Last night it was cold but bearable when I took the girls out to see the Christmas lights around the neighborhood. This morning it was snowing and it was still cold, but not too horrible, and was better by afternoon when I took the dog for one of her long walks.

Tonight I took her out to pee after the kids went to bed. It was -16C with the wind making it feel like -25C (that would be 3F and -13F respectively). The wind is howling and rattling the windows beside my desk and it actually knocked our wooden bistro table over. When Pearl crouched down outside, squatting over the cold snow with her butt shivering in the wind, she stared up at me with miserable eyes as though to ask, “why? Why is it like this?”

Welcome to Winter in Montreal Pearl. It’s a long way until Spring.

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About a year ago I read a little tutorial on how to create special effects with light by making a lens filter out of construction paper. You cut a circle the size of your lens, cut out a shape of some sort in the center, and then tape it onto another piece of paper that is long enough to wrap around the lens. Slip it over your lens, set it to a wide open aperture, and take some good bokeh shots. Instead of circles like most bokeh pictures, the out-of-focus lights will take on the shape you’ve cut out on your filter.

I wasn’t able to do it with my other cameras but with the current camera, especially with the 50mm f/1.8 lens it’s very easy. I want to try other shapes soon.

The funniest thing to me about bokeh is that I see it all the time with my own eyes. My eyesight is so terrible that if I look over the top of my glasses at my Christmas lights, they all turn into that lovely bokeh circle. It’s built-in!

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Hayley was off on Friday and has tomorrow off as well because of the provincial elections. Because God knows I feel like voting again when I just went to the polls recently and may have to go back again in the near future. Regardless, it’s a good thing that she doesn’t have to go to school in the morning because now it’s Hayley’s turn to be sick. She’s not as bad as Breanna was, but she did have a fever today, enough so that we gave her some Tylenol before bed, and she has a very draining cold. She’s not the happiest camper right now, and I’m glad she’ll have tomorrow to recuperate so she can get back to school on Tuesday; she only has four days this week, then she has a full five days next week, and then she’s off for two full weeks for the holidays.

Hopefully we’ll all be done with our various colds, gastro strains, and other fun stuff (cholera? ebola? SARS?) before Christmas gets here!