Welcome to my new post category, “Good Pintentions”! I’ll do my best to weed out the good, the bad, and the ugly among ideas I’ve found via Pinterest and tried for myself.

First up is this Pin describing how coconut oil will make your hair soft, smooth, and shiny. (It also claims it will make your hair grow faster, but I’m not sure anything is scientifically proven to help there.)

This was one of the first Pins I tried, since I’ve been having a hell of a time with my hair falling out and becoming more brittle since I hit my 30s. I’ve tried all kinds of crap to try to strengthen it and tame the frizzy broken strands that have minds of their own. We’re talking vitamin supplements, shampoos, conditioners, serums, laminators — seriously, lots and lots of attempts with little or nothing to show for them.

I ordered myself a 16-ounce jar of organic coconut oil on Amazon and waited to give this latest gimmick a shot.

You know what? It does help — but you have to work for it.

To start with, coconut oil is generally firm when stored at room temperature, but if it gets much over 75ºF — for instance, when it comes in contact with your skin — it liquefies. It can be an adventure to scoop up a bit with your fingertips and get it onto your hair and scalp before it slides right off your hand and onto your clothes or the carpet. It’s a fairly thin oil, though, and can be cleaned up easily enough with a little soap and water, but I recommend losing your shirt before cracking open that jar.

The oil, once liquefied, spreads through your hair fairly easily, although you will need to specifically aim for your scalp and the ends of your hair with additional daubs. I have really long hair (not as long as the girl in the photo, but past mid-back), so it takes me 20-30 minutes to do my entire head. I do it in sections, starting with the bottommost partition that goes around my head at about earlobe-height. I work my way up to the top of my head, going through 3 or 4 more horizontal sections, one at a time, keeping the hair I haven’t dealt with yet pinned in a loose twist at the crown.

Once I’ve gotten everything oiled up, Peter usually walks in and cracks a joke about how badly I need a shower since my hair is an oily mess. It’s funny every time. :p

Since it takes me so long to get the mask finished, I usually only sit around with it on for 10 or 15 minutes before I shower. The oil washes out with just one shampoo and rinse, and then I condition and rinse again as normal.

Because it’s such a production, I don’t do it as frequently as I probably should. I’ve been slacking for the last week or so, and I can definitely tell the difference in my hair since I last used the mask — the frizz is back and the shine has dulled.

The final verdict?

   Go for it!   

Wow, it’s been a while. A loooong while. Here I am, though, ready to get back into the swing of things!

I’ve been hooked on Pinterest lately (check the handy widget to the right), so I decided it was high time that I started documenting my results with projects or ideas I found there. I’ve tried quite a few things so far, with widely varying results. Stay tuned for some (hopefully) interesting reading!

The road to Hell is paved with — wait for it — Good Pintentions.

I’ve added color-coding to the Tradeskill Apprentice Recipes PDF download. Click below for the updated file! (Check out the release notes on the downloads page for a changelog.)

[ddownload id=1210]

Peter came home from the hospital on Thursday, and he’s resting as comfortably as he can, considering the circumstances. He was on a liquid-only diet for a couple days, and now he’s moving on to more substantial foods like chicken noodle soup and peanut butter & banana sammiches. 🙂

He wanted to try to go back to work on Monday, but we’re not sure that’s going to happen. He’s still got quite a bit of digestive distress, and his energy level is pretty low. He has to sit back down after being on his feet for only a couple minutes. He’s fretting about still feeling poorly and not being able to handle any sustained physical activity (like walking the dog), but then I fuss at him and tell him the only thing he has to worry about is resting and GETTING BETTER.

He’s going to see his PCM in a week or two for a follow-up, and he’s already got his colonoscopy appointment made. (They want to make sure it’s “just” diverticulitis and not something else.) Of course, he’ll be fretting about that as it gets closer…

Thanks to everyone for their happy thoughts…I have no doubt that they helped.

Note: This post contains medical stuff. If descriptions of symptoms or illnesses freak you out, I won’t mind if you stop reading now. 🙂

For the last week or so, Peter has been pretty sick with some abdominal/digestive issues. It would seem to get better, then get worse again, then better…but through it all, he was really miserable. This morning he woke me up at about 4:00am by collapsing onto the bed and groaning in agony, so it was pretty obvious that something was badly wrong.

I got out of bed and went to stand over him, and I swear, for a few seconds, I thought he was dead. Like, really, actually dead. His eyes were wide open, his lips were parted, and he was frozen — not moving, blinking, or even breathing. It scared the living shit out of me. Then he gasped, and I heaved the biggest internal sigh of relief in history, but when I bent down to feel his head (since he’d been running a fever off and on), he was cold and clammy.

Yep, time for a trip to the ER — or, as I like to call it, my vacation home.

He hemmed and hawed, but I got him into the car, and we made it to the hospital without incident. It had apparently been a slow night, and we got right into Triage and then back into one of the few actual rooms in the department.The on-duty doctor examined him, and because of the location and intensity of Peter’s pain, warned him that it might be one of several things, including appendicitis and diverticulitis.

They got him on a saline drip and brought in some contrast dye mixed into Crystal Light lemonade. By the look on Peter’s face, the “new and improved” flavoring method was less than ideal. He did get his first ever Morphine dose, though, and that was kinda fun to watch. 😉

After a couple of hours, he’s taken back for a CT scan. An hour or two after that, a doctor finally comes in and tells him that he indeed has diverticulitis, but that it’s apparently “perforated,” leaking air (and possibly infection) outside the colon. He’s put on various IV drips (including hefty antibiotics) and told to “rest” his colon — which means no food OR drink for at least 24 hours. A hospital stay is required, since we can’t do IV drips at home, and the first estimate we’re given is for a 24-hour stay.

At this point I have to come home to walk the dog, since it’s about 9:30am, and we don’t want her to explode. I gather up a few things to bring back to Peter (comfy clothes, iPad, chargers, earbuds, toothbrush, etc.), drive those over to him in the ER, and head back home for some much-needed sleep. Of course, by the time I’ve caught up with everything at my desk and have taken care of the critters (and myself), it’s noon. Thankfully, Lola was as tired as I was and we slept until about 4:00pm.

Up again, walked the monster again, then gather up a couple other things I though of and make another trip to the hospital. After I left him this morning, they moved him up to a room, which was nice…you don’t want to spend any more time in an ER than you have to. It’s just a miserable, uncomfortable place, no matter how awesome the staff are. I sat with him for a while, which was nice (well, y’know, as nice as sitting with someone in a hospital can be).

Another on-duty doctor came in to check on him and explain things a bit more while I was there, and she said that he’s looking at a 2- or 3-day stay, at least, to make sure the infection and inflammation are under control and that he doesn’t require surgery. She said that in a worst-case scenario, they would have to remove the affected portion of his colon, but depending on how he does on the IV medications, he might be ok with at-home medications, regular colonoscopies, and a diet change.

He’s still pretty uncomfortable, even with the occasional Morphine, although that does help him relax and rest a bit. I’m worried, of course, and Lola is just unsure about the whole thing and wondering where her Papa is. We decided that if I had to, I could smuggle a guinea pig in, but I think they’d notice if I tried to sneak a dog past the nurses. 🙂

I’ll keep everyone updated here when I can, but I’m posting updates on my Twitter feed as well. Please keep sending Peter your healing thoughts and positive vibes! We both appreciate them so much. <3