RIP Mr. Mystic

Just wanted to acknowledge the passing of Mystic's husband. While I didn't really get to talk to him at the Niagara Peep meet, I feel somehow changed by his passing. I am frightened, I think, of sudden loss of family members.

Both of my parents have gone to the other side of the veil. I feel that they were ready for that transition. In both of their cases, they had been basically invalids for at least 5 years previous to their deaths. The quality of their lives was not very high.

Topped off with the dizzy spell I had on Friday, I decided that I need to make some changes to my habits to improve my health. I have had 2 days basically to myself. The laundry has been done on Monday. I did a favor to a friend by picking up her kids at the airport on Tuesday. I prodded DD to pack her things on Wednesday, and tried to catch up on my sleep. Yesterday I spent the day reading a book, giving myself a manicure, and just enjoying some me time.

Today is another day mostly to myself. DD is attending a Youth Conference at Mcdaniel College, which used to be Western Maryland College. It's located in Westminister, MD, which is not far from here. I hope she is enjoying her time there. She will be back tomorrow.

This week I researched on the net: Hydroponic gardening. I want to do this in my kitchen windowsill. I have a nice light source there and a shelf for it.

That research was prompted by the ad from Vitacost. They are selling the Aero Garden for $99.95, which is 50% off the normal price. I would love to have one, but I would only be willing to pay $30 at most, and I don't need the overhead light. So I looked it up on the net, and there are some systems being sold, and some people with some online instructions to make your own system. There are also lots of books for sale, both hardcopy and ebook instructions for sale. I will try to gather the supplies to make this system and try it out. I might not do it until August, though, because of the costs of buying materials. It's not a lot, really, but I have to keep the budget in line for July. The new billing period for my credit card begins August 4th, so after that I will be looking for the materials. I'm thinking I should check out the natural food stores to see if they sell any of the pots and other materials I will need.

Also researched this week: Natural hair dyes. I did not find enough consistent reviews on Naturtint to make a sound decision to buy this stuff, particularly the really blonde shade that I wanted to buy for DD. She tried to blonde her hair with Nice N Easy, and it did not do much, except to lighten her hair just a couple of shades. I told her we would put some blonde streaks in it next week with a Frost and Glow kit we already have, and that would be the best way to procede.

I also told her she could have it done professionally when she gets a job, so she could pay for the expense and upkeep herself. I don't want to buy one of the over the counter blonding kits only to have her wind up with orange hair. I know the Frost and Glow does work, because I've used it myself in the past.

I did buy some Revlon Colorsilk in an ash blonde shade for myself. I know that if I buy light brown, it will make my hair darker than I want, but ash blonde should be just right to match my roots up with the rest of my hair. I don't have that much gray yet, and my natural color is dark brown. I don't want to dye my hair dark brown, though, because it would make me look hard, like my sister looks with her too dark waist length hair. I think she really needs a good haircut. Fifty two is too old to be sporting waist length hair, IMO.

My hair color now is light brown with some blonde highlights. The last dye I used was a blonde shade and it matched my color well. The Colorsilk was on sale for $2.50, so I could not resist.

I also researched reviews for blonding products, but did not find any consistent reviews there, either.