The Bees' Knees

I went shopping after work today with a single objective: to buy shorts.

Shorts: the kind that of pants that end above the knee.

...and I did get a pair of shorts.  I also got two dresses and a skirt.  All of them end above the knee.

I've been thinking about it since I left the store, and I literally can NOT remember the last time I bought shorts.  It feels like kind of a big deal.  Don't get me wrong - I didn't put on the shorts and think, "damn, I look GOOD!"  I did, however, put on the shorts, turn around in the mirror, note thankfully that I no longer have back-of-thigh fat sagging down near my knee pits and that my thighs are WAY less jiggly than I remember, and then did a little happy dance.

As for the dresses, here are some horribly blurry dressing room selfies to get the message across:

funny faces and "I'm a little teapot" pose: free with purchase

The dress on the left is actually kelly green with white polka dots (white balance?  WHAT white balance?).  And I think it's more flattering than it looks in the picture.  I love the fabric. It's light and flowy and makes me want to walk barefoot through a park and spin in circles...or maybe just toss a cardigan on top and wear it to work.

I did what I could with the contrast on the picture on the right to show where the dress ends and the door begins.  This dress is made of the nicest textured fabric, and just looks so darn professional!  (Disney look: now including sleeveless!)  I'm pretty sure sleeveless isn't interview-appropriate, but boy does it make me look like a moderately stylish grown-up!  The belt is just a sash, tied in the back.

Anyway, hooray for continued improvement... and for the triumphant return of my knees...  and for the extra miles I'm running weekday mornings so that I can keep buying new clothes.

Adventures in Grocery Shopping

Just a few quick random updates from today's trip to Publix:

• According to the fancy new blood pressure station, I've lost 4 pounds since November 29.  I have a feeling I was down more than that but creeped up due to WAY too much fast food recently.  Still, less is less.
• The Publix bakery doesn't sell not-frosted brownies.  Apparently I'm the only person who prefers her brownies naked.
• A man approached me just past the card aisle. He was carrying two cards and was looking for a woman's opinion on which would be better to give his wife for their 53rd wedding anniversary tomorrow.  I would have felt bad laughing in his face and telling him he picked the WAY wrong girl (you know, due to my blatant disregard for the institution of marriage, the fact that I'm heartless - or so I've been told, and the fact that I've never really had much of a tolerance for cards with sappy sentimental poems), so I read both cards.  I paid attention to the words.  In the end, I recommended the one that made me almost tear up, even though it was three pages long and mentioned God.  And I told him congratulations.  Maybe I'm not heartless after all...
• I also bought brownie mix, vanilla frozen yogurt, and bananas.  I think there's an epic sundae (with peanut butter) in my future.

Sweet Sixteen

I took this picture a little over a week ago, with a mixture of pleasure and exasperation.  The pants I'm wearing here are ones that I bought some time in the fall.

I love them - they are pretty much wrinkle-proof, comfortable, dressy, and they fit my waist and thighs more proportionately than most pants.  Plus, they were a size smaller than my other pants when I bought them.  Every time I put them on and saw the number on the tag, I smiled.

As you can see though, the waistband is starting to get to the "needs to be 'altered' with a safety pin" stage.  They slip down to my hips, which wouldn't be bad except the hems hit the ground if the waistband is at my hips...  

More and more of my original pants are getting to the humorously large point, and this pair of pants tells me something important that I need to remember: don't buy a bunch of clothes at once!  I stopped on my way home today to do some impromptu clothes shopping, and did something I haven't done in many many moons: walked straight to the "normal" side of the store.  As it turns out, the normal side has sizes all the way up to 18, so it wasn't the moral victory I'd hoped for, but I did grab three pairs of pants and three shirts and headed to the dressing room.  One pair was the exact style pictured above, except one size smaller.

Time for a flashback!

During the fall of my sophomore year at Penn State, my mom came to visit and took me clothes shopping.  None of the pants I tried on were fitting right, and I pitched a fit when she grabbed a pair that were size 16.  I think I cried when I realized that they fit.  Considering it was over fifteen years ago and I still remember that particular shopping trip, you can rest assured that it made a major impression.

...and back to the present!

