shoppy
January 18, 2010

Spent my �Hanukah Gelt� this weekend�bought myself the only pair of women�s Avia walkers that Kohl�s had in my size. Co-incidentally, it was also the only pair they had that wasn�t on �sale�, so they were sixty bucks, instead of thirty-five. But I�m always happy to find a pair that fit, and that aren�t men�s. For the record�I will wear men�s if I have to. I just find the plainest old size eight they have in white and go with it. But it always feels like a victory to find shoes for MY gender, in MY size.

And I finished with the Christmas gift shopping for Spouse�I�ve been waiting and waiting for him to pick out his book bag already, and he finally got around to it on Friday. It�s a nice rolling backpack from JEEP, so it was a good price and will be fairly sturdy (I hope!). He really seems to like it.

I also continued to make it abundantly clear to Spouse that I�m serious about getting a really good cast iron and enamel dutch oven. I thought I�d hinted the holy heck out of it for Christmas, but he went in a different direction, gift-wise. And it�s not like I expect a genuine LeCreuset�as nice as that would be, they are altogether too much money, even from the outlet store. I�ve pretty much settled on the Lodge 5-quart round in dark red, which is $65.97 at Wally�s (and seems to be made about a zillion percent better than the Paula Deen one they have for ten bucks more.)

I have a suspicion that Spouse thinks my yen for this pot is a phase�but if it is, it�s a hell of a long one, because I�ve wanted this type of cookware since I was a teenager. I�ve just decided that I�ve waited goddamn long enough, you know? Life is freakin� short.

And after fifteen years of trying to coax acceptable results from that damned induction cooktop, which rejects nearly every good pan out there because aluminum and copper aren�t magnetic�well, I just want to be able to brown some meat properly, for pity�s sake. Is that really so much to ask?

Nope. And I�ve even got the savings for it. As a lark, I�ve been putting my all dimes into a glass soda bottle for months, and it�s almost full�there�s gotta be close to seventy dollars or so in there. That baby�s MINE.