Ghost Whisperer Fashion- "Do Over"

SO thinks I'm insane for my uncanny ability to identify a designer's (or store's) pieces when the characters on my favorite TV shows wear them. I think I'm just fashion savvy. Here's the awesome Nanette Lepore jacket worn by Melinda in the opening scenes of last night's Ghost Whisperer episode, "Do Over."

Fall inspiration

I can't get enough of anything in shades of gold-mustard-deep-sunshine-yellow this fall.

Fall inspirations

Swoon! Nanette Lepore Fall 2009

I'll take one of each, thanks.






View the entire Nanette Lepore fall 2009 RTW collection here.

First shoes of fall and other news

So, California is on pause. Big fat boohiss. But if I don't move away from the suburban wasteland soon, I'm going to shrivel up and die. DIE!

Painfully, slowly. Suburbanly.

Or I'll just start wearing ill-fitting khakis with equally ill-fitting polo shirts and clunky old shoes.

And it scares the bejesus out of me. For realz.

Moving soon is a necessity. Like breathing. And sushi. And non-clunky shoes.

And we definitely need to move west. Even if it's just a little bit. Like Pittsburgh. Or a little further. Like Denver. Those seem to be the two cities up for bidding right now. Of course, if a job in San Diego or San Francisco lands in my lap, I'll happily skippity-skip right past the 'Burgh and the Mile High City and head straight for the Pacific (okay, I'll stop just short of the Pacific like, say, downtown San Diego or La Jolla).

But until we bust out of the wasteland, I needed to buy something to keep me from turning into a frumpster. (Didn't someone suggest I buy a pair of shoes for every month I'm stuck here? Well, I'm listening.)

Well, peeps, here it is- my first fall 2009 purchase:


Aerosoles Egg Roll bootie

Weekend Polyvore- Ghost Whisperer Style

I think Melinda Gordon's wardrobe on Ghost Whisperer is at least half the reason I keep watching the show (because let's face it, that Jim's spirit jumping into Sam's body storyline in Season 4 was just plain weird). I'd love to raid Melinda Gordon's closet (and her store while I'm at it).

Here's my Ghost Whisperer-inspired Polyvore set.

Ghost Whisperer Style

OOTD(s)- it's been a while

Here are two-one from yesterday at work, the other is a future OOTD (for sometime this weekend perhaps- it definitely needs some jewelry). You can see more of my OOTDs on my Chictopia page.

And yes, my hair is a darker shade of red. I'm still working on finding the perfect red for me- I think it's somewhere in between the last, lighter shade and this shade.

Swoon! Love! Pretty, romantic dress with rosettes. ROSETTES!

I need this adorable Kensie dress in my life. Such pretty fall colors. I think I shall add it to Polyvore and create a set around it.

Did I mention the rosettes? Rosettes! Oh, and ruffles! Love!

PS- It's from one of my new favorite online boutiques, Urban Minx.

Epic FAIL- Why I'm never staying in a Trump hotel again (and why you shouldn't either)

I travel frequently and therefore, deal with lots of hotels and hotel staff. My recent weekend experience at the Trump Plaza in Atlantic City was, by far, the worst experience I've ever had (and I once stayed in a hotel that had a water pipe burst on the 5th floor and flood all the floors below it down to the lobby). This was worse than that.

Why?

Because the staff at the Trump Plaza seems to be confused about proper customer service. It took us three hours to check in and it wasn't because there was a line.

Annette, Katrina and I were extremely happy when we arrived for our girls' weekend in Atlantic City well within the proper check-in time after making excellent time driving to the beach. Unfortunately, the time we saved avoiding traffic was siphoned away during our check-in process.

According to the first person at the check-in desk who helped us, there was some sort of mis-communication between Orbitz and the hotel because when we arrived, the hotel did not have a record of my reservation, despite the fact that I booked it a week and a half prior to our arrival. I pulled up the Orbitz e-mail confirmation on my iPhone and it still wasn't good enough. So, I called Orbitz and after 20 minutes on hold listening to Canon in D, I finally got through to “Ethan” in India and asked him to re-fax my reservation. He did and so I thought our ordeal was nearly over.

Wrong!

