Never did post a photo of this work once it was declared finished, so here you go!

Broccoli, cheese, and chicken soup (with a few other veggies thrown in too) served in bread bowls. We will be having this again. Oh yes, we will.

After my post about giving up soap and wanting to give up shampoo, one of my readers suggested I read this link and give the technique a try. Basically, it involves using only conditioners –much MUCH milder than shampoos– to wash one’s hair. I was, to say the least, skeptical, but I was also willing to give it a try. After all, if I didn’t like the results, I could always jump back in the shower and give it a good scrubbing with shampoo. All I’d waste was a little time.

My hair was already five days without shampoo. Not a conscious effort to give up shampoo, but I was trying to give my skin a break from all chemicals as I attempted to get the last few broken out and angry bits a chance to finish healing. My hair didn’t look or feel dirty to others, but it was at that point where it starts to make me crazy. I just can’t stand the way is starts feeling (like it’s way too heavy and thick). So I had to do something last night. I went through my collection of conditioners and picked out two that seemed like they would do (a light one and a heavy one), hopped in the shower, and washed my hair with conditioners.

I continued to be skeptical right up until I rinsed my hair after the second round, at which point I noticed my hair felt just as clean as it does when I am done washing it with shampoo and applying conditioner in the usual way. I blow dried it a bit (because my bangs do need some taming — can you say cow lick?), and then let it finish drying naturally. On my way to bed last night, I stopped in the bathroom to give it a good brushing and all I can say is WOW!

Hair is clean, soft, and not especially out of control. It’s even shiny! A wee bit frizzy, and the few odd waves and cow licks I have were being a little wild, but that’s just my hair being healthy. I’ve had those problems since I have had hair. A little blow dryer use and a touch of mousse will tone that down should I feel the need. My hair has a mind of it’s own, and I allow it to do what it wants mostly, and who knows, maybe when my hair is totally healthy, those things will go away or not bother me (not that they bother me so much). Why, they might even end up being things I like. Not the frizziness, but the odd waves and cow licks (a proper hair cut would probably help too).

So at the moment … two thumbs up on washing my hair with conditioners only! The link above is geared toward curly hair, and what this technique does for curly hair is insanely phenomenal, but it seems to be working on my just about brick straight hair too. The next test is going to be how long I can go between washings without it driving me nuts. I don’t like to wash or wet my hair every day, mostly because with so much hair it takes forever to do so (and then for it to dry). Two days between washings would be good. Three would be perfect. I also want to see how it works when I’ve actually been outside getting dirty in the yard, though I have to say, since it had been five days since I’d washed it, I can’t imagine my hair ever getting much dirtier than that unless I was rolling around in the garden beds trying to get it filthy. LOL!

And because I’m feeling vain this morning, here’s a photo to show the results. Even in the poor den lighting and taken with the web cam, the shininess is still visible! My hair looks great this morning, and I haven’t even brushed it yet!

Did I mention I think I was bitten by a snake a couple days ago?

I was out in the thoroughly ignored and overgrown garden pulling up very tall grass with my bare hands when I felt something ouchy on my left hand. I didn’t think anything of it at the moment, because the grass I was pulling up has sharp edges and there are fire ants and other biting things all over the place right now. I just pressed on and continued pulling up tall grass until the heat and humidity made me stop.

Then I came inside and did some housework without bothering to look at my hand, since it didn’t hurt or itch … I just plain didn’t think about it. Some hours later, while I was sitting at my desk typing, I noticed two very even and neat marks on my left index finger near the knuckle. It was then I recalled that something had caused me a bit of pain on my left hand, so I examined the marks and discovered two even smaller marks beneath the more noticeable ones. At this point, there was no swelling, pain, itching, or any other odd things going on with my finger, hand, or body, so I washed my hand well, put some Neosporin on it, and put it out of my mind. Hadn’t killed me yet, right?

The next day it was a wee bit swollen and pink directly around the marks, but still no pain or anything odd going on. Just four little scabs. It’s the same today too, though what little swelling there was is almost completely gone (and I do mean very little swelling – almost unnoticeable when at its worst). I still feel fine, and there’s still nothing odd going on with any part of my person. I think if it were a poisonous snake (and I was actually bitten by a snake), I’d be noticing something by now (if not being dead). Also, if I were going to have an allergic reaction, that would most certainly be happening by now (by body, it reacts –overreacts– very quickly to allergens, though I always take an antihistamine when coming in from the garden as a precaution). Right?! I would be noticing some awful thing going on by now, wouldn’t I?

