The Snuggie

As previously mentioned, at RHD we have many discussions about products that are marketed on the television.

We got the BumpIts last week. This week we have another product to review!

I should probably admit that I've been a fan of the infomercial for YEARS. Not just infomertials - but pretty much anything marketed on TV. For example... I can't resist watching Diamonique on QVC. I actually have convinced myself that these stones look real. Watching QVC is my guilty pleasure. When I'm flipping through the program guide on my TV, if I see that it is "Diamonique Week," I have to tune in. Yes... I am somewhat ashamed to admit that I have ordered before.

I love infomercials. I think they are super entertaining. There's some infomercials where the product is so familiar that it is forever stored in your memory. For example, who could ever forget Tony Little and his curly ponytail, striding away on what was promoted as the workout machine to end all workout machines... the Gazelle. Yep... I owned it. It sat in my guest room at my house and I hung clothes on it for 4 years before finally convincing my good friends Anne and Caleb McCain that they needed it. It is now sitting in their garage... still not getting used!

Here's some other infomercials that stick out in my mind:

• The Showtime Rotisserie — marketed by a memorable guy named Ron Popeil. Who could ever forget their famous slogan, "Set it and forget it!" No one that I know owns this.


• The Miracle Blades — marketed by Chef Tony. My parents own these knives and bought a set for Rachel when she bought her first house. I'm not going to lie -- I wish I owned some of these. I'm particularly fascinated by the part of the infomercial where he throws a pineapple up in the air and cuts it with the knife, mid-air.


• George Foreman Grill — marketed by George Foreman himself. I received my "lean, mean, fat grilling machine" as a gift from our friends Bill and Betty Dee Bryson when I graduated from high school. I loved it. I also thought I was going to lose a lot of weight because it was going to "knock out the fat" on my food into the draining tray.


• GT Express — marketed by Cathy Mitchell (the name may not be familiar to you, but this lady has a characteristic voice that you will recognize.) This thing seems like it can cook ANYTHING! My favorite is when she makes corn dogs with cornbread batter and a hotdog in the "chambers."


• Magic Bullet Blender — marketed by Mic and Mimi. I own this... it was a Christmas gift from Luke this year. My sister-in-law to be, Cassie Royer, was the first to buy into the infomercial of the bullet. She called me and was super excited about all the things that she has made with this little blender. I'm not going to lie -- I like the Magic Bullet, but I haven't used it nearly as much as the infomercial tried to convince me that I would!

and FINALLY....

• The Snuggie — This blanket with arms has somehow this has become totally famous! We've all been talking about how we want Snuggies here at the office. Any time the air conditioner comes on, the air vent blows right on the desks of myself, Christa, and Rachel. We're always putting jackets on. We discussed how having use of your hands with the Snuggie would be particularly useful to us as we type or use the mouse on the computer.

Well, today my mom suprised the whole office and got us our very own Snuggies! And... as promised on the Snuggie commercial, we all received our own mini book-light as well!

The Snuggie is really popular. I know lots of people who own them, and I think they've even been featured on the Today show! I think that Matt and Merideth wore them! There's a whole web site dedicated to Snuggie Sightings, and there's even a post about someone wearing their Snuggie in the restroom! Luke actually saw someone walking around on campus at Texas A&M wearing a Snuggie!
Here at the RHD office, we all put on our new Snuggies to pose for a photo... but I think we look like characters from Harry Potter. I personally felt like I was a wizard when I put mine on!

I wonder what the next "as-seen-on-TV" product is that RHD will try out. We're open to suggestions!

Girl Scout Cookies

I have a new infatuation now, thanks to the do-gooding Girl Scouts of Wharton County. A few weeks ago, my cute little cousin Bailey Gubert (or should I say Bailey's mom Janet) hit me up to buy some Girl Scout Cookies. Of course, I said yes. The price break for the cookies was like buy 12 boxes, get a discount. Considering the price was actually very affordable, I said I'd buy 12 boxes.

