Military Families Lose Provider; Discount Program Available
This post brought to you by Walgreens. All opinions are 100% mine.
When someone is tangled in red tape and can't get their ketaconazole to pacify their eczema or salicylic acid for their warts, they can't be the most devastatingly attractive Gent or Gent-ette they can be. They still might be, but they won't feel like it thinking they have to cover their faces. All the hassle makes my skin itch just thinking about it.
Whenever anyone makes that challenging family life more difficult, especially to those with family separated by deployment, it really frosts my chain (is that even an idiom?)
Woohoo – a double whammy of button pushing. My quill has been dipped. Where can I scribble off a well-deserved verbal missive? A howler might do. 100,000 military families have already already signed a proclamation. It really was a petition, but "proclamation" has a more colonial-era patriotic nostalgia to it.
Apparently, Express Script, which acts as the middle man to Tricare, the prescription service used by the US Military, has pulled out of allowing patients to fill their prescriptions at Walgreens. With Walgreens and Express Script no longer having an agreement, families will face purchasing their medications at out of network prices or scrambling to find another pharmacy. Express wanted to reclassify medications as brand name that Walgreens offers to everyone as generic. For the latest news on that, "Like" Walgreens on Facebook for postings, follow Walgreens on Twitter.
For the time being, the Walgreens Prescription Savings Club is offered at a mere $5 per individual and $10 per family if you sign up by January 31st. It can help ease the transition, as well as possibly offer medications at a reduced rate, particularly if generics fly your carpet. By the way, the family pet is eligible, too, so long as the medication has a human equivalent.
Plus Size Fashion: Basics and Tips – (USA Made)
While I enjoy the latest fads to walk down the run way, readers know we have a special place in the left breast pocket for vintage goods. Another love is products made right here in the USA. It is easy to find artisan made clothing and items from one-off independent designers, but every day staples get to be a challenge, especially if the T-shirts with “American” in their name, notably still made here, are out of your size range. Clothing, except for plus size pants, which can be made to specific measurements, is difficult to merely just make bigger. In other items, darts, pleats and the overall design must be reimagined.
Blouse House is one of the rare plus size clothiers that manufacture their garments in the US, offering a range of plus size tops, dresses and pants in sizes up to 7x. The styles are fairly conservative. You won’t see any body bearing pinup fashions here, but you will fine staples appropriate for the office as well as patterned tops and swimwear.
Fashion Tips for Sizes 3x and Up:
- Go up a size if the bust, waist or hips are too large for the garment measurements, even if the garment fits perfectly elsewhere. Take the garment in an inch or two at the areas of smaller measurement to avoid volumes of extra fabric. If it is the right measurements but the button pulls very slightly in the bust and the darts don’t lay at the right spot, the brassiere could be the wrong size rather than the shirt
Plus size tunics are more forgiving in the bust and stomach. To carry off the look without looking like you are wearing a tent, the sleeves must be tailored to fit. Hem up cuffs, move a button, or even take the garment in at the shoulder seam. A detailed collar such as a mandarin collar often flatters more than a wide round neckline.
- Horizontal stripes are universally shunned, although a thin pinstripe that does not appear until the viewer is close does not distort the body. A bold woman can pull off wide bold stripes if it absolutely fits a flamboyant personality, but not on top AND bottom…that goes for anyone of any size.
- Even if you are plus sized, don’t fool yourself that you don’t have a basic body shape. Not all plus size women are apple shaped. Follow other fit recommendations for hourglass, apple or pear figures and look for those cuts. A tunic that hangs from the bust may equalize an apple figure or a very straight figure, but does not flatter an hourglass-shaped woman. To create shape, creatively use layers or belts or choose garments with a tailored waist.
Sprechen Sie “Moo?”
The best way to learn a foreign language is often immersion over total route learning, after you learn the basics, of course. After all, that is how young children learn it. While my aspirations of a bullwhip toting, Ancient Sumerian speaking archeology student were quickly dashed, learning the odd language to keep the brain active interests me greatly. Where exactly can you immerse yourself without making a complete clod of yourself at a bakery where immigrants from a particular country hang out and chat? Then I thought about it – what about familiar video games, just conducted in that foreign language.
Browsergame-World has Farmerama which smells distinctly like a German-language Farmville, a mafia game and a roster of browser-based adventure games. Players can launch and play them in their browser with no downloads of the game required. Could this be a practical way of serving up language in digestible spoonfuls for reluctant students, just like slipping avocado puree into their chocolate pudding for fiber and vitamins? At least you’ll know how to converse if you meet a cow or ninja on your trip to Berlin.
