Today I...January 30th

Today I...

...am sharing these photos of the two bouquets I got at the end of my concert at the Oratory today. One was actually meant for me and the other was our organist's. He gave his bouquet to me though, telling me that since I worked so hard and that he didn't have a green thumb to save his soul and would probably kill his flowers in not time flat, that he figured I had better have them.

...am happy to report that the concert was a success. We had between 500 and 600 people in the church, we sang very well and people were very pleased with our performance.

...was so very happy with the whole thing until I realized the friend who had said she would come to my concert wasn't there after looking all over the first floor of the Oratory for her...twice. It turns out that she had a relapse of a bad cold after going out to dinner with my mom last night and opted to stay home. It kind of took the shine out of the day for me because while singing at the Oratory was my dream, it would have been wonderful to have had at least one person to share the day with. Now I'm hoping to be able to give another concert at the Oratory one day and have just one person there for me. Just one, that's all I need.

...was so happy to find a little message from my Sweetheart in my inbox when I got home. 'Bon concert, A.' in other words: 'Good luck today, A.' It made me smile and touched me and made me feel like he was there with me even though he couldn't be there physically.

Today I...January 29th

Today I...

...am sharing this picture from the botanical gardens with you. I'm usually pretty good with plant and flower names, but the names of these particular plants escape me. That's okay though, or at least in my books it is. You have undoubtedly noticed that I'm on a bit of a botanical garden photo posting spree and that's because I find that flowers are quite cheerful to see in the middle of winter :o)

...had a laid back day after having a very, very busy one yesterday. I worked my regular schedule and then went out to buy myself some dinner and some shower gel since I was flat out of it and went back up to the Oratory to eat before a meeting to iron out the final details for my concert with my choir there tomorrow. I then had rehearsal until 10:30, got a ride home from my choir director and was out like a light at about 12:30 A.M.

...saw my landlord on the way down to the laundry room and he told me that what I heard in the walls the other night was more than likely squirrels. He told me that they blocked off a squirrel hole in the roof last fall, but when they went up to check on it early in the winter when we had a bit of a mild spell, they found a new one. He told me that they can't do anything about the squirrels until they leave their nest in the spring, because if they block the hole now, the squirrels will die in there which is most definitely not something I want on my conscience. Hopefully, though, they'll do their rustling around away from my apartment most of the time so as not to drive my cats nuts during the night!

...spent close to an hour on Skype with my Sweetheart! He told me that he has a piece of jewelry for me for my birthday, but please, don't get any ideas. It's something that he bought in Poland a few years back apparently and you can believe me when I tell you that it is NOT an engagement ring. Not that I wouldn't like it to be, I really would like it to be, but yeah, we're not quite there yet. It's more likely a necklace or a bracelet. He's very good at picking out necklaces for me, so I'm putting my money on that :o)

...am very much looking forward to my concert with my choir at the Oratory tomorrow and am hoping that we will have a big audience!

Skywatch Friday

This week's Skywatch feature is a photo of Montreal's Olympic Stadium...or the most famous part of it, it's inclined tower, along with a section of the most infamous part of it, it's roof, which they were never able to get quite right and therefore either tears or needs to be replaced quite often. Montrealers therefore often call the stadium 'The Big Owe', a twist 'The Big O', which is what the stadium used to look like when it still had a retractable roof. You know how every city has a landmark that its citizens love to hate? For Montrealers, the Olympic Stadium is it :o) Some of its other nicknames are 'The White Elephant' and 'l'OVNI'(The UFO). It is definitely worth a visit if you are ever in Montreal though, along with the rest of the Olympic complex which includes the Biodome and the Botanical Gardens are also right next door.

To see more skies from around the world, visit the Skywatch Friday blog.

Have a nice weekend!

Here be monsters! (aka: Today I...January 26th)

Today I...

