Or is that too reminiscent of those early adult, post-college days?  I mean do real people use slipcovers?  Well, slipcovers that weren’t made specifically for that particular piece of furniture, I mean – we’re not talking Pottery Barn sofa here.  This isn’t a judgment by any means, it’s truly a question I’ve been pondering for the past couple of months.

And speaking of generic slipcovers, how do you know they’ll fit?  My couch doesn’t look like the couches in the pictures – it’s longer and has low arms.  How do you know it won’t look stupid and look like you just threw a sheet or a blanket over your couch like we did back when we were first starting out?

We bought a hand-me-down couch about a year ago.  It was in pretty good shape, but the fabric had a little wear and tear – I mean, it’s a couch for Pete’s sake.  Of course, with a husband, a dog and a cat, it’s seen some better days and far too many pairs of claws if you ask me.

We can’t really afford to just toss it (hell, there’s a reason we bought a used couch to begin with), but we also can’t afford to reupholster the whole thing either.  In fact, I hear that with the money we might spend to reupholster, we might as well just buy a new couch.

So I figured that I’d try this slipcover thing.  But Lordy, who knew they’d be so expensive?  I guess I just have issues forking over $150+ when I don’t even know if it will look good, stay put or even fit. 

So I have to ask, do you use slipcovers on your every day furniture?  Are you pleased with it?  Are some kinds better than others?  Can you recommend a store or site where they make a good (but not so crazy expensive) one?

And totally unrelated…

One – the itching is killing me.  The good news, I learned today that ice helps the itching and in some cases can kill the burn & the itch.  The better news, my friends assure me that once I finish my allergy test, they’ll give me an allergy med shot right there in the office – oh sweet relief!  Even better still…only 1.5 more days of this insanity and I’ll be back on the meds!!! (Curly, to get accurate test results, I had to be allergy med-free for a week).

Two – I sent out my first business newsletter today.  I was (and am) super proud of it and think it looks great and has some good content.  Well, I thought it had some good content.  Turns out a product I was pitching (an awesome DIY SEO book) is no longer available.  Ooops!  Guess next time I’ll check those links before I send it out.

Okay, off to get a new ice pack – this one has melted too much and seems to have lost it’s magic touch.

Well, the itching has begun *sigh* and it’s driving me insane already.

The good news, as my friends from book club pointed out, it looks as though I’m not as allergic to the cat as I may have thought.  My itching started and advanced all while sitting outside in my friend’s backyard without a cat anywhere in sight.  I also noticed that once I got in the car and started heading home, the incessant itching calmed down (and that’s with the windows open).  Once I got home, I’m still not scratching anywhere near as much as I was outside earlier.  So good news for the cute one!

And totallly unrelated, the hubs stopped by an open house today up the street and liked it.  He wants me to call and schedule a visit myself when he’s out of town this week.  Should be interesting.

And still more unrelated…I just gave up on my Reader and deleted about half of my subscriptions.  So now I’m thankfully down to 150 or so blogs with more still that can probably be culled.  It’s a start.

Martina McBride @ Verizon Amphitheater

Originally uploaded by katysabrat

Tonight we headed down to the OC to see Martina McBride at the Verizon Amphitheater. I just love Martina, but have yet to see her live so I begged the hubs to take me. Plenty of tickets were still available, so we figured we’d just buy lawn seats when we got there like we did for Brad Paisley.

I’m waiting by the gate while the hubby buys the tickets. I had no idea what was taking so long. He walks over to me and tells me that they didn’t open the lawn, but that he thinks I’ll like the seats. When then start the trek up to the “cheap” seats. Or so I thought.

Turns out, they gave him tickets in the pit. So basically, we were 6th row. This is the first time in a long, long, loooong time since I’ve been this close to a show. I think Depeche Mode in ’86 was my last show where I was this close (ah…the days when a day of scaped ticket would only cost you $35).

Needless to say, the show was incredible. The energy level was great. She sounded awesome. When I listen to Martina or Trisha Yearwood live, I’m always amazed at just how sucky the current crop of pop singers really are. I mean on her best day, I don’t think Britney Spears could even come close to singing the notes these ladies sing.

Of course, tonight I decided to not bring my purse, camera or phone with me. So the few photos we did get (I had to try, I was too close to waste the opportunity) were from the hubby’s blackberry which has no zoom and takes some pretty shitty photos.

