Crêpes

I'm probably the only person I know who goes on vacation and looks forward to cooking, but with the schedule I keep at work and all of my various volunteer activies, I do very little cooking when I'm home. In addition to just frankly wanting to avoid the mess, it just plain isn't practical to cook for one person. I enjoy cooking, though, and it is typically relaxing for me, so I was excited to get to make some stuff while I was in Cape Cod.

The most exciting were these crêpes, which I made using Martha Stewart's recipe for Simple Crêpes. For the filling, I used ricotta cheese, which I topped with two separate fruit mixtures made from pears and bananas mixed and heated with dark brown sugar, butter, a tiny bit of salt, and vanilla.



Banana Crêpes

Pear Crêpes

Argo

Book by Antonio Mendez. Film directed by Ben Affleck.

A book review and a movie review, all at the same time!

I saw Argo (the movie) last October when I was visiting my friends Brandy and John in Colorado. Brandy and I had planned to go and visit some mountains and some snow, but it rained instead. Everybody knows that rainy mountains aren’t nearly as much fun as snowy mountains, so we opted for a movie day instead. I am embarrassed to admit that I knew little to nothing about the Iran hostages prior to seeing Argo, so it was even more of a learning experience for me than it might have been to a more knowledgeable viewer.

I agree with the reviewers who thought that the manufactured tension at the end of the movie was a little bit tiresome, but overall, I loved Argo. The casting was perfect – especially Alan Arkin and John Goodman – and I agree with all those people who were dumbfounded that Ben Affleck didn’t receive a Director nod at the Oscars. I’m not generally able to pinpoint good directing as the reason I enjoy a film, but Argo is an exception to that. I suppose that Best Picture is a pretty good consolation prize, but in all honesty, I thought Zero Dark Thirty deserved Best Picture just as much as Argo deserved Best Director. Oh, well – I’m not in charge of either decision.

My mom and I were in DC last weekend, and while we were there we visited the International Spy Museum, which is across the street from the National Portrait Gallery. We weren’t able to go when we were in the District last summer, but we’d been told that it was a fun museum. At some point during the lead-up to awards season, I read that Antonio Mendez and his wife, both former CIA operatives, were on the board of the museum, which further intrigued me. In all honesty, I can’t say that I was all that impressed with the museum itself; I chalk it up to an overwhelming feeling of claustrophobia, my absolute inability to figure out the preferred direction of travel inside the museum, and the fact that way too many people (and too many children, in particular) were there. I eventually started following every exit sign I found and made my way to the gift store (I do love a gift store, y’all), where I found autographed copies of Mendez’s book Argo: How the CIA and Hollywood Pulled Off the Most Audacious Rescue in History. I bought one for myself and one for my dad, who loved the movie as much as I did.

This isn’t the book that the film is based on. That’s The Master of Disguise, which was written after the operation was declassified in 1997. Mendez wrote Argo in 2012, after the film had already been completed. As anticipated, the book fills in all the details that the film glosses over. It’s an easy read, albeit lengthier than necessary (I found myself wondering whether Mendez had an ineffective editor or a page number quota that he couldn’t reach without pages and pages and pages of backstory). In any case, I loved learning about how CIA operatives are trained in forgery and disguises; it’s like Mission Impossible, only real.

In a nutshell, here’s what we learn from both the book and the film versions of Argo: the CIA is crazy smart; you can’t hide from them, but they can very effectively hide from you.

"It's about to be Halloween..."

So much has happened in my life during the past year, though looking at this pitiful blog, you’d never know it. I’m gonna’ try to do better, though. Promise. And to start, I want to talk about the most significant addition to my agenda.

About two years ago, I started reading a blog, Rockstar Ronan, at the urging of my boss at the time. She had gone to law school with the blogger’s husband, and she told me about how her friends’ son had been diagnosed with Neuroblastoma, a particularly insidious and deadly form of childhood cancer. Ronan lived in the Phoenix area with his family, so maybe that’s why I immediately felt such a connection to them; I joined thousands of others in sending up prayers for his healing. The blog posts were primarily positive and funny, mostly because Ronan is such a cutie, and his mom often posted photos of him. Y’all know how I love kid photos. Though I wasn’t a daily reader at first, I almost always checked in weekly to see how Ronan’s treatments were progressing, and to be honest, I was really quite certain that he would recover because he never “looked” sick in pictures, and his mom’s stubbornly bubbly tone made a cure seem inevitable.

