An exceptionally kind friend of mine (ha!) gave me a hat just over a year ago that was exactly what I was looking for. I have since worn it in winter and summer — even though it was really too warm and fashionably inappropriate for the no-white-until-labor-day crowd. Meanwhile, I continued my quest for a good summer hat.

Simultaneously, the situation worsened for my poor, solo hat — the original owner (not my friend – the hat dates from the 1930′s or 1950′s or so – beaver pelt, very nice!) had a heavy pinch where he would put it on and take it off and that pinch has slowly been becoming a hole. In addition, the brim has slowly been disconnecting from the crown in the back. It still looks good, but it definitely needs a little love.

So I have been searching for a winter hat that I can wear daily and save my current one for special occasions along with a summer hat. I’d even considered having some custom-made as I’ve had suck poor luck with my quest. And then came Friday!

I popped into Zara with Chris, ’cause she was looking for some things – and there’s this cute little straw hat sitting there – very nice. $20. Hard to complain about. Sold. Bought. Done. Lunchtime.

Then we head to the subway past Urban Outfitters and comment on how we’re too old (and crotchity) to pull off that style anymore, but we go in just for kicks.

BOOM! Another straw hat – and in black! $28 Very nice! Very exciting. Today is my lucky hat day!!!

But wait – there’s more. Because then we found the motherload!!! Hats and hats and hats! Thank you, Christys’ Hats!!!! I ended up buying a total of four hats for myself and one for Chris. Here are the rest of mine ($10, $10, $38 respectively):

And here is Chris in her new bowler (and her new haircut! hat: $10):

It was a good day for hatting.

What nasty weather today! I went to all the trouble of traversing the city in the snow and rain to attend a very interesting lecture:

Poverty and Inequality in the Global Economy Series: What is Global Inequality and Why it Matters

Unfortunately, the speaker was unable to attend. They expect to re-schedule it, and when that happens, I’ll report on how the Lead Economist for the World Bank’s Research Department perceives Global Inequality.

In other primarily uninteresting news, I’m growing a beard. I can’t really decide if I like it or not, but it’s a good thing to do in the winter, I suppose. What do you think?

Finally, I was lucky enough to be notified at the last minute (thanks, Melanie) that there was a lunar eclipse tonight – fabulous. Amazing how magical the simple spinning of the planets and their satellites is.

I captured this picture of it – not great, but I didn’t break out the tripod, so I thought it came out O-K! I love the fact that you can see the different shape of the earth’s shadow crossing the moon. As it passed into complete coverage, the moon went all red and as it began to reappear, there was a thin sliver of white on the other-wise red moon that my camera simply would not even attempt to capture. The wonderful part about this was that at that point in the process, the sliver was at the bottom of the moon – beautiful. Sorry I don’t have the technology to have captured my own stills of it.

Hope all is well with each of you,
Wayne

That’s not to say that I don’t accomplish something every day, but let’s be honest – fewer are the days that accomplishment feels like accomplishment than those that it drifts by as if nothing happened.

Today wasn’t like that.

Today, I can look back, see the accomplishments, and consider them as greater than the time put into them.  Among these accomplishments are:

1. Formal job rejection based on ‘overqualification’ (but at least they were kind enough to let me know – and it seems as though I have finally figured out how to write a cover letter and resume that is attractive to job providers).
2. Discovery of another potential job opportunity that I would like to pursue. I know this may seem like a silly thing to list, but I have to look through a LOT of job openings to find one that would actually interest me and suit my skills.
3. Significant accomplishment on POMED’s website — mostly back-end stuff, but it’s been hanging over me for quite some time while I’ve been inundated with other goings-on.
4. I talked to my baby sister! She’s soooo cute! She said she almost drowned over the weekend (okay, not really – but there was flooding on the farm!)
5. I made significant progress on formatting the final Capstone document. In another couple of days, I may indeed have something that’s worth looking at.

The only thing I have yet to do before turning in is to make a quick review of today’s selection of Lolcats. It’s not a day without it!!!