So Far Behind, But So What? And, Book-Related Movie Review!

Oh, the photos... they are piling up all pretty and spring-like and joyful... in my camera. Not downloaded. Unprocessed. Unshared. Oh well. At least I'm taking pictures. Soon, there will be happy pictures to share.

Yesterday I spent most of the day with a very sweet eight-year-old. We went for a hike with his puppy (talk about "Boy And His Dog" cuteness.... small boy, in waist-high weeds, with Jack Russell terrier bounding along beside him, barely able to see...), then went to the Oakland Zoo. While we were waiting in line for the sky-line ride thingie, I glimpsed the white tiger, sleeping on his back, sprawled out with limbs eagle-spread, looking exactly like my lazy kitty Cleo when she is sleeping hard, sprawled out. It was adorable. If I hadn't been waiting in line with a very excited little boy, I would have abandoned my place to go take a picture. It was almost unbelieveably cute.

Oh! I know. Here's a brief Book That Was Turned Into A Movie review. I rented The Woman In Black, which was really hard to find. As you may know, I read the book earlier this year, and really liked it. It was very effective, not super-scary but very spooky and kind of a perfect ghost story (and I'm a hard customer to please). I thought that it would be a fun treat to watch the movie after my long day of kid-sitting... and it was fun, but ultimately, like so many book-based movies, sort of disappointing. It was pretty faithful to the story, with a few changes that I didn't understand, because they weren't (in my opinion) any more effective, and wouldn't have been difficult to film or explain, so I don't know why they changed certain things. But the acting was fairly good (it's a BBC production) and the sets were very Masterpiece Theatre, and Eel Marsh House was gloomy and forboding. While most of the move really wasn't that scary, there were a couple parts where I was very creeped out, and one scene where I literally shrieked and threw the blanket over my head and waited until Terri told me it was safe to come out. So, it would be worth watching around Halloween, but it wasn't as good as I was expecting, based on the reviews. But who knows? You might enjoy it more.
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Hair Update: Okay, this is approximately Week Three of the No 'Poo Experiment. I'm really not sure what to do about it right now. It *looks* pretty good (I hope) and it doesn't really feel greasy or anything, but it feels... heavier, or something. When I don't blow-dry it, it curls more than usual, which is nice. I'm not sure, though. I have very fine hair and the roots need all the 'lift' they can get, and they aren't quite sure what they're doing with themselves, yet. Some days they are nice and bouncey, and some days they are very flat and I hate it.

Washing every day with the baking soda isn't working -- it was getting very dry. So I switched to washing it with baking soda every other day, which seemed better. I think I'm going to abandon the vinegar rinse -- it seems to be making the ends of my hair very dry. I did a couple days where I simply used a little conditioner on the ends, and that seemed to work better. I also used a miniscule amount of shampoo one day, just to see what would happen, and my hair felt a little better then, but didn't seem to lose much of the natural soft oils that have been developing. So, maybe a once-a-week mild shampoo might be good, too.

I can see how if you had very thick, curly hair, this technique would work really well. I'm still unsure how it's working for my fine, wavy hair. I'm hoping to find a combination that works well, giving me healthy (and pretty!!) hair with minimal care and chemicals.
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Related/unrelated: discovered today that plain coconut oil (sold solid, in jars) makes EXCELLENT body moisturizer. I bought some because I had read that it's a good whole-food high-temp cooking oil (I'm still researching this), but then I also read that people use it as a massage oil or dry-skin remedy, and also use it as a leave-in conditioner for hair. Terri has very thick, coarse hair so we tried it on her hair today -- beautiful. So soft and lush and not oily or greasy at all. So we tried it as a lotion for dry legs and feet -- also beautiful and soft. Better than any of our other lotions. So, yay! I love multi-purpose items. Not sure if it would work as conditioner for MY hair, but I may try some on the ends tonight, and then wash it with a bit of shampoo tomorrow and see how it goes.

Ok. Enough for tonight. Forgive my errant blogger ways. I seem to be in a transition period that is stretching on and on, but it's all for good. And, book review of The Seance soon, probably tomorrow!