[115] Adele and Gaga

Last night I went out with a couple of my lady friends from work. While at the bar, club-mixes of Lady Gaga's "You and I" came on followed by Adele's "Rolling in the Deep". I may have been one and a half Guinness' in as I started belting out lyrics in this not-so-packed bar. I didn't care who could hear my pitchy vocals. I was enjoying myself. :]

Enjoy this from A Very Gaga Thanksgiving.

[112] Footsteps in the ceiling

Everyone's watching American Horror Story. I saw about half of an episode and walked away. Not because it is scary but because I'm not really interested in this show right now.

Although, I would rather live downstairs from a haunted apartment than have to listen to the kid upstairs, stomping his feet all around the apartment. Seriously. Just stop.

I recently took some herbal supplements which left me with less than desirable side effects. Evening primrose oil makes me itch like crazy. The opposite of what I was hoping for, as I was taking it to help clear my eczema. The good news is, I read that omega3 and zinc deficiencies are possibly the reasoning behind my intense breakouts over the last few months. After reading and seriously thinking about it, this does make sense to me. So I picked up some supplements at my local CVS. Luckily for me, they were running a Buy 1 Get 1 Free deal on some of the things I was looking for. So I picked up some acai as well. Hoping for good results and keeping a positive attitude about it. :]

Don't forget, I have extended the My Memories giveaway!

[111] Music Monday: Sophia Grace & Nicki Minaj

Before I get to the music I'd like to remind you that I have a GIVEAWAY going on right now!
http://veggingforhealth.blogspot.com/2011/10/110-giveaway-my-memories-suite.html
Be sure to sign up for a chance to win! You don't even have to use the product for yourself. You could give it to a friend or family as a holiday gift.

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I'm sure most of you have seen this video of Sophia Grace singing Super Bass. If you haven't, it's a must see! You can also find videos of Sophia Grace on the Ellen Show where she meets Nicki Minaj. She's so adorable! 


Thanks to Sophia Grace, I have had Super Bass stuck in my head for the past week. I cannot even begin to tell you how many times I've played this video. Leave it to an 8 year old to get me to listen to a hip hop/R&B/pop artist...


A couple of friends from high school have been busy making music over the years. Here's the latest upload on soundcloud. Enjoy!
JC Ft. Tex & Zeke - Nothin Like Me by therealTEX

[109] Music Monday: mewithoutYou

mewithoutYou, is an American rock band from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Their music is generally dominated by spoken-word vocals and free-ranging drums, bass, and guitar.




Torches Together is the first track from their 2004 album, Catch for Us the Foxes. Before I acquired this album, I only owned one song of theirs, "January 1979". I used to listen to this particular song, over and over, on repeat. It was usually one of the first three songs on any mixed CD I'd make for road trips. Catch for Us the Foxes was given to me as a gift for my 19th birthday in 2005. This album is still among my top favorites and I can honestly say I love each and every track on this CD.

[101] Music Monday: LMFAO

For the past week I have had LMFAO's Party Rock Anthem on repeat. I may not have been a fan of LMFAO previous to hearing this song, but all thanks can go to that damn Kia Soul commercial featuring the hamsters shufflin'.



I used to have teddy bear hamsters just like the ones in that Kia commercial. So, you know, I have a bit of a weak spot for hamsters, especially hip dancing ones.

[098] Music Monday: Scale the Summit

Weekly theme posts ... *cough* ...

Scale the Summit is an American instrumental metal band based out of Houston, Texas. Formed in 2004, the band draws influences from other progressive acts, however, unlike most other progressive metal bands, they have no vocalist and play instrumental music.

Considering this is a live recording, adjust volume as needed.

3:30 is the beginning of my favorite part of "The Great Plains"

Happy listening <3

[095] Getting the hang of this vlog thing

I made this video Thursday night before I started feeling a little more under the weather. Enjoy my sniffles!



Please keep my best friend, Jammer (and his family), in your thoughts and prayers. He suffered a heat stroke during a 10 mile run on Thursday and was taken to the hospital. He should fully recover but was kept overnight for observation. I love my Minerich's!

[089] Vlogging Wednesday

One time, I vlogged. That -one time- was just a few moments ago...





I hope I didn't scare anyone away from my blog. I say "umm" a lot, did you notice? On a side note, check out today's overview: 70 page views today!

The top referring source is: http://becomingsupermommy.blogspot.com (Lea's blog!)

I hope everyone had a great Wednesday.
Happy Vegging!

-Jasmine

[086] Music Monday: City and Colour

Music Monday, a day late...

In 2006, I kept nearly every CD I owned in my car so I would never be without good tunes. I spent the night at a friends house, as she had just moved in and I offered to sleep at her house with her so she wouldn't be alone, and mistakenly left my car unlocked in an unfamiliar neighborhood. I woke the next morning to find all but one CD stolen from my car. I felt so violated as something like this had never happened to me before. I lock my car everywhere I go. Even if I'm just going inside to quickly grab something.

