Conversations with [Dumb] People

It's about time for another installment of grammar/usage pet peeves, dontcha think?

You know when people say (or write) something along the lines of "You just can't go around calling people pricks all the time."  Shouldn't it really be "You can't just go around calling people pricks all the time."?  It's just much more logical the second way.  Right?

Also, "all-intensive purposes."  Have you guys seen/heard this?  It's "all intents and purposes," for the record.  Actually, let's just scratch the phrase altogether--it's redundant.

Oh, or how about "could of" instead of "could have" or "could've."  (Wow, "could" is a weird word.  It looks really strange when you type it out that many times in a row.)

OK, this one might be the most annoying:  "irregardless."  Yikes.  It's like nails on a chalkboard.

I know you guys probably think I must have perfect grammar if I'm sitting here criticizing everyone else's.  But I've been reading Moby-Dick for the past few months, and I spelled it "Mobey Dick" like three times on Twitter.  I also misspelled "apparently" on Twitter this past weekend.  So who's the prick now?

And please feel free to leave your biggest language pet peeves in the comments section!

Doublemeat Palace

If you live in Austin or have visited this city in the past two years, you've probably noticed a buttload (yeah, I know the proper word is "boatload," but I grew up thinking it was "buttload," so for me it will forever be "buttload") of food trailers popping up everywhere.  Torchy's Tacos was the first really successful one, and since it got big you see new trailers popping up all over town, selling anything from sushi to crepes to hot dogs. 

We tried a new food trailer tonight called Odd Duck that specializes in gourmet, locally sourced, sustainable food dishes.  And it's BYOB.  And it's right next to an Airstream trailer that sells savory (and sweet) donuts. 

Check out their menu.  It's pretty fantastico.  The Dude had the pork belly slider (I got a couple bites), and I had the focaccia with goat cheese and green beans.  Heavenly.  The portions are small but filling.  I was way too hungry to take photos of the food.  Sorry!  But here I am, waiting for our food to arrive.

We decided to get donuts afterward because, well...donuts!  I don't even really like donuts all that much, but the concept of a fried, savory pastry covered in butter and served with a chicken strip?  OK, I can get behind that.

My donut was called the "Mother Clucker."

The Dude went for something a little more classic:  the "Naughty and Nice."  Basically a cinnamon-sugar donut with a buttery dipping sauce.

Thanks, Gourdough's, for inspiring me to start exercising again.

On a rather random note, when we got home, we noticed this little guy on our front porch.

Yep, an opossum.  Or a 'possum, as we call 'em here in Texas.  That was about an hour ago, and the little dude's still there.  It looks like a baby who got lost from its mother.  I feel real sorry for the little bugger.  But sometimes I just have to laugh at this city I live in.  I mean, Austin is a major metropolitan area!  And we live like five minutes from the center of downtown.  Yet we have wild creatures popping up at our front door.  I hope you find your mommy, little one!

Out of My Mind

This past Saturday I got to meet my friend Jennifer's new baby girl, Samantha.  If I didn't have baby fever before, then this month-old bundle of chub would have sparked it for sure.  As it is, my desire to have a baby is getting a bit ridiculous.

Seriously, when I picked up Samantha, she just curled up on my chest and went right back to sleep.  So adorable!  She's in a very cuddly phase right now.  It's all very cute, except when her mom wants to spend five minutes doing something other than hold her.

Isn't this yawning on the cutest?  I'm in love.  And yes, that is a flower hair clip that I made for Samantha.  Jennifer clipped it onto one of those stretchy crocheted headbands that I hear are all the rage with babies right now.

Also this weekend, as I mentioned before, my awesome friend Kara offered to take some of my stuff with her to a craft fair she was doing.

Renegade Craft Fair

It was held at the Palmer Events Center a little south of downtown Austin.  Also known as the Place of Doom, where I took the 2009 Texas Bar Exam.  Even though just walking into that place makes me break out into hives, I braved it to check out Kara's booth.

