Tuesday, July 18, 2017

Deck Watcher

A couple years ago, I gave one of these to my sister for Christmas.


I've wanted one for myself ever since.

Back in May, I stumbled across a sale on collegiate merchandise at a fan site I've frequented in the past. This guy, usually $24.99, was on sale for $10. I also got another Hawkeye tee shirt because I realized all the shirts I have are from bowl games. I didn't have a shirt which just said "Hawkeyes". As shipping was a flat rate, I got a shirt.

He's happily amongst the flower pots on the deck.


Come winter, I'll bring him in and find a place in the living room. Makes me happy to come out here and sit.

Beverage:  Scottish Breakfast Tea

Deb

Stampity Stamp Stamp

If you don't write many letters or send out any bills, preferring to pay them online, you may not be aware of a new stamp issued last month. It honors the upcoming total eclipse, which will extend from Oregon to South Carolina next month.


These stamps are way cool because they are heat sensitive. When you touch them, the black of the sun turns into the full of the moon.


The technology is the same as those changeable mugs you often see where the addition of hot water makes the image change. I was so excited, I had my niece, who works for the post office in Wisconsin, get me three sheets.

The stamps are available with a protective sleeve. It costs a quarter.


And the sheet back shows the route of the eclipse.


I don't know how well they are selling but if you want a memento of this stellar (see what I did there?) event, this is a good thing to have. I will be using at least one sheet of the stamps for letters.

I've been told there's not much of a market anymore for stamps. Even when I was actively collecting, I only purchased those stamps I liked. Over the years, the stamp binder became a nuisance and I wound up using 95% of the stamps I'd collected. They just didn't mean anything to me. Now, I don't collect to save so much as I buy to use. This sheet I will save simply because this is truly a once in a lifetime event. I have photos from the last eclipse to affect the US so I'll need to get those out and compare the lighting.

The post office also issued round stamps. These are neat.


I got a sheet of these simply because they are different. All these stamps bring up a question. The post office has been issuing stamps commemorating the Chinese New Year for a very long time. This year is the Year of the Rooster. Chickens! I love the look of the chicken stamps.


There is something intrinsically satisfying about sticking a chicken stamp on a bill. Looking at what is slated to come out, next week, there will be sharks.


I will have to get sheets of shark stamps. Dear readers, I will be doing custom Christmas cards again this year owing to the Disney trip in October. Do I put chickens or sharks on my Christmas cards? Released this week was Disney Villains.


I will get a sheet of these but I am not called to use these for my Christmas cards. I cannot decide, though, about sharks or chickens. Therefore, I'm turning to my readers, the few of you who there are, and asking, "Chickens or sharks on Christmas cards?"

Beverage:  Scottish Breakfast Tea

Deb

Monday, July 17, 2017

So You Don't Have To

There was a hullabaloo (talk about an archaic word, but there you have it) at the middle of April when Oreos announced a new flavor.


Of course, when I saw them in the store, I had to try them. It's a public service I provide, you know.

Ah Pop Rocks. I remember you from the early 1990's. They were mildly amusing then. Carole didn't like them. She wasn't thrilled with stuff exploding in your mouth. Let's see how the combination of Oreos and Pop Rocks goes.

Meh. I was expecting more of an explosion. There wasn't much taste to Pop Rocks, if I'm remembering them correctly. My memory leaves me with the impression that the smell upon opening the bag was more pronounced than the actual flavor. This was the same impression with Oreos. You had your typical Oreo cookie taste with an occasional pop when a fleck hit your tongue. Those pops were few, at least in my bag of cookies.

Sigh. I just don't see that Oreo is losing market share to anyone. So, I'm really not certain why they feel the need to do something like this. It was underwhelming. Supposedly, there is or was, a waffles and maple syrup version of Oreos out there. I haven't seen those to try them. I'm intrigued, but, again, why mess with the greatness that is chocolate wafers with white stuff in the middle of them?

I'm not sure you can find these anymore. I think they were out for Memorial Day and have disappeared from shelves. If, by chance, your retailer has a stash and puts them out for sale, save your pennies. These aren't worth it at any price.

Beverage:  Water

Deb

Weekend Warrior

It was time to do battle with the weeds around the air conditioner. This is a long-term war. It's going to take many battles to win. I needed a reasonably decent day to start the war, one not overly hot and humid.

Step 1: I need to clear around the unit again.


