I knew about this already, but I find it fascinating

A hairstylist with no archaeology degree solved an ancient Roman mystery scholars got wrong for centuries

She spent years recreating elaborate Roman hairstyles and discovered they were far more ingenious than scholars had realized

For centuries, scholars believed that the intricately braided, gravity-defying updos synonymous with Roman hairstyling were achieved with wigs. Then a professional hairdresser turned bona fide “hair archaeology” specialist proved them wrong.

I just saw the most bizarre men's hairstyle

on a man who walked out of my apartment building. It was shaved on the sides, with long hair in a mohawk-like style but then put in a small man-bun. It looked silly. Kudos to following his own drummer, but still....

This sounds like great fun and a great way to publicise a library's resources

although I must admit, I'd look very silly in a mohawk (and they're a lot of work!)

‘9,000 Libraries, 9,000 Mohawks’ – Could Vista’s Librarian Mohawk Challenge Become a Dare?

Librarian mohawks – makes you do a double take, right? Those are two words that usually do NOT go together.

But thanks to Vista, now they do, as five good-natured librarians made good on their promise this spring and got mohawks because the community pushed them to a big milestone – Vista was the first county library to make it over the 1-million check-out mark.

That means the community checked out more than 1 million books, DVD’s and CDs over the course of the fiscal year, which ended June 30.

That's great!

Today I:

1. Got my hair cut at Supercuts (see the picture included).
2. Went to the public library and picked up two books and some music CDs.
3. Got some items for the fish tanks, including a non-LED bubble circle and a clip-on light for the small aquarium. The bubble light that came with the tank has all the colours that fish can see, and it's very bright, so I'm probably torturing the poor thing. I also got filters for that tank, some water conditioner, and some power strips and a thumb drive while at Meijer's.
4. Got a few clothes and household items at Gabriel Brothers.
5. Straightened up the house some.
6. Finished the game notes.
7. Managed to eat a Morningstar Farms Tomato Basil Pizza burger on a soft wheat bun. Not bad for 6 days after some fairly extensive oral surgery.

The only thing left on my list is to watch The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, so that I can send it and Suddenly, Last Summer, back to Netflix. I think I'll do that in just a bit. I need a break, as I've been going pretty strong for some time. I think I'll get some water, blow out the candles in this room, and go listen to some music or maybe read for a bit in the bedroom. :) My, it's gotten windy. It was sunny for awhile earlier today, but then the rain (thankfully, not snow) came in, and now it's quite wild-sounding out there.

It's beautiful and sunny

and I've had a great day. It started early, with an 8 am appointment with my ankle surgeon. That went well. The x-rays show everything is doing great, although he was concerned by the swelling, which is happening on both ankles, even early in the day, although worse on the one that was broken. He suggested compression stockings, so I got those, and having my family doctor prescribe a diuretic, which I will do. Work was nice. I got many compliments on the new haircut (which does look better than in the picture; I'm just not photogenic). My roommate in the library kept saying it made my eyes 'pop'. I know what she means, but having the perverse sense of humour that I do, I kept visualising eyeballs popping out of my skull. :) After work I went in the rain to my last session (at least for now) of physical therapy, graduated from the programme, and got a shirt. Then I came home, watered the plants outside, and settled down to some yoghurt and fruit, plus a little cheese. I have a free evening and I'm all for relaxing in my nice, clean home and celebrating a really nice day.

Tomorrow it's work and then over to a friend's to help with something. Saturday's a visit with family. Sunday and Monday are free at the moment; we're not playing the game because the other player will be away for the weekend. I should probably work on the game notes sometime during all that, though. :) I want to catch up on 'Doctor Who' and do some reading, plus spend some time with friends. It'll also be a bit cooler this weekend, so I hope it's pretty pleasant.

