April Faves

I have a little (semi-annoying) housekeeping item to talk about before I get into this month's favorite products. You see those google ads over there on the right hand side of this page? Those ads support my love of blogging, so if you'll just throw me a bone and click on those when you visit my blog that would be fantastic! If yall start clicking, I'll maybe be able to do more frequent "favorites" posts. (I'm sure I'll do them regardless ... but just click!!)

Sorry for that -- I know it is annoying.

Okay, so I haven't done a 'favorites' post in a couple of months now so this is long overdue. I have been blogging about more serious topics (mainly because someone accused me of being 'overcome by consumerism') but now I think its time to switch it up! These are some of my most recent discoveries.

Tide Total Care


I think I've mentioned this before, but I am a total sucker to a good ad campaign. Tide claims that washing your clothes with their Total Care product will help to prevent your clothing against the 7 signs of aging. I have mixed emotions on that, but mostly I believe that P&G invented a new formula which allows slightly higher profit margins than the rest of their line and the marketing department decided to come up with a convincing ad campaign so they could sell it. I needed detergent, so I of course picked up a bottle.

I can't and won't speak to their claim that it protects clothes against aging. Maybe that is true, maybe it isn't. But the stuff SMELLS FANTASTIC! It honestly doesn't smell all that great in the container, but once you pull your clothes out of the wash .... ahhhh! So fresh and so clean.

Thomas Strawberry Bagels


These were a bit of an impulse purchase the other day at the grocery store, but definitely a good one! I haven't noticed these before so they may or may not be new but they are delicious! I toasted one this morning and put a little cream cheese on top ... they were fabulous.

Crest Pro-Health Night Toothpaste
Mamacita recommended this one to me. At first I was skeptical because I am a stickler for making sure that any toothpaste I use has the ADA seal of approval and sometimes these 'weird' toothpastes do not (even if they are Crest or Colgate). Anyway, I tried it and it is great! It has these little notsurewhattocallthem bubbles in with the paste that kinda massage your gums and really scrub your teeth. You really do get that just-left-the-dentist clean feeling after using it! I'm not quite sure why it is recommended for night use, but I use it day or night.

Coffee-Mate Italian Sweet Cream


Another one my mom introduced me to! (She's a savvy shopper, I tell you) If you are like me and like your coffee sweetened with a little flavored cream, this is a must try! I don't think it comes sugar free or fat free, but I promise its worth it.

And don't forget .... click on my ads!!

Update

This is just too good not to share! Remember my post the other day about the cigar dude wanting to use my picture in some photo group?

This was his message to me:
Hi, I'm an admin for a group called The Beauty of a smoking Woman, and we'd love to have this added to the group!

I clicked "no thanks" and responded to him in my comments section:
I'm sorry Stefgauloises ... I don't know that the person in this picture with me would approve so I had to decline your request

His response:
awww.. so sorry Katie.. but thank you anyway ;-))
all the best from germany
Stef ;-)==~~

Easy out, right? So then of course I created the starred out picture to put it on my blog. Well since I did that through a Flickr program, it saved the new photo in Flickr. I thought nothing of it.

Then I get another message on the newly saved picture:
Hi, I'm an admin for a group called The Beauty of a smoking Woman, and we'd love to have this added to the group!

Since he was so persistent, it really did make me a little curious. I tried to click into the link he put to his gallery but that group was private. Of course that wierded me out, so I just went into this person's public photo stream. It wasn't anything terrible but still strange -- lots of women smoking very provocatavley. All of the photos were posed and looked like professional shots. The photo that he asked me about? Completley a novelty picture. So I really don't understand why he wanted my picture so badly.

BUT

Against my better judgement, I responded to him:
Can I have permission to view the other photos in this group before I agree?

I don't mean to be weird, but I'm just curious as to what I'm agreeing to!

The response:
sure Katie....i would like to invite you to join "The Beauty of a smoking Woman" but i only can send you an invite to join my group when you add me as a contact or friend...the flickr police forced me to make this group private and so i only can invite contacts or friends..... means people who have me on their contact and friends list....

i hope you understand.. i am so sorry for this trouble

Unfourtch for me, I had already clicked on the email to view his group before I saw this message on my Flickr account.

I didn't ever even get into looking at his photos because I read some of the information on his group site and it was just ... EW.

FILTHY.

So, it is a fetish site. I had a bad feeling about it from the very first message but I really didn't think it was going to be something sooooo drastic. I really just thought it was some dude who liked smoking pictures. I mean that was totally plausable in my mind -- some people like pictures of kittens, cars, and all different things. Oh well. Live and learn, right? Needless to say I told him that I was a fairly conservative person and would prefer that he did not use my image in his group.

