re: Weighing In

\\ That's about all I see of my toes these days //

In a fit of quantified-self geekery last year, Derek and I bought a wireless scale from Fitbit that automatically sends our weight to a tidy little graph on an online profile every time we step on it, so that we end up with a nice picture of our weight over time. It is such a smart little device that it "recognizes" me, and blinks a little greeting of my name as I stand there waiting for my body fat percentage to appear.

My graph has been kind of fun to watch as my pregnancy progresses, as it arcs in a way that would be otherwise horrifying if I didn't have another growing human inside me to blame. In the beginning, the little blinking display would just dutifully tell me my new weight daily, without any hint of alarm or judgement as the number grew and grew every week.

Then there was the awkward phase where my weight got too close to Derek's for the scale to tell us apart very easily anymore. You could tell it didn't want to offend anyone ... but instead of boldly blinking my name when I stood on the scale it blinked it with a tentative question mark afterwords. "Bex?"

Now I've safely made it to the other side and the scale knows the difference between the two of us again, though hopefully it isn't the side of things that I'll be staying on too long. I'm planning to confuse the scale again in a few months.

re: Family Portraits in Hawaii

We just got back from a trip to Hawaii over the weekend with the Ferneys. Turns out, September is the best time to go to Hawaii - because everyone has gone back to school and it is technically "off" season, plane tickets are cheap and the beaches are empty but everything is still awesome.

We hiked to Waimea Falls one afternoon, and were amused to find some very muscular life guards hanging out there, renting life jackets and pool noodles to the visitors. It looked like the kind of job that left you with plenty of time to hang out doing push ups and working on your tan.

All I know is that I tried to take a classy family photo of the Ferneys by the natural beauty of the Falls - real Christmas card material, you know? - when one of the life guards decided to jump into the quiet lake and take a swim by the Falls, just as we were getting posed.

Do you see him? Here. Let me give you a closer look:

I dunno. I think they can still use it for their Christmas card.

re: Dear My Brownie

Derek goes on trips to China and Japan fairly frequently for work these days. Though the bonus airline miles are nice, the novelty of a husband that is gone every other month for weeks at a time is sort of wearing off. He knows I don't like him adventuring without me, so he brings back little things he discovers on his trips.

This week he brought this weird little box of overly processed brownies because he thought I'd like the kitschy retro styling. Mostly I loved the classically incorrect English translation of "Dear, My Brownie." This may be the endearing nickname I've been looking for. Calling Derek "My Brownie" seems kind of perfect.


He also brought back a book with this inside, which obviously needs no explanation.

re: A Cupcake ATM

You know how sometimes you just want a cupcake RIGHT NOW, and then you cry because it is 3am? (Don't pretend this has never happened to you).

The genius people over at Sprinkles Cupcakes in LA have come to the rescue with their Cupcake ATM, ready and willing to dispense delicious baked goods at any hour.

We just happened to be in LA over the weekend for a wedding, so we took some friends with us on our late night adventure and visited the famed ATM.



Its pretty fun to pick your cupcake, and then watch a live video of a robot arm going and picking your cupcake up and delivering it to you with a satisfying whir of technology.



We may have gotten a little carried away.


I made Derek carry all the cupcakes to look like the cupcake hoarder in front of the long line still waiting to get their cupcakes. This is also how we discovered that even if you drop these cute little boxes, they are so well engineered that the cupcakes remain unscathed and upright.


Since the ATM just opened this month, the line was still a little long to get our cupcakes. In fact, I probably could have baked an entire batch of cupcakes at home in the time it took me to stand in line to get one from the ATM, but then I wouldn't have felt like I was eating a cupcake from the future.

Sprinkles - Beverly Hills
9635 South Santa Monica Boulevard
Beverly Hills, CA 90210

re: Its Beautiful

We had a few visitors in town this weekend - Jeff the Dentist and K-Tron. To celebrate we took turns ignoring eachother in favor of our handheld internet devices.


We headed to Yosemite for a few days, and found ourselves uncharacteristically in a cellphone service-free zone. At first we didn't know what to do without the internet in our hands at all times. Then we discovered that there were waterfalls and monster trees and scenic reservoirs to explore.



Without our phones to distract us, we finally remembered what happens when you stand in a meadow at dusk:


Everything.

re: Winning at Pinning

If you are alive and have an internet connection, you've likely heard of pinterest. Its a visual pinboard, and great way to collect all the images and inspiration that can be found floating around the internets.

Derek just decided to finally put his account to use the other day. While I've been busy pinning thousands of dollars worth of outfits I'll never own and pictures of parties too pretty to have fun at, it turns out that derek is a little more judicious with his pins.

The first thing he deemed worthy of pinning:

The innovative (but not necessarily attractive) Philips AirFryer Healthier Oil-Free Fryer.


I think the difference in our pin boards may be a glimpse into the difference of how our minds work (and how our spending habits might differ).

You can follow me on pinterest here, and Derek here. Prepare to be inspired.

re: Oh, Canada

We decided to dust off our passports over the long weekend and journey across the border to visit our friendly neighbors to the north in Vancouver, Canada! Everything was green, the people were friendly, and the tourist attractions were exceptionally pretty.



(Capilano Suspension Bridge)

The thing is, aside from the fact that my phone stopped working when we crossed the border, it didn't really feel like we were in a foreign country. Everyone still spoke English, there were McDonald's and Starbucks around, and the currency was in dollars (even if they were referring to Canadian dollars).

