Without looking this up on a map please leave a comment and tell me where you think MOROCCO is. No cheating please!
My friend Marianne knows someone that lives in Morocco and we were having a conversation about it and she asked me where I thought it was (Geography used to be one of my stronger subjects, obviously not anymore!). I told her what I thought (I'll let you know what I said in a couple days), I was wrong and she said she had thought exactly the same thing. Her Moroccan friend thought we were crazy, how could we possibly not know where this was!! This is the reason for my survey, we think most people will guess what we did so please let me know.
C'mon all you lurkers, I'd like to hear from you! You don't have to sign up, just go to comments and click on anonymous. If you want to leave your name, you can add it to the bottom of your comment. Thanks!!

Do you ever feel like you're totally losing control of things going on in your life? I'm feeling that way to a certain degree lately and for someone like myself who's very organized and schedule oriented, it makes things very difficult.
I won't go into details but let's just say that decision making for me is always a well thought out procedure. I've been told recently that I'm a very logical thinker and it was told to me as if it was a bad thing. I don't generally fly by the seat of my pants, not that I'm not spontaneous, I like a last minute adventure as much as the next person but I do like to know what the results of a decision are going to be and the process along the way, unlike some people that decide now and think later. I don't want to be surprised or disappointed with the end result of something if just thinking it through to the end would have made a world of difference.
And it's not like I became this way because of disappointments I've suffered along life's little roads, I've been very lucky. Sure, there's the odd decision I might change in hindsight but nothing major. Ok, the way work is lately, maybe a slight career change...LOL!!
So I'm curious, are there people out there that make life changing decisions on a whim and hope for the best or for the most part am I in the majority with people that think things through?

I have a confession to make...I love singing along to songs...any song...but sometimes I am totally lyrically challenged. There are some songs I have absolutely no idea what the heck they are saying but I still sing loud and proud and do my best to fake the fact I'm making some of it up as I go along.
For example, one of my favourite songs right now is How To Save A Life by The Fray. Have you listened closely to it? Is it just me? It sounds like they're not forming any words, one just slurs into the next....Inohowtusavealife...ok, maybe it's not THAT bad but sometimes I just don't get it!

Have you seen the Cingular commercial with the two guys singing along to Rock The Casbah?
They come up with lines like:
the beat had some cataracts
the sheep don't like it
lock the cash box
stop the cat box
It is hilarious...that is so me!!!

I'm now going to tell a very embarassing story which may not come across nearly as funny as it did at the time, and hopefully it won't seem quite so embarassing anymore either!
A few years ago, my husband and I went to Montreal for a few days with two other couples. It was just a mini vacation, Canadiens game, gambling, that sort of thing. We shared two hotel rooms that were adjoining and in between drinking, oops, I mean, shopping and dinner we were in the rooms and for some reason I was singing Take A Chance On Me by Abba. I have no idea why, it must have been on the radio or something. It's not the kind of song I would generally sing in front of other people. So I sing "olly oxen free, take a chance on me" and one of the guys, NOT the girls, says "that's not the words!". It's bad enough being called out about it but to have it done by someone who's 6 foot four and goes by the nickname of Ox...totally humiliating!! Anyway, I'm adamant that I'm right, I'm sure that's what they say, I should know, I LOVE Abba...how could this country bumpkin (and I say that in the most loving way!) possibly know the words to an Abba song! To top it off, he didn't know what the right words were...he was just positive that mine were wrong! So after much debating and laughing so hard I thought we were all going to pee our pants, I think we finally just moved on to some other "hot topic". And of course the really embarassing part is that he was right...it's "honey I'm still free, take a chance on me". PLEASE listen carefully to this song sometime and sing it my way...you will swear I wrote it for them, it sounds soooo good!!!
Honey, I'm still free....whatever! Can you tell I have a hard time admitting when I'm wrong? This was years ago and I'm still slightly bitter about the whole thing! LOL!!!!

Happy Earth Day everyone!
It's time we all started being a little kinder to our planet...everyday though, not just on Earth Day. We've all heard about ways we can improve the environment but how many of us are actually making changes that will make a difference? I thought I was fairly informed but Oprah did a "GREEN" show on Friday and I was surprised how much I learned from it. Hopefully my list below will help you find ways to make a few changes.