One day in May 2011, I found out that Ronan had died. And then Taylor Swift wrote a song called “Ronan.” And somewhere in the middle of those two things, I learned about the MISS Foundation and Dr. Joanne Cacciatore.

I remember the night I filled out the application to volunteer with MISS. I had just read a particularly heart-breaking blog post, and I sat in the middle of my bed and typed out my responses to the application’s questions on my iPhone. To be honest, I never thought I’d even be contacted again. What could I possibly offer them?

Fast-forward to July 2012. I had accepted a new job and planned to start following a week-long vacation with my mama (btw, we had so much fun). Right about that time, I got an email from MISS explaining that they had reviewed my volunteer application and wanted to know if I was interested in a position on their Executive Board of Directors. I was shocked. Also, humbled, terrified, and a little bit speechless, which doesn’t happen to me very often, as y’all know. I spent a couple hours on the phone with some of their leaders, and I fell in love with their spirit, their kindness, their energy, and their motivation.

I’ve been on the Board for all of two months now. It’s been more rewarding that I can even articulate.

And so now it’s about to be Thanksgiving. In addition to being more thankful than ever for all of the beautiful babies in my life, I am also grateful that MISS is here for all the families with missing babies. And, I’m so grateful that I get to be a part of that.

Thanksgiving!

Lucky me, I spent Thanksgiving with The Lambs, one of my favorite families. Mark is a police officer at Salt River, and Janel does my hair. Janel and I always talk cooking while my color is...coloring, or whatever, so I was really excited to have Thanksgiving at her house! She is Superwoman:  five kids, and she somehow finds the time to sew adorable aprons (like the one I used at home during Christmas last year) and lots of other cuteness, make gourmet popcorn, work at her dad's business, do hair, and make GORGEOUS cakes, plus tons of other stuff that I'm sure I'm leaving out.

I didn't think people decorated with plates anywhere except the South.  Imagine how happy I was to see Janel's Thanksgiving tablescape and the matching plates!

Janel made the table runner...out of BURLAP and CORN HUSKS.
Told y'all she was talented.

Needless to say, we had a blast! I arrived in time to watch some of the last of the cooking, and then we had lunch. Afterwards, Janel and I messed around with Mark's new camera. It's fancy and has loads of different settings, and it makes really great pictures.  We even brought out the tripod and the detachable flash, and then we really got creative!

For Thanksgiving dinner, there was turkey, spiral ham, stuffing and dressing, two kinds of sweet potatoes, homemade cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, jello salad, and homemade rolls (Mark's sister grinds her own wheat...my, oh my):

Janel's spiral ham

Janel's dressing

And the cranberry sauce (yuu-uum!)

I was in charge of desserts, so I made Italian Cream Cake, Mrs. Nina's lemon squares, and a chocolate chess pie.  The pie wasn't feeling photogenic, but...

the Lemon Squares were...

as was the Italian Cream Cake
(recipe is in the previous post, if you're interested)

After cleaning up, we sat down to watch the Saints game.  Y'all know that I'm not much into pro football (Bama and LSU monopolize my football-watching time), but because the Lambs were cheering for the Saints, so was I.  We were all happy when they pulled off a win in the last seconds of the game!

I hope y'all had as great a Thanksgiving as I did!

Texas

I just returned yesterday from a last-minute trip to Texas. Last week, I was in my supervisor's office, and he asked if I wanted to go to Texas. I said, "To live? Yes, please." He explained that there was a Crimes Against Children conference happening in Dallas, and that another person who had planned to go now couldn't, leaving a spot open for me...but that I would, sadly, have to return to Phoenix the following Thursday.

Needless to say, I immediately began readying myself for the trip.

