Opinions for Nothing

Call for Opinions: Redecorating a Little Girl's Bedroom

If the title of this post sounds familiar, it's because I asked for your opinion on the same subject a couple years ago. (Check it out.) I didn't buy new furniture at the time, though. My older girl came out of her crib and moved into the daybed (with trundle) that used to be our guest bed. My younger girl went into the crib we originally bought for the older one. My older girl is now four, and my little one is two, and potty-trained, and still sleeping in her crib.

We'll be moving soon and I don't want to move the baby furniture. I'd like to sell the crib and matching dresser as a set. Both girls will need new dressers and we will need one bed; two if we'd like to have a guest bed again. I love little girl bedroom sets, but I don't want to be going through this again in five years when my oldest girl decides her furniture is too babyish. I'm going to start with her room first and then do the little one's room.

I want to find a great bed and a great dresser. I'll build the room around those two pieces. Start sending me stuff! I am keeping it all on Pinterest. Here is some of what I have so far:

I love a dresser with a cupboard. Even though this is from Land of Nod, it doesn't look like kid furniture.

Adorable, two separate pieces from Pottery Barn Kids.

Awesome, from Pottery Barn Kids.

Rustic, and easy to open for kids, from Anthropologie.

I love this one for me, from Crate and Barrel.

More.

Call for Opinions: What is your minimum definition of cheating?

I received a comment on a five-year-old post about cheating at The Peevery. What is your minimum definition of cheating? Where is the line between cheating and inappropriate behavior?

This is what I think, but I want to know what you think.

I am now forced to broaden my definition of cheating... If you are in an exclusive relationship and you have a conversation or an encounter with someone else, if you cannot recount that conversation word for word to your partner or you cannot describe that encounter to your partner in detail without discomfort, then you have behaved inappropriately. It's like foreplay to cheating and it is going to earn you a punch in the mouth if your partner is me.

Read the whole post: Exploratory Poonani

Call for Opinions: Meal Planning Resources

I need help with meal planning. I don't do it. At all. I barely even cook these days, but I think that if I had help with the meal planning, I would cook. And by "help," I mean someone to do it for me.

I started my search on Amazon.com thinking that surely someone had written a meal planning cookbook that lays out a week's worth of meals with a shopping list. I was shocked to find almost nothing online.

I just want someone to tell me what to buy and what to cook (that's easy), and I will do it. I don't want to plan every meal and come up with the shopping list and then find out I didn't plan very well and I have a ton of groceries I don't need and can't use before they spoil, or a ton of leftovers that I don't have room to freeze or that we don't eat some night that same week. I know that some of you are diligent meal planners, so please help me out with some resources. If there isn't a cookbook, surely there is a good online resource somewhere.

What do you use to help with your meal planning?

Call for Opinions: Wedge Sandals

Select styles of Jessica Simpson shoes are on sale at endless.com today. (Don't go looking for those awesome purple ones, they are not on the site. WTF?)

I didn't see any that I wanted (well, that I wanted and that I think I could walk in), but looking through her shoes did make me want to buy some cute wedge sandals. I know you are shoe-lovers, so please recommend some cute styles for me.

Call for Opinions: Should I wait to find a new job?

Anonymous asks:

I'd been planning to leave my job of five years in the summer of 2009. Unfortunately, the economy tanked and the jobs in my field dried up. I was happy to have the job I had and that I didn't have to take a pay cut. Now, my industry is picking up and jobs in my field are available again. I am torn about whether or not I should be looking right now. I have a lot of stressful things going on in my life and I know that starting a new job would add to that stress, but I am not happy in this job. Would the happiness from a new job offset the stress that starting a new job would cause? (I have two reasons for my dissatisfaction: (1) my company has grown to the point where office politics increasingly outweighs sound business judgment, and (2) my current duties are really fucking boring.)

My advice is to keeping looking for a new job, but hold out for one that you REALLY want. Don't apply for jobs that are only as good as your current job just because you are unhappy. The change will be nice in the beginning, but you will find yourself in the same predicament not too far in the future. Since you are going to be very discriminating in your search, I think it is fine to keep looking even when the rest of your life is stressful, unless the search itself is starting to stress you out, then take a break. Otherwise, I think that the search will help you see that you won't be in your suck job forever.

