from chris lloyd
to pm@pm.gc.ca
date Wed, Feb 3, 2010 at 10:28 PM
subject Harper questionne le rôle des États-Unis dans le G20; Harper cabinet discusses job-creation strategy
Dear Stephen,
It is amazing how something so small can have such a powerful effect. Rose is still tiny, though visibly growing, and she commands almost all my attention. I could watch her for hours.
Monday after work I left early but I was caught in the metro at Sherbrooke due to an electrical fire. I walked to St-Laurent but then 3 buses went by, all too full to stop and let on new passengers. Very annoying. Got home at 6pm and then we went to Caro and François’ for supper. We walked with Rose in the stroller. It was cold out but she gets bundled up pretty good.
Yesterday I took the day off work and we ran some errands together and ended up at The Bay. Some of Claudine’s family had given us a gift card. We spent almost 2 hours there; it is a bit overwhelming, all eight floors. I couldn’t resist buying some cute clothes for Rose. We also received some packages in the mail from my uncle Brian and his wife Wand as well as my Aunt Vicki and her hubby Peter. Lots of cute outfits for Rose to grow into.
We watched the season premiere of Lost last night. Have you seen it? I have a hard time believing why one of the vans jumped ahead in time with Jack and the gang. And how does the almost omnipotent Jacob get killed so easily? How did the Man in Black become a second John Locke? Who is the new Chinese leader of the new Others? What is the significance of the alternate future? So many questions, so little time, only one season to go.
Work has been occupying, what with lots of little details to take care of. Back in tomorrow.
Clo is watching Amelia; I’m trying to catch up on some rest and reading.
-chris
from chris lloyd
to pm@pm.gc.ca
date Sun, Feb 14, 2010 at 1:53 AM
subject Georges Laraque repêché par les Verts; Comrades say goodbye to Edmonton soldier killed in Afghanistan training exercise
Dear Stephen,
Sorry that I haven’t written in what seems like forever, or at the very least, a couple weeks. Lots has been keeping me occupied and busy, including a four-day visit to Gatineau, a couple days of work, and a visit from Kate and Rich, which included lots of eating out. Rose has had a few days of crankiness bordering on colic that turned out most likely due to intestinal gas and cramps. She is still on a rotating three to five day evacuation cycle. She is amazingly calm and composed when we go to restaurants or bars, however.
Today James and Simone came over for a visit. They brought sweets and a cute wool pyjama for Rose. We made coffees and chilled. This morning we had brunch in the Old Port at Le Cartet with Kate and Rich and Monica, who is living close by. We were up late as we had 9pm reservations at El Pintxo, which was fabulous. We watched a few episodes of Flight of the Conchords, which is really growing on me. I laughed my ass off, actually.
So what is new with you? I hear your conservatives are now neck and neck in the polls with Iggy’s Liberals. Could this have something to do with proroguing Parliament? Perhaps your (non) environmental policies? Your obsession with Arctic Sovereignty? Who knows really. I ask my cats but they don’t seem to care. They just nap and clean themselves.
We watched a little of the Olympics on TV while feeding Rose tonight, the first silver medal. Do you find the “Own the podium” program to be a bit arrogant, or a necessity in the high-stakes world of international sport? When do you think Vancouver will pay off the Games? What do you suppose the “anarchists” were protesting about? Just causing havoc I suppose. Too bad it overshadows the more peaceful protesters Native Rights and homelessness issues. Or maybe that is due more to lazy journalism.
I’ve stayed up too late surfing the web and watching random Youtube videos. We started watching A serious man tonight, but found it terribly depressing, and so switched to The invention of lying, which was charming but slightly insipid. Clo fell asleep. And I’ve since continued with A serious man and find it fascinating but am too tired to finish it tonight. We still have a couple days left on the iTunes rental. Do you ever rent films through iTunes? It can be terribly convenient.
-chris
from chris lloyd
to pm@pm.gc.ca
date Tue, Feb 16, 2010 at 12:09 AM
subject Prorogation: Ignatieff demande à Harper de limiter son pouvoir; Montreal swindler sentenced to 11 years in $50M Ponzi scheme
Dear Stephen,
How is Haiti? Have you been watching any of the Olympics? They are kind of like a drug; they are just on the TV all the time. Perfect for distracting while breastfeeding. So are episodes of Flight of the Conchords.
