What do the French know about beauty that we don't?

This woman had her face eaten off by her pet Labrador, then had an entire face transplant from a donor cadaver. I think she looks pretty good considering what she's been through. Maybe it's the scarf. That hint of color right by the face, a subtle draping of softness, the secret of french women for years. I think she looks better than a heck of a lot of American women who are still dealing with their own faces, or their Botoxed and lifted Face 2.0.

The photo is a bit "soft focused"...

Okay, WTF was going on with Blogger all holiday weekend? I was JUST able to post that 11/25 post this morning (Monday) after many attempts all weekend. Not that my random musing about Thanksgiving are so important, but the technology should work, dammit!

My pal Marty gave me a few good suggestions that proved futile, Blogger's "Help" was not, but then I started reading the help message boards and realized I was not alone. I'm glad they got whatever it was fixed and it looks like things are back to normal in the very not important world of personal blogs.

I start a huge hat project out of my house today, and we all know what that means. At least half a day of procrastination! It's only 10:30am and I've cleaned the entire kitchen, taken out all the trash in the house, done a bunch of business-y emails and worked on my blog. Nothing like real, paying work to get me to do all my non paying chores.

Update: Keelie did not take them to Roscoe's Chicken and Waffles at 2am. They had to settle for Jack in the Box drive-thru. A strong, strong woman.

Have survived Thanksgiving.

Had a very nice one this year. Once again went up to our good pals Sarah and Greg's little house in the 805. This was the 8th year in a row Sarah has been hosting, and I believe it is in the 4th location. The first year was in the trailer in a canyon with the hippie neighbors who lived in a yurt, then the tiny guest house on the edge of the cliff overlooking the ocean that was also her perfume company's headquarters at the time, one year in the apartment they lived in for a minute, and now the current condo they own. It has gone from a bunch of single college friends and pals to college friends who ended up marrying each other, their various friends who are now our various friends and whom we might even like as much or better than the original friends, and most recently, the spawn of some of these people, bring the guest list up to 35.

Over the years, the food has gotten better and better. By all accounts, this meal was the best so far. Cooking skills have been honed, we can actually afford to by all of the ingredients needed, and get the "good kind," be it the butter or organic vegetables. Everyone leaves with a big plate of leftovers, and a wish and promise that we all get together more often during the year. And sometimes we actually do. Ten of us went to Italy this year, and almost everyone went to Field Day at Bill and Jane's house over the summer.

Yesterday, Betty, Carolyn, Finn and new baby Claire came over for a few hours to hang out, see the new place and give Dana a few hours with his parents in Pasadena. It was a relaxing afternoon, but by the time everyone left, I was so tired from the past three days activities that I pretty much became a puddle on the couch for the rest of the night.

We had hosted Mike and Tom's 20th annual Foster's Night at our house on Wed. Dating back to high school, they drink those big cans of Foster's and hang out the night before Thanksgiving. Even when they lived in different cities, they did it over the phone. Steve has been a part of many of them, and we were happy to host. Not a party by any means, just a good excuse for 6 people to sit around and chat until 1am. At that point, with everyone ready to go, Mike and Tom start lobbying Mike's wife Keeley to take them to Roscoe's Chicken and Waffles on the way home. She tried to hold her ground, but my money says they did not settle for Del Taco drive thru. I still don't know how it ended, but it made me laugh so hard I cried. I would have given in after 10 minutes. She's had a lot of practice, though. But come on. It was the 20th anniversary, for pete's sake, and she'd finished all her cooking that afternoon. So what if they slept in until 10am?

Yesterday I had to meet my pal Angela at the Barnes and Noble. I was waiting outside, she was waiting inside...but that's another story.

While waiting outside on the sidewalk, I realized there was a small toddler standing in front of the main door. Right in front of the big swinging doors to the store. While it might seem very cute that he was "helping" open the doors for everyone, it was just an accident waiting to happen. People on the outside could see him, and would then have to slowly encourage him out of the way, so they could get the door open and go inside, but he was not really visible from the inside to the people exiting. And the store was busy. Late on a Sunday afternoon, with the Starbucks inside the store right by this door, during the holiday season in the bustling city of Glendale, this was not the greatest time and place for a toddler to be underfoot.

