Au Revoir

The day that I have been waiting for is finally here. I'm leaving for London tonight!!!! I have my bags all packed and am praying that my suitcase is not over 50 lbs. Please keep your fingers crossed for me on that one as I don't know the meaning of packing light. Also please keep your fingers crossed that 6 bottles of beer do not break and leak through the 3 layers of bubble wrap, 1 layer of ziploc bags, and 1 layer of Target shopping bags that I wrapped them in. (Just to be extra safe, I also wrapped all of my clothes that are on the layer immediately next to the beers in grocery store shopping bags. You can never be too careful.)

Sadly, do to the amount of last-minute work that I got, I do not have time to do a favorite things post for today. I will resume blogging when I get back. I'm not sure how and if I will survive a whole week without Blogger, Twitter, or Facebook, so that should be an interesting experience. If you need to reach me during the week, you can try emailing me at whaleflipflops {@} gmail {.} com. I hope that everyone has a wonderful Labor Day weekend and a great week and I will talk to y'all when I get back. For anyone who signed up to receive postcards from me, I promise that I will do my best to send them out one of the days when I'm in London.

Au Revoir.

x's and o's,
MRM

giveaway winner

Thank you to everyone who gave me travel tips and entered my British Treats giveaway. I loved reading all of your tips and must visit sites for both cities. There can only be one winner, so congratulations go to:

MG at Magnolias and Mimosas!!!

Congrats lady. Email me your info and if you prefer loose tea or tea bags.

help pick out my boy's first Lilly

I like to tease TLS about how he is a closet Lilly fan. He makes fun of the prints and some of the guy clothes (though I have to admit, some of the men's stuff is a bit much) but likes my Lilly perfume and the stationary I send him letters on.

While I was shopping with Preppy Coastee, we found a store that had the Lilly juice and of course started to take pictures. I took a really funny one that he loves and said he wanted it framed. I am going to get him Baby's First Lilly in the form of a picture frame from the Preppy Princess. I don't know which pattern to get him, so I am asking for opinions here.

Which one of these four patterns just screams "manhood" to you?

discussion topic of the day- Wii games

TLS's birthday is on September 18th, so I am bringing his birthday present along with a lot of other presents to England with me. (After packing my suitcase, I realized that more of its contents were for him than for me. Hm.) Originally, I was going to keep his birthday present a surprise and just tease him with it, but I had to tell him because I got him a Wii and wanted his opinion on putting it in my suitcase vs. carrying it on, etc. Ever since I told him, he has been as giddy as a schoolgirl who just got winked at by a Jonas Brother. We have both spent a considerable amount of free time searching for Wii games online and he ordered some games, some cables for the Wii so that it can work in Europe, and a set of pink remote skins (for yours truly) and I am bringing those with me as well.

When I was younger, I never really got into video games and cared about them. (Being the cool kid that I was, the closest thing I ever got to a video game or console was having Tetris on my TI-83 calculator in high school.) However, I have to say that I am all about the Wii. I have played it a few times and it gets so addicting. I cannot seem to grasp the concept of standing still and just waving my arms around, so for tennis and ping pong, I actually run forward to get the ball, as if I am actually playing tennis, and this gets quite amusing for people to watch. (I did that at a sorority sister's house on Friday night, and she said she had more fun watching me play than actually playing herself.) Another thing that gets addicting is actually making the Wii Miis for the games. (No clue if I spelled that right.) The first hour or so of Friday night's Wiifest was spent with me trying out every single possible eye and hair color combination, twice, and asking such deeply thought provoking questions as "does this nose make my Mii's face look fat?" Take a moment to ponder that one folks.

Since TLS and I are still fairly new to the wonderful world of Wii ownership and mania, my discussion topic for this week is Wii games. Which ones do you love, hate, and can't live without? I have had my eye on Balloon Pop, but TLS didn't get it. Being that I, at times, have the mental capacity of a 5 year old child, especially when colorful objects are involved, I can pretty much picture myself standing at the Wii all day just popping balloons. And taking Coca-Cola breaks.

Gap is not Born to Fit

For as long as I can remember, I have always had a hard time finding jeans. I'm short and curvy, and jeans-wise, that's no fun to shop for. I have also never had much luck when it comes to shopping at the Gap. I will see a lot of cute things that I want, take like twenty things into the dressing room, and walk out with *maybe* one shirt. The fit on things just generally tends to be a bit awkward and unflattering. After several bloggers started raving about their new Born to Fit jeans, I decided to give them a chance. I walked into the dressing room with several pairs, and once again walked out disappointed. The fit was once again, as horrible as ever. I tried the Curvy jeans, which is what I normally go for in stores. These were not designed for women with actual curves, and I had to go up several sizes until it looked like I was swimming in the jeans. Needless to say I will not getting any jeans from the Gap and don't have any positive things to say about them.

While I was there, I did get to pick up two cute sweaters and these adorable ballet flats.

I got a book of ten coupons for 25% off one regularly-priced pair of jeans. Since I have no use for them, I am offering them to my blog readers. If you are interested in a coupon, leave a comment on here or email me at whaleflipflops {@} gmail {.} com.

a little stunned

I just found out last night that a sorority sister and dear friend has been diagnosed with breast cancer. She is really young, in her thirties. She was supposed to move to another country for work, but had to cancel that so that she could get chemo and on getting herself better. I would love to go to DC to be there with her for chemo, but it is on Wednesdays, and with me being so far away, I'm not sure if that can happen. I sent her a card and wanted to send her a care package to let her know that she's in my prayers, but I'm not sure what to send. If you were sick, or if you can speak from personal experience, what would you want to receive? She loves tea and hot cocoa, so I will definitely be bringing some things for her from England. I also found these great ginger candies for my mom when she was going through chemo, and she said they helped with the nausea, so I will be sending her some of that. Any other recommendations? I'm still way in shock about this.

Happy Fall everyone!

Today is officially the first day of fall. Ok, technically it may not be the official first day of fall, but it's the First Day of Pumpkin Spice Lattes at Starbucks, which is pretty darn close. Even though I have said numerous times that I get cold in anything below 73 degrees, I love fall. The colors, the foods, the clothes, all of it. Here is my list of the best and worst things about fall.

+Pumpkin Spice Lattes
-The end of the Treat Receipts at Starbucks
+Pumpkin Pie
+Cute Sweaters
-Weather getting too cold for flip flops
+Sorority Recruitment
-Sorority Recruitment (all of the advisors on here especially know what I'm talking about- nothing beats the sheer joy and rapture that is sitting in a room for 2 hours listening to 50 18-22 year olds argue oveer what shade of pink the recruitment shirts should be this year)
+Going apple picking
-I still have yet to get the zipper on my black North Face fixed
+Rosh Hashanah
-Yom Kippur
+Watching the beautiful foliage in upstate NY
-Getting dozens of emails from collegians saying "I paid dues for three years. Do I really have to pay for the fourth year too?" Yes. You do.
+Apple Cider
+The return of quality programming on tv
+School supplies even though I don't really need them
+Not feeling like I'm going to melt every time I leave the house
+Going to England in 3 days
-Missing Fashion's Night Out
-The End of Restaurant Week for those restaurants that keep it going through Labor Day

I'm sure there are more, but I can't think of them at the moment because I am too busy fantasizing about yet another Venti Pumpkin Spice Latte with Extra Whip. Nothing starts your day off right like a 10,000 calorie morning beverage.

So what are your favorite and least favorite things about fall?