Two more weeks til vacation. Just thought I would lead with that.

Always a little sad to leave Janey on Monday morning.

Current reading situation. Just started A Man Called Ove. I TRY to put new books on the bottom of the pile as they come in. But those bottom two have been on the bottom for a long time.

Went to a party at a co-worker’s house Wednesday night in honor of one of my office-mate’s leaving this week. Got to the area way too early so drove by mother’s old house – where I lived from 1969-1985 (age 9 to 24). They’ve done a lot of work to it and it’s almost unrecognizable. The same people that bought it from us when we sold it, still live there now. I kind of like that. See that bump in the sidewalk by the tree? I used to ride my bike back and forth and back and forth over that, pretending I was riding a horse and that was a jump. I’m glad it’s still there.

The hostess is truly the hostess with the mostest. She’s a great cook and a wonderful conversationalist. She throws a nice party.

There was a big storm that night. I had to break my “no driving in the rain after dark” rule cuz I would have left practically as soon as everyone else got there and I felt too guilty to do that. It’s hard to keep a rule like that when other people are involved.

The next night I went with a friend to sit on a nearby beach and the sky was CRAZE. EE. We did caught in the rain on the way home but I was on familiar roads near to home so it wasn’t so bad.

Saturday morning I got up (relatively) early and headed to a little area of Long Island I refer to as “Hell on Earth.” But it is home to the only Old Navy on LI that carries plus sizes. I had high hopes. A particular pair of white skinny jeans I have been waiting to go on sale, finally did, but also promptly sold out in my size. So I was hoping the store would have my size in stock.

They did not.

What they DID have was one of my pet peeves – the clearance rack for all the other departments taking up valuable real estate in the plus size section AND adding that “we don’t care about you so we’re letting your section be a mess” element that I just wrote about here.

I doubt I will ever go back. SEE? They make it unpleasant and not worth our time to go (very little plus size inventory) and then when they don’t make much $$ from plus size sales, rather than IMPROVING the section, they remove it!

Ugh. Haven’t quite gotten off my soapbox yet.

There was a Trader Joe’s right next door and I’d read about a new item I’d wanted to try. So I went in for this…

And ended up with this…

I don’t let myself go into Trader’s very often cuz random purchases.

Janey and I spent the rest of the afternoon on the sofa. And it was good.

A pretty spot.

An ugly spot.

The Sofa Shoe Collection continues to grow.

And Sunday I went to a birthday party for the sweetest 18-year-old young man. His mother threw a fun carnival themed party with games and a magician and all sorts of goodies.

I didn’t knock over the cans but I did manage to knock over the game guy’s drink, so he gave me a winner card 🙂

This week I read:

Such A Pretty Fat by Jen Lancaster. Uhm. It was entertaining enough. I think I actually laughed out loud a couple times. But…it’s yet another book where the “happy ending” is that the heroine lost weight. I’m on the fence. If you read it let me know what you thought.

Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli. I’ve had this one on my To Be Read list so long I couldn’t even remember why or who had recommended it.  It was charming. About being yourself in the face of…everyone else wishing you were more like them…and loving someone in spite of what “everyone else” thinks. It’s a quick read. But so you know, the main characters are high school students. That almost turned me off from reading it, but I’m glad it didn’t.

And that is all she wrote for this week! Can you believe summer is starting to wind down? The nights and mornings are already a little cooler and some leaves are turning brown and landing on the patio. I’m not ready yet. Winter is so high maintenance.

BUT…vacation is in two weeks, so…(I know I led with that, but it seemed important enough to end with also).