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My name is (not) Matt Foley and I am a motivational speaker.

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I have been on the go, go, go since I got home yesterday morning. We flew home from a wonderful twelve days in Maui, on the red-eye, and I’ve basically been in a whirl of somewhat dull but very necessary activity since then. Well, not counting last night after the kitchen had been cleaned up, when I watched two episodes of House of Cards and ermagerrrrd what is going on in that show? I have to keep reminding myself that it is not real, but now I’m eyeing everything political with even more suspicion than I did before.

It’s funny; no matter how incredibly prepared and organized I am – and I’m very prepared and organized – the first day or two back from vacation are a whirlwind of chores and errands and catching up on work even though I still worked a bit throughout my vacation. It’s been productive 36 hours though, although I almost got derailed by uploading my photos. They’re so pretty; I just want to photo edit and do nothing else for the rest of the day. Alas.

Every day on my vacation I took long, long walks in the morning. Part of the motivation was fitness-related – I didn’t want to repeat last year’s Post Vacation Inability To Fit Into Pants Syndrome – but mostly it was just wonderful to walk in the soft, floral-scented air and take in my surroundings. I found myself daydreaming about using this little space on the Internet for good – Motivational sayings! Spreading joy and happiness! – but my tune changed a bit when I got back to reality so you’re welcome, dear readers. You will not be subjected to motivational sayings from me, unless it’s something like Hang In There with a picture of the 1970s kitten stuck on a tree branch.

Slight disclaimer: I do think it’s important to find beauty everywhere, and to bring the sunshine with you wherever you go. Invincible summers in the depth of winter, etcetera. If you follow me on Instagram you will notice that I have the goal of posting one beautiful photo every day – although beauty may be in the eye of the beholder some days, unless you really like banana muffins. Hey, sometimes banana muffins are the best we can do!

For example, this is what my view looks like today:

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Which, you know, is fine. It’s March and there’s no snow and things are starting to green up, which is ridiculously early for Calgary. Barkley got his spring haircut and isn’t dragging dead leaves and grass into the house anymore. It’s nice. But it’s not this:

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or this

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or this

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or even this, the plumeria graveyard

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Ah well, it’s good to be home. Cocktail hour at 4 pm daily was nice, but my body is probably happier with green smoothies. My long walks were wonderful but getting on the yoga mat today, I felt exactly like C-3PO, or possibly the Tin Man. Time to get back on track with everything!

I have lots and lots of things to say about beach fashion – thongs seemed to be a big thing this year, as well as athletic-style halter tops – and how my own beach fashion drastically changed this year (read: no more string bikinis). I also have lots to say about travel in general, and a great way to save your hair from sun damage, and some awesome books I read, and my opinion about this douchebag who preferred to send nasty tweets about the woman on the plane in front of him, rather than simply asking her to move her ponytail. Wait, I think I just gave away my opinion on that. The point is I have so much to tell you, but no more time today. Shall I leave you with a motivational saying? No, I shall not. But I’ll leave you with this photo of me with a whole lot of these gorgeous yellow flowers that were everywhere. xo

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Nicole’s Favourite Things: The Book and Movie Edition

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Now that I’ve gotten my Spring Rage About Time Change out of the way, I’m feeling much better. Coffee helps. My body feeling like it’s 3:30 in the morning when it’s really 4:30 in the morning is making it very easy to get to sleep at my usual hour. I’m slowly adjusting, so in eight months I will be prepared for my Fall Rage About Time Change.

As an aside, there is a huge psychological difference between 4:30 am and 3:30 am. The former feels like “dawn,” the latter feels like “middle of the night.”

Anyway. I had meant for today’s post to be a praise for a few movies and books I’ve seen and read lately, but things got away from me. Let’s keep going on a positive note, shall we? I am sure, dear reader, that you do not want to hear any more about time change until at least November, if ever again.

Nicole’s Favourite Things: The Book and Movie Edition

Zootopia: We saw this on the weekend, and it is just excellent. Lots of fun cameos, and a really engaging story. We were in one of those theatres with reclining La-Z-Boy-type chairs, and I didn’t fall asleep, which means the movie must have been pretty good. The animation is very cute and all through the movie I kept wondering whose voice is this, I know this voice. It’s Jason Bateman!