...am sharing the utterly priceless video of a boys' choir that you will find at the bottom of this post with you. You'll see why it's priceless, just trust me and watch it :o)

...was woken up at about 4:30 in the morning by an odd thumping noise coming from my wall. Magique, who was in the bedroom with me, was going bonkers over it. I got up and stuck my ear to the wall twice to get a a better idea of what the noise might possibly be and the only conclusions I came to were that the couple who live in the apartment above mine were having a seriously good time or that there are some critters (mice, rats, squirrels or something else along those lines) living in between the walls for the winter and they were shuffling around. I am hoping it was the couple upstairs, but they've been up there since July and I hadn't heard them yet (I live in a 70 year old building with astonishingly good soundproofing), so I'm guess it's more likely to be critters and I therefore may not be getting very much sleep until the landlord does something about it. I stopped by the janitor's apartment when I got back from work and his son opened the door and when I told him about it he seemed to think critters living in the walls was kind of a crazy idea, so hopefully he will call the landlord like he said he would. I may call him myself tomorrow and see if he was made aware of the situation or not.

...walked home from work since it was only -11 with a -16 windchill. I wanted the exercise and knew that walking would keep me warm and it really wasn't that windy, so it was quite a nice walk! I'll probably do it again tomorrow because it's supposed to be even warmer!

Today I...January 25th

Today I...

...am sharing this picture of a super prickly cactus with you. Nope, it has nothing to do with my mood, but I came across of bunch of cactus pictures while looking for my butterfly picture the other day and decided to feature one on my blog since I don't think I've ever put a cactus on here before! I may pop another one on here tomorrow since I think cacti are pretty neat!

...was glad it was warmer than it had been since Friday night. I tell you, today's high of -15 felt downright balmy, although C did respond with 'Are you kidding me???' when I told her it was warm out lol

...found myself wondering why, in the name of all heck, I was the first one to go up to a manager at the grocery store before leaving to tell her that one of their juice freezers was on the fritz. It had obviously been on the blink for a while because when I went to get some cans of orange juice there was melted juice all over the shelves.

...spoke with my Sweetheart for over 45 minutes :o)

Today I...January 23rd

Today I...

...am sharing this picture from when I went to see the butterflies at the botanical gardens last winter with you.

...had a lovely day of treating myself. I went to the spa, then to the mall and sat at the Second Cup there savoring a dark chocolate and raspberry latte while reading my book. I then went shopping at RW&Co. and bought myself a lovely pale blue cardigan and four t-shirts with a gift card that my grandparents gave me for Christmas. There is still money on it, so I will be able to go shopping again!

...am going to share seven things that you may not know about me with you. I am doing this because my blogging friend Kim from Life at Golden Pines won the Stylish Blogger Award and one of the things that she had to do if she won was share seven things that we might not know about her and then pass it on. So, I'm going to share seven things you may not know about me with you guys tonight and then you can do the same on your blogs if you wish :o)

1- I suffer from a mild form of the learning disability dyspraxia. It made life difficult for me, especially in elementary school. I was tortured to no end by most of the other kids because I was slower than them in school, especially in grade six when my learning disability was compounded with an absolutely atrocious teacher. Before I ended up in her class the only subject I really had trouble with was math, but thanks to her, I ended up with my grades dropping in everything. Thank God for my special needs teacher in my first year of high school, thanks to her my only soft spot by the end of my year in her class was math and I gave that up after high school and never looked back!!! I was an ace of a student in everything else thereafter and annoyed people by getting stellar grades with very little effort (except in math). Most of the time it doesn't show that I have a learning disability, it only really shows when I'm in a group and we have to read together or write together and then it ends up showing because I read and write more slowly than most people. It also shows when I am given a sequence of instructions to follow because I have trouble remembering sequences of things, whether they be lists, steps to a dance or steps to follow to get something to work. The best thing for me to do is to write them down and then I'm good to go since I have a photographic memory. Once I have something written down, I never forget it.

2- I did gymnastics at a recreational lever for 10 years and coached it for two, it was my first job. I credit my gymnastic induced flexibility for my never having sprained anything badly enough for me to need crutches.

3- Although my favorite animals have always been cats and horses, my first pets were fish. Four little striped Danios in a cube that I got from a kiosk at the mall when I was a teenager, then I moved on to goldfish in a bowl and then a fish tank. I had three tanks at one point, two big ones and one little one. I'm now back down to one tank though with tropical fish and I've had some of those fish for at least four years now.

