Non-DomestiGal Duties

Jen dear,

A belated Happy Birthday to you from the rest of the DomestiGal community! What did you do on your blessed day aside from study your heart out? Did you do some super nerdy statistics calculation of your various diamond-engagement-ring-of-dreams pricing and actual diamond composition using Linear Regression?

I mean, I do hope you took the following into account:

• the interpretation of the slope as the average imputed value per carat of diamonds within the specific range;
• the viability of the SLR model as determined by the R² value and the slope coefficient;
  
• the regression fit for determining the price of diamond rings within this range.

Sigh.

Asian DomestiGals and their damn math.

Anyway, perhaps you can do more fun statistical models that include your Dyson and the percentage body fat that Colossus pinches every single time he humiliates the fat around your knee.

By the way, now that you're not in London and doing your dutiful Lady of Leisure duties you so enjoy -- who is? Is The Lawyer vacuuming and cleaning and washing?

The Doctor recently bought a Dirt Devil and I must say that it has become one of his best friends. Of course I'm not even quite sure how it works, as I'm Dish Woman and only handle items on kitchen counters. Recently, though, The Doctor has been flexing his green thumb and has added a collection of three more plants to our indoor urban garden. I think it's all in preparation for our beehive and I'm excitedly preparing our Bee Blog.

Stay tuned, ladies!

xx,
s.

DomestiGrad Student Jen Starts School

First things first. Gals, thank you for your feedback regarding my first day of school outfit!

The winning outfit is...

Look out Blair Waldorf, Queen J is in town!

Thanks to you, I will be feeling fierce and fabulous as I enter these doors... 

... of my new business school this morning.

(Yeah, don't even get me started on the wacko color scheme.)

Ack! I'm so nervous! But I know this will be a great step for me, even if it means adding "DomestiGrad Student" to my title. Sigh. Move on over, Domestic Goddess. There's a new nerd in town.

Now that I'm abandoning my Domestic Goddessness! Nope! I cherish my Dyson too much to consider myself anything less than a DomestiGrad-Goddess hybrid. But I will miss my leisurely days of Domestic Goddessness. They already feel very far away.

What will I miss most? Thank you for asking, ladies. Let me list the ways...

1. Rotating among my warm-ups, pjs, sweats, and workout clothes. While I am ready to dress a little more formally, I will sorely miss oozing fabulosity in my Lululemon ensembles all day long.

2. Twice-weekly workouts with Colossus. More on this soon (see my post-script below)... but I will now only be seeing Colossus once a week. My butt might be grateful, but the rest of me aches with sadness (and lack of soreness).

3. Leisurely, wine-filled lunches with my newly engaged fellow lady of leisure. These lunches were my biggest indulgence these past months... and were totally, completely fabulous. I will miss them dearly. Not that I won't be drinking in the middle of the day during my MBA. But it just won't be the same.

4. Awaiting The Lawyer's return from work every night. I know this is super-cheesy and rather un-feminist of me, but the best part of each Domestic Goddess day was the return of The Lawyer from work. After all this time, and all we've been through, the sound of his key in the door still gives me butterflies.

5. Keeping up with all my Gals in the blogosphere. Rest assured, ladies, I will continue to post here all the time. And I will keep up with your blogs as best I can. There are so many amazing writers out there, and blogs chock full of inspiration for my wedding and my life - I will miss checking in every day. But I will still be around! I promise!

Ok, off to school I go. Holy crap.

BIG BIG BIG love,

DomestiGrad Jen

P.S. As mentioned above I had an AMAZING last pre-MBA workout with Colossus the other day. Will be posting about it soon. Stay tuned... you do NOT want to miss this post, trust me!

Engagement Ring Feedback Required

Sue,

Big engagement news! No, not mine. It may still be in the wee hours of the morning over there in NYC, but rest assured if The Lawyer had popped the question with the Ring of Dreams, you would have heard my shrieks of joy from here.

But big news nonetheless: a fellow lady of leisure friend here in London just got engaged to her beau! Very exciting. They are currently away on vacay in a romantical location perfect for question-popping, so I will have to wait to hear all the details. The Lawyer and I have very different guesses about her ring - and in fact we took a bet on what it looks like. Questions abound. Did he surprise her, or had they discussed what she wanted? Trendy or classic? Mayjah bling or refined rock? Super-sparkly (i.e. round brilliant or cushion cut) or geometric elegance (i.e. emerald or asscher cut)?

