Back to the future

I recently treated myself to these cool new sunglasses.

I say 'treated' only because I paid $18.59 for them on Amazon (with free 2-day shipping as a Prime member) which is more than I typically pay for sunglasses.  Several pairs were under $10. and a couple actually came from Dollar Tree so they were a buck.

But I really like these!  They are just one material; no lens fitting inside a frame.  The lens and frame are all the same; just 1 piece. I think they're really cool.

I wore them to a home inspection and as I got out of the car and met the inspector (whom I know pretty well) he asked "Where'd you come from, back to the future?"  I laughed and agreed that my sunglasses have a futuristic look.

What do you think?

Oooops

Yesterday Spouse & I decided to do some rug cleaning.  The area rug in the living room had a couple little spots from a bad little dog (Walter), so we began by spot-treating those areas 1st then using our carpet cleaner machine on the full rug.

A few minutes into the spot-treating I noticed a very strong smell.  Typically rug cleaning products have a nice, fresh scent but this smelled the opposite.  I asked Spouse if he noticed the smell too and he immediately said yes.

Then he looked at the bottle he'd been spraying on the rug and said "Oh my god - this is insect killer!" When he'd pulled the bottles out from under the kitchen sink he didn't notice that 1 of them was insect spray.

We hoped that the carpet cleaning machine and solution would wash the insect spray smell out so we continued with our plan of cleaning the full rug with the machine.  But a couple hours later as the rug was drying the smell was definitely still there.  Since the rug wasn't expensive we decided to roll it up and put it in the garage until we could dispose of it.  That chemical smell was too much.

Next we turned our attention to the planting beds.  I pulled some weeds, fixed the landscaping fabric that had become loose due to high wind, and then we spread a couple bags of fresh mulch.  Of course we didn't have enough - isn't that the way it always works? - but it still looks better than it did before.

After dinner Spouse & I were looking at area rugs for the living room on Amazon and found this one in the clearance section:

Its 8'x11' and priced at $149.99 but there was a box to click for a 'coupon' which took off an additional $22.50 so the final purchase came to $127.49 with free shipping since we are Prime members.  Deals like this are why we weren't so upset about having to throw away the previous rug.  It should arrive on Wed.

TV room update

Our TV room used to have ivory-colored furniture with red accent pillows, red curtains, and red rugs.

Several months ago we donated that furniture and got a burgundy reclining love seat in its place, and after Spouse's mom passed, Spouse wanted her burgundy reclining chair.  But despite changing the furniture, we never changed the rugs or curtains.  For months its been bugging me that the red curtains and rugs clashed with the burgundy love seat and recliner.

Before

Last week I decided to do something about it.  I began looking at rugs on Amazon Prime, sifting through the hundreds and hundreds of options.  Eventually I stumbled upon a color/size/price combination that was perfect!  I showed it to Spouse and he agreed, so I immediately ordered 2.

The rugs arrived and I immediately rolled them out.  I like the pattern and colors even more than I thought I would!

After

In fact, it was quite by accident that I discovered the rug actually has the purple and turquoise colors found in the 2 occasional chairs that are also in the room.  This made me even more pleased with the purchase!

Now if I could only find some new curtains to replace those hideous red ones!  I've been searching Amazon Prime and other sites, but haven't found anything yet.  Grommet topped curtains are all the rage but I can't use them with our hardware.  86" length curtains are also much more abundant, but I need 63" length.  I know, I could by 86" length grommet topped curtains and cut off the tops to make them 63" with a rod pocket, but I don't feel like paying someone to do that after paying for new curtains.  Hopefully my patience will be rewarded.

So the curtain search continues, but we're SUPER pleased with our rug updates.

DIY

This is our laundry sink, logically located in the laundry room, next to the washer and dryer:

before

We primarily use the laundry sink for bathing Marvin & Walter.  Neither of them really like getting a bath.  Marvin tolerates it better and doesn't give us as much trouble as his brother.  Walter will make multiple attempts to try to escape the laundry tub, causing lots of splashes.  Both of them have gotten better with this, but between them and Spouse wrestling them to keep them in the sink, there can be lots of water splashed on the wall behind the sink.

I'd seen in the Lowes and Home Depot self-adhesive vinyl back splash tile, and since they're waterproof I thought this would be a great application.  Its WAY less expensive than actual tile and doesn't require grout or much skill level to apply.  But Spouse & I weren't happy with the color options found in Lowes and Home Depot, so I decided to look on Amazon.

Oh.  Em.  Gee.  Amazon had literally hundreds of colors and shapes of vinyl tile sheets.  And they were less expensive than the bricks and mortar stores.  So after surfing through a bunch of the options, Spouse & I agreed on a brightly colored mosaic.  Since the laundry room door is always closed and nobody goes in there but us, we weren't concerned with the color of the back splash coordinating with other colors in the house.  This gave us creative freedom to do something bright and fun.  

after

The sheets of vinyl tile came from Amazon in 2 days and it took me less than 10 minutes to 'peel and stick' them.  I used 6 of the 10 sheets so I've got 4 sheets leftover for other projects, although I can't think of any right now.

