Holiday Sales!

I'm a girl & I LOVE a good sale! I find it very hard to pay full price for anything. If you shop online (which I love to do), I'm sure you've seen the "code" boxes at checkout. That means that somewhere out there is a secret code that will either give you an extra discount, or free shipping, or...something. There are lots of online sites that will show you current coupons & codes. I like http://reesycakes.com/ or you can google the name of the store you're shopping at & include the word "code" in the search. One of my favorite jewelry designers (Future Fashionista) is having a great holiday sale and her prices are reasonable to start with. Elana handstrung my favorite "kite pearl" necklace. I wore it to the TVLand Awards this year & wear it all the time. It's a classic & seems so much "younger" than my Grandmas' pearls. Future Fashionista is offering 35% off everything on their site until 12/31, with the code "ThankYou". I'm not getting a kick back, just letting you in on a good deal. http://www.futurefashionista.com/

Elf Yourself!

I'm going to let you in on a little secret: I've been an elf for Santa on more than one occasion. It involved volunteering to help out with kids visiting Santa at our local community center & it was tons of fun! One of my blog readers requested that I put a photo of me in a Santa hat on my blog for the holidays.
This is the best I can do & it probably won't be up for long (so enjoy & don't laugh too much).
http://www.elfyourself.com/?userid=efe8bab259932988dd881a9G06122408
Everyone have a wonderful holiday. I hope you're all surrounded by loved ones.

Almost Family

I think lots of people have dear friends that they consider family. One of those people in my life is Bill Asher, my "Uncle Bill". I've known him my entire life & he's one of the most charming, charismatic men I've ever met. He's treated me with love & respect since before I was two. He can tell a story better than anyone! He's had the most remarkable career in entertainment. Uncle Bill was the director of I Love Lucy (arguably the best sitcom ever!) & he even came up with the idea of Samantha twitching her nose on Bewitched! His life is so steeped in history that not only was he friends with the Kennedys (including Jackie), he actually spent the last day of her life with Marilyn Monroe. He was recently honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award by the Palm Springs Walk of Stars. Darren & I were happy to be there to help him celebrate.

Longtime Friends & a Very Patient Teenager !

Old Friends & The Lakers

I thought about calling this post "Longtime Friends" & The Lakers, but I'm the first to admit, we're kind of OLD! I'm sure some bloggers have lists of things to write about or some general focus to their blog, but since I'm sort of a "baby blogger" (despite my rather advanced age), I just write about things as they happen. So when my dear friend Toni called & invited me to join her & her adorable nephew Tyler at a Lakers game, I thought "I am going to blog about the Lakers game". Well as we drove from the OC to the beautiful Staples Center, I found a new topic for today's entry: "Things You Don't Know About Your Longtime Friends". I've known Toni for 25 years, but I just found out that she is a HORRIBLE driver! I don't know why I've never driven with Toni before, but let me describe some fun facts about our wild ride. I would consider myself a fairly relaxed person & I've taught 3 teenagers to drive, with no incidents or even close calls; but our short drive to LA was like a Disneyland E Ticket (once again showing my age!). I was alerted to Toni's "little problem" when she came within inches of the car in front of us before lurching to a stop. She casually said " I'm not a very good driver, I accidentally hit the gas instead of the brakes." She then started telling a story, that involved a lot of hand gestures, with no hands on the wheel. Toni also decided to point out all the drivers on the highway who she deemed to be worse drivers than she was. This involved her actually pointing at the offending vehicles and her car heading straight at them! After about an hour, she mentioned that she was having a hard time reading the signs. She asked me to get her purse & the new glasses that she'd just gotten!! She casually added that her doctor had said something about her eyes being equivalent to someone 10 years older. People can handle stress in many ways. It turns out that Tyler & I are the type to laugh uncontrollably. Well the Lakers/ Houston game was amazing. They were 21 points behind, but won in double overtime. I'd like to offer a special thank you to Toni's nephew Tyler. He put up with two middle aged women who still occasionally act like silly teenaged cheerleaders. If you happen to meet Toni (she's a smart, funny, beautiful girl) please offer her a ride.
http://web.mac.com/tonimarano/iWeb/ToniMaranoPilates/About%20The%20Program.html

