Let’s start the morning with some little lingo.

Je marchais dans la rue et j'attendais une conversation dans laquelle une dame disait "Je suis très désappointé". Tout de suite, j'ai pensé au mot anglais "disappointed". Je me suis dit que ça devait être un anglicisme. En arrivant au travail, j'ai cherché le mot et c'est un mot français à l'origine. C'est ironique qu'il soit plus utilisé en anglais. D'habitude, j'attend "Je suis très déçu".

On apprend des choses à tous les jours.

The police is still seeking information on a late 80’s red Ford Aerostar in relation to the disappearance of Cedrika Provencher last month in Trois-Rivieres. To restate yesterday’s entry, a bound and gagged girl was seen through the back window of this car while on the parking lot of a Maxi grocery store in St. Léonard at the corner of Jean Talon St. E. and Langelier Blvd. The driver, a man with long white hair and a beard, fled the scene when he noticed the witness using his cell phone.

The minivan was old, rusty and partially covered with mud. The side and back windows are partially obscured with drapes. Police are currently going over fingerprint and video evidence but don’t hesitate to contact them if you see anything. Alternatively, you can also call a special phone line at 514-730-3940.

The ‘high’light of my long weekend was a day spent up in the trees at one of the arbraska adventure parks. We went to the one in Rigaud about 45 minutes from Montreal. For those who don’t know about these parks, they’re basically forests rigged with obstacle courses suspended up to 50 feet off the ground. After a 10 minute initiation on how to use your carabiners and pulley, you’re ready to go swinging through the forest. Courses vary in difficulty and get progressively higher. For those who chicken out, there are escape ladders on some platforms. I had a great time flying over the tops of trees on the zip lines and it’s an amazing rush once you get over that moment of stepping off the platform. It’s a great way to connect with nature while testing your limits and I definitely hugged a few trees this weekend. Anybody in mildly good shape from kids to adults can take part. Although I felt really safe with my helmet and harness on, my only beef was that there didn’t seem to be enough guides around. It’s basically up to you to be careful about keeping yourself hooked securely to the cables with your carabiners at all times. Other than that, I ‘highly’ recommend this sport of treetop trekking.

According to the police, a credible witness has seen a young girl of about 8, bound and gagged, in the back of an old and rusty red Ford Aerostar in the parking lot of the St-Leonard supermarket. The driver was a man with long white hair and a beard.

Right now there are no reports of any recent kidnapping but keep your eyes open just in case.

[more details] The supermarket was a Maxi while the man was wearing jeans and a light blue shirt. According to the witness, the girl did look like Cedrika Provencher.

Anybody who sees a car and driver matching that description is asked to contact the police asap. Pass it on. We only need to get lucky once.

I was a big fan of Dragonball since I was in elementary school. It’s the story of an alien baby arriving on Earth with the only purpose to destroy it. He also has a tail. It’s loosely inspired by an epic novel called Journey to the West in which the Monkey King accompanies a monk in search for Buddhist sutras. FYI, Jackie Chan and Jet Li are currently working on a movie, The Forbidden Kingdom, also based on the Monkey King.

Dragonball Z is a 100 million dollars movie that will be filmed in Montreal and it’s a big deal for this city. It’s as if The Matrix was filmed in Montreal. The final fight between Neo and Mr. Smith was a very Dragonball-like fight scene. This should be great news for kids and older fans.

Other big budget movies, that will be filmed on Montreal, include Another Night, the sequel of Night at the Museum which starred Ben Stiller and Robin Williams, and Fantastic Voyage, a sci-fi remake.

All three productions are expected to wrap by next July. You can read more about this in this article from The Gazette.

I ventured out of town yesterday to check out the nature reserve at Mont St Hilaire. It took us less than half an hour to get there from the city, but it is worlds away. The place is special. According to the website: “At the core of the reserve is the mountain, the last remnant of the magnificent primeval forests that once covered the entire Richelieu River valley, home to nearly 1,000 species of plants, mammals, birds and reptiles, over 50 of which are rare or threatened.” We saw some frogs, chipmunks, squirrels and insects. It was wild to catch a peregrine falcon (fastest bird on earth) cruise by. But most interesting to us was the plethora of mushrooms. We saw dozens of varieties (of which I know nothing about) which lent the whole experience a certain magic. But don’t take my word for it, take a drive and hike the trails for yourself. The center is open every day and costs $4 for adults to enter. There is no potable water on the mountain (nor at the visitor center as they are under a boil water warning) so you’ll have to bring your own. You can check out all the details and get directions to the park here. It’s a great way to spend a day. Afterward, make sure you check out some of the “vergers” (apple farms) on the road out of the park area. We picked up some cider and pie. Yum!

I was one of those nerds who never took a vacation.. Or at least rarely. And when I did, it was go to race bikes in the States or train on my bike and then go to Balconville.

But for the past two years, I have gone on vacation, REAL vacation. You know, where you actually leave to go to a beach and sit and do nothing and actually disconnect from the real world..

This year was PEI. I had been before when I was a kid and also had been back to work a contract there.. in the middle of February. Man, it was cold.

We rented a little cottage. Dirt cheap at $400 for the week.

One thing I did notice that PEI had over us was their recycling program. Other then just recycling the usual stuff, they also compost. Composting is something I have been doing for over a year now but it was cool to see that PEI does it province wide.

The next interesting thing I witnessed on vacation was PEI’s use of wind power. Given all of the fuss in the local papers here in Montreal regarding wind power, especially the proposed park in the Brome, allow me a few comments.
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Yesterday, and especially this morning, it seemed that everybody in my household has the sniffles. A quick look through Meteomedia’s horrendous web page confirmed my suspicions, ragweed pollen is currently at 135 particles per cubic meter. A score above 80 is considered “high”.

Don’t worry, it’s not like all the streets that have been closed lately for collapse prevention on Maisonneuve or pipe damage on Atwater. This is a good one. It’s for a street sale during this long weekend. The avenue is closed from Saint-Hubert to I don’t know where because I didn’t make it all the way; I was only walking by. Metro users, get off at Mont-Royal metro station and you’ll find the place. They have good deals, but I may be wrong, I don’t shop in the area.

Also, if you want to drink anything, there are people distributing free milk. That’s pretty much the best deal I found… not that I was searching for anything.

Since I am so obviously not busy enough, I have decided to start a third blog. The Stories Behind the Pictures is a Video Blog (or Vlog) that will feature a spoken narrative of some of the context behind some of my favorites images. Once I’m comfortable with the technology I plan to invite other photobloggers to contribute their own stories behind some of their images. Although the concept itself may sound a tad too serious, I have added a little extra something to make it more entertaining.

Other than the blatant self-publicity, I should note that the second episode features my best night images of the Montreal area.