Happy hump day

You know, I never heard the term, Hump Day until I was 17 and in the Army. There I was, sitting in language class, and my instructor writes "Happy Hump Day" on the board in Czech and we had to translate it. I did, but it made no sense to me until someone explained what Hump Day was. Ah, the memories. I was reading another blog earlier, very quickly because I have been busy. Anyway, the relatively new mom had decided to chuck in the towel and stay home with her baby. Good for her. She was saying how she was always harried, rushed, tired, etc. Well, I am also all of those things, I have two children and I work outside the home. My life is much easier because my mom stays with us and looks after the kids, so we don't have to deal with day care and etc. Day care would add probably another hour at least to the day which is already long. I am still partially back at work, I usually leave around 4pm these days, and it still seems like I don't have enough home time. Martin is down to one nap a day, so he is more than ready most days to call it in at 7:30 pm. Emma, of course, is not yet on a sleep schedule. I guess at three months we should start trying to get her down at the same time every night. *giggle* I do like working outside the home though. I feel like it really gives my life that much more satisfaction. Of course my job is not the end-all that Jason's is. I really do tend to think of it in rather temporary terms, just something I am doing until real life starts up, kinda. I still haven't given up on the whole, homeschooling thing either. The point is, I like working outside the home right now. I know the kids are being looked after by their grandmother who loves them, etc and blah blah blah. One of out big house projects is coming up, FLOORING!!! We are getting new carpet in the family room and new hardwood flooring upstairs in the living and dining rooms. Martin's second birthday is also coming up! Yay! We are going to have a little party for him, invite some friends over and have a little pow-wow. It should be a blast. Very exciting. I still can't believe Martin is almost two years old. I look back, like 4 years ago, and my life seemed so empty to me then. Of course I didn't think so at the time. I just love those little people to death. Even if Martin has figured out how to open the back door and escape to the freedom of the back yard.....little bugger. :)

Just don't do it

Cruising through my RSS feeds, I happened upon this garment...
Not so bad, you say? Look at this shot of the same...

Now, I don't know about you, but at age 34 and two kids later, this dress will do the girls no favors. Scary more like. Happy Friday!!!

Thursday, terrible Thursday

Actually not so terrible yet. I just needed a "T" word. I found this site while doing my morning surfing, I am sure you've all seen it before. It shore is funny though. I spent the last two days working from home and boy howdy did I get a lot of work done. Now I am back in the office for a half day, and slacking off again. Martin is still a man of few words, regardless of our ever-present coaxing to get him to talk. I guess he doesn't have much to say. He has mastered the art of communication without speech quite well. Anyway, we have the woman who will be overseeing his speech communication problem coming over today to draw up a plan of attack. I had really hoped that he would be talking by age 2, but no. He is resistant and stubborn, that one. Did I mention, very precocious? Yup, there he is, in the baby swing. All 35 pounds of him. Little bugger. I love him to death. I have to toot my own horn and just say, I made that little outfit. Little alligator applique and all. I think the applique took longer than everything else. Speaking of my sewing, I have managed to get quite a bit done, I am still working on a little outfit for Emma. Of course the minute I finish it, I'll dress her in it and post pictures. I have another 3 or 4 summer outfits planned for her as well. Sewing is getting easier since we now have the office set up, and Emma will sit nicely in her bouncy seat while I sew, and Martin will play with Daddy. Very nice. Well, that's all for now. I really have a bit of work to do.

