How to Save Money on Manicures

My advice for saving money on manicures:

Bite your nails and pick at your cuticles like a crazy person until it would be absolutely too mortifying to go into a nail salon because you know the little Asian lady nail technician will judge you and then offer you arm waxing services at a major discount.

Voila. $25 a month back in your pocket.

My First World Problems and Me

There's a twitter hashtag I see pretty frequently that always makes me laugh: #firstworldproblems. I know how lucky I am to have the really nice life that I have, but somehow that doesn't keep me from finding stuff to whine about. Anyway, I was thinking about it this morning and then I started signing the above title to the "My Buddy" tune (which doesn't really fit the phrase, but I found it entertaining nonetheless).

I can already tell today is going to be a craptastic one for my department at work, so in honor of that here are my sad, sad  first world problems.

-Our cleaning lady comes way to early, can't she wait till at least 8am to show up?
-Well, I really prefer craft beer, but if Bud Light is all you have, I guess I'll drink it.
-It's so annoying when the doggie day care doesn't open right at 7am.
-I hate it when they only have 2% milk instead of skim on the coffee bar!
-Ugh, I'm so busy at work I didn't have time to go to lunch!
-Oh man, the salon is out of my travel size Bumble and Bumble products again?!
-I'm SO behind on the Harry Potter movies that I can't go see the Deathly Hallows II yet. :(
-White truffle salt? But I wanted black truffle salt!

Hope you have a great Tuesday, void of all problems, first world or otherwise!

Young Women of the World...

..Let's make a pact. Right here, right now. Put your hand over your heart and put up your three finger "scout's honor" sign and repeat after me:

I do hereby, solemnly swear to give it my best effort, the best ol' college try I know how to give, to eliminate the word like (except where properly applicable) from my vocabulary, to refrain from ending sentences on high note such that they become questions instead of statements; to be assertive when speaking, and if I in fact do not know what the hell I'm talking about, I will say so instead of beating around the bush with phrases such as, "well, maybe, if everyone thinks it ok, I would just suggest that perhaps..." 

For the sake of the public image, perception, and intellect of myself, my generation of women, and future generations of women who, though currently emulating Jersey Shore, but will surely snap out of it one day, will need a role model for conducting oneself in public, I do hereby promise to mend my ways and speak well from this day forward, forever and ever. Amen.

That is all.

Friday Night Thoughts

• I just can't decide what's worse: tourists on your public transportation or tourists in your work lunch places. I have mowed down some families this week trying not to get stuck behind them in the line at Potbelly. 
• Ke$ha TOTALLY wrote this song for Pref Night. Ke$ha, I'm sorry you can't deny it. And yes, I'm 27 and still think about this stuff.
• We all know what Avril Lavigne really means when she says "So what if I go out on a million dates," in What the Hell. I'm sorry you're divorced and you have to date Brody Jenner now. That is sad.
• I'm kind of obsessed with the 'Til The World Ends Remix. Especially the Niki Minaj rap.
• Speaking of terrible pop, you know who has a shockingly high tolerance for terrible pop? [Husband]. Can you believe this? We have always acknowledged that he is the movie guru in our house and I am the music person, but it still surprised me. He will listen to Hot 99.5 for at least 20 minutes longer than I can handle it. And I just said I liked 'Til the World Ends. It's the remix, but still.
• And speaking of Friday Night, who loves Friday Night Lights? MEEEEEE!!! Who loves Tami Taylor? Ohhh me!! MEEE! Who wishes they were Tami Taylor (and thus married to Coach Taylor? OOOOOH MEEE PICK MEEEEEE!!!! I love this show. If you have not seen it, you need to park yourself in front of the tv and get to work. The writing and character development are so beyond network TV.  This is HBO quality.  If you do watch and you love Tami, you need to check out this montage of her Yalls (yall).
• Yall, I am TI-URD. I don't know how you people with babies do it because the puppy is seriously still killing me. Up til 11pm, up at 6am...tired. I think I'm just a wimp. 

• So I'm not a creeper, but...everyone once in awhile I'm curious about people I used to know.  The father of an old friend of mind is peripherally in the same professional field that I am. I came across his name in a document today, so I decided to look up my friend. Turns that after college she worked for The Knot in NY editing wedding images and then decided she wanted to be on the other side of the camera, so now she has a wedding photography business in Charleston. Her pictures are really great. I dropped her a line through the contact page on her website. I'm curious to see if I hear back from her.
• The last three books I read were a little heavy: In Cold Blood by Truman Capote, True Grit by Charles Portis,  We Were the Mulvaneys by Joyce Carol Oates, and now I'm reading American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis. Anyone have any suggestions for something happier and lighter that's not 1) by Emily Griffin or 2) The Help?  By the way, the titles I recently read, I do highly recommend.  I just need to move onto a new theme that's not crime and/or murder.
• We're going to Napa in March! This deserves it's own, post, but Yay! I'm excited!
• Yesterday was 100 days til the Richmond Marathon.
• We have a wedding to go to every month through November. I kind of want to get invited to one in December just to keep up the 6 month streak. 

Happy Weekend!

Did You Know....

Those of you with infants probably know tis already, but did you know that's it's possible to spend an entire evening with your husband and basically only talk about poo? No? It is. And it is totally as romantic as it sounds.

We are never doing the puppy thing again. He is really cute though.

Whoops

For various reasons I won't go into here, I was on The Knot today and decided to look at my wedding website from two years ago. And I noticed a typo on the Ceremony/Reception information page. I got the date wrong.

Wow. WOW.

I wonder if anyone noticed and just didn't tell me? :)

Beast Update

We decide to name the new beast...

BARKSDALE!

He's going to be a big oafy beast when he's full grown and won't ever posses the gravitas required for a name like Timmy J. We liked Taliaferro because it was different, but neither one of use even lived in that dorm, and since everyone thinking Griffin is a boy (she's a girl), we decided to go with some more gender appropriate for this dog. So Barksdale it is...Little Barker Boo Boo. Yes, I just wrote that out loud on the internet.

The doggy introduction has gone ok so far, better than hoped for, but not exactly ideal. Griffin is protective of us and the house, so she's been kind of growly and is occasionally guarding the front door or the crate door from Barksdale.  In other words she's living up to her nickname, "Princess Doesn't Play Well with Others" to a certain extent.

Other times she seems like she might be trying to play with him or will let him get pretty close and sniff or lick her.  We think over time they adjust ok. I just hope we aren't scarring Barksdale for life by making him life with a big mean dog.

One thing that is super-obnoxious is that she is all up in his food! He eats slow because he's a puppy, and Griffin will wolf her food down and then race around the corner to get his food too. Some cursory research online tells me we may have to feed them in separate rooms where we can close doors.

Any advice from the owners of multiple dogs on feeding and new dog integration in general would be very welcome!

 

Here's everyone playing nicely near each other.