Month: March 2007

  • It's depressing when a company with which one has shopped for years begins to lose its wits, ignoring its core market and chasing after who-knows-what-market. 

    For at least ten or more years I've purchased a lot of my clothes from Silhouettes, first from their catalog, then on-line.  Over the past year or two, however, it's been harder and harder for me to find anything I'm terribly interested in.  Instead of nice cotton knit dresses....once so many were offered it'd be a difficult business having to choose only two or three...they've gone heavily into rayon and linen.

    Okay, when one thinks of "easy care", rayon and linen are not fabrics that leap to mind.

    Not only the fabric has changed, but the styles and the models.  Check out these two photos from their latest collection:

    Ugly

    Oh yeah.  There's a look I'm eager to make my own.  When I feast my eyes on her, why, it's as if I'm looking in a mirror. 

    Not.  Silhouettes is a company featuring clothing for those of, ahem, Reubenesque proportions.  We don't usually wear stuff like that, never mind the finger-in-the-electric-socket hairdo.

    And it looks like the buyers at Silhouettes are trying to break us free from the shackles of matching colors so they work well together:

    Plaid

    Blue chambray shirt paired with an orange/yellow/lime (it shows up better in the catalog than on the website, but trust me...the lime's there) skirt?

    You go first. 

  • Perhaps someone else can decipher this for me?  It's beyond my ability.

    To my astonished delight, my Google RSS feeder displayed a new post from Middleageguye-woo

    When I looked at it, however, all it had was another small photo with
    no commentary, nor ability to leave a comment (though if one clicks on
    the photo it goes to the photoblog, where one can leave a comment).  Here's the photo:

    cow_dolphin

    Is there some hidden message here?  Or is it just your average dolphin and cow leaping out of the ocean?   e-headscratch

  • Yesterday's phone call from the vet whilst I was mall-walking completely put the following photo out of my head:


    Firetruck_stroller


    Notice the behemoth of a stroller available for rent....the one with the number 7 on it.  Huge thing, it is!


    Would you believe I saw a woman with her kids in one of 'em, trying her darnedest to get it onto one of the mall "up" escalators?   e-Eeeeeek


    Fortunately she eventually abandoned the attempt, presumably in favor of the elevator in the middle of the mall.


    Strollers on escalators is stupid on its face, but to try to cram that thing on one of 'em?


    Verging on homocidal behavior, ISTM.    e-7_mad

  • Yesterday was Joe's 18th birthday!   e-cheerleader

    These kids keep getting older.  It's depressing.   e-faint

    During the day he attained the Texas right of passage, a driver's license, and in the evening some family and friends gathered to celebrate his existence; here he is with his sweet babbo, Mallory (I think that's right....my ability to recall names correctly is sadly deficient), who lives up the street from him:

    IMG_0140

    After opening greeting cards, here came his primary gift from his parents; Mallory helped to make sure he didn't peek while it (a TV and DVD) was brought in:

    IMG_0141

    IMG_0147

    Can't believe how fast little Lucas is growing!  Here he is, giving his Mama an affectionate cheek-pinch:

    IMG_0136

    Here are a couple of photos of Dan and Dmitry, just because (I fear Zhenya managed to somehow elude my camera this time.....next time I'll git him for sure):


    IMG_0124


    IMG_0129


    It was a delightful time, and Dmitry and I appreciate having been included.  ;^)

  • No one dovetails like the LORD. No one! ;^)

    There I was, briskly walking (well, maybe more of a spirited saunter) through the mall this afternoon when my cell phone rang.  It was the vet's office, letting me know the dog's family had called!

    Mind, this is before I'd even taken her picture, much less distributed flyers. 

    Turns out the vet's office had an appointment for "Little Girl" already set, but hadn't seen her yet.  Since they hadn't seen her, they - reasonably enough - didn't recognize her.  The family called, I suppose to cancel/postpone the appointment, and the ensuing conversation revealed that Little Girl was already there, albeit the worse for wear.

    They'd just gotten her, and had let her outside for a minute, turned away, then when they turned back, she'd vanished.  It was night and they couldn't find her.  So Little Girl, poor sweetie, had been outside all night long prior to being whacked by a car. 

