Ladies Who Lunch

This weekend we went to another wedding shower for Amy, held here in Minneapolis. It was lovely and civilized, complete with sandwich loaf! Has anyone out there experienced sandwich loaf? It's basically a blend of cream cheese, thin slices of bread, and layers of tuna, ham and egg salad. If you think Big Macs are healthy, this is like a gift to your poor little arteries! And it looks like a big cake. This isn't the actual sandwich loaf we ate (ours looked even more decadent) but it does give you the idea. Honestly, I'm usually a fan of retro, but sandwich loaf is stretching it.

Practicing My Quebequois

If this works, I might really move to Canada. There's something particularly ludicrous about the idea of either party "embracing" the Iraq War, and yet I fear Americans might be hoodwinked (yes, hoodwinked!!) again. It's so convenient (and seemingly effective) to use fear as a political checkmate.

Car Trouble

Let's hear it for the Civic Hybrid. It (obviously) gets great gas mileage, is good for the environment, and there are very few differences between driving a regular gas-powered car and this one. Plus it looks kind of cool, without looking too space-agey, in my opinion.
It wasn't the car's fault that a pebble hit the window and eventually created a foot-long crack. It's not even the car's fault that a new windshield costs $800.
Nor is it the car's fault that as we were driving to the Walker preview party for the Diane Arbus exhibition Friday night, we hit a huge buckle in 35W caused by high heat and downpours. We sat silently in the car observing the 10 cars pulled over by the side of the road with a sick feeling in our stomachs, wondering what had happened to our car. I did call the State Patrol to tell them about it. It wasn't until we reached Loring Park that it became obvious that we, too had a flat tire. We called the emergency roadside assistance. An hour later, they called back. In that time, Matt had tried to put the spare on himself (in the rain, with me biting my nails hoping he wouldn't get hit by a car) but the jack collapsed before he had the spare on. He was fine, although the jack was partially stuck under the car. Finally, after two hours, the tow-truck guy showed up and managed to put the spare on (he had brought a flatbed towtruck and obviously didn't want to put the car on that). Happily, that was the lowpoint of the weekend and I'm about to go for a bike ride! We'll deal with the car troubles tomorrow morning.

The face of ...

I just discovered a Web site that is sort of cool. For anyone who's convinced they look like a certain celebrity (or are repeatedly told that they resemble someone famous) check out Myheritage.com. It lets you upload a headshot of yourself and compares it to thousands of celebrity faces. Guess who I supposedly look like the most (according to this site, and based on only one photo of myself)? I bet you already know ...



That's right, I'm 64% of Sharon Stone. Wha???

I'm also:
61% Sophie Marceau
53% Paul McCartney
52% Sharon Tate
52% Jean Harlow
51% Farrah Faucet
52% Jamie Lynn Spears (Sweet!)

Since I've actually been told I look like Lynda Carter (aka Wonder Woman), I was sort of sad to see she didn't make the cut. Maybe they don't have her photo in the database.
Hilarious.

Brian, I'm going to have to run your photo and see how much of Hank Azaria you really have in you ....

Super Pizza Delivery Guy to the Rescue!!!

This is excellent. Almost too good to be true.

Child-Rearing Advice

My sister-in-law sent me this technique from a friend, and I think it's a very sensible thing to keep in mind if we have kids:

Tough Love vs. Spanking ~
(a psychological conundrum)
Most of America's populace think it improper to spank children,
so I have tried other methods to control my kids when they have one of
"those moments."
One that I found effective is for me to just take the child
for a car ride and talk.
They usually calm down and stop misbehaving
after our car ride together.
I've included a photo below of one of my sessions
with my son, in case you would like to use the technique.
Sincerely,
A Friend

Weekend Warrior

OK, maybe warrior is a bit of an overstatement. But having been out of town for the past two weekends, I was determined to make progress on the house and take advantage of our summer hours (off at 12:30 on Fridays! Woohoo!). Other than an afternoon on Lake Minnetonka, I succeeded in running around the house like a maniac, unpacking boxes, painting woodwork, repainting part of the bathroom window that I screwed up, cleaning, wrestling with the &*$^# weed wacker (which my dad was very generous to give us), mowing the lawn with our old-school mower, and putting up screens in our cabiny family room. I don't know if you can tell from this photo, but our windows are what you might call "vintage." There's even duct tape in the sill of one of them. They're sort of charming in their own way, but we've decided to splurge and have all six of them replaced with new vinyl windows. (If you're looking for reviews of subcontractors, check out Angie's List—it's not that expensive and it gives you some clue about different companies.) I'd hate to see what the heating bill would be with these babies. The salesmen who gave us the two estimates just kind of looked at them and laughed. Anyway, since the company can't install them for a few weeks, I thought I would still put up the screens so we can have the windows open during June. The new windows didn't end up being that expensive, especially with a discount for putting a sign in our yard (cheesy, I know, but it's a discount!) and for signing up on the spot. Yes, it's high pressure, but it's a discount! Anyone who knows me can tell you I'm a champion bargain shopper. Once the windows are in, I'll give you a yea or nea on the company and Angie's List in general. Here's a before shot; the after one will follow in a month or so. At least, I hope it will.