Pepsi vs. Coke

When I first saw a clip of this ad on Facebook, I wondered if Pepsi was just ripping off the classic Coke Polar Bear Commercials. 
But it seems that Pepsi is straight up mocking Coke. Pepsi is using Coke's classic winter / Christmas theme adds and twisting them around to make Pepsi the soda of the summer.
This is the best example of a company using another companies "branding" and using it against them.
I love these types of battles between two parties. The only other adds I love like this are political adds during election season.
Here are two of the new Pepsi adverts. Which I find cheerfully funny.
Introducing Uncle Teddy and the Party Gang


and this is the Pepsi advert featuring Santa, which I found slightly funny.Santa is on vacation and he's being naughty!



I am giving an A+ rating to the marketing guys at Pepsi for coming up with this one.
Pepsi just became the official soft drink of the summer.
Pepsi Time IS Summer Time.
What you think about that Coke?
Your move marketing guys.

p.s. - I love both Coke and Pepsi. It depends on my mood, the day, and what I am eating or drinking at the time. But sometimes I like Pepsi. and sometimes I like Coke. They are both great tasting Soda Beverages and both have their moments in my thirst quenching activities.

Censorship

I have a question I suppose. 
Does British Television Censor their programming?? 
Do they allow nudity and cursing?
Are there any guidelines?
Cause it's starting to seem like America needs to chill out on what we censored. (man)
We don't need to protect the children OR the adults.
How about we focus on teaching both children and adults about a little thing I like to call
 REALITY?? 
Child Labor Laws are crazy!Put these kids to work and teach them the value of the dollar!
Also,If these kids misbehave. It should be acceptable practice to slap them.
No questions asked.
If you happen to be a "MOTHER" not paying attention to a child who has become unwieldy,it should be completely acceptable to slap that bitch as well as her offspring.


Really, all I'm saying is that I think we need to rethink what censorship really is

This Rant has been brought on by watching "Kitchen Nightmares (UK)" with Gordon Ramsay.That man says some of the best insults I have ever heard. 
It is currently available on Netflix via the Xbox 360 to watch Instantly.
it is uncensored.which got me to wondering if they censor British Television or not.
That is all.

Keeping Things Organized

It took me almost a year but I finally got my side of the closet organized. Honestly, I don't know what took me so long, especially being the obsessive-compulsive kind of person that I am! Our bedroom closet has these wonderfully built-in shelves, but I wasn't utilizing them to the best of my abilities. I think I was still bitter about having to leave my wonderfully-built-to-my-needs closet at my parents' house behind (I mean seriously, have you seen IKEA's closets?!) - there was a place for everything!

The big push was when I saw the closet clean-up Sherry did over at Young House Love a couple of weeks ago. Her various bins and methods of storage inspired me to go to Target and buy a couple bins of my own. I finally got to the actual organizing part last Sunday while Shawn was at work.

The whole process took me about two hours, on and off. Of course, halfway thru project organization I realized that I completely forgot to take any 'before' photos of the closet, so I only have some 'after' photos to share. Oh well, my bad. Just imagine the same space, minus the fabric bins, with piles of various clothing on the shelves to the left of the hanging rack, bags of to-be-donated clothing on the shelf above the rack, and the shelf with all my jewelry had necklaces and things strewn about all over the place. A little sorting, hammering, and folding and a few hours later the closet looks like this:


New storage - yay!
I was originally storing all of my undergarments in that little green drawer unit that's underneath the built-in shelves, but it occurred to me that I needed to access those things on a more regular basis than my 'lounge' clothes that were taking up space on the built-ins; so I put all my undergarments in the new fabric bins I bought, and I stored away all of my tank tops, funny t-shirts, and pj/sweat pants in the green drawers. This keeps the mess on the shelves down, and hides all the clothes I don't need to see on a regular basis.


Sweaters, shorts, and hangers - oh my!
I took all the bags of to-be-donated clothing off the top shelf (they still haven't been donated yet, but at least they're no longer taking up space in our closet) and I moved all of my warmer weather clothing up top - my long sleeved shirts, sweaters, and bulky sweatshirts. The bin on the top-most shelf contains all my sports clothing and extra purses, and the pile next to it is all my shorts, since it's still not really warm enough to wear any of those yet. As far as the clothing on the hangers goes, I hung up all of my button-down shirts, skirts, dresses, and jackets, and stored all my belts on that nifty circle hanger from IKEA.


