Coffee Break: Lovely In Lace Chemise

104 Comments

1. Speaking of bras and underpinnings…. can anyone recommend a sleeping bra they like? I’m 5 months pregnant and have found I need to sleep in a bra for extra support. The catch is that I don’t like a hook in the middle of my back (or underwires). Thanks!

   1. Target has some that have no hooks – just criss-cross style that are actually for nursing. They were super comfy and soft. I think Gillian O’Malley brand.

   2. I would look into nursing sleep bras – they have a bunch that can pull over your head and don’t have anything in the back. Bravado has several. They are even on a m a z o n these days!

   3. When I was pregnant, I bought some sleeping nursing bras and used those both while pregnant and nursing. I got them at motherhood. I don’t know the brand, but they’re a soft, pull-over type (no hooks or clasps).

      1. The Motherhood ones were my favorite as well. I also got a couple Medela ones in a similar style…they were a bit snugger/more support. I actually hated the ones from Target, though YMMV.

   4. This may not work if you are larger, but I loved the Coobies when I was pregnant. There are Coobie clones now on Amazon.

      1. +1 and Coobie itself is available on amazon. It’s one size fits most though, so ymmv if you are an uncommon size.

   5. I bought the Old Navy athletic bras for pregnancy sleeping in a size or two larger than I would normally wear.

      1. I did this too, with the Champion brand at Target.

   6. Bizarrely, I love the Genie Bra. Target has two-packs for far less expensive than the television commercials.

   7. I thought there was a “mom” blog for this?

   8. Just make sure it’s not too tight. I blame that for my milk not coming in for 1+ weeks after delivery and not having enough milk to feed my kid.

2. I would never ever have thought of ordering bras from Amazon. We really are living in a golden age.

   1. Indeed. A golden age of predatory pricing and anticompetitive retail practices.

      1. Did someone order a wet blanket?

         1. Yes. It’s on its way. Estimated delivery time: 12 minutes.

            1. Bwahahahaha

   2. Things I have ordered from Amazon in the last month that I never thought I would: 50lb bag of cat litter, toothpaste, dishwasher capsules, and yes, underwear. Golden age indeed!

      1. A somewhat-related tangent on things you didn’t know you could order: Target now lets you reserve items at the brick & mortar store for pick-up. This made my day when I needed to swing by after a long day of work to get a bunch of cold medicines. Everything is waiting for you at customer service!

         1. I did this about a year and a half ago at Wal-Mart, but in typical Wal-Mart fashion, the pickup is way in the back of the store and is at a counter combined with layaways. I spend 30 minutes waiting in line behind people who were not able to look at the price of the item they wanted to put on layaway and multiply it by 10% to determine if they could stomach the minimum layaway payment, so would go to the counter with a cartful, have the clerk do the math for them, and then make their shopping decisions while everyone else waited. If I hadn’t already paid and reserved the last one of my item, it would’ve been much faster to run in, grab it off the shelf, and self checkout. So much for in-and-out convenience.

            1. I know Wal-Mart’s not a favorite for many people, but their prices are often (significantly) lower than Amazon. I’m not a bargain hunter, but if I can buy from one website just as easlih as another, and pay less, that’s okay by me. Wal-Mart does free shipping if you order $50+ of home stuff, like detergent, soap, cleaning supplies, etc. It looks like most personal care is also included. These are the things I’d go into Wal-Mart for, and then I’d regret the trip as soon as I ran into messy shelves, out-of-stock items, long lines, etc.

               Faster shipping, which I’ve found to be delivered either 2- or 3-day, is something like $3 for the whole order. Packaging has also been surprisingly well done; laundry detergent has come in its own plastic bag, sealed, and with the cap taped.

         2. See…I’m even beyond that level of laziness now, thanks to Amazon Prime. I can’t even be bothered to drive to a store for most things anymore! :P

            1. Seriously. At this point we order most of our groceries and running to the store to get something seems like a much bigger deal than it should!

            2. I’ll put in a pitch here for Google Shopping Express if you’re in the Bay Area (soon to be rolled out to other metros).
               Even better than Amazon prime because who doesn’t like same-day delivery from stores like Target, Walgreens, and even Costco?
               I am spoilt and never giving this up.

