Your Sunday report on an ordinary, but good weekend
Braids
Today's truly enthralling news is that - can you believe it? - at the ripe old age of 31, today for the very first time in my life, I attempted to put my hair in two French braid pigtails! Seriously! How have I worn my hair long for most of my life, and never even tried this before? It's pretty messy. I wouldn't wear it to work in this state. For a first attempt, it's not so bad, however.
For those of you who care in even the slightest measure, I tried two different methods with the braids. On one, I kept the braid itself moving close to the part. I only picked up hair from the outside. That one looks prettiest, I think. The braid appears to just sort of "float" over my hair. On the second one, I braided it as I normally would my whole head, picking up new hair on both sides as I went along. That braid is certainly fixed in a more secure manner, but it's busier, and not as pretty looking. I do believe I will continue this experiment.
Morivedo Night
Had a nice gathering at Jose & Kristen's last night, along with two other couples: Mac & John, and Ursa & Andy. Jolly times! Ursa made guacamole, Kristen made Crockpot chicken tortilla soup. I brought Bacardi strawberry daiquiri mixers to make in the blender. I've been having some trouble with my hearing since Thanksgiving; one of my ears is all stopped up. That left me noticeably less conversant than normal. I never felt leftout, however. I just did the grandmother thing, and smiled pleasantly at things I couldn't hear! I'm teaching Ursa to knit, and she seemed excited about her first lesson in making a simple scarf. We played our new board game, Quelf for the second time. Nice, relaxed evening.
Kristen is a master decorator. She just really has an eye for it, and perhaps more importantly, a passion to actually put her ideas into action. They moved into their new home last March. Even since the last time I was there about six weeks ago, they've done a lot to really "settle in." They made a sweep of the house and put up much more of their artwork, moved some little accents around. It really looks great! Kristen inspires me... and then I look at our bare, still mostly white walls, and I just feel overwhelmed. On the one hand, we have tons of decorations just sitting in closets collecting dust. At the same time, I feel like it would take money to do things up the way I really want them -- which I know is a complete fallacy. What it will really take is energy!
I hope to work with Ian to get one piece put up today. I got this cool thing at HomeGoods right before we left for Thanksgiving that I'm anxious to put into use. It's a nice contemporary-style dark wood-framed cork board with a slanty slot at the bottom to put papers in. We end up with tons of paper accumulating on our dining room table, which is right inside the front door, and on the kitchen counters. Most of it needs to be put away somewhere else, and it just sort of sits there in what my aunt would have called a "wino pile" until we attend to it. Having that nice slotty thing will be helpful. Additionally, we made the horrific never-to-be-repeated mistake of buying a stainless steel finish refrigerator in 2009 -- to which magnets won't stick. We can stick some things on the exposed side, but that ends up both messy and unhelpful. The corkboard in the kitchen will be helpful there, too.
I am hopeful that getting that in place will be the inspirational anchor to finally setup the kitchen in a more homey, decorated style. Happy!
Have you ever used ear candles? They're amazing!
When we flew down to the Gulf, I had problems with my left ear throughout the trip. It felt stopped up by earwax (yes, I really am blogging about my earwax...), and painfully so! Then I went swimming during the trip, and I think I got water in there, and that didn't help at all. Fortunately, the return to our home altitude fixed the pain -- just totally went away as soon as we landed in Denver. I still can't hear much out of that ear -- and wouldn't you know that's the stronger one of the two, and the one I use for the phone. I've probably been shouting like an old person every time I speak since Thanksgiving!
Ear candles which I ordered through Amazon arrived on Friday, and not a moment too soon! I felt ready to reach into my ear and claw my very brain out! I got some Debrox from the drug store, which is a brand name for drops of diluted peroxide you put in your ear allegedly to clean out the earwax. I've never found use of that stuff to do anything but further stop up my ears. It is, however, helpful as an antecedent to using the ear candles, so I did that Friday night.