I had cleared this out at the end of May, but, as weeds do, more filled in. With the heavy rains last week, the ground was soft and pulling was much easier. Plus, with all the foliage, the ground was shaded and retained moisture, helping the uprooting process.

After 40 minutes, the area around the unit looked like this.


I had to cut back several small trees and sprayed them with Round-Up in the hopes that kills them. I found four milkweed plants. There has been one monarch in the back yard so I was loathe to pull any milkweeds. But my assessment of the area deemed two of them in the way so I removed them. I'm not sure about the tiger lilies on the south side of the unit. They are blooming so I didn't pull them, but I pulled most of the other ones I found. The clippings pile was fairly big.


At this point, I took a break. I have to watch myself and not overstretch my stamina. I figured I'd leave this pile and deal with it the next day if necessary. But after a 20 minute rest, I (Step 2) cleared the pile into yard waste containers ready to be put out on Wednesday evening. That feels like a success.

Step 3: Time to lay the landscape fabric.


The most important place is in front of the unit. That needs to be clear for air circulation. It took two rows of fabric to cover the area. I've not worked with this before. It's very lightweight and easily blows in any kind of breeze. It also stuck to the bottom of my shoes so smoothing it was a problem. I finally gave up and left the bulges.

Step 4: Mulch.


I bought two colors, black and red. This mulch also comes in a light and dark brown. The black went down first. It didn't cover as much as I hoped it would. I laid another section of fabric and broke up the red bag.


In the clearing of the weeds, I liberated a brick and a couple of rocks. I'm calling them my "strategic" rocks. I probably won't move them. They helped hold down the fabric while I spread the mulch.


I think the red bag went farther than the black bag. I'm fairly certain I spread them to an equal depth. Maybe I didn't.

This was all I could do on Saturday. I only had two bags of mulch and I filled all my yard waste containers. I don't have funds to buy more mulch right now, but this coming weekend, I possibly could pull and cut back the rest of this patch. Then I could spray the small trees in the patch in preparation for covering them with fabric. I know there are more stones and bricks in here. If there are enough, I could put down the fabric, weighing down the corners with stones. At least that would be done. I'm still going to go with the black and red color scheme. I like the blocks of color.

This took two hours to do. I went inside, took a shower and then took a 2 hour nap.

So, I'm not sure what to do with the garbage, recycling and yard waste containers which I've usually lined up here along the edge. To the right of this photo is a very overgrown area adjacent to the shed with the lawnmower. I've given consideration to having the tree service come out, after we get our bonuses, and assuming the bonus is sufficient, and remove all these overgrown trees from this area, grind out the stumps and rake it smooth. Then, I could put the cans over there in the spring, summer and fall, moving them in November near the house where it will be easier to have access to them. I'm thinking, next year, I can put pots of flowers here, or get another raise bed and put the peppers, which aren't doing as well as I'd hoped, over here. Decisions. Decisions. At least this project is started and will be finished this year.

Beverage:  Water

Deb

Sunday, July 16, 2017

Amazing Feets

I said, back after Christmas, I didn't need more socks. I have not posted the photos of the socks I received from Carole and Larry for Christmas. I'm getting there. Other photos demand attention.

The sock drawer is quite crammed but I can't go anywhere without seeing socks I NEED. Well, "need" is, really, too strong of a word, but "want" doesn't quite cover it. I found these and they made their way into my sock drawer.

I had no Easter socks.


I'm also on the look-out, next year, for some with colored eggs on them. The dark pink bow on the rabbit has sparkly bits.

Then, I stumbled upon these in a notice from one of the booksellers whose catalogue I get.


Library card socks. I could get them in light blue or yellow. The yellow tugged at my nostalgia. They were $2.50 a pair. How could I resist? (I also bought some fun Christmas cards from this retailer because the handling charge tripled the cost of the socks. It's not a deal if you wind up paying $9.00 for handling.)

I have this weakness. Is there a Sock-aholics Anonymous? Or maybe I simply need a bigger drawer?

Beverage:  Scottish Breakfast Tea

Deb

Cold Turkey

In my office, I have a crate in which I put recycling. Everything from frozen food meal trays to paper to plastic gets tossed into the crate. When it gets full, I bring the crate home and empty it into my recycling bin. Nice and efficient.

Toward the end of March, after picking up breakfast at Dunkin', I removed the tea bags and prepared to toss the styrofoam cup into the crate. There was a slight problem.


