Great Love Song

Watch the clip above, or go check it out on YouTube. If you don't have sound then at least read the lyrics. Afterwards, see my thoughts in the comments section of this post.

Lush Bath Melt Review

ERin and I recently did a trade. I had a facemask kit that I bought a few years ago and never found the right person to give it to and never used it myself - she needed something for a secret Santa thing. Then she remembered that I like to take baths, and she had received some bath stuff over the years that she didn't think she would use - which I was excited to have. She gave me a couple of bath bombs and a "bath melt" from Lush yesterday.

This morning I dropped the bath melt into the tub as it was filling up and the result can be summed up as basically disastrous. Mid-bath, I had to look up on the Lush website what even was a bath melt and was I using it correctly, and I was, but they are called bath oils even though they are in solid shapes. Then I looked up tips from the official Lush YouTube channel on this product and it still said that I should be using the full thing. But I gave up, and pulled the last third of it out of the water and put it beside the tub to use next time. (Yes I will use it again, maybe the smaller amount will improve things.)

According to Lush:
When it comes to bathtime luxury, there's no holding back. Our bath oils deliver an enchanting experience for those times when you truly want to transform your body and mind. Decadent butters and loads of essential oils melt into the water, then into your skin for a supremely softening and scented utopia. These little confections nourish your skin with moisturizing butters and softening oils to counteract the drying effects of a hot bath.
1. Run your bathwater making sure it’s just how you like it
2. Drop your bath oil into the bath and its oils and butters will melt to soften your water and skin.
3. Be careful when you’re getting out of a bath with one of these, because they can make your tub a bit slippery.

So, I am glad that they call them oils, and not melts, but they are really really greasy. I had to use shampoo to clean off my hands before looking up the stuff on my phone. The main issue was the sparkles, I have always thought of glitter as the herpes of craft supplies and the same applies to the body/beauty kind. It was a bit exfoliating and gritty but it also doesn't wash off! I am covered in gold sparkles, and I mean COVERED! I don't even know how you would achieve this look for a costume (say if you were wanting to be a shimmery sea monster or 1990's porn star for Halloween) apart from a professional makeup artist. I have a very even coat of teeny tiny gold sparkles, everywhere. When I videocalled ERin, to explain that this gift given to her might have been some type of sabotage, she thought I was still wet from the shower. Nope, just covered in sparkles, I was bone dry.

Also, the warning at the end of the Lush instructions it true, it is so oily that getting out of the bathtub is downright dangerous, I was worried I might die. The rest of my day will be spent trying to clean the gunk out of the tub before Jason needs to shower tomorrow morning, I am guessing this will take multiple attempts. Don't even want to think about what the glittery, greasy, goo is going to do to the pipes.

At the moment though, my skin is very soft. It is hydrating, and I feel great, except for itchy nipples from the sparkles. I will finish up the last bit of it, I do love how smooth my hands and feet feel.

Xmas 2019

Jason
- Gift cards
--- Amazon (for Kindle Books), MEC
- Coffee beans
- Pour-over coffee brewer
- Clear glass coffee mugs
- Front bike light
- Sour candy
- Coke in glass bottles
- Craft Beer, not wheaty
- T-shirts, size Med
- Cheap Sunglasses
- Spray sunscreen
- Basic electric toothbrush OralB head
- Franks Red Hot Sauce
- iPhone charging cords

Me
- Gift Cards
--- Ricki's, Dollerama, IKEA
- Books (used is fine)
--- Fiction, William Gibson, Jasper Fforde, Gail Vaz-Oxlade (Never Too Late)
- Bullet/dot journals
- Fineliner colour markers (for journal)
- Epsom salts
- Soap and Glory: Flake Away
- Canned corn
- Martin's Apple Chips
- Black no snag hair elastics
- Bath bombs
- Stud earrings, backs that click shut
- Metal pasta claw serving spoon

