I may have threatened Tim to stop using my Don't Despair, Repair! hair mask now that my hair is re-highlighted (he is very curly and his hair loves that mask).

My hair was never happier than when I was using AG products. My skin, on the other hand - I'm allergic to something in it, and had horrible, non-stop irritation and peeling. Now I look scruffy, but my face doesn't hurt/shed dead skin onto my glasses.

I'm sorry, msbelle and aurelia. I didn't know any of my grandparents but had zillions of great aunts and uncles growing up that did the elder relative role for me.

I was nappy and lazy over the weekend, but can't complain about the 2nd shot issues at all. Just relief to have it behind me. Not that I expect my life to change. Still using curbside pickup and expect to stay with that forever, because it is just so convenient! I've always hated shopping.

Aldi uses Instacart, and their shoppers are freaking gods. They text if they have questions, including sending a picture to be sure something is the right item. Meijer and Kroger shoppers, not so much. So we're trying to get more stuff from Aldi, because they make it so damn easy.

Trader Joe's doesn't have curbside pickup, but they're still enforcing 50 people at a time in the store, so shopping in the store is a delight now that a bazillion other people aren't crammed in there with me.

I will try Aldi curbside again -- when I tried a couple of months ago, Instacart kept postponing my pick-up to the next day, then the next, then the next... I had to give up. I love my local Harris Teeter shopping crew, but, damn, Aldi is so much of a better bang for the buck.

I'm sorry, msbelle.

I've been doing Instacart with Food Lion, a grocery store that's mostly in the US southeast, I believe. It's gone mostly well, with a couple of hiccups. It definitely beats going to the grocery store every week, with people who may or may not believe in masks, social distancing, hand washing, the existence of viruses, that Biden is actually president, a reasonably spherical earth, etc.

I've been doing Instacart with Food Lion

Ever since our first trip to Topsail, someone referred to it as "Food LOIN," and I can only ever think of it that way now.

We have an Aldi, but I have never been there. My SIL always uses them so I should give it a try. Mostly I just want someone else to make the food decisions for me and just bring it to me prepared and put it in front of me ready to eat. Why should it be so much effort? I mean, I suppose ordering on line for curbside pickup or delivery beats plowing the fields and harvesting, but I want more convenience in my life.

So I called my sister yesterday. She's been dealing with an aggressive form of breast cancer, and I knew she'd been going through chemo (because my niece told me).

My call was long overdue and I can't quite say why I'd put it off. I don't have any negative issues with my sister at all, but we just don't talk that much. Maybe because both our parents are dead and she's my last family member and I didn't want to think about her mortality.

Anyway, I got on and she asked if I was okay. Like, I was calling because I had bad news.

I said, "No, I'm calling to check on you."

Her: "About what?"

Me: "The chemo."

Her: "Oh. That."

She'd had a masectomy six weeks ago and had finally recovered enough to go out on her own that day. She was excited about that, and kept referring to her cancer as "her journey." (Not in an annoying way, but definitely putting the most positive spin on cancer and chemo and surgery that you possibly can.)

Then we just slipped into the kind of dark humor our family's always had, but would be inappropriate with anybody else.

Her: "One good thing is I lost a lot of weight because everything tasted like old socks on the chemo."
Me: "It's considered cheating when your weight loss comes from actually cutting off part of your body."
Her: "Bwah!"

But the best part was that I put her on the phone with Matilda. Now Judy hasn't seen Matilda since Judy flew out for Matilda's christening. And they started talking and it went on for more than 40 minutes of easy laughter.

She declared Matilda "adorable."

Aw, that's awesome David -- the part with talking and Matilda, that is.

That is quite delightful to hear, David.