Frosty Vox Box Product Reviews

Just after Christmas, Influenster sent me their Frosty Vox Box, with all sorts of goodies:

Over the past month or so, I've had a chance to use some of these products, so I thought I'd share my thoughts.

First up, the most often-used product: the EcoTools Styler & Smoother Hair Brush:

This thing is enormous! I stopped using plastic bristle brushes a few years ago, sticking strictly to wide-tooth combs to detangle my hair, and occasionally using a nice bristle brush for smoother heat styling. This thing? Combines the best of both worlds-- the individual "teeth" are as wide apart as my wide-tooth comb, but it's a brush. On the few occasions I use a blow dryer to dry my hair, this thing allows me to separate my hair safely and more effectively, reducing drying time (as promised on the label). Even if I just want to quickly run something through my hair for a simple detangle in the middle of the day, this thing does the job so much better than my combs-- faster, smoother, and it doesn't get stuck as much.

Suffice it to say that this thing is a winner in my book :-)

Next up: Makeup!

1. I got NYC's Expert Last Lip Color in #418, Sugar Plum. It's actually a nice, neutral color with a bit of shimmer. Very office-appropriate. Wore it a few times and it seemed to last pretty well without drying my lips out, which is a plus. And not bad for a retail price of $2. I might have to explore this particular brand in other colors at the local drugstore!

2.  I'm not much on makeup, but I wore Rimmel's Scandaleyes Waterproof Kohl Kajal Eyeliner to a New Year's Eve party. Swanky! They sent me a black one (yay) but unfortunately, the cap came off in transit and the tip of the pencil broke off. Still usable, except you know how you break off part of the tip of a pencil, and it results in double lines when you first write with the broken tip? That's what happened to me. I ended up with double lines underneath my eyelid. And whatever this thing is made of, it does not smudge easily. I tried using my fingers to blend it in-- no dice. Had better luck with a Q-tip, but ultimately, let's just say it's a good thing I wear glasses, which helps camouflage eye makeup. On the plus side: it seems fairly smudge proof!?

(sorry, too lazy to find a pic. You all know what eyeliner pencils look like, anyway!)

3. When I got home from the NYE party, I decided to test out Rimmel's Gentle Eye Makeup Remover. It certainly got the eyeliner off without any trouble. Not sure how gentle it was, as my eyelids felt a little funny afterward, but since I hopped into the shower immediately afterward, I'm not sure how long it would've lasted. While I was at it, I tried it on my lipstick, and it seemed to do a pretty good job of removing it. Lipstick is always the toughest makeup for me to remove, mostly because I have a lot of deep grooves in my lips that the lipstick seems to like to settle into.

Finally: Foodstuff!

1. The package of Fruit Vines Bites from the makers of Red Vines had me excited. I love candy (who doesn't?) and I especially love Red Vines. However, when I tore into the package, I was met with disappointment. First of all, these things cannot really be called bites. They're huge! Secondly, they stick to your teeth like nobody's business (do not eat if you wear braces!). Thirdly, the taste left something to be desired. When I eat Red Vines, I expect the artificial sweet red licorice flavor. When I eat something with the word "fruit" in it, I expect more of a, well, FRUIT flavor (yes, I know, "fruit" is a misnomer on a lot of such candies, but shoot-- even Skittles make an attempt to taste fruity!). This tasted more like regular Red Vines, but somewhat... flat. Compounded by the awful stick-to-your-teeth texture, this candy, I'm afraid, is not one that I'll be buying anytime soon.

2. It's been dreary and chilly in the morning this past week, making it the perfect weather to sip some Celestial Seasoning's Candy Cane Lane Decaf Green Tea. Basically, a peppermint green tea. I love tea. I especially love green tea and I love mint tea. So this sounded like an awesome blend!

Unfortunately, much like the Fruit Bites, it fell flat on expectations. It wasn't bad, actually-- lovely strong mint smell that clears the sinuses, and tastes, well... minty. The problem I had was that I was expecting a green tea taste underneath it, and I didn't get that. It seemed mostly just mint. Which is tasty enough, but if something's labeled green tea, I expect green tea! If I'm just gonna end up with pure mint, I might as well buy the peppermint tea (sans green) at the local 99-cent store for much cheaper.

Things from the box I have yet to try:

McCormick's Gourmet Thyme (because I don't cook much and have literally NO idea what one does with thyme-- or most other herbs, for that matter)

Boots No7 Protect & Perfect ADVANCED Serum (because they gave me a small sample packet, and I'll be honest-- unless your default is NO moisturizer, I don't think you can accurately gauge how well something works by just one or two applications).

So there you have it. Nice little holiday delivery full of hits and misses, but a great way to get me to try some new things!

Disclaimer: this box was provided free of charge for review purposes, but the opinions in this post are solely my own.

Tired Feet and Breaking in Boots

This past couple of days has certainly been good for getting exercise in the form of country dancing! On Saturday, some friends and I went down to Borderline in Thousand Oaks, where we had a good time eating, drinking, hanging out, learning some new dances, and working up a sweat on the dance floor. I got a good mix of both line dancing and two-stepping in (it helps when you bring your own two-step partner along ;-) )

Me, Taryn, Amy, Tabitha. (Not pictured: Joe, who took the picture, and Mitch)

After I got home, though, I had a hard time sleeping that night, because my legs were sooooo sore and achy! It's a testament to how out of shape I am :-/ All day Sunday my legs were still aching, but they were better today, which was a good thing, considering I had to do a bit of walking around, shopping!

Saturday night at Borderline marked the second or third time I'd worn my new boots for some major dancing in a long period of time. So while they're definitely still in the "breaking in" stage, my feet, though tired at the end of the night, weren't hurting. I'm a big fan of the Ariat line-- good quality and great comfort. Only downside is that the shaft on them tends to be really wide, and since I have thin-to-average calves, they practically swim in them. Still, I love my boots-- from the deep oiled brown color to the pretty design to the scalloped top, and, of course, the comfortable fit!

Ariat Legend in Brown Oiled Rowdy

Today I went to Ventura to do some shopping, and stopped by Boot Barn to pick up another pair of boots: Durangos. The leather on these is much softer than on my Ariats, the foot is extremely comfortable, the shaft fits on my calves much better, and the square toe was narrower. And unlike the rubber sole of my Ariats, this one had a composite sole that was a little smoother, and hence easier to dance in without having to attach felt or some kind of cloth tape to the sole. Plus, it was a nice, neutral, tan color, which goes well with a lot of deeper-colored dresses I have, especially red.

Durango RD3478 in tan

Tonight, I got to break in my new boots with a two-step lesson sponsored by the UCSB country dance club.  The poor boots not only got some good use, but got stepped on a lot. Amazingly, you can't really make out the faint scuff marks that resulted. I guess that's the nice thing about a lighter color-- scuff marks don't show up as easily. As far as comfort goes, the sole of the Durangos don't have as much cushion as the Ariats. Plus, the heel is slightly higher, which gives rise to the usual high-heel-related leg/foot woes. That probably contributed to my having tired feet after less than 2 hours of active use.

Well, we'll see how they hold up on Friday!

Washing Delicates... With a Salad Spinner!

Although I am not, by any stretch of the imagination, a busty girl myself, I enjoy reading Busty Girl Comics, a fun blog which laments the trials and perks of a busty girl. I think reading it really drives home the old adage that the grass is greener on the other side.

