You know it's been too long since you've written when you have to look up your login information to your own blog (sigh).

I think I know where I went astray, there was a non-stop chain of events that began back in April & May... Mostly over health scares for my uber-healthy husband, followed by lots of visits to the doctors, new medicines to be started by both of us, a colonoscopy for my husband (all clear!), and much drama all around. And I was typing a daily offline diary trying to follow any side effects and problems with the new meds, so that was a distraction. I had some very bad reactions to several of the new prescriptions I was given (Lunesta & Lipitor), so that actually came in very useful.

Also around April my best friend began taking bellydancing classes (in another state, unfortunately) to lose some of her new mommy weight and the idea appealed to me also and I got hooked. No live classes but lots of research, music downloading, and intructional DVD purchasing. And some of the other accessories, but that's a whole new thread to be started. But I have lost some weight and have gotten much better abs, plus it's helped my asthma and my digestive problems. So that has been occupying a lot of my time.

Ebay has been as busy as usual, in the late summer it suddenly got much harder to actually make a profit, and get everyone to pay me. The whole world is broke also apparently.

But a fellow Halloween fan (and fellow bodybuilding fan) has written me some very nice emails, and I've been venting at him about how awful the world is and how sometimes it's actually a good thing to have a healthy obsession to keep from losing your mind. I think I've been keeping too much in my head, thinking I don't have the time to blog, too much work to do, too far behind on other projects, but I need to type something other than Ebay descriptions apparently, because lots came spilling out. And I've noticed the last few weeks that my stomach has been acting up more than usual, so I'm a little concerned that I've been keeping too much pushed down in my brain and it's trying to come out through my esophagus (yuck). My dad had ulcers from his stress, I'm a lot like him that way.

The world is so broken now, I don't know where to begin, so I actually started another webpage just for the bellydancing hobby. It's not finished yet, but it has provided a pleasant distraction and a place to put some of the tons of info I've dug up about everything from the music to the costumes. And an outlet for my OCD, but at least I'm learning something new, and improving my health. I've been driving my husband nuts with the music, but it's very therapeutic to me in the same way that jazz music calms me down and improves my coordination.

And with Halloween coming, I've committed myself to re-learning to sew (the big obstacle is my constantly changing vision). I've gone as far as buying a dress form (they were half off at Joann's!) and have built it up to match me as close as possible (good instructionals here and here on how to do this), so now I have a lifesized blue version of myself standing in the front room (much to the shock of my husband, he who bans kitty towers from the house because 'they're tacky'), but I feel like I can actually make a blouse that fits, and perhaps I'll stop buying black tee shirts. And I've bought a half dozen patterns and some new fabric so we'll see what happens. At the very least I should have a better Halloween costume than usual :-)

Since I had some money from Christmas & my birthday, I broke down and replaced my digital camera, I'm preparing the old one to sell on Ebay. I'd wanted a faster camera with higher resolution for awhile now, and had actually picked one out but when I went to check it out on Sony's website this week, it was already gone and had been replaced by a really bulky looking camera with only 5.1 mp as opposed to the 7.2 mp camera I had already picked out. (And an even bulkier 10.3 mp mega-camera that looks more like a camcorder for twice the price) The improvements were supposed to be a 'Super Steady Shot' image stabalizer and a 12x zoom.

Not wanting to buy old technology, I read through all the reviews and specs I could find for both cameras and decided I wanted my original pick instead of the 'new, improved' version. Then I went price-hunting and found that I could actually get two cameras for the price I had estimated for one, and ended up getting two of last year's models because I've always wanted a little camera to carry with me in my purse, and my cellphone camera sucks big time.

So, off to Amazon.com to spend my birthday money. Since I make my living taking photos of things to sell on Ebay, I felt I could justify buying a new camera, and it's a tax write off also. I picked a Sony Cyber-Shot DSC-V3 for my all-purpose work camera, and got a little Cyber-Shot DSC-P200 (in red!) as my travel camera. My last camera (a Cyber-Shot DSC-S85) has been a fabulous camera, I love my Sony cameras, and they keep getting better each time. The menus and controls on all three cameras are pretty much the same (thank you Sony!), so I could actually pick up both of the new ones and play with them right out of the box. (Some test photos with the V3 are in the next entry) And both are a whopping 7.2 mb, though the zooms are only 4x and 3x.

All three cameras take the same memory sticks, and the two new cameras use the same battery. But most of my old accessories won't work with the new ones, so I'm going to have a really nice package of accessories to sell with the DSC-S85, batteries & charger, 3 closeup filters and more. With the new cameras I also bought - an extra battery, two more memory sticks (1 gb and 512 mb), a new memory stick reader for the heck of it, and new cases for each of them. When I received everything, though, I decided to use my old big leather case for the DSC-V3, the new case I bought for it was too cramped, though it fits my old camera perfectly so it's going with it. (Love the case for the smaller camera, though)

And when I got both cameras, I realized that neither came with a battery charger (just the AC adaptor), so I had to buy one of those also. Warning, the V3 didn't come with a memory stick, though the P200 came with a tiny one. After playing with the macro on the V3, I decided to get a closeup filter and adapter for photographing jewelry and tiny things. The DSC-S85 had a slightly better zoom than the newer ones. But they're both faster and both have the nice plus of having built-in lens covers. My cat will be disappointed, she had some sort of vendetta against my old lens cap and would bat it off my desk whenever I wasn't looking.

I've been reading over the manual for the V3 tonight, trying to tame the auto-focus for closeup pictures. It has infrared, holograms and all sorts of fancy things. Another reason I thought it was ultra-cool was it has a night mode for focusing in the dark and even taking photos in the dark (look ma, no flash!). The greenish picture of my cat in the test photos was in the night mode, she hates the flash so it should be fun to play with.

Now I have to go through the book for the small camera. No night mode but it's smaller than my cellphone, yippee!

I made a new category tonight for Shopping entries, and managed to find quite a few of my previous entries to add to it. Just one of those things I've been meaning to do...

We have a brand new Target in our neighborhood and so I had to go twice last week when it opened. I went with Sparky first and we wandered around aimlessly, he bought some DVDs, I bought some cool retro 50's style folder and a trash can with a computer smiley face on it, then realized I hadn't spent the $25 minimum in order to use the $5 off coupon they sent us.

So I went back a few days later (in the pouring rain, no less) and got to leisurely scope out most of the store. I was looking for some serving pieces for our weekend party, more bowls and some platters, something plastic, blue or red and hopefully cool, and actually walked the entire perimeter of the store before stumbling upon what I was looking for in an aisle end cap display.

I had noticed the trend items for their 'back to school' theme all had a very 50's clean retro look - they had bolders & binders, desk accessories, and even sheets and pillows in several different coordinating colorways and to my amazing luck they also had an entire display of melamine and plastic in the same themes! Yippee! I bought a lovely platter with a multicolored starburst design, several smaller clear platters in blue and smoke with a quilted texture, and four bowls (two large and two small) in clear blue and smoke that were cut like diamonds. And matching rubber starburst coasters, coordinating napkins, and even a clear plastic tumbler with the starburst that looks fabulous in my pink 50's tiled bathroom.

I want to go back tomorrow and look over everything again (if there's anything left). I don't like to be too matchy, but the pieces they have coordinate without looking too much like an actual set which is cool. I'd like to replace my poor kitty ripped shower curtain (never buy a horizontally ribbed shower curtain if you have a spring-loaded cat with front claws) with something with a little color. All of our friends at the party commented on the new serving pieces, and the best part was everything was very affordable. I think the most expensive piece was like $6.99.

I love Target - they always have the best Halloween stuff also. If you're into design, especially contemporary, you really could decorate your whole place just from one store and not break your budget.

More fuel for the spammers to send pings to... I've got to start writing again regularly, between the bizarre (for Houston at least) streaks of cold weather, taking a few weeks off from eBay for a vacation, and the usual January malaise I haven't been too motivated lately to do much of anything.

And as much as I'm trying to keep informed of what's going on in the world around me on a semi-daily basis, which lately has been mostly comprised of watching at least the Daily Show with Jon Stewart and Randi Rhodes (her shows are archived now, thank you goddess!), I need to get back to more trivial stuff (in addition to the horrors of this current world) just to get it out of my head and maintain some sort of balance. I think I need to switch antidepressants also, my OCD has just been out of control since last fall and the generic Prozac is just not doing it. My poor little kitty brain is just overwhelmed with things to do that it's difficult to get anything useful done.

And to be really hypocritical of myself, January is always my shopping month. Because my birthday falls at the beginning of the year and my parents are usually kind enough to give me some money, so I usually have a year's worth of wants and needs by the time the holidays roll around each year. So, yes, I go out and buy a bunch of stuff (and pay off bills also) annually, but I have to admit it's normally a very well thought out list. So that's also been keeping me busy. I get things I actually need and fill up the big empty hole I try and ignore the rest of the year.

My biggest problem with shopping is that I'm a really scarily efficient shopper. I worked in retail for most of my life, I've ran up thousands of dollars in credit card bills with the efficiency of the Neocons (which are paid off now, by my husband, and chopped up and destroyed, also by my husband). Being obsessive compulsive, though. buying a lot of things in a short time period can get really scary. While my husband goes and looks at the same big screen TV over and over again, I just walk in and buy everything I need and leave. Just checking things off the list, you know? Not that I don't appreciate getting them, it's just become such a weird routine for like the last 20 years, in January I buy a years worth of stuff.

And then I have a panic attack and feel like I have to get rid of a lot of things. Binge and purge. So I've been overdosing on organizing stuff, though I haven't managed to get half as much as I'd like done. I did manage to give away some more clothes to charity, though I really need to part with more. They cost so damn much, though. And clothes don't really sell that well on eBay, even fairly new ones, but it's hard to give away Liz Claiborne and Jones NY clothing even though I work at home now and rarely go anywhere I'd actually wear them to now. And even though it's cold, I hardly ever wear any of my sweaters any more. But they're merino and cashmere, dammit! (OK, mostly May Department Stores brand, but still nice stuff) But I'm so lazy now I don't want to wear anything I can't hand wash, I make it to the dry cleaner maybe once a year.

It's actually a good thing it's cold here in January because any kind of cold weather just freaks me out, I really do go into hibernation. I don't want to go outside, hell, I don't even want to get out of bed. (I have dry laundry in the garage right now, but I haven't worked up the nerve to go out in the cold and get it yet) I've got no coordination, no energy... and it's only in the 40s here, I can't imagine what it's like to live somewhere it actually snows! I froze my ass off in Austin, Texas during the three years I lived there, but that was during the coldest winter in recent history where it actually got down into the teens and there was black ice everywhere. The coldest place I've personally been in my life, though, was Kansas in February. OMG, my dad went through basic training for the army in Kansas in the winter time... I just spent a few days there and both me and my warm blooded hubby just about died.

