The photos I take, the music I love and rambles about my daily life
Saturday, March 31, 2012
Today I...
...am sharing this photo of my Earth Hour candle with all of you. I've been participating in Earth Hour since it first began five years ago in 2007. The idea is that every year on March 31st, you turn out all of your lights between 8:30 and 9:30 P.M. as a show of solidarity between millions of people who want to make a difference in our planet's future. To learn more about Earth Hour, you can visit their website here.
...had a pretty laid back day.
...slept in until a bit after 10:00 A.M.
...got my cleaning done.
...went to renew my monthly transit pass and then made a quick stop by the grocery store.
...came home and crashed on the couch for a few hours and watched episode two of the Napoleon miniseries I finally found on DVD two years ago after hunting around for it for a eight years.
...trimmed my cats' claws. That's ten claws in all (I only do their front paws) and I am so very happy that it is so much easier than it used to be. I used to wish for chain mail every time I did it, but it's been about a year now that I have trained them into behaving when I trim their claws, because if they're good they each get two treats afterwards. It usually works :o)
...am sharing this photo of the statue of Paul Chomedey, Sieur de Maisonneuve, the first governor of Montreal with all of you. The statue stands in front of Notre-Dame Basilica in the Place d'Armes. Paul Chomedey was in charge of France's new colony of Ville-Marie, as Montreal was then called, from 1642 to 1655 and it was he who installed Montreal's famed cross on top of Mount Royal in 1643.
...got through most of what was left of my backlog and data entry today, hooray!
...seem to have come down with some sort of a bug again. I hope it is just a build up of fatigue and not a blasted cold!
...spoke with my Sweetheart for a bit. He has to get some work done this weekend and therefore it looks like we will not be able to see each other on my day off tomorrow, but we will more than likely get together after I'm done work on Sunday night and will spend the better part of the day together on Monday since I'm not working and he is allowing himself a day off.
...had a good deal of fun bouncing photos of hermit crabs and an actual Russian hermit back and forth with my Sweetheart by e-mail after he told me over the phone that he was going to have to be a hermit for a few days. I used my photo editing program to copy a photo of my Sweetheart's head onto the body of a hermit crab and have not heard back from him since then. I think I may have won this round :oJ
This week's Skywatch feature is this photo of a flowering tree in the courtyard of the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles. I took it while on vacation there with my Sweetheart in May of last year. Yes, I still have vacations on the brain. It's more than likely due to the fact that I have to hand in my choice of vacation days by the end of next week, so my Sweetheart and I will have to at least decide when we will be running away together in the coming months by then. I'm actually hoping to get the dates picked out this weekend :o)
To see more skywatch photos from around the world, you can stop by the Skywatch Friday blog. Thanks for visiting and I hope you all have a lovely weekend!
...am back after spending a lovely evening with my Sweetheart yesterday. I hope you'll forgive me for not posting while we were together :o)
...am sharing this photo of the Palace of Versailles with one of its fountains. I have never been to Paris or to Versailles, but my Sweetheart and I are toying with the idea of heading there in May. I would be absolutely thrilled to go there with my Sweetheart as my personal tour guide so that he and I could go shutterbug crazy together and I would be particularly thrilled to visit Versailles! I studied it in one of my art history classes, but even before that I had a fascination for the place as I have always had for all things palace and castle. I'll definitely keep you posted on our plans and about when and where we decided to go on vacation :o)
...was late to work, darn it. I made it out the door a bit late and then had two overcrowded buses pass me by without stopping before making it onto a third bus and then hitting every red light on the road to work. Oh well, better luck tomorrow!
...did more data entry at work. Lots of data entry. It's been the story of my life at work this week and I'm not even near done. I'll probably be spending most of my time doing data entry for the next week or so though as due to the novena, I have a major backlog.
...am looking forward to out sugar shack themed social club lunch at work tomorrow, it's going to be lots of fun and very tasty!
...am sharing this picture that I took of one of the butterflies in the greenhouses at the Botanical Gardens a few years ago with all of you. I try and make it out there every year when the exhibit is on, but it is quite far, so I have yet to make it this year.
...am posting early since I am going out to dinner with my brother and my mother for my mother's upcoming birthday tonight and might not have a chance to post later depending on what time I get home.
...am planning on making chocolate chip cookies in a bit as I promised my Sweetheart I would have some for him when he got back from his trip.
