The rest of the weekend...

This was, I think, a pretty good weekend.

Friday, I went shopping with Miss Imagy... she got a bunch of stuff, I got less stuff, but we still had fun. Had my favorite sandwich in the entire world for lunch. Then we trekked out to the stitching store to pick up my framed pieces (pictures to follow later today). It was her first visit to the store, and she was a little overwhelmed. I picked up some more of the sachet kits, since the lavender one has been going so quickly (Yay, more Christmas presents!) and a couple spools of metallic to replace the ones I lost so that I can finish one of my WIPs. Other than that I was very good and didn't buy very much.

Came home, after sitting in traffic downtown for an eternity. Went out grocery shopping once Wiley and my brother arrived (and was so distracted at having company that I forgot half the things we needed, and bought about 17 wrong things). Then came home and grilled once the baby went to bed. The boys had big steaks, and I had portobello mushrooms. Yay! Then we set up the DDR mats and were all amazed at how good my brother was at it. I played a little, but my back was still messed up from yoga the night before, so I didn't play too hard.

Saturday, Wiley went off to his frisbee game, and Miss Widget slept in (Yay!). My brother and I were going to re-wander mallwards in hopes of replacing Miss Widget's only-a-month-old, already-outgrown sandals, but found that Wiley had zipped off with the stroller =(. So, we sat around in the house until Wiley got home instead. Hannah napped, we goofed off, mostly. I got some garden tending taken care of (the garden is going bonzai out there). Then we zipped down to Kitchens Etc. to exchange my peppergrinder for a different one (I LOVE my new one!), then over to the mall to try and get new sandals for Miss Widget (another rant on that in a bit). Wiley invited some friends over to hang out and play Munchkin for the evening. They brought over grillables for dinner and so we grilled and hung out and played DDR. Then the boys decided to try and play Virtua Fighter on the DDR pads which was spastic and hysterical. We played Munckin, and there was much backstabbing and petty meanness this time, which is, I think, in the spirit of the game.

My dad came up Sunday and we all went out for Dim Sum again. It was so delicious. Then we came home, Widget didn't nap, AND got to express herself in a whole new artistic medium (see previous poop post). Then we went out geocaching and found both of the caches we set out to find last weekend. We hiked for almost two hours, and I got completely mosquito bitten again. I even put on bug lotion, then they started biting me through my clothes! Do you know how much mosquito bites on your back SUCKS?

Came home, I made turkey burgers for dinner, then Wiley went out to play pool with a friend, and Miss Lorac and Miss Arwen and her Mr. Matt came over to watch the season premiere of Sex and the City with me. We sat and stitched and watched tv, and it was wonderfully relaxing after a very busy weekend. Wiley got home pretty early, and we conked out.

The sandal rant

This is where I get all cranky at retail stupidity.

There's really two parts to this rant. One is all about clothing retailer's tendency to try and push clothes at us that have parents dressing their little girls like Brittney Spears - little crop tops, clothes with glitter, platform sandals and the like. Some of it is just trashy, some of it can't be good for them (I mean, why on earth should a toddler just learning how to walk wear platform sandals, or shoes with heels? That's GOT to mess with their physical development). This leads us to the fact that finding good toddler shoes is at best difficult, and at times impossible. Which leads us to Stride Rite, and the source of the current rant.

We went out last month and bought Widget a pair of sandals at Stride Rite. (I found the receipt this morning - it was one day short of a month.) They measured her and all, we found a pair that fit, were cute, and had covered toes, which is good since she's still mostly crawling. They weren't cheap ($27) but they were comfortable and well constructed so I didn't mind. Then, she hit a growth spurt. These sandals now barely fit her - you have to jam them onto her feet. This too is fine. While it frustrates me to have to go back and buy a new pair (the first ones look barely worn), that's hardly the store's fault.

What isn't fine is the fact that when we went to the store on Saturday, they had not a single pair of sandals in stock. Not a one. Apparently, we'd been there during their "clearance" sale of summer stock (Note, last time I checked June 23 was what, two days after the start of summer?). What pissed me off even further was the salesladie's presumption that I was only looking for sandals because I thought they'd be on sale, not that I might want sandals because it's still the middle of summer and they're more comfortable for Widget. (Now, granted, I'm not actually about to pay $40 for a pair of shoes that this kid will outgrow in another month, so we're going to wait until we think she's done with the growth spurt.)

What's truly ridiculous about this is how unrealistic it is to think that when you deal in children's (especially babies') clothing and shoes that you can use the same kinds of lead times you do for the seasonality of adult clothes. Sure, it's stupid, but an adult woman can shop for bathing suits or sandals for the summer in February - odds are her size won't change in the four months between purchasing and wearing. But how on earth are parents supposed to be able to predict what size their 15 month old child is going to be ONE month from now, never mind four months from now? I wouldn't even be so annoyed if the original Stride Rtie salesperson had recommended going up a half size to make sure she could wear these all summer because they weren't going to have sandals for much longer, or hell, even if she had recommended buying two pairs. I might not have done it, but at least then I would have been warned. I mean, even regular clothing stores still have SOME summer wear left on their shelves - I might not find exactly what I wanted, but I could still go and buy a bathing suit or pair of sandals now if I needed them. I certainly wouldn't have thought that one of the leading children's retailers would be so short sighted as to leave their customers stranded high and dry should their kids outgrow what was purchased at the beginning of the season.

I finally did manage to find a pair of sandals for her on the Nordstrom's website, and we'll make do with the current ones until they arrive. But I'm still cranky, and I thinnk that they may well have lost a customer - and I was planning on patronizing them regularly - they have good shoes, and staff that seems very good working with the toddler set.

Mmmmmm, that felt good

I actually just wrote a letter to the folks at Stride Rite. Writing letters of complaint is usually something I stew about, but never actually do. I'm glad I took the time to do it today.

( Here's what I wrote )

I wonder if I'll get any kind of response.