Tuesday, February 26, 2013

Coming Soon. A new post.


I'm trying to think of subject titles....

  • Things i would do if i knew i would be successful.

  • Lies I tell myself.

  • What i think i will be doing in 10 years.

  • OR i should say: What I wish to be doing in 10 years.

If anyone has any ideas, let me know. I won't get back to this until Wednesday or Thursday because of bowling!


Sunday, February 24, 2013

Fume Blanc chilling. My battery is charged. I'm wearing Forever 21....Live blogging the Oscars!

 
A bottle of Ferrari Carrano fume blanc is chilling. I'm wearing my "I Love Drummers" shirt that my brother's girlfriend Pam bought me from Forever 21 at the mall. And i have on my expensive Garnet Hill yoga pants. The ones that i bought online. (I have never done any yoga in these pants. I should call them 'TV Watching Pants'. )

I'm not quite ready to start yet, but i needed to make sure that my netbook won't break down. I just checked and have 5 hours on my battery.

So far i love Jennifer Lawrence's dress. It looks like a wedding dress. I like her backwards long necklace and her hair. Plus she has a cool voice.

That little Beasts of the Southern Wild girl, Q, is pretty precocious. I don't dig prococious and so she has gone down a few notches in my admiration. I was pulling for her to win earlier.

I'll be back later when it gets going. I'm going to go look for a few photos. And then go see if the wine is sufficiently cool.


Thursday, February 21, 2013

Thursday's Menu & a Retail Hell Nordstrom Story that really pissed me off.

This Jesus bus was parked in the Schooner tavern parking lot when Julie and were on our way to Sarah/louie's house last month.  I took this with my tiny Coolpix camera while we were at the stoplight. 


Menu of the Day:

On iTunes: Brandi Carlile's new Bear Creek album. What do you call these things anymore anyway? albums? cds? releases?

What i'm reading: I am still reading Life of Pi. I think it's going to kick in any minute. I'm also still reading Roosevelt's biography on the Amazon adventure.

The best thing this week: It is now light enough outside that i can run AFTER work for an hour and still get back before it's too too dark. I still have to run around the condo circle at the end of it for 3 rotations, but that's so much better than having to go around 20 times.

What I'm not looking forward to: a family wedding shower - Brian's side. I hate wedding and baby showers! Men don't have to go through this nonsense. Why should i have to? Plus i hate shopping anyway. And the worst part is we have to make small talk with the family members we don't know and then play these dumb games too, because Brian's side of the family is into that. And unlike the Louvrak side, there will be no wine at this shower. That is the second worse part. Babies and Brides Bore the Shit out Me.

What i am looking forward to: My nephew Brian organized a Louvrak family blues music outing tomorrow. We don't often go out on Friday nights, but this will be fun.

My Nordstrom Story: 

I went to leave an alteration at lunch today. I was behind a woman who was returning some clothes. And something about the way she was talking made me stop and pay attention. She was older than I am, maybe mid-60's, maybe more. Very well dressed. Nice haircut. Very normal looking. She was acting very friendly, telling the clerk that these were clothes that never made it on her cruise outing. And then she added some more stuff about her cruise.

The reason my attention was piqued (is that the word i want?) was she was over-explaining why she didn't need all of the clothes that she bought for this fabulous cruise vacation. And to me, when you are over explaining it usually means you are lying. I've been married to two liars, one a drug addict, the other mostly lied about money. You start to read the signs. Liars often give too much detail because they believe that by being full of disclosure this makes them SEEM more honest, when all they are is full of shit.

But what REALLY got my attention was when i heard the clerk tell the woman the amount of her refund. It was over $1000 and she asked her, did she want that back on her credit card? Yes, the woman did... still speaking in her overly pleasant smiley manner.

As the clerk processes her refund I am looking at the clothes sitting on the counter that this Un-Shopper  returned. There were only 4 pieces. Four pieces for over $1000! The clerk has her sign for the receipt. The woman sweetly leaves with her credit receipt in hand. (At least she didn't steal the pen.)

I turn to the clerk and say to her and i didn't even care if the Non-Shopper was out of earshot. I ask,  "Did that woman just return those clothes there for over $1000 credit?"