      2. I ordered a giant box of litter too! So much better than trying to carry it myself.

         1. Nothing is better than a service that delivers heavy bags or cases of pet food straight to your door. And shipping is free, too. Order today, get it tomorrow or the day after. w a g dot c o m

3. My dad just had surgery and will be stuck in bed for the foreseeable future. I’d like to send him some books to keep busy with (he already has Netflix, Amazon Prime, etc.). The catch is that he only seems to like sci-fi and fantasy–think Game of the Thrones, Orson Scott Card, Wheel of Time, etc. I have read the canonical works (ha) but not much else. I know this is a shot in the dark, but does anyone have recommendations in this vein?

   1. Has he ever read the His Dark Materials series by Philip Pullman? They’re often billed as YA novels but I found them to be incredibly thought-provoking and interesting even for adults.

      1. +1 I’m an adult who loves YA lit, but these really didn’t feel YA to me.

      2. This is the series that includes the Golden Compass, correct? This is still my favorite book series, ever. I agree about them appealing to young adults and adults.

   2. I am pretty sure my fantasy-loving kids enjoy anything by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett – disclaimer, I haven’t read these authors myself.

      1. If he likes sci-fi/fantasy and humor, definitely recommend Terry Pratchett. The Discworld series is brilliant, scathing, ridiculous, and fantastic. It’s also really bloody long, so even though he’ll eat through the books at probably 1 per day, it will still take him a while to get through them.

         Neil Gaiman is more polarizing, but American Gods and Good Omens (co-authored by Pratchett) are good reads from him.

         1. Co-sign to Terry Prachett and Neil Gaiman. NG also did the Sandman graphic novel series. His Neverwhere novel is also available in graphic novel form.

            Has he done the David Eddings series (there are two 3-book ones and two 5-book ones).

            Also Dune is pretty classic sci-fi – although I could really only stand the first couple (Dune and Children of Dune, I think). The miniseries that the Sci-fi channel did for those two are pretty good as well – Children of Dune has a beautiful music score. Depending how classic your dad skews, there’s also Heinlein’s Stranger in a Strange land and Edward Burroughs ‘ Princess of Mars (which I’ve been told really holds up – despite being 100 years old?).

            I second Patrick Rothfuss mentioned below. I only read the first one (when it came out) because I just didn’t have the time to re-read the first one before reading the 2nd.

            1. Second the recommendation on Dune. It’s not my thing, but friends who like sci-fy like it. There’s also a Dune movie – it’s old and the bit I saw was strange.

      2. I love Terry Pratchett, but I would reserve recommendation since we are talking about a bedridden person, possibly with sutures and other things that can be disturbed when LhisAO.

   3. It doesn’t strictly fit into the sci-fi or fantasy genres, but I really enjoyed The Circle by David Eggers.

   4. There are a lot of series by Robin Hobb that are great. The Liveship Traders is a good example. Anything by Brandon Sanderson (he finished the Wheel of Time series after the author died) is also a good bet. Also, not sci-fi or fantasy, but in a similar vein, would he like books by Ken Follett? Pillars of the Earth has a huge scope, similar to fantasy series.

      1. I was going to recommend Robin Hobb! I just finished the Liveship Traders trilogy and all three books were really good, and quite different from a lot of the other fantasy novels I’ve read (and I’ve read a lot).

         1. I agree with both of these. He might also like Range of Ghosts by Elizabeth Bear, which is a more recent epic fantasy making it less likely he’ll have read it. My husband is in the middle of The Sarantine Mosaic by Guy Gavriel Kay and says that it’s like a less gratuitously violent Game of Thrones. My husband basically did nothing other than read it all weekend. He’s probably read it already, but if he hasn’t, he’d probably love The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch. Something else he may or may not be familiar with is the Vorkosigan Saga by Lois McMaster Bujold. The first book is The Warrior’s Apprentice. There are something like 14 books, so it would keep him busy for a while. I recommended it to my brother about a month ago and he and his girlfriend are both on book 10 or so by now.

            I also love Pat Rothfuss, mentioned below. The first book of the Kingkiller Chronicles is the Name of the Wind.

   5. What about the Oryx & Crake trilogy? It’s sort of part sci-fi, part dystopian novel. Not quite fantasy/sci-fi, but on the cusp, I think, and totally engrossing.

      1. +1 love love love

   6. These might be a little too sci-fi “lite” for him, but I like Jim Butcher (The Dresden Series, but also Codex Alera) and F. Paul Wilson (Repairman Jack series).

      1. I love, love, love the Dresden series. Also recommend the Iron Druid series, which is very similar and has the same dry, caustic sense of humor.

   7. How about The Kingkiller Chronicle by Patrick Rothfuss? It’s a trilogy…not sure when the 3rd book is supposed to be released.

