Another failed shopping adventure. Looked around and could not find anything I liked. Ended up getting some boxers, some kitchen utensils, and some towels for the spare bathroom, then just said to hell with it and got a pedicure. And you can joke all you want about the pedicure, I don’t give a shit. Best thirty bucks I’ve spent in a helluva long time. Especially since I damned near ruined my feet wearing cleats and then army boots for all those years. Although I alway feel sorry for the poor bastard at the salon that draws the short straw and has to handle my Fred Flintstone feet.
Open Thread
This post is in: Open Threads
Pavlov's Dog
At least you didn’t draw Dick Morris.
Cat Lady
I occasionally see men getting pedicures where I get mine. The guy next to me a few weeks ago was there because his wife told him to get his toenails cut right cuz he was ruining the sheets with his snaggletoenails. I saw Hines Ward get a pedicure on some show about the Steelers (to my dismay). My MIL says she knows of a few old men who can’t reach and/or see their feet, so they get one too. Who doesn’t want a foot and calf massage? Also.
OT, but Dana Milbank is shrill. Maybe it’s professional jealousy, but it’s better than being a dickwhisperer.
ETA: 30 bucks including tip? Not bad.
Josie
John – It is so much easier to shop for clothes online. Once you locate the dealer that has the type of clothing and the fit that you like, you can just order to your heart’s content and know that you will like whatever arrives in the mail. It may take a couple of returned shipments until you know your exact size and fit, but after that, it’s all good.
MTmofo
If you hang up those towels now, get some plastic dropcloth and cut a hunk to hang over them. That was you don’t have to wash them before company comes over and uses them, just take the plastic off. Otherwise they’re just nice looking dust collectors.
Incertus (Brian)
Have you tried shopping for clothes on Etsy? Go on–click on the link. You need to.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Cat Lady: Have you heard any MSMer refer to this as an attempted terrorist attack? I haven’t.
I hear about more and more men getting pedicures. Do they massage your feet? I thought it was just glorified nail clipping
Corpsicle
Sorry for the ignorant question, but what does a pedicure involve other than trimming the nails nicely?
TaMara (BHF)
John, for women everywhere, I thank you. Pedicured feet are wonderful, whether they are yours or ones you have to look at. (Speaking of, our president went out in sandals and jeans last night – think he got a pedi before?)
BTW, what color polish did you pick? I’d think with your coloring, a nice mango would be good. (I kid, I kid).
jeffreyw
Gaah! Don’t go to a foot thread, please. Hell’s Bells, I can’t even feel mine most days and that’s a fuckin Blessin on account of when I can feel em they hurt. A week ago my left heel started hurtin for no reason I could remember. Made me wanna cry to step on it. I was hunchgimpin and cryin like a baby. Scared the fuck outta the dogs and the cats hid for two days. I can walk on it today, but I still think every step: “do you really need to do this?”
And I don’t know for sure what to fix for dinner, leanin cold shrimp with cocktail sauce and fried rice.
Lafndog, F'in Hippie
I went to Old Navy and was very surprised at the prices. Great cargo shorts for $10?!?!? Under Armour shirts for $9?!?!? bought bunches of stuff for me and my 8yr old daughter and still walked away under $200 for a months worth of clothes for the both of us.
TaMara (BHF)
@Corpsicle: Oh, there’s soaking, and massage, a nice buffing of the whole foot, then removing cuticles. Lotion, more massage, more buffing. When you’re done, your feet are as soft as your bum.
John Cole
@Corpsicle: They soak them in hot water for a bit with these jets of water, then they clean the cuticles and trim the nails, they then remove any callouses and then scrub them down, then wash them and rub them with lotion. It’s awesome. And when you have callous on your heels like I do no matter what I do to take care of my feet, it is a godsend.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@jeffreyw: I’ve been having all kinds of foot pain in the last few months, pretty randomly and in all different kinds of shoes/boots/activities. Last week my big toe started hurting like a sonofabitch for no reason. This morning, some kind of cramp in the arch. This whole “middle aged” thing is not going well for me.
suzanne
Oh, goodness. Pedicures involve massage, and I always have they remove my heel calluses. The dry air here is very hard on one’s skin, and regular pedis keep the skin from cracking and bleeding. I wish I could talk my husband into them.
