Ladybug Studio

Makeup Whore

Okay, I attended yet another Lancôme makeup session. Yes, I am completely addicted to them and I am also a huge sucker afterward, buying all the products and makeup they used on me. They can see me coming from a mile away. But this makeup session was very special, because Ricardo, who is the National Makeup Artist for the Southeast, was there. He did my eyes with a gorgeous summer palette called Bronze Captive. Naturally, I bought one for myself. (also the Star Bronzer compact)

But I bought more skin care products than makeup. I'm at an age where I care about my skin. I just wish I'd cared about my skin about 10 or so years ago. But I guess it's never to late to start. Besides, I think of these products as investments rather than indulgences. Makes me gasp a little quieter as I hand over my credit card.

In other news, my garage sale is this Saturday. I finally chose a day based on the fact that Tom's cousin Rick is coming to stay with us for a couple of days. He and a few more California relatives are coming to Florida for Gram's 90th birthday celebration. (Quick note: this woman does NOT look 90. She looks at least 10 years younger) He'll be here on Sunday and we want to get the Giant Pile of Garage Sale Stuff out of the back porch where I've been stashing it.

I'm not looking forward to it, naturally. Who would? But as I'm going to be on my own, I'm actually rather dreading it. Tom and Joy both have to work. I don't really know who else to ask. (I like everyone too much to beg and make them feel sorry for me) I'm hoping some of the neighbors may help by keeping an eye out for me. There are several older gentlemen around who I know get up early and start puttering around in their yards and such.

I still need to make some signs (done), borrow a few tables (check) and start grouping my stuff into categories. I guess my car will have to stay outside for the next two nights so I can use the garage as a staging area. I advertised in the KSC Bulletin, but that's all. I don't have enough pricey items to warrant putting anything in the newspaper. That would eat up too much of the profits.

Seriously? Now it doesn't look as though I will be having this garage sale Saturday after all. Why? Because after weeks of dry, dry weather, it is supposed to rain Friday night into Saturday morning.

The Day After Sofa Day

No time to write about Monday today either! It's been crazy busy today and this is the first chance I've had all day to write. (though somehow I did have time to do some internet research on hampers and Unazukin - more on that later) Well never mind, Monday wasn't that interesting anyway. Oh wait - there was the Shuttle Launch Experience ride. That's worth telling about. In a nutshell, it was quite good. Done. (hee)

To make up for the short amount of quality reading material you are all so used to, here is a photo of the new RED sofa. The two throw pillows were supposed to be coordinating striped ones, but were accidentally replaced with red ones. I wasn't aware that I could have solid matching red pillows and I think it was a happy mistake. I like them better and now I won't be locked into a color theme.

By the way - getting the sofa into the spare room was a HUGE deal. I was really quite worried that it wouldn't make it and I'd have to keep the sofa in the garage. But Tom and Dean are wonderful (tell them I put it in writing!) and they made it work out with very little damage to the sofa or the walls. (I love you Magic Eraser!)

Sofa Day

We're picking up the new couch for the spare room today. I'm really looking forward to it. The lawn chair I put in there for the weekend wasn't all that comfortable. I will soon be able to stretch out and really lounge properly once more.

Speaking of the weekend, it was a pretty good one. Saturday at Alafia (pronounced al-uh-fI) River State Park turned out to be a great day. It drizzled rain off and on all the way over there, so I was a bit worried about that. But it turned out to be sunny and pretty all day once we arrived.

The park is very nice, well maintained with a real asphalt parking area (unlike the customary grass/dirt lots we usually encounter). There are two large pavilions with picnic tables, real restrooms, a bike washing station (also good for self-washing), a volleyball net (because you hardly use up any energy mountain biking!), a playground for the kiddies and a couple of vending machines. All for $4 per vehicle. Nice.

The trails were equally maintained. There were some sandy spots that couldn't be helped (we need rain in this state) but otherwise it's obvious that the trails receive regular maintenance. For the most part they were well marked, rather like ski trails - green circle beginner, blue square intermediate, black diamond expert and double black diamond certifiably crazy. Seriously, the double blacks were completely ridiculous. Vicky and I walked a couple of feet of one and quickly determined that since we didn't want to die that day, we'd go find another trail. Yes, the three guys did ride the miserable thing. I don't think they enjoyed it much and Tom fell and beat the hell out of himself. (btw, I did not fall all day, though I did come close a number of times)

We rode, with a very brief break to refill hydration packs, for 4.5 hours. It was somewhere around 20 miles, which on a mountain bike - in Florida - is a lot of miles. I burned around - drum roll here… 2700 calories! I could barely walk on Sunday.

