Tuesday, March 21, 2006

A hawaiian get-away...

Have not quite uploaded all the pictures from Hawaii... apparently I have maxed out my month of March Flickr picture upload quota limit. Peter said it wasn't worth getting the Pro account.. therefore people, bear with me as the month of April is not far away. I did manage to squeeze in like 12 pictures nonetheless... maybe I will upload more pictures using the old Hello method.

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The girls from the Comparative High Ed. department by Waikiki - Sher, Mardiana, Mary & Qian. Chele and Sher in their itty-bitty bikinis at Hanauma Bay.

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Mary & Sher ready for their presentation at the Hawaiian Convention Center... and night out with Laurence.

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Hanging loose at the Polynesian Cultural Center..

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Pictures taken from Diamond Head.. we made the hike up this past Saturday morning with dearest Laurence @ Captain @ Cornbread... long story with regards to the nicknames!!~ :P

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Here we are - Chele, Laurence and Sher... with the lovely sun shining upon us and a beautiful snapshot of Waikiki from the top of Diamond Head.

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Beaching out by Ala Moana Beach Park.. where the locals hang and away from the throngs of tourists.

*More pictures to come... gotta wait.. until then, you can always email me for more!~!

Monday, March 13, 2006

Aloha 'oe... it's spring break!

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I've got a few hours left before I board my flight to Honolulu. Getting my stuff packed, presentation all done and ready to go, and all the little ittie-bitty loose ends to tie up. Good news for the day was that I got my baby Cougar back... all fixed-up with a new front bumper and it also came back washed and interiors cleaned.

Gotta get back to packing... now, which bikini for which day??!
Aloha 'oe for now from Kelene (Sher's hawaiian name) :P

*Enjoy my favorite island favorite songs from Keali'i Reichel

Friday, March 10, 2006

Birthday shout-outs...

Happy birthday to two amazing guys...
Alex Beasley & Trevor Torcello

Alex: Hope all is well with you in San Antonio.. or where ever you may be. Chele & Sharon sends their birthday wishes and regards as well. We miss yoU!~
Trevor: So what are our plans tonight? How we celebrating the birthday?! :P

Wednesday, March 08, 2006

Baby Cougar strucked!!

It's about 7.10 p.m., I just got out of class... walked Mary to the bus stop and I went along my way to Jacob's 'A' - faculty parking lot to my car. It was already dark and the street lights were on and there sat on the third row of the semi-filled lot was my white & gleaming baby Cougar. I just had it washed yesterday.. getting rid of all that salt from the snow.

As I got closer... my Baby looked a bit odd.. something was out of place... something was not right...
MY FRONT BUMPER WAS ON THE GROUND!!

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There was a note sticking to my windshield wipers from the University Police and a little handwritten section that read,
" Your vehicle was struck by another vehicle call ###-@@@@ for info!"

I think with my front bumper not being attached to the body of my car was obvious enough that someone or something struck it!! The person who struck my car called campus police and reported everything, a witness was there too, so thank goodness for civic minded people.

I was in class.. so I had no clue this was all going on. They tried calling me on my cell and at work... thanks to Amy who was still in the office and tried to get a hold of me!!

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Chele was at the gym, so I called Sharon over with the camera to take plenty of pictures. I packed shoved stored the front bumper in the trunk of my car with Sharon's help and then attempted to drive home. Byes to my dear sister Sharon... so off I go... driving home.

Needless to say, I did not get far.. at all... after like a few hundred meters... I did not make it out of campus at all, loud weird noises can be heard and driving the condition was flappy / bumpy?! Hazard lights turned on and I pulled over... not a flat tire but some parts from the left-over front bumper is flapping wildly against the undercarriage of baby Cougar.

This time I called AAA to come and tow it to a fix-it shop and called Chele to come and get me.

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Mr. AAA - our savior for the night was a very pleasant guy... we didn't have to wait long... say about... 10-15 minutes. We trailed behind him with Baby Cougar in tow to a fix-it shop. Notice.. yours truly still very active in her photo-snapping moments.

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Baby Cougar being lowered back on the ground... and here's a shot of the front of the car.. minus the front bumper.

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Oh, look... I need to refill my windshield-wiper fluids soon, can you see it? It's getting low.... and doesn't my car look so... eer... naked without its little front bumper on?! Will get to the fix-it shop early tomorrow to fill whatever paperwork that needs to be done and give them the official nod in mending my Baby. Not to mention, gotta get a rental car from them to get myself to and from work.

*sigh.. the hassle of calling here and there, towing, fixing, repairing, car rental, etc... just the plain inconvenience of it all. But most important of all, no one was hurt.

Sunday, March 05, 2006

Chele's Birthday Dinner...

Not much time to rest and after a quick unpacking session which I did and a mini Tae-Bo session for Chele, we got ready and headed out to dinner at Carrabas with Lori, Chee Ming & Scotty.

