Star Wars VI: Return of the Jedi

After [...]]]> C-3PO: “I do believe they think I am some kind of god.”
Han Solo: “Well, why don’t you use your divine influence and get us out of this?”
C-3PO: “I beg your pardon General Solo, but that just wouldn’t be proper.”
Han Solo: “Proper?”
C-3PO: “It’s against my programming to impersonate a deity.”

Star Wars VI: Return of the Jedi

After weeks, and a very intensive weekend, of being called some kind of retail goddess for managing the move and storage process while some work is being done at the store, it’s nice to just hang out at home for a few days – although my intial idea of a trip into Vancouver would have been even MORE wonderful. So I’ve got a few days off and I’ve returned to old habits.

• The original Star Wars trilogy is playing in the background while I catch up on housework, take down the last of the Halloween decorations, and get soup going on the stovetop.
• Snacks are being consumed in lieu of actual meals.
• Banking and bill paying is getting up to date.
• Repairmen and contractors are in and out of the house, finishing up loose odds and ends.
• Bob-cat is claiming my lap anytime I sit longer than 4 seconds.

It’s a nice change of pace after the last two weeks of ca. ra. zee in preparation for the next couple of weeks down at the store – and the up-coming holiday madness.

I hope you’re all having a great day as well.

Please forgive the crazy delay. I popped in today and noticed that my last post was on July 4th. A [...]]]> Obi-Wan: “Captain Typho has more than enough men downstairs. No assassin will try that way. Any activity up here?”
Anakin: “Quiet as a tomb. I don’t like just waiting here for something to happen to her.”
Star Wars II: Attack of the Clones

Please forgive the crazy delay. I popped in today and noticed that my last post was on July 4th. A month and a half. Geez.

So, you see here’s the thing. I got a job. A full-time job. A really full-time, on my feet all day long on a concrete floor job. A this was supposed to be a part-time, up-to-20 hours a week, filler position job, but after six days spread out over two weeks I was offered the position of store manager on July 8. A full-time, at least 40 hours a week job. Well, holy cow. I said yes, took over on July 9, and it’s been a crazy rollercoaster ever since. Have I mentioned that it’s been way too many years since that kind of non-stop on-the-go activity has been a regular part of my life? I have learned a new level of both exhaustion and sore foot pain.

On the up side, I love this job. Love, love, love it. It’s fun, it’s positive, and it’s close enough to walk or bike to. The women I work with are fun and hardworking (a great combo), the challenges are enough to keep my brain pumping along, and the feedback from my employers and customers regarding the changes I’ve been implementing have been uniformly positive.

Many other things have been happening as well these past couple of weeks.

Padawan Learner turned 16 this summer, is driving around town by himself, started back to school at 5 out of the 8 periods (and is picking up a 6th period geometry class starting on Monday) and has been pleased with his newfound freedom. It’s a little weird, but we’re both enjoying the break from each other 24/7. He’s very 16, and I’m definitely a mom. Clashes have ensued. He’s talked about getting a job and working toward becoming independent sooner rather than later. It could be a good idea, but we’ll see how much effort he puts into meeting that goal. As you know quite well, there’s more to being a grownup than earning an income.

PL went to two different camps this summer, a week long half day parkour camp in Boulder. So PL got to participate in one of his most favorite activities ever AND we got to visit with our nephew who just moved into the area a few months earlier. I think he enjoyed our visit too since he was forced to learn first hand about lots of great restaurants in the area. PL also went to a week long overnight camp (his first experience with that type of program) for trampoline and double mini in Michigan, so Dad Windu and I were able to visit some old friends from different parts of Michigan – including some that we hadn’t been able to see for years.

To round the summer out, our niece married, rather unexpectedly but apparently happily, and we were all able to gather once again as an extended family (minus 3) for a long weekend. But it seems that with joy comes pain, and this weekend was no different – DW’s co-worker was in a motorcycle-car accident on the way home the same day we left for MI and was airlifted to a hospital near us. Thankfully he had on his leathers and a helmet (a rarity in Iowa). Still, he has two broken legs, a broken arm, and bleeding in the brain (now stopped), but he survived the first night (a major event) and is on the mend. He is such a sweetheart and such a fighter. I’ve been able to go sit with him in the mornings while his wife gets their four kids off on two different school busses (two hours apart!) so that he doesn’t have to wake up alone. The good drugs are giving us really fun conversations. It’s so nice seeing his bruises go down day after day, but it’s heartbreaking to see the pain that goes along with all the things that will ultimately make him better – multiple surgeries and their subsequent swelling most of all. Send any extra good thoughts along to JerBear.

So there you have it. Sorry for making you wait for an update.

