Federrer vs Niemeyer

Last weekend Jr and I went to Montreal for my aunt's funeral. She passed away on Friday night of cancer. We left New York very early Saturday morning and we just came back to New York tonight.
Last night my sister, Marie-Claude, invited us to a tennis match in Montreal. It was the Rogers Cup tournament and her friend, Frederic Niemeyer was playing against Federrer. It was a good match, even though Federrer is #1, Niemeyer gave him a good challenge, or at least what it looked like one.

Vader's birthday

The night of Vader's birthday, August 6th, I was making red velvet cupcakes for one of my co-worker's baby shower at work and I made 2 little cupcakes for Yoda and Vader to celebrate Vader's birthday. Vader was really happy, look at his face and tongue! Yoda didn't mind it too much either!

Dog pictures

The pugs in their favorite places:

Yoda and Vader enjoying their new large Wal-Mart bed that they can share without pushing each other

Vader in the toy basket sleeping or eating the basket, waiting for us by the door

Yoda and Vader waiting for Jr to be done showering

BBQ in Prospect Park

A couple weekends ago we went to Prospect Park in Brooklyn to have a little bbq. I love bbq so one night that I felt like eating some, I went to Target to buy a small portable bbq and the next night we made some hamburger on the fire escape. That's New York lifestyle! So a couple weekends ago we went to Prospect Park on Saturday afternoon to have hamburger and hot dogs for lunch. It was really good. Prospect Park is the park close to where we bought our condo in Park Slope, Brooklyn. There is also a dog beach in the park, we took the pugs there and the water was really cold so I thought that Yoda would go in right away, but he was a little scared of stepping on the rocks underwater. Once they get used to it they will have lots of fun there!

Mets game

Mets game at the new CitiField. We went with Alyson when she was visiting in July. We ate ShakeShack for dinner mmmmmmm...

July 4th weekend

Wow, we're almost up to date on our blog. I will make a valid effort to try to update this as soon as possible.

For July Fourth weekend, Jr and I took a couple day off. We left New York, with the pugs, on Wednesday night June 30, for Montreal. The next day, on July 1, it was Canada day. We went to Ottawa, Canada's capital, with my friend Marie. We saw the change of guard in front of the parlement and then they had the Royal Canadian Mounted Police performed their carousel show. It was really nice, I had seen it before in Sasketchewan, but it was Jr's first time to see it. Then we listen to the little concert they had in front of the parlement.

On Friday night we picked up Alyson at the airport, she was visiting us for a week.

Jr holding the Vancouver 2010 Olympic torch

On the 4th at night I had invited a few friends over for a bbq for Independance Day in Canada! Jr and Alyson cooked everything on the bbq and I made some red velvet cupcakes. I wasn't very nice outside that night and it was quite cold so we had to eat inside but it was still fun. My friends all brought their kids so there was 7 kids!

Then there are pictures of me swimming with the pugs, they were really hot outside so I took them in the water, without Jr again!

This is Jr running around the pool with the 2 pugs and my parents' cocker spaniel, Mozart, and Marie's french bulldog, Olive, all running after him.

Dog park

Jr and the pugs at the dog park where we used to take Yoda everyday when we lived in the financial district. It's pretty sad, but it was Vader's first time at a dog park. He behaved very good, no crazyness and most of all no bites from another dog. The first time took Yoda there when he was a puppy, he got bit by a big dog and he actually had his skin pierced on the neck. I miss that dog park, it's really nice because it's pavement so it doesn't stink and it has a little dog pool so they can get wet when they are hot. Before that we had taken them to Central Park, so it was a big day for the pugs!

Caroline's high school reunion

Last May, I went to my 10 year high school reunion in Rigaud, outside Montreal. I went to high school there for 5 years, which is the full high school in Quebec. It was nice to see the school again and all the people I was friends. I was a little nervous at first that I wouldn't remember someone or forget someone's name, but I didn't do too bad. We watched a diaporama and a video of when we were at school, it was really funny.
The next day I had a few friends over at my house for brunch. I was good to be all together again.

