Trip to Costco

R came up to see me on Thursday, so we went to Costco.  I paid for her membership as part of her Christmas gift, so it was an ideal opportunity to do that while she was here.

She was a love and paid for lunch.

Now I have to admit, I LOVE the sausages at Costco and for the grand total of $1.50 you get a sausage in a bun and a drink, you just can't beat that price.  Also as I would never think of cooking those types of sausages at home it's kind of a treat I find.  R had chicken strips and fries.  Again I am not a huge lover of french fries, but do love the ones at Costco.  So all in all, our lunch came to well under $10.  Quite a bargain I think?

Ever since I have got the membership for Costco, people have been raving about the cooked chickens they sell.  A while back I got one, and since then have had a couple more, as they are so moist and juicy.  Also at $7.99 you can't go wrong.  We get three meals out of one chicken, sometimes even more.

My hair is super short in the photo as I had two haircuts in less than 24 hours.  Quite the pain in the butt situation with the hairdressers.  Fortunately my hair grows quite fast!!

They were saying at Costco, that you have to register a credit card when you take out a membership, so that Costco can automatically renew your card each year.  I didn't know that, did you?

To dye or not to dye?

When Paige started school back in September of 2020 she was 4 1/2.  She came home one day and said to her mother, "where are the eyes in the back of my head?"  After a discussion it turned out her teacher had said she "had eyes in the back of her head."

Her mother told her that only grow up's had eyes in the back of their heads!!  Honestly these kindergarten teachers also need the patience of a saint, and have arms like an octopus.  It must be like herding cats trying to control 20 odd 4 & 5 year olds!!  Rather them than me.

Now why I bring this up, is I went to get my hair cut the other day.  After they have finished they hold up a mirror at the back of your head to make sure with how it looks at the back.  I got quite a shock when I saw how much grey hair I had at the back.  As I don't have eyes in the back of my head, I never see what's going on there, hence the Paige story.

Now back to the title of this post.  I normally dye my hair on a regular basis, as I am not fully grey yet.  For some reason I didn't do it after I got it cut in September.  As my hair is short, the dye will be fully out of my hair by the time it is cut twice more.  Maybe even the next time if I get a good chunk cut off.

So I am thinking of biting the bullet and not dying my hair and seeing what my "real" head of hair looks like?  I am just concerned that as it is not fully grey yet, I will look old, washed out and tired!!

For the more mature ladies out there, what age did you stop dying your hair?  Or do you just keep on colouring it?

To dye or not to dye? That is the question.

Back when I first started this blog in May of 2008, I wrote whined about my hair.  Over the years things haven't changed and I am still whining about my hair.  I have gone the route of having it professionally dyed, styled etc; to home dying it myself.  I am at a point where I am not grey all over but have a lot at the front.

Exhibit A:

That photo makes me look awful I must say, but never mind.

I went to the hairdressers today and we got talking; this was the first time I had been to this salon.  I told her we were moving to an active adult community up the road, and yes she told me they had a lot of clients from there.  I was telling her about how I wanted to let what little colour (hair dye) left in my hair grow out and try to go "au natural."    We talked about how much natural colour I had left and how much grey there was etc.

Came to pay and she charged me seniors rate!  I politely told her I wasn't a senior, and she thanked me for being so honest........

The family found this all very amusing............me well....do I dye or not {{{SIGH}}}

Photo's done, first people viewing today.........

After a busy Thursday morning, the photographer came in along with Sarah and her assistant and they did their magic.  I did not hang about as I was stressed.  You wonder if you have done enough?  Is it clean enough?  Will it show well?  Sarah said we would be very pleased with the pictures.  I will share them with you all when I get them.  Sarah has clients viewing the property today, so that's a good start.

I went into town and sat in MacDonald's and had a coffee and a muffin and posted a couple of book reviews.  I also sat and people watched for a while.  It's always interesting to watch what other people do and say I think.  They have an employee working there who is mentally disabled, but what a good worker she is.  I was a bit thrown at first as I wondered who she was talking to.  She talks to herself all the time.  However that didn't matter as she worked so hard while I was there.