The re-faxed confirmation with the original date also wasn't good enough for the hotel reservation supervisor. She refused to confirm our reservation and had the (now second) person who was helping us tell us the hotel was fully booked. But since people were coming in off the street and booking rooms and others were upgrading to better ones, I was reasonably sure that the reservation supervisor was full of poo. So there we stood, just wanting the room we had already paid for. (And in the meantime, the first person who had helped us returned from her hour-long break, which she went on while I was on hold with Orbitz, and couldn't believe we were still there. Yeah.)

Finally, after two hours of battling with Orbitz and the front desk staff, and the front desk staff trying to move us to the Trump Marina, the front desk supervisor finally came out to help us. He had us fax our confirmation (again- which meant more time on the phone with Orbitz) directly to him to bypass the reservation supervisor. Shockingly, he managed to get us a room in the "fully booked" hotel (now three hours after we began the check-in process). So, obviously there were rooms available, but apparently, if there is mis-communication between Orbitz and Trump Plaza, it is the customer's fault and they are fully punished for it in the form of terrible customer service and wasted time.

Our stay didn’t improve much after check-in since this customer service confusion thing extended well beyond the shiny, marble top check-in desk.

Moral of the story- don’t stay at any Trump facility ever.

Sorry, Donald, you’re fired.

Alice in Wonderland, Tim Burton style (with a nice slice of Johnny Depp)

Yesssssssssss.

March 5, 2010. Don't be late for this very important date.

A birthday Polyvore

It's gonna be my year.

Palm Beach by Blooming Wildflowers featuring Dolce Vita shoes

Typography

As seen in my Polyvore collage. Designed by me. :-)

More fun with Polyvore

I created the "fall gracefully" typography with Photoshop, specifically for this collage.

Fall gracefully by Blooming Wildflowers featuring Marc by Marc Jacobs bags

LOST Season 5: coming soon to the TV in my living room

We may not know who Jacob's mysterious "they're coming" deathbed(???) message refers to, but I can tell you this: It's coming- LOST season 5 on DVD, that is. December 8, 2009. Pre-order your copy now. Guess who already did that.

Ruffles and rosettes

Yes, I'm obsessed with ruffles and rosettes. You can see more of my obsession here and here. And I just created a set on Polyvore (which is my newest obsession).

Ruffles and Rosettes by Blooming Wildflowers featuring Jeffrey Campbell shoes

Shoes!

I have a birthday coming up on Wednesday. It's one of those awful "milestone birthdays" and I'm not very pleased about it. So, I felt the need to pacify myself. Shoes are excellent pacifiers. I bought these delicious nude pumps as an early birthday present from me to me:


Madison, Dolce Vita shoes

PS- I know I've been MIA on the blogfront recently and I have a backlog of OOTDs to post, but I've been having issues. D has cold feet about California and the move is getting pushed back until after the holidays. Also something I'm not too pleased about. But better later than never, right?

Hello?

Is this thing on? Is anyone out there reading this?

Bueller???

So You Think You Can Dance- Season 5

Okay, I love this show. I love it and I should be embarrassed to admit it, but I'm not. Okay, only a little. I was thrilled last week to see Travis Wall, one of my favorites from season two, back to choreograph. And he choreographed two of my favorite dancers, Jeanine and Jason, in a stunning contemporary piece. I may be a little biased because of my unabashed love of contemporary (and of Travis), but whatevs. The dance was awesome. Witness:



So who are your favorite dancers from this season? It's okay to admit you like the show. I just did. It'll be our little secret.

WTF, Forever21?

I mean, really? WTF?

Current soundtrack

Wash Away by Joe Purdy with some of the happiest footage from LOST

Chictopia and Outfit of the day

As if I needed another Internet time waster. I just discovered Chictopia. It's a way cool Web 2.0 site where users upload their outfits, style inspirations and finds. They can also favorite, friend and share other users and their content. It's a living, breathing constantly updating fashion webzine made by real people from all over the world. Fan. Tabulous. This should be extra motivation for me to dress better and stop being lazy. Suburbia is not an excuse to be a fashion mishap.

You can visit my Chictopia here.
And here's a preview- today's OOTD (Outfit Of The Day):

Find, find, find - Bevello.com

I am always on the lookout for unique (affordable) boutiques. And thanks to some fashionable friends, I discovered this way cool online boutique. I'm hooked. I love supporting shops that support emerging designers. Tons of fabulous awesomeness at Bevello.com. Today's purchases:




Can't wait for them to arrive. The dress will be perfect for Sunday brunch with the girls.

