Trompe l'oeil

Who uses it: Painters
What it means: "Trick the eye," a style of painting that gives the illusion of three-dimensionalism, or photographic reality. See some good examples of it here.
How you can use it: To describe anything illusory. You pronounce "trompe" more or less as it looks (though the "o" is somewhere between "o" and "u"), and "l'oeil" is somewhere between "loy" and "lye," except in the back of your throat. Practice at home a few times.

Despite my alarm at the increasing rate of time's passing, I'm just as glad to be done with September. With a few notable exceptions, it was a rough month for almost everyone I know, and October is bound to be better. Isn't it?

It should shock no one to learn that I am not a natural blonde, and seeing my horrendous passport photo (I look like that artist's rendering of Marilyn Monroe in her sixties) made me think it was time to take the color down a notch. Rather than do the sensible thing, and leave it to a professional, I bought Number 116A on the Nice'n'Easy color palette, "Natural Light Golden Brown."

And now I'm a brunette again -- a much darker brunette than I'd planned or expected. I don't like it, and I'm going to have to change it back, not least because I'm going gray so fast that I'll have a vivid skunk stripe across the top of my head by the end of the month. Which is why I went blonde in the first place... it blends better.

Ack, vanity. I knew I'd regret starting to color my hair, because you can never quit, once you begin. At least I've learned my lesson now about trying to do it myself.

In the meantime, Sheila wanted me to post a photo. I don't have a digital camera, so this will have to do.