weird cyclic thoughts (ooky girl stuff men might want to run now)

I had such bad cramps today that I actually had to get on the big ottoman to assume a birthing position and push. I'm not even frigging kidding. Then I got in a hot bubble bath (a lovely new honey bubble bath from The Healing Garden) and read The Moviegoer for a few hours. I haven't read that book since junior high. There are fun parts to it - New Orleans, movie references, quirky southern female characters, ennui, existentialism. There are bad parts to it - casually ingrained racism, some elements of misogyny (both of those are reflections of the time and region but they're upsetting nonetheless), quirky southern female characters, misinthropy. The cramps are better now but they'll be back soon I can tell.

I was thinking though..a lot of knitbloggers have been complaining about pms and cramps this week. Do you think we're all getting on the same cycle? That's known to happen with women who live together. Wouldn't that be weird if it happened over the internet through daily blog reading?

Hell all the women on my dorm floor my freshman year got on the same cycle by early spring. They actually had to start getting housekeeping in to empty the garbage cans on the weekends because there was an odd smell that people just complained about it until I pointed out that we were all on the same cycle and it was the garbage in the bathrooms that smelled. You can imagine how those little Southern sorority riri's reacted to my pointing out the fact that they had natural human functions like menstration. Oh the horror!! So, yeah housekeeping came in on the weekends and the smells were taken care of.

What's funny is the college where that dorm is located is mentioned in The Moviegoer. Not that surprising really because Walker Percy was born in Birmingham. But fun to run across anyway.

So back to my odd thought. Like I have any other kind. Wouldn't that be weird? If all the knitbloggers somehow drifted to having the same menstrual cycle just like we tend to do when living together? Kind of neat really. The interesting female commradery moon cycle magic of it or something.

I finished my toe up two socks on two circs last night! Yay! It was incredibly cool to finish both socks at the same time. Vppt done! No second sock syndrome. Just a pair of socks. I'm too lazy to get photos of them right now. I still have photos from the walk on Sunday in my phone waiting to post. I'm feeling awfully sluggish right now. Focusing on the house and knitting. And faux labor on my ottoman.

When I'm at the computer I'm dealing with Dyeorama issues. Very happy with the results so far. We're at 88%. 246 out of 277 people have sent their yarn out. Not bad really. The nagging emails will begin tomorrow. Oh yes count on nagging.

Two photos from yesterday

I battled milder wind gusts on the back porch yesterday to do some work for el proyecto secreto. I took a few moments to take photos of myself. Again. It's not that I'm vain. Photographs of me are very hit or miss and I'm always trying to beat the odds so I snap a few when I'm photographing other stuff. You should see the ones I delete. Blerg.

So I finally got a good shot of my newish haircut and color.

I've always been sort of an odd dresser. At my preppy mc prepster high school and first college whenever I tried to dress preppy I always looked like I was making fun of them. Like a parody of prep. So I gave up on trying that. I went through a mild faux goth dance club phase and a dumbass tie dye phase. There was a very interesting Mod period as well as a Laura Ashley/Laura Ingalls Wilder complete with petticoat phase - both of those were in junior high.

At the College of Santa Fe I was known as "The overalls girl". Which is quite an achievement considering the "Trustifarian" atmosphere. (total credit for that kickass word goes to Carole and Scout) I frequently wore a huge pair of overalls I found in a thrift store in Alabaster, Alabama in 1992. There were still peanuts in the bib pocket. You know, peanuts for putting in your coke when yer sitting on the front porch in your rocking chair. That's the same thrift store where I found a big wedding dress and veil for ten dollars which I wore to run through the streets of the French Quarter for Southern Decadance in September that year. I miss that thrift store.

In my late twenties and into my very early thirties I dressed in mostly black and white. Sometimes grey. Usually black or grey straight leg pants and a white button down shirt. Yoga pants with a tank with a built in shelf bra around the house. When I went out I would throw a shirt over the tank. Easy, never have to think about it.

When I took up knitting I decided that I wasn't going to knit with boring colors. I could buy clothes with boring colors why take the time to knit them? Knitting scarves and shawls and ponchos was an interesting way to add color and personality to my waiter chic outfits. But I've noticed that just within the last year my taste in clothing has been evolving into something kind of interesting and slightly disturbing.

