How to walk in heels June 30, 2009

Since I already catered to my most viewed post, I will also cater to the most searched term which seems to bring people to my site. 

“How to walk in heels”

There is actually a book called “How to Walk in High Heels: The Girl’s Guide to Everything” by Camilla Morton. It should come as no surpise that I actually own this book.  I have to say that it’s a delightful read, for the most part.  The beginning of the book really does with imparting the wisdom of walking in heels but then the book truly does become a guide to everything.  Not only does it give nice guidelines for dress but it also has explanations of art, technology, decor, poker, chess and gardening.  So, as the title suggests, it’s quite handy to be a girl’s guide to everything or, at the very least, a little bit of everything. 

(This isn’t my go-to guide for style, however. 

That honor goes to “The Bombshell Manual of Style” by Lauren Stover. ) 

But I love wearing heels.  Its not an easy love.  There is a certain level of masochism and determination to be able to withstand it for prolonged periods of time.  Yet, the beauty of a gorgeous heel and the definition created in the shape of leg, the sudden elongation of the firm, the lifting of the bottom… it is almost enough for one to forget the little pains one has to endure in order to get the look. 

ALMOST…

With that said, I shall now impart advice, both from my own practices and from my style guides:

1. Never shop for shoes in the morning. Your feet will not have expanded as much as your usual size and things that you buy will not be the right size for you.
2. Always dress for the occasion.  Every venue and terrain requires a different heel height and width for ease of walking across the surface.  Some shoes need traction to keep from slipping.  You can buy rubber stickies to place on shoes or you can scratch the bottoms with coarse sandpaper or even the side of the sidewalk curb.
3. Always do a trial walk/wear with new shoes.  NEVER, and I mean NEVER, leave shoes brand new to wear to a certain event.  Slip them on first around the house.  Find out the areas that might be trouble pressure spots.  When you feel comfortable enough to go out in them, take them for a walk through the supermarket.  (Why the supermarket? It doesn’t have to be that precise place, but the floor is wonderful to glide across and you have the assistance of a cart for balance and support.  Anywhere with similar criterias works as well.)  It will take several wears for you to learn your heels and get them fine tuned.  Never leave it for the day before because it might lead for swelling that can be rather bothersome to subject your feet to two days in a row.
4. Don’t be afraid to get inserts. Once you’ve worn your shoes, you will know which are the spots that can bother you.  There are all sorts of shapes and sizes of comfortable inserts: full insoles, cushions for the balls of the feet, strips of padding for straps or heels and even pads for toes.  I would recommend them with cloth and not with gel because if your feet sweat, the pads won’t stay in place.   
5. Know what you’re going to do in heels and for how long.  One thing I always advise people to learn is the limit of endurance for each pair of shoes.  You can approximately gauge how long you can comfortably stay standing in them or how far you can walk in them by doing the trial wears.  Not every shoe works for everything, don’t expect it to but inserts should help you get there.  Appreciate every shoe for its talent and work with it. 
6. Have a back-up plan. Something I often get joked about with is that, even though I wear heels a lot, I also always carry a pair of flipflops with me somewhere else.  You don’t need to have another pair of shoes, but it helps.  Accidents happen, heels break , nights go for longer than you meant them to or you end up having to walk far too many blocks back to your place.  Make sure your extra shoes still work well with the ensemble and even if people notice the switch, far too many people will think you incredibly smart for having the forsight. 
7. Commit to your heels. Once you slip them on, keep them on.  Sometimes it seems like a relief to slip them off for just a second but that is a big mistake.  Your feet swell and it’ll be more uncomfortable for you when you put them back on. 
8. Heels are worth the expense. Poorly crafted shoes are usually the cheapest, so know that you get what you pay for.
9. Care for your feet. Pamper your tootsies when you can.  Keep the nails neatly cut and straight; keep the skin moisturized.

 I think I covered the basics.  If you have any questions or anything to add, please feel free to leave a comment below!  

A Girl and her shoes: Part 2 June 30, 2009

Well over a year ago, I wrote a random blog post about my shoes.  There was a scattering of pictures and some descriptions of the shoes with my experience walking in them.

Can you believe that this random post is my most visited one?

Seriously! 3,044 views and more everyday!

So what could I do but snap a few pictures of the shoes that have been added to my collection?!

wrinkled floral pointy toe pump with rhinestone buckle and lace edging, 4in

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

bottle green round toe pump, double strap with two tone heel; 4in

 

These are my new favorites:

4 1/2 inches, with 6 different color ribbons to change out

Hot… I know.

ivory pleated pumps; 4 1/2 in with hidden front 1/2in platform

athletic inspired nude sketchers with embroidered design, criss-cross double strap

pale yellow pinstripe slingback espadrille wedge with white bow

peep-toe teal canvas cork wedges

hot pink sandals with pink emerald gem detail

I love shoes, but it seems I didn’t buy all that many.  Most of these were bought within the last six months.  Of course I love them all, but I have my favorites.  What girl doesn’t?

Calabaza Pela’ y algo mas… June 25, 2009

It often feels like I have a thousand ideas floating around inside my head.  For the most part, 90% of them just stay floating; shifting and evolving to something else until completely forgotten.  Other times these ideas just begin to mold and shape themselves into something so much more substantial to the point where it seems like a large boulder is in my brain.  It becomes so that I can’t think of anything else until I’ve dealt with it or done whatever it is that has been persistently nagging my mind.  It’s like my brain is a slow cooker and everything inside of it gets done at a different time. 

Now… let me tell you a story, or rather the background to some stories:

I think every family has their stories which they bring out in fond memory whenever they get together.  Many of the stories before my time have been repeated so often that they have just stuck in my memory.  Other stories were told just a time or two but were indelibly recorded in my mind.  What I began to notice, however, was that lot of these stories had to do with food.  The original idea of attempting a sort of cookbook came about a few years ago when it began as a joke between myself, my mother and my aunt upon first realizing the connection.  Some of the recipes are actual ones that can be made, others are more metaphorical and still others were actual recipes but I honestly would not hazard anyone to make them.  But the more I analyzed each remembered “recipe” as I grew up, the more I could identify certain factors that had to do with the history of my family and the relationships had between each person with one another.

While my older brother was the English major and the, supposedly, main writer of our family, I don’t think he has the sensitivity and capacity to analyze some of these stories and relate them to our own family.  So the task sort of unofficially fell on me, if ever it were to be done.  The idea may have started off as a joke but I have to say that the idea struck me quite seriously.  Like I mentioned, I needed to put it into my mind to let it process and slow-cook until the right moment.  Lately I’ve become compelled to get theses recipes and stories written down and share some of them with others. 

Perhaps it has to do with the fact that I’m home more and have been spending a lot of time with my grandparents; my grandmother often accompanies me on my errands and inevitably I hear more stories or repetitions of some that I already knew but never tire of hearing.  I’ve been very fortunate to be able to have spent as much time with them as I have and gotten to know them and their history.  Perhaps its in seeing them now, growing older and declining in health with their age that compells me to try and honor them by telling their stories in my own way.  I love my family very much and whenever I refer to my family, I refer to just this specific group comprised of my mother, my mother’s parents, my mother’s siblings and my own two brothers with the added wives and children for both my uncle and my older brother.  (Sidenote: While, as a Puerto Rican family, our numbers are quite large, I cannot say that I associate at all with my father or my father’s family.  But that was my father’s choice and for those who cannot make a choice, like my younger half-siblings, I will try in the future to get to know them but on my own terms.)

So, whenever this family cookbook gets mentioned in my house, it has been universally decided that the title of it and the leading story is one about Calabaza Pela’ (translation: plain pumpkin).  And here’s why:                   

You could say that we’ve only reached the classification of middle-class with this generation, but we’re hanging more on the lower end of it.  My grandparents both came from very poor and humble backgrounds and my mother and her siblings grew up in this environment.  My uncle just recently visited for 2 weeks and everytime he’s here there are stories to be had.  It always amazes me how differently people remember the same period of time in their lives.  You often have to listen to the account of the same event from several view points in order to get an accurate idea of where the truth of the memory lies.  My uncle recounts the past with exaggerated hilarity, my aunt remembers things with serene plain-ness and my mother remembers things with a lot of anger while my grandmother tells things with embarrased humility and my grandfather in a more obtuse but blunt way.

But all tellers seem to agree on this one story where the words of my grandmother, to me, are so profoundly touching that I can not retell this story without actually crying over it. (Maybe you can say that my way of retelling is by far the most sentimental) So know that even as I type this, tears are clouding my vision but I shall endeavor not to allow typos to escape me as I do. 

As was the tendency for impoverished Puerto Rican families looking to change their lot in life, my grandparents had moved from PR to Chicago, IL, when my mother (their youngest) was barely a year old.  As was often found by such families after a few years, their situation was often not very improved by their moving and many of them return to the island where at least they can own their own land and perhaps even work it a little to get some sustenance for their family.  So it was that my grandfather had to bring back his wife and three children back to PR.  They could not afford to carry much back with them.  My mother often mentions with deep bitterness the fact that she could not travel back with even her childhood doll. 

For a time they stayed with the large grouping of my grandmother’s siblings and children as the land that my great-grandfather left behind was divided.  My grandmother was the third oldest of 6 but the eldest of the girls.  She cannot recall when injury she may have caused her father for her to be the one child left nothing upon his death.  However, after pleading her case to her siblings, the land was divided so that all of them could have their piece.  The house that was then constructed was of extremely modest size.  My uncle is the one who says that it was so tiny that you did not have enough space to extend your hands to be able to decently clap your hands.  (Sidenote: As the columns of the house still stand on the property which my grandparents and my mother’s house are located, I can tell you that it was about 15′ wide and perhaps maybe 20′ long) 

It was on one of their first few nights in this house, when they had nothing more to eat except plain boiled pumpkin.  It was all they could afford and my grandmother said in most heartfelt ways “Jamas pense que tendriamos que comer calabaza pela’ sazonado con solo la sal de nuestras lagrimas y nada mas.” (translation: I never thought that we would only have to eat plain pumpkin, seasoned solely by the salt from our tears, and nothing more.)

Calabaza Pela’

• fresh pumpkin             

1. Boil pumpkin in 3inch chunks until fork tender.
2. Consume with the heartfelt grief of all things missing with such a plain meal for your family.
    

