Saturday, June 25, 2011

Today's Update on River Flooding

This is the blog post I tried to get to load into the blog, but it wouldn't "go" the day I did it.  These are flooding photos from the road... Not much has changed since then, except there are more mosquitoes!  See the next post to see flooding by air!
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We took a short walk down to the end of the street today with Skippy to take some photos of the flooding of the commons.  Today the newspaper said it was official: the river is above flood stage.


This is our neighbor's house that is usually on the south side of the river.  


Well, technically, it's still on the south side of the river - where the river should be; but the river is roaming!  Now the river appears to be almost, if not completely, surrounding it, but I don't think it really is.  I was talking to the family at church last week.  They said that when the house was built in 1898, it was set up on higher ground.  So, it has never really gotten flooded, I guess.  Last year, the flood completely covered the only access road to their property.  This year they decided to spend a few weeks with family while the river does its thing.

This is the cement plant, which you probably can't really see all that well in the videos.  It's a local landmark - and on bike riding days, you look for which way the smoke is coming out of the smoke stack to see which direction you should be riding to have the wind at your back.


From this angle, it looks like the flood water is closer to the plant than it really is; but the river is certainly pretty far out of its banks.  When not flooded, the river is just behind the bushes in the middle of the photo, and is only about 20 feet wide at its widest point.  In drier times, there really isn't much - if any - water in the commons area - which is in front of the bushes.  Just soggy in some spots, with alkali at the soil surface.

Here is a video of the view from the end of our street.

It probably is a little difficult to compare to the previous one from the other day, but the water is somewhat closer to the road today, I think.  It looks a little deeper to me, but maybe that is because the color of the water looks a little darker - maybe because of the time of day (about 5:30 p.m.) and angle of the sun.


Here's a new video from the frog/toad spot down the road.



FLOODING - BY AIR!

Yesterday was graduation day for the students at the Tech school here!  We had the opportunity to host four of the graduates and their families for lunch before graduation.  It was great!  We had quite a house-full, and lots of food.  We really enjoyed meeting the families of the young men who we fed on Sundays!

One of the moms - who stayed with us a few nights (and was almost shocked to see how much weight her son gained, probably from eating at least 9 sq. inches of a 6-foot burrito!) - took photos of Laramie on her cell phone as she flew in to the airport.  Thought I'd show you pics of the river flooding from a different vantage point!

Here is her photo of the approach over Laramie.  It sort of looks like a tornado from the air for some reason, but I think that is because there is a lot of water around from the flooding.




For those of you who might have flown into our airport on one of the little airplanes from Denver, you probably are familiar with the "turbulence effect" of that little airplane!  Such was the flight in on Thursday afternoon, she said.


Here is a photo of the lower elevation approach into the airport...



You can just begin to see some of the flooding; but they must have circled around another time before landing, because she was able to get a photo of the cement plant, too, from lower elevation...




What's "funny" is that she really didn't know what she was taking pictures of - just shooting random shots of things she found interesting.  She didn't even know that our neighborhood was in the landing pattern for the airport.  The next photos you'll see are somewhat "amazing" because they are shots of the same areas that I took pictures of - and tried to get on my blog, but for some reason they weren't uploading.  I'll try to get them on again so you can see these areas from the vantage point of the road.


Here's a closer shot of the airplane's approach into our neighborhood...




Can you see where the roads come to sort of a "point" just left of the center in the photo?  The brown house just to the right of the drainage ditch, just to the right of center and down a tiny bit, is our house!  There are two white spots (houses) to the left of our house... ours sort of looks like a patch up dirt instead of house, but that is because it's brown.  Phil was outside looking at the plane coming in for a landing.  Maybe if you could zoom in on the photo, you could see Phil!  :-)  

Anyway, she was so surprised to find out that she got a shot of our house from the air!  It was her son who noticed it and first sent the photo to Phil's phone to see it.  Then I begged to have her send the photos to me so I could show all of you!