I have so many things to say

but not the time or energy to write them down. Don't forget to check out my Traffic Court ending. It was hidden under my Gloss.com entry, hidden because I did two posts in one day. Also, a neat way to keep abreast to changes on my blog is to subscribe to my RSS feed. I'll go ahead and post the address on the sidebar for those of you still using crappy IE. Use Firefox, it had a built-in RSS reader, very nice. So does Safari. I am meant to be working, but my brain is not working so good today. No worky. I read a few news articles, and kinda stared at the huge pile of work on my desk. I am trying to decide if I willl get more work done at home tomorrow. I usually do, because of the guilt factor, you see. I don't dare surf the internet or post on my blog when I work at home. Don't question it, it makes no sense. Also, I was run over by the Fashion Truck today. Meaning run over and seriously crippled. I have a huge pile of stuff that needs ironing. Or I could have worn a skirt. It was raining this morning, so I didn't do the skirts. I wore a pair of khakis too big for me. (I used to have this things about wearing huge clothing, don't ask) The only problem being that I am still a bit large around the waist parts, so the waist fits snug, but the legs are too big and too long. I also have on this retarded wrap top. I hate it. I think I will burn it when I get home, so I can never commit this fashion atrocity again. I am also wearing two very distinct shades of blue on my eyes. Probably no-one else notices, but I do. Yikes! What was I thinking? Oh yeah. I remember what I wanted to write about. Jeez. So I was watching Footballer's Wives. very good show, that one. Anyways, one of the idiots on the show has a meddling mom. While I was watching the show, I'm thinking, yeah those moms, just can't leave well enough alone. Why is it that our Mothers always feel obliged to point out when when are stupid, or made a mistake, or think we have forgotten something? (Oh crap, reminds me I've got to get this package sent out) Okay, package is done. So, in the show they guy has gambled past his means, and has sold off two of his cars and his mom's car and his live-ins car to pay his debts. He is trying to hide his gambling addiction from live-in girl and his mom (who also lives with him). Anyway, his Mom all freaks out about the missing cars. He says, oh yeah they were stolen, I'll deal with it later. Then he has a football game that day, so he leaves. As soon as he is out the door, the mom turns to the live-in and says, well, I'll just call up the insurance myself because he'll never get around to doing it. You know, that's what I'm talking about. Why can't moms just let it lie? My mom would do the same thing, she does in fact. She harries me non-stop, like I don't have a millon other thigns on my mind. She probably thinks she is being helpful (tell me how nagging someone endlessly is helpful, please.) but she just ends up annoying the hell out of me. I have some way unfinished sewing projects. I had cut them out YEARS ago. Like before I was pregnant with Martin. One is a jacket, which I have maybe a quarter done. The other is a halter dress, which I would never wear anyway. It is just cut out, not even started yet. So they just live, in the corner. Happy I am sure, in their uncomplete state. Maybe I'll finish the jacket, maybe not. Maybe I'll start the dress, probaby not. She sees this and she's all, do you want me to finish those things for you? Now, my mom is a great sewist, but we do things differently. If she just wanted to make me something, that would be great, but she doesn't really do so well at fitting certain things. Like sleeves. She made me a dress once, and I could barely move my arms all night. She just told me it was "meant to fit that way". Right. And she also doesn't finish her seams, this doesn't matter so much on a lined jacket, but it is still annoying. And the whole point of my sewing is it is my HOBBY and I ENJOY doing it. It isn't some drudgery chore that I have to do. I WANT to do it. If I can't sew the stuff, then just forget it. It would be like if I was painting a picture. Maybe halfway through, the muse leaves me. She wouldn't want to finsih my picture, would she? Well, she probably would knowing my mom. WHY?!?!?!

My Gloss.com order

I had ordered four things, and I got six things! I love samples. I ordered: Stila Kajal eyeliner pencil in Sapphire Clinique Superdefense SPF 25 for combination skin Origins Liquid Lip Shimmer in Mangotini MAC eye shadow in Knight Divine (Veluxe pearl) I got small samples of: Origins ginger soufflé body cream Origins Nit-a-mins night cream I had been wanting to try the Stila Kajal pencil for forever. I usually use cake or liquid eyeliners; I hate the chalky, dragging of pencils. I had heard however, these new Kajal liners went on very easily, and were very soft. Well, it is true. The pencil was a dream to apply, although I don’t get that sharp, tight line I get with my brush. It gives a nice soft finish, blends easily, and so far it hasn’t melted onto my lid. I give it a 8 out of 10. I still had to hold up the corner of my eye, which isn’t so good on 34 year old eye skin. I also had been wanting a deep, grey shimmer eye shadow. The description of Knight Divine sounded nice, and it was a veluxe pearl, my favorite finish of MAC shadows. It is indeed a deep dark grey, with a blue hint. Very nice. It is more of a cool color than a warm, if that makes sense. Also, it doesn’t go on as “wet” as some of the other veluxe pearls. Maybe part of that is because this color is really too dark to apply very heavily. It did look very nice partnered with my Stila Diamond Lil shadow (which is also warm) with MAC cornflower pigment (neutral). I used MAC vanilla pigment as a highlight, which was a little too warm for this look, but I didn’t really want to use my silver-white Pupa pigment, as I thought it would look too harsh. I wanted to use peach lips and cheeks, you see. The Origins liquid lip shimmer. I was really almost ready to send this one back, untested when I saw the color. I was dreading that it would be super sheer, with big ol’ sparkles. Well, that was exactly what it was. I did test it, and compared it to my MAC Vitamin C color collection lipglass (I can’t remember the color), and it was much sheerer than that, but with more sparkle. Perfect for that, “My lips but sparklier” look. It did go on very sheer, non-sticky, minimal lasting power. I put it on this morning, and had to reapply after lunch, as it was almost totally gone, sans sparklies. The best thing about this gloss, though, is the scent. I swear, mint chocolate. It leaves a bit of tingle on the lips, very refreshing. A must buy for the summer, ladies. The Superdefense is also very nice. I haven’t had to do a powder touch-up in my t-zone, and I still have lovely foundation on. Haven’t tried the samples yet.

