weekend wonderful

You guys! First of all, I had a great weekend. But more on that later, because I have exciting news: look at my face!! Remember that one time when I was like, "oh boo-hoo I don't look appropriately nerdy because I don't have awesomely enormous nerdy glasses to wear?" Well, now I do! And they only set me back a sweet six dollars and eighty cents (Canadian! ... which, let's face it, isn't a deal anymore because the American dollar is in the dumps ... but $6.80 is super-cheap in any currency!)

(hat: thrifted; shirt: Marshall's; shorts/belt: Bargain Boutique; shoes: Kohl's; glasses: F21)

I used to be a firm believer that "it's silly to wear glasses unless you need them," and then I realized that was ridiculous. Glasses can be an accessory, just like a hat or a scarf or a necklace or sunglasses, for Pete's sake. That said, I did initially set out to find glasses because I wanted to assist my computer-weary eyes, but now I kind of don't want to swap out the lenses for the real deal (although I suppose an eye exam couldn't hurt). I might buy another pair so I can have one pair that is functional and one that is just fun. :)

What camp are you in? Can glasses just be funky accessories? Or do you have to belong to the elite group of the nearly-blind?

So I mentioned I had a great weekend. Despite the dismal weather forecast, K and I got up early (okay, I got up early and dragged him out of bed) and started driving north. We reached Montreal around 11 o'clock, parked in our favorite parking garage, and went straight for St. Catherine. It had been drizzly on the drive up, but as soon as we pulled into the city the sun came out and the temperatures teetered around perfection. It was glorious!

After some serious shopping, we decided to stroll over to St. Denis/St. Laurent for more shopping and potential eating. It was lovely. We stopped strolling momentarily to listen to a French redhead sing some blues for Les FrancoFolies music festival (and then some guy started rapping and all we heard was the sound of the sidewalk calling for us to start walking...); sat on a park bench and savored our sunny surroundings; popped into an awesome vintage store on St. Denis, Chez Jack, where K picked up some seventies-style shirts and I cursed the fact that I had already emptied my wallet at H&M and F21; and then I took the only photo of the trip:

From there, things got a little dicey. Due to a misunderstanding of intent and K's complete lack of directional acumen, we ended up walking reallllly, realllllly far. I won't bore you with the details, because it all worked out for the best! We ended up having dinner at a quasi-expensive (for us) but sototallyworthit Indian restaurant (Le Taj) on Stanley street, downtown. K got the Chicken Tikka Masala (which he always gets) and said it was quite possibly the best he had ever had. I got the Mattar Paneer, which the waiter recommended over the Vegetables Korma because, he said, he really liked green peas (which I thought was kind of a strange thing to mention liking, since peas are kind of whatever, right? Wrong! He was spot-on--the sweet, firm peas were absolutely the perfect complement to the mouth-wateringly buttery curry and chunks of paneer [which of course I adore because I am a monger of cheese in any form]) and the onion nan. It was bliss. I wouldn't lie to you. Absolute bliss. The only weird thing was that the host/restaurant manager (?) was hovering right around our table the entire time, freaking out about the fact that they couldn't really handle the influx of potential patrons because they already had too many reservations. Other than that it was a delight, and you should definitely go if you're ever in Montreal (and like Indian food).

The next day we slept in and I made blueberry pancakes for breakfast. It was (surprisingly) another gloriously perfect sunny day and K wanted to take some photos with his (relatively) new Nikon, so we hit the country roads looking for some falling-down barns. He didn't even make me drive, which was nice :) In fact! I didn't have to drive at all this weekend, and when I started up my car this morning to go to work it didn't even make the weird grinding/growling noise that it usually makes. It was smooth sailing all the way to the office! But that's really neither here nor there, the point is that we had a relaxing little road trip up into the Champlain Islands where we got to hang out by a lake, spy on three families of Canadian geese adrift in an algae-green pond, and explore an abandoned house. Best part of the day?

(K got some really great photos of the cows that I may have to steal)

My appetite for adventure has been temporarily sated.

:)