Rebecca Skloot Lecture and Book Signing

If you remember, I wrote about the book The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks and what a fascinating read it was. Well, I was excited to hear that the author, Rebecca Skloot, was coming to USF to do a lecture on her book as well as a book signing.

Tuesday night, after I took a 4 hour nap due to my cold, a friend and I went to the USF ballroom and sat front row to hear Rebecca talk about her book. She was introducted by the university President, who was as excited to hear the author as we were.

Since about half of the room had not read her book (she asked a show of hands), she spent a good deal of time summarizing and reading out of the book to get every acquainted with Henrietta Lacks and HeLa cells.

She then spent 30 minutes answering questions from the audience and talking about her foundation, which she started to help Henrietta's extended family and of which proceeds of the book goes towards. People were also fascinated to hear that she used the only biology textbook in the 80s that published Henrietta's real name (most books called her Helen Lane to protect her identity) and that is how she first became fascinated with her story.

After the lecture, she did a book signing next door and I rushed to make sure I was near the front of the line. She was very sweet and personable and I got my first autographed book!

I was extremely impressed with the lecture and I have been recommending this book to everyone I've met since I first read it. If you have any interest in science non-fiction, the origin of cancer research and informed consent, or microbiology, you definitely need to check this book out!

Have you ever gone to a book signing?

Real People In Love Feature

Hey everyone, I am home on my day off battling a cold but I wanted to let you guys know that my husband and I have been featured in Adventures in Love and Happiness' series Real People In Love.

So head on over and read about our love story and thanks to Nicole for featuring us! :)

My Week in Pictures

BJ and I after the Groupon party

 My roses blooming

 At a party on Saturday night

Watching P&P from my bed

Courtesy of my Iphone

Changed Plans

So the film festival we were excited to go to? Didn't work out. Apparently, there was a flaw in Groupon's plan to allow the buyers to reserve tickets for shows and, in the end, any show we wanted to see were already sold out. Don't worry, I got a refund to use towards future Groupons, but it was disappointing all the same.

We didn't let that spoil our evening though, we went out to dinner at the Front Porch Grill and I had a delicious thin-crust pizza loaded with basil, olive oil, cheese, and tomatoes. Then, we went and had drinks at a new bar called Yard of Ale in South Tampa. It actually wasn't too crowded and the decor was very interesting (think Scottish castle).

Saturday, we spent the majority of the day at home, doing laundry and being lazy. That night, we went to a party where the birthday boy wanted it to be Twilight themed and provided faux vampire teeth for everyone to wear. I did not participate but I had fun drinking and hanging out with friends.

Sunday, the hubs and I woke up and realized we were sick. So, we spent another day at home doing nothing but laundry and laying around. What did I do to make myself feel better?

I watched all 5 hours of Pride and Prejudice, one of my favorite movies featuring one of my favorite actors (and the best Mr. Darcy). Best movie to watch sick in bed...ever.

This morning, I woke up at 5:15 and did my first morning workout with my Get Fit with Mel B video on the PS3. This morning's routine was more about the game seeing what level you are on and getting your info, but I have a feeling it will be fun. It didn't mess up my morning routine at all so I hope to stick with it.

How was your weekend?

Friday This & That

Hey guys, it's Friday! It's also payday for me, which is always exciting :) Sorry for the lack of makeup and fashion posts, I haven't had the money to spend on new makeup and clothes and I figured I might as well not tempt myself. We are slowly trying to pay the credit card off for our California trip, as I would like to not be in debt when we get there. Here are some other things going on:

• I used some basil from my new herb garden on Tuesday in my pasta dish I made for dinner and it was delicious. I can't wait to try everything!

•  The hubby and I are attending the Gasparilla Film Festival tonight and tomorrow, thanks to Groupon. We are going to see a movie called "Win Win" tonight and "Carbon Nation" tomorrow. We are lucky that we have a couple film festivals each year in this area because I like seeing new documentaries and indie movies.
• I have been speeding through books and I'm currently reading Let The Great World Spin by Colum McCann, which so far is pretty interesting. 

• I am going to attempt to start working out in the morning next week using my new Playstation workout video Get Fit with Mel B. I'll tell you how that goes :)

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

So Long, Cleopatra

I'm sure everyone heard about the passing of Elizabeth Taylor yesterday. It's so sad to see these old Hollywood icons go but she certainly left a legacy behind. Here are some pictures of the beautiful woman who captured the hearts of the world.

You will be missed, Elizabeth.

Bringing Home The Birkin

The Birkin... the most iconic bag in the world. Celebrities buy them like candy but for us less fortunate, the Birkin seems just a legend. We've heard rumors of year long waiting lists and some of them fetching $50,000, but we've never really known about them until now.

