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!)