Ok, so what did I buy for myself? I never know how much I'm going to get each year, but this year I did quite well so I managed to check most of the items off of my list.

Number one - an electric piano. I've been obsessed with getting one most of this year when I realized how good they sound now and that I'd probably actually be coordinated enough to learn to play. And it's a good project to maintain what little coordination I have left, the multiple sclerosis has taken a lot of it away. I got very discouraged musically growing up because I really sucked at playing guitar. I always wanted to learn to play an instrument, but I was never good at playing guitars, yet somehow I had three of them during my life. Even a pretty candy red electric one. I always wanted to learn piano, though, and/or drums. But of course, they were both impractical. And expensive. And loud. My parents did give me an organ as a girl, but all I remember of the poor thing was that the sound was awful, the key response was very slow (and I was very hyper), and I was not happy with it. So, due to modern technology, my musical curiousity is being satisfied. And now I have 829 different instruments sitting on the desk next to me, and a new thing to learn, which makes me just insanely happy.

Number two - a cobalt blue paisley comforter. Sounds like a simple thing to find, but finding a comforter that matches royal blue drapes and is not mostly white is near impossible. I've been looking for years for a nice blue printed comforter that wasn't navy blue (which tends to have some green in it). So when I found Ralph Lauren's Putney Paisley last summer, I crossed my fingers I'd be able to get it before all of the kings were gone. And by January it had been discontinued, but I hunted it down and found one. And I got a nice dark blue Lauren bedskirt, and the coordinating striped pillowcases instead of shams just to be different (and the shams were almost $100 each). And me and the kitty are both in heaven. I thought my last comforter was nice, but this one is just decadent, which makes it doubly hard to get out of bed now.

Also on my list were a new bigger esternal hard drive and a faster non-photo printer, but they didn't make the cut this time. Because the piano is supposed to be internet-friendly (though not very Mac friendly), I did get a router and the litttle thingy that is supposed to connect the piano to the router, and thus to my broadband connection, but all I managed to do was screw up my IP address and piss myself off bigtime trying to set up the router, so it's just sitting on my desk right now. I also actually broke down and purchased the upgrade for Suitcase and am still in the process of trying to get all of my fonts working again after I stupidly ran Font Doctor (which came with Suitcase for free) and let it "organize" my fonts (it's the whole organization craze again).

What else... I wanted to replace my current cordless phone with a 5.8 ghz version in hopes it won't be as full of static as my 2.4 ghz one is, but I haven't done that either (obviously phones are not as high on my list as computers). I did replace my enormous overly bright green display clock radio with a very small, nice red display one (that's a story unto itself for later), though it ended up only costing like $15. Now it I could get my husband to replace his (which is the same as my old one, it's so bright it throws shadows on the ceiling), maybe I'd be happy.

Brrrrrr, gotta go out and get the laundry now. And then maybe off to my warm cozy bed with the kitty. Probably not, but it's a nice thought.

I know it's wishful thinking, but....

I'm not going ANYWHERE today. I spent my entire life living with and working in retail (my dad worked his butt off at the same place I did) and this time of year just makes me feel guilty, broke and frustrated. And I hate crowds and standing in line. Trust me, the stores will still have stuff to buy next week... (And a lot of their really good sales don't happen for another week or two, honestly)

I've been on a "buying things I need" shopping spree the last couple of week alsos. Then, after I'd finished, of course, eBay demanded I pay them their $350 worth of fees for last month two weeks early (or they wouldn't let me list anything new) so that threw me for a loop. Well, crap, I had hoped to go to the Houston Postcard & Paper Show this weekend, but I guess that's out now. They're in a beautiful new convention center just a few miles from my house now. But we have our Halloween party coming up next weekend and I haven't planned the food, music or what I'm going to wear yet.

But I've been stocking up on all of my shipping supplies, ordering boxes, bubble wrap and mailers for the holiday eBay rush. And buying toner, a new Dayrunner calendar, new pretty colored file folders and a little Brother P-Touch to make nice new labels (PT-1180). (My handwriting is completely illegible) I always wanted one of those, though I think the one I got is probably too small for anything but file folders (it was less than $30 at Sam's Club, though, and came with two refill cartridges). Redoing my files is going to be one of my "leisure" activities, I actually like to sort and file things, I had even considered becoming a professional organizer once, but I think avoiding obsessive activities is probably better for my health. One of the reasons I quite my first job as a library assistant was I got all obsessed with the books, I think I checked out as many as I put away. And it drove me nuts when people would put things back in the wrong place.

And with the Halloween party coming up, Sparky gets to do his semi-annual cleaning of his bathtub, so I got new shower curtains for us both. He refers to his tub as the "Shroud of Turin" because for some reason the master bathroom gets some really heavy duty staining as compared to (my) hall bathroom. And his curtain started off as clear but is now sort of a yucky beige color. So I went to Bed, Bath and Beyond armed with the coupons they send me weekly and found a nice clear patterned one for him, but could not find my usual pretty frosted one I usually get for me. I don't see it on their site either, but it had little clear prisms that caught the light prettily. So I decided to get a black striped vinyl curtain and I think I like it even better. It looks very modern and the black looks sharp with the 1950's powder pink tile, especially with the sleek little silver roller rings I already had.

In the same trip I also got a Fossil watch and an engraved antique white gold wedding band (both bought on eBay months ago) sized at our neighborhood jewelers, who kind of hate to see me coming because I can never seem to get my watch bands just exactly how I like them. I think I may have gotten this one a bit tight, but winter's coming soon. We've had out first semi cold front (down to the 50's - ooh!), but it only lasted a few days. Then I took the $10 off coupon I'd earned to the Beauty First next door to BB&B, and they were having a "buy one get the next half off sale", so I bought even more hair care stuff, and got a Matrix shampoo, conditioner and a Chi heat styling spray for like $13 total, yippee! (Just what I need, more hair products, when I'm unhappy with my hair I change products in hope of making it look better. Lately it's been really misbehaving and curling because it's too short :-(

By then it was Sparky's dinner time so I ran by OfficeMax and used another $10 off coupon I had to get an black ink cartridge for my dying Epson printer (it has a short and turns itself on and off, which is both annoying and alarming). And I actually remembered to bring my old cartridge and got my free ream of paper too. And I also spent like $200 on postage this week, I had like 60 auctions close this weekend. So it's been a damn expensive week, I hope my sales keep up, Sparky has been bugging me to go get groceries again...

Well, damn my computer just froze as I was adding on to my want list, so I'm retyping this all again and then going to bed, someone's trying to tell me something... But on the theory that what I put into print comes true, my other big want is an electric piano. (No, I don't play, I've always wanted to learn badly) It all began when we went into Radio Shack to get something for Sparky and, being bored, I wandered over and played with an electric piano they had on display. When I was a teenager my parents gave me an electric organ, which I have no idea what happened to, but needless to say, it was uninspiring and felt and sounded like a toy. I had no idea portable pianos now sound as good as and even better than the real gigantic thing (and never need tuning!). So that started my obsession earlier this summer. And since then I've been researching and studying and even doing finger exercises. I've always been a closet piano junkie, but never got to take lessons. I did guitar instead, and never did well at it. I also have always wanted to play drums. But a guitar was more practical in my parent's opinion. And it was the 70's and guitars were "cool". But I completely sucked at playing them. I've always been more of a percussion person anyway.

So I read and researched and even went to the local music store where I got the $5000 standup sales pitch and was told that Yamaha pianos were junk, which actually made me want one more, damn old fart salesman (he was pushing Rolands). My initial choice was a Yamaha 88 key electric piano, which I've been able to play with regularly at Best Buy and Sam's while Sparky did his DVD and big screen TV shopping. It's really a gorgeous sounding thing, with weighted keys, lots of voices and bells and whistles. But I soon realized it's WAY too big for the area I want to use it in, and then began thinking perhaps a synthesizer/arranger keyboard would probably be more fun and I could hook it up to my computer (and it would fit on my desk). So I've chosen a mid-priced 61 key Yamaha synthesizer (which costs twice what the piano cost) and have been yearning after it. It's basically going to be my birthday gift to myself this year, but I don't want to wait till January. For one thing the one I picked is last year's model and is in limited supply now, this year's model is also great but it's $500 more. But with my current computer mutiny (and my promise to never open another credit account ;-) I'm trying to restrain myself from wishing out loud too much. So we'll see if my "putting it into writing" theory works, hey, it got me a car ;-)

OK, I was about to pass out but I'm having a little burst of mental energy, so one more entry before bed...

Due to lack of finances (not by choice) I was off of my Ambien for an entire month. I tried really hard to sleep each night, I just took my "normal" Lorazapam and things like Fiorinal, calcium, magnesium, and even some Valium I had around the house, but I still didn't sleep. My husband tried keeping the cat out of the bedroom during the day while I tossed and turned. She'll nap with me which is actually very nice, but she'll also come in and try to get into the windows and bang the blinds around which will wake up even a sound sleeper, which I am not.

Monday afternoon Sparky was making the bed after I abandoned it for the day when he suddenly let out a yelp. The fitted sheet at the bottom of my side of the bed was shredded! Of course, he blamed it on me, even though he has the toenails of death and I usually wear socks to bed. I'm still wondering if the kitty had anything to do with it because there were two parallel rips, but I honestly think it just gave out from age. We have a California king and he'll yank on the sides to try and tuck them in.

Since it was Labor Day, and my Foley's bill was due in a week or so anyway, I decided to grab the coupons out of the paper and drive across town (to the "nice" mall) and get another sheet set. I worked in retail most of my life so I do at least know how and when to buy linens. For $80+ bucks I got a top and bottom sheet (it would have been $130+ regular priced), but alas, no new pillowcases. I'm not real keen on replacing my pillowcases, though, because they're SOO soft and my skin is hypersensitive. I had to touch test all of the sheets at the store and ended up with some Wamsutta 300 count cotton sheets in a nice colonial blue. And I found the comforter set I'd been looking for for the past ten years (seriously). It's by Ralph Lauren and called Putney Paisley. Finding a cobalt blue paisley comforter is next to impossible, so I'm going to really work on getting this one. Our drapes are royal blue and most of the bedding I find is either navy (which looks like crap) or mostly white with a little blue. My two big goals for the bedroom are to paint the walls blue and replace the burgundy comforter set with a nice blue paisley one. So another $250 for a new comforter, $110 for a bedskirt, $80 for pillow shams (sigh).

So I came home, washed the sheets and added some fabric softener and we remade the bed. All of the damn sheets at the store were "extra deep" so it's still too wide (besides being a CA king, we have a Tempurpedic mattress which is not very deep), but it'll work.

