I Despise Walmart

Over the past two days I've had to go to 4 different Walmart locations looking for a specific brand of curtains for the new office. I need 38 window panel curtains, and they are half price in store compared to purchasing them online. I understand Walmart serves a lot of people, but that is literally the slowest store I've ever been in. It frustrates the shit out of me having to wait behind slow people who have yet to comprehend you put your items on the conveyor belt and the cashier rings the items up and you then pay for the items. What's so damn difficult about that?! But no, I seem to choose the line behind people like that. God, I would gladly pay more to never have to go to Walmart again.

Weekend Wrap-Up

Another busy weekend for the books! Friday night started off with a plan to veg out and watch some movies, but T had a better idea. Her and her hubby came over and we had an impromptu cookout and pool party. She brought over a drink mixer to which we added Malibu Mango Rum and Coconut Rum and proceeded to get pretty tipsy! We ate, swam and laughed under the stars and had a blast.

Saturday morning I was kicking myself because I was too tired to make my Yoga class. I got rolling and headed to meet up with C. for some shopping before our group dinner. I got a bunch of items for the 4th of July party this weekend as well as some items for C's baby shower on the sly! Later that evening we headed to Eastside Cafe for a fabulous girly dinner. The cafe is a remodeled old home and it had such a quaint feeling. The food was yummy and I really loved the Strawberry Peach soup I got for dessert. Afterwards, we headed over to see the Mamma Mia play. It was fantastic and we all sang and danced. The play is a bit more raunchy than the movie so that part was funny. All the actors and actresses had beautiful singing voices and the dancing parts were great as well.

Sunday we had another pool party with the kiddos being invited this time. We cooked out more fajitas and sausage and friends brought homemade ceviche that was yummy. The weather was perfect and the pool was sparkly clean. Everyone finally called it a night around 9pm and I was exhausted. Next time, Sunday pool parties end at 7pm!

I Never Got To See Michael Jackson In Concert

It was hard to believe the news when I read yesterday afternoon that Michael Jackson had been taken to the hospital under cardiac arrest. Since TMZ was the first one reporting this startling information, I took it with a grain of salt. I closed up my computer around 4:50 and headed home. At 5:45 exactly I heard from my sister they had declared that Michael Jackson had slipped into a coma and had passed away. Crazy that in one week Ed McMahon, Farrah Fawcett and Michael Jackson all passed away.

I loved and still love Michael Jackson. I can remember seeing the Thriller video for the first time and wanting to pee my pants it scared me so bad. I loved his effortless dance moves and how you could tell he sang his heart out every time. I loved him so much we went to see Weird Al Yankovich during the timeframe when he was parodying all of MJ's songs.

Song of my favorite songs are Smooth Criminal, Bad, Beat It, PYT, etc. The list goes on and on. It's sad to think I'll never get to see him in concert, because you know even with his frail health, he would have put on a hell of a show!

Friends Don't Let Friends.....

Wear shirts like these!!!!
The fashion abuser (who shall remain nameless) handed this gem off to a friend of ours. Repeat, if you won't be caught dead in something, don't pass if off to a person who's supposed to be a good friend!!!! Even if you got this shirt, or a similar one, for free, it doesn't make it right.

*This is all in good fun. We all make fashion mistakes. I'm just trying to prevent it from happening again! Oh, and this shirt better not make it back to me when I'm finally preggers!**

We Need To Go To Mexico

Seriously! My in-laws are in Cozumel and apparently the all-inclusive hotel they are staying at has a 10% occupancy rate at the moment! We could go for dirt cheap! Anybody in?

Would You Rather.....

1. Talk to your kids about the birds and the bees, or your family financial situation?

2. Be able to hear any conversation, or the ability to take back anything you say?

3. Always get first dibs or the last laugh?

4. Live without music or live without TV?

5. Lose your legs or your arms?


My answers:

1. Birds and the bees
2. Ability to hear any conversation
3. Get the last laugh
4. Live without TV, for sure
5. Tough one! I would rather lose my legs, because I'm guessing prosthetics are easier on the legs.

