damn you assbags!

OK, so I went to take my avobath (which was awesome, by the way, thanks for asking), and by the time I got back, there were three spam comments on my last two posts... so, I've had to activate word verification.

You bots can suck it. Can't we enjoy anything?

Lush Purchases

So, ahem... here's all my new lush stuff... and here's what it is, in case you care.

I promised Husbear I wouldn't do this, but love of lush makes one do crazy things. (ok, yeah, that's not really true, but let me roll with that excuse.)

Tell ya what... I won't write out a long description of everything, ok? I'll just name it, and link to the page it has on the lush website, ok? Because I love you all, and I would be a pretty shitt-tee blogger if I made you sit through all that... but I never said I wasn't a crappy blogger.

Besides, who cares what you think? Oh yeah... I do. Crap.

Top row, from L - R:

Flying Fox shower gel (smells like smoky jasmine sensual-ness - I had to buy a bunch of other jasmine-smelly things, as you'll see)

Avobath bath ballistic (lemongrass-y?)

Youki-Hi bath ballistic (smells like jasmine)

Jungle solid conditioner (I love this stuff... gotta big block)

Second row, L-R, starting with the soap (unwrapped)

Honey I washed the Kids soap (smells like golden grahams!)

Sandstone soap (lemony, with a layer of actual sand!)

Waving Not Drowning bath ballistic (lavendery)

Bottom row, starting with yellow wrapped thing...

Godiva combo shampoo-conditioner (also jasminey... yum! Plus works really well)

Underneath the Godiva is a bar of Hybrid, another shampoo/conditioner (smells fennelly and lemony like ouzo)

Red Rooster soap (not sure yet if I like it... it's REALLY strongly cinnamon!)

My Seanick shampoo bar... I've been using it for five weeks, and it's barely gotten smaller! Doesn't smell like much to me, though.

Under that is Flying Fox temple balm, which I'm using as a solid perfume. I love it, I tell ya!

And last, but not least, but probably stinkiest, is the Soak and Float solid shampoo bar. Smells like tar or campfire? I haven't used it yet, but right now it's double-bagged in a drawer and it still smells like smoke in there.

Yeah, that's it... I'm so freakin' excited. I think I might go try that Avobath, or maybe not? I dunno.

It for now.

Proof that I should not be allowed to care for myself.

Here's what I've had to eat in the last 24 hours:

One order of Huevos Borrachos, Drunken (?) eggs, scrambled with serranos, tomatoes, onions, and lotsa yellow cheese;

A healthy portion of refried beans mixed with yellow cheese, to form some kind of super-dense caloric treat to be enjoyed with corn tortillas (These delights came to be mine via Maudie's North Lamar);

One giant piece of chocolate cake (what an awesome breakfast!);

Two pieces of Mr. Gatti's Supreme Pizza (ok, that even grosses me out)

and One peanut-butter and jelly san'wich.

I'm pretty sure I'm not allowed to eat anything but rice cakes for the next couple of days.

I had a crap day today; one of those days where you work through lunch and then have to stay late anyway. I was on vacation (hello, boston!) last weekend, and didn't come back to work until Wednesday, so it took me the rest of the week to catch up, and some things just fell through the cracks as things are wont to do.

Anyway, it's done now... I think it's time for me to go enjoy some of my Lush purchases.

So, here's the thing.

I don't have anything new to say about Katrina. I did write in our other blog about it, and provide some links... but there just really isn't anything else for me to say, and luckily, as a person who doesn't really have an audience of people hanging around here waiting for me to condense this kind of horror into something witty, yet meaningful and heartstring-tugging, I don't have to. Anyway, the best links I've found so far I've linked on bootsintheoven.

What happened in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama is so awful as to absolutely beggar any description. I feel so helpless in the face of what happened... when I come home, I'm glued to my television screen. All those people... all that incompetence.

So, I'm going to talk about something else, because this is all just too infuriating and heartbreaking, and it takes me about two seconds of thinking about it to just absolutely and completely lose my shit.

godDAMNit.

It's 3:00! Do you know where your fatback is?

I don't. That is, if I had any fatback I was supposed to be caring for.

It's been another day, here in way-too-hot central Texas... not that this is a novel observation, but they're keeping it so cold in this building that several of the women are using heaters. That's great, isn't it?

I found an online version of Lemmings last night, sitting home alone... it's in Dutch, and you need a really, really fast computer to play it. Man, I forgot just how addictive that game is! Added bonus - it runs so slow on the work computer, I get to plan out my moves without pausing. Rawk!

