Quilt Math

I got my sewing machine back from the shop yesterday. I had it in for semi-routine maintenance. The 'dashboard' has service symbols when it's time for an oiling or professional service. I oil my machine far more often than the light indicates. Maybe that's why the service symbol doesn't come on, I just bring it in when it's been a while.

Last time I had it in for service was in April of 2008. The tech provided me with some statistics from my machine's computer.

General sewing time: 25:39
Stitches: 6,802,510
Time using the embroidery module: 1:23
Embroidery stitches: 502,400
Time quilting with the stitch regulator module (BSR): 1:36
BSR stitches: 5,490,480
Total time: 28:38
Total stitches: 12,795,390

Since I bought my machine used, all the embroidery work was done by the previous owner since I don't have that part.

I asked for the same statistics this time, almost three years later.

General sewing time: 99:37
stitches: 2,572,174
Time using the embroidery module: 1:23
embroidery stitches: 50,240
Time using BSR: 1:43
BSR stitches: 773,830
Total time: 102:43
Total stitches: 3,396,244
Total time turned on: 6233:51


OK, so do you see the problem here? The first set of numbers is off. By a lot, a factor of 10. I'm guessing there's an extra zero at the end of the older counts. After I adjust for that what puzzles me the most is how I could have sewn 224,782 stitches with the BSR in seven minutes.

I guess it's a new form of quilt math I'm not aware of.

Posting Again - More Randomness

I'm behind.

Again.

Story of my life really.

I've got sewing homework due tonight I haven't finished. I am supposed to make 18 blue exchange blocks. I've got 14 blocks cut out and partially sewn. Then the bobbin ran out and I quit. I should have been working on the blocks this weekend but started a strip quilt instead. Oh well, never could get my priorities right.

I've got a girl scout vest that needs attention.
Not to mention it's that time of the year when I'll be getting a lot more vests to work on, too.

Back in March I planted a half pound pack of pea seeds. They came up nicely, growing wonderfully, I was looking forward to yummy peas right off the vine until the rabbits had a salad.

Fern is interviewing at a private high school today, she is tired of the general population at Bowie HS. for example, she's taking the HSAs this week, those minimum standard tests needed for graduation in biology, government and English, and some of her fellow students who don't take the tests seriously cause disruptions. She's just tired of it all. I don't blame her.

Ever since she took the PSAT in October she has been inundated with recruiting propaganda from colleges all over the country, most I'd never heard of. Her SAT equivalent theoretically was 1800, is that good these days? She wanted to take the SAT this spring instead of waiting until fall of her junior year so I signed her up for the session in June.

Kevin has a swim meet this weekend. Its the PG Special Olympics county meet, which is usually a big one, most counties attend, but for some reason only 47 athletes from four counties have registered so it should be over quickly. That means in the noon-2 window instead of the 4-5 window. They will be running the long races, though so that does take a lot of time. But still, fingers are crossed. I'll be there all day to time races. If anyone needs volunteer hours, I can hook you up.

Then we're off to the State Games in June and swim season will be over. yay.

I've broken part of my molar and I probably ought to have it checked out. It doesn't hurt, but it's kind of achy. Sheesh.

 

What Kind of Designs?

I just noticed today blogspot/google has a stats tab on my blog dashboard. I like stats, I do work for a statistical agency after all.

I clicked on the tab to find out what blogger offered. I already employ two other free stat services on my blog, how does blogger's stats compare?

Blogger's stats are simpler in content and to use. The summary page shows a graph of page views, traffic, audience and posts; the detail pages show more info about each category. I clicked on the traffic page and viewed a list of referring URLs, those pages that point to my blog, this very one you're reading. How did you get here, anyway? I see on the list a variety of sources, Google is to be expected as is other friends' blogs. What I didn't expect was what was listed second on the all-time list: tattoodesignsvault.com with 69 instances.

I'm still scratching my head over that.

 

The Anacostia River - guess we got a smidge of rain this morning.

I took this video with my phone of the Anacostia where it goes under 38th Avenue in Brentwood, MD.

While I was there I saw a large log float downstream with no effort at all. Maybe float isn't the best word, maybe fly would be better.

