Random RPG entry

Over at Story Games there is a thread about creating random RPG covers. Some of them are really funny. Mine's not so much, but I followed the instructions and got what I got. Behold:

Our lost decade

Over at Daily Kos, there is a GREAT essay on the last ten years and what we did with it. Go here. Read it. Thanks to JWalt for pointing it out.

Discs looking for a home

Hi all, we're getting rid of a bunch of old CDs that we don't care about. We'll donate them to the library or school district and write them off for a bit over $2 each. I figured I should offer them to people I know who might want them. So, if anyone wants any of the following CDs for say US$2.50 plus shipping, they're yours (assuming they're not already claimed).

Genre	Artist/Group	Album title	Notes	Composer	Performing group	Conductor
Alternative	Suicidal Tendencies	Suicidal Tendencies
Alternative	Suicidal Tendencies	How Will I Laugh Tomorrow...When I Can't Even Smile Today
Alternative	Sex Pistols	Never Mind The Bollocks Here's The Sex Pistols
Alternative	Skinny Puppy	Too Dark Park
Alternative	Pailhead	Trait
Alternative	Meat Puppets	Forbidden Places
Alternative	Meat Puppets	Monsters
Alternative	Meat Puppets	Too High to Die
Alternative	Ween	Chocolate and Cheese
Alternative	Red Hot Chili Peppers	Mother's Milk
Alternative	The Clash	The Clash
Alternative & Punk	Jesus Jones	Liquidizer [Bonus Tracks]
Alternative & Punk	Screeching Weasel	Anthem For A New Tomorrow
Classical	Tokyo String Quartet	String Quartets Complete		Bartok / Janacek	Tokyo String Quartet
Classical		Bernstein Favorites: Overtures		Various	New York Philharmonic	Leonard Bernstein
Classical		Varèse: Arcana; Holst: The Planets		Host/Varese	Philharmonia Orchestra	Leonard Slatkin
Classical		"Grieg: Symphonic Dances, Norwegian Dances, Lyric Pieces"		Grieg	Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra	Neeme Järvi
Classical		Johann David Heinichen: Lamentationes Passionsmusik		Johann David Heinichen	Musica Antiqua Koln	Reinhard Goebel
Classical		"Dvo?ák; Symphony #9, Slavonic Dances"		Dvorak	New York Philharmonic Orchestra	Kurt Masur
Classical	Heinz Holliger	"Handel: Oboe Concertos, Concerto Grosso"			English Chamber Orchestra
Classical		Bernstein Arias and Barcarolles			London Symphony Orchestra	Leonard Bernstein
Classical	Andre Rieu	The Vienna I Love: Waltzes From My Heart			Johann Strauss Orchestra
Classical	Modl & Windgassen	Wagner Tristan und Isolde Highlights
Classical		Romantic Overtures: Wagner and Mendelssohn			Philharmonia Hungarica	"Arthur Gruber, Alois Springer"
Classical		Mozart Orchestral Legends
Classical	Pablo Casals	Casals Early Recordings 1925-1928
Classical	Steven Isserlis	Boccherini: Concertos and Sonatas for Cello		Boccherini	Ostrobothnian Chamber Orchestra
Classical		Cantus Arcticus		Einojuhani Rautavaara
Classical	Bryn Terfel	Opera Arias			Metropolitan Opera Orchestra	James Levine
Classical		"Copland: El Salón México, Music For The Theatre"		Aaron Copland	New York Philharmonic Orchestra	Leonard Bernstein
Classical		Haydn: London Symphonies			Philharmonia Orchestra	Leonard Slatkin
Classical		Dvo?ák's New World Symphony & Other Orchestral Masterworks		Dvo?ák	Chicago Symphony Orchestra	Fritz Reiner
Classical		Russian Choral Music - Music of the Passion			Glinka Choir Of Leningrad
Classical		Russian Choral Music - Russian Easter			Choir of the Trinity - St. Sergius Laura and the Moscow Theological Academy
Classical		Russian Choral Music - Liturgy Of St. John Chrysostom - Tchaikovsky		Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky	USSR Ministry Of Culture Chamber Choir	Valery Polyansky
