So, hivemind, my hair is practically striped, it's been so long since I dyed it, and I'm thinking about returning to black. Perhaps with henna. Any thoughts/advice on using henna for hair dying purposes.

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I've used henna, but only for red highlights. Can't speak to its blackening abilities...

Feel bad for my mom. She's downstairs going through boxes of stuff from her mom's estate. Which things go to whom. Which get sold, etc. She's so exhausted. My grandma got sick at the end of May and was in the hospital 'til she died in late July. Then funeral in August, estate stuff ever since. In the middle of all this, my house closed in mid-July and I moved in then. It's been a really tough year on everyone.

I'll be helping her with trying to get some of the stuff up on Ebay, Craig's List or Etsy, whichever I think it'll sell best on. I've never done Etsy before so I'm not sure how best to sell there but some of the vintage kitchen stuff and the designer purses and outfits will sell better there than anywhere else, I think. (Etsy is still about handmade stuff in my mind but I've seen so many Etsy stores that are selling stuff you'd find in a vintage store that I guess it's ok.) In my hands now are some beautiful hand-hammered aluminum things. The serving dish is in an incredibly tasteful floral/botanical pattern. This stuff was made in Western PA at a forge that is still in business. That's where my mom's folks hail from. The Shenango dishes I have (which I'm keeping) were made in a factory where my great-aunt worked painting them. It's a kind of history my family doesn't have a lot of. We don't have many heirlooms. But there's something cool about these regional items that were new when they were bought but are vintage now and reminders of where they come from.

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If you have the opporunity to follow your bliss, don't put it off. But from this vantage I can definitely say, better late than never.

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Please tell me that everything being shut down and gridlocked around here due to the freakish weather isn't A Sign for my book release?

Although I suppose I ought to be grateful my signing/launch isn't for another two weeks...

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It is not A Sign, Barb. All the very best for the launch and signing! So exciting. I'll be looking out for your book - I'll report back on how many I see in UK bookshops!

Not until I got to college did I realize how awesome I have it with my own slightly-fucked up but wonderfully goofy family that loves me.

Good, isn't it? It wasn't until I met The Girl that I understood that, despite my family's very substantial fucked-up-ness, I am still one of the luckiest people ever because they love me and would do anything for me. Partly because I got to compare them with her family. Also because of the utterly unconditional welcome they gave her into our family. (My father actually told her 'welcome to the family' when he met her, about a month after we started dating. You've never seen someone look so scared.)

smonster, I hope your mom doesn't have too much of a hard time adjusting if your plans work out.

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Good luck with your family, smonster.

Nothing but a world of hugs and support to you and your brother and his girlfriend, P-C.

Not A Sign, Barb.

And now, I have come to point you to this:

But did you correct your results using a dead salmon? [link]

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Please tell me that everything being shut down and gridlocked around here due to the freakish weather isn't A Sign for my book release?

In New York, the theater crowds superstitions say rain on opening night was a great sign of good luck. So? Freakish weather indicates best seller, right?

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But did you correct your results using a dead salmon?

"Either we have stumbled onto a rather amazing discovery in terms of post-mortem ichthyological cognition, or there is something a bit off with regard to our uncorrected statistical approach."

Genius. I'll be showing that to all my quantitative researcher colleagues, then.

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I wonder on the effects of historiographical papers on periodization's relevance to Eastern Europe on dead salmons, for one.

I guess I'll have to live with the curiosity.

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Interrrrresting dead salmon. Also, kudos to the author for the Monty Python reference. I did kinda hear the rest of the article in John Cleese's voice.

P-C, strength~ma to you and your siblings. I'm glad you have each other.

I think no one here will be surprised to hear that cat makes me happy. Shoot, if it weren't for my cats, I'd have nothing to talk about half the time. The individuals I support at work frequently ask about them, and they talking about them makes a great distraction from less pleasant topics of conversation.

Barb, your book release is going to go just fine, weather or no weather.

smonster, I'm glad that your mother is able to express her feelings to you without it causing unfair guilt.

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