-t, it exploded about 8 months after we had. We kept it stored in our freezer, though, and I wondered if that caused it to happen. But we also keep our ice cream machine cannister in the freezer and that's never exploded.

K's sister, who gave it to us, also had the same problem a few months after we did. I wonder if it was a bad a bunch?

Thanks for the data, Kat.

The instructions that came with it say to keep it in the freezer, that shouldn't make it explode. Well, I'll keep an eye on mine, I've got six months or so to enjoy it even if that is a typical failure rate. And by then the weather should certainly be cooler, maybe I'll keep it in a cupboard for the winter.

Heat advisory until tomorrow, ugh. Unfortunate for the holiday, there's not much shade where the city festivities happen.

I will say, it was fun while it lasted. We had all sorts of accessories: [link] But when it died it didn't seem worth replacing.

Oh man! Should we go to the gym today so I can swim, or should we go to republic of pie?

Why can't there be swimming and pie?

bend forward and measure your dangling boobs to get a true sense of your cup size

Measure them ... how? I always thought cup size was just something you eyeballed.

Amy, bra size is measured by placing a tape measure first around your chest below the boobs where the band goes, then another measurement is taken by placing the measuring tape a few inches higher than that, around the fullest part of your bust. The first one is the number part of the bra size, and to get the letter, subtract the bust number from the plain chest number. The difference is 1=A, 2=B, etc.

If I were to bend over to measure the dangling boobies, I'd look like one of those older mothers in the kind of National Geographic pictures 12-year-old boys in the pre-Internet era would linger over. "Do your ears hang low . . ."

I've never been fitted at VS, but I certainly was shocked by the fitter at Nordstrom who pegged me as a 34D, after umpteen years of thinking I was a 36B. Turns out she was right: lots of women wear the wrong size bra.

Cup sizes aren't consistent across band sizes, either, so the D in a 34D isn't the same as the D in a 32D. Which I find weird.

In other news, I'm going to a parade today, because my BIL is playing his saxophone in it. It's in Piedmont, so almost everyone there will be white. I'm tempted to wear my new Oaklandish t-shirt...

I splurged on some of the accessories - the storage stand thingy is really handy, but I haven't really used anything else. I like the idea of getting all fancy, but haven't been motivated to actually try much - just having coffee and tea pops with no frills keeps me pretty happy.

Swimming and pie both sound excellent.

Apparently my empty crockpot has been turned on for some unknown length of time. That can't be good. But nothing's on fire, so I'm gonna call it no harm no foul.

Nordstroms utterly failed me. Sure, they measured right, but there were NO bras that fit right. Even they agreed. As did the fancy bra place in Towson. It was trauma. Now, well, size has changed. I might have more luck. But I've got other issues (bras are hitting trigger points and killing my shoulders.)

Apropos of this conversation and one the other day,I yelped as I struggled with my sport bra and it pinched me, the woman next to me started laughing. She was trying to put on one of those tops with the sports bra built in and it had gotten all twisted up in the back. I had to help her. She was all, I've never tried putting this on after swimming. I'm never wearing it to the pool again!

We were both in hysterics by the time we left.

I think you're supposed to bend over to measure your cup size because the way a bra is ideally supposed to fit is for all of the boob to be in the cup. (That might sound obvious, but as a woman with a larger rack, a lot of times most of the boob is in the cup but there is definite sideboob hanging out outside the cup. The advice I heard to help get all the boob in the cup is when you get dressed, you reach around and kind of grab the sideboob and guide it towards the cup. And it actually works! And suddenly the rack of doom is even more doomtastic.