Classical		Russian Choral Music - Liturgy Of St. John Chrysostom - Rachmaninov		Rachmaninov	Moscow Chamber Choir
Classical	Russel Brazzel	Twentieth Century Cuban Music
Classical		"Mozart Concerti K242, K365, K466"		Mozart	English Chamer Orchestra	Sir Georg Solti
Classical		Gorecki: Symphony No. 3		Henryk Gorecki	London Sinfonietta	David Zinman
Classical	Itzhak Perlman and Daniel Barenboim	Mozart: Die Sonaten Fur Klavier Und Violine	4 discs	Mozart
Classical	John Williams and Arthur Fiedler	America The Beautiful			Boston Pops Orchestra
Classical		The Wedding Album	Compilation of music played at weddings.
Classical	Carreras Domingo Pavarotti	The Three Tenors in Concert				Mehta
Classical	Koechlin and Zinman	The Jungle Book			Berlin Symphony Orchestra
Classical	Various	Maxiplay: Go For the Gold	"""Greatest Hits"" of classical music. It's a good disc, though many music snobs would dislike it."
Classical	"Cecilia Bartoli, Myung-Whun Chung"	Chant D'Amour - Mélodies Françaises
Classical		"Ravel: Boléro, Rapsodie Espagnole, Pavane, Alborada Del Gracioso, Daphnis Et Chloe"		Ravel	Chicago Symphony Orchestra	Daniel Barenboim
Classical		Sibelius: Syphonies Nos. 2&6			London Symphony Orchestra	Sir. Colin Davis
Classical	The Met Orchestra	Don Quixote and Tod und Verklarung		Strauss	The Met Orchestra	James Levine
Classical		Richard Strauss: Vier letzte Lieder; Tod und Verklärung; Metamorphosen		Strauss	Berlin Philharmonic	Von Karajan
Classical		"Strauss (R): Also Sprach Zarathustra, Don Juan"		Strauss	Berlin Philharmonic	Von Karajan
Classical		Tchaikovsky Symphony #5		Tchaikovsky	Radio Symphony Orchestra	Anton Nanut
Classical	The Soloists From Zagreb	The Best of Vivaldi: 7 All Time Faborite Concertos		Vivaldi
Classical	Nigel Kennedy	Vivaldi: The Four Seasons			English Chamber Orchestra	Nigel Kennedy
Classical	Itzhak Perlman and Israel Zohar	Tradition: Itzhak Perlman Plays Poplular Jewish Melodies			Israel Philarhmonic Orchestra	Dov Seltzer
Classical	"Eveline Schuler, Folk Harp"	Sound of Austria: A Treasury of Alpine Folk Music			Schuler Folk Ensemble
Classical		Music Of Bulgaria			Ensemble of the Bulgarian Republic	Philip Koutev
Classical		The Best of the German Marches II			The Maritime Self Defence Force Band of Tokyo
Classical		Wagner: Ride of the Valkyries	"""Great Orchestral Music From ""The Ring"""""	Wagner	Cleveland Orchestra	George Szell
Classical	Simon Dent	Greatest Oboe Concertos (Die Schonsten Oboenkonzerte)				Vladislav Czarnecki
Classical	Gil Shaham	Violin Romances: Romances for Violin an Orchestra			Orpheus Chamber Orchestra
Classical	Various	The Magic of the Cello		Various	Various	Various
Classical	Charles Gerhardt	Classic Film Scores For Errol Flynn			National Philharmonic Orchestra
Electronica/Dance	Front 242	Geography
Electronica/Dance	Front 242	Tyranny (for you)
Electronica/Dance	Front 242	05:22:09:12 Off
Electronica/Dance	Nitzer Ebb	As Is [EP]	stained case in poor shape. CD fine.
Electronica/Dance	Nitzer Ebb	ebbhead
Hip Hop/Rap	Beastie Boys	Licensed to Ill
Hip Hop/Rap	Beastie Boys	Check Your Head
Hip Hop/Rap	Digital Underground	Sex Packets
Hip Hop/Rap	DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince	"He's The DJ, I'm The Rapper"
Hip Hop/Rap	Digital Underground	This is an E.P. Release
Jazz	"Harry Connick, Jr."	When Harry Met Sally Soundtrack
Jazz	Louis Armstrong	Laughin' Louie
Jazz	Kenny G	Duotones
Jazz	Charlie Parker	Bird: The Original Recordings of Charlie Parker