And this is truly more amazing... here is a shot of the house that belongs to our friends from church, just on the south side of the river.  It is completely surrounded by water!  You can't see the house up close well at all, but it (and their barns) is the little dots of buildings in the photo sort of right of center and up a little bit. The road to our neighborhood is in the top left corner of the photo...




And this photo is a closer view from the road at the end of our street where Skippy and I stopped to take photos of the flooding from our aspect...




The first bend in the road just above center on the left is where most of the peepers are.  The next one or two roads south of that is the end of our street, I think... I'm still trying to figure it out.  I'm looking for the drainage from our road into the commons area, where the frog blender dumped frogs from the flooding a few years ago when we had the tornado in town.  It's hard to see now because of the flooding.


Today the river is at 5.3 feet, which is 0.3 feet above flood stage.  I heard something that they expect the river to be flooded for at least well into July, there is still so much snow to melt up in the mountains.


The mosquitoes are already very terrible, even though they've sprayed the river area by air at least two times that I know of.  Today I am going to try to find some acceptably-scented mosquito repellent to wear.  It is awful outside.  We finally have some good weather that would make it nice to be outside, but there are just too many mosquitoes.


c@

Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Prepping for an Art Show

A few weeks ago I decided to try to enter a local art show (see my other blog to see more of my work... I'll post final photos there from the show). I suppose that, had I submitted my photos sooner, I wouldn't have been rushing around so much toward the deadline... but that would be totally out of character for me, I think.

Speaking of the deadline... After I found out that six of the fifteen pieces for which I submitted photos had been accepted, I thought for weeks that I needed to deliver the pieces on June 20th.  Turns out that it was June 17th by 5 p.m., which I discovered at 10 p.m. on June 17th!

However, I still needed display stands on the 17th even if I had realized that was the due date for delivering the pieces.  I had three display stand "plans":  A, B and C.  Plan A - they were to be built by a friend Phil works with, Josh, who also happens to be the son of the family who built our house.  Plan B - our friend who owns a bike shop in Cheyenne was going to build some stands for me in case Plan A didn't work out.  Plan C - I ordered (in plenty of time) a number of generic stands from my usual source in Texas, but I had two pieces that would NOT work in any commercial display stand.

On the 17th... Plan B fell through: Our friend's welder broke and he had to order parts in order to finish the stands.  Plan C: I hadn't received the stands from Texas... I called the company and they said they were shipped the 16th!  Turns out that I found out later, part shipped on the 13th... back-ordered stands were shipped on the 16th.  Phil found them on Saturday by the downstairs entrance to my studio in the garage.


Plan A... I didn't hear from Josh for days when I was really beginning to sweat because I didn't know WHAT I would do if I didn't find something to use for my odd-shaped pieces.  He lost his phone at work and didn't find it until Saturday, I think it was.  I managed to keep busy putting together a new inventory of smaller items to sell at the gallery gift shop, but finally we heard from Josh!  He brought the stands to the studio to make sure everything fit, but had to take all but one back with him for adjustments.  


Once we got the glass piece into the one stand Josh left with us, we decided we'd better not try taking it out again.  It was a little tricky to insert... but looks pretty cool.  This is it:


Potential Energy
 The green and white stripes on this piece are actually strips of glass that I stood on edge before fusing them together.  The "zig-zag" shape is actually a glass tile that I made by standing strips of glass on edge, fusing it, and inserting it in the circle strips before the whole thing was fused.  The next time you get the opportunity, try taking strips of glass and forming them into a circular tile.  Try getting strips of glass to form a circle! Try getting strips of glass to stand up without falling over all the time.

It wasn't until Monday after I got home from work that I was able to check my email to see whether I could still enter my pieces on Monday.  They said I could!  Josh brought the stands to me that day around 1:30... after hitting a car on the way over.  There were still a few weld marks that needed to be buffed out... Fortunately, we made a contact with a man near us who helped us with that and, at about 4:30 p.m. I was able to get the pieces to the gallery!  That is about 1/2 hour sooner than typical for me, sad to say.