I should preface that by explaining my thinking behind purchasing this many was not because I plan on eating 360 cookies myself, but I thought that since they came in around this time that we could use them at the ranch to hand out as snacks when we had visitors during the Houston show which is coming up next week.

Well, last Wednesday night when we got to church, Janet had the entire back row of church filled up with cookie orders. I have to admit, I was slightly embarassed considering most people had like 2-3 boxes and I got a whole entire case. So lucky for me, I grabbed mine before church started and quickly took it out to my car so that people wouldn't see me and think I was the reincarnation of the cookie monster.

When I got my order home, the first thing I did was....guess what....stick all the boxes in the freezer! Because EVERYONE knows that Girl Scout Cookies are MuCH better when they are ice cold! I did a quick inventory of my purchases...

Thin Mints -- My absolute favorite prior to this year's purchase (see Lemonades below). These are SO good when you put them in the freezer and then especially if you eat them with ice cream. If you're not familiar with these cookie they are the most popular and oldest variety of the Girl Scout cookie. They are mint-flavored.

Tagalongs (Peanut butter) - The Girl Scouts have officially warned us that we have nothing to fear by eating these peanut butter cookies. Good thing, because I've ate like half a box already. You can't really see much from this photo but they on the inside they are a round cookie that is covered with peanut butter on top, then covered in chocolate. My grandparents refuse to eat this variety this year due to the peanut butter scare, but I'm okay with it, so that just leaves more for me!

Daisy Go Rounds - These are the reduced fat Girl Scout Cookie, so of course I had to try it. Although, when you've got these three other dynamite flavors sitting in your freezer, you don't really want to try to low fat variety. So, I haven't opened this box yet though, because the other temptations are getting to me. To be honest, these may the only ones that I put out at our booth at Houston because I may just eat all the others.

And...

Lemonades - I'll admit, I had never heard of this flavor when I placed my order. But I thought that my mom liked these so I ordered two boxes to try it out. BIG MISTAKE. I should have ordered 22 boxes, because these babies are DEEEE-Liscious! Oh my gosh. So you can't really see much from this picture but the top of the cookie looks like this, but the bottom side is all covered in lemon icing. If you put these in the freezer, it freezes the lemon-flavored icing and these things are to die for.

Today, Luke and Catherine were putting out round bales and stopped by my house to do something with the tractor. So I offered them a treat. Both of them said no, they did not like GS Cookies so they didn't want any. I persisted and got them to come in. And guess what, now THEY are hooked on Lemonades too. I'm telling you, it's impossible to just eat one.

So the next time you see the darling Girl Scouts selling cookies, I highly recommend getting some. And, my plans to have these available at the V8 booth at Houston are probably not going to happen, so you're better off buying your own box!!

The only bad thing, is that these tiny little wonders are NOT healthy! Two cookies wrack up just 160 calories!! So for someone like me, this is somewhat disturbing. But, I figure I can cut myself some slack because by eating the cookies, I'm supporting such a good cause.

And, if you don't know where to get Girl Scout Cookies, you can go to http://www.girlscoutcookies.org/ and type in your zip code and Voila...they tell you where to get them!

Bump It!

At RHD, we have a pseudo-infatuation with the "As Seen on TV" products. You name it...the snuggie, bare minerals makeup, the revo-styler, anything marketed by Jane Seymour or Susan Lucci...we're interested. Well a few weeks ago, it just so happened that several of us at the office heard about this new telemarketing hairstyling product called the "Bump It."

The Bump It is a dream come true for people like me who have little ability to tease their hair. You would think I could perfect this skill, considering I have several factors going in my direction such as

1. My sister is the best hair teaser I know.
2. I live in Texas.
3. I'm a blonde.
4. I like hairspray.

But sadly, I'm a failure at hair teasing. On my best days, I can achieve some level of teasing, due to lots of strategic planning such as using volumizing shampoo, then using the "root boost" spray, then using Amplify mouse, then using velcro rollers, then using a LOT of hairspray (two varieties actually...a pre-spray hairspay, then the real deal).

