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I, Mac

July 12, 2011 By

A few months ago, my computer started acting a bit weird. It’s 3 years old, or about the age where people start thinking about buying a new computer. But I’m cheap, and for the most part it still did what I wanted it to do without too much aggravation, but even I had to admit that it was getting more and more difficult to go to my happy place while playing on my computer.

First, there was the smell that led to me needing a new power supply. Not long after that, it was a new fan somewhere on the inside (I can’t remember if it was a hard drive or motherboard fan or some other fan). Then, there was the iTunes incident.

It didn’t seem all that bad at the time. I got a free download code for a sampler on the iTunes Facebook page, but it was taking forever and a day to download. I’m serious when I say forever and a day. After about a half hour, the total download time was well over 24 hours. So I tried to pause and restart the download. Then I tried to quit iTunes, but it wasn’t letting me and by this point froze up, so I had to force quit. I restarted iTunes but got the same results as the first time, so I forced quit again and decided to restart my computer. Again, same results. Then I figured that since I was about 2 minor updates behind, I’d update iTunes. That seemed to do the trick, and my sampler album downloaded completely in a reasonable amount of time.

About a month later, it happened again. A new sampler album, same issues, blah blah blah. Did I mention how this whole thing affected my computer? Yeah, it did that too. My printer driver got lost, so I had to redownload that too. Except I could never print to that printer again (at least, I couldn’t print to it the one time I tried).

I gave up on iTunes for awhile, until about a month ago. I decided I needed to buy some new, fun music to listen to, so I went to the store and bought some music. It downloaded fine. But then I noticed something. I noticed the exclamation point. You know that one that’s on every song in your library that iTunes can’t find the file for? But I wasn’t worried at this point.

To save space on my computer, I had my music library on an external hard drive, and when I updated iTunes it was pointing to my C drive instead of the J. No big deal, right? I’ll just go in and change the settings so it points to the external.

My music folder on the external hard drive was empty.

So was my photos folder (I totally just typed pholder, btw). At least my photos were actually on my C drive, so I wasn’t worried about that. The music was what I was worried about.

I went online and asked the Google gods what to do. I saw a few different suggestions, and tried them all. None of them seemed to work.

My music library was hosed, and I decided that I’d had enough of PCs.

I copied and pasted what now amounted to a list of songs to Excel, just in case things got messed up any further. About 95% of the music on there was not stuff purchased from the iTunes store, so I knew that sooner or later I’d be ripping a heck of a lot of CDs again.

A few weeks ago, fed up with my computer, I went to the Apple store to talk up a salesperson about the iMac. I last used one at a job I got laid off from in 2001, and had been missing it. Ever since then, I’ve been randomly going to the Mac website and staring all lovey-eyed at the iMacs, so that was what I was looking at. I already knew I wanted one, but everything the salesperson told me as he went through the demo and answered my questions only made me want one more. After walking out of there that day, I was wondering how anyone could NOT want a Mac.

I left there bound and determined to get an iMac.

Last week, after being a good wife and helping Mister when he got sick, he noticed my computer was making a somewhat annoying buzzing sound. It wasn’t as loud as it’s been known to get lately, but it was still noticeable. I told him that I had been coveting an iMac, and showed him what I knew from the info online. I know when we discussed it a few months ago he wasn’t keen, since he’s a PC, but I finally convinced him. He said we’d go get the iMac that weekend.

Oh, how I jumped for joy!!!

Last Saturday, we went to the Apple store. I selected my iMac, called Mister an asshole no less than 5 times thanks to some raging PMS, and left my old, soon to be dead computer with the Apple people so they could do the data transfer (rather, what was left of the data). I was to go back on Sunday evening for my Meet Your New Mac session and pick up my old and new computer. The old computer never made it back into the house, and my shiny new iMac is on my desk now. I still need to take care of the iTunes library, but I’m making slow progress on that.

I am loving my new iMac. Later this week, after I thank my husband some more for buying me my iMac, I’ll tell you what I like and don’t like about it.

Filed Under: I Like Things, Shopping

Fashionably Me

March 11, 2011 By

I mentioned a few years ago about my weight and the overabundance of it that I have. When I gained the weight I stopped caring about clothing as much. I just did not want to invest in the larger size and was hoping that the weight would come off as quickly as it went on. Not so. Here I am, a few years later, with nothing but boring, worn out clothes to wear, and I’m tired of it.

