November 9th, 2009

On Veteran’s Day (Wednesday, November 11), Cosmo will drive around New York City collecting kisses for our boys overseas. Participants can kiss a postcard with Maybelline-provided ColorSensational lipstick, and then add a note of support to a deployed soldier.
For every kiss, Cosmo and Maybelline will donate $1 to the USO organization.
Via: Cosmo
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October 20th, 2009
If you haven’t already booked your flights for Thanksgiving and/or Christmas, you may want to do it soon. There are fewer flights offered this year, so holiday ticket prices are going up fast. Just within the last week Thanksgiving airfares have increased by 10%.
For those of you who still need tickets, here are some tips for getting the best Thanksgiving fares.
Via: NYTimes
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October 20th, 2009

Zombies dance in the Thrill the World event
Wondering what you’ll be this Halloween? How about a zombie? Every year,
Thrill the World hosts a global event, inviting the world to dance to Thriller at the same time. The 2009 event is scheduled for this Saturday, October 24 in the U.S. (8:30pm EST, 5:30pm PST) and is expected to be the biggest event yet.
The goal is to set a new Guinness World Record, so to participate, register at the Thrill the World site, learn the dance and show up as your favorite zombie for the event in your area.
Via: Thrill the World | zombie make-up tips
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September 6th, 2009

It’s not often that a movie comes along and in its wake you see visible differences in those who watched it. Julie & Julia is about two true stories of Julia Child and a blogger who attempts within a year to make every recipe in Julia Child’s 752 page classic, Mastering the Art of French Cooking. Julie & Julia has generated new interest in the culinary arts and everyone - especially the tasters of these culinary creations – is benefiting. After almost 50 years of its publishing, Mastering the Art of French Cooking has jumped to #1 in its category on the New York Times bestseller list.
I’m not a serious cook, but I do love to bake. I belong to a Meet-up group called Iron Cupcake (the Iron Chef of the cupcake world). Every month we’re given a challenge (theme or required ingredient) and then competitors bake mini-cupcakes which are judged and the winner is announced. Since the movie, group attendance has tripled in size to over 100.
If you haven’t seen the movie, it’s definitely worth watching. And if it inspires you to improve your skills, grab some girlfriends and stop by a free Williams Sonoma class, check-out Yelp for an informal cooking class , or take a culinary vacation. But don’t stop there – host a simple get together using your new found culinary skills. I just did and I’m reminded how happy people are when they can relax and enjoy good food together.
Bon appetit!
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August 11th, 2009

For those of us who are avid bargain hunters there’s a new travel site just for us. Voyij (pronounced “voyage”) comes from the creators of SideStep and scours the web for the best travel deals. Other sites send out travel deal alerts but most don’t tell you what days you need to travel to actually get the advertised specials.
I tried out Voyij by looking for all the roundtrip flights for the next 2 weeks that originated from my home airport and cost less than $200.
After I used the filtering options to indicate the most I wanted to pay, it quickly filtered thousands of initial deal results down to 11 sales that fit what I was looking for. Seattle, San Diego, Las Vegas, and Chicago were some of the destinations – so many fun places to visit! With each sale I could see the dates I would need to travel to qualify for the deal. Voyij is free, easy to use and includes deals and specials on airfares, hotels and vacation packages.
See: Voyij.com
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July 23rd, 2009

Flagstaff is one of those towns not many people know about, but is definitely worth a visit. Located just an hour and half north of Phoenix, Flagstaff is a quaint college/ski town set in the mountains. Because of its high elevation, its summers are much cooler than Phoenix and it offers good skiing in the winter.
A group of us spent the 4th of July weekend in Flagstaff and we knew we’d made a good choice when we arrived on Friday evening. Although the downtown is small there are plenty of restaurants, hotels and activities to choose from. The town’s central park was our first stop, where the lawn was filled with people relaxing and listening to a rock band performing. Since it was the first Friday of the month, the art galleries were hosting ArtWalk where people are encouraged to go gallery hopping and can enjoy refreshments along the way.
After a Mexican dinner at San Felipe’s we walked around the corner to a Michael Jackson dance party tribute at the Orpheum. Hundreds of people were there, some in full Michael Jackson attire, and all were dancing to his greatest hits.
On Saturday morning, after stopping in at Late for the Train for much needed coffee, we made our way to the town’s 4th of July parade. It was a perfect small town parade, featuring a dog drill team, vintage tractors and several distinguished veterans including the Navajo code talkers from WWII. That evening the symphony played in an outdoor amphitheater followed by fireworks at dusk. All in all, a great place to spend the 4th of July.
Posted in Culture, Entertainment, Events, Places, West Coast | No Comments »
June 23rd, 2009

It happens to me all the time. I’m late for the airport and realize I still need to print my boarding pass, itinerary or map to where I’m going. With HP’s latest announcement it should take seconds instead of minutes to get out the door with your travel print-outs.
Yesterday HP announced the first web-enabled printer with a variety of apps that streamline the printing process. HP’s new wireless printer doesn’t require a computer and connects directly to the web. I was able to attend the announcement and partners from Google, Fandango, Coupons.com and Nickelodeon demonstrated their apps which make printing maps, movie tickets, coupons and recipes a breeze. The printed pages I saw were perfectly formatted, utilized both sides of the paper and appeared to use less paper than standard web printing. Scheduled to be available this fall, the printer will cost $399.
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