Do you have any advice for anonymous?

Call for Opinions: Mascara and Eyeliner

First, I am always looking for new eyeliner. I like a pencil or a pen, not a brush. Do you have a favorite eyeliner? Second, I am terrible at mascara. I have long lashes that are stick straight. They aren't thick but they aren't sparse either. I try to curl my lashes, but by the time I'm done applying mascara, they're straight again. I need help with utensils, products, and techniques. I would appreciate any advice you have in this area.

Call for Opinions: What do grown-ups do for fun?

Jamie asks:

My husband and I have discovered that we are the most boring people on earth. With every day being a 12-hour workday we don’t have a lot of free time, but what little we have, we have no idea what to do with. When we were younger we loved to go out and party, but we’ve outgrown it. And we never replaced these activities with anything else. Also, all of our friends have either had kids or never grew up, so we don’t really associate with anyone anymore.

So, basically we have no friends (we both work at the same place and everyone here is either way older than us, or has kids, or is weird or all of the above) and no hobbies. All we do is sit and stare at each other going “What do you wanna do? I don’t know, what do YOU wanna do?”

Is there some sort of match-making site for couples in their late 20’s-early 30’s to meet other lame people with no friends? If not, there should be. It’s hard to make friends as an adult.

Anyone have any suggestions for hobbies? We are not athletic and are both very accident prone, so anything with sharp pointy things (like darts) or heavy things (like bowling) or physical activity (like, um, sports) is not good. Also, anything that takes a long time (we have no attention span), or involves weirdos (like Renaissance fairs or Civil War Re-enactment) is out.

This is a good topic, about which I have surprisingly few opinions. My husband and I watch TV, go to the movies, and hand out with family (I have lots) and friends (we have few). We don't have tons of free time, though. We both have long commutes. We have two small children. I am taking MBA classes. I have to blog, and tweet, and post reviews on Yelp or the world will end. My husband plays online games. We're both fat because we don't exercise.

Anybody have some ideas for Jamie?

Call for Opinions: Short Hair vs. Long Hair

I've had a short hair jones lately. I am constantly going back and forth between short hair and long hair, or at least shoulder-length hair and long hair. Right now, my hair is about bra strap length. I was thinking of letting it grow another 4-6 inches, which would mean getting it cut next Summer or Fall.

Lately, though, I've been thinking about getting some sort of bob. Now is a good time for me to get a short hair cut. Because my hair has thinned out due to post-partum hair loss, a short hairstyle wouldn't be bushy like it normally would for me. My hair will eventually get thicker but, by then, I will have probably decided I hate short hair and will have started growing my hair out again.

When I see short hair on other women, I think it looks cool and fashionable. When I see long hair on other women, I think it looks pretty and sexy.

Opinions?

Call for Opinions: Do you think really deep thoughts?

I don't consider myself to be a deep person who thinks deep thoughts and contemplates all sorts of deep issues. For the most part, I think I am shallow. I like pretty things and shopping and making my house nice and dressing my kids in cute outfits and having shiny hair and writing funny blog posts and tweets and status updates.

I am interested in a variety of topics. I like to learn about things but only enough to form a general opinion about them and then I like to move on to something new. I like to know about a lot of things but I don't like to know a lot about things.

I don't have a burning ambition to find myself or discover myself or explore hidden areas of my psyche. I don't think I have any hidden areas. I feel like I know myself very well. I am conscious of my flaws and prejudices. If I do have a hidden area, it is where I hide the reasons why I stay fat. If you can help me find that one, you will be my hero.

What about you? Deep, shallow, wading in up to your chest?

Call for Opinions: Time Off for Good Behavior

When you ask for time off from work, using your earned vacation time, do you tell your boss what the time off is for? I generally do not. Now that we have an automated system, I put nothing in the comments field. Before, when the boss had to actually sign a piece of paper, I would just leave it on his desk with no comment. It has been a long time since I have been in a position where I felt it was necessary to justify using my time off.

Recently, like a week before he got laid off, my husband was questioned by his boss about his time off because he was taking a half day one week and a day off the next week. One was to get a free flu shot at my office and the other was to get a fricking vasectomy. I helped him word his email reply to his boss so as to maximize the discomfort his boss would feel for having asked the question.

Do you have to tell your boss why you are taking time off?