The crate was full and most of it was Dunkin' styrofoam cups. I smushed these down to make room for another and, that night, took the crate home for recycling.

Dunkin' is quick and easy, but not the healthiest of breakfasts. I looked at this and was kind of floored by what this represented. There were 2.5 weeks of Dunkin' cups in here. Those you can't see are under the paper and plastic miscellany added to the crate. I can't keep eating donuts for breakfast. That's not, at all, healthy. And, in reality, stuffing the money for this habit onto my Dunkin' card is not good for the budget, either. I would have to start making plans to get up in time to make myself breakfast AND have the food on hand to make that breakfast.

I didn't realize how difficult this would be for me. Then, the Dunkin' I frequent made it easy. The owner of that store sold the franchise to another couple. All the people I knew in the store were let go. I walked in and the coloring contest, the balloons, the merchandise had been replaced. The people behind the counter were efficient, but they were not nearly as friendly. It was "get us in and out as quickly as possible" mode.

This made cutting back, way back, on Dunkin' for breakfast, much easier. There are two Dunkin' on the way to the office. I thought I would see how friendly they were. Not any better. They are bigger stores than the one by me, but the whole tone of these places, the whole atmosphere, is one of "get people out as quickly as possible". I added more money to my Dunkin' card back at the beginning of June. Normally, I would add something every month, but I have not had to add anything in July. I don't see I will use up what's on my card before next month. I have no desire to.

Part of me is sad. One of the reasons I had this habit was that I was recognized at the local Dunkin'. They took the time to get to know me, know what I liked. Yes, they did things as fast as possible, but a testament to a place is the line out the front door. Since the change in ownership, I haven't been to this place when there has been a line, even at the most popular times.

I needed to cut back on my habit. It was a crutch. I didn't have to get up with any speed because I could swing by Dunkin' to get breakfast. But, this was not a healthy obsession to have. While I could afford it, my budget is better off not spending $15-$30 per month on donuts. I miss the camaraderie with the people who used to work there. A friendly, "Hello" on a morning when I stumble in at 5:45 because I have to be somewhere by 7:00, always started my day off right. It's certainly not what I experience now when I choose to go there.

What's the aphorism? "The only constant is change."

Beverage:  Scottish Breakfast Tea

Deb

Now I Wait

I put up the hummingbird feeder last week.


I had to get a new feeder because the one I have, of this design, had broken.

I'm getting a lot of traffic at the tube feeder. The last week has seen squirrels climb the crook and then feed, upside down, from the tube. That is not a positive, but there is an inexpensive way to stop that. The next time I fill the feeder, I need to dump in with the seed, half a container of cayenne pepper. It has no effect on the birds, but the squirrels? Oh yeah. They will quickly learn this feed is not for them.

I've had chickadees and a couple finches at the north window feeder. Goldfinches and chickadees have also discovered the feeder here on the east window. I have mourning doves and rabbits eating the seed flung out to the ground so I've been sprinkling seed on the ground specifically for them. The squirrels love it too, but they don't seem to be cleaning everything up which is good for ground feeding birds. I have to decide what, if anything, I'm going to do for them in the winter.

This morning, I saw a female hummingbird flitting amongst the flowers of the hosta in the back. This year, they bloomed profusely, more than I have seen in a long time. Not sure why that is, but it's lovely. My hope is now that the hummingbird will find the nectar in the front. Some of it is gone in the week intervening, since I set this up. I don't know if that can be attributed to evaporation or if birds are feeding when I'm not watching.

I'm happy with this. The last step is to right the birdbath I purchased and get that weighted so I can fill it. I need to do some weeding. That's always the case, but this has turned out nice. I am thinking I may get a suet feeder to replace the hummer feeder come November.

Beverage:  Scottish Breakfast Tea

Deb

Vultures

This is what happens when I go to Subway on a weekend. They start circling.


I don't know what it is about Subway's turkey but the kids love it. The deli turkey I bring home from the store doesn't have the same appeal. I'm a creature of habit with my Subway sandwiches; turkey and provolone, topped with lettuce, spinach and green pepper. Add a line of yellow mustard and I'm good.


Hamlet will try anything I have, but Mija and Pilchard are more picky. I'm very okay with picky. Yet bring in a Subway sandwich and I have to share my turkey.

Vultures.

Beverage:  Scottish Breakfast tea

Deb

Thursday, July 13, 2017

They Oughtta Fix This

Yesterday, we had several lines of heavy thunderstorms roll through the area. The sky was ominous on the way to work.


