This bag might serve as a replacement to the coveted but too-$$ Jimmy Choo Ramona that I drool over…It’s the L.A.M.B. Covey Carry-All and it should be coming out on/around 7/25. Allegedly $475 at Saks. Wondering when on sale…
L.A.M.B. Covey Carry-All
My husband just made me watch this. It’s pretty darn funny. A few references in surf-vernacular but darn funny to watch :)
This is a very interesting read. As an opponent of this current administration, and fan of the free market, Capitalist, hard-work ethic system that made this country as great as it is, I cringe every time I read more and more in the news about how it is being systematically destroyed. I too worry about the points brought up in this article. About where this country is being taken.
This article has been floating around the internet since November 2008. It was incorrectly attributed to several different writers who have all said it was not theirs. Whoever wrote it should have given you something to think about.
“I am a student of history. Professionally, I have written 15 books in six languages, and have studied history all my life. I think there is something monumentally large afoot, and I do not believe it is just a banking crisis, or a mortgage crisis, or a credit crisis. Yes, these exist but they are merely single facets on a very large gemstone that is only now coming into a sharper focus. Something of historic proportions is happening. I can sense it because I know how it feels, smells, what it looks like, and how people react to it. Yes, a perfect storm may be brewing, but there is something happening within our country that has been evolving for about 10 – 15 years. The pace has dramatically quickened in the past two. We have spent two or more decades intentionally de-industrializing our economy. Why?
We have intentionally dumbed down our schools, ignored our history, and no longer teach our founding documents, why we are exceptional, and why we are worth preserving. Students by and large cannot write, think critically, read, or articulate. Parents are not revolting, teachers are not picketing, and school boards continue to back mediocrity. Why?
We have now established the precedent of protesting every close election (now violently in California over a proposition that is so controversial that it wants marriage to remain between one man and one woman. Did you ever think such a thing possible just a decade ago?
We have corrupted our sacred political process by allowing unelected judges to write laws that radically change our way of life, and then mainstream Marxist groups like ACORN and others to turn our voting system into a banana republic. To what purpose?
Now our mortgage industry is collapsing, housing prices are in free fall, major industries are failing, our banking system is on the verge of collapse, and Social Security is nearly bankrupt, as is Medicare and our entire government. Our education system is worse than a joke (I teach college and know precisely what I am talking about.) The list is staggering in its length, breadth, and depth. It is potentially 1929 x 10. And we are at war with an enemy we cannot name for fear of offending people of the same religion who cannot wait to slit the throats of your children if they have the opportunity to do so.
And now we have elected a man no one knows anything about, who has never run so much as a Dairy Queen, let alone a town as big as Wasilla, Alaska. All of his associations and alliances are with real radicals in their chosen fields of employment, and everything we learn about him, drip by drip, is unsettling if not downright scary (Surely you have heard him speak about his idea to create and fund a mandatory civilian defense force stronger than our military for use inside our borders? No? Oh, of course. The media would never play that for you over and over and then demand he answer it. (Sarah Palin’s pregnant daughter and $150,000 wardrobe is more important.)
I have never been so afraid for my country and for my children as I am now. This man campaigned on bringing people together, something he has never ever done in his professional life. In my assessment, Obama will divide us along philosophical lines, push us apart, and then try to realign the pieces into a new and different power structure.
Change is indeed coming. And when it comes, you will never see the same nation again. I thought I would never be able to experience what the ordinary, moral German felt in the mid-1930s. In those times, the savior was a former smooth-talking rabble-rouser from the streets, about whom the average German knew next to nothing.. What they did know was that he was associated with groups that shouted, shoved, and pushed around people with whom they disagreed; he edged his way onto the political stage through great oratory and promises.. Economic times were tough, people were losing jobs, and he was a great speaker. And he smiled and waved a lot. People, even newspapers, were afraid to speak out for fear that his “brown shirts” would bully them into submission.
Then he was duly elected to office, with a full-throttled economic crisis at hand [the Great Depression]. Slowly but surely he seized the controls of government power, department by department, person by person, bureaucracy by bureaucracy. The kids joined a Youth Movement in his name, where they were taught what to think. How did he get the people on his side? He did it promising jobs to the jobless, money to the moneyless, and goodies for the military-industrial complex. He did it by indoctrinating the children, advocating gun control, health care for all, better wages, better jobs, and promising to re-instill pride once again in the country, across Europe , and across the world.