The Skeleton Twins: My husband sold me on this because it stars Bill Hader and Kristin Wiig. Hilarious, right? Well, it’s funny but in a dark way, and is one of the most interesting and compelling movies I’ve seen in a long time. Of course, given that I usually watch movies with three guys, I’m normally forced to view things with lots of explosions and shooting. This was a very refreshing change. Luke Wilson’s turn as the loving, kind husband is absolutely heart-wrenching. The acting is great, the story is great, and there’s a lip sync scene which is to die for.

Fishbowl by Bradley Somer: I picked this up on a whim at the library while Mark cleaned out the children’s section on Greek mythology. It’s a lovely book, written – sort of – from the point of view of a fish who jumps out of his bowl and falls down a 27-floor building. It’s also about the lives that go on within that building, and it’s absolutely delightful with many turns and twists along the way. A very happy, enjoyable read – and it doesn’t even end with a dead fish, improbably enough, so points for that.

Mean Streak by Sandra Brown: Another grab from the library’s New and Notable section, this book is not the type I usually gravitate toward. I’m not much of one for a suspense novel or a mystery, but this one is a fascinating page-turner about a woman who goes missing, her captor, her husband, and a larger background than it first appears. Plus, there’s some good sexy scenes, if you’re into that.

The Boston Girl by Anita Diamant: I read The Red Tent years ago and enjoyed it; I have always thought it would be kind of nice to have my very own red tent during my Ladies’ Holidays, if only to save my husband and children from my pre-menstrual pretending-I’m-not-crabby-when-I-really-feel-murderous-rage-over-this-unrecyled-envelope demeanor. So I was interested to read this book by the same author, about a Jewish girl born in 1900, living in a Boston tenement. It’s a really engaging story that shows the change in women’s attitudes and attitudes towards women over the twentieth century; it has kind of an “Oprah’s Book Club” feel to it, but I like that sort of thing.

Come Away With Me by Karma Brown: Karma and I have mutual friends and we are Facebook friends, which is my way of bragging/ living vicariously through someone else. This book is incredible, and I can’t say too much without spoiling it, but suffice it to say that you need to read it for yourself. I really loved it; there are some great travel descriptions as well. Part of the book is set in Maui, which is my favourite place on this planet, making it even more enjoyable.

Sweetness In The Belly by Camilla Gibbs: I recently read This Is Happy, and to be honest, I didn’t really enjoy it. I didn’t see what all the hoopla was about, but I did enjoy the parts where Gibbs discusses her travels to Africa, specifically Ethiopia. This reminded me that I had Sweetness In The Belly – inspired by her experiences – on my bookshelf. It was a book club read from long ago when I actually belonged to a book club, but I couldn’t remember anything about it at all. I started reading it and I remembered why: there is an extremely graphic female circumcision scene in the book. Back in 2006, I closed the book at that scene – which is near the beginning of the book – and I never re-opened it after that. In my defence, I had a one year old and a newborn at the time, and hormonal mood swings meant that reading about female circumcision was not in the cards for me. This time reading it, I made it past the scene, and I’m glad I did. An excellent book that spans the 1960s-1980s and describes the Ethiopian crisis we all remember, it is both a love story and a wonderful peek at a culture and country rich in history.

On the blog front, Cara-Lynne is an incredibly sweet woman who years ago wrote me a kind note telling me how much she enjoyed my Boyhouse adventures. She now has her own blog; it’s all about yoga and inspiration! I really enjoy reading it and I hope you do too. You can find it here.

What are you reading these days? Have you seen any good movies lately? That sounds like a pickup line, I know, but I’d love to hear about it if you have. xo

At least we can calculate the volume of a sphere.

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It’s a good thing today is Pi Day – pancakes for lunch to celebrate the fact that we can calculate their area! – because otherwise I would be in a complete state of bitchery, rather than a partial one. Time change fills me with impotent rage every year; every year I think of the futility of moving the clocks around and I am furious that this outmoded imaginary concept is still a thing. Why are we forced to deal with crabby people and car accidents and general confusion two times a year, not to mention the children, oh god, won’t someone please think of the CHILDREN? It just doesn’t make sense.

