The coat conundrum

Ok friends, I need your honest opinions. While I was out finishing up my Christmas shopping today,* I slipped a bit and bought myself something as well. It's a green pea coat (ha ha, green pea) from Old Navy. I was drawn to it and noticed the sign on the rack it was hanging on said 50% off outerwear. I checked the price tag: $78. I knew if my math was serving me properly, that meant $39 before tax and therefore totally doable and worth it.

Of course, as always happens at Old Navy, you get to the register and find no, that coat isn't 50% off, the coats on the rack next to it are or the plaid ones are but not the solid color ones. Bastards at Old Navy. If you weren't owned by my beloved, The Gap, I would boycott you. I, of course, panicked at the cash register and bought it with the idea I'd return it if my conscience told me.

Well, my conscience is taking a bit of a vacation, so this is where you come in.

Before you offer your advice, let me preface it with the following caveats:
1. Green is my absolute most favorite color in the world. And this coat is a very good green.
2. I absolutely don't need another coat. I have a beautiful seven-year-old charcoal colored pea coat that's not ready for retirement. Not to mention my brown-and-white tweed, a leather coat, a fleece and a North Face jacket.
3. The green coat was the only one in the rack. If I take it back hoping for a future sale, It will be gone.

Behold, the green pea coat:

*Yes, I really am done with my Christmas shopping, save one gift for my parents. By the way, beware the traffic out there while you're finishing your holiday errands. There are some really, really bad/inconsiderate drivers. Don't fall victim to one of them. Or become one of them.

The gift card that keeps on giving

Thinking about giving money or a gift card to someone? How about giving a prepaid credit card that gives 10% of the amount back to the recipient's favorite charity? You buy the card, have it sent to them, they activate it and select what charity they want to benefit and then spend, spend, spend. You can watch the cheesy demo here.

For your consumption

The New York Times Sunday Book Review has issued its list of the 10 best books of 2007. I would like to recommend one or another to you, but alas, I haven't read any of them. A few do catch my eye though, so I may get to them in in 2008 and report back to you.

Not for sale

Football figures who got owned yesterday, a photo gallery.

Tennessee quarterback Erik Ainge, who single-handedly loss the SEC championship for his team with interceptions and became LSU's MVP of the game.

Oregon tailback Jonathan Stewart, who couldn't get into the end zone, let alone past the first down line in overtime. Oregon State ran away with the upset over the once media-darling Ducks.

Rich Rodriguez, coach of the team formerly known as the national contending No. 2 team in America, on his team's loss to Pitt: "It was just a nightmare. The whole thing was a nightmare."

Europe is a country and everyone there speaks French, according to Kellie Pickler

Miss Teen South Carolina, please get Kellie Pickler a map. The country music gal doesn't think France is a country, but she's sure Europe is. I mean, not everyone in the world has access to maps, and it's us U.S. Americans that need to help them out, and that apparently starts right here at home.

Sunny days swept away

Here's some nostalgia for you, twentysomethings and thirtysomethings:



Are you having horrible flashbacks now of everything Sesame Street did to corrupt you as a child? If you're not, apparently you should be according to this article marking the release of two volumes of old-skool Sesame Street episodes:

What they did to us was hard-core. Man, was that scene rough. The masonry on the dingy brownstone at 123 Sesame Street, where the closeted Ernie and Bert shared a dismal basement apartment, was deteriorating. Cookie Monster was on a fast track to diabetes. Oscar’s depression was untreated. Prozacky Elmo didn’t exist.

The clip above is supposed to have introduced us all to our first addict, Cookie Monster. Not to mention it encouraged smoking as he always held and then ate his pipe during Monsterpiece Theatre clips. Holy smokes, stop the presses! The kids might start smoking or, God forbid, even eating cigarettes. Later versions of Monsterpiece Theatre didn't include CM's pipe and the Monsterpiece Theatre franchise was eventually done away with altogether.

P.S. Grover is obviously high on something if he thinks the hills are grooving to the tune of "The Hills Are Alive."

Championship day, a TV guide

Jeepers. Somehow, while the Modern Gal was working her tail off or taking a long Thanksgiving break to do some shopping, championship week arrived. I'm so excited about the prospects for today, and you should be too. I know you may have holiday decorations or baking on the mind for today, so I want to make everything as simple as possible for you.

(All times in Eastern, because that's the way America works)

10 a.m. Wake up. You've slept in enough, and you need to make coffee and prepare for a long day of gluttonous football consumption.

