Something else to consider other than just the sheets are the different types of mattresses and mattress pads you cover your mattress with, as well as the weave and fiber content of any blankets you top your sheets with. They have as great a cause and effect on sleeping comfort as do the sheets. We have a memory foam mattress and it holds your body heat really well, which is nice in the winter along with flannel sheets (we don't heat our bedroom) but that warming has the opposite effect in the summer. In the spring we add a mattress pad and sheets from coolingmattress.com and the wicking technology helps keep you cool. When you sweat (and the average person loses about 10% of their water in the form of sweat while sleeping - and people who sweat profusely, even more), the material in the sheets wick the moisture which will make you feel cooler. We use a comforter from the same company in the fall/winter because it helps regulate the temperature - you get neither too cold nor too warm. We like it a lot more than the down-filled comforter we used before getting the comforter from this company. A bit extreme, but we also have "Summer Survival Mats" we can use. They are gel-filled mats that act as a buffer between your body and the mattress to absorb your body heat. Great for that time of the year before you turn the air conditioner on, for camping, or a way to cool down fast without air conditioning. You can watch a video about these mats at cooldownfast.com, along with more information about how they work. -Grainlady

I have some of the Target Threshold percales. One set was returned a month later as the fitted split down the middle, another was returned several months later falling apart at the elastic. Some of the print ones are rarely used but are ok...a white fitted that's used all the time is shredding at the elastic corners..Threshold has several makers, some are made in China and some in India. some of the exact sheets feel ok in the package and some feel like parachute fabric. Although with sheets now being treated with different chemicals like insecticide you really can't tell how a sheet will really feel until its had a number of good washes. All in all most of the Threshold sheets are worth buying, they arnt expensive so I guess if you use them regularly and they last a year its all good. Personally I feel sheets should be an investment, buy a few really good quality sheets and your set. I only use vintage percales, 100% long staple cotton....love them.

The pool has cooled off, and last night we went in the spa for the first time in weeks. The pool was 86° (I prefer 87°), and we heated the spa to 103°, which was a bit too warm. Weather was in the 90s, and so it felt pleasant. Here's the new cabana jacket I made Since the pockets are lined with terry cloth, the pattern does not appear to line up exactly when viewed from certain angles - this was the best I could do with this pattern. Also, the pattern shifted slightly when I pre-washed it, but it's busy enough that I think that won't matter. I'll have to order more fabric to make the next one, and it will have thick terry cloth (for winter) like the first one I made. I do like the waffle weave terry cloth, however. This was easier to make than the linen shirt because this fabric did not shift around while I was working with it. For comparison with the linen shirt I made, I ordered at $22 linen shirt from Amazon, and while I like it a lot, I like the one I made better. The one from Amazon has a shirttail hem at the bottom, and I prefer the straight bottom that I made. The pocket I made is nicer.

Exactly, a Big 4 firm's Silicon Valley office. Without dwelling on the suit era, when we shifted to business casual, suits (for men and women) other than board meetings, panty hose, prescribing specific kinds of shoes (other than to avoid athletic shoes or too casual styles), all went out the window. From my perspective, business casual (or less) started here in the mid-80s, in startups with engineering grad students from Stanford and elsewhere wearing as little as gym shorts and flops. The President of one of my clients at the time, when someone came to a meeting wearing a tie, would leave the room and come back with a paper cutter to cut the tie in half. Older companies (of the HP ilk) and those in the semiconductor sector remained conservative (dress code-wise) and evolved more slowly and settled at higher standards. From what I saw in my firm, the practice spread east from California in the late 80s and early 90s. Being a one off consultant like you describe Lynda, leaving home for a meeting, is different than the sometimes van-load of people we (and others) could show up with at a client site at short notice. Not at the lowest staff level but you can appreciate that we were on call - a phone call could come for an unscheduled meeting with a CEO, or CFO, a VC or a board member, and we couldn't walk in and say "sorry, I didn't expect to see you today". I kept a jacket in my car trunk and probably needed to grab it at least once a week for an unexpected meeting. Yes, I was a partner, and subject to a higher standard, but directors/managers and senior staff also needed to be ready to tick up their appearance in the middle of the day. The funny thing is, the pendulum swung back a bit because in the early 2000s, business casual seemed to become a bit more dressy and less casual. I think it has remained there. While Silicon Valley has always been a wild and crazy place, it's not a beach community. I'm from SoCal originally, have a second home and spend a lot of time there. I agree that "off-duty" casual dress practices in SoCal, far removed from the business world, are much more casual than in the Bay Area. And so too, in a business setting.