Tall Pajamas on the Cheap

It's tough being a guy who wears a size medium pajamas but has very long legs.  Robert has a few pairs of PJ pants that weren't very long to begin with and after being dried a few times are now "Urkel in high-water pants" short.  This is particularly painful for a man from Texas, a place where Lyle Lovett's admonition to "buy your pants just a little longer" is commonly-heeded advice.  Put such a man in such pants in the frozen north when winter is coming and it's not a happy thing.  Something had to be done.

Most clothiers assume that if you're tall, you're also "big."  The only flannel PJs pants I could find that come in a Tall Medium are at Lands End for $44 a pair.  Even with Land Ends's 30% off sales, that's still $31 for a pair of pajama bottoms.

So I decided to try extending a pair of Robert's too-short PJ pants with additional fabric at the end of the legs.  My supply of fabric that is compatible with plaid flannel is, let us say, extremely limited to the point of non-existent.  But I did have an old pair of navy blue sweatpants that were in good condition but that I just hated wearing and I only kept with my fabric stash because I thought that people in Snow City might come to find a use for this warm fabric.  This was prophetic on my part.  (Perhaps not as prophetic as playing the word VOMIT with my mom in Words with Friends minutes before her cat started vomiting, but also much less gross.)

In about 30 minutes (15 minutes of which involved transforming my job search space into a sewing space), I had finished the job.  One great thing about knit fabrics like this is that they don't unravel, so I didn't even bother hemming them.  Robert tried them on and we found that yes, they are now Texan-in-Snow-City compatible.

You can still see the tailor's chalk at the bottom, but it'll wash off.

He might not wear these PJs to walk to the corner store to buy Honey Nut Cheerios*, but they should be just fine for sleeping and lounging about doing a crossword puzzle on a Sunday morning.  I actually think they look kind of cool with the low-contrast band at the bottom.

*I started to post a link to the YouTube video of this scene from The Wire, but instead I will tell you -- if you have not watched this show, what are you waiting for?  Life is too short, people.

My First Direct Effect of the Shutdown

In preparation for a state job interview tomorrow, I just now went to the web site that hosts the federal survey data that is used heavily in the position I'm interviewing for, and I got the message that the site is down due to the lapse of appropriations and the partial shutdown of the federal government.

Thanks, Republican Congressmen!

I had looked briefly at this site a couple months ago when I applied for the job, so the survey content is not completely unfamiliar to me, but still.

Still Feeling Summery

I'm still trying to wear my new clothes, including digging into the closet for some thrifted summer items that I hadn't yet worn (time is definitely running out).

Summery Beige

It's very easy to find nice knee-length (or slightly longer) summer-weight cotton, somewhat full skirts (usually with a thin cotton lining) at Goodwill.  I bought several this summer, and didn't wear all of them.  I like the hot-pink detailing on this skirt, which I had to match with my beige shoes with hot-pink contrast stitching.  This shrug I bought at Target has turned out to be a real workhorse, which surprises me.  And check out this Germany-trip pendant.

Is that a cheerful-looking frog, or what?

New items:
*"Hot coral" t-shirt from Target
*Full skirt with leaves (thifted, Target brand)
*Germany frog pendant

A Darker Look

I like this dress--it has pretty black detailing stitching around the hem and around the neck, but the armholes are gigantic enough that you can see my bra from the side (it has flutter sleeves).  So I decided to wear it like a skirt underneath a cardigan.  I have often seen people recommend belting a cardigan, but it always looked wrong and felt uncomfortable when I tried it.  However, I like the way it worked here.  I think a lot of that is because I am using a wide belt that is elastic for most of the distance around, so it's not so stiff, and because it's the same color as the cardigan, the look is not so severe.  Robert said that the top looked Grecian (due to how I folded over this non-closure sweater).

