What's New

Look what the good people at Nutro are making these days...doggie deserts. In flavors like Pumpkin Crumble, Apple Torte, and Carrot Cake they can't go wrong. I bought Saffy some and she ate the 1/2 can of Pumpkin Crumble I gave her in one bite. Yum! They smell just like pumpkin, and the lady in the store told me that some of the Nutro reps tried it and said it wasn't that bad. So, for the dog, for you when you have a really bad craving...whatever.

What I now know...

OK, first of all...I have some confessions. I like skinny jeans. the kind that aren't really big around your ankle - yeah...those. And I like long shorts...the ones that go to your knees. I of course don't think they look good on all people, but I like them. There, I said it. Ulta is having a 40% off sale on their liters of shampoo (like Matrix), and Esprit is having a sale online.

Now, on with more stuff I know. I found out today that I never had the I (one) behind my title of Media Researcher at work. Now why does that matter? Because I was always told that I was a I and the other lady I worked with was a II and it always seriously pissed me off that she had a higher title and more pay but I did all the work. I don't think she can even do the things I do. Not her fault at all, because she was trained somewhere else so of course she can't do it our way. And nobody is as anal and meticulous as I, but still...it drove me insane. So today I find out that neither one of us have roman numerals behind our titles thus making us equal level. Wow...that's HR messing with your head for real huh? I feel so cheated. She still made more money than me, but I spent all this time with wasted annoyance. And every time I put my signature into an email and it had that glaring ugly I on it and on my business cards. And all of it is a lie. I'm changing my resume right now. I turned in my letter of resignation on Tuesday so it's completely official that I am retiring in less than a month. I hope this all works the way I think it will.

Somewhere...over the weekend

Sing the title like Somewhere Over the Rainbow... get it? I’m back to another Monday morning. As I said to Sara, whoever is in charge of making sure the weekend doesn’t end hasn’t been doing their job! I didn’t have much focus this weekend, which is unfortunate since I was trying to write a midterm. I don’t know why I think you need my weekend recap, but here goes… Friday night I worked on the midterm and then did the Turbo Jam Cardio Party. After that my McDreamy came over. Only of note because it wasn’t a planned visit and with his work schedule we usually have to plan. I’m good with planned, but extra is nice. I wrote my midterm all day Saturday, between non-focused tangents (ok, it was mostly non-focused tangents, not that I can account for anything I did). Saturday night I went to Kara’s house for monthly game night. Sunday I finished up my midterm and had a group meeting. Ebony called me to let me know she was going to Lush in D.C. and I placed an order: Karma bar x2, flying fox temple balm x1, and anything that may smell really awesome. I went to dinner with McDreamy, Marianne, and Drew. After that we headed over to 360 Primo for some coffee. I got a Dulce Vita, which has frangelico and coconut crème in it. It was delicious! I’d never been in there, but that is one really cool place. Another interesting thing I never knew, Marianne and Drew went to a wedding Saturday night and it was in the capitol. In a hallway off the rotunda and there were other weddings in other hallways. You can’t reserve it so you just have to hope that no one has your hall when you get there. Interesting – I hadn’t ever heard of that one. So back to the dinner, over coffee the boys figured out that they even knew a few people in common from their Tech days. Small world and all that jazz. Hearing all the Europe stories also made me really want to visit before Marianne moves back, so I’m working on plans to get over there. Sunday night I slapped an ending on the midterm and then relaxed. I bought a necklace from the new Stereotte shop online. Listen to this cute description:

Every cloud has a silver lining, and you can wear this one around your neck! Made from plastic and wire, and hanging from a 16" sterling silver chain, this necklace will remind you that there is something bright in every day!

Fashion Flashback

What was I doing last night you wonder? Well I was wondering the same thing when I saw these photos. Me, Marianne, Barbara, and Sarah were attempting to see who could take the most 80s-ish looking photo. Think hair in the face, no smile, pouty face kind of look. If only we had thought to put on blue eye shadow. Tell me who you think wins!