Later that year, I eventually inherited my best friend's music collection. City and Colour's Bring Me Your Love was a midst the music but I didn't discover that until years down the road. That being said, over the last one or two months, I've been listening to this album non-stop. Since my car doesn't have an auxiliary plug installed for my iPod (and FM transmitter thing hardly works) I opted to burn a CD and wear it out to and from work.

[083] My Extended Labor Day Weekend

(This post was intended for Thursday's 8am post, but I was half asleep when I wrote it and scheduled for Friday instead.)

It's Wednesday night and I feel as if I would instantly fall asleep once I lay my head against my pillow. You're probably thinking, it's not Wednesday... it's Friday morning. Well, I really enjoy taking advantage of the "schedule" option on post settings. I thoroughly enjoy putting posts in queue days in advance so I don't feel like I'm slaving over this blog. (Even though I spend all my time tweaking the layout!)

Let me share a little bit about my labor day weekend.

Friday: Originally scheduled for only two days this entire week, I grabbed some extra hours which landed me a shift from 2:30pm to 10pm. Lately I've only been scheduled to work anywhere from 4 to 6 hour shifts while I would rather work 8 hour shifts. That's just not in the cards for me quite yet.

Saturday: Up bright and early. Worked 9am to 4:30pm. Absolutely loved working the morning shift so I could have the rest of the weekend with my boyfriend. He took Thursday and Friday off in addition to having a 3-day weekend. A well deserved 5-day vacation for him. I had originally planned to bake pumpkin cookies but ended up going shopping instead. It was late and I needed to pick up a few things at Wal-Mart so I headed out around 9pm. My feet were aching from standing all morning but I knew I needed to buy printer ink before I put it off for too long. Three hours later, I found myself feeling exhausted and waiting in line to cash out. Did you know Wal-Mart doesn't take "free" item coupons from the internet? It's a good thing I had a $3 off coupon for the same item. Also, I was that lady who preferred to pay for two specific items on a separate transaction from everything else. Well aware of the long line of people behind me, but what's waiting a couple more minutes? I would understand if I held up the line paying by check, but I told the cashier "It won't take long. I'm paying by credit." As someone who works in retail, I understand that getting the lines down and decreasing the wait time is important, but so is customer satisfaction. As a customer, I want the same satisfaction I supply to my own guests at my store. I only ask that customers practice patience when standing in line. There are far worse wait times than a few extra minutes. On the way home, I saw the aftermath of a car crash a few miles from my exit. As I approached the cash site, all I could see were many flashing lights on numerous cop cars which I couldn't even tell where one started and another ended. I can only hope the person(s) involved made it out safely.

Sunday: Shawno found $25 in Best Buy money waiting for him in his e-mail. This meant traveling to the store and picking up a new game. I took this opportunity to stop by Christmas Tree Shops to hunt for cheap owl decor and maybe something else that held a combined taste in decor for our apartment. Unfortunately, I didn't find anything that really caught my eye so we left empty handed. For lunch, I treated Shawno to Taco Bell as a "thank you for putting up with my need to walk every aisle of the store and leaving with zero purchases". After asking him to take me to AC Moore to use a "50% off" coupon, Shawno kindly agreed (even though I knew he didn't want to go). I suggested he sit in the car while we were at Christmas Tree Shops because I didn't know how long that trip was going to take, he finally took me up on that offer as we pulled into the AC Moore parking lot (which is in the same building as my store). He's learning that the men generally sleep in the car as their women shop, haha. I spent $8.50 and felt as if it was truly well spent. Scrapbook page refills, double-sided patterned paper and I can't remember if I purchased anything else. We then started on our way home.

Monday: Labor Day. A nice lazy day at home. This is also the day of my second installment of Music Monday posts. I've really enjoyed reading themed daily posts on other blogs and felt it would fit nicely into my own blog. While I'm not really into the music scene as much as I was from 2002-2007, I often times enjoy sharing the music I've had on repeat with anyone who's willing to listen. This is the day I publicly released (to my Facebook wall) the latest blog I've been creating. It's called Sophie Mae Crafts and it is a craft blog where I hope to share all of my crafts with friends, family, fellow crafters, and anyone else interested. Originally I had named the blog "Sticks and Stories" but threw that out the window once Shawno said it didn't make sense as I wasn't using sticks or writing stories. I then changed the title to "Crafts, by Jasmine and Katie" when my bff-in-law said she would be interested in getting down with a craft blog. She's a full-time Mom and wife to my bff so I know that this would be a nice little outlet for her to share her crafts when she gets some free time to herself. After sharing the blog I realized, I could definitely use MORE authors than just Katie and myself. So I've made it open to anyone who wants a place to share their crafts. All you have to do is let me know where to send the e-mail invite. It's as simple as this. Everyone has their own style when it comes to arts and crafts and I like the idea of sharing multiple styles in one place. So, if you're interested, look out for an open invitation to hold "author" rights on Sophie Mae Crafts (which will be posted both here and on SMC in the future).