This Will Be in the News on Thursday

The news last week of Abby Sunderland sailing around the world solo reminded me of another sailor who will be in the news this week.

According to his blog, Reid Stow has been sailing around the world solo without stopping, without resupplying for the past three years, and he is scheduled to be sailing home under the Verrazano Bridge Thursday, June 17th having been at sea for 1151 days. I am amazed by this.

On Flying Things

Yesterday started with a bird flying into our house.

We keep the garage doors open in the mornings so we can hear Kevin's bus come. So the bird had easy entry. Thinking about it though, it's kind of surprising no bird has ever flown in before now.

Dan had the bird cornered in the kitchen near the door, but couldn't get it unlocked and open before it flew into the living room. It tried to fly out the window, which was closed. I got the front door open then used a broom to guide it out.

Last night I found a unexplainable dark purple stain on the sofa. Hmmm. Related? I don't want to think about it.

 

Empty

Before I could even get the camera up there, the babies have flown the coop, the nest is empty.

Oh well.

In other news, Fern landed, for the first time, two axels at her ice skating lesson on Wednesday.


 

Soon to be a Mama

This mama cardinal and her mate will soon be the proud parents of triplets. I know this because her nest is right below my bedroom window and I saw three speckled eggs in there.

There are too many leaves in the way to get a picture of her sitting on her broodlets and she yells at me too much when I try to move the branches out of the way for a better shot. My iPhone needs a longer lens.

 

Spring Break

Ten-Day cruise aboard the Celebrity Millenium

The day before: applied for and obtained passports for the kids. Whew. That was close.

Departure from Bowie: four adult-sized people, four large suitcases holding clothes for at least 12 days, and four carry-ons in a Honda Fit. Should have taken a picture so we knew how everything would fit for the return.

Checked into the Best Western-Newark Airport at 10:30 with a 04:00 wake-up call for a 06:00 flight to Atlanta, connecting on to San Juan.

Check-in at the cruise terminal went fairly smoothly, had to fill out a health questionnaire: have we been sick? No, except for the major allergy attack that came on the day before, I was sneezing and had a runny nose like there's no tomorrow. Sheesh.

The ship is nice, quiet. Not in-your-face like Carnival tends to be. The general layout is very similar between the two, however. The typical demographic of Celebrity passengers is 55-75. This sailing skewed a lot younger because of spring break.

Luggage: finally delivered to our staterooms right before dinner, about five hours after boarding. What took so long? I start to worry it is still sitting on the dock somewhere.

Dinner: late seating, I asked for a table for four when we booked, they put us at a table for ten. Except there were only three seats left. Goldilocks was already at our table. sheesh. A table for ten, really? I really don't like to make other people endure Kevin's quirkiness, we like to eat alone. They are very apologetic and seat us upstairs for the night.

Tortola: not the island filled with pirates one might expect, especially those who are Johnny Depp fans. A smidge of sunburn where I missed with the sunscreen. Decent beach.

Sint Maarten: Narrow beach, more sunscreen. Didn't go to the French sided. Fern and I collect our free charms in all the ports as we did on the cruise a year ago Christmas. I've amassed quite a collection now.

St. Lucia: shore excursion to the Piton Falls. Who would have thought the roads were that tight, windy, and steep? Dramamine, please. We finally get a permanent dinner table assignment. We had open seating the first three nights because of the initial mix-up. Open seating is a disaster. Service is much better in the regular dining room. Much. They don't forget the silverware there.

Do you wave at strangers? Do you wave at the passengers on the other ships in the harbor when one ship is departing? Do you wave until they wave back which only encourages more of your fellow passengers to wave at them which encourages more of their fellow passengers to wave back at us?

Barbados: Dan and Fern take a zipline excursion while Kevin and I go to a beach. Met a lovely couple from the ship and asked the wife help me with the lotion on my back since Dan wasn't around. They both golf.

It's about 160 steps from Deck 2 where our staterooms are to Deck 10 where the breakfast and lunch buffets are. Kevin takes them up. I take them down. I can make it up to Deck 7 before getting on the elevator. Whew.

Grenada, the Spice Island: Catamaran snorkel/beach excursion and a sunburned back today. The spices are better in Guadalupe, by the way, but that was 15 years ago.

Day at sea: reading and sunning.