So, we wheeled our crates of stuff into the gallery.  I will be the only glass artist exhibiting in the show... and I got to include six pieces, which is more than other people got to submit because most of their pieces have to hang on the walls and wall space is more limited than floor space.  :-)


Here are the other pieces I submitted - fast photos taken in my table top studio, but I hope to get better photos of everything all displayed at the show - or maybe they'll let me get photo copies that are being taken for the show catalog.


Morning Reverie
This piece was made from scraps of glass in my scrap containers.  Hard to see in this photo, but it is actually slightly curved, which made it impossible to stand in a nice display stand that was commercially made.  This is in another of Josh's display stands.  The piece is actually in the stand upside down, but it fit better in the stand that way.  I had to smudge the stand photo where the weld marks showed before we had the marks buffed out.  Sun was setting behind the rain clouds, so lighting wasn't that good... I just needed a quick photo to get going!


'57 T-Bird: White with Pink Interior
This is one of my favorites.  It's called a "pattern bar" piece.  see the striped pink strips?  Those are actually cross-section slices of a tile I made by putting a lot of little strips of glass into a square frame, then fusing them all together.  After slicing them, I arranged them into a design.  I love the little "port hole" designs.  :-)  I love the diamond plate base on the stand!  And those things sticking up on the sides?  You were wondering about those?  Those are antennae.  I'm going to try to get to the salvage yard to see if I can find some car antennae to stick inside the holes to "complete" the stand; but at least the piece is at the gallery for photos, and this should work.


Blonde Bombshells
OK.  THIS is my favorite.  Oh.  Maybe it's just one of my favorites.  I do love the little blonde ladies, though, that are kind of bomb shaped.  See their little red shopping bags?  And red shoes?  It's actually a bowl, about 2" deep... thick and heavy because the blonde bombshell ladies are actually cross-section strips from another tile that I made into pattern bars.  It is a lot of glass in this piece.


Ikebana Sunrise
This is an interesting piece.  Not necessarily one of my favorites, but the components were fun to use.  The squiggly line pieces are called "vitrigraph," which I made by "melting" glass in a flower pot in my kiln.  When it got liquidy, I pulled the glass through the hole in the flower pot and twisted it into squiggly strands.  It cools quickly.  See the blue pieces?  They're really thick because they were some of the first pieces of glass to come through the flower pot.  As the glass gets hotter and hotter in the kiln, thinner pieces of vitrigraph are created.  This is another of Josh's stands.  The piece is not flat - it is slightly curved.  Again, would not fit in any commercially made display stand.


Coliseum
This is a small piece - in a commercially made stand.  Again, this is a pattern bar piece.  The "Coliseum" is made from the cross-sectional slices of the tile that I made.  The blue strip at the bottom of the coliseum reminds me of, perhaps, water in a canal.  That's how I know which side is up, and which side is down.


So, that's six.  Come out to the show and buy one!  I need to pay for a lot of display stands!  :-)


c@

Wednesday, June 8, 2011

Who Has a Comfortable Bike Saddle????

I want to show you some photos from my bike ride last week!

We picked up my bike from the bike shop in Cheyenne last Monday.  Phil got it overhauled for me so that I could start riding it again.  It'd been hanging in the garage for so long, it needed new tires - and a LOT of cleaning.  He paid for a professional tune-up, so lots of things were taken apart and rebuilt.  It was great - looked beautiful all cleaned up!  It's a pretty old bike.  I got it used when I was in school in Riverside - so that was about... hmmm... 20 years ago?  I rode it quite a bit back then - it even went to Mono Lake long ago... and I rode it from Riverside to San Diego once!  I rode it when I started the bike club here... I rode it all over Wyoming on the Tour de Wyoming.  I rode it on the RAGBRAI in Iowa once, too.  We've both been around the block a few times!  :-)

But, last Wednesday I rode it again for the first time in YEARS!  It rode like a dream - it was great!  I had a higher average speed than I think I've ever had.  I don't know if that was because of the tune-up, or whether maybe I was in a tiny bit better shape after having done the Leslie Sansone 5-mile walking DVD for a number of months already over the winter.  Or maybe the wind was at my back!

