A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words

Skywatch Friday

2012-02-09T19:58:00.007-05:00

This week's Skywatch feature is another, more cloudy photo taken at Mont-Tremblant two weeks ago. The weather was sunny all all morning, but clouds and some chillier, windier conditions moved in towards the end of the day, fortunately just as the chair lifts were getting ready to close down for the day.

To see more Skywatch photos from around the world, you can stop by the Skywatch Friday blog.

Thanks for visiting and have a great weekend :o)

Today I...February 8th

2012-02-08T18:54:00.001-05:00

Today I...

...am sharing this wonderful jazz singer I discovered yesterday. As you can see from the album cover, her name is Emilie-Claire Barlow and she's Canadian!!! That's always a big plus for me :o) I'm mostly a classical music fiend, but really, I'll listen to just about anything and quite enjoy jazz of this kind. She actually reminds me of Diana Krall, for any of you who know of her.

...had a good day at work.

...went out to run a few errands after work, namely to use an SAQ (Quebec liquor commission, like the LCBO in Ontario. Basically a store that sells nothing but booze) gift card that my mom gave me for Christmas to get myself a half bottle of Grand Marnier. I wanted a full size bottle, but had no clue that the stuff was so darn expensive!!! This shows you how often I buy booze :oJ

...popped into Renaud-Bray (French language equivalent of Chapters, Indigo or Barnes and Noble)to get a Valentine's Day gift for my Sweetheart and walked out of there 84$ and small change later with my Sweetheart's gift and card plus an absolutely perfect picture frame for my apartment sprucing up project. It's actually a collection of frames put together to for a big one, so I'll be able to fill it with a whole variety of my pictures. It's going to go above my couch in the living room, I can't wait to set it up!

...am hoping to get started on my sprucing up project Friday night or Saturday during the day :o)And yes Gill, I will try and post before and after pictures!

Today I...February 7th

2012-02-07T18:31:00.005-05:00

Today I...

...am not feeling so great. I have a weird headache, I think it's from spending too much time leaning my head in my hands during a meeting this morning. A two and a half hour meeting. I really hate meetings, especially our bi-weekly departmental meeting which is always too long and incredibly boring and apparently hazardous to my health :ox

...had a bit of soup when I got home to see if my headache was getting worse because I was so hungry. I think it may have been, but the jury's still out on that.

...finished coping all of my contacts from my Yahoo mail account to my Gmail account. I started shifting all of my stuff from one account to another yesterday when I went into my Yahoo account to discover that it had 'eaten' the two e-mails I had left in my inbox and had sent everything from my 'keep' folder into the trash bin. I was not impressed and fished everything that had been in my 'keep' folder out of the trash and sent it back where it belonged and then promptly sent an e-mail to all my contacts telling them that they could now only contact me through my Gmail address. I had been having a few issues with Yahoo lately, namely messages not reaching their destinations and yesterday's fiasco was the cherry on the sundae.

...printed out a series of e-mails my Sweetheart had sent me that I had found particularly touching and added them to the folder of similar e-mails of his I keep. Yes, people do still keep their old love letters :o)

...am looking forward to beginning the little face lift I want to give my apartment. I was getting tired of it and the rent went up which made the situation worse, so after talking with my Sweetheart on the weekend and thinking about our conversation, I decided that the thing to do was to clear out some clutter, ask for a new bedding ensemble for my birthday and some new towels and other little home decor odds and ends and give the place a few touch ups! I have been feeling very good about all this since making the decision and am looking forward to the finished product!

Today I...February 5th

2012-02-05T18:14:00.004-05:00

Today I...

...am sharing these two pictures from my cousin E's wedding with all of you. One is a detail of her wedding dress and the other is a close-up of the bridesmaids dresses. It is E's and her husband C's second wedding anniversary tomorrow, time sure flies!

...spent the day with my Sweetheart. I headed over to his place last night after dinner.

...woke up highly relieved that the neighbors' child either slept through the night, or slept elsewhere than in the master bedroom. We didn't hear him until nearly 9:00 A.M.

...am more than likely going to order my dinner in. I sold my old iPod Touch to a friend for 60$, so I have some unexpected cash on hand :o)

Today I...February 4th

2012-02-04T18:44:00.002-05:00

Today I...

...am sharing this picture of the barrel that the sugar shack at Mont-Tremblant keeps snow in for making maple taffy. It is a real treat to be able to have maple taffy in the dead of Winter, let me tell you! We normally only get it at the very end of Winter into early Spring!

...had a nice, quiet Saturday.

...slept a good, solid ten hours. I was very tired, it was a build-up from Wednesday night when I was at my Sweetheart's for the night and his neighbors, who are Chinese and had come home after spending several months in China with their baby, kept us up pretty much all night. Or more likely their poor jet lagged baby did. I don't know what possessed them to travel with a baby who didn't have a sleep pattern established yet someplace where he would end up with 12 hours of jet lag, but it sure made a lot of other people in the condo building just as miserable as he was!

...decided to make some bolognese sauce, it's simmering now and boy, does it smell good!

Skywatch Friday

2012-02-02T18:02:00.004-05:00

This week's Skywatch photo is this view from the top of Mont-Tremblant this past weekend. Breathtaking views like this one is the main reason that I love downhill skiing :o)

To see more Skywatch photos, you can stop by the Skywatch Friday blog. Thank you for visiting my blog and have a lovely weekend!

Today I...January 31st

2012-01-31T19:28:00.003-05:00

Today I...

...am sharing this photo of these two deck chairs which were on the deck at our condo this past weekend.

...enjoyed watching the snow fall outside.

...was happy I didn't have to get in traffic to get home. It just so happened that I had to run a few errands after work, which led me to take the metro (subway) and when I stepped out and saw the weather induced traffic jam outside, I walked home since I only live about a seven minute walk from the metro station.

...am hoping that the weather forecast is wrong and that the snow that is falling right now will not turn into freezing rain overnight.

Today I...January 29th

2012-01-29T12:20:00.004-05:00

Today I...

...am sharing three photos from my day at Mont-Tremblant with all of you. The view from one of the windows of my aunt and uncle's condo, the view from the Cabriolet ski lift which takes you from the South side Village entrance to the foot of the south side ski hills and the driving conditions my brother and I went through for about half the drive home, f not a bit more. It was very windy and very snowy and we went through a few white outs (for anyone who might not know what a white out is, aside from brand name liquid paper, it's when snow gets blown around so much that you can't see through it anymore). It was not as bad as when we drove up to Tremblant in a snow storm two years ago though and still, in our opinion, not as bad as when we were stuck in traffic for almost two of the three and a half hours it took us to get up there on Friday. A normal drive from Montreal to Mont-Tremblant should take between and hour and a half and two hours when there is little to no traffic. Trying to make it up there on a Friday between 4:00 P.M. and 6:00 P.M. is not for the faint of heart. Try it at 8:00 P.M. or 9:00 P.M. and you'll have an easier time. But doing it in mediocre driving conditions? Piece of cake. No one is out there unless they have absolutely no nervousness issues at that wheel, as my brother and I do not because we both learned how to drive in the dead of winter. As long as the white outs are not constant, we're fine.

...got home from the mountain at 1:15 A.M., got to bed at 2:00 A.M. and slept until 10:00 A.M.

...have sore calves from my ski boots. I love downhill skiing, but I hate the boots.

...am happy to report that I did not wipe out once yesterday. I hadn't skied in two years, but my body remembered how to do it very quickly and by the end of the day, I was more than ready to attack intermediate runs.

...heard a timid knock at the door while I was eating breakfast and oped up to find the superintendent's daughter standing there with a letter from my landlord. My rent is increasing. This is the cherry on the sundae of all the cost increases I've had in the past few months: cable and internet, transit pass, gas and now rent and there goes my financial wiggle room. I don't know what to do about all this, but I'll have to go over my budget again and really pray that the mythical pay equity raise I've been hearing about for a year now comes through, otherwise I will soon be up the proverbial creek without a paddle and I can forget about skiing or traveling any time soon.

...will be going out with G. She called me earlier not too long after I got my rent increase notice and offered to take me out for a coffee or tea so I can 'let it all out'. Thank God for friends.

Skywatch Friday

2012-01-26T18:50:00.003-05:00

I have two Skywatch features this one, one of them is the Winter Sky above Montreal and the other is a view of the entrance to the ski village at Mont-Tremblant, where I am heading tomorrow night in order to spend the day skiing on Saturday!

To see more Skywatch photos from around the world, stop by the Skywatch Friday blog.

Today I...January 25th

2012-01-25T17:11:00.003-05:00

Today I...

...am sharing this photo from Montreal seen from Île Notre-Dame with you.

...am back after choir practice on Monday and a horrible migraine last night.

...am thankful that my Sweetheart invited me to his place last night so that I wouldn't have to cook. I was able to have a relaxing evening and doze on his couch and when we went to bed I fell asleep with his hand on my head (his hand covers my entire head and the heat from it relaxes me and relieves my migraines) and slept for nearly twelve hours. I woke up feeling so much better this morning, it was unbelievable.

...took half the day off to allow myself to sleep as much as I needed to.

...made a stop at home before going to work since my Sweetheart had to suddenly head to a meeting. I made myself scrambled eggs with spinach and onion powder,salt and pepper, yum!

...had quite a productive afternoon at work.

...an looking forward to heading to Mont-Tremblant for the day on Saturday, but I'm more than likely leaving Friday night, so tomorrow will probably be my last post before the weekend.

Today I...January 22nd

2012-01-22T21:10:00.004-05:00

Today I...

...am sharing a picture of another snow sculpture with you. I didn't make it out to the Fête des Neiges this weekend, but I'll try and make it next weekend and get more snow sculpture pictures for you :o)

...had lots of weird dreams before waking up this morning because my dinner last night was too rich! It was very yummy, don't get me wrong, but cream sauce on both the entrée and the main course? Never again :oJ

...am looking forward to my Sweetheart coming home tomorrow.

...am wishing that it was going to snow tomorrow rather than rain, because the rain will inevitable freeze within 24 hours and one thing we really don't need is more ice on the sidewalks!

Today I...January 21st

2012-01-21T17:18:00.003-05:00

Today I...

...am sharing this picture of a tree limb reaching out over the St-Lawrence River with you.

...headed out to the West Island for a spa appointment.

...took a while to get up the motivation to actually head out the door into the cold!

...went grocery shopping on the way home.

...warmed up with a nice bowl of soup when I got home.

...am heading out to dinner with a friend this evening, one of our favorite Italian places! It should be a nice end to my Saturday :o)

Today I...January 20th

2012-01-20T18:14:00.004-05:00

Today I...

...am sharing another photo from Montreal's Fête des Neiges with all of you.

...am welcoming two new followers to my blog! I've actually gained followers two weeks in a row now and it has put a smile on my face :o)

...am so happy it's Friday and am looking forward to a nice, relatively quiet weekend.

...had a pretty busy day at work, with a tour right smack dab in the middle of it, right where I like them! It really makes the day go by faster when they land in the middle of the day as it splits the day in two.

...have been thinking of my Sweetheart a lot and am looking forward to him coming home on Monday!

...am nearing the end of my current read: 'Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close'. It is a great book and I highly recommend it! Next step: going to see the movie and hunting for a new book to read. I have a list made up and will also check out the Indigo books website as well to see if I can find anything else that might interest me.

...am loving my e-readers more and more, it makes reading anywhere, anytime even easier!

Skywatch Friday

2012-01-19T17:36:00.003-05:00

This week's Skywatch feature is a shot I took of Montreal from Île Notre-Dame when I was there for the Fête des Neiges (Montreal's Winter festival) a few years ago. I am hoping to make it out there for this year's edition as I really did have a good time the last time I went. This year they are including a snow village as well, including an ice hotel. Why anyone would want to spend a night in a hotel made out of ice is beyond me, but it has been quite the thing to do at Quebec City's Carnaval for many years, so they decided to open one up here. You won't ever catch me spending the night in either of them, that's for sure! I get cold some nights just sleeping in my own bed, so I cannot imagine how I would survive the night in a hotel made out of ice!

To see more Skywatch photos from around the world, stop by the Skywatch Friday Blog. Thanks for visiting and have a great weekend!

Today I...January 18th

2012-01-18T20:40:00.003-05:00

Today I...

...am sharing these photos of Downtown Toronto with all of you. My Sweetheart's train is probably pulling into Union Station right about now. He is visiting Toronto for the first time since moving back to Montreal last March. He still does some work for his former employers there every once in a while, so he is going to meet with his former boss tomorrow to discuss his work and visit his former colleagues. He'll visit with some friends there for the weekend and he will be coming back home on Monday. I'm looking forward to hearing from him what it felt like for him being back in Toronto for the first time. It was such a strange feeling for me, the first time I went back in September. I felt like he should have been there with me, despite the fact that I was visiting my family. When I got on the Subway after getting off the train in September, I had to head the opposite direction I used to head in when I went to my Sweetheart's place and it felt very odd. My brain and my heart still very much associate Toronto with my Sweetheart and it will always be filled with a lot of bittersweet memories for both of us I think.