Jazz	Natalie Cole	Unforgettable With Love
Metal	Twisted Sister	Big Hits & Nasty Cuts
Pop	Neil Diamond	Heartlight
Pop	Elton John	The One
Pop	Phil Collins	Serious Hits… Live
Pop	The New Christy Minstrels	Greatest Hits
Pop	The Mamas and the Papas	16 of their Greatest Hits
Pop	Carole King	Tapestry
Pop	Jefferson Airplane	Jefferson Airplane
Pop	Carly Simon	My Romance
Pop	Generation X	Perfect Hits 1975-1981
Pop	Aretha Franklin	What You See is What You Get
Punk	Danzig III	How the Gods Kill
R&B	Aretha Franklin	The Best of Aretha Franklin	Still in shrink
R&B	Sly & the Family Stone	Greatest Hits
R&B	Ray Charles	My World
R&B	The Drifters	Golden Hits
R&B	Righteous Brothers	Anthology 1962-1974 Disc 1
R&B	Righteous Brothers	Anthology 1962-1974 Disc 2
R&B	Ray Charles	The Best of Ray Charles
Rock	The Association	Greatest Hits!
Rock	B-52s	Cosmic Thing
Rock	Bow Wow Wow	I Want Candy
Rock	Oingo Boingo	Best O' Boingo
Rock	Blondie	The Best of Blondie
Rock	T-Rex	The Very Best of T-Rex
Rock	Styx	Come Sail Away: The Styx Anthology
Rock	Mekons	The Mekons Rock N'Roll
Rock	U2	Rattle And Hum
Rock	The Tubes	The Best of the Tubes 1981-1987
Rock	Steve Winwood	Roll With It
Rock	The Rembrandts	LP
Rock	Men at Work	Business as Usual
Rock	Elvis Costello & The Attractions	Armed Forces [Bonus Tracks]
Rock	Eric Clapton	The Cream of Clapton
Rock	George Thorogood & The Destroyers	The Baddest Of George Thorogood & The Destroyers
Rock	Rush	Moving Pictures
Rock	Rush	2112
Rock	Sammy Hagar	Unboxed
Rock	Don Henley	I Can't Stand Still
Rock	Jerry Lee Lewis	18 Original Greatest Hits
Rock	Jethro Tull	Thick as a Brick
Rock	Jethro Tull	Aqualung
Rock	Jethro Tull	Original Masters
Rock	Various	Punky But Chic: The American New Wave Scene
Rock	Soundgarden	Badmotorfinger
Rock	Creedence Clearwater Revival	Chronicle
Rock	Elvis Presley	The Top 10 Hits disc 2		Rachmaninov	USSR Ministry Of Culture Chamber Choir
Rock	Elvis Presley	The Top 10 Hits disc 1
Rock	Elvis Presley	The Number 1 Hits
Rock	Golden Earring	The Continuing Story Of Radar Love
Rock	The Guess Who	Tack Record: The Guess Who Collection	2 CD set
Rock	Bob Dylan	Under the Red Sky
Rock	Aerosmith	Big Ones
Soundtrack	Various	Pump Up The Volume Motion Picture Soundtrack
Soundtrack	John Williams	Star Wars Original Soundtrack		John Williams	London Symphony Orchestra	John Williams
Soundtrack	John Williams	Star Wars A New Hope Soundtrack		John Williams	London Symphony Orchestra	John Williams
Soundtrack	John Williams	THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK - Symphonic Suite from the Original Motion Picture Score		John Williams	National Philharmonic	Charles Gerhardt
Soundtrack		Braveheart Original Motional Picture Soundtrack		James Horner	London Symphony Orchestra	James Horner
Soundtrack		Independence Day Original Motion Picture Soundtrack		David Arnold
Soundtrack		Jurassic Park Original Motion Picture Soundtrack		John Williams
Soundtrack		Mission: Impossible - Music from and Inspired by the motion picture
Soundtrack		Hamlet Original Motion Picture Soundtrack		Ennio Morricone
Soundtrack		Dances With Wolves Original Motion Picture Soundtrack		John Barry
Soundtrack		Wyatt Earp: Music from the Motion Picture		James Newton Howard
Soundtrack		Wolf Original Motion Picture Soundtrack		Ennio Morricone
Soundtrack		Star Wars: Episode 1 The Phantom Menace Original Motion Picture Soundtrack		John Williams	London Symphony Orchestra
Soundtrack	Various	Music from the Films of Clint Eastwood		Various
World	Buckwheat Zydeco	Taking It Home
World	Hebrew National	Kosher Classics

