Going Rogue in Canada

From the Rick Mercer Report on Canadian television...

Prime Minister Stephen Harper decided to prorogue* Parliament in Canada just prior to the New Year and basically shut down the operations of the House of Commons until after the Olympics. (From our history classes in the U.S., of course we know that Parliament is like the Legislative branch of the U.S. government).  Imagine if a U.S. president told the House of Representatives to take a two month vacation because the country was too busy thinking about the Olympics. Or telling everyone to take the week off because the Saints are in the Super Bowl.


In case you have not heard -- Canada is hosting the Winter Olympics in 13 days. We know this because we've had a countdown to the Olympics since we moved here some 500-something days ago. We've heard commercials (narrated by Donald Sutherland) and a viewer can't get through an episode of any show without hearing at least a dozen promos. As it should be. It's a big deal and after all. And Canada is a winter sport nation, although the weather would indicate otherwise. The news now is that there's little snow in British Columbia (much to the dismay of the U.S. pundits and dudes like Sean Insanity Hannity who doubt global warming exists) and snow is being imported by truck and helicopter from higher elevations. 


Every bit of news in Canada goes back to the Olympics these days. Even the weather. And Politics. That said, residents here are not too happy about Harper shutting Parliament down, even if it is so we can spend more time concentrating on curling and the luge. Some say it's because he didn't like the direction of how things were (not) going for his Conservative party. Some Canadians like the guy and his politics. Others think he's a dork not connecting with the Canadian people. But to use the Olympics as an excuse?


In the meantime, the Canadian Pisani family is anxious for the Olympics to start...we may even get inspired to take up curling.


*prorogue |p(r)əˈrōg|
verb ( -rogues, -rogued, -roguing) [ trans. ]discontinue a session of (a parliament or other legislative assembly) without dissolving it : James prorogued Parliament in 1685 and ruled without it.• [ intrans. ] (of such an assembly) be discontinued in this way : the House was all set to prorogue

Geaux Saints!

We're obviously hoping for a Saints victory and sending good vibes from Montreal. In case you were wondering if "Geaux" is really a French word...here's the definition from the Urban Dictionary --

Derives from areas highly populated with Cajun Americans, Louisiana State University Tigers fans, or more commonly both.

"G-e-a-u-x, Geaux Tigers, Geaux!" 

"Here we geaux Tigers, here we geaux!"

It's not uncommon to hear it at a Saints game as well as we learned when we lived in Louisiana 20 years ago.  Prior to moving to Montreal, Kish only knew how to pronounce the "eaux" in Geaux and Bordeaux. Now, French lessons have opened up a whole new inventory of vocabulary. Regardless....Go/Geaux/Allons-y Saints!

One big snow cone

We're having a bit of a warming trend in Montreal this winter and so far we can't complain about the weather. Unlike last year, we can actually see the driveway instead of a sheet of ice. Typically the snow starts falling in November and we don't see the driveway or grass until the end of March. We're certain this breath of warm(er) air won't last though.


In the meantime, Duke has decided our yard is one big snow cone. He's also decided that the snow will be his source of water when he can't find a toilet lid up. This despite the fact he has a nice, fresh bowl of water in the house. We can't say that we blame him though. In a pinch, we've used carefully selected snow to cool down a drink when the two ice trays we've survived with for 15 months aren't producing fast enough. What's a little snow going to do? After all, as Kish's brother's will confirm...the dogs from their childhood lead very long, happy, healthy and hydrated lives surviving on swimming pool water.

2009 Year in Photos

We have not posted in a while. The rush of the holidays and feeling "more Canadian" these days has us running out of topics. Things seem more normal compared to this time last year. We're used to buying gas and milk by the litre and we can order a plain hamburger in French at McDonald's. That's progress, eh?


We put together a selection of photos from our first full year in Canada...and a few places we visited in between. Happy New Year!

Untitled from kish.pisani@gmail.com on Vimeo.