One problem that is universal to women, regardless of cup size, is the ability to easily and affordably find good-fitting bras. I think this is especially problematic for women who are at either end of the spectrum-- either really small-chested, or really well-endowed. So when I chance upon the rare bra that is a combination of good fit AND good price, I snatch it up and hold dear to it :-)

But then comes the inevitable time when the bra must be washed. What's the use of a well-fitting bra if it's funky and gross, right? Yuck. However, I had seen what washers can do to the regular bras (i.e. the cheap, basic kind with no underwire, no padding, and no molding) I used to wear before I had Todd, and there was no way I was ruining my new, hard-to-find bras in a similar fashion! There is hand-washing, but how do you wring out something with underwire and padding, without ruining it? Leaving a sopping garment to dry isn't ideal, either, especially when I live in a climate that doesn't normally get hot and dry. If it's gonna take days for something to dry, it's likely gonna be just as funky with mildew in the end. Double yuck.

Enter BGC, and a post where someone suggested using a salad spinner to wash bras. I had never even HEARD of a salad spinner until then, but when I did a bit of research and found that it was simply a centrifuge device, I grew excited.

I found a cheap, basic, hand-cranked model at K-Mart for $15. It's small, and it's not fancy, but it looked like it would get the job done. It came with a clear outer bowl, a spinning strainer, and a lid with a hand crank to spin said strainer.

The first thing I actually washed was not my bra, but an errant school uniform shirt of Todd's that had somehow missed its weekly trip to the washer on laundry day. So I hand-washed it and gave the spinner a test drive with his shirt. Worked pretty well! It was actually kinda fun to see the water spray against the outer container, build up, and then drip toward the bottom. It gave a good visual gauge for how much water was being squeezed out.

Next, I gathered up a couple bras that were long overdue for a washing, and soaked them in warm water and mild baby soap. Washed them gently by hand, and then rinsed the soap out as best as I could. In went sopping wet bras, and after much spinning, out came damp-but-not-soaking-wet garments! I hung them up and they were dry by the next day.

I was thrilled to see that such a simple device worked so remarkably effectively at wringing out delicates.

The big test came a few days later, when Allan washed one of his hand-wash-only Hawaiian shirts. An XL men's shirt is not exactly a small garment the way a child's shirt or a woman's bra is. I wondered if it would fit in that tiny contraption. But it did! And it worked just as well at wringing it out!

Probably the only downside to this whole deal is the fact that I got a hand-cranked model, which is definitely more labor-intensive. There are other models that feature a pull-cord or a button very much like the button pump used for a child's spinning top. But I figure-- this kind of crank is less likely to break or go wrong in the future (a pull-cord just seems so fragile!), so a little extra manual labor is well worth having a product that will last a long time.

So there you have it. A simple, efficient, cost-effective way to wash your delicates.  If you give it a try, I hope it works as well for you as it is for me! :-)

Customized dresses from eShakti

It's been a number of months since I first discovered the eShakti website, which offers some really cute dresses at reasonable prices (an average of about $60)... and they're customizable! For an additional $7.50, you can customize not only the sizing to your specific measurements, but you can change details of the dress-- hem length, neckline, sleeve type.

My first purchase was this admiral blue pleated cotton poplin dress:

I had it custom-sized to my measurements, chose a hem length of "above the knee" and then waited eagerly for it to arrive. It actually arrived relatively quickly-- probably about 2-3 weeks after I ordered it. Considering it was custom-tailored to my size and that it shipped all the way from India, I was pleased with that timeline.

I was very impressed with the quality of the dress: good, solid, sturdy material, excellent craftsmanship in terms of sewing, and quite a lovely color!

I wasn't exactly enamored with the way it fit on top-- the neckline was a bit wide open for my liking, and because I don't have enough of a bust to completely fill it out, it kept bunching up when I sat down. However, the dress fit fantastically from the waist down-- I love the flared skirt, and so I was able to salvage it by wearing it with things on top, such as this black top:

 

... or a cardigan, either long-sleeved or short-sleeved:

I had such a good experience with the ordering process, and was so pleased with the quality of the dresses, that I promptly placed an order for two more, taking advantage of free shipping for orders over $100, and applying a coupon I happened to have, for more savings.

The next two dresses took a bit longer to get, I think because when I placed this second order, Jezebel.com had just put out an article about them, and demand increased faster than they could handle. They were really good about alerting me to the delay, and even so, I received them 5-6 weeks after placing the order. Still not too terrible for customized dresses coming from halfway across the world!

First up was this "Color trim poplin dress", a navy blue dress with red trim:

I added puffed sleeves to it, sent in custom sized measurements again, and chose an "above-knee" length. This is how it turned out:

True to its photo, this dress's skirt doesn't flare out as much as the other one, and as with the other blue dress, it's still a tad big in the chest, but it does fit pretty well, otherwise! Add a white cardigan and you've got the perfect 4th of July outfit! ;-)

I've also always wanted a green dress, and liked the look of shirt dresses (such as my Modcloth Soda Fountain dresses)-- good fit on top, flare on the bottom. So I selected this Retro poplin shirtdress, which came in a variety of colors, including a pretty, perfect shade of green: 

This dress (aside from tight armholes), fit amazingly well. Perfect fit on top, and a full skirt providing a bit of flare on the bottom:

My only complaint about these dresses is the fact that the armholes are really tight on all of them! It's not so bad on the first blue dress, but it's much more noticeable on the other two. I wonder how much it would cost to have the armholes enlarged so that they aren't digging into my armpits and restricting my movement (especially when driving!) while I'm wearing the dresses.

All in all, I'm really happy with my shopping experience at eShakti. Because of the armhole problem, I probably won't order anything but sleeveless dresses from them in future, but I really like being able to customize the dresses to fit my own measurements and to be able to further tailor specifics of the dress to my liking.

The customer service was a pretty good experience, too. I had read plenty of negative reviews online complaining about customer service, so it was with some trepidation that I placed my very first order. Happily, I've found that I've had nothing but good experiences with them. All my emails were answered promptly, and all my issues were resolved MORE than satisfactorily. Based on that, I'd highly recommend them to anyone looking for custom-sized, good quality, affordable dresses. I wouldn't recommend it if you're on a time crunch (i.e. counting on it to arrive in time for an upcoming event that's less than 2 months out), but if time is not of the essence... well, go for it! :-)

And no, I'm not being paid by anyone to write this :-P I thought I'd finally chronicle my experiences with not only dress shopping online at a different site, but with attempting custom-fitted dresses. Still working on the armhole problem-- maybe I just have broader-than-average shoulders and don't know it!

That Vintage Vibe

I don't know why, but I've been on a real vintage/retro/rockabilly kick lately. Basically, I'm still going strong after Tabitha and I began our online dress shopping spree. Since then, I've uncovered several other websites that focus on vintage inspired fashion, many at reasonable prices, such as Dress 911, Lace Affair, The Stylish Boutique, and eShakti. 

It began when I discovered ModCloth, and immediately snapped up a couple dresses I thought would look good on my oddly-shaped/proportioned frame:

The classic 1950's soda fountain dress, which ended up being REALLY figure-flattering (even if the shoulders were a bit tight).

And moving on to more of a 60's mod look, a houndstooth-print dress which also fit well, even without a sash or belt, which I typically need on dresses to cinch the waist:

I really like the looks of a lot of the styles showcased on these vintage-inspired sites: a good mix of modesty and modern flirtiness. A lot of the cuts work well for my body type, too, since mine is not the type that's designed to show a lot of cleavage, and so many contemporary style dresses (at least, the ones that are more fun and less... dowdy) seem to aim for that.

Then! Several dress purchases later came the pièce de résistance: a lovely little cherry-print rockabilly number that fit me perfectly EVERYWHERE (a rarity in a dress-- usually there's at least ONE problem area that could use a better fit, whether it's my chest or my shoulders or waist):

Not only that, but it perfectly epitomizes that pinup, rockabilly look I'm currently enamored with. Oh, I don't fully complete the whole ensemble-- my hair is still my ordinary hair and makeup is still nonexistent save for very special occasions. But wearing that dress makes me feel feminine, flirty and fun!

