Back to School Special

While this summer has been wonderful, I am actually glad to be starting back to school. (As a teacher, NOT student). Every summer feels shorter than the last. I can't figure out if that is an actual reality or if it is just a side effect of getting older. I'm hoping for the former reason. But, I digress...I am happy to be getting back to the day-to-day routine mostly because I have developed some not-so-healthy habits over the course of the summer.

For starters, I got this amazing chocolate chip recipe from my friend. So, duh, I have to make them that very day...and the next week...and the next week. Seems harmless, right? Not quite. I have gotten to the point where I make a fresh batch of dough to keep in the refridgerator and make a tray of fresh cookies every other day or so. Wait, I am not done....then, I make homemade cookie ice cream sandwiches every night. They are seriously the bomb and I am addicted. This madness has to stop!! What started as a little innocent baking has become a full-fledged obsession. Help!
Moving on....before the Olympics, there was seriously nothing on TV. So I started recording this show on A&E called Intervention. In all fairness, it is an excellent show and has been nominated for an Emmy. BUT, this show follows around hard core drug addicts and contains illicit drug use. Every time I watch it I have to close my eyes and I get a knot in my stomach. But every week, I find myself watching more. I think I hang in there because I love the actual intervention and seeing them after rehab. But still...this show is seriously unhealthy. I watched 3 episodes one day and had to take a major break for awhile. It is just a little bit too intense. On the upside, I AM pretty drug savvy now...


And lastly, while I have many more horrible habits, the last of the new-ish bad habits that I will share is that this summer we have totally let our dog sleep in our bed. While this picture is creepy, this seriously might as well be Romey. Point being: she has taken over!!
We used to let her out of her cage at like 6 am when she would start to whine, and she would climb into bed for just a little while before we got up. Then, it just kept gradually getting earlier. Now, she literally climbs into her cage for 1 minute and then starts to whine. I know it is our fault, but we have created a monster! Relaying this story reminds me of that church parable where the camel gets into the tent, but it just starts with his nose. While I am certainly not comparing Romey to Satan, (it's not THAT bad...yet), my quality of sleep has gone downhill in a major way. With no hope of reprieve anytime soon. Is this what it feels like to be a new Mom? If so, I feel sorry for all of you.

Anyways, like I said, I am excited to start work again on Monday.

Marky Mark

While I think that Samantha Ronson is nothing special, (not to mention her poor choice in girlfriends), I do have a thing for her brother Mark. This Royal Tenenbaums photo of their fam is pretty clever. His album 'Version' has some good tracks on it. One of my favorites is this Radiohead cover. The video is a total play on the original 'Just' video. The singer is Alex Greenwald from Phantom Planet. It won't embed, so click here to watch.

Europe '08

We got back from Europe a couple of weeks ago. We had a great time traveling all around. We went to Italy, France, Spain and England. I had never been to Spain or England before, and while they were great, I think that Italy is still my fave. The Cinque Terra is so amazing...if you ever have the chance, you should totally go there!! Time for picture overload...

Here is Peter giving one of the 5o stray dogs at Pompeii a little drink

Sorrento, Italy

Even though we found all of the people posing for these Tower of Pisa "action shots" ridiculously funny, we decided to try some of our own. Syd's was by far the best.

This is in Monterosso...after dinner one night. The food in Italy is TDF.

Hiking the Cinque Terra took about 4 hours. Here is one of the cities we hiked from...the scenery was SO beautiful.
Italy was SO hot. In case you don't believe me, take a look at this:
Capri
The Blue Grotto

Constant traveling....here we are waiting at a train station with all of our junk.

Nice, France...best crepes. Ever.

Also best gummies.

Awesome pottery store in Spain.

Really good dinner...(if you think that a European vacation does not revolve around food, you are sorely mistaken.)

I can't remember what this is called, but basically you climb inside this big, inflated ball with some water in it and they push you down a hill. Super fun.

Here is the rock of Gibraltar.

