I'm not buying what you're selling

You know when people try and convince you of something. Something that you firmly believe is wrong or crazy, but someone will work really hard to shake your foundation of beliefs. I just want to tell them "I'm not buying what you're selling".

Case 1:
Nylons with open-toed shoes. My mother (who was raised by quite the fashionista) believes a proper lady always wears nylons or tights. I often balk at this - mostly because finding comfortable tights for my 6'2" frame is near impossible. I have to buy the xx-queen size in order to be able to pull them up. I get the ones that fit 250-300 lbs and hope they'll stretch vertically rather than horizontally. Anyway, back to my original point. Open toed shoes are in - and supposedly wearing them in winter is ok. With your tights. I did this once and I couldn't stop looking at my feet. I felt self-conscious all day long - I thought someone was going to come up to me and say "That's not appropriate dear" (with my grandmothers inflection). So no matter how many fashion mavens say "it's ok" I'm just not sure I'm buying what they're selling. Your thoughts?

Case 2:
That this pattern is going to work.



J. and I joined this sock club. Beautiful yarn, good price. Our first sock club (in preparation for '08 Rockin' Sock Club). And the promise of nice patterns with the yarn.
The actual stitch pattern is nice - easily memorized, only a 4 row repeat. I can handle this with no problem, right? Oh no, so so wrong. I knit the heel flap, turned the heel and started the gussets. The pattern wasn't centred on the front of the foot - so I frogged. Back to the start of the heel, re-centred the pattern, re-started the heel flap. *&$()*&ed it up - somehow kept dropping a stitch. Ripped back AGAIN. To me, 2 frogging incidents means something's up. The yarn or pattern is cursed or there is a toxic combination of yarn & pattern. Now I'm contemplating my options. The yarn is supposedly a little heavier than fingering, so I'm looking at patterns that use a bit heavier yarn. The only problem is that these on are the Christmas To Do list and I can't weigh my options for too long.

Case 3:
That this kid hasn't been naughty.


Really.
Buddy - I'm not buying what you're selling. And neither is Santa.