So we are maybe starting to hypothetically think about moving. Again. Deep down, I know how this will end: We spend a few months purging and cleaning and powering through the house repair/improvement to-do list, completely exhausting ourselves, then tour a couple houses that cost a bajillion more dollars than we can afford that also need like, a roof and floors and kitchen cabinets and ERMAHGERD THERE'S UGLY WALLPAPER EVERYWHERE, and then we look at each other and decide you know what? Let's just stay put for a little while longer. But now Jason's on a new long-term project at work that has rendered our super-convenient/central location irrelevant, because he's driving for hours every day. We have new neighbors in the rental next door who are sloooooowly driving us insane in a myriad of first-world-problem ways. We still have all the same old complaints about space/privacy/townhouse living as ever, plus over the past year we've sort of fallen in love with an area further out from the city with excellent schools, lots of stuff to do, and housing prices that are not nearly so bonkerpants. So I don't know. It still all sounds entirely too ambitious/drastic for us, to actually... Read more →

THRILLING HAIR UPDATE: I posted this in the comments section of yesterday's post, but as I'm probably the only person who reads them, I'll repeat myself. Thanks to all my fellow oily-scalped laaaaaaadddddies for all the advice and tips. I most definitely own dry shampoo and have been using it for many years. I have tried all the brands and spent ALL THE MONEY. (My favorites are Lush No Drought, although I recommend transferring it to an applicator bottle like this , because the original packaging sucks, and Not Your Mother's Clean Freak or Batiste But dry shampoo just hasn't been cutting it for me for months now -- I use it at night; wake up with an actual oil slick on my head. I wash my hair in the morning; need to apply dry shampoo by late afternoon. That's entirely too much product, not to mention the daily use of my expensive color-safe shampoo, which STILL causes my color to fade since I only use semi-perm. (Hair is way too fine for ammonia-based colors. Breaks right the fuck off. Plus semi-perm adds a little volume at the roots for some reason.) ANYWAY OH MY GOD ISN'T THIS ALL SO... Read more →

Yesterday was Ike's last day of school, so naturally I set new lateness records for the year, both for dropping him off and picking him up. I had one final day that required me to hold our shit together and I couldn't hack it. Shrug. It's noon right now and Ike is happily reading a book out loud to me while I work. We're doing super great! Okay, fine. It's a sticker book. It has no words so I have no idea what he's talking about. He's still in his pajamas, his buttcrack is hanging out because I think he's technically wearing Ezra's pajamas, and he's probably hungry. He asked to go to a restaurant but I can't go anywhere because I am Trying To Break The Greasy/Oily Scalp Production Cycle, which the Internet said requires going three days without washing your hair, followed by baking soda rinse on day four. Today is day four, post-rinse. MY HAIR LOOKS LIKE ASS. THANKS INTERNET. MAYBE I SHOULD HAVE TRIED RINSING IT WITH COKE. So all in all, summer vacation is off to a good start. Especially since I was under the mistaken assumption that the public schools also ended this week,... Read more →

If you ask Ike how old he is now, he will first say he is five, because he wants to go to kindergarten. Then he will say that he is zero, because he is still a baby. Neither of these answers are correct. He is four years old now, officially. I ran into a seemingly never-ending barrage of technical issues yesterday while trying to complete and upload his birthday video. I could have posted it late last night to get it up on his official birthday date, but. You know. There were chocolate cupcakes to eat and and a Lego Bionicle set to build. (Recommended age range on Bionicles, FYI: 8-14. He needs a little help from Noah to get started and then takes over and builds them perfectly himself, usually just from looking at the picture on the box. He might be shaky on the whole counting thing but fingers crossed we can get him into a decent state school on a Lego scholarship.) He is four. He is not a baby or even a toddler anymore. He is loving and goofy and rough and tumble and cuddly and sweet and stubborn as hell. He adores his brothers more... Read more →