So now I have my eye on the next dishy thing: that same style dress, in polka dots! What could spell "retro" more than polka dots!?

 

Like I said-- I'm really digging the retro/vintage look. I love how the styles of yesteryear accentuated a woman's assets without being overly trashy. Sexy yet classy. And I love how the modern take on some of these vintage styles retains a lot of that while still adding a bit of contemporary flair to it. 

How about you? What's your style?

Fashion Woes

A few weeks ago, Tabitha and I went on some shopping sprees together. No, we never physically set foot in any stores together, but, armed with a web browser, high-speed internet connection, and IM client, we browsed the cyberstores together, sharing finds and getting each others' opinions. It was actually a lot of fun! We each ended up buying quite a few things from different stores, and excitedly shared our purchases with each other as they arrived in the mail.

I'm not sure how the shopping spree started, but the focus was on dresses and skirts and more fun, feminine things to wear when the weather warms up. I was a bit skeptical of ordering clothes online, because I typically have to try on clothes before buying them, but some of these outfits were too cute to pass up, and the online stores had pretty reasonable return/exchange policies, so I took a chance.

You see, I have a notoriously difficult body size/shape to work with. I am almost always between sizes, and dresses are the worst-- they almost always fit well in one spot, and not so well in another. My bust and waist lead me to smaller-size dresses, yet my shoulders and hips (thanks to baby belly!) lean more towards medium. So a dress either fits my chest/midsection well but my arms can't move because the shoulders/armpit area is too tight, or it fits fine around my shoulders but hangs loosely around the bust/waist area. Can't win! Sashes/belts help, but are not always the solution.

Bras are another "fun" thing to shop for, something I am sure many women can sympathize with! I don't think there's anywhere on the female body with more variation than breast size, so I'm not even going to get into that rant. Suffice it to say that us less-well-endowed girls are a neglected corner of the brassier market :-P

Pants/jeans are irksome, too, especially in this day and age when "low-rise" is so popular. I have long legs, so pants that fit my waist are almost always too short, but pants at the right inseam length are too big around the waist! Don't even get me started on skinny jeans, where the low-rise phenomenon is even more prevalent!

Even shirts can be troublesome, though less often so than dresses, bras, or jeans. My arms are longer than average for my body size, so often times, either a shirt/sweater fits perfectly all over but but has too-short arms, or everything just hangs baggily (<-- is that a word??) 

Shoes can be a challenge for me because I have wide feet, and the majority of shoes that I'm interested in do not come in wide sizes. *Sob* On the flip side, when a shoe does fit my feet, it tends to look decent on me, no matter how weird-looking the shoe. I remember once when my mom and I went shoe shopping, and just for fun, she had me try one some of the chunkier or higher-platform shoes-- shoes that looked pretty wacky by themselves. To her surprise, they didn't look quite so wacky on my feet! So... chalk up one plus?

Hats are also another universal fit, it seems. When Allan and I were browsing a hat shop in Vegas last December, he jokingly put a big, floppy, garish, lampshade-type hat on my head, in an effort to find something to make me look silly. Seems it backfired on him, and even the most outlandish hats the store had (i.e. stuff clearly meant for costumes) didn't look quite so outrageous on my head. Go figure, as I hardly ever wear hats! Maybe I should start doing so :-P

Anyway, now you can see why, up till now, my outfits consisted largely of straight-leg Gloria Vanderbilt jeans and either turtlenecks or button-down shirts. Standard office wear for a small fish lost in a cubicle sea of fellow nerds.

But now I'm venturing out into the world of more feminine wear, and am slowly figuring things out on that front. Being in an office full of women has certainly inspired me, as has my latest shopping sprees/online window shopping with Tabitha.

She also introduced me to the idea of wearing dresses with tights and cardigans, thus making them more winter-friendly, as well. Next thing I knew, I had not only amassed a handful of dresses (which actually fit surprisingly decently), but I'd also bought tights in almost every color imaginable. Pull out the skirts I'd put away when summer ended, and I now have a plethora of items from which to mix and match!

And since I don't know the first thing about style or fashion (beyond being aware of what types of outfits do NOT fit my physique, and avoiding them), I thought I'd start up a pinboard with my own little mix-n-match combinations.

From the formulation of abstract ideas on Polyvore: http://hellykwee.polyvore.com/

To the actual wearing of these ideas on Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/hellykwee/helly-s-personal-style/

What are your ideas/thoughts/feedback?

Canker Sores

Why does it seem as if the smallest, slightest injuries are the ones that are most painful? Or at least, cause pain that is disproportionate to the severity of the injury? Papercuts sting to no end. And canker sores! If they are *just* in the right location of your mouth where they receive a lot of "traffic", you're gonna be talking funny for a while.

I usually only get them if I'm careless with my toothbrushing-- if the toothbrush slips and slams into my gum. The gum canker sores aren't quite so bad as the inner mouth ones, because at least gums don't rub against your teeth. So they really only hurt when food collides with them. But hey-- I'm not eating 24/7, right?

More perplexing are the ones that develop on the inside of your mouth, where constant rubbing against your teeth causes steady, endless irritation. Sometimes they appear when I accidentally bite my cheek. But often times, they seem to materialize out of nowhere. Really strange!

Regardless of where they are, upon the onset of symptoms, I usually sigh and resign myself to about 2 weeks of discomfort. It's a long two weeks! I've tried rinsing with salt water, which alleviates the pain momentarily (for about 5 minutes), but does nothing to speed up healing. I've tried mouthwash, which stings but then numbs, as well. Still takes 2 weeks to heal. Then one time, while brushing my teeth, I accidentally raked my toothbrush right across the canker sore. Hard. My mouth exploded in pain, and it actually bled! But surprisingly, THIS, of all things, seemed to speed up healing. Unfortunately, it's too painful an endeavor for me to ever do it again to myself, at least on purpose. Believe me, I've tried. But I just can't bring myself to do it.

So, all I can do is wait. And do a saltwater rinse for temporary pain relief if need be.

What are your remedies, home or store-bought, for canker sores? Do you do anything that helps ease the pain for longer periods of time? Any secrets to shortening those wretched couple weeks of pain? ;-P

Mononucleosis

The Epstein-Barr virus, which is responsible for causing mononucleosis, can be adorable... in plush form ;-) Just take a look to the left!

I came down with a case of it about 14 years ago. At first the student health clinic misdiagnosed me with strep throat (as a very sore throat and fever are symptoms of both diseases), and prescribed me a hefty dose of amoxicillin for it. A day or two later, I developed a rash all over my body, and concluded that I was allergic to amoxicillin. When I didn't get better, they examined me again and discovered I actually had mononucleosis! It took about a week or two to recover, and they explained that once you've got it, you always carry it. On the plus side, it means I'll never get it again. On the down side, nobody really knows how long you're actually contagious for, or if the virus takes dormant/active forms periodically during my life, rendering me contagious when it's "active"? Who knows.

Fast forward a few years and my then-boyfriend came down with a case of it. It had been about 3-4 years since I recovered, and we wondered if I had been the one who infected him. Again with the unknown.

Fast forward even more years to last week, when Todd came down with a fever that just would not go away. After several days of it, I took him to one of the pediatricians at Children's Medical Center, who suspected strep throat... except the swab she took came back negative. When a week had gone by and he still had a fever, I again returned to the clinic, this time visiting a different doctor, who suspected mono and conducted his exam accordingly. Took a quick blood test, which confirmed that Todd did indeed have mono (when I told Allan about it later, he immediately pointed an accusing finger at me :-P).