Cube, Sweet Cube
This post brought to you by Contest Factory. All opinions are 100% mine.
Ah, the joys of modular living. Issues of Dwell (whoops, I mean dwell) magazine are rife with hip examples of fitting an entire bachelor pad into a broom closet and living in a glass box in the middle of the woods. The art of living in shrunken spaces is old hat for office cubicle dwellers. The cubicle – long bereft of any individuality besides a carefully pinned yellowing Doonesbury or Sally Forth cartoon – is long overdue for a reimagining.
If you are a disenchanted cubicle dweller who has long been depressed by gray carpeted walls and can't help but translate that to clutter and depression, your cries have been heard.
From now through January 31, 2012, enter the Pimp My Cube Contest and take a video of your daytime domicile for a shit at a complete makeover. The grand prize winner receives:
- A smashing new decor theme.
- A comfortable office chair. No duct tape.
- A new desk.
- A high-end computer system.
- Other luxuries such as an espresso machine and a sound system.
If you are not declared the luckiest sod, you could win a $200 gift card if you win the consolation prize. Not too shabby indeed.
To enter, all you need is a webcam or a phone video camera to tell your tragic or witty tale. The odds are really good. As of a few days ago, there was only ONE entry. Hop to it!
Quick Fit Tip from Olukai
A warm wind is blowing across the range, rustling my hair and tickling the gently tilting palm fronds. Too bad its just an overtaxed furnace and a poorly positioned terrarium near the heat register. Even so, this is the merry time of year when mere Northern Hemispherians think about the mukluks they didn’t get for Christmas, yet the clothing industry is fill tilt ahead on showing us their wares of Sandals and Flip Flops. It’s not cruel. The industry just knows we procrastinate in our thinking and must be reminded early, and it takes them awhile to bring to market what we instantly want to see in July.
Olukai Sandals makes a line of thong sandals and shoes inspired by Hawaii, though they are headquartered in California. The outsoles are made from 30% recycled materials and the packaging is made completely from recycled paper and cardboard. What’s puzzling? They only come in whole sizes. What if you wear a half size?
The company suggests that you determine size by the position and fit of the arch piece. Each sandal has an anatomical arch feature. If the arch area on both sizes fit you, choose the shoe that gives you a snug fit, or extra room, depending on what your fit preference is. After all, there is some flexibility of fit in an open sandal that is not afforded in saddle shoes or roping boots. The little toe is not as easily pinched…unless you are not giving other people appropriate personal space. Then, my friend, your toes are on their own. Ouch.
Uncategorized | Comment (0)Shoes For a Cause: An Internet Success Story
The shoe manufacturer, Toms has run a campaign to donate a pair of shoes to a child in need for every shoe that a paying customer buys. During their first year of operation, they sold 10,000 pair of shoes, and donated 10,000. Not too shabby! However with good, search engine optimization, including a robust Twitter presence and other social media management, Tom’s donated one MILLION pairs of shoes to children in 23 countries. Similar success was repeated by One Hope Wine.
Via: Wpromote
Its amazing what can be done with just one shoe purchase or the click of the “Like” button. It seems that internet campaigns are replacing the old fashioned act of going door to door to neighbors to collect funds for a cause. It seems so much easier to raise funds for a cause when the individual would purchase the clothing anyway, but might choose to buy sooner for the cause. What do you think about promoting a cause with your wares
One might say that Tom’s is a large operation and “my little shop needs to be known as the ‘best kept secret.’ I could never handle it.” Well, it is all relative. If you did just a little to increase your linkage and presence, a little shop that sells 3 items a month could sell even 10 items a month…you never know!
modern fashion, shoes and hoofwear | Comment (0)Jacket
Thanks for the article from Isaiah Gaines
I have been looking for a fleece jacket for my son. He had a blue one that I got on clearance at the end of last winter season and he loved it. However, when I put it on him today, he cried and kept saying that he wanted me to pull his sleeves down. Only then did I realize that it is too small for him.
This afternoon I have been using our Clear Allen internet to find a replacement for his jacket and have found some really good deals on kids clothing, but I have not been able to find the exact jacket I am looking for. My mom works part-time at a department store, so I may ask her to see if she can find him a similar jacket where she works. It is not that it matters that much what his jacket looks like, but I like the weight of the jacket because it is warm enough for cool weather but light enough for a warmer day.
