Last week I drove out to Mercer Island to obtain a King County Library Card for the sole purpose of borrowing Solarbabies, available only on VHS. I previously tracked it down at Scarecrow video, but borrowing it required a hundred-some dollar deposit and I wasn't willing to bet my VCRs health against it. The movie was awesomly bad-good. I firmly remembered all the roller-bits as people on inline skates, but there were all using the traditional type, with bit orange rubber stoppers and everything. Does this movie predate inline? Bonus: we discovered that our VCR still works, gosh do you remember fiddling with the tracking? And rewinding?! It was so time-warpy, I should have bought Funions and caffeine-free Diet Pepsi to go with the evening's theme.

Last weekend while at Ikea we grabbed two red Patrik swivel chairs which were on sale. Our office is a little brighter, and the chairs are surprisingly comfy -- not for an all day at work chair, but for an at home checking email chair.

We got close to our date to Knock Out The Closet and chickened out. With the walls and ceiling being orange peel texture we were afraid we'd mess up and only have to hire somebody to redo our work. Luckily a friend had a contractor ready to recommend (thanks Maggi!). I'm sorry I won't get to feel the catharsis that is demolition, but at least I won't be left sobbing over what a mess I managed to make and don't know how to fix.

We're planning a trip to Vancouver. Even though it's not far away geographically, I think it might count as the first vacation I've even taken - the definition of vacation in this case being a trip longer than three days where you don't see family at any point or attend classes that you are being graded on. I'm not quite sure what to do with myself. My immediate impulse is to avoid scheduling anything. I was even hesitant to commit to a hotel and just drive to see where we end up, but I'm not the type to encounter joyful coincidence on the road. (I'm more the type to encounter unexpected and traumatic car trouble.) We're considering going without a car and taking the train up, quite a scary thought going car less in an unfamiliar city.

some recent product encounters

Yesterday I accidentally took the Dove Ultimate Clear Challenge. I had picked up a sample size* deodorant for my travel stuff and when my regular deodorant decided to finish off, not by showing that little blue plastic thing at the bottom but by crumbling off and landing in small, soft chunks all over my new cotton bathmat, it became my backup plan. After realizing it was the same stuff from those commercials I just had to check. I suppose I'm not like other girls, or maybe the other girls don't wear black?

* Seattle drug stores have so many sample sized items. I am completely in love.

When I'm engaged in a period of slightly heavy work (like, say, a lot of painting and ripping out of poorly hung shelves from previous owners) my nails split quite dramatically, no matter how short I attempt to keep them. They split horizontally, just below the white tip thingy. They catch on everything and the split grows in a painful fashion. I have resorted to drugstore press-on nails. Just one at a time (the faux French look slightly more natural), trimmed way down. It makes me feel like I'm in Jr. High but it works. Scott tells me banjo players superglue bits of ping pong ball plastic to their nails, I'm not quite there yet.

Related: Last year I spotted fake toenails in the drugstore and made fun of them. But recently I stubbed my toe, really hard. While it didn't turn black I did chip a good part of my big nail away, and wha-la, I understood the press-on toenails.