Today I...June 30th

Today I...

...am sharing this movement filled picture of people enjoying the annual outdoor photography exhibit on McGill College avenue with you.

...had a very busy day at work. I felt like I didn't stop, I took my messages on the phone in the morning and every time I took a call or returned one, another message would end up in my voicemail box.

...lost track of time and nearly forgot to go to lunch.

...called my Grandma G to wish her a happy birthday, she turned 79 today :o)

...went to the post office to send my 'niece's' (best friend's daughter's) first birthday gift to Switzerland. I was stuck by the fact that I had to fill out a customs declaration form for the gift which allowed me to check the option 'gift' and then asked for the monetary value in Canadian dollars of the contents of the package. Jeeze, now the first thing my friend will see when she gets the package is how much (little) I spent on the gift. It's beautiful, but didn't cost much. I was still upset by having to put the amount on there though, I found it pretty darn lame.

...saw my next door neighbor for the first time, he was moving his girlfriend in. I honestly thought no one lived in the apartment next door to me as I never saw the guy and never heard him, he seemed really nice though, as did his girlfriend.

...went to dinner with my brother and my dad and it was awesome. Good food, great company, awesome evening :o)

...couldn't help but laugh when I found Magique sitting on the windowsill with one paw in the air after she got one of her claws stuck in the screen. I hear a noise like a cat scratching at a window screen when I got out of the shower, which is a major no-no of course. So I gave a holler and the noise stopped. As soon as I was dried off I stalked into the living room and there was Magique sitting there with her head turned towards me and a 'Get me the HELL out of this mess RIGHT NOW PLEASE!!!' look on her face. It was to die for!!!

Today I...June 29th

Today I...

...am sharing this picture of part of a very popular sculpture which is in front of the Banque Laurentienne and BNParibas building on McGill College Avenue here in Montreal with you.

...ended up not giving my tour at work because I started coughing and losing my voice. I handed it off to one of our new tour guides.

...was very happy when K, the new tour guide who gave my tour for me and who I trained a few weeks ago got a very good review from the tour organizer.

...found out during our canonization meeting that we've already sold so many tickets for Brother Andre's canonization celebratory mass on October 30th, that we would have sold out the Bell Center (it can seat 21 000 people) and then some. Good thing we're renting the Olympic stadium, eh?. If any of you would like to attend the mass, it's 5$ a ticket if you come and buy them either at the stadium or at the Oratory or 7$ if you get them online from admission.com or order them over the phone.

...told my Sweetheart that I'm thinking of changing my hairstyle and showed him some pictures of some styles I'm considering. he said he's looking forward to seeing what I end up having done. Oh dear...I told him to just wait and see if I worked up the guts to actually have anything done at all. My hair is pretty wavy, you see, especially when it gets humid out and I have lots of it too, so I never blow dry it or flat iron it because it takes forever (at least 45 minutes at the salon). I'm therefore very cautious about how I have it cut because I like dos that allow me to just wash it and let it dry on its own and even wash it and then go straight to bed and sleep on it and have it come out looking fine. That's just me, I'm a very no fuss and frills kind of girl, no makeup, no major accessorizing and lucky for me, it works out great in my case, or at least I think it does. No one seems to think I'm a 'Plain Jane' kind of girl or anything.

...got to speak with my Sweetheart for 25 minutes, yay! But oh dear, I'm going to have to wait a week and a half before speaking to him again now. Hmm...I'll have to be sure and keep a bit busier than usual to try keep my mind off of that.

Today I...June 28th

Today I...

...am sharing this photo of Montreal's very popular self-serve bicycles, which are called, as you can see, Bixis. This station had just been refilled before I took this picture. You can take a Bixi from any station in Montreal and ride it to any other one and leave it there and city crews redistribute them throughout the day so that no station is left empty.

...had a very, very quiet day at work, but tomorrow will be busier since I have a tour with a school from Ontario in the morning and a meeting for two hours in the afternoon about canonization stuff.

...saw a funnel cloud over part of the West Island this afternoon, Kirkland to be precise. That's the thing about the Oratory, you can see the weather coming for kilometers around, but this was the first time I saw anything so dramatic. Luckily, the tornado was only an F0 and it blew itself out before it could really travel a lot.