Worse yet is the idiots who continually say such things as “It’s for the farmers.” Who started that rumour? Was it just to prove that people will believe anything, no matter how ridiculous? If I was a part of the farming community, I would be so pissed off that Daylight Saving Time was attributed to me and my ilk. Do you know who doesn’t care what time the clock says? FARMERS. Farmers get up and work when it’s DAYLIGHT, they don’t punch a time card on a clock. Daylight Saving Time is NOT for the farmers, it was originally established as a wartime measure to save on electricity, and do you know what? THERE IS NO EMPIRICAL EVIDENCE TO SUGGEST THAT THIS WORKS ANY MORE OR IF IT EVER DID. So don’t tell me it’s for the farmers, and don’t tell me this is a good way to be environmentally savvy because IT IS NOT.

God, I get so worked up about this every year. It’s ridiculous. Let’s all pour one out for the parents of small children who will be impossible to get to bed on time tonight and who will be impossible to wake up tomorrow morning and who will be sobbing messes for the next several days until their little bodies adjust to the new “time.”

And while I’m on a rampage, here, let me just tell you that words matter, people. If you are the sort of person who enjoys more light later in the evenings, I understand that. I don’t particularly share that view, being an early morning person, but I understand it. Here’s what I hate: when people say “I like that extra hour of daylight.” NO. That is not how it works. That’s not how any of this works! Oh, you enjoy the extra hour? Why not move our clocks ahead three hours? Why not 12 hours, then we can have 24 hours of daylight! There is the exact same number of daylight hours as there were before Daylight Saving Time, it’s just adjusted differently. So do not tell me that you like the extra hour because there IS NO EXTRA HOUR.

I love early morning light but I would be willing to give it up for you late evening people if it meant NO MORE CHANGING THE CLOCKS. If someone in a powerful position woke up tomorrow and said Let’s just leave the time where it is right now I would be perfectly accepting of the situation. But since no one – NO ONE – has the balls to do this, I am fated to semi-annual rages until the end of time, or until I do something drastic like move to Hawaii, whichever comes first.

Why does no one have the balls to do this? I don’t know. Are all our politicians in cahoots with the time change lobby group? Is there a time change lobby group? Since there is no empirical benefit to time change, there probably isn’t a lobby group, so why is this happening?

Yes. This is the hill I am going to die on.

Mammograms and Crocuses and My Ability To Misunderstand Basic Instructions

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In what must be a new record for me, on Saturday Jake and I cleaned up the two warmest gardens in our yard. It’s so early! Most years everything is still frozen and snow-covered at this time of the year; believe me, I’m not saying that cannot still happen, but at the moment there is no snow in my yard. Not even in the very coldest area of the yard. NO SNOW. In fact, yesterday I noticed that in the very warmest part of the yard, the crocuses Mark and I planted last fall are poking their little green shoots through.

Small side note: the aforementioned garden cleanup – consisting of cutting back dead foliage, most notably from the gigantic Siberian iris, the clematis, and the enormous ornamental sage – has never taken me less than two hours to accomplish. With Jake’s help, it was finished in 45 minutes. I am enjoying my competent and still-wanting-to-be-helpful preteen!

I’m telling you, this gorgeous weather has real mood-elevating qualities. It’s been a crazy long week – and it’s only Wednesday – and yet I feel like everything is rosy and wonderful. I am mere steps away from singing and soft-shoeing down the street like my life is an old-timey musical.

I had a mammogram on Monday; all is well, not to worry. This is my third – I get them annually ever since I found a lump when I was 38. Apparently, I just have really lumpy breasts, and the annual mammograms establish a baseline for this. I was pretty much a mess during my first mammogram, as you can imagine; basically I spent the entire test and follow-up breast ultrasound mentally choosing a wig, and wondering where one actually purchases wigs, and what I would look like in a wig. I think I obsessed about wigs so as to not think about what it would be like for my children growing up without me.

I had to do some deep breathing just typing that.

Anyway, as I said, all is FINE. Have you ever had a mammogram? Honestly, my first I had no idea what to expect, except that people had said it was very painful and uncomfortable. Truthfully, I do not find it to be particularly painful, although I suppose that varies from person to person, depending on what kind of lumps or breasts you have.

The one thing I wondered about was that, when you book the appointment, you are told to not wear any deodorant. I wondered for a long time why: was there something in the deodorant that reacted badly with the mammography machine and the results? Was it something with the aluminum in most deodorants? If I wore a natural deodorant would it make a difference? After all that wondering I finally asked, and the answer was much more practical than I had anticipated: when getting the test your armpit rests on the corner of the machine, and deodorant makes it too slippery to hold still long enough. This is also why they tell you not to use any body lotion; so that your breast won’t slip right out of the machine, which would be awkward and pretty difficult to get a good result.