I also got talking to the lady at the next table and ended up giving her this book.  It turned out she had visited both Alaska and the Yukon and had very fond memories from there.  So the book was perfect.  Also turned out she lived in the subdivision that we are hoping to move into.  The community centre there has a library and so she was going to donate the book there when she had read it.

While I was in town I called in at the hairdressers for a trim.  While the hairdresser was cutting my hair I had a coughing attack.  I have them a few times a day.  She was saying this cough that is going around is being "named" the 100 day cough {{{SIGH}}}  I really don't want this cough hanging around for 100 days.

The nerve of some people, Molly and a trip to the hairdressers.

On Thursday I went to the hairdressers to have a trim and styled in the style I want for the wedding.  Last time dh said it looked as though I had a wig on, so we went a different route this time.  The expression "dragged through a bush backwards," comes to mind with yesterday's style!!!  It was very puffy and a lot of product put on my hair to see if it would hold it's shape for numerous hours.  I am around 80% happy with it this time.  However, as my mother was saying she is never happy either with the way hairstylists style her hair either, so it's a family thing I guess.

Anyhow, as I was pulling into the driveway I saw a man pull up by the field in his van.  He got out and walked onto our property and picked a couple of mushrooms.  When he saw me looking, he got back into his van and watched me for a bit, but I didn't budge, so he eventually drove away.  Went up to the house, let Molly out and I looked out front, and there he was again.  He had turned around and decided to come back to get some more?????  We don't have a fence along the property line as we don't think we need it.  It is however private property and it is obvious it is someones property as all the grass is cut and looked after.

I walked down the field, and he had left one mushroom, so I picked it:

I cooked this mushroom for supper and it was good.
Finally, Molly.  Took her to the vets for her yearly check up and to make sure she is up to date with her shots before she goes to the kennels for a couple of nights.  Everything was fine and she suggested upping her medication to 1 1/2 pills per day to see if that helps her skin.

However we did get another bit of news, she has two lumps in her mammary glands and she will have to have surgery.  When we got her from the humane society we were told that they had removed some non-cancerous lumps in the same area.  I don't want to deal with this at the moment, as if it is bad news I don't think either myself or dh could make a decision so close to the wedding.  The vet was very good and said to keep an eye on her, and if we wanted them to check the lumps, just pop in, and we could wait until after the wedding to have the surgery.

Must say was a bit shocked to receive the news, it wasn't what I was expecting.

House and cottage of the week, plus other stuff..

This week's house is only 12 million dollars!!!  http://www.torontolife.com/daily/informer/gimme-shelter/2011/08/31/house-of-the-week-rosedale-mansion/  I personally have mixed feelings about it.  I actually like the back yard area, not sure where I would put my washing line though!!!  I would have liked to see a full photo of the house from the front wouldn't you?  If I was given it I wouldn't say no, mind you I couldn't afford to pay the property taxes as they are over $41,000 a year.

I guess after that house the cottage of the week is a steal at only $1,285,000.00 then? http://www.torontolife.com/daily/informer/gimme-shelter/2011/08/26/cottage-of-the-week-acton-island/attachment/aug11hotwapiary_intro/  I actually like this one, love the look of it outside and even inside isn't too bad.  I see it's electric heat and that master bedroom would be a *itch to try and keep warm in winter.  There are a lot of neighbours, and when the leaves drop they would be more noticeable.  Still if you were giving it to me, I wouldn't say no to it.

I saw my little friend the other morning eating apples:

It does look as though it has grown and it's coat looks a lot thicker.  It was the first time I had seen it in a week or two.  As soon as it saw me on the deck it ran away which was good.  Mind you I was quite a distance away from it.

I have since cut the grass so it looks more like a bowling green again, with lots of nice lines, going left to right in the photo!!!  You all know how I love to see those straight cut lines in my grass!!!

Went to the hairdressers on Thursday afternoon to have a wash, cut and blow dry.  Hate having my hair washed as it kills my back.  The cut was alright, and when she blowdryed my hair dh said I looked as though I had a wig on and you know what he was right!! 

I trust her with cutting my hair but the whole styling thing wasn't for me.  However I need to try out some styles for the wedding.  I'll go back the second week of October and see how she does then.  I'll decide at that point whether or not I'll do my hair on the day of the wedding, or will go to the hairdressers.

