Author Archives: LA Blogger Gal

Is it Really Friday?

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I’ve been off all week on my days.  So if today is really Friday, then I’m ready for it.  Of course I have a crazy busy day tomorrow with two clients and dinner with friends, but let’s face it, there’s not all too much of a difference between a Friday and a Saturday when you work from home and your husband is always working whenever he’s home.  Needless to say, I’m still happy it’s Friday.  And this time around I was smart enough not to make a lunch date and get stuck in that insane, mid-day, all day Friday freeway traffic.

So you know what I did all day yesterday instead of working?  I read the Beaut.ie blog.  Seriously, I spent the entire day reading an Irish blog about beauty products.  So now I’m all ready to spending some of my vacation money on beauty products!!  And tea, let’s not forget the tea!

Oh yeah, back to the beauty part.  I’ve read enough fashion magazines and beauty blogs to know that when you travel to certain countries there are certain beauty products you should be on the look out for.  So yesterday I gave my good friend Google the task of finding me what products I just might want to check out.  This of course brought me to Beaut.ie.  I took a moment to shoot Kirstie an email asking for some recommendations so hopefully she’ll suggest a thing or two.

And speaking of Ireland, I can’t believe we’ll be there in just THREE weeks!!! I finally ordered our coats and waterproof shoes.  I decided that windproof and waterproof, as well as warm might just be worth the investment for this wimp.  Now I just need to find the right gloves and a cute scarf or five, of course.

And on that note of cute scarves, I’m going to head on over to the more chichi of the local malls and see if I can find this great black and grey scarf I saw at Macy’s and see if they have the Shiseido Think Pink lipgloss.  I shouldhaven’t have to worry about the boys (not that I do); the cat is getting stoned on some catnip and the itchy pupster is having fun with a peanut butter kong (hasn’t had one of those since he was a wee little pup).

Happy Friday Y’all!

Just ONE Lipstick? Seriously?!?!

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A while back I was watching an episode of Monk.  On this episode, the serial killer would always take his victim’s one lipstick.  The whole time I was watching this (and now, months later) I can’t get over the one lipstick thing.

lipstick on lipsI don’t know about you, but I have a bit of a lip product addiction.  I have a lip balm hidden in nearly every room and every purse, even the ones I’m not using right now.  Then there are the glosses…I have one extra in my “concert” purse (just a wristlet that holds everything in one place – which reminds me, I need to add ear plugs to that bag) and another on the ready in my carry on bag.

In my current, every day purse I have the following lip products on hand (these will all travel from bag to bag):

  • MAC Captive Satin lipstick
  • Bobbi Brown Slopes lipstick (great color!)
  • NARS Tobago lipstick
  • Bare Escentuals Lip Savor (my all time favorite lip balm E.V.E.R. – nearly finished and discontinued *wah*)
  • Clinique Black Plum Almost Lipstick (again, great color – most like Black Honey, but this works better for me)
  • NARS Positano lip gloss
  • Bombshell dual gloss in That’s So 80’s
  • NARS Triple X clear lip gloss (this one comes and goes depending on the purse since the Bombshell also has a clear gloss)

Good Lord, now that I think about it, eight lip products (for a girl that doesn’t really wear much make up) does seem a tad bit excessive.  I’ll blame it all on the economy and the economic principal known as the Lipstick Factor (even if I’ve bought many of these before our most recent recession…shhhh).

But of course, since it’s October and Breast Cancer Awareness month, there are many, many other cool products that are out.  And they’re so cool and cute and well, pink, that I can rarely contain myself.  Right now, I’m eying a Shiseido Think Pink lipgloss that according to Blogdorf Goodman is hydrating like a lip balm – two for the price of one…SCORE!  Of course, the Shiseido counter at my local rinky dink Macy’s had no idea what I was talking about, so I’ll have to hit up a nicer mall.