Claudine made a fabulous risotto for supper tonight. I had gone for a big shopping trip to the market yesterday afternoon, which was a day without visits.
I’ve been thinking about some new art projects, based on the work of David Hoffos. We saw his show at the National while we were in Ottawa; great stuff, very magical, low-tech, mysterious, humorous. I just need to get the studio cleaned up and organized. First I need to do my taxes; my big table is full of receipts at the moment. And I am re-arranging storage in my free time. I’m not feeling so hot about the letters project, which is probably one reason why I haven’t been writing much, or regularly, or with much interest.
Brought some Sophie Calle carpet home from work tonight. We re-carpeted the new DHC education space today with leftover carpet from the Sophie Calle show a couple years ago; there was some leftover so I made a 6-foot diameter circular rug for Rose’s room. We took out the old and stained blue rug, most likely to give away to Friperie Renaissance.
Rose just finished drinking and is in knockout phase. I’m going to try to get some sleep before she wakes up to feed again.
-chris
from chris lloyd
to pm@pm.gc.ca
date Wed, Feb 17, 2010 at 1:15 AM
subject Lucien Bouchard reproche au PQ son manque d’ouverture; Tightened mortgage rules could slow home sales
Dear Stephen,
Happy Mardi Gras. I am still watching way too much Olympic coverage. After watching Team Canada beat Norway in hockey I watched replays and men’s ice skating and now the Russians against Latvia. I’m getting really annoyed with the patronizing, overly-patriotic advertising running around the clock. Since when did McDonalds become such a fan of Canada? What does Visa have to do with medals and maple syrup and the voluntary kindness of a Norwegian coach? The blatant opportunism is kind of sickening.
We didn’t watch Lost tonight but will find it online later in the week or this weekend when we visit Jo and Philippe.
Work was fun and bland at the same time, as we spent most of the day in our storage facility in Lasalle, trying to make some order out of madness. I’ve finally tabulated my hours for the year and it seems I have about 43 hours overtime, which I plan to take starting next week for our Saint John trip. Then maybe a couple weeks of paternity, and at some point during that time I need to negotiate a new contract. Those wheels can turn kind of slowly. I wonder if I can get a raise? I wonder if I deserve one.
Rose is doing well, though she hasn’t pooped since Thursday. Should be any time now. It’s true what they say: regardless of what kind of day one might have, or what kind of mood, holding and looking at your firstborn is overwhelming with joy and peacefulness. And then of course the worry kicks in, but mostly it is joyful. Especially when the kid is so darn cute. Though Claudine had Rose’s first passport photos taken today and she doesn’t look at all like herself. She needs a passport for our planned trip overseas this summer.
Did I mention to you that my parents transferred my Visa balance to their line of credit? If I want to achieve our plan of Freedom 2012 I can’t be paying 19% interest, which I consider essentially legalized robbery. Although, if I don’t count my student loans (which I don’t), it really just is credit card and some leftover wedding costs and nothing near what this report calls the average debt load:
“Although the recession may technically be over in Canada, many households sank even further into debt in 2009, creating the highest debt-to-income ratio ever seen in Canada, according to The Vanier Institute of the Family’s annual assessment on the Current State of Canadian Family Finances released Tuesday. The study showed the average Canadian household debt climbed to $96,100, creating a debt-to-income ratio of 145 per cent in 2009, the highest it has ever been. “Under this scenario, some 1.3 million households could have a vulnerable or dangerously high debt service load by 2011,” the report stated.”
Is your household in debt? If so, how high is it?
Did I tell you I registered us for compost pickup service? It costs $5/week, which I don’t think is too expensive, though I do think it is ridiculous that the city doesn’t yet have a comprehensive program of their own. I was tired of waiting for them.
I’ve been trying to think of making art but really spend all my time at home doing laundry or washing dishes or trying to keep the place clean. I just can’t seem to get motivated. Do you have any tips?
-chris
from chris lloyd
to pm@pm.gc.ca
date Thu, Feb 18, 2010 at 9:21 PM
subject Front commun pour contrer le jeu en ligne; Gordon Lightfoot death a hoax
Dear Stephen,
Today was a housekeeping day. I vacuumed and washed the floors, washed two loads of laundry, hanging one load on the clothesline. Washed some dishes, too, but that happens all the time. It was also nice to stay home and catch up on some Internet stuff, but at the end of the day all I managed to do was some cosmetic changes to my website.
