Ladybug Studio

Hints from Heloise

Here's a mascara tip I picked up from Real Simple magazine: if needed, clean mascara wands with tissue paper, not facial tissue, which will leave lint behind.

You're welcome.

It's finally stopped raining. For the past 2.5 days it had been nearly non-stop. But now the sun is shining and it's getting nice and toasty outside again. Hm. It was a touch cooler recently. Maybe the rain wasn't all bad.

Despite the shiny happy day, I have no tennis plans for this afternoon. This week's opponent can't play today so we have rescheduled for tomorrow. It doesn't matter much to me, though it's usually more fun on league days because the rest of the gang is there and the courts are full. Which appeals to my inner social moth. It's not so much a butterfly, because I'm not particularly outgoing with people I don't know. But if I do know people, I can be quite the chatterbox. (I can hear the sound of eyeballs rolling)

* * * * *

Did you know that yesterday was Talk Like a Pirate Day? I didn't find out about it until nearly quitting time. I was so disappointed that I didn't get to go around saying things like "Arrr" and "Ahoy me hearties!" Though I heard a really good joke and I'll end with it:

A pirate walks into a bar wearing a paper towel on his head. He sits down at the bar and orders some dirty rum.The bartender asks, "Why are you wearing a paper towel?" "Arrr..." says the pirate. "I've got a bounty on me head!"

Marvelous Mascara Makeover

I've been searching for the perfect no-clump mascara forever. During my quest, I have spent ridiculous sums of money, purchased from upscale makeup and skin care companies, tested and sampled dozens of tubes with very little luck. On a whim, I recently bought a cheap tube of Cover Girl VolumeExact mascara for $7.59 at Target.

The clouds parted, the sun shone, the angels sang! Yes, there was even a rainbow and a couple of doves!

Finally. Finally a perfect tube of non-clumping mascara.

I have to explain that as much as I love makeup and despite my rather extensive collection of high-priced items, I am not very good at applying makeup. I try, God knows I try. But I've got no talent for the stuff. So it has to be easy. A couple of swipes and voila! I can't be swiping and combing and brushing and swiping again. I will completely muck it up if I have to do all of that.

I am so happy with my Cover Girl VolumeExact mascara! Putting it on is the highlight of my morning routine. But there is a drawback. Isn't there always a drawback? They claim it's the revolutionary brush that gets the credit. But I think something is going on with the mascara itself as well. It's sort of… plastic-like. When I remove it, instead of getting a nice smudge on the cotton ball, I end up with lots of little black flecks. I'm a little bit nervous about them getting in my eye. But not enough to give up the mascara.

Maybelline Define-A-Lash mascara also claims to be zero clumping. The brush looks similar, so maybe it is the brush. The lime green packaging is definitely appealing. Hm. Might have to do some market research…

Yet Another Weekend

Well, it's the usual weekend roundup. But I can't think of much to roundup about. The weekend was pretty laid back. Too much so actually. Though I can't say I was happy to see it end.

Friday was typical. Some lounging around after work, watching recorded TV shows while snacking on pretzels. (I'm still obsessed with pretzels) Followed by the usual pizza. Or, not so usual now that I think about it. For more months than I care to admit, we have had Stone Creek Pizza deliver a large cheese hand-tossed pizza every Friday night. We used to get an order of Cinna-Rocks too, until they changed from Cinnabon dipping sauce to some off-brand inferior stuff. Tom doesn't care for it so we've stopped ordering them. The Cinna-Rocks were really for him anyway because he liked to have them for breakfast the next day. Anyway, for the second week in a row we really got wild and crazy and ordered our pizza from Valentino's instead. It's a nice change and their pizza is really good too. Plus, they are willing to put mushrooms on one quarter of the pie, which makes me happy.

The problem with Valentino's is that we have to go get the pizza. But that wasn't all bad because I needed to put gas in my car and it was a nice evening to tour around with the top down. Man, I love having a convertible again!

On Saturday I wasn't able to participate in my usual tennis round robin because I had to attend a union meeting. I'm our group's steward so I really should attend. The meeting was brief and I was free to motor on, once again with the top down. I went to Circuit City to take back an item that Tom bought and ended up not needing and found Alex in the store. He was killing time while his Milano was being serviced at the Nissan dealership across the street. He joined me for a ride down S. Tropical and we chatted and caught up on things.

