New ways to deal with stuff

[pensnest]

Yesterday, I cut Beast's hair. I've been doing FIL's for three years now, but FIL just wants a 1mm buzz all over, which is easy as he has the requisite equipment. Beast has a magnificent head of thick, wiry hair and I was a bit intimidated, but used FIL's clipper at 8mm all over, and the result is surprisingly pleasing. Next time I shall use a shorter buffer for the little curls around the nape of his neck. I am not, however, letting him loose on my meagre hair, not unless it gets desperate.

Sadly, there is zero chance that the cats would accept similar attentions, though their gloriously fluffy tummies and butts could do with a summer pruning. The Princess would turn herself inside out to escape, and Sable would flee.

*

I spent much of the rest of yesterday making an Easter Egg Hunt for my offspring. We've done one every year since they were very small, a tradition that came from Beast's Belgian mother originally, and has morphed into a mighty and challenging Thing in recent years. My children are in their thirties, so I have to be fiendishly cunning when hiding eggs, bunnies and tubes of Pringles (my son does not like chocolate—were he not so obviously a member of his father's gene group I would suspect a changeling). After they have found all the Loot, they hide everything again, and Beast and I hunt for it. Teeny tiny yellow chicks are really hard to find in forsythia bushes.

So this year, they have a virtual hunt. I created a panorama of my back garden, Photoshopped a grid onto it, and layered in a bunch of goodies, including a small dragon and a unicorn. They have received a flash drive (it's too big to email!) and fifty 'depth charges' each. It's essentially a game of battleship, with bunnies. I hope it works out.

Comments

[spikedluv]

OMG, that easter egg hunt sounds so fun!

[pensnest]

It wasn't bad, in the circumstances, but I didn't quite get the balance right between effort and reward! Needed more prizes and fewer squares on the grid. Still, a noble effort.

[frausorge]

That is very brave of you to tackle the haircutting. Go you! And battleship with bunnies sounds amazing. How'd it go?

[pensnest]

I was quite impressed with myself for the haircut, and even cherish ambitions to be a bit cleverer with it next time!

The battleship started really well, with my daughter scoring six hits in a row before her streak broke. But I didn't, overall, quite get the right balance between effort and reward—too many squares, too few eggs.

Awesome icon!

[brandywine28]

But that's the thing about quarantine haircuts -- they'll grow out long before anyone has a chance to see them in person! So go ahead, shave a swear word into his hair!

I am enthralled with your virtual egg hunt. It sounds so ambitious! YAY.

[pensnest]

Heh! Left to its own deviced my Beast's hair would grow from nicely wavy to magnificently bushy to disturbingly straight with curls at the bottom, which is how it looked when we first met (though it was dark brown then and is now mostly white). *Anything*, including a haircut by me, is better than the dead straight hair framing his long, bony face and then bursting out into curliness at the shoulder.

The egg hunt was a good idea, but needed adjustment. Never mind, it was a good try!

[turps]

Your virtual egg/unicorn.dragon hunt sounds amazing!

[pensnest]

I think I should have put in more unicorns and dragons! I had these rather lovely Photoshop brushes to use, and couldn't resist them.

[turlough]

You're so brave! I don't think I would have the courage to try and cut someone else's hair.

I'm now trying to imagine what Lancecat's reaction to having his fur trimmed would be. I'm fairly sure it would involve words like "outraged", "you're trying to do what?!!!", and "no way!!!" :-)

You did manage to construct a virtual Easter Egg Hunt, go you!!! I see from your comments that it wasn't 100% successful but even a flawed hunt is so much better than none at all!

[rikes]

Congrats on tackling the mane! I usually make mum cut my hair, and I cut my sister's hair, but it's not a full circle - mum also cuts her own hair. :D Currently toying with the idea of cutting my hair super short, this seems like a good time for experimenting as I probably won't be seeing many people for the next few months... We'll see!

Glad to hear you managed some kind of an Easter egg hunt, even if it might need some adjustments in the future.