Made it through another day. My last assiasnt is going on vacation Saturday, so Easter was my last day off for 2 weeks.
You’re taking a vaction from retirement?:dubious:
Ouc. Hope she’s OK. {{{{hugs}}}}
FCM, I like good dark chocolate.
Congrats on the refi, Butters.
Baker, my best to your Mom. Hope she heals up quick.
So Swampy, didja take Mom to get her hair done?
I tell people that I don’t like cheap chocolate, and in fact I never buy it. I only buy good, expensive stuff like Green & Black or Endangered Species, and sometimes Giardelli or even Lindt, but…
you’re my friends, right?
I have to confess, that if you put a bowl of M&Ms in front of me, all bets are off. I lurves M&Ms. :o
Sunny and Red, I make cold process soap, which involves mixing sodium hydroxide (lye) with vegetable oils.
Lye is dangerous and needs to be handled carefully. Anybody who tells you different is a fool, and not your friend.
Here’s what I do: I dissolve a carefully measured amount of sodium hydroxide crystals (looks like sugar) in a certain amount of distilled water. This heats up to like 160 degrees, (I’m not sure 'cause I don’t put the thermometer in until later) and gives off a noxious gas, so I have on gloves and a lab coat. I sit my glass bowl full of lye under a rather powerful exhaust fan which sucks the fumes outside. While that’s going, I measure some coconut oil and palm oil into a big pot, (I use a canning pot). These are both solid at room temperature, so I have to set them on a hot plate to melt. When they’re melted I add a measured amount of olive oil.
Then, when the lye has cooled down to around 100 degrees, I mix it into my oils thoroughly. I use an immersion blender. I mix it until it starts to set up, or get thick. At this point I can add whatever essential oils I want to to give it a scent, any colorants I want, and any botanicals or whatnot, like finely ground oatmeal. Then i pour it into a big box lined with parchment paper so that it won’t stick to the box, wrap it in a blanket I got from the thrift store, and wait. In about 36 hours it will be hard enough to take out of the box and cut into bars, which then have to ‘cure’ for 3 weeks or more before they’re hard enough to use.
That’s the condensed version.
If you just want to make your own soap, you can go to the craft store and buy what’s called ‘melt and pour’ soap. You just melt it over heat, put in whatever scents and stuffs you want, then pour it into molds and wait for it to get hard. Easy-peasy.
Incidentally, for 16 bars (a small batch) of campers blend/pet bar I add 1.0 oz Citronella EO (Essential Oil), 0.6 oz Cedarwood EO, 0.7 oz Lemongrass EO, and 1/2 cup ground oatmeal. I’ve tested this at the Orygun coast, where the mosquitoes are as aggressive as a politician during campaign time and most of them left me alone.
You’d want about 4 lbs of melt and pour soap to make 16 ~4 oz bars.
Dinner tonight will be simple. Boneless, skinless chickie boobs slathered with salsa and baked inna oven. They’ll be some sides of some kind to be named later. And probably a salad.
Now I’ve got to stop procrastinating and pay some bills. 
Are you making soap or ♪ dun, dun, dunnnn ♫ meth? :eek:
Looks like there’s a Blackhawk Down in Mooommm’s neighborhood
State & local taxes has all been delivered to the USPS. I get 10 from the state & owe the @#%^& @$$#0!3 locals $5. I should have held it as a credit for what they still owe me from last year’s refund. :mad:
Meatloaf was yum! Dishes are done. I’m about to assume the recline position and continue working on the purple-n-white scarf. That will be my evening.
**Spidey **- yeah, the helo crashed about 10 miles or so from my place. One fatality.
I am so tired right now. I was up very late, at the hospital. My mother was admitted after taking a fall in the basement. She broke her upper left arm. Mom isn’t left handed, but she’s been using it more because of the tremors in her right hand. Eating may be a challenge, but with three daughters in town we can do all the housework.
I anyone has followed my weiner dog thread I have sad news. Tomorrow, Tuesday, I’m sending Nathan over the Rainbow Bridge. I tell you, when I stand before God after I die, if there are none of our beloved pets, I’m going to ask Him some serious question.
Happy Dyngus Day! ( Śmigus-dyngus - Wikipedia )
Growing up in Northern Indiana where a lot of Poles(some of them my family), Czechs and Hungarians settled, the day was always celebrated in various ethnic social clubs. Given that the state’s primary elections are held in May, it was prime time to meet and greet for politicians.
{{{Mama Cupcake and MamaBear}}}
metal mouse, I don’t keep any ice cream that isn’t individually portioned in my home, as I tend to consider every container a single serving.
bumba, I treat lye like a number of other interesting things (read: here, hold ma beer! 
) in my studio. I realize that a number of chemicals and sharp/poky things in it could require me to pull a pair of pants on and make a trip to the ER.
I love chawklit, but, being insulin dependent, have to eat it in limited quantities. That said, I do eat some every day, usually about 6g of carbs worth of decent dark stuff. My current stash is Moser Roth dark with chilis. While that’s perfect, I slum and buy some miniture Reese’s cups for my evening fix once in a while.
I got a few things wrapped up today at irk. The planned dental crown for this summer has now been bumped up to late spring, as a small piece crumbled off the tooth today. It doesn’t hurt, as that tooth has a forty year old root canal, but I do want to save the tooth and really would like for both of my front teeth to look nicer.
