Sad Day

Sorry to post a debbie downer, but, I am saddened by the loss of NBC's Tim Russert. He was one of the few fair media people (in my mind) and someone I grew up watching.

As a political junkie, he was the voice I heard nearly every Sunday--the man who was there during the elections and the man who announced the run of my oh-so-favorite Governor.

He will be truly missed. NBC and the journalistic world will never be the same.

You can read the article here, at The New York Times.

Hold on to those you love, as you never know what's around the next corner.

Thank you eBay

For my new lovelies:

Which I got last night. Which are fabulous. Which are a bit more flashy than I had anticipated. That have gotten many a compliment today. That I love.

I do not love, however, that the heel height was not specified (eBay does: 3" and up, and leaves it at that), so, I think "Oh, three inch heel, I can totally do that. I run around here in 3.25 inch heels all the time. No problemo". Ha, ha, ha. What I did not account for, is that fact that they are in fact around 3.5ish with a slight platform. (which I love because I'm vertically challenged, or "not short, fun sized"--take your pick--I am not tall. My mother was taller than me. Not cool.) So, on the height front, I'll take all that I can get, however, you must picture this in your head (because, well, I couldn't find anything fitting enough on YouTube and I am not videotaping myself):

OK, get ready....

5 foot tall girl + 3.75 inch heels + windy day + painful blister on toe + breaking in said 3.75 inch heels = girl walking rather like in a horse in the excessively long gait and "clip, clop"-iness of the whole situation.

I'm sure that if I had a fly mask or a tail, people may really assume I'm a horse. For real. That is how loud I am walking today. And it's tres embarrassing. (don't you wish you were here to see this hilarity? You'd be in hysterics. This could only happen to me)

All you tall people (and by tall, I mean anyone above 5'1") have no idea how lucky you are.

If you want to see a horse/human, feel free to stop by my office. It is wildly hilarious.

Williams-Sonoma is my crack

So is J. Crew, but, we'll get to that later.

I'm still devouring my J. Crew catalog that came last night (first of all, ten points to J. Crew for somehow magically knowing that I moved and updating my address...if you are aware that they took the forwarding from the post office sending it back to them, you can just shush, because in my mind, the wonderful people at J. Crew just knew. And I'd like to keep my happy little thought alive), so, will post my new obsessions from them at a later date.

Onto more pressing items: the new Williams-Sonoma catalog came a few days ago and Oh.My.Goodness!!!

See, here's the problem: I find a bazillion things I need from WS, things I swear will change my life, that I must have right this minute or someone might die...and then, because I'm not a big spender, I don't buy said item(s). Then I whine about it for months. And annoy The Shabby Prince to no end.

That said, I may have to make an exception on a few items.
Like this:

Don't you just love it? Doesn't it make you want to whip up some ciabatta and eat outside? Gosh! If only I could make my place look like that.... Or, you know, just have a house in Tuscany. I am willing to go halvsies...Well, more like as much as we can get-sies with people to get us a villa in Tuscany. Just sayin'.

Oh, and this...

I just love this. I think it would look nice in my blue dining room. It just makes me feel like I'm somewhere in the Mediterranean. Sigh..

I have an obsession with beautiful platters, so,I may really, really need this one (considering the last platter I was in love with I didn't buy, and now want so bad because it would look so pretty on my kitchen island and waahhh)

Now, it's a known fact that I don't like pancakes (please don't judge. I try to like them, I really do, but, when I was a little Princess my grandmother used to make them all the time and did the whole "must clean your plate" thing and now, I'm sick of them). However, these little ditties may help me come around...

I may just have to invest in the little pancake maker that they sell. This may help me overcome my issues with pancakes. Can you imagine??

Also, I accept gifts, so, feel free to send any or all of these items my way. I'll send you something good in return, promise, you just gotta tell me what you might want! (and if you think I'm joking, you are so wrong)

Dear Pei Wei,

Thank you for the incredibly long wait we had last night. That was quite literally painfully long. As I do not do well without a full tummy. And there are only so many fortune cookies I can eat.

And thank you for the table of high schoolers seated next to us, because there were no clean tables further away from said loud high schoolers.

Not that we have anything against loud high school students, as we were all ourselves once loud high schoolers too.

But, not when both Shabby Prince & Princess had mediocre at best days, and the people at Urban Outfitters are not so much with the checking people out in a timely manner, only to head to our dinner refuge where we had to sit next to loud 16 year olds. For an extended period of time.