I ate a delicious meal from the Chino Bandito (Phoenix’s best Mexican-Chinese fusion place) last night, but the fetus (Sprog) has started doing Riverdance in there. Which, uh… made the food take the express route. I think spicy food and I are gonna have to be on a break until December. I’m bummed.
TaMara (BHF)
@jeffreyw: Boy it sure sounds like a calcium deficiency causing heel spurs. My mom had those for a while. They gave her calcium supplements and they gradually went away (I know you’ve been to the docs, so they probably already ruled that out).
And since this is about feet – I broke three bones in my foot on Tuesday, which means no cycling for me for the foreseeable future. And a delay in my monthly pedicure – which equally sucks because all I can wear are flip-flops and my feet look horrible.
Corner Stone
@jeffreyw:
For some inexplicable reason I have never felt the need to pay someone to touch my feet. I’ve paid them to touch other things, but last I checked I could still reach my toes to clip them.
Corpsicle
Thanks everyone, I think I want one now.
tim
Ooooh, ahhhh, oh John, you are so awesome…this is the coolest report evah, about your shopping and not finding stuff and your cranky fake personnae, and your wanting a pedicure even though you’re all butch and stuff, and oh gosh…everything about you and this blog, no matter what you write, is so dreamy.
Just…I don’t know…just thanks for being you. Thanks for letting me comment here even though everyone hates me…you’re the bestest, even though you know, you backed Bush and all his wars and shit to the hilt and helped get a lot of people killed…that’s all cool, you know, as long as I get to imagine stuff about you thru this blog and come here and post so I’ll feel like I belong somewhere.
Hugs.
John Cole
@tim: You’re such a ray of sunshine.
I never considered myself butch, though. Weird.
Cat Lady
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
I avoid the MSM almost completely, so I can only guess that the answer is no. Calling out Beck is better than calling a nutjob a terrorist, although certainly that’s what he is and the failure to do so is FAIL, but I’d rather see establishment types like Milbank train their sights on calling out Beck for encouraging the nutjobs. We’ll see. Baby steps, etc.
Amir_Khalid
@tim: Oh no, not him again.
Just Some Fuckhead
Football season can’t get here quick enough.
Corner Stone
@suzanne:
There a lot of competition for that title?
Corner Stone
@Just Some Fuckhead: I’m afraid it’s much too late for Cole.
He’s a firebagging poutraging clotheshorse pedicure machine.
Probably tapes The View when he’s not free to watch it while he’s at group.
Joshua Norton
Shopping. Ugh. That’s why the Ceiling Cat* invented eBay. Type in what you want. Find one you like. Turn on your snipe program to monitor it and usually within a week the nice postal person/UPS driver is bringing it right to your door and handing it to you.
I haven’t been downtown to go shopping in about 5 years.
*LOLCat reference
Just Some Fuckhead
@Corner Stone: I actually like The View.
Cat Lady
@Corpsicle:
I think you do too. The best pedicures around me are done by Vietnamese women and men. This is why.
Violet
Ooh, I love pedicures. The place I go offers a “spa mani-pedi” where lovely Thai women beat your shoulders, neck and calves (Thai massage, I guess) in addition to the standard massage with lotion. Add in the massage chair and I’m so blissed out when it’s done I can barely get out of the chair. Occasionally I see men in there, but they’re few and far between. Not sure why as a pedicure is the best.
I’m out digging in the dirt putting in the bed for the fall tomatoes. It’s so hot we’re under a heat advisory. I can only work for fifteen to twenty minutes without having to rest. It’s awful. But I’m loving being back in the dirt. I bought peppers too. We’ll see how they turn out.
jharp
I’ve got the toe nail fungus.
$300 is a fair price for anyone who has to touch my feet.
I’d charge $30 just to look at someones feet that are as disgusting as mine.
And no. I’m not taking the meds to cure it. No way.
YellowJournalism
I’m pretty sure that’s still illegal in most parts of the country.
suzanne
@Corner Stone: Okay, okay. You’re right, it is a bit of a novelty. But it’s delicious. Has been on “Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives” and was rated one of the 100 best places to eat in America by someone who has some credibility.
And it’s so gloriously spicy. Which, unfortunately, is, a bug, not a feature for the time being.
Gordon, The Big Express Engine
Why do I have a feeling John’s pedicure was like this?
khead
@Just Some Fuckhead:
I’d just be happy if Albert Haynesworth would pass his fucking physical so I don’t have to hear about it 24/7 on local TV/radio/internets anymore.