Um...Postmaster Person???

Is there a reason you couldn't use one of these for the packages?



Instead of stuffing all this mail...



...in here?

I'm a schizoid

At least when it comes to my blog layout. I keep changing it. I just can't find one that suits me and I'm just too damn busy to design one myself. And by busy, I mean lazy. Same diff. Maybe someday I'll get around to it, but until then I'll just keep playing musical blog layouts. Of course, every time I change a layout, I have to redo my widgets, which is a total PITA. Whatevs. At least it gives my scads of loyal readers (snort!) something to look forward to when they drop by, because heaven knows, this is not exactly the most content-rich blog ever written.

Today equals FAIL

Morning: Realize an hour into my day that I've been wearing my cardigan inside-out. FAIL.

Afternoon: Realize a work project I thought was nearly complete and only required a few simple steps to finish is neither nearly complete nor simple nor anywhere in the ballpark of either of those things. FAIL.

Evening: Get a fucking $150 speeding ticket driving home from work in the suburban wasteland where the speed limit is too low and the cops aren't busy enough. FAIL.

I think I'll crack open a bottle of one of my favorite wines, Rosa Regale.

Which, incidentally, is nowhere to be found in the suburban wasteland. I picked it up on a recent trip to Baltimore.

Geekery at its finest

I swear, I do more than obsess about LOST. But you'd never know it by this blog.

Notes to self: Dust your damn bookshelves. The dustbunnies are going to eat Jack, Hurley and Sawyer.

Getting fit LOST Rewatch style

I'm taking a break from my daily Jillian Michaels-style ass kickings to hit the elliptical LOST Rewatch style. It's a simple equation really- 1 workout = 1 LOST episode. I should be able to keep up with the schedule this way and get flatter abs in the process.

Unfortunately for me, D took swapped the small HD television we got for the workout room for the piece of crap box with a tube we had in the bedroom. So now, I have to rewatch LOST on this:



Either that, or I have to drag the elliptical into to the living room to watch it on the big screen HD. And I'm just not feeling that ambitious.

Hey, LOST geeks!

Did you know there's an unofficial LOST rewatch? Yep, it's run through DocArzt and Lostpedia and you can get the official schedule here. The long hiatus between season 5 and the final season is the perfect time to rewatch and discover new LOST "a-ha!" moments (or to fill in certain other members of the household so they stop asking 5 seasons worth of questions during a single episode, whichever).

So, be a geek, watch the episodes according to the schedule, follow the DocArzt blog and stop in at the Lostpedia forums.

Just an FYI- you need the DVDs to do this. It's not running on television.

Lunchbreak blogging

Dear coworker who was stumbling across the parking lot with your hands covering your eyes:

I know we just got screwed with the paycut and everything, but you can get sunglasses for super cheap at Target. Or The Dollar Store. And if you forgot your sunglasses in your car, you'd probably get there a whole lot faster if you just squinted and didn't completely block your vision.

Cheers and sunshine,
Displaced Urbanite

Things I loathe

In random order:

1) People who, within a few minutes of meeting me, announce to me how great they are. If you really are that great, you'll shut your yapper and realize that I'm smart enough to figure it out. Otherwise, you just knocked yourself down about 1000 points in the greatness scale.

2) Parking lots. The bane of suburban existence. Idiots congregate here and plot their plans to destroy the world- one bad park job at a time.

3) Humidity. Mostly because it reminds me that I do not live in California. Yet.

A plea to the entertainment industry

Stop with the bad remakes and revivals of shows and movies that never needed to be remade or revived. It's really starting to wear on my nerves. First, the sad, skanky 90210 revival in which they have successfully destroyed not one, but two, of my favorite characters' happily ever afters. First, Kelly gets the short end of the parenting stick when Dylan ends up being a deadbeat dad to his and Kelly's son and then David chooses Japan over Donna.

I'm totally annoyed with this new 90210 reality, but I can live with it. Maybe.

But today, I came across a travesty that can only fall under the category of sacrilege. Looks like Footloose will be getting a remake of its own with Gossip Girl's, Chace Crawford playing the role of Ren McCormack. Almost Paradise? Far from it. No one messes with Kevin Bacon. I am boycotting. Or maybe I'll go dancing and take all my footloose friends with me and stage a protest in the theater lobby.

Everybody cut, everybody cut- this remake. The original is perfect.