Of course her stuff looked great, as always.  If you take a peek into the first photo, you can see my little tree of headbands in the back corner.  Not close enough for you?  Here you go.

You can even see a couple of new pieces that I just finished up last Thursday.  Kara's husband, Brandon, who was working the booth when the Dude and I arrived told us that he'd sold three of my headbands.  Awesome!  They were set up on Sunday, too, so I still don't know how many things I sold yet. 

As exciting as that was, I can't wait to do my first show where I'm actually there hawking my own stuff.  (You know, my first show that doesn't get rained out.)  And it's coming up--on June 5th I'll be setting up shop at the Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf on South Lamar, selling headbands, hair clips, and soy candles.  I just found out for sure today, so I'm pretty stoked.  More details to come.

Dirty Girls

Now let me preface this post by saying I am not a domestic goddess by any means.  I'm not the second coming of Martha Stewart (who is totally a witch, btw).  But, I am incredibly lazy, and over the years I have taught myself a few things about cleaning for the horizontally inclined.  (Get it?  That means I don't like standing up or exerting effort.)

This might gross some of you out, but I am one of those people that is uber-organized but not so clean.  I am constantly trolling my house for stuff we don't need that I can give to Goodwill, and I reorganize every drawer, cabinet, and closet dozens of times per year.  Yet I only get around to cleaning the bathtub every few months.  Icky, I know.  Especially because the longer you wait, the harder it is to clean.  I can't tell you how many times I have started trying to clean the tub out, then given up after fifteen minutes of merciless scrubbing, the tub still coated in soap scum, mildew, and grime.

But last weekend I finally found the easiest and most satisfying solution to cleaning bathtubs.  And if you're lazy like me, you can do it, too!  Here's what you need:

1 bottle of Soft Scrub Deep Clean Foaming Cleanser

1 Mr. Clean Magic Eraser Extra Power

Source

A couple washcloths.

Spray the entire tub and tile area with the Soft Scrub.  It comes out really foamy and sticks to where you spray it instead of running.  Pay extra attention to the really grimy bits.  Let it sit for two to five minutes, then rinse everything off with cold water and a washcloth.  THEN, take your Magic Eraser and polish off all of the remaining residue on the surface of the tub and tile.  It rubs away fairly easy without having to use too much elbow grease.  Sweet!

I also recommend throwing your shower curtain liner in the washing machine every couple of months or whenever you start to see buildup on the bottom of it.  I always buy the mildew resistant ones, but eventually they start to get icky, too.  Finally, invest in some daily buildup remover that you can just spray on every time you get out of the shower.  It keeps your shower cleaner so you don't have to do as many big scrub downs.  Target carries a pretty good version.

I hope this helps someone out there who is too intimidated to clean her own nasty tub!

Gone

Hi, blog!  I've missed you.  Somehow I am just not finding the time to dedicate to updating this blog as often as I want to.  Work is kicking my ass.  I know that as a new attorney I should be ecstatic to only work 40 hours a week.  But it's been a huge adjustment going from full-time student to part-time law clerk to full-time lawyer.  When I get home in the evenings I need to decompress, big time.  That means either watching TV until my eyeballs protrude from their sockets or drinking until I pass out.  Sometimes both at the same time.

Today I made it through two episodes of Buffy and the full two-hour season finale of America's Next Top Model before I felt the urge to do something productive.  But here I am!  Now I'm gearing up for a couple of exciting things.  My uber-talented and successful friend, Kara, is selling her goods at a show this weekend, and she's going to take some of my products with her!  Tomorrow night I am going to hopefully make some new headbands and hair clips.  I hope I get some inspiration, as it's been seriously lacking lately.  I just don't have the energy to be creative when I get home from work.

I've also been working on some teacup candles that I am thinking about selling.  I'm not sure if people will be interested or not, but I love making them.  Besides, I had all these leftover teacups sitting around from our wedding.  I spent a shitload of money on Ebay buying them, so why not try to do something with them instead of just letting them sit in a closet?