It seems to be best described as a combination of six year-old dressing herself, punkish girl, and crazy old lady. Someone reminded me on Flickr that there's also some wicked witch in there. I don't want to be dull. I mean I know I'm crazy, that's been confirmed by professionals, but I'm crazy in a funny cry for no reason not going to hurt anyone kind of way so it's ok. I'm sick of being dull and I don't entirely care what people think. And I'm enjoying being able to buy interesting punkish clothes again that are in my size since discovering Torrid. But lately I've had to check with Cody (not much of a fashion guy himself) if I look like a six year old girl that dressed herself.

He's aware he doesn't know anything about fashion though. Within about a year of living together I had a nice garranimals type of situation set up for him - with khaki pants, polo shirts, and socks - they all match - he can pick any one from the pile and they will match. But damned if I'm going to do that for myself!

So this is what I was wearing yesterday.

Those are striped knee socks scrunched down with pink birkenstocks and a black t-shirt dress with a tattoo image on the back. I'd worn it with black yoga pants and black chucks the night before. I thought it looked kind of neat. Crazy? definitely. Do I care? nah.

The Yay Boo Game

I had a blast at Crafty Friday. Yay!
Cody found my digital camera in one of my project bags. Yay!
He found it when it fell out onto the garage floor when he was bringing my project bag in from the car. Boo!
The camera's still ok. Yay!

I was ubergirly last night. Yay!
I dyed my own hair dark strawberry blondish. Yay!
I used that cool depilitory Veet squeegee stuff on my legs and underarms. Yay!
I missed a spot and found a "soul patch" smack in the front middle of my ankle. Boo!
I also got a chemical burn on the underside of my left upper arm. Boo!
I found some neosporin for the healing and found some monistat topical cream (the stuff that comes in a little tube for numbing your hooha before the internal medicine works) for numbing the pain. Yay?
We got some real medicine and bandages today. Yay!
I don't make much of a girly girl do I? Yay.

We finally made it to Trader Joe's today! Yay!
It was unbelievably crowded. Boo!
They have good pet food. Yay!
It was comparatively cheap with higher quality than Smiths. Yay!
We didn't buy a whole lot else. Boo!
We did get a pot of daisies...Yay!

To bring to my mother-in-law when we went for a visit this afternoon. Boo?
We got free haircuts from the mom-in-law! Yay!
The father-in-law and I did not argue about politics once. Yay!
He made a compliment (I think) about Cody looking like "the president" after his haircut. Boo
I joked "Ok Cody now you have to make a face that's simultaneously dumb and smug!" Yay!
My mother-in-law gave me free Tupperware! Yay!
Alas, we did not get a free meal. Boo!
But I did finish the second ugg baby bootie. Yay!

My Tivo DVR thingie is acting up. Boo!
But it taped the new episode of Huff. Yay!
I'm going to go watch it now so this post is ending soon. Boo!
And eat some hummus and Pitas from Trader Joe's. Yay!
But first I'm going to show you all these photos. Boo? Yay?

Here are the long-awaited Noro Stash photos.

All the Noro
with bonus puppy lying in the dirt!

Silk Garden

Kureyon

Iro

Cash Iroha

Transitions

With bonus Fiesta Yarns porn!

La Boheme and Gelato in "African Violet"

Kokopelli in Turqoise Trail and Watermark in Taos

La Boheme and Chamisa in Arizona

This is a neat handpainted yarn from a local artist in the East Mountains, Robin Pascal. I used her yarn to make the craaaaazy scarf.

And this is my current Project Spectrum project yarn. I'm in the second repeat on the front of my Sprout tunic with this Giotto yarn. I'm going to use this pretty gold Fiesta La Luz silk for something this month as well.

And this is the puppy wearing the glam punk rock neckwarmer

Red and Green are complementary colors.

So the great two-color dirty blondish foil job I got while I was in B'ham over Christmas is long, long faded and the insidious grey hairs were showing again. I picked up some stuff at the walgreens yesterday and dyed my hair last night. I kept it on for about 40 minutes since I wanted it a little lighter than my natural tone. Going lighter seems to blend with the greys better. The color was called "firelight" and it's pretty auburn-y.

I had the camera on zoom when I was trying to get a shot of my hair so I got some amusing extreme closeup self-portraits. And photos of a silly hat I bought from a cart in the mall Saturday night. Yeah, errands included the semi-annual trip inside Cottonwood to get a bunch of handsoap. I figure if I'm going to be using this stuff upwards of thirty times a day (between pet food handling, gross tinned kipper snack serving, hairball cleaning, and the usual potty breaks it really is about that) I'm going to use a soap that makes me happy.

