Hair Today -- but not so much

It's over. The snarls, the tangles, the only being able to wear my hair pulled back into a severe pony tail or bun. Twenty minutes to just comb it after a shampoo. Wearing a baseball cap half the time -- well, I may still do that.

After a particularly unpleasant time after I washed it last night, I decided that it is enough. I have the ten inches (off my head and in an envelope at this point) and I'm ready to do this.

The stylist at Snips knew just what I was doing when I walked in with my ruler. She first wrapped my hair in a regular rubber band (not the trusty pony tail holder that has been may primary styling tool this past few months). She measured very carefully and used both clippers and a razor to cut the tail off. My hair is (was?) fine, but thick and dense and should make a good wig. It's also curly! I had forgotten how curly until all of the weight that had been pulling it down was gone.

Now I have hair that is nape length in back and just below my chin in front. It's sort of like the arrow cut popular in the mid-sixties. For those of you who have never grown long hair -- 10 inches is almost two years growth. My hair hasn't been this short for a long time. I feel like a free woman!

Note that there was a young man in the next chair who asked me (when he saw her cut off a pony tail) "Are you donating your hair to Locks of Love?" When I told him that I was he thought that was very cool. My hairdresser also has a friend who has had cancer and whose hair is just starting to grow back. She may do the same thing.

Turkey Storage -- Accomplished!

The wonderful new refrigerator arrived early this afternoon and seems to be living up to our expectations. The fridge portion is certainly big enough -- though some of my 10,000 essential condiments will have to go on a shelf instead of in the door because you lose a bit of space to the beverage keeper -- and will hold all of the leftovers from the feast come Thursday evening. The freezer is awesome! I actually did buy a turkey today and it takes up just part of one of the lower baskets. Time to join Costco! Now we have space to buy things in bulk.

In the picture you will note that the only item to be frozen is my little bottle of Limoncello. First things first. They told us to wait a couple of hours to put food in it and let it reach an initial cooler temperature.

Now we are ready for Thanksgiving. We have space for turkey, and smashed potatoes, and candied yams, and cranberry sauce, and stuffing. That's certainly a lot of carbs. Oh, well, nobody ever claimed that it was healthy to be thankful.

Turkey Storage -- Chapter Two

We had a busy day -- Alex had another ultrasound session this morning (fasting from midnight, etc) at 9:30. This one was more comprehensive and took over an hour. We didn't get to our favorite breakfast spot -- one starving husband and a moderately hungry wife -- until just about 11:10. Turns out breakfast is over at 11:00 and lunch doesn't start until 11:30. Alex had coffee and juice while we waited for regular service.

Fortified and ready for action, we finally headed for the appliance store just after 12:30. They had about 50 refrigerators to choose from -- mostly large, fancy, and stainless. We had our measurements ready -- under 34.5 inches wide and 69 inches tall. Many thanks to our neighbors, Henry and Carole Sepulveda, for the knowledge that we had to measure the height as well as the width. We had a choice between top freezer models (I didn't want that), one small side-by-side, a few bottom freezer (most were too tall), and a couple of French door models. The color I wanted -- bisque -- meant we would have to wait until Tuesday for delivery. If you are buying new appliances, according to our salesman, you should start "transitioning" to white, black, or stainless because everybody is phasing the beige colors out. Rats! Five years ago I very carefully picked out a color for the cabinets that perfectly matched my appliances. In the end we opted for a white French door model with lots of bells and whistles, at quite a bit more than I expected to spend. Had Alex not been with me I would probably have gotten something I wasn't crazy about, but that fit our budget. This is why we don't take our husbands shopping, ladies. We now own a refrigerator worthy of Rachel Ray, if not Martha Stewart. It will be delivered tomorrow.

As it turns out, the new fridge will certainly fit a turkey, and then some. The dishwasher is several years older than the fridge and we will expect to replace it and the range hood (that is only five years old) with white ones in the next year or so. The oven and range top are black and will stay that way. Hot things are a hot color?

I just hope we really like it and that it lasts more than six years. Now I have to start thinking about painting the kitchen cabinets -- or "transitioning" the surface. I'll post a picture of our new toy tomorrow.