All of the pants I tried on today were 16's.  One pair - sadly, the much-needed khakis - was comically "sausage casing" tight.  Another pair of Dockers were tight, but not ridiculously so.  I have a few sweaters and other hip-length tops that'll work with them.  And the third pair were the dress pants I was thrilled to find.  Putting on a pair of 16's that fit gave me flashbacks to the college shopping trip, and turned me into every cliché woman in a diet food commercial who zips up a pair of pants triumphantly and dances in front of the mirror.

It.  Was.  Awesome!

Sixteen is way smaller than the 20's and 22's I started with, but also nowhere near my goal.  Of course, I never did make a solid number goal, either by size or weight.  When I said I wanted to shop in the normal section of the store, I didn't realize that the normal section has expanded to such large sizes.  I think I'd look awesome in a 12.  That's average and normal these days, right?  Maybe that's a good 2014 goal.

Anyway, that's the latest on my progress.  It's wonderful to see results, even though getting to this point has been long and slow.  And as long as progress continues in the same direction, I'll be patient getting there.

...and I won't buy more than two pairs of pants at the same time!

Medium Well

As I think I mentioned recently, my compression running pants have started to become much less compression-y.  I decided it was time to bite the bullet and buy a new pair, so I stopped at Old Navy yesterday on my way home.  Their compression capri-length pants were on sale, and the display looked like a bomb hit it.  There was no organization of sizes, lengths, or colors.  I finally found an XL hanger with a black pair that were the right length and grabbed them, along with an interesting gray-ish silver-ish pair, and headed to the dressing room.

I tried on the gray ones first, and aside from the color not being as cool as I thought, the calves were loose.  Of all the weird fits I've encountered, I have to say boot-cut capris were pretty much the weirdest thing ever!  So then I grabbed the black pair and started tugging them up.  They were TIGHT, even going up over my (ever-so-muscular runner's) calves, but I kept going.  It was sort of like the control-top pantyhose dance getting them on, but I did it.

You know you have a problem when your black pants are stretched so far that they're almost sheer like black tights.  And I stood there staring at my reflection in the mirror contemplating whether I had really lost thigh size like I thought.  Maybe the old running pants had just given up after over a year of trying to squeeze me into them!  The tag on the hip was stabbing me, so I reached around to move it.  That's when I saw the most ridiculous thing ever: the letter M!

Ego Boost!

I managed to squeeze all of my biggest problem areas into a pair of MEDIUM pants!

Move over, [insert skinny runway model here]!

Granted, this was most definitely a case of "just because you can squeeze into it, that doesn't mean it fits."  I admit to having a moment where I thought maybe I should try on the Large, just in case...but then I came to my senses.  When I left the dressing room, I told the attendant that the pants were on the wrong hanger, "which is sort of a cruel joke," and laughed.  I went back to the racks until I found an XL pair in the correct length and left without trying them on.

I did try them on last night before pulling the tags.  You know, because I'm not completely stupid.  I have to say I wasn't completely displeased with my reflection....

Right about now, I wish that I had sucked up my pride and taken some 'before' pictures in the Spring of 2012.  This girl pictured to the left is still heavy.  Hell, she's still technically obese.  But I can't begin to tell you how proud I am of her for how far she has come!

I don't love my hips or my thighs, but I do love my curves.

I don't love my belly fat, but you can't see much of it from this angle.  It's a trade-off, because I do love the way my butt looks in these pants, but you can't see that either!

I also think that black tight pants really are more flattering than my naked reality, but since none of you are likely to see that EVER, we can all just pretend that this is how I look all the time!

So for future reference, this is my 'during' picture, taken 12-4-2013.

Medium?  Well, no... but definitely headed that general direction!

The Ballad of JC Penney

The following is a copy of the e-mail I just sent to JC Penney "customer care" following a series of ridiculous service failures.  It's long, so I'm going to put it behind the jump, but if you're interested in call center or supply chain logistics, then this is the post for you!

Finding My Voice...in Bangladesh??

I was taken aback by my own passion earlier today.  Though I can rant about non-issues like door slamming neighbors and unfairness at work with aplomb (please tell me I'm using that right...), it's rare that I find myself really caring about something important. 

Global warming?  Bad...but not going to be solved by me.
Dogfighting? Bad...but what would I do?  It's not like I know anyone who participates...

Generally, I hear things that make me sad for a few minutes and then I move on to rainbows and puppies and unicorns.  But this thing keeps nipping at the back of my mind, and I think maybe this time I'm going to act.

