New Scents!

I am such a big fan of Bath & Body Works. And I saw they had new scents coming this summer and I need to go check them out!

The Summer Vanillas. I am not a big fan of the coconut smell, but I can't wait to try out the Lemon Vanilla and Berry Vanilla.



Furthermore, I want to try out the new Fresh Picks Candle Line.

How cute is this:


My car is begging for that to be clipped in it!

Tyson Tuesday!

Before I get on with the cuteness that is my boy, I need someone to explain to me WHY lotion has to cost so much? Argh!

Anyway, Lesli took her beautiful boy, Baxter, in this weekend for a lion cut. (Hair on head left there, body shaved down, ball on tail.) When I saw the adorable pictures all I thought was I wonder how Tyson would look. And then I laughed hysterically. First off, he would never forgive me. Second, he is a fat cat...he would look like a pig in a cat's body. Hmmmm....

Anyway, on to my Tyson. He loves my snuggie almost as much as I love my snuggie. (This is one of two snuggies, yes I am a two snuggie home! One is pink, this one is my Jedi Knight red one.)

Major case of the wants!

I love Tinkerbell!
And I want this:



She is only available either online or at Disney World Epcot Center. But how freakin' adorable!!

Spring Thoughts

The downside of Spring is all the crud in the air that makes my eyes water, my nose run, causes bouts of sneezing and wheezing, and generally drives my sinuses into misery overdrive.

The upside to Spring?

* Easter! I love Easter. I love the bunnies, ducklings, and chicks. I love the pretty pastel colors. Tyson loves the Peeps.

* And I want to color Easter eggs! More to the point, I saw a Hello Kitty Easter Egg decorating kit at Target and I want to color THOSE eggs!!

* I also saw a Hello Kitty kite and had to talk myself out of buying it. I have not flown a kite in years, but how fun would it be to go fly a Hello Kitty kite? (Why yes, I am ten, thank you for asking!)

* The Target Garden Shop made me happy yesterday! I am, admittedly, not good with growing plants and flowers. The only exception are my two bamboos and they are so easy to care for you don't always remember they are there.

I want these flowers to go plant:



But will probably have to stick with these:


(And I do dig the colors of those cacti!)

* The breezy weather is a joy! :) Makes me so happy to not have freezing weather, but to not have the sweltering weather of summer yet.

Sushi and Scooby!

I had sushi for the first time last year in CA. My friend, Mala, and I had gone to California on vacation and Mala had wanted to try this restaurant that cooks everything in garlic (The Stinking Rose). My cousin, Selena, told Mala that she had to either eat the garlic ice cream or consent to sushi for dinner the next night. Garlic ice cream just sounds disgusting so it was agreed that we would do sushi. Selena chose the restaurant (Geisha House) and it was definitely an experience. Unlike Angelina, who had joined us for the day, I didn't hate it, but I hadn't gotten around to going out for sushi again. So enter 2010 and Tina and I decided we were going to have various culinary experiences this year. Tonight it was decided to be a sushi night since Tina's daughter was on a sleepover.

Zen 32 was the choice. We got there about 6PM on a Saturday and due to the slight breeze blowing crud around in the air, decided to eat indoors to save me from sneezing and wheezing through dinner. We definitely came at a good time as there wasn't that many people there, as opposed to when we left and it was filling up rapidly. They give you a menu with a pen and you go through and mark what it is you want to eat, we decided on a shrimp roll plate and a California roll plate with a side of pot stickers. They offer a delicious salad that has seaweed, cucumbers, and carrots soaked in vinegar. The pot stickers were pretty good as well, though I don't know if I would order them again if we went back. The sushi rolls were delicious! I'm not a fan of hot or spicy as most know so I mixed very little of the fresh wasabi in my soy sauce, but it was still sinus clearing. (And they offer fresh ginger but that is just nasty to me.) The wait staff was excellent, constantly there to make sure we had plenty of water (they only offer coffee, tea, alcohol, and water) and to see if we wanted another round of sushi started. And they are fast! We had our food within about 15 minutes of getting there. I have definite plans to go back!

Across the street is The Gelato Spot so we decided to pop in there and grab some gelato and go back to Tina's house. I had the key lime and cheesechake flavors. Oh my! We also had a piece of red velvet cake that was just okay, not anything that I would order again.

We ended the night with the gelato and some Scooby-Doo on the TV before I headed home. Now I'm watching "Independence Day" and trying to decide what book to read. (I started "Dear John" but am struggling with it...)

Happy Birthday, Leslie!

Happy Birthday to you, my sweet friend! We started out as soap friends and our friendship has grown from there. You are an amazing and very cherished presence in my life and I hope that your birthday is full of love, luck, and many fulfilled wishes!!

xoxo

525,600 minutes...How do you measure, measure a year?

No, I’m not going to talk about "Rent", but more about a year.

365 days. It seems like a long time when you think of it in the number of days, right? (Unless you are approaching one of *those* ages, then those days fly by.)

