Won't Stop the Puffer

Ski Barbie Revisited--Sunday, 3/6/16

Does the blog name Pursuit of Preppiness say it all?

Well, in any case, when I saw the combination of bright pink puffy vest and pink striped shirt, it was a no-brainer that this was a late-winter weekend combination waiting to happen.

From pursuit-of-preppiness.tumblr.com

So apparently I meant to wear this with my olive green pullover sweater, but misread my own notes and added the lime-olive sweater vest instead.  But I liked the result because the cheerful striped shirt got more attention (and it was far from being so cold that I needed that much bundling anyway).  I did keep things a little less on the maximal effect side by wearing a simple beaded choker necklace instead of a super-sparkly crystal number.  (Though I did repeat the stripes by wearing striped flats with it, so I can't claim to have gone subtle here at all.)

Pink/purple/green striped button up shirt (thrifted, Bass), $0.57/wear
Lime-olive sweater vest (thrifted, Liz Claiborne), $1.50/wear
Bright pink puffy vest (thrifted, Casual Corner), $0.40/wear
Bootcut jeans (thrifted, Kohls), $1.00/wear
Green/brown bead necklace by RB+
Pink/tan/black striped flats (Payless), $4.00/wear

Outfit total: $7.47/wear

In other news...It's time for another short book review.

Storm Front by John Sanford

This another Minnesota redneck mystery novel, but I can't recommend it as a mystery.  I mean, it starts out promisingly enough in the mystery arena when someone steals an ancient relic from an archaeological dig (and our investigator recognizes the whole Am I suddenly in the Da Vinci Code? goofy aspect of that).  And after that, there are culprits and investigators chasing the culprits (albeit in a slow, drawn-out fashion) and many markers of the general "mystery" format, but that all seems almost beside the point.  It's pretty much a bust as a mystery/thriller.

The redeeming virtue of the story is the dialogue between our redneck investigator and the Israeli art squad agent, who spend a lot of time traveling across Minnesota by car.

Here's a taste.  Earlier, the Israeli woman had been giving Virgil a hard time about Minnesota being so rural/unsophisticated/etc.

She sat up and smacked her lips.  "My mouth tastes like a hoopoe has been roosting in it."

"A what?"

"A hoopoe.  It's our national bird."

"Ah," Virgil said.  "Minnesota's state bird is the rotisserie chicken."

"A chicken?"

"It's because we're a rural state," Virgil said.  "You know, the politicians have to please the farmers."

"I'll have to look them up, these chickens," Yael said.  "If you see one, point it out."

"I'll do that," Virgil said.

A hoopoe (source: Wikipedia.com)

Virgil and his boss, who takes the hands off management style to new levels, also get into it sometimes when he calls in with updates on the case.

"Sounds like you've got a conundrum," Davenport said.

"Really?  I thought it was a clusterfuck," Virgil said.

Virgil also mixes it up with some CIA people he "suspects are joking" about attaching electrical wires to someone's testicles and who are "a lot smarter than those Homeland Security people" ("We know.  What do you want?").

Virgil also engages in a courtship of sorts with a sorta hot, surprisingly high IQ yokel called Ma.  This relationship is also characterized by amusing repartee.

If that's the kind of thing that appeals to you in any way, you've come to the right place.