Gone but Not Forgotten

Christmas updates are coming soon, but last night while I was lying awake waiting for my feet to thaw out, I started thinking about all the crap I ate over the Holidays, which reminded me of bygone days of college where one can eat as much junkfood as she likes and the metabolism fairy takes care of the rest...which led me to think about meal plans...which reminded me about how I used to spend my Bevo Bucks on all kinds of junk at the Jester Hall store.

Can anyone say Ben & Jerry's? I had never even eaten Ben & Jerry's until I tried the heavenly Urban Jumble flavor, and then I was hooked for life.

Thank goodness I worked as a messenger traipsing the Capitol complex, otherwise I that "Freshman 15" would have materialized in college..rather than the "Happily Ever After 20" upon my marriage to Joe.

At some point towards the end of my Sophomore year, Urban Jumble was added to the Ben & Jerry's Flavor Graveyard! Gasp! No more Urban Jumble of "chocolate and coconut ice creams mingled with white and dark chocolaty chunks, pecans, and roasted almonds."

I still look in grocery store freezers to this day for my beloved ice cream...and I don't even like ice cream... so that's saying a lot. You bet I made my dismay evident at the Ben & Jerry's "Resurrect My Favorite Flavor" webpage. Alas, it was all in vain. :'(

May you rest in peace UJ; we had many delightful memories together at the Jester dormitory at University of Texas. I hope to reunite with you someday. (That's not me, but I am giddy that someone took this photo! Aside from the pageboy haircut, it does look a lot like me. lol)

As my feet continued to thaw, I thought to myself..."self...you shall write a blog about Urban Jumble and other products that have, or are going the way of the Dodo."

In my walk down memory lane, I remembered other discontinued loves:

Limited edition MAC eyeshadow shades in "Sensualize" and "Wishful"

Oh how I love thee. Sadly, and a little unsanitarily, I still own and use (sparingly) remnants of these two, long after the recommended 6 month lifespan of cosmetics. Whatev!

Does anyone really toss their cosmetics at the six month mark? I mean, unless it gets crusty or someone with herpes of the eye used your stuff, do you mark your calendar to trash your makeup? If you paid a crap load of money for a limited edition shade that was made for you, I'll bet you don't. Don't judge me! (You can, however, go to Ebay and buy me these discontinued lovelies..which people are scalping these days... $39? Really? That's what you're going with?!) What? Go to Sephora and match the same color in a different brand you say? You better believe I've tried to buy similar shades, but none can hold a candle to these two.

RIP

OPI Original release "My Private Jet" nail color
I love love love this color and my nail salon has less than a quarter of a bottle left.

Having only discovered this recently, I quickly found out how coveted this color release is when I tried to buy it on Ebay...after having pored over the OPI display at Ulta. Apparently, the newer, more readily avaliable versions of MPJ don't have the holographic prism quality but a silvery sparkle instead. After searching online, I found that there is quite a controversy over it among diehard OPI nailpolish fanatics.

Again, people are scalping this original version online for an obscene amount of money. Dare I pay $20 for a bottle of nail polish? It is pretty fab. I tried to capture the subtle rainbow quality to it in the photos. At first glance it appears dark gray. The closeup shows a bit more of the holographic colors.

Also making my list is a fabulous article of clothing featuring not only leopard print, but bling...my chartreuse Victoria's Secret Very Sexy bra. It is not yet gone, but its days are numbered.

If I could wear it over my clothes, I would. I should have bought multiples of the same color. Instead I have to keep this bra in light rotation with my other less glamorous ones, take it off immediately upon arriving home from work, and wash it as little and with as much care possible. What ever will I do when I have to decommission this thing? I've had one and a half, perhaps two years with it, thus finding another exactly like it will be next to impossible. :( Maybe I shouldn't get so attached. LOL

It is glorious!

House guests & Holiday Surprises

Remember our bee problem? After several unfruitful calls to beekeepers this summer, I got frustrated and put the bees on the back burner. They weren't bothering us, after all. Then weather cooled off and the bees quit leaving their cozy hive above the fascia on the front of our house. Well, a renegade squirrel decided to invade our attic Saturday morning, making all sorts of racket. The next day we experienced some electrical problems on the circuit powering the garage and one of the kitchen lights. Yes, we cursed the squirrel and suspected that he'd chewed through some wires on his rampage. Joe climbed into the attic to inspect and when he came down, he informed me that the beehive is, in fact, in the attic. Well, I have a keen interest in these bees who I've thus far saved from extermination. I decided to climb up there and check it out for myself and take a few pictures that the beekeepers generally ask to see...plus, I needed something interesting to post on this blog. So I tucked my jeans into my fUggs (that's fake Uggs), zipped up my polar fleece, and grabbed the camera.