Anyway, it felt good to ride again (even if I did have to ride out the bumpy dirt road of our neighborhood just to get to a paved street).  I rode about 10-miles ride that first day - the day I got my hair done, so I had to cut the ride short to make my appointment in time.  After those 10 miles, I was pretty sore from sitting in the saddle; but I still wanted to get more miles in on Friday when I had time off from work.

Weather on Friday was great!  It was a tiny bit chilly with the breeze, but really nice and sunny.  The road was miserably bUmPy!  Years ago - maybe 5 or 6 years ago - I called WYDOT to find out when they were going to do some repairs on the road because the shoulder is/was/still absolutely terrible!  PAINFULLY terrible!  But, I had a particular destination in mind and I really wanted to get there.

I rode out of town several miles to get to the wildlife preserve to see what kind of wildlife I might see.  Once years ago, Phil and I had some sand hill cranes fly over us as we were cycling along.  On my Friday ride, it seemed like I got there faster than I thought I would.  in fact, I kept looking for the roadside historic marker and I never saw it!  I was sure that they'd removed it since I didn't see it.  

When I got to the lake, I mostly saw geese:





I also noticed that there was still quite a bit of snow on the mountains to the southwest of us (top right corner of photo below).


Funny, though.  It wasn't until the other day when I looked at the videos that I took, that I noticed how windy it was when I was out there!  That water was moving pretty fast in the lake (see the video).  And it was from the wind - not the geese!  I hadn't even noticed the wind because I'd been riding with it!  I was actually kind of tired because it was a pretty long ride for only the second time in the (excruciatingly painful) saddle.  But, I knew if I just went a tiny bit farther, I could get a good picture of the snow on the mountains that is now currently responsible for the flooding that we have down here.  So, I dragged myself back into the saddle to go just a little bit farther... I knew from the saddle and the bUmPy road, I wouldn't be riding out that way anytime again too soon.




So here's a photo of the mountains with the over 200% of normal snow pack last Friday.  Today, our river is over flood stage and rising and spreading itself around pretty well - and pretty fast.  Over 1,000 cubic feet per second.  


So, after hanging out with the cows for a few minutes, I forced myself back into the saddle.  I didn't have any cell phone reception out where I was - at least I wasn't able to get a call to go through, so there was no way I was going to be able to call Phil to come and get me to take me home!  I had to cycle myself back home on that bUmPy road on that miserably hard saddle and that was that.  


As I left to go back the way I came (I passed up the option of doing a hill climb to get to the highway a different direction, as well as getting to ride an even greater distance on that bUmPy road), I stopped to take off my jacket and try my cell phone again.  No luck.  But, I thought the sound of the peepers was pretty cool where there was some flooding - possibly intentional for irrigation, or maybe just pretty large snowmelt puddles.  I couldn't tell on which side of the road the peepers were loudest.




But I really needed to drag myself back home or it was going to get even more windy, so I hit the road again - on that miserably hard saddle...


As i was riding along, a little pronghorn doe ran into the road ahead of me.  I slowed down - not wanting to scare it away, but not wanting it to run into me, either.  I wanted to get my camera out of my bike bag to take a photo of it for you, but I knew if I stopped to do that it'd run away, anyway.  So, I just kept pedaling very slowly.  Then a car came up from behind me and saw the pronghorn.  The car stopped in the road for a little while, then proceeded very cautiously as the pronghorn - not being able to find a way to escape through any fence - was darting back and forth across the road.  

