Bonjour
So I'm back.  You'll have to excuse me; I've been speaking French all week, so my English has gone to shit.

To make things easier, I will divide this up into sections.  First, admin things:

I have yet to do a Pretty FBI Boys update, but will likely get to that (including caps from the last two episodes) on Tuesday night.  My inbox is filled to the brim (most of which is spam, mind you) and I will likely get to this on Sunday.  If you've sent me an email, and you don't hear back from me by Tuesday, shoot me another one.

In terms of fic, I haven't typed up the next chapter of the Seattle Series, and since the next little while will be spent catching up on random real life things (such as picking up my chats) this will likely not happen until Sunday.  I haven't read my flist, and I really don't think I'll get to it all, so if there's something you want me to see, let me know here.  I shall hunt for fic during the week.

And now for two political comments:

So the Conservatives have been in power for almost a week now and already they have the Ethics Commissioner investigating them.  Heh.  Nice.

Also.  Stephen Harper was sworn in as Canada's latest Prime Minster on Monday.  On Monday, Tim Horton's increased the price of their coffee.  Coincidence?




We drove, mostly because we wanted the freedom of having a car, but also because gas was cheaper than flying.  Plus, I like road trips.  It took us about eight hours to get into Montreal (our first stop) where we stayed at a lovely bed and breakfast that was actually a restored manner house:




It was quite the quaint place, but the most notable part was this:




Yes, that's a claw foot bathtub.  In the room.  Right at the foot of the bed, actually.  Our host, Denis, and his partner/husband (because I'm not sure about the interpretation of the word epoux, which could mean either) were absolutely fabulous and made us French toast made from apple cinnamon bread for breakfast.

The entire place was amazing, almost like a maze and while I'm tempted to show you dozens of shots, I'll just let the artwork sum up the place:







So anyway, we spent a day snooping around Montreal, which I've seen before, but the one place I hadn't been was Old Montreal, so I'll share a cool pic of that:




From Montreal, we went on to Quebec, where we stayed in a cute little inn in Old Quebec.  I don't have pictures, oddly, and I'm not sure why, but instead I'll just give you an idea of what old Quebec looks like.  The first is an overhead view (taken from the Citadelle):








They had these cool ice sculptures everywhere.  Profiled below is Mole in orange and me in brown.






I just like this shot, because it looks like I'm about to get shot in the face by a canon.  Heh.




Anyway, we had a lovely time.  Lots of food and wine and whatnot.  Carnival was cool, but slightly more touristy than I was hoping for.

Not that it matters, because this was the reason we went.

Dog Sledding.  And following that, L'Hotel de Glace.

Dog sledding is one of the few things I love to do that I don't do often enough.  In fact, I would give up fandom ten times over to spend my life living in the Artic with a team.  There's just something so exhilarating about it.  Words can not describe the sensation.

Pictures can, so let me first introduce you to our team.





I'm used to going out with six, but we only had five.  It was fine, though, because the sled was lighter than I was used to, so they were more than able to get it moving.  In fact, I don't have a lot of pictures, in part because it's cold as fuck and taking your mittens off to take a picture?  Not so fun.  Also because you move so fast that everything comes out blurred.

Mole did capture this one, though, while he was playing passenger and I was driving:




And I think this picture shows just how much I love doing this.  This is about as happy as I would look if Danny suddenly grabbed Martin and kissed him on my screen next Thursday.

We completed our journey at the Ice Hotel.  I don't even have words.  Walking into it was like walking into a fairy tale.  I was transported back to my youth and suddenly felt like a little kid again.  C'était incroyable.

This is me standing on the walkway from the registration building.  Behind me is the hotel:




This is through the front door.  No words.




The next two are the Absolute Bar.






This is the chapel.  People actually get married here.




And this is the N'Ice Club.  This is early, during our tour (and we didn't take pictures after that, because our camera hated the cold weather and we didn't want to leave it out, so we left it in our locker in the heated registration building --this is also where the showers/washrooms were).










While at the N'Ice Bar, it is recommended you drink shots of flavoured vodka in glasses made out of ice.




So I did.




There's also a small fire place inside that radiates no heat.  I have no idea how.




This is our room.  The beds are literally made out of ice.




Me on the bed, from a different angle.  The big things behind me are our artic sleeping bags.  They were quite warm.




And finally, just the little random things that made this place cool.  Even the couches are made out of ice.  Everything was ice.  Everything.




We actually had a pretty good night's sleep.  There's a hot tub/sauna in a courtyard in the centre of the hotel, and during our orientation it was recommended that we use them before going to bed.  It was freezing getting from the change room to the hot tub, and then to the sauna, but once we got out, shit... I was practically too hot for clothes.  We actually had to walk around without our coats for a while because we were too hot to get into our sleeping bags.

Then, because they're good (the sleeping bags) to minus forty degrees (Celsius) and the temperature in the hotel is only about minus ten, we were more than warm.  It was so quite, sleeping, I mean.  No hum of electricity or sounds of traffic.  And the air was so crisp and fresh and god... I'd do it again in a heartbeat.  We're actually thinking of making a trek to stay at the other ice hotel (there are only 2 in the world to date, with plans for a third underway) in Sweden.  I think that would be cool.  No pun intended.

Finally, to give you an idea of what it was like to hang in the N'Ice Club, here's a small video.

http://www.nekosmuse.com/quebec/niceclub.AVI

Please right click and save target as.

This is right after dinner, so people are just coming in.  The place was pretty packed by the time 10:00 rolled around.  It was actually pretty cool, because we got to meet tons of people from all over the world.  Lots of Americans, actually.  I spent part of the night teaching them French.



Of course, the first thing I did upon getting home was watch WaT.



So I actually really liked this episode.  Okay, there was too much Elena (and dude, she needs to either grow some tits or button up her shirt) and not nearly enough Danny, and I could have done without the Jack/Ann(e) stuff, but for the most part it was really enjoyable.

I think a lot of that had to do with the case, because it felt whole, put together and I love that her husband was a serial killer.  I so did not see that coming.  And he gave her their jewellery?  Ewww.

To make the episode better, we even got some good Danny/Martin scenes, including a small quarrel and an eyefuck.  Of course, I'm also not complaining about Danny outing himself by telling that guy he was very sexy.  Oh Danny, you are so gay.

Finally, the reason this episode will be hereby known as the best WaT episode of all times...

Tommy!

In a speaking role!

Okay, so I kind of love Brandon Quinn, but it was more than that.  The episode starts with one half of the slashiest pairing of all times?  Total shout out.  And then he talks?  About art?  For a while?  In that fake drawl that isn't his?  OMG!  Squee!  Best thing ever.

That's really all I have right now, but yeah, it's nice to not hate an episode every so often.



Anyway.  Be back later with fic, but until then, don't expect me around much.  Ten loads of laundry are calling my name.  Gah, sometimes vacations aren't so vacation-y.