Holy crap! I learned that I definitely have a healthy fear of bees...ok maybe it's a borderline phobia...which is not good when running away from danger is not an option in the attic. Unfortunately my nice camera with the really good zoom lens is drained so I couldn't get a good shot, and I didn't want to stick around to perfect my angle and focus. Holding a flashlight with one hand and a camera in the other while balancing on a wooden beam is tricky/scary business. So that bright yellow blob is the honeycomb and those black masses are slowly moving bees.
If I can't get a beekeeper out in the next couple of weeks, I have to call an exterminator. Luckily winter is ideal for bee removal as the colony numbers are at its lowest and they are slow moving...or so I read on the internet because now I am way freaked out. Endangered or not, these bees have gots-ta-go! So working in the attic around the bees is not an option and our electrical problem will have to wait.

Now on to guests in my home whom I don't mind having around. This weekend mycousinamanda and her fiancee, Matt, were in Dallas from Okinawa, as was our friend Jeremy from Colorado. Yes, I overbooked Casa del Arnold. Yes, Jeremy had to sleep on an air mattress (but it is pretty rad as far as air mattresses go!) I guess you could say Joe and I had "a failure to communicate." Ok, it was mostly me, but it worked out just fine. Having a house full of your favorite people isn't so bad. Aside from Joe's fist-pumping "fighting the beat" Guido impression (complete with sound effects) at 2 am, there were no complaints. haha What can I say? It is free lodging, people, not the Ritz...and I can make no promises that my dear husband and co-proprietor of Casa del Arnold will not entertain his guests with material from "Jersey Shore." Be warned.

Saturday night, Amanda, Matt, Kim, and I met for dinner at Urbano. We really love this place. It is unpretentious and the is menu constantly changing...which gives me an excuse to keep going back to try new things. Urbano is BYOB so Kim brought a nice crisp white blend which we enjoyed with our salad, and I brought our last bottle of Schug from the April shipment. I am pretty impressed that we rationed it out that long. A wine cellar would be completely useless in our home because I have little self control when it comes to saving wine, or anything for that matter.

And what would be an evening in Dallas without a trip over to our favorite wine bar? Joe and Jeremy met up with us after the Cowboys game (though Veritas was showing it on their HD projector). They went to Hooter's (insert eye roll) to watch the game.
Speaking of wine and Veritas, Joe surprised me with my Christmas gift early. I had dropped a few hints this year about needing some new wine glasses because all but two of mine have fallen victim to the "dishwasher" and/or Joe. I tease Joe about this relentlessly and even bought him a pair of acrylic wine glasses at Target that he could not destroy. :) Anyways, I specifically said that I would love to have the stemware they sell at Veritas, and he listened. I am one lucky gal. They are gorgeous and I love them! To top it off, Jeremy gave us a highly recommended bottle of Col Solare. I can't wait to try it!

And now...off to bed...my sweet Pheebs already got out of our nice warm bed and came to the office find out why in the world I am not in bed, asleep. I put her on Jeremy's cozy air mattress (he's visiting his sister this week) while I am finishing up this post. She is SOOO not happy with me right now. Gotta go!

Channeling My Inner Neat Freak

I don't know what got into me this weekend, but I was exceptionally productive. Our guest bath was in dire need of a new coat of paint. The color was intended for another room, but ended up on the bathroom walls. I never liked it, but I supposed it was better than plain white. Wrong. Over time "Vanilla Bean" grated my nerves and morphed into a garish shade of yellow. It may have been "Vanilla Bean" in natural light, but in the windowless bathroom it was sickly. Joe referred to it as "Pee Yellow" more than once. Definitely not a pleasant bathroom color.

Finally, after 3 years, (lol) I'd had enough. I remembered that we had 3 extra gallons of RL "Oatmeal" left from when I decided I wanted to repaint the living room, but Joe had talked me out of it. Rather than letting it waste away in the closet, I thought I'd see if Oatmeal was more pleasing to the eye than Pee Yellow. Surely it couldn't be worse!

The photo shows the results. Ahhh...much better!

I even painted the ugly wood-trim-mirror-that-came-with-the-house white. I was going to get really ambitious and paint the cabinets white too, but we are planning on tearing them out in January and replacing them with a pedestal sink. Plus, the paint fumes were really starting to get to me.