How many lip products do you tend to carry? Am I alone in my lippie addiction love? Are you a one lipstick kind of gal? Or do you only do tinted blams or maybe glossies?  Spill…I just might discover a new product 😉

It’s Driving Me Crazy

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I don’t know why, but anytime I’m sitting here at my computer, I smell gasoline.  It’s not on me (I didn’t buy any gas today and I’ve washed my hands a gazillion times).  It’s not on anything on the desk.  And the aroma totally comes and goes. It must be coming in from outside the back window, but they’re not doing anything out there.  Either way, it’s driving me crazy!

Let’s face it, there are other things I’d rather be focusing on then trying to find the hidden source of the gasoline smell.  Important stuff like where can I find warm gloves for me and a hat and scarf for the hubs that aren’t crazy expensive, but still somewhat cute.  And like why the hell there’s a TomCruise.com site advertised on my LJ page?  And how can we  possibly have a $650 dental bill carrying over from September when the hubs only had a cleaning and a filling?!?!  How much does that shit cost WITH insurance???

Though to be completely honest, I have tons of work I should be doing to gear up for the upcoming batch of giveaways before we leave.  But I think I’ll worry about that tomorrow.  Fiddle dee dee…tomorrow is another day*.

*love, love, love Gone with the Wind.  One of my all time favorite books and movies.

The Santa Ana’s Have Returned

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Which of course sadly means more fires.  Last night you could hear (and feel) those dry, hot winds blowing all sorts of debris around.

Right now there’s a pretty raving fire out in the Stevenson Ranch area.  That’s not all too far away (but no where near as close as any of the recent Griffith Park fires), so once the winds kick up again, we’ll probably start getting some ash and smoke.  Funny thing, last night I made the comment that someone started a fire at a nearby home.  I’m thinking now that I was wrong with that, and it was an actual brush fire instead.

The good news is that our rainy season isn’t that far off.  I believe it typically starts that last couple weeks in October.  So hopefully that will help with things.  Then again, we’re forcasted to be back in the 90’s on Tues and Weds.  I can’t say that I ever predicted that southern Californian weather would be anything like this.  Such a weird and interesting experience to say the least.

I’m So Not a Fan of the Dentist

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I’m sure I say this over and over again each and every time I have to go to the dentist for a cleaning.  Today though, it wasn’t a cleaning, it was time to replace an old cavity.  Needless to say, it’s the driling that kind of scares me to death.

You see, when I was a little kid, we had a horrible, horrible dentist.  Anytime he worked on my teeth, he never gave me enough Novocain.  Needless to say, I could feel the drilling. ALL the drilling. I’d cry. I’d scream and he would tell my grandmother that I was just being a brat that there’s no way I could feel anything.  For the record, he was wrong.

So now as an adult, I have a bit of a complex.  I don’t avoid the dentist.  I do go to my regularly schedule appointments and I sit through whatever horrible things they plan to do to me (mostly cleanings – horrifying, I know).  But…and here it is…I kind of freak out a bit.  I hold my breath, I tense up, I white knuckle the arms of the chair and my eyes will uncontrollably tear (like with cutting onions – not quite crying).

My dentist and his team though, they’re great.  They have it in their file that I want more Novocaine that I’d ever actually need (they oblige) and that they need to do things one step at a time so I can take breathing breaks all the while walking me through the entire process.

It’s funny though.  As an adult I know it’s a silly fear.  I know that I’m no longer a child and whatever dentist I go to will listen to me and work with me.  I know it won’t hurt and even if I did, they’d immediately stop whatever they were doing and fix it.  It’s just one of those silly things we worry about leftover from childhood.

I guess that’s why no matter how many times my husband or friends suggest I switch to getting gas prior to treatment I won’t (and they’ve offered at my current office).  That just seems like such an extreme when I know deep down that all will be well.  I’ll just stick to taking a Xanax prior to going – LOL.  And well, in the end, I just know that I’m not the biggest fan of dentists in general, but I love my dentist and would recommend him to anyone looking for a dentist.

So how ’bout you…any fear of the dentist?  What about some other fear left over from childhood?

