Rachel Callahan

Announcements, Meet-Up Info, And Useless Information in General

July 7, 2009 Rachel Callahan Giveaways and Contests, Newsflash

First off – If you hadn’t noticed, I decided to have a spur-of-the-moment giveaway-fest. Of course, the timing was over a long holiday weekend, so there aren’t nearly as many entries as usual, which means that if you haven’t entered, you need to get right over and enter, because your chances of winning are good!!! There are 11 prizes up for grabs, for a total value of $235!!!

Here are the giveaways:

These giveaways are open to anyone and everyone, so get on over and enter!!

Secondly, I have scheduled another Alabama Bloggers meet-up scheduled for THIS FRIDAY, July 10th!! It’s at Jim N Nicks in Homewood (Oxmoor Road) at 11:30am. There are already 25 people RSVP’ed, and I have the whole back room reserved for our party!

At the last meet-up, we had an AMAZING time!! It was so much fun, and quite hilarious. There were 18 people that came, but do you know what? I think there was only one, maybe two people that were my blog readers that came. I knew almost NO ONE!!

I managed to not completely melt through the floor from social awkwardness due to being at a table with 18 strangers, but this time that’s not going to happen!! Because You’re coming, right???

I want you all to plan on being there – got it? Comment on this post and let me know if you can make it – I’m trying to keep up with a head count this time so that we’re not so smooshed around the table.

Thirdly, I thought you might want to see the final blog design of the winner of the Reader Appreciation Giveaway. I must say – this was a really FUN one to do – how often do you get to do a quirky Chemistry design for a blog? Anyway, click on over to Laura’s blog and check it out!!

I also did a redesign for my long-time friend Ann Marie at Le Blog De Ree, if you want to check that one out too. Ann Marie is a designer to the core, so I figured it would be super hard to please her. But I must say, it was the easiest blog design ever!! Maybe it’s because I’ve known her since High School…or maybe she was just being nice.

Okay – so that’s the news!! To summarize, your orders are:
1. Enter all of the contests listed above.
2. COME TO THE MEET-UP ON FRIDAY!! I don’t CARE if you live in England or Washington or Florida or Ohio or North Carolina or WHEREVER – be there!!

Just Call Me Sherlock of Perfume.

July 7, 2009 Rachel Callahan Quirky quirky quirkiness, The Magical Perfume, Weird Strange and True

So, Ali and I went to the mall today. We had to pick up a few things and do a bit of “Girly” shopping.

(As opposed to simply hanging out at the Mall with Daddy on Friday. I prefer to shop alone. Or at least with only a two year old companion.)

On a whim, I decided to work up my courage and actually APPROACH a perfume clerk. I told myself, “She’ll be nice. . .she’ll be glad to help you. She won’t scoff your request for cranberry perfume.”

But she wasn’t nice. She barely paid attention to me, and stopped talking to me mid-sentence when her boss came by so that she could tell her that she needed her vacation time straightened out.

Yeah, professional.

However, she did say, rather boredly in an I-Know-You’re-Not-About-To-Make-A-Purchase-From-Me sort of way, “It’s probably one of the more summer scents – they tend to be more fruity. Try this, this and this.”

Surprisingly enough, two of the three that she pointed out had NOT, in fact, been smelled on our previous hunts, and they actually smelled pretty close to what Chris had described. So I spritzed them on cards and one on each wrist.

And I started to get excited.

Had I found the Holy Grail of perfume??

The ironic part, however, was the brand. The two possibilities were the same brand, and they were not exactly a company that I had a lot in common with. In fact, I actually made fun of them in Saturday’s post, completely unrelated to perfume.

Yeah. Juicy Couture.

Nice.

And, of course, since Ali’s been drug around on all of these perfume hunts and she’s starting to take interest in “smelling fings”, she wanted to have some on her also. So I stood as far back as I possibly could from her and sprayed mostly-the-air-in-between-she-and-I with Juicy Couture perfume.