4- I took six years of dressage horseback riding lessons and was amazing at it and loved it. Although I kept up with the gymnastics the longest, horseback riding is the sporting activity that I loved the most out of all the ones I got into. I would still be going at it if I had a way to get out to where I could take lessons, but that would require a car and I do not have the financial means for one of those at the moment. I still dream that I'm riding quite regularly though and miss it a great deal.

5- I have bunions and arthrosis in both of my feet and it can be quite a bother since I can't wear half the shoes that are made nowadays. Having to shop for shoes is a terrible pain in the butt for me and I hate having to do it because I see all kinds of gorgeous shoes that I would love to buy but can't. I guess, therefore, that the bunions are a blessing, otherwise I would have more shoes than I could possibly store.

6- I have always wanted to play the violin, but never had a chance to learn how. I may give it a try yet, if I can find a very patient and understanding teacher who would adapt to the learning disability mentioned in point number 1.

7- I went through a phase when I was a teenager where I would write stories that were pages and pages long, mostly sappy love stories where I would fantasize about the type of boyfriend that I would like to have. I went through most of high school being single because I was picky. I had two boyfriends through the whole six year, one by whom I was dumped and the other that I dumped because he was too clingy. I do not do the clingy thing well. My Sweetheart is the first (and hopefully shall be the only) very serious boyfriend that I have ever had and I am not at all sorry that I waited for him to come along before I got serious. I am happy to report that he far surpasses any figment of my romantic teenage imagination :o)

Today I...am having a musical post. Enjoy :o)

Today I...January 21st

Today I...

...am sharing these two fun photos of my friends and I together last weekend. We set my camera down on a ledge in Chinatown and set the timer and had it take two series of ten photos of us goofing off. I love motion shots, so there were right up my alley!

...had Friday brain today, so I did get quite a bit of stuff done at work, but by the end of the day I was done and had the attention span of a two year-old. I guess my brain had reached its weekly work related thought processing quota!

...took a different route home just for a change and so that I could walk a bit without spending huge amounts of time outside since it was cold out.

...kept being active when I got home, taking down my Christmas tree and decorations and then vacuuming and cooking dinner. I have been feeling the effects of being too sedentary due to the cold lately and have been feeling antsy, so even though it's supposed to be downright frigid this weekend, I'm going to try and find a way to get active somehow.

...am wondering where my Sweetheart has gotten to? He connected to Skype for a few minutes last night but disappeared before I had a chance to talk with him and he's not on tonight at all. He may be watching a Friday night movie or playing a computer game though, that's what he was up to last Friday night. Oh well, I guess I'll talk with him tomorrow unless he connects soon!

...am enjoying watching two back-to-back episodes of CSI: NY. The one on right now is a rerun (hence my being able to write this post while watching), but I don't think I have seen the episode that is going to be on next.

Skywatch Friday

This week's Skywatch feature is this first view I got of a snow capped mountain...in June!!! I saw my first serious mountain range, the Canadian Rockies, when I traveled to Kelowna and Vancouver with my Sweetheart back in 2007 and by serious, I mean mountains that are big enough and high enough that you can ski on them pretty much year round. We have a mountain range here in Quebec, the Laurentians, but they've got a a couple of million years on the Rockies, so they've had time to get worn down by the elements over the year and only have snow on them from about November to April if you don't count the odd flurry in October and May.

To see more Skywatch pictures from around the world, check out the Skywatch Friday blog.

Thanks for stopping by, I hope you all have a great weekend!

Today I...January 19th

Today I...

...am sharing this night shot of De la Gauchetière street in Chinatown with you. I took it after my evening out with my friends and darn near froze my right hand off doing it lol

...spent the day worrying about C on and off. She left work yesterday feeling unwell and we haven't heard from her since the end of the day yesterday. She never showed up at work today and never called to say why or how she was feeling and there was no answer three times we tried to call her.

...had a very busy day at work. I've started send out documentation to groups who are going to coming to the Oratory for the Novena, covered all three phones since D was busy doing a mail-out with volunteers and C wasn't in.

...am hoping that C will be in tomorrow and that it will be a quieter day.

...got my dinner for tomorrow all ready and put into the crockpot! Artichoke chicken will be waiting for me when I come home from work tomorrow and all I will have to do is make the pasta to mix in with it. YUM!!!

Today I...January 18th

Today I...

...am sharing this picture of a little tiny Christmas Cactus that my mom bought herself during the Holidays.

