Etc.

Book Club. 2014 part 1

August 7, 2014

INSTANT DOWNLOAD Mason Cooley Reading Quote by artkeptsimple

Every day, I spend 120 minutes sitting my butt hooked up to my annoying, but awesome, pump.

What’s a girl gonna do in that time?

READ!!!

Okay, I have done plenty of screwing around on my phone scrolling through Instagram or watching TV via Hulu, but my favorite way to burn through those 20 minutes is to read.

I really enjoy autobiographies. I love ones by really funny people, but I also really like ones that describe struggles that people have overcome. I’ve focused this part of the year on the auto’s but I’m switching it up for the rest of the year so please send me some suggestions of books you’ve enjoyed recently! Pretty please!!

And I’ve read these bad boys…

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Crazy Rich Asians by Kevin Kwan

I want to plan a trip to Asia now. The (fictitious) lives showcased in the book are so insane. The drama, culture, traditions, and opulence is fun. Sure if I ever went there I would never get to enjoy their chauffeured cars, helicopters, yacht, insane wardrobes, but at least I would get to experience the smells, tastes, and sights described in the book. Aside from that, I loved all the drama, good and bad, that weaved everyone together.

I did feel that it could have used a family tree to better follow along with the drama of who is related/married to who. Those things always trip me up.

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I Like You Just the Way I Am: Stories About Me and Some Other People by Jenny Mollen

I want to be Jenny. At the very least I want to hang out with her. She is hilarious in a ‘shit I think the same way she does!’ sort of way. Her various stories tell the insane tales of her adolescence growing up with detached parents and how that has fed into her craziness today. You feel bad for her but ultimately you don’t because if her mom didn’t make her get fake ID’s so she could go along with her to bars she wouldn’t have that story to write about. As well, she has a fairly decent obsession with her husband’s (Jason Bigg’s) ex- girlfriend, which is creepy/funny in the best sorts of way.

Plus, she is a fucking cool mom. Follow her Instagram for pics of her adorable son, Sid. There will be breastfeeding and pumping pics in the mix, which my be off-putting for some, but makes me love her even more.

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Everything Is Perfect When You’re a Liar by Kelly Oxford

Twitter phenom, Kelly Oxford, has attracted a huge following with just 140 characters full of wit, humor, and sarcasm. She is great at 140 characters so just imagine the magic she has done with a whole book! She has fantastic stories related to her homeland of Canada and such adventures, like ‘meeting’ David Copperfield through Twitter and then becoming a special guest of his in Las Vegas. That friendship has grown ‘deeper’, okay, that sounds weird, but that’s cool because now her family now travels to his private island of Musha Cay, and you get a fun peak at the island through her Instagram as well.

Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns) by Mindy Kaling

Oh Mindy, I love you. I never watched The Office but I can’t get enough of “The Mindy Project”. I’ve watched every episode multiple times. (Thanks HULU!)

But the answer is Yes. Or no? Or maybe. It all depends. But I have felt similar to her at various stages of my life. Why wasn’t I invited to that birthday party? What are my friends all doing while I babysit? Ultimately, what does it matter. Just have your own sort of fun.

I didn’t know much about Mindy, aside from her going up near Boston (she gets plastered on a lot of magazines around here), so this was refreshing as I got to hear funny stories from her youth, which ultimately framed her into becoming the hilarious person that she is.

Someone Could Get Hurt: A Memoir of Twenty-First-Century Parenthood by Drew Magary

I love a good ‘parenting’ book by a man. It’s always interesting, fun to read about parenting through a man’s point of view. He shares great stories about complications at birth, vacations, discipline, and visits to the amusement park. I absolutely love his honesty because it makes him real and perfectly vulnerable and relatable. It’s a great read about loving your little cute screaming adorable monsters. < I’m saying monsters because, let’s be honest- you’re a monster if you like to wake others up in the middle of a night by screaming just so they can change a pile of crap in a teeny tiny diaper in the dark. Truth.

Beyond Belief: My Secret Life Inside Scientology and My Harrowing Escape by Jenna Miscavige Hill (with Lisa Pulitzer)

I have a thing with autobiographies when the author has escaped/survived a harrowing ordeal, especially when it comes to religion. I don’t believe in God, but I’ve read and studied (college elective!) the origin and traditions of different religions to try to understand why so many people believe in something that they can’t see. Because I find it courageous that people leave an organiztion that they have known their whole lives, and often their family, I love to read books about it.

