The Omega ladies have a Butt Dilemma. They obviously need to either learn to sew or get a tailor on retainer. OmegaDotter has a tiny hiney. She keeps growing up, but not out. She has these long legs (very cute legs, if a proud mama may say so) that officially fit a size 4. Unfortunately, most size 4s--even the ones with the neat-o keen-o adjustable doohickey tabs--are too big around the waistline. This was forcefully drawn to OmegaMom's attention on the day that she tossed some jeans at the dotter, who dutifully put them on, then toddled off to daycare, only to find, upon arrival, that the jeans--even when the aforementioned neat-o keen-o adjustable doohickey tabs were cinched to the max--were falling off OmegaDotter's tiny hiney, like the gangsta pants that teenage boys love to wear. OmegaMom's personal butt problem is of a different kind. Actually, perhaps it is a waist problem, instead. Think of all those Victorian women who went to great lengths to get nicely protruding, rounded bustles to accentuate their tiny (corset-drawn) waistlines. Now think of a 2006 woman, slightly overweight, who has always had a nice waistline, and whose excess weight all goes to a rounded butt (and thighs and hips). So, for many styles of pants, OmegaMom must purchase a size that accomodates the butt, thighs and hips. The problem here is that these sizes typically have a waistline that accommodates a waist that is a few inches wider around than OmegaMom's. Ah, to live in Victorian times! (Leave aside the inconvenient fact that one just didn't wear pants, God forbid.) The end result is that OmegaMom has to wear pants with a gapping waist, pants with belts cinched tight with bunched up fabric around the waist, or elastic waist pants. Some elastic-waist pants are okay; the flowing, semi-hippy style works well. But when you're buying jeans...well, the thought of elastic-waist jeans just makes me want to weep. Elastic-waist jeans are for matrons; OmegaMom is happily forever 32 in her dreams, and buying elastic-waist jeans would crush that dream. The solution, of course, for both Omega females, is custom-made jeans. The phrase "custom-made jeans" boggles me. So does the price. (The other solution, of course, is for OmegaMom to tone up and lose weight. But it doesn't seem likely that OmegaDotter is going to somehow pudge up a bit, since the fidget factor isn't likely to go away anytime soon.) Decisions, decisions.

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Fire update: As wildfires go, this is being a Good Fire. It's growing very slowly every day, the firefighters--while not containing it the way they'd like--are doing a good job, winds have been fairly calm, and the fire itself is sticking to underbrush and tree trunks, rather than crowning. So long as the winds stay light, all is well. The fire is now about 3,250 acres and is being held at the highway, so no structures have burned.