Sunday, October 28, 2012

Papa Said

"You used to write a blog, not any more though". So with that, I bring you the miracle that is two blog posts in two days!

This one is about gym bags primarily. Many moons ago (I am talking like June here) my friend Abeni rolled up to our thai food dinner date. She was carrying her gym bag with her.

When I think of gym bag, I typically think of something along the lines of this:

*Naturally mine would be pink but there is a multitude of colors available.

But our conversation went a little bit like this - 
Me: That is a nice Longchamp you have (not unlike the covetous tone reserved for Granny when she says "My those are nice teeth you have!" "Only the better to eat you with my dear!" [Sorry, but I have been watching a lot of Once Upon a Time])!
Her: Thanks, it's my gym bag.

Girlfran rolled up with one of these as her gym bag:
*Imagine in black like Abeni's 

That, my friends, is some stylish gym gear. In her defense, someone I know may or may not have acquired the gym bag below, but in their defense, it is an equally as cute carry on for traveling!

* It also came with a cute hand written thank you card.... er, I heard.

In completely reverse news to the gym bag story, I made a brie en croute yesterday. For the non fancy pants inclined, that is a brie wrapped in dough and baked. It's kinda what you need to do when you have leftover brie and no pretzel slims to eat it with.


*Fresh out the oven. Notice my keen foiling abilities so as to not get extra stuff dirty.

*Gooey and buttery.

And in completely non related news, I have turned a $6.99 purchase at Bartells into a stroke of genius. I went there purely to use an almost expired chinook book coupon with my friend Joyce and randomly saw a leopard print under bed storage bin. Since mama does not let me store anything under the bed (you will have to ask her why), I figured this would be a perfect opportunity for some organization

*Assorted contents: reusable bags, ear plugs and protective eye wear (long story), umbrella, towel with a fishie on it).

I foolishly did not take a before picture of my trunk, but if you can imagine it was kind of chaotic. The towel was laid flat under a mess of bags strewn everywhere and the Fred Mayer bag and umbrella would shift on every sharp turn. Enter my leopard print storage box and...

*After!

Everything is corralled into one spot, nothing shifts, and it looks so clean back there. Plus, if I ever need to fill my trunk, I can just take the box out in one fell swoop! That, my peeps, is a good idea for under ten dolla!

I hope everyone is well, healthy, happy, and (sometimes) thrifty. Leave me comments of your latest best purchase for under ten dollars or latest culinary adventure!

Saturday, October 27, 2012

2012 Heart Walk Update

I have said it before and I will say it again: I know some pretty awesome people. The 2012 Puget Sound Heart and Stroke Walk went off without a hitch. The highlights (for me): NO Rain!, the dog tag LAP Team necklaces my generous and thoughtful Aunt Adri sent, freebies (including a soy sauce flavored chapstick that tastes way weirder than you think), no rain (did I mention no rain), congratulatory lunch at Skillet afterwards, and doing my Tata proud. And I would do it all over again in a heart beat.

Individually, I raised $725! Not bad, not bad.

As a team, the LAP Team pulled together $1670!

And the entire AHA event, raised, drumroll please...

$1,533,467 as of 3:25pm on Friday afternoon

That is a whole lot of fundraising and research and survivors. And every single penny you sent, well wish you gave, thought you offered, propelled us all to reaching the finish line and donating to such a good cause.

Costco, I might add, was the second highest raising company in the entire walk!

But there's more!

Donations are still being accepted! The Heart Walk would like to reach their goal of $1,600,000 and they cannot do it without us. Please consider donating if you feel like you missed your chance or if you know someone who would have liked to but did not. The deadline to receive donations towards my fundraising page is November 7th, 2012 (the day before my birthday! More importantly, it is National Healthy Eating Day! The fact that I was going to go to L&L Hawaiian BBQ that day is neither here nor there). Though, I should add, the AHA will always accept donations and never turn them away.

Consider donating if you can, but more importantly pat yourselves on the back for a job well done! You are all LIFESAVERS!

*I have no pictures from the actual day of the event - because I am a silly pants - so let's all bug Papa van Ingen to email the pictures he took that day, he got some good ones. In the meantime, please admire this necklace I just purchased on Etsy. It says Semper Fidelis, Always Failthful (or Loyal) in Latin - the moto of the US Marines.