Finally I went to a dermatologist and she said there was probably nothing medical science could do for me - I should go to a beauty parlor that specialized in nails and get a "silk wrap".
Had I been female, I'll bet I would have known that answer or something like it 20 years ago.
Being male didn't keep me from going into the female-centric nails place - I've done a lot of theater and have bought and done my own stage makeup since I was 16 so hanging out in the women's cosmetics departments doesn't faze me.
Turns out nobody around here does a silk wrap correctly, so it turned out to only be a step in the right direction. After a week the coating would start to crack and peel, because it was just multiple layers of superglue holding a thin piece of silk (actually it looked more like a synthetic) with a thin coating of acrylic, also dissolved in superglue.
After varying levels of failures with three different nail places, Capri Spa suggested gel would be a better idea. And it has been. Gel is an epoxy which cures to a hard, clear finish under a UV lamp. It's similar to what dentists use for fillings these days. It dries clear, and looks natural. And it's hard and waterproof and lasts two weeks on my hands. It would last longer if I didn't mess with hardware all the time.
If it had not worked, I would have asked them to do a real silk wrap - using real silk (I happen to have a yard of it) and the gel instead of superglue. The silk would reinforce the gel, and help bind it to my nails. Same idea as steel reinforced concrete, only more attractive and much more shiny.
In other fashion news, I picked up my silk shirts and pants from the cleaners. She scolded me - told me she had to go over every inch with a lint roller to get the cat hair off. She suggested I get a black cat so it doesn't show on the dark blue clothes.
I also dropped off my Mexican leather jacket for cleaning and a new zipper. It's going to take 2 weeks and cost $100 or more. But there's no such thing as a heavy leather jacket like that one for less than $300. And I've only had it for about 10 years.
- Deep Feelings::
pleased - Musika::Sam Neely -Loving You Has Just Crossed My Mind
Quiet day at work, finished the first pass of a giant spreadsheet project and went to the lab to try checking bit rates on HDTV videos. That's one of those "set it up & wait" projects so I read some LJ postings in the gaps. It promises to be busier at work next year.
Home, made some pigs 'n' blankets for ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
farmount's party, baked some apple turnovers because I keep forgetting I need to lose weight, and watched the Maryland Sprets coast to a win over some utterly forgettable team with P on their helmets. The rest of the helmet is golden, which makes one think the P stands for "showers". That was the Champs Bowl. On what is normally the NFL replay station, they were showing a truly amazing Insight Bowl game between the Golden Gophers and the Red Raiders. When I tuned in, Minnesota was 31 points ahead of Texas Tech, it was the second half, and Texas came back to tie the game, and won it in overtime. I understand the Oregon Beavers did the same thing in the Sun Bowl the other day.
Watched a DVD on Muhammad, did the laundry, played with the cats.
Tomorrow:
No real plans. scendan, you up for a visit?
May go to Thai Silks in Los Altos to see if they have any material I want. I'm especially interested in something to do my own silk wrap nails, now that I have seen it done enough. And I like silk, and maybe I'll get to flirt in Thai.
May go to a party at the BASFA treasurer's house in Fremont, depends on how the day goes.
I think I'll put my laundry away. Pumpkin will be miffed at my disturbing his nesting.
So I did. This is the kind of place I have been looking for. The nice lady looked at my hands and said the reason the wraps had not been working is my nails are too short, they need something to wrap around. But they gave me a manicure and filled and wrapped the one split nail for a bargain price.
On to Marilyn's where a couple fo SC Players were there helping her garage sale. She said she sold a lot of stuff, but there was a lot more left, and none of the furniture sold. Another of my Play On! cast showed up, and we stayed till there was a sudden wind and drop in temps, and I helped fold everything up and load up Marilyn's car for Goodwill, which is about 4 blocks away.
I took off for home, then went to OSH for picture hanging hardware and downtown for some half-price 2007 calendars. Ate dinner at King of Krung Siam, which just re-opened after a fire which demolished the kitchens. I don't think the food is as good as A marin next door, but I like the staff and service better.
Home, hung my old calendars (I have not had any up since moving, so had not seen the December pictures). Played with Goldwave trying to get the buzz out of the Naughty Marietta sound track, to no avail. Decided to capture with a different program, which gave me clean audio but poorer video. I'll settle for that. Started making DVD chapters, will do more tomorrow.
Tomorrow I'll head out for Livermore, and if there's no message from
scendan I'll park myself in the downtown Starbucks and play on the computer for a while.Afternoon plans are to hang my posters and Thai temple rubbings, take out the garbage, maybe Target for kitty litter, finish Naughty Marietta DVD.
It was a good day. Lots done at work and at the apartment. I'm not getting thrown to the wolves at work as fast as expected because another group which shares responsibility for the lab was doing a major overhaul today, so I needed to stay out from underfoot in my office. Ironically, today they set my key card to allow access to the lab.
But it gave me time to sit down with one of the gurus and learn how to configure one of the boxes we use for testing live TV channel feeds. Tiny box has a small version of Linux installed in it. Sprayed silicon lube all over my chair, but it remained the Terrance and Philip Memorial Chair, so I donated it to the lab and acquired a quieter one from an empty office. Also started reading the manual for another video analyzer, because boss says it's chock full of clues on the innards of a video stream. Unfortunately they buried the good stuff 4 chapters in, so I was just getting to it when it was time to go home.
Instead of lunch I went and had my nails re-done. The acrylic did more damage than protection, and the nice lady gave me a double silk wrap to make up for it. Took more than an hour.