In fact, because of Saturday, we hardly had the energy to accomplish anything on Sunday. Most of my little chores fell by the wayside. Tom did install a new expansion tank on the hot water heater, we bought bags of lava rock and put it around the perimeter of Tom's workshop, just underneath, to tidy that area and make it look nice. Tom washed hundreds of thousands of love bugs off the front of the Kia. (gah! they are really bad this year!) Anyway, that's all we managed on Sunday.

And… I don't have time to talk about Monday so I'll leave that for tomorrow.

Holiday Weekend

Three-day weekend, coming right up! I am so ready.

We have a couple of things planned, but nothing major. Which is a little disappointing because we used to spend Memorial Day weekend on a mountain biking adventure every year. Anywhere between four and seven of us would go to North Carolina and beat ourselves up in the real mountains. It was pretty much Ride, Eat, Sleep, Ride, Eat, Sleep. But we absolutely loved it.

We are doing a mini adventure tomorrow. Along with Dallas, Matt and Vicky, we are going to the west side of the state to ride at Alafia River State Park. From the website:

"The Alafia River State Park is one of the most favored off-road biking choices in Florida. Skilled riders are traveling from all over the state to ride this collection of scary drops, off-camber hillside ledges, high speed banked turns and intimidating ridge top trails. This single-track is built on the rugged terrain of a previously mined area. Currently there are about 14 miles of trails at Alafia."

Okay, there's a lot of stuff mentioned that I will not be doing. But there are other trails there for the less adventurous of us (read: not stupid!) so I'm sure I'll have a good time. We are all excited to be going somewhere new. Though Dallas has been there, it was not recently.

There are no plans for Sunday, and there won't be, if I can help it. We need a day to catch up on some things at home. The little tank on top of the water heater has a small leak and needs replacing, all of our bushes and landscaping need a trim, the Kia needs washing, my car needs washing and I really should put a little more time into my Great Garage Sale Project.

On Monday Tom, Joy and I (and maybe some others) are going to the KSC Visitor Complex to check out the new Space Shuttle Experience ride. Joy and I both got tickets for free admission, which includes the ride and nearly everything else at the complex. I don't think we'll be spending the whole day there. Then sometime that afternoon Dean will help us pick up our new couch and bring it home.

Got the call this week that it had arrived and was ready for us. Problem: we still had the futon. But one of Joy's coworkers was interested and agreed to buy it after she saw a couple of photos. She and her boyfriend are coming over this afternoon to get it. Which should be interesting as Tom assembled it in the room and I don't think it will go out the doorway or the window. Some disassembling will be required.

Makeup Snob

I have another mountain biking related injury. In and of itself, that's not at all unusual. The fact that it happened in the parking lot before I even got on my bike is a tad different. I was leaning over the bike rack (empty of bikes) in order to open the back hatch on the Kia and I stumbled into one of the rails, scratching and bruising the heck out of my leg. First blood! That's usually a badge of courage. Not so much this time. The wound is really ugly and very sore. Boo. In addition, my left arm got all scratched up during the ride. Nothing exciting there either, just evil vegetation. I usually consider it natural exfoliation, but it got a bit out of hand this weekend.

Other than that, the ride was a success. Tom apparently took an interesting tumble off of his bike, but since he was able to grab hold of palm fronds and never actually fell to the ground, I don't think we can consider it an actual crash. Sure wish I'd seen it though. I'll bet it was fun to watch.

After the ride and after a scrumptious meal at Smokey Bones, several of us went to Best Buy to peruse the computer section. Our (ancient) PC had been giving Tom fits lately and after listening to him yell and cuss at it, I suggested that maybe it was time for a new one. (anything to shut him up!) While he looked at computers (if they aren't Macs, I have no interest), I went into the shop next door.

ULTA is a multi-brand self-service one-stop beauty store.

In addition to some drugstore brands, they also carry a lot of salon and specialty products. I could have gone nuts and spent so much money. I didn't get too carried away, but I did buy two lipsticks, several hair clips and a curling brush hair drier. The lipsticks I do NOT recommend. I read about them in someone's blog and thought they sounded great - Revlon ColorStay Overtime lip color. She promised that the color would stay on all day. Well, that may be true, and maybe my problem is that I just chose the wrong color. But Sheer Plumlite is too pale of a pink for me and it will. not. come. off. Seriously, I took paper towels and rubbed my lips practically raw, but they are still a pale ghostly pink. Thankfully I had another brand with me (Too Faced Glamour Gloss in Love Bites) so I've been able to paint over it for the most part. I have makeup remover at home that will solve the problem.