Can You Say Brrrzy & You Paid What?!?! Edition

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Part One: Can You Say Brrrzy?

It’s official…we’ve reached fall here in greater Los Angeles.  The Santa Anas have come to play, leaves are blowing every which way, the valley is clear as can be and the windows are closed.  Mind you, I have no idea how we go for 100 degree days to 69 degrees in mere days and my allergies are killing me, but whatever.

We got home from dinner last night around midnight or so (with a brief sojourn into El Monte to drop a friend home first).  We walked in to the apartment and it was downright cold!  Like in the low 60’s kind of cold.  While that might not seem too cold for your blood, keep in mind that the longer you live in SoCal, the thinner your blood gets and the colder things appear.  Hence the Uggs and hoodies when we hit the mid to low 70’s.

Lucky for us, we still had our blanket lying about.  Which was a good thing because the window fan thermometer (it was in the 100’s just days ago remember) said it was 60 in the bedroom.  And you know, even with the window nearly closed but for an inch or so, we woke up and it was still 60 in the bedroom.  The hubs actually turned on the heat this morning (which of course set off the smoke detector as the dust burned off).  My morning cuppa tea hasn’t tasted so good in a long time.

So yeah, it was brrrzy today.  Perfect weather to lie around the house, snuggled under blankets with the boys either reading or catching up on TV.  Well, that and some chicken noodle soup…

Part Two: You Paid What?!?!

So being the first official cold day in a long, long time, it was time to head out to one of the many local area delis for some chicken noodle soup.  Normally, we get our chicken noodle from Jerry’s.  While their menu may be pricey, you always leave there with enough for yet another meal.

Today we decided to try someplace new – or at least new to us, and headed over to Art’s Delicatessen.  Definitely not something I’d recommend.  You’d think that a place that’s been open for 51 years would have some kickass food, right?  Guess not.  Or well, maybe the just got lazy.  Who knows.  Either way, we should have known something was up by how empty the place was – Jerry’s is never empty.

I ordered the 1/2 egg salad sandwich and the cup of soup.  The soup, not all that.  And honestly, for the extra $4.50 you’d expect something a little larger than the itty bitty cup they put it in.  I don’t know, like the size of what they serve at Jerry’s.  Needless to say, it certainly wasn’t worth the $4.50 for the couple tablespoons worth of broth, one piece of chicken and a few noodles.

The hubs went with an omelet and hashbrowns that he felt would have been better (and cheaper) at Denny’s.  Totally mediocre at best.  The kicker…the bill came to $42!!!  Yes, $42 for half a sandwich, a cup of soup, an omelet, two iced teas and a rice pudding.  Insane.  We paid $67 for three meals, four salads and a dessert last night…for four people.  And we brought three boxes of leftovers home with us (I won’t mention that their bar tab far exceeded our dinner tab – I was the designated driver so I don’t complain, I just drive).

The funny thing, as we were leaving, I overheard this little gift asking her mom “is it bad?” over and over.  All the while, her mom was looking at some sort of sandwich with a not so happy face on.  She eventually nodded yes to her daughter while opening her sandwich up for her husband to see.  Seems I’m not alone in my complaints (oddly, the Yelpers seem to love Art’s).

The moral of the story…avoid Art’s Delicatessen at all costs.  It’s not very good.  It’s crazy ass expensive (without leftovers like at other delis).  And well, they don’t have any Jewish pastries.  What the hell kind of Jewish deli doesn’t have any Jewish pastries?!?!?  Is it too much to expect a little rugelach or those flaky appricot pastries my Hungarian grandmother used to make? At least our table service was good.

Yikes, I Feel Like I’ve Disappeared Here

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It’s not true though, I assure you.  I’ve just been a little busy with business stuff.  I was invited to a brainstorming session for a friend’s upcoming business on Sunday.  I had another brainstorming dinner for another friend’s business challenges on Tuesday.  And had a power business lunch today which including still more brainstorming.  Gotta love it!

OMG, even in the middle of writing this, only four sentences in and it’s an hour later and I’ve managed to do 3 other things.  Insane!

