Andromeda Galaxy, Our Stellar Neighbour

For those of you who have no idea what galaxies are, Andromeda Galaxy, or M31 (French astronomer Charles Messier in 1771 who had identified a great number of celestial objects, including this one) is a famous galaxy, faily nearby by astonomical standards as it stands 2.4 million light years away. 

For those of you who don't know what a light year is, well, here's the short explanation for it:  Light travels at an amazing speed of 300 000 kilometers per second.  So in other words, you'd have to travel at that speed from our planet for a cool 2.4 million years to get to this neighboring galaxy.  That's a very, very long time... 

What amazes me with M31 is that when you look at the picture, you can say to yourself that the galaxy we lie within, the Milky Way, resembles a great deal like M31.  I always get to wonder about the trillions of objects that are hidden there that will, for now, remain unknown to us.  In this picture, you see the whole galaxy with, at the bottom, a satellite dwarf galaxy that's hovering around it given the massive gravity it exerts.  M31 galaxy contains roughly one trilllion stars, similar in ways to how many there are in our galaxy.  One thing to remember is that our galaxy and M31 are only 2 out of hundreds of billions galaxies.  Impressive isn't it!!  Here's a Wiki link:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andromeda_Galaxy  

Le bedon gourmand: Oubliez le DeKuyper: le vrai bon gin est québécois...

Encore un excellent blogue de ma blonde.  Cette fois, sur le gin québécois que je recommande également!  Santé!

Le bedon gourmand: Oubliez le DeKuyper: le vrai bon gin est québécois...: Puisque le weekend approche, et qu'en plus je le passerai en famille dans un chalet, c'est un bon moment pour vous parler du gin! Si...

Razor's Aftermath Effect Status (RAES)

Yes, the Razor's Aftermath Effect Status (RAES) has spoken and our cat, Chanelle, has paid the price of her excessive and longstanding shedding.  In this post, you will see the RAES in its full power, beyond the realm of the possible, beyond what you thought was possible.
You see, the toiletting place she went to, Tête à Queue in Aylmer Quebec, made it happen.  They didn't know there was massive outcome to come from this.  This is regular business for them. But for us!  Boy, has it made a difference.  Our house isn't a place where shedding professionals come to convey in awe at the amount of white hair that lies around.  Not anymore!  They're not invited to visit and if they knock at our door, we don't answer.
Chanelle, we know you're happy fully-shaved and exposed to the cold of night.  She used to graze and chew at her own hair and eat it as happily as a cow in one of those organic fields...  Now, she`s witnessing a barren land of hair that's almost impossible to perceive.  Long live the RAES!

A New Moon Rising!

Here's a description of a wonderful picture that demonstrates yet again how beautiful the nearby universe is.  I say 'nearby' cause this was just taken while in orbit around our planet, not light years away.  I love astronomy and I'm always astonished at how much we rarely take the vastness of space into consideration for our everyday lives. 

It's as if we're "content" with Earth and the "grain of sand" symbol it represents.  However, once we peek away from Earth and see what's out there, there's no turning back.  That's what happened to me late 1990's while reading an astronomy book for the first time and I discovered what space truly was.  I realized how futile our existence here on Earth may be.  And while significant, it has no impact whatsoever "out there".  This picture is a small representation of this, but a very nice first step in realizing this further for yourselves...

"Crescent Moon Rising and Earth's Atmosphere

On Feb. 1, 2014, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Koichi Wakata tweeted this view of a crescent moon rising and the cusp of Earth's atmosphere. Distinct colors are visible because the dominant gases and particles in each layer of the atmosphere act as prisms, filtering out certain colors of light."

Le bedon gourmand: Ma recette de Hummous

Ma belle blonde Marie-Eve, experte dans le domaine de création d'hummous (ou tout ce qui a voir avec le pois chiche), nous fait part de sa super recette de Hummous.  Do it now!



Le bedon gourmand: Ma recette de Hummous: Ma recette de Hummous J'aime faire cette recette le dimanche, car c'est toujours pratique d'avoir du hummous de prêt pour la s...

J'aime la poutine et la poutine m'aime

Non, je ne fais pas référence au président de la Russie, qui, dernièrement attire de nombreux fans à travers la planète.  Plutôt, je fais référence à la Poutine, ce mets délicieux, nutritif et bi-couleurs éloquent qui aurait fait la paix entre pays scandinaves si elle avait été inventée bien avant.  À chaque fois qu'une poutine s'avère le choix au menu, je m'exalte et je fonds en larmes devant le brun et le blanc de ce plat devant moi.  Les frites, longues et brunes (rôties à perfection selon la recette de grand-mère Monica) et le fromage, oh! le fromage en grains!  Les mots me manquent pour parler de fromage de façon générale.  Mais là, le fromage en grains, les curdz ("courdz" pour le Czech en nous) sont complètement Out of This World dans mon livre à moi.  Si ce n'était de leur valeur nutritive laiteuse, de leur valeur en gras galactique, je ne mangerais que ça.  J'ai un problème vous me direz, well, I don't care! 
Pour mon blogue aujourd'hui, je vous suggère de suivre l'évolution de la divine poutine à travers le Québec grâce à Ma Poutine, un site aussi intense que CNN lors de crises humanitaires.  Vous serez submergés sous la sauce, bloqués aux douanes par un mur de fromage, la folie et la psychose à la fois!

http://www.mapoutine.ca/

Before the Razor Hits!

Our Cat, Chanelle (Guniluz for the ones who have her in her social circle) is a hairy cat.  Similar to my friend's cat (Pickle) at Boyo Chronicles (http://boyo-chronicles-deluxe-edition.blogspot.ca/), Chanelle sheds hair by the dozen and what's most exciting than to take away the hair on our corduroy couch? Well, pretty much everything else.  We're fed up with the hair Guniluz!!  As a result, please note today is your shaving day.  We have no remorse and you deserve a trim darling!  This is last night's picture, before the razor's edge touches deep into her soul.  Hang on to my posts as you'll see the aftermath soon!

FEB-U-HAIRY! Now that's a cool new initiative to know about

You remember MOVEMBER? I heard on the radio this morning about this new initiative for February where women who take part in this fundraising won't shave their legs for the whole month in order to raise funds against cervical cancer.  I found it a cool idea and thought of sharing.

Here's a link also:
http://news.nationalpost.com/2014/02/05/ladies-get-their-own-movember-women-toss-their-razors-for-feb-u-hairy-cervical-cancer-fundraiser/


Feb. 6th is "Ugly Shirt Day"

2 years ago, my buddies and I (middle one) gathered for a nice b-day party.  Our obvious theme was "ugly shirt" which we did very well (by the looks of this, we're pros y'all).  Happy Ugly shirt Day!

B&R's about posting pics!

I failed the first posting as my computer froze on me.  Here's the official 1st post in the B&R!  I had written a whole paragraph about what this blog is about and so, here it is in a nutshell:  Posting pictures, commenting on them, explaining why I took it, who took it, and sometimes, how I could had taken the shot differently.  I also like to talk a bit on the background anecdote and my thoughts about them.  Comment if you wish, but if you don't, that's quite alright as I do this for me in the first place.  I used to post pictures years ago and enjoyed doing so.  Now, the B&R might give me added motivation to post more and actually see the pictures I take rather than them rotting away in a file somewhere.  Cheers y'all