My one-of-a-kind handbag

In May of this year, I traveled to Michigan to visit my dear friends Jodi and Kelly in Lansing. As a treat to ourselves, Jodi and I scheduled facials at the Douglas J Aveda Institute in East Lansing on Grand River Avenue. What a choice idea – it was fabulously indulgent. But the point of this “cool stuff” post is my bag.

While Jodi and I waited our turn to be pampered, we checked out the merchandise at the front of the store. They had a coat rack filled with odd-looking bags that drew both Jodi’s and my attention. Upon closer examination, not only did we find that they were on sale (50% off!), but that they were super-cool bags, each completely unique, made from recycled billboards. We both immediately committed to purchasing one.



In the grand scheme of things, I wouldn’t care too much for this bag: there is only one pocket (which is a flat one sewn to the inside panel that doesn’t securely hold anything) and there is no way to close the bag at the top (no snap or zip). But on top of the cool points gained by being one-of-a-kind, this bag is also my choice when attending certain events, like UNC football games.

The bag is basically vinyl, so you can wipe anything off of it. I can put it on the floor anywhere and not worry about what it might pick up since I can wipe it down with Clorox wipes when I get home! Since I am a self-admitted class-A germaphobe, this perk is KEY to my love of this bag. As an item born of re-use, it gets an automatic thumbs up from me! If you’re interested, you can find more information about these bags at the Relan web site.

FYI: Approximate dimensions of my bag are 11" wide x 13.5" tall, 4" depth (unstretched). the straps (if held up rigidly) measure 11" from shoulder to the top of the bag.

Pure Bailey

As I mentioned in an earlier post today, Bailey often appears to bark for absolutely no reason. It's like he can't help himself. The image below is from a birthday card Kerry sent to me years ago. I've kept it on my bulletin board in the kitchen, with a note next to it that reads, "Pure Bailey." Sadly, it is so true.

The Lawnmower Man

As mentioned last week, on Thursdays I telework and normally get a ton of work done due to the lack of interruptions and distractions in the office. Yesterday – or at least yesterday morning – that was not the case thanks to aforementioned crazy neighbor (aka recycling captain, psycho weedwhacker, tiny dog tormentor). I will refer to him as CN for the remainder of this post.

While I often find it convenient that CN cuts my grass (especially since he uses his own lawnmower and his own gas), there are occasions when his kind deed is unwelcome. For example, I do not appreciate it when he decides that “operation neighborhood lawn trim” is to take place on Saturday morning at 6:30 a.m. I call it “operation neighborhood lawn trim” (ONLT) because he also cuts other neighbors’ lawns, so when he starts at 6:30, he’s not done until around 9:30 because he has a mower with a bag that often has to be emptied. Houses are very close to each other in this neighborhood, so I hear the mower the entire time.

So, yesterday morning ONLT kicked off at 7:30. Since Zoe's sense of hearing rivals that of dolphins, she was immediately on full enemy alert: frantically pacing between my bedroom windows, barking her head off, jumping into the window sills and pawing the glass. It goes without saying that I got out of bed at 7:32, even though I could've slept until almost 9:00...GRRRR!

Thank goodness I am usually gone to work when CN carries out ONLT, because this is how the rest of the morning went...

Zoe made wild laps around the house, attacking each window and the kitchen's sliding glass door as she followed CN on his mowing path. Of course Bailey barked the whole time because Zoe was barking. Bailey was comic relief in this instance because I really don't think he knew what he was barking at. He didn't even get off of his bed. He wasn't even barking in the direction of the noise OR Zoe. I should really call him "My Clueless Houdini."

At one point, I surprised CN when I threw back the kitchen curtain to find him taunting Zoe, who was violently throwing herself at the glass door. She's only 7 1/2 pounds, but the door was shaking. He really thought his actions were funny. I did NOT agree.

I'm starting to realize that the following two things are in order:

1. CN needs a serious talking to, or a good scare from Zoe (off-leash).
2. I'm going to have to start mowing my own lawn again.

