Wooly Winter is officially over!

I know, everybody (except Emily, Mom, and Joanna) is probably saying, "What?"

So Emily and I decided back in December that we were going to do what Emily named "Wooly Winter."  It's like when guys do No-Shave November, except that this is a little longer.  We agreed that we wouldn't shave our legs from December 21 to March 21.

I don't know when Emily shaved--I haven't asked--but since I got here I've worn nothing but long pants, and our shower here is so small that it was just easier to not shave my legs.  So March 21 came and went, and my legs remained fuzzy.  VERY fuzzy.

Then this weekend we were at the beach, and I rolled up my pants to step in the water and thought, "My legs look really nasty, and spring is definitely here.  I'm shaving this week."

So I did it tonight.  It took half an hour, and I still missed a lot of spots, so I'll have to do Round 2 tomorrow.  Only cut myself once.  Had to throw away the razor when I was done.  But my legs are (mostly) smooth again!  It feels soooo nice!  Goodbye, Wooly Winter!

Monday is usually my getting-things-done day, particularly if I've been gone over the weekend.  Today was no exception.  Last week was my turn for kitchen duty, so I had to finish that first: take out the trash, sweep and mop the floor, clean the stovetop and oven, and put away the dishes.  Marni and I also went to a couple of art stores this morning to find some inexpensive turpentine to clean our brushes after using the gold-dust solvent from Roland.  We went to an arts-and-crafts store at Europa Passage (the fancy galleria mall downtown near the Rathaus) first.  The gelato in Europa Passage was so tempting that we ended up getting some.  It was a perfect little treat.  After that we went to Boesner, the art store near school, and then parted ways.  Marni went to school to do stuff in the computer lab, and I went to Rewe for groceries and then home.

By the way, Germans are really into their ice cream.  You can get it everywhere--there are always lots of little places to buy it, especially in big cities.  Germans even eat it on cold days when most Californians would be craving a hot coffee.  You see people eating it everywhere--taking a stroll, walking the dog, etc.  The thing that is so great about ice cream here is that a single scoop almost always costs 1 euro, and even though it's a small scoop by American standards, it doesn't feel small.  It generally comes either in a sugar cone or in a cup with a little waffle cone disk, and you eat it with one of those teeny plastic spoons.  The spoon is the key.  You can only eat a tiny bit at a time with a spoon that small, so it forces you to eat it slowly and enjoy it, and even though it's not that much, it feels like enough because you took your time with it.  Most ice cream places offer bigger sundae-type things, and of course they have double or triple scoop options, but a lot of people just go for the single scoop and are content with it.  If Coldstone and Dairy Queen downsized their scoops and gave out teeny spoons, Americans would probably be a lot skinnier!

Anyway, this afternoon I finished cleaning the kitchen and then made up a dry-hands treatment out of food I had: oatmeal and sugar exfoliating paste, followed by an olive oil and mayonnaise mixture on my hands to moisturize them.  Indra tried it too.  It worked pretty well--my hands looked nicer after I did it.  Unfortunately later I went to divide up the turpentine into two containers so Marni and I could share it and got it all over my hands, which meant I had to wash my hands probably four times to make sure I got it all off.  Then we made dinner and I washed dishes afterwards.  Pretty much undid any effects of the oil-and-mayo treatment.

Dinner was nice!  Marni made meatballs and I made spaghetti and sauce.  Indra and I shared the spaghetti and we all had some of the meat.  After that Indra went to her room to do math homework and Marni and I hung out and drew together for a while.  I'd say it was a fairly productive day!