Shopping and Thinking About Prepping...

Hmmm...yes, it should probably be thinking first and then shopping.  Duh, Jan! 

But while I usually plan many things well in advance (such as travelling vacations), when it comes to shopping for things for my house, I have a tendency to jump in feet first and think about it later.  This leads to mistakes in purchases sometimes, but fortunately nothing too terribly expensive over the years.  Still, there is probably a better way to do this!  It's not like I have money to burn --

Oh well, I did go shopping.  Online and in person, woo woo! 

Every now and then I visit Kirkland's online because I love their style, I have found their prices to be very good and they sometimes have great sales and clearances.  This recent visit, I was looking for some chessly gifts for the Hales Corners Chess Challenge that will take place in April, 2013.  The gift bags I gave to each of the top female finishers (Open and Reserve sections) in the Hales Corners Chess Challenge held last month were a great hit, and I received lovely thank you emails from each of the recipients.  That was enough to stir me to even greater effort to create great gift bags for the future respective winners in the Open and Reserve sections next April.

So, I was looking for something in a "crown" -- you know, because of the Queen in chess, who is the most powerful piece on the chessboard.  And, sure enough, I found a PERFECT gift at Kirkland's!  I wish they would have had three, that's what I ordered but, unfortunately, there was only ONE left in stock, which I promptly ordered -- a metal and "crystal" candle holder in the shape of a Queen's crown at a great price.  Here is an online image:

I think it's soooo pretty!  I also found at Kirkland's a ceramic crown shaped candle holder at a very good price that I may order.  There is nothing wrong with it at all, it is very pretty but, well, frankly, it doesn't hold a candle (har!) to this metal and "crystal" candle holder!  Still, it has a great shape so I will probably buy it.

While I was looking for chessly items at Kirkland's, I came across a set of three votive holders that have nothing to do with chess, but I fell in love with them, they were on sale and I bought them.  My thinking at the time was that they will look wonderful either on the mantle or on the coffee table as part of my Christmas decor, which I have been busy imagining for the past 10 days or so.  I have Paul Michael feathers that I will be using on my tree, and I am going to restrict my colors this years to gold, clear glass and silver tones.  I have even thought about possibly flocking my tree...  I have a four day weekend over Thanksgiving, and the tree will go up along with my other Christmas decor. 

Oy, I should show you those votive holders -- they are "mercury" glass, but actually, I find it impossible to distinguish these from the "silver" finish:

The Kirkland's box was waiting for me on my front stoop Friday night when I got home from the office.  Woo woo!  I unpacked the freezing cold contents and set the votive lights out to slowly warm up to room temperature before tucking them away the next day.  This is a pic I took of them yesterday morning.  Aren't they pretty!

A closer view:

Yesterday afternoon I once again visited the TJ Maxx that is a mile's walk away from my house.  It was a beautiful day and I wanted to stretch my legs, and I was again on the hunt for chessly gifts.  I remembered from the week before, when I was on the hunt for a gift for Thelma's house-warming party, I'd seen one of those "book" boxes that had a crown on the outside of it.  I didn't know if it would still be there but, IT WAS!  So, I scored another chessly gift:

There was only one of this perfect size, that can be used as a trinket box, or a special treasures box, or even just as a faux book upon which to rest a queenly candle holder.  I would have bought one for myself if there'd been two. 

During this visit, I happened upon a SATIN full size bedding set with FOUR pillow cases in it for $16.99.  In a ruby red color.  Not orange-y red; not fire engine red, not wine red.  Ruby red.  Luscious!  A perfect score for my bedroom!  I'd been on the hunt for awhile for a reasonably priced red set of pillow shams or a sheet set -- without luck.  Until now.

I will add the red pillow cases to my bed in December before I switch over to the really heavy-duty down comforter that is red/white/black floral on one side and red/black/white plaid on the other side.  I haven't had satin bedding for years!  A touch of lux at a great price, and the extra two pillow cases included in the set will be used as "shams" on the two "dress" pillows on my bed.  The satin sheets will be put on the bed in February when I switch back to my lighter weight black and white toile comforter and shams, rather than my usual black and white gingham checked pillow cases. 

I also bought three picture frames - a long story -- will blog about that later.

Chessly Gift Bags Were a Hit!