Getting reacquainted

I had the privilege of drawing Sydney duty last evening, and I was ecstatic that she accepted my presence quickly and even flashed quite a few smiles for me! I can't take credit for the photo below, as I snagged it from Kerry's Snapfish album. I didn't have my camera with me, but I wanted to include a photo of a happy Sydney, and I love the retro dress, too!



I honestly think Sydney might just go from stationary baby to walking champ. She hasn't begun to crawl, but with a little assistance she walks like a pro. And she WANTS to walk.

If I sat her on the sofa or on the floor, she cried and slapped her hands at the floor until I put her on her feet. She tried several times to pick herself up (via grasping at my pant leg or nearby furniture) but she just doesn't have the muscles and coordination required yet. It won't be long though!

When Sydney started to get tired (rubbing of eyes was intense) she became very cranky. I tried several things to appease her, but the only thing that worked was putting her in her Jump and Go. (Side note: In response to the many negative reviews I found for this product, I want to point out that the item is not called "leave your kid alone swing." Depending on the child's age, obviously some supervision is going to be required).

The Jump and Go is perfect for Sydney. She loves to "dance" (bounce up and down while propping herself up on something sturdy), so the illusion that she is dancing or walking on her own is quite pleasing to her. She was entirely happy - bouncing, spinning and swinging - until mommy came home. Then she was ecstatic!

How many bottles?

I wonder how many AVEDA bottles these caps can help to make?

Almost this entire bag is from my dad. When he's not practicing dentistry, he's walking...and picking up trash and recyclables as he goes.

He's the greenest man I know! Thanks dad!

Cool Stuff: Abitax gadget case

This post category might not end up with a ton of entries, but I've gotten enough inquiries about some of my uncommon goods that I thought I would share the details (and my LOVE of these products) here. The first "cool stuff" post is dedicated to my beloved Abitax gadget case. Abitax is a Japanese company for which I have not been able to find much information on the internet in English. I began researching the company after seeing my friend Blair's case when I visited her in Los Angeles in June of 2007. I immediately fell in love with the little pouch and wanted to know where I could get one. Unfortunately, I didn't ask her about it until after I'd returned home and failed to find one online that could be delivered for less than a $10 shipping charge. The freakin' thing doesn't even weigh 3 ounces, so a $10 shipping charge is ridiculous!

(The photo to the left is of my case with my phone inside it. You can see that the antenna, which measures approximately 1 1/4", barely sticks out of the case.)

After I e-mailed Blair about it, she explained that hers had been a Christmas gift from her husband, but she knew where he got it. While it just so happened to be the ridiculous shipping charge store, she generously offered to buy one for me in-store and ship it to me (THANKS BLAIR!) As it turned out, she sent me two (one for me and one for Kerry) and charged us nothing...what a fabulous friend.

While the cases may appear to be overpriced (the cheapest I've found for the small size is $29.75, current price on sale at Rare Device) these babies are totally worth it. They are constructed of felted wool, and each comes with two interchangeable clips - one is a flat clip (pictured both front left and back below) and the other is a carabiner-style clip (pictured below in aqua/blue color with my phone on top). Obviously from the photos you can see I now have two of these cases. I ended up purchasing one from the ridiculous shipping store, along with another for a friend as a birthday gift.


The size of the small case varies on the internet, but I measured mine (flat, not including attached clip) as 2 7/8" wide by 4 1/2" tall. My phone (LG VX8300) fits perfectly and has never fallen out.

As I only have a cell phone (no land line in casa a la Tracey), this case has made my life much easier because my phone is almost always on hand. The clips are easy to change, but I usually keep the flat clip on because I can attach it to the waist of my gym shorts, the side of my purse or the pocket of my pants.

