Cups and Padding and Wires, oh my!

I went bra shopping today. As in, that was the sole purpose of the trip to the store. A store which specializes in underthings!

My current bras, two identical except for the color, were purchased at Target umpteen years ago and have never really fit me right. Oh, they’re comfortable enough, but the cups always had a little extra room in them and lately they are noticeably lacking in support. Which is saying something because I am relatively small chested (and that’s how I like it). Even Krystal has been saying I need new bras. When your flat chested 12 year old makes a comment about it….

So off to the lingerie store we went! I marched right up to the woman with a measuring tape around her neck and asked if it were possible to get a bra fitting.

“Of course!” she responded and we whisked into the dressing room for a quick measure.

She brought me one bra, then two, then six and I tried them all on. Only one was uncomfortable, so that was an easy no. Another had a strap too thick for my taste, so that went in the no pile too. A third was really pretty….but the cups were a little too see through. No thanks.

I bought one slightly padded bra. I don’t like padded bras as a rule, but the sales woman, and my daughter, both insisted, and it was comfortable, and it did  look really nice under my shirt….so I bought it. I got three others too – all different styles. They all fit well in the cup area, and support is right up there (ha, get it?).

I definitely spent more than I would have at Target, but I doubt I would have walked out as satisfied with my purchase. Sometimes you really do need some service.

Now to throw out these old bras!

Running for Kids

I’m a runner.

I’m a Disney fan.

My family has been touched by cancer in a very big way.

In January I’m going to put all those together as I run the Walt Disney World Half Marathon as a member of the Inaugural GKTW Charity Team.

 

Give Kids the World Village is an amazing place in Central Florida which grants wishes to critically ill children and their families. As they say at GKTW, it’s all about a week of YES’s.  I invite you to check out what they do!

I would be honored if you would sponsor me as I work to meet my fundraising goal. Visit this link if you’re so inclined to do so – any amount is appreciated!! And if you can’t right now, I still invite you to follow along as I might talk about my training efforts here. It’s been a long time since I’ve run this far!

Here is what your donation can do…

$25 says YES to unlimited ice cream served in the Ice Cream Palace for an entire week for one family. Imagine! Ice cream for breakfast! And the only hard part is choosing between a cone, cup, sundae, or banana split!

$50 says YES to a welcome basket for one family. Each basket includes milk, juice, and snacks in the fridge and gifts including an autograph book for the kids to capture signatures of their favorite characters.

$75 says YES to the Gift-giving Fairy who delivers gifts to each child in the family, every day of their stay. Stuffed animals, DVD’s, games, souvenirs, and more – all the things that make a child’s face light up with joy.

$100 says YES to Christmas every Thursday, complete with visits from Santa, horse-drawn carriage rides, and yes, even snow in Florida!

50 Lashes with a wet noodle!

Just a quick note to myself, mostly. What a bad blogger I have been! Too bad too, since I have so many half written and AWESOME posts in my head.

Sure, that’s what they all say.

 

Dog Poop

Yes, I really do want to talk about dog poop!

So we have three dogs. I don’t talk about them much, do I? Dexter is my favorite –  he just turned six. Tessie will be 5 this summer (she was the first one we got – also my least favorite), and Ruby will be 4 in June. I call them my chocolate, vanilla, strawberry dogs as Dex is black, Tessie is white/cream and Ruby is Irish-setter-red.

We live in a dense little neighborhood with about a third of an acre of “land”. It’s not “land” per se, just a little swatch our house sits on. In the back I have used garden fencing and created a roughly 10×10 area for the dogs to do their thing in. You know – peeing and pooping.

But after four years and 3 dogs using it for this purpose, this little area has lost nearly all of its grass (such as it was) and it’s now, especially at this time of year, a patch of mud. Which gets tracked into the house everytime the dogs come back in and makes me oh-so-happy. No, not really.

So I need to do something to that space. But what?

Planting grass is really not an option. It would take too long to grow (and the dogs would have to be pottied elsewhere while it did) and then as soon as the dogs had access again it would be ruined. Poor baby grass.

So I’m thinking of an alternative surface. I’ve done some Googling, thank-you-very-much and I see recommendations for pea gravel, concrete, mulch/wood chips and artificial turf made specifically for pets. Anyone done anything like this, or know anything about it?

• Pea gravel seems to be the most recommended but will the dogs actually “go” on it?
• Concrete seems too rough on their feet, and ugly to boot.
• Mulch/wood chips seem like they would be tough to keep clean.
• The stuff marketed for pets is a maybe…but pricey.

If you have dogs who use a small portion of your yard for their business, what do you do about that surface as it deteriorates over time?

Well hello there!

Happy New Year!

Oh, how trite!

