LTE 2.0

[windsor]

Just came home from Macy's. Full retail price of items purchased : $644. I paid $58. Clearance is my favorite word.

Wow, do you perform personal shopping services? I hate shopping. I can't stand the mall. I only have a Macy's card to buy Macy's gift cards for presents.

I actually HATE to shop (for clothing). The only thing I find tolerable about it is the game of paying as little as possible for an item. There is no way in hell I would give Macy's $90 for what is essentially and oxford button down. No way, No how. Macy's is particularly good, because their clearance mark downs are usually between 60%-75% - I download the 'wow' coupon good for another 15% off. That oxford shirt? $9. I shop alone (I have been described as a wolf stalking a deer) I only visit clearance racks in name brand stores. I know folks who have have gotten real deals at Ross/TJ Maxx et al but there is too much junk surrounding the jewels for my taste. I don't bother with most 'outlets' for the same reason - many times the stuff in the outlets is lesser quality, made just for outlet stores.

My office is business casual...I live in 'docker' type pants at work I found a particular brand that comes in Longs that fit me well. I own them in every color - with multiple pairs of black and navy (who knew but there is a huge difference between 'long' and 'tall' in many brands. Long generally is inseem only, tall assumes I am 5'10" and are larger all over causing an improper fit since I'm only 5'6" - I just have a 33" inseem, yes I am mutant) I buy them online.

I find it much easier to shop the dreaded mall if you only hit name brand stores (I like to say I buy good clothes cheap, not cheap clothes) the crap in most of the low price stores will fall apart after the third washing. As I said, I only visit the clearance racks...so I am in and out of the store in minutes if there is nothing exciting on sale. I shop Saturday evenings, after 6 - most malls are pretty empty then.

For the larger brands, know your size. Most manufacturers use the same basic patten, so if one Ralph Lauren top in size 8 fits, the odds are pretty good they all will. I don't have to try a lot of stuff on in the store. Knowing your size by brand also makes shopping online much easier.

My ultimate find of a lifetime...seveal years ago I found a classic tailored blazer in slate grey. 100% silk. Original price - was $290. It is my favorite $25 piece of clothing, ever.

[DevilAlumna]

For the larger brands, know your size. Most manufacturers use the same basic patten, so if one Ralph Lauren top in size 8 fits, the odds are pretty good they all will. I don't have to try a lot of stuff on in the store. Knowing your size by brand also makes shopping online much easier.

I used to have this down (size 12 Talbots was the perfect fit), but post-pregnancy, despite having gotten down to 5 lbs. below where I was when I got pregnant, my body shape has totally not returned to the way it was before. It looks like Ann Taylor Loft size 12 is about right, but I don't have a large enough sample size to confirm. Eddie Bauer has an outlet (not the fake "outlet" line, but an honest to goodness place where regular store clothes get centralized and marked down) a mile from my house, so they get most of my business, but their sizing is atrociously variable.

[DevilAlumna]

My office is business casual...I live in 'docker' type pants at work I found a particular brand that comes in Longs that fit me well. I own them in every color - with multiple pairs of black and navy

Have I mentioned I love working in the engineering side of the 'Borg house? Jeans are perfectly and totally acceptable day in and day out! (Though I try and only wear them 1-2x/week.) When I was in marketing/product management, khakis were the bare minimum in casual. Black pants/skirts were nearly the required uniform (guys can get away with dressy jeans as long as they've got a nice collared shirt and leather shoes.) As you probably are well aware, black clothes + short, light dog hair is NOT a good combination.

[Miles]

Friday the 13th came and went without much annoyance at all. Saturday the 14th and Sunday the 15th kicked my ass.

We had plans this weekend to have friends over to help us clean up the back yard and then enjoy some burgers on the grill. Five quickly turned to three, which lasted half a day Saturday leaving just Kelly and me. Our weed eater died, so we borrowed Kelly's father's weed eater. It lasted 2 minutes before it died. So I drove to my buddy Jeff's house to borrow his. Ninety minutes later we're racing Soleil to the vet after her meeting with a copperhead. After returning home with Soleil and grieving a little, I got back to work tiptoeing through the weeds, constantly watching for snakes. An hour into that, the weed eater runs out of trimmer line. So I put that aside and walk through the yard collecting sticks and preparing for Sunday's work.

