The Devil Wears Fleece

I rarely write about work, because, let's face it, I (along with so many other millions of employees) could fill blogs, novels and additional external hard drives full of accounts of horrid work experiences. Besides, it's depressing. Fashion, home, design and style are just so much more fun.

But sometimes work collides with blog in ways we cannot ignore!

For years I've been seeing these Masai Barefoot Technology (MBT) shoes in the Bliss catalog. They're ugly, they're expensive for an ugly pair of shoes, and they're supposed to give you a great workout while you're walking around, building up strong legs and a superbutt. I've long wanted a pair, but it just seems there are so many cute shoes to be had for that price, so I've never actually gotten around to getting them.

Yesterday I overheard an executive at work bellowing into the phone in her office, having a loud personal conversation. (I don't get why people don't understand that today's modern telephone equipment is not the same as it was when a phone was two styrofoam cups and a string. We don't have to YELL into the phones anymore. The microphones are powerful, and they pick up your voice and convey it anywhere it needs to go. But so many executives do this, right? They love to sit in their big offices bellowing their personal conversations. I've heard it all... screaming at the contractor because the new sliding doors at home don't slide. Son going into boarding school... blah blah kicked out of boarding school. Something something dog coughing need a holisitic vet. It's all part of their obnoxious entitlement.)

This conversation happened to be about the MBT sneaker! She was doing a poor job of explaining it, but that's definitely what she was screaming about. Will wonders never cease? I thought the MBT sneaker was for models, the wealthy and bored yoga/nonfat latte crowd, the body-obsessed, and readers of the Bliss catalog.
Who knew that the devil who wears fleece would know about this shoe?

Mickey, Minnie and all the other Mice.

My hamster died a few months ago, after a long hamster life. He was a fat, slow, adorable ball of fluff, without a tail, of course. (Well, hamsters do have a tail but it's just a tiny stumpy thing.) I know hamsters are rodents, but they're really more like tiny teddy bears.

Having been rodentless for some months, I couldn't have been more shocked one evening when I was sitting on the couch, talking to DD, who was in the kitchen. Out of the corner of my eye I saw something little and dark run FAST along the wall and disappear into the kitchen. We have inhabited our apartment for two years and have never seen such a thing--a mouse! (People who liken mice to hamsters have never seen the lightning speed with which house mice run, whereas a freed hamster will often just stand in one spot trembling and looking befuddled.)

We keep the apartment extremely clean and spare. Our place is small, our aesthetic modern, and we just don't have a lot of stuff. I like to think that if DD and I died suddenly, whomever would have to clean out our apartment could empty it in about an hour, and clean it with barely a quick sweep and a quick spritz of glass cleaner, and no bizarre secrets would be revealed in our drawers, under the beds, or on our bookshelves. My first incorrect assumption about mice, that only dirty places have them, was corrected in a hurry.

Like complete idiots, DD and I purchased various humane rodent repelling devices, like an electrical sound thing that they can supposedly hear, the sound bothers them, and they leave you alone. HA HA HA. Those don't work. Next, I purchased some sort of "humane" electric chair for mice. You put 4 AA batteries in this little box, smear some peanut butter inside, and the mouse goes in and gets electrocuted "painlessly". Well, we will never know. I have yet to catch a mouse in it! We also threw out all our dry food and teas, and purchased some expensive super sealing containers for the new dry food, rice, noodles, chips, sugar, etc. Same with the trash can and recycling can. We got rid of them and are now shopping for the fancy tight-sealing kind. They're more than $100 each!

We learned that our landlord has a whole rodent control department. Nice to know that the entire complex is infested, not just our unit! Awesome! A guy came and set up the traditional awful, scary mousetraps, plus some freaky glue traps that look like an old fashioned meat tray, only they're coated with some super sticky glue.
He looked around our apartment and determined that it was well sealed and that there was no way mice could get in, which of course, makes no sense. He also said that from the "evidence", or lack of, he concluded there were no more than 2 mice.