It was at this point that I mentioned to the doctor about how I had been given amoxicillin when I had mono, which is when I learned that I was mildly allergic to it. He paused a moment, and then told me: "No, you're probably not allergic. When people who have mono take amoxicillin, they develop a rash, and often *think* they are allergic, but it's the mono + amoxicillin". That was news to me. I didn't know you weren't supposed to mix the two, and that if you did have a bacterial infection alongside the mono, you should be prescribed something like erythromycin, and not a -cillin family antibiotic. And when I thought about it, it made sense. Most drug allergies manifest themselves in the form of anaphylaxis, or hives, or swelling. I had none of those. The rash I had did not itch. And considering the dosage I was on was really high (500mg, 3x a day, if I recall correctly), you would think a true allergy, even a mild one, would show more severe symptoms than an all-body, non-itching rash.

Anyway, I learned something new that day. The symptoms of strep throat and mono are similar, and if you ever find yourself with a really sore throat and persistent fever that just wipes you out, make sure it isn't mono you have before starting on antibiotics! And if you must have mono or any other kind of disease... better to have the plush kind :-D

Brief weekend recap

Day 14 of NaBloPoMo, almost halfway through! Weekends in LA really don't leave me a whole lot to write about. I can only imagine how much worse it will be on Thanksgiving weekend :-P

Since Todd got Veteran's Day off school, he spent a nice long weekend at my parents' house. He came down with some sort of stomach bug on Wednesday, so the timing we pretty good. I headed down there on Saturday to take him to his dentist appointment (needed a filling). Then today he came down with a fever again :-( I returned to SB with the quietest, most sluggish Todd I'd ever seen. Usually, even when he's sick, he's got quite a bit of energy, but today he did nothing but go from vegging in the car seat to vegging on the sofa, watching TV. That's highly unusual for Todd, so he MUST have been feeling really poorly. We'll see what the morning brings.

While he was away, I spent some time catching up online karaoke. Because Myspace is being a bitch lately (especially since they no longer seem to allow non-members to view recordings), I decided to bite the bullet and try a membership on Singsnap. That entailed one of the shittiest user experiences I've ever encountered (on Paypal)-- more on that in a later rant on this blog. Anyway, so far so good on the Singsnap membership, even the duet feature works much more smoothly than Myspace's. Only got a few recent recordings up, but here they are: http://www.singsnap.com/snap/profile/recordings/b019ddb

Meanwhile, I've been whiling away more time catching up on damnyouautocorrect.com, which still never fails to produce literal laughs out loud. My ultimate favorite, however, is still this one:

http://damnyouautocorrect.com/15/god-is-the-big-vagina/

:-D

Vinegar for your hair

About 3 months ago, Tabitha and I had a conversation on IM about using vinegar as a hair rinse. She shared this link with me: http://simplemom.net/how-to-clean-your-hair-without-shampoo/, and I proceeded to spend the next hour or so reading through all the comments, because they were the most valuable for giving feedback and advice from personal experience.

I perused other websites that included articles on using baking soda to wash the hair, and vinegar to condition it. I have to admit, I was intrigued. I read a lot of different websites about using no (or less) shampoo, and discovered that people used a variety of combinations to achieve this. On one end were people who used baking soda and vinegar. The people in between used either baking soda + normal conditioner or normal shampoo + vinegar. On the other end were those who still used shampoo and conditioner, but much more sparingly than they did before.

No matter the combination, I learned that all of them are based on one principle: washing your hair too frequently dries the hair out too much, causing the scalp to go into overdrive in producing oils to combat the dryness. Ironic, isn't it-- the more you wash your hair, the oilier it gets. I read about women whose scalps went through an "adjustment" period of dealing with greasiness as they got accustomed to not shampooing everyday anymore. I myself didn't go through such a phase, because I was already washing my hair relatively infrequently. I did, however, notice that once I started using conditioning shampoos and heavier conditioners (about a year ago), I had to wash my hair more frequently. Whereas I used to last 4 days between shampoos, now I was only lasting 3 days. Still, compared to everyday washers, it wasn't so bad.

So! I decided to take the plunge. I bought regular vinegar instead of apple cider vinegar because I'd read it was more conditioning, and for my thick, coarse hair, that sounded great. I mixed a tablespoon of baking soda with 8 oz of water for my "shampoo" and a tablespoon of vinegar with 8 oz of water for my "conditioner". Since I'd read somewhere that the key to someone's problem was her hard water, and since SB has hard water, I made sure to boil it so that it would dissolve all the baking soda.

My first shampoo and conditioning went pretty well. I was surprised at how much I could feel the vinegar smoothing my cuticles, once I applied it all over my hair. My initial fear of hair smelling like vinegar vanished when I rinsed the vinegar out. The smell disappeared almost the instant the water hit my hair. And the end results? Well, my hair was clean. And it was soft and smooth. Now, keep in mind that I'd been using Pantene regularly for the past few months, which had done a lot for smoothing my hair. I was curious to see what would happen once the baking soda and vinegar stripped all those silicones out of my hair. After a few weeks of baking soda + vinegar, my hair was still the same smoothness and shininess as before. It wasn't any MORE smooth/shiny, but not any less, either. Which meant that it worked about as well as Pantene... at a fraction of the cost! All right! :-)

After a while, I switched it up. Mostly because I was still swimming regularly by this point (I started this experiment during the summer) and wasn't sure if the baking soda and vinegar would be enough to get rid of all the chlorine. Up to that point, I was regularly using Albert VO5's Clarifying Shampoo and following it with Pantene shampoo and conditioner. Now I decided to still use the clarifying shampoo, but condition with the vinegar rinse. That seemed to work pretty well, too. So I stopped using the baking soda and I started to shampoo with the VO5 and condition with vinegar.

The key here, I think, is the amount I was using. When I used to wash my hair before, I'd have to wash it about 3 times in one go: twice with regular, cheap shampoo (to get all the dirt and oil out) and once with the conditioning shampoo. That wasted a lot of shampoo and took a long time in the shower. And of course, you remember what I said above about the effects of over-shampooing? Yeah...
Anyway, now, even though I switched back to using shampoo, there were two key differences:
1. I only shampooed ONCE. Of course, I didn't get as much lather as I used to, but lather doesn't mean clean. It's just an effect of the added chemicals.
2. I only used the clarifying shampoo. Alberto VO5 is my favorite for it. It's cheap and very, very effective.

Once I'd gotten into the new shampooing routine, I discovered something else: I could last longer between shampoos than before. Whereas 3-4 days was my maximum before, now I could go 5 days. Probably even longer, if I didn't go to the gym and sweat :-P

These days, I'm back to my normal conditioner. Mostly because I went through a phase of trying out so many different kinds (most of them in trial size, thank goodness) and want to use them up. But I no longer use the accompanying shampoo. I stick to the basic, cheap VO5 because it cleans really well without leaving buildup or drying my scalp out. And I only shampoo once. It saves me a lot of time in the shower. I take care not to get any conditioner in my scalp, and my hair stays clean and healthy for about 5 days. I could probably even stretch it to 6 days, if I wore my hair in a ponytail on the 6th day.

Basically, I've learned a couple of things:

1. The key to healthy hair is to NOT wash it so often! A couple times a week suffices.
2. Vinegar and baking soda work just as well as expensive shampoos and conditioners, and cost much much less.

