It's that time of year again....

And I'm pondering the age old question: to shave or not to shave....

Double - The Captain Of Her Heart.

there was a time in the mid to late eighties when I couldn't get though the day without listening to this song. I am beginning to feel that way again.

Career advice from Norma

Mary Schwartz and Ethel Hodgkiss

My christian Dior, I wore than tore,

Got fitted for, a new Balenciaga

I like Chanal, She wears so well

As history will tell, her flows are a saga

Valentina's where I've been, I just adore that

Things with good lines?

Like things form Kleins?

I do all of my shopping there with Mary and Ethel....

We're on a mission from God.

Last nights bar tending gig for British Petroleum execs had a "Blues' Brothers" theme. So we were all wearing hats and sunglasses.

It could have been worse, when the DNC came to town we were asked to wear feather boas behind the bar. It figures that would be the day I got to meet Obama. At least I'll be able to remind him of that then next time we meet.

Work or lack thereof....

"Migrant Farm workers from Arkansas", 1940

"The Girl Works All Day in a Cannery", 1940

Spent all day yesterday in workshops at the office of my "Out-Placement Specialist" and am spending today being filmed and critiqued in a mock interview. While it makes me feel pro-active it does nothing to change the fact that the date of my last severance pay check is hurtling towards me like a race car and then unemployment remains my only source of income. While not panicking yet, i am definitely in a state of high nervousness.

The advice we were given yesterday? "Don't appear desperate" when interviewing for a job! Of course not! 20% of the entire population is out of work and competing for the same 10 jobs in order to hold on to health benefits, jeep our homes together and have some food other than rice and shredded wall paper to eat, but we mustn't appear desperate!

Aflame!

Satin sets fashion aflame!

You'll never be viewed the same!

So if glamour is truly your game,

dawn satin's dart and aim!

She's been on my mind....

I Hanker for a Hunk o' .......

How sad is it that I can't remember most of the history I learned in grammer school OR high school (don't even mention algebraic eqations) yet, I can quote this whole song verbatim 33 years past childhood?

Beware of Sleestak

I admit to being very non-plussed after having discovered they've made a move version of "Land of the Lost". Is nothing sacred?????

I will also admit that the sleestak gave me the heebie jeebies for years.

"Must Have" art work!

Despite the kid's facial expression, and the fact that the candies are probably made out of transparent rubber and will taste like old erasers, I LOVE the colors in this ad and long for a framed print to hang in my kitchen. So there!

Anniversaries and a step forward.

May 16th marks a year since I created this blog. May 28th marks a year since I signed settlement papers ridding myself forever of 250 pounds of ugly fat. My life has gotten a whole lot better for both events. To all of you out there who have read and commented, K-A, Jason, TJB, Michael, Mr. Peenee, David, Scooter and i'm awake I'm so glad to have found all of you, if only online! Norma, of course you and I knew each from pretty much our anniversaries of being on this planet so we've got the best of both worlds!

This Sunday May 16th a lovely woman named Earlene, with an equally lovely dog(Cleo) will be moving into my two vacant rooms. This will allow me to survive financially, especially in light of the fact that I've been laid off. This will also force me out of my self imposed curmudgeonly loner lifestyle. A little more (live) human interaction can only be good for my soul.

Two missteps away from the home....

Alrighty, so I came home from lunch with the lovely Norma, put my kettle on for some green tea and then became engrossed in updating my resume online (I am still unemployed after all) 40 minutes later I wander down to my kitchen to encounter an odd smell and suddenly wonder why the flames underneath the kettle are green?!? Fully realizing that this is not a good sign I turn the burner off only to have the spout fall off the kettle! The heat from boiling it dry un-soldered the unit! I didn't think that was within the realm of possibility.

Obviously I need to get a job, I am to unsafe to be puttering around at home!!!! Somebody help me!!!

Oh, and now I'm kettle-less, by the bye.......

For particulars of this Geiger counter story.....

A phrase still oft repeated at all the finer cosmetic counters today!

Further financial (and literal) house cleaning.....

Okay, so the basement reconstruction is done and I now have a lovely light airy non-musty library/den. While it did not previously look as bad as the pic above before construction started, it was close! Working in Libraries and books stores for over 27 years does not let you escape unscathed without an unnecessarily large personal collection.

So they've been thinned, thinned again and thinned once more. I am keeping the authors I cannot live without, the valuable first editions and the cookbooks that I read like candy. All the rest have been input into Amazon.com for sale. If you are shopping there keep an eye out for used options among the quality goods of AVbooks.....

If anyone is interested I also offer an antiquarian and hard to find used book search service.....Just drop me an email.

His lips are moving.

Just got some spam mail from a "Shawn" whose header reads: "I will not LIE to you"

Granted if this is true he'd be the first man I ever encountered who didn't start out lying, continue lying all the while trying to think up even bigger lies to tell me in future! (but I bitterly digress)

Anyway the gist of the email is that he is trying to sell/give away start up Internet business kits provided I access a provided link. You a ll know the line, "Go on touch, just see what happens....."

Why am I still skeptical???

Seventies Schoolin'

Educated Results

We Likey!

Financial rescue vs. sartorial history

My two extra bedrooms are finally rented! This means I can financially survive my recent layoff and also handle all of the debt incurred from all the home renovations.

It also means I have to finally finish the Herculean task of cleaning out the two bedroom closets I've still been using and thinning out my large wardrobe.

Being the middle child of seven offspring from thrifty parents, I grew up wearing more than my fair share of hand me down clothing. Over the years I exemplified a psychological lesson in overcompensation by shopping for new clothes. (albeit thriftily, being a child of depression era parents I long ago mastered the art of the clearance rack!)

Example, at one time I owned over 86 suits, I spent yesterday organizing 140 polo shirts by color and cut. My best estimate at pairs of slacks is 160 due to the vagaries of weight lifting, requiring weight gain and loss phases thus necessitating waist size shifts.....And don't get me started on shoes, sweaters, coats and blazers!

The weigh lifting had made a great deal of the wardrobe extraneous. the suits are now unwearable as I've lost all the weight they were used to hide. Still how do you temper a drop of 5 to 6 waist sizes with the loss of a designer champagne grey three piece cashmere suit that was only worn once?

You see Chickadees, At one time I went out socially, and often. The goal was to never be seen wearing the same outfit twice and it was VERY achieved(actually the goal was to land a man but that is another long and painful story for another post) Now my time is divided between the gym and bar tending, requiring two uniform changes, tank top and shorts for the former, white oxford, bow tie and black slacks for the latter. All the unworn items with tags still hanging in my closet seem an even bigger waste of time in light of all this.

Due to the 'new economy" and being laid off I am no longer buying new clothes and thanks to my hording years I no longer have to. Still I can't help looking at my now overly stuffed one bedroom closet and wondering how many mortgage payments I have hanging up in there....

Why don't they make them like this anymore......

Thanks to TCM, I spent a delightful rainy Sunday afternoon with a bottle of Malbec and a viewing of "The Cassandra Crossing". made in 1976 and starring Sophia Loren, Burt Lancaster, Ava Gardner, (a pre-murder-trial-still-action-hero-material) O.J. Simpson, a young Martin Sheen, Lee Strasburg, Lionel Strander , who I thought was Ernest Borgnine and Ann Turkel who I kept mistaking for Carly Simon. It was as if they had set a Love Boat episode on a European cross Continental train journey and thrown in the bubonic plague as a plot twist.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!