11 a.m. Take the dog for a walk. It may be the only exercise you get all day.

12 p.m. Lunch. Try to be healthy as it's all downhill from here today.

1 p.m. Army v. Navy (CBS). Ok, this game has absolutely no impact on college football, whatsoever. Except that it's a ginormous rivalry. It's also worth a few minutes of viewing just to see all the uniforms in the stands.

Really freakin' old, and yet, nobody cares.

2 p.m. Switch to ACC Championship, Va. Tech v. BC, the rematch (ABC). Basically BC stole a game from Va. Tech earlier in the season that more or less ruined Va. Tech's hopes for BCSness and really just made me hate BC for being totally overrated, as this game probably is, but still worth watching as it should be close and hard-fought. Winner goes to Orange Bowl.

4 p.m. Switch to SEC Championship, throwback style (CBS). Spend commercial breaks with UCLA v. USC (ABC). The SEC (Supreme Elite Conference) game is reminiscent of 2001, when LSU ruined Tennessee's hopes of a national championship bid. That's obviously not the stake this week, but it may settle the score on which team could out-overtime the other. The "what should be known as the Pac-10 Championship game" should determine a Rose Bowl bid.

6 p.m. Assuming it's halftime of the SEC game, grab a very, very fast dinner. The night is still young and the SEC game likely will go into 12 overtimes.

8 p.m. Switch to Big-12 Championship game (ABC) if and ONLY if the SEC game has concluded. And I mean concluded. One team may be down by 20 points with 2 minutes to go, but you'll regret if you turn the channel thinking it's over. Big-12, aka the weirdest championship game of the season, will need your full and undivided attention as soon as the SEC game is done. This one is important. It will tell us if the unlikely Mizzou Tigers will be playing for a national championship (and we can all hope so as it will spare us all from Ohio State/Big Ten+one for at least one season). Commercial breaks here can be split between either Pitt v. West Virginia (ESPN) or Arizona v. Arizona State (ESPN2), though I recommend the latter if you want to keep your football-loving world Zen.

12 a.m. Pass out from overindulgence of football and/or beer. Praise the Lord that you have some time to recover before ... wait for it ... wait for it ... bowl season.

Pottery Barn sale: items now regularly priced

The Pottery Barn is having a pretty decent sale right now, which means some of their stuff has been reduced from absolutely outrageously priced to somewhat affordably priced. Worth checking out as this is a rare occasion unless you're blessed to live near a PB outlet store.

And now for something completely different

Menswear? Shouldn't that be like the second-to-last regular episode of a Project Runway season? I mean, the Modern Gal has minimal experience making clothing, but menswear seems like a whole different world from making a dress, and the designers seemed to agree. I can't wait to see what they pull out of their Fendi bag of tricks next.

I have to say I almost freaked this week, I said almost, as much as I did over last week's guest, SJP. Tiki Barber? I loved you with the Giants, although I was sorry to hear you whine about your them post retirement. But you are still my favorite athlete-turned-TV-talking-head. And the gay gentlemen were right to swoon as well. You are very attractive.

Sorry, gentlemen, I'm taken.

As much as I do love Tiki and think that his wife is cute, I would have enjoyed Tim Gunn being the target of this episode. Make Tim Gunn work it. (Pun intended)

I was actually pulling for Kit on this one, even though she wasn't my fantasy pick (Kevin was). A fleece sportscoat? Brilliant! And different.

Can you tell it's fleece?

The winner was Jack, and he, the design and Tiki appeared on the Today show today.

Sweet P, you are such a mess, and that's why I love you so much. I'm so glad you squeaked by in this one.

Don't get cut. Don't get cut. Don't get cut.

And finally, peace out, Carmen. You were the biggest letdown in the lineup. Before the season started, I kept seeing your face and your obnoxious hair all over my TV screen in between episodes of Top Chef, and I just knew you'd be the sassy bitch that put everyone in their place. Instead, all you did was cry. Auf wiedersen. (Bonus points though for being a SCAD grad. I very much would like to attend SCAD at some point in my life).

I can't seem to sew straight. This ox fang hanging from my neck is weighing me down a bit.

The year of the marching band

Question: When your football coach leaves your school after only one season to go coach a conference rival, what do you do?

Answer: You shame him with your marching band's halftime show.

P.S. This is apparently the year of the marching band. Check out the halftime show honoring old skool video games from the Cal v. Washington State game from earlier this season.




Only the nerds at Berkley could have come up with that one.