I am such a wuss

Or wimp. Whatever. So I went to The Traffic Court today. Let me set this up properly. By the time I got home last night (I left work at 4:45, I got home at 6:00, there was an accident!), I was covered in itchy, red, angry raised bumps on my flesh. Made worse by the fact that as I sat in traffic I scratched at them. So we went out to Target and I bought some Benadryl tablets and some Caladryl Clear lotion. Back home we went and I took the Benadryl and put the Caladryl on. I went to sleep and I woke up, groggy, at 8:30 am. Ugh. Overslept. I was meant to be at The Court at 10:45, and Google reckoned a 30 minute drive from my house. I got ready. I had hoped to be on the road by 9:30, but it was 10:00 by the time I got in The Minivan of the Great Speed. Damn Benadryl. So I followed the Google directions, which thank goodness were right, and I parked the Speeding Bullet at 10:30 ish. Mind you, I could not find the bit of paper that had my court date info on it. I did remember to tear off a check so I could pay my fine, however. We’ll call it even. So I walked in the building. Why the heck was there so many people hanging out in front of the building for? In I went, through the metal detectors, then stood there looking stupid. My mom (who had worked for a judge many moons ago) had told me that there should be an info desk, and I could ask there where I was meant to go. I asked the lady sitting at the desk that was only mildly put out because she was reading a book and I was interrupting her, where I was meant to go for Traffic court. She showed me the way to the docket. I looked at said docket and it said Courtroom 1. I crept over that way, dithering whether I should just walk in or what. It was around 10:40 or so. I finally built up my courage and crept into the room. At which point the judge called recess before the 10:45 session, and the bailiff? Made us all stand up as he left the courtroom. The he went on to explain things to us. Thank goodness for that. What I wanted was called probation before judgment, where you paid the fine, but got no points on your license. So I sat there, all hot and cold and prickly, waiting. A state trooped walked into the room, which I later recognized as the very same one who had pulled me over. Shortly thereafter, court was called back into session, and the Judge gave us more instructions. My name was called, I walked up there, said GUILTY. He asked about my driving record, and I told him about my last moving violation around three years ago that I went to traffic school for. He nodded, said probation before judgment and went to the next case. So I got off, paying $140 for fines and court costs. No points. There is a God and he likes me. I went to the window to pay my fine. Why is it that people DO NOT PAY ATTENTION? I had to wait a bit, as there were people in front of me. There was a sign which said, approximately “No change given out with fine payment”. Okay. I went to the window, wrote my check out. Next to me a young man went to the window and asked the cashier for change for a dollar. A moment of silence. On my way back to work I stopped off at Starbucks and got my first Frappuccino of the New Year. Mmmmmm.

