Skip Loves Winston's

RTT did well with an early delivery of Valentine's Day flowers from Winston's (of course).

The Shepard Fairey Opening

Last night, my ever-cool friend, India, and I attended the members-only opening night of the Shepard Fairey exhibit at the Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA) in Boston. (Like us, I'm sure many of you have not heard the name Shepard Fairey, but I assure you that his work is nearly ubiquitous. He famously created the Obama Hope posters that have plastered billboards, scaffolding, and magazine covers. This kind of graphic propagandist street art is Shepard's signature.)

We arrived at the impressive ICA to find that the Obama enthusiasm extended to the artistic interpretations of his ideals. Despite a required advance RSVP, there was a line! There was NO red wine left when we arrived midway through the opening! Needless to say, India and I, mistresses of malcontent, were not pleased.

However, as a result of waiting in line for almost 40 minutes, we arrived in the gallery to find that Shepard Fairey himself (all 5'6" of his youthful, hipster spirit) was roaming the space giving a kind of ad-hoc commentary on his work.

What luck! Thank goodness for Bostonian inefficency and lack of planning!

The Shepard Fairey exhibit is going on now through August.

Skip Attempts the Blueprint Cleanse

Persuaded, unknowingly, by my little sis, Fabs, and further provoked by Holiday party pounds, RTT and I embarked on a super trendy, 3-day pre-packaged juice cleanse from Blueprint Cleanse this past week. Promises of renewed 2009 energy, clear spirits and weight loss convinced us that the $65/day cleanse (I picked up the juices in NYC while visiting the fam) was worth it.

The Renovation Cleanse consists of 6 juices per day and stricken all solid foods from the diet (the only non-Cleanse item permitted is herbal tea). Two of the juices were a green lettuce-y based concoction that tasted suspiciously like L'Occitane's Verbena soap smells and thus required me to quickly gulp them down to avoid my gag reflex. Another juice was a delightful pineapple-mint beverage that I thoroughly enjoyed and the Peppery Lemonade (with Cayenne) was actually quite refreshing as well. The juice menu was rounded out with a very ginger-y Beetroot juice (RTT hates beets, but I found it to be decent) and a well-received Cashew Nut Milk.

We were considerably hungry during day one and both experienced persistent but minor headaches, yet, to be honest, after the initial food withdrawal symptoms passed, we were good. No hunger, no headaches on days two and three.

Here's the thing, while I was not hungry, I was also not satiated. I was feeling not bad but not great either. I was expecting to feel rejuvenation yet I felt run-of-the-mill. And, I just got so sick of juice! It was too much liquid for one person to consume and I missed the ritual of getting up from my desk for lunch and chopping and cooking for dinner. It was so dull.

So, my lovely readers, I can happily disclose that indeed the money was well-spent because RTT and I learned a valuable lesson; cleanses are gimmicky and boring...for people like us. If you want to detox and need focus and a filter, Blueprint was a peachy option. But, next time, RTT and I are going to limit ourselves to fruits and veggies for a week instead. I expect that will Renovate us just as well.

Happy Christmas!

Yes, I made these cookies and not, as you may think, a 2nd grader.

Skip Asks the Question

Oh, what a happy world in which we live! It just makes you want to smile!

This peppy attitude could too be yours if you logon immediately and watch the Fifty People One Question videos (just avoid reading any financial news at nearby websites or driving in Boston for a little while so that you can maximize the gladdening effects).

The clever idea is a social project by Crush + Lovely, a small creative studio based in New York and San Francisco, that involves asking 50 people one question and filming the responses. The result of the first, precious question, Where would you like to wake up tomorrow?, now includes over 900 stirring, silly and sweet responses from people all over the globe.

If someone as anti-other-people as moi can be so captivated and even endeared to such a charming public simply from watching these videos, just think of the added bounce in your daily steps?!?!

Skip Loves Websites That Work

Some might consider me to be a wee bit of a critic. Seriously though, who isn't these days? I simply have very high standards, which is not something I will apologize for, but which often results in my frustration (i.e. is it too much to want there to be more than 3 check-outs open at Stop n' Shop on a busy Sunday afternoon? is it too much to expect drivers to indicate when they are making a turn? is it that difficult for Comcast to build a website with even an iota of added value to the customer?)

Anyhoo, this rather frequent disappointment that I experience (or the vocal tirades that RTT gets to observe) is rendered painless when I discover something, or someone for that matter, that completely blows my already high expectations out of the water and makes my entire life shiny with beaming elation (OxiClean comes to mind and my Dyson miracle vacuum).