Jewelry all hung up and stored neatly, with plenty of room left over.
I think my favorite part of this whole re-organization process was my jewelry shelf - I hammered pins into the molding from which to hang my necklaces.... all 20+ of them. I honestly didn't realize I have quite that many necklaces! I guess that's what I get for finally organizing everything. I also bought a 3-compartment tray to store all of my earrings, bracelets, and various little knick-knacks.

Yay for complete closet organization! It has definitely helped me these last few days- putting an outfit together has never been so easy! And since we're already on the topic of style-related-things, I'm going to talk about my hair...

My bangs finally grew out to a more manageable length, so I've been spending a little time playing around with various hairstyles every morning. Lately I've been a fan of the ponytail flip, mostly because I'm getting sick of sporting a regular ole ponytail or bun all the time. I've also taught myself how to french braid! (only the front of my hair though, and it's still rough... I don't know if I'll ever be able to cleanly braid the back of my head.)

Shawn laughs at the amount of time I've been spending in front of the bathroom mirror lately, but there are a couple of more complex hairstyles I can't seem to get down quite yet: heidi braids, the fishtail, and these little twists. But there is one twist-and-pin style that I've finally succeeded at!


(see the tutorial at Hair Romance)
I actually did the twist-and-hairtie, because bobby pins just can't seem to stay put in my hair. Mostly I'm just proud of myself because I spent a decent amount of time trying to figure out what initially appears to be a fairly simple hair style, but proves to be something much more complicated (for me, at least). The twists would end up too high on my head, or one way larger than the rest, or they just wouldn't even stay put at all. But after much messing around, I finally struggled my hair into submission. What? I'm a girl; I never said I wasn't girly.

If that was too much closet & hair-talk for you, well, boo-hoo. No apologies here. Just let me bask in the glory of my clean closet and hair-styling-success.

How about a quick game of catch-up?

I know things have been a little quiet on the blog the past few weeks (save for Shawn's newly inspired bunny comics!) but we've both been keeping busy (...no, not just watching squirrels!). Lets break things down into a list, shall we? I love lists! Especially when they have yummy pictures thrown in too!

- Shawn started working again! He's working the deli counter at the popular local deli/restaurant about a half mile down the road. It's conveniently close to home and not to mention, the extra paycheck certainly helps.


Idle Hand Bars - original recipe from here, but I'll post my revisions soon.

- Despite Shawn going back to work, I didn't have much time to myself the last two weeks because I worked some extra shifts to make up for the couple of days I stayed home recovering from a cold. All work and no play makes Marine exhausted - hence, less time in the kitchen and on the internet, more time on the couch.


Homemade chicken caesar salad - yummy!

- I also never quite recovered from that cold... the new weather patterns brought that runny nose and dry throat right back around! Allergies were never a problem for me until about three years ago; now I'm affected each time the temperatures rise and drop dramatically. February - May are the worst on my sinuses.... not to mention September - October when the temperatures get fussy again. My nose can't take much more abuse!


Homemade pulled pork sandwiches on homemade whole wheat rolls. More about this soon!

- I've actually been working towards some of my goals for the year! I'm in the middle of reading Life of Pi (it was a slow start but now that I'm more than just a few pages in it's getting easier to sit down with at the end/beginning of the day - the two times my mind is at it's quietest). I've also stumbled upon a few patterns I'd like to try for my sewing goals... one purse pattern and a simple a-line skirt pattern; I just need to go buy some decent fabrics now to start the actual sewing process.


Whole wheat cheese straws, using Deb's recipe but substituting the flour.

- Here's a bit of a random question: do my fellow female-readers have any recommendations for skin-care products? I've been using products from Origins over the last few years but my skin tends to adapt and I need to switch it up again. Basically anything that will even out skin tone and also keep acne at bay (seriously, I'm almost 24 years old... why am I still plagued by acne?!). Any recommendations are appreciated!


- One final thing: Shawn and I recently discovered pauladeenridingthings.com, so I had a little fun with it the other day....




(See them in their full size glory over at our flickr)

Thanks for playing catch-up with me! Here's hoping April will be a little more eventful on the blog posting end of things. Get ready for some spring ingredients and more squirrel photos!

Making Lemonade...

Yesterday our television made a decision no one asked it to... it decided it no longer wanted to function.