...spoke with my Sweetheart for an hour, oh how lovely that was! We hadn't spoken in close to a week because he ended up having to go and work at the factory where he did an internship for a month on Wednesday and Thursday last week. He worked way too late both days and then got sick Friday into Saturday (he's allergic to work...no, seriously!) and voilà, the perfect ingredients for a very silent boyfriend. I'm going to make sure that I get to talk to him tomorrow though, because he's leaving on Vacation for a week and a half on Wednesday and although he's bringing his little laptop with him, there are going to be five of them for the one computer...that may be quite the line-up, so I'm going to stock up on Sweetheart time tomorrow.

Today I...June 27th

Today I...

...am sharing this photo of McGill's crest on its front gates with you.

...slept in again, even later than yesterday. Mmm..., it felt nice :o)

...had breakfast twice, I had my usual bowl of cereal and then gent out to Cora's for raspberry and chocolate stuffed crêpes and a banana mango smoothie with my brother when he invited me. I could never say 'No' to Cora's :o)

...headed out to the West Island for the afternoon for an appointment and then to visit my mom.

...was tired when I got home, as that was quite the busy day.

...saw my Sweetheart pop onto Skype while on the phone with my Grandma B. Unfortunately though, by the time I got off the phone and had my dinner, he was gone :o( Hopefully he'll be back later as I haven't spoken to him since Tuesday and I miss him.

Today I...June 26th

Today I...

...am sharing a picture I took this afternoon of Dorchester Square, one of Montreal's many parks.

...slept in and it felt lovely.

...had a quiet start to the day before heading out to an appointment.

...came home and did my laundry.

...spoke to both my grandmothers and my mom.

...had plans to meet up with a friend for dinner before heading out to the fireworks competition either with her or by myself. This plan was foiled, however, when she left me high and dry in favor of an evening with her boyfriend and one of their friends. I was upset by this and it made me feel quite lonely suddenly. I started seeing couples everywhere. I could have gone out to dinner and the fireworks on my own, but had absolutely no intention of making my lonely state worse by eating out in a restaurant by myself on a Saturday night. I wandered around Downtown for a bit taking pictures so my trip into town wouldn't be made totally pointless and then go on a bus and called my brother. He felt bad for me and told me that he was having a friend over for a barbecue and that I was welcome to join them. I didn't want to though, I was officially miserable and didn't want to out anywhere but home. I also hate it when people feel bad for me because my boyfriend lives out of town and they think 'Oh, poor her, she must get so lonely.' Actually I'm fine most of the time, but certain things, like being bailed on so my friend can hang out with her boyfriend, will make me feel pretty darn crappy, especially since not once in my six years with my Sweetheart have I ever bailed on her or any other of my friends in favor of an evening with him. I either bring him along or meet up with him after, simple as that.

Today I...

...was most upset by the mess I saw a bunch of thugs (they were not protesters) making of Toronto. See the mess these summits make? They should only ever be held on military bases or in bunkers in my opinion, all the leaders ever do is have fortresses built up around their meeting places anyhow, so they may as well go have their summits where there are already fortresses and save all those billions of dollars in security expenses and lost money for businesses that are either shut down to protect themselves or are destroyed by thugs.

Lunch Time!

This week's camera critter is this beautiful yellow and black butterfly sipping nectar from azaleas (I think). I came across this fine fellow while visiting the butterfly exhibit at the Botanical Gardens this past February.

To see more Camera Critters, you can head over to the Camera Critters blog. Have a great weekend!

Today I...June 25th

Today I...

...am sharing a picture of par of Old Montreal seen from the Quays of the Old Port with you.

...had a very, very quiet day at work.

...went to get my train tickets for my end of July trip to Toronto and back from the train station. Why so early? Because I had no choice but to pick the up from a Via Rail customer service agent at the station since I made a blunder while buying them back in April and had make a change to my booking which incurred a service charge that I had to pay upon picking them up. The service attendants are threatening to go on strike as of Sunday into Monday at Midnight . I didn't want to take the risk of a strike happening and then possibly dragging on and being stuck not being able to get my tickets on time.

...got a call from my Grandma G. just as I was going to head down into a subway station. Instead of asking her if I could call her back when I got out at the other end of my trip, I decided to go for a walk to another subway station where I could get a bus home.

...walked home from the bus station because I wanted even more exercise.

...am glad it's the weekend!!!

Today I...June 24th

Today I...

...had the day off as it's Quebec's provincial holiday, St-Jean-Baptiste.