But that night I lay in bed for like an hour, tossing and turning, and finally I actually got out of bed and tiptoed into my office, found the receipt for my Ambien and called it into the pharmacy so I could pick it up when I got up that afternoon. I just couldn't stand it anymore. I've never been good at sleeping and now I have additional stupid health problems that cause insomnia so I caved and spent another $80 to get a month's worth of sleeping pills. Even with them, I don't always sleep well, but at least the odds are in my favor again.

Quick entry, more later when I can see straight, and hopefully the rain will stop and I can get some photos today... We bought a new car! Well, it's a 2002 but it's new to me and looks near mint, low mileage. Went to Carmax Monday because I had found a Honda Accord online with only like 9000 miles and was going to have it transferred from the Dallas area down here, but then I test drove a similar one (4 door, only tried the 2 doors before) and my damn knees hit the dash. That's a problem with me, I'm short and have to pull the seat almost all the way up and don't want the dash and windshield right on top of me.

But while I was hanging out in the showroom, they had a Nissan Maxima on display (actually the Nissan Altima was my third choice from researching but I hadn't seen one close-up yet) and I sat in it and pulled the seat up, and wow - I could actually see out (the windows all seemed to start lower than the others) and I didn't have a lap full of dash... hmmm... I hoped the salesman hadn't put the transfer through yet.

So after the disappointing test-drive on the Honda I mentioned I'd admired the Nissan in the showroom and he just sort of walked me over to a 2002 black Maxima. The first thing I said when I saw it was "It's got a spoiler!". It was gorgeous, much sportier than the Accord or Camry, I think I had put it on the back burner because it only came in a 4 door, but now the 4 door was my main choice (the new 2 doors all seem to have limited visibility and too small back seats). He said it had everything standard that the Accord had as options - the sport handling package with a V6 (with 55 more HP), all the bells and whistles, and it did NOT have a sunroof, yea! And it had a spoiler and 17" wheels!

So we went out for a drive, it was luxurious, fast and space age compared to my 91 Olds, I was sold! And it was $1000 less than the one we had chosen. My only two slight gripes were it had a higher center of gravity in turns than the Accord, and my elbow is resting in the coin tray on the door. Then I had to convince Sparky to come over right then so I wouldn't lose it. After much grumbling and my driving back to go get him he agreed. And they whisked my Olds away, gave us $800 bucks for it and said we could take the new car home that night. I was so stunned by how easy it all was I actually banged my teeth together the wrong way when he told us. I had taken most of the junk out of my old car earlier, just in case, but I hadn't expected to be driving a new car home. I had even mean to take a photo of my old car for memory's sake, but all I managed to come away with was my spider web license plate frame, which the nice people put on the back of the new car :-)

So, I'm still in shock. I had wanted power windows and good A/C, a V6 that was somewhat sporty and hopefully black, and I got so much more. And, despite the fact that I don't know what half the controls are yet, it's so easy to drive! I've never even had a car with a remote or an alarm before (except for one rental car) and now I feel like I'm in an airplane cockpit. I got so much more than I had hoped for, and it's a gorgeous, fast, sporty car, whee! I still keep peeking out the door to the garage just to look at, and I've taken my first real freeway test drive (in rush hour) so I feel a little more confident. And my parents are so proud that I got a "grown up" car after all the sports cars I've had, hee hee, little do they know ;-)

Wow, whirlwind week. Besides having to basically rebuild most of my system prefs, etc. in my Mac after a bizarre finder crash, plus having to have a new cable modem installed (and even the outside pole worked on), which all threw me terribly behind on my work, Sparky announced last week that (drumroll please...) I could FINALLY get another car!

Now, this may not sound like a big deal to some folks, but around this house it's earth shattering. Sparky is very slow to make decisions (it took us seven years to legally get married), and I have been bitching about my car almost since I got it, which was 1991. It was a present from my parents (no, I'm not ungrateful, really I'm not), but they picked it out and bought it without even asking my opinion. Granted, the car I had at the time was a supreme piece of crap (a 78 280Z with horrendous mechanical problems), I used to trade cars out on a regular basis, but never had the funds to get a new car so often my trade-ins brought more problems than the previous model. And I was a sports car freak, so I had a big disadvantage to begin with (my dad's favorite proverbs are "don't buy anyone else's problems" and don't ever buy a used sports car").

The only two brand new cars I ever had were bought for me by my parents, a 1979 light blue metallic Camaro, which I did at least get a voice in, and my current car, a black 1991 Olds Cutlass. With a four cylinder engine. Which was my first mental problem with it. The second (other than the fact that I had no say in it) was it was not a sports car, it was a mid-size almost family-type car. It's main redeeming graces were it was a 2 door and it was black. It had a "Quad 442" fuel-injected engine, which is a bit peppier and has more torque than most four cylinders, but unfortunately it was also a huge lemon. I began having engine problems when it was about 6 months old and they just continued non-stop, along with transmission problems and assorted other things you wouldn't expect from a brand new car.

We have spent enough to buy at least one more new car (or several nice used cars) in repairs over the last 13 years. It's been towed more than all the other cars I've owned combined, and I've owned a lot of old sports cars, dating back to a 1973 Corvette. The ironic thing is my parents bought it for me because they were worried about the reliability of the car I had. I honestly don't know how it has survived as long as it has except perhaps for the fact it's still under 100k. I used to drive downtown every day, but we rarely took driving trips (and I'm "the driver"), but in the last few years I've been working from home so it's been spared too much abuse.

But it hasn't been to the mechanic in probably 6-8 months, which is a long time for it, and the "to do" list has been mounting. Oil change, new tires, alignment, replace brake pads, replace windshield wipers, tune up, coolant system checkup, intermittantly working brake lights... and the final straw was - the AC & defroster stopped working. So Sparky's been having to drive lately. He hates to drive and I don't like to drive his big lumbering full-size car. But you can't drive in Houston in the summer with no AC, even at night. When I was young and foolish I went a year without working AC or heat in Austin and almost died, actually the cold got me even worse than the heat but both were unbearable. Plus the plates on my car expire at the end of the month just to add to the expense list.

So when he saw the list his brain just clicked a switch and said "no more". So he said "We need to get you another car. Not a new car, but something newer that works". See, Sparky doesn't believe in new cars, and my parents don't believe in used cars. My dad always changed my mom's car out when it would get more than about 4 or 5 years old or showed any signs of major problems. He's big on the reliability thing, bless his heart. It's funny, too, because she would maybe put a few thousand miles tops on any car she's had, even when she had to drive us kids around.

So we've spent the week going back and forth bartering on car prices while I've researched. He originally thought we could get a nice used car for around $10 or $11,000, but all I kept finding were $18 and $19,000 ones, so then he went up a bit to $15k, and now I think he's just tired of it, trusts my judgment a bit more and feels sorry for me and is telling me to just pick one out and he'll buy it. So we're probably going to end up in the price range I originally started in. I think as long as I keep it under $20 grand I'll be all right.

About a year ago, I was going nuts and did a lot of semi-serious research on cars and I'm very glad I did because it gave me a huge jumpstart this time. A car is a big thing for me, it's always been much too large a part of my personality and self-esteem and I really do love to drive. I've only had two four cylinder engines out of all the cars I've owned, the other was a Mustang, which I had to trade for and ended up being probably the second worst car I ever owned. The rest were hge V-8's, 2 Camaros, a Firebird, a Corvette, the 280Z (hmmm.. not sure what that engine was really), and I even owned a motorcycle. My ex-husband had the cheapest of taste in cars, and I remember just being moritified to have to drive some of his vehicles, I wanted to wear a mask I was so embarrassed. I mean, I used to go to Houston Speed & Sport and buy chrome air cleaner covers for my Camaro, I dueled out the exhaust, put bigger Radial TA tires on it... Sparky doesn't care about any of that, he's not even picky about color (though his favorite is red which I do NOT want), he just wants the AC to work, be roomy enough for comfort and for it to get him around on his little daily errands.

Me? The first thing I look at is performance and handling, then a stylish design, then if I could reach the pedals without having the dash & windshield right in my face (I'm short), then the color (black - grey preferred, though some of the dark blues & greens are very pretty, no beige or white please), then the interior amenities... When I started this quest my main requirements were power windows and locks, at least a V6 engine, automatic transmission, and a rear defroster. Now that I've been looking around, though, the power seats have moved up in importance, and the leather interiors aren't too bad either. Hate the sunroofs and the airbags, didn't want the anti-lock brakes, didn't like the 4 door sedans, wanted a 2 door coupe.

But now I'm reconsidering the 4 door thing, I don't have kids but I do occasionally have to haul more than one person around, and I'm not sure I want to continue torturing my friends and family by stuffing them into the back sead of a coupe. My current car has a decent back seat, but I've noticed the new coupes are really tight, even on the mid-size cars. And I'm a bit worried about visibility in the 2 doors since I'm so damned short.

My original pick was a 2002-2003 Toyota 2 door Solara, then I leaned toward a 2 door 2002 Honda Accord, now I'm debating a 4 door Accord. I was a pretty die-hard GM person till this last experience, but now I'm going for reliable. After reading tons of car reviews, and test driving two of the Accord coupes, I think the next step is to test drive a 4 door. And the good thing is they are a tiny bit cheaper, more plentiful (especially with the V6) so I have a better chance of getting the color I want. The new cars are so light, the modern four cylinders really aren't that bad, but I test drove one of each and the V6 won hands down. I really wanted to open it up, but I was afraid the salesman would have a coronary ;-)

So I've been scouring the internet and the newspaper trying to find, to quote Joh Kerry, real deals. If it's too good to be true forget it. And after spending an afternoon with a wishy-washy car salesman out in the blaring sun I'm more determined than ever to pick something and not window shop. And Sparky refuses to come with me until I actually pick something for certain (he hates shopping for anything but DVDs). Hopefully Monday I can go look at a four door I've singled out (it's WAY across town). I've looked at and printed out so many listings I can barely keep them straight in my head... And being obsessive compulsive I feel like I have to look at and read everything out there to educate myself. And I know whatever I pick will probably be in my garage for the next ten years minimum, so it's a big decision.

OK, I know I've been watching a lot of makeover type shows lately, but most of them involved home design. Now I've become obsessed with TLC's What Not To Wear, the US version, which is an hour long and is on almost every day it seems. I'm honestly not a trend or fashion freak, I've just always had a really hard time personally finding clothing that fit and looked good on me (and was comfortable) and this show is fascinating to me. Even when I was 98 pounds I had trouble finding jeans that fit properly, and had large shoulders, which, at 5'1", means sleeves and hemlines never fit correctly. I have a half dozen pair of pants hanging on my closet door right now that need hemming. I also worked in the retail & fashion world for years and handled so much clothing that I know too much about it now to be able to buy really bad clothes. I've been trying really hard to upgrade my own wardrobe to have clothing that actually fits me and isn't too baggy, at least in public ;-)

I missed most of the Memorial Day marathon, only caught a couple, poor Niya, a young urban black woman who bought clothes based on their original price tag and percentage off as opposed to whether they fit her. Or covered her. She had to lay on the bed to zip up her favorite skirt which was about 4 sizes too small and made her look six months pregnant. Then they gave her $5000 and sent her off alone in NYC and told her not to buy anything that would make her look like a hoochie mama when that's all she'd been wearing and her idea of a good outfit was based on the number of honks she got at the gas station.