Feeling Better

I felt funny yesterday morning, but still went into work. After my usual cup of tea, I felt even worse and ran to the restroom. Honestly, there is nothing worse than having to throw up in a communal bathroom. It gags making me think of it. I felt like crap and preferred throwing up in the privacy of my own house, so I grabbed my bag and left work.

I stopped at the grocery store to pick up some gluten-free pretzels (which are actually quite yummy), Ginger Ale and a pregnancy test. We're not actively trying, but who knows. Good news was I didn't get the pregnant line, so we're in the clear. I must of had a 24 hour flu bug. I slept the rest of the day and did wake up long enough to finish the 3rd book in the Sookie Stackhouse series. God I love vampire books!

Nothing crazy going on today. Trying to organize a boat-load of vendors to prepare for our new office move! I picked this kick-ass teal color for my accent wall, I love it. I also ordered 3 prints from English photographer Rosie Hardy. Love her work, and I'm going to have them matted and paint some old frames.

Happy Tuesday!

T.G.I.F.!!!!

Need A Laugh?

Check out www.awkwardfamilyphotos.com Guaranteed to laugh your ass off, mostly because you know in the dark recesses of your closet there is one of your family!

Double-Take

While walking in SoHo last week, my group stumbled upon the following Calvin Klein billboard and we were shocked. I'm a pretty open-minded person, but I was really surprised how sexy the ad was and so was everyone else. We literally stopped in the middle of the road and gawked at the billboard because it was so racy. See for yourself:

While reading Yahoo news today I found an article about how local NYC residents were up in arms about the racy ad. It was basically calling the 50 foot billboard "soft porn" and it was too racy even for NYC standards. The billboard is located in a trendy, well populated and shopped area, so it's seen by many people throughout the day.

I find it inappropriate since it basically shows an orgy about to happen. I'm down for an eye-catching and edgy billboard, but I feel that this one takes it a bit too far. Thoughts?

Weekend Wrap-Up

Friday after noon at 3:30pm, I was notified that a poem I wrote on a whim was picked to win tickets to see Yanni at 8pm that evening! I was perusing Craigslist for cheap Yanni tickets when I came across an entry asking that you write a poem and the best one would win 2 tickets to the show. I entered the following poem Thursday afternoon:

Oh Yanni Chryssomallis, how do I love thee
Let me count the ways.
You were born in Kalamata, Greece,
and oh do I love their olives.
Though you are 27 years older than I,
it doesn’t stop my heart from pounding wildly
as I listen to your piano chreshendos.
Oh I Dare to Dream of seeing you in concert, but alas,
I’m unable to afford the ticket prices at the moment.
You learned to play the piano without reading notes,
and I would learn to read and speak Greek just to see
you in concert.
Although this poem doesn’t rhyme, Yanni,
I hope to be seeing you in no time!


I kept my fingers crossed it wasn't a scam and dragged Hubby with me that evening. It was 7:45pm, 7:50, 7:52 and we still hadn't seen or heard from the guy offering the tickets. Utterly dejected, Hubby offered to take me to a nice restaurant, to which I replied, "I don't want to go to a restaurant, I want to see Yanni!" As we were standing there, a woman came up asking if we wanted 2 free tickets, to which we snatched the tickets from her and did a little dance! The poem guy ended up calling us about 8:10 and apologizing since he had ran late and was really sorry. No problem though, our seats ended up being better and it turned out the woman who gave us the tickets had a son who was a lighting director of the show! She tried to get us backstage to meet Yanni, but it was too tight on time. Still, the fact that I could have met him was awesome! The show was incredible, he travels with a 40 piece string band, which was fantastic. Hubby fell in love with the head violinist, and she was def. hot, plus it made him enjoy the show more!

Saturday afternoon we headed to our cousin's house for his annual volleyball party. He built a regulation size sand volleyball court in his backyard. He was grilling out all day and the drinks and music were free flowing. I was a spectator this time and we kept laughing at all the great saves made throughout the games. Hubby ended up staying overnight and they played until 4am. No thanks, I wanted to take a shower and sleep in my own bed.

Sunday we had some friends over for an impromptu pool party. We grilled out chicken and burgers and yummy veggies. By 7pm we were all feeling the effects of the sun and pool and called it a day. We want to make these pool parties a Sunday tradition, it feels so good to lay around and be lazy in the sun!

