5 things . . .

5 completely random things . . .

1. A big thanks to Justin for "guest" blogging. Isn't he cute? Maybe I can convince him to make future guest appearances.

2. I hope to get back to regular blogging soon, but for the time being, things are nuts at work . . . so I make no promises (not that anyone was overly concerned).

3. I have a new addiction - Everyday Minerals. I have been using Bare Escentuals for the last few years, but heard about EM and had to try the free sample kit. I tried them out over the weekend and am very impressed. I like the make-up better than BE (stays on longer and I didn't get as oily during the day). And, the best part is, it is much cheaper than BE. Only bad thing is that you have to order online, but that's the beauty of the free samples to test them out first.

The brushes are amazing too! I also could spend tons of time on EM's forums figuring out which colors I should order next. I will do a full review of the make-up and brushes soon. Stay tuned!

4. We received our neighborhood's civic association newsletter yesterday and a picture of our house is definitely in the banner on the first page. Justin was also looking at their website and a picture of our house is also on the homepage. I think we should be getting royalty payments for this!

5. I was half-way watching Celebrity Apprentice last night and paused it numerous times to focus on work. It was about the time when they were heading into the boardroom when Riley decided to step on the remote and change the channel (I guess he is not a fan of the show). Because I hadn't set the show to record, but rather had just paused it, I missed the rest of the show. I am off to watch what I missed online.

Guest Post, The day of J

Today was an amazing day. So amazing it drove me to blog about it. I'll stick with Emily's theme of making a list. I like this format because it allows you to efficiently blog about several topics at once without having to deal with transitions from one topic to the next. Here goes my list:

1. The weather in Houston today was perfect. Cool in the morning, mid 60's in the afternoon and full sun. I walked out onto our second floor balcony several times to take it all in. I also spent a little bit of time working in the backyard and I took our dog on a 30 minute walk around the neighborhood. Emily and I went down the street to Westheimer (where it's antique shops and tattoo parlours) and we did a bit of "antiquing" (I acknowledge there is no verb form of "antique" and sounds ridiculous, but I like making fun of the English language).

2. Today was also a funny day. Emily was laughing at me all day. I'm glad because she's really needed some moments to take her mind off of work. She reminded me that she had sent me an email yesterday (it was a very sweet email and I really appreciated it) and in it she told me, "I love you." However, I responded with a very sincere, "Thank you for the sweet email" but I didn't include anything like, "I love you too." She was giving me a hard time about it and instead of telling her, "I love you" as she expected, I replied with "I usually do" as in "I usually do remember to include an 'I love you' back." She immediately acted upset and I seized the opportunity by saying, "I usually do love you."

3. Another one that Emily got a good laugh from: We were planning a trip to Target today and she said she needed some comfortable pants to wear to the doctor on Friday. Let me stop and give you a quick background here. I have a habit of naming several of Emily's pants based on their function or some defining feature. It's my way of making fun of them. For example, I have given the following names to various pairs of Emily's pants: rectangle pants, yoga pants (she didn't use them for yoga, but apparently that's what they are supposed to be used for), gaucho pants (baggy knit pants that she likes to relax around the house in), lounging pants (really pajama pants, but today I re-branded them work pants because she was going to work a lot today while wearing them). So when I learned that Emily wanted a pair of pants to wear to her Dr. appointment for an SI joint injection, I started calling the pants "injection pants". I will never call them anything else but "injection pants."

4. Third thing Emily insisted I blog about: On our garage wall I hung a holder for garden tools, brooms and other items that have long handles. When we arrived home from Target I showed it off to Emily by adding an old floor lamp to the other items that it was holding. So our garden tool/broom holder is holding a shovel, a rake, a broom, a mop, and a floor lamp.

