HappyinHeels

Yes, the Midwest is firmly in winter's grip. We have had regular snows in Wisconsin and the state is snow-covered border to border. I have been cutting some messy black willow trees making firewood for next winter and what I have cut so far is drying nicely because of the cold. I'm not surprised by your heel reports from Vietnam. Latin America is much the same. I don't think heels at 5" or more ever went out of style across most of Latin America based upon what I have seen over the last ten years or so. We had a Japan Air flight (#010) at O'Hare Airport direct from Tokyo's Narita Airport when I worked there. It arrived in the 0800-0900 timeframe and I believe it still does. Good reputation. Officers in our agency going to Asia raved about how good Korean Airlines was. Have a good trip back to Iowa. HappyinHeels

JeffB, Nice story about your latest adventure over the bridge in NJ. My kids and I celebrated my 58th birthday at Olive Garden then my wife and I went to go see Alita-Battle Angel just as you did. I also liked the movie. I heard a report that some are concerned the high price tag may not be made back at the box office. That does NOT means it is not a worthwhile movie to see. I found it visually stunning for sure and the plot was interesting. Plus James Cameron usually doesn't get involved with stuff that is not well-made. HinH

I limited my scope to the United States. Sure, Australia would have some gold-medal-winning places for being remote given the layout of the country/continent. Now Canada I am quite familiar with and the mind-boggling distances involved especially north of 52 north latitude in 2/3rds of the country. There are places where signs indicate distances in excess of 1000 km to the next major place. That's probably why satellite functions on phones are much more utlised there. I would think Australia may be similar. The most thing I seem to remember about Australia is a stretch of railroad which runs absolutely straight for an insane distance. Crossing Australia must be something akin to crossing the Gobi Desert in China close to the Mongolia border or crossing Siberia. HinH

C H A R I S M A

Southern Ohio I could understand but Heelster lives in the northern third of the state and that's the part that has my head spinning. I don't doubt what he says, he lives there after all. My suggestion now is to make one or two trips a year to Columbus and really make it worth the while owing to one less choice in his area. I doubt many people here though have lived in really remote areas of the USA. When I worked the border in Arizona we drove 150 miles to Phoenix, or sometimes Tucson also 150 miles distant, to do our bi-weekly shopping. I installed a 40-ft antenna to bring tv stations the 135 miles as the crow flies to our house. We were beyond the range of fm radio stations and most am radio stations on the US side of the border. We made that trek to Phoenix every two weeks for nearly three years before moving back to the Midwest in 1992. Beautiful desert area but very remote indeed. I guess it's a relative degree of isolation. HappyinHeels

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L I N E A R

Heelster, It's hard for me to wrap my head around anywhere in northern Ohio being that remote but maybe I'm mistaken. Ohio is not so big a state that the capital city of Columbus can't be reached within two hours which is headquarters for DSW. There's also a Nordstrom Rack in the Eaton Center on the east side of the city. I noticed the same decline in heel heights at various Payless locations and an overall increase in uninspiring and boring-looking footwear. Cali makes a great point, which cannot be overstated, that trying them in-person, is much more satisfying than trying to guess what will fit online only to have to return them later. Rather than six or seven trips to your closest Payless or Walmart (yuck) I think you'll find one or two trips per year to Columbus may actually work out better. Save that overtime cash! HappyinHeels

I know it's too much. When I get around to it I'll ask a simple question; "Have I worn these anywhere in the last two years?" If the answer is no then I'll either sell them if they're still in a box or donate them if not in a box. I've done with other things and been able to thin out things over the years. HinH

I was pretty sure what he meant. If I were to conduct a shoe count I'd probably divide it as follows: Wedges, sandals, pumps, ankle boots, and knee boots. Thigh-high would not be included as there are none. I have no flat shoes so ALL shoes are high heels in my world for now. I estimate I have around 160-175 pairs. I probably should do it just to get a handle on what to sell. HinH

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Ron C, It depends on whether the waist if mid-rise or high-rise and whether the jeans will definitely be worn with heels or not. If I know I will not wear the jeans with heels then a 14 would be better. If worn with heels then a 16 would be better. mlroseplant, Yep, NineWest has their name on jeans. Sams Club carried them for a number of years and I have several of those pairs. HinH

That's right. Think of it as an equation for life. EXPERIENCE becomes KNOWLEDGE, KNOWLEDGE builds CONFIDENCE, CONFIDENCE leads to SUCCESS. Use this simple approach for tackling all of life's learning opportunities. Think about that. If you sit on your ass and watch the world go by you have no experience so you have gleaned no new knowledge and can muster no new confidence and can claim no new success. HinH