...don't really have too much to report. I spent a half hour chatting with my Sweetheart tonight and we truly enjoyed it :o) I'm so looking forward to seeing him next month during my last visit to Toronto and then to seeing him more often when he moves back to Montreal!

...was happy that the weather warmed up. It had been downright frigid here since Sunday and it got up to about -3 Celsius this afternoon instead of -13 so that was a nice change!

Today I...January 17th

Today I...

...am posting on a Monday!!! This is a very rare occurrence, but I was feeling bad at the idea of not posting tonight when I didn't post on Friday or yesterday.

...am sharing this picture of two of my friends and I sharing a toast at one of our get-togethers in July. We had a wonderful time together last night and wanted to reflect that here tonight.

...am happy to report that I bought my LAST train ticket to go to Toronto and visit my Sweetheart yesterday!!! I will be going to visit him in about a month for my birthday weekend and then he will be moving back here SIX DAYS after I get home!!! I CAN'T WAIT :o))) I'm so happy that we made it through these two years and I honestly think it did us more good than it did harm. Absence truly does make the heart grow fonder, even though having your significant other live far away from you can be incredibly harsh.

Today I...January 15th

Today I...

...am having a pictureless post. I haven't had one in a while, but I'm not feeling too too inspired tonight so am not sure I would be able to find the right picture for you guys!

...had a fairly busy and emotional day.

...rushed to do all my laundry before heading out.

...dressed all in black except for a white blouse.

...went to my third memorial service-funeral this week, this time for the father and father in law of four of my friends. A brother and sister and the brother's wife were all tour guides at the Oratory and the brother's wife was a tour guide too. The three of us started our career at the Oratory together and then the younger sister joined us a few years later. We're a very close knit group, us Oratory tour guides so when we found out that our friends' father and father in law died suddenly last week, four more of us plus J decided right away to go to the funeral. I'm sorry to say that the priest botched the service, I'd never been to such a badly done funeral. I hope that our friends didn't feel the same way, but from what we could tell they and their mother were just happy to have so many friends and family there.

...am tired. Three such ceremonies in one week (the Haiti memorial on Wednesday, Luce's memorial service on Thursday and the funeral today) is quite draining emotionally.

...was happy when my friends asked us all to go out to dinner with them in Chinatown tomorrow night. We will be more than happy to get their minds off of things and we always have a good time together.

...am hoping that I have filled my funeral-memorial service quota for the year.

...am hoping that my Sweetheart got his hands on some tickets to 'The Magic Flute' in Toronto for my birthday!!!

Skywatch Friday

This week's Skywatch feature is this dusk shot I took of Montreal's Place Jacques Cartier, one of the most popular tourist hubs in the city, particularly in the summer when there are street vendors and performers out and about and the terraces are open.

To see more Skywatch photos from around the world, you can check out the Skywatch Friday blog here.

I'm upset, very upset

Regular post formatting is being pre-empted because I need to vent. If you don't want to read a venting post, turn away now and come back tomorrow. So I was talking with my Sweetheart tonight about our Honolulu vacation, because I am...was...I dunno anymore...officially going. I bought a book about Honolulu and Oahu over the weekend and we've been looking into where we are going to stay and everything. I wrote to my brother after hanging up with my Sweetheart asking him to go ahead and buy up the points for the trip. I had worked out a payment plan to pay him back for them and for the taxes on my flight and everything, but he came back told me that he couldn't buy all the points until April, that I had misunderstood him about how the buying process went. I had understood that he could buy all the points at once but that Aeroplan would just deduct they from his pay and that was why he wanted me to pay him back a certain amount every month. It turns out that he just wanted money right away because if he did request the points now they would deduct them from his pay up until April and not because they were giving them to him right away. My concern is that if I wait until April 1st to get seats on a flight for May 1st, there will be no more seats to be had, especially not on a specific flight and I do want to be on the same flight as my Sweetheart going to Honolulu, seated next to him if at all humanly possible because I am a very nervous flyer and my conditions seems to only be getting worse with time. I feel like crying at the very thought of having to go through two five hour plus flights on my own (5 hours 20 minutes to Vancouver and 5 hours 55 minutes from Vancouver to Honolulu). It's bad enough I'm going to have to do it all the bloody way home, if I have to do it to get there too I don't know if I could handle it. I do so want to to go though, so very very badly. So the only way that my brother could get me points to buy the flight right now would be to clean out all his points and put up 550$ cash. if I have to pay him for all of that it would amount to about 800$ which is more than it would cost me if I wait...but I'm scared to wait and scared to fly on my own and scared to ask my family (on my dad's side) for money for this now as a birthday gift because I'm afraid they'll refuse saying that I shouldn't travel if I can't afford it, but then I'd never go anywhere for the rest of my life if I listened to them. This would be a once in a lifetime experience for me and I don't want to miss out on it, but why, oh why did I have to misunderstand my brother? When he was explaining it to me he was jumbled and frustrated because the Aeroplan site was messing up and he's very impatient about that sort of thing. I wish he had just taken the time to make sure I understood everything properly instead of getting angry because of site malfunctions. I wish I had understood properly the first time so that I wouldn't be so disappointed and upset now. I wish I made more money. I wish I wasn't a fearful flyer. I wish I wasn't so afraid of what my father's family think. I wish a whole lot of stuff. I wish I wasn't so upset.

