I'm considered pretty conservative around here. I don't wear clingy clothes, spandex, etc. I insist DS teenager wears untorn, unwrinkled to visit grandparents, and try to stop the jeans from showing more than two inches of his boxers. Other than that, oh, well. Personally I have more trouble with his slouching and bad posture. I'm a teacher, and I don't like kids coming to school in beachwear, ie. very short tops and shorts. Parents don't get it and when we try to insist, there's trouble. OTOH, I have not shaved my arms or legs since I was 14, and then only enough to realize it's not for me. Therefore, there's very little, since the constant removal makes it heavier. But heaven forbid I should wear a sleeveless shirt or skirts at work!!! I'm called dirty, unkempt, un-feminine and slovenly. By my co-workers. The judgement is amazing. My tattoo, though, is ok. Odd. As a young girl in the late 50's, my mom put my sisters and I in blue jeans and my grandmother (she of the white gloves) was horrified. I also get in social trouble cause I don't give a darn about what's in fashion, just what looks decent and is comfy. I wear no makeup, don't dye my hair. (I'm not going grey, I'm turning silver). I refuse high heels. I have, however, been known to paint my toenails and wear perfume!! There are many here who try to look forever 19, and it's silly & a waste of money, men as well as women. People watching for me is a constant delight and I do it all the time, and yes, I sometimes wonder if they own a mirror, but, frankly, I wonder more about their lives and hopes, than their clothes. There is a thin line between "allowing" folks to dress as they please and too much information, but the fashion/beauty industry has some folks so besotted with image that many just toss the baby out with the bathwater. Fashion dictates that thin people's clothes should just be made larger for the un-thin, so I ignore them. What I really find disturbing is the trend encouraging pubescent girls to dress like 20-something sexbombs, and the lengths to which parents will go to go along with it and exclaim how grown up they look. But that's another thread.......Batya

When I decided to junk all my oils (even my beloved Crisco) and switch to strictly olive oil because of it's health benefits I tried so many that I can't even remember half of them now. Some were expensive as you know what, others were cheap. A few were ordered from over seas because they weren't available in this country. It was a very memorable event testing all those olive oils. I wouldn't just try one and then another the next day. I used the smallest bottle you can get in the grocery store and as I emptied it I would fill up with another brand and kept records. I did this for over a year so I know a little about the tastes from them. First off I was very surprised at how many different tastes can come out of a simple "OLIVE"!! Second, running a test like this with just one guy doing the tasting doesn't prove a whole lot except for the "1" person! Anyway, out of all this I came to the conclusion as follows, please excuse the spelling on some: There is a brand called "Bereio" that was to me so bad it was he only one that I just plain didn't want to finish the small bottle. If you were frying like chicken it just left an aftertaste, as oil for a salad just plain sucked! A couple of the foreign brands that friends picked up overseas were pretty good for frying and great on salads, but prices ran from high to just plain forget it!! Out of everything I found that Bertolli EV was the best for salads/frying/ everything, especially light things like seafood fish/scallops/shrimp it is also great for frying things like chicken or pan frying a steak/stir fry/anything. Since you usually use a fair amount for chicken, etc, I stepped down to regular Bertolli and found it fried the heavier stuff like chicken/steak/chops better than the EV, for some reason, but "not" for the light stuff like seafood, I have absolutely no idea why. The best prices (Bertolli) I've been able to get have been at SAM's. Don't buy more than you can use in a year and keep it in a "DARK" cool place, not in a fancy holder or on a counter where the sun will hit it, you'll be sorry!

I do urge you to consider to look into renting the bridesmaid gowns, gloves, and parasols from a costume shop or formal rental place. These hoop skirt dresses can be quite expensive and not really something your attendants will be able to wear again. They often have beautiful things at a costume shop -- I'm thinking of dresses handmade for a theatrical production; I'm not talking about acetate Halloween costumes -- and it is much cheaper to rent than to buy. Beyond costume shops -- I know there are places you can rent bridal gowns (which makes a LOT of sense to me -- talk about something you DEFINITELY aren't going to wear again!). Do they also rent bridesmaid gowns? I'm just wondering.

I thought it would be easy to find navy pumps, yet here I sit 7 days before the funeral with 4 boxes to return to Zappo's and another box (please be "the ones") on the way. In the meantime, I am back to work and have little time for this. Before starting back to work I went to several stores and started second guessing the decision to go with navy so I bought a similar dress in black. I already have black pumps. My morning started with a phone call to my best friend, whose family all live in Florida in Irma's path. Who really cares about shoes, IYKWIM? It puts things into perspective. She is trying to find a suitable MOB dress for her DD's wedding next month and has 6 dresses from Nordstom's, none of which she really likes. So she's not done yet. Ironically I showed her the dress from Talbot's that I bought and she is considering it for the wedding (a very casual and low key event.) My friend said, "just wear the black pumps you have" with the navy dress. So simple, but yet..... Why is this so hard? Are booties taking over the shoe fashion world?