Unconvential beauty products that I love

I'm a beauty product junkie. I buy new beauty stuff even if I don't need it, just because it's new and something I haven't tried before. I can wander around the beauty/personal care section of Target or CVS for an hour and not be bored. This is not something I'm proud of, and I probably waste money, but it's something I enjoy.

So when I find something and keep using it for a while, I know it's good. Here are two of those things.


Wen Cleansing Conditioner - $28
I saw an infomercial about this stuff when I was on the road with one of my teams and stuck in the hotel while they were practicing. Finola Hughes was on the commercial and her hair was lustrous, and I wanted lustrous hair like Finola Hughes. After some internet research, and despite the fact that it was kind of pricey, I ordered some.

The weird/different thing about it is that it doesn't lather and it's a single product meant to cleanse and condition your hair all at once. But not like those weird shampoo/conditioner combos. Rather, something that's good for your hair, with no sulfates, which are in almost every shampoo on the market and are supposedly not that great for your hair.

At first I did not like this stuff and it was stashed under my sink for a while until I tried it again a couple weeks ago. The first time I used it, I don't think I used it correctly, because I love it now. My hair doesn't feel as "squeaky clean" as with shampoo, but now I realize that's a good thing. Your hair isn't supposed to be squeaky clean, it needs its natural oils to stay shiny and healthy.

Anyway, like I said, it's pricey, but it replaces your shampoo AND conditioner. And if you already use professional products, this stuff is actually cheaper in the long run.

It comes in several different formulations. I use the Sweet Almond Mint but there are other versions for dry hair or oily hair or whatever.


DHC Deep Cleansing Oil - $24
I have a hard time finding face cleansers that I like. Most things leave my face feeling tight and dry. But I also get an oily t-zone. Classic combination skin. So when I read a commenter on one of my favorite sites raving about using OIL to clean your face, I was intrigued. Then someone mentioned DHC Deep Cleansing Oil and I remembered that I had gotten a DHC catalog with some samples in it. I used the oil sample the next morning and loved it.

It's a makeup remover/cleanser in one. You rub it all over your face before you wet it, and it even removes waterproof mascara. It feels like a huge oil slick on your face, and sort of smells like extra virgin olive oil. But once I rinsed it off, my skin was soft and supple. I combine it with a very gentle cleansing facial bar to get some of the oil residue off afterward and my skin feels great, never tight or dry anymore.

I enjoy funny things

This is probably not new to most people, but it is new to me, and the videos will be taken down this Sunday night (after that, they'll be available for purchase on iTunes), so watch now!

It's hard to describe how much I adore Neil Patrick Harris.

Cloverfield and The Story of the Bad Husband

Let me tell you a little story about a Bad Husband.

You see, this man knew that his wife wanted to see Cloverfield almost more than she loved her dog. From the time she saw the teaser trailer before 'Transformers', through all the speculation that it would be another crappy Godzilla movie, until the movie posters started appearing, he knew she wanted to see it. He knew that she loved Lost and, therefore, J.J. Abrams, and he knew that most anything Abrams created, his wife would enjoy.

But this man, this Bad Husband, kept putting off taking his wife to see 'Cloverfield'. Oh, one night they had grand plans to see it, after a nice dinner at the Macaroni Grill (it was lovely), but the Bad Husband ate too much and didn't feel like sitting through a movie. So the Good Wife took her husband home under the premise they would see it soon.

Then, something terrible happened. 'Cloverfield' left theaters. And the Good Wife hadn't seen it yet.

So, the Bad Husband promised they would watch it together once it came out on DVD. And guess what? The Bad Husband, he kept his promise! And they watched it together, the weekend after it was released on DVD.

And... and... I'm glad I didn't pay $10 to see it.

Oh yeah, spoilers ahead.

Okay, my husband really isn't a Bad Husband, but I do like to joke him down about that. Also about the kitchen project that was started MLK, Jr. Weekend and supposed to be finished by the time I got home that Monday evening and still isn't done, but that's neither here nor there.