He did it with a compliant media – Did you know that? And he did this all in the name of justice and … change. And the people surely got what they voted for. (Look it up if you think I am exaggerating.)
Read your history books. Many people objected in 1933 and were shouted down, called names, laughed at, and made fun of. When Winston Churchill pointed out the obvious in the late 1930s while seated in the House of Lords in England (he was not yet Prime Minister), he was booed into his seat and called a crazy troublemaker. He was right, though.
Don’t forget that Germany was the most educated, cultured country in Europe . It was full of music, art, museums, hospitals, laboratories, and universities. And in less than six years – a shorter time span than just two terms of the U.S. presidency – it was rounding up its own citizens, killing others, abrogating its laws, turning children against parents, and neighbors against neighbors. All with the best of intentions, of course. The road to Hell is paved with them.
Most of you know by now that the Senate version (at least) of the “stimulus” bill includes provisions for extensive rationing of health care for senior citizens. The author of this part of the bill, former senator and tax evader, Tom Daschle was credited today by Bloomberg with the following statement.
Bloomberg: “Daschle says health-care reform “will not be pain free.” Seniors should be more accepting of the conditions that come with age instead of treating them.”
If this does not sufficiently raise your ire, just remember that Senators and Congressmen have their own healthcare plan that is first dollar or very low co-pay which they are guaranteed the remainder of their lives and are not subject to this new law if it passes.
Please use the power of the internet to get this message out. Talk it up at the grassroots level. We have an election coming up in one year and nine months. We have the ability to address, reverse the dangerous direction the Obama administration and its allies have begun, and in the interim, we can make our voices heard! Lets do it!”
Obama and his appointed Czars and cronies scare me. They should scare you.
I love to read. I have loved to read ever since I was a kid and my best friend’s Mom would feed me books (her kids weren’t readers so she adopted me :) ) like my favorites The Scarlet Pimpernel, Anna Karenina, Three Musketeers, The Man in the Iron Mask, Count of Monte Cristo, Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights, multiple Greek & Roman mythology books, and more and more classics. I would soak up all these books. Then throw in all the comic books I would read and it seems like that’s all I did! (even though I know I did more as I was outside all the dang time!)
Summer is a great time for me to read as I lay in the sun and read…for hours. My current “To be read book right now” stack on my nightstand is:
8th Confession – James Patterson (JUST FINISHED LAST NIGHT!)
Capitalism & Freedom – Milton Friedman
Gossip Girl: A Novel (Book #1 in series)
Breaking Dawn (#4 Twilight series) – Stephanie Meyer (once I start this I know I cannot put it down!)
Wishful Drinking – Carrie Fisher (Just finished today ! 7/1)
New X-Men: e is for extinction
New X-Men: imperial
New X-Men: new worlds
The Daily Coyote – Shreve Stockton
Shutter Island – Dennis Lehane (need to read before movie comes out!)
Free to Choose: A Personal Statement – Milton & Rose Friedman
Illiad – Homer
Atlas Shrugged – Ayn Rand (I need to finish this: I put it down after I could no longer take how close to reality it is becoming with the new administration and it depressed and sickened me.)
Then there is my 2nd stack under my nightstand of “I need to read very soon”:
Lipstick Jungle – Candace Bushnell
Assassin – Ted Bell
The Fountainhead – Any Rand
Gossip Girl (books 2 and 3 in series – I bought the boxed set!)
entire Harry Potter series (I know, I know..slow)
The Road to Serfdom – F.A. Hayek
The Wealth of Nations – Adam Smith
And in my cart at Amazon…
Georgiana: Duchess of Devonshire – Amanda Foreman (movie The Duchess was based on this book)
The Last Days of the Romanovs: Tragedy at Ekaterinburg – Helen Rappaport
Swimsuit – James Patterson
The Lost Symbol – Dan Brown (pre-ordered for 9/15!)
Run For Your Life – James Patterson & Michael Bennett
Introduction to Objectivist Epistemology – Ayn Rand
Outtakes from a Marriage: A Novel – Ann Leary (Denis Leary’s wife)
This is a lot of stuff to read! And I still have more I want or will definitely find and want it soon!! So I better get on this!!! I was hoping to get at last 4 books read this vacation week. I’ve finished 1…I am waaaay behind…yikes….
