In My Copious Free Time

the cutest dilemma

I can't decide what is more startling...that my nephew Grady is 7 months old already or that he just gets cuter every day. Just when I think he can't get any cuter, boom.

If my shoulder wasn't so sore, I'd pat myself on the back

A couple of milestones to report...

1. I had my first foray into chiropractic treatment on Friday. About a week ago, I reached for something under the couch and felt a "tweak" in my shoulder when I did so. Since then, it's been sore with intermittent aching radiating down through my upper arm to my elbow. Not good, but on Thursday when I started having tingling all the way to my fingertips, I figured something was Not Right and I better get it looked at. I've always been a bit skeptical of chiropractors, but at some point, discomfort trumps skepticism.

It didn't take the chiropractor long at all to determine that my problem was really in my neck, not my shoulder and he isolated exactly where I had a very irritated nerve (this is actually what I expected). He showed me some stretches to do and told me to apply an ice pack 10 minutes out of every hour over the weekend. Monday I go back for an adjustment. Strangely enough, I am excited about this.

2. I ran in a 5k today after doing very little running so far this season. (Season=when it's warm enough to run outside and there's no snow on the track) I slowed down a lot over mile 3 but then picked it up in the end to finish at 32:38. That was 22 seconds too slow to make it into the top 100 women in the race. Oh well, maybe next year. :)

I have two new running favorites. The first is my new running shoes, a pair of Nike Air Pegasus. It's been a long time since I could wear Nikes and I was so happy this pair fits me well. Odd, though - I wear a 7.5 and sometimes even an 8 in regular shoes, my other running shoes have all been 7.5 but these Nikes are 6.5.

My other new running fave is more apparel - a skort, to be specific. I only like to wear running pants when it's very cold, so these skorts come in very handy. I don't know why I like these so much more than shorts, I just do. (And for the record, "skort" seems like an impossibly old fashioned word.)

Oh, and an Alex milestone to report. He lost his fourth loose tooth this evening. Unfortunately for the tooth fairy, we don't know where he lost it - while I was washing his hair tonight I noticed it was gone and he has no recollection of it falling out.

Observation and Rain

If you have 4 minutes left, you are not, in fact, out of time.

That said, "Rain" is one of those easy-to-forget Madonna songs with an utterly striking video. It has a quality that is paradoxically both spare and lush (even if it sometimes dips into cliche and the song itself is lyrically average). What sets it apart for me is the luminosity imparted thanks to the film technique -- it was shot in black and white and then hand colored. Amazing clip from a woman who's made her fair share of videos (70, Wikipedia tells me).

FOTD

For those who don't frequent makeup message boards and blogs, that's "Face of the Day."

If you wear makeup, enjoy makeup, want to know more about how to do makeup, or just want to try a new look for an event, you are missing out if you live in my area and aren't going to see Chris at the Macy's MAC counter. Aside from being super talented as a makeup artist, Chris kind of does everything, from styling to sewing to cooking. I'm convinced one day I'll he'll be contouring my cheekbones and say, "Well, back when I was in the space program..." He's pretty much delightful.

Anyhow, I have him do my makeup fairly often, which is often a challenge for him since he tries to use products I don't have, and I have a lot of MAC stuff. Last night he did my makeup and it was great, but I think he was even more excited than I was about how it turned out. He really outdid himself:

For those who care about such things, the eyes are:
Paint in Chiaroscuro as a base
Shadows in Filament (highlight, inner corners), Vex (middle lid and crease), Freshwater (crease, lower lashline) and Carbon (outer V, deep crease and upper lash line). Lower lashline also lined with Technakohl Liner in Smoothblue. Full false lashes (#32, I think) on upper lashes with Zoom Lash mascara.

Lips are lined in Oak lip pencil, filled in with Viva Glam II lipstick with Viva Glam VI Special Edition gloss on top. I am pretty sure he used Select SPF 15 foundation (NW20), though I'm not sure of the powder or blush he used. My bad.

Dear Wii: You suck

So I mentioned I kind of like am addicted to Dance Dance Revolution. Tonight I've been playing the SAME SONG for way too long trying to beat the computer so I can move to the next level. I really don't get the scoring of this game, and usually I don't really care, but right now I'm ticked off. (as much as a sane and rational person can be ticked off at a video game)

On the last try, here are my scores and the computer's, with mine on the left, the category in the middle and the computer score on the right:

74    Perfect    75 - this means the number of steps hit perfectly
39    Great        33 - the number of steps hit close to perfect
(note - if you maintain a series of perfect and great steps only, you build a combo - the more consecutive perfect/great steps, the higher the combo)

1   Good    2 - number of steps hit below great - a good breaks a combo
0    Almost   2 - lower than good - also breaks a combo
0    Boo   3 - a total miss of the step - breaks a combo
34 OK    33 - some steps have to be stepped and held - you get an OK if you hold it the right amt of time
0   NG    0 - means "no good" -  you didn't hold a step the right amount of time - breaks a combo
99 max combo  53 - number of consecutive perfect/good steps

So tell me how I ended up with a total score of 30,536,240 and the computer beat me with a 31,941,300? That 1 extra perfect surely doesn't amount 1.4 million extra points, especially given that I played the game with only 1 break in the combo.

