Trick or Treat? Definitely a
Things I have Googled today
1) Home-waxing horror stories. (I love the last one on this page.)
2) Smell-retardant clothing and sprays. (Did you know they even sell odor-control boots? I had no idea.)
3) And finally, the names, habits, and predilections of fallen angels. Of which there are, surprisingly, quite a lot.
All this in the name of research. (Honest, I swear, these are all plot-relevant topics.) And in case you were wondering, no, I am not currently working on the third Gray Whale Inn mystery. That’s scheduled to start at the end of June.
And when I was done Googling, I got to join a great group of authors (including fellow Best First nominees Hailey Lind and Sandra Parshall) on a radio show called Murder Must Air, hosted by L.C. Hayden. Who, incidentally, was nominated for an Agatha this year as well. Anyway, the show will be listenable (is that a word?) from the Mystery Writers of America page soon; I’ll keep you posted!
P.S. Wrote about 3232 words over the last two days, bringing me up to 45,848. And I’m telling you, the last few days I’ve just been strapping myself to the laptop and going along for the ride.
Outline? What outline?
P.P.S. I got more good news today, and will share it as soon as I know it’s official. And no, I didn’t agree to write a fourth book in the next twelve months. I have some shreds of common sense left. Not many, but some.
Hope your days were great, and if you have home-waxing or odor-control-boot stories — or, come to think of it, direct experience with fallen angels (ex-husbands, perhaps?) — please do tell.
Ta for now!
OK, no fallen angels, but surely you’ve seen this?
Now, the home waxing…let’s not even go there. I should have learned my lesson about “salon treatments at home” when I was a mere 12 years old and my mother decided to give me a home perm. She got all the solution in, then couldn’t get the rollers to work right.
So, off we run down the street to the salon that’s about five blocks (.25 miles, to you non-NYers) away, sweating and stinking of whatever god-awful stuff they put in perm solution, to get some poor woman to fix the problem.
Thirty years later, they’ve probably changed the perm boxes so you put the curlers in before you dose yourself with solution.
So, given that experience, I should really have known better than to try do-it-yourself waxing. But, hey, who ever learns their lesson the easy way, right?
Not that I jumped straight in. No, first I tried the “cold wax strips.” They pulled…oh…maybe 1 hair? Then I tried the little thing with the rotating pullers…kind of looks like an electric razor but acts like a little rotating tweezer. HOLY …. MOLY that hurt! OK, so maybe waxing really is the way to go.
So, I took a deep breath, bought one of those little home waxing kit jobs, put the tiny crock pot warmer with the chunks of wax in it on the bathroom floor, got out the little popsickle stick for spreading the stuff on, and waited.
And waited.
And waited.
Geeeeeeze, that little wax warmer took forever! Which explains why, once the wax was melty, I was eager to get on with it! So I spread a generous amount on the inside of my calf and pressed the linen cloth to it. Waited however many seconds for it to cool, and…
R-R-R-IP!
Uh…nothing happened. That is, the linen came off, but the wax was still there. Now what?
OK, so, it’s wax, right? I should be able to get it off. How bad could it be? Well, let me say, it could be BAD. Really bad. I took that linen strip and patted it back into place, then rubbed up and down like a madwoman hoping the friction would reheat the wax so the linen strip would stick.
Nope.
I tried peeling it off with my fingers. OWWWW. So not going to happen.
I put my leg in the tub and ran hot water on it, then tried the linen strip again. I ended up with wet linen, but still a waxy leg.
Finally, I scraped away until it was mostly gone, then attempted to shower the rest away. I thought I was safe, but when I toweled off, I left lots of terrycloth on the inside of my calf. But at least the terry was soft, so I didn’t stick to the inside of my clothes.
Never, ever again.
1) I’m pretty sure I have no home-waxing stories to share.
2) Real leather seems to take care of itself as far as odor control is concerned. I’m talking about boots here… pants, I have no idea.
3) And I always thought Lucifer, Mephistopheles, Beelzebub and Satan were one and the same. Silly me!
There was plenty of chocolate at the Easter table I was at, but only one pecan pie, and that’s just not right. I’m going to have to make one myself in order to correct the imbalance that was so thoughtlessly created. Maybe two.
Cadbury Creme Eggs are half price now! Oh, wait, that would be enabling. I’ll have yours. 🙂
John
Laura,
All I can say is that I’ve always been a firm believer that hair treatments involving chemicals and irrevocable alterations are best left in the hands of professionals.
You have just convinced me that waxing belongs in that category as well. I can only imagine being stuck in the bathroom with an immovable chunk of wax stuck to my leg.
At least it wasn’t your armpit… or worse.
Ouch!
Karen (who is wincing just thinking about it)
John,
No home-waxing? I’m disappointed. 😉
And the odor control is to keep dogs/werewolves from being able to catch your scent. If you catch my drift. 🙂
And who knew the demons were so diversified?
Thank God someone else loves pecan pie. No one here but me does, so every time I buy one, I am forced to eat the whole thing. Which is not ideal.
Mmm, Cadbury creme eggs. I love those. But I love mini eggs more.
Now you’ve got me thinking of chocolate and pecan pie…