We shopped til they stopped us

In this age of credit card fraud and identity theft, it's a great thing when the credit companies recognize a big charge and put a freeze on your card until you call in with an authorization....just in case some lowlife is buying appliances on your dime. It's a safety thing so necessary in this society of ours, but it can stop a white-hot shopping day in its tracks. Joe and I started our Big Ticket shopping for the new house, just a few major things we need, and the credit card companies jammed on our brakes for us. Which is fine...it's an act of protection, not control. So we went off to lunch and then to the Benjamin Moore dealer to pick out dozens and dozens of paint color sample strips....which was *fun* and highly recommended if you're trying to figure out your wedding colors or future home decor colors!

So after we headed out of there (sped up in our color collection by wanting to get far away from some angry, bitter woman who was berating her parents for not knowing which shade of paint they wanted), we spread out the paint strips on my living room table and started selecting the colors for the rooms we'll paint in our house! We work well together, true partners with equal give-and-take, and we both love the colors we selected. I'm especially thrilled with the blue we chose for the home office....Joe has gorgeous ocean wave prints that are going to look amazing in there! The house is coming together little by little...I spent hours last night pricing hardwood floor materials and installation, learning about the realities of bamboo flooring which all the home decor shows say is the big, hot thing. Turns out, sunlight fades it, and cherrywood is prone to dents...who knew?

I'm having a rough time getting to work today...so much to do for the house, and since I started packing already, I can't seem to stop. ;) But this afternoon is for a succession of articles, and I'm gearing up for a knock-down over one of the injustices faced by all authors -- I may seem 'nice' and 'demure', but I will fight for fairness. So right now, I'm going to get on The Bean (which works like magic) and work out some of this aggression, then settle in to write about the new trends in coed bridal showers, followed by an article for a bigtime magazine where I've just gotten my first assignment -- a dream come true, so of course I'm taking extra care to keep this one within word count. I get 400 words for the assignment, and my draft is at about 850 words right now. So it's time to slice and dice the piece, carving out the statue in the slab of marble.

Before I go, check out the Sylvia Weinstock wedding favors at Godiva: www.godiva.com. And for inspiration on the Real Deal, cakes masterfully created by Sylvia Weinstock (who once offered to set me up with her nephew a long, long time ago!), visit: www.sylviaweinstock.com.