I don’t need any help on the awkward front. The technician led me to the little change room and handed me a medical gown, and I SWEAR I thought she said it ties at the back. I put it on and it seemed weirdly difficult to tie; I wondered how less flexible patients even managed to do them up. Also the collar seemed weirdly snug, but at no point did I think that I had it on the wrong way.

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I feel sure I don’t need to tell the punchline to this story, which is that when the technician brought me into the exam room, she looked at me quizzically and said, “You know, I think most women find it more comfortable to tie those gowns in the front.” WELL NOW THAT SEEMS OBVIOUS. Of course, it was a bit moot by that point since I had to immediately disrobe anyway.

Other than (kind of unnecessarily) pointing out the obvious, the technician was nice but I missed the young girl I had last time, whose perky and vivacious demeanour reminded me so much of a 1980s aerobics instructor. “Okay, now we need to lift the breast in. Lift! Lift, and stay, stay, okay! Great job! Now the other breast. Lift! Little lift. Just a little more lift and…STAY. YES. Perfect! Great! Okay, moving on!” I half expected her to break out the Olivia Newton John CD and tell me to Get Physical.

Nicole’s Favourite Things: The Beauty Products (and wine) Edition

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This morning while I was driving to yoga, I noticed the moon. The sky was perfectly black and the moon looked exactly like an illustration in a children’s book: a perfectly golden crescent shape. When I left the shala, the sky was beginning to brighten. One of my favourite things about this time of year is that you can see the amount of daylight increase, day to day. The sun is fully up by 7:30 and doesn’t set until almost 6:30, all of which is going to change next weekend, with the start of one of my least-favourite things, Daylight Saving Time.

Well, we can’t have it all. I’ve been noticing a gross trend lately, and that is a complete inability by many people to look outside their own worldview and experience. I know! It’s like I’m on the internet or something. But it’s kind of ironic, since as a society we are all about inclusion, and open-mindedness, but apparently those qualities are reserved only for people and ideas that one already agrees with. Examples include but are not limited to: methods for school fundraising, clothing purchases, and dietary choices, as well as the usual inflammatory topics of children’s birthday parties, charter schools, and whether or not it is acceptable to get a puppy from a reputable, caring breeder.

It’s funny what gets people up in arms, isn’t it? And by funny, I mean completely disturbing and disappointing. I like to think that I’m a person who tries to not say anything at all if I can’t say anything nice; this doesn’t always happen but I try. In this light, I always feel a little deflated when I mention something I love, only to have someone tell me something unsavoury about it. Oh really, you like Lululemon? Don’t you find it disturbing that they are an overpriced cult? Oh really, you BUY almond milk? Don’t you know how easy it is to make it? Oh really, you like thong underwear? I thought only hookers wore thong underwear. Oh really, you wear sunscreen/ use dental floss/ wash your dishes in Palmolive? Don’t you know that it is carcinogenic/ leads to greater tooth decay/ smells weird?

I don’t know; I don’t like celery or running, but I’m not assuming that people who do like them are mentally unstable or inherently uneducated or misinformed about life.

All of which is to say that I have let Nicole’s Favourite Things lapse for too long. You read it here first; I’m bringing my Favourite Things back because when I find something I love I want to tell you about it. Maybe you’ll like it, maybe you won’t. But the beauty of the Favourite Things is that nothing is sponsored, I received no compensation to write about these things, and I did not get any free samples. These are just things I love and maybe you will too.

Eye Cream

A while ago I posted about finally using eye cream, and I chose Kiehl’s Powerful-Strength Line-Reducing Eye-Brightening Concentrate, not least because the name itself just seemed like everything I wanted in an eye cream.

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 I’ve been using this for about two months now and I think I see results. I think my eyes are line-reduced and brighter, in a powerful-strength kind of way. Here’s a very poor photo of me in January, taken late in the evening (meaning 7:45) with no makeup on, so as to show my undereye circles.

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Sorry about the crazy eyes. It’s hard for me to take photos of my eyes. Here’s me, yesterday evening at about 6:30. Now, I do have makeup on but still, I think there is an improvement, and not just because I don’t have psycho eyes.

