Saturday, June 30, 2007

Just improve. That’s what growth is.

Greetings from the Sunshine State! As I type, I am sitting in my hotel room watching a rerun of Star Wars – Revenge of the Sith. After going through a bit of hell to get here, the past week has been a wonderful whirlwind—kind of like experiencing a little bit of heaven without the inconvenience of dying.

My arrival was delayed 9 1/2 hours getting me to my destination at 3:30am on Monday. This gave me only 4 hours to sleep and prepare for my first day at tennis boot camp. Needless to say, Monday was comical. Not only was I trying to adjust to the insane heat and humidity here, but the 7 hours of ensuing tennis just about flattened me.

Despite the shaky beginning, I can’t say enough great things about my IMG Academies/ Bollettieri Tennis experience. The level of intensity of the tennis instruction and drills was fantastic. I was surrounded by adults and juniors from all over the world with incredible skills and athleticism. It was extremely inspiring.

Thursday was “Game Day.” An emcee conducted the day’s drills with great music blasting over loudspeakers as he announced various games and prizes. I especially loved bouncing around to Eminem’s “Lose Yourself”. Somehow it made the burn in my legs feel a lot less painful. Everyday after lunch, I jumped in the pool for a half hour to recuperate and recharge just enough to barely make it through the afternoon sessions. I had such a fabulous time. To top it all off, I had initially set out to shed some weight at this boot camp (or “booty” camp, rather), and I DID!!!

I have been in constant battle with my last 10 post-pregnancy pounds. Exasperated, I tried a famous weight-loss program three weeks ago and failed miserably. This well-known diet program whose name begins with J and C promised I would lose at least 5 pounds after my first week. Pssssh! No problem, I thought. So I wholeheartedly followed the program, ate their crappy food and faithfully logged my meals. I went to my first weigh-in only to find I’d lost a measly 2 OUNCES!! Screw that.

In my week here, I dropped 7 pounds. No pills. No 1000-calorie cardboard crap diets. No ooga-booga magic. Just plain, old-fashioned, kick-butt, working out. Yeah, baby! Now, that’s what I’m TALKIN’ ABOUT!!!!!!!! Bam!

No booty school dropouts here!

Sunday, June 24, 2007

Amazing! I was blown away...

Okay, so most of us have watched America's Got Talent at some point. And we know that the "talents" can often be painful to watch. I mean, how about the guy that breaks things with his butt? For crying out loud...

Well, this came across my screen and I nearly peed my pants. Here's a guy who looks like a complete bloke. He's a mobile phone salesman who lacks self-confidence. A total regular guy, he walks on stage and says he will be singing OPERA. All three judges brace themselves for an immediate dismissal and find themselves completely gobsmacked. It's actually a video from Britain's Got Talent.

Check him out:

Friday, June 22, 2007

Flying to England anytime soon?

Just for airline passengers (and pilots) is a ginormous silhouette of a pole dancer in a field near London’s Gatwick Airport. It covers 100,000 square feet!




Pretty cool. Check out the site. You can enjoy your own lapdance in the comfort of your own… cell phone!!!

Thursday, June 21, 2007

My Latest FIND

Okay Ladies,
Have you ever been out and about and you go to find something in your purse only to find that you are digging around for the next 20 minutes through receipts, papers and other randomly floating items?

Now, some of you may be more on the organized side and have things all neat and tidy, but what if you're out having a lovely dinner and your BF starts ringing your cellphone to tell you about her latest weight-loss secret? You need to answer that phone! No time to fish around in the dark while it rings and rings and then gets sent to voicemail.

Check this out: http://www.solasfashion.com/
Every single bag in the line comes with a built-in neon light that glows around the purse whenever you open it. Auto shuts off when you close... SaaaaaWeeeeeeeeet!!

I'm loving the Serendipity Lite in White. All-leather. Beautiful east-west style a la M. Jacobs. Perfect for summer-- goes with everything.

Remember, it takes work to rock a funky bag.
And there you have it.

Ciao!

Wednesday, June 20, 2007

Baby Got Back

One of my longtime favorite songs is aptly called, “Big Ole Butt” by LL Cool J. I can’t help but move to this tune as Big L professes his love for big booties, most especially when he chirps, “Tina got a big ole butt.”

