I love Chick Fil A

Tonight I had my last Chick Fil A/Beth Moore Combo. Sadness. Jabs turned me onto this video and I think it's incredible. I, too, hate having to settle for Subway instead of Chick Fil A.

Pretty in pink.

I love that it's finally warm enough to wear open-toed heels to display my freshly pedicured pink toes. Pink toenails just make my boring black suit way more exciting.

This is how I justify spending $32 on a pedicure every 4-6 weeks. Don't judge.

Spring cleaning!

Whew! I just spent 2.5 hours switching out my summer and winter clothes. And in the process I got rid of a bunch of clothes. I am embarrassed to admit that some of them still had tags on them. But, I actually have room in my drawers-something I haven't had in years. My closet door shuts and my shelves have room! I love it. There's a new rule in my closet: something comes in, something must go out. (So, in theory, I am entitled to a laundry basket full of new clothes! Kidding ;) )

Well, if you're in the market for some new clothes-feel free to stop by this week and help yourself. There's summer clothes, winter clothes, and shoes. I'm taking them to goodwill next sunday-there's a lot of nice stuff in there! 

Wow-that's a lot of clothes.

But, look how pretty my closet is! (I have two closets this size-this is just one, but the other is just as pretty...and no, I did not color-code my closet. 2.5 hours seemed to be enough time to spend on this little project!)

All my winter clothes now fit into 4 tubs! A miracle. Shoes included.

Where are Strunk and White when you need them?

I just spent way too much time looking up what the correct past tense of the word "plead" is.

My mind said "pleaded," but I also thought "pled" might be correct.

I learned both were right. "Pleaded" is the historically correct past tense of the word "plead." However, what was once a simple colloquialism, "pled" is now also accepted as the past tense of "plead." However, when using the past tense "pled," it should never be spelled "plead."

Whew. Don't lie. You're jealous of the exciting-lawyer life I lead.

Don't be jealous...

Twilight was playing at my gym this morning in the movie room! The room was packed with women-ha!

And everyone gave a collective death glare to the woman on her cell phone. Seriously? In the movie room? Who in the world are you talking to before 6:00 a.m.? I can think of only one person in my life who would be awake that early-my mother.

Biggest excitement of my day...

My new "RUSH" stamp came in. Yes!!!!!

I have a secret love of office supplies. Gel pens (no ballpoint and only blue!), 3x3 post its, and large paper clips (seriously, why do they even make small paperclips-they are worthless) are among my faves.

I'm happy as a clam...stamping away.

Don't text and drink.

There is a chance you could drop your entire cell phone into your full coffee mug.

Again, don't text and drink.

I was impressed.

Yesterday I needed to return something to JCrew. I didn't want to pay to ship it back, so I drove up to Kenwood and returned it there. So, yes I saved the 5.95 it would've cost to ship it back, but I ended up buying a jean skirt and a new shirt. Go figure.*

Anyway, on my way out I decided to check out the new Fresh Fare Kroger that was all the rave a few months ago. It was very nice! Not only did I get a free lunch with all those free samples everywhere, I was really impressed with the selection of foods. Homemade bread, gourmet desserts, a gigantic meat/fish selection. Not to mention a variety of ready-made meals that looked delicious. While it's pretty unlikely I will shop there unless I'm in that area, it definitely lived up to the hype. Very nice. Hey Kroger-why don't you upgrade the Clifton Kroger to a Fresh Fare market?

*I received a 10% off coupon at JCrew for in-store purchases. If you would like it, just let me know! They have A TON of stuff on sale with very good prices. I've exhausted my spring-shopping budget or I would use it myself. ;)

wow.

My Friday was dragging. I decided to turn on the radio and a very early Mariah Carey song came on. All of a sudden I was transported back to fourth grade when my sister and I would play with our friend who lived across the street-whose name is eluding me now even though we were like the 3 Musketeers- like every day. We would put in the Maria Carey cassette tape and pretend we were really good singers and dancers. There was some serious choreographing, too. Unfortunately, my singing and dancing were probably better when I was 9 than they are now...



Obviously, I had no inhibitions about embarrassing myself. Yikes! Glad no one ever had a video camera to tape that.

So long winter.

I will not miss you one bit.

In other news, what the heck is Twitter? I have heard the word Twitter more in the last week than I ever have before. I don't get it. :-/

Spring Has Sprung

And there are flower blooms to prove it! (Sorry for the picture quality-it was taken on my cell phone and Fi was completely uncooperative!)

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Would you?

Over the weekend, I heard an advertisement for checkyourgenes.org. The advertisement encouraged people, particularly women, to get genetic counseling and testing to determine if they carry the gene linked to ovarian or breast cancer. Often times, they said, this is clear through your family history (usually on the mother's side) and if you carry the gene, your risk for one of these cancers increases from 20% to 80%. Obviously, a scary statistic.

But, would you do it? Would you have a test to determine if you carry the gene? And what if you took the test and discovered you did carry the gene? Then what?

I don't know. One the one hand, to me, any action taken would be definitely taken out of fear, right? On the other hand, wisdom is power, to some extent. I think it's important to be wise to your family history so that you can take preventative measures (like eating healthy, getting tested often for cancer, etc.). But, what real good would it do to know you carry a gene that odds are will cause cancer? Would you take such a drastic measure as to have a hysterectomy or a mastectomy,as many of the women in the "share your story" part of the website have done? I would not. This advertisement seems a bit misguided to me.

What do you think?

When I Grow Up

After watching Nights in Rodanthe last night, I decided my dream job would be to own a bed & breakfast on the Outer Banks. Seriously, how sweet would that be? I am 100% serious that I think it would be great fun to make breakfast for customers and then go have my morning cup of coffee on a deck with an ocean view. Clearly this cold weather has me dreaming.