...was dismayed that on top of nearly everything being closed, the weather was bad. My favorite ice cream parlor was open, but since my brother didn't want to go with me and I didn't feel like going for ice cream by myself, I didn't go.

...dozed for about an hour during the afternoon.

...watched a bit of TV.

...tried out my new vacuum, a little Dirt Devil canister vacuum that my Grandma G got me last weekend and I loved it. I used three of its attachments to vacuum the floor and all the other hard to reach places and it rolls like a dream and is half the weight my old hand-me-down Kenmore was. I hope it lasts 15 years like the Kenmore did!!! Then again, maybe in 15 years I'll have a robot to vacuum for me...

Skywatch Friday

This week's Skywatch feature is a photo I took at sunset on the golf course in my grandparents' community in Aiken, South Carolina. My grandfather and I stood out on the golf course for a good half hour taking pictures there one evening, it was lots of fun and quite productive too :o)

To see more skies from around the world, you can go and visit the Skywatch Friday blog.

Have a great weekend, everyone!

Today I...June 23rd

Today I...

...did lots of odds and ends at work.

...was stunned by the force of the earthquake we had this afternoon. Fortunately there was no damage to report here in Montreal other than things falling off of shelves. Nothing fell off of any of my shelves at home, but a few things tipped over. It's not very often that we have a magnitude 5.0 or above quake around here.

...developed a migraine around mid-afternoon and it's still hanging around, although it was feeling better for about two hours.

...am going to head off to feed my cats and go to bed. Sorry for the brief post, but I'm really not feeling my best. No worries though, I'll sleep this off and be back on my feet tomorrow :o)

Today I...June 22nd

Today I...

...am sharing this photo of a fascinating gate that led to a tiny little alley in Charleston, South Carolina.

...had a heck of a time getting myself out of bed. Boy, was I sleeping soundly when my alarm went off and boy, did I feel tired!

...made myself some scrambled eggs with Parmesan and ham for breakfast. I don't drink coffee (or at least not more than two or three times a year), so my solution when I'm really slow out of the starting gate: a protein packed breakfast.

...gave a tour to a group that got in early. I had a great group, but unfortunately there were way too many groups leaving at exactly the same time with tour guides going exactly the same speed, so there were three of us in one place at the same time, plus a group that didn't have an Oratory tour guide and who were very loud. I had to raise my voice and ask them to please tone in down in a very firm way. That's not something I like to do, but I really had no choice.

...went grocery shopping on an empty stomach after work and manged to stick to my list!

...spoke with my Sweetheart for about 20 minutes, it felt nice :o)

Today I...June 21st

Today I...

...am trying to recover from my busy weekend. Kinda hard trying to do that at the beginning of a work week lol

...was told, just after punching in and while I still had my headphones in, that there had been a problem over the weekend and that the bell ringer had given an earful to one of my tour guides over something totally ridiculous. I of course had no ability to control my frustration since I had just gotten in to work and my mood was sour and my patience minimal for a good hour afterward. There's nothing worse than being faced with a problem the second you walk in to work. I always obey the half-hour rule when I want to speak to a colleague about an issue. Give them a half hour to settle in for the day and then approach them. It's the only human way to do things I think, or at least the only way people should approach me if they want me to have a human reaction. Otherwise they cannot blame me if I ask them to please give me few minutes to get in the door before dealing with their issue.

...was so happy to have my long-time fellow tour guide 'L' back on board for the summer today. I now have a guaranteed lunch buddy four days a week, nothing like an hour of girl talk over lunch to brighten my day :o)

...went to an absolutely brilliant Arvo Pärt concert with one of my choir directors, my favorite out of our two directors this year. I was absolutely flattered that he invited me and loved getting to know him better.

...had to buy a bottle of natural bug spray to get rid of a bug infestation in one of my orchids. C told me that I should just toss my plant when I showed it to her, but I was not willing to do that since it was still so obviously alive and cost me nearly 70$!!! I cannot bear killing anything (aside from bugs of course) and get emotional even just having to toss a plant which is clearly deceased, no way was I going to toss one of my much doted upon orchids!

...am going to try my hardest to be in bed by midnight, so I had better get along. You'll get a picture with tomorrow's post, I promise :o)

Magique then and now

This week's Camera Critters post star is my cat Magique then...