I had a wonderful time. The conference was informative and often entertaining, in as much as a crimes against children conference can be entertaining. I miss being in school, so I soaked up all the knowledge I could in four short days, and I now have aspirations of prosecuting cyber crimes. We'll see where that goes.

Hopefully, it will take me to Texas, because I thoroughly enjoyed myself. Texas really is like a whole other country, y'all, and that's definitely a good thing. Good manners, good food, hats and boots wherever you look, and lots of smiling faces. Work has been keeping me feeling pretty burned-out, so I'm happy to report that I'm home, feeling refreshed and energized for a new week.

Alabama: Monday and Tuesday

Wedding festivities begin!

But not quite yet. The whole family was coming for dinner on Tuesday, but before that Mama had to teach a CPR class in Meridian. I decided to go with her, seeing as how I’d been meaning to get CPR certified for ages, but just never signed up for the class. But, even before that, I woke up and baked a cake. I know. Please, please acknowledge the amount of discipline it took to get me out of bed and conscious enough to bake, and then still get myself showered and dressed in time to leave Butler at 10:00 a.m.

What kind of cake? Italian Cream. My favorite. Ostensibly for dinner the next night, but really because I’d been craving one for ages.

I can report that I passed the test (which was a relief. How embarrassing would it be for the instructor’s daughter to fail?) and am now officially CPR certified (though I still don’t have my card yet).

Up next, a trip to Walmart (UGH) to buy all the groceries for dinner, followed up by a trip to Sam’s (I forget what necessitated this trip, but I think it might have been grapes for the grape salad). My sweet Mama bought me a surprise: the Alice in Wonderland DVD I’d been wanting.

Then, home to get all the tables set up and dressed, and of course, to cook. Tuesday night’s dinner was fantastic! I’ll post the recipes for pasta salad and grape salad. Along with that: Low Country Boil (shrimp, potatoes, corn, sausage), steaks, banana pudding (the best recipe ever, which I’ll also post), 7-layer salad (which I don’t like, and therefore will not post the recipe for) and I can’t even remember what else. OH! The cake!

I’m not sure what everybody talked about after dinner because Malak and I went back to Mama’s room for some peace and quiet. The Hopper was tuckered out, apparently, because he made it through about 20 minutes of Wonder Pets before drifting off to sleep while playing with my hair. Goodness gracious, I love that little boy.

Memphis

We got to Memphis and figured out where we were just in time to get to The Peabody for the ducky parade. I cannot adequately describe the cuteness. We even visited Duckingham Palace, where the ducks reside on the roof of the Peabody. Then we rode the streetcar (trolley?) around town before finding our way back to Rendezvous for dinner. All I can say is, YUM.

From there, we went to Muddy’s Bake Shop, where I dove head-first into Heaven, via their grasshopper cupcake. I still haven’t figured out what they do to their cake to make it so moist. By far, the best cupcake I’ve had in my life, hands down. I got to meet the Neeses and their two adorable, sweet little girls, who came all the way to Muddy’s, even though they must have been exhausted after spending their day outside (it was hot, y’all). Lucky me, I got to hold and cuddle the littler gal, while being entertained by her big sister as she thoroughly enjoyed some cupcake icing!

We left shortly thereafter for the long drive back to Alabama, but not before I secured a care package for home: 2 grasshoppers and 2 neapolitans. I arrived back in Butler EXHAUSTED, and celebrated my third night in a row of staying up past 2 a.m. by going to church Sunday morning and then taking about a 4-hour nap Sunday afternoon.

Oxford

“I miss green.” This is the thought that I had constantly as we drove through Alabama into Mississippi. It’s taken me a long time, but I’ve finally learned to appreciate the beauty of the desert. Finally, I acquiesce: living in a valley cradled by mountains really *is* majestic (even if the valley is brown, and the only green around is a random cactus). Nothing compares, though, to miles and miles of varying shades of green, and the sight of oak trees shading the clover that blooms along the sides of the interstate. Needless to say, I thoroughly enjoyed the ride, and the conversational catch-up with an old friend.

I have GOT to move to Oxford. I mean, really. I don’t think there’s a more perfect place on the planet for me. Were it not for that whole bar exam situation, I’d be tempted to move tomorrow.