...am very happy that my Sweetheart is coming home from Haiti today and am hoping that his flight home is easier that his flight to Haiti was, not that that will be hard to beat!
...am going to try and make it out to buy some flowers for my mom before my brother comes to get me. She loves flowers but doesn't get them very often, so I figure I'll get her a treat.
...am hoping that I'm over the worst of a stomach bug I woke up with!
...hear from my Sweetheart. He and E went from Montreal to New York on a Delta flight instead of United airlines yesterday due to their flight being delayed. They flew around in circles above NYC for an hour due to fog without being able to land, so they spent two hours on the ground at the next airport where they could land. They were then cleared to go into NYC, but once they got there, there were no more flights leaving for Haiti that day, so they ended up flying into Miami instead to spend the night there to be closer to Haiti in the morning and then got on the first flight out of there to Port-Au-Prince. I say again...My Sweetheart = champion of crazy travel stories.
...am sharing this photo of daffodils that I took a few years back with all of you since it is my one of my favorite Springtime shots and we have had such lovely Spring, or actually closer to Summer, weather here these past few days. It got up to 25 degrees Celsius here today, amazing!!!
...wishes that it had not gotten up to 26.5 degrees in my office today. Corner offices with a lovely view do have a downside: when it gets hot out before the heating is shut down and the AC is turned on, it's like working in a greenhouse: incredibly hot and steamy, even with the blinds down.
...am very much looking forward to my three day weekend, since I am very tired. I have been forgetting and misplacing all sorts of things in the past few days, something that only ever happens to me when I'm overly tired. So rest I shall this weekend and will hopefully be back to normal this coming Monday and be able to comment on your blogs more regularly, but for now I'm happy just to be able to get posts up!
...am letting you all know that I will not be posting tomorrow due to an extra choir practice my director added to our schedule. I'll be back on Friday :o)
...remembered I intended to post to my blog tonight about 10 minutes ago.
...am sharing this recording of the Kyrie from Haydn's Lord Nelson mass with you. The recording, as you can see if you click on the 'more info' tab below the video, is by the Hungarian Radio Chorus and the Nicholas Esterhazy Sinfonia. The reason I am sharing this with you is because it is one of my favorite choral pieces. My Sweetheart had me listen to it what seems like eons ago at his place in Toronto and I instantly loved it and I fell in love with it all over again when I found the same recording he has on YouTube by one of my favorite ensembles, The English Concert directed by Trevor Pinnock. You can never go wrong purchasing an album by the English Concert, especially if they are directed by Trevor Pinnock , whether it is exclusively orchestral or if the choir is included. Their interpretations are picture perfect and to make things even better, they also typically record with Deutchse Gramophon, an excellent and usually affordable label. This is the point at which you can tell I worked in a classical music department in a record store and would go back to working in one in a heartbeat if I could make a decent living that way. I love my job, but I love music more. What can I say? I started listening to classical music on my own at the age of about six or seven and never looked back. I like a little bit of everything in music, but classical, sacred and choral music is like a drug for me. Leave me without it for too long and I suffer from withdrawal symptoms :o) Anyhow, I tried to find the English Concert recording for you on YouTube, but failed. These guys are as close as I could get and they do a pretty darn good job, but take it a tad too fast for my liking.
...am scandalized by how long it is taking iTunes to download two albums for me, the Haydn mass and Haendel's Water Music (both by the English Concert)
...am happy to report that I survived the Feast of Saint Joseph largely unscathed yesterday. I left work at 9:30 P.M. with a pounding headache and very, very sore feet (I sat for all of an hour and a quarter in an eight hour shift), but dealt with being in charge for the evening fairly well. I made sure I had personnel everywhere, had all the escalators reversed when the Basilica was full beyond capacity and managed to hand my keys over to the father of one of our boy choristers so he could open up the infirmary when his son began throwing up in front of the locked door without throwing up myself. I can handle blood and all sorts of icky stuff very well, but am a total wuss when it comes to people tossing their cookies. Hopefully this will leave on its own when I have children one day, otherwise my Sweetheart will be up a creek!
...was only mildly surprised when I realized my feet were still tender from last night when I put on my shoes this morning. Apparently an eight hour rest wasn't enough.
...groaned when my boss informed me that I would be giving he and the superior general of the Holy Cross order a tour this afternoon at 3:00 P.M. and proceeded to get myself a mocha Frappucino from Starbucks during my lunch break to give myself the necessary boost to get the job done.