This book fits my interest to a T. Jenna was born into Scientology and underwent a lot of unbelievable things and made the best of horrible situations. This book details her experiences with these events, like being dropped off at a ranch at the age of 4 to go to ‘school’ and do endless hours of manual labor. Or being separated from her siblings and living on her ‘own’ as a young teenager. Ultimately, she left and her life is much better for it as she now has a happy marriage and 2 young kids.

Elizabeth Smart's Memoir Cover Revealed
My Story by Elizabeth Smart

Oh man, I really admire Elizabeth for being such a strong woman. She was just so young when she was kidnapped but not only did she survive that she has thrived since then. Her story is really quite sad but I still find it uplifting. If she can get through being kidnapped and being mentally and physically abused daily, and get out of that alive then I feel that when I have a rough day I just need to suck it up and move on. It really puts things in perspective and makes you appreciate your life while admiring her.

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Please send me some suggestions! xox

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‘Round Here

July 14, 2014

Here’s a long post. And I don’t even know where to begin.

Actually, I’ll start with the crappy, sad stuff to get that out of the way and then get to the fun, good stuff.

Our rabbit Jack died on Friday.

I was pumping (what else is new?!) and Price was getting our camping gear all gathered up. He ran down to the finished basement/den/whatever you want to call it to get the stuff and came back up a minute later. As soon as he sat down next to me and said ‘Nic’ I knew one of the rabbits died. Ugh, it totally sucked all the energy out of the night. Plenty of waterworks later we figured it would just be best to bury him asap and Price dug a hole in our little yard and we said out good byes to Jack. We are going to put a big pot full of flowers over his little gravesite.

He was such a good rabbit. Super friendly to us and to Bunny, who truthfully is a royal grump, and is exactly why we got him. She was such a pain in the ass and seemed miserable that I wanted her to cheer up with a friend. Well, it turns out that she is just horrible but they fell in love. Or whatever. He was so mellow that the just went with the flow with her, and us. As long has he had plenty of food he was just so happy. We called him a cow because of his black and brown spots on his white super soft fur, as well as the fact that he could hoover anything in sight… including books! But he really loved raisins, bananas, carrots, cilantro, parsley, and tomatoes.

I’m super sad now that he is gone but I really regret that I didn’t spend the same amount of time with them pre-baby vs post-baby. Ugh, and don’t even get me started on my decline in blogging about them- horrible :-(. But it is what it is and I did the best that I could so now I can beat myself up over it or just think back about the fun times we had playing around (even in the snow!) with our handsome model bun. Even Kemper loved getting to know them, and eat their hay (& poop too).

So it’s just us with horrible, yet super cute, Bunny. I just hope that she enjoys the single life again. wahh 🙁

After Friday night sucking so very much because of Jack’s passing, we stopped crying, regrouped, and decided to continue on with our plans of going camping on Saturday morning. We planned on going to Pillsbury State Park in New Hampshire but long story short we ended up going to a camp ground in Maine. It was such a nice escape, a lot of work with Autumn and Kemper for just 1 night, but a nice escape, especially since I would have just moped around about Jack.

We had a great time together roasting hot dogs over the fire, swimming in the pool, taking Autumn on walks, making Reese’s Cup S’mores, watching bats catch bugs at dusk, and sit by the fire in the light of the supermoon. It seems that Autumn liked the whole experience too so I’m hoping her love of camping/glamping grows as she gets old, and stops trying to eat the grass/sticks/rocks… why child? why?!!?

I got a Fitbit on June 28th. Since then I’ve become an addict to hitting all my goals. So far it’s tracked over 250 miles- I just got a badge for that today 🙂 It has been keeping me motivated at getting off my butt and walking the dog all around. I’ve noticed a change in him too. Now that we’ve been doing 4+ miles a day he is WIPED OUT. Because he doesn’t have all this extra energy bubbling up at the surface he has been much more well behaved.

I was super sore this morning (I figure it’s combo from camping, needing to do some serious stretching) so I didn’t walk him for our normal 20-30 minute walk. Since I’m about 1.5 miles off at this point, I’m not sure if I’ll hit my 10,000 step/5 mile goal for today since I’m need a pedicure and I’m hell bent on getting one tonight. And while I would be super bummed not to fit a goal I figure it would balance out as I got 16,833 steps (6.82 miles) on Saturday and 15,342 steps (6.2 miles) on Sunday. << yeah, prob why I’m a little sore!

Autumn waved yesterday for the first time. She did it in the mirror to herself which was the cutest. But when she lit up and waved at Price I became a gooey mess and cried. Oh damn, she is just so lovely.

