Nice way to start the morning

Stop the presses! Alert the media! Certain radical members of the Christian Right sent their Ninjas* Of Righteousness into my apartment while I slept and done something to my aging Compaq Presario computer and/or printer so I could not exercise my right of free speech by writing to Rep. Sally Kern. The letter printed out just fine, but the envelope will not - and I cannot seem to get the damn document to delete out of the print queue to reset.  Um, well, no, I can't prove it, but I KNOW they did it, the sneaky bastards.

*Yes, I know that Japanese words do not add an "s" to indicate a plural, but if you were a radical member of the Christian Right and Proud To Be An Amurican, would you give a rat's ass what the Nips do?

Maybe if I reboot....

EDIT: That worked. Now, if we can just reboot Washington....

Saturday morning rounds

Letter has been mailed.

Target has been assaulted and new steel shelving (on sale) has been acquired for what I suspect may be fruitless attempt to organize my kitchen. (Wow! The camp kitchen boxes have a home. The Cheerful Monkeys party box has a home. The picnic coolers fit on top and I still have a shelf left to play with!)  I also picked up copies of "Sense and Sensibility" and "Big Trouble In Little China" for $5 apiece, plus a new sleep shirt.

Moe's has been duly visited and supported and I found unmetered parking a reasonable walking distance away.  Finds included a lovely  exhibition catalogue  called  "Autumn Grasses and Water" from the Suntory Museum of  Art. The textiles in it are all Edo period, but there's a lot of earlier period lacquer ware in it - like these Kamakura period boxes (I WANT!)- and it's all in color.

I also scored a 1920 edition of Diaries of Court Ladies Of Old Japan and a rather intriguing little book called The Black Ship Scroll, by Oliver Statler, which excerpts scroll paintings depicting the arrival of the Perry expedition at Shimoda in 1854. I did NOT commit to buying the $100 book on Japanese textile designs, even if it was reduced from $250. I thought about it, but almost everything in it is Edo period. I opted to invoke Shopping Karma. If I go back in a month or so and it's still there - and my budget will permit - it's meant to be mine. If not, not.

Shampoo with Elmer's Glue-all

Back at the beginning of February, you may recall I decided to try a new shampoo.

It's been a month. I think Pantene's 90% less breakage claim is a crock. Breakage is down, but not anywhere near that much.

Maybe this stuff was formulated for people who wash their hair daily and blow dry the crap out of it, curling irons, crimpers, straighteners and other heating appliances optional. For an every other day user who does not blow dry, I might as well use Elmers. Seriously. My hair feels tacky by the end of day one, greasy by the end of day two - and yes, I am using the traditional dime-sized squirt of both the 'poo and conditioner. I started alternating with Suave for color treated hair. On Suave days, my hair looks and feels fine. On Pantene days, I look like freaking Wormtongue.

It's time to reduce the Pantene to once a week and see what happens....

Just - eww!

A current topic over on the Immortal Geisha forum is making me twitch. Only a couple of weeks ago, someone started a thread about whether or not they felt safe about showing photos of themselves on the internet.

So you want people to respect your privacy, but you don't want to respect the privacy of someone you claim to admire?

I know the word "fan" is derived from "fanatic," but ick.