Life Changing...Or So Oprah Tells Me!

On Sunday, I finally took back control of the tv!  We had been on a non-stop NCAA basketball tournament rotation and no joke, my head was about to explode.  Let's be clear, I am a HUGE sports fan and I love the tournament, however, I am also a huge fan of a ton of other things on tv as well and we have a DVR to record all of the games.  However, the Guy was having none of it!  He wanted to watch every single game (on all four channels LIVE!).  Thankfully the only thing he loves more than basketball is a trip to REI with some of his friends.  So that is how I found myself alone with the Dog and more importantly, the tv on Sunday. 

For more probably the first time in years, I found myself actually surfing the channels (due to the tournament, most of my regularly scheduled DVR shows were in re-runs and therefore I had nothing to watch!).  Oddly enough, I stumbled across the Oprah Winfrey Network and became enthralled in Season 25: Oprah Behind the Scenes.  The first one I caught was the behind the scenes look on the favorite things show.  I am not going into what the favorite things show is, because Oprah Executive Producer Sheri Salata put it "if you don't know about favorite things, you have been living under a rock."

So, the Oprah team is getting ready for the last favorite things show, ever and Oprah decides that this year there should be TWO favorite things episode AND gosh dang it, she wants the Jay-Z autobiography, Decoded, in (two days before the taping) and her beloved, life changing iPad has to be in the show.  Jay-Z personally gets Oprah her books, but the folks at Apple DECLINE the offer.  DECLINE.  Because really, no other brand is more famous or popular than the Apple brand, yes Oprah, they have you beat.  No joke, Oprah is heartbroken and even contemplates buying the 300 iPads for the show, but ultimately she decides that it won't be fair to the other companies who generously donated their items for the show. 

All along I was thinking to myself, "seriously Oprah, you have Jay-Z on speed dial, but you can't get Steve Jobs on the phone?"  Well it seems that someone at Harpo DID have Steve Jobs on speed-dial, because two days before they were scheduled to shoot the episode the gods at Apple decided to comply with Queen Oprah and sent the iPads!  International incident averted.

Well, Oprah, I am eager to find out if you were correct in your numerous statements about the iPad, the biggest being that the iPad is the best invention the 21st century (or the past 11 years!).  I will let you know.  But not until tomorrow, because I have to get mine home and all fired up (and then decide on what data plan to get!).

Welcome to the D.C. family, little iPad!

Book Review: A Discovery of Witches

Last week the Guy and I had a fight, over a book!  For those of you who do not know me, don't ever get between me and a book (or my kindle, or the kindle for iphone app) it can get nasty, quick.  In the simplest of terms, I was the girl in school who actually got in trouble for reading IN HONORS ENGLISH.  To be fair, I was reading under my desk while my wonderful teacher was actually trying to teach a lesson, but yeh, that was me.  If there is anyone to blame, I lay it solely at the feet of my Librarian Mother.  Who claims her greatest fear in becoming a parent was that I, her only child, wouldn't like to read.  Have no fear Librarian Mom, because I love to read.  (The Guy now is used to my near murderous behavior when he tries to get in between me and a good book.  He truly is a gem!)

Anyways, this brings me to the above mentioned book A Discovery of Witches which was hands down one of the ten best books I have ever read, yes, EVER READ.  Deborah Harkness is a girl after my own heart. To begin with, this is her first fiction book (wow!), she has a degree from UC Davis (Go Mustangs! or Aggies!), and she is a historian by training. 

Now since this is my first book review, I just going with the flow, so I won't give to much away but Diana Bishop is a witch.  A witch who doesn't want to be a witch and flatly refuses to acknowledge her ancestry until one fateful day, she encounters the dynamic, gorgeous (or so he is in my head) vampire, Matthew Clairmont.  One of my favorite things about this book is the first half takes place at Oxford University and the gorgeous Bodleian Library.  As one can begin to imagine fate has brought Diana and Matthew together to solve a mystery involving the origins of witches, vampires, and daemons.  Perhaps one of the reasons that I was drawn into this great story was how Deborah Harkness acknowledged but did not linger on the fact that witches, vampires, and daemons, live and interact with humans (they just don't like the bring attention to themselves). 

Be prepared, this is a lengthy read.  One of the fun things about reading a book off of a Kindle is tells you how much you have read in percentages.  This is clutch for a crazy reader like me who sometimes stops reading because I know I have only 5% left.  Again, feel free to call me crazy.  However, because this book is pretty hefty, I was almost reassured by the countdown, because there was still so much to read (I want to emphasize it like this: reeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaddddddddddd).

In closing, since summertime is coming around the corner and hopefully all of you have some fun getaway vacations planned (the Guy and I are locked into a seven wedding rotation this summer...), I would highly recommend picking up A Discovery of Witches.  Let me know what you think when you are done.