She has smelled her wrist all day long.

I know. I’m a horrible Mom.

However, when we got home tonight, I proudly presented my wrists and the corresponding cards to my sweet husband.

He inhaled.

He thought.

He smiled.

He got this far off look in his eye.

He smiled again.

He said, “That’s so weird. My heart rate has definitely increased.”

And, although he’s not giving it a 100% yes-that-is-definitely-the-IT-perfume, he is saying that it is as close as we’ve ever come, and it definitely has “The Magical Scent” that we’ve been searching for.

So I may be making a midnight run to Sephora for Viva La Juicy tonight.

I know. The bottle is about as classy as a 90’s back-windshield air freshener.

I can only hope that it doesn’t come in a gift set with a matching pair of horrendous “Juicy” shorts.

However, ever since I spritzed her with magical scent, Ali has unfortunately bought in – hook, line and sinker :

Funny. “Juicy” is much more appropriate on a diaper than on shorts.

Birmingham Menus New Website Launch and Giveaway!!!

July 6, 2009 Rachel Callahan Giveaways and Contests

I have been buying gift certificates from Birmingham Menus for a couple of years now – it is an organization that sells gift certificates for the independently owned restaurants in Birmingham (which happen to include all of my FAVORITE restaurants in Birmingham!!).

They have these great quarterly discount gift certificate sales where you can buy a $20 GC for only $12, a $25 GC for only $15, and a $50 GC for only $33. This is an AWESOME deal if you already go to these restaurants like we do! We stock up on them and save tons of money.

For instance, just last week I bought $230 worth of discount gift certificates for only $138 – that’s 40% off! And they are ALL places that we will go anyway, but by buying in advance through Birmingham Menus, we will save nearly $100!

They also offer an awesome gift idea: Group Gift Certificates. These certificates are good for any of 32 different independently owned restaurants in Birmingham, so you can’t go wrong by getting someone a certificate that is good at 32 of the best restaurants in town!

They just launched a brand new website that has great features and is really easy to maneuver – go check it out!! They are also now on Twitter, and are doing periodic Twitter giveaways – this week they gave away a $200 gift certificate!!!! So you definitely want to follow them for some awesome chances to win.

However, in the meantime, I have two $25 gift certificates to give away!!!

Here’s how to enter: Go to their website and then come back here and comment which of the restaurants listed is your favorite.

You can earn extra entries by:
1. Being a subscriber or a follower of this blog
2. Following me on Twitter
3. Following Birmingham Menus on Twitter
4. Tweeting about this giveaway

This contest is open until Monday, July 20th. The two winners will be announced on Tuesday, July 21st.

p.s. – I am giving away two MORE $25 gift certificates at Alabama Bloggers – you can enter there as well!

How To Spend a Non-Holiday Holiday.

July 4, 2009 Rachel Callahan A Day in the Life, I embarrass myself just for your amusement., The Blissfulness of Life, The Magical Perfume

Being that Independence Day is on Saturday, us, along with most of the rest of the (lucky) world also had Friday as a holiday. Which is the best sort of holiday: a holiday with absolutely no strings, plans, or anything else attached.

So we started out by going back to Spring Valley Beach, and took along our friend Amanda. This time, instead of lambasting Ali with sensory overload and trying to make her experience all that they had to offer, we just sat up our chairs next to the shallow side of the pool and started out by basically “ignoring” her, letting her decide exactly when and how she would enjoy the water.

And I must say, that worked AMAZINGLY better. We had a completely happy, albeit not watersliding, toddler then entire time.

She started out playing with her cups, but instead of only being brave enough to do that like last time, she taught herself (and Chris) a new game that she explained to us was “fishing”:

(which gave me this awesome visual image that she must have every time her Uncle Leo or some other burly man says they’re going fishing: she envisions them, floaties safely in place, creeping along the floor of a shallow kiddie pool. I love how toddlers think.)

