5 Hour Energy for Busy Moms?

I've been seeing this commercial for 5 Hour Energy a lot lately.




So this mom needs 5 Hour Energy to get her through the day because she works so hard, both at her day job and her second job of taking care of the kids and the house.  She tells us this as she struggles in the door in her work clothes with two big grocery bags while the kids run around her, and then she tells us that 5 Hour Energy was suggested to her by her husband, who they show sitting around on the sofa reading a magazine.

I can't be the only one who saw this commercial and thought, "Hmm.  Maybe if her husband would put the magazine down, get off his butt and help her out a little, she wouldn't need an energy drink in the first place!"  Maybe I'm overanalyzing, but it seems a bit tone deaf to make a commercial targeted to busy working moms and include a not-at-all-busy-just-chilling-on-the-couch-with-a-magazine dad in there as the person who recommended the product in the first place.  "Hey, this stuff will give my wife more energy to do everything so that I don't have to get up and help!"

Of course, the main reason I've never tried 5 Hour Energy is not their advertising, but the fact that I've heard that the product tastes like cough syrup.  But ads like these don't really put me in a hurry to find out for myself.    

Wordless Wednesday: Autumn Leaves

Early Holiday Shopping (For Once)

When it comes to holiday shopping, I have always been a big procrastinator. I'm always the one paying an arm and a leg for express shipping to get stuff on time, and I consider it a triumph if I'm not at the mall on Christmas Eve. (December 23rd is totally acceptable though.) I'll admit that part of me enjoys the last minute chaos, but every year I have a hurried and frustrated moment when I promise myself that next year I'll start my shopping earlier.

Okay, so usually I don't keep that promise to myself, but this year I'm giving it a try. My dad is really hard to shop for, so I'm starting with him. I'm thinking of getting him a new watch this year. Watches aren't the most unique gift ever, so I've been looking online to see if I can find some options that are distinctive. (And of course a good value would be nice too.) I've been using Become.com because it's great for comparison shopping. I think my front-runner right now is this Nixon The Quatro watch:

Of course I got distracted in the middle of my watch shopping and started looking at jewelry. After a few minutes I forced myself to at least stop looking at stuff for myself and get back to the early holiday shopping mission.  My mom has tons of jewelry, so anytime that I decide to buy her some I know that I have to find something different and unique for her.

I'm not normally into floral jewelry but there's something that I like about these flower hoop earrings:

I also like these gold leaf teardrops. I think black and gold is a really sophisticated combination:

I'm also looking at charms - my best friend's daughter has a charm bracelet and she loves getting new charms.    Since jewelry with keys on it is so trendy now, I'm thinking this cute little charm might work:

See? I'm totally making progress. I'm sure that I'll still be at the mall on December 23rd, but by doing some of my research and shopping ahead of time, at least it'll be a less stressful and more festive experience.

Auto Repair Tech Support

Most of my family knows that I'm a huge Internet addict who is online all the time.  As a result, I'm usually the go to person for questions about online shopping, social media, the ever popular "hey, is this email forward true?" questions, the most useful websites, and things like that.  That's how I recently found myself researching the best San Diego auto repair shops despite the fact that I live all the way across the country.

See, my cousin lives in San Diego, and she asked me to help her find a place when her Ford F-150 started acting up.  It still cracks me up to think of her driving a big truck truck like that, cause I'm not a big car person at all.  Her husband was the one who picked it out - but no jokes about women drivers here, she handles it just as well as he does.  That's actually part of the reason why she was looking for a new auto shop - at the place she was using before, let's just say that some of the men who worked there were having a hard time grasping the concept that a woman might actually be a really good driver and know a little something about cars.

So, even though I'm personally not that knowledgeable about car issues (I know enough to know when something's wrong and not to ignore the check engine light and stuff like that, but I'm not an expert), I was able to get online and help her out by finding a site with a directory of auto shops along with customer reviews and a lot of basic car info to help the car challenged among us understand more about what's going on before we make the trip to one of those auto shops.  Just call me auto repair tech support.

I'm A Coffee-Addicted Dork

I got my Starbucks Rewards gold card in the mail the other day and I'm way too excited about it.  What can I say?  I'm addicted.  And if I need my caffeine fix anyway, I figure I might as well be getting discounts and earning points towards some free drinks at the same time, right?

I'm also happy that pumpkin spice lattes are back; I have to go and get my first one of the season soon.  (Now I'm just looking forward to the day when Thanksgiving Blend makes its first appearance because that's a favorite of mine.) I'm also tempted to try the new toffee mocha, but I'm not totally sure.  I love toffee, but I feel like this is the type of drink that will either be amazingly perfect and awesome or buttery and cloying and weird and gross.  Has anyone out there tried it? Leave a comment and let me know what you thought!  I need to take my new gold card for a spin.

Wordless Wednesday: Pumpkin

Who else hates the new Burger King breakfast ads?

If unfunny and grating is what Burger King was going for with these commercials, I think they succeeded:



I don't think I'll be downloading the BK Breakfast March for my ipod any time soon. I never thought I'd miss the ads with the creepy king. And of course the only woman who is prominently featured in the ad is the stereotypical hot chick who causes the guys to fall all over themselves. Sexism: it's what's for breakfast.