WHAT DAY IS IT?????????

Boy, the days just melt together when you're so limited to where you can go, what you can do and who you can see!!!!  Once we retired at least we had Sundays that were different because of going to church.  Now that's not even any different...except we sit down at 11:00 in our living room and watch the service (which, by the way, isn't all bad!!!).

So, last week I attacked ye ol' gray roots!!  One thing I've learned from all of this is I don't really NEED to go to the salon as often as I've been going.  That's good news!  But, even though I'm not really seeing anyone (at least that I know!), I decided it was time.  As I had mentioned in an earlier post, I stepped out and tried a product new to me (since I haven't colored my own hair since we lived in Atlanta 29 years ago!), Madison Reed.  I saw it on Facebook, a friend told me about it and, then, I just happened on a YouTube of Terri Hatcher (from Desperate Housewives) covering her gray roots with it.

Thursday was the day and I was prepared!  I followed the instructions exactly (as best as I could) and made sure I had my handy assistant ready and available (that would be David, of course, to help with the back).

Maybe I should wear my hair like this!!

Step One - part your hair in four sections.  Done.  From here I just applied the color to each parted section of hair until all the sections were ready to be capped.  I am not showing the picture of that (I'm not completely crazy!!!!).  Wait 35 minutes.  Done.  Apply the rest of the color to the rest of my hair (I may not do this step next time since it will be the same color.  I may just do the roots).  Cap and wait 5 more minutes then....washout, wash/condition/blowdry and...voila....

I'm kind of ready for a new style cut...
for now this is good

All blond again!!!!  Now, the shade, while very similar to what was on my hair, is a little more beige which is fine with me.  I did, however, lose the dark roots I had finally achieved at my last salon visit.  In fact, our plan was to do high and low lights in April.  Oh, well.  Maybe when I finally get back to her...we'll see.  Obviously, this is very economical and I do have plenty of time!  My stylist is opening their salon mid May but I'm not ready by then.  Plus, I'm a little concerned that's a little too early with all this virus stuff.  Maybe by the time I need color again (in June), things will be a little better and I'll go see her.  Or maybe I'll do my own color again and just go and get a cut - THAT I can't do myself!!!!

David and I have talked for months about our desire to convert my blog posts about Paris to print form so we will have them to actually look/read through.  We weren't really sure the best way to do that and, after several searches, found a site, Blog2Print, where we could get it done to our liking.  It wasn't as easy as we had thought it would be,  and David spent hours working on it and communicating with one of their people getting everything downloaded.  Because it wasn't exactly cheap, we especially wanted to make sure the end result was a good one...at least one we would be  happy with.  Finally, everything was done, ordered and we were just waiting.  Unlike Amazon, who is not quite as fast since the virus, our books that were supposed to arrive mid May came today!

The left book shows the front (both fronts are the same
and the right book shows the back of the
second volume which is the end of our time
in Paris and our new home here

Here's a page of Part II to give you an idea

We were so excited and happy with the finished books!  I say books because there were too many posts/pages to contain in one volume so we have Part I and Part II.  It ended up being 400+ pages with the posts pre-Paris as we were deciding to make this step to our departure from Paris back to the US.  Each post is on a separate page with the corresponding picture with it.  It reads like a book!  We have only flipped through them but I'm excited to actually sit down and read through them.  Even at a glance, many memories are brought back I'd forgotten about...little things mostly.  It was well worth every hour we spent (me writing the posts and David getting it all ready for print) and every dollar we spent having it printed.

You know I need my flowers for my mental health!  Today we went out and got some hanging baskets for the back (by the geraniums) and planted herbs in them...hopefully to use for cooking.  Like a kitchen garden.  So we have basil, cilantro, German thyme and parsley.  We'll see how they do out there.  If they don't work (because of sun etc.),  I have some alternative choices!  But they look pretty right now so, hopefully, they will thrive.

Lots of basil - we use it a lot

Cilantro, German thyme and parsley

We're still strolling our little park and the Plaza, getting take-out pizza and Cheesecake Factory desserts, doing The NY Times puzzle, strength training, reading, watching movies and playing gin rummy (I do win sometimes!!!).  Surprisingly, the days seem to go pretty quickly.  We cook every night but Friday (that's Pizza Night!) and I'm baking more (which I've always loved).  In fact, brownies are on this week's plan!  But I do miss seeing friends we have (from previous moves) and developing new relationships with people in our new home.  Hopefully, soon.