sappy sappy sappy

I'm not usually one to share this with the whole world, but it's been well over a month & I still have well over a month to go. he left for europe this week & my world is a whole lot lonelier. i made him this, like the big, sappy, romantic sucker that I am sometimes....

I'm not very good at not being jealous.



I need to work on this.

ninety-nine bottles of beer on the wall...

& so it begins... The season of (outdoor) festivals in Montréal, that is. Every person I've mentioned the fact that I'm spending my first summer in Montréal to has had more or less the same reaction: You're going to love Montréal in the summer!! Needless to say, I'm pretty excited for all this city has to offer this summer & hope to experience as much of it as humanly possible. That said, I kick-started things with the annual Mondiale de la bière. Given my love of beer & train stations, I'm was pretty impressed with this festival (although the emphasis is much more on the beer than on the fact that it was held in gorgeous Windsor Station). 
The festival ran June 2 to June 6 & I had the opportunity to attend twice. First with the roomie for a couple after-dinner beers Thursday evening & then with a co-worker on Saturday Night. Thursday, we sauntered in around 8:30, waited in line for our beer tickets & glass mugs & tasted a few delicious brews. 

Saturday wasn't quite the same story. We headed down around 5:30 once Deanna had gotten off work to find a line that snaked around the side of the building. Apparently we weren't the only ones who thought a beer festival was a great way to spend our Saturday evening. Seeing as neither of us had any other plans & we'd been excited about it all day, we decided to try the line....at least for a little while. We ended up waiting a little over an hour, sticking it out in a torrential downpour that soaked our shoes straight through. At least we had umbrellas.    

Finally we got in & waited in another line to buy tickets & a mug for Deanna. Once we had all the necessities it was beer tasting time. We each had about 12 tickets ($1 each) & beers were usually 2-3 tickets, with a few slightly pricier ones. In the end we probably had 5 beers each. I tried to stick to micro breweries & beer that I can't get on a regular basis. Some of my favourites were Muskoka Cream Ale (which Deanna was very excited to find, being from ON & familiar with this smooth cottage beer) & Ma Première Blonde (a play on words: Blonde can mean both girlfriend & beer). The evening wouldn't have been complete without a large poutine, which we enjoyed with our cottage beer, picnic-style in the courtyard.

We parted ways & wandered home a few hours later, leaving me even more excited about the upcoming summer of festivals. 

my shoes however, might not be quite as ready...

my poor shoes are even more worse for wear....water now leaks in everywhere