...am very curious as to how, exactly, my Sweetheart his colleague E got themselves to Port Au Prince today. My Sweetheart was getting up at 3:00 A.M. to get himself to the airport on time for they supposed 6:53 A.M. departure, but when I checked on the flight this morning when I got up, I was dismayed on their behalf to see that the flight had been delayed to 9:00. A very tight situation since their connecting flight to Port Au Prince out of Newark was leaving at 10:03 A.M. Anyhow, their flight out of Montreal, if they stayed on that flight, ended up leaving at 9:30 A.M. and landing far too late for them to catch their connecting flight, so the only thing I can imagine is that they tried to get on another flight to Newark or another flight to Port Au Prince out of Montreal. Who knows...I have yet to hear from my Sweetheart, but I'm guessing that he just might be asleep right now, having crashed after a far too long day of chasing down flights. I can't help but smirk while thinking of this. My Sweetheart is the champion of flight cancellations, delays and lost luggage. In the seven years we have been together, I have seen him have his bags lost by different airlines three times and have significant flight delays or cancellations that he has had to get himself out of at least four if not five times. Fortunately, none of these occurred while he was traveling with me. What can I say? I must be a lucky charm, he should travel with me more often :oJ
...am sharing two photos from a St-Patrick's Day party I went to at my aunt and uncle's place with you, one of the platter of Irish Car Bomb cupcakes one of my aunt and uncle's friends made and one of my aunt and uncle's stuffed dog Rumples in appropriately Irish attire.
...am glad that I enjoyed yesterday, because today has not been a very cheerful day. I spoke to my Sweetheart this morning for only the second time this week only to find out that he is leaving for Haiti on business on Tuesday night and will not be back until Sunday and we all know how much I love it when he goes down there. I also found out that he did't take the time to read any of the e-mails I wrote to him this week, except for the one he answered telling me that he wouldn't have to take vacation time if he ended up leaving for Haiti this coming week. Otherwise, with his taking a class and his cousin being in for a visit from England, e-mails took a back seat. Anyhow, the trip was not entirely a surprise. He had told me during our six and a half minute conversation on Tuesday that the aid organisation that he is going over to inspect buildings for wanted him to leave this past Wednesday, but because of his class and his cousin visiting, he couldn't very well leave then. The organisation asked for his next possible availability, which was of course this coming Tuesday, the day his cousin returned to England. She's leaving in the afternoon and he's leaving in the middle of the night between Tuesday and Wednesday and coming home Sunday night so he can get up and begin another class on Monday morning. I am finding this very hard to deal with. I want to be with my Sweetheart so much that it hurts, but our schedules have been so packed since the beginning of February that it's only been getting harder and harder and I'm just about ready to climb up the walls because it's driving me nuts. We had better be able to go on vacation together in a month or two, otherwise I don't know what I'm going to do.
...got out to the grocery store and enjoyed walking in the warm sunshine. It got up to 23 Celsius degrees today, which is highly unusual for this time of year.
...put together some mushroom and Merlot chicken in my crockpot. It smells heavenly and will make a nice supper for me at work tomorrow and a few more meals beyond that.
...got up thinking I would get ahead on the new book I downloaded onto my reader late last week after finishing 'The Language of Flowers', but just wasn't in the mood for it. 'The Language of Flowers' was so wonderful to read that I'm having trouble getting into my new book. That and as I mentioned, I'm really not feeling so hot today. I'll try and read again later on before going to sleep and see if I can get roped in by my book then.
...am not ready for the weekend to be over. I could use another day off, but starting at 1:30 P.M. tomorrow will have to do.
This week's Skywatch feature is a photo of Notre-Dame Basilica in Old Montreal. It is one of Montreal's leading tourist attractions and well worth a visit as the interior is absolutely stunning. You can learn more about the Basilica here.
I hope you all have a lovely weekend, I intend to rest up as much as possible and enjoy the lovely weather they're announcing here!
...am popping in for a quick post before going out to dinner with my brother.
...am sharing the latest Simon's Cat video with you. I love how he always uses very realistic situations that cats get themselves into for his videos. I know this, as I have a fake fireplace in my apartment and thus also have a mantle. Magique has often tipped things, mostly greeting cards, off the mantle. Nothing breakable so far, but she has knocked breakable things off my bookcase shelves.
...am getting tired. I am on day three of my crazy week and am ready for it to be done. Two more days and I get my weekend and then I'll just have Monday left before things can start to get back to normal.
