What I've been up to...

Today was my first day back at work after a wonderfully relaxing Jamaican vacation. Unfortunatly the last day consisted of an extra four hours of sitting in the Montego Bay airport waiting for our delayed flight and resulted in us not getting hom until after 3am. Suddenly I am not feeling like such a chicken for booking off the extra day. I needed it to sleep in, do laundry and grocery shopping (yes that really did pretty much take the whole day).

But the great thing about the trip is I got a ton of reading done. So here are my reviews and yes I have given up on numbering them since I can never remember what number I am on and I am too lazy to look it up, I think I am around book 15 of the year.

Rhett Butler's People

A "sequel" to Gone With the Wind that tells the story from the perspective of Rhett rather than Scarlett. I actually really thoroughly enjoyed the book. The book stays true to the original charachters and storylines and I thought it was great finally getting a glimpse into the mind of Rhett Butler. No I am not saying this is the Rhett that Margaret Mitchell had in mind but a pretty realistic (ie. true to GWTW) one still if you ask me.

4 Stars

The Curious Incident of the Dog at Night-time

Christopher is an autistic 15 year old boy who lives with his parents. The dog of a neighbour is killed in an incident of foul play and Christopher investigates. I was pleasantly surprised by this book. I fell in love with Christopher and was rooting for him and holding my breath as I read some of the mishaps that occur on his adventures in London.

4 Stars

The Year of Living Biblically: One Man's Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible

This book was pretty good. It definitly points out some of the more seemingly ridiculous rules in the Bible/jewish law. I am pretty sure that many of these laws were never intended to be taken literally but it is entertaining to read about AJ experiencing them.

The book was a lot different from what I expected and I was somewhat disapointed in how he seemed to "give up" on the new testament. Yes I understand you are Jewish and therefore the Old Testament is more comfortable for you but I still felt a bit ripped off. That being said the complete immersion in the Old Testament was pretty funny and that is enough to make up for it in my eyes.

3 Stars

Shoe Addicts Anonymous

Yes this book truly is as fluffy as the title makes it sound. But hey what is a beach vacation without a good fluffy book?

I loved the book for the quick read, engaging characters and all the hilarious mishaps in the book. If you are looking for nothing serious and a good escape from reality then this is the book for you! I will add that I was annoyed by the ending though.

3 Stars

Interview With the Vampire

Boring! I thought the movie was bad, the book was only marginally better. Oh well live and learn, at least I had entertainment on the plane ride home.

2 Stars

It's official!

We are going to Italy! We booked the flights today. I have been watching the prices and the have been pretty static. I decided I would take a look today and Air Canada's price had jumped $700! I ♥Expedia ☺ Their price had dropped $700, so we got a great deal on flights, flying into Madrid and then out of Rome.

We are going to be spending 2 and a half weeks there but we are not going to really start planning in earnest until after we get back from Jamaica. (we leave one week tomorrow Eeeeeeeeeeeeee)

I went skiing yesteday with Kelly and we had a great day. The weather was beautiful and there weren't too many people on the hill so we got in a ton of runs. Too bad they don't have more snow, but it's not horrible. I will definitly need to get my skis waxed at the end of the season since the bases are in pretty rough shape. Kelly and I are going again next week so hopefully the snow just dumps on them this week! It is our 2nd free day on our Sunshine cards (our 4th time out) so hopefully it snows and bunch more and we can make it to our 3rd free day (7th day).

Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire

This book's premise has so much potential. Although, I did glimpse a little of it in the pages of this book, for the most part it fell flat. I don't know why I expected otherwise after reading another of Maguire's books an not liking it you would think I would have learned my lesson.
The writing style is disjointed and somewhat hard to follow. I also felt like I had missed large parts to get background on issues or other happening which is frustrating.

1 Star

MS Supercities Walk 2009

I am participating in the MS Supercities Walk again this year (Year 3 for me). I have even talked Ian into joining me so I won't be walking by myself :)

It takes place on Sunday June 9th starting at Prince's Island Park here in Calgary. I have a fundraising goal of $500 which is a pretty big goal for me but I think I can do it. You can check out my page (and make a pledge if you wish) here. You can also make your pledges in the form of cash or cheque, I can help you out with that!

Yes this is a shameless plug and plea for money but it's a good cause that I think is worth every penny!

Movie Reviews

City of Ember

This wa s a pretty good movie. Its target demographic is considerably younger than my 26 but it was still enjoyable even if it wasn't deep.

For some reason it was decided that the planet earth would be unihabitable so this city was built in the middle of the earth (Ember). It's now 200 years later and supplies are running low. The story focuses on 2 teenagers trying to find a way out.

Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist

I thought this was a really good movie. Nothing serious, nothing that requires any thinking but quirky, enjoyable and relatable. It's a teen romantic comedy without the "American Pie" style humour. It's a good deal more realistic than that and takes place for the most part on one evening.

Nick has broken up with his girlfriend of 6 months, Tris and he is devastated. She has moved on with another guy and loves rubbing it in his face but is really jealous of him showing interest in anyone else as well. It's a good bit of entertainment.

9. Tiny Dancer by Anthony Flaco

This is the story of a young girl in Afghanistan who is in a terrible accident which results it horrific burns all over her body. Eventually an American soldier (stationed there post 9/11) notices the girl and his brother-in-law happens to work as a doctor at a burn clinic in the US. So the Zubaida ends up going to the US for numerous surgeries.

I was disapointed in the book since I was hoping that the focus would be more on Zubaida and her struggles and less on the beauracracy of NGO's and the US military.

2 Stars

Movie Reviews

Burn After Reading

I had heard that this was a hilarious movie and when the cast included Brad Pitt, John Malkovich, George Clooney among others I thought it would be great. I was expecting big things.

The movie started out pretty disjointed and while some pieces started to come together it never really gelled for me. There were a couple oneliners that were funny but all in all it was dumb.

Babel

I guess we were stuck on a bit of a Brad Pitt thing this weekend. This movie I thought was good. I had a few different storylines that came together in the strangest of ways but it definityl held my attention for the full 2 and a half hours and really made me thing about various things. Terrorism, Americans travelling abroad, the US/Mexico border security, self esteem, self worth and sexuality.