And, thank you for finally delivering our food, only to disappoint me with 3.5 small pieces of chicken. Yes, 3.5. And it wasn't even piping hot. Therefor, I was sad.

So, thank you Pei Wei for bumming me out.

Just thank your lucky stars o' Pei Wei employees, that we arrived home in time to watch Jon & Kate Plus 8. If I had missed that...Ohhh, you don't even want to know.

But anyways, I won't hold this against you--as usually the food and service is quite good. Although, for now, I'm still bitter.

Sincerely,

The Shabby Princess

PS. Anyone else have any hostile feelings to any restaurants?

Happy Birthday!

To YOU:
(thanks for the pic)

Captain Jack Sparrow (aka Johnny Depp) turns 45 today. Which I still don't believe.

And yes, my mom and I used to argue over who would be more acceptable dating him--she was 16 years older, I am 21 years younger. I maintained that it was acceptable for me to date him.

Sadly, neither of us ever got to test that hypothesis.

Anyways, Happy Birthday Mr. Depp.

I personally still adore Edward Scissorhands and Sleepy Hollow. He had to go make all those dang Pirate movies and become all famous again (although, Captain Jack is genius if I do say so myself).... Sheesh. Congrats on the success and all.

He is a sight for sore eyes..... Yes, in college The Roommate and The Shabby Princess had Johnny Depp posters in their room. And it's slightly embarrassing.

I feel as if a party should be thrown in his honor. I vote for a Johnny Depp movie watching marathon (my word, I'm offering to give up an episode of Jon & Kate Plus 8. You know that is serious!). Should I make a cake or something?

OK, OK, I'll stop gushing now....

In other news, my office smells like death (seriously. help) and I finally got my Twix. Ha, ha evil vending machine. Ha, ha.

PS. You can thank me later for providing you with the opportunity to check my blog and see a picture of Johnny Depp all at the same time. I know, I know, I'm a Saint. What a great way to start the week, right?!

You know you need a vacation when...

1. The thought of going to visit family sounds really exciting. Even those in the middle of nowhere, and those in Vernal. Yes, I said it. I want to go to Vernal. To see the fam.

2. You're increasingly jealous of family who gets to go to Hawaii next week (congrats Rachel and all).

3. After a not so nice run in with The Shabby Prince, the thought of a family vacay sounds...well... mildly appealing.

4. You're thinking of renewing your tanning membership, as to at least remember what "sun kissed" is.

5. Seriously, the Green River sounds really good.

Tres embarrassing.

On the less embarrassing side, I'm getting my hair done in two weeks--stressful. Short? Long? Chop it? Blonde? Brunette? Strawberry blonde? The choices are so endless. Help! The decision will haunt me for weeks, I'm sure.

Also, I worked on the book last night. Because I'm awesome like that. I promised BBF L a plane, so, in her words, I gotta finish the book in order to buy her the plane. Yeah, ain't she great?

And, feel free to buy me this necklace:

I do have an anniversary coming up, or, you know, I'm sure it's my equinox half birthday in Japan or something. Anyways, who said one needs an occasion to send me a little lovely? That's right, you don't need an occasion at all. But, if you do decide to buy me the necklace (which I think you should), please note that I'm willing to accept the Venice or Texas version, as I am currently wearing la Paris.

And, Happy Friday everyone!

Don't you love?

Reese's new 'do?

(thanks, dude for the photo)

She's so adorable she could wear a potato sack and still look amazing.

Problemo.... I have a tendency to always want to copy Reese's hair. Example: Ever since I was little I've wanted long hair. Like really long. So, in high school, my mission was to grow my hair out. And, I did. My first semester of college I had long, curly blond hair to the middle of my back. Very Rapunzel-like. And I loved it. Clearly, I loved Reese Witherspoon's Sweet Home Alabama bob more, and a week before Christmas I cut it all off. And kept it short for 2 years and am only just now getting it past my shoulders (my hair grows so slowly, it's painful. Although, that said, I do save money on highlights).

Which begs the question? Am I destined to chop it again? Or should I keep growing it out? And, more importantly, which look is going to make me look young and fun?

These are the big questions people.

Discuss freely.... I need all the help I can get!

Temper Tantrum in 3...2...1...

Don't you hate it when you've been working out a lot (as in, even lugged your really tired self to kickboxing after being sick), and then having a reasonably healthy dinner, so, you think to yourself..."Mmm afternoon treat...Mmm... chocolate sounds good...Mmm... Twix! I want Twix!".