And this whole experience reminds me why I never buy drugstore brand makeup. It's not because I'm a makeup snob (well, yeah, I am) but mostly because you can try out the colors before you buy them. If I was at a makeup counter at a department store I could have tried out that lip color and know then and there that it wasn't for me. Now I'm stuck trekking back to ULTA if I want my $8.99 back.

Another Butt-Kicking

Last week's singles match was rained out, you may recall. So yesterday we replayed the match. The weather was much more cooperative, warm and sunny and dry. In fact, when I arrived at the courts there were a fair number of people already out there playing. And most were not league members. I was quite a bit earlier than my opponent, but between watching the others play and skimming through my Women's Health magazine (Flat Sexy Abs! Get 'em by June 30!) I was kept entertained.

Despite getting my butt kicked (6-0, 6-1) I enjoyed the match. My opponent was very nice and even though the scores don't reflect it, I was hitting decently. I won points, just couldn't finish it off and win more games. My only win came late in the set when I started hitting harder out of frustration and desperation. Sort of worked out for me, I think.

I'm playing next week's match this afternoon. The guy I'm scheduled to play is going to be out of town and we agreed to meet today. We'll see how it goes. I'm still pretty tired from last night. When I went to bed last night I thought I was coming down with something. My legs were aching and I could not get warm. I ended up adding a blanket to my side of the bed. I feel fine today, just a tad sore in the legs and hips.

I doubt I will do the Tennis Thang at Singleton tomorrow. After last night and today, my body really could use a break. Besides, it's time to do an activity other than tennis. Tom and I have been trying, unsuccessfully, to go mountain biking for the past several weekends. The weather is looking good for being outdoors this weekend so hopefully it will work out this time.

Wandering Aimlessly

My appointment yesterday afternoon was canceled. What a bummer! I was looking forward to leaving work an hour early. At any rate, I had the afternoon free so I went to Target to purchase a book that had just come out in paperback: Baby Proof, by Emily Giffin. I have her other two in trade paperback and wanted to complete the collection. But Target didn't have it, despite it being in their weekly ad. I looked very carefully, but didn't see it. Not wanting to walk out without buying something, because how crazy would that be, I ended up buying a couple of bags of the incredibly evil Xtra Cheddar Goldfish. They have me under their spell, I swear.

I went to the mall next because I wanted to chat with one of the ladies at the Macy's Lancome counter. Last time I was there I ended up spending at least a half an hour discussing their products with her. She's very knowledgeable and has been working for Lancome for over 14 years. I ended up buying a wonderful sunscreen, which I've been using on my face daily. A couple of times I've used it before playing tennis and I think it really made a difference. There was only the slightest bit of pink on my face.

Anyway, I was hoping she would have time to show me some other fantastic products for which I would happily hand over my Macy's card. Though I had called ahead to verify that she would be working, she wasn't currently anywhere that I could see, so I went on into the mall and visited Books-A-Million. There I was able to buy the new book (and another magazine). I went back to Macy's and was told that the Lancome Lady was on a coffee break, but should be back soon. So I wandered around for a bit, looking at perfumes and jewelry, but quickly became bored with that. Plus, I wondered if somewhere in a small room there was someone monitoring the security cameras, wondering just what I was up to, poking around, touching things, but buying nothing. It did appear suspicious, I expect. So I gave up and went home. Probably saved a lot of money that way.

Doctor, Doctor, Give Me the News

One thing I'm noticing as I get older is that I visit the doctor more often these days. Also, I have a lot more doctors than I used to. There was a day when I had three, which I think is normal for a woman: a primary care doctor, an OB/GYN and a dentist. Simple enough, right? Now I swear I have a separate doctor for each and every body part. Seriously! In addition to those three I also have:

a foot doctor
a lung doctor
a tummy doctor
an allergy/asthma doctor
a skin doctor
an eye doctor

And let's not forget about my pedicurist and my hair stylist! Because even though they aren't doctors per se, they are extremely important to my mental well-being.

Late spring seems to be my time for an annual visit with a lot of them. I have two appointments this week and one next week. There's nothing going on (that I'm aware of), just general checkups. I think it's worth the co-pay to get out of work legitimately for a while. I try not to plan appointments for the middle of the day though because it's a total drag having to leave work and come back. But a not quite early morning appointment or a not quite late afternoon appointment works well. Just a little extra sleep time or a little extra afternoon time, that's all I ask.

I forgot to write yesterday, but if I had written yesterday, I would have said that the weekend was much too short. It was nice though. There were some good times and I got some things accomplished, which is about all I can hope for in a weekend anyway.

