Blue Moon, You Saw Me Standing Alone

Especially if I am all suited up in PPE for Ebola. Thankfully, that hasn't happened yet, and the outlook for the US is good. In the meantime, our prevention and preparation seminars continue. Do you know what else continues? Elli's kennel cough. I am waiting for a call back from Dr Lizardo to see if there is any thing like doggy cough syrup that I can give her.

So, onto today's outfit. I wanted to wear this dress today, so I brought a pair of shorts to wear underneath for the PPE demonstration.

This dress is by Mossimo, a Target brand. It is very soft. I wanted to wear navy hose with it, but I settled for gray, since I don't have any navy without holes in them. The boots that I chose to wear coordinate perfectly.

I got them at Forever 21 last winter. I wore them a lot, and will do so again this winter. For acessories, I continued to work in some colors that don't match, but they go together well. I doubled up on the necklaces. First, I wore my weird lapis number.

Then I wore a longer locket with a costume onyx stone. In this shot, you can also see my rockabilly studded belt.

On my arms, I went with silver and gemstones. On the left, my "tin can" cuff, and a tanzanite ring. On my right, a silver bangle and a ring of amethyst and opal.

This outfit is really comfy and cozy. The kicker will be how well it comes out of the wash. I am always concerned about that with the bargain brands. Today, I am linking up with www.walkinginmemphisinhighheels.com for Trend Spin. Today's trend? Comfy knits!!! Perfect for this outfit. Hop over and browse around. Until tomorrow.

Just Another Manic Monday

Well, back to work. At least I had a good weekend, with almost ZERO Ebola fussing. When we left off, Doc and I planned to cook up the Sagami Tei leftovers for lunch. He also decided to make them happy!!!

That's what grandkids do to you. Later on in the day, we went down to South Coast Plaza, a famous shopping mall. They opened a new Off Fifth Saks Fifth Avenue, so I wanted to look. They were having fabulous sales in there, mostly as a way to get customers into the new store. This was the catch of the day.

These D and G glasses retail for $399. I paid $41. When I showed them to Doc (he was in Barnes and Noble), he was amazed at how nice the lenses were. So we went back and got him a RayBan pair. I also got two pieces of costume jewelry, and I will show them to you after my outfit of the day.

This sweater is from some thrift shop at some point in my life. I have had it a very long time. The slacks are tiny maroon and white checks, and I got them at the garment district in downtown LA. They open the showrooms to sell samples a couple of times a year. I had maroon shoes on, but it looks like it may rain (please!!!) so I switched to some trusty old Payless numbers.

Now for the Saks jewelry reveal!!! On my left hand, I have my wedding rings and an awesome stretchy crystal bracelet.

It was $24. On my right hand, I have two gold and garnet or ruby bracelets, and an enamel crystal ring that was also $24.

I resurrected an old necklace for this getup. It's a costume cross, made by Monet. I wonder if they still have Monet?

Anyway, there you have it. Of course, I am wearing my Harvard jacket on top. Also, I am back to linking with sweet Patti at www.notdeadyetstyle.blogspot.com for Visible Monday. Now that I am temporarily out of the outbreak suit, I am once again Visible!!!

Domo Arigato, Mr Roboto !!!

lI didn't get around to posting yesterday. I am employed as the Epidemiologist for a hospital, so I am responsible for training everyone on Ebola. I gave them the history of the pandemic, demonstrated donning and doffing of the personal protective equipment, and gave them plans and protocols to follow. Then we did a Q and A session. We did it 6 times, and each time we got great suggestions, and it got better and better. My boss, who is the Executive Driector of Performance Improvement and Patient Safety, did the seminars with me. Here I am on Day 2. That's my boss scurrying by in the background.

I am wearing knit warmup style pants that I got at a little strip mall store. They rock. I have a sweater by Joseph A, and a moleskin jacket from Macy's on with them. I had the opportunity to bust out the Betsey Johnson shoes that I got for $3 at Stacey's Closet.

Her is a closeup of the sweater. It ties with a polka dot chiffon scarf through two grommets. The jacket is crocodile texture.

On my left arm, I wore a double wrap leather bracelet. I didn't wear earrings or rings, since I was donning and doffing all day long.

Elli has kennel cough. Delila had it once. It's pathetic. It's the dog version of the common cold. Dogs get it after they board at a kennel, just like Elli did. She walks around coughing. It comes in spurts - most of the time she doesn't cough. I guess it will probably take a week to get over, like people.

I went to the Salvation Armani this morning. They were having a 50% sale. I scored. I got an Escada jacket that is worth several hundred dollars. I paid $3. Here it is, along with the label and a detail of the exquisite tailoring.

