I know I'm no Eskimo

Today at work, a woman explained to me what an igloo is, as if I could never in my life have possibly have heard of such a thing before.

Quality control

I just finished walking through samples for our Fall '11 season with two of our Quality Assurance team members. I was looking for garments with potential social and environmental risks (hand embroidery or beading that could cause poor working conditions, ostrich feathers, etc.) while our QA team was looking for quality risks (difficult-to-achieve pleating, colored suede, etc.).

To me, I enjoy seeing the clothes that we will be producing, but it's also interesting to see how other people view the garments. Now I find myself examining today's outfit, looking for unfinished seams, poorly constructed button holes, etc. I suppose if I were in a QA job, I'd find it very difficult to buy clothes since all the imperfections would jump out at me!

Movie note: Fanboys

TWO STARS

This movie needed more Kristen Bell and more humor. Some nice cameos, though.

Movie note: The Secret Life of Bees

TWO STARS

The book and movie are equally dull. And for a movie with three recording artists-turned-"actresses," I expected more singing.

Snow parking zone

When I returned to Boston last week, I retrieved my car from the airport parking garage and made my way home. As expected, our building's parking lot was completely full and I had to search for a spot on the street to park. But since the Holiday Blizzard of 2010 had hit town, I realized there were fewer parking options than usual.

Instead, there were mountains of snow where cars used to be able to park and several vacant spots were coated with several inches of packed snow and ice. My little car is not exactly made for snow, and I am a thoroughly Californian driver, so I gingerly backed my car into a spot that seemed free.

Well, parallel parking in the snow is not a strength of mine, so I ended up leaving my car poking out into a driveway. Fortunately, it wasn't towed and i moved it to the parking lot the next morning.

But today, I realized that winter has just begun! And it's been so long since I drove to work that I didn't realize how mounds of snow had piled up on the sides of the route I take to work each day, rendering previous two-lane streets into 1.5-lane streets. So now, in addition to having to avoid the slick ice, I have to maneuver among Masshole drivers who honk at my grandma-inspired driving style.

And again, I was faced with fewer parking spots than usual this evening. Fortunately, I found a relatively close spot near my home, but the tires definitely started to slip as I backed her into the spot. This is going to be an interesting winter of commuting.

Movie note: Splice

ONE STAR

Talk about gender confusion!

Happy 2011!

I have just spent the tamest New Year's Eve of my life! No big parties, no cute outfits, no booze-a-palooza and no trannies! Instead, DJ Mother Nature and Jimmy Jam came over for a calm dinner and television celebration.

Since Puppy was working on Friday, it was up to me to do all the cooking! I have a feeling our guests were nervous since Puppy is the one blessed with culinary talents, but I think I did a pretty good job, thanks to recipes on the internets.

The good thing about our low-key NYE celebration is that yesterday was hangover-free! We were able to get food, do some shopping, get a workout in and have a normal, productive day. Not the most exciting way to start the year, but probably one of the healthier in recent memory. I wonder if that's a portent for 2011. Or my life.