Today I learned that I can assist with, shall we say, some of the more delicate aspects of care giving and not totally freak out. 
{{{CupCakes}}} I’m so sorry about Nathan. He had a happy and much loved life. I fully expect to be knocked down by all kinds of critters happy to see me when I get to Heaven. I may never finish rollin’ around on the ground and lovin’ on each and every one of 'em.
Yes.
<– smilie to indicate sarcasm. I am making soap, NOT meth.
Actually, one way of making meth does involve sodium hydroxide, but most meth cookers simply buy Drano for that purpose. I suppose they aren’t worried about the health effects. :dubious:
Baker I am really sorry about Nathan. {{{{{Baker & Nathan}}}}}
Red, since you are apparently used to working with lye, here are the proportions for the aforementioned (nominally)* 4 pound batch of soap:
All measurements are by weight.
20 oz distilled water
9.1 oz sodium hydroxide
32 oz olive oil
13 oz palm oil
19 oz coconut oil
1.0 oz Citronella EO (Essential Oil)
0.6 oz Cedarwood EO
0.7 oz Lemongrass EO
1/2 cup ground oatmeal
*For some peculiar reason, when soap makers talk about the size of a batch of soap, they describe it according to the weight of the oils or fats involved and exclude the weight of the lye and essential oils. So a 10 pound batch might contain 10 pounds of olive oil, coconut oil and palm oil for instance, but also contain 5 pounds of lye and water, plus 5 ounces of essential oils for scent, but will still be referred to as a ‘10 pound batch’.
{{{Baker}}}
I remember many many years ago, the first time I was called Miss Sari by a kid in the neighborhood and it made me so depressed.
I guess I’m getting old now because I expect kids to call me Miss Sari and I get slightly annoyed when their parents introduce me as Sari.
**sari **- I agree with you. I am not friends with toddlers, and I don’t want them to address me as such. It’s tough enough to be on a first name basis with coworkers who are young enough to be my grandkids!!! But at least they’re adults.
And get off my lawn!!
{{{Baker}}}
**swampy **- are you dressed like a nurse?? I bet the cap would be adorable on you!
{{{{Baker and Nathan}}}}
{{{{{Baker & Nathan}}}}}
Got the new car taxed and titled, so the license plate went on and I cleaned out the garage (well, put a big old desk out for the trash and moved some other stuff around) so the car fits better now.
Best hopes and wishes to all the moms that are having hard times and too their wonderful children.
doggio, one of the benefits of being retired is that I can (supposedly) travel whenever I damn well want to. Only time I’ve done that so far was to meet FCM and a couple of other folks at her place, so I really need to get into this travel thing.
red, for me it is Chocolate and Butter Pecan that I have to rush by on the grocery shopping. If I stop I am doomed.
Raining out now, rain in the forecast for the next several days. Will do my lawn good, my soccer coaching may be postponed. We shall see.
{{{Baker and Nathan}}}
Swampy did Mom get her hair done? If she can’t go out, maybe her stylist will come to her?
Hmm. Might I interest you in making a larger batch and selling me some? I’d gladly chip in on supplies. I just don’t have the right set up…
Sorry to hear it. Training incidents suck. Over in CA, we had a fair number between the desert airbases and the naval bases on the coast.
{{{Baker}}} So sorry for your rough week. Mom and pup both. Is there nothing that can be done with surgery or even a wheelchair? Let me know if I can help out.
Dental pain continues, but I hope that by tomorrow things will be better. We’re ordering take out, since I am eating soft food.
I also filed an extension. It looks like we’ll get a refund, for the first time in a while, but I just couldn’t get it pulled together in time. Something to look forward to.
{{{Hugs to all}}} Here’s to better days ahead.
{{{baker and Nathan}}}
bumba, I haven’t made soap for a lot of years and then, it was part of a pioneer days reenactment and we used tallow. We also made candles with beeswax at that one.
After all, she once did it for you!
Up, caffeinated, and sheveled. Off to work
VERY unexpected surprise in yesterday’s mail - a check for long-term-disability for **FCD **covering the time he was out last year due to his multiple surgeries. We had no idea it was even being reviewed, since we got a couple of smaller checks while he was off. So yay for found money. One thing I do have to do, tho, is send estimated taxes to the feds and the state. They withheld less than 1% for the state and maybe 5% for the feds - that ain’t gonna cut it. So I’ll find the forms on line and send a couple of checks, then we’ll divide what remains into savings and fun money. I just hope they don’t come back in a few months with “Oooops! Give it back!!” :eek:
The lights were in my favor today. I had to gas up the car, and instead of my normal commute down Rt 5, I went down 235, which is full of stoplights. Except today - I swear, I didn’t have to stop at all! That NEVER happens!! Maybe it’s a sign to buy a lottery ticket today.
Thus beginneth my day. The sniffles are starting - this building is cursed!
Happy Tuesday!
Moooooom, if he was paying for the insurance, no taxes. If the employer was paying the insurance, it is considered regular income.
Given my drothers, I would rather be healthy and earn the ca$h the regular way.
I have been reminded that dining at spring bird comes with a price, my guts do not like something there. Who needs Go Lytely?
The statement that came with the check called out how much tax was withheld, which is what made me think I need to send more in. Guess I should investigate some more. Thanks!
I know he’d have preferred to have worked last year rather than have his back cut open 3 times. It still bothers him - I have to wonder if back surgery ever works.
Oh well, time to work.