Cuteness

I was going through photos on my iPhone and found this one of Thing 1 and Thing 2. It was so adorable, I had to post it.


I really need to have my digital SLR ready at all times to better capture such moments of cuteness.

Note to self

This is not nail polish remover:


And that is why it did not remove my nail polish. No matter how hard I scrubbed.

LOST - The Story of the Oceanic 6

Is anyone else disappointed last night's "LOST from a viewpoint you've never seen before" wasn't about Vincent? No? Just me? That's OK.

Just ew.

For some reason, D emailed me this picture:




Don't know what that is? It's scrapple. I'm not sure it even exists outside this sad, little area (let's hope it doesn't- it's better that way).

But, apparently, his brother had it for breakfast and D felt the need to take a picture (probably for the sole purpose of e-mailing it to me and grossing me out).

Normal meat (like chicken and turkey) grosses me out, so this is just nastiness multiplied. Especially since I eat a mostly pescatarian diet- I love sushi too much to give up fish- and I haven't had pork in about 15 years (10th grade biology did me in). There's a reason that "scrap" is the root of the word scrapple. Ew.

Baby, come back

My elliptical has been feeling a little bit like the sorry mops in those Swiffer commercials. Since I hurt my back last weekend, I've been neglecting exercise in favor of the soft, cushy couch. But I'm feeling better and I finally managed to get exercising again today. A short session, but enough to chase away the dust bunnies. Next up-- conquering The Shred.

Hello?

Test, test. Is this thing on?

Neat! I just posted from my iPhone.

I am a lily

"Your artistic expression tends to show up in flamboyant bursts. When you are feeling creative, it consumes your every thought and action. But just as quickly as the muse shows up, it leaves you and you are back to your relatively normal self."



What Flower Are You?

An Easter Conversation

Occurred at home while getting eggs out of the coloring cups and ready to paint with glitter. (Necessary information for this convo to make sense- D has seven siblings.)

D: Remember when you were a kid and you wrote your name on the eggs with white crayon before you colored them so you knew which ones where yours?

Me (slightly confused): What? I didn't need any crayons. I'm an only child. All the eggs belonged to me.

Pen to paper

So, Jorge Garcia has an awesome blog. I was reading back through some of his old posts and found this one. I love it. It's so true. If you want something, write it down.

I decided to try it:

1. I want to be the owner/founder/CEO of a business that synthesizes my passion for social causes (arts, environment and animals, specifically) with my love of fashion and my desire to support and promote indie artisans/designers/artists/musicians (particularly on the local level). And I want to incorporate cutting edge new media technology into the customer experience. Tall order, I know. That's what grad school is for.

2. I want to live in San Diego.

3. I want to finish my MFA summa cum laude.

4. I want a puggle (Thing 1 and Thing 2 need a Thing 3).

5. I want a potted, organic veggie garden (and some chickens).

6. I want new shoes.

7. I want the weekend. Now.

An open letter to Target

Dear Target,

I really enjoy our lunch time rendezvous, but I'm starting to feel like you're taking advantage of my generosity. See, whenever I come to visit, you're conveniently out of baskets, which forces me to use a cart. So, instead of just getting toothpaste, paper towels and a frozen lunch, I end up with a cart full of things I don't need like dog beds, candles, dishes and t-shirts. And then I usually forget the toothpaste and paper towels, which means another visit the next day and the vicious cycle just keeps going.

I'd like to think you're not using me for my money because I've always thought you were much cooler than that, but if you don't start keeping more baskets on hand, I may have to reconsider this relationship because it's really starting to wear on my bank account.

Sunshine and puppy dogs,
CK

Miss Lucy Beagle

Thing 2 is bored tonight.

Mac 'n cheese

I've been having kind of crappy week, so when I went to pick up my lunch today, I really wanted to get a big tub of macaroni and cheese. You know, those Country Crock ones they market as side dishes? Yeah, side dish, my patutti. I'll eat the whole thing in one sitting, thanks.

But, since just a few weeks down the line, they'll be no place to hide, I decided to get the nasty Lean Cuisine version.


It's significantly smaller, much less creamy and sort of mysteriously grainy. But close enough, I guess, if I don't want to be mistaken for Shamu on the beach this summer.

But then, it reminded me of this unfortunate (but not blogged about until now) incident at the department holiday potluck this past Christmas.


