News, Quirks, Insights, and Other Odds and Ends - March 2015

Spring Break is here and I am headed off for a Cruise with the kiddo.  The picture above captures how I am feeling about being on a boat where no one can reach me.  Cheers!

Hale to all things Bourbon.

Could not be happier that these jeans are back in style.  They make we look way skinny.  Win!!  Down side is that this pair had to be taken up by about 8 inches.  Fashion is a cruel world to us standing at 5'4.

Selfie-stick etiquette.  I first saw these peculiar contraptions on a boat out to Las Caletas, which, by the way, you should do if you happen to be in Puerta Vallerta and you have kids (see picture above).  So much fun.  Anyway, so the people on the boat who were using them clearly had not been educated on the etiquette of the selfie-stick.

Crazy coffee.  Crazy indeed.

There are Reindeer People in Mongolia.  Amazing that I find pictures every day that blow my mind.

Although I am not from Australia, I can relate to family in far off places and the sweet and sad emotions that come from moving further and further from our childhood into the life we make for ourselves.  This article is about so much more than falling in love 10,000 miles from home.

I have always loved Suze Orman for her sound investing and spending advice.  She is moving on from CNBC and that means I have to find something else to do on Saturday nights.

Post workout recovery nutrition.  Increasingly important as the years pile on.

Know what ABC technology is in reference to Lululemon's man workout wear?  You are about to find out.

All of a sudden, my business travel headaches don't seem so bad.  At least I can look out the window and walk in the front door of the hotel.  Not so much if you are POTUS.

My Dog's Huge Heart

This is my dog, Daisy.  I got her when I was pregnant with my son and she was only a puppy.  

She had been coughing over the past couple of weeks and I brought her to the vet.  Turns out she has an enlarged heart.  This makes complete sense because she gives so much love.  She is going to see a cardiologist next week and we are hoping that they will be able to put her on medication to make her big heart beat a lot longer.  

This has been a rough week and I am pretty amazed at just how much I am capable of crying.  Fingers crossed...

Red Paella with Scallops

Sometimes technology can be a nightmare for a parent.  For every way that it makes our lives easier, it also makes life with a child in possession of an iPad or computer, very frustrating.  The daily battles to put the iPad down and pick up a book are, in the words of my kid, "epic".  No, I did not purchase this device for him and dig my own grave, the iPad was given to my kid as a gift.  What does this have to do with Paella?  Absolutely nothing at all.  Happy cooking.  

Decorating Dilemma

I thought I had a little bit of style until I moved into a new house.  Now I feel like a decorating hack.  I now realize that buying a house that is not a fixer-upper is not all it's cracked up to be, because although the house is nice, it might not be your style and I have found that injecting my style into someone else's style is not as easy as painting the walls...despite what Realtors would have you think.  "It's just paint!" Are they kidding?  More like paint, window treatments, furniture size and placement, even little things like the covers on the ceiling fan lights or the colors inside the can lights.

So, I am at a crossroads with several of the rooms in this house, starting with the master bedroom.  I picked out a darker gray color for the bedroom to replace the faux yellow and gold color scheme they had in the room.  After the painters left, I felt like something was wrong but couldn't put my finger on it.  Then it hit me a few days later, the ceiling was a yellowish color to go with the yellow on the walls.  The carpet on the ground was also a greenish blue color that went well with their colors but not at all well with the new gray walls.  There were also tuscan style yellow covers on the ceiling fan lights and gold insides of the can lights.  So, now I am having to make changes little by little.  I changed the covers on the fan lights to white from yellow.  I put up white curtains and I pulled the painters back in to paint the ceiling and trim white.  Getting there, slowly...

Note:  I like this duvet cover from West Elm but it is having issues.  The silver details are unraveling and I haven't even washed this one yet.  I had another one on which the silver details completely unraveled and I sent it back to be exchanged for a new cover.  So now, I need to get yet another cover after I send this one back...again.  Annoying and I don't know which cover can replace this one.  Especially since it took about 6 months just to find this one.

News, Quirks, Insights, and Other Odds and Ends

Watching the World from the El

Is there any part of my unconscious mind that is not being manipulated these days?  Diner Beware

No one is more ready for spring than us...ok, maybe after the snow in Boston this past winter, they also need spring.  Too bad they don't have our Chicago brand of spring fun.    

Sage advice for the career world.

We can't stop complaining about it yet we can't seem to detach.  Facebook madness.

Just goes to show that you don't have to work on Wall Street to pick stocks.  Patience, frugality, and research rule for this multimillionaire gas station attendant.

Jon Stewart on Aaron Schock's colossal fail.

Free-range parenting.  An idea whose time has come....back.

Five things to do to your home to make it home.

A cocktail to celebrate spring.

This makes me feel old.  Pretty Woman turning 25.

Chocolate on Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookie

Chocolate on Chocolate on Chocolate

This is the only chocolatey chocolate chip cookie recipe you will need.  The original recipe is from the Momofuku Milk Bar book but I had to make some alterations.  Christina Tosi has an obsession with corn syrup and glucose and that is a bandwagon I refuse to join.  In my mind, those ingredients are unnecessarily sweet and a poor substitute for actual sugar.  Perhaps she uses it to cut costs in mass production or to make the cookies look shiny.  I don't know why she does it but I am out.  So, I used Pure Maple Syrup where she calls for glucose and the results were fabulous.  I also added in chocolate chips because I like to feel the chocolate melting on my tongue.