Today was a fun day! I did sleep in till about 7am like a lazy slack! Huskies said HOT outside already Mom! I took them down to a forest walk so it was mostly shady so they could stay cooler. They had the same reaction today that they had last fall on this same walk – something wicked this way is! They smell a bear? Or a dead body? Ghost? Angelus is afraid of nothing (ok, well…bees…) and he was acting strange and not wanting to continue on down the path. And Storm had less than zero interest in continuing. So I of course made them continue on…but then was imagining a scary movie…where the dumb girl makes her dogs keep going down the scary path even though every person watching the movie is screaming at the screen to listen to your dogs!!! So we turned around :)
After doggie walk and coffee and email..I went on my hike. About 6 miles with 3 of it straight uphill. Beautiful though. A great hike. The goal was making it up to Hawks Peak. And I did :)
Hawks Peak view 2
There was still snow in some of the higher elevation areas. And the best part – I saw 1 biker in the distance but other than that – came across no one. Very peaceful. It was windy up on the tippy-top rock at Hawks Peak so I had to be careful not be blown off the rock!
Hawk's Peak View 1
I was using my iPhone app TrailGuru and it said about 6 miles and almost 2 hours but then my battery died – doh!! Good thing I didn’t run across any bears and need the phone camera!
Then it was lunch (turkey burger!!) and sun/tanning time! I just started reading James Patterson’s “8th Confession”. I realized today as I was going through my stack of books that I brought that I *always* read a James Patterson book on my vacation. So I moved it up in the priority pile :) These are always fun summer reads. This is the Women’s Murder Club series he does. I really like this series. ABC made a short-lived TV series based on it last season which I also liked. But not as much as the books obviously. Although Angie Harmon (who played the main character – Lindsay Boxer) was quite likable. I find his books, and this series in particular, to be very fun reads. And when you are baking in the sun, “thinking” books are not always the best (Milton Friedman’s “Capitalism and Freedom” is next in my pile…might get pushed down for “Gossip Girl” till after vacation..)
After sun time, it was chore time – laundry, cleaning guest bedrooms used this weekend, vacuuming house (I am ALL FOR 1 story houses btw…truly….stairs suck), hosing off deck pollen & spider webs (Angelus was VERY happy with this), and taking the garbage and recycling out to the bear box for pick-up day tomorrow. Now…I considered “accidentally” dropping garbage in the driveway and entryway to “accidentally” attract a bear or 2 (they LOVE and know when garbage day is – very smart bears!)…but I didn’t (dang it!)
Then we did another short buddy walk. I wore flip flops when I did this…unwise…I stabbed my foot on a big stick. OUCH! Bleeding!!! Crazy that the buddies can walk on all the sticks and rocks like they do. What pansy feet I have :)
I set myself a time limit on chores so it was time to make dinner and pick a movie! I made my tofu spaghetti – yum! And watched “Doubt”. Good movie. Not as dark as made out to be…but perhaps that is because A) I like the actors (Meryl Streep, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Amy Adams) and B) I’m not Catholic. Good watch though.
But now just about time for sleepy so I can do it all again tomorrow :)
Today was day 2 of Tahoe vacation and Birthday Season (although technically I think Day 3 of Birthday Season there was plenty of lunch and cupcake celebrations on Friday!)
Took the buds for a fun walk at Donner Lake. We got a late-ish start around 7:30am so it was already pretty sunny and warm. Because of this, we did the easier, flat lake walk so the buds would get plenty of shade and lake time. I think it’s only about 2.5 miles but we did lots of stopping for sniffing and chipmunk chasing so it was about 1.5 hours of fun husky time! Angelus was slightly annoyed when I wouldn’t let him keep the dead chipmunk he found. No husky kisses from him today :) This is a nice, mellow trail. Good for the fluffy monsters when it’s warm and sunny out. Lots of access to the lake for wading in and plenty of trees, rocks, critters, etc to explore and sniff.
