7 things I love

I was tagged a few weeks ago by Kim, a fellow sketchy knitter.  I was asked to write about 7 things I love.  I could do the cop out and tell you about how much I love D ( my husband and best friend) and how Fred and Ginger (the cats) are the cutest.  But I’d like to tell you more. I already told you 3 things I love last year.  I need 7 new ones…

Lets see where this goes.

1. Blob.

What is blob? It’s a snack around here. If we’re a bit peckish in the evening, we make a batch of blob. It’s really just some rice krispie squares that underachieved. They didn’t become square. They embraced the entropy of the world and became a blob.

Really, the truth is that we don’t want to wait, so we eat it while it’s still warm and gooey.

2. The couch.

I should have fluffed it better and made it look good for the picture.  D and I are both small people. We live in a small scale house. We looked long and hard to find a couch that fit us and that didn’t overpower the room.  We ended up with this one.

I love the couch because it’s comfortable and it does a lot of good stuff. When I can’t sleep, I come out and read or work on it, then sleep out here.  The other night D couldn’t sleep so he came out to read and sleep and his comment was that the couch is more comfortable than our bed. I think that describes it perfectly.

It also doesn’t stain and the cat hair just wipes off. Horray for microfibre!

3. The Cottage

My grandparents purchased this cottage in the 1950s and we are lucky that it is still in the family.  Currently my Aunt owns it, but we can use it on several occaisions in the summer and fall. It’s so peaceful, a great getaway and gets me back in touch with my family and my childhood.  There are several traditions about the cottage (and D’s trying to start one about jumping in the lake straight from the car!), but my favourite is trying to avoid doing the dishes by going for a canoe paddle right after dinner to “see the sun set”.  It works about 75% of the time (shhh!).

4. Sequence

It’s a board game. It’s got very easy rules. It can be played by 2 to 12 people (OK, numbers that aren’t multiples of 2 or 3, like 5, 7 and 11 don’t work).  It’s great when some players are 3 sheets to the wind.  Get a copy. You won’t regret it.

5. Keens

I have 4 pairs of Keens right now. One pair is only good for wearing in the garden now.

They are so comfy and have a style all their own. Kinda like me?

6. The basement wall.

Without the basement wall our bikes and snowboards would be all over. Yes, those are bikes and boards for 2 people. No, not all the bikes are pictured.

7. The internets.

I’m addicted. That is all.

Have you seen I can has cheezburger? Fred and Ginger now talk like that.

Phew. That was 7. If you read this, consider yourself tagged and leave me a comment to say you’re doing it!

Weekend in Vegas

Wow, that was fast. We went to Vegas for the weekend, leaving Friday morning, returning Monday night.  Due to flights and time zone changes, Friday was about 21 hours long. That made Saturday, Sunday and Monday a little overtired, but still fun.

We stayed at the MGM Grand in the West Wing. It was just right – the decor was not hotel room beige and it was B&D sized. The king bed did cause some confusion though – I was so far from the alarm clock in the morning!

We headed out to try our luck and luck was with us both!

Somehow we ended up in a service hallway  in the MGM Grand with lots of dead end doorways.

We had a lot of fun!  Thanks for a great weekend P&S!

No pictures – I’m a good student

Actually, no, I’m not a good student. I should be writing a paper of my research results, but I just can’t get motivated. I think I should have taken a break RIGHT AFTER my exam instead of waiting almost a month. I think I’m burned out, but I have soooo much to do.

Anyhow, I’m going to have a look for a dress in Vegas this weekend. If I don’t find anything I’ll be figuring out what to do. It’s good to know that so many people liked the sparkely dress. I had it pegged near the bottom. D definitely likes it as well!

Knitting wise, I finished (well, except for the grafting of the toe) the socks that were for D, then for me and are now for someone else. I didn’t finish the grafting because I needed to start something else to take on the airplane tomorrow.  It’s the curved shawl with diamond edging from Victorian Lace Today. I’m using a 3.5 mm needle instead of a 3.25 mm needle, but I have more yarn than the pattern calls for (880 yards instead of 750).  I did some math – ratioed the circumferences of the two needles and the yardages.  I have 17% more yarn but the diameter of each stitch will be 7% more. So I think I’ll be safe. I hope that math works. That’s one of them there “engineering decisions”.

I also finished another large project that can’t be named. Finally. I celebrated that by casting on the February Lady Sweater in Cascade 220 handpaints in a teal/blue/purple combination. I can’t find a picture of the colour online anywhere.  When I get pictures, you’ll see them!

