Now if I could only hide the bill...

Bought this at Banana yesterday. Very cute and on sale! Bought this one at Gap and wore it out. DH stopped me and said that I looked great. He then went on to point out why this was such a flattering cut on me. I thought to myself "Dude, we need to stop watching Project Runway so much!" :)
But I think it goes without saying that I'm going back to Gap this afternoon to get it in yellow too!

Toodles ladies, I've got a fever and the only prescription is more shopping!

Little Red Envelope

So you know that we're watching a billion movies, right? Well Netflix has a little surprise for people this week - a $30 off a $100 purchase at BR coupon is on the inside of the envelope! Hee! I'll take that coupon, yes sir!

Gifties for the election

I am a HUGE fan of the Unemployed Philosophers Guild. They sell very clever political/philosophical/religious gifts. I have their Freudian Slippers:


And my Albert Einstein doll:
As a Fed, I am much more restricted on what I can display/use regarding my political views. But let's just say that I can't decide which set of "Axis of Evil" finger puppets I want for my desk:

Set I: Kim Jong Il, Khamenei, Saddam and George W.

Set II: Condi, Cheney, Bush and Rumsfeld

Oo la la

Last year at this time I was a few weeks out to my wedding and I did something I never thought I'd do: B-pics, or more properly termed, boudoir pictures.

I wanted a really fun wedding present for DH and while I was really nervous, I had an absolute blast. (It also helps that I went with Regeti's Photography, pretty much the best b-pic photographer in the country. Seriously, the husband and wife team made me look hoooot and were really funny and charming.)

Anywho, back to the point of this post. While trying to find 40s pin-up style lingerie for the shoot, I became addicted to the really expensive but absolutely beautiful Agent Provocateur line from Britain. And wouldn't you know it, right now's their yearly sale! With up to 70% off, it's still expensive but definitely affordable for a special treat. Here are some of the gems in the sale section:

Gangsta

Jesse

Love Mint

Talma

So if you're in the mood to treat yourself (I did!) head on over. The sale goes until the end of August.

When it rains, it pours

Man, more bad new today. My favorite singer/songwriter EVER, Will Hoge, was seriously injured in a scooter crash. He's been moved from critical to stable condition at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville. He was returning from the studio when a van failed to yield and Will crashed into the side of the van.

According to the East Nashville listserve (sent to me by several Nashville folks who know my obsession/stalking problem with Will), he has two broken legs, a broken rib that punctured a lung, a broken cheekbone that will require surgery, a broken collarbone and a shattered knee that will require surgery as well. He's already had a rod inserted into one of the broken legs.

As a working, touring musician, I don't imagine Will probably has stellar medical insurance. Let's send some prayers down to Will and his family.

To hear his amazing voice, please watch below for a kick-ass version of "Woman, Be Strong."

In remembrance

My 95 year old great-aunt passed away today. Katherine was known to the family as "Ketchie" or "Auntie" according to your age in relation to the grand dame. She was definitely Auntie to me. :)

I am ashamed to say that I haven't (or, er, hadn't) seen her in ten years since my grandmother's funeral. A lot of family politics comes into that decision but I went along with it. I feel terrible that I haven't seen her more.

95% of my memories of Auntie come from my summer vacations spent in the little Mississippi town where my grandmother (and all of that side of the family) lived. Auntie would come over for lunch with my grandmother along with my Aunt Gladys. The three of them would eat tomato and mayo sandwiches and scrambled eggs made by my grandmother's killer cook and housekeeper. Sometimes they'd play cards afterward, my grandmother using her polished nails to expertly cut and shuffle hundreds of decks.

I am amused at these memories because I know how much I must have interrupted their "girl time" when the husbands were out of the house and out of their hair. But they were kind to a rambunctious little girl and I'm pretty sure the reason they let me cut as many roses from the garden as I did was to keep me out of their hair for ten minutes, picking exactly the right ones. :)

To my single-digit self, Auntie was hopelessly glamorous. She wore her large, dramatic glasses on bejeweled cords and smoked her ever-present cigarette in a Cruella Deville style cigarette holder. Her laugh was a funny heh heh heh where you knew she was holding back a little for civility but her eyes always gave away when she found something really funny.

Auntie carried Whiting and Dean purses and I thought the mesh was amazing to touch. I used to oh so slyly slide myself on the couch next to her so I could surrepticiously pet her bag. When I graduated high school she sent me a W&D lipstick holder and mirror that was engraved with a lovely note on the back. I still carry that lipstick holder every time I go out. The mirror is in my top drawer with my precious jewelry and favorite things.