Back at the apartment I turned on the football game on HD, but didn't watch much of it. Got a lot of screwdriver and hammer stuff done instead:
- Installed the cat door on the balcony sliding door
- Domino figured it out right away. Pumpkin got outside but needed help finding the door back inside.
- Put my NOLA bead art up in the livingroom
- Hung the white board by the front door
- Hung the medicine cabinet in the bathroom
- Assembled a clothes rack for my T-shirts and set that up in the bedroom
- Broke down several boxes after consolidating their contents
- Put away the laundry soap and associated jugs of stuff
- The movers had not tightened or taped the caps, so there was some spilled soap and softener liquid
- Caught up on 3 days' LJ reading
- Looked up my piano serial number online, it said 1901-1910 was the manufacture date range.
- That doesn't jibe with the last time I looked it up (1896), and it also is too wide a date range considering the serial number is only 4765 - the Schiller company did not crank out so many pianos as to have that much spread.
Plans for tomorrow: Work, and more unpacking boxes, unless I decide to go see the show at Pear Ave Theater instead.
- Deep Feelings::
accomplished - Musika::Cat Door
- Deep Feelings::Silky
Definitely the highlight of my day was having my fingernails silk wrapped. It took about 40 minutes at a nail care parlor I had passed by many times next to my favorite Pet Club.
I phoned at 10:30 asking for an 11:30 appointment, but they were booked till 3:30, which is when I went. The nail tech was a Vietnamese woman about my age, and she really knew what she was doing. It was fun to watch. It was also fun to be between two very pretty young blonde clients for most of that time.
( For those of you who want the hairy details )
I was out of there by 4:15. All this cost a grand total of $30, and I am to return in 2 weeks for a touch-up, for $20. I was expecting to pay maybe $45-50. The best news is from 3 feet away they look the same, very natural. But up close there are no surface ridges or splits to get caught on things, and the nails feel protected.
The other highlight of the day was lunch with She Who Must Not Be Named, who tells me the old place is falling apart. I got to introduce her to Shoreline Park and Lakeside Cafe, and show her where SF Bay was (she's new to this part of the geography).
Went to see the #1 choice apartment complex, they have nothing all next month. Foo. Visited one new place, they have two available but they are small and have 2 full bathrooms, which I don't want because it steals space. But it's a good location and very nice facilities, so it is down on my list. I have about 6 places to look at Saturday.
Tomorrow 9am pick up package at apartment office, then at 10 start new job in Santa Clara. See Gilligan's Island - The Musical.
So...
Have a lunch date with one of my Kasenna friends, and an appointment late afternoon to get my nails silk wrapped as the dermatologist suggested. Since it's the 25th, which is a month from my target date for moving, I will do some apartment hunting. I am hoping all I have to do is go back to my #1 choice and they will have a ground floor 2 BR available in the right time frame. But no problems if not, there are lots of places in my price range on CraigsList.
Next step is looking for a moving company which will handle the piano. The last two moves they lied.
This morning's culinary project was mashing the crispy fried onions and scrambled eggbeaters into the chopped liver. It tastes yummy. Yes, I licked the bowl. But the way chopped liver looks, it reminded me of this sick joke:
Child: "Mommy, mommy, may I lick the bowl?"
( Mommy: )
My Gateway recovery disc still has not shown up. Boo, hiss. Maybe tonight. Vista cooperated with me yesterday at Starbucks, so it has gone from crisis to annoyance. I will definitely not be moving to Vista until long after it is out and there are a full set of drivers. SP1, maybe.
- Deep Feelings::
optimistic
After the burger, I ordered a mud pie. They were out. How about the apple cheesecake special on the menu insert? They're out. In fact, they are out of all deserts except ice cream and apple cobbler. No thanks.
Much eye candy both customers and wait staff there.
Took myself back to the streets, and while passing a boutique saw a whole widow full of lacy thongs mounted on big rings about the size of dinner plates. "Do you have those in pink?" I asked. "What shade?" they answered. In I went, and bought myself exactly the lacy pink thong I had in mind for
farmount's party. They even gift wrapped it for free. Back to the car by way of Sousa's ice cream, but there was too long a line and only one server. Tried the other ice cream place, but a couple was blocking the door arguing about what flavor they wanted. Hiked back to the car and drove toward home, pulled off at Stevens Creek exit and had a mocha at Coffee Society. I had not been there in a while. Fired up the laptop, and Vista blue-screened. Hard. I did a system restore and fixed it, but what had crashed it was the last Windows Update. One more reason to wipe it and put Media Center back on.
Vista is very finicky about internet connections, it never can remember how to get to the open internet after it has made an initial connection to a wireless hot spot. Which means it won't show the sign-in web page usually required for those. Frankly, I see no improvements and lots of Bad Design.
While at the coffee shop, the parental units phoned. Mom's bored because Dad won't take her anywhere, but when I ask where, she says they can't go anyway because it's too much of a hassle to bring all their medical stuff along. Dad fell and hurt his elbow, sounds to me like a chipped bone in there but he said the x-rays were negative. He'll have them look at it again tomorrow.
Couldn't get Vista to connect to the coffee shop's net, so after I finished my mocha I left, thinking it was about time for Sunday Nite football. Should have stayed, lots of pretty women there. I didn't know they had a bye week for SNF - John Madden was at Oakland stadium this morning getting his hall of fame ring, so no evening show.
Not much on for tomorrow. Morning dermatology appointment to find out why my nails keep splitting. Petco to use their 10% coupon for cat food. I should take advantage of being unemployed and go somewhere.