I always feel sorry for them on day one, especially the women who don't shop on a regular basis, they're so overwhelmed and get very discouraged. Shopping is hard, I'm sorry, it really is. I love clothes but I hate shopping. Especially shoes and pants, too much stress. My arms will hurt for days afterwards from carrying stacks of clothes in various sizes because the fashion industry's sizing standards are so varied. And I want to try on as many things as possible at once to get it over with and be able to try and keep straight in my head what looks good and what doesn't. And I would not want to start my wardrobe over from scratch, even for $5000. I've finally gotten it down to things I either really, really like or just can't bear to part with for sentimental reasons (though often never wear, they're in storage). Even if they have good opinions, I don't like going by other people's rules for how to look. I wouldn't want a home makeover, either, unless my house was a total dump and I didn't own anything nice but it's fun to watch.

I went and looked at the website to get a link for this article and am really hooked now, besides having photos and info on all the shows, they have listings of what they bought, where, makeup and hair colors used, how much they spent... it's an OCD nightmare, yikes! But they also have the listing schedule and who is featured in which show, which will actually make my life a little easier because I can skip the shows I've seen, I've been having trouble trying to figure out their oddball weekly schedule. Unfortunately it's often on at midnight here which is about the time Sparky wants the big TV back, and he complains enough about having to watch Clean Sweep every week. I like that show even though everyone is a little too perky, though it seems kind of a cheat because they make the people throw like three fourths of their stuff out and then it's pretty easy to get the remainder back into their house... HGTV's Mission Organization is more challenging, IHMO. I'm very bad about following shows, especially one hour ones, usually Sparky timesets all of our one hour shows so we can watch them back without commercials, because about the only time I usually sit and watch TV is during dinner.

I'm always looking for women who have the same problems I do, I don't feel too sorry for the girls with cute little bodies and just bad taste. They had one girl on during the marathon with a Playboy figure (Irene) who was wearing basically stripper clothes to work (and her husband was complaining, go figure!), but all she needed was more coverage and better quality clothing, she would look good in anything.

I did sympathize with Alisha, who wore her husband's clothes, no makeup and thought skirts were fussy. I've always been a tomboy too, though I've learned that wearing boys tops really is not a good look for me. I still don't like skirts, though. It's not a modesty issue, skirts just aren't practical or comfortable in my opinion. Don't like pantyhose, if I don't wear pantyhose everything sticks together (it's hot in Houston!), and I'm not good at wearing shoes without socks (narrow heels, I just end up with blisters). Alisha is a taller girl, though, and not too busy so she could wear pretty things like empire waists, which I can't wear.

Looks like I missed the episode with Misti the Goth girl, I hope it comes around again. She's short like I am, though the photos of her wardrobe look awfully colorful for a Goth. I'm not real fond of the clothes they put her in, though she's ten years younger than me and they do look cute on her.

The 6/16 episode with Mary looks promising, she looks like she's going to be challenging and I like the looks they picked for her. She also looks to be short and busty without being too thin, so perhaps I'll learn something. I'd invest more money in clothing, but I have trouble justifying it when I feel like I still need to lose another 20 pounds. My big jump lately has been finding some jeans that fit (low waist jeans don't cut off my circulation, yippee!), and I actually own several nice belts and have worn them without going into a panic. I don't like anything tight around my waist, but since the pants hit lower the belts aren't too bad. (I'm very short, straight-waisted, all the weight loss in the world won't change that).

One of the women, I think it may have been Kimberly H., struck a note with me by saying that she had always worn her hair long to be more feminine and remembered being referred to as a boy by someone when she was young. That happened to me in about 6th grade, wearing jeans, a tee and a windbreaker I was looking at comic books when a clerk said "Little boy, don't read the comics". Now, everyone had long hair in the 70's, and I was a tomboy, but still... I think that may have played into my fear of cutting my hair for so many years.

I still don't like the pointy shoes and clutch purses they like to assign everyone, they look cute but are impractical. But I've seen myself in a lot of these women, long baggy shirts that just make me look bigger, pants that are too tapered, too short, big chunky shoes (no stilettos for me, sorry!), long scraggly hair (I cut it myself for years), no makeup, too much black... No wonder I don't like to be photographed, thank God I at least have cheekbones and good skin. More later, I'm going to try and beat Sparky to the bedroom so I can read a bit before trying to sleep.

OK, I admit I'm rambling tonight, I still feel like my brains are not all assembled in the same room. And now my hands ache, I got my Yamuna Body Rolling Balls in the mail today and just spent the last hour or so inflating them. The little green one wasn't too bad, you have to use a hand pump (sold separately) to inflate them, they are shipped flattened, but I didn't think I'd ever get the larger red ball inflated. I'm still not quite sure if I've done them correctly, the book said not to overinflate them and I have no memory of how to properly deflate rubber balls, though it says you can flatten them and bring them with you when you travel. Right now neither is perfectly round but a bit more oval, I'm just waiting for my husband to walk by and say "Hey you didn't inflate these all the way!".

I'm glad I invested in the name brand therapy balls, though, instead of getting a similar cheaper one I saw on eBay. These really are very good quality and heavy duty. I also have a strange fear of things bursting, I hate balloons, and the one on eBay said "no pump needed, inflates with a straw" which doesn't sound either safe or logical.

I did finally take a step towards fixing my poor teeth, I made an appointment for my husband and myself to go in for a cleaning (together, so I can hold his hand). They couldn't see us at the same time till the end of the month, though, so I mentioned I had a couple of teeth that were painful (the magic word for dentists) and I get to go in to be looked over this Monday. We're trying a new dentist that my mother has used, and is two miles from the house vs. 20 miles, where my husband's family dentist is. He's the reason my teeth are currently so messed up, he replaced several gold crowns with pretty white resin crowns and my molars have felt "off" ever since to the point where I've ground through at least two of my upper gold crowns. Also the resin feels rough to me, despite his attempts at smoothing them, which is a constant irritant.

I hope the new dentist is good, and has nitrous. I actually have a very high pain tolerance, and have had enough major dental work to make most people faint at the thought, but I also have super sensitive teeth when it comes to cold and pressure and the nitrous keeps me from inadvertantly biting the poor dentist. Plus it's the only time in my life I've ever actually felt relaxed. I agreed to let the last guy do a gingivectomy while under it's influence, it must be pretty good stuff.

I've been having that nagging shopping "urge" lately, glad I don't have any credit cards left. I have bought some useful things, though, yet more clothes, two "real" leather belts, two new pairs of house shoes (all they had were pastels, aagghh!), some shorter socks for summer, and a bottle of my Clarins lotion. Everything was on sale, though, except for the lotion, which cost almost as much as the others combined.

I got my Chi straightening iron in the mail today and played with it. It really did do a nice job, much better than my Conair, and it heated up superfast like it claimed. I wasn't very happy with how the girl shipped it, though, she just threw it in a Tyvek Priority envelope and sent it out at the two pound rate (and charge me about 3 times that much). I knew I was being overcharge for postage but a little bubble wrap would have been nice, I thought it would at least be in a box with some newspaper at the least. People on eBay really like to charge out the ass for any electronics, I've been charged $7 to ship a camera memory stick the size of a piece of gum. I guess they figure since everyone else is doing it it must be OK (sigh). The scariest one I got was a phone that the guy just slapped address labels & postage right on the manufacturer's box and threw it in the mail, didn't even bother to tape up the edges of the box.

I went through and purged some of my old worn out clothes the other night, and rearranged my closet. I still have two bags in my trunk from the last clothing purge, all of our clothing donation boxes have vanished recently, I don't know what to do with them... I feel like I need to get rid of (i.e. sell) some more of my dressy & work clothes since I never wear them any more, but I'm down to that point where I've gotten rid of most of the extras and just have things I like (and hope to fit into again) left. But we never go out anywhere, I never wear my rayon and silk stuff, Houston is a very casual (and very hot & humid) city. I'd actually like to buy more really nice quality casual stuff, but I can't justify it until I lose some more weight (which is a good way to save money, I guess ;-)

I think I'm going to go look at my memes and see if there's anything my poor tired brain can handle... I've been doing way too much eBay lately, I'm trying to take a short break from selling, but now I've started looking at things to buy. I have to keep reminding myself "where are you going to put it?". All of the shelves in the house are full (and must be dusted, dammit), but I'm still lacking some wall decorations in the bedroom (where no movie posters are allowed), so maybe I can find something suitably kitschy to fill in the blanks, it's the only room in the house with any wall space left...

OK, after almost a week with my new short hair I've finally snapped to the two things that really made it look look so gorgeous after my stylist worked on it. The First is the styling spray he used, which is Smooth and Seal by Straight Sexy Hair, which is really an incredible product. It does leave some of that mega hairspray smell behind (and in the bathroom!), though, which is not good for me all the time because I do my hair before bed usually. But it's fabulous stuff, really, adds a lot of shine.

I also realized that the two hot irons I had were not going to work real well with my new hair. Or my hairbrushes, I had to get new smaller ones. I have a Conair round iron that is usable, but kind of rough on my hair and dangerously hot. And I had bought a fabulous Babyliss straightening iron about a year ago, but it's over 2 inches wide and just won't work. But I kept thinking I'm missing something and after some research figured out what it is. I didn't have my glasses on while my hair was being styled (and wasn't allowed to look), but when I mentioned I had a straightening iron my stylist asked what kind of Chi I had, which I thought I heard wrong, but then he mentioned it a few more times. So after some Google searches, I found out he meant a Farouk Chi flat iron, which is top of the line professional and very pricey. It also has ceramic plates and lots of safety features that let him get right up to my scalp without burning me like my Conair does.

But I'm determined to recreate the super straight, shiny hair I had a week ago, so I looked around on eBay and found them for sale for about 2/3 of the retail price. After more reading up, I decided to get the new Turbo version, which has variable heat settings and some added features the older version (there are many of the older one on eBay) didn't have. So I bought a one inch iron and will hopefully get it in the mail this week, the seller was one of two salons that had them for Buy It Now, and both promised same day Priority shipping. Some of the big discount type sellers were kind of vague in their shipping, and also sold things like bed linens so I decided to stick with a specialized seller. I'm a big believer in getting the best you can afford for things you use all the time and rely on so we'll see how this does.

I think I'm going to have to play with my haircolor, though, the red is looking much too coppery, which I didn't want, I think I'm going to have to add some blue based dark red to it. I should just dye it black again, but then I'd be back where I started. But I'm going to wait till the semi-perm dark brown washes out a bit more. It's really nice having someone else do the dirty work on my hair color, but I think I may invest more money in keeping my cut in good shape and do my color myself.