...couldn't believe the city hadn't put down salt and gravel on the sidewalks by 8:00 A.M. We had a pretty hefty snow, ice and windstorm overnight and then the temperature really took a nose-dive, so by the time everyone headed out to work this morning, there was a good five centimeters of sheer ice on the sidewalks. Great fun to walk on, I can tell you. It was a bit better this afternoon, but not much. We will more than likely be stuck with icy sidewalks for a few days now since they didn't keep on top of the ice while it was forming!

...am already looking forward to the weekend and sleeping in!

Today I...January 17th

2012-01-17T17:40:00.002-05:00

Today I...

...am popping in before my Sweetheart gets here :o)

...am sharing a nice, wintry photo from last year with you, since we are currently in the middle of our second snow storm in two weeks.

...am finding the snow quite lovely, especially since I am going skiing up north next week. Skiing on real snow is always better than skiing on artificial snow I find.

...am airing out my kitchen to try and get rid of the charred lasagna smell that is still lingering there. I made vegetarian lasagna (that turned out lovely!) on Saturday and the sauce leaked out of the dish while it was baking and boy, did it ever smoke and smell up my apartment! Not a bad smell, but after a few days it does get a bit tiresome. One of the problems is that due to the age of my apartment building, we have no vents above our ovens and my oven being a gas one, it has no self-cleaning setting. I gave it a good scrub yesterday and will give it another tonight and hopefully it will be usable again after that :oJ

I'm back!

2012-01-15T19:14:00.001-05:00

Look, I'm back! and with a super video to boot :o) This is one of my all-time favorite pieces for violin and the first three and a half minutes are insane :o) Itzhak Perlman is one of the best violinists ever, the proof is that he gets through the Prelude (the first three and half minutes) without even breaking a sweat :o)

So, I've had a great few days, despite the freezing cold here. We finally got a few good dumpings of snow, so everything is nice and pretty and white and cheery, especially since I don't have a car that needs to be dug out of a snowbank so that the plows and get through :o)

I made a nice vegetarian lasagna yesterday, it took forever and then the juices leaked into the bottom of my oven and set the smoke detector off for about 15-20 minutes non-stop. My downstairs neighbor loved that, he beat on his ceiling to let me know all about it. Does anyone have any tricks for getting charred tomato juice off the bottom of a gas stove? I tried scraping at it a a special scratchy rag and it took some of it off, but I get the impression I would have to be at it for half a day in order for it all to come off...Anyhow, my Sweetheart and I thoroughly enjoyed the lasagna, he took three pieces of it for himself before we left his place this morning and I put three pieces in my fridge and the rest in my freezer. But yeah, the next time I make lasagna, I am opening the kitchen window, turning on the rotating fan I use to cool off the kitchen in the summer and putting tin foil in the bottom of the stove so I can just throw out the charred mess after I'm done baking it!

I hope you've all had a lovely weekend, I should be around a bit more this week so I'll be posting more regularly :o)

Today I...January 11th

2012-01-11T21:14:00.002-05:00

Today I...

...am popping in for a quick post!

...am happy to report that my return to work is going quite well. It is much quieter than it was two weeks ago, so I got caught up on my work very quickly. My only problem is that I'm still not used to my earlier hours in the morning and am quite tired. I should be back into my routine by next week though :o)

...enjoyed a nice girls' night out with my friend V. We went to a sushi bar near my place and chatted away over yummy sushi and teriyaki and I got a free dessert since they made a mistake with my entrée. Have you ever had green tea ice cream? If you haven't, you should try it out, it's amazing!

...am hoping that you are all having a lovely week :o)

Today I...January 8th

2012-01-08T17:30:00.004-05:00

Today I...

...am sharing this picture of my choir performing in our concert on December 11th. One of my parents took this photo, but I don't know which of them. Rehearsals are starting up again tomorrow, our three week break sure went by quickly!

...got lots and lots done! I did the laundry, vacuumed, took down the Christmas decorations (they go up the first weekend of Advent and come down a day or two after Epiphany at place), took a two hour break to watch a movie, then went to the grocery store and walked there and back. I normally take the bus back from the grocery store, but I just missed one as I came out of the store and since my bags weren't too heavy, I walked home.

...am feeling very energetic today! Good thing, eh?

...am very much looking forward to a new episode of Pan Am tonight, it's been over a month since it's been on!

...am letting you all know that I have a very busy week ahead, so I don't know how much I'll be able to post. I have choir practice tomorrow night, my Sweetheart is coming over on Tuesday night, I'm supposed to go out for sushi with V on Wednesday night, I have an appointment on Thursday night and a dinner at work on Friday night. As I said, it's a good thing I'm feeling energetic and well rested after my two weeks off, because I think I'm gonna need it! I will post as much as I can though, I promise :o)

Today I...January 6th

2012-01-06T15:28:00.001-05:00

Today I...

...am posting early since I will be getting together with my Sweetheart later early this evening and will therefore be nowhere near the mindset to post. Well, that's happened a lot these past two weeks, but I was on 'staycation', so that's okay, or at least it is in my books :o) If you're gonna unwind for two weeks, you may as well unwind all the way in my mind and only do what you feel like doing, except for the essentials, like washing dishes or cleaning. Even on that front I was kind of slow though, like when I reminded myself three days in a row that I needed to vacuum before actually vacuuming.

...am sharing this video of an Ikea commercial I really like. It's been out for months, but it took forever for someone to post it on YouTube, so I'm only sharing it now.

...think I am succeeding in getting myself in the proper mindset to head back to work on Monday, especially since I seem to have reached my sleep quota. I am now wide awake after eight hours of sleep. I just need to get myself back into a proper sleep pattern, because right now even if I'm in bed with the light out at 12:30 A.M., I don't fall asleep until about 2:00 A.M. and then I sleep until 10:00 A.M. Hopefully I can knock myself out of that nasty habit before Monday, otherwise I may have a few issues next week. This is nothing new though, it happens to me every time I have an extended period of time off.

...am enjoying observing the new fish I added to my aquarium yesterday: two blood red platys and seven micro rasboras. I am particularly enjoying the platys as they stand out so much from the other fish!

Skywatch Friday

2012-01-05T16:39:00.002-05:00

I'm pretty sure I've shared this week's Skywatch feature before, but it's one of my favorites, so I figured I'd share it with you all again. It is the forward mast of the Queen Mary, which is permanently docked in Long Beach, California. It was my favorite out of all the places my Sweetheart and I visited while we were in Los Angeles last May.

To see more Skywatch photos from around around the world, you can visit the Skywatch Friday blog.

I hope you all had wonderful New Year's celebrations and I wish you all the best for 2012! Thanks for stopping by :o)

Today I...January 2nd

2012-01-02T15:56:00.004-05:00

Today I...

...am popping in for a bit of a catch up post!

...am sharing a photo of my aunt L's updated collection of black faced sheep. The two on the end for part of my Christmas gift to her last week.

...am happy to report that I have been having a lovely, relaxing 'vacation' so far. I spent Friday afternoon to Saturday evening with my Sweetheart and we spent Friday evening with a group of friends catching up as we hadn't all been together for several months.

...had a quiet end of the evening at home to see 2011 out and 2012 in. I had just enough time to enjoy a sushi dinner and watch a movie (The King's Speech)and then enjoy a glass of white wine at the stroke of midnight while getting a text message from my Sweetheart and phone calls from my father and my brother.

...had a nice New Year's dinner with my father's family last night.

...am having a laid back day today while hoping that the cold I caught from my Sweetheart will move along and leave me alone.

... am letting you all know that I may be off the radar map again for a few days as I may be heading up north with my Sweetheart tomorrow into Wednesday.

Skywatch Friday

2011-12-29T18:50:00.003-05:00

This week's Skywatch feature (posted from my new laptop!!!) is taking us on a little trip to Rome. It is a view of the dome of St. Peter's Basilica through the arms of one of Piazza San Pietro's lamp posts. I took it a few years back when I was on vacation in Rome with my Sweetheart :o)

I hope you enjoy it and that you are all enjoying the Holidays :o) To see more Skywatch photos from around the world, stop by the Skywatch Friday blog!

Today I...December 27th

2011-12-27T13:03:00.003-05:00

Today I...

...am sharing these photos of my Christmas celebrations with all of you. The Christmas tree is my mom's and the two other photos are some of our dinner plates at my aunt and uncle's and M. Snowman, who likes to hang out on the backs of chairs, as you can see :o)I had a lovely time celebrating with my family over the weekend and I hope that you all did too!

...accompanied my Sweetheart to the metro station. He stayed over last night and we were very happy to see each other again. He told me all about his trip and we had a nice dinner and relaxed together. I will be seeing him again later this week, Friday for sure since we are going to a Christmas-New Year's Eve party with some friends and hopefully once in between.

...don't have very much planned. I may call my brother to see if he wants to go laptop and fish (for my aquarium) shopping with me, or I may have a nap (still recovering from how tired out I got through the month of December) or I may watch a movie...or I may do all of the above. Ah, the freedom to do what one wants when one does not have to go to work...how lovely!

Today it...

2011-12-23T21:46:00.003-05:00

Today it...

...SNOWED!!! Finally :o) Everyone was so happy to see the snow staying around, we are going to get our white Christmas after all :o) I tried to get the picture I took with my cell phone onto here, but the format wasn't compatible and I couldn't change it. Sorry...my mom lives out in the country though, so I'll try and see if I can get some good photos while I'm out her way tomorrow :o)

I am now off work for two weeks and am so very happy about it and looking forward to some well earned rest and time with my Sweetheart. Looks like we're going to have to wait until at least Monday to be together though as his consulting firm ended up getting the contract to supervise some emergency work that needed to be done on the Louis-Hyppolite-Lafontaine Tunnel, a tunnel that links Montreal to the South Shore by running under the St-Lawrence river. He was at the tunnel until 11:00 P.M. last night and had to go back again today. He got home just in time to make a huge batch of chocolates he was meant to make last night, toss his clothes that had been sitting in his washing machine for a few hours into the dryer and run out to get some food since he hadn't even been able to do the groceries since getting home on Wednesday night. We are naturally going to be with our respective families over the weekend, so Monday or Tuesday are looking like our best bets for finally being reunited. And the 7th day, God started stocking up all the patience he was going to endow me with. My apologies if any of you were short-changed in the patience area because of me.

Skywatch Friday

2011-12-22T22:29:00.004-05:00

This is my first Skywatch for a few weeks and I've missed sharing my views of the sky with you guys!

This week's feature is a photo Of Notre-Dame College with it's pine trees decked out for Christmas last year. It's not a 'fresh' picture, but I wanted to go for something seasonal and since we have no snow yet this year, I decided the best option was to go digging through my archives to find something nice and Christmasy.

I'd like to take this opportunity to wish all of you a very Merry Christmas or Happy Chanukah! I May not get a chance to post again before next week as I'm going to be pretty busy over the next few days with my family and I hope you all get to share the Holidays with those you love as well :o)

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

Today I...December 21st

2011-12-21T21:26:00.003-05:00

Today I...

...am sharing this photo of a snowy Oratory taken last December with you. Still no snow here of course.

...am thrilled that my Sweetheart's plane landed safe and sound, despite the freezing rain coming down in and around Montreal. He had to circle around quite a bit though, they made his plane turn back and circle over norther Vermont and New York for a half hour before finally letting it land.

...am hoping to speak with him tonight or tomorrow morning, depending on what time he makes it home.

...am curious to know if he found Christmas gift while he was down south.

...gave my last tour of the Christmas season today and then checked over the schedule several times to make sure it really was my last one!

...am happy :o)

Today I...December 20th

2011-12-20T21:56:00.004-05:00

Today I...

...am sharing this photo of a WestJet winglet which I took during one of the flights back from Florida I took them at some point during the dozen years my grandparents lived down there.

...am hoping that my Sweetheart, who will be flying home with WestJet tomorrow actually makes it in, as they are now announcing quite a bit of bloody FREEZING RAIN here tomorrow. For crying out loud, where is our bloody SNOW??? Planes can land in the snow, they do it all the time as long as the runways are cleared, we're kind of good at around here. They do not land or takeoff in the freezing rain though, it's against Transport Canada regulations, which is quite understandable. I want my Sweetheart to be safe more than anything else, naturally, but at the same time I know darn well that this particular flight out of Punta Cana only leaves once a week and that at this time of year it is very difficult to find any flight out of anywhere that has a seat free on it. Knowing him though, he'll find some way out of the Dominican Republic before Christmas if it's at all humanly possible. I just want him HOME, I miss him like crazy, I haven't heard the sound of his voice in two and a half weeks and have had to survive on four text messages and one tiny little e-mail. So has he, mind you, but he had sunshine, palm trees, his buddy, load of work and then an all inclusive beach resort to help get him through it. I had tons and tons of work, not enough sleep, stress and more tons of work. I think I kinda got the short end of the stick here, wouldn't you say? Anyhow, if we're hugely lucky, the weather forecast will change and if not he'll hopefully have airport wi-fi to let me know what's going on. Maybe he can get a flight into Toronto and then get on a train?

