TNT: A Setback

 

Ouf. This was a tough weekend. All that fun I had with the Grands and then all that work I did Thursday while The Mister was off golfing put me right back to square one with my back. I'm not kidding when I say I spent the whole weekend in bed with a heating pad. I could prop Patchwork Automne up on my knees so I did finish the edging on it. 

Most of the time I read or slept. I made a big dent in my latest Harry Hole book. Note that I had to make a bookmark out of all the main characters so I could keep them straight. Those Norwegian names are hard to wrap my brain around and it doesn't help that I'm reading the books out of order. We have three days of babysitting ahead of us this week with a grand total of 12 hours commuting time. I'm not sure how I'm going to survive it in my present state but I'm going to give it my best try. 

Excuse My Rant

 

Please forgive me. I'm going on a long rant here today. Let me start by saying that it took the IRS an entire year to get The Mister's refund check from 2024 here. They kept insisting he owed no taxes and kept sending him back all that he had paid in which was wrong. It was wrong by several thousands of dollars. It took a lot of going back and forth to get them to admit they made a mistake. They never actually did tbh. They made him file an amended return which I just copied line by line from the one we originally sent. 

Fast forward to this year. I cashed in my retirement account last fall and paid a boatload of taxes up front. Too much. The government owes me a lot of money. Almost $4000 but here's the rub. They won't give it to me unless I prove my identity and that I'm still alive. I've lost count at how many times I've uploaded my Real ID driver's license and Medicare insurance cards as proof I am who I say I am. The whole thing hinges on a biometric selfie they take of you. I never pass. I've been denied verification 4 times now. How insulting that the government thinks I look dead. I know I don't look great at my age but come on...I don't look dead either. 

Since I failed so many times, I now have to have a video conference so I can prove who I am and that I'm still breathing. The problem here is that I'm no good at these video call things. I can't even figure out a Zoom. I've tried calling for help but the recording says they are no longer taking live calls and sends me back to the website. It's insane. If any of you have had any experience with the IRS's ID.me account, sing out please. I can use all the advice I can get. 

Oh, and happy Memorial Day. It's been a washout here in the mid-Atlantic which is fine by me. Less sunshine equals less tourists. 

Little Visitors

 

It's been moth central out on the deck this year. The Luna moths don't usually survive cat attacks but this year we don't have any furry predictors to bother them so we've seen quite a few come and go. 

We've got a few Rosy Maples out there too. They look so soft and squishy. I want to pet them but I know better. 

We've got a lot of little brown ones in all sizes. There's one funny pair that plays together all day long. I wish I could get a photo but they never stay still. 

Speaking of little things, I'm terribly tickled that I've got a rose getting ready to bloom and several more in bud. The deer haven't found them yet although there was a big fella with lots of antlers out there the other morning. I tried to scare him off but he stood his ground so I retreated back into the house. Death by deer is not the way I choose to go but it would make an interesting legacy.

Ha Ha Ha....

 

Well now, I didn't exactly get black soap. I got dark gray. 

I was worried all night that I had used too much activated charcoal. 1 tsp per pound of oil is recommended and that's what I used but that batter looked awfully dark. Too much charcoal and your lather will be gray as well as your washcloth or sponge. I'll have to wait until it's cured to see if that happens. 

What I did learn from further research was that I should have gelled the loaf. That means to keep it hot during the saponification (hardening) process. I used to sit it on a heating pad in a cooler but I killed the heating pad last week with my back issues so I just had the cooler for insulation and it wasn't enough. Gelling would have made the loaf darker. You can see by the ring in the center of the first bar that it tried to gell but didn't get too far.  My fault. 

Someone asked me about the fragrance. I went digging through my stash and found some leftover Love Spell which I thought matched the theme I was going for. I only used a tiny bit but I still regretted it. I got carried away and forgot that this soap was just for me and I don't like fragrances in my soap. I only use my unscented bars. I still like to play with fragrances for other people though. The three bottles on the right are the new fragrances that just showed up for my next soap making adventure which will happen once we are through the next two weeks of babysitting. One was open and leaked so all the labels are coming off. What a mess that was. 

What I wanted for this batch was a fragrance that smelled like this. I've looked high and low for herbal fragrance oils that were just that....herbal. I've got several on the way so I'm hopeful.

Soap Tales

 

So what did I do on my big day off after vacuuming, scrubbing all the floors and doing four loads of laundry? I organized my soap shelves. I had a lot of soap left over from the last giveaway. I usually have around 30 people participating and this time I only had 12. My soap shelves were full so I had to get it all down, wrap it and then label it so The Mister can go hand it out in town on his daily meander. 

Then I went down to the soap room and made some more. I've been reading the last of the books in the Practical Magic series and they keep talking about the black soap they make. They talk about this soap in all of the books and I've always meant to make some. Since I now had empty shelves and a lot of leftover ingredients from the last soap making session, I decided to make up my own version. I'll see how it cuts tomorrow but I'll have to wait 4-6 weeks to see if it's actually usable. You never know.

Making soap is an awful lot like making sourdough. The two share a lot of the same equipment so I had to run up and down the stairs all morning to gather what I needed. I guess I need to buy another scale, temperature gauge and bottle of honey. I also had to use my kitchen bottle of olive oil since I had used up the last of the big bottle I keep for soap. I am happy to report that Betty survived another few days in the fridge. I hope to be making bread this weekend so to see her rising and full of bubbles so soon tells me she will be ready when I am. 

FO: Mountains and Fjords

This week's sitting is done and my reward is that The Mister is playing in a golf tournament and won't be back until tomorrow. I've got a day to rest and recuperate from all the baby yoga.....

...city building...

....and book organizing. The little one is fascinated with books. Not reading them. Shelving them. He takes them down, puts them in a basket and then puts them back. Over and over. Librarian in training I think. 

While the little one is napping, Big Grand helps me knit after we do some arts and crafts. He was a big help closing those toes and weaving in the ends of the latest pair off the needles. He also served as my foot model.

In return, he requested a new pair of "snow socks" so I guess sometime this summer I'll be casting on another bitty pair from my ginormous stash. 

 

Wednesday WIPs: Travel Knitting

 

As I mentioned yesterday, we are on babysitting duty again this week but this time we are commuting instead of spending the night. It's an almost 2 hour ride up to Daughter's so I needed to make sure I had plenty of car knitting ready to go. On Sunday, I wound up the Miss Bab's. Look at this photo. I'm winding yarn in front of my quilt with an oven in the background that's baking the week's bread. How Little House on the Prairie of me. 

I prefer to work with two socks on one needle when I'm in the car. Less to lose so I cast them on that way and gave myself a head start.

I finished my first pair of the new Arne and Carlos socks. The other pair are on the toes and they will also be car knitting.

Not much else will be getting worked on this week. I did finish the 4th row of the 1st section on the Hue Shift. When things calm down I'll start the next row and then this section will be done-minus all those ends to weave in.