risque . . .

kidlet reminded me that in a post or two ago, i mentioned going out for some adult company and that it sounded a little risqué.

truly not.  my friend robin has been inviting me to be part of her eclectic group of friends for dinner once every month or so for the last six months.  i've know robin for over 30 years.  she bequeathed kidlet her very first pair of high top Reeboks.

her husband david is there of course,

 and usually sharon, who i have known even longer.

(that's sharon and i circa 1983, in nashville at an american bus association meeting in tux.  don't ask.  i have absolutely no explanation.)  and their friends vicki and paulie and bob and jim.  it was paulie's birthday or as robin put it, the 20th anniversary of his 55th birthday.

this was one happy guy.

see kidlet, nothing risqué, at least until the wine starts flowing and robin and sharon start telling tales from back in the day.  then things might be a bit tricky.

but the truth is, i totally enjoy their adult company.  i've been so consumed with missing the 9TS that sometimes i forget how lonely it can get.  thanks robin and david and paul and vicki and sharon and bob and julie and randy.  for making life easier.  love you robin.

the horror of it all . . .

kidlet can finally wear my clothes.  my favorite jeans have been hijacked. all is not right with the world.

this is a cataclysmic disaster of major proportions.  i do not share well.  she has, for years, been unable to perform thievery in my closet.  everything would hang on her preteen body that she kept well into her twenties, but now, mother nature has taken over and her natural curves have arrived at last.  the kid has bigger boobs than i do.  oh wait, am i allowed to say that?

last night in desperation she scrumpled through my sundresses.  when that didn't work . . .  after all there is a 40 year taste difference working on my side . . . she dived into my jean drawer and came up for air with my favorite crops clutched to her heart.  how do i say no?

when she came home, she dutifully dumped them in my dirty laundry basket.  all was well with my world.

this morning however, she is helping me take ninji to the vet for a laser treatment.  and to my horror, she once  again dug in my jean drawer.  i didn't slam the drawer fast enough and my dearest kidlet survived without loosing a finger or two . . . .  for the moment.

i'll have to keep my slightly crossed left eye on that child.  and make a quick trip to my favorite hardware store.  another first world problem.  wink.

let me sing you the song of my tribe . . .

of curly haired red heads.

little red.  carrot top.  red on the head.  ginger.  freckle face.  i've heard them all.  my hair has gone from fire engine red ringlets so tight my mother couldn't get a comb through them to stick straight mahogany and every shade in between.  thankfully, stick straight was in in the 60's.  i had no interest in the 'big hair' of the 80's, mine was happily sit.down.upon.able.

and then kidlet arrived and brought with her a four inch wide shock of wave in the back.  as she reached her teens, most of the back was awash in curls . . . nothing a blow dryer and brush couldn't handle but then she reached her mid twenties . . .  see how i am blaming her . . . the curl could no longer be tamed.  enter 1.5 inch curling iron . . . yes, i straighten my hair with a curling iron.  really.  it works.  or used to.  she is now 27 and my hair is a frizzy mess and not so very red any more.  beach waves are in now, lucky me.  so i decided to stop fighting nature and bought some spray to enhance the curl.  the look?  not so much.  and did i mention that the first two inches back from my forehead are stick straight, like the rebels last stand?

i finally took inventory.  in the past couple of months, my hair product collection has multiplied faster than the occupants of a rabbit hutch.  there's my ever trusty curling iron, a flat iron and now a bedhead rock and roller.  there's anti frizz shampoo and cream rinse, nourishing shampoo and cream rinse in case my hair needs a break, texturizer, smoothing gel, heat guard, beach wave spray, argon oil, coconut oil, hemp paste . . . the shelf is overflowing.  so is my hair.  it's like i am fertilizing a bush.  good thing i am growing it long and can now put it up which brings up my new collection of pins, clips, screws, bands, scrunchies, and hats.  if all else fails, wear a hat even if it is 98• out.

thursday night i went out to enjoy some adult company and it only took five products, a dryer and a curling wand to tame the monster and it stayed tame the next day.  this morning however, we walked in the mist.  two minutes later, the amount of hair on my head tripled in size and volume. curled up as if miniature seizures had taken hold of each and every strand.  i gave up, washed it and let it dry au natural.

