Hair Today Gone Tomorrow

Today was the day I selected for a removal of the mop head: Before and after.

Michael thought it was great fun. We cut off a load of hair (the hair on the floor looked like enough to assemble an entire small dog) and completely changed the color. He said he hardly ever gets to do something drastic. I'm very happy with it, although it will take a few washings for the highlights to show up well. The base color is actually very close to my original (some might say natural) color, which no one has seen since 1971. Last week Shana kept looking at my head, saying "what is that color?".

Shana came with me as advisor and general cheerleader. She's been waiting impatiently for the mop removal. She took pictures of the work in progress, went out to bring me coffee, and generally made my makeover her entertainment of the morning.

Natasha and The Nun's Smooth Move

After a week of squabbling over career options, Natasha and The Nun thought that at least a quick lunch at home should be an easy thing to agree on. Both noted the popularity of smoothies of all kinds and thought it might be fun to make one to celebrate the unseasonably warm weather they were enjoying this week. Looking through the available foods in the house neither was completely satisfied with the offerings. The Nun strongly preferred to include bananas, but there were none around. She decided on a fresh orange and frozen mixed fruit with soy powder, vanilla soy milk, and organic blueberry pomegranate juice. It’s a combo she’d had before and knew it to be delicious and balanced, as well as vegan.

Natasha had a different kind of smoothie in mind. She favored a one dish meal in a glass which would pay homage to her Russian heritage, preferably including beets, cabbage, and meat. No beets were immediately available, but there were plenty of onions, a can of collard greens and half a cabbage. There was plenty of soup base in several flavors which should provide a suitable liquid ingredient. She was willing to give The Nun some input in the form of a choice between leftover meatloaf and raw chicken as the meat component. Both were implacably passionate about their choices, and there was no way to compromise without making a drink neither one would be willing to consume.

Violence erupted. The Nun proved to be a surprisingly tough opponent (she’d been to see The Wrestler quite recently) and carried the day handily. Natasha might have fared better if she hadn’t tripped over her handbag, but once the fight started the end was never seriously in doubt. The smoothie of choice (for this day, at least) would be fruit.

A Piece of Cake

Or rather - the whole cake. It's been several years since I've made a layer cake, but I've made two in the same week - same recipe, too. Deep chocolaty goodness with a fluffy seven minute icing.

Shana's making spaghetti and meatballs with a home made sauce. It'll be a yummy dinner at our house with the Humps. Maybe later I'll be watching the Academy Awards, only to crawl out of my chair afterwards swearing as always NEVER to watch that again. I may set up to wind my skein of Cherry Tree Blueberry Hill lace weight silk while I watch it so I won't just be blowing off a whole evening to alternate boredom and exasperation. Then the yarn will be ready to go. It's definitely next on the queue (I'll alternate with the sock monkey) and I may have decided on the pattern at last. I'm thinking of the lovely Float Stole in this spring's Interweave Knits. It's a lengthwise cast on, which will help to avoid pooling, and a simple enough pattern to use with a richly colored hand paint.

Yesterday we saw Coraline in 3D. Shana and I agreed - it's wonderful, but way too scary for young children even though it's animated. Late this morning we hung out watching Body of Lies. It's a really good movie, but really depressing. In my opinion, Russell Crow is a better actor now than he was when he won the Academy Award, if less of a cutie. I did get the last of the leg repeats and the heel turned on my latest socks. I'm now well into the gusset. I thought I had already taken a picture of the completed yellow eyelet rib socks, but apparently not.

Waiting for a Cabana

This has been a week of reckless expenditure. In preparation for outdoor fun I've added a trailer hitch to my car, purchased a bicycle rack to go on the trailer hitch, and ordered the much longed for Add-a-Cabana. Shana will pay for half of these expenses, but for now money is running out of my checking account like women and children off the Titanic. We're planned our first camping outing of the year for mid-March, but we will probably be cycling before then. My original intent was to build a quickie inside the car bike rack, but we need an outdoor rack anyway so we can have bikes AND camping gear. We are so accustomed to bringing bikes along on our camping trips that I am reluctant to go without them. I can hardly wait to see how packing up goes when a full campsite does not have to fit inside a Ford Focus. I suspect all of the gear may still just fit because Shana's Christmas booty of dutch ovens will join the equipment. As it was Shana brought the dutch oven down in her car last time because we were taking two cars. If we had taken just one car it would not have fit. I saw something else irresistible on TV today (darn Fine Living Network!). They featured a transparent kayak which looked FABULOUS. For kayaking in the ocean it would be the best thing ever. Unfortunately the price tag for this beauty is out of the realm of the possible. Since I have the SUV with a rack on top maybe if I am very patient a second hand kayak will fall into my waiting arms. I'd like to justify the purchase of a beautiful new kayak with my decision to ride Big Blue for at least another year instead of shopping for a new bike, but I must admit that I don't need either one. The decision to stick with Big Blue was based on the fact that there is no pressing reason to replace it. It seems I already have loads of great toys.




