Geek in Heels - Page 38

Dec 7, 2012 • In Personal

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Thirty-Two

I met my 30th birthday with a bittersweet goodbye to my twenties.

My 31st birthday began with projectile vomit.

And today…. Today I face my 32nd birthday with subdued enthusiasm.

Enthusiasm for my family. For my blessings. For my future.

For hope.

Oh, and the prime filet mignon waiting for me at my favorite steakhouse tonight. 😉

I tried to find an appropriate picture to convey this moment, but there were too many that almost fit the bill, yet none that was an exact match. So I decided to share this screenshot from last year: my favorite birthday email of the day.

Duh-nuh-NUH… duh-nah-NUH!

May my 32nd year be ever in my favor…

P.S. — My beloved Knicks gave me an early present last night with a momentous win over the defending champs…while without our star player. The third anniversary of my 29th birthday is off to a good start, wouldn’t you say?

(image source)

Disney Princesses Meet Haute Couture

Sigh. You know I’m a sucker for holiday-themed store displays. I personally have not yet had a chance to check out the famed NYC displays in person this year, but I have been following them via the web, and — as it seems to be the case every holiday season — each store has outdone itself once again.

Now, I am not a fashionista by any means (and to be completely honest, Vogue bores me to tears), but I am aware that there exist numerous fashion meccas around the world, and that each major city boasts its own high-end department stores.

Today, let’s take a trip to Harrods in London.

This year, Harrods has decided to bring to its window displays popular Disney princesses adorned in beautiful dresses designed by some of best designers in the world. And in order to promote — and celebrate! — these collaborations, Harrods Magazine did a photo shoot with the gowns just before they made their way to the mannequins in the Harrods displays.

Check them out below — I seem to be partial to Mulan’s and Snow White’s dresses, while Aurora’s and Rapunzel’s are pieces I wouldn’t wear even if they gave them to me for free. How about you?

Ariel from The Little Mermaid,
by Marchesa:
Continue reading »

Wednesday Rewind: The 10 Levels of Intimacy in Today’s Communication

Once in a while, when I get bored, I like to look through the archives of this blog and reflect upon (and laugh at!) all the things I have shared with the web over the years.

Because, heck, after 1,801 posts, even I don’t remember everything.

There’s also the braggart in me who likes to shout, “Hey! I once wrote this years ago! You should go check it out because I think it’s awesome!”

(Or the part of me that likes to roll her eyes and exclaim, “Well, if you had read my blog you would know I had written about this in the past!”)

So I have decided to start sharing with y’all certain posts from this blog’s vault of archives. I can’t promise that this will be a regular thing, or that what I will re-post will be remotely interesting, but I’ll try my best.

…I also plan on using these “rewind”s as a means to escape writer’s block. 😉

This little chart dates back to August 3, 2009, but I believe it’s still — and perhaps a bit too — relevant today.

However, I believe that now, at the end of 2012 and more than three years since the chart was first created, the order would be better represented like this:

Twitter
Facebook Status
Text Msg
IM
Facebook Msg
Email
Phone
Video Chat
Talking
Letter

Now, the question remains: where would photo-sharing sites like Instagram fit in?

My First Time

The year was 1991. I was a young girl transitioning into an awkward mess of acne and hormones. Who knew that I was about to be met with an entirely new world of magic and wonders?

I was at a sleepover. Despite what the media has you to believe, none of the sleepovers I attended featured giggly girls in frilly nightgowns engaged in pillow fights. (Or perhaps I was never invited to those types of sleepovers?) Instead, it was more common to see us with our hair up in messy ponytails, our faces loaded with the latest “it” skin treatment or zit cream, dressed in ragged t-shirts and sweats, gorging on junk food while gossiping and playing truth or dare.

Ever a loner and a nerd, I would sometimes bring my homework to sleepovers, just in case things got too boring and I needed something to do. 😳

But I hadn’t to this particular sleepover.

So when my mind began to grow bored from the monotony of events…

I wondered off on my own…

And came across a bookcase.

There, prominently placed in a top shelf, was The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien.