Okay, back to the point at hand…I might not be around all that much in the upcoming weeks.  Or more accurately, I’ll be around, though it will more than likely be sporadic and filled with random thoughts (yeah, not all that different, I know, I know).

I’ve got a lot going on with coordinating the upcoming giveaways for my site and the corresponding product.  Not to mention the correspondence itself.  I want this to go well for so many reasons and I think I can make some great connections.  Five packages came today already!  Oh and lesson learned…get dressed ASAP now since it’s no fun having to get the “attack” dog away from the FedEx guy whilst in a robe and my hair in a towel!

In the meantime, I’m also working on my business and working on getting a lot of writing completed.  I might even start my book proposal before the year is out (depending on how much time the giveaway-palooza goes).  I also have some interviews I’d like to get done sooner rather than later.

I’ve also decided that now is the perfect time to start doing speaking engagements!  Yeah, what the hell have I been smoking?  I wonder that myself.  Let’s just chalk it all up to forward movement and great attracting and leave it at that 😉

And lastly, we have the amazing Ireland trip to look forward to.  At least with this distraction you’re bound to get some amazing, photos, right?

On that note, I must get started on dinner.  The hubs should be home shortly.

I Hate Feeling Groggy Like This

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Turns out my migraine didn’t exactly leave the other day.  After getting back from the dreaded dentist (where my Xanax didn’t work nearly as well as it should have!) I basically crashed for like three hours. And you have no idea just how much I’ve slept this weekend.  Really, I’m not sleepy at all.  I’m feeling crappy and groggy and achey, but not sleepy.

Even now I kind of feel like I’m in a bit of a daze.  I have no desire to do my pile of dishes (we’re out of forks and cat bowls) or to write my work articles for tomorrow’s newsletter (guess I’ll be taking advantage of some stuff that others have written and made available).

I also have to figure out a little business prioritizing here.  I had this brilliant idea to pitch for some giveaway product via HARO.  My goal was to do a giveaway a day on my site for the entire month of November.  On top of that, I’ve been pitching individually to some of my favorite products. And well, it worked.  Some might say it worked a little too well (if that were even possible).  It now looks like I’ll be able to start my giveaway a day in October and probably run straight through to some time in December.  And while this will be coller than cool, I dread the future post office trips and the post office costs to fulfill the sweepstakes.

Now on top of all that, I’m also going to be taking on a newsletter for my new site highlighting blog posts, contest and giveaways (all while still writing my regular business blog and newsletter).  Which means that for the next three months, my main focus will be on my site and not on my business.  Such a switch for me.

And on top of it all, of course, is our so awesome trip to Ireland in a couple weeks.  The paperwork is in it’s totally 100% booked and official.  I just need to finish shopping, prep and then pack for that.  I have a feeling things might get a little busy and slightly frazzling in a couple of weeks.

Wonder if I can talk the hubs into picking up dinner tonight….hmmmmmmm

Looking For Some of Your Favorite Things

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I’m all a’twitter here. My husband has finally gotten around to creating our brand new sweepstakes page for my site.  Originally, I had planned to give away one item a day for the entire month of November, in preparation for the holiday season.  I actually had such a good response to my Haro pitch and the few other companies that I’ve reached out to on my own, that I’d like to make this even bigger still.

So this got me thinking how every so often I like to share some of my favorite things here on my blog (as seen here, here, and here).  I enjoy this so much, I also have it run on my site’s blog from time to time.  I think it’s a cool way to share cool gadgets and fun things.

In light of that, I’d like to ask you to share some of your favorite things (either the comments below, or write up your own post and leave me a link).  Basically, I’m looking for cool, fun things that can be given as gifts.  In particular:

  • anything green or eco-friendly (for the home or the body)
  • anything gadgety or techy for the guys (or those tech-inclined gals amongst us)
  • foodstuffs
  • kitchen gadgets
  • must-read authors
  • kid-friendly products
  • make-up, skin or body care products

So what are some of your favorite things?