72 and Snowy

Yesterday I got to play around in the snow. It was man-made snow, but still a good time. A festival had ordered snow and it rained so they weren't able to use it by the date, so they donated the snow to the Pasadena Ronald McDonald House. They're a client, so I was pitching cute kiddos playing in the snow in 70 degree weather to the news media and got a bite. All in all this snow day was a win-win.

The local Fire Department came by and got into a snowball fight with the kids.

This little girl was enamored by the camera. 

What's red, pink and cream all over?

Answer: Me.

I got my hair dyed on Friday after work. Dyed and trimmed. Took about an hour, which isn't bad. My one request to the stylist was to make the red pop a little more. Granted it had been 6 weeks since the initial dye, but the fade was not enough to account for the fact that I wasn't quite red. I had a red tint, but the color didn't pop like I had wanted.

I would've thought it was just me, but when I went back to my stylist, she said she had written "more copper" on the card with my hair color on it. So, it's nice to know my stylist and I were on the same page. She's a keeper.

Anyway, with freshly red locks on my head, I discovered that I can only really wash my hair a few times a week instead of every day. Blonde hair doesn't really fade. It just loses luster. Brunette and red fade and red fades the most and quickest. So, my stylist recommended that I not only use my color safe shampoo and conditioner, but also limit my washes. So I invested in some good dry shampoo and I hope it does the trick to make my color last.

But I digress. So the hair is definitely red. The cream is my skin color. My pale skin. Except my pale skin is not so pretty. It's actually not bad on my face (except for the tendency to freckle), but my legs are pretty pale and not in a good way.

Which leads to the pink. Knowing that my paleness needs some help and knowing that it's Sunday and pretty, Chef and I decided to hit the pool in our complex. We tag teamed the cleaning of the apartment this morning and then decided our reward would be an hour or so laying by the pool.

It was glorious. Nice, bright sun. 78 degrees. The only thing that was out of place was that we had to have two chairs (the only two lounge chairs left) that were partially shaded at times. That made it a little chilly for a few minutes, but overall, a nice 90 minutes in the sun listening to music and reading. These are the times that I start to think that I live in a resort and not necessarily an apartment complex.

The pink comes about 20 minutes after we get back to the apartment. My shoulders and face are warm to the touch and slightly sunburned. I hate to say burned because I've been sunburned. This is more like a sunkiss that lasted too long. A sun hickey, perhaps?

How I Deal With Beauty Products Now That I'm Older

When I was younger, I would try just about any new beauty product out there that had lofty promises and a good before and after picture. But now that I'm getting older, I'm getting wiser. I've learned a few things that I think have inevitably saved me tons of money and made me a lot happier with the products that I buy. Here's what I've learned:

• Products only do about 25% of what they claim to do. That number is higher for some people and lower for others. For me, I've found that if I take the claim on the box and adjust my expectations to 25%--and still want to buy the product, that I'll be happier in the end.
• Wait a week before being excited about something. I've had quite a few things that I loved after the first day or two to find out that I wasn't so excited a week in when my skin, hair, body or whatever got used to it. The rule of diminishing returns, I guess.
• Buy the product that smells the best to you. I've bought perfumes because Chef liked them and I was only so-so on. Turns out after a few wearings, he wasn't so excited about it and I was stuck with a perfume that I only tolerated. If you have a product that makes you happy when you smell it or that you love the smell of, it can only work 5-10 percent as well as it should and you don't feel like you threw your money out because at least the smell makes you happy.

What got me thinking about this? I did a mini-at-home spa day this morning. It's raining, I had just worked out and our plans of going to Culver City for pizza was traded in for basketball and movies at home with delivery Chinese food. (a good swap, I'd say). So, I took a long steamy bath and rub, scrubbed, and lotioned up with some of my favorite products (not that you don't know this, but I clearly don't get paid to mention these things):

• bumble and bumble true red shampoo: Recommended by my stylist for keeping the new red hair looking red. Smells okay (kinda like patchouli) but works pretty well and is really mild.
• bumble and bumble golden blonde conditioner: Again, not the greatest smell, but works to make my hair not TOO red.
  