Finally the pronghorn ran along the fence line for a little bit and the car was able to proceed... but I was still coming up from behind and the pronghorn didn't know what to do about a bicycle.  It ran back and forth across the road, along the fence line... and we were approaching the very busy highway.  I really didn't want it to run onto the highway and get hit by a car.  I didn't want to have to stop to take a photo (eeeeeuuuuuwwwww) of roadkill to show you!  But, the closer we got to the highway, the more the pronghorn wanted to get away from me.  It finally just bit the bullet and charged full speed along the fence line in my direction, and just kept going past me - fortunately!  It was relieved - and I was relieved that it got away!


And I continued to pedal... trying to keep my average speed up, and so that I could just get home and get off the bike.  Off the saddle.  But, the highway was coming up... the bUmPy highway... and the wind wasn't at my back anymore.


Once I got back on the highway, I just kept trying to keep my average speed up so that would be my focus, not the bumps.  I remembered from years ago that Phil used to ride really close to the white line at the shoulder of the road, so I tried that.  It seemed to be less (if that is at all possible) bUmPy there.  So, I rode along near the line for a while.  

A few miles down the highway, I came upon a somewhat seedy/shady looking guy walking down the highway.  I kept telling myself, if I could keep up my average speed, surely I could ride faster than he could run; so I pedaled as fast as I could, got by the man without incident, didn't look back for a long, long time, and just kept pedaling.


As I was pedaling by a ranch, these three horses ran over to the fence when they saw me.




It was actually quite comical.  I didn't get to catch the expressions on all of their faces in time because I had to stop to take out my camera.  All three of them were looking straight at me with the biggest, hugest eyes I've ever seen!  By the time I got my camera out and got it off the video setting - which required putting my reading glasses on, the horses had lost a little interest.  I turned around and didn't see that guy walking on the highway (he was miles back by that time, I'm sure), so I took a tiny little break and a long drink of water, then adjusted my cycling shorts hoping to make the padding a little more comfortable, and dragged myself back into the saddle and continued down that bUmPy highway.


A little bit farther down the road... I saw the historic marker!  They didn't move it after all!  I stopped there and took another long drink of water... and tried calling Phil.  My phone showed - at least it looked like - a connection to Phil's number, but I heard nothing on the other end.  I thought maybe I'd ask him to come get me... but, not being able to get through, and not wanting to be a quitter, I kept pedaling.  


That made me remember a time years ago when I went biking with a friend of mine on that highway.  She hadn't ever really ridden a bike very far, and she was on her mountain bike.  And in quite a bit of saddle pain, probably because of the bUmPy road, too.  She kept getting off her bike and pushing it.  We must've been on the road for hours.  I kept trying to encourage her to please get back on the bike, that she surely could pedal faster than we were walking and then we would be home much, much sooner.  It was miserable for her, and time was dragging by incredibly slowly...  but I didn't want to think of that anymore.  I didn't want to think about the pain...


I'll tell you what, though.  The best sight in the whole wide world is the sight of home when you just want to get there.  I was still miles away, but I could see our house from the highway!





I had to use my telephoto on the camera, but I got a picture of it.  What is pretty amazing is that I shot this without my reading glasses on!  I just aimed where I thought it was, and actually managed to get a picture of it!  So, OK.  With the house in sight distance, it was hopeful that I could make it home - hopefully without somehow permanently injuring myself on that saddle on that bUmPy road!


The rest of the ride was without incident until I finally got back into our neighborhood.  I still had to navigate our dirt roads... washboards... ruts... potholes... bUmPs... There went my average speed!  I had to slow down to about 8 miles an hour, then 6 miles an hour... then into a headwind at about 2 miles an hour.  And there is this teensy little incline, around the corner just two houses from our house - very short, not steep, barely noticeable unless you are exhausted and in pain in a very hard saddle... I didn't care if anyone saw me.  I got off the bike and PUSHED IT - yes PUSHED IT - that short little distance just so I wouldn't have to ride on that bUmPy road in that PAINFUL saddle into the headwind.  Yes.  I thought about my friend pushing her bike while I was pushing my bike.  So, when I got around the bend at the corner, I got on my bike and rode again - knowing that I could pedal faster than I could walk now that I was out of the headwind.  And in about a minute, I was finally home!


