$25 SWEATERS

$10 SHIRTS

I didn’t walk in the store. I didn’t want to tempt myself with clothes that are too short… [...]]]> Yesterday, as I walked back to my office from lunch and passed by The Gap as I normally do… I furrowed my brow as I saw the latest promotion sign.

$25 SWEATERS

$10 SHIRTS

I didn’t walk in the store. I didn’t want to tempt myself with clothes that are too short… or will be after a few wears. Heck, I was wearing one of those “oh this is sort of long… it’ll fit… oh wait, now it doesn’t fit really long after a year’s wear” sweaters as I walked by the sign. I kept walking, grabbed my phone, and tweeted my frustration.

But something magical happened (aren’t these the best Twitter stories?!?) … @GAP replied!

And this morning, I got that email from Lindsay… or rather Kathy… but who cares because they had @gap.com in their email address and it was full of good news!

We have some great news to share!  Our online store, gap.com, will honor store promotions on online exclusive sizes.  This applies to regular-priced promotion products only, not markdown product promotions.  For example, we will honor a store’s promotion price of 20% off Regularly Priced Dresses for a Women’s Tall size, but would not honor 20% off Markdown/Clearance dresses in Women’s Tall.

You may call from home or from a store, or a store may call on your behalf to place your order.  You must also be sure to call during the valid dates/times of the promotion.

This may seem like silly news to you… because gap.com always has sales online and coupons to use so who cares about in-store promotions. But to me… this is somewhat liberating.

I walk into the mall and realize that my best decision is to window-shop for things I like in stores that carry tall sizes, and then cross my fingers that it’s available in TALL online. I’m old enough to know that I shouldn’t buy things that just barely fit…. and old enough not to barely fit in the clothes I could pull off from normal stores in my 20’s. So I stay out of malls and away from clothes shopping in person and keep to my online habits instead. And it’s lonely. I liked shopping for clothes with friends… and just going out and having a chance to find something fun for myself. For a while now I’m been the shoe/house/makeup mall consumer instead.

But now that I can participate in these store sales, I can walk into Banana Republic or GAP or Old Navy and look and pretend like I’m everyone else there.

This sounds so absolutely ridiculous being typed out… but there it is. A little bit of happy news from a brand that likes petite and tall people.

Well, a few weeks ago, they all left [...]]]> In two years, I’ve called 3 different rooms my “office” here at work. I moved into the most recent office last fall, and with the move came 3 additional desks/workspaces for my 5 colleagues. I decorated my little “corner” and that was about all I could do.

Well, a few weeks ago, they all left for an adjacent room of their own, leaving me all by my lonesome self. And even though 2 desks have been replaced by a small conference table, my décor is still relegated to a little corner and, well, it just looks silly.

People, I need some help here. I have some things I can’t work around (like the position of my all the furniture and the giant old video-conference TV in the corner), but I need some ideas to fill up my soaring walls before I go crazy.

[view from door – North wall]

[East & South walls]

[South and West walls]

[West & North walls]

Any awesome ideas you can throw my way would be greatly appreciated! As this is something I don’t want to throw lots of money at (it is still always a temporary space), I’m really hoping someone out there can think much more creatively about office décor than I can!

The latest news essentially reveals that people don’t seem to like “quality” olive oils, and instead prefer rancid [...]]]> Please excuse me for finding this somewhat fascinating, but olive oil could easily be considered a food group for me… so I’m ridiculously fascinated by these food studies coming out of the UC Davis Olive Center.

The latest news essentially reveals that people don’t seem to like “quality” olive oils, and instead prefer rancid tasting ones. In other words, consumers have no idea what quality is supposed to taste like.

The new study captured the preferences of 110 Northern California olive oil consumers and the reasons for those preferences. The study participants were asked to taste and rate 22 commercial olive oils that were labeled as extra virgin. Half of the oils in the study were imported, and half were from California.

The study found that 74 percent of the consumers did not like what the expert tasters identified as high-quality oil — those that were bitter, pungent and free of defects. Bitterness and pungency are two of the positive sensory attributes of high-quality olive oil, as identified by International Olive Council standards.

The researchers note that, in the case of other food products such as specialty beers and coffees, bitterness is an attribute that consumers initially dislike but learn to accept. They suggest that consumers might find bitterness and pungency more acceptable when using olive oil with food and in cooking and by knowing that healthy antioxidants in the oil are the cause of bitterness and pungency.

Consumers participating in the study did like those olive oils that had the third desirable attribute of extra virgin olive oil, which is fruitiness. In order for an olive oil to be considered extra virgin, it must have some fruitiness and zero defects such as rancidity.