So, 'Cloverfield.' It had so much promise. And I really did enjoy most of it. It was slow to start, of course, and since I knew what was going to happen I kept hoping that shit would start blowing up, and soon. I mean I guess the back story of the romance between the guy leaving for Japan and his best girl friend/crush was supposed to make me care about whether or not they were crushed by Cthulhu, but I didn't really. I just wanted to see the Statue of Liberty's head roll down the street. And boy did it!

The special effects were neat, and the guy who was supposed to be filming with the handheld video camera was funny. (Incidentally, did anyone watch Carpoolers? I loved that guy as Marmaduke on that show. Sadly, it's been canceled. But don't worry, they're bringing back The Big Bang Theory. (Psst - that show sucks.)) Also, the girl who gets bitten by the small monster (were they babies? parasites?) and then blows up was Janis Ian in Mean Girls, one of my favorite movies.

So, the premise is it's this dude's going away party, and the city (New York, of course) is attacked by some unknown monster. The dude loves this girl, who is one of his best friends, but she gets mad and leaves the party before the attack starts. So once everyone starts losing their shit and running for their lives, the dude starts to worry about the girl and whether or not she's safe. He finally gets through to her on a cell phone, and it turns out she's in her apartment and she's fallen and she can't get up. So the dude turns against the tide of people losing their shit and running for their lives to go back for the girl. His friends decide to come with him, and much drama and terror ensues.

The parts between the dumb romance storyline were actually very tense. It kind of stressed me out watching it, but in a good way, like how little kids always love to be scared and chased. The cthulhu monster was weird and scary, but even scarier were the smaller Doberman-sized monsters that fell off the big monster. They just bite everything in their paths.

At one point the dude and his friends are walking the subway tunnels in an attempt to stay away from the carnage in the streets, and it turns out they're being stalked by some of the small monsters. They can only see them if they use the Night Vision feature on the video camera. Um, does my camera at home have that feature? Because I could think of a lot of cool Nancy Drew-type things to do with that. Anyway. That's when Janis Ian gets bitten. She gets sicker and sicker as they walk, and they finally find some military and medical people with a makeshift hospital, and the girl starts bleeding from her eyes and nose. The medical staff say, "We've got a bite!", rush her behind a back-lit curtain, and she explodes. At that point I was thinking, J.J. Abrams, you have successfully entertained me even if the rest of this movie sucks.

Anyway, the movie makes it clear that only one of the friends successfully escapes (and it's not the dude or his girl that he rescues). The other three are on a helicopter but the monster pulls it down out of the sky. Then the guy with the camera actually gets eaten by the big monster in a cool scene with him standing directly beneath it, pointing the camera up at it. It looks down at him and considers him for a few seconds before it chomps.

The dude and his girl get the camera after that and hide out under a bridge in Central Park and make their final testimonials to the camera. (As an aside, that camera had a great battery.) Air raid sirens are going off because the military is just going to destroy the whole island and, ostensibly, the monster too.

I guess we should have watched through the credits because according to Wikipedia there's some weird noise or voice at the very end that says "Help" or "It's still alive" or something. That's some straight-up 'Lost' crap right there.

I give Cloverfield 3/5 stars. I would watch it again but fast forward through the beginning.

Random Pictures from my Camera

Here are some random pictures from my camera.

*WARNING* A lot of these will be about my pets so if you don't like that crap then stop now.

Here we have a recent shot of Maggie. She's not running in fear (she hates cameras) because a little girl is taking the picture. We had a friend over with his two little girls for Easter and they were working my nerves so I let them play with the camera.



Here is P.J. in her new favorite spot. The first time she was here, we were freaking out because we couldn't find her and thought she'd finally escaped.

P.S. You can see the new wall color & crown molding in the kitchen in this shot. It hasn't been caulked yet but I will post pictures once it's 100% done.


This is our new quilt for summer. It's lighter than our comforter. And it's not too girly. If Mike didn't live with me I'd totally have something like this on my bed.



We have a neighbor two doors down named Paul who has two dogs, Bella, who looks exactly like Maggie except taller and skinnier and with floppy ears, and Bailey, a little ankle-biter dog who is actually very sweet but likes to poop on the sidewalk. They came over to play in our fenced yard the other day but they didn't play much, they just wanted to come inside.



And finally, I saw this driving to work one morning. I should probably receive some sort of citation for driving and taking a picture at the same time, but it was too good to not document.