This may be my next step if the local thrift stores don’t stop trying to make their stores as [...]]]> Luke Skywalker: “3PO, tell them if they don’t do as you wish, you’ll become angry and use your magic.”
C-3PO: “But, Master Luke, what magic? I couldn’t possibly…”
Luke Skywalker: “Just tell them.”
Star Wars VI: Return of the Jedi

This may be my next step if the local thrift stores don’t stop trying to make their stores as difficult as possible to shop in. I resisted the thrift store world for decades (because of a bad experience as a kid), but I’ve grown to love them in the past couple of years. An old friend, Qui-Gon Jinn, used to say she thought of them as life’s ”storage unit”. Don’t need these black slacks, take them to the thrift store. Two years down the line, if you need another pair of black slacks you go back and pick up a pair of black slacks, paying a small “storage fee” of roughly $2-4 dollars for the service. No, you won’t get the exact same black slacks you dropped off, but really what’s the big deal? They’re black slacks.

Nearly all of the local thrift stores here in lovely Des Moines sort their clothes by color, instead of by size. A little clue here folks: I can easily find a white shirt from within a selection of size small shirts. It’s far harder to find a size small shirt within a selection of white shirts. Similarly, it’s much easier to get a “I hate shopping” teenager to try on cargo pants (that he’s going to out-grow in less than a season) when you don’t have to check the size on every. single. pair of cargo pants in the mens department. Shockingly, this annoys the crap out of boys that hate shopping.

Since I’m venting my spleen, it also annoys me that they don’t sort out the obviously damaged, worn or stained merchandise. Sure, some people don’t care if there’s a nasty ketchup stain down the front of a white top if they’re only going to wear it to work at a dirty, nasty, greasy tool & die shop (i.e., my mother). Maybe someone is just looking for a cheap source of cleaning rags. Perhaps another person is looking for bits and pieces of material they can morph into something else. That’s great! Reduce, reuse, recycle! So sort those “not likely to be worn in public as-is” duds into a special “scratch & dent” ultra-savings section like you find in an appliance store.  For example: all green tagged pieces on these racks or in these bins (still sorted by size, please!) are 25 or 50 cents each. The vast majority of people are looking for good quality used clothes that don’t look like they’re been worn to within an inch of their lives or missed out on the great Washing Machine experience of 2008.

The racks, where do I start? Clothes should not be immobile on the racks, they should slide a little so that the shopper can actually SEE what something looks like rather than having to make a judgement from the sleeve alone. Slide, glide, move; pick your term. If I go into a store and the racks are so tightly packed that I can’t pick one item without fighting off the two on either side, I am more likely than not to just walk away. You do want us interested in the things you are offering, right? To be so, I have to be able to take a good look at it first.

And what’s the deal with the tiny, poorly lit dressing rooms? When I can’t judge how something really looks like on me, I’m not likely to buy it. Oh, and since I’m on a roll, it also annoys me that a “no returns” policy appears to be the norm out here. Which just sucks. The one that I know of that does let you return things within 3 days does so because they no longer even HAVE a dressing room anymore, and even then they only give in-store credit for returns which isn’t exactly the same as getting your money back. If I can take an item home, check to make sure it will go with some of my other items (or give me time to find something to go with it), I’m much more likely to buy it in the first place.

So here you go Goodwill, Salvation Army, Junior League, and the other thrift stores out there that want to outfit the frugalistas of the Midwest: 

• Sort out the “scratch & dent clothes/items” on a seperate rack/location.
• Again: Only clean clothes in good repair on the regular racks.
• Leave room for clothes to slide a bit once the above sorting has been done.
• Have several decent sized dressing rooms with full-length mirrors and good lighting.
• Allow for returns. This is essential. Returns within 30 days – with tags intact – is ideal. Go crazy and make the “scratch & dent” items  No Returns if desired.

It’s really a shame about the anti-customer practices here because I bought nearly all my clothes at the West Michigan stores that sorted by size and – again, key- let me return things up to 30 days. Those stores behaved like… you know, actual clothes stores. For that courtesy, I gave them my business and my loyalty. I can’t say I feel the same about the thrift stores here in Des Moines. I find that I’m much more likely to poke around, find a few cute “maybe” things and leave with all my money still in my pocket because I don’t want to risk that they aren’t going to match anything else I own.

If you make it easy, we will buy more.
If we buy more, you can do more for your programs.

What? Two posts in one day? Has the [...]]]> [Chewbacca is carrying a dismembered C3PO in a net bag on his back]
“If only you’d attached my legs, I wouldn’t be in this ridiculous position. Now remember, Chewbacca, you have a responsibility to me, so don’t do anything foolish.” – C-3PO, Star Wars V: The Empire Strikes Back

What? Two posts in one day? Has the world gone crazy? Perhaps.

