Can anyone explain why parents, especially mothers are so obsessed with food? Not with food in general, but with the food that their offspring should be ingesting.

Every time I talk to my mom or my mother in law the subject inevitably comes up. And since there’s a 7h time difference between their time and Montreal time, they’realways a bit disconcerted and ask whether we’ve eaten. When the answer comes back as “No, not yet” it opens a sort of Pandora’s box. Except we know what it contains.

When that box opens, 15 minutes of mostly rhetorical questions and  more or less medical remarks follow. “You have to eat balanced meals”, “You need a lot of vitamins, especially in the winter”, “You must eat x calories per day”, “Eat a lot of fruit”, “Do you eat organic vegetables?” “Cucumbers don’t contain vitamins”. OH LORD ALMIGHTY!

Last week D&I made the mistake of saying we were tired, and you know what that brought us to? Another 10 minutes of vitamin talk which resulted in me agreeing to buy the B complex for D, my starving husband!

You know what else gets to our mothers, especially mine? When we chat on GTalk and I chew gum. Oh boy does that get to her! I suspect it’s because she expects me to be in a constant state of chewing food, not gum. I guess that if I told her I’m chewing a piece of chicken she would feel so much better.

The gum conversation always leads to the weight conversation. She also asks if I put on weight. “One gram at least?” The answer varies from “Not really” to “A little bit” although the reality is that I haven’t put on any weight, no. FYI, I don’t have an eating disorder, I just can’t eat in large quantities and hence don’t put on weight that easily.

There is no comparison I could use (without you thinking it’s a hyperbole) that could  illustrate the number of sandwiches made by our moms for the trip to France for our wedding. Let’s say that if the wedding menu consisted of those sandwiches alone, we would have had enough for everybody.

And they probably would have been more calorically balanced than the foie gras.

I’m not a fan of Valentine’s Day. I don’t really like candy, let alone the kitschy heart-shaped kind, wrapped in horrible pink paper, I don’t like the red+pink combo, and I hate pre-made Hallmark cards featuring a teddy bear imploring whoever to be his Valentine. V-Day… to quote the endless fountain of wisdom that is Kramer, “frankly, it sounds made up”. With the risk of sounding very cliché, lovers should celebrate their love every day and not just on the 14th of the second month in the Gregorian calendar.

I am aware that routine, a busy daily schedule, THE ECONOMY! (who doesn’t blame the economy?) can make a guy feel… well… less inspired about how to show his love for his sweetheart. So guys, here’s a mini-guide composed of things that just popped to mind meant to help you with better understanding your lady friend. So go on, give it a read and then proceed to being AWESOME!

Listen, be present, be involved!

Women and cats have at least one thing in common: the craving for attention. There’s no denying it. All women need to be listened to, we all want at some point your whole, undivided attention. If a woman tells you this is not true, make no mistake, she is lying!

Fortunately for Y chromosome carriers, this I-wish-to-be-the-center-of-your-universe phase is not permanent. It usually comes around when we’re feeling insecure, uncertain, under the weather or in need of someone to open our souls to.

If that happens, don’t ignore us hoping it will go away. Take some time, make some tea and listen. It may be something as trivial as a stranger’s spiteful remark that got to us, but it’s important to know we can come to you for comfort.

Talking to our loved one induces that warm, fuzzy feeling of closeness and intimacy, something lacking in a chit-chat with our best female friend.

Pay attention

Most of the times “women talk” is not that hard to understand if you pay attention. Sometimes not even we know how to express what we want, but if you manage to read the signals your score just went up by 100 points! Morose doesn’t mean PMS. It usually means “My day has been awful, I’d like to talk to someone”. Now’s the time to apply what you’ve learnt (see above).

Compliment

If you like it, don’t keep it to yourself, tell her! “You look really nice in that dress!”, “Your hair smells amazing!”, “You’ve got such sexy legs!” this is what I’m talking about. Compliments are Xanax without the side-effects.

You don’t need a reason to give flowers

I remember one of the times I got flowers for no special reason, I was coming home from work and D was waiting for me at the tram station, with a big bouquet of white lilies. What better way to tell her that your thought flew back to her during the day than some lovely flowers? And what better thing to come home to than a smile and a hug from the man you love, offered together with some white lilies?

