Deal of the Day

It's that time of year again. Sales are abounding and Bryce is ready for new clothes (he's ripped the sleeves on a few of his shirts). I usually sneak in a couple looks here and there and found, might I say, the Deal of the Day.

Place: Ann Taylor

Item: Yellow three-button coat

Where in store: on clearance of course - with an additional 40% off

Unexpected: one loose button

Sale sticker says 79.99. Take 40% off and I showed the cashier the loose button and received another 15% off. $43 after tax for my coat.

Big surprise: Original sale tag is for 199.99. Original retail is $268.00 That's about 85% off the original price of the coat. Not to be out done, I did find Bryce some mighty good deals as well. Bass had $60 pants for $23 (50% w/additional 20%) and they had shoes BUY 1 PAIR get 2 PAIRS FREE (or get 1 pair 50% off). We received $5 dollar coupon toward Van Heusen from Bass and used it to buy a belt for $8 - originally $45 or something crazy like that (60% off w/additional % I can't remember and our $5 coupon). He bought another very nice pair of pants there as well.

Speaker Swap*

Before wires use template (comes with speakers) to position holes use hammer to beat wall - find stud in wall then move template over and beat wall with hammer. Repeat as needed. Use saw to finalize circle hole.

Patch holes and paint speakers to match wall.

*I, Cecily, do not claim to have any real knowledge of this speaker swap. (I left once the hole making began.) Thus said, please address any questions which are not answered in this post to Bryce. I'm sure he would love to tell you all about it. :)

We have a couch for our front living room. Its high back and sides mimics the hemp chair we have in there. The couch on its own is a bit fancier than we are, but we'll be able to cozy it down. We're now working on finding the right art to go above the couch to fill the tall empty wall. I may venture and do my own...I have this vision. We'll see if I ever get my shot at it. Thanks olystudio.

Sleeping Puma, Hidden Thread

Poor Battle Puma. Jamba got in a fight with a long piece of string.She has learned that the string always wins. Long story short, Jamba found some really nice black thread that looked delicious (and must've been) so she ate a long piece. It ended up getting caught on the back of her tongue, down into her intestine and into her colon. Needless to say she didn't feel well at all and we took her to the vet after a couple vomit episodes. They did an exploratory surgery on her belly and this picture I caught while she was sleeping to show her part of her battle wounds. The shaved leg is especially sexy in the cat world. This was a month or so back so she is back to herself and doing well. Her hair is growing in nicely. :)

Way back to Hallooweeeeeeeeeeny.

For Halloween I treated my YW presidency to some goody shoes. I made a "witch" shoe (high heel of course) out of black card stock and cute printed paper for the lining then sewed on some buttons since I don't own a hot glue gun. :) Filled with nummies, wrapped and tied with a bow, the note says, "You're such a TREAT!" I found the pattern online probably at sugardoodle.net or something like that. Someone said they used it for dorothy slippers too. I'm sure you could do lots with it. If I find the link again I'll add it (here).

Thanks Jose Lopez!