I came home from work to a very angry looking Shawn sitting in the couch with a magazine, across from a blank tv screen. To which I jokingly asked, "Is something wrong with the tv?", only to get a glaring 'look' from said angry-looking-Shawn. After a long pause he finally explained that the tv mysteriously went dark in the middle of a commercial break during Lets Make a Deal that morning, and every attempt to turn it back on since has resulted in a blank screen with a low buzzing noise.

Odd, considering the television is just a little over two years old... too young to be having that kind of trouble but too old to still be under any sort of warranty. We're upset, to say the least, considering we certainly can't afford a new television right now, along with all the other appliances on our wish list. Shawn's just happy it died after Superbowl weekend.



But why did I title this post 'Making Lemonade'? Because that's exactly what we did, despite the unfortunate circumstance. Shawn's an intelligent fellow, I'm happy to say, so he was able to make a temporary solution by switching out the dead 26" tv screen with my rarely-used 23" computer monitor that he subsequently linked up with his computer. At least now we can still watch things on Netflix instant queue (ah, Netflix saves the day again). We're not really sure where to go from here though.

Sigh... anybody have an extra unused television lying around?

Lists, Recaps, and Hobbies

I've been keeping my word about posting at least one recipe per week so far this year, so I thought it'd be nice to give you a little recipe recap:

Fleur de Sel Caramels
Spicy Peppered Meatloaf
Peanut Butter & Honey Cookies
Lemon Loaf
On a side note, for anyone who's curious, we just finished up season 4 of LOST... and we're still just as into the series as we were season 1- but with a ton more questions now. And for anyone who told us the show starts to lose its' luster after season 3 and that the writers just threw the rest together, well, we think you're wrong. Everything is moving along perfectly, and all the side-stories relate back to each other in such a tense mysterious way... thankfully for us, we don't have to wait two more years to watch the last two seasons! Thank the Netflix gods.

And in keeping with the beginning theme of this post I have two more lists for you. I've let a few of my old hobbies fall to the way-side these past few years and I want to do something about it. I have big plans for this year! Ok, maybe they're not so big, but I have to set myself up for something I can accomplish, right? Don't worry, I'm not going to give up baking - I'd just like to spend a little more time doing some of the things I used to enjoy too.

So I'm giving myself two goals: 1. to finish sewing three things/projects by the end of the year and 2. to read at least five books by the end of the year.


(sewing inspiration)

Three sewing 'projects' I'd like to have finished by the end of the year...
- one accessory (wallet/bag/belt)
- one top (shirt/sweater)
- one bottom (pants/skirt)

Five books I'd like to have read by the end of the year...
- Life of Pi, by Yann Martel
- The Seven Spiritual Laws of Yoga, by Deepak Chopra + David Simon
- When You Are Engulfed in Flames, by David Sedaris
- Food Matters, by Mark Bittman
- The Tipping Point, by Malcolm Gladwell

Why sewing and reading? Because the last time I did either of this things with any regularity was well over four years ago. The last book I remember reading in full was The Book of Lost Things, and that was about two years ago... don't even ask me when the last time I pulled out my sewing machine was.

So this year I'm making a change, no, a commitment - the next time I find myself pondering what to do with my extra free time, I'll pick up a book, or plug in my sewing machine!

We Love Trader Joe's!

We've already praised Trader Joe's for their cream sodas and chocolate, but we love them so much we decided we needed to write a whole post about it.

Tribute to Trader Joe's

I was so happy to find out that the only ingredients in Trader Joe's brand peanut butter (only $1.79 for a 16oz jar!) are, well, just dry roasted peanuts - and nothing else! No added sugars or oils- even the name brand 'natural' peanut butters still have added sugars and oils, and they cost almost twice as much. Thank you, Trader Joe's, for keeping it natural and affordable.



When Shawn and I moved here from New Jersey we thought the prices everywhere were already a lot cheaper than what we were used to. We thought people were crazy when they said the local grocery stores were expensive! (eastern PA's Acme and Genuardi's equate to NJ's ShopRite and A&P - in terms of product and service...) But after a few months, we discovered Trader Joe's and everything was really put into perspective.

We had no set grocery store prior to Trader Joe's. We would go to Acme for bread, canned or frozen veggies and assorted toiletries, and we'd frequent the local farmer's market for fresh fruit, veggies, fish and meat, and we bought our milk and snacks from the local Wawa because that's where they were cheapest.