After the doggie walk, I relaxed with my coffee, read twitter and watched GAC. It was nice to not have to rush anywhere. Then Helen and I went for a hike. The weather was perfect hiking weather – warm, partly sunny, nice fluffy clouds that came in and cooled you off along with a nice breeze. We got a little over 1.25 miles in when husband called. His bike riding friend had fallen and punctured his arm and needed to go to the ER but left his wallet at our house with his medical cards, ID, etc. They were over an hour away so needed me to bring the ID. Dang….hike cut short :(
After getting ID to them, H and I went to Gar Wood’s in Carnelian Bay on Lake Tahoe. One of my FAVORITE places for lunch and drinks. They are famous for their “Wet Woody”. The best way to describe it is a peach Jamba Juice with plenty of light rum mixed in and a 151 rum shot floating on top:
Wet Woody!
Their lunch menu is delicious. I’ve never had anything there I didn’t love but I’ve repeated the sliders and fries several times. Today was no different!
Sliders & Fries!!
Other *very* yummy things there are the mahi-mahi tacos. And their garlic bread with gorgonzola cheese! And the zuchinni sticks.
We hung out quite a while. The weather was just so perfect and it was so relaxing. Oh, and we ordered another order of garlic bread with gorgonzola! The people here are usually nice, normal people out for a nice time and lunch. This time we had a bit of people-watching…The couple next to us were soooo obnoxious and ick. Pretty much everyone else there were as flabbergasted as us. The woman looked either beyond drunk or way high on something else. She was sitting on her boyfriend’s lap and they were making out – right there on the restaurant deck for all of us to see – and then feeding each other food (and not doing a very good job of it.) One of the comments you could hear from the girl “Why are you talking? Stop talking. You know I hate when you talk so much.” Ummm….so sweet…..thankfully they left. I know mean and superficial…but neither person was attractive in anyway so this made it all seem so much worse and annoying.
Then we walked down to the beach in front of the restaurant in search of the cute golden retriever puppy we saw go by! But he was too fast with his dad so we didn’t get to skoosh him :( But the views are just so awesome. I know I am spoiled living on the NorCal coast and it is very, very beautiful. But I do think I prefer the mountains, trees and lake view:
Then we went home and hung out. Husband and his friend Robert played Guitar Hero (I giggle at that myself…)
Guitar Hero-ing....
Tonight husband drove back home with our friends and it’s just me and the huskies for 3 days (then he will be back for my official birthday and long weekend.) The huskies are relaxing on the deck now that it’s cooler while I watch Law & Order: Criminal Intent and type this – crazy party girl…I KNOW :) But I need to get up and get those huskies out early to beat the heat!!
p.s. of course I was stuffed full after lunch until now…at 10:30pm…dang it!
I would happily accept it :) This particular one is on HonestForum.com. I’m not even sure you can buy this retail anymore! But it fits the basic criteria for the bag I am looking for. It would probably be close to perfect if it was a chocolately brown but I LOVE the distressed texture of the leather.
http://www.honestforum.com/womens-shoes-handbags-etc/175504-kooba-farrah-large-hobo-euc.html
Description
Beautiful Kooba Farrah. Large Hobo. Incredible thick, really special and unique leather. Has a slight irridescent sheen. No flaws with the exception of minor wear on the zipper pull. Original Tags $625.
Asking $235.
More
How completely cute are these?? jeans, capris, skirts, dresses…..unlimited options and in MY FAVORITE COLOR EVER! :)
Friday night we got up here up around 12:30am…pretty late for me!! I was very tired since I woke up at 5am. Once here, we unloaded the car, got ready for bed and finally got to sleep around 1:15-1:30am.
Angelus barked at me to wake up around 3ish…he *never* does this unless he has an upset tummy. But he did not. He had no interest in going outside to pee or anything. So I went back to sleep. Then he woke me up again a short time later. Again, he did not want to go outside the front way to pee. He wanted to go out on the back deck. I was exhausted so I just let him out and said good night.