The clerk says nods, and does it in that way that tells me she and i already know what each other is thinking.

I pick up one of the blouses, it's very expensive, nearly $400.  And it looks like it was worn, gently worn, not in a stained way, but it definitely doesn't look crisp or brand new. But the plastic tags, the kind you have to cut off with scissors are still on the blouse. Then I  pick up the other very nice sweater. It too is very expensive, more than the blouse, also with tags. I look at the clerk, "That woman wore those clothes on the cruise and now she is returning them because she needed something dress up like this for her vacation."

The clerk shakes her head and says, "It happens all the time. You should see what people do."  She picks up the dressy slacks (probably the most expensive piece, i didn't see the tag) and shows them to me, "These definitely look worn and we can't do anything about it. We have to take them back. And we can't put them back for resale."

I said, "I bet that woman used to work retail and stole one of those guns that puts the tags back on and she thinks because of having one of those she she is fooling everyone. I bet she does this all the time." The clerk responds with something about people having done way worse but getting away with it.

We both shake our heads. I leave my alteration of Not Your Daughter's Jeans (which is a whole 'nother story...my hatred for NYDJs) and that's the end of that.

You know what, I bet you that clerk is telling that story this very evening. But then she probably has lots of stories like that to tell her friends. These kinds of things remind of that book Waiter Rant about the guy who blogged anonymously about a high end unnamed restaurant in New York City with horror stories of people who ate there. I bet this girl could write a few Retail Hell stories.

But it pisses me off that the woman got away with that. I HATE when people get away with unconscionable acts.  I shop at Nordstrom's because of their good return policy. But i don't like thinking that the higher prices i pay at Nordstrom's is because of subscribing to the customer is always right, when clearly they are wrong.

I have the same issue with working in unions these days. I don't love working for unions anymore. But i would probably be in prison if i worked in retail.


Notes to Self: 
Sunset: 5:44 pm
High temp: 43 degrees (getting colder again!)
All time blog posts: 40,150
Page views yesterday: 34



Saturday, February 16, 2013

A meteor in my wine glass. Is God sending us passive aggressive messages? and other musings.




This photo from our favorite Vashon beach place looks like a meteor is in my glass. How about that meteor in Russia anyway? Sometimes when i read news like this i fear the End of the World coming. Is God trying to f*ck with us? Cause if He is (do we capitalize the H when talking about God or is that only Jesus? louie, i'm sure you can weigh in on this.)  anyway, cause if H(h)e is, then i want to go out and spend all my savings on....what... i don't know really. But i would hate to die before i got to use it.       
1. Let's dish on the Academy Awards first. I might be live blogging that day. Anyone want to join me? When's the date again?

Anyway, i have seen hardly any of the movies, but of course that doesn't stop me from having opinions. I rarely agree with the artsy fartsy picks of these awards for Best Picture. (Movies like Chariots of Fire and The English Patient and Shakespeare in Love bore the shit out of me.)

I did see Lincoln. AND i fell asleep through part of it. Someone said, i think it was Joan Rivers, that everything about Lincoln was done well, but you were bored anyway. (It is, after, all a Steven Spielberg movie.) That's how i felt. Which means Lincoln will win. But i wish Argo would. (Even though i haven't seen it. I love rooting for Ben Affleck ever since he ditched J-Lo.)

And i wish that 9 year old girl with the name that starts with a Q wins. I DID see Beasts of the Southern Wild, at the recommendation of my nephew Brian, and really thought she was the whole movie. It was like she wasn't even acting.

I didn't much care for Sally Field who seemed to be playing a version of Sybil in her Mrs. Lincoln role, so i don't want her to win. And i think Silver Linings Playbook is a movie i really want to see, but i read the book and it was good, but i can't imagine this as an Oscar winning movie.


And I'm over Helen Hunt in the same way i got over Meg Ryan. Use to love them. Not anymore. Helen has gotten too skinny and fragile looking in her aging years. And damn, i thought i had a high forehead (which i hate) but you could show movies on hers ....if she was just a little paler.