We started off at the visitor’s center. Here’s how the conversation with the little woman there went:
US (smiling): “Hey!”
HER (not smiling): “How can I help you?”
US: (*blink, blink*) “Ummm…we’re visiting Oxford for the day!”
HER: “Oh, you are?”
US: “Yes, ma’am.” (Here, we looked at each other, wondering if we’d stepped not into the visitor’s center, but instead, into this woman’s home, or perhaps the library, where speaking was forbidden.)
HER: “Well, what were you planning on doing?”
US: (*scratching heads and still blinking*) “We were kind of hoping you could help us with that. We thought about going to Ajax Diner for lunch and then to Square Books, and then to Rowan Oak. What would you recommend?”
HER: “Oh, I think you should go to Ajax for lunch, and then Square Books is right over there (*pointing in the opposite direction of where Square Books actually is*). And yes, yes. Rowan Oak is William Faulkner’s house, so you should definitely go there. Oh, and they just remodeled the stadium. I like to watch the light shows there!”
US: “Um, okay. Bye.”

Whereupon we walked around the square for a minute, and then went to Ajax Diner for lunch (I had catfish, which was perfect, and sweet tea, which I can’t get enough of whenever I’m home). Then, you guessed it, we went to Square Books (I could spent about eleventy hours there, but alas, I forced myself to leave so we could get some other stuff done). We finished our walk around the square by visiting another bookstore (where I bought the June issues of an adorable little magazine called Garden & Gun, and The Oxford American, which included an article by Elizabeth Wade, my friend from undergrad. How proud am I?) and then getting caught in a little thunderstorm. During the thunderstorm, I realized that I had left my purchases at the bookstore, of course, so we had to walk back over there. Luckily, it wasn’t too far.

Thank goodness Bonnie thought to pick up a copy of the city map at the visitor’s center. Using it, she was able to navigate us to Rowan Oak. The tour costs $5, is self-guided, and takes approximately eight minutes to complete. The grounds are really beautiful, though. Who knew ol’ Bill had stables?

Somehow I got put in charge of the map after that, but in spite of my shortcomings, we somehow made it to the Ole Miss campus just in time to witness a photography session featuring the tackiest wedding party in the history of time. Ole Miss neckties for the boys, and FAKE red and blue flowers, with streamers, for the girls. Yuck.

Ole Miss is pretty, but it’s got nothing on Tuscaloosa. Plus, the stadium is ugly. And the “light shows” endorsed by the visitor’s center lady? Yeah, it’s just the lighted scoreboard that runs around the perimeter of the stadium. Poor woman has no idea what a pretty stadium looks like. She should go visit Bryant-Denny.

After that, we figured we’d seen about all that Oxford had to offer, so we headed to Memphis!

Alabama, Day 1

I arrived in Butler at about 2:30 in the morning on Friday, June 4, despite my plane having landed at 9:something Thursday night. The humidity hit me the second I stepped off the plane, and I will admit to a moment of panic. How was I supposed to BREATHE for the next 12 days? Phoenix heat is one thing…and don’t get me wrong, it’s fairly miserable. But Alabama humidity? That is something else entirely. Mama and Aunt Toni met me at the airport, and I was SO glad to see two such friendly, welcoming faces!

We stopped in Birmingham to visit Uncle Bob and Aunt Thresea, and then we made the drive to Choctaw County. I spent the day (after I woke up) helping Mama get ready for Relay for Life, and then after going to the luminaria ceremony that night, I drove to Livingston to spend the night with my friend Bonnie. We talked until about 3 in the morning, which made me realize just *how old* I am, and then we woke up bright and early (somehow) and set out for Oxford!

Ketchup

Well, not really. CATCH-UP is more like it.

I spent the last week and a half at home – and when I say “home,” I don’t mean my house in Arizona. I mean Butler, Alabama, the itsy-bitsy town where I was raised. It doesn’t seem to matter that I’ve lived in Arizona for FOUR years; whenever I’m getting ready to head back to Alabama, my subconscious takes over, and in my mind, I’m going home. My mama still lives in the house where I grew up, across the street from the house where Grandmamma and Papa lived (doesn’t matter than other people live there now; it’s still my grandparents’ house to me), and across the street from my Aunt Enone.