Curaçao: We rent a car. I drop Dan and the husband from the couple I met in Barbados off at the golf course and I take the wife and the kids to find a beach and to Jaanchie's restaurant for lunch. That's the place Dan and I went to for dinner a couple of times when we visited Curaçao three years before. Lunch is good but the service is way slow and we are late getting back to pick up the boys at the golf course. They seemed to have fun.

Aruba: We taxi to Eagle beach. Best beach by far, very wide with smooth, soft sand.

Down-face dog on the beach is relaxing, a nice stretch, until my foundation is washed away.

After the beach, I do some personal shopping and also collect our charms.

The new one is a bit bigger than the old one. When it's not sticking to my skin because of humidity or sweat, it hangs down loose on my metacarpal joint. Do I take another link out?

Another day at sea, more reading and sunning.

Back in San Juan: we take the El Yunqué rainforest tour, only because we have all day to kill, our flight home doesn't leave until 5:00.

Our flight to Miami is oversold. A flight to Baltimore is at the next gate. I offer three of our seats on our flight for seats on the BWI flight. (Our connection doesn't get in to Newark until 00:20, then there's the drive home and school the next day. This is the part of the vacation I wasn't looking forward to.) There are only two seats available on the BWI flight so I send Dan and Fern that way, Kevin and I continue on as originally planned. He's a little distraught about not having Daddy with him, but he settles down soon enough.

We depart San Juan for Miami over an hour late and just make it on to our next flight. (Dan and Fern arrive in Baltimore at the same time Kevin and I land in Miami. They get home and sleep in their own beds.) We make it to Newark, but our checked luggage doesn't. There are four groups of folks in the same boat, from the same boat, with no luggage. I file the missing bags report. Guess I didn't need that map to reload the suitcases in the car after all.

Kevin and I with our carry-ons get the car out of hock at SkyPark. $180 to park, free with the Best Western stay and fly deal. I hit the road, south on the turnpike to Exit 7, and spend what's left of the night at the Hampton. They gave me toothbrushes and toothpaste for me and the boy and deodorant for myself. I like Hampton Inn.

Home: at about 11:30, Kevin off to school. I try to drop him off directly but he won't go, he has to have his backpack.

The automated baggage system has no information about my suitcases. Then late in the afternoon, one bag has been found. I wonder if it's the one filled with dirty clothes?

Kevin's body clock is messed up. He heads to bed at 03:30 but is very distraught about not having his own toothbrush or flosser. It takes a while to calm him down.

O'dark:15 this morning my cell rings: "I have your suitcases, I'm in front of your house, sorry I'm late."

Sheesh.

Lesson learned: If airfare out of Newark is included in your cruise ticket and DC is $400 extra, go with DC.

Weekend Round-Up

I can't make this short. I wish I could.

Last Friday I got online to do our check-in for our spring break trip. Quick, right? I had to enter our passport numbers and expiration dates. Dan, bless his heart, had them scanned and saved to an on-line secure library so I could get the numbers. That's when I found out the kids' passports expired last month. After what seemed like hours on the phone to various government agencies, I found out the kids could get on the ship with a birth certificate and a "laminated government-issued identification card," a driver's license, by any other name. The MVA needs a birth certificate and proof of lawful presence in order to issue a state ID card. Lawful presence is established by means of a valid passport or a social security card. We lost Kevin's social security card in the move years ago. It takes 5 business days to get another card when applied for in person with proof of birth and legal residency, ie, a passport.

Through the State Department's phone system, I got the "next available" appointment at the passport office for expedited processing. Thursday at 9:00. And we depart on Friday.

OK, so that was last Friday.

Saturday, I already posted pictures from Kevin's Special Olympics Basketball tournament. Last year he participated in what they called "skills development." which consisted of dribbling, passing, and shooting baskets. This year they moved him up to a player development unified team. Two special needs athletes play with a regularly-abled player-coach. The team coach and the player-coaches help the special athletes learn to play basketball against another team. As Dan pointed out earlier in the season, it's hard to teach these kids to be aggressive and go for the ball, rebounding, and defense when they've been taught to share and be nice all their lives.

Our team really came along this season, going from losing their first game 0-20 to winning all five of their games Saturday. Some were very close, some were funny, all were exciting. I'm proud of my boy, he's really coming along.