• Pacifica Indian Coconut Nectar Body wash and body butter: I got it in a gift set from Sephora. It smells like coconut frosted cupcakes which for me spells WINNER in a product.
• Fresh Brown Sugar Body Polish: Smells delicious and the sugar fades away. A little oily for some people, but my skin drinks it in.
• Morrocanoil Restorative Hair Mask: My poor damaged hair drinks it in. I only use it once a week (same for the body polish) but I can always tell a difference for two days after I use it.
• The original Morrocanoil Oil Treatment: I put a few drops on my hair every morning before I blow dry. It actually does do a couple of things for me: 1) it makes my poor, damaged, dry hair look shiny and have moisture. 2) It takes me less time to dry my hair when I use it. Seriously. A noticeable difference.

So, that was my morning of relaxation. The next one will be in a few weeks when I get another massage. Why another one? Well other than the obvious, I also have a coupon for a 90 minute massage for the price of a 60 minute one. Not too shabby!

Hope your Sunday is just as relaxing. I have to get back to doing little to nothing but cheering on basketball teams of my favor and catching up on this week's TV shows.

Bad TV on a Sunday Night

Seriously. Without football, there's not a lot on Sunday night TV. I'm relegated to old Reese Witherspoon movies and the Style Network. If I could get Chef to sit through Jerseylicious without bitching about it, I'd be watching those tacky ass Jersey girls tonight. Instead, I'll wait until he's asleep like I usually do.

Can anyone tell me what's up with Jersey lately? I mean, when did tanning until you're an oompa loompa and wearing loads of accessories become the new it thing? When will there be some Hoosier love for the moderately dressed, sensible decision-making girls who work hard and try to accomplish things of substance? Oh, right. Never. I guess that doesn't make good TV. One thing I will give the girls of Jersey is that they squeeze their chunky asses into lycra without a second thought. They think they're sexy even if they are squeezing their size 12 ta tas into a size 8 dress. It's actually nice to see some ladies with boobs and curves on TV. If only they would keep their mouths closed.

My I Don't Have To Run Day

When I was a kid, I dreaded Sundays. There was never anything on TV (It was before I became a football fan) and it was the day that we didn't really do anything. Now Sundays are my favorite day of the week. And this one particularly.

Since I had yesterday free, I was able to do my errands then AND had a fabulous night with my stepdad Jack, his fiance Sara and Chef. Jack and Sara came into town for my birthday, and we went to Ruth's Chris. It was my first time there and will not be my last. The steak was awesome and covered in butter. Which makes me think back to Julie & Julia and the revelation that butter makes everything better. (Except for your arteries, but that's a different scenario all together). Everything was delicious, down to Jack's Banana Cream Tart. Yummy.

Then we went to the Patterson House, which has become a frequent haunt of mine lately. Chef and I went there on Tuesday night for our late Valentine's celebration. It was just as good this time, as well. Plus Jack had said that he's never been to a place like it. When you can introduce him to something new, you've found a good spot.

But I digress. After a lovely evening, I was happy to climb into bed. Where I've been spending and plan on spending the majority of the day. No errands. Only have to put finishing touches on something for work. I only ventured out of the bedroom this early because Chef told me that I needed to watch The Time Traveler's Wife so he could delete it. The joke's on him, though, because it's not where it's supposed to be and I can't watch it. I did, however, manage to watch 6 episodes of My Life as Liz. I have to say that the promos made me uneasy and the fact that it was on MTV made me even more uneasy, but it's a pretty good show. Enough to spend two hours watching, I guess.

So now, it's back to bed and maybe later I'll make some taquitos. That's pretty much taxing the limits of my ambition for the day.