MissMeliss: Escribition

Outside, while it isn’t particularly cold, it is windy and gray, and a storm is threatening to form. In the house, my ear/throat still hurt, especially when I swallow, and I think I still have a low-grade fever. It’s the kind of day that makes you want to put on a ratty old bathrobe and frumpy slippers and spend a lot of time getting to know your tea kettle.

My tea kettle is currently in the dishwasher, and anyway, I’m a morning coffee sort of person. My DeLonghi machine decided that it did not wish to be thrown under a bus, which was yesterday’s threat, and actually brewed coffee today, which is lucky for this because I was one click away from ordering a Capresso ST600, and may, still.

After I finish this post, my very lofty plans for the day include actually drinking said coffee, and perhaps making some oatmeal to go with it, and then retreating to either the bedroom or my office to write about the latest news in car insurance. (Note to self: it’s also time to pay the premium.)

I’m in a good mood, but I feel kind of blechy (see the bit about my ear) so putting on actual clothes instead of my fetching blue, green and white pajamas and the t-shirt that goes with them may not happen.

But that’s okay, because it’s Thursday, and loungewear is completely appropriate for Thursdays.
Trust me on this.

As an AT&T user both at home and on my cell, and a frequenter of Starbucks, I was intrigued when a twitterbuddy mentioned that the former will be taking over the wi-fi presence in the latter, beginning in Q2 of 2008.

I mean, I have a cell card should I desperately need to work online from a cafe, but still…

I was a little dubious, however, so I did a quick search and found articles in MacWorld and the like all supporting this information, as well as this piece from Gizmodo.

Even better? Just having a Starbucks card gets you two free hours of access a day, no purchase required.

Q2 cannot come soon enough. (Oh, wait, we’re almost there.)

This rainy day finds me at Barnes and Nobel in Cedar Hill, enjoying a post-facial grilled cheese panini and a white chocolate mocha. Outside, cool rain is falling steadily. In here, there is upbeat music, and a pleasant vibe. Diagonally across the room is a couple with two young children who are sipping not-very-hot chocolate, one is in some kind of scouting troop and is in uniform. The girl, younger, has a pink top and delicate curls.

In front of me is a group of young people, perhaps sixteen, no more than twenty years old. Their conversation is intense, serious, and low-pitched, the way all such conversations are.

I’m not wearing make-up because I just had a facial, but I am wearing a beret to cover the fact that there’s massage oil in my hair.

I can’t decide if I want to write, or shop for books.

I think I’d rather browse.
But not til my mocha is done.

I have new lights for my shrubs as of last night, and the net lights I found at Target were actually cheaper than the similar sets from Home Depot, but then there were all these other things that somehow managed to get in the cart and come home with me.

*blinks innocently*

Included among the unplanned acquisitions:
- a set of those snowflake lights, to hang in the front tree.
- a pair of silver ornaments that I can’t describe because my mother reads my blog, and one is for her
- six stockings with a gold glitter pen for decoration
- butter cookies, the ones in the blue tins, because they’re good to have around “just in case” and because I like the tins
- a wreath hanger for the door - we HAD one, but it hasn’t been seen since 2003. I suspect we left it in California.
- a couple of unmentionable kitchen things, also for my mother, with dupes for me
- a nonfat peppermint mocha

Okay, the last item wasn’t from Target, but it was the perfect end-cap to the shopping portion of the evening. Then we came home and had grilled salmon and a Caesar salad and watched Heroes.

I’ve been thinking a lot about espresso machines lately. I used to have a DeLonghi machine, but it was a pain to use, and when I owned it I felt like I had to use it, instead of hitting cafes. I like going to cafes, you see. I like the mix of people, the funky music, the sound of the steaming milk as it makes froth and foam, the cheery clatter of cups and saucers.

However, I also like really strong coffee with pretty foam on top when I write, and without an espresso machine I can’t make one. We have a wet bar in the kitchen, and I’ve often fantasized about having a restaurant-quality machine hard-wired and hard-plumbed into that space.