Sunday, I worked at my guild's quilt show. When I arrived I rushed through the displays to find my quilt, you know, to make sure it was really there, and it had a ribbon on it already! I about fell on the floor. One of the vendor's chose it as their favorite.

My parents got to the show at about 2:30, just in time for the appraisal appointment I set up. The guild had Phyllis Twigg Hatcher come to the show this year to appraise quilts. I found the whole process fascinating. Since the quilt was hanging in the show, she asked me a lot of information first before we went in to see it. She asked me if I had a picture of it, she didn't know if she'd seen it or not. I told her she had, it had her vendor's choice ribbon on it. "Oh! That's yours!" After measuring it and quizzing me on fabric and techniques, she said the replacement value of the quilt was over $1500. I asked her why she chose my quilt for the ribbon. She said she liked that it wasn't ordinary, the colors flowed well and borders were nice.

During the show, all guests can submit a ballot of their favorite quilts in different categories. My quilt was in the Large Pieced category and it won first place for viewers' choice! I was so excited, I still can't believe I won.

Mom and Dad got to take the quilt with them at the end of the show. This is the quilt Mom says she'll be redecorating her bedroom around. I have to finish the pillow shams for her to match the quilt. One day.

In the mean time, I need to stop the mail and confirm with the house-sitter, and pack for the cruise. Did I lose enough weight to fit into summer clothes? I still have 3 more days.....


 

The Last 24 Hours

I had one of those killer headaches yesterday, you know the kind, 800mg of ibuprofen and a 1.5 hour nap wouldn't touch.

I found my card reader, the one I've been looking for for months! Now I can get around to posting those promised pictures. I found it when I was looking for my work ID in the car. So, there's the good news with the bad. Getting through security here at the "reservation" is a royal pain without the ID. First you have to get a Temporary Employee Pass at the guard's shack. But that's just a sticker you're supposed to wear. Then you have to stop at the badge office to get an activated card that'll let you ride the elevators to your floor for that day. The next day, it's the same deal. Bless my husband for waiting for me while I stopped at the guard's shack these mornings.

I have no idea where the work ID is. None. I may have forgotten to take it off Friday, then it fell off somewhere while I was at the mall with the kids Friday night. I hate losing things!

But, now I'm pleased to find my card reader. I've started unloading pictures from my camera cards. I won't overload you with things to look at all at once so I'll just post this time-lapse movie of our recent little snowfall to start with.




 

I'm not sure what shocked me more

In a moment of purging and recycling, I decided I would give away my wedding dress. I figured:

1. I wasn't ever going to wear it again.
2. I was never going to fit into it again.
3. It's not that stunning so Fern probably wouldn't want to wear it.
4. I didn't want to even come close to making Fern feel guilty for not wanting to wear it.

So I thought I'd look into one of those charitable organizations that collect special occasion dresses for women who need them.

Last weekend Dan was away on a golfing trip to Florida, the kids were occupied elsewhere, and there was a Say Yes to the Dress marathon on TLC. I cozied up and watched six or eight episodes back to back.

Say Yes is a reality show set in Kleinfelds in NYC where all types of brides with their mothers/sisters/fiances/fathers come in to find "the dress" with budgets between $1500 and $15,000. I'm not sure why I'm drawn to this show, but I am. Maybe it's the audaciousness of the brides or the conflict of opinions within the entourage, dunno. Somewhere in all of that, Fern appeared and watched with me. We critique the dresses: too much lace, too plain, nice beading, ugly neckline, good train, makes her butt look big, etc.

After a while I confess to her I'm planning on giving away my dress and I explain why. She says, "Can I try it on?" "Sure," I say. We release it from the almost-20 years of dry-cleaning plastic it's been hiding in.

I had my dress made for me from an ivory cotton damask. It has a classic "ballroom" silhouette (stuff you learn by watching such a show) but has full-length lace sleeves attached under the arm, a zillion buttons up the back, and has large bows adorning the bodice and the train.

So Fern tries it on and I get many, but not all, the buttons done, just enough to keep it on. I spread out the train and there she was. Beautiful.

