Memorial Day...

Yes, it is the official start of the summer which is great because I looooove the summer. I'll take the Miami heat and humidity over snow any day. I love that school is about to be over more than my kids..

My alter-ego "Summer Julie" comes out. Everyone likes Summer Julie better than regular old Julie. She is not carpooling like a maniac. She is not yelling at children to do homework. Some days are spent in PJs!

But Memorial Day is really not about the summer , it's about remembering fallen soldiers. Luckily no one in my family died in combat but that does not make me any less thankful to everyone who has served our country.  In the days after 9/11 ,when we were all too scared to live our daily lives,  I realized for the first time how important freedom is and really understood "live free or die". We should never forget.

Here is a great post by Suzy about memorial day.. http://wherehotcomestodie.blogspot.com/2012/05/hi-dad.html

oink oink...

I've been working out during the past month harder and more consistently than I have in years.  The workout that I'm doing is a serious calorie burner. It's based on heart rate monitoring and I'm training in the zone. I mean I'm even running a little which I never, ever do.

How much weight have I lost? 0.0 pounds. So depressing. I guess I'm just hungrier and eating too much. This week I have to start really watching the calories so watch out, I may be bitchy !

Silly Saturday

Yesterday's post was so heavy so today it's time for silly Saturday. Here is the silliest thing that I saw on the internet today. Thank goodness I did not see this in person or I would have peed in my pants!

It is called the Beard Beanie! It's all one piece. Who came up with this?

 Here is the holiday version...

Do not put this on your baby. It is just plain mean and is probably itchy.

Here is a version to wear to a renaissance festival

This one is just plain creepy and would certainly scare the children hunting for eggs.

Here is a whole family. I'd be scared if I came across those on a camping trip. Good thing I don't camp!

 And here is one for your next cruise (Miss Bee) or tropical vacation to Jamaica!

Hope everyone has a silly Saturday!

More than she can handle...

It has been said that g-d never gives you more than you can handle but one of my dear friends has been handed a heavy load lately. Recently her mother died after a horrible battle with illness topped with a nice dose of Alzheimer's. Her father in law died too. Yesterday her mother in law passed. All of this is bad enough but she is battling aggressive breast cancer. She has just finished Chemo and is scheduled for a surgery in two weeks followed by radiation and then reconstruction.

Oh yeah she has two high maintenance teenagers (is there any other kind) that she needs to get ready for sleep away camp. Packing for sleep away camp is one of the most cumbersome tasks a mother ever needs to do. It requires lots of planning, shopping, labeling etc. The kids also need new shoes, haircuts and physicals before they go. It is a full time job in itself.

This sweet friend has a nice husband who has a high powered job and is busy, busy, busy. Her family is not nearby. Oh yeah, she is the biggest procrastinator that I've ever met. She is on her own time clock. This quality makes her terribly creative but constantly late and missing deadlines.

Today I will go make a shiva call. This is when you visit the family after the burial to pay your respects. It is an important part of the Jewish death ritual. Unlike other religions, Jewish law requires you to bury the body as quickly as possible (usually within 24 hours) so you don't visit before or have a wake. You visit afterwards and bring food.

I'm sad for my friend and hope that she can handle all of this. I will try to help as much as I can. :(

My stint as a television reviewer...

In order to pretend that I am not dealing with 8th grade homework woes, (is there senioritis for 8th graders?) I'm now going to give you my review of the American Idol Finale last night....

First of all, my household loved Phillip Phillips from day one despite my father's warnings to me as a child never to trust anyone with two first names especially if they are the same name. Not to wander off track here, but seriously, couldn't his family find another name besides Phillip Phillips? It is quite absurd but I digress.

I loved Phillip when he did not listen to Tommy Hilfiger's advice to dress better. I loved Phillip when he cried during his final song. I love that he worked and won the contest, despite a serious health condition. I actually downloaded two of his songs during the competition which is something I've never done during all my years of watch Idol. I love him and hope he puts out an album worth listening too. I'm always amazed that many of these idol winners are superstars yet you never hear any good songs from them. Yes, there are some exceptions but many of the idol winners (and almost winners) fade away.

I hated Jessica. I don't know why. She is obviously a great talent. She's so young, yet has a huge Whitney Houston like vibe. There was something that just rubbed me the wrong way.

Now about the show itself. It was two hours of pure torture. Not torture because we were waiting for the last minute to find out who the winner was. The "stars" were not very relevant to today's music culture. Neil Diamond? Love him but anyone younger than my middle aged a$$ has no idea who he is. Chakka Khan. Love her but wasn't anyone a little less 80's available? The voted off kids looked like zombies and I wondered why they ever stood a chance at winning except for Joshua who rocked it.

 The costumes were some of the worst I've ever seen.  Did the stylist hate women? Look at Fantasia Barrino in a unitard/bodysuit. They could have come up with something better dontcha think?

Chaka Khan also wore a bodysuit. I'm not one to say anything but seriously, how about some spanx ?

 Country cutie Skylar Laine looked like she got lost in the store "Hot topic". Who told her this was a good  look for my spunky little girl?

Jennifer Lopez is one of the most gorgeous women on television. I'd trade my entire shoe collection if her lighting guy and makeup artist would follow me around for a while but J.Lo, what's with the droopy drawers?

The lowlight of the entire night was a proposal by Idol Alumni Ace Young  to Diana Digarmo. I remember Diana only because of her name. She came in second place to Fantasia and was so cute back then.

Diana looked like she had gone Hollywood in a bad way, some type of work done, too much makeup and bad hair extensions made her look plastic. Ace (who was a contestant in season five) also looked weird but what got me was that he proposed to her on stage and mentioned the jeweler who provided the ring. Her proposal was actually product placement. She should have said "no" and demanded that he buy the ring himself.

Okay, I'm done critiquing and now have to return to my regular life and go edit a paper on America as a world power. Didn't I already pass 8th grade?

A rave for a company's customer service

First of all, thanks for the concern. The food poisoning has passed and I made it to my workout this morning. As I was walking in at 6:30 a.m, I saw an old friend walking out of the 5:30 a.m. class! That is early. She looked totally amazing. She was never fat, but now looks like one of the after shots on the biggest loser. Totally trim ! Very motivating.

Ok, onto the business at hand.

I am a queen of complaining about lousy customer service so I'm happy to write that I had great customer service from a company.

My 12 year old son received a very extravagant gift from very generous friends. They were Monster Beats by Dr. Dre. These are the "in" headphones. Beats is a sponsor of American Idol. They are very expensive. Crazy expensive for a 12 year old. ( I would have never bought them for him in a million years)

Of course, they broke. The top part snapped in half.  They come with a 1 year full warranty so I called the company. I spoke to a nice person who was located in the US (always a plus in customer service these days). I explained that the owner is 12.  Even though I did not have a receipt, they told me to ship them back and they would see what they could do.

Today a brand new pair came via fed ex. I love good customer service!

Spread some cookies on your bagel...

I want to let you know about my new favorite thing at Publix.  Have you ever had those little Biscoff cookies on Delta? They are yummy. Next to the peanut butter, I found Biscoff spread. They have crunchy and creamy versions of it. It looks like peanut butter and has the same consistency but tastes like those cookies!

It is not dietetic  but so flavorful that I put some on a bagel and probably used less than a half of a teaspoon so a little goes a long way. I'm definitely putting a jar (or two) of this in my hurricane supply box .