#1 Sarah with "you know this glass is sexy" #2 Marianne with "Windblown"
#3 Barbara with "Peek-a-Boo"
#4 Me (obviously not good at this) with "Fish Kiss"

Mr. Sandman, bring me a dream

I bought a new mattress set…and a bed. Ok so yes, I know that technically I shouldn’t be spending money on stuff especially since I’m quitting my job. I really think I need the mattress though. I’ve had the old one for about oh…7 years maybe. It’s kind of flat in the middle (rah! TFTF (probably a reference only Barbara will or should get)) and it squeaks like a banshee. Stop thinking dirty. It squeaks no matter WHAT you do on it. And you may think that doesn’t matter but here’s a scenario that actually happened. One time some people from school were over to work on a group project and one of them sat on my bed and said “Oh my god Stephanie!” after hearing its creaky retort. I always have to try to explain it away to new boyfriends and other visitors and frankly I hate having to defend my crappy old bed. My grandmother bought it for me ages ago and I really appreciate it, but I’m sure she just got the cheapest one. I got a pillow top that was soft, but not too soft and I really can’t wait to sleep on it. I feel like compared to what I sleep on now anything would seem like sleeping on a cloud. Of course, this will diminish my ability to sleep on anything, anywhere, but I think it’s worth the trade. Maybe the bed wasn’t necessary, but I didn’t buy a whole bedroom set like the lady kept insisting I’d be sorry if I didn’t do. I know I don’t have to justify the bed to anybody anyway. I’m excited and if anyone wants to come slumber party on my new mattress in a few weeks you’re invited. If you want the whole new bed you’ll have to wait until the end of September though because it’s backordered. Which I take to mean that I have excellent taste!

Saffy's New Do

Saffy got a groom and a toothbrushing today. She also got a new sock monkey toy for having to go through all that. The guy at the register had to say "would you like a bag for your monkey?" ha...that made everyone crack up. Funny. I think it would be fun, but of course if my day of pampering included someone expressing my anal glands I probably wouldn't like it either. But if you need a good groomer, Bark N Purr does an awesome job, and for everything they do it is about half the price of having someone else do it. They are the only place that Saffy hasn't come back from limping on her bum knee. And they don't have the same ol' toys as everywhere either.

Free Range Ramblin's

Work has been a little slow lately. Maybe I’m lying when I say a little. It has been deathly slow. Yesterday I studied for my midterm. Which, I won’t even tell you how I think it went because I have no idea. This morning in my search for eye-patches I ended up at the Plum Party website which I have added to my links. I’ve planned half a wedding shower this morning with that website alone. Also, if anyone out there is thinking, “Stephanie needs a present” for some reason, I really like the “Smart Women Thirst for Knowledge” coffee mug. I also like the “Mine” beer bands which I’d rather buy to try to make my boy (err…are we too old to say boy now? man?) wear. I’m sure he’d love it. Right before he threw it in the trash. Just kidding. I’m sure he’d keep it somewhere to always remember how crazy I am. We’ve been working on his wily workaholic ways also. On Sunday at Barton Springs pool we ran into his old landlords (professors who rented out this garage apartment type thing to him). They actually brought up workaholism, and we had quite a good discussion about it. I guess it’s hard to deny it when a whole group of people is telling you it’s true. And anyhow, if you’re working you can’t appreciate the topless girls lying out at Barton Springs. Or, maybe instead of lying out I should say, sprawled on the side with one leg in the air doing stretches. With your Speedo wearing husband. Really people, if you don’t want tan lines go to the tanning bed. While I wouldn’t mind laying out topless myself, I also am neither an attention whore nor an exhibitionist so I’m not gonna do it in a place overflowing with kids and all kinds of random people. Maybe you just are free-spirited. Maybe I just sound conventional and boring and un-liberated here, but really people. The swimsuit top doesn’t really cover that much anyway. If you think it’s just cool because we live in Austin, well…people aren’t just cool about it. The teenage boys are staring at your nipples and I saw a guy turn his toddler away from you when he walked by. I’m sure you noticed all the staring though, and I hope you got your ego fill for the day. I know a lot of people, like Tyra, and I’ll admit it- I like her show, say that girls are bitchy when they’re jealous. I can’t pinpoint what I’d be jealous of on this one, but I did consider the option. Maybe next time I’ll just take my top off to do self-exploration on what it’s like to be wearing nothing but a swimsuit bottom in the middle of a packed public swimming area. Would you guys hang out with me if I did that?