So after watching the Bump It info-mercial, I decided to go ahead and spring for the $19.99 and purchase one. I volunteered to be the guinea pig for our office and order one, then the rest of the people at work could try it out and decide if they want one too.

Well, today was the big day when the BumpIt arrived!! When the package came, we all eagerly gathered around the box to open it. Even though we all had plenty of work to do, we decided it would be okay to take about a 15 minute break to test out the BumpIt.

At that time, we converted Catherine's desk area to our styling area. Christa contributed her teasing comb, which happened to be in her purse. So we started following the instructions with the BumpIt. I have to say, their promotional material was really low-budget. We commented that BumpIt should hire us to do their packaging and instructions.

So here we go. The first step is to separate your hair into two sections right at the crown of your head. You put the first BumpIt in place and then mash it in your head. Then you gather another section of hair right behind that, and mash that in your head too. So you've got two BumpIts actually in place. After you put them both in, you cover up the BumpIt with the hair at the top of your head.

The verdict??? On me, it looked pretty good, especially from far off. I would admit I would be a little leery of actually wearing it out in public, because I think people might be able to see the BumpIt in my hair. When I tried it in a ponytail, I think it looked a lot better, because you could hide the BumpIt fairly well.

All in all, I did think I looked pretty "glamorous" as the infomercial claims. Will you see me wearing the BumpIt on my next trip where I actually need to get fixed up....probably not. But hey, it was fun!!!

Fun in San Antonio

This week I got to spend 5 days in San Antonio for the San Antonio Livestock Exposition. This is always one of my favorite stock shows of the year, for several reasons. First, both Catherine and I went to college on a S.A.L.E. Scholarship. We both won ours in the junior breeding beef show and for me, this was the biggest scholarship I got. So I always will be appreciative of this stock show.

Second, the San Antonio stock show is obviously the most "south Texas" show of them all. While Fort Worth has more of the west-Texas style, San Antonio is definitely the one that shows off the area of Texas that I love! Where else can you order breakfast taquitos with chorizo at the show concession stand? (For you yankee readers, Chorizo is a mexican sausage....yum yum!)
So the first two days I was there was for the open Brahman show. This was one of the funnest Brahman shows I've been to in a while. Five members of our family went, well actually 7 if you count Matt and Larry Fisher as part of the family, which we do. So it was me, Catherine, Dad, Luke, and my grandparents Sloan and Mollie. The first night we got there I got to pick where we ate, and I chose P.F. Changs, and that started the trip off great.

Sunday was show day, and we showed about 12 head at the show. This was a BIG day for me because this was my showring re-debut being the first time I got to show something since I broke my ankle in the spring. I was slightly nervous because Luke usually shows my heifer 888 for me, and she has only been beat once in class. SO I was sure hoping I could live up his reputation but I got lucky again and she did win 1st. 797 was my second heifer of the day to show...and she got 4th, but the judge commented that she had "Steer Mama" written all over her which made me smile, so I was happy with that too.

At the show, we ended up with several class winners, and our little heifer, 954, was the Calf Champion and the GRAND CHAMPION of the show. We also had a cow/calf pair in the drive, so Matt took her and Dad took the baby. My usual job on the open showstring is the official "calf at side showman" but apparently I have gotten booted out of this position, because they got super-stick Evan Acevedo to show the baby calf. And I'll admit, he did a much better job than I could have done! So I think Evan has a new job if he wants it on the V8 show crew.

