Saturday, February 27, 2010

We had a great dinner with Ian and Beth. Mindy and Dan were there as well and it was a really fun evening.  We went to a place called San Felipes Cantina and the appetizers were great.Quesadilla and chicken wings. What a dinner!
Ian is looking at relocating over on this side of the ocean in the near future and I think that will be great. Beth is such a wonderful lady. She works so hard and her company is just a joy.
Mindy and Dan were fun as always.
Ian lives about 200 miles north of London so it is a beautiful accent that he has with a great sense of humor and just a very intelligent man. Beth is the hardest working woman I know. She is a teacher and works 3 part time jobs. Shew as gracious enough to spend her one off night with us and we loved it.  I totally enjoyed the evening. Gerry and I really had a great time.

I watched the catwalk shows of Prada and Armani last night and they were beautifully done.Milan doesn't get the same amount of press as NY Paris and London, but they do a wonderful job. Maybe it is because it is the established designers and not the up and coming ones.

Yesterday at work they celebrated Gerry's 10th anniversary with them.  Hard to believe he has been there 10 years already. Congratulations on staying that long Gerry.  Congratulations on not just staying but doing as wonderful a job as you do.  It is awesome to see how far you have made it there.

Have you ever had a day where a password refused to work for you? Even when you have had the same password for years and you know that the last 20 times you keyed it in, it was right? But the computer on the other end says login failed...  oh what a wonderful start to a day.  A day where I have to sit on the phone with customer assistance for an hour as I wait for one of them to become available. Yay  I was wondering what I was going to do this Saturday. thankfully my computer made plans for me.







Thursday, February 25, 2010

Dinner plans

Our friend Ian is in town from England and so we are meeting he and Beth for dinner. It is a new place we have never been before so it will be fun going to a new restaurant and seeing this wonderful couple. He is only in town for about 6 weeks then back to his life across the sea until his next visit in the fall. They are an amazing couple to make this relationship work from two continents. They are so in love but their situation is one that makes it impossible for one or the other to move any time soon. It is always so sweet to spend time with them. Ian has some wonderful and funny stories I cannot wait to hear.


Tonight I have to get my Avon order ready to go in. I have one person I have to follow up with and then I will be able to put this order to bed.

I am going to work on an E-party with Angie so if you are in her address book, you will probably get an e-invitation. They are fun to do and simple. We will send out the email and she gets awesome amazing and wicked prizes. See how much fun it can be! You too can have an e-party and get awesome, amazing, and wicked fun prizes by simply hosting an online party. No one comes to the house and no one spills any drinks on the carpet. It is a win win and I am willing to help you host one. Just let me know when you are ready and I will do all the e-work. I love to put an e in front of my words. It makes me feel e-professional.

If you are like me, you are a bit shocked to hear that one of the most highly trained trainers at Sea World was killed by a killer whale today. I mean I guess forget they have the word killer in the title. Still they seem really well trained and then the wildness comes out.

Speaking of wild, we have the three little kittens and they are attempting to escape their bathroom sink home. They know we exist now and they want to come out and join us. The "mama" she is not too thrilled, but they are growing up and in only 3 weeks, we can find them loving homes and go back to being overrun by the other animals here.



Time to start planning that Alaskan cruise for this time next year. There is actually probably still time to fit one in for this year if you have a couple of free weeks this spring. It is my dream vacation.

Tuesday, February 23, 2010


Today was the Burberry live fashion show. It was great. the look of the coats and dresses were beautiful. Kate Hudson, Mary Kate Olsen and  Mia Wasikowska, the actress from the new Alice in wonderland movie, were all there in the front row. Burberry did this show with interviews and even some locations had 3 D screening of the show.
Wow I can tell you with all this weeks shows live I have seen some really outstanding pieces and then there was the blue outfits that had blue dresses with blue rings around the center of the dress that was making them look like they had blue rolls around their waist. Very hard to describe and very hard to have watched.