I didn't find it on my own... I found a fellow Austin blogger (she's been doing this a lot longer than me - it's a little pretentious for me to be all "fellow blogger", with a big ol' sneer all over my face and my middle pinky out for no particular reason)! I've been going through her archives today. (hope she won't mind me linking to her....)

Yes, I'm also getting a lot of work done. Shaddup.

Heading to the bookstore today to get some boston books... wish me luck!

Futzers

So, is there anything more surreal than watching Omarosa (and can I just say, what the hell is that website??) commiserate with Johnathan Baker about the vicissitudes of reality television editing?

Yeah, I'm home alone tonight. And I just finished watching Bravo's Battle of the Network Reality Stars. No, I'm not sure why. Thank Gd you don't need an actual reason to watch horrible television. Luckily for my sanity, I only watched it with approximately half of my left eye, while I perused the internets for new blogs which I'll use to get entirely too wrapped up in the lives of people who, like me, think there actually might be folks out there who are interested in reading about crap.

I'm getting really excited about the trip to see Meglets next week... I leave a week from tomorrow. Of course, I'm flying N.W.A. (not the 80s sensation whose lyrics about growing up in the inner city amid the horrors of the crack epidemic gave voice to the previously voiceless, silly), whose machinists went on strike over the weekend. I totally sympathize with these guys; they're getting their salaries cut by like a quarter, not to mention what the airline is doing to their pensions... but NWA had such a good price from Austin to Boston. (Now, of course, I know why.) In my defense, I bought the tickets by doing that thing where you don't see what you're flying until you've paid for the tickets.

I'll have to go to get a travel guide... meg might have to work while I'm there, so I want to be able to figure out what the hell's up. And find my lush store.

Got my hair cut and colored yesterday... it's so great to have finally found a person who really gets what works with my hair, much better than I do. She doesn't have a website, unfortunately... but I think she's pretty busy already. (Note how I'm not giving away her name. You fuckers find your own miracle-worker.) I've got mostly dark, with bits of blond and a couple little shocks of red... I feel like I may be pushing a little, given that I work in a pretty conservative environment, but my boss liked it today as did one of the other ladies I work with, so I guess I'll be ok.

I really have to go watch Alton Brown make a cobbler. bye.

Lush lush lush

Well, the Husbear told me I had to stop talking about Lush at home, so I'll bring my newfound obsession to the faceless masses (well, faceless one or two, more realistically).
When we were on our giant backpacking trip through Western Europe (and small chunks of Eastern) in summer 2001, one of our stops was Bath. The Husbear (well, then just the boyfriend-bear? not the same ring) and I stopped and had a real English breakfast, fried tomato and all, went on a great audio tour of the old Roman Baths, and had tea at the Pump Room in the Baths, complete with a glass of their very odd water which is reputed to, well, assist with the efficiency of your digestive system.
While we were wandering the streets there, we came across a shop that we smelled from literally a block away. This shop turned out to be an outpost of Lush.
There were piles and piles of things I'd never seen before. There were bath products that I couldn't for the life of me fugure out how to use - Bubble bars? Whaaa? I immediately got really intimidated, bought a lip gloss that contained exfoliating shells of something-or-other (turtle? Nah), and backed quickly out the door. I promptly forgot all about the company.
Fast forward to this spring. In my spare time, I came across Rick Steves' website and started perusing the "Graffiti Wall." This is worth checking out if only for the section on what people do to embarass themselves while traveling... but the other sections are a lot of fun to skim as well.
Anyway, I'm reading the Graffiti wall on packing light, and I come across all these references to something called a "shampoo bar" made by a company called Lush. This sounds like fun, I think... a solid shampoo bar? Also, the company doesn't test on animals, and by using a bar of shampoo that is only packaged in a little bit of wax paper, you're really cutting down on waste. And they try to use "natural" ingredients whenever possible - actual fruit, for instance.
I'd become obsessed. No, OBSESSED. I went online, found the company, did some research... they've got such interesting stuff! Now that I know what it all is, I think I could easily spend hundreds of dollars there a month. But I won't! (Hi, husbear!)
So, for my first order, I bought Seanick solid shampoo (it's got two kinds of seaweed in it!) and Jungle solid conditioner (It's got avocado, passionfruit, kumquat... etcetera in it!). I also got some Flying Fox shower gel, which you can also use as a shampoo or to wash clothes.
I ordered on the 31st of July, and did priority shipping, because I didn't think I could stand waiting three weeks for my new toys... they still took six business days (read - I got them Monday) to arrive. When I opened the box I thought I was going to be knocked backwards (in a good way) by the smell... really, really strong.