No big news from him and Jeanene. Their recent trip to Puerto Rico was great and Akiva is rolling in lieu of crawling, which is keeping everyone on their toes.

While I was doing all of this, Tom was working. There's plenty to do at his office, plus he's trying to build up some comp time for our MTB vacation in October.

The rest of the day was spent at home. After lunch I actually did some freelance work on the computer, then I surfed for ringtone sound clips and synced up my iPhone. Now when Stacey calls me I hear the theme song from Chariot's of Fire.

And speaking of Stacey, Tom and I met her, Greg and Jackie at Olive Garden for dinner that night. It was my idea to go there because I had a coupon that expired that night. But OG isn't really a great choice for people watching their diets and trying to lose weight. Almost everything is cheesy and fattening. Which is why it tastes so divine. But I guess my soup, salad and breadsticks were the lesser of the multitude of evils.

On Sunday, Tom and I had originally planned to go mountain biking. I figured we should get an earlier start than we did last weekend. But even though I went to bed at 10:00 the night before, I didn't wake up until 9:00. Grief. Well, I must have really needed the sleep I suppose. In the interest of getting started and not having the whole day tied up in loading up, driving, etc., we opted to do a road ride instead. Dallas joined us and we did the Windover Loop, which is 31 miles. It was pretty hot though and it felt better to keep moving. Nice thing about road biking - we create our own wind so we don't notice the heat quite so much. Until we grab our water bottles and find that our water is luke warm. Yuck.

The rest of Sunday was about laziness around the house, followed by a trip to Sports Authority. We stopped by Del's Freeze on the way home and Tom got a huge 32 oz. chocolate marshmallow milkshake. I had a few sips, but for the most part stayed away from the cup of fat and calories. I was driving so it worked out okay. When he's driving though, and I have to hold the milkshake? Forget about it. I'll end up drinking the majority of it.

Because Tom had stuffed himself full of chocolate marshmallow milkshake, he had no interest in dinner. I was sort of hoping for something fun, with the huge calorie burning bike ride in the morning. But I didn't want to make a big production of creating dinner for myself and I didn't want to drive anywhere to pick up something. So I had a Lean Cuisine meal (Sesame Chicken) and a piece of double fiber wheat bread. What a let-down.

Interesting Morning

I had a more interesting morning than usual today. It started when I went out to get the newspaper at 5:10 am and found some unexpected visitors in our driveway and the neighbor's driveway. I'm so used to seeing absolutely no one, except for Ferris the Friendly Fox (he tends to come around on garbage days), that I was halfway down the side walk before I saw the two young black* men over by Bill's Jeep Cherokee. As I came around the corner of our own Kia I found that a third man was in our driveway. WTF?

"Can I help you?" I asked.
No response.
"Can I help you?" louder this time.
"Oh, we're just looking for a house number," was the reply.

After mumbling a house number, the three darkly clad young men walked on down the middle of the road and turned left onto the next street. I was pretty dumbfounded actually, and just stood there watching them. Once I was sure they were gone, I went inside and after a moment of hesitation, called the cops.

I wanted to give them the benefit of the doubt, but I couldn't. Their behavior was too suspicious. Why on earth would they be walking and looking for a particular house at dark-thirty in the morning? And why then did they stop looking for a house number once I had confronted them? Why also were they all dressed in dark clothing?

I told my story to the dispatcher and after answering a few questions was told that someone else had also called about the three men. Within minutes a sheriff's deputy was at our door. I told him everything that I knew and went outside to watch a female deputy and a detective walk around with flashlights checking the two vehicles for signs of activity. Before they left, the detective looked at me and said, "Nice jammies." Great. But I had to laugh, anyway.

*Note: I'm not being racist here - a fact is a fact - they were black!

