It's good to hear all your daughter needed was some new baubles!  And that you got some goodies for yourself.     Does your daughter like Hello Kitty?  She might like some of the hair accessories here (the stock changes seasonally):

http://store.yahoo.com/sanriostore/categories-cosmetics---body-care.html

And I believe they also sell other styles at Target, if there is one in your area.

Cynde

Yay me!  I reached a hair goal yesterday!  I managed to go two days without having to wash!  COW-C'ed on Saturday, and was just getting a bit limp by Monday.  I had a session with my personal trainer (why do I pay someone to torture me, anyway?) and I was all sweaty, so I rinsed my hair with just water afterward.  My hair was still a bit limp looking, but was fine up in a bun.  Happy, happy me!   

Also tried daughter's hair up in hair sticks on Saturday, per Beesan16's wonderful advice.  Other than having to fight her over who got to wear the LL Swirling Sea Foilstix (I won), she really liked having grown up hair like Mommy's.  Once my show opens on the 26th I'll have more free time again, and we'll try the other half of Beesan16's advice, and make some hair sticks of our own.  My daughter loves projects, and she can make them as glitzy as she wants.  I swear, she must have been a magpie in a previous life!

COW-C'ed again this morning, so I'm enjoying leaving it down today.  I'll probably put it up for rehearsal, so I don't have to fuss with it, but it's fun to wear down sometimes too.  Especially when its slippery-clean and doesn't want to stay up.

I've been reading a lot about Chagrin Valley's shampoo bars.  They sound very intriguing, but I'm trying to resist.  I only just switched to COW-C, and I'm really liking the results so far.  We'll see how long I can resist.

Still having a bad hair month.  I am still adjusting to the new wash routine - hate that third day hair!  Not only that, but I've done three S&Ds in the past week, and all three lasted about an hour.  Every single hair section I pick up seems to consist only of splits.      I swear I must've cut every single hair on my head by now, but then I keep finding more.  Some hairs are even split as far as three inches up the shaft - I'm afraid to look higher for fear of what I might find!  Some hairs are feathered from the ends on up for an inch or more - I can't even count how many times they've split.  Ack!  This is so not fair - I've been much kinder to my hair since I discovered this place, but I guess I'm just stuck with fragile hair.  That explains those fairytale ends I'm always getting, I guess.

I just trim and trim, and try to remind myself that I am helping my hair be more healthy, but geez - I'm gonna end up losing an inch or more by the time I'm done.  

(edited for silly typo)

Here's to a fabulous September for hair.  Good luck with your routine DWench...g

Oof.  Just bought three new LL stix.     Only two are for me though (Multicolor Midnight IndividualiStix, and Hidden Treasure GemStix) and one pair is a gift (Twisted Zircon Original LongLocks HairSticks).  And somebody stop me from ordering any more green ones.  I just can't help myself!   

Hair got washed today, so we're all happy now.  I did try a bit of shea butter on the ends last night before braiding.  Just as I suspected, shea is much too heavy for my type of hair - very weighed down and greasy this morning.  Fortunately, I had planned my experiment for the night before a wash, so it all came out, well, in the wash. 

The ends do feel a bit different today though, not sure whether I like it or not yet.  They feel beefed-up, yet dry.   ???  I'll have to do some more experimenting to see what gives.

Note to self:  never, NEVER post on the boards about how you’ve finally managed to get the split situation under control because your hair will promptly develop a whole new crop.    I am beginning to think that 13bodies is correct that our hair is a sentient alien lifeform, and we are merely the hosts.  But, if that’s true, why would it engage in behavior ensuring it’s own maiming by S&D?  Hmmm.  Perhaps it is a masochistic sentient alien lifeform.  

And speaking of 13bodies, my credit card company will forever bless you.    It’s all I can do to resist going to bpal and buying big bottles of Justice and High Priestess.  So unfair that imps are not available for the tarot scents!  Those two sound soooooo yummy.  Perhaps I should join the bpal forum and see if there is someone there who will sell me an imp of theirs to try.  Or I may just have to give in and take the gamble.  I can always trade them away later if I don’t like them.  [Note that the rationalization has already begun.]

