Hello FTC!

So Anyone Know Where I Can Get Some Steel-Toed Flats?

/ Ally Bean / 21 Comments

[Sub-Titled: A Party In Review*]

THE GOOD:  The party went very well.  The pre-party helper elves were wonderful.  Highly recommend that approach to party giving.

The homemade hot dips were a hit.  Next year I’ll make more of those.  Chips & dips were very popular as well.  Healthy veggies & humus & dry snacky snacks, like sesame sticks & salted cashews, were not so popular.  [Of course, those may be more for me than the party guests.]

The wraps and the pretzel sandwiches, which we got from the Kroger deli, were snarfed.  Inhaled.  As was were the fancy cheeses & fruits pastes & crackers & wafers.  God bless Murray’s Cheese [at Kroger] for putting together a perfect cheese board.

The plates of cookies from a local German bakery were a big hit.  Truly yummy.  And the adorable cupcake Santa from the Kroger bakery was almost all eaten, leaving behind a rather Dali-esque image of Mr. Claus.  Oddly though, candy like M&Ms and Snickers was hardly touched.  Who’d of thought?

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THE BETTER:  The pre-party started at 5:30 p.m.  The last party guests left at 1:30 a.m.  [The helper elves were spending the night with us.  So we all went to bed at 2:00 a.m. after doing a fast pre-collapse clean-up.]

During our 8 hours of merriment we went through 7 bottles of wine, 40 bottles of beer, 20 cans of soda & 20 bottles of water.  There was also some shots of bourbon & a Brazilian liquor.  [Both were gifts.  Both were tasty.]

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THE UGLY:  I got hurt during our party when I dropped an ottoman on my left big toe.  The wooden leg of the ottoman went exactly onto my big toe.  Not onto the floor.  Not onto the top of my foot.  No, it went onto my toe which was inside my cute Stuart Weitzman flats– which I’m sad to report do nothing to stop a falling object, like an ottoman, from hurting a toe.  Wussy shoes.

Nothing is broken so I’ll probably survive this self-inflected act of stupidness.  But really, it hurt when I did it.  And it still hurts as I sit here typing.  *meh*  So on that cheery note, I’m out of here.  Going to put my foot up with a bag of ice on it.  Take some acetaminophen.  And rest my weary self.

Later kids.

*  This post is probably more for me than for my readers.  I need to put this info somewhere where I’ll find it next year.  And as I always know where my blog is, a post here seems like the logical place to me.

[Hello FTC!  Please rest assured that I was not compensated for my opinions here.  Just a few of my personal thoughts about stuff & things.  This & that.  Nothing for you to worry about really.  But, as always, thanks for stopping by, FTC.  And Merry Christmas to You & Yours.]

Reading Between The Lines. Literally.

/ Ally Bean / 12 Comments

Our current Kindle is one of the original ones.  They’re called Kindle Keyboard 3G now, but when we bought it this style was the only one available.

After many years this Kindle [who I never named – missed opportunity there] has gone wonky.  I think we overused the poor baby because she can no longer ante up all of her pixels.  Whole horizontal rows of pixels have bugged out.

The result is a screen that looks sort of like the handwriting practice writing paper we used in first grade.  Do you remember that paper?  It had one solid horizontal line all the way across the top of the page.  Then a dotted horizontal line below it.  Then one solid horizontal line below that.  The last two lines were then repeated down the entire page until the bottom.

That’s what this screen resembles.

Now add to this dodgy-looking screen words in any font size— and you have my first grade writing assignments.  Complete with words above, below, through & on the lines.  Marginally readable.

Cute?  Yes.  But not all that desirable on an e-reader.  Rather annoying to be honest.

So I suppose that it’s time to buy a new e-reader.  A Kindle Paperwhite 3G perhaps?  Or maybe a Nook Simple Touch with GlowLight?  I think I’ll let Santa take care of that decision.

And in the meantime until Santa decides what to buy next, I’ll go back to reading good ole paper books with words printed clearly between the lines.  As if second grade me had printed them.  😉

[Hello FTC!  Just talking about my experience here.  Nothing more than noting what happened with this product.  No one is paying me, or us, a cent or dollar to say this.  No compensation whatsoever here.  We good, my friend?]

A Question. An Answer. An Insight.

/ Ally Bean / 13 Comments

When queried about her choice of Newtons, she said:

I like my Newtons figgy and original.  

Proving once again that she is a woman who does, indeed, live by her stated motto:

IF SOMETHING WORKS, STICK WITH IT.

[Hello FTC!  Just to be clear, you do realize that I’m not being paid for my opinion here, right? That I’m just babbling without any compensation whatsoever.  OK then.  We’re good.]  