I'm not sure what shocked me most: the fact it nearly fit her, I'm just a couple inches taller than she is, (was I really that skinny!?) or that she doesn't want me to give it away. "Mom, we can just take off the lace sleeves and the bows, and it's beautiful."

I love it when she surprises me like that, it's fun.

At the Grocery in the Produce Section

Tip of the Iceberg

Yesterday was my birthday, and before I go into a head-long explanation about what a delightful day it was (except for one thing), I want to get your opinion on something.

Fern and I are eating dinner at Zaytinya in downtown DC. Long story short, the bill comes, it's $41.80. I only have twentys so I put three in the folder and wait for my change. The waitress brings me back a five and six ones for a total of $11. Needless to say I expected $18.20. What the heck? I took my change and left, because I really didn't have time to wait around for a manager or an explanation, we had a show to get to.

What do you think I should do now? What would you do? I know where I'm going to start, but I'm not sure how far I should take my complaint.


 

The Need for Technology

Think about this for a second: Sewing a patch on a pocket.

You either have to sew the pocket closed or take the pocket off.

I've mentioned before about me sewing badges for Girl Scouts. Now the word is starting to get out to moms of Boy Scouts and I've gotten five Boys' jobs in the last couple weeks. The Boys have a lot of stuff on their sleeves, which are a pain to work with so I charge $2/patch instead of the base price I charge the girls of $1/patch.

BSA has a new uniform shirt, created for for today's guy. They've put a "technology" pocket on the sleeve, complete with an earphone cord eyelet. Well, that's real sweet, very forward thinking, really, but dumb as a box of rocks. This "technology" pocket is gusseted and is on the left sleeve, where a position patch goes, like a patrol leader patch or a scoutmaster patch.

Did I forget to mention these Boys' patches don't iron on? The Girls' patches iron on, granted, they don't stick well if you don't follow the directions, which is the reason I have created this little service in the first place, but they do iron on. I typically iron-on the girl's patch, then sew around it so it stays after washing.

I can't do that with these stupid pockets. Who thought of that, anyway! Oh, yeah, Boys.

My friend told me the Boys do have stuff called 'Badge Magic' for placing patches on pockets. I told a mom I could have her son's shirt ready by Thursday. I wonder if I can find this stuff by then? Where do I even look?

In the mean time, I have a pocket full of checks from moms who pay me to do this service for them, it's a nice way to get a little play money, so I can't complain too much. But still, patches on pockets? Really?



sheesh.

Post script: Badge Magic is a mail-order thing and not very cheap. I'll stop at the craft store on the way home and get some washable permanent fabric glue for less than ½ the price.

Mid-week Rambling

I'm so behind in blogging. I'm still doing the single mom thing, Dan doesn't come home until tomorrow night late. I'm kinda caught up on laundry, maybe just one regular load and one utility load to do and the hampers will be empty. I can't get too excited about that though, Dan'll be bringing home a suitcase full of more laundry.

The local power company has been doing work in our town to improve the reliability of the power supply. That means they are ripping down the trees within twenty feet of the lines.

Here's our backyard before:



Here's our backyard after:



Entrance to the neighborhood before:



After:


Depressing, isn't it?

We're getting $100 per tree they took out. They call them vouchers, but really we have to pay for any new trees out-of-pocket and they will pay us back up to the limit with proof we've installed trees from the approved list. Nobody bothered to mention to us the value of ten full-grown trees is about $10,000 and $1000 in vouchers won't even come close to providing shade and a privacy barrier like we had before. Furthermore, the price of the tree does not include installation. I went to one nursery to check out what they had in stock and their labor charges. I calculated each tree installed will be about 175% of the original price.

I've envisioned filling that space with a row of pink crape myrtles. They grow pretty fast and are so pretty in the summer. Two problems: the smallest size starts at $150 ($262 installed) and I'd need/want seven for a total of about $1840 which is way over our allowance, and they are out of pink ones and I don't like the white or purple crape myrtles.

I started considering other options, different varieties of trees and large shrubs. I started poking around on the 'Net and one click lead to another and I found a coupon offered by the state of Maryland for $25 if you plant a tree on their list. Many of trees on the state's list match the trees on the power company's approved list.

