Hows my little scent?

One day when Laura and I first started shopping together I asked if she wanted to run to the store and get some shampoo. She must have thought it would be a quick trip and agreed. After she watched me sniff nearly every bottle of shampoo and shampoo + conditioner she nearly lost it and she's never stood in the shampoo isle with me since then. Ten minutes later we left with my chosen "product" in hand.

Fast forward to recently. Have you ever wondered, if you were a super sniffer and were quite sensitive to the aromas of the world, could you imagine the cacophony of smells every individual reeks of?

On a typical Day I leave for work smelling like:
Fruit Extract, Glacial Water, Deep Sea Mint, Menthol, Fragrace Free (Yet a very nice perfume smell), Wilderness, Open Air, Freedom, Sunflower Oil, Chamomile, Cocoa, Radiant Mint, Iceberg Mint, Jojoba, Fresh Scent, and Outdoor Fresh

Think of all the things you put on your body that smell:
Shampoo
Conditioner
Face Wash
Soap/Body Wash
Shaving Cream
-After Shave
Deodorant
Toothpaste
Mouthwash
Hand Soap
Lotion
Clothing
-Laundry Detergent
-Dryer Sheet
Hair Products
-Hairspray, Mouse, Gel, Ect...
Cologne/Perfume

If you're going outdoors, throw some sunscreen, bug spray, and Aloe on your person for good measure, and its no wonder people attract mosquitoes.

What about those unscented people? You can't tell me they are little slices of scentless heaven, because in a world of Fabuloso, Pledge, Dish Soap, Bleach, Sweat, Ammonia, Dirty Dish Rags, Pets, Gasoline, 24D, Mineral Oil, Scotch Guard, Candles and Incense there are scents you just cant avoid absorbing. This of course leaving out any food smells you might be leaking (beans, asparagus, garlic, rum, old person, ect.) Not to mention there really might only be one truly fragrance free product out there and at this point its probably not worth it. Plus think about it, look at the ingredient list of an unscented product, there is no way that the factory they make it in smells only like B.O. Grease, oil, and Concrete. No those places reek of 20 different chemicals, one of them being a fragrance or another chemical to dull the other odors. Its a bunch of crap if you ask me.

So my question is, where is the company marketing the all in one? The company that has several choices of different scent lines that include everything on my list and more all in one package. Has it been done? Do people really enjoy all of the different smells they apply on themselves and thus stink of? I guarantee there is no one out there who matches their perfume with their mousse and maybe its about time to consider it.

Of course a product like that will never work in this world of more, how could a slogan "smell like just one thing" work.

Hows my little construction?

For the last few weeks the little free time I've had has been spent building a new trellis for our garden. Anytime I build something I can generally guarantee myself that it will never end up like I planned. This was no exception.

It started simple enough, I wanted a new trellis for the garden since I ended up burning what was left of the one I poorly lashed together with Bamboo and crappy string last fall. We also have a neighbor that has a lot of crap hanging out around the outside of his garage often so it would double as a small screen to that.

My first mistake was after I bought all the wood I realized I had too much so I thought, well heck, I'm going to make it bigger! After I had it all constructed I realized I was one piece short.

The trellis is comprised of 5ish inch squares (with the exception of that one row of rectangles, how did that happen!?). Each piece is notched to fit together like Lincoln logs (only poorly instead of nicely). Since I'm terrible at getting mathematics to work for me in the real world I avoided using them at all costs, and it shows. After a large amount of hammering, glue, and screws everything pretty much fit together. And this is a sturdy beast. I've now vowed to get a nice large straight edge ruler/square before my next project.

The best part was when I showed my hard work off my Dad he goes, "This is held together with nails!?"
I said, "Yeah! They are smaller and look nicer."
"Then, why do some parts have screws."
"Oh, well those were problem areas."

We pretty much then realized I didn't buy anything suitable for outdoor use. So if the stain/varnish doesn't flake I'll be happy, and all of the screws and nails will probably rust in a few more days of this humidity. But I maintained, this is for the garden, its supposed to look a little rough, hence my less than ideal craftsmanship.

