Beautiful hedgehog

L'Ailee reminds me of a hedgehog so often. Prickly on the outside, for self-defense, but with a wonderfully soft and vulnerable underbelly and a surprisingly sweet spirit. The sweet spirit feeds the exterior toughness and shyness--it needs protecting, and has been threatened so often, that defense mechanisms must be built in order to preserve it. I have always loved hedgehogs.

Late Monday afternoon, we got together before the night class she was taking over temporarily. We passed a salon doing a haircut-a-thon for a sick stylist. Fifteen dollars per haircut, about half their price. I put ten dollars into a tip jar. I wasn't about to put my head on that assembly line, though--I had a bad experience with one of those things back in Orlando, and needed to take prenatal vitamins for two months to grow those short, choppy bangs out. I'll keep my appointment this Thursday with my usual salon, thankee! L'Ailee asked why I wouldn't let them cut my hair; I explained. She decided that her own haircut was pretty difficult to screw up. Her head always looks a bit like Tony Stewart's face after the race in the late afternoon, so she had one shave off the stubble for fifteen dollars. They normally charge seven dollars for a head shave, "and I'd want to charge you less, since your head's so tiny," the stylist said. (It is, too. Just like the rest of her.) "That is not the point," L'Ailee said, and gave her a tip as well.
"It takes a really beautiful girl to carry that off," said another stylist.
"Beautiful inside and out," the one who she went to added.
L'Ailee blushed all the way up to her freshly shorn scalp, and I grinned at her. "That was embarrassing," she told me.
"No, it's true," I said. I just wanted to grab her and kiss her. Such a sweetheart!

Also, on Saturday, a new TV was delivered to us. High-def, 51 inch screen. We got it because she entered a raffle for charity and forgot all about it. So she won the grand prize. "Oh, my God. That wasn't why I gave them that money," L'Ailee said. I told her it was just karma and she needed to accept it coming back to her! We have a 3-year-old 32-inch TV that's still pretty good. We don't have room for it. Well, I guess we would if we would put the old one in our bedroom, but we don't believe in putting TVs or computers there. They're just too distracting. She has adopted my belief that bedrooms should be designated for sleeping and other activities that begin with "s". We're thinking of giving it to my TutorBoy's mom, because she's single and works her guts out and her TV's dying, but we have to figure out how to preserve her pride while doing it. She really would be solving a problem for us, and we'll give it to charity if she doesn't take it, so I guess we just have to present it like that.

The high-def TV is awesome for many reasons. The cats love it. For some reason, it interacts with their sensitive little eyes in a way that's really interesting to them, especially if we've got Animal Planet on. (Check out this article, and look at Snoopy the Cat try to catch fish! Ours are doing that, too!) We've found it makes an excellent bargaining tool for her best friend, the cabbie, when we want him to use his van cab to pick us and our groceries up from the store. And then there's NASCAR. The cars look *so good* on it!

And what an awesome race it was. We were treated to the sickening sight of gas pouring out of Kevin Harvick's car, then the wonderful sight of Harvick winning and Tony Stewart in second! It was so, so, so cute to watch Stewart run away from his interview to chase Harvick down and stick his face in his car window! He was smiling almost as broadly as if he'd won it himself! Both of them said that the other was "a really good friend," and obviously it's true. It's a touch embarrassing that everyone knows we're going to have our own Victory Lane celebration when Harvick, Stewart, or *sigh* Newman win, but it's also really convenient. They were good enough to clear the hell out after Happy Harvick's post-race interview, stopping only to take some fresh mozzarella slices or cans of beer with them. Well, it wasn't like were were going to rush to clean up anyway.

By the way, I was told by a few people that they would never want to watch NASCAR anywhere else, because I serve things like portabella sandwiches and chilled rose wine, let them bring whatever they want, and am perfectly okay with letting guys comment on the cuteness of the drivers. We're sure the high-def TV had absolutely nothing to do with it.

I haven't been subjecting y'all to links in a while! Too busy, I guess. This may help make up for it:

Prince Albert Pride for Canadian Gay Teens Admit it, you giggled, too!

How to keep your marriage together while remodeling.

How to make sure kids are scientifically illiterate. NYT article on "intelligent design" advocacy.

Abstinence-only stupidity Same theme, different publication and consequences.

Jessica Simpson's breasts-awareness campaign. Hehehehe!!

Star Trek Inspirational Posters Despair.com and the creative minds at Pandas Unlimited have some competition!