We were lucky enough to get a “neighbor” by our pool chairs, Starlet:

Or, at least that’s what her butt announced:

If you’re going to have writing on your butt (which, in general, I REALLY don’t recommend), at least be able to live up to it.

Which means, of course, that people with “juicy” on their butts are, in fact, allowed to have a bit more of a, well, chunkier rear to live up to the term (which always makes me giggle, by the way. You never see a skinny-butted girl wearing a pair of “Juicy” shorts).

But Starlet? You really need to look good to advertise that on your derriere.

Anyway.

That evening, we sat out to the mall to do a bit of shopping and continue our great magical perfume hunt. My wonderful friend and consultant-of-all-things-cosmetic, Barkley, used our new lead from last week and made us a list of perfumes to sniff out.

So we set out to Sephora, list in hand, and started smelling. And, every time that Chris found one that “might” be it, he chose a limb and sprayed me. Then marked it down on our legend-of-odors-on-Rachel’s-body.

So by the time we left Sephora, I was sporting FOUR different scents, properly notated as to where they were for future reference. My eyes were watering, my nose was stuffing. . .
But it’s all in the name of research.

(Sadly, none of them have been officially recognized as “it”. However, Right Leg is currently the front runner.)

We of course had to make a stop at the Hot Dog truck for Ali, and while doing so, AJ’s Grandparents walked up and we stood and talked for a bit. About halfway through the conversation, I remembered my extremely odorous presence, and quickly explained and apologized of my Pigpen-from-Charlie-Brown-like aura of perfume. They SAID they hadn’t noticed, but I’m thinking they were most likely being very nice.

I also had to explain to them why we were taking this picture when they were walking up:

(I’m sure after all of these awkward explanations of my strange behaviors, they walked away thinking I must be one of those “quirky” friends.)

But, let me explain.

We’ve started a new hobby when we go to the Galleria. See, they have these car-stroller-thingies that you can pay $5 to rent. Of course, I’m way too cheap to ever rent Ali a car. However, people abandon these cars at mall exits (as opposed to returning them to the locking docking stations). So we have started “adopting” these abandoned cars.

And, on top of that, you get $1 deposit back if you return it to a docking station.

So, not only is Ali getting to ride a car for free, we’re getting PAID to let her ride in them.

So, this mall trip, we REALLY got lucky, and found THREE abandoned cars (previous picture was me with car #2 and #3).

Yup, we made three bucks.

We’re easily entertained.

Oh – and as I’m writing this post, it’s past midnight, and I am STILL being knocked over by my horribly mish-mashed perfumery presence.

I REALLY stink.

Historical Photos of University of Alabama Football

July 3, 2009 Rachel Callahan Giveaways and Contests

One of my favorite companies, Turner Publishing, has sent me another awesome book to share with you!!!

This is one that my husband is ESPECIALLY excited about, and, I would guess, maybe a little over half of you will be as well!!!

“Historic Photos of University of Alabama Football” was just released LAST WEEK, and they sent me a copy to give away to you!

This book weaves an amazing story. The pictures start in 1892, each with it’s own short story. And as you flip through the book, you literally feel as if you are stepping through time. The stories are fascinating and the pictures are spellbinding. And, of course, Bear Bryant can be seen from the 1930’s and 40’s when he was a player, through to the 80’s in his last coaching days.

Here is a video of some of the pages in the book:

Also, there will be an amazing launch party at the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame on July 14th at 5:30 pm that is free and open to the public! I will be attending and covering the event on Alabama Bloggers, and I definitely encourage you to come as well – it is sure to be an awesome event!

The author and Alabama Alum, Joseph “Woody” Woodruff will speak and sign copies of the book, and former Alabama Football Stars Tommy Brooker, Jerry Duncan, and Murray Legg will attend as well. The event is sponsored by Alabama Booksmith.