Joint
- Gift cards
--- Home Depot, Canadian Tire, Cineplex
- Boardgames
--- Ticket to Ride: Expansion Maps
--- Trivial Pursuit: Bet You Know It
--- Seven Wonders: Duel
--- Rummikub
- Glass Clip tupperware containers
- Wood cutting boards
- Screwdriver set
- Collapsible salad spinner
- King Sheets (100% Cotton)
- Animal safe sidewalk salt
- Shower curtain liners
- Strong fridge magnets, with clips

And Depression Hits

I spent all this week in bed, which isn't good. It took we a while to realize that it was out of sadness and not time change adjustment from the Palm Springs trip. Basically all I felt like doing was sleeping, it is my favourite escape and always has been when I am feeling depressed.

There is a lot to be sad about for sure but I found this escape into bed to be paired with the horrible negative thoughts that I often get when in a depressive crash, hopelessness, not wanting to be alive, not looking forward to anything, despair, etc. Hoping I caught it early I have decided to do the following every day and try to track it in my planner:
- Something for me
--- Mental health related: Eating well, exercise, baths, counselling, etc.
- Something for the cafe
--- Continuation of closing down Flipside: Paperwork, liquidation, financials, etc.
- Something for a job
--- Time to job hunt, which is always hard: Applications, follow ups, resume updates, etc
- Something for the house
--- It isn't fair for Jason to keep doing everything: Laundry, cooking, cleaning, etc.
- A blog post
--- It feels good to get Always Standing updated again, so adding this to the list!

Long Ago Insult Comes Back

Hanging out on the couch in Palm Springs: Mom has her laptop out and is working on her blog, I'm on my phone, Avery is beside me on his iPad. He looks over and notices that Mom is scrolling through a lot of photos. 
Avery: Nana, why did you taken so many pictures?
Me: Actually Avery, the past tense is "took." So you should say, "Why did you took so many pictures?" Wait, nope, that isn't right. Okay, I don't know what it should have been but there was something messed up with your tense there.
Avery: You have four eyes.
He proceeds to count my eyes and the lenses on my glasses. It didn't seem like an insult at the time, just a well timed observation, that I totally deserved. 

Kristen Wins Halloween

I guess this is a follow up from a 2016 post when I was super excited by Teri's costume for R.O.M. that made him a tiny baby sushi.

Basically I love sushi!!

Kristen's costume for work this year is amazing and the next time I need a costume I am totally going to borrow it of make my own.

The little hat with the plastic grass, wasabi, and ginger is perfect. Though I gather Noah didn't recognize what it was supposed to be so she was worried that it wasn't working.

(Also, this was her testing it out this evening before wearing it tomorrow, so she is wearing pajama bottoms, I believe she plans on actually doing dress pants to work with it.)

That Shih Tzu Smile

What is he smiling at? Well, if you notice the pale fur in the foreground that is Clancy, his parent's Golden Doodle, but it is actually for the black floof which is Biscuit, their new little Shih Tzu puppy.

I don't know if I have ever mentioned on Always Standing that Jason has a "Shih Tzu Smile." You can see it in the photos from when we visited Jessie as a puppy. Almost any time Jason sees a Shih Tzu, even sometimes when he is talking about them, he gets the biggest/sweetest smile. This smile is only seen in this specific context, nothing makes him smile this way but Shih Tzus. They are his favourite, obviously, look at that smile.

I like bigger dogs, and consider Shih Tzus part of what Eddie Izzard calls, "small yappy type dogs." However, Jason insists that they look like little Ewoks, which for certain colours and markings kinda true. Look at her little nose:

Jason and Biscuit

October 2019

Photo by Me, on a phone

We Found The Apple!

When we visited the Finger Lakes area of New York State in 2016, Jason and I did an Apple Tasting Tour, during which we both fell in love with a new apple variety called The Snap Dragon. Couldn't find it during our Salem trip last year because according to one farmer we were a couple weeks early. So, this year, after exploring the waterfront on Sunday morning, Jason looked them up online and we drove into the countryside to try to find them again. And we did!!