So it seems to have warmed up enough in Alabama for a trip outdoors and Kathy was able to try out her Bow and Arrow.  She is now going to have to purchase a wrist guard because her arm has been all bruised from the string and arrow banging  into her forearm. First she drives a race car at over 100 miles an hour (in fact I believe it was close to 200 miles an hour) on Talladega's raceway and now she is learning to use the bow and arrow. She is such a daredevil.  She makes me proud to call her my friend. Me, I am struggling to leave the house again, and there she is out there mastering all these new skills.





Sunday, February 21, 2010

London Fashion Week and Avon products

The London Fashion Week has arrived. I have been watching the live streaming of the catwalk shows since yesterday and they have some strange fashions I admit, but the ones that are not out of this world crazy are spectacular. The Sass and Bide show was just beautiful. they had some of the most beautiful dresses I have seen. Here is a video Denise made while we watched.  The show today was from Betty Jackson and it was a great one. The catwalk for Betty Jackson had some beautiful clothes.
After seeing some of the strange ideas that one designer passed off for clothes I wanted to assure you that these are clothes and well designed clothes in the video. I felt compelled to save you from the catwalk disaster Casey and I watched yesterday. Leave a comment and let me know what you thought of the Video.

I am trying out the new product by Avon called Anew Reversalist and I love it. It makes my face feel so much tighter and healthy. Bet you really needed to know that my face was beginning to feel loose, but it was. This day cream is so nice and is not greasy at all. It feels good and smells very good. Those are my main criteria on face creams. I refuse to look and feel slimy just for the sake of some firmness and I want it to smell pleasant. So if you are looking for a product that really helps firm up the face and neck then I would suggest this Anew Reversalist day cream by Avon.


Spring is right around the corner.  In case you were forgetting that I live in a different climate than most, this rainy February we are having is Phoenix' version of ''April Showers brings May Flowers''
We are getting our rain again so Mother Nature  must be preparing the way for the spring flowers which usually arrive about March and are burned to a crisp by June.
So it is time to choose a garden fountain so that you have that nice running water when the drought returns.

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Fashion Designers




I have a new area I have been working in Mahalo. Fashion designers!  There are so many and wow, their style differs so much.  There is a designer named Holly Fulton and I really enjoyed her last collection. She showed it in London in September and it was featuring skyscrapers in geometric design.  What a beautiful collection it was.  Today I did a page on Todd Lynn and although I was not as in love with his creations, I could see why they are gathering a following.  If you can afford his clothing then you would certainly want people to notice them.  With horsehair coming out of the sleeve and metal cones coming up from the shoulder, I have no doubt that you will be noticed.  I love the showmanship of Todd Lynn but I just like the clothes of Holly better. 
Both are new as far as their own label, although Holly is so much newer than Todd. 

Todd has been designing clothing for Rock stars for about 6 years. When asked to design the video clothing for Marilyn Manson right out of college he agreed, and from there he blossomed into a tailor for the rock stars. He has even designed for Bono and U2's tour clothing. He is still on contract with U2 to design their clothes. 
Another designer that has really down to earth style is Matthew Williamson.  He is brilliant and not out of this world like so many others tend to be. I think you will like his work.
 He has his new label and it is amazing. He has been active in the Fashion Week for 10 years now so he is well known in these circles.  I can't wait to see this new collection. 

Holly has only had 2 seasons and she is about to present her third collection. I will be following her this season to see how she does. She has her catwalk show on February the 20th. This weekend all the catwalks will be busy. 
If you have a favorite designer that is showing in London let me know. I would love to see the different tastes of everyone. 


Tuesday, February 16, 2010

So when you think you have heard it all they come out with a new drug that was derived from gila monster saliva and it is an injection that addresses diabetes.  The drugs name is Byetta and it is administered in doses that you inject into your stomach.
The purpose of the medicine is to assist people with type 2 diabetes. 
I live in the Southwest but never did I think that they would produce a medicine from the spit of a gila monster. Have you seen those things? I mean they are very scary looking.  