Do you enjoy going to the hairdressers?

I am obsessed, I need a favour, my hair AGAIN!!! And see how the world would vote in the US Election.......

As you will have noticed I have been playing around with the look of my blog. Wish I'd left it alone, but never mind. While I was playing around with it, I lost my counter at the bottom, so I put a new one on called "Sitemeter." Now I have to say that is one of the neatest things ever. I have become obsessed with it, well with a section of it anyway. There is a world map, where there are dots which indicate where people are checking in from. I mean its great I just love it. I know little things amuse little minds, but this keeps me out of mischief.

Of course the most dots I have are in Canada and the United States, followed by Britain and Australia. There are the odd dot from other places, but I seem to have big gaps in Eastern Europe, Asia and South America.

So this is where the favour comes in. Do any of you know any other bloggers in the far flung corners of the world? I am sure you do. Would you mind asking them to pop over to my blog. They don't have to comment or anything. I just want to see some dots popping up in out of way places.......am I strange or what?

When I checked my world map on Thursday morning I got all excited as there was a dot in the pacific ocean, it turned out someone in Hawaii had popped in. I also had some one in Lithuania pop in, got all excited about that as well.

So pretty, pretty please ask your blogging friends to pop on by.



Now my hair..don't groan. This is so unusual, well for me anyway, that I thought it may interest you all.

About a month ago I started to experience an itchy scalp. So of course the first thing that popped into my mind was head lice......aaarrrrrrrrgggggggggghhhhhhhhh!! However I also had a burning sensation on my scalp. I knew I hadn't been near anyone with head lice, but I checked myself and couldn't see anything.

It sort of went away, but every now and then, it would flare up. Anyhow this past week, I have been past myself with the itchiness and the burning sensation. I will say I had changed shampoo from Herbal Essenes to Pantene, so I figured maybe the Pantene was irritating my scalp, so switched to Dove, which is very mild. However things got no better.

So on Tuesday I got dh to check my scalp and he couldn't see anything. I decided to put itchy, burning scalp into Google to see what popped up and you won't believe what it said..........STRESS This was caused by stress??? Dh had a doctors appointment on Wednesday so I went along and got the doctor to look at my head, just to make sure there wasn't anything there. He confirmed my scalp looks perfectly normal, no dandruff, no head lice, no redness.

Isn't that the strangest thing you have ever heard? Now I will say I have had a couple of things going on this past couple of weeks that have made me feel a bit stressed, but nothing overly exciting. This has never ever happened to me before.

Now I need my hair cut and dyed, but honestly the thought of putting dye on my hair is not at all appealing as my head feel as though its on fire. I did however go and get my hair cut today, at "N's" house and she did a great job. I will be going back to her, as I can afford to have it done there and she is a really nice person. She also said she had another customer who has the same problem.

We agreed to keep off the dying of my hair at the moment, until my scalp settles down, so I am going to be very multi-coloured for a while.

Finally my friend "P" sent me this link and it is really interesting. Click on the link and see what you think.............it tells you what would happen in the US election if the world voted.

This is one of those "it could only happen to me" posts.

Tuesday afternoon I am sitting on my chair watching TV minding my own business when the phone rings.

Now people who know me know, despite the fact my name is spelled Gillian with a "G" its pronounced Jillian. So I always know its someone who doesn't know me when they pronounce my name wrong.

So I answer the phone.

He: Can I speak to Gillian so & so (pronounced wrong)

Me: That's me

He: My name is Detective so & so from so & so Regional Police

Me: Okay

He: I am calling to remind you about tomorrow's court date.

Me: EXCUSE ME????

He: We sent you a subpoena in the mail, regarding the attempted break in last February on your property, and tomorrows the court date. ( Read this to see all about the attempted break-in)

Me: But I have a hair appointment in the afternoon.

He: Oh don't worry we'll be finished with you by lunch time and they take a break at 12 noon.

Me: You don't understand, I am a woman of a certain age and am having my hair dyed, so will be all afternoon.

He: Don't worry we'll make sure you make your hair appointment.

Me: Well okay then, but what do I do and where do I go.

