Almost French

Mais Oui! I cooked a real frenchified dinner for my besties last night.  Decided to road test my skills from last week's cooking class in Paris. Success!  I recreated the coquille st. jacques in a saffron mustard sauce with basmati rice and green beens.  Of course there was lots of wine and cheese just in case, sacre bleu, there was a disaster in the kitchen.  Top Chef here I come.

Holiday Latte Watch

Pumpkin lattes are here. Starbucks, Pete's, Coffee Bean and Tully's all have them. It's only a matter of time before holiday flavors roll out too. Eggnog, and gingerbread, and peppermint mocha, oh my! They are the most sugar loaded things on the planet, yet for some reason I absolutely lurve them. Actually save up all my nickels and dimes during the year to supplement my latte allowance during the all too short flavor appearance. The first holiday latte of the year has somehow even become it's own holiday with my bestie Aaron. We go and order the biggest size of our fave (for me it's gingerbread, for him it's nog) and go on a shopping frenzy during the peak of our sugar high. It's pretty much a euphoric religious experience. Seeing how the cappuccino was invented by the capuchin monks I think it's fair to say it is. Time start watching for the red cup! It's almost as wonderful as the red insole on a pair of Louboutins.

Fallfest

I definitely miss fall being out here on the West coast.  There is no drop in temperature or noticeable change in foliage to mark the transition from summer to not summer.  It's really the arrival of Halloween that marks "fall" in my books.  And I always throw a fallfest when Halloween rolls around.  Pumpkins, cider, caramel apples, the works.  This year my jack-o-lantern carving inspiration comes from ... wait for it... yeswecarve.com.  Yep, it's a play on "yes we can." I think the options are pretty rad.  I've already enlisted one of my more artistic friends to help me with my "OOOObama" stencil.

Drowning My Sorrows in Product

Today was a really bad day at work. Thanks to corporate re-shuffling I had a new position before I knew what had even happened. My new spot got pitched to me as a growth opportunity. Essentially I was cut from the team. Boooo. Luckily for me I have a roommate who works in the beauty industry. Her room is pretty much a fully stocked spa. And for some reason, product always makes me feel better. Some people drink. I slather my face in serums and lip gloss. So once again "K" came to the rescue. Within five minutes of arriving home all puffy eyed and angry she arrived at my door toting a pink bag overflowing with this weeks hottest everything. Use everything in here, all at once, right now she purred. Pure bliss.

Superlatives

Last week over coffee with my besties, Aaron went around the table and handed out yearbook style superlatives.  Each one was witty, honest and had us falling out of our seats with laughter. But all he came up with for me was "Most likely to spend their live savings at Starbucks." Seriously?  That was the best he could do?  I do admittedly love my lattes, but as his best friend couldn't he come up with something a little punchier? After watching me sulk the entire rest of our outing he pulled me aside.  "See the thing I love about you," he said, "Is that you are logical and practical about everything. But you have this outrages secret thing for lattes." He is right. And if that's what I'm to be known for I'm going to really go for it.  Until I go broke I guess.

Hacked

I was finally in the swing of this facebook movement.  My pictures were up to date, I regularly wrote on friends walls, my status was current.  And then I got hacked.  Tragedy. Someone got on to my finally worth taking a look at page and sent notes with dirty content to all my FB contacts. So I had to pull my page.  All those hours spent lovingly finessing every detail to perfection over conference calls at work wasted. To top it off I have to email all my friends that I allegedly sent inappropriate content to and let them know my page is infected and they should delete my messages.  It feels dirty like I'm calling ex-lovers to tell them I have an STD.

The Score: Gym - 5, Couch - 360

2008 has not been a good gym year for me.  I'm an all or nothing person when it comes to physical fitness.  Staying svelte was easy in high-school and college when coach was barking in my ear to run faster and jump higher.  Self motivating is so much harder.  I was on a good kick for a while in 2007.  Started my day with a 5-mile jog or some yoga.  This year I am seriously loosing the battle.  The couch is just too damn comfortable.  But I am really going to try and make and effort for the last 90ish days in '08.  I'll keep y'all posted.