I don’t eat pasta.

There, now you know. In case you were wondering.

More generally, I try not to eat white rice, white bread, pasta, and all the other horrible-no-good-very-bad-white carbs. (Unless I am in Paris, when all bets are off. Baguette with butter? What sane person can say no! Good thing I am not in Paris that often.) It’s taken me a while to find a way to eat healthy without obsessing about it and cutting out most white carbs is one of those things that just works for me. Not that I wouldn’t LOVE a big bowl of pasta with cheese, but you know, it’s just something I am fine without.

Which didn’t present any issues until recently, when my daughter, who loves pasta and eats it often, started asking me why I don’t eat it with her. Read the rest of this entry »

Casual Friday with Mir—because some days are made for wearing your jeans and surfing the blogs.

Hey, how was your week? Good? Well, let me ask you this: Did you experience a catastrophic hard drive failure in the last seven days? No? Then it was a good week. Trust me.

Let’s all go cruise some blogs and put this week behind us….

• I know it’s a little early in the morning for this, but I’m suddenly craving chocolate (and Robert Redford).
• You’ve just gotta love creative advertising.
• Do you write monthly newsletters to your kids? Only Kelly could make it up to Month Two Hundred Sixty-Four.
• My devotion to bacon is so legendary, my readers regularly send me bacon-related links. And yet, I think this guy (and possibly his pal Karen top even my obsession.

See, your week just got better after reading those!

* * * * *

And just to make the week even better, I’m guessing a deal or two might put a spring in your step. Just a hunch, of course.

It’s probably a little sad that the Amazon Friday Sale is one of the highlights of my week, but I can’t help it.

Today and tomorrow only, why not get free shipping on your order at Old Navy? Just use coupon code 1CHECKOUT and shipping is absolutely free. There’s plenty on sale, too.

Got Father’s Day on the brain? Daddy wants delicious specials from Omaha Steaks. I mean, unless Daddy’s a vegetarian. (If he’s a vegetarian, may I suggest a nice bag of carrots, instead…?)

If the steaks don’t float your boat, check out the outlet at Brookstone for dad-friendly gadgets. And don’t forget to use coupon code AF2JUNE for $10 off your $100+ order. (Big spenders can use code AF9MAY for $30 off $300+, and if you choose to utilize AF1JUNE for $70 off $700+, I’m available for adoption.)

That’s it for me; enjoy your Friday and have a great weekend!

I’ve been going to a lot of meetings recently, more than usual. Most of them I really enjoy and while too many meetings in one day means staying up too late to get work done, I am realizing just how much I enjoy human interaction as part of my job.

This is going to sound like narcissistic bragging — which I don’t mean it to be — but I do really well in first meetings and interviews. It’s always come easily to me and while I’d like to take some credit, I attribute most of this innate skill to my dad, from whom I got my communication skills, my ability to read people quickly and relate to them, and you know, have presence or whatever you want to call it. (On the flip-side, I’ve never figured out who to have a great phone meeting, which probably has something to do with my phone phobia.)

So for whatever my personal experience of dozens of interviews and hundreds of important meetings is worth, here are my 3 easy tips to help you ace your interview or shine in a meeting: Read the rest of this entry »

I’m a master of doing everything as fast as possible:

I take less time in the shower than my husband and can completely my entire morning routine in less than 12 minutes (yes, I’ve timed it and yes, this is from getting out of bed to being showered, make-uped, and dressed for the day).

I am NEVER rarely one of those people who hold up the line at the store while they look for their wallet or count out 95 cents in change… and you will laugh, but I put everything on the counter with the on top, so the cashier can scan things easier.

My breakfast is an incredibly boring combination of one or two things (tea or coffee, toasted English muffin with peanut butter, egg white omelet or Greek yogurt with berries) and I’ve figured out the optimal way to make it so that it’s ready in 2-3 minutes and consumed in about as much.

As I was wolfing it down the other morning I was flipping through an issue of Body and Soul Magazine and one of the articles I skimmed through talked about mindful eating: Read the rest of this entry »

Casual Friday with Mir—because some days are made for wearing your jeans and surfing the blogs.

Gooooood Friday morning! I hope you have a marvelous weekend planned, and I can help you get into the slacking spirit with a few extra blogs to cruise, this morning. I live to serve, you know. (Just don’t tell your boss it was me, mmmkay?)

• Do you Twitter? Copyblogger says write a 140-character story, win an iPod Nano. (Reading others’ entries could easily take up the rest of your day; I’m just warning you.)
• It takes a Mommy with an Attitude to discover a Granny with an Attitude (may be offensive if you dislike peace or profanity).
• Do you recognize yourself on this list of crazy writers? No? Okay, maybe that’s just me….
• What happens when you mix the older generation and email? One of my new favorites: Postcards from Yo Momma.

