think is cute is that his last name is Jackson and if she changes her name, she’ll be Janet Jackson. :) How awesome is that???

The weekend after the wedding weekend, we will be going to Montreal to visit family. Christine, Nathan, and the parental units will be in town showing off the baby for a couple weeks. Everyone is pretty excited. I can’t wait to see Christine. I haven’t seen her (or Nathan duh!) since Christmastime and that’s lame. So it’ll be nice to hang out and talk in person instead of online or on the phone.

That’s the scoop for now. You should all leave comments so that I can feel special and important. :) Wow… that’s a lot of smiley faces for one post!

Strawberry picking

I decided to take a long weekend this week and took off on Thursday and Friday from work. I sat around the house and did pretty much nothing on the weekdays… but the weekend was a different story. On Saturday, we began our dog watching duties. I’m watching Tuffy, a maltipoo that belongs to our friend Jenn. He’s a really sweet puppy but I don’t think he’s been eating much. He must be lonely without his master around. Our cats probably party when we’re out of town!! After our duties, we went to see Get Smart at the theater. It was so cute. I loved it. I recommend it to anyone who liked the series or anyone who likes Steve Carrell. He’s so awesome. After the movie, we went to eat some Mexican food at Border Cafe. It was pretty yucky so I don’t think we’ll ever go there again. We still haven’t been able to find a decent Mexican place. What a bummer.

Today (Sunday), we got up early, did our doggie duties and then went strawberry picking. I researched the pick-your-own farms a lot last year when I really wanted to go but we never had the chance to go. So this year, we finally went and it was great. We picked 5 lbs of strawberries! On a side note, blueberries are only 99 cents a pint at Stop and Shop so I bought 4 pints… They freeze great!! Anyway, we came home and had some lunch followed by some strawberry shortcake (we bought some scones at the farm stand) and it was GREAT. We took a few pictures as well. Here you go… Jealous?

Now we’re baking some strawberry, blueberry, and strawberry/blueberry bread. It’s a “test” to see if it’ll make it into my cookbook for Christmas. We shall see how it turns out!! It has another 15-20 mins left in the oven. I’m sure pictures will come later.

To see pictures of the strawberry picking fun, click on the photo of us below. :)

Job Interview

I had a job interview on Friday, but I did not get to blog about it until now because the internet has been acting really weird.  At any rate, the job is at the International School of Boston, which offers a bilingual (French and English) education.  The job is an “assistant teacher” type job, which means that I would come in later in the day, help setup for lunch and recess, help out for the afternoon (I am not sure what this means – I could be in a classroom or in the library), and then stay for the after school program (help with homework, arts and crafts, play, etc.).  The interview went really well, and, best of all, I could use my French (as much as I want).  This is a nice compromise since I can’t take any classes at McGill.  Another lady called me later on Friday afternoon for a second interview, but I was not there since I am temping at the real estate firm.  She said that she would call back at 6:30, and if not she would call at 6:30 on Monday.  Since Friday was such a beautiful day, the real estate place closed early (but they said they would pay for a full day of work).  So I got home and called the lady from the school, but she too had left.  I eagerly awaited the phone call, but it never came.  I am really hoping that I will have some good news on Monday evening.

PS – Melanie and I went strawberry picking today.  We got a crap load of strawberries, and we have a few pictures.  We are also going over some recipes that include strawberries.  We will post shortly.

Je suis de retour

Well, I am now back in Boston. Actually, we got back on Sunday night, but I’ve yet to write anything about my return since I’ve been embarrassingly lazy. So I am once again looking for another job, though this time not by means of a temp agency. There are a few jobs that list French as a requirement, and I have my eye on those above all else. However, I am not going to hold my breath. In the meantime, I am back at the real estate appraisal firm. Since I have a previous working relationship with this company, they understand that I might (fingers crossed) need time off for an interview. Unfortunately, Zach (my coworker at the appraisal place) is leaving for another job in a week and a half. I enjoy working with him, so I hope that the new person (whomever it may be) is nice or that I’ve found a new job.

