good day!

June 1, 2006

I hear it’s your birthday! It’s my birthday too!

Wow, holy cow, my flist is full of birthday wishes. Thank you all!

Happy birthday PARTICULARLY to and . *beam* It’s been a very nice day. Ted made me WAFFLES for breakfast! We got a waffle iron yesterday and he had to make sure it worked! It worked very well. :) Then he gave me PRESENTS! The Producers soundtrack, which I didn’t expect at all, the collector’s edition of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, which I didn’t expect at all, and a *much* spiffier CD player than I had expected/requested for my office! It’ll play MP3s, so I can rip stuff to CD and make my own playlists and that’ll be very nice! Yay!

Then we went into town and bought an air mattress and a better vacuum cleaner and some computer chairs and sheets and pillows and things, ’cause the family is coming down this weekend and we had an insufficient number of those. Most of the big stuff is being delivered sometime next week, but we brought the air mattress home so Mom and Dad will have somewhere to sleep this weekend.

Ted went home with the loot and I went shopping. I shopped for four hours. This in and of itself is a feat of stamina far beyond the norm. One would hope that with this kind of endurance test, I would have come out of it with a dozen new outfits and have spent a zillion euro.

But no. In four hours of real, genuine, grueling effort in shopping, I managed to spend a whopping €70. I got three shirts and two pair of capris in that time, after trying on pants at what seemed to be every *freaking* store in Cork City. I did not know what size pants I wore in Irish/European clothes. I couldn’t find out, either, because nevermind worrying about what would fit my hips and waist, I couldn’t get any of the fucking pants past my THIGHS. Some of them wouldn’t go past my CALVES. Goddamned skinny-legged people, mutter mumble grumble. Eventually it proved that Dunnes makes, or carries, pants that fit me, and that I wear 12s in this country. I like wearing 8s better, thanks. Although I donno, I think these are dealing with hip measurements, because that’s where pants are riding these days. Anyway.

I did not find something red. I had this sort of obsessed idea that I was going to buy a red shirt (I think this is ‘s fault) and try as I might I couldn’t find one that I wanted to buy.

I almost bought a cute drop-waisted polka-dotted dress, but the polka dots were…screened on. I mean, not part of the pattern, but paint or whatever on the fabric, and they were already fading/breaking apart on the fabric nap, so I decided not to. It was on sale, and not *that* expensive to begin with, but I decided if I really wanted a dress like that I could find a pattern and make it myself out of less cheap fabric.

I grabbed a whole series of cute nautical-themed stuff (it’s very in over here right now) and went into the dressing room to try them on, even though it all cost more than I thought it should. But I thought hey, birthday, I can splurge a little if I want! So I got a couple shirts and a skirt and a pair of long shorts and…the skirt fit. The pockets on the shorts gaped oddly. The shirts…well. Generally, fitted blouses that fit me in the shoulder gape at the bust. These were no exception. But getting ones that would fit the bust would be enormous around my ribs and too large in the shoulder, so … I couldn’t see buying them when I could make something that would fit me better.

I stood there staring at a teal linen skirt with a cool handkerchief hem for a long, *long* time, and finally decided not to get it because for sixty euro, I could make it myself.

I am so very much my mother’s daughter, when it comes to shopping. :)

I think I’ll go order some fabric from the cool fabric site, and see about finding some patterns, and maybe spend some money at jpeterman. :)

Ted’s making roast chicken for dinner for me, and has been doing huge house-cleaning things while I’ve been sitting here dinking around writing this entry. *beam* I have the very best husband. I’m gonna make biscuits (he just reminded me!) and I may walk up to the Spar and get ice cream, and make an apple crumble for dessert, ’cause it seems like I oughta have some kind of birthday dessert. :)

miles to Isengard: 61

31 thoughts on “good day!”

  6. I…um…didn’t forget. I…er…thought…ah!…I thought you’d like a break from me for a day! That’s it! Then I decided that was just plain silly.

    So, Happy Birthday!!

    P.S. Shopping is hard! Let’s go blogging!

  7. I dunno, but I’d totally want to find out why Famous Author C. E. Murphy thought of me and red shirts in the same sentence. You might want to pass on any guest appearances should you discover she’s working on Trek fanfic! :)

  8. Happy Birthday Catie!

    after trying on pants at what seemed to be every *freaking* store in Cork City

    Freaky, I did this on my birthday last year… and had the same problem, Not 1 pair I tried on fit. (In a ‘How-the-hell-is-this-my-size?-I-can-only-fit-one-leg-in’ kind of way.)

