Sep
17
September 17, 2006
Regarding my hideous-hair problem, you guys have awesome ideas as usual. I’ll let you know if something ends up helping; failing that, I’ll be sure to post photos of my Natalie Portman-esque pixie cut.
(Yeah, right. I haven’t had super short hair since I was a pre-teen and someone mistook me for a BOY. Scarred for life, I’m telling you…)
We did some more geocaching this weekend, which was totally enjoyable. There are two things I really like about geocaching: one, you tend to discover brand new-to-you areas – parks and trails and cool little nooks and crannies – while you’re hunting down a cache; and two, the idea that your very own neighborhood is full of hidden treasures, objects that wait patiently for discovery under leaves and rocks, that are just out of view, that you could walk by a hundred times and never know of their location, is sort of…beautiful? In some cheesy kind of way? Like the world is full of everyday magic and you just have to look for it. Yeah, like that.
This is a hobby with a fairly high nerd element. Lots of cache descriptions involve puzzles that you have to decipher before you can even get the GPS coordinates. Also, people who might be in a park where you’re looking for a cache, who are not fellow geocachers, are referred to as muggles. (And now I cannot believe I typed that “everyday magic” sentence. Pardon me and my twelve-sided die.) Muggles are NOT to be trusted with a cache’s location. Basically, if someone sees you picking up a cache, you have to kill them with your bare hands. It’s recommended that you gouge out their eyes first with your thumbs, that way even if they survive, they can’t make their way back to the cache. Then you lurk, drooling, over the cache and hiss “presssshhhuuss” at anyone who passes by.
So, as you can see it’s quite involved. Plus, in our case there’s the whole getting the boy in and out of the carseat and the backpack aspect, which is kind of tiring after a while, which is why I personally endorse having several Starbucks pitstops during your geocaching outings, especially if they offer Top Pot chocolate donuts.
I hope you are not able to sleuth out the cache locations from these photos, because my eye-gouging skills are seriously not up to par.
In other weekend events:
Cat was acting suspiciously, prowling around a bush in the front yard, and on closer inspection…
…we discovered a very small, terrified mouse clinging for dear life. We helped it escape, but as long as she/he hangs around, I think his/her days are numbered, especially since we found this just a couple hours earlier. God, it’s like “CSI: MOUSEAMI” out there.
Poor little mousie! How did you ever get that picture???
Hee hee, Riley looks rather unimpressed with your eye-gouging skills as well. :) Definitely a look you’ll see more of in about 12 years …
I’m late with a suggestion, but here’s what I found that works for me (and I’m a flatiron user). It’s called Biosilk Silk Therapy by Faourk Systems. You can use it on wet and dry hair. I apply a small amount (a teeny amount goes a long way) on towel-dried hair and blow dry, then flat iron. It’s phenomenal stuff. Here’s a link.
http://www.farouk.com/biosilk/silktherapy/product/st-st.htm
P.S. I bought it at a hair salon.
THAT MOUSE IS SO FREAKING ADORABLE! Also, I’ve never heard of geocaching before but that sounds fucking awesome.
Awwe, my husband and I were just looking at that picture of the mouse, I said “poor little mousie!” and clicked to comment, mary got there first! ha! I’m seriously jealous of your picture taking skills now too… Add that to the list with the writing skills and the killer legs! Grr, time to take my sloppy arse to bed! :) -h
I really really really want a pet mouse now. Sooooooooo cute.
The pictures look gorgeous. I especially love the second one. The lighting’s very pretty.
ewwww, mice are grosso matosso. Sure they act cutsie and all that with that soft furry, big-eye thing they have going on but they just kinda shout out ‘disease’ to me…..(now I feel really mean, like the mean girlfriend-of-the-popular-jock-type in a Hillary Duff movie).
Anyways, great photo of you L, and the boy….oh the boy so cute. He looks loads like you now.
Someone enlighten me, what on earth is geocaching? Is it a USA thing only cos here in NZ I have never heard of it…..
Ever since you mentioned geocaching last week, I’ve been wanting to try it. So much so that I already informed my dad that I’m stealing his GPS for a while. Looks like you guys had a nice weekend.
What, no chalk outline around the mouse? No mini crime scene tape? Poor mousie, loved the caption though!
Geocaching sounds fun – I fully intend to get a GPS and start up a new geekilicious hobby!
What were your prizes from the cashe?
