Six Months Without Hairspray

I never thought I could live without hairspray. But I have now for six months. I never used that much hairspray, anyway... Just enough to keep a few of the rebel hair strands from standing up straight or doing other things that bugged me. And I only used it in the morning, usually just before leaving home for the day.

Six months ago I ran out, and at the time wasn't able to buy a replacement. For years I'd used Consort's non-aerosol hairspray. I strongly prefer non-aerosols to aerosols. Plus, Consort's line of men's haircare products doesn't smell like women's perfume. I don't know about you, but I prefer my hair NOT smell like women's perfume. For some reason.

Anyway, I ran out of hairspray and didn't have any more. So I decided I would try living without hairspray. I didn't think it would be possible. But now it's six months later, and I've survived.

Would I ever resume using hairspray? I don't know. If you had gotten used to not using hairspray, would you go back? These are the kinds of questions that keep philosophers up awake at night.

Milkshakes on a Hot Summer Evening

Monday evening it was hot & humid, with the outdoor temperature again hitting the low 90's. But unlike Sunday, when we had delightful breezes blowing off Lake Michigan all day, the outdoor air was as still as the grave. Ugh! I think I lost a quart of fluid during my first 30 minutes home after work! Not fun! And it made me use lots of exclamation points, too!!! I ran the air conditioner for a few hours, which helped immensely, especially after I closed the windows.

Later in the evening I was looking around in the frig for something cold to drink, and realized we had a lot of milk. Which got me thinking... maybe I could make some milkshakes!

Here's my recipe for homemade milkshakes Dave-shakes. They're yummy!

• pour some milk into a blender
• toss in a bunch of ice
• dump in a bunch of sugar
• sprinkle in some ground cinnamon
• add just a dribble of vanilla extract
• cover & blend

Mmm... Tasty!

Home Alone

Our youngest boy, Tim, is spending part of each day this week home alone. Yesterday was his first day, with him home by himself for a few hours between when his mom left for work and his older brother arrived home.









As I drove home from work Monday, knowing that Tim had spent part of the day by himself, I kept inexplicably thinking of a certain song by Talking Heads.






burning house photo credit information
U.S. Department of the Interior, U.S. Geological Survey, Menlo Park, California, USA
http://hvo.wr.usgs.gov/gallery/kilauea/erupt/24ds331_caption.html

Life Without Coffee

zzzz....

*snort*

What? Oh, sorry!

I've been having trouble focusing and staying alert this week. My supply of coffee ran out at home on Monday morning, and even on Monday I only had enough coffee to make two cups. Which I converted into Dave-uccino to stretch it out. M'm! M'm! Good!

But that was Monday morning.

Tuesday was just a foggy caffeine-free day. Absolutely dreadful.

Wednesday was a slighty less foggy caffeine-free day as my body adjusted to the lack of its favorite alkaloid.

Thursday my body was starting to get used to functioning without coffee.

Then my lovely wife discovered I'd run out of coffee and bought a canister for me. She is awesome!

Now it's Friday, and I have coffee.

Ah! Life is good.

What's Dave-uccino, you ask? Simple! It's my own special version of homemade iced cappuccino, kind of like a Frappuccino made with French Roast coffee.

TJ Is Gone

The oldest of our four cats, TJ, past away during the night. A few weeks ago, one of the boys said he thought she was losing weight, but we figured he was just seeing things. Especially since the kitten was now nearly as large as TJ. It seems his instincts may have been correct. During the past few days, it'd become quite obvious that TJ was not well, as she seemed unable to do anything other than lie very still. Especially yesterday.

TJ was a good cat. She was the mom of two of our other cats, Blackie and Chubby. She was quite adept at slipping through open doors, dashing to the freedom of the outdoors, which especially beckoned to her during this time of year. Once outdoors, rodents and small birds fled in terror, knowing that the mighty huntress was on the prowl.

TJ's favorite toy was elastic hairbands, the kind that have 2" or 3" diameter. She'd "acquire" one from someone's bedroom and then run through the house with the hairband hanging from her mouth and her yelling "rowr! rowr! rowr!". At least until she realized she'd been seen. Then she would drop the hairband to the floor and just walk away, as if thinking, "I don't know where that hairband came from! Eh heh. (I'm so embarrassed)"

One bit of silly behavior of hers stands out in my memory. Our family room's windows have top panes that can slide down, as well as the bottom panes being able to slide up. Sometimes I open just the top pane, especially when it's windy outside, to direct incoming air toward the ceiling. One night a few weeks ago I'd done just that. When I came downstairs in the morning, there was TJ, sitting INSIDE the window between the closed bottom pane and the exterior screen. Yep... during the night she'd jumped up to the top of the opening, and then either jumped or fallen down, and then realized she was trapped. Silly cat. :)