These monkeys are EVERYWHERE on the rock. Somehow they manage to simultaneously be cool and creepy.

Waiting in line in Seville, Spain for our 10 pm flamenco concert.

One pic from London of "The Eye".
Whew! If you made it through all of those pictures you are probably related to me. If not, consider yourself a good friend for sticking it out to the end.

Star Valley, WY

Since I have to clear my memory card before we go on vacation, I guess I will finally post some pics. Last weekend we were up in Star Valley. We love it there!! So beautiful. We got to spend time with pretty much the whole fam.

Here is one of the newer members of the family. Chubby babies make freaking cute babies. Meet our newphew William. Only 5 months old and 20 something lbs.


The kids had fun sitting outside eating popsicles. The weather was perfect up there all weekend: sunny and 80 degrees.


Peter's bro Matt is a hard core ultimate player. He introduced us to a similar game called goal-timate. So we played a mean game of goal-timate in the yard. When I say mean, let's just say I got tackled by my sister in law and saw a new side of her. (Just kidding, Suz.)


The backdrop here is pretty killer.


Grandpa and Rocco just sat back and watched.


Here were the real fans, cheering their favorite players on!

I'm kind of excited for...

The Next Food Network Star. I like to think of it as "The Apprentice" meets Food Network. Summer TV isn't always the greatest, but this show is highly entertaining. And...bonus: it's something that Peter and I can actually watch together. Starts this Sunday, June 1st.

Fun Weekend...

It's beginning to feel like summer! This weekend we had a lot of fun. We went to the Jazz game Friday night. That actually wasn't so much fun, but at least we were there for the last game.

We also headed over to Washington Square with our friends the Paul's. Living Traditions, an annual ethnic and cultural celebration, was going on. The best thing there is that there are about 20 booths of different types of food. We mixed it up with Lebanese, Thai, and Swedish.

This is a bad picture, but here were some really cute girls from Equatorial Guinea that were performing on one of the stages.



Me, Elsa, and Nicole



Elsa is SO cute and didn't make a peep all night!



It's becoming a weekend ritual to play Rock Band every weekend. Nicole and I usually handle the vocals. Elsa is the groupie.


Peter is on guitar and Adam rocks the drums.

Ladies of the World

Not to just post videos, BUT this is the new Flight of the Conchords and I couldn't resist. So funny. You will especially love the roller skates set to the fuzzy, softly-lit California backdrop. This one goes out to Peter, who I know will appreciate it the most. Although, now I will probably be forced to watch it 5,000 times and then I will never think it is funny again. Oh well, I guess I will take that chance.

Oh yeah...

So I'm still not sure how I feel about Edward in this movie, but DUH I'm totally going to see it. Comes out in December. Oops I put the wrong one on...here is the real one.

Mission Accomplished!

Last night was Brianne's birthday. I have been friends with Bri since I was 12, so obviously I was totally stoked when Jake called me 3 weeks ago (Yes, THREE weeks ago...husband of the year award?) to help plan a surprise birthday party. The best part of the whole thing is that it really was a surprise. A big one! She had no idea. Zip. Zero. Nada.

Of course, I forgot to take pics until the very end. So sorry, Bri, I missed some people! But this picture of you and Jake is super cute.

And here is the classic girl photo...(at least of those of us that were left.)

Happy Birthday Bri! I'm so glad that you were genuinely surprised...that was the icing on the cake.

Don't quote me on any of the following...

I haven't learned much of anything, but here it is: (as per Jenny, my micro-derma lady)
Some of these may be obvious if you're not completely inept, like me.
--When you are using any type of exfoliator, stay far away from the eye area. As I mentioned before, only use exfoliators that have perfectly round "micro-beads", otherwise they leave little marks.
--If you are going to go OTC, Neutrogena is probably the best way to go. For cleansers, moisturizers, etc.
--Unless you have really oily skin, there is no need to wash your face in the mornings.
--Glycolic acid is really good for your skin. It basically dissolves the outer layer, revealing the new layer underneath. But only use if you are really good about sunscreen.
--This goes without saying, but sunscreen--above spf 15 on a daily basis is necessary for ALL areas of your skin. Don't forget your hands!
--Moisturize, moisturize, moisturize...especially in the night!