After the show, the caravan headed home and stopped at NANCY's restaurant in Columbus, one of our favorites. When we walked in, turns out lots of other Brahman people like the onion rings at this place too, because Bob and Vanessa Hudgins, Coleman and Regina Locke, Kyle and Samantha Hudgins, and Will Detering and Michael Martin were all there. Since Kyle won the bull show with Berkman, we tried to get him to buy dinner...but he didn't bite on that! :)

I was in the office on Monday, then first thing Tuesday morning Dad and I were headed back on I-10 to San Antonio. This time, we were going for 3 days of a party, bull sale, and junior show.
Tuesday's first item on the agenda was a suprise retirement party for Wendell Schronk. Well, I guess we didn't get the "suprise" part of it, because about an hour before the party we ran into Wendell in the exhibit hall and he asked us why we were there that day. Both me and dad said..."We're here for your party!!" Like DUH Wendell!! Then he looked very suprised/confused and asked "what party?"" OOOOPS. Well, we let the cat out of the bag. But, I think it was all okay because he did play it off pretty good and acted suprised, and no one got into any trouble (namely us.)

The party was super fun! There were about 20-30 people there but since the party was sponsored by the American Breeds Coalition, of course everyone there is a person who loves Brahman-influenced cattle. I got to sit at the table with one of my new favorite persons, Tyler Graham, and listen to all his good stories. I also got to catch up with one of my BFF's from college - Collin Osbourn (I was his ring dunk assistant at A&M) who now works for Beefmaster Breeders United. Charlie Wood with Gulf Coast Publishing, Chris Shivers with ABBA, and Dr. Jason Cleere with A&M were also at the table and we just had the best time visiting and catching up. There were a lot of A&M Animal Science people at the party too, all of whom I used to work with when I worked at A&M. So this was great to get to see Drs. Ron Gill, Rick Machen, Joe Paschal, and the Doctor I love the most...Dr. Larry Boleman.

Dr. Boleman had a special guest with him...Mr. Frank Litterst! Mr. Litterst is such a special person to all Aggies, and especially my dad. He always tells stories about how Mr. Litterst helped him so much and was such a great teacher. So after the party, we took these photos of the "legends" according to Tyler. The "Legends" were Dr. Boleman, Mr. Litterst, and Dad and then the "Future Legends" were me, Jason, and Tyler. If we could be so lucky to learn or accomplish HALF of what these men have done, we'll be doing pretty good! This picture of the 'legends' is just priceless. I seriously think I should send it in to the Texas Aggie magazine!

After the party, it was time for us to get to work, because part of the reason we had came was to look at bulls for our friend Mr. Ernest Cannon. We met up with his ranch manager, Steven Triechel, and watched the All Breeds Bull Sale Show. I'll have to admit, I wasn't paying much attention during the sale show, because again, I was hanging out with Tyler and learning all about the horse business, Akaushi beef, and trying to talk him into getting me some tickets to see Wade Bowen at the Austin rodeo. (Turns out Wade isn't even playing there!)

Later that day, since I psuedo-helped dad "shop" for the bulls, I got to go "shop" for myself...at the La Cantera outdoor shopping mall. I have been hearing about this mall from my shopping expert friends, Charolette Smith and Jana Acevedo. I have to admit, this mall is a shoppers paradise. And, I got the first class treatment. Since dad is not really into going into the latest "juicy couture" store, he was happy to just drop me off at certain stores, then come pick me up when I was done. So I got curb service to each store! I put my big sunglasses on (to look extra cool) and you would have thought I was Paris Hilton! I've never covered so many shops in so little time! I went in a lot of shops, but my favorites were J. Crew, Anthropologie, Bebe and aerie. And I even broke out of my typical button down Polo shirt attire, and bought some Liz-inspired shirts from Anthropologie that I think will make me look more "graphic designer-esque".

