Damn denim

this week's column -

It's that bittersweet time of year again.

It's when the mornings are cool but the days still linger of summer. It's when you can almost smell the faint aroma of apples and pumpkins in the air. It's when you swap out the khaki shorts for a pair of denim instead.

There's something comforting about slipping back into your favorite pair of jeans.

That is, unless you dread trying to squeeze back into those jeans that have been hanging in the closet all summer. For some women, this is a dreaded moment.

Will they fit? Can I get them past my thighs? How does my butt look in these?

What was your favorite pair of jeans last year could easily become a donation to Goodwill this year.

All the recent fall advertisements are running rampant with specials on jeans in all the latest trends.

Rhinestones on the pockets. Faded washes. Tethered hems as to look like you've been dragging them on cement.

So, do you spend the extra money for the brand that makes your back side look best, or stick with the traditional, never-out-of-style pair?

I'm pretty sure men and women will answer this differently.

A friend asked me to go to a denim customizing event near Detroit this weekend and I agreed. Then I read the fine print. A group of celebrity stylists and fashion designers will help you make your jeans unique with any $75 denim purchase.

So, I have to pay that much for a new pair of jeans only to proceed to tearing them up, distressing them and otherwise making them look old?

The things we'll do for the perfect pair of jeans. These better last more than one season.

Then & Now

Because we have a bunch'o lame asses in our class, Lakeview High class of '95 was not able to hold a 10-year reunion. Instead, we just had a small, informal gathering at Ball Joint Sports Bar on Friday. They're usually called mixers, but really the most mixing going on was at the bar.

Of those who showed up, mostly everyone hung out with their same friends and grouped up with the same people they hung around during school.

But, it was fun. I wish more classmates would have shown up. I'm still surprised that we had such a low turnout, and I know there's lot of people still in the area.

Oh, well. Kim and I had a good time hanging out and chatting it up with some old friends.

Hopefully, we can have a 20-year reunion. Kim told me she nominates moi for organizing a 15-year get together with dinner and everything. It would be nice, but I don't even think people will want to do it then.

CONSUMER ALERT

Perhaps it's the journalistic instinct in me, or the fact that I'd hate to see another couple go through the shit we've encountered with this place.
I mentioned in a previous entry that the jeweler that we got my engagement ring said they'd fix my ring for free.

Off the ring went, encased in a jewelry box, surrounded by a well insulated envelope and shipped in a box. We got confirmation that it arrived in New York, but we wanted to hear from the jeweler that they got it.

Here's what we got:

"Hi.
Yes we got it.
You said: "Today, a small baguette diamond fell out of its setting and cannot be found" well - Even it it fell out just like that - after all this time it is the Insurance responsibility not ours but we wanted to show you good faith and therefore agreed to repair it for free. However - The ring you sent us is so badly bent that it looks like a truck went over it. This was totally untruthful and disrespectful. Where is your shame people?? where is your fear of god and honesty?
You need to send us a check for $200.00: $50.00 for shipping and insurance and $150.00 for the stone or we send it back (but you still need to send the $50) while filing a fraud complaint against you.
Shame on you! How low can you go? When you buy a car and you hit a wall becase you are drunk - do you send the car back to Ford and blame them?"

ARE YOU KIDDING ME? DON'T EVER PURCHASE FROM ROMANCING THE STONE, OR RTS, INC., IN NEW YORK.

If fire could shoot my nostrils and ears right now, I swear. The ring was never bent. It was on my friggin finger until the day I noticed the stone missing. If this place was here and not in NY, I would be in their faces all day.

Don't mess with a woman and her diamonds.

What a wicked game to play

Our neighbor invited me to golf with her a couple week's ago up at Riverside Country Club for ladies' night. I rushed home from work to change into a sleeveless collared shirt and shorts. It was so damn hot and muggy that day that we were uncertain if we'd even get past the first hole.
So, off we go in our putzy little electric cart. We head down a steep hill to the first tee box and I'm ready to play.
Mind you, I've only golfed twice this summer prior to this night. Once with Scott at Cedar Creek, where I shot a 61 on the front 9, and once with my dad at Cedar Farms, coming in with 49 on the first 9. Scott was scoring very generously considering I might have lost two balls in the water on the third hole. I call No. 3 at Cedar Creek my nemesis. And, I'll take the good score at Cedar Farms, but it's also an extrememly easy course - wide open, no water. That's my style.
But, as Jayna and I get ready for what turned into the longest, hardest and most aggravating 9 holes of my life, I'm staring down a fairway that I've never played. I have no idea where I'm going and how to get there as I tee up my first ball. I've never played this course and it's about to play me.
As if a course has a life of its own, that damn big, green monster swallowed us alive that night. If I hit left, Jayna hit right. If I got in the rough, which happened a lot especially on No. 7, I stayed in the rough. There was no hope for us.
We teed off shortly after 6 p.m. and ventured into the clubhouse at almost 9. It really shouldn't take 3 hours to play 9, but we managed it.
Inside, we sat down for dinner and a few drinks and our husbands joined only to humor us as we told them how terribly we played. I quickly became tired, and it's no wonder considering I probably swang the club about 100 times that day.
I left the course that night knowing a few things. I hate this game, I love this game, I hate this game. I can play better, I have played better. I will play better.

Now announcing

Our wedding announcement was in the BCE paper last week.

If a picture is worth a 1,000 words

Then we just posted a novel. Our wedding pictures are now available for viewing on Snapfish. That way you can view and order prints at your leisure, because I'm pretty tired of trying to figure out who wants what, and in what size and how I'm going develop all these.
There's like 500 pictures, so have fun.
Also, the formal shots taken after the ceremony are not here. There's about 15 poses and we'll need to order those thru the photog.

So, if you want to see the pics at Snapfish, then e-mail me and I can invite you to the albums.

Jobby-Job

Scott was offered a position by the new contractor and he will continue to work at the Federal Center. They'll pay him a bit less, but at least he's still employed.

Meanwhile, we need to continue working on work for my dad. He's applied and sent lots of resumes out, but no bites yet.

Keep your fingers crossed!

His future's so bright....

It's pretty fair to say that like father, like son, Tony DeVito likes his cars.
Hopefully, he'll someday find a woman as wonderful and understanding as his own mother about the joys of multiple car ownership.

Over the River & Through the Woods

My mom and I visited my grandmother this past weekend in Prairie Du Chien, Wisconsin. Never heard of it, you say? Don't worry, neither had I until my grandma remarried her ex-husband (they were divorced almost 25 years) and moved up there.

I left Friday morning to swing through Chicago-land and pick up my mom. She's not thrilled about highway driving so I continued to be the capitain. It should have taken about 4 hours to get to mom's (I can usually get there faster, but Chicago is construction hell right now), and then another 4 hours to g-ma's. It took us 6 hours, in part because we were a bit lost due to my grandma's fine directions. And, being in Madison, Wisc. at 5 o'clock Friday rush hour SUCKS!

But, Prairie Du Chien is a beautiful place. It sits on the Mississippi River, nestled between high bluffs and shaded valleys. A cool place where only about 5,000 live, but the population about doubles in the summer with campers, boaters and anglers hitting the river.

Needless to say, I'm pretty sick of driving now that I logged 1,000 miles in one weekend. Coming home was a little better and everyone, especially my grandma who was so "tickled" that we came to see her finally.

Napa Newbies

The Pestows are online! Welcome to the world of online.

Liz Pestow liked the blog we started so much that she created one for her and her family. Good idea since they don't say put in one place very long.

Check out the Napa Newbies by clicking the title link.