...had a second quieter day at work. I still had plenty to do, but managed to get it all done by the end of the day, despite having a very long lunch hour since the boss was treating us all to lunch at a local restaurant.

...finally got around to buying some AA batteries. The batteries in my TV remote died...oh boy, nearly a month ago I think, but I gave the situation a lick and a promise by taking the battery from my battery powered back-up alarm and replacing one of the two dead ones in the remote. You're never supposed to do that, I know, but I needed to try it to be able to tell the Videotron technician I had on the phone if that had fixed my problem or not. It did, I was happy to be able to change the channels on my TV again and I figured that the odds of the power going out were low enough for me to be able to do without my backup alarm clock for a while. I went grocery shopping a few days after this incident and asked for batteries at the cash (the only place you can get them, don't ask me why) and the store wasn't carrying any at that time??? Don't ask me why that is either. So that was at least two weeks ago and tonight when I got off the bus I reminded myself how annoyed I was getting with not having my backup alarm working anymore because when I get up to go to the washroom during the night now (about once every second night) and want to know what time it is, I have to walk up to my alarm clock on the way back to bed to check since a) I'm slightly myopic and can't read the clock without squinting and b) it's too high up on top of the sound system which is on top of my dresser, so I wouldn't be able to read the time even if I wasn't slightly myopic. So into the corner store I went and I grabbed a magazine, the batteries and then splurged on a lottery ticket since it's up to 50 million and I figured since the draw is on Friday night right before Christmas, God might like to send me a bit of Christmas cheer. That way if my apartment building get converted to condos, I can either buy one or laugh it off and buy elsewhere. Even just a million will do. That and a working alarm clock and a magazine to read for once put a smile on my face...until the bloody freezing rain forecast for tomorrow came along :oJ

Today I...december 19th

2011-12-19T22:00:00.001-05:00

Today I...

...am back!

...am sharing this video of the choir of New College Oxford's singing the Rocking Carol with all of you. It has always been one of my favorite Christmas Carols and the choir of New College is another one of my favorites! I don't know about those ruffs on their cassocks though, they just don't look very comfy in my opinion.

...am happy to report that last Thursday's concert went even better than our first one.

...am also happy to report that I have all of my Christmas shopping and wrapping done!

...am feeling more relaxed than last week.

...am getting hugely eager for my Sweetheart to get home! He'll be back on Wednesday :o)

...am looking forward to Friday at 4:30 P.M. when I will walk out of the office for two whole weeks!

...can't believe I made it through the past three weeks, what a rough go of it I've had!

...found out that my apartment building was sold and that my former landlord seems to still have some part in the running of the place since my rent checks have to be made out to someone else and mailed to the new owner??? I don't get it and I am NOT HAPPY about it! I'm afraid of a rent hike and lost checks and what will happen to the building! What if the new owner decides to make condos out of it and evicts us all??? I'm in one of the last conveniently placed, well maintained, cat friendly and affordable places in my neighborhood!

Today I...December 15th

2011-12-15T16:08:00.003-05:00

Today I...

...am posting this from work very quickly in a rare quiet moment

...am thus breaking my self-imposed 'Thou shalt not blog from work.' rule.

...am doing this to let you guys know that you may not see another post from me until Sunday or Monday because tonight I am singing in a concert, tomorrow after work I'm going to try and finish off my Christmas shopping, Saturday I'm having lunch with my mom and my brother for his birthday and Sunday night I'm going out to a fancy-dancy restaurant with my father's family to celebrate my Grandpa G's 85th birthday and Sunday I'm going to try and get my wrapping, laundry and cleaning done on top of having an appointment out in the West Island. Phew!

...was very happy when my Sweetheart texted me to let me know that he and E were waiting at the Haiti/Dominican Republic border in a bus. He is out of Haiti, hooray!

...am hoping you have a lovely weekend and that it will be more restful than mine! I should have fun though, so that'll be nice!

Today I...December 13th

2011-12-13T19:51:00.004-05:00

Today I...

...turned my computer on for the first time since Saturday. Sound familiar?

...am sharing this photo of what the Oratory and its surrounding area looked like on December 23rd last year with all of you. I seriously doubt it will look anything like this next week unless something major changes. We have a very tiny bit of snow on the ground and although it snowed most of the day today, nothing stayed and some of what we already had melted as it was above freezing. Not by much obviously, but still.

...am happy to report that my concert on Sunday went quite well. My next one is on Thursday and that will be the last one for this session.

...had a very good time at the employee Social Club's Christmas lunch, even though I didn't, as usual, win any of the door prizes.

...went out to dinner at Juliette et Chocolat with V after work. It was lovely to see her and we had a nice chat as we hadn't seen each other since October!

...am looking forward to my Sweetheart coming home. He will be back on Wednesday of next week.

...am off to watch Flashpoint!

Today I...December 10th

2011-12-10T20:51:00.003-05:00

Today I...

...had a very laid back day and spent a lot of time lounging around...as did my furry felines. I love it when they cuddle like this :o)

...got the laundry done and was exempt from dish washing as I ended up doing that last night.

...watched two movies on Bravo!, 'The First Knight' and 'Serendipity', both were excellent.

...called my mom to chat with her when I started feeling lonely and missing my Sweetheart too much. As much as I need a rest from work, at least when I'm there, I'm so busy that I don't have time to think about the fact that my Sweetheart is away!

...am looking forward to my concert tomorrow.

Today I...December 9th

2011-12-09T21:05:00.004-05:00

Today I...

...took half the day off because I was completely exhausted when I got home from choir practice last night and knew darn well that I would be flirting with the point of no-return if I made my tired self run on too little sleep for much longer. I haven't been sleeping very well lately, you see. I've been having crazy dreams, even when I have been sleeping deeply. Even four chamomile pills and exhaustion weren't enough to get rid of them last night, even though I did sleep for 10 hours straight. I don't know what's causing these dreams, but I hope they go away soon, because with them messing with my sleep, the heavy workload I have at the office and all my choir practices and concerts, it's getting to be too much!

...enjoyed watching the snow fall all day. Unfortunately it didn't stick very well because it was still just a bit too warm for it, but it looked pretty while it lasted!

...got a text message from my Sweetheart. He is someplace in Haiti called Mirainco that isn't even on a map. I'm not sure if that's the village where he and E are hoping to get a contract build a school or the village where he and E are hoping to convince the population to help them build them a public shower to replace the one they have now, which does not use water safe for human consumption.

...was hoping to get my laundry done, but I'm too tired. I think I am also too tired to wash the dishes, so I guess I'll just do all that tomorrow morning.

...am planning to have a nice, quiet day tomorrow, which will mean wrapping Christmas presents and doing to laundry and cleaning, all this of course after sleeping in to my heart's and body's content!

Today I...December 7th

2011-12-07T22:54:00.006-05:00

Today I...

...am sharing this recording of Eric Whitacre's 'The Seal Lullaby' with all of you. Here are the lyrics to it:

Oh! Hush thee, my baby, the night is behind us,

And black are the waters that sparkled so green.

The moon, o’er the combers, looks downward to find us,
At rest in the hollows that rustle between.

Where billow meets billow, then soft be thy pillow,
Oh weary wee flipperling, curl at thy ease!
The storm shall not wake thee, nor shark overtake thee,
Asleep in the arms of the slow swinging seas!

I hope you take the time to listen to it, because it truly is a beautiful, haunting piece of music.

...had another crazy day at work.

...had a real coffee at lunch, not a decaf one. I very, very rarely drink coffee. We're talking once every two months normally and 95% of the time when I do drink coffee, it is decaf. If you ever hear of me having a real coffee, it is for one of two reasons: my Sweetheart made it and it was a tiny little cup of espresso or I am really, really knock out tired. In this case, I was really, really knock out tired.

...gave a tour to a group of volunteer tour guides from the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. It was a tiny group of five and they were really great and to top it all off they gave a free issue of the museum's magazine and two passes that are valid for any temporary exhibit at the museum until January 31st! I will have to see what is going to be going on there and head over with my Sweetheart when he gets back into town!

...could not believe the damage that the group of high school students that used our group lunch room this afternoon did to its bathrooms. Two of the urinals in the men's' room are damaged beyond repair, one with a hole knocked into its drain and the other with an even bigger hole knocked into its drain and a large crack in it and the ladies' room had every single one of its toilets blocked with huge amounts of toilet paper jammed into them. They were so badly plugged that they began leaking into the store room for the gift shop that is underneath the bathrooms, that is how we found out there was a problem. We were all completely flabbergasted of course and we fully intend to bill the school for the damages. They are coming with another group tomorrow and a third one next week and before they do anything tomorrow, we're going to see to it that the staff know to keep a serious eye on their students.

...am letting you know that I will not be posting tomorrow as I have a dress rehearsal all evening for my concert with my choir this coming Sunday. I should be back on Friday :o)

ETA: I have no clue why my post came out highlighted in white. I tried to fix it, but blogger wasn't having it. Weird...

Today I...December 6th

2011-12-06T19:57:00.004-05:00

Today I...

...turned my computer on for the first time since Saturday night.

...looked at my blog roll and realized that there is no way that I will be able to catch up with all of your blogs. Sorry, work is crazy right now and I have very little desire to spend much time in front of the computer when I get home. I will try and comment on one or two blogs every night though, if I can :o)

...am sharing this picture of some palm trees in Naples, Florida with you. It is not a recent photo, I have not been to Florida since my grandparents moved away from there two years ago now. I will not hide that I miss it, while I do love their place in South Carolina too. I just miss the palm trees and the beach! I was so happy to sit on the beach in Santa Monica this past summer and I am not ashamed to tell you all that I hugged a palm tree or two while my Sweetheart and I were in L.A.

...picked a picture of a palm tree as a way to link this post to my Sweetheart. We got together on Sunday night rather than Saturday night and he left for Haiti yesterday evening. It was a long road for he and his business partner E to get to Port-Au-Prince. They had their friend J drive them to Plattsburgh, NY where their flight to Fort Lauderdale took off at 1:30 in the morning. They landed in Fort Lauderdale somewhere around 3:30 in the morning and then had a two hour layover until their flight to Port-Au-Prince took off at 5:30 in the morning, or at least that's how it was supposed to go. I will have to ask my Sweetheart how things went, because he was flying with Spirit Airlines *shudder*. I have never flown with Spirit and hope never to have to, because from what I've seen of their boarding procedures and their on-time (haha) rating, the whole company looks like a Turkish Bazaar. My Sweetheart said he fully expected to process to be quite similar to a bazaar and since he lived in Morocco when he was little, he knows what he's talking about. Anyhow, I'm quite curious to know whether his flight was on time and if anyone got body-checked in the stampede for a window seat since Spirit doesn't assign seats, not even if you're willing to pay. I'm also curious to know how long it took my Sweetheart and E to get their checked bag, because never have I waited for my luggage as long as I have had to wait on it at Fort Lauderdale airport! One of the last times I went, I would have had time to turn around, get on a flight to Montreal and be most of the way back home before my bag came out (remember that, Grandma and Grandpa?). They really, really needed to change their baggage carousels and according to my flight attendant friend M who flies into Fort Lauderdale quite often, they still do!!! It's a good thing my Sweetheart and E had a long layover...

...am actually kind of glad that work is busy right now and that I have two concerts and two dress rehearsals with my choir while my Sweetheart is away. It will keep me nice and busy until he gets back on December 21st and will hopefully keep my worries at bay. He will be in Haiti until December 16th and will then be resting up in the Dominican Republic until December 21st. Yes, I am jealous of his holiday in the Domican and yes, he knows and feels no shame :oJ That's okay, I never felt any shame for going on vacation to Florida without him twice a year either! The payback sucks though :oJ

Today I...December 3rd

2011-12-03T19:34:00.001-05:00

Today I...

...am back after a two day blogging break.

...am happy to report that the concert on Thursday was amazing. The acoustics in Montreal's Maison Symphonique are the best I've ever heard, my Sweetheart and I were both floored by them and we cannot wait to go back for another concert!

...was stunned when I slept in until 10:40 A.M. this morning. I woke up at 8:40 and was still a bit tired, so figured I would let myself drift back off figuring I would wake up again around 9:30, my usual weekend wake up time, but I was obviously more tired than I thought!

...did my laundry and cleaning and then went Downtown to pick up a music score that I had come in for me at Archambault, one of a chain of music and bookstores unique to Quebec. Their flagship store on the corner of Berri and Ste-Catherine is a little piece of heaven for classical music lovers as they have an extensive classical music section for both CDs and scores. I can easily spend an hour browsing up there if I have the time.