      1. I’ve also heard that The Name of the Wind by him is quite good.

         1. Yes, very beautiful, very exciting.

         2. The Name of the Wind is the first in the trilogy (just FYI).

            Also, a dissenting voice: I really disliked the Name of the Wind and thought it was super-derivative of two (extremely awesome) older series: Ursula LeGuin’s A Wizard of Earthsea and Gene Wolfe’s Book of the New Sun.

      2. I don’t think there’s a date for the 3rd book yet, but there’s a story by Rothfuss about Bast in the Rogues anthology that’s available tomorrow and there’s a story about Auri that’s being published this fall.

   8. The way of kings is the best! and book2 (I forgot the name) just came out a month ago. By the guy who has taken over the wheel of time, complete fantasy (my favorite genre) and better than the game of thrones in my mind.

      And each book is ~1000 pages, so it will occupy him for a while.

      1. Words of Radiance is book 2. It’s by Brandon Sanderson. You should get him everything by Brandon Sanderson, because he’s awesome. Definitely my favorite fantasy/sci-fi author these days, and I’ve read a ton of them. If you want to get him something that’s finished (because the Way of Kings series isn’t going to be finished for a looong time), Brandon Sanderson’s Mistborn trilogy is very good. Other than that, I concur with the other recommendations for Name of the Wind, the Dresden Series, His Dark Materials trilogy (it was a sad, sad day when they butchered the movie of the first one). I would also add the Lies of Locke Lamora to the list (it’s a series, but I think I’ve just read the first two).

         1. Gail, we are so simpatico. I just second everything you said. And I read all the non-fantasy Brandon Sanderson books simply because he’s such a good writer.

            1. And an amazingly productive writer. It’s gotten to the point where he’s writing books almost faster than I can read them, and yet they’re all still amazing. I have no idea how he does it. At least I won’t have to worry about him writing so slowly that he may die from old age with his epic series unfinished (*cough* George R.R. Martin *cough*).

            2. +1 million on Brandon Sanderson & Dresden recommendations. I really enjoyed watching videos of Sanderson’s writing class on youtube as well. I have no interest in writing stories of any kind, but it was fascinating just as a reader.

               My brother also has similar taste in books and recently enjoyed Gene Wolfe’s Book of the New Sun. I’ve heard good things about Lois McMaster Bujold’s Vorkosigan Saga (very long series), but I haven’t gotten a hold of any of the books yet. If he likes philosophical sci-fi I very much enjoy John C. Wright. The first book of his ongoing series is Count to a Trillion, but he has a couple of completed series before that.

               Personally I enjoyed The Golden Compass and loathed the rest of His Dark Materials, but ymmv.

            3. Vorkosigan Saga is great.
               At one time the e-books were available free from Baen Library site, but not anymore.
               One of Bujold’s books I got from a public library had a CD with a bunch of Vorkosigan installments.

   9. The Tears of Artamon series by Sarah Ash.

   10. What about the Night Angel series by Brent Weeks, Tales of the King series by Douglas Hulick, the Wild Hunt series by Elspeth Cooper, Widdershins series by Ari Marmell (technically YA), and Mistborn series by Brandon Sanderson?

       If he happens to like Star Wars and Shakespeare, then William Shakespeare’s Star Wars: Verily a New Hope and William Shakespeare’s The Empire Striketh Back are both really really fun.

   11. Thanks everyone! This gives me a lot to google!

   12. Stephen King’s Dark Tower series? I haven’t read it myself.

   13. I really liked the Temeraire series – the premise is basically ‘What if the Napoleonic wars had been fought with DRAGONS?’

       1. Yes — I read the series after a recommendation here and they are amazing!

   14. If he wants something slightly heavier but very well written, look into the Book of the New Sun, by Gene Wolfe. A little disquieting at times, but skillful and thought-provoking.

       1. Yes, this. It’s amazing, although it’s definitely darker than a lot of fantasy out there.

   15. No suggestions, but I’m bookmarking this thread. I’ve gotten more into fantasy/sci fi the past few years, currently halfway through the Wheel of Time so I have a lot of books left to go through (7 more!), but I’ll need new material at some point. I didn’t make the original request but thanks for all the suggestions ladies!

   16. Pretty much anything by John Scalzi. His Big Series is Old Man’s War, but he also has several others, including a stand-alone riff on Star Trek called Redshirts. He specializes in space opera. He also has an extremely popular blog (whatever.scalzi.com) which has generated a couple books.