So there you have it. Helly's adventures with hair. My year-long experiments with different shampoos and conditioners, in my quest to find the perfect ones for my hair, have boiled down to a few of the most inexpensive options. It saves time, it saves money, and it saves room in our bathroom shelves :-D

Daylight Saving Woes

Just a few random tidbits as I get ready to turn in for the night :-)

Daylight Saving Time ending-- whose bright idea was THAT!? While enjoying an extra hour is nice, it's not worth it for six months of darkness. I mean, seriously-- for the next several months, before you even leave work at 5pm, it's already going to be dark out. That's pretty depressing-- to leave work and have it feel like it's already nighttime. Oh sure-- it's now light out at 5am instead of 6am, but I guarantee you that far more people are awake to enjoy daylight at 5pm than at 5am. So what gives? The days are already shorter as is with the advent of wintertime, so why not leave well enough alone? Add to it the fact that not all states switch between Standard and DST, and you've got some nice confusion going there :-P

******

I tried my hand at trimming my hair tonight. Wasn't a whole lot, just about a half inch to get rid of most of the split ends. I'm not sure I notice a major visible difference in my hair, but at least it still looks pretty even so far. We'll see what happens when I wash my hair tomorrow-- usually after my hair dries is when the difference between the damaged hair and healthy hair is most noticeable. This was the first time I ever trimmed any of my hair besides my bangs. It was a bit of an adventure, trying to make sure I got it all evenly, but I think the whole endeavor was enough of a success that I feel confident about doing so again regularly.

******

Speaking of trimming hair-- Allan is growing out a goatee. When we first met well over 7 years ago, he was already sporting one. He shaved it not long before we got married, and hasn't had facial hair (besides 3-or-4-day-old stubble) since then. We thought it would be fun to experiment and see what he looks like with one again, especially now that he has a lot more gray hair on both his head and in his beard ;-)

******

Why is it so hard to find a nice pair of plain white knee socks? I went to K-mart and Ross today, and came up empty-handed. All K-Mart had were the sheer stocking-type of knee-highs, and all Ross had were knee socks in different colors/patterns, mostly argyle. While they were cute, I'm really set on finding a white pair for my Halloween costume next year. I picked out a costume for myself and for Todd for next year. Gotta love the deep markdowns on holiday merchandise immediately following the holiday. I just hope that Todd doesn't change his mind between now and then :-P

******

All week I've been working with Todd on a poster for his book report on Monday. We got to break out his box of 64 crayons. Is it me or is there nothing quite so delightful as a nice big box of Crayolas? Who can resist the urge to take them out and start coloring? (I did wind up making a picture of my own-- watch for an upcoming Project 365 entry showcasing it) And am I the only one who likes to take out every variation of a particular color and test them out against each other before settling on the perfect shade for a particular coloring need? I tell ya-- I had a field day when it came to helping Todd select browns for the picture of the horses and wagon :-D

******

Well, since DST doesn't warrant a clock fall-back for another couple hours, it'll be too late for me to take advantage of the "extra hour" and have more time to post this before Saturday officially ends, so I'd better wrap it up now. Good night!

Entitlement Run Amok

I regularly read two of LiveJournal's communities dedicated to rants about the truly nutty, entitled customers that can be found these days: customers_suck and customerssuck. The names of the communities say it all. The selfishness, rudeness, bitchiness and entitlement complexes of the customers featured in those stories never fails to astound me. I count my blessings that I am not in a customer-facing job, myself. I already have enough trouble dealing with people as is, let alone if I had to do so in a professional capacity like that. Today, however, I got to enjoy witnessing a "customer suck" firsthand.

It is Tuesday. For me, that means swim class at the gym in the evening. There are only 4 lanes in the pool, and the class can take up at least 3 of them-- the 3 largest ones, leaving the small one at the far end, by the wall, open for other swimmers. Tonight there were 8 of us in the class, so we needed all 3 reserved lanes. Unfortunately, there was an older woman in one of the middle lanes (whom I'll call "Gwen" because her platinum blonde hair and bright red swim cap remind me of Gwen Stefani's hair and lipstick), and our instructor tried to get her to move to the far lane. She would've still had the lane all to herself, as there were no other swimmers around besides those of us in the class.

Gwen refused. She said she didn't want to swim in that lane because she would hit the wall (understandable, as she was doing a lot of backstroke, and I've lost count of how many times my own arm has scraped the wall or smacked the lane dividers as I drifted to and fro). Okay, fine, stay in the middle lane-- the instructor offered to let her stay in that lane, but because the far lane was too small for 2 people to share, Gwen would have to share her lane with one of the class swimmers.

Generous of him, don't you think? After all, from 6:30-7:30 the first three lanes of the pool are *supposed* to be reserved for the swim class, and he's still letting her stay in her preferred lane.

Of course, if it *were* good enough, I wouldn't be blogging this, would I? No. This was not good enough for Gwen. She became more agitated as the instructor repeated not only the rules (3 lanes reserved for swim class till 7:30), but her options of either moving to the far lane and getting it to herself, or sharing her middle lane with one of the students. Before long, she threw her hands up in the air and stalked across the lanes to the steps, grumbling, "Fine! You can have your lanes. I pay $80 a month so that *I* can swim. Thank you very much!" and off she went, still muttering, into the jacuzzi.

About 15 minutes into the class, I noticed that another woman had come into the jacuzzi. Gwen didn't waste any time talking her ear off and complaining about the situation. Apparently she embellished her side of the story, for the woman felt compelled to speak to the instructor on Gwen's behalf. I think she figured Gwen and the instructor didn't understand each other, since English was clearly not Gwen's first language. Once the instructor explained to the woman what was going on, she seemed satisfied. I'm not sure if she tried to explain it to Gwen, as I resumed my swimming exercises, but I do know that a little while later, a younger guy joined the two women in the jacuzzi. Surprise, surprise-- Gwen started to complain to him, as well. Around this time, I exited the pool for a quick bathroom break, and when I returned, I could hear the young man totally yanking Gwen's chain, asking her things that clearly provoked her further. 10 minutes before the class was over, Gwen gave up and left the jacuzzi and pool area altogether.

The young man and the second woman turned to the instructor to talk about Gwen. The young man was noticeably disgusted by Gwen's behavior and attitude, and fully admitted that he had purposefully egged her on. The woman tried to give Gwen the benefit of the doubt, thinking that maybe Gwen just misunderstood. No, everyone was quick to point out. Gwen understood fully, because she insisted she didn't want to swim in the far lane "because I'll hit the wall!" The instructor, to his credit, remained fully professional through it all-- when dealing with Gwen (twice-- he even stopped to talk to her when she was in the jacuzzi, in an attempt to placate her) and when dealing with the young man who wasn't shy about expressing his opinion of Gwen: "she's absolutely nuts!!"

No excuses or rationalizations about it-- Gwen was, in customers_suck lingo, the epitome of an "EB"-- an entitlement bitch. I am quite certain she complained to staff about not being able to swim after paying good money for her membership. Hey, newflash, lady: we ALL pay good money to use this gym AND partake of the classes it offers, without interference from you. I mean come on, the swim class takes place ONE day a week, for ONE hour. Surely you can adjust your schedule to swim around that time. And if not-- hey it's not like they kicked you out of the pool altogether! You were allowed to stay and even offered options! If that's not being accommodating, I don't know what is. I just hope that's the last I ever have to see of Gwen. Sadly, considering how often I'm at the gym and its pool, that's probably not likely, unless she actually cancels her membership because of this incident. To which I say: good riddance!

When Little Old Ladies Kick Your Butt...

Last Monday (a week ago) I finally did something I've never had to do before-- joined a gym. I mean, I've always had access to a gym (either through an on-site one through work, in the military, or on a university campus while I was a student) but this is the first time I've actually *paid* for a membership. It's worth it, though, as I'll explain in a moment.