5. The fourth Emily request: I noticed a really tall weed (about 3 feet tall) next to the car when we were unloading the car from Target. So I went and grabbed the gloves that I had just bought today at Southland's a hardware store that is in our neighborhood. An aside here, Emily for the longest time called it Southwell's which is a hamburger joint around town and she now calls it by the wrong name on purpose just to annoy me. I put one on (they were still attached together and I could only get one on) and pulled the weed out. Emily thought the gloves looked goofy. I told her that the weed looked like radicchio and she laughed at my incorrect pronunciation. I said, "whatever it is, it's ridiculous."

Emily thinks I was extra funny today. Of course most of these are "you just had to be there" or funnier because of the inside jokes we have. Most of all though, I don't think it is a coincidence that she thinks I was extra funny at the end of a week where she worked over 70 hours.

Emily begged me to blog today and I'm glad that I filled the space for her while she is busy working. I know the jokes are lame; I'm just glad no one reads this blog. Zing!

Sandra Lee & Camping.

I happened to catch an episode of Semi-Homemade Cooking with Sandra Lee. I haven't seen this show in forever, mainly because it is just too ridiculous to watch. I like the concept of using certain store-bought items to assist in making homemade dishes, but Sandra is over the top. Between her "cocktail time," coordinating kitchen and outfits, and her crazy tablescapes, I couldn't watch anymore.


Today's episode was on the background while I was working. It was Sandra cooking while camping (recipes available here). My interest was piqued because Justin has been wanting us to go camping for a while, so I thought I might be able to get some good ideas. Boy was I in for a real treat.

Needless to say, I won't be making any of her recipes featured on today's show. I wasn't paying close attention to most of them, but I did tune in for her dessert, which for some reason is not listed on Food Network's website. I had enough when she busted out caramel sauce, vanilla extract, and cinnamon (or according to her, you could use pumpkin spice). Are you serious?! I am not camping pro, but I am pretty darn sure vanilla extract and cinnamon (or pumpkin spice) would not be even close to being on my list of items to bring. Not to mention the 20 rolls of foil she went through for all of her dishes.

And not deterred by being outdoors, Sandra still whipped up one of her tablescapes. Despite her saying it was "simple," it most certainly was not. She lost me when she used bark from off a tree as a vase for her hydrangeas. Oh right, hydrangeas were also on the top of my items-to-bring-camping list. I am not even going to discuss "cocktail time" where she made something called "risky whiskey." I wish I was joking.

Once we go camping, I will report back on how it went, but I am positive it will not involve a tablescape, multiple rolls of foil, vanilla extract, or cinnamon.

5 things . . .

5 things I am thankful for . . .

1. Having sunny warm weather here the past few days. My sunroof has enjoyed being open for the first time in a while!

2. Frederic Fekkai Salon Glaze Clear Shine Rinse.

3. Catching one of my favorite episode of Seinfeld --The Millennium. I love it when Kramer, after breaking the pricing gun, has to resort to "Plan B," which is removing the desiccants from clothing at a store.


4. Kiehl's Creamy Eye Treatment with Avocado. This stuff is great. It goes from thick cream to a liquid. A little tip from the lady at Kiehl's -- to get the best application, you have to rub it between your fingers first, and then when it starts breaking down, you apply it to your eyes.
5. Having fun comparing my NCAA bracket with Justin's. I have always been competitive, and it has been exciting checking in on some of the scores. But darn Purdue and Wisconsin! And despite Texas' lost to Duke tonight, it was a great game to watch.

Today's Important Meeting.

Our group received an e-mail from our boss this morning asking us to come down to his office for a meeting. Things have been a little tense around the office recently with all the law firm layoff news, so I always get a little scared when I see an e-mail calling for an unexpected meeting with the boss.

We all get down there (of course, I have my paper and pen), and he says "this is a very important meeting." Again, I am a little worried about what is about to happen. He then gets up and passes around NCAA brackets and tells us to fill them out by noon.


What a relief! We all had fun filling out our brackets this morning. Too bad I left my picks on my desk and can't see how well I am doing so far tonight.

Rough Day; Great Dinner.

Yesterday was a bad day at work -- things went from bad to worse before the day was even half over. Thankfully Justin had worked out some dinner plans with friends, and I was able to forget about things for a while.