       1. Redshirts was awesome.

   17. Get him a kindle. Free library books – need i say more?

4. Well, there went 30 min of perusing and $500 worth of ordering…haha.

5. So this may out me to coworkers, but I plan to take a long weekend to visit with my parents at the end of the month, who live about 6 hours away in a rural area in northwestern PA. My father was in a very bad work accident (explosion) about 6 months ago, and still has trouble standing or walking – he was in the hospital for about 4 months. He can ride in a car and walk around the block, but that’s about it, and he uses crutches still when he walks. I’m trying to brainstorm ideas of little trips or activities that I could do for him to break up the monotony of his existence — he’s not back to work, and just does PT and sits around watching movies and reading, mostly, and he is normally a very active guy (his hobbies are hunting, fishing, hiking, mountain biking, and carpentry).

   Can anyone think of anything to do that is minimal walking or standing, that might be within a 2h drive of northwestern PA? (that’s about all the driving he can handle)

   1. If he’s generally outdoorsy, what about just going for a drive, stopping at a scenic lookout for a snack , and returning home. Bonus points if you’ve loaded the car with his favorite tunes. And ask his PT for ideas if you can: is swimming ok? Can you arrange for that if it’s not normally on the menu? Is there a fishing spot he could go and sit at with his friends (and you, the cool daughter, bringing the beer and good chair)? Any chance you can get him hooked on the Tour de France, maybe by setting up a fun wager among extended family members? Or take him to the library to check out some awesome carpentry books to give him future ideas? Do any towns around have fireworks displays (or neighbors I guess in PA)?

   2. I don’t have any practical info but wanted to say I am glad your dad is on the mend and you are a great daughter.

   3. Football Hall of Fame? That might be too much standing or walking though. There are lots of fruit farms up by the lake. You could sit him in a chair in an orchard and pick cherries then go home and make pie. Too early for chrysanthemums but there used to be a great chrysanthemum farm on the New York border heading from Erie. Is Chautauqua too far away?

   4. My mom has a lot of trouble walking – like your dad, she can basically walk around the block, but not a whole lot more. We have successfully done a lot of museums by renting a wheelchair at the site – assuming your dad is ok being wheeled around (I know it can take some convincing). There should be a lot of smaller museums within that range that might meet his interest.

      I would also check out the local library – the one near my parents was hosting a film series one evening a week, which was fantastic. I’ve also had a lot of luck by finding a restaurant featured on Food Network or something that is about an hour away and we drive through the town, maybe explore something, and then go eat.

6. Has anyone been to the Rent the Runway shop at Henri Bendel’s in NYC? I have a last minute dress up occasion this weekend and I am wondering if it’s worth popping in to browse or if I should just save my time and take my chances ordering something online. Thanks!

   1. HMMM…. Okay now I am staring to feel like it’s me. Kat/Kate, this is my third (seemingly innocent) comment today that’s ended up in moderation (guessing this one will be 4th). Is this happening to anyone else or am I alone in ending up in Ellen-territory?

   2. I would order online. I used the shop several months ago and had a great experience, but the selection is limited compared to online (as one might expect).

   3. I’ve never been, but if there’s a few dresses you’re interested in you could try chatting with customer service to see if they are stocked in the showroom.

   4. I haven’t been the Henri Bendel one, but I have been to the Rent the Runway store at the Cosmopolitan in Vegas. It was so much fun to go try on the dresses and helpful to figure out what size I generally am in certain brands for future rentals on the website, because I rent from them a lot.

      I did end up picking a dress for the evening and loved it (it was not one I would have ever picked based off of it’s photo on the website, but it worked out beautifully). That being said, the selection in store of styles & sizes in store was much, much less than what they had on the website. If you have your eye on a particular style, you may be better off just ordering online.

   5. I’ve been to the SoHo one and I felt like they had a pretty good selection of party/cocktail dresses; not so much for graduation dresses. They do try to upsell you on jewelry (I don’t mind giving in for $15). Not sure what size you are but as a 6/8, they had a good selection.

      1. Thanks all. I stopped in after work. It was good to see the dresses in person and I definitely appreciated being able to see what size I was in different brands (some 4 different ones across the brands!), but it wasn’t quite what I envisioned either – I thought it would be a huge inventory but it was a select few dresses in a random assortment of sizes. I did find something so here’s hoping it get delivered on time and works.

         1. And I am out of automatic moderation. Woohoo!

7. For those of you that swear by Skimmies, are they suitable for wear underneath a form-fitting dress? Do they have any slimming/shaping properties or are they looser than that?

