Kristy's Blog

1. Curly hair happens because hair follicles cross-sections are oval in shape. Straight hair is completely round. “If you think about gift wrapping ribbon, when you try to make it curly, you take the scissors and you pull it on one side, so you kind of flatten the one side and it curls. So you’re changing the shape of one side compared to the other,” says Dr. Paradi Mirmirani, a dermatologist in Vallejo, Calif., who specializes in hair. “When it’s oval, one side is curved and the other side is flat, which makes it curl.”

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=102074149

2. Americans wash their hair too much – causing the scalp to produce more oil. That’s why if you don’t wash your hair every day it gets oily. Daily washing, they say, strips the hair of beneficial oil (called sebum) and can damage and can even damage it. Counter intuitively, if you just wash your hair 2-3 times a week, the oil should be balanced. During your daily shower, you just need to rinse your hair.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=102062969

3. Gray hair happens because hair shafts accumulate hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) in millimolar concentrations. Hydrogen peroxide is the main ingredient used in products to bleach hair blond.

http://www.fasebj.org/cgi/content/abstract/fj.08-125435v1

Came across this here. And I completely agree.

Click to see larger image.

Bra straps on shoulders showing are one thing, but this crosses the line. And the strap didn’t disappear when she stood up, either. Anyone within 5 feet could read the bra size.

From Jace Cunningham (a facebook friend):

Okay I googled all natural weed killer and came up with this recipe. We bought a little bottle of vinegar, the rest we had, tried it and I could not believe it! Within 3 hours the weeds were dying. It works better than roundup and you don’t drop $20 each time! It will kill grass so use it as you would any weed killer!

One tablespoon salt
One tablespoon dishwashing soap (liquid soap makes the vinegar stick to the leaves)
and up to one gallon vinegar.

Put in spray bottle and spray away, you will be amazed and it’s not full of nasty chemicals!

In honor of St. Patrick’s Day….

98-year old Mother Superior from Ireland was dying. The nuns gathered around her bed trying to make her last journey comfortable. They
tried giving her some warm milk to drink, but she refused it. One of the nuns took the glass back to the kitchen and, remembering a bottle of Irish whiskey received as a gift the previous Christmas, she opened it and poured a generous amount into the warm milk. Back at Mother Superior’s bed, she held the glass to her lips. Mother drank a little, then a little more and before they knew it, she had drunk the whole glass down to the last drop.

‘Mother,’ the nuns asked with earnest, ‘Please give us some wisdom before you die’.

She raised herself up in bed and said, ‘Don’t sell that cow.’

I absolutely loved this article!

http://www.cracked.com/article_16643_5-most-overrated-jobs-all-time.html

Their list (and you’ll have to read the hilarious reasons why they think these jobs were so overrated):

1. Pirate
2. Cowboy
3. Knights
4. Samurai
5. Private Investigator

Here is a list of my favorites, listed in no particular order.

Sol y Sombra in DC Ranch has excellent Spanish wines and the best tapas in the valley.

Armitage in DC Ranch is a great wine bar…Thursday night is ladies night, half priced drinks and wine.

The Vig on 40th and Indian School has half priced bottles of wine, live music and a great outdoor patio scene on Sunday afternoons.

Cork in South Chandler has great wine and some of the best food in town. They have wine pairings all the time, and half priced bottles of wine on Tuesdays.

A-Z Wines has wine tastings ever Wednesday, Thursday, Friday.

Digestif (Old Town Scottsdale) has great food and and excellent wine list.

Of course, there is Il Postino (40th Street and Campbell), which has $5 glasses of wine 7 days a week from 11am to 3pm.

Furio (Old Town) has an ok wine list, but they have martini and manicures night every Monday where you can get a martini or a glass of wine for $10 along with a manicure.

Grazie (Old Town) has amazing pizza and desserts, and a very extensive list of Italian wines.

Chevront (in Central Phoenix across from the library) is a great place to grab a cheese plate and a glass of good wine.

Starbucks will begin testing the soluble coffee — a term that conjures up images of instant brands such as Folgers, Sanka and Brim — by selling it in Starbucks cafes as early as next month. It’s unclear as yet whether the company will also extend the product to supermarkets, where it already has a presence with ground Starbucks-branded coffee.

Saint Valentine

The origins of Valentine’s Day can be traced back to the ancient Roman celebration of Lupercalia. This Roman festival was held on February 15th. Lupercalia, honored the gods Lupercus and Faunus, as well as the legendary founders of Rome , Romulus and Remus.

Lupercalia festivities included a bountiful feast and the pairing of young women and men. Men would draw women’s names from a box, and each couple would be paired until next year’s celebration.

While the pairing of couples set the tone for today’s holiday, it wasn’t called “Valentine’s Day” until a priest named Valentine came along. Valentine, a romantic at heart, disobeyed Emperor Claudius II’s decree that soldiers remain bachelors. Claudius handed down a decree believing that soldiers would be distracted and unable to concentrate on fighting if they were married. Valentine defied the emperor and secretly performed marriage ceremonies. As a result of his defiance, Valentine was put to death on February 14th.

After Valentine’s death, the priest was named a saint. As Christianity spread throughout Rome , the celebration of Lupercalia was moved from February 15th to February 14th and renamed St. Valentine’s Day to honor the saint.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=100510986

Red-eye. Him window. Me aisle. Love.
– Joanne Flynn Black

If I get Chlamydia, blame MySpace.
– Hanorah Slocum

Will government ever let us marry?
– Viki Marsh

Silently suffered his facial hair experiments.
– Elizabeth Minkel

Three marriages. Two divorces. BA .333.
– Ron Carmean

What do you want for dinner?
– Drew Magary

If only he wasn’t a Republican.
– Holly Fitzpatrick

Tried men. Tried women. Like cats.
– Dona Bumgarner

Leap of faith. Shit, no parachute.
– Katherine Yunker

Inevitably, his obituary didn’t mention me.
– R. Sue Dodea

We “I do” -ed. Then he didn’t.
– Lisa Parrack

Palindromantically: Eros saw I was sore.
– Aaron Fagan

Two marriages. The wrong one died.
– Anne Hamilton

Best family ever. Thank you, Match.com!
– Alexa Young

Marriage, children, empty nest: Now what?
– Oliver House

Excerpted from Six-Word Memoirs On Love And Heartbreak from Smith magazine, edited by Rachel Fershleiser and Larry Smith. Copyright 2009. Reproduced with permission of the publisher, Harper Perennial.