I feel somewhat caught up (and slightly broke) after taking care of business the last few days. I try really hard whenever I get a bit ahead financially to actually buy things I need and that are on my wishlist instead of things I didn't know I needed. It seems like when I does have money, I can't think of anything I really need, but as soon as I get low it's really obvious.

I had bought a second book on Body Rolling, which required a different sized ball than the ones I already have (they sell them online, of course), but the exercises are completely different in the first book I got. So I ended up buying two of the balls from Yamuna Zake's website, I saw some on eBay that were similar and cheaper, but didn't really want to chance it. Had to buy a damn pump too, but I guess it's a good thing to have. The Miracle Balls I've been using have really been wonderful, great for both my fibromyalgia and the muscle tension from my MS. And they don't cost $60 an hour ;-) Back when I was rich (ha!) from working two jobs, I would try and go to a massage therapist every two weeks or so, but I'm one of those people that is so tight that it never really did a lot of good. But I'm having a lot of fun and getting good results from rolling, and who wouldn't like an exercise you do primarily laying down.

What else... got semi caught up on meds and groceries today, at least the refrigerator is full and Sparky has lunchmeat, bread, Diet Mountain Dew and bottled water, so he's happy. Sam's Club had more of my favorite Tropical Chicken Salad, they haven't discontinued it yet as I feared, awesome stuff to snack on! Plus an easy dinner for tonight, cold shrimp and potato salad, an all-time favorite with both of us. And a case of canned green beans, which should hold us for awhile (I'm a lazy cook, BTW).

Also ran into Old Navy today to try and find a belt for my poor jeans that won't stay up (maybe I really am losing weight, but I think it's more of a Lycra issue), and ended up also buying half a dozen of their Perfect Fit tees (two for $15!) which are actually sized big enough that adults can wear them and they are thick enough that they don't look like underwear. I even got some that weren't black. I wanted some Navy ones but they were sold out of anything above Medium, just looked online and they're out too, dammit. With the weather so hot I'm already tired of walking around in long oversized tees. I also got a couple more pair of their Just Lounge Capris (only the long ones are on their website but these look like just like the Capris), which hit me at the ankle and are great around the house (also on sale, yippee!). I used to buy their Yoga Capris but they're making them shorter now. They're really comfy for around the house, but they wear out pretty quickly, but for $15 what the heck. Did get belt, I wanted a leather one, but found a black and white brocade fabric belt that is very adjustable, plus comfy and attractive and got it.

And I paid Sparky back for the last few weeks of utility bills, and bought more mailing supplies. And... I bought a new curling iron (see next entry for info!).

Well, I finally got around to going back to get my hair cut and the color redone (it only took me 4 1/2 months, that's actually pretty good for me, last time it was like five years). I knew I wanted some red in it and I knew I wanted it shorter for the summer. I haven't had it cut above shoulder level since I was in elementary school (first grade?) and got sort of a pixie cut, which was actually one of my favorite haircuts of all time.

I've made it all sorts of different colors before, usually on my own (except for my purple cellophane phase, a pro had to do that). I showed my stylist a picture of a girl who (to me at least) looked like she had really dark auburn hair, and he went and mixed the color and then let it set, but I could see in the mirror it was looking really red. Which wouldn't be a problem, but I wanted a dark red because the bottom half of my head is still pretty much black. So he rinsed it off, and I ran to the bathroom before returning to the station, and saw in the mirror it was REALLY red, my natural color had just soaked it up (gulp).

When I sat back down, I told him I was afraid it was a little too punky (which is not necessarily a bad thing) but the dark bottoms and lighter roots made my fine hair look too thin. He cut it some, dried it, we went and walked around with a mirror outside, and yep, it was too bright and too light.

So he trots out more color, semi-perm this time, a dark brown with a bit of red, and I sit under the dryer while it penetrates and second try, much darker. Then I let him go to town on trimming, my hair grows fast so by August I know it will be back where I started again, and he trimmed it almost into a long shag. I wasn't allowed to look while he styled it, he sprayed a styling aid on it to straighten it first and then he went to work with the straightening iron (I actually happen to own one myself, yea me!) and when he finished it was super straight and shiny.

I was naughty and made him trim it back from my face some, even though it looked really pretty all feathered, I wish I could have taken a photo before he trimmed it back but I knew it would have bugged me. It's so hot here in the summer I really wanted to get as much hair away from my face as possible.

Then I spent more money shopping in their candy store full of hair products, got the spray he used, and another bottle of my favorite MOP conditioner (really good for fine hair), and a heavy duty weekly-type conditioner just because I think I need one. I've been using their MOP products since my last haircut in January and he said my hair looked like it was in really good condition today, last time the stylist told me it was very dry, so apparently organic really is better than my normal Pantene stuff ;-) I have a basket full of hair care products under my sink, probably because I'm never happy with it. I really like the last two cuts I've gotten from Pope Hair, though, which is amazing because I've spent up to $75 for a cut at some of the trendy salons here in town (with pictures of the local new people up on the wall even, ooh...) and been disappointed (especially after I washed all the gunk they put in it out). If you can't get a decent cut for that much money it's kind of depressing. I'm not big on styling products, I don't like hairspray and gel (and I wash my hair at night), all I want in life is a decent cut to tame my poor fine, frizzy hair. I am trying to make myself use something to keep the frizz down on a regular basis because I live in windy humid town.

So here are the new pics, for some reason Sparky can't take a picture of me that doesn't look like a police lineup shot, which is partly my fault for having no makeup on, but I really do like the all red pic of me and Phoebe (he had his thumb over the flash).

OK, I look up my weblog in Google and here's what they have currently:

wednesday's child 23. January 2004. Favorites - Friday Five At this moment, what is your favorite... 1. ...song? Not my favorite, but "Material Girl ... www.morticiasmorgue.com/tish/mt/

That's not very good... So I'm wondering, did I not put any Meta Tags in my home page when I guild this thing last year? Go and check... yes, I have a very nice description and a bunch of relavent keywords. I'm still not very good with the mechanics of XHTML, etc., still. I look at people's websites and blogs with three columns and all the bells and whistles, microscopic type, and I wish I had that much control over the appearance of my site (sigh).

I have GoLive and I'm still re-learning the new version of it, every time I seem to get proficient at an HTML program they go in and redesign the whole thing. I'm still learning Cascading Style Sheets (I know, it's sad). I have many expensive books on website design and I never seem to have time to even glance at them until I need something desperately. My own main website has been under "new construction" for like a year now with a new design sitting on my hard drive but not uploaded... Lately it seems all I do is sell and buy things on eBay, I think my OCD is out of control. I've been buying little glass kitties, getting a really nice collection, lots of Siamese, Burmese figurines are almost impossible to find. However I had to move most of them off my desk because my own kitty thinks they're toys to bat around. Not that they're safe on my bookshelves from the incredible jumping cat, but perhaps out of sight, out of mind...

It was last Saturday but I've been so swamped...

Sparky got me a new purse and my family got me my favorite gift (money :-)

I think I'll do last week's Friday Five in retrospect for January 2nd, it would make sense...

What one thing are you most looking forward to . . .

1. ...today? Well, on 1/2 we went out to eat with a good friend and had fabulous fajitas.

2. ...over the next week? The next several days we went out and ate at our favorite Chinese restaurant the night of my birthday. And on Sunday we had brunch at a ritzy place to celebrate mine & my mother-in-law's birthday. Monday I got my new printer. Hopefully by Friday I'll have my new "real" glasses and can see halfway decent again. I bought two pairs from Sam's (not bad, about $300 for both pairs), one for driving and one for reading, and got them both with the glare-free coating so I'm very hyped. I had RK surgery years ago and glare is a huge problem now.

3. ...this year? Hopefully making my eBay stores self-sufficient so I won't be dependant on selling things for other people. I do both now, but it would be nice not to have to split my sales with anyone...

4. ...over the next five years? Pretty much the same thing, also improving my health, hopefully getting a new car.

5. ...for the rest of your life? Would like to never have to go back to a 9-5 job and someday just be able to do whatever I wanted (i.e., be lazy and be able to read and have fun instead of working 24/7).

Also had to renew my driver's license on 1/2, got the vision restriction put back on because I couldn't read their tiny little glary machine :-( Oh well, I've had a good 13 or 14 years without it.

OK, just found this, I wholeheartedly agree:

This one's good too:

1. Do you like to shop? Why or why not? I like to shop on my own terms, when I want to and not when everyone and their dog is in a panicked frenzy (um, like from now till January). I like to shop when I don't have to worry about every dime I spend, especially as I have to now because I have no credit cards anymore (whole different story). I don't like being guilted by the media to shop or buy cards for made-up holidays. And I HATE crowds, I used to be on the other end of the cash register and it's not exciting to me, just stressful. On the other hand, I'm very efficient at shopping, I could buy a whole wardrobe in one trip if I had to. I've gotten real decisive over the years about what I like and don't like.

2. What was the last thing you purchased? Other than necessities, a watch from eBay, just got it, have to take it in to be resized (of course, I have tiny wrists). It was a good deal and has hands and numbers big enough I can rad it without my glasses.

3. Do you prefer shopping online or at an actual store? Why? I like both. I like the real store concept because I'm hard to fit, I can actually see and feel the quality of the merchandise, the correct color, etc. I love to shop online for things I already know will fit me (like Land End tees & nighties) and things I don't have to worry about (like books and music).

4. Did you get an allowance as a child? How much was it? I did, I honestly don't remember but it was fair for the era. Enough to buy some comics, candy and Slim Jims with each week.

5. What was the last thing you regret purchasing? A three pack of fruitcakes at Sam's Club. I don't need to be eating fruitcake, even though it's one of my favorite things, and this is a brand I've never tried and I'm really picky about my fruitcakes. And I'm the only one in the house who will eat it, so I think it's going to go back to the store.

The four bracelets I've assembled so far, pardon the flash

OK, on to Italian Modular Charm Bracelets finally. If you haven't seen these, they're stainless steel (and sometimes gold) stretch bracelets with links that can be switched out and customized however you want, and made whatever size you want. The really fun part is the thousands of different charms you can put on them. Most of the charms are flat, like the bracelets, which I love because I hate dangly things. They also make links with dangle charms soldered onto them if you like that sort of thing.

I didn't even know these things existed till a friend of ours, who actually just got back from Italy, was wearing one. He told me to look the maker of his (Zoppini) up on eBay or to go look at the malls, but I'm an eBay person. There are entire categorized sections of eBay devoted to these, the best place to start is in the Modular Italian category. Now there are usually over 50,000 listings in this category, but if you like to browse, it's broken up into smaller subcategories. The easiest thing to do is type in a word to search for (like "halloween") and check out what comes up. There are charms for sale from about a dollar up to $20 or $30, they are usually priced by quality. There are cheap Asian made charms and the nicer, higher quality Italian made charms. Also a number of American made ones. If you'd like them to last a long time go with at least the mid priced ones, expect to pay between $9 and $16 for them.

