Stuff & things, lazy Sunday night edition

Classic rookie mistake

Early in March I was out running errands with Nico and we stopped by Wild Birds Unlimited to get a bag of birdseed. He took a liking to the stuffed cheeping birds and has asked to go back to "the bird store" a few times a week ever since. The bird store is next to the fancy hippie pet store where we buy Indy's food, so we stopped by again today. My (foolish) thought was that we'd just go in and cheep a few of the birds and then go home. But it's a tiny locally-owned store, and as soon as we walked in the owner himself came out to see if we needed anything. And we're acquainted because his store is always doing stuff for my workplace, so I felt bad about just squeezing his birds and leaving. Besides, Nico was cutely in love with the birds and wanted to cheep all the blue ones, over and over. So I bought him one, sort of naively hoping he'd still love it once we got it home. I have a strong suspicion I've been played, to the tune of an $8 cheepy bird. I suppose I can put it in his Easter basket and call it small business support.

Speaking of Easter

How do you guys celebrate, if you do? We tend toward what can only be described as secular Easter, which I don't think is that much of an oxymoron considering the pagan roots of everything from the name to the eggs. Before Nico was born, I used to go to Easter Mass with my parents, but I don't know for sure if either of them go, anymore. My extended family has dinner and there's a big egg hunt for the kids which Nico is finally old enough to participate in, though I am planning to pack a basket of decoy eggs with not-candy inside that I can swap for the ones he finds. I don't think I'm quite ready for a kid hopped up on jellybeans. I got him a cute book about ducklings, some pull-back cars, and a very cute bug viewer (from the dollar bins at Target!) for his basket. I'm hoping we have at least another year before he figures out that Easter = candy. He has figured out all of the various places in town that = cookies, though, so I probably shouldn't place any bets on it.

Hair update

So far everybody likes the haircut, even my parents whom I did not expect to be big fans. I really like it myself, but I'm still thinking about going back and having her cut it a little shorter. The back tickles my neck some and while I like the long bangs after all, the top bit behind the bangs seems a skosh too long. I'm torn, though, because I feel like as one of the most style-clueless people on the planet, I should probably trust the very hip stylist's judgement. But then again, if I don't totally love it, shouldn't I try tweaking it a little? Indecision! I have found that it looks decent - though not optimally cute - without any product, which is nice. Of course it looks much better if I put some curl stuff in it. I still haven't mailed my creepy hacked-off braid. Has anyone ever donated hair to an organization other than Locks of Love? I'm not opposed to them or anything and have donated hair to them twice before, I'm just wondering what other places are out there who do the same work but get less attention and thus fewer donations.