banana-riffic!

You know what I’ve been really into this week for breakfast? A banana cut up into slices and topped with peanut butter. It’s hard to apply the peanut butter to the slice, though because it’s all slimy and slippery. If scientists can figure out a way to create seedless watermelon, why can’t they create a banana that has peanut butter swirled into it? That’d be amazing! Just peel and eat!

While we’re on the topic of food, let me raise this question: why is it that if I were to eat a pound of chocolate, I would gain probably five pounds? How does THAT math work? It’s just not logical, and it’s oh so cruel!

Still alive!

Sorry for the lack of posts recently- it's been a really busy week! Dan's getting ready for Fashion Week (again!) starting this weekend, and I've been busting my butt with a trainer at the gym. By the time I get home, I'm collapsing on the couch in pain and popping advil for the inevitable soreness that will kick in the next day. You know, I realized that while most people drive to the gym and then drive home again, I have to gather the effort to haul my aching body up and down several flights of stairs to get to the subway, and then walk home from the train- DOUBLE whammy! I'll admit, tonight especially, I considered taking a cab home, but that would defeat the purpose, right?

Tonight, I convinced my trainer, Danny, to say the word "hundred" or "million" and even "million-gazillion" after counting each rep. I told him he could say it especially loud when someone walks by: "10 hundred million! 11 hundred million! Wow! That girl is INTENSE!"

Strangely enough, I've learned my right arm is WEAKER than my left... and I'm right-handed! Isn't that weird? When I'm lifting weights, my left arm is going strong, but my right arm always gets wobbly and shaky and it's a struggle for each count. Danny said that most people are stronger in their dominant arm, but when I told him I WASN'T left-handed, he was like, "HUH? Really? That IS weird!" Tonight, though I realized that I usually hold the dogs in my left hand while I do stuff with my right hand, and when I walk them, I hold the leash on the left. If we go into a shop or a store somewhere, I put them BOTH in my left arm, and use my right for shopping/paying etc. So maybe that's it?

How Rude!

I got on the subway yesterday morning, and just as the doors were closing, this lady pushes her way in. Now, there's a certain social etiquette that applies to subways, but also to many other close-quarters such as elevators: You all face the front. So how uncomfortable was it, when this crazy lady stands in FRONT of my face, NOSE-TO-NOSE facing me!!! What the?! What planet were YOU born on?!

It gets worse.

The lady starts YAWNING every 3 seconds, with her MOUTH OPEN and doesn't even cover it with her HAND! ARE YOU FREAKIN' KIDDING ME???!!!! "Gross!" I said, loud enough for her to hear, "You've got to be kidding me!" and I abruptly turned around and faced the wall of the train, bumping into her bag and being rude on purpose to get my point across. EWWW!! I'm not really interested in smelling your nasty morning breath as you exhale and yawn your steamy air all over my FACE!! URRRGHHH!!! Tourists!!!!

My new favourite funny website!

I love this! Go to Engrish.com , where people submit the hilarious chinese/japanese/korean translations! Warning: this site is addictive!

Hello???????

Is anyone out there? It's happening again... 7 blogs, 26 hits, and NO COMMENTS!

Odd and Unusual

You might have noticed by now that I have a taste for the unusual and I enjoy life's oddities. Perhaps that's why I'm so obsessed with these crocheted sushi magnets and these fantastic animal nose coffee mugs. I love this glowing, light-up huggable pillow too! And who doesn't love the "EX" knife holder? And hey, if you can't do the raw fish thing, try sushi candy!

M&M&M&M&M

I think the customized M&M's are pretty cool, and I got a coupon in a magazine for 1 free bag. When I went on the site, I went through the whole set up and I was gonna do fun M&M's for Dan for our Valentine's Day trip to Las Vegas. I even thought up some little sayings to put on the M&Ms:

4Get Elvis, UR my KING!
I bet it all on ME n U!
UR my jackpot!
Let's Vegas STRIP!
Valentine's in Vegas
UR 2 Hot 4 Vegas
Cha-Ching, Baby!
...etc, etc.

