Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Too Good to Be True

I recently came across a listing that a friend of mine pointed me out to about a company looking for "spa reviewers." I quickly scanned the listing. They mentioned they would prefer writers with some kind of beauty background, and then they invited you to send in your resume and writing samples.

I figured it was worth a shot, so I sent everything off. A few days later, I heard from this person from www.prettycity.com. They chose me as one of their reviewers! I'm pretty ecstatic. Here's the way it works: They send out e-mails to their reviewers in the area, and the first person to respond gets the "job." You go to the spa or salon, all services and gratuities are taken care of on the spot and then you get paid $75 once you turn in the review. Ha! I'm actually going to get paid for going to the spa!

My first assignment is tomorrow. I'm going to this really chic salon where I will be having a cut and color. Yikes! (This is the same girl who has only had color one other time in her life.) I'm excited, though. I talked to the person who assigns, and she said the spa/salon ratio is pretty even. She also said I could just respond to the ones I'm interested in. So, I am so excited. If anyone has any tips or ideas for how to do my hair, bring it on.

!!!!!!!!!!

(See my excited exclamation marks!)

Tuesday, April 22, 2008

Life with Rex

Jack has decided to be a dog most of the time he's at home. He thought it would be nice to have a doggie name, too, so we named him Rex. In fact, if he's in his dog mood, don't you dare call him Jack. That makes him mad, and he'll only answer to Rex.

Rex even fetches, too. Throw him the ball, and then he'll go and get it and bring it back.

Anna didn't want to feel left out, so sometimes she'll pretend to be a dog, too. Her dog name is Cindy.

Isn't imagination great?

Sunday, April 20, 2008

Inventors Galore

I'm back from my weekend in Chicago with my mom and aunt. As a reminder, we were there for the Everyday Edisons' casting call for inventors. My aunt was the one with an actual invention, and then my mom and I came up with ideas so we could join her.

None of our ideas were picked, but that's okay. The real fun of the event was seeing all the other crazy inventor people there. I was so entertained by the whole thing that I even started making a list on my iPhone of bad invention ideas. I'll admit that my idea wasn't groundbreaking. (My idea was a "Nanny Pack" where you put together fun games, toys, etc. all in one bag to entertain kids.) But some of the people at the casting call were just crazy. Here are some of my favorite unusual ideas of the day.

*One person had the idea of having this mystery ball. When you turn it over, it gives you inspirational messages like "You can do it," "Success is in your future soon," and stuff like that. (Anyone thinking Magic 8 ball here?)
*The same person wanted to present a second idea about how you can make Ramen noodles in a cup. Hmmmm.
*One woman wanted to put HARD, PLASTIC organizers in the bottom of a purse, so you can transfer them from purse to purse. Okay, this sounds good in theory, but who has hard, plastic organizers in the bottom of a purse?!? Weird.
*One guy created an elastic strap that goes OVER a baby's head to hold its bottle. This way, he said, the parent doesn't have to get up to give the baby its bottle back if it drops it. (There are so many things wrong with this one. I just don't know where to begin.)

So, yes. There were some crazy inventor people. But we sure had a lot of fun. And after we got done standing around in lines for most of the day, we still had time to go to Navy Pier. And after that, we went to a sketch comedy show at Second City. (That's where a lot of comedians and Saturday Night Live people have come out of.)

Good weekend overall. Here's a picture of us riding the Ferris Wheel at Navy Pier.

Monday, April 14, 2008

Little cutie

As you can tell, Anna loves her dress, shoes, purse and umbrella. Jack is a big fan of the umbrella, too. I can tell this umbrella is going to break pretty soon. Luckily, we know a certain grandma who will be going to San Francisco next month. If she makes her way to Chinatown, maybe she could pick up a few of these $1.99 umbrellas. :)

Sunday, April 13, 2008

San Francisco!

Steve and I are back from our long weekend in San Francisco. We had a blast. Sadly, my camera was dead so I only got pictures with my iphone. But never fear, we were there with our friends Troy and Danielle.

Danielle got great photos, so I'll share them when she gets back. She's still in Napa, enjoying some great wine.

I saw Chinatown where I got Anna this great classic dress with matching shoes, a purse and a "pretty" umbrella. (She LOVES it and even insisted on taking everything to bed with her.) Then we saw Fisherman's Wharf where the seals hang out and you can see Alcatrez. Yesterday, we drove over the Golden Gate Bridge and into Muir Woods just outside of San Francisco. It was so peaceful in the woods. I loved it!

So all in all, it's been a great trip. Now I'm gearing up for next weekend. My mom and aunt are flying in, and we're all going to "audition" for this invention show on PBS. The auditions are down in Chicago. Did I mention this to anyone?

Yep, my aunt has a truly great invention. And my mom and I just threw together a couple of ideas so we can all stand in line together. I'll let you know how it goes.

Sunday, April 06, 2008

Crazy, Nutty, Expensive Weekend

My crazy weekend started on Saturday. I had this children's writing luncheon to go to. I'm not a big fan of these luncheons to begin with, but that's another story. But I had already paid for the luncheon and I was going to hear this young editor from a big publishing house, so away I went.

Everything was going fine...I had my cute spring blazer on and I was driving Steve's car with a GPS. And then I get pulled over. The dumb cop in this fancy little neighborhood pulled me over for going 30 in a 15. (For the record, do you know how HARD it is to go 15 mph, especially in a sporty, manual sedan? It's hard!)

I was really annoyed because he first called me "sir," but didn't apologize for it. Then while he's writing me a ticket, he stops a bunch of male bike riders for breaking some other dumb law. But does he ticket them? No! At this point, I'm pretty sure that the cop hates all women. And not only that, but I'm crying. Actually, crying would be an understatement. I'm actually blubbering. The cop takes about 30 minutes to finish my ticket because of all this delay. And by this time, I'm past "fashionable late" for the luncheon. And, I can't stop crying. So even if I were to go late, I would have caused quite a scene. (I'm one of those ugly criers. My whole face gets red and blotchy.) So I went to the mall, got the kids some shoes and then went home. Lame, lame.

To be honest, the ticket wasn't that bad. It was under $100 and "no points," which is good. I was silly for getting so worked up, but whatever.

On a better note...the whole family we went to the Brewers game today (Sunday). It was really busy and packed, but we lucked out and got the end seats on a back row. Score! They kids made it until the 7th inning. Not bad at all. Our goal was to see the Sausages race (Brewers tradition), and we made it. Here are some of my favorite moments of the day...

*Anna was eating peanuts when I realized she wasn't actually swallowing them. Somewhere in the 5th inning, she opened her mouth and spit out a huge mouthful of peanuts into my hand. Gross!
*The Brewers mascot is Bernie, and he stands up on this big platform, waiting to slide down a giant slide when they hit a homerun. Jack was watching him like a hawk, and he kept waving to him and shouting, "Hi Ernie! Are you going to slide?"
*We went up and played in the kids area for a while, and Jack was helping Anna get up on the places that were too high for her. He waited patiently for her, and if someone tried to push her around, Jack would go back there to fight for her to get through. It was sure cute.
*When we came back from playing, Jack was mad at Steve for eating all the peanuts. He promptly demanded they get more.

That's about it for out weekend. Next weekend, Steve and I will be in San Francisco, and Steve's mom is kindly coming down to watch the kids. I can't wait to go!