Autumn and Winter clothing from eBay

My recent eBay purchases are filtering in. Today I expect a LOT of sweaters for Victoria. Just a while ago the HUGE LOT of clothing 4T for boys was dropped off. Fast shipping, incredible deal as well. The clothing is superb and JUST RIGHT for our dear Asa. The colors in person are him 100%. Muted greens and reds and nature like colors, basically. A wonderful assortment of pants, overalls, and shirts and sweaters and some light jackets, and three pairs of barely used really cool shoes, just right for an active boy. Asa will turn 4 on Sept 13, and size 4/4T is just good for him, with room to grow into it.

Asa is small compared with how Russell was at that age. Victoria too, wears thing in sizes higher than her age. Russell is now only evening out to his age in clothing size, wearing 8′s now, but he’s constantly growing in height, not width mostly, which is why he could be stuck in smaller clothing for summer [mostly shorts and only jean his ankles showed in for church sometimes]. Over all, though, the bigger sizes look better on him. Length of course is the biggest thing in pants, he’s so slim though. Well, I need to take stock in the clothing I have for him now. We had some things given to us not too long ago, and there were many things for him to wear this Autumn and Winter.

Frank wasn’t home when the box came today. So he missed out on our “Christmas Morning” kind of thing, as the children said it was “like”. :) It’s fun going through things you order to be shipped. I think it’s even more fun when it’s stuff found on eBay. So then, Russell was delighting in this whole thing, and it was nice to see him proud of his brother and how he looked in something, or would look in this or that. He had a hint of sadness showing though, that this was all for Asa. We got him a new coat, which came last week. He’s the only one with a new coat, and it’s really cool, Italian Stone Leather. ;) Mucho Macho. So that keeps his spirits buoyed up I guess.

On a cooler day we’ll have a Fashion Shoot maybe ;) Today is just too melty. Humidity is up again. It lightly rained last night. I could deal with a humid day a bit more if it were the price to be paid for torrential rain that we need so bad. But it’s not happening. Some trees are losing their leaves, others turning Autumn colors in spots, all because of light-drought. The years they’ve been alive on our property have been hard years, with a lift in the drought the last year or so, and it coming back again this year. I see the connection between Hurricanes and Drought, with the drought in effect it’s noticeable that there have been no major hurricanes blowing through Florida and coming apart to drench this area. We could really use something, several somethings.

So in this heat I’m dealing with Autumn and Winter clothing. Phew! It’s nice, but just thinking about it half-deeply makes me itchy and hardly able to breathe. I’m looking forward to showing these things to Frank later, when he’s home. He’s spoken admirably of all I’ve done with the things I’ve found. Prov. 31-ish. :)

Whole Grain Egg Strata

Egg Strata

Ingredients:
1/3 loaf of whole mixed grain bread, cubed
7 eggs
½ cup milk or cream
2 cups grated sharp cheese
1 to 1-1/2 cups chopped or sliced and sauteed ingredients to include: Vidalia onion, bell pepper, mushrooms, chopped green chili pepper, or other as you may desire

Spray an 9 by 13 baking dish with baking spray. Place in a layer of cubed whole mixed grain bread. Sprinkle with 1 cup of cheese, then cover with sauteed vegetables. Beat together 7 eggs and ½ cup milk or cream and carefully pour on top. Sprinkle with remaining 1 cup of cheese. Let soak for 30 minutes or overnight. Bake in a 375 degree F. oven for about 45 minutes until the dish is just firm and the top is golden brown. Cut in 8-10 portions to serve hot with a garnish, such as a sprig of parsley and/or sliced fresh fruit.

Serves 6-8

*This is a quiche-like dish that can be used for many occasions with varied ingredients to your taste. It can be made the night before and kept in the refrigerator for an event the next day.

I made the above yesterday, for Sunday breakfast. Found online here: http://www.lanierbb.com/recipes/data/bk771.html

I searched on Yahoo for Egg Strata, and that was the first link. It looked nice, since it called for whole grain bread … most recipes for Strata in books use “white bread with crusts cut off”.

I used Vidalia Onion and Red Bell Pepper, chopped finely.

And for the cheese: Emmentaler ( Switzerland import), shredded.

It turned out looking like this:

Whole Grain Egg Strata

Whole Grain Egg Strata

It’s cut into 8-pieces in the photo.

It was a very nice dish, the adults liked it, and Russell liked it, the two younger “didn’t want to eat the red things”, but ended up eating it as they had no other recourse ;)

The edges were really tasty, so if you make this, save that side of each piece for last bites. Also, I don’t spray pans with cooking spray, I use Olive Oil, pour a little in and use a paper towel piece to spread it around, or my fingers. This might have something to do with how good the edges were.

