this little life of mine

Friday Five '13E

1. Last Saturday was spent at the Honda dealership in SLO getting Lexi (my mom's Civic) checked out. Apparently there was a recall notice about the air bag or something. We ignored the first two notices because they both had the wrong model year of our car, so we figured they were sent by mistake. This time they sent the notice with our VIN number, so we thought we'd better have it looked at. In the end, Lexi passed her test, and once again all is well.
2. Afterwards, we shopped for winter coats and boots for my upcoming trip to The Frozen Tundra, otherwise known as Green Bay, Wisconsin. I couldn't find any boots and all the winter coats that were in my size made me look 10 times bigger, so that was no fun. We'll probably try a couple other places again this Saturday, but I'm afraid it might be too late to find winter coats and I might just take my mom's big purple coat. It's only for the sleigh ride, really, as the rest of the time we'll be inside, or riding in a car or bus, or just taking a quick walk over the bridge.
3. Hey! Mom and I actually made it through the first hour of American Idol this past Wednesday! The two obnoxious women were behaving themselves and they allowed talented folks through to Hollywood. I didn't bother with the second hour because they were going to have more stupid "heart warming stories" that just make me gag, and I'd already seen enough of those, but maybe there's hope for this show yet.
4. Everyone keeps asking me if I'm going to watch the Superbowl. I guess becausee my team's not in it, people think I won't bother, but that's not true. I'm totally watching it and hope the Ravens kick the 49ers collective asses. So there.
5. And, finally, I got my toes done last night. I used O.P.I.'s Japanese Rose Garden which is my favourite go-to pretty pink. (And, for those of you who follow my friend Mary's blog, this photo could also count as an entry for "Tights are not pants!" because this chick just had a short tunic shirt over a pair of tights. The shirt rode up embarrassingly as she was working on my nails! I would've felt bad for her, but I think she thought she looked hot.) Cheers!

   

Shiny and New

Last week I got a few shiny, new things. First off here's my pretty, shiny toes:

... all decked out in Sparrow Me the Drama by O.P.I. (from the Pirates of the Carribean collection). I think this is my new favourite shade of pink. Previously I though the perfect pink was O.P.I.'s Japanese Rose Garden (and I do still love it!), but this colour might've knocked the champ off the block! 

Next I went and got my hair cut. Nothing drastic or even fabulous, but after using some "beach hair" texturizing spray that totally destroyed my hair, I really needed to get the dead, split ends cut off. It's still fairly long, but looks and feel SO much better!

And finally, I stopped by Staples to make a copy of my grandpa's Ramblings - a brief autobiography of his life in Montana he started writing a couple decades ago - and saw that they were having a MASSIVE technology sale. I've been struggling with my HP mini laptop for the past year or so because my eyesight is just so bad, and decided this was the perfect opportunity to upgrade to a larger laptop! I debated between a couple HP laptops, both with 15" screens and fairly lightweight, though the $600. one had more memory and longer battery life than the $400. one, but they both had good, comfortable, easy-to-use keyboards, and I could easily read everything on both screens. I was just about to go with the more expensive model for the additional memory and battery power, when I remembered to look for a camera card slot. I'm SO glad I checked because the one I was just about to buy did NOT have the slot! Gah! I would've totally been screwed when I needed to download pictures off my card! Phew! Disaster averted!!

Anyway, here's my new laptop:

So far I LOVE it, but haven't yet named it. (Yes, I'm one of THOSE people who name their stuff. My old laptop's name is eddy, my nook colour is named Nicky and my iPhone is izzy, just to name a few!) Now I just need to cancel my Verizon contract with the mini, then I can sell it on eBay.  

Another new piece of technology I purchased at Staples was a new keyboard for my main computer. I really disliked the keyboard that came with the Sony all-in-one - the keys were too flat and too close together, so I kept hitting the wrong key and having all kinds of crazy misspellings. Also, my wrists hurt when I typed on it for too long. So I tried out a few different keyboards while I was at Staples, and finally decided on the Logitech Wave:

I LOVE it! It's SO comfortable and easy to use. I've tried ergonomic keyboards before, but the keys were too far apart and I found they were difficult to type on. This keybaord is set up in a "wave" shape (hence the name Wave!), that feels very natural.  And, it even came with an uber comfortable mouse!  