My "History of Work in America" class requires a weekly discussion forum, where we read a series of required "primary source" articles (and occasionally watch video clips), choose one question from a list of about 10, form an opinion, cite two of the sources, and blather for a minimum of 150 words.  We then choose a classmate's post and comment on their use of the source materials and whether they proved their point, in a minimum of 100 words.  That's it - nothing to it - easy points.  So this week, the question I selected was the following:

Could you conclude that sweatshops exist in developing nations because a developing nation--like the United States was in the nineteenth century--must go through the historical phase of harsh economic development in order for that developing nation to develop a modern economy?

My Opinion:
Nope...Sweatshops are NOT OK

My answer to this question can be summed up in two words: absolutely not.  Arguing that slave wages and unsafe working conditions are in any way “necessary” promotes consumerism at the expense of basic human rights.

We meet John Keady in the video, “Nike Sweatshops and the Sydney Olympics.” Keady researched working conditions in Indonesia and decided to see for himself whether the jobs were livable.  Not only did Keady lose 25 pounds in the month he worked in a Nike factory, but his wages were barely enough to pay for a rat-infested room and enough food to subsist on.  His decision to put an American face and voice to a first-hand worker account brought the plight of the workers to middle-class consumers around the world.

Meanwhile, the Stossel video “Are Sweatshops factories good?” is nothing more than a condescension against human rights protestors.  He managed to find a few people from developing countries to extol the virtues of factories.  His report is not very in-depth, and sounds like a commercial for these factories.

Another first-person account came from the article “Working Overtime to Vanquish Sweatshops.”   One immigrant, the daughter of factory workers, recalls her childhood: ''My mother was working 15 hours days,'' Betty Yu said. ''I didn't know my mother. I didn't know my father. They were at work when I woke up and when I went to bed at night.”  While this account probably mirrors that of children of nineteenth century US factory workers, one important differentiation can be made: though conditions then were deplorable, with long hours and dangerous working conditions, people around the world were immigrating to the US in massive numbers.  The bad conditions here were still better than the terrible conditions they left behind.  Who is immigrating to Bangladesh today?

Sources:

John Stossel ABC News: Are Sweatshops Factories Good?Sky TV: Nike Sweatshops and the Sydney Olympics
NY Times: Working overtime to banish sweatshops

Generally speaking, my commentaries hit right around 175 words.  So the fact that I managed to ramble on so extensively on this topic surprised me.  But hey - it's good to enjoy an assignment every now and then!  Today, I read an opposing viewpoint from one of my classmates.  I'd also like to share her commentary, followed by my response...

Sweatshops Boost the Economy * I would absolutely agree that developing nations must endure the same phase of harsh economic development that the U.S. did in order to develop a thriving economy; and utilizing labor to produce products sold in America is a great way to develop that economy. It’s called globalization “the development of an increasingly integrated global economy marked especially by free trade, free flow of capital, and the tapping of cheaper foreign labor markets,” as defined by Webster. Newer generations in India, Africa, China and Korea live better than the older generations before them because of production for U.S. goods (Are Sweatshop Factories Good?).   

The video (Nike Sweatshops and the Sydney Olympics) proved that globalization does work. That video was made in 2000? According to the Jakarta Globe, by early 2013, Nike planned to make the manufacturing plant in Jakarta “the largest manufacturing base for Nike apart from China and Vietnam.” Minimum wage was raised by 44%. That’s more than a 3 ½ percent increase in the cost of living per year. That’s a bigger cost of living wage than some American workers earn in  a year. 

Response:
As much as I love the idea of globalization and a global economy, I believe that a truly global economy should have standardized minimum wages (based on the nation's economy, of course) and a certain minimum of guaranteed worker safety.  I acknowledge that factories are not all sweatshops, and that for some workers in developing countries (as well as workers in this country) factories are perfectly safe and pay a decent wage.

I am very confused by your perspective that the Sydney Olympics video shows globalization in a positive light.  And while I find your statistics on the rising minimum wage a positive sign, I'd also like to point out that money doesn't do these workers any good if they die in an industrial accident due to their deplorable working conditions.  Just in the past six months in Bangladesh:

* November 2012: 117 killed in clothing factory fire
* April 2013: 1,000+ killed in factory collapse
* May 2013: 8 people killed in factory fire
* ...and just this week: finally, Bangladesh gives factory workers the right to unionize.  However, I wanted to highlight the following quote, pulled from the last article (emphasis mine):

"The government is in talks with labour groups and factory owners on a new minimum wage for the garment sector. Its current $38-per-month minimum pay is half what Cambodian garment workers earn.

