interesting developments

1. My German-born and -tempermented landlady rocks. mr. flea spoke to her yesterday about how we were wanting to put a vapor barrier in the crawl space, and would she be willing to deduct the materials cost from our rent, and she has engaged her handyman to do the work next Saturday at no charge to us. How glad are we not to be doing this ourselves? Thiiiiiis glad!

2. I put an ad out today onto my 2 parents listservs (neighborhood and looniversity) because we need a summer fill-in to make the nanny-share work. (Rich Family is pulling out because S is on a 9-month appointment now - and somehow it is my responsibility to find a new family who wants summer care only.) In the 4 hours since I posted I have had 3 nibbles. Heh. This is making me very hopeful.

3. Chewing on applying to be the "library fellow" at the Looniversity's humanities institute seminar for 2005-06. Would involve a research project (not sure if required to be library-job-related) and up to half-time leave from normal job. Would be intellectually stimulating and fun - sort of playing with scholars and being (from my perspective) fake-scholarly (which is to say, I have always been a dab hand at scholarship in an area I don't give a damn about - I wrote great English papers in college and wowed my Euripides prof with a paper on the verb luo in Bacchae. It's the not-caring that makes it work). Topic is one of interest to me in my former academic life. Would, unfortunately, not involve any increase in pay as far as I can tell.

underpants, part deux

So, I tried Victoria's Secret. Various bad things happened:
1. I didn't try on. Simple me, I thought, "I always wear a medium. I have a size 8 ass. Classic medium." Well, medium is a skosh tight. Which begs the question, who does Vicky's Secret make panties for if a medium is a 6??? Tiny-ass people, that's who.
2. I didn't carefully check the tags, and so bought 2 black SMALLs, one medium, and 2 bright colored mediums for my $20. Except while the black medium is a little tight, the colored mediums are too tight to wear comfortably. I think they should make a rule that if you buy two items that are identical except for color, they should be the SAME SIZE. Second rule is, when making stacks of panties do not slip 2 smalls into the mediums stack, so distracted mothers with babies will buy them. Third rule, make sales people pay attention and notice that woman is buying two different sizes, clearly by mistake, instead of trying to upsell her so she can get a stupid pink stuffed item for her kid.
3. The fabric is not very stretchy and is generally not up to Jockey standards; ditto elastic.

I do have good things to say:
1. I like the fit of the low rise bikini, which is what I bought. It's hipstery without completely falling off.
2. Pink polka dot panties are fun to have as an option.

My underpants quest will continue. Meanwhile, if anyone with a slightly smaller ass than mine is in need of several pairs of once-worn panties, I can set you up.