Yesterday I was planning to stay home to sort receipts for my taxes but I received an emergency phone call from Monica and Stephen asking me to sit in for their students’ reviews of site analysis. The person they had originally asked backed out at the very last minute. It was a fun afternoon, but a bit long, as we didn’t finish until 5:30. There are twelve student in the class and they were presenting site analysis’ of where the new train station will be located in Petite-Rivière-St-Françoise. It was interesting to see their different perspectives. Do you know the region? Most everyone knows of the ski hill, Le Massif, but did you also know that in 1949 a Quèbec City jeweller blew up an airplane, killing 22 people in the third airplane bombing in history. Not exactly what you want to put on a postcard, though that was how I learned about it, on a handmade postcard bought in a tiny shop there in 2004.
After class I took the metro to De College way up near the end of the orange line to meet Claudine and Caro at Jenna’s opening at a gallery on a CEGEP campus in a former church-turned-gallery. Jenna was a volunteer at Oboro a few years ago. Her work was a photographic collaboration with a friend from Niger. After a very, very long speech by a Haitian opera singer we took the metro to Parc and walked to Punjab Palace for a later supper. Rose was totally content the whole time, she seems to really like being in her stroller and in public. She likes the noise.
Oh, and she had a big poop yesterday, too. Claudine took care of it.
I’m off to see a series of short films tonight at the Cinémateque Québecoise. Jean-Marc and his friend David are presenting a film. A bit hard to leave while Canada and the Swiss are still tied, but I don’t want to arrive late.
-chris
from chris lloyd
to pm@pm.gc.ca
date Sun, Feb 21, 2010 at 7:42 PM
subject Les 64 naufragés du bateau-école rentrent bientôt; Joannie Rochette’s mother dies in Vancouver
Dear Stephen,
Had a weekend full of babies. Yesterday we met up with Greg Hemmings and his wife Jessica and their 1-year old girl Kaiya in downtown Montreal and had brunch at Café Vasco da gama, which was unexpectedly quite nice. I have an aversion to most bars/restaurants in downtown, but this one was OK. Afterwards we all went shopping at H&M. Well, the girls shopped while Greg and I pushed strollers and checked out the ladies checking out us dudes with babies. Chick magnets, babies are.
After hitting Simonds, and not finding anything that fit or felt necessary for me, we drove out to Île Perot to visit Joanne, Philippe, Nataniel and Dorion and spend the night. Boy oh boy Nataniel is full of little boy energy. I was worn out by his bedtime, which of course he protested. We played hockey, wrestling, puzzles, reading, running, more hockey, table-top hockey, the works. Afterwards we watched Canadian after Canadian fail to win medals at the Olympics on TV. At least I could finally appreciate the HD. What do you honestly think of the “Own the podium” program? It is starting to seem like the $110-million hasn’t had the intended effect, perhaps even an adverse affect. Was it a waste of time and money? Personally I don’t mind if “we” win medals or not. Who are “we”, anyway? If not aboriginal, then we are descendants of uninvited guests or privileged visitors. So I can’t help but feel a bit detached at all the inflated patriotism and the abstract notion that somehow our collective identity can be shared through professional or amateur sports.
Anyway, I’m going to watch the Canada-USA hockey game on TV, this time our own little TV with moderate reception. No HD here. None of us slept particularly well last night, us in the ikeabed and Rose in her tent, and now Rose is still up and a bit cranky after her last feed and Claudine has gone out for a WWKA meeting. I’m defrosting and warming up some milk as the little one is getting a bit fussy. Hoping a good feed will lead to longer sleeping intervals.
-chris
from chris lloyd
to pm@pm.gc.ca
date Tue, Feb 23, 2010 at 11:52 PM
subject Affaire Khadr: Nicholson défend la décision d’Ottawa; Alta. mom charged with murder of 2 young sons
Dear Stephen,
Finished two days of intense work as we were finishing up details in the education space at DHC before groups started this afternoon. Last night we went for supper at Sarah and Etien and Femke’s place, and Etien made a jerk chicken and homemade french fries. He’s Dutch, and his homemade fries are awesome. They bought a duplex last year and have been converting it into a single family dwelling, very stylishly so.