In my effort to find these little beauties on super-secret sale, I ran across a website called SHOEBACCA. It’s no Fluevog, I grant you, but it looks like it has the makings of several wasted afternoons in my on-going great shoe search. While SHOEBACCA doesn’t carry the Aldo brand, and I was forced to order elsewhere, I feel it is my inter-galactic duty to pass along an online shoe store making a passing reference in their name to Star Wars. The Force is with them.

You’ll be glad to hear, I am sure, that not only did I find the above lovelies on super-secret sale and in my size, but I ended up getting them in both black and brown. They are, indeed, fabulous.

As you may have realized (yes, I know, I hide it well), reading is one of my favorite activities. In reality, reading mysteries set in the English countryside has become, [...]]]> “Sir, I don’t know where your ship learned to communicate, but it has the most peculiar dialect.” – C-3PO, Star Wars V: The Empire Strikes Back

As you may have realized (yes, I know, I hide it well), reading is one of my favorite activities. In reality, reading mysteries set in the English countryside has become, to be blunt, a bit of an obsession these past few years. I like them set from modern times (Minette Walters) to a more genteel age (Agatha Christie), between the World Wars (Jacqueline Winspear) to over a century ago (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle), and everything in between. I just can’t seem to get enough of them.

Despite the fact that the authors and I share (for the most part) a common language, there are frequently antiquated or obtuse terms that send me running for my trusty old Webster’s Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary – spattered, stained and highlighted (but still tightly bound, thankyouverymuch) after these two and some odd decades. Yes, I can generally gather the meaning through context, but it niggles my brain (3rd definition: GNAW) not to know exactly what the author meant. So I scurry into the delicate pages, hunting for meaning, before re-reading the passage with the full knowledge of what the author meant to express. Ah, it’s just divine.

So I have been sitting here this afternoon, while Padawan Learner goes about his lessons, very much enjoying my first book by Catherine Aird, The Stately Home Murder, with my much revered old red dictionary by my side. Seventy-three pages in and I’ve already looked up a dozen words. Now that’s my idea of an afternoon well spent!

A week ago Sunday, after we drove [...]]]> Yoda:  ”Senator Amidala, your tragedy on the landing platform… terrible. Seeing you alive brings warm feeling to my heart.”
Padme:  ”Do you have any idea who was behind this attack?”
Mace Windu:  ”Our intelligence points to disgruntled spice miners on the moons of Naboo.”
Padme:  ”I think that Count Dooku was behind it.”
Star Wars II: Attack of the Clones

A week ago Sunday, after we drove Bob and Eileen to the airport, Dad Windu and I noticed a strange whining sound coming from the front passenger side of the car. Odd, we thought. It appeared to be getting steadily worse throughout the week, so I took the car into the auto repair shop yesterday. Two front bearings and rotors later, we had a quiet car and a reduced bank account.

Since we have an older car, we set money aside every year for auto repairs. “Cheaper than a car payment,” I like to remind us (as I gaze wistfully at the shiny new pretties that I love so dearly). Long and short of it, we had $582.64 left in the auto maintenance category early Monday morning. The repair came to $584.62. Suffice it to say, I think we need to hide the budget info better – or at least hope the cats can’t read.

Star Wars VI: Return of the Jedi

Red to green to yellow to red to green to yellow to red to green. The traffic lights sparkle like jewels amid the rain drops on this summer night. Brake lights blink on and [...]]]> Princess Leia: “It only takes one to sound the alarm.”
Han Solo: “Then we’ll do it real quiet-like.”

Star Wars VI: Return of the Jedi

Red to green to yellow to red to green to yellow to red to green. The traffic lights sparkle like jewels amid the rain drops on this summer night. Brake lights blink on and off, passing under twin rows of street lamps, while far-off lightning breaks across the sky.

Alien warfare in greens and blues jerks across the neighbor’s television again. A dark corner has replaced the crimson glow of a turtle lamp in the apartment below. Ruby and charcoal desk chairs stand ready on toffee-colored carpet, awaiting the underwriters who won’t come again until Monday morning, and the waste of electricity angers me.

800 Grand has turned off the vertical highlighting; it must be 11pm. A bicyclist pedals down the sidewalk, soaked to the bone in this deluge. Yellow hazards in the parking lane blink a plea for mindfulness, while its driver scrounges around the floor on the passenger’s side.

I am provided a good view of the nearby world – devoid of its soundtrack.

The best part of the season has arrived here in central Iowa – that first day of seriously crisp, cool, breezy fall [...]]]> Lama Su: “I trust you are going to enjoy your stay. We are most happy you have arrived at the best part of the season.”
Obi-Wan: “You make me feel most welcome.”
Star Wars II: Attack of the Clones

The best part of the season has arrived here in central Iowa – that first day of seriously crisp, cool, breezy fall weather. I love autumn, but never have I loved an authum like I love the coming of this autumn. This first summer west of the Mississippi has been an adventure for us. 

rain, flooding, rain, heat, rain, rain, rain, flooding, heat, heat, heat

That was summer this year, but today we have a high of 69. The apartment windows are open. Since he woke up to a morning in the upper 50s, PL even had to wear a sweatshirt over his shorts and t-shirt as he left for classes. I wore jeans and a 3/4 length-sleeve shirt. I’ve missed sleeves.