...splurged on a CD for myself, Eric Whitacre's 'Light and Gold'. I'm sharing a piece from it above. I sang Whitacre's 'Lux Arumque' with my choir last year and was charmed by it. I love Whitacre's music and if you enjoy this piece, you should look up some more of his music, it's all over YouTube. Just uh...make sure and check the reviews of the video's you come across before watching them, not all choirs can master Whitacre's music properly and it would horrible if you were turned off of him because of a slip-up by a choir!

...am hoping to see my Sweetheart one more time tonight before he leaves for Haiti on Monday night. It would go a long way to making me feel better about his leaving, or at least I think it would. I would just love to be able to spend some more time in his arms before he leaves and talk with him, but he has a lot of work to do. He was sent some stuff by his former employers two weeks ago and underestimated how long it was going to take him to get it done. He is now bogged down on his last few days before leaving and is finding it to be quite the drag, as am I. Anyhow, hopefully he'll call to tell me I can head over to his place soon, if not I'll try and get some good phone time in with him tomorrow.

Today I...November 30th

2011-11-30T22:33:00.001-05:00

Today I...

...had a much better day than yesterday, thankfully.

...am sharing this video of the choir of King's College, Cambridge singing 'I Saw Three Ships Come Sailing In' with all of you, as it is December 1st tomorrow. December 1st is the date at which I begin to really get into Christmas, I don't know if it does that any of you guys?

...spoke with my Sweetheart for a bit and we planned our meeting place and time for tomorrow evening as we will be going to see a performance of the Montreal Symphony Orchestra in their new concert hall! I can't wait :o)

...will naturally not be posting tomorrow, so no Skywatch Friday for me this week. I will try and get a post up on Friday, but my Sweetheart might be coming over, so we will have to see.

Today I...November 29th

2011-11-29T20:56:00.003-05:00

Today I...

...had kind of a crummy day, so am trying to pick myself up with this photo of a hibiscus blossom from one of the trees that grew in my grandparents' backyard in Florida. Thinking about being there makes me feel nice :o)

...was late to work because some guy's car broke down right in the middle of the overpass that splits my route to work in two and he just sat there with no hazard lights and without popping his hood, so naturally people didn't realize he was broken down until they were right on top of him and he didn't move when the traffic light turned green. You should have heard the horns honking and seen how backed up the traffic was.

...was in a hideously long and boring meeting from 8:45 A.M. until I rushed out to handle my tour at 10:15 A.M.

...came back from the tour and lunch to find seven messages in my voice mail box.

...spent the rest of the day returning calls and taking new ones.

...had to go get groceries and make a stop at the pharmacy after work and while I was in the pharmacy, it started pouring and blowing like crazy. I was hoping it would stop while I was in the grocery store next door, but it only got worse. I had my umbrella, but got soaked anyhow. I was in a horrible mood by the time I got home and it took a nice hot shower to calm me down.

...did have a high point in my day when I opened my Metro fidelity program reward envelope to see that I had earned myself a 26$ rebate coupon for my next grocery purchase. I only got that much of a rebate because I went through two or three reward periods without getting a coupon since I had entered my address wrong in the online database for the program. I put a hyphen instead of a pound sign in front of my apartment number and the system didn't digest that too well!

...am hoping for a better day tomorrow!

Today I...November 27th

2011-11-27T18:33:00.002-05:00

Today I...

...put my Christmas Tree up, much to Magique's delight. Her delight was not my delight however. I hollered at her a lot and locked her in the bedroom three times, once while I finished getting it set up and twice afterwards because she wasn't leaving it alone. This video will give you a hint of what it was like. While Magique has never been able to climb up my artificial tree, I have no doubt she would manage it if I got real trees she could sink her claws into. Anyhow, she settled down a bit after being locked in the bedroom for the third time and was much more responsive to my yelling 'NO' at her when she tried to bat at an ornament. Every year I hope she'll be better about respecting the tree and every year I'm resigned to losing a Christmas ball or two. I put anything I really don't want to see broken up out of the way where she cannot reach it and hope for the best with the rest. As for Quinn, she dutifully ignores the tree, thank Heavens. If I had two cats who went bonkers over my Christmas tree, I just might give up the whole thing and just put up my wall decorations!

...had a quiet day otherwise. I got my laundry done and read my book and watched a bit of TV and am now trying to motivate myself to make dinner as I am getting hungry! And speaking about dinner, my roast beef turned out lovely last night and I had some leftovers for a snack this afternoon. Yum!

Today I...November 26th

2011-11-26T17:59:00.003-05:00

Today I...

...am sharing this photo of the tower of Montreal's Olympic Stadium taken from one of the paths of the Botanical Gardens with you.

...slept in nice and late.

...went out to Costco with my mom and made some major savings!

...enjoyed spending time with my mom.

...am making roast beef for the first time! It's cooking right now and boy, does it smell good! I can't wait to taste it :o)

...am thinking of watching a movie tonight.

Today I...November 25th

2011-11-25T19:03:00.003-05:00

Today I...

...woke up wishing it was Saturday. I didn't feel like going to work.

...got up and went to work anyhow and was fine once I got there.

...had a nice chat with the departmental secretary and then helped her come up with the catch phrases for the cake and Yule Log competition that will be held during the Oratory employees' social club Christmas lunch in two weeks.

...realized that I will not be able to make a cake for the competition because I have a dress rehearsal for a concert the evening before.

...had to scrap my calendar of groups that will be visiting the Nativity Scene museum twice before finally getting it right the third time. I can't wait to not have to work on it for a whole again. TGIF, eh?

Skywatch Friday

2011-11-24T21:18:00.004-05:00

This week's Skywatch Feature is this view of the Tower of Montreal's Olympic Stadium from the Chinese Garden section of the Botanical Gardens during the Fall lantern exhibit.

To see more skies from around the world, you can stop by the Skywatch Friday blog.

Have a great weekend and Happy Thanksgiving to all my American readers!

Today I...November 23rd

2011-11-23T21:05:00.000-05:00

Today I...

...am sharing this Simon's Cat video with all of you. I love Simon's Cat, these videos can always get a smile out of me no matter what's going on :o)

...was impressed by how easily I made it to work this morning! I was fully expecting there to be traffic mayhem as we got our first significant snowfall overnight and it was still coming down this morning. Normally as soon as the first flakes start coming down people forget how to drive and it causes major problems for my getting to work on time, but this time I got lucky!

...had a relatively quiet day at work.

...was very happy when I got to speak with my Sweetheart a bit :o)

Today I...November 22nd

2011-11-22T22:56:00.000-05:00

Today I...

...am sharing this video of the Oratory's boys choir, Les Petits Chanteurs du Mont-Royal, singing Minuit Chrétien (O Holy Night, for those of you who do not speak French :o) ). I don't have much to report on my end today, so I will take advantage of the fact that I'm feeling Christmasy tonight since we're going to get our first dumping of snow (5 to 10 cms) and tell you a little bit of these guys and their annual Christmas Eve ritual. They are troopers. They are elite musicians to the degree where some kids and young adults are elite athletes. All these boys went through an audition either in grade two or grade three (a few years ago they added a third grade class at the choir school, thus the difference in audition ages) to enter the choir school. The school does not require previous musical experience, just that the auditioning boy has a love for music, a good ear and obviously a voice that has some potential for training. All candidates must also be in very good academic standing, because if they are accepted into the choir school, they follow the same academic program as all other students in the province of Quebec, but in condensed form since they all devote three hours a day during their remaining elementary years to their musical training. At the elementary level they are taught to read music, sing, play piano and their ear training is developed. As of the 5th grade, they fully participate in Sunday services at the Oratory, all special celebrations where the choir is required and also perform dozens of concerts a year and go on tour every summer. When they reach high school, they attend Notre-Dame College, a private high school which is across the street from the Oratory and owned by the same Catholic religious order, on a very generous scholarship and are initiated to music history and composition while devoting more time to mastering the choir's vast repertoire. The boys spend nine years in the choir, which means nine years of spending the equivalent of every other Sunday morning at the Oratory warming up and then singing mass. On an average Sunday about half the choir or around 50 to 60 boys participate in the 11:00 A.M. mass, but as you can see on the above video, for major celebrations such as the 9:00 P.M. and Midnight masses on Christmas Eve, they bring in all the active boys, so around 130. I counted 133 last year :o) On Christmas Eve, the boys are at the Oratory from about 7:00 P.M. to 1:30 A.M....even the little guys. They warm up from 7:00 P.M. to 8:15 P.M., then put on their albs and troop up to the Basilica. They sing from 9:00 P.M. to 10:15 P.M., then head back to their rehearsal space, lose the albs, snack a bit, fine tune anything they might have been shaky on until 10:15, then put the albs back on, troop back upstairs to the Basilica and sing again from Midnight to 1:15 A.M. As I said, they are troopers and if I ever have a son, I will absolutely see if he's up for the choir school, as long as my Sweetheart agrees. He went to the choir school and enjoyed his experience...mostly. He still says it was really hard at times and is very firmly retired from the choir circuit, but he still plays piano like nobody's business and becomes positively giddy at the prospect of being able to try his luck at a pipe organ. He hums all the time too and still spends a lot of time with his three best buddies from his choir days. But singing at Midnight Mass twice in one evening like the fellas on my video are doing? Every year for 8 years (they don't sing services the first year, remember!). Nah, he doesn't miss that. He a retired trooper and happy to be able to just sing and play piano for his family on Christmas Eve!

Today I...November 20th

2011-11-20T21:07:00.003-05:00

Another picture of the lantern exhibit at the Botanical Gardens :o)

Today I...

...slept in.

...made my monthly trek out to the spa in the West Island.

...stopped by Monkland Village on my way home to pick up a few things.

...should have vacuumed but didn't.

...found out from my Sweetheart that the cake we made together yesterday was very well received and that there is plenty left for me :o)

...spent an hour on Skype with him going over one of his friends' applications for a job teaching English in Japan.

...am going to head to bed ASAP as I am developing a migraine due to the plummeting temperature here. It was 13 degrees this afternoon, it's 1 degree now and it's going down to -5 overnight. Brr and ouch...time will tell if I make it to work tomorrow or not, but I hope I do as I know that I have a tour to give and I'll leave my colleagues up a creek if I can't make it in to give it :o(

Today I...November 19th

2011-11-19T19:48:00.003-05:00

Today I...

...am sharing this photo of one of the archways that lead into the Chinese Garden lantern exhibit at Montreal's Botanical Gardens with you. These large red lanterns come back every year and I find they are a great way to lead people into the exhibit!

...got home around 5:30 P.M. after spending a lovely 24 hours with my Sweetheart. He came over to my place last night after I lured him in with a promise of poulet chasseur (hunters' chicken if you want a literal translation) made in my crockpot and this morning we headed over to his place.

...went grocery shopping with my Sweetheart.

...helped him bake a cake. It was a very complicated cake and his first attempt at baking one and he was such a whirling dervish in the kitchen and doing things in such a peculiar order rather than following the steps of the recipe, that I eventually decided to sit down, eat my lunch and then just did whatever he asked me to to help him instead of trying to help him on my own as I was getting far too overwhelmed by how all over the place he was. The cake turned out lovely though, or at least it looked lovely. We tasted to many ingredients while making it that by the time it was ready to taste, neither one of us had the appetite to! He'll keep some for me though and I'll get some later this week :o)

...am doing my laundry and will greatly enjoy 'clean sheet' night tonight. I find there's always something lovely about the feeling of going to bed in freshly laundered sheets, don't you?

Skywatch Friday

2011-11-17T18:31:00.004-05:00

This week's Skywatch feature is this photo of the Fall colors set against the sunny sky I was treated to during my outing at the Botanical Gardens a few weeks ago. Now, if only it could get this sunny again some time soon, we've had lots of clouds in Montreal lately!

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 lovely weekend :o)

Today I...November 15th

2011-11-15T19:37:00.004-05:00

Today I...

...am sharing another one of my lantern photos with you! Have any of you ever ridden on a camel? I never have, but I did ride on an elephant once when I was little. I wasn't any place exotic, it was at some sort of a fair or something. I don't remember where it was exactly, but I do remember that I felt like I was going to tip right off the elephant every time he took a step until I got used to his gait!