Our little miss didn’t sleep that well while we were camping (Saturday night) but we figured it wouldn’t go well anyway, so no big. It probably was the combination of change in routine, new place, different noises, and general baby stuffs. Well, she went down fairly easily last night, and I woke up rested this morning. Which brings me to this funny (for me) convo Price and I had on the way to daycare this morning…

ME: “You know, I can’t believe she slept through the night.”

PRICE: “She didn’t.”

ME: “What?”

PRICE: “I got up with her!”

ME: “Oh, how many times?”

PRICE: “Like 3 times.”

ME: “Sorry, you should get me up.”

PRICE: “Oh I tried…”

AND I WIN!!!!

Price took these photos of little miss Autumn over the Fourth of July weekend. I just love them so much!

A little bit of this, a little bit of that.

October 17, 2013

This is my current favorite picture. We took it about 2 weeks ago at sunrise-ish while we were walking Kemper on the beach.

Had a Petty Melt yesterday for lunch (well half of one yesterday and leftovers today) and it might be my new current favorite food.

The ham and cheese squares from Starbucks might just be my new favorite food. Oh, and Patty Melts too. Can’t forget about those.

I have no real desire to blog right now. I’m at a real loss without our desktop computer which died on the 6th and took with it EVERYTHING- all my files, all my pictures- personal and blog. I feel like crying at any moment when I think about it. Hoping something can be figured out and they can be recovered.

I want to make these Oreo Brownies ASAP. And eat them all when I think about the thousands upon thousands of photos I’ve lost (see above).

I’m slipping back into zombie mode. I’m still not as bad as I was early on in the pregnancy when I would get home, absent mindedly eat dinner, and stumble into bed but I’m getting close to that some nights.

We are hardcore attacking The Bean’s room this weekend so we can get on to clearing it out and on to painting it next weekend. But of course, this is all around my weekend napping schedule.

38 more days until the baby arrives!

WE. WILL. ROCK. YOU!!!

October 10, 2013

Last Thursday was the annual IIDA New England Fashion Show.

This year was the 15th year that they have held the show so the overall show’s theme was “15: Aged to Perfection”. Our job as entries is to interpret that and create an entry based upon the show them. The outfits are to be made out of industry products that we use in our projects. This year we worked with Maharam fabric, Allsteel furniture, and Philip’s Lighting in order to create the 4 entry outfits.

After a lot of discussion and brain storming as a team, we decided to focus on the “15” and “perfection” portion of the show’s theme and came up with having a concert performance from the epic group Queen because they had 15 “perfect” studio albums.

We went through lots of images of the band, and specifically Freddie Mercury, to come up with the outfits, instruments, and hair. For example, the jacket made of arrows was something that Freddie work on tour while in Japan. And we combined images we had seen of Freddie wearing a cape as well as holding a Union Jack flag while performing, so we created a cape with the Union Jack sewn on the inside, which would be revealed during the show.

This was the 3rd year that I have participated in the construction of the outfits for our entry into the show. I’ve loved the whole process, even when we want to kill each other and ourselves during the last week of crazy crunch time. Or at least I wanted to jump up and down on my hot glue gun smashing it to bits after getting a hot blog of glue under my nail, which of course blistered up like a mo’fo.

Brian, one of the designer’s in the office, made this crown for Chris, as Freddie Murcury, out of gold spray painted cardboard and Maharam fabric. He then embellished with some gems and Philips lighting to make it all pop! The knob on top of crown was a gold spray painted Philip’s light bulb. Killer!

It’s all coming together!!

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This was the Drum that Megan carried around making her member Roger Taylor. It was made out of Allsteel chair bases and topped with some plexi and then embellished with some Philip’s Lighting.

The guitar for Danielle (as Brian May) and bass for Keith (as John Deacon) were also made of Allsteel furniture pieces with the body and neck portions being constructed out of work surfaces and embellished with finish sample chips, draw pulls (for the frets), pieces of chairs (for the headstock) while straps being covered in wire management. As well, we consistently used different kinds of lighting on all the instruments to link them all together, as well as really stand out during the ‘performance’.

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We started the process of getting ready in the office but then moved over to the convention center to finish make up and getting dressed.

I took a cab ride to the convention center with Keith and Chris with half painted faces and a lot of people we passed were giving us all funny looks. Quite enjoyable to freak out some tourists. 🙂

I made the 3 wigs using chair mesh from Allsteel. I cut pieces in various lengths and then basically shredded it by cutting up along the ‘grain’ of the fabric to make is shaggy. Then I twisted pieces to make ‘hair plugs’ which I glued onto pained plaster forms that I molded onto everyone’s head.

