Now, I’m a pretty smart person, and fairly good with using words, wouldn’t you say?

So, why is it that I cannot come close to finishing a cryptic crossword, even with cheating??? (More about how to cheat on cryptic crosswords later this week. However, don’t lie awake waiting for that update even if you’re as obsessed as I am, because I’m here to tell you that cheaters don’t prosper. Sigh).

I have just spent an entire evening solving perhaps 12 clues total in the past two weeks of Globe and Mail cryptics. You can see the results of my hair-ripping here:

Kidding, actually. Instead, I just had a visit to Telly the Barber (my new favourite – I only have to go once every six months!). I gave up on hairstylists a long time ago (and wouldn’t you, if you had ridiculously fine and ridiculously curly hair?)

Instead, I just go to the barber and say “Cut it off – cut it all off.” And, as you can see from the newly-short photo above, even this doesn’t get rid of the stubborn curl. I blame my parents, really… given that this is how I came into the world:

See that piece of hair sticking up? I was doomed from the womb, really. And by the way, all of you straight-haired gods and goddesses out there who say “I wish I had curly hair…”??? No, you don’t.  You are far, far better off with that straight floppy/glossy/wonderful hair than with little errant bits going all over the place.  I have tried every overpriced hair product known to personkind and also some way too high-priced hairdressers to help me with my little problem… to no avail.

Which is why I now just go once every six months – whether I need it or not – to the barber and say “cut it all off”.  He (because I have yet to meet a female barber, or indeed a male barber without a heavy and familiar access) always says “are you sure/what are you doing here/etc.”.  In fact today I was wearing my pink puffy coat when I hit the barber shop and they tried to pass me over because they assumed I was waiting for my boyfriend!

The other thing I like about going to the barber: I don’t have to engage in idle chit-chat.  20 minutes in and out of the chair… we pass some pleasantries, but I don’t need to be freaked out about “abandoning” the barber if I decide to go to another barber the next time.  This contrasts with what I have heard from some friends about not liking their hairdresser anymore, but not wanting to “betray” the hairdresser by going elsewhere.  It’s a haircut, not a relationship!

Well, enough about my new ‘do.  I may bore you with it again in weeks to come because, for the first time in many, many years, my hair is now its full natural colour.  This is not a problem from the front, but there is some weird patchy grey activity at the back.  I don’t mind going grey – I just would have liked it to be that nice salt-and-pepper look.  It isn’t.  It’s actually a “sick, tired and undernourished skunk” look.  So, it will be disappearing as soon as I get my act together and spend an hour to stick that $10 L’Oreal haircolour kit onto my head.

So, now that I’ve bored you completely, let me prove to you that I am still, in fact, knitting.  I’ve almost completed a sweater by Norah Gaughan:

I know, I know – it doesn’t look like much right now. I am convinced that it will look completely fabulous once it is done – although I am suffering the dreaded “second sleeve syndrome” right now. I am actually enjoying working on this but just about the time I was ready to start the second sleeve I managed to burn my right index finger while making sponge toffee for JJ. This put paid to knitting for a week or so. I’m hoping that the sweater will be done while I can still wear it this season… please send me guid vibes!

More later regarding my cryptic dilemmas.  For now, if you want to see how I entertain myself during the Canadian winter, go to this website: http://wordsmith.org/anagram/advanced.html, put your name in and see what anagrams you come up with.  I figure that one of mine will be the title for my autobiography when I ever get around to writing it.Heh heh.

Cheers,

Kristina