I have neglected this blog of late in favor of my travelogue blog on our recent trip to China (which was AMAZING, by the way)!. If you wanted to read it and didn’t, email me (or comment) and I’ll send you the blog address. Real names and other identifying info is included so I am not linking to it here. And be forewarned, it’s looooonngg!

And I realized that I have very different “voices” when I write!

On my China blog I was almost always upbeat, full of details and always excited with plenty to say. Over here I tend to be more….introspective, and my tone generally comes out more morose. I guess both people are “me”, but I sure like the one on the other blog better!

Lots going on in our little world – updates later!

How’s your year starting off?

Aftermath

I made it through NaBloPoMo! I posted everyday in November and it wasn’t even that difficult once I set my mind to it. I did pre-write a few posts and schedule them for publication on days I knew I would be busy, but that’s allowed, right?

I also am here to tell you about my 24 hours with SC over the weekend.

Not only am I still standing, but I’m happy. It was our first face-to-face in over a year and we got a lot of talking done. Good talk, some hard talk, but all necessary. I have loved this man in some form or another since I was 26 years old. Almost half my life (omg – I didn’t see it that way till I just typed that!). Of course I’ve loved others during that time too, and he certainly wasn’t on my mind every day or even every year the 20 years we went without contact. But two years go when the first contact from him hit my email inbox I had a physical reaction to seeing his name after all that time. It’s him, it’s always been him.

And we are trying again. We are both happy about it. I do worry about the distance between us (over 300 miles) and the many competing obligations we both have. But we ain’t getting any younger and he sounds ready. Let’s see the proof, SC.

A title escapes me

I am going to see SC tomorrow. It will be the first time we’ve seen each other in over a year.

I don’t know what will be the outcome of our visit. Whether we will decide on more visits, or whether we will decide that we can’t keep things up/start things up the way our lives are right now, despite what we might ultimately want. But I am looking forward to finding out, either way.

Pick a Number – stolen idea

I am an avid reader of several blogs. Most of them are written by regular people, like me, probably like you. But some of them are written by “famous” people.

One of those blogs is written by Dale McGowan, a man I first “met” via a podcast he was a guest on about 5 years ago. I started following his blog and have purchased his books. He is a man I admire greatly.

He posted something last week that he says is a rerun, but I must have missed it the first time around because it’s new to me. And I absolutely ADORE this idea.

In a nutshell, in case you don’t feel like clicking through, it’s a way to tell stories about your own life to your children. Have them pick a number (age), and then tell them a story about something that happened to you at that age.

I love this for the window it will give my kids to my life (and am curious about the ages they might pick the first few times). I also love it for the creative juices it will inspire in me.

I can’t wait to try it – tonight!

Coffee anyone?

My whole life I haven’t been a coffee drinker. More than that, I’ve even begged off hot drinks in general, save for the occasional hot chocolate or chai latte (till I saw the calorie counts that is!).

I strongly dislike coffee ice cream and I don’t care for desserts with a coffee flavor of any kind – mocha – pphht! (that’s me stinking out my tongue in disgust)

And yet….now I drink 2-3 cups of coffee most days. How did this happen?

I blame it all on 2 things: a Keurig and flavored creamer.

About 3 years ago I got suckered by consumerism and bought a mini Keurig when it was both on sale at my local Kohl’s and I had a 30% off coupon. I figured we could make non-coffee drinks in it, and it would be nice to be able to offer visitors a cup of real coffee on occasion.

I quickly found out the selection of non-coffee K-cups is very limited and we exhausted those very quickly. The Keurig went into hibernation for awhile, clearing up counter space.

Then we spent a week a friends out of state. As often happens with me away from home I had trouble “going” if you know what I mean. We are good enough friends that I could share that with her, and she suggested coffee. Knowing I don’t care for the taste, she suggested I douse it with some of her flavored creamer.

Wow, was that a good cup of coffee! (it got results too!)

That was about two years ago and my repertoire has expanded considerably.

I don’t “need” coffee, but I like the ritual, and I like having something to do and hold if I am at my daughter’s soccer game, for instance. I don’t really know how to order it at Dunkin Donuts to get what I want though. I also don’t seem to feel the caffeine. Is that weird?

I still don’t like coffee flavored anything, and if I don’t have plenty of creamer I don’t like my cup of coffee either. Maybe you could say I’m actually a creamer drinker. But somehow that just sounds weird.

 

Kitty Woes

Poor Everest!

Our kitty wasn’t acting right. He was hiding from us and not eating. Totally unlike our little social butterfly.

Krystal swore something was on his back and after a day I had to agree. I saw a gaping wound on his rump and knew he needed a vet.

Over $400 later this is our guy. I feel like the worst pet owner ever.