<p>For lightweight, you want a 100-weight fleece. I have a bunch of them. Terrific to wear around the house in New England, either as a shirt (crew neck) or a light top layer in place of a sweater (crew neck or 1/4 zip).</p>
<p>LLBEAN calls theirs fitness fleece and they make it in 3 versions for women: quarter zip pullover, full-zip jacket, and full-zip hoodie. </p>
<p>The full-zip jacket, which would be perfect for So Cal, is $29.95. The 1/4 zip pullover is $24.95. It’s available in black and a dozen other colors and in “misses” and “womens” sizes - XS thru 3X. They all have a small zippered pocket on the sleeve for an iPod.</p>
<p>This stuff is very high quality. As nice as anything I’ve seen and nicer than most I can’t say enough good about it. I’m wearing a black men’s 1/4 zip over a mock turtleneck right now. I prefer them to sweaters for lounging around the house because they are so comfortable and the more you wash them, the better they get.</p>
<p>The “Comfort Fleece” you see on the same page is the mid-weight fleece – 200 weight. I wear 200 weight fleece for outdoors, but find that it’s a little too heavy in the house (we keep it in the 60s). </p>
<p>The 300 weight North Face stuff I mentioned a while back would be too heavy for So California, unless you are talking about snowboarding at Bear Mountain! 300 weight fleece is outdoor winter clothing in snow country.</p>
<p>NorthMinnesota, I just got an email from 6’5" skinny son about his North Face jacket. He said “it’s not a tall size but it fits.” Please note though that he is much less picky about clothes (and probably exact fit) than older son . This may be something that is best tried on before purchasing, or take advantage of any return policy if you decide to go ahead and buy something.</p>
<p>My good buy of the day is $4.95 for the new five song EP of live acoustic songs from Adam Lambert – two recorded at radio station appearances and three from the Glam Nation Tour shows this summer. Scheduled for release on US iTunes and Amazon download on Tuesday, but already released yesterday in Europe and Australia.</p>
<p>While it was an exhausting experience, I was determined to spend my $50 Nordstroms Rack Groupon today. Went in looking for a new coat (trying to replace my favorite one that was ruined today) and found some great deals (but not a coat!). </p>
<p>I got three solid-colored scarves (regularly $38/piece on sale for $9.97/piece), one dressy turtleneck (regularly $28 on sale for $16.97), a very cool dressy belt (regularly $48 on sale for $24.97), a Marc Jacobs black skirt (regularly $54 on sale for $29.97), and a pair of Adidas black yoga-type long pants (regularly $55 on sale for $27.97). So if I had paid full price for all of this, it would have cost me $299 +tax. I forked out an initial $25 for the $50 Groupon, and had a balance of $92.12, so I got all that stuff for $117.12! Yes, it was a good day shopping.</p>
<p>Just want to mention, in reference to Interesteddad’s post 1645 that I recently bought the quarter zip fleece from LLBean. Love it but I’m generally a medium and the medium was huge on me. Took a chance when I was exchanging and ordered an extra small and it actually fits. The small probably would have been fine too but just a heads up that, at least the quarter zip, runs quite large.</p>
<p>My best buy recently actually was at Best Buy…D2 loves the show Bones and they had season 2 for $9.99. I’ve heard great things about Mad Men but have never watched it–have toyed with trying to catch up. Best Buy also had Seasons 1 and 2 for $9.99 each–$30 total for the three series/seasons with free pick up at my local store. We’re headed overseas later in the month and these will really help the time on the plane fly by. I don’t post often but I love this thread :)</p>
<p>On the men’s side, I would say the fitness fleece runs pretty much true to size. I wear a large t-shirt, a large Izod polo shirt, a large men’s sweatshirt, and a large fitness fleece. You do want to get the right size because polyester fleece will not shrink.</p>
<p>If anyone’s planning to order stuff from LL Bean for gifts, LL Bean gift cards are on special at CVS pharmacy this week - you get $10 back in Extra Care bucks when you buy a $50 gift card. Then, the LL Bean website is running a special where you can get a $10 gift card back if you spend over $50, plus free shipping.</p>
<p>So…you could theoretically get $50 worth of stuff for $30. :)</p>
<p>I’ve never been able to figure out what I’ll get for those CVS Extra Care bucks. That is a total waste of time if you ask me. I’ve even asked the clerks at the store and they don’t know.</p>
<p>I have to plug the LLBean credit card. Free shipping both ways, all the time. Also, free monogramming, which was great when the kids first went to college. I don’t use it a lot, but every once in a while I get a $10 GC for my points. I only use it for LLBean and occasionally for work travel, to keep the charges separate.</p>
<p>Another good find at Marshall’s today. Docker makes a version of their khaki’s called “soft khakis”. Lousy dress pants. No iron-free or wrinkle free finish. More like the khaki version of pre-washed jeans – very very soft, like a pair of khakis that have been washed for years. In my size, in my length, in my “fit” out of the four fits Dockers makes (D3 - classic fit, not D4 relaxed, not D2 straight, not D1 hipster/slim), with flat front – in a very cool “Salamander” color - almost a sea green:</p>
<p>“I have to plug the LLBean credit card. Free shipping both ways, all the time” - Wow, I have and LLBean credit card for the free shipping. I didn’t know that it includes free return shipping too… how does that work?</p>
<p>I dunno…the free shipping thing isn’t too much of a rare thing in this economy. I use Amazon Prime, so I get free two day shipping a lot of the time. I ran to Land’s End when I read about the 40% off sale to grab a rolling carryon, and the price with the free shipping and discount was still higher than I could get on Amazon for an item of similar quality. We thrifty people need to be very clever. Check a few sites before clicking “purchase”.</p>
<p>My great deal of the day was FREE door prizes at our local luxury hotel with free almond martini, free hot apple cider and free appetizers. They were showing us their holiday displays and also describing their gift items in their spa gift shop. The door prizes I won were valued at about $115 or so. One of them is an elegant candle that I’m recycling and giving to my sister for her birthday (it’s list price is $30). Another is a sunscreen and lip balm (list price $55). The last is a spritzer/light scent for the linen closet, probably also valued around $30.</p>
<p>Oh yea, for folks who wanted to make purchases after the event, it was 20% off all merchandise as well. The spa store was PACKED after the event with people picking up their favorite little goodies that were described during the program, many of which were passed around to everyone present to check out. I think the store pulled in a lot of good business! I bought one item only to return it after S rejected it as a gift. Oh well, at least I tried!
It was a fun morning event with a friend!</p>
<p>Thumper – CVS extra care bucks are essentially dollars off your next purchase - we have a CVS just around the corner so we shop there fairly frequently and the coupons and extra care bucks we accumulate are the reason I keep going back Usually they have no limit except not on pharmacy items, but you don’t have to buy a certain amount to use them, they are straight amount off purchase.</p>
<p>I had read that CVS was offering what amounts to basically 20% in extra money to be spent at CVS with the purchase of a gift card. I did not do it, buy this, but as I understand it, if you bought a $50 gift card at CVS they were adding an extra $10 that you can spend in CVS (essentially $60 worth of products). I do not know if this is still being offered.</p>
<p>Walgeens is now offering “Super Jingle Cash”. You can read all of the details on their website. I have a few things to buy, so I might actually do this today.</p>
H may just have to go shopping with us to be fitted! ;)</p>