Category Archives: Girly Stuff

because really, it's all about my hair

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I know y’all have just been dying to see before and after pictures of my new haircut, haven’t you? HAVEN’T YOU??

Ok then.

Here’s what it looked like a couple of weeks ago, when Kris and I met up with the girls for a little night out on the town. We were ridiculously overdressed, considering that we ended up in a sketchy techno club downtown. But hey, whatever. We felt purty, and that’s all that matters.



 Please ignore the fact that I’ve got some kinda crazy-eyed thing going on there.

I honestly kind of liked my hair really long like that, but there were so many layers around the bottom, it took forever to style. And I really prefer it if my morning hair routine takes less than 10 minutes. I’m just low-maintenance like that. (Yes, I’m being sarcastic. I do realize there are people in the world who run their fingers through their hair and call it good. I will probably never be one of those people.)

Anyway, I went to my stylist and told her that I wanted to get rid of the layers – I had her cut it just blunt and straight across the bottom. She said afterward that she had been worried it would look too “heavy” that way, but she was pleased with how it turned out.



 I’m pretty pleased with it myself.

Oh, and the next time I think it’s ok to allow a photo to be taken of me squatting like that? Someone please slap some sense into me. God. Hello, thighs!

fun with fruit

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Not a whole lot happened this weekend. Dave and I got haircuts on Friday, we went to some friends’ wedding on Saturday (which was lovely), and we chilled out most of the day on Sunday. Actually, Dave chilled out, and I apparently went into hyper nesting mode or something. I don’t know where this came from – I got up on Sunday and made chocolate chip muffins for breakfast. Then, since I had already established a theme of healthy and nutritious eating for the day, I spent about an hour in our yard picking blackberries so I could make a cobbler. I’ve never attempted to make a cobbler before (I consider myself sort of mediocre on the whole baking thing), so I had no idea how many blackberries I needed. I think I ended up with something like half a gallon. I only needed 2-1/2 cups for the recipe. Oops. I hope blackberries freeze well, but I guess we’ll find out for ourselves in the near future.

Oh, and for the record? I didn’t even begin to make a dent in the overall blackberry population of our yard. They are everywhere. Which is sort of a mixed blessing – I love blackberries, but the bushes here grow like kudzu and will take over the whole yard if we don’t keep them trimmed back. And what with the thorns, it’s almost impossible to trim them ourselves without getting sliced to ribbons. So we actually have a landscaping service that’s supposed to come sometime in the next couple of weeks to cut them back. Which is probably why this is the first time all year that it suddenly occurred to me that, hey! Our blackberries are going to go away! I should go retrieve as many as possible and make fattening desserts with them! (Well, that, and the fact that August is really the first time of year that they’re ripe enough to eat.)

I meant to take pictures of the before and after – the huuuuge bowl of fresh blackberries that I picked, and the really pretty cobbler after it came out of the oven – but the camera was upstairs and I am lazy, so alas, I have no pretty food photos to share. Maybe next time. Meanwhile, here’s the recipe that I used for blackberry cobbler, which is awesome and super-easy (thanks Google, and bettycrocker.com).

Blackberry Cobbler
1 cup all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup milk (I used the lactose-free kind & it still tastes great)
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, melted
2 1/2 cups blackberries – fresh or frozen (thawed & drained)
1 cup sugar

1. Heat oven to 375 degrees.
2. Mix flour, baking powder, salt & milk in an ungreased 8-inch square baking pan or skillet. Stir in butter until blended.
3. Mix blackberries & sugar, let stand about 20 minutes until fruit syrup forms. Spoon over batter.
4. Bake 45-55 minutes until dough rises and is golden.
5. Serve warm with cream, whipped cream or ice cream. (Again, no lactose for me, so we used cool whip, which is non-dairy. Still awesome.)

During the time that the cobbler was baking and then cooling, Dave and I watched the latest episode of “Six Feet Under”, which made me cry. A lot. Honestly, I thought of the cobbler as my reward for such an emotionally harrowing hour of television. Lordy.

skin update

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Warning: Girly talk about skin care and cosmetics ahead.
The antibiotic from my dermatologist appears to be working. I hardly have any new pimples, and the ones that I do have are little and near the hairline on my forehead, which is where I usually get them. But then last weekend, I started to notice that I was getting some dry skin around my eyes. Which presented a problem, since I don’t own any type of moisturizer that one would use on one’s face. Don’t yell at me for this, I know it’s a major girl no-no, but come on. Why does an already oily-faced person need more moisture? I just never saw the point, so I never used the stuff. To be honest, I tried using it a few times in high school and college (I don’t remember the brands I tried, I’m pretty sure it was usually cheap drug store stuff), but it always made me break out more, so I dropped it. I’ve just never seen the point.