 

Bangladesh last increased its minimum garment-worker pay in late 2010, almost doubling the lowest pay. This time, wages are unlikely to go much higher as factory owners, who oppose the raise, say they cannot afford higher salaries as Western retailers are used to buying cheap clothing."

"Harsh economic development" is one thing.  However, ignoring the horrible treatment of human beings for the sake of a $3 t-shirt from Wal Mart isn't globalization - it's exploitation.

 

So...it looks like, of all things, I am passionate about global workers' rights.  Who'd have thought?!?  I remember trying to find clothes made in the US a few years ago, and determined that my options would literally be to look Amish or to sew my own.  And I justified my inaction by telling myself that not all clothing factories are sweatshops.  Maybe my $5 t-shirt was made by happy well-fed women putting children through college on their wages.  I can't possibly solve this problem on my own.  And what I do probably won't make a bit of difference.  But that's not going to stop me from acting.  With one exception, I've boycotted Wal Mart for over a year over the poor treatment of workers in their stores in this country!  

I pledge that I will no longer buy clothes made in Bangladesh until real substantive change is brought to the clothing factories.  A living wage and safe working conditions should be guaranteed to every worker on the planet, and I am willing to pay more to do my small part. 

Though I can't find an article to explain this point more clearly, I learned in my labor economics class that labor costs are a small piece of a very large cost-benefit equation, and increasing the labor rate does NOT cause the product on the shelf to go up by the same amount.  That means a labor raise of $1/hour might translate to $.10 per piece of clothing. However, of that $.10, only 2-3 cents would actually be passed along to the consumer.

...but even if the cost of every article of clothing you buy went up by $1 - from a $5 t-shirt to a $6 t-shirt - wouldn't that be worth it to know there aren't starving workers living in filth?  And before you say you can't afford that extra $1 per shirt, consider all the ways to pay less - sales, coupons, clearance racks, stores like Ross and TJ Maxx, consignment/second hand/thrift stores...

OK...so that was an awful lot for one post.  Sorry about that.  Like I said, apparently I found my voice. And I can't seem to stop singing!

Now That's What I Call Customer Service

I called Sirius-XM this afternoon because my most recent promotional rate was about to expire.  What follows is a partial transcript of the conversation:

Me: Hi, I'm calling to do that thing where I say I'm going to cancel my subscription and then you offer me a better rate.
Customer Service Rep: Umm...wow...ok...
{pause while he checks on my existing package}

CSR: Well, things have changed since your last subscription.  We only have packages for a full year.  Let's see... I have one for $96 and one for $83.
Me: And what's the difference between the two? (expecting one to include internet radio or something)
CSR: One is 40% off and the other is 50% off. Most people would choose the 50% off option.
{blah blah blah}

CSR: (going through his script) And to summarize, you called today to cancel your subscription because you were unhappy with your rate?
Me: Yes, that's exactly right.

Really, I only want to keep the service through November because I'm in love with the POTUS channel and am a cyclical political junkie, but I get 8 bucks a month of enjoyment out of the service so I decided to go for it.  Needless to say, I chose the 50% off option. 

I was worried that if I actually told the truth that they would shoot me down.  Instead, I gave the CSR his laugh of the day, and still got what I wanted and he gets a stat that says he kept someone from cancelling.  Win-Win!

Mischief Managed

Scott and Katie and I tried to go to the corn maze this afternoon, but despite getting there almost 3 hours before closing time we were turned away. The experience wasn't positive, and I'm very sad because I'd been looking forward to going for 3 years. So we went to World Market in search of eclectic things instead. Katie got a cool hat, Scott got 2 fun new glasses, and I got a bottle of cherry soda. (I told you I was sad!)

And then I walked over and caught Scott being mischievous. He was doing our old trick of setting all of the timers so that they go off at the same time and then walking away. I had to take a picture of his handiwork:

It was the look in his eyes as he flipped them over that made me smile. And when I asked what he was doing and he responded wide-eyed that he was "setting all the timers so that they go off at the same time," I belly laughed.

And if I do say so myself, that's a pretty sweet picture. There is one other picture I took today, of the sign across from the corn maze parking lot (where, by the way, we were greeted by a man dressed as a scarecrow, complete with burlap sack over his face!):

Had it said "Grower of Truly Truly Truly Outrageous Sod," I would've hopped out of the car and made someone take my picture with it!

