Shopping List- and a confession-

So, here it is ...the approved shopping list for California.

1. a cast iron skillet. we have a old cast iron dutch oven that does double duty as a skillet sometimes, but we miss our old trusty cast iron frying pan/skillet. I hope to find a Goodwill/Salvation Army to find this before we go, if not I will state that this is an acceptable deviation from the Compact. Bacon on teflon just doesn't work you know?

2. Underwear for me and the kids. Ok, I am not a big person, but finding decent undies in Asia is a non-starter... which is funny cause you know they are all made here.

3. Bra for me. Again, no bras in a 36 A here in Asia, unless you like LOTS of padding. Not my style.

4. New work shoes for Jeff. His have been resoled 3x and don't take a shine anymore. They are 10 years old, it is ok to replace these.

5 . Some wine, cheese and maybe some other "western" food items that are harder to find in Singapore like good BBQ sauce.

6. My big expense. I plan on spending a fair amount of money at scrapbook stores. This is directly linked to my pending book and will be sent to the design team at Far Flung for their use in the production of layouts and projects for the book. This will be covered by the advances I get for the book and is one of my exceptions that I pre-designated before taking the compact.

Now, my confession. I fell victim to a drive by magazine purchase. I walked by, saw a magazine I like, and well I bought it. No guilt attached, I am not perfect, I fell off the wagon to the tune of $6.00. BUT, you know, once I got the magazine I looked at it and it wasn't all that. I have passed by the same stand and turned down other magazines, this was the first one I fell for and it didn't satsify me. I didn't feel inspired when I read it, I did not feel like it was a worthwhile expense. So, lesson learned for me. Sometimes instant gratification (ok most of the time) isn't worth the long term cost. I feel stronger in my pledge to walk by the next rack and just keep going.