New items:
*Blue dress (thifted, Target brand)
*Black belt from Target
*Black Mary Janes from Hush Puppies--I bought these to replace my old pair of black Hush Puppies Mary Janes that didn't fit quite right anymore.  The idea of Sally without black Mary Jane shoes is unthinkable.  Almost as inconceivable as Sally without an olive green military-style jacket.

Flower Power #1

New items:
*Flower sleeveless tank (already forgot where I got it)
*Purple shrug from Target

Dressed for a Walk

I knew I needed to dress cool when Robert and I walked to the library and the new Whole Foods because it was over 80 degrees.  (I actually changed into a pair of olive sneakers for our walk, but wore these pretty, completely flat Chinese Mary Janes that have no support around the house because I could not resist how their shimmery quality matched the shirt.)

New item:
*Olive knit shirt (thifted, Chico's "Traveler" series)

Flower Power #2

Yep, another lightweight cotton skirt from Goodwill.  We're expecting a cold front later in the week, so I need to wear my really summery stuff now.  Today it's supposed to be warm and I'm going to be sewing this afternoon, which means having a bunch of warm lights on in my office--this often overheats me so sleeveless is the way to go.  (On and off today I've been wearing it with that same black cardigan I had on in the blue dress photo.)  I started to wear this with a pink shirt, but I'm feeling a bit burned out on bright pink right now.  I love how the shoes have black and pink detailing to match the skirt.  Note that I am not actually wearing pink hose today despite the appearance of such in this photo.

New items:
*Flowery skirt (thifted, Kohl's brand)
*Black sleeveless shirt (thifted, not willing to take it off right now to see the brand)

I also discovered this week that it's a pain in the ass to have only two white t-shirts.  Finding white t-shirts that are not so sheer as to require a camisole underneath is oddly difficult, and I refuse to wear a camisole under a frickin' t-shirt--that's just ridiculous.  I mean, I basically don't buy stuff that requires a camisole even for wearing to work.  I've ordered several different ones to try out, and so far have had luck with one I got on sale from Nordstrom.  We'll see if any of the ones from Macy's work out.

Random Internet Reading Acts

Robert does this too, and it always strikes me as peculiar when I see him do it.  Seeing this comic, I was like, Wait, this is a thing?  I don't know that he has a preference regarding the resulting shape, however.

From xkcd.

New Whole Foods

The Whole Foods they've been building down the street from me (about 4.5 blocks) opened last weekend, and today, Robert and I stopped in to check it out.

They had your normal WF type stuff.  I was happy that they had grass-fed beef at the meat counter (both ground beef and stew-meat-style chunks) and bought some ground beef to eat this week.  I purchased 3 different types of dark chocolate (~70%) to test out because they did not have either of my normal two brands.  I did not see any flaxseed oil, which surprised me -- I guess we'll still be going to Lund's for that.

There were two happy surprises, too.

First, they sell a rotisserie chicken that does not have lemon or other Sally-incompatible ingredients.  I bought one and ate half of it for dinner, with my hands.  At one point, I said, Robert, look, does this look paleo or what?  And intending to chomp down like an animal on the drumstick, I bit my own finger -- yikes, that hurts.  It was not the very best rotisserie chicken in the world, but it was certainly good enough, especially when you eat it with the skin.  (I know, it's crazy--of all the aspects of a neo-paleo diet, I think eating animal fat in that way is the one that most sets of my "but wait, this can't be healthy!" feelings that have been formed by growing up in the age of low-fat mania.)

Second, their bakery had an astonishingly beautiful array of pastries, and my favorites were the tiny little cupcakes, tarts, etc.  (Robert pointed out the ones that looked like tiny little coffee cups made out of chocolate, filled with a frothy "frappe," and I was like, Awwwwwwwwww.)  But I felt about them like I feel about looking at a display of flowers -- they look so pretty but they don't feel like food.  The idea of eating one was not only not particularly tempting or motivating, but actually seemed a bit weird.  I was not especially hungry at that moment, but (1) that's never stopped me from wanting pastry in the past and (2) other food in the store did look appealing.  I guess I've been not eating that stuff long enough to way ramp down my "Oh my god that has frosting on it nom" reaction.