When I got home, I tried calling Phil again.  There SHOULD have been cell phone coverage at home, but still I wasn't able to get through.  The only thing it could be was either Verizon service was out for some reason - or my cell phone wasn't working.  When Phil got home form work, he tried calling me.  Nothing.  He called Verizon.  No problems there.  They suggested taking out the battery and putting it in again.  Hurray!  My phone worked!


Note to Self:  I need to remember the battery thing in case that happens again...

Tuesday, June 7, 2011

My Newest Favorite Breakfast: Baked Oatmeal!

It's Tuesday night and I'm making breakfast for tomorrow so that I can eat quickly and then get to my friend's house so that we can head over to Cheyenne for Kohl's Doorbuster sale!

I found this particular recipe for Baked Oatmeal on the Emily Bites Website. The version she shows is with blueberries and peaches.  I am using fresh blueberries and fresh peaches.  I've also tried it with apples, which is good.  I am thinking from the smell of this in the oven, this is also going to be pretty good!


I took a photo of it in the oven cuz I don't think it's all that attractive after it's been baked.  It is sort of like a bendy granola bar when it's done. But, you can kind of get the idea from this photo, I think.  You can also look at the EmilyBites website to see her photos.

The website says to use a 7"x11" pan: I use a 9"x13" pan.  It makes 9 servings, so in the larger pan the pieces are not as deep, but definitely make you think you are eating more because they are larger.  :-)

I like to keep the sliced pieces stacked between layers of waxed paper in a plastic container in the fridge.  Then making breakfast in the morning is pretty easy - just microwave the oatmeal in the oven until it's warm.  Very tasty.  Phil and Marge have even put maple syrup on theirs, and sometimes even a little bit of milk.  

I'm thinking whipped cream might not be so bad, either!  :-)

Sunday, June 5, 2011

Some Cool Things We Saw Today

1.  Rocky with Pink Ears


Please don't think he is fat!  He has lost 10 lbs. since last fall!  He is DOWN TO 21-1/2 lbs!  He is due to get shaved very soon, as the weather has warmed up a lot - quickly.  This was just a cool sight of him today because the light was shining through the raspberry colored lamp in the living room onto his ears.

2.  House Finch-Pecked Cherry



This was kind of tricky to shoot, but I think you can see it in this photo.  The finches pecked out all the fruit from around the cherry pit, leaving the pit inside the skin of the cherry.  Just something kind of cool.  We haven't seen the robins lately.  There must be too many worms for them in all the flood waters or something.


3.  Berries in a Bowl




I just like this heart-shaped bowl, but never thought I'd use it after Valentine's Day.  I kind of like the berries in it.  It was a little bit hard to get the berries out to serve them, but we just needed something fun on the table.


4.  Fox Scat




I don't know.  What do you think?  Doesn't it look like there are grapes in it from our deck?  There is a den of foxes along this road in our neighborhood.  I tried taking photos of the foxes sitting on top of the dirt mound at the den.  Without my glasses, it was tricky to shoot a photo.  I'll see if one turned out and put it here, if I got a good one.


5.  Baby Foxes




These two little babies fortunately didn't run away when I was taking photos.  Hey!  I actually GOT a photo out of 3 tries without my glasses!  I had moved up to the fence of the horse corral where the momma fox built the den this year.  There are apparently three babies and a momma that Phil has seen when driving by.


6.  River Flooding in the Commons Area of Our Neighborhood


Skippy and I went for a walk this morning to see whether the river was filling up our commons area.  I thought I'd document it to see what kinds of changes there might be from day to day.  Since temps were pretty high today (almost 80 - that is high for where we live, especially this early in the year), some snow melt was expected to add to the depth of the river.  We definitely got some more water in the commons.  The commons is usually dry - people can walk their dogs down along the river bank when it isn't flooding.  Pronghorn and deer usually hang out in the commons.



I have two videos to show you - the first one is close to the end of our street.  It's a little bit jerky in places in this one because Skippy was pulling me.  We'd just started our walk, so he was pretty eager to get going.