Good old Mr. Don came through.  I didn't know if he'd be up to making the long trek to the Olympic Stadium in Montreal where "our" Goddesschess 2012 Canadian Women's Chess Championship started yesterday, but he did, and he took photos and video!  Those will be posted at our Chess, Goddess and Everything blog. 

Thanks to Mrs. Dumont who received the box of goodies I shipped to Montreal and (with the help of her daughter) actually put the gift bags for the players together and got them delivered to the playing venue:

The saga of the bags not all being the same, oy!  Originally I thought there were going to be 9 players, so I purchased 9 bags all the same (the black and white print with pink ribbon and handles) and that was the entire stock of this particular style of bag at the Walgreens near my home.  When it came time to add more bags because there were more players (I only learned that 2 days before I shipped the items to Montreal), I did not find identical bags but I was thinking no sweat, I'll just get more at the Walgreens downtown near my office.  Disaster!  The day I went to that Walgreens to buy 3 additional bags, they had only a very small selection and none of the style I wanted!  No black bags, either.  I ended up buying the white bags with the polka dots on them as a neutral compromise and added colored tissue paper and shipped those with the rest of items and bags to be assembled.  I did not want to wait an extra day to ship the box to Montreal  (it went out FedEx last Wednesday evening) just so I could go to the Pick 'n Save near home and buy three more gift bags in a similar but not identical black and white print -- it would have been my luck that the Pick 'n Save would have had only 2 bags of that style left when I finally got there!  It was nail-biting enough as it was to ship the box on Wednesday, and paying extra to get it to Montreal the very next day.

Mrs. Dumont did a fab job putting these together, and the white polka dot bags look great! Thank you, Thank you, THANK YOU!

It was reported to me that the bags were a BIG hit, particularly with the younger ladies.  There are a couple of 11-12 year olds playing in this important championship, and several other teenagers.  Age, of course, does not matter across the chessboard - its your skill and steady nerves and a will to win that count there. 

By the way, I don't remember if I mentioned this or not -- I did end up buying engraved silver-plated compact mirrors for each of the players, to accompany the little Sam Moon mini-purses/wallets and the cool crown style purse hangers.  The engraved compact mirrors turned out beautifully. I neglected to take any photographs, though.  That's what I get for rushing!  Next time I will plan more carefully and give myself WAY more time to execute something like this.  Whew! 

I'M ALIVE! And the Stuff I Ordered for the Gift Bags is Coming!

Hola darlings!  Well, here I am, all "cured" of the too little clotting factor thingy and feeling sooooo much like a regular human being again!  I don't remember what I last wrote.  Quick review: I stayed home from work on Tuesday and tried to honor my pledge to the doctor to bed rest.  I mostly did rest but it wasn't exactly in bed.  But no matter, because later that day my urine started coming out clear to normal color again (I was drinking tons of liquid) and no more blood!  The vitamin K had finally done it work.  By about 5:30 in the evening I was feeling so normal I was shocked at how poorly I realized I had been feeling before - probably since nearly the time I started taking the blood thinner on June 22nd.

So, I had a doctor's appointment on Wednesday morning for another blood level test.  My youngest sister was now back in town and drove me to the doctor's office (what luxury!) and later she drove me downtown to the office!  Talk about feeling pampered!  The level test was at 4 on Monday; on Wednesday it came in at 2.3, well within acceptable limits.  Even the nasty bruises I'd somehow accrued over the weeks were fading away quickly, like the memory of a bad dream.  I got to work about 10:15 a.m. and worked until 4 p.m. because, unfortunately, my youngest sister had learned only that morning that one of our cousins had died unexpectedly.  We had not been notified of the death or of the arrangements made; she just happened to see in in that morning's paper in the obituaries (long story as to why she reads them - and I'm so glad now that she does).  So, we had a memorial service to go to.

Scary stuff.  Our cousin died of a sudden, unexpected heart attack while coming out of a supermarket last Saturday morning.  The night before she had gone to Festa Italiana down at our beautiful Lake Michigan lake front.  She was 63.  Talk about shock!  I won't go into a family history; suffice to say that there was a family history of some heart issues.  And so my own heart issue was brought heavily home to me once again.

Yes, I will have to have it addressed one way or another.  In the meantime, Mr. D is now at home out of the hospital (yippee!) and his a-fib has been fixed!  Isn't that just like a man?

