people who need a swift hard kick in the pants

"Peace Activists" who require military action to free them from hostage situations.

Two Words

Christian Louboutin

As you may know I have been coveting a pair of black and white Ferragamo wedges and decided to bite the bullet and see if they still had my size. They didn't but they did have these in my size and for about 2/3 the price.

I love my income tax refund (and the husband who lets me buy things on credit until the actual refund arrives!) Mine are similar but not asymmetrical and with a little bow. I'm just wearing them around the house and smiling.

new adventures

Superbowl Slim and I have started a new fashion specific blog to discuss our personal obsessions with shoes and handbags, respectively.

We'll be posting at least as regularly as I do here, if you're interested, give us a look at So Much Pretty.

tuesday

Finally saw Brokeback Mountain last night. I am not going to add to the ocean of prose about this movie except to say that it is wonderful, beautiful and the saddest film I have seen in a long time.

Noticed that C.R.A.Z.Y. cleaned up at the Genies. Go see this film if you have the chance. It's funny, sad, touching and in places, suprisingly whimsical.

The warm weather seems to have disappeared and snow is expected later today. I'm not bragging, but I told you so!

seriously

Explain to me how Pete Doherty is "making good progress" in his attempt to get drug free THE DAY AFTER his arrest on SEVEN counts of possession.

I wonder if he travels around Britain with a Faberge Egg as well?

UPDATE: Apparently the evidence for his hearing Thursday regarding those SEVEN counts of possession is misplaced. So he's back out on unconditional bail for the time being. Did anyone check his blood for the "misplaced" evidence?

Oscars, Pret-a-Porter and other things

First off, in answer to Kathedral, yes the cold is gone. I am feeling better and am very psyched because I have a 1/2 day at the spa booked for Friday and am just dying for my massage.

Things that are new... Exercising. BC and I have a trainer. It's more fun than I thought it would be. I have a feeling that if I had to go by myself I would have already quit but we push each other and commiserate together when it's over. Less commiserating now though than in the beginning when we couldn't move for two days after a session.

Academy Awards... If you come over to our house on Oscar Night you are obligated to make your picks in advance. Usually it's only me, BC and SF. There was an upset this year, I finally won!!! Which is sad when you consider that I have not seen any of the movies. Not one, excepting Memoirs of a Geisha which deservedly won for Best Costumes.

I had my 4th 29th Birthday. Got some excellent presents. Two specialty TV channels for a year (Discovery Civilizations and Fashion TV obviously), a great book on Roman Art and Architecture; Chanel; the 1/2 day at the Spa; dinner at Susur (an incomprable meal!, my new favourite restaurant, if only it didn't cost slightly less than a week's salary); and the publication that has my drawings of small finds from way back when I was an idealistic Archaeology Student.

Our ISP was down over the weekend and I haven't yet examined the F/W Ready to Wear collections, but of what I've seen I must say that I am not really fond of the Chanel thigh high boots. Perhaps this is because I am not a 22 year-old with matchstick thighs who hasn't eaten since her sweet sixteen party. Love these shoes from Miu Miu and normally I am, at best, so so on Miuccia Prada's work.

So pretty... when do they hit the stores???











P.S. Does any one have a translation/transcription of Three 6 Mafia's acceptance speech? I'm curious as to what they actually said.

head colds and lemon tea

I have a cold that is completely in my head. Not "in my head" in an I should be wearing a helmet kind of way but in that it has manifested as full sinuses and a sore throat. I hate a sore throat. There are very few things that can make you feel as helpless as a sore throat. Because unless you're asleep, there is nothing that makes it go away. However, I have just finished a big mug of lemon tea, lemon slices and honey and actually feel better, OK, less sore. It's very delicious as well. I might drink this when I'm not sick.

Finally got to see the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show last night. I love all dogs but there is something alien and creepy about the Bull Terrier that makes you thankful you haven't met one in a dark deserted alley. I was pulling for the Old English Sheep Dog. So cute and probably the finalist who I am the most allergic to.

SSPQotD ...

Will work for shoes. I could never actually work in a shoe store. I would hide all the shoes in my size until I could buy them.

Live the life you imagine. This is awesome advice. If you try your best to become the person you wish you were, someday you'll realize that you're not trying anymore, it's just who you are.

When sweetness fails and tears dont work - nag. If sweetness failed and you had to resort to tears to get what you wanted - you didn't deserve it. Grow up.

Never understimate the power of shoes. Or Bags. Having on a great pair of shoes just lifts your spirits as well as your heels. Everytime you feel a frown coming on and look down, you see your pretty shoes and your smile comes back.

And your cry-baby whiny-assed opinion would be? Like one of my favourite sayings: Buck up and be a man, boy!

'lympics

It is time for the Winter Olympics and I have to say that what I have found the most shocking thus far is not the Wayne Gretzky Gambling Scandal, or Bode Miller's Drunk Ski confessions but the fact that I turned on my TV a couple of minutes ago and discovered that Skating with Celebrities is still on.

Why are you watching this when you could actually be watching people who skate as a vocation? Who are the best in the world? Who aren't just faking it to up their Q factor so that they can get some more E List reality television work in the future? I mean come on, let's support the actual athletes please.

explanation please...

today's rant

Can someone please explain to me why people of a certain age are not subject to the same rules of polite conduct as the rest of the population? In the last two days I have been offended by a woman coming up to me in a crowded restaurant, where I was waiting for a table by the door, and being told "you're standing in front of my coat, move." Witness to the woman at the table next to us not saying a single polite thing to her waiter, never even occurred to her to say Thank You after he busted his butt getting her order straight because she wouldn't actually eat anything on the menu. Then today there were two women having a very loud extraneous conversation in the archives. It's like a library, whispering is the accepted volume. But the staff will not tell them to shush because they're old, however if two teenagers were having an identical conversation, they would have been asked to use a quieter tone.

