Happy Friday!

I felt like it'd never get here.

Got my hair cut last night. It had grown out a lot since the disastrous Miss Jane Hathaway 'do of the summer, but the layers were a mess and it was hard to style. So after asking around, I decided to try my friend L's lady. Because she was a stranger I just asked her to trim it up. She did a very quick - I mean, I was in and out in 20 minutes including blow-dry - and perfect trim, she's as lightning-fast and precise with the scissors as the Formerly Great One. But - and this is a huge but - she blew it dry in a style I'd actually wear in public! I spent years with TGO because I trusted him with scissors, but I'd always walk out of the shop feeling like Betty F-ing Crocker (or Laura Bush) with a middle-aged helmet on my head. This time I left the shop looking like ME, not feeling like I needed to go home and wet my head and re-style it before I'd be seen in public. And she charged half as much as the Great One. HALF. Yep, that'll work. Nice lady, too, very sweet and friendly.

The shop is next to a Winn-Dixie and I was a bit early for my appointment, so I popped in to check their supply of Kool-Aid flavors. Did you know Kool-Aid comes in tropical flavors with Spanish labels just for the Latin market? I'm going to try a skein of mango this evening - if it really does make a yummy mango color, I may have to go back for more tomorrow. I also picked up basic lemon-lime and grape. I'm still having a lot of fun with the Kool Aid and stash yarn.

I am going to buy some of the bargain fingering weight merino from Knit Picks and some "real" dyes (but probably not those very pricey Australian dyes) and fool around with hand painting for socks and gloves.

I also popped in at Petsmart to get pond fish food, so the little buggers would stop glaring at me like I'm punishing them. Target stopped selling Tetrafin goldfish flakes, and I bought the "other" brand, Wardley's, last weekend. The fish refused to eat it. They normally rush me when they see me come to the pond, I sprinkle the food and it's a feeding frenzy, they practically jump out of the water with excitement. I sprinkled the new food and they just swam around in agitation, refusing to touch it and, I swear, giving me dirty looks. Finally one of the biggest fish took a bite, and I swear he made a face. This just kills me - I mean, they are GOLDFISH. Picky goldfish who only want their favorite brand of food. Every pet I own is an opinionated pain in the ass, I expect my cats to be finicky and my dog is a little gourmet, but somehow, you just don't expect this of FISH.

I've been too tired to rant about politics on this blog, but not because I don't care, or because I am suddenly worried about pissing people off. I still care about the handbasket we've been stuffed in and where we're going in it, and I don't care if it offends my vast readership (all twelve of you). I've been stirring the pot a bit at Homegrown Daisy. Kerstin has a great thing going there. Our own Crazy Daisy may become the Internet's Molly Ivins at this rate - she does her homework and tells it like it is, articulately and with passion. Go, Kerstin!! I'm going to work on my sidebar this weekend - a chore that ranks with scrubbing floors on my list of things I just LOOOVE to do - to put Homegrown Daisy and my other regular political reads in prominent view. I'm still mulling new blog names - I still feel like I need a change. No inspiration yet.