Clothes Shopping: Doing What I Don’t Like To Do And Telling You All About It

/ Ally Bean / 15 Comments

The Facts.  I went clothes shopping yesterday afternoon.  I dislike shopping for clothes.  Yet I forced myself to get out there and buy something to wear this fall.

I wore: Josef Seibel sandals (from Dillard’s), Diane Von Furstenberg capris (from Kohl’s), Lands End t-shirt (from Sears) + simple jewelry (from Tiffany’s*).  I was carrying a Baggallini cloth purse (purchased online) which is lightweight and expandable.  For me, this is a typical shopping for clothes outfit;  I wear clothes that I can get in & out of easily.  But in this case I didn’t have on even one piece of clothing from the stores I was going to.  This was probably an oversight on my part.

I went to a lifestyle center where I could park my car in one spot, then walk along outside to these four women’s clothing stores that are almost side-by-side.

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•  First I went to Talbots.  This is not my most favorite store, but I admit that they do have clothes that are well-made and age-appropriate in decent colors.  Usually.

A sales woman dressed in black [isn’t that out of fashion?] greeted me when I walked into the store.  She then took one look at me, turned around and went to the back of the store.  After I picked up a few items to try on a young guy came over to me and offered to put my items in a dressing room.  I never saw him again.

After trying on a number of clothes, I decided to buy a few things.  So I folded what I wanted, took my purchases to the cash register counter and waited for the one employee at the register to ring up all the customers standing in line.  During my wait the first woman appeared, looked at all of us waiting to buy items, turned around and went back to wherever she was hiding.

It was a disappointing shopping experience.  I give Talbots a C-.

•  Next I went to Ann Taylor.  I love the style of clothes in this store.

A sales woman working behind the cash register counter enthusiastically greeted me when I walked into the store.  She explained the deals to me & smiled at me.  I looked around the store, but saw nothing that I needed now.  This made me sad because I wanted to buy something there.  So I said “thank you” and went on my way.  The sales woman said “good-bye” and told me to stop back again.  She was still smiling.

It was a lovely shopping experience.  I give Ann Taylor a B+.

•  Next I went to Chico’s.  I have a love-hate relationship with this store.  My style is not glittery and flow-y, but the clothes are well-made & the accessories are great. So I go in there when I’m near one just to see what they’ve got going on.

A  sales woman greeted me immediately as I entered the store.  She told me about the deals.  After I began to collect items to try on a different sales woman came over, took my items to a dressing room and then checked back as I was trying on clothes to see what I might need to resize.  She was helpful.

When I went to buy some items I did not wait in line because three employees were running cash registers.  The store was hopping and the vibe was fun which made me happy.

It was a wonderful shopping experience.  I give Chico’s an A.

•  Last I went to Coldwater Creek.  This store is popular around here and I like some of their clothes, some of the time, when the colors are not muddied and the textures are not too nubbly.

No one said a word to me when I walked into the store.  I wandered around, collecting items to try on– while carrying two large shopping bags from other stores.  No one offered to take my clothes to a dressing room for me.  No one offered to grab a blouse off the higher rack for me.  No one noticed that I existed.

I found myself a dressing room, tried on some clothes, re-dressed myself, went back out onto the sales floor carrying my two large shopping bags from other stores, found what I needed, returned to the same dressing room, and tried on some more clothes.  I then decided to buy a few items which I took to the cash register desk.

Here I found two employees at the cash registers ringing up customers while both employees carried on an involved [grandma one-upmanship] conversation with three other women who were [supposedly] shopping in the store.  I felt like an intruder within their [60-something] clique, but I have to admit that as the employee handed me my purchases she did manage to say “thank you.”  So there’s that.

It was a frustrating shopping experience.  I give Coldwater Creek a D+.

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The Conclusion.  I really have no insightful conclusion to this story.  Yes, I got some clothes.  Yes, I had a tolerable time clothes shopping.  I guess.

But what could have been one of the best afternoons of fall– filled with lots of new clothes & warm memories– was, as usual, a trial.  A struggle to find something that fit.  A struggle to find a sales employee who was attentive.  A struggle.

And I just don’t think that is how clothes shopping should be.  But it is.

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* Upon hearing this story, Zen-Den took it personally that my jewelry from Tiffany’s did not help me get noticed or good service in two of these stores.  From his POV, this shopping trip did not offer the predicted ROI that he was expecting from sinking his monies into platinum & diamonds!  He’s so sweet.

[Well hello there FTC!  It’s been a long time, hasn’t it?  But today, because I’m talking about specific stores, I want to let you know that I was in no way compensated for my opinions about what happened to me when I went clothes shopping.  We’re good, FTC.  Right?]