Awesome review of Blades of Glory. I really, really want to see it ...

Sprouting Mung Beans, Sprouting Kids

Today is Frankie's birthday and on her birthday, I usually spend the day with her at her school (last year she was sick at home). I planned a polymer experiment used to sprout mung beans for the gang and they had a blast with it. I couldn't engage them longer than a Sponge Bob episode, but I got them interested for at least a few minutes.

She's napping as I type this. I thought I'd escape so she wouldn't be distracted getting down for nap. She's a tad distractable and a little active you know.

Well, I get until 3 to recover and then back to the Bunny room for afternoon celbratory brownie treats!

The image posted is of some of the bunnies' experiments hanging on the window. They'll be making daily observations on the sprouting.

Calm before the storm

Most of the bubble stuff's out (got some nifty stuff in hiding), food, favors, etc. ready.

If there is a god, please, just this once, make it not rain tomorrow, and please don't let a kid stuff the toilet with all of our toilet paper ... or just send heaps of valium.

Ha, ha, ha. - update - 3/28/07
I'm at my girl's daycare today and I heard the reccommendation for little kid parties is one friend for every year of her life. According to this formula we should've had 4 friends to Frankie's rather than the 20 or so that showed up. And, no melt-downs! Guess we got lucky.

Here goes ...

rsvp's are trickling in and in approximately 48 hours, somewhere between 5 11 and 18 bunnies and accompanying parents will descend upon the ranch.

We have stuff ready for them, but much needs to be done. I don't think we'll ever be ready, but we'll be preparing a station for bubble art, scads of bubble blowing paraphanelia will be on the deck outside, a treasure hunt is being planned, party favors are being prepared, hot dogs/carrots/juice & pretzels are on the menu (and Spinelli's bagels , coffee and Bloody Marys for the adults brave enough to stick around).

Wish us luck (or send valium). Have a good weekend all. Photos on Frankie's site when the "event" is finished.

And, tunes by Loopy Moose.

Don Corleone to Solozzo

"I have a sentimental weakness for my children, and I spoil them as you can see; they talk when they should listen shut up."

Santino's rage has been purged from this site.

Sorry Columbus Parents ...

As of this afternoon, Columbus, OH has been depleted of bubble solution. I just needed it. Don't worry, the stores told me it's the beginning of the season and they'll be getting re-stocked soon.

Homemade Foaming Handsoap - Part I (in an occasional series)

I don't think there's a more simple pleasure than foaming handsoap. Sounds silly, but compared to the drizzly liquid non-foaming soap, it's a party. And, when you have a young child, you realize washing your hands obsessively can be the difference between having a normal life and being sick for large chunks of a year at a time.

So, I've been cruising the net looking for why soaps foam and how to make my own and believe it or not, the only reasonable links I've found to attempt to make my own is from Cockeyed in this and this post! These links imply it's all in the dispenser, but I'm still hunting down the reason. If these Cockeyed expts. are valid, it's going to be amazingly inexpensive to refill a typical foaming handwash dispenser.

I'm still searching for why these work (if this is the case) and will keep you posted.

Also ...
Fun expt link for a foaming soap.

Ha!
Found what I needed:
Foaming Soap Patent, a calculator for concocting a liquid soap formulation, in the patent is a dilution factor and finally, all I need is a pump (or a recycled one that we already purchased) to make it foamy. It's actually the pump that makes the liquid soap foamy!

... to the lab.

Update
The potassium hydroxide's been ordered and the recipe formulated. Stay tuned for the recipe.

First attempt recipe: not done yet (3/28/07)
palm oil, 150 g
coconut oil, 50 g (both oils melted in a 2L plastic bottle)
water, icy cold, 240 g (and eventual dilution to 2.0 L)
potassium hydroxide, 90% w/w, 42 grams
lemon verbena scent, 10 mL (added after saponification)

Intended procedure:
-add KOH to icy water (very exothermic process, icy water keeps fumes minimal), let cool to ca. <100-deg-F
-melt oils in hot water bath in 2L soda bottle
-charge KOH/water solution to fats and wait until the resulting solution is homogeneous (saponification finished)
-add essential oil, dilute to 2L with distilled water, mix gently, done.
-refill dispensers with el cheapo liquid soap

Don't miss the breathtaking Part II in this series ...

Part I
Part II
Part III

Bubbles

Frankie and I explore various bubble formulations found on bubbles.org. In this one we investigate the bubbliness of using karo light syrup (less expensive) than glycerin. Formula = 150 g tap water + 15 grams ultra Dawn + 5 grams Karo. Then we blew through a 3/8" id tube to see how much it bubbled. Looked about the same as the forumla with glycerin instead of Karo.

