(no subject)

[the_rck]

Today's goal is to get the folders ready for next weekend's LARP. I can't complete the job because I don't have all of the background sheets. Scott doesn't want to print them; he wants to find a copy shop and pay for photocopies. I'm not sure it's worth doing that way when we have one two page document we need eight copies of and one two page document we need twenty one copies of. If he'd thought of it before I printed twenty two copies of the longer background documents, it would make some sense.

Of course, I'm not even sure where to find a copy shop these days, so we may end up printing the sheets after all.

I need to search around in the basement and study and find our card stock so that I can print the possessions and special abilities. There are about thirty sheets of those, most white (white is for intangibles, yellow is for knives and swords (swords don't come up in most games but do in this one), blue is for guns (there are no blue cards in this game. I don't promise no guns, but the characters, by and large, wouldn't recognize a gun, so), and green is for things that don't look like weapons). I think the white card stock is in the study some where. The colored stuff is in the basement; I even know where. We may have to buy more red index cards (red cards represent dead bodies so that the players don't have to stay where they are after being killed. I give such players new characters or let them run around as ghosts). We've been running low on those the last couple of years, and I think we won't have enough this year. Unfortunately, the last I checked, we can't buy a pack of just red cards. We have to buy a pack of mixed colors.

Cordelia's fifth grade friend from down the street got her instrument yesterday, a viola. Cordelia is looking forward to practicing with her, but I think the girls haven't really thought it through. The other girl doesn't have a bow yet; they start the kids off plucking the strings. Cordelia is doing bow work exclusively. They're also likely to be working on different songs.

Cordelia tells us that the December concert for orchestra has been canceled because there's no way the kids will be ready for it. She says that more than half the kids have switched instruments and are therefore still struggling. We haven't had official word to that effect from the teacher. I probably should email her and ask. It makes a difference because finding Cordelia appropriate concert clothes will be a time consuming chore. If I can put it off, I'd like to. I'm kind of afraid she'll outgrow whatever we buy.

(And evalerie, I did look on eBay for long black skirts, but I gave up after paging through a couple hundred items none of which were even remotely what I was looking for. Nobody lists how long skirts are, and "long black skirt girls' 12" brings up women's size 12s and infants' 12 month stuff, things that aren't even mostly black, dresses, and lots of really, really short looking skirts. I lack the time and patience to wade through all of that.)

We do have to do some clothes shopping this weekend anyway. Several of Cordelia's pairs of pants have developed holes. She doesn't care, but I do. I wish she were willing to wear jeans. That would make shopping so much easier. Of course, I can't really blame her. All the jeans right now are cut so that, when a kid sits down, skin and/or underwear shows. They ride obscenely low.

We also need to find her 'professional' clothes for the expo. The flyer defined those as dark pants and a light (preferably white) shirt, so I guess we may be looking for something that can do double duty as concert clothes. My impression is that the expo isn't just intended for parents; they're inviting all sorts of people from the community.

Comments

[evalerie.livejournal.com]

Hm. I have the impression that copy shops are sprinkled everywhere, but I haven't actually checked. There's one near my house, a Kinko's on State Street a little north of Eisenhower, and of course there's Office Max/Depot, but surely there are a zillion places closer to you. I went to Google Maps and typed "photocopy," which it extended to "photocopying services" and then it showed little icons all over town -- but it didn't include the two that I was thinking of, so I think it is not very complete. It's finding about five places downtown, though.

I'm sorry that eBay wasn't more useful. When I'm looking for a particular item, often the controls in the column on the left help to narrow things down. Like for example, I would select, "Kids' clothing, shoes and accessories" and then "girls' clothing size 4 and up," and that would narrow out the women's 12s and babies' 12-month sizes.

Anyway, I tried doing that so that I would type it correctly here, and came up with a few possibilities. Man, I am always stunned by how *short* girls' skirts usually are. Sigh. These are in order by price, from lowest to highest.

I'm not sure if this one is long enough:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Girls-Tween-Black-Velveteen-Velvet-Skirt-Holiday-Christmas-New-Years-10-12-EUC-/371180595370?pt=US_Childrens_Clothing_Girls&hash=item566c1668aa

This one looks gray in the picture, but the description says it's black, so I'd contact the seller to ask what color it really is, in case the seller lightened up the picture to show the details that are otherwise hard to see on a black item:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Black-Skirt-sz-12-Girls-Black-Skirt-Byer-Girl-/141459128449?pt=US_Childrens_Clothing_Girls&hash=item20ef9f0081
-- though I'd give that one low priority because the seller has lower feedback than I'd prefer.

