the one where the fire hydrant got cold

I came across this during one of my walks with K last week:

Guess the fire hydrant just wanted to keep warm. 

Hope that whoever is missing their jacket isn't too cold.

The MacBook and the Air

The story of the tortoise and the hare ends with (spoiler alert!) the tortoise winning the race, however, in this 'Apple laptop version of the story', it's the Air that wins.

After seven (yes, seven) years with my trusty old white 13" MacBook, I finally bit the bullet and, as of today, I am starting a new relationship with an 11" MacBook Air. I'm still keeping my old one until it is run into the ground (I'm actually using it right now), but it hasn't really been functioning as a laptop for a year now (it's more like a desktop since the battery doesn't keep a charge for very long anymore and the power adaptor port is busted so we can't move the chord otherwise the connection is lost and the battery stops charging, lol) so I'm quite excited to have a real laptop again. The possibilities are endless! Even so, I'm still hoping that Old Trusty has a few years left in there somewhere. (Colour me sentimental, heh.)

As for the switch from 13" to 11", I was a little worried that I'd miss the 2" of screen space, but so far it's been a non-issue. I suppose only time will tell whether it will become a real irritant or not so stay tuned!

what is this ridiculousness?

Promposals.

Have you heard these before? They're basically when a guy (very elaborately) asks a girl to go to the prom with him, and apparently they are all the rage right now.

It's been 12 years since I went to prom (shoot, has it really been that long?) and I can honestly say that I'm so glad this promposal thing didn't exist back then. (My 18-year-old self would have thought they were silly too.) I almost feel bad for high schoolers now - talk about unnecessary pressure. I went to prom with a friend (who later became my boyfriend and then my husband) and we decided to go together over a phone conversation that went something like this: "Hey, do you want to go to prom together?" "Yah, ok."

Boom. Done.

Actually, no, it wasn't quite over yet. We went to different high schools so we still had to choose which prom to go to. How did we do this? Rock-paper-scissors, yo. Loser went to the other person's prom. (I lost, haha.) No frills. Not romantic in any way but hey, it worked for us.

...and while I didn't get a promposal in high school, I did get the best proposal from my prom date 7 years later, and I'd take that over a promposal any day. :)

book nook: wedding night

Wedding Night
Sophie Kinsella

I usually enjoy reading Kinsella's chick-lit, but this one was just so bad. Now chick-lit isn't supposed to be all deep and full of meaning, but the level of idiocy in this book was just over-the-top. Sure it was pretty hilarious and made me laugh on more than one occasion, but even the book's humour couldn't save its dumb characters or the stupidity of its plot line.


Funny? Yes.
Everything else? Bad.
Recommend? No.

How she rolls

K is continuing to grow well as evidenced by the rolls in her arms and legs. Oh the rolls. Her extremities look like they are made of sausages!

K is also rolling. From front to back and back to front, she's pretty good with both directions now. She is also good at repositioning herself in her crib too. It's always amusing to see where she has ended up when I go to get her, heehee.

She is such a little roly poly and I love her to bits.

book nook: and the mountains echoed

And The Mountains Echoed
Khaled Housseini

Since I really enjoyed reading Housseini's other two books (The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns), I was excited when I found this one sitting on a library shelf all ready for me to borrow and read. Unfortunately, unlike his other two books, this one was a disappointment. A "Whoomp, whoomp" if you will.

The book is about multi-generational family bonds and begins centred around a brother, sister, and father. The first couple of chapters are actually quite charming and Housseini's descriptions create rich scenes while his knack for story-telling draws you into the pages.

Unfortunately, in my opinion, after the first few chapters it all went downhill from there with the introduction of too many plot lines and characters. Sure everything converged towards the end (kind of like Love Actually), but by then the story was so convoluted that I couldn't keep track of what was going on nor did I really care that I didn't know what was going on at that point (kind of like Love Actually, heh). The fact that I literally skipped some pages here and there because I found portions of the book too slow/drawn out probably didn't help but hey, I was bored. Never a good sign. While the ending did make me teary, even the ending couldn't redeem the book as a whole for me.

Would I recommend his other books? Yes. Would I recommend this one? No.

Silver linings exist even in rain clouds

The bright, sunny, and blue sky of yesterday looks like it has been covered up by a heavy, leaky, and grey drop cloth today. It's gloomy and wet out there, but after months of snow, snow, and more snow, it's raining.

Raining?! Raining! Warmer spring weather is on it's way!
(Thank goodness I can't smell the soggy worms, haha.)

No more, no less

No matter what I have done, what I am doing, or what I will do,
He has, does, and will never love me any more or any less.

Mind blown.

It starts with an S and it ends with a T

Good grief. Who knew that such little beings could have SO MUCH POO?!?! 
Oh well, at least we can be sure K is getting enough to eat...

My nose is a poser

My sense of smell is sooooooooo bad that it's basically non-existent. In my 30 years of life i can count the number of things i have smelt on one hand and i basically needed to inhale all these substances for my olfactory system to kick into gear in order for my brain to register i was actually smelling something. (Inhaling Tiger Balm? Been there, done that - finally smelt it once it was basically in my nostrils.) When I was young I used to ask my family how they smelled things because I was really at a loss. This always confused them because they didn't understand how I could not smell nor could they give me an explanation beyond "You bring your nose to it...and just...breathe in?" and this always confused me because I did everything they said they did but I still couldn't smell. I think my dad eventually gave up and he ended up telling me that I would "grow into it." Aww, bless.

My first whiff of anything came during grade 8 science class. Our teacher was teaching us how to waft and passed around a jar of "clear mystery liquid" for us to practice with the instruction to only waft the smell because the scent of the liquid was so strong. Waft?! PFFT. I stuck my nose on top of the jar opening and inhaled that sucker. A nice big deep breath. My blatant disregard for instruction paid off - for the first time ever, my olfactory system started firing and the scent of white vinegar filled my nose. You have no idea how excited this made me. Unfortunately my smelling experiences have been few and (very) far between since. Oh well.

I used to wish I could smell, that it was as easy as simply "growing into it", but now I resigned to the fact that my nose is basically decorative and have even embraced my lack-of smell in some circumstances (such a blessing during my first trimester). Despite this, I'm so intrigued by this whole olfaction thing. When my husband cooks and randomly adds in spices purely based on smell, I think it's one of the best things ever. When my sister graciously agrees to smelling a plethora of soaps or lotions so I don't end up buying something that will make me smell like a granny, I think it's one of the best things ever.  Sure, I don't get how the whole olfaction thing works, but I think it's amazing all the same. And it really is.

p.s. I really hope K doesn't pull something like this otherwise I'm in trouble. Good thing hubby can smell. :P