the passionate ailurophile

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Mardi Gras, aka “Fat Tuesday” is a good day.  It’s the day before Ash Wednesday, which marks the beginning of Lent.  Lent is the 40 days from Ash Wednesday to Easter.  People party and get drunk and indulge in all sorts of debauchery on Mardi Gras, because they have to behave during Lent.  At least they do if they are Catholic! Not necessarily the drunken debauchery on Mardi Gras, but the good behavior for the 40 days of Lent.

Me, I’m a heathen all year ’round.  But the fact that Easter is just a little over 40 days away means that spring will be here soon, and that means baseball and no more cold and snow for a while.

It will be less than 40 days before we take our trip up to Manchester, NH, for the Fisher Cats Opening Night.  That will be on April 8, and we’ll be staying overnight at the Hilton Garden Inn hotel that looks out onto the ballpark.  And yep, I made sure that we got a room that faces the ballpark, and not the parking lot!  I got a cheap rate for it because I agreed to pay in advance.  It’s also non-refundable, so now we HAVE to go…LOL!

There will be no drunken debauchery or titty-baring around here for Mardi Gras, though.  We’re going to go out to dinner at our local TGI Friday’s…mostly because we not only have a coupon for a free Cajun fried green bean appetizer, but we also get double Stripes (points) for what we spend.  We belong to the Give Me More Stripes loyalty program there, where we get a “stripe” for each dollar spent.  Collect 100 Stripes and get a coupon for free food.  We go there often enough, so this really adds up.  When they have these double stripes promos, we try to take advantage.

Besides, I’ve never tried Cajun fried green beans.  If they want to give it to me for free, hell, yeah, I’ll try it!

I also have a new 40% off Michaels coupon, and since there is one in the same shopping center as the Friday’s, I’ll run in there and see if there’s anything I want.  I bought myself a Cuttlebug machine a couple of weeks ago, at half price, now I will see if I can save on accessories for it.

And we’ll see if the regular bartenders at Friday’s notice Mike’s bald head.  So far, the only person who noticed and said anything was one of the landladies.  He said that no one at work said anything.  But he works mostly with guys, and they tend not to notice ‘do changes and such, as we women do.

He’s gonna let it grow out, not going to maintain shaving it a lot to keep it bald.  Turns out that he hates going to the barber shop as much as I hate going to hairdressers…the people that work at these places too often want to dictate how THEY think you should look, and not respect what YOU want.  I gave up on going to hairdressers when they gave me shit over coloring my own hair at home (it’s much cheaper, yanno?) and never wanted to cut my hair the way I wanted it cut.

Mike’s complaint about the Geezer Barber Shop across the street is that they won’t cut enough off, even if he asks them to, plus they want to keep putting some stinky stuff in his hair that he is allergic to.  That’s why he just went and shaved his head.

What he wants really is a military type buzz cut.  Well, if we had a good set of barber clippers, I could do that myself.  So we will look for such a thing, and when the hair grows out, I can just trim it with the clippers.  No more stinky stuff in the hair, no more arguing with barbers who take it upon themselves to decide how he has to look.  The clippers will pay for themselves after a few haircuts.

It’s also time for me to cut my hair as well.  No, not a buzz cut, but it’s too long now and needs to be trimmed.  It’s also time for the home hair coloring…my hair gets so dark in the winter, and it’s time to lighten it up for spring.

I just pull it up into a high ponytail, cut off the ponytail, and trim, using the magic of mirrors.  I actually do a better job than most hairdressers I’ve ever been to have.  And I don’t have to hear the bitchy, condescending talk, as well.  Why pay money for someone to humiliate you in public?

I’m sure there are nice barbers and hairdressers someplace on this planet, but we’ve yet to find them.

Happy Mardi Gras, all!