When RTT and I decided to drive down to New York City for my darling brother Penny's 24th birthday this past weekend, I was happily hit with not one, but two ridiculously helpful websites that were clearly created by someone with (a) common sense and (b) a modicum of intelligence. Being a wee bit of a planner as well, I embarked on world wide web quest for parking locations in the Big Apple and information regarding toll-plazas across states that take the Fast Pass (don't get me started on why all commuters don't have a Fast Pass) . The results of my searches were the incredible Icon Parking website, that allows you to locate, price and reserve a parking spot in Manhattan, and the vastly informative Mass Pike website which confirmed that you can use Fast Pass in all states west to Illinois (Ohio is coming soon) and even offered puppy break spots along the way. Both websites not only provided me with useful information in a wonderful format, but they actually worked in practice too! Parking in NYC was a total breeze as was speeding through the E-Z Pass lanes on I-90. YAY!

Now, if only Comcast could design a website that...er, just works even some of the time.

Skip Loves Giant Lego Men

Not sure who is behind this fantastically funny giant Lego man prank, but I think I love him/her/them. And, please note, he/she/they are British, of course.

Skip Loves Free Rice

I hope by now I have made clear to the fair readers of this blog my sincerest love of words. I adore not just their discretionary, mellifluous, and often illusory use in libraries-full of poetry and prose but also mastering the ugly, impersonal definitions of such words as well...

After the moving into the stage of my life that doesn't require blind memorization of seemingly useless words (so long SAT and GMAT), I have found that there is little tangible use in hoarding dictionary details other than a smug swagger and the upper hand in intellectually-themed arguments (which one may argue is plenty of motivation).

However, now there is a reason to break out my Word Power spiral-bound book and showboat my language skills! At Free Rice your command of Webster's is repeatedly tested and with each correct answer they donate a grain of rice to the UN's World Food program. I know, I know. A grain of rice can be nothing, but it adds up fast!

Now, while I am (abashedly) convinced that Scrabble uses a completely different vocabulary skill set, I do believe the love-of-flashcards, type-A, word nut in me comes in handy for cross-word puzzle vocab...and we all know practice makes perfect. So get donating!

Skip Takes the Plunge

I have held on to my California driver's license for a long time mostly because I hoped it could be used as proof that I was not a part of the Boston driving public whose flagrant disregard for traffic signs and rules has left a very horrid Massachusetts taste in my mouth.

But, alas, motivated by good old fashioned boredom (puppy watching isn't so fun when the puppy is sleeping) and the fact that my CA version expires in a couple months, I officially turned in my beautiful, sunshine state license and now await a shiny, new MA version.

It is the end of an era.

Untitled

GAAAHHH! I'm so overcome with the preciousness of Eleanor Rigby (picked up this evening) that I can't even begin to know how to describe her...

From now on, you can follow her puppy upbringing and antics on her very own blog, Sniffs About Town.

Skip Loves Unnecessary Knowledge

Now that I have finally decided to end my imprisonment behind the Red Doors, it seems there is little left for me to do at work. How convenient the timing! How lovely that the end is near! How incredibly boring these last 5 days will be!

No worries, my dear readers...I have spent 3 hours already this morning (my last Friday at Talbots) enjoying the random musings of Unnecessary Knowledge, a perfectly useless and utterly pleasing website that generates pointless fun facts for the ennui-sufferers among us. For example, how marvelous to learn that "about 200,000,000 M&M's are sold each day in the United States" or that "the only word in the English language with three consecutive S's is goddessship."

It is far more entertaining than inputting orders into my Jewelry assortment sheets.

Skip Loves Sperry

While I will dearly miss my delightful co-workers and co-car poolers, it is with immense pleasure that I announce my long-awaited departure from Talbots! YAY! Thank goodness! I am free of the torture and tragedy and tail-spinning at last!

Rather, I will be spending 2 weeks as a fussy puppy mummy and then will be starting at the ultimate prepster haven, Sperry Top-Sider! Not only do I get to realize my elitist, WASP world vision (sailing, polos, Top-Siders, ivy, daily cocktails at 6pm and manipulative passive-aggression) but also I have a shorter commute, more vacation time, a gym on-site and a 50%-off discount at other Stride Rite brands like Saucony (RTT already has his orders in), Keds, Robeez and Grasshoppers. I feel like I can finally enjoy Boston!

I might just have to go home tonight and have that cocktail.

Hard Knocks

There are several reasons I look forward to August; the alluring temptation of new Fall television in those rarely seen commercials (thank you, Tivo), the deliciously fat September fashion issues of my favorite magazines to pour over, clip and covet, and the new season of HBO's football documentary, Hard Knocks (which precludes and hints at football's seasonal spectacle to come).

While I have always, and sometimes embarrassingly, been a big fan of mass market television entertainment (i.e. The Office, Friends, 90210, and most sheepishly, American Idol), HBO's sports centered drama has it all...comedy, histrionics, tears, torture, big muscles, and a deep throated, theatrical narrative that belies the ridiculous sums of money all these men are actually playing for...It's basically amazing.