1) DON'T TAKE AN ATM RECEIPT.
There are 8 billion ATM transactions a year. If everyone left their receipt, it would save a roll of paper 2 billion feet long. That's equivalent to circling the equator more than 15 times!
Another example would be pay-at-the-pump gas receipts.

2) GIVE UP ONE NAPKIN A DAY.
How many people go to Tim Hortons for bagels or doughnuts and get 2 or 3 napkins? I realized I'm very guilty of wasting napkins when I go to restaurants. When I take the kids, I always ask for extra napkins. This is one change I can easily make!
If everyone gives up just one napkin a day, we could save 1 billion pounds of paper waste from going to landfills.

3) USE REUSABLE SHOPPING BAGS at the grocery store. (Zehrs is selling them for $1 apiece)
Just choosing paper over plastic isn't enough anymore. The plastic bags take 1000 years to decompose. As far as the paper bags, it takes 14 million trees in one year to make the 10 billion paper bags that are used.

4) LOOK FOR MINIMALLY PACKAGED ITEMS.
They don't need to make products that have packaging inside of packaging. If possible, choose companies that use less. At least at the grocery store you may have some options. Things like toys aren't so easy, you don't have much choice when you're buying that "perfect" kids gift, which is too bad. That is one of my BIGGEST pet peeves...the packages that toys are sold in now! It drives me insane...one Barbie will have plastic then cardboard and more plastic and THOSE WIRES!!! If Barbie was in her package she could survive any tornado or hurricane that came her way...she'll never come out of that packaging! It's absolutely ridiculous....how about Polly Pockets...OY!!! If I thought it would do any good I'd start a letter writing campaign to toy companies. Anybody with me?

5) IF YOU HAVE TO BUY "PAPER" PLATES try to choose ones that are made from 100% recycled plastic.

6) LOOK FOR RECYCLED ALUMINUM FOIL. (if available here in Canada, I'm not sure)
I just checked mine and the packaging is recycled but not the foil.

7) PLANT A TREE.
Every person emits approximately 94 pounds of carbon dioxide every day. It takes 4 trees to offset the carbon dioxide we emit in a one month period.

8) USE POWER STRIPS.

9) CHANGE LIGHT BULBS TO COMPACT FLOURESCENT.
If every family changed just one light bulb, it would be the equivalent to carbon emissions from 800,000 cars.

10) RECYCLE.
It takes 100 years for glass to break down.
One four foot high stack of newspapers is equivalent to a 40 foot fir tree.

11) DON'T LEAVE WATER RUNNING.

12) TAKE SHORTER SHOWERS.

13) WASH CLOTHES IN COLD WATER.

14) CLEAN OUT YOUR DRYER'S LINT FILTER.

15) CHANGE THE WAY YOU CLEAN YOUR HOUSE.
Switch from toxic to non-toxic cleaning products. They said that with all the chemicals we use we're basically creating a "chemical cocktail" when we have our houses all closed up and the heat on in the winter and air conditioning in the summer.

Matt Damon was also on the show talking about a group (www.greendimes.com) that he was so impressed by, he's now on the board. They are a group that among other things, tries to reduce the amount of junk mail people receive. To become a member all you pay is a dime a day ($36.50 per year) and GreenDimes will work to reduce your junk mail by 70-90%. They also plant one tree every month for every member they have.
Every year, 100 million trees are chopped down and 28 billion gallons of water is wasted just to produce junk mail.

A couple of the ideas above are from a new book by Elizabeth Rogers that will be on sale June 19. It is called the Green Book and contains 500 ideas for making small changes that will help our environment.

What changes will you make?

Did anyone remember that today was April Fool's Day? I certainly didn't but my daughter did and boy, did she get me good! She stayed at my Mom and Dad's last night and first thing this morning she calls me, wakes me up (which means I wasn't quite with it!) and tells me in this pitiful whiny voice that my Mom made her sleep in the bedroom in the basement last night. I just laughed and didn't believe her but she was adamant and very convincing! I knew my mother wouldn't do that and asked Emily if Grandma slept there too then. She said no, she made her sleep down there all by herself! Thankfully that's as far as she went with it, good thing because I was getting a little worked up! She starts laughing and yells "April Fool's"!! Good one miss Emily and FABULOUS acting on your part! I'm in trouble aren't I? LOL!!