So this is a cheers to the memory of my Auntie. Eternally glamorous and kind to all. We miss you already, Auntie!

WHYYYYYYYYYYY

I just got back from my six-month check up at the dentist. I have two (tiny) cavities and have to have them filled on Thursday. I am not doing well.

The last time I had a cavity it was 1989 and they didn't give me any painkillers. Yes, they drilled *away* on my poor little teeth without giving me a shot to numb up.

I think that was the moment I decided that the dentist is the devil. Seriously.

I also have to get a night guard. DH thinks it's hilarious. I do not. I grind and gnash my teeth quite badly when I sleep. This has lead to my molars being ground down. Awesome.

I'm going to go to bed early and hope that my sore teeth will be better. Ta ta!

Cake Wrecks

This made DH and me laugh until we cried.

You should see our Netflix queue

DH and I have very very different tastes in movies. In an attempt to go out less and educate ourselves a little, we've decided to make our way through the IMDB list of the 100 Greatest Movies of All Time, as voted by the public.

(In the interest of public disclosure, we didn't do AFI's list because 1. I was a film minor and have seen waaay more "classic" films than DH and 2. DH won't watch a list of American movies, he has to have some British films.)

I have seen all the movies in Bold and DH has seen those in Italics. How many have you seen?

Elliott: 48
DH: 25

1. The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
2. The Godfather (1972)
3. The Dark Knight (2008)
4. The Godfather: Part II (1974)
5. Buono, il brutto, il cattivo., Il (1966)
6. Pulp Fiction (1994)
7. Schindler's List (1993)
8. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975)
9. Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
10. 12 Angry Men (1957)
11. Casablanca (1942)
12. Star Wars (1977)
13. Shichinin no samurai (1954)
14. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)
15. Goodfellas (1990)
16. Rear Window (1954)
17. Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
18. Cidade de Deus (2002)
19. C'era una volta il West (1968)
20. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)
21. The Usual Suspects (1995)
22. Psycho (1960)
23. Fight Club (1999)
24. Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964)
25. The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
26. WALL·E (2008)
27. North by Northwest (1959)
28. Memento (2000)
29. Citizen Kane (1941)
30. Sunset Blvd. (1950)
31. The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002)
32. The Matrix (1999)
33. It's a Wonderful Life (1946)
34. Se7en (1995)
35. Lawrence of Arabia (1962)
36. Apocalypse Now (1979)
37. Taxi Driver (1976)
38. American Beauty (1999)
39. Léon (1994)
40. American History X (1998)
41. Vertigo (1958)
42. Fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain, Le (2001)
43. Paths of Glory (1957)
44. The Departed (2006)
45. M (1931)
46. To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)
47. Chinatown (1974)
48. A Clockwork Orange (1971)
49. The Third Man (1949)
50. Alien (1979)
51. Forrest Gump (1994)
52. Leben der Anderen, Das (2006)
53. The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948)
54. Double Indemnity (1944)
55. The Shining (1980)
56. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)
57. The Pianist (2002)
58. Sen to Chihiro no kamikakushi (2001)
59. Saving Private Ryan (1998)
60. Laberinto del fauno, El (2006)
61. Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975)
62. Requiem for a Dream (2000)
63. L.A. Confidential (1997)
64. The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)
65. Aliens (1986)
66. Boot, Das (1981)
67. Reservoir Dogs (1992)
68. Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)
69. Rashômon (1950)
70. The Maltese Falcon (1941)
71. Raging Bull (1980)
72. Untergang, Der (2004)
73. Metropolis (1927)
74. No Country for Old Men (2007)
75. Modern Times (1936)
76. Rebecca (1940)
77. City Lights (1931)
78. Singin' in the Rain (1952)
79. All About Eve (1950)
80. 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
81. The Prestige (2006)
82. There Will Be Blood (2007)
83. Vita è bella, La (1997)
84. Amadeus (1984)
85. Sin City (2005)
86. Some Like It Hot (1959)
87. Hotel Rwanda (2004)
88. Sjunde inseglet, Det (1957)
89. The Great Escape (1963)
90. The Elephant Man (1980)
91. On the Waterfront (1954)
92. Nuovo cinema Paradiso (1988)
93. Touch of Evil (1958)
94. Full Metal Jacket (1987)
95. The Apartment (1960)
96. The Sting (1973)
97. Batman Begins (2005)
98. The Great Dictator (1940)
99. Jaws (1975)
100. Once Upon a Time in America (1984)