Dear readers, please, please, please watch this show! It will make you love the sport as much as I do....and, by the way, T. O. is totally crazy...in a good way.

PS- Hi, Ben.

Skip Loves Beignet

Never before have I had so much appreciation for the film Best in Show than when I was recently, auspiciously introduced to the world of professional dog breeders.

All I can tell you is that the rumors are true...it's a veritable Gorgan-ish, haphazard existence entirely consumed by dogs and "their breeding." Sanity makes way for show dogs. Literally, these people are crazy.

However, as I, myself, teeter on the precipice of puppy-numbing lunacy (i.e. spending all my clothes money on organic toys, intelligent toys, retro leashes, cute crates, crate covers, clickers, fire hydrant dog tags, nutrious treats, etc. before even welcoming darling Rigby into my home), I have a certain modicum of empathy for these dog obsessed folk. In fact, I've become rather taken with one Frenchie breeder's puppy preoccupation with her up-and-coming French Bulldog show dog, Beignet.

Seriously, never will you experience such tragic, dog infatuation combined with incomprehensible fascination until you have viewed Beignet's cinematic masterpieces. They are brilliant and intoxicating. They are addictive and adorable. They include slow-motion-Beignet-running sequences that will make you weep! You simply must watch them (soundtrack included).

Click here and scroll down to view Beignet in action.

Mad Men

I cannot explain my new found fascination with AMC's TV drama Mad Men (perhaps because it is sponsored by BMW and features an iconic, pre-show clip of a Pretty in Pink scene...?).

The award-winning show, now a year old (I'm a little late to the party), revolves around the lives and loves of ad men in 1960's New York City. On the one hand it is chauvinistic, at times pointless and rambling, and often offensive. On the other hand, it is full of incredible costumes and interior design details that make my mouth water, alluring sub-stories about each of the characters that all but consume me, perfect acting and, most importantly, I'm pretty sure Don Draper is the most handsome, dashing and entrancing man to walk this earth. Ever. (I mean, assuming he were real and not a TV personality.)

Do I love it? Do I hate it? I am at a loss for why RTT and I watched 8 episodes in a row on demand in complete silence. It was spectacular.

I cannot wait for Season Two to begin on July 27th.

Skip Loves Charlie

Gahhhhh! This is the cutest thing I have ever seen!!!

Watch at YouTube.

Font-astic

Those who love all things fonts tend to be type-A, architectural breeds attracted to each letters' crisp structure and the methodical beauty of a printed page or poster. Indeed, I am myself fiercely devoted to "Georgia."

But, while there has been much attention paid to the infamous Helvetica species, the rest of the fonts family have been dismissively ignored. No more! There is now a brilliant web game dedicated to the larger typographic universe, that will still appeal to those prim font folk.

In fact, I have yet to find a better way to pass the time on the Acela train from New York (other than the cheese plate and a half-bottle of wine) than by playing this aesthetically pleasing (and ridiculously, surprisingly difficult) font game.

Have a go, here.

Skip's Big Mouth

While I am certain it is not a surprise to anyone who knows me, I must say I was a little taken a back when my dentist pronounced last week that I have an "extremely large mouth."

That's right, folks, according to the semi-creepy Dr. Anderson, I possess a monstrous mouth that "opens to 62mm, almost unheard of in females!" All the snide remarks are now medically corroborated! I'm despondent! I feel like I a horse at a live stock auction!

I'm not going back to Dr. Anderson. So there.

Fast Forward

I told you I had been busy.

While it was never the objective to actually buy a new car last Saturday (we were merely browsing on the last day of the month), RTT and I just simply couldn't hold ourselves back.

We aimed to peruse the selections at an auto-mall-type setup just near Boston University. Honda, BMW, Infiniti, Saab and Nissan were all within walking distance from each other (and even owned by the same Herb Chambers) and open to inspect at our leisure. The thought was that we would eventually need a different automobile when the weather inevitably turned frigid and the Accord couldn't handle the icy roads and insanely, crazy, stupid Boston drivers (and, honestly, a vehicle that would make my 45-minute drive to a work a little less life-threatening). All our preconceived notions about purchase intent changed, however, when we laid eyes on Little Tiger.

We are such suckers.

Our lovely Little Tiger, returned that morning by a relocating couple and so named for the WWII German tank, is a barely broken-in 2006 BMW X3 in silver with black leather interior and the world's most amazing retracting roof. It is ridiculously, ridiculously fun to drive, unbelievably comfortable, has a killer sound system and, um, did I mention that the roof completely retracts?

It's the best 90 minutes of my day.

Mecca

Really. I am speechless. How can I describe today's visit to Mecca (a.k.a. the Edward Gorey House in Yarmouth, MA) to my darling readers? Peculiar? Oddly refulgent and glittering? Unearthly? Morbid (Edward Gorey collected spooky antique pliars)? Amazing?