We had a delicious dinner at the Glass Wall. I had a salad with lots of goat cheese (yum) to start and pork tenderloin with smoked gouda mac n’ cheese and asparagus and apples along with a glass of malbec. And nothing makes a bad day better like some decadent chocolate bread pudding. In addition to the meal being so tasty, the company was great too. Lots of fun stories were shared by all (including my all time favorite Justin story)!

On to the weekend . . . I am hoping I can do some decorating projects that have been on my to-do list for a while. (And I am hoping my hair lady calls me back because my bangs are out of control and need to be trimmed big time.) I am also looking forward to a tentatively planned mani/pedi with Meagan on Saturday!

The City.

Things have been crazy at work (for example, leaving around 11:30 p.m. and getting back up to the office at 3:00 a.m.), hence my lack of blogging. Any free time I have had has been spent napping or vegging in front of the TV. Hopefully things will slow down a bit, but I am not overly confident they will anytime soon.

Anywho, I watched The City's season finale tonight and have 2 comments:

1) I cannot believe Whitney said goodbye to Jay. I was shocked when I heard her say "too little too late." He was so sweet and seemed so sincere coming back and telling her he loved her. I do give her props for wanting to pursue her career, but my heavens . . . he was so cute and so charming.


2) If Whitney can stand up to Jay like that, she has got to do the same with Olivia. Her little passive aggressive comment about needing more credit for the work she is doing is BS and won't get her anywhere. She needs to say "look chick, you are totally taking credit for what I did, and I am not going to let it happen again." (She could omit the "look chick" portion if she wanted, but I wouldn't recommend it.)

Copying Charlie.

The other day, Riley heard me ooing and awing over Charlie, Pioneer Woman's precious basset hound. Being the spoiled, attention-loving dog that he is, Riley took matters into his own hands (or paws) and decided the only way to compete with Charlie was copy his cuteness while sleeping. I found Riley in the following position the day after I read the PW's blog post.

Thankfully, Riley is as sound of a sleeper as Charlie, so I was able to snap some pictures to document the cuteness copying. (And yes, I know that PW's pictures are much better than mine).

All sprawled out on the chair.



As PW says, this can't be normal.



And my favorite, the tired doggies showing off their pearly whites.

Cure for a Case of the Mondays.

Yesterday was worse than a normal Monday. For starters, it was the day after the time change. No one likes waking up an hour earlier than what they are used to. And to make matters worse, it was dreary and humid outside.

To help overcome what was destined to be a pitiful Monday, I wore my bright coral/pink heels from J. Crew. Nothing helps perk things up than some fun peep-toes!

(Please excuse the several week-old pedicure).

The shoes (but not in the fun colors) are way on sale and can be yours here, if you wear a size 11!

Here's J.Crew's image:


Despite needing a pick-me-up today as well, I settled on plain black pointed-toe pumps for work (boring!).

Barbara Bush.

Barbara Bush had open-heart surgery here in Houston today. Here is the Houston Chronicle's story and Methodist's press release. Thankfully everything went well and she is expected to be released from the hospital in 7-10 days.

I wouldn't ordinarily be posting about a former first lady's surgery, but the cool thing about it is that her doctor, Dr. Gerald Lawrie, also performed open-heart surgery on both of my parents. He was such a nice guy (and of course, a great doctor).

He has also operated on the Shah of Iran, the President of Turkey, the King of Belgium, and other royal figures. Glad to know my parents are in good company.

Best wishes to Mrs. Bush for a speedy recovery.

This week around the office.

Once a year, all of the partners in our office go out of town to attend several days of meetings. While there is still a lot of work to be done, them being gone also means we can have a little more fun at the office.

We can normally wear jeans on Friday, but this week we could wear them Wednesday through Friday. I don't know what it is about wearing jeans to work, but I love it. Yesterday afternoon's event is hands-down my favorite part of the week. We had an ice cream social! The firm gets the lovely folks at Blue Bell to bring their ice cream cart, umbrella, and soda shop music. The have about 5 flavors and tons of toppings -- oreo bits, m&ms, jimmies/sprinkles, all kinds of syrups. This year they forgot the whipped cream, but I am not complaining. It was delicious.