I've been listening to an Ed Sheeran album that I got the other day, and I've told you about the two songs on the radio, 'The A Team' and 'Lego House' (Yes, that's Rupert Grint [Ronald Weasley] as the obsessive fan in the video). I think my favourite song on the record is actually 'Small Bump'. Like 'The A Team', it seems sweet and happy, a father's song about a baby-to-be, imagining holding the infant, and it's fine until the very end, when a miscarriage shatters the dream. It's very sad. Here is the video:

Got a new haircut today

I decided to go short because I've been pretty hot lately and bothered by my hair in my face. What do you think? Thanks to Dee Dee from Supercuts in Regency.

A sense of accomplishment

I got everything I set out to do today finished, and more. My hair is shorter and out of my eyes. My laundry is finished. The grocery run took a lot out of me (the carts at Tates Creek Kroger were all charging, so I stood through the produce section, got my things for the game, and then sat down while my friend continued shopping. Since I didn't plan to stand so long, I didn't wear the boot. Bad plan.) Plus I spent quite some time helping with a task or two, where thankfully I could sit in front of the computer and compute.

Tomorrow I am going to try to right an accidental wrong, pick up something from the store for a friend, and go play the game. I think my days of enforced leisure are definitely over, although now I just  need to make sure I don't overdo it.

It's a little gloomy out there

which is probably why I slept late; I'd turned my alarm off because I'd been waking up way before it, but the sun isn't shining, so the glow in my window is a little subdued. I went to bed at midnight last night, but didn't manage to sleep until about one-something, but that's alright, I got in eight hours of mostly undisturbed sleep. One of the first things I did this morning, though, was wash my hair, as it was positively driving me crazy. It was worse than Snape's.

So now I'm up and have had a little cheese for breakfast, and I'm thinking of all those crazy people out at the stores this morning. Well, a lot probably are heading home by now. I do not get the mad rush for bargains. It's not worth it to me, and I very rarely have much money to spend on the holidays, so I like a bargain as much as the rest of the world. But not that much.

Now that my hair is washed, the only other thing is to work on the game notes today. Today is a day of relaxation for a lot of people, shopping for others. It's a day like most any day for me at the moment, but that's fine. The end is in sight and I'll hopefully be back at work someday soon.

It looks like most of my neighbours have the day off, too. There are a lot of cars in the parking lot for this time of day. I feel a bit like Mrs Kravitz from 'Bewitched'. I'm usually sitting at the computer by the window and am doing a lot of watching the world go by, whether it's squirrels and birds or people coming in and out of the building. I usually know my visitors are here before they knock (well, in truth, most have texted or called ahead; they know it takes me awhile to get to the door).

I have determined that once I am up walking well again there are two things in my house that must be done: vacuuming and dusting. I have dropped so much on the floor, everything from Jell-O and jam to tiny pen needle covers, and so a good carpet cleaning might be in order, too. Since I'm sitting down as I go through much of the apartment, I'm seeing the dust much better. I hate dusting, and it doesn't build up easily in my house, but it has. It's the last thing I always clean over at the gamemaster's house each Sunday. I think it's because I am allergic to dust and dust mites and hate that feeling of getting stuffed up and sneezing. But it must be done.

Well, I checked the news. Let me go see if there's anything else blog-worthy of note on the Internet to put up here. Hope you have a restful Friday after Thanksgiving.

Yesterday was

the one-month anniversary of the accident that has left me stuck at home for the most part and often bored out of my skull. But at least I know that barring any complications I will be back at work soon, and the memory of the pain and boredom will eventually fade. I'm thankful for that.

Today I am going out; I have a doctor's appointment. I was very ambitious this morning and had a full-on sponge bath (no baby wipes this time!) Then I washed my hair. It's not something I think I could do every day easily, but I managed this morning. I got some of the old skin off, washed and rinsed everything I could get damp, put lotion on the dry skin, and got dressed. I may have gone 32 days without a proper shower, but at least I'm as clean as I can be. I've also taken my medicine. About the only thing I haven't done is eat. I'm just not hungry yet.

