So you wanna see my haul?

First, two wool Army-style blankets, $2.50 each. These are to swap, as I know someone who is looking for them.

Next, a few things for my house. In this picture you see a small sized Borden French press ($0.50), two glass hinge-top storage jars ($0.50 each, can't ever turn those down), three cute jelly jars ($0.25 each), a collapsible cribbage board ($1.00), and a spice jar ($0.15).

Here we've got two big boxes of K'nex. Well, mostly K'nex--one of the boxes is actually about half NBA-set Legos. It's gonna take a while to sort those out! $2.50 for each box. These I'll either swap or sell.

Here we've got two floor puzzles, both in excellent shape ($1.00 each), an amazing pattern for a 20's flapper style dress ($0.50), a new learning to crochet kit ($1.50), and a pound of olive oil soap base ($0.75). The puzzles I can either swap or gift, the rest is for me. Maybe I'll even learn to crochet!

In this picture you see a Ziploc full of spools of ribbon ($1.50), another full of buttons ($2.00), a new watercolor paid ($0.50), and a couple of packages of elastic ($0.25 each). I am hoping to swap these things with folks who can use them.

And then there was yarn. So. much. yarn. All of this is for swapping. Unless I magically learn to knit. It was all $0.25-$0.75 per skein.

This is five skeins of pale blue Spinnerin Mona yarn, imported from Switzerland. It is 100% virgin wool.

Here we see seven skeins of dark purple Emu Superwash washable wool yarn. It's 100% new wool and made in England.

This picture shows a crazy twenty skeins of lavender Kid Mohair yarn. It's from the Italian brand Filatura Di Crosa. It's 80% mohair kid and 20% nylon.

This pink yarn looks like it has been around a while, even though most of it is still new in the sleeve. It is what I think comes out to five skeins of 70% mohair and 30% wool yarn from Bear Brand's Loop-Aire.

Finally, in the miscellaneous yarn category, we have a big skein of blue yarn that I think might be synthetic, a skein of 100% wool yarn from Sensations in "green licorice," a skein of the Swiss Mona yarn in cream, and a skein of 100% Italian mohair yarn by Ballet in pink/lavender.

Hot damn.

My score? A vintage 1973 Fisher Price Little People Play Village, in excellent condition, with most of the pieces (people, vehicles, furniture, etc.). For $1.

For a minute there, I felt like Betsy Smith.

Thanks for playing, everyone!

I realized the other day exactly what my issue is:

In the past, I've defended the Goodwill's right to charge prices as high as they'd like. My argument is that the service they provide isn't selling cheap goods--the stores are money making ventures to fund their job training and placement services. So if they can get high prices for their stuff, then more power to them.

Now, though, I think they've overshot their mark. Because the regular Goodwills seem to be less and less crowded, and the bins more and more, both with goods and with people. The implication of that, to me, is that they are selling less at their regular stores and more at the bins. Which in turn implies that other people are feeling the same way I do, and spending more time sifting through the bins and less time looking at the shelves in the regular stores. And, ultimately, spending less.

The bins isn't immune, either. I had a big stack of craft felt sheets in my cart the other day, 30 of them, and the cashier said $0.25 each. Which would have been a total of $7.50. How much are those new? Less than $5. But most of the time, it's great.

Recent finds?

A NIP Melissa & Doug backgammon set ($29.95 new) for $2.

A NIP Wilton cookie set (cookie sheet, cooling rack, and Christmas cookie cutters) for $1.

Really cool brandy snifters for $0.99.

Tye-dyed dog bed cover (woohoo!) for $0.75.

Oh, that reminds me--better go enter my blog thrifting contest. Today's the last day!!

The first mention I find of my own weight here is on December 8, 2003. In this post, I freak out after learning that I weigh 187 lbs:

I need to face facts. I'm overweight. First it was "no worries until I'm over 160," then "no worries until I'm over a size 12," then "no worries until my clothes don't fit." Well, all those things have happened. I'm well over 160, I'm a size 14 on a good day, and my clothes don't fit. I've gained well over 30 lbs. since high school, and probably 20 since I graduated from college. Worse yet, I've gained another 10 at least since I've been in Texas.

It's got to stop.

On February 24, 2004, I noted that I was losing weight (at that point I weighed about 175 lbs, which is my current goal weight), and it bothered me in ways I wouldn't have expected:

Even though the weight loss is intentional and I'm working really hard on it and I was in some ways happy someone noticed, it was a very strange feeling to have someone acknowledge that my body is getting smaller. Even thought I intellectually know that even if I weigh a bit less, I'm getting stronger ever day, I still very weird purposefully making myself smaller. I spent so long as a skinny, skinny kid, I still have it in my head somewhere that I should be gaining weight, not losing it.