Oh, and the cost?

$19.99 with free 2-day shipping since we're Prime members.

I'm super happy with the value, the look, and the ease of installation.

Amazon

We bought a sofa off of Amazon!!

It was becoming more and more apparent that we needed to replace the sofa in our TV room.  I convinced Spouse to join me and look at some styles/fabrics at a local furniture store.  After about 10 minutes he declared that "everything is ugly".

In reality he just didn't want to continue looking at furniture.  He said "shopping in brick and mortar stores is passe" and that it takes so much less time to shop online.  I think this is true in some cases, but not for everything.  I'd really like to sit/lounge on a sofa in person before buying one.

But we didn't.  We were looking for something pretty specific so we checked a couple of furniture store websites and then ended up looking on Amazon and found this:

This is not a photo from the website - this is our sofa in our TV room.

It is "bonded leather", which I'm still not quite sure exactly what that is, but Spouse was keen on it because of the ease of removing dog fur with a quick swipe.  Its a deep red, which looks ok with the rug but I don't like the curtains with it.  No worries though - the curtains were super cheap and almost 10 years old so I'm happy to replace the curtains with new panels.

The best thing about this new sofa is that we don't have to fight over a chaise or ottoman because both sides are recliners!

This is a stock photo from the website, showing one side in the process of reclining.

Some might think its odd or risky to make a 'major purchase' like a sofa online, without having touched or seen it in person.  But this sofa was the same price as the sofa it replaced, which we purchased almost 12 years ago, and came with free shipping, so we decided to take a chance on it.  At least so far we've not been disappointed.  Its quite comfortable and reclines to almost a lying down position if you want.  I normally just put the leg part up.

When Steven & Thad learned that we'd bought a sofa off of Amazon they were barely surprised.  When I questioned them about it they said "You bought a 1959 Cadillac off of eBay sight unseen, so why would we be surprised at this?"

I guess they had a good point.

Prime directive

So the other day I was looking on Amazon for a new laptop bag.  My old one doesn't have handles and Walter chewed off one of the zipper pulls.  I found this snappy red one with retractable handles for $21.99 which I thought to be a reasonable price.

Then I saw that the shipping and handling was $8.54 which I thought to be UNreasonable.  I mean, its basically neoprene and weighs nothing.

This led mean to think again about an Amazon Prime membership.  If I were a Prime member, this item would be on my doorstep in 2 days for free.  But would I order enough stuff to justify the $99. annual membership fee?  Conversations with my colleagues at work revealed that all of them are Prime members and they enjoy not only free shipping on lots of stuff, but also free movies and TV series (streamed like Netflix), and now free music too.  

One of my colleagues said that when she realizes she's a couple days from needing diapers, she just orders them from Amazon and they arrive on her doorstep.  No need to make a special trip to the store and lug home a heavy/bulky box of diapers.

Then I remembered Joe P telling us about an Amazon Prime original series called Transparent that he really liked.  (It has 2 Golden Globe nominations.)  So I clicked on the Prime tab and saw that they offer a free month's subscription, so I signed up.  I immediately got free shipping and 2-day delivery of my snappy red laptop bag, and then went home and began watching Transparent.

Its about a divorced couple and their adult children, all of whom have their own issues.  Dad begins a journey to become a transgendered woman (hence the title), mom is dealing with the terminal illness of her 2nd husband, son Josh sleeps with every woman he meets and then thinks he's in love with each of them, older daughter Sarah leaves her husband and children to rekindle a romance with an old girlfriend, and younger daughter Ali struggles with the monotony of life despite having no job or responsibilities to tie her down.  We loved it and watched all 10 episodes within 24 hours!

I haven't spent much time perusing the other original series and movies available, but I'm going to try to get as much viewing as possible done during my free 30-day trial membership.  Then I'll decide if the $99. annual membership is worth it.

Anyone else have Amazon Prime?  What do you think?

Friday fragments

Welcome to Friday fragments, my weekly recap of topics too big to forget, yet too small to be their own post.

This evening we are having the Fri Night Dinner Group (aka: 'the usual suspects') over to our house for dinner to celebrate 3 of the guys' birthdays. We're making ziti with meat sauce and cheese and apple cake. Some of the guys are bringing salad, garlic bread, and drinks. Should be a nice evening, but I have lots to do this afternoon to get ready.

