Hercules Grapples With a Common Question

Confused about this issue, Hercules the clueless clownfish asks a mermaid.

She has demonstrated herself time and again to be a caring, patient person, so it's not unreasonable that Hercules approaches her first.  (But it's too bad that he is asking about this of woman who is a bit on the over-protective side who is also a being without any obvious reproductive organs.)

He tries very hard to make sense of this response.  (Confused Hercules is freakin' adorable.)

This line of thought takes him nowhere, so he branches out and asks others about the origins of babies.  Really not helpful, guys.

Cue rimshot.

Now here's a piece of information from a shark that's both true and potentially enlightening...

but Hercules attempts to understand it in light of the other disinformation he's received.

Oh, Hercules -- you should have asked Sally!

THE END

And More New Stuff

Red, White, and Blue #1

I wanted to try out this mixed-media shirt I bought from Nordstrom that is a drapey woven material in the front and a knit in the back.  (Is this a shirt version of a mullet?  Business in the front, a party in the back?)  Despite the modern shirt, the overall look appears to be from the 1950's.  That's OK.

New items:
*Red mixed-media shirt from Nordstrom
*Blue cotton skirt (thrifted, Old Navy)

But I quickly got too cold and had to add a thrifted cotton blazer (Old Navy).

Blurry Olive and Cream

This is a terrible photo of an outfit that I liked a lot -- the textures of the sweater and skirt were interesting.  (Not sure why I'm so shaky when I try to take my photo sometimes but it leads to really bad photos.)

New items:
*Cream wool-and-lace sweater from Nordstrom (on sale for $30!)
*Embroidered olive cotton skirt (thrifted)

Apres Interview

When I got home from my interview on Friday, I left on the shirt and jewelry I was wearing and just put on other clothes to go with them.

New item:
*Flowery blouse from Kohl's

When I got (inevitably) chilled in short sleeves, I added the cream lace cardigan.  (I love this thing.)

Burst of Color

It had been two days in neutrals, so it was time to get colorful again.

New item:
*Flowery peasant blouse (thrifted, Old Navy)

And you can already see this coming, right?  I added a cardigan.

Red, White, and Blue #2

My new t-shirts from Lands End arrived, and viola, not see-through.

New item:
*White t-shirt from Lands End

But I didn't even pretend for a minute that I wasn't going to need more coverage for warmth's sake; it was rainy and chilly this weekend.  Back to the Sally stand-by "Add Cardigan and Scarf" formula.

Leopard Goodness

I am crazy about leopard print, and today I finally wore my new leopard cardigan.  I had tried so many different ones, but this one (despite having a crew neck, not my preferred neckline on a cardigan) was tops.  (And yes, I like leopard and maroon together.)

New items:
*Leopard print cardigan from Lands End
*Black buckle flats from Nordstrom (Me Too brand; these are the sisters of the red flats I've been wearing)

I did not bother photographing this, but in an amusing inversion of the week's pattern, during the middle of the afternoon, the sun was out and it got warm enough in the apartment that I removed the cardigan and cranked up the A/C.  About 45 minutes later it was cool enough to put the cardigan back on, unbuttoned (though really, I would have been perfectly comfortable without it, I wanted to wear it, damn it!).

In other wardrobe-related news, I started working on an outfit database in Access this afternoon with the thought that it would be nice later to be able to do a search on different colors (e.g. red and blue), individual items (e.g. Lands End leopard cardigan), etc., and retrieve photos of outfits meeting these criteria.  I haven't used Access in its last couple incarnations, so I thought that this would also be a possibly helpful refresh/update of my skills.  I put the tables together easily, and the part that I expected to be harder (incorporating the photos) turned out to be very straightforward in Access 2010.  But man, it's been a while since I've made a form and the interface feels different from what I remember.  Tomorrow I'm going to have to pull out my Access Bible and get back to basics.  Good times. 

No News is...No News Update

I had an in-person interview on Friday that went well, and I should hear back from them in the next week or two to find out if I'm a final candidate. 

I haven't heard back from my other two "live" opportunities (i.e., ones where I've had a phone and/or in-person interview with the hiring manager), and I think that one of them is almost certainly dead and the other is pretty iffy. 

But I applied to two great-looking jobs yesterday and am continuing to fight the good fight here.

The Source for Basic White T-shirts

After striking out on my first attempt to find a white t-shirt, on my mom's recommendation, I tried Lands End, and all the t-shirts I got were wonderfully thick enough to wear on their own without a layer underneath.  (In my world, a white t-shirt is the layer that you wear underneath.  Duh.)

I can vouch for this short-sleeved one and this long-sleeved one.  I got both V and crew versions, for a total of 6 white t-shirts.  This is something I always run out of (both in the sense that I seem to want to wear one before my current ones are washed and that they get stained so must be thrown out), and I figure that if I over-purchased, a comfortable white t-shirt is a great all-purpose sleep shirt.

I did not get any colors other than white this time, but they have a pretty wide selection.  I like that they come in regular, petite, and plus sizes, and they're only $10 and $12 (about $5 more for plus) -- and you can save 30% on top of that using a coupon code.

You'll be seeing these shirts in blog posts to come.

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.