It’s just a fantasy, of course, because we don’t have that kind of cash, and if we did, we’d be replacing carpets, putting in a hot tub, and rebuilding the front entry, but it’s fun to dream about such things. I try to justify it by reminding Fuzzy that he likes frothy hot chocolate, and that espresso machines of that caliber are also great for steaming scrambled eggs - nothing is fluffier, actually, then eggs done by steam injection.

Fuzzy brings me back from my fantasies with questions like, “So you wouldn’t have to go to Starbucks, then, right?”

Silly man.

(If you came here looking for my Thursday Thirteen post, it’s below. )

…or rather the color of the cups that signify the beginning of the holiday season. Yes, my friends, the red cups are back at Starbucks and with them have arrived peppermint mochas (which you can actually get all year, but taste better in red cups), eggnog lattes, and caramel apple cider. I’m a mocha girl myself, while Fuzzy’s a cider guy.

He was up til six this morning working on, well, work, and I spent yesterday using Nyquil to help nuke the last of a cold that I couldn’t shake, since it was determined I have nothing wrong that antibiotics can help (no sinus infection). Nyquil doesn’t do much but knock me out, but sometimes being asleep is the best thing you can do. I had a long nap yesterday afternoon, had the lights out for the night by eleven-thirty, and didn’t get out of bed this morning til after ten, then returned to nap some more about an hour later.

This evening we went to Panera, but it wasn’t at all satisfying, and then to Half Price Books where for $63 we got more than 100 Christmas cards, a book for Fuzzy, and a bunch of little gifty things that I can’t mention because some are for my mother who reads my blog.

And then, of course, we went to Starbucks for hot, steamy, red-cupped goodness, and another present for Mom.

It was a good day.

By the way, if you’re not on my Christmas list, and want to be, or are, and have moved since last Christmas, please send an email to Melissa AT MissMeliss DOT com with your name and snailmail address so you can receive a card from us. (If you’re reading this on LiveJournal, I’ll be setting comments to be screened, and you can reply there.)

I love to shop. I am not a shopaholic in anything approaching Sophie Kinsella-esque proportions, but I do love a good sale, a great bargain, the smell of crisp green cash being exchanged for something new and shiny, especially if it comes in a tiny blue bag.

While much of my shopping involves books, stationery, fancy pens, new music, and froufrou coffee, I also frequently buy clothing - I am, in fact, one of those women who has things in her closet with the tags still on them, purchased years ago, never worn, but kept because “someday I might.” I mean, doesn’t everyone need a gold lamé mini-dress? Yes, I thought so.

It is this very habit of mine, instilled in me at birth by a mother who designed and made all my clothes til I was ten and asked for real jeans, and my grandmother who shopped for Christmas presents all year, and ended up losing them within the house, only to rediscover them in the nick of time, to pile in front of me - I always got the most presents from her - it’s GOOD to be the favorite. (In truth, it wasn’t so much that I was the favorite as that I was the most present in her life.)

And it is this love of shopping that also has me in love with a website: http://www.webbyplanet.com.

WebbyPlanet is essentially the online equivalent of those coupon exchange tables that grocery stores used to have, where you could pick up coupons for stuff you might actually buy, and leave coupons for those that you don’t. In this case, you don’t have to leave anything but brief contact information, though there is an opt-in newsletter, and you take away coupons for everything from books to baby clothes, fashion to furniture, computers to coffee (by the way, did you know there’s actually a company called 800-ESPRESSO? Now you do).

I’ve had a great time browsing through the coupons and deal offerings, which are divided by category and feature a description of each retailer or e-tailer as well as coupons (general discounts) and deals (special offers) for each company. Some of the grammar on the site is a little awkward, but never so much that the meaning isn’t easily found, and the interface is easy to use.

I like the colors of the site as well, a soft coffee-and-cream color for the background, text in black, hot pink highlights. The overall effect reminds me a bit of a raspberry mocha, if such a drink was really a website, and the speed of the site is excellent.

I’ve bookmarked WebbyPlanet.
You should, as well.