Random bits...
1) Keira is going through some serious separation anxiety of late. I don't know if it's leftovers from the trip, which really disrupted her routine, or if it's just that time of life for her. She's freaking out whenever either Mike or I leave the room. :::sigh::: Most of the time it's okay, but dropoffs at daycare are becoming a bit nightmarish. And this morning she wanted *nothing* to do with putting on her jacket or walking out to the car. That was fun. She's a smart little monkey, which can be good or bad depending on the situation.
2) In slightly TMI news, I've decided to give up shampoo and conditioner and go with the more environmentally friendly (and cost-effective) baking soda rinse/apple cider vinegar rinse combo. I'm still fine-tuning the apple cider vinegar thing (didn't realize how much you have to dilute it), but all in all it's going well. I'm still shampooing maybe once a week, mostly to get rid of what I have. So far, the biggest plus is that I haven't needed to use my coal tar extract shampoo in about two weeks. That used to be the only thing standing between me and big, nasty, embarrassing dandruff. With the baking soda/acv combo I don't seem to need it at all. Yay for that!
3) I started playing Diablo III this past week. I've only played a couple of times so far, but it's been fun. I decided on a female barbarian and named her Griselda. Mike is running a witch doctor character with me, and that's even better. With him on Star Wars most of the time, I've missed getting to share that with him. I have no interest in Star Wars. And yeah, yeah, I said the same thing about WoW for a couple years, but I've watched him play the game and it just doesn't grab me. At least with WoW I found certain things amusing and would have some interest in watching him play. Ah well. We have D3 now, and that's all good by me.
4) For the first time in what seems like forever, we got to hang out with our faire friends at The Bell cast party on Saturday. My decision not to work faire at all this year was absolutely the right one, but that doesn't mean I didn't miss my friends like crazy. It was really good to see everybody, and to have so many people willing (and able) to play with Keira, too. And, of course, she also got more exposure to dogs. This time she met a wee dog named Penny, who is a therapy dog with a very mild disposition, and Dexter a lab/pointer mix who has more energy than he knows what to do with... and stands with his shoulders at Keira's head. She was, of course, quite a bit more intimidated by Dexter, who started off wanting to lick Keira's face, but by the end of our visit she was letting him lick her hand and jumping on his back for a pony ride. As long as he wasn't walking toward her, it was all good. That's a lot of progress for a 19-month-old.
5) Mom and I got a start on Halloween costumes. We bought the fabrics for both Keira's and my owl costumes, and got the t-shirt we'll use to attach Keira's "feathers". I'll probably make a simple shift for myself, but for Keira an extra large t-shirt will do. We'll only have one matching fabric for the feathers, the rest will be quite different. Keira's colors will go more towards pinks and browns while mine will go toward rust and green. I think it will work nicely. Now we just need to get the cape/hood pattern nailed down. We'll figure it out, and thankfully there's plenty of time.
6) Next week my summer schedule starts. I think I can make this work. Worst case scenario is that I'll have to endure it for a month, and then once I get my sick leave in July I can start using more vacation time and go back to my normal schedule. The nice part will be having Fridays off. I really look forward to that. I'm planning on getting out more with Keira, and also having lunch with Mike at least once or twice a month. That will be really nice. I'll need to talk to Collin and Janet about coming up with some days when we can get the kids together as well... and of course any other friends who are available. I want to get both of us out and about as much as possible. So yeah, if you want to see us, Fridays are a good day (but if you want to see all three, Saturday or Sunday would be better).
7) I'm back on WW finally. I've been meaning to do this for a while, so I finally decided it was time a couple weeks ago. Of course, there's been a vacation and a long weekend since then, and yeah, I pretty much let that fall by the wayside for those days, but still I've seen a bit of progress, and that's encouraging. I believe Mike will also be joining me starting next week, and that's even more encouraging. WW is way easier when we're both doing it. And I'm liking the new Points Plus system a lot better. The points values can be higher or lower for certain foods, so it's been a bit of an adjustment, but I really like that it focuses on the fat/protein and carbs/fiber ratios rather than calories/grams of fat/grams of fiber. I also love that most fruits and veggies are 0 points. That does not suck at all.