mlroseplant

Another totally random comment, but what do you guys, and our one gal, think about these earrings/earclips? I don't know what to properly call them. Worn in real life by one of my female friends. My personal opinion is still not completely settled.

Steve Madden actually surprises you sometimes. As it is stupidly cold here for the next few days, I will not be submitting any photographs, but I've actually purchased some new Steve Madden shoes recently. While those particular boots are not really my cup of tea, I do like the look of a close fitting knee boot. Believe it or don't.

Definitely guilty as charged. I was on the high school tennis team in the 1980s, and we all wore shorts of that length. Not to put too fine a point on it, but I think we are all too fat in general for that style to ever come back. So I guess it's me and you and Cali. And maybe a few others.

The only reason that I sort of care is because, well, I'm going to need some higher heels. As you know, I have quite a number of heels in the 11 cm range, but only one pair that is really wearable in public that is 12 cm, and I think that pair is kind of ugly, mainly because of the design of the toe. Also, if I wear anything but skinny jeans, it looks like I have no feet. At any rate, it looks like I have two remaining options: Fuss Schuhe and this outfit called the Highest Heels that keeps showing up on my Instagram feed. Or the designer route, but I don't really want to pay that kind of money. I'm willing to pay a couple hundred bucks for the right shoes, but not a thousand. For that kind of money, I'll buy another obscure musical instrument. Did I ever show you my early 20th century Conn cornet?

I actually have some boots that are sort of like that, maybe not quite as sock-like, but a similar idea. I wore them exactly once, and never again. I do have photographic evidence, submitted for you here. I'm not saying they don't fit, I'm not even saying they don't look ok on me, I'm just saying I don't like them.

Somebody wrote about this the other day, this staple of 12 cm heels seems to be on its last legs. No pun intended. I have never taken the opportunity to buy from them, but know a couple of people who have. If they are indeed going belly-up, it's a shame.

I think, but I am not sure, that after 13+ years, that just maybe I am finally beginning to get the hang of this whole high heel thing.

It's very funny you should mention that, because another friend, not on this forum, said the exact same thing, although I didn't send her the closeup version of the photo. I know it's been a while ago, but you may or may not remember that I replaced the entire deck in part because it was not stiletto heel friendly. It would seem that the wood has shrunk over the past several years to present the same dangers again. Still, I have not actually had a mishap for a very long time. Maybe I have developed a sixth sense about such things?

Why, those are practically Cedars of Lebanon compared to mine! 😆

I have to laugh a little bit about that, I'm sure it's absolutely true, but by the time I came along, at the very tail end of go-go boot time, they were being worn by 8 year old girls. And not with a mini skirt. And yes, I got the chance to try on a pair of these boots--sort of. The neighbor girl, Julie M., had a white pair that were lace-up. No zipper. I do not remember the circumstances, but for some reason she allowed me to try on her boots. I'm guessing I was 8 years old, she was 9. Something like that. Her mother was very suspicious of what we were doing behind the closed door of her bedroom, so of course I never got to actually walk around in these boots, which couldn't have been more than an inch high. And yet, this rather thrilling experience (for an 8 year old, at least) never translated to a love of boots as an adult.

You are quite correct, of course, we do not eat a whole lot of seafood here in the Midwest, with the possible exception of if you caught it yourself. Are freshwater fish properly called "seafood?" Lakefood, maybe? Anyway, I do have two excellent places to buy seafood in my locale. Of course, I have to drive 30-40 minutes up to Des Moines to get it, but it's available. One of them is an expensive place, located in a rich suburb. The other is an Asian supermarket, super cheap, and I probably don't want to know the ins and outs of transport, or food safety practices. The wife and I like fish a lot, and other sea-living species as well, although my wife does have a slight shellfish allergy, which limits our choices. Yeah, I've got a story I could tell under other circumstances. Our son, however, does not like anything that lives in water, so the only time we eat it is when he's away at a school activity of some sort on a given evening. As far as fingernails go, I really do believe Huyen is a freak of nature. She also has longer-than-waist length hair. There's only so much a person can do with diet to get that. I do have a guitarist friend who has been trying to convince me to get acrylics for some time. If I were a more serious guitarist, I might. But I'm not there yet. I don't want to. In the summertime, I can keep enough nail for my purposes.

The only thin hosiery I have ever tried is trouser socks, which look quite a bit like heavyish knee high nylon stockings. I once wore them pretty much every Sunday with a suit and tie and high heeled oxford shoes which were too tight for regular socks. I rarely wear them anymore, however, as I have become more accustomed to wearing my high shoes barefoot. I definitely prefer bare legs for myself, and usually for women. One thing I definitely do not miss about the 1980s, and this is proof positive that indeed one can cherry pick his likes, is the fashion of wearing pantyhose with sandals or open-toed pumps. Not for every day of course, but for dressing up. Why did anybody ever think that looked good? And more often than not, it usually led to unsightly and uncomfortable toe overhang. Dangit, up to now I had good memories of the 1980s, even the silly big hair. Now, I'm remembering bad stuff I haven't thought about in years. I need to stop it!

This is totally random, but I'm always amazed at the durability of my friend Huyen's fingernails. I know it's just an accident of genetics, but I've actually personally seen her wash a whole sink full of dishes with no gloves, no nothing. I really don't think she does anything special to take care of her nails, and yet they just grow and don't break, and she rarely uses polish of any sort, as you can see here. I only need three of my fingernails to grow a little bit for playing fingerstyle guitar, and during this season, it just seems almost impossible. I broke one only yesterday, doing nothing. Time to break out the flat pick again!

Church OOTW for 01/18/26. I chose red, mainly because I wanted to wear my fire engine red pumps. I suppose it would be interesting to choose black and pair it with red shoes, but I didn't think of it in time. I'm typically ironing my shirt 30 minutes before I have to show up. I got a number of comments on my outfit, but none specifically about my shoes. Like I said in the "Aiming High" thread, what once was the outer limit of my skill now seems almost easy to negotiate.

I have a problem that I didn't have before. On the weeks that I actually get a photo taken of my church outfit, I am wont to post it on my usual thread "Ruminations, etc." Now that we've got this higher heel challenge going, sometimes these subjects overlap. After warming up in my training shoes in the snow, I wore these effectively 11.3 cm pumps to church. I'll post the whole outfit (or at least what you can see with my winter coat) on my other thread. Like we keep saying, take a cm or two off the height of our "training" heels, and it's actually pretty easy! Nobody but you folks believes me, though. Brand of these shoes is GenShuo, and I really cannot complain about the quality, for what they are. They seems every bit as sturdy as my usual Steve Maddens, and they offer just a smidge more height. They obviously are not expensive shoes, but they aren't ridiculously cheap, either.