Magical steamy curls

When I was younger I remember going to my mom's friend Marie's house, and for some reason I needed to curl my hair.  She had this crazy hotroller set that she let me use -- the rollers used steam, and you had to put salt in the water.  They gave me the most stay-put curls ever.  Does anyone else remember these?  I used some of my magic Googling search powers, and discovered that they still make them (only now there's no salt needed).  They're the Caruso Molecular Steam Hairsetter something-or-other, and man I want them so bad.  I must have them.

It seems that now that my hair is shorter it doesn't stay curly as long.  Plus when I curl it with a curling iron it just looks fancier.  To me, anyway.  It would be much more convenient to use rollers, and then have those curls stay-the-hell put.  Plus it's Molecular, which makes it sound very scientific and effective.  I'm the kind of person that is suckered by all those marketing ploys.

I think Bryan should buy them for me for Valentine's Day, because I can't wait until my birthday.  Plus, hotrollers are romantic.

Bed tapestries

Bedding is expensive, and I am cheap.  We have several comforters, and several nice sheet sets, but nothing matches.  The fix?  Coverlets (on sale!) from Urban Outfitters.  Basically, it's a sheet. But it's a pretty sheet, and it's big enough to cover all of our ugly mis-matched crappy bedding.  Plus, when I'm sick of them, I'll just cut them up and use the material to make shirts or skirts or whathaveyou.

Yeah, so I'm a nerd

When I was in middle and high school I used to LOVE the Forgotten Realms books.  I didn't really do the Dungeons and Dragons thing (but I will admit that yes, I played once or twice, suck it) but man I loved those books.  Like, seriously had to have them all.  I don't know what happened to my collection, but it occurred to me the other day while I was thinking about Marissa and her reading habits. 

There's not that much out there that I think would really interest her, but those books came to mind.  Some of them are stand-alones, and some of them are a series, but they're filled with goblins and elves and wizards and all that crap.  I got the first of the Dark Elf Trilogy for Marissa from Paperback Swap.  This was one of my favorites, so I'm passing on the nerd torch.  I need to come up with some ceremony where I trip her on the playground and then try to copy the answers from her science test.

Scoot it up

Marissa's big present for the holidays was an electric scooter, which has been cooped up inside because the weather has been crappy.  Today was cold but really sunny, so it was the perfect day for her first spin.  That thing is AWE. SOME.  Bryan and I can even ride it, so we took turns shoving Marissa off and stealing it.

Ugh.

Part of our New Year's resolution was to change our diet: cut out meat, more fruits and veggies, and branch out and try new things.  One of my big, big, big problems is the amount of sugar I consume in a given day.  The actual quantity is undetermined, because if I kept track I'd probably have a heart attack, but let's just say "an assload."  I take a little coffee with my sugar, if you know what I'm sayin'.  So I heard about stevia, and have been dying to get my hands on some.  It was my great white hope, what with being all natural.

Ohmygoditisdisgusting.

I'm trying to get myself to like it, but the aftertaste is just awful.  Seriously awful.  Horrendously awful.  SOUL CRUSHINGLY AWFUL.  But I really want to like it.  I've convinced myself that if I substitute it for sugar in my coffee I will instantly drop 25 pounds, become fabulously rich, have awesome hair, and the mayor will give me a key to the city.  Maybe I have it confused for some other white, powdery substance?

Along the same lines, we bought some goat milk at the store, another first for us, look how cool we are all branching out in our dairy products, right?

We ran out of cow's milk the other day, so Bryan made me a mocha and substituted goat's milk instead.  He told me that if I didn't like it he'd dump it out, but we were out of other milk, so it was that or nothing.  I took a few drinks, but there was a weird taste to it.  I thought maybe it was just me, so I had Phoebe drink some, and she thought it was fine.  Using kids as a litmus test isn't a great idea, though -- Phoebe eats peanut butter with vegetable crackers.  Bleh.

I decided to just try the milk by itself to see if that was the problem.  Bryan brought out a cup and we all took drinks.  I went last (because I'm cautious like that) and felt pretty confident since everyone else seemed fine.  I took a drink.  And then proceeded to gag.  It tasted like someone lit a goat on fire and mixed it with evil.  And I put it in my mouth.  On purpose.  It took all night to get the taste out of my mouth, and right now?  I'm trying not to gag.  Just thinking about it makes me sick.

Maybe if I had broader tastes, and had grown up drinking milk that tasted exactly like a goat smells I wouldn't have such issues.  Maybe I'm just narrow minded.  Maybe I've been corrupted by processed foods like Doritos and Twinkies, but whatever.  I can't stomach things that have lingering aftertastes that make me want to choke myself.

So until they make a sugar substitute that tastes like sugar, and goat's milk that tastes like cow's milk (or sugar!) then I guess we'll just take what we already have, thankyouverymuch.