So, you lug yourself over to the campus vending machine with your very happy and pretty $1 bill and think to yourself "Hello Lover" as you insert said bill and punch in C5. Ah, sweet perfection you are C5, sweet, sweet, perfection. When suddenly, your dreams of carmely cookieness are dashed with a loud "BEEP!" informing you that even though your beloved Twix is $0.85, they aren't going to take your dollar. Because it wants exact change.

Don't you just hate when that happens?? (because, let me tell you, I do)

So, naturally, you rifle through you purse and wallet to find: $0.63. Because really, when do I have change (or cash for that matter) on me? Really. I think we've learned that I do not carry cash after our 7-11 incident.

What to do? Throw a little mini temper tantrum in the privacy of the Vending Machine Room (yes, that is it's official name). And then buy some stupid animal crackers. Because it already took your stupid dollar.

And then come back to office and pout. A lot.

Stupid vending machine.

It's OK. I am recovering. I'm making this for dinner (after another round of kickboxing, thank you very much). And will then somehow justify myself to track down a blasted Twix tomorrow. No matter what.

PS. You know what will happen? Tomorrow, I'll want Jelly Belly's.

What happens when...

Three lovely ladies are in an office on a conference call, open the door to ask someone else to join them, scoot chairs around to accommodate new person only to find.... a dead (yes, it was rather well petrified) cockroach (aka minions of Satan)?

The answer my friend is some screeching (which I will not admit to) and removal of said Satan bug by person we so lovingly invited to our meetings. I doubt he'll be returning to any of our meetings ever again.

I would like to add however, that I consider myself brave on the cockroach front (even if I did whimper. Maybe. I might have). You see, when The Shabby Princess was sent off to Royal University she was forced to live in the dorms. Sadly, there were no castles available near by. Shucks. That said, there was this blasted cockroach that lived in my freaking room that wouldn't die. And I mean wouldn't. Isn't there something about cockroaches like they can live for a week without their heads or something? Well! This one certainly had that power. The dang thing lasted through several roommates. Roommate K and I first found the evil being in November. M moved into the dorm in January.

Our first encounter of the bug went something like this (mind you, this is with M. K did in fact try to kill the thing, chucking a can of Campbell's Chicken Noodle Soup at it. Didn't work. Nice try though).

"M! M! There's a cockroach!"
"Oh my god! Kill it! Kill it!" M is yelling as I'm looking for something to throw at the beast. Shoes? Shoes, why not. Die, die, die! So, we hurl a show (a flip flop I believe, which, in my opinion are the best at killing bugs. Very squash-ible.

So, we beat the living tar out of the thing. Smile at each other. "Ah, relief". And we return to watching some Johnny Depp movie and downing the Diet Coke as we had an exam the next day.

All well and good, right?

Ha, no, wrong.

As I was tidying up that night, I go to pick up my shoes from their place in bug killing world and put them in closet. La, la, la picking up room, la, la, la, clean, clean, shoes....Cockroach. Gone. Not. Under. Shoe. Repeat: gone.

The freaking out begins. Again. As we scurry the place, can't find it. Which, means, obviously that the bastard Satan bug has thus crawled into one of our beds (or even better, quickly reproduced in the last 45 minutes and is now sending an army of baby cockroaches--oh, I shudder....) and is waiting to bit us and suck the life out of us.
Obviously. Because that's what cockroaches do. They suck life. Similar to vampires. Riiiiiiiiigt.

This revelation resulted in bed linens being stripped, all shoes checked for life forms, and insane amounts of Lysol used. On everything. We figured, we were safe. Maybe the little minion died under one of our desks or something. So, M and I went to sleep. And had horrible dreams. And, mind you, we were sleeping without sheets. Camping style on top of the bed with random blankets we'd deemed safe as our coverings for the night.

And no one believed us. Because they were unaware of the power of the little beast bugs. We'd tell the story jokingly "ha, ha, we had to get up early to do laundry", "ha, ha, we're going to Costco for more Lysol" (if I remember correctly we couldn't use Raid or any bug killers. Someone smuggled Lysol. Thank you, whoever that was). It was all hilarious. Because, the more we thought about it, this stuff could only happen to us. After all, the bug had to be dead. It's been several months.

Ha, ha, you'd be wrong.

The cockroach's death occurred in a manner that we will not discuss here, as there may be some Cockroach Support Group out there (why?), so, in any event, we had two more visits from the elusive thing before his (?) life was ended and he journeyed down the happy water slide that resides in our washroom. Ha, ha cockroach. You cannot defeat Her Shabbyness.