Retail Therapy

FYI... If you have a AAA card, you get 15% off your purchase at New York & Company. Sometimes they have specials where you get 25% off! Be sure to show it with every purchase! Happy Shopping!

Eliminated

As of today, I've started an elimination diet in order to figure out why I'm still having stomach and various digestive issues. After all the tests I endured last year the best the doctors could do was tell me I had IBS, or Irritable Bowel Disease. Awesome, so what the hell does that mean? I'm supposed to accept this diagnosis and just to to live with it? Essentially, that's what I've been trying to do. But lately I've been thinking there has to be an underlying cause to the IBS.

I could fork out quite a bit of money for a food allergy test, but I'm not feeling getting pricked with more needles. After doing some research, I learned the most fool-proof food allergy identifier is an elimination diet. Essentially, you remove the 4 major food allergens from your diet completely. That means no Dairy, Soy, Wheat or Nuts. You remove all traces of these allergens from your diet for 2 weeks, then you introduce them back for one day only, one allergen at a time. For four days, you track how you feel after eating that specific allergen. Then you introduce a second allergen, track it for four days, and so forth until you've reintroduced all the allergens and tracked your symptoms.

Sadly, the list of high allergen foods is much longer than the low allergen foods, so it took me over an hour to find suitable meals and food at the grocery store last night. Even though this will be tough, I'm going to stick it out. If I know for sure wheat is my problem, it will allow me to tailor my diet and hopefully lessen my digestion issues and almost constant discomfort. Curious as to what an elimination diet would be? Let me give you my diet for the next two weeks:

Breakfast: 1 serving Cream of Rice, 1 banana
Lunch: Lettuce, carrots, oil and vinegar dressing, Chicken breast, sweet potato
Dinner: Rice pasta with homemade sauce and turkey meatballs
Snacks: Organic rice crackers, any non-citrus fruits

This pretty much means avoiding most processed foods, since they have hidden traces of milk, soy, wheat and nuts. Alas, this means no chocolate treats. Chocolate is actually a big allergen. But that's not to say I didn't go out with a bang last night. I had a Snickers bar and a Reece's!

Powers Of Persuasion

Even though I was feeling a bit crummy last night, I still wanted to model my new clothes for Hubby. I made him look at all my fun new purchases and he didn't ask me what I spent once! That's a huge accomplishment for him. After I was finished prancing around, he told me he had actually bought some new clothes while I was gone. I prayed they weren't from the "slightly irregular" rack at Marshalls. He had gone to Dillards during a sale and found some really great fitting linen pants and some nice shirts. I was very impressed! He had taken the time to find well-fitting clothes and paid more than $20 for 5 items of clothing.

I then decided I should take the time to hang up my new clothes. I was utterly disgusted when I opened my closet to see the mess of clothes waiting to burst out and spill everywhere. I'm nowhere near as bad as Hubby, but I've been holding onto some items since high-school and college that just needed to go. They looked dated and made me feel immature when I tried them on. I started thinning out my closet, call it spring cleaning if you will, and rapidly made headway in the mess. Hubby got inspired and started going through his closet. He's got sweaters and shirts from Structure (yeah, remember that old store?!) and Abercrombie & Fitch. Seriously, besides high-schoolers, who the hell wears A&F? He probably threw away 20-30 shirts and sweaters and I was so proud of him. He holds sentimental value to many items, so it was a big deal for him to do this.

Now we can both fit our good clothes into our closets without them bursting at the seams. Plus, I have more room for new clothes!!!!

Random NYC Photos

Here are some of my favorite photos of the ones I've been able to download so far. (I took over 300 photos!)

Tub full of gumballs at Dylan's Candy Shop!

Entrance to Natural History Museum

Moby spinning at Museum Party

View from C.'s apartment

Random building in SoHo

Back To Reality

My trip has come to an end and I'm back in the real world. Plane got in around 10ish last night and I was super excited to get home and see hubby. The only real hitch of the entire trip is my luggage did not make my connector flight in Houston. So I'm hopefully getting it delivered this afternoon. I guess I'll do a rundown of the trip by day to make it easier.