Lifewise, we’re been swimming at the YMCA and running on treadmills. There’s been a lot of sore bodies in the Casa M-P lately!

I should go and try to add another paragraph to this paper. Then it’s off to Vegas tomorrow. Have a good weekend!

The Dress Dilemma

D’s brother is getting married on December 20th. D’s in the wedding party so he’s in a tux.  I’m the wife of the brother of the groom . I need to decide what to wear.  I need your help.

I have 5 dresses in my closet. I am also going to Vegas next weekend, so I can buy a new one.

I have put the 5 dresses below, which one should I wear or should I buy something new???

From the top left we have Petals – puchased for a summer wedding that D’s immediate family was also at.

Next is Circles, purchased with the bride for a wedding this past summer.

Third is Black – it does have lovely details like 3 bows on the back, but they don’t show up in the pictures.

Fourth is my sci formal dress. 1999 baby!

Fifth is Sparkley but classy.

What do you think?

The improved hair

So yesterday at school I called my usual hairdresser and got an appointment. I told her that my hair was messed up and she fixed it up. It’s really kinda funky now. All she really did was clean up the ends and neaten up the back.  Today I left it to airdry and ended up running my hands through it several times while I was on the microscope so it ended up straight.  Gotta remember that my life means my hair does what it wants.

Here’s the new and improved hairdo.

So thank you to everyone who gave me advice and talked me down from getting out the clippers.

Now to find somewhere on the internet to buy cute barrettes/clips. Any suggestions?

Hair Help Needed

Help.

A few months ago I started following the curly girl philosophy and started to get my hair to have curls and waves. It was going well as you can see from this picture. (It’s the last picture I can find of me on my camera, from 1 week ago)

Some places were a little flatter than others and it didn’t really have a shape, so as a reward for finishing my exam I did some research and went to TO to a salon that specialized in curly and wavy hair to get a cut suitable for my new curly/wavy hair.

Yesterday we went into the city and I had it cut.  I’ve now got a problem – it looks like crap, my hair no longer curls and I hate it.

I have no idea what to do.

To start the cut, the stylist ran her fingers through my hair and decided it was wavy, then said “I’ll style it to see how curly it is, then cut it”.  I was sent to get it washed, then while it was wet a variety of oils and conditioners were put in it and I was dried under a dryer.

My hair came out from under the dryer looking like CRAP. She said “Oh it always looks bad at this point” and diffused it a bit, then started cutting more and more of it off while it was dry. I understood that the cutting would happen dry – that’s the whole thing about curly and wavy hair – cut it while it’s dry so you can take the curl/wave into account.

As she was working through it, it just kept getting straighter and straighter and the hair got shorter and shorter.  There are pieces in it that are about an inch long. This is from hair that fit into a ponytail and touched my shoulders when wet.

When I left the salon my hair was a bit wavy, not curly, and looked bad. D’s very polite comment was “Well you said you had wanted to try short again”.  I was expecting to have nice curls or waves with a shape. I have wisps and pieces that are all different lengths.

We went to a friend’s place to plan a trip to Vegas. I’d told her that I would be in the city for a haircut at a curly place, so she had her husband primed to say “I like your haircut” but the look of shock on his face when I said I’d just come from the hairdressers told me that it looked bad – it was that “you paid money for that?” look.   He assumed I’d had it cut the day previous and with it being a Saturday I hadn’t done my hair to just visit with old friends.

This morning we got up and went biking – having to readjust my helmet to account for not having a ponytail stung. Then I just showered and tried to do anything with this hair.

I have no idea what to do.

Here’s the now. I’ve washed it twice – once I styled it the salons way – that was straight. I wet it again and did what I was doing for the past few months and I can’t even get anything that way.  Sorry for the red face – I’m really upset.

What should I do? I don’t want to trek back into TO to get it recut. The salon does have a website and e-mail – should I send them a picture? Should I just go get it all cut off to the 1″ pixie that I had 5 years ago? Try to get this fixed? How do I walk back into the place I go to here in town to get it fixed? What do I tell my hair person here?

This was supposed to be a fun reward for passing my exam – spend a little time and money on me and looking good which I rarely do and it’s come back to bite me.

Worst? I’m due at my parent’s place for dinner in 1.5 hours with my grandfather and his very stylish (used to write the style page for the Toronto Star 40 years ago!) girlfriend. My dad’s going to make some comment and make me upset.