But then, I got the dry eye thing, and it hurt, and it was ugly, and I didn’t like it. I heard really good things about Clarins, and how it doesn’t cause breakouts like other (cheaper) cosmetics do, so I decided to check them out. I made Dave come with me because I am totally intimidated by department store cosmetics saleswomen. I can’t explain it, but they scare the shit out of me. It could be the lab coats. And maybe it was because my husband was with me, or maybe I just lucked out and got an unusually nice saleslady, but she didn’t try to tell me that I was a horrible person for not using moisturizer every day since I was 13 years old, and she didn’t try to push an entire line of crap on me. That last part was almost definitely because of Dave, who was looking bored and fidgety the whole time, exactly as I had instructed him ahead of time to do because I wanted to get the hell out of there fast. The nice saleslady did lose points by telling me that after my face gets used to their sensitive skin formula, I might want to move on to the anti-aging products (bitch), but she made up for it by giving Dave some free samples from their men’s line.

So I bought a very nice eye balm, which I have now used for 3 days and oh, how I love it. No more dry skin around my eyes, and it seems like the shadows under my eyes are fading too. Awesome. I also got a day cream for sensitive skin, which… ok, now I understand why you’re supposed to put on moisturizer under your make-up. Yes, it makes everything go on smoother. And it seems like I’m using less make-up because it’s easier to make it all look even. Why didn’t my mother tell me that when I was in junior high? All this time, I had no idea.

Now, if it turns out that even this Clarins stuff makes me break out after I have experienced the bliss that is smooth make-up application, I am going to be one unhappy camper. I guess we’ll have to wait and see.

New Test Leper

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I’ve been having this issue with my skin lately, and I have decided to share this information with the world. Here’s the deal: a couple of weeks before the wedding, I started getting zits on my forehead. Not surprising, I figured it was stress-related, and my body somehow knew that I was about to be the subject of a hundred or so photographs, so it decided to screw up my face. Fine, whatever. Good thing we sprang for the make-up artist on our wedding day. A few weeks after the wedding, I started getting bumps all over my chest. They didn’t appear to be pimples exactly, they were just little red bumps. But they didn’t itch. After I had those for a couple of weeks, the bumps on my chest started to spread up the sides of my neck and onto my jawline. Ok, fine, time to call the dermatologist. (I should mention that I already have a dermatologist because I had a particularly horrible breakout a couple of years ago, and this is the same doctor who helped me with that.) Meanwhile, Dave and I have taken to referring to it as The Plague (said in overly dramatic voice), which is basically what it feels/looks like.

I saw the dermatologist yesterday. She said that all the red bumps are indeed a form of acne, and by the way God, do I need to remind you that I am almost 30 freakin’ years old and this phase of my life is supposed to be over? Ok, thanks. So she put me on an antibiotic that’s supposed to help acne, although this is one of the drugs that I tried two years ago that did absolutely nothing for me, so I’m not terribly optimistic. If it doesn’t work, it may mean that I have to take the drug that fixed my acne two years ago, which is a rather controversial medication called Accutane. Now, while it will absolutely 100% kick my acne’s ass, here’s what I don’t like about Accutane:

1) It dries out all of my skin, not just what’s on my face, so I end up having to basically rub myself down with cocoa butter every day.
2) It makes my lips so dry that they peel, crack and bleed on a daily basis. (And I’m a lip balm addict, so that’s saying a lot.)
3) It causes such severe birth defects that the legal restrictions on this drug are insane. Each pill comes pre-wrapped in a package with a little icon of a pregnant woman with a red Ghostbusters “NO!” slash across her. I have to sign an affidavit stating that I will use 2 forms of birth control while I’m on it. I have to go for monthly pregnancy tests. (A nurse once told me that they even make post-menopausal women go for the pregnancy tests too, just to cover their asses.) I’m supposed to have monthly “pregnancy avoidance counseling” (ha!) with my doctor. Because if I get pregnant, God will murder ten kittens. No seriously, if I were to get pregnant, I would most likely have to get an abortion, and that would not be fun. Honestly, as tedious as all the hoops are that I have to jump through, mostly it just makes me paranoid. So obviously, I’m trying to avoid taking this particular drug.

Meanwhile, I have this antibiotic, and my dermatologist recommended that I also consider using one of those zit creams with benzoyl peroxide in them. I know I’ve used those types of things back in high school, and I knew I had a bad reaction to them, but the main thing I remembered was waking up with my eyes swollen shut, which is pretty horrible. So I thought, well maybe I’ll try it just on the bumps on my neck and chest – that’s far enough away from my eyes that it shouldn’t make them puff up. So when I was at the drug store, I grabbed some stuff with benzoyl peroxide in it, and I put it on before I went to bed last night.

This morning, my eyes were neither swollen nor puffy, but my neck and chest… oh my god. The redness. The itching. The color that’s been bleached out of the pillowcase (WTF?!). But mostly, it’s the Red that bothers me. Y’all, I am literally a red neck. Holy hell, what do I do with this? Make-up doesn’t cover it. I just put tons of blush on my face, so it looks like a sunburn. Which, you know, combined with the pre-existing pimples, is really super attractive.

Tonight I’m giving myself a soothing, pore-clarifying masque made from avocado and all kinds of other organic stuff. Because it was on sale at the drug store. And because I am no longer using that benzoyl peroxide crap that wants to eat my damn face off. I don’t know if there is any such things as clear-skin vibes, but if there are, please send them my way. This is getting ridiculous. Thanks.