My biggest inspiration comes from my friend Tabitha, who has been on a fitness quest with a weekly accountability report every Wednesday. My secondary inspiration is derived from my own personal goals, which aren't quite as tangible as Tabitha's: 1) get in better shape/health overall and 2) lose the tummy fat before bikini season on our trip to Las Vegas this August!

You would think that because I don't have a very precise goal (e.g. an exact waist size to strive for, or an exact # of pounds to lose), it might make it harder to stay on track, and that's probably true, but one of the main reasons I chose this particular gym was because it offered such a vast array of classes, many of which fit my schedule by being offered in the evenings after work or during lunch. The company discount we get makes it very cost-effective, and you can't beat the location-- it's right across the street from work and a 5 minute walk from home.

I started out Monday with a kickboxing class. I'd never done anything like this before, but it always looked fun on TV/in movies/in Todd's karate class. I kept a moderate pace and focused on learning to do the moves slowly and correctly, rather than trying to deliver powerful kicks using wrong form, which just seems like a good way to ask for injury! I was a little sore the next day, but not nearly as much as I had expected.

Wednesday brought aqua aerobics in the heated pool. The evening was sunny, the instructor lively, and the music fantastic. I figured this was a great way to get some cardiovascular exercise in with minimal joint impact. But I learned something: don't let the peaceful sound of the class name, or the fact that people with special conditions (older people, people with injuries, pregnant women) favor it fool you. I went home and didn't realize how exhausted I was until I flopped onto the couch. And this morning? I was even more sore and achy than I was after the kickboxing class! I'm certain it's because aquatic exercise seems deceptively easy. I knew that kickboxing was going to be tough, so I made a conscious effort to pace myself and not overdo it. But in the water, you don't immediately feel the effects of keeping your body in constant, nonstop motion. It's not immediately obvious just how much resistance the water actually offers. So while going at a moderate pace, I felt like I wasn't really accomplishing anything, and so I pushed myself to go harder (and even then, I was still slower than the other women in my class, all of whom were much older than me). My aching shoulders and legs have taught me not to underestimate aqua aerobics-- it's a lot tougher than it looks!

Thursday I took it "easy" with a nice, moderately-paced swim. Friday I took a break and then Saturday morning I met Tabitha at the gym for their "ripped" class, whose main focus is resistance training. I figured I would need the upper-body and core strength to be able to hold the kickboxing bags. What I didn't figure was just how much it would kick my ass! It was great, though-- an overall total-body workout that really worked my abs and legs. It hurt to sneeze and cough the next day, but it was worth it :-P

I dreaded kickboxing on Monday (yesterday), as I was still pretty sore, but found myself feeling MUCH better after the class, because warming up and using my muscles was the best way to stretch them and reduce the soreness. It was also an immense help that there was another new girl in the class, who had kickboxing experience but hadn't done it in a while. So when we were partnered up, I didn't have to worry about being knocked to the floor everytime she kicked. At the same time she was able to offer some pointers that helped me out, as well :-)

Tonight I'm looking forward to trying their new swim class. I love swimming and am keen on improving my stroke technique. So far I'm really enjoying making use of my new gym membership and exploring the various classes, the combination of which gives me a great total-body workout: some focus on cardio, some on strength and some on endurance. More importantly, they keep me motivated to stick with regular workouts. Unless I'm swimming laps (my preferred form of cardiovascular exercise), I am not fond of working out alone, yet I'm hard-pressed to find someone with similar workout interests and schedule as me. Even hubby, who favors ellipticals and the treadmill (neither of which I particularly like), works out early in the morning, something that just does NOT work for me-- 5 years of doing it with the Army have taught me that I'm an evening/afternoon-workout kind of girl.

Speaking of evening workouts... time to hit the pool :-)

Hairstyles: the Tried and True

I seem to average about 6 months between each haircut visit. I think part of it is because, until a year ago, I've never been able to really find a stylist that truly understands my hair needs. My rants about my failed attempts at finding a good hairstylist filled my blog post on Grab a few years ago: http://blogs.grab.com/hellykwee/105612

But as you can see from my last blog post about a haircut (six months ago), I did eventually find one that I've stuck with ever since: http://heckledtrio.wordpress.com/2009/12/30/new-haircut/

As you can tell from the photos in that blog post, I was well on my way to growing my bangs out. I have had short hair for much of my life, and didn't start growing it out until high school (and even then, my post-high-school years were filled with occasional stints of *really* short hair, which was much easier to maintain in the Army). Throughout all the years, I've always had bangs (aka "fringe" for those of you across the pond). And while I liked them okay, I was always frustrated that I could never do things like wear hats, or get them wet when it's drizzling outside, without ruining them. Naturally I also started wondering what I would look like without bangs. At the very least, it would be less work for me, not having bangs to tame in the morning.

And so my quest began almost exactly 1 year ago-- after our annual 4th of July church campout in 2009, I stopped trimming my bangs. It was hard at first, to resist the temptation to trim them when they got to the stage where they were long enough to fall into my eyes and bother me, yet too short to really push away from my face without immediately falling back again. Fortunately my hair grows relatively fast, and that awkward period soon passed. I discovered that I had to part my hair to the side, or else I'd wind up looking like a 60s hippie. This in turn revealed more gray hairs, which wasn't ideal either.

Nearly a year after growing out my bangs, I realized, after seeing some photos taken of me, that I just couldn't pull off the no-bangs look. I just don't have the right face shape, hairline and hair texture for it. Because my hair is so thick, coarse and straight, I couldn't pull off any sort of hairstyle that entailed pulling my hair back. Which... sucks, as who wants to be limited to having their hair down and loose all the time? This photo illustrates the contrast sharply:

That's me on the left and my friend Tabitha on the right. Notice how although her headband doesn't pull ALL of her hair all the way back, it does push some of it away from her face, and yet the finer texture of her hair allows for nice wisps on the side, softening the often-harsh look of exposing your forehead and sides of your face. Since my hair type is a far cry from that, it's all-or-nothing for me: either it's all pulled smoothly (too smoothly) back or it's all hanging down. No in-between.

So I decided I had to go back to having bangs. I had seen lots of photos (of friends, celebrities and style guides on the web) of people with side-swept bangs, and always thought they looked nice, and served as a nice compromise between my usual blunt-cut bangs and no bangs at all. I thought I would give it a try, and visited my trusty stylist. It was about time for the rest of my hair to be trimmed, anyway-- the growing process is hindered by all those split ends! Here is a photo of me before going in. By this point, I've grown out all of my bangs and attempted to soften the sharpness of a completely blank forehead by brushing some of the hair over it and tucking it behind my ear-- a sort of faux side bangs, if you will:



As soon as the stylist cut my hair, I realized it wasn't going to work. Most people whose photos I've seen and admired had softer, wavy hair-- the type that will stay to the side if you comb it that way (maybe with a bit of styling aid). My hair? Was so coarse and straight that it naturally wanted to fall straight and forward back across my forehead! Which meant that, for the length of bangs needed to make side bangs, this hair was too long, falling in my eyes, and generally bothering me. Here's a shot of what I looked like after my visit to the stylist: if you click on the photo for the larger image, you can already see some wisps of hair falling into my eyes. It would actually be even more if the edge of my glasses weren't keeping that hair at bay! If I had moved my head just slightly, it would've covered my eye. And that's WITH some hair pomade already in it-- can you imagine how much product I'd need to make the hair stay in place? It would end up being just as much work as I used to have with my regular bangs, and I would need so much that it would end up slicking the hair all the way to the side-- in other words, bringing me back to the empty forehead, bang-less look I was trying to mitigate in the first place!