I think I was more upset about the ruined homemade mac 'n cheese than about the broken crockpot.

Santa Ana, you'll never be the same

On our recent trip to San Diego, we were driving on the 5 and saw signs for Santa Ana. For the next ten minutes, I just kept giggling and saying "Saaah-nata Ah-na" over and over again, like a 4 year old. And I did it on the way back, too.

I forgot about this road trip fun until today when I was perusing Craigslist and came across a listing for something in Santa Ana (Saaah-nata Ah-na).

I blame Jeff Dunham.

Getting LOST 05x11 "Whatever Happened, Happened" (post alternately titled - LOST theories that can finally get lost)

A big thank you to LOST for using the hilarious Miles/Hurley exchange to finally blow away the annoying time travel theories flying around this season. Alternate realities, splitting timelines, time loops resulting in multiple (separate) versions of each character- theories almost as annoying as the Season 1 "It's purgatory!!" bandwagon, are finally gone. Gone. Like Marty's siblings and his disappearing hand. Erased from existence.

Like Hurley, many fans based their knowledge of time travel on Back to the Future. But clearly, the LOST writers are not following those rules. They've made their own and for anyone paying attention to Faraday's emphatic "whatever happened, happened" speeches, one would realize this is the rule the writers are following. They've pulled twists on us in the past, but that would just be ridiculous for them to preach Faraday's mantra as the core time travel rule and then rip it out from under us.

So, we can finally forget everything Back to the Future taught us about time travel. There is no flying Delorean, no flux capacitor and no white-haired, wild-eyed scientist (OK, Faraday is a little wild-eyed, but his hair is definitely not white). There is one reality, one timeline and whatever happened, happened. What we're seeing now in 1977 is the way it always happened. We just didn't know it during seasons 1 through 4 and for the Losties personal timelines, 1977 is the future even though it's taking place in the past in the overall timeline.

As for the curious case of Desmond David Hume that so many fans used to back their alternate reality/split timeline theories? Rewatch The Constant. It explicitly tells us that Desmond is different. His consciousness can travel through time, at any time. Meaning, he can wake up from sleeping (er...consciousness time traveling) with a brand new memory that just happened to him at that moment even if the year his consciousness traveled to happened to be three years in the past. Rules do not apply to him. Anything that happens to him cannot be used an example to support any kind of time-looping, alternate reality theory.

On a non-time traveling note, what happened to Jack? Why is he such a sniveling, miserable shell of his former self? And how ironic that his refusal to save young Ben actually caused old Ben to become the maniacal, calculating lunatic we know and hate in 2004. Of course, Sayid helped a little by shooting young Ben. But between the two of them, they created the very thing they were trying to prevent. You can't change the future or the past. Whatever happened, happened.

I am an ENFP (according to this quiz anyway)

The Inspirer

You love being around people, and you are deeply committed to your friends.You are also unconventional, irreverent, and unimpressed by authority.Incredibly perceptive, you can usually sense if someone has hidden motives.

You use lots of colorful language and expressions. You're quite the storyteller!In love, you are quite the charmer. And you are definitely willing to risk your heart.
You often don't follow through with your flirting or professed feelings. You break a lot of hearts.

At work, you are driven but not a workaholic. You just always seem to enjoy what you do.You would make an excellent entrepreneur, politician, or journalist.

How you see yourself: compassionate, unselfish, and understanding

What's Your Personality Type?

Weekday improvement with Preston and Steve

My weekday mornings just got a whole lot better. Thanks to SuperD, I stumbled upon the iPhone app for my favorite (but now out of listening range) radio station and morning show- Preston and Steve on WMMR 93.3 out of Philadelphia. I am ecstatic- Bizarre Files, Science Day, LOST discussions- YES, they're all streaming right to my iPhone as I type. If you've never listened to this radio show and you have a somewhat twisted sense of humor, you seriously need to tune in. It's hilarious.

No iPhone or iPod (really???)? Just catch the streaming audio from the WMMR website. Your coworkers might look at you a little funny as you guffaw to yourself (how funny are spreadsheets, really?), but at least your Office Space morning will be a little more amusing.

It's a small thing, but it really helps drown out my obnoxious coworker in the cubicle next door.

With a cluck-cluck here and a cluck-cluck there...