I have one of these amazing books to give away! If you would like to enter, just comment on this post! You may earn the following extra entries:

1. Subscribe to the feed of my blog
2. Become a follower of my blog
3. Follow me on Twitter
4. Tweet about this giveaway
5. Attend the Launch Party!!

Be sure to comment an extra comment for each entry!

This contest is open until Monday, July 20th. A winner will be chosen randomly and announced on Tuesday, July 21st.

Good luck, and I hope to see you at the launch party!!

p.s. – I also have a giveaway on my other site, Alabama Bloggers, for another copy of this book – be sure to sign up there also!!

Do You Know of Any Good Bacterial Exorcists?

July 2, 2009 Rachel Callahan I embarrass myself just for your amusement., Just My Luck

It all started a last month with the Black Beans. They SHOULDN’T have gone bad that quickly.

Then, Ali’s milk started going bad too quickly. One jug went bad TEN DAYS before the date on the container.

Then, last week, I was plagued by yet another smell. I was starting to feel like no matter what I did, every time I turned around, the fridge stank with another awful rotten smell.

That one ended up being rice, again going bad way too quickly.

The very next day the stench was back. This time, it was a chicken dish.

The thing is, I used to be able to let things turn green and fuzzy in my fridge with the best of them. They never stank, except for the occasional shrimp dish or something. My rule of thumb was to clean the fridge out when there were more than three dishes growing fuzz.

Oh, don’t judge me. You know that you do it too.

But here lately, not only have things been going bad WAY too quickly, they are putting off an unbelievably foul odor. And there’s a common thread to the scent, whether it’s the milk or the beans or the rice or the chicken.

AND, to top things off, I’ve been keeping the fridge inventory fresher than ever, due to this smell. But it STILL keeps attacking me.

So my theory is: We have some strain of mold or bacteria that’s made it’s way into our fridge that is attacking our food. Maybe it was those extraordinarily foul black beans that started it all. Or maybe it’s something else.

(At this point, Alice and Chase, our dinner guests Tuesday night, are starting to feel their stomachs turn a bit. Don’t worry – I double ziploc sealed that food before it was prepared to protect it from the. . . err. . .whatever-it-is.)

I got this mold/bacteria idea from watching a cheese show on the Food Network with Chris (my least favorite channel and his most favorite channel). They were talking about how they cultivate the proper mold or bacteria and keep out the improper mold or bacteria in their cheese aging rooms. And how there is mold or bacteria just floating around in the air, looking for cheese to attack and age.

(They actually had “moldy cheese” caves and “bacteria cheese” caves. Sounds yummy, no?)

So, something is floating around in my fridge. I’m sure of it.

I wiped the whole fridge down with antibacterial soap at the beginning of the week and turned down the temperature of the fridge. I’m hoping that helps. So far, so good.

But I’ve never seen an antimoldial soap.

So if this doesn’t work, do you happen have the number for a Mold and Bacterial Exorcist?

Because these guys are rotten.

Music Giveaway: Win one of five Taubl Family CD’s!

July 1, 2009 Rachel Callahan Giveaways and Contests

If you’ve been around my blog for awhile, then you might remember me breaking my own “don’t blog about television” rule multiple times last summer when The Taubl Family was on America’s Got Talent.

The Taubl Family is a homeschool family from Connecticut with seven children. The kids are now mostly teenagers and above, and have been trained at many prestigious schools, including Juilliard School, Yale School of Music and the Hartt School. Besides their amazing voices with unbelievable harmony, they basically have their own orchestra, complete with a harp, cellos, violins, and violas. Their ability to compose songs in a unique way to fit their extraordinary talents is simply stunning!

I feel like I have a lot of personal connections with the Taubls, even though I have only been fortunate to meet them once, very briefly. But because they are homeschoolers, I feel that bond with them, and also because they performed a concert at our Church years ago. That concert completely blew us away – their unbelievable voices, extraordinary talents on multiple instruments – they were amazing!! We obviously left that concert with CD in hand.