...had a long day at work. D had put J in charge of a group by accident even though it's his week off this week. The group naturally got shifted over to me and I was expecting it to be pretty straightforward since they were only supposed to need help getting into the lunch hall as they were from a retirement home and had people with wheelchairs and walkers. Unfortunately they were very poorly organized and had only come with two three staff members to help with the nine residents. That is a definite no-no, especially if they don't let us know beforehand that they're going to be short-handed. Anyhow, I ended up having to ask both D and C to help with the group as we had to help them get around all over the place. To make matters worse, they had ordered their lunch in and the delivery came fifteen minutes early and when the person delivering found the lunch room closed, he just took off with the food again, so I had to call the restaurant, have them track down the delivery person and have him sent back. I took care of the group until their lunch time ran over and then delegated them to C because by then it was 1:30 P.M. and I hadn't eaten since breakfast and was about ready to keel over. Normally a high-maintenance, poorly organized group is not a major problem for me, I've seen plenty of those go by, but this one was particularly difficult to deal with because the lady in charge of the group was so disagreeable. She was in a terrible mood, did nothing but complain and instead of thanking us for all of our help when she left, C said that all she could say was how angry she was about having to eat in the dining hall reserved for groups who bring their lunches when she saw people with their lunch bags upstairs in the main dining hall. C explained to her that if they had brought their lunches they could have eaten upstairs, but that having their lunch brought in from a restaurant under the nose of the Oratory's own restaurant owner in his dining hall was another matter. Oh well, what can I say? There are just some people that you cannot please no matter how hard you try!

Today I...November 13th

2011-11-13T21:23:00.000-05:00

Today I...

...am having a musical post. It had been a while, hadn't it? I discovered this song today while going through the soundtrack from Twilight: Breaking Dawn on iTunes. Yes, I like Twilight. What can I say? The romantic side of the story got me. Anyhow. I fell head over heels for this song by Christina Perri and I hope you enjoy it too :o)

...slept in with my Sweetheart until 10:00 A.M.

...went to Indigo and got my dad's Christmas present.

...crashed at home for a bit.

...went back out, bought an orchid for C for her birthday, snuck into the office and left it on her desk for her to find tomorrow morning.

...congratulated myself on making it in and out of the office without getting caught be anyone who would have spoken to me about work related stuff. I can be pretty stealthy when I need to be :o)

...met G for hot chocolate and a brownie.

...stopped at the grocery store on the way home from my outing with G.

...cooked dinner for tonight at the same time as I cooked dinner for tomorrow. I can also be quite a good multi-tasker when I need to be :o)

...am looking forward to watching Pan Am at 10:00! If you haven't given that show a try yet, you should, it's amazing!

Today I...November 12th

2011-11-12T17:41:00.003-05:00

Today I...

...enjoyed a nice, quiet Saturday.

...did a bit of cleaning.

...read my book.

...spoke with my Sweetheart for a bit this morning and am now waiting for him to call to see if we will be getting together this evening or not. He had a very late night last night though and has to head out a bit early tomorrow though, so it will depend on how he is feeling.

...felt how little daylight we get at this time of year a lot more than I have all week. You really notice how early the sun goes down when you get up at 10:00 A.M. (I got to bed kind of late last night too) and the sun goes down at 4:30 P.M.!!!

Skywatch Friday

2011-11-10T18:02:00.004-05:00

This week's Skywatch Friday feature is another photo of the beautiful Fall skies that were above me during my visit to the Chinese Lantern exhibit at Montreal's Botanical Gardens two weeks ago. 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 lovely weekend!

Today I...November 9th

2011-11-09T21:47:00.003-05:00

Today I...

...am sharing this photo of a fisherman lantern that was set up on the shore of the lake in the Chinese garden during this year's lantern exhibit at the Botanical Gardens with you.

...went out to lunch with my uncle.

...tried out a peppermint mocha from Starbucks after lunch and loved it! It was decaf, of course. I don't take caffeine of any kind very often as it doesn't entirely agree with me.

...had a meeting shortly after lunch and found seven messages in my voice mail box when I got back. I was definitely right yesterday when I figured that I was going to be spending a lot of time on the phone in the next few weeks.

...went to the fax machine and found that the light for my voice mail box was flashing again, but ignored it. It was 4:20 P.M. and I finish work at 4:30. If I had returned the call, I would have had to stay late for sure and was in no mood for that. In my books, anyone who calls and leaves a message at that time should not expect a call back until the next day.

...had my suspicion that C has a very low pain threshold confirmed today. She came in complaining of a splinter in her foot and tried to get it out herself. Then the security guard came in and tried to get it out, but she was complaining and yelling so much that he gave up and she went back to taking care of it herself and made more of a fuss. I have never heard anyone get so worked up about a splinter in all my life, not even a child! D and I gave a hearty round of applause when she got the splinter out and the security guard was still laughing about the whole thing at lunch.

Today I...November 8th

2011-11-08T20:37:00.004-05:00

Today I...

...don't have much to report, but do happily still have lots of photos from my afternoon at the Botanical Gardens left to share with you.

...took lots of bookings for the Oratory's Nativity Scene museum. I get the feeling I'm going to be spending lots and lots of time on the phone in the next few weeks!

...am suffering from 'Fall Back' syndrome and am therefore feeling sluggish. It happens to me every year when we turn the clocks back. I should be back to normal within about a week.

Today I...November 6th

2011-11-06T16:32:00.005-05:00

Today I...

...am sharing this photo of this happy little family with all of you :o)

...am back home after spending the better part of the weekend away from y apartment. I had a choir practice followed by a lunch with the choir director and a few other choristers yesterday and I was only home for a few hours before going back out again, this time to my Sweetheart's for a movie night and naturally a sleepover ;o)

...had a lovely morning with my Sweetheart.

...headed over to Jean Talon Market. It's no secret that Montrealers are foodies and gourmet ones at that. We love our food and we love hunting around for fresh ingredients and like them to be local when possible. We have four public markets in Montreal: Atwater Market, Jean-Talon Market, Maisonneuve Market and Lachine Market, along with a whole slew of smaller ones. I had been to Atwater Market many times, but never Jean-Talon, so when my father raved about it a few weeks back and also mentioned that there was a little shop there devoted entirely to mushrooms (in my mind, the world is a better place thanks to mushrooms ;o) ) I decided that I had better get my gourmet self over there. I decided to go today because I was planning on making spaghetti sauce and I needed mushrooms and a tube of tomato paste, among other ingredients and boy, let me tell you, I will be going back! I got 500 grams of organic ground beef for 7.50$, fresh garlic for 40 cents, a 10 carrots for 1.25$, a tube of tomato paste for 1.65$ and a pound of mushrooms for 10$. Okay, so the mushrooms were pricey, but man were they worth every penny! Fresh and local and a kind I had never tasted before. Yum, they taste great in my sauce!!! If ever you are in Montreal, you must check out at least one of our markets, they are open year-round and well worth your time and money!

Today I...November 4th

2011-11-04T18:35:00.004-04:00

Today I...

...am sharing this photo of the main exhibit of lanterns at Montreal's Botanical Gardens with you. It was on the pond behind the Friendship Pavilion in the Chinese Gardens, which is a stunning place to visit any time of year :o)

...had a fairly busy day at work.

...am doing my laundry since I may not have a chance to do at any other time this weekend. I had a choir practice all morning tomorrow followed by a lunch and am hoping to be heading over to see my Sweetheart in the evening and then spending the day with him on Sunday. This is all to be confirmed (except for the practice, of course), but hopefully will work out. We did get together on Wednesday by the way and were so very happy to see each other :o)

...am very happy that it is the weekend!

...saw Montreal's first two snowfalls. We got flurries twice today...and so it begins!

Skywatch Friday

2011-11-03T21:02:00.003-04:00

This week's Skywatch feature is this photo of the tower of Montreal's Olympic stadium against a beautiful Fall sky.

To see more Skywatch photos from around the world, you can visit the Skywatch Friday Blog.

I hope you enjoyed your visit to my blog and that you all have a lovely weekend :o)

Today I...November 1st

2011-11-01T19:55:00.004-04:00

Today I...

...am sharing this photo of this lovely 'feathered' couple I came across at the lantern exhibit at the Botanical Gardens last week. There were a few more couples like them scattered along the path of the exhibit, but these two were my favorite one :o)

...had a fairly busy day at work which started off with a very long meeting this morning, like nearly three hours long. Ugh, I hate meetings!

...got a wonderful surprise when my Sweetheart called me from Sept-Îles as he waited for his delayed flight. He should still be home within the next hour or so though, I can't wait!

...am looking forward to a new episode of Flashpoint tonight!

Today I...October 31st

2011-10-31T21:00:00.002-04:00

Today I...

...am back after a busy weekend spent with my family!

...am sharing this photos of a peacock lantern at the Botanical Gardens. I took a great deal of photos during my visit there last week, so I'll be armed with fresh photos for a little while :o)

...am so, so looking forward to my Sweetheart coming home tomorrow. If all goes well, he'll be back in Montreal tomorrow evening and we'll be getting together Wednesday after I'm done work. So don't look for me Wednesday night unless I tell you guys otherwise, because I will be nowhere near my computer :o)

...am probably going to be heading to bed earlier than usual tonight since I had issues getting to bed last night. I spent the evening with G at a tea house in the Quartier Latin and drank nothing but white tea, but still wasn't able to get to bed until 1:00 A.M.? Odd...maybe my internal clock was just out of whack because I went to bed late all weekend? Anyhow, hopefully I'll be able to reverse the cycle tonight!

Skywatch Friday

2011-10-27T20:29:00.003-04:00

This week's skywatch feature is this photo I took of the Chinese Lantern display on the lake in Montreal's Botanical gardens.

To see more Skywatch photos from around the world, you can visit the Skywatch Friday blog.

Have a great weekend and thanks for stopping by!

Today I...October 26th

2011-10-26T22:01:00.003-04:00

Today I...

...am sharing a few of the photos I took at this year's 'La Magie des Lanternes' Chinese lantern exhibit at Montreal's Botanical Gardens with you. The theme of the show this year is 'The First Emperor's Procession' and it is held, naturally, in the Chinese garden section. It is a lovely exhibit to take in either during the day or at night, but I must admit that if you are going specifically to take photos, it is much easier to get that done during the day since the exhibit can be very, very crowded at night. It is also best to go towards the end of the afternoon once all the school groups are done visiting as they can crowd the place up during the day as well. I went around 2:30 P.M. and it was a perfect time as there was still plenty of daylight and not too many people around! And here is an interesting little fact: 'La Magie des Lanternes' was among the first dates that my Sweetheart took me out on back in the Fall of 2004 and it was also my first visit to the Botanical Gardens! He couldn't believe I had lived in Montreal all my life and never been to the gardens before :o)

...was off work, naturally. Otherwise I wouldn't have been able to make it to the gardens!

...did a bit of cleaning in my apartment.

...clipped my cats claws, much to their disgust.

...finally got my chicken cassoulet from the other day out of the crockpot and into some containers for the fridge and freezer.

...have a headache again, darn it!

Today I...October 25th

2011-10-25T20:54:00.002-04:00

Today I...

...am having a pictureless post.

...finished making a series of calls for my boss.

...walked home from work for the first time in quite a while because, miracle of miracles, it was SUNNY today!!! Well, kind of sunny anyhow, which works out just fine for us! It looks like we're finally going to be getting some fairly nice weather for a while now, thank heavens! Nicer, but chillier, which is not surprising for this time of year, but as long as there's no rain, that's fine with me!

...spoke with Father D about the group of high school students from France that I gave a tour to yesterday. They were the third group of students from France that I gave a tour to in three years and they were the third group of unholy French terrors I had to deal with. There completely undisciplined and had very, very little respect for me and the teachers with them were doing nothing to discipline them. Father D told me that he taught in Paris for a while and that, unfortunately, my experience was not unusual as a lot of french teenagers are like that. Yikes, I would hate to teach in a French school!

Today I...October 22nd

2011-10-22T21:02:00.004-04:00

Today I...

...am sharing this sunny picture of a bright orange maple tree in Pointe-Claire village with you. I told you, sunny pictures until the sun comes back!

...was actually fortunate enough to be outside during a brief sunny break this afternoon. I quite enjoyed it, despite the fact that I was hauling a very heavy cart of groceries behind me.

...spent 82$ and small change on the aforementioned heavy cart of groceries. The chicken cassoulet I'm planning on making in my crockpot had better be worth every extra penny I spent on the ingredients!

...was absolutely thrilled to get an e-mail from my Sweetheart a few minutes ago, he says everything is going well in the great white north, that lichen is cushy to walk on, Tundra more colorful than he expected, but that his flights are something else because the airplanes are tiny, the flights full of turbulence and the landing strips gravel. I know, even though he didn't mention it, that he is thinking that if I were on those planes with him I would have died of a panic attack by now. He's right. He's also two days ahead of schedule with his work and only eleven bumpy flights away from home, hopefully they'll be able to keep up the speedy work and get home early!

Today I...October 21st

2011-10-21T19:37:00.005-04:00

Today I...

...am sharing this photo of some sailboats and windsurfers on Lake St. Louis with you. We're still waiting for another sunny day like this here, so while we're waiting, I'll keep sharing sunny photos with you :o)

...got 10 hours sleep, it was divine.

...went to get my hair trimmed and styled, it looks awesome!

...got a pumpkin spice latte from Starbucks on the way home, decaf of course. It was lovely!