Another Trip to the Mall?

For real, I found myself at the mall for the second day in a row today. Unfortunately (or fortunately?), the mall closes really early on Sunday. And so do most of the stores at Winter Garden Village. So I did a lot of driving today, but not a lot of shopping.

That's probably for the best.

Cat and I had a really good time though, catching up, sharing work stories (hers - mine aren't interesting), eating greasy food, and whatever. When the company is good, the rest is inconsequential.

Lots Done

Floppy hat shopping at the mall was an epic failure. This time of year, unless you want a ski cap or a dressy hat with feathers, you're basically out of luck.

We did, however, stumble across a doorbuster sale at JC Penney. I found an 80% off rack in the men's department with Scott's short-sleeve button-down shirts on sale for $5 each, got him 2 polo shirts, and bought an argyle sweater for myself (also men's...but with purple in it). The bottom of the receipt says we saved $185.12, and when the cashier read that out, I literally high-fived Scott.

After the mall, we swung by Target, where I found a floppy hat last week but didn't buy it. I got one (on clearance, 1/2 price) that works for me, and bought a big pair of sunglasses to go with it. Paired with the cover-up I ordered from Old Navy, I'm going to look so fabulous walking to and from the pool/beach during our vacation...right up until the hat flies off my head and into the ocean!

After Target, we grocery shopped, came home for a little while, and then headed off to the park formerly nicknamed MGM (now DHS) for dinner. We made good time, so we had time for a quick ride on the Great Movie Ride, where we were treated to a surprise show by my Encore friend Melissa, playing the part of the gangster who hijacks your car. She's really good at it.

And then dinner at Mama Melrose's was spectacular as always. I had tomato & mozzarella salad and goat cheese ravioli and Scott had clams and the pork chop. Mmm...delicious!

And now we're home and my feet hurt. It was a great day, and I think we both really needed a great day. Tomorrow Scott's back to work and I've got some laundry to do. Back to the real world!

Shopped

Well, we went and spent our free money at Sports Authority, and only ended up spending $18 of our own money. That was pretty sweet! We bought:

• a handlebar bag for me
• 2 sweet water bottles (no BPA and dishwasher safe)
• a bike lock with a cable long enough to secure both bikes
• a bottle holder for Scott
• a portable tire pump
• ceiling hooks to hang the bikes (we think we're going to mount them under the neighbor's stairs where they will be easier to get down)
• a padded seat for Scott (the one his bike came with was sort of...utilitarian)

I think that's it. Of course, Scott's got an OT shift tonight, and I have one next week. By the time we're both off, it'll be 95 degrees out! Even if that's the case, we'll just have to get up and go early in the morning when it's "only" 80.

And thus concludes this month's NaBloPoMo entries. I'm going to try to keep going next month, because writing every day is therapeutic in its own weird way. And I know I've never gone 2 months in a row before...

Wish me luck!

Shopping for Free

Scott and I are going back to Sports Authority tomorrow to spend our $100 "free money" we got for buying our bikes. I definitely want to get an air pump and locks. After that, I've got no clue what we should buy.

I'd so much rather have a $100 certificate for clothes or World Market, but beggars can't be choosers!

Anyone have any good ideas for purchases?

Collage

Lucky me! Snapfish came out with a promotion - 50% off collage posters - just in time for me to create my own bird-spotting guide! Here's what I came up with:


Before you judge my placement of the photos, know that I spent 45 minutes hitting 'shuffle photos' again and again trying to come up with something that didn't tweak my OCD. They let you pick out the pictures, and then they place them for you. As you can imagine, that was challenging!

While I wanted to include the otters and the alligator, I didn't want them to be focal points. And at one point (this may have been when Scott almost removed me from my seat), the bottom row of birds were all facing left except for one facing right. *twitch* At least the way this one is set up, they're in all different directions.

Anyway, I'm pretty happy with the way it came out. The poster size is 16"x20", and hopefully we can find a frame for it and hang it downstairs right next to the sliding door. It's not much of a bird spotting guide, since there's no labels, but I'll probably print a small legend to hang next to it. We'll see.

Now I can't wait for it to come in the mail!

Biker Gang

Who wants to join my biker gang?

