nice bras and funny-looking shoes

Today I think I learned my bra size. I knew my existing bras were the wrong size because there were issues. Then last night I came across this video, which indicated I was a truly unusual size, but in the description had a bunch of suggestions of where to buy things. I mentioned to my spouse that I might want to go to one of them sometime and try on bras.

This morning, I was surprised to find myself in the car on the way to the Nordstrom Rack, which is clear across town. It appears that I have been fussing about bras enough to merit an emergency trip across town.

I learned that the unusual size wasn't available, but a much more common size (not anywhere near what I'd been wearing) fit fine. Pretty much any bra I put on in that size was pretty close, which was a totally new experience for me. We'll see if wearing them is a totally new experience, or if I should go in search of the truly unusual size, or give up entirely.

In other news, you can reshape the uppers of crocs clogs by putting them in the oven at 170 F for five minutes and then putting your double-socked foot in the shoe. The sole doesn't deform much if you stand on it some -- it's thicker, so it doesn't heat up the same way.

I knew you could stretch the straps on Crocs flipflops by dipping them in boiling water and then pulling on them, but the oven method results in a better fit because your foot is definitively the right shape. I was just guessing when I was pulling on stuff.

politics and bathroom lighting

Those of you who live in Tucson and have a landline are by now well aware that we have an election coming up. Both sides (but as far as I'm aware, not the actual candidates themselves) have at this point essentially accused the other of intending to act like God did during most of the book of Job.

With today's telephone technology, you can blacklist phone numbers, so now our exposure to the vitriol predominantly supports the US Postal Service, through which we have learned that no matter what happens at the election, we're probably all going to live painful, short lives in the post-apocalyptic wasteland derived from the other side's policies.

In other news, after almost ten years in this house, we have concluded that the lighting in the master bath should be upgraded such that it no longer makes you look like you're dead. I thought I was just sick, but it's the lighting.

Internet searches revealed that ideally you should put lights on the sides of your enormous builder-standard mirror, not just the top, because that makes shadows under your eyebrows, and you look like you're dead. Because of the placement of the medicine chests in our bathroom, there is no room for lights at the premium locations, so I did what any self-respecting physicist would do: I got a laser pointer and figured out where I'd put a light or lights on the opposite wall to get the same effect. (That's the theory.) Then we got out our shop lights and concluded that a pendant light would eliminate the need for two wall lights. (That's the experiment.)

Now we're letting the idea simmer -- we're not exactly sure that a pendant light would look good. Or, as my husband put it, "Not everyone designs their bathroom lighting like a laser table."

things they don't want to tell you

Recently, I went on a new cell phone hunt, and I learned that when someone is trying to sell you something, they sometimes don't really want you to tell you much about it.

I was used to a cut-rate cell phone carrier because if something is cheap enough, it works great, almost no matter how it works, but I finally started caring about good reception outside of town. I researched the other cut-rate companies, ones with better coverage than I had, and I found that you couldn't get any information off their websites. I suppose that could simply be a result of a cut-rate website, but the cable company (not cut-rate) does the same thing, so it looks more deliberate. It makes you wonder if they're hoping you're stupid and will click on whatever they tell you to.

So now that I have a better cell phone camera, have the one unblurry picture I took at sunset last night.

That's Windy Point, halfway up Mount Lemmon. It is close enough that if you snarf dinner at five o'clock at my house, you can still catch an October sunset.