This is a nice breakfast or brunch or something for another kind of meal I suppose. It seems it will be good re-warmed, as quiche is usually.

Either/Or Movie Edition

Found here: http://thinklings.org/jared/index.php?p=544&more=1&c=1

EITHER/OR Movie Edition

Rules: Choose one or the other, no boths. Neither is only acceptable if you don’t have any information on either option. Feel free to provide reasons, excuses, defenses, diatribes.

  • Matinee or Late-Night Showing
    – not often at the movies, but matinee near end of run is our favorite
  • Full Theater or Empty Theater
    –subset of Matinee answer above
  • Popcorn or Candy
  • Row Seating: Nearer the Front or Nearer the Back
  • Within the Row: On a Side or Near the Middle
  • Romance or Historical Biopic
  • Action or Suspense
  • Science Fiction or Horror
  • Alfred Hitchcock or Orson Welles
  • Quentin Tarantino or Spike Lee
  • Star Wars or Star Trek
  • Jimmy Cagney or Jimmy Stewart
  • Bob Hope or Bing Crosby
  • Ingrid Bergman or Lauren Bacall
  • Humphrey Bogart or Clark Gable
  • Abbott and Costello or Laurel and Hardy
  • The Three Stooges or The Marx Brothers
    – Ugh, I have never, even as a child, like either. Blech.
  • Charlie Chaplin or Buster Keaton
  • Video/DVD: Widescreen or Full Screen
  • Movie Reviews or Word of Mouth
    –Mostly just looking at Rottentomatoes for movies we have HEARD about and deciding from both sources
  • Comedies: Laugh Out Loud or Just Smile
  • Crying at Sad Movies: Okay or Not Okay
  • Clapping at the End of a Movie: Okay or Really, Really Stupid
  • Matt Damon or Ben Affleck
    — Gag, they are both disgusting
  • Tom Cruise or Tom Hanks
    — hard one
  • Ben Stiller or Mike Meyers
    SNL! and I married an ax murder
  • Owen Wilson or Luke Wilson
    –hilarious with “John Wayne” but not elsewhere, that I know
  • Stephen Spielberg or M. Night Shyamalan
  • Todd Solondz or Wes Anderson
    – Who????
  • Scarier: Freddy Krueger or Jason
    –both stupid, from commercial viewing
  • Funnier: Jim Carrey or Will Ferrell
  • Deep Impact or Armageddon
    –????? Saw neither
  • Rated G or Rated PG
  • Either/Or Literary Edition

    Found via … carmon friedrich’s blog sherry before that … ORIGINAL LOCATION: http://www.thinklings.org/index.php?p=1333&more=1&c=1 — go straight to the source for the cleanest copy! :)

    I’ve fitted my version out with li and /li and br so that each line of the “quiz” is bulleted, any responses I have are right under that line beginning with a “–”. A pain to do, but worth it for readings sake. Thank me! :)

    Did I obey the “rules”? Don’t things so, all the way, though I did try!

    EITHER/OR Literary Edition

    Same rules as always: Choose one or the other, no “both”s. No “neither”s unless you have no information about either option. Feel free to provide whatever reasons, explanations, or defenses you believe pertinent.

