Okay. I’ve figured it out.

What I need to do is write more posts about my hair. ‘Cause that’s like the most comments I’ve gotten EVAH. Heh. Hee.

I did want to say quickly that the ponytail issue was the main reason why my hairdresser left my hair at that length…she knows my situation and thought it best to leave me some ponytail potential: I do live on a ranch, in the middle of the desert, and I can go like…er…seven days without seeing any other living soul apart from R. and The Bee? Oh, and Josie, the post office maven. And there’s the mommy thing (oh, yeah, that)…so, she left me enough to pull back and up.

But I like to think of myself as having the potential for edge. Like. It. Thank you for angling my spirits that way…!

I’ll see how it goes in the next month.

In my next post, I’ll put up the pics of the ucky arm restraints that my little Bee will have to endure scream about wear for 10 days after the surgery. Ah, have I mentioned that the surgery is on Tuesday? Hmmmmm.

Bobbing along…

So, I went to my hairdresser’s last Friday–actually left the house at 6:45 AM for the appointment. Dear. Lord.–and asked for the proverbial Mommy Cut. Here is the picture, ripped from a magazine, I toted along–short, yes, but short with long pieces. Ahem (sorry it’s so gigantic; I’m having upload issues):

My hairdresser said I needed to do it in stages. In other words, she refused. She knew that the last time I cut my hair short was 1995, so she wants me to try things in stages. Hairdresser as therapist. What can you do?

Here is what I ended up with:

Now, my question to all of you is–do I go shorter at the next visit (at the end of September) or do I stick with what I’ve got? What say you?

Nested.

Back at the start of July, I posted about our little renovation project: to create a room for The Bee, a walk-in closet for R. (I gave up the dream, but that’s a story for another post), and a new master bedroom for us.

They’re done. They were done a few weeks ago, but I just didn’t get the photos taken and uploaded until now, so here goes…

The Bee’s room was based entirely on a set of vintage curtains I purchased at the Rosebowl Fleamarket several years ago. They’re barkcloth, gray with pink- and grape-colored pom-pom-flowers and lime-colored leaves:

I didn’t know at the time what I was going to use them for, but when we adopted, and I needed a nursery idea, I thought of these curtains because the flowers looked vaguely Suessian to me–like the Lorax trees or something…

So, the walls of the room became gray (yes, GRAY!) to fit the curtains, and because my idea of a room is to paint the walls neutral and then add pops of color in artwork or furnishings…R. was absolutely horrified at the idea of painting a kid’s room gray (as was our contractor, apparently, whom R. had to talk into it), but I think it’s sort of soothing:

The flower painting on the lower wall here was hanging in my house growing-up. One of my father’s great aunts did it, and I probably need to get it re-framed, but I haven’t had the heart to change it yet…also, the little painting on the shelf over the changing table is one that the daughter of a friend of mine did, based on one of the photos I posted on the travel blog in China–it’s The Bee kissing her ‘night bear’ in the White Swan hotel room. You can see the ‘night bear’ in person on her bed in a later shot….

And I made a little effort to carry some themes over into the details–like the curtain rod has big pink “puff-balls” on the ends, and the bed sheet does too:

And the (metal!) rocking chair has pink skulls as its pillow cover, meant to echo the pink skulls in the blanket on the bed above (a favorite gift of The Bee’s from Atomic Mama):

I do not own a sewing machine, and so in my typical fly-by-night fashion, I ’sewed’ the pillow cover and the curtains together with Stitch Witchery. Heh. Gotta love an iron.

The Bee seems to enjoy her time there, although I do need to get her a slightly higher chair for her table, even though she’s attached to the stool–another favorite gift from walternatives:

It’s probably a little weird to post pictures of your bedroom, but since it’s part of the end of the renovation story, here goes. The painting over the bed is of a pair of dead agaves–it’s one of my favorite pieces:

After we bought that piece, I needed an actual dead agave to go with it, so I had one as my Christmas tree one year, and then it found its place in the bedroom near the painting:

This one’s for Somewhere Else…

A couple weekends ago, J. of Somewhere Else was asking about the creatures that inhabit the ranch, and I mentioned that javelinas abound here. She asked what it looked like. A pig with hair and tusks. She asked what it is. A peccary. She asked whether I have any photos…

My front yard:

The state of Arizona allows a person to kill one javelina a year. There are javelina roasts here, especially in the fall. I have never partaken, and now, I never will…the thing about javelinas that I’ve recently learned is that they’re extremely familial, extremely community-oriented. They mourn their dead. Which explains R.’s anecdotal evidence of the same from last fall: he was driving into town in the early morning and saw a dead baby javelina on the side of the road, and an adult javelina (alive) hovering over the body, just in the shoulder. When he drove home about 12 hours later, there was the parent (?), in the exact same position, seemingly guarding its perished young. It hadn’t moved. The whole desert-day long.