I went home because my sweet cousin, Mary Allison, got married. Of course, on the big day, I forgot my camera in the car, and in any event, I was too busy at the reception to take any photos (in case you’re wondering, I was taking care of Mattie Grace, who went and got sick with the pink eye and some God-awful sinus infection right before the wedding. Bless her heart, poor baby. I hear she’s all better now, though.). Lucky for you, BooMama’s blog covers all the prettiest parts, and whatever she didn’t cover, I’m sure Amanda will (once she posts about the wedding…right now, you can look at some stupendously cute pictures of Blake at Disney World and at the lake, where he recently learned to fish).

Suffice it to say, MA’s was one GORGEOUS wedding! John, my cousin Rebecca’s husband, remarked that it was the single most Southern event he’d ever attended. I believe he’s right, and I couldn’t have loved it more. I’m so thankful I got to be there and be a part of it!

I have lots of things I need to post about, and I promise that I will…soon. I went to Oxford and Memphis while I was home, and I got (*whisper*) Botox, which will be an entire post of its own, because I didn’t get Botox by myself. Oh, no. We had a Botox party, y’all, and Aunt Toni was invited! I did some cooking, too, and then spent my last night in Birmingham, where I got to be present for John and Rebecca’s first dinner party at their pretty, pretty new house.

I had a fantastic trip and arrived safely back in Arizona yesterday evening…and I should definitely be working instead of blogging right now. So I’ll go…

Happy Easter!

I had a great Easter weekend. I spent most of Saturday relaxing, which was nice given that I had to work last weekend. Twelve straight days of work tires me out!

For Easter, I went to church and then spent the afternoon at the home of some wonderful friends. Their Easter get-togethers remind me of my family's when I was growing up. Tons of family, bunches of children, egg hunting, games, wonderful food, and funny conversation. Since I don't have any family out here, I feel so lucky and blessed to be included in their day.

This year for Lent, I gave up celebrity gossip. That might sound petty or trivial, but if you stop to consider how much time I spent checking People.com and UsMagazine.com (both on my computer at work and my iPhone), and how much time I spent watching E!, it turned out to be WAY to much time spent caring about a lot of crap that I have no business caring about. Whenever I had a few minutes to kill, I'd log onto the Internet and read mindlessly about people that I don't know and who, for the most part, disgust me with their ridiculous, silly, and often illegal behavior.

I think I've learned to make better use of my time. One positive result has been that I read the news more often, and I pay more attention to it (rather than just glancing over it). Also, I've begun to spend my free time on activities that probably won't rot my brain: playing crossword puzzles and Scrabble on my iPhone (okay, it's not really Scrabble; it's really the Words With Friends app -- my user name is avbreland, so if any of you have it, please start a game with me, and if you don't have it, get it).

I haven't reverted back to my old habits yet. We'll see how long I last, now that I don't have the guilt of Lent to keep me on the straight and narrow.

Neosporin Lip Health

(the one in the little tub, not the one in the tube)
Hmmm. Well, Arizona is dry; hence, my lips are always dry. I was at Walgreen’s buying shampoo, and my lips had actually bled that day because they were so chapped…so I decided to be economical (for once) and buy something to heal them. Neosporin Lip Health looked the most promising, so I gave it a go.

First of all, it feels like lotion on my lips. In case you’ve never had that feeling, and in case you’re wondering, it’s not altogether pleasant. Also, it doesn’t really soak in all that quickly, and it doesn’t taste all that great. So I sort of sat around, waiting for it to absorb – meanswhile, I was utterly unable to drink or eat anything or lick my lips (because I didn’t want to taste it). Now, granted, I didn’t completely follow the directions because I didn’t wait for bedtime to apply. It is listed as an “overnight” product, but seriously, my lips were hurting during the day!