I do not care about name brands. Our son is two years old, so it is not like the other kids at the preschool are going to be talking about what brands of clothing they wear. I guess I am going to just have to take the best deal I can find on whatever similar jacket I can find.
Uncategorized | Comment (0)There’s No Snow…But I Can See Christmas in Your Eyes
As you are donning your top coat and your driving gloves to hail the hansom cab to Grandmother’s house, or your eccentric uncle’s step-back-in-time bungalow, take comfort in the demise of the trend of flashing battery-powered Christmas ties. My dear Jewish friends, you were mercilessly spared, as I have yet to see LED menorah neck wear. You poor things. And menorahs seemed to be the perfect inspiration for glow in the dark novelty items and backlit and illuminated ties, footwear, and of course, hats and crowns.
Despite this obvious gap in the holiday tack, nothing delights your Uncle Mike or Aunt Gert like cheap eyeglasses, apparently with Santa Claus, reindeer or snowflakes on them. They are slightly less subtle than an Ugly Christmas Sweater as you have to be in close proximity, such as in the next seat on the zeppelin. Merely the eyeglass arms contain the highly nuanced scene — as highly nuances of banging out “Chestnuts on an Open Fire” on Aunt Tillie’s Hammond with a pipe wrench. If that’s your thing.
A true barometer of this trend is the annual family gathering of the VintageGent’s, Gent-ettes, and the not-so-vintage Modern Tots at the grandparent’s home. The family has gotten so large and stylish over the years that the only thing given are chocolate dinosaurs, prayers and well wishes of holiday cheer and reverence for the birth of Our Lord and a heavy dose of irony. However, the irony of giving tinsel and cans of snow are lost on the tots who never saw it all the first time. If my astute eyes pick out any of these jewels from the faces of the crowd, it is a sign that we are on the cusp of the biggest trend in eyewear, or we are merely on the back end, that they are so out that they are in.
(Photo compliments of ZenniOptical.com – Where you can see an entire gallery of spectacles for every holiday.)
modern fashion | Comment (0)An Elegant Pen for the Low-Maintenance Age
This post brought to you by Parker Pens. All opinions are 100% mine.
In far more perilous times, which are viewed as "gentler" times to us, a long feather wiggled over letters, Declarations and deeds. The birth of the fountain pen revolutionized correspondence, and the cartridge fountain pen made sending off missives to the king much more practical. After all, the ink splotched pocket was seen as a faux pas and not as the equivalent to a pocket protector for those with a geek fetish.
Now, Parker, who has been collectively keeping it classy since 1988, have tweaked the technology once again with the Parker Ingenuity collection. The cartridge-based pens produce the elegant letters which made you toss your plastic click pen years ago, but with no skips or smudges. In fact, pushing it around the paper has the feel of a roller ball, and the low-maintenance demeanor as a ball point.
What may sell folks who wouldn't normally consider a fountain pen is fashion. All of the Ingenuity styles feature a streamlined, modern look that is not in the least bit stodgy. Although you may think that your 10/$1 models work just fine, imagine that you are inking the deal on a home sale. Would you really want to hand something to them that smudges and runs out of ink on the dotted line? More embarrassingly, I was handed a free pen that advertised another business unrelated to the person that was having me sign. Unwittingly , it was even a competing business. Maybe, I'll have to gift them with a pen to thank them for the rousing endorsement of the other folks.
For updates on the latest, "Like" Parker on Facebook.
Comment and tell me why YOU would like to win or own one.
In Calgary: Breathe in the Fashion
When I lived on the east coast, I had a scheme. My future self was going to sublet an apartment starting the week before the end of the college semester. So many students who lived overseas would dump vintage finds and designer and midcentury furniture and clothes on the curb or in the dumpster. They just could not take them with them. But why didn’t they at least send them to the consignment shop or give them to charity? The budding entrepreneur who would resell the mint condition luxury items was never that daring.
I have run into a few folks that said that Calgary is really where its at. You won’t find the Picasso in the dumpster quite like you would in Boston, but the proliferation of indie designers, vintage clothing and decor shops and neatly edited consignment and thrift stores makes up for it.
Urban Thrift boasts an eclectic collection of vintage finds and modern second hand clothing on 34th Avenue.
What’s in Store on Edmonton Trail is the cow-colored building that stocks clothing spanning from the 1950s through the 1980s.
Divine on 17th is the place to go for vintage T’s, sunglasses and track suits, as well as modernware.
Cat’s Eye is on 10th. Apparently, this shop as moved a few times, but if you can catch it – there is a mix of 1920s through the 1980s. They also do costume rentals.
