Double pony bun (that actually worked for once) today, with homemade black and white sticks.  The hair is drier and tanglier than usual; it's likely the hot weather.  I got some broccoli seed oil in a trade over at the LHC, and it's working very nicely for the tangles--it's a bit slippery and sticky so I don't need much to calm the tangles down so my hair doesn't get greasy.  I'm thinking it'll be a bit heavy for winter, but for summer it's great. 

I've been looking for red sandals and I found a pair at Wal-Moo.  They've got a single wide strap across the foot and a toe-loop.  I liked the color and I liked the style, but thanks to my aunt's genes (I love my aunt, I just wish she'd been a bit less generous with her DNA.) my feet are thick from top to bottom which makes finding shoes that fit a tricky proposition.  Especially if the shoes are cheap, Wal-Moo sandals.  So they were a teensy bit tight through the large strap, but not uncomfortable.  I could tell they'd stretch, so I bought them.  I wore them to work and before I put them on I rubbed shea butter all over the tops of my feet and those sandals just slid right on, they stayed comfy all day, and stretched out just as pretty as you please.  Plus my feet were nicely moisturized.  If the wicked stepsisters had access to shea butter you can bet one of them would be on the throne right now, while Cinderella sat in the corner of the fireplace, poking at mice with a stick trying to get them to turn into a coach.   8)

**WARNING!! RANT AHEAD!!**
I don't know what I"m gonna do this weekend.  The @#$#%^$#@$ jury duty is interferring with my life and they won't excuse me for 1 week in August so I can go on vacation!  The vacation I"ve only been planning for 6 months AND have already paid for!  And it's not like I'm scheduled for anything, they just might need me.  My lawyer talked to the judge and everything.   How is this even fair?  I'm PO'd about being on the jury list anyway because once you're on the list here you can be sure you'll be spending 4 months out of every 12 on call for them.  I don't know if they're too lazy to try to find people or what.  I have a friend who was called up 10 times in 12 years.  That's just ridiculous.  I'll move out of the county if they do that to me.  I knew I shouldn't have registered.      And the next person (who is coincidentally NOT on jury duty with their entire summer taken hostage) who prisses about "civic duty" gets a swift kick in the shin.  And FOUR months!!!  Most other states and counties I know of only make you do 2 or 3.  God.

My weekend is totally ruined.

Visiting the bro. today.  Mom and Dad are here and everyone's playing with the nephew who is the cutest 18-month old in the world.  Yep, I stand by that.  You wanna take it outside?   

"Ordered 5/8/05
Click 'n Ship on 7/1/05
Arrived 7/5/05"

SOON!!   SOONSOONSOONSOONSOON!!!!  My first pending BPAL order was put in on 5/13, so my preciousssss Zombi should be here soon!

I wish it were already here; I have an imp of Blood on order and I"d dearly love to wear it to @#$#$ court tomorrow.  

Didn't sleep again last night and I had a mild panic attack today.  Not too bad; deep breathing calmed it, but yeesh.  I don't know why this is bothering me so much (except for the whole ruining my vacation thing) but it is.  

Got the new Ulla Popken catalog yesterday.  They have a gorgeous green silk-blend embroidered, beaded peacock kimono jacket available.  Me want!  I could wear it to my cousin's wedding, but I don't think I'd ever wear it again, plus I still need a dress to wear with it, plus it's $130.    I'm not sure I can justify it.  

I'm wearing a pair of my new hairsticks today--the red star ones.  I'm wearing the bun I described yesterday; it looks ok, but the darn thing falls to the right no matter what I do.  I'm lopsided.  I put the sticks in on the left for balance but it bugs me.  I measured the bun--5.5 inches in diameter and a mere 1 inch thick.  It's well balanced and doesn't hurt at all.  It fell down this morning, but that was my fault--the elastic was showing so I tried to hide it with a hairstick and everything slid out.  I didn't use the elastic to put it back up; I just twisted the top hair a bit tighter, held it firmly against my scalp and twirled it around my finger.  The style does require a large amount of magic grip hairpins; I'm wearing 8 or 10 today, but it's comfy.

