Being a REAL woman isn't always glamorous

This past weekend, my husband, kids and I traveled north to the family cabin, which is on a small, remote northern Minneosta lake. I didn't bring my makeup kit since I was supposed to be "roughing it." I failed to remember that Bart and I were going back home that Saturday night for a wedding, and we were going straight from the cabin to the wedding, and I wouldn't have time to stop at home to shower or make myself pretty. At least I had a dress along.
After checking the mirror, I noticed a rather ugly, black hair sticking straight out of my chin. Of course I didn't have my tweezers (they are in my makeup bag). I asked my sister-in-law, "Do you have any tweezers...please!?" She did not. I had no scissors, no nail clippers. What was I going to do? I was already going to the wedding without washing my hair. The last thing I wanted to do was go with a huge black hair sticking out of my chin.
I harnessed some of my back-to-the-basics spirit and made do with what I could find in the kitchen drawers. There was a pair of grilling tongs in the utensil drawer. Would they work? They were so big, and the hair was so small. But I tried it. And...it worked! I pulled that hair out and went on to try a few more while I had the tongs out. They don't put tips like that in Glamour magazine.

Woman's Best Friend

Ahh, Kulta... what can I say? It's been a tough two months. For someone like me, who never liked dogs, you sure turned me into quite a dog-lover; a one-dog-lover, that is. Only you. In my need to "fix" things when life gets a bit too difficult, I called your mother's owner yesterday, trying to see if I could purchase another one of her offspring. Hey, if I can't have you, I can at least try to get the next best thing, right? Unfortunately, she was hit by a logging truck two years ago. That's Minnesota for you. You ended up with Lyme disease and your mom was hit by a logging truck. Remind me why I live here again? If I believed in cloning, I would have you cloned in a second. But, then again, a two-headed version of you wouldn't quite come close to the real thing, so maybe I'll just stick to my convictions on that one. All I can say is, we gave it our best shot. I guess I never really meant it when I said I would never stick my hand in a dog's mouth, huh? For a while I was popping ten pills a day into your mouth. I did it all out of love, Kulta. I wish I could say I'll see you again soon, but since you're a dog, I'll just have to say... you were the best and we'll miss you forever. Bye, girl.