Tuesday: Monday night I received a phone call from my cousin, asking if I wanted to babysit her two youngest (3 ½ year old twins, A and R). I haven't seen them since July and I didn't have anything planned for the day, so I jumped at the chance to spend some quality time with the twins. I left my apartment (in Massachusetts) around 8:30am and sat through stop-and-go traffic until I reached the Rhode Island state line. I finally pulled up to her house (in Rhode Island) around 9:50am. The cause of the congested traffic? Drivers failing to merge. No worries, because I arrived safely. :] Once my cousin left for work, the twins and I watched tv for pretty much 5 hours straight. Bubble Guppies, Team Umizoomie, Max and Ruby, Dora the Explorer, and Peppa Pig on repeat thanks to Nick Jr East and Nick Jr West. I made peanut butter sandwiches cut into little squares so they could share, each had a juice box, and eyes glued to the TV as we all screamed the answers to any questions the shows asked. Pre-school shows are so cute. The oldest, B, came home from school shortly before the two middle cousins, C and S, hopped off the bus and tackled me with hugs. I love that I have such a good relationship with my little cousins. :] Shortly after their dad came home from work, I decided it was time to head home so I could beat the congested traffic during rush hour. I came home and noticed the rain had washed up all the debris in our patio and had gathered at the drain. That meant the water had become a few inches deep in the patio and eventually drained, gathering all these leaves/grass/seeds. Before long, the rain had picked up again and I found myself standing in the patio, feet completely submerged in cold water, using a snow shovel to scoop the water out before any water could threaten our living room just on the other side of the slider. It truly is a one person job in such a small space. My efforts proved victorious as the water level dropped. Additionally, I plunged the drain to loosen any debris that might the the cause of the water to drain at such a slow pace.

Wednesday: I woke up around 9:30am to the realization that I had work at noon and I needed to shower and eat breakfast before the clock magically turned to 11:30. (It happens too often!) After posting to Tumblr, 20SB, browsing Facebook, and checking my Blogger stats, I clicked my Gmail tab to find a new e-mail sitting there with the subject line "Interview?" Someone is interested in my veg interviews! Immediately read her message and my excitement was through the roof! I love reading the short little "about me" before I personalize questions for the interview. While I haven't actually finished the interview questions, my exhaustion from yesterdays water shoveling and lack of stretching out my muscles really caught up to me. Also, my lack of motivation... I'll get on that tomorrow afternoon, for sure, and this means another interview post is coming soon!

Before writing up this post I decided to get caught up on one of my favorite YouTube collaboration channels; AGayADay. While I find it hard to actually pick a favorite, because all of their personalities are very different, I have to say I enjoy watching Simon and Darren the most. All of these guys remind me of guy friends I've had and still have to this day. :]

Happy Friday!

[080] Music Monday: Between the Buried and Me, and Portugal. the Man

Today's Music Monday features two bands from my most played Last.FM Top Artists. The different music styles between these artists doesn't even come close to defining my taste in music. Fun fact: I grew up listening to pop, reggae, rap, hip-hop, and R&B. Over the last 10-15 years I have gone on a roller-coaster ride of music preferences. I'm glad to say that I hardly limit myself on what I listen to these days.

Between the Buried and Me is an American heavy-metal band from Raleigh, North Carolina. If metal isn't really your genre of choice, I strongly suggest you search for songs from their album The Anatomy Of which features BTBAM's tribute to their diverse influences (ex: Metallica, Queen, King Crimson, Counting Crows).


Selkies: the Endless Obsession from their album Alaska (2005).
One of my all-time favorite BTBAM songs.



Fossil Genera - A Feed From Cloud Mountain is from their album The Great Misdirect (2009).
This song makes me think of a circus-dreamland.



Portugal. the Man is an American psychedelic rock band based in Portland, but originally from Wasilla, Alaska. I admit, this can be sort of an acquired taste. I had their album Waiter: You Vultures! for nearly a year before I truly got into their sound. Over the years, as each album was released, I grew even more in love with their sound. Even to this day I have a hard time explaining their sound to new listeners.


Created is from their album Censored Colors (2008).
John Gourley has such a great voice.


Do You is from their album The Satanic Satanist (2009)
and acoustic versions on the album The Majestic Majesty (2009).

[068] Music Monday: Balmorhea

I've been considering themed daily posts and I think today is a great day to introduce Monday's. For my first Music Monday post I give you, Balmorhea.

Balmorhea (pronounced Bal-moor-ay) is a minimalist ensemble from Austin, Texas.


Video via hushrecords.

A man named Rick H. introduced me to the wonderful sounds of Balmorhea about 2 years ago. I'm glad he did! Their sound... I can't even describe it. I often find myself listening to Balmorhea when I'm crafting and creating things. There's something about a violin and cello that soothes me.

[056] Vegan Myths Debunked (video)

Catchy little song.

via therockcookiebottom