Tomorrow I"m wearing my sushi skirt and sushi hairsticks.   8)  Maybe they'll think I'm too weird to keep.  Sigh.

Agatha escaped the confines of the Kitty Suite and sniffed around the sewing room.  She doesn't want to go out anymore (because it's hot and someone's getting fat  ) but she wants to be out with me.  It just breaks my heart.    She just can't mingle with the boys or she might infect them--unless she becomes a bubble cat.  I can just see her running around in a little cat-sized plastic ball.  8)  I really don't know what to do.  I'll increase the amount of time I spend with her on the weekends, but she can't leave.

Last night Agatha got out into the rest of the house.  She touched noses with Rumpole (who is overdue for his shots, totally my fault, but I doubt just nose-touching will infect him) which isn't surprising.  Agatha tends to be sociable for a cat.  Occasionally she'll bring a strange cat to her porch for a day or 2 ("Yeah, she'll feed you.  Come on over!).  BUT when she walked up to Bogie, she smacked him upside the head!  Poor Bogie.  At least I don't have to make a choice--she can't be let loose in the house because of the feline leukemia.  Besides, Bogie has squatter's rights.  He's actually been at the house longer than I--he was a cute kitten who seduced one of the workmen into feeding him (the guy gave him canned shrimp!  Then he gave me Bogie.  Some days I'm not sure I should have thanked him.)  I can see that she and Rumpole would gang up on the Bog; Bogie thinks he's Mr. Macho Cat, but he's really a terribly spoiled domesticated cat (with a capital "Doh") who would be eaten alive by the tag team of Agatha and Rumpole, 2 former strays who managed to survive the big bad world before imposing on my good nature.   I put Agatha back in the Kitty Suite; she's going out this weekend like it or not.  I"ll let her back in of course, but she needs to run off some of her energy, not to mention her belly.  And NO ONE, no matter how cute or fuzzy, no matter how round and adorable the eyes, or how fluffy the tail, NO ONE picks on Bogie but me.  Period.

Poor Bogie was still a bit shaken this morning; he was clingy and skittish.   

Well, I didn't get chosen for the jury.  I was hoping I would be--the trial was only supposed to last 2 days and I'd be in a much stronger position to ask that I be excused for a week for my vacation.  Sigh.  It took almost 2 hours to select the jurors, but at least I got a bunch done on the bun cover I'm making for the craft swap on LHC.  I hope it turns out well; I'm winging it (patternless and free, that's me!  ) and sometimes things don't turn out as one would like.

Peac ock  Peaco ck  Peacoc k  hee hee hee hee.     "It was Mrs. Peathingy in the kitchen with a rope!"    Bwahahaha!  My dad says I'm easily amused.  He's right.   

Double pony bun with sushi sticks today.  I put it on top of my head accidentally and it's a bit heavy and slightly painful, but not too bad.

Wore Lucy's Kiss and Zombi today.  I'm running out of Zombi. 

My hairscroos came in Saturday.  I'm glad I went ahead and bought 2 pairs of each, cause I need 4 to hold up the Wad o'Hair (tm).  I made my french twist/bun combo (gather hair in a ponytail just below the crown, twist twice clockwise, then pull straight up and twist well.  Fold over and tuck the ends into the "hair pocket" formed by the twisting.  The doubled over log of hair is curled over on the left.  It makes a nice flat round bun on one side with a french twist-like swirl on the other.  I wish I had a camera)  It's a quick style but I didn't wear it much because I could only hold it up with a hair claw, but the hair scroos work!  Four hair scroos and a pair of sticks (mainly for decoration) and it's held all day. 

