30 Day Drawing Challenge - Day 5 - My Best Friend

Oh dear...I have to draw my best friend.  Cris, I'm sorry! Hahahahaha!

 Tomorrow I get a day off from drawing...and you get a day off from looking at it!

30 Day Drawing Challenge - Day 4 - Favorite Place

Well...my favorite place is Miami! And no it's not just because it's relatively easy to draw! It's home :)

Wow, that's bad! Clearly, not so easy to draw after all!

Hahahahahaha...

30 Day Drawing Challenge - Day 3 - Favorite Food

Food? They want me to draw food?  It's hard enough to figure out what my favorite food is, let alone draw it. Today, I'll say Sushi.

Mmmm...sushi....

30 Day Drawing Challenge - Day 2 - Favorite Animal

So how did Day 1 work for you? Staggering genius - I know! Well today's is my favorite animal, haha. Any of you who have played Pictionary with me know that in my art work all animals look exactly alike, except for an occasional hump if it's a camel.


Day 2 - "Favorite Animal"

See? Told you!

30 Day Drawing Challenge - Day 1 - Myself

OK...let's see how this goes...I so can't draw! And I'm doing this using MS Paint. 

Nothing good can come of this...

Day One - "Myself"

The Purse

Five years ago (how is that even possible?) I Blogged about a red purse I had bought and how out of character it was for me and how it was just sitting there...taunting me. I wondered if I would ever use it.

Five years later...I haven't. Don't judge me people!!! Maybe when I turn 50 and I can wear it with a red hat.

In the mean time, I have a new purse. See it up there? It's a Dooney and Bourke...the one with the duck logo. The one that costs $387 at Macy's. It isn't tacky for me to say it because I didn't pay for it. I would have to die and be reborn for me to spend that amount of money on a purse. Even if I had that kind of disposable income, there are about 7, 329 things on which I would spend that amount of money before a purse.

Don't get me wrong, the purse is *fabulous*, it's prettier "in person"...soft leather, a bunch of regular pockets and zippy pockets, a thingy to hold my keys so they don't disappear into the abyss that is this enormous purse. It's huge!

The reason I have this purse is because this year is my 15th work anniversary - YAY! For each milestone anniversary (5, 10, 15, etc.) we get a choice of gifts which increase in value as we get older. This time the selection was really good...there were flat screen TVs, jewelry, and even the really cool KitchenAid Stand Mixer.

I called Hubby to verify we didn't need the TV, but we came awfully close to getting the mixer. But I really needed a new "daily" or work purse. As I wrote in the red purse post, I really abuse my work purse but this bag has great reviews and you can tell it's well made and sturdy. I'm optimistic it will survive me for a couple of years at least!

The Lola Shuffle - "The I Missed a Week" Edition

I don't have a good excuse...I just haven't felt like Blogging. I don't even have a picture for this post! I suck.

Last Friday I worked from home and completely forgot about the shuffle...my bad.

So, here's my makeup shuffle...let's see what Lola has for us.

1. I Am Woman - Helen Reddy (this one's for you Dixie!)
2. Who Am I (What's My Name)? - Snoop Dogg (it's kinda bad that I really like this song - the uncensored version no less - isn't it?)
3. Summer of '69 - Bryan Adams
4. Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough - Michael Jackson
5. Hump de Bump - Red Hot Chili Peppers
6. Love You Inside and Out - Bee Gees
7. Roxanne '97 (Puff Daddy Remix) - Sting and the Police (Apparently Lola is in a gangsta mood)
8. Sway - The Pussycat Dolls (Yes, The Pussycat Dolls - don't judge me people!)
9. May Your Music Live On - Terrance Simien
10. Stay - Cyndi Lauper (an excellent version of this song)

I don't know why I'm so disaffected lately. I guess my muse is on summer vacation. Lucky her.

Stuff has been going on too. I was summoned to Federal Jury Duty. I went on Monday and went into a court room for jury selection but didn't get picked for the trial - maybe because on the Judge's questionnaire I said I was against the death penalty and against the Three Strikes law.

But here's the kicker - I'm "on call" for two weeks. Every night this week and next week I had/have to call and see if I have to show up the next day.

To be honest Federal jury duty wasn't nearly as soul shatteringly boring as County jury duty - they kept us busy all day between filling out the questionnaire and the jury selection show. One of the times I was called to county jury duty I sat in the frickin' frackin' jury pool room all day - brutal!

I've got a relatively busy weekend ahead. Saturday morning I want to sleep in because I haven't been getting enough sleep. Then I have a Cuban cooking class for the Cuban Home Cooking Blog - we're learning how to make "Fritas Cubanas" - which is sorta like a Cuban hamburger only way better.

On Sunday, I'm going with my friend Cris to see a slightly scary performance - it's something called Fuerza Bruta. If I survive maybe I'll tell you about it afterwards.

So, have a great weekend...do something fun and stay cool.

Mmmmm....Ice Cream

OHMYGOD!

I have found heaven in a super market freezer.

Häagen Dazs RESERVE ice creams. Seriously, it's ridiculous.