Phunq was looking very cute on the sofa blanket so I had to get the camera for that. He's an excellent poser (but never a poseur).

Noticing that someone else was getting attention Melon had to put a stop to that meeped at me (well, more like ee-ed at me) until I took photos of her posed on the sofa arm. It was when the photo was loaded into the computer that I saw this photo had supernaturally exposed her true origins.

As you can see from the non-satanic origin exposure photo that the shaved bands on her legs are regrowing her fur nicely. As is the spot on her neck where a huge clot of fur fell out and the places they shaved on her inner thighs. She's still only eating disgusting tinned kipper snack and some Science Diet Sensitive Stomach dry food but seems to still be doing fine.

Mr. Man has definitely fixed the swamp cooler now. It's actually getting cold in the house at night, like where I want to put on clothes and get under a blanket!

Since she's pretty cold natured one of Winter's favorite summertime activities is lying on the floor in the afternoon sun.

The dog bed in the den got too ratty to keep so for now she gets to use a Haring blanket ironically given to me by my in-laws for Christmas one year. Ironic because the in-laws aren't exactly gay friendly folks and they wouldn't know Keith Haring, iconic pop artist who donated a great deal of his art for aids activism and research and who eventually died from aids-related complications in 1990, from a Modligiani. And I'm fairly sure it came from Wal Mart which makes me wonder if this was licensed or an outright ripoff. In any case, Winter likes it because it keeps the carpet from rubbing her elbows.

I realized the other day that she'll be four years old next month and got kind of sad that some senior dog foods say they're for ages five and up. But she's still a puppy!

Who waits very patiently for her greenie in our tacky orange kitchen.

Then eats it in forty-five seconds flat.

What the hell do they put in those things?

girly girl

So this pink thing that's been going on. It can pretty much all be traced back to the pink ipod. No, I did not win it from Gratis networks. I tried but in the end got impatient and started feeling, well, kind of dirty for even asking for people to sign up to get me one. We all have our odd ethical boundaries and that one was just one toe over my line. Funny, I have no qualms about affiliate programs and ads out the yinyang but for some reason asking for free stuff was was more than I was comfortable with. Go figure.

Anyway, when Cody got a bonus at work for a program he wrote he bought me a little pink ipod and even took advantage of the Apple store's free engraving to get a line from one of our songs engraved on the back. It felt a lot better getting it that way and he had enough left over from the bonus to treat himself as well :)

I haven't had the opportunity to use it much the last two months. I know, I've been really bad about not going to the gym don't remind me. But it really came in handy on the planes and at my parents' house at Christmas though. I'd tagged all the holiday music and brought a small pair of speakers that had a headphone jack connection (I believe Cody had bought them for ten bucks somewhere) and we got to listen to a pretty nice shuffle of holiday tunes during dinners and while we opened our presents. I'm not much of an audio snob when it comes to quadrophonic stereophonic sound (Seriously, I don't need a big bassline it usually makes me kind of queasy) so the cheap speakers work fine for me rather than the little white 175 dollar jobbies sold to match the ipods.

Last night we had to go back down to Los Lunas to work on a computer that's been giving an aunt some trouble and I remembered to take my little pink ipod along for the forty minute ride. We use a simple tape player converter that was originally bought for a cd walkman to listen to our mp3 players in the car - that whole fm transmitter thing just seems to be more trouble than its worth when this works just as well without the signal issues.

I know it doesn't hold as many songs as a regular ipod or photos and stuff like the media one. But I love my little pink ipod. And I do not feel dirty for telling you about this: I saw a promotional thing going on where if you sign up at my lancome you might win one of 90 pink ipod minis. Apparently they're giving ten away every day for the next nine days. I don't think you have to buy anything - just create a membership there. Now I have no idea what the odds are or anything but I figure if you really want a pink ipod it's worth a shot. And I'm not going to sign up because I already have one and I just don't think I need another one. So there's one less competitor anyway :)

More girliness

The aunt we were going to see is the official crafty aunt of the bunch. She's the one that always gives lovely handmade gifts at the annual girls' ornament party and is always working on some kind of project or another. In fact the last time I'd seen her was in November during one of Cody's grandfather's health scares (thankfully he's doing better these days) and she was crocheting a big blanket in the waiting room at the hospital.

So I brought my little bag of knitting stuff in the hopes she'd teach me how to do this thing.