Surprisingly, 44 percent of the consumers liked the olive oils that had rancid flavors, even though this is an undesirable quality that would disqualify an olive oil from being considered extra virgin.

The authors note that most of the defective oils in the study were European imports and suggest that this bodes well for the California olive oil industry. They predict that as consumers learn about the many nutritional benefits and sensory qualities of extra-virgin olive oil, the California industry will be poised for exponential growth.

[source: http://www.news.ucdavis.edu/search/news_detail.lasso?id=9759]

I find this hilarious on many levels, as this argument can be repeated with so many foods and food products. Wine, cheese, beer, chocolate, etc. Often what is the “best” by the standard of the industry is extreme in tastes that we’re just not used to… and our palate prefers things with a more mellow and subtle flavor.

Here’s my favorite quote from the study:

“Given that American consumers are relatively “new” consumers of EVOO, the rejection of bitterness and pungency is a natural reaction, in that poisonous or toxic substances tend to be bitter. Since humans acquire a taste for bitterness and pungency as adults and in response to learning or cultural processes ([Drewnowski, 1997], Drewnowski and Gomez-Carneros, 2000 A. Drewnowski and C. Gomez-Carneros, Bitter taste, phytonutrients, and the consumer: A review, Am J Clin Nutr 72 (6) (2000), pp. 1424–1435. View Record in Scopus | Cited By in Scopus (182)[Drewnowski and Gomez-Carneros, 2000] and [Kim et al., 2004]), consumers in emergent markets may not have enough exposure to the product to have learned to appreciate bitterness and pungency in olive oil. Similar responses have been obtained in evaluating green vegetables and beers, among others; consumers did not like products that were heavily bitter and/or ranked them as lower in quality than products with less bitterness ([Guinard et al., 1996] and [Bech et al., 2009]).”

I always said that if I would head to Brussels, Belgium if I was granted a “eat everything in sight” pass for a week. I can’t tell you how many different cuisines I consumed there that all became “the best” things that I’d ever eaten. It was only after speaking with the restaurateurs there that they revealed the secret. With the EU headquarters there, they’ve developed a very neutral style of cooking. The Cuban restaurant I ate at was insanely good – mainly because it wasn’t very authentic but more for anyone to enjoy. I mean, how do you think Taco Bell has survived for so long?

So who wins out here? I mean, isn’t it saying something if people prefer the “bad” stuff? Are we supposed to ignore our preferences and change our tastes to enjoy the quality despite our resistance to it?

I don’t know about you… but sometimes I just want to eat a hunk of Brie from TJ’s with my $5 bottle of table white wine and watch How I Met Your Mother. Sure, I can order the $20 cheese plate on a special occasion and enjoy a glass of some local vintage, but most days my tongue just wants to keep things simple.

Oh… and I’ll never ever ever be a bitter beer person. Never.

Here’s this week’s planning list. I love this format because it keeps all of my plans [...]]]> I think I first shared my meal planning worksheets (the ones I print from Russell and Hazel) over two years ago. And guess what? I still use them weekly to plan out dinners!

Here’s this week’s planning list. I love this format because it keeps all of my plans for the week in one place! If I have recipes that I’ve printed out, I’ll staple them to this sheet as well.

Basically the routine goes like this:

1) Figure out dinners for the week – search recipes, inquire about current cravings from Mr. M, add old standards, think about what’s already in the fridge/freezer and plan around it.

2) Add ingredients to buy on the sectioned list.

3) Visit the grocery store on Monday night after work.

4) Cook according to schedule, or modify as needs arrive and push meals to the weekend if needed. (You know.. the work late nights, the last-minute dinner plans with friends nights, or “omg I totally can’t think of cooking tonight” nights.)

We don’t have the luxury of lots of time to run to the grocery store after work, so the once a week shopping is really the best option for us. It also helps keep us from buying lots of random stuff at the store. Notice that chips and soda and cookies aren’t on the list. That means that they rarely get purchased with any normal schedule. I mean, sure, ice cream gets grabbed as well as awesome sodas or random new cheeses. But we usually do that on weekend trips to the store… the “fun” food trips… so it limits the excess purchasing.

I don’t know why this form makes planning lots of fun… but it really does help me get excited about making dinner every week!

Does anyone else use this planner? Or maybe another one that could help people stick to meal planning week after week?

