Take a Peek, Above the Sink, the mediciiiine cabinet*

Today we're giving y'all a glimpse into our medicine cabinets. You know...those things you peek in when you're visiting friends. Nah...don't claim that you don't. You know you take a little looksy. We decided to save you the guilt and shame and freely show you what's in ours.

Sass: We actually have 2 medicine cabinets in the Sass household, so you get a peek into both. Here’s the first one - it sits above the toilet.

There’s really no rhyme or reason (or organization) to the cabinet. The top shelf has an array of things from baby powder to a squeeze tube of allow to homeopathic teething tablets (that nobody uses anymore) to a minty face mask and poison ivy lotion.


The second shelf houses Q-Tips, deodorant and all my hair stuff. We’re partial to Tom’s of Maine deodorant in this house - in a variety of scents. As for hair stuff, both Mr. Sass and I use hair elastics on a daily basis, so we have a huge bag of those. In addition, I have tons of hair clips, scarfs, etc... for all my fancy hair needs.


The bottom shelf doesn’t have any doors to close in front of it (and yet still, not organized!) This one contains a whole slew of stuff. A funky clock that shows the time from the shower so we can make sure we’re not running late, my “beauty products” aka my face cream, toner and junk. My glasses, some hair clips and various lotions all also reside there.


Here is cabinet #2:

This one has mirrored doors (cut into thirds, which kind of annoys me) and sits above the sink. Again, no real organization at all going on here. The top shelf houses make up I haven’t touched since probably 2006, some hemmheroid cream (which I haven’t touched since I was pregnant. Fun times) and some Compound W (I’m still trying to figure out who in my family had warts...).


The second shelf is full of band-aids, more baby powder and some Gold Bond (can you tell somebody’s a sweater...here’s a clue - it’s not me!).


The bottom shelf holds our toothpastes - Tom’s of Maine - mint for us and silly strawberry for the kid, some rubbing alcohol, fancy mouth wash we got from the dentist and a junk load of bug spray. It gets buggy here in the summer.

Snark: I have one actual medicine cabinet, but I have another cabinet that I stuff with more crap. I seem to end up with a lot of things that I never use. Just take a look at the picture below.

I use the toothbrush, toothpaste, floss, headache medicine, Qtips, face wash and that’s about it. Everything else is just... there. I mean, sure, I might need some a bandaid or take some allergy medicine, so I’ve got it. I should probably throw that fake tan stuff away though since it’s rather old. Let me go do that now.

This cabinet houses washcloths, tampons, razors, hair products that are rarely used, a tissue box crocheted cover I got at an estate sale, nail polish remover, a hair brush. On the top shelf, maybe you can see the sugar scrub I made myself. I think I’ve used it once. What a waste of good olive oil.

We showed you ours, now it's your turn...What’s in your medicine cabinet?

*Snark would like to note that the blog title is a play on the theme song to the 80s kid's show classic, Reading Rainbow. Sass would like to note that she still gets down to that theme song every now and again.

Baby, You Can Drive My Car...

Sass: Remember that MTV show Pimp My Ride? I wonder if they ever pimped a Mazda Protege, because I think my ride could use a little pimping.

I mean, it’s a fine ride, easy on the upkeep and gets me to where I need to go, but...it’s beige. Actually, I believe the official color is something like “Sand Mica” but really, that’s just fancy talk for “sort of shiny beige.”


We’ve had this car since 2002 and have done a fairly decent job of taking care of it. Despite a few dents, knicks and crappy rims, it hasn’t been in any major collisions with other cars or grocery store shopping carts.


Inside, however, is another story.

We have a toddler, so our car tends to not be, well...clean. I debated cleaning it up to take pictures for this blog post, but ended up being too lazy, deciding that it would just end up messy anyway, so why bother. I know, my ability to rationalize is truly a gift.


Anyway, The backseat is stuffed with all sorts of stuff, the biggest being my kid’s carseat. Looking at that picture I see a book, some papers, pens, blocks all on the seat. What you can’t see if a huge red stain that is in fact, melted crayon. If anybody has a supersecret tip for getting melted crayon out of car upholstery, I’m all ears!


There’s also a large picnic blanket, mini basketball, a stuffed turtle and apparently the top of a bowl of nuts. No clue where the actual nuts are. Let’s just assume they’ve been eaten.


The front seats are a bit better:

CDs get shoved into the side of the door along with maps, tissues and the occasional snack. I really do try to clean out the car every week or so, but it feel fruitless when it easily returns to this state within minutes of cleaning.


We are a one-car family, with our other modes of transportation being...our bikes! I strap a kid seat onto mine and haul the kiddo to run errands, take him to school or just putter around town. Mr. Sass takes his bike to work everyday.