I've already gone on much too long... oh well!

I used all of my new products to wash my hair that night. I got crazy lather off of the shampoo, and the conditioner worked great (I was all nervous, because the forums at Lush were full of people talking about how difficult Jungle is to use, but I had no problems). My hair smells awesome and still feels so soft, two days later. Since Lush at this time makes 17 different solid shampoos, and they come out with new types and discontinue old ones all the time, I think I'll never be wanting for a new product. It's like a whole new world!

There's no Lush store here in Austin, so I have to pay CRAZY shipping rates (stuff comes from Canada) but there is one in Boston, where I'm going to visit my friend Meglets over Labor Day. I know of at least one place we'll be going! W00t!

(Yeah, I don't really care that this post was boring. Husbear yesterday gave me a one-day moritorium on talking about Lush, so it had to come out somewhere!)

Warning: This Post Is About Poo. No, Not Mine.

I've been on a halfhearted excercise kick lately, mostly involving not getting up at 6 AM to do a Pilates DVD. I like the Pilates, it's fun, and my tummy already feels a bit tighter, but I am just not a morning person.

I think I like Pilates because, every once in a while, the lady up on the screen tells me to roll back and forth on my back for a while, which is fun, and actually seems to be good exercise. I'm totally enjoying it.

The problem with it, though, is that it really offers nothing in the way of aerobic exercise, something I'm totally lacking in my day-to-day routine of sitting on my ass staring at a compuer screen and then sitting on my ass staring at the television. And eating; I forgot to mention eating.

So, the Husbear (yeah, that's his new name. As Sars would say, I suppose, learn it, live it, love it) and I have started taking walks together around our apartment complex several times a week. It's been really hot, so we've been trying to walk late, but we still return all slicked with sweat.

So, I'm finally getting to the point here:

WHY DON'T YOU FUCKERS PICK UP AFTER YOUR DOGS?

Seriously, there's shit EVERYWHERE. We have to look out for it every time we step off the sidewalk, which is fairly often, as the sidewalk doesn't run around the perimeter of the complex.

Seriously, you people are GROSS.

Thank you for your patience.

Oh, you know, like, stuff. Gawd.

So, excuse me while I clamber up on my soapbox.
(climbs up, ever-so-gracefully wrenches hip, bangs elbow on safety railing installed after last unfortunate soapbox incident)
(clears throat)
Fuck Karl Rove. (and seriously, what the shit is that Raw Story shit? Shit.)
(trips backwards off soapbox, spraining ankle and stubbing adorably teeny baby toe)

Anyway, now that I'm done with that, how are you doing today? Good? Oh, I'm so glad to hear that. Yes, I know I haven't been here in a while, but I have it on good authority that I should stop talking about how I haven't been here in a while, so wha-ever.

It's been hawt here lately. You know, heat of the hundred degree variety, two-hundred-thirty dollar energy bills (yes, we're getting it looked into, what are you, the energy bill police?), walking around flapping your arms in little baby bird flaps to aerate the ol' armpits, et cetera. Last Saturday, it felt really nice outside, almost cool, even, so we decided to go try out the Kitchen Door. They don't have indoor seating, but they do make a Laura Bush cowboy cookie (last thing on the page), so I guess that's good. Mr. Pants asked if it included fresh Laura Bush, and the sandwich artistes rolled their 15-year-old eyes, like, real fucking original, old man.

We took our sandwiches (chicken and egg salad) outside to enjoy the nice cool weather al fresco, and ended up ingesting a good gallon and a half of gasoline fumes along with our sandwiches. Seriously, minivan taxi guy, red range rover guy, and chevy silverado guy, would it fucking KILL you to turn your giant gaschugging cars off and get the hell out of the car? (These will be the first people with their backs up against the wall when the $5 gas revolution comes.)
Somewhat refreshed, we headed back home, passing a thermometer along the way. Time and temperature? Oh, try 1:15 and 96 F. Yeah, we had a refreshingly cool outside picnic when it was ninety-six degrees outside, the whole time remarking how nice and refreshing the lovely summertime weather was.

Does this mean we're finally Texan?

Oh, London...

London, our thoughts are with you today. I felt sick when I heard about what happened this morning.

Wikipedia already has a great site up, whch is being constantly updated.

(don't let the bastards grind you down)