Despite L’s preferences, I am forever on the hunt to find the best method of a non-surgical butt lift and shrink. Recently, I stumbled upon a loyal follower of Callan Pinckney’s Callanetics workout. My friend and fellow workout buddy, “K”, explained to me in great detail how the video helps her to tone her arms and raise her rear. Of course, this is when my ears perked up and I said I must try it for myself. Lord knows I could certainly stand to raise my rear a few inches…

So, about the video… It was created in the 80’s. You can well imagine the attire and hairdos, but all of that aside, the workout has some pretty tough exercises that definitely firm and tone. It was very easy to follow. Callan Pinckney is 47 years old in the video and she definitely walks the talk. I liked it because it was a nice change of pace for me.. Low impact, minimal sweat factor. Do-it-yourself at home (I was in my jammies). I can see why she has such a loyal following even after 20+ years!

Just look at all the rave reviews on amazon!

Callan says you’ll lose 10 years in 10 hours. I’m going for my second hour tonight. Going for that perfect peach!

I can hear it now…

“Tina got a teeny tiny butt.” Oh, yeah.

Monday, June 18, 2007

Book Clubs... Fact or Fiction?

I’ve never been part of a book club. What do you do at a book club? Is it an excuse to gather socially or do you really just get together to discuss books? The reason I wonder is because I recently met a gal who was telling me all about all the fun things she did with her “book club”, none of which were centered about any books!

Are book clubs formed around a certain genre of literature or is the material free-for-all? Who decides on the book of the week?

As an avid reader, I’ve considered joining one or even starting one, but I’m picky about what I like to read. Since I don’t have a lot of extra time, I am always squeezing in whatever moments I can to tackle my way-too-long list of books that I want to finish. And then there’s the ones that I wish to re-read..

Somehow I do manage to read the equivalent of at least one book a week just by sneaking in a chapter here and there. You'd be amazed at how much reading you can accomplish by simply strategically placing books throughout your house. For me, at any given time, I have 8 to 10 books each in a designated spot. I have a book in my purse, in my car, one next to my bed, one by the couch and of course, one in each bathroom. If I’m cooking, I’ll read a chapter in the kitchen. If I’m taking an “eye-strain” break from my computer, I’ll read a chapter at my desk.


A lot of people find the books I love extremely boring and dry. In fact, this weekend, when we returned home from a party, I found the nanny perusing my kitchen book, “How to Out-Negotiate Anyone”. She looked way less than entertained. Are you kidding? I eat that stuff up! I crave mostly non-fiction. I love books about psychology, entrepreneurship, and business. Then there are the memoirs and books about serial killers. If I ever do read fiction, they are almost always thrillers. I mean, I do enjoy the Harry Potters and the Devil Wears Pradas of the world, but there are way too many books ahead of them on the list that I rarely get to these.

*Sigh* I guess if I do start a book club, it will have to be the kind with more of the social slant. That’s cool. There’s nothing like another excuse to get together and drink!

Happy reading!

Wednesday, June 13, 2007

Queen Bee STILL Rules Post-Prison!

FAB remix. Lil Kim kills it! (warning: explicit lyrics)


Thursday, June 7, 2007

And I quote...

"The secret of success in life is for a man to be ready for his opportunity when it comes."
~ Benjamin Disraeli

Monday, June 4, 2007

My trip to Sears

So I went AWOL for a while... What can I say? Things have been pretty tame in my brain... Not so socially starved right about now. Perhaps because summer is near and school is almost out, everyone seems to be in a partying mood. And I love it when people are in a partying mood!

Here's my day's excitement: I got a new washer and dryer delivered to my house today. Woo hoo! Being that our old set was nearly 10 years old, I haven't really "kept up" with the latest and greatest in the world of washers and dryers. I mean how different could they be? I thought I'd just take a quick trip down to Home Depot and have a new set, just like the old one. But NOOOOOOO. I was told by a friend to go to Sears since they'd be likely to have a big sale over Memorial Day Weekend.

So off I went and oh, did they have a sale. The more you buy, the more you save plus vouchers galore. I spent 3 hours at the store learning all about the machines-- way more than I needed to know. Now they come with sensors to tell you how much or how little laundry you've put in and when exactly they are perfectly dry. They have different degrees of "quietness". They have settings for kids laundry versus regular laundry. (Still not sure what the difference is there.)

In any event, I now am the proud owner of a beautiful set of eye-level, front-loaders that are whisper quiet in a beautiful shade of "black diamond". ?#*^#!?!?

Being that 'A' is not the most technically adaptive member of our family and does all the laundry exclusively in our house, I'm not so sure he will appreciate all the added bells and whistles (however quiet they may be).

We shall see. At the very least, he will be able to put in three times as much load in one cycle as before AND the dryer cycle will always finish before the washer cycle so he doesn't have to wait. That should be worth its weight in gold, right?