The bad news is that Abitax availability is scarce in the US (haven't even found them on ebay). The only US online stores I've found are linked above (Rare Device and Tortoise Life), and as formerly mentioned, shipping isn't cheap. You can risk ordering via the Abitax site, but I didn't and wouldn't. However, now that I have two of my own, I recommend getting over the shipping charges or if you have friends in Brooklyn, Los Angeles or San Francisco, have one shipped to you via your friend. You won't be sorry - but if you are - I'd probably buy yours from you!

FYI: these also come in a larger size, which one site described as a mitten without a thumb (to give you an idea of the size). I have not seen the large size first hand.

Sunset playground and a Tonka truck ride

Last night after my regular workout I was happy to find Kerry, along with Felton and Sydney at the neighborhood playground. I was even more excited about the fact that Sydney did not wail in terror as soon as she saw me. She is my goddaughter but not fond of people she doesn't see every day. Thankfully, last night she extended a reprieve. No screaming, and I tried to tell myself that her hand pats at the bench next to her were an invitation for me to sit by her, although I did not risk it!

I did manage to get some pics of Felton playing big brother. Apparently Sydney's only interest in the playground involved eating the mulch, so Kerry decided to sit her in the Tonka and let Felton push her around in it. This worked out well!




Once Felton reached the sandbox, he left Sydney beached on the edge and went on his way. I got a cute photo and then tried to push her back to mommy myself. Felton immediately turned and said, "Don't push her!" Apparently he wanted to do it himself, and soon returned to carry out the task.




In the last photo, I'm not sure what Felton was doing, but I loved the look of concentration on his face. It reminded me of when he crouches to contemplate a shot (like daddy) during a golf game.

Tar Heels 38, Huskies 12

The Heels were ON last night! The highlight of the game for me was watching defensive lineman Marvin Austin score a touchdown. Those guys aren't meant to run, but he sure did.

After searching for Bailey for most of the morning, I was due for some fun and games, and NO dogs. Bro, Maria, Abby and I met up with the Cuthrells for some pre-game tailgating. Brendan and Jackson (JC and Corey's kids) are adorable, and quite the mischevious ones, as you can see below. First we have Brendan, Jackson and Abby. Then there's Jackson with "blue icing lipstick." He was quite methodical in rubbing his cupcake across his lips in order to get the maximum amount of icing possible on his mouth.




Then we have the ladies: Maria, myself and Corey. Corey brought along some kind of fabulous liquor that tastes like sweet tea and had a pretty good kick. It was delicious - thanks Corey!


Abby and me, waiting for the rest of the fans to arrive.



I put some of my treasured Lemon Lip Butter (C.O. Bigelow, Bath & Body Works) on Abby so she felt the need to pucker up for the camera. She wanted us all to do the same, and we did take pictures but they're not posted here because Abby's "pucker face" is much cuter than any of the rest of ours!



Abby trekked almost all the way around Kenan Stadium with me to visit Kerry and Robert, whose seats are almost directly opposite ours, but the path there is rather convoluted. I might not have been so irritated about this if I hadn't watched a "security guard" let a plain-clothesed man and his child cut through the end zone, only to immediately tell me, "No, you can't go through here." Per his instructions, I then had to weave through a sea of drunken students (not to put them down, I was one of them once, but would prefer to shield Abby from them). Abby was a champ, never any less than the happiest kid on a field trip, but I must say that I found it preposterous that in order to reach a destination closer in length than 1/2 the football field, we were forced to walk at least 250 yards to reach my friends.

As Abby and I were walking back to our seats, I think we missed two Tar Heel touchdowns. We definitely missed at least one, because she and I heard the fireworks and the announcer screaming "Touchdown, Carolina!" With all the cheering, Abby looked up at me and said, "Something good must've just happened!" I told her, "indeed," and then we proceeded to yell, "Touchdown, Carolina!" over and over. Then Abby stopped me to say, "We're gonna win this game!" And she was right.

My little Houdini

Bailey has just returned to Caroline's house (where I'm dogsitting) after another long morning of wild and free abandon. You'd think I would've learned by now that Caro's fence cannot contain Bailey. I found a new hole, one that doesn't look big enough for Bailey to fit through, but apparently it is.