Friends, meet my links

If you haven’t noticed my new links at the side I’d like to take a moment to introduce you to them. They’re slightly girly so sorry to any men who may read this.

First off, is Austin Tidbits. It’s pretty much what it says it is, tidbits on Austin. This is brand new – got my first email from them today actually (I signed up for it months ago). It's geared specifically towards the Austin woman. The site is divided into areas of interest: shop, eat & sip, beautify, maintain, enjoy, hear, go. I find this interesting because I don’t get to most of these hip or trendy places in Austin, but I like to know what they are just in case.

Next up is Digs Magazine. This magazine is made specifically for people in our situation – "a home + living guide for the post-college, pre-parenthood, quasi-adult generation." It has the general "departments" of lounge, nourish, host and laze. It comes out with fresh content every Monday and Thursday, but don't skip out on perusing the archives!

I also added The Spirit World. I found this link on Not Martha and it really is interesting. It has drink recipes and articles about alcohol, and links to fun things like blogs about alocohol. It’s my mecca. Read, drink…enjoy.

Finally is UPenn's site on Positive Psychology called Authentic Happines. This site has numerous tests to measure happiness. It’s free to sign up and you can see how your happiness compares to different people in your age, zip code, gender, etc. If nothing else it makes you really think about how happy you are.

Up in da' club...

Yesterday in the mail I got my temporary membership card to AARP. Now, you have to be at least 50 to be a member. And their website has a button to increase text size, I'm not kidding. I’m wondering if they’re thinking this card will be my temporary membership for the next 25-something years, or do they really want me to join? I’m tempted to try just to see if they’d let me in. I mean I AM retiring. At least I’d be with my peers – retired folks. I can picture it now…me and my old lady friend Agnes would play shuffleboard and Bunko and would never remember anything. But we wouldn’t care. Because it wouldn’t be boring to do it over and over if you don’t remember the last time you did it. We’d shuffle around and get lost and people would have to take us home, and we’d say “Ehhh?” a lot, and really loudly. And fart in public. We’d call people and ask them how to copy and paste on the computer, and how to answer a cell phone. I know those both sound stereotypical but I’ve had it asked of me before. We’d tell stories about the old days, which we’d mostly make up because we don’t remember the old days. And we’d have a pill case. And we’ll smell like old people. Would you guys still be my friend?

WAR on Breast Cancer

Click HERE to donate

Barbara and I (The Mooshies) are racing in the Women's Race this September. Last year, I have to say, this pretty much kicked my ass, but we still came in at the middle of the pack with the time of an hour and 57 minutes. If Barbara hadn't been there to keep me moving I might have stopped. Some things we had to do included running with our shoelaces clipped together and handcuffed. We had to carry a rubber chicken everywhere we went, and preform obstacles with it. We were super muddy because it rained during the race, and while we were doing the water portion I got Barbara's entire backside muddy (sitting behind her in our "boat") and I kept hitting her in the head with the oar. This year, we're going to have to either practice rowing or work on a "duck and row" system.

All of your donation will go to The Young Survival Coalition (YSC). YSC is the only international, non-profit network of breast cancer survivors and supporters dedicated to the concerns and issues that are unique to young women and breast cancer. Click on the link at the top of our post to go to our fundraising website to make a quick and secure donation. We appreciate ANY amount and thank you in advance for your support. You can go to the Women's Race website for more information, to register your own team, or to sign up to volunteer.