Charlie's Soap: Best Laundry Soap ever!

Ok, I feel a bit silly blogging about a laundry soap, but I really like this stuff.

It's called "Charlie's Soap," and it's a small family-owned business. The soap is biodegradable, hypo-allergenic, and has no dyes or perfumes. The clothes come out of my dryer smelling... clean, not perfumy.

I got some of the soap because I'd heard that it actually eliminates the sour smell that comes from leaving laundry in a front-loading washing machine too long. I love my front-loader - it gets things cleaner than any other washing machine I've ever had, but if you leave a load in the washer for more than 4 or 5 hours, the clothes get stinky, and I'm TERRIBLE about starting a load in the evening, and forgetting about it until the next morning. Sigh... all that water savings goes right down the drain if you have to re-wash your clothes all the time. So, I'd taken to using the delay wash feature for when I started a load relatively late in the evening, so that the clothes would actually start washing the next morning. And I try to be prompt about transferring the clothes to the dryer.

Anyway, Charlie's Soap doesn't fully eliminate the mildew smell if you leave it overnight, but it's enormously better. And best of all, once you've used it awhile, you can stop using fabric softeners. Most of the stiffness in the cloth comes from all the chemicals and detergents and surfactants that never really get rinsed away fully (some fiber artists told me that it takes 15 rinses before it's all actually gone).

I asked why it works on the mildew smell, and it's because things like bleach and mildew killers actually kill or dessicate the mildew organism, but don't actually wash it away. So the mildew is still there, just in a dead form. And dead mildew is an EXCELLENT medium for growing new mildew. Charlie's Soap actually breaks up the mildew and washes it away. Mildew, if you leave wet clothes sealed up in the washer for long enough, will still happen, but it takes longer. Leaving the washer open when not in use also helps.

Charlie's Soap has very little suds, and rinses away completely, so no soap is left behind, which is why it helps those with chemical sensitivities, or dry or sensitive skin.

Even the pickiest members of my family agree that the clothes are coming out softer - plenty soft enough that we can discontinue the dryer sheets.

It comes in two forms - Powdered and Liquid. The latter is better for washing Gortex fabrics, but the powdered is great for just about everything else. And best of all? You use only a tablespoon per wash, and it really does dissolve completely. I can detect a faint odor when I stick my nose very close to the powder. The liquid has a more noticible scent, but it just smells kind of soapy to me. I'll be using the powdered most of the time. It's more concentrated, and you can buy it in 5-gallon buckets, which is good for well over 1000 washes (the price ends up being $0.11 per load if you buy it in that quantity at full price (I bought a few other items, which dropped the price on the big bucket even farther), which is better than 1/2 the cost of liquid purchased at a grocery store. I got some of the all-purpose cleaner to use as a spot cleaner.