So, I think I'm pretty much set for technology for a long, long while! Cheers!

Teaser Tuesday: The Dead-Tossed Waves by Carrie Ryan

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

1. Grab your current read

2. Open to a random page

3. Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page

4. BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)

5. Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

My teaser sentences this week come from The Dead-Tossed Waves by Carrie Ryan. This is her second book - her first one - The Forest of Hands and Teeth - was (well, still is) really awesome and I highly recommend it as well.

From page 57:

A hand tumbles in the waves, fingers skimming the white froth. My mother's back stiffens and she tightens her grip around the handle of the shovel.

And, fyi, that's O.P.I.'s "Baguette Me Not" nail colour on my hand displayed there on top of page 53 of the book. Sort of like a product junkie/bonus Teaser combo. Enjoy! Cheers!

 

O.P.I. Love - Day at the Peach

Breaking a Bad Habit (Hopefully)

I'm trying to quit picking/cutting/chewing my cuticles (again). I had a nice manicure in Ohio, and have used that as my new starting point. Last Friday I went in for another one - my cuticles needed to be trimmed before I started trying to cut them myself! - and found a lovely colour (O.P.I. of course) called Nomad's Dream:

Along with the more-frequent manicures, I'm also using some lovely cuticle balm gifted to me by a former pod-mate. I'm not a huge fan of the scent, but this stuff works wonders!

I love how my fingertips look almost normal now. The area beneath the cuticles is still a little red, but they aren't as swollen and ragged and bloody and gross-looking as they used to be. It's very encouraging and I'm really looking forward to overcoming this disgusting, nasty habit!

I'm India Mood for Love

Lord, how I needed this pedicure tonight! This has been a pretty awful week - today especially was emotionally draining (I can't really go into it, obviously since it's about work, but suffice it to say it's been rough!), though I think things might be okay now. Or at least a little better. Still, I needed some pampering. This O.P.I. colour was one of the bottles I picked up at Planet Beauty in Santa Barbara last month. I really love the cheery bright pink! Oh, and I'm feeling a little better now, yes, thanks.

Purple with a Purpose

I know this colour looks a little bluish in the picture, but it's really a pretty bright shade of purple.

Japanese Rose Garden

One of my favourite O.P.I. nail colours is Japanese Rose Garden, and I thought with spring fully underway, it would be the perfect colour for my toes:

Senorita Rose-alita

This afternoon I was feeling mopey and decided I would need a pedicure to cheer me up. I called my favourite nail place (Le Nails and Spa) and got an appointment for some tootsie pampering. Because I hadn't planned for the pedi in advance, I didn't have my usual flip-flops or a nail colour, so I grabbed the flip-flops I keep at work (in case my heels are too uncomfortable) and just chose a colour from the large selection at the salon (see entry title for colour name).  Le's has changed from last year: they've got brand new pedicure chairs now with a fancy new bath tub and, best of all, massaging chairs! Ahhh! So relaxing! For some reason this past week was really long and trying, so this hour of pampering was very badly needed! I'm feeling much better now.

Pampering

I'm finally getting a pedicure and it feels wonderful! I was too sick to go at all in November. (My toenails are like talons because I hadn't cut them at all either.) I'm at the Sky Nail and Spa in the Target center, mom is waiting for me in Target and when I'm done we're going shopping. We haven't been out shopping for fun in eons, so we're really looking forward to today!
Oh my Lord but this massaging chair feels good! And the leg and foot massage is awesome,too! Hot wax treatment ... Sigh! How I've missed this! The colour is O.P.I.'s "Got the Blues for Red" which is one of my favourites.
I've decided to get my eyebrows waxed while I' here, too.I've never had it done professionally, but I figured what the heck! I've been too blind to pluck my brows so I know they are a bit bushy. This should be interesting.