So then I find out you can only fit like 6 letters on each M&M, so all my cute sayings are out the window. Basically, you can write a name or a date, but as far as creativity, it's pretty confined. (and yes, I do understand that this has to fit on an M&M, I'm not an idiot!)
So I modified my plans, and came up with simpler slogans. But at the checkout, you have to buy a minimum of FOUR bags, and then the shipping is almost $15. So even with my "free" bag of M&M's, I'd have to pay over $70 and then I'd end up with 5 bags of vegas valentine M&M's. I don't NEED 5 bags! I should customize the M&M's to say, "These are making me fat!"

Ow

Something's in my eyes... both of them! Ow, I woke up this morning and I was rubbing them cause they felt dry and itchy. When I got to work, everyone was like, "eww what's wrong with your eyes?!" I called my optometrist, and she prescribed an eyedrop that I'm gonna pick up at the pharmacy on my lunch break. If it doesn't get better by tomorrow, she said to come in and she'll check to see if it's an infection. I hope it's not PINK EYE! Uggh... my eyes water just looking in the mirror, it's awful. I'll update you on my suffering as events warrant

It's the little things, right?

I can’t stand it when people say “I could care less” when they mean to say “I couldn’t care less!” When they say they could care less, then that means that they DO care a little. However, if you say, “I couldn’t care less”, that means that if they are at ZERO and it can’t possibly concern them any less than what it does right now.

Think about these two sentences: “I could care less if you quit your job”, which means I care right now, and on a scale of 1-10 it would be about a 4 because I could go down to a 3 or a 2 or even a 1. But if you say, “I couldn’t care less if you quit your job”, that means you’re currently at a ZERO on the scale, and you can’t possibly show any less concern than that!

See if you notice this week, how many people misuse this quote. Obviously, I COULD care less if they use the quote improperly.

Britney's Obit

Here's a clear indication (as if any was ever needed) that Britney Spears is on a fast decline into serious trouble. The AP has announced that they have written the 26 year-old's obituary, and they are keeping it on file, for what I guess they feel is the inevitable. Check out the article on Britney's Obituary here.

Health Credit Score

There's a proposal for Health Care companies to develop a "health credit score" just like the regular credit score. Read this important article to find out more. I think this idea is ridiculous, and we should all be very concerned!

Wash it and Stay out of the Sun

Here's an interesting article from the NY TIMES on how to have great skin. Sure, you can spent mucho money on expensive creams and lotions, but youthful skin can be yours without all this.

CIA Realizes It's Been Using Black Highlighters All These Years

Real ID or Real Nightmare?

U.S. congress passed a bill in 2005 for a post-9/11 overhaul of our existing ID's and Driver's License. Known as the REAL ID, this one piece of identification would combine Driver's license, birth certificate, social security, and immigration information into one. Ok, yeah I see that it makes sense to beef up security. After all, the hijacker who flew into the pentagon had 4 Drivers Licenses and ID's from 3 states! However, the more I research it, I'm pretty confident that this is NOT the way to secure the USA. We would be MUCH more vulnerable to Identity theft if all our information is housed within 1 card. Plus, what about the elderly and children, who do not drive? Special exceptions would have to be made for them to receive the card, since they don't have a driver's license.

And think about this: Isn't the DMV already stressful enough? This new card would require MULTIPLE trips to the DMV before you would successfully receive your card, and intense scrutiny of all your personal documents. Even your utility bill or proof of address would be carefully checked and this means LONG lines and LONG waits for the card to arrive in the mail.

Check out this website, which opposes the REAL ID card, and gives plenty of reasons why the government should reconsider, or perhaps seek out alternatives. In essence, this card would make our society even MORE supervised, and this card would become basically a passport to leave your house!

Sleeveface

Have you heard of this new trend? You take an old record album cover, and pose so that it looks like a real picture. Check out the sleeveface website

Freak on Fifth!