OMG--FYI, Deborah Harkness has announced that this will be a three book series, book #2 slated for release in 2012.  So on second thought, perhaps you should wait and ask for this book for Christmas, so the time between book #1 and book #2 isn't so great.  Just a thought.

Enjoy.

MINT Spa Club

I was thrilled to finally find sometime in my schedule, Friday, to use my SpaFinder gift certificates (a wonderful gift from the Guy), and get some quality R&R in.  Since we are in the first days of spring and summer is somewhere around the corner, I thought my face could use a little pampering (scuff off the winter and welcome the bright, sunny spring). 

Finding a salon was easy, I had been eyeing MINT ever since we started taking the Dog to Planet Pet on California/Florida/17th and I was thrilled that they accepted SpaFinder gift certificates, so I booked myself the MINT Advanced Firming Facial (yes, a ridiculous 80 min service!!).
What I Loved:
- my Esthetician: she was delightful, funny, and didn't push product on me!
- the products.  Mint exclusively uses Alchimie Forever , all natural, Switzerland created.  Not only did the products not irritate my skin, they smelled amazing. (Next paycheck, I will be picking up their Exfoliating Facial Scrub!!)

What I Liked:
- the location and facilities.  I unfortunately did not take advantage of a pre/post-spa workout, but really enjoyed the space and the great light

What I Would Improve:
- pricing.  My 80 min facial was amazing, but I am not sure it was worth the hefty $150 price tag.  And there is absolutely no way I could in good conscious work this pampering into my budget (not even twice a year!).

Would I Recommend and Come Back Again?
YES

There you have it!  I did discover on my exit that MINT offers a special 30 min massage or facial for $49 every Tuesday.  Now, perhaps that is something, I can work into my budget.

Zengo Happy Hour, Who Knew?

Last night a girlfriend and I met up in Chinatown for happy hour.  As soon as I hit Metro Center and jumped on a red line train to Gallery Place-Chinatown, I realized there was a Caps hockey game.  Crap.  We had planned to meet at Clyde's, but I quickly changed things up and suggested Zengo (who's happy hour menu I happened to walk past as I was exiting the metro). 

Needless to say, I was impressed.  Timing was key, we were able to grab seats at the bar (20 mins later it was packed) and settle into some fresh margaritas, pan roasted endamame (delicious), fish tacos, and calamari salad.  If we had just stuck to one margarita each our bill would have been low, but alas, one margarita is never enough.  Can I get an amen?

In the eight years I have lived here, I have seen the happy hour scene ebb and flow.  Finding some amazing deals, ala Ella's back in the early years, to establishments thinking $10 glasses of wine is a deal.  Perhaps with Zengo we are finally seeing the realistic, fun, affordable happy hour return to D.C.

March 4th-6th: Weekend Run Down

It was a busy, D.C. weekend and although I traveled to the great state of Maryland for a quick trip to IKEA and to test out a new Mexican joint, for the better part of the weekend, I kept close to home!

Friday
In preparation for our Friday night of fun, we dropped the Dog off at Planet Pet for an overnight visit with some of his closest four-legged friends (and a mini-vacay from 7am morning walk duty).  We had tickets to the Kennendy Center to see the Washington National Opera's production of Madama Butterfly (Note to self: always take advantage of the ability to pre-order your cocktails for intermission)

Saturday
After a quick run on the National Mall (the Cherry Blossom 10-miler is literally right around the corner), I grabbed a vanilla latte from Peregrine Espresso, and rushed home to get a few chores done before heading out to VSL in Dupont Circle for a desperately needed cut/color.

Home again. Immediately started prepping for an experimental dinner that thankfully our good friends had unknowingly agreed to.  The menu:

Bread with roasted garlic (the recipe calls for rosemary, but I have never used it---)
Tomato Soup
Artichokes with lemon/caper/greek yogurt dipping sauce
Grilled chicken with a green olive chimichurri sauce
Warm chocolate cake
*the tomato soup, artichokes, and chicken recipe can all be found in this month's Clean Eating Magazine and are unfortunately not available via a handy-dandy link...booo!)

The Guy was in charge of the wine selections, not sure what we started with, but we ended with my new favortie Trader Joe's label Pinot Noir!

Sunday

Once we bailed the Dog out of puppy jail (I always have immense guilt about boarding him...) we surveyed the cold, rainy weather and made a drive to Maryland to get some design inspiration from IKEA.  Which of course led to the Guy doing some research on YELP! trying to find a Mexican food joint.  We wrapped up our trip across state lines with $20 worth of tomatoes from Safeway and headed back to the District.

Sunday came to a close with me (the Girl) with making another batch of the amazing tomato soup we had on Saturday and grubbing on healthy tuna paninis (again, from Clean Eating Magazine).  I finally crawled into bed and got in a good 30 mins of reading.  Finding myself addicted to John Sandford's Rules of Prey,  the first in an incredibly lengthy series about Lieutenant Lucas Davenport.

Sleep.