Fresh, Hot Wastes of Time

Caroline brought home lice from school a couple of weeks ago. Thanks to my sister-in-law, we were able to get rid of them pretty quickly. The recipe:

Use the regular lice shampoo as directed. Let hair dry completely. Saturate hair with Cetaphil soap and wet-comb. Do not rinse! Blow-dry hair and let the Cetaphil sit there overnight and smother the bugs. Repeat every day for a week or so, then use the lice shampoo once more. Make sure to wash bedding and spray mattresses and such daily.

The Cetaphil makes your hair a little stiff, but not totally gross like the mayonnaise or olive oil remedies I’ve seen.

Boo:

– Brown recluse on the living room wall
– Air conditioner broke
– 4 year old brought home lice from school
– Tree fell onto the garage
– Icemaker broke

Yay:

– Accepted into college
– Things progressing on new project

Click for large version.

Big storm last night. This is what 50 mph winds can do to your trees. Luckily nobody got hurt – it didn’t hit the house. Also, our 500 year old oak tree came though unscathed.

We Netflixed the director’s cut of The Butterfly Effect. It was an excellent movie but I daresay even more depressing than Requiem for a Dream. If you’re going to rent it, I suggest you get the theatrical release rather than the director’s cut for from what I’ve read, it’s a bit less “I-want-to-drive-my-car-off-the-overpass-now”-ish.

Earlier I wrote that the roaches are back. Well now the brown recluses are back. This is the biggest one we’ve seen in the house – easily the size of a quarter.

You might think one of my children snapped those poor bean plants in two, or maybe even a cat or a dog, but you’d be wrong. I killed them with my bare hands, and I have to explain it to my daughter when she comes home.

I loved Cliff Johnson’s games “The Fool’s Errand” and “3 in Three” with all my heart. They were puzzly, they were clever, and they were well-written. I’ve been anxiously awaiting the release of his next game, “The Fool and His Money.” For a long time.

Here are some quotes about the release date:

“The Fool and his Money ships Halloween Day.”

“The game’s new release date is currently slotted for December 1st, 2003.”

“Yes, the Final Official Drop-Dead Sue-Me-for-Damages release date is April Fool’s Day-2004.”

“So I take a deep breathe and whisper… July 5, 2005… and run for cover.”

“Some of you might have noticed that the ever-retreating countdown clock is now set to December 18.”

“My production managers, Chicken Little and The Boy Who Cried Wolf, assure me that the final, absolute, no-fooling-around, drop-dead, unequivocal, categorical release date is April 24th, 2006, I hope and pray.”

“The game ships, August 7th, 2006, a week before my birthday, or else I eat a bug.”

Sheesh.

For years, the slightest hint of cilantro in my meal meant that I’d be going hungry. The foul stuff tasted like soap to me. Even as recently as 2003 I mentioned here about my distaste for the stuff.

Something’s changed.

I don’t know whether I’ve managed to kill off enough taste buds to tolerate the stuff or what. It doesn’t taste like freshly-squeezed soap juice to me anymore. It just tastes… like cilantro. Its presence in my food doesn’t spell instant disaster (with optional spit-out and beer-swish) anymore. In fact… dare I say it? I almost enjoy it now. All this happened in the last couple of years.

However, I completely sympathize with the plight of those behind IHateCilantro.com. Nobody used to believe me when I’d mention the soap taste. Living in Texas, home of Tex-Mex and heavy cilantro use, I’d often be stuck out when people were rhapsodizing about the pico de gallo or borracho beans. These days I’m as likely to enjoy them as everyone else, but I totally understand when the people on the I Hate Cilantro site talk about their distaste for the stuff.