Whoa! Here's a crazy story for ya's: Two people got STABBED in my office building Thursday! NO JOKE! As I heard it from the doormen, two women were in the elevator together when a man entered and pushed a floor button that's vacant, and there are no offices there. When the elevator stopped on that floor, the man tried to force them off the elevator into the vacant space. They struggled to get away, and he beat on them and stabbed them both and then took off! The women survived with relatively minor injuries and they locked down the building while detectives came through and took statements from everyone.

Keep in mind that our building is very "foo-foo", and it's a historic landmark building so the government prohibits and protects the historic integrity of the architecture. This is why there's no video cameras or surveillance in the elevators. ...A little scary, actually. You just don't think about this kind of thing happening in the middle of the afternoon on 5th Avenue! Before you all start freaking out for my safety, also realise that I'm on the 34th floor, and it's a completely separate set of elevators that run up to the 10th floor, so I wouldn't have even been in the same area as the attacker. Still, everytime I'm in the elevator now, and everyone gets off except one guy... I feel a little nervous, and I start thinking, "what would I do if..."

There's $$$ in the fake barf business!

A warehouse on Chicago's West Side is "the world capital of fake (latex) vomit, where it's still made the old-fashioned way, ladle by ladle, formed and coagulated," reported the Chicago Tribune in December. Though it is not as popular as 50 years ago (7,000 units sold yearly, compared to 60,000 then), Fun Inc. President Graham Putnam said, still, "It's the best vomit on the market." According to the awe-struck Tribune reporter: "The texture is soft and sturdy, pliable and complex, with ridges of multihued solid chunks looking like a jagged lunar landscape ... perfect for the bathroom, refrigerator, auto seat or sidewalk."

...and then I found SIX dollars

Hello hello... I'm sending another great website your way: Daytipper.com. This is great! People send in little tips and tricks on everything from gardening to relationships to food storage, and if YOUR tip gets published, you get PAID $3 each! I submitted 2 tips and both of them were published, and $6 was deposited into my PayPal account. Here's another tip: check out this website! (hey, now YOU owe me $3!)

The Boob Tube is dying

My poor TiVo- I know you've struggled to give me good things to watch, and I appreciate your valiant effort at suggesting some shows to get me through this dumb writer's strike, but there's only so much "Little People, Big World" you can take (right, Sarah R?) LOL. Sarah's afraid of midgets, by the way...

How dare they tease us with just 3 new episodes of the Office, and then take it away! Michael Scott, I miss you!

If you wanna see a deathclock of some of your favourite shows, this article shows the countdown of how many new episodes are left of each show until they start into re-runs because of the strike. Keep a tissue handy. Give me back my TV!!!!!!!!!!

T-Minus... wait, what time is it?

Thought your clothes were ruined?

I'm notorious for spilling things on my clothes. A white shirt is basically me saying, "this is the last time I"ll wear THIS" because inevitably, it will be stained by the end of the day. I stumbled upon this article from CNN which actually describes how to get different stains out of your clothes and save them from the rag-pile. Read on!


Stain-fighting strategies
How to tackle misfired merlot or loose lipstick

Lipstick
Washables: Apply an oil solvent like Carbona and let dry, then remove residue. Treat with a liquid soap like Woolite and very little water. Rub to form suds, then rinse. Use an eyedropper and diluted ammonia to bleach any remaining color. Rinse with cool water.
Nonwashables: Same as for washables, but use diluted vinegar bleach instead of ammonia, which can corrode wool and silk.

Coffee
Washables: Stretch fabric over a bowl and, from a height of about one foot (gravity helps), pour boiling water from a kettle. Follow with an application of an oil solvent if the coffee had milk in it. If it had sugar, treat with glycerin or a combination solvent like Shout and let sit for 30 minutes. Finish with a regular wash cycle.
Nonwashables: Apply a gentle detergent like Woolite and very little water. Rub to form suds, then rinse. Use an eyedropper with diluted vinegar to bleach any remaining color. Rinse with cool water. If the coffee had milk in it, finish by applying an oil solvent.