I really discovered Trader Joe's through work because I go there often for extra baking supplies. It was easy to ease in to the Trader Joe's mentality that way - the store is on the smaller side so once you become acquainted with the six or seven short aisles and the contents of their shelves, it's much easier to migrate the masses of customers that always seem to swarm to the exact item you're reaching for. Things are organized pretty logically and they have a small selection that's large enough to give you a choice but small enough not to overwhelm you, and they're constantly showcasing new products.

What really got me though, is their Fearless Flyer. The old-timey cartoons are hilarious, and the entire flyer is an amusing yet informative read. I love that they take the time to let you know what's going on on their end and what changes they may have made to certain products. It also can't go without saying that at every single Trader Joe's I have ever been to, the staff have always been incredibly friendly and helpful, and entertaining too! The atmosphere is so light, and compared to most other grocery stores around here, you feel like the staff actually wants to be there, and they enjoy having you there too.



You can't argue with quality product for good prices; let me give you the breakdown:

1lb heirloom tomatoes - $3.492lb bag of yellow onions - $1.793-bell pepper pack combo of red, yellow, orange - $3.791/2 a dozen english muffins - $1.492lb bag of tortilla chips - $3.4916oz chunky medium salsa - $2.2917oz chocolate bar - $4.99a little over 1lb natural ground beef - $5.041 1/2lb natural chicken breast - $5.841/2 gallon nonfat milk - $1.69 (10 cents cheaper than Wawa!)1lb unsalted butter - $2.99dozen large brown cage-free eggs - $2.49

Those are some of the things we buy on a fairly regular basis, so our total cost comes out to around $50 each trip, and we go about once a week or so. That seems like a lot of money to spend on groceries, but we mostly cook dinner at home and rarely eat out, so that's actually most of our food cost for the week. And we're walking home with a lot more tasty mostly natural goodness in our paper bags for $50 than we would anywhere else.



peanut flour - $3.49

Another thing I love is that Trader Joe's always a few interesting products you won't find at other supermarkets: this month, for example, they've been show casing pumpkin butter and these bags of peanut flour. I've passed it by a few times, curious, but not sure what I would do with it if I bought it. Then, the other day, tired of just passing it by I decided to buy a bag. It's vacuum sealed and I haven't opened it yet but if it's anything like almond flour I can use it for cookie recipes and the like. Do you have any suggestions on what I should do with peanut flour? Trader Joe's suggests coating meat or fish with it, or using it to thicken soup, or for baking purposes. I like all of those ideas!

Thank you for being awesome, Trader Joe's!!!

Getting back into running

I first took an interest in running about two years ago; both my parents were training for various races at the time and would go out for a run together around 6:30am most days, so when I moved back home I started joining them in their morning runs. Just as I was starting to get excited about it and making some progress, I started a new job with weird hours. I was working 1pm - 11pm and the new hours made it difficult to get up at 6am to go running; I just didn't have it in me to go on a mere 5 hours of sleep to get a run in early in the morning, and I couldn't go out after work because I didn't have the gear to be out running in the dark. Excuses aside, it was easier to fit yoga into my schedule at the time, so I started taking classes nearby and just stopped running all together. For the next two years, yoga was my exercise of choice.

I recently began running again for a number of reasons...

• I was tired of seeing all of my perfectly good running gear (-a few shirts, shorts, socks, and two pairs of hardly worn down sneakers) sitting around in the closet, unused.
• The weather has definitely been a little more runner-friendly these past few weeks so the thought of taking to the sidewalks has been running through my mind frequently.
• The final push though came when the yoga studio I was frequenting once a week shut its' doors at the end of August. Left without a place to practice I finally ventured onto the road for some physical and spiritual guidance.

Now, I work in the food service industry and am by no means sitting on my bum all day at a desk; I usually spend about 8 hours a day on my feet and I make a point to walk to/from work most days too (I only live .3 miles from work) and Shawn and I take walks around the neighborhood on a regular basis; so I am definitely not lacking in exercise. But I wouldn't mind getting a little workout on occasion.

Since the yoga studio closed I've had to adapt to doing my own yoga at home. I'm far too used to going to classes and not having to come up with my own sequences, so this is actually a push I need and am welcoming, but to get outside of our space a bit I've also decided to add a little running back into my weekly routine.