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

It is my hope to bring a new story and recipe every week and try to introduce you to the amazing people in my life.  I can only hope to do them justice by honoring such memories and learn more about my own family history.  Such it was that the title was created for the series of stories that could go with it… “Calabaza Pela’ y Algo Mas” (Plain Pumpkin and Something More) because there is so much more to tell and since then there have been joys to flavor our meals aside from sorrows.

One of these things is not like the other June 25, 2009

 

Before clothes are sorted

Can you tell me what it could be?

The bombshell donating to a good cause June 24, 2009

I had wanted to go to the Mary Kay Seminar in a beautiful ballgown and decided that I wanted to design purses a little more than doing that.  But for quite a few weeks I poured over sites with gowns more gorgeous than the next.  I’d even settled on a few beautiful dresses that I felt would be the best for the occasions and the most flattering on myself.  I got to dream a little about feeling so absolutely exquisite in a fine gown and going to a ball.  Along the way I got to remember some of my own dresses that I have worn.  

I showed the ones for my high school graduation when I spoke of a few past experiences here. 

The dresses had some sentimental value.  I wore them during moments in my life that meant something and I will always remember them…

The first gown I have had in my closet since my 9th grade graduation.  It was a lovely metallic grey A-line with applique in white and silver on the bust and a double spaghetti strap.  The dress did not cost much because my mother was unemployed at the time, so there wasn’t much that we could afford, and I remember finding it accidentally.  I was with my mother in town and she had just gotten me after marching band practice.  I cannot remember why we were in the store, we might have just been trying to look over the selections that were to be had.  I’ve always been plus-sized, so we knew that finding something just right was going to be difficult.  The search ended up not being difficult at all and I ended up keeping the first dress that I had tried on.  However, my mother could not afford it at the moment, so we risked my not getting it for a few weeks until the time that she could buy it for me.  I remember going by every few days just to reassure myself that it was still there.  Fate was on our side and I was able to get the dress.  I wore it most happily.  I was Vice-President of my graduating class and I had a date for Prom, so the night was just amazing for me.  I danced every song with my date… all but the ones we missed when we slipped outside for some fresh air and he asked me to be his steady girlfriend.  I was over the moon about it.  

So the dress was dear to me and, even though I never got to wear it again because it was just too small for me in the bust (after that was when my chest really began to develop and I have a wide back), I was able to lend it to my sis in law for a party in my first or second year in college.  She looked amazing in it too, so at the time I was glad to have kept it.  But afterwards it was relegated to being shuffled between closets and shoved aside, for that I was most sorry and continued to hope for the time I would either wear it or find something useful for it.

The second gown I selected was the green gown I wore to my high school prom.  I had already gotten the extravagant purchase; the dress I was to wear for Honors Night, so with the second dress we wanted to save a little money (during this time my mother had been fired from one job but began the job she has been with ever since, she budgeted her first few paychecks to be able to get my first gown off lay-away, so we were more money conscious with the second).  I had this one custom made for me by a friend of the family; she was the same woman who had made my mother’s wedding dress.  We had gone to an amazing Telar (translation: fabric store) in Aguada that we had only just heard rumors about.  I love looking at fabrics and this place was like heaven to me.  I found the gorgeous green applique fabric and then we found the solid green fabric to go with it.  The seamstress even allowed my help in crafting the right design since I wanted it rather different than the other one.  This prom was spent different than the one previous to it, even though my date for the event was the same person, believe it or not.  We were still friends even though we broke up about 6mos after our officially going steady.  We decided to couple up for the high school events because his ties already matched my dresses without our even trying.  I remember dancing and having a lot of fun but again the dress was relegated to the back of the closet, never to be worn again.  A few times the dress was pulled out in a semi-attempt to try and wear it again, but it never happened.      

It was because of these loving memories that I knew that I needed to share the joy and the love.  As you can see, I well understood the financial hardships of a girl getting outfitted for prom.  My mother was amazing and certainly didn’t deny me the expenses, but she did instill a bit of conscientious knowledge that we were on a budget.  I knew that there were organizations which accepted formal dresses to donate them to charities for girls who could not afford such dresses but should not miss out on the experiences wearing them would bring.  Now with my working, though I am by no means well- off since I make a few dollars above minimum wage, I felt the need to give back.  Of course, being in PR I didn’t know of any local charities for formal gowns.    As it turned out, one of the sites I had browsed so carefully through and even began to follow on twitter took in plus-size formal gowns especially.  I had messaged them for a recommendation as to where I could mail my dresses out to and they were more than happy to accept them.

With the address in hand, I went on my next day off to mail them out.  I probably would have saved on shipping had I merely flat-rated the sending but I’m a frivolous and vain creature.

mailing out (taken with my crackberry)

Instead I spent more on a very pretty heart covered box and a colorful address tag to signify all the love and care they were sent with.  

I know it may sound silly, but I believe in infusing things with positive energy and a colorful, heart covered box made me feel extra positive.  I can only hope that the dresses get a second chance of witnessing a happy night and make their wearers feel extra beautiful and special.  Sydney’s Closet has indicated that they will be sending me something back in appreciation for my donation.  I have no clue what is coming but I sure love getting things in the mail.  My friend, Aixa, says its just the shop-a-holic in me.  I get a rush everytime I know something is going to be shipped to me but I honestly just love getting things in the mail (I even delight in getting my credit card bill).  I try to mail things to other people as often as I can too, often times without their knowing just when they will get it so that way I can surprise them.     

[PS: On an added note, I have no idea why the US Postal Service complains that it's losing money and they say that it seems no one is using its services as much.  Every time I've been in, there is always a line about a dozen people or more long.  It feels like I'm in the post office every week making money orders, buying stamps or shipping out boxes, not to mention all the shipping I pay for when it comes to things being sent to me.  The economy may be in a slump but I'm doing as much as I can by spending and infusing my money is as many sectors as need be.]  

About cooking and other randomness June 24, 2009

Can you believe that I’ve got a list of blog titles so to keep myself writing?  

Well, I do.  

And still I seem to manage to forget to blog!  

I think it had to do with the difficulty of putting up pics with my purse.  I’m on dial-up, so its dern near impossible to get things to upload (and don’t even get me started about how I can’t watch video on here unless I wish it to be an endeavor of 3 hours to wait for it to load).  With these difficulties, my blog posts will have to be more word heavy and less slideshow.  I’m not sure how I feel about that because I love speckling my entries with a random picture here and there.  However, I’m not the best photographer; so perhaps its for the best.  

Now, with that in mind, I’m working out a list of how I should lay out my days of the weeks and more consistently post.  I notice a lot of other blogs have themes.  Mine has always been an eclectic mix of baking, sewing, beauty, rants and reviews.  I have no intention of picking just one topic and blogging about that.  That’s not my life and it wouldn’t be my style.  

So I’m just going to pile it all on here and hope you can sort through the mess.

And perhaps even be a little entertained by it.

(Super Secret news: I’ll be churning out a writing series involving cooking and family. Tune in tomorrow for first installment.)

Meanwhile, I’ve moved so far away from the purpose of my original post that I almost hit PUBLISH on this thing without even getting to it.  

I’d meant to tell you all about how I’ve been cooking a lot more and baking a lot less.

Now you see, I have a work schedule that has 12 hour windows of availability.  My window is from 8am-8pm PST (which, when y’all in the States spring ahead with daylight savings time, it’s the equivalent of 11am-11pm for me) and, while I have a preference set to work at the beginning of this window, my time can be shifted around in between with the 9hr block of work schedule that I have.  Its 9 hours because they divide up my hour day to allow me an hour break(unpaid) and two 15min breaks(paid) throughout the day.  

Since I work in my pjs from the comfort of my own room, I don’t have to worry too much about my meals.  I just hit the fridge for all my meals and snacks in between.  But with only an hour for dinner, it doesn’t allow for too much time to make anything spectacular.  My hours rarely coincide with my mother’s Mon-Wed since she has a typical work week of Mon-Fri.  Meanwhile I work Sat-Wed.  So our respective days off are different and on those days, we each take the task of ensuring the other has a nice home-cooked dinner.  

As some who follow my tweets have noticed, I’m a girl who scampers about doing her errands on Thursday and Friday, then comes home to rustle up something delicious.  Sometimes I just throw some chicken and potatoes into the oven and call it dinner.  Other times I take the time and effort to pull together a delicious pot pie.  I usually don’t plan my menus while my mother has what she will make over the weekend all planned out by Friday.  My style of cooking has always been to just work with what I have on hand.  I joke that I often just wait for the food to speak to me (no cracks about this one, please) but it seems to work.  I can pull a cohesive and delicious meal from a pantry that seems to have nothing edible (as my sis in law can well attest to).  

While I don’t think I actually use recipes when cooking, I do search on Slashfood/AOL recipes for something that will inspire me to work with what I have on hand.  

Her name might be Cow, but she is neither steak nor beef.

That is what I tell her every time she tries to come up on the counter to help me cook.

I feel as if this post would be quite empty if I did not include some sort of recipe, I will include two.  One is for the way I happen to like to have my oatmeal most mornings and the other is for a turkey breast I made last week (mostly impressive because my mother came home with the turkey breast and proceeded to look at me like “Well, what are you going to make with it?”, so I had to pull something out of my recipe McGuyvering (sp?) hat).

Cinnamon- Brown Sugar Oatmeal

single serving

• 1 cup low-fat milk
• 1tsp cinnamon
• 1 tbsp brown sugar
• pinch of salt
• splash of vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup  and a pinch Quick Cooking Oats 

1. In a small saucepan place milk with everything but the oatmeal over medium-high heat.  Stir to ensure cinnamon gets blended completely.
2. When mixture begins to foam, pour in oats and lower heat to medium.  
3. Stir until mixture begins to bubble all gloopily (aprox. 5-6min).
4. Cover while you get the spoon and bowl, allowing to rest for a minute or two. 
5. Serve and enjoy! I usually have mine with some sliced bananas under the oatmeal, my lil bro likes it with chocolate syrup and my mom likes to sprinkle it with raisins.  So you can add anything you like with it or have it alone!

