weekend rounddown

Wheh! Busy weekend!
It was supposed to be even busier, but our Sunday plans were cancelled. On Saturday we drove up to Ottawa to celebrate Steve's folks' birthdays (they're both this week). While there, Steve's mom and I popped over to the store she works at and the mall. We picked up a few things for the kids, including new rubber boots for the kids. Naomi's boots are especially cute, she tried them out yesterday at the park:

I just found out that they're available in women's sizes - woo woo!
I also discovered that the body shop has brought back their pink grapefruit line of products. I have been looking for pink grapefruit-scented stuff for ages, and now it's back! I got a body wash and a lip balm.
It just doesn't get any better than that, and of course it didn't because we had to drive home in a snowstorm, bleh!
Sunday we were supposed to have our friend Sauline over and some of the old gang to celebrate Sauline's almost being a mommy, but she cancelled because she was 4cm dilated and her doctor thought that she was going to go into labour at any minute. The bad is that we don't get to watch her waddle around and laugh at her, the good is that the next time I see her, I get to cuddle a new baby - sigh! We took advantage of the less busy day and got some errands and chores done and rested a bit and went over and played in the park. It was a gorgeous day and the kids were excited to be running around outside and not sinking knee-deep into the snow.

Smell you later

It's a drag that by the time you realise that you forgot to use deodorant in the morning, it's far too late to do anything about it.
Quick tip: You cannot fix the situation using cucumber-melon hand sanitizer, in fact, it really only makes it worse.

Cleanup in office 6078

Can someone please explain to me how someone who complains about the smell of handcream and the smell of fresh paint two floors down can clean her desk with Hertel and then tell me I'm a baby when I complain about the fumes? Grrrrrr.....

Just one of those days

I caught the end of a documentary called Virus Hunters last night. They were talking about bird flu, then it shifted to autism and how it's a widely-held idea that autism is somehow caused/activated by viruses. I hate seeing stuff like this, not because I'm not interested, but because they always make me agonize over what I could have done differently to make Ben normal. It's a low day.

Adventures in Photoshop

I've been playing around in Photoshop lately and experimenting with some different techniques I've found on Flickr. Here is my first result:

I adjusted the colours in Lab colour and then did something called an eye pop. I think it's pretty cool.

Movies!

I almost never remember to do reviews, but last week I went to see Children of Men, and last night we watched Stranger Than Fiction, and they were both very good, and so completely different that my brain feels a bit warped. Children of Men has the yummy Clive Owen. I could watch this man read the back of Cheerios box and enjoy it, he's that good. In fact, if I could ever combine my favorite breakfast cereal and Clive Owen that would be about the best thing ever, aside from my kids and husband I suppose (who am I kidding?)
Children of Men is wonderful and visually so complete that it captures the emotion of the film brilliantly. It is bleak, wayyyyyyy bleak, so don't go thinking that you'll get out feeling happy. The movie takes place in 2027, 18 years after the world has stopped producing children. Just stopped. Britain has become a scary place. It's interesting to see the impact of a world with no children. The schools are abandoned, people dress their pets in designer outfits, and compassion is practically non-existent. Despite the heavy theme, there are some wonderful light and touching moments as well to break up the darkness. I normally can't watch this kind of film, but I'm glad that I did. The movie is still getting to me, especially after the next day when the paper was talking about all the environmental doom that is about to hit us. See it if you get the chance, the acting is top notch.
Stranger Than Fiction, in contrast, is a pretty happy film, but with a nice bit of depth. The main character, Harold Crick, discovers that he is the main character in a novel by an author who is known for killing off her characters at the end of the story. He's now in a race to try and find the author to change her mind, and change his life, which up to now has been a bit of a snore. The bit that I liked the most was the visual effects used to show how Harold's OCD mind counts, contains, and interprets his world. The film also has Dustin Hoffman and Emma Thompson being fantastic. And there's a nice love story. This is the perfect movie to see after Children of Men to take your mind off the bad stuff.

Who do they think they are? Hallmark?

I recently noticed that my sanitary napkins have a paper label with "Have a nice period" printed on it. Whoever thought this up may have sincerely thought that it was a great idea, but frankly, I think that the sentiment seems out of place. It's like your mom leaving a note in your lunchbox, but you're in the bathroom, so it's kind of freaky.