...and now :o)

Don't you love it when they go from cute to lovely? I was told, however, that she probably wouldn't stay bratty. Yeah, right!!! lol

To see more camera critters, you can head on over to the Camera Critters blog.

Today I...June 18th

Today I...

...am sharing a picture of Old Montreal with you. It was taken from beside the Cirque du Soleil tents last Tuesday :o)

...had a heck of a time dragging my tired self out of bed. Even though I only worked three days this week, I was naughty and didn't go to bed early enough. Oh well, it's the weekend now, so I can sleep in for two days and redeem myself.

...had a busy day at work, which included waiting around for a tour I was supposed to give which ended up not happening. Ah well, at least I was still of service to the group in other ways.

...went shopping after work and ended up buying more than I had intended to. Isn't that always the way of it??? lol

...baked my friend's birthday cake. I'm getting really good at this baking thing, I keep getting faster and faster at it! The cake is cooling now and my apartment smells nice and chocolaty, but man, did my kitchen get HOT!!!

...am very much looking forward to tomorrow! My Sweetheart is getting into town at about Midnight and we both have BBQs to go to, but we're hoping to get together afterwards. I'm spending my afternoon with friends playing mini-putt and celebrating house-warming and birthday (hence the cake) and my Sweetheart is going to his 10 year high-school reunion, but afterwards we're hoping to meet up.

...am advising you that I may not be blogging much this weekend because I'm going to be pretty busy on Sunday too, but I will try and do my best to get a post up by Sunday at the end of the day! Have a nice weekend, everyone and Happy Fathers Day to all you amazing dads out there :o)

Skywatch Friday

This week's Skywatch photo is a shot that I took of a part of the Cirque du Soleil's Big Top, which is set up on the Quays of the Old Port every Spring. The Cirque du Soleil is one of Montreal's gems, they're right up there with Céline Dion and the Montreal Canadiens. be ready to shell out the dough if ever you want to see one of the Cirque's shows though, they're pretty pricey, which would explain why I've only ever seen them on DVD or on the TV. I'll go see them live one of these days though, it's one of my long term goals ;o)

To see more great Skywatch shots from around the world, click here.

Today I...June 16th

Today I...

...am sharing a picture of Notre-Dame Basilica seen from Rue St-Sulpice with you.

...was happy to see my colleagues when I got back to work.

...had a steadily busy day, meaning that my work was nice and evenly spaced out throughout the day.

...seemed to have bad telephone karma as I got two calls from disgruntled pilgrims, who were disgruntled by no fault of my own...or actually of the Oratory's. Sometimes we just get calls from people who are disgruntled from the get go and stay that way no matter what we say to try and help them. Oh well, maybe I've reached my upset caller quota for this week!

...was locked out of the office by either C or D at the end of the day. I went to the washroom just before leaving and got back and they were both gone and the office door was locked. The receptionist had a good laugh about my situation when I went down to get a spare set of our office keys from him.

...am listening to the rain fall in the courtyard outside my living room window, what a downpour!!!

Today I...June 15th

Today I...

...had a 'me' day. Well, kind of. It was a 'me' day meaning that I did things at my own pace. I slept in until about 10:00, got up nice and slowly, read my book and then went grocery shopping before heading into to Old Montreal

...went shopping for Fathers' Day gifts for my dad and Grandpa G at Bonsecours Market. I found my dad's gift there, but not my grandpa's so I was a bit discouraged.

...was hunting for a snack when I saw an interesting looking shop that might possibly had Grandpa G appropriate gifts and was very happy when I found that it did. Phew! My Grandpa G is the hardest person to buy for, so I always feel like a pro when I actually manage to find something for him! My dad ain't no piece of cake to buy for either, but I usually have an easier time finding stuff for him than I do for my Grandpa G.

...had some very yummy raspberry and vanilla ice cream from Le Bilboquet at their Old Montreal counter.

...spent about a half hour taking pictures before heading home, including the one at the beginning of this post. I took 38 pictures in all, so I guess I was snapping faster than I thought I was!

...spoke with my Sweetheart, we're going to try and make sure we get together when he's in town this weekend. I've been missing him quite a bit since I got back from his place three weeks ago. I think I'm getting more impatient for him to come the closer his move back to Montreal gets. We have between six and eight months left to go...

Today I...June 13th and 14th

Today I...

