One of my Inspirations!

I found a picture I took (above), like a decade ago, with one of my favorite singers - Goapele. I look crazy in the picture - so bright... lol. And my smile was crazy huge. I think I was just excited. But I don't like this picture of me at all. But because I am a huge fan of this singer... I will post it.

Although she was a huge inspiration for my loc's (she use to have gorgeous loc's), Goapele now sports a cute braided style . She was one my biggest influences and sources of encouragement when I first started to loc my hair. She was very versatile, and would wear her hair in all kind of different loc styles. I read an article where she was asked how she comes up with all these different looks, and she said that she looks at pictures from all different cultures. If she likes a style, she just tries to recreate it with her own locs. I thought that was cool. And even today, so remains to be an inspiration with her new natural look and her soulful music.

Gio's Post

Since the last THREE blog posts have been all about Romeo, I am dedicating this whole post to Gio. Only Gio. I won't even mention that Romeo nailed ALL his contacts at agility practice today, including the teeter! Nope, not going to mention that at all, just talk about Gio.

First, an little epilepsy update. This past week we saw a recurrence of the S-monster. Gio had another seizure on Tuesday evening, nearly 2 months to the day since his last seizure. It was a grand mal, but short in duration and he recovered fairly quickly. Even though the seizures have lately been coming in clusters, this was a singleton with no more since then. So maybe my new routine of double dosing him on phenobarb after the first seizure is paying off! He went to the vet on Friday for his routine bloodwork consisting of a chemistry panel, CBC and phenobarbital level check. I don't anticipate anything to be wrong, just a regular check that we do every 4 months or so. We'll get the results back early next week.

Anyways, on to happier news! Down but never out, Gio and I went tracking this afternoon. He is doing really REALLY well on his corners. He was having trouble with them for a while, lacking confidence in deciding which way to go, and then getting frustrated and giving up. We got some tips a couple of months back at a tracking seminar we attended here in town, and they have really been paying off! By rubbing a little bit of food on the sole of my shoes at each corner and then dropping a couple of treats about 5 steps after the corner, it is enough motivation for him to keep trying. I could really see the difference in how he was working today. He would cast out at each corner to figure out which way to turn, and his confidence when he found the correct direction was tangible! I really like that he is willing to cast around when he is less than 100% certain, but quickly runs back to the correct track once he has made up his mind. He's a very thorough worker, that is for sure!

Here are the two tracks we worked today.


I have a horrible sense of distance, so I have no clue how long each track was. Each track had 3 corners and the straight portions were between 30 and 50 steps, "steps" being normal brisk walking steps of a 5'5" person. We aren't really working on aging the tracks yet, just getting his confidence up and increasing the distance. So the tracks were only about 5 minutes old. Gio clearly wants to keep going at the end of the track, often continuing to follow my return path after the final food drop, so I will increase the distance substantially next time. Then work on aging.

Again, these tracks were both laid in a busy park, between two baseball diamonds that are shared play fields for two near by elementary schools. I really like using public fields like this, one because the grass is kept at a really nice length, and two because there is so much "background" scent that it really helps Gio learn to pick out one scent and follow it while ignoring the rest. I'm hoping this will come in handy down the line if we ever get around to trialing. The TD test is done in rural areas without much background contamination (other than wildlife tracks), but the urban tests are all done in public areas like this. I haven't yet laid a track over any other ground covering but grass, but I think next time we go out I will try crossing over the paths in the park to see how he handles brief bits of concrete or gravel.

Here is a video of Gio's second track. Sorry for the "Blair Witch" style, but it's a little hard to keep the camera steady while trotting after a dog on a mission, slapping mosquitos, and trying to pick up all those darned stakes!

Sunday, I'm exhausted!

I'm so tired. What an exhausting week. Last weekend was Napa/Sausalito, then my daughter flew in from Vegas on Tuesday. She was a model in the Paul Mitchell hair show thingy. We treated her to some fine dining, California style. She had a great time in San Francisco. I missed her so much, and I really enjoyed having her here. We had a good time talking "hair". She just finished Paul Mitchell's program, but has yet to take her state boards. I know she'll pass with flying colors. I'm so proud of her. A love of doing hair runs deep in our family. My grandmother was a licensed cosmetologist, my sister is great with hair, then my daughter, and now me. I still won't be able to enroll into the Cosmetology program at SJCC until Fall 2010 because they have a year long wait list. That will give me time to get some things done and in order, and hopefully get a real job to pay for the schooling. I digress.

I like to do most of my hair research on Sunday (as well as work on my novel). I ended up on some hair growth threads on the BHM. Here is an excellent compilation of threads in one:
Topic: 101 Thread
Please take the time to read it. It's so informative. Kudos to the women on the board that find and contribute the info. They're amazing. I like the one on using Miconazole Nitrate... that's Monistat for those who are wondering. I was really surprised at that. I was looking for some Neosporin AF and came across the little tubes of the Monistat cream that come with the kit. I would toss those in my nightstand drawer never thinking I would use them. Lo and behold! I whipped a little tube out and slathered it all along my hairline... I'm still pissed at my daughter for saying my hairline looks like Wayne Brady's... back on topic. I will use this after every hair wash and see what happens. It's supposed to make your hair grow. I'm so obsessed with growing my hair out curly. I've stopped saying natural because I love textlaxing. I've resumed taking my One-A-Day vitamins. I want to go by GNC some time next week and get either some Women's Hair, Skin & Nails Formula, Women's Ultra Nourishair vitamins, or Women's Ultra Mega Multivitamins too.