And who was supervising? Grandpa! And where was he? Sitting on a bench with the stroller 12 feet away. Yes, he was watching, but that kid would have have been knocked over in second when a group of teenagers barged through the door without looking, and Grandpa would have not been able to be off that bench fast enough to catch him. I kept giving Pops the hairy eyeball, but he just smiled and nodded. The I noticed that other mothers with kids in strollers would just cruise on by, and comment about how cute it was. Perhaps it is just a different culture. Glendale is predominately Armenian. I thought about being in Italy this summer, where children were doted upon. But I just don't think that behavior would have been tolerated, the blocking of the door of a high traffic store.

When mom finally exited, they all piled into a car parked in the Handicapped space right out front. No one was limping, BTW.

In the end, nothing actually happened to the kid, and perhaps I'm a shitty person for hoping that it would. Would the mom have let the kid do that? Probably not. Is time with grandpa important? Of course. As a society, should we be taking more time and realize the few moments it takes to interact with this child in front of the door make this world a better place? Yes, yes, yes. If the kid was just a few years older, and really was opening the door for people, would it have bothered me? Not in the least.

But I still wanted the kid to get smacked in the face by the door. I wanted Grandpa to get in trouble, and perhaps kid would learn valuable lesson about the mechanics of doors.

I am finally ready to admit my current guilty pleasure. That Manolo the Shoe Blog has also confessed to the world gives me the strength to come clean.

I love the Making the Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders show on CMT.

It is filling a void that Project Runway has left. I know what your thinking, they are totally different shows. But the DRAMA is the same. As on PR, I don't think they have to create fake situations for the girls. The process itself is enough. It isn't just dancing and cheering, which they all seem to be able to do. It's the details. Appearance, weight limits, football and Texas trivia, holding an intelligent conversation and then also doing it on camera (a struggle for some as you can imagine,) getting along with everyone else, table manners, etc. Watching these young women struggle with these challenges is like a train wreck. I can't look away! The show seems to focus more on the struggles of the Rookie Candidates, though I guess the Veterans can also get cut. Those girls seem to have their acts together though, so it's not quite as interesting. They know the dance steps, they don't says stupid things, and they look like they belong there already.

All of this drama just to become high class hootchies. I'm sure their are guys out there who jack off to photos of the Girls of the American Ballet Theater, but the DCC is less art and more eye candy, even though they seem to work just as hard as traditional dancers. Is their quest less noble or valid? None of them seem to be actual dancers, as when they needed to "sex" up the moves and move freely, I wanted the choreographer to say, "GIMMEE FOSSE! FOSSE!" but she didn't. At least not on camera. And they sure weren't. But when they had to do a boot camp challenge, they kicked ass in a way a ballerina could never have.

The Cowboy facilities are amazing and it is all state of the art. They must have quite a campus down there in Dallas, and I now fully understand that they must be the NY Yankees of football.

The price of gas is rocketing back up. $2.59 and rising.

Though the nausea has passed, the inside of the refrigerator is still my mortal enemy.

It might be the pleasant weather we've been enjoying, but I noticed this weekend many women just out and about wearing lovely tailored dresses. Not quite office wear, but truly the afternoon frock, with smart little flats. It was quite inspiring, and reminds me that I tend to get into a fashion rut when I'm working too much. I need to tackle that "switch over the seasonal closet" ASAP. I started weeks ago when the air got a little nippy for two seconds, and then just abandoned the whole pile in front of my closet and dresser. It's bad when Steve's side of the room is neater than mine.

A sub section of the Dress Set has been the Holly Hobbie Girls. I would have never thought this trend would come back, but this week I have seen no less that three different women in prairie inspired maxi dress ensembles. That very specific fashion moment from 1972, with the yoke blouse front and the 8" ruffle around the hem. They could have been extras on the Mac Davis Variety Show. Worn with boots and big purse slung over the shoulder, it is a look I would LOVE to wear, but like most fashions right now you have to be a stick. I would end up looking like Mama Cass or at least Gloria from All in the Family. It's the yoke.

I saw a three year old boy with his mom yesterday at Trader Joe's. He makes this fashion themed blog entry, because though it was November 9th, he was still rockin' his Halloween costume of a skeleton painted on a black sweatsuit, complete with Spiderman Head plastic bucket. Hilarious!