This one is a good possibility if size 10-12 is okay:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Girls-Xhilaration-10-12-Black-soft-velour-tiered-Long-skirt-CUTE-/251701546606?pt=US_Childrens_Clothing_Girls&hash=item3a9a94ce6e

This one looks *really* long, and it's a 12, so another good possibility:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/HARTSTRINGS-Black-Velour-Skirt-Straight-Style-Long-Length-Size-12-Look-/271654244281?pt=US_Childrens_Clothing_Girls&hash=item3f3fdacfb9

This one is part of a dress:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/My-Michelle-Sleeveless-Dress-w-White-Bodice-Black-Floral-Skirt-Size-12-GRUC-/400800066320?pt=US_Childrens_Clothing_Girls&hash=item5d518bab10

Here's a nice 10-12 tiered skirt, but maybe not long enough:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Girls-Xhilaration-10-12-Black-soft-velour-tiered-Long-skirt-CUTE-/361100922234?pt=US_Childrens_Clothing_Girls&hash=item54134acd7a

This one has a weird drawstring thing on the bottom and may not be long enough:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/HARD-TAIL-Girls-velour-black-skirt-adjustable-string-on-bottom-size-med-10-12-/261648694308?pt=US_Childrens_Clothing_Girls&hash=item3ceb7a3c24

[the_rck]

Only one of those (the really long one) looks anywhere near long enough, so I'm not sure what 'long' means to these people. The skirt must cover Cordelia's knees. We can't use the one that's part of a dress (I lack the skills to separate it from the bodice, and dresses are specifically not allowed even if they fit the required color scheme of a black bottom and white top).

Of course, I could look for black pants. I just thought it might be easier to find a black skirt online that might fit. I didn't anticipate how short girl's skirts are in general. Cordelia does own a pair of black jeggings that I would have called acceptable, but they have rhinestones on the butt and are coming apart at the seams, neither of which is acceptable for this.

I also need to have something that fits by next Thursday (they told us yesterday). I think a trip to Briarwood is in our future. At least there's not a home game.

[adrian-turtle.livejournal.com]

If you're looking for a long black skirt on ebay, the key word is "ankle." As in ankle-length. There are sub-categories in the left margin, and you can take advantage of them. I started a search with the "fashion" category and the key words "skirt," "black," and "ankle." Just like you did, I got a ridiculous number of possibilities, many of them wildly inappropriate.

However, the left margin sorting thing lets you choose a category, and I clicked "womens clothing and accessories." (You can go back later and try "girls clothing," if she's between size ranges.) That gives a much smaller set of possibilities, and the left margin lets you click on "women's clothing" specifically, which rules out the black shoes that are supposed to be great to wear with a skirt. Then "skirt," to rule out the leggings that are supposed to be good to wear under a skirt. Then you can click on a size. And a color, to rule out the skirts that are pink with black trim. Then if you click on a size or two, it should give you a manageable set of possibilities. For my size, that narrows it down from hundreds of options to maybe 10-20 in regular sizes. Then I have to go back and check plus sizes, and they have 5-10 there.

Some are still wildly inappropriate. I think the detailed descriptions say things like "great with a long tunic," or "also available in black," or something like that.

[the_rck]

I tried that. It narrowed down to one item that wasn't at all what I wanted (and oddly, omitted all of the things evalerie found), so I think I must be doing it wrong.

I'll probably come back to eBay later when there isn't so much time pressure. We need these clothes by 5 p.m. next Thursday. I think there's a trip to Briarwood in our future. Maybe I'll be able to find some pants for Cordelia that don't fall apart within two months. I can hope anyway. Pity she won't wear jeans.

[ken-3k.livejournal.com]

copy shop: we have always used the FedEx Office (formerly Kinko's) in the strip mall at Nixon and Plymouth; it's next to Pet Supplies Plus. But we haven't done a lot of copying since our fanzine and apa days ended about a decade ago. However, aradiva still goes there for small copying jobs she needs.

[the_rck]

For some reason, I thought that place wasn't there any more. Shows how often I actually look at what we're driving by (not that I get over there more than about once a month).

Thanks!

[anderyn.livejournal.com]

That's what I was going to say -- that Kinko's is pretty good for getting copies. I also like the Office Max at Arborland.

[anderyn.livejournal.com]

Weighing in on the skirt issue -- I checked google with Girl's Maxi Skirt Black Size 12 and got this hit on Amazon -- which actually looks reasonable for a concert skirt imho.

http://www.amazon.com/FULL-TILT-Girls-Maxi-Skirt/dp/B00ANQJFWK

As always, there are some other options attached to the listing that look promising as well.


Maxi is code for long in the catalogs I get.

[the_rck]

We ended up ordering a different maxi skirt from Amazon. Scott has Amazon Prime, so it should arrive by Thursday. Hopefully, it will fit.