We've now caught a total of 4 mice... in the glue traps. Yes, this means a mouse gets stuck in glue and dies a horrible death. I read on the internet that the humane way to kill mice is either to drown them in bucket, in a bag held down by a brick, or to put them in the freezer. DD yelled when I told him this, and said we are neither setting up a drowning device, nor putting mice in the freezer with our ice cubes. I am afraid of my kitchen and am losing weight, without exercising.

But we got some good advice from someone else who had a mouse infestation where we live. She said to raise holy hell with the work order desk and make them come out, move appliances out, and stuff every conceivable hole with copper mesh before putting the appliances back. Apparently this is the best thing for blocking all access points. She also shared some DELIGHTFUL information about the hantavirus.

Whole Sizes Only

Along with the Isabella Fiore Peace Out bag I would like to wear these John Fluevog "Rainbow" sandals. They only come in whole sizes, and I'm almost always a 6.5. Sometimes a 6, but really rarely. Why are some shoes only offered in whole sizes? That makes me crazy. I hate it!

For Rich Hippie Wannabes...

I'm in LOVE with this bag. It's by Isabella Fiore and it's called "Peace Out". I think it was released in summer.
I'm not usually the biggest fan of Isabella Fiore. A friend of mine loves the older style IF beaded bags and would show them to me. "That's a lot of shiny beads," I thought. But some of IF's styles are hippie chic or motorcycle chic and they appeal to me a lot.

This Peace Out business was something like $700 orginially. Too rich for my blood! But I've got my eye out and am checking Ebay regularly! The fact that a lot of fashion bloggers have declared it the most hideous, ugly bag IF ever made can only work in my favor!

Holiday Card Dilemma

I went to Catholic elementary school. Much time was spent in class between Thanksgiving and Christmas making a highly involved craft gift for our parents, nearly always of a religious nature, of course, except for the one year when we glued individual red pistachio shells all over a pointsettia cut out and then shellac-ed it. There was the profile of a wise man, covered with macaroni and spray painted gold. There were 3D Mary, Joseph and Baby Jesus dioramas... there was an advent wreath. That was my favorite, because I liked pink and purple.

I still get sort of crafty around the holidays, often this craftiness takes the form of a handmade or self-designed Christmas/holiday/winter solstice/Japanese New Year card. Last year DD and I worked on them together. The theme was gingerbread men.
The resulting cards kind of looked like something a ten year old would make, but they were cute. We recently discussed different themes and ideas this year, coming close to agreeing on one, and then throwing in the towel and deciding to just BUY preprinted, boxed holiday cards. We're totally giving up, I know.

Choosing them is not as easy as it would seem. Everything feels falsely cheerful and ironic to me. You know, penguins doing cute things, ditto polar bears--I mean, let's face global warming. The wintry scenes have always felt weird to me... I grew up in Southern California, where the closest thing to a white Christmas was my mom saying, "Should we get a flocked tree this year? Should we? They're pretty, huh? Should we? Nah." I try to go for general holiday messages out of the desire to respect everyone's spiritual beliefs. Also important to me is paper quality. I love nice paper!

These are two pretty appealing designs, although neither quite nail it for me. Almost. "Hope Peace Cookies" is a Kate Spade design, and the bright stars are available at the Museum of Modern Art store.

Christmas Starts On Halloween

On Halloween I went to the market to get some things for our dinner and came across a big end display of Mrs Meyer's Clean Day Holiday cleaning kits-- the package is shaped and decorated like a gingerbread house, there's a recipe for gingerbread and butter frosting on the side of the carton, and the carton contains mini versions of four Mrs Meyer's products-- Countertop Spray, Concentrated Cleaner (mix with water to make more Countertop Spray), Dishwashing Liquid and Room Freshener. I wish it contained a mini Glass Cleaner instead of Room Freshener, but, oh well. All the products are scented like gingerbread.

There are so many cool things offered around the holidays, and it's like you have to get them now because they're limited to the holidays. Of course I know that this is all some massive corporate ploy to make us consumers buy a lot of stuff in the last fiscal quarter (duh). But dishwashing liquid that smells like gingerbread? Can you really fault me for buying a $15 Christmas-scented cleaning kit while literally wearing my Halloween costume?! The very next day my friend Meagan and I hustled it over to Lush, where we bought more limited-edition, "holiday" items. I tell you, these companies are shrewd and cruel.