My first time out I set out on a 2-mile course and was able to run 3/4s of a mile before my endurance got the best of me. The past 2+ years of doing yoga must have made me pretty strong, because I never expected my breathing to give out before my muscles. But what my muscles had no trouble with that day, they certainly got the best of me the next. My legs were burning for almost a whole day after that first run!





But I gave it two days rest and then set back out again, this time on 1-mile course, of which I was able to run .8 before having to stop for breath. This time though, my legs felt no excrutiating pain afterwards. Ah, relief.

After chatting with my mother about working on pacing myself to get the most out of my endurance, I decided to take it a little slower. On my third run I set out on the same 1-mile course but I tried to find my stride and stay at a constant speed, and was actually able to run the full mile in just under thirteen minutes. Not a very fast time, but I ran the whole way!

I've run that 1-mile course a few more times now and am still amazed at how strong my muscles are - two years ago they would to be the first thing to flare up in pain when I would run, and now they give me no trouble at all! It just makes me feel even better about all that yoga that has kept me physically strong these past two years. Now I can focus on breathing steady and slowly building up speed.

The Other Day ( Tuesday )

On Tuesday of this week, Marine and I (Shawn) headed out to New Jersey to see family and friends. We had a very interesting day. A blog post was most certainly needed to recap the series of events.

The reasons for a delay in a blog update was due to a migraine headache on Wednesday and my 6.6 mile walk yesterday. (my hips and lower back are killing me!) But it was a much needed push to help strengthen those muscles.

Our Journey to Jersey

Don't stop believing...
Usually, five Minutes after we leave our apartment is when we begin to get aggravated by traffic and Pennsylvania Drivers. Now ya see, PA drivers are like "Sunday Drivers" except they are out EVERY day of the week.

But not today. The roads were next to empty and the crazy people were no where to be found.

It was extremely bizarre.

This made getting out of our area unusually easy on this particular Tuesday afternoon.

So it was expected at some point that we would encounter some bone-headed move by some dumb-ass, some where.

It just so happened that "Awesome" Maneuver #1 would be executed at the intersection of West Delaware Ave and Pennington Rd (Rt 31) in Pennington, NJ.

Google Map View of Intersection

#1 - The "C" word in the BMW

The Red Car labeled "US" represents Marine and I. The White car labeled "****" is the Dumb Woman in a BMW. The circle and arrow represent the color of the traffic light.

As you can see, We are situated behind Dumb Woman at a traffic light.

When the light turns green, Dumb woman, at the slowest pace known to snails, begins to pull forward.

Instead of making a proper left turn, she begins to angle her car to align it with the entrance for the gas station. (the building in the top right corner of the images)

We continue to make a left in the proper manner, thinking that this woman is going to straighten out and actually finish turning left.

OH HOW WE WERE WRONG!!!

This friggin woman actually ends up cutting us off!!

unable or unwilling to signal her intent to turn right, halfway through a left turn.

As the traffic arrow turns red, we are being cut off by this lady who is apparently NOT turning left. But actually trying to make her way into the gas station.

She had no intention of making a left turn.

She was angling her car just enough to make a right turn as she is "turning" left through a traffic light!!

Which leads to me rolling down my window and yelling the "C' word the loudest I have ever yelled that word in my life.

So loud, people with their windows down could hear me over the noise of all the trucks and cars at the intersection.

These motorist quickly began to look around, trying to figure out which person could be this "C" word . If they caught a glimpse of my "Jersey Bird", then my middle finger pointed at the BMW was an obvious give away.

So I began to look at the intersection. While preparing this post.

I noticed how well the lane system and entry ways for the gas station were designed.

The red arrow shows the proper way to gain entry to the gas station when making a left turn through the intersection.

The blue arrow shows the proper way to gain entry to the gas station when making a left before the intersection on the adjacent street.

The yellow arrow shows what the Dumb Woman in the BMW did.

She went into the wrong entrance way. She should have made her way several yards forward to use the proper entry way. Then she could have signaled her intent. instead of angling her car and cutting us off.

WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU THINKING LADY!

The Following is an animation I put together to better illustrate what this "****" did.

moving on

# 2 - The Jack Ass in the Truck

Our fun with idiots was not over just yet. no more than five minutes to five miles down the road, a box truck driver decides to cut us off. He pulled out of a shopping center, bolting out between another box truck and us. Which caused us to brake suddenly as he began to grind his gears while shifting trying to get his truck into gear so he could speed up.