I also did some serious cleaning/organizing this weekend. You see, I come from a long line of Obsessive Compulsive cleaners, but somehow I escaped the curse (or is it a blessing?). Don't get me wrong, I don't like clutter, but I definitely do not obsess over keeping my home spotless 24/7. And when it comes to deep cleaning, I suck. Perhaps it is his military upbringing, but Joe can make this house sparkle. Usually we "team clean" on the weekend. I sweep and dust; he mops. I clean toilets; he scrubs the kitchen down. I start laundry; he takes out the trash.

But this weekend I also felt compelled to clean out and organize the places that we usually stash all the crap that doesn't really have a place, so we throw it in a drawer or in a closet when we are tidying up. I guess I'd just had enough.

I decided that all the tangled cables in the office closet needed to be bundled and zip-tied. The entire Walgreens inventory in our bathroom cabinets and drawers needed to be culled. It felt good to purge all of that useless crap.

There is one neglected space that I am saving for another weekend. My closet. Oy vey! It is BAD. There are two menacing laundry baskets full of unfolded clothes taking up the entire closet. I am sure that they contain articles of clothing that I've set aside for a garage sale, or to take to a resell shop, but somehow keep getting circulated back into my laundry. It is a vicious cycle. Hopefully this cleaning streak will last over the next few days so I can slay the terrible beastie that is my closet. Everyone send those OCD vibes my way!

Dinner Bell

Usually she doesn't eat the food we put out right away. She only does this to let us know her bowl is empty. Yes, she has us trained.

The SantaLand Diaries

I became a fan of David Sedaris after reading Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim. I was inspired by his candor in writing about his family and childhood. I think the allure of humor writing comes from honesty. After all, reality is stranger, or in this case, more entertaining than fiction. Yes, it is encouraging to think that I too could make a living writing about the oddness of my family. That kind of venture takes a lot of courage. I'd better come up with a good pseudonym first.

As a birthday/Christmas treat my mother bought us tickets to see the SantaLand Diaries.

"A hilarious, sardonic comedy written by NPR humorist and best-selling author David Sedaris, chronicles his true-life experience as an out of work slacker taking a job as Crumpet the Elf at the SantaLand display in Macy’s Manhattan. The play recounts outrageous tales of encounters with frenzied holiday shoppers during the height of the holiday crunch. This priceless one-man show has become a national cult-classic and will star Dallas’ own Nye Cooper in the lead role. You’ll want to leave the kids at home for this one – we give SantaLand Diaries an “R” rating. "

Neither my mom or I had ever been to the Contemporary Theatre of Dallas and were surprised to find it was located in an old church off of Lower Greenville Ave. Their set up is intimate and complete with full bar. I thought the cocktail tables between and in front of the rows of seats were a nice touch. It made it less cramped, and I had a place to set my hot chocolate & peppermint schnapps. YUM!

I highly recommend the show and all things David Sedaris. SantaLand Diaries runs until December 20th. It's only $15 ! I thought it was well worth an hour of laughter. Click here for Ticket Info

O Christmas Tree

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas around the casa. I was really procrastinating getting my Christmas decorating done this year. When I noticed many of our neighbors had their lights up, I decided I'd better get on it before it was too close to Christmas to justify dragging everything out of storage. I love our fake tree. There's no messy clean up, though I do appreciate the scent of a live... er...slowly dying tree. The best part is that it is pre-lit....until I discovered an entire section of lights was out. After rummaging through the foliage in search of a busted bulb in vain, I summoned the Master of all things electric...

Turns out it was just a blown fuse. Joe saved the day! :) I'm glad he was around to help out and use his gift. Since he doesn't have any interest in decorating, (which is probably a good thing since I am freakishly particular about where everything goes) I was happy that he was involved in the process. heehee

I decided that my...OUR tree needed more burnt orange (more brown, actually) ornaments, so my trip to WalMart for a $2 wreath door hanger ended up costing around $30 after I loaded up on ornaments. It was worth it though.


Of course, just as I had opened the curtains to the front windows, the news broadcasted a story cautioning people not to display their tree and gifts so as not to attract thieves. Joe and I just looked at each other and laughed as there are no gifts under our tree to steal.

I'm glad my Longhorns are headed for Pasadena! It makes me even happier to have a burnt orange theme. Plus, I can rationalize leaving my tree up until January 7th. Now I must get the outside lights up. Tomorrow...if it's not raining...and freezing.