  10. Kitday sounds like a lot of fun. Not the shopping bit, but…being Kit for a day would be nifty.

    I’m going to watch X-2 in your honor. NOT because it’s already in the dvd player. Really. I swear! It’s all about the mutant Kit. ;)

  11. keeps being surprised I default to blues instead of reds, or that I default to something at all, when I can wear almost any strong color very well, that’s all. Though I admit when I typed that, I did think of Trek. :)

  12. What would you do if you were Kit for a day?

    It’s all about the mutant Kit

    *HOWLS* Rock *ON*! :)

  13. Fashion can be summed up in five words. “Blue jeans go with everything.”

    Wait. I need five more. “Corsets make girls look wicked.”

    On second thought, I’m having trouble amalgamating corsets and jeans. Damn! This is more complicated than I thought!

    I’m going back to thinking about Trek! Hortas rule! Woo!!!

  14. Don’t be silly, nothing as idiotic as women’s clothing sizes could be malicious! Who’d believe an evil mastermind’s most diabolical idea would be to try to reduce women’s most splendiferous tridimensionality to a unidimensional and very small integer value.

    Way too many drugs in the fashion industry? Now, that I’ll believe!

  15. Happy Bird Day, Two Ewes…etc., etc. =)

    I hate trying to find things that fit in the stores. Especially since women’s sizes are so wonky and run so differently from brand to brand, and even in the same brand from style to style. It’s a conspiracy, Itellya. You should totally get some great fabric and make some stylish duds for yourself. You’re looking uber cute these days, Miz Kit! =)

  16. Or maybe many years ago a w(b)itch cursed the city.
    “None here shall find trousers that fit on the day of their birth, Let all women know my pain!”
    Or something of the sort.

  17. Happy Birthday!
    You’re almost sharing a birthday with me — mine is Saturday — but you are sharing a birthday with my greataunt. Enjoy your new clothes (or making your other new clothes), and birthday dessert.

  19. Ooh, happy almost-birthday to a fellow Gemini! I’m *so* glad you’re feeling better!

  20. Happy birthday Catie-wench! Your present will be coming along with the first shipment of stuff I’m re-sending to you. :)

  22. Happy Birthday! Ugh…shopping. Good in some instances…not so much in others.

  24. Yay, birthday!

    I didn’t get waffles (or a magically appearing lover to make some for me, now wouldn’t that be an interesting gift o.O), but I am planning on making myself some oatmeal cookies tonight. Hmmm…cookies.

  26. After much consideration, I believe as Kit for a day, I would have to write about three books (’cause we all know you are really SuperKit, and all this whining is just your mundane cover…those strained shoulder pains aren’t really from typing, they’re from making the world safe for mutant and human alike) – or maybe just sell them, so I could write them as me under Kit’s name. Yeah. That’d work. Since that’s a piece of cake for Kit…ooh! Speaking of cake, I think I’d make one of those, or just lounge around eating Kit-Spouse’s tasty viddles all day (and I apologize for making you gain a few pounds in the process – it can’t be helped). Play with some kitties. Go for a nice, lazy Irish walk…

    Oh, and I’d absolutely dye my hair red. ‘Cause I’ve always wanted to do that, but people would think I was having a nervous breakdown if I did it as me. As Kit, I could do it, ’cause, well…CHD, ‘n all. ;)

  27. Blue jeans do not go with everything and corsets only work under certain circumstances. Not, usually, with jeans. :)

    I did have the red shirt security guy thought, too, if it helps. :)

  29. Yeah, what /is/ it with the skinny thigh trousers? I’ve wound up defaulting to Marks & Spencer’s for jeans simply because I can get my legs in them. Though they’re also good because they do (in some styles) short, regular or long in each size. Not exciting, but, you know, they fit.
    Also, which is more annoying because I’ve found no workaround, skinny thigh winter tights. So you can’t buy trousers because you can’t get your legs in them, so you buy a skirt. And it’s England, so the draught starts to chop your legs off at the knees, so you put tights on. And… waddle around with the crotch of the tights half way down your thighs because the panty-bit is too long and the legs are too short and skinny. Godawful uncomfortable.

  30. Happy Birthday!!

    The only thing I like to shop for are books.

    Have a great day – Joyce

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