I've only tried two of them. First Fleur de Sel Caramel - you can read the official description, but basically it's caramel ice cream with these little nuggets of dark chocolate sprinkled with a teensy bit of sea salt - but, when you bite into the chocolate nugget, it's filled with liquidy caramel that oozes onto your tongue (sigh).

The other one I tried was Amazon Valley Chocolate , which is a dark chocolate ice cream, but it reminds me of a light, airy chocolate mousse. You can eat buckets of this without being overwhelmed by sweetness.

I discovered these ice creams thanks to my friend Frank who swears that the Toasted Coconut Sesame Brittle is also fantastic. I haven't found it in my Publix, but he says the best thing is to have a spoonful of the coconut and a spoonful of the chocolate together. This guy is an ice cream connoisseur, so you should really trust his judgement.

So while this isn't exactly great for my diabetes, it does wonders for my soul!

10 Things on My Desk Right Now

I'm swiping a meme of sorts from Curmudgeon over on Second Effort. He got it from Barb at Skittles she's the genius behind "Heads or Tails".

The challenge is to list "ten things staying within any category of your choosing."

So, I'm going with 10 Items on My Desk Right Now (try to control your excitement!!!)

As they say on Dancing with the Stars, "in no particular order" these are ten items on my desk:

• A mini-fan so I can survive the hot flashes
• A bottle of water
• A red calculator - because if I must have a calculator, it will be red
• A set of 4 Medieval Chant CDs by Anonymous 4 (love them!)
• A Kleenex box with a really cool 60s looking flower design
• An old-school composition-style notebook
• A little tube of Cucumber-Melon hand cream
• My Barnes and Noble mug with a bunch of authors pictured
• Two mini Hershey bars I'm not supposed to eat and don't particularly like but someone gave them to me
• A small stuffed moose from Finland
  

Deep Tissue Massages and "Scar Face"

What do Deep Tissue massages and "Scarface" have in common? I don't like either one of them.

OK, here's the massage story. About three years ago my sister-in-law gave me a gift certificate for something called SpaFinder, which allows you to use the certificate in one of many spas throughout the country - several in my area. It just so happens that the spa I normally go to for massages isn't in their network, but the one I chose has very good reviews and I know several people who have gone and love it.

Now at my regular spa I usually get a 90 minute stress relief massage, which is basically a Swedish massage - and it's fabulous. You come out all noodly and relaxed, but the usual tense areas - lower back, neck and stiff shoulders come back right away. So in looking through the options at this new place I saw they had a 50 minute combination Swedish/Deep Tissue massage where the deep tissue part focuses on problem areas, so I figured I'd give it a shot. The Swedish part was great and even some of the deep tissue stuff felt good, but at one point I actually had to tell her that was she was doing hurt! And she eased up and it was fine. I came out feeling good.

As the day progressed however, my neck and the area between my shoulder blades were bothering me a bit. When I went to sleep and I actually lay down on my back the shoulder blade area really hurt when I touched the bed! And today the area is really bothering me, specially when I touch it. So I Googled and found that it's apparently normal. I also called the spa and spoke to another masseuse (a guy) that said that it was normal to feel some discomfort because in deep tissue massage it actually *tears the muscle tissue*! But that was OK! I'm sorry what? How is it OK that I went in there with something whole and now it's *torn* - which means broken - but that's "OK"? He said it really was OK and then tried to make the concept clearer to me by making the analogy "it's like when you work out" which of course is completely wasted on me. So I popped some Advil and am hoping for the best. We'll see how that goes.

And then there's "Scarface" - yes the second one - the one with Al Pacino playing a Cuban drug dealer. I saw this movie in the theater when it came out in 1983 and hated it, but everybody keeps talking about it like it's the greatest thing since Spaghettios, so I figured I'd try again. Yeah - ummm - still hate it. I fell asleep through parts of it. It is waaaaaay too long to be listening what must be the worst Cuban accent in the history of Cuban accents on film. Don't get me wrong, I love Al Pacino, I think he's one of the generation's greatest actors - but in "Scarface" - not so much. The whole damned thing is so over the top, the violence, the language, the predictably stupid storyline, the stereotypes. Not doing it for me.

On a happy note, we went to my new favorite place - forget Disney World - my new Whole Foods is the new *happiest place on earth*! It was wonderful and I got some fabulous prepared Indian food to bring home - it was awesome. I also perused the wine section and am happy to report they have a nice selection of very reasonably priced Rose wines, and although not inexpensive, they have *Ice Wines*! YAY!

Another happy thing - I'm taking Monday off. [Dragging soapbox out and climbing on to it] Yep, commemorating when Christopher Columbus and company arrived on American shores and *discovered* a continent that had been inhabited for centuries (I guess all those people didn't know they were here!), and thus began the centuries of systematic cheating, raping, pillaging, enslaving and general havoc that Europeans inflicted on the indigenous people of the Americas! WOO HOO - let's have a furniture sale! [Stepping off soapbox and putting it away]. Hubby works at a bank and they have the day off, so I'm gonna stay home with him.

TTFN...:)