Now the first mistake I made was when I spent too much money on the base or starter bracelet. It's good to invest in a good quality stainless steel one, but if you end up with a lot of charms you won't even end up needing a bracelet. There are several major Italian and American companies that make them, it's best to pick one that has a brand name as a starter because there's also lots of cheapies. I had some weird idea that the charms fit over the links on the bracelet but they actually replace the links. I bought two bracelets and extra links and now have like 4 bracelets because of all the charms I've bought. The average person needs about 18 total links (including charms) to make one bracelet. The actual blank bracelets themselves, especially the matte ones and colored ones, are attractive on their own in a kind of nice urban way also. BTW, there are actually several different sizes of bracelets, some narrower and wider, but the standard 9mm "medium" sized bracelet is the one that most of the charms are made for.

When you're looking at charms there are several types. The most common are ones with enameled designs on them, then there are laser etched charms, then a variety of homemade ones. There are handpainted, handmade varieties, but be more careful with these, they're often more fragile than the factory made ones. Make sure the links say they are stainless steel and that the charms are soldered on, not glued. You can even get custom etched ones with different words and designs on them, I got one made that says "Morticia" and it looks great.

When you're flipping around looking, if you see something you like, bookmark it and check and see what else the seller has. Most of them will combine shipping on multiple purchase, though many have a 1-5 day limit on when the auctions close. Also, speaking as an eBay seller, PLEASE don't sent more than one Paypal payment, we get charged a fee for each payment sent. But anyway, you'll end up finding specific sellers that have a lot of things you like, but before you start buying, do some searches to see what price other sellers are selling the same charm for. Also, many sellers have eBay stores where they list Buy It Now items so don't overpay for something the seller has 20 more of.

Unless you have really strong fingernails, it's good to have a charm tool to help get the charms on and off of the bracelet. I bought a black plastic Zoppini brand tool, and it works great and doesn't scratch the bracelet when you're pulling and pushing on the links. They run about $6. A lot of sellers will throw in a tool when you buy a starter bracelet also. Once you get the hang of it, it's actually pretty easy to get the charms on and off.

Now that I've bored you to with all this info, let me tell you some of what I've bought so far and give you some good sellers to check out. My charms include:

A glitter Texas flag, an enameled Democratic donkey, a green shamrock, several different cat charms, a tiny gold computer, a gold camera, a motorcycle, a Batman logo, a stack of books, a witch on a broom with a black CZ in the center, a peace sign, two laser paw prints to represent my two dogs who have passed on, a police badge, a police cap, a police car, a pair of handcuffs and a pistol (I used to work in law enforcement). I also have several fleur de lis symbols, a moon and star, a horseshoe, and a teapot and cup. And I've made a Halloween themed bracelet with a jack o'lantern, a black bat, a coffin, an arched black cat, a couple of skulls, a spider web and Snoopy & Woodstock sleeping on a jack o'lantern. And I have a black witch hat, a cauldron, a witch on a broom, and a spooky owl on the way. (Got several of them today!)

These are people I've bought from and had good luck with so far:

For good inexpensive charms check out:
Pugster Inc
Fundamental Advice
Silverstone Direct

For laser engraved & custom charms:
SpectraCharms
Morning.Calm
Parodi Design

For authentic Italian, better quality and licensed charms:
Charming Chick Stuff
cmr3
MommyLuvsToShop
QuiteCharming
Nappi Italian Charms
Kelleyland Kollectibles

Well, today was a whirlwind, I'm still hyper, so what am I listening to? Jane's Addiction, sort of matching my heartbeat and typing rate which is interesting... Got to get their new album, saw them on TV last night, they still sound great. Convinced my husband to get rid of his 10 year old recliner, I know it's killing his back and neck, I looked up one on LaZBoy's website, we went in and bought the thing outright tonight, very cool, easy commission for the salesgirl. I called in advance to see if they had any in stock in the showroom, we bought some furniture from them about 5 years ago and it had to be special ordered and took like a month, and they had the chair he wanted and in the maroon color he wanted (no more beige, yea!). He got the only red one in stock in the city, it will be delivered next week (we don't own a gas guzzler big enough to tote furniture). AND it was on sale with a trade-in discount, so he'll get something for his old chair when the Salvation Army comes to retrieve it.

I can't believe how easy it all went, and that we're not stuck with another piece of earth toned furniture (one sofa and chair still to ge replaced). His favorite color is red, the chair fit him perfect (it's their Atlas chair, it's the biggest, comfiest one they make, too big for me). I love LaZBoy's stuff, we bought a dual recliner couch and a big overstuffed non-rocking chair for me (I'm not a rocker) when we moved and they're so well made and comfy, well worth the investment. Got one of those pop-up coffee tables too, eat dinner on it every night. Their stuff is so gorgeous, I could wander around in their showroom sitting on furniture for hours [sigh]. They have a cool website, you can test out colors, test decorate rooms, etc. I've always wanted a chaise for myself, for the bedroom, probably end up with a smaller recliner eventually, though. We have an old semi-broken chair in there now to basically hold pillows and provide a kitty window perch, but it would be nice to have a real reading chair in there also.

I whimped out on taking my last steroid today, slept really heavy and fitful and couldn't face another 24 hours of steroid withdrawal. Restarted on my bc pills tonight, too, they don't play well together and I don't feel well when I'm off them, too many hot flashes and such. We went to the Adobe Cafe in Sugarland after we bought the chair, dinner was great but I have had a metallic taste in my mouth all night and now I'm getting a swollen lip on one side, more withdrawal I'm assuming. Took some Lysine, hope that stops the swelling. Went to Half Price Books after that, I bought four cat books (Cats in the Sun, Asleep in the Sun, The Mediterranean Cat and The Silent Miaow) and a new werewolf romance that I didn't even know was out (read the prequel as part of a supernatural trilogy). Couldn't really afford it all, but the photo books were like 75% off retail so I couldn't pass them up.

My nose has been cold for two days, very annoying since it's like 100 degrees outside. Been super dehydrated today, I expected that on the steroids, not afterwards. Uggh, my head's pounding, here we go kids... I've got my music stepped down to Bowie's Heathen now, finishing with Tori Amos Scarlet's Walk, which even relaxes the cat. Yep, she's jumped up in my lap and is grooming the both of us now...

Multiple entries today, too many different subjects to cover. I now and the proud owner of both Lottie and Tragedy Living Dead Dolls. I bought them both on eBay, but later found out that Hot Topic still carries the second issue �exclusive� Tragedy Goth girl doll for less than I paid for it (of course). Apparently the first issue had red tissue paper in her coffin, and the second has purple, which is what I bought because I thought the purple looks better. Lottie is from a discontinued series, though, so I think I got a good deal on her. Both dolls are still shrink wrapped, I�m hoping I can remove the shrink wrap and still be able to display them in their coffins. I wouldn�t mind having Lottie keeping me company at my desk for awhile :-) I already have a menagerie of little critters surrounding me, including two bats, a Halloween kitty, Xena, a big and small Batgirl, the Barbie on her Harley Davidson ornament, a gold Lucky Cat and assorted pagan deities. And a Lily Munster and Samantha doll, and two Wonder Womans. That�s not even counting everyone staring at me from my surrounding bookshelves and the life masks across the room (those are my husband�s). More stuff to dust...

�I bought some Emily the Strange stuff the other day. I searched on eBay and found a bunch of stuff I hadn�t seen before that I had to have. Then, I actually checked around to the outlets that carry her stuff to see everything available and compare prices and ended up getting a journal from eBay, the hardcover book and the lunch box with the Emily and her kitties on it from the Emily/Cosmic Debris site, and a cell phone cover and a little key chain from Hot Topic. I was really tempted by an Escher cat shower curtain and bathroom rug with her spooky kitties on it, but I managed to pass. There are two cell phone covers, one with Emily big and her cat small, but I opted for the reverse version, I�ve been in a kitty mood lately. There�s also another lunch box available, but the top of my shelves are full so I decided to pick the first version. They have some darling tee shirts, but most of them are in junior sizes and styles and I need a full-sized tee. I don�t look good in little baby doll tees with cap sleeves :-( Be sure to click on the site map and freebies link to download the spooky desktop pics while you�re there.

Yea! My doctor finally renewed my Ambien prescription, I�ve been completely out the last two nights and my alternative solutions to help me sleep have been causing strange side effects & bizarre dreams. I took Klonopin the first night, and was ultra groggy all day afterwards. I used to take that every night, no wonder I used to sleep to late every day. Last night I took a whole Xanax instead of the half I normally take, and slept till about 10:30, then woke up and fell back asleep to have the exhausting dream described below. I like having vivid dreams, but not every night.

The cold rain has begun, it's supposed be cold, wet and windy the rest of the week. I just drove to the grocery store and sat in their drive-thru pharmacy line for 15 minutes waiting to get my meds. Too cold and wet to actually get out of the car and go inside. I sat in the car and sang along to Avril Lavigne while I waited. I�m sure the people in the car behind me wondered about my sanity, but I�m at that weird �don�t care what other people think about me� point. I guess that�s why I ramble on to you good people about my psychotic dreams ;-)

Two momentous occasions today, this is my 50th weblog entry and I'm 25 points away from getting a 5000 rating and a green star on eBay :-) I actually have over 6800 positive feedback points on eBay, but ones from repeat bidders/seller don't count toward your total. I've been buying some things lately on eBay, I got my first Living Dead Doll (Lottie from Series 3, she's just too cute!), and I've been working on completing some assorted vampire & vamp romance series that I've gotten behind on. I pulled a big stack of vampire and horror novels out to make room, ones I've read or am just not inspired to read, I'm getting picky in my old age, so look for them on sale cheap in the next few days if I can get my act together.

The weather has gotten bad again so I spent almost $300 bucks at the grocery store tonight so we can eat in this week in style and not have to go out in the bloody freezing cold. I wish I had an electric blanket, I grew up using one year round and then in my 30's went through a period where I got bizarre hot flashes and night sweats so the idea of anything purposely hot turned me off for years. Seemed to be a bad reaction to a prescription medicine I was taking, the doctors never could give me a decent reason. It also began my bouts with rosacea, which majorly pisses me off because perfect white skin has always been my only real bragging right physically. I've tried some of the different drugs and creams for it, but I've found stimulus avoidance to help more than anything. That, and really good quality skin care products. My favorite sensitive skin care products are from Clarins. I use other brands occasionally, too, but I always go back to Clarins.