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Even better? Instagram filters. Put a good filter on and suddenly I have the skin of someone two decades younger.

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 If only life had an Instagram filter, am I right?

Hair Care

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I’m always on the lookout for products that make my hair less orange-straw-like. My hair therapist recommended HOME Ultra Bond Seal once a week, and it really does help with the dry hair/ breakage/ orangeness. The only thing I don’t like about it is that it is a bit of a process; you have to wet your hair, towel dry it, massage it in, comb it, and then let it sit in your hair for ten minutes before following with regular shampoo and conditioner. I save it for the weekend but it is still worth it.

I bought this Garnier Whole Blends Hair Mask after the big launch last month; I had some friends at the launch and the reviews seemed good, so I picked up a jar at Superstore one evening, being seduced by the vanilla/ coconut scent. I will pretty much buy anything that is vanilla/ coconut scented, but this was a good buy. It’s a nice moisturizing conditioning mask, but my only complaint is that it’s in a JAR, which is marginally less convenient than a traditional squirt bottle.

Marc Anthony’s Coconut and Shea Butter Conditioner is really a fantastic conditioner for those days near the end of my hair colour cycle, when everything is ashes. It actually gives a lot of bounce and makes my hair look healthy. I used it today – and I’m ten days away from Hair Therapy Day – and I don’t actually want to cry when I look in the mirror. See?

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And that’s after a whole day of activities.

Mascara

I have so many feelings about mascara. My all-time favourite is Maybelline’s The Falsies, but I was lured – LURED, I tell you – into purchasing The Falsies Push-Up Drama at the drug store. Same manufacturer. Basically the same name. This, my friends, is why you should buy into the old adage that If It Ain’t Broke Don’t Fix It. It is the kind of mascara that goes on really wet, with a poky-sharp brush, that makes your eyelashes mold into four or five giant clumpy lashes. I informed my friend Hannah (HI HANNAH) of my angst and she panicked on my behalf. “I thought it was just your favourite lipgloss that was discontinued! What happened to your mascara?” Oh no, Hannah dear, you misunderstand me. My favourite mascara was not discontinued. I just stupidly tried to improve on near-perfection and was seduced by the display. JE REGRETTE TOUT. Never again, I swear.

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Middle Sister Wine

This has nothing to do with beauty products, but I am drinking a glass of this as I type this, so I feel it deserves a mention. Middle Sister Wine – not only is it a lovely beverage, but the label speaks to me. I am a middle sister! I wake up at stupid o’clock every single day! On Fridays I look forward to wine o’clock! I like big sunglasses, flowy scarves, and boots too! I IDENTIFY WITH THIS WINE LABEL.

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And on that note I shall pour myself another glass and wish you all a very lovely weekend. xo

Bumper Stickers and Big News!

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It’s almost Valentine’s Day, and because there is no semi-holiday that goes by uncelebrated by sugar cookies, I spent some time this morning cutting out round cookies. Heart-shaped cookies have been deemed too embarrassing for words, but round cookies? With bright pink buttercream and heart-shaped sprinkles? Perfectly acceptable. I was getting ready to frost them when I realized I was almost out of powdered sugar, so I popped over to the grocery store and was almost sidetracked by this:

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Fun Dip! They still make Fun Dip! I haven’t seen Fun Dip for decades! And this Fun Dip – it magically changes colours! I’m sure the child bringing in Fun Dip would be super-popular amongst peers, but perhaps less so amongst parents and teachers. I stuck with the cookies and they turned out nicely, even if a round cookie cutter seems to be an elusive item, necessitating the use of a small plastic cup instead.

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Speaking of things unseen for decades, yesterday Mark and I were walking home from the library, where he had cleaned out the entire section on children’s Greek mythology reference books, and I had picked up a delightful little read entitled “Fishbowl.” Slight digression: if you have the chance to read “Fishbowl,” do, because it is just wonderful. A truly fun read.