I think it is 80s vintage. I also got a 40's to 50's vintage jacket made by Bullocks Pasadena. It's wool, with a satin Peter Pan collar, satin buttons, and vents trimmed with tiny satin studs.

I had to kick down a whole $5.50 for this beauty. Tonight, we took my mother in law Mimi out to dinner for her 81st birthday. We went for teppan at Sagami-Tei. I wore my new Harvard jacket.

Mimi ordered a mountain of tempura, and ate it all. Go Mimi. My FIL, Win, ordered salmon teriyaki.

My mom, Doc, and I ordered NY steak with tempura. Here is the chef cooking it.

I ended up with salad, miso soup, steak, tempura, veggies, bean sprouts, a baked potato, and fried rice.

We brought home a ton of leftovers. We are gonna make eggs with veggies, and fried rice for lunch tomorrow. Well, that just about catches us up.

Blue Is The Color Of My True Love's Eyes!!!

Well, Doc's eyes are blue, but Elli's are brown, so it's kind of a toss up. Anyway, I had to think of another saying about blue, because this is what I am wearing today.

You have seen these printed pants before, but this is the first outing this year for the sweater set. It is made by Worhtington, and I got it at JC Penney a long time ago. The turtleneck is sleeveless.

I particularly like the gold trim around the neck. I am giving multiple inservices today for clinical staff who need to don and remove protective gear in case we get an Ebola patient, so I needed something comfy, non-fussy, and NO skirt, because I sit on the floor for part of it. For shoes, I wore my nice flat Zara shoes.

Likewise, since I am pulling multiple pairs of gloves on and off, I went with simple leather bracelets, on blue and one black.

And this outfit gave me the perfect opportunity to carry my new bag that I got in Boston.

It has gold studs, and the inside is all metallic blue.

So last night, my October Birchbox came. YAY!!! Here's what was in it.

1) Bee Kind body lotion with honey and organic chamomile.

2) Clean Rain Eau de Parfum

3) Dr Lipp original Lip Balm

4) ModelCo Powerlash High Impact Black Mascara

5) Suki Exfoliate Foaming Cleanser - lemony cleanser and exfoliator. Used already - nice!!!
So when I went to take a shower, I found that Doc had used all of my Ulta Coconut Lime Smoothie three in one shower, shampoo and moisturizer, so I got to open a new one. Voila.

Buttercream cupcake. Yum -doesn't get any better. On wait, it does. This was my gift from the housekeeper that cleaned my room in Boston at the beautiful Westin.

So there you have it. until tomorrow!!!

Five Pounds of Fury!!!

Now that I am back home, we are back to our regularly scheduled programming. This morning, Isabel came to clean, and our Elli was her usual cantankerous self, only magnified by 1000. I guess being locked up at Dr Lizardo's was the last straw for our little Mexican lass.

But aside from all that, here are my outfits from yesterday and today. First, on Tuesday:

I am wearing a skirt by ECI, and a top by Carmen Marc Volvo that I got my first day in Philadelphia. Both are knit - the skirt is double knit, and the top is jersey, decorated with ruching down the front and gold studs. I used the trick to double up my Joan Rivers necklace again.

I wore some shoes that I have had for a while. I tend to wear them in spurts, like most of my shoes. They are made by Boutique 9, one of my favorite brands.

They match my outfit perfectly. On my left hand

I am wearing my wedding set and a gold bangle with diamond dust. On my right hand,

I have a ring that is made of a solid chunk of agate or some similar stone. I chose knit pieces because I was stuck in the Houston airport for a 4 hour delay on Monday, due to weather. When my flight from Philly landed, it was pouring rain, the winds were 95 miles per hour, and there was lightning, which I guess interferes with the air traffic control tower. So we waited until it was safe, but boy, was I tired that night. So I did NOT feel like ironing.

Today, I am bascially recovered. This is the outfit that I chose, and didn't mind ironing.

I copied it from a lady I saw wearing something very similar in Philadelphia. The slack are wool plaid by Ideology. The jacket is perforated suede, made by Belle Sport. Underneath, I am wearing a bronze lurex shell by Joseph A. I wore one of the necklaces that I got at the flea market right before I left for vacation.

It is made of halved cowrie shells. You can see the jacket better in this shot. For shoes, I chose my brown suede pumps with the leopard wedge. The lady in Philly had leopard pumps and a scarf instead of the necklace. She looked very chic.

On my left hand, I have a costume ring from Nordstrom, and a bracelet made of safety pins that someone very dear to me made. She is now deceased - sads. On my right, I have a leather cuff with an abalone bar, and a ring carved of amber.