No that's not worrying at all. Why do you ask? It took, roughly 15 minutes for the first line to rumble by the office. It got dark.


This photo doesn't convey just how dark it was. The streetlights and parking lot lights were on as the first line started to come through.

One of the only detriments to this building is that drainage behind us is not very good. The overnight storms had dumped quite a bit of water, water which doesn't drain well from the area behind the building.


This is looking northwest. The ramp in the foreground goes into our back door.


We jokingly refer to this as "the lake". You can see how dark it got because you can see into the packaging company across the lake. Normally, even when they have doors open, we can't see into the warehouse.


The water extends south to the entry into the delivery area. It's important to note where the water is, in relation to the cars parked back here. Gene and Matt will park up next to the stairs because their offices are close to our rear door. I didn't get it on camera but Gene came down here and decided, because he saw Matt and I on the back steps, to drive through the edge of the water. He lifted up a nice plume. He said there was no way he was driving in the middle of the water. It was, at 8 am, too deep for his car. We were all rueing the loss of my Jeep. I'd have driven through this, really fast. That was one thing I loved to do on the Jeep; drive through water puddles. I still do, but you could go into deeper water and get higher side plumes with the Jeep.

It rained; really, really, rained; hard, pounding rain; off and on all morning. My phone camera couldn't capture the rain. It was coming down so hard, you couldn't see across the street. It was a curtain of gray. We have a skylight in the main area and it sounded like someone was on the roof tossing rocks on the skylight, it was raining so hard. We would go into the main area and check the corners of the skylight. The company who did our remodel did a good job sealing the skylight. We have no leaks.

About noon, Gene looked out his office window which overlooks the parking lot. He'd been doing a lot of reports and hadn't paid a whole lot of attention to outside. It's raining. There's water in the back. Okay. We are all, pretty much, minding our own business. We hear, "Holy shit! You guys gotta come see this!" We go to the warehouse, where Gene opens the ramp door.


The water which had been right at the foot of the ramp this morning, is a "wee bit" deeper at noon. Yes, it was still raining, although not as hard.


The water laps at the top of the bottom step of the steps up to the back door.

We stood there and the boss, in a quite bemused tone of voice said, "You know, they really oughtta fix this." Meanwhile, Tara goes into the front closet and gets the Wellies. We have three pair of boots in the office available for people to use when you find yourself in soggy surroundings. She put on the boots and decided to walk across the back lot.


She's at what is probably the deepest point. The lot slopes from both buildings to the middle, where she's standing. The water came up to within one inch of the top of the boots. Notice the cars behind her and then scroll up to the same cars this morning. We got a little bit of water.

This morning, there was still water in the back lot. It had gone down to yesterday morning's levels. By noon, it had drained away, which was good because Matt needed to load his car for a trip to service equipment tomorrow. We don't have a basement so it doesn't impact us, other than being unable to pull a car into the warehouse to load. But companies north and south of us get larger deliveries. There is no way a delivery company could come back here. Semis wouldn't be affected at the warehouse, but you have to worry, just a bit, about your car when you see all this water.

It's supposed to be dry now until next week. Yeah, they really do need to fix this.

Beverage:  Scottish Breakfast Tea

Deb

Tuesday, July 11, 2017

A Gift

Running a World of Warcraft guild can be a thankless job. As any manager of people can attest, you have a wide variety of personalities all thrown together. And while we don't have a product to offer, as would be the case of a work place, we have goals. Achieving said goals means working together and that can be tough when Brenda is having a panic attack, Rob's girlfriend dumped him, Mona's dog is throwing up all over the living room carpet, and Derrick's mother is yelling at him to take out the garbage and help her move a table. You become confidante, counselor, and crisis manager. Still, I wouldn't disband my guild for anything because, in spite of all of this, many of us are, deep down, friends. We've bonded over pixels on a computer screen and have extended that bond into our real lives.

There are some people I don't know very well. They are names on the screen; avatars in a group; there, but not extraordinarily present. I don't know their lives. They come on, do their thing, and log off. They are happy to be in a guild with lower pressure to play. I never know if they are happy or just don't want the hassle of trying to find another guild. And then I get asked for my name and address because, "I have something to send to you."