The Taubls just released a new CD, which includes my personal favorite from their AGT performances, Rihanna’s “Umbrella”. I ordered the CD within minutes of receiving the release announcement email – I was so excited!!! Their version of “Umbrella” was even more amazing than I remembered – it literally brought tears to my eyes, especially towards the end where they all join in and sing with unbelievable passion!

They also have a wide range of styles and performance combinations on this CD, because it is a pre-release of several projects that different members of their family are working on. There is an amazing version of “Over the Rainbow“, as well as several original Taubl songs that are simply excellent.

And, the Taubls sent me five copies to give away to you!! I am SO excited to share the best kept secret in music with you!!

To enter this giveaway, simply comment on this post.

You can receive extra entries by:

Going to the Taubl Website, listen to the song clips from the new CD, and come back and tell me your favorite song.
Subscribing via a feed reader to my blog
Following me on Twitter
Following The Taubl Family on Twitter
Tweeting about this giveaway

* be sure to comment an extra entry for each of these!

You can enter this contest through Monday, July 20th. I will announce the winners on Tuesday, July 21st. Make sure that I have a way to email you, either through your blog or in your comment.

Good luck!!!

Funky.

July 1, 2009 Rachel Callahan Wordless Wednesday - as IF I could be wordless.

As I’ve mentioned before, it is quite crucial to my two year old to have CHILDREN’S PLACE sunglasses. $2.50 though they may be, she scoffs at all others.

So, since they are clearancing them out (yes, I know that’s not a word), I figured I’d better stock up.

What I DIDN’T realize until after my purchase was that the glasses they had left were colored-lensed glasses. Until Ali put them on, at which point I said, “Whoa. . . Funky.”

At which point she repeated back, “Funky.”

Public Service Announcement: You really shouldn’t teach a toddler the word “Funky”. It is ripe with opportunity for mispronunciation.

However, for your viewing pleasure, here is the definition of toddler funky, aka Janis Joplin Junior:

Later in the day, as her hair fell down due to our extreme heat, she looked even slightly more like a baby Joplin. . .

Funky.

Don’t All Church Birthdays Include Scary Butterflies, Hairdryers, and Glittery Tigers?

June 30, 2009 Rachel Callahan A Day in the Life, Toddlers: The Experience

This past Sunday was our Church’s Birthday Sunday / Picnic. I always think beforehand that I’ve been to a million birthday Sundays, and that this one will be just like the rest.

I don’t know why I always think that, because I always end up enjoying it immensely and being yet again amazed at the day.

We start out with a huge Eight Foot Cross-Shaped Birthday Cake, where everyone who was saved through our Church or is representing someone who was puts a candle in the cake:

It’s always amazing to see the line out the doors on both sides of the sanctuary:

And super-touching to see it all lit up

But my favorite moment is when our always-planning ahead Executive Pastor gets out there with a hairdryer and puts out the fire hazard.

They used to blow them all out, which was also entertaining, but besides the sanitary benefits of the hair dryer, I really prefer the comedic effect of it as well.

Then, that afternoon was time for our HUGE Annual Church -potluck (at which time we eat the aforementioned huge cake):

When you have 16 eight foot tables full of food, you have to learn to scope out the good stuff. One way to do this is by the dish.

For example:

If it’s a white corningware dish with faded blue flowers on the outside, you know a sweet little blue haired lady made it, so it MUST be good.
If it’s in glass Pyrex, it was probably made from someone under 40, but still will be good.
If it’s in glass Pyrex with an insulated zip “takealong” bag under it, then you know it is someone that got married within the last 10 years. Seriously – one time we had a Sunday School potluck, and there were SIX Pyrex takealongs – every one of them in a different color.
If it’s in an aluminum tray and/or a disposable bowl, then it MIGHT be someone that was too busy/lazy to make something homemade, but is trying to pass off something storebought as homemade. (Ahem. No, I wasn’t guilty of this. But if I was, in fact, guilty of this, it worked: Chris checked and it was all eaten. Not that I was guilty of this.)
If it’s still in the storebought container, then someone was too busy/lazy to make something homemade, but wasn’t nearly as vain/hypocritical as me someone in the prior category.
So now you know how to “shop” a potluck.

