As I already told Laura, I am having an all-choked-up sort of day and these 2 fellows patiently waiting their master inside the grocery store really captured my mood.
The lighter coloured dog has a funny sort of lumpy head that at first I thought was snow piling up. It’s -6C here, pretty chilly. They were gone by the time I was done inside.
My new hat kept my head warm, so that’s something.
In an effort to be healthier, I’ve switched up my normal diet. Of course, I’ve become addicted to this meal and eat it daily. Well, as far as I can tell, there’s nothing bad in it.
It’s a baked sweet potato with a mixed green salad dumped on top, with a lemon juice, olive oil, salt and pepper dressing and nothing else. Well, today-as in this picture-I included some leftover asparagus from last night and sprinkled it with nutritional yeast. The yeast scares Shannon a little, but I find it to be largely tasteless.
I think I want a spritz bottle for the olive oil.
I also got a jar of brown rice syrup to put in coffee instead of refined sugar. Again, Shannon declined but I thought it tasted fine. Plus it gives me the excuse to make granola bars again. I take back what I earlier blogged about brown rice syrup!
Vagoo. It just sounds funny.
And it’s a pretty darn funny thing to spray paint on a building. This is the building formerly known as The Big Bop, corner of Queen St W and Bathurst.
When I worked at Value Village my parents were dismayed to find out that the store does not wash anything before it’s put out on the floor for sale.
“How come it all smells the same, then?” Asked my dad. Because when your stink mixes with thousands of different people’s stink, it all becomes one general stink. And the air ‘fresheners’ that are strategically placed throughout the store also have an effect on the smell.
When I say that it was the worst job I have ever had, I am not kidding. I worked in production, pricing clothing, first womens, then mens and kids. I was on my feet for the entire shift (yeah, I know, boo hoo, but at first it really was a whole lot of boo hoo, I’d come home and cry my feet hurt so bad) and each person that works there is expected to fulfill their quota, each shirt, pair of pants, sheet, china lamb is counted and accounted for. Tallied. Yes, people pad (fudge, aka stealing) their tally sheets, especially after being threatened with losing their job. I was constantly being told that I was in line for a managerial position, just learn this, do that, do all this extra work and it will be yours…some day. I quit well before some day ever came.
Anyway, part of pricing clothing is deciding if it the pair of jeans is even worth putting a price tag on and hanging it out to sell. What makes something unsellable, you ask? Stains. Rips. Crotch rot (lots of that, hoo boy!). Bally sweaters. Hand altered anything. Deodorant streaks. Stink. Mold. You get the idea. In summer time when people are busy donating sweaters that no one wants to buy because it’s 120 in the shade, you can be even pickier on each sweater that comes down the line.
So what’s the deal at the Value Village that is (almost) right next door to me? I really have to wonder. I know pricing techniques have changed since I was employed there (we had to staple the tags onto the garment and then hand write the price in grease pencil and they have those plastic hanger tags now) and maybe that has something to do with it, but for real, the clothes there are horrific. I can honestly say that I have never, EVER found anything even remotely worth buying and wearing. Even the time I went before we went cob house building so I could get grotty work pants, I came home empty handed. Both pairs that I found that would fit me had someone’s left over yeast infection inside. No thanks.
Today I took a few pictures just to show that I’m not just talking out of my ass.
#1 Sheet with glorious white ‘mystery’ stain. It’s so obvious, it’s right at the fold of fabric that is on top of the hanger. How could the person pricing this MISS THIS STAIN?!?!
So you can see, it’s not a small stain either. It’s a lot of stain.
I just shivered and felt a little like puking.
#2 Jeans with hole.
and how much are they charging for ripped jeans these days?
Plus tax, people. To be fair, these were Diesel jeans. But they were also Diesel jeans from at least 10 years ago. If I’d gotten these on my line when I worked at VV I would have ragged them off. Or, if we were desperate for jeans, I might have put them out for 99 cents. No, I take that back. I would have ragged them off.
#3 World’s prettiest dress. This dress is home made. It’s easy to tell, the seams are 2″ wide and all the edges are just pinked. It’s really badly made and it’s an extremely ugly pattern. Even the fabric isn’t worth salvaging for anything, it’s cheap and (not really) cheerful.
It’s so gruesome that not even a hipster, desperate for attention and validation would buy it. Can you guess the price on it? I know, you’re thinking “free” right? Well, you’re close:
That’s right. It’s also $7.99, same as the ripped jeans! Maybe that pricer’s pricing doo-dad was stuck on that number? Again, this is the type of dress I would have priced for 99 cents and it still wouldn’t sell. Just for the tally.
#3 and #4 Filthy jeans. All I did was walk down one aisle of womens jeans and these were blatantly just hanging there for anyone (like management!) to see. This is a common ailment of jeans and pants, the hems all ripped, dirty and stepped on. I’d have ragged these off without a second glance.
And I didn’t even have to look for any of these in the store, they were all out in the open. Not smashed into a rack, not covertly folded to hide the problem. And it certainly isn’t like there’s a lack of jeans in this particular store, there’s rows of them, all jammed in. Imagine what I couldn’t see.