Today I...January 11th

Today I...

...am sharing this picture of Notre-Dame Basilica with you.

...am apologizing for being an absentee blogger for the past few days. I got hung up downloading picture for my desk calendar and ended up only finishing that at Midnight and last night I had choir practice, which always bumps off my Monday night blogging.

...had a fairly steady workload at work. Enough to keep me busy, but not enough to make me sigh with relief when it came time to leave at the end of the day.

...was hoping to talk with my Sweetheart tonight, but didn't connect to Skype in time and he disconnected just as I was getting on. Oh well, better luck tomorrow!

...am happy that I get to sleep in a bit tomorrow as I'm starting work at 11:00 A.M. and finishing at 7:00 P.M. in order to help C with a multi-faith remembrance ceremony for the victims of the earthquake in Haïti and we have already hosted one commerative mass for it and my choir and I are performing a benefit concert for the reconstruction of C's former school in Port-Au-Prince at the end of the month. This is a project that is very close to my heart as C very nearly lost her entire family in the earthquake last year and at that time I felt completely powerless to help her. I was so happy to be able to offer my choir as the group that would perform in the benefit concert and I really hope the concert is a success and that we can meet our ticket sale objective!

Today I... January 8th

Today I...

...am sharing this picture of a very affectionate sculpture in Old Montreal :o)

...ended up going out to dinner with V after all when her sister called her and told her that they were going to be having dinner with their mother at her sister's place next weekend instead of going all the way out to their mother's place. We had a nice chat and ate a TON of yummy sushi. She wants us to get together again in two weeks, so hopefully it will work out on the first try!!!

...woke up at noon, but before your guys find me incredibly lazy, allow me to explain the reason behind my late rising. I went to wash my dishes around 11:30 P.M. last night and found, upon nearing my kitchen, that the smell of natural gas was a bit stronger than usual. I have a gas stove so sometimes I catch a bit of a whiff of gas, which is normal, but this was a bit much. I went and laid my hand on the stove and while the whole center of the stove is normally warm, this time the heat was only on the left side. I opened the door below the oven and saw that the pilot light was still lit, so I decided to open a window and air things out and then see what the situation was after washing the dishes. When I was done I did the hand test again and found the stove top heat to still be unbalanced. I checked the pilot light again...Yup, that was still going, so I decided to try lighting the burners. The two on the left turned on, but the two on the right hissed without lighting. Aw, crap...there was definitely a problem so I called the 24 hour Gaz Metro emergency line and they dispatched a team to my apartment at 12:30 A.M. I was dead on my feet at this point and would have liked to just go to bed, but I there was no way I was doing that with gas leaking into my house so I put on my jammies and waited with the windows open in the kitchen and my bedroom which is right next door and didn't touch a light switch for fear of blowing my apartment block to Kingdom Come. Two ladies from Gaz Metro showed up a bit after 1:00 A.M. and I found out that my stove is somewhere between 50 and 70 years old and has not one, but three pilot lights. One under the oven and two below the cook top, one of which had gone out. They took a match and lit it which I would never have dared do, but apparently the gas level in my kitchen was fine since I had the presence of mind to open the windows as soon as I smelled the gas. They spent about 20 minutes inspecting my antique of a stove to make sure there were no other problems and congratulated me on keeping it so clean. Apparently even though it is old, it is in fabulous condition and has many years left in it. Wonderful! What would also have been wonderful would have been if the two ladies had removed their boots before walking all over my kitchen because, nice as they were and relieved as I was to have them fix my stove and give it once over, they left an incredible mess for me to mop up after they left...at 1:30 in the morning. I only got to bed at about 2:00 A.M. and didn't get to sleep until about 2:30 A.M. and that, my friends, is the story of why I slept half the day away!