...got my laundry done.

...washed some dishes in an attempt to kill some time while waiting for my brother to swing my and pick me up so we can got and get some sushi for dinner.

...am hoping he gets here soon because I am STARVING!!!

Skywatch Friday

2011-10-20T17:49:00.004-04:00

This week's Skywatch Friday feature is this series of photos that I took of these parasailers on Lake Saint Louis in Pointe-Claire over Thanksgiving weekend.

The weather was absolutely stunning that weekend and the parasailing club was more than likely all too aware that it would be their last chance to go out before the weather and the lake got too cold!

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 nice weekend!

Today I...October 19th

2011-10-19T19:03:00.003-04:00

Today I...

...found myself thinking, as I was drowning in data entry again (I will hopefully get the last of it done tomorrow), that I would love to be able to get away somewhere warm and sunny. Since I am still nine weeks away from my next 'vacation' (I have no trip planned so far, I will try and work on something with my Sweetheart when he gets back), I am breaking out one of my palm tree photos from our trip to Los Angeles in May instead. Ah, what I would give to be back there with my Sweetheart now!

...enjoyed the sun by going out for a walk during my lunch hour. It was our first sunny day since Thursday and it's going to start raining again any time now and keep it up until Friday night with some very blustery winds, so I figured I had better enjoy the nice weather while I could!

...stocked up on cat food after work as I was almost out.

...am so happy that it's finally Thursday tomorrow, I get Friday off since I worked on Sunday so three day weekend for me, yippee!

Today I...October 18th

2011-10-18T22:22:00.002-04:00

Today I...

...am sharing this picture of some houses in Blanc-Sablon, a town in Quebec which is right on the border of Labrador and across the Gulf of St-Lawrence from Newfoundland with all of you. I think it's lovely and am wishing that I was heading there tomorrow with my Sweetheart. I will, of course, like the place even better if my Sweetheart manages to reach me from there!

...had a busy, but uneventful day at worked filled with phone calls, last minute group bookings and loads of data entry, which is know for its ability to plunge me into a coma. I defy anyone to do more than one hour straight of data entry without being plunged into a stupor!

...had a very good laugh when a man who called this morning to book a guided tour for this coming Thursday (he said he didn't know he had to book a tour in advance, imagine that!) sent an email with a scanned PICTURE of his signed booking form to me instead of scanning THE ACTUAL FORM and e-mailing that to me. There's a first time for everything :oJ

Today I...October 17th

2011-10-17T22:56:00.002-04:00

Today I...

...am sharing this photo of some lovely Fall foliage with you :o)

...spent most of the day feeling very cold due to the cold, damp weather. Ick...

...was stuck on the phone with a very, very conservative Catholic for an hour and a quarter. I am Catholic, don't get me wrong on that one and I'm very happy to be Catholic, but I am not an über conservative Catholic, not by a long shot. If I truly was a mortal sinner for not doing everything she said I should have been doing in order for 'Jesus to love me', I would be going to Hell for sure. I believe that God and Jesus love us for who we are and take account of our efforts to be faithful Christians, not that they turn their backs on us for not being Christian enough. In my opinion, overly conservative believers do religion, no matter what the religion, more harm than good.

...had a good time at choir practice, despite the fact that we spent the better part of the practice working on a very long, difficult piece of music.

...spoke with my Sweetheart one more time before he leaves for his two week business trip on the North Shore tomorrow. His plane is taking off at 6:30 A.M. for Sept-Îles and from there he is going much further north to Blanc-Sablon, which is right next to Labrador!!! He will then gradually work his way back South until he comes home, probably on November 2nd unless things go faster or more slowly than planned. I, naturally, am hoping things will go faster, like they did last time!

Today I...October 16th

2011-10-16T22:21:00.003-04:00

Today I...

...am letting you know that I am still alive and well. Sorry for the long wait between posts, but I got home very late on Thursday, for a work night at least and then I was at my Sweetheart's from Friday evening to last night, hence the lack of blog posts! I have been having a wonderful time though and also went out with my friend G after work tonight. Yup, I only had one day off this weekend and am now back to work until Thursday. My Sweetheart is leaving for his two week trip on Tuesday and will be back on November 2nd or 3rd, so I'm hoping it will go fast as I will then have him in town for a month before he's off to Haiti in December. Phew! Hopefully work will help it go by and he'll find some way to get in touch with me once or twice.

That's it for today, I'll try and catch up with your blogs gradually this week :o)

Today I...October 12th

2011-10-12T21:58:00.005-04:00

Today I...

...am sharing this photo of one of the two points that give the town of Pointe-Claire its name. The other point, which is just across from this one, is home to St-Joachim church, which I featured in yesterday's post, as well as to a convent and windmill. All of the photos I have featured on my blog so far this week were taken this past weekend and I also have some very Skywatch worthy photos that I took in the same Pointe-Claire series that I will use either for this week or next week's Skywatch Friday feature.

...am letting you all know that I may not be blogging tomorrow and will not be blogging on Friday since I am going out with my mom and one of our friends tomorrow night and am going to my Sweetheart's place on Friday night. I should be back on Saturday :o)

...had a fun time with my friend V. We went to dinner at a sushi restaurant we hadn't tried yet and it was quite good.

...stained my white t-shirt after losing my hold on a gyoza (Japanese dumpling) with my chopsticks and having it plop unceremoniously into my dish of soy and vinegar dipping sauce. Luckily, I was able to get to stain out with my delicate laundry soap. I soaked the t-shirt in a sink full of warm water and a bit of the soap for about 20 minutes and voilà! no more stain. It is quite surprising that I dropped the gyoza though, I am a champion chopstick user, I can pick up and hold pretty much anything with them!

...very much enjoyed the 45 minute walk home from the restaurant. V was with me most of the way before turning off to go to her father's place, so we were able to keep chattering almost until I got home.

...am very much looking forward to the arts and crafts sale I'm going to with my mom and our friend H tomorrow as well as dinner afterwards!

...am looking forward even more to seeing my Sweetheart on Friday. I really have to stock up on time with him before he leaves for his next work-related trip on Tuesday. Two weeks this time, ugh. Fortunately it will be his last trip for a while!

Today I...October 11th

2011-10-11T18:10:00.004-04:00

Today I...

...am sharing this picture of Église St-Joachim with you. It is the French language church in my former parish in the West Island portion of Montreal, which is still actually the parish of my entire family in Montreal except for my brother, my mother and I. It is as beautiful and well maintained inside as it is outside. The inside is painted white with sky blue and gold accents. There has been a church on the same site since 1713 and this current one is the fourth one and has been around since 1883. And here is an interesting fact about Montreal: all neighborhoods have at least two Catholic churches: one English language one and one French language one. It's Montreal, you can't have one language without the other, otherwise pandemonium ensues :o)

...went back to work and it was quieter than last week. I handled things alright, I'll just have to take the week one day at a time.

...spoke with my Sweetheart for a bit and he shared a few more pictures from his inspection trip with me. He's going to call me back in a bit, but I did get one of the two most important pieces of information I needed from him: He's here for a week, he's leaving for more inspections again on Tuesday of next week, this time for two weeks but then he's going to be done, at least for a little while.

...am going to have cabbage rolls, or 'halupki' as we call them in my family, for dinner. My mom made some a month ago and kept some in freezer for me until she was able to give them to me on Saturday. Yum!!!

Today I...October 10th

2011-10-10T21:47:00.003-04:00

Today I...

...am back after an unscheduled break from blogging this weekend. It was much needed though after the week I had last week.

...am sharing this picture depicting the Fall color situation in Montreal this past weekend. Some trees are in full color, while others are still very green.

...was swept away by all the beautiful colors on the trees outside of Montreal today, it was gorgeous.

...went to pick apples and gather about two dozen for 4.50$! What a bargain and they taste better that what you can get in the grocery store too!

...just got an e-mail from my Sweetheart telling me that he came home early today since they got their work done faster than planned! Hooray! I'm off to answer him :o)

Today I...October 7th

2011-10-07T20:38:00.003-04:00

Today I...

...am sharing another fall photo with you, I took it while in Toronto visiting my Sweetheart last year.

...nearly didn't go into work this morning because I just didn't feel like it. I so need a vacation.

...made it to the end of the day and nearly danced down the stairs. Thank heavens for three day weekends!

...had a nice hot shower when I got home and felt much better.

...am looking forward to a weekend spent with family and friends! I hope you all enjoy your weekend :o)

Skywatch Friday

2011-10-06T18:00:00.003-04:00

This week's Skywatch feature are these beautiful autumn leaves against the October Sky. I'm hoping to get some more nice autumn pictures this weekend when I go and visit my mom out in the country and when I go apple picking on Monday!

To see more Skywatch photos from around the world, stop by the Skywatch Friday blog.

Thanks for stopping by and enjoy your weekend, happy Thanksgiving to all my Canadian readers!

Today I...October 5th

2011-10-05T21:29:00.002-04:00

Today I...

...am watching the first half of the second film in the Anne of Green Gables series :o)

...got a lovely surprise and found an e-mail from my Sweetheart in my inbox earlier! He must have found some Internet access in the boonies, either that or he has 3G cell phone service so he can get his e-mails on his phone! We did get to talk on Sunday by the way, we spent nearly 40 minutes on Skype and it was lovely :o)

...am feeling better today now that I have gotten rid of nearly all the tension out of my neck and shoulders thanks to my heating pad. I've been quite stressed lately and it caught up with me and I'd had a nearly constant headache since Monday night.

...am looking forward to a three day weekend. It's Thanksgiving up here in Canada on Monday, a holiday that I've always been fond of !

Today I...October 3rd

2011-10-03T23:06:00.001-04:00

Today I...

...got a really good giggle out of one of my fellow sopranos at choir when I told her that the exercise our director had us doing was making me feel like Beaker. Enough said :o)

Today I...October 2nd

2011-10-02T19:52:00.003-04:00

Today I...

...am posting the pumpkin picture I had promised for yesterday :o)

...had another fairly quiet day.

...went out to get a new heater and some fish for my tank, they were a gift from a friend who thought that my remaining fish (after Quinn accidentally killed all but three of my previous fish after nudging the heater dial, as you may recall) looked lonely and knew I was short on money to get any new ones. I got one honey gourami and six micro raspboras. I'm a bit concerned about the honey gourami as she is not moving around very much, but she may just be stressed. Hopefully she'll feel better after a good night's sleep :o)

...have not heard from my Sweetheart and am hoping to later on. I may try and call him if I haven't heard from him by 9:00 as I would really like to speak with him a bit before he leaves for Anticosti tomorrow, if he is indeed leaving. It was still a toss-up when I last spoke with him on Tuesday.

Today I...October 1st

2011-10-01T22:14:00.004-04:00

Today I...

...had a very quiet, ordinary kind of day. I did the laundry and vacuumed and practiced my music for choir.

...found it a bit chilly for my liking as the heat is not turned on in my building yet.

...am watching Anne of Green Gables. It is one of my favorite comfort movies and perfect for a day like today :o)

Today I...September 30th

2011-09-30T19:03:00.002-04:00

Today I...

...am sharing this photo of a whole variety of squash with you. They were at the same market that the pumpkins were at. Tomorrow picture? Probably another variety of pumpkins :o)

...finally got to give a tour at work! I was amazed that this one wasn't cancelled at the last minute as so many of my tours have been lately, hopefully my bad karma is gone now :o)

...found myself wishing, yet again, that I was allowed to keep the tips I am given at work. I received 38.32$ at the end of my tour today, which would have paid for all but about 15$ of my groceries and would have been a huge help to me as I am seriously cash strapped this month, but we don't get tips very often at the Oratory would therefore be in serious trouble if they lowered our salaries so we could keep our tips and we would also have to declare them at tax time, which is a major pain according to my hairdresser cousin. It still sucks to see the money go though.

...wanted to rip my smoke detector off of my ceiling, yet again. You see, up until about two months ago I just had the general alarm smoke detector that all the apartments in my building have and I thought that was enough, but it apparently wasn't since when the janitor came in to do the inspection required by the Montreal fire department he said he had to put another one in and that he wasn't surprised to see that I had no smoke detector since almost all the apartments had either taken out the batteries from their smoke detectors or taken them down. I have now found out why. I cannot use the oven without turning on a fan because the alarm goes and even if I do turn on a fan, the alarm sometimes goes anyhow, as it did tonight. I climbed up in a step ladder with three books to try and reach the alarm and get the blasted batteries out, but I'm too short. Ugh...I moved the fan around, opened a window wide and stood under the alarm and fanned at it with a book until it shut up. The next time my Sweetheart comes over, he's taking out the batteries. I could hear the fire alarm going in the other half of the building across the courtyard when it went off during the summer, so I'm pretty darn sure I'll hear the one in the hall outside my door if it goes! I just want to be able to use my oven without having to wear earplugs again!