So why am I thinking about the length of a year, you wonder? Because I want to do some sort of 365 day challenge. Lesli is doing her year of no shopping and is doing an amazing job with it. I follow this blog where Stephanie is doing 365 days of things she has never done before. I have a couple of friends doing the picture-a-day for 365 days. Heck, we even have Julie & Julia where Julie Powell took 365 days to master 524 recipes of Julia Child's.

But the question is what do I want to tackle for 365 days? I tried to do the Gratitude a day for 365 days and we saw how well that worked out for me. I thought I would blog every day, but that isn’t it either. I need something that challenges me and that I can have discipline in ensuring that I do the 365 days.

Any suggestions?

Tyson Tuesday

Sweet kitty face



Sweet kitty paw!

Last night was no sweet kitty! I got hot so I opened the window. This resulted in a happy Tyson jumping up in the window sill. After about 20 minutes of me telling him to stop shuffling around in the blinds, I dozed off. I woke up maybe an hour later to the most horrendous noise. Tyson has this God awful meow that is a deep, rumbling meow and it makes you want to flick him in the head when you hear it. There he was laying in the window, yowling. His problem? It was raining, he was getting wet but he refused to leave his spot on the window. After shutting the window, I had to deal with his anger as he stalked up and down the bed, flicking me with his tail.

Sometimes I question my reasons for loving him.

(Oh yeah, sweet kitty face, sweet kitty paws!)

Been thinking...

I have had two things on my mind the last couple of days – Food and Life.

After the bitter disappointment last week over the job situation, I was talking to a friend about what was going on and how depressed I felt over things. Over the course of the conversation, it turned to life in general and she posed the question to me – Are you living life or are you just living? There is a huge difference. If you are just living then you are doing the minimum with the life you have been given. You are making it through without doing anything out of the ordinary. I have friends like this. They don't want attention called to them because it might mean they have to step out of their comfort zone and take a risk. Just living is safe, definitely. It is adventure free. It is walking the straight line.

However, if you are living life you aren’t on the straight line, you are veering to the left and the right, you are painting a canvas full of color, and you are out having an adventure. It doesn’t mean you are necessarily scandalous, you aren’t doing something illegal, and you aren’t doing harm to yourself or others. You are merely living the life that you have been given to the fullest. You treat yourself each day to the gift that life has given you and you live. It may mean that you will not have that nest egg in the bank for the proverbial "rainy day" but it means that you are living without regrets.

It is hard to step out of the comfort factor of just living, of course. It is what you are used to and it is known. Having to change the way you go about the day is scary. It is a challenge. It is an adventure that has no set path or outcome. It is blindly putting trust in yourself and forging your own destiny. This thought, without doubt, is the one that plagues me in life the most. I don't want to step out of my comfort zone. I like familiarity, I like knowing what each day is supposed to bring. BUT I also find that boring. I find my mind wandering off due to monotony. So I have to put the challenge out there to myself and step up to said challenge…LIVE LIFE. Being depressed over the job situation simply means that I need to reapply myself, retool what I am doing, and explore other options. Simply, I need to veer off the path and make a new path.


My other subject – Food. I don't know who all watched "Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution" last night on TV, but I couldn't sleep last night after watching it. (Right before bed, unfortunately.) Jamie Oliver came to what has been declared the "fattest city in the USA", Huntington, West Virginia in an attempt to help them change the way they are eating. He visited with a family that ate more fried food than a body should take in a week, the children each ate a Totino's party pizza for an after school snack, they went through multiple pounds of beef for one meal (for a 4 person family), and they didn’t eat vegetables or fruits because the husband didn’t care to have them. To show the family what they were doing, Jamie and the wife cooked a weeks worth of meals and piled them on the table. It was disgusting. I felt ill just looking at it.

I have struggled with weight all my life and one of the main reasons that I wanted to watch this show was because I was hoping it would open my eyes and help inspire me towards buckling down and losing weight in a healthy way. It was definitely an inspiration to me. (Of course, today I have been obsessed with thinking of what I am putting in my mouth before I do it, but that will balance out.) I just know for me, this is a big wake up call that I have wanted. I needed something to inspire me and just the thought of that food on the table is enough to make me look at a healthier way of eating.

At last, an update!!

Things have been a little chaotic the last couple of weeks. I would think every day that I was going to go home and update, but alas that rarely happened.

What’s been up, you ask?

• My dad had surgery last week on his back. Thankfully he is home now and doing good, walking with the aid of a walker but that will go away with time. The hospital he was at was on the other side of town, however. And while I didn’t spend anywhere near as much time over there as my mom, Jeremy, and Liz, it was still a trek and for some reason just the traffic alone was exhausting.

• Liz was in town for two weeks with my adorable niece, Kayleigh. I already miss Kayleigh and her adorable “meow” when she would see my cranky boy come around. Tyson was a bit put out with additional bodies in the house, but he has developed the worst habit of begging so he had to make sure he kept himself in close proximity during meal times.

• While Liz was here we had Kayleigh's birthday party so those of us in AZ could celebrate with her.