Made a quick trip to Lowe's this AM to buy some trimmer line. It took about 45 minutes to get the spool off the trimmer and back on, only to discover that the bump advancer was broken. I took it apart, cleaned it, rewound and it was just wouldn't advance. I switched the feed direction, sacrificed a chicken, did a rain dance, gave the weed eater some vibes and it still wouldn't work. So I used it for 5 minutes, then would stop and manually pull the trimmer line out. It didn't take for me to realize that just wasn't going to work so I went back to Lowe's looking for a replacement spool. Came home, and promptly stripped the main bolt for the shaft while trying to mount the new spool. That makes two weed eaters in 24 hours I've killed. So much for trying to save a little money and borrow a weed eater, now it looks like I'm buying three new ones!

I also bent the frame on my lawn mower, but that was easily fixed with a hammer and some rage (I had a little stored up). Our one day, five person project ended in essentially a two day, one man project. I discovered countless rocks and small boulders, sometimes stacked in a long line, other times just piled up around something for no apparent reason. There are small craters everywhere, and a dozen hidden small tree trunks, just enough obstacles to make mowing a complete pain in the ass and it even makes weed eating a big challenge. All of this on a sloping grade that already makes it difficult to operate a mower. It is beyond humbling to begin a project and to quickly find yourself under water and having to scale back your plans (in order to save your freaking life)! Adding insult to injury, the main motivation for this project was to clear out the high weeds so we could make the yard safer for our dogs.

On the plus side: we uncovered a massive boulder, which will serve as the focal point in the new yard design and I got one helluva workout.

We cancelled the BBQ.

I'm glad it's over.

[Lavabe]

On the bright side, Miles, ... you did well in Fantasy NASCAR this week.

[Miles]

On the bright side, Miles, ... you did well in Fantasy NASCAR this week.

Ha! That did make me happy so your post is spot on.

I caught the last 50 of the race after all the yard work, I should've added that to the list of all the bad things that happened this weekend. What a snooze fest.

The cool thing is that Kelly has shown some interest, or at least more tolerance so I'm able to watch more races. She, like me, really enjoys when they "Crank It Up". I wish they would hold a few cameras longer, but for me, that part of racing is the purest sport on television. No announcers screwing it up, just raw, bad ass power and skill. In HD, with surround is amazing.

[Very Duke Blue]

Our facebook link is now supereasy to find.
http://www.facebook.com/crazietalk.net

Very cool.

[captmojo]

Friday the 13th came and went without much annoyance at all. Saturday the 14th and Sunday the 15th kicked my ass.

We had plans this weekend to have friends over to help us clean up the back yard and then enjoy some burgers on the grill. Five quickly turned to three, which lasted half a day Saturday leaving just Kelly and me. Our weed eater died, so we borrowed Kelly's father's weed eater. It lasted 2 minutes before it died. So I drove to my buddy Jeff's house to borrow his. Ninety minutes later we're racing Soleil to the vet after her meeting with a copperhead. After returning home with Soleil and grieving a little, I got back to work tiptoeing through the weeds, constantly watching for snakes. An hour into that, the weed eater runs out of trimmer line. So I put that aside and walk through the yard collecting sticks and preparing for Sunday's work.

Made a quick trip to Lowe's this AM to buy some trimmer line. It took about 45 minutes to get the spool off the trimmer and back on, only to discover that the bump advancer was broken. I took it apart, cleaned it, rewound and it was just wouldn't advance. I switched the feed direction, sacrificed a chicken, did a rain dance, gave the weed eater some vibes and it still wouldn't work. So I used it for 5 minutes, then would stop and manually pull the trimmer line out. It didn't take for me to realize that just wasn't going to work so I went back to Lowe's looking for a replacement spool. Came home, and promptly stripped the main bolt for the shaft while trying to mount the new spool. That makes two weed eaters in 24 hours I've killed. So much for trying to save a little money and borrow a weed eater, now it looks like I'm buying three new ones!