On Wednesday morning, Dad and Steven had their game plan on the bulls. I myself looked pretty quickly through the bulls because it was now freezing cold outside and I didn't really want to be out in the pens that much. So I go inside and start socializing, where I get to see about the most cool people possible in a 2 hour period......Terri Barber, Martha Hollida, Hannah Tabor, Wade Perks, Jeff Schroeder, Collin Osbourn, Glen Alan Phillips, Charlie Wood, E.C. Larkin, Melanie Fuller, Bubba Sartwelle, Randy Real, Randall Tipp and many more. How fun is that to get to visit with all those people at one place! The best news of the day was that our friends from church - Robbie Ray Hamilton and his family - won both the CHAMPION and RESERVE pen of heifers at the sale. This had never been done before, so we were really happy for them!

When the sale gets ready to start, we have our list of our "top picks"...all Herefords because that is what Mr. Cannon needs for his award winning F-1 program. Now, this year, the prices for the bull sale were a little down from last year. So that was bad for the ranchers, but good for us, because we are able to get all four of our top choices! We were able to buy the Grand and Reserve High Grading bull and two others. The whole time during the sale my dad kept commenting that it's a good thing my granddad Sloan wasn't there, because if he was....he wouldn't be able to hold himself back with all these really good bulls selling for such a good price.
Thursday rolls around and it's time for the junior show day. At 7 a.m. on show day, Dad and I were thinking it was great that Brahmans and SHorthorns show on the same day. At 8 that night when the show was still going on and we still had a 3 hour drive home, we were thinking not so much of a good idea.

We had about 6 hours to kill between the Brahman and Shorthorn show, so we got to fill the day with fun stuff to do at the fair. Of course, the first item on my agenda was to find the candy booth and get some fudge, gummy worms and chocolate covered pretzels. After eating enough yogurt covered pretzels for a small army, I almost made myself sick.

The shows turned out great and it was a lot of fun. Our cousins Emily, Erin and Ellie all won their classes. Erin won her class with her V8 Shorthorn from us. Several of our customers for V8 Ranch did good with their heifers. Congratulations to the Brahman and Shorthorn winners.

So, as we got home at 11 p.m. last night, I was glad to be home, but not looking forward to the 43 print ads I need to get approved between now and Monday. Looks like I"ll be spending Valentine's Day at the office! I guess that's what I get for taking a 3-day va-cay to San Antonio! Thank goodness we've got a two week break until Houston.

Isn't stock show season great!

The Crazy Cat Lady

I realize that as I write this blog, I am taking a very big risk that I could be soon classified as the "crazy single cat lady". But, if y'all start bad-mouthing me too bad I'm going to call in reinforcements from my fellow cat-loving friends Allison Meyer and Catherine Williams.
So recently I have begun to wonder if maybe my best-friend-ness with my cat has gone a little too far. My cat, Phil, named in honor of Mr. Lautner, has been doing some really hilarious things lately, and I'm wondering...is this normal??

First of all, he has recently decided that anything I eat, he wants to try to eat too. And, yeah, this might be a little weird, but I don't mind letting him try it. Of course I don't eat after a cat, but I usually eat about half of what I want then let him try the rest.

So the past few nights, I have been enjoying a snack or desert while sitting on the couch. The first episode of this was when I had grabbed a saltine cracker to eat. I was eating it, and all of a sudden Phil just goes nuts and jumps right on the couch and tries to eat the saltine! I'm thinking..what! A cat eating a cracker?? How weird! So I broke off a little piece and he LOVED IT!!!

Next, I was eating a little snack size thing of Weight Watchers ice cream, and again, he runs and jumps on the couch and starts trying to eat it. Now this, maybe I can understand a little more, since it is a dairy product and cats are supposed to like milk right? Well turns out he LOVES ice cream of any type, and also has been known to eat an ice cream sandwich too.

And quite possibly the thing that just might push me over the edge as a crazy cat lady is the fact that Phil likes to sleep on my head! Yes. That's right. He likes to sleep on my head. When I go to sleep, I'm by myself in bed. Then sometime in the night he comes and joins me, because when I wake up he has somehow positioned himself between the top of my head and the headboard. Notice how the front feet are on one side of my head, and the back feet are on the other side. You might also notice my hair highlights look pretty bad in this photo too, but it was so funny I couldn't resist posting it. This incidence has been happening for maybe about 6 months now and thanks to my blackberry phone that has a flash on it, I was able to sneak this photo in without waking him up and scaring him!

