Have a lovely (long) weekend!

And Friday is upon us!  Hope you had a good Valentine's Day.  Doing anything fun this weekend?  (Try not to get hit by any METEORS.  No big deal.)  We're heading to sunny San Diego for a little President's Day weekend trip, which should be a nice getaway from chilly Chicago.  Hope you have a good one, and some links for your (hopefully) long weekend:

If you click on one thing this week, make it this: world's most hilarious parents recreate the year's Oscar-nominated films with their baby.  Genius.

Teenage love, angst, and the brownies in the middle of it all.

Speaking of brownies, you need to make and eat these as soon as humanly possible.

Cute iPhone case (on sale - use code STYLE30).

Advice from the great swissmiss: "Don't wait until you get pregnant."  (Maybe that should be a Tattly.)

Penguin superhighway (watch 'til the end!).

Are you on Goodreads?  (Confession: I love it because that's how I found the unpublished manuscript of the fifth Twilight book.  Just keeping it real.)

You have to see the University of Minnesota basketball team (and their coach, whose name is Tubby and that just makes this all even more awesome) celebrating their win over Wisconsin last night (via @The_Spish).  

Now all your shoes can be bow shoes.  (Thanks Jeanne!)

This NYT infographic-slider-photo-magic lets you see models before and after hair and makeup.  It is weirdly awesome.

Looking cool when it is freezing.

Winners of the World Photography contest.

The best Jeopardy! answer ever.

Valentine's Day around the world (the couple from Brooklyn is just the best).

(Images by Laure Joliet.)

Romantic comedies

For Valentine's Day, let's discuss everyone's secret favorite movie genre, shall we?  (Because admit it: regardless of romantic status, everyone has a favorite and we all sort of wish we could star in one.)  New York Magazine ran an article yesterday about the tenth anniversary of How to Lose a Guy in Ten Days, bemoaning the death of the rom-com and imploring everyone to buy tickets to the next pure romantic comedy that opens at the movies -- even if it's terrible -- as a future investment in the genre.  To which I say, bring on the 42-ounce Diet Cokes and popcorn.  (Speaking of enormous soft drinks: if you need a last-minute gift, any moviegoer would surely appreciate the RunPee app for his or her phone. :))

I long for the glory days of Sleepless in Seattle and You've Got Mail, and while they sure don't make 'em like they used to, it's not all bad news, is it?  One of my favorite romantic comedies is the hilariously adorable Fever Pitch (Jimmy Fallon is irresistibly poorly-behaved), and The Five-Year Engagement is great (this scene is hysterical).  Honorable mentions to The Holiday and Love Actually (though I fear Love Actually might be responsible for the Valentine's Day/New Year's Eve genre, which, charitably speaking, is more guilty than pleasure).   

    

What do you think?  Is the genre really dead, or are there some bright spots from the last decade?  Do you have any all-time favorites?  

PS: Mindy Kaling's  truly hilarious Guide to Chicks in Flicks, a spot-on analysis of the archetypes of romantic comedies.

And happy Valentine's day -- lots of love to you all!  xoxo

(Classic American Date Night photo by Jamie Beck.)

What a face

I was never a dog person until I got one (the one exception being sobbing like an absolute maniac one morning on the train to work reading the end of Marley & Me.  Strangers offered Kleenex).  The day we got our little dude, I transformed into one of those completely irritating people who talks to her dog in weird voices and dresses him in collars with bow ties (come ON, these are amazing).  And football jerseys.  I stop to pet dogs on the street and talk to their owners -- complete strangers! -- because I genuinely want to know what kind of dog he or she is, and how old, and how they get him to stop barking at noises outside the door.  It's completely weird.  And perhaps explains why I find these pictures of the Best in Breed dogs from the Westminster Dog Show to be absolutely adorable.  Belly rubs and ear scratches for everyone.

They just crack me up.  (The sheepdog!  How can he see?!)  I won't lie: having a dog is a lot of work (and a lot of things you used to like torn to shreds, RIP), but they are their own reward.  To paraphrase Nora Ephron, when you have a dog, someone's always happy to see you.  That face makes it worth it.    

PS: Speaking of dogs, this makes me weepy!

All images by Fred R. Conrad for the New York Times.  From top to bottom, they are: Brix the Bulldog, Swagger the Old English Sheepdog, Oakie the American English Coonhound, Wellie the English Foxhound, Ian the Dalmatian, Tinsel the Chinese Shar-Pei, Rocky the Brittany, Bosse the Russell Terrier, Finnegan the Glen of Imaal Terrier, and Spartacus the Mastiff.  

Dear Spring clothes: GO AWAY.

Every Chicago winter, there comes a point where I become absolutely enraged at spring clothes.  Their very easy-breezy, light-and-airy, pastel presence fills me with anger.  They taunt me and my furry boots and wool hats.  It's like they know that I'm horrendously tired of the same heavy coats and sweaters and inability to leave even a sliver of skin exposed to the elements, and they're showing how cute they are just to make me mad.

Huff.  So I retaliate by looking at new coats.  Because it's mid-February, and it's going to be at least May until any of those new springy things are able to be worn out of the house, and it just makes me feel better.  (And they're on sale.  I firmly maintain this is the best time of year to buy coats, even though they surely picked over by now.)  Behold:

Reiss Hanley Coat, $330.

J. Crew Wintress Puffer, $139.99 (available in regular, petite, and tall, and it's an extra 30% off with the code STYLE30).

J. Crew Metro Double Cloth Coat, $179.99 (available in regular, petite, and tall; plus the extra 30% off!).

Reiss Myla Coat, $307.

Zara Leopard Print and Color Block Coat, $99.99.  (Looks like this coat made an appearance at New York Fashion Week, too!)

Zara Quilted Trench Coat, $99.99.

Maison Scotch White Trench with Leather Collar, $259.99.

How do you console yourself from the never-ending winter?

Have a lovely weekend!

Hello friends.  Hope you have a great weekend in store.  I've got sushi, drinks, a little work, and a lightning-quick trip home for a very exciting engagement party on the docket, so it's going to be a busy one.  Huddle up somewhere cozy with a warm beverage (and these links).  Catch you Monday!

Remember Kate Middleton FTW?  It's back with a Gestational Edition.   

One of the captions in the NYT's slideshow piece about Lee Radziwill is "In a cape and satin dress by Nina Ricci in 1962 during a photo shoot at an estate in Paris."  I know you want to read that.

Amazing pictures of flying stuff (via Snippet & Ink).

Cheerleader stands up for herself; the rest of us cheer for her.

"Grammy Stars Warned: Cover Up Your Body Parts" is hands-down the best headline I've read all week.

Oh NO THEY DI'NT.

Hilarious iPhone case.

The Eye Has to Travel is available on iTunes (read about it here).

This is quite a placeholder.

This bride has the nicest friends ever.  Their reward is that they will top every bridesmaid story for all eternity.

What cities would look like if they really did have starry skies. 

Sophia Grace and Rosie have a book!

The Chief Marketing Officer of Nordstrom is part of the greatest game of Tag ever played (via Go Fug Yourself).

And finally, one of the ladies who was the inspiration for Dottie Hinson passed away this week.  Awesome facts from her obituary include that her nickname was Pepper, she played for teams called the "Millerettes" and the Chicks, and she had a reputation for evading the team's chaperones to spend time with her many boyfriends.  And she wrote the song that they sing in A League of Their Own!  I bet she was really fun.

(Image via Lonny.)