Growing Up Is Hard

I'm going to blog about something that I told myself I wouldn't. I wasn't going to discuss this on my blog because I frankly don't like to tell people about (major) things that I am doing, but rather things that I have done or accomplished. However, this is what is going on in the Longmire household right now and I'm conflicted about it, so really seems like perfect blog material. Also, if you have any related experiences or knowledge, I would love to hear your insight. (Because seriously, is there any better place to get your questions/concerns answered than on google or your blog?)

Ben and I met with a Realtor tonight - we're thinking of putting our condo on the market. Stupid? Probably. But we need a house. We need more room. We cannot stay in this condo forever and the market isn't going to get better. Interest rates are rock bottom right now and it seems like the best time to lock in at an attractive rate. Anyway, with trying to sell a property brings about so many questions.

The Realtor happens to be a really close friend of Ben's mother. So of course I think she's looking out for our best interests. But at the same time, there are questions to be considered. Of course my main concerns are how much should/can I negotiate her commission down? (Especially considering we are already going to have to take a loss AND we'll buy through her once we sell). Also, we don't quite see eye to eye on the listing price -- she thinks we should back into our bottom line number based on what we'll need as down payment on our next purchase while I'm more concerned with only taking a certain amount of a loss. Also, she has encouraged us to contact mortgage brokers and talk about pre-qualifying and how much down payment we'll need. I'm not worried about that yet. Is that not putting the cart before the horse?

This is all probably way too personal for me to put on my blog. But its what we are dealing with at the moment. I know others have been through it, so please ... give advice!

And also, I do realize there are people out there with much larger problems than this. I'm not that shallow. Like I mentioned earlier ... I'm just reporting on what is going on in my life!

I'm not so sure about this whole internet thing

I have always stored my photos on these online galleries. I always thought it was the easiest place to upload and then later purchase my pictures. I have a CD somewhere for most of these pictures so I could get them back if it was ever necessary, but I really just like having them organized online. This was working pretty well for me until I realized that my photos were on several different sites. I switched around for various reasons -- usually because I wanted to buy product from one site that wasn't available on another. Or I liked certain formatting options on a different site better. Whatever the reason, the point is that my pictures were spread in various places.

In an effort to reduce the need for me to reduce the number of different usernames/passwords, I decided that I really needed to make the switch to one site. Now, I realize it makes sense to move everything to whatever site that I have the most on but that is Kodak photo gallery and I don't like it nearly as much as Picasa and Flickr. I decided that since I liked Flickr best, I would move everything over there. (And yes, I know this task will take me a year or longer) So I started.

For whatever reason, I uploaded some (not even close to all) of my pictures from my trip to Cuba 2 years ago. Totally legit, trip btw ... I still have proof that I had liscense to go in case Obama reads my blog and decides to give me hell about it. This was one of the pictures in that set:

The other girl's face wasn't blocked out on my flickr site, but I did this since I was posting it on my blog and she doesn't have any clue this blog exists. (I post pictures of friends and family that read my blog, but they can always tell me to take them down if they have concerns)

I logged onto my Flickr today and had a message from an administrator of some site/group called The Beauty of a Smoking Woman asking permission to add this photo to their set. I declined for various reasons, but it did get me thinking. I'm not so sure I like all this random stuff about me all over the internetz.

I know that I can make that photo private, and I can make my blog private but really once its online it is out there. Plus, I like for people to read my blog and look at my pictures. It is too late for me to go private at this point, and I really don't post or write anything that I would be all that embarassed about so there is no reason really.

I know I sound hypocritical, you don't need to tell me that. I'm just thinking out loud. On one hand, I enjoy blogging and putting my pictures out there but on the other you just never know if there is some creep lurking out there. I'm not saying that this Smoking Beauty person is a creep at all (because probably a creep wouldn't ask my permission) but this is just what got me to thinking.

I'm probably still going to add my photos up to Flickr. I may just make my profile private so that only friends and family can see. Not sure.

That's all.

Randomness

Lots of random thoughts from yours truly today. I'm all over the place.

Ben and I went to Tennessee this weekend to visit his parents. It was a nice, relaxing weekend filled with shopping, golfing (for Ben), eating, and watching basketball. While Ben and his dad were playing golf on Saturday his mother and I went out shopping. I don't normally shop in J Crew too much, but we were at the mall on Saturday and had time to kill so I stopped in. I am LOVING their spring line! I guess the trend this spring is lots of feminine detail ... flowers, ruffles, etc. So stinkin' cute!
I'm not sure how this one would look on me, but I adore the Victorian collar and think I could (maybe) pull the look off.Tracey bought this when I was visiting her in DC ... I absolutley love it but won't copy her!

This would be a great piece for this time of year! And the flowers make it springy.