My best guess is that they were looking for unlocked cars. According to our Neighborhood Homeowner's Association newsletter, there have been some car burglaries lately and a neighborhood watch is being formed as a result. The men weren't carrying any tools that I could see, so I suspect they were looking for some easy pickings. We are very careful about locking the Kia but I almost wish it had been open this morning. I would have caught them red-handed! But then again, my newspaper probably wouldn't have been my best defensive weapon, if they weren't happy about me showing up.

Which reminds me - now Tom is talking about getting a gun again. (sigh) I'm hoping it's a phase that will go away. Just like last time he got all up in arms when Punk Boy was causing trouble. What good will a gun do? Am I going to take it with me every morning when I go out to get the paper? Uh, no. I'd probably get all nervous and jumpy and end up shooting poor Ferris.

Oh, and I found a dead ladybug on the kitchen floor this morning. That can't be good.

Swinging in the Rain

The two month summer break is over and it's time for the KSC tennis leagues to resume play. Singles started up last week and yesterday was supposed to be the first night of doubles. But the weather had other ideas and we had to declare a rain-out. But that doesn't mean we didn't play. Six people showed up at the courts, just in case. We were surrounded by dark and gloomy clouds, but as it hadn't actually started to rain, we decided to play anyway.

Four of us played doubles and the other two hit singles. Not long after we started it began to sprinkle. The singles players bagged it and left, but the four of us weren't bothered by a few drops and kept playing. It sprinkled on and off, but never enough to puddle. I was concerned that the ground would get slippery, but it didn't. So we played two sets and the evening wasn't a complete write-off after all. It was also a nice break from the scorching heat we've been having.

* * * * * * *

With the iPhone (and many other phones I'm sure) I can assign a ringtone to each of my contacts. Until this week, the only ringtones available were the fairly lame ones that came with the iPhone. Various hackers and software geniuses have been coming up with ways to add ringtones, but most were true hacks involving downloading files, editing code, and bit of rubber chickenry. Then I discovered iToner. An easy drag and drop program. It costs $15, but I downloaded a trial version to get a feel for it.

That's become my latest obsession. Finding sound files and creating ringtones for my contacts. Currently I'm using the beginning of Super Freak for Tom. Really no reason other than I thought it would be a good song to use while experimenting  some sound editing software. (but it seems to fit, no?) Game shows have been a huge hit. I'm using the Wheel of Fortune puzzle sound for Ann. When Jenn found out, she wanted The Price is Right for her ringtone (she's a Barker's Beauty). Joy gets the Jeopardy "think music", edited to where the trumpet comes in. I also have some great sound clips from movies and cartoons. In fact, pretty soon I will have more ringtones than contacts.

Shout Back! to Nat and Mo…
Over in my links are these two great blogs that I read daily. Both of them have mentioned The Studio on their sites recently so I want to point them out to anyone who hasn't checked over there in a while. You're missing out if your aren't reading them.

And my sincere apologies to anyone who followed the link here and found that I've been pretty lazy about updating lately. I promise to get back to work. (yes, Ann, really!)

Geezer Tennis

I was really looking forward to playing tennis on Saturday morning. Which is too bad because it was pretty miserable mostly. I was bright and early as usual. I'm sort of a geek that way, I guess. Because I don't like to be late, I leave the house too early. Plus there's very little traffic at that time in the morning. I like getting to tennis early though, because I get started sooner and get to play more sets.

Apparently, being the early bird isn't always a good thing. I'm trying not to blame Mary Ann, because she generally does a great job organizing everyone into pairs, but I still can't understand her reason for setting me up with Geezer Tennis. There were three old guys, all in their seventies I swear, and she had me play with them. My partner, Doug, is a nice guy who can hit really well, but only if the ball comes pretty close to him. Otherwise, he's not able to move very much. Our opponents were Floyd, who I met for the first time and my old nemesis, Stinky Pete.

On my first ever round robin Saturday, I was partnered with him. Inexperienced and nervous, I hit a few balls, unsuccessfully, that were more than likely going to go out and he yelled at me. I'm serious! I really wondered what I was doing there and very nearly left after the first set. He did apologize, but I'm still holding a grudge. At least Mary Ann knows about this and doesn't pair the two of us anymore.