That did it for me. I no longer refer to them as damn pigs, even though the beloved Gus dog did once get gored by one. They rank somewhere between rattlesnakes and coyotes on my personal scale of stuff that scares me here. (Because they don’t try to warn you before unleashing their particular brand of violence, scorpions rank higher than anything else.)

There is a very cute children’s book that I wholeheartedly recommend, based on the tale of The Three Little Pigs, but with a Western slant: The Three Little Javelinas

Cheers!

We had the great good fortune last weekend to host at the ranch two of our most esteemed bloggy colleagues: Atomic Mama and Somewhere Else’s J. and her little one E.!!

I have permission to post some photos from the grand event, which culminated in E. teaching The Bee how to do “cheers!” at the table with our glasses. Now, The Bee is fanatic about it–no water, wine, milk, juice, tea, coffee, or other obdurate beverage shall pass our lips without the ritualized clanking of glasses. What took us so long to show her this little wonder of mealtime?

J. and the girls:

E. swoops in for a hug, and The Bee stings in response!

A.M. looks on to the pool shenanigans:

What’s so funny?

E. is like, WTF is she doing?

Blogger Buds:

Catching Up…

So, clearly I can never go away again…it just takes too long to (1) transfer underwear from the rummaged-through pile-of-a-suitcase to the drawers; (2) get through all the laundry without running out of soap; (3) find my cellphone again (what does it mean that my cell went missing for 10 days, and, when I found it again, there were no voicemails, no missed calls, no nothing?); (4) get through Bloglines–OMG, people, we’ve been home two weeks, and I just finished looking at your stuff this morning; (5) move into our newly-renovated quarters–I can’t tell you how good it feels to be back in my bed…and Emme has a room! Now if I only had time to take pics of the new space, I could post them…; (6) get the dogs back to their pre-kennel weight; (7) nurse my daughter’s somewhat damaged emotional wellbeing back to normal from all the upheaval and frayed days we’ve been experiencing. Really, I’m beginning to think vacations just aren’t worth it. Yikes.

I’m just going to throw up some pictures of the past month and leave it at that…we had a great time back east with the cousins. We went to the Baltimore aquarium and saw sharks up close and a dolphin show; we put our feet in a stream and touched the waterbugs; we ate blueberries with our cousins on the three matching chairs my mother bought her grandkids; we went on our first tube-slide, over and over again; we insisted in the big pool that we go ALL THE WAY UNDER over and over again; we celebrated The Bee’s second birthday–TWICE. Once in Maryland on the actual day, and then again when we got back here, with her brothers and the ‘big presents’–a sandbox and a water table and a trunk for dress-up clothes. She has now met both sets of grandparents; her aunt and uncle (she only has the one set); and her two cousins, whom she loved getting to know. So, along with her brothers, that’s the whole family, save a few great aunts and uncles.

Random photos from back east:

Photos of the Birthday Party on the actual birthday:

Photos of the birthday party back at home:

The Bee has her first surgery–a very minor one, for ear tubes–on Friday. But I’ll try to post more before then…we had some very cool houseguests this past weekend, which I need to tell y’all about…

We can’t go home again…

but we can try. The SBird fam is off tomorrow morning for the east coast, the first time SBird has been home to her parents’ house in almost a decade. I hear the hometown has changed (!)–as my sister put it, it’s become “fast and air-conditioned.” The Bee will meet her other set of grandparents (my parents), and her aunt and uncle, and two cousins. Should be fun times. We will also celebrate The Bee’s SECOND BIRTHDAY on August 1st. Wow is all I can say about that…

Yesterday, we had a playdate (and sad goodbye time) with OmegaMom and OmegaDottir and OmegaGranny. The girls enjoyed coloring together–although sharing is a challenge for The Bee, who tries hard but still wants what she wants when she wants it:

and also playing the ’stack-the-hands’ game (that’s OmegaMom’s hand, guiding The Bee a wee bit in the way to play the game):

At some point, OmegaDottir figured out she could pick The Bee up:

which The Bee thought was the FUNNEST thing evah:

The SBird family wishes the Omegas a very safe trip to Alaska and a grand new adventure living in the last American frontier!!!

