sewing

I've been sewing a lot this week, trying to get all of the bedding for Karie's little B ready before the baby shower next Saturday. It's coming together very nicely and I'm loving the way the colors coordinate. There have been a couple little projects for other people that I've been working on as well.

I'm not going to post pictures of any of it until I'm all finished with everything.

I love sewing. My whole house is a mess with bits of thread and piles of fabric dominating the downstairs, and unmade beds and dirty laundry taking over the upstairs. I've tried to create a little bit of order every night before bed, but only so far as what will get my Dub men out of the house in a hurry the next morning. So, you know, I can get back to sewing as soon as they leave.

I don't care who knows it - I love sewing more than I love housework.

Autumn

Wishing there was any sign of fall here in Houston...still looking at summery grass, summery trees, and summery flowers...I guess it will have to be fall only in my mind and on my blog today.

"Fun With Kitchen Chemistry"

or "Kitchen Chemistry Gone Wrong".

Back story: Every time I cook bacon in my microwave, the inside of the microwave stinks of bacon for days. Days and days. The smell doesn't come out by wiping the inside with hot soapy water or with Windex. I cooked some bacon on Tuesday morning for a quiche we had for dinner that night. And while the smell of bacon cooking could be considered a good thing, it definitely loses some of its appeal after a few days.

This morning I thought I'd try deodorizing the microwave. I started with a one-cup glass measuring cup. I added 1/2 cup water and 1/4 cup lemon juice. I thought I'd add some salt and see how that worked. And then things started going wrong.

I went to the pantry for the salt and while merrily spinning the lazy susan looking for salt I spotted the baking soda. I thought "Aha! Baking soda would be even better than salt because I know baking soda deodorizes!"

You can probably see where this is going. Unfortunately I didn't see it going there myself.

Picture it: I'm standing there in front of the pantry with my measuring cup nearly full of lemon juice/water and I poured a little bit of baking soda into the cup. Things got exciting really fast and before I could remember that lemon juice and baking soda make for quite a spectacular meeting my cup runneth o'er. Literally.

Now there's a big, foamy, lemony mess dripping on to the floor, down my arm, and all over my bare feet.

When the excitement died down there wasn't much left in my measuring cup. I figured what the heck, I might as well see if it deodorizes the microwave. I put it in there and set it for 3 minutes, thinking that if it boiled and created some lemony steam it might work better.

The lemon/water/baking soda solution did foam up more while it was cooking but it wiped right up. And it did work. There is no longer any trace of old bacon smell in the microwave.

The weird thing was the color change. It started out basically clear - the color of lemon juice and water - and after it cooked for three minutes it was really a really dark amber.

(Any kitchen chemists out there that can explain why the color changed?)

Anyway, the moral of this story is that a watered down solution of lemon juice and baking soda will deodorize a microwave oven, but you should do your mixing in a big container. Preferably over the sink.

mayhem and foolishness

I'm loving watching Clean House right now. The host, Niecy Nash, took some getting used to, I admit, but she's grown on me and I really like the style sense of the show's designer Mark Brunetz.

happy, happy day

The past few weeks have been especially trying. The multitude of reasons don't really merit a list.

It all turned around today. Today was a good and fun and happy day.

Girls' Day Out can do that to a mama. Sometimes you just need to hang with your girlfriends.

William Tell and Emperor Palpatine

Jake is learning to play a simplified version of the William Tell Overture on the piano this week. We listened to it on You Tube so he could get a feel for how the song is supposed to sound.

It was so awesome I wanted to share it with you. Watch the conductor - he's a hoot. What he does with his hands during some parts of the music reminds me of the Emperor in Star Wars. Remember that scene with Luke in Return of the Jedi? It's like he's using the dark side of the force to direct the music because surely the musicians in the back cannot see what he's doing.

Hope you enjoy it as much as we did!

November madness

I've been over-thinking everything today. I just hate that. Nothing is ever solved by me rehashing the various scenarios and could-have-beens over and over again in my head. Sometimes I just have to let situations go and try again another day.

I'll think about Johnny instead. He's cute, don't you think?