 

Herb Cordon Bleu Stuffed Turkey Breast

serving: 4-6 (depends how hungry they are)

 

• 3lb turkey breast (skinless, boneless. Mine had a bone and I pulled it out and boiled it up for stock)
• 1/2 cup low-fat mozzarella cheese, shredded
• 3oz smoked ham, cubed
• salt
• garlic & herb seasoning (mine was from McCormick but you can use fresh if you have them)
• cotton string (I stole the one my grandma uses to tie pasteles)

 

1. Pre-heat oven to 325F.
2. Lay out some plastic wrap to cover your work surface and lay out the turkey breast. Cover with another layer of plastic wrap and then pound them until they are a more even and expanded surface area. (I took out all my aggressions and used the back of our cast iron skillet pan.  Its sturdy and heavy and just felt right for the job.)
3. Once done bashing, remove upper layer of plastic wrap and lay out about 24″ of the cotton strings under the turkey breasts.  Arrange the breasts so that lengthwise is facing you, then sprinkle with just a hint of salt.  Liberally shake on the garlic/herb concoction and rub into the meat. 
4. Arrange the ham amongst the surface, then sprinkle the cheese.  Leave about half an inch of border from the edge of the meat to keep things neat. 
5. Use bottom layer of plastic wrap to assist in rolling the turkey breast together and tying it off.  Tuck in the outside corners for a neat roll.  
6. Place on a roasting pan with just enough turkey stock to barely cover the bottom of the pan.
7. Bake for 75-90 min until outside is deliciously golden brown.  
8. Turn off oven and allow to rest for 10min before carving since there is cheese inside and you want it and the juices to settle before serving.
9. Eat and enjoy! I served this with some doctored stuffing from a canister (meaning I added lots of sauteed minced up veggies and used the turkey stock) and french cut green beans(from a can).  I used the remaining turkey stock by making it into a gravy (bringing it to a boil, seasoning it, a dash of browning sauce and 2tbsp cornstarch mixed with 1/4cup water until perfect consistency).  

Bombshell Within Designs June 19, 2009

For those of you who follow me on twitter, you’ve heard me pondering the idea to make pretty handbags for quite some months.  The idea first came about back in January when I was shopping for the details for my nephew’s Baptism.  We’d visited a craft shop, Manualidades Sonia in Mayaguez, and we walked up and down every single aisle in search of inspiration when it came to decorations and doing the favor boxes.  Since I love to embroider and cross-stitch, I peeked over in that section even though I didn’t need anything.  When there I found this cute little pattern pack to make a coin purse using ribbon embroidery.  

 

Embroidered coin purse

The technique was new to me and I found that I enjoyed it.  The look was so classic, I was enamored with the idea of using such floral designs but in a larger purse design.  

I’d spent many nights googling and visiting sites, scouring etsy listings and then googling some more to find the right places for what I was looking for.  But I sort of put it off.  In a moment of continued interest after finishing the coin purse, I found a Silk Ribbon Embroidery Bible on Amazon (ps: Amazon is my new addiction for this year.  Seems I evolved from eBay to Amazon.  I have some issues because not every seller on Amazon ships to PR or to PO like addresses, but I do manage to get what I want) but didn’t look at it too closely because in that same order I got On Writing Romance: How to craft a novel that sells.  That had my attention and then afterwards my attention got diverted to other books.  My mother had looked at the embroidery bible and mentioned the purse idea too; she thought it would look quite beautiful and classic.  

I don’t know what struck me but I went through the book a few weeks ago and started writing down which designs I wanted to try.  Then one evening I did some more searching and found that I knew just where to go, so I decided to just get the materials.  It took about 2 weeks for me to get everything that I ordered: the purse handles, the moire fabric, the silk ribbons & the labels.  However I love getting packages, so each arrival was an absolute delight!  I’d rightly assumed that I would not be able to find the majority of what I wanted locally.  There were even a few things that I didn’t even know how to ask for in Spanish (like the moire fabric).  The only thing I bought at a store in town was the satin fabric for the lining. (They did have moire, funnily enough, called the same but pronounced in Spanish, fabric and I purchased some, which I will be using for some future designs, but I don’t like it as much as the one I ordered online .  Once the black and cream fabric gets used up, I’ll go back to ordering online).

When I went on my ordering spree, I had a few designs in mind but once I got the ribbons, I wasn’t as sure that I wanted to do them as much anymore.  So I placed another order for ribbons at other sites, one with an amazing color selection of silk ribbons (it took me about an hour today to get just the right colors for the designs I know I’ll be doing next) and another with a wide variety of organza ribbons.  For now, this was my trial run to see if my concept was feasible.

I started with the pattern for the purse which I started off with creating with gift tissue and tape once I got the purse frames.  Once I had the sizing (I wanted it to be large enough to hold a Mary Kay Compact, a cell phone and a coin purse/ small wallet), I cut the pattern out into cardboard which I’d attained from re-using one of my large Mary Kay product boxes.  It was quite interesting to try out since I did it all while working one Saturday.  Thankfully calls were slow that day!  

Using a washable marker (which thankfully allowed me to remove it with a moist paper towel and a bit of dabbing when I made mistakes), I traced out the pattern and estimated the spot I wanted my pattern to be.  With the ribbons I had on hand, I opted for Closed Irises in a vase.

I had to enlist my grandmother’s help when it came to the beads.  I had ordered some but they were too big.  My grandmother loves to do different sort of crafts.  She makes lace, crochets curtains and makes blankets and shawls as she sees fit.  She was the one who taught me how to crochet (since my mother is left-handed and I’m not, if she had taught me, she’d have taught me how to do it backwards) and embroider, but all the ladies in my family know how to do something, albeit some are more proficient than others.  But when I confided my latest project with my grandmother, she was absolutely delighted because she loves craft projects and that I was following in her footsteps in doing them.  So my grandmother has boxes filled with craft supplies of all kinds.  With a little bit of digging, I found regular pearl beads and pale pink pearl beads in just the right size which she thought would look prettiest with the fabric.  

I think from start to finish, this purse would take me a day.  I had finished the embroidery in a single evening.  

I would have finished the rest but I was waiting on the arrival of the label.

pale pink satin lining with label attached

  

 

 

In a few hours more I had sewn it all up.  The entire thing was done by hand since I learned with making the apron that I can not sew a straight line with a machine.  I didn’t want to ruin the fabric and all my hard work, so I relied more on my hand-sewing skills for the task.  I’m sure with a machine this would be done in a fraction of the time but I enjoyed taking my time with it.  

I think it came out beautifully done and my mother is most excited to use it for her special work luncheon to show it off.  I’m really glad that my mother has been really supportive with this.  I don’t know how much further I’ll take this project but it seems a few friends have already put their informal order for one.  While I love them, the frame is rather expensive, so I will just have to see if we can work something out for their own unique BombshellWithin purse.  I still have one more trial run to do with a more square design rather than the rounded bottom.  Then I know I have to design one with a cupcake since I promised a certain cupcake loving person one for a giveaway.

An Inked Bombshell June 17, 2009

 

(Alternate Title: Why this girl will never go to Extreme Body Arts in Mayaguez Town Center again, nor will she allow any of her friends to go… and they are many; many who like to get inked and pierced but can’t stand to be treated so casually.)

Most that see me would not expect me to be the sort of girl who is tattooed or pierced.  I’m very clean-cut and ever so stylish.  Since my tattoo is not visible to anyone when I’m dressed (and even not visible in a state of undress of just being in my undies), so to the casual observer they would not know that I had anything at all.  I can’t even recall if I’d made mention of this on my blog before.  But despite all this, I do very much like tattoos and piercings.  Aversion for needles aside, I think the whole process is exhilirating and fun.  

This year, around the time of my birthday back in March, I’d decided that I wanted to get another tattoo as a gift to myself.  I’d long known the place I’d situate the next piece of art I’d get inked onto my person, it then became a matter of figuring out the right design.  After weeks of searching and thinking and talking amongst my friends (equally pierced, inked and those who weren’t), I thought I had come up with a very lovely design.  It was to be a heart of made of ivy vines, the inner part of the heart would be come stars and a crescent moon and the upper right corner of the heart was to be a very pretty soft sun.  I got together all sorts of visuals and emailed the tattoo shop that I wished to get it done.  I got a response indicating the times the artist was going to be there and they looked forward to my coming in.  

So, I arrived to the parlor to have the consult on the design.  I knew it was going to take some time to draw together.  In the end the size of it was to be about the size of the palm of my hand and I had saved away a couple hundred dollars to get it done.  But, no sooner had I arrived at the time that the artist was supposed to be there, that the artist was no where to be found.  So I politely waited in the air conditioned cubicle and looked over everything there was to be looked at.  The longer I waited, the more inclined I was to get something pierced.  So I took the time to deliberate as to where I would get my latest piercings. 

(I will take the time to point out how my thought process on a tattoo was very long and intentional but a piercing was rather spur of the moment.  I consider piercings to be quite temporary, seeing as how I have had quite a few of them done in the past in different areas of my body and no longer have them.  The only remnants of said piercings are a bit of an indentation of the skin and a small story to tell.  The thrill for piercings is in the moment and for the temporary ornamentation.  When my styles and interests change, so seem the piercings.  A tattoo is far more permanent and I want to love it for years/decades to come.  I’m still very much in love with my single ivy leaf tattoo as the day I got it.  Mind you, it’s been 6 years and I never once regret getting it.)

My options at the time were to get a tongue piercing or to get a nose stud.  While the one on the tongue was the one that I actually wanted the most I found that I had to be practical when making my decision.  I work as an on-phone Spanish interpreter; 5 days out of 7 spent on the phone talking for 8 hours a day.  If I shoved a piece of metal through my tongue on a Thursday (which is the equivalent of my Saturday when it comes to my work week), I feared that I would not be used to it enough to work a full day on Saturday.  It would not be very attractive to have to answer calls with a fat tongue or injure it from overuse.  I’m sure my fears were exaggerated but I couldn’t risk it.  So instead I defaulted to wanted a nose stud and I wanted the cute little pink sparkly one that they had on display.  I’d reached my decision and still the artist had not arrived.  At this point we’d been waiting for well over an hour.  The dude at the front counter was quite polite and would remember to speak with us now and again, but it still didn’t make up for the fact that we were just waiting until “whenever”.  So I then entertained myself by trying to convince my gay hubby that he SO needed to get his eyebrow pierced because his hotness would increase exponentially. (I also tried to convince him that he SO needed one of them heart/butterfly tramp stamps too, but not even I could say that one with a straight face.)