There is a nursery, one with a more expensive reputation, that takes the state coupons. I poke around on their site. Well, they have plenty of the pink crape myrtles in stock, which start at $130, are on sale and can be installed for about 128% of the original price. It looks like I can go back to my original plan, or at least start planning based on my original idea.

Maybe I should look into fruit trees while I'm at it....

Real Women Don't Use Body Wash

I had the privilege of taking a shower in my own bathroom this morning. I wasn't so lucky yesterday. Kevin insisted on taking a shower in my bathroom when he woke up and since the timing was such, I really couldn't wait until he was finished so I used The Girl's bathroom instead. It's not really hers, it's the one in the hall for everyone to use, but she thinks it's hers and she has her crap is all over it.

Even with all that stuff, I didn't know I had to take my own toiletry bag with me, nothing was familiar. I didn't think using her bathroom would be such a problem. Or Adventure. The shampoo was OK, I figured out which bottle that was, I even found conditioner, but she uses body wash instead of bar soap. Does that stuff really get you clean? I don't think so, I could still feel the day-old deodorant from Wednesday after using the body wash. Yuck.

On the other hand, it's good to know my deodorant will last that long if I ever find myself in a situation needing it to go the distance, like in one of those action movies where the innocent, oblivious housewife accidentally gets sucked into a hijacking/kidnapping incident on the way to get the paper in her quiet suburban neighborhood and then finds herself holding a highly coveted secret Swiss account number and a French passport with her picture inside while hanging upside down from a helicopter buzzing the Pentagon then gets delivered back home, complete with an invitation to a Whitehouse dinner in her honor, by the FBI in a big black SUV moments before the kids' afternoon school bus rounds the corner. Thank goodness my deodorant is still working. I gotta go run a brush through my hair, I'll be right back.




 

Sorry I haven't been blogging much. Last week was vacation, this week it's been work. We have a ticket system now where the testers will find something wrong and put in a ticket to get it fixed. The tester started testing my survey while I was away so I came back to about 15 tickets to attend to on Monday. Some were easy and got fixed fast, some more complicated opening up a whole can of worms and are still not completely resolved. But now I finally have a few minutes to blog before the next thing comes along.

---

Vacation was nice, we spent a week in south Myrtle beach, Surfside Beach, to be exact. I attended a two-day golf school Tuesday and Wednesday mornings. There's just so much to learn, or re-learn as the case may be. The school makes a individualized CD of your lessons so you can remember things and practice them after you go home. Check out Ritson-Sole golf school.

We arrived at our rental on Saturday, a cute little 3-bedroom house up on stilts with a carpark underneath. Sunday we spent at the beach and I got burnt where I missed with the sun screen at the edge of my bathing suit. Grrr. Monday Dan golfed while I took the kids up to Wilmington to pick up Fern's friend who was spending the rest of the week with us. Fern's so much easier to entertain when she has a friend along. Anyway, Dan calls me from the golf course. He thinks his camera was stolen out of the car. His work badge was not were he left it, which had been on top of the camera in the central console. Grrr.

The rental house did not have internet. Grrr. Tuesday Dan went out to a Dunkin Donuts with free WiFi to surf the web for a while. He came back with a newspaper someone had abandoned. There on the front page of the community section was an article about how the Surfside Beach police arrested five persons for breaking into cars, estimated 30-50 cars, on Sunday night. Really now? I just knew that's were our camera had gone, Dan was skeptical. He feared it would look like I was just "shopping" if I just went there looking for a camera we hadn't reported missing.

Later that afternoon I took the kids out to the dollar store and Walmart for sundries and swung by the police station on the way home. I told them our camera was missing, and yes, the car had been unlocked, shame on us. The girls wanted to go in with me, experience the whole police station thing, so we were escorted back to the room where they had the collection of the stolen property.
"What kind of camera was it ma'am?"
"A reddish-maroon little Nikon."
"Like this?" as he pulls out a camera fitting my description.
"Yes, exactly like this," I said. I turned it on and reviewed the pictures in the memory. "Hey, there are your pants you painted," I said to Fern, and "There I am golfing." The officer in charge of the property looked at the image of me and had me sign the form stating our property was returned to us.

We were escorted back out to the lobby where I had to fill out a report of the incident. I texted Dan: "At police station, got camera." He texted back "Wow!!" Oh ye of little faith.

