This just makes me giggle.

“Because you had so much to say about the product itself…”

I forgot to post these pictures of the AMAZING parking job we saw by the Farmers’ Market yesterday.

Poor parking meter.

This month, every book but one was a re-read. Most of them were part of Thieves’ World. If you click through, I have all the authors in each of the Thieves’ World anthologies listed in each review.

YA: Fantasy

Sabriel (1995) Garth Nix

Fantasy

Blood Trade (2013) Faith Hunter – this was the single new read, and it was a newly published book.
Thieves’ World:
Thieves’ World (1979) edited by Robert Asprin and Lynn Abbey
Book 2: Tales From the Vulgar Unicorn (1980) edited by Robert Asprin and Lynn Abbey
Book 3: Shadows Of Sanctuary (1981) Robert Asprin and Lynn Abbey
Book 4: Storm Season (1982) Robert Asprin and Lynn Abbey
Book 5: The Face of Chaos (1983) edited by Robert Asprin and Lynn
Book 6: Wings of Omen (1984) edited by Robert Asprin and Lynn Abbey
Book 7: The Dead of Winter (1985) Robert Asprin and Lynn Abbey
Book 8: Soul of the City (1986) edited by Robert Asprin and Lynn Abbey
Book 9: Blood Ties (1986) edited by Robert Asprin and Lynn Abbey
Book 10: Aftermath (1987) edited by Robert Asprin and Lynn Abbey
Book 11: Uneasy Alliances (1988) edited by Robert Asprin and Lynn Abbey

Romance

Cotillion (1953) Georgette Heyer
Lady of Quality (1972) Georgette Heyer

Happy Birthday Jules!

I can’t believe you’re three already!

We spent the day together–as in, with the exception of Rooms of Resting, we weren’t more an a few steps from each other for the entire day.

Which is why Michael is annoyed by our step totals.

Michelle: 19647 steps

Michael: 17503 steps

I WIN!!!!!

ADDENDUM the First:
I have, in fact, hit 20k steps since we got home.

And a wrap up of this weeks Geek Wear (and from whence it came)!

Victorian House tights from Carousel Ink on Etsy

(more…)

In addition to some skirts and leggings, I’ve also gotten myself some jewelry.

Here is this week’s geek wear:

These are Golden Ratio earrings. (See also fibonacci sequence)

Next up:

Cephalopod Sweater. This one was problematic, since it ran small in the… tracts of land area of the body.

Last up was this:

From the bookshelves of doom Etsy shop. I follow the Bookshelves of Doom blog, so I especially enjoyed this one.

I’ve got more lined up, but it was a little to cold this week for shorter skirts and leggings, so those are waiting a bit.

But most importantly, I’m enjoying this, very much.

So, there is a distinct probability we’re heading back to a dress code at work.

This doesn’t particularly bother me, because I understand the rationale and agree with it.

However, I’m tired of black pants and white shirts, which is my typical default. So, I’m looking for recommendations.

When I’m not wearing black pants and white shirts (with a jacket or sweater) I tend towards long black skirts and dusters.

But I have several other outfits that I think do a better job expressing my… personality? Sense of humor? and I’d like to find more skirts and dusters along those lines.

Such as this dress only worth with tights and my black boots. (like this)

I recently ordered this skirt for myself which I will also wear with tights and boots. (Why tights? Because I am very uncomfortable with having my legs–and even arms–exposed. I don’t have a problem with other people exposing their skin, this is just my own, personal comfort level.)

But I’m having a hard time finding other skirts and dusters that are cute and amusing and personality laden that I could comfortably wear to work. The reason I have so many black pants and skirts is because I can wear them every week.

But I’d like a few more outfits that are fun and entertaining, at least to me if no one else. I’ve found the search for “geeky dress” or “geek skirt” to be singularly unhelpful, bringing up either con dresses or very skimpy outfits that are more–to my mind–akin to underoos than something to be worn in public. Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE this, but my tastes run more to this (which is a coat).

Yes, I know very well I need to start sewing again. I have tons of ideas for things I could make for myself, but until that time, I would like some recommendations.

Anyone have anything for me?

Sorry I’ve been AWOL. Between the holidays AND coming down with one or more colds (at the same time) AND (temporarily) bricking my brand new laptop, I’ve had nothing.

Not that this post is much, but I know some of you will understand the problem here.

Because my brother is no longer working out of our spare bedroom, we canceled our long distance (again).

When I logged into my bank account today, I found this:

I CANNOT DELETE IT.

But the orange (!) alert ALSO won’t go away.

I am seriously considering trying to submit a payment of $0 on the due date.

(twitch) (twitch)

Michelle: DAMNIT! I’m HUNGRY! We don’t have any snacks! Why don’t we have anything to eat?! This is ENTIRELY your fault. Because you do the grocery shopping. Alone. Entirely unassisted by me.
Michael: It’s because I don’t trust you to get healthy food.

…and Michael wins again.

(Since it’s not necessarily obvious, we go grocery shopping together. I choose the food and he comes along to entertain me and pick up things like chicken and fish, because handling even wrapped packages squicks me out, and I spend the rest of the trip rubbing my hands on my pants trying to “clean” them.

Also, Michael claims to hate vegetables and could happily live on peanut butter sandwiches.)

I actually yelled and made my aunt turn around the car when I saw this.

We’ll have had our Corolla for 9 years come October. It’s been incredibly reliable and hassle free and gets fabulous gas mileage (35 to 41 on the interstate).

However.

Since we only have the one car, we’re thinking it’s time for a new car. (We have no interest in having two cars.)

Our top two are the Corolla and the Jetta: Standard transmission (5 or 6 speed)

We’re considering doing a lot of traveling in the future, so comfort and reliability are extremely important.

One major disadvantage of the Jetta is that the closest dealer is almost an hour away, which makes those free maintenance checks a PITA, especially since we’ll have only the one car.

Disadvantage of the Corolla–it’s getting harder and harder to find manual transmission engines on Toyotas.

Any comments or suggestions?

(Don’t even suggest a Ford or Chevy–we want something that will be reliable AND worth something for trade in later–our 9 year old Corolla is still worth $3 to 6k according to the blue book.)