Eventually the artist made it and I was able to show him the pictures on my computer and explain the concept to him.  He seemed quite excited about working on it and I clearly stated that I was only in town for those two days; as I had to leave the following afternoon by 4pm.  Therefore requiring for any work to be done to be completed by that time.  He assured me that he’d work on it that night and give me a call the next day.  Then he proceeded to stab my nose with a very sharp needle and I fell in love with my nose stud.  I’ve never been fond of my nose.  I think its too round and has no real shape but that of a ball.  It’s small, I will grant you that but with no bridge.  I wasn’t even sure if the piercing would look right.  

 

But it did!  

It was perfect and I went to hang out with my gay hubby under the happy notion that I was going to be called the next day.  

You can guess from my alternate title line that they did not call me.  

However, the very definitive pronouncement of never returning comes from how this story proceeds.  You see, I didn’t get a call but about 2 hours before I had to leave that Friday I stopped in the shop to enquire about the status of the image and of my getting the work done.  I mean, anyone who didn’t so much as blink about dropping over $150 dollars in a store should not be allowed to walk away.  But it seemed they were willing to gamble on my wanting to get the work done.  They asked me to come back the following week under promises of discounts and taxes waived, under promises of speaking to the other tattoo artist (the one who did my original tattoo but only came in after 5pm or on weekends) who was much more dependable and under guarantee that they would call me the following week.  

So I returned the following week and still I did not get any call.  I ended up stopping at the shop because one of my friends needed to get an ear plug/ring thingy to replace the one he had lost.  I was eating ice cream and stood along with him to see what was going to be said to me.  The entire day had gone by, it was about 5pm, we’d just finished having dinner.  The dude at the desk wondered why I had not called or dropped by to look at the design.  I reminded him that they had promised to call me since I did not find it fair that I had to keep dropping in when I was now living 40min away from the place.  He made it seem like I was the one who should have been checking in more than I already had been.  But the artist came out and showed me the design.  He’d supplanted the sun to be a tribal and I did not like it in the least.  I told him that I wanted the sun to be softer, wavier, and the heart to be a bit smaller.  It was very pretty over all, just the sun was not right.  Since I knew the artist was not going to be available the day after (a Friday) because he took calss, I left him my email so he could write to me and show me the finished piece, or we could keep working on it until it was right.  

You guessed it, I never did get an email. 

The only email I did get was about a month later from the owner of the shop asking if I had gotten it done.  He had heard that I’d come in but not had anything tattooed and wanted the honest truth.  I did not respond to the email at the time.  But I’m answering it now… with a link to this blog post. 

I’ve settled down over the incident, mostly chalking it up to some divine intervention that the tattoo was not meant for me at that time.  But at the time let me tell you that I was livid!  That was about 3 weeks invested in trying to get something done and ending up with nothing!  Where is the professional etiquette in this situation?  Had they no pride?  Or were they so vain to think that they could treat customers this way?  After all, its not like I was just some friend trying to freeload.  It was to be a business exchange.  I didn’t even try to haggle or bring down the price.  Any reductions were offered to me but their service never did come through.  How can you expect to run a business that way?  Especially in this economy where everything is so uncertain and so many people are cutting back on so-called luxury items.  I probably should take it as some sort of indication that I’ve seen the shop empty far more times that I’ve seen it full.  I’ve spoken to other artists (all of whom are friends but unfortunately not on island, or else I’d just end up letting one of them ink me) and they could not believe that this happened to me.  Because I did it all right.  I emailed them with the images a week before and confirmed the hours the artist would be there.  Then I was there on time.  It was inexcusable to them that I should get such treatment.  

I may have an alternative lifestyle but I am no masochist.  

Such as it is, I use my blog not only to relate recipes and life events but also to review things.  With that said, let me conclude this part-story/ part-rant as I would any other review:

Final Review: If you have heard of Extreme Body Arts located in Mayaguez Town Center, right across from the main entrance of the UPR-RUM Campus and were thinking of going to this establishment for your piercing/tatoo needs, I’m afraid that I cannot recommend them.  Their hours are erratic, their staff is not dependable.  My decision is not just based on the experience mentioned just now but from all my years as a student of the UPRM.  The people might be nice and cool all on their own, but I question their business sense.  I wish I could sum this story up by providing the name of other establishments that you might be able to go to but I don’t quite remember the name of two shops that are in town.  I wish Dark Angel Studios was still open since I do so adore Alex and the work he did.  His artistry is amazing and I would let him ink anything on me any day of the week.  However, I would not do such if that is the only place he could do the work in.  Sadly they lost a customer but I won’t be so vain to think that this will affect them in any way.  Still, I hold true to recommending only the best places.  My opinion might be just one, but one cannot excuse such cavelier treatment, no matter who it happens to.   

(Alternate Title: Why this girl will never go to Extreme Body Arts in Mayaguez Town Center again, nor will she allow any of her friends to go… and they are many; many who like to get inked and pierced but can’t stand to be treated so casually.)

Most that see me would not expect me to be the sort of girl who is tattooed or pierced.  I’m very clean-cut and ever so stylish.  Since my tattoo is not visible to anyone when I’m dressed (and even not visible in a state of undress of just being in my undies), so to the casual observer they would not know that I had anything at all.  I can’t even recall if I’d made mention of this on my blog before.  But despite all this, I do very much like tattoos and piercings.  Aversion for needles aside, I think the whole process is exhilirating and fun.  

This year, around the time of my birthday back in March, I’d decided that I wanted to get another tattoo as a gift to myself.  I’d long known the place I’d situate the next piece of art I’d get inked onto my person, it then became a matter of figuring out the right design.  After weeks of searching and thinking and talking amongst my friends (equally pierced, inked and those who weren’t), I thought I had come up with a very lovely design.  It was to be a heart of made of ivy vines, the inner part of the heart would be come stars and a crescent moon and the upper right corner of the heart was to be a very pretty soft sun.  I got together all sorts of visuals and emailed the tattoo shop that I wished to get it done.  I got a response indicating the times the artist was going to be there and they looked forward to my coming in.  

So, I arrived to the parlor to have the consult on the design.  I knew it was going to take some time to draw together.  In the end the size of it was to be about the size of the palm of my hand and I had saved away a couple hundred dollars to get it done.  But, no sooner had I arrived at the time that the artist was supposed to be there, that the artist was no where to be found.  So I politely waited in the air conditioned cubicle and looked over everything there was to be looked at.  The longer I waited, the more inclined I was to get something pierced.  So I took the time to deliberate as to where I would get my latest piercings. 

(I will take the time to point out how my thought process on a tattoo was very long and intentional but a piercing was rather spur of the moment.  I consider piercings to be quite temporary, seeing as how I have had quite a few of them done in the past in different areas of my body and no longer have them.  The only remnants of said piercings are a bit of an indentation of the skin and a small story to tell.  The thrill for piercings is in the moment and for the temporary ornamentation.  When my styles and interests change, so seem the piercings.  A tattoo is far more permanent and I want to love it for years/decades to come.  I’m still very much in love with my single ivy leaf tattoo as the day I got it.  Mind you, it’s been 6 years and I never once regret getting it.)

My options at the time were to get a tongue piercing or to get a nose stud.  While the one on the tongue was the one that I actually wanted the most I found that I had to be practical when making my decision.  I work as an on-phone Spanish interpreter; 5 days out of 7 spent on the phone talking for 8 hours a day.  If I shoved a piece of metal through my tongue on a Thursday (which is the equivalent of my Saturday when it comes to my work week), I feared that I would not be used to it enough to work a full day on Saturday.  It would not be very attractive to have to answer calls with a fat tongue or injure it from overuse.  I’m sure my fears were exaggerated but I couldn’t risk it.  So instead I defaulted to wanted a nose stud and I wanted the cute little pink sparkly one that they had on display.  I’d reached my decision and still the artist had not arrived.  At this point we’d been waiting for well over an hour.  The dude at the front counter was quite polite and would remember to speak with us now and again, but it still didn’t make up for the fact that we were just waiting until “whenever”.  So I then entertained myself by trying to convince my gay hubby that he SO needed to get his eyebrow pierced because his hotness would increase exponentially. (I also tried to convince him that he SO needed one of them heart/butterfly tramp stamps too, but not even I could say that one with a straight face.)

Eventually the artist made it and I was able to show him the pictures on my computer and explain the concept to him.  He seemed quite excited about working on it and I clearly stated that I was only in town for those two days; as I had to leave the following afternoon by 4pm.  Therefore requiring for any work to be done to be completed by that time.  He assured me that he’d work on it that night and give me a call the next day.  Then he proceeded to stab my nose with a very sharp needle and I fell in love with my nose stud.  I’ve never been fond of my nose.  I think its too round and has no real shape but that of a ball.  It’s small, I will grant you that but with no bridge.  I wasn’t even sure if the piercing would look right.  

 

Bombshell-closeup

 

 

But it did!  

It was perfect and I went to hang out with my gay hubby under the happy notion that I was going to be called the next day.  

You can guess from my alternate title line that they did not call me.  

However, the very definitive pronouncement of never returning comes from how this story proceeds.  You see, I didn’t get a call but about 2 hours before I had to leave that Friday I stopped in the shop to enquire about the status of the image and of my getting the work done.  I mean, anyone who didn’t so much as blink about dropping over $150 dollars in a store should not be allowed to walk away.  But it seemed they were willing to gamble on my wanting to get the work done.  They asked me to come back the following week under promises of discounts and taxes waived, under promises of speaking to the other tattoo artist (the one who did my original tattoo but only came in after 5pm or on weekends) who was much more dependable and under guarantee that they would call me the following week.  

So I returned the following week and still I did not get any call.  I ended up stopping at the shop because one of my friends needed to get an ear plug/ring thingy to replace the one he had lost.  I was eating ice cream and stood along with him to see what was going to be said to me.  The entire day had gone by, it was about 5pm, we’d just finished having dinner.  The dude at the desk wondered why I had not called or dropped by to look at the design.  I reminded him that they had promised to call me since I did not find it fair that I had to keep dropping in when I was now living 40min away from the place.  He made it seem like I was the one who should have been checking in more than I already had been.  But the artist came out and showed me the design.  He’d supplanted the sun to be a tribal and I did not like it in the least.  I told him that I wanted the sun to be softer, wavier, and the heart to be a bit smaller.  It was very pretty over all, just the sun was not right.  Since I knew the artist was not going to be available the day after (a Friday) because he took calss, I left him my email so he could write to me and show me the finished piece, or we could keep working on it until it was right.  