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On Wednesday, there were two envelopes in the mail from law offices in Sacramento. Normally we only get mail from class-action lawsuit firms that want us to sue our home builder, so these envelopes were a little out of place and I’ll admit I was a bit [...]]]>

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On Wednesday, there were two envelopes in the mail from law offices in Sacramento. Normally we only get mail from class-action lawsuit firms that want us to sue our home builder, so these envelopes were a little out of place and I’ll admit I was a bit scared of their contents. Inside both of the envelopes were letters claiming I had $2100 waiting for me from a CA medical insurance company – and that for a small finder’s fee of 10%, they’d help me get this money back.
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Well, if two law firms can send me a letter on the same day, it means that this information just popped up in some magical database somewhere… and I figured I could find the source of the money just as easily as they could. And guess what? It was easier than I thought!
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I googled “lost money” to find unclaimed.org — the US site that helps you see if someone has “lost” you and wants to give you back your money. From this site, you just click on your home state, and it takes you to the database where you can look up your name. It turns out that I had money waiting from two sources – both at old addresses in Los Angeles under my maiden name. And all I needed to do was fill out a form, print it out with my supporting documents (driver’s license and marriage license copies), and I should be getting my money sometime in the next few months! Take that finder’s fee law firms!
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I told my co-worker about my awesome luck, so she hopped on the site and found out that Kaplan owed her $350 from a college tutoring job about 9 years ago! She also looked up her parents and found her mom (who’s lived at the same address for 30+ years) in CT had about $600 waiting for her as well. Let’s just say it was quite a happy day in the office!
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I tweeted about the site yesterday, and Amber found $60 as well! So I figured I’d write a blog and hope that your search comes up profitable as well! Happy Friday everyone!

So the old yellow car is gone… and in her place is this spiffy new blue one! I could go into the details of how our new car buying experience was anything less that ideal, but Mr. M has already gone on that that rant, so I thought [...]]]>

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So the old yellow car is gone… and in her place is this spiffy new blue one! I could go into the details of how our new car buying experience was anything less that ideal, but Mr. M has already gone on that that rant, so I thought I’d share things from a different angle. I’d like to share some tips on getting the new car you want for the best price you can… who knows if we got the bargain basement deal of the century or not, but I do know that we got the car to a price we liked and that was what mattered in the end!
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Tip#1 – Price out every version of the car you want to buy on the manufacturer’s website. Go and add the things you want/don’t want and see what MSRPs pop up at you. In our case, you couldn’t get a navigation system without buying both the upgraded speakers, towing package and rear lift gate. Strange, but that’s how it goes. So a feature you think would only be a small cost increase ends up being bundled into a bunch more. Special colors can also cost more, and some models of the cars can’t be upgraded the way you want. You’ll also walk into the dealership WAY MORE knowledgeable about available features than the car salesmen on the lot. They deal with their inventory, not the entire stock of cars that exist in the country, so be the expert in the situation and know all the ins and outs of your model!
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Tip#2 – Scope out what the invoice and dealer costs are for the car. There are quite a few places on the internet that allow you to find information on the invoice and dealer costs of certain cars. MSN Autos has an easy to use invoice price option for specific cars and options, as does Yahoo!Autos. The easiest to use system that we found, however, was TrueCar.com. Enter in your make/model and options along with your zip code, and you’ll get a nice distribution graph of what the GREAT/GOOD/OVER priced options are based on the sticker, invoice and dealer prices! They even have a great little button where you’ll be shown the BEST PRICE option for the car you’ve selected and dealers willing to confirm that price for you! Also, visit the forums at edmunds.com and see what others are paying for the model right now.
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Tip#3 – Walk in with your firm price, knowing you can go elsewhere. Go into the dealership armed with the price you want and know that if they can’t beat it that you’re walking away. With all of your research, you’ll know by this point what you want to pay, and you’ll know of other dealerships that will give you this offer. Sadly, this doesn’t work if you live in an area w/only one dealership, but it’s perfect when you can travel up a few hours for the right price!
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Tip#4 – Research what the past incentives have been, ask about incentive periods, and see if it’s worth it to wait. Our new car is financed through payments, but as a completely risk averse person, I wanted to make sure we got the best rates we could. In other words, 0% financing was a must for any car we wanted to get. It didn’t matter if another model was “cheaper” in sticker price if we were going to end up paying more for it in the long run. Ask about their incentive periods and most dealerships will be happy to tell you when they are. Most have annual promotional periods that run in the same months every year, and some sales are centered around holiday weekends and such. It doesn’t hurt to ask!
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Tip#5 – Buy the car when it hits your comfort zone. Just like any sort of price negotiations with big purchases (i.e. homes?!?), you’ll never know if you got the perfect price. When you’ve got all the information you can at hand, and you decide on what’s a reasonable price for you, go with your gut and do it.

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I drive Mr. M crazy with my financial purchase indecision at times, so for this one, once I had done all my research and had my comfort price, I let him take over. It was much easier than having me fight for pennies while signing papers, and he didn’t have to stress along with me. And thanks to him, we have a shiny new car. Phew.