Use of ear candles is completely ridiculous, by the way! You need someone to do this for you; you can't do it by yourself. Punch a hole in the center of a paper plate for the candle. Cover that shoulder with a towel or something in case ash falls on you -- though I've never had that happen. Get a bowl of water and scissors you don't mind getting messy. Put the ear candle through the paper plate, and put it snuggly in your ear -- Yes, you put the fucking candle in your ear! I told you it's ridiculous! Then the other person sets the candle on fire -- no, I'm totally not kidding here! The warmth from the candle (which is in no way painful whatsoever -- I don't do pain) causes your earwax to soften and melt. The fire creates a vacuum in the hollow ear candle, and draws the earwax and dust and whatever out of your ear. It's nuts! Nuts, but completely painless, and very effective. What you don't necessarily realize until you do this for someone else is that the candle has quite the flame on it! That's the biggest reason why you need someone else to attend this. As the candle burns down every inch or two, your helper snips off the burned part into the bowl of water to make sure it doesn't ash on you. Once the candle is about 4" away from your head, you just douse the remainder in the water.
TMI: Dear god, you should have seen the "Chee-toh" of earwax that came out of my ear! No ticket! Evicted! That said, my ear remains blocked, however. We'll continue with the Debrox for the next two days -- then try the ear candles again next week. You shouldn't use them too frequently lest you irritate your ear. And if that doesn't work, then it's off to the damn doctor!
Legal Research
Back to my paper! It's going very well, and I feel good about it. I've got most of the meaty parts already finished. Today I wish to flesh out a few weak areas, put some finishing touches on it. I'll be utilizing my Bose noise-canceling headphones which I wisely adopted early in 2001. They'll drown out the sounds of loud gunfire from the MMO that Ian's playing here in the office. Watson is splayed out next to me on a giant fluffy pillow, covered with an electric lap blanket, and then further covered with an old flannel sheet -- these cats have a hard life, I tell you! My study buddy makes sure that I don't work too hard by insisting that I pause for frequent breaks of cuddling and social grooming. He takes good care of his mama!
Later, alligators,
T$
Today's truly enthralling news is that - can you believe it? - at the ripe old age of 31, today for the very first time in my life, I attempted to put my hair in two French braid pigtails! Seriously! How have I worn my hair long for most of my life, and never even tried this before? It's pretty messy. I wouldn't wear it to work in this state. For a first attempt, it's not so bad, however.
For those of you who care in even the slightest measure, I tried two different methods with the braids. On one, I kept the braid itself moving close to the part. I only picked up hair from the outside. That one looks prettiest, I think. The braid appears to just sort of "float" over my hair. On the second one, I braided it as I normally would my whole head, picking up new hair on both sides as I went along. That braid is certainly fixed in a more secure manner, but it's busier, and not as pretty looking. I do believe I will continue this experiment.
Morivedo Night
Had a nice gathering at Jose & Kristen's last night, along with two other couples: Mac & John, and Ursa & Andy. Jolly times! Ursa made guacamole, Kristen made Crockpot chicken tortilla soup. I brought Bacardi strawberry daiquiri mixers to make in the blender. I've been having some trouble with my hearing since Thanksgiving; one of my ears is all stopped up. That left me noticeably less conversant than normal. I never felt leftout, however. I just did the grandmother thing, and smiled pleasantly at things I couldn't hear! I'm teaching Ursa to knit, and she seemed excited about her first lesson in making a simple scarf. We played our new board game, Quelf for the second time. Nice, relaxed evening.
Kristen is a master decorator. She just really has an eye for it, and perhaps more importantly, a passion to actually put her ideas into action. They moved into their new home last March. Even since the last time I was there about six weeks ago, they've done a lot to really "settle in." They made a sweep of the house and put up much more of their artwork, moved some little accents around. It really looks great! Kristen inspires me... and then I look at our bare, still mostly white walls, and I just feel overwhelmed. On the one hand, we have tons of decorations just sitting in closets collecting dust. At the same time, I feel like it would take money to do things up the way I really want them -- which I know is a complete fallacy. What it will really take is energy!