    Isn't that astonishing, though?  I'd unwittingly delivered Little Girl to the veterinarian's office that was expecting to see her! 

    Amazing how the LORD fits the pieces together, isn't it? 

  • Aye carumba!

    People drive me insane, they really do.

    Charles was briefly in town for an unexpected visit (and that's all I'm going to say about that) so this morning we left for the airport, me in front and him following in the Skylark, which is kept at Jessica's house when he's away.

    There we were on Montgomery St. when up ahead a car hit a dog, which flew into the air, landed, then began spinning and twirling in pain, yelping and crying.  I could hear her cries from half a block away, windows closed and air conditioner on.

    Not only did the car that hit her drive on, but at least TWO other cars who were in front of me drove around the spinning, yelping animal, can you believe it?  The one who hit her might have been so horrified at what happened he or she just instinctively kept going, but what's the excuse of the witnesses who chose to drive around her and go on their merry way? 

    I pulled into the parking lot of the Bush and Bull, a pub, and she crawled over to me, poor thing.    She didn't snap or snarl, but let us pet and stroke her, even as Charles lifted her carefully into the back of the van.  He drove on to Jessica's to leave the car, while I took her to a nearby vet's office.  Just called him, and he said she's on an IV, receiving pain medication and antibiotics; she definitely has some pelvic damage but at least her back's not broken.  He might run x-rays this afternoon, but she's in so much pain it'll probably be tomorrow.

    Trouble is, of course, we can't spend a whole lot on her.  She's a sweet, sweet dog, though, clearly someone's pet (had on a red collar, though without any identifying info).  I guess I'll go take her photo tomorrow, make signs, and put them up in the neighborhood.

    BTW, I got Charles to the airport about 10:35....50 minutes before his flight left.  Hopefully that was sufficient time.

    Mercy Maud, if it's not one thing, it's another. 

  • It was a joyful thing indeed to read the breaking news headline earlier today that alerted us to the safe deliverance of Michael Auberry (which is kind of funny, considering how "au" is the symbol for gold...private joke with a friend!), but it was a bit annoying to read the reason 25 search teams have spent days looking for him is because he got homesick and decided to hitchhike home.

    Were that my kid, he would be SO grounded. 

    And were I North Carolina, his parents would be getting a bill in the mail for the cost of that search.  It'd be one thing had he simply gotten lost, as tends to happen in the woods, but Michael just set out on his own without telling anyone or having a clue where he was going.  His father talks about how he has complete trust in the Boy Scout troop with which his son had gone camping, and he'd be perfectly okay with Michael going camping with them again.

    Dollars to donuts the troop leaders wouldn't be quite as enthusiastic at having him along. 

  • What a mercy our cats eat dry food. =8^o

    Let's see....first there was the bagged spinach making people sick, then Peter Pan/Great Value peanut butter (BTW, I surely hope the peanut butter in the Great Value peanut butter crackers is okay, considering how fond of those I am), and now pet food sold in cans or pouches.  

    What on earth is causing this, do you support?  I don't recall widespread food poisonings like this in the past.  e-shrug

    This must be really hard on fond pet owners who don't have much money.  A news story about it tonight said one woman paid about $3,000 for her two cats to be treated.  I regret to say, were Boots and Zeus to have been made ill by the bad food, well....we'd sure miss 'em, if that's what the vet bill would run.  e-hairup

  • Photos from Thursday, courtesy of Dan's mother...

    4_recruits

    There were four recruits that day.

    parents_with_Dan

    Bill and Laura with the new Marine recruit and a pair of unknown, but doubtless charming, military representatives.  ;^)

  • Yesterday Dan and Joe came to fetch Dmitry to spend the night with them, and while here Dan took me completely aback when he announced he'd signed on with the U.S. Marines that morning. 

    And was wearing a Marine T-shirt to prove it. 

    Can you imagine?  It seems as if he just GOT here, though thinking about it it's been almost four years since he arrived from the children's home in Shumerly, Russia. 

    He's currently scheduled to leave for basic training next month, but he's going to see if he can get that pushed back a trifle, so he can finish this semester of college at TCC.

    Hard to believe that just three years ago he and Dmitry were going swimming at the YMCA and feeding the squirrels in Trinity Park.  Now Dan's heading to the Marine Corps.  e-aw