On April 4, 2004, I talked about how very sick I was of dieting, still having lost only 10-15 lbs, and feeling stuck. In that post, still at around 175 lbs, I was questioning whether or not I should even be trying to lose any more.

On July 2, 2004, I had a rare very good body image day, and wrote the following in one of my favorite posts ever, "Thick":

I am SO beautiful. I have thick, strong legs and a big ole butt. I have wide shoulders and a strong, straight back. Even my increasingly-heavy breasts look strong and capable. I have big-ass feet, but they carry me and give me foundation. I have big-ass hands, but that just means they can hold a lot and I have a firm handshake. Even my hair looks strong.

Then I didn't talk about weight for a bit. On March 1, 2005, I was back at it, with another of my favorite ever posts, entitled "Fat":

I come from a long line of "full-figured" women. As they themselves would say it, fat women. Not fat just because they love to eat (although they do, and they eat with a voracity and lust for life that I admire and aspire to), but fat because they were meant to be that way. Fat because thousands of years of Dutch peasant stock built them sturdy; fat because they have worked for generations in fields and on concrete diner floors; fat because there is nothing waifish about their personalities; fat because when you grow up poor, you never, ever leave food on your plate. Mostly, though, they are fat because their mothers were fat, their grandmothers were fat, their aunts and cousins were fat, and fat is their way of life.

On March 31, 2005, I really let loose in a post entitled "Catharsis." I wrote:

I hate my body. I hate these breasts. Where the fuck did I get these breasts? They don't look like my breasts. My breasts are small. I hate the flaps of fat swinging under my arms like a fucking whattle. I hate my belly rolls. I hate the cellulite on the outsides of my thighs and the stretch marks on the insides of them. I hate hate hate my ass. I hate not being able to fit into any cute clothes, or even any of the clothes I wore last summer. I hate being "plus sized." I hate shopping at Lane Bryant. It doesn't make me feel like a "Real Woman (TM)," it makes me feel like a fucking manitee. I hate people saying, "you're just tall." 30 pounds ago I was just tall.

In April 2005, I asked what was worse, dieting or budgeting. I hated both.

On May 9, 2005, I had another come-to-Jesus moment, noting that my weight had ballooned to 203 lbs.

I'm paralyzed with it. I have no fucking idea how I am going to fight it. Taking off ten pounds is one thing, but I need to take off thirty to be at a reasonable weight, and I can't imagine that I am going to be able to take them off anywhere near as quickly as I put them on. If at all. This may just the beginning.

And then I stopped talking about it altogether, for quite some time. The next weight-related post is September 7, 2006, when I blogged about my 1500 calorie a day diet. Which I clearly didn't stick to, because on January 24, 2007, I posted about not being able to find pants that fit.

On October 3, 2007, I mediated on my body over the years, with photos. I tried to be positive. Looking back, though, of course I prefer the photo set's first picture, showing a 14 year old me who wears a size 8, to the last picture, showing 27 year old me wearing a size 38 jeans. On the day I made the post, I weighed somewhere between 210-215.

Two weeks ago, I weight 224 lbs. Yesterday, 219. Once again, I'm on that path. The difference is that it's going to be harder this time, because I'm fatter. And it's also going to be easier, because I can see this history clearly now, or at least more clearly, and I know that any change I make is positive, and if I get back down to that 175, or even the 187 that so bothered me in that first post, I will feel and look better.

But it's a battle.

First: Belle is doing great. We love having her. She's got a fantastic personality--she's incredibly loving, obedient, and eager to please. She is getting along great with our pack, particularly Leo, with whom she's gotten quite close. They play every day, and he grooms her. She is definitely good for him.

She's warmed up to us quickly as well. Though she clearly wasn't well taken care of when we got her, she just as clearly hasn't been abused and has had good relationships with people. She's very trusting. After a few nights in the crate, we thought she was trustworthy, so we put a bed for her in our room. It's so cute how excited she was. She trots right in there and lies right down when we're going to bed, and doesn't move all night. She's also pretty clearly been trained--she refuses to come up on to furniture even if we invite her.

We've been extremely lucky with our fosters, and Belle is definitely another in that line of luck.

All of the above is good, since it seems we might have Belle for a while. After consulting with our vet this weekend, we've decided not to have her cherry eye surgically corrected. In a dog her age, who has clearly had the condition for quite some time, the procedure could very well do more harm than good. While the cherry eye itself is mostly a cosmetic problem (unless the exposed glands get scratched or dry out or become infected, but Belle's seem very healthy), the surgery would have a good chance of leaving her unable to produce tears for the rest of her life. This wouldn't be unbearable--but it would necessitate eye drops multiple times a day for the rest of her life.