Angry from the "****" before. I honked Marine's horn. (she needs to get better at using it)

Then without thinking, I grabbed my cell phone and called the company. This man Joe answers the phone. This is the conversation we had:

Joe : Thank you for calling "*****", This is Joe, how can I help you.

Me : Hey Joe, How are you doing today.

Joe : Not bad and yourself?

Me : I'm doing pretty good today, I'm actually calling to let you know that one of your truck drivers is driving, well, like an ass.

Joe: Where are you at?

Me : Near Hopewell NJ, on 31

Joe: Well, that's not good, what exactly is he doing?

Me: He just pulled out of a shopping center abruptly in between us and another truck. Which caused us to brake and him to ride the ass of the guy in front of him. He could have waited.

Joe: Oh my, did you happen to get a truck number?

Me: No, but I have the license plate number.

Joe: Shoot. (as in let me know what it is, not dangit, this guys' got us)

So I let Joe know the digits and he thanked me and assured me that he would have a word with the driver when he gets back to the warehouse.

Another five minutes down the road the truck driver abruptly pulls to the side of the road, signaling a mere second before excuting his manuver.

I can only hope that he was pulling over to answer his cellphone. And that Joe was on the other end of the line, ready to yell at the guy for driving like an ass.

# 3 - Crazy Bitch in a Civic

Later in the day as we're headed towards the somerville circle, in Hillsborough we come across a crazy bitch in white a Honda Civic who has:

+ pencil in mouth.

+ bluetooth in ear.

+ papers in her lap and hands.

+ looking down at her feet.

+ while approaching a lane merge after passing through a traffic light.

= (equals!)

Crazy Bitch in a Honda Civic cuts us off!!! causing Marine to shift into the left lane abrubtly. luckily no one was in the other lane!!!

#4 - The Filthy Lying Waiter

We made dinner plans with our friends Christine and Sean to go to the new restaurant Maestro in Hillsborough.

Do not let the above picture fool you. It is not bright in this place at all! Very very very dimly lit during dinner. I could barely see across the table. It wasn't until half through my meal did my eyes adjust to the lighting. Even then it was way too dark in that place.

Service was slow, and it seemed like it was one of the bus boys trying his hand at waiting on a slow night. Which is fine - you gotta get some experience somehow.

The food was delicious. But it was the 20 dollars of dessert, which we DID NOT order, that was added to our bill that really pissed me off!

I'm very glad I looked at the tab. Who friggin does that?!

He only had THREE tables to cover. There is no way he could have screwed up. I'm sorry. I know a liar when I see one, and that guy was caught!

To top it all off, after enduring an onslaught of idiocy and craziness during the day, while on our return trip home at 11 pm at night. 5 miles away from our house, on the exit ramp to get to Rt 1. we came across:

#5 - Ignorant **** in a Cadillac

STOPPED In the middle of a fork in the road. Proceds to back up in the middle of the off ramp. first into a guy who is in front of us trying to turn right, onto the off ramp. Then he cuts in front of us, trying to then turn left which was the direction we were trying to go!

Marine ACTUALLY Slams her hand down on the steering wheel and lays on the horn.

THE FRIGGIN IGNORANT **** of an idiot rolls down his window and gives us the finger.

HE gives US the finger.

How ignorant of the asshole. HE's the one that just pulled the dumbass move in the middle of an off ramp and he has the audacity to give us the finger.

Which brings me to my point of all these little stories... R-E-S-P-E-C-T.

Marine talked about RESPECT as it pertained to a certain business. I'm talking about RESPECT

pertaining to every day life.

We, the people, have lost respect for just about everything.

We have no respect towards anything. Most people don't even have respect for themselves.

We, the people, need a wake up call. We have completely ignored everything we were ever taught; it's rather sickening.

The best I can do, is start treating people with a bit more respect myself - or at least be aware of what my actions say about myself to other people.

The simple solution - Just start thinking. We, the people, need to start thinking and being more aware. Of ourselves, and of each other.