I'm dreading taking a shower tonight, I have to use the cold bathroom at the back of the house because the plumbing in my nice bathroom is acting up. We've been pouring Liquid Plumber down the drain, but I'm afraid it's a real certifiable plumber problem, the sink, bathtub and the toilet have all been acting weird. We've been in this house almost four years now and this will be the first "digging the ground up" plumbing problem we've had, hope it's not too bad. We don't have an outside drain entrance, which I'm not sure I understand becasue the people we bought the house from had three kids. But then, they didn't have cable TV either... We had constant battles with our cheap ass landlord at our last house because it constantly had sewer problems, had to replace the entire line once, he was not happy about that, too many old trees and invasive roots. Our last house only had one bathroom also, so when we had a problem, it really was an emergency.

We watched Primetime's special on the porn industry tonight, really interesting. It focused on a young Mormon girl who became a hardcore star in just a few years and all the hell the girls who work in the industry have to go through. The actresses really don't make that much for the work they do, Houston is like the strip bar capitol of the US, and from people I've spoken with that have worked in the industry here they make a pretty comparable salary and don't have to risk getting AIDS, etc. The poor girl they were interviewing tonight looked like she was on the verge of a nervous breakdown. She started when she was 18... I can't imagine going through that period, but as a teenager? Luckily I've never wanted to be famous or beloved by millions, though rich wouldn't be a bad thing. This girl won an adult film award and she was still only pulling in about $100 grand a year max (as the top porn actress of the year?). Of course, the filmmakers and distributors make millions of dollars a year. Not to infer that there aren't some reputable erotica companies out there, but it sounds like the majority of them are just sex farms, using up and spitting girls out. The special said the average career of a porn actress was only 18 months.

Uggh, bracing myself to go use the icy shower (there's a damned window in the shower stall!). We have old fashioned gas heaters but can't really use them because of carbon monoxide problems, etc. There's a central air vent in the bathrooms (unlike our last house, which was really cold!), but it's teeny tiny... brrrrr... Soon I'll be whining about the weather being too hot, I can't wait!

I was flipping the channels and happened upon Dr. Phil today, I don't usually watch him because most of his shows seemed to be aimed at resolving relationship problems, which can get kind of boring after awhile (and because he looks way too much like my ex-husband), but today he was doing a show on Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. I missed the first 15 minutes and could have kicked myself because I really enjoy psychology, I've often thought I should have been a psychologist, it's one of those things that comes fairly naturally to me, it helped a lot in my private security career. And also because I have always had OCD. I think most people have it to a degree, they just don't recognize it. I've often thought that mental health problems like OCD and depression are actually a sign of intelligence and creativity in many people. I think the psychological meter has depression and similar mental health disorders on one end, and complete sociopaths on the other end. The societal "norm" is to be somewhere in between. Frankly I'd rather be on the depressive end myself. One of the problems today is there are too many sociopaths who could frankly care less whether their neighbors lived or died, as long as it didn't affect them personally. Not that they're particularly cruel individuals, they're just oblivious to anything outside their own little self-centered lives.

To be able to succumb to depression or actually be obsessed about something indicates an awareness that the world is not such a cheery, perfect place. It has a lot of problems and there are a lot of unhappy, unhealthy people out there. Because of the high-end sociopaths (greedy CEO's, Republicans and other emotionless criminals, which are nothing new, they've just become more prolific and public in recent years) the quality of life has steadily declined for many people. The people who care are few and far between it seems, and the ones who do try and change the world around them often seem to barely impact the situation. Homelessness, joblessness, avoidable health problems, poor education, etc. are put on the back burner while grand idealogical plans receive an illogical amount of attention and funding in this bizarre alternate universe we exist in. That's my coping mechanism for getting through the current Republican regime, is that we are in a strange alternate universe and eventually the collective consciousness of America will see the truth of what's going on and eventually regain it's sense. We can only hope...

But this wasn't meant to be a political essay, I wanted to discuss OCD. The women featured on the show had fairly serious cases of it, one was a clean freak who was driving her family insane, and the other was both a germ freak and a compulsive hoarder (of toilet paper, used plastic bags, you name it). You'd think that if someone was obsessed with germs they wouldn't allow huge mounds of junk to accumulate in their house but this poor woman did. I realized years ago that I had to be really careful not to let this disorder overrun my life. I was raised by a mother who refused to sit on public toilets because of the germs, but I've also always had huge piles of assorted clutter that follow me around. My husband says I can make more trash than any woman he's ever known. I used to save everything, "just in case". I became overly organized out of necessity, keeping file boxes of receipts for way too long, too much mail, too many magazines, books, clothes. Then one day I learned the joy of throwing things away. It's also easy to get too carried away by doing that. I broke my shredder destroying years of unneeded documents. But getting rid of excess, unused stuff is very enlightening. I'm also very much a germ freak, BTW, mostly out of necessity to maintain my fragile health. I'm very aware of where my hands have been, and try and keep them away from my face when I'm out in public because I'm bad about touching my eyes and nose, and I'm a compulsive hand washer (I go through a lot of liquid soap and hand cream). I carry little handi-wipes around with me, put paper on public toilet seats, never touch doors and water faucets without a paper towel. Over the years I have found that just realizing what is causing my irrational behavior, mentally telling myself it's just my OCD talking, or depression, or PMS, etc. helps me to cope. Also SSRI's like Prozac and Paxil don't hurt.

But, of course, it all tends to creep back. I can clean my desk, file all the important stuff, throw the junk away, and within a week I'll have new piles of stuff everywhere. I try to go through the piles and either file or toss them at least once a week. I've tried to teach myself over the years to organize efficiently, to ruthlessly discard things that have no use, and to try and develop regular habits to try and automatically maintain things in some semblance of order. I put things in the same place when I've finished using them, purse, keys, pens, pencils, glasses, jewelry, clothing, remote controls, etc. I get really frustrated and feel very helpless when I can't find something. So I consciously make sure everything on my desk is in it's logical place before I turn the computer off for the day. I have a folder full of programs I back up each day also, before I shut the computer off, my email files, bookmarks, my eBay records, things I've lost to crashes before and can't do without...

I've spent a lot of money over the years on organization "stuff", and have taught myself to actually use it. It also helps to cut down on my dusting and cleaning. I have plastic drawers to keep my shoes clean, clear plastic shoulder protectors to keep my nice blouses and coats from getting dusty, big zip up clear garment bags for coats and things I don't wear much, large sealed plastic boxes in my closet and under my bed for off season clothes, dividers for my clothing, kitchen, bathroom, office. I favor clear plastic and acrylic storage items just so I can actually see what I own, I have so much stuff I tend to forget what I have. I have 11 bookcases just in my home office (aka our living/dining room) alone. All books are grouped by type and the ones I use most are close to my desk. I have two file cabinets and 4 or 5 portable file boxes for overflow. I even organize my assorted piles of stuff. I've taught myself not to leave things like receipts lying around to catch dust on my bedroom nightstand, they all go in either a big envelope to be filed or in one specific file on my desk for current things like bills. When I'm out and in a hurry, I try and stick any receipts I accumulate through the day in the same pocket in my purse or wallet so I can pull them all out when I'm done and file them or record them in my checkbook. I bought a nice desk planner and use it and the calendar on my email progam (Entourage) to remind me when things are due. I couldn't exist without post-it notes, I stick them in my Dayrunner, on my computer where I have to notice them, in my wallet where I can see them... I have a little mini Dayrunner in my purse, very small, with a phone directory, places for notes and blank pages to put random notes on. If you're on a budget, your local office supply store has generic binders (and loose leaf paper) in the same sizes as many of the expensive planners, so you can just buy the inserts like calendars and phone directories and assemble the rest yourself. I've also found some fabulous deals at Dayrunner's clearance site, I get the loose leaf planners so I can add my own refills. I keep a phone book directory with my computer passwords, etc. in them alphabetically so I can actually find them when I want to buy something online, etc. If you don't want to put things like that in a binder, a Rolodex file works really well for random information, if you're on the computer all day a simple searchable data file is also great (check out iData Pro). Just doing little things like tossing junk mail as I open it helps. Experts say you should never deal with incoming items more than once, either resolve/answer it, toss it, file it, or pass it onto the person who sould be dealing with it (at work or home). That's a good theory with emails also if you get tons of it, delete it, answer it or file it, don't let it back up on you.

I know all of this organizing and sorting sounds complicated, but it actually helps me to simplify my life. I know I'll always have too much stuff, both my husband and I are born collectors, I have thousands of books, he has thousands of videos and DVD's, we both have tons of music also. He collects movie paper, I collect postcards, we both collected toys for awhile but we've gotten really selective now because our house is way past full. Our attic and closets are packed with toys in unopened packages, but at least they're all nicely packed in big boxes. I deliberately stayed away from eBay when it first began because I knew when I started looking at things I'd never be able to stop. Luckily my husband is not proficient with the computer, but he has learned how to search for things on eBay, and we both have spent way too much money. It's much too easy. I sell mostly now, but I'm trying really hard to restrain my buying habits both out of lack of places to put things and lack of money to spend, it adds up frighteningly fast.

Right now our house is actually fairly clean, semi-dusted and picked up after the holiday chaos. Because of my allergies I try and do an entire room at once to just get the dust and sneezing over with. I'm trying to keep everything from piling back up again. Deep inside me I long to have one of those sparse minimalist mid-century modern homes like the ones I ogle in magazines, but I know it will never happen. My parents claim they have too much stuff, but their home has always been very sleek and uncluttered.

Suggested activity, to save you some money go to the library (or even a bookstore where you can sit and drink capuccino while you read) and pick up a stack of books on home organization, closets, etc., and flip through them to get ideas before you go and spend a fortune at the Container Store or Office Depot. Try and get an idea of what would would actually be useful to you, also make sure to measure and write down specs. Get catalogues for organization stores or flip through their websites before you buy, get an idea of what's out there and who has the best prices (more links below for ideas). Places like Walmart and Target also offer low-cost storage, as well as office gadgets. A good book that is actually worth buying is Organizing From the Inside Out� by Julie Morgenstern. An excellent book with lots of specific diagrams and photos is Closets - Designing and Organizing the Personalized Closet by Patricia Coen and Bryan Milford.

More OCD links:
Obsessive Compulsive Foundation
Obsessive Compulsive Information Center
OCD Newsgroup
National Institute of Mental Health's OCD Page
Take an OCD screening test

More organization links:
Clutterbug.net
Get Organized Now
Organized Home.com
Get Organized Online
Organize Everything
So You Wanna Organize Your Closet?
Daytimer.com

Addition 1/16 - I found myself wandering around Lowe's tonight (we just got one in our neighborhood) and they have an AMAZING selection of affordable home organization and closet stuff.

Been doing a lot of mindless busy work this week. I was dusting at 3 am last night, and I got a weird notion to clean the bathroom tonight. Unfortunately I was wearing a navy tee I really liked and ended up getting a drop of mildew cleaner on it so it has a nice bright red spot on the front now, sigh...