   1. I love me some skimmies! They aren’t slimming, but they do smooth things a bit, just by dint of being a layer under your dress. I recently bought a pair of “moisture-wicking” skimmies (new line) for a tropical vacation, and they were lighter and had the slightest bit of shaping action. But they aren’t shapers, so if the dress doesn’t look good commando, they probably aren’t your first choice.

   2. I’d say it depends on the material of the dress. I wouldn’t wear them under a very light material, like jersey, because I think it might be possible to see where the Skimmies end on the thigh. That probably wouldn’t be an issue under a dress made of more substantial material.

      The regular length Skimmies are actually fairly long; they hit just about 2″ above my knee. They are comfortable but really don’t provide much support/shaping. I primarily wear them to avoid thigh-rubbing under casual dresses/skirts. I don’t wear them to work because I always wear hose.

8. So this may be one of those “how do you not know that” questions, but: What is the ettique t t e for contacting someone to request an informational interview? I am thinking about trying to get into a more specialized field of my current profession, and discovered that one of the major women in the field a) lives in my city, and b) went to the same undergraduate and graduate universities as I did. I would like to talk to her about her field and how to go about getting into it. Can I just cold-call or email her? Do I need to try to get an introduction (from a Career Services office maybe)? I am generally nervous about putting myself out there (cue every conversation on this site ever) and don’t want to make a faux pas.

   1. I think email is generally fine. If you can have a name to drop “Jane Smith at XYC Corp suggested you would be a good person to talk to…” or have some other connection to make, like how you know she’s a mover in the field (like, I’ve read the articles you’ve written on X, or saw the talk you gave at Y conference) that helps explain why you are approaching her.

      1. I like email because it lets the person reply to you in their own time instead of putting them on the spot like a phone call would. Be sure to spell out what you are asking for (time to talk about XYZ topics, pointing towards good resources/professional groups) so they have a sense of how to respond without having to do a bunch of back and forth emails.

   2. At one time, I was doing a ton of informational interviews. If it were me, I’d check Linkedin to see if we have any connections (or find another way to reverse-engineer a connection), then call/email my connection to ask if they would mind if I dropped their name in an email to Specialist X. Then send an email, subject line “[Connection name] referral” asking if she has time for a cup of coffee to discuss the field you’re interested in. I have a friend who cold-emailed people from her alma mater, She got some responses, too, but I rarely got no response from a personal introduction.

      1. +1 I cold emailed people from my alma maters and almost everyone replied. I just put “Harvard Law” in the subject line instead of the name of a specific connection.

         1. Aw. I should’ve said “GWU Law” instead of “Ellen Barschevsky Referral.” Missed opportunity, Kitten.

         2. Aw. I should’ve said “GWU Law” instead of “Ellen Barschevsky Referral.” Missed opportunity, Kitten.

         3. Did anyone reply with Penn Jillette’s favorite response to “Harvard?”

   3. Do you have an alumni database? When I was trying to figure out who does what in my field I just reached out to people through there and asked for information on X company, Y business, etc. I got responses >50% of the time.

      1. Or you school should have access to Leadership Directories which you can sort by field and school.

9. I’m a college aged inten working for a male boss. He invited me to go on a conference with him tomorrow , which is about a 1.5 hr drive away. My mom (living with parents for the summer) is uncomfortable with the idea of me
   Driving there with him. What do you ladies think?

   1. I aim to work in financial services, certainly a male dominated neuron meant. This boss has never been the least bit improper.

   2. In general, I think this is a totally normal thing, unless you get some weird vibe from him?

      1. yep, this is completely normal. Unless you get some weird vibe or he has said something in the past, I would go. It soulds like just a good intern supervisor – he is going to something different than the normal workday, can bring someone with, thinks it will be a good learning opportunity, and so he invited you.

   3. Totally normal.

   4. Totally normal.

   5. Totally normal, and even a nice opportunity to ask some questions about his professional experiences on the drive!

   6. Normal

   7. We seem to have reached consensus, but here’s another vote for totally normal. I’m in a different male-dominated field where I’ve been the only female in the car/room/building plenty of times.

      I agree with the commenters above about getting to know your boss better on the drive – people are generally a bit more laid back on a longer car ride and it can be a nice chance to not only talk about work but chat about their family, hobbies, favorite movies, whatever.

10. Whats the full length slip you ladies like to wear under a wrap dress?

    1. I got one with a silk/linen Boden dress a few years ago, that I wear more than the dress :)

Comments are closed.