Would still rather be here, btw.
Corner Stone
@Just Some Fuckhead: Football season can’t get here quick enough.
Corner Stone
@suzanne:
I’m a little miffed because my dad lives South of Tucson and I fly into PHX once in a while and drive down. I’m miffed because I’ve never heard of it til now. And the last few times I’ve flown into TUS even though it’s 3X the cost (!).
Maybe I’ll arrange something next time.
p.a.
t.m.i. this and TPM are my most visited blogs. but you’re heading towards “you wouldn’t believe the dump I just took” territory. and then I’m outta here. (yeah yeah I can here you now: “no great loss…”) ; )
p.s. not sure TPM can still be considered a blog. more like a trusted news source.
Corner Stone
@YellowJournalism:
You have something against chiropractors? They do God’s work.
Oh, you meant the hookers. Well, they do God’s work also, too.
The Bearded Blogger
@tim: You sound like you could use a pedicure
BGinCHI
Cole, a pedicure thread and no one has mentioned happy endings?
What’s going on around here?
Betsy
This post just made my day. Although I’m jealous, because I’ve been holding off on getting a much-desired pedi on account of I’m broke. Maybe groupon will pop up with a good deal for one soon.
Erikthered
Hey John, I was commo in the Army. What did you do?
YellowJournalism
@Corner Stone: And that’s even without the nun’s habit!
K. Grant
@Corner Stone:
Indeed. The Premier League starts August 14th, woohoo!
Martin
I could never get a mani/pedi. I have no problem with other people getting them (guys included) but we’ve got nail places in every strip mall here in SoCal and I can’t walk to the grocery store without having to see a dozen people getting their feet operated on by little Vietnamese women behind the big fishbowl window, like it’s some kind of show they’re putting on. It just creeps the fuck out of me. Might as well give people enemas outside of Starbucks. Would have about the same effect.
BGinCHI
@Corner Stone:
You ever been to the Kingfisher in Tucson?
I haven’t been back in years but it used to be damned good. Also some great Mex food around town; almost as good as Chicago.
Rainy Day
If your feet truly hurt when you walk/run (even though nothing is technically wrong with them), I recommend getting steel inserts.
It was about 15 years ago that I read about steel shoe inserts. I don’t remember what they cost, but I remember they were ‘guaranteed for life.’
I sent them a foot print (what my foot looked like when I was standing), and they custom-made my inserts and shipped them to me.
My feet IMMEDIATELY became addicted to them. I could wear any kind of shoe and even roller blade with them. But, if I failed to use them, I noticed it. I really noticed it. I noticed it to the point I felt crippled without using the inserts.
I still use them today. They weren’t lying about the life-long guarantee. I’ve used them for so long, I don’t remember who made them. What is so great about them is that you can use them with ANY type of shoe/foot gear.
I’m all for pedicures, but their effects are short-lived and mostly cosmetic. If you want long lasting relief (that influences your energy level), get steel inserts.
Mnemosyne
Our freakishly cool weather continues in Southern California — right now it’s 74 degrees. At noon. In goddamn July.
I’m not complaining — I was able to ride my bike to the farmer’s market and back without feeling like I was trying to cross the Sahara — but it’s kind of freaking us all out to have the weather change this dramatically.
I’m getting ready to head out for more errands in a minute. I’d love to ride my bike for those, too, but I need to get a fan for the bedroom while I’m out and I lack bungee cords.
BGinCHI
@K. Grant:
You beat me to it.
Real football. Go Liverpool! Please oh god oh god be better than last year!
Corner Stone
@Erikthered: His MOS was falling off tanks.
BGinCHI
@Mnemosyne:
Problem solved.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ip16Klfc160
debit
Christ, tim with a small t, just ask Cole out already. He’ll probably say no, but at least then you’ll know it won’t work and you can move on to another blog.
@thread: I shall now proceed to make pickles from the awesome cukes I got at the farmers market. If I can get the cats out of the empty hot water bath. And then sterilize it to my satisfaction. I may need to nuke it from orbit just to be sure.
Svensker
@jeffreyw:
Sounds like plantar fasciitis, which is just an inflamed foot part. You need to get shoes/slippers that support the heel and the pain will go away in an instant. If you don’t, the pain will be excruciating. If you change shoes/slippers and it doesn’t go away, go see the doc.