That's about it for today. Since it's Wednesday, I am linking up at www.thepleatedpoppy.com for What I Wore. I haven't had time to look at blogs. We are prearing our hospital in the unlikely event that we see an Ebola patient, and I am at the center of that responsibility. I am glad to be back home, but when I get off today, I have to deal with our Senorita mas Poquita, and then get my car smogged for registration. The fun never ends, does it?

The City of Brotherly Love

So the last day of the conference was crammed with lectures. The first one in the morning was "Guess the Disease". Three doctors got up there and showed us Xrays, gave us lab results, and then we were supposed to figure it out. The only one I knew was Naegleria, the parasite that you get from shoving a Neti pot up your nose. But I did learn a few things. The other two sessions were all about the new regulations coming out for 2015, so they were boring, even if they are essential to my job.

When I was returning from lunch, where I sat with a really nice pharmacist from Philly, we had an Ebola update. When I looked through the plate glass windows, there was a herd of protestors, filled with hate about the way Lyme Disease is treated. Here are two pictures of them. They motioned for me to come outside and talk to them, so I did. I told them that it's hard to get clinical guidelines changed, but if they want to, they need to gather clinical evidence and then present it to IDSA (Infec Dis Soc of America). Chanting and walking around with bloody rubber ticks, and scarfing down pizza doesn't make a scientific case. They were surprisingly receptive to my advice.

Then at night, we had a dinner program given by a couple of the pharmaceutical companies. It was pretty interesting, and dinner was pretty tasty. I sat with a man from Vienna, a lady from Newport Beach (right next door to HB) and a man from Panama.

Today, I went on the Hop On Hop Off bus for a guided tour. Guess what - I was mistaken, there are some nice parts of Philly, namely Society Hill, South Street, and up by the Art Museum. First, we saw the Church of St Augustine.

Then I got a closer look at City Hall. It was started in 1876 and finished in 1901. IT's French Revival style. Looks pretty gothic to me.But it is a spectacular building. Next door is Macy's. It used to be Wanamaker's. Mr Wanamaker developed things like sales receipts, store accounts, the bargain basement, and the philosophy that the customer is always right.

Then we went up to the museum section of town, which is elegant and lovely. Here's the Art Museum from the front.

Here's the Rodin museum. It's hard to see, but one of the 5 copies of "The Thinker" is out front.

This is a famous house, whose name escapes me, but it was used in the making of The Sixth Sense. It's on St Alban's street. The Church pictured above was also used in the movie. There is a tour you can take that goes to all the famous movie sites in Philly. I would have done that one too, if I had time.

Then I toured the Eastern State Penitentiary. That was all kinds of awesome. You go in, and they give you an audio device, and you can just wander around to your heart's content. Here is one of the huge gargoyles guarding the front gate.

I will just quickly tell you what each of these pictures is of. This is Cell Block 1. All of the other 7 cell blocks are just like this one. You go down them, and each has presentations and exhibits, and you can actually go into some of the cells.

This is the large outdoor exercise yard. The gun turret on the right is new, and below you can see the original, built around 1800.

This is Al Capone's cell. Not too shabby, eh? The prison was closed in 1970. I also saw the first prison Synagogue, the cell of Pep ( a black lab who killed the governor's wife's cat, and so he became the prison dog), Death Row, the 45 foot long escape tunnel one of the prisoners dug, and the prison hospital, complete with tuberculosis ward. Then I bought a mug in the gift shop. I stayed for 90 minutes, then hopped back on the next bus.

This is a statue of Joan of Arc, back in the museum section. The skyline shot shows how far it was from downtown, where I was staying.

After that, we wound around the city and went by the Rocky Steps, then through Antique Row, Society Hill, South street, and the Maritime museum. They were all very pretty and quaint. Then I got off for my last stop, the Mutter Museum. This is a museum of medical oddities. I looooved it. You aren't allowed to take pictures. They had all kinds of skulls, skeletons, internal organs with grody tumors, and jars and jars of fetuses. Also lots of conjoined twins and skeletons of giants. The creepiest one was the cyclops baby. It had one eye, and then a long proboscis nose ABOVE THE EYE. EEEEK.

Then I walked back from 22nd street to Chinatown, maybe 16 blocks. When I was on the bus, I saw a noodle house that looked like it would hit the spot. It did. I had lamb with hand cut noodles, then ice cream. Then I walked back to my hotel to pack and get ready to go home. I miss my house, Doc, Elli, sorta Kenni, the kids and grandkids, my friends, and the hospital. I am hoping that travel tomorrow will go smoothly. The shuttle picks me up at 6 am. Well, here's to a safe trip home for me!!!