The second thing I have to report is that I did find a pair of black flat sandals. Not thongs, but they are cute nonetheless. I can't find a picture of them online, so you're just going to have to take my word for it. OH! And I found the best deal on a pair of Kenneth Cole boots --- $16!! I won't be able to wear them until next winter, but for $16 it was so worth it.

I've heard a lot recently about McDonald's new coffees and lattes. I guess they are trying to beef up their coffee offering to compete with Starbucks. I've heard good things about their iced coffees and stuff so I figured it was worth a try. The verdict? Pretty good, but my experience wasn't very good due to the fact that I went to a McDonald's that was a little out of my way. Also, they didn't seem to understand the concept of making a latte with skim milk and no flavor added.

You remember how I posted a few weeks ago about my GOOP challenge? Well, evidently putting it on my blog for 'accountability' doesn't really seem to work out. Because I quit after 3 days. I have worked it into my regular 3-4 days/week workout routine though and think I'm much more apt to stick to it now. We'll see

Lastly, I've been inspired to do a serious closet clean up. Our closet is so overfull and is seriously messy. I'll post before and after photos, but since the before is super embarrassing you'll have to wait until I'm finished! I'm sure I'll come up with some good what not to wear ensembles as well.

Sandals

I have been on the hunt for the perfect pair of flat black thong sandals for a few years now. I have this precise vision in my head of the ones that I want and of course I cannot find them anywhere. Since I'm getting old and must stop wearing heels every day of my existence, I am on a serious mission this spring!

I've found a few pairs on Zappos and DSW that I like. You tell me what you think

I like these, but what I have in mind is slightly more dressy. These may work but I'm not totally sold on them. I also wanted to avoid an ankle strap.

LOVE the simplicity of these puppies but of course I look at the price and they are $210. Yeah, probably not going to pay that for a sandal. Let's move along.

I like these too. Especially the chunky rocks (or whatever they are) in the middle. I think these could actually be perfect because they can be worn dressed up or worn with a walking short or capris. Of course these are also a little bit price prohibitave.

Don't mug on these, I know they're purple in this picture but I think they come in black. I'll admit that the flower on top isn't ideal but this is the style I'm looking for -- thong, not paper-thin sole, not sparkly, no ankle-strap, wide enough for my fat foot.

Those are basically my only options. Everything else is too gladiator-y (although I do love glads), too sparkly, too ugly, too flimsy, or too trashy. I just don't know what to do. After a 2 year search, it just doesn't seem like I'm going to ever find the perfect shoe.

The New 90210

I've been out of the blogosphere for about a week now. I have things to talk about, just haven't had time to really think through a post. Anyways. I'll try to be better.

Am I the only 20-something that watches 90210? I'm pretty certain that I'm not. Did anyone see last night's episode? WOW. That show has done a complete nosedive. Ben and I started watching it mainly because it was an escape and we've continued to watch simply because it is a trainwreck. Actually, trainwreck is an understatement when describing last night's episode.

If you don't appreciate spoilers and haven't watched last night, stop reading now.

Okay. So Silver was on my nerves the whole night. I liked her so much better when she was edgy and cool. She's turned downright annoying. Over the top. And you know Dixon was frustrated with her, but since she got that tattoo of his name he felt trapped. And WHAT IN THE WORLD was she thinking with that video? I mean, seriously. Girl is deranged. I have to admit that I didn't see that one coming. As if that wasn't bad enough, she had to go psycho light her videos on fire in Dixon's yard then break into Matthews' place? (BTW, does he live at Melrose Place? I think so) I guess she was just so pissed that Dixon broke up with her that she couldn't think logically. In my not-so-humble opinion the producers went a little over the top with Silver last night. They should have stopped with her Left Eye Lopesing Dixon's house.

Moving right along, let's talk about Annie now. She is annoying. That's all. And her expressions? SO OVER HER.


I actually like Namoi these days. The fact that she's doing the whole Dylan thing and living in a hotel due to a fallout with her parents is fun. Unrealistic? Sure. Formulaic? Absolutely. But still it makes for an entertaining storyline. Now enter bad boy, Liam, and we pretty much have a new Dylan in town. I'm just hoping the real Dylan McKay will show up.

Adrianna: She, like Naomi, has gotten much better over time. Obvi, she mellowed out since she's preggers but she's pretty much the most stable of all the main characters. She didn't have enough air time last night and neither did Navid. And while we're at it neither did Brenda, Kelly, or DONNA!!

I think I'm going to keep giving it a try. For at least a few more weeks. I'm crossing my fingers that Silver will downgrade from psycho to just weird, Annie will learn to act, and the show will focus more on Naomi, Adriana, and Kelly.

What are your thoughts?