Freddie needs a ‘stache.

Everyone had a last minute walk rehersal on stage and then had to get ready for judging by the panel of 5 judges before the show. Then there was some more hanging out backstage for everyone to take their turn on the stage. We were lucky #7 to ‘perform’!

What show doesn’t need an illuminated crotch and feather boa embellished cape?!?

My coworker Todd took a video of the performance!

After Megan, Danielle, Keith, and Chris walked we all hung out backstage for a bit enjoying the excitement of the show. As well, Keith stopped the bleeding from his hand since he was so into ‘jamming out’ during Bohemian Rhapsody that he cut his finger open on the edge of the light housing. ouch!

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I seriously wish I had a closer pictures of the guys as they were COVERED in body glitter. Well. they just had to sparkle!! Hilarious.

After all 21 entries walked there was a final walk through off all the entries on the stage and then it was time for awards! There are 7 awards total, including 1 specifically for college entries, so we had a chance to win one of 6 awards. Well, in the end we actually won 2 of those 6 awards!!!!

1) MOST READY TO WEAR (Most Fashionable)

2) PEOPLE’S CHOICE (decided on by a live online vote during the show)

We all celebrated and there were lots of group pictures taken up on the stage.

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I have fun with my clothes onstage; it’s not a concert you’re seeing, it’s a fashion show – Freddie Mercury

I am so proud of all the work that we all did to make these amazing costumes.

Woohoo!

Random Thoughts on a Thursday Afternoon

August 29, 2013

Typically, Amanda and I would have a Thisty Thursday drink recipe post today but we are slackers and are skipping this week. Both of us are quite blah now. I think it’s the upcoming unoffical transition from summer to fall this weekend. Or maybe, for me, it’s the deadline that I had yesterday that resulted in me working crazy hours Monday – Wednesday.

Well, no matter what the real source of our laziness is we are lazy bloggers today so I’ve just whipped up a list of my little random thoughts of things spinning around manically in my head.

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I really want to make these Streusel Topped Pumpkin Muffins with Cream Cheese Glaze

I think it’s adorable when Price is pissed people don’t get up for me when we’re riding the train/bus.

Can’t get over that my almost 3 year old niece can rock The Single Ladies dance. She has that wave and some moves down. She’s a character.

Fast food chains are on strike today so of course all I can think about is getting a burger from Wendy’s with McDonald’s fries. I’m a horrible person.

Shellac has to be the best beauty invention in recent years. Besides the sock bun thing.

I check the Tory Burch website every day to see if their flip flops are on sale. No luck yet.

20 Days until we are on vacation!!

I’ve been working on Project Life but I have not been blogging about it. I’m a slacker.

Also, related to being a slacker… I never blogged about the wonderful time I had at ALT NYC… in JUNE. I think about it every day but I have no real energy to formulate real thoughts on it because it was so amazing but I feel I need to say why I loved it so much besides saying ‘I went to ALT! I loved it! It was amazing! Martha Stewart was like 6′ away from me! She has skinny legs!’

Wondering when we call can stop talking about Miley.

I can’t get over how much I love this photo. He is doofy.

The Newsrooms is my current favorite show. Did you see Jane Fonda in action this Sunday? She is just so stunning and fierce.

Did I already mention we are on vacation in 20 days?!!?!?!!!?!?!?!!?!??!!?!?

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Okay bye.

That’s just my face!

July 2, 2013

So last Friday I had a coworker tell me that he thinks I’m always mad at him. I tried to explain that I’m not but he was saying that I always look pissed off and annoyed. (I sit right by a printer at work so I think he sees me often and thinks I always look grumpy.) So I argued ‘No, that’s just my face!’ I don’t think I was helping the cause…

But then the Today Show had a segment this morning featuring this video and Ta-Da my face is explained! I have “Bitchy Resting Face”.

I sent this to my coworker. I hope he understands that my face just looks like that annoyed all the time. But man piss me off… oh you know, you really really know. ha!

Duct Tape Surfing

June 26, 2013

I saw this today and it made me insanely happy.

Duct Tape Surfing from Mark Tipple on Vimeo.

It’s so inspiring and just so awesome.

If you happened to enjoyed this as much as I did then check out their fundraising effort so they can go out on their “”Leggless Summer” trip, heading to Western Australia in search of bigger waves, to continue to inspire people to have a dream and make it happen!”