Payday came from Mahalo yesterday and I was so happy to see that go into Pay Pal. I am paying a couple of bills with it this month so I was anxiously awaiting the deposit.  It was made exactly when it was promised.  Good work Mahalo! 
There is a few bugs on site today and I am hoping that is the cause of Casey's problems.  Other wise I might have to say something about how blatantly unfair their taking pages from people that are trying is when they leave bare pages up for months on those that do not even log in, 
But I will work this out since I think it is all part of the bug that is happening today. 
I watched some of the Olympic coverage of the pairs skating last night and it was magnificent. to watch them complete all the jumps and tosses.  It was just beautiful to watch these two compete.Caydee Denney and Jeremy Barrett were flawless in this performance.  She is just 16 years old.  What grace and poise she has at such a young age.

The Avon delivery should arrive in a couple of hours and then I am out to sell and get more customers. I have a few people that wanted me to stop back by so maybe I will have a couple of new people I can call my customers. That is the most fun part of Avon is listening to people when you bring them a brochure and they always tell me how much they love it
I think I will put the Mahalo Olympic TV listing for my widget this time., as a celebration of the amazing athletes that are there.
   

Saturday, February 13, 2010

Broken hearted and touched during the Olympic Opening Event

My heart broke today for a 21 year old Olympian named Nodar Kumaritashvili a young man from the country of Georgia, that I had never even heard of before today. I was watching the news and to have seen him fly out of his luge and crash into that rail made me physically ill. He was so young and yes he was doing a dangerous sport, but never do we ever expect it to turn out so badly. I never have thought about the possibility of an Olympian getting killed either during the actual race or in a practice run at the Olympics.

Tonight when I watched the opening event and I saw how shocked and confused his team looked I was once again hit with such deep sympathy. That small contingent of Olympians came across the world to compete and now for one talented young man there was only one final run and now he is gone. The rest of the team have to find solace and peace within themselves.
I think that the moment of silence for him was a wonderful tribute to pay to his memory.

The Olympics opening event was absolutely breathtaking. I loved every moment of the extravaganza. And it was just  an extravaganza.  I loved K D Lang's version of Hallelujah. It was phenomenal.
The operatic prayer was just out of this world. It was a beautiful  song and the Dress was brilliant. I can not find her name anywhere so if you know it drop me a line. I want to know who she is.
I liked the performance of Sarah Mclachlan, and yet to be honest, I didn't know she was from Nova Scotia.

The Scenery, dancing, and the indoor snow made it just a beautiful performance. I loved the Totems and the whales coming up out of the floor. That was super spectacular. I was in love then they turned into birds that flew up out of the stadium. They really had some creative ideas and they all worked together. It was a beauty of a show.

Tomorrow they start the Olympic sports and I will be watching a good bit of them. I am all about the winter Olympics. One last thought about that young man comes back to me,  I hope that when it comes time for the actual luge event, they have some type of  pads up. I can not even imagine wanting to go out there and pass that spot where he crashed. Especially if I was on a sled flying down that track at over 90 miles an hour. It is just too soon and too horrible.

Below is a full schedule of what is on NBC for the 16 days.



Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Mondays Are For Learning

The Avon meeting went well tonight. I have been to two now and I think I learn something at each one.  Tonight we discussed the skin care regimen and it makes sense to care for your skin and even start to reverse some of the damage that sun, stress, diet and pollution can cause. There is a new product that I am trying and I think I am going to like it. It reverses some of the wrinkles that years of squinting and laughing have caused.
The district manager is a funny little thing. She went across Arizona in a recruiting frenzy and couldn't find a gas station in any of the reservations she was visiting. She was only .25 gallons from empty when she finally found a station.  She had even passed a truck that had a gasoline can in the back of it so that if she ran out of gas she was strategically placed in front of him, so that if she ran out he would stop and share gasoline with her.  This woman is a hoot.  She is fun to hold the meetings and she is all about helping her Avon ladies but she makes me laugh.

News alert! Drop Dead Diva starts back in June 2010.


Before the Avon meeting I was asked if I wanted to fix up an ailing page on Mahalo . This page was getting some attention and the subject was so fascinating I almost didn't get it made because I was researching the entire concept.  The subject is the Dewey Color System test.  Children up to adults can take this test and their personality comes to light.  Employers love to use this because it lets them see if the person is a good fit in the position in which they are applying.  The test takes less than 5 minutes to complete and the results will tell you a wealth of information about yourself.  Amazing information, but take a look for yourself.

