1. There is still no sign of the tree sparrows.
2. The City never sprays for mosquitoes as far out as our house (seven miles). However, the City has been getting some mileage out of The Impending West Nile Catastrophe Fear Mongering and has drummed up lots of support to spray. They are now spraying the river about a mile from our house. It is not helping. Last evening, A. came in the house mid-way through watering the trees of our new live snow fence to get extra layers of clothes because he was being eaten alive. He does not get bit as much as me, and then when he does he usually possesses this superhuman ability to block it out and ignore it. He said he'd never seen the mosquitoes so thick before. THEY BEAT HIM DOWN.
A. wonders if the spraying isn't what killed the sparrows. They live off of insects. (They were fascinating to watch, darting and swooping in the air, munching up bugs midair and midflight.) Maybe they were victims of secondary poisoning? Oh, God. Mountain Bluebirds could be at risk then, too, as they also eat insects.
3. This has me sad and funky and I can't shake it.
4. I am leaving work a bit early today to go fly-fishing. I am PUMPED. Except for my zippy pants shrunk just enough in the dryer and when I sit I look like I have two, green stuffed sausages protruding from my lower body. Also, I can taste the yucky Neutrogena Ultra Sheer 55 SPF sunscreen I put on my face. I CAN TASTE IT. GROSS. It is making me feel nauseous and has all together ruined my morning coffee. [UPDATE: I just went to the ladies room and scrubbed my face in the sink. So much better.]
5. I am not in quite as bad a mood as this list would imply. It is Friday, after all, and in just a few hours I will be fishing. Woo hoo!
+++
Bonus Blithering Note Number One: I have done a bit of Thesis Crap this week. Mostly I've still been sifting through loads and loads of random ass articles I found during ill-advised lit searches by Former Thesis Advisor #1 (FTA1). I find I am getting more and more angry at the amount of time and energy I wasted working with FTA1, not to mention how much time and energy are now required to get my ass back on track and to mend my broken Academic Spririt. Bah.
Bonus Blithering Note Number Two: So, I am going to take the plunge - I am going to start dying my hair. I think I have finally, adequately mourned the loss of my natural hair color (which I love, by the way.) I have some gray hairs showing up and I always thought I'd be okay with that. I always thought I'd be in my 40s when I encountered my first gray hair. I am neither.
I'd love to have the salon color my hair (or, more accurately, have salon highlights), but with our current income situation I just can't validate spening over $125 a month on my hair. I don't fawn over my hair so there is really no way I can, in good conscience, fork over that much money every month. So, I'll continue to spend $40 on good cuts and will spring $10 or so on home coloring stuff. I've decided to go with semi-permanent color so that when I get too lazy to color regularly and my natural color (plus gray, :-( ) shows up it does so somewhat gradually, rather than having stark, horrid roots. Bah.
BUT I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT I AM DOING AND I AM TERRIFIED.
So - those of you who have colored before or color regularly: Please, please leave comments or e-mail me with tips and advice! What to do and what not to do! Also, if you are so inclined, I'd love an absurdly detailed Step by Step description of how the hell to actually do this. The stupid little insert in the hair color box makes it look too easy. BAH! THANK YOU.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
My soon to be mother-in-law always has soon to be father-in-law do it for her. Do you think A would be willing to play stylist for you?
ReplyDeleteI am NO HELP on the hair colour front. I dread seeing my first gray hair, for I don't have a clue about permanent/semi-permanent products. And I'm naturally cheap, so a salon is most definitely out of the question. It will surely be a mess.
ReplyDeleteThe lit search sucks, even moreso when you read a bunch of articles that get you no closer to the end. I had *finished* my lit search and the whole chapter when my advisor sent it to someone else, who suggested even more "interesting" articles. I was not interested, as you can imagine. I felt sick that I had to go back to something I thought was done!
When we were camping over the 4th, we saw a little boy whose ENTIRE HEAD was a mass of mosquito welts. Poor dude.
ReplyDeleteI hope those sparrows return soon.
I am with you in the hair coloring boat. I started highlighting mine about 6 months before the wedding, then after I chopped my hair, I started having it colored (a nice semi-permanent, which makes the roots coming in almost invisible).
But now I can't justify spending $80 on hair coloring and $50 on a haircut, so since my haircut is established and I just need trims, I'm going to go to a Great Clips for that. And last week I bought a $7 box of Nice & Easy because of the stupid gray hairs. I think Nice & Easy is semi-permanent. I got a darker brunette color with a hint of red, and I hope it works out OK.
I'll probably do it next weekend, so I'll be sure to let you know how it goes and how easy it was.