i give up.

red headed curls and a face full of freckles.  that's my lot.  i will sing the song of my tribe and embrace my differences.  life is good.  and curly.

new places and brain farts . . .

the three hens tried a new restaurant yesterday for our weekly nosh.  cute little eatery transformed from a tiny old home.  it's only open for lunch monday through friday and again friday night for dinner . . . reservations only.  i've lived in the area for more than forty years and have never noticed it, not that it's been here all that long. observant much.  obviously not. so tiny.  as in the back porch held one table.  there was another in the 'wine' room . . . the shelving on the walls being covered with racks of wine, one more table in the main room and a little eat-in bar with a couple of seats.  one more room with one more table.  that's it.  they are primarily a catering business which is why they are not open on weekends.  we opted for the back porch which was all windows on two sides.  my view let me watch the workmen on the roof of the building next door.  no slurpiness there, sorry.  the porch sloped so far toward the back, i was afraid joanie's lunch was going to end up on lee's plate.  me, i love back porches, sleeping porches, lanais, verandas, reminds me of my room in college my senior year.  it was an all weather porch upstairs with three sides of windows.  loved it. hows that for a non-sequitur?  the menu is rotated weekly and offers five or six items plus a daily special. i don't think we'll be returning anytime soon or ever for that matter but it was fun to try.  nope, just not that excellent.

my brain has gone south.  i stuck my third load of laundry in the dryer but forgot to turn it on.  THEN, i put the lasagna in the oven and came back 50 minutes later very hungry.  too bad i had turned on the wrong oven.

on that note, i am going to hide my head in the sand.

still here . . .

just took a little sabbatical.  you know how it goes . . . either swamped or bored to death.  either one is deadly for a blog.

we have some amazing news from the cave . . .  after nine very long years with many more downs than ups, kidlet is a college graduate.  yup, she finished up from home doing the last of two required courses.  my love, you ROCK!!!!!!!  officially graduation is the 31st with all the pomp and circumstance but that's just the fluff on the cake.  she's a freakin' college graduate AND her life is beginning . . . hold your breath . . . to make more sense to herself.  she's more confident, better able to respond to social cues and get this . . .  correctly.  baby steps my friends, baby steps. with one very huge banana step thrown in.

apparently i left my favorite 50mm lens on my window sill.  the extra high one in my bedroom.  and i watched it set there for two weeks.  why was i surprised when i finally discovered it crashed on the floor.  i mean what else do cats do but shove things off of surfaces.  it's in their DNA.  i've had cats all my life except for one 12 year aberration into doggiedom, i know better.  i picked it up, found it's lid several feet away and plopped it back into my camera bag.  yup, i was that scared to see if it was beyond repair.  i know my 28-280 would not have survived.  i finally switched lenses and checked it out.  peace in the world, it is unscathed.  truly. amazing.

a lot of my time recently has been rebuilding a 10,000 plus database for my digi collection.  my EHD crashed and took it all with it.  no fear, i have a back up but not one with the metadata embedded.  so not only have i had to retag each item, i've now gone back through and embedded each and every one of those happy little buggers.  hopefully the next time i lose an EHD, it will pop back up intact.  and yes, this is the second time this year.  fingers crossed the embedding solves that problem.  i know it's a first world issue but can someone please design an EHD that lasts.

not having tags makes it very hard to play with photoshop the way i do.  my memory banks will not allow me to remember which kit had which element, so my play time has come to a screeching halt.  this is the sole entree for the last month:

kidlet insists on finding these critters.  i am not so fond.  i would apologize for the bad pun but i stole it so don't shoot the messenger.

kidlet is back up north again for the weekend.  i dearly love my offspring but sometimes it is a pleasant break to have the cave to myself.  hopefully i will get a lot of necessary stuff done . . . you know, the kind of stuff that eradicates dust, inhales fur balls and sucks up bathtub rings.  that stuff.

and tomorrow i'm playing with a recipe for chicken backstroking with mushrooms baked in a luscious white wine, sherry and garlic sauce.  i've made the recipe before but this time i am going to cut the liquid a little and add a little more roux so it turns into gravy and sit it all on a base of noodles.  slurp.

see, i've already run out of new flashes.  you can take a deep breath, but i will be back.

namaste.