On Family, Sisters, and Growing Up

We don't talk about family much on the blog - Shawn comes from a relatively small family and most of my extended family still resides over seas in France, so neither one of us has much family to speak of. Both of our immediate families live just one state over and we make a point to visit on a fairly regular basis, but otherwise, it's just the two of us. So I'm going to dedicate this post to my lovely younger sister who left home on Friday for her first year of college!


sisters being crazy, circa 2005

I am the oldest of three children - five years older than my sister, six years older than my brother. Growing up, I definitely felt the differences in age; the two of them were always very close, but I was always slightly too old to relate to them. They grew up and into their personalities while I was away at college, so I feel like I missed out on that transition from child to mini-adult, the crucial time to be an older sister. When I moved back home after college, they were no longer the childish minds from four years prior - they were developing their own philosophies on life and I could actually talk to them as peers - something I'd waited years for! And now, my little sister is starting a new journey on her own, and I'm sitting in the sidelines again, waiting for the moment to be a big sister if she needs me to be.


for reference, a more recent picture of my sister

She was kind enough to come visit last week so that we could hang out one more time before she left on Friday. We had planned on driving into center city and going thrifting, and then bringing home our finds and altering them on my sewing machine - I had looked into it and written down a few thrift stores to check out, and that's exactly what we set out to do. We parked near the first store (Circle of Hope Thrift), only to find an empty shell of a building where it was supposed to be. So we got back in the car and drove up towards the next store (Philly Vintage), parked in (what we later realized was a really pricey) lot, and walked over to the store's location... only to find yet another empty building! Slightly disheartened and running short on time by this point, we decided to abandon our plans and just walk around the city to kill some time and hopefully stumble upon something interesting. And stumble we did!


Second Time Around thrift store; picture borrowed from yelp.com

With fifteen minutes left before needing to be back at the parking lot, we finally found a thrift store. Second Time Around, to be exact (the irony is just too much). We just browsed, since we had to keep it quick, but this is definitely a find! The selection is beyond amazing and the prices are decent (I hate consignment shops that take themselves too seriously and charge nothing less than $30 for crappy old clothes...) If we had no time limit, we definitely would have been there a while and gone home with a few pieces. There's always next time!


yummy gelato from Capogiro!

Another great find - Capogiro Gelato. One of my co-workers used to work there and always praises them, so when we happened to stumble upon it, there was no way I could just walk past without stopping in for a taste! And taste we did! Like any good gelato place, they let you sample as many flavors as you want, and they let you pick two different flavors for the small cups - I settled on Nutella and Banana Rhum, and my sister got Dark Chocolate and Lime Sorbetto. Both were delicious, and gelato was definitely a good choice over the coffeeshop we were originally going to seek out.

Even though the day did not go as planned (when do plans ever go right?), it was still a whole lot of fun and I got to spend it all with my sister. I appreciate times spent with my siblings more now than I ever did - funny how that works. And now we have a few ideas on where to go next time she visits!

Do you have any siblings? How close are you in age, and do you feel age makes a difference in your relationship with them? Tell us a story about growing up in your family! Or a story about a day that didn't go as planned.

R-E-S-P-E-C-T

I have been working in the service industry for as long as I can remember. I've served people coffee, waited on tables, made food behind the scenes, and I've even worked a little retail. I've seen the better ends of customer service, and some of the worse ends too. What I've learned over the years is that it's easy to teach an employee how to deal with customers in an appropriate matter, but some customers still need a little refresher course on how to handle themselves in public too. What I'd like to share with you today is my take on customer etiquette.

What customer etiquette boils down to is respect. As a customer, when you walk into an establishment you expect decent customer service. What is considered decent customer service? Attention to detail, knowledge of product, eagerness, and above all, respect. We strive to give you these things and all we ask of you, the customer, is a little respect in return. So today, I strive to teach all of us (because we're all customers somewhere) four places where we could all use a little improvement, or re-education, in customer etiquette. (These do refer more specifically to a coffeehouse or small food retail type of interaction, although I believe most of these points could be applied just about anywhere.)

1. Say hello. It's not difficult and it barely takes a second, but for some reason, plenty of people still forget this. I can't tell you how often a customer walks into the cafe and I greet them with a cheerful "Hello! How are you doing today?", expecting at least a smile in return, only to be run down with a hasty "I'll have _____, and I want it to go". On one occasion I even had a new customer question one of our regular customer as to why he greeted me with 'hello' - he asked him, "What, do you know her or something?" - of course the regular customer was puzzled and said "only by association", because he understands that when you walk into an establishment it is customary to greet the person(s) inside, regardless of whether or not you 'know' them.