Skywatch Friday

2011-09-29T22:22:00.004-04:00

This week's Skywatch feature is this photo of the American side of Niagara Falls taken from the Canadian side of the basin. I took it the very first time I went to Falls back in October of 2008 over Thanksgiving (Canadian) weekend. I was stunned by the size and beauty of the falls and also by their power, they truly had a magical effect on me. This is my favorite photo of that day and I hope you all like it too :o)

To see more Skywatch photos from around the world, you can stop by the Skywatch Friday Blog.

Enjoy your weekend, I hope you have nicer weather than what they are announcing in Montreal, I think my planned excursion to the apple orchard may have to wait until next week unless I want to pick apples from a rowboat, they're announcing so much rain!!!

Today I...September 28th

2011-09-28T21:10:00.003-04:00

Today I...

...am sharing this photo of some little pumpkins with you. I became quite excited when I saw huge wooden crates filled with two different kinds of pumpkins and a variety of squash at the outdoor market at Mount Royal metro station when I was out with V two weeks ago. I love pumpkins, you see. I love the look of them, I love the taste of them and I love carving them up for Halloween, so I naturally also love taking picture of them :o)

...am feeling a bit better. No more migraine, but still sad that my Sweetheart is going to be away so much in the next few months. I am very grateful that God has blessed me with so much patience. The fact that I am very proud of my Sweetheart and the work that he does also helps, but I still feel lonely without him and I wish we could be together more. I waited two years for him to come home from Toronto and I find it rather alarming how often I find myself thinking that it was easier to have quality time with him in Toronto where it was just the two of us and he had a regular 9:00 to 5:00 job!

...am thinking more and more about how nice it will be to have two weeks off over Christmas and New Year's, I need a vacation even if all I do is stay home!!!

Today I...September 27th

2011-09-27T19:20:00.001-04:00

Today I...

...have a horrible migraine, so I am going to let the music do most of the work for me. This is Paul Mealor's Ubi Caritas sung by the Choirs of Westminster Abbey and St-George's Chapel during the Wedding of Prince William and Catherine Middleton this past April. I had never heard this piece of music before it was sung at the wedding and I was very touched by it. I sent another YouTube video of it to my choir director yesterday where it was sung by an adult choir and he loved it as well. We are going to try and find the sheet music for it so our choir can sing it, possibly this Spring.

...have shed a few tears since my Sweetheart told me that he won't just be away on business next for ten days as of next week, but for 10 day stints up north until the middle of November and then in Haiti for two weeks from the middle to the end of November. Up north all he will have to communicate with will be an obscenely expensive satellite phone 1.25$ a minute, so not for leisure purposes and in Haiti he will only be able to send text messages from his colleague's phone, which is also pricey so I might get one every two days. God help me, I just may go mad. Over the next two months he will be in Montreal for nine days and I'm going to have to compete with his family, his laundry and his colleagues for his attention. God help me, I just may go mad...

Today I...September 25th

2011-09-25T23:02:00.002-04:00

Today I...

...am writing a quick post after a sort of busy weekend. I went out to a friend's place last night for a lovely wine and cheese and today had a nice late morning of sleeping in followed by a nice, quiet day. I hope you all enjoyed your weekend and I'll be back with a new post on Tuesday!

Today I...September 23rd

2011-09-23T20:51:00.004-04:00

Today I...

...am sharing this photo of part of the Fall stock at the outdoor market at Mount Royal metro station. You know Fall is near when they bring out the Squash and chrysanthemums!

...am quite tired! I was at my Sweetheart's last night and his neighbor played a very loud video game late into the night! If he had been my neighbor I would have gone over and knocked on the the door to ask him to turn his blasted volume down, but my Sweetheart said he never answers when he knocks on his door, even when he's not playing a video game.

...had a good laugh when my Sweetheart told me this morning that he dreamed that we were using his GPS to track my grandparents during their current vacation. We spent all evening trying to get his new GPS working...hence the dream. Although in his dream my Grandparents were on a cruise to England which had to detour to Bahamas, not on their actual European bus tour. Not bad eh? I dunno which I would have picked, but the Bahamas with my Sweetheart sounds pretty good this time of year lol

...am looking forward to the season premieres of CSI NY and Blue Bloods!

Skywatch Friday

2011-09-22T17:46:00.004-04:00

This week's Skywatch feature is another photo of Montreal's Quartier des Spectacles under a beautiful blue sky. To the right you can see a building that looks like a big staircase. It is the Salle Pierre Mercure where the Grands Ballets Canadiens perform, except for when they are performing their annual run of The Nutcracker when they occupy the Place des Arts for a month. The building to the left with the large bay of window is the Place des Arts, where the Opéra de Montréal performs and in between those two concert halls you can just make out the new Maison Symphonique, where the Montreal Symphony Orchestra now performs. The interior is complete, but the outside is still missing some final touches.

To see more Skywatch Photos from around the world, you can stop over at the Skywatch Friday Blog.

Today I...September 21st

2011-09-21T20:03:00.002-04:00

Today I...

...am sharing this picture of the funky exterior light near the Place des Arts in the Quartier des Spectacles here in Montreal. If you think they look like eyes, you're not the only one :o)

...had my second of three tours I've had scheduled since Monday cancelled. Yup, out of three tours, I've only made it out for one! The worst part is that the same on-call tour guide came in for nothing twice to split the groups with me! Poor guy...we're starting to think he's going to think twice before coming in the next time!

...heard what I thought might be the fire alarm go off while I was eating dinner. When I got out into the hall to check things out though, I realized that it wasn't the fire alarm going off, but the alarm bell in the elevator! There was a lady stuck in there between the first and second floors because some guy held the outer door of the (70 year old, but still going strong) elevator and the car stopped thinking that someone was trying to get in even though the car was already moving. She was thankfully not claustrophobic and was therefore not panicking, but was quite pissed off at the guy who got her stuck in there. It didn't take too long to get her out of there since it was not a mechanical break, I'll keep that in mind if ever the same thing happens to me!

Today I...September 20th

2011-09-20T18:19:00.003-04:00

Today I...

...am back after a busy Sunday and Monday!

...am sharing another photo of Montreal's Quartier des Spectacles with you. As some of you noticed, Ste-Catherine Street at this level is pedestrian. Actually, the entire festival and concert hall area is pedestrian, which I think is marvelous since I am a pedestrian about 90% of the time. The rest of the time I'm usually on public transit which I find is a great service in Montreal that keeps getting better all the time. If you live in town in Montreal, you really don't need a car if you don't have children, so I'm good a few more years I think :o)

...gave my first tour since early June and am Happy to report that it went quite well, especially according to my group. They were a very sweet group of seniors with a city tour guide who was also a great help to me with the members of the group who were a bit slower at getting around and needed the elevators rather than the escalators.

...had a good giggle when one of the ladies in the group asked if she had to bring her survey regarding her experience at the Oratory back to the 'pink building'. The building in question is our summer information booth and it's got a red roof. How she came up with pink I don't know, but I thought it was quite a cute mistake to make!

Today I...September 17th

2011-09-17T22:29:00.000-04:00

Today I...

...am sharing this photo of St-Catherine Street in Montreal's Quartier des Spectacles with you. I took this photo on Saturday of last week, but it could easily have been Saturday of this week since the weather was so similar :o)

...got my laundry and vacuuming done.

...spent the afternoon with V. We ate at a delightful little cafe on Amherst street in the Gay Village called De Farine et d'Eau Fraîche and then headed to Mount Royal avenue for a stop at David's Tea and then at Point G, a delightful little cafe devoted mostly to macaroons. Neither V not I had had macaroons before, but I'm pretty sure we'll be having them rather regularly from now on :o)

...spoke with my Sweetheart for a bit. He will be leaving for Northern Quebec on October 2nd for a week. He's still working on how he and his two business partners are going to get up there without having to spend a fortune though since the locale they're going to is a remote island with a population of 280 accessible only by a ferry that runs once a week or by plane. Dear me...

2011-09-16T18:23:00.000-04:00

Today I...

...am sharing a final picture of Christ Church Cathedral with all of you :o)

...am so glad that it's Friday, I was really looking forward to the weekend this week!

...am looking forward to going out to lunch with V tomorrow, I haven't seen her in over a month!

...was so sad when I came across a stray dog this afternoon, a yellow lab. She wouldn't stay with me long enough for me to see if she was wearing a collar, so I let her continue on her way and called public security when I got back to my office. She was clearly looking for her home and her family. She came up to me when I knelt down and smiled at her and asked her if she was alone, sniffed at me and had a reaction that said 'I'm sorry, but you're not who I'm looking for.' and then walk off. I hope that public security caught up with her and that she will have somewhere warm to sleep tonight, food to eat and water to drink.

...heard from my Sweetheart that he and his two business partners were given a contract to inspect a large number of small overpasses on Quebec's North Shore. I don't know yet when he will be leaving, but it will be either this weekend or early next week. It was very short notice though, so he has been incredibly busy since they got the contract. I may not be seeing him for a while...

2011-09-15T17:46:00.000-04:00

This week's Skywatch feature is this photo of Montreal's Christ Church Cathedral and the KPMG tower this past Saturday afternoon.

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

Have a great weekend and thanks for stopping by!

Today I...September 14th

2011-09-14T20:48:00.001-04:00

Today I...

...am sharing another view of Christ Church Cathedral with you. It's impossible to get a photo of the entire façade at once without being across the street from the church and then you have to compete with the traffic to get your shot. It's no big deal for though, because then I get to be creative with the angles of my shots when doing a closeup :o)

...had a pretty quiet day at work, except for the part where my boss called a meeting for 11:00 A.M....right before my usual lunch hour. I was a most unhappy camper because I get really cranky when I'm hungry. I therefore brought the yogurt I had planned to eat for dessert into the meeting with me and shamelessly ate it when I couldn't handle being hungry anymore. The boss didn't seem to mind, he actually had a good laugh about it after the meeting.

...went out to run some errands after work, namely to buy some cans of cat food. I love going to the pet supply store as the owner has his dog Boomer there most days and he always recognizes me and comes running up to greet me :o)

...am looking forward to Friday. I am a total advocate for the four day work week, but I do know that there is no way that will be happening for me any time soon!

Today I...September 13th

2011-09-13T22:47:00.000-04:00

Today I...

...am sharing this photo of Montreal's Christ Church Cathedral with you. It is the seat of the bishop of the Anglican church in Montreal and is one of Montreal's landmark churches. Dating back to 1859, it sits literally in the heart of Montreal's shopping and business district, right in between The Bay, Montreal's oldest department store (The Bay, also known as the Hudson's Bay Company is in fact the oldest retail company in North America, dating back to 1670 and they now supply the official uniforms for Canada's Olympic teams), and the KPMG tower which was designed to fit in architecturally with the Cathedral's neo-gothic architectural style. This is the first of a series of photos that I took while out shopping on Saturday, I'm so happy to finally have some new photos to show you!

...didn't feel tired until about a half hour ago despite not putting out my light until 12:30 A.M. after getting caught up in my new book, Kimberly Freeman's 'Wildflower Hill'. It is a perfect summer read, very interesting a easy to get through. I'll probably be done with it by Wednesday next week at the latest.

...am seriously considering investing in a Kobo reader. While I love the feeling of having a book in my hands and leafing through it, the fact is that ebooks are cheaper and I do not have much money. The less expensive way of reading is looking like the way to go for me and there is also the fact that it would be eco-friendly. I don't know, I'll have to really look at how much I could save and then make the leap once I've reconciled myself to the thought of no longer reading paper books.

...pulled my kitchen table out into the middle of the kitchen and managed to open up the plastic light cover over my burnt out kitchen light (good thing I had a spare lamp sitting unused on my living room floor when the light bulb blew the other day, otherwise I would have been in trouble) and was flabbergasted to see the most complicated neon bulbs I had ever seen. Two circular neon tubes connected to a 120V box...what the heck??? I took a picture of them and sent them off to my Sweetheart and am waiting for his advice on what to do with them, but one thing is for sure, I will not be changing them on my own as I have no idea where to begin and while I can reach them, I still have to reach a bit too much to be able to make full use of my dexterity and the last thing I want is to drop one of the bulbs and have it smash and spread mercury all over the kitchen with my cats around! I hate neon bulbs...especially when they're hanging from a ceiling that is at least 10 feet high.

Today I...September 11th

2011-09-11T21:39:00.001-04:00

Today I...

...am sharing this Ikea ad with you. Their ads are brilliant as a general rule, but being a cat and music fan, I find this one particularly good :o)

...am back to posting after taking Friday and yesterday off. I actually was going to post yesterday, but then ended up getting a wonderful invitation to my Sweetheart's. I'm sure you'll forgive me for skipping out on you guys for that :o)

...had a wonderful day with my Sweetheart. We got up late, then headed out to watch the Montreal Grand Prix of cycling and then we had lunch with a few of his friends before going for a walk in Mont Royal park and watching the cyclists go by us two more times.

