Author Archives: Sherry

What I wish I was doing right now

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In all honesty, I am thrilled to be doing Blogathon this year. It’s my fourth time doing it (and my fourth time doing it to raise funds for the UNHCR, I am nothing if not loyal to my cause!), and I love it. Yes, it’s exhausting. During the day it feels like I’m constantly rushing. Then at night when everyone has gone to bed and I’m still up it’s exhausting because there’s less stimulation and less that I can do to keep busy in between posts. I also know that tomorrow will be an utter write-off for anything as I try to catch up on sleep and whatnot.

Still, there were two years that I couldn’t participate because I was away and I was sad to not do it. If I wasn’t participating right now I know I would regret not signing up. So, I am thrilled to be doing this, and I’m raising a nice amount of money so far!

But I’d be lying if I didn’t admit that part of me would rather be doing this:

17/365 - Parkbathing

Our summer has been overwhelmingly craptacular what with the amount of rain we’ve had and the cooler temperatures. Montreal has a very long and brutal crazy-making winter. It would be nice to be able to enjoy what summer we get (though admittedly I’m glad we haven’t been having those crazy high humidex readings that we’re known for!). I took that picture of myself on Tuesday at the park (having a remote for my camera is a nice perk) and I’m glad I went because the sun disappeared after that day and has yet to come back in full force – just the occasional break through the clouds.

I don’t want a picture-perfect summer, the rain has been good for the grass and all, but I’d like more days in the sun, catching some vitamin D if that’s okay!

(Interestingly though, I just realized that minus the shoes and the shades, that’s exactly what I’m wearing right now!)

Please consider sponsoring me while I do the Blogathon for the UNHCR!

The five household chores I wish would magically go away

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In my previous post I admitted to cleaning my desk up quickly before snapping a shot of it. While I wish that it was always neat and tidy, the truth is I frequently end up with piles of paper and books and a plate as well as whatever glass or cup I’m using. It gets messy quickly, but it’s better than it was when I just had a table with no drawers!

This leads to the new list I’ll post for you…

Five Household chores that I wish would disappear:

  1. Washing dishes. I wouldn’t mind dishes so much except I don’t have a dishwasher so everything that we use – every plate or pot or cup – must be hand washed. I hate washing dishes, gah.
  2. Cleaning/changing the litter box. My cat has one advantage over my dog – she can use a litter box so on really cold or rainy or snowy days I don’t have to take her out. She just goes. My dog has an advantage over the cat though – no litter box to clean. Blargh. I’d love one of those automated self-cleaning boxes!
  3. Dusting. Which is kind of funny because I don’t do it often enough to really complain, mostly because I don’t think of it. But when I notice things are getting dusty, goodness, what a pain it is.
  4. Folding laundry. I do pretty well with laundry until it comes time to fold it and put it away. Laundry folding is one of those things that a lot of people seem to enjoy in some zen sort of way. Alas, I am not one of those people.
  5. Changing the beds. I don’t mind making the bed, it’s fast and easy but for some reason it feels like it takes forever to completely strip and re-make the bed from scratch. I grumble a lot while doing it.

These all seem like silly complaints. I’m blogging for the UNHCR to help refugees. Refugees would love to have the chance to wash their dishes, dust their homes, or even to have proper beds to change. These people are living in camps, some of them in tents instead of homes. I have so little to complain about when I think about the things that I’ve read. Please support the UNHCR, they can’t do it without us.

Please consider sponsoring me while I do the Blogathon for the UNHCR!

Blogathon Challenge – My workspace

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Over on the Blogathon page they issued a fun challenge to give us all something to do – they want to see our workspace!

