My taste has improved as I get older?

It's hot outside and I've been craving a slurpee. I haven't had a slurpee in years but doesn't it sound good during the hot weather? I mean the sweetness mixed with cold iciness. Well yesterday I was walking and I saw the only 7-11 in Manhattan proper. Mmm, I can finally ease my slurpee craving. I debated for a few minutes whether I wanted all that sugar and then decided since I was walking a few miles I could treat myself to a small one. I got the pina colada flavor which I loved as a kid. The first sip I thought would be heaven. Instead, I was sick in the sweetness of it. While walking out the door of 7-11, I was already regretting my purchase. After a 1/3 of the slurpee (which I nursed for several blocks), I couldn't take it anymore and I chucked the rest in the garbage. I was so disappointed. I mean am I getting older to the point that my tastes have changed?

Sometimes the real thing isn't better.......

So I went shopping for food today after work. It's not a good idea to shop for food when you haven't eaten all day. Among my purchases was the limited edition Haagen-Daz German Chocolate Cake ice cream. It sounded really good in the store as it was a blend of "decadent chocolate ice cream with an irresistible mix of caramel, coconut, pecans and pieces of moist chocolate cake." However having had a couple of spoonfuls just now, I'm really not happy with it. I think it's just too rich for my tastes and from now on I'll stay with the Tasti D-Lite fat free, 10+ calorie version of the original.

Good way to end the day........

This is hysterical and made me laugh after what has been a very trying day. On my way home to my apartment, a car almost ran me over (it was pouring here). Not fun, but this is a good way to end my day (well the two glasses of red wine help a little I guess).



For you Superman afficianados, Brandon Routh makes a guest appearance.

Prayer for peace.......

I'm very worried about the situation overseas in Lebanon with the continued bombing by the Israelis against Hezbollah. I'm not going to take sides and say who is right and who is wrong, except to say that I hope with everything I have that the US does not take the Israeli side because this is not our war. Oh my god, Pat Buchanan and I agree on something. But more importantly, I make this prayer for peace as the fighting over there has created a humanitarian crisis.

As Rodney King once said, "Why can't we just get along?"

There can't be two me's (very important regarding identity theft)................

I wrote the other day that I'm stressed. Well my week unfortunately hasn't gotten better. I tried to use my bank's check card last night and it was declined. I know that I have more than enough in my account to cover what I was trying to purchase, so I called Commerce Bank. Well after being told there was fraud on the card and because it was afterhours, I called this morning. Imagine my shock when the customer service rep told me, that someone had tried to purchase $11 worth of shoes at Payless in Kansas. I'm nowhere near Kansas and I have never been to it.

So I go to Commerce Bank this morning and took the appropriate steps to stop whomever has my card from being able to use it again. David, who helped me rectify my account situation at the bank (and by the way was extremely nice and knowledgeable), told me some steps I can take to safeguard my account. I think everyone should know David's tips as identity theft is, sadly, becoming more common.

1. Always take money out from a bank's ATM. The banks all have the same carrier that services their ATM machines. If you go to a convenience store, delis or bodegas, the ATM's are not as safe. They don't have the same servicer as the banks. That's not to say those atms aren't safe, according to David, they are still safe 99% of the time.

2. If you're going to travel out of state, call your bank and let them know. The banks track your movement and so if they see a transaction out of the ordinary, a red flag goes up. Just to save yourself any stress, call them in advance. Also this helps to let them know where you are, because they'll be able to quickly spot any transactions out of the norm.

3. Call your bank to let them know your current phone numbers (home and work), if you move or change the numbers. Also do the same with your address. This was what I failed to do and I could've saved myself a lot of stress had I updated my profile with the bank. When I opened my bank account, I had a different phone number and a different job. My bank tried to call those numbers and didn't reach me. But the great thing about Commerce Bank was they immediately put up their fraud guards. It took me 22 days later, when I tried to use my bank card, to find out the fraud on my account. I can't say enough good things about Commerce Bank and the excellent job they did to secure my account at the first sign of fraud. Also there was zero liability on my part as far as the fraudulent transactions.

Hope this is helpful.

P.S. To the mofos out there who had my information, karma's a bitch.

P.P.S. Commerce Bank is along the East Coast. Look them up online. They are commerceonline.com. Seriously the greatest bank in the world.

Is there a cheater on Project Runway?

Is it cheating or an homage? This is all over the newspapers and blogs and I thought I'd share it too (if you haven't read it all ready). Anyone who knows me knows that I'm a huge Project Runway fanatic (yeah I'm that into PR). So last week Keith Michael won the first challenge with the navy bedsheet dress (which I loved). But is Keith copying from famous designers in real life? Take a look at the above image, Keith's drawing is on the left and compare that to the original from Lacoste's Spring 2006 line (which showed in September 2005). It looks like an exact copy to me. But check out all the pictures and the full story on Keith on omgblog.com.

P.S. It looks like Keith has spoken out about this controversy. I'm not really buying it.

Update: It looks like the links to the pictures won't work anymore, so just check out omgblog.

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!

I'm stressed out. I'm in the midst of what feels like 20 million things in my life. Have any of you ever felt stressed and not known what to do? A stress busting remedy of mine is to take a nice hot shower (yes it's hot outside but that's why we have air conditioning). Anyone want to share their cures for stress?