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Chele's birthday....

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Happy Birthday to Chele... it's her day!!
Many happy returns of the day girlfriend / house-matey / sister / triplet / lush buddy / low-cardio impact partner, etc.
It's been a relaxing three day celebration of Chele's birthday together being with family in Rochester.

Wednesday, March 01, 2006

Fat Tuesday / Mardi Gras

Collecting beads and bar hopping on a weekday... crazy!!

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Steve looking festive with his beads and jester hat on... the guys just being themselves...

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Marcus, Wojtek & Sharon... Boris & Slavena...

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The sisters... taking their turn taking pictures with the rest of the guys... (Wojtek, Nasr, Chee Ming, Wnyx & Dave)

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The housemates vs. the Sisters...

Monday, February 27, 2006

A traumatic tale...

by Michele & Sherene

It was a normal Tuesday (2/21/06), Sherene came home from class and headed to the gym for her physical re-test & Low-Impact Aerobics... Michele headed to the gym from work also for her re-test and made it on time for Cardio variety sculpt class.

After a satisfying workout for both girls... they headed home and made dinner. After eating, they both sat down to watch American Idol while channel flipping back and forth to see the Olympic women's ice skating short program. Current time... 8:15 p.m.

Both Michele & Sherene were seated on the nice big red sofa couch watching the program when about 8:55 p.m. they caught something moved out of the corner of their eyes. Under the small crack of the basement door, a brown furry creature attempted to rush out to the living room... AAAaaaHHhhhhh....... shrieked both Michele & Sherene while they both immediately jumped up on the red couch. Their loud high-pitched screams made that icky disgusting brown furry creature to head back under the basement door. It was.... a.... MOUSE!!!

NOOOoooooooOOooooo.... it cannot be!!!

Imagine the girls' fear and fright for their lives as they did not know what to do. Lucky for them, their cell phones were at arms length... both girls reached hard for their phones while still standing tall on the shoulders of the red couch in frantic and attempts of calling for HELP were made. First 911 attempt made by both girls was to geta hold of Chee Ming... (where the heck were you?!?!!) . Sad to say and still in a mad panic... the girls could NOT get a hold of their usual Hero.... well, hero no more after that night.

Both girls had their eyes fixated at the bottom of the basement door, fearing for what may be another attempt of furry yucky brown creature coming up to the living room... the next 911 call was made. Sherene called Peter, the boyfriend.... Michele called Nancy, Peter's mother. So much for calling the boyfriend who just said... get a towel to stuff the door crack. Now, we were so terrified to step off the couch... so much to even move anywhere off the couch to retrieve a towel from upstairs. Michele got a hold of Nancy and was trying to relay her the frightful event. Unfortunately, with Michele and Sherene's blubbering and high-pitched screaming while crying in explaining the situation, Nancy could not comprehend what the whole commotion was about.

AAAAaaaHHHhHhhhhh.... sighting number #2... DAMN #&#*&^% mouse... this went on until sighting #8.. that darn pest was very insistent on coming up to watch the women's figure skating and american idol with us girls. Both girls dialed more numbers for help....

Michele called Lori, Scotty, Tim, Joe, Mike #1 and Mike #2... screaming at mouse sightings, crying and yelling for help stimutaneously...

The same goes for Sherene who called Scotty.. left a mesagge which was undecipherable to him who in turn called Michele back on her cellphone.

Sherene called Trevor, (who almost made it out of his door, but Sherene changed her mind - she needed someone to be there QUICK and fast!! Thanks for the offer Trevor!), then she called Mary to voice her plight for help. She later contacted Wojtek and begged for him to get over here. Thank you for coming with Prasanna and Sharon... but thank you nots for laughing over the phone and caught no mouse!!! Thank you nots also for not bringing Matt's gun over... drastic moments calls for drastic measures!

In fear for the lives... and sanity... both girls were still sat perched on the shoulder of the couch...
The time now: 9:50 p.m. Boom Boom Booom.....

AAAAAaaaaaHhhhhHhhhh...... huh?! NO MOUSE... it was the door.... *phew...

SAVIOR #1 = Scotty arrived with two mouse traps in hand. Even if he had no solution to the problem.. the fact that there was a MAN in the house.. no furry creature would dare come up from the basement. Scotty went down to the basement to check while brave Sherene climbed down the couch to retreive a towel from upstairs and to close the basement door after Scotty went down the basement.

BOom Boom Boom... AAAAAAaaaHHhhhhh...... doesn't anyone use the doorbell anymore?!! Stop banging on the front door and ring the blardy bell!!!

SAVIOR #2 & #3 arrived... Wojtek & Prasanna. Sharon who brought them to our place... jumped up on the couch with Michele who has been on the couch all this while.

While the guys went down the basement in search of the little devil... both girls were very relieved to gain some sanity and security back. After all that screaming, yelling, crying and terror... both girls went to bed after the saviors left.

