Fighting back gently.

Our sponsor, BlogHer (which you may or may not see over here ---> ), has been pretty good to us. It pays us a very few dollars every month to put its own sponsored ads on the page. It's run by real women who answer real emails about real questions. Their policies let me opt out of topics I don't want to advertise and places I don't want to go (e.g. politics, diet aids, junk food, animal products, etc.).

In fact, BlogHer is too good to us, and here's the dilemma. Sort of. It's not a huge dilemma. It's a dilemmette. For example, a few days ago they offered me $150 to write one review about an alcoholic beverage that I would probably love hard. I would slurp it up like a cat slurps milk (don't give a cat milk). Plus, they'd buy me my booze. 

To a couple of gals without jobs, $150 and a six-pack is a sweet deal. But, we opt-out of alcohol ads on purpose. If you drink alcohol, you already know it's available. It's not like I'd be advertising the end of Prohibition, which I would do in BOLD PRINT for free as a public service. If you don't drink, there's a good reason, and you don't need me to tell you about some awesome new kind of alcohol that you also won't drink. We turned that offer down.

Today, there's an offer for  generous commissions on sales of a huge, mainstream health-and-beauty corporation. You probably already buy their products every week. I only have to tell you which of their products I use and love, love, LOVE!  [None of them.] We turned that offer down.

So, I'm going to tell you what I actually love and feel good about promoting. It's the only way I can think of to push back against corporate deep-pocketed advertising, and products that aren't really in our best interests. Irony alert: these links go to Amazon pages, because they also treat us well.

• Method laundry detergent. We don't do much laundry, but we do it all with Method. It comes super-concentrated, so it's not weighed down with water and then shipped, heavy and bloated, to its destination. It is cruelty-free: no animal testing, no animal products. It's made in the US. It's perfectly sized for RVs. It smells good.

• Dr. Bronner's castile soaps. We don't wash ourselves much...wait, that's not what I meant to say. It's super-duper-concentrated (don't try to wash with it straight! It's powerful!). Cruelty-free (no animal testing, no animal products, vegetable oil based). Organic. Smells awesome, whichever scent you choose. We bought a big bottle last Thanksgiving in Florida, and we're still using it (I'm tired of peppermint now, by the way, and can't wait to crack open the lavender we just bought). Bonus feature: Dr. Bronner wrote lots of crazy stuff on his products, and they're still there. Fun to read in the shower with your glasses on.

• NOW vegetable glycerin. You can buy glycerin at Walmart, but it's most likely animal-derived. I use this when I make lotion and moisturizer, along with organic aloe vera gel. I got tired of paying lots of money for a decent moisturizer, only to find that it was held together with parabens. I use this vegan facial moisturizer recipe. 

• Nature's Miracle. Animal lovers, don't travel without this. In my time with Annie, we have sheltered ten cats, and this is our must-have. Always. No kidding. This becomes even more crucial as animals age. Now I'm really not kidding.

There's my promo. If you don't buy these things on my say-so, I won't feel bad. More importantly, if you do buy them, I won't feel bad.

Rebuttal

There is no resemblance, Nellie.

Vultures and Annie's hair

MEOW.

Talking to my son on the phone:

Yeah, go ahead and send ... oh!  Sorry, just a vulture ... oh man, two vultures.  So, drop that in the mail ...  oh my god, three vult ... FOUR!!  There are FOUR VULTURES ... 

Mom, don't spoil tomorrow's blog post for me.

Annie has been out of the workaday, button-down office lifestyle for three months, and she's starting to relax.

I AM smiling.

Her hair is starting to relax, too.

A few of our friends have asked us to have a travel map.  I wanted one that beams our exact location like you cool Datastorm people, but that felt like a big bucket of TMI.  Absolute best would be a map where we could plot precise coordinates after we had left a boondocking site.  Now we have settled for a vague map for indicating roughly, in a general way, more or less where we are or have been.  If you want to know our precise physical coordinates, phone us;  we'll make up numbers on the spot after we blow the whistle into your ear.

Here's where we've waddled.  There should be a map on the sidebar, unless you have AdBlock.

A couple of times a week we go into town to watch TV.  My mom shakes her head.  She understands not having TV - they haven't gotten reception for years - but she doesn't understand going out to watch it.  We subscribe to Hulu Plus to see just the shows we like, and they stack up in a pile waiting for us to get to town.  [BREAKING NEWS:  I went to get the link, and I found out YOU can get two free weeks to try it out, and GIVE US two weeks free at the same time. A freakin' twofer!  That's why the link is obnoxiously trebucheted and emboldened now. Everything is going my way today.]

Ech.  This will gross you out.  Have you ever seen anything so huge?  Look at the legs on that thing!  I want to vomit.  Phil says the heat lets everything grow bigger.


Now, check out the bug!

Extreme grasshopper close-up, for Rob and Sean:



I have a sinus headache which I am treating with reflexology and neck auto-massage.  What self-care do you use that you don't tell people about?