After the show we stopped by the Irvine Spectrum for dinner…but uh, no purse = no ID. Yeah, I’m about ready to be knocking on 40’s door not all too far in the future here, but without an ID they didn’t want to let me in. I swore up and down that I would only be drinking diet coke (ended up drinking green tea, close enough). I get that you need to card and all, but we just wanted dinner and at 11:30 at night very few places were open. Luckily the manager agreed to let us in after making sure I don’t work for ABC or law enforcement – LOL.

Oh yeah, those pit tickets…only cost $12 for the pair!!! Times like this remind me that when you share what you have with others (I’m doing the 29 Days of Giving), it comes back to you in so many ways. Amazing stuff.

Great night all around. Now it’s nearly 3:00AM and it’s time for bed.

I feel like I should be writing a real post here, but seriously I have too much going on in my head to bother with focusing on one particular topic or another.

* To start with, my Reader is once again heading awfully close to 1000 posts.  I know that CurlyWurlyGurly says that I should only worry about her posts, but something tells me I might need to trim my reader a bit.

* On top of my Reader backlog, I also have an email backlog that I’m slowly working my way through.  Come of people, it was only 3 days.  What’s going to happen when we head out to Ireland for 10 days?!?!?!

* My landlords are petsitting their grand-dog and it’s driving me crazy.  Here I thought my dog barked a lot, but that thing never shuts up…especially when outside our bedroom in the early morning.

* I have to say that sometimes I wish my little guy was a big dog – big dogs bark so much less during the day.  Our guy has taken to sitting on the chair, looking out the window specifically for something to bark at in the evening.  Makes TV viewing a bit of a challenge.

* Speaking of the little guy, I can’t believe that after fighting with the Hoover steam cleaner,  a couple weeks back that my dog had the nerve to throw up not once, not twice, but in six spurts on my clean rug!!!  Thankfully I haven’t yet returned the steam cleaner to my brother-in-law so I guess now I’ll be testing out the spot treatment capabilities *sigh*

* My basil plant has managed to survive over a month now, including 2 extended weekend trips.  But now, it seems to have those stupid little black bugs that eat the leaves.  I’ve already cut off the more intested branches as I’m hoping I can save at least some of the plant.  I haven’t made my panzanella salad yet this summer!  Wish me luck.

* My sinuses and throat starting acting up within an hour of returning home this week.  Seriously, I’m bummed that there’s something in the house that I’m allergic to.  More importantly, it’s seems likely that the cat is the culprit – and we won’t (I won’t) be getting rid of the cat anytime soon.

* Accupuncture is going well.  I can feel my sinuses releasing and my breathing getting easier while I’m resting in the office.  Today I was a bit more bothered by the actual needles and felt most of them (at least the ones in the face and hands) the entire time.  Normally, I don’t feel a thing.  She’s thinking that I need a total of five treatments, so I have three more to go.  I don’t care as long as I feel better.

* My arms have been itching a bit again lately.  I guess it looks like it too since the accupuncture doctor asked me about it.  And of course, that just made me feel itchier.  Go figure.  As long as I don’t start going scratching crazy in my sleep again I should be fine.  Needless to say, I’ll be asking my doctor for a recommendation to the allergist when I see her later this month.

* I have less than a month to read one more book for the Elle book thing.  And I’ve a week to finish my book club book.  And two more books came in the mail for me this week (not including our Ireland planning books and the work-related ebooks I have piling up).  Yeah, um…again I go off on the book thing.

* I’m thinking of doing the 29 Days of Giving thing.  A fellow LWL gal started up the site and a few of my friends have been doing it.  I always love how giving and setting intentions really change the energy and get things moving.  I just need to make sure I’m commited to the entire 29 days.  Feel free to play along.

* Last week my bloggie friend, Geggie gave me a “Smile Award” and I’ve yet to say thanks or pay it forward.  I’ll work on that.  And Geg, thanks!!

* I forgot just how usefull that Mac remote control is.  I’ve been doing a lot of iTunes library playing lately.  And well, the library on this particular computer is a mix of my stuff and the hubby’s stuff.  So is nice to not even have to switch between all my open windows.  I just click next and I’m on my way to the next song.  Genius.

Okay, I’ve got to stop at some point and this seems good enough.  Hope everyone has a great weekend.