Loose Ends

* First off I want to thank everyone for all of the advice about facial moisturizer. So it looks like I can't get away without at least an occasional scrub, and I can live with that. One thing I forgot to mention is that I am still trying to avoid harmful chemicals as much as possible, so I think I may go with a different brand than anyone suggested. I still refer to this web page that rates cosmetics on the harmful chemicals they contain. My plan right now is to try this and this. I think my skin is probably combination oily instead of combination dry now that I look at the definitions again. The EWG site rates this particular line fairly well (0.4 with 5 being the worst rating, a higher score is worse for number of harmful ingredients), although I'm not thrilled with what it has to say about padimate O and vitamin E. Also, this stuff t'aint cheap. But that can probably be said about a lot of these types of products. Anyway, thanks for the help and if I don't like this stuff I'm buying I may look into some of the things you all suggested.

Oh, and I thought it funny that Noxzema was mentioned because I just had some Noxzema trivia on my trivia calendar. According to the calendar, pharmacist George Bunting was inspired to name his skin cream Noxzema after a customer reported that the cream "sure knocked out my eczema". So the name supposedly comes from "knocks eczema". The original name was Dr. Bunting's Sunburn Remedy. I'm a trivia nerd.

* I wear a contact lens in my left eye. That's why in pictures it looks like I have two different colored eyes since the contact has a slight blue tint. Well, today I realized as I entered the highway that I forgot to put my contact in this morning. I can see pretty well without it, so it's not always immediately obvious when I forget it, unless I'm driving. Since I didn't leave any margin for error in my commute time, and I have been late 3 out of 4 days this week, I decided to press on without it today. It makes me feel a little weird since things don't quite look right. That kind of suits the way I feel, though. The eye doctor always seems curious about my eyes because the left eye is something like 20/400 and the right is 20/40 or so. Apparently that can be an indicator of eye problems, but so far they haven't found anything that is a concern.

* I guess my bush trimming satisfied the gods of the homeowners association. I haven't received any follow-up letters about it. Now that you can see the transformer box the shrubbery kind of defeats its own purpose (to steal a line from Raging Bull), but it's still better than having to cut it down completely.

* The dermatitis is gone! I shall never use fabric softener again.

*Check out the Virgin Mary chocolate dripping!