    • Hardback or Paperback
      –hardback since it offers whitespace that paperbacks mostly toss out [but I do like those big format "softbacks"].
    • Highlight or Underline
      –highlight, my desire, not usually done; handwrite into a notebook if highly interesting
    • Lewis or Tolkien
    • E.B. White or A.A. Milne
    • T.S. Eliot or e.e. cummings
      –no applicable knowledge nor preference
    • Stephen King or Dean Koontz
      – I recall reading THE STAND years ago and loving it, grain of salt
    • Barnes & Noble or Borders
      – B&N or Books-A-Million, great browsing, coffee, cookies … :)
    • Waldenbooks or B. Dalton
      – we don’t go to these, too small, crowed, ugh.
    • Fantasy or Science Fiction -
      - Fantastical Sci-Fi, I can’t separate them so I say that, though choose Fantasy — as in fairy tales (don’t have to have fairies in them, usually don’t).
    • Horror or Suspense
    • Bookmark or Dogear
      –never bend a book! Nearly anything can be a bookmark too!
    • Large Print or Fine Print
      –Large it is, but not TOO LARGE. This is a sub-set of Hard or Paper Back above. My eye sees ink sitting up high, so I like bigger print. See pen or pencil for my choice, which sits the highest and is eye candy, makes it easy to read. Computer screen isn’t so loverly to read much on therefore. That’s why i like word graphics … lacking on this site though, hmm.
    • Hemingway or Faulkner
      – tie, it’s been too long since read either
    • Fitzgerald or Steinbeck
      –It’s been a long time since, but remember Stein well enough.
    • Homer or Plato
      –Safe to say I haven’t really formed an opinion, nor read much of either?
    • Geoffrey Chaucer or Edmund Spenser
      – Chaucer, as in A Knights Tale? ;) No clue otherwise
    • Pen or Pencil
      – gel, gel, gel, gel pen, baby! Colors too!
    • Looseleaf or Notepad
      – spiral bindings are my love, I classify them as “looseleaf” for some reason. Love writing on thick paper below. I’ve LOTS of spiral bound books to write in, as well as composition books, which I like second best. Pads of paper, last in line.
    • Alphabetize: By Author or By Title
    • Shelve: By Genre/Subject or All Books Together
    • Dustjacket: Leave it On or Take it Off
    • Novella or Epic
      – thick books! Yum!
    • John Grisham or Scott Turrow
      — I’ve only read Grisham, DH has read both, I’ll ask him later
    • J.K. Rowling or Lemony Snicket
      –This isn’t a High Opinion, just that I’ve read some of that in B&N and did enjoy it to the extent of my reading it, but not much. I started in the beginning.
    • John Irving or John Updike
      –No opinion
    • Salman Rushdie or Don Delillo
      –No opinion
    • Fiction or Non-fiction
      –I read much non-fiction though, for info mostly
    • Historical Biography or Historical Romance
      –Like if the story is romantic some, that’s not a romance though :)
    • Reading Pace: A Few Pages per Sitting or Finish at Least a Chapter
      –This is a better choice for me now, though when younger it was “read a WHOLE BOOK in one sitting”
    • Short Story or Creative Non-fiction Essay
    • Blah Blah Blah or Yada Yada Yada
    • “It was a dark and stormy night…” or “Once upon a time…”
      –There are those Fairy Tales! Fantasies!
    • Books: Buy or Borrow
      – prefer buy for loved books. Don’t have the $ to practise that though.
    • Book Reviews or Word of Mouth
      – and by the eye in the stores

    I’ll get the rest of my education in the next few years. I’ve read a lot, but not the “classics” much, it seems.

    Shopping :( eBaying :)

    UPDATE [Thursday, August 26, 2004 6:00pm Eastern]:

    I got a nice lot of clothes for Asa last night as well. A “one fell swoop” of what he needs for autum-winter. Earlier times pass downs from Russell worked alright if the season was right for size, as Asa is smaller than Russell was … born in April for R. and Septemer for A., as well as, like I said, Asa is smaller over all.

    This morning the dress I was looking at wasn’t bid on until an hour before aution end. So I sniped it at the end, intening to get into a fight for it since it was such a low price, .99. No fight. I got it for 1.04. I am not thrilled with that, so I’ve written the seller to let me add some on to the price for her. :) No reply so far. Maybe that’s an odd thing for me to do, but it just seems such a horrid thing to get something for so cheap, I mean, so cheap. And that is why I don’t, when I sell, start things THAT low, though if selling alot and really moving things, it’d be a tactic to use … that seller starts everything at .99, but this is a nice dress. Hmm, well that’s someone with a sensitive soul, me. :)
    —————————–

    Phew! Just won another auction on eBay. I was given the go-ahead to get a few things after we went to the outlet malls looking for two dresses for me, around 29.99 each, plus tax. We saw very little of anything we liked, and nothing in our price-range, and anyway the things we saw we liked were for, like dressing up to go to a concert, opera, etc (as I am want to do whenever such an occasion would arise.)

    After the outlets we went to Dillards, and saw more there that I liked, but in the same range of “too dressy” for church or at home or going out to eat normally. We did see a wool Pendleton skirt that I loved, blue plaid, pleated, very long. Price was way too long to consider though.

    So back home, worn out feet. We thought, going into the day, that we’d find SOMETHING.

    In the past Eddie Bauer has had things suitable. Dresses, that is. Of late, the past few months, when we go by the outlet version in a local-ish outlet-sort-of mall they have NO dresses, and a few short skirts.

    Online, their outlet store has had little, more now, but I narrowed it down to three possible choices, and none of them thrilled me at all. I mean, not at all. So I looked at those in the morning of that day we went out to the large outlet shopping area North of us. I told Frank that I’d consider what I saw on EB online, and hope to find something better while out.

    Well, once back home it was a “Nothing from EB either” attitude I had.

    “Let me go on eBay and show you what I can find”, I told him.
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