Bonjour Mes Amis

I had my “clean slate” first weigh in of March today at weight watchers.  I was down from the last step on, but that doesn’t matter, I have today’s number, and my goal is to be 5 lbs less by the last weigh in of the month!

When I got back from my meeting (Melisa and I walked in the POURING rain) I had an almond milk latte, 2 pieces of weight watchers cinnamon toast with 1 tbsp almond butter and a smoothie with more almond milk, 1/2 banana and some frozen mango chunks.

Later on I had an ambrosia apple.

Then, Dennis and I ventured out to the Festival Du Bois.  (Festival of Wood – and yes, those of you as childish as I am may snicker at that now!)

Dennis was born and raised in Montreal, so is very familiar and often misses French Canadian culture.  You can take the man out of Quebec, but you never truly take Quebec out of the man.  Case in point…..if Dennis is watching a sporting event or is making a point, he’ll say “de udder one” (translation:  the other one), his ‘fadder” is 86 this year (Translation: his Father) and if he is constructing IKEA furniture and gets frustrated, he swears in French.  (Translation: Roz, you should probably leave the room right now until English words return)  I’m teasing him…he gave me permission to write this.  But it is all true!!!

I thought calling a French Canadian a “Frog” was a derogatory term.  Apparently, it is actually something to be proud of, and these knitted Frog hats were a hit at the festival.

There were vendors of all sorts….

…large walking waving people (who I bet swear in french when they construct IKEA furniture)…

…waving air people (who likely didn’t swear at all)…

…ice sculptures….

…and performers of all kinds….

Our lunch was a “tribute” to the junk food Dennis grew up with and knew well back in his younger days.  First, we split an order of Poutine, the famous French Canadian food that consists of fries topped with cheese curds and gravy.  Basically its a heart attack on a plate, but once in a while its a treat.  (I actually looked up poutine in my weight watchers point book when we got home.  20 fries, 2 oz cheese and 1/2 cup gravy comes in at 19 points!!  I had about 4 fork fulls and tracked accordingly)

Then we visited the Cabane Sucre, where maple syrup is warmed, poured over “snow” rolled with a stick and eaten like a lollypop.  (Apparently, it’s very important too, if making the maple treats to wear frog hats and look very serious!)

And while we were watching the musicians and dancers, we had a beer.  I had a few sips, I was too busy taking photos.

After the festivities, the sun came out and we drove over to our friends Andrea and Ian’s house for dinner.  The clouds were very low over the mountains as the skies turned blue.  This photo doesn’t really capture how gorgeous it was.

This sign cracked us up as we drove by.  We actually turned around on the road to take the shot.

Here are Andrea and Ian…

…their son Alec….

…and their kitty Whiskers, who wasn’t overly impressed at being woken up for a photo.  He still looks like he’s smiling, even though he was half asleep here.

Cheers to good friends.  (my glass was the one with red wine)

We started out with some cheese, crackers, olives and Andrea’s home grown and home canned spicy beans.

Dinner was roast beast beef with mashed potatoes and veggies.  So good!

And dessert was fruit, butter tarts and mini cinnamon buns.

Thank you so much Andrea and Ian for a lovely evening.  (or should I say, Merci Beaucoup given we attended a French festival?)  And Whiskers, I really am sorry I woke you up.  Sort of….