This picture does not do these boots justice.  I borrowed this shot from the Lucchese website, and seriously, my brand-new boots ARE much prettier than this picture.  (yes, the toe is Lizard skin.  the color is called Black Cherry.)

And I’ve just realized that that is at least partially because the stitching on MY boots is 3 different colors (white, gold and a matching brown), whereas this picture shows it as all a matching color.

And if you go try to find the price of these boots you might be shocked that I’d be willing to pay $299 for a pair of boots.  Rest assured, that I did NOT pay that much.  They were on sale.  Everything I bought this weekend was on sale.  I was the ultimate bargain hunter.

I used to have a pair of boots, but after the boys changed my body, I was no longer able to wear them.  Every so often, I’d look at new ones, but as I’ve whined about before, I have big feet, and they just don’t make women’s boots in my size (long AND wide, unfortunately), that you can buy off the rack.

It only recently occurred to me that I could look at the men’s boots.  Yes, I’m slow.

Although, I’m betting that Mark wishes I hadn’t realized this.

He’s not crazy about the style of the boots, and when I asked his opinion he said “Well, I don’t have to wear them.”

“Yes, but you have to look at me.”

“I just won’t look at your feet.”

To make him even crazier, I bought some skinny jeans this weekend, as well, so my boots are actually on the OUTSIDE at the moment.  So you can’t miss them.

Speaking of jeans.  Wait until I tell you THAT story.  It involves one crazy girl (me), one big mall (the Mall of America), a lot of time (close to 12 hours), and a whole lot of jeans (somewhere around 40).

But I had to tell you about the boots first and let those stand on their own.  (Ha, get it?  Stand? I crack me up.)

You’ll excuse me now, though, I need to go sniff the box they came in some more and then walk around the house and admire my feet.  I’ll try not to hurt myself, since I’ll be high on new leather fumes and won’t be watching where I’m going.

1.  My husband is something of an Excel jockey, and I wish I’d gotten the camera out last night to document him introducing Will to the wonders of Excel.  Will’s class had done a science experiment involving a pendulum and counting the number of swings in a certain amount of time.  Will brought the data home, and he and his Dad spent some quality time at the computer creating a spreadsheet and chart that showed the measured data as compared to a fancy equation that calculated how many swings there should have been based on the different lengths of the string.  Will took a copy of the resulting chart to school, Mark asked him if he wanted to write the equation down.  “You mean the equation that no one else in my class is going to understand?”

2.  I have a sinus infection, which sort of surprised me, because it’s actually my ears that are bothering me.  Turns out the pressure in my ears is just the swelling of my sinuses.  Oh well, as long as the antibiotics can clear it up.  I also (clever girl that I am)…asked for a refill on my Flonase prescription.  I’m really hopeful that spring is actually on its way, and I’ll soon need that Flonase.  Last year I never got a refill of it, and really regretted it.

3.  It’s rainy and foggy and muddy and gross here, but I’m trying not to complain:  it means the snow is going away.

4.  We can’t move the longarm and a few other things home until the snow is mostly gone, the horse trailer won’t make it in the driveway until the piles are out of the way.

5.  Most everything but the longarm has been moved home, but just enough stuff is still down there that I’m stuck in that weird transitory state of not really knowing where anything else.

6.  Last night, I spent 30 minutes TOPS, doing the hand-stitching on some pillows I made YEARS ago.  Those stupid pillows have been hanging around with an opening waiting to be finished for YEARS.  30 minutes TOPS.  It’s enough to make a girl cry sometimes.

7.  I need to record some video clips for the last part of my feather class.  My class is so lucky to get my end-of-the-cold raspy voice.

8.  I need to stop making this list and actually go DO that.  Well, not so much GO, since it’s here at this computer, but still.

9.  I can’t stop until I get to 10, though.  10 is a nice round number and 8 or even 9 just doesn’t seem right.

10.  Thanks for all of the movie recommendations.  I have actually seen quite a few of them, and was inspired to go rewatch Return to Me, which I had seen already, but based on so many recommendations, decided I needed to watch it again.  I’ll try to compile the list and share it with everyone later.  After I get my work done.

11.  Oh dang.  I thought of something else.  We started reading 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea as a family last night.  I’ve never read it, nor have I ever watched the movie.  But it’s the sort of thing that my boys are TOTALLY into, so we thought we’d give it a try.  We spent all of last year reading out of a history book after supper (we got through the whole thing!) but have struggled to find just the right thing to read this year.  I hope this does the trick.

12.  I promise I’ll just quit this list now, even though 12 is such a random number to have for a list of things.