He then tells me the address but has to phone me back with the correct court room. So I hang up the phone (or so I thought). So I sit and wait and wait for the phone to ring. 45 minutes later still no phone call, I then check the phone, and I can't have hung up the phone properly, however there is a message from Detective so & so, so I call him back.

Me: Hi its Gillian

He: Okay well go to so and so, in room *** and be there around 9.30am.

Me: Fine but I will be able to get to my hair appointment right?

He: No problem.

Fast forward to Wednesday morning. I am at the court house by 9.15am. I sit, and I sit, I ask a police officer what the scoop is, and he tells me just to sit and wait. Around 10.15am a guy finally comes to talk to me and it turns out to be the Detective that talked to me to day before. So he tells me that I will be called in shortly, and that I may be cross examined. I tell the prosecutor and the detective once again I have a hair appointment, and they say they will make sure I am out in time.

So by 10.30 am things finally get going. The kid and his father are there. He pleads not guilty to two break and enters, and one attempted break-in (our house). I was called up to the stand and the prosecutor questions me and I answer his questions. Then its the defense's turn and lets just say I wasn't a happy camper. First of all he confused the hell out of me by using double negatives (judges words, not mine), I had no clue what he was talking about, so even the judge told him off. He was obviously trying to make me look like a dim wit, so needless to say that got my back up, and the headache I had, had since first thing was threatening to go into a migraine at this point. Anyway the jist of it all I walked out of court at 10.45am.

A couple of things that irritated the heck out of me, I was told to be there by 9.30am and no one else turned up to 10am. Despite me saying to the prosecutor I didn't want my address released to the court, as the kid lives in my neighbourhood (I don't know him) I had no choice to tell the court my full name and address. Thanks to this kid I was too frightened to leave the house for three days, and have had to have a full alarm system put into the house. And the defense attorney in turn made me feel guilty :0( I went into court as my civic duty, I probably didn't have to as I was subpoenaed and hadn't received any paperwork, and ended up feeling like I was the bad guy.

This happened 18 months ago and this is the fourth court date that has been scheduled. No wonder so many people get off scott free, as they go over the date when they can be prosecuted. This kid pleaded not guilty as he is trying to get off on a technicality........which is a lot of bull.

Then this afternoon I had to go to the hairdressers and get my hair done. Well for those of you who have been following my blog since the beginning, knows what a stressful thing this is for me. Read here and here for past tales of my hair salon experiences. So anyhow I have my hair done and $100 later for a cut and colour I leave the salon. I am as happy as I am ever going to be regarding my hair, but it still irritates me that I have to pay $100 for a cut and colour ($35 for cut, $45 for colour, taxes and $16 tip). At least this time though I do like the way she cuts my hair and I guess I am going to have to bite the bullet and get used to paying that amount of money to have my hair cut and coloured.

Another thing that irritated me today, was I open up the newspaper and there is an ad in the paper for the camera I bought on the weekend at the store where I bought it, and the camera is on sale as a package that includes a printer and ink and paper {{{SIGH}}} so I now have to go back to the store and whine on at them as to why they didn't sell me this package in the first place???

I did have one bright spot and that was Contract Testing where I had to taste test something new and have to admit, I WILL be buying this product when it comes out..can't say more than that.

So there you go, it can only happen to me.............

My hair AGAIN and other beauty problems...

IF YOU ARE A MALE I PERSONALLY WOULD SKIP THIS POST, AS YOU WON'T BE ABLE TO RELATE, AND HONESTLY IT MAY BE TOO MUCH INFORMATION FOR YOU ~ IF YOU CHOOSE TO READ IT, DON'T SAY I DIDN'T WARN YOU!

So we back at that stage where I need to get my hair cut and dyed again. So I have been humming and haa-ing over this for a week or two. Finally because of the humidity and my hair growing longer and frizzier by the minute I bite the bullet and make an appointment at my local First Choice salon.

So that I am guaranteed a half decent cut I make an appointment with the manager "S", my usual hairdresser "N" was fired, never have found out why. We used to call "N" the one eyed wonder, as the poor girl only had one eye, she did cut my hair quite nicely though. Sad story how she lost that eye, I'll get into that another time.