Truth is, my mom just recently said that she was reading on an online forum somewhere and someone had posted that their cat ALSO slept on their head, and that the cat was a snore-er and the cat kept the owner up all night. Thank goodness Philly is a quiet sleeper!

The Incredible Liz

One of the joys of working at RHD is the people I get to work with. To be honest, we all really like each other and it really makes the work day go by so much faster when you can be around 6 other people who you really like.

So I have been joking with Liz that I was going to write this blog about her and all her funny stories. I should back up by explaining that Liz is from a small town, and she did 4-H Horse Judging, but she's a lot more of the typical graphic-design-hippie type and less of a cowgirl than say, Me, Christa, or Tricia. For example, I think Liz would die before she would be caught wearing cowboy boots, a concho belt, and turquoise. She usually is wearing some trendy outfit straight out of the mall and updates her facebook status like literally every 30 minutes with the most trendy and deep "statuses" i have ever heard. For example, "Your individuality provides a light for others. ;)." And just this week, she got her hair died half black and half red. (I'm jealous actually...it's really cute and I'd be too scared to every do anything that gutsy!)

Well, Liz is a very talented graphic designer, but the funniest thing about her is that she has very little actual experience in the cattle business. She especially has NO experience in the swine business. So as we sit in the same office day after day, it's hilarious to me to listen to some of the things she says.

Here are the top "Liz-isms"....

1. Today, while working on the Top Cut Sires Swine Catalog, we are trying to locate a photo of a Hampshire boar. This is when Liz asks me if a Hampshire is the one that looks like it's wearing a white sweater. (Their white belt)

2. While working on the Copper Penny banner for Brian Martin and Nick Reimann, she took down their information over the phone about the sire and dam. When I went to start designing it, I noticed she had written the pedigree is "Woodstocker". I think, hmmm, I don't know of a bull named Woodstocker. But I put it in anyway. Brian approves the banner, with the word "Woodstocker" on it. Before I hang up on the phone with Brian, I say, "Hey, who is the Woodstocker bull...I've never heard of him?" Brian is like "Huh, what??" And I said, "You know, on the banner, where it says Woodstocker."

Wanna guess what it really was........
WITCH DOCTOR!!

Good thing we caught that before it went to print!

3. About the same time, she was taking info on another project for a Denver bull. We have this form that we fill out on all the sires we represent. One of the items on the form says "TH/PHA Status:______". On this form, in that area, Liz has written: "TH/PHA Queen". A TH/PHA Queen huh? I sure wouldn't want to see that cow. I had to inform her that the person probably said TH/PHA CLEAN and that there was no pageant or anything that awarded someone as the PHA Queen.

4. She also refers to a Chianina (Chi) steer as if it were the type of steer that you would use to flat iron your hair Chi (pronounced chee for all you guys who don't know what a chi iron is.) instead of a "key" steer.

And the best Liz story is this....

This summer, she called Pearl Walthall to order a photo from the Missouri State Fair. I was kinda just in and out and I overheard Liz on the phone saying...

"HI, this is Liz with Ranch House Designs. I need to order a photo of the Grand Champion SENTIMENTAL Steer". (Simmental steer)

I'm sure Pearl got a big kick out of that one! SO now it's our inside joke about all those sentimental steers.

Anyway, of course, I'm just giving Liz a hard time, and I know that for someone who's not quite as familiar with all this cattle and pig stuff as us, I'm sure it's a big adjustment! She says her favorite thing is working on all those boar catalog...the pictures of all the boar booties gives her a chuckle every time!

We love you Liz!! And for our loyal blog readers, next time you call our office, why not ask Liz how all her sentimental steers are doing!