Monthly Archives: January 2010

I’m such a clockwatcher on Fridays – from the minute I step into the office to the minute I sneak out just a few minutes early. The clock watching always drags out the afternoon but I can’t help it. This week has been full of long nights and I’m ready to lay broccoli-like on the couch staring into nothingness tomorrow. This job is so different from my last very cushy one, I’m still getting used to it. On one hand, it’s not difficult, but on the other, it has a lot of little itty bitty pieces and a lot of do-this and do-that’s and spinning around and around which helps make the day go by faster but also can leave me tie-erd. That, and moving out means I have stuff to do when I get home. Aside from making dinner (spicy stir fried octopi and calamari!), chores just keep piling up! I try to tackle some smaller ones on weeknights which leaves bigger ones for the weekends. But after a long week, I just can’t seem to stare down a big cleaning job. So even though I’m looking forward to this long weekend, that little part of me is not looking forward to washing kitchen cabinets, a stove, floors, and a bathroom, not to mention more laundry, even though I’ve been trying to whittle that down this week by doing some each night.

Gee-zuh I could use a pot of coffee right now.

T3 Bespoke Featherweight Tourmaline Professional Ionic Ceramic Hair Dryer

This thing is the bomb! It’s quiet and powerful and makes blowdrying quick and easy. With all my other hairdryers, I just stand there waving the thing around in the hopes that my hair will airdry before my arms fall off. This one I wave around a few times and done. Plus it’s so light my arms barely feel it. It’s even bedazzled on the handle. That’s all you really need to know, it’s bedazzled.

Sunday was more more clothes shopping (all Winter season items are on sale now) paired with more unshopping (dropped off three large bags of clothes to donate), and more grocery shopping.

I got this new bag for hauling the big hulking camera. It fits well and doesn’t look camera-bag-like.

Stop 0 – Gym
Stop 1 – Goodwill for some un-shopping.
Stop 2 – Oriental Market (wasabi peas, dried cuttlefish, and ginger candies).
Stop 3 – CVS (band-aids, cotton swabs, and beautifying products).
Stop 4 – A late dimsum for lunch at 2 pm – as soon as we sat down, all the carts descended upon us hawking whatever was remaining. Nevertheless, I hadn’t had it in a while so it was good.
Stop 6 – Home Depot for a closet rod and cleaning products and to ogle at their sample kitchen displays.
Stop 7 – Furniture store to browse for bookcases.
Stop 8 – GStreet Fabrics – basic black and white thread. You never know when you might need to sew something up in a pinch.
Stop 9 – Starbucks!! Dimsum induced food-coma.
Stop 10 – Shoppers Food Warehouse for everything else that the Asian market didn’t have.
Stop 11 – Marshall’s for a vegetable peeler and potato masher. Came out with scented drawer liner and the vegetable peeler.
Stop 12 – Ross because Marshall’s didn’t have the masher I was looking for. Came out with a bath mat and masher.
Stop 13 – Petco – Marco and Gina’s bedding.
Stop 14 – Pit stop at home to drop everything off, have a snack and light dinner of mashed potatoes and leftover stir-fried vegetables and more coffee.
Stop 15 – Ice skating with friends!
Stop 16 – Jaleo for dessert and sangria (and more coffee). Brrr… it was freezing cold this evening!
And finally, home again. Whew!

The sis and b-i-l went to Spain and brought me back these. I love them, they’re fun and have just the right dangle.

The clothes shopping hiatus (for a while at least), may make up for the splurge on the new computer, but I’m still not going to skip out on beauty products, even in this economy. For a while, I’d been using a hodge podge of products from Olay to Philosophy. But this past Fall I discovered freckles!! On my cheeks! That’s a sure sign of aging right there. I may act like grandma but there’s no reason I should look like grandma too. So this time I decided to try Shiseido’s White Lucent Brightening Eye Treatment and White Lucent Brightening Moisturizing Emulsion. This line is supposed to “diminish the appearance of spots and freckles.” I still see freckles but it does make my face feel soft and it’s also very easy to smooth on. My only gripe with it, besides the fact that my freckles are still there) is the packaging. The moisturizer comes in a glass bottle and I have to slooooly pour it out or thunk it against my palm to get it going. Picture a glass ketchup bottle only instead of an inch-wide mouth, I have a half a centimeter. I feel like I need to suck it out with a dropper, if it’ll even fit the lip of the jar. For that, I wouldn’t get this again. It smells great though, like all Shiseido products.

This morning I made an 8-cup pot of coffee and drank a good 7 cups of it. I am so jittery right now, but it felt so nice sipping it in this cold weather! Hence this random post, which no doubt will cover topics that have no relation to each other.

I was cleaning out my closets and donated a lot of clothes this weekend but I just couldn’t bear to part with my suits. One still had tags on it, one I’d taken the tags off but never wore, others I’d worn once or twice. So I am making myself wear suits to work so I don’t have to throw them out. Kind of a backwards way of not cleaning out the closets but I love this new suit I donned this morning. I feel sharp.

Lent starts February 15th this year. Possible things I might give up for 40 days:

I have eleventy thousand other things sloshing around in my caffeine-addled brain right now. Pretzal.

Yesterday, we had lunch guests over. After introducing them to the chinchees and Nemo, we ate and chatted over some wine. Not quite a four courser. Not exactly a wine pairing. Not dinner. But a good practice run and low-stress casual. I took the opportunity afterwards to try to clean off the stove and oven too. Baking soda works wonders!! Just water and baking soda and a bit of dishdetergent. No special chemicals. Stains that I couldn’t get out no matter how many times I tried came right off with baking soda. I will be going over it again another time to try to get more off later. I didn’t realize how effective it would be or I would’ve taken before and after pictures.

First day of the new year. We had brunch, then went shopping: TJ Maxx, Home Depot, Asian market. Then it was a whole lotta snacking and eating all day. Then dinner after all that. Whew! I’m all fooded out.