Love the creativity and passion.

xox

ROY G. BIV

June 18, 2013

Last night there was a fierce storm that passed though Boston right as I was about to leave for home. From a hot sticky afternoon to a chilly wet evening in just about an instant! At least I didn’t have to water the plants. 🙂 Well, after a bit of a delay I headed to meet Pricer and continue on our way home. I got to work on making dinner and he took the dog out. I soon got beckoned outside to see this…

Incredible.

I went to tell my neighbor about it but was having a little bit of a hard time explaining what I was insisting she come outside to see since I couldn’t remember what rainbow is in Spanish. Note to future self: it’s Arco Iris!

Loved how bright it was. Just something magical about it.

PS-Thank you everyone for the well wishes related to our little news on Sunday. Oh baby!

Quote of the Day

June 4, 2013

Via My Sweet Savannah

Fingers Crossed.

what a lovely day

March 28, 2013

Took yesterday off from blogging and I’m taking today & tomorrow off too. I have a scheduled post for Saturday but I’m going to enjoy a mini break to end out the month.

Hope you enjoy the rest if the week!

Do us a Flavor! Our votes

March 16, 2013

When I first saw the commercial for the new flavors from Lay’s I laughed my butt off. Oh Eva Longoria. sigh. And then I got over it and decided we must try all of them. Obvi.

So I grabbed a small bag of each flavor the next time I went to the grocery store and we dived into sampling.

Chicken and Waffles:

These chips tasted just like a waffle with syrup and the herby flavor of breaded chicken. If you didn’t know this was a chicken and waffles chip before trying you could easily guess the flavor. It was a subtle flavor and did not have a lot of seasoning to transfer to your hands.

Sriracha:

These were the brightest color of the 3 varieties. It was a redish hue, assuming from the sriracha flavoring, with flecks of chili and pepper. The srirach flavor was there but it could have just been confused with a hot sauce. It was not very spicy, but did have a kick.

Cheesy Garlic Bread:

The strongest flavors were that of garlic and cheese. These were a light orange/yellow color, most likely from the cheese flavor. They smelled exactly like how they tasted.

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My favorite: Sriracha

Price’s favorite: Chicken and Waffles

Time to Explore: Must-Haves from Asian Supermarkets

February 20, 2013

Boston Magazine asked me to share about how they have an Asian focused dining guide in their February issue. I love venturing into Chinatown and finding new places or visiting my favorites. I suggest you do the same and keep an open mind, bring cash, and go hungry! I love when I have a friend to guide me through the different shops and restaurants so here is a little guide Leah Mennies, Food Editor, has created to help you with some shopping in Asian Supermarkets*.

Leah Mennies Shares Her Must-Haves from Asian Supermarkets

For February issue’s “The Complete Guide to Asian Cuisine,” I spent quite a bit of time in Asian supermarkets like Ming’s (in the South End) and H Mart (in Burlington). Here are my must-have items:

Chinese black vinegar: Similar to balsamic and perfect as the base for a dumpling dipping sauce.

Hot sesame oil: Adds a spicy kick to soups, stir-fries, and salad dressings.

Brown rice cakes: These sliced rice cakes have a texture similar to a flattened piece of gnocchi and they’re a great (and gluten-free) alternative to pasta.

Pocky sticks: Chocolate-Dipped Pocky biscuits that are a (relatively) low-calorie, sweet indulgence.

Dried mushrooms: Soak in lukewarm water for about ten minutes, drain and squeeze, and chop up for stir-fries, soups, or fried rice.

Yu-Choy: If mustard greens and broccoli rabe had a baby…it would be this.

Fried shallots: Works on everything—basically, a skinnier, less puffy version of French’s fried onions.

Oyster sauce: Adds a salty, earthy depth of flavor to sauces.

Fish sauce: Go for the Three Crabs Brand, perfect in Thai-style salads.

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I hope this guide helps you out on your next adventure exploring markets near you. But don’t fear if you can’t find an Asian Supermarket near you! You can always turn to Amazon as they have a wide selection that can be delivered right to your door. All that matters is that you try something new and enjoy the process! 🙂

Be sure to check out the other great articles in Boston Magazine and on their on-line Restaurant and Food Section. There are pieces all about the food scene in and around Boston but their feature right now is on Asian Dining.

Now I really want to stroll around Chinatown and try some new places in their Chinatown Tour to Asian Dining. I’ve already been to a few places but I should take this as the perfect opportunity to try some new places and dishes.