In my boredom, I managed to concoct another semi-crazy idea. I want some chickens. Four chickens, actually. Live ones. SuperD thinks I'm nuts, and although he admits it's a good idea, he seems to think I won't take care of the chickens.

This idea sprouted from an article I read in one of my favorite magazines, Sunset, a magazine about life in the west. It's all very fashionably outdoorsy and stylishly crunchy. I get the northern California edition by default, which is almost perfect since it's close enough to southern California. To me, having chickens and growing a garden (these days, who wouldn't want to know exactly where their food comes from) is all part of the sustainable, handmade indie artisan lifestyle.

So, I want some chickens and I've already named them. Ready for this? My future feathered egg-layers are Dorothy, Rose, Blanche and Sophia. In case you don't recognize those names, just run a google search for The Golden Girls. And SuperD is wrong. I would take care of the chickens (and keep Thing 1 and Thing 2 from eating them, although we may need some assistance from Dog Whisperer, Cesar Millan on that one).

Getting LOST - Season 5/Episode 6 "316"

I've been meaning to post my LOST predictions based on last week's episode (316), but kept finding other things to do with my time. But, since the next episode airs tonight, I wanted to post my theories here before the new episode.

So, here's what I'm thinking:

1. How did Hurley know to be on the flight?
Charlie, of course! It's not much a stretch since a) Hurley has seen dead Charlie before and b) Hurley has a guitar case. My guess is that it's Charlie's guitar case. Whether or not it contains a guitar or a stash of munchies remains to be seen.


2. Jin in the Dharma suit.
I'm pretty sure the I7-minus-Charlotte (now the I6) infiltrated the Dharma initiative. They are clearly in Dharma's timeframe since Jin's cruising around in a very new Dharma van. Daniel most likely advised them to infiltrate Dharma so a) Dharma doesn't think they're others and hurt/maim/kill them and b) Daniel wants to know what's in the Swan.

We'll probably see the full scene with Daniel in the Swan from season 5/episode 1, as well as Daniel telling young Charlotte never to come back to the island.


3. So, what about Sayid getting arrested and who is that woman with him?
I think the "officer" with Sayid is working for Ben/Mrs. Hawking to get Sayid back to the island. I think she's an Other and has been on the island before. And I think we'll see more of her.

4. Where's Aaron?
Someone probably came to Kate and told her she shouldn't take Aaron back to the island. Technically, Aaron wasn't born yet, so he wasn't (technically) on flight 815. He may be one of the O6, but that doesn't mean he belongs on the flight to Gaum.

My first thought was that Ben had someone working for him to convince Kate not to bring Aaron back, but someone else mentioned the possibility of Claire having something to do with it. This sounds reasonable to me- Kate has seen Claire before in a dream and Claire was very adamant with Kate that she never bring Aaron back to the island.

**********

I'm still waiting for the O6 is shooting at the I6 theory to get debunked. Yes, they arrived on Ajira airlines (we pretty much knew that's how it would go down based on that water bottle in the canoe), but there is no good reason for them to be randomly shooting. It's most likely either someone from Dharma or the Others.

So, there. Now I'm ready for tonight's episode- "The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham." Interesting to note that John Locke's alias is also the name of a philosopher/social reformer.

Annoying LOST theory- Status: DEBUNKED!

Last week, I posted this post about the most annoying LOST theories of the week. I am happy to report that two of the three theories are now debunked (one was debunked last week; another this week).

Last night's episode fully debunked the theory that Danielle and her team will start time jumping with the I6 (and also that the French team left for their expedition in a year other than 1988). Danielle specifically told Jin the year was 1988, just like we knew from the original story she told the Losties. We also finally found out how poor Montand lost his arm and what exactly (sort of) the "sickness" was (or at least what caused it). And whoosh...off to another time flash sans Danielle and her team jumping around with us.

Thank you, writers/producers, for debunking this hugely annoying and completely nonsensical (even for LOST) theory.

Just a few weeks down the line...

...there'll be no place to hide.

I can't take credit for that fun little phrase. But it's brilliant. It's actually from a Weight Watchers (I think??) commercial from the 80s. It's one of my favorite commercials ever. Picture a horizontally scrolling clothesline, first with a sweater, then jeans, then capris, then a t-shirt, then shorts, then a tank top, then a barely there string bikini while happy female voice says the ominous phrase from the opening of this post. Scare tactic? Sure. Impactful? Definitely. I'm not sure if the fact that I remember a weight-loss commercial from the 80s (when I was no older than 10) is horrifying or if it was dramatic foreshadowing for my current occupation in advertising.