I have to say...My bike is all sorts of sassy...and I love it.


Snark: I love your bike, too! I have a red cruiser that I need to get out of my parent’s garage. I’m just not sure where I would put it at my apartment. There is barely any room.


Anywho, that is a boring story for another day. Today, we’re talking cars. Here is a pic of my beauty:

Oh, now, I know y’all are jealous of 2008 Pontiac G6, but that’s okay. Everyone feels that way. (Not really)


Seriously, though, I like my car. Before the G6, I had a car that BUSTED on me at 60k miles. I think it was a lemon, and it was sour as hell if you know what I’m saying. My whole last year of college, I was dependent on other people to drive me places. Thank goodness my sister lived practically next door, and I never felt bad about asking to take her car. That’s what sisters are for, right?

So, when it came time (read: when I was actually able) to buy a car, I wanted something new and with a WARRANTY. If something broke, I wanted a guarantee that it would get fixed. I got a good deal on it too. I mean, it doesn’t hurt that I work at the dealership...


But, what do I do with a brand new car? I proceed to scratch it, dent it, back into things, etc. etc. I never hit anything in my old car, but with a new one, I’m like Monster Trucking it through Target’s parking lot. It’s quite sad.

That picture is proof -- my pathetic side mirror. What’s REALLY pathetic about it is, that is not the original mirror. No, I knocked the original mirror right off, backing out of the driveway. I hit the garbage can. In my defense, I was looking at traffic not the driveway, and the garbage men didn’t put it back in the right spot. They couldn’t wheel the damn thing two feet over! Sorry. What was I saying?  
Well, after paying $120 or so to get it replaced, I then hit it on the side of the garage when I was backing out. I broke a piece of the mirror off as you can tell from the picture.

Then, I have a picture of the inside of my car. It’s not too messy right now. There is a cardigan and a book in the passenger seat, some bracelets on the shifter, my iPod connector. My iPod isn't even in the car, though. I keep it inside becuase I have XM Radio and that's all I listen to practically. There is also some trash and receipts and such, but I don’t think that’s too obvious in the photo.

Well, that’s it for this Wednesday. Join us tomorrow when we shut off the television and crack open a book. It’s time for The Hunger Games.

It's In the Eye of the Beholder...

Sass: The other day I had my yearly eye check up where I learned that (at 30) my eyesight is *still* deteriorating, my retinas are thinning and on top of all that, I got the “present” of some astigmatism in my left eye, which resulted in a new prescription and contacts. Of course, I came home and bitched about all of this to Snark. We then commiserated about our crappy eyes together.

I first got glasses when I was in ninth grade. There’s really no better way to say “Hello High School!” then with a brand spanking new set of shiny braces and goofy glasses. When I look back at the almost John Lennon style of glasses that I wore, I cringe and thank heavens that my sense of style has slightly improved, (despite my vision having only worsened).
Normally, I wear contacts, finding them to be a better fit for my daily life. My vision is really sucky - I can’t see more than a foot in front of my face without it being incredibly blurry. But, when I wear glasses, I totally rock them. I’ve got a hip pair of midnight blue Calvin Klein glasses with a chartreuse lining.  

If they didn’t make my depth perception all wonky, I’d wear them more often and fulfill the sexy librarian stereotype.
Ah well...sorry nerds.

(I have to step in and say I love that you put your glasses on top of HP7 and that I'm not ashamed that I knew that book without it's cover)

Oh, and since it’s always sunny in Philadelphia (not that I live there or anything. No, really...I don’t), I usually rock my (non-prescription) sunglasses as well. These puppies were five bucks at the local “cheap crap” store, but have been shading my peepers for almost a year now.

Snark: Woohoo for bad eyesight... right?

Well, I got glasses a little bit earlier than Sass. I think I was in fourth grade when I got my first pair. Remember how the nurse would come by and check your vision and hearing? Well, she sent a note home to my mother, informing her that I needed to go to the eye doctor.  


I was amazed by what I had been missing. Traffic lights weren’t fuzzy colors and people had freckles. I remember wearing them and annoying my mom at the grocery store by all the little things I could read from all the way across the store!


Well, even though glasses were amazing, there was a problem. I hated them. Actually, I hated every pair of glasses I had up until high school, I believe. They were big and dorky, and I was angry that I had to wear them. I remember in fifth grade (new school), the nurse repeatedly asked me if I had gotten new glasses (since I lost the ones the previous year). She would keep coming by, but being me, I hadn’t told my mom I’d lost my previous pair. Until high school, I think I “lost” four pairs of glasses.  