Today I...January 7th

Today I...

...am sharing this picture I took of Notre-Dame Basilica in Old Montreal pretty much one year ago today. I'm going to try my best to go out and take some pictures this weekend too!

...was back at work. I know, I know, going back to work on a Friday seems weird, but I was at the end of my paid vacation time and besides, going back on a Friday allows you to ease back into your work routine gradually!

...am quite proud of myself for getting through my backlog of work in one day!

...was quite disappointed when my friend V cancelled our planned get-together. We were supposed to get together before Christmas, but that didn't work out because she ended up having to work a lot and then going away with her boyfriend. Then we were supposed to go together when she got back after new year, but back to work she went all week while I was off. Then we were supposed to get together on Sunday, but she forgot it was her mother's birthday so she said whichever day she wasn't busy with her mom, she would have lunch with me, but tonight she said things got complicated and she now has to spend the whole weekend out west of Montreal with her mom. Yup, disappointed I am. I miss the days when V could always squeeze me in to her schedule, but since the boyfriend came along I have been gradually phased out, which I find sad. I find it important to keep a balance between one's life with one's significant other and one's life aside from one's significant other. You need to have a little bit of both I find, otherwise if ever the relationship goes south it's even more devastating because you may find yourself with no one to help you through it if you've let all your friendships go by the wayside in favor of your love life! Even though my Sweetheart and I don't get to see each other very often, we do socialize when I'm visiting him sometimes. We have spent time with his friends in Toronto and with my family and we have also spent time with my brother and his friends in Toronto twice when we happened to be in Toronto at the same time. Yup, it's all about balance...but right now V's scale is tipped way down on the boyfriend side and way up on the 'rest of us ' side and has been for about five five months now. I'm hoping that eventually it will even back out.

Skywatch Friday

Since I posted about my possible trip to Hawaii yesterday, I thought that I would give this week's Skywatch post a warm touch by sharing this Floridian Sunset with you all. It was taken on my last trip to Florida before my grandparents moved from there to South Carolina.

To see more Skywatch photos from around the world, you can visit the Skywatch Friday blog. Thanks for stopping by and I hope you all have a great weekend!

Today I...January 5th

Today I...

...am sharing this photo of this couple of bird decorations that my aunt and uncle set out on their counter for the Holidays. They like them so much though, that they may end up leaving them out all the time.

...had a slightly less lazy day than yesterday. I got changed into some jogging pants and a fleece top as soon as I got up, had a nice brunch, no lunch and macaroni and cheese that was leftover from last week for dinner, so no chocolate cake in sight today ;o)

...went out to buy kitty litter and kitty food, the kibble type. My cats eat both dry and canned food and I never run out of both types at once, which is actually quite good, because while I can haul around a bag of kibble in one arm while pulling a 42 lb bag of litter in my 'granny cart', I would not be able to haul 18 cans of food in the cart as well. I actually used to not be able to buy litter on my own at all because it was too heavy for me to pull uphill in my cart, but I now have a wonderfully conveniently located pet supply store just up the street from my place, no hill in sight, plus an elevator in my building so I only have to haul the cart up one small flight of four stairs.