I have a whole set of these dainty little German teacups and saucers.  I love them!

They're all 100% soy wax, and this one is vanilla scented.

I've also got a ton of other teacups and saucers, as well as cappucino and apple cider fragrance oils.

Photo by the Nichols

So what do you guys think?  Should I list these on Etsy?  Or should I wait for this show that I might be doing the first Saturday in June?  Also, if you were buying one of these candles, would you want it attached to the saucer or would you want it as two separate pieces so that you could clean it out and reuse it after you burn it down?  (My mom did that with the one I gave her as a present.)

Help

I can't stop fantasizing about buying clothes!   Unfortunately, I can't spend a lot of money on clothes right now.  Anything extra I make is going to pay off student loans or to buy supplies for my business. 

So instead of doing permanent damage to my bank account, how about I share a little fashion inspiration for your Saturday?  Here are a couple of outfits that I'd love to wear. 

I'm especially obsessed lately with shorts, leather (or faux-leather!) jewelry, patterned tights, and random mixing of colors.

Items in this set:

Blouse-Tuniques et chemisiers-Comptoir des Cotonni, 85 EUR
Vertical Stripe Tights, 5 GBP
MARNI SS10/COMVH97A00 00W01 METAL/TISSUE -, 350 GBP
Rachel Comey Ipswich Brogue Wedge, $345
Red High Waisted Shorts., 28 GBP

Items in this set:
Faith twist-back dress, $300
Holalita flat ponyskin sandals, $465
Modalú Dove Large Across Body Handbag, Tan, 79 GBP
YVES SAINT-LAURENT - LEATHER COVERED CHAIN CHOKER NECKLACE, 600 EUR
Carolee - Large Round Button (Gold Pearl) - Jewelry, $55


My fantasy shopping has gotten to the point where this morning I added six items to my shopping cart on J. Crew.com and then closed the browser window before I got myself into $400 of credit card debt.

No Place Like Home

So, you guys want to see what the Dude and I have been working on for the past couple of weeks?

We got the itch to rearrange our house when we were on our road trip to New Orleans.  We talked about it the whole ride back to Austin, and we got to work the very next day.

When we moved into our house a year and a half ago, we decided to set up the TVs (yes, I said TVs--the Dude has to have at least two of them set up side by side) in one of the bedrooms instead of in the living room.

Here's a crappy photo of what the TV room looked like before.  (And our former roomie Abi's leg--we miss you, Abi!)

And here's what the living room looked like.

Last week, we moved the whole tv set up into the living room.  Here we are hard at work.  (OK, it's just the Dude doing the manual labor--I mostly ran around excitedly putting stuff into a pile for Goodwill.)

Here are some photos of the work in progress.

We ended up having room for everything except the piano, which my mom had given us when she moved to Austin.  Luckily, the piano is going to a good home.

OK, so here's what you've been waiting for...the finished product!

Check out our new sitting and record-playing corner.

Our freshly dusted, reorganized, and redecorated Ikea shelf.

Our super-soft Pottery Barn Outlet couch that's finally getting some butt action.

Our badass new TV set up.

And the view into our newly separated dining room.  (Yeah, the dining room still needs some work, huh?)

So what did we do with the former TV room?  For now it's a place where people can crash on our futon (a second guest room, if you will) and the Dude can play his guitar as loud as he wants.

We're both pretty stoked about the new spaces.  And now that we're done, maybe I can return to my normal schedule of blogging and Buffy-watching.

What's My Line, Part One

Yeah, I haven't been posting a lot lately.  Working forty hours a week kind of takes up a lot of time.  Also the Dude and I have been working on a special project over the last week or so.  It's not that exciting unless you're us, but I'll share pics later this week.

For now, I leave with something I told the Weddingbee readers about a long time ago: a video of the Dude playing Jesus in a fake commercial. He was literally found by the guy who made this video while eating pizza in a restaurant.

Enjoy!