But even being across the net from him is bad. He is just a grouchy, mean old man. At one point he served the ball to us while someone was walking behind our court. I commented on it and the next time I served he kept picking at me about how this person wasn't ready and that person wasn't looking. I've never wanted a game to end so badly. But I didn't want to let Doug down, so I kept playing and we ended up winning another game or two, dagnabbit, before they finally took the set.

Then, with further bad judgement, Mary Ann again sent me across the net from Stinky Pete and Floyd, this time paired up with little Avery. Avery is only 11 years old and can hit the crap out of the ball. However, that being said, he's young and inexperienced, can make bad decisions and doesn't stay focused on the game. Oh, he also doesn't say the score loud enough when he's serving, which lead to my second flare up with Stinky Pete. At one point the score was deuce, but Pete thought his team had won the game. Even though Avery, myself, Floyd and Mary Ann, who happened to be watching, said the score was indeed deuce, he kept arguing about it. I blew up and told him to just keep the damn point, it didn't matter anyway. But Mary Ann insisted and we finished up the game (and lost anyway, I believe). While I wasn't stomping around and cussing, inside my temperature was boiling.

It's really hard to put into writing, how irritated and upset I was. But overall, the tennis portion of my day was ruined. I played two more sets, once partnered with Floyd (who turned out to be a super guy and an ally against Stinky Pete) opposite another couple and the other partnered with Jody (a KSC doubles player) and two other women. That set was the best. We all had a good time and no one got snippy about anything.

After rushing home for a quick shower, I went over to Dad's for lunch with him and my sisters. We felt we needed to get together to discuss a few points with him. Such as urging him to be more patient (ha!) and quit being nasty and grouchy to Glenna, his caretaker. He didn't think he was, of course. It ended up being a nice visit though and lunch from Sonny's was pretty tasty too.

Shopping Day

Tom and I went shopping at Florida Mall on Saturday. I love that mall. Or at least, I thought I did. But I've considered it and I always visit the same handful of stores. So maybe it's the stores I love, not the mall. At any rate, I had a great shopping trip and Tom kept me company. He should get a reward for his patience, he really should. I drug him into many stores, none of which held the slightest interest for him. He was great about finding a bench to wait on. Which was the best solution because it kept him away from the checkout line. Tom doesn't tell me how I should spend my money, but the less he knows about the cost of makeup and purses, the better.

I purchased items from both categories, actually. Here are some favorites:

I'm very excited about a new hair product I bought at Salon Cielo: Bumble and Bumble Hair Powder. (products>styling>specialty>hair powder) For years I have thought it would be great to have a colored powder I could use in my hair to absorb excess oil on those days I don't have time to wash hair that clearly should be washed. Don't look at me like that, we all have those days. Anyway, Bb. makes such a powder. I bought the Brown shade and actually tried it out on Sunday morning. It was fantastic! I sprayed it into the front of my hair, let it dry for a minute or so, then brushed my hair into a ponytail. It looked clean and healthy. Plus, the spray gave it a texture that helped it to stay put. So a Bad Hair Day turned into a Good Hair Day. I give it five stars.

And from the purses category, I shopped at Coach. I have been on the lookout for a case of sorts for my iPhone. I don't really need a case per se, because I generally have my phone in my purse and it's fine in there. But occasionally I want to grab my phone and my wallet, which I juggle in one hand, trying not to drop anything. What I wanted was a case with a pocket for cash, ID and a credit card and perhaps a small strap. Introducing: The Wristlet.

It is exactly what I had in mind. There were several different styles to choose from, but this one was the smallest that had a protected pocket. Cute as a bug, isn't it?

Tom and I also browsed in Williams-Sonoma (bought nothing) and Oakley (nothing there either). I wanted to go to the Apple Store and check out the new iMacs in person, but it was crazy crowded so we didn't stay. We stopped in Lids where Tom purchased a University of South Florida hat. (his cousin's son is going there on a baseball scholarship) Tom needs another hat like I need another purse or more makeup… so yeah, I didn't say anything about his purchase.

I could have spent a lot of time in Sephora but Tom, wise to my habits, followed me into the store. Having him on my heels put a dent in my browsing plans so I found the two items I was looking for and we left fairly quickly. Rats.