Monday, February 8, 2010

Super Bowl Bad Bad - Half time show

The commercials made me laugh and they made me enjoy the hours that the game played. The one part of the festivities that  was terrible was the part where they let The Who come on  and totally ruin any memories I had of liking any of their music. It was too hard to watch. I left the room and tried to drowned it out with music from my computer. I was thinking that this is why retirement is something to embrace and admit when you are not longer the cool band that could harmonize.  We have moved past that and now so should they.
They have lost it if you asked me. I know I am not a singer, but they were singing at two totally different times. No way did they ever even sync up and make it worth listening to.

Maybe I am being too harsh, but it is late and I have thought about it a lot longer than I should have. Why do they keep getting these old acts that embarrass themselves.  With that said, I will admit the drummer seemed to be in tune and able to hold the beat,  and the light show of the stage was outstanding. So I leave this blog on a high note and Since I am spitting a little fire I will leave my insurance widget to keep it company.

Sunday, February 7, 2010

We have rain. That's right, once again it is raining. Not just raining but gusting winds and heavy rain, Someone forgot to tell the clouds that this is a desert. We have had so much rain in the last 30 days. It is amazing.  I love the sound of the rain, it takes about 30 minutes of rain before I figure out what that tapping sound is. Then I realize it is actual rain.
Now we just had the first thunder to go along with this uncommon storm.  Prepare to the East, it will be there in a few days. Every time we have had one of these storms it has kept going until it reached Alabama.  So I will be your early warning device.  Heavy rain and thunder is heading your way.
I do not want this misunderstood, I am not sad about the rain,.we need it terribly, but it is just so unusual. I wanted to share it. Oh, there was another thunder clap before I could even send this out.  Yes, watch out Alabama, you have one coming that way.

 My local weather forecast and information is here enjoy!.

New Blogs of Fellow Mahalo Members

I have been visiting the sites of other Mahalo Members and they have some amazing sites to read and view.  Vlad has a wonderful gamers site. Vlad's blog It is all about the game pages he works so hard on.

Baka has a very interesting blog that he is about to move to another site but it is here for now and worth checking out.

 When I asked if anyone had a blog I was told to check this one out I did and now I pass it along to you,
thekoup28 has a very witty site.

I looked at Lidya's blog and I felt the stirrings of jealousy. Her's looks so professional and mine looks like it is a bit home made. Take a look and see if you agree

MaggieRay has a very very nice page which has a lot of information about cooking and some easy and great recipes I was happy to spend some time over there today reading.  Read what MaggieRay has written and enjoy.

EdwardClint has offered his page as a new blog and looking for traffic. He has political and interesting information on his blog.

so if you are in the mood for some blog jumping then hop from one site to the next and see just how diverse the Mahalo community is.

And perhaps you are wanting a free online game, then see if this reminds you of the good old early days of the Nintendo and duck Hunt.

Friday, February 5, 2010

Ellis meets Mickey

My son Ellis has been offered an Internship at Disneyland.  This would be a 3 month commitment for him to work there and it counts as a semester of Communications. Then at the end of the semester he decides if he wants to go permanent . Jessica and the kids can stay here for the semester then move if they decided to go, or stay here and have Ellis come back with an Internship at Disney to put on his resume.
They have a lot of thinking to do but everyone knows how awesome Disney is.

Thursday, February 4, 2010

Rainbows and gardens Spring is coming!

We had rain!!  Look out East side of America you will be next.  It was a beautiful rain that had a massive double rainbow for the people driving home from work to look at.
I have noticed that Arizona offers up rainbows many more times than I ever saw in Alabama.  sometimes the sky is just riddled with them. Yesterday there were just 2 massive rainbows and that was totally worth seeing. The sky then became vivid pink and then sunset was upon us.
So maybe we are in Arizona's version of April showers right here in February. If so I am going to get ready to plant. I am going to work on my raised garden this year.  I need it raised because for one reason, the dogs walk over my plants and are making my shrubs break. If I elevate it, then they will keep those muddy paws out of there. The soil being what it is here, this will allow me to have a better chance at a successful garden.



