Lush Bath Bombs

Or, A Good Bath Spoiled

For Christmas a friend of mine gave me a selection of Lush Bath Bombs; she felt bad that her last birthday gift to me bombed and was hoping to make amends, knowing that I loves me some bath.  Well, I used to at my old apartment, which had a huge bathtub that easily swallowed my 6' 2" frame.  The apartment that I have lived in for the last 14 years or so was built in the 50's and has one of those teacup-sized bathtubs that make me look like Rock Hudson in a Doris Day movie.  One of these days, if Lotto winnings ever come across or I write that 8 figure screenplay, I plan on getting a lap pool with endless hot water and hot and cold running Corso Como.  But I still do love my bath, and for New Years I looked forward to a nice hot bath and a glass of champagne.  My inner Joan Crawford would be released.

What I didn't know is that these bath bombs come with stuff in them.  Lots of stuff.  The blue one I chose had bits of dried leaves, small plastic cutouts and glitter.

Yes, glitter.

Since I don't have a personal maid and a 24 hour on-call plumber to snake the bits of Lush detritus from my pipes, I tried to strain out most of the stuff.  I personally don't find attacking ones ablutions with a tea strainer adds to the restful, contemplative portion of our evenings program.  I can't even tell you whether the stuff was decent bath goo- by the time I had managed to skim most of it off my hands and forearms were covered by so much glitter that it took a fair amount of Kiehls grapefruit scrub and a brush to get rid of it.  Needless to say, By that time I didn't want to actually immerse the rest of me in it.  Down the drain went the whole lurid cobalt mess, and I spent another half hour scouring the dregs out of my tub.  Apparently according to the website if one doesn't want the "surprise" of the various bits of fluff, one should enrobe the whole mess in a nylon before you bathe.  Like most gay men and contrary to popular belief, I don't have a pair of panty hose available to rein in the Pamela Anderson portions of the whole affair, and the hose will not contain the hugely over-concentrated coloring, which if you are like me (and Joan) you will be bleaching out of your tub the instant you step out. 

They do smell kind of nice, which led me to a use for them.  I threw one into the toilet.  I get the benefit of the nice scent without having to worry that I'm going to have to pick lavender lint or glitter out of my netherlands for the next day or so.

I sent my friend a thank-you note; I know she meant well and honestly wanted to please (and thanks be, never reads blogs; don't tell her, k?).  Maybe there are other things in their line that work better; with me, the whole trendy Westside stripper-pole Yogalatese esthetic of these bombs bombed.

Photo from Lush.com

Happy New Year!

As I wrote earlier, I am not big on going out to New Years celebrations. Since I have a cold this year I can blame that. That, and the fact that it's going to be about 12 degrees here. Okay, it will be in the 50's but that's still fairly whinge-worthy when you have a cold. So I will be feting out 2007 with John Waters movies and a nice hot bath. Pansy goes geriatric for 2008!

I hope all of my devoted readers (both of you :-) ) one of you have a happy and prosperous 2008!

Photo from Denver's Channel 7 of Sydney harbour's 2008 fireworks. Ain't the internets grand?

H a p p y ....H o l i d a y s !

A friend of mine sent this picture to me and I couldn't resist making it my holiday e-card. Believe it or not it's a real house in the very tony, old-money and WASPy area of Los Angeles called Hancock Park. Only the snow and the Santas are seasonal decorations, the rest is permanent. The ultra-classy manse is owned by a record producer and is one of the major attractions of the neighborhood.

Whining in a Winter Wonderland...

The holidays are coming up like a runaway train. Are you feeling a bit like you're stuck on the tracks?

It's a wet Tuesday here in the City of the Angels, chilly and grey with that patented LA light drizzle of rain that guarantees that SUV's will go merrily sailing sideways through intersections, their terrified drivers clutching the wheel, finally paying attention to the now 360 degree view of the road rather than the cell phone, latte or the crackberry.

I guess I am having a Scrooge moment.

There was a Nor'Easter hitting the East this week, dumping tons of the white stuff and looking disgustingly picturesque. Mind you, after 20 years in the sunny Hills of Beverly, I still have vivid memories of actually having to live with all that snow- not only having to shovel it or walking (and you have to learn how to walk in it) around wearing half your closet to keep, well, alive from your house to the grocery store, which will invariably be about the same temperature inside as your average bread oven, meaning that you will work up a sweat just in time to get back out in that arctic chill. No, I mean the later part of it, the part that they never take pictures of where the snowbanks turn to greyish black slush and you think that spring might just never come.

Our Winters might look like a rather drab version of Autumn in other areas, but I can at least look at the snowcapped peaks of the distant mountains from the comfort and warmth of the intersection of Santa Monica Boulevard and Palm Drive while wearing a light sweater. Although I perhaps can't really work up the appropriate level of Christmas Spirit without the possibility of going sledding, I wouldn't change that cashmere-clad fact for the world...

The future of TV

I know, everyone always says that they know it, blah, blah, blah. But I have seen the future, and it's hulu! hulu is this new service (now in beta, you can sign up and they will invite you when they're ready for more subscribers) that show television shows online, with decent quality that you can watch on your computer whenever you want it. Right now the selection is limited, but there's the first season of "Buffy" and the first seasons of "Night Gallery" (minus the Pilot with Spielberg directing Joan Crawford, more's the pity) and "Lou Grant" among others. You can watch full screen, and while there are commercials, there are only one every 10-15 minutes, with a handy timer to let you know how long they will run.

I'm sure that there will be more content soon, and it's great to savor the first season of "Buffy" as well as rediscovering "Lou Grant", an hour long spin-off of the Mary Tyler Moore show that should not have worked, but was consistently the best hour of dramatic television in the late 70's and early 80's, with about a bazillion Emmys to prove it.

Looking at it with 20-year older eyes, a 40 lb lighter Ed Asner was kind of cute...