I hope to work with Ian to get one piece put up today. I got this cool thing at HomeGoods right before we left for Thanksgiving that I'm anxious to put into use. It's a nice contemporary-style dark wood-framed cork board with a slanty slot at the bottom to put papers in. We end up with tons of paper accumulating on our dining room table, which is right inside the front door, and on the kitchen counters. Most of it needs to be put away somewhere else, and it just sort of sits there in what my aunt would have called a "wino pile" until we attend to it. Having that nice slotty thing will be helpful. Additionally, we made the horrific never-to-be-repeated mistake of buying a stainless steel finish refrigerator in 2009 -- to which magnets won't stick. We can stick some things on the exposed side, but that ends up both messy and unhelpful. The corkboard in the kitchen will be helpful there, too.
I am hopeful that getting that in place will be the inspirational anchor to finally setup the kitchen in a more homey, decorated style. Happy!
Have you ever used ear candles? They're amazing!
When we flew down to the Gulf, I had problems with my left ear throughout the trip. It felt stopped up by earwax (yes, I really am blogging about my earwax...), and painfully so! Then I went swimming during the trip, and I think I got water in there, and that didn't help at all. Fortunately, the return to our home altitude fixed the pain -- just totally went away as soon as we landed in Denver. I still can't hear much out of that ear -- and wouldn't you know that's the stronger one of the two, and the one I use for the phone. I've probably been shouting like an old person every time I speak since Thanksgiving!
Ear candles which I ordered through Amazon arrived on Friday, and not a moment too soon! I felt ready to reach into my ear and claw my very brain out! I got some Debrox from the drug store, which is a brand name for drops of diluted peroxide you put in your ear allegedly to clean out the earwax. I've never found use of that stuff to do anything but further stop up my ears. It is, however, helpful as an antecedent to using the ear candles, so I did that Friday night.
Use of ear candles is completely ridiculous, by the way! You need someone to do this for you; you can't do it by yourself. Punch a hole in the center of a paper plate for the candle. Cover that shoulder with a towel or something in case ash falls on you -- though I've never had that happen. Get a bowl of water and scissors you don't mind getting messy. Put the ear candle through the paper plate, and put it snuggly in your ear -- Yes, you put the fucking candle in your ear! I told you it's ridiculous! Then the other person sets the candle on fire -- no, I'm totally not kidding here! The warmth from the candle (which is in no way painful whatsoever -- I don't do pain) causes your earwax to soften and melt. The fire creates a vacuum in the hollow ear candle, and draws the earwax and dust and whatever out of your ear. It's nuts! Nuts, but completely painless, and very effective. What you don't necessarily realize until you do this for someone else is that the candle has quite the flame on it! That's the biggest reason why you need someone else to attend this. As the candle burns down every inch or two, your helper snips off the burned part into the bowl of water to make sure it doesn't ash on you. Once the candle is about 4" away from your head, you just douse the remainder in the water.
TMI: Dear god, you should have seen the "Chee-toh" of earwax that came out of my ear! No ticket! Evicted! That said, my ear remains blocked, however. We'll continue with the Debrox for the next two days -- then try the ear candles again next week. You shouldn't use them too frequently lest you irritate your ear. And if that doesn't work, then it's off to the damn doctor!
Legal Research
Back to my paper! It's going very well, and I feel good about it. I've got most of the meaty parts already finished. Today I wish to flesh out a few weak areas, put some finishing touches on it. I'll be utilizing my Bose noise-canceling headphones which I wisely adopted early in 2001. They'll drown out the sounds of loud gunfire from the MMO that Ian's playing here in the office. Watson is splayed out next to me on a giant fluffy pillow, covered with an electric lap blanket, and then further covered with an old flannel sheet -- these cats have a hard life, I tell you! My study buddy makes sure that I don't work too hard by insisting that I pause for frequent breaks of cuddling and social grooming. He takes good care of his mama!
Later, alligators,
T$