flea

shopping woes

2011-11-27T13:28:42Z

I want a classic v-neck merino wool sweater that is not ridiculously tight or ridiculously loose, and most importantly is not incredibly cheaply made (generally in China). Few major stores make wool sweaters anymore; it's cotton or cashmere only. J Crew is sold out of their merino v-neck (besides being tight and pricey). Banana has one (for $60), but I got one just like this year's on clearance for $9 last year and that's about what it is worth - thin, pilled up after one wearing. I'd be willing to pay $60 for durable quality, but not for that. Maybe I need to go back to haunting ebay for vintage men's Pringle cashmere.

In other nonexistent things, I want 10 slim, adjustable waist, straight or bootcut pants (jeans, cords, whatever) NOT skinny, that are good quality and will last. Lands End has failed me entirely this year - skinny pants only for girls.

Basically, everything is so damn cheaply made these days. I hate it.

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A Shopping Tragedy !!!1!

2011-02-19T23:53:54Z

Lands' End has screwed up the fit of their "tugless tankini" for girls this year - the bottoms are apparently so badly cut that they are skimpy in the front and baggy in the back, no matter what size one tries. Why they messed with what must be one of their steady reliable top sellers, who knows, but thank god they enabled comments so I know not to order the suit for Casper for this summer. Maybe the flood of returns and negative reviews will allow them to do something about it.

The problem becomes, what do I order instead. Hanna Andersson's swimsuits are too little-girl print and they only make tanks and bikinis; Garnet Hill has some cute prints but everything has ruffles (excet the darling Patagonia suits, but a $55 swimsuit for my 7 year old is a no). So I guess we're going with LLL Bean, but unfortunately their basic tankini only comes as a set - I was planning to get just bottoms and order a rash-guard top. Grrr. Maybe I will brave our local sporting-goods store (which is about half guns and ammo) and see if there's anything there.

I got some cool board shorts for Casper from Lands End last year that have a built-in swimsuit bottom but then are like surf shorts. They were huge last year (despite being the same size as everything else I bought) but fit now, and she loves them. Of course, they do not make these any more.

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Sick. Behind. Bad News.

2010-11-05T13:33:15Z

I took yesterday off work and was in bed, mostly actually sleeping, until 3pm. Yes, I am honestly sick. I am at work today, though sneezing and coughing my fool head off.

I am feeling very behind at work and in life. Luckily I am working this coming Sunday, so I have 8 hours of sitting at a desk with nothing to do to get caught up, right? Must plan: Thanksgiving, Christmas, Girl Scouts, and write 10,000 blog posts for work.

In bad news news, mr. flea is really not going to get a permanent job at his current workplace. His contract ends next august, and he did not get an interview for the job that has been posted, and the other job that may get posted is also not a good fit for his skills and background. So far he has applied for a permanent job in Dublin and is working on an application for another post-doc at Georgia Tech, which would mean evil commuting, but would let us keep the kids in their current school and so forth. Our goal is no more post-docs unless they mean we don't have to move; permanent jobs okay if they mean moving. But damn, moving with kids is so disruptive to them. Never mind the whole home ownership problem. Worst-case scenario is unemployment as of next September; next-to-worst case scenario would be mr. flea in a post-doc someplace far away and me living here with the kids. That would suck. Let's not have that, please, okay?

In good news I bought both kids flame Vans via Zappos and they came yesterday and Dillo is so in love with his it's darling. He outgrew his flame chucks, and Casper's skully vans-style sneakers were literally falling apart. And I paid for them out of ebay sales, so I win at frugality.

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in today's stress news

2010-05-11T12:47:20Z

Here are the things stressing me out today:

-my hair (still not cut, not sure what I am doing about it; worrying about a new haircutter right before an event.)
-the weather in California this coming weekend. I expect San Francisco (which my fingers obdurately refuse to spell correctly every single time) to be mid-60s and foggy. But I thought Santa Cruz was in California! Yet they are predicting partly cloudy and high of 70 for this weekend. This is completely messing with my packing plans. It is hard to travel light when you are going someplace cold. (Yes, I am from Georgia. 70 degrees is now cold, in summer. Yes, mid-May is now summer. I am from Georgia.)
-Children's birthday parties for which we receive the invitation less than a week in advance. I knew about Thomas' birthday Friday, and we got a present last weekend. But then yesterday I got an email saying don't bring a present, bring a book for a book exchange. Argh. And yesterday an invitation to Eliza's party on Saturday morning appeared in our mailbox. When are we supposed to get her a present between now and Saturday morning? Advance notice, people!

I should be stressing about the conference paper I am giving in 2 weeks which I ahave not really begun to write. I have a meeting about it in an hour. It's just at the low simmer stress level right now though; my hair and possible sweater purchases are much, much worse.

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