And so? If you find problems like this at your local Value Village (or equivalent type store), you really ought to point them out to the manager on duty, and preferably to the Production Manager. That is the person in charge of the people who do the pricing. I’ve done this before, at this very store, but I guess they don’t care because it’s in a pretty ghetto area of Toronto.
All I ask is that you remember, before you wear it, to WASH EVERYTHING YOU BUY SECONDHAND. Especially anything that will come in direct contact with your skin. And happy hunting!
I took these on my walk home from Dufferin Mall today. I tried to take a picture of an hilarious hipster but missed him by inches so I turned my camera to myself instead. I’m almost as hip, with my Gap for Kids sunglasses, right?
It’s better blown up, if you click it you can see. It’s motion.
Speaking of my phone, I’ve had a few problems with it for a couple days. I’m new to the world of macs and all that so I find them hard to use and confusing. Especially itunes. I just don’t understand why I can delete apps directly from my phone but not podcasts or songs. Not even the podcasts I download directly onto it. Then for about 24 hours itunes wasn’t even seeing my phone when it was plugged in. Not only that, but itunes was also freezing when the phone was plugged in. Unplugged? Everything’s kosher.
I installed the newest version of itunes on both my computer and my phone. Here’s me hoping it works better.
I have a headache. I made these but they’re not for eating for another 45 minutes. If they’re not good I am going to blow a gasket. Watch me.
In other news, Roger Ebert’s interview on Esquire is quite amazing, leading me to read his blog , lots of movie reviews and other interesting stories. I was thrilled to read that he thought Synecdoche NY was the best film of the past decade. I loved it too and look forward to having time to watch it again.
I love that I got all three of the girls in one picture. They were all chilling out together last night and the camera flash didn’t seem to bother them at all. Unlike the red laser pointer that makes them all go crazy. Sorry about that.
I told the women at my (last) quilting class about them. I sound like a proud mother. I just wish there was something I could do for Donna’s lumps. Poor old girl. She’s been doing a lot of resting lately and I know she’s an old fish…
I had such a busy day, I’ve completely sewn the top of the new baby quilt I started-get this-yesterday. No, I won’t post a picture of it yet, it’s a surprise gift for a friend who’s pregnant and if she can wait, so can the rest of the universe.
In lieu, here’s a picture of my sampler quilt, almost finished. I’ve done some of the quilting (and you can see my 8 million safety pins keeping all the layers together) and will finish that part on Tuesday at the workroom-my sewing machine can’t handle that kind of work. I’ve run pretty hot and cold on this project, but seeing it together in one giant lump makes me pretty happy and proud. And desirous of a new sewing machine, for real.
As for the three blocks that I haven’t posted yet, top left is called drunkard’s path, top middle is an appliqued block and bottom left is a pinwheel or somesuch. The dark pink between all the blocks is the top edge of an old sheet, the pink floral is the same sheet, the white with light pink and dark orange is ikea fabric. You can see the batting pinned in the middle, that’s the cream around the edge, and just a peek at the back, another old percale sheet. It’s soft and heavy and I can’t wait to snug up under this while watching a movie.
All I have left to do on it, after the quilting, is the edge. Woo!
I went shopping today because I needed a new self-healing cutting mat to slice up fabric for a new quilt I am working on. I wound up buying more stuff than expected-a set of sheets for our bed for example-but I also came home with three cutting mats instead of one. Oops. Whoever was stocking the shelves at the store was lazy and didn’t open the bag of three, leaving it as one big pack on the shelf. I didn’t notice ’til I got home.
The sheets are bright salmon/orange and I like them a lot. And for $25, I can’t complain. I also got lots of bright thread for quilting with, new blades for my cutting jigger and a bunch of gymnastic suits for Ari because they were on sale for $5 each, cheaper than Meijer even. Huh.
My final quilting class is this Thursday, I’ll post a picture then of the silliness I made. Seriously, it’s totally over the top.
That’s me in the middle looking worried. I wasn’t worried, it’s just that in the olden days we were forced to smile into direct sunlight to create a ‘good’ picture. I don’t know who that baby is. Just some baby. We’re at Fort George. Maybe.
Oh, and ps, the Werewolf movie is good in a silly way, I had the giggles all the way through, thinking about SCTV with Marty Short as Scott Baio as TeenWolf.
As it goes every year, I made my way back to Windsor on Superbowl weekend. It’s a good way to reconnect with my Windsor girls, I love them all so much and miss them like crazy during the rest of the year. The weekend was spent largely getting to know Ruby who’s 15 months old and smart as a whip.
And she wears a pirate shirt. I have a healthy respect for that type.
We went shopping stateside at my beloved Target. Of course. And we also went to Meijer, where I’d never been before. I love it there too. The fish were friendly.
We also went to a cool Michigan hunting store but I didn’t take pictures there out of fear. But I loved the store and I wish I lived near it.
After shopping we came home and went for a walk. What an adorable family, eh? Ruby wore her new dress that Libs made.
And I went bowling with my girls last night. That’s all, 2 nights really isn’t enough, not to see everyone and not to do everything you want. But it’s a good time to spread love! Right Kum?