Ordinarily, my real self isn't available to people I don't know. But guild members who have hung around for at least 8 months, even if they rarely talk in chat, can "break that 4th wall", if you will. So, I gave Kacy my name and address. I really didn't have a gut feeling she would abuse it.

Last month, I got a slim, small, packet in the mail.


There was a pin depicting mages, one of the classes you can play, and a green mesh bag with something inside it.


It's a silver necklace with the guild icon in it. I was, and still am, blown away by this kindness. I'm not one for jewelry anymore, but I will wear this every day during the guild's trip to Disney World in October.

People surprise me in very meaningful ways. All I need to do, when I'm feeling oppressed about dealing with people, is to look at this and remember, everyone has bad days and how I lead is important. I guess I'm doing something right.

Beverage:  Dr Pepper

Deb

Monday, July 10, 2017

Sewing

I'm "blaming" my friend, Meredith Carney, for a spur-of-the moment purchase at the beginning of the month. In case you don't know, the movie "Despicable Me 3" is now in movie theaters. The minions are back and with them, product tie-ins, of course. She was shopping at Wal*Mart, a place I won't go, and sent me photos of some minion clothing. "Hmmmm," thinks I. "Is there minion fabric?" Well duh.


JoAnn Fabrics might have just a few choices. There are also some prints available online only, but I need to see the fabric to decide what print to get and then, what to make of said print.

Yes, yes. I know what's going through your head. We will not talk about the boxes of fabric in the closet. We will agree to just nod in that general direction. Look! Minions! I did not have to go to JoAnn Fabrics for anything. I went because of minions and Meredith showing me clothing at Wal*Mart. What's the aphorism? "I can resist anything except temptation"?

I came home with these.


The Disney World trip is less than 100 days away now. I was going to do something crazy and make capes for all the guild members, and family members, attending the event. But, about April, I realized I'd bitten off way more than I could chew so I abandoned that before I spent $$$ on fabric I won't get fashioned into things. But I could get a shirt done before October.

I opted to buy a new pattern. I usually don't buy Vogue patterns because they assume you are more than an intermediate sewer, but I like this one and it's fairly simple. I'm going to make the shirt at the lower right corner. It's two fabrics. I will make a mostly yellow with a white block and then a mostly white with a yellow block. The shirt has a 9 inch zipper in the front to facilitate putting it on. It's stitched in the "invisible zipper" style, something I haven't done in a very long time. We'll see. Since this is a strictly humorous shirt, I don't, necessarily, care if it's visible or invisible. The zipper is not the point of the shirt.

I get these home and feel the desire to sew rising. In order to do that, I had to clear a path to the ironing board and deal with the stuff I had stacked on the ironing board. Then, I've spent the last week clearing off the kitchen table. I'm so bad about just dropping stuff there in the "I'll deal with it later" mode, and there it sits. The urge to just move stuff to another pile was strong, but I resisted and actually cleared off the table, putting things away, dealing with them.

In the process of cleaning, I found the pieces to a lightweight jacket I was going to make last year, to wear to Carole's for my birthday.


(There's the cape pattern I bought. Not sure what I'll do with it now, but you never know when a pattern will come in handy.)

The jacket is not complicated.


I cut out the pattern back in early October of last year.


And then it sat. I got busy and just lost the desire to work on it, even with a self-imposed deadline. When the table was cleared and all the pieces liberated, I felt like I couldn't sew the two shirts without finishing this jacket. I didn't have, handy, thread matching the pink. I have, instead, a dark mauve-ish color which actually works better. One day's worth of sewing and viola.


The next step is to prepare the trim. I'm using a black satin for the trim around the jacket and sleeves. I bought more interfacing for the shirts, which was a good thing because it appears I never cut interfacing for the trim. But I got to thinking. I haven't sewn satin in years and I have concerns about fusing interfacing to satin. Would the iron leave marks as I was fusing? Asking my seamstress friends, they said to use sew-in interfacing because satin will pucker with fusible. Hadn't thought about puckering. The next issue is, do I have enough non-fusible interfacing? I haven't a clue, so I will have to find the box with the interfacing, and, tonight, take a look. At least there is still a sale at JoAnn's so if I need interfacing, it will be on sale. I don't use non-fusible if I can help it, but I know I have a stash, just how much is the question.

So, here we go. Once the interfacing issue is resolved, this will go together very quickly. Then I can work on the minion shirts. Sewing makes me feel good. Finishing projects makes me feel double good. It's win/win. And, my "helper" likes to supervise when I sit in the recliner as I pin seams.