Bringing Home the Birkin is a book written by Michael Tonello, who traded his job as a makeup artist to the stars to sell something a little bit more lucrative... Hermes accessories, particularly Birkin bags. He talks about moving to Barcelona and discovering the allure of Hermes scarves. When he ends up making profits by selling them on Ebay, he starts upping the ante and looking into their bags. He heard about the waiting list and even put him name down, but decided one day to try out a "formula" and achieved buying a Birkin right on the spot.

He takes this formula all over Europe and South America, going to almost every Hermes store that existed, and snagging as many Birkin bags as he can to sell to his clients. He talks about the intricacies of making the salesperson think you have money to drop on merchandise and even making friends with them to be a regular customer. He also includes a handy glossary of Hermes terms that they use to describe types and colors of bags.

I thought this book was fascinating, considering my curiosity surrounding the infamous bag. I've heard it's hard to get one but he makes it look so easy. If you like fashion and are curious about Hermes and their luxury items, you should definitely check this book out.

And if you own a Birkin, don't tell me where you live or it might go missing :)

BOGO at Zoya

I'm a big fan of Zoya nail polish and this is one of the reasons why... they always have great deals! This week, for people who already have Zoya accounts, they are offering buy one, get one free on their 3 summer polish collections. The collections are:

 

If you don't have an account, you're outta luck, but if you really want to get in on this deal, leave a comment with your email and I'll order the colors you want with my account (I'm passing on this deal, I'm all polished out!). The polishes are originally $8 and they are offering $2 shipping.

What do you think of the summer collections?

Herb Gardening with the In-Laws

It was a beautiful weekend in Florida and with the in-laws in town, a perfect time to get our thumbs green :) My mother-in-law is a big gardener and she has a flourishing herb garden at their house in Panama City. After I dug up what was surely the most annoying bush in the backyard, I decided that the area under our kitchen bay window would be perfect for an herb garden.

Of course, we enlisted the help of the men to get us pointed in the right direction and they did a great job of clearing the way for our garden.

My mom, mother-in-law, and I headed to Lowe's to buy the supplies and came back two herbs short but with everything else we needed. I chose a plastic, faux stone edging and cypress mulch (my favorite) to decorate the garden with and we got some Miracle-Gro garden soil since the dirt in our backyard is clay and sand. By the end of Saturday, we had planted two basils, oregano, rosemary, mint, and parsley. We left enough room for the other herbs I want and for the plants to get larger (which most of them do).

The next day, the MIL and I had a great time eating lunch at Tijuana Flats, shopping at Ikea, and heading to Home Depot to buy the rest of our herbs and some more mulch. We were able to find cilantro and lavender to complete the garden and I even added a decorative pot in the middle with the flower to be determined.

 

Also, thanks to the in-laws, we got a new patio umbrella for our table since our old one bleached out and tore up in our sun and storms last summer. For only $25, we got an awesome umbrella at Ikea that is much larger than our old one and sure to be handy when it gets hot :)

 

 It was so great to spend that time with them and I can't wait to go visit them soon!

How was your weekend?

New Books

I have been quite the book buyer recently due to a lucky win and a Groupon. My local library held a drawing and I won a $25 gift card to Barnes and Noble. On top of that, I bought a Groupon to a local used bookstore and decided to get all my books on Wednesday. Here is was I got:

I've heard nothing but amazing things about this series so I wanted to grab the first book as soon as possible.

I saw this book on NPR and thought it sounded very Mr. and Mrs. Smith. How cool does a real like spy married couple sound?

The last of Oprah's Book Club selections, this book has received great reviews and I was able to find it for half off!

I own the first two books but decided I wasn't going to start reading the whole series until I owned them all. Now that I do, I better get to reading!

I'm not usually a John Grisham fan, but a woman at my book club gave this to me for free and many of the women said it was great and unlike his usual work.

Have you bought any new books recently?

Spring Goodies

I recently participated in a swap and I received my package yesterday from the lovely Amber of Amber Blue Bird. The obvious theme of this package was Spring and I loved every bit of it!

Included in the package was a scarf, 2 daisy seed packets, Revlon nail polish in Lilac Pastelle, Maybelline Shine Sensational lip gloss in Peach Sorbet, and a Spring mix cd with some awesome music on it. I can't wait to use everything and I'm already jamming out to the cd in my car!

As I mentioned earlier, my in-laws are coming to stay with us this weekend, but I also found out my mom will be staying tonight as well, so we will have a full house. Now I'm really glad I decided to make a second guest bedroom upstairs!

What are your plans for this weekend?