I don't buy the fact that the old deserve to be treated differently just because they're old. If I had behaved like that as a child my mom would have sent me to my room. As an adult I subscribe to the golden rule and would expect someone to call me on it if I was rude to my waiter or disturbed the other patrons. I think the fact that someone has lived a long life and is still able to get out and do various activities is commendable and to be hoped for in our own old age. I don't think that anyone should forget common courtesy and feel entitled to behave like an ass just because they happen to have lived longer than you.

fits and starts

Some tidbits

Britney is not pregnant again.
Katie Holmes apparently is actually pregnant - no word on who the father is. I tried to get her to join my boycott of Tom Cruise but for some reason she didn't go for it.
Cellphones got some scary stuff going on.

Is it sad that I started counting down to the weekend about 4 days ago?

The unseasonably warm weather is freaking me out. It just keeps putting the horror that is a Canadian winter further and further back, meaning it will be July and we'll just be getting out of our Parkas. Yes, this groundhog saw his shadow, but this one didn't, so where does that leave us?
Maybe Phil is right and there will be six more weeks of winter, but when will these six weeks of ACTUAL winter arrive? Perhaps they will arrive when we least expect them, like the middle of April giving us both an early spring and 6 more weeks of winter.

scary video for saturday morning

Sometimes you click around and end up following a link to something that makes shivers run up and down your spine. This is one of those things.

Happy Saturday!

SSPQotD

Good friends spice up your life. And a really good friend will keep you from burning yourself.

Haute Couture

Yes, I follow the shows. I have a very co-dependent relationship with Style.com. I check obsessively three or four times a day during the season to see the pictures from the runway shows as soon as they are posted. It's Spring/Summer 2006 and for the most part I am in love with what I see. Couture is Art - with a deliberate capital A. It is expressionism, craftsmanship and where style begins. Many of the ideas you see now and will scoff at as entirely being unwearable, will be walking down the street in about 18 months.

I am in lust with the Chanel and Valentino Collections. I need those Boots from Chanel!!! Valentino's suits are delicious. I am very glad I have my white trenchcoat from last spring because it is still the colour.

Not all is delightful though, there is something about Dior this season that just seems to say "I got half finished with the design and then decided to put it through a wood-chipper." I understand the statement he is trying to make, I just don't think anyone should have to wear it. Normally I love the avant-garde classicism of Galliano, so evident in the Fall 2005 Couture Collection but this time the collection is a little too "St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre" for my taste but you be the judge.



As an on-topic aside as to where I got my visual reference to the Massacre watch La Reine Margot. One of my favourite movies of all time (and the only novel I ever tried to read in French - tried being the operative word, thank goodness for translations!)

rock bottom

Reality Television has hit rock bottom.

I can ignore the wife-swapping, meet your new mommy/daddy, fish out of water, genre. I can ignore the your kids are so terrible you need to put it on tv and be told you're bad parents. I can ignore the ear splitting musical t*******m that is Idol. I can even fathom that people would enjoy Fear Factor - kind of like a horror movie or car accident.

Skating with Celebrities is the worst. I have not heard of half of these so-called celebrities, including one of the hosts. It's like watching an end of the year recital at your local rink. Which is only fun if one of your kids is in it. I don't know what the ratings are like but who would ever have thought that something would compare negatively to Dancing with the Stars?

SSPQotD

Life is more fun when you don't keep score. But then how do you know who won?

Election Day

Just a quick reminder to Canadians that it is time to vote. It is important is to remember that people are dying everyday in countries all over the world for the right to vote. Don't waste it and dishonour those fighting for it. I'm not pushing my own political agenda. I don't care if you vote for the Pajama Party.

Remember if you don't exercise your right to vote - you lose your right to complain.

hmmm

So I was clicking around and ended up on this. I'm still trying to figure out how I got so much Dixie in my talking voice... :)

Your Linguistic Profile:

55% General American English

25% Yankee

10% Dixie

10% Upper Midwestern

0% Midwestern

What Kind of American English Do You Speak?

sunday

Sassy Shoe Pad Quote of the Day: Aged like fine wine, complex and fruity.

I am complex, I am moving toward my mid-30s, and I am a little fruity. Although I like to think of my "fruitiness" as more quirky and unique than off-kilter which I think the word fruity connotates.

So my version of the SSPQotD: Aged like fine wine, complex, quirky and not to everyone's taste.

Things I find enjoyable

Day of the Week Socks. Not quite as fun as Day of the Week underpants but you can show people socks without fear of arrest.

The Gilmore Girls. Cheese television, I could not be friends with these people but for some reason I love to watch them.

Vogue Magazine. I read it for the advertisements. I do wish they would start putting models on the cover again. No matter how many times Jude Law cheats on her I don't think Sienna Miller is charismatic or fashionable enough for a cover. I mean come on, she helped start the horror that is "BoHo Chic."

Crossword puzzles. On-line, on paper, I don't care. I even love the NYTimes puzzle, mostly because it's one of the few I can't solve on a regular basis.

My new IPod. It's pretty and black and carries a whole lotta music in a little tiny package. I especially like how when it's on shuffle it invariably will play Johnny Cash, Vivaldi and the Killers in that order. How I lived without it, I just don't know. My new game is to count the "Pod People" on the subway with me. The most I've ever counted in one car is 18.

Sassy Shoe Pad Quote of the Day: "My opinion may have changed but not the fact that I am right."