I took a shopping bag full of dry cleaning in that had been sitting in my closet for longer than I want to admit to, got one of the shirts back with a button missing and found another button missing on a blouse I think I've worn once, so I sewed them back on at like 4 in the morning. Normally I'd stick them in my closet and let them sit there for about a year, but I got a burst of enthusiasm.

My husband and I have been buying gadgets this week, he bought me a garage door opener for my side of the garage for my birthday, the nice people at Lowe's installed it. I'm still trying to figure out how to program all the parts for it, it's so quiet I can't even hear it from inside the house. My husband replaced the pretty much dead factory stereo in his 1988 Pontiac sedan today (he's only been talking about doing it for years), so now we don't have to listen to static anymore on the occasions when he drives.

We used an Xmas gift certificate for dinner tonight and completely pigged out on Mexican food. Our favorite Mexican restaurant has killer fajitas, I get them topped with monterey jack cheese, bacon and mushrooms (I substitute mushrooms for poblano peppers, yuck). Total carnivore feast ;-) We got there early and by the time we left the whole place was packed. A group came in as we were leaving and wanted a table for 13 at 7:15 on a Friday night, as if.

We stopped at Border's on the way home, I found a new witchcraft magazine I'd never seen before called New Witch, looks interesting.

Ick, the house smells like bleach now, I really shouldn't clean stuff before bed. Gotta go wake my hubby up, he's fallen asleep in front of the TV. The Haunted Palace with Vincent Price is on, perhaps I'll watch a bit of it. He's my favorite classic horror actor, I could listen to him read the phone book. Oops, it's the angry mob scene, gotta go. Damn, a commercial. Must be bloody AMC, why yes it is...

Made it through the day with no real incidents, dinner was wonderful, and I was promised a new garage door opener, to be purchased next week. Our Chinese restaurant is undergoing even more expansions and adding a new facade, they've added a party area that will hold another 400 people. I had my favorite dinner, beef with green onions and ginger (#202, it's also awesome with oysters). The drive to the restaurant and back takes us through our old neighborhood, so we stopped at Baskin-Robbins on the way back and got ice cream just to be total gluttons. I'm weird about cold foods (I was born with sensitive teeth), so I always get mine in a bowl to go so I can spend an hour working on it when I get home. My husband finished his on the way home in the car. I got two of my winter favorites, eggnog and nutty coconut, and my usual scoop of mint chocolate chip.

I got up early this afternoon and ran my errands to the post office, the bank, then spent part of my Xmas gift certificate at Bed Bath & Beyond and got a new "quiet" hairdryer I'd been wanting. I played with it when I got home, it really is nice and quiet, though I'm wondering how fast it will dry my hair. It's one of those Ion dryers, which claims to have "the power of ionic energy reduces frizz, dulling and static to create a stunning hairstyle", I'll let you know ;-) I got a stack of nice wooden hangers also, I'm slowly trying to replace all the plastic ones I amassed while working in retail. I'm a closet freak anyway, any excuse to get closet and organization stuff and I'm there.

Then I drove to Whole Foods and found to my pleasure that my favorite bottled green tea was on sale and they actually had a bunch of it in stock, so I bought tons of it and also their Yerba Mate tea. The nice people at Clif Bar sent me one of their new Mojo bars in the mail yesterday so I bought some of them too. I usually prefer PowerBars, but the new Clif Bar flavors are actually salty instead of sweet. Most of my favorite salty snacks are a no-no on the Atkins Diet, so I thought these would be a decent trade off and maybe keep me from consuming half a box of Wheat Thins.

What other exciting things did I do today... oh yes, I stopped at yet another grocery store on the way home to pick up a bunch of prescriptions and some "real" food for dinner this week. I'm so pissed at myself, I had meant to call a bunch of refills in at the end of December so I wouldn't be slammed with a new co-pay from my overpriced insurance, and I forgot until the 31'st and the damn pharmacy closed early that day and I missed out. So I spent $100+ for four meds today and only about $25 of it went to my co-pay :-( My husband and I have only had individual insurance for about a year now, and it's really confusing, they didn't even pay for our physicals, "no preventative care" coverage, huh?? Of course we didn't find this out till the day we showed up and the nice lady at Kelsey-Seybold informed us of it . Oh well... Ebay claims they are going to launch some sort of health insurance for PowerSellers and their families next week, with my luck it will be with the same company. I'm not keeping my fingers crossed (though they're supposed to have dental also), but with all the money Powersellers hand over to eBay each month you'd think they'd offer us something decent.

What else, oh yes, I got a wild hair and ended up dumping all of my old nasty cooking ingredients and washing all my nice glass cannisters. I've got nothing left but white sugar. I was looking for a more convenient place to put all my bottled drinks than in the garage and realized I had a whole cabinet going to waste full of four year old flour and baking soda. One more thing to restock next time I go to the grocery store. I bake about once a year so it's about time I restocked. Now I need to work on replacing my ancient bottles of spices, they cost a lot more to replace, though.

Off to bed to read...

I try really hard to keep my life fairly simple, especially when it comes to clothing. I spent the majority of 2002 wearing basically the same pair of pants. Well, actually I had about 8 pairs of the same style. I am 5'1" with like a 28" inseam and have spent all of my life hemming pants to fit me. I'm also short-waisted so most misses pants hit me in the ribcage. Imagine my joy last year when I actually found comfortable and flattering all purpose black cotton knit pants that didn't drag on the ground. I found them at Old Navy, bought a few pairs in black and grey, took them home and wore them a few days, then went back and bought every pair they had left in my size. Needless to say after non-stop wearing (I do own some other pants that fit but none are near this comfy), they were beginning to show their age.

I had to make a visit to the nearest mall for packing supplies for Ebay (more of a shopping village really, no covered area to wander around), and next door to OfficeMax is an Old Navy. So knowing how retail seasons work, I decided to check and see if they had received any new Spring 2003 items, and eureka! They had just put several racks of my favorite pants out and they were actually on sale (well, by a dollar off at least). At the stores the hang tag says women's yoga capris, though I just checked on their website and they're listed as women's cropped yoga pants. They carry several other longer, wider legged "yoga" pants but these are nice and staight-legged. I used to wear a lot of wider legged pants, but make me look even shorter than I actually am and I'm tired of catching my shoe in the damn things and tripping.

(Click more to see my other favorite year round basics for picky & hard to fit people)

The pants are identical this year except for a minor improvement, the embroidered logo is in the same color as the pants, last year it was contrasting. So I snatched up five pairs in black and two in grey, and I even picked up two pairs in black one size smaller than I wore last year. They're a tiny bit tight in the thighs, but I thought they'd make nice leggings for around the house. I'll probably go back for a few more pairs of black in the larger size before they're all gone. Old Navy's seasonal clothing, especially anything in basic black, tends to have a very short shelf life.

I know all this sounds obsessive, but anyone who's hard to fit should consider my weird ideas. Since I wear mostly black and grey (OK, I have a few tees that are actual colors and not neutrals), even when I was working 9-5 no one actually noticed that I was basically wearing the same style pants almost every day. I also have favorite socks, there's no direct link to my favorite style which is Gold Toe's Morpul Slouch (get the ones that have a higher cotton content, the nylon/poly ones are itchy), which work as perfect knee highs for me, I have big calves from years of riding horses and later bodybuilding. This style keeps my legs warm without being too hot :-) Gold Toe also makes my favorite summer sock.

As boring as it sounds, I also have a favorite style of underwear, and I won't tell you how many pairs of them I bought when I found them ;-) They're also terrific for short waisted women and for anyone with sensitive skin because they have no seams and no elastic band. Believe me, being able to just reach into my closet and know that any pair of pants, socks or undies I grab will fit correctly and match whatever else I'm wearing is a huge luxury.

So I've gone through and bagged up most of my faded pants from last year to donate to charity. I used to hate to throw anything away, but now I actually enjoy tossing things. I have too much stuff I never wear or use, over the years I've either sold my extras on Ebay or given them to charity. I still have a lot of nice work clothing that I've kept "just in case", but most of my silk blouses went the way of Ebay.

I need to get a few more basic items before I run out of money so I can toss some more old faded & pilled tees, etc. I found several really excellent quality tees at a local "outdoorsy" store a few years ago (Wilderness something?) by Woolrich and Royal Robbins. (Hey, the long-sleeved Woolrich tee is on sale! Still no black, but I have the charcoal grey and it's gorgeous) I also got a nice oversized tee from Land's End and a wonderful nightgown, which is another weird picky subject for me. I don't want a bunch of scratchy lace, seams or buttons poking me while I'm trying to sleep. So that's my next shopping adventure, more nice tees and summer nighties.

Here's hoping 2003 is better than 2002. Of course, I said that last year too, and technically it was a better year I suppose. No one flew planes into any more buildings, but friends of ours lost their jobs, died, had surgery...

We stayed in this evening, watched a video (But I'm a Cheerleader, cute movie and my husband enjoyed all the lesbian stuff ;-), and we spent the rest of the evening watching the Insomniac marathon on Comedy Central. I still haven't seen the one where he came to Houston, but they did rerun the New Orleans episode, which we missed the first half of.

I made a White Russian with rum because I realized I had no vodka, I like rum better anyway. And I'll mix about anything with Kahlua, one of my favorite sickeningly sweet drinks is to mix Kahlua and Coke.

My husband and I stepped out on the porch at midnight and listened to the sound of gunfire (is that a Texas tradition or what??), saw a few real fireworks. I noticed later it seems really foggy outside, don't know if it's the weather or just gunpowder.

I got a little money for my birthday so I did a little online shopping this evening. Did a bit yesterday also, but more on that tomorrow. I'm really picky about most of the things I buy, especially things I use on a daily basis, so I bought my annual 2 Michael diCesare hairbrushes from QVC, I was going to buy some Joey New York eyeshadow too, but they charge way too much for shipping. QVC seems to have an exclusive on the hairbrushes, I found one at Neiman's or Sak's years ago and have been hooked ever since. I have long, fine, wavy hair and the oval cushion brush works like a charm. Warning, though, the bristles are a bit stiff for people with shorter hair, my husband can't use the thing, he claims it hurts. I have a sensitive scalp and it's fine for me, which is fine because I don't like sharing brushes.

I also bought some more of my favorite beef jerky, this guy is awesome, check him out. Since I'm "trying" to stick to low carbs and high protein eating, this is one of my favorite snacks. I've been eating way too much junk food lately, blame it on holiday stress.

Off to bed hopefully befor the dog wakes up and wants to get up and wander aimlessly again. We spent about 10 minutes out in the freezing cold earlier while she ambled to the farthest edges of the yard and then finally sat down and wouldn't get up so I had to put my shoes on and go get her. I wish I could pick her up and just carry her like my hubby does, but she's almost as big as me...