You don’t know what you’ve got until it’s gone. Truer words were never spoken. Especially when you’re shvitzing your behind off in an office with a broken a/c in the middle of a massive LA heat wave. Right now, I’d probably take a bath in freon were the option presented to me. It is literally so hot that the fan on my desk is only adding insult to injury – it’s like moving the hot air of a convection oven around, which ain’t doing so much for my sweaty self.

It’s times like these that you really need to remind yourself how lucky you are. I may be miserable, but at least I’ve got plenty of water to drink – and an ample supply of Diet Pepsi to boot. I may be soaked in my own sweat, but at least I’m going home to a house with a roof (and blissfully, a working air conditioner) tonight. I may be having trouble focusing on my computer screen as the heat headache pounds out what sounds suspiciously like a Brazilian samba beat in my head, but at least I have my Twitter and Facebook friends to periodically distract me throughout the day. I may be literally slipping off my desk chair because of the sweat pooling under my skirt-clad thighs, but at least I’m losing weight from all this sweating…or at least, I sure hope I am. I may be stuck in a stuffy office with no a/c in the middle of a damn heat wave during what is supposed to be the first freakin’ month of fall, but when all is said and done, I’m still pretty darn lucky.

Now, would someone please pass the popsicles?

I love the new Vogue.com. Seriously, love. It manages to be bright and bold, clean and catchy, strong but sleek – all of the things I love in a good design. It’s viscerally evocative of the emotion of high fashion – it’s got the sense of drama inherent in any great design, tempered by the tailoring of clean lines and clear layouts. It’s creative, but not chaotic. In short, I think it’s gorgeous.

And, even though I’m someone who will always love the luxury of sitting on a Sunday afternoon, slowly turning the actual pages of a fresh copy of Vogue, I have to admit that I’ve never been one for browsing their site. To me, Vogue is like a long bath or a face mask, a ritual I do to pamper myself with pretty pictures and interesting articles, not necessarily something I need to keep up with content-wise in the same way I keep up with the million other websites in my google reader, google alerts, Twitter and Facebook streams, regular lunchtime blog browsing, etc.

So, the fact that I am so head over heels (fashion pun intended) for this redesign actually says something. Because now, visiting Vogue online feels that much closer to the experience of turning those glossy pages in my monthly magazine. Which means I may start actually using the website – at least in the weeks between issues.

Dissecting the New Vogue.com: How One Magazine Did the Web Right.

In case you haven’t been on Google yet today (aka: in case you either live under a rock with no internet or you really got to sleep in this morning),  they rolled out a major change to their search functionality this morning with Google Instant Search.

Basically, it predicts what you’re searching for, and shows you these predicted results as you’re typing, rather than waiting for you to hit the ‘go’ button. Here at Ranker, we do something similar when people are searching our 6 million+ item database for things to rank, and I have to say it’s a pretty handy way to find stuff. Especially when you’re searching a field of data as massive as Google’s (or as Ranker’s, for that matter).

I also love that they demoed it at San Fran’s Museum of Modern Art – one of my favorite places in the bay, and a great illustration (pun totally intended) of the power of a well executed web search to hone in on the kinds of data-driven details that make pretty much every experience more enriching. After all, what would a great piece of art be without the context behind its creation? And what would watching TV be like if you couldn’t find out all the behind the scenes gossip you need to really appreciate the Real Housewives of DC (a highly underrated piece of art in and of itself, at least imho). Now you can find those deets, and find yourself wandering the web of related results a lot more quickly and easily, thanks to instant search.

So, bravo Google. So far, I’ve really enjoyed playing with instant search and I’m excited to see how it develops from here. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have some more Salahi gossip to Google.

Oops, I did it again. No, I didn’t play with your heart – at least not that I’m aware of. What I did do was fail to post Things I Love Thursday on, well, Thursday. So, it’ll have to be Things I Love Friday this week. C’est la vie.

Luxist is like the website equivalent of one of those $1,000 ice cream sundaes from Serendipity in New York – unabashedly over the top and almost disgustingly decadent. I just found it, and I’m loving it for a lunchtime luxury fix, especially the real estate listings | My newest Mashable article about scoring social media bargains on fab fashion | And speaking of fashion, I’m getting very excited about the upcoming Girls in Tech LA Fashion’s Night Out event at Saks Fifth Ave. in Beverly Hills | Podcasts. I know I’ve come late to this party, but I just recently started downloading podcasts to listen to at work and am loving having This American Life, Marketplace and The Dinner Party Download on as background noise while I work | The fact that after Labor Day, all the good fall TV comes back, meaning I can finally look forward to watching something other than Real Housewives of New Jersey re-runs | My new Twist Stepper, which is going a long way towards keeping me on track fitness-wise on days when I don’t have time to get to the gym | Looking forward to Labor Day weekend, and sun, sand + s’mores with my friends and family…

It’s the first day of September, and the first day of what is arguably one of my favorite times of year – fall. Even if you’re not in school anymore, there’s just something about fall that feels like a fresh start. Maybe it’s the sudden switch from hot summer nights to cool, crisp evenings, maybe it’s fall fashion week and the reemergence of sweaters and scarves, or maybe it’s just the simple fact that the fresh-books-and-backpacks feeling is so ingrained from childhood that you just can’t shake it. As a Jew, fall also means the new year – a time of repentance and reflection. Which, if you’ve lived the year I’ve lived, is probably best left to another blog post.

But, the point is, it finally feels like summer is coming to a close in favor of fall. And, I don’t know about anyone else, but it’s been one heck of a stressful summer. Fall feels like a much-needed breath of fresh air. A cool breeze to wash away all that stale, stagnant summer stuff and replace it with something crisp and clean and invigorating. Fall also means a return to a few of my favorite things – pumpkin patches, holiday decorations, cold winter nights spent curled up with thick blankets and even thicker books…the list goes on and on. Suffice it to say, I couldn’t be happier to see the calendar say September 1st.

So happy first day of fall everyone. To celebrate, here are a few gorgeous fall pics from my former employer (and still one of my favorite landscape photographers) Dan Merkel. Can’t you just smell the leaves crunching?