If you wish to pick the girls brain on their horrendous experience.. you know which numbers to dial to get them to recant their tales.... we both say, NO to MOUSE!!

The End...

Sunday, February 26, 2006

Party over at Ali's...

I got back in Buffalo at almost about 11:00 p.m. on Friday night.. flight delays here and there.. but I got back okay. Thanks to Chele for circling around the airport!!!

Saturday morning.. got up early to get Mardiana and brought her to Leon's Hair Studio with me to get a hair cut. Yeap... short shoulder lenght hair for Sher again. I always like my hair around this length... it's managable :D

Later in the evening, we headed to Ali's to celebrate his birthday... plenty of home made Moroccan food and wine for everyone.

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Here's Mary and myself... and Ali, Mr. Birthday with the girls on his Morrocan sofa couch...

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The girls.. just being the girls as alwasy... wine and rosie cheeks.. get the drift?! ;P

Saturday, February 25, 2006

I survived Harvard!~

So, I was a little quiet around posting things up this past week.. and as I have previously mentioned, I was just swamped with presentations. I did a run through of my presentation for the CIES conference in class on Wednesday... let's just say there's room for improvement on that one. I gotta make some changes to that one..lucky me I still have time for that.

And the clincher for last week's mad panic rush was presenting at the graduate student research conference at Harvard on Friday. I must admit, I was pretty intimidated by the fact that I had to present there. I left Buffalo Thursday afternoon and got into Boston during end of office rush at 5:00 pm. I did manage to lugg my overnight bag with me up on and down the very packed tube - the Subway. Met up with Kelvin and had a very nice and relaxing dinner at Penang restaurant. Was really craving for Char Hor Fun. Thanks so much for dinner and it was great to see you again!! Can't wait 'till your summer trip to WNY!~

My presentation session was scheduled for the first session - 9:30 a.m. and I am so glad that it was early in the day so that I can just go through and be done with it. Verdict.. according to my discussant (Harvard profeosr) and also from the feedback from other attendees to my session... they enjoyed my presentation very much. I presented on affirmative action policies and meritocracy in Malaysian higher education system. I did better than what I expected... in fact, I think I kicked butt!!~! :P I was just glad that it was over with... *phew....

Had the camera with me... was just too occupied with conference stuff... here are a couple of the pictures I took....


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The conference was the Harvard Graduate School of Education's Student Research Conference and International Forum held in the Gutman Conference Center. Here's a picture of me and Joanne Hopper fom Central Michigan University and Patricia Seidler, alumnus for HGSE over lunch break.

Monday, February 20, 2006

Go Sher GO!!!

Ick... I have so much to do!~! Presentation(s) count... 2 this week and a preliminary write-up of a paper. Have to get my powerpoints done and ready to go... especially for that big presentation on Friday morning. Will let you all know how it all goes when I get through it! Wish me luck!!

Wednesday, February 15, 2006

A graduate student's Valentine's...



This comic is especially dedicated to Peter..... and myself... it so applies in our case.. only I am the crazy sugar-mama going for the Permanent head Damage degree!! Thanks for putting up with me and school!! *muaks....

Tuesday, February 14, 2006

Will you be my Valentine??

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Happy Valentine's Day everyone... won't you all be mine?! Geez.. aren't I a little wee bit greedy?! Anyways... it's one of my favorite day... not a holiday but just a day to not have any reason(s) to go ahead and gobble up as many chocolates as I can gather!! A toast to cupids, hearts, chocolates and Michael Bublé singing in the background.

To my dearest Peter... I miss you my Valentine!!

Saturday, February 11, 2006

More birthday pics...

Here are the pictures from Sharon's birthday celebration... part deux... these were taken right before we all headed out for dinner at Le Metro... brought the camera along.. too occupied to take pictures! Imagine that!~ Let's just say that the food and wine was exceptional that we forgot to record that delicious moment :P

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Cake time for the birthday girl!!

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Presents galore... and flowers from Wojtek...

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The girls and the guys with the birthday girl...

Sister's birthday...

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Sis, thinking of you
with love on your birthday
and wishing you
everything that brings
you happiness
today and always!
Happy Birthday Sharon!!
We hope your day is special just like you!

lotsa love...
XoXoX
Sherene & Peter & Michele

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Thanks to Wnyx for initiating a midnight birthday surprise for Sharon... friends Jonas and Martin joined in the mini celebration!

Friday, February 10, 2006

Chee Ming's day..

Who's next on the birthday shout-outs??

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To the coolest, friendliest and most fun-loving guy us girls can ever have...
Happy Birthday Chee Ming!~!~
Have a safe and fun time snowboarding later!!

Thursday, February 09, 2006

Birthday for Bethany...

Third on our birthday shout outs...

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Happy Birthday Bethany!!
Manny happy returns of the day, may all your wishes come true...
and all the joy you give to others, return right back to you!