Bill H
The biggest advantage of being married is that she buys my damned clothes for me. Well, not the biggest, maybe, but it’s up there.
For her it’s that I do all the cooking. She can fuck up boiling a damned egg.
Amir_Khalid
@BGinCHI: As a fellow fan of the Beatles’ hometown team: Amen.
licensed to kill time
I was gonna go with the Pulp Fiction foot massage quotes, but I decided Cole’s getting smacked around enough already. I think a guy who announces his pedicure to all the world is a pretty secure guy anyway, so more power to him. And tim needs to get a life beyond harshing on JC.
Foot massages feel great, but I cannot stand anybody messing with my toenails. It.just.gives.me.the.creeps.
Bill H
@Just Some Fuckhead:
Shawne Merriman did not report to Chargers training camp yesterday. He wants to be sure he won’t be traded and that he will, “be with a team that will build its defense around me.”
GM A. J. Smith said today that the team will not guarantee a no trade clause for Merriman, and that it will not build its defense around him.
I wonder when he will report to training camp.
Martin
@Mnemosyne: Yeah, it’s really damn weird. My apple tree has already started dropping apples. In July. I’ve had them drop in late August before, but usually it’s late September.
Didn’t stop me from lighting up a grill full of spare ribs an hour ago, though. Mmm. Smoky.
Mnemosyne
@BGinCHI:
You think you’re joking, but I saw the Bilenky cargo bike in Bicycle Times and now ME WANT!
Of course, me has no real use for it and lacks the $2,500 necessary to get one, but still …
Svensker
@Martin:
When I used to commute into NYC on the bus there was a woman who would CLIP HER TOENAILS on the bus. Arghhh gag vomit . She was not a homeless person either, just your standard issue office drone yupster. Then there was the woman who would make up her entire face on the bus, and the woman who would eat her entire breakfast on the bus. (What was it with the yuppie women? Guys never did that stuff.) But the woman doing her toenails was the worst. I was waiting for her to start doing her bikini waxing on the bus — although that might have been more entertaining for some people, come to think of it.
Corner Stone
@BGinCHI:
No, I haven’t. He lives South of there so we normally eat at home or go to his/their favorite Mex restaurant that I can’t even tell you the name of. It’s pretty good and they have two levels of hot sauce. The hot is about normal for my Tex-Mex roots but it has good flavor and texture. It’s directly on the other side of I-20 from Green Valley.
Last time through we took my son to the children’s museum in Tucson and I was favorably impressed. Nothing like in Houston, but still a damn good time for a 5 year old.
Downtown Tucson is a pretty depressing place to drive around.
Corner Stone
@YellowJournalism: There are many ways I could take this opening. I choose to let it be.
(strangely enough the only Beatles song I will actually listen to)
Corner Stone
@K. Grant: As usual K. Grant, you are wildly off the mark.
Martin
@Mnemosyne: Oh, that’s cool. Why did they put the weight over the front wheel, though? Seems like the bike would be more stable without having to fight 100 kilos on the wheel camber when you’re turning. I’m going to have to think about that.
Someone let me know when they come up with a bike that lets me haul 4×8 sheets of ply. That’s the real measure of a new vehicle for me.
bago
Nothing like a good toe job?
JGabriel
I have never had a pedicure. You people are all fucking spoiled rotten.
.
Corner Stone
@Martin:
This…um. This is a little too revealing about you.
Just sayin’.
virginia
No shame in a pedicure, John Cole. The feet and their care are very important to overall health, esp as we get older. Reflexology and all that.
I read of your stove situation yesterday and felt for you. Saying goodbye to an old and trusted appliance is difficult and sounds like the stove-oven was one you thoroughly made use of and enjoyed. And was given to you by a beloved relative. I would say gas, definitely.
But back to shopping and pedicures: go for them, man! And next time ask for a manicure also … All these appendages need love and attention on occasion. Pretend you’re a Latin American or an Italian and ask for a simple cuticle treatment and buffing of the nails. Or don’t pretend … just ask.
Corner Stone
@Svensker: Be thankful that was mass transit.The things I have watched people do in their cars while I drive alongside them on a highway.
Baffling that any adult could consider it a good decision.
Emma
For those of you with the random foot pain in the middle age, so to speak: get a table tennis ball and use it as an improvised massager. I do it while watching tv or at the computer. Put it under your arch and roll it back and forth; use your toes to grip it, that sort of thing. It works a treat to relieve all those sudden aches.