Even after I used it correctly, I still didn’t notice all that much of a difference. I’m still using it at night because I have it, and I figure that maybe it’ll keep me from getting those little wrinkles around my mouth. But barring some drastic development between now and the time I run out, I won’t be purchasing it again. My mouth just doesn’t respond positively to drug store makeup, apparently. Fine with me: more reason to go to Sephora/Nordstrom/Barney’s.

LipFusion INFATUATION

I am, in general, a huge fan of LipFusion products. My favorite is the regular, non-tinted lip plumper (which is not a lip plumper at all, because I don’t use lip plumpers, and I love this product). When I was home at Christmas, I went shopping (and movie-watching) in the freezing weather with Amanda and Rebecca. Of course – of course – we stopped at Sephora, and I picked up a tube of INFATUATION, in Full Frontal (not lying, that really is the name of the color).

The color is fantastic: a sort of coral/neutral that becomes a little less intense after you wear it for about 15 minutes and turns to a very pretty, daytime color. Sephora bills the product as follows: “Discover the first liquid lip color with extraordinary Amplifat™ technology to increase and maintain body fat just where you need it most!” I don’ t know about all that, but I can say that it’s a nice lipgloss, though I notice no plumping whatsoever. I do notice, though, that it doesn’t clump together, the color doesn’t bleed, and the gloss lasts a while (considering that it’s gloss).

Blood Orange Olive Oil Brownies

I've posted before about visiting the Queen Creek Olive Mill, and about their Blood Orange Olive Oil. When Mama was in town for Thanksgiving, we went again, and the one item I had decided I would not leave without was this orange oil. I was so excited that I tried out one of the Mill's recipes tonight!

4 oz unsweetened chocolate
1 oz bittersweet chocolate
1 c all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp salt
4 eggs
1 tbsp vanilla
1/2 c butter
2 c sugar
1 c walnuts, coarsely chopped (I used pecans.)
1/2 c blood orange olive oil (You can order this from the website.)

I love this recipe for two reasons: 1) I love the combination of chocolate and orange; and 2) I automatically am intrigued by any baker who wants me to use an entire tablespoon of vanilla. I love vanilla, and I almost always add more than a recipe calls for. With this one, I imagined that the recipe's creator and I were kindred spirits.

The batter looks like nothing so much as fudge. So here's what you do to make it:

Preheat oven to 350. Line a 9 x 12 baking pan with parchment paper (I skipped this and sprayed the pan with Baker's Joy instead). On low heat, melt chocolate in saucepan, stirring constantly (I used the microwave). Set aside to cool. In a separate bowl, sift flour, baking powder, and salt. Melt butter, and add oil. Add one egg at a time. Add in vanilla. Add the chocolate. Fold in the dry ingredients and nuts. Do not overmix the batter. Pour into a pan, and smoothe off the top. Bake for 25-30 minutes, until the brownies pull away from the sides of the pan.

Barney's, New York (in Scottsdale...finally!)

Wonderful. Lovely. Heaven.

I don't have to say anything else.

Brunch

My mom is visiting for Thanksgiving. Sunday, we went to church (briefly...we left after about 15 minutes because the service was so awful) and then decided to go to brunch. Best idea ever. We went to Rita's Kitchen at the Camelback Inn. Yeah, sure, it's expensive, but I don't think I've ever enjoyed an eating experience more. Live entertainment outside, a table that was inside but right at the edge of the inside/outside border, perfect weather, mimosas, and delicious food. I'm wondering whether the Camelback Inn needs an attorney-in-residence. Because if they do, I'm their girl. Can't wait to try out the spa.

Dolce & Gabbana L'Imperatrice 3

aka: my new favorite perfume

I am a loyal devotee to Burberry perfume. I own about 5 of their scents, and really, they know what they're doing, those folks at Burberry. Burberry Classic is my everyday, and I love Touch nearly as much...but I'm just as fond of Brit Sheer, London, and The Beat. Today, though, I went to Sephora to return a lipgloss (I know, miraculous) and fell in love with this new D&G perfume!