I get there at the said appointed time and "S" is on her lunch break {{{SIGH}}} So after about 10 minutes she comes out of the lunch room and so we proceed. She's a really nice woman, but things seem to have changed since I was last there. As she is putting the foil highlights in my hair I discover the change, she has quit and is moving to another store. So of course being the nosey person that I am I want the scoop. They have a hairdresser there called "L," our nickname for her is the Blonde Russian. She has over dyed blonde hair, and wears clothes as though she is leaving to go to the disco straight from work, which would be fine if you were in your late teens early 20's, but she must be hitting her mid 40's by now. Anyhow its turns out "L" is a trouble maker and has made life miserable for everyone she works with and is plain rude to the customers. Of course I say why hasn't she been fired, "S" has no idea as the area manager is the one that hires and fires.

Needless to say after being told this I am watching the dynamics between "S" and "L" and unless they have to they don't speak to one another. So once again I am feeling uncomfortable in this salon. I have been there when they had a change in benefits, and by the time I left the salon I knew more about the way First Choice handles its employee benefits than I think they did. They couldn't balance the till one day when I was in so sorted that out for them.

However I get out my (actually dh's) Nintendo DS and play Sudoku to stimulate my brain and ignore the atmosphere. "S" cuts my hair and despite the fact I hate any sort of product on my hair, I let her put this gooey stuff in my hair, and because of that she doesn't dry it??? What the heck I hate walking around with wet gooey hair. Again despite this happening I smile tip her $20 and walk out of there.

WHAT IS MY PROBLEM???? Why is it when I am in a hairdressers I lose all my aggressiveness and am a total wimp?

I don't like the way my hair looks AGAIN. The highlights are awful, much too thick and congested for me. The colour is fine as is the cut. The price I paid was just under $80 for a cut, colour and 8 foil highlights. Now I paid $160 (incl. tip) at the other salon, so this was nearly half the price. Believe it or not the First Choice salon was a lot more organized than the salon, which is what I like, but I like the hairdresser better at the salon. Also there wasn't the same atmosphere at the salon, it was very pleasant and easy going, whereas the First Choice store was very frosty between the staff. So what to do next? Honestly I have no idea. All I know this haircutting thing is stressing me out.

Now for the other thing I want to talk about, which is a story most women can relate to.

Last month we went away, so I figured I would go and get a pedicure and various parts of my body waxed, as we may go swimming.

So I go into the salon and into the waxing room.............yes they have a room just for this torturous procedure. I had booked to have my eyebrows, upper lip and bikini line waxed.

So she starts on my eye brows, which is painful but hey I can handle it and I only shed the odd tear. She then heads to the upper lip, again I have had this done a few times, and other than that bit right under the nose I can hack that.

She then heads to the nether regions. Now to be fair this is not an area I get done very often, infact I can't remember when I had my bikini line waxed last. Remember I said bikini line, so not the whole thing. So off she goes, and I mean I am in pain, I mean who in their right mind does this on a regular basis? Boy was it painful, I was in tears. So to take my mind off the whole torturous procedure we got talking, which I have to say was a difficult thing with both of us having delightful accents, and me screaming every time she ripped the wax off my body......okay I didn't actually scream but I was close to it.

So the conversation turned to people who have Brazilians done. For those of you who are not in the know, a Brazilian waxing takes off all the hair in the nether regions. She assured me it was pretty painful........you don't say!!! I mean the whole experience made me decide that this is the last time I am having my bikini line waxed. I am getting too old to go through that much pain.

Also I am more than sure it must have been a man who invented this, don't you? As no woman would come up with the idea of pouring hot wax on your skin, putting a piece of material on it, push on the material to make sure its stuck on well, then rip the wax off with all the hair attached to it, just for the heck of it.

I will say I do know one man who does know the pain of waxing and that is my brother. We always say his hair slipped off his head and stuck to his back, as he has very little hair on his head. He is like a gorilla, with a really hairy back. Anyhow, he decided or someone asked him to have his back waxed for charity. He said that was the most painful thing he has ever been through, so I guess he understands a woman's pain when it comes to waxing. He was such a love though to do that and raise money for charity at the same time.

So there you go my experience with the hairdressers and waxing. I could go on for another hour about having to shave your legs, but have done enough whining for one day!! What's your story on these places and things?