Inspired by Pepe Le Pew, my dear husband let his romantic sensibilities get the better of him while in France and Switzerland.

Upon getting the mail today, I discovered this postcard... the English translation is very amusing! That said, I won't translate it for you. N gave me permission to post this as I think he wants it known that just like Leon, he has a way with "the ladies"

I was watching the Mercer Report tonight and laughed my ass off at the "Special Report: Snow in Toronto" clip which can be found here (Feb 20, 2007 episode). After 4 years in Vancouver, winter in Toronto has been really hard... brrrr snow.

Not that Vancouver is all that... I was searching youtube for the above mentioned clip to embed into this post when I came across this... Sadly, this IS the reality of the housing market in Vancouver.

The Memory Keeper's Daughter, by Kim Edwards, was recommended as a good read by Ms. Strummer.

I enjoyed it. It was read in two sittings as I did the unthinkable. Half way through, I just keep thinking... 'how can this man live with what he's done' and in a moment of absolute impatience, I read the last chapter.

I won't deny having never done this before -- but in this case, it made it really difficult to go back and finish. After leaving the book on my nightstand for about a week, stuck on page 174, I went back and finished it tonight.

To start off the year, I read, Bergdorf Blondes, by Plum Sykes. I was sitting around LaGuardia Airport, ready to return home. I had a hour to kill so I ventured into the Borders store and looked for something light and trivial. I am prone to intense sinus headaches when flying so I like to read 'fluff' (read, not hard on the brain) when traveling by plane. Usually this entails an OK! or Us Weekly but in the spirit of NYC, I opted for the chick lit with NYC content.

Though I generally enjoy fluff, this piece was just a bit too predictable for my liking. I say pass.

Well, week one alone is at a close and it went by really fast. I managed to paint all three of our bedroom dressers. I'd take a picture but Neil is gallivanting around Switzerland and France with our camera (and at this point in time has taken exactly 1 picture and it was once again from his bedroom window... grrr... don't even get me started....) It took one priming coat and THREE coats of paint but in the end I'm happy with the result. Apparently, I am not much for selecting colours as both this time and last time I did not get exactly the colour I thought I was going to get and if I'm completely honest, I am a bit bummed out by that... but I'll get over it and in the end, I think the overall change was so far on the plus side that I really can't complain. I learned that cabinet hardware is really really expensive. I didn't realize that if you want some moderately nice drawer handles they can run btw $5-10 each. To replace them on the one dresser, I'd have needed 9 new handles so in the end I bought some metallic spray paint and refinished the old ones. It worked out way better than I ever expected.

While I have no plans for the weekend, N is planning to go skiing this weekend in the Jura's (a mountain chain in Switzerland -- he's closer to them than the Alps). I think it would help if people were to comment that it is RIDICULOUS to be in Europe and only be taking pictures from bedroom windows!! From my research, I have concluded that Geneva looks BEAUTIFUL!! See below:
When he went in September he send me about 10 pictures -- 5 were of CERN (the lab he is working at) and the other 5 were from his bedroom window. See below:
So please please send encouragement that N should take more pictures!! Did I mention that he may even be learning to drive stick over there... He's never driven anything but an automatic and I think watching him learn could be hilarious. I've already told him that someone needs to make a video of it for me...

Here you go, a Valentine's Day treat! Sappy -- definitely. But, such a clever blending of so many pop songs... Mr. Baz Luhrmann, you genius, you!

Click here.

Not a movie for everyone, but I loved it!

Have a Happy Valentine's Day!