onomatoblog

This spring I was all manners of disappointed with my shopping experience at the US La Redoute website . Since then, I have placed two orders, and I have to say things have got a lot better. The first time, nothing had really changed, it was just that things were working out and going smoothly - but with no greater than usual effort from them, or from me.

This time, things have changed, and for the better. My favourite feature of the new website - aside from the forwarding from the simple laredoute.com - is that when items are added to the shopping cart, it will warn you if the item is backordered, and for how long. Genious! Since LR doesn’t offer free shipping for things that have to ship separately, this is a brilliant way of avoiding buying things until they are in stock. Let’s just hope they keep the databased up-to- date, or this feature will be pointless.
I also like the fact that you no longer have to deal with the coupon for the next purchase in the shipping confirmation email - it just appears on login on the website. So far, so good.

But it’s not flawless. For example, according to the website, you can “track your order, minute by minute.” The truth? Orders have three statuses; “Not yet processed to ship”, “Currently processing to ship”, and “Processed to ship” (the latter is LaRedoute-speak for shipped, by the way.) After that, you can track your order with USP (one would certainly hope so, for the shipping price charged) but standard shipping is not very fast - I would like to see free or discounted shipping for orders over a certain number.

I shall return with a more definite opinion after my next order is placed, once that sweater is no longer backordered.

Let it be known that I am wearing the ugliest sweater in the world today. Well, perhaps not ugliest, but easily the most boring.

Let me put it this way: it’s a cardigan. An lightish brown cardigan. With empire waist.

I look like a pregnant librarian.

Alright, I am not going to actually review the place here, because that wouldn’t end well.

We (and by ‘we’, I mean at least half of the people at my workplace) all went for lunch at the opening day - perhaps, in retrospect, not the best of ideas. We arrived around noon, and waited a bit in line before ordering - but not too long, considering it was lunch hour. . I ordered an American style with veggie burger, a chocolate malt, and fries. Then we waited. And waited. And waited. I know it was opening day, I know they seemed to be short on staff, but over an hour for a burger? Not so much fun. Food was OK, worth the money if not the wait. I’ll wait a few weeks, have Kevin go back for lunch, and if he’s liking it, come back later. Then I’ll review.

But, like Joe says, there were free cookies. Albeit peanut.

Hooray for our bathroom!

No, honestly.

We have been wanting to un-yellow it for quite forever now. I would show pictures, but none quite made the horrible justice. It was a bad color to begin with, and a matte one that soaked up water and let go of pigment and looked terrible with just about everything. Said and done, Saturday morning we went to Daly’s for paint and that other, less pricy, place for buckets and trays and whatnot. Fortunately we had quite a bit of supplies left since last time - the price was upped a bit by having to buy whole extra quarts of the colours we have in the living room (and C2 isn’t cheap shit) for some very minor touch-ups, since that was the smallest size it came in. Oh well. Once the walls were scrubbed down and the industrial-strength fan Lucas had brought home from work was in place it was time for a very appreciated delivery pizza, and then the painting ensued.

I did the majority of the painting, with Lucas helping with running to get me thing and with the tallest parts. What surprises me is that it took three full coats to cover the yellow - white is normally the most opaque of pigments. I suppose it could have to do with the quality of the paint - the that I am comparing to C2 is one of the absolute better brands. In any case, our bathroom is now white and lovely, the floor is very dotted, but I want to do something about that anyway, and there’s enough paint to do the window sills in the living room if I really feel like it. Additionally, the touch-ups went smooth, which means that the dent in the hallway wall caused by me being upset at something (honestly, American walls! You’d think that in a wall vs. glass fight, the wall would win) is gone gone gone, and the lines around the accent wall are much smoother. Hooray for painting.

In conclusion, I’d like to give the following advice for to-be-homepainters:

  :: See if you can somehow get hold of a really strong fan- borrow, rent etc. It helps enormously with drying time and smell.
  :: Don’t be stingy with the tape - the blue stuff is really good, pay extra for it. Using the cheapo tape is not worth any money.
  :: Spackle will apparently kill you, so gloves, face mask, wet sandpapering. And do that extra round of spackle-and-sandpaper. It pays off (the kind with color-indication is good, too.)
  ::More layers. Don’t stop until it’s good enough.

Name: Pasta Bella
Location: On 15th Avenue and 59th St. in Ballard, Seattle.
Serves: Italian.

Location: ##
Eh. When one things of Ballard, one things of Market Street and historic Ballard Avenue, not five blocks off that, on 15th (and area I associate with being on my way somewhere else.) Nevertheless, people seem to find it, so it can’t be too bad.

Look and Feel: ####
Small and insignificant from the outside, nice and cozy on the inside - this place has it all, with the exception of the red-and-white tablecloths, when it comes to Italian dining. It’s the look of the outside, and the fact that we saw straight into a work area through an open door as we were waiting to be seated, that prevented it from reaching a five.

Service: ###
Seating was fast, despite it being a Friday night. The initial ordering was fast, but then we had to wait for rather a long time before we had the chance to order our entrées. There was also a significant wait while we tried to see the dessert menu, but I believe our waiter had some sort of hearing impediment , so he’ll be forgiven for not noticing when we tried to get his attention. The service we did get was polite and attendant, and we felt welcome.

Food: ######
Score! Granted, I rarely take chances with restaurants (I don’t have the financial means or patience), but this was very, very good. Even with a stomach ache, I enjoyed my pesto tortellini immensely. Lucas had a seafood capellini which, he claims, was very good (I sort of doubt I’d like it.) Not to mention the creme caramel we had for dessert… Prices are a few bucks over chain restaurants, but not a lot, and the difference in feeling and quality more than makes up for it.

Did people really have seventies mustaches in the Wild West, or do we just think so as a result of all the seventies’ westerns?