It would have been nice to sleep a little more as I had a period of two or three hours where I was wide-awake in bed last night, but I'd forgotten to turn the heat on, had run the fan, and woke up to a chilly apartment when the temperature outside was something like 25 degrees (and that's Fahrenheit). We would be going out on the coldest day in awhile. The entire rest of the week is warmer, at least somewhat, and we're just coming away from a weekend in the 70s.

Wish me luck--the stairs are always a challenge.

A girl feels so much better with

clean hair and watching 'Doctor Who', in this case, 'The Impossible Astronaut'. Ah, nostalgia.

Had a bit of a false start today

I got up, blogged a bit, took a baby wipe bath, changed clothes, and then realised I was awfully tired still. So I just leaned back in the bed, with the overhead light on, put my CPAP back on, and went back to sleep till 10 am. I didn't manage to even get my hair clean or eat breakfast. The latter has been rectified, and even though my hair is horrendous, I'm not sure I'm up to it yet. Maybe I should just go for once a week. It's been since Monday. No, I can't face another weekend with grody hair. Oh, well, that will be something for the afternoon.

I was a little wired on caffeine last night, and didn't really get much sleep

and so far I've gotten a lot accomplished this morning. I've e-mailed, phoned, fed fish, washed hair, baby wiped, changed clothes, gathered up laundry, gathered up trash, mailed some things from the box in the hall, and taken some of my medicine. That's not a bad two hours' work. A wants to come over tomorrow and visit and maybe watch some of the election stuff with me, although tomorrow's my appointment, so we'll see about the timing. I must admit, I'm feeling a little sleepy now, so I may lie down for a bit. I'll have a visitor or two this afternoon, and I want to be rested. I probably got all of three hours' sleep last night. So maybe a bit of Jell-O or such and then back to bed. At least it's a sunny, happy looking day. Oh, that reminds me, I have two more phone calls before heading to the bedroom. Hope you have a wonderful day.

So yesterday's quest

was all about getting a bedside commode that would fit over my normal one (with the bucket taken out) so I wouldn't have to push off from the toilet and sink so much to get up and down. After a day of phone calls back and forth, Brandon was able to go pick it up for me and install it (such that you need to). I'm am getting a much better appreciation for the lives of the elderly and physically disabled. His 3- and 5-year-old kids were quite amused that anyone my age needed a potty chair. Strangest comment was from Brandon though: (holding the pot that came off the contraption) 'You know, if this were metal, you could cook in it.' And I thought he was my normal friend.

I also managed to wash my hair yesterday, which helped my mood immensely.

It looks very gloomy and icky outside. Next slated outing is November 6th for an appointment. I haven't looked up the weather yet. Please don't be raining; I may have to climb those stairs on hands and knees again. We'll see. My main agenda today is to blog and relax a little, without spending all day in bed. Wish me luck.

I spent a good part of the day in bed

But I've been up for a couple of hours, have dealt with the mail, have spoken to some people on the phone, and wished Brandon and his family happy trick or treating. It doesn't feel like Halloween. At work we dress up and the kids come around the offices to get candy. I had not decided what I would go as before all this happened, so I don't know what I would have come up with.

It's also Samhain night, a religious holiday for remembering the dead, among other things. Having had my brush with death this month, I'm just glad to be among the living.

It's hard to believe it's almost November. I need to go online and register for my work benefits for next year. I think I have until the 13th on that. On the 14th, of course, I had planned to fly to Chicago. That isn't happening. So November's going to be a good deal quieter than I had expected, just a few doctor's appointments and the like. At this point I don't know whether I'll be able to visit with my family for Thanksgiving. My mom's house has these steps that are pretty steep, and they're wearing out. They've gotten my grandmother up them in a wheelchair using a couple of stout boards, but my grandmother is tiny. I don't think I can get up them at all. It depends on where I am in my recovery, I guess. So I'll probably be alone for the holiday.

I really want to clean the house. I've dropped a few things here and there, and now that I'm spending more time here I see things that need to be worked on. When I'm better, I'm going to really have to consider de-hoarding some of my stuff; Brandon's three-year-old is right, there's way too much. It's not particularly valuable. A lot are books of course, but in my living room I also have two cathode-ray monitors that really need to go to the recycling centre, stuff like that. And maybe it is a little silly for a 45-year-old woman to have a lot of stuffed animals. Maybe.