Thursday evening T and I caught a bus to NYC for $22 round trip! It was a comfy bus and there were only 9 people on it. It takes about two hours from Philly to NYC, so we chatted, took pictures and laughed the whole time. Our friend who has an apartment in the city, C., met us at the bus stop and we headed to her place to drop off our luggage. By then it was around 8:30pm, and we decided to head to Chinatown to grab a cheap dinner at Penang, a Chinese restaurant. After we were stuffed, we walked around a bit and decided to call it a night.

Friday morning was rainy, so we decided to check out the Natural History Museum. It was a perfect day to be inside all day, plus you can pay what you can afford at the museum. We ended up spending about 5-6 hours wandering all around the museum. And yes, it is the museum from the first movie "Night At The Museum." My favorite exhibits were the dinosaur and sea life exhibits. They had great photo opportunities and very interesting facts and models. Another friend W., told us about a party at the Guggenheim museum that night, so we decided to go there. First we had dinner at POI POI, a Peruvian restaurant that was out of this world! The food was amazing and we stuffed ourselves. We were dressed to the nines and ready to get our dance on, so we headed to the Guggenheim, only to find out the party had been cancelled! No fear, the security guard at the History Museum told us they also had a party going on that evening and Moby was the guest DJ. It was held in the Planetarium, which was amazing. The music was pretty much techno, but that didn't stop us from getting our groove on! I got some great photos of Moby doing his thing, so that was pretty cool.

Saturday we got up and headed to Century 21 to do some shopping. I found a cool mint green shirt and that was about it. I wasn't prepared to spend $250 on a dress I liked. We then headed to Chinatown, my favorite place in NYC. We haggled over perfume, scarves, headbands, purses, wallets, etc. After we had dropped quite a bit of cash there, we meet up with W. in SoHo for some additional shopping and lunch at Bar 89. I had the most amazing BLA, which is a Bacon, Lettuce, Avocado sandwich. T. and C. had an equally amazing burger. After browsing the more expensive boutiques, we headed to Greenwich Village where we stopped at the local favorite Pinkberry. The yogurt is very tart, but I love the mochi balls, which are Chinese rice candy. So I ordered a side of those, minus the yogurt. Needless to say, they thought I was crazy. We also stopped at Crumbs, a bitchin' bakery that has the biggest cupcakes ever. I got the Hostess cupcake which was amazing. We people watched while sitting in the window for a few hours. The plan was to go to the Brooklyn Museum for a dance party that night, but we were exhausted from walking over 10 miles. We decided to eat at Cafestaria, which was a noodle house across the street. It was ridiculously yummy and only $16!

Sunday we got up and bought sandwiches for a picnic in Central Park. We found a shady spot and set out our blanket. The plan was to chill a few hours and then head to the MOMA (Museum of Modern Art). We all fell asleep and decided to skip the museum and just enjoy the beautiful weather. We chilled from about noon to 4pm and then went to check out a street fair that was going on. By 7pm we were hungry and stopped at Asia Grill, which specializes in Chinese and Vietnamese food. I tried the Pad Thai and it was fabulous! It was a huge portion and I tried to eat it all, but failed. By that time we were all exhausted from walking probably over 40 miles total this trip and had to go and pack to get ready to be at the bus stop by 9pm. Our bus left NYC around 9:15 and we began the journey home to Philly on a double-decker bus. We laughed and reminisced about the fun times we had had.

Monday we woke up leisurely and then ran some errands. T had an amazing blow dryer that I will talk about more tomorrow. I had to get one in DE, because I had never seen that type at home. I also made another pass at H&M to see if there were any more clothes I just had to have. Of course there was, so I bought more stuff! I headed home around 5:30pm and was very sad to go. I really do love NYC and it would be a dream to live there for at least 4 months to experience all it has to offer. Anyone want to go next year?!

Stuffed and Satisfied

I got into Philly yesterday around 2pm after a uneventful flight. Uncle C picked me up and we chatted and had dinner until T got off of work. T and I then headed to Casablanca's for our favorite Moroccan feast. We were there eating and lounging for around 2 hours. The food was amazing and the music was nice and authentic. Sadly the belly dancers are only there on the weekends, so we didn't get to see any hunky male dancers.

