Utils in Bat Country

The Boots

The Boots were waiting for me when I got home from work Thursday and I am a bit disheartened. 

(Ignore the pj pants and terrible iphone pictures)

The good: the shearling is fabulous. They hit at a good part of my leg/ankle. Pretty comfortable to wear. Immediate issues: They're super high.  Getting into hooker high.  They do not look nearly this high on the website. And something about the platform and the toe box seems off.  The toe seems almost comically rounded?

The good: from this angle, that is a fine looking shoe.  The not as good: you can kind of see it towards the top of the heel but the leather has this odd pebbled/rough texture.  Doesn't look quite as sumptuous as I'd hoped.

In order to justify keeping them, I have to wear them with all types of pants so there'd be outfits where most of the shoe was covered and I think this just exacerbates the toe box issues.  Clown hooker is not a look I'm going for.

Overall, I like them.  But there's just enough quibbles where, even though I got them on sale, I still shelled out $380 and I don't know. I'm not head over heels in love with them so that means they should be returned? 

So close, dream shoe.  You were so close.

Fall Traditions

As we've done the last few years, T&B came over to carve pumpkins.  Pizza was had, Once Upon A Time was played off the DVR (loving it), and whether It's a Great Pumpkin or Charlie Brown Christmas was the superior holiday program. [I vote CB Christmas all the way.  Looo loo looo loo]

Per my typical level of craft skills, I figured I'd keep it simple and go with a creepy moon and stars combo.

Martha, I am not.

Tilly was panting the whole time over the deliciousness and couldn't understand why we were standing up at the table, blocking her from the mounds of delectable pumpkin scraps.

And now I can munch on the remains throughout the whole, yummy weekend.

I prefer this summation

As my time on EH winds down (is paid through 11/8) and the holidays approach, am spending my walks thinking about how I feel about it all.

I keep repeating to myself, hoping it'll sink in: am CHOOSING to be single right now.  There are people I could be dating but not for any sort of good reasons, so, better to stay alone.  And it's true.  It is.  My head knows this and I believe it's right and will continue to press on in my single state till someone - but not anyone - comes along.  My heart though.  It refuses to be convinced that this is a good thing and just pouts deep in my chest cavity.  The ache of singledom, we all know it well.

And then I came across this entry from the Stuff Parisians Like blog, which, while mostly tongue in cheek, resonated with me.  Particularly this:

While the English language has the good taste of distinguishing “alone” from “lonely,” French only offers seul. Not being in a relationship means being seul. The threatening shadows of loneliness, only darkened by the local inexistence of celibacy.

Ah ha! It's not that I'm a weenie, I'm just oh so French!  Eminently preferable.

[Hey, could've been worse - this could be the sentence that's my main takeaway from the article: Being single after the age of twenty-six is the clear indication of a troubled mind.]

Wordless Wednesday: Memories

Happy weekend, indeed.

I bought the boots.

Eeeeeeeeee!

(And since it was free shipping, if they aren't absolutely amazing [and for that price, they better be], I can return them and not be out anything.)

Coincidentally, this weekend also marks the start of the no shopping edict across Utils land.

Confessions

(Haven't ordered the boots. Yet.)

The first - I love Christmas music. So much so that when I heard that a new Christmas song had just been released, I did a little happy dance in my car.  Then I heard it was by Bieber.  So I wouldn't search it out but if one of the pop culture blogs posted it, I'd give it a listen and maybe be pleasantly surprised.  I made it through the first verse and chorus before I started to twitch and had to click away.  So bad. The Biebs is ruining Christmas. Am shamed.

The second - I am sosososososo excited for the season premiere of DCC: Making the Team.  I don't even care.  I even went to the DCC website a few weeks back looking for information on whether the show would be back (and saw this year's squad photo - spoilers!!)

The third - I 'liked' My Heart Will Go On when it came on my Pandora recently. I.... was being ironic! I enjoy the hilarity at having Celine Dion be followed by Flo Rida?

Fall Crushes

The Google catalogs app.  Unlike my complete allegiance to e-reading, this isn't better than flipping through the real thing but it is pretty great. 

Darn you Saks Friends and Family for turning me onto this Tory Burch boot.  A ridiculous price even with the 20% coupon, free shipping, and 3% cash back at Ebates but I'm so caving, you guys. I can feel it.

Butter London polish in Wallis.  I picked this up during one of Ulta's promotions a couple weeks back and it is definitely making its way into some people's presents this Christmas.  Awesome shade of greenish/gold.

Gilded Herringbone Toms.  These must be mine.

Darn you Hart of Dixie. Am all swoony over Wilson Bethel (could there be a more good ole boy name?  I think not.)  I love him even though I'm older than him.  He has this face quirk in the episodes and I may rewatch his scenes namely the shirtless ones multiple times.

Rachel Bilson's eye makeup in Hart of Dixie.  Girl is rocking the smokey eye.  I must practice and duplicate and since I also have dark hair and eyes, when I wear it, I'll look just like her.  Obviously.

(Hart of Dixie pics from CW series site)

Sweet

On Saturday, Tilly started losing her mind barking.  When she didn't stop after a few seconds, I went to investigate.