Needless to say, I ended up with a new, nerdier pair. In Middle School, even though I KNEW I could see better with them, I wouldn’t wear them. I would copy off friend’s papers when taking notes, or I would ask to copy right off the projector. I took Discoveries as an elective in middle school, and I had the same teacher all three years. She would ask me daily where my glasses were. I always had an excuse.

Looking back, I can’t even imagine how I got by because my eye sight is about the same and without my glasses or contacts, I’m hopeless.


Well, in high school, I realized that my teachers probably weren't going to let me stand next to the overhead to take notes, so I took to wearing my glasses in the classroom. I would then take them OFF to walk through the hallways to my next class. It was pretty ridiculous.

I also got contacts about sophomore year in high school, but by that time, I was a full-fledged glasses wearer. I wore them pretty much all the time all the way through college. They fit me. I never felt dorky for wearing them because I had frames I liked.

These are my newest frames:

 

They're maroonish with gold arms. I mostly wear these on days when my eyes are tired. I wear my contacts pretty much every day these days, but I like to take them out and slip on my glasses when I'm at home. I went to cheap Vision One for my last frames purchase, so I got two pair for like sixty bucks.

These are my other glasses, but they feel crooked on my face, so I don’t wear them that often. And, yes, that is cheetaesque print on the arms. Don't make fun.

Ooh, then we have sunglasses. I love these. I got them at a vintage store in Austin for about $15 which is pretty much the max I’ll spend on sunglasses. I’ve had them for about a year.

So do you wear glasses or are you one of those freaks with 20/20 vision? Let us know even if your sight is perfect. We won't hold it against you... much.

Refrigerator Raider

Well, hello there...

It’s Wednesday again, so that means y’all get a sneak peek into our lives. We decided to compare the things that we all have to see how we differ. It’s been fun so far with front doors and knick knacks, but today we’re going where every single episode of Mtv Cribs has gone before -- the fridge.


So, do I have a bottle of Cristal chilling in my fridge like P. Diddy? No, I have a forty of malt liquor that I’m not sure where it came from and two bottles of Andre. Does Sass have a whole row dedicated to the energy drink she promotes? Yeah, I don’t think so.


Check out what we do have. Sass is going to go first.


Sass: When we first bought this place, I was all wide eyed excited at the thought of a sleek, stainless steel fridge. But now? Not so much. Not only do magnets not stick on the front, but our fridge is set up in a way that makes it very narrow, and a pain to organize properly, especially the freezer. That doesn’t prevent us from stuffing it full of food on a weekly basis.

Here’s a wide shot of the entire thing. You can see that there really isn’t much rhyme or reason as to where we place things.

That’s a close up of our freezer. Basically our freezer holds three main things: frozen fruit, frozen meat and frozen treats like ice cream. We make smoothies a lot, so frozen fruit is big in our house. Either we freeze fresh fruit after we’ve picked it, or just buy bags of frozen fruit at the store.


We belong to a meat CSA (remember that whole farm to table bit from yesterday? We really do our best to adhere to it). Every month we receive a bunch of meat from a local farm...anything from ground beef to steak to chicken.

And yeah...no freezer is complete without some ice cream or tots...

Our fridge is organized a bit better, I think. Most of our drinks are up at the top...OJ, local milk and our latest purchase - local cider! It really starts to feel like fall once the local ciders start coming out. We may have *just* bought that cider as well...It never lasts long here.


There’s also the requisite yogurt (we go through so much yogurt in this house) as well as local chicken eggs (I’d say we easily eat 2 dozen, if not 3, a week!), 1/2 a grapefruit, some leftover Moroccan veggies that I made the other day, and some artificial margarine spread (can you read the disdain I type that with through your computer?). I hate margarine and am a huge proponent of butter, but my brother - who lives with us - does not agree, so I allow his fake “dairy” spread in hopes he’ll see the light one day...

And lastly, here’s a photo of the door of our fridge. Up top you can see a tub of yeast (for all the baking I do) and actual, real butter my brother doesn’t touch. In the shelf below that there’s some jams, peanut butter (and sunflower seed butter for the kiddo’s school which is nut-free), local grade-b syrup and some probiotics because I love my gut.

(Snark: You put your honey in the fridge?? Weird. I put syrup in the fridge, though, so I guess it's the same thing.)


A little further down and you see our assortment of soy sauces and hot sauces as well as some u-Bet chocolate sauce that Mr. Sass bought to make egg creams (which have neither egg nor cream in them. go figure).

Snark: Sass has so much in her fridge. Mine is going to look sparse compared to hers. I do have one thing she doesn’t have, though, and that is a MAGNETIZED DOOR!