This was on a Friday, and the stylist suggested that I try it out over the weekend. If I didn't like it, I could come in on Monday and she'd fix it at no charge. Well, the weekend came and went, and to keep the dang hair out of my eyes, I kept it pinned back with a bobby pin most of the time at home. This is a shot I took on Saturday, the day after. As you can see, except for the fact that my hair is smoother without split ends, it really doesn't look much different from my first, "before the cut" picture:



So on Monday I trooped back to my stylist and asked her to cut them back into my normal, straight, blunt-cut bangs. Except it wasn't quite back to exactly how I used to have them. Before I grew out my bangs, I didn't have a lot of hair in the bangs to begin with. I never liked the "heavy bang" look and minimized the amount of hair I would put into it. You can't tell from my older photos, but it really is a small amount (it just *looks* heavier because my hair is so thick). I realize now that that was a part of the problem causing my bangs to be unruly-- there wasn't enough there to weigh it down when things like wind or rain came, causing a stringy look.

But because the stylist had to cut further back into my hairline in order to give me "thicker" side bangs (and, in theory, enough hair to make that work), she had no choice but to cut my blunt bangs at the same depth. At first I feared it would be too much, as I've never had bangs that heavy before. But I've come to realize that the added hair and weight actually *helps* keep my bangs tamed. I found more side benefits, too: because I can now go back to parting my hair in the middle, my hair doesn't have the "triangular" effect it did when I had to part them on the side-- i.e. the top had my hair smoothly against my head, only to branch out into poofy, coarse hair at the ends. My hair "fluffiness" looked more even. Better still, since more hair went into my bangs, that meant less hair going into the long lengths = less hair weighing it down = more bounce to it.

So here I am now:



I'm really pleased with how it turned out. It's actually *easier* to maintain these bangs than it was trying to maintain my original blunt bangs throughout all those years. I think part of it is also an improvement in my hair health thanks to the various shampoos and conditioners I've been experimenting with, trying to find one strong enough for my hair... but that's for another blog post.

For now, Helly is back to her original look :-)
And while I'm a bit disappointed to have learned that I'm one of those people who can't pull off a bang-less look, at least I've had a chance to try it, and now I know for sure. Besides, the end result of it was not simply a return to my old look, but an improvement on it-- one that definitely makes my life and my morning routine faster and easier. Hurrah for convenience! :-)

TMI Toilet Tales

Warning: TMI follows. Do not read if you're squeamish about things that the title implies.

Our friend Joe has a penchant for Tweeting about his toilet-based gastrointestinal adventures. More poetic than disgusting, they are good for a chuckle... or a groan. They certainly lend credence to his threats to eat cabbage when things go awry!

Well, this past couple of days have provided some fodder for my own similar statuses/Tweets. Only they weren't so funny.

Wednesday evening we had dinner at my parents' house, after a day of shopping and dentist appointments in the Valley. The food was delicious-- miso soup with tofu and wakame, fried sea bass, fingerling potatoes and green beans. We went to bed satisfied and slept well. The next day, the adventures began. Todd was still in his pajamas, watching some Saturday morning television, when my mother noticed a funny odor coming from where he was. She noticed that his pants were not only wet, but stained and orangeish brown. It appeared to be diarrhea. Cleaned him up, changed him, disinfected the areas where he had sat, and all was well. Couple hours later, Todd went to the bathroom, as he normally does... only this time he decided to check the bowl (after the previous mishap) and called out to tell us that it had happened again-- there in the toilet, were orange globs of oil. I couldn't for the life of me figure out what it was. It wasn't diarrhea, it was simply... orange oil drops! Some of it had leaked onto his underwear, so I changed him yet again and sent him on his merry way.

That evening (Thursday) I arrived home in Santa Barbara and went about my business, making a stop in the bathroom which entailed bringing in a magazine to read. Well, when I was finished, I took a quick peek in the bowl, as I always do to make sure there isn't anything alarming going on down there. Well, aside from a bit of softness that was probably the result of drinking more liquids than usual that day, I noticed some oil, as well. It was especially prominent on the toilet paper. And it was about the color you would expect when you mix orange and, well... brown. Obviously this was the same thing that had happened to my son.

So I got on the computer and Googled "orange oil in stool", where I came across a bevy of blog posts, articles and government advisories on a fish called escolar, the oil of which is indigestible by about 1/3 of the  human population. The common effect of escolar consumption on such people? Leakage of orange drops of oil! But... we had eaten sea bass, which isn't known to cause such an effect. Or so we thought (about the bass)... turns out that escolar is commonly mislabeled as other fish, such as orange roughy (a perch), butterfish, and... *drumroll* sea bass. I remembered that my mom had mentioned that had gotten this "sea bass" on sale-- less than half the price it normally is. I suspected that we had actually fallen victim to this mislabeling, and that what we had thought was bass was actually escolar.

Friday arrives and my body is still processing the fish I had for lunch on Thursday, before I left my parents' home to return to SB, still in the dark about what fun this meal would unleash. I had to go home during my lunch break to change my underwear because the damned stuff leaked without my even being aware of it! It's still coming out when I go to the bathroom-- even if I'm only peeing. My mom called me earlier that day (I had called her Thursday night, to tell her of my immediate Google findings) to report that she, too, had some oil in the stool and was leaking. As of Friday evening, neither Allan nor my dad have reported anything unusual, fingers crossed that it stays that way.

Anyway... lesson learned? Stay away from escolar if ever you come across it on some menu somewhere. And beware of white-fleshed fish priced much cheaper than it normally is. Sea bass normally $9/lb now costing less than $4/lb (and smaller, too)? There's a chance it's not really sea bass. There's a reason this stuff is banned in Japan. I'm just grateful that, given that the side effects could be much worse (nausea, actual diarrhea, vomiting) all my family has experienced is some annoying and inconveniencing oil leakage. I hope that my body finishes processing all this stuff and allows me to be free and clear soon. In the meantime, extra padding is my friend...

Friday Night Procrastination

I suppose, technically, it's Saturday already. I should be getting ready for bed, but I'm having fun updating my blog layout yet again. Usually I go months before giving the site an overhaul, but since, unlike Blogger, you have to pay to edit the CSS on Wordpress, I figured I'd get my money's worth :-) Although I'm curious now-- what will happen if I don't renew my subscription? Will my edits be reverted to the original theme? Or will they stay, and I simply can't make any more edits till I pay again? I guess I shall find out in November! Anyway, this round of editing went much more smoothly than my last one, partly because I started from an existing theme instead of the bare-bones minimum Sandbox, and partly because at work this week I've been tweaking the look and feel of some of our webpages, using-- you guessed it-- CSS. So I'm a little more familiar with it now.

So I figured, while I was here, that I would write a little something. Or a lot something. I have a tendency towards verbosity. As Lisa puts it: "Why use 10 words when you can use 100?" :-P

Our insurance claim and the business of Allan's car is behind us. The auto shop did a great job fixing the back, his car looks good as new! While it was in the shop, the sheriff who took my report called me to give an update on the case. They found the guy who did it, and although they couldn't place him at the scene of the accident without eyewitnesses (and thus arrest him for drunken or reckless driving), they could at least prove his vehicle was the one that hit ours, and so the insurance carrier on that car would take care of the reimbursement. Well, this week I got a call from USAA-- turns out that the car was not actually insured at the time of the accident! So now they're going after the guy personally to get their money back. I hope they're able to nail him. We're extremely fortunate that we suffered no monetary loss and only slight inconvenience by his actions-- he could've gotten someone killed!

