Pictures from a recent field trip at Little Corona del Mar beach at low tide.

Not enough shoes

Hubby and I have been going to a lot of open houses because we've started looking for a house. Mortgage rates are fairly low, and Hubby has an actual job now rather than a barely-paying one as a grad student or postdoc. Thus, open houses. Since he's been trying to keep the houses we see relative to what we can afford, we've actually seen a lot of crappy houses. Some are tear-downs. Most have no yard. Some are actually nice. A few are possibilities. I feel like the female mouse from Richard Scarry's The Best House Ever. Like we will never have a nice house (not like ducks, cats and dogs are conspiring bullies). But one thing has stood out. And that is that women have a lot (and I really mean a lot) of shoes. That, or they just keep all of the shoe boxes? But then, why would you keep sixty to eighty empty shoe boxes? Or is this just emblematic of the area I happen to live in? Do you really need that many different pairs of shoes? I suppose it depends on who you ask.

New music lesson

Bub and I sporadically do piano. And by doing piano, I suppose I mean giving him piano lessons. But between his schedule, Princess napping, and all of the rest of the stuff he's trying to do, there's really not a lot of time for lessons. And the songs in his book are stupid. And he insists on learning by this book (he started last year in group lessons; we left when it became apparent that the teacher was playing favorites).

Anyway, one of the things we've been working on has been recognizing notes when reading music. I think it might be a lot more fun for him if he "wrote" a song and then learned to play it. I'm not sure when I'll get to try this out, but I'll keep you posted. For now, I'm going to look for a place online where I can print out blank sheet music.

Is this falling off the wagon?

Two days ago, I couldn't stand it anymore. I washed my hair. My unwashed hair had gotten to the same point of disgust my previously-washed hair had had--it was limp and didn't do anything. Worse, it felt sticky, from root to tip (I guess my "natural oils" made it all the way down the hair shaft) and my husband wouldn't go near my head. Not in an obnoxious way, but still, when a loved one has previously always been stroking your head and not so suddenly stops, it's kind of noticeable. And my brush was always dirty. Right after brushing my hair, you'd be able to see all of the oils on it.

Another problem I had was particulate matter. I don't have dandruff, and it wasn't flakes, but because I have such dark hair, anything *in* my hair stood out and I'd have these little tiny white flecks of something (it was like, from my oil glands I swear) stuck to the roots of my hair. To quote a David A. Carter book, I'd had enough. (Looking for that dog was just too tough.) So I finally broke out the shampoo.

It was such a difference. With shampoo and conditioner, my hair feels so clean, shiny, smooth. I can't stop touching it. (Previously, my fingers would stick and then I'd have to wash my hands.) My hair still doesn't do anything and I still have flyaways around my face, despite using hairspray (but I don't want to use hairspray, regular use of it makes me breakout along the hairline). But it's clean!

Instead, I'll search for the perfect shampoo and conditioner. I typically rotate through a few drugstore varieties (I'm currently on Aussie Moist), but the problem I have with it is that after repeated use, it tears up my cuticles (on mu fingers). So I suspect it's too harsh. Also, my online research suggested that it's people with curly hair that don't have to shampoo as often, it made me wonder whether the converse (people with straight hair, such as myself, need to shampoo more often) was true. I didn't shampoo yesterday; my hair still feels clean, comparatively. But I suppose figuring out what to do with my hair will take another trajectory now.