Jessica Alba?! I wish...

There's a website called myheritage.com that has a nifty little face recognition feature. One of the perks of this feature is being able to compare yourself to your celebrity look-alikes. All you have to do is upload a photo of yourself, click a button and it will show you pictures of the celebrities you most look like (or so it claims, because frankly, I don't think I'll ever look like Jessica Alba.) Here is my completely unrealistic collage.

Time After Time

I was listening to Z95 on my way to work this morning and they had an interview with Cyndi Lauper. She talked about her appearance on Canadian Idol a few weeks ago and her new acoustic album, The Body Acoustic. Then they played the new, stripped down version of Time After Time (which is a song I've always loved) featuring Sarah McLachlan and I was blown away. I'll admit that Sarah has a beautiful voice but I've never been a huge fan. However, the more I listen to her stuff, especially covers like this one and the Beatles' Blackbird, the more I start to like her.

Download: Cyndi Lauper - Time After Time (featuring Sarah McLachlan)

The art of getting things done

I've been incredibly bad about posting anything lately so instead of boring you with long "we did this and then we did that" paragraphs, I give you my favourite time saver - the bulleted list.

• During the long weekend, A. and I rented a car so that we could GTD (get things done). We ended up with a shiny Mazda 6 that we both fell in love with.
  
• Went to IKEA, spent way too much money but ended up with a great half-round gateleg table, two wooden chairs, two folding chairs, and a shoe rack that I have wanted since it came out.
  
• That same night we went to Steveston and had a delicious dinner at Sockeye City Grill.
  
• Woke up early Sunday morning so we could head down to Washington. Spend 1.5hrs in the line at the border.
  
• Stopped at Anacortes because we wanted to head over to the San Juan Islands but the next ferry wasn't for another two hours and it would have taken up the rest of our day so we decided to nix that idea and head down to Seattle. (Pictures here.)
  
• Drove around downtown Seattle looking for a hotel and ended up at the Hotel Monaco.
  
• Did some shopping and then went up the Space Needle.
  
• Had another amazing dinner, this time at The Brooklyn.
  
• Monday morning, went to Pike Place Market for wandering and breakfast. Also saw the first Starbucks.
  
• On the way home we stopped at Alderwood Mall and Seattle Prime Outlets and spent waaaay too much money. Got dinged at the border.
  
• Emma and Laurel hosted a kick-ass "Hobo Reunion" on the 12th at which everyone had a hobo name. Mine was Gnarles Boxcar and A. was Spits McGrifter. People also brough hobosnacks, ours being worms and dirt.
  
• This Saturday A. and I went to Sears and checked out new washer and dryer teams (I love that they call them teams.) We are probably going to wait for Scratch and Save next weekend and go back for the Kenmore front-loaders. Is it sad that I can't wait to do the first load of laundry in the new washer and dryer?
  
• We also lusted over a pair of Movado watches. I love the Rondiro watch.
  

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Books I've read recently

Despite the warnings that other book bloggers have written about, I have waited way too long to write about what I've read recently. I don't really remember characters or what my initial reactions were so here again, is another list.

15. Saturday by Ian McEwan. I'd never read any of his other books but had heard excellent things about this one so I picked it up at Chapters one day. I really enjoyed the story and love the way McEwan can bring a scene so vividly to mind.

16. The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver. I've had The Poisonwood Bible on my shelf of to-be-reads for years but hadn't heard anything about any of her other books. I read this one on the recommendation of A. who said he had really enjoyed it when he was in school. This was a heartwarming tale about the power of family and friendship and I sped through it. An excellent story.

17. The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith is another book I have heard a lot of people talking about over the past few years. I discovered that they had it at work so I started reading it on my lunch breaks. The story and the main character of Precious Ramotswe captured my imagination and, like the Outlander books made me want to go to Scotland, this book made me want to visit Botswana. Maybe one day...

18. Morality for Beautiful Girls by Alexander McCall Smith is the third book in the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency series but I read this one second because they also had it at work. Again, an excellent read with intriguing characters and subplots. I'm looking forward to reading the rest in this series.

Hair be gone

Yesterday I got my hair cut shorter than I've had it in a loooong time and, while it will take a while to get used to, I love it. My new glasses also came in so the combination of hair and glasses made me look like a totally different person. It's now day two and I managed to make my hair look fairly similar to how the hair stylist did it. I'm pretty proud of myself because usually I'm useless when it comes to hair.

Vistors from the outer reaches

According to my site stats I'm getting visitors from all over the world (Argentina, Germany and England to name a few) and several from the United States. Leave a comment and let me know where you are from. I'm also curious about how many people are actually reading and how many people just stumble across the blog randomly. Come on, indulge me.

Vacation from the vacation

I returned on Saturday from my week long vacation in the prairies and now I’m feeling like I need another vacation to get over this one. I had a great time but it sure was busy.

Friday afternoon I landed in Calgary and Brooke and I drove up to Lloydminster (with a few stops along the way) to stay at our cousin’s for the night. Saturday we drove into Saskatoon to pick up A. at the airport, go to my aunt’s for coffee and drive out to the park for the potluck dinner at 5pm. (There are few things better than a Saskatchewan potluck – more food than you can even imagine!) We spent Sunday and Monday morning in Sonningdale and then A. and I drove the 6 hours to Drayton Valley to visit his family. Then Wednesday afternoon had us driving back to Calgary to spend a few days with my family. So basically, between Friday and Wednesday I drove in one giant loop - I think I’m done with driving for a while.

I managed to see a few people while in Calgary but it was mostly time spent with my family which meant there were a whole lot of people I didn’t get to see. That’s the problem with these whirlwind trips, you always need more time.

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I finished reading book 14 a while ago but haven’t got around to writing about it yet. Little Earthquakes by Jennifer Weiner centers around four new mothers who are all trying to deal with the challenges of motherhood and life. It touches on love, loss and friendship and covers each with compassion and just the right amount of humour. It’s also a novel that allows someone who has never had children before (like me) to have a glimpse of what that kind of life is like. It was a touching read that made me laugh several times and, like all of Weiner’s other books, I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend it.