Marc Jacobs

Fashion designers love celebrities. They get tons of free press by giving them clothes. Nothing is better for a designer than having someone famous wear one of their outfits on the red carpet. Designers also love to feature celebs in their ads. Sometimes the celebs & the fashion lines are a prefect fit: Chanel uses Nicole Kidman & Scarlett Johansson is the new face of Louis Vuitton. Sometimes the celebs connection to the designer is humorous: Marc Jacobs featured Winona Ryder after she was arrested for shoplifting his clothes from Saks. The new face of Marc Jacobs is a little puzzling: Dakota Fanning. For some unexplained reason, folks seem to have very strong opinions about Dakota. They either love her or HATE her. I really don't get it. I think Dakota is an extremely talented child actress (much like Jodie Foster) & I think she's very pretty. She also comes across as poised & intelligent. But as far as being a fashion model, she's only 12! Marc Jacobs had to make custom pieces for her to model since none of his designs fit her (no surprise, since she's only 12!). I couldn't figure out what was weird about the photo on the left, then it hit me! The flower in Dakota's hair looks just like a white mouse jumping off her head! Oh well, who am I to question fashion?

Zillow!

I love to find cool websites. I also love to tell my friends about them. One of my favorites is: http://www.zillow.com. You can enter any address, plus the city, state & it will show you aerial photos from four angles. The photos are so high quality, you can clearly see your car in the driveway or your dog in the backyard. You can also scroll around the photos to get information on the neighbors. The site is a fantastic tool for home buyers & sellers because they give you a "zestimate" or accurate current value of the home. For my really nosy readers, you can even find out what your neighbors paid for their home.

Worst Nightmare?

If you ask a child about their worst nightmare, they'll probably tell you a tale about monsters. If you ask a student, they'll surely have a story about walking into class & having an unexpected test. But the worst real-life nightmare for most women involves swimsuit shopping. I think it has something to do with the fluorescent lighting and the three way mirrors. Let me tell you what just happened to me, exactly one week after Thanksgiving. My wonderful agent called to tell me that he had a job offer for me to host a fitness show...but there was one small catch. The producer needed to see a photo of my butt & thighs. Surely, this was an attempt at agent humor. We're in the midst of that fitness vacation that everyone is entitled to (between Thanksgiving & New Years). I'd just gotten back from a feast-filled vacation, it was winter. It turns out my agent was serious, so the morning after I went to a Christmas party (that had a chocolate fountain!), I found myself donning a bikini in my sisters' back yard as she snapped a photo of my butt & thighs. Luckily the product I'm endorsing is working & my rear end proved to be sufficiently photogenic & I got the job!

Almost Famous

Have you ever been on a flight with someone famous? Have you ever noticed how the buzz fills the plane, until everyone knows there's a celeb on board?
I remember taking a cross country flight years ago & Joan Van Ark (from Knot's Landing) was in front of me. I watched her put on makeup for at least an hour. Friday I took a quick trip to Vegas aboard Southwest Airlines. If you haven't flown Southwest, they're an airline that doesn't assign seats & doesn't have first class (you're put into groups A, B, or C depending on when you check-in. I check-in online 24 hours in advance, so I'm always in group A). On my first flight, I learned that Sinbad was aboard the plane. During the entire 50 minute flight, one flight attendant was trying to explain to the other flight attendant who Sindbad was. Sample conversation: "He's a comic, he had his own show." "You mean Martin?" "No, that's Martin Lawrence." "Is he the guy with all the jewelry?" "No, That's Mr. T.". I was so tempted to say "He was in Jingle All the Way with Arnold Schwarzenegger". But, I didn't think naming a 10 year old, slightly obscure film would have helped. Speaking of guys "with all the jewelry", on my return flight Flavor Flav was aboard. He was traveling alone & very friendly. In case anyone might not recognize him, he was actually wearing one of those giant clock necklaces. His other long gold chain got tangled in his carry on bag as he stowed it overhead. It was like watching an I Love Lucy skit. Even an older couple across from me knew who he was. A word of advice for Sinbad: Get on a reality show or hire Flavor Flav's publicist.