Where's my key, agenda, cheque, head?

snow in morning, very windy, then bright sunny skies temps minus 14

Drove in to Cowansville for breakfast this morning, then on to Montreal. Took the back roads since there was a lot of snow. But mostly the danger comes from ice, and blowing snow - which we had in abundance this morning.

Michael drove the Mercedes home - hallalujah!

Though it took a while to get here to the Montreal apartment. It was, in many ways, a day of remebrance - following a day of forgetfulness. Our DOF happened last visit to Montreal. Michael forgot to bring the cheque for Volvo, Steve at Mercedes forgot to give us the second key, and I forgot my agenda at Lemeac Restaurant. All in a matter of hours.

So today we retraced our steps...took the cheque to Volvo for the final payment before selling the car...picked up the second key for our new Mercedes (adore it!!!) from the dealer...and met Michel at Lemeac for lunch and picked up my agenda at the same time.

Lunch was great. Michel will be the person translating my books into French. Over a lunch of calamari, fish soup, cuisse de canard, baguette we discussed all sorts of things, including translation options and turns of phrases. Can you believe this is work??? Hope to convince Revenue Canada it's work, but it sure didn't feel like that. Michael and Michel laughed about the role of a hematologist in designing murder mysteries. We had a blast.

And speaking of blasts - that's what met us (after we forgot the key to the car in the restuarant) as we walked to the car. A bitterly cold wind right in our faces. Feels like the skin is peeling away. Poor noses. And ear lobes.

The new car is fabulous...a real dream. As you know we agonized over what to get. We needed an all wheel drive, we wanted something comfortable for the highway, and something environmentally responsible. We got two out of three. Situational ethics, c'est moi. However, to right the imbalance - and because they're cool - we're also going to get a used Smart Car for tooling from home to the villages, and only use the Mercedes for trips to Montreal or further afield.

I've quite lost my heart to the Smart Car - but I wouldn't want to drive them around our mountain home in winter...nor would I want to drive them on the highway in any weather. people do, I know...but not these people. We first saw a Smart Car in Paris about five years ago. I remember standing stock-still and staring...mesmerized by the tiny car. Adoring it right away. So it will be such fun to have one.

Rob - Barbara Peter's husband (she of Poisoned Pen books) in Phoenix - has a Smart Car and we got to see it. Course, it might make a little more sense in Phoenix than in two feet of snow. But I'm sure I can justify it. Oh, wait...I don't need to. What a relief.

So now we're home in the Montreal apartment...no plans for tomorrow, except to maybe lose a few more things.

Fruit salad for dinner...craving healthy food - finally.

Hope you're well...talk to you tomorrow.

'Splainin'

snowing, temps minus 2

Picture perfect winter day...snow gently falling and clinging to the pine and spruce trees and the giant honeysuckle in the front garden, the one with the bird feeders. We're expecting about 10 centimenters today - not huge, but nice after the rain yesterday. We need to remember there is ice under all this nice fluffy snow.

Having a great day. Sending the edit for The Hangman off to the editor. Spoke to my brother Doug - just back from India, and his kids. Did a load of laundry. Got back on the elliptical torture device (a clothes hanger of late).

Had breakfast this morning with Cheryl. Michael came too (I think because I can't stand being more than 10 feet away from his new car). We stood on the snow main street of Sutton, listening to what sounded like Turkish-Dervish-ish music piped through the loud speakers. I guess now that Christmas is over the town feels it can't really keep playing Christmas music, but it is still the festive season so in a monumental act of decision making they opted for Turkish music. To be frank, it sounded fabulous. Cheryl, Michael and I did a little dance. Then stopped.

Michael told me the funniest story from his past. Before i knew him. He was staying at this apartment and doing laundry when one of the other residents said they'd dropped something between the machines and asked Michael's help to get it back. Well, Michael didn't have anything - except...an idea. He went back to the apartment and got the biggest knife he could find...a honkin' great carving knife. Then got back on the elevator...only to realize, too late (as is so often the case) that this might look just a little suspicious. Instead of saying anything he decided to hum, and watch the numbers go down. Not surprisingly, everyone else got off at the next floor. And five minutes later security guards showed up at the laundry room.

Michael had some 'splainin' to do.

Wow, looking out the window...is it ever beautiful.

Off to Montreal tomorrow...having lunch at Lemeac with the new translator of the Gamache books. We finally have a French publisher! He apparently already has some questions. This is understandable. Indeed, when Still Life first came out we had to also do some translating, from Canadian into US and British English. I kept getting questions like...'What's a tuque?' 'What's a Double Double?' 'What's a 2-4?'

Be well, will blog from Montreal tomorrow.