meara, sorry you didn't get the amazing pink hair you deserve. I have no idea how to dye my own hair, so I hope I can find someone new who won't fuck it up when I have a chance to get mine colored again.

I think I can get the flu shot at my doctor's office, but they just want me to walk in during lab hours and won't let me schedule it, which I find aggravating. I need to go to the hardware store to replace the light bulbs in my kitchen, so perhaps I will pop in on the way and get that done today since I'm on call for jury service all next week.

I haven't been following a low carb diet, but I have been trying a lower carb diet rather than an all of the carbs diet. I definitely haven't been strict about it because I don't see much point in the endeavor if I can't maintain it long-term, but I've lost about 8-9 pounds so far.

Someone tell me to work.

Jesus Christ, I can't even get myself to work. Or, rather, I'm procrastinating on work with other work. I even disassembled the vacuum cleaner yesterday because I couldn't remember when I last cleaned the filters. And yet I'm still not working on 2022 business planning, probably because of the overwhelming feeling that I have no idea what I'm doing.

3rd shots of the COVID vaccine to immunocompromised people.

I'm going to stab Tim if his immunocompromised little self doesn't get a booster soon. (Speaking of not being able to force people to do things that are good for them.)

I am sluggishly working. Like a slug.

I haven't been following a low carb diet, but I have been trying a lower carb diet rather than an all of the carbs diet.

I need to do that for my IBS. Although I'm also 98% sure a big contributor to the 2+ months of GI unrest is new unfun lactose intolerance. I switched to lactose-free milk and 1/2 and 1/2 for my coffee and things have calmed down enormously. I'm going to cautiously re-introduce cheese and see what happens (apparently some cheeses aren't problematic for some people with lactose intolerance, but it sounds like a lot of trial and error is involved).

I mean, I did show a picture but the issue is more “some of the hair came out a little more hot pink than I wanted and some chunks are kind of pale peach”—not sure a picture will help, it was more inconsistency in the dyeing. If it was all one color but just not the color I wanted that would be different—like maybe I didn’t explain or maybe my hair didn’t want to be that color or whatever. And there was an issue with the bottom few inches not lightning like they should’ve—old dye—and if it had been that part was a different color, again, maybe skill but maybe just deal with it. But I have streaks of hot pink, streaks of pink pink, and streaks of peach. :(

Man, we've been working on 2022 business planning for a few months now and it continues to be Who-the-fuck-knows? as far as I'm concerned. We barely know what's happening now and have our fingers crossed to get through the rest of 2021 without huge surprises. Probably 2022 will be different, but how exactly? People have opinions but they are just making shit up.

Have you tried that lactaid stuff, Tep? I know some people swear by it. My dairy issues are some other thing so I have no personal experience.

Man, I feel very lucky that I got excellent color when I just picked a salon down the street and took whatever stylist was available and told her I wanted a streak of blue and I trusted her to make it look good. Not nearly as expensive, either, but if I was doing my full head it might have been. I don't know what you should do, meara - if she can make it better that would be great, and you are only out time (which is aggravating) but it sounds like you have some concerns that she could in fact make it worse? So I don't know.

It might be worth the time to go back and explain the issues. For that price tag you should get what you wanted. You are paying for hair coloring expertise and they should provide it.

Argh, our "casual meet & greet" with Sales next Tuesday has gone from being lunch with additional meeting before hand to us needing to be there at 8:15am to sit through the whole morning session. Doable, but aggravating, not least because now I'll have to make the drive during rush hour (I have no idea what rush hour is like these days, but probably not nonexistent) after my usual Tuesday 6am work start because the stuff I do then will still need to be done. Bah.

Also, casually blocking out 5 hours of my time for their convenience with just a couple days notice is just intrinsically annoying but that is how Sales is, to a large degree. I would say "Men! and their Sales!" at this point but it's all women in leadership roles over there now.

Have you tried that lactaid stuff, Tep? I know some people swear by it.

This is my first week trying the lactose-free milk, but I'm going to get some Lactaid at the store this weekend and see how well it works.

we've been working on 2022 business planning for a few months now and it continues to be Who-the-fuck-knows?

I am so glad I work in eBooks and not in the part of the publishing industry that needs the paper product supply chain to...exist.

My advice for Lactaid is take one with the first bite of dairy food and then another one halfway through the meal (and maybe a third at the end if it's something like mac & cheese or ice cream). I keep a giant bottle on my kitchen table and sheets of the single-serve pills in my purse, in my car, in my desk drawer at work...