2. Two girls (who aren't family) who I would be proud to have as daughters:
I am running with an 18 year old girl. We are training for this half marathon together. I don't hate running when i am running with her! Her name is Katie and she is the niece of my sister- in- law Marie, (who is modern hippie/Kylee's mom.) We are running over an hour now and we talk the whole time and when we're done running we're  surprised, not only by how fast we are running, but that the time went by so fast. I'm hoping with Katie i can run this thing in 2 hours flat, taking two minutes off my time from last year. She might pull ahead of me as she keeps training. She's a good runner and.... of course, young!

The other young woman is Sarah/louie's daughter Emma (who i think 24 years old). Actually with Emma, i also want her, not only as a daughter, but as a very good friend. Emma is so smart, insightful and kind and tolerant AND a great conversationalist, like my niece Kylee and nephew Brian. (Emma gives me hope for the teaching profession.) And i would actually seek her out for personal advice if i needed it, (more so than with some folks  my own age).


What they have in common is i have known them since they were babies, and I got to watch them grow up. Katie and Emma feel old souls. These two are more mature at their age and more grounded than many people much older, (and I include myself, even as I often describe myself as a baby who changed her own diapers.)  I love their strong opinions and critical thinking about life and the world. I feel like they are moving in a direction that tells me they know who they are and what they want. It's rare to find these qualities in young women today and I am awed by them. It doesn't happen very often that people awe me.



3. Product endorsement. I found these sheets at Costco and they are amazing and i am not talking about the Spalena sheets i posted about years ago. These are 400 thread count Egyptian cotton sheets by Charisma. They cost only $50 for a king set. I went and bought a set for our queen and a second set for our king. I love these sheets!


So who's with me blogging on Oscar night?  And who do YOU want to win?


Notes to Self:                                                                                      

Sunset: 5:37 pm ( we're getting there!) Today's high temperature was 50 degrees and it was sunny part of the day!



Total page views: 39,989 ...wow i am almost at 40,000. Didn't i start this four years ago? Maybe i should post a link to Facebook and see if i get more followers. The only problem i see with that is family members checking in and me censoring myself. I don't want to worry about what i post here.



Another weird thing about the stats: The Big Bird blog during the Obama debates was the high page view this week with 30 views. Why would someone be reading that this week? It was posted back in October and is very old news.  (But it was pretty funny in parts.)



Longest run this week: 60 minutes



Shout Out: Jennifer, Jaxie, EoDe....



Sunday, February 10, 2013

I had an idea, then i forgot it. Runaway Brain Musings.

Sometimes I lie awake at night, and I ask, "Where have i gone wrong?" Then a voice says to me, "This is going to take more than one night." -- Charles M. Schultz


I'm back to waking up at 3 or 4 am with that Runaway Brain. You know the Runaway Brain? It happens after i wake up, usually after a weird dream where i am either lost in the hallways at schools, or i've lost some important material thing (most recently not only a boarding pass, but my whole purse and i only realized it as i was getting on the plane), or i'm falling off a bridge for a very long distance ( i always wake up as i'm falling).

My dreams suck....

Anyway the Runaway Dream goes like this:

1. Damnit, i forgot to call Sarah W. on her birthday or at least email her. ...I am a terrible friend.

2. How could i forget when i saw it on Facebook?

3. I wish Facebook was never invented.

4. I probably should dump ______ fill in the blank with whatever Facebook friend posted something stupid, like about politics or some fetus baby thing.

5. I really need to check my online banking tomorrow...

6. Oh no, did i pay the utility bill yet?

7. I hope i didn't offend.... fill in the blank ______________ (for anyone i was out with the night before.)

8. I don't like our kitchen tile. I think we should pull it up and put down lighter bigger tiles.

9. I wonder how much it would cost to scrape off our popcorn ceiling?

10. Does our popcorn ceiling have asbestos?

11. Maybe we should just buy a new house?

12.  But what if my WEA pension goes in the toilet, given the way unions are starting to join the Post Office, 8-track, cassettes and cds, newspapers, and landlines.

13. I need to get a job after retirement so i have purpose.

14. Or not.

15. I hope we don't really owe too much in taxes.

16. Maybe i should write a book instead of blogging.

What do YOU think about when you can't sleep?