P.S. I can’t wait to see what kind of Google hits I get from this post. Itchy red chest bumps, woo-hoo!
P.S.S. If anyone gets the song reference in the title, I will be duly impressed.

vacuum-robics?

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My future brother-in-law (aka Dave’s brother), Steve, is coming here from the UK to live with us for about 3 months. He wants to start his own landscaping business, and since we live on 2 acres that’s pretty much completely un-landscaped (calling it a mess would be far too kind), this seems like as good a place as any for him to start building a portfolio. We’re going to do before & after pictures and everything. I’m reallly excited to see what he has in store for us. I know that he’s going to extend the deck around the side of the house – so the French doors in the dining room will no longer open up to a 3-foot drop to the ground – but other than that, I have no idea what else he has planned. It’s a weird thing about having this much space, it seems overwhelming to gardening novices such as myself, so I can’t really envision how it’s going to look, but I’m sure it’ll be great.

Anyway, since Steve is going to be arriving on Wednesday, I am in hyper-housecleaning mode. Not that he really cares how it looks – I mean, the reason he’s coming here is to help us out with our home improvements – this is just my reaction to any visitor’s arrival. (I think I inherited this “Oh crap, people are coming! Quick, tidy up the house!” gene from my mother.) Today, I vacuumed the stairs. I even used the hose attachment to get in all of the little corners where cat hair tends to accumulate. Has anyone actually tried to vacuum a flight of stairs? It’s no easy task, I assure you. That was quite an impromptu little cardio workout that I gave myself. I also rearranged the furniture in the living room – which probably would’ve been easier if I had waited for Dave to get home to help me, but I was determined to do it myself so he’ll be surprised when he gets back. Cleaning is also the primary item on the weekend agenda. If we’re efficient enough, we might even get around to painting my soon-to-be office so I can start putting furniture in there. (It’s sort of a puke green right now. No thank you.)

So yeah, that’s about all that’s going on right now. Monday is my last day at my current (old) job. I don’t start at the Big Software Company until March 14th, so it’ll suck to have no income for 2 weeks, but we’ll catch up. Hope everyone has a great weekend.

waking up with a bang, quite literally

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This morning, about 5 minutes before my alarm went off, I woke up suddenly when there was a loud explosion outside. It was enough to make Teenie, who had been sound asleep in the crook of my arm (her usual spot) jump up too. A couple of seconds later, the electricity went out. Great. It was totally overcast outside, so there wasn’t much natural light coming in when I pulled back the shades. I lit a bunch of candles, and tried to think of things that I could still do with no electricity:

1. Work – Well, the laptop will run on battery power for a while, true. Without an Internet connection, however, I can’t do anything. I could play Freecell for a while, but that’s about it.
2. Laundry – nope
3. Heat some water for a cup of tea – no stove, no microwave, no go
4. Shave my legs – by candlelight? No thanks.
5. Vacuum – ha ha
6. Call Dave (who I was sure hadn’t left the house yet because it was still early), and tell him to leave a key so I could go to his house & work from there – I think the electric garage door might put a dent in those plans. (Or in my car, if I tried to drive through it.)
7. Go for a walk around the neighborhood to see just how far-reaching this blackout is – my building’s front doors run on an electric security system. I could get out, but I wouldn’t be able to get back in.

So finally I gave up, got back in bed, and read old issues of “People” magazine by the overcast morning light. Two and a half hours later, the power came back on. And that sums up my morning.

In other news, I’m on hour 18 of a 24-hour fast. It’s no major secret that I have a lot of food issues. I decided to do this to get myself out of the “eat everything in sight” habit that I seem to have developed over the holidays. Not that I really expect my appetite to change that much in 24 hours, I know it takes a lot more than that to make one’s stomach shrink. This is more to break me out of the mental cycle of munching on food when I’m not really hungry. And you know, it’s really not so bad. I wasn’t at all sure I was going to make it, but I’m drinking protein shakes, which are pretty filling, and a lot of green tea. I’ve noticed that if I have something hot in my stomach, I don’t feel as hungry, so tea works. And I’ve made a point of not putting anything in it – no sugar or honey or anything – because I thought that would defeat the purpose.

And it’s odd, I’ve been psyching myself out mentally, like “well, maybe I’ll stop at hour 20, that’s still pretty good.” And then as I get closer to that time, I start thinking “You wimp, you’re not even really hungry, you can do better than that. If you want to chew on something, have a piece of gum.” Then I start wondering if that broccoli-cheese soup that I got at the grocery store deli the other day would count as a liquid, and I immediately berate myself for even thinking about it. Because really, if you have to question whether or not it counts as cheating, it probably does. The funny thing is that I have this same sort of back-and-forth mental argument when I’m at the gym. “Maybe I’ll stop after 20 minutes on the treadmill.” “Come on, fat ass, you can do thirty and you know it.” Am I the only one who does this? I’m trying to decide if I’m crazy or not. Input is appreciated.