Just Some Fuckhead
@Corner Stone: Just shoot me in the back of the head if I ever start rooting for a pool of liver to do anything except go away.
Mnemosyne
@Martin:
I think he somehow compensates for the weight issue in the design, but I know very little about actual bikes, so I don’t know what the explanation was.
bago
@Martin: If you want weird custom bikes, go to burning man.
http://www.tucsonbikelawyer.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/zeussbikes.jpg
Seriously.
http://www.boxdogbikes.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/bm2007jsc058.jpg
Mnemosyne
I love love love my current bike (a Trek 7200 WSD which I bought as a birthday present to myself last year) but now that I know how I like to use it, I might have bought this one instead. Oh, well. It was more than I was willing (or able) to spend at the time.
Martin
@Corner Stone: Actually, it’s not. I actually find watching people getting pedis that revulsive.
K. Grant
@Corner Stone:
Ohhh. You were talking about the ‘sport’ wherein the players put on body armor and need oxygen after running 30 yards (all in row!).
My mistake.
Silver Owl
Every time my nephews come home on leave they get pedicures and manicures. It was recommended to them while they were in boot camp by their commanding officers.
Mnemosyne
@Martin:
I’m not sure if you meant to type “repulsive” or if you did a Palin there.
:-)
BGinCHI
@Mnemosyne:
I wasn’t joking. Nothing surprises me in the cycling world anymore.
My new De Rosa is getting built as we speak. Can’t wait to ride it….
BGinCHI
@Mnemosyne:
The Bianchi Milano is a really nice city cruiser too. Esp for the money.
eemom
This Foot Thread appears headed to the honorable pantheon of Threads About Gross Stuff That Everybody Comments On, to join its distinguished predecessors:
The Tunch Asshole Abscess Thread
The Stepping In Lily’s Vomit Thread and
The John’s Junk Thread.
I ask you, what other blogger can accomplish this feat? (tee hee)
debit
@Mnemosyne: Oh, that’s a pretty bike! I was set on getting a (relatively) expensive road bike, but forced myself to wait (and wait) to see how dedicated I was and how I was going to use a bike the majority of the time. I ended up using an older Raleigh road bike (older being from the late 70’s) for a season, then converted my Crossroads into my commuter. My conclusion is that I don’t need anything else right now. I use it to get back and forth to work, to pull the dog trailer, and pleasure ride in between. I’m never going to compete and I really can do anything I want with this bike (including grocery shopping). Still doesn’t stop me from looking at Erik’s clearance list every now and again, though. Heh.
Bella Q
@tim: In case you missed it in the previous Open Thread, for an actually stalkerish story, see here.
Keith G
@Corner Stone:
Corner, how the fuck ya doing? My two thermometers both say 100.
Great day in Houston.
Mnemosyne
@debit:
One of the reasons I’m really liking my Trek is the geometry of it — since it’s a comfort hybrid, it lets you sit almost straight up, which feels a whole lot safer in my urban area, which has the highest pedestrian death rate in the country. It’s a bit of a behemoth at 34 pounds, though, so I wondered if I would prefer something lighter.
But now that it turns out I was slow on the bike because I was horribly out of shape and not because the bike was too heavy, I don’t really think about it anymore.
ETA: I’ve been pushing Bicycle Times magazine lately because it’s pretty much the only bike magazine I’ve found that isn’t all about racing and competition — more commuting and touring. It’s a bimonthly that only Borders seems to carry.
harlana peppper
“Ended up getting some boxers.”
What, yet more dogs?!
debit
@Mnemosyne: Hah! Yeah, my feeling is that I will worry about the weight of the bike when I no longer have to worry about mine. I hear you on the geometry aspect; it’s why I converted the Crossroads. The bars are high enough so that I can sit up, and when I do go into the drops I don’t have to crane my neck much to see ahead. It’s not really road bikey, but it works for me.
I love Treks, and have heard good things about their WSD bikes. They are definitely on my list to try when I do eventually shop for another bike.
CorgiFan
Having someone work over your feet, massaging them and making them soft and smooth with neat nails and cuticles — what’s not to love? I’ve even sold my husband on them.
As for bikes:
http://www.rhoadescar.com/rcar/cyclecar.shtml
DickSpudCouchPotatoDetective
Anybody have an accurate list of the bacteria and fungi that live in those hand and foot nail parlors?