Upcoming plans

I’m driving to Montreal this weekend to pick Patrick up. He’s coming back home. Sad for him but good for me! He’s going to have to find a job but I think he’ll survive. He’s also going to take a class at the French Library to work on his grammar. I hope the class will help.

Other than that, I don’t really have any plans. I’m pretty boring. :)

Weekend update

So here’s a little update from us…

Thursday: commencement day. Hellish but I lived to tell about it… not that I will but I could if I wanted to.

Friday: recovery from commencement day with lots of sleep and hanging out with Patrick.

Saturday: we drove to Montreal in the morning. Went to Kelly’s baby shower for a bit (I was totally dressed in gym clothes haha!) but it was nice to see her all preggers and happy. After the shower, we went to have dinner with Auntie Diane, Uncle David and Auntie Marlene. For once we didn’t go for chinese food! We had italian food instead. It was yummy. Then we went back to grand-maman’s house and went swimming before going to bed.

Sunday: I woke up in the middle of the night because it was horribly hot in the bedroom where we were sleeping and I thought I would die if I stayed in there one minute longer… so I went to sleep on the couch downstairs for a bit. I swear. I hate summertime. Anyway, eventually I went back upstairs to see Patrick. :) We got up and had breakfast and then we went to Costco with Auntie Diane to pick up some Mr. Freezes. YUM! (They are currently getting ready for me for a snack tonight!) Afterwards, we went to get some bagels and then had lunch with grand-maman. After lunch, I abandoned Patrick at my grandmother’s house and left to go home. Five hours later, I was in Boston with the cats. I watched a bad movie and ate some ice cream sandwiches for dinner (yum and very healthy). The cats waited by the door all night for Patrick and Scratchy meowed at me a lot and kept waiting by the door. It was cute and sad at the same time. Then I went to bed.

Monday (today): Patrick took this placement exam at McGill this morning. He emailed me to tell me about it. Apparently they are concerned that he may be too advanced for the program. That’s the impression I got from their information about the program itself. Anyway, it seems that he may be coming home sooner than we expected but we shall see. He doesn’t know when he’ll get his score on the exam but if it’s recommended that he not stay, he probably won’t. We found him a 2 month class on French grammar at the French Library in Boston that he can take this summer to spruce up his grammar and he can probably take some other courses at the French Library throughout the year if he wants as well to keep up with being in the classroom and hang out with French people.

Other news for me today… this morning I rode the bus to work instead of walking because it was nearly 90 degrees when I left the house… I was early to catch the bus and it was great… but then I got to Davis Square and the red line was CLOSED. BARF!! So there were hundreds of people trying to get on the shuttles and so I thought “I’ll just walk”. What a dumbass… I walked in jeans and flip flops… and I was so sweaty and nasty when I got to work, it wasn’t even funny. Also, the flip flops have been really hellish lately and I have HUGE blisters the size of the Canadian loonie on both balls of my feet. It hurts to walk at all now. I LOVE the MBTA. I hope they burn down and every train/bus/commuter train breaks down…. right after I get home.

That’s it. We have no other news.

Placement Exam

Well, I recently finished my placement exam. I was surprised just how short it was, especially when you consider that the paperwork said that the exam would last 3.5 hours (I guess this takes into account the fact that you sit around and wait to be called for your oral interview). I quickly went to work on the grammar part. I did not spend much time on this at first. I generally like to go through the test and then come back to double-check my answers. I just happened to be one of the first few people called for the interview. Everything was going great. She knew that my French is a little more advanced than the casual student who takes this course, and when I mentioned that I have my Master’s she stepped out of the room for a bit. She came back with a colleague who teaches in the fifth level of the program. I originally thought that the fifth level was the most advanced, but she told me there is a sixth level, but it already started about a month ago. To get a better feel for my proficiency, I had to write a little essay on a book or film that I like. After turning it in, the lady told me that they would give me a call when they have my results. So I may not be staying in Montreal for very long after all.