Turkey Storage

We will be having a small group at our house for the feast this year, and even a small feast calls for a turkey. Today was to be my day. Yep. I will venture to the supermarket to buy a smallish bird. I hate grocery stores during Thanksgiving week and try to avoid them. Before buying a turkey, however, I had to make space in the freezer. I opened the door and .... WHAT?!? .... dripping. Melting ice cubes. Soft baggies of chicken stock and spaghetti sauce. Yicky frozen veggies. Oh, no!

I tried turning it to a lower temperature and waited an hour or two. Nope. By now we had water on the kitchen floor. It's only six years old and it has already had one repair call. It can't by dying now!

Checked the coils and -- while I certainly wouldn't want to live down there -- they weren't so bad that they would be the cause of the problem. It's not the setting and it's not the coils and the freezer is making noise, it just isn't freezing.

Tomorrow after Alex's ultra sound or scan or whatever they are doing, we will go buy a refrigerator. I hear Lowe's delivers the following day. Our old one is a Kenmore -- our new one will be something else. In the meantime I will build a moat of towels around the fridge for tonight.

Aaaaaaargh!

Celebrating 60 Years

We went to San Diego this last weekend to participate in a celebration of the 60th anniversary of the opening of Delta Sigma Phi Chapter at San Diego State. Mind you, the fraternity is not currently on campus, but 60 years is still occasion for a party. There were lots of guys from the 40s and 50s, very few from the 60s, and I have no idea beyond that. Those people are so young I can't tell their ages. The picture of Alex with one other person is Rich Badami, from my era. The rest are the 50s bunch. Alex was having issues with the camera so I was photographer for the evening or there would be more and better pictures available.

We spent the first night at my mom's house, and the next two at our favorite San Diego B&B, the Balboa Park Inn. Lunch both days in town was at Anthony's, with different friends. It was Pat Davis (my sorority sister) and Larry Ferguson (high school friend of Alex) on Friday and Rick and Jeanine Luke (down from LA for the dinner) on Saturday. They still do the best job of seafood and fish of anyone!

When we arrived at the harbor location on Saturday, the rally opposing Proposition 8 was just getting going across the street at the County offices. It was peaceful and colorful, with a construction paper rainbow thing like the cheering section routines at football games. I tried to get a picture (crowd shot), but it was far more attractive if you were there. There was a huge police presence, even a police boat in the harbor (to shoot water at them if they got out control?).

The evening function was very nice. To most of us attending "business casual" meant a coat and tie for the gentlemen and something you could wear to a wedding for the ladies. Even the younger group looked really spiffy. We have seen many of these people over the years, so we have aged together. No shocks or surprises. Most of us are in pretty good shape for our aged status. Dinner was quite good as banquet food goes (my chicken looked better than Alex and Jeannie's beef). The speakers kept it short. Mostly it was just a chance to visit with and catch up on old friends. It was officially a dinner dance. The first song the DJ played was something recent, and the party started breaking up immediately. As is quite often the case, the music was loud enough that it was difficult to carry on a conversation. One of our 50s guys requested something of an earlier vintage and a couple of people did dance. Maybe we are all just so old that we now go home and go to bed earlier. I'm not any older, of course, but perhaps everyone else is.

Away for the Weekend

We are away, tomorrow morning, for two days in San Diego and two days driving the Central Valley. The occasion is the celebration of the 60th Anniversary of the opening of the Delta Sig Chapter at San Diego State. Alex wasn't there for the start, but he joined the fraternity less than 10 years into its history on our campus. We are very much looking forward to seeing old friends. At our time of life that means geezers as well as people we have known for decades.

There is something about being with other people who are in their sixties and seventies that makes me feel less dowdy and worn. We have almost all become comfortably frumpy. We do have one friend whose wife is still very striking. She is tall and thin and chic and actually makes grey hair look good. Twenty years ago the other wives would have been green with envy. Now we don't mind so much.

The week after we arrive home is the countdown to Thanksgiving and I expect to be busy. I still haven't decided if I want to cook a whole turkey for just five of us, but I will probably decide to buy that instead of the breast or "roast" my friends advise. There is something about the way the whole bird looks on a platter. I'm thankful that I can afford to buy a turkey. I priced them today and they really are expensive. We have not been at home for the holiday in years and I simply hadn't realized. I'm sure there will be families that can't manage such an expenditure this year. We will just have turkey casserole and turkey soup until poor Alex hollers "ENOUGH!"