I met up with Alex, Jamie & Vivian for lunch Friday. Turns out I am now "Nana". Vivian set off my car alarm playing with my keys and for an encore spit a bite of enchilada back onto her plate - I guess it did not taste anything like what she expected.
Later today Shana and I will be off to see Slumdog Millionaire, and then to the Bass Pro Shop to check out the hiking pants (our Christmas gifts for each other) and I'll be admiring kayaks.



I'm all the way through the yellow eyelet rib socks, and about halfway down the leg on my latest pair of monkey socks. I feel like I'm racing against the clock because I have a Knitpicks order on the way. Shana saw the Mr. Foster sock monkey kit on the back of the most recent catalog and fell in love. She never asks for handknits, so when she asked for this I couldn't say no.

Natasha and The Nun Try Therapy

The Nun was nearly always trying to think of a respectable job for Natasha, although Natasha never asked her to anything of the kind. Still, the urge to do good was strong and as the Nun had few other entertainments it was hard to resist sounding her out about various brainstorms. Natasha rejected out of hand both of the healthy outdoor occupations The Nun initially suggested. She claimed to be "just not into" Cowboy or Shepherd as a career, although she was interested in meeting both cowboys and shepherds. Neither job supplied the chance for interpersonal contact or inventive wardrobe choices that she craved. As they stood around discussing the options in the park a passerby called out (not entirely kindly) that it sounds like they should try a little therapy.

That sparked a whole new discussion. Natasha liked the sound of it. She'd seen therapists on Oprah's show. The Nun questioned whether a person could practice therapy without a license. Natasha pointed out the delay in income that would result from the education and licensing process. A quick review of the Self Help section at the local book store revealed that lots of "experts" either had no credentials, or lied about the ones they did have. "Alternative" seemed to be the key. Who could say if you were doing it wrong if you made the entire theory and practice up yourself? Besides, what would make a person rich and famous faster than a new kind of therapy? And Natasha so wanted to be on Oprah's show.

There were a few hurdles on the way to success in the field. For one thing, Natasha liked the idea of "group therapy". She figured it would be more fun than one on one. Since neither one knew how to attract customers, they decided to have the one client who offered to let them practice on her and a "group" of therapists (both of them). It might just be the "new wrinkle" that would make their fortunes. Then there was some confusion about the meaning of "alternative". At first Natasha thought alternative was an important part of the electrical system of a car. The Nun was pretty sure that could not be it. She imagined that it must mean the same as "alternating". She and Natasha would ply the client with opposite advice and see if that worked. It did not go well. The alternating approach made a pronounced impression on the client, but not at all in the way they had hoped. As Natasha's dreams of an Oprah segment dissolved, the client ran away.

Attack of the Giant Flatbread

Among other assorted entertaining snack foods, Shana treated me to a package of giant Swedish flatbread. Looks like a mill wheel!

Old Friends, Bookends

I'm not always sure what the dogs are doing when I'm not looking at them, but sleeping is always a fair bet. Roxy and Skippy are buddies. Neither one is young anymore, so a lot of their time is spent companionably sleeping. Skippy always comes over when Aunt Rita visits, but we see him on other occasions, too. When the Hump children come up to visit from Texas they usually bring their big, much younger and livelier dogs. Skippy does not enjoy their company, and often spends the time with us instead. This weekend Inace was here visiting with her siblings and staying with Rita while Nancy and Larry were in Texas. The change proved to be too much for Skippy. The first night she was there he howled all night. Nobody was happy with that, so he came to spend the rest of the weekend with us.

Later in the weekend Aunt Rita came over to make valentine cookies with me - a messy but entertaining activity.

I had hoped to have breakfast with Alex, Jamie, and Vivian this morning. I am lucky enough to have Presidents' Day off, and thought it might be fun to take advantage of the free time. Sadly, although we agreed to have breakfast today, no one answered the phone at their place, even though we had discussed our plans days before and I called 412 times. They don't have an answering machine and I know they turn the ringer off when they don't want to be bothered. Instead of the nice brunch I had planned I had to satisfy myself flaming him with an email about people who are too rude to answer the phone when they know someone is calling to give them a treat (which he will not answer) and a short telephone discussion much later with Alex about what I considered to be minimum standards of how to treat his mother. Much more to be said about this topic, but maybe not today. I'm angry, and unlikely to be reasonable at this point.