Tomorrow I'm going to really try to do the dishes, at least the ones I can load in the dishwasher, and water and cull some of the plants. I'm still having trouble with those white fluffy bugs on the violets. Thank goodness Jill, my roommate in the library, is watering my plants there for me. I also need to take a baby wipe bath and change my clothes. Washing my hair may be an option once I get the dishes squared away, depending on how my balance is. It's been over a week; I've just been using the dry shampoo. What I do not want to do is stay in bed all day.

That said, I think I'm going to go back in there and read for awhile. Have a happy Halloween, and a good Samhain (it is also the time when in Celtic tradition, the old year gives way to the new). So happy new year (or one of them, anyway) :).

Maybe there's something to this slowly increasing my insulin

even though it's taken about a year. My blood sugar before dinner was 127, which is very good for me. And that was with a mid-afternoon snack of cottage cheese and a bit of fresh strawberries with a couple of kiwi slices thrown in. Now if I can just get that morning number down.

I'm now at 95 units of Lantus, taken in doses twice a day of 45, plus 29 units of Novolog at breakfast, 35 at lunch, and 38 at dinner, which seems a lot to me, but then I am a big girl. :) I have also lost four pounds since Monday, which could just be water weight, and my A1c was .4 points lower, which isn't much, but I'm going to take good news where I can.

This has been one of those weeks where I have been extremely busy to the point almost being frenetic, but I didn't get much accomplished, which is very frustrating. Plus, I didn't get much accomplished at home because I kept coming home and crashing after work. And unfortunately I took the last of what was in my insulin pen at lunch. I have more, but it has to be out of the refrigerator for awhile, and I did take it out as soon as I got home, but I can't wait another hour to eat, and with it being end of the work week/Friday, I probably will crash.

The frustrating thing is that it's not like I'm doing farming or roofing or other physical labour (although today I got a workout shelving about 50 thick medical books and bound journals, and shifting 200 small bound journals to fit one in that goes in front). But staring at a computer screen all day, even with frequent shifting and stretching, and navigating phone systems is, well, kind of tiring. Add my blood sugar into the equation and I tend to crash. I feel like the only thing I accomplished this week was finishing the Hunger Games trilogy, and then it was because I was trapped at the doctor's office.

Anyway, that's one reason I haven't blogged--I've been incredibly busy followed by falling into a torpour. Sorry about that.

I'm trying to eat healthier. One thing I've been doing is eating a salad every night. It's a combination of spring greens with herbs, red & yellow bell peppers, mushrooms, cucumber, croutons, a slice of Havarti cheese, and a store-bought balsamic vinaigrette, really simple and rather white bread, but it's so much better than the salads I get at work, even when they have the baby lettuces, too (I really dislike iceberg lettuce, which I find tasteless). It's not anything up to YKWIA's standards (he is an excellent cook and salad maker), but it's been nice to have.

Speaking of YKWIA, who is my greatest critic, he told me today that the short haircut really suited me. Since his praise is only given when truly earned, I took that to heart. It's starting to look like the original picture, but I'll probably have to go back in about 2-3 weeks for a trim.

My neighbour is out for her nightly walk with her cat. Enough said.

Okay. Tonight I'm going to try to do some things I'm sadly behind on. Really. So good night, unless I blog some more later. :)

This evening (aka 'After')

Neater

Messier

Obviously, I decided to celebrate the first day of Spring with a haircut.  I haven't decided whether I like it or not; but my, it's been hacked off. There are lots of layers, especially in the back. This was after sitting out in the sun for about 20 minutes and being blown, and just combing it into place. It should be easy to care for. My hair was getting in the way of everything from getting stuck on the silicone case for my phone, to being caught in car doors. Plus, I was getting hot, and with fine, thin hair (that's getting thinner every year), the long hair doesn't have much body. We'll see how this is after I put some thickener in it and blow dry, but the nice thing is that it isn't necessary.

