It's No Coincidence . . .

that one-third, yes 6 of 18 competitors pictured in the Arizona Republic story about last Saturday's Earp-Holliday Mustache and Beard Contest are from Apache Junction.




I work in AJ and it's nice and calm and has great Superstition Mountain views. When I moved to Arizona in 1991 AJ didn't even have curbside trash pickup -- the folk had to drive their refuse to central dumpsters. Though they do have the curbside bins now, this town still has CHARACTER! Sadly, the winner of the contest (two years running) is from Mesa . . . right next door. Hmmm . . . not a single entrant from Scottsdale is mentioned in the story though.

In closing, may I say "I'm your huckleberry . . . "

Just spotted in AJ: bumpersticker reading "Work Less - Hunt and Fish More"
Hmmmmmmm.

$63 for THAT?!?!? (a tale of two swimsuits)

Those of you who know me well already know that I'm a total bargain hunter, most of the time. Ok, 95% of the time. Maybe because I used to live on about $900 a month as a grad student teaching English 101 at ASU, but that's another story.

This story is about 16 inches of synthetic fabric. I have been looking at the above swimsuit for two years and waiting for Venus.com to put it on sale. I just refuse to pay $53 (their alleged "sale" price) for 16 inches of fabric. Not to mention the Highway Robbery shipping and handling of $9.95 for goods that probably weigh less than a can of soda. Now, I will concede that the price of this fetching garment has inched down about $10 since 2008, but COME ON!!! Hello! Old Navy clearanced their stuff for $5 per piece with two months of swim season left! So I got an essentially equivalent resource for $10 that day. Still, the Venus design haunts me.

Somewhere in the dark recesses of my MBA memory, I'm pretty sure there was something about minimizing inventory time for greater ROI. If these have been sitting on the shelf since 2007, there has to be some depreciation, riiiiiiiiight? OR maybe Venus swimwear doesn't have financial accountants on staff?! Maybe I'm overthinking this . . .

Also, I'm not kidding myself, it's not going to look quite like that on me, since I haven't had a tan since 1987, but compared to their poor man's Rebecca Romijn (yes that IS how it's spelled), I'll take my chances -- if the price ever approaches reasonable. Like about $30 for the whole thing and $4.95 s&h. Then: it's ON!