I tried another style this weekend, one that I saw over at LHC.  Make ponytail, fasten with elastic.  It will eventually be divided into 5 sections, so keep that in mind.  Seperate a section from the top of the tail, curl around a bottle (I used a round 2 oz bottle).  Slip the bottle out and secure the curl with a bobby pin on each end.  You make 3 (horizontal) curls in the middle and one (vertical) curl on each side.  It's really cute and retro, but it won't hold in my nasty thick slippery hair.    It looked great for 30 minutes, then the bobby pins started to pop out and the whole thing unravelled in less than an hour.    I tried crossed bobby pins, 2 bobby pins on each side holding only part of the curl, regular hairpins and magic grip hairpins.  The bobby pins wouldn't stay and the others didn't hold.  Grumble.

So I'm brooding about my noncompliant hair and eating potato chips and I notice the chips seem awfully crunchy.  I notice my tooth feels funny and yes!  I've broken off a huge chunk of molar.  It didn't expose the pulp, thank God, but there's just the thinnest covering between the nerves and the outside world.  I've plugged the hole with beeswax (which works, but the last beeswax I ordered I didn't pay attention and ended up with a solid one pound brick that I'm gnawing pieces off of  8)), but my dentist can't see me until Thursday afternoon.  It's achy but not horribly painful; I just hope I can last until Thursday. I'm stocking up on ibuprofen and I started an antibiotic.   Plus as an added bonus, it's broken off below the gumline so I'm probably going to have to get a root canal.  Oh, joy.  Hooray, hooray, hooray.  You know, I had my dental checkup 8 months ago and I didn't have a single cavity.  Fat lot of good that did me. 

It was beautiful here this weekend so I threw Agatha out.  She wanted back in Saturday night so I obliged and tossed her back out Sunday.  When I went out about 6 pm she was lying on a bare patch in the yard and made me come over to her.  She hadn't eaten, drunk, or used the bathroom while outside.  OK, I get the picture--she is now indoor kitty.  I don't know what I'm going to do with her.  I've extended the Kitty Suite to include the sewing room when I'm with her, but that's as far as she can go.  Not to mention her meanness to the Bog.


I'n kind of glad I didn't see the announcement for the new Sugarstix until today (though I wants those rose sticks, yes I doessss..) because I'll have one big ol' dental bill in the near future.  Sigh.  Dental bills aren't nearly as fun as hairsticks.

I'm so sorry to hear about your tooth!  I'm glad it isn't hurting you and hope it doesn't start to.  Hang in there!

My brother and SIL's cat Paco died last night.  He was only 6.  He'd been staying with her mom and he hadn't been eating well for 3 weeks, but her mom thought he was just homesick.  He started having breathing problems over the weekend of the 4th and had been at the vet's ever since.  They never did quite figure out what was wrong with him.  He died in his sleep.  Paco was a big black lap cat with a fat pink belly where his fur fell out after an allergic reaction years ago.  When I visited he'd sit on my lap for hours and sleep with me.  He'd lie in patches of sunlight and wait for me to get out of the shower and then demand to be petted while I was dripping all over the floor.    RIP Paco.  I hope you and your brother Amigo are together now.

My tooth is actually a bit better; I think it's the antibiotic.  There's nothing like an antibiotic for tooth pain.  Really.  I haven't even had to take any ibuprofen today.  With a little bit of luck I should make it to Thursday.  However, I do not intend to enter into the great circle of dental care--I have a friend who's always at the dentist; repair a filling here, replace a crown there;  I'm not going to do that.  I'll have the thing pulled first.

I spent a good 2 hours with Agatha last night and she completely ignored me for all but 20 minutes of it.  We watched The Road to Morocco. I sang the theme song and made Agatha dance.  She didn't like that.  8)  All together now!

We're off on the road to Morocco
This taxi is tough on the spine.
Where we're going, why we're going, how can we be sure
I'll lay you eight to five that we meet Dorothy Lamour...
We certainly do get around
Like Webster's Dictionary, we're Morocco bound. 

Chopstick bun with a pair of ML sticks.  Hairwash night.  On the MMU front, I like the eyeshadow, but it keeps creasing even when I use eyeshadow base.  I will not tolerate creased eyeshadow, especially when my old stuff never creased.