I just wanted to buy some shoes

A women backed up into my car this evening, while I waited for her parking space, at Nordstroms. She fled the scene before I had a chance to exchange information with her. Luckily, I snapped a photo of her car. Nordstroms has her on their cameras hitting me and fleeing.

My version of Hell.

I have finally had a vision of my version of Hell. The setting would be a Nail Salon. I would be strapped into a massage chair, and receiving a pedicure, while also having my eyebrows waxed. The pedicure and the eyebrow waxing would be performed by women that don't speak English. It's truly a horrible place!

In preparation for my trip to South Beach, I went to a local Nail Salon to have a pedicure. While I was there, I also decided to have my eyebrows waxed. Who knew - that both procedures would happen at the same time! This may not be a big deal for the average person...but for me...its not the best scenario.

You see, I have two "issues":

1. I do not like my feet touched (I don't like to touch them and I don't like even C to touch them). Getting a pedicure is a huge deal for me...I usually have to hold the armrests on the chair that I'm sitting in very tightly, as I try to think about other things. (side note: My feet are extremely ticklish - I usually scream).

2. I have eye sensitivity. I do not like things near my eyes...it makes me uncomfortable. (just ask my eye doc friend, AH) Actually, just talking about eyes makes me uncomfortable. However, I am normally fine having my eyebrows waxed (if that is the only major event going on with my body at the time).

For some reason (that I have yet to figure out), the ladies at this particular Nail Salon decided to perform both procedures at the same time. To make matters worse - they had me sitting in a Salon Pedicure Chair that has massage features. I couldn't figure out how to turn the chair off...so while the one lady was putting hot wax above my fragile eyes (and the other lady was scrubbing my sensitive feet)a roller ball was pushing my body up and down. I tried to motion for them to help me stop the chair, but they didn't understand what I was saying. So, I tried to remain very still (I didn't want to lose an eyebrow or kick the pedicure lady in the face). What was supposed to be a very relaxing experience...made me extremely tense.

(The shocking part -- my eyebrows and toes actually look good)

SOBE

South Beach was a lot of fun.

The beach was beautiful.
The water was cold.
The mojitos were yummy (well, maybe not the first one at JLO's place, but the free one from Minnesota was great.)
The food was pricey (but tasty.)
The spa was relaxing.
The monkeys were delightful.



*I will upload pictures soon.

Who doesn't love Green Beer?

Happy St. Patrick's Day!!!

I do not care who the next Pussycat Doll will be...don't cha?

I'm heading for a girls weekend in South Beach with my friends D and M (not to be confused with my initials). I'm very excited for the warm weather (see grass sleeping entry) and I have been preparing for the trip by spending time at the mall shopping for fun things to wear.

Last night - I was at the mall perusing the shops when I noticed what time it was...8:30. I realized I had to get back to my home to watch Veronica Mars (my most favorite show on tv that can be viewed every Tuesday on the CW network at 9pm). I sped home only to find that it has been replaced for the next couple weeks by some show about acquiring a new member of the Pussycat Dolls; logically called “The Pussycat Dolls Present: The Search for the Next Doll".

I don't think I can properly convey how upsetting this was for me. First of all, I was expecting a new episode - so I was immediately let down (you know when you really want a coke and and all they have is Pepsi - this is 50x worse). Secondly, I don't listen to these dolls and I don't care who the next one is. Didn't TLC do this already? Did anyone watch that? I think INXS tried this also. Give up Dolls!

I could accept VM being replaced by a March Madness basketball game, the Olympics, even a Braves game (well maybe not that)...but to be replaced by such crap is disrespectful to the loyal viewers. Also - this replacement wasn't a "one night only" thing - 8 weeks without VM. 8 weeks!

On a side note: if you haven't checked out the show (VM not PCD)please do its very well written.

ps. if someone would like to explain the merit of the PCD show to me - I'm ready to listen.

Raise your hand if you have heard of the Great Austrian Wine Scandal of 1985!

In wine class last night, we learned about the Great Austrian Wine Scandal of 1985. Am I the only one out of the loop on this one?

Apparently, the Austrians were attempting to sweeten their wine up a little by adding a little diethylene glycol. For those of you who do not know Diethylene Glycol is used as an ingredient in anti-freeze. Sugar was expensive and it made the wine taste (imagine this) sugary. As you can probably guess - this caused quite a problem for the Austrian wine industry. I am not sure of the actual death toll, but one would have to consume the wine each day for a long period to have it really poison them. Nonetheless - it created quite a scandal that rocked the country.

Why is this important....how often do you hear people raving about Austrian wines? Not often. They are making a come-back these days, diethylene glycol - free.

We had a Austrian Riesling last night that was great...and so far today I feel fine!

When will the grass wake up?

C. thinks that I'm crazy because this has been bothering me so much. In Baltimore, where we are from, the grass is green all-year-round (albeit some of that time it's covered with snow). Not here. Our grass is brown!!! We have bermuda grass...and our grass is currently sleeping.

According to my neighbor - one weekend I will wake up and it will magically be green again. This, ofcourse, has not happened yet...and I'm starting to go nuts. I think that I'm suffering from a mini winter funk that can be directly corelated to the color of the grass on our front lawn. Every morning I run to the front window - only to be disappointed by brown grass. I do see little spots of green around the edges, which does give me some hope. C. suggested I call someone; he even handed me a pamphlet regarding "color enhancement for lawns". That's a little extreme...for now I think I will just give it a couple more weeks before I call in someone to spray paint.