Do you believe in guardian angels?

This afternoon I pulled my car out of a parking space at the YMCA. I usually drive pretty slowly in parking lots and when I noticed a vehicle on my left with brake lights on, I stopped, thinking that it might be pulling out. At that moment, a man strode directly in front of my car and scooped up a wee girl of about three. He smiled at me gratefully, no doubt thinking I had stopped when I saw his daughter dash in front of my car. But the thing is: I HADN'T. Not only was the sun directly in my eyes, the top of the little girl's head barely reached over the top of my bumper, let alone over the hood of my vehicle. I never saw her. I stopped because I thought a car might pull out in front of me. A car in which a man sat, with obviously no intention of moving, simply resting his foot on the brake.

I am not sure who was looking out for whom, but I am grateful I will not have to live the rest of my life knowing I ran over a three year old child.

A pity post

I know. You are all sick to death of logging onto my blog and seeing Bath Salts Part 2 at the top of the page. You would think that with four whole days all to myself I would find something interesting and new to write about. You would be wrong.

I am not exactly sure why I haven't been writing. I actually have a couple of things in mind to write about, but I am experiencing a powerful case of procrastination. That is not unusual for me, especially when it comes to writing. My mother used to always rave to me about how I was such a talented writer and why didn't I do that for living. I always replied "But, Mom, I hate writing!" And I do.

But then, I don't.

I missed Grant pretty badly the past few days. I usually do quite well on my own; in fact, I often relish having the house to myself. But this time, not so much. The good: I listened to lots of music, I watched very little television, I got lots of work done, I worked out like a mad woman. The bad: I missed my sweety, I ate many non-healthy things, I was cold with no one to snuggle with, I worked out too hard and now I hurt. I also watched my DVD of Moulin Rouge, which has been sitting on the shelf for nearly a year. I absolutely adored this movie when it first came out and watched bits and pieces of it incessantly when it was on satellite. The use of The Police's Roxanne as a tango makes me cry happy tears. I still liked it a lot. Nicole Kidman actually looks like a real woman and not like the mannequin she appears to have evolved into. Sometimes, I wonder about that Stepford Wives movie and our girl Nicole. I also noticed that Ewan MacGregor's tongue (which is quite prominent as he belts out his songs) is a somewhat alarming shade of green, but last night I decided that the green-ness was a deliberate directorial choice; implying that Christian is in thrall to absinthe throughout the movie. So all the events are seen through the haze of absinthe green.

That, or Ewan eats far too much parsley.

I made another batch of bath salts. Oh, please, you didn't really think I wouldn't talk about the bath salts, did you? I have high hopes for this batch. I need to order some more salts and I think I am going to get some essential oil of rosemary and maybe some thyme as well. I find the essential oil is significantly better for bath salts than the artificial fragrances. The latter is better for our candles. If this batch is successful, I will take some orders for sampling. If you have a particular fragrance you would like me to try, let me know.

Hmmm. I just realized: Grant is sitting across the room from me in his usual place and suddenly, I am writing again. I guess I have a muse.

Bath Salts: part 2

Made a second batch of bath salts, this time using French Vanilla fragrance and some tweaking of the original recipe. I probably should have simply stuck to the lavender fragrance but I wanted something a bit different to try. Currently, I am the only test object available and until I ascertain that my concoctions will not cause an allergic reaction, I will refrain from using my devoted readers as guinea pigs. Anyway, I used half dead sea salt and epsom salt, a bit more oil and what I thought was considerably more fragrance than my initial experiment.

Conclusion:
1. Tiny bit too much oil. I like to feel soft but the sheen of oil was a bit more than I like.
2. Still not enough fragrance. I like to actually smell the perfume when I am bathing.
3. Grinding the salts works, but I need to be careful not to over grind.
4. The combination of salts may or may not be affecting the fragrance issue. I will have to be a bit more scientific in my methods.

I promise samples as soon as I figure out the fragrance issue. I am proceeding somewhat carefully on that front, as my devoted husband prefers me rash-free.

Where there's a will

Please note the little feet grasping the fence. Spiderman has nothing on my neighbourhood squirrel.

Craft Central

Here is the workstation that Grant and I set up for making candles. This batch is Georgia Peach and smells absolutely yummy. The ones farthest from the camera are the container candles, the ones in the metal are votives. We are still struggling a bit with the second pour of the wax; the first pour usually shrinks a bit as it sets, leaving a slight (or not so slight) well around the wick. The candles closest to the camera have just been poured, so you can see the difference between the hot and cooled wax. The first couple of times we didn't have enough wax for a second pour, this time we filled the candles too much. But they are burning pretty well and smell great!