2. Keep your cellphone conversation out of our interaction. Everyone has a cell phone these days, whether it be the newest iPhone or something much less fancy, there is no denying that we are all living in a wireless word. And yes, it's great that you can call your friends up while you're walking down the street and tell them all about the new coffee shop that just opened up, but please, don't have that conversation while I'm trying to interact with you. It's rude to me, and it's rude to the person you're on the phone with, and that's just too much disrespect all around, so while you're at the counter, please put your phone away.


3. Clean up after yourself. We try our hardest to make you feel at home while you're in the store, but please don't make yourself too comfortable. Remember to keep your feet off the seats, put your dirty dishes in the bus tub and your used napkins in the trashcan, and if you make a spill - let us know so we can clean it up immediately! We know you wouldn't appreciate walking into a dirty store, so we invite you to lend us a hand in keeping it clean so that we can focus on the rest. It only takes an extra few seconds of your time, and it really does make a difference.


4. For the love of man, leave a tip. While this does fall under etiquette, everyone knows it's also pending on the situation. I'm not saying you should tip the guy at Wawa who hands you a cup of pre-brewed coffee and doesn't say anything more than the price, but I do believe you should always leave a tip if there is a tip jar and a moderate amount of interaction occurs. You don't even need to leave much - just dropping your change in there makes a difference too! Who really wants 48 cents jiggling around in their pocket anyway? A tip is just rewarding someone for a good service rendered - so tell me, is 48 cents really too much to give someone for a smile, a hand-poured cup of coffee, and a little conversation? Hell, I'll even throw a little love in there for free.

We are all in this world together, so lets lend each other a hand. Thank you!

Ode to Left Overs

Oh leftovers.
How you sit in my fridge.
My belly is where you need to be in.

Oh leftovers how you mock me.
Sitting and staring.
SITTING AND STARING.

Perhaps I am lazy.
Perhaps I can't wait.

I am hungry now.

First the leftovers are cold.
So you have to heat them up!
Then the leftovers are too hot!
So you have to let them cool off...

Oh LEFT OVERS how I wish you could be LEFT in the fridge.
But if I leave you too long, mold will grow on you.
Which will decrease your eatability dramatically.

So I will eat you.
After I heat you and seat you.

Oh Left Over!
Now You are Left NOvers.

Shawn Hill presents : THUMBS UP! AMERICA

I want to give a thumbs up to several American Institutions today.

These companies have impressed me with their amazing patriotism and ability to inspire!

Thumbs up you guys! Great Friggin Job!

These companies offer a great service at an even greater price.

That's two things for one!! (which merits plenty of exclamation marks!!!!)

And like Mr. Joseph Foglia, my color blind high school chemistry teacher, I love a Two-Fer.

AND! There is no better Two-Fer than GREAT SERVICE at a GREAT PRICE!!

First off I would like to give a Thumbs UP! to TIME Magazine.

Product Description : GOOD, CLEAN, Infotainment. News, Facts, Figures, Opinions and Global Happenings delivered to your door step 56 times a year in an easy to read package.

AMAZING PRICE: $29.95 thats 53 CENTS an issue!

How can TIME offer a savings of $247.25 !!??!!

I'm pretty sure we only payed $19.95 for our subscription though....

I will have to confirm with Marine. I do remember being amazed at the fact it was only 20 bucks to get a subscription.

My second thumbs up goes to Ben and Jerry.

Yes, I do mean the creators of Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream. Not only do they offer delicious varieties of premium Ice Cream at a great price but they have also held true to their values.

I was unaware of their amazing efforts to maintain a small piece of common sense and humanity in Corporate America. My whole mindset was changed when I watched a BIO feature on Ben and Jerry. I suggest that you WATCH the DOCUMENTARY. You can find it available on NETFLIX. It is extremely informative and touching.

A bonus thumbs up goes to BIOGRAPHY for providing amazing information to Americans for years. !!

My Third and Final Thumbs up goes to Trader Joe's.

Another Company that has held on to Common Sense.

Thank you for offering a splendid variety of Vintage Sodas.

This Orange Cream particularly quenched my thirst these past few hot days.

Satisfaction for under a DOLLAR a bottle! Awesome.

THUMBS UP! ! ! !

(thumbs up logo comings soon)