I'm so jealous of all these knitbloggers! Last January I'd bought a little kiddie "learn to knit" kit when Cody was out of town but just couldn't figure out the right moves on my own. There's something about the depth of field in the drawings that just wasn't coming across to me. And I find that I get really anxious about putting my hands just so and doing it exactly right. But without a three-dimensional reference for it I just couldn't help second-guessing how I was doing it. My grandmother was a quilter so I have a funny instinctual knowledge of how to quilt, and mom had us making all kinds of crafts when were were kids. But I just never learned to knit. I'd gotten Stitch n' Bitch and Stitch n' Bitch Nation from Cody for Christmas. He seems to really want me to learn to knit - he'd even read up on what I needed for a beginner's kit and helped me pick it all out when we went to the store last week. Apparently he wants to wear a big ugly sweater. Hehe no he just seems to think I'd really enjoy it. Jocelyn and I have designated this condition as oddly sweet.

Even with the great descriptions in Stitch n Bitch I still just wasn't getting it. I knew that I'd have to have someone show me in person and last night was a perfect opportunity. Apparently the aunt hadn't knitted in years but she took a few minutes with the Stitch n Bitch book (a name she loved by the way) and after refreshing her memory she showed me two very important things: how to cast on and the basics of knitting a swatch. And I got it! Once I felt how to do it correctly - not worrying too much about where to hold the yarn but just to see and feel how it's supposed to go together - it made perfect sense! Yaay!

And my latest netflix movies got in too! So today I'm going to watch the final dvd of Brideshead Revisited and Wimbledon (trying to fight the urge to slap the shit out of Kirsten Dunst) and knit a really long scarf-looking thing. I don't know how to bind off or anything about purling but by gum I wanna practice what I can do and make sure I never forget! Man, if only I'd thought of this before I quit smoking! I'm very excited though! I get to be a punk rock femiknitter!

baaa

My mother-in-law (whom I never fail to criticize whenever I can) has a really interesting talent. No, calm down, a good talent this time. Every Christmas she buys me a sweater I would never ever buy for myself. One I usually look down at in the box and say "hmm. ok. well that's....nice?" But what's funny is I almost always end up trying it out on those infamous laundry days, finding that I really like it, and wearing it. Witness the red fleece vneck.

I don't (usually) wear red. Really up until this past inexplicable pink phase whenever I go out in public I've stuck with black, sometimes khaki, usually a crisp white button down shirt. Now I just wear black, sometimes khaki, usually crisp white button-down shirts, and pink. (The punk rock pajama party cat wear is my little private home thing. I like people with layers to them ya know?)

So it seems that my tastebuds change way more often than every seven years; maybe it's my fashion taste that only changes roughly once a decade.

Anyway, in 1998 (I think) my mother-in-law gave me a red polar fleece vneck sweater. Which has become like the perfect family christmas party sweater. Especially in New Mexico and especially when I was still smoking. Here in the land of 70 degree days 30 degree nights the key to survival is layering: wearing a camisole with a built in bra under a white men's undershirt (optional) under a button down under a sweater under a coat. Get hot? Remove a layer or two. That polar fleece shit is warm in the snow but somehow I don't overheat if I keep it on indoors - which is a rare treat in any shirt really. The red was festive but I could still just pull it on over a button down shirt and look nice. And somehow she chooses the right size too. So I should have a little more faith in her annual christmas sweaters right?

Nope. Every year I am baffled by the sweater purchase until I actually wear it. And sometimes it takes a few times even then to appreciate the usefulness of the sweater.

I was even more dubious about Xmas 2004's purchase: a cream knit cotton blend poncho. Have to admit I've done a good bit of mental mockery of this poncho fad - mostly involving the surreal quality of women trying to look like shepherds while still wearing spiky slut shoes. This retro 70s fashion turn just makes me laugh and laugh. Most fashion trends look like epic jokes to me anyway.

I have seen photographs of my sister and I in matching lime green crocheted poncho/tam o' shanter sets in 1977. I believe there were also some brown vinyl zip up boots involved as well - which very well could have come from the sears catalog. So when I first read of this poncho resurgence my attitude was: "I am a 70s fashion veteran I don't need to relive the horrors." Have to admit, while I envy all these crazy feminist knitters out there I have done a bit of snickering over the poncho patterns.