I also am experimenting with making bath salts. The first batch I made wasn't nearly fragrant enough once they dissolved into the bath water. They sure smelled strong enough before. Most of the recipes I have found suggest 5-10 drops of fragrance, but that is obviously not enough. I also prefer a finer salt, so I decided to try using an old coffee grinder to make the Dead Sea salts finer. That experiment worked well, but I realized that with finer salt, I would have a harder time distributing the fragrance throughout the mixture. My solution was to mix the fragrance (considerably more than the recipes suggest) with oil. I used Sunflower oil with a bit of Vitamin E oil and mixed about a tablespoon with about a 1/4 teaspoon of fragrance. I also discovered that the best way to mix it all up is to use my hands. They smell very nice, thank you. Anyway, my bath last night was better, but I think I want to experiment with a bit more oil and maybe a tiny bit more fragrance.

I feel like a scientist. I will try not to blow anything up.

And I dream of Africa

I think the noise woke me first, but the glow of the laptop as Grant walked into the bedroom was what made me sit up. The clock read 3 a.m. and there was an elephant at the watering hole. We watched as he drank and then retired to a small grove of trees to tear branches and leaves with his trunk and lift them to his mouth. After a time, the camera moved to a herd of zebras (is there a special word for a group of zebras?). One zebra rolled in obvious delight, a baby nudged his mother's withers. I fell asleep to the sound of African birds celebrating a beautiful day.

And I dreamed of Africa.

Spring fever?

I am having a tremendously difficult time staying focused today. I had intended to go early to the gym and then come home to take care of several household chores, but instead I am floating around doing this and that, none of which were on my list of things to do. Let's see, here is what I planned to accomplish today:

Drop off dog at groomers
Work out
Mail present for a friend
Do laundry
Find the placemat I bought to make into pillows so I can go to fabric store for backing and stuffing
Grocery shopping
Experiment with bath salt recipe
Sharpen knives
Clean out compost bin

Here is what I have accomplished so far:

Drop dog off at groomers
Tim Horton's for coffee
Spider Solitaire
Catching up on WD and blogs
Spider Solitaire
Posting on the WD
Spider Solitaire
Found the placemats; now sitting next to door
Cleaned out cupboard while looking for coffee grinder to use for bath salts
Took out knife sharpener
Used coffee grinder to make dead sea salts finer
Looked for more bath salt recipes online
Organized candle cupboard
Spider Solitaire
Did dishes in sink
Blogged

It's nearly 1 o'clock. Shit.

Go Team Me!!

I am quite pleased with myself.

I recently acquired a gift card to the MSN/Sympatico music store for $20. I happily logged on and purchased two essential "girl" albums (Tori and Jann) to download. Then I tried to copy them into my iTunes library.

Horrors! The files were PROTECTED from my beloved iTunes; gateway to the wonder that is my iPod. Instead of happily taking Tori and Jann with me everywhere I go, I was faced with the possibility of only being able to listen to my new music on Windows Media Player, through the tinny speakers of my laptop. I was sad. Well, actually I was pissed. Forgotten was the fact that said music was free. I wanted it on my iPod, dammit!

But then, it dawned on me. What if I could burn the new music to disc? And what if once burned to disc, said "protection" was no more?

Done. And done. I have thwarted the Evil Empire once again. Bwahahaha!

Hurry, it's waiting there for you

Sigh. It is looking more and more like we will not be going anywhere for March break. Both Grant and I are longing to escape all this snow, but realistically, our finances just would not let us book another trip to Tucson this year. This year is supposed to be all about getting out of debt; luckily, Grant is making considerably more money with his new job and we can actually see the light at the end of that particular tunnel. If we could just sell the old boat, we would be laughing.

Except, it is likely that we will be going to Ireland in July. Once again, it will be with the band, so we will only have to worry about my expenses. Still, it won't be cheap by any stretch of the imagination, so prudent spending is necessary at this point. (Says the woman who just bought two new pairs of shoes...) Then we will have all the expenses of the boat this summer. Gas is just not getting any cheaper, is it? Maybe we should have learned to sail.

In the midst of all these tedious budget worries, I have managed to develop a desparate need to go on safari in Africa. I can honestly say that Africa has never been high on my list as a vacation spot, but recently it seems like Africa has decided to stalk me until I give in. It started when the fabulous Adventure Girl fulfilled her African safari fantasy (scroll down for the African posts). Then, a member at the WD gave us the Africam, which has become a daily visit for Grant and I. We get ridiculously excited to see all the wildlife, whether they are monkeys, zebras, or water buffalo. One night we actually saw rhinos fighting with each other. We can remain glued to it for hours, listening to the birds calling, watching for creatures. Now imagine actually being there!! I want to sit on the veranda at one of the camps or bounce in a Land Rover across a dirt road while the real thing walks past. I want to see the Kalahari and the Okavanga Delta. Africa is calling me and it's getting louder every day.

Of course, a holiday like that will not come cheap. But I think we need to pay a trip to a travel agent and find out more about it. And start saving some pennies for La Belle Afrique.

Overachievers are us....well, me

I made far too much food for dinner tonight. Would anyone like to come help Grant and I with the rack of lamb, grilled asparagus and red bell peppers, garlic couscous and portabellas with feta?

And no, I am not obsessed with food. Why do you ask?