I live in an apartment, and the kitchen is definitely not state of the art. I think y’all can tell that by the door itself. Who buys manilla appliances these days? No one, that’s who. Anyway, on the door, I have some invitations, birthday cards, a post card, a picture of my niece, a pic of myself and my younger sister as babies and a list of things I can and can not digest easily without a gallbladder. Fun. I know.

Moving on to the inside, y’all can see that it’s not stocked. I do live alone, though, so a stocked fridge would most likely mean a lot of wasted food, and that is never good. I’ve got fruit and veggies, milk, chai, creamer, filtered water, juice, pudding, hummus and some Chinese egg drop soup that I should eat today or throw out. There is also some chicken and ground turkey that I wish I could freeze, but alas, my freeze burns EVERYTHING. I have to keep it to the minimum for freezer items.

(I need to pop in and say - holy cow! Your fridge is so freaking neat!)

Then, there is the door. I seem to have a lot of salad dressing and mustard. If you come to my house, don’t expect a sandwich with mayo. It’s not going to happen. I also have some custard style yogurt which is my favorite. There is a really good muscadine jelly from the Farmer’s Market, minced garlic, fake butter, goat’s cheese and some alcohol that will prob never be consumed. I’ve had that bottle of wine for over a year. I wonder if it is even still good?


Well, those are the fridges. What we want to know is what do you always have in the fridge? What item can you not pass up at the grocery store? Let us know!

Come & Knock on our Doors... um, Doors

SNARK & SASS

Hey, hey, hey! So, we got this crazy idea one day -- let’s start a blog! No one has ever done that before, right? What’s that? Oh, yeah, everyone and their grandmamas have blogs, so just go ahead and add us to the list. Hopefully, this one will be a touch different because it’s kind of a social experiment between two people that live completely different lives, picked to live in a house and find out... oh wait... that’s The Real World. My bad. No, but, seriously, we are going to share things we enjoy like food, music, fashion, pop culture nonsense, etc. Oh, and we’re going to talk about it all too. It’s a simple concept, but we think it will provide endless entertainment for... ourselves... and anyone who happens to read it. ;)

Dude. No emoticons. We’re above emoticons. If you’re going to have emoticons, we might as well toss up a glittery gif of Hello Kitty and a monster size picture of RPatz up at the top or something. Just saying.

Um, emoticons have no direct link to Hello Kitty. That is a scientific proven fact. You are just jealous that my emoticon wink brings all the trolls to the yard. And, omg, have I gotten too internet speak with the trolls reference? Jeez. I bet I have. Here look at this as Sass explains a bit more.

So join us daily to see what’s going on. We’ve reserved Wednesday’s as the day to dig deeper into our psyches...Watch as we lay out on the metaphorical couch that is the internet. Or not. Mostly we’ll just be posting pictures of glimpses into our daily lives on Wednesday’s, and talk about how they differ (or not). Today’s picture is of our front door’s, as a way of saying “Welcome, come on in...” (But please, don’t forget to at least wipe your shoes off first).

Also, don’t come over to my house unless I invited you or you call first. I’d hate to be caught watching Lifetime in my underwear. Sass, your door is a lot nicer than mine, but I am a renter. I’m definitely not painting my door myself. What are those things on your door, though?

My kid’s handprints. We were doing some outside painting one day and he found his way to the door and decide to get all Michaelangelo on me, by putting one painted hand on it. The OCD-freak in my then promptly painted his other hand and had him balance it out by making another handprint on the left side. I mean, I guess I could have just as easily wiped the 1st handprint off the door...but we figured it added a little somethin-somethin.

We do own, in fact...it’s a duplex, so we’re also landlords, which still makes me laugh. So, yeah, it’s nice to be able to do whatevs to our place. But, Snark, as a renter you can still totally decorate your door...a take out menu wreath perhaps? A little planter in the corner by the front door? (note the jungle like appearance flanking my front door).

I have a black thumb. I’m serious. I do have a few plants inside that I’m trying my best not to murder. I live in a fourplex apartment in a lovely part of town, but the door to the outside doesn’t really close all the way. Bugs are always in there, and it’s just eww. I actually swept before taking this picture, and it’s all wonky because I had to stand on the stairs to take it.

I’m glad you cleaned for us. I’m not really getting gold stars in the cleaning department. But I’m sure you’ll see that on a future Wednesday...

I clean when forced. Um, what? No. I’m just kidding. My apartment is spotless. This is the internet, so you have to believe that. It’s almost as reliable as the tv. Which, by the way, is what we will be talking about tomorrow. Man, who can segue better than me??

No one, that's who. Just kidding. Watch the video below to learn more about what we're doing. Hopefully, you'll think it's funny. Just click on it to play. Also, if you haven't figured it out by now, I (Snark) write in this orangey color and Sass writes in brown.