Like you gnarly guys, I can’t wait to go out and get mine done.
Infection, inschmection.
Corner Stone
@Keith G: I have a fan blowing my junk and am struggling. Just cut a cold seedless watermelon up into cubes and rubbed most of it all over my naked body.
I actually have a free afternoon but I’ll be damned if I am going to go play golf in this bullshit.
Cathie from Canada
If you hate clothes shopping, do this:
1. Think back in your life to your very favorite pieces of clothing — the suit or jacket you really liked, the best t-shirt, the great pair of jeans, etc.
2. Figure out what you liked about it — was it the colour, or the fabric, or the cut, or the collar style, or the vent, or the way the waist band was sewn, or whatever.
3. Now, you know what to look for — chances are, if you find something similar to a piece of clothing you liked before, you’ll like it again. And you’ve just saved yourself endless amounts of time because you don’t have to try on anything anymore that doesn’t fit your style.
(ps, this isn’t my idea, its based on something I read in a book by Peg Bracken)
Corner Stone
@Corner Stone: I’m also thinking about firing a MANPAD directly into the sun.
WikiLeaks tells me they are extraordinarily effective, so I thought I’d give it a shot.
Corner Stone
@Keith G:
Oh, and by the way. I’m having a pitcher of screwdrivers as afternoon cocktails. Heavy on the screw part.
FlipYrWhig
Should I consider myself lucky that I don’t have this kind of relationship with my feet? In my experience feet are purely utilitarian. The difference between ugly feet and pretty feet can’t possibly be worth paying money to accomplish, can it? I’m in many ways a fastidious and metrosexual-leaning man, but I’m befuddled by the whole phenomenon.
Then again, I repeatedly see ads for a product that grows your eyelashes longer, which IMHO is roughly as important to a person’s overall appearance as the silkiness of one’s arm hair. So I suppose I shouldn’t consider my standards representative or typical.
Comrade Mary
@jeffreyw: Ow!
Does your heel hurt sharply after you get up in the morning, or after you’ve been sitting for a while, or is it more constant pain?
If it’s pain after rest, it sounds like classic plantar fasciitis. If it’s constant pain, it could be something else entirely — arthritis (I have that on and off in my right ankle), a stress fracture, or something gnarly with your ligaments. It’s worth going to a doctor or podiatrist about this if you’re in this much pain.
FlipYrWhig
@CorgiFan:
This is what I mean. I can’t quite grasp that having feet that are “soft and smooth” is worth paying for. I don’t think I’ve ever paid any attention to the appearance of someone else’s feet and barely notice my own.
Corner Stone
@FlipYrWhig:
I am dying to try that and see if it works.
Comrade Mary
@Mnemosyne: Oh, man, I CANNOT stand sitting up high and straight. I feel as if I have no power whatsoever to get up a hill, haul a load, or go fast (well, fast for me). I have a Trek 7300 WSD that is probably an awesome bike for someone else out there, but I ride it only when my trusty little mountain bike is knackered, just because riding with the relatively high handlebars just plain hurts.
Geometry is a really individual thing. If I ever switch to a road bike, with my hands even lower than they are now, it will probably take me a while to adjust.
And yeah, no point buying a lighter bike when you can still lose some of your own padding. That’s why I’m still riding the 35 pound steel behemoth. I love it to bits. I want to feed it carrots and plait its mane. Metaphorically.
CorgiFan
@FlipYrWhig:
I’m a nonrepentant feminist, so please take this in that light. I also understand that my husband is a man so knew how to get him to be willing to try it. I told him that I was going to treat him to an hour of having a pretty, young woman with a tight, low-cut T-shirt bend over his feet, massaging them and just making them feel terrific in general. Oh, and incidentally, it happens to be called a pedicure. He’s now a convert.
Moral: don’t knock it until you’ve tried it.
FlipYrWhig
@CorgiFan: Hmm. I can see the sensual appeal, but I’m not a massage person either, so maybe that’s part of my resistance. Or maybe I’m just uptight. :P
CorgiFan
Oops — my turn at a “mala-Palin-ism”. ‘Nonrepentant –> unapologetic.
Martin
@Mnemosyne: I considered making it refulsive, actually.
Yutsano
@CorgiFan: @Martin: Okay all’y’all knock it off. Engrish can only take so much warping you know!
jeffreyw
@Comrade Mary: It seems to be pain after a rest, once I get to moving about some I can manage OK, still hurts. I changed out of my worn out country walkers into a pair of Nike Airs that have been in my closet for a few years, they seem to be helping.