Beverage:  Scottish Breakfast Tea

Deb

Things I See

I had to inspect an apartment complex in May. They had this on the wall outside the gym.


It's a fish made of silver colored fish sculptures. It was so cool.


I see things like this and want them for my walls. It would probably be easy to obtain the fish and the bubbles, but I don't have the wall space for them. I never did get around to painting the bathroom. It's still on the "to do" list. Makes me kind of embarrassed to admit it's yet another project I haven't completed when I see awesome stuff like this.

Beverage:  Scottish Breakfast Tea

Deb

Monday, July 3, 2017

Disney Hair - Step 1

Another item on the list of things to do prior to heading off to Disney World in October is my hair. I want to do something goofy (pun intended) for this event. I've been struggling since January to figure out what to do. I like Great Clips. They do a good job at cutting my hair, but that's all they do, cut hair. If that's what you're looking for, and I am, you simply cannot go wrong.

While, I want to ramp up my hair style and add color for Disney, I love my gray hair. I used to color it because I thought it made me look old. Well, I reached a certain stage of my life and decided I embrace who I am and who I am has gray hair. Plus, the added benefit of age is that I don't particularly care what "convention" says. So, I've been toying, for months, with what to do with my hair.

I finally settled on color; not all over color, but color in sections. I have to remember that people in my industry are fairly conservative and showing up with a mass of blue hair wouldn't be the best move. What could I do which adds the fun and preserves the need for moderation? I honestly don't know, at this point, but I do know I need a haircut.

I've been living with a bob for many years. I used to have slightly below shoulder-length gray hair. Somewhere, there is a photo of that. I chopped it off at least 5 years ago because it took too long to dry and was just unmanageable. I do not want to have to blow dry my hair to make it look good. That's not my idea of a good time. I need a cut I can wash, run my fingers through, and head out the door. "Well, you need a circular brush and just 15 minutes in the morning, and you'll look fabulous." Yeah, about that. 15 minutes more spent on my hair is 15 minutes more I could be spending giving ear scritches or sleeping. Not going to happen. If I have to go somewhere needing styling, of course I'll do it, but to the office, nope. So the longer bob is what I've had for a long time. It's an easy cut and it grows out well.

I don't know what it is about my bangs, however. They go from being comfortable to in my face in a week. I generally get a haircut when the bangs start giving me trouble.

I asked friends for salon advice. If I'm going to do color in October, I need to find a good salon now. I need to establish a relationship with someone now. A friend recommended Hairborn Salon which is right on the way to work. I pass it every day. So, I made an appointment with Alex, the salon manager, for last Saturday. We spent 15 minutes talking about ideas. She cut my hair in the same bob shape but emphasized a much shorter back than the front. Almost no hair was trimmed from the front. When she was done, the floor looked like this.


She said she thinned my hair in the back. To me, it felt fine but that's only in thickness. I still had as much hair pieces as usual. It's just that gray hair is not a fat as brown hair. I thought it looked like someone had shorn a poodle or brushed their Australian shepherd. All that was on my head.

We've talked color. I'm pretty set on doing the Kelly green of the tabard. I've toyed with a stripe all the way around the bottom inch of the cut. I've toyed with green stripes on one side of my head. I toyed with green and cream stripes, as the icon for the guild is in a cream/ivory color. Alex showed me their color book.


They can do all these and she will make any color I want. I toyed with orange and black stripes because I like Tigger. "I can do that," she said with confidence. The thing about stripes is that they will grow out, which could look weird 6 months down the road, but I could have the color removed. "The great thing about your hair is that it's like a blank canvas. I don't have to bleach out the color before adding color. We can go as wacky as you like."

Here's the cut.


In doing stripes, I'd only put them on one side, from the ear forward. If I did a green stripe at the bottom, that would go all the way around. That could be cut off if the boss deemed it way too much.

Another option would be hair extensions. Those could be dyed any color and would go under my hair. I could have some in green and cream and black and orange. I'm not messing with my hair, just adding to it.

I don't know what I want. I am leaning toward the green vertical stripes on one side, but like the idea of a green stripe all the way around. My friend, Shari, suggested a graduated green where it's mostly Kelly but then gets dark at the ends. That has merit. Should I add the cream or go with green, gray, green? So many choices. It's as bad as the amount of choice you have at Disney. I have until October 7th to figure this out.

Beverage:  Water

Deb