This game is out to get me.

p.s. - Please stop talking smack to me. When my score is a high A with only 1 step separating me from the computer, I don't want to hear "Come on, you've got to pick it up!" or "You call that DANCING?"

p.p.s. - This is battle mode. If the score is very, very close and the computer declares it a draw, I don't want to hear "Way to work together!" There is no together, and don't try getting on my good side not 2 minutes after declaring "you got SCHOOLED!"

Not dead (yet)

Actually, I'm not even close, though I've been horribly neglectful of my blog (and Twitter, for that matter). So I'm going to do a little data dump in the hope that I'll clear out the backlog and get back into a regular posting groove.

I have a few new addictions to report:

Naked Orange Mango Motion smoothies. Yum. I limit myself to 1 every other day or so, and to be honest, it isn't so much the 130 calories per serving as it is the $3 per bottle.

Boiron Cold Calm tablets. Those who know me well realize that homeopathic remedies are perhaps just a notch above voodoo dolls in my book. However, I wasn't feeling well recently and a friend gave me a box of these tablets. Like a lot of homeopathic remedies (so I'm told), you're supposed to put these under your tongue and let them dissolve. While they are missing the orange taste, they remind me of St. Joseph's chewable aspirin. I have three very strong associations with childhood health care St. Joseph's aspirin, grape-flavored Dimetapp and Flintstones vitamins. So I think I'll just keep Cold Calm tablets handy. And maybe I'll look for some chewable aspirin, too.

Oh, a little excitement to report. An underground transformer exploded in the middle of the night, leaving our office building without power. I later learned that not only did it blow power, it blew most of the windows out of our building, including most of ours on the 4th floor. Thank goodness it was at 3:30am and no one was there.

Oops, I was talking about addictions. Another one is Dance Dance Revolution. I got this in late January or early February (I can't remember now) and played a little here and there, but not much, primarily because I was totally and utterly horrible at it. This was a bit alarming as I am not a bad dancer. Well, a few weeks ago I accidentally started a song on "basic" level rather than "beginner" (the levels increase in difficulty from beginner to basic to difficult to expert). I immediately realized that I wasn't as bad as I thought - there are just so few steps on beginner level that it's hard to catch a groove. Beginner is much better. Of course, this is a Wii game and being that we have 1 Wii, 1 TV and 1 child who is addicted to Lego Star Wars and Super Mario Galaxy, getting in some game time is tough. So most nights between 11pm and 2am you can find me in my living room, stomping away. That's right...it isn't unusual for me to play for 2-3 hours. I just sat down to write this after a solid hour of having my ass handed to me by the basic version of "99 Red Balloons." Last night I got a AA on "Lips of an Angel" (that's better than an A, my previous high score). 

I've finally been able to run outside now that the weather isn't quite so cold. A few outdoor, 2-mile runs are under my belt, but I need to run a 3-mile soon to make sure I can do it as I'm in a 5K on 4 May.

Two weeks from today I'll be in Atlanta for a conference and two weeks after that, I'll be in the Dominican Republic with my girlfriends. I'm toying with the idea of going immediately to the NYC Makeup Show after I return, but I'm not sure if that will work or not. I'm trying to work out a trip to see my brother, SIL and nephews in Florida the week after Alex gets out of school, but that's slow going.

Speaking of travel, we booked airfare for Thailand and Hong Kong the other day. I cannot believe I am going! More details to come, for sure.

This hasn't been much of a data dump, but I'm falling asleep and I have to be at a meeting at 9am in the morning, so bed is calling.

snippets from the day

I asked Alex what he was doing as he played Lego Star Wars (Wii) and he said, "Oh, I'm just adventuring right now."

This morning Alex came and got in our bed and we stayed there talking and snuggling together until almost noon. We had so much fun, giggling and playing. There was much talk about Alex's belief that he owns the middle, including speculation about where any future sibling would be allowed in the mix. Alex insisted he would remain in between Joe and me and any future baby could sleep on my other side (the outside). Trying to explain how Alex could share the middle, Joe held up four fingers of one hand, saying that the index finger was him, the middle finger was Alex, the ring finger was the baby and the pinkie was me. Alex protested, "But why does Mommy have to be so short???" Way to sidetrack the discussion, kiddo.

(No, I am not pregnant and not trying to get pregnant.)

After we finally got up I cleaned up and went out to meet some friends for makeovers at the MAC counter. Chris did terrific work as usual, doing my eyes up in a fabulous combination of Shroom, Aquadisiac and Plumage. I wouldn't have chosen these colors normally, but wow, were they ever gorgeous on.