Today we're taking out time getting ready. T & I are heading to the mall to do some tax free shopping at H&M. Hubby wants me to be on the lookout for anything he may like that I could buy for him. We head to the bus stop at 4ish to head to NYC and meet up with C. to head to her apartment in Manhattan. C was able to pull some strings and got us free tickets to see John Legend at the Good Morning America summer show. Hopefully the rain holds out and we'll go, but the downer part is we need to leave the apt. at 6am! We're going to play that one by ear!

I Want To Be A Part Of It...

New York, New York! NYC here I come baby! I'm wrapping things up at work and I'm about to leave early to get my bangs trimmed so I look my hottest on my trip. Flight leaves at 7am, which means I need to leave the house around 5am ( The only part of the trip I'm not looking forward to). I've got to pick up some magazines, snacks and camera batteries on the way home. Gotta swing by T's house to borrow her jacket (I'm blessed with generous friends, she's never even worn the jacket!). Need to fish the luggage out from the attic and finalize my packing. Spend some time with hubby before I try to go to sleep despite my childlike excitement that keeps bubbling through today.

I'll see you all next week!

Doggie Days

Yesterday was my MIL's birthday. She decided pretty late in the day on Sunday she wanted to have a BBQ/Pool Party on Monday, for whoever could make it. Hubby and I arrived at their house around 5:30pm yesterday, only to be surprised that no cars were there. I called the house and MIL answered the phone crying. Not only did Hubby's sister manage to sink their fairly new jet ski, their oldest dog was in the process of dying. Nothing like a drama-filled Monday evening!

Hubby goes and helps salvage the jet ski, which if it hadn't been tied to the dock, would have sunk to the bottom of the lake. It's going to need around $500 worth of repairs, too. I stayed with MIL to help with the dog. In an attempt to make the dog feel better, she gives him some water that immediately goes right through his system all onto her tile floor. It was disgusting. I could have done without seeing all that. Everyone is sad and tense, so I was ready to get the hell out of there. But Hubby needed to spend time with his dog, so I just sat and waited until he was comfortable enough to leave.

The dog made it through the evening (I can't imagine the drama if he had actually passed on MIL's birthday) and was still having issues this morning. They made the family decision to take him to the vet to be put to sleep. It was for the best as his body was shutting down and he was uncomfortable. Hubby is sad and I feel bad because I can't really do anything but try to tell him what a great life his dog had. He survived a water moccasin bite, being chased by a wild boar, got to go on the boat every weekend when he was younger, etc. I'm waiting for Hubby to tell me they cremated the dog and are having his ashes turned into one of those new-fangled "diamond" pieces.

Weekend Wrap-Up

This weekend was a weird combo of relaxing/crazy. Friday night I headed to E's house to drop off dinner and meet her new little babies. They were ridiculously cute and very well behaved for newborns! They made some squirmy noises, but that was the extent of it. I got to hold baby E and she fell asleep in my arms after a bit. I gotta say, it tugged at my uterus. After that, I headed to Red Lobster to meet up with Hubby and his family to celebrate my MIL's bday. Dinner was tasty, but damn their friend food and the fact everything is cooked in a gallon of butter. By the time I got home, I wanted to die. I was sick to my stomach and it was frickin' miserable all night. Thank god for Zantac and Tums Smoothies!

Saturday I was still feeling crummy, so I skipped the gym and got a spa pedicure. I had received a gift certificate for my bday and felt like being pampered. They did and excellent job and I was nice and relaxed after that. I ran a few errands and then headed back to the hood to grab my doggie and MIL's dog to take them for their annual shots. Both dogs were very angry with me and had to get little bandages on their legs where they had blood drawn. This is a pic of my dog very mad she had to get a thermometer up her butt.

Later that evening we headed to a graduation party in the hood. Excellent food and drinks and great company made for a wonderful time. We all said little words of encouragement and congratulations to the girls and their father made it into a video montage which he showed later in the evening. Sunday I got up and went for a massage that was truly decadent. The therapist had strong hands for a little woman. I was feeling nice and floaty when I headed home an hour later. A neighbor friend was having an impromptu brunch that I stopped at and chatted with the other ladies for a bit. I then headed out to soak up some sun by the pool. I also went to a clothing swap in the hood as well. Managed to find a cute top and an awesome fitting pair of Banana Republic jeans!