Tea
Washables: Stretch fabric over a bowl and, from a height of about one foot, pour boiling water from a kettle. Next, use an eyedropper and diluted lemon juice to bleach any remaining color. Rinse with cool water.
Nonwashables: Use an eyedropper and diluted lemon juice to bleach the color. Thoroughly flush with cool water.

Red wine
Washables: Cover the stain with salt, then stretch the fabric over a bowl and, from a height of about one foot, pour boiling water from a kettle.
Nonwashables: Apply an oil solvent like Carbona and let dry, then remove residue. Use an eyedropper and diluted vinegar to bleach any remaining color. Thoroughly flush with cool water.

Salad dressing (Italian)
Washables: Shake on talcum powder or cornstarch to sop up as much oil as possible. Pick or scrape off the excess and rinse with cool water. Next, apply a combination solvent like Shout and let sit for 15 minutes. Finish with a regular wash cycle.
Nonwashables: Shake on talcum powder or cornstarch to sop up as much oil as possible. Pick or scrape off the excess and let dry. Follow with an application of an oil solvent like Carbona. Let dry, then scrape or brush off any remaining residue.

Ketchup and tomato sauce
Washables: Apply a combination solvent like Shout. Use an eyedropper and diluted vinegar to bleach any remaining color. Finish with a regular wash cycle.
Nonwashables: Same as for washables, but instead of washing, thoroughly flush the spot with cool water.

Mustard
Washables: Use an eyedropper and diluted ammonia to bleach the color. Apply a combination solvent like Shout and let sit for 15 minutes. Finish with a regular wash cycle.
Nonwashables: Use an eyedropper and diluted ammonia to bleach the color. Apply a combination solvent and let sit for 15 minutes. Thoroughly flush the spot with cool water.

Ballpoint ink
Washables: Put glycerin on the spot, then treat with a detergent like Woolite and very little water. Gently rub to form suds and rinse.
Nonwashables: Same as for washables, but instead of rinsing the suds, just dab water onto the area.

Grass
Washables: Treat the spot with a paste made from a powder digestant like Axion and let sit in a warm place for 30 minutes. Use an eyedropper and diluted ammonia or vinegar to bleach any remaining color. Rinse with cool water. Finish with a regular wash cycle.
Nonwashables: Apply a combination solvent like Shout and let sit for 15 minutes. Use an eyedropper and diluted ammonia or vinegar to bleach any remaining color. Thoroughly flush the area with cool water.

Fresh blood
Washables: Flush with cold water. Treat the spot with a paste made from a powder digestant like Axion and let sit in a warm place for 30 minutes. Use an eyedropper and diluted ammonia to bleach the color. Rinse and finish with a regular wash cycle.
Nonwashables: Treat with cold water, then use an eyedropper and diluted vinegar to bleach the color. Thoroughly flush the area with cool water.

Dried blood
Washables: Soak in cool salt water for several hours. Rinse thoroughly, then treat the spot with diluted ammonia to bleach the color. If the stain persists, apply a paste made from a powder digestant like Axion and let sit in a warm place for 30 minutes. Finish with a regular wash cycle.
Nonwashables: Dampen the spot with cool salt water, then with plain water. Treat the spot with diluted vinegar to bleach the color. Thoroughly flush with cool water.

What's safe to wash -- and what's not
For stain-removal purposes, if the care label on the spotted garment says "Dry Clean Only," you should consider it non-washable. There's a little more leeway with everyday laundering. Rayon and cashmere, for instance, may often be safely hand washed, says Herb Barndt, a textiles professor at Philadelphia University. But Barndt advises testing the garment first, with a drop of water on an inconspicuous place, like the inside of a sleeve. No hot water, though -- and no dryer.

Rancho's Feliz Navidad!

I've been loving my extensions, even though it means much more maintenance and waking up early every morning in order to style and curl my hair. I've decided I'm going to grow out my own hair as long as I can 'cause I really like it! I had Dan remove the extensions yesterday after I got back from Montreal- they were starting to come loose and I didn't want a Britney Spears comparison to start happening!