Swatches from Temptalia, one of the most awesome of awesome beauty sites - her collection of product color images (swatches) is staggering, her reviews are always very informative and her makeup artistry is phenomenal. Plumage looks more dark navy/teal than purple in real life. I would swatch the actual colors on my hand, but it turned out that both Aquadisiac and Plumage were out of stock:

I noticed Eddie, one of the national makeup artists for Chanel, walk through the store and realized the Chanel counter was having an event, so I went over to say hi. Eddie has done my makeup a number of times and always does something really cool and inventive. Eddie loved what Chris had put on me, asking "Is there any color you can't wear?" Lately I'm realizing that I used to think I could only wear a few colors, but that is so wrong. I'm cool-to-neutral toned, so I can get away with a lot of warmer shades in addition to cools, and there isn't a color that I don't own and wear. It's all about finding the right shade and texture. I ought to post something girly and picture-laden about some of my recent makeup finds, but not tonight. :)

When I came home, Alex was playing Wii and we were all talking. Joe said something about Alex looking handsome and Alex agreed, saying he and Joe were both handsome. And I was the beautiful one. :)

A very grainy picture taken with my laptop camera - I love how he's reaching back to touch my face -- he is just the sweetest boy:

Hurry up, Spring

Aside from the fact that it will be nice to be done with snow and ice for a while, what I am really looking forward to is wearing spring clothes. This weekend's work took me to DC where I had a successful couple of hours shopping on M Street in Georgetown. At BCBG Max Azria I found these two dresses:

Aside from the fact that they look great on, they both have pockets! BCBG has now secured a spot in my person list of favorite brands. The black dress on the right is just perfect - I could wear it to the office with a cardigan (the bodice is sheer, but there's a slip lining underneath) or to a party or nice dinner out.

I had similar good luck at Anthropologie. At the Georgetown shop (which I don't think I've ever been in), I got these two skirts (sorry the images are a bit blurry):

One of the things I love about the clothes Anthropologie carries is that they are beautifully detailed and unlike most things found in department and chain stores. But there's something about their detailing that reminds me of a bit of trivia about the making of "Gone With the Wind."  When an actress (the one playing Careen or SueEllen?) commented that there was no need to spend time and money making lace-trimmed petticoats and  crinolines because no one would know they were under the dresses, David O. Selznick reportedly responded, "But you'll know they are there." A typical lower-end skirt like this won't have any lining at all. Something more mid-range will have a lining, but it will be simple muslin or acetate, and more often than not, cut in a way that is barely functional. These skirts, like others I have from Anthropologie, are both exquisitely lined, with lining trimmed in matching lace.

Isn't that last one spring in skirt form?

As if TED2008 wasn't enough on its own...

They had to go and throw in a new chocolate addiction, too.

I am not a big chocolate eater - it's good, but I don't get omg-chocolate-or-death-have-to-have-it-gimme-gimme-gimme or anything like that. So for me to rave about and almost obsess over any chocolate is a big deal. But that, my friends, is what Vosges chocolate will do to a person.

Vosges pushers representatives held chocolate tastings throughout the conference and I don't think I even wandered their way until day 2 when they had a spread that included various chocolates with bacon. Go ahead, let that sink in a moment. Bacon. If I were a true chocolate lover, I'd say something like "the two most perfect foods together in one delectable, bite-sized morsel. The applewood bacon and chocolate truffles were amazing.

The next day included spicier fare such as Red Fire Chocolate Tortilla Chips. I wouldn't have thought of the combination, but I gotta say, I'm glad Vosges did. Yummy.

The biggest surprise of all, however, was a little thing called the Rural Blues truffle. The website says this white chocolate truffle contains "Anson Mills grits + burnt brown sugar + dried corn kernel." GRITS. IN CHOCOLATE. Sounds disgusting. Tastes delicious. (These truffles seem to only be available in assortments either sold with champagne for $111 or with a CD for $75. The second one is the "Groove" collection, which is also available in a Swarovski crystal box for $275. I'll just have to remember how they tasted. ;))

My favorite, though, was Bapchi's Caramel Toffee. Check out the website's description:

We make our crunchy, buttery toffee in large sheets, sprinkle each with mineral-rich pink Himalayan salt, coat the top with deep milk chocolate and finish it off with a sprinkling of roasted, organic walnuts and pecans.

Pink salt. I have just ordered 2 boxes for myself. :)

Inclusion: The BIG Idea

I'm at the Institute for Inclusion's Inclusion: The BIG Idea Conference, in my usual seat at a conference, in the back of the room so that I can take notes on my laptop with as little distraction to others as possible.

Right now I'm listening to a panel of leaders talk about 21st Century Leadership: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, and the conversation going on right now is about values and how important values are to organizational success. A comment from the audience was made about measuring leadership performers on values and how many leaders began to get motivated to promote people values when they were dinged on their bonus eligibility based on not meeting those same requirements. Hal Yoh, chair and CEO of Day & Zimmermann responded:

We don't believe in 'bonus for values'; we believe in 'employment for values.'

What a strong statement about how living company values -- ALL of them -- are simply the table stakes and that you don't get a reward for doing the minimum expected.

More to come...