The water that you can see in the distance - if you look really hard because I'm just using a tiny little digital camera - is where the river flooded the ranch on the south side of the river.  You may be able to see a very large "industrial" type building in the background.  That's the cement plant.  Most of the other buildings that are way more obvious are homes in the neighborhood. Just keep some of the landmarks in mind so that when I show you more pictures, you can compare the amounts of water in case we get some more.  Temps are supposed to be high (about 80) tomorrow, too, with possible thunderstorms in the afternoon.  You just never know what you're gonna get. 





The next video is farther down the "main" street in our neighborhood - actually, a little bit closer to where the foxes live.  You can REALLY hear the peepers in this one!  The water is closer to the road, too.  We'd need enough runoff from the mountains - and/or some more rain - to fill the commons to a depth of more than about four feet more before it would spill over onto the road.  If it gets that high, I'll try to take photos!  But that is a lot of water...

The sudden jerk in the middle of this video is when a mosquito got onto my head and I needed to get it off there!  When you see Skippy's tail, you'll know it's the end.  :-)



Hair Makes Front Page of Local News

After drinking way too much caffeine yesterday, I couldn't sleep last night.  I was up until about 1 a.m. cooking items for our Sunday lunch.

I couldn't sleep this morning, either, wondering what I was going to do about my hair, and how I'd get to church without enough sleep - and how bad my eyes were going to look with bad hair.

I opted to try one more time coloring my hair at home.  While waiting for the color to hopefully do its thing, I decided to take a look at the Sunday paper.

I picked it up and was SHOCKED to see that I was on the front page!  IN FULL COLORS ALLLLL OF THEM! (Pre-Stripe)

Woman Ponders Lamb's Ears as Hair Disguise
Update:  Trying to color my hair at home didn't cover the stripe.  It now just matches all the other light colored hair.

Saturday, June 4, 2011

$110 Hair Stripe

I got my hair colored on Wednesday.  Issues. I looked like a skunk. I lived through Thursday at work with the Youth Pastor calling me Corella DeVille.   

There was no way I wanted to go to church on Sunday, sit in the front row - where we always sit so Marge can see and hear better - and have everyone in all the rows behind us looking at my hair looking like a skunk with all the black and white demarcation back there.

Friday there was a 45-minute window I could have gotten it "fixed" if I went back to where I got the color done - which is where I usually get my hair done.  I didn't know it was only a 45-minute window until the gal called me to let me know time was up.  I was busy trying to get my art show application submitted, so thought I'd go when I got that together.

Today, being desperate, I tried lightening the dark spots at home.  The color didn't budge the darkness.  So, while I was at WalMart, I went into the "salon" there to see if they could "fix" it.  I waited about 1-1/2 hours (shopped while I was waiting during an hour of it) to get it "fixed".  The goal was to blend things in so that the distinct black (which were supposed to have been brown in the first place) would be blended into the blonde.

The gal who did my hair had a difficult time getting the color to change.  The sides came out fine.  I kind of wondered why she didn't show me the back of my hair - thought maybe because it was a "cheap salon" that they didn't have mirrors or something.  After all, getting your hair DRYED was an OPTION.

I'm glad now that I didn't stop anywhere else to finish shopping.  This is my now, total cost, $110 HAIR STRIPE! 


A scarf doesn't even work.



Phil thinks a black magic marker is the answer.  I just do not know what to do...

Wednesday, June 1, 2011

Phil's 65th Birthday

Not much of a party, but we went to dinner at the Hilton.  

I went in before Phil and Marge and asked the server to tell Phil that the night's special was "The Geezer Special."  She said they didn't have week night specials - only on the weekend; so I asked her to please just make something up.

After Marge and Phil got to the table, she came back over and very quickly told Phil that the special was "The Geezer Special," then left our menus and walked away.

Phil didn't even think it was funny.


The funniest part was that before we left, the server came back and asked us what a "geezer" was.  :-)