I suppose there were hints. They officially referred to soda as "pop" in all the restaurants, hockey jerseys were more prevalent, KM/H took the place or MPH, and the "walk" signs on the street corners displayed a walker with a much more aggressive stride than we encourage in the US.


However, after much research, we figured out that the number one way to know that you were in a foreign country was to visit the candy section of the grocery stores. Your taste buds will immediately recognize the superior chocolate that US chocolate makers must think we'd never miss, and you will know: you are far from home.


We tried to smuggle some malt balls that didn't taste like wax over the border with us, but they were devoured before we even made it back to US soil.

re: Hairstyles

We enjoyed a few Thanksgiving days hanging out with my family in southern California over the weekend, and decided to check out the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library while we were there, partially because it is always interesting to learn about past presidents and mostly because they have an actual Air Force One that you can go inside of.

The museum also had an entire wall dedicated to portraits of past presidents and their wives, so Derek and I played the game "which first lady haircut could you pull off?"

Derek choose Caroline Harrison because he's already got the little duck curls off the back of his head like she does, and he just needs to achieve a massive bang to complete the look:


I chose Jackie O, duh, because she is by far the best looking of all the first wives on the wall. I'm going to have to do some serious teasing of my hair to achieve the bouffant she did, but I'm ready to invest in some hairspray and make it happen.


As I was admiring Jackie's hair, I couldn't help but feel a little bad for poor Mamie Eisenhower, whose portrait will always be placed sequentially right next to Jackie's. Nobody would want to be constantly compared to the eternally elegant Jackie O, and let's be honest - Mamie's little tightly curled bangs don't even have a fighting chance.

re: Thankful

We took an awesome trip to Greece and Turkey over the summer, but I never blogged about it, which is a shame, because how else are you supposed to know that pictures like this exist?

Our fancy fish pedicure in Mykonos:


The ultimate scooter gang:


And... a whole series of "sexy captain" photos. There were just six of us on a boat we'd chartered in the middle of the Greek isles, so it shouldn't be THAT surprising that once we discovered a captain hat onboard that we all took turns wearing the hat and posing with an American flag and pretending to drive the boat.


Let's just say I immediately made one of the sexy sailor photos my default picture for Derek on Google so that every time he writes me an email, this is what I see:



Its a little daily reminder of all the things I'm thankful for.

re: Creative wrapping

This weekend our friend Clay turned another year older. Derek found the perfect gift for him while thrifting in Ohio:


I told Derek that I would wrap the gift, and that he was in charge of the card. I got a little nervous when he immediately started rummaging around in the trash, but there was no need to be worried - he was just salvaging an old Bi-Rite ice cream bag to make a tank top card for our gift (our message was written inside the tank). I thought the tank top really worked well thematically with the 80s feel of the rest of gift.



Incidentally, this is also how I found out that Derek has spent his entire life thinking that "tank tops" were actually spelled "tang tops."

re: Mom Jeans

This is the outfit that I put on Thursday morning. It includes a pair of funny high waisted pleated trouser pants with tapered legs that I found at an estate sale for $2 that I've been wearing around lately, despite the fact that they make my butt look big:



I came out of the bedroom in this ensemble, and Derek told me I looked nice and asked what I was dressing up for (he asks that pretty much any time I wear heels). I told him that I had a meeting this afternoon. Then I turned to the side, and I could see him examining the back of the pants, since from the front they are deceivingly normal looking but from the back the mom-jean-ness really comes across. I suspected he was re-evaluating his complement that I looked nice today.

"Do you think my butt looks big in these?" I asked. He looked at me like I was asking one of those questions that women ask to trick men into saying something that they will regret.

"I promise, people are wearing pleated trousers again," I told him. "Granted, I think the style right now is usually a little looser than these, but I liked them anyway because of the double buttons on the waist band, and the cropped leg ..." I trailed off because his eyes were glazing over, and I could tell that despite me trying to lecture him on current fashion trends, the only thing he could knew was that I was wearing a pair of pants outside the house that made my butt look weird. And that I was wearing them to an important meeting.

We finally agreed that this probably was the kind of outfit that I should wear when having a meeting with fashionable girls, because a dude is just going to think I'm wearing mom jeans. Which I kind of am.

(I wore this to my meeting anyway)

re: Shirtless Hangouts

In the last few years, my brother has taken to not wearing a shirt most of the time unless it is absolutely necessary. And ... you'd be surprised how seldom a shirt is absolutely necessary. In fact, last year on Christmas morning he came down stairs shirtless for Christmas breakfast. The brother-in-laws, not to be outdone, took theirs off as well and declared the holiday Shirtless Christmas.

Over the weekend we were hanging out on Google+ on a family conference call, and my brother Dave appeared onscreen shirtless. No surprise.

Without even missing a beat, Derek and Jake removed theirs as well, and we proceeded to enjoy a shirtless family hangout:


My family has the best traditions.

re: Labor Day Thrifting

Derek and I visited Amanda and Casey Smith in Northern Ohio over the long weekend, and they all indulged my thrift store obsession and let us hit all the Labor Day sales.

Casey took several photos throughout the day, and I laughed because all the photos I'm in show me delightedly shopping to my heart's content ...


And all the photos of Derek show him loitering in the background or patiently hanging out, trying his best not to look bored.



To be fair, Derek knew all about my impressive tolerance for shopping and sorting through piles of junk before he married me, and I rewarded him this time by doubling his shortsleeve button-up wardrobe with some real Ohio gems.

Thanks to the Lynch/Smith/Twelmeyer clan for hosting us and showing us all their favorite Ohio thrifting goldmines.