Bryce and I enjoyed 1 1/2 days in San Juan Puerto Rico earlier this month all thanks to Jose Lopez. Who, you may ask, is this Senor Lopez? As noted in the previous blog, Bryce bought new wheels. He sold his stock wheels on ebay and a nice gentleman in Puerto Rico bought them. We did actually make $9 after his new wheels were mounted and balanced, all ebay fees, paypal fees, shipping, and the actual price of the wheels are taken into account. Good job Bryce, keep it up and I'll have a new pair of shoes in no time. :) We shipped the 4 wheels - acutally, let me stop there and say I mailed the wheels. Bryce put them in my trunk. On my lunch break I was lucky enough to go to the Post Office ask to borrow a dolly and push the wheels in myself - while wearing heels! You read that right. I like the people in the parking lot watching me as I pulled boxes out of my trunk and pushed a pretty janky dolly into the post office. I had to make 2 trips because the dolly was not tall enough to lean all 4 boxes against the back. It would've been too heavy for me anyway since I am a little girl. Each wheel weighed 25 lbs packaged. So, I got them inside and they took them away into their back rooms. Done right?! No or our story would not have such a happy ending. One of the 4 wheels gets lost and never makes it to Senor Lopez in San Juan. Bryce now decides it would be ok for us to buy a replacement and fly to Puerto Rico, spend part of the weekend and give Jose the wheel in person. And so our journey begins: Jose met us at the airport he brought along his 16 yr old daughter (he kept referring to her as his husband, but we got the point) He was nice enough and clean, and he drove a nice, new Mazda 6 (he got the point across that he bought it a few months befoer) so we took him up on his offer to drive us to the hotel saving one taxi fare of $17. Note: taxi drivers add in their own tip to the base fare in San Juan. The guy we took back to the airport apparently thought he was worth $2. 1st thing we learned: Bryce likes to pick a hotel by price and overall cleanliness ratings. 10 minutes and I'm done upon finding it on a map. Cecily likes to look at mpas, read reviews, read about the districts and areas of where she's visiting, come to the point of recognizing roads of where they'll be and then look and read some more. We went with the Conrad. The site has a neat aerial shot of the hotel and a couple lobby pictures. The first day we spent in Old San Juan - it rained all morning while we were at the airport and with Jose. a map of Old San Juan. The view to the left (southeast on a map) of the island. the fort walls on the northern side of the island another fort in Old San Juan the main fort on the tip that you see pictures of. Christopher Columbus statu in a square where there are lots of vendors set up. The guy had parrots and such on his shoulders. the view from our window. 10th floor city view - the body of water there is the lagoon. The white van and car taxis lined up in front of this hotel and we could walk over and take the next in line. I liked the taxis because they were playing tapes of some sweet mexican music. It was the real deal. sculpture in Old San Juan sculpture down from the hotel, near the beach and where we ate lunch/dinner. blue cobblestones of Old San Juan while we were at the fort in Old San Juan - a full rainbow. at our hotel's beach. Where we spent the morning before heading to the airport. the other side of our view from our hotel. The traffic over the bridge was backed up all night. Got busy. There was lots of nice shopping just down the street. Gucci, Cartier, and others of the sort.

Sweet ride, Man

We took a bit of a road trip across the border deeper south in 'Bama. Bryce found through his wonderful forums he is constantly checking a set of nice wheels at an acceptable price in great condition so we headed to Huntsville (we actually met the man in Scottsboro, a much smaller town 45 min. from Huntsville). This was our first time in Alabama and it is actually different from Georgia. They have yelllow and blue road signs and the trees are a bit different. Lots of marshy water instead of lakes and ponds. Bryce would be pleased if you took a moment out of your day to look and appreciate the new wheels. Bryce would love to hear your feedback. Positive only please.

before - with stock wheels

after, with new 'Bama wheels I believe Bryce is trying to show that the wheels bend in a bit toward the hub. One very important detail - not to be ignored. :) I am just informed that the photo also shows the steel gray (darker gray) that's on the inner sides of each spoke.

The sweet part of this is we found a little firestone/pool supply place (yes, both were in the same building, run by the same people) that charged only $50 to take off the old ones and put on the new ones and do whatever it is with switching the tire pressure sensors. Other places were going to charge $130. We took it. Also, as a side note we at the No.1 Chinese Buffet. that is what it was called. Everyone there was oriental, and I was wondering what it would be like to be the only asians in Scottsboro, Alabama... how do you end up there? There is no offense to be taken to this statement. Don't make it up.

NYC BABY!!

I experienced the Big Apple and I loved it! Jen and I did a Sister's Weekend and I would report it as a great success. We did so much, I'm not sure I want to put it all here because I want to go to bed, so there will be some summaries and some picture montages.

Where we slept. 17th floor

Jen, getting interviews for the Today show.

Rockefeller Square...Jen's cute, she gets all the pictures

NY style deli sandwich - HUGE. Chutney Co.-Indian food

The squirrel who made us spill our chips while trying to defend them against said squirrel...what a turkey. Night time snack for all the walking we did - cheesecake. Yum!

Of course we hit up all the sample sales we could fit in! Shopping in NYC - very cool.

Cool buildings, Time Square where you can lounge in lawn chairs, more Times Square, the Plaza Hotel, (if a building has flags on it, it's important) cute houses where I would live, and firemen using the truck to water some potted plants on the roof. The empire state building, a parking lot in NYC, which is pretty cool. Also, the crazy amounts of street vendors outside our hotel Sunday morning.

Grand Central Station

Cafe Lalo - the one from "You've Got Mail" The best belgian waffles w/berries and whipped cream. That's what I'm talking about. Then we strolled through part of Central Park.