Shipping is always free on the big buckets. Right now, through the end of February, shipping is free on any item, but it's goes back up to free shipping with orders greater than $25 or thereabouts, in March.

Best book for learning to knit?

I'm learning to knit.

I've learned one cast on stitch (I think it's called the "slingshot" cast on), and I know one stitch - the "knit" stitch. Instead of doing 10 rows as my learning piece the way the little manual said, I've kept going with it, aiming for 10 rows with no mistakes before going on to the next stitch.

I've found the little books on knitting to be confusing and hard to follow - it wasn't until I watched some videos on Youtube that I was able to figure out how to cast on, or how to do the knit stitch.

There's a video at Amazon that people seem to like a lot (110 reviews, and rated at 5 stars):

My main gripe with this, is that I don't think I'll be going back and re-using it over and over once I've learned the basic items. I like the fact that once I've SEEN how to do something, the pictures in the books all start to make sense. I'd pull out a book and glance back at it regularly, but a DVD is less handy.

And then I found this book:

It's relatively new and so has no reviews yet. But it looks REALLY cool.

My husband says the Teach Yourself Visually books are pretty good:

It's got pretty good reviews (4.5 stars in over 70 reviews) but there are comments that said it was hard to follow the pictures.

Anyone have any suggestions for the best overall book for beginners?

Snow Tubing and Girl Scouts

Kivi is a Girl Scout Daisy (Daisy is the group before Brownie), and tonight we went to Buck Hill in Burnsville, Minnesota to go tubing for a Girl Scout event. We got the group rates ($12/person), and everyone on the tubing hill was either a Girl Scout, or a family member of one.

It was insanely fun.

First of all, they had a pull lift that towed you up the hill on your inner tube. So that was kinda fun, but a little slow (it took 2-3 minutes to get to the top of the hill). Then you rolled off your tube, and towed it over to the edge of the hill. Then when the attendent said "Go!" you got on your tube and slid down the hill. Really, really fast. So fast that my shoulders, incased in a long-sleaved Tshirt, a sweat shirt, and my Maine Warden Parka from LLBean, got a little cold. So fast that if I'd wiped out, I could have broken my neck. So fast that if I didn't get onto the tube right, and my knees could drag, it was like slamming them repeatedly into rocks (well, ice and snow chunks).

I have to say it again. It was insanely fun. And cold. And tiring. But after 2 hours, I was good to go another few times down the hill despite being 50 pounds overweight, and my 7-year-old daughter was asking to go home (though she asked if we could return the following night). Wow. I could really get into this.

Oh, and my new mittens did a pretty good job - it was 1 degree above zero Fahrenheit, and pretty cold, but my hands stayed pretty warm.

It was really fun. Wow.

Quest for the best mittens

I live in Minnesota. I have rather poor circulation in my hands and feet. I don't have Raynaud's (and yes, I've been tested for it), but it IS hard to keep my hands warm while in the very cold outdoors.

I've lived near Minneapolis for just over 4 years now, and I've learned a few things:

1. Thick wool socks (Smartwool is my favorite) and boiled wool slippers do an awfully good job of keeping my feet warm in my house, particularly in my basement, where my computer is. I find the boiled wool slippers warmer and more breathable than shearling-lined slippers.
2. A foot-of-the-bed warmer (like a bedwarmer, but only across the foot of the bed) does a GREAT job of warming up my feet faster so I can go to sleep (so the wool socks aren't always perfect!). We have ours on a timer, so it comes on at 8:00pm, and goes off at 12:30pm. It only warms the bed to about 80 degrees, but it's great!
   