You guessed it, I never did get an email. 

The only email I did get was about a month later from the owner of the shop asking if I had gotten it done.  He had heard that I’d come in but not had anything tattooed and wanted the honest truth.  I did not respond to the email at the time.  But I’m answering it now… with a link to this blog post. 

I’ve settled down over the incident, mostly chalking it up to some divine intervention that the tattoo was not meant for me at that time.  But at the time let me tell you that I was livid!  That was about 3 weeks invested in trying to get something done and ending up with nothing!  Where is the professional etiquette in this situation?  Had they no pride?  Or were they so vain to think that they could treat customers this way?  After all, its not like I was just some friend trying to freeload.  It was to be a business exchange.  I didn’t even try to haggle or bring down the price.  Any reductions were offered to me but their service never did come through.  How can you expect to run a business that way?  Especially in this economy where everything is so uncertain and so many people are cutting back on so-called luxury items.  I probably should take it as some sort of indication that I’ve seen the shop empty far more times that I’ve seen it full.  I’ve spoken to other artists (all of whom are friends but unfortunately not on island, or else I’d just end up letting one of them ink me) and they could not believe that this happened to me.  Because I did it all right.  I emailed them with the images a week before and confirmed the hours the artist would be there.  Then I was there on time.  It was inexcusable to them that I should get such treatment.  

I may have an alternative lifestyle but I am no masochist.  

Such as it is, I use my blog not only to relate recipes and life events but also to review things.  With that said, let me conclude this part-story/ part-rant as I would any other review:

Final Review: If you have heard of Extreme Body Arts located in Mayaguez Town Center, right across from the main entrance of the UPR-RUM Campus and were thinking of going to this establishment for your piercing/tatoo needs, I’m afraid that I cannot recommend them.  Their hours are erratic, their staff is not dependable.  My decision is not just based on the experience mentioned just now but from all my years as a student of the UPRM.  The people might be nice and cool all on their own, but I question their business sense.  I wish I could sum this story up by providing the name of other establishments that you might be able to go to but I don’t quite remember the name of two shops that are in town.  I wish Dark Angel Studios was still open since I do so adore Alex and the work he did.  His artistry is amazing and I would let him ink anything on me any day of the week.  However, I would not do such if that is the only place he could do the work in.  Sadly they lost a customer but I won’t be so vain to think that this will affect them in any way.  Still, I hold true to recommending only the best places.  My opinion might be just one, but one cannot excuse such cavelier treatment, no matter who it happens to.

Bombshell Delights: Polish June 16, 2009

Every girl has a list of things that she loves and, when she finds a good thing, she should have no qualms in sharing her secret.  Though some of the sharing isn’t quite the absolute truth, like when I share what color lipstick I’m wearing.  I may say that I’m wearing… say, Mary Kay Sunset, in all actuality I’m also wearing some lipliner and lipgloss over it to give it a slightly different shade.  So while the color is true, there is a different effect than just the color cannot simply provide on it’s own.  

However, some things are a lot simpler.

As of late I’ve acquired some favorites, so let me share one of these good things:

For about a year I would actually get my nails done every 3 weeks with the acrylic and the airbrushed designs.  I wouldn’t keep my nails too long but they were long enough for people to notice them.  But for the summer I just wasn’t feeling it to go keep going to the salon and having the fake nails.  So I was wandering about the local shopping center on the search for some pretty nail polish colors.  Previously I’d never really had a real love for a particular brand.  I sort of liked a few, mostly I went by shades of interest.  But I stopped into Sally’s Beauty Supply for the things I needed to remove the acrylic and I noticed there was a sale going on for China Glaze  nail polish.  So I thought to peruse the stand of colors.  

The array was colorful and caught my eye.  There was another display right next to this one but the colors for China Glaze appealed to me because there was a wider variety than just the pinks, browns, beiges and reds.  Not knowing anything about it, I picked out just two bottles of polish for the discounted price.  

 The Fast Forward TopCoat since I like my nails to be glossy when I’m done

Being a Bombshell, I needed a gorgeous red polish, so Ruby Pumps it was  

 

And since I really liked using those two, I went back and got 3 bottles more:

Tempest appealed to me, I had a yearning for something purple but not

I don’t know why but For Audrey really called to me

Though this one is called Frostbite, I would actually call it SuperHero Blue.  I swear, this would be the sort of electric blue that those spandex costumes are made of. 

The colors are vibrant, the consistency of the polish is even when applying and they have a wonderful shine to them.  I had some chipping with Ruby Pumps but mostly because I kept breaking my nails.  Wearing Frostbite this week and my mother can’t understand why I want blue nails.  But these vibrant shades are very hot colors to be wearing.  They work well on short, rounded nails.  It’s fun now for the summer (or like me where it’s perpetual summer) when we’re showing off so much skin.    

I got mine from my local Sally’s Beauty Supply, but the images here are from this site and you can order the colors from there directly.

A girl giving a review on Nintendo DS games June 16, 2009

 

 

In my family, when the weeks before Christmas begin to wind down and we’ve given our gift buying some thought, we usually stop to actually ask the person 

we’re buying for what they would like to receive.  Some people have a clear idea of what they want and it’s just the job of one person to be the holder of 

their list.  This way the ideas can be dispersed and gifts are not repeated.  My mom keeps the list of things my little brother wants, I in turn keep the 

list for my mother, my sis in law for my older brother and my little brother keeps surprisingly good track of the movies that my aunt asks for.  However, not 

everyone has a clear idea of what they want to get, so then there is usually someone who knows this person best and can recommend what to give them.  Usually 

I’m the one who can give ideas of what to get for my sis in law, my aunt keeps general tab of what my grandmother may like and my mom can give ideas about 

me. 

While I think my mother is the hardest one to buy for, it’s really only in the sense that it’s hard to come up with something original to please her.  She’s 

usually very good at providing me with a list of ideas of things she’d like.  However, when you don’t want to just give those things without some personal 

thought or when you end up giving all those ideas to other people to make the shopping experience easier, then she’s exceedinly difficult to buy for.  Still, 

with every year that I “grow up” and am able to have more funds to purchase gifts for her, the better I have become at getting her some really nice things.  

This past Christmas I gave her a red Blackberry Curve phone and for Mother’s day I got her a hot pink iPod shuffle.  Both, am happy to report, she delighted 

in receiving and she’s liking how she’s evolving into a more tech saavy person.

Meanwhile, the rest of my family believes that I’m the hardest to buy for because I never ask for anything and seem not to lack anything.  But, at the same 

time, I like a lot of things but nothing enough to give a truly large and impressive gift.  My mother says that it’s fine to give me a blow dryer or a 

curling iron but what is so impressive about that?  Its gotten to the point that no one really ever asks me… perhaps only Dee still asks me but I know I’m 

impossible to buy for.  Most years I truly draw a blank when asked for what I want.  

When I asked for a Nintendo DS for Christmas, I think everyone was more than a little surprised; firstly because I never ask for anything and secondly 

because it something electronic/game related.  I can’t explain really why I suddenly wanted it but I did.  I kept waiting for someone to ask me what I wanted 

but no one did.  It was getting dangerously close to the time my mother was leaving for her holiday vacation to Texas and I was able to insinuate the 

conversation by verifying what it was that she wanted.  For her it was going to be easy since she and my lil bro would not be opening our gifts until she 

came back from Texas.  This allowed me to get paid one more time and able to better budget things.  And then I was able to turn the tables and sweetly ask 

why she hadn’t asked me what I wanted.  ”You never ask for anything! I think I know what I’m going to buy you but now that I know you want something, I’m 

open to hear suggestions.” She told me.

So I told her that I wanted a pretty pink Nintendo DS.  She was flabbergasted.  This would be the first year I’d ever asked for something as serious as that 

and being such, how could she deny getting me it.  So what she had planned to give me (a Blackberry, which she ended up giving me for my birthday) went on 

the back burner and it was pretty much assumed that I’d be getting my pink Nintendo DS, despite it being close to a month before Christmas and such things 

were quickly selling out.  It was such a given in fact that my gay hubby gifted me with a DS game when he came to bake cookies with me.  This was 

particularly funny since I didn’t have the system to play it with but it was only a matter of waiting 2 days for me to get it.  

At the time that I asked for the DS, I really didn’t know much about the games.  I sort of just had the idea that I’d play Brain Age or something on it.  I’d 

been seeing a lot of commercials for the DS and I think their ploy to appeal to female gamers really worked.  With only one game system to buy for (my gay 

posse and my lil bro all have several systems with a handful of games for each one), I try to make it a habit of acquiring a new game every month and for the 

most part that has been working out fairly well. 

With all that said, now I will go about reviewing the games I have.  Granted, I’m not a professional.  Heck, I might not even have completed all of the games 

I’m about to review, neither did I use any sort of cheat codes to gain extra things.  I’m just opinionated and like to be honest.  Some of you may care, some 

of you might not… but it might just help you next time you’re in the game aisle wondering what exactly to get amongst the multitude of titles that appear 

before you!

-Diner Dash (PlayFirst): This was the first game that I got, even before I had somewhere to play it on.  I had both parts one and two on my cell phone and I 

suppose it was for that reason that my gay hubby believed that I would like it for the DS.  I find the game highly entertaining because it’s pretty 

engrossing and can get rather fast paced.  The object of the game is to help Flo work the tables by seating, taking orders, providing food- sometimes even 

drinks, appetizers and desserts-, giving the bill and clearing out the tables so that she can get enough money to get her own place.  You have to do these 

things quickly and you gain bonuses (ie: higher tips) for color matching, stacking repeated actions and keeping people happy.  There are even different types 

of customers so that you learn how to manage seating since each one takes a different amount of time eating and not everyone can be seated next to one 

another depending on their noise level.  You also decorate each restaurant as you like with a few basic options and you get to dress Flo with a new outfit 

she gains after completing a restaurant.     

Final Review: I have yet to finish this game to the end but I do enjoy Diner Dash.  Its a fun way to pass the time and the best part is that the 

levels get saved and you can always just pick it up whenever you like just right where you left off.  There is even the option to play continuous service, so 

even if you’ve done all the levels you can just return for kicks.  