Alex has one more test next week (another scan of some kind), then the meeting soon with his doctor to let us know how far the situation has gone and what needs to be done. We had been told to expect an angioplasty and a stent and I think it will be on the renal artery. It seems to me that once we reach a certain age they should simply replace the bulk of our circulatory systems with vinyl. He had also been scheduled for a colonoscopy next week -- cancelled because the doctor had a family emergency. I'm glad. One major white coat visit a week is quite adequate.

Buying American

I helped at a craft fair yesterday. I'm not really much of a craft fair person, but the Friends of the Sac City Shelter Animals had a booth and I contributed a few things (jewelry, which didn't sell) and spent the day helping out at the booth.

The event was at the Elks and has been popular in past years. Yesterday the turnout was dismal. We recouped the cost of our tables because I had sold $25 of jewelry in advance and we had lots of $1 items. Because there were so few customers -- at any given time there were more vendors and members of the sponsoring organization than shoppers -- I got to go look at other tables and visit with the craftspeople/artists who were selling. Or not selling. Everybody took home most of what they brought. I talked to one lady I happen to know who was selling very high quality beadwork. She uses pearls, cubic zirconia beads, and real stone. She has experience and does beautiful work. She was offering her items at about what the materials cost and selling almost nothing. I saw nearly life-size lighted snowmen (very cute) for $15 and hand-quilted tote bags for $8. We had some nice knit scarfs for $10. We had 24 and sold only 8. Again, not selling. Our biggest sellers were candy and dog biscuits.

While wandering around I did buy a couple of things at other booths to add to Christmas gifts. Also a hand painted scarf for a young freind who recently got her PhD (I had been looking for a little something to say "congrats") at a booth where the woman was also selling quite nice oil paintings.

We all want to find things that were made in the USA. I'm realizing that one of the best places to do so is at local craft fairs. Like Farmers Markets, this is sustainable commerce and nothing is manufactured in sweat shops. You actually get to purchase your small gift or personal treat from the person who made it. All this at prices that are about as good as WalMart. I will make a practice of checking out craft fairs in the future.

Bodega Bay

My Soroptimist Tea Diva gang had our annual retreat last weekend. We rented a three bedroom house at Bodega Bay -- gorgeous place for a weekend getaway. The pictures are Penny and Cynthia sitting on the floor to work on the puzzle and Joanne and Barbara relaxing on the couch with Penny in the foreground. I hadn't realized how much time Penny spent sitting on the floor.

Unlike our usual outing sites, this isn't a shopping trip for the ladies. Bodega Bay, in fact, has almost no shopping. We watched movies, took a couple of hikes, put together a puzzle, made souvenir bracelets, and laughed and talked and ate. Just being together is great. We liked the house and the area so well that we plan to return next year (we had been gypsies, moving to a new place every year).

One of our good friends and her husband retired to Bodega Bay a few years ago and Linda served as our guide. She and her husband sold a remarkable house here in Sacramento and are nearly finished with an equally remarkable house in the hills above the bay. From the back of their new home they will have a panoramic view of the ocean and a wild coastal canyon. Her company (as well as her husband, David's) is probably one of the reasons we decided to make BB our annual place to go.

One hike was along a path to the top of Bodega Head. The climb up was fine, but going down was another case for me. On the way up we noticed that there sometimes seemed to be a double path, with the eastern (inner) half about six inches lower than the outer half. We wondered what caused that. I have a bit of vertigo (really a fear of precipices, but I don't know what to call that). Sometimes the path was right at the edge of a fairly steep drop. To get past those places on the way I just looked at my feet and hung on to the bushes at the side of the path -- and walked in that inner portion of the path. I'm apparently not the only person whose mind says "This is perfectly safe, silly" and whose gut says "You are going to trip over your toenails and roll all the way down the side of this hill and be dashed to death on the rocks or drown in the Pacific Ocean. Help!" The view from the top was worth it and I would certainly go up again.