This is what it looks like right now:

I’ve never seen an actual snake bite of any sort before, and no one I know has ever been bitten by any sort of snake, but it looks like a snake bite to me. I tried doing a Google image search, but all I was seeing were the most horrible examples of snake bites, and I’d rather not have that kind of stuff in my head, thank you very much. At least not while I think I have a snake bite.

I’ll be keeping an eye on it, in case it suddenly starts looking awful or I start feeling wretched. Thus far nothing, and I hope that remains the same. I cannot afford some kind of horrible snake bite ordeal. I don’t have the time, the money, or the energy!

Being carefully inspected by Tora, of course!

Bored and lazy, just like a human teenager. LOL!

Two years ago, I tried to identify this weedy (but pretty plant) growing in my front yard, and I never really gave up trying to find out what it was, but there are only so many photos of purple flowers I can look at before I lose interest.

At the time of the original post, a regular reader and friend said she had something similar to it, and hers was a “Ruellia Brittoniana Katie Purple” … and so I spent a lot of time looking at different varieties of Ruellia. I have yet to find any varieties that look exactly like the ones in my yard. There are so many varieties! But I am prepared to declare the weedy (but pretty) plants trying to take over my yard some variety of Ruellia, and this one in particular is a very close match. Everything matches up except the leaves on mine have a bit of a ruffle to them, but that could be because the conditions in Texas when I took that photo were excessively harsh and drought-like. I haven’t looked at them closely lately, but the ones invading the bed in front of the house don’t seem to be as ruffled this year.

So at long last, the unknown plant will now be known as Ruellia Nudiflora … Violet Wild Petunia. They also get to continue invading my yard. Even though they aren’t fabulous for walking around on barefoot, and whenever water gets on the seed pods they propel the seeds out so explosively it hurts to get hit by them, they ARE pretty, and they grow well with no care at all. I think this summer I’ll gather some of the seeds and try to get them started in the far end of the back yard. There are worse weeds to have than wild petunias, and these things do seem to choke out all other weeds (as well as carpet grass, unfortunately).

Bacon, Canadian Bacon, pepperoni, mushrooms, and about six different cheeses with a splash of tomato sauce.

Can’t wait to dig in when it cools off a bit!

Chicken fried pork cutlets (with mozzarella and tomato sauce), a garden salad (almost 100% from my garden), and wheat berries with garlic butter.

This was the first time eating wheat in this form. I think it could have been boiled longer, but they’d already been boiling for almost three hours, and I hadn’t noticed any change in consistency since the two hour mark. Are they supposed to be so chewy and solid? I’ve never eaten them this way before, so I have no idea. They were really good all the same, but next time I’ll boil them longer to see what happens.

At some ridiculous hour of the morning, I woke up to go to the bathroom, and Tora was squeaking away in the kitten like the crazed little thing she is. Naturally, I went to investigate. There she sat on the stool by the kitchen window, staring through the glass, and being as agitated as a small cat can be. Getting down on eye level with her, I peer out into the darkness to see what she’s on about, and there in the yard I see a light. One little spot of brightness in the general pitch blackness of my back yard.

“That’s odd,” I thought. I grabbed my phone, put on my garden clogs, and went to investigate.

Well … duh. Lin had bought a silly little $2.50 solar yard light at Walmart, in order to see if it totally sucked or not, and we stuck it out there that day when he got home from work, and then promptly forgot about it. I think that was two days or so ago. I meant to see what it was like that very night, but we ate dinner, sat on the couch, watched some TV, and fell asleep in the living room … and then just completely forgot the thing was out there. Impending senility, I am certain.

I have to say, considering it’s a very cheaply made piece of plastic from China that can be had for $2.50 at Walmart, and the fact we haven’t seen much sunlight since we stuck the thing out there, I’m pretty impressed with the amount of light it puts out. A few more of these out there would certainly light the way for late-night garden harvesting (it happens). It even put out enough light for me to take a photo with my cell phone, which is saying something, because my cell phone camera sucks in low light.

I think a few more of these need to be bought and stuck out in the garden, and a couple more need to be bought so I can take them apart to use the bits for other things. Can’t believe something so cheap works reasonably well. Guess I’ll have to overlook my Walmart boycott and grab some more soon.