grab your purse - I've got the time machine warmed up!

* Greetings, it is I, and I come bearing news.

* I got a job! kinda. A doctor's office is going to pay me to organize their files! The doctor is the husband of the woman whose office I have organized as a volunteer, and she liked what I did so she recommended me. I start next Tues, and I've already been told that there are other docs in the building who need the same help. yay! 
I sent out an e-mail a couple of months ago to my family to see if anyone wanted organizing help, and got 6 hours work from that, so this thing is progressing.
Yesterday I scooped a Martha Organizing magazine/book (which doesn't seem to be pictured anywhere online) and it's so pretty pretty! Man, if I could make a living doing this, I'd be a happy camper. Happy and tidy :)

* I also have a new volunteer position, helping pack fresh fruit and veg for the Good Food Box. yay for helping the community eat better, fresher food! so that takes care of another resolution that I hadn't made yet.

* I've had some great vintage paper scores in the past week. At the Friends of the Library bookstore, found the 1980 Deities and Demigods, the one that includes the Cthulhu Mythos, for $2.50! I don't know if I'll ever game again, but more info on Cthulhu is a good thing. Also got a couple of nice vintage mystery paperbacks, Anatomy of a Murder and A Murder is Announced. 

Yesterday we finally remembered to check out the thrift store at the Oak Bay church (which is only open 4 hours a week. the store, not the church.) and woo hoo! Buried beneath a stack of 80s knitting patterns, a Mid-Winter Sale catalog from Simpson's.

Mid-winter 1950 that is! C'mon, let's go shopping!

First stop, craft department! I'm gonna spring for some polka-dotted washfast prints in pink and white, just 37 cents a yard. After all, patterns are 25 cents each so I'll get enough for a wonderful dress.

and Glen needs curtains in his studio - that cowboy print is perfect!

The bulk of the catalog is in black and white, though.

There's some nice wool for knitting, in so many colours! Pink, Sand, Burgundy, Scarlet ... oh. oh wow. It's too easy to forget what used to be standard. wow. Uh, check out that washing machine beneath the cover, so glad I don't have to use that thing!
Moving on! Don't ask why valentines are paired with office machines, but "15 cut-out Valentines with envelopes for kiddies" is a bargain at 29 cents.

17 assorted cakes of soap for 98 cents sound divine. But I'll pass on "Simpson's Beef, Iron and Wine for anemic and general run-down conditions." ugh, beef wine, bet it tastes naaasty. 

Words cannot express how much I want that dinette set and cabinet. In red. Good thing it's marked "del'd," which means Simpson's pays for delivery "to your nearest post office, railroad station or wharf." The catalog came from Vancouver so it's just across the water, shouldn't take long.

Last stop, ladies' clothing. Super cute dresses just in time for spring! They even have stout sizes! Good grief, if that lady on the far right is stout, I'm in trouble.

If I'm gonna buy a dress, looks like I'll need some assistance.

What's the point of getting a nice, cool, cotton dress if you have to cover yourself in rayon and elastic underneath? Holy cow, "G" is an "outsize pantie girdle" with "lightly boned inner panel for abdomen control" and "short back bones prevent top from rolling and cutting in." Outsize means "large fits waist 30, 31, 32 inches." eep.
I give up!

aaah, plenty of room to move around in these! I wonder why you can't find bloomers in stores any more? Heh, "D" is "sturdy cotton bloomers" in navy only. At least it's available in outsizes :)

And so ends our shopping trip - hope you got lots of bargains! 
Later gators!

they read my mind

* I took the bus downtown all by myself for the first time on Wed, to buy presents for my husband. I stopped in Chapter's to browse and from across the room it called me ...

zombie! and cross stitch! together at last! The box was all sealed up so you can't preview all the patterns inside but there are a few more pattern peeks on the back of the box. This is going on my wish list. (and the author has a blog over here!)

* In other spooky news, Martha's Halloween mag Best-Of book is on the stands (at least here in Canada). But it's a best-of so I'd strongly advise having a look through before you take it home. Almost all the projects have been in previous issues (tombstone yard, bubble wrap jellyfish costume, black vodka cocktails, etc.) But her costume on the cover is new - I wish I had access to her hairstylists!
edited to add: it is actually a book, and only has 2 ads (one across from the table of contents, and one on the back of the book) so it is alot of info handy in one place.

* So I've been volunteering at a facility, and I met one of the board members (1). His son is an actor (2) and was in Battlestar Gallactica. Lucy Lawless (3) was also in BG. But she was the star of Xena, which often guest-starred BRUCE CAMPBELL!!! I'm 4 degrees of separation from Bruce!!! this made my nerdy fan-girl day ;)

* and on that note ...

random fun online

* Thirsty bats! A gentleman in England set up quite a few cameras to get photos of the bats that drank from his pond each night. Amazing to see the texture of their outspread wings and their itty bitty tongues.

* Mystery Google! Type in a search, and you get results from what the previous person searched for. I typed in "halloween party cup labels" and got results for "mmmmmmmm cake." :D "dharma initiative" resulted in "Mystery Google is the shizzzz" :snicker:

* George Takei and his husband Brad Altman were the first gay couple on The Newlywed Game! I don't like the show, but awwwww. They won $10,000 for the Japanese American National Museum.

* Did you know there's a black vodka? Instant spook-ification of cocktails for Halloween. Of course Martha has the scoop! Ghost in the Graveyard (vodka, creme de cacao, a scoop of vanilla ice cream and a sprinkle of nutmeg) sounds delicious and looks fantastic.

She has some other black cocktails in the Halloween special issue, but they aren't online (which surprises me). They include using black food coloring in ice cubes - as the ice cubes melt in your drink the drink gets darker. The effect is cool, especially in a red drink.

* Sonic doesn't have decaf! Sonic doesn't have decaf!

* Fifty people, one question. I love the answer "a planet made of cheese"!

(feel free to skip this next bit)

While watching, I was struck/reminded how attractive people are. Yeah, it's a selection of people willing to answer a question on camera at a certain place and time, but still. I think that watching television and movies, looking at magazines, all that exposure to "pretty" people (or at least those who producers believe we will think are pretty) makes us forget how appealing normal, everyday fellow residents of earth are. Watching them think about the question, smile at the person standing next to them, laugh, I teared up (been feeling emotional this week). Something about turning a camera on them suddenly makes them stand out? I can't explain very well.

Back to your regularly scheduled blog post.