I still haven't put on another unit. I washed the Virgin Mongolian, so she's on the wighead drying. I'm so scared to put the Virgin Malaysian Loose Curly back on. I'm debating on cutting off some of the Amina and cutting off the bald section of the VMLC off, then sewing the Amina part onto the VMLC. I'm heartbroken over the shedding. 2 bad wigs out of 10 is not bad enough to jump off the Rex ship. I want a Virgin Malaysian Natural Straight next, but it's going to be a long time before that dream is realized... a long time.

Because I can't keep my hands out of my hair, I parted it pie shaped wise, put MN in the parts, then I saturated it with EVOO (extra virgin olive oil), topped that off with the Herbal Essence Hello Hydration, and saran wrapped it, then capped that off with a tan wigcap. I may sleep on this and wash it out tomorrow. Back to the research.

Miso soup.

I suppose I don't dislike all Japanese food after all... I made this wonderfully delicious miso soup yesterday - which I modified and changed a little from the original recipe, and it turned out great. It's really such an easy soup to make and extremely healthy. I think you should try it too, and here's how:






















(I hope you can understand my handwriting!)

jusstTRIBALonlyPROGRESSIVE.Blogspot__gokhan July CHART

jusstTRIBALonlyPROGRESSIVE.Blogspot__gokhan July CHART


1.Andy Notalez_Stranger Danger (Original Mix)

2.Edson Pride_Sexual Instinct (Karim Mika Tribal Mix)

3.Leland McVilliams_Shango (Tamer Fouda Full Chant Mix)

4.Jc Mazter_Kamikaze (Original Mix)

5.Glender_Kumpo Tribe (Original Mix)

6.Stereo Soldiers_Trashy (Jun Yagi Remix)

7.NanoWave_Moon Radio (Tamer Fouda Dark Dub Mix)

8.Engin Ozturk_Exchange The World (Original Mix)

9.Dj Alex F_On My Dance Floor (Tamer Fouda DanceFloor Approved Mix)

10.Karl Kage feat Katy Monohan_7 Nation Army (Gruvskiller Remix)


SOUNDACADEMY__gokhan

The Verdict Is Officially In!

The verdict is officially in for Ms. Lola's Cream Adhesive - it is the bomb! I just took my unit off last night, had to practically pry the adhesive/tape off my skin. I'm still using oil sheen and Ponds, but I had to also use baby oil, 91% alcohol, and a little pure acetone. The unit removed very easily though. Since MLCA was the very last two layers, I'm sure the oil sheen ate right through it. Now as for my unit, the poor thing is shedding so badly at the nape, that I'm going to have to put clips in it eventually (once I have enough hair to cover the lace demarcation line). My daughter, the hair professional, thinks that the bleach burned the knots. Whatever the problem, I'm never (real) bleaching again. Faux bleaching from now on.

I'm actually rocking my little curly 'fro right now. It feels so good. The shrinkage is considerable, but I love pulling on my little curls, reminesent of 2007. Don't know which unit I'm going to put on next. I'm leaning towards my Mongolian. I will get some cocoa brown Rit Dye this week and dye all my bleached caps.

Happy Birthday Romeo!

Today is little Romi-Pig's 3rd birthday! Officially a big boy now!

"Grandma" spoiled him with a squeaky squirrel (with lots of "hair", just like he likes 'em) and a basketball for the back yard. In addition to the X-pen, which was originally supposed to be a birthday present for the Romeo ... you just can't hold those grandmas back!

I also made up the boys' favorite Fishy Fudge training treats and we celebrated with my Rally-O class dogs this afternoon. I bought some birthday hats thinking that maybe, just MAYBE, if I acted pathetic enough, my students would humor me enough to pop a party hat on their dogs and let me take a couple of pictures. Turns out they were thrilled with the prospect, and the dogs seemed to really enjoy it as well!

Of course, no one enjoyed the hats like Sophie did. Sophie, a lovely (though somewhat energetic) Labrador Retriever, thought that her birthday hat was the best thing in the world and just had to show it off to everyone. She was quite proud of herself, actually.



Sophie's "brother", Spike, was slightly less thrilled, but humored us all and posed for a picture.


The Afghans, Weasel and Nola, won the fashion and style award with the hip and trendy bed-head bangs peeking from under the hats.



Edgar, a Standard Poodle, celebrated his birthday yesterday, so we had to get a picture of the two birthday boys together* (and Sophie just had to sneak in the background of the picture to show off her fancy hat some more).



Finally, little Gina the Miniature Poodle, was nearly lost in the hat. It was much to big for her, and she was convinced that it was too heavy as well. She's such a trooper!


Then, after a good run in the park, I wrangle the two Shelties together and convinced Gio to pose with Romeo. Though Gio kept trying to steal the spotlight by inching forward to block Romeo out completely.

"Well, what the heck am I supposed to do?! Romeo has been the subject of the past TWO blog posts without even slight mention of ME! What's a dog gotta do to get his handsome mug featured on this blog, eh?!"

Thanks everyone for being an accomplice to my psychosis! It totally made my day! And I would like to think that Romeo might have had a good time as well ... or maybe it was just the Fishy Fudge.

* This picture cracks me up! They both look so somber and serious!