And in the category of: WTF?

I give you the following exchange between R. and myself, which took place in the car on Monday, driving home from the disgustingly-hot low desert…

R.: I could live there.

SB: Huh?

R.: I could live there, on that hill.

SB: What hill?

R.: THAT hill. That elegantly-shaped hill.

SB: [Still not sure what he’s talking about] You mean THAT hill? That thing stuck out in the middle of nowhere?

R.: Yeah, that lovely, lava-rock, black hill, in all its isolated splendor.

SB: [Choking] You have GOT to be on drugs.

R.: No. Why? Whaddya mean? [Pause] I LIKE that hill. It’s a great hill.

SB: It’s tiny. It’s like a pinpoint of a hill.

R.: That’s why I like it. It’s elegantly-shaped.

SB: Whaaahh? Elegantly-whaaahhh? If you stepped outside your door, you’d plunge 100 feet into sharp malpais rock. It’s unliveable.

R.: I could take a helicopter in. Land on my roof.

SB: Key word here being “my.” YOUR roof. YOUR house. Not mine.

R.: Why are you snapping pictures of it if you hate it so much?

SB: [Snort] Are you kidding? I can already see the post’s title now: “And in the category of: WTF?”

R.: Well, if you’re going to blog about it, then I’m going to say something quotable…

SB: [Thought bubble only: “like you haven’t said plenty already?”]

R.: It’s shaped like a scoop of Hagen Daz ice cream.

The Rain In Spain Falls Mostly On the Plain…

Oh my lordie, I am so BEHIND in my postings, but the BIG NEWS is that the MONSOON IS HERE! So the official date is July 16th–I don’t think anyone chose that day, but please correct me if I’m wrong about that! We arrived home from the palm tree farm on Monday afternoon to the rains…here is the blow-by-blow of our arrival…

first, we are still in the low desert, it’s 105 degrees, but you can see up to the rim country where we live and it’s very, very dark…full of dark clouds of monsoon. I’d know that sky anywhere…

There is a steep grade that takes about 10 minutes to climb, and equals about 1,800 feet in altitude, and the temperature fell to 80 degrees at the top…anyone ever heard that Crowded House song, “Four Seasons in One Day”? Yeah, baby!

The next shot is a picture of Black Mountain, in whose shadow sits the ranch. This is the mountain I fell in love with when we were searching for places to move. I am a bit sheepish to admit that it reminded me of the Scottish highlands…a wee bit acultural of me.

About 1/2 hour after our arrival home, the skies opened up, and we ended up with 1/2 inch of rain. In the nearby Little Cowboy City, they had 3 inches of rain, but that’s what another 1,000 feet of altitude will do for you. Here’s the now-famous shot from our front porch:

Of course, it’s now Thursday, and it hasn’t rained since Monday, but we’re still definitely in Monsoon Season–it’s only about 95 degrees, instead of 105, and the clouds are built in. We just need to bully past this giant suckhole that is The Tiny Desert Cowtown Where I Live and move in some more moisture. Also, we are on the hunt for rainbows…The Bee learned to sign rainbow this week, and I am dying to show her the real thing.

More posts to come:

+on yesterday, a day of firsts for The Bee: first green pepper; first mushroom; first walk barefoot in the grass; first swing; first slide. (Which brings up another point: can someone who knows how to embed a video in Wordpress, please tell me what the secret code is???? PLEASE? I have video I’d like to share.)

+on the meeting with the grandparents last weekend…

+on the general despair of the really low desert (117 degrees in the shade, people…)

+on my beloved hubby’s weird obsession with living on top of a slogheap of a hill in the middle of nowhere in the godeffingawful desert…

+on lactose intolerance…and soy…and eggs…and maybe blueberries and strawberries, too…

+on the impending trip back east to meet the OTHER grandparents, on an airplane, next week…

stay tuned….