Seeing as you have um, undeveloped taste in nice jewelry, Sue, I thought I would pose a couple of questions to our readers. 

Gals out there in the blogosphere! It is time to let your blingpinions be heard!

For those of you DomestiGals who are happily engaged or married, take a lingering look at the rock on your finger and tell us: how much say did you have in its selection? Did you decide to aim for current trends (micropavé, vintage/retro, non-traditional center stone, etc.) or stick with a timeless design (round solitaire)? 

For those of you Domestic Divas who are dating, dominating, and maybe thinking about your own Ring of Dreams: how much do you want to participate in the engagement ring search? Do you already know what you want or will you leave it up to your man? If you had to choose, what would be your Ring of Dreams?

Please, ladies, share your thoughts. We all know Sue is just not up for this sort of dialogue, and my friend's engagement has me going girly-girl ring crazy over here!

xoxo,

Jen

Ode to Dy

Sue,

Every trace of the teenagers is gone!  Phew!  Bless my Dyson.  My house is mine again.  Of course, that means I need to buckle down and actually be a little bit productive.  I fear, with the arrival of my pre-MBA course reading and career services preparation (that I have been informed in no subtle way is "COMPULSORY" - whoa! Settle down, folks!), that my lady of leisure days are drawing to a close.  Horrifying.  Seriously.

But I will not go quietly!  I will continue to plan my wedding despite the lack of an engagement ring!  I will strive to be the best Domestic Goddess I can be despite the fact that I will soon assume another, much less fabulous title of "grad student"!  Most importantly of all, I will remain dedicated to my Dyson and the dust-free, teenage grit-free environment it provides.

In fact, so enthused am I about my Dyson that I came up with a little ditty today (with kudos to Beethoven, obv)...

Ahem.  Here goes.

Ode to Dy

Dyson, Dyson
I adore Thee

God of Suction

Lord of Clean

Bunnies of dust flee before Thee

Hail Thee to the homey gleam 

Suck the dirt of jogs and errands 

Rid the house of my hairballs

Not that I have grody split-ends

But they add up 'gainst the walls

Housewives join the mighty chorus

Which the morning tasks began

Dyson love is reigning o'er us

Vacuum love leaves time to tan

Ever cleaning march we onward

Fabulous in the name of "wife"

Joyful suction brings us sun-ward

In the triumph song of life

I have too much free time.  I know.  And I am cherishing every second of it.

Love,

Jen, the Domestic Goddess 4evah!

Dooce this.

Dear Jen,

I think I officially know what your (our?) goal should be in life after you stop being a DomestiGal of Leisure and complete your MBA. To be, as Heather B. Armstrong writes in her blog Dooce, a "Stay at Home Mom (SAHM) or a Shit Ass Ho Motherfucker." Think I'm joking? Check her out at Dooce where her mission statement is "Talking a lot about poop, boobs, her dog, and her daughter. Dooced: to lose one’s job because of one’s website."

I mean, Domestic Goddess, seriously.

• You're beyond obsessed with vacuums, you kind of have me wondering what you're actually doing with that hose all day long. (I can't believe that you and The Lawyer are so messy that you have to vacuum every day.)

• You actually had a good time with teenage girls (that are not your own) this past week. That's just freakish.

If I get one more behind-the-blog-scenes email from you about your bridal woes, I might have to go all Taiwanese ape-shit on you and travel to London to lovingly do the following:





With great affection,

Sue the Sane

Lady Who Lunches

DP my darling,

First things first - lest you thought that I was so distracted by our fabulous new Design-Her Gals to catch your last line there - you don't look good in white? Are you kidding me? That's what our ever-expanding blogroll is for, my dear, so that you can see for yourself that plenty of brides get married in wedding dresses of color. For starters, check out Offbeat Bride - including a whole gallery of red wedding dresses -

Not that I'm trying to convince you to get hitched, because goodness knows I would not be able to handle your whining.

Let's move on, shall we?

