Paris and Switzerland

I love traveling, but it's always nice to get home to our own house and bed (especially our heavenly bed!!!).

Now for the recap of last month's Swiss/French trip:

Basel, Switzerland

Highlights: Rhine Swimming (Rick did this - I hate being cold, so I watched), sunbathing (with SPF 70, because I'm not a skin cancer fan), National Swiss Day fireworks over the Rhine, and seeing friends!

Lowlight: I was still coughing ALL the time, thanks to the nasty bug that I caught earlier in the week. BOO.

Paris, France

Highlights: Smooching my man over champagne at the top of the Eiffel Tower, seeing the Eiffel light show at night, seeing the Catacombs, walking through Notre Dame (again), climbing the tower at the Sacre Coeur, BEING IN EFFING PARIS with my lovey.

Lowlights: I have found Parisians to be nice people for the most part (just a little smelly), but Rick and I found out on this trip that their homeless population is made up of 90% @ssholes. One homeless guy reeled through the line of tourists at the Catacombs, bumping into people hard, and then went on to spit on and kick a teenage kid who was just sitting and minding his own business. Another homeless guy actually HIT a lady on the arm while she walked by! It was just while we were walking by, too, prompting Rick to comment on the future state of any homeless person who did that to me (rhymes with "head).

Chateau Versailles

Highlights: It's Versailles, so..... EVERYTHING was a highlight, even though I'd just been there a month ago.

Lowlights: I would say that the rain was a lowlight, but we had our umbrellas with us, and it's EFFING VERSAILLES, so there were officially no Lowlights.

Beauty Alert!!

Okay, this is pretty exciting: I just got my first Blog Swag!!!

To start at the beginning:

Since I had been in my house for so long with bunion surgery, I thought it was the perfect time to grow out my overplucked brows. Since I was starting to get out in public more and more, I decided that it was the perfect time to visit Stacya Silverman to get my brows done. She not only gave me lower-maintenance brows, but told me just where to pluck them to keep them looking thicker and natural. Check out my amazing After photo. Well, I don't look so awesome, but my brows do...

I was trying to get Paris into the photo so that she would distract people from my house-wear and funky hair.

Yaaay! Stacya was so quick and pleasant to talk to. She also has an awesome dog who was in her office. He was like a giant version of my dog, Paris:

Paris enjoys collecting squeaker toys

Awwww, isn't she so cute???? Stacya's dog is just as cute and sweet, but eight-times bigger than Paris. Or twenty times bigger, when you count his thick fur.

Anyway, I mentioned my humble little blog to Stacya and told her it was about pretty things (and ugly bunion surgery), and gave me some of these pretty things:

image from the Beauty Alert online store

They are called Beauty Alert!® and they are sets of stickers that help you to keep track of the "age" of your makeup and skin care products. You probably know that your cosmetics have a limited shelf life due to bacteria buildup, and products like sunscreen decrease in effectivity over time. Savvy users will keep track of this. I am ashamed to say that I never have kept great track, and I used to just change out my mascara out every month so I wouldn't lose track of how old they were.

Stacya and her friend Alissa heard about women sticking ugly pieces of tape on their beautiful cosmetics to record the date of their opening. While they knew this was a good idea for the sake of having clean and effective beauty products, they were appalled at the idea of marring their beauty products with pieces of tape. As they say, necessity is the mother of invention, and the pair created Beauty Alert! labels. They are a pretty way of knowing the birthdate of your products.

Since I have had to become more budget-conscious lately, I can't replace my Mary Kay mascara every month, and I am not sure of the birth date of my current tube of mascara. I think that tomorrow I'll start a new tube, and I am sure you know what I'll be using to keep track of its age this time!

Checkup Week 6

I went to the dr on Thursday for my 6 week check. I had fallen last week and had a bump and an especially sore spot on the foot that I fell on. I mentioned this, so they x-rayed that foot and everything is fine! Yay!

6 week pictures **GROSS PICTURE WARNING**

I thought that was just dry skin at the base of my big toe in the next pic. Upon pulling it, I found out that it is part of the incision. Ow.

I know, gross. Here is a palate-cleanser:

I can stand easier than walk. But doing either for longer than a few minutes starts to hurt.

Here is a breakdown of activities, Easy and Not Easy, six weeks after my surgery:

Writing a blog: Easy

Walking: Not Easy

Standing to boil wax out of the candle glasses: Easy

Getting the wick out of the bottom of a Voluspa candle without breaking the glass in half:

Not Easy

Rats.

List of things I miss doing when I can't walk

1. Jumping.

For those of you who think jumping is not that great, please refer to the close-up of me in the picture below:

Yeah. That's pure joy.

2. Hiking. In this picture, it was Paris (the dog) who was gimpy from knee surgery, so I carried her on our hike.

3. Putting on evening gowns, going to bars with friends, and telling people in said bars that I just won the Miss Washington pageant. And having the more gullible ones believe me.

4. Stealing napkin dispensers from a restaurant because the self-important, 19 year-old manager got lippy with me and John Riley.

Yeah, your FACE is unsanitary, beeeyatch!!! And I stole all your napkins!

5. Standing around with draft horses.

Shut up. It's a lot more fun than it looks.

6. Riding mules.

Oh, hold up - I could totally do that right now!

If you need to reach me today, you know where I'll be...

...that's right, Party People! On a mother effin' mule!

Anyway, before I go take my mule ride I will finish this list:

7. Riding (stationary) snowmobiles with Alli.

8. Being a humanitarian- fighting for people's political rights, etc.

9. Sitting with my feet IN the hot tub.

10. Waving my hands in the air like I just don't care.

I wasn't necessarily doing that in this picture.

Oops, just kidding. I totally was.