That's right baby - I got a bike! Scott got a bike too, but I can't find it on the internet. And we bought a car rack for them. We got them home in one piece, and then took them for a quick test-loop through the last undeveloped bit of our development. Everything seems to be in working order. I'm looking forward to getting out for a ride that lasts longer than 3 minutes.

I can't wait to get out on the West Orange Trail and maybe even Ft. Wilderness (combine an afternoon of bike riding with a buffet lunch of fried chicken and pulled pork...it evens out, right?).

We can't really get safely outside our development without loading the bikes onto the car because our closest major road is under construction and we don't want to die. So while I'd love to say we're going to bike to the store or some other Earth-conscious claim, right now it would be a big fat lie.

Our purchase entitled us to a $100 shopping card that's valid next week. At that point, we'll get locks and a pump and whatever else we can get for free. Maybe a backpack for our vacation.

Picture(s?) to come...probably tomorrow...

Window(s) Shopping

I recently discovered a site where I find myself alternating between "wow, I really need that!" and "wow, they really think someone is going to buy that?" It's Etsy. Etsy makes it really fun to window shop with their "pounce" function. It basically shuffles through the sellers, so even if you don't know what you want to look at, you'll figure it out.

Case in point: I need one of these. Scott agrees. Tell me you don't need one too!

I also just found out that there's a giveaway going on for one of those adorable aprons here. You know I'm entering that!!

VISA: Secured

You know your credit card has good security features when you make a big-ticket purchase and they are calling you before you even leave the store to make sure your credit card is still in your possession!

Actually, we made two big-ticket purchases. We finally bought Scott's Man-Grill (when you see it, you'll understand the title). And we finally replaced our slow-beyond-comprehension PC.

The grill is assembled. (I won't tell you about the DRAMA of going into Lowe's to find it's out of stock, and then finding out it's in stock, and then finding out it's not really in stock, and then finding out it's in stock but not put away correctly, and then finally getting it and forgetting to use the $25 off coupon in my purse, and then finding out it wouldn't fit in Scott's trunk...or back seat, and then having to rent a pick-up truck for the 20 minutes it took to drive round-trip and unload the thing! That part is better left unspoken.)

But since I'm still in the painstaking process of saving old files to CDs and jump drives, the new PC is still in the box. But it's so new... and the flat-panel monitor is so pretty...

sigh, sometimes it's so hard being a grown-up!

I burned two final music CDs with random tunes taking up space on the hard drive (don't tell me that's what makes the computer slow. la la la, I can't hear you over my pretty new monitor), I burned two photo CDs, and after I save my 2010 (the year, not the number) photos onto the jump drive, I think the last step is to go through folders and look for things I want to rescue.

You know what I'm not going to be able to rescue and it breaks my heart? The 8 "I VOTED" stickers stuck around the edge of the monitor. That's 4 elections' worth! My Obama sticker... my Obama primary sticker... my John Kerry sticker... my John Edwards primary sticker... (hey - I'm 2 and 2 - it could be worse! and when you include Scott's stickers, our winning percentage is even higher!) There are 7 other stickers on the monitor, too. Each is a different Chiquita banana sticker. My favorite says "place sticker on forehead. smile." Words to live by, right?

So, enough of my sentimental journey through stickers. I've got an exciting new box of stuff to play with!

Actually...

Here's a list of actual things that Scott and I did today:

1. Trip to Lowe's to buy paint, primer, and a new towel holder for powder room.

2. Removal of old towel bar, using sharp blade and new pry bar.

(also bought pry bar and mallet at Lowe's during #1)

3. Discovery of two perfectly rectangular holes behind old towel bar.

4. Discovery that builders installed vanity light without a junction box and that installation of new vanity light without a junction box is impossible.

5. Googled "install vanity light no junction box," and got great instructions from diynetwork.com on how to install a junction box.

5a. Curse like a sailor, throw brief tantrum.

6. Trip to Lowe's to buy wall patches, spackle, and aerosol can of "orange peel" wall texture to fix holes where old towel bar was. Also bought new junction box. The girl in the drywall section was quite helpful. The guy in the electrical section was dumb as a box of rocks. And he looked like the boss from Office Space. Luckily, there was a nice middle-aged customer who came to my rescue. Twice. I say "my" rescue because, as a man, Scott can't ask for help. So he disappears ("hey - we NEEDED a drywall saw!") while I ask for help. It's ok. At least then I get to hear the instructions first-hand and don't need to second guess later.