All right, I don't want to talk about this anymore.  This morning I had to get to the office early because we were doing a large tax filing and I needed to be on hand in case there were last second changes before the clients came in, and then I had to be there in case we needed this or that or the other thing.  As it was, things could not have gone more smoothly, so I was able to use the 40 minutes I arrived before my regular 8:30 start time to get a lot of backed-up work out of the way!  I'm very pleased about that!  The early bus I caught just happened to be the one that all FOUR ladies I normally ride home with at night were also on, and since I had disappeared off the face of our bus world for three days I was bombarded with questions.  So the entire ride downtown was taken up with recounting what had been happening with me and Mr. D during the past couple of weeks!  Geez!  I love being able to hold a captive audience rapt upon my words!  Perhaps in a prior life I was a bard :)

So - besides all that good news, I also have good news about the stuff I ordered for the chess femme gift baskets!

The silver-plated purse/compact mirrors specially engraved have SHIPPED from Memorable Gifts!  Joy joy joy!  If they were done correctly, they will say:

2012 Goddesschess Canadian Women's Chess Championship

AND the purse hangers and little purses/wallets that I ordered from Sam Moon were shipped YESTERDAY!   I did not order those items by expedited shipping, though, so it will be cutting it close!  I hope to have everything here for inspection on August 1st and then haul it all to the office on August 2nd to be Fedexed to Montreal for final assembly upon arrival on August 3rd and presentation on August 4th.  Yes - close!  Too close!  Fall back position is to present the gift bags at the conclusion of the tournament on August 11th, but I really hope this all comes together in time for an Opening Day presentation.  If only I had started earlier!  Ach, GNASHING OF TEETH! 

This is the beautiful Goddesschess logo for the tournament that my clever and talented Mr. D put together:

I printed off 3 dozen of these babies on self-stick labels during lunch hour today at the office and did rough cuts on them on the large paper cutter to trim them out.  Two of these will go on each gift bag, and another one will go on a gift card or card stock on which a special message to each player will be inscribed. 

I have started scouting out gift bags and tissue paper. I will have to mix things up - it will be impossible at Pick n' Save or Walgreens to get 12 matching bags.  I will pay a visit to the dollar store on Saturday and keep your fingers crossed that they have a nice supply of the right size gift bags in the right colors and tissue paper in the right colors!  But if not, it's Pick 'n Save and/or Walgreens because I don't have time for anything else! 

And I sure hope I'm able to find some plain gift cards or note cards or greeting cards.  If I don't, I'll visit the Officemax in the downtown mall on Monday and buy plain card stock and make up my own cards -- I anticipated that being a possibility and that is why I printed out extra labels with the tournament logo on them.  Hell, maybe I'll do that tomorrow and give up the idea of buying pre-made cards.  It will probably be less expensive to just buy card stock and cut out my own! 

What Would a Chess Femme Want in a Gift Bag?

Hola darlings!

Well, it's been a horrific couple of days.  I spent four hours yesterday morning/afternoon in the ER because guess what - I was overdosed on that rat poison stuff -- the Coumadin (warfarin) and was peeing blood.  Not cool.  I was actually sick since Thursday when I felt faint-headed at work but just blew it off because of a long history of mostly-controlled high blood pressure.  I was starting to seep blood internally then, I think, but it took a few days for it to really manifest itself. So in the meantime every morning I was dutifully dosing myself with more rat poison.  I was told to look for pink in the urine.  Well, my urine was first pale orange.  Not pink, I know the difference!  So I thought, okay, orange urine.  Could be the dye in the pills (for instance, when I take my "water pill", which is yellow, my pee comes out yellow for awhile in the morning before eventually turning back clear).  Friday, more orange urine.  Saturday, more organe urine, now getting darker.  Sunday morning, BINGO.  Blood red. 

First I called my clinic and got in touch with the doctor on call.  I was advised, based on my symptoms, to go to the ER because a hopsital is the only place that would be able to process blood work and blood tests quickly.  The doctor on call suspected an OD of blood thinner and told me I would probably need vitamin K to counteract.  Well, she was spot on, but it took awhile to get to that eventual conclusion and get the vitamin K I needed after I arrived at the ER.

I'm not complaining about the care I received at the ER.  I was processed in very quickly and received very good care.  It just took a long time. One of the nurses there said "we're not used to seeing someone as young as you."  Gee, thanks.

