every bit of color helps

...these days, when the leaves are sort of done with their mission, and have mostly collapsed into brown piles on the sidewalks. luckily this week was warmer than the last one, and i was out and around quite a bit (relatively.)

monthly visits to the doctor's are good for this, since beside validating my pregnancy/making me feel important, they also bring me downtown early enough in the morning that afterwards i get some time to walk my old haunts around guy-concordia ( cafe aunja) and do some purely aspirational window-shopping on sherbrooke/at eaton.

that's how i came across this giant! i knew it existed and had been...unveiled earlier this month, but wasn't specifically looking for it. it's huge. see, even grey on grey counts at color these wretched days. also, the beaverton is on it !

the downtown around mcgill in holiday decoration mode. i think they have an excuse - canadian thanksgiving is far enough away.

to further illustrate the mood and weather

back in the neighbourhood - 29 weeks on the dot. featuring my ugly winter coat and a belly that's more and more impossible to ignore (i get double takes on the street!! am i doing anything against pregnant lady etiquette? i know my sweaters tend to run short, because hey, they are normal person sweaters, but i guarantee you that all of the bump is covered with at least 2 layers.) my most pregnant moment this week: i got sudden cramps in BOTH feet at the same time, while grocery-shopping in an asian store (marche orientale on jean talon). i had to sit down whimpering on some rice bags and take off my shoes and socks (one of the last things i'd want to do in public, even when not pregnant) while 2 salesladies fussed over me and got B. to buy tiger balm to massage my feet. then we laughed about it - and now we have tiger balm!

how to let facebook know you're pregnant, lol. this set of pictures was actually not meant as announcement - we just found a couple of nice murals in a back alley on jarry. this alley has always been a source of good pics, i'm happy they're keeping up the tradition.

same alley, B.'s turn to act silly with the friendly monsters.

very close to there, but right on jarry - as i said, the more color, the better.

and a view of (always colorful) cafe 'oui mais non'

who wants a piano, eh? i wonder if it is nailed down or otherwise secured there...i see lots of artists around who would benefit from having one chez eux. or maybe this could function as one of those street pianos they have everywhere in summer - i'm just afraid the weather will get at it pretty soon.

tough alley cat in an alley on my way from the metro. i know this cat, and that fence truly is her domain. (also every time i post a picture of a black cat i feel compelled to mention that 'this is not tina'. tina was probably asleep on 4 pillows, while this one has to fend for herself.

another thing that's happening in our neighbourhood - doesn't photograph well, but worth mentioning: on a stretch of lajeunesse close to metro jarry there are knit/winter scarves tied around almost every tree. i will assume it's not for the benefit of the trees, but for people who need scarves, and i look every day to see if people take them...hard to say, new ones show up constantly.

our big "going out" this week (7 months of marriage! there's always something to celebrate!) consisted in walking over to parc ex and having impromptu dinner with my friend Melanie.

on the way, through the park, at approx. 4:40 pm. the lake was completely frozen over! but the ice must still be pretty thin.

we went to one of the VERY few south indian restaurants in montreal, Dosa Pointe on jean talon. it's on the stretch that has about 15-20 indian restaurants, but, as a niche place, it has found its clientele. (inside joke: i'm not linking to their site, cause they don't have a site yet.) i always check if i'm the only non-indian customer, and i usually am - not this time though! Melanie is a new convert, so it was fun eating dosas and idlis with her. also we took advantage of her to finally get some non-selfies.

long story, but we somehow found ourselves at Melanie's friend's place ('for tea'), petting her adorable and very fluffy dog, nella. this is practice for all the thousands of kid pictures coming up in the near future. (can't really do that with tina, who after 2.5 years still struggles in each picture like we're gonna skin her)

bonus food silliness: B. had a craving for puri, so here we are - we ate them all in one go, with a spicy potato thing. we're also very big on potatoes these days.