***Please note that the license plate says "Choose Life" at the top. There's nothing quite like a pair of hot pink truck nuts that screams CULTURE OF LIFE, is there?

Air Band

These clips are probably two of my most favorite things I've ever seen on TV. Like I literally watch them five times in a row every few weeks. Sad? Maybe. But you can't deny you never liked 'Poison' by Bel Biv Devoe. Seriously, don't deny it.

Anyway, this is from Scrubs, and the Janitor, Ted, and Lloyd are putting together an air band. Sort of like playing air guitar, but you also have air drums, air bass, and an air lead singer. They are auditioning potential lead singers.

Scrubs Air Band Tryouts


And this is their awesome performance, together as the Cool Cats.

Scrubs- More than a feeling Airband


I guess it helps that Boston's 'More Than a Feeling' is a kick-ass song that I crank on the classic rock station all the time.

I'm lame.

OMG I am lame. I haven't updated in so long.

The holidays were a whirlwind. Thanksgiving was great. We stayed here in Birmingham and Mike's Aunt Janis came here to visit us. I cooked a full meal, turkey, all the good stuff. It was great not having to deal with a bunch of family. We saved that for Christmas.

It was kind of funny seeing how Mike reacted to my family's Christmas. First of all you have to know that I have an effing huge family. Both my parents have three siblings. Both my grandmas are alive and kicking. I have lots of cousins and lots of those cousins have children. So Christmas Eve we go to my mom's mom's house to open gifts.

At Mike's house, for the gift opening, you go around and open gifts one at a time, so everybody can see what you got. That's not how we roll. We hand out the gifts and tear into them. It's basically a 15-minute free-for-all gift-opening frenzy. It's awesome, but Mike was overwhelmed.

Then Christmas morning, we hang out at home for a little while, exchanging gifts with my parents and sister. But then we head to my dad's mom's house for Christmas lunch. Another gift-opening frenzy ensues, and it's even nuttier because there are like 57 little kids there running around. More like four or five, but man they are all over the place. And they are especially apparent when they love Hannah Montana so much. But I digress.

Needless to say once we got home after that it was nice to just relax a bit. But that was short-lived because we had to drive back on the 26th for one of Mike's games (Mike is the assistant coach for the varsity girl's basketball team at his high school). Usually we have to leave early because of my games for work, but this year it was Mike's fault, ha!

My sister, Kelly, rode back to Birmingham with us to stay for a week. It was fun having her out here. Last time she was here, we forced her to help us move, so it wasn't very fun. But this time she had the guest room all set up nicely for her and everything. Plus we got a Wii for Christmas from my parents so we bowled our asses off and played tennis like nonstop. Seriously, my ass muscle was sore from bowling and I got tennis shoulder or something. It's really kind of sad.

Since then, we have just been working a lot. Basketball season is in full swing for both of us. Our women's team, at the school where I work, is kicking ass and taking names (15-3) and the men's team isn't doing too badly either. Mike's team... well, they are young, really young, that's all I will say. And he is having a good time learning how to coach. And they are good girls.

Last weekend I went to Texas with our women's team, to Austin and San Antonio. It was pretty fun, but colder than I thought. I was really sort of expecting like 70s but it was more like 30s and 40s. Also, while we were there, it freaking snowed in Birmingham. The first time it's snowed since I've lived here, and I missed it. I was so mad!

I saw the Alamo. It was smaller and not as impressive as I was expecting, but still interesting. I fought the urge to ask to see the basement. Please post a comment if you get that reference. None of the basketball players did. Damn young kids.

We still love our house. We are doing some minor kitchen upgrades at the moment. If you saw the old pictures, it was painted brown. Now it is a light creamy yellow, so pretty, so bright. And it seems a lot bigger, too. We also put up beadboard and are going to put up chair-rail moulding and crown moulding (is it molding or moulding?). It is going to look real nice when we are done. The best part is, Mike's teacher friend, Chip, is helping us out for free. He's the same guy who helped us paint all the rooms for free back before we moved in.

That's about everything, I think. We aren't having babies yet, so don't ask.

She's dressed in yellow, she says hello...

I heard this on the radio today and remembered how much I absolutely love, love, love this song.

Young MC - Bust A Move