My friend Tara at ACME had the greatest Fall inspired outfit last night at rehearsal. An orange sweater knit T shirt, with a lovely orange glass pendant necklace, under a chunky knit mocha long sweater coat. Jeans and chunky shoes made it perfect. She used to model and I always admire how she always looks so put together for the season at hand. She had a couple of nautical looks over the summer that were just adorable. It never looks like she's trying too hard or over the top, it just makes you smile.

Random Notes...

We did get some trick or treaters on Halloween after all, but WAY less than last year at the old place. maybe around 25 or 30 tops. Our neighbor Ben said that was actually pretty good, as he had only gotten 2 the year before. I did end up tricking out the front steps with lights, decorations and the fog machine was cranking away, so it was about as inviting as it could be. There is still an entire bowl of candy hanging around. I smartly bought candy I don't like (the entire Reese's family) but Steve has made sure it doesn't go to waste. Our pal Jeremy was over for election night, and I think he should allow himself candy more often, as he truly fretted over consuming a couple packets of Skittles.

Still can't believe the Dems have taken both the House and the Senate. Webb has not quite won yet, but I'm really surprised that Allen has not demanded a recount or whatever. Really, if it's that close, you might as well.

The big news around these parts is that I'm pregnant. It has finally hit the just under 3 month mark, so we can tell people officially. The family knows, including Aunt Mimi (who reads this blog-thanks for the cute card!) and I'm sure I will want to write about it in the future, so the cat needs to be out of the bag. I don't plan on this becoming one of those "New Mommy!" blogs, you'll have to get that somewhere else, but I write about what's going on, and if what's going on is that I threw up in the sink and can't believe I need a two hour nap in the afternoon, so be it. I'm my own science project!

BTW, I'm still performing weekly- the ACME Scandal! show has just two more Fridays nights to go at 10pm, and I'm now performing with The Group on Wednesday nights at 8pm at Second City LA. My old pal Mike Hughes is in that show, along with Rubin Dario (who I also perform with at ACME) and a bunch of other talented, attractive folks. This show is directed by Dave Razowsky and I'm quite proud to have been asked to be a part of it. I'll be keeping up with the Second City show as long as it is comfortable for me to perform on stage. I'm not currently cast in the January run of Scandal!, but we'll see if I can come up with a character that can wear a mumu and waddle. The locale has not yet been set. Outer space? Country club? Diner?

It has been "wicked hot" here lately, unseasonably so. Halloween night was actually cold, jacket under your costume cold, and I almost got out the down comforter for the bed. This week it has literally been in the 90's every day. Election day it was 97 degrees here in downtown (we are downtown adjacent) and we have had to turn on the A/C for a bit every afternoon. It's usually very nice here in the fall, but by very nice I mean 78. Not holy crap July hot. Records are being set, and everyone is bitching about global warming. Not quite enough to pass Prop 87. For the record, gas prices are creeping up again after a nice 6 weeks of pre-election cheapness. And by cheap, I mean $2.39. I'm sure we will be up to $2.60 and beyond in no time. I don't REALLY mind paying that much, it's so much more in Europe blah blah blah we are a pampered society blah, but what gets me is that I know in my heart we are just getting gouged and it has nothing to do with the actual markets.

I cannot believe it, but the Dems actually made some progress yesterday. Some quick election night observations...I LOVE that Nancy Pelosi was wearing a purple suit last night. I haven't seen a female pol in anything but red, royal blue or navy in so long I wondered if Talbot's only made suits in those colors. I think the strategy behind it is that RED+BLUE=PURPLE, and the Democrats are at least giving lip service to the idea of non partisan politics, and purple can represent that. That the female democratic candidate from Missouri also had the same shade of purple on was not a coincidence. I'm sure what will really happen is Payback's a Bitch, so the next two years should be a very interesting one for Congress. Non partisan will go right out the window.

It was nice to see the Democrats get their act together for once. I heard Talking Points, I heard Staying on Message and clearly people actually got out and voted. Who is the new, Blue Karl Rove? I don't care, I'm just happy they finally got one and started playing the game.

The Fox news guy is SUPER CREEPY. And he could barely contain himself from sneering as the night went on. He immediately started barking about where were the changes the Democrats were promising, as if the election had not been over for only FOUR MINUTES. Which was the same bit Stephen Colbert had just done(!) except this guy wasn't doing a comedy bit, he was completely serious. I need to watch Fox News more often. That guy is a hoot. And I though Colbert only based his character on O'Reilly.