...am back in the blogging sphere again and am sharing two pictures with you, both of them of the floral arrangements created by the Oratory's incredibly talented horticulturists. The arrangements are, of course, honoring Brother André's canonization.



...am blogging about two days instead of one so I can tell you about my concert, which went incredibly well. My voice held out too, which was great because I was quite concerned that I might lose it.

...am informing you all to beware of the Martinis at 'Il Fornetto' restaurant in the Lachine sector of Montreal. Their food is amazing and when you ask for a litchi Martini, you get an actual litchi in it, but boy, oh boy, are their Martinis potent!!! I am slightly embarrassed but mostly amused by how incredibly drunk I got off of that one Martini and two sips of wine when my friend H took me out to dinner last night. Like my mouth felt tingly and I had to concentrate in order to speak clearly and walk a straight line drunk. Apparently I felt drunker than I looked though, because my friend swore that I just looked very laid back and happy, not drunk. This was a fairly temporary situation as well, I felt a good bit better after ingesting a considerable amount of food.

Today I...

...went to a walk in clinic for a check-up and to get a referral for an ob-gyn and was in and out in an hour.

...went to St-Mary's hospital for routine blood work only to find out that I would have had to fast for 12-14 hours for one of the tests. They did all the other ones though and I was in and out of there in 20 minutes. A lot of people complain about long wait times in Quebec's health-care system, but I'm happy to say that so far I have been incredibly lucky and have never had to wait for obscenely long periods of time at a doctor's office...except that one time last year when I had to fair two and a half hours for x-rays of my feet.

...spoke with my Sweetheart for about 15 minutes. He had a nice time in Kananaskis over the weekend at a gala for work. I told him about my doctor's visit and the reason for and, curious as always, wanted to know why I had gone hunting for a gynecologist. I told him it was a good idea to get examined once a year and that my last exam went back to 2007. Then he wanted to know what an exam was like, what they looked for. I thought about it for a second and then got a lopsided grin on my face and launched into the desired explanations. When I stopped he said 'Okay, I'm not hungry anymore'. I laughed and said 'Hey, you wanted to know! I didn't even tell you about the details of the actual physical examination yet, don't you want to know about that?' His response was 'No, thanks. My curiosity has gotten me into enough trouble tonight already.' lol The worst part is, that if I hadn't explained things to him, he probably would have gone to look it up on the internet and gotten into the details that he really didn't want me to get into right off the bat.

Today I...June 12th

Today I...

...am apologizing for skimping a bit on my posting this week, but I've been very busy and still am.

...worked for the 6th day straight.

...took a nostalgic trip down memory lane. I was working at École Polytechnique's graduation and was filled with memories from my Sweetheart's graduation last year. It was one of the happiest days we had together and by the end of the ceremony I was missing him something terrible!!!

...was supposed to go out for ice cream with my brother, but I ended up working a bit later than I was supposed to and then when I called him he didn't answer. I ended up going to dinner with some friends from work and he was miffed and I was disappointed to have to miss our attempted ice cream outing for the third time in a row. We'll have to try again when he gets back from his vacation.

...had a chance to drive my friend M's Mini Cooper! What a blast! Okay, so it was only around the parking lot and up the hill at the Oratory' but still!!! Minis are my dream cars, I would love to be able to get one one day :o)

...had a good time while out to dinner with my friends, we had a few good laughs.

...am very tired and am heading to bed since I have a concert with my choir tomorrow.I'm hoping my voice will hold out, it's been through the wringer this week with five hours of tours, six hours of singing and a LOT of talking today. I woke up feeling like I had flames licking up my throat in the middle of last night and it took me until about noon to get my voice back to normal today, so please say a bit of a prayer for me to be okay to sing tomorrow.

Skywatch Friday

This week's Skywatch feature is a shot of the American and Canadian falls taken from Niagara Falls, New York.

To see more great Skywatch photos, your can head over to the Skywatch Friday blog.

Have a great weekend!

Today I...June 9th

Today I...

...am sharing two pictures of a beautiful cafe in Niagara-on-the-Lake. My Sweetheart and I didn't eat there because it was packed and looked quite pricey, but I was way too taken by the scent of what I ended up having for dinner at the place across the street to care anyhow, I just wanted picture of it more than anything lol.