-The Quest Trio (Activision): If anyone has spent hours playing JewelQuest online, than you’ll definitely love this trio game.  Not only does it have the 

funny little jewel board you have to switch around, but there is Jewel Solitaire and Jewel MahJong.  If you play them quests in the order I have just 

mentioned, then you will get this amazing story of adventure and romance, which for some reason get moved along by you playing out these puzzles.  But, for 

those of you who do not know anything about this particular games, lemme give a quick rundown.  

JewelQuest: Different colored jewels fall into a grid which vary in shape.  When you match 3 or more in either a vertical or horizontal line, the 

panel behind it gets a color change and the jewels disappear, dropping down the ones above it and refilling the board.  The object is to match so that the 

entire panel gets changed to the right color before time runs out.  Sometimes a single matching will do the trick but later on, you need to match it at least 

twice to gain this objective.  Other times there are jewels that are buried and you need to match them first to uncover them and still other times there are 

bombs in your way that, if matched, they take away the gold of the background, making you have to rematch on those squares.  There is even the little deal 

with the gold coins that, if matched, give you like a gold coin counter.  What took me MANY levels to learn was that if you find yourself unable to match a 

square or two and time is running out, all you need to is touch the coin counter and it will transform those random squares for you.

Jewel Solitaire: By far this is my favorite one.  This one is played with cards and they come in the full assortment of numbers and different 

jewel/color combinations.  The point of it is to clear out the cards on the board by dropping them down into your main  pile in either ascending or 

descending order.  You can go up and down, play wild cards or draw from your deck to help you along.  There is no timing to this but do it wrong and you’ll 

be out of cards in your deck and unable to match the cards to clear the board.  As the game progresses, the card layout become more complex and intricate, 

but you also gain interesting wild cards that allow you such things as playing duplicates by stacking them together, creating other piles or peeking at the 

top card of the deck.  If you play this in quest mode, then you get to play both a card layout and a jewel board.  How well you manage to pattern the cards 

is how well laid out you have the jewels, plus it decides just how many moves you can make to change your board colors.

Jewel Mahjong: This is the game that I play the least, so I’m not really sure what the whole quest angle is about.  Mostly it’s like most of the tile 

matching games with some added prophesies, balloons and even bombs breaking up walls.  The effects are rather pretty but I like the number game more than the 

tile matching. 

Final Review: I suppose that each game on its own can be rather entertaining but this game has all 3!  So I like how you can cohesively play 

the whole story.    

-Syberia (DreamCatcher): This was also part of my holiday haul and I have to same the most random game gift.  I’d never heard of this game and since I’ve gotten it, I’ve still not heard of it.  Its supposed to be one of those games where you play this character who wanders about town, finding clues and solving these mechanical puzzles.  You end up in Syberia in hopes of finding the heir of some company that you are hoping to acquire for the company you work for.  The scenes are rather lovely, but I have to say that it’s rather confusing.  There seems to be a certain order to things and if you don’t do them exactly right or touch something in just the right minute spot then it won’t work or make any sense. 

Final Review: I’m sure the game could be fun for other people, but it doesn’t seem to be the right sort of game for me.  Perhaps I don’t have the patience but it seems to take forever to talk to people and even more time to accomplish or learn anything.  Even from what I’ve read about the game online there doesn’t seem to be much that recommends playing it. 

-Brain Buster: Puzzle Pack (Agetec.): My mother got me this game for Christmas.  I have to say that I’m not a big fan of the games that are on it.  It’s supposed to be about 5 games, Sudoku being one of them.  I’m not a fan of Sudoku enough to really play this game much and I think the other 4 games on this bundle game are so obscure that they have gone and escaped me as to what their names are.

Final Review: I’m sure my mother meant well because I think she thought that I enjoyed playing Sudoku like everyone else in the family seems to.  I really don’t though and I feel like it might be lost on me.  The visuals are rather basic and the grids not that interesting.  It turns out she gave it to both my sis in law and myself, as long with the next game, as a grand joke of her’s… so that each of us could have someone to talk to about the games.

-Cooking Mama2: Dinner with Friends: When it comes to this game, you either love it or you hate it.  The premise of it is that you are letting Mama teach you some recipes.  Each step of the process can be chopping, stirring, adding things in order, cooking/baking/grilling and so on and so forth in a series of screen taps and strokes of the stylus.  It really makes good use of the second screen touch pad.  You really need to have some finesse with it.  So, you practice and learn techniques and then later try them all on your own to impress some judges to win some prizes.  The food you try to make is truly international cuisine.  Do them right and you get Mama’s praise.  Do it wrong and you will get the evil glare that is Mama’s wrath.  There is also the neat function that you can change out the appearance of Mama and of the cooking items that you use, like the knife handles or the cutting board colors.  There are something like… 70 recipes for you to “learn” to make and you can retry them all to be sure that you gain gold medals (perfect score) in all.  Not to mention that if gives you the ability to practice the steps as many times as you like until you feel confident that you can pass them. 

Final Review: I hated this game so much when I first began to play it.  When you play a game, you want to feel rather brilliant passing the levels, but if you don’t know the right squiggle techniques with the stylus or what the signal on the screen is to indicate done-ness, you sort of have to wing it and hope Mama doesn’t get mad at you.  Once you get the right techniques down (and these I learned by comparing notes with my sis in law about how to do them), I found that I actually enjoyed the game.  Funny how so many people can hear the little music and recognize the game now!  I had a cook at Denny’s suddenly stop and emphatically proclaim how much she hated cooking with Mama!  While it was strange to hear her initial outburst, in the end it amused me.  Your enjoyment is based entirely on your ability to master all the touch screen techniques necessary.  While you can’t actually learn a recipe, it does give you an idea on how certain things get made which can be fun too.

Brain Age2: This was the first game I bought for myself.  I had played the first Brain Age game on Dee’s DS over the summer and had thought it fun enough.  Its a fun way to spend about 10-15min of every day to go through different games that are supposed to improve your memory and brain function.  there are some days you will be faster than others and sometimes your competitive edge will get you to try and beat out your previous day’s score.  Over all, I think I would keep trying to improve my numbers constantly if it weren’t for the fact that it only takes one record per day per game.  There are such things like date memory, sign selection, word scramble, piano, number race, block count, et al.  You can play any alternation of 3 per day, which is the recommended amount that you should play.  Then there is a special test that gives you three random skills test, either verbal or non-verbal, to determine what your mental age is.  The age of 20 is supposedly the best age you can be, but I never aimed for it.  Really I just tried aim for my own age when it came to the test.  There was the very cool rock-paper-scissors game but you could only play it with the microphone while testing your brain age.  

Final Review: Its easy to begin the habit but I guess my memory did not improve enough for me to remember to do it every single day for extended periods of time.  The Doctor makes me feel bad for not having seen him in some time.  You do better with your scores if you do them later in the day because you’ve given yourself time for your brain to really warm up and be at optimum performance rating.  A lot of the things are timed, so I find it hard to do them while I’m working.  This did affect my numbers for a while.  Over all I have to say I liked most of the little 2min games.  When it came to using the microphone, it seems I just could not get the hang of it.  It would not recognize my word and it would cost me time.  This did not gratify me in any way.  Overall its a good game to have if you want to do a little something everyday.  Its also a cool way for you to realize what your strengths are, whether it be in memorizing/recognizing numbers or letters/words.   

-CakeMania: I bought this game for myself.  I had played it online through MSN games.  It has the whole order sequencing thing that Diner Dash has.  Your character is trying to bake cakes to buy back her grandparent’s bakery from some Mega-Mart conglomerate.  So you take orders and then bake the cakes to order.  You have to do them quickly and learn to mutli-task since you need to bake, frost and decorate cakes, later you stack them, all before the client gets too terribly impatient and not pay you the complete amount.  And you actually do need to make as much money as possible per round on this one because you actually use it to buy things for your bakery.  You need more than one oven and frosting station and you want to get it working as fast as possible.  You can upgrade your shoes, the ovens, the frosting, the cupcake oven, get a cake stand or a tv and buy all sorts of cake toppers to go with all occasions.  There are different sort of clients as well with different tastes when it comes to selecting cake shapes and decorations and are equally as varied when it comes to their degree of patience.  There are even seasonal characters as well, but most of those seem just like grumpy-pusses.  Seriously, cupid should make the customers fall in love, not get all hissy-fit because the cake is taking too long.  Don’t even get me started about the Easter Bunny.  Seriously, he should have been cute and cuddly, not like some sweaty, disgruntled, fat man shoved in a pink costume.  

Final Review: On a whole I find the game vastly entertaining.  You can save the same game on different tracks so that way you can backtrack should you have purchased the wrong upgrade.  In the end, as much as I like the game, once you complete the levels, there isn’t much else to do.  There is a bonus CakeMania 2 part to it, but its really just more of the same but at different locations.  

Professor Leyton and the Curious Village: I was given this recommendation from the Panda before we broke up.  He’d sweetly taken an hour of his time to research a possible game recommendation for me.  I’m apparently a rather picky puzzle/strategy gamer.  After he’d recommended it was when all the commercials for it started coming out.  When I got it for myself for my birthday, it was a relatively new game and I didn’t have a real clue as to what it was all about.  But the general premise of the game is that you go along with Professor Leyton and his assistant to the Curious Village.  Professor Leyton is not a detective, just a master puzzle solver.  So he arrives to this mysterious village in the hunt to the answer of the golden apple.  Along the way you have to solve puzzles in order to get info, get objects or just plain go ahead.  The puzzles vary from everything from mathematical, logical, optical, mazes and jigsaw.  So it really depends on what your forte is as to how well you do on this.  With each puzzle solved from the various curious villagers you get paid in picarats.  What the real point of this money system is, I’m not sure.  Along this the main mystery, there are also little side quests as well as bonus puzzles unlocked if you complete them… such as complete the gadgets, the jigsaw painting or furnishing the rooms.  

Final Review: I have to say that this game delighted me to no end.  I loved solving the puzzles and wandering the village.  The designs were just cute and Professor Leyton an absolute gentleman.  There were certain puzzles that I had to go off and find the solutions for.  But that doesn’t detract from the general fun of the game.  I did not manage to unluck all the puzzles and the absolute end of the storyline was so enchanting that I’m absolutely looking forward to the next installment in the Professor Leyton series.  I will likely play this game again once I’ve let my memory forget some of the answers to the puzzles, otherwise I don’t know if the game is worth keeping once you’ve completed the storyline. 