I thought that the word “Hobbit” sounded curiously funny, so I slid the book out just to scan the first page or so.

…And I ended up spending the rest of that sleepover reading, and finishing the book.

And that’s how I popped my Middle Earth cherry. How about you?

(image source)

I have always maintained that The Hobbit is greatly superior to the LOTR trilogy, so it is no surprise that I look forward to next weekend with anticipation.

I have even started to re-watch the LOTR trilogy, and was all set to start re-reading The Hobbit when I discovered that my copy was missing. 🙁

Time to go procure another copy! But I obvs need to seek out one that was printed before any mention of the movie, with no references or tie-ins to the movie whatsover, lest anyone sees it and judges me for being a “watch the movie first, then read the book” person.

It’s almost like going shopping at a fancy store during a sale, only to see that your purchase gets placed in a shopping bag marked “SALE!” all over it. It’s like, why??? Do they need to separate us regular people from those who can afford their full prices?

T-Shirts.com Review and Giveaway

I am of the opinion that one cannot have too many comfy t-shirts. And if that shirt has a geeky or witty design on it? More the better!

So when the online apparel store T-Shirts.com contacted me about doing a review, I didn’t hesitate. How can I say no to a company that lists Star Wars as one of its categories?

The site was well-organized and had a great inventory of t-shirts in practically every category imaginable…they even carried solid-color t-shirts as well as custom designs! I especially liked the “Fabric Softness Gauge” on every product page. 🙂

Although there were tons of designs I would love to own (Something geeky? Something featuring the Knicks or the Ravens?), my eyes immediately gravitated toward a R2-D2 womens t-shirt for its simple yet unmistakable design:

I received the shirt the following week and was pleasantly surprised by its soft fabric and terrific cut. Here I am, trying my best at not looking like a dork while modeling my new Star Wars t-shirt (I’m wearing a small):

Now, for the best part…

T-Shirts.com has generously offered to give a FREE t-shirt to one of my readers!

This would make a perfect gift for a loved one with the holidays coming up, don’t you think? (You could also choose to get a shirt for yourself, of course.)

To enter this giveaway, simply use the Rafflecopter widget below. Not sure how to use Rafflecopter? Watch this 52 second video for a tutorial on how to enter a giveaway using Rafflecopter. There are 6 methods of entry, with the first method (commenting on this blog post) being mandatory while the fourth method (Tweeting about the giveaway) can be used once per day:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

This giveaway will end on Sunday, December 10th, 2012, at 12:01am, at which point a winner will be randomly chosen and announced here.

Please use a valid email address and/or Twitter handle so that I can contact you if you win!

Sorry, this giveaway is open only to residents of the United States.

Good luck, and thank you for entering!

A Visualization of Star Wars Enthusiasm

Here’s a pretty funny (but mostly accurate!) panel of comics about how much we’ve cared about Star Wars, starting from the 1970s all the way to the 2010s.

I still can’t believe it’s been thirty-five years since Episode IV first came out; can you?

Aerin’s Eczema Treatments (Part Deux)

Aerin was only 4 months old when I first wrote about her eczema. We had been hoping that she would grow out of the condition by 6 months old, or even 1 year old, but that has not been the case. 🙁

However, we have tried new products and changed her skin routine somewhat, so I wanted to write an update for reference purposes and in hopes that it may benefit others suffering from the same condition.

I want to stay clear of prescription medication as much as possible, so we’ve gone from 2.5% hydrocortisone cream to 1%, which can be found on the shelves of drugstores. We still use this to make the half-hydrocortisone-half-vaseline mix which we apply on her flare-ups, but only when it looks especially red and/or itchy.

We also gradually stopped using the EpiCeram® because once again, I didn’t want Aerin to become too dependent on prescription meds.

A couple of months ago, I read about Mustela’s Stelatopia line, which is formulated for eczema-prone skin. I read up on the products and saw that it was getting awesome reviews, so I decided to splurge on the Stelatopia Moisturizing Cream and the Stelatopia Cream Cleanser.