So the cherry eyes, pending any additional problems with them, will stay. Sadly, this significantly changes Belle's prospects at adoption. I feel very sure we'll find a perfect family for her eventually, but it will likely take longer than placing a totally healthy and cosmetically perfect dog. As it happens, that's fine--we're happy to keep her for as long as she needs to stay.

In the meantime, if you know anybody in the Austin area who is looking for an extremely well behaved and absolutely lovely dog who happens to have funny eyes, do let me know.

So, if you've never heard of it, the Teeth
plot synopsis on IMDB begins, "Still a stranger to her own body, a high school student discovers she has a physical advantage when she becomes the object of male violence." Put less subtly, the main character, a high school virgin and purity advocate named Dawn (Jess Weixler), has teeth in her vagina.

Yes. Teeth. In her vagina.

Dawn discovers this when she is raped and her rapist subsequently loses his cock to her vaginal teeth (and goes on to drown, presumably after passing out from shock or blood loss or something). She goes on to unintentionally steal four fingers off a sleazy gynecologist, and then intentionally (or semi-intentionally) bite the dicks off two more sleazoid guys who want to use her for sex.

I don't have a problem with the premise. It's extreme, yes, but done well, I think it could have been great. Netflix called it a "feminist horror flick." I was all over that.

But instead, it's done very, very badly.

First off, each time a disgusting specimen of teen manhood loses his penis to Dawn's teeth, the film shows it. Yes--multiple shots of detached penises, including a pierced one that gets eaten by a rottweiler. I have a strong stomach, folks, but I so did not need to see that. Especially not more than once.

Secondly, it's not funny. Something with this premise needs to be campy, and I think it's supposed to be, but it's just...not. I gagged several times while watching it, but only laughed once, and the funny part had nothing to with Dawn's teeth or the uses she puts them to.

Finally, and this is my biggest problem with the film, there's Dawn herself. Until the last few minutes of the film, Dawn is not a horror movie monster, nor is she the avenging anti-heroine she could be. Instead, she's just this kind of fucked up girl with this gross abnormality, who doesn't seem to get it. While we do get the impression at the end of the film that Dawn may be planning to use her mutation to punish evil men in the future, it's kind of too little too late. For most of the movie, she's a hapless victim and the revenge she extracts on her victimizers is sadly unintentional.

The other thing that becomes clear towards the end of the film is that Dawn can have sex without injuring her parter--the teeth only come out if she's unhappy or being hurt, or if she wants them to. This is a very important caveat in my mind, and if we ever got to see a knowing and sober Dawn have nice healthy sex, she would end up a much better and less sad and pathetic character.

I can't recommend this one, y'all. I still believe there is possibility in the genre of feminist horror, but this definitely isn't it.

But I also wanted to to highlight some blogs I particularly love here, from the list.

betz white: Betz White is a designer and crafter who also happens to blog on my current favorite craft blog. I love this post, showing a simple and genius use for old t-shirts.

Posie Gets Cozy: This is the blog that got me started on craft blogs. Alicia makes great stuff, and the quality of her non-craft related blogging is fantastic. Also, she lives in Portland, and writes Portland-related posts, which I adore. She has a piece up today about an easy way to line envelopes which I never would have thought of, and it's a great idea.

Confessions of a Pioneer Woman: Ree writes such an insanely good blog. Her photographs are wonderful, her stories are wonderful, she's funny, she makes you think on occasion...just all-around good stuff. Also, recipes! I want Cowboy Nachos.

Trying again: What about YOU? What blogs do you love?

• A new-looking Build-A-Bear train, for a small friend's upcoming first birthday
• Four much-needed ice cube trays, to freeze stock and pesto in at home
• A vintage tin Pillsbury recipe box
• A set of brand new Australia coasters with cool art on them (our coasters are disappearing like mad for some reason)
• A stack of unused cross stitch cloth, in various shades of white and off-white
• A stack of vintage 60s and early 70s knitting and sewing patterns

I've gotten too cheap for the Goodwill.

The bins has ruined me.

Yesterday, I went by a regular Goodwill store, as I was selling books at the store next door. Did I find anything I wanted? Yes. Did I buy it? No. Why? Because I thought it was too expensive.

I have long made fun of people who complain that the Goodwill is overpriced. It seems ridiculous to me. But yesterday I found myself doing the same thing.

To be fair, though, what I was looking at was overpriced. There were several of these jars (the large ones), available for $4.99 each. Notice how they cost $3.99 each new at Ikea. Yeah. That really is ridiculous.

It's not just that, though. I look at clothes, for between $3.99 and $7.99, and think to myself "but this would only be $1.25 at the bins!" I look at books for $2.99 or $3.99 and think "$0.99 at the bins!" It's bad.

We still miss you Chancey.