Losing weight isn’t a rapid process, so while I keep telling myself that I’m working on it, I need something to wear that I feel good in. My “uniform” for the past few years has been solid colored jersey knit shirts – long sleeve or short sleeve, and when I find a fit I like I’ll buy one in every color. Khakis or other simple pants for work, and that’s it. No makeup and no accessories. No jewelry beyond my wedding ring and necklace that Mister gave me – not even the earrings I’ve been so fond of making lately. Very plain, perfect for sitting in a cubicle.

But I’ve been getting bored. I’m tired of being plain, and if I can’t do something about my body right this second, I can at least buy new clothes that aren’t so plain. So this past weekend, I dragged Mister to the mall. He didn’t believe me when I had NO IDEA that my larger ladies retailer of choice was having a wicked good sale – 40% off everything in the store. Honestly, I didn’t know. It was mobbed and finding anything in my size was difficult, but I managed to find a few things.

I still stuck to mostly solids, but strayed from the plain t-shirt look. I ended up with a couple of lace-trimed camis, a v-neck 3/4 sleeve cardigan, a nice 3/4 sleeve blazer, new jeans, and the big no-no of horizontal stripes. I tried to dismiss it but Mister made me try it on, and against my preconceived notions, it actually looked good! It was a royal blue and white v-neck sweater, and when I wore it to work on Monday I got a lot of compliments. Oh, and I got a new pair of jeans, because who doesn’t need more jeans?

Since then I’ve been on a mission. I found a few more cardigans to wear, realized how much I love layering so I’ve been searching camisoles out in every color that looks good on me, and I want to look for a few more things this weekend to see if I can get enough things to break out of my fashion shell.

I also want to learn to accessorize more. I have no intention of getting rid of the plain knits, but I think if I can figure out how to accessorize them better then I can give them new life. I bought the latest copy of In Style magazine, but was sorely disappointed. It was an inch-thick series of advertisements with no useful information for the larger lady wanting to dip her toe into the world of fashion on an extreme budget. I haven’t looked very hard, but if anyone has any suggestions for blogs that would be suitable, I’d love to hear them!

And makeup. I haven’t ventured very far there, yet, but I did come to the realization that I haven’t really purchased any new makeup since my wedding nearly 3 years ago. So pretty much all of that needs to go. I bought a few things, but haven’t yet been successful enough to get my ass up early enough to put any of it on. That’s the next step.

I want to be a bit more fashionable, but the frugal cheapo in me wants to keep the look classic, so that I’m not required to buy a new wardrobe every season. I don’t have the patience or money for that. I’m trying to find a balance between Plain Jane and high fashion that works for my simple tastes.

How do you approach fashion, especially with accessorizing? Where do you get your inspiration?

Filed Under: Shopping

Wearing Makeup

November 16, 2009 By



Now that I’ve wasted far too much time putting that collage together, I think I’ll write a post on cosmetics. Makeup. The sort of thing that girls are supposed to live for, and not want to let anyone see them without.

I wore makeup to work the other day, which is a rarity for me. My sleep is far too valuable to me to give up in the name of mascara. But the other day I noticed a zit just under my nose, in that tender divet that goes from the nose to the upper lip. It was red and ugly, so I dug around my makeup drawer and found the concealer. Then, as these things go, I had to powder the area to set the concealer, which led to putting powder foundation on my entire face. Which was then too pale, since I evened out all the redness. So then I had to put on some eye makeup. Mascara and carefully selected shadows to make it look like I hadn’t put too much effort into my look. I ended up looking like a circus clown.

At least, it felt that way. What I really looked like was a way too pale redhead with minimal eye makeup on and no color to the lips, since I chose basic chapstick instead of lipstick. I felt like the lipstick would have been too much.

I have a bit of a love/hate relationship with makeup. I generally like the way it makes me look. I love buying the shit, for some odd reason. Throw in some free samples and I’m a bit of a sucker. I’m not particularly fond of wearing it, since I can’t rub my eyes. I’m not all that great at putting it on – anything beyond the basic shadow/mascara combo and I just can’t get it right. Well, it comes out nice on one eye, but I can’t replicate that on the other eye. And I hate the fact that I can’t just crash without washing it off, lest I wake with a faceful of zits and major raccoon eyes.