...had a hugely busy day at work. We were training the new summer tour guides today and some of our older guides too in order to refresh their memories. I was in charge of giving them their tour this afternoon and it ran for two hours! I wanted to give them as much information to work with as I could and they seemed to really appreciated it :o)

...hurried home from work because my brother and my aunt and uncle were coming over. My brother to hang out and my aunt and uncle to help me decorate my apartment. My brother left around 7:00 because he wanted to catch the hockey game and my aunt and uncle ended up leaving around 8:45.

...am hoping to get a good night's sleep because I'm pretty darn tired and I'm working until Saturday this week. Phew!

Today I...June 8th

Today I...

...am not posting a photo. I'm pretty tired and uploading takes a while and my computer has been particularly quirky tonight so I don't want to go through any frustration if it decides not to cooperate with me while uploading. Sorry...I'll try and get one up tomorrow though , I promise :o)

...had a half busy, half quiet day at work.

...made a hilarious for others and embarrassing for me blunder on the walkie-talkie. C called me on the radio and normally we answer 'Oui, à l'écoute' call it 'Yes, go ahead.' in English. Well, it was pretty early still, 9:15 and I had only been in for 45 minutes and was concentrated on my data entry, so instead of saying 'Oui, à l'écoute' I used our phone pick up line, 'Accueil et pèlerinages, bonjour!' (Visitor and pilgrim services, how may I help you?'). Oops...I promptly turned beet red even though no one who heard me could see me and it took C a few minutes to answer me back, so I know that she was laughing her head off at me. Oh well, everyone will have forgotten about it tomorrow and I'm just glad that my lunch buddies, the plumber, painter and carpenters don't share our channel because come lunch time I would not have heard the end of it. Let's put it this way: at the time I have lunch there are three women in the lunch room, meaning myself and tow others and eleven men. It's quite the tease-fest and it's thanks to them that I learned how to fight fair when I get teased!!!

...had my friend V over for dinner.

...spoke with my Sweetheart for a half hour. We hadn't spoken since Friday so it was lovely to hear his voice. I'll try and speak to him again tomorrow and if not, then on Thursday since he's leaving for Kananaskis for the weekend on Friday.

Today I...June 6th

Today I...

...am sharing one of my photos of the fireworks display that took place while I was at Niagara Falls a few weeks ago. It was to celebrate Victoria Day and I was absolutely thrilled to find out there was going to be a display on while we were there. Fireworks totally make me act like a kid in a candy store :o)

...had a fairly busy day. I had an hour and a half massage this morning to try and resolve a problem in my lower back. It did a lot of good, but I may be quite sore from the treatment tomorrow.

...hopped back on the bus after the massage to go for my leg waxing appointment.

...froze my butt off while waiting for the bus after both of my appointments.

...was so hungry when I made it back to my neck of the woods that I stopped in at the grocery store and bought myself a can of soup,, some orange juice because I was out and some apples and pâté to put in my lunches this week. The only unnecessary thing I bought while in the store was a bag of Pepperidge Farm dark chocolate and pecan cookies. Not bad for someone who broke the golden rule for grocery shopping: never go in on an empty stomach!!!

...was thoroughly unimpressed by the weather today: rainy, windy and it didn't go above 12 degrees. Needless to say that I didn't bother with my hair at all after I got up this morning. It's an utterly pointless endeavor to try and keep my hair in control when it's as humid out as it was today.

...am just about done reading 'Breaking Dawn', the final installment in the Twilight series. I can't believe I read the entire series in under a month!!!

Today I...June 5th

Today I...

...am sharing one of my photos of the U.S. Side of Niagara Falls with you. They're easier to get close-up pictures of on the American side. A shot like this from the Canadian side is impossible. We know, we tried, but we had to wipe our camera lenses every three minutes because of all the spray, it was crazy!!!

...had a fairly busy day. I walked to the pet supply store that carries the canned food I feed my lovely kitties and back which took me a good hour and a quarter, then I crashed and read my book for an hour, then I did my laundry, vacuumed and cleaned my bathroom and put clean sheets on my bed.