On the show front, things are going well with Kiss Me, Kate.  We opened on Friday, and have been having a smashing run so far – sold out for the entire run before we even opened.    We added a special benefit on Tuesday for the big-money mucky mucks, and raised $8,500 toward the theatre’s renovations.  Can’t wait to get that dumbwaiter to schlep all those costumes up to the third floor costume rooms!

Hair:  other than the aforementioned splits, it seems to be doing well.  Today was wash day, so it gets to be down and free.  Kind of fun!  Sakina’s zigzag part with mini-buns went well yesterday, although I did have two different people make references to Princess Leia.  Must be because I had the buns low down on my head.  I’ll have to try it with higher buns next time, although high buns usually give me a scalp-ache.

Cats:  I haven’t talked about the fuzz-butts here yet.  I’ve got two: Oscar Underfoot and Fiona Hushpaws.  Fiona I got from the Humane Society.  I had finally managed to convince my (now very ex-) husband to let me have a cat, so we made a trip to see who was available.  I was looking at the kittens, who were all at eye-level of course, when a paw reached out from the very bottom cage and grabbed my leg.  I looked down, and saw the sweet little terrified face of a Russian Blue!  I’m a huge sucker for Russian Blues, so home she came with us.    The vet guessed she was about one year old, and was pregnant.  Oh geez.  Spike (not his real name) was a very controlling - let’s say jerk (to avoid straining the profanity filter) - and told me it was a kitty abortion or back she went to the pound.  I called the Humane Society, who informed me that if I let her have the kittens, then the kittens belonged to them, since I had only paid for the adoption of one cat.   EXCUSE ME??!!    The vet also recommended the abortion, since Fiona was very young and frail at the time, and she thought it would be too much of a strain on her.  So we did it.  May Bast forgive me.  Fourteen years later and I still feel the guilt.    I know it was the only decision I could have made at the time, but, well, enough of that.  

As Russian Blues are wont to be, Fiona is a one-person cat, although she has learned to tolerate my husband (the second one that is, she didn't much care for Spike.)  She was my early warning system when my kids were babies, and would come get me if they were whimpering in their crib.  Such a doll.  The doctor detected a heart murmur last week at her checkup.  Not unusual in a fifteen-year old cat, but worrisome nonetheless.

Oscar.  He showed up about two weeks after I adopted Fiona.  November 1st I was paying the paperboy, and in walks a big black cat.  The paperboy said, “Is that your cat?”  “I guess it is now.”  We think he was about six months old at the time, and looked like he'd been on the streets the whole time.  If Oscar was a human he’d be a linebacker.  He’s always been between 13 and 15 pounds, and all of it muscle.  Such a love, and a big fan of parties, but I have to remember to put the salsa up on the dining room table.  If I put it on the coffee table Oscar drinks it.    He also has a prehensile tail, and has been known to use it to hook wineglasses off the table if he doesn’t feel enough attention is being paid to him.  For a free cat, I’m estimating I’ve paid about $1,600 for him so far.  There was the raccoon fight, which led to the abscessed face, which led to his Frankenkitty impression for three weeks while he had the stent in.  Then the allergic reaction to an immunization.  Then the broken canine.  The worst was the Friday before Fourth of July weekend this year, when  I ran over him in the driveway.    He sleeps in the driveway all day, then gets up and moves when I pull in.  Well, he got up and moved, and I pulled in, only to be horrified by a ::thump:: from the back wheel.  I don’t know if he didn’t get all the way off the driveway, or if he came back too early – he usually greets me when I open the door.  That was five hours at the emergency vet, with thankfully no broken bones, only bruises, contusions and shock, and yes, another broken canine.  And he does move off the driveway right smartly these days.    At his checkup last week they diagnosed hyperthyroidism, which means pills twice a day for forever.  And they ain’t cheap.  Maybe I should have gotten that pet insurance after all?