I also bent the frame on my lawn mower, but that was easily fixed with a hammer and some rage (I had a little stored up). Our one day, five person project ended in essentially a two day, one man project. I discovered countless rocks and small boulders, sometimes stacked in a long line, other times just piled up around something for no apparent reason. There are small craters everywhere, and a dozen hidden small tree trunks, just enough obstacles to make mowing a complete pain in the ass and it even makes weed eating a big challenge. All of this on a sloping grade that already makes it difficult to operate a mower. It is beyond humbling to begin a project and to quickly find yourself under water and having to scale back your plans (in order to save your freaking life)! Adding insult to injury, the main motivation for this project was to clear out the high weeds so we could make the yard safer for our dogs.

On the plus side: we uncovered a massive boulder, which will serve as the focal point in the new yard design and I got one helluva workout.

We cancelled the BBQ.

I'm glad it's over.

After all this, I'd bet that your luck would improve with that backyard if you could employ a certain ugly, light-up Santa face in that backyard. It should be enough to scare away all the snakes and other evil spirits.

Buy yourself a high-powered Echo brand weedeater. It'll pay off in the long run.

[bjornolf]

Just got back from Disney World, and man am I wiped.

[Very Duke Blue]

Bud's pc died. It wont even boot up. No power. I'm glad I got it at Costco. I'll be taking it back.

[OZZIE4DUKE]

Bud's pc died. It wont even boot up. No power. I'm glad I got it at Costco. I'll be taking it back.

You have 90 days (or a little more if you're persuasive ) for them to replace it. They did provide a 2 year warranty with their Concierge assistance if it's beyond the replacement period.

[OZZIE4DUKE]

Bud's pc died. It wont even boot up. No power. I'm glad I got it at Costco. I'll be taking it back.

Not to be snarky, but make sure it's plugged in at both ends of the cord. Sometimes the cord at the PC end comes loose for no apparent reason And if it's on a power strip or UPS, which it should be, make sure it is turned on and providing power to the plugs.

[windsor]

Bud's pc died. It wont even boot up. No power. I'm glad I got it at Costco. I'll be taking it back.

Not to be snarky, but make sure it's plugged in at both ends of the cord. Sometimes the cord at the PC end comes loose for no apparent reason And if it's on a power strip or UPS, which it should be, make sure it is turned on and providing power to the plugs.

listen for the fan to spin up...if it doesn't and its plugged in its the power supply...if the fan spins up but nothing else happens...play taps over it

[YmoBeThere]

Bud's pc died. It wont even boot up. No power. I'm glad I got it at Costco. I'll be taking it back.

Not to be snarky, but make sure it's plugged in at both ends of the cord. Sometimes the cord at the PC end comes loose for no apparent reason And if it's on a power strip or UPS, which it should be, make sure it is turned on and providing power to the plugs.

listen for the fan to spin up...if it doesn't and its plugged in its the power supply...if the fan spins up but nothing else happens...play taps over it

Well, it could just be the motherboard in that case...

[ArkieDukie]

One of the new members of the SEC had to pull some shirts touting their new conference affiliation from the market. The reason? The map was drawn incorrectly; it included North Carolina rather than Missouri. The school in question? Texas A&M. (I think there's an Aggie joke in there somewhere.)

http://espn.go.com/college-sports/story ... -sec-teams

[Miles]

One of the new members of the SEC had to pull some shirts touting their new conference affiliation from the market. The reason? The map was drawn incorrectly; it included North Carolina rather than Missouri. The school in question? Texas A&M. (I think there's an Aggie joke in there somewhere.)

http://espn.go.com/college-sports/story ... -sec-teams

That's awesome.

[Miles]

So I've been nursing a minor hiking-related injury for about two years. I developed a blister in my heal that eventually led to a cracked heal. Part of my treatment is to soak my foot for thirty minutes in hot water with mineral salts. It's really nice to wake up to every morning. I highly recommend it.

[CathyCA]

I just entered a contest to have dinner with George Clooney at his home.

I am going to win.

[ArkieDukie]

I just entered a contest to have dinner with George Clooney at his home.

I am going to win.

Ooh - where, where? I want to enter! I'm sure Bostondevil will want to enter, too.

[Lavabe]

Oh hey... they're having an Olympics this year!!