the girly who shall end all girls

My very very long socks and "industrial garter belt" arrived and they are a joy. The socks are soft and opaque and go to mid thigh (extra long was the right call). The belt is labeled as sports gear - I forgot how much roller derby business Sock Dreams does. The belt is not visible under the dress I tried. Now to see how well they hold up to dog walks and working.

the tree and wreath are in a pile of trees by the compost bin. dismantling was quick; we've decided the white lights on the balcony are season-neutral and staying because there are a lot of long nights still ahead of us.
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it looks like with the changes in IFTTT that my rube goldberg DW link poster is dead, and i believe the instagram x-poster is dead as well. i did want to come up with some little coding projects to do, so i need to do some personal WSJF on easy link sharing vs mobile photo posts vs text from rocketbook.

since DW still doesn't have an API everything hinges on post by email, so i am going to have to learn more about how email works no matter what i tackle first. (i poked at this earlier in the week as part of the rocketbook experiment - i seem to be able to send a test email via mailx, which is then rejected by the recipient because it looks dodgy. hence the "learn more about email".) any links or book suggestions on email appreciated; i'm hoping to find the proper way to relay through gmail so that this doesn't turn into buying a domain.
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i finally bleached my roots before refreshing my hair color (first time since the start of green hair back in April). this time i realized that the box bleach actually tells you the proper proportion for mixing the reagents in the allergy test instructions, so there's no reason to mix the entire box when you don't need it (the longest hair on my head might be chin length when pulled straight). i have plenty left for the next time, probably the time after, and might not go as long between refreshes. between that and getting the shortest parts of my hair cut down to #1 today (skin-baring but still slightly fuzzy...as my stylist says she's more scared than i am) i feel pleasantly punk rawk.

i think there's a chance that this will be the last haircut i have for a while, since the new strain is in BC and the US.

1. via tozka, Nina Paley of Sita Sings the Blues fame is a massive (and proud) TERF.

2. this lost baby goat being returned to the wild melted my heart. video, best with sound on.

3. i've been struggling with my hair a bit lately; turns out i failed to notice that the Overtone color-depositing conditioner i've been using has a bad silicone in it. glad i haven't ordered more, at least now i know what's up and how to solve it.

4. The Venture Bros has been cancelled. well, surprise, it took something like 17 years to produce 7 seasons. people are trying to get HBO Max to pick it up, fingers crossed. meanwhile, i realized that we hadn't yet purchased season 7, now that's on order.

5. i am rereading the Queen's Thief books in preparation for the new one coming out in October. squeeeeeee

victory is mine. behind the cut, a photo of me with satisfyingly green hair; the color is Lunar Tides Juniper Green
( Shulkier hair )

the first hex of the blanket i'm knitting is washed and blocked. i learned process stuff and switched up which needles and increase method while i worked my way through it, so it's guaranteed to be the least accomplished of the bunch...if this is the ugliest one i am really going to love this blanket.
( fair isle blanket hex )

i remembered this week that 30 Rock is on Amazon Prime, so it's in the comfort tv rotation. it's so good and so weird that i have no idea how it was on network television.

Haircut today. Still asymmetrical but now with more drama. I'm pleased.

Dad's facility is now closed to visitors. I'm glad PA is on the ball, but Mom is crushed.

I am struggling with this week's homework. At this point I've accepted that I will take tomorrow off and game instead of starting late (for the third week in a row). Saturday will do. I have a 105% average, time to take advantage of it.

a former housemate told a story about trying (as a caucasian) to buy underwear when she lived in Japan. in spite of being petite by US standards, in three years there was only one store she found that sold underpants that fit. she called it the store for big-assed women.

this is a preface to saying that i ordered a pair of pants from an ad on Instagram. i know, i know, but at the time Dad was on day 5 of his four day stay in the hospital with no end in sight and they claimed to be made of softshell material for all of my durable waterproof dog walking and hiking and soccer-watching needs and would make me happy, dammit. as time passed and i came home but the package still hadn't arrived, i thought they might be a scam - but it turns out that they were shipped by regular mail from Shanghai, which took 22 days.

i tore open the mailer, and there was a sticker on the inner package: 4XL. that's at least 3X more than i would expect. noooooooo, they came, but they're the wrong size!

actually, they fit fine. maybe a little tight in the hips but after weeks of eating my feelings and not walking enough that's no surprise, and they're even long enough in the legs and the crotch. they seem to be well-made; they arrived too late to go to the rainy soccer game but there will certainly be other opportunities. they really are 4XL according to the tag.

apparently i am a giantess in Shanghai.

even though Seattle includes the most diverse zip code in the US, the town as a whole is pretty white. this means that while there are products available for textured hair, there isn't the full range that gets discussed in curly hair forums.