For lunch tomorrow, the associates are going to a Mexican restaurant that happens to also serve tasty margaritas. Many won't make it back into work. It is always a blast. Tomorrow will be an extremely low billing day for our office.

Unfortunately, Monday will be here before we know it and all the fun will have to come to an end.

Great Deal at Banana.

I love the feeling of getting a good deal. This weekend, we popped into Banana Republic while waiting to meet Meagan and Jeremy for dinner.

Silk Floral-Print Tunic
Regular Price: $69.00

Cotton Crewneck Cardigan (in orange)
Regular Price: $59.00

I got both the blouse and cardigan for $53.33 (including tax)! The cardigan was 30% off, then I used a $50.00 rewards card, and then got 10% the total for using our Luxe card.

Total Score!

5 things . . .

A bunch of odd things happened this past week, so in honor of my out of the ordinary week (which has kept me from blogging), here are the top 5 crazy things that happened this past week . . .

1. I knew the week was off to a bad start when I had to yell at some idiot in my parking garage Monday morning that was too busy and important to wait his turn in line. He cut me off, almost hitting my car in the process, and left me out in the middle of the intersection while we waited to get into the garage. Don't worry, before I started telling him how I felt about him being inconsiderate and putting my safety at risk, I made sure there were enough other people around in case he decided to do something crazy. The best part -- the lady behind me shouts "Tell him to go to hell!" Love it.

2. That same day, I had to get a MRI of my sacroiliac joint. Me being the medical genius that I am, thought a MRI and CT scan were the same thing. Imagine my surprise when the lady told me to lay still and she would be back in 30 minutes. I was thinking it would take about 5 minutes, like my previous CT scans. But the kicker is they were nice enough to give me headphones with music. Things started off normally until about half way through I start hearing (no joke), "You are special. I may not know your name, but Jesus does. He died for you and you can come to know Him right now." I was more surprised than offended. But seriously that could really offend someone. You are essentially forced to listen to it because you can't take the headphones off. It was very strange and unexpected.


3. On Tuesday, I had to go to municipal court for a traffic ticket (speeding). For the record, it was my first ticket ever. An attorney here in town that everyone uses represents other attorneys for free, so I thought what the heck, I've got nothing to lose so I challenged the ticket. It provided for great people-watching. By 8:05 a.m., I had already seen an old crazy professor-type lawyer get hand cuffed and removed from the courtroom for interrupting and yelling at the judge. After the judge's repeated requests for him to be quiet, she had him thrown out. On his way out (in hand cuffs), he yells back that he will call us all as witnesses to unlawful arrest. It was simply amazing.

4. Because I was at municipal court for several hours, the guy in #3 wasn't the only spectacle. There was also a lady, who evidently the judge had been nice to for several different court appearances. The lady, however, came in again with a terrible attitude (and flip-flops, a hooded sweatshirt, and jeans) and the judge had enough. She called the lady, who also happened to bring her 3-year old son with her, back up to the bench. Going Judge Judy on her, the judge informed her that this was her courtroom and she was sick and tired of the lady's terrible attitude despite trying to remain pleasant with her. The judge informed the lady that if her attitude did not immediately improve, she would hold her in contempt of court for 3 days. The judge also pointed out that she didn't care that the lady's son was with her -- that it would not deter her from still putting the lady in jail. The lady's demeanor quickly changed. Nothing a little threat of contempt couldn't fix.


5. And last but not least, the economy is bad and things are scary out there. I know that won't make the evening news, but everyday I hear about another law firm laying off associates and staff. February was a brutal month, and it looks like there is no end in sight. Associates are now detecting if anything suspicious is going down by looking at conference room reservations (see stories here). Thankfully everyone I know has been spared. I am keeping my fingers crossed it stays that way.