Only 3 months until the beach.

The big 3-2

Happy Birthday Steve!

I didn't have a picture of you on my work computer, so I thought I'd do the next best thing and post a picture of a dog enjoying its birthday!

Wind-hair.

Pretty much what my hair looked like when I walked into court at 8a.m. this morning due to the gusty wind. Lovely.

Lizzy and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

Well it started that way. I only got 5 hours of sleep due to some noisy neighbors. Alarm went off. Very groggy. Took Fi for a walk-but she decided she was too sleepy to walk fast, so I brought her back. Then headed back out for walk/jog. Came home, remembered I have a conference call at 8:30a.m. and I am behind about 15 minutes. I am notoriously slow in the morning, so I pick up some time in the shower and get dressed quickly. Sit down to eat breakfast spill little dab of milk on shirt. Switch to navy sweater. Pour entire glass of orange juice on suit skirt that has only recently come back from dry cleaners. Try to salvage skirt by saturating with wet paper towel because I no longer have time to change. Hop in car with wet skirt. Miss two lights because person in front of me is going straight instead of turning right. Zoom into parking garage, race up Main Street hill and wait for four minutes for next elevator. Get to desk at 8:29a.m. and hold conference call still in my coat.

Whew.

The trick now is how do I go from a terrible morning to a great day? Being slightly more prone to negativity (slightly is an understatement), it's easy for me to just say this day is going to suck and the whole day will suck. I'm going to give it a try and hopefully turn things around!

Happy Tuesday-here's to a productive one!

Barbie is 50

Wow. My all-time favorite child time toy turns 50 today! I loved playing with Barbies. I had tons of Barbie dolls and mountains of Barbie clothes and accessories. I will never forget the day I received the Barbie Corvette for my birthday. But, there was also the Barbie swimming pool (my parents' least favorite accessory-it had a tendency to get messy), the Barbie dream house, Skipper, and of course Ken! For years, my sister and I had to share one Ken doll. We always decided he was "on a business" trip and didn't use him. My Dad eventually bought us more Ken dolls, but we never had a white Ken-African American, Hawaiian, Asian-but never a white Ken. A lesson in diversity I suppose. Or maybe he thought he was funny.

Either way, I played Barbies way beyond the "normal" age to give up such toys. My grandmother used to work at Lazarus (which no longer exists) and would always get my sister and me the special edition barbies-I have the UNICEF special edition and several Holiday Special Edition-still in their wrapped box. Go do a search on ebay and you'll see the value of these classic toys!

I cringe when I hear people who don't let their children play with Barbie dolls because her proportions are not realistic and she makes women focus on appearances or something silly like that. C'mon-Barbie is sweet and she is a great role model for young women! Look at all her professions! Doctor, lawyer, business woman, equestrian rider, veterinarian, Olympic athlete, astronaut, and mother. You name it-Barbie's done it. Who could better represent that women can do anything they want to-and do it while looking pretty and wearing high heels! Is that such a bad thing?

My sister and I gave our niece her first Barbie-a Christmas Barbie-when she was only a few weeks old. I hope Barbie stays around another 50 years. :)

So-happy birthday to my favorite toy of all time.

Sa-lammed.

That is how I feel. Busy busy busy. Vacation is still over 3 months away. In the meantime, let me share my suggestion for dealing with stress (since drinking wine will not help me get my waistline any slimmer for the beach!). It's simple--

1. Get on the internet.

2. Go to google.com/images.

3. Type in "puppies".*

4. View pictures of puppies, smile, say awwww, become relaxed.

*If you're having a really, awful, no good, downright nasty-stress level day, I'd suggest the search term "cairn terrier puppies" because they are the cutest of all time.

If you don't like puppies, well you are on your own. You are probably all into yoga and meditation. Good luck with that.

Are you a homeowner?

Edited: Well, the government works quickly and has already closed down the link I originally listed. The new summary, which also includes a summary of the specific details announced today, can be found here.

Do you have a mortgage? Then today is likely a big day for you, particularly if your home value has gone down due to the economy. Today, Barack Obama reveals the particularities of his Homeowner Affordability and Stability Plan. A summary of the plan is available here. This Plan isn't just for those who are severely delinquent in the mortgages or in foreclosure. This may just be the answer to the question of "where are the incentives for the people who do pay their mortgage each month?". We shall see.

Am I the only person whose been on the edge of his/her seat waiting to hear the details since this was announced back on February 18? Is it even weirder that I'm excited to hear about it and don't own a home?

Total let down.

That is how I felt after watch 3 hours of the Bachelor last night. 3 hours I will never get back. Never again will I waste that much time watching scripted reality television. At least not until next season.

Oh well. It is really freaking cold outside. I was decked out in my puffy winter coat, gloves, scarf, and 180s and still froze walking into work. Brr. I don't let Fiona get under my down comforter-she must lie on top of the bed, but when I got out of the shower, she was completely under the covers. Poor little thing-unfortunately I did not get a picture! :)

17 days until Spring.

the final rose

I have to confess that though the Bachelor perpetuates all generalizations I hate about women, I have been sucked into this season. I cannot wait for the finale tonight-though I read some inside scoop and think I know how it will all turn out... And after the underwhelming finale of Top Chef, I hope the Bachelor lives up to the hype.

A 3 hour finale. Truth be told, I hope I can stay awake until it ends at 11PM.

That being said-what is your guess for who gets the final rose? Melissa or Molly? I think he's better suited for Molly, but think he will pick Melissa tonight.

Get ready for The Most Dramatic Rose Ceremony Yet!!!!