If I knew anyone that had to wear ties to work, or perhaps if I knew anyone who wore ties in general, I would possibly buy this for them. It’s just too awesome. Design is small enough that you just can’t tell what it is unless you up close, and yet it still looks professional. Personally, I like the black and pink one – but of course that one is sold out.

Via Luxist

So not too long ago, ABC aired several installments of a “live” (for the East Coast, apparently nobody out there likes to stay up late, thanks guys) celebrity dance reality show called “Dancing with the Stars“. Everyone laughed – “HA HA! What a silly idea. Clearly someone is off their rocker.” Myself included.

Cut to a few episodes into the series and an approving opinion from my mother – I’m sitting infront of the television rooting for Kelly Monaco (of General Hospital) and Joey McIntyre (a man I loved so dearly when I was 10 years old), two of the stars that were competing in the show. Ok so it was nifty. A reality show no doubt, but people were learning how to dance. It’s not as easy as plugging your nose and diving face first into a bowl of worms.

Alright, perhaps that’s not that easy either. But it doesn’t take great skill or a lot of brain power.

Back to the show. Apparently the first round of dancing, Monaco and her partner did horribly. She was at the bottom on the score chart. However, two things started to happen. One, she listened to the judges and practiced harder, thus improving her posture, movement, etc. Two, she has a lot of fans backing her. They backed her so much they voted in… and boy did they vote. That was one of the key elements to this show. The judges would vote and take into consideration a percentage of votes from the national audience.

Now, Kelly wasn’t the only one standing out among the stars. Rachel Hunter was doing wonderfully, virtually neck and neck with John O’Hurley. O’Hurley, if you need any bells to be rung, played J Peterman on Seinfeld. Tall man, white hair, deep voice. That guy.

He danced great too. And if you weren’t voting for Monaco – you were voting for O’Hurley. Those are the two it came down to. The judges clearly loved O’Hurley and his dancing partner. They danced beautifully, he had charm and was clearly enjoying what he was doing. The judges, didn’t love Monaco at first but as she improved, they began to really admire what she was doing.

Anyway – to make a long story somewhat longer… The last dance was whatever they wanted to do – and in that dance, O’Hurley and his partner picked a “simple” dance, one they’d done before and had charmed the pants off everyone with. It was comfortable. Monaco and her partner decided to be daring. Monaco insisted her partner to throw her around as much as possible. She’s a small person, this was easy for her partner to do. But it still took hours of new practicing to nail every piece of the dance. In the end, Monaco and her partner won the contest.

Whoa you should have seen the ABC boards after this. Many, many people were upset. They claimed ABC had rigged the show, having their employee win the contest for more PR. My opinion was that she had earned it. You get thrown around and see if you can land how you’re supposed to. You get put down in front of millions of people about how you can’t dance worth a bean and see how it makes you feel. Will it empower you, or will it crush you? I think they both did great and frankly I was at odds who would actually win.

Well, all of this nonsense was behind us – or so we thought.

First, in a move that was completely stupid ABC decided to push a reaaally lame (see title of this post) plot onto the character that Monaco plays on General Hospital. She has to dance! Not only will she be putting her own dancing shoes on, the guy she has to dance with is a new character played by some guy who was on Australia’s version of the “Dancing with the Stars” show. While it’s nice to hear the voice and the guy is pretty cute – the story is still super lame – even hardcore fans are in an uproar over it.

And just when we thought it might be over soon…ABC pulls another one on us.

There will be a dance-off A DANCE OFF. ABC.. ABC.. why.. why must you milk this? Do you REALLY need this as your PR ploy? Just move on and have another season of the show.

This is where I rub my temples and request a stiff drink to end the day.

More: E! Online, San Francisco Chronicle, Washington Post

Felt sluggish and sickly this weekend. Ran a few errands and had dinner with friends, but overall my energy was completely zapped. The sore throat I had Friday night/Saturday morning resurfaced Sunday evening and by Monday morning I couldn’t get out of bed. Luckily, no fever.. but feeling crappy is never fun.

Saturday morning I got up early and headed into work to do a few hours of one of my many projects. I have a handful of them that I must finish before I go on vacation. Makes sense, yeah? Well, I worked as much as I could on that project (reviewing newspaper clippings, filling in a spreadsheet, measuring, and doing calculations on ad value and pr value of said clippings..) It’s not the most glamorous project, but it’s an important one, or so I’m told.

My co-worker, who came into work to keep me company (and Adam was there too, as he ended up getting lost in the world of Harry Potter instead of heading back to the apartment) told me her brother had offered her tickets to see Dave Matthews that night. She wasn’t planning on going and offered them to Adam and I. Of course I’m all for (free) tickets, specially to Dave and his opening act of… Black Eyed Peas. She made a few calls and left some voicemails. But by the time I went back home the sluggishness and crappy feeling had overcome me again, sore throat and all. I called her to let her know thanks but no thanks. I don’t know if the tickets would have been available anyway, but it was a nice thought.

Sunday morning I felt better so I decided to make fruit tarts.

They turned out to be quite yummy. However, next time I will double the amount of filling because as you can see, they didn’t fill the little tarty containers enough. I had been inspired to make these after having some that Shanta’s friend Pavitra made for Shanta’s bridal shower.

Around noon, Adam and I picked up Maya and after a quick bite to eat we spent about 2 and a half hours shopping at Target and looking at backpacks. Thank goodness REI and AnyMountain were across the street from each other. Selection was plentiful at REI, but helpers were not. We picked out a few we kindasorta liked. Then we ran across the street and checked out AnyMountain. They had a smaller selection, but Joel the AnyMountain Representative, helped us figure out what we needed and how the packs should fit. After trying on a few packs, pulling on various straps, and walking around the store carrying 30lbs.. Adam and I had found our packs. Unfortunately, Maya didn’t find a backpack here that would fit her properly, so we ran back to REI and found one there for her. Everything worked out in the end!

Here’s my pack!

Adam’s is the same, but blue. Aw, we’re complimentary colors.

Alright, it’s late.. my throat is still scratchy, but I gotta sleep so I can go into work tomorrow.

Here’s hoping this week flies by so I can finally go somewhere and take photos. We were supposed to go to the beach this weekend, but cancelled that due to my stupid throat/sluggishness.