So, moral is, the dead one in the office--easy peasy--it was at least dead!

The caterpillar that I found crawling up my shirt a few weeks ago? Sheer horror. *

*Yes, I realize I used the term "Satan" quite a lot. But, seriously, have you seen those buggers? Ew. Shudder, shudder. And, while when I was a kid, caterpillars are awesome, they are not so much when you find them crawling on you. At work. My apologies to the future butterfly community.

If you're blue

Which, admittedly, I have been lately (am doing much better, thanks for asking). So, here are a few of the joys in my life.

Yes, this is a little self praise-y, but, think about the happy things in your life, and I bet you'll feel just a bit better:

1. My doggy chewing on the mattress this morning trying to literally pull it out from under me. Never mind she has hardly any teeth and wasn't really getting anywhere. It was cute nonetheless.
2. Cooking. For myself, for my friends, whoever. Cooking yummy goodness makes me happy. That is, until I can get Giada on retainer to cook for me daily. Watch, it will happen.
3. Sunshine. Good excuse to get your Vitamin D.
4. Root beer floats. Best way to enjoy the summer.
5. Curling up to watch Jon & Kate Plus 8 with my kitty and puppies. And hunny. Because, it's not a true family night without all of us...although, it is a rarity.
6. The smell of real coconut.
7. Warm beds.
8. Pretty shoes (pink is even better).
9. Playing with children.
10. Tiaras.

What makes you happy??

I'm just sayin'

I'd be willing to make sure that Prince William is protected whilst at sea in the Caribbean.

I know the area well (right, Bri and Aubs?) and would be more than willing to show him the ropes. I'd also be willing to smuggle some conch fritters from Pussers (ohhh....lawdy, I am hungry) on board on HMS Iron Duke. I am just saying.

It would be a sacrifice, but, I'm sure I could handle it. As of course, to increase relations between the U.S and England.

So, Wills, I'm around. You have my number. I'm only a hop skip and jump from Tortola. Give me a ring should you need any assistance.

I'm also willing to chase down pirates and drug runners as well.

PS. Kate Middleton, don't worry. You're much prettier than me. Besides, we all know that Carl Philip is in love with me anyway.

Simply Fabulous

That's also the color of my Trish lipgloss....Or is that Simply Glamorous? Well, it doesn't really matter because some things are just simply fabulous.

Like today. When someone offers to share lunch with you, so that you don't have to use your brown-bag lunch and therefor and save it for tomorrow. (because although being a Princess in Training has its perks, one must still conserve the Royal Doubloons because there is a new roof being put on the castle, and those shoes just aren't getting any cheaper).

And when your best friend in the world who you miss so much because she's an ultra fabulous so-talented photographer/globe trotter that you never see her, suddenly surprises you at work with other bff R. And it makes everything better because work on this particular day was not going so fabulously at all and seeing BFFs actually brought tears to your perfectly mascaraed eyes and you're just beaming because oh my gosh even though you were on the verge of very upset tears just hours ago, everything is OK because your friends are here and they love you. And it's all so fabulous you just can't contain it.

Because that's what simply fabulously glamorous friends do for a Princess. They make them smile. And I feel much better now, thank you very much.

And, also, because, it's Friday and the lovely people at Forbes decided they would make my day by releasing their "Hottest Young Royal" list. Clearly, Prince William is Numero Uno, but, my love Mr. Carl Philip was on that list as well... Sigh... Oh the Swedes... They bring so much joy to us Americ-folk.

I am going to learn Swedish. If it kills me. I will learn.

I've also been told that the Dutch speak English rather regularly. Any Dutch Princes out there? Hm... I'll have to follow up on this one.

One last fabulous thing: saw Indiana Jones in the theatre (score!) and, must say, although Indy isn't exactly in his mid-30s any longer, he still kicks major booty. But, I don't think he used his whip enough--not like in Raiders of The Lost Ark. Sigh. But, anyway, yay Indy.

PS. For BFF L: "You'd go out with a gorilla if it called you Indiana Jones". Please have a "Friends" marathon when you get back.

....for giggles and girlish grins....

Crown Princess Victoria (the only reining Crown Princess in the world)

She has the most amazing crown (it can't be called a tiara--it's so much more). I'll have to find a picture of it. It's fabulously glamorous.

Ah, my love....

No, that's not Orlando Bloom. It's Prince Carl Philip of Sweden (I was saying that as Sveeden, just, fyi), and he's dreamy-licious. We love him.