...did something rather silly. I had to use two machines to do my laundry, one for the clothes and the other for the towels and sheets. The heavy-duty machine I used for the towels and sheets has a soap dispenser, but the ones I use for my clothes don't, so I filled the machine for the clothes, selected the appropriate cycle and closed the lid to let it fill with water before putting the soap in. While I was waiting for the first machine to fill, I got the second machine filled, dumped the detergent in the dispenser and set it off. I then picked up my laundry basket and keys and off I went. See anything missing in this story? Yup, I forgot to put the detergent into the machine that was washing my clothes and actually didn't realise I had forgotten it until I was folding the laundry and putting it away. Oh well, the got a good rinse and that's enough for me. Nothing was stained and I didn't get super sweaty this week or anything, so I just gave myself a mental whack on the forehead and shrugged it off.

Firehouse dog

This week's camera critter is one of Charleston's firehouses take on the traditional firehouse dalmatian. I came across this fine fellow while heading back to Visitors Center to meet up with my grandparents in order to head home and couldn't resist snapping an photo of him :o) Doesn't he look relaxed? :o)

I hope you all enjoy your weekend and don't forget to go and have a look at all the other great camera critters on the Camera Critters blog.

Today I...June 4th

Today I...

...am sharing with you a picture of a lovely old cemetery in Charleston, South Carolina seen through an equally lovely wrought iron gate :o)

...am finally feeling better after a rough week filled with stress at work and anxiety attacks. Moral of this story: wonky hormones, sore backs and stress most definitely do not mix...

...am so happy that the summer season is upon us at work and that I will soon have a swarm of young tour guides to work with. This will be my first summer since the summer of 2002 where I will not be part of the Oratory's team of 'Summer guides'. I'm going to be the Summer tour guides 'Mommy' instead. I can deal with that :o)

...got appointment to see my massage therapist at 11:00 A.M. on Sunday. I'm looking forward to having my back issue cleared up!

...was craving lemonade very, very badly at the end of the day, but for reasons unknown the blasted vending machine with the Brisk lemonade in it in our tourist pavilion kept spitting out my Loonies (Canadian 1$ coins, for anyone not familiar with Canadian currency lingo). I grumbled all the way down the hill and decided, while walking home, that I just couldn't do without the lemonade so I walked into the grocery store halfway home and bought a 2.5 liter jug of the stuff.

...loved hearing my Sweetheart laugh while I told him my lemonade and other stories tonight.

...loved laughing while he told me stories too :o)

Skywatch Friday

This week's Skywatch post is the steeple of one of the many, many, many churches in Charleston, South Carolina. If memory serves me (forgive me for the fuzziness, but I saw so many churches in the city that the only I remember by heart is the catholic one since it was the only one I went in), this is the main Presbyterian church that had the cemetery that I loved so much.

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend, be sure to start it off on the right foot by going to check out all the other great Skywatch photos over here .

Today I...June 2nd

Today I...

...am sharing a picture of one of the golf courses in my grandparents' gated community in Aiken, South Carolina. The courses are absolutely beautiful, but mind that you don't eat very much before going out there to play a few holes as the cart paths make the roads here in Quebec look smooth as glass...and that's saying something!

...had an atrocious day at work. I won't go into detail, but suffice it today that you won't hear me say a word against my next super quiet day.

...walked home from work to try and get my not-so-good day out of my system. Did it work? Meh, not really. I probably would have had to walk two hours for it to work.

...read my book when I got home, then watched a bit of TV, then had a bath, still no go, I was feeling blue.

...talked on the phone with my grandma, which distracted me enough to get my appetite going a bit and then had dinner and that hit the spot a bit more. I guess I was more hungry than I thought.

...debated connecting to Skype to talk with my Sweetheart. I was still feeling kind of off, but didn't want to submit him to that, but I saw that he had answered my e-mail from earlier and didn't want him to worry about me if he didn't hear from me. I connected and within a minute he got a smile and a snicker out of me and that was soon followed by a laugh and my opening up. I'm going to go and have a glass of cloud berry liqueur and hopefully that will put an end to my 'cheer up and loosen up' therapy and I'll be ready and willing to head into the office tomorrow.

Today I...June 1st

Today I...

...am sharing a picture of Downtown Charleston, South Carolina with you. Don't worry Gill, I have enough photos from my vacation to be posting them very regularly for quite a while :o)

...had a migraine for most of the day. I think it was due to the warm front that came through. Rainy, humid weather can do that to me in late spring and during the summer.

...had a very quiet day at work...except for the last hour or two. The phones were almost totally quiet all day and then all of a sudden they started ringing around 2:00 P.M.

...spoke with my Sweetheart for almost an hour on Skype. It felt nice :o)