Update on the peel: Did a TCA peel at home, 30-35%. Results were awesome, I'm definitely glad I did it. I waited until late in the year when I wouldn't be outdoors as much, and don't step out the door wearing less than spf30. (spf50 during peak hours) Before the peel: you have to know someone who knows this stuff or do a good deal of digging to find this out: a common cause for an uneven at-home peel is that most people don't use acetone to clean the skin beforehand. (Washing your face won't do it.) So, I used acetone on a cottonball and swiped it over my face well, avoiding the eye area. Also, I mixed my TCA solution, measuring carefully. Be sure to dilute with a purified bottled water. During: I swiped the TCA solution over my face with a cotton pad, without 'rubbing' my skin. With a Q-tip, I reapplied the solution precisely onto a particularly dark freckle on my forehead. This process is the most unpleasant. If you've ever had anything pierced, the pain is similar to that - except it's all over your face. You'll notice a frosting effect on the treated skin - frosted like frosted glass. Pain subsided considerably after 3 minutes, and my face just felt 'funny' after 5-6 minutes. Frosted appearance was gone completely after 8-10 minutes. After the peel, I washed my face as gently as possible to remove the acid residue with Cetaphil. I patted my skin mostly dry and applied the contents of a vitamin E capsule onto my face. Over the next two days, I reapplied the vitamin E as needed to keep the skin from drying. After that, it required less upkeep to keep the skin moist. It took about a week for my skin to mostly peel, and it was completely peeled after 10 days. As my skin peeled, most of the photodamage and freckling went with it. There is no evidence of the nearly-black freckle from my forehead. Only one line remains on my face, a brow furrow that I've been working on since I was 12 - and it is so much more shallow... not the constant crease it was before. The 'new' skin was sensitive and a bit pinkish, and coated in SPF. All the time. Now, about two weeks later, I am consistent with the sunscreen and hat-wearing. I can't recommend this enough if you've got the guts to try it at home. Especially for what I spent for it - less than ten bucks! (Well, more if you count the numerous sunscreens I've been through.... I'm sensitive to some brands and have settled on Coppertone Oil Free For Faces.) I must stress the importance of treating your 'new' skin well - sunscreen is not optional!

Yeah, punk rock is old folks' music now. I can't believe it either. And punk-rockers, and punk-rock lynchpins like McLaren are starting to drop dead, not from the usual drug overdoses or other such misadventure, but simply from getting old. The neat thing is, lots of teens and 20-somethings are really into '60s and '70s rock. Walk past any college dormitory and you'll hear Led Zeppelin, Bob Marley, and Jimi Hendrix blaring from open windows everywhere. And everybody (and I mean everybody) loves the Beatles. It's scary to think how many of legendary rock musicians are in their late 60s and 70s now. It's hard to imagine Paul McCartney or Bob Dylan or Brian Wilson or Eric Clapton no longer being with us, but I'm afraid that will soon be the case.

If you remember the controversy when Merida (the one from Brave) was first "turned" into a Disney princess -- she was VERY "fine-tuned" (ahem .....) to be a thinner princess with far more controlled hairstyle ..... but the fans protested .... and her doll and merchandise was kept "as-is" (sort of ..... kinda ..... maybe .....) BUT when the two gals from Frozen were created -- Disney made SURE that their newest princesses were very thin with VERY nice hair and outfits and accessories etc. --- better for selling merchandise .....

Funny you mentioned the RL Walnut, I did look at that one this time around. I got RH Flax mixed up in Ralph Lauren paint, (I've just tried this paint for the first time ever, mostly because the Lowes' computer crashed and they can't mix paint this weekend...) and tried that on my wall. I loved the color but it was just too dark. I finally bought paint. I got Ben Moore's Alexandria Beige of all things. It is a little deep, but not overwhelmingly so, and since I changed out my bulbs for a higher wattage of bright light florescents, it looks good in there. I loved this color as I stirred the can. It looked just like coffee with some cream. Kind of like a strong latte. Once it went on my walls though, and dried, the green undertones came through the brown. It's beautiful, and although I loved the coffee look and bought it for that, the green undertone doesn't bother me at all. It looks good off my gold bedroom, in fact, it 'reads' like a deeper shade of the gold looking at it from the door or from the bed. When I get the mirrors back and the towel bars hung, I will try for a photo, but this room is small. Small. Hard to photograph. Thanks for checking on me. I was beginning to feel that there was no color that would ever work right in this room. Red