Small favors

The chores are equally divided – she cooks, you do the dishes, she cleans the bedroom, you vacuum the the living room. It’s perfectly cool that your relationship is not set in the 50s with the woman in the kitchen and the man reading the newspaper. But how about rewarding her for just being herself every once in a while? How about doing the laundry when it’s not even laundry day? Or waking up early on Sunday morning and buying croissants for breakfast? Or preparing her a bath for when she comes back from work? Try it out and you’ll see, another 100 points for you!

Surprise!

I am an adept of giving small presents not just when it’s a special occasion. It doesn’t have to be expensive presents, just something unexpected. This just boosts up the pleasure of receiving it. Take her out for dinner on a week day; go for a walk & an icecream after work; get her the scarf she was admiring in the window; buy a poetry book by her favorite author, and send it to her by mail without mentioning anything about it; get tickets to the movie she’s been dying to see; slip a note in her pocket with a nice quote to brighten up her day… The possibilities are endless.

There you have it! Although this was written having guys in mind as an audience, it can be used by chicks too. Yes ladies, go and tell your man how much you love him. Now excuse me while I go compliment D on his legs.

I can’t wait to have long hair again!

This stuff has been all posted on Facebook and it’s all so damn good that I have to share it. [Click for larger size and source].

Thanks, Adina!

Thanks, Radu!

Thanks, Onu!

Thanks, Graethel!

… or another way of saying BUSY, BUSY, BUSY! All caps, that’s right, plus and exclamation mark.

Gawd, I have so much work to do, I feel like my days are just blending in together, like someone is pouring water over the fresh watercolor painting that is my life. I found myself thinking “wait, when did THIS happen? Was it this morning or yesterday?” way too often this week. I don’t even know when this week went by and yet, each day seems so excruciatingly long because of all the stuff that I need to cram into its mere 24×60 minutes.

I’ve never craved the weekend this much in my life. I just want to sleep in, go to the park, process the pictures waiting for me in Lightroom, take new ones, watch some movies, make a cake, all or any of the above.

Do you know how messy our apartment is? No, you don’t and thank God you don’t because it’s something that would probably haunt you for days on end.  Do you know how many meals I’ve cooked this week? A whooping number of one! Which means we’ve eaten lots of grocery store soup, grocery store chicken, and basically no breakfast because we haven’t had time to go shopping for milk.

The weather isn’t helping either, because all the great temperatures we’ve had till Wednesday were just a way to deceive us into thinking that somehow winter is getting tired. It’s snowing again! And this time it brought some horrid gales with it. Wind in your face, strong enough to ensure lift off, snow coming down hard, also in your face means no gym today for Alexandra, no picking up the dry cleaning, no grocery shopping and hence no cereals for breakfast again.

The bright side of all this is that D is fast asleep on the couch beside me (he’s up to his neck in work too), he’s talking in his sleep again, saying the funniest things, like the fact that he’s going to get me a new hard drive that will even work on a Mac. What?!

Probably the most beautiful windows in the world. More on my Flickr page.

A foxtrot mixed with some Argentine tango steps. I can’t imagine a better song for starting a life together.

… the tiny chips in a computer are made of sand. Sand is composed of silica, the starting point of microprocessors.

David Attenborough (narrating an episode of Planet Earth): “The Sahara is the largest source of dust and sand in the whole world.”

D (pressing PAUSE to make sure he has my undivided attention): “… and that’s a good thing” and after seeing the unconvinced look on my face “…yeah, for microprocessors.”

Me (amused): “Ha ha ha! Really? You think that’s the main use of the Sahara desert? Computers?”

D: “Honey, they make lots of them nowadays!”

I don’t usually wear jewelry but these necklaces from Anthropologie are making me drool a bit.

Sex described with pens. That’s what this video is about. Office supplies just got a whole new meaning. Seen on Fabulously Broke.

SEx from Alvaro C on Vimeo.

I’ve been meaning to write about Book Autopsies for a while now, but I kept forgetting. Well, I remembered today, so here it it! By Brian Dettmer who carves into books revealing the artwork inside, creating complex layered three-dimensional sculptures.

And speaking of carving unusual stuff, see how metal is turned into lace? Amazing work by Cal Lane. Via Fabulously Broke.

Have an awesome and inspiring weekend! I’m off to the gym.