My insurance agent will not leave me alone. He wants to meet with me and I just know he wants to add more coverage on me and I am not looking for new coverage. Did someone contact him to tell him about the push over on 31st ave? I think they might have, he is pretty insistent that we meet. I keep cancelling the appointments and he keeps making new ones with me.  ARGH....
No one will believe what we did last night.  Gerry brought home Rock Star or Guitar hero.... one of those games and we all sang on the microphone.  Yes we have stay at home Karaoke night!!!!!  It was fun. We sang several song all of us but Casey and she is next.  She was cooking. ( I think it was planned that she miss it like that)  By the time she finished the mic was packed up and we were all exhausted.  No wonder all the stars suffer from exhaustion...  It is hard work, but it was fun.

Sarah Katherine went to the doctor for her check up and she weighed in at 8 pounds and 9 ounces. She is really growing like a weed. She is a petite little girl.  She was only 5 pounds at birth. That is a 3 pound gain in just 2 short months.  She also got her shots so she had a rough day yesterday.

Ellis has started his second year in college and he is taking Spanish and communications. He will be getting his associates degree in December and he is still maintaining his A average. I am very proud of his commitment to school and getting his degree. Once he has his associates he will start working on his bachelor and then he will be ready for Radiologist training.  That is what he his ultimate goal is.  There is a 2 year waiting list here for the Radiology program so he will work on his degree while he is waiting.  He has it all planned out and I am for one very proud of his achievements. Working a full time job while going to school full time is quite a commitment.

Casey's friend Lisa is going to be the newest Avon lady in Birmingham starting tomorrow.  So happy to get her started selling and now she will be out there providing samples and brochures in the age old tradition. An exciting time for a young lady to start with her very own business. She is so excited and is already making her contact list.  That is what will make her a success.

Wanted to let you know the kittens are doing fine and Filhinha is a great mother. She spends all her time with those babies.  She isn't one of those wandering off mothers that you see sometimes in the cat world. Her name, Filhinha means Daughter in Portuguese.

Wednesday, February 3, 2010

My cat had her kittens, one black and white, one grey and white and one solid black. Since we told her she was only allowed to have 1 or 2 babies she of course had 3. Cats are so stubborn and find a way to do everything in their own way.
 She found an almost empty cabinet in my bathroom to have them and so it has been like she has an apartment for them. No pups can open the door and neither can the 2 day old kittens.

Luis promoted my last hub so well that I had a huge number of hits on it. I wrote about my love of the Brazilian's and the guild that I am a part of.  The hubs are another place I can write and it allows me to have a bigger audience of strangers reading. Mom you will notice I smiled in this picture.  You can see my dimples.

This week has been spent on sprucing up my Mahalo existing pages and working on a bulk project. 13 pages so far on games that are available online for free. I am hoping for a good turn out and if you are curious, please check them out. Here are some widgets so you can click those and visit Mahalo.





Have you heard about Glue.  It is a great little assistant to see what others are loving on the Internet. I find that when I love something others come and visit and when they find something worth gluing I rush to check it out as well.


My Avon project is going pretty well. I went out today and met some of my neighbors and they seemed interested in the products and wanted the catalog. It is a little hard to spout off the web address while standing there at their front door.
Since the new catalog is online now I wanted to route some of them to it, so I hope they read it off of the back cover.
Jon ( Tony's Brother)  said that he got his order within 3 days of ordering. He was shocked it was that fast, but he lives near a hub.  He is a former Avon representative, I may ask him to reconsider selling it now that they do it online.  He was a very popular Avon rep. Gave up the business because he was spending too much time delivering his orders. Now that is where I would like to be in a few months :)

The Grammy's were amazing. Pink and her high flying act was amazing.  It was worthy of Vegas!
   The Michael Jackson Tribute song was enough to bring me to tears. First it dealt with the rainforest and second he died too young and then the song was so good.  so very good.  I am not the biggest Michael Jackson fan but I have grown up with him and I believe he was a very talented song writer and singer.

This has been my week and I would love to hear about yours.  So let me know what is new, amazing and fun in your lives.

My contribution to the Grammy 2010 coverage