Terrorist tea pot

Would that I had this when I lived in Belfast. I know, I know...I'm so wrong. :P

Moving, work, wedding

Morning kittens,

So sorry for the prolonged absence. We are officially moved in! Well, by "moved in" I mean all the boxes are gone and there are massive piles of stuff everywhere. On the upside, I took it as an opportunity to clean out my closet. I took three HUGE bags of clothes to Goodwill; mostly stuff that never fit well or was old. Did I really need a LXA Watermelon Bust tshirt from 1998? No, no I did not.


I've got the day off so I've been handling contractors and delivery men while trying to take stuff down to our storage room. Note to future condo owners: a storage room is the most precious gift you will ever buy yourself. Homeowners get garages and attics. Condo owners must make do with their precious closet space or purchase an astronomically expensive (read: more than 1K ppsf) real estate in the parking garage. I am so excited to have a place to store DH's tools, our skis and snowboards, camping equipment, and beach gear. Woo hoo! I freaking puffy heart my storage room!!

We have had a massive re-org at work for the last two weeks. I'm really quite nervous about my new team. (I start on Monday.) My team has been either openly hostile or bewildered as to what I do and how we're going to work together. I guess it's a case of having to prove that I'm worthwhile to the team before they'll accept me. However, I want a promotion in 2010 and they'd better not get in my way. I'd really hate for it to get down to this level:

On the happy side, only three weeks until brother-in-law's wedding! Woo! I'm going to have a sister for the first time! BIL's stag do was in Spain and he came home and the wedding's still on, so I have to assume it went well.

I've had to get serious about what to wear to the wedding. I was very inspired by the following picture from Gossip Girl. (Note, I don't actually watch GG, I just look at the clothes. Oh the clothes. Preppy manna, no?)
Since BIL's wedding is in September in England's Lake District (home of the lovely Europafox!), I have two outfits planned, depending on the weather.

Here's "warm" weather:

Sandhil silk dress from Anthropologie

Here's a close-up of the lovely crane print:

And my fabulous new headband from Nordstrom!

I am about .2 seconds away from ordering my fascinator for my "cold" weather outfit. Stay tuned!

Oh kittens,

We're in the midst of moving, painting, and installing. It is sucking up my life.

Turns out my weird sickness issues were a virus. How do I know this? Poor DH has it. And we know he's not preggers. :)

Bought a couple pairs of shoes. I've had a bunch of gift cards from Banana and it's triple points time so I got the following: Privos. I've never worn the brand. However, the sole is covered in a bunch of massaging bubbles (it's hard to explain) and they make my feet happy. Ok, I know these look hideous but hear me out. They are the super-thin and perfect to throw in a tote when you want to wear comfy shoes to work but not in the office.
These are my shopping coup of the summer; Lanah's by Cordani. Originally $350 and I got them for $70. (Really, $20 because of my fabu gift card.) I need a new pair of brown low boots and I don't want to jump on the J.Crew bandwagon. See the previous post as to why I am boycotting the Crew. Anywho, the wedge platform heel said "Hello Elliot, please buy me and enjoy pain-free walking while maintaining the length of your amazing new jeans."

DH is kicking me off the computer now, so away I go. Cheers!

Dear J.Crew,

It's not me, it's you.

You have taken away free shipping coupons and codes.

You have taken away free shipping for sale items on the red phone.

Have I mentioned that you don't even carry my size in your stores anymore? I'm assuming my arse is too fat for you to want pants of its size on display.

And your website redesign is the worst I've ever seen.

I hear your stock has been falling. Good. Speaking as a software analyst, your QA/QC people should be ASHAMED to have let that GUI go out. Two years to make and a month to alienate the majority of your core customers. Thumbs up there, guys.

On the up side, I've been having a very passionate affair with Banana, Gap, and Piper Lime. They actually let you order things, in the size you want, on their website. They carry a variety of sizes in their stores. I get free shipping EVERY time I use my Luxe card. They tailor my pants for free. I call their CS and they can 1) track my order 2) tell me where it is and 3) actually deliver it.

J.Crew, we've been friends for a long time. My high school prophesy said that I'd die the day they discontinued your catalog. The time has come to say goodbye.

And screw you, too.

Elliot