There were many kid’s activities, of which we attempted to get Ali to participate in. The one she was most excited about (and therefore patient enough to wait on), was Mr. Bubbles and his balloon making magic:

I was sure she would be scared of him when we got up there, but he asked her what she wanted, and in awe, she whispered, “A purple flower.”

Some kids were not so girlish in their requests. For instance, this was a custom request: A spider hat.

There was also a face painting line, compliments of Mrs. Giggles:

And, although Ali didn’t want her face painted, she was quite in awe of those who did.

Or, more accurately, rudely staring for long periods of would-be-awkward-if-they-were-adults time:

Mrs.Giggles was not just talented, but a very obliging face painter.

That’s right. He’s 20+ years old.

Aaaaand yes, he does, in fact, have glitter highlights on his tiger face:
There were also water activities, which didn’t mix too well with the aforementioned face painting:

There were a lot of scary “I’m Meeeeelting” butterflies running around.

But some of the kids didn’t have to have their facepaint melting off to be scary:

After the big kids got their fill of the water features, it was the little kid’s turns. Eli was more than happy to give it a go:

So we pressured Ali into giving it a try, citing that her much younger cousin was having a great time:

. . . but she had no problem admitting that he was much braver than she.

. . . as was Amy Beth. And pretty much ALL of the kids.

However, she found her happy place. Rocks.

I was tired and lazy when I changed her out of her wet swimsuit. And it was hot. And sticky outside. Putting her non-stretchy clothes back on would have been nearly impossible.

Soo. . . we rode home with Little Miss Indecent Exposure.

You know it’s a good picnic when you ride home, past bedtime, in your diaper.

Side Effects May Include Blog-Related Death.

June 29, 2009 Rachel Callahan "Deep" Thoughts by Rachel, Weird Strange and True

Is it just me that is completely perplexed – nay, SHOCKED even, at the stupidity of prescription drug marketing?

Maybe they’re meant to be comedy routines, because they ARE entertaining. They are all starting to seem like Saturday Night Live Spoofs of themselves.

First of all, let’s start with my least favorite commercial ever ever ever on the face of the planet. If I can’t fast forward through it thanks to the help of DVR, then I almost have to leave the room.

That’s right: Cymbalta’s uber-depressing and overplayed commercial. Cue the sad music, cue the sad pictures of sad people. . . “Where does depression hurt? Depression hurts. . .everywhere. Who does depression hurt? Depression hurts. . .everyone.”

I’m pretty sure that their marketing strategy is to depress us ALL into needing their anti-depressants, and it very nearly works. I have been depressed before, and it is NOT fun. The last thing I want to do is re-live it every time I turn on the TV!!

Then, let’s talk about Advair. The new, amazing, breakthrough Asthma Drug!!! According to their commercials, anyway. Until you get to then end, where it tells you that it might cause ASTHMA RELATED DEATH!!!

Yes, let’s take a drug to treat my Asthma that might cause me to die from my Asthma. . . oh well, if I’m dead, I bet I won’t have Asthma anymore!! It works!!! Hallelujah!!

Then of course there are the drugs like Flomax, to help you if you have a weak urine flow. Or the drugs for wiggly legs.

I’m sure that Restless Legs Syndrome really is an annoying ailment, but I’m just sayin’ – do you really want to take something to make your legs quit wiggling that might cause death?

But the one that really pushed me over the edge, the one that finally made me blog about this blight of our culture, was a new commercial that we saw last night.

Latisse.

Oh, this is a good one.

It is a prescription drug to help you have thicker eyelashes.

You know, because it is life-crippling to have thin eyelashes.

But be careful: side effects may include eyelash-related death.