I spent a couple of hours looking for him, all the while drawing odd looks from folks passing by wondering why I would be carrying a leash with no dog on the end. After resigning myself to defeat, I walked back to Caroline's, paced for a while and then just as soon as I sat down on the couch my phone rang. It was a nice man named Jay who said he had Bailey in his yard. I nearly fainted when he told me he lives in Meadowmont, meaning that Bailey had to not only travel a few miles to get to Jay's house, but he also had to cross FOUR lanes of traffic on highway 54! Therefore, Bailey is known as Houdini both for his ability to break free from almost anywhere, and his ability to evade death by motor vehicle.

I took the photo above soon after returning with Bailey. I can't believe he went straight to the back door, as if I would let him back out there!

I'm always grateful when he's found, but right now I'm still thinking he's an a**hole. At least he's tired and sleeping like a log right now so I can take a nap before heading out to tailgate this afternoon. GO HEELS!

Quote of the day

"Study hard and work hard. Play hard, keep an open mind, take pride in yourself, in your school, in what you produce, and the way you help others. If you make mistakes, make sure you learn from them & never give up. Stay strong to the finish."

-Eve Carson, UNC Student Body President (elected February 2007; murdered March 2008)

We miss you, Eve!

Eve Carson Memorial 5K

Jen and I are going to WALK in this on November 15th. If you're interested, check out the details on the official site. A brief description follows:

The Eve Carson Memorial 5K for Education is a fundraiser for the Eve Marie Carson Junior Year Merit Scholarship Fund which was established to provide a one year merit scholarship for Juniors at UNC. A third of the funds will also be split between FirstBook, an organization that distributes books to underpriveledged children, and Clyde Erwin Elementary School to support their literacy programming. We hope you will join us for a run through the beautiful UNC campus in memory of Eve!

Carolina Blue Skies

Yesterday's weather was absolutely perfect - crisp, cool, and sunny with clear blue skies. Since I get to work from home on Thursdays, I was able to enjoy it a bit more than if I'd been at the office (where I don't have a single window and I'm on the third floor so quick outdoor breaks aren't possible). Here's the view of the sky from my driveway.



My windows were opened all of Wednesday night and yesterday, but my hair stayed straight and my eyes weren't running or puffy - this translates to no humidity and low allergen levels in the air. Too bad it's going to be 80 degrees again next week. I wish fall would get here already!

If you read the post from September 24th, then you know what Zoe is doing in the next two photos. Her ears are pricked in the first one because my crazy neighbor had just slammed his car door. Zoe hates that neighbor, and I'm not wild about him either. He's the one who rearranges my recycling and always loiters in my yard. Oh, and he barks and lunges at Zoe when I walk her. He thinks it's funny, but one of these days I'm going to let her go and then he won't be laughing! Maybe I'll even train her to sic balls like Chopper.

Address mix-ups & impending bad karma...

Yesterday morning when someone rang my doorbell I ignored it as usual, waited for the dogs to settle down, and then descended the stairs to the front door where I found a neatly folded invoice on my welcome mat. I knew what it was for before I opened it. You see, the people who owned my house before me didn’t have the sense to forward their mail, much less to cancel all of the regular services they had scheduled. So their exterminator service continued for more than a year after I moved in – the occasional invoice left at the door but no payments made whatsoever by me, as not one of those invoices had my name on it.

Then for about 8 months nothing, then the invoices started popping up again, but this time with the wrong address on them. I live in a cul-de-sac, with another cul-de-sac on the opposite side of the cross street. (To prevent myself from being found out by the neighbor, I am changing the street names, but all you need to know is that the street names are similar). My street is Dobson, the opposing street is Dobb’s Way. The intended recipient of the exterminator’s services has the same numerical address as I do, so this is an obvious error on the part of the exterminator. Now let me tell you why I’ve let this continue for so long (although I’m starting to feel guilty about it now that it has been going on for more than a year).