I think it's going to be fantastic having the WF down the street.  It's close enough to be super convenient when you need something (esp. those times I haven't prepared anything in advance and am coming upon dinner time with no good idea of what I'm eating) but not so terribly convenient that I think I will go there on a whim; I think 4.5 blocks (9 blocks round-trip) is far enough that my laziness will win out most of the time.

I tried the Theo chocolate this evening; it was good, and I found that 2 squares was plenty.  I am hoping that I will easily establish the habit of taking 2 squares, instead of the 4 on the package, as the amount to eat in one sitting.  It's funny---when I was eating Ghirardelli, I always ate 3, then later, 4 squares, and even though I wanted to cut back to 2 squares, I just couldn't do it.  But once when the store was out of Ghirardelli, and so I got Lindt's, I had no problem taking 2 squares.  2 squares clearly looked like "enough" chocolate (and the size of the squares are basically the same for the two brands), but my ingrained habit of taking more squares was just too strong when facing my normal brand.  I don't think there's anything wrong, per se, with eating 4 squares of chocolate, but it's more than I need/fully enjoy having at one time, and I'd rather have 2 squares with the idea that I can always have another serving later if I want to.

Progress and Frustration

After a relative dearth of relevant job listings, today I found several that were...well, if not promising exactly, not ridiculously inappropriate and with a halfway reasonable chance of me seeing a response.  I applied to five jobs, which felt pretty good.

It would have been six jobs, but the best one was very annoying in the manner that Debbie recently described on her blog -- I went from the job listing site to the company site to the specific job posting page to the page where you can start your application.  And when I tried to do the application, it took me to a new screen stating that the job is no longer open.  When I had seen that the job posting was active (i.e., when I went to the company site and the specific job posting, it opened up the page to start the application), I had customized my resume, so even though I did not have the full time-waster experience it sounded like Debbie did (where it let her input all her information, then informed her that the job was closed), it was definitely a time waster nonetheless.  How fucking hard is it for the company's HR department / IT department / whoever to make sure that when the job is closed that the web site does not allow you to click into the opening and start your application?  Of course, this is the same employer that a couple weeks ago let me apply for a job and then almost immediately sent me an automated email that the job was filled.  Note that this did not stop the job from being open on their site for days afterward.  (I'm not willing to check, but my guess is that it's still up on their site.)

UPDATE:  I just got an another job alert email with that open-but-closed job listed and clicked through; yep, it's still active on the company web site.  Nice.

New Shiny

I've worn some more of my new items this week.

Friday

On a somewhat warmer day, I paired a new-new t-shirt with a shrug that I purchased a couple months ago.

New items:
*Striped shirt from Kohl's
*Shrug from Target

But what's that hanging around my neck?

An owl pendant that I purchased...during our family trip to Germany in 2001 and I had not (I believe) worn before now.  I found it when I was digging around in a box with some old costume jewelry in it, and I am glad to have rediscovered it (and its two comrades from the same trip).

Saturday

The Alice t-shirt makes its first showing.  It's awesome, and fits well, except the V-neck is too deep to wear without a camisole (or, as I did here, with a sports bra).  Sort of annoying.

I was also feeling pretty crappy that day, so the grumpy Alice really fit my mood.

New items:
*Alice t-shirt from Out of Print
*Cardigan from Macy's

Sunday I wore a variant a previously posted outfit.

Monday

I took advantage of a phone interview in the morning as an excuse to dress up a bit again, this time in a blouse that Robert calls the Snow Leopard.  I'm loving these animal prints.

New items:
*Animal print blouse from Jones New York

Today (Tuesday), I wore the green vine skirt outfit again, only without the cardigan because it was a sunny, and hence quite warm, day in my apartment.