Anne Marie in Philly recently asked for a Pouncer update. (BTW, send me your email address Anne Marie.) Unfortunately there has not been much if any change. Pouncer still has those fits of rapid succession sneezing a few times a day, but he's still eating and behaving like normal. The last time I took him to the vet (a month ago) they basically said they didn't know what was wrong with him or what was causing his soft pallet to be swollen, so they gave me a referral to a specialist. However, the specialist is a 4-hour round trip drive so I'd have to take a day off work to take him there, plus Pouncer HATES riding in the car. I'm afraid he will drive me absolutely insane with his meowing and growling if I try to drive him there and back. So I haven't made an appointment with the specialist yet. I've been hoping that he would either get better on his own, or start getting worse which would force the trip to the specialist. But his symptoms/condition are basically the same as they were a month ago so I'm sort of 'waiting it out'. Thanks for asking.

In his State of the Union speech Wed night President Obama repeated his campaign promise to work with/encourage Congress to repeal DADT. Hours later I received an email from a well-meaning group requesting me to sign a petition urging the President to "act now" on repealing DADT. It seems to me that the President is ready to "act now" but knows it is Congress who needs to support and pass the legislation. So instead of signing that petition directed to the President, I signed this petition which sends an email to your representatives in Congress (not the President) urging them to work with the President to repeal the discriminatory DADT legislation that has resulted in the loss of thousands of talented and willing GLBT service members. I urge you to do the same.

I'm not too pleased with Amazon.com right now. On Dec 8 I ordered the newly released "Twelve Nights in Hollywood" box set by Ella Fitzgerald, featuring many never-before released tracks, and anxiously awaited its delivery. I received an initial email confirming my order, then another giving me an estimated delivery date of Dec 17, then another several days later indicating there would be a delay and that the new delivery date was Dec 24. Just before Christmas I received another email indicating that an 'unexpected demand' had caused another delay, and that the new ship date was Jan 3. Then on Jan 3 I received an email indicating my payment could not be processed so my order had been cancelled! Apparently when I updated my debit card number it did not save properly so Amazon tried to process the payment against my old card number. Rather than sending me an email about it and giving me a day or two to update the card number (again), they just cancelled my order. I think that's a sh*tty policy. So, after triple checking that my debit card number had been updated and saved, I re-ordered the box set and on Jan 3. The expected delivery date is now Feb 3. If it arrives then, it will have taken 2 full months to get the product I ordered. Next time I decide to purchase online I will look for other suppliers who compete with Amazon.

In sharp contrast, I can not adequately express how thrilled I am with my new jeans. I am particular about the way I want my jeans to fit but I was able to find, not 1, but 3 pairs last weekend that fit great! And to sweeten the deal even more, they were all on sale! YAY!!!

Despite the fact that its bright and sunny out today, its very cold and windy. Only 17 degrees with a wind chill factor of 8 degrees this morning when I took Jordan out. A snow storm is expected in the surrounding area tomorrow but I don't know how much is predicted for us, here on the coast. The stupid weather.com website simply tells me that its going to snow, but not how much to expect! Oh yeah, they also give me lots of other useless info like when high tide and sunset will be. I can look out the window and tell when its sunset!

Have a terrific (and possibly snowy) weekend!!

Crush du Jour: Nick Zano

Friday fragments

Condoms
Remember a few weeks ago when the Pope decided to go from being a religious leader to being a public health specialist? He said 'condoms worsen the AIDS epidemic'?? Well Patrick Boivin came up with a very clever, very funny response! The tag at the end reads "Don't be stupid. Use condoms." Perhaps subliminally, I read "Don't be stupid. Don't listen to the Pope." Don't you love creative people?

Winner
Speaking of creative, not to toot my own horn, but I won Kevin's "Caption This!" contest on his blog The Lisp. Don't believe me? Click here and see it for yourself.

Amazon scandal
Did you smell the big stink over Amazon.com's alleged removal of gay books from its rankings? Gay romance author Mark R. Probst noticed that days ago the sales rankings disappeared from two newly-released, high profile gay romance books on Amazon.com. The next day hundreds of GLBT books simultaneously lost their sales rankings, prompting many to wonder if Amazon was attempting to suppress the visibility of gay books. Probst learned that Amazon excludes “adult” material from appearing in some searches and best seller lists. Since these lists are generated using sales ranks, "adult" materials must also be excluded. Amazon.com responded that it was a glitch and is fixing it. Life lesson: Don't mess with a queen's sh*t!!!

Adidas
Just in case you haven't seen the homo-erotic Adidas ad yet, click here. I have no idea what they're selling, but I'm pretty sure I need one.


Matt Alber
My friend John sent me this video, which I fell in love with! I'm not sure why, but it just speaks to me. I've never heard of the artist, Matt Alber. His voice reminds me of Rufus Wainright and his face (after the shave) reminds me of a very young Bruce Willis. Watch/listen to this video and try NOT to be affected.

Happy Friday, everyone!

Crush du Jour: Denis Ciplenkov