This one certainly isn't handmade but just a plus-size wal mart brand - Denim Blues or something - and even though I don't consider myself much of a clothing label whore it takes a lot for me to admit this in such a public forum: it's lightweight and, dare I say it, kind of cute. Not too heavy, certainly not itchy, the perfect thing for me to wear at the computer. And somehow it goes so well with this pure grace scent. Both simple and a little modern.

It still makes me look like a shepherdess. But I'm wearing big pink fuzzy slippers instead of big spiky slut shoes. Not a fashion victim am I!

stinky like me

I've been leaning towards a new perfume style lately. For the last three years I've been using Clinique Happy. In my twenties I liked spicier perfumes: Chanel Cristalle or Borghese Il Bacio. Before that I had more romantic taste in perfumes. In high school I wore Eau de Gucci, Crabtree & Evelyn Spring Rain, or patchouli oil (shut up). Way way back in junior high I loved de la Renta Ruffles which is long gone.

I've been moving towards simpler perfumes the last year though. And oddly enough my favorite bath goodies have usually been made for babies. Like that healing garden baby stuff (which has been discontinued dammit), johnson and johnson bedtime baby bath, or burt's baby bee stuff.

I think it's mostly because the baby products don't have nearly as many perfumes. And since I've quit smoking the more subtle scents are enough for me now.

I wanted to try that trio of simpler grace scents from philosophy but 90 bucks is a whole lot for perfumes I haven't tried yet. So I split the difference and bought the solid trio for 45. Unfortunately it arrived right in the middle of my cold so I couldn't smell them for about a week. Now I can't get enough of the pure grace scent. It's so clean and sweet.

Wtf is going on with me? Switched from coffee to tea, wearing pink and baby scents. But at least I still listen to kickass music.

Lifestyle of the bored and chlorinated

I still haven't had a chance to go buy swimmer's shampoo but I read a few articles about home remedies so here I sit eating a popsicle with a can of tomato paste in my hair. I smell so yummy and look even better. Hopefully this won't react with my months-old dye job and turn my hair blue or something.

short cut

With all the swimming my hair has become really gross and tangly. I've been meaning to get a swimmer's shampoo but kept forgetting. We were down at the in-laws' house last night to do more tech support and get Cody a haircut. On a whim I asked Ruth to give me a pretty short cut too.

On the way home we went to the store to get a few things and were going to get yet another disposable camera because we've been too lazy to use the 35 mm or get the digital camera hooked up. Cody spotted a 20 dollar digital camera and just had to get that instead of another thirteen dollar disposable one.

So we tested the camera out today to show my new hair. This was after a night's sleep on the haircut and I don't think there are photos of me in my glasses either so it's not me looking my best. It's not the best quality photos in the world either - about the same as a mobile phone camera. But, hey, it was twenty bucks. And I really like this haircut and being able to see. :)

pay it forward

We had a little excitement on the way home from the gym yesterday. I was feeling good enough to make it to the 9:00 water aerobics class and I really wanted to go because I've decided I don't like going on the weekends therefore it would be my last chance for a few days. Cody was nice (as usual) and dropped me off long enough to take a water aerobics and a water movement class. I'd gotten a drink at keva juice which is becoming a post-gym habit for me and he picked me up at about 11:30.

On the way home waiting to turn from paseo del norte onto golf course we got rear-ended. No no we're fine. In fact it barely felt like a bump to us. The dog was with us but she was lying down on her big bed and it took me a second to figure out whatthehell happened. So we pulled over to the parking lot nearby and I called APD on my phone. Nerd that I am I'd programmed non-emergency police, the vet, the 24 hour vet, and the county into my cellphone.

The lady that hit us was very nice and was pretty shaken by the whole thing. She had her two kids in the car (a boy who was maybe 4 and a girl that was about 18 months I'd say). They were both in the back in proper seats and they seemed ok. I think she'd been distracted scolding them or something. Our car was fine. Basically there were a few rips on the cover of the spare tire on the back of our car so maybe the rim on the spare is dented. We're going to get it checked on Monday anyway. Her car was a bit banged up - a light was cracked and the hood is sticking up a bit in one part. Turns out that car is like two months old, poor thing.

She was so shocked that we weren't upset about it. We were mostly embarrassed because Cody had big bed-hair from taking a nap while I was at the gym and naturally this had been the one time I didn't bother to fully shampoo, condition, and comb my hair. Or bring a matching outfit to change into. But as far as we were concerned there wasn't anything to be upset about. We were fine and the puppy was fine and our car was barely touched. Heck, I've done what she did once many years ago - was busy watching the traffic on road I was turning onto and bumped into car in front of me. And I'd been bumped before but that was in the Mercedes with the giganto rubber bumpers. It was so negligible both times they weren't even worth a call. But there was some damage here so we waited for the police.