• As it is Spring and I think there is a group of plants/flowers/trees that are conspiring to kill me, I have been suffering from the sinus issues. Head is in a foggy fishbowl, eyes water frequently, nose runs, migraines visit. Ridiculous.

• I have taken in some cinema, of course. Liz and I went to a sneak peek of “She’s out of my league” the week before it opened. Quirky comedy, cute cast. I don’t know if I would have paid to go see it, but it was free so I enjoyed the night. “Alice in Wonderland” was fabulous! The colors! The imagery! Johnny Depp! All of it…fabulous!! Tim Burton’s vision is usually a bit out there, usually way too out there for me, but this time I really enjoyed it. (Except I think the White Rabbit and the March Hare were ugly!) And I just went to “The Bounty Hunter” yesterday. Oh I love Gerard Butler and Jennifer Aniston! I wanted so much to love this movie as well. Unfortunately I can’t say that. It was silly…I had moments of utter boredom…and the script just wasn’t the best for them. They have great chemistry together, though.

• I had a promising job interview that went belly up...it was rather depressing to say the least. Followed by the next day hearing that the other position that I was up for was not going to be filled for a couple of months. Pffft!

That’s been about it…things were just busy and I kept running out of time. But I’m back, baby!! (And hold your horses, I have another post that should be up tonight as well! ::gasps::)

Will be back soon!! (Hopefully tomorrow...but it will definitely be this week!) Things have been a little chaotic.

Tyson Tuesday, the morning after.

Ha-ha!! Was out last night and forgot to upload the picture I took.

My sister and niece, Kayleigh, are in town. Tyson is very anti-social to start with, but little people? They annoy him. So he was laying on my bed grooming himself when he heard Kayleigh making noise. He froze, slapping his paws over his legs and lay as still as possible to avoid being seen.

Some red carpet thoughts...

I like Sarah Jessica Parker's dress. It is different and that is 100% what would you expect out of SJP.



I really just like Sam Worthington and can't wait for "Clash of the Titans".



I'm going with best dressed male of the night is Ryan Reynolds.



Of course, I do love Robert Downey Jr, as well!



Rachel McAdams is stunning, the dress is different and just lovely.



Nicole Richie -- blah!!! Dress is not appealing and I always think she looks like a bug.



Kate is stunning. One of the best dressed of the evening.


Jennifer Lopez -- stunning!! (Her husband, not so much.)



Hair is a little shaggy but George Clooney is still gorgeous.



What is Diane Krueger wearing!?!



I think Demi Moore is just stunning.



Colin Firth -- so distinguished!

(May be more to come!)

Rainy Sunday!

I love it, except for it is just a tad bit chilly upstairs in my room.

I took in a morning movie in between laundry loads. No one wanted to tell me what the plot twist in "Shutter Island" was so I had to go check it out for myself. When the movie first ended my thought was "Seriously? That was it?" and had much disappointment in it. But the more I thought about it afterward, it was an interesting movie. Leonardo DiCaprio and Ben Kingsley were just amazing in the movie. It is not a scary movie...I didn't find it overly suspenseful either. It is a psychological "thriller", though. Maybe about 30 minutes too long. (It was over 2 hours long.)

Accomplice <-- How fun does that look? I wanna do it!!

Now I think I'm going to go curl up with my snuggie and watch some Oscars Red Carpet action before the big show happens.

My brain...on shuffle.

(I meant to post this yesterday, but couldn't remember what I was sitting on my blog for.)

Fact about me: When I get bored at work, my brain often just wanders away on it's own accord and the most random stuff pops into my head. Here are three things that my brain pondered:

* Why is the "Phineas and Ferb" theme song so catchy? I think of it frequently.



* Where I work on the third floor would be awesome for a game of hide-and-seek.

* How come Bruce Willis, who I have always found to be good looking, became not only hotter when he went bald, but became a better actor?

Kinda creepy, but I kinda like...

Barbie's newest doll out for the pop culture collection is the Mad Hatter.
It is just a little creepy...reminds me of a clown and I think clowns are evil sucks!
But, I kinda dig it as well. I would never buy this doll for my child, if I had a child, however.

Link in case you want to buy said creepy doll.

Happy Birthday, Dr Seuss!

I present my poem...(It is kinda lame but hey! I tried.)

I have to say
It's a momentous day
Respect is what I have to pay
On this very happy day
Bake a cake with no delay
To celebrate Dr Seuss' birthday

The Grinch, The Lorax, Horton, and the Who's
That mischievous Cat with his hat and a Thing One plus Thing Two
Oh the places you'll see
With a turn of your imagination key
There is even a taste of those green eggs and ham
That the poor chap was tormented with by Sam-I-Am

So take a Hop on Pop
Count Feet until you drop
Put on your birthday hat
And celebrate the man that gave us that cat


"Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind."
— Dr. Seuss

Tyson Tuesday...

In honor of Dr. Seuss, I only have one picture of Tyson in a hat...




"Look at me!
Look at me!
Look at me NOW!
It is fun to have fun
But you have to know how."
— Dr. Seuss (The Cat in the Hat)