The rest of the week was pretty tame. Thursday Dan golfed and I took the kids to Le Grand Cirque, which is a cheaper version of a Cirque du Soleil. Friday I golfed and Dan took the kids to the water park.

Dan got a 15 minute head start on the drive home on Saturday, and went to I-95 via Wilmington and I-40. I went to I-95 via US-701 & US-421. When we were both on 95, he was about 30 miles ahead of me and his lead grew even more when I had to stop for gas and lunch. I was not going to win the race home, not that we were speeding or anything. At Richmond I took the 295 beltway, then US-301 to Bowie, he stuck with I-95. I beat him home by 30 minutes. Yay me.

Now it's back to the real world, and there are two more weeks until school starts.


 

Now What?

OK, remember last week I ordered a bunch of make-up from Smashbox? It was ordered though the personal shopping department at the Annapolis Nordstroms. When I saw the total on the original order I gasped, to my self, but I was taken aback, nonetheless. It was more than I wanted to spend, but I went with the flow since I was having a good time that evening.

I waited and waited for my shipment, excitement waning each day. The box of stuff came on Wednesday, via UPS ground. When I opened it and saw the actual cash register receipt, I was beside myself. It totaled about $25 more than what I expected, which originally was a lot more than I was comfortable with anyway.

Upon inspection of the receipt and order form, I saw two items had different prices and one item listed on the original didn't have a price next to it so it wasn't included in that total. I have a call to the lady I ordered from, but haven't heard back yet.

My excitement now is totally gone and I feel like taking the whole lot back. Except I've already been using the tinted lip treatment. I'll keep that. But I have this very deflated feeling about it all now.

Now what?

 

What the ... ?

Winter weight.

I just heard the cringing and moaning of all the women who read me. Sorry, but I gotta unload about this.

I haven't been under my Mendoza line in ages, maybe two or three months. I'm so tired of seeing that middle number on the scale every time I get on. It haunts me, it taunts me; I hate it. Every time I get close to the line, with just one more pound or even a half-pound to go, something will interfere with my progress: a birthday, a wedding, a house warming party, Halloween, and I'll have to start over again. One day recently I saw a number on my scale I hadn't seen since I was pregnant. Seven months pregnant. So utterly depressing.

I'm trying to be more aggressive about getting in shape, getting the weight off. I enrolled again for the deep water aerobics classes and try to do the weight class at the gym at work. I'm trying to be more proactive about weight-loss than just doing the 40-minute walk in the mornings, "eating better," complaining, and crossing my fingers hoping I'll lose the weight.

This morning I was pleased to see I'm back within striking distance of my "never-ever-want-to-go-over-that-weight" line. I could be under by the weekend!

Put all that aside for a moment.

Nordstroms is having their half-yearly sale and a couple weeks ago I found myself in the lingerie department after perusing the other departments' sale racks. I was tempted by a pair of $100 dress pants that were long enough for my 34" legs on sale but passed on them because I really don't want to buy clothes until I get well under the Mendoza line. Anyway, lingerie department. There was a huge rack of bras unmentionables, designer ones, pretty $50 ones, marked down to something I could consider. I tried on several and they all seemed to fit except they were a bit tight in the band. Once again I think, all I have to do is lose a couple pounds, do a couple more lat-pulls, get rid of some back fat and these will be golden. So I bought three. They still sit in the shopping bag in my closet.

Another day, another store, and as one thing lead to another as things tend to do, I got a bra fitting. Because of the weight gain I was mentally prepared for the fitting specialist to tell me I need to go up a band size to a 36. But she didn't tell me that, she told me I needed to go up a cup size. Or two. What?! She had me try on a 34D and it fit. I was stunned and stood staring at the tag. I had to see it with my own eyes. I was wearing a 34D. Me? A D? No way. I don't look any bigger than what I've looked like forever. I'm still stunned.

So, after all these twenty-something years of being a B-cup girl, I can forgo augmentation surgery, and go from a B-cup to a D-cup by getting a $79 dollar bra!

 

 

 

I gotta get under the Mendoza line soon, I can't afford a new wardrobe of $79 bras and the new clothes I'd have to get with them.