Just wanted to let you know that I just returned from a three and a half hour ladies' lunch with a girlfriend of mine here in London, a fellow lady of leisure.  And it was fabulous.  I had two glasses of wine with my goat cheese pannacotta and braised lamb with roasted veg (okay while I promise to not take on much of the lingo or - worse - a fake accent while I'm over here, I have started saying veg. You know me and know I used to abbreviate everything in NYC anyway so I am ALLOWED VEG, okay?) and then split a chocolate fondant for dessert.  Definitely not Colossus-approved, definitely fabulous in every way. Especially the wine.  How is it that wine tastes so amazing in the afternoon?

Alas, now it's almost - oh no wait, it's quarter past - 5pm and I really have not done much with my day besides bask in my fabulosity.  Sigh.  Perhaps I'll go watch a little telly and eat some bonbons.

(Kidding. Of course I don't really say telly and bonbons have been banned from our house due to our Colossal diet makeover. I think I'll do laundry instead.)

With love from leisureland,

DG

Show Me the Blingy

Sue darling,

It has been an historic day. Well, not actually all that historic, since the BF and I browsed rings in the States at Tiffany before we moved, but how I love typing “an historic” and also, today was no slouch of a day, either!

In true Lady of Leisure style, I sashayed and shanteyed (wow, it’s been a long time since I’ve quoted RuPaul – I am showing my age) up, around, over, and through Hatton Garden, London’s blingtacular diamond district. How fabulously civilized it was! There were no skeevy men trying to woo you into their stores like they do in NYC – and I mean, does that ever work? Ew. And the three salespeople with whom I worked were all totally friendly and helpful. If only their rings were a little nicer… alas, I am still lusting after a Tiffany diamond, as the BF and his bank account will no doubt be thrilled to hear.

[That being said, it’s his own fault. He is the one that suggested we take a spin through Tiffany on that glorious day back in January. I mean what did he expect?]

Even if I did not find the Ring of Dreams today, my delicious journey was educational and eye-opening. I learned a lot about the ring fabrication process, and about diamonds themselves. Or, rather, how effing expensive they are. One moment that was positively surreal witnessed me balancing two diamonds in my finger cleavage (you know, if you straighten your fingers and then smush them together) to compare their size and color. These were not huge stones, mind you – one was 1 carat, the other was about 1.5 carats – but there I was, with $40,000 worth of diamonds sitting in my finger cleave. It was mayjah.

To be perfectly honest, I am just trying to bask in the glory of my truly leisurely and fabulous day and not freak out about how INCREDIBLY FRICKING RIDICULOUSLY OVERPRICED these things are. I have accepted that I am a total sucker for this tradition of ye olde diamond engagement ring, and I must suffer the consequences (guilt, guilt, and more guilt) in the knowledge that it will be worth it to have my Ring of Dreams on my finger as a symbol of our love and a future family heirloom. TG the BF loves me enough to support all this. Well, or at least he does now. I cannot speak for when he learns that my heart does, indeed, belong to Tiffany after all…

How about you? Are you even considering getting some sort of ring at this point? Don’t let me down, sista!

Xoxo

Your DG

P.S. Off to galavant with the BF around Italy! Back soon! Ciao!

P.P.S. And don't think the joy of being able to take vacation whenever I want is lost on your favorite Lady of Leisure...

Lady of Leisure Gets Reprimanded

Jen,

It’s funny. I had never visited the Tiffany’s website or knew the difference between cushion or princess diamonds before I met you, my beloved Domestic Goddess. To me they all looked the same, and a baguette was something you ate in France, rather than put around your diamond.

My point is this: you are the queen of all this stuff! If anyone can plan a super-duper-icky-cheesy-ridiculously-sweet-making-Domestic-Partner-barf wedding, it’s you!

I think it’s just a minor bump in your journey down the Thames River. You should be taking advantage of making all your girlfriends jealous over the remaining Lady of Leisure months you have! I mean, ew, you are spending your days seeing your trainer, shopping, and then seeing your future hubby in the evenings and boinking him. You’re like all those mummies at our fundraising job that we used to hate because we were so jealous of them.

All will be well soon, not to worry. In the meantime, maybe you can make this wedding planning chaos a bit more fun. For instance, play naked twister, but under each of the circles, have different options for what the appetizers should be. If you fall on a red circle, maybe that means you’ll have duck rather than chicken as the main course.

I don’t know, all this stuff is giving me a big pre-coital headache. This is why I got DPd at the bank.

Onward, DG, onward!

Wendi