Michael!

My friend Amy wears a perfume that all of her friends love. It's called Michael and if you've spent much time around Amy, you will associate that perfume with her. She says she wears it because it covers the smell of the kitchen in which she spends all day working as a pastry chef, but whatever the reason, she just smells SO good.

This weekend, Steve and I went into Nordstrom with a $125 store credit burning a hole in our pocket. Steve (who is pretty much every woman's ideal mate) insisted that I find something to spend the store credit on. As we walked into the store, I saw a really nice men's shirt with a Michael Kors tag in the collar. "I know who Michael Kors is!" I said. "He makes the perfume that Amy wears that smells SOOO good!" Intrigued, Steve steered me to the perfume department so he could get a whiff of this elixir. The sales lady sprayed a little on the crease of my elbow and made up a small sample, encouraging me to wear it for a few hours to see how it reacted with my body chemistry. She also gave me a sample of a similar scent by Marc Jacobs. We left Nordstrom empty handed, and moved on to shop at a couple of other stores.

As we browsed the racks of The Gap, I remarked to Steve that I felt strange wearing Amy's signature scent. "I smell great and I love it, but I keep expecting to turn around and see Amy standing next to me!" Steve assured me that I smelled wonderful, and that surely Amy hadn't spent hours laboring over this particular perfume and that if I bought it and wore it, it couldn't be THAT big of a deal. "You don't understand." I protested., "If I bought this, everyone would say I was wearing Amy's perfume." In the end, we spent the Nordstrom credit on a pair of shoes to match an outfit I put together from the Gap and Banana Republic.

A couple hours later we got home and I opened the door to the office to say hi to the kids who were playing in there on their computers. "Weston" I said, 'do you like my perfume?" Offering an arm for him to smell. "Yeah. You smell like Amy." "See???" I shrieked at Steve. Then I marched over to Garrett. Again offering my arm, I asked, "Do you like my perfume?" Garrett sniffed. "Does it remind you of anyone?" Garrett answered, "It smells like Bailey!" Bailey is Amy's daughter. Clearly, Michael is spoken for. I think I'll go with the Marc Jacobs.

Hannah Montana Meets Emerica

A couple of weeks ago Weston came to us, expensive 3-month-old skateboard shoes in hand. The shoes were in really really bad shape. Skateboarding is not kind to shoes. Weston informed us earnestly that the perfect pair of replacement shoes cost just $95 dollars, and were the one brand of skate shoe designed to withstand the punishment dealt out by grip tape.

Nike Zoom Air Tres. Now Nike, in addition to making high quality shoes, has a great marketing strategy. Only release new shoes every two month, in small quantities, to a very limited number of dealers. After calling about four different specialized skateboard shops, we found a store in Lafayette that had a pair in the color Weston wanted. This was convenient, as we were headed up to Lafayette anyway to celebrate Steve's mother's birthday with her.

On the way, we stopped at Nordstrom to look for a sport coat for Steve and to get a somewhat cheaper pair of Nike skate shoes for Garrett. The children's shoe department as Nordstrom carries Crocs, and those stupid little accessories you shove through the holes to doll those otherwise hideous shoes up. While we were paying for Garrett's shoes, we found the perfect solution to hide the holes in my burly 12-year-old's ripped up skate shoes. What do you think?