What other haunts would you heartily recommend? Write in and let me know.
Fashion for Aspiring Hospitalistas
While dressing for work may allow latitude for originality at “creative” companies, jobs requiring uniforms are not as stifling as they may seem. There is something comforting, in some ways, about a routine. As long as one can keep up with the laundry, going to work in a uniform lends some anonymity for some, and tailored style for others. While the most famous uniforms, such as military dress blues, cut a dashing figure, green surgical scrubs are often the same shapeless sacks as they always were.
Maybe I am being a bit harsh, but while gentleman sometimes have an advantage, as many were made for the male form originally, the designs are sometimes equally unflattering to both genders. Scrubs for men are often limited to plain blue, as the patterns are frequently populated by kittens and pastel unicorns. For women, the baggy profile make most ladies look formless.
Next time you look into buying scrubs online, take a gander at Blue Sky Scrubs (On the web at http://www.blueskyscrubs.com/). The contrast-stitching on the pockets gives the plain designs some visual interest. The scrubs come in both male and female sizing scales. There is also a fitted top for ladies. It is not inappropriate or revealing in any way. It merely eliminates some of the superfluous materials under the arms that create a boxy silhouette. In the medical profession, extra fabric is not necessarily modest. It is a safety hazard when flapping sleeves get caught.
(Still) Having Teeth is Glamorous
This post brought to you by JB1010. All opinions are 100% mine.
Gingivitis Germs. Golf. Yes, lots of golf. The life of a dentist can be a bacteria-filled and solitary existence. Unless your friends are a nuclear nosed reindeer and a gold prospector. Unfortunately Hermie is one of the few screen icons that bring a glamorous spin to the profession. Too many screen dentists are just too depressing or frightening.
Then there's Austin Dentist Lance E. Loveless, DDS, whose life is apparently almost equally famed than the legendary Hermie. After all, not only does he have a name seemingly ripped from a gumshoe tale or a an 80s soap opera (the former I read, the latter…what's that?), but he made the cover of DENTALIFE. With the background defocus setting! He is just "That Guy." Of course, nowadays, instead of causes of anxiety and pain, dentists are magicians who make you magically younger because your teeth are white again, or so the glossy ads in the local Chamber of Commerce magazine say.
It is actually a good move to promote cosmetic dentistry with old school cavity grinding, as leery patients will perhaps equate dental work with a Hollywood makeover. Maybe they won't get made over every time, but teeth could potentially be saved when someone finally goes in after years of neglect.
It's embarrassing to say, but the fashion accessory I most neglected were saved. Yes, admittedly, despite sonic care-ing and whitening at home, I hadn't been to a dentist in a few years and the hygienist commented that I "came just in time" before any serious damage was done. Although in some circles, gold teeth and grillz are inexplicably still acceptable fashion statements, you don't want to adopt any fashion merely to hide what you don't have.
Wishing You Champagne Dreams and Minded Manners
The night they invented champagne
It’s plain as it can be
They thought of you and me
The night they invented champagne
They absolutely knew
That all we’d want to do is
Fly to the sky on champagne
And shout to everyone in sight
That since that world began
No woman or a man has ever been as happy as we are tonight!
-Lerner and Loewe, from the musical “Gigi”
The night we drank too much champagne
Was an embarrassing night indeed.
The spill stretched
from the sculpted green carpet to the Harris Tweed.
No woman or man or woman we ever met
Was as upset
Of ruining taffett(a) as the VintageGent and Gent-ette!
- V-Gette
Ah, yes…the holiday dinner party. This time of year, the party invites are too numerous to do more than “put in an appearance” at while the Champagne and wine hostess and host gifts insulate every cabinet, hope chest and ice box. Liquor is a traditional gift, and therefore a retro choice, but its time to update the etiquette book.
Tried and True Etiquette:
- As has been tradition, do not expect the bottle to be opened and served with the meal or during cocktail hour.
- If the host/hostess should offer you the unopened bottle to take home, insist that you intended it as a gift, but do not make a spectacle of yourself. The host/hostess may have assumed the bottle was for dinner. If they insist, graciously accept.
- Do not give guests free tickets to your sideshow. If the host/hostess offers alcoholic beverages, do not drink to the point of interesting propositions and colorful language. Rather, enjoy a glass properly balanced with food or follow with soft drinks.
Coffee or soft drinks is a safe second course.