Then he woke up husband around 4am and was going crazy running from the back deck to go out at the front door. We are pretty sure he was tracking a bear or coyote outside as he simply doesn’t get that excited about a raccoon or smaller critters unless he is actually chasing them – DAMMIT! I wanted to see the bear!!!! Next time! It’s been almost 2 years since I saw the bear in our driveway – I am due!! :)
I woke up at 7am and took the buds on a walk for an hour. Then it got too hot for them. Pretty sure Stormy gave me the paw. Then it was vacation-coffee-mode on the deck in the sun :) I love sitting out on the deck facing the forest. Very peaceful, pretty and the forest smell is amazing. Mandy came over about an hour later and Helen woke up and we eventually rallied to do a 6-mile hike where we found this alien pod:
Alien Pod
Not sure what is was. But had fun convincing ourselves it was poisonous and might kill us all on touch if we touched it (we were clearly dehydrated by this point ;) ) So I moved it out of the path with 2 sticks….where it dropped. Lesson 1: do not put me in charge of the nitro-glycerin. After giggling at ourselves we continued on and finished the hike unscathed by the alien pod…oh yeah – we did name it John :)
Mandy and me looking out over Donner Lake
Helen, me and Donner Lake
Got back and laid in the sun for an hour or so reading magazines and chatting. We opened up a bottle of Brut and a great time was had by all!
Later we had a yummy sushi dinner at Yoshimi Sushi in Incline Village. This is one of the several rolls we go that were not on the menu. This one is called the Lucky #7:
Lucky #7 sushi roll
You can link to my Yelp review from a previous visit on the front page of my blog (under Lifestream.) I HIGHLY recommend this place!!!! But then again, not so much that it gets too popular and I can’t get seated :)
Now I am in a food coma on top of 5 hours of sleep, sun and hiking…so I think this party girl should go to sleep by 10:00pm on her first day of vacation in Tahoe :)
So my birthday is next week. It used to be my tradition to buy myself a really cool birthday gift..something kinda pricey (for me) or totally not something I would normally buy myself. Years ago, at my old job, my boss or his investors/friends (he was a hedge fund manager) would give me money or gift certificates for my birthday (yeah, banking and hedge fund money is quite nice) and I would use that to buy myself a nice gift.
Then I got married. And decisions became not all about what I wanted. And then we bought a house. And I love my house. But having to buy furniture, or dishes or towels or paint walls or new garbage cans and NOT buy cashmere or a cool bag! WTF? Who signed me up for that??? And this was with no kids….just imagine…eeks! (of course once we got the dogs, a lot of my money went and continues to go happily in their direction.)
Anyway, this year I went back to buying myself a gift. I work a lot…all the time, whether at the office or at home, so I wanted a cool prize just for me. What I really want is a very nice, soft, chocolate brown bag but the image I have in my head of this perfect bag might never be found (or at least affordable…I did find it…for $2100..here it is…sigh….drool…the Jimmy Choo “Ramona’ in this cool crushed leather:
Jimmy Choo Ramona
I “tried it on” at Nordstrom…it is exquisite…and I fell in love…but moving right along….
But I’ve also wanted a cool red bag for a couple years now. I don’t wear red so I thought a striking red bag would add a cool splash of color to any number of outfits I could be wearing. But the problem is, even with really fancy, expensive bags, the red leather looks cheap. So I kept looking to no avail for 2 years. Then Kate Spade had their Friends & Family sale….I immediately looked for a cool brown bag. No luck – not a single, solitary brown bag on sale! DOH! But then I found my red bag..the New Canaan Rudy. And it was 50% off from retail!
Now, I haven’t bought myself a really pricey item retail in a very long time. I have nice things. But I have found them on deep discount, or eBay, or any number of shopping forums – a lot of them pre-owned (doesn’t that sound SOOO much better than used?! I think Certified Pre-Owned even!)
So anyway, when I was pulling the trigger on this purchase I could hear my husband’s head veins popping (well, how they would when I told him) but I did it anyway :) And then had to wait for it to arrive. I am going out of town tomorrow for 9 days so I was hoping it would arrive before I left. And it did – today!
When I got it home, I opened it up and hoped I would love it as much as I thought I would. And when I unwrapped it…and unwrapped it some more (new stuff from cool stores always comes all wrapped in many layers of fancy tissue – helps justify the cost I think) I LOVED it!
Now I just had to show husband…sigh… So when he came home, I said “So I bought myself a birthday gift. You know I wanted a red bag. I found this one for 50% off retail and that’s that.” (strike quickly without allowing your opponent time to think!) He came over, looked at it, said “wow – soft. How much? Holy crap, that’s 50% off retail?? ok…” And that was that. (always present the awesome deal you got..note to self: need to try that with Tiffany’s)
So now I am styling with my new kate Spade New Canaan Rudy in red for this 4th of July :) And Happy Birthday to me :) YAY!!!
My new Kate Spade bag!