(I used to color my hair all the time in college, but I had poor hair color choices back then: I was a bleach blonde (NOT GOOD) and a way-too-dark red (ALSO NOT GOOD). I'm hoping the color on the box looks the same on my head.)
Flib - I think he would but - HE IS NOT DETAIL ORIENTED. I am afraid I would end up with "medium golden brown" temples or something. Hee hee.
ReplyDeleteLoriD - I hear ya! Lit Search Suggestions from FTA1 were so FUCKING RANDOM. All over the place. At least the Lit Search Suggestions from TA2 are RIGHT ON TARGET. That I can handle. But I have to get a freakin' handle on the files on my computer. I hyperventilate when I open the "Thesis Folder" and see SO MUCH CRAP.
ReplyDeleteP&D - I was thinking of diving in next weekend, too!!! We should call each other before and after to 1) cheer each other on, and, if necessary 2) console each other and swap consoling cookie recipes.
I'm seriously interested in the tips people offer in the hair coloring at home department because I, too, and totally afraid to do it at home.
ReplyDeleteI dyed my hair a few times using the semi-permanent stuff when I was in high school. It never turned out badly. One time it didn't wash out, though, which was fine with me, but not with my mother. I think I left it on for too long while I was dying it. So, don't do that, and do pick something that isn't too far from your original hair color, and you should be fine.
ReplyDeleteSorry about the birds.
My advise on the hair coloring front is that if your hair is at all thick or much longer than your shoulders, get two boxes. Otherwise you won't have enough dye to fully saturate all your hair. Don't necessarily use ALL of it, but just make sure each strand gets good and... Gloppped up.
ReplyDeleteI love to color my hair and frequently change colors. Therefore, I adore the semi-permanent varieties. They sort of gradually fade away instead of leaving that drastic root line.
ReplyDeleteThe only caveat is that you can't go too far away from your natural color. Semi-permanent color also doesn't "lift," so don't go lighter.
And remember, if you hate it, it washes out. If you can find Prell shampoo, it'll take the color out in two or three washes. That shit washes out ANYTHING.
Hmm, I'm not going to be of much help in the hair coloring department, but I am politely requesting before and after photos. :)
ReplyDeleteDo NOT go too dark!!! You can always go a bit darker as time goes on. I'm cursed with the early-gray-gene and I went too dark and it was a nightmare, and quite costly, to fix. I use the Revlon Colorsilk (not sure if it's semi-perm) but I love it and it's cheap--definitely get 2 boxes though.
ReplyDeleteAs for the mosquitos, is so fitting that you wrote this post. We went to the lake yesterday and I was outside of the truck for 30 mins. and then had to stay inside with the dogs for the rest of the day. Two cans of bug spray can't get rid of these Wyoming Skeeters. I'm going to be very careful about leaving the house now. ;-)
And yes, I know everyone in WY isn't narrow-minded and doesn't suck...:-)...If they were I would definitely write some letters to Congress to recommend to have the state expunged from the records.
I can't believe the skeeters are that bad there too! UHHHH! There's no spraying going on here, but it doesn't sound like it's doing much good anyway.
I seem to be fixated on the mosquito bit.
It'd be hard to believe that the tree sparrows would succumb to spraying, both because they're so hardy and because the spraying doesn't really kill the airbornes, just the larvae. Weird though.
ReplyDeleteAs for hair dye, I also do the $8.99 from Target variety, and it's always come out really well for me. I get a variety that isn't too far off my natural shade, and it's "ash" so those fake-looking brassy tones dont' come out, and it has something called "built in highlighters" so it doesn't look all monocolor.
Also I leave it on for less than the directions recommend, and definitely wash it before 24 hours is up so it stops lightening my hair right away.
Good luck; start darker than you would perhaps want in case it doesn't work, because lighter colors are harder to change.
Once you do the coloring, make the switch to one of those shampoos that preserves color. It'll help the color to last longer.
ReplyDeleteIf you've never colored before, definitely do a test swatch...cause really it's better to find out about allergies on one small patch then on your entire head.
Oh...and make sure your hair is well conditioned before the coloring. Dry hair loves color....gray hair hates color. Now carefully contemplate how that could look on your head.
And please post pictures! I'm sure you'll do just fine.
I have two friends who regularly got their hair colored in salons. Both of them went through rough times financially and started using box color. BOTH of them told me they actually PREFERRED the results from the box color, despite all the talking their stylists did about how awesomely different the salon coloring job was, and how disdainfully the stylists talked about "box color." When their financial situations changed, they still both continued to use box color.
ReplyDeleteI find this very pleasing.