Nocreative title here, just some reviews

Hi all, it's been awhile, hasn't it? I'm sorry. I blame Anthro. Instead of wandering in to the store to try all on my loves and snap pics of them, I end up walking around finding nothing that I really like and have to grab things deliberately to try on. That said, I have bought some Anthro lately. Everyone help me pray for a big sale/second cuts next week, since they gypped us today at the end of free ship. (I just picked up a De Chelly dress deliberately hoping for a second cut. Since I have done so, I can now guarantee you that there will not be a second cut before the end of my PA adjustment range.) I also picked up a few rare gems on ebay, but my bank account is not so delighted. I guess it's a good thing then that Anthro's latest offerings have been a bit stale.

What I also picked up was The Land of the Painted Caves, book six in the Earth's Children trilogy by Jean Auel. (Just out today!) Yessssss. I have a blissful evening ahead of me with lots of Stone Age historical fiction. The reviews seem weak, but I'm hoping I'll still like it. I don't necessarily need a lot of action and I like reading long boring historical descriptions of how to cook food or make clothes (which is what a lot of people seem to be knacking on the book for), so fingers crossed!

What else is new? I guess since I've posted about my riding exploits here in the past, I'll also share with you that I had my first fall last week! (I have been seriously going around talking about this to everyone I know. I don't know why I'm bragging about it. It's not that great a thing to be proud of. But I feel this is something vitally important that everyone must know.) It's actually not that exciting to speak of - one of the things I've had the most problems with right now is proper pacing into the jumps, and I generally epic fail at slowing down Remy over combinations. I screwed up and slewed him into the line at way too steep of an angle, which had me off balance over the first fence. He eyed the second fence and took off as usual - which threw me even more off balance - and then after we landed, I found myself hanging off the left side of the horse. I tried, but it wasn't quite saveable, and hanging off the side of the horse while he careened happily around the arena wasn't very appealing, so ..... ooomph and ploofmph! No harm, just had the wind knocked out of me and was sore for days afterwards. And I found sand in the oddest places afterwards. (in my nostrils?!?) At least I was triply inspired to go watch more videos after that. (Nope, sorry, no videos of my fall. I almost wish I had one. There are people on youtube that take great pleasure in making fall montages. I want to be cool like that!) What I have concluded after watching my old crap videos, and videos of grand prix riders, is that I think I throw myself too far forward at the two point and stay down in it too long. I need to try opening up on the downside of the jump. We'll see if I can remember that tomorrow in my next lesson.

Okay, Anthro reviews, which is much more exciting (and safer!)

Gathered Hemlock Dress ($148)

I tried the very similar Softly Structured dress on before and didn't care for it much on me, but I loved the bright sunny print of this dress. And .... still a no go. Shame. As I mentioned before, I love the print, and the dress is so comfortable and soft. I believe I took an xs and it fit just fine. I lay all blame on the top. I love the wrap style of the bottom, but the top seems too plain. If I put a hand over the bottom of the dress to just look at the top, it looks like a t-shirt. Maybe it's the wider neckline (which really isn't that wide and I've bought other shirts with wide necklines that look fine.) Maybe it's the short straight sleeves. But something just doesn't feel right to me.

Asian Travels

While Sandy and Jenni and everyone in the blogosphere are happily getting great deals with the Anthro sales, I am Anthro-less in Asia right now.

I was previously in Beijing, home to…

the Forbidden City…

the Summer Palace…

the Great Wall (well, it’s close enough to Beijing to count)…

Peking duck and other great food!

I am now in Taiwan, home to…

Sun Moon Lake…

lots of flowers (and currently hosting the Floral Expo)…

huge malls and awesome night markets…

lots of great food (like zhongzi)…

…and much more!

~N

Dresses, dresses, and more dresses!

The Iditarod 1000 mile sled dog race is starting tomorrow! Technically, it began today, but that was the ceremonial start which ran around downtown Anchorage, Alaska. Tomorrow is the re-start and the beginning of the actual race. That means that this week's productivity at work is shot. The Iditarod has, in the last few years, been placing GPS trackers on all the mushers sleds, which update every 15 minutes. Good idea for race fans. Bad idea for workers.

Me: Okay, I need to get started coding and writing my test plans.
* refreshes trackers *
Me: Grrr WHYYY aren't you moving? It's a race! You said you'd rest 6 hours! Your tracker stopped about 5 hours ago THEY'RE CATCHING UP TO YOU!!!!
* refreshes trackers *
Me: Good, trackers have changed the speed from 0.0 mph to 0.2 mph. Maybe the sled is moved in preparation of moving off their butts and getting back on the trail!
* refreshes trackers * Speed shows at 0.0 mph.
Me: GAAAHHHHH.
* refreshes trackers *
Speed shows at 6.8 mph (or something similar)
Me: Yeeaaah baby go dogs go! Okay, that was a good waste of an afternoon. Oh yeah, I was supposed to get stuff done today at work, wasn't I. Ooops.

x 10 days or so .....

Not so sure anyone else follows my obscure interest in sled dogs, but the team I follow is Aliy Zirkle and Allen Moore of SP Kennels. They have a lot of nice videos on the trail and do a fairly good job of keeping us updated with what's happening in the race.

But anyways, what you probably are interested in is not furry dogs trotting through an Artic Wilderness. On to the dresses!

Wisteria Halter Dress ($148)

I totally cannot figure out yet what to make of this dress. I love the colors. But the split confuses me. Why is the top purple and the bottom green? I know, top flowers, bottom vines. But it looks disjointed. I zoomed in on the website and finally figured out that it's a big long green vine with purple flowers on the top. But it doesn't look connected from a distance. The dress itself is a very sturdy cotton, almost a canvas like material. I took my usual 2 in Maeve and found it was way too big. I'd have to size down to a 0. I think I like the dress, despite the odd color splitage. It cries out for a belt though. I would love to throw my looping lanes belt on for styling. I found it very comfy, maybe a tad too heavy for the hottest days of summer because of the weight of the fabric, and definitely my favorite of all the dresses I tried on that day. Possibly wishlisted. (Which no, doesn't speak well for the rest of the dresses!)