The Iowa State Cyclones had their season opener last night; U of Iowa has their opener tomorrow. An entire city’s emotional balance appears to be teetering on the outcome of these games. Seriously, Dad Windu watched the news this morning just to see if ISU won last night. He needed to know what kind of a day it was going to be in the office. The two schools battle each other on the 11th. If this site goes quiet after that date, it’s because the city has imploded due to overload.

High school football also begins all over the region tonight – weatherman recommends a jacket as the evening will be dipping down into the 40s (!) overnight. Fall is upon us – and none too soon. And no, I am not going to be thinking about white flakes falling from the skies before long. I’m just going to enjoy this lovely, gorgeous day and soak in all it has to offer.

And I grabbed two pair of pants that fit like a glove, an adorable skirt, and two nice sport jackets today at the thrift store… for 1/2 off. Oh, yeah, color me happy.

A lot has been happening, not that you’d know it by hanging out here. In no particular order, we:

Went to see Star Wars in Concert and had a fabulous time. Which was better, the actual program itself, all the people [...]]]> “Senator Palpatine?!?” (turns to Panaka) “What’s happening?” – Padme Amidala, Star Wars I: The Phantom Menace

A lot has been happening, not that you’d know it by hanging out here. In no particular order, we:

Went to see Star Wars in Concert and had a fabulous time. Which was better, the actual program itself, all the people in costume roaming around before the show, watching the impromptu light-saber duels in the seating areas during intermission, or the movie props set up all around the lobby? Hard to say, because they were all terrifically fun. We had what can only be referred to as fantabulous seats – well worth the money.

Padawan Learner’s facebook status, uploaded by his mobile phone while we waited for the show to start, was OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG!!!!!!!! Dad Windu’s only regret was not seeing any gold-bikini Princess Leia stand-ins, only mumu-ish white dress ones. Personally, I enjoyed noting that DW’s & PL’s Obi-Wan and Anakin costumes from a few years back (sadly, not worn that evening) were easily as good if not better than many (most) of the costumes there.

Spent the Fourth of July weekend in Minnesota with family, swimming at The Club, golfing (DW), hanging out with Queen Jamillia, Dorme, Verse & Count Dooku, watching the neighbor’s illegal fireworks (brought in from Wisconsin, we learned later), and talking about our whacky spring/early summer weather.

Started teaching PL to drive. He’s doing very well. Doesn’t enjoy it as much as he thought he would, but that’s not surprising. Driving for real is a bit more complicated (and scary) than a Need for Speed: Shift video game. Who knew?  Thankfully, it hasn’t been too stressful driving with him. The occasional white-knuckle door grab and “find the center of the lane” comment, but he’s showing good control and decent timing overall. A bit of a grandma in the speed department, but I can live with that.

Little bit of trivia about Iowa: on one’s 14th birthday, one  may go down to the DMV and take the written driver’s test. If passed, one is allowed to get a learner’s permit and drive with a parent. Successfully passing a driver’s training program is not a requirement for obtaining a learner’s permit. AND if one does not pass the written driver’s test, one may come back the next business day and try again - without limit - until the test is passed. I’m going to say that again: without limit. Really? Seriously? OK, things that now scare the beejeezus out of me: 14 year olds driving. Doltish 14 year olds driving who failed the written test an untold number of times before getting lucky. Call me crazy, but shouldn’t you have to wait a bit if you fail the test? Perhaps to give you time to study a bit more. And wouldn’t there be some incentive to passing it if you had to shuck out a few bucks to pay for the subsequent testing times? But nooooooo, the place was full of parents sitting there with their dimwits    their knuckle heads     their would-be drivers. One of the moms next to me said, “Oh, this is our fourth time this week. I keep telling him he should just read the (driver’s manual) book and be done with it.” Let me tell you, driving in IA has taken on a whole new level or terror.

Went back to MI twice. Man, but that drive just doesn’t get any more relaxing or quicker. Not much time for socializing, but did manage to squeeze in a nice visit with Red Leader and her boys, PL got to stay over at Chewbacca’s house, had a quick dinner with an old neighbor and got the scoop on  the people who bought our old house (very hermit-crab-ish), grabbed a drink with Padme Amidala and Princess Leia, and spent the night at our Sunday Morning Doughnut Buddies’ place.

Showed off Des Moines to our Sunday Morning Doughnut Buddies and found the ultimate beer bar for DW and them: El Bait Shop. Not being much of a beer drinker, I volunteer as the driver.

Off to the vet’s with the cats. Wish the vet luck.