Poor mouselet! But if you have one – you have a LOT!
“It’s dead Jim”, had me snorting hard!
I love to geocache, but can’t get the hubby to go with me, so I have to take all the little guys instead. They love it, and you’re right, it gets you out in places you wouldn’t normally go.
You guys are the cutest family ever.
Funny. My husband and I were at that rock cache in your picture on Saturday on a little tour of Bellevue before going to Whole Foods.
We’re such geeks that we’ve even created one of those puzzles that are terribly difficult to solve, just to get back at all the jackasses that post such difficult puzzles. Also we refuse to use the word “muggle” and in fact I’ve said more than once if someone says that word around me I have the right to punch them in the face.
I used to be a fan of the cuteness of mice. And then we had some living behind our stove. And now, now it is war, I tell you.
And therefore I invite Cat to our abode. I think we’ve gotten rid of them all, but perhaps her skills could be of use. You’re invited too, what with your mad eye gouging skills.
Looks like we’ve got the same Garmin.
Only the best for our boys! My husband waited for months for this new Garmin to come out “I can’t buy one until the new one comes out!” It’s pretty awesome. It saved my ass while driving in Dallas, that’s for sure!
It is also useful for garage-saleing!
when we first got married, my husband found out about geocaching, and decided he really really really wanted to do it. only, he wanted to do the stuff in like…alaska, and mexico and stuff like that. forget crap around our OWN town. sheesh. as it turns out, we’re poor and can’t afford alaska or mexico, and husband ended up seeling his GPS at one point (which he still mentions every now and then). i’m not so much into the idea. not because i’m scared of the high Geek element (or the gouging out of eyes), it just seems like a lot of work, traipsing about in teh bush while they husband drools over an electronic device saying things like “i think it’s over here”, or “we must be getting close now!” ya. not for me. but, if he wants to go out alone, i will GLADLY share in any treasure he may find and bring home ;)
My husband proposed to me using a geocache. It was totally awesome, and not quite as nerdy as it sounds.
You look gorgeous in that photo, L. You really do.
“It’s dead, Jim.” Bwwaaaha! Nice.
LOVE the live mouse pic, too.
Okay. I now understand (sort of) what geocaching is…but what do you FIND in those little boxes? Are you scared to open them? Condoms? Chewing gum? What?
Mice? AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEK. Hate. Even though it looks all cute in that picture, it makes my skin crawl to think about them running near me. EEEEK! I am reenacting the “jump on a chair” scenario from old cartoons!
Leptospirosis! Hantavirus! Plague! Do not touch the mousies. They are cute fuzzy disease vectors.
Uh. You’re pretty sure that the victim died an unnatural death, right? Because if you find multiple dead mice or other rodents (or birds, for that matter) without signs of foul play, the cautious thing to do is call your local health department.
This moment of zoonosis paranoia brought to you by the letter E and the number of the Beast.
We went Geocaching for the first time this weekend. We found 2 caches in our neighborhood and I totally agree with your everyday magic comment, cheesy as it is. Right after we found one of the caches, an old man who lives across from it came over to ask us what we were doing. He said that he always sees people poking around there and wondered what the heck they’re doing. Unfortunately, we didn’t know about the muggles thing so we told him instead of gouging his eyes out.
Riley is so cute! His look is all full of vague contempt “Yes, we’re geocaching…what of it? – away with you!”
Everytime my husband wears the backpack with Declan in it now, i liken it to that scene from Mad Max Beyond the Thunderdome.
Also, mice are only cute OUTSIDE. When they are, oh, say…dead in your fridge atop the packet of tortillas you were about to have for dinner, that’s where the cute ends. (I still want to know how it got INSIDE the fridge – it was like a little david copperfield mouse – only dead).
Never knew such a thing as geocaching existed. The technological mindblowingness of keyless car unlocking still amazes us, so we probably won’t even own a GPS for another decade.
I’d start with a trim for the dead ends and then nourish the hair with whatever remedy works best for you hair type. Some suggestions at:
http://www.salonweb.com/damaged-hair.htm
http://www.salonweb.com/pro/damage.htm#sol
I am also a huge fan of Nioxin shampoo and conditioner (it is for thin or thinning hair, but think it can do wonders for all hair types).
Ooh, I have that same GPSr! I need to go geocaching again soon.
