I Fly BA

Oh, my. I have been so remiss in blogging about our Europe trip. I think I'm having a hard time figuring out where to start in talking about our adventures. So far I'm trying to break it down piece by piece.

Yummy plane food (weird statement, eh?)

I love British Airways. BA is the airline we flew on our recent trip to Europe, and I was really impressed. Every seat had a personal TV with a wide selection of movies and music. The food was absolutely amazing, with dinner choices including chicken marsala and a vegetarian pasta dish. They served tea in little cups after every meal. The flight attendants all had endearing accents (one called Ian a "huffalump" and asked to hold him). Previously my only overseas flight experience had been in first class, but BA made me feel like I was in first class this time with all the amenities. On the way home, Ian even received a Paddington Bear-style suitcase with crayons, stickers, and coloring pages.

Yes, all of that is well and good, but let's be honest here about the real reason I love British Airways.

The chocolate.

So glad we bought an extra seat for Ian...

You see, we signed Ian up for the child-friendly meal options, which included things like fruit, chicken fingers, and mac and cheese. When the crew noticed that Ian is still a baby, they also brought us an organic fruit and yogurt mix. However, since the meals were generally intended for older children, they also included a yummy dessert consisting of various forms of British chocolate. And since Ian is a tad young for candy, Mommy and Daddy got to enjoy it. Oh, yes. Chocolate bars, Cadbury buttons, a treasure trove of awesomeness.

British Airways wasn't perfect. They kept the lights too bright and the temperature too warm on the flight over there, which pretty much ruined Ian's shot at a good night's sleep. And the London-Vienna flights were just bare-boned commuter flights where they served egg sandwiches (um, yay?). The flight attendants on that flight were confused by the fact that we had Ian in his own car seat.

Another downside to British Airways is that most flights go through Heathrow, which was not a pleasant airport. Embarking and disembarking for all our flights involved making several loops around the airport on a bus, and as we went through security we had to open and taste Ian's milk and baby food (nope, not in the lawsuit-happy U.S. any more!). However, the Heathrow experience was somewhat sweetened by the Boots pharmacy, which had a terrific selection of organic baby food and whole milk.

But overall, our BA experience was lovely. As most of you know, flying is, er, not my favorite thing in the world, but British Airways made it fun.

Bzz Agent Review: CoverGirl Blast

Recently I received the opportunity to review two new products from CoverGirl: Smoky ShadowBlast eye makeup and ShineBlast lip gloss. I've been hoping to do a makeup review for BzzAgent.com, and I was excited to finally have the opportunity.

Attempt #1 with ShadowBlast and ShineBlast.

When I first received my BzzKit, I was horrified to find bright pink lip gloss and bright blue eye makeup in my box. Eighties Barbie, eat your heart out! I just knew I was going to be ready for jazzercise at any moment. ShadowBlast and ShineBlast both come in an assortment of lovely colors, I just happened to choose two that were brighter than what I normally wear.

I was happily surprised by ShineBlast lip gloss. At first I was a little startled by the vaguely-noncommittal fruity scent, but gradually I decided it was a pleasant fragrance. The tint of the gloss was not at all Barbie -- it turned out to be just a hint of color and shine, exactly what I look for in gloss. I found ShineBlast to be a bit tacky/sticky for my tastes, though. Overall, I would say it's a good lip gloss but not one of my favorites. Definitely a good item to pick up on sale, though.

Hmmmmm....Bladerunner eyes?

ShadowBlast eye make-up....now that's a different story. The big selling point of ShadowBlast is that the two tips of the pencil are an easy way to create a smoky, sultry look for your eyes. One side of the pencil is for shading your eyelid, and the other side is for lining the crease and around your upper and lower lashes. Originally I was surprised at the subtlety of this makeup as well. Actually, I was a little disappointed -- I had expected to have stunning, smoky eyes after following the directions, and instead I felt like I looked washed out, maybe a little fatigued. I tried twice more on other days to apply the makeup according to the directions, each time applying more and more color. By the end I felt like the girl from Bladerunner. Looking back at the pictures I took, the original attempt was pretty good. The makeup looked good on me, but I didn't feel good wearing it, and that's kinda the point of makeup for me.

Another quibble I had with the ShadowBlast is that it is not at all long-wearing. After about 4 hours I noticed that every bit of the make-up had gathered in the crease of my lid. Some literature sent along with the BzzKit suggested first using concealer or translucent powder on the lid to keep the makeup in place, but that felt like more trouble than it was worth.

So in summary, ShineBlast lip is pretty cool, and ShadowBlast -- not so much.

I do have some fabulous $2 off coupons to give away if you want to try either product (or any CoverGirl product), so if you're someone I know, hit me up and I'll send you a coupon (sorry, too lazy to send them out to strangers).

Disclosure: I received two free CoverGirl products, coupons, and MyPoints for participating in this campaign.

It's Time to Move On

I'm so sad about the Gulf Coast right now.

Throughout much of my childhood my family made yearly trips to beaches along the Alabama and Florida coasts, and it tears at my heart to hear that globs of oil are now washing up on those same beaches. At the time, I took those seaside excursions for granted, but now I am realizing how much they meant to me. I can't imagine the heartache experienced by my friends who grew up along those shores.

I've mostly been avoiding news coverage about the oil spill, preferring to remain in a state of denial about the scope of this thing. All those dying animals, the lost jobs, the marred water....not to mention the human lives lost in the initial explosion....it's just too much to take in.

Today I did succumb to looking at the pictures of oil-covered pelicans (warning: not for the tender-hearted). I was grousing to Paul about BP and their evil-ness, and he remarked that he is surprised at all the blame levelled strictly at BP. Why are we boycotting BP stations when this spill could have happened to any of the companies? I mean, yes, BP is handling this terribly as far as I can tell, but need we look at them alone?

Paul's point was that a disaster of this magnitude might cause us to reflect again on our oil dependence and seek ways to free ourselves from it. Instead of boycotting BP stations (and the hard-working, independent owners who run them), why are we not encouraging each other to drive less? Yes, we can send a message to BP, but what about sending a message to the oil industry -- hey, to the whole country -- that it is time to move ahead. It's time to move to a different type of energy.

Now I don't mean to demonize the oil industry here. I have family members who have worked hard for oil companies for decades, and I appreciate the contributions that oil has made to our society and economy. Like it or not, big oil has made the U.S. a prosperous nation. But it's time to move on.

For our part, Paul and I have started discussing whether we want to convert our diesel cars into "greasel" (able to run on peanut/soybean/canola oil). We're also talking about buying an alternatively-powered car like a Nissan Leaf for our next vehicle (whenever we can save up for one -- um, 10 years?). No, it's not a perfect solution - for one thing, to be oil-independent we would need to make sure the electricty powering the car was generated by wind power or some other clean happiness. But this is a step we can take to start moving in a better direction for the future.

One of my strongest feelings about this disaster is powerlessness. Honestly, that's what most of my anger boils down to. Sure, it seems like BP has been twiddling their thumbs and pointing fingers and in general being useless. I think they should be working day and night to find a solution to this while also cleaning the water and rescuing the critters trapped in this mess. (I'm pretty sure the guys who saved Apollo 13 would have solved this by now.) But for all I know, BP could be doing all of those things and just have an ineffective PR department to tell us about them. I don't know.

So for my part, I can pray for the beautiful Gulf Coast, support the groups taking action to help, and look for ways to reduce my own dependence on oil. I don't want this to happen again. I sure hope that one day soon I can head to Gulf Shores and take Paul and Ian on one of those dolphin-sighting cruises that I loved so much as a child. But the odds aren't looking good.