Easter

For Easter weekend, my sister, Genevieve, and my friend, Marie, came to visit. We had already planned to make hats for the Easter parade on Fifth Avenue. For those who are not familiar with New York's Easter parade tradition, on Easter Sunday, on Fifth Avenue, people walk around with interesting hats that they usually made themselves. It's not really a parade, but the street is closed and people walk up and down showing or looking at everybody's hat. The day before the parade, we went to a craft store, Michael's, and we bought all kinds of stuff to make our hats. Mine was like a giant nest with small birds on it. Marie's was basket with flowers, artificial AND fresh!, and birds and buterflies. Gen's was a cowboy hat with glittered rabbit ears sticking out. We had a lot of fun making them and certainly showing them off. It really weird when we walked down the street, everybody wants to take pictures, not only of your hat, but with you. You can see that Jr is not on the pictures, that's not because he didn't want us to take pictures of him, that's because he didn't want to make a hat and come with us!
On Easter morning, Gen made us all brunch, it was really good.

Cherry Blossoms in Washington D.C.

In April we went to Washington D.C. to see the cherry blossoms. It was BEAUTIFUL. I been wanting to go for many years and this year we decided to go. I had been to Washington D.C. once before about 15 years ago, but it was Jr. first time. We didn't go inside anywhere because as you can see from the pictures we brought our pugs with us; we can't go anywhere without them! We stayed in a Motel 6 about 5 minutes from the Capitol because that's one place we knew take dogs! We left on Saturday morning hoping to get there around noon but we were stuck in rediculous traffic all the way there. Instead of taking us 4 hours it took us about 6 or 7 hours. When we got there in the afternoon, we checked in a the motel and we parked near the capitol and we walked from there all the way to the end of the mall where the most of the cherry blossoms were and the Jefferson memorial was. Then we walked all the way back to the car, by then it was night already. On our way back to the motel we stopped at a Thai restaurant and got some take-out to take back to the motel. The next day, we drove and parked near the White House and we walked around the grounds there for a little bit and we had Cosi for lunch on a picnic table right outside the White House. I mention Cosi because that's when my severe addiction started! Since then I can't get enough of it, whenever I can, I get it for lunch at work. I love their turkey and brie sandwich and their signature salad, mmmmm.Anyway, after lunch we left and drove back to New York. It was a short trip and we stayed outside for most of it but it was fun and a change from the New York scenery.

Christmas season

During Christmas, Jr and I and the pugs drove down to Florida to meet my parents and sisters. On Christmas Eve, my mom prepared a Christmas Eve little meal at midnight the same way my grand -mother used to do when my mom was little. Then on Christmas day we did a gift exchange, that was my idea, we all bought a $5 gift for everyone else and when we opened the gifts we had to guess how had bought it for us. It was a lot of fun, and it would have been even better if my dad didn't send my mom to buy his gifts for him!
On my birthday we went to a hockey game, the Canadiens were playing against the Florida Panthers and of course they beat them. It was pretty fun because at least half of the arena was people from Quebec.
On New Year's Eve we went to Miami for dinner at Joes' Stone Crab and we actually waited 3 hours for a table. Not that they told us it was going to be 3 hours annd it ended up being an hour and a half, we actually waited THREE hours!! It wasn't such a big deal because we wanted to watched the fireworks that set off from the ocean on the beach so we would have had to wait for that anyway, but by the time we sat down and we finished dinner we rushed to the beach and we pretty much missed the whole thing. We still had fun afterwards, everyone was partying in the street on Ocean Drive.
Then on New Years day we went to the Orange Bowl at the Miami Dolphins stadium. I suggested that we tailgate before the game, since we, Canadians, are not big football fans and we never experienced this tailgating thing! So my parents bought a small protable grill and we brought hot dogs and all kinds of tailgating foods. We were with a few family friends and we all had a lot of fun. The game however wasn't really exciting and the stadium was barely half full.
Other than that we did the usual in Florida, beach, shop and eat out.

Tailgate party at the Orange Bowl

We always get a picture of the tree at Rockefeller Center

The beach...

Yoda and Vader in their "dog park", made by my parents, in Florida

The Canadians playing against the Florida Panthers on my birthday!

All the "quebequers" cellebrating after the Montreal Canadians won the hockey game

The Orange Bowl at the Miami Dolphins Stadium

Orange Bowl