I haven't been able to find a description that explains to me the smells I am smelling, so I and my novice nose will do our best to tell you how wonderful it smells. It's fruity and a little bit floral, but I don't get the feeling that I constantly need to sneeze, as is true with many florals (Marc Jacobs, I'm talking to you here). Also, I'm not worried that a swarm of bees will stalk and kill me because of an overpowering fruity smell (yep, DKNY, that's you). I can distinctly smell watermelon and a flower that I *think* is jasmine, but there's another fruit I can't quite identify (apples?) and something deeper (musk perhaps) that evens it out nicely, and frankly, makes me want to bathe in this stuff.

In case you're wondering, I LOVE the way I smell right now. ;-)

25 Random Things About Me

I was rereading some posts on Amanda's blog, and I was inspired to create a list of my own:

1. I have seen “Gone With the Wind” more times than I can count. My favorite time was at the Alabama Theatre in Birmingham with Rebecca. I'm not sure if it's my favorite because the theater is so pretty, or because there were people dressed in antebellum clothes, or because Rebecca and I got lost trying to find the place and then got the giggles when she tried to parallel park.
2. I could listen to Nina Simone 24 hours a day and not get tired of hearing her sing “Wild is the Wind.”
3. I visit People Magazine’s website at least ten times a day.
4. I agree whole-heartedly with Sylvia Plath and Amanda: “There must be quite a few things that a hot bath won't cure, but I don't know many of them.”
5. My favorite perfume is Burberry Classic.
6. My favorite part of a jury trial is closing arguments.
7. Lip gloss takes up most of the room in my makeup bag.
8. I am a graduate of the University of Alabama (not once, but twice), and though I know every word to “Yay, Alabama!” and will sing it at the top of my lungs whenever asked, I am, at heart, an LSU fan.
9. When I think about Alabama, the things I miss most (besides my family, of course) are oak trees, Southern accents, and people who open doors for me.
10. I am learning to crochet (well, re-learning).
11. I want to learn how to quilt…
12. …and speak Italian.
13. My guilty pleasure: Goop.com (Gwyneth Paltrow’s lifestyle website).
14. Even guiltier pleasure: The Real Housewives of New York City. It's like watching a train wreck, and I'm pretty sure it makes me dumber, but it's so ridiculous I can't stop.
15. I really hate it that one must have a subscription to The New York Times in order to receive The New York Times Magazine.
16. I regret that I never learned to make biscuits from my Grandmama.
17. I get nauseated when I smell the Sun-Ripened Raspberry products from Bath & Body Works. I associate that smell with HealthSouth, where Grandmama went for rehab after she had a stroke.
18. It *really* irritates me when people confuse their and there, it’s and its, and you’re and your. If I ever kill someone, this will probably be why.
19. I have a specific writing-instrument preference: blue ink, rollerball, micro tip. Our office manager orders them special for me.
20. I am addicted to philosophy’s Microdelivery Peel. I use it about 3 times a week.
21. I talk to my mom on the phone at least twice a day.
22. As much as I love being a prosecutor, I wish I owned a store. Preferably a gift store that is also a bakery. Although in this economy, it’s probably better that I don’t.
23. I don’t like ice cream all that much, unless I’m eating it at the store in Needham, with a little wooden spoon. Tastes different.
24. When I was little and complained of constant headaches, my parents thought I was lying and just trying to get attention. Turns out I was legally blind. They felt really bad.
25. I can’t wait to buy a house just so I can paint the walls. I’ve been surrounded by off-white walls since I was 16. I would also like a fireplace, although given that I live in the desert, that has more to do with wanting a mantle than with wanting a heat-producing object.

It's raining!

Oh, the excitement! It's been unseasonably hot - like, 106 degrees - so I couldn't be happier to hear the plop, plop, plop of raindrops against my bedroom window. Here's hoping it cools things off and rinses away some pollen!

Chanel

Specifically, Glossimer and Inimitable Mascara.

Yesterday was the start of the half-yearly sale at Nordstrom's, so I went by during lunch to look at the shoes. I didn't buy shoes, but the Chanel counter is just across the aisle, so I stopped there. The Glossimer feels yummy on your lips and doesn't get cakey or icky. And the mascara lengthens and separates, and doesn't flake or smudge all day!