Anyway, we were walking home and parked along one of the side streets was a van, covered in bumper stickers. We stopped to look because one of us noticed the sticker saying “My Other Car Is A Dino-Bot” and I immediately regretted our decision. Along with “Oral Sex: The Best Last-Minute Gift” was a bumper sticker that I hadn’t seen since the early Eighties, at best: “Grass, Gas, or Ass: Nobody Rides For Free.” The sad thing is that this bumper sticker was not an old one from the Seventies; it was obviously newly purchased and affixed to the back of the van. In other words, you can still, somewhere, purchase a Gas, Grass, or Ass: Nobody Rides For Free bumper sticker. And here I thought hitchhiking was a thing of the past. I’ve never hitchhiked, and I most likely never will, but if I did, I probably would NOT want to take a ride from the person driving that van, especially with all the not-so-subtle messages plastered all over the back, Dino-Bot notwithstanding. Anyone who watched Silence of the Lambs in their formative years would feel the same way, I’m sure. One moment you are taking a ride from a person who encourages prostitution in exchange for a lift to the next town, the next moment you are in a giant hole in the ground being forced to lube up so some sicko can make a skin suit out of you.

I mean, maybe the owner is perfectly normal and just likes distasteful bumper stickers, but why take the chance?

In any case, Mark and I stood in awkward silence for a moment before heading for home and resuming our discussion about the twelve labours of Hercules.

Completely unrelated to any of the above, I have big news! After nearly nine years of yoga practice, I have decided to take yoga teacher training. I’m pretty excited about it! With the kids getting older, the timing just seemed right, so in April I will be starting my 200 hour program. My goal is to work with people with pain and limited flexibility/ mobility, and perhaps seniors. It’s been a while since I’ve been in school, so I fear I might be a bit like one of those mature students who asks all the questions and discusses the role of Life Experience and its Real World Implications. I’m like Grandpa Simpson! But maybe a bit more stylish.

KonMari FAIL

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Here’s a little tidbit about me that some people (read: my husband) find quite un-endearing: I have a really, really hard time spending money on non-essential items. What often happens in my house is that my husband will suggest a purchase, and no matter how minor, I rail against it. Spotify, for example. Why would we need Spotify, I argued passionately, We already have Sirius! Or the Roomba. We don’t need a Roomba, we have a vacuum!

Well, over the course of our marriage, my husband has learned to just make the purchase, which I subsequently fall in love with. Like, I cannot imagine how I actually did workouts before without Spotify. And Roomba? Roomba, as I’ve mentioned before, is now my favourite child. Everyone in the house talks about Roomba as if he is a living, breathing person who exists only to clean our floors. Great job, Roomba! we all say as Roomba whirrs around. Oh, Roomba, you got into the cords again! we will gently chide him as we see an extension cord pulled out from under the bed. Even Barkley has learned to live with Roomba, even though his tail was once almost vacuumed, causing him to now watch warily when the whirring starts.

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It naturally follows that if a person has a hard time spending money on non-essential items, then that person should have – in theory – a fairly empty closet. Right? Well, it appears that clothing is essential and that I have far, far too much of it, if my exploding closet and drawers are any indication.

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The “yoga clothes and beach wear” portion of my closet.

The problem is that I like clothes, and I buy quality, long-lasting clothes, which means I have a lot of clothes. I mean, I have yoga pants from 2008 that still look fantastic, I have classic black dresses purchased between 2011-2014 that are always in style, and I have very well-cared for sweaters from the now-defunct but much loved Jacob.

Everyone has been talking about the KonMari method of tidying up; yesterday was a PD day and I was looking for a project, so I thought I would re-organize my closet. Although I am a very organized (read: anal) person in general, my closet was getting a little small and cluttered. Now, I knew the rules: if an item was used and brought joy, then it could stay. Otherwise, it would get purged.

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How much beach wear is too much beach wear, when one does not live anywhere near a beach?

Do you know, all of my clothing brings me joy?

Reader, I couldn’t bear to part with a thing yesterday. I regularly comb through my dressers whenever I get a phone call asking for clothing donations for this charity or that one, and I usually can gather a good solid garbage bag full. But perhaps I’ve gone to that well too often, or perhaps yesterday was the wrong day to go through my things, I don’t know. All I know is that after putting everything in a giant pile, I ended up neatly rolling everything up and putting it back in the closet. I found a couple of unused containers and I rolled each bikini piece together, Kondo-like. (Who needs fourteen bikinis, mostly black? I DO. I need ALL the black bikinis.)

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It’s marginally neater!

 

So that was a bit of a fail. Not only did I go through my closet, but I also cleaned out my dressers and the same thing occurred; I couldn’t bear to part with any items at all. Well, on the upside, everything is now neatly put away. On the downside, I still need to deal with my shoes and boots, and that, my friends, is going to be a test.