Mnemosyne
@Martin:
Nah, it’s perfectly cromulent the way it is.
Mnemosyne
@Comrade Mary:
I have a feeling that if I was doing long rides at a stretch, I’d want something more along the lines of road bike handlebars, but the short-distance city riding that I do requires so much starting and stopping that the upright is the way to go for me. I keep thinking about taking a road biking class at REI since I can borrow one of their road bikes and see how I like it.
I also am starting to develop some back issues (which I’m hoping Pilates will help with) and apparently the upright position is better for those as well.
Yellowdog
@eemom: OK, I remember the first two, but I really want to check out the third one. Linky?
It’s not that I have immoral designs (although I do have fantasies about driving around looking for John’s place, just so I can meet Lily and Rosie, okay Tunch,too but I’m really a dog person) on John’s junk but the thread does sound intriguing.
jeffreyw
Here are those shrimp I mentioned earlier.
And the fried rice.
CorgiFan
OT but it’s an open thread:
I bought my corgi, Gus, a plush, purple elephant today. It’s his first stuffed toy. He could never have one before, because his brother, John, would rip stuffed toys to shreds in < 10 mins. We've only had the indestructible balls at our house until now. Well, we lost John (my dog) a week ago, so I've been trying to spoil Gus (my husband's dog) in a shameless bid to change his allegiance to me and fill that hole in my heart.
Success: Gus LOVES the toy.
Fail: there's nothing ickier than plush saturated with dog slobber.
Svensker
@jeffreyw:
That sounds like plantar fasciatis.
When I had it I’d have to hobble around whenever I got up while making ouchy noises, then it would mostly get better but not completely.
Comrade Mary
@jeffreyw: OK, sweetie, what you almost certainly have is plantar fasciitis. I had it over and over for years, and vanquished it finally thanks to one canny physiotherapist.
1) Good support for your foot is an excellent idea. Avoid any shoes with worn heels that screw up your foot biomechanics. Orthotics can help, but they are expensive, and the other things I describe below may help as long as you stay in good shoes. Avoid walking barefoot.
2) You need to get onto a routine of stretching your calves and achilles tendon, GENTLY, a couple of times a day. That tightness is the biggest proximate cause of your foot pain.
3) If you have insurance that covers physio, see a sports med specialist and get a referral to a physiotherapist. S/he will offer you a variety of treatments that work for most people most of the time: ultrasound, stretching and strengthening exercises and maybe even acupuncture (which didn’t work for me at all, despite the fact that I was very receptive to the idea). You may also be offered some rather painful massage that will, I swear to God, make you feel better after it stops. The fascia in the sole of your foot are tight and probably have some small adhesions that need to be loosened. This will not kill you. It will make you stronger.
4) What worked for me when nothing else did: a little rubber reflex hammer. If you can’t get one of those, get a big rubber or plastic eraser and rub the sharp edges off it. Ask your physio to use it to loosen the adhesions in your fascia. Then use this at home after your stretching exercises once your round of physio is over.
My last horrible bout of PF was in 2005-2006. Despite abusing my feet in myriad ways in subsequent years (I wound up with two stress fractures in less than a year after spending way too much time walking in bad shoes on bad surfaces), the PF has never come back.
Josie
@jeffreyw: Read this article and sees if it answers your questions.
http://www.webmd.com/a-to-z-guides/plantar-fasciitis-topic-overview
You have my sympathy, since from experience I know it hurts like hell, but the measures described here will help if you are patient and consistent.
Comrade Mary
Ack! For some reason, my long answer to jeffrey is in moderation. Scroll up a couple of comments to see it soon-ish.
suzanne
@Corner Stone:
Ain’t that the truth. I did my undergrad at UA, and when I tookmy now-husband down to Tucson once to show him the campus and the city, the tour sounded like this: “Here’s where I got chased down the street by a dude with a knife. Here’s where my friends and I got pepper sprayed by the cops and I ran away and lost my shoes. There’s where I saw two car wrecks on the same day—when I called the report the second one, the police didn’t believe me, and hung up on me. Here’s where a guy got beat to death with a two-by-four—I lived down the block.”
However, the Cup Cafe at the Hotel Congress is tasty. As is The Grill.
