Author: avery

US National Parks

Budget Travel magazine has done a roundup of 30 Spectacular Images of US National Parks, and these photos are seriously amazing.  Makes me wanna dust off the camping equipment, pack the baby and dog in the car, and hit the road.

PS – if you’re inspired to hit the road too, they have a great article with four itineraries for checking out National Parks (Minus the Crowds).

How Do You Feel About Gwenyth Paltrow?

A burning question in these troubling times, I know.

But seriously, how do you feel about Gwennie?  I’ll tell you how I feel about her. I’ve never been a fan of her acting (and when she won the Oscar for Shakespeare in Love and blubbered away in that pink disaster of a dress, I was not impressed).  But lately, I gotta say, I kind of love her.

This girl has seriously reinvented herself.  No longer the entitled Hollywood gal who seemed to date just about every leading man, she has settled down in England and embraced motherhood.  Now she sings (umm, no comment) and blogs, and makes TV shows of her foodie adventure travels with Mario Batali.  Oh, and her fashion sense is impeccable.

So when I read last week that Gwenyth is rumoured to be launching a food magazine (published by Hearst, no less), I thought it sounded pretty cool.  I may never like her in movies, but foodie/mom/style icon Gwenyth?  Two thumbs up.

Hipmunk: New Travel Search Website

I’ve been hearing about Hipmunk a lot lately.  It’s yet another travel search website, kind of like Kayak (it aggregates flights and hotels).  But Hipmunk is a little different – it adds a subjective component to your search called “Agony” or “Ecstasy”.

When you’re looking for a flight, you can display your results by “Agony” – a combination of the flight’s price, duration, and number of stops.  Which is really helpful, because I hate layovers, and will often pay more to avoid them.

And when you’re searching for a hotel, you can display your results by “Ecstasy” – a combination of price, reviews (from Yelp), and amenities.

I don’t have any trips planned right now (the baby has temporarily grounded us for a few months), but next time I’m looking, I’ll give Hipmunk a serious try.

Happy April Fool’s!

I love April Fool’s Day.  I’m not much of a prankster myself, but I do enjoy the high jinx of others.  I love how many companies have embraced the April Fool’s spirit, and pulled some fun gags.  Here are a few I’ve noticed today:

Moo (the internet-based printing company) is advertising a special new ink that changes colour, kind of like a mood ring.  Check it out.

Over at Virgin, Sir Richard Branson has announced he has purchased Pluto, and intends to have it reinstated as a planet.

Ikea has rolled out a new product in time for April Fool’s – the dog highchair.

And of course, Google, the king of all April Fool’s pranksters, rolled out Gmail Motion.  Just look at some of the pictures and gestures (above) – hilarious.

What April Fool’s Day stunts have you heard about?

Shinzi Katoh Poster

This past weekend, Jenny and I walked over to one of our favourite neighbourhood shops, Telegramme Prints, to pick out a cool poster for the tadpole’s room.  We picked the Zoo print by Japanese artist Shinzi Katoh. That image up there is really small, and you can’t read the text (which is my favourite part).  I’ll take a better picture of the print in the nursery once I frame and hang it this week.

Telegramme has a few different posters by Katoh – have a look here.

PS – I’m 35.5 weeks pregnant… the baby’s arrival is just a few weeks away!  So excited.

Blogging Change

For all you regular readers, you may have noticed that I post something new on the blog every morning, Monday to Friday. Over the past year (Stuff Avery Likes is turning 1 year old on March 22), that has amounted to almost 300 posts!

I’m sorry to say that the frequency is going to change. I’m now 8 months pregnant, trying to wrap up work, and get the house together in time for baby… so something has to give, and for now it’s gonna be Stuff Avery Likes.

That’s not to say that I won’t be blogging at all – I still love to share neat-o stuff with you.  I just won’t necessarily be posting every day.  If you want, peruse the archives, or check out some of the other blogs I follow (the list is to the right, under “Daily Reading”).

[I took that picture yesterday – check out my mega baby bump!]

More Gadgets to Covet: Jambox

Here’s (yet) another gadget that I certainly don’t need, but boy do I want it… the Jambox speaker by Jawbone.  The tiny little speaker (think portability) runs on batteries, and connects to your iPod, iPhone, or iPad wirelessly by Bluetooth.  Don’t have Bluetooth on your device?  That’s okay, there’s an old-school audio-in jack for an auxiliary cable.

What’s different about this than the dinky iPod speakers they sell everywhere is that the Jambox apparently has killer sound.  I would love to have one for playing music on the back patio in the summer, or for using as an external speaker when I’m watching movies and TV shows on my new iPad.

At a cool $200, it’s not really in the budget right now… but my birthday’s coming up…