the Goldfinch

I bought the Goldfinch while I was home over the Christmas holidays and started reading it about a week ago.  It's so captivating, I just can't get enough.  I'm even forgoing sleep on the train in the mornings just to catch another 50 pages of it.  And the best part: it's the longest book in history, but this review from Cup of Jo is right: you never want it to end.  

I hope you're all having great weeks and that you're soaking up the last of the springtime weather we're having here in Jolly Olde or even more of that dreaded snow back in Canada.  It's Friday tomorrow, so it's all smiles around these parts.  

Have a great day tomorrow xx

If Google was a Man

I thought this was the funniest thing ever.  Just the title alone is enough to send me into hysterics.  I consider myself a Google Guru and if this man really existed, I think he'd think I was as dumb as a stump.  Love it.

I wonder if this embeds the video?  I wonder how I don't yet know how to do this? ...maybe I'll Google it ;)

CollegeHumor's Favorite Funny Videos

the Fittest, Surviving

We've been keeping a low profile as of late: staying in over going out; spending time planning for the future; working hard as we save for a house.  It's good to stay focused on something positive, after the rough few months we've had.  


Steven ran a race called the Survival of the Fittest, a 10-km dash through Battersea Power Station (which I think is being torn down?) in London.  The weather was delightful (cold, but just look at that blue sky!) and the beer tent was warm enough to entice this observer that watching was worthwhile.  We've taken up running as a life philosophy, it seems, so it was only fitting that this was the first race of the season. 

 

Later, in early December, Steven, his brother Terry, and I all hit the country for a 12-km race.  It was delightful. 

Despite the holidays, it's been twp healthy months over across the pond and a new pair of running tights were certainly in order, thanks to my mom.  I may or may not have been quoted saying, "These tights make me run so much faster!"  Why not?

I hope your body is treating you right and you are repaying the favour.  xx

Marching On

It is with great sadness that I write that Doug, my mother's husband, died on October 27.  We were in Turkey when we heard the news and were just as shocked as everyone else was.  It happened quickly, so quickly, too quickly...but then who am I to judge?  It was debilitating to be so far away, but my Mom had a great support system there at home who were amazing.    I ensured I came home during the Christmas break to be with her, assuming it would be a hard time of year.  

There is nothing quite like debilitating news to make you realize just how fragile we are.  We have only this one body, this one time, this short time to make something we do, maybe everything we do, count: to spend time with those we love, to make the legacy that was us, is us, count.  What a profound obligation  responsibility 
opportunity.
Tragedy does tend to bring you together, but I think it's laughing and sharing time together in the face of that tragedy that really bonds people after all is said and done.  It's been a challenging month and I'm glad my life is going to return to normal, but it's hard to imagine how much my Mom's life has changed.  What is the new normal?  Glibly, I think, "nothing a good trip across the pond can't fix!", but I know it runs much deeper than that.  It's been very rewarding, very soothing to spend this time with her.  As much as I started to feel like Brennen in Stepbrothers, a 38-year old whinging adult child, I will miss her as I get back to my own semblance of reality.  Here we go...

Letters to Santa

Right before Christmas, it was high time to get some letters out to Santa Claus.  I brought a huge amount of construction paper, pencils, markers, and stickers out to play and we all went to town, thanking the Big Guy for all that we had and asking for a few cheeky things.  Homemade cookies abounded, but wound up rather soggy with some ill-fated too-wet royal icing.  Suffice it to say we didn't keep many of them around after the letters were mailed to the North Pole.  

I hope you all had a happy Christmas.  What a roller coaster mine has been :)  Again, more on that in a bit xxx

Friends' Dinner Party

Though it feels like a hundred years ago now that we're well into 2014, we did host a charming little holiday dinner before Christmas with friends of Steven's who have been his friends for years and years.  I cooked Asian food, which of course led to the inevitable question from one wife to her husband, "Look, I'm not being racist here, but can you go help Alexis keep the rice noodles from sticking together?"  Though the place isn't paradise, when you fill it with good people, good food, and good wine, it starts to feel a lot more like home.  Home...what a delightful-sounding word today.  More on that in a while...