Toby isn't fond of brooms, mops and cleaning!

WTF

You going to let him do that?

I'm hiding in the bed away from the mean broom!

Toby scrambling because he really doesn't like brooms and mops.

Carrefour Laval

It was Black Friday admittedly when I took him to Carrefour Laval to get him a birthday present.  There was hordes of people. It amused him to no end how I zigzag through the masses to get to the stores I wanted to go to.

I got him these sexy shoes for his birthday!

Sweet Vans in Suede

 We also went in by Rona and checked out plants. I came home with a poinsettia and a kalanchoe, both pink.

I got him to ham up with some Christmas decorations. Besides I thought his daughter might find it really cute and she did!

Finally System updated to Windows 10.

Took close to 4 months. But both systems started the upgrade yesterday.

My windows 8.1 Pro setup on a HP Z220 finished the update yesterday.My Windows 7 Ultimate on the Lenovo S20 is finishing the update now!

Windows 8.1 asking me if I'm ready to update

Windows 8.1 updating to Windows 10

Windows 7 Ultimate ready to update to 10

Windows 7 Ultimate upgrading to 10

Windows 7 64 bits on the last part of the upgrade

Oh Boy! My Windows 10 upgrade is finally coming!!!

I setup these machines back in June in preparation for Windows 10 free upgrade, starting July 29th. It is now almost November 29th, 4 months later. I have been checking for these updates almost every day since July 29th, for the first 2 weeks, and now at least twice a week, rebooting system often and making sure all updates were always installed.

Windows 7 Ultimate telling me it was ready

Windows 7 ultimate downloading Windows 10

Windows 8.1 Pro downloading Windows 10.

Lets see how long the download takes.....

Superfit. .. but for how long?

I bought these boots just about a year ago. I remember wearing them to Toronto.

Took them out of the cupboard today in anticipation  of snow. They looked fine when I stored them but now they are garbage. 

One of the seams seems to have self- destructed over the summer and I will need a new pair of boots for this winter.

My boots

Broken seam

Welcome to Canada....

It's sad. Most people forget that as Canadians most of us are immigrants or the children of immigrants. Unless your family is native American or aboriginal, you or your family came here as a new comer at some point. I think it's particularly hypocritical to say that you don't want any more new comers to Canada. Especially not some that are fleeing conflict. I bet you more then half of this country are descendent of immigrants, or even refugees.  Did YOUR family come to Canada to cause terrorism? No. Well then why assume others do as well?

I have an employee at work that migrated to Canada some 20 years ago. He fears the Syrian refugees. He said that when he chose to come here, he chose Canada because he shared the values of this country.  I'm not sure why  he thinks Syrian refugees don't share the values of this country. Most of the ones in refugee camps in Lebanon, Turkey, Jordan and Iraq, are middle class folks, who left Syria when it became unsafe to live with their family. Most of those with enough money resettled elsewhere then in Syria but those who just had enough money to leave, end up in refugee camps across the region and they no longer have a home to go to.

These are people that were not poor or uneducated. They know there is a better world out there for them and their children and pray every day in hopes that one country will take them in. Those who had more money are the ones who made the perilous journey to Europe, to help their case along. Waiting for years in a refugee camp in hopes you might find a home is not good. THIS is what encourages fundamentalism and terror. The thought that you are unwelcome EVERYWHERE.

Trudeau's promise to take in 25000 Syrian refugees before the year is over, is under way. They are focusing right now on bringing families, orphans and single mothers with children.  That is, they will not be bringing in single men for the time being.  This is obviously a compromise to appease those that say that we are going to be letting in ISIS in the midst of the refugees. I believe the single men will be screened more vigorously so it may take more time for Canada to be bringing them in.

From all I've read all the terror I've witnessed or lived through in Montreal [Mainly the FLQ in my childhood], was perpetrated by locals. By French Quebecois.  If I'm afraid of anyone it's of those of my own background. The French Quebecois. 

Personally I am welcoming Syrians to Montreal. May they find peace and humanity in Montreal.

Creature comforts

Been wanting new towels for my house for some time. Either I didn't like the texture the colour or the price. Found some at Deco Decouverte with lovely colours and I got 30% off with a scratch card. Got one orange, one burgandy, one green and one turquoise.

I also found some sheets that were 60% Bamboo Rayon and 40% cotton.  I bought them. Also got them 40% off with the scratch card.  They are so nice texture wise. They will be great summer sheets. They don't hold the warmth enough  for winter, but man are they nice to roll around in bed in.

Bamboo Rayon and Cotton sheets.

4 towels with 4 facecloths

Woke up wet

Seems my hot water bottle sprung a leak. Cuddled with it for hours totally dry, woke up to a wet bed. Seems a tiny crack in it.

Need to get me a new hot water bottle. It's good on my back and well, when my SO works night shift at the hospital I have something warm to cuddle up to.

Canada does not give "REFUGEE PENSIONS"

I've seen this stupid graphic, and as someone who has sponsored a husband to come to Canada, I know new arrivals get NOTHING.  Heck for the first 3 years he was in Canada I was solely responsible for his needs. The Quebec government had made sure I'd signed a paper to say this as well.

Refugees that are sponsored don't get much help either. And the ones that aren't do get some handouts however they also end up with huge debts at first to cover travel costs to Canada. 

Seething.....

Windows 10 - build 10586 also known as 1511 because it was released November 15th, is causing me endless grief. I have yet to figure out how to disable windows 10 pushing display drivers continuously.  If each time I boot into an OS I get forced a WHQL driver, it makes my job of testing drivers before they get certified really difficult.

