What happened to Fall???

I heard the craziest thing on the radio today. There is a station in St. Louis that is ALREADY playing Christmas music 'round the clock. As in, right now. In October. Before Halloween.

Are they out of their minds? I mean, come on! It's not even Halloween! What happened to FALL?? At the stores, we go from Back to School to Christmas! All the mass merchandisers already have trees, ornaments, cards, lights, you name it!

Do we really need 3 straight months of Christmas? I adore Christmas - but AFTER Thanksgiving. I refuse to buy a single thing prior to Thanksgiving.

They've all lost their minds. As if having it for too long will make more money. More likely it will make people so sick of the holiday that they won't buy anything!

I may be a bit biased, because I love Halloween, and by putting all the Christmas stuff up now, it detracts. At KMart, they have 1 aisle of Halloween, but the whole Garden Shop is already all Christmas! I just can't figure it out.

Am I the only one???

Hair Debacle 2008

I've not had a great week. But at least THIS part of the week is hysterically funny, in a painful, I looked-like-crud sort of way.

I tend to do drastic things to my hair. I'll grow it out for 2 years, only to chop it all off. I'll go dark, or light, or red. Highlights, lowlights, all-over color - I'm not scared, I'll try it. After all, it's just hair. It'll grow back or out.

There are now TWO times that were (are) complete and utter disasters. One time, about 7 years ago, I had a 3 month old, was heavy - and had been called ma'am and not carded. I was depressed, and wanted to "look younger." So I decided to go lighter. But uh, I chose a really bad color. It turned out yellow. As in, crayon yellow. I can't find a picture at the moment - suffice it to say, it was awful. And my poor friend's wedding was 2 weeks after. Her pictures eternally recorded that one. Lovely.

This week would be number two. I've always wanted to go a bit darker. A nice light brown, maybe a medium brown. My natural color is a light brown with all sorts of weird highlights and lowlights. And I had some serious roots. About 5 inches of roots, to be exact, and the bottom was both chemically and sun lightened.


Nice look, eh?

So I wanted an all over brown.

I bought (yes, on clearance - shoot me!) two boxes of what was SUPPOSED to be medium golden brown. It had a color results picture on the box for "dark blond/light brown" hair - and looked exactly the shade I wanted. Perfect! And both boxes for $4! Yippeee!

So I went through all the instructions. I left it on the exact amount of time. And this is what I got:


GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Notice the absolute horror on my face! I got out of the shower, and it looked a bit dark, but then my hair is always darker wet. So I proceeded to blow dry it. And as I stood up from drying upside down, I nearly fell over when I saw that! OH. MAH. GAWD. This is what the words shock and awe were meant to describe.

So I thought, hmm, maybe if I get used to it? Except that my son, when I went to pick him up from school, didn't recognize me. He walked right past me. People were doing double takes. One woman said, "It's not that bad. And you know, Halloween is coming!" Oh good gravy, I look like Morticia????

I ran straight to my laptop and posted pictures on the bulletin boards I frequent. I figured, if they don't have advice, at least they'll have a laugh!

Thankfully, this is NOT the end of the saga. A darling friend of mine suggested I use a prodcut called Color Oops. They should call it miracle in a bottle, or God's gift to daring but idiotic women....



Bought it, used it this morning. Best $13 EVER. This stuff could gag a maggot, it stinks so bad, but it works. Amazingly! I'm sure if I followed their "use again if full effect desired is not reached" but at the moment, I think I'll stick with what I got THIS time:



Ahhh, much better! Ironically, this is the exact shade of red I have wanted in the past, and never been able to achieve with dyes. We shall see how long the red lasts. Maybe I'll always have to buy that dark color and the oops?

On Voting....

I'm not normally a person who tries to wax philosophical about politics, not one to tell people who, where, when to believe something. But coming across this clip of Craig Ferguson, of a new citizen to our country, talking about our right to vote - it's inspiring. And I love that he makes fun of the media, as well...



I'm not taking a public stand on which person to vote for - but I love his point about it being a duty as an American to make yourself heard.

But You Can Call Me....

I was thinking about nicknames, and the sorts of things people like to be called, or call each other. I was at a party last night, and one of our friends just had a baby girl. We all got to talking about what they call her. Her first name is Alexandria. And they call her Alex, Allie, and Al. And I laughed, because my younger son is Alexander, and we call him Alex, Allie, and Al.

But we also have a whole host of other things we call him. Like Lections - this is an older one, it's from when he was about 6 mos old. He was born in 2004, so we were calling him Alex-tions, like elections. And it became Lections for short. Then there's Loo. I call him Loo a LOT. And that was born from "Little Allie Loo Loo" and a song I made up that goes, "Loo loo loo I want some apples, loo loo loo Al wants some too, loo loo loo he is my Alex, Allie lee lee loooooo!"

Yes, I'm crazy. I know this.

He's also called Leggador. He had the CHUBBIEST legs as a baby - you could just squeeze them! He's also Eagle, but then, that's from his spirit totem.

Then there's our older son, Joseph. It's no wonder this kid tells everyone at school, "My name is Joseph, but you can call me Joseph." He's a riot. But I'm sure his desire to be called his REAL name stems from the multitude of weird things he's got as nicknames.

Obviously, there's the usual - Joe, Joey. But we called him JoJoe for a long time - still do. It fit him when he was tiny. We'd also say JoJoe with a strange accent, almost French - like, dragging out and roughening the J sound. Did I mention we're crazy?? He's also been called LoLoe, PoPoe, DoDoe - the list could go on for a while with that.

The strangest one he has is Tumper. This was my husband's work. He was calling him JoJoe Jumper boy....and somehow this melded and became Tumper. Tumper was also sometimes morphed into Tump-a-Toley. He's Bear, as well, for his spirit totem.

And I'm sure we have many, many more names that we call the kids that we're not even aware of calling them. And I'm sure that there will be many more in their future.

So what are some of the weirder ones your kids have?

Like Manna From Heaven

They're delicious. They aren't messy. And they'll give you the kind of energy needed to do an hour of Spin and still be hyper!!!



Caramel Apple Sugar Babies. I found them at the grocery, bought a few boxes, and shared with the instructor, who promptly fed them to a few of us in class.

I felt like a toddler who'd had 5 espressos. I am sure I drove most of the class insane, and most likely the teacher as well. Doh! But wow. They work better than Amp, or Red Bull, or any of those hideous-tasting things.

My recommendation? Have a few at home, at work, in the car - for those moments you just need to add a little pep. Though, forewarned - it'll be a little more than a little pep.

Oh, and uh - beware the appley burps. Reminded me of Apple Pucker shots...

So yeah - try these, they're very very yummy.

Awesome Giveaway!

Bargain Bri, a really good friend of mine who blogs about bargain shopping and getting the best deals possible, is having a giveaway! She's giving away Jessica Seinfeld's book, Deceptively Delicious! YAY BRI!!! So click here to check out her blog - and her contest!!!

If You Think He's Sexy, Come On Sugar Let Me Know!

Last night at Spin, people were discussing Rod Stewart. And they were talking about how hot he still is. And I got just plain old squicked out. I told them all that I needed a shower just listening.

So then the instructor brought up Wolf from American Gladiators.

I'd never seen him, so I decided to search him out online. Uh, yeah - squickable as well.

I can't figure out women. How in the world are these men considered sexy? Let's discuss - lay it on me. Is it just me who is wondering why why why??? And - which one is less (more?) sexy??



Side by side, for your pleasure....