...found out that I have three weeks of vacation time this year. They are not all fully paid, but they're still there and I will take all three full weeks by squirreling some money away for the third one!
...am looking forward to going to my aunt and uncle's St-Patrick's day party on Saturday.
...am sharing this photo of the refrigerated(not that it needed to be the day I took this photo two weeks ago!)skating rink on Bonsecours basin in Old Montreal with all of you.
...am happy to report that my spaghetti sauce turned out well.
...had a nice, lazy morning with my Sweetheart, even though his brother called and woke us up at 9:00 A.M. We were not too happy about that, I told my Sweetheart that he should probably consider turning off his cell phone ringer at night to avoid things like that happening again, although is was particularly difficult to take this morning with the whole 'Spring Forward' thing.
...enjoyed the part of springing forward that I like: how much difference the extra hour of sunlight makes!
...went out at the end of the day to get myself two new Platys for my fish tank and some water treatment products.
...am trying to gear up mentally for my upcoming work week. It's going to be a big one, my apologies in advance if it gets a bit quiet on here and if I'm not able to comment on your blogs as much.
...am sharing this short film, which was created by Pixar, with all of you. It is one of my all time favorite films, short or long :o)
...am posting this from my Sweetheart's place while spaghetti sauce I am making simmers. My Sweetheart isn't here, he's gone out to dinner with a buddy of his for the buddy's birthday. He had originally asked me over for after dinner, but my fuse has been kind of short lately and I could just see what would happen if his evening ran late and he decided it was too late for me to come over by the time he got home. It wouldn't have been pretty, so I asked him if I could come over before he left and he said that was fine. The best way to avoid a conflict is to not put yourself in a situation where a conflict might arise!
...went out to the West Island for a spa appointment. I hadn't been in a while and boy, did it ever feel nice to get pampered!
...got my groceries done.
...got my vacuuming and my dishes done. Phew! No more cleaning this weekend, unless you count the fact that I need to do my cyclical partial water change in my fish tank. No biggie there though, it's not a particularly long or difficult job. Fish are easy to please :o)
...am looking forward to having my dinner, but it's going to be a while. The sauce is going to have to simmer for at least another hour and twenty minutes. It sure does smell good though!
...am asking you to be indulgent with any typos or spelling errors in this post. I'm using my Sweetheart's mini PC with an apropriately tiny keyboard and is also speaks French, so spell checking is a no go. I read through and saw no errors, but I'm not infallible and may have missed one or two :o)
...am sharing this picture of part of the facade of Notre-Dame Basilica in Old Montreal with all of you.
...am so happy it's the weekend.
...am very happy that I got all the work I needed to do before leaving the office done.
...headed Downtown after work to pick up my glasses (I can see so much better with my new prescription!).
...had dinner at the Eaton Center food court because I didn't have time to make it to the grocery store yet this week.
...treated myself to a milkshake from Laura Secord after dinner.
...called my dad during my bus ride home and had a nice chat with him.
...am hoping to see my Sweetheart at some point this weekend, or I may have to wait two weeks again! Sometimes I feel like I miss him more often now that he's in Montreal than when he was in Toronto!
This week's Skywatch feature is this photo of a street sign in Old Montreal. Behind the sign you can just see one of the towers of Notre-Dame Basilica. You can also see the Place d'Armes Hotel on the left and a condo building on the right.
I hope you have a great weekend, you can start it off on the right foot by taking a look at more skies from around the world at the Skywatch Friday blog. Thanks for stopping by!
...am going to rave some more about the new book I am reading, Vanessa Diffenbaugh's 'The Language of Flowers'. Seriously, the only reason I have not lost sleep due to staying glued to this book every night is because I have a white noise making application on my iPod Touch (my favorite sound is rain falling on leaves, but last night I had a light thunderstorm in the background) that I can put on a timer so that I never put my light out later than 11:45 P.M. It is a very touching, very realistic novel, I can easily picture the characters and places described in the novel as I read it, which is something I absolutely love in a book. If you're looking for a book to read, I cannot recommend this one highly enough :o)
...had a very, very busy day at work and they're only going to get busier in the next week. I just need to keep taking deep breaths and I'll get through it.
...am looking forward to seeing my Sweetheart tomorrow, hopefully it will work out this time!