7. Scott patches holes in one wall while I cut a big circular hole in another wall.

8. Realize plumbing is close to the wall and that junction box is too deep and therefore won't fit.

8a. Curse like a (&$%(# sailor. Lament that we're stuck with ugly Broadway-style lighting forever.

9. Scott uses drywall saw to cut the back off of the plastic junction box while I watch two hours worth of DVRed TV shows. Yep...two hours. The man is dedicated!

10. Anchor junction box into drywall, install light fixture, and test out lighting.

11. Go to garage and do some test-runs of orange peel texturing on cardboard (and on the garage wall). Damn, it's cold out!

12. Eat dinner of chicken tenders and fish planks at 9 pm while mocking the Olympic opening ceremony.

13. Blog about day that was supposed to be fun but, like most home improvement projects, turned out to be frustrating.

I took lots of pictures today, but I'm saving them for a full before & after. Tomorrow while Scott is at work I'm definitely going to texture over the wall patches and tape off the baseboards and ceiling. I might prime, but it's likely I'll wait for next Friday and Saturday to prime & paint when Scott is there to help. Not that there's room for two of us in there at a time...

Where Have You Been All My Life?

There is a store...

at Downtown Disney...

that sells mismatched socks!

I admit, it's not the mismatched-ness that appeals to me. It's the plethora of funky, adorable socks. Ankle socks, knee socks, toe socks, mitten socks (ok, they call them flip flop socks), leg warmers... plus sock puppets, bags, and other accessories to match your mismatched socks.

The socks are also sold in packs of three (here's my favorite). So really, I could buy two packs and then have three pairs of matching funky socks. But I guess that goes against the point of the store. I managed to make it out without buying anything, mostly because the balance on my credit card is 2 months from being $0 and I'd like to keep my momentum going.

Impulse shopping: it only feels good until you get the bill!

In other news, it's yet another rainy day her in ParkHopperLand. Luckily, Scott snapped a few pictures of Harley yesterday afternoon when the skies were a little clearer. Here's the best one of the bunch:

I love the golden tone that the afternoon sun gives to pictures. Of course, I hate being out in the afternoon sun, because the angle of the rays makes me feel claustrophobic. (nope, can't explain it any better, but it really makes me nuts!) I guess it's a good thing Scott was there to take this photo for me!

Another Post About the Future of My Powder Room

Please try to contain your enthusiasm until the end of the post!



Back during NaBloPoMo (November edition), I shared a photo of some paint chips and some other design choices we were considering for the downstairs bathroom. What I didn't mention was that we were skewing the bathroom theme a little towards Japanese. Really, it's not supposed to be like a Zen garden or anything (not that that wouldn't be cool...) - just simple and elegant, and really dark purple. Basically, the only addition to the room (after the light fixture, which has cool pagoda lines) was going to be a single white orchid (fake, obviously) in a simple container on the back of the toilet.



Did you catch the "was?"


Yeah...this is why Scott and I shouldn't go to World Market:


I guess it's not that far from the original design idea. Instead of a single orchid, now it's a single cherry blossom branch. With a very yellow background. I loved it. And Scott says he loves it, though I'm never really sure whether or not he's placating me. The print itself was cheap. I imagine framing it will not be. Have you seen the shape of this thing?!?

And though you can't tell from the pictures above and below (because of the fact that my camera does not like CF light bulbs), that print is going to look un-be-freaking-lieveable on the dark purple wall. (also, no, it's not going to live on the sink - that's just where the paint chips are stuck)

I think it's almost time to buy the light fixture and the paint and get cracking on project #1!

The View from Bathroom #2

Since I shared the view from the master toilet yesterday, I thought I'd share another toilet point-of-view today. I call this particular view, "Meditation in Purple."


Yes, we were at Lowe's today. How did you guess? We are contemplating this color family for the powder room, along with this lighting fixture. Below is an enlarged, white-balanced, and brightened picture of the paint colors. Anyone have a favorite? (I still think the photo is darker than the real colors)

And while we're on the subject of colors, check out today's home-tastic purchase: throw pillows!

They are actually matching reversible pillows. The orange is iridescent, and turns red and yellow depending on the light and the angle. If World Market had more than two in stock, we definitely would have bought more. Sadly, what you see is what we were able to get. The house needed a color outside of the beige family, and the pillows are definitely a (small) step in the right direction!