I used to be able to turn off forced driver updates using this dialog below. That is a screen capture from Windows 10 - build 10240 - The release of a few months ago.

This is the dialog of Windows 10 - 10586, known as 1511.   So far since installing it a hour ago, I have removed the display drivers from the device manager 5 times. I'm not sure how to configure it to stop getting device drivers installed automatically.

I've googled this morning. All I can find to turn off device driver updates is the dialog from the release of Windows 10. No one says what to do with this new build.

If you know PLEASE LEAVE ME A COMMENT how to do it. Thanks.

Embarrased by some Canadians

It's happened before the elections. One unlucky mother in Montreal got attacked walking to pick up her children from school. While police were reluctant to call it a hate crime, I'm not sure what else it was.

A few days ago a similar incident occurred in Toronto. A mother was walking to pick up her child from school when she was brutally attacked.

What pisses me off is that WHITE CANADIAN ABLE YOUNG MEN think it is ok to attack lone women JUST because they are wearing a piece of cloth on their head.  And really if you think Islam is a fucking threat, do you really think beating up a lone single woman with a fucking headscarf is going to prevent terrorist attacks. Only cowards attack unarmed women. Only big time cowards and the ignorant join together to beat up some innocent unarmed person based purely on what she is wearing or even her skin colour or her perceived differences.

This is not the Canada I want to live in. Where mothers get attacked on the street for the perceived notion she is dangerous. I am deeply ashamed that it had to happen.

I'm also deeply ashamed by those who say to keep the Syrians at home. That allowing Syrian refugees will somehow bring terrorism to Canada. Get a grip, we have all sorts of homegrown fucking terrorists. The assholes who killed the 2 Canadian armed forces officer, the one in Ottawa, and the one in St Jean sur le Richelieu were not refugees.

Most of the Syrian refugees that Canada want to resettle are currently living in Jordan, Turkey and Lebanon. They were generally educated middle class people who saw the signs on the wall about the revolution back in 2012 and left to survive. If they wanted to create terror they would have stayed in Syria and joined either Bashar's army or any of the dozen factions including ISIS to fight.

If they have been in refugee camps, it's because they want security and to be out of a war zone, if they'd been rich, they would have relocated elsewhere in the world then in a refugee camp.  Most of these people will integrate into Canadian society like the Syrian and Lebanese that came before them. The first wave of Syrians came before the first world war. The 2nd wave came after the 2nd world war. Of course then there is the wave of Lebanese that came during the civil war in Lebanon.  All these people have become part of Quebec fabric and Canadian society. The sheer number of Falafel shops in Montreal is a testament to this!

First it was south Beirut, then it was Baghdad... and then it was Paris

Most of the people I know in the Western world didn't even notice that Beirut came first. That ISIS claimed responsibility for killing SHIA's in both South Beirut and in Baghdad. ISIS think they are Sunni ... they are desecrating ISLAM and all it stands for! I bet Mohamed {PBUH] is rolling in his grave seeing what these imbeciles are doing in the name of Islam!

It was only when around 100 people died in Paris that ISIS came up on people's radar and infuriated them.

Just because Beirut is bombed on a regular basis by factions, doesn't mean that people should care less. Oh wait. There was no Americans, no white Europeans I guess that were killed in the bombing. I guess that means it doesn't matter. People forget that while Lebanon is in the middle east about half of the country is not Muslim. There are 18 official religions in Lebanon, and that includes many forms of Christianity.

It also pisses me off that now people are comparing ISIS to the billions of peaceful Muslims who would not hurt a fly. How about we say all Christians are like WestBoro baptists.   I'm being nice. Other people are saying... Oh you want to compare all Muslims to ISIS, let's compare all Christians to the Klu Klux Klan!

It's sad, and scary that in 2015, we still have to bomb the fuck out of one another.   Personally I think we should make illegal all arms dealers. Weapons should be made illegal. Companies that make weapons should be criminalized. I'm sure it would be amazing how quickly people learned to get along if they realized they could no longer blast the fuck out of one another.

I remember

Maintenance of my house.

Since the beginning of 2015, the following has been changed or repaired in the house.  First there was the kitchen faucet that stayed in my hands when opened it one morning in April. My daughter and friend changed it for me.  At that point it was noticed the piece of pipe connecting the kitchen sink drain was old and rusted, and it was leaking, we'd put a bucket underneath. We finally changed it. Now there are no more metal rusty parts left. Now all in plastic under the kitchen sink

 Other then that in the bathroom en-suite my bedroom we changed the toilet flusher, the shower-head and the fluorescent light fixture.We've fixed the leak in the roof that was causing water to fall in through my bedroom closet light.  At the same time we sealed all the seams on the roofs of the house.

Now we are in the process of fixing the garage door. One of the springs had broken on the left side and one of the door hinges was broken.  The hinge has been replaced, the spring is giving us a hard time being installed, especially since the vice grips have gone missing.

NB: edited November 16tth,  I forgot the doorbell also died. Or rather decided to ring non stop. It was like my eldest was at the front door and really excited. Ding dong ding dong ding dong ... we had to disconnect it and then change it. Wound ring non stop! 

Historical words... " A cabinet that looks like Canada"

And when he was asked why, Justin Trudeau said "Because it's 2015".

That's the best answer, really.

I wondered why my mom was so enamoured with Trudeau Sr. If Jr. is any indication, I'm now understanding as an adult what I missed as a child.

If the mixed gender cabinet is telling, so is the fact there are 10 aboriginals  and 10 Muslims that have been elected. Also notable, one cabinet minister arrived in Canada as a refugee!!!!  Putting a female aboriginal in charge of the Justice department was just what this country needed. Here's the rest of the cabinet