Tonight we are packing our suitcases as we leave early tomorrow morning for Saint John. This will be Rose’s first airplane ride. When did you first take a plane? I honestly cannot remember when I first flew. I think I was in high school, on a New York trip. Air travel now is so commonplace, and it is such a huge industry, that it is hard to imagine that 100 years ago it didn’t exist. Do you think the rise in global air travel has contributed to global warming? Maybe I should buy some carbon offsets. Which would you consider more of a priority: financial debts or debts to the planet? It’s a hard call to make.
-chris
from chris lloyd
to pm@pm.gc.ca
date Sun, Feb 28, 2010 at 12:05 AM
subject Fête du Canada: le budget du Québec fond et gonfle ailleurs au pays; Powerful earthquake kills scores in Chile, triggers tsunami
Dear Stephen,
How are you enjoying the Olympics? We saw you on TV at the gold metal curling match. Your daughter looked a bit bored, does she like curling? It has taken me a few tutorials from my parents over the years to just understand the mechanics and simple strategies of it. Maybe it is harder to watch live from the stands? On TV all the shots from overhead make it a bit clearer.
We had the big party for Rose at Judith and Robert’s new place last night. Their renovations are incredible, and their house is amazing. There was a great turnout of many of our SJ friends, which was nice. They are a big part of our “second life” here. There was a lots of food and drink and many friends brought modest gifts for Rose, lots of books which was really great. A bunch of us watched the Canada-Slovakia game streaming on a laptop. I was actually rooting for the Slovaks because I like Halak so much. Don’t get me wrong, I’m happy to see another Canada-US match up for the gold. Anyway, we drank ’till we were drunk, Clo as well, she expressed milk throughout the day in order to do so. Rose was a big hit and super well-behaved. My dad is so proud to hold her and my brother Aaron as well.
We slept in, well didn’t sleep too much just watched Rose watching us. She is staying awake longer and more frequently. We went to the market to get salmon for supper tonight with my folks and brothers. Watched a movie, The blind side, in between Olympics. We have been watching too much TV lately. Tomorrow we shall go for a nice long walk at Knapp Lake.
Are you on Facebook? I found out that what I thought was my mom playing Farmville was actually my dad, using her account, so now I have added the app and am playing along.
Just watching the end of the Slovakia-Finland game. I’m rooting for the underdogs, who have never won a medal in hockey.
-chris
from chris lloyd
to pm@pm.gc.ca
date Sun, Feb 28, 2010 at 10:09 PM
subject Budget: s’attaquer au déficit mais pas aux dépens de la santé; Quake, tsunamis kill more than 700 in Chile
Rose had her bowel movement last night…and again this mornng. This morning she really filled her diaper. That stuff smells so bad! If you can imagine a blend of milk and yogurt cooked at 37-degrees for 5 days then you know what it smells like.
We’re watching the end of the winter olympics. The sochi olympics presentation was nice but the corruption and rumours they can never complete the games is not far from the back of my mind. Do you think they can pull it off? Will NHL players participate?
watching the Canadian olympic gold medal vs. the US, after a walk at Knapp Lake with Kate and Rich, driving back to SJ to watch the game with Peter and Monica and Steven at happinez, what a nail-biter. Katie called the overtime with less than five minutes to go in regulation time and Monica backed her on it.
I saw you at the final presentations and you looked awkward trying to sing along with a funked-up choir-version of the national anthem. It made me thing of our morning at Church, and havng to sing along to hymns without knowing how to read music: awkward.
What did you think of the closing ceremonies? The Sochi presentation was quite dramatic. When does the IOC release the places of the next Olympics, in 2016 and 2018?
Did Gordon Campbell keep hitting you in the head with a flag?
“wind beneath our wings?” ugh, how bizarre to quote Bette Midler!
I just read a short book by Michael Pollan about rules for eating; he has a strong voice against what he calls “edible food substances”. I’m going to leave the book wiht my mom in the hope that she buys less margarine.
Hey Neil Young is singing for the closing ceremonies. Wasn’t he at the hockey game? Along with you, Gretzky, Michael J Fox, William Shatner, Vince Vaughan and others? A regular who’s who.
So, who hosts the next one, after the maybe Sochi Games?
Wow! William Shatner! Got swallowed up oh-too-soon, he was on a roll.
But Catherine O’Hara really brought it home…and now baby Rose is crying for a late-night feed, so off I go…
-chris
DEAR PM 