elephantine

Calypso St. Barth + The things people say

(These looks from Calypso St. Barth...swoon!)

(Yes, this is still a vacation post.)

Some tidbits overheard last week...

1. "So, I have to ask...(tentative pause)...do you still like nachos?" "Yeah... not as much when I'm traveling, though. I guess that's what people know me for, huh? That one guy used to call me 'Nach'."

2. "You don't know me like I know me! You don't know me like I know me!" (No, I was not on the set of Jerry Springer.)

3. "No, no, no. Don't lick them. These stamps are stickers, see? The backs peel off. We don't lick stamps anymore in America."

Sue London + Marais + Achoo!

(Can't get these flats by Sue London & Marais out of my head.)

(Yes, this is still a vacation post.)

Earlier this year, when we were first thinking about getting a dog (seriously thinking, I should say; I'd wanted a dog since I was a kid), one of our main concerns was barking. I cringed at the thought of adopting a seemingly quiet dog that would start barking its adorable little mouth off the minute we got home. Angry calls from neighbors, a scared kitty... nobody wants that.

But we were lucky with Bodhi. He only barks if he senses someone outside, and usually it's a soft warning bark first. He can even "speak", aka bark, on command. When instructed to, his barks are cute and quiet, since he knows we are inside and therefore he must use his Quiet Inside Bark.

The other day, Stefan was trying to get Bodhi to do his cute Quiet Inside Bark. Bodhi wasn't in the mood. He whined. He squirmed around. "I don't want to bark, like, don't you get it?" his expression said. And then finally his mouth opened. He was about to comply – it looked like he was about to – and instead he sneezed all over Stefan. An 85-pound-dog sneeze.

Those are big ones, if you haven't guessed.

Need Supply Co. + Failed at Halloween

(Need Supply Co. is calling my name again...)

I was all pumped up for trick-or-treaters yesterday. We had an ample supply of candy. Bodhi was dressed up in a mini Mariners jersey. I'd cut a ghost out of paper and strung it from the front porch, and it was swaying spookily in the breeze. I even swept the steps to our house, so no kiddies would slip on a slick clump of leaves.

But nobody came. Silence, silence, silence... so I finally shrugged it off. Forgot about it. Got absorbed in other things.

Just after eight o'clock, a knock. I jumped up and raced over to the door, thinking, "Who will it be?! A hot dog? A Michael Jackson? Maybe a turtle!"

It was a teenager. He was not dressed up. He clutched a pillowcase bulging with candy. And as he reached for some of ours, he didn't even smile, but just oogled at the video game paused on our TV.

Jeffrey Monteiro

(Looove these looks from Jeffrey Monteiro, found at Refinery 29.)

Vera Wang + Coffee & Sausages

(Oh-so-pretty are these Spring 2010 looks from Vera Wang.)

I love that the sandwich board outside of our local Fred Meyer says, $2.00 TALL LATTE. ALSO SERVING A VARIETY OF SAUSAGES. Sausages is inherently a funny word, but it's also like, who really has this train of thought? "Boy oh boy, could I use a cup of coffee... and a sausage. But not just any sausage. I need a wide selection to choose from. Thank goodness for Fred Meyer."

Behida Dolić + bee in my bonnet

I rarely ever wear hats – whenever I've tried to, my head gets itchy within minutes, and then I scratch and scratch and scratch and turn into a sort of madwoman – but these hats by Behida Dolić are mighty pretty, and don't look itchy in the slightest. And so: swoon.

Glove love + Bon wrong

(Mmmmwant! From Little Byrd Vintage, Need Supply Co., Shopbop, & Anthropologie.)

Overheard this morning at work:

"I found out I've been mispronouncing something."

"What?"

"Bonfire."

"Oh? How do you say it?"

"Bondfire."

When you think about it, though, he wasn't that far off. Because what do people do while sitting around a bonfire? That's right. They bond.

Toast + domo arigato

(Mmmm... Toast's fall collection.)

Before going to the play yesterday, we went to a conveyor belt sushi restaurant, and although it hit the spot, there was something…a little, well, blatantly American about it. Maybe it was the mostly Caucasian staff (who nevertheless addressed customers in Japanese), or maybe it was the Ice Ice Baby blaring overhead on the speakers.

Or, maybe, it was the hot dog sushi rolls?

There was also coffee-flavored jello. As the cubes wiggled their way on by, I saw that the plate also came with one of those mini cups of half-and-half. So, what's the protocol for eating that? Pour it over the dessert? Drink it as a shot after eating the jello?

Then, the play: I'm no theater buff, but The 39 Steps was pretty entertaining. Fast-paced, energetic, light-hearted. Also entertaining was the middle-aged man in front of us trying to think of the name of a different play he'd just seen. "It had teenagers in it," he said to his wife. "There was a car race! And it was named after a car. Don't you remember?"

"West Side Story? Hairspray? Grease?"

"Yes! Grease, that's it."

"Well," she said. "That's not really named after a car."

Rachel Comey + Rachel hungry

(I feel like getting ahead of myself. Rachel Comey's Spring 2010 collection... swoon.)

There's this teriyaki/burger place a few blocks from my house that is the reason I start fumbling when someone asks if I'm a vegetarian. Usually I recoil at the sight of glistening meat, but the burgers here are inexplicably nom-a-licious.

When I ordered a burger today, the lady at the counter asked me (with wide, careful eyes), "With EVERYTHING on it?" in a shocked voice that also implied, "I know you despise mayonnaise. Don't tell me you've changed your ways?!"

See, this is what I love about these small, family-run eateries. They remember what you eat and how you eat it. Especially if you're someone like me, who finds one thing on the menu and then refuses to try anything else.

The other thing I love about this place is that the type alignment on the sign out front makes it look like they sell "Burger Shakes" and a large, peppy banner teases, "Come in for a surprise!"

To Sir With Love + Being a Regular Gets You Nowhere

(To Sir With Love looks sooo soft & comfy.)

Overheard at the post office today, between two postal workers:

"See that guy over there?"

"Mm-hmm?"

"He paid with a credit card, and when I asked him for a signature, he said, 'I've known you for five years. Why do you need a signature?!'"