I had to take the bus to the hospital -- neither of my sisters who drive (I do not) were in town to give me a ride, and I didn't have cash on me to call a cab.  Well, I wasn't exactly thinking clearly anyway and didn't even think about calling a cab, not with $1 in my wallet.  Who uses cash these days, unless you plan for it in advance?  Thank Goddess for my Commuter Bus Pass!  Saved the day, and probably saved my life.

Cuz it turns out I could have bled out before I ever got to the ER.  It was just - I don't know, maybe the luck of the draw - that I did not.  The typical "count" the meds want to see when you're on a blood thinner is between 2 and 3.  Mine was at 8.75.  I though the doctor was going stroke out when he told me that.  He sure was cute.  Actually, he was probably thinking that I might stroke out in front of him at any time and what the hell would he do if that happened?  LOL! 

Anyway, to make a long story short, I arrived back home (via bus), around 2 p.m. yesterday afternoon. I had the option of being hospitalized overnight "for observation."  What, I asked the ER doc, would being hospitalized help prevent?  Well, he said, we'd be able to get to you quicker if any one of these awful things would happen to you, and he listed the awful things.  I opted to have any one of those awful things happen to me back in my own home, if it was going to happen.

I'm still peeing blood, but not as much.  I had to go to my doctor's office this morning -- I was told this yesterday by the cute ER doctor, who told me he had made all of the arrangements -- but when I arrived this morning, already sweaty and pissed off/hacked off because I had to travel there in near 100 degree heat and high dew point, and miss more time from work, they knew nothing about it.  Lost it right then and there.  Stress, I guess.  You should have seen the patients in the waiting room cowering in a corner as I ranted and raved and screamed at the hapless woman behind the glass.  Now I know why they have glass there.  I would have killed her if I'd have been able to get my hands on her. 

The best part - yep, there is a best part - is when the doctor I actually saw, who is NOT my primary care physician, told me that the 8.75 I had yesterday was so dangerous, much more dangerous than the ER doc even told me. My nonclotting factor (or whatever the hell it is), has dropped back to 4, but still way too high.  But at least now if I trip and fall on the sidewalk (as I nearly did this morning on the way to the bus stop, half a mile away in the 100 degree heat), I won't croak in like 5 minutes from uncontrollable internal bleeding.  Nope, now it will be much slower.

Guess what - they're only going to charge me today for a "nurse's visit" to my clinic today because it was a nurse who actually stuck my finger with the thingy that measures what they're measuring.  So I won't have to pay for seeing the male doctor who told me well, this was REALLY dangerously high.  Yeah, tell me about it, dude. Of course they never explain it to you - I learned much of what I know from the internet. And thank Goddess I did that research.  Oh yeah, they offered to hospitalize me again. Like it's a frigging vacation or something.  Gee, we can put you in the hospital, all your worries will be solved, Ms. Newton. 

F.U.

That male doctor had the balls to offer me some drugs to "calm my nerves."

Yeah, right.  Your drugs nearly killed me to begin with, and now you're offering me MORE drugs?  Get bent, dude.  I didn't exactly use those words to him, but he got the point.

So, that's the latest from Maison Newton, other than I have to go back and see the incompetents again on Wednesday morning (more unpaid time off work, since I have now blown through my entire stash of PTO for the year) for another blood test to see if the clotting factor in my blood is back up to an acceptable level.  And - get this - they want me to go back on the rat poison once I'm back to "stable" until I am able to get in to see a heart specialist. 

The heart specialist who wants to electrocute me, or burn out heart tissue with ultrasonic waves of some kind, or stick a pacemaker in me, not to mention shoving tubes and cameras into me to try and figure out what they already know is the flying F wrong.  I think not, thank you very much.

Okay, ladies, so this is the thing:  I am part of Goddesschess and Goddesschess is sponsoring a major women's chess championship in a few weeks in Montreal, Canada.  I don't expect any of you to give a rat's ass about that (har, that's a joke), but it's a big deal for me, personally, to be able to provide financial sponsorship for female chessplayers and this is actually a big deal in Canada because the winner of this particular champiionship will be able to attend the women's world chess championship contest later this year, representing Canada, that will be held in the far reaches of Siberia, Russia. Yeah, that's how they treat female chessplayers -- we go to Siberia.  The men chessplayers go to spas around the Black Sea.

