Victoria Beckham Designs With Spice

Victoria Beckham arrives at the London hotel Claridges after launching her clothes range at Selfridges.

“I was so nervous that I for days before I drank loads and loads of water. God, I’m such a square,” Victoria said of her launching her clothing line.

“I was never that good a singer,” she told the Times Online, “but I think I am good at fashion. Even when I was at school, where I was bullied–sometimes physically, sometimes verbally–I was always customizing my uniform.

Jessica Alba's a saucy calendar girl

Jessica Alba has wowed fans with a stunning turn in the limited edition 2009 Campari calendar.

Less than six months after giving birth to baby Honor, Alba has starred in a series of 13 photographs shot by Mario Testino.

She is following in the footsteps of Eva Mendes and Salma Hayek who featured in the last two editions of the Campari calendar.

Alba attended the calendar's launch this week in Milan, Italy, accompanied by her husband Cash Warren. Donatella Versace and Allegra Beck Versace also attended.

Only 9999 copies of the Campari calendar have been printed. The 2009 edition marks its 10th anniversary.

-- death to monster crickets

If you came over, chances are I'd tell you about the hell that this house was upon moving in. How it was saturated in cat piss, covered in mold, visited upon by slugs and infested with monster spider crickets. I'm still traumatized by the experience and unleash the horror on poor unsuspecting visitors who dare comment nicely on our abode.

Yes, we chose this dwelling. And no, we somehow did not realize the nightmare that lay before us as we innocently signed papers, took the keys and happily swung open the front door only to be greeted by mephitic stenches of hell, mixtures of cat piss and mold raping our nostrils, welcoming us home.

What happened next is a gray slog of torture and hard labor involving dismantling great portions of the home followed by epic Silkwood showers in a desperate attempt to become clean by removing as many millimeters of epidermis possible before bleeding. (I originally posted pictures for family of the cat piss removal event, but sadly ran out of steam and did not document the discovery of the cricket infestation that followed.)

Pity the poor soul who announces to me now that they've just bought a house: I am bursting with depressing unsolicited advice about how to detect the presence of these monster crickets. Now the house is finally, after 7 years, warm, comfortable, pleasant-smelling and bug-free. But we are still scarred.

I know this not only because of my constant ruminations, but I see that Dan has now posted an entry about the monster spider crickets and how they permeated his consciousness during a meeting at work. (Creepy picture alert... you have been warned!) Read on... -->

-- one year blog anniversary

Wow, happy blogging anniversary. blogrollandroll was born last year (although I backdated one old diary entry from July [where the masses come to graze]), I didn't officially start running it until November 2007. See? One year ago I'd not have thought of blogging while plunging off a bridge into icy waters. I'm a changed woman!

-- and note to friends

Thanksgiving totally threw me off schedule -- will be getting caught up on email over this week....

-- good reason to cut hair

IF your hair is healthy and you happen to have about 10 inches too much, you can donate it to Locks of Love, like my girlfriend above.

I would consider this but people who color their hair can't donate it. I mention this not to reveal all my embarrassing personal grooming secrets online -- I've already done that -- but because I knew of someone who chopped all their hair off only to learn it couldn't be used; the stylist never mentioned the criteria.

(And, um, isn't that kindof important? I walk in and say, "hello, I want to donate my hair," you say, "great, we need 10 inches," I say, "bummer, that's shorter than I wanted but ok if it means someone with none can have some" and then you shave my head bald, I'm going to be pretty upset if it ends up in the trash! So, as a fellow hair-owner with a biased interest in follicle preservation, I am considering it somewhat of a personal responsibility to spread this word.)

So this post is dedicated to my good friend and M, who lopped off 10 inches of her thick red hair so that someone else in need can enjoy her beautiful full locks.

-- NaBloPoMo is done

So my one month of posting regularly is up. I didn't sign up for December's daily posting but I'm going to try to do it anyway. Kinda interesting to see that my readership doubled when I put stuff up regularly.