...am going to head off and make myself some dinner, I'm starving! I may not post tomorrow depending on how things work out with my Sweetheart, but I'll definitely be back on Thursday :o)
...am sharing this view of Notre-Dame street in Old Montreal with all of you.
...went out to get cat food and was happy to chat with the lady at the shop and meet her 19 week old Pit Bull. No, I have no issues with Pit Bulls. They can be incredibly friendly dogs. Most of the time when they go bad, it's because of the owner. This is true for all breeds of dogs, not just Pit Bulls.
...watched a movie.
...finished Wuthering Heights (finally!!!) and downloaded 'The Language of Flowers' by Vanessa Diffenbaugh. I'm looking forward to starting it later on tonight.
..am glad that, if nothing else, my weekend was restful and I hope yours was too!
...am sharing this view of Old Montreal see through an art installation that is sitting outside the fire station that is beside Place d'Armes metro station.
...am making three bean and beef chili for dinner. It's pretty much ready, I'm just letting it cool down for about a half hour before I serve some up for myself.
...spoke with my Sweetheart twice. He is indeed quite sick, although guys always seem to take coming down with a cold way worse than us girls do. I'm still hoping that he will wake up feeling much better and that I'll be able to drop by and visit him, but I'll just have to wait and see.
...am working on finishing off Wuthering Heights. I've been reading it for quite a while now and according to my Kobo I'm now 80% done. Phew! It's a good book, but quite difficult to read at times because Heathcliff is such a horrible guy. It's partly Hindley Earnshaw and Edgar Linton's fault in my opinion, but there is definitely such a thing as taking a grudge much too far! Anyhow, I'm looking forward to finishing it and moving on to a more cheerful book!
...am sharing this picture of the beautiful stone wall outside Sulpicien Fathers' residence, which is beside Notre-Dame Basilica in Old Montreal with all of you.
...am disappointed. My evening with my Sweetheart has been put off for the second day in a row. We were supposed to get together yesterday evening, but his afternoon meeting with his two colleagues ran late. Really, really late and he was really, really slow letting me know about it. So slow in fact, that by the time he called me to let me know we wouldn't be able to get together, I was getting ready to call him to make sure he was okay, because I was getting worried about him. It turns out he was kind of not okay too though, because he was coming down with a bad cold. When we hung up last night he was getting ready to go to bed early and we agreed to get together tonight after my appointment at the hairdresser's. We were going to go to the Greek restaurant near my place, but then he sent me an e-mail this afternoon telling me we would have to put out date off because he was too sick. So there you have it, I'm basically all dolled up with my hair nicely blow dried, with nowhere to go. I've just ordered a pizza and will be spending my Friday night with my cats, a pizza and the TV trying not to feel sorry for myself.
...went for my first eye exam in many years and was disgusted by how much it cost me. 290$ for an eye exam and to get my lenses changed. That's right, 290$ is without new frames thrown in there. The salesgirls at the store actually looked at me crooked when I told them that I wanted to keep my frames because I really liked them. It was a 'are you kidding me, these are SO not in style!' look. Exactly the sort of thing you're not supposed to do to a customer. My frames are not ugly, they aren't damaged or broken and most importantly: they are not so trendy that I will look ridiculous with them in a year or two, so why on earth wouldn't I keep them? Also, at the price I'm paying for my lenses, I was expecting to be told that they would be ready sooner than within 10 business days! I, who was told that I should now wear my glasses pretty much all the time, even for ready, am now without glasses, possibly for two weeks! Good thing my eyesight really isn't all that bad and I can manage okay without them, it's just going to be annoying when I watch TV!
...just locked Magique in my bedroom because she was climbing up my clothes rack again. She hadn't done that in ages, but she had been trying to pull it off all afternoon and she managed it twice in a row before I got my hands on her and chased her into my bedroom and closed the door. She must know she's done something wrong, because she's not yelling at me to let her out.
...am hoping for a better day tomorrow. Really, this is two weeks in a row that my weekend has started off on the wrong darn foot, so hopefully I'll catch a break tomorrow!
This week's Skywatch feature is this photo of the bright blue winter sky above the icy cold Saint-Lawrence river. I felt colder than I already was just looking at it! The photo also gives you a nice view of the Jacques-Cartier bridge along with the Molson Brewery and the clock tower which sits on the Quays of the Old Port.
Thanks for stopping by, enjoy your weekend and don't forget to check out all the other great Skywatch photos on the Skywatch Friday blog.