3. Warm boots (sporting good stores have some that guarantee down to -20, and they work!)
4. Layers. I now own Smart Wool glove liners and ordered a pair of their heaviest weight long-johns.
5. Gloves or preferably mittens are REQUIRED for outdoors. And not just any ones will do. After awhile you learn to do nearly anything without removing them.
   

That last issue has proven the hardest to solve. I had a pair of Northface gloves, that cost me $60, and even during moderate activity like shoveling snow or snowblowing, or ice skating, my finger tips would get painfully cold. Northface, which is a fine company, probably has warmer hand wear, but those gloves just didn't work for me, and I dealt with them for 2 years. And then, after two times in as many days of getting excrutiatingly painfully cold fingers, I decided to upgrade.

As I did my research, I found that most people urged me to get something with leather. Lots of people urged wool. As a vegetarian, I try to avoid leather, so I don't get leather purses, though I still wear leather shoes. But I try to care for them and extend their use as best I can (my Birkenstocks are on their way to be re-soled).

And mittens were UNIVERSALLY recommended over gloves. So I tried 3 different gloves in the $80-$100 range (you can find gloves that run well into the hundreds of dollars). I didn't want electric gloves - would rather avoid batteries or disposable chemical warmers.

All three mittens are available in both men's and women's versions, though I show the women's below. The shipping ranged from free to $10 to get them to me, and all three vendors were good to work with and were very nice and accept full returns. LLBean accepts returns forever, and Snowshack asks for them back within 30 days and Backcountry Gear asks for 60 day returns. I don't remember if they have requirements as to sellable condition, but I always expect to return them that way anyway, so any tests I did would not be rigorous, or mark them up at all. I didn't even cut them apart. I bought a women's size large in all three, and one fit, one was too big, and one was too small, yet all assigned my hands(7.5" long and 7.5" around the knuckles) to the same size (I bought up a size in all 3 cases). I have strong, squarish, capable looking hands, that are far from slender. I tend to prefer my gloves to be a little big, rather than small. I don't like gloves to feel constricting.

Now, here are the results and observations about each one. The links are to the vender's page that sold me the mitten.

1. Swany X-Cell II Mittens:

These are the ones I'm keeping. They were the most expensive, and were all leather. I had hoped to avoid leather, but these were hands down the best when all was taken into consideration. They are simply the most comfortable hand wear I've ever felt. They are soft and warm, very very supple, and not very bulky. They are in fact, shockingly NOT bulky, such that you wonder how they can possibly be warm. They are mittens on the outside, but the non-removable liners had separate slots for your fingers. They slide on and right into place. They also have shielded (so wind doesn't go through) zippers on the back to hold change or a key, or a chemical hand warmer. They were the only pair that had that. I CAN put them on over my Smart wool glove liners, but they are a bit tight. Because I couldn't find any reviews of these gloves (or of the previous model) I contacted the company. I saw lots of recommendations for a cheaper model (the "toaster") as being warm, and as these are supposed to be the warmest of their mittens, I wanted to double check that these would be warmer than the toasters. The lady listened to what I had to say about my circulation problems, and she was actually hesitant to recommend their gloves given my problems. I appreciated her honesty, and decided to test them out anyway. The size large was perfect. The gauntlets were a little more minimal on these, and could go either over or under my coat sleeves, depending on preference. I suspect that the glove version would also be delightful, but I wanted the added warmth of the mittens. Maybe I'll treat myself to the gloves in a few years. :-)

