Hello Honey, I Think I Like You

Well, the honey definitely worked. I loved the honey and olive oil DT so much that I tried adding a pea-size amount of honey to my conditioner today. Bam! I got excellent curl definition AGAIN. I feel I should note the rest of today's routine in case it interests you:
1. Avalon Organics Nourishing Lavendar shampoo (sulfate-free, my first time using it)
2. Suave Naturals Ocean Breeze Conditioner + honey
3. cold rinse, lavendar water spray, and 1-2 Tbsp CO for leave-in
4. flax seed gel + HE Set Me Up gel
5. plopped 5-10 minutes
6. more FSG
7. air dried 1 hour and then diffused upside down to about 80% dry
8. 1 tsp Suave Naturals Coconut conditioner slightly diluted
9. a little hairspray (Suave)
Later, when my hair was 100% dry, I scrunched upside down to get rid of any bit of crunch and used a slight dusting of hairspray again. It wasn't until this last step was complete that I was convinced. The honey made ALL the difference in the world! Since having kids, I haven't had this nice of curl definition. So, now I plan on adding a pea-size amount to my conditioner every time I do my CO rinse. It doesn't look greasy or wet, which is what I try to avoid; it looks shiny and clean. Yay, a happy hair day :-)

Knitting
Since this IS a knitting blog, I should probably mention some knitting-related stuff, too. I think I'm going to make some more Chinese Waves dishcloths with some leftover cotton yarn (Peaches & Cream, I think?). The reason: stress relief. Sometimes I just need something quick and relaxing to make. Since getting back from NC, I haven't gotten back into a regular knitting groove yet. No, I haven't lost my mojo or anything. It's just that I'm getting distracted by kid stuff, cleaning, and gardening. My mom and I just planted a flower garden and flower box for Marie and a box of herbs to sit on the deck railing (parsley, sage, rosemary, dill, basil, and oregano). At night, (besides Ravelry and blogging) I've been spending time re-learning more and more Italian vocab (on Babbel), re-reading my old college Italian review textbook, watching the new Tonight Show w/Conan O'Brien, and making and reading online about Curly Girl stuff. Hmm, I don't see exercise listed, do you?! Bad Jackie, bad. Just tonight I was saying to Jared what nice running weather it was.

Other Stuff
I've been watching So You Think You Can Dance (SYTYCD, Season 5) for my second summer. The most recent episode was fun to watch since they picked the Top 20 and had the semi-finalist guys and girls dancing to West Side Story. This show is my rebound from American Idol.

We went to the zoo yesterday (Friday) and were glad it was open until 6:00. The gibbons were particularly fun to watch because they were sitting under the cover of trees, scooping water into their mouths and onto their heads. I think I could see a tiny baby latched to its mother. For once, the flamingos weren't asleep. Marie still isn't interested in penguins or otters. The penguins I could maybe understand since they're usually not swimming. But the otters are, to me, so much fun! We completely skipped the east side of the zoo. So next time, we'll be starting there. One of these days, we'll aim to get there for the baby elephant viewing at lunchtime.

Ian has been talking on Marie's Cinderella cell phone lately. He absolutely loves that thing. The only thing he loves more is his bunny (and maybe his baby blankie that I made him). Marie knows how to open up Internet Explorer from the desktop and go to her favorites to start playing her favorite kid games. Recently, after getting out of the shower and checking up on her, I found her playing something on Noggin or Nick Jr. Then she proceeded to show me how she'd tried to play her Disney princess song CD, but a DVD player window had popped up instead of the Window Media Player that she was expecting. Wow, I guess she really pays attention to what Mom and Dad do on the computer because I never showed her how to do that stuff. Kids, heh.

Oh! I forgot to mention something that might not mean much to you, but it's exciting to me: I can finally roll my double rr's in Italian! The single r is simple to do (think "Dracula"), but I've never been able to do the rolled double r. Practicing over and over finally paid off. I still can't roll it for a long time or do it by itself. But, I'm definitely able to roll it long enough to be passable in conversation. Now, if I could just stop the lightheadedness (don't laugh!) and relax my jaw and tongue more, my rolled r's would sound effortless. Ha! That will take some more time and practice...