Alas, it would have been more fun to show you my laptop alongside a fruity beverage on a deck overlooking the pool at my friends’ house, but for the time being this is my workspace right here:

Blogathon ahoy

This is my desk where I am frequently found when I’m working or at night when I’m playing with photos or browsing Flickr. My desk is in the corner of the living room. My lifestyle is such that as much as I would appreciate a quiet room with a door, it’s more practical to be in the living room. This is the room where my kids play most frequently so I get to be where they are, the dog is out here, and at night I can watch TV while I’m on my laptop so it all works out.

If you click through on the image I’ve included notes over on Flickr explaining some of the stuff on and around my desk.

I fully admit it – I cleaned my desk quickly before taking this picture. I had a big pile of papers on the left hand corner and a plate from lunch. It looks much better now!

And yes, you may have noticed I have a huge fondness for New York City. I still haven’t been there, but I hope to go one day!

Completely off-topic, if anyone could go back to this post of mine from earlier today and make me feel better by sharing an equally embarrassing story, I’d be most grateful!

(Thank you to my recent sponsors, you are all totally making my day!)

Please consider sponsoring me while I do the Blogathon for the UNHCR!

The wild zoo of animals I have had as pets

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Since I mentioned that my dog Pearl is keeping me company in my last post (along with a couple of photos that do not demonstrate how nuts she is), I thought my next list should be…

Pets I have had in my 35 years of life:

  1. Cats – I’ve had five cats total. Growing up at home I had Satan (no really!) and Sargent. Since moving out I’ve also had Cricket, Caesar, and Angel. I still have Cricket. She would be keeping me company too but she’s neurotic like you wouldn’t believe and hides in the bathroom all day. This is Cricket:
    Pretty kitty
  2. Dogs – I had a dog named Baloo who was the Most Perfect Dog Ever but alas, he lives with my ex, I haven’t seen my sweet puppy in about ten years. I hear he’s getting old but doing well. And now I have Pearl who may end up giving me more gray hair than my kids will.
  3. Lizards – I had an awesome iguana named Henry and a Tokay gecko named Liz (Liz was unexpected, I found her when I moved into one of my apartments, the previous tenants had abandoned the poor thing).
  4. Rats – When Hayley was little we got “her” (me) two rats, Mozart and Nicodemus. Totally cool pets but they don’t live long enough. This is them, Mozart was the beige one, Nicodemus was the dark one.
    021705-rats
  5. Hamsters – We’ve had two hamsters named Henry since Hayley was born, and I had two at my parents’ place named Gypsy and Cara. Also don’t live long enough.
  6. Rabbit – I had a super awesome dwarf rabbit named Socks, I miss her.
  7. Fish – Tons and tons of goldfish.
  8. Random odd pets – Sea Monkeys which were kind of cool and I once had a baby crow that I rescued about 11 years ago, but it didn’t survive the internal injuries it sustained after falling from the nest and being attacked by a cat. I did my best with advice from a vet but it died in my hands two days later. His name was Beaker and he was ADORABLE.

Lots of pets. I think I was a zookeeper in a past life!

Keeping me company at the moment

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Right now I’ve got a little bit of company. First off I have Pearl.

Pearl

Pearl is a purebred Beagle that we got from the SPCA last September when she was just under three months old. Now that she’s just over a year old we’re still waiting for her to CALM THE HELL DOWN. For the record, when people say that Beagles are “stubborn” they’re being polite and toning it down because in all honesty, stubborn is not a strong enough word for it. Hyper and overactive combined with years and years of genetics which make them ignore you completely while out on a walk makes for an interesting dog. She’s lucky she’s cute and is having more good days than bad ones lately because for awhile I had considered trading her in for a nice quiet goldfish.

WTF?

(Pico, my Blogathon monitor, has a Beagle too, so she inspired me to share!)

Swimming doesn’t look like it’s likely to happen today which is too bad since I was looking forward to blogging poolside, but on the other hand it might have ended up really tiring me out so maybe it’s not so bad. Hayley’s still over there since she slept over but Breanna is keeping me company too.

