Fordham Miller Fare

the internet fairy

thank you thank you thank you to the sprite who somehow managed to hand-deliver a dose of my beloved awaken to my mailbox this afternoon!

there's more than one way to smell like a gin & tonic

i am almost out of my arbonne awaken body lotion; i ran out of the awaken sea salt scrub several months ago, but have been getting by with the lotion until now.  i love the smell of this stuff - it is combination of lemon and corriander.  which, interestingly enough, could also describe a good gin & tonic (if you went with hendrick's).  mmmmm...

i don't think he meant it quite that way...

for about a week before mother's day, there was much abuzz in our house. i was commanded not to enter certain rooms except with my eyes closed, asked what kind of waffles were my favorite (i had a proustian moment as i recalled the pecan waffles with cherry coulis that i once had at the now defunct wild iris cafe in madison, wisconsin), and highly encouraged to sleep in on the day in question.  on sunday, i awoke to find bill gone to work, the kids gone down to the TV room to watch cartoons, and not so much as a cold cup of coffee waiting for me by the microwave.  sigh.

however, i was treated to a really wonderful day.  i got to start in on my dream of building square foot garden boxes for the front yard (we would have finished them had not my powerdrill battery peetered on out on me), we attended a lovely brunch hosted by friends where i was relieved of the duty of tending to the several teary breakdowns of my children, and i was showered with a whole bunch of homemade presents - poetry, re-gifted mardigras necklaces, a couple of drawings, and a special gift from morgan, with this note (follow along phonetically):

Dear Mommy,

here aer some bath salts

for you

ples tac a bath

Love

Morgan

message in a bottle?

this morning, i discovered my email had been hacked.  someone had actually obtained my password, and sent out a message to everyone in my address book (and if you use gmail, you know i mean EVERYONE) advertising an apparently oddly legitimate wholesale electronics website.  luckily it happened when i was at my computer, so i was able to send out an apology to my entire address book just minutes later.

what a drag, thought i.  i changed all the appropriate passwords and security questions (oh, those damn security questions.  does anybody who is over the age of 5 really have a favorite color?  that doesn't change?  even today, i forgot my passoword to typepad, and couldn't remember how i had TYPED the answer to my security question.  augh!).  creepy.  i hoped nothing else ill would come of it.

and then the nice thing happened.  all these people that i love responded to my email.  people i haven't talked to for...in some cases, years!  i'm not sure what the metaphor is....echo?  feedback loop?  maybe a boomerang, that you thought was just a frisbee.  now, to return a few of those emails....

please stand by. we are experiencing technical difficulties...

on the few occasions i have tried to run over to the computer and file a quick post, i am envariably dogged by technological mayhem.  internet too slow, computer hung up on memory hogging virus detection software, or the computer just plain crashes.

anyway, where was i?  oh yes.  lice.  the post below was written in early march.  i managed to resolve the bug problem with my own head in two easy treatments, but inexplicably madeleine's remains a constant battle.  i simply can not understand the tenacity of these creatures.  no matter what i do, they come back, after weeks of checking and seeing absolutely nothing.  here's what i have NOT done:  i have not tried mayonnaise; i have not tried olive oil; i have not tried the electronic Robi Comb; i have not tried combing through her entire head every single day of the week, which by the way takes an hour at a minimum, and washing her sheets every day, and cleaning the entire house every day, and getting rid of all hairbrushes and headbands and hats and all whatnot.  i HAVE tried Rid, cetaphil (the Rid plus cetaphil combination worked on Morgan), Resultz (which cured me), and just plain combing on an every two to three days schedule.  i clearly will NEVER get rid of them, so i might as well just get used to it!  i'm going to try next the "Head Lice to Dead Lice" program, which involves olive oil, and is meant for 'persistent infestations.'  and i promise not to bore you with any of the details anymore.  ugh, on top of everything is the tediousness of it all!

head lice. they're not just for kids anymore.

that's right.  after getting ready to declare madeleine yet again free of the creepy crawlies (ha!), i came down with them myself.

the good news?  that after the third go around, i purchase a product called Resultz i found on the internet.  it has been approved in Canada, but not here, but was easily (although somewhat expensively) purchased through the internet.  i used it most recently to treat madeleine, and was delighted with the fact that (1) it is not a neurtoxin, and one needn't call poison control should it get into one's eyes, and (2) it does not require the massively labor intensive approach of the cetaphil program.  the active ingredient is apparently found in everyday cosmetics, including lipstick, which can either make you say, 'a delousing agent?  in my lipstick?' or 'thank god there's something you can just pour on your head and wash off without major risk of chemical exposure.

i won't bore you with the details - oh, okay i will.  it works by dissolving the waxy coating on the lice, thereby dehydrating them.  think of it as a kind of citrasolve for the insect world.  saturate the hair from roots to tip, wait ten minutes, and shampoo out.  it is a pretty oily substance, so my experience has taught me that at least two if not three shampoos in a row are necessary to get the hair really clean again.

my googling shenanigans have earned me enough of a reputation that i ended up selling a bottle of the beloved lotion to a friend in the late evening hours.  thankfully i thought to re-order - just in case.  here's hoping this stuff does the trick.  if not, i'll be emulating twiggy for my next haircut.