JenJen
@Just Some Fuckhead:
Word.
suzanne
@FlipYrWhig:
I don’t give a eff about how they LOOK. I care about how they feel. Without regular pedicures, the calluses on my feet get so cracked and dry, my feet bleed. I’ve ruined more than one pair of shoes by saturating the insoles with blood. The dry air here in Phoenix is hell on my skin, especially in summer, and regular pedicures prevent it better than anything I’ve ever found. Plus, it’s 45 minutes to sit by myself and not talk to anybody and be left the hell alone. Good for both body AND soul.
I hear you on the eyelash thing, though. First time I heard about it, I said, “Whaaaaaa? Now I’m supposed to be insecure about that, too?” Apparently it has the irreversible side effect of changing some users’ eye color…that’s a big risk to take when it seems to me that you could just wear some damn mascara if you were really that freaked out about it. I just can’t be bothered to muster up enough self-loathing to deal with it at all—my eyelashes keep falling shit out of my eyes, that’s good enough for me.
jeffreyw
@Josie: @Comrade Mary:
You’uns have nailed it. I’m gonna agree with the fascist planter diagnosis. Ordered some gel heel cups and took a few more ibuprofens. Down with Il Duce! Fucking prick. Din’t know he was a planter, figures, tho.
FlipYrWhig
@suzanne:
Makes sense. Like I said, it’s possible I should just count myself lucky that my feet (to this point at least) have remained utilitarian rather than afflicting me either vis-a-vis function or appearance.
My experience of feet is sort of like my experience of cars. All I really want is for them to get me where I want to go without breaking down. Having a zippier model doesn’t seem like it would be that much more enjoyable.
@suzanne:
Alas, that’s the fundamental question in contemporary capitalism, isn’t it? Without new reasons to feel insecure, where would any of us be? :P
Corner Stone
@suzanne: I was just a little surprised to see about 4/5ths of it shut down and out of business. People were friendly, and I got to practice my Spanish for a while.
Cool stockpile of unusable airplanes also, too.
stickler
Here I read the word “shopping,” and figure I could add something about buying a stove. And what do I find? 100 posts about feet. Judas Priest, people. Ugh.
Anyhow, if our esteemed host is actually “shopping” for a stove, and not lace doilies or a new antimacassar (not that there’s anything wrong with that), here’s my two cents*:
Do what we did, go to Sears. Repeatedly. And walk down their scratch-n-dent row. We got our Jenn-Air downdraft gas/electric stove that way, and saved enough money that we were able to throw in the griddle as well as the left burner element, and still pay less than new. Scratches: one 1/4″ about toe height. Dent: bent metal trim piece ON THE REAR, where of course the next person to see it will be the person who removes the stove years hence.
I mention Sears because for whatever reason (I suspect Enron-style accounting), they’re perennially offering ridiculous financing and payment options. One year, no payments, or crap like that. Plus, frequent big sales, usually including the scratch-n-dent stuff. Does this sound like a good business model? No. Do you care? Also, no.
l* = If you don’t have an antimacassar yet, you should.
eemom
@Yellowdog:
feh, I tried but I can’t find it. Either the WP search engine thingie sux or I don’t know how to use it right. Or maybe both.
Anyway, it was about a hot day when John turned off the a/c in his house to save energy and when he got home it was so hot he had to get in the car and turn its a/c on his…..well, you know. : )
Corner Stone
@eemom: Most likely you just suck balls. And not in the good way.
Emergency Measures
eemom
@Corner Stone:
Good heavens. You really are a nasty little shit, aren’t you?
Doubt if you’d recognize what a “good” suck was, unless you’ve managed to find a $10 whore who is particularly dexterous with a magnifying glass.
Jane2
Unless you chose the fuschia polish, or equivalent, pedicures are a health thing, not a beauty thing.
Corner Stone
@eemom: Yes, I am indeed a nasty piece of work.
And $10? Sheesh! You should’ve told me that’s what you charge. I’ve been paying inflated rates. I should be using market pressures to push down the cost.
Thanks for showing me the way forward.
asiangrrlMN
Shopping sucks. I don’t do it any longer. Mom brings me clothes from Taiwan, and I get my staples (tank tops and boxers) at…well, Target, but not any more.
I’ve never had a pedicure, but I have awful feet. I may have to give it a try after hearing what it actually entails. Though, I would feel sorry for the poor soul who has to do my feet, too.