I also learned I should have stained everything before I put it together, I probably would have saved at least 3 hours of staining time, and I might have actually put on the 3 coat minimum it looks like it needs. Whatever, its for the garden, it's supposed to look rough.

As you can tell, I'm very proud of this piece of work, it looks like if I had built it on time the beans would have actually grown up it this year. Instead we are going to have a sad bean crop since we lost so much to the bean-rabbit fence separating session. But it does make a nice looking wall hanging out in the middle of our yard.



Since I haven't mentioned this years garden contents yet I'll fill ya in: Tomatoes Sweet Corn, Green Peppers, Habaneros, Chilli Peppers, Pole Beans, Red Cabbage, Brussel Sprouts, Red Potatoes, Lettuce, Carrots, and Sweet Potatoes.

Hows my little Friday?

Today is my Friday.

Yep. In fact it is Friday July the 15th. All day it will be Friday, and the 15th. But this week on Tuesday of all days a complete stranger told me as she was ringing up my foam brushes it was her Friday.

Who the fuck does she think she is!!? Julius Cesar? No, she was a clerk at Menards, not a commander of the largest standing army in the world. She was in no position to change our tried and tested Gregorian calendar.

So what?
Well folks, everyone gets days off (if they work). Some people get two days in a row, others get more and fewer, and Friday always happens after Thursday. As far as I'm concerned my Friday happens right before your Saturday. So let it be known world, your Friday is mine too, don't tell people its your Friday just because you are about to get days off in the middle of the week.

In order to prevent further outrage I have prepared a few statements you could use to replace "Today is my Friday":

I'm not working the next couple of days!

I am glad to have some time off tomorrow.

Today I'm doing well, I have a couple of days off starting tomorrow.

My work week ends at a different day than a traditional worker and thus my week ends on strange days such as Wednesday, and sometimes even on Sundays! This is exciting to me because I can get a babysitter tonight and get drunk with my friends and sleep in tomorrow. So it will seem like the Saturdays I remember when I was in school! Really though it will be Thursday and I'll have to come back to work on Saturday.

Hows my little Northern Getaway?

This was a phenomenal long weekend.

Laura and I spent our time in the Washburn area. Taking a couple of extra days off made the 9+ hour drive entirely worth it. We have made it a habit recently to spend almost as much time in our car driving to and from our destination as we do awake at our destination.

The excuse to get away came in the form of a wedding for one of Laura's old high school pals Aubrey. The wedding was great, the ceremony was short and sweet, and the reception had great food and an open bar. Their family made hundreds of different cupcakes which were all quite tasty. Best of all the weather cooperated wonderfully.

The next morning we woke up and we drove into Bayfield to enjoy breakfast on a great recommendation at EggToss with pals Matt and Ashley. After that we hopped into the Davis family boat and zipped all around Lake Superior for a tour of the Apostle Islands. We got a bit of swimming and Frisbee time in as well. Since I'm the worst person to take to the beach if you want peace I decided to keep myself busy with a sculpture project so that everyone else could relax on the sand.











The next day was more of the first! Only today we added some water skiing and wakeboarding to the mix. I just barely fit into Scott's wetsuit and was happy about it because the water was pretty frigid in places. I'm happy to say I didn't forget how to drop a ski and live.



Laura also impressed me with her hidden wakeboarding skills.





We spent the rest of the afternoon frolicking around the beach and in the surprisingly warm water with sunburns aplenty.





That night we headed over to Bayfield to watch the fireworks and I think I can say that the display we saw was one of the best ones I've ever seen.

We woke up on our final morning stiff and sore from the previous day's activities and hopped into the car to twist all of that stiffness into a slow almost ten hour lower back torture session. I'm still a bit sore as of this posting and I'm blaming the car ride home.. I hadn't really recovered from my Vegas shenanigans and the marathon so this weekend was just what the doctor ordered. Mind, Body, and Soul revitalized.