...spoke with my Sweetheart again and we are planning on my joining him on the first leg of his round-the-world trip this coming spring...so I will most likely be going to HAWAII this coming May!!! This is thanks to my wonderful younger brother who works for Aeroplan and can get me an incredibly sweet deal on my ticket. He would let me pay him back for the ticket in two-week installments which I can totally afford, so this trip is totally doable for me! My Sweetheart and I will make a final decision about this on the weekend, but I am already imagining all the things we could do together in Hawaii. Yup, I can totally see us on the beach together right now and standing up on a hill taking pictures of the Hawaiian sunset...Oh, what an experience this could be for me...The pictures I could take, the stories I could tell...the incredibly long flight I would have to take back home on my own...Okay, I'll try not to think about that last part too much. Not too keen on flying myself, but to spend a week in Hawaii with my Sweetheart, I'd put up with just about anything!

Today I...January 4th

Today I...

...am sharing this picture of my mom's dog True with you. He was quite curious about the camera, as you can see!

...had a nice, quiet day at home.

...stayed in my pyjamas until about 5:00 P.M. when I went to have a nice, warm bath and then got into a nice, comfy jogging suit.

...had chocolate cake for lunch...at 4:00 P.M.

...spoke with my Sweetheart for a whole half-hour. He showed me some of the pictures he took at his friends' wedding on Saturday, they were beautiful!

...am planning on having a more active day tomorrow, but SO enjoyed having a lazy day today :o)

Today I...January 3rd

Today I...

...spent the day with my grandparents. We dropped some old things of mine off at a charity thrift shop, went out for lunch, then out to the mall in the West Island where we ran in to some friends of theirs and then off to their airport. We parked by the runway and watched a series of planes take off and then went back to their hotel for a bit before going out to dinner with my uncle, brother and cousin. These photos are not from the restaurant by the way, they are from my aunt and other uncle's place on Christmas Day.

...Ate a lot. Like, a lot, a lot, a lot. I actually ate a lot during this entire holiday season and now have a fridge FULL of leftovers. I will not need to buy groceries for a while, which is lovely because it will allow me to save some money and make the grocery gift card that my mom gave me for Christmas last a lot longer!!!

...Was disappointed to find out that flannel blankets seem to be a thing of the past. They make flannel sheet sets now, but what I was looking for today was a flannel blanket. My mom got me this lovely cotton thermal blanket for Christmas, you see, because my old flannel blanket which went between my sheet and duvet used to be hers and my fathers which means that it was somewhere around 30 years old and was so worn that it had holes in it and was no longer very warm. I was very happy when I unwrapped the blanket she gave me on Christmas day, it was actually the exact one I wanted, but it turns out that it is too warm for me since I live in an apartment and can't control the heating in my room. If I could, I would keep it cooler than it is and the blanket she gave me would be fine, but since I can't, I have been having very restless nights for the past week because even if I am not too warm when I get in bed, I am before I fall asleep and then have a heck of a time and don't fall asleep for hours, or I do fall asleep but then wake up and am boiling hot, especially once Magique has come to curl up beside me, Hence, my quest for a flannel non-thermal blanket today, which was unsuccessful. Since I was unwilling to spend on an entire set of bedclothes of which I would only have used one piece, I am resigned to either sleeping without a duvet, or removing the thermal blanket and keeping it at the foot of the bed in case I am too cold under just the duvet and a sheet which is probably going to be my final decision as I am most attached to my duvet. Ugh, I wish I hadn't tossed my old flannel blanket before having properly tested my new blanket, but I never expected it to be a problem. Oh well, nothing to be done about it now, I suppose.

...Was sad to say goodbye to my grandparents tonight, I had a wonderful time with them for the past three days and will now not see them again until at least the month of May at my concert. It seems a long way off, but I'm sure it will go by fast.

Today I...January 1st

Today I...
...Thought I would start 2011 off by sharing a few of my favorite photos of 2010 with you :o)

...Would have put far more photos into this post, but I figured I had better stop or this would quickly have become the longest post in history :o)

...Smiled when I realized that today's date was 1-1-11. One of my aunts once told me that if I looked at the clock and it happened to be 11:11, that I could make a wish, so I figure that today I will spend the day making wishes for the new year.

...Am hoping that 2011 will be filled with many occasions for me to take lovely photos to share with all of you :o)

...Am hoping that 2011 will be filled with many occasions to spend time with my Sweetheart.

...and that he will do many more sweet things like making hearts out of strawberries for me :o)

....Am hoping that my family, friends and I will be blessed with good health.

...and that we will have lots of occasions to engage in family fun :o)

Happy 2011 everyone :o)