It doesn't really matter, though. What matters is that the commercial is right. I have exactly 4 weeks and 1 day to get my butt ready for the last items on the clothesline or I'll be heading to California and wishing I had a place to hide. So, I bought myself Denise Austin's Daily Dozen. I can handle 12 minutes a day. Baby steps. I'm allergic to exercise.

But a funny thing happened. I've been doing this video for about a week and a half. And I like it! I feel better, have more energy and lost a few pounds (with um...several more to go). I actually feel like exercising longer (LONGER!) than 12 minutes. Good thing SuperD went and bought us a new elliptical this past weekend.

LOST theories that need to get lost

Okay, so we're three weeks/four episodes into the season five. Kudos to the writers/producers for answering more questions so far in this season than in any other season. But of course, it wouldn't be LOST if they didn't create more questions by answering others. And of course, creating questions sets LOST message boards aflame with theories, some are quite good, others are just...ridiculous.

Here are a few of my not-so-favorites from the LOST message boards I haunt:

1) Penny and Desmond's son, Charlie, is The Charlie (as in Charlie Pace, as in deader-than-dead-drowned-in-the-Hydra Charlie).
Come on, people. Let's stop reading so much into this. I realize this is LOST and they like to mess with our heads but sometimes a spade is just a spade. Or in this case, a baby. They named their baby Charlie to honor Charlie Pace's memory. Let's not even get into how this is (in any timeline) impossible since Charlie Pace was born in the 70s (80s at the latest).

Status: Debunked (thank heavens).
In last week's enhanced Jughead episode, the caption at the bottom of the screen stated they named their child Charlie to honor Charlie. So let's stop with the Widmore/Charlie/Charlie Pace is the baby theories, okay?
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2) The people shooting at the left-behind Losties during the longboat scene were the O6 (in the future).
Just no. Why? Why? Why would the O6 come back to save the Losties and then start shooting at the first people they see? Doesn't seem very O6 like to me. I'll agree that the scene could be taking place in future, given the abandoned beach camp, but still "just no" to the O6 as the shooters. I'm betting it's the Others or some of Widmore's cronies.

Status: Not debunked. Yet. But very unlikely.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3) Danielle and her team will now start time jumping with the I6 (left-behind Losties).
I realize we're all excited to see Rousseau and Robert and how Montand lost his arm, but why would they start jumping around any more than any other people we've seen in different time jumps? My guess is we'll get one Rousseau-centric island episode so we can finally see her real backstory (cause you know, 2004 Rousseau was a little loopy and less than reliable). Then we'll have a flash and the I6-plus-Jin will be whisked on to their next time jumping adventure.

Status: Awaiting debunking.

Six random things about me

1. I love randomness.
2. My hair has been black, platinum blonde, red, several shades of brown and construction cone orange with purple streaks.
3. When I was a kid, I thought I wanted to be a veterinarian.
4. Sometimes I still don't think I know what I want to be when I grow up.
5. My favorite color is purple, but I don't own very many purple things.
6. I've never been a bridesmaid.

I'm tagging Rana at Q-tips and Mammoths and Tina at Daily Pointers. My tagger was The Beach Cottage.

The guidelines: Link to your tagger, share 6 random things about yourself, tag a few others (be sure to tell them).
And of course, post the rules.

What's your card, baby?

I stumbled across this fun little "What's your tarot card?" quiz today and thought I'd share. I think my results are fairly accurate.

You are Strength

Courage, strength, fortitude. Power not arrested in the act of judgement, but passing on to further action, sometimes obstinacy.

This is a card of courage and energy. It represents both the Lion's hot, roaring energy, and the Maiden's steadfast will. The innocent Maiden is unafraid, undaunted, and indomitable. In some cards she opens the lion's mouth, in others she shuts it. Either way, she proves that inner strength is more powerful than raw physical strength. That forces can be controlled and used to score a victory is very close to the message of the Chariot, which might be why, in some decks, it is Justice that is card 8 instead of Strength. With strength you can control not only the situation, but yourself. It is a card about anger and impulse management, about creative answers, leadership and maintaining one's personal honor. It can also stand for a steadfast friend.

What Tarot Card are You?
Take the Test to Find Out.