As much I had hoped the Stelatopia cream and cleanser would be the answer to Aerin’s dry skin, they unfortunately were not for us. Don’t get me wrong — they did not irritate or exacerbate her eczema. And others have had great success with these products, so maybe they’ll work for you. Continue reading »

Calvin and Hobbes Search Engine!

You guys, I discovered the best thing today…

A Calvin and Hobbes search engine!!!

Calvin and Hobbes remains my favorite comic strip despite the fact that it is no longer published. And as I have written in the past, one of my all-time favorite gifts from J is the Calvin and Hobbes Boxed Set. I can’t wait until my kids are old enough to enjoy this mischievous duo! (But let’s just hope they don’t learn any bad things from it! 😉 )

The only thing I didn’t like about Calvin and Hobbes was that there are literally thousands of strips out there — 3,160 to be exact — so it can be a PITA when you’re trying to look for a specific strip.

But now, my prayers have been answered.

Just enter the term into the search box and voilà! A comprehensive results page displays all strips with that search term, along with information of its release date, a summary of the strip and the compilations in which it has been republished.

And for those wondering, “By Bing? Is the search engine powered by Microsoft Bing?” the answer is no. Bing just happens to be the nickname of the creator, Michael Yingling.

I’m so happy right now.

Drinking in LA vs. Drinking in NYC

What do you guys think? Pretty accurate?

I can’t remember the last time I drank drank in LA (as in go out to a bar/lounge, not just have a beer or two with dinner…or get tipsy at a wedding 😉 ), but what I do remember are the early last calls and the relatively cheaper drinks.

Oh, and at least one person being a DD so he/she could drive us home. 🙂

Via Mandatory.

Claire’s First Lie

A few days ago, Claire told her first lie.

She and Aerin were playing together when Claire got angry over something, grabbed the toy in Aerin’s hand, and threw it.

And when J approached her to remind her that she shouldn’t throw things, she outright told him that it was Aerin who threw the toy!

Both J and I had witnessed the entire event from start to finish. When J asked her, “Did you mean that you threw the toy?” She denied it and told him once again that her little sister had done it.

We were incredulous!

I told Claire to give her sister a hug before I took this shot.
Obviously, my timing was off.

While J scolded her and explained that she shouldn’t lie, I turned to the interwebs to see how we should deal with a child’s first lie. That’s when I happened upon this Scholastic article:

The first successful lie can be pegged as a developmental achievement because it marks the child’s discovery that her mind and thinking are separate from her parents’.

And as with most milestones in Claire’s mental and emotional development, she seemed to be a bit ahead of the curve. (She is 25 months old.)

We didn’t know if we should be angry or proud. 😕

I continued to read up on the subject, and learned that at this age, Claire probably does not know that lying is wrong, so there is no point in trying to drill moral values into her. The best thing we could do is explain the consequences of telling a lie (as well as other morally questionable acts), and become models of good behavior ourselves.

And until her conscience matures, we should try to discern what message she’s trying to convey with the lie.

She has recently begun to trick us too. For example, after we put her to bed last night, she called for me once again. She told me, “Umma peepee” which means that she needs to go use the toilet. (We’ve been potty-training her and she’s doing pretty well so far!) So when I lifted her from the bed and opened the door so that she could go to the bathroom, she instead made a beeline for the living room, giggling and gleefully running the entire way.

She then sat herself down on the couch, looked at me with a big smile on my face, and said, “엄마 앉어!” (“Umma anjuh,” or “Mommy sit”) She obviously wanted to play, not go to bed.

I always knew Claire would be a crafty one. 😉

Thirty-Two

You may also like:

Disney Princesses Meet Haute Couture

You may also like:

Wednesday Rewind: The 10 Levels of Intimacy in Today’s Communication

You may also like:

My First Time

You may also like:

T-Shirts.com Review and Giveaway

You may also like:

A Visualization of Star Wars Enthusiasm

You may also like:

Aerin’s Eczema Treatments (Part Deux)

You may also like:

Calvin and Hobbes Search Engine!

You may also like:

Drinking in LA vs. Drinking in NYC

You may also like:

Claire’s First Lie

You may also like:

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