So, I cannot attend the opening of the event due to obvious health issues, and unfortunately, my dear Mr. Don who lives in Montreal, cannot attend either due to his own health issues.  So we will have no representative there for Goddesschess, to push our "brand" so to speak.  Not that we give a shit about that, but it would have been nice to be able for someone from our group to be available to say a few words and shake hands, etc.  Ain't happening.

So, anyway and regardless, I had come up with the idea way before to present some kind of gift or "hospitality" bag to the ladies, but now it's more important than ever since those gift bags will be the only representation of Goddesschess at the tournament.  Yes, I have been assured that the organizers will have Goddesschess banners flying and brochures on our little group to hand out, etc. etc.  But it's not enough, despite these Montrealers being damn decent people, not your typical chess politician schmucks that we have unfortunately run into during the years we've been offering financial sponsorship.

Okay, to cut to the chase -- we do NOT have unlimited funds (the understatement of the year).  At first I thought about doing something like this:

This is an engravable sterling silver purse mirror from Memorable Gifts online, and far less expensive that what I came across at a trip to a mall near where I live last week Friday night (while in search of shoes for an upcoming wedding).  The only problem was paying for really expedited shipping so I could SEE the product before I sent it off to Canada.  May as well pay the outrageous mall price, $3 per word for engraving, $6 minimum. Not happening. 

So, as much as I love the idea of giving each of the female players in this upcoming Championship a keepsake that says 2012 Goddesschess Canadian Women's Chess Championship, it's just too expensive. 

By the way, it was just by happenstance that I learned today that there are actually going to be 12 female players, not the 9 registered players I THOUGHT were playing, just in case there is a last minute entry and a few withdrawals, therefore reserves are needed, so an extra gift bag or two are also needed.  I suppose I should have known this, but Goddesschess is not a tournament organizer, we provide FUNDS for tournaments - women's tournament, and on occasion we fund individual female chessplayers to appear in "open" tournaments (where male and female players both compete).

So, now that the budget has been further stretched, with the potential of 12 players, not 9.  And even if it ultimately comes up to 10 actual players, the reserve players will have commited a week of time and expense to potentially competing.  They deserve gift bags too.

I'm figuring out how I'm going to personally fund out the difference and what we can come up with that will be "chessly" and feminine but not really stupid and funky.  The engraved purse mirrors are out of the equation, just too expensive, much as I wish we could present them.  The other part of the equation you need to know is that most of the competing players are teenagers, and young teenagers at that.  They don't go for the old-lady stuff I like!

What to do, what to do?  I had a stroke (not an actual one) of genius when Sam Moon flashed into my mind.  I went to the website and sure enough, salvation is near at hand:

First:

How about one of these cute little thingies to dangle a purse from?  This one has a "king" crown, or perhaps it could be a queen too, depending upon how elaborate the chess set was originally carved.  Chessly and best of all, it comes in different color options and the price is right at $7.50 (a slightly different version in "silver" and black-tone stones is available for $6.95):

I actually had to look it up on the internet how these operate.  Okay, I'm not a hip chick, I freely admit it.  Now will it work with most ladies' purses that weigh way more than 20 pounds?  Hell no.  But it's the idea...

And so, I thought about this

Second:

A little purse!  This one is also from Sam Moon (and no, I'm not being paid to plug Sam Moon products).  A sort of mini-purse, actually.  Here it is --

A chessplaying femme could stash some essentials in this and be good to go.  It's got space for ID card, credit cards, money, and you could stash a bi-fold comb and mirror into the "coin pouch" zippered part.  What's not to love?  Comes in this femme-y color or always cool black faux-croc.  $6.99. 

Third:

One of the gift bag goodies I had originally though about, and I am still thinking about, is something like this.  I thought these would be fun for the chess femmes, even the young ones.  Maybe especiallly the young ones.  I do not see too many women my age wearing such scarves:

What about this one?  It's a great color (who can go wrong with white?), and the lacey look could be dressed up or down.  This scarf also comes in black!  How about 6 in white and 6 in black?  But if the ladies should prefer black over white?  Or white over black?  Bah, Humbug!  Better to just get all one color, and I think white would be the preferred color - maybe.  Ach!  What do I know about teenaged tastes!  NOTHING.  $7.00 - can't go too far wrong with that price. 

Well, there's a little more but I'm closing out for now because I just got word from Mr. D's sister about his current health status and it is GOOD!  So I'm going to go read it again and then sob my eyes out all over the damn house.  Bye.