* * * * *

Hey, isn’t this one of them there shopping weekends? I do believe it is. Let’s scope out the savings, shall we?

Over at Liz Claiborne you can take an additional 30% off already reduced items with coupon code LIZMEM08.

There’s a whole slew of Memorial Day Doorbusters at Linens ‘N’ Things, plus you can use coupon code 26620000008 to take another 20% off of one item. (Ship to your local store for free pick-up, if you don’t want to pay shipping.)

There’s always the Amazon Friday Sale, of course.

The half-yearly sale for women and kids (because, really, the men don’t care, anyway) is on at Nordstrom, too. That means savings of up to 40%, and a handy excuse to treat yourself.

I’m off to enjoy the day. I hope that you do, too. Have a great weekend!

… and I hate that I wonder if she is right.

Today was a big day for me and my parents. 19 years ago on May 21st we got on a plane from Russia to Austria — it was the day we left our country and began the process of immigration to the US. Every year we celebrate this day in some way and this year was super cool (don’t I sound like I am 12?) because we actually live close by and could celebrate together.

We went out to lunch and as soon as I walked in my mom asked me if I got any sleep last night. I actually thought I looked pretty good (thank you, MAC concealer!), but mom knows best. I havent’ gotten that much sleep all week and I made the mistake of telling her about it. Which led to a conversation we’ve been having a lot lately, in which my mom tells me that I am nuts for disregarding the fact that I am a woman and trying to live my life as a man and a woman at the same time. Read the rest of this entry »

My answer is yes, but I’ve quit many of my jobs the absolute wrong way.

What made me think to write this post was a call I got from someone I’d worked with in my prior life. This guy is a VP at a software company where I used to be on the board and he was calling to get my advice on the best way to leave his job. He got offered an amazing opportunity at another company and has decided to move on, but wanted to make sure he was going about it the right way. The team is small and a lot depends on him, the CEO has a lot of trust in him, and he has visibility to board level.

My few points of advice were: Read the rest of this entry »

I am usually a pretty frugal person. OK, perhaps not entirely frugal if you use the most purist definition of the term, but I am always trying to find the best deal, rarely buy things that aren’t on sale, try not to buy what we don’t need, and so on. I think that counts as being frugal, don’t you think?

But I’ve realized that sometimes it’s worth spending a bit more money to get a little more balance. And by balance I mostly mean more time. I don’t do this often and I am not talking about a lot of money, but when I am particularly frazzled (check) and have had a particularly tough week (check), it helps tremendously. So right before I wrote this post I… Read the rest of this entry »

Casual Friday with Mir—because some days are made for wearing your jeans and surfing the blogs.

Good morning! I’ve been fighting a cold all week, and I would like nothing more than to go back to bed and curl up with some good blogs. Oh, wait a minute… there’s no one here, so I may do just that. I’ve even got some great blogs to get me started.

• Courtney’s no Miss Muffet, but her spider lied to her.
• There’s a difference between an accident and an awesome surprise.
• You know I’m an ardent carnivore, but this may turn me vegetarian (or at least give me nightmares).
• Jen calls it empathy, but I’m thinking it sounds a lot like revenge.

* * * * *

Ready to shop a little? Hey, maybe just take a look….

Spoil your little ones, or stock the gift closet: Get 10 hardcover books with 10 audio CDs for just $23.85 shipped!

Kiddie shopping alert: There’s tons on clearance at CompanyKids, especially if you’re wanting to buy ahead for next winter. Over at The Children’s Place, the clearance is at 50% off (and you can use coupon code S2A58 for an additional 15% off). And finally, at Crazy 8 you can take 20% off and receive free shipping with coupon code SAVE20.

And don’t forget the Amazon Friday Sale; how else would you know it was Friday?

Have a great weekend, all!

I was at an event earlier today where the main speaker, an uber-successful mom CEO and entrepreneur with two kids, gave the intro speech and talked about what she has learned about being a working mom who has a demanding career. When it came time for questions a woman in the audience asked her if she ever worried that her working so much negatively affected her kids and their relationship with her.

I couldn’t figure out if the question was a bit passive-aggressive or genuinely from someone who wanted to know how this woman managed to be a mom and high-powered career woman, but it struck me nonetheless. Her response was very honest — she talked about issues her older son is having at school and how she felt that her and her husband not being around as much when he was younger probably had something to do with his current lack of motivation. She said that they learned their lessons and she doesn’t feel like their youngest is getting the short end of the parenting stick.

Driving home I was thinking about this question as it applies to my own life. Read the rest of this entry »