Two lunches in one week – I must be one of those “ladies who lunch.”  But this time it was seeing an old friend, a  woman who worked with me during the entire 12-year run of my show so there was lots of catching up.  We met at the Marmalade Cafe in Calabasas and as soon as we sat down, a woman at the next table said, “Excuse me, but can I ask you a question?” Trying to appear humble, I was all prepared to say, “Why yes, I am the talk show host,” but instead, she threw me a curve.  “What do you do to have such beautiful skin?” She apologized for interrupting but said my skin was absolutely glowing and then my lunch date said the same thing. This was not the first time I’ve been asked that but it always surprises me because my skin is just my skin -I don’t know – I never really notice it glowing. I told her it’s something I work on regularly, doing scrubs every day, as well as my own facials, and sunblock rain or shine, but I thought it was more my healthy diet: no soft drinks, no alcohol, no fried food, lots of salads, but occasional pizza and that burger at Daily Grill. Today I had actually used a Sisley moisturizer that costs more than our lunch, the shoes I was wearing, and the new front tires on my car. But I switch products all the time and told her my skin looks the same when I use drug store products, too. Well, it was a nice compliment and it motivates me even more to keep taking care of my skin. Click below for My Six Step at Home Facial:

One luxury I enjoy is really soft sheets. They’re not always the most expensive, in fact the highest thread count is not always the softest sheet. I used to get Wamsutta Elite Sateen but they don’t make them any more. These were like sleeping on a cloud of fluffy whipped cream. Luckily, I had bought three sets before they stopped making them and figured they would  last for years. Imagine my horror when a few weeks ago, we discovered a tear in the bottom sheet.  This was not a tiny tear – it was two feet long!  This can’t be – it’s my Elite Sateen! But the sheets were old so I accepted that it was wear & tear and sewed it back together. The next time, the same sheet came up ripped again, this time in shreds. I decided that you can’t sew a sheet back together and threw it away. (actually, I cut it up into cleaning rags).

So, on to the next set of Wamsutta’s.  After two nights on the bed, this bottom sheet was torn too – multiple times. Two sheets in shreds?!  An investigation was in order. First of all, both the tears happened on HIS side of the bed so without placing blame, I asked Denis how he thinks this could have happened.  He reminded me the sheets were old and his skin is rougher and these things happen. Then I slowly glanced down at his bare feet. The nail on his big toe was so long, if he sat on the roof and stuck out his foot, that toe could shade the entire patio on a sunny day!

“You could slice a ham with that toe nail,” I said. “That’s what happened to the sheets!”  He refused to believe his toe nail was responsible, but I know different. If the last Wamsutta Elite gets destroyed, I’m buying him an industrial nail file, or maybe an electric sander.

All I want for Christmas is… more sandbags. 

Geez! Give us a break! It finally stopped raining today (for now) and the hill behind our house is still there so we’re luckier than some people around here.  We have sandbags along the back patio just in case, and we could use some more along the side for the next rain. That’s coming on Sunday. I went out to the back yard to check on the hill behind us and I saw this buck eating my grass. “Get out! Go away!” I kept yelling at him. “Stop eating the grass – you’ll expose the mud and cause as landslide!” The grass may be the only thing holding that saturated hill together!  He glanced up & kept eating.

Oh, a reminder if you’re making turkey dinner, don’t forget my recipe for fresh cranberries. It’s posted on the Recipes page.
 

I’ll be making a “petite” roast turkey just for two of us with mashed potatoes, stuffing, gravy,  green beans, cranberries, and deep dish pumpkin pie.  

Then cookies. Lots of cookies.

The rain sucks but there is one bright spot. I went to the mall this morning for one last minute thing and found parking! Hand to God.

(update – 4 hours later) 

Remember when I said my hill was fine?

Look at the size of the boulder that just came down!

Good news: It didn’t hit the house.

Bad news: It missed the deer. 😉