Breanna the computer geek

George put a computer together for the kids not too long ago because we didn’t want them using ours (I need mine for work and George needs his for work and for creating music) so now they have their own. It blows my mind how well my three year old child can navigate her way through games.

Who’s keeping you company today?

Please consider sponsoring me while I do the Blogathon for the UNHCR!

Most recently played music

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Having just talked about music in my last post (and the embarrassing things I do when something good comes on), I thought I’d share a peek at my iPod and what iTunes* says are the songs I’ve listened to most recently.

  1. Black Eyed Peas – Boom Boom Pow
  2. Jason Mraz – Plane (favorite of all his songs!)
  3. Jason Mraz – Wordplay
  4. Jason Mraz – Geek in the Pink
  5. Jason Mraz – Butterfly (what do you mean do I like Jason Mraz? What makes you think that?! Seriously though, he is BRILLIANT)
  6. Adam Lambert – Mad World (good LORD this was amazing)
  7. KT Tunstall – Black Horse and the Cherry Tree
  8. Britney Spears – Piece of Me (sad but true!)

What’s on your mp3 player?

*Am I the only one or does iTunes suck? I love Apple and would love to own a Mac, the iPod is great, blablabla. But man I HATE iTunes. It’s a total hassle and isn’t all that intuitive.

The dangers of an iPod and good music

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I have an iPod Touch that I absolutely love. For one thing, as long as there’s an open wireless network in the vicinity I can get online and that’s just cool. For another, I’m able to listen to music when I take the dog for a long walk (or when I do the dishes which is such a frickin’ boring chore without music – I have no dishwasher, sob!).

284/365 - Geeks R Us

There is a downside to the iPod though, or really any kind of mp3 player. See, I love music. Most people do, right? I also love to sing. I can usually carry a tune but I don’t feel like I’m a great singer or anything so I try not to do it too loud when people can hear me. I ALSO love to dance. I can’t remember the last time I was out dancing somewhere, it’s been a long time now, but oh, it’s just fun to dance.

You see where this is going right?

So there I was the other day, out walking the dog and enjoying the day and my music. Finally she had to stop and do her business so while I waited for her to pace back and forth eight hundred times in search of the Perfect Pee Spot (WTF? Why do dogs DO that?!) I was standing still. And the song that came on was awesome.

And I forgot where I was. Which is why I suddenly realized that I was dancing and shaking my ass on the SIDEWALK IN PUBLIC HOLY HELL. Seriously. It wasn’t a brief shuffle, I was DANCING on the sidewalk for a good ten seconds before I noticed what I was doing and that it wasn’t just in my head. I can only be thankful that it was a quiet street but I’m still pretty sure that one person saw me and was doing his best not to laugh out loud at me. Gah.

For the record, I’m a big American Idol dork fan and this year my number one choice was the runner up. I have the studio version of all his songs that he did on the show, and this is what I was dancing to like a fool.

Did I mention the IN PUBLIC ON THE STREET part?! Sigh.

Please consider sponsoring me while I do the Blogathon for the UNHCR!

Favorite foods to eat

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After my last post where I lamented over lunch, reader Shelly emailed me to ask me what my favorite foods are. First of all, thanks for the post idea, this makes a perfect list (and please feel free to email me with other topic suggestions!). So!

My favorite things to eat in no particular order:

  1. Butter chicken – I will eat pretty much any Indian food at this point, but I still have a long-term love affair with Butter chicken; I even loved that back when I thought I didn’t like Indian food. God I was a silly person – Indian food is DELICIOUS, what’s not to like?!
  2. Chinese food – But really, I need to clarify more than that. Not take-out Chinese food. I mean REAL Chinese food, the kind you get in Chinatown in restaurants where at least half the clients are actually Chinese and the menu isn’t completely in English (or French around here). And my favorite Chinese food at all is a really good Cantonese Chow Mein, oh my GOD I’m hungry now.
  3. The cactus appetizer at Three Amigos – There’s a place downtown where we used to order Mexican food when we worked at the studio and they had this amazing cactus appetizer. It was sauteed with spices, placed on a giant tortilla, and buried in shredded melted cheese. It was stupidly delicious. I don’t know why we ever ordered anything to go with it, we should have just ordered double the appetizers!
  4. Chocolate – I love dark chocolate, and Lindt makes this amazing Cherry Chili bar that is so good I swooned the first time I ate it (rich, and bitter, and then sweet cherry flavors, then a surprise zing of chili!) but seriously I am not a chocolate snob. If it has any chocolate in it at all I will happily eat it. The only thing I don’t like is chocolate with nuts in it. Blech.
  5. Chips – I have a serious salt addiction. As much as I love chocolate I will choose the saltiness of chips over it any day. I can easily wipe out a giant bag of chips in two night and really, I could eat it in one if I didn’t restrain myself.
Butter chicken

Mmmm, butter chicken. Why yes, I could TOTALLY go for Indian food for supper tonight thanks.

What are your favorite things to eat?

Please consider sponsoring me while I do the Blogathon for the UNHCR!

Lunch time is my least favorite time of day

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I must admit that I’m not fond of the pre-bedtime chaos either, but lunch time is probably my least favorite time of the day. And considering the fact that I’m not a morning person – which means I’m not thrilled with getting up – the fact that lunch gets the big award says a lot.

Blogathon eating

The reason I hate lunch so much is that I hate figuring out what to eat. I feel kind of strange for saying this when you consider that I’m blogging for refugees right now, people who have no luxury of being able to actually CHOOSE what they get to eat, sometimes not even eating at all if there’s no food. But seriously. Breakfast is always easy and supper’s not too big of a deal. It’s lunch that is a pain.

I don’t like to cook in the middle of the day so I’m not often liable to stand at the stove making something fresh and tasty. That leaves me with leftovers that can be heated in the microwave or sandwiches. I ate so many sandwiches in high school that they’re not exactly my favorite thing to eat these days, but there aren’t always leftovers from supper.

Last night we ate at McDonald’s because we took the kids and one of Hayley’s friends there to eat and then to see Ice Age 3 at the theater. Thus, no leftovers. I’m not feeling the urge to cook anything up. Hmmm. Okay, PB & J it is!

Not my favorite, but hey, it will do!

Please consider sponsoring me while I do the Blogathon for the UNHCR!

Six ways your donations to the UNHCR help the refugees

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For those of you who have already sponsored me (thank you!) or those of you who are considering pledging at some point I thought this would be useful for you to know…

Six ways your donations to the UNHCR help the refugees:

  1. $50 helps register 150 exhausted refugees to assess their needs and trace their families
  2. $80 provides tents to shelter a family of five
  3. $100 gives a family a survival kit including blankets plus a cooking/heating stove
  4. $200 pays for emergency health for a community
  5. $500 creates two wells to provide clean water to a community of refugees
  6. $1000 gives a feeding kit that will feed 100 children

Even if you only pledge $5, it all accumulates and gets put towards any one of these things, whichever is most in need at any given time.

Sometimes people are put off by the registration assistance. How is that as helpful as blankets or food or clean water to drink? The truth is it’s VERY important for refugees to be registered at the various UN-supported camps. Without registration a refugee can’t be assured of consistent help, be it food or water or a place to sleep. Also, families often become separated when they flee a war-torn region. Parents may be separated from their children, spouses may not know where the other is, siblings may worry that they didn’t get out safely. By registering, a refugee can try to locate important people when they arrive at a safe location.

Every bit of money donated helps in a very serious way. Please don’t think that what you can spare is too little – it’s not. When you have no money at all, no home, no food, and no help other than a wonderful organization like the UNHCR, there’s no such thing as too little.

Internally Displaced Pakistanis Prepare To Return Home

Please consider sponsoring me while I do the Blogathon for the UNHCR!