The New Etiquette
- Observe the host/hostess. If they have never been observed nursing a glass of mashed grapes, they might not drink alcoholic beverages for medical or personal reasons. If they do not, rethink the gift.
- Offer to be a designated driver. Deliver revelers home, and swiftly return to the party.
- Choose theme wines and champagnes. A selection that has a connection creates conversation if the host is not a particular wine connoisseur. Choose a wine from a newcomer’s native state, or something with an unusual or clever name. While impressing someone with good taste is important, humor breaks the advice, so long as the name is not off-color. The point of a party is to converse, not to dazzle other guests with your snobbery.
Did I invite you over? Then I might interest you in my uncle’s special vintage, adorned with inkjet paper labels. I have no idea which variety I have, since water droplets splashed on it and ran the ink. Guests will surely play “name that wine.” Bring your own and tear off the label. Should be fun. Cheers!
entertainment, gift ideas | Comment (0)Fashion Swap
Ever since Wagglepop came and went, the inbox runneth over with press releases, pitches and recommendations for new auction and selling sites. Tradze.com is a new one to me. Apparently, its in the barter websites format. Users list items that they want to get rid of, and other users may trade for them with credits. Each user receives 200 credits for signing up, and from there, credits are accumulated through listing like-new and collectible items for the perusal of other site users. The site heavily promotes users to sign up their family and friends, so they can swap through their own trusted network. There is a clothing category in the mix.
Upon inspection, there is little to no Feedback action. Either users are not ingrained with the courtesy of leaving other users feedback stars, or the site just has little action. The site itself appears to be in the early stages as some pages, such as FAQ, are not quite filled in yet. Users do have to register to flip through the item catalog. Be persistent, as almost always only four items show up. Click on subsequent page numbers to browse the entire category.
The full potential of the site lies on the concept of users having a comfort level of bartering in “T-Bills” that only work on this site, versus receiving money. It will not attract folks hoping buy and sell to raise some cash, but it will attract users who truly just want to rid themselves of a few items. There is great potential for an established group to barter, such as a special interest hobby club, a parents group, or an association to park their people there and make it their own. Hosting a clothing swap sometimes is hard to get together because of conflicting schedules and an uneven representation of sizes. If the extended network swapped with credits, everyone would be held accountable to delivering.
In the meantime, I’ll be watching to determine if this is a worthy place to score a fashion find.
modern fashion | Comment (0)Thanksgiving Delight
No one, apparently, got the memo that Christmas music is absolutely not to be played until at least the day after Thanksgiving? If i ruled the world, the sleigh bells wouldn’t ring until December 15th. This way, we could all truly enjoy it instead of burning out on it by December 5th.
Dad, ever the astute observer always defends his position with: “There just are no Thanksgiving carols, are there?” maybe not when he was growing up, butt if you delve into the early days of rap and hip hop and transport yourself to 1979, there is ONE Thanksgiving carol, even though it is hidden within a 14 minute, 36 second long song. Well, the Sugar Hill Gang probably didn’t intend it to be festive.
We used to trick dad into listening to the full version when we didn’t want to clean our rooms. “Dad, listen to JUST this one song. It’s really short.”
Have you ever went over a friends house to eat
and the food just ain’ no good?
I mean the macaroni’s soggy the peas are mushed
and the chicken tastes like wood.So you try to play it off like you think you can
by sayin’ that you’re full,
and then your friend says momma he’s just being polite
he ain’t finished uh uh that’s bull.So your heart starts pumpin’ and you think of a lie
and you say that you already ate
and your friend says man there’s plenty of food
so you pile some more on your plate.While the stinky foods steamin’ your mind starts to dreamin’
of the moment that it’s time to leave
and then you look at your plate and your chickens slowly rottin’
into something that looks like cheese.Oh, so you say that’s it i got to leave this place;
I dont care what these people think
I’m just sittin’ here makin’ myself nauseous
with this ugly food that stinks.So you bust out the door while its still closed
still sick from the food you ate
and then you run to the store for quick relief
from a bottle of kaopectate.And then you call your friend two weeks later
to see how he has been.
And he says i understand about the food
baby bubbah but we’re still friends.
With a hip hop the hippie to the hippie
the hip hip a hop a you dont stop the rockin
to the bang bang boogie
say up jump the boogie to the rhythm of the boogie the beat
May your Thanksgiving be full of cozy, Rockwell-inspired moments (Norman, not the “Somebody’s Watching Me” Rockwell and far more delectable food than what the Sugar Hill Gang was subjected to.
1970s, entertainment | Comment (0)