See, not much. I was previously using Cetaphil cleanser, but Jenny said I need to step it up. When we were in Vegas, I got a sweet new cleanser called Cosmedicine at Sephora. I have only been using it for 2 weeks, but I totally like it. It is a make-up remover, cleanser, and toner all in one. Does not dry out your skin at all, but makes it feel super clean. And it is only one-step, you put it on sans water and then rinse. I highly recommend it.

As far as moisturizer goes, in the night I have just been using Neutrogena Healthy Skin Night Cream. It makes your skin oh so soft in the morning. And lastly, sunscreen. There are a lot of good face sunscreens out there. They are better if they have helioplex in them because it increases the amount of time that it is effective. I found a Neutrogena face sunscreen that is spf 70 with helioplex. I think that is probably a little overboard, but I figure, might as well.

Anyways...let's share ideas here so we don't have to resort to plastic surgery and looking like a total freak like Shayne's mom. Let me know what you use or what is good.

What you don't know can't hurt you

Sometimes I get in weird modes where I get overly obsessed with something or the other for a little while. Right now: skin care. I don't know if it's because I'm getting dangerously close to 30, but I finally decided I am going to take better care of my skin. This may prove to be harder than thought. Case in point: yesterday I went to my microdermabrasion appointment, which is basically just a hard-core exfoliation treatment.


While on the table, I start to ask the girl what kind of skin care regimen I should follow, what products to use, etc, etc. To make a long story short, I discovered that the Clinique toner I used religiously in junior high can take permanent marker off of a table top. Uh really...that's awesome.

Don't worry, that was 15 years ago. Well, actually, the exfoliator that I currently use (as in yesterday, pre-treatment) is leaving micro-pock marks on my face because the crystals are uneven. But alas, it is money not wasted because I was informed that I can still use that stuff on my feet. Wow...great news.


Bottom line is that even though I am going to implement some new tactics, given my past history, I'm pretty sure I am going to look like this when I'm 40. Oh well...sorry Peter. And sorry Eunice for using you as an example.

G.T. 2008

Just got back from a Girls Trip to Vegas. SO fun! We all live in different states these days and so we try to get together and meet somewhere once a year. We didn't have everyone, but it was pretty darn close!

We drove down in Amy's husband's Prius and let's just say that I am a total convert. $60 in gas TOTAL round trip. You seriously can't beat it. Wish I had a picture of it, but I didn't take too many pics.

Here I am sandwiched in between the two cute preggers. We held an impromptu shower for Em.


Although we all initially met as sorority girls, don't be fooled; we have always been terribly boring. This is about as wild as it got....tons of treats!


Our last night...I can't wait until next year.

TV Land

Even though the strike is dunzo, viewing has still been pretty slow. I recommend "Miss Guided". Totally funny, you've got to love Judy Greer. And, it's only 1/2 hour so it doesn't take up that much space on your DVR.

Also, in case you missed Chris Matthews' awkward dance/grope with Ellen, you've got to watch.

Good Times with Heidi Louise

My friend Heidi was nice enough to accompany me to Portland last weekend for a wedding/weekend getaway. We had the best time. My friend Michelle was a beautiful bride.


We also went on a mini road trip along the PCH. The Oregon coast is seriously so beautiful.


This is Haystack Rock at Cannon Beach. Heidi was stoked because she thinks that maybe her all time fave movie Goonies was filmed here. Incidentally, it was on TV when we got back to the hotel.


We also caught brunch with Nick and Taren on Easter. I didn't take a pic, but here is when they came to visit a few weeks ago.



Such a fun trip! Thanks Heidi for making it fun and so I didn't have to go to the wedding alone...