I saw a guy (with a [well behaved, sitting very nicely] dog, the source of Tilly's angst) across the lot, moving around the empty parking spot next to my car.  I tried to figure out what he was doing (and if he was doing it to my car) and since TS refrains from barking if someone is in the room, I resigned myself to camping out in the office.

(Guard puppy.  You can kind of see the veins or whatever standing out in her head as my presence stopped the barking but she just leaned against my leg and growled.  Yes, Till, you alone are keeping vagabond drifter dogs at bay.)

After a few minutes, I realized mystery guy was drawing something in chalk in the spot.  Intrigue!  Roving chalk artist a la Mary Poppins?  I got all caught up imaging various reasons for empty parking spots to be his canvas of choice and spun many a fantastical yarn about his motivation.  Hey, I was bored keeping Tilly at bay, my mind wanders.

Looks mysterious, right?

He finishes and scurries off (very quickly to my ever exaggerating brain) and after he drove off, Tilly and I went out to investigate.

Aw, with the cuteness.  Then it clicked in my head that Saturday was Sweetest Day.  I admit, finding out the mystery chalk artist was not to be was a bit of a let down.  Still all sorts of squishy though.

Perhaps *I* should get myself some sidewalk chalk!

Book Notes - Part 2

My upstairs TV continues to be possessed so, fine, Nick at Nite, who needs you.  I have my delightfully backlit ipad.

Simply Irresistible by Jill Shalvis - Am a sap for this type of book.  Will definitely be a re-reader when in a cranky mood.  Oddly though, feel not at all inclined to pick up the other two books in the series (those of the heroine's sisters).  Characters just didn't do it for me. My aunt read all three though and spoke highly of them.

Instant Temptation and Instant Attraction by Jill Shalvis - Yeah, once I find a new to me author I like I tend to glom on to the backlist.  In a three part series, I loved one and three but felt no need to read the second. No rhyme or reason was just meh on those particular characters.

Lakeshore Christmas by Susan Wiggs - Hated. hatehatehate.  Which saddens me as I love a good Christmas book and have been pleased by this author before.  Am pouting a bit over this one.

Red's Hot Cowboy by Carolyn Brown - This author is hit or miss for me as the set ups tend to be outlandish and the characters can veer towards caricatures but this one worked for me. Fun and easy.

Lord Demon's Delight by Gia Dawn - Oh good lord. This was a freebie download and I got it and told my aunt about it and then I forgot about it.  Well she read it and when we were comparing books she was telling me about some of the more ridiculous explicit scenes and...oops. My cheeks were a bit warm. Was fine, not bad, not worth full Kindle price.

Ember by Bettie Sharpe - This one has stuck with me even though I read it a few weeks ago.  The author says that it's not a fairy tale. And it's not. But it is.  It's definitely not a Disney fairy tale.  It really made me think about what we believe as true when it comes to fairy tales and stories.  Short and there was one scene at the beginning that I thought was so stupid I nearly didn't continue reading but I'm glad I did.  Fascinating for my own further brain musings.

 

Book Notes

Part the first...

Lonely Millionaire by Carol Grace: I downloaded this one for free via iBooks and was pleasantly surprised.  Even with the premise being a bit ridiculous, I felt for the characters. The heroine was a bit too woe is me at times and I'm a bit annoyed by one part of the ending. The hero does something that is traditionally done by the heroine and it didn't really sit right.  Whether I'm bothered more because it's a flaw in the book or because of my own realization that I don't really raise an eyebrow when the heroine does is remains to be seen.  It's somewhat sort (197 ipad pages) and probably took me around an hour and a half to read but I recommend it and will probably look at some of the author's other works.

The Tower, the Zoo, and the Tortoise by Julia Stuart: I loved the cover of the book and thought the subject matter quirky and fun.  It looks at the lives of the Tower guards when a menagerie is (re)opened at the Tower of London.  Is oh so British in humor, which I enjoyed but there's a strong current of sadness throughout the whole book which I wasn't expecting.  The story is set up almost in vignettes and jumps back and forth to different characters plots which felt disjointed. And there's a bit secret that's alluded to throughout the whole book and then the reveal fell completely flat for me. Overall, great characters and I loved the animal depictions.

Perfect Timing by Jill Mansell: Had an old school chick lit feel to it (was published in late 2009) that was fun to go back through.  Sucker is long though.  Characters are flawed and while it's bothersome when characters are too perfect, I struggled at times to care about this particular set.  There were a few instances when I just rolled my eyes and skimmed pages. Somewhat forgettable.  I have samples of some of her other works on the Kindle but I'll likely hold off for awhile.

Make Me Believe: Unbelievable by Crystal Jordan: A frothy bit of a thing that was fun. One of the latter stories in an anthology.  Even though some of the primary characters from those other stories appear in this one, I don't care enough to go back and get their stories. Am a fan of anything that has paranormal fairy godpeople getting people together.

Twice Upon a Roadtrip by Shannon Stacey: I love this author.

The Secret Circle Trilogy by L.J Smith: I read these years ago when they first came out and was idly watching the CW show of the same name when some of the characters started to sound familiar.  Once I realized it was based off the books I read, I went back for a re-read.  So typically late 90s but I have a nostalgic fondness for them (and they are way better than the show).