Highlights:
Friday Tom and I went to the mall and I got a new book and a couple of magazines. Tennis Magazine is becoming a favorite (no, really?), now that I know enough about the sport to appreciate reading about it. While zipping through Dillard's I stopped to spray on some of Lancome's new Hypnose Sheer fragrance. (2007 may be The Year of Perfume) I love it and Tom doesn't hate it. Sounds like a keeper. We ate dinner at Red Lobster, which I had been craving.

Saturday I did the Tennis Thang again. Didn't play as much as last week, but still managed to burn 1600 calories. After showering and cleaning up I met Joy at the cemetery. We went to Mom's crypt (?) and She left a rose and I left a card. It wasn't as sad as I thought it would be. At least, not being there in the cemetery, but I had quite a difficult time writing and signing the card.

Sunday we had planned on biking, but ended up spending the day at home. I did quite a lot of house cleaning in preparation for Tom's family's visit that afternoon. Tom grilled Tom Terrific Burgers and I made Not Yo' Mama's Banana Pudding. (what diet?)

Rain Out

Oops. I keep speaking too soon. Forget what I said about the non-rain. It did rain yesterday and interfered with my tennis plans. It had quit raining before I left work so I met my opponent at the tennis courts. Surprisingly, they were dry. So we warmed up and started playing. About 4-5 games in it started to sprinkle. We kept playing, but it started to come down harder and we had to give it up.

As much as I love playing tennis and hated to stop, it was also nice to get home earlier and have some time for lounging around watching stuff I've recorded. I'm really behind on my shows, but it will work out perfectly. Very soon it will be time for summer reruns and I'll still be watching new episodes of my favorites.

A Fine Day Off

The swirling storm system is now a subtropical depression and has been named Andrea. Very odd for us to have a named storm several weeks before hurricane season even starts. Our state badly needs rain, but if anything, the storm is sucking all of the moisture out to sea and not giving much back. There are wildfires popping up all over the state and it's been disgustingly smokey all over. Not fun.

However, that being said, I've enjoyed the non-rain as I'm able to continue participating in my personal activities. Very selfish of me, I know.

Our plans weren't hampered by the weather in the least yesterday. In fact, by 2:00 the smoke and clouds had cleared away and it was sunny and beautiful. Becky and I did have lunch at Thai Thai. We both had the chicken teriyaki. Not very Thai, but still very good. Then we were off to Avenue Viera for some shopping.

We went to Sports Authority and I didn't buy a single thing! Imagine! Our next stop was a candy store and the self proclaimed Candy Fanatic did not buy any candy! Well, actually I did buy a couple of items for Tom, but nothing for myself.

I did, however, buy a large jar candle at Yankee Candle. I had intended to purchase a medium sized jar of a wonderful fragrance I'd sampled last fall called Berry Tangerine. Yeah, smells just like you'd expect. Very lovely. However, I had to change my mind after smelling Peach & Sweet Berries. It was absolutely intoxicating. I couldn't keep my nose out of the jar. Ah! It's actually more strawberry than peach. I find that some peach scented things can become overwhelming, but this one was the perfect mix. I ended up getting the larger jar, because it was only $3 more. Such a sucker.

After that it was dessert time! Yay! I got the most yummy concoction ever at Cold Stone Creamery. Cake Batter ice cream, chocolate ice cream, strawberries and caramel all mushed together. Oh. My! It was totally delish. I got the smallest one - the Like It! size, but it was quite a splurge nonetheless. Worth every calorie.

Because I wasn't really sure how long it would take to get to Kiwi, we ended up arriving there quite early. We checked out the pro shop first thing. There were some nice items, but nothing that I couldn't do without. (I did buy two string dampeners for my racquet) Then we wandered around the beautiful facility, totally in awe and wishing we were rich enough to be members there. And not have to work so that we would have plenty of time for tennis. (sigh) We picked out perfect seats for the match. They were on a porch so we were out of the sun, but could see the court close and clear. A slight breeze made it very pleasant.

The match itself was very interesting, starting with the preliminary stuff, watching the USTA officials, line judges, ball kids and the like. Unfortunately, the play was very lopsided. One of the players was older and more experienced and simply dominated the match. It only took an hour for her to win 6-1, 6-0. Becky and I would like to have seen more action. But what we did see was amazing. I've seen pros on TV of course, and other very good players, but seeing these pro women live and so close! The power was astounding. How can they hit so hard, so consistently? Just… wow.

We've decided that we know more about the tournament and next year we'll plan to take a whole day and get there for the morning matches as well as the afternoon feature match. Something to look forward to!