Hell’s Kitchen (Ubisoft): This was a birthday present from my gay hubby and I knew that the game had come out but I had had no clue that it had come out for the DS.  Based on the series, Gordon Ramsey (whom I absolutely adore and would love to just be able to stare into his hunky eyes and share a gloriously elegant meal with) is trying to get you to run his restaurant.  It has the same Diner Dash concept that you have to seat customers, take their orders and serve them but it has the Cooking Mama concept of having to time and prepare the food.  Its not as complicated as cooking mama, mainly because the ingredients are generalized and all you have to do is tap them and get them cooking in the right combination and order for them to be perfectly done and on time.  The funniest part is that Chef Ramsey is standing at the top screen giving you insults or compliments based on your performance.  Angry customers will make the flames grow and give you a lower score rating.  Served perfectly, the flames will go down and you can advance to the next levels.  It does take some practice to get the whole timing thing right but once you do it’s really quite easy to get it all together.

Final Review: I adore Chef Ramsey and I was watching that season of Hell’s Kitchen when it came out.  The levels are fairly easy to beat overall, but darn hard to do if you go back and try to beat each one at 100%.  The best part of this game is that there are actual recipes from Gordon Ramsey on there.  Unlike Cooking Mama, the recipe book is actually useful and there are quite a few dishes on there that I would love to try.  There is this added feature of being able to just do continuous service in the kitchen and it can get bloody hard!  I’m still trying to get above 37pts and have been unable to.  So this is what has me keeping the game around.  

My French/Japanese Coach (Ubisoft): These are actually two games and not a coach to teach you to speak Japanese from French or vice versa.  I had heard from my friend Benji that the French coach was a lot of fun.  I do know some French so on the diagnostic test I got a 48/50 but the Japanese one I got like a 7/50 but I think I got that many because I managed to get a few lucky guesses.  When you get two in a row wrong then the diagnostic test is over.  I only began the Japanese one but then I realized I should probably practice one language at a time.  Both games are essentially the same, you have this lovely and nice coach/sensei to go through the lessons with you.  You start with the basics and learning levels, from infants through the grades and onward.  The games are things like whack-a-word, memory, bridge building, matching, mutiple choice and word search.  The difference is that Japanese has an added element of learning how to write the characters as well.  

Final Review: The games are very neat.  There is this option to record your voice and compare it to the recording of just how to say it.  They really make you drill the repetitions until you get it right.  They should be played with headphones so that way you catch the full nuances of the language.  Overall, you do as well as the practice you put into it.       

In my family, when the weeks before Christmas begin to wind down and we’ve given our gift buying some thought, we usually stop to actually ask the person we’re buying for what they would like to receive.  Some people have a clear idea of what they want and it’s just the job of one person to be the holder of their list.  This way the ideas can be dispersed and gifts are not repeated.  My mom keeps the list of things my little brother wants, I in turn keep the list for my mother, my sis in law for my older brother and my little brother keeps surprisingly good track of the movies that my aunt asks for.  However, not everyone has a clear idea of what they want to get, so then there is usually someone who knows this person best and can recommend what to give them.  Usually I’m the one who can give ideas of what to get for my sis in law, my aunt keeps general tab of what my grandmother may like and my mom can give ideas about me. 

While I think my mother is the hardest one to buy for, it’s really only in the sense that it’s hard to come up with something original to please her.  She’s usually very good at providing me with a list of ideas of things she’d like.  However, when you don’t want to just give those things without some personal thought or when you end up giving all those ideas to other people to make the shopping experience easier, then she’s exceedinly difficult to buy for.  Still, with every year that I “grow up” and am able to have more funds to purchase gifts for her, the better I have become at getting her some really nice things.  This past Christmas I gave her a red Blackberry Curve phone and for Mother’s day I got her a hot pink iPod shuffle.  Both, am happy to report, she delighted in receiving and she’s liking how she’s evolving into a more tech saavy person.

Meanwhile, the rest of my family believes that I’m the hardest to buy for because I never ask for anything and seem not to lack anything.  But, at the same time, I like a lot of things but nothing enough to give a truly large and impressive gift.  My mother says that it’s fine to give me a blow dryer or a curling iron but what is so impressive about that?  Its gotten to the point that no one really ever asks me… perhaps only Dee still asks me but I know I’m impossible to buy for.  Most years I truly draw a blank when asked for what I want.  

When I asked for a Nintendo DS for Christmas, I think everyone was more than a little surprised; firstly because I never ask for anything and secondly because it something electronic/game related.  I can’t explain really why I suddenly wanted it but I did.  I kept waiting for someone to ask me what I wanted but no one did.  It was getting dangerously close to the time my mother was leaving for her holiday vacation to Texas and I was able to insinuate the conversation by verifying what it was that she wanted.  For her it was going to be easy since she and my lil bro would not be opening our gifts until she came back from Texas.  This allowed me to get paid one more time and able to better budget things.  And then I was able to turn the tables and sweetly ask why she hadn’t asked me what I wanted.  ”You never ask for anything! I think I know what I’m going to buy you but now that I know you want something, I’m open to hear suggestions.” She told me.So I told her that I wanted a pretty pink Nintendo DS.  She was flabbergasted.  This would be the first year I’d ever asked for something as serious as that and being such, how could she deny getting me it.  So what she had planned to give me (a Blackberry, which she ended up giving me for my birthday) went on the back burner and it was pretty much assumed that I’d be getting my pink Nintendo DS, despite it being close to a month before Christmas and such things were quickly selling out.  It was such a given in fact that my gay hubby gifted me with a DS game when he came to bake cookies with me.  This was particularly funny since I didn’t have the system to play it with but it was only a matter of waiting 2 days for me to get it.  

At the time that I asked for the DS, I really didn’t know much about the games.  I sort of just had the idea that I’d play Brain Age or something on it.  I’d been seeing a lot of commercials for the DS and I think their ploy to appeal to female gamers really worked.  With only one game system to buy for (my gay posse and my lil bro all have several systems with a handful of games for each one), I try to make it a habit of acquiring a new game every month and for the most part that has been working out fairly well. 

With all that said, now I will go about reviewing the games I have.  Granted, I’m not a professional.  Heck, I might not even have completed all of the games I’m about to review, neither did I use any sort of cheat codes to gain extra things.  I’m just opinionated and like to be honest.  Some of you may care, some of you might not… but it might just help you next time you’re in the game aisle wondering what exactly to get amongst the multitude of titles that appear before you!

• Diner Dash (PlayFirst): This was the first game that I got, even before I had somewhere to play it on.  I had both parts one and two on my cell phone and I suppose it was for that reason that my gay hubby believed that I would like it for the DS.  I find the game highly entertaining because it’s pretty engrossing and can get rather fast paced.  The object of the game is to help Flo work the tables by seating, taking orders, providing food- sometimes even drinks, appetizers and desserts-, giving the bill and clearing out the tables so that she can get enough money to get her own place.  You have to do these things quickly and you gain bonuses (ie: higher tips) for color matching, stacking repeated actions and keeping people happy.  There are even different types of customers so that you learn how to manage seating since each one takes a different amount of time eating and not everyone can be seated next to one another depending on their noise level.  You also decorate each restaurant as you like with a few basic options and you get to dress Flo with a new outfit she gains after completing a restaurant.     

Final Review: I have yet to finish this game to the end but I do enjoy Diner Dash.  Its a fun way to pass the time and the best part is that the levels get saved and you can always just pick it up whenever you like just right where you left off.  There is even the option to play continuous service, so even if you’ve done all the levels you can just return for kicks.  

 
The Quest Trio (Activision): If anyone has spent hours playing JewelQuest online, than you’ll definitely love this trio game.  Not only does it have the funny little jewel board you have to switch around, but there is Jewel Solitaire and Jewel MahJong.  If you play them quests in the order I have just mentioned, then you will get this amazing story of adventure and romance, which for some reason get moved along by you playing out these puzzles.  But, for those of you who do not know anything about this particular games, lemme give a quick rundown. 

1. JewelQuest: Different colored jewels fall into a grid which vary in shape.  When you match 3 or more in either a vertical or horizontal line, the panel behind it gets a color change and the jewels disappear, dropping down the ones above it and refilling the board.  The object is to match so that the entire panel gets changed to the right color before time runs out.  Sometimes a single matching will do the trick but later on, you need to match it at least twice to gain this objective.  Other times there are jewels that are buried and you need to match them first to uncover them and still other times there are bombs in your way that, if matched, they take away the gold of the background, making you have to rematch on those squares.  There is even the little deal with the gold coins that, if matched, give you like a gold coin counter.  What took me MANY levels to learn was that if you find yourself unable to match a square or two and time is running out, all you need to is touch the coin counter and it will transform those random squares for you.  
2. Jewel Solitaire: By far this is my favorite one.  This one is played with cards and they come in the full assortment of numbers and different jewel/color combinations.  The point of it is to clear out the cards on the board by dropping them down into your main  pile in either ascending or descending order.  You can go up and down, play wild cards or draw from your deck to help you along.  There is no timing to this but do it wrong and you’ll be out of cards in your deck and unable to match the cards to clear the board.  As the game progresses, the card layout become more complex and intricate, but you also gain interesting wild cards that allow you such things as playing duplicates by stacking them together, creating other piles or peeking at the top card of the deck.  If you play this in quest mode, then you get to play both a card layout and a jewel board.  How well you manage to pattern the cards is how well laid out you have the jewels, plus it decides just how many moves you can make to change your board colors.   
3. Jewel Mahjong: This is the game that I play the least, so I’m not really sure what the whole quest angle is about.  Mostly it’s like most of the tile matching games with some added prophesies, balloons and even bombs breaking up walls.  The effects are rather pretty but I like the number game more than the tile matching.   

Final Review: I suppose that each game on its own can be rather entertaining but this game has all 3!  So I like how you can cohesively play the whole story.   