I started out like most other girls. When I started having a bit of pocket money and the independence to be at the mall unsupervised, my friends and I would carefully select what we wanted from the Wet N Wild display at the drugstore. At 99 cents, we got the most bang for our buck – not that it went far, since that stuff was utter crap. When we had a bit more earning power, we moved on to Bonne Belle, especially the coveted Lip Smackers roll-on lip gloss. And who could forget those ginormous compacts with 101 eye colors in them? Ah, memories. I think makeup was most fun when we were in middle school, not that we knew much what we were doing with it at that point.

As I went through high school, college, and my early working years, I’d mostly wear makeup, choosing a simple, neutral look for everyday and the same makeup applied with a heavier hand for evening. I learned pretty quickly what worked on me (variations of flesh and taupe tones) and shunned all else – unless it came in a free sample, of course. Anything with too much red made me look tired, and anything with too much blue/gray seemed to make the bags under my eyes worse. I didn’t experiment much.

Eventually, I stopped wearing makeup every day. I didn’t have the stamina to put it on every morning, and I didn’t feel pretty enough to want to wear it. I still have quite a bit of it, with my most recent makeup buying spree happening before my wedding. I still don’t have the skillz to apply it like a professional, at least not so both eyes look the same. Sometimes I think I’d like to wear makeup if Mister and I go out in the evening, but then I remember that there’s the whole routine of taking it off before bed, which stops me from wearing it (out of sheer laziness, or efficiency, if you will. I’m saving myself steps and time both before and after going out). I still love playing with the testers at the makeup counter, still covet a whole cosmetic tackle box full of product, and still get giddy at the thought of a free gift with purchase.

What’s a girl to do?

Filed Under: Shopping

Weekly Round-Up

March 20, 2009 By

I was going to blog about it last week, but I never got around to it. It’s like that a lot these days. But we had an event here at the blog – my blog turned 3! March 14 was the big day, so on Saturday I figured we’d really get into the celebration and have a cake.

Bloggy Birthday - 3 yrs!


Pay no attention to all the fingerprints on the monitor.

We’ve also been taking full advantage of the Netflix account that I got Mister for Christmas, so we’ve been watching quite a few movies lately. Last week we watched Clerks, since I’d never seen it, and then Clerks 2. The first Clerks was ok, but I felt like it tried too hard to have lots of clever dialogue and as a result didn’t have enough substance, but Clerks 2 was freaking hysterical. Yes, I go for low-brow humor that leans way too close to the inappropriate side of things.

My Mom’s looking forward to her trip to Sweden in May. I want to go. I went, once, in 1996, but that’s a story for another day. Anyway, I’m sending my mom with a shopping list for me because she wanted me to spend way more money on stuff for her when I was there. Mom, here’s my list:

  • Two more ceramic tile/trivets to hang in my kitchen to fill out the space that one lonely one occupies now. Content is irrelevant, so long as it’s in Swedish.
  • The latest edition of Sköna Hem. It’s a home magazine, and you’ll find it at a place called a tidningskiosk or bokhandel.
  • If you happen to make your way to a great Swedish IKEA, I am in need of more spreaders like these because mine got misplaced in the move. The ones at IKEA are a bit over $3 US, but if you see them elsewhere for a bit more that’s ok too.
  • Anything with Linnea flower on it. You have enough of this stuff and I don’t.

Now, if Princess Vespa decides that she can live without her industrial strength hairdryer and deal with a tiny travel one, she can fit all this stuff in her suitcase and more. Be sure to visit Aunt Bird for lessons on how to pack for an international vacation, mmkay?

I’m going to wrap this post up a bit early. I had more that I wanted to say but in looking up one of the links above, I found a boatload of Swedish gift shops online and I need to go investigate.

Filed Under: My Blog, Shopping

Ready to Shop?

August 11, 2008 By

I thought long and hard about monetizing my blog.  I didn’t want to clutter up my fine work with ads, and I wasn’t keen on the whole pay-per-post idea.  In the past, you’ve probably seen some posts with links to products on Amazon.com using an affiliate program.  That’s about the extent of my efforts to make money from the blog.  Then Amazon came out with a whole storefront thing that you can insert in your site.  I fiddled around with it and realized I could probably do that.  So I made a shop – months ago.  I made the new page and let it sit in draft for the longest time, thinking I’ll release it when I have the time to work on it more.  But then I figured, why not?  Why not release it now?  So I did.  I’m featuring some stuff I’ve mentioned on the blog, along with other stuff I love.  And I decided to stay exclusively with Amazon because it’s a site that everyone knows, and they carry nearly everything.  So go check it out.  I’ll be adding more stuff as time and inspiration permits, so check back once in awhile.

Filed Under: My Blog, Shopping