In other news, I conducted my first phone interview at work the other day, and I spent quite a bit of time preparing for it. It was a good learning experience, and I get to do it again next week. I'm definitely feeling more confident about it!

I'm glad things are starting to dry up and warm up after last week's endless rain (though the snow on the mountains made for a pretty sight!). Our apartment, though it gets direct sunlight in the afternoon, stays cold all day. The bathroom gets so cold that one day I noticed the big lotion bottle kept dispensing thinner and thinner lotion. It was almost watery. Thinking it was going bad, I opened it up to investigate-- only to discover that, much like curds and whey, it had separated! I now keep the lotion bottle on the dining room table, where it's warmer. At least the place will stay nice and cool during the summer! Not that it gets very hot here in the summer, anyway.

I've been experimenting with conditioners lately, trying to find the right one. It's amazing how a particular conditioner can yield such beautiful, soft, shiny hair on my husband and son, and yet actually DRY my hair out worse than if I'd used no conditioner at all (Tresemme, in case you're curious). And some conditioners are so weak that despite lathering it on my hair, it does absolutely nothing. What I've found is that 1) I need a really thick, heavy conditioner-- the kind that's almost solid and 2) I always end up going back to Pantene. The cabinet under our sink is now littered with various sample sizes of various conditioners-- not only different brands (Garnier, Dove, Tresemme, Pantene) but also different sub-types of Pantene (Moisturizing, Smoothing, Ice Shine and Breakage Defense). It's easy to experiment with inexpensive, $1 sample size bottles, and I continue my quest for the perfect conditioner! :-D At least I know now what brand to stick to. That narrows it down some ;-)

And now that I've rambled on enough and procrastinated even longer, I shall wrap this up and go to bed. Good night!

How's Your Hearing?

You are about 20 years old

The teen repellent will no longer foil you, but you can still hear some pretty high tones. The highest pitched ultrasonic mosquito ringtone that I can hear is 16.7kHz

Find out which ultrasonic ringtones you can hear!

A couple weeks ago, as was told secondhand, our pastor played a series of different ringtones over the speakers to illustrate how hearing declines with age-- only the younger folks were able to hear the higher-pitched tones. I wasn't at the service that day, but heard all about it at lunch afterward. I was curious to know how much I would've been able to hear, considering I have pretty sharp hearing. Would my hearing fall into the normal range of other thirty-somethings? Would I have been able to join the ranks of the teenagers hearing the highest frequency tones?

As it turns out, these tones are available at this website: http://www.ultrasonic-ringtones.com/

I tried playing the tones in order, and stopped at 16.7 kHz. Apparently, according to the "quiz" result, that puts my hearing on par with that of an average 20-year-old. Not bad, considering I'm a dozen years older than that ;-) And despite his poor hearing and despite the fact that he's pushing 40, Allan could still hear tones "reserved" for thirty-somethings ;-) That ought to make him feel young.

What's interesting to note is that although I couldn't actually hear any tones beyond 16.7 kHz, at the higher frequencies (except for the very last one) I could still detect a change in the air indicating that something was vibrating, I just couldn't hear the actual sound itself. That was fascinating to me.

I've always maintained that I have extra-sensitive hearing to make up for my very poor eyesight. I don't know what my eyesight is in terms of the 20/20 scale (those numbers have always been meaningless to me) but I can tell you my eyeglass prescription: exactly -5 in one eye, and -4.75 in the other, plus a touch of astigmatism. Allan is the opposite-- I can discern almost no difference in blurriness when I try on his near-paper-thin glasses. By the time farsightedness hits him sometime this decade, he probably won't even NEED glasses anymore.

So, my hope is that Todd will get a good mix-- hearing like his Mommy, and eyesight like his Daddy. Or at the very least-- an even mix of both, yielding average nearsightedness and average hearing. I'd be happy with that :-)

How about you? How's your hearing?

Painted Toes

Which are the prettier toes?



or...



When Todd spied my painted toenails when I went to LA last weekend, he immediately queried:

"Why are your toenails painted!?"

Upon further scrutiny, he then declared his judgment:

"It doesn't look nice!"

This from the boy who, a day earlier, was clamoring to have his own nails painted!!

(originally posted at:  http://www.myspace.com/hellykwee/blog/409241892)

Clothing woes

I hate shopping for clothing sometimes. It's not so bad when I'm looking for standard fare like shirts, shorts and skirts. Shoes aren't generally a problem, though my wide feet precludes some selections. Pants can be interesting, because my legs are pretty long. But nowadays having "tall" length in pants isn't uncommon, so sticking with Bongo or Gloria Vanderbilt usually suffices.

In other words, when it comes to casual, everyday wear, I'm pretty much covered (no pun intended, as you shall see).

The trouble comes when I try to go for something a little fancier-- either a fancy top to go with a skirt, or an outright dress. Something I can wear to semi-formal events. Granted, such events only come about once a year or so, but it's nice to be prepared. These days, such tops and dresses seem to be solely designed for women with cleavage. They are either low cut (i.e. too low for me) or they are designed to be worn without bras. Neither option, of course, is feasible for someone like me.

Just once I'd like to be able to pore over the dress rack of our local department store and quickly be able to find something I can actually wear. On the rare times I find something that suits my body type, it's inevitably the wrong size. I think I had to go through hundreds, maybe even a thousand dresses before I finally found the quintessential "little black dress" that actually fits me! Lovely odds-- 1 in a 1000? That's a lot of perusing.

Oh, and don't get me started on swimsuits. Those are even harder to come by-- again, everything out there is designed for women with at least moderate chest sizes. We're going on a campout for 4th of July weekend, and I still have not found a decent one-piece. Looks like I may have to resort to wearing my bikini (which I can't comfortably swim in) with a T-shirt on top of it.

I say-- down with all the cleavage-showing clothing! Or at least... balance it out a little with stuff that better suits those of us less well-endowed! :-P

How about you? What clothing woe do you have to deal with?


(originally posted at:  http://www.myspace.com/hellykwee/blog/408463471)

New Beginnings All Around

It's been raining so much this past couple weeks that the ants have sought refuge indoors. Fortunately I only saw about a half dozen in the bathtub, let's hope that's all there is, and not just the advanced party conducting a recon mission. Kinda ironic, isn't it? Wasn't that long ago that I was complaining about the warm, windy, skin-parchingly dry weather, longing for rain instead, and wham! I sure got my wish, didn't I? And I didn't even have to move up north for it!

I let myself get a haircut before the weekend. Turned out a wee bit shorter than I anticipated, but it's been really nice not having all that unruly hair to mess with in the morning, and the nights I wash my hair are definitely more pleasant. I use up far less shampoo, there's less hair clogging the drain (don't worry, I do use a hair-catching net) and my hair dries a lot faster! Allan, whose job it is to clean the floors, likes that there aren't as many notorious "Helly hairs" to clean up anymore-- I typically shed worse than a dog or cat.

Tomorrow both Todd and I begin something new. I start at my new job and Todd starts at his new preschool. I was a bit sad to take him out of his old one in LA, as he'd made friends and was learning some really good stuff. Now, the stuff they covered there was already pretty advanced, but as it turns out, his new school in SB is even more advanced, covering things normally taught in kindergarten, even first grade! After taking the tour on Friday and hearing about where the pre-K kids were in the curriculum, I realized Todd was actually a bit behind. So, I don't have to worry that he'll be understimulated in the class, at least!

Time to get ready to head out and meet some old school friends for brunch. Many have graduated and scattered to the four corners of the earth, and a lot of them are in town for the film festival this weekend, so it will be a great opportunity to catch up with folks I haven't seen in months, even years! Let's hope we don't drown on the way from the apartment to the car! ;-P