The Traffic Court

I have my day in court tomorrow morning. I have to admit, I am a bit apprehensive about it. I have never been to court before, and the only time I have ever been in front of a judge was when I got married. How did this happen? Well, I was on my way to BWI (Baltimore Washing International Airport), from work. I was on the BW (Baltimore Washington) parkway, which has a speed limit of 55 MPH. The neighboring I95N has a speed limit of 65 MPH. I normally drive on I95N, but I was on the BW parkway that day because that was the most direct way to get to the airport from work. I had stopped off for lunch at Chick Filet, and I was cruising up north. Suddenly, I saw a kafuffle in front of me, then a state trooper risked life and limb to step in front of my speeding minivan to pull me over. I was going 71MPH in a 55 MPH zone. Grrrrr. Does that even count? Stupid parkway. I felt all hot and cold and prickly all over. I could just see my car insurance going through the roof, not to mention the ribbing I would be getting from Jason. I asked the trooped about traffic school. You see, I have a clean driving record and I am pretty happy about that. Since I have had the two kids, I drive almost like the proverbial old lady now. Except for this one day when I was barreling up the BW parkway, that is. Anyway, the trooper looked at me and asked if I had a lot of violations. Well, no, I blinked, I don’t have any. He said, well if you haven’t had any tickets, you can go to court and while you’ll still have to pay the fine, you won’t get the points on your license. Well, that seemed all right then, I thought. I would pay my penance and be done with it. This happened, must have been, back in October 2005. My original court date was for the week after Emma was born, so I got a continuance and now I am going tomorrow. Just the thought of having to go is making me all hot and cold and prickly all over. Made worse by the fact that I just did a Google search for “going to traffic court” and “going to traffic court to avoid points”. It seems like everyone wants to go just to bust the chops of the cop. I don’t want to bust his chops; I just don’t want the points. And what is this pleading not-guilty nonsense? Of course I was speeding, hence I am guilty. Gosh. I did read in one of those pages it is a good idea to arrive early so you can check things out. I think I will do that, just to see. I guess I just hoped I could go there, and just explain that I was wrong that day, and to beg leniency and be allowed to pay the fine without the points going on my license, but there wasn’t a checkbox for that. So, I’ll check back in tomorrow and let you know how my day in court went.

Site updates, and more updates

First of all: I finally updated the site. It was in sore need of it. I updated all of my RSS feeds and added those blogs to the sidebar, and also listed about half of the podcasts I listen to. So now you know what I am reading and listening to. More updates: I was weak and went shopping yesterday. Then I check my hotmail today and find out that there is a Clinique GWP at Hecht's now. I was expecting a GWP soon, but not this soon. I really don't want to spend any more money right now, but I have this strict policy about strategic purchasing. I use Clinique skin care, exclusively. The three step really works for my skin, especially since the advent of the Dramatically Different Moisturizing Gel. I had recently received some sample of their new Repairwear line and Superdefense. I just got the Superdefense yesterday, but I really have my eye on some repairwear face and eye cream. I really wanted to wait to go to the counter for those, to make sure I am buying the right product. You really can never tell shopping online. Since I use so much Clinique, I only tend to buy Clinique with a GWP, or a special offering on their website. At first glance, the GWP doesn't seem too exciting. Here is a picture of the Spring 2006 Hecht's Clinique GWP It contains the following: A sample of the new liquid soap a sample of acne solutions spot healing gel a blush/bronzer combo, with a glosswear shimmer mini-tube A full-size Sassy spice colour surge lipstick A mirrow A make-up bag My take on the GWP after using said GWP. I love the liquid face soap, what a good idea. The acne solutions sample comes in handy in my travel bag. The compact with the blusher and bronzer is very nice. The blush is berry delight, and the bronzer is sunswept and is is darker than sunkissed which I already have in another compact. The blush is very nice and natural looking. The bronzer is a bit darker, but I found it to be very nice dabbed over the face. It also works very well as an under-stated crease color for the eyes. The glosswear I believe is sunset and this is a VERY nice nude colour, which works well with a colored lip liner as a sheer, shimmer finish. I may consider buying this in full size. I already have Sassy Spice in a little palette, so I am not sure what I will be doing with this full size version, probably posting it for swap on Makeup Alley. The mirror lives in my desk drawer. The bag is in make up bag heaven in my drawer. So, all in all, a reasonably good GWP. Some Emma pictures Remember my last Emma post, how I said how big she was? Look at the difference. Quite the chunky, wee gal.