[edited for funky formatting.]

Agreed - your kitties sound so cute.  I love how your blue kitty picked YOU out by sticking out her little paw. 

Cynde

So, it's official.  I've given up on trying to get my hair to adjust to washing every three days.  After two months, it's obvious it just really wants to be washed every other day.  So fine.  Beaten by dead protein.    I'll give Monday, Wednesday, Friday washings a try and see how it goes.  No hairstix today because I washed this morning and also because I'm punishing my hair.  "Bad hair!  No toys for you today!" 

“Kiss Me, Kate” closed on Saturday and I have the usual after show mixed feelings. I am happy that I will actually get to spend time with my family, but I am really going to miss my cast. They’re the best.  ::sniffsniff::

bpal:  Oooooooh - I am SUCH a liar!  I managed to resist the Lunacy blend on Sunday (musk and blood, really not me) but I did buy three other bottles on ebay on Friday.  Another bottle of Spooky, which I have come to adore (yummy vanilla coconut mintiness) and a bottle each of Honey Moon and Milk Moon, which I can’t wait to try – they sound sooo delicious.  (Darn those Limited Editions anyway!)  I also received not only the six imps I bought from a forumite, but two frimps from her as well.  One would think that would be enough for now.  One would think wrong.  I’ve already got another massive order ready to go, but I’ve promised myself not to send it in until the end of the month.  Unless something else comes up on ebay that I can’t resist.  

Oscar is doing so much better since he’s been on the thyroid medication!  His fur has gotten its shine and softness back and he obviously feels better – he spent several hours last night camped out on my chest, demanding attention and purring his heart out.  His purr can be heard across the room.  And he’s starting to gain back the weight he lost.  I don’t care how much these pills cost, they’re totally worth it!  We’ve worked out a but of a truce on the pill-taking routine, as well.  I had always given my cats pills by holding them under the jaw with my left hand, and using those fingers to open their mouth while putting the pill at the back of their throat with my right hand.  Never had any problems before, but Oscar had strong objections to this method, and I have the scars to prove it!  A friend suggested holding him by the scruff of his neck, but higher up, at the back of the head.  I tried it, and it works like a charm.  Oscar holds completely still and swallows the pill with no trouble.  I do still give him a treat afterwards though, just ‘cause.  He's such a sweetie, but rather dim.  As someone once put it: “Oscar has two brain cells: one sits in the wheelchair and the other refuses to push.”

Fiona has switched over to Winter Sleeping Mode.  Summer Sleeping Mode is to lounge on my chest and bump her head into my book until I give up on reading and turn out the light, then move to her spot underneath the bed.  Winter Mode is to curl up into the tiniest ball imaginable and cram herself up against me.  Seriously, she’s like one of those pill bugs that you can roll around.  She waits until I’m deeply asleep, then slinks up onto my chest and nips me on the nose to wake me up, pawing at the covers to be let in.  She usually will only stay under the covers for a few minutes, then wants to be let out again, at which point we repeat the whole process throughout the night.

Soon we will begin the “Where’s Fiona?” game.  When it starts to get colder, she will find a super-secret lair to hide out in to avoid being put outside for the day.  She hides as soon as I start to get ready to leave for work in the morning.  She’s pretty small, and very creative, and she changes lairs often.  She’s also surprisingly strong, and will wedge herself into places with her feet and back, so that I have to literally pry her out.  

I still haven’t made a decision on her heart tests.  She seems fine, but I know how cats can hide symptoms until far too late.  Sigh.

So I took my car in to the shop on the 9th for a tune-up.  Mentioned to the mechanic that it had been hesitating pulling away from a stop and could they check it out while they were at it.  I just got the car back this morning, after signing a credit card slip for an obscene amount of money.  Why is it that my cats and my car always seem to need work at the same time?

(Edited for funky formatting)