Dude, this entry totally made me laugh. I love what you said about how it’s kind of beautiful, and then wrote the part about the muggles and the di, and the gouging of the eyes. You crack me up!!
caching=awesome
mouse on stick=cute
me=dork
Great pic of the boy!
umm, HELLO AGAIN, CUTEST FAMILY EVER.
poor mouse!
help! i’ve been searching your entries to find that link you posted in which you made your own stationary and business cards? can’t find it :( i’d appreciate it if you’d post it for little ol’ me. thank ya!
PS love this blog!
Oh yeah, geocaching — whoo hoo!
My husband and I are such dorks that the first thing we do when we’ve decided to go somewhere (like on vacation) is find a few caches to do while there. So far we’ve gotten caches in Oregon, Idaho, California, Montana, North Dakota (me by myself there), Florida, North Carolina and Washington (where we live just about 1 3/4 hours south of you! Wave at me at Exit 49 the next time you visit the cabin …)
It’s been so much fun seeing Riley go from infant to smirking little boy … thanks for sharing his cuteness.
I “heart:” geocaching! Don’t you find the coolest places?
You look precisely like Riley in that picture. Also: you have my teeth, except whiter, something I never noticed before.
And only you can capture a mouse in a decidedly non-skeevy way.
OH, that poor mouse! He even looks scared to death, if that is possible for a mouse. You should see the things my outside cats (as opposed to my inside cats, who are too dumb to be allowed in the city streets) bring home. Giant rat for dinner, anyone? Sometimes we get two a day, if we’re lucky and the hunting’s good.
Okay, the whole “it’s dead jim” thing had me literally clutching my stomach, doubled over laughing. Perhaps that’s because our cat is a complete serial killer and constantly leaves bloodied gopher carcasses all over the house. I won’t go into the instances where all we’ve found of a mouse is the front portion of the head and the legs, usually under such lovely places as the dining table. I refer to such moments as a scene from “se7en” for cats. Thanks for the awesome geocache post…maybe my friends will finally get why I keep bugging them to do it with me. I can’t believe that in 5 years of asking people to pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeze go geocacheing with me, not a single one has ever even considered it. :( Maybe your post will finally swing some yea’s my way.
Speaking of “CSI Mouseami,” I knew someone who did “Miami Mice” back in the 80’s.
Ooooh — I can’t stop with the assvice: I found the be-all end-all solution for damaged, frizzy, limp, flyaway, dull, lifeless hair: stop washing it. Or at least, wash it only when you can’t bring yourself to go another day with unwashed hair. (Use Bumble & Bumble Surf Spray or Dry Shampoo at the roots to stop it looking greasy, and brush frequently to distribute the oil from the roots to the ends.)
I used to HAVE to wear my hair short — my whole life, I’ve never been able to have anything but short hair, at no greater than chin-length; any longer than that and it would just look too dang wispy & damaged. Think Baby Spice, but worse. Sparser. Sadder. Sparse but FUZZY.
Then someone at Gene Juarez told me to wash it as infrequently as I could bear. After a year and a half of following this advice (I now wash it only 2x-3x per week) I now have long, lustrous, shiny, thick, enviable hair. Well, “thick” for me. I never thought this was possible — especially not now, in my forties. Nobody ever told me I could have Pantene-commercial hair.
Hairdressers used to say to me, “Wow, your hair is baby fine. No body at all. There’s just not much to work with, here.”
But nobody ever told me the reason was not my genetics but rather my habits of over washing and styling. Over use of tools and products is just really hard on your hair, especially if your hair is at all delicate.
Somehow when you brush your scalp’s natural oils down the hair shaft to the ends, your hair magically becomes stronger, shinier, more manageable, thicker, has more body, plays well with others and stops talking back. The trick is not the right shampoo, but rather shampoo much more rarely. Or at least, it is for me. (Also when I do wash it I use Dove shampoo that’s supposed to not over-clean the hair.)
Also, I color my hair and the color definitely holds up better over time the less I wash it.
Why was I 39 before anyone told me this? All I can figure is, nobody makes any money off this advice. Hair product companies make more money the more shampoo they sell, shampoo that requires you to buy conditioner, hair serum, gel, hair spray, etc.
I am going to eat that baby! He is so efing cute – like you don’t already know that!
ah! i just learned about geocaching yesterday.
we had an office brainstorming session to try to generate nonfiction book ideas for grade 4 students.
care to write one???? :)