DYI Day

Hi all,

A quick funny-story share that I forgot on Friday. My favorite dinner guest comes Friday night, and she rolled up a little late (walker)...but we had to get started because of the play. Maria was all excited she could see her coming. Housemom leads the blessing in the evening, and instead of a usual one, she launches straight into "She'll Be Comin' Round the Mountain". Sam's face was pretty much priceless as the rest of us joined right in. Clearly a "Crazy Americans..." moment. But hilarious.

Sunday was a rather restful day. I'd been up late the night before talking to some people online, but thanks to my handy dandy new and industrial-strength earplugs, I was able to sleep until 10:40!!! AMAZING. I met up with Flo (he may smite me for that nickname...) and he accompanied me to Hudson. We stopped downtown at a store, but our main stop was - sadly - Walmart. I needed to get affordable clay pots and one or two other things not available locally...and on a Sunday. We ended up eating cheap Chinese food while discussing life in general. Definitely a lovely Sunday afternoon.

Flo's a DYI nut, having previously made cheese that tasted, in his own words: "Like Feet". Yum. However, I admire his drive and ended up "helping" him make homemade toothpaste and shampoo. He needed Calcium carbonate, and so it's basically just calcium supplement. However, they were quite pricey, and so we ended up getting Rolaids, which are purely calcium and a bit of magnesium and had the added bonus of already being mint-flavored. We crushed them with a hammer (still should vacuum my rug, come to think of it...), added baking soda, a little salt, mint extract and some glycerin. (Scarily enough, the toothpaste called for more than triple than that of the shampoo...) We should've used a coffee grinder for the tablets, but other than some chunks, it was actually ok and felt like it was cleaning your teeth.

Next came the chamomile shampoo. Which was basically creating an "infusion" (ie, tea) and combining with "soap flakes" (ie, a finely grated part of a soap bar), more glycerin and water. Apparently it thickened up to a rather interesting consistency, and Flo's not too sure about it. It was decided that making your own toothpaste and shampoo was probably not economically savvy (the glycerin is pretty pricey), and probably not worth the hassle.

But fun to do once.

Also, Flo works in the woodshop and has agreed to help me make some wooden planters! So that's my plan for late Wednesday night. It is much needed, as the tomato seedlings are starting to poke the top of the planter and must be transplanted before they become leggy nightmares.

Movin' on to Monday... I spent the morning running the work crew and making my tasty tofu dish. Not that I got to eat it, as I was at Polo's house for lunch. A way different atmosphere. It was very strange, as the housedad pretty much completely ignored me the entire time, and I was sitting to his left, albeit with an empty seat. Not even a "welcome to lunch" comment. Very strange, as usually people seem to interrogate (in the nicest way possible, of course) lunch guests here. At least, we do at my house. Hmmm...

Oh, and we had leftovers.

Yay.

We were supposed to work in the healing plant garden in the afternoon for the orientation class. Or we could go to an Alzheimer's lecture given by a villager's mother who is an expert. I was going to go to the garden (despite the somewhat chilly breeze), until I found out we'd be working on a rock wall. I draw the line there. If I'm working in a garden, I want to be learning about the garden. Not stacking rocks. The presentation was ok, although she was really focusing on Alzheimers and Downs Syndrome. Which, although we have a small population of Downs, they are by no means anything close to a majority. Plus, most of the materials weren't formulated for people with developmental disabilities. If I ran Maria against the checklist, she'd have 10/13 and 5/10 of the first two stages of Alzheimers symptoms. Which, is quite impossible, it's just that she doesn't function at a level where you would be able to measure against for changes. But interesting never the less.

This evening I taught Sam how to play cribbage, and he trounced me. Well, skunked me. I'm definitely calling it beginner's luck...and never, ever playing him in poker.

I'm also supposed to have a skype date with a friend right now, but my internet has just died. So who knows if that'll happen, or if this will get posted. Retroactively cross your fingers for me, please.

Hope all is well,
Steph