I lost a lot of time at Target today just goggling at the textured hair aisle that is easily twice the size of the one at home. breadth and depth, plus so many sample sizes of All The Things. I thought about filling a basket full,

BUT

The climate here is completely different, so something that works here is likely to be overkill at home. I finally understand all the people layering three moisturizers and coating their hair in oil. I tried my usual overnight routine - little vertical ponytails to sleep, in the morning finger comb and let the steam from the shower reactivate the curl - and it failed completely. Totally the unruly straight hair of my childhood. So far I have to wet my head daily, use a heavy conditioner, and cover it with product to seal. At least it dries by the time I've eaten breakfast.

I may yet buy samples and ship them home since there would be too many to carry on.

the season has turned.

the leaves are changing, the rain has returned, and there's a bite in the air.*

i'm very interested in being domestic and staying inside and that's why i totally have something going on almost every night this week. *headdesk*

i had my second sleep-deprivation Saturday in a row. last week, a lovely trip to Bainbridge on an early ferry. this week, it was a bus to Lynnwood and then on to Fiber Fusion with mimerki for a few hours before Leela's annual exam.** i love that show and its slowly expanding livestock area. THERE WAS A YAK. i spent all but $0.50 of my budget, no regrets. (okay, maybe i should have bought the cheapish undyed Targhee instead of the dyed Cormo/Polypay, but i really love that lady's Polypay and she was so charmed by how the fiber matched my outfit that she took a picture. also, i suspect that since i saw multiple sources of identical-looking Targhee top, it was probably just from Ashland Bay and won't be that hard to find. i have a card from the people who genuinely might have been selling their own. the people i bought a bump from a couple years ago don't seem to have returned and that's too bad since the resulting yarn made an exquisitely soft and warm hat and cowl set. Targhee is awesome.)

Sunday was fan appreciation day for the Sounders. they won the game, which earned them a bye in the first round of playoffs. (we declined our playoff tickets option - we did that last year and they won the MLS Cup, so if my absence guarantees success, i'm very down with that.) there was a post-game "garage sale" for season ticket members, so i am now the proud owner of a Zach Scott bobblehead, a subtly branded Alchemy Goods bag, a Pride week rainbow captain's armband, and a pair of "super cyan" socks from the 2012-2013 3rd kit. C got a couple of tops, one of which belonged to a scout. all-in-all it was pretty cool.

Monday i went to An Evening with G Willow Wilson with knitta D. it was good - a local public radio host was the facilitator. it was a surprisingly effective mix of discussion about being Muslim in the US, being an adult convert, and geeking out about comics (with bonus Ta Nehisi Coates fangirling).*** she also mentioned that a prequel to Alif the Unseen had been sold that morning. i think the most interesting takeaway was her coming to the understanding that as a white convert she's a terrible representative for outreach to other US white people. folks on the right think she's a traitor, folks on the left call her things like "pervert". so she has a list of other speakers to suggest when she gets pinged to speak at interfaith events.

yesterday was my one free evening, which i used to run errands. i have new hair products to try, because apparently that's a thing that i do now.

*how you can tell i've had this in a text file for a couple days: no rain today.
**good thing we finished up early; our vet was ill and so it was come in right away or reschedule out to who knows when, and we had scheduled specifically for expiring vaccinations. oy. Leela has a clean bill of health but we need to watch her weight because food is love.
***she mentioned that she sent Bruno to Wakanda to set hooks for a crossover. i adore Bruno; i think one of the things that makes Ms Marvel shine is that the supporting cast is so wonderful.