The mix-up between myself and the same neighbor occurred with annoying frequency with respect to packages delivered by DHL. I consistently received packages that were neither addressed by name nor physical address to me. They were always addressed to my numerical twin neighbor on Dobb’s Way. Every time I received one of his packages, I immediately delivered it to him in person or left it on his porch. On one occasion he was home so when I introduced myself and explained the situation, he replied with, “yeah, I think I have some mail of yours.” After sifting through a huge pile of crap on his counter, he handed me a mangled Blockbuster envelope containing a movie I should’ve received more than a month before. (I had reported it as “lost in the mail,” and they sent me another copy, weeks before this incident).

Assuming (likely correctly) that he had no intention of making an effort to return my mail to me on his own, I felt no guilt the first time I realized my house had mistakenly been given his perimeter treatment. I mean really, who knows how much of my mail has been delivered to the Bermuda mail triangle that is the house on Dobb’s Way? I recall one likely instance in particular, which cost me a late fee on a credit card and a huge headache to boot. On top of that, it took 4 phone calls and my insistence to speak with a manager to stop the DHL deliveries - more time than I like to spend correcting an error that really doesn't severely impact my life, and it irritated me that said neighbor NEVER contacted DHL about the problem. Of course most of these errors were facilitated by the mailman and other delivery men, etc rather than my neighbor, but he’s guilty of a far more loathsome thing – sheer laziness, as well as a lack of common courtesy!

So what do you think? Am I a terrible person? No matter what you think, if you utilize any services that do not require your personal signature, I suggest you occasionally confirm that the services are being carried out. After all, my neighbor might not realize his house isn't getting sprayed until he's overrun by roaches!

Barnsie the office mascot

Barnsie was a Christmas gift from colleague Dorothy last year. He came from Barnes & Noble, wearing a green sweater with "Barnsie" embroidered on the chest in gold. She told Jen and I at the time that we were supposed to "dress" him for the changing seasons and use him as our office mascot. (Apparently another colleague has a bear that also has a revolving wardrobe, and we were to be the "competition.") While I haven't purchased any clothes for Barnsie, co-workers have outfitted him well. Actually, he's rather transgendered since he's gone from boyish to very frilly clothes and back again. Before today's new outfit, Barnsie (or Barnsietta) was wearing a skirted one-piece bathing suit and sunglasses.

Kathy bought Barnsie's Halloween attire. The shirt reads, "Little Monster," and we stuffed the witch hat with bubblewrap so it would stand up. It was Jen's idea to add the ant ornament (Christmas gift from colleague Rita last year, seen only in 2nd photo), and I think it rounds out the outfit nicely!

I'm sure I'll get chided for this post, but Barnsie really does draw his fair share of attention. I bet someone brings in a Santa suit before the end of the year!

Please sign the World Cancer Declaration

Please sign the World Cancer Declaration. Follow the WCD link on this page, click on the yellow button at the bottom left side and then fill in your information. I have been working with the Lance Armstrong Foundation for the last 2 months and I've received ZERO junk mail, so I hope you will participate. Their plea for support is pasted below:

"We the global cancer community call on governments, international governmental organizations, the international donor community, development agencies, professional organizations, the private sector and all civil society to take immediate steps to slow and ultimately reverse the growth in deaths from cancer."

If you are interested in supporting the Lance Armstrong Foundation, I strongly encourage a visit to LAF's "Get Involved" page but I am also more than willing to answer any questions that I can, and/or point you in the right direction.

It's such a small thing, but I put a LIVESTRONG arm band on in early August and I think I've taken it off a maximum of 3 times since then. The arm band and the message are literally part of me now.

***I have several LIVESTRONG arm bands available. Mine fits perfectly , but it's a YOUTH size. If anyone would like an ADULT band, please let me know. Band and shipping free of charge, so long as I can trust you will wear the band. No, I won't know if you don't, but your conscience will kill you and that's enough for me!