2. Black Diamond Mercury Mitts:


I saw LOTS of reviews that said these were some of the warmest mittens they had tried on. They are made of man-made materials, except for the leather palm. They are quite bulky, and were the least dexterous of the bunch, and in fact, I couldn't get my car door open (from the inside) while wearing them - I had to remove them to do it. They are DELIGHTFULLY soft on the inside and fuzzy, and have a "trigger finger" removable liner - the liner has a separate index finger AND thumb, and a third slot for your last three fingers. However, these gloves ran big, and I found myself sliding all 4 fingers into the 3 outer finger spot, AND there was plenty of room that way. My husband who has big hands could get them on pretty well, even. I suspect that over time, I'd get used to how to hold my hands to make my index finger go into the right spot, so I would NOT consider this a deal breaker or even a problem. The liner also velcros firmly into place so they act and feel like an integrated unit, making them easy to get on - no weird adjusting necessary. They also accommodated a Smart wool glove liner with ease and comfort. I suspect that these would have been the warmest, IF they had not been too big. But even if the size had been right, they still would have been bulkier than I wanted. So, I do give these a hearty thumbs up, even if they were not my ultimate choice. If your hands are like mine, I would get these in a medium. The gauntlet cuff was much longer on these, and I believe they are designed to go OVER your coat sleeves.

The test: I wore BOTH pairs of mittens - the Swanys on my right, with the extra mitten dangling, and the Black Diamonds on my left, with the extra one dangling (I didn't disconnect them to avoid making them less sellable). I walked (at a stroll) for 5 blocks to pick up my car. It was after dark, and a degree or two below zero. My hands never got cold under that very light activity, in either glove. Initially the Black diamonds seemed warmer, but as they were too big, cold pockets formed just beyond my finger tips, and to the side of my pinky, and if I shifted my hand a bit, it was like sticking them into a fridge. I really believe this would not have been a problem with a smaller mitten. Initially during the walk, the Swany's seemed ever so slightly cooler, but by the end of my walk, my hand - while not quite toasty, was not at all cold (an ENORMOUS improvement over my old, expensive, and supposedly high-tech gloves), and there were no cold pockets, and my hand was warmer. Then I tried to drive home, and discovered my problem with opening the car door in the bulkier mittens. I could open the car from the outside with either one - it's just that the inside latch was smaller. I also hit my turn signal once by accident due to the bulkiness. I suspect that would also be something you'd learn to work around. I also expect that I will always be doing light to moderate activity while wearing them. Main use: ice skating, and shoveling or snowblowing snow, or walking. Walking is the lightest of the 3 activities. So... Swanys were better when considering bulk AND warmth.

3. Ascent Mittens by L.L. Bean:

Finally, I also tried the LLBean Ascent mittens, which were the only ones to not have any leather at all. I've got lots of interesting things to say about these mittens. LLBEAN service is by far the best. I LOVE L.L. Bean. I buy lots of my clothes there. And I suspect that these gloves, had they fit properly would have been my choice. But, the removable gloves liners, which are made of power-stretch polartec fleece, are just too constricting. I also found it slightly hard to get my hand past the narrower wrist area. They were less bulky and much more dexterous than the Black Diamonds, and similarly bulky but less dexterous than the Swanys. I don't know how they would have rated in warmth with regard to the Swany's, but Bean is sold out of the bigger men's sizes until next fall, so I cannot order the next size up until then. The removeable liners are actually usable as gloves, and would even be pretty good that way - they have a grippy fabric sewn to the index finger, thumb and palm. They felt warm, but were so tight, they simply were not comfortable, and it's completely the fault of the liner (and from the reviews on their site of the men's version, I'm not the only one who found this to be true). I tried my wool liners with just the shells, and they were much more comfortable. I was also concerned that the men's medium, which was very slightly bigger, MIGHT have been too long, and I would have given them a try, but they just aren't available at the moment. Again, I would say that they are likely very good mittens, but definitely get a couple of different sizes or just order up a size. And maybe that's not necessary for your hand type if you have slimmer fingers or hands. Interestingly, I found a Good Housekeeping review of them, where the reviewers put temperature probes inside, and turned the temp down to 30 degrees, and it took 130 minutes for them to cool down to 30 degrees on the inside. So I suspect that these are fine, and quite warm mittens. They just didn't work for me.

Anyway, I hope folks find this useful.