Still need to try distilled water instead of tap (although most city water supplies are pretty soft). And here are some of the bubbles I scooped off the top and blew around the kitchen. A littel messy, but fun.

Silly notes I need to remember (Bubble Solution)

From bubbles, a gallon of bubble stuff can be made from 3600 mL distilled water, 240 mL Dawn and 60 mL of glycerin.

... 4 (!) years old

We're trying to concoct some kind of birthday party for Frankie's daycare buddies, the infamous Bunnies. We'll also have a gathering for her cohort around the neighborhood, but that'll be easier. I'm afraid we've fallen into the little kid party scene and are scheming to give her a fun and hopefully simple party.

My suggestion was to put lots of SpongeBob stickers on rakes and have them help out cleaning around the house, but it didn't fly with the Mrs. So, we're watching the weather for the 24th and considering a bubble party!. And, the kids can wear their favorite costume of course. Costumes, to these guys, apparently, are as common as street clothes are to us. Should be interesting. Add ideas in the comments if you have any.

... and this should help.

Hah, I beat the Office Depot guy

We have a strange shaped house and equally odd construction (but it really is lovely). Needless to say, our wireless network had problems. LOTS of dead spots. I'm only using a measly 802.11b Belkin wireless router and I have no idea what the 802.11b means. After scanning the internet for options on dead zones in a wireless network, I was so confused I went for my last resort - a salesman.

A guy in Office Depot, after advising me "you can't believe everything you read on the internet" (obviously, everything a salesperson tells you is a fucking nugget of wisdom though) selected a nifty (get ready) "pre-n super mimo 802.11n wireless router" because he was shocked I could receive any signal using a 802.11b. And all the stuff for a mere $250. He was a genius! I always believed IT guys at the top of their game went to Google, but I was wrong; they actually go to Office Depot to work.

I didn't buy it. I told him I would do more reading on the interweb. I came home, read more, went to Micro Center and spoke to a great guy who actually explained all the cool terms and merely suggested a new router to try. If it didn't work, return it, he said. I tried, it didn't work, I returned it and was back to the drawing board.

Well, wouldn't you know, I placed our archaic 802.11b router (3 years old) in a more central location and for the cost of some cat5 cable was able to blanket the entire house with a pretty strong signal!

Maybe I should work for Google?

High St - Old Abortion Clinic

I was driving Frankie around to a million doc appts this morning and noticed this. The clinic's being taken down fast! Used to be a bunch of anti-abortionists with ugly signs on their necks in front of it every Saturday morning. Don't know what's coming next or where the clinic moved to.

I'm good enough, I'm smart enough, and doggone it, people like me

I found the hvac guy for our job. An old salt he was.

Our new home has hvac issues. I've had a gang of hvac professionals in to make suggestions and give quotes on fixes. All I know I've read on hvac-talk and I'm not handy and don't understand much of the required calculations. So, we're currently pondering about 4 proposals and don't know how to choose.

Yesterday's guy seemed to be the winner. I'm just glad we didn't come to blows. I think I blew the first impression. I met him at the door and in my frenetic weekday routine of doing a chore, getting dinner ready and walking the dog, I forgot to introduce myself and shake his hand. I think I made his shit list immediately. I quickly straightened up, introduced myself and shook the man's hand. Too late. Strike 1 and we're off.

I asked him about some reducting work we needed. We started to walk around the house and I pointed out the location of the new registers. We then proceeded to the basement where he quickly went into a tirade about how the runs weren't sized properly. "Just stop yelling at me. I just moved in here and I'm trying to fix some problems!" I said in a distressed tone. He backed down and said "Friend, (his odd nickname for me) I'm just telling you what I'm seeing, I'm not yelling at you."

He was, trust me.

We went on for about another hour talking about details of the job. I accidentally told him we had problems with the previous owners and he told me, rather authoritatively, "If you think you're getting a penny from them, we're being naive". After I resisted my urge to kick him out of my house (because I kind of knew he was right), I told him he was rude to call me naive. He didn't give a shit.

He then packed up and said he'd do some calculations and come back with a plan and quote (and reminded me he didn't yell at me - he did). Despite the intermittent conflicts, oddly, I think this guy is the one for the job. He was an old timer but seemed to know his stuff and was passionate - about ducting!. If I can get by the personal stuff, I think we'll be in business. I will be taking the plans proposed to an engineer first - someone who's not selling me stuff - to confirm if it's a good solution. We'll see.

He did yell at me.

live365.com

Friday link dujour is live365, streaming tunes from any genre. itunes has a nice suite of streaming music but this doesn't require a download. Plays through any media player.

Reggae today.

.. now Mr. Po Boy ...