Good Grief!

Due to an unnatural amount of projects and the quickly accelerating due dates, blogging will take a hiatus and return Monday, June 6. It's either that or fillers, and no one likes a filler.
Please note that you can now get notices sent to your email (bar on the right) so you can be informed the INSTANT the new blogs are up. :)
Thanks!

Spring Has Sprung

"Maiden Springtime", the youthful season, the bright, blossoming youth represented through the ages with young maids in light dresses, wreathed with flowers and draped with vibrant colors. In reality: probably a hormonal adolescent much like any other 'youth'. With 20 degree (Fahrenheit) shifts in high temps overnight, rain one day, searing sun the next and snow expected for the weekend, it looks like the young year is going through what anyone else does. Oddly enough, everyone thinks it's unique to their region. In the desert, you'll hear people say "frying eggs on sidewalks at noon and wearing coats at night... must be spring". In the mountains: "Not sure whether to keep the hat and mittens or pull out the swimsuit? Both. It's spring." The South has their own problems... mainly the difficulty of deciding whether you're underwater or on land while walking to your car. And in the Northeast and Northwest? Forget it... Blizzards followed by searing heat. Despite her mood swings, Spring is here in all her glory, and sometimes she's as beautiful as the paintings.

You Know You're a Pet Owner When...

At my apartment complex there are many many geese (as I mentioned in one of my earliest blogs). These geese are fairly used to humans wandering around, so they're not as mean as some geese are (I suppose - this is my first real experience living with the beasties). Nevertheless, they have a tendency to hiss if you get too close or startle them. One goose did this to me, and startled me in turn. My first reaction? A sharp "NO! BAD GOOSE!". The goose looked just as startled as I had been. I wonder how many people go around scolding the geese?

Burnished Blond Belles Ban Brunette Beauty

During the Renaissance, blondes definitely had more fun. Blond hair for women became so much de rigueur in Venice that a brunette was not to be seen except among the working classes. Venetian women spent hours dyeing and burnishing their hair until they achieved the harsh metallic glitter that was considered a necessity. To get these golden locks, Italian women would use a mixture of honey, lemon, and sometimes pidgeon dung, and would sit on their roof under a wide-brimmed topless hat with the hair spread out on it. Apparently pigeon dung has an acidic bleaching component. The whole process is detailed in many historical books about courtesans, probably makes for very interesting reading. One such book is "The Book of the Courtesans: A Catalogue of their Virtues" by Susan Griffin. (Haven't read it, don't have an opinion).