While waiting we opened the back window so Winter could get some air. She got the kids out of the car and the little boy decided he wanted to pet her. I'm very proud of my puppy she behaved beautifully. We've been socializing her at shops and things ever since she'd had all her puppy shots - taking her out in public and I would carry treats so people (especially children) could give her treats and we worked hard on that 'take it' command so she would take them very gently. So Cody held the little boy up and let him pet her. Then he let him give her a treat. Then he wanted to get in the back of the car so Cody lifted him through the window. I was a little nervous about that but Winter behaved beautifully - she let him pet her and lean on her and everything. I could tell she was a little scared - "Who is this in *my* car?!" But I was watching very carefully and reassuring her and she behaved perfectly. What an amazingly good girl. I took him out to get checked over by the cop then put him back in when they were done.

One time, the 18-month old held her arms out to me to be held. I need to point out that I have very little experience with small children. Well, any children. I've babysat before but it's been quite a long time. So that was touching and strange. I did take her but probably held her too tight because she seemed awfully wiggly and I was worried I was going to drop her.

This is more physical contact than I've had with my own nephew. I've never touched him because I was a smoker and his mom wouldn't let us - or our coats - near him. Now that we quit and he's almost three we're strangers and he's afraid of us. In fact, he's far less socialized than our dog - or the little boy that was playing with her in her back seat. I think it's a combination of an uptight overprotective mom and his dad being out at sea for a good portion of his first year. It's kind of the dad's job to introduce the daredevil stuff isn't it?

Speaking of, the lady's husband came by to take the kids and they were both friendly and very thankful about how nice we were about the whole deal. There are some angry people out there, I guess, who would probably have made a scene. But Cody and I are empathetic people who have made mistakes too. I think that what a lot of people forget - we're all crappy drivers one time or another. We all have that moment where we flake.

Earlier when I was standing outside of the Keva Juice waiting for Cody to pick me up there were two guys at a table beside mine. At first I thought it was some church counseling thing because the older man looked very...churchy..like a preacher in his plaid button-down civilian clothes. The younger guy was in his late teens or early twenties. I'm still not sure what it was all about but it was clear there was some kind of counseling / mentor thing going on. I overheard the older guy talking about getting in the habit of sending good feelings rather than being wrapped up in one's self and never helping anyone. How there are all these opportunities every day where you can help a person - without any cost to yourself - that can have a positive impact on that person, who goes on to do something kind to someone else, ad infinitum. He mentioned movies like Magnificent Obsession and Pay it Forward. It was a nice conversation to listen to - not the usual banal conversations about people and politics one overhears outside the starbucks. While I'm not totally naive about people I do think it's better to smile and hold the door open for someone when you can. I've had some nice encounters that way.

I'm thinking about that conversation now because I feel like because we were obviously nice people this woman showed a pretty good amount of trust in us with her children. I mean she was standing there the whole time so nothing bad was going to happen but not everyone is comfortable with their toddler and a 97 pound dog hanging out together. I probably wouldn't have been so trusting with mine but it was a nice feeling to have someone this open and trusting around us. To see Winter behave so well and have a little girl reach out to me like that. It was worth the rips in the spare tire cover.

Turns out she sells Mary Kay products and handed me her card, laughing while she did it because she knew it could be a weird thing to do; and offered me a free facial. I thought it was sweet. I don't buy make up stuff very often though so I thought I'd link to her Mary Kay page and maybe someone could pick up a few things if they needed it. Help her pay to fix the front end of her Toyota or something.

showing off

isn't my dad cute?

natural beauty

from the 'to post' blogroll-

This woman has written a series of articles and recipes for mixing shampoos and facial masks using (mostly) common household ingredients. Some are pretty common but there are a few new ideas there. She actually has training in chemistry too.

Ever since my first experience with a Japanese-style bathtub (basically they're shorter in length but much deeper) I've wanted to have one in my own house. This is the closest I've seen to a ready-made one being sold in the US that would fit in the same space as a standard bathtub. It seems to target the senior / disabled market so just ignore the scary images of a bathing old man and think about how cool having a tub like that would be. And no, I won't be installing a Japanese-style toilet anytime soon my knees are not what they once were.