The mountain mocks me

Starting the day as errand girl (love it!), I had to take a bus across town. Of course, the bus took me right past the elusive mountain. Although I still couldn't climb it today, I now know how to get to it: walk just over one kilometer (about a mile) from my apartment to the metro station, take the green line south, get off at Place-des-Arts, take the #80 bus about two miles (was it north or south?) up Avenue du Parc, then ascend. Piece of cake, huh? (Um, no.) I'm going to try again on Friday since it's supposed to be a balmy 17 degrees (that's 63 Fahrenheit). Wish me luck.

Francois' favorite thing to have me do is check messages in voice mail. He does this for his own amusement because he knows I can't understand the dialect well in person, much less on the phone when there's no context. It's kind of become a running joke between us. I hand him post-it notes with messages like this: "Jean-Francois (?) (couldn't get the last name) called. His number is 514-842-??03. He wanted something, but I don't know what." Francois finds this so very funny. I do, too. I have to be able to laugh at myself. Fortunately, he actually let me read (and edit!) his proposal today and do some other "real" work, so I was able to add some actual value. In fact, we've accomplished so much that he's decided that our office is closed this Friday (hence my planned return to the mountain). He's the boss, so if he says work's canceled, work's canceled!

Funny little linguistic notes for you:

• In Quebec French, if you have a girlfriend, you call her your "blonde" -- regardless of hair color. (People rarely marry here even when children are involved, so calling someone your "blonde" is the way to indicate it's serious.)
• If you have a serious boyfriend, you call him your "chum."