• Syberia (DreamCatcher): This was also part of my holiday haul and I have to same the most random game gift.  I’d never heard of this game and since I’ve gotten it, I’ve still not heard of it.  Its supposed to be one of those games where you play this character who wanders about town, finding clues and solving these mechanical puzzles.  You end up in Syberia in hopes of finding the heir of some company that you are hoping to acquire for the company you work for.  The scenes are rather lovely, but I have to say that it’s rather confusing.  There seems to be a certain order to things and if you don’t do them exactly right or touch something in just the right minute spot then it won’t work or make any sense. 

Final Review: I’m sure the game could be fun for other people, but it doesn’t seem to be the right sort of game for me.  Perhaps I don’t have the patience but it seems to take forever to talk to people and even more time to accomplish or learn anything.  Even from what I’ve read about the game online there doesn’t seem to be much that recommends playing it. 

• Brain Buster: Puzzle Pack (Agetec.): My mother got me this game for Christmas.  I have to say that I’m not a big fan of the games that are on it.  It’s supposed to be about 5 games, Sudoku being one of them.  I’m not a fan of Sudoku enough to really play this game much and I think the other 4 games on this bundle game are so obscure that they have gone and escaped me as to what their names are.

Final Review: I’m sure my mother meant well because I think she thought that I enjoyed playing Sudoku like everyone else in the family seems to.  I really don’t though and I feel like it might be lost on me.  The visuals are rather basic and the grids not that interesting.  It turns out she gave it to both my sis in law and myself, as long with the next game, as a grand joke of her’s… so that each of us could have someone to talk to about the games.

• Cooking Mama2: Dinner with Friends: When it comes to this game, you either love it or you hate it.  The premise of it is that you are letting Mama teach you some recipes.  Each step of the process can be chopping, stirring, adding things in order, cooking/baking/grilling and so on and so forth in a series of screen taps and strokes of the stylus.  It really makes good use of the second screen touch pad.  You really need to have some finesse with it.  So, you practice and learn techniques and then later try them all on your own to impress some judges to win some prizes.  The food you try to make is truly international cuisine.  Do them right and you get Mama’s praise.  Do it wrong and you will get the evil glare that is Mama’s wrath.  There is also the neat function that you can change out the appearance of Mama and of the cooking items that you use, like the knife handles or the cutting board colors.  There are something like… 70 recipes for you to “learn” to make and you can retry them all to be sure that you gain gold medals (perfect score) in all.  Not to mention that if gives you the ability to practice the steps as many times as you like until you feel confident that you can pass them. 

Final Review: I hated this game so much when I first began to play it.  When you play a game, you want to feel rather brilliant passing the levels, but if you don’t know the right squiggle techniques with the stylus or what the signal on the screen is to indicate done-ness, you sort of have to wing it and hope Mama doesn’t get mad at you.  Once you get the right techniques down (and these I learned by comparing notes with my sis in law about how to do them), I found that I actually enjoyed the game.  Funny how so many people can hear the little music and recognize the game now!  I had a cook at Denny’s suddenly stop and emphatically proclaim how much she hated cooking with Mama!  While it was strange to hear her initial outburst, in the end it amused me.  Your enjoyment is based entirely on your ability to master all the touch screen techniques necessary.  While you can’t actually learn a recipe, it does give you an idea on how certain things get made which can be fun too.

• Brain Age2: This was the first game I bought for myself.  I had played the first Brain Age game on Dee’s DS over the summer and had thought it fun enough.  Its a fun way to spend about 10-15min of every day to go through different games that are supposed to improve your memory and brain function.  there are some days you will be faster than others and sometimes your competitive edge will get you to try and beat out your previous day’s score.  Over all, I think I would keep trying to improve my numbers constantly if it weren’t for the fact that it only takes one record per day per game.  There are such things like date memory, sign selection, word scramble, piano, number race, block count, et al.  You can play any alternation of 3 per day, which is the recommended amount that you should play.  Then there is a special test that gives you three random skills test, either verbal or non-verbal, to determine what your mental age is.  The age of 20 is supposedly the best age you can be, but I never aimed for it.  Really I just tried aim for my own age when it came to the test.  There was the very cool rock-paper-scissors game but you could only play it with the microphone while testing your brain age.  

Final Review: Its easy to begin the habit but I guess my memory did not improve enough for me to remember to do it every single day for extended periods of time.  The Doctor makes me feel bad for not having seen him in some time.  You do better with your scores if you do them later in the day because you’ve given yourself time for your brain to really warm up and be at optimum performance rating.  A lot of the things are timed, so I find it hard to do them while I’m working.  This did affect my numbers for a while.  Over all I have to say I liked most of the little 2min games.  When it came to using the microphone, it seems I just could not get the hang of it.  It would not recognize my word and it would cost me time.  This did not gratify me in any way.  Overall its a good game to have if you want to do a little something everyday.  Its also a cool way for you to realize what your strengths are, whether it be in memorizing/recognizing numbers or letters/words.   

• CakeMania: I bought this game for myself.  I had played it online through MSN games.  It has the whole order sequencing thing that Diner Dash has.  Your character is trying to bake cakes to buy back her grandparent’s bakery from some Mega-Mart conglomerate.  So you take orders and then bake the cakes to order.  You have to do them quickly and learn to mutli-task since you need to bake, frost and decorate cakes, later you stack them, all before the client gets too terribly impatient and not pay you the complete amount.  And you actually do need to make as much money as possible per round on this one because you actually use it to buy things for your bakery.  You need more than one oven and frosting station and you want to get it working as fast as possible.  You can upgrade your shoes, the ovens, the frosting, the cupcake oven, get a cake stand or a tv and buy all sorts of cake toppers to go with all occasions.  There are different sort of clients as well with different tastes when it comes to selecting cake shapes and decorations and are equally as varied when it comes to their degree of patience.  There are even seasonal characters as well, but most of those seem just like grumpy-pusses.  Seriously, cupid should make the customers fall in love, not get all hissy-fit because the cake is taking too long.  Don’t even get me started about the Easter Bunny.  Seriously, he should have been cute and cuddly, not like some sweaty, disgruntled, fat man shoved in a pink costume.  

Final Review: On a whole I find the game vastly entertaining.  You can save the same game on different tracks so that way you can backtrack should you have purchased the wrong upgrade.  In the end, as much as I like the game, once you complete the levels, there isn’t much else to do.  There is a bonus CakeMania 2 part to it, but its really just more of the same but at different locations.  

• Professor Leyton and the Curious Village: I was given this recommendation from the Panda before we broke up.  He’d sweetly taken an hour of his time to research a possible game recommendation for me.  I’m apparently a rather picky puzzle/strategy gamer.  After he’d recommended it was when all the commercials for it started coming out.  When I got it for myself for my birthday, it was a relatively new game and I didn’t have a real clue as to what it was all about.  But the general premise of the game is that you go along with Professor Leyton and his assistant to the Curious Village.  Professor Leyton is not a detective, just a master puzzle solver.  So he arrives to this mysterious village in the hunt to the answer of the golden apple.  Along the way you have to solve puzzles in order to get info, get objects or just plain go ahead.  The puzzles vary from everything from mathematical, logical, optical, mazes and jigsaw.  So it really depends on what your forte is as to how well you do on this.  With each puzzle solved from the various curious villagers you get paid in picarats.  What the real point of this money system is, I’m not sure.  Along this the main mystery, there are also little side quests as well as bonus puzzles unlocked if you complete them… such as complete the gadgets, the jigsaw painting or furnishing the rooms.  

Final Review: I have to say that this game delighted me to no end.  I loved solving the puzzles and wandering the village.  The designs were just cute and Professor Leyton an absolute gentleman.  There were certain puzzles that I had to go off and find the solutions for.  But that doesn’t detract from the general fun of the game.  I did not manage to unluck all the puzzles and the absolute end of the storyline was so enchanting that I’m absolutely looking forward to the next installment in the Professor Leyton series.  I will likely play this game again once I’ve let my memory forget some of the answers to the puzzles, otherwise I don’t know if the game is worth keeping once you’ve completed the storyline. 

• Hell’s Kitchen (Ubisoft): This was a birthday present from my gay hubby and I knew that the game had come out but I had had no clue that it had come out for the DS.  Based on the series, Gordon Ramsey (whom I absolutely adore and would love to just be able to stare into his hunky eyes and share a gloriously elegant meal with) is trying to get you to run his restaurant.  It has the same Diner Dash concept that you have to seat customers, take their orders and serve them but it has the Cooking Mama concept of having to time and prepare the food.  Its not as complicated as cooking mama, mainly because the ingredients are generalized and all you have to do is tap them and get them cooking in the right combination and order for them to be perfectly done and on time.  The funniest part is that Chef Ramsey is standing at the top screen giving you insults or compliments based on your performance.  Angry customers will make the flames grow and give you a lower score rating.  Served perfectly, the flames will go down and you can advance to the next levels.  It does take some practice to get the whole timing thing right but once you do it’s really quite easy to get it all together.

Final Review: I adore Chef Ramsey and I was watching that season of Hell’s Kitchen when it came out.  The levels are fairly easy to beat overall, but darn hard to do if you go back and try to beat each one at 100%.  The best part of this game is that there are actual recipes from Gordon Ramsey on there.  Unlike Cooking Mama, the recipe book is actually useful and there are quite a few dishes on there that I would love to try.  There is this added feature of being able to just do continuous service in the kitchen and it can get bloody hard!  I’m still trying to get above 37pts and have been unable to.  So this is what has me keeping the game around.  

• My French/Japanese Coach (Ubisoft): These are actually two games and not a coach to teach you to speak Japanese from French or vice versa.  I had heard from my friend Benji that the French coach was a lot of fun.  I do know some French so on the diagnostic test I got a 48/50 but the Japanese one I got like a 7/50 but I think I got that many because I managed to get a few lucky guesses.  When you get two in a row wrong then the diagnostic test is over.  I only began the Japanese one but then I realized I should probably practice one language at a time.  Both games are essentially the same, you have this lovely and nice coach/sensei to go through the lessons with you.  You start with the basics and learning levels, from infants through the grades and onward.  The games are things like whack-a-word, memory, bridge building, matching, mutiple choice and word search.  The difference is that Japanese has an added element of learning how to write the characters as well.  

Final Review: The games are very neat.  There is this option to record your voice and compare it to the recording of just how to say it.  They really make you drill the repetitions until you get it right.  They should be played with headphones so that way you catch the full nuances of the language.  Overall, you do as well as the practice you put into it.