This morning (aka 'Before')

Long, and getting in the way of everything

Happy Mardi Gras!

Today I made sure I wore my Mardi Gras beads and enjoyed some red beans and rice that the cafeteria had specially made for me without meat. Yay for them! I don't expect to have people cater to my dietary restrictions, but it is nice when they happen to. I did eat a couple of small beignets as well. A couple of my co-workers didn't know what they were and were quite intrigued with them.

It was a good day. My feet feel better. The new shoes are helping. I took the shoelaces out of an old pair today and re-laced them onto the new pair so I'd have longer ones than the ones that came with the shoes.

The only bad thing about today is I forgot to bring a second insulin pen and pretty much used up mine with breakfast. I came home, took one of both types out of the refrigerator, so I'll have the one tonight and the other for tomorrow.

I did my hair up in a couple of braids, then pulled back with lots of bobby pins. Later in the day I let it down and it was very poufy for me, as you can see. :)

I went through the news and while there were some things of interest, there wasn't anything I particularly wanted to post here, but I'll check later and see if there's anything.

Ancient Greek hairstyles

Art History - The Caryatid Project Photo Gallery

Link from Meghan of Ancient Musings.

There is even a DVD showing step-by-step how to create the hairstyles. Alas, my hair is not long enough or thick enough for that matter to do it well, but on the other hand when participating in religious ritual I am supposed to have my hair free anyway.

Good news

I got the results of the MRI and there are no stress fractures, which makes me feel better. See, the ones I had before were in an area where a very large friend stepped on my foot years before and probably broke the bones then, so they were weaker and fractured with my weight and standing up to 10 hours a day at work. But if normal bone fractured, then there must be something wrong with my bone density or something. I haven't reached the age where they start scans yet, so I haven't had one. I so need to increase my calcium, though. I understand calcium citrate comes in something other than horse pills now. :)

What I do have, however, is a severe (she stressed that several times on the phone) case of peroneal tendonitis, so I have to wear the boot for at least a month. If the pain gets worse, then they want to take me to non-weight-bearing, so I'd need crutches. That would seriously be a problem at work. I will say that when in the boot I have no pain other than a spot on my leg where the boot's plastic rubs. I've been putting on band aids and wearing heavy socks (despite the fact that it's summer) in an effort to counteract that. Being diabetic, I have to be vigilant about eroding patches of skin.

Speaking of summer, I think I spent all day sweating. The hospital is air conditioned, of course, but I put a lot of boxes of children's books on a cart, took them to a closet, pulled out different boxes to unpack and put books on our clinic book cart, and put the newer ones (many were the same title, and I didn't want to overwhelm the clinic with too many of them at once) in the closet. I really worked up a sweat between pushing the cart with the boot on (although two people helped me out with that part) and toting boxes. I worked on that right up to time to go and went straight into errands in an unconditioned car, then over to a house where the air conditioning is turned off for reasons I won't go into. I also cooked over a stove there and did my laundry, so that raised the temperature around me even more.

So the first thing I did after getting home was take a shower. I'm clean, and I have a clean night shirt on, and this makes me happy, especially as I have both air conditioning and a fan if necessary.

Speaking of heat, on Friday I got my hair cut. I donated 10 inches of hair to Locks of Love, and the hair cut was free as a result. It's now very short, but I couldn't stand the long hair anymore even in a ponytail given the heat, so it's fine now, although when I perspire my hair as a whole goes damp, and then it starts to do a flip up. It's a little longer in the front than back, with layers. Here's a somewhat fuzzy picture:



I like it, but I'm not used to it yet. I'm used to flipping my hair up on the pillow when I go to bed, for example. But it doesn't get tangled and it's really easy to take care of. I can poof it up a little with mousse and a hair dryer, but this is just me after a quick shower and not doing anything but running a comb through it.

Heaven help me I am not photogenic in the least.

Well, that's all for now. I think I'll turn in early tonight.