Notes to Self: 
Sunset: 5:27 pm
High temp: 46 degrees
All time blog views: 39,762
Weird thing about blog stats: This week my top viewed page was from Aug. 16, 2009 entitled "Rules I have for myself". It got 57 views and it's an old post that is not normally in the top. (Bad Boyfriend always wins that one.)
Shout out: louie? louie?


Tuesday, February 5, 2013

Today's Menu....No Specials.

I got nothing to say but i needed to change it. So here's a lame post. again. 

What I've been doing for the past hour: searching for a vacation place on the beach. I may have found one! It's near Pt. Townsend. Actually not THAT close, 32 miles away. But i like the looks of this place. Click below.

This place looks cool!

Longest run this week: 75 minutes.

What aches: my hips.

In my glass: Fresca with cranberry juice.

What's coming up: Bowling in another week AND bowling lessons this Wednesday!

State of mind: Bored. Kind of cranky. You know that kind of mood where you aren't really in a bad mood, but you're not in a good mood either? And you don't feel like doing anything really. And then you feel alittle bit guilty for feeling this way cause, hey, everything is fairly copacetic so there is no reason really for feeling ambivalent or uneven about the day. But i do anyway. Feel that way, i mean.

Reading: Teddy Roosevelt diary AND Life of Pi.

Music: none. I like the sound of the dishwasher running. It's comforting and i didn't want music to drown it out.

Besides vacation places, i'm searching for: the perfect pair of jeans. I bought Citizens for Humanity jeans but they are too low even though they say mid-rise and not only that, the denim fabric feels so thin i am sure they will wear out quickly and they are EXPENSIVE! i do like they look though. What are YOUR favorite pair of jeans?


Notes to Self: 
Sunset: 5:20 pm
High Temperature: 51 degrees
All time blog posts: 39,471
Page views yesterday: so pathetic i'm not even including it. why do i blog?


Friday, February 1, 2013

Disappointments & Satisfactions - vacation link added.

Disappointment: At first glance, i think we might owe $5000 in taxes after trying to break even by deferring Brian's income. I hope I'm wrong.

Satisfaction:  We have no dependents and my retirement is only 7 months away.

Disappointment: It's only Feb. 1st, which means we have 5 more months of this crappy gray weather, cement/semen color skies, tofu colored skin tones, bad hair, dark moods and ugly patio foliage.

Satisfaction: Today was sunny, for more than two hours! And i don't have to have my windows washed because you can't tell they are dirty this time of year.

Disappointment: My New Orleans trip that i was going on in April with my brothers is not going to happen for ME ever since I found out my mom is coming. So i decided not to go.

Here's an example of my mom traveling: last fall in Hawaii she bought all this stuff and put it in her carryon bag, and it was wayyyyy more than 3 ounces of liquid according to my nephew Brian who was traveling with her. (I wasn't there, it was a family destination wedding.) Brian the nephew told me it was really embarrassing how she was upset that she couldn't bring her liquid stuff on the plane. Because i hardly EVER travel anywhere and the last person i would ever travel with is my mom. So after looking forward to this trip since October, i am backing out. (This example is only one of many, i have more.)

Here is a beach place i think we might book. It's near Pt. Townsend. It's beautiful inside! I want to put it here so if i ever loose the bookmark or forget it, i can come back here.

Click here to see photos

Satisfaction: So instead of New Orleans, I am looking into renting a house on the water in Cannon Beach and going to the fabulous cooking class place that i went to last summer with the galpals. They have a wine/small plates event in March.

Disappointment: My night sweats are back after being gone for a few months.

Satisfaction: There isn't one, except maybe the things i think about at 3 am that i need to remember when i wake up in a soaking wet t-shirt.

Disappointment: I didn't get chosen for one of the 5  News Tribune Guest Columnist for 2013.

Satisfaction: Relief that i don't have to come up with a bunch of columns to submit on deadline.

What's going on with YOUR life?

Notes to Self: 

Sunset: 5:13 pm
Today's High: 50 degrees
All time Posts: 39,337
Low: 35 degrees
Longest Run this Week: 75 minutes (TODAY.... training for the May 19 Capitol City Half Marathon again).
Shout Out: Amulbunny !