...got home around 4:00 P.M. and did the ironing, vacuuming and putting away of laundry that I was planning on doing last night.

...went back out, this time for sushi and ice cream with my brother. Yum!!!

...spent quite a bit of time thinking back to how different today was from September 11th, 2001. So many smiling, carefree faces. The weather was just as gorgeous today as it was on this day 10 years ago, but this time everyone I saw was so happy. It was almost like looking at how September 11th, 2001 should have gone rather than how it did go. I'm sure that a lot of other people were thinking the same thing.

Skywatch Friday

2011-09-08T18:29:00.000-04:00

This week's Skywatch feature is this photo of the façade of Toronto's Union Station with the CN Tower in the background. I was hoping for nice, blue skies for this photo, but it was quite cloudy when I left Toronto on Monday. I'm not too disappointed with the photo though since I do find the contrast between all the buildings and the sky quite interesting.

To see more Skywatch photos from around the world, visit the Skywatch Friday blog. Enjoy your weekend!

Today I...September 7th

2011-09-07T23:00:00.000-04:00

Today I...

...am sharing this photo of the Bixi station outside Union Station in Toronto. I was quite happy to see Bixi bikes going around Toronto as it shows how Montreal and Toronto can have impacts on each other. The Bixi bicycle sharing project started out in Montreal two years ago and is based on the bicycle sharing project in Paris. Since starting in Montreal, New York has tried out the project and is planning to launch it within a few months and Boston and Washington are also trying it out. It is a hugely popular program in Montreal and is contributing to our becoming a greener city all the time :o)

...got a ride home from D so I could get my box of Mexican food out of the office. Now I am left with one question: what in the heck am I going to do with five cans of re-fried beans???

...practically drooled while listening to the Montreal Symphony Orchestra's inaugural concert in their new concert hall. It was Beethoven's 9th symphony and I have never heard it sound so good. I do believe that our new Maison de la Symphonie (Symphony House in English), as the new concert hall is called, rivals Toronto's Four Seasons Center. I can't wait to go and visit it during one of the open house days between tomorrow and Sunday :o)

Today I...September 6th

2011-09-06T18:28:00.000-04:00

Today I...

...am back to blogging after a nice, long weekend off!

...am sharing these two photos I took inside Toronto's Union Station with all of you. As many of my followers, who have been with me for quite a while know, I spent I great deal of time in this station over the two years that my Sweetheart was on contract in Toronto. The first time I went to visit him in Toronto, we actually met right by the arrivals and departure board in these photos. I understandably was never very interested in looking around the station since the most time I spent there was while waiting to get on the train home. Not a very cheery experience and I had to do it a dozen times, so yesterday while I was waiting to get on the train, I actually had to keep reminding myself that I was coming back to Montreal where my Sweetheart is, rather than leaving him behind in Toronto.

...am happy to report that I acquired many baby care talents while visiting with my family this weekend and helping care for my cousin's six week old baby. I notably became extremely comfortable handing a wriggly baby, learned how to burp him and most importantly changed my first dirty diaper. I also learned that babies, even at six weeks old, notice everything you do, to the point where I spent a lot of time playing the 'face making' game with him, it was so much fun and so amazing!

...had a relatively quiet day at work.

...received, of all things, a box of Mexican food from a pilgrim who came to visit this summer. I helped him plan his visit to the Oratory and referred him to his tour guide, so he sent both a guide and I a box of canned Mexican food from, according to the Oratory's resident American priest who is from Chicago, the best Mexican food company there. I'm curious to taste it, but I'll have to wait until D can drive me home to get the stuff to my place and taste it since the box is too heavy for me to carry all the way home on the bus. This box of food is by far the most...original take on a tip that I have ever come across.

Skywatch Friday

2011-09-01T22:00:00.001-04:00

This week's Skywatch feature is this photo of Toronto's CN Tower, one of the world's tallest buildings and for many years, the world's tallest freestanding structure from 1975 to 2007. It has since been trumped a few times, namely by the famous Burj Khalifa tower in Dubai.

To see more Skywatch photos from around the world, you can head over to the Skywatch Friday blog.

And now for my regular readers, an update since I skipped yesterday's 'Today I...' post. I'm happy to report that I have succeeded in saving my remaining fish, who seem to have suffered to ill effects from the high water temperature they had to endure the other day.

I spent yesterday evening and last night at my Sweetheart's place and we had a lovely time, but I was rather late for work this morning. When I got to the office I wrote to him to tell him that we're going to have to either set the alarm earlier or I'm going to have to launch myself out of bed as soon as the alarm goes when I stay at his place, which is not something I enjoy doing under normal circumstances and certainly not when I'm with him. I mean, who doesn't like to cuddle with their significant other upon waking up in the morning? Anyhow, I also proposed that we stick alternate weeks, when it comes to whose place we stay at, because I really do live close to work so that way we can get up later without my having to worry about being late...or at least not 25 minutes late like I was this morning.

I finished reading Erik Larson's 'In the Garden of Beasts' on Monday during my lunch hour and have been reading Kathryn Stockett's 'The Help' since Monday night. I am really enjoying it so far and think it will keep me quite busy on the train tomorrow! In the Garden of Beasts is a good book, but definitely not light, cheerful reading as it is a non-fiction book about the US ambassador who was in service during the pre-war years of Hitler's leadership of Germany.

I'm leaving for Toronto tomorrow afternoon, it's going to be my first visit there since my Sweetheart moved back to Montreal in March and I think it is going to be quite an interesting feeling being there while he is not. The last time I went to Toronto just to visit my family was back in late November of 2008, at which point I was there for a job interview thinking that I was going to move there since I was having so much trouble finding permanent work here and also couldn't stand the idea of living so far from my Sweetheart for two years. Looking back now I am very glad that the job didn't work out and that I stayed here. Sometimes there's no point trying to get around something difficult, you just have to go through it and once you have, you understand why God (in my case), or fate put it in your path.

See you all next week, possibly Monday or if not, then Tuesday :o)

Today I...August 30th

2011-08-30T21:00:00.003-04:00

Today I...

...am sharing this picture I took out of the car window while passing through the Eastern Townships a few years ago Quebec is generally a hilly province, but we do have the occasional flat expanse like this one.

...had a fairly busy day at work. I made the 'traffic' calendars for the nativity scene museum, dining hall and guided tours for November and December so we can avoid overbooking on any of them. I finished them at lunch time and by the end of the day I had already penciled in some changes. I'll print out new ones with the changes before leaving on Thursday.

...practiced my music for choir. I am seriously excited about our Christmas concert this year, it is going to be lovely :o)

...am waiting for my Sweetheart to call me back. I haven't had a chance to speak to him since leaving his place on Thursday morning last week because we both got so busy. We've e-mailed, though, so at least there's that!

Today I...August 29th

2011-08-29T22:48:00.002-04:00

Today I...

...am feeling better than I ended up feeling yesterday. The pilgrimage to Mont-St-Grégoire as such went well, but the trip home was Hell. The rain was coming down in sheets and the wind was the strongest I've ever seen. We saw trees snapped in two on the road to the highway and then once on there, we got stuck in traffic for a good two and a half hours. The morons at Transport Canada had left all the cones and construction signs on the Champlain Bridge despite the fact that they had been warning us about Irene for a good two days. I knew there would be trouble when we crossed the bridge on the way to Mont-St-Grégoire in the morning and the cones and signs were still there and by the time we came to go home the wind was blowing at 100+ kms per hour on the bridge and the cones and signs were being blown all over the span. The worst part is, they kept the bridge open. We missed our only opportunity to turn off and go take the next closest bridge, the Jacques Cartier and so spent two hours waiting to get on the bridge and a very scare half hour crossing it. The wind was shaking the bus, the rain was horizontal and blowing in under the door and through the gaps in a few windows and we were right up along the guard rail of the bridge and could see the water churning below. I was so stressed out and so scared by the whole experience that by the time we finally made it off the bridge I had a wicked headache. I don't want to go anywhere near a bridge in high winds ever again.

...went into work an hour late since I did so much overtime yesterday.

...turned up the heat in my fish tank before leaving because it was getting a bit chilly in there.

...started choir practice up again, so my Monday night posts may become rather sparse.

...had a blast singing.

...got home and came into the living room to get the glass I use to thaw my fish food in and found my four little raspboras dead. I was shocked and very sad and then I saw that the temperature in the fish tank had gone sky high during the day. Quinn must have gone to lie on top of the tank as she often does and nudged the dial higher. I only have three fish left now, a gourami, my albino plecostamus and a rainbow...something or other. I can never remember the rest of his species name. I have done everything I can to save those three and they seem okay, so I'll just have to hope they're still okay tomorrow morning. I love having fish and am very good at keeping them, but they are so fragile. I will see about getting a cat proof heater in two weeks when I get paid and until then will be paranoid about the heater!!!

Today I...August 27th

2011-08-27T21:43:00.003-04:00

Today I...

...am sharing these photos from the last time I took a trip up to Saint Brother André's birthplace in Mont-St-Grégoire with you. Mont-St-Grégoire is a village about 45 minutes south-east of Montreal. As you can see, it is a lovely, peaceful place and the weather was lovely when we went there. We sat down under a tree, my friends S, M and I and had a picnic. I'm heading back out there tomorrow and I wish I could say I was enthusiastic about it, but I'm not. I was when D and M (the same M I was on the picnic with) convinced me that I should go on Wednesday this week. They were announcing lovely weather and Irene didn't look like she was going to bother us at all. Now, however, we are in for a full blow tropical storm with buckets of rain and winds between 50 and 100 kms per hour out of the north east. Dear Lord what I wouldn't give to be able to stay home in bed with a good book.

...did my vacuuming.

...headed out to the West Island for an appointment and to hunt down a rain coat.

...found a rain coat on special for 79.99$, which came up to 91.13$ after taxes. It looks lovely on me and I'm sure will help keep me dry and warm tomorrow (it has a nice little fleece lining), but it left a major dent in my savings account. Oh well, at least it is a good coat and it will last me a long time.

...am enjoying the yummy smell of the bolognese sauce I made.

...am going to try my best to be in bed by 11:00 P.M. so I won't be too tired to get up tomorrow morning. Only one day to get over a full work week is not enough.

Today I...August 26th

2011-08-26T21:56:00.004-04:00

Today I...

...am sharing another photo from my Humber River canoe ride with all of you since you enjoyed yesterday's so much. Those are other members of my family way back there in the second canoe and kayak. My aunt, uncle and a fist cousin once removed and his wife. Yes, I have a very large family. Family reunions on my mother's side of the family always involve 80+ people, we're probably actually closer to 100 now and yes, I've met all of them more than once and can usually recognize them when I see them in a family setting.

...am feeling financially frustrated. I'm going through one of those phases that happen a few times a year when my pays are not coordinated with when I need money, as in I got paid Wednesday at Midnight, my rent (690$) is not due until the 1st and the cheque will more than likely not be deposited until at least the 6th because of the long weekend. I also had to pay my cable and Internet bill (99.81$), will have to buy my transit pass for September this coming week (72.50$), bought groceries today (58$ and change), will need groceries next week as well (count another 50-60$) and will have to pay for my Hydro (48$ and change). That's already over 1000$, my pay was 882$ and change. My next pay isn't for another two weeks, so I will not have any choice but to use my credit card and my savings account to pay for certain things, like the Hydro bill. I am also in dire need of new shoes because the soles on the ones I have are just about gone and they take in water and no matter how much I polish them, they look scuffed in no time flat and I just can't hide it anymore. I need new fall-winter clothes because the ones I do have are mostly from 2007 and they are looking faded and worn and I still owe my Sweetheart 100$ for our trip to L.A. because he paid for pretty much everything while we were there since my bank account had been hacked just before we left. I will also have to pay my dues for the fall session of my choir (another 100$) and I would really like to have a rain coat for Sunday because I'm accompanying a group of pilgrims for the Oratory's annual pilgrimage to Brother Andre's birthplace in the Eastern Townships and we will be right smack dab in the middle of what will be left of Hurricane Irene with 100 km per hour winds and 50+ mm of driving rain. The kind of weather that makes an umbrella pointless and even cumbersome...but I don't have a rain coat and from what I can see they cost at least 80-100$. *SIGH* I am sick to bloody death of being POOR!!! I wish I could wake up tomorrow morning and find a huge pot of 100$ bills outside my door...or at least a pair of shoes and a rain coat. In my dreams...

...am done venting now. My apologies, but you must admit it is a rather rare occurrence. I hadn't felt this short on money for a while, but everything always